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The magic number U.S. Postal Service sport director Johan Bruyneel was 1:30. Bruyneel thought if Roberto Heras had that much time, he stood a chance to hold off Aitor Gonzalez in Sunday’s final time trial. But Heras only went in with a 1:08 margin and it quickly became clear it wasn’t going to be Heras’ day. “I had hope because the first time trial Roberto had done very well because he lost 1:36 to Aitor. I was confident he could do very well with the motivation of the yellow jersey. I knew it would be difficult because that for Roberto because this course was for specialists,” he said.

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across somethingin the pages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.comthat causes you to want to write us, dropus a line.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to thisaddress, you are consenting to the publication of your letter.Oh Lord, what hath he wrought?Editor;Long live barriers.  (see “Friday'sfoaming rant: Losin' my religion”)I'm such a retro-grouch luddite that I sometimes frown on the bunnyhop. Barriers and portage were originally invented to thaw the frozen feetof riders who'd

VeloNews technical writer Lennard Zinn is a frame builder, a former U.S.national team rider and author of several books on bikes and bike maintenance.This is Zinn's regular 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 to Zinn. We'll try to print a representativesample of questions regularly.First, some follow-up from previous columns:Comment on rim weight:Froma July, 2002 column,"As an aside- the old wheels

Good Morning and welcome to VeloNews.com’s coverage of the 21st and final stage of the 2002 Vuelta a España. It’s all come down to a contest between race leader Roberto Herras of the U.S. Postal team and Kelme’s Aitor Gonzalez. The two men are separated by a scant 1:08… possibly enough of a buffer for a super-motivated Herras to save his overall lead in the Vuelta. But Gonzalez has already beat Herras in this tour’s other individual race against the clock, besting the Postal man by 1:34 over the course of the 36.5km timer trial on September 16. Today’s 41 km individual time trial from

Australia is now assured both gold and silver medals in the main event of the world track cycling championships after Jobie Dajka joined compatriot Sean Eadie in the final in Copenhagen Sunday. Dajka, the 20-year-old keirin champion, dominated reigning champion Arnaud Tournant of France over the two legs of their semi-final, minutes after 33-year-old Eadie had ousted Florian Rousseau twice in their semi. Australia, who are leading the gold medals charge here, have not won the men's sprint title since Darryn Hill won in Bogota in 1995.

Australia's Sean Eadie won the world sprint title at the world track cycling championships in Copenhagen Sunday after beating compatriot Jobie Dajka in a third leg decider. It is Australia's first medal in track cycling's main event since Darryn Hill won the sprint title in Bogota in 1995. France, who won all three medals last year, took the bronze when Florian Rousseau held off his compatriot and the reigning champion Arnaud Tournant in their two-heat match. Meanwhile, French duo Jerome Neuville and Franck Perque handed France their only gold medal here when they retained their world

More than 35,000 fans poured into Madrid’s largest soccer stadium Sunday to watch Kelme’s Aitor Gonzalez become crowned the 2002 Vuelta a Espana champion on a dramatic final-day time trial duel. Gonzalez won the 41-km individual time trial and erased a 1 minute, 8 second-deficit to Roberto Heras to grab the race leader’s jersey away from the U.S. Postal Service rider who held the lead since the treacherous Angliru stage a week ago. "I came to this Vuelta to win," said Gonzalez, who beat defending champion Angel Casero by 1:23 in the time trial. "Nobody counted me among the favorites, and

Australian Robbie McEwen did enough in the final stage in Tournai, Belgium, Sunday to win the Franco-Belge cycle race. The Lotto rider, who came in fifth behind France's Sandy Cesar in the 180km fourth stage, headed the overall standings by two seconds from Belgian Tom Boonen of US Postal. The win came at the end of a month, which saw McEwen come home first in the Paris-Brussels classic. Copyright AFP 2002

Today was the last stage of the Tour of Spain. The plan was for me to go out as hard as I could for the first 20km to give Johan some split times for Roberto. After that, I just kept on going to the finish, it was dicey going into the soccer stadium and I was glad I was wearing clear lenses or I would've been blind in the dark. We went into Real Madrid locker room. Matt White was pretty excited and jumped in the hot tub. We took showers and made our way back to the hotel, but first we made a Dunkin’ Donuts stop, they were tasty but didn't sit to well in my stomach. Once back at the hotel

Australian Baden Cooke scraped home in the Paris-Correze cycle race in Brive, France on Sunday to mark up what he rated the best win of his young career. Cooke, who has had possession of the leader's yellow jersey since his opening stage success in the event devised by former Tour de France champion Laurent Fignon, had to dig deep to hold on to his one second overnight lead over Bernhard Eisel of Austria. The 24-year-old really showed his mettle though as he was going so easily he raced alone without the support of his fdjeux.com teammates for much of the stage until Nicolas Vogondy

Cyclo-cross season is officially underway in the state of Washington, where local pros Jonny Sundt (K2) and Dale Knapp (Kona) went toe-to-toe over the weekend in two races held in the span of less than 24 hours.

