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Kovarik sails to another win.

Hannah just missed his second NORBA downhill win.

Jonnier takes on the opening drop.

Streb just moments before her crash.

Millward and Polikeviciute

Bruckner

Armstrong

North America's largest stage race, the Hewlett-Packard Women’s Challenge, begins Saturday in Boise, Idaho. Formerly sponsored by Ore-Ida, the Women’s Challenge was introduced in 1984 by Army veteran Jim Rabdou, and is infamous for its flaunting the arbitrary limits of the UCI, which ruled the distances too difficult for a women’s stage race and would not sanction the event until 1995. The 543-mile course weaves through Idaho’s southern mountains and high deserts, with a total of 11,000 feet of climbing. Of particular interest this year is 2001’s overall winner Lyne Bessette, who will be

Lance Armstrong romped to victory in the sixth and penultimate stage of the Dauphine Libere, from Albertville to Morzine on Saturday to tighten his grip on the overall lead. The American held off a late challenge from Frenchman Christophe Moreau and Andrei Kivilev of Kazakhstan to claim his first stage victory on a day that included the Cols de Saisies, des Aravis, de la Colobière and Joux-Plane, the famous climb where Armstrong suffered his worst day of the 2000 Tour de France. "I was thinking about the climb of Joux-Plane all week," he said. "I told my teammates, don’t do anything stupid.

Over the years the NORBA National Championship series has become a very international affair, but on the second day of racing at Alpine Valley Resort in Wisconsin it was all North Americans on top of the podium. Racing on a mostly sunny Saturday started with the short track, and like they did the day before in the cross country, reigning world champions Alison Dunlap and Roland Green came out on top. In the evening the other rainbow-striped rider in attendance — American Brian Lopes — took the debut NORBA mountain cross race, with Tara Llanes winning the women’s event. Short TrackDunlap

Saturn's Petra Rossner is on a streak. Fresh off of her sixth win at Philadelphia's Liberty Classic, the German national champion took the opening took the opening stage of the H.P. Women's Challenge Saturday, winning the field sprint into Idaho City by more than five bike-lengths. The 69.5-mile first stage, which last year shattered the field with strong winds, offered very little in action today. With temperatures soaring into the mid-90s, and very little wind to influence the deep field of talented riders, today's peloton was content to ride together. The only true climb of the day, a

Any Questions? Armstrong proves the Joux-Plane is just another climb.

Green rolls to another win.

No one could match Dunlap.

Lopes out front in the final.

Llanes was quickest to the finish.

Rossner wins with a comfortable margin

The field stayed together this year

The doping investigation into the U.S. Postal team may be near its completion after judicial sources in Paris said Friday that the case "was going nowhere." The team headed by three-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and has been under investigation since tapes produced by a France 3 television crew were released in November 2000. The tapes showed Postal team staff disposing of a bag of medical waste at a highway rest stop during that year’s Tour de France. After the Postal team car left the area, the television crew retrieved the bag and eventually turned it over to investigators.

Lance Armstrong is poised for his second major victory of the 2002 seasongoing into this weekend's finale of the Criterium du Dauphine Libere. Thethree-time Tour de France champion retained the overall lead in Friday'sfifth stage and remains 16 seconds ahead of U.S. Postal Service teammateFloyd Landis.Armstrong, a winner at the Midi Libre in May, faces an old nemesis inSaturday's 145-km climbing stage through the French Alps: the Col de JouxPlane. Armstrong "bonked" on the narrow, steep climb on Joux Plane in the2000 Tour and nearly lost the race when he didn't eat enough

La Française des Jeux’s Frederic Guesdon scooted ahead of his jostling breakaway to take the fifth stage of the Dauphine Libere in Grenoble on Friday. Guesdon was lying fifth as the line loomed when an incredible jostle for position by his fellow riders 300 meters out cleared the way for him to win in a time of 5hr 7min and 59sec. Colombian Santiago Botero had been trailing Laurent Jalabert for most of the 206km when he decided to make a move to grab second spot on the final climb. He used his wheel to knock Jalabert out of the way, forcing the Frenchman to take his feet out of his pedals

