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The National Racing Calendar is drawing to a close, with the final weeks of racing hitting the south and southeast regions of the country. This past weekend saw a pair of NRC events, the Mercy Celebrity Classic in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and the CycleFest 2001 in West Palm Beach, Florida. At the Mercy Celebrity Classic, Chris Horner (Prime Alliance) and Rachel Purvis (Athlete’s by Design) took the men’s and women’s races respectively. In West Palm Beach, Ivan Dominguez (Saturn) and Rebecca McClintock (jane Cosmetics) took the wins in the NRC event on Sunday. Sunday’s Bill Bone Grand Prix NRC

The results are in… sort of. Following USA Cycling’s annual membership meeting in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Saturday officials were able to announce that voter participation reached a record high. Impressive as that sounds, it really means that for the first time since USA Cycling was incorporated in 1995 at least 10 percent of licensees cast their votes on ballots that included candidates and an array of issues regarding the future governance of the organization. Election results, however, will not be issued until Wednesday, October 10. According to a press release from USA Cycling, the

It wasn’t the expected sprinter who won the 95th Paris-Tours in France on Sunday, it was a climber. And it wasn’t just any climber, it was Frenchman Richard Virenque, who pulled off a major personal coup in winning the second-to-last race of the 2001 UCI World Cup series. Virenque, formerly of Festina and now riding for Domo-Farm Frites, just returned to competitive racing in August after serving a lengthy suspension from the sport after the Festina doping scandal of 1998. Spaniard Oscar Freire (Mapei-Quick Step) finished second in Sunday’s 254.5km race in France, and German sprinting ace

Hands up: Virenque bagged his biggest win since he was banned for doping.

Long way to go: Durand and Virenque made their move just 12km into the race.

USA Cycling has released selection criteria for riders hoping to qualify for the 2002 World Cyclo-cross Championships in Zolder, Belgium on February 2-3, 2002. The detailed document was released after receiving approval from USA Cycling's selection committee on Friday. Team selection procedures rely heavily on the accumulation of UCI points, which are awarded at cyclo-cross holding a UCI sanction. There are several UCI Category 2 and 3 races in the U.S. this season, though most are concentrated in the Eastern portion of the U.S., though promoters have recently added at least one UCI

Telekom’s Jan Ullrich is facing questioning by Florence magistrate Luigi Bocciolini in his inquiry into the raid by anti-doping police on June 6 at San Remo during the Giro d'Italia, European wire services reported Friday. In all 20 non-Italian riders will be questioned but former Tour de France winner Ullrich is by far the biggest name among them. It is expected that he will be quizzed by Bocciolini some time after the World Cycling championships in Lisbon - the road race is on October 14. Ullrich, who participated in the Tour of Lucca that ended on Friday, was visited on Wednesday

A trio of one-day classics in Italy last weekend gave a late indication on how the world road championship will play out on October 14 in Lisbon. First, Russian champion Dmitri Konyshev, 35, led home a five-man breakaway in the uphill finish to a fast, tough Coppa Sabatini. Then, in the very hilly Tour of Emilia, Olympic and German champion Jan Ullrich broke clear with Italian standouts Davide Rebellin and Francesco Casagrande — and then outsprinted them for the win. And finally Belgium's 38-year-old Andreï Tchmil joined a late attack, jumped away from them with a kilometer to go, and held

The Univest Grand Prix, the premier amateur-only event in the United States, was officially canceled a week after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. The event organizers had originally announced that the Pennsylvania race had been postponed until October, but the event was finally called off on September 19. "The Univest Grand Prix is above all an international event. We feel it unwise to expose our athletes to risk in these uncertain times," said John Eustice of Sparta Cycling, the race organizer. "After a period of reflection, we will resume our work and build the 2002 Univest

Team Mercury's season came to an end on Monday, when it was announced that the UCI has suspended the team for failing to meet financial obligations. After co-sponsor Viatel went bankrupt in the middle of the season, Mercury was left short on funds, and eventually had to draw on the escrow account required by the UCI. Once the team began to draw on those funds, it had 30 days to replenish the account, which must contain an amount equal to three months of staff and rider salaries. When the team failed to do so, it was suspended beginning October 1. "We actually knew it was coming. My