The Miami Cycling Classic, Sunday, September 29, went a little bit coconuts when Saturn’s Eric Wohlberg pedaled to victory in the course’s first solo finish, according to race manager and producer, Lee Marks of Velo Racing. Chris Wherry of Mercury followed for second and Saturn’s Ivan Dominguez took out Mercury’s Henk Vogels on the line in a bunch sprint for third place in the final race of the Pro Cycling Tour. “That was a great race. It was the first time the race hasn’t ended in a bunch sprint, except for '99 when Mercury with Fraser and Sayers pulled it off,” said Marks. “The race was

That last time trial rearranged the podium.

Gonzalez hammers towards the win.

Heras could not hold his lead.

Beloki overtook Sevilla to grab the last podium place.

Showtime: Sundt gives the spectators a reason to hoist their beers.

In the dark: Knapp chases up one of the two run-ups at Marymoor.

Sunset in Seattle: Two junior racers from Rad Racing negotiate the barriers.

Thighmaster: Knapp charges up one of SeaTac's natural run-ups.

Good morning and welcome to stage 20 of the Vuelta a España. Saturday's 141.2-km 20th stage from Avila to the Warner Bros. theme park in the outskirts of Madrid features two category-three climbs — Alto de la Paramera at 15 km and the Alto Navas del Rey at 66 km. It's rolling flat to the finish with a sharp descent about 5 km from the finish. With tomorrow's time trial to come, all expectations are that today's stage will end in a sprint. 3:35 p.m. Just 3km into the race Oscar Laguna (Relax) has gone off the front. Behind him the peloton seems uninterested. 3:45 p.m. With 60km to go Laguna

The penultimate stage of the 57th Vuelta a Espana went to script: a long breakaway and the sprinter teams taking control for a mass gallop to the line. But Alessio’s Angelo Furlan ruined the storyline for Fassa Bortolo Alessandro Petacchi and Telekom’s Erik Zabel as he pipped the favorites for his second victory in the final week of the Vuelta. But for everyone fighting for the final spoils in the Vuelta, Saturday’s 141-km stage couldn’t have been better. Sunday’s final-day time trial was on the minds of everyone. U.S. Postal’s Roberto Heras will put all of his frail climber’s body into

Chris Newton bounced back from a disappointing performance in the men's team pursuit qualifying to win the points race crown at the world track cycling championships here on Saturday to hand Britain their third gold medal in as many days. Newton, who celebrates his 29th birthday on Sunday, collected a total of 76 points in the 40km endurance race in which 20-30 riders race for bonus points every 2000 meters, or eight laps of the track. Austria's Franz Stocher came second with 50 points while Argentine Juan Curuchet finished third on 49. Newton, who said it was mainly his fault that

Furlan gets his second.

Good morning and welcome to VeloNews.com’s Live coverage of the 19th stage of the 2002 Vuelta a España.Today’s 177-km 19th stage from Bejar to Avila is a difficult, up-and-down climbing stage with three rated climbs: the category-three Alto de la Hoya at 8 km; the category-one Puerto de Serranillos at 115 km; and the category-two Puerto de Navalmoral at 155 km. The final kilometer is flat, but there's a sharp climb up to the city with 3 km to go. The finish at Avila is much tougher than it looks. It's quite steep coming into Avila, a beautiful city surrounded by the best-preserved medieval

It ain’t over ‘til it’s over, and this Vuelta a España isn’t over yet. Kelme’s Aitor Gonzalez squeezed four seconds out of the final ramps along the medieval walls of historic Avila in Friday’s 177-km 19th stage to remind everyone that Roberto Heras shouldn’t be crowned the winner of the 57th Vuelta yet. If the tension wasn’t enough going into Sunday’s final-day time trial, second-place Gonzalez made it that much more interesting, reducing Heras’ margin to 1 minute, 8 seconds. “No pasa nada,” said an unfazed Heras at the finish line. “Four seconds, that’s nothing. I was a little blocked in

