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Cipollini scores his first Vuelta stage win.

Beloki still in the lead.

Good morning to our U.S. audience and welcome to VeloNews.com’s live coverage of the second stage of the 2002 Vuelta a España. The second stage is a short 144.7km from Valencia to Alcoi.Sunny skies and huge crowds welcomed the peloton for the start of the second stage of the 57th Vuelta a Espana. Big cheers for Oscar Sevilla, Joseba Beloki and Roberto Heras as the joined the 206riders who signed in.It's warm today, highs in the upper 80s, and Mario Cipollini started with a sleeve-less Acqua & Sapone jersey. The race winds through some spectacular countryside just inland from the Med, passing

The first road stage of the 57th Vuelta delivered just what everyone expected since the advent of shorter stages and a peloton packed with 23 teams and more than 200 riders: attacks and more attacks.The final 27-km circuit of the 144-km second stage from Valencia into the finale at sun-baked Alcoi saw a string of blistering attacks over narrow roads. With 16 km to go, Kelme’s Oscar Sevilla shot off the front to try to grab a gap with five other riders and ONCE put the pedal to the metal to preserve its golden jersey for Joseba Beloki.The beneficiary of this in-fighting was Saeco’s Danilo Di

Okay, done with Stage 2. It didn't start out too fast so that was good, the field is really big here207 riders. The first climb was very hard but it broke up the field a littlebit. I went up the hill with Cipo's team knowing that they would ride sometempo to bring him back to the group for the sprint. After that hill therace went very fast, and on the last hill I was at my limit and the groupwas descending super fast too. My roommate, housemate, and dear friend Antonio Cruz hit the pavement hardtoday. I didn't know this until after the race and he walked into the roomreally bloody and in

Svetlana Boubnenkova (Edilsavino) took the win in the eighth round of the women’s road World Cup in Embrach, Switzerland, on Sunday, but Mirjam Melchers’ (Farm Frites) fourth place in the 118.8km event means that the back-and-forth contest for dominance in the nine-race series will continue down to the wire. The race drew a large and talented field, but the focus of early attention was largely on the two women vying for the Cup lead, with just six points separating Rossner and Melchers. Changed from previous years, the 10.8 kilometer course for 2002 featured narrow roads and two main

Beating the best, Di Luca edges Zabel

Joseba Beloki is back in the lead of the Vuelta a España. The question now is whether or not he’ll be wearing it when the race ends Sept. 29 in Madrid. Nearly a year after he abandoned the 2001 Vuelta in tears while leading the race into Andorra, Beloki grabbed the first “jersey oro” of the 57th Vuelta a España after his ONCE squad won the 24.6-km team time trial. Beloki enters the Vuelta with the pressure of an entire nation on his shoulders after finishing second in the Tour de France for his third consecutive podium appearance in cycling’s most important race. But Beloki’s never been

Today was the team time trial. The big debate the team has been having is if we should do a double line or a single line. So we did a little bit of both, we did a double line as long as we could because it is faster and then when guys started getting tired we called the audible for a single line. I'm so glad the race has started. I was going out of my head sitting in this hotel for the past few days. Victor and I were so bored we went swimming naked in the hotel pool. At lunch today my nerves started acting up and I was getting a lot of butterflies in my stomach. We rode to the start of

ONCE

Beloki

The Postal team delivers

It's Friday morning in Les Gets, France, and Alison Dunlap and Sabine Spitz are sitting on opposite sides of the Hotel Stella dinning hall having breakfast. The pair will exchange pleasantries before the meal is over, then head out with their team managers for another day of training. It's a routine that's been repeated for the last couple days, after both riders arrived here in the French Alps, following last weekend's world championships in Kaprun, Austria. Two days from now things will not be so friendly, though. With the final cross-country race of the World Cup season set for Sunday,

The wife of Lampre’s Raimondas Rumsas lost another round in her ongoing legal battle to be released from prison as a court in Grenoble, France, rejected a request to end her detention that began when she was arrested for possession of drugs in July. Edita Rumsas, wife of the third-place finisher in this year’s Tour de France, has been held in custody at Bonneville women's prison for more than six weeks on suspicion of provoking, inciting and offering drugs for consumption. The 28-year-old mother-of-three was picked up in the French Alps on July 29 - the day the Tour finished - with

USA Cycling named the winners of the first-annual Center of Excellence Awards on Friday. The new program is designed to recognize outstanding cycling clubs around the country with cash awards to assist in their structural development. Nine clubs across the country were selected for this honor, and each will receive a cash award of up to $2000.The Center of Excellence winners met certain criteria with respect toorganization, business management and athlete development programs forjuniors and under-23 athletes. The clubs provided evidence of long-termbusiness plans and solid structures for