The end-of-season transfer announcements have picked up in recent days, and a couple of big names were in the news on Tuesday: Johan Museeuw and Frank Vandenbroucke. Museeuw was reportedly close to signing a one-year deal with Mapei, his team of five years before he joined the Domo team for the 2001 season. Looking to replace Museeuw, Domo team manager Patrick Lefevre has offered a contract to the talented but troubled Frank Vandenbroucke, who was let go by his Lampre team a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, the CSC-Tiscali team had actual signings to announce this week. The team added Spaniard

With his three stage victories at the beginning of the Vuelta a España, Telekom’s Erik Zabel accrued enough UCI points to move him to the top of the UCI road rankings, displacing former No. 1 Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal Service), who dropped to fourth. Davide Rebellin (Liquigas-Pata) moved into second place, with fellow Italian Francesco Casagrande (Fassa Bortolo) third. Several other riders used the Vuelta to propel themselves upward in the UCI standings, including Oscar Sevilla (Kelme-Costa Blanca), who lost the race on the final day but moved from 30th to sixth in the UCI standings. The

Navigators' Vasilli Davidenko, the winner of the BMC Software series, has been suspended by the Russian Cycling Federation for two months following the final adjudication of a positive drug test reported April 7 after a BMC race in Austin, Texas. USA Cycling chief operating officer Steve Johnson confirmed Tuesday that Davidenko had tested positive for nandrolone (19-norandrosterone and 19-noretiocholanolone) at the BMC criterium. The Russian Federation formally suspended Davidenko for two months on September 17. Johnson said the UCI reported the positive to USA Cycling following the

In a written statement issued on Tuesday, the Navigators cycling team addressed the suspension of team rider Vassili Davidenko for a positive drug test dating back to April 7. According to the release, the team believes that the positive test was the result of an "over-the-counter herbal food supplement that did not have a full accounting of the ingredients on the label." The statement went on to emphasize that Davidenko had been tested several times before and after the April 7 test, all with negative results. "The Navigators Team has full confidence that this result was due to the

This time they’ll be sporting their own labels. While Litespeeds have been a part of the European peloton for years, the American framebuilder will now actually be supplying a team of riders on bikes that are marked as such. Lotto, the pro team sponsored by the Belgian national lottery, has announced a three-year sponsorship agreement with Tennessee-based Litespeed. The Belgian team had been riding GTs since July of 1999, but the recent bankruptcy and sale of Schwinn/GT left the future of that sponsorship in doubt. Litespeed director of marketing Herbert Krabel has been actively courting

Las Vegas, the beacon in the desert, is a particularly bright one for the bicycle industry in this challenging year. Coming into the fall, the bike business was already reeling from high-profile bankruptcies like Schwinn and GT and from having many other companies on life support. Then came September 11, and it seemed unlikely that many would even be willing to fly to Las Vegas for the major selling event of the entire year and the only time that small and mid-sized companies get to put their products in front of bike dealers. The heaving of a collective sigh of relief was almost audible

Wordin says Moninger will be back.

Zabel

New Sticker: Litespeed marketing director Herbert Krabel applies a new decal to a Blade, the TT bike to be used by the team next season.

Gary Fisher has not lost his fondness for expensive and distinctive clothes. Fisher can be easily prodded to talk about his own pet project, namely bikes with 700C wheels.

Two Italian road greats hit the dirt. Colnago and Ferrari teamed up to make the off-road successor to last year's road model.

It's all in the presentation: Crank Bros. showed off the new EggBeaters.

The Speedplay Zero has less float than standard Speedplay, and it is adjustable.

Aussie is contributing 100 percent of the proceeds from sales of this jersey to the American Red Cross for relief of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Well, if Cippo' isn't wearing these next year it will be because of contractual obligations. These are stylin'

Genevieve Jeanson won’t be spending the second week of October in Portugal after all. The 20-year-old Jeanson opted not to contest the world road championships in Lisbon. An ongoing problem with a tendon problem will keep her home.

Saturn director Jim Copeland was all smiles when he announced the signing of BigMat's Aussie sprinter Jay Sweet for the 2002 season.