The 60th annual Milan International Bicycle Show fulfilled expectations of beautiful Italian designs in bicycles, components and soft goods. It also exceeded expectations of visitor interest. The aisles were constantly packed with passionate Italian cyclists who could not help but caress thecolorful two-wheeled creations in the booths. In general, the Italian show is better at showing off whatever is cool about our sport than other shows, and the visitors respond to it. There was even an entire hall devoted to road racing – including mass-participation Gran Fondo races. Paradigm-shattering

For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall. – II Samuel, 22:30I’m suffering a crisis of faith. Adri Van der Poel, whom cyclo-crossers revere as God, is rewriting the Bible by supporting barrier-free course design in his role as technical director for the UCI World Cup. “I have nothing against barriers, but the simple presence of barriers doesn’t make it a cyclo-cross race,” Van der Poel told VN news editor Charles Pelkey as part of a World Cup preview to be published in the October 21 issue. “What they do accomplish is to give a huge advantage to those who

Australia's world record holders in the men's team pursuit event won the gold medal at the world track cycling championships in Copenhagen Friday holding off Germany in an exciting final. Australia, who are the medals pace-setters in the competition so far, timed an impressive 4min 00.362sec to add the world crown to the Commonwealth title they won in world record time in August. Germany finished in 4:07.384 with Britain claiming the honors in the match-up for the bronze medal against a sluggish Ukraine. Australia and Britain have emerged as the main attraction at these world

iBanesto.com's Jose Garcia Acosta

A nervous run to the finish for Heras

Yet another early escape

Pinarello's Dogma

Columbus XLR8R

Gaerne Carbon Podium Graphite.

Ferrari - New uses for carbon

Pegoretti -- A classic beauty

Pinarello's compact drive allows the use of a 34 up front

Friday’s foaming rant: Losin’ my religion

Good morning and welcome to VeloNews.com’s live coverage of the 18th stage of the Vuelta a España. Today’s 193-km 18th stage to the ski area at La Covatilla will be Roberto Heras' best chance to seal the Vuelta a España and the last chance for everyone else narrow their losses in what will be Heras' backyard.The stage features four rated climbs: the Category 1 Puerto de Honduras at 116 km, two Cat. 2 climbs at 150 km and 168 km, respectively, and the summit finish up the "especial" climb to La Covatilla. The 9.5-km climb rises 760 meters with an average grade of 8 percent with ramps as steep

The 57th Vuelta a España is coming down to the wire for the second year in a row. Race leader Roberto Heras got time on his closest rival, Aitor Gonzalez, in Thursday’s 193-km 18th stage to the summit finish at La Covatilla. The 37 seconds he gained mean that he has extended overall lead to 1 minute, 12 seconds over the Kelme rider – but will it be enough? “I climbed as well as I could, but this is not the Angliru,” said Heras, who lives in nearby Bejar. “We tried to do some damage on Kelme on the previous climbs, but Aitor was strong today. It went as well as it could today. We got some

The wife of Tour de France third-place finisher Raimondas Rumsas lost another appeal here Thursday to be released from the prison where she has been detained since her July arrest on drug possession charges. Edita Rumsas has been held in custody at Bonneville women's prison for nearly eight weeks on suspicion of provoking, inciting and offering drugs for consumption. Her lawyer Veronique Coudray said that a new appeal, the third by her legal team, had been rejected by the court of appeal here Thursday. The mother-of-three was picked up in the French Alps on July 29 - the day the Tour

Former Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich said Thursday he has already received several job offers, just a day after announcing that he was leaving the Telekom team after seven years. Ullrich said he is now considering several offers and is certain to make a decision within two weeks. Both the Danish CSC team of Bjarne Riis and German team Coast have publicly confirmed interest in signing the 28-year-old world time-trial champion and Olympic road race titleholder. "I have not yet decided," said the East German-born rider, who won the 1997 Tour de France and has finished second in four

Britain’s Chris Hoy won the men's kilometer time trial in dramatic fashion in Copenhagen on Thursday with a blistering time which left France's world champion Arnaud Tournant in second place by the slimmest of margins. The Scot clocked 1:01.893 - the first time of the evening under 1:02 - to relegate Australian Shane Kelly from top spot on the leader board. Kelly, the former three-time world champion, had set the early pace with an impressive 1:02.18. Tournant, the first kilo rider ever to break the minute barrier in a ride at altitude last October in La Paz, is considered the world's

Tick, tick, tick... every second Heras gained today is one less second he has to worry about on Sunday.

Survivor - Blanco lost five minutes on the climb, but still had 30 seconds to spare.

Sevilla dropped back to lend a hand.

