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With her dominating win at the Tour of the Gila, Rona’s Genevieve Jeanson closed to within six points of Saturn’s Lyne Bessette in the latest stage-race standings of the VeloNews Bro Tour, VeloNews’s unofficial, season-long "virtual" series tracking the U.S. road scene.Bessette’s teammate Kimberly Bruckner moved into second place, just one point behind Bessette, while Jeanson is fourth.In the men’s standings, Prime Alliance’s Chris Horner continues to hold a commanding lead over 7UP-Nutra Fig’s John Lieswyn. VeloNews Bro Tour: Stage Races (after 4 of 7 events) Men 1. (1) Chris Horner,

Hamilton

Juan Miguel Mercado just keeps winning races. The 23-year-old Spanish phenom clinched the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon on Monday to add to his Setmana Catalana victory in March. Mercado's victory is the fifth stage-race win of the season for ibanesto.com. Too bad the Spanish team won't be going to the Giro d'Italia, where Unai Osa finished third overall last year. Joining Mercado on the final podium were Joan Horrach (Milaneza) and Leonardo Piepoli (ibanesto.com), second and third respectively. Mercado won Sunday's climbing stage to take the overall lead. Angel Edo won the final

Italy's Dario Frigo successfully defended his Tour of Romandie title Sunday following an accident-packed 18.3km fifth and final stage time-trial. Swiss rider Alex Zulle won the stage, his second in a row. Zulle finished 24 seconds ahead of Tacconi-rider Frigo with Britain's David Miller third at 0:40 in a race which was marred by the death of a Swiss policeman. The 50-year-old policeman lost control of his motorbike as he cleared the road before the arrival of the peleton. He hit a lamppost and died an hour later. In a second incident, a pedestrian was in a serious condition after breaking

Mercury’s Chris Wherry and Rona’s Genevieve Jeanson each capped off their overall wins at the Tour of the Gila by taking their respective stage wins in the Gila Monster Road Race on Sunday. Wherry added the final stage to go along with his stage 1 time trial win, while Jeanson’s was her fourth stage win out of five. As she had done on both of the other road stages, Jeanson attacked early and opened up a big gap. The Canadian was left unchallenged, and would finish 5:47 ahead of Saturn’s Kimberly Bruckner on the stage. On the long finishing climb through the Gila national forest, Bruckner and

Frigo held on for the win.

The final podium.

Mercury controlled for Wherry (in purple)

Climbing through the Gila national forest

While the stage 4 criterium at the Tour of the Gila had little effect on the general classification, it did a lot to reinforce who’s in charge at this year’s race in New Mexico: Mercury on the men’s side, Rona on the women’s. Not only did the teams keep their respective race leaders, Chris Wherry and Genevieve Jeanson, safe and out of trouble, they also delivered two of the supporting players, Gord Fraser and Karen Bockel, to stage wins. For Mercury, it was a return to the hey-days, as the lead-out train delivered its Canadian finisher Fraser to the line after a day of hard work. After

Racers were wishing they had snow tires Saturday on a day better suited for skiing than a bike race through the Swiss Alps in the fourth stage of the Tour of Romandie. Snow and heavy wind forced organizers to shorten Saturday’s "queen’s stage" to the ski station at Leysin to just 84.9 kms, eliminating the Col des Planches and Villars-sur-Ollon due to inclement weather. Alex Zulle didn’t seem to mind the heavy snow falling at the finish line at the category-one finish at 1257 meters at Leysin. The 33-year-old Swiss rider, who’s enjoying his best season since he finished second to Lance

Zulle takes the stage.

Frigo remains in front.

Evans on the attack.

The peloton.