Meeting with hundreds of independent bicycle dealers (IBDs) for the first time since his company’s successful bid to acquire Schwinn and GT, Pacific Cycles CEO Chris Hornung pitched his Profit Plus Program at the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas on Sunday. Hornung focused on the decreased prices that his company will charge dealers for bikes saying, "You pay too much for your bicycles. You can pay less." But added that dealers will have to "forecast more efficiently than in the past." Hornung also confirmed that Pacific will utilize "dual-channel" distribution, meaning Schwinn and GT will

Stage 17 I woke up pretty slow this morning. Benoit, who usually out sleeps us all, was out the door before I even sat up. The hotel we were in was the same one we stayed at during the Vuelta Murcia. The town of Murcia is very nice and they love cycling. After breakfast it was back to the room to stretch and watch Benoit doze in and out of sleep as the radio speaker in the bathroom blared out with Europop songs that never make it back home. Benoit woke up for a second, stared at me in wonder and said, "Man you stretch too much." Soon after we were downstairs and on our bikes to the

Pacific CEO Chris Hornung listens to a dealer's question.

There were tears of joy and tears of disappointment Sunday in the final stage of the 56th Vuelta a Espana. U.S. Postal’s Levi Leipheimer broke down in tears moments after finishing second in the 38km time trial and discovering he passed teammate Roberto Heras to vault onto the final podium, the first-ever American finish in the top-three of the three-week Spanish tour. Kelme’s Oscar Sevilla shed tears of disappointment after forfeiting the race leader’s jersey to rival Angel Casero in the 21st stage and losing the 3012km race by just 47 seconds. Casero cemented the biggest victory of his

Here’s a look at Saturday and Sunday’s action at the track world championships from Antwerp, Belgium. — Frenchman Arnaud Tournant upset pre-race predictions to win the world sprint title on Saturday, the main event of the world track championships. The 23-year-old from Roubaix near the Belgian border dominated compatriot and race favorite Laurent Gane over three heats after Gane won the first round and Tournant pulled level in the second. Another Frenchman, Olympic keirin champion Florian Rousseau grabbed bronze after he beat Germany's Jens Fielder in the match for third place. Gane, the

In the final day of competition at the world track championships in Antwerp, Belgium, a dramatic keirin final ended with only two men left upright. Australian Ryan Bayley was first across the line ahead of France’s Laurent Gane. The other four finalists — Jens Fiedler, Jobie Dajka, Pavel Buran and Florian Rousseau — were lying in a tangle of bikes and bodies on the back straight. The high-speed pile-up saw bike parts and riders flying through the air. Fiedler ran the final 125 meters carrying his bike to become possibly the first track cyclist to win a world bronze medal on foot. France’s

Big Change: Casero took over in the TT

Making history: Casero got the win and Leipheimer became the first American to take the Vuelta podium.

After 20 stages and more than 1,800 miles of racing, the 56th Vuelta a España will be decided in Sunday’s final 23.5-mile individual time trial. Saturday’s final climbing stage, the 112-mile 20th stage featuring two category-one climbs up Alto de Abantos high in the mountains north of Madrid, failed to rattle race leader Oscar Sevilla (Kelme), who retained his 25-second lead over Festina’s Angel Casero. Giro d’Italia champion Gilberto Simoni (Lampre) sprinted ahead of iBanesto.com Jose Maria Jimenez on the final switchback to win while U.S. Postal’s Jose Luis Rubiera crossed the line third

Nancy Contreras gave Mexico its first ever world championship victory when she won the women's 500-meter time trial at Antwerp, Belgium on Saturday afternoon. Contreras, 23, was fastest over the first 250 metres, clocking 19.539 and finished strongly in 34.996. A student of languages based at Metepec, some 70 kilometers from Mexico City, Contreras' previous international performances include a silver medal in the Pan American Games. Her husband and coach, Guillermo Guteirrez, was in tears as Contreras received the rainbow jersey. Canada's Lori-Ann Muenther followed her sprint bronze by

Swiss six-day star Bruno Risi took the world points race title for the fourth time in nine years at the Antwerp Sportpaleis on Saturday evening. Risi controlled the race throughout. He led a nine-man group that lapped the field just before half distance and built an unbeatable points score. Argentina’s Juan Curuchet took the silver after finishing the 40-kilometer race in the same lap as Risi but with six fewer sprint points. Franz Stocher of Austria placed third, a further six points in arrears. America’s only rider, Jame Carney, led the race on points in the early stages but missed the