And then I saw a bike-car altercation that went from horn-honking togiving the finger to full-on hit-and-run. The late-model, white SUV withlicense plate 007-something full on took this cyclist out. Drove rightinto him, knocked him down and drove away.- Big Jonny recounting a Sundaytraining ride on www.drunkcyclist.com(a site bound to give your porn filter a coronary)Ah, ’tis spring, and the psychos are in bloom. A correspondent recently forwarded alink to a cheery column by Wendy Crooks, a contributor to a thing calledThe Villager, in The Woodlands, a subsidiary of Houston. In it,Mrs.

The resurgent Dede Demet-Barry has signed a multiyear agreement with Team T-Mobile following a string of podium appearances, according to USA Cycling. The 29-year-old Boulder resident, a former Saturn rider who had been racing in Talgo America kit after taking nearly two years off from racing to continue her education, scored a victory in the Montréal World Cup on June 1, then followed that up with a second place at Le Tour du Grand Montréal June 3-4 and a third place at the First Union Liberty Classic June 9 in Philadelphia. Her first race with Team T-Mobile will be at the U.S. Elite

There were times when it looked more like cyclo-cross than mountain biking. But when the day was done there was no mistaking the names at the top of the podium, as reigning world mountain-bike champions Roland Green and Alison Dunlap took cross-country wins at NORBA NCS No. 2 at the Alpine Valley Resort in southern Wisconsin. Friday’s racing began with the women taking on 3.5 laps of the slick, muddy 6-mile course, and right from the outset it was Dunlap (Luna) charging off the front. The Colorado Springs resident led the 60-rider field up the first climb, and a third of the way through the

Jalabert leads the break before the collapse of civility

Friday's Foaming Rant: Share the Road

Dunlap running towards the win.

Redden was a solid second.

The 'Liquid Launch' claimed many victims.

Green chose to walk across the finish.

Bonilla was in line for the podium before falling to a mechanical.

Not the ideal saddle, but Hesjedal still finished.

Gullickson showing his 'cross skills.

Horgan-Kobelski took second.

Jean Delatour's Patrice Halgand scored an impressive stage victory Thursday at the Dauphiné Libéré, while Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service teammate Floyd Landis vaulted nine places in the overall standings to move into second place, just behind Armstrong. Landis and Halgand were part of an 18-rider group that was away for almost the entire day, 196km of the 206km stage from l'Isle-sur-la Sorgues to Digne in the southeast of France. Halgand escaped on the Category 2 Col de Corobin, just 15km from the finish, while Landis chased with Frenchmen Stéphane Heulot and Frédéric Bessy. After

The 7-Eleven Velodrome in Colorado Springs, Colorado, will host theU.S. Cycling Federation’s Masters National Track Cycling ChampionshipsAugust 6-10, according to USA Cycling.The original venue, the Superdrome in Frisco, Texas, was closed in Mayafter a deteriorating surface rendered the track unsafe for riders.The race dates and event schedule for the championships remain unchanged,and the registration deadline has been pushed back one week to July 30,according to national events director Eric Moore. For more informationon the revised event, see USACycling's website.“This is still ranked

Team Mercury’s Tom Danielson continued to manhandle the competition Thursday at the Colorado Cyclist Estes Cycling Challenge, in stage two of the five-day race that borders Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. Danielson--the former SoBe-Cannondale mountain-bike racer picked up by Mercury last month after a strong performance at the Tour of the Gila--won Wednesday’s opening prologue, a 2.7-mile uphill time trial, besting the times of teammates Chris Wherry and Scott Moninger and completing a podium sweep. In the absence of other top domestic teams such as Navigators and Prime Alliance,

After giving way to the European swing of the World Cup for a month, the NORBA National Championship Series starts up again Friday with stop No. 2 at Alpine Valley Resort in East Troy, Wisconsin. Cross-country racing kicks things off with the women heading out at 11 a.m. central time, followed by the men at 2 p.m. Saturday brings short track racing in the afternoon, followed by the debut of the NORBA pro mountain cross in the evening. Racing concludes Sunday with the men’s and women’s downhill. The Midwest has long been a hotbed of mountain-bike racing, but this is the first time the NORBA

Patrice Halgand

Armstrong holds the lead

Landis, strongest in the mountains

Must be in Wisconsin.