Brice Jones leads the Mercury train

German newspapers are reporting that Jan Ullrich is facing disciplinary action from his Telekom team after the cyclist was stripped of his driver’s license following a hit and run incident early this week. The 1997 Tour de France champion reversed his Porsche 911 into a row of parked bicycles and hit a railing in the center of the southwestern city of Freiburg early Wednesday and drove off, his manager Wolfgang Strohband confirmed. An eyewitness took the number of the car and contacted police who took a blood sample from the cyclist and subsequently withdrew his license. The 28-year-old

In vino veritas.– proverb quoted by Plato, Symposium 217 No doubt many of us had a bad moment over our morning eye-openers today when a cycling Web site offered the headline, “Ullrich loses his license.” Happily, it wasn’t his racing license – but it might as well have been.Apparently the 1997 Tour de France champ got overserved on Tuesday, hopped into his Porsche 911 with teammate Alexandre Vinokourov and a couple of hotties, then backed into a bicycle rack near Freiburg. A bike rack, of all things. Then he did what many twenty-something guys with a snootful of vino would do – he left the

Tyler Hamilton didn’t start at the Tour of Romandie this week because oflingering problems with allergies, but CSC-Tiscali team officials say hisGiro d’Italia preparations remain on schedule.Team boss Bjarne Riis told Danish journalists Friday at pressconference for this weekend’s CSC Classic in Denmark that the team didn’twant to take any chances before the May 11 start of the Giro, where theteam hopes he can finish in the top-5.“His training program has been perfect except for these problems,” Riissaid. “We didn’t want to risk anything for the Giro and our ambitions arestill the

Acqua & Sapone’s Giovanni Lombardi won his second stage in three days Friday, winning a sprint while defending champion Dario Frigo widened his overall lead in the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland. Lombardi's Acqua & Sapone team set up the 32-yea-old with perfection, delivering him an easy victory over Saulius Ruskys (Gerolsteiner) and Mapei's Robert Hunter. Frigo finished 10th as the main bunch split coming into the finish and the Italian took an additional five seconds on his key rivals. Racers slogged through heavy rains for the third consecutive day and there's no let-up expected in

On Friday, Saturn’s Mark McCormack took Team Mercury by surprise as he sprinted away in the final 400 meters for the day’s stage win at the Tour of the Gila in Silver City, New Mexico. Mercury still continues to lead the overall with Chris Wherry and Scott Moninger first and second, but McCormack’s win broke the race stranglehold by the 13-strong Mercury team. In the women’s race, Genevieve Jeanson put on a one-woman show, riding away early and holding off a six-rider chase that included four Saturn riders and Jeannie Longo. On Thursday, Jeanson’s Rona team set her up perfectly for the final

VeloNews technical writer Lennard Zinn is a frame builder,a former U.S. national team rider and author of several books on bikesand bike maintenance. This is the second of Zinn's weekly VeloNews.comcolumns devoted to addressing readers' technical questions about bikes,their care and feeding and how we as riders can use them as comfortablyand efficiently as possible. Readers can send brief technical questionsdirectly to Zinn. We'll try to printa representative sample of questions each Thursday. First, some follow-up from last week Lastweek there were a couple of questions that encouraged an

Ullrich: better on the bike than behind the wheel

Winer (left) and Whiner (right)

Lombardi

Men at work: Lozano and Pronk were caught with 26km to go

Jeanson

Marco Pantani and Mario Cipollini will be on the sidelines for this summer's Tour de France after their teams again failed to receive one of the five wildcard invitations handed out Thursday by Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc. The Mercatone Uno team of Pantani, winner of the 1998 Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, and the Acqua e Sapone team of sprinter Mario Cipollini, winner of the Milan-San Remo race in March, failed to receive wildcards. French teams Jean Delatour and BigMat and the German Team Coast outfit of reigning Tour of Spain champion Angel Casero similarly failed to make

The final team selection for the 2002 Tour de France brought a wide rangeof reactions from the top players in Europe. Here's a sampling of someof the reactions in the wake of Thursday's announcement: Johan Bruyneel, director sportif U.S. Postal Service:"I think it's what was expected," Bruyneel told VeloNews fromSpain. "Everybody knew that it was going to be Saeco with Simoni and withseven French teams still to be selected, at least four of them going becausethere's an unwritten rule that says that Tour de France has to have asmany French riders as possible. There are no