It all comes down to these two

Contreras made it a first for Mexico

1,2,3: The French sprinters filled the podium

4 for 9: Risi took another points title

For the past few years, his name has popped up in results occasionally - Guido Trenti (USA) - prompting U.S. race fans to ask, "What's the story?" Now that he has scored the biggest win of his career - a stage victory at the Vuelta - that question is sure to be asked again. Well, here's the scoop: Trenti's mother is an American who married an Italian and moved to Italy. Trenti took out an American passport in the hopes of making the U.S. team for the 1999 world's. VeloNews first spoke with the Cantina Tollo rider at the 1999 Giro d'Italia, in this very brief interview

The Vuelta a España’s “other American” -- Guido Trenti -- won Friday’s transition stage while the favorites held their ammunition in check for this weekend’s shootout. With everyone looking forward to the final battle for the overall title of the 56th Vuelta on Saturday and Sunday, it was a perfect day for a breakaway. The peloton followed the script perfectly. Rabobank’s Karsten Kroon and ONCE’s Mikel Zarrabeitia were the first to instigate the break just 30 miles into Friday’s 168-km (112-mile) 19th stage from Cuenca to Guadalajara. Other riders quickly bridged out to form a group of

Tammy Thomas came within one race of achieving her dream in her debut at the track world championships in Antwerp, Belgium on Friday. But instead the 31-year-old personal fitness instructor from Mississippi took the silver medal on her first world championship appearance. Thomas had to settle for a silver medal, after being beaten 2-0 by Russia’s Svetlana Grankovskaia in the best-of-three sprint finals. "I just didn’t have the legs in the race for the gold," Thomas lamented. "She was faster than me and I just couldn’t get it done. I’m happy with the silver though. This makes my

Guido who?

Elli leads the escape

Leipheimer is the only non-Spaniard in the top-10

For more than two weeks, the numerous Italians in the peloton seemed more interested in chatting with the gorgeous Vuelta a España podium girls than winning stages. The flirting stopped long enough during Thursday’s 95-mile 18th stage from Albacete to Cuenca for an Italian finally to score, a stage victory that is. Cantina Tollo’s Filippo Simeoni profited by an untimely crash by iBanesto.com Santi Blanco, who held a comfortable margin over a 12-man breakaway but slipped on an oil patch while descending off a category-three climb just 12 km from the finish. Simeoni was the lead chaser and

First-time world championship rider Tammy Thomas won through to the last four of the women’s sprint in Antwerp, Belgium on Thursday. Beaten by Germany’s Susan Panzer in the first match of the quarterfinals, Thomas hit back to level the scores and then won the decider with an attacking ride from the front, clocking 12.257 and 12.435 seconds. Also through to the semis is Canada’s Lori-Ann Muenzer, who took the first match against Szilvia Szabolcsi (Hungary) only to be relegated to second place for straying across the sprinters line. Unfazed by the upset, Muenzer took no chances in the two

Simeoni

Sevilla holds the lead

The gates of Cuenca

Zabel's escape gave him back the points jersey

The French Olympic sprint team heads for gold.

The Olympic sprint podium.

Salsa Cycles has issued a recall of 466 of the company’s Alto disc-brake specific mountain-bike rim. The company reports that a faulty extrusion in the manufacturing process could cause the rim to fail catastrophically without warning. The Salsa Alto Disc rim is a black mountain bike rim with a 543 ERD made in 32 and 36 hole models. It is a disc-brake specific rim. The rim is labeled “Salsa Alto” in yellow, red, and white. The rim also has large “Salsa” decals on the side.The rims in question were sold by Quality Bicycle Products and other distributors to retail bike shops across the

The winds of change blew through the 56th Vuelta a España and it was the U.S. Postal Service team at the center of the storm. With 35 km to go in the 159-km 17th stage, U.S. Postal Service attacked hard and split the group in the windy flats from Murcia to Albacete across Spain’s barren meseta. Juan Miguel Mercado (ibanesto.com), who started the day third, and David Plaza (Festina), who started fifth overall, were among the casualties. Postal kept driving and finished 1 minute, 12 seconds ahead the second group. Lampre’s Robert Hunter bounded out of the lead group to take his second