The top of Alpine Valley Resort.

With HQ nearby, Trek has a bigger than usual presence here.

Tom Danielson

With a long time trial awaiting him, Denis Menchov knew his time in the yellow jersey at the 54th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré would be finite after his win on Mount Ventoux yesterday. And the young Russian was right as he lost more than two minutes to U.S. Postal’s Lance Armstrong, the new overall leader of the eight-day Tour de France warm up. Perhaps a bigger surprise, however, was that Armstrong finished only second in Wednesday’s 41-kilometer time trial losing by 42 seconds to Kelme’s Santiago Botero, winner of last weekend’s Classique des Alpes. Haimar Zubeldia

Armstrong takes second to Botero, but takes the jersey.

The TT was Botero's big goal for the Dauphiné.

Armstrong's favorite color

Four-time world champion Shane Kelly, Olympic gold medallist Scott McGrory and mountain bike rider Sid Taberlay have all filed appeals against being their omission from Australia's Commonwealth Games cycling team. Cycling Australia chief executive officer Graham Fredericks said the appeals would be heard Thursday with a decision to be released on Friday. The three riders were notable omissions when the 33-strong team for the Manchester Games in July and August was announced last week. Kelly, a former 1,000 metre time-trial world record holder, is expected to argue special circumstances

Citing an ongoing medical problem and an opportunity to pursue a new career, Mercury's Derek Bouchard-Hall has confirmed his decision to retire after finishing the First Union USPRO championships in Philadelphia on Sunday. The 31-year-old Bouchard-Hall underwent surgery in January 2000 to correct a problem caused by the narrowing of an artery in his left leg, a condition that had resulted in decreased blood flow and chronic pain. A 1999 Pan-Am Games gold medallist in the team pursuit, he recovered beautifully and went on to win the 2000 USPRO criterium championship and a spot on the

A court in Freiburg, Germany, on Tuesday fined Telekom’s Jan Ullrich two-and-a-half month’s salary over a drunk driving incident that occurred earlier this spring. Ullrich was found guilty of driving his Porsche 911 under the influence of alcohol when he backed into a bike rack and hit a roadside curb after leaving a restaurant in Freiburg on the evening of April 30. Police also cited the 1997 Tour de France winner for leaving the scene of an accident. German courts often base driving penalties on a defendant’s income. In Ullrich’s case he will have to pay an amount equal to 70 days of his

IBanesto.com’s Russian climber Denis Menchov made his mark on the 54th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré on Tuesday, winning the toughest stage of this traditional Tour de France warm up, a 174 km race from Tournon to the top of Mount Ventoux. On top of his stage win Menchov took the overall lead from La Francaise Des Jeux’s Jacky Durand. Menchov, the winner of the Tour de l'Avenir in 2001, took second place in the stage on Mont Ventoux in that race. On Tuesday, he and Spaniards Felix Garcia-Casas, Aitor Kintina Zarate and Una Osa were out in front of the race on the slopes of

Bouchard-Hall at Philly

Menchov

Armstrong tried hard to shake his unwelcome company

Vaughters

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again… or if you’re Jacky Durand try, try, try and try even more. Durand is easily the French peloton’s most renowned “head banger,” those brave souls who try a break early in a race and just pray it sticks. Today, the first stage of Dauphiné Libéré, turned into one of those rare occasions when the 35-year-old Frenchman hit pay dirt, beating Kelme’s Alexis Rodriguez in a two-man sprint at the end of a 151-kilometer escape. The Française des Jeux rider and Rodriguez slipped off the front of the 110-rider field at the 22km mark of Monday’s 173 km stage

Lance Armstrong's toughest Tour de France competition could be comingfrom south of the Pyrenees if results the past few weeks are any indication.With Jan Ullrich out with knee surgery and top Italians StefanoGarzelli and Gilberto Simoni afoul with doping problems, thedoor is wide open for a Spanish revival.Following the 1-2 finish at the Classique des Alpes by Kelme's Santiago Botero, a Colombian on the Spanish squad and his Spanish teammate Oscar Sevilla on Saturday and ONCE's sweeps at the Tour of Germany and the Bicicleta Vasca over the weekend, Armstrong couldhave his hands

The king of the head bangers hits pay dirt

Rodriguez and Durand managed to hold the field at bay.