Good morning and welcome to VeloNews.com’s live coverage of the 16th stage of the 2002 Vuelta a Espana. Today’s 145-km 17th stage starts in Benavente and rolls over northern Spain's vast meseta to Salamanca, a bustling university town. There are no rated climbs in this stage. The course climbs some 200 feet with two kilometers remaining, but the final kilometer is flat with one gentleleft turn.3:20 p.m. -- We are now 61km into today'sstage. The hoped for respite of a flat stage has been somewhat disruptedby strong crosswinds today. The wind has forced the peloton into echelonsat one point and

It’s 17 down and four to go for the 2002 Vuelta a España. With Thursday’s climbing stage and Sunday’s final-day time trial looming, Wednesday’s 145-km 17th stage worked just about how everyone was hoping: fast, no crashes, no splits and a bunch sprint. Italian Angelo Furlan (Alessio) was the surprise winner in the very fast stage into Salamanca (49.079 kph), nipping aging warrior Erik Zabel (Telekom) by a half-bike length in the final charge to the line. A sweeping left turn 400 meters to go threw the roaring sprinters into a mess. Zabel started first, but Furlan came around his right side

Bradley McGee easily beat fellow Aussie Luke Roberts to win the world individual pursuit title at the world track cycling championships at Copenhagen' Ballerup velodrome Wednesday night. Roberts took silver while German Jens Lehmann won bronze after he beat Ukrainian Volodymyr Dyudya in their final. American Mike Tillman failed to recover from a slow start to his pursuit qualifying ride and was timed at 4:33.955, 16th in a field of 21. The all-Australian final promised plenty of drama from Tour de France stage winner McGee, who is also the Commonwealth champion and a three-time Olympic

Germany's 1997 Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich has left the Telekom team "by mutual consent" Wednesday, following a remarkably successful seven-year career with the squad. The 28-year-old four-time Tour de France runner-up has had a miserable year - including two knee operations - which culminated in him being suspended for six months on July 23 after he tested positive for amphetamines. Telekom had also frozen his wages since the ban had come into force although they had been making overtures to the Olympic road race champion about renewing his contract when the current one

Juan Pineda, formerly of the 7UP-Nutra Fig team, has been suspended from competition for two years after testing positive for two "anabolic agents,” the US Anti-doping Agency announced Wednesday. Pineda, 27, tested positive at a road cycling competition in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on June 4, for 19-norandrosterone and 19-noretiocholanolone, which are considered prohibited anabolic agents under Union Cycliste International rules. Pineda was already fired by his 7UP team three days after he and his team director, Jeff Corbett, learned of the positive test. Pineda was suspended for two years

At the line. Zabel and Petacchi weren't expecting to see Furlan.

Wind Blown -- Crosswinds at the mid-way point made for some nervous moments.

Heras is one day closer to Madrid.

Heras still has opportunities to add to his lead before the time trial.

McGee goes back to his roots

McGee and family.

It may not be a high-altitude velodrome in Bolivia, but Arnaud Tournant -the world's fastest man on two wheels over a kilometer - will be the mainattraction when the world track cycling championships click into gear inCopenhagen on Wednesday.Tournant, one of only two cyclists to have won the kilometer world titlefour times, took the event to new heights last October when he smashed hisown record at altitude in La Paz in the first sub-minute time of 58.850secs.Now at a more reasonable height above sea level, Tournant is still everybit as lethal.The 24-year-old Frenchman is the latest star to

Good morning and welcome to today’s live coverage of the 16th stage of 2002Vuelta a España. Today's 154-km 16th stage from Aviles to León takes the peloton fromSpain's lush northern coast to the high meseta that dominates northern-centralSpain. The stage features the category-one Puerto de Pajares at 89 km. Speeds shouldbe very high as the peloton drops from the Pajares to León. The finalthree kilometers are flat with two hard left turns in the closing kilometer,but straight in the final 800 meters.3:20 p.m. –  We are now 76 kilometers into today's stage. A leadgroup of 13 riders are now on

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something in the pages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.com that causes you to want to write us, drop us a line.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to this address, you are consenting to the publication of your letter. Stop the whining!Editor;Millar is a whiner, who needs to go home and shut up. I recall him whining about how “f---ing ridiculous" a particular stage of the Tour was (last year), and here he goes again.Were I his coach, he would be gone. Steve MoningerGeorgetown, TexasEpic and

Colombian Santiago Botero came to this Vuelta a España a favorite for overall victory. After all, he beat Lance Armstrong in a Tour de France time trial and then won a mountain stage and finished fourth overall. Instead, the Kelme rider came into Tuesday’s stage languishing more than 90 minutes behind the leaders. Botero found the winning legs after working a long breakaway to give himself a little redemption and his Kelme team its third stage victory in this Vuelta. “It’s been difficult to keep racing when I was suffering so much, especially up Angliru. I almost quit, but I know that my

Botero finds his legs.

