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Belgian cyclist Johan Museeuw confirmed Saturday he has signed a 12-month deal with Quick Step and will finish his career with the Belgian team. "I've signed for a year even if I've still not decided how many months I'm going to race next season," said the 36-year-old cyclist, who joins from the Domo team. “The contract includes a follow-up when I stop cycling altogether. I will have a role in the Quick Step team which is in part public relations but also using my knowledge to scout and train young riders," added Museeuw. Museeuw has won two World Cup races this season, the

In a battle of wills, Petra Rossner was able to overcome a series of attacks from World Cup leader Mirjam Melchers Saturday and overtake her in the overall standings at the GP de Plouay in France. And at the finish line, it was fellow German, Regina Schleicher just edging out Rossner for the win. Rossner finished second in front of Susanne Lunjskog, hot off her second place finish in the Grand Boucle. Melchers was fourth. The seventh stop in the nine race series was held on a circuit course around the quaint town of Plouay. The field raced eight, 14 kilometer laps for a total of 113

Plouay hosted the Worlds in 2000 and I loved the course, the ambienceat the race and the support of the crowd.This year is the first year they have hosted a women’s World Cup eventhere. It seems a natural place for one since Brittany is the center ofcycling in France and I think Plouay is the center of cycling in Brittany.Each year the men’s race draws massive crowds and is one of the highlightson the French cycling calendar.The area brings back a lot of fond memories for me as Michael and Ispent a few good days here with our mothers in 2000. Earlier this year,when I started racing as a

Some of my friends and family at home seemed to think that the French WorldCup took place in a village called "Poulet" today. Pouletmeans chicken, and no, we really weren’t racing in a town called “chicken.”The race took place in the village of Plouay. I’m not sure if Plouay canbe translated into anything English, but I know it doesn’t mean chicken.Our five-woman Saturn squad came into this race motivated and excited.You just couldn’t tell by looking at us. We were all still quite worn outfrom La Grande Boucle. Ina had been telling me all week that I looked likehell. Hey thanks, Ina!I spent

Fassa Bortolo’s Kim Kirchen followed the wheel of Rabobank’sMichael Boogerd to ride all the way to final overall victory inthe final stage of the Tour of Holland. Kirchen earned valuable time bonusesalong the 205-km course through the hills of southern Holland to grab hisfirst major victory of his young career.Boogerd won the stage after he attacked with about 30 km left in thestage, but Kirchen followed and U.S. Postal Service rider Victor HugoPena, who started the day in the race lead, couldn’t reel in the breakand lost the race by 14 seconds. Kirchen started the day 40 seconds behindPena,

Records fell from a considerable height on Saturday as Tom Danielsonand Genèviève Jeanson tackled the 30th annual Mount WashingtonAuto Road Bicycle Hill Climb.The road up 6288-foot Mount Washington, the highest point in New Hampshire,is just 7.6 miles – but the climb is 4727 feet, with an average grade of12 percent, and the final 100 yards is a quad-shredding 22 percent.Quad-shredding for everyone but Danielson and Jeanson, that is. TheMercury man scaled the mountain in 49:24, clipping almost a minute offTyler Hamilton’s mark of 50:21, set in 1999. As for Rona’s Jeanson, sheobliterated

Lance Armstrong will race in Sunday’s GP Eddy Merckx, his lastmajor European race of the 2002 season. Armstrong will be hoping to repeathis victory from 2000 with Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov. The GP EddyMerckx started in 1980 and became a two-man time trial event in 1998.The pair take the start together again in the two-man time trial racewhich will also see the major comeback for cycling’s bad boy Frank Vandenbroucke,who will team with Domo’s Johan Museuuw.Armstrong has enjoyed his most successful European racing season sincehis dramatic comeback from cancer, winning Midi Libre, the Criterium

It’s the end of the world as we know it.REMIt’s probably just a coincidence that the badnews about the SuperCup arrived about the same time that the giantblack goat appeared on the local dude ranch where I do my cyclo-cross workouts.This unholy apparition, which spooked a couple of horses and sent twopilgrims flying, proved to be a peripatetic billy by the name of Goliathwhose anxious owners quickly reclaimed him. Nevertheless, after a summerof drought, fire, warfare and pestilence, this disquieting congruence ofevents set me to thumbing through my grandmother’s old Bible, checkingthe Book of

It’s hard as the devil to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.

Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich, recently suspended without pay by Telekom for taking recreational drugs at a nightclub said Thursday he would like to make amends with his team. The 28-year-old Olympic road race champion and world time trial champion tested positive for amphetamines on June 12 and later admitted to taking ecstasy in at a disco while out with friends. "If I was a team manager or a team sponsor I would have 100 percent trust in Jan Ullrich," Ullrich said of himself in an interview with ARD television, his first since holding a press conference on July 6 to explain

Oscar Sevilla suffered in the Tour de France and abandonedin the Alps when he was expected to give Lance Armstrong a run forhis money. Instead, “El Nino” went back to Spain a frustrated and unhappyracer. This week, the Kelme rider is racing in Italy and finished fourth inthe Copa Agostini, a result that gives the Manchego rider some animationcoming into the Vuelta a  España.  “The most important this I have recovered the good sensationsI had in June,” Sevilla told the Spanish sports daily AS. “It givesme morale once again on the bike.” He races again Sunday in the Clasica a los Puertos

Following the USPRO Criterium Championship and the USCF elite women’s criterium championship, Navigators’s Vassili Davidenko and Diet Rite’s Tina Mayolo-Pic lead the VeloNews Bro Tour criterium rankings. Four events remain: this weekend’s Chris Thater Memorial, the San Rafael Cycling Classic, the Miami Cycling Classic and the Michelin Classic. VeloNews Bro Tour: criterium(after 6 of 10 events)Men1. (1t) Vassili Davidenko, Navigators, 982. (1t) Gord Fraser, Mercury, 823t. (3t) Dave McCook, Prime Alliance, 523t. (3t) Jonas Carney, Prime Alliance, 525. (9) Ivan Dominguez, Saturn, 436. (-)

George Hincapie was forced to skip Sunday’s Meisterschaft von Zürichand the Tour of Holland this week as the U.S. Postal Service rider is stillaching from injuries suffered during a fall in the Clasica San Sebastianon Aug. 10.Hincapie, however, says he still hopes to defend his title at the GPSan Francisco next month. “I’m trying to recover and be able to race there,”Hincapie told VeloNews on Tuesday from his European base in Girona,Spain. “I’m riding now a couple of hours a day. I just need to take iteasy and make sure it heals up right.”Hincapie put the rest of the 2002 season in doubt when

American Andy Lakatosh jump-started Team USA's performance at the 2002 World Junior Track Championships by winning a silver medal in the keirin on Wednesday. The keirin was the first event of the championships in Melbourne, Australia. Australia's Mark Jamieson won the gold to the delight of the hometown crowd. Lakatosh, who originally won the bronze medal, secured the silver after Colombia's Hernan Sanchez was disqualified for dangerous riding in the final heat. "I'm so excited about this," said a jubilant Lakatosh, whose parents and sister traveled to Australia to cheer him on. "Today's

Telekom's Erik Zabel  won the opening stage of the 2002Tour of Holland in a bunch sprint in Monday’s 220-km stage from Utrechtto Leeuwarden. Zabel edged Alexandre Usov (Phonak) and Jan Koerts,who came across the line third. The race will be a showdown between some of the hottest sprinters inthe game. With the world championships in early October, riders will beramping up their form. Joining Zabel at the start line Tuesday in Utrecht were 128 racers from16 teams, including Robbie McEwen (Lotto), world champion OscarFreire (Mapei), defending champion Leon Van Bon (Domo), IvanQuaranta

Mercury’s five-year run as a cycling team sponsor will come to an end at the close of the 2002 season. The Mercury Division of Ford Motors has announced that it will not renew the U.S. team's sponsorship for 2003. "We wish to express our sincere appreciation for all the devotion and passion demonstrated by the outstanding cyclists who are now or have been part of the Mercury Cycling Team," read a statement from Mercury management. In recent years, the team has been one of the most successful U.S. based cycling teams in terms of results, and has seen the likes of Baden Cooke, Floyd