The first rainbow jersey of the 2001 World Track Championship went to Arnaud Tournant of France who won the kilometer time trial for the fourth straight year. Tournant, the final starter in the 21-rider field brought the event to a thrilling climax with a time 1 minute, 2.571 seconds, for a clear victory over last year’s silver medalist, German Soren Lausberg who clocked a 1:03.363 on Tuesday in Antwerp, Belgium. Tournant was the huge favorite, having dominated the event for the past four years since taking Australian Shane Kelly's title in 1998. But the Frenchman went one better than

Heras and the gang join the big move

Hunter takes the win

The 56th Vuelta a España entered its final week with another fast day in the saddle in Tuesday’s 153-km (95-mile) 16th stage that finished well under the expected time following Monday’s rest day. Domo’s Tomas Konecny was fastest to the line while Kelme’s Oscar Sevilla easily retained the overall lead for the sixth day. U.S. Postal’s Roberto Heras and Levi Leipheimer remained in their respective fourth and sixth places overall. A steady breeze pushed the peloton along at a brisk pace to the day’s major obstacle, the category-two Cresta del Gallo just 13 kilometers from the finish line in

Stage 14 This is longest stage of the Vuelta, with a nice profile to boot. The legs seem to be OK this morning on the way down for breakfast. It's a shame sometimes we are not able to enjoy our surroundings and accommodations to the fullest. We were right on the coastline just south of Valencia. After breakfast it was back to the room to try and squeeze in another half-hour of sleep. On the way over to the race everyone seemed a little quiet. I think we all had today's stage on our minds. The team meeting was short and to the point: Benoit, Victor and myself in the early breakaways. It was

American Olympic sprint champion Marty Nothstein and the Chinese national team will not compete at the track cycling world championships, which are slated to begin Wednesday at the SportPaleis in Antwerp, Belgium. Nothstein, who recently turned in a sub-par showing at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, has turned down the chance to race at the event in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. The move will reduce the U.S. team to just five men and four women. The Chinese, who won two medals at last year’s championships, apparently bowed

Italian cycling team Mapei announced Tuesday the signing of Kazakhstan youngster Dmitriy Muravyev. Muravyev, 21, inked a two-year deal with the outfit after winning 10 amateur races this year. Muravyev will make the move to Italy after representing his country at the world championships in Lisbon, Portugal, his last competition as an amateur. The move came a day after Mapei announced the signing of Olympic mountain biking champion Miguel Martinez. Copyright AFP 2001

There was talk of staying home, but despite the September 11 terrorist attacks, USA Cycling has decided against bowing out of this year’s world championships, and announced its 24-rider roster on Tuesday. The U.S. will be one of 35 countries competing at the final major road event of the 2001 season slated for October 9-14 in Lisbon, Portugal. The men’s squad will be led by four-time world’s team member and 2001 USPRO champion Fred Rodriguez. Rodriguez recently finished second in the Grand Prix de Fourmies in France. Jonathan Vaughters will also make the trip to Lisbon. The Colorado

Last night was another opportunity to try to catch some extra zzz's, but it wasn't to be with the heavy machinery working outside our window. At breakfast for the first time since the start of the Vuelta a Espana I was at the table before anyone else. Hey, at this point I need all the firsts I can get. Maybe this was a could sign for today’s stage. I signed a couple of autographs on our way to the start and the people replied, "Gracias Victor Hugo Pena." There's only one way to change this confusion amongst the fans: I need a stage win! Even Victor is calling me Victor in the peloton. I

Rubiera and Virenque

Nothstein won't contest world's

Citing “a breakdown in trust,” the Italian cycling team Mapei has fired former world number one Michele Bartoli on Monday. In an apparently unrelated move, the team also announced that it had signed mountain-bike star Miguel Martinez to a three-year road contract. In a statement faxed to news agencies around Europe on Monday Mapei's general manager Giorgio Squinzi said that "it would be advisable for Bartoli to negotiate with his future team right now." The parting of the ways comes at a time when speculation was running high that Bartoli was planning to join Fassa Bortolo. Squinzi

Jonas Carney