Another day in gold.

Botero leads the key escape.

Heras says he has faith in his team.

Let's get this straight from the get-go: I don't like to run.Running is painful, boring and slow. Okay, maybe the way that I do itis painful, boring, and slow, but even if you were to excuse the crueltricks that Mother Nature played when she shaped this particular squattylittle Irishman, the allure of running still eludes me.I guess that it all comes down to the basic question of whether, giventhe choice between strapping on running shoes and pounding out the milesor swiftly covering that same distance astride a bicycle, a rational personwould actually choose to go running. To me,

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has announced that its anti-doping review board determined last month that sufficient evidence of doping exists to proceed further in the case of former 7UP-Nutra Fig rider Juan Pineda. Pineda tested positive for the prohibited substances 19-norandrostestosterone and 19-noretiocholanolone at the First Union invitational on June 4. While Pineda is challenging the positive test result, he is no longer a member of the 7UP squad, team director Jeff Corbett told VeloNews, Monday. “He found out the Monday after Fitchburg (July 1),” Corbett said. “He called me right

With less than a week to go, the 57th Vuelta a España is going to be a nail-biter. Following the fireworks on the soggy, melodramatic climb up Angliru on Sunday, race leader Roberto Heras (USPSP) and the other remaining 140 riders in the Vuelta enjoyed their last day off the bikes before Sunday’s finale in Madrid. Tuesday and Wednesday’s stages take the Vuelta south into Spain’s traditional Castilla y Leon region, home of castles, ancient churches and wind-swept plains. Thursday’s climbing stage to La Covatilla and Sunday’s final-day time trial are the remaining decisive stages. Angliru’s

Okay, the Angliru was pretty hard. The race started from the gun again and it never let up. Johan came on the radio and said guys just for your information at the top of Angliru it is sunny and dry. Golly that was really making me look forward to it. I was already using my triple chain ring on the first Cat.1 climb of the day. On the downhill I was chasing back on with a group, I don't think it's very smart to do try and chase on these downhills. The guy I was following was going really fast and I could see a hard right turn in front of us but he wasn't slowing down the road was wet by

Heras says he and his team are ready to defend the jersey

Good morning and welcome to VeloNews.com’s Live Coverage of the 15th stage of the Vuelta a España. Today is the big one, the climb that is likely to define the outcome of the entire race, the 176km ride from Gijón to the mountaintop finish on the Alto de Angliru. We’re going to try something new for our coverage today be joined by Jonathan Vaughters, who is retiring from the Credit Agricole team after a long career in the European peloton. Today’s 176-km stage finishes off with what, in Spain at least, is called the "Hell of the North," and they're not talking about cobbles. There are three

Roberto Heras chugged and ground his way to his second stage-victory and the overall race leader’s jersey Sunday in the 2002 Vuelta a España after an impressive display of mind over pain in the 176-km 15th stage that finished with a climb up the brutally steep Angliru. Heras followed a surprising attack by Aitor Gonzalez against Kelme teammate and race leader Oscar Sevilla with eight kilometers to go on the feared Angliru summit hidden in fog and rain. The U.S. Postal Service captain erased a 1:42 deficit to Sevilla and moved 35 seconds ahead of Gonzalez to take the jersey oro for the first

Cofidis’s David Millar stopped half a meter short of the finish line of the Tour of Spain's killer 15th stage on Sunday in protest at the conditions on the Vuelta's most feared and notorious climb. Millar refused to cross the line after climbing to the top of Angliru. According to Victor Cordero, sport director for the Vuelta a Espana race organization, Millar arrived to the finish line but declined to cross it.

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something in the pagesof VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.com that causes you towant to write us, drop us a line.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to this address, you are consenting to the publication of your letter.Outraged at Trenti choiceEditor;I am outraged by the decision to put Guidi Trenti on the U.S. Worlds Team(see "U.S. names world's road squad" and "Trenti ready to ride in Stars-and-Stripes") for two reasons: 1)USA Cycling receives support (and funding) from the entire base of

Heras set his own tempo up the Angliru

This time Heras was setting tempo for Heras

Familiar view -- Beloki spends another day chasing a Postal jersey

Gonzalez fought back and minimized the damage.