The last major stage-race of the 2002 season kicks off Saturday in typicalSpanish fashion with fiesta, paella, pretty podium girls and bicycles alllined up and ready to go. Final destination: Madrid.The 57th Vuelta a España promises to be one of the most hotlycontested races of the year, perhaps topping the 2002 Giro d’Italia inthe nail-biter category. A bevy of stars come loaded to the 21-stage, 3128-kmSpanish tour looking for redemption, salvation, confirmation or simplyresults to snag a contract for next year.Only three Americans are scheduled to start – four if you count GuidoTrenti of

Already it will go down as the shortest World Cup season in the history of the series, but it also might end up being one of the most exciting. With only five races on the calendar this year, points have been harder than ever to come by. And unlike a year ago at the finals in Mont-Ste-Anne where three overall titles had been clinched before racing even started, every one of this year's crowns is still on the line as the finals in Les Gets, France get set to commence on Saturday. The tightest race is in the men's four-cross where Brian Lopes leads Cédric Gracia by just nine points — the

The final major tour of the 2002 season gets underway Saturday in Valencia, Spain. The Vuelta a España features shorter, livelier stages than the Giro or Tour, but remains a hotly contested battle nonetheless.This year's 3144-km (1949-mile), 21-stage race features three time trials and four very difficult climbing stages. The climber that can defend in the races against the clock will likely come out on top.The 2002 Vuelta features eight flats stages, 10 stages with medium to difficult mountains, including four summit finishes which will likely decide the race. There's no opening

The U.S. Postal team’s Dave Zabriskie is in Valencia, Spain, getting ready to ride in thisyear’s edition of the Vuelta a España, the American’s first major tour.The Postal squad will consist of team leader Roberto Heras, fellow Spaniard Jose Luis Rubiera, Americans Antonio Cruz, Christian Vande Velde and Zabriskie, Colombian Victor Hugo Pena, Steffen Kjaergaard of Norway,Canadian Michael Barry and Australian Matt White. Zabriskie will be sendingdiary entries to VeloNews.com throughout the Vuelta, which begins on Saturdaywith a team time trial in Valencia.Monday, September 2 -- So I'm getting

Nestor Evancevich, founder and principle officer of American BicycleRacing, died in his sleep during the night of Wednesday, September 4. ABR is a national membership organization that promotes the sport ofbicycle racing and was the first of a series of organizations to successfully break away from the sport's national governing body, USA Cycling and focus almost exclusively on grassroots cycling. During the 1980's, Evancevich was instrumental in the rapid growth ofbicycle racing in Illinois and the greater midwest. He became the Illinois USCF District Rep in 1985 when there were

Simoni and Casagrande want to finish this one. (file photo)

World champion Oscar Freire won’t be going to CSC-Tiscali after all,according to reports in the Spanish sports daily AS. Freire and the Danish team have been going back and forth for weeks and seemedpoised to sign a two-year deal. But according to AS, Freire sent an e-mailto Johnny Weltz declining the offer so the two-time world champion couldconsider others. Reportedly deals from Quick Step, worth more money and forthree years, and iBanesto.com are on the table. Banesto only has one yearleft with its title sponsor and seems to looking to reduce its roster nextyear, but a chance to grab

Editor's Note: Joe Friel is author of the successful "TrainingBible" series of books, a regular columnist for VeloNews and InsideTriathlon magazines and the founder of www.ultrafit.com. Dirk Frielraces professionally and coaches along with Joe at Ultrafit Associates.The Friels also offer answers to a selection of questions in this weeklycolumn here on VeloNews.com. Readers can send questions to Joe and DirkFriel in care of VeloNews.com at WebLetters@7Dogs.com.(Be sure to include "Friel" in the subject line.)Dear Joe,I will be eligible for social security benefit next year and currentlyusing

Freire -- (file photo)

Germany’s Telekom team is on the verge of signing Giro d’ Italia winnerPaolo Savoldelli, team manager Walter Godefroot said Tuesday.Godefroot said the team has also offered a new contract to 1997 Tourde France winner Jan Ullrich, who is sitting out a six-month banafter he tested positive for amphetamines in June. Godefroot said Savoldelli, of the Italian Index-Alexia team, has agreedterms with Telekom. "All we need is his signature," he said.The 29-year-old Italian is likely to be called to work for former Tourwinner Ullrich once and if he officially returns to competition on March23, 2003.It