Italian Dario Frigo's victory in the Zurich championship, the eighth eventof cycling's World Cup, hoisted him five places from ninth to fourth inthe UCI world rankings released Monday.The status of the top three riders remains unchanged, however, as Paolo Bettini's second place behind Frigo, and Lance Armstrong's third-place finish, solidified their position behind last year's reigning world number one Erik Zabel.1. Erik Zabel (Ger), 2224 pts2. Paolo Bettini (Ita), 21483. Lance Armstrong (USA), 20734. Dario Frigo (Ita), 15295. Erik Dekker (Ned), 15116. Oscar Freire (Spa),

It’s official – there will be no SuperCup Cyclo-cross Series this year, according to Lyle Fulkerson of the Kiron Group in Newton, Massachusetts. "We wanted to raise the bar of competition; we wanted to improve the production value; we wanted to get the sport of cyclo-cross into the psyche of American cycling,” said Fulkerson in a press release. “We did that. Unfortunately, sponsorship and event revenues have not kept pace with the expenses." Fulkerson had struggled to assemble his series over the past few years. Once a seven-race spectacular stretching from coast to coast, SuperCup managed

Belarussian Zinaida Stahurskaia (USC Chirio) won the 2002 women's Tour de France in Paris on Sunday after the 14th and final stage, a 7.4km individual time trial. Sweden's Susanne Ljungkog (Vlaanderen-T Interim) won the time trial. Stahurskaia topped the overall standings ahead of Ljungkog and Spanish two-time winner Joane Somarriba, who won in 2000 and last year. Letters from the Big Loop - The final entry of Kimberly Bruckner'srace diaryEvery team and the entire race organization stayed at the Ibis lastnight in Port de Clichy, just outside of downtown Paris. When our teamcame down for

The French police that have been assigned to this Tour have been the most professional staff I've ever encountered. They've done a superb job of keeping the roads safe, waving flags around all hazards, and guding the whole race caravan smoothly throughout the country. We've never had one problem with a random car that has snuck onto the course. The "gendarmerie" have traveled with us throughout the entire race, and during each transfer after the stage, we often see them speeding up behind us in groups of four. They draft very well off each other with their motorcycles! My teammate Ina

Two Italians and an American were the main protagonists Sunday in the eighth round of the 2002 World Cup disputed on a hilly course under warm sunny skies in Zurich, Switzerland. Winning the 236km Meisterschaft von Zurich was Dario Frigo (Tacconi Sport), the Italian who’s been on a hot streak this season. Frigo attacked on the final ascent of the hardest climb in the 41km circuit up the Pfannenstiel with 18km to go. Frigo’s form has been excellent since May, when he won the Tour of Romandie. That carried into the Tour de France, where he won a stage, and into the Clasica San Sebastian last

Discretion was the better part of valor Sunday, as John Kirkcaldie and Sabrina Jonnier did what they had to do to hold on for overall downhill titles at the NORBA National Championship Series finals in Mount Snow, Vermont. Kirkcaldie entered the day tied atop the standings with Australian Chris Kovarik, meaning the fastest of the two would likely walk away with the crown. That honor went to Kirkcaldie who finished fourth on the day, while Kovarik ran into mechanical problems and ended up 49th. The chain of events was a near duplication of the 2001 finals when Kovarik also blew his chance at

A massive crash helped shape the outcome of the USPRO Criterium Championship in Downers Grove, Illinois, on Sunday, with Mercury's Henk Vogel's emerging as the race winner and 7UP-Nutra Fig's Kevin Monahan taking the U.S. champion's jersey in a photo-finish for second place. Earlier in the day, the Diet Rite's Tina Mayolo snagged the women's championship, and James Baldesare (West Virginia-Gomart) won the elite amateur title. The 62-mile USPRO title race began as a wide-open affair, with almost all of the top teams boasting a legitimate contender for the race win, if not for the U.S. title.