Learning from their mistakes of a year ago, Tour de France director Jean-MarieLeblanc and his team selection committee at least explained thistime why they are snubbing Italy’s most popular cycling stars Mario Cipolliniand Marco Pantani.You may remember that in May last year, when announcing the five wild-cardteam selections for the 2001 Tour, Leblanc said that he took the numberof French teams up to eight because his committee favored the potentialof young-generation home teams over the possible failure of older-generationforeign teams. This year, in his announcement in Paris Thursday

Dario Frigo continues his early season comeback by surprising the field in a late-race attack that earned him a stage win and the overall lead in Switzerland’s Tour du Romandie. Frigo, who was sacked by the Fassa Bortolo team during the police raids at the Giro d'Italia last year, jumped off the front of the peloton in Romandie's second stage with two kilometers to go. It's the second win of the year for the defending Romandie champion, who also won a stage at Paris-Nice in March. With the victory, Frigo moves into the overall lead going into Friday's third stage, a rolling 178-km stage

Day 2 of New Mexico’s Tour of the Gila saw the peloton tackle the Mogollon Pass Road Race, 70 miles for the women and 92 miles for the men, with both groups ending on the 5.5-mile Category 1 climb for which the stage is named. In the end, time trial winners Chris Wherry (Mercury) and Genevieve Jeanson (Rona), extended their holds on the overall race leads. Jeanson took a solo win, while Wherry and teammate Scott Moninger rode away together on the final climb, with Moninger taking the stage win. In the men’s race, another windy day, coupled with the presence of more than a dozen Mercury

Marco Pantani’s day went from bad to worse on Thursday after the anti-doping panel of Italy's Olympic Committee (CONI) recommended a four-year ban for the former Giro d'Italia and Tour de France winner for allegedly using insulin to boost his performace in last year's Giro. The recommendation came just hours after the Tour de France again snubbed Pantani’s Mercatone Uno squad when race director Jean-Marie Leblanc announced the final five wild-card slots for the 2002 Tour. While the Tour decision was disappointing, it was not entirely unexpected. So, too, the CONI recommendation

Not at the Tour: Come July, Cipollini won't be doing this in France (but the two guys behind him might).

Graham Watson

Another wet day.

Wherry (l) and Moninger tackle the climb

USA Cycling’s chief operating officer Steve Johnson has been named as the organization’s interim chief executive officer until a permanent replacement for the departing Lisa Voight is named later this year. Voight announced her intention to resign from the CEO’s post on May 1st, in order to devote time to her family. Voight is now nine-months pregnant with twin girls. Following her parental leave, Voight is slated to take on the job of USA Cycling’s Senior Advisor for Olympic and International Relations to USA Cycling. Johnson, who is also a candidate for the CEO post, assumed the

Telekom's Erik Zabel won the Rund um den Henninger Turm in Frankfurt on Wednesday, nipping Jo Plankaert (Cofidis) and Serguei Ivanov (Fassa Bortolo) in a sprint finish.The Telekom squad pulled back a three-man break with 30 km to go andthe race came down to a bunch sprint, with the world No. 1 rider pushingPlankaert into another loss. The Belgian has been active throughout thespring without securing a victory. Ivanov, second at Amstel Gold, continuedon his fine form with third. World champion Oscar Freire (Mapei)crossed the line fourth.1. Erik Zabel (G), Telekom, 206 km in 5:00:17 (41.26