VeloNews technical writer Lennard Zinn is a frame builder, a formerU.S. national team rider and author of several books on bikes and bikemaintenance. This is Zinn's VeloNews.com column devoted to addressing readers'technical questions about bikes, their care and feeding and how we as riderscan use them as comfortably and efficiently as possible. Readers can sendbrief technical questions directly toZinn. We'll try to print a representative sample of questions regularly.Question: One of my riding partners had a ticking (not a creak)sound in his ride.  It would only happen when pedaling

Editor's Note: Thomas Frischknecht of the Swiss Power racingteam took a bronze medal in Sunday's world championship cross-country mountain-bikerace. The following is his take on this and the 12 prior world championships.He has competed at world's since the beginning and holds the distinctionof winning a gold medal at the 1996 world's, though he and the rest ofcycling world didn't realize that until four years later when the apparentwinner, Jerome Chiotti, confessed to having used performance-enhancingsubstances in preparation for that win. Chiotti later apologized and gavehis medal and jersey

A letter from Frischy: I'll keep trying

The investigation into charges that the U.S. Postal team of Lance Armstrong used banned drugs during the 2000 Tour de France has been scrapped for lack of evidence, legal sources said Monday. The investigation was opened in November 2000, after French television reporters revealed film of team staff disposing of medical waste at a highway rest stop, prompting rumors that Armstrong's powerful team had won the Tour for him by using illegal substances. But investigators found it impossible to identify any doping agents used in blood samples given by members of the US Postal team and it had

There were no late-race flat tires, no mysterious illnesses and no bad luck Sunday for Gunn-Rita Dahle, as the Norwegian won the world championship title that’s eluded her throughout her up and down career. Following last year’s heartbreak at Vail when she flatted while leading late in the race, the popular Norwegian pulled away from 1999 world junior champion Anna Szafraniec of Poland on the third lap to seal the deal. Heavy rain turned the women’s cross-country race into a two-hour hike-a-bike and Dahle simply endured the troubles better than her rivals. "I was focusing on easy pedaling

Marty Nothstein and Sarah Uhl each ended a week of frustration by taking gold medals and national championship jerseys in the final men’s and women’s events of the 2002 U.S. Track Cycling Championships on their home track at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, PA. Nothstein easily outsprinted nemesis Jame Carney in the final sprint of a crash-marred men’s 10-mile scratch race to secure his spot at the World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark at the end of September. Uhl, the former junior world women’s sprint champ competing in her first year as an elite senior, won a

It would have been tough enough on a normal day, but put Julien Absalon in the muck and mud of Sunday's under-23 cross-country race at the world championships in Kaprun, Austria, and the rest of the field never had a chance. For the second straight year the Frenchman proved he is the top young rider in the world, taking a decisive win in brutal conditions he likened to his "backyard" in northern France. Absalon finished the 28.8km race in 1:59:01, 2:32 ahead of Swiss rider Ralph Naef. Canadian Ryder Hesjedal, the silver medalist last year, settled for bronze this time around, coming across

Roland Green on Sunday did what only one other male mountain biker has done since 1990 – win the world championships back to back. Whether or not he can three-peat to match Henrik Djernis’ record will have to wait another year. For now, the Canadian is going to soak up his victory, at least as soon as he can wash off all the mud. "That’s the best race I ever had. The race conditions were so hard. After awhile it turned into a running race," said Green, after winning 19 seconds ahead of Belgian Filip Meirhaeghe. "I couldn’t feel my legs in the last lap there was so much adrenaline. I

Three years ago, Bernard Unhassobiscay woke up and knew something was wrongin his chest.  The next day he was on the operating table having twoof his heart valves replaced.This Sunday, Unhassobiscay, who lives in California, rode faster thananybody else in his 40 to 44 age category to win the masters world mountainbike downhill championship in Bromont, Quebec.Unhassobiscay's story underlines what makes the masters worlds so special.Many of the athletes here never had a chance at a cycling career whenthey were younger, and some, like Unhassobiscay, are fortunate to be hereat all."My objective

Dahle takes the cross country in Kaprun.

Dunlap strugles up one of the slick climbs.

One of the brutal creek crossings.

Nothstein

Uhl's win was close

Green

Absalon wins again.

Hesjedal has seen better days.

Naef was the surprise of the day.

