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A warning to careless drivers.

A big crowd at the downtown criterium.

Part of the post-race show at Stage 7.

Remnants of a palm-oil plantation.

Tafi turns the tables.

A Hindu temple.

A young fan.

The ringgit.

With Kuala Lumpur’s mighty Petronas Towers shadowing the course, the 2002 Tour de Langkawi concluded with Sunday’s 75.6-kilometer criterium. When racing was done Australian Graeme Brown had his second stage win, while Colombian Hernan Dario Munoz made it home safely in the bunch, winning the overall title of this 10-day, 1310-kilometer race in Malaysia.

Lotto’s Robbie McEwen (Lotto) locked up the overall title at the Etoile de Besseges on Sunday, after finishing second in the fifth and final stage. The Australian finished behind AG2R’s Jaan Kirsipuu, the Estonian’s second win in two days. copyright AFP2002

Carl Swenson traded in his knobby tires for cross-country skis Saturday in a run for a gold medal at the XIX Winter Olympic Games. The professional mountain-bike racer came up short of the medal podium – he finished 37th in the men’s 30km freestyle mass start – after he said his legs “tightened up.” ”It was a disappointing day. I just seized up and I couldn’t recover,” Swenson said after racing on the challenging, high-altitude course in the shadow of Utah’s Wasatch Mountains south of Park City. “My muscles were tight and I ran out of energy.” More than 15,000 fans packed the course as

Munoz gets a lift from the Mapei team.

Brown gets his second stage win.

Riders pass by the Petronas towers.

Munoz does a lap with his country's flag.

McEwen

You won’t find a more bizarre place for a finish-line, and if you happened to be in the outdoor lobby of the First World Hotel in Malaysia’s Genting Highlands, you won’t soon see a better finish. Following the brutal hors categorie climb up to the Las Vegas-style resort, Colombia’s Hernan Dario Munoz slipped away from South Africa’s David George in the last 100 meters of the 133.3-kilomoter trip from Kuala Lumpur to Genting, taking a 4-second win in Stage 9 of the 2002 Tour de Langkawi on Saturday.

Australian Robbie McEwen took control of the Etoile de Besseges stage race in France Saturday with his second consecutive second-place finish in the five-day race. The Lotto-Adecco rider finished second to stage winner Jaan Kirsipuu. The AG2R sprinter took the 146.5km stage with a finishing time of 3:20:19. With the second-place finish, McEwen earned a time bonus that put him two seconds ahead of Italian Andrea Ferrigato, who led at the start of the day. For McEwen, who is in his first year with Lotto, it’s been a stellar start to the season. He had four stage wins at the Tour Down Under

Munoz and George.

Hunter spends his last moments in yellow.

Tafi after the killer climb.

Hesjedal in suffer mode.

McEwen continues the early-season roll

It was just a coincidence that the torrential rains came precisely at the moment Andrea Tafi stepped onto the award’s podium. But when word came down an hour later that the Mapei-Quick Step rider had been relegated to the back of the bunch for an irregular sprint, it seemed awfully appropriate. The penalty — handed down for throwing an elbow on the final straightaway — cost the 35-year-old Italian the green jersey, and continued what has been a frustrating trip to Malaysia for the aging star.

It’s that time of year again. We need to update our files andlet people know just who is riding with and for whom and what businesses are good enough to sponsor a bike team. To do that, we needyour help.If you would like your team roster included in our soon-to-be-updatedlist, please send it, using the following guidelines, to Rosters@7Dogs.com.Please follow the example offered below as closely as possible,listing riders according to category. Place any professional riders ontop of the team roster and then follow with other categories in descendingorder.The Joint Chiefs (Pentagon City,

Belgian Glenn D’Hollander of Lotto-Adecco held off a charging pack to win the third stage of the Etoile de Besseges stage race in France Friday. Italian Andrea Ferrigato, winner of the second stage on Thursday, maintained the overall lead with two days left in the five-day race. D’Hollander attacked from a lead group of nine with 20km to go in the 148km race between Nimes and Fumades. The Belgian was nearly caught, but held on for the win. The on-form Australian, Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Adecco) finished second.

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The peloton rolls towards Petaling Jaya.

Mapei keeps the pace high.

Tafi helps Hunter chase back on after a puncture.

Salomone explains his win.

D'Hollander hung on -- just barely -- for the win.

The lesson for the day was this: spend too much time hanging around the back of the peloton and you’re bound to end up in trouble. Among those in attendance were three former occupants of the top-10 overall here at the 2002 Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia.

Belgians might be passionate about cyclo-cross, but Zolder proved that their love of the sport doesn’t keep them mired in tradition. While ’cross usually conjures up visions of slop-covered racers sliding through mud and hurdling obstacles with almost ballet-like grace, this year’s world-championship course left the barriers, the log-strewn run-ups and the mud for the history books. Instead, with dry weather, no hurdles and temperatures in the 60s, the emphasis was on speed and a touch of teamwork. If Dutchman Richard Groenendaal benefited from a muddy, home-field advantage the weekend

Italian Andrea Ferrigato took over the lead of the Etoile de Besseges stage race in France Thursday with a win in the 143km second stage. Riding for Alessio, Ferrigato outsprinted fellow Italian Lorenzo Bernucci (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) to the finish. The two finished 15 seconds ahead of the field, which was led by stage 1 winner Robbie McEwen of Australia. Aided by a tailwind for most of the day, riders averaged close to 45 kph during Thursday’s stage between Marseille and Sainte-Tulle. Belgian Jurgen Vermeersch (Landbouwkrediet) tried an escape with 25km to go but never gained more

Di Biase (r) blasts by Galli.