Giovanni Lombardi(Acqua & Sapone) won the first stage of the Tour de Romandie on Wednesday, a 187-kilometer ride from Geneve to Malleray-Bevilard, taking a bunch sprint on a wet and cold day in Switzerland. Lombardi, who used to be the set-up man for Erik Zabel for many years at Telekom, is now doing the same thing for Mario Cipollini. Lombardi says his return to an Italian team "makes it easier to communicate," adding that working for Cipo "is an honor. He's the best sprinter in cycling." Cipollini skipped the race because of a cold, opening the door for his reliable lead-out man to

The 2002 Tour of the Gila got underway in Silver City, New Mexico, on Wednesday amid blustery conditions for the opening 15.7-mile out-and-back time trial. The five-day stage race in the southwest New Mexico is known for its often-blazing heat, but on Wednesday, Mercury’s Chris Wherry and Rona’s Genevieve Jeanson battled fierce winds on their way to the opening-stage victories. The time trial course features a steady uphill on the way out, and finishes with a wide but fast descent on the way back. In the men’s race, Wherry mastered the course and the extreme conditions to top Saturn’s time

Lombardi wins one in the rain

Mr. Prologue remains in the lead

Jeanson

Rik Verbrugghe won the opening prologue Tuesday in the Tour of Romandie, the top race of the week in Europe. The Lotto racer posted a time of 4:13 in the prologue course in Geneva, Switzerland, edging two national riders to take the leader’s jersey. The six-day race through the Romandie region of Switzerland is the final warm-up before the May 11 start of the Giro d’Italia and many of the Giro contenders are here honing their form. Results:1. Rik Verbrugghe (B), Lotto, 4:132. Alexandre Moos (Swi), Moos, at 0:013. Martin Elmiger (Swi), Phonak, at 0:024. Saulius Ruskys (Ltu), Gerolsteiner, at

Sierra Nevada-Cannondale rider Ryan Smith was stabbed to death in theearly morning hours of Sunday, April 28, in Sacramento. According to team director Mike Neel, the 23-year-old first-year pro was fatally wounded during an argument inside his girlfriend’s apartment building and collapsed in the street. Police later arrested the woman’s formerboyfriend, 21-year-old Ryan Moreno. “From talking to his roommate who witnessed the whole thing, Ryan wasn'teven aware he had been stabbed," Neel told VeloNews. Smith collapsed in the street in front of his girlfriend's apartment building as

The National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA) announced three changes this week to the 2002 Chevy Trucks NORBA National Championship Series. The U.S. pro national dual slalom champion will be crowned in a one-day showdown at the season opener at Snow Summit, California. The Snow Summit event goes down May 9-12 in Big Bear Lake, California. The top American finisher in the pro men's and women's categories on Saturday, May 11, will be awarded the 2002 pro national dual slalom title. The five-race series traditionally uses all its stops to determine pro champions in various

Left out of the SuperCup cyclo-cross series for the past two years, the West Coast is striking out on its own for 2002 with the three-race Redline Cup of Cyclo-cross series, according to Redline’s Tim Rutledge. The inaugural series of UCI-approved Category 3 races begins October 20 in Tacoma, Washington, the day after a UCI Cat. 3 event scheduled in Portland, Oregon. It continues November 23 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and concludes December 8 in Napa, California, where Rick Sutton and GaleForce Sports Marketing — who promoted the 1999 U.S. national championships at the Presidio in San

Mercury swept Sunday's closing stage at the 24th Vuelta de Bisbee in southeast Arizona, keeping Scott Moninger and Chris Wherry untouchable in the top two spots on general classification. Meanwhile, Jeannie Longo (Vitalli) won the women's finale to leap past Katrina Berger (Team T-Mobile) on GC and steal the overall victory. Reprising their performances of the previous double-stage day, Moninger and Wherry crossed one-two in the 62.5-mile Sulphur Springs Road Race, finishing in 2:27:19. Twenty-four seconds later, teammate Phil Zajicek outkicked Andrew Miller Landis-Trek) for third. When the