LIVE UPDATES FROM PHILLY 8:49 a.m. Good morning. We are about 10 minutes away from the start of the 2002 First Union USPRO Championships in Philadelphia. As is always the case with this race, the crowds are already huge and we'll be seeing them grow as the day goes on. The weather is beautiful in downtown Philadelphia. The predicted high today is 85 and humidity is at a comfortable level right now. We'll be filling in details throughout the race today. We'll be getting reports from VeloNews's Bryan Jew and John Wilcockson. We are also trying something of an experiment. Mercury's Gord

The Tissot-UCI Mountain Bike World Cup wrapped up a four-week European spring tour Sunday, as Maribor, Slovenia hosted round two of the Downhill and 4X series. After the rain and mud of Scotland's downhill last week, riders were looking forward to the typically sunny weather of this scenic country north of Italy. But with sporadic rains keeping mechanics scrambling to choose correct tires and bolt-on fenders for the downhill finals, many got a bit more than they bargained for. Chris Kovarik (Intense) got the most, winning his second race in a row — right after Anne-Caroline Chausson

Under darkness of night and illuminated by the bright lights of this World Cup slope, American Mike King (Haro-Lee Dungarees) won round 2 of the new 4x World Cup series in Maribor, Slovenia. King’s win, his major victory since 1996, showed that he still has the goods when it comes to head-to-head racing. On the women’s side, Anne-Caroline Chausson (Volvo-Cannondale) captured her second win in as many weeks. Beating perennial favorite Brian Lopes (Fox-GT), King used his years of BMX, downhill and dual racing experience to take the lead away from the world champion in turn one, then hold it

Francaise Des Jeux's Bradley McGee fought off the close challenge of his fellow Aussie and teammate Baden Cooke to win the Dauphine Libere prologue in Lyon, France, on Sunday. McGee, who has had a troubled year since his debut Tour de France last year, completed the 3.6km course a second ahead of Cooke in 4min 14sec. "I'm astonished. After such a long time without winning, it has been hard to stay confident," said McGee. U.S. Postal’s Lance Armstrong, who is strongly favored to retain the Tour de France title he has won for the last three years, finished in fifth some four seconds off

After two years of seeing Fred Rodriguez walk away from Philadelphia with the USPRO champion’s jersey, the U.S. Postal Service reclaimed the stars-and-stripes. And after years and years of trying, the Navigators squad finally got everything right and won the big one. In the end, it wasn’t Rodriguez or George Hincapie, but rather Chann McRae and Mark Walters who stole the show at the First Union USPRO Championship in Philadelphia on Sunday. Hincapie and Rodriguez have been the big favorites at Philadelphia the last few years, but for two-time defending champion Rodriguez, the week hadn’t

Everyone knew who to watch at the First Union Liberty Classic, and they’ll have plenty of opportunities to watch her again in the highlight reels, as Petra Rossner (Saturn) rode to victory in the 57.6-mile women’s race. Run concurrently with the USPRO men’s road championship, the Liberty Classic has known only four winners in its nine-year history, and the Leipzig, Germany native has held a monopoly on the top step of the podium since 1998. Her first victory, came in 1996. Unlike Rossner’s 2001 victory, which came in a massive field sprint to the line, this year’s race came down to one key

Chausson atoned for her troubles in Scotland.

Kovarik has won the last three World Cup downhills.

Peat just missed the win.

It was King's first big win in years.

Chausson made it 2-for-2.

King heads to the win.

McGee

Un-retired: Ekimov is back on the Postal roster

The early breakaway climbs the Wall

Unbelievable: Walters still couldn't believe he'd won.