The lead peloton heads for home.

Hesjedal cools off after Stage 7.

The Malaysian tifosi.

On this course, the start counted for everything.(All photos from Friday practice)

... because once on dirt, things narrowed quickly

Through the woods

No barriers, but this hill forced most to run

The grounds of the Sacramentskirche were closed to all but riders and cameras.

Ferrigato took the lead from the red-hot McEwen

The warning came courtesy of Andrea Tafi at the team dinner Tuesday night. "Don’t eat too much for breakfast tomorrow," he announced. "Wednesday will be a hard day."

Three-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and seven of his U.S. Postal team cyclists have rejected a call to appear before a Paris drugs' tribunal. Sources in Paris close to the 15-month investigation into possible misuse of doping agents by the American team that Armstrong had rejected the summons which had called on eight U.S. Postal riders to appear as "witnesses" in the investigation. The probe was launched in November 2000 to determine whether US Postal had broken laws relating to the use of drugs or incitement to use them, after a French television crew filmed team staff

Brown nips Hunter.

The peloton rolls by.

Hunter shows the effects of the day.

The aftermath of a crash.

The list of contenders for the 2002 Tour de Langkawi overall title was drastically diminished Tuesday, following a major shake-up on the race’s fifth day, a 129.7-kilometer trip south from Bangi to Melaka. Those still alive include Mapei-Quick Step’s Robbie Hunter, who retained the yellow jersey he’s owned since the first day of this race, last year’s TDL overall winner Paolo Lanfranchi (Alexia Alluminio), and even young Canadian mountain biker Ryder Hesjedal.

France's Christophe Moreau (Credit Agricole) will be out for three weeks after breaking his right collarbone in the season-opening "La Marseillaise" Grand Prix in Aubagne, in southern France, on Tuesday.The race organizers said Moreau, who was fourth in the Tour de France two years ago, fell as he came around a downhill bend during the 144km race. Moreau, 30, was due to undergo an operation on Wednesday. The former Festina rider suffered the same injury two years ago at the start of the 2000 season, when he broke his collarbone in the early season Etoile de Besseges. Tuesday's 144km

Hunter and Salomone head for home.

Hesjedal with a post-race smile.

The trip to the top of Genting could include a trip through the clouds.

The TDL cavalcade.

While sports fans across America were taking in the final moments of one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, racing was just getting underway on Monday here in Malaysia. And while Stage 4 wasn’t as dramatic as the New England Patriots stunning win over the St. Louis Rams, it was by far the most exciting day of racing yet in the 2002 Tour de Langkawi.

With two more stages in the books at the Tour de Langkawi, here's another sampling of sights unique to this 10-day race in Southeast Asia.

Di Biase after his win on Monday.

Tafi feels the effects of the climb.

The group makes the trip up Fraser Gap.

A ferry heads to the island of Penang, which sits in the Indian Ocean.

Salted fish in the market at Lumut.

Hunter meets his fans at Tapah.

Downtown Ipoh, site of Stage 3's finish.

Heading out with the family.

Racing along a plam-tree lined road.

The rules of visiting a mosque.

Another day, another sprint at the Tour de Langkawi. But for the first time this year someone other than Robbie Hunter crossed the line first. Led by a strong chase, then lead-out from his Panaria team, Italian Enrico Degano emerged from the peloton on the final straightway to take the win on Sunday in Malaysia. Degano and 131 others were all credited with the finishing time of 2:38:44 in the 129.6-kilometer stage.

It was supposed to be a battle of the world champions – the defending world cyclo-cross champion Hanka Kupfernagel from Germany and the reigning world mountain-bike champion from the U.S., Alison Dunlap. Instead, it was a former rainbow jersey winner from France who bided her time, made her move at the right moment and scored the win in the world women’s cyclo-cross championship in Zolder, Belgium on Sunday morning. In the end, Kupfernagel and Dunlap had to settle for second and fourth as 1998 world women’s mountain-bike champion Laurence Leboucher soloed in for the win, nearly a minute

To call it a sweep is something of an understatement. The Belgians were much more dominant than that. Mario De Clercq led an all-Belgian field sprint to the finish line Sunday, scoring his third rainbow jersey in five years in front of wild and very partisan crowd in Zolder Belgium. The 35-year-old De Clercq cruised across the line ahead of fellow Belgians Tom Vannoppen and World Cup winner Sven Nijs. The trio managed to put aside the usual Belgian infighting to cooperate nearly all the way to the finish, crossing just ahead of a hard-charging Richard Groenendaal of the Netherlands.

Degano (left) takes the sprint.

Tafi drives the break.

Leboucher collected her second rainbow jersey in Belgium

Dunlap missed the podium by one spot.

The women's podium

Happy Happy Belgians. Flemish fans celebrate the home team sweep.

De Clerq crosses the finish line.

Johnson's 13th-place equaled the best by an American.