Telekom’s Jan Ullrich will start his European season on May 22 in the Tour of Bavaria after difficult spring season punctuated by a nagging knee injury. According to a Telekom statement released Monday, Ullrich will not race at the Giro d’Italia (May 11 to June 3), but will begin his season with the Bavarian race and then go on to the week-long Tour of Germany which begins on June 3. “We have opted for caution," said Telekom team doctor Lothar Heinrich, who said that competing in the Giro might compromise Ullrich’s chances in the Tour de France later in the year. The 1997 Tour de France

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something in thepages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.com thatcauses you to want to write us, dropus 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.Hoping to see DaveI've heard worse...In reference to Patrick O'Grady's recent OLN rant (see "Friday'sFoaming Rant: Indoor living with Outdoor Life"), I'd have to agreeand add that the only thing worse than having to listen to Eurosport'scommonwealth

Try as he might, Lance Armstrong just can't win Amstel Gold. Second here in 1999 and 2001, Armstrong finished fourth behind born-again Italian Michele Bartoli in an exciting, attack-riddled race Sunday in the Limburg region of Holland. It's not as if he isn't trying. Once again, Armstrong was among the main protagonists in the 37th edition of this unofficial finale of the spring classics. Armstrong, along with longtime nemesis Michael Boogerd of Rabobank, made the decisive attack on the Eyserbosweg climb 40 kilometers from the finish in the 254km circuit race.

Though it is no longer the "green wave" of yesteryear, the Mercury squad returned to its old tricks in Georgia Saturday night, washing over the front of the Athens Twilight Criterium with five laps to go and giving Canadian Gord Fraser a picture-perfect leadout for his second win under the streetlights. While Fraser served as closer for the squad, Australian powerhouse Henk Vogels put his nose in the wind all evening long to help the team control the race from the front. "Henk rides like a bull in a china shop," was Fraser’s simple summation of his teammates’ work for the evening. In a

Mercury put the hammer down on Saturday – then picked it up and slammed it right back down during a double-stage day in the 24th La Vuelta de Bisbee in southeastern Arizona. Mercury teammates Chris Wherry and Scott Moninger crossed one-two in the 86.4-mile Hereford Circuit Race, held on a 14.4-mile circuit with 442 feet of climbing per lap. Tucson’s Todd Wells (Mongoose-Hyundai) was third, 21 seconds back. In the afternoon’s 10.6-mile Warren Time Trial, it was the same top two, but in reverse order, with Moninger winning in 18:56, crossing 15 seconds faster than Wherry and setting a new

Bartoli continued Italy's hot streak at the classics.

Bartoli leads the final group on the Cauberg

Armstrong was there in the end but outmatched by Fassa Bortolo

Mercury drove a shaft that the other guys will have a tough time digging their way out of in the old mining town of Bisbee, Arizona, placing five riders in the top 10 as the 24th La Vuelta de Bisbee got under way Friday afternoon. Scott Moninger (Mercury) posted the fastest time in the 2.7-mile Mule Pass Time Trial, which gained 831 feet of vertical in just 2.7 miles, crossing the line in 9:50, just one second ahead of teammate Phil Zajicek. Third went to Scott Price (Landis-Trek), at 9:57.“The afternoon had a red-flag wind alert, but the times were still good,” said race director Albert

Year - Winner -- Average speed2001 - Erik Dekker  (Nl), 38.265 (kph)2000- Erik Zabel  (G), 41.304 (kph)1999- Michael Boogerd  (Nl), 38.547 (kph)1998- Rolf Järmann  (Swi), 38.276 (kph)1997- Bjarne Riis  (Dk), 41.851 (kph)1996- Stefano Zanini (I), 42.688 (kph)1995- Mauro Gianetti  (Swi), 38.509 (kph)1994- Johan Museeuw  (B), 37.261 (kph)1993- Rolf Järmann  (Swi), 37.344 (kph)1992- Olaf Ludwig  (G), 38.323 (kph)1991- Frans Maassen  (Nl), 40.135 (kph)1990- Adrie van der Poel  (Nl), 39.599 (kph)1989- Eric van Lancker  (B), 40.354 (kph)1988- Jelle Nijdam  (Nl), 37.383 (kph)1987- Joop Zoetemelk 