Jeff LeBauve (Focus 2004) powered over teammate Gideon Massie in the second ride of the match sprints finals to take the national championship Friday night at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome. LeBauve joins teammates Tanya Lindenmuth (women’s match sprint) and Garth Blackburn (keirin) on top of the podium this week at the track nationals in Trexlertown, PA. "It was a lot tougher than it looked," the 23-year-old New Orleans native said. He was concerned, he said, about Massie’s ability to hold a long sprint but also confident in his superior speed. LeBauve’s win made it three of four in the speed

Australia had another banner day in the junior men's downhill, taking twoof the three medals for the second year in a row. The French junior womenfinished 1-2 with American Leana Gerrard finishing fourth to post the bestAmerican result so far in the 2002 UCI world mountain bike championships.Sam Hill gave the Aussies their third junior men's gold medal in fouryears, proving that Australia has replaced France as the source of hotyoung downhill talent. Hill rode cleanly on the 1.99-mile course to winin 5 minutes, 22.01 seconds with an average speed of 22.23 mph."I made a couple of little

What can you say? When the pressure is on, there is no one better than Nicolas Vouilloz and Anne-Caroline Chausson. The latest evidence came Saturday at the world championships in Kaprun, Austria, where the pair of French downhillers blazed their way to two more rainbow jerseys. Between them they now own 14 elite titles (seven apiece) and six junior crowns (three each) for an amazing total of 20. Vouilloz was the first to hit double digits, as the men's race was slotted ahead of the women to accommodate live TV coverage, including an hour on the BBC. The English TV network had tuned in in

Put their names in the history books. American Brian Lopes and Frenchwoman Anne-Caroline Chausson are the first ever four-cross world champions after each took victory on a warm Saturday night in Kaprun, Austria. In the men's final Lopes squared off against compatriot Eric Carter, Frenchman Cédric Gracia and Czech rider Michal Prokop, but none had the skills to stay with Lopes who took the lead early and never looked back. "EC killed me out of the gate but he didn’t block me out of the natural line and I bumped him a little and came by," Lopes explained. "Then I just held on." Behind

Close to 400 cyclists from 23 countries gathered in Bromont, Quebec,as competition got underway Saturday in the cross-country events at themasters world mountain bike championships, for athletes aged 30 and over.Americans dominated the results sheets in most of the events, includingthe first race of the day for women aged 60 to 64, won by the lone starter,Cherie Oates from Colorado.  Defending champion Ann Budge from Ontariodid not start due to a knee injury."I made it!" said Oates after crossing the line with blood running downher leg from one of several crashes.Oates said back home she

LeBauve takes the win over Massie

Nothstein and Oelkers and paired up against the Prime Alliance of Carney and Pearce in the Madison

Reed tookthe first-ever first women’s keirin national

Pearce and Carney in the Masdison

Sam Hill

Vouilloz checks out his latest hardware.

Chausson explains her win.

Racing was televised live.

Peat looks on as Nico wins again.

Vouilloz's machine.

Lopes celebrates with his family.

The women's four-cross podium.

Emmeline Ragot

Myles Rockwell’s last run will be fun, he’s sure of that. Whether or not he wins Saturday’s world championship downhill race won’t make that much of a difference to Rockwell. He’s just wants to make sure he goes out in style. “This is the big show, so why not go out with a bang?” Rockwell told VeloNews in an interview Friday. “To me, the worlds are an opportunity to leave on a really high note. I’ve been watching the people’s faces a lot this week along they course. The fans here in Europe are screaming for you and want to see you go to the limit. I’m going to enjoy it.” Rockwell, one of

A pair of teenagers from Down Under proved Australia isn’t just for downhillers, sweeping the junior cross-country races at the mountain bike world championship in Kaprun, Austria on Friday. Inspired by the likes of Cadel Evans, Mary Grigson and Paul Rowney, youngsters Lisa Mathison and Trent Lowe each took wins on a sunny and muggy day in this picturesque ski town an hour drive from Salzburg. For Lowe it was his second trip to the world's podium, adding rainbow stripes to a bronze-medal effort last year at Vail. The 17-year-old took the lead on the first of three laps around the tough

Two-time world solo 24-hour champion Chris Eatough will look to defend his title this weekend on the rugged mountains of Silver Star, British Columbia. Among those hot on his heels will be two-time NORBA national solo 24-hour champion Tinker Juarez. “I think it will be a super-interesting event,” said Brian Lee, marketing coordinator and media liaison for Trilife Sports International, the company organizing the event. One of the biggest obstacles facing competitors could be the altitude. The rocky 19km course, home to Canada’s National Altitude Training Center, tops out at 6280ft, with

Though the team has already been using its time trial bikes unofficially,CSC-Tiscali has formalized its relationship with Canadian bike manufacturerCervélo and signed a full sponsorship agreement for the 2003 season.The Danish team will be using the full roster of Cervélo bikes onthe road, in time-trials and on the track next season.Cervélo is regarded as one of the most innovative bike manufacturersthe sport has seen in years. This innovation and a focus on performancehas been the strength behind its continued success, initially in the timetrial market and more recently in the road