Hot streak: Frigo continued his resurgent season.

All-arounder: Armstrong put more emphasis on the one-days this year.

Big three: Second-place Bettini took the World Cup lead.

The men's overall podium.

Waddell breaks down the first NORBA win of his career.

Sher is your national downhill champ.

Vogels

Mayolo-Pic emerged on top in a scramble for the finish

Baldesare took the win as Martin celebrated.

With the USPRO Criterium Championship set for Sunday, VeloNews sat down with one of the favorites on the eve of the race, Canadian Gord Fraser of Mercury. Fraser won the event in 1999. In 2000, he finished second, setting up teammate American Derek Bouchard-Hall for the win and the national championship. Who are your favorites? Who are you going to be watching out for? I think the usual suspects. First of all, I think if our team does its job properly, we’ll be in really good shape. Obviously, I think the major threat would be the Prime Alliance team, with their three sprinters -- McCook,

With the only real threat to their overall crowns coming from catastrophe, Alison Dunlap and Ryder Hesjedal each did just what they had to do Saturday at the NORBA NCS finals in Mount Snow, Vermont. Both riders entered the day's short track races with comfortable leads in the standings, then held on to take home the series titles. Dunlap also won the U.S. national title, while the men's stars-and-stripes jersey went to Mongoose-Hyundai rider Todd Wells. Meanwhile, Canadians Roland Green and Chrissy Redden were fastest on the day, each winning the final stop of the 2002 series on a scalding

American Brian Lopes and Australian Katrina Miller picked up the first ever NORBA mountain cross season titles in style Saturday, each taking wins on a twisty and treacherous track at Mount Snow Resort in southern Vermont. Lopes's win also gave him the U.S. national title, while 20-year-old Melissa Buhl did just enough to capture the women's U.S. crown. After qualifying first earlier in the day, Lopes (GT-Fox) cruised through his half of the bracket, getting into a final that included Haro-Lee Dungarees teammates Mike King and Mick Hannah, and little known rider Chris Powell (Profile

Mark McCormack (Saturn) and Tina Mayolo-Pic (Diet Rite) took the race wins on Saturday night in Downers Grove, Illinois, as the warm-up events for the national criterium championships came down to field sprints for both the men and women. In the women’s race, there were attacks almost every lap up the sharp climb midway through the one-mile course, and several threatening breakaways, with the Talgo America squad usually the instigators. However, in the end, none of the breaks could stay away, setting up a battle between sprinters Mayolo-Pic, Nicole Freedman (Rona), Suzanne Sonye (Saturn) and

Hesjedal stood atop the overall short track podium.

Redden takes another win at Mount Snow.

Wells held on to take the jersey.

Dunlap helped pass out medals to the juniors after winning the national title.

Lopes heads to the mountain cross title.

Carter crashes out in the first turn.

Miller leads Jonnier and Buhl in the finals.

Not since the days of Juli Furtado has the NORBA National Championship Series seen the kind of dominance that concluded with the circuit's final cross-country race of 2002 on Friday at Mount Snow Resort in southern Vermont. Following a runaway win by Argentinean Jimena Florit in the women's race that gave her the overall title, Canadian Roland Green captured his seventh straight NORBA cross-country race on a tough and technical Mount Snow track to take his second-straight overall crown.

This Sunday, the top U.S. professional road teams will gather in theChicago suburb of Downers Grove for the USPRO Criterium Championship. Ninety-fourriders are on the start list for the 62-mile (100km) race on the difficultone-mile, eight-turn Downers Grove circuit, including last year's winnerHarm Jansen (Saturn) of the Netherlands.Absent from the roster, however, is the defending USPRO criterium champion,Kirk O'Bee (Navigators), the first American finisher last year, who isserving a suspension for a positive doping test.Like the USPRO road championship in Philadelphia, USPRO Crit is opento