David (Duffield) is a really nice guy, but he's losing it. Apartfrom pointing out Lance Armstrong after 10 minutes or so, we learned nothingof the (Liège-Bastogne-Liège) participants until Eurosport put up a caption naming the breakaway riders. We had, however, a lecture on mussels, Hotel Mercur, sprockets and past winners of the race. – Julie Jones, on the newsgroup rec.bicycles.racing Hey, now wait a minute! Remember the bad old days of televised cycling coverage in the United States? Of course you do. Our demographic is composed almost entirely of forty-something masters racers, USA

Fassa Bortolo’s Francesco Casagrande did his Giro d’Italia ambitions the world of good here Friday by winning the hilly second stage of the Tour of Trentino to take a convincing overall lead. In a race that is regarded as a warm-up for next month's Giro d'Italia, Casagrande held off former Giro champions Gilberto Simoni, of Lampre, and Mapei rider Stefano Garzelli to finish the 166km stage between Arco and Velloi in 4:04:47. Mexican Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio, who was left behind in the final three kilometers as Casagrande launched attack after attack, finished second 23sec behind while

The spring-classics season comes to an end on Sunday with the Amstel Gold Race, a 254.4km war of attrition on a 33-hill course that VeloNews editorial director John Wilcockson says is “by far the most difficult” in the race’s 36-year history. The Amstel Gold takes place in the hilly Limburg region of the southeast Netherlands, beginning and ending in the city of Maastricht, and its final 47km include no fewer than eight hills, mostly on narrow farm roads. The steepest, the Eyserbosweg (900 meters of 11.5-percent grade), comes with 39km to go. Next comes the longest , the Fromberg (1.6km at 5

Amstel: Gold for Armstrong?

Ángel Casero could have a very busy summer, especially if thingsgo well for his Team Coast. The 2001 Vuelta a España champion isalready planning to race in the Giro d’Italia in May and the Vuelta a España in September and might even go to the Tour de France in July if his team earns a wild-card bid in May. “I will race in the Giro, because I have focused my preparation on thisrace. If we are invited to the Tour, I will also have to go. Of course,I want to defend my title at the Vuelta,” Casero told the Spanish sportsdaily AS. “It’s obvious that you cannot race all three at the highest

Turns out the U.S. track team didn’t get all dressed up for nothing after all. Rewind to the final day of competition at World Cup No. 1 in Monterrey, Mexico last Sunday. Following the final individual awards ceremony, a fully-uniformed U.S. team headed up to towards the podium for what they thought would be the presentation of the top-team award. But race officials stopped the Americans short, saying they’d recalculated some numbers and that the Germans were in fact the winners of the team award. The Americans briefly argued the point, but then relented. The German team was given the

Fassa Bortolo's Marco Zanotti won Thursday's opening stageof the Tour de Trentino, a traditional Giro d'Italia warm-up. Zanotti thus takes the overall lead of the race after coming in ahead of team-mate Denis Zanette with Belarussian Alexandre Usov finishing third. On a day when many of the bigger names took it easy in anticipationof upcoming mountain stages, former Giro d'Italia champion Stefano Garzelli(Mapei) was the highest placed, coming in 12th as Zanotti enjoyed his momentin the spotlight. "I owe it all to the team-mates who formed a train and stayed with meright until the last

VeloNews technical writer Lennard Zinn is a frame builder, a formerU.S. national team rider and author of several books on bikes and bikemantenance. This marks the beginning of Zinn's weekly VeloNews.com columndevoted to addressing readers' technical questions about bikes, their careand feeding and how we as riders can use them as comfortably and efficientlyas possible. Readers can send brief technical questions directlyto Zinn. We'll try to print a representative sample of questions eachThursday.Question: Do you have any advice for correcting leg lengthdiscrepancies?  I have undergone an

Casero may be on that bike a lot this summer

The Domo-Farm Frites team has pulled out of the Giro d'Italia and will be replaced by the Colpack-Astro outfit, race director Carmine Castellano announced Tuesday.The line-up of 22 teams will be: Acqua Sapone (I), Alessio (I),Panaria (I), Selle Italia (Col), Colpack (I), Fassa Bortolo (I), Gerolsteiner(G), Alexia (I), Kelme (Sp), Lampre (I), Colnago (B), Lotto (B), Mapei (I), Mercatone Uno (I), Mobilvetta(I), Phonak (Swi), Rabobank (Nl), Saeco (I), Tacconi (I), Team Coast(G), CSC-Tiscali (Dk), Deutsche Telekom (G).Kelme, the only Spanish lineup committed to the Giro, will have Aitor

Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, was cleared of doping allegations stemming from police raids conducted during last year's Giro d'Italia by the German cycling federation (BDR). Ullrich was among a number of riders and team members who fell under suspicion following a police raid on the Tour of Italy last June where a number of illegal but also medicinal substances were seized. However the majority of the cases have led to little in the way of what could be classified real doping. The BDR's decision on Wednesday follows that of the Union Cycliste Internationale

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something in thepages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.com thatcauses you to want to write us, drop us a line at WebLetters@7Dogs.com.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to thisaddress, you are consenting to the publication of your letter.Listen to the numbersI recognize that your polls are not scientific, but with such a disparitybetween road and mountain enthusiasts, why do you keep putting mountainbiking on your covers?  Maybe you should just have a section insidefor mountain stuff and leave

Joe Friel is author of the successful "Training Bible" series ofbooks, a regular columnist for VeloNews and Inside Triathlonand the founder of www.ultrafit.com.Friel also offers answers to a selection of questions in this weekly columnhere on VeloNews.com. Readers can send questions to Friel in care of VeloNews.comat WebLetters@7Dogs.com. (Besure to include "Friel" in the subject line.)Question: I'm a 41 year old former Cat II rider.  I'vetaken most of the last 3 seasons off to concentrate on life, work, andother things.  I realize that I miss racing and training and wantto know the best way

Lotto’s Aussie sprinter Robbie McEwen held off Tom Steels and Dutchman Stefan Van Dijck to win the 90th Grand Prix de l'Escaut in Schoten, Belgium, Wednesday. It was the 10th win of the season for 29-year-old McEwen, who said he's ready for more. "After Milan-San Remo (World Cup classic), I rested up for a while," said McEwen, winner of two stages in the Paris-Nice stage race in March. "It gave me a boost because my start to the season was pretty busy. But now I fell really motivated to win some more during the rest of the season." The Italian Mapei team was at the front of the peloton

Training Bible Studies with Joe Friel

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something inthe pages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.comthat causes you to want to write us, drop us a line at WebLetters@7Dogs.com. Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to thisaddress, you are consenting to the publication of your letter. Of Sandbaggers and Cherry Pickers I was fortunate to witness this year's little Indy 500 in BloomingtonIN. The controversy surrounding Josh Weirs eligibility (see "Finishline: April 22") was well known by every person I spoke with in thecommunity.

It’s hard to believe Thomas Frischknecht is only 32 years old. That might seem ancient to young upstarts, but Frischknecht has been a leading figure in mountain biking since he showed up at the very first mountain bike worlds back in Durango in 1990. Since then, he’s done just about everything a mountain bike racer could accomplish. Like many big-name stars, Frischknecht now has his own team where he will he will act as coach and racer. VeloNews’ Andrew Hood caught up with Frischknecht last week as he prepares for the 2002 racing season. VeloNews: How are you feeling coming into the