The eighth round of the 2002 World Cup will be disputed on a hilly coursearound Zürich, Switzerland, on Sunday. The Meisterschaft von Zürichis the most challenging of the three remaining World Cup races and overallleader Johan Museeuw (Domo) will be starting simply with the intentionof trying to score points.Second-place rival Paolo Bettini (Mapei-Quick Step) at 68 pointsback is the main challenger for the veteran Belgian rider. Bettini is thedefending champion but pulled out of the Tour of Denmark earlier this weekcomplaining of tendonitis. Bettini needs to score the win or finish secondand

I was definitely more awake for today’s stage. Of course it was mainlydue to the fact that we got lost on our way to the start.Directions from the hotels to the start are not clear at all. We shouldhave followed the three other teams that were staying at our same hotellast night, but they all snuck out before we could tag along. Thank goodnessfor the stickers on our car that say “La Grande Boucle.” Randompeople out on the street saw those stickers, could tell we were lost, andpointed us in the right direction. “A droite!” or “A gauche!”We finally found it with plenty of time to spare. But my

Green went 5-for-5 in 2002.

Horgan-Kobelski is your national champion.

Florit celebrates another win.

Redden suffers up one of the Mount Snow climbs.

Dunlap was slowed by her cast.

Three days. Eight pro races. Sixteen series titles on the line. That's the slate for this weekend's NORBA National Championship Series finals at Mount Snow Resort in southern Vermont. Racing opens Friday with the women's cross country at 11 a.m., followed by the men at 2 p.m. Saturday brings short track in the afternoon and mountain cross in the evening. Then it's downhill day Sunday with the finals set for 1 p.m. In every case but one the races for the overall and U.S. national titles have yet to be decided, so with that in mind here's an event-by-event breakdown for all four disciplines,

Despite missing the final event, The International, with a broken collarbone,Prime Alliance's Chris Horner won the inaugural VeloNews Stage RaceBro Tour with an eight point cushion over International winner and teammateDanny Pate, with John Lieswyn (7UP-Nutra Fig) finishing third. The women'sstandings were unchanged at the top after the final race, with KimberlyBruckner (Saturn) beating out Lyne Bessette.August also saw the fifth round of the (single-day) Road Race Bro Tour,the Saturn Cycling Classic. After his emotional victory in the 140-mileepic, Mercury's Chris Wherry moved

Women riders can take their cycling to the next level this fall at theAlison Dunlap Adventure Camp in Moab, Utah.The "girls' weekend" will include four instructional and rigorous daysof riding with 2001 World Champion and coach, Alison Dunlap and six ofWestern Cycling's women coaches. In addition to daily rides on some ofMoab's most grueling trails, the Alison Dunlap Adventure Camps offer educationalseminars on nutrition, health, stretching and trail maintenance."I want women to walk away as more competent riders. I hope that theyfeel inspired with not only a better love of

Editor's note -- Last Saturday's Saturn Cycling Classic (see"Wherrytakes emotional win at Saturn Classic") will be the subject of ahalf-hour television report by veteran sports producer Ric LaCivita thisSunday, August 18, at 2:30 p.m. (Eastern time) the on ESPN-2television network. While LaCivita is concerned about cramming seven hoursof racing into less than 25 minutes of television, the man who enteredthis year's race as defending champion is concerned that the programmay end up showing just a little too much.Getting in touch with my inner two-year-oldBy Jonathan VaughtersRight

Former mountain bike world champion Michael Rasmussen shined inthe mountains of Spain on Thursday, winning the “etapa reina” or queen’sstage of the 2002 Vuelta a Burgos. iBanesto.com’s Francisco Mancebotakes the overall lead with just one day left in the key Vuelt a Españawarmup race.CSC-Tiscali’s Rasmussen, who skipped the 2002 Tour de France to be freshfor the second half of the season, made a big impression in the difficult165-km climbing stage to the Lagunas del Neila high in the Sierra de laDemanda mountains of northern Spain. He finished with a time of 4 hours,11 minutes, 4 seconds,

“Allez les filles! Allez les filles!”The number of French cycling fans that come out to cheer us on continuouslyamazes me. They really love this sport over here. What race director PierreBoué has done for women’s racing is really incredible.When I think of all the planning and organization and effort he andhis staff have put into this race, I really admire the man....even if hedid give us those long neutrals in the beginning.Each day Pierre rides in the front caravan vehicle and when we cometo the end of our neutral section, he’s the one that stands up in the carwaving the big “DÉPART” flag.

In what is being described as “part of a continuing effort to streamlineour services,” USA Cycling CEO Gerard Bisceglia this week eliminated threetop management positions at the organization’s main office in ColoradoSprings, including that of Jeff Pierce, vice president of athletic performance.Bisceglia, who started as chief executive officer on July, told Pierce,membership vice president Lisa Herdelin-Doherty  and MIS directorChuck Henry that they were fired and that their positions would not befilled. Bisceglia, who is traveling to the NORBA finals in Mount Snow,Vermont, could not be

Green is after his second straight NORBA XC championship.

Florit could win the XC overall.

Hesjedal is the favorite in short track.

Kirkcaldie has a shot at DH overall title No. 2.

Jonnier is tops in both downhill and mountain cross.

Lopes is looking for a double in mountain cross.

Reigning world cross-country champion Alison Dunlap will race this weekend at the NORBA NCS finals in Mount Snow, Vermont with a broken wrist and badly bruised hip, both injuries she sustained while riding near her home in Colorado Springs last Friday. The incident occurred when Dunlap came upon a man walking his dog on a trail that Dunlap was training on. To avoid hitting either of them, Dunlap veered off the trail and crashed. Doctors later discovered a hairline fracture at the tip of her left ulna bone. According to team officials, the break is not severe and her physician has designed a

Jan Ullrich was operated on again Tuesday on his troublesome right knee,the German news wires reported Wednesday. Telekom team officials calledthe operation “a success.”The 1997 Tour champion is currently serving a six-month suspension fortesting positive for amphetamines after he took ecstasy pills in a nightout partying in June. Ullrich said he took the pills because he was depressedafter his last knee surgery in May didn’t relieve the pain that sidelinedhim from the 2002 Tour. Just last week, Ullrich said in an interview witha German newspaper he recognized it will be difficult for him to

In all honesty, this year’s La Grande Boucle is pretty exciting.Unlike the men’s Tour de France of the last four years, where Lance hasbeen the clear-cut winner, this women’s Tour winner is still completelyup in the air. The top four are separated by just over one minute, thetop five, by 2.5 minutes. It’s still anybody’s race. Zinaida Stahurskaia,Susanne Ljugskold, Edita Pucinskaite, Joanne Sommariba, or Nicole Brandliare all within range. And this even with all the climbing days we’ve had.Very impressive, ladies.Our little Saturn team was made even smaller today with Cathy Marsalfinally

Dunlap

Rasa Polikeviciute soloes to a stage win.

Even though this morning’s stage was short, just 32 kilometers, it was an abrupt wake-up call to the legs after resting for a day. I forced myself to ride the trainer before the start, not to scare anyone that I was going to attack from the gun, but just so I wouldn’t get dropped from the gun. Ina’s been talking about winning this stage since she first saw our race bible. She knew it could be a stage for her. And seeing that she’s about 2.5 hours down in GC, is not a super threat to anyone! I’m sure a lot of the sprinters were looking forward to this day after suffering in the mountains, but

The on-again-in-off-again career of Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke is off again – sort of – after the Flemish Community’s disciplinary commission rejected his appeal of a six-month drugs ban on Tuesday. The suspension, which only applies to events in the north of Belgium, starts on September 1. The ban follows the discovery in a police raid on Vandenbroucke's home in March of quantities of EPO (erythropoietin), clenbuterol (anabolic steroid), morphine, and Nesp, EPO's newly-arrived chemical cousin. According to Vandenbroucke’s agent, Paul de Geyter, said he was disturbed by

I am sitting in the warmth and sunshine of Gerona, Spain now - far away from Les Alpes, where I was competing in the La Grande Boucle Feminin just yesterday. Yesterday’s stage was perhaps one of the most epic days on the bike I have ever experienced. It was our third day in the rainy, cold Alps. It was the most difficult stage on the race profile, heading up three major climbs: le col de Madelaine, le col de Glandon, and Vaujuny. It was cold and pouring rain at the start, and the organizers decided to allow us to skip the first fifteen kilometers of the stage, which traveled down a steep

Banesto’s Jose Ivan Gutierrez won Tuesday’s 172-km second stageof the Tour of Burgos in northern Spain while Fassa Bortolo’s MicheleBartoli moved into the overall lead. The stage was marked by a crash in the final five kilometers that causedmajor splits in the peloton. Defending champion Juan Miguel Mercado(Banesto) lost 16 seconds while U.S. Postal’s Roberto Heraslost 1:48. Two riders – Gerrit Glomser (Saeco) and Alessandro Bertolini(Alessio) – stayed away in a long break until 7 km to go and the bunchcame in together when a crash split the group. Wednesday’s stage featuresa team time

It was a bit delayed, but late Tuesday USA Cycling released the complete roster for its 2002 mountain bike world championships team, adding 20 discretionary picks to a roster that already included 30 automatic qualifiers. Among the late additions were 2000 short track national champion Carl Swenson and 2000 world downhill champion Myles Rockwell. Membership on the team does not necessarily include expenses (juniors typically receive more support than seniors) so don’t be surprised if some of the 50 riders don’t make the trip to Kaprun, Austria, where competition commences August 28. One

While the mountain goats were in Colorado over the weekend for the Saturn Cycling Classic, the criterium specialists were in Southern California for the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix. Now in its 41st year, the criterium is a fixture on the Southern California racing calendar, and a yearly stop on the National Racing Calendar. In the men’s race, Gord Fraser took Mercury’s second win of the weekend, adding to Chris Wherry’s victory in Colorado the day before, while in the women’s race, Saturn’s Suzanne Sonye took top honors. In the men’s race, 188 riders lined up for 90 minutes on the 1.4-mile

George Hincapie is scraped and bruised after a dangerous spill in Saturday’sClasica San Sebastian race, but he’s quietly relieved because he knowsit could have been much worse. Hincapie suffered perhaps the worst spill of his career when he slippedon a wet portion of asphalt while descending at speeds topping 70 mph offthe Jaizkibel, a Category 1 climb late in the race. He actually slid under a U.S.-style traffic guard rail, disappearedoff the road, avoiding very serious injuries by inches. “I just hit a slippery patch on the road and that was it,” Hincapietold VeloNews on Monday. “There

The judge investigating the case of Edita Rumsas, the jailed wife of Lithuanian cyclist Raimondas Rumsas, has rejected a request for her release, her lawyers said Monday. Lawyers acting for Edita Rumsas had asked magistrates to free her from the women's prison at Bonneville in the French Alps where she has been held for the past two week on suspicion of drug smuggling. But the judge in charge of the affair offered a negative recommendation to the judge who authorizes the release of prisoners. The latter will make his decision known on Tuesday or Wednesday. Lawyer Veronique Coudray said

…and then there were four. It feels like there’s a big void in our team; an emptiness that can only be filled by a certain person. Our teammate, Petra Rossner, finally headed home today. She dropped out of the Tour two days ago because she was too sick to go on. But she remained with the team for a few more days and was, as always, our biggest source of support and direction. Her knowledge, humor, kindness, and tactical brilliance have guided this team to so many wins. Petra is priceless. We are really going to miss her. It was especially hard for Petra to say good-bye to another incredible

The last two days’ races have proved to be the toughest of my entire shortcareer so far. I came very close to throwing in the towel todayand hopping in the team car. Only because the team car was so very farbehind me did I stay in the race. I was contemplating stopping at the nextcafe and begging them through my very blue lips for a cup of tea untilmy team car came by, but of course, there were no cafes to be seen onceI had made that decision. Now that the race is over and we have a RESTDAY on Monday (hurray!), I’m glad I stayed in. It was no small feat. Stage 7 Aix-les-Bains to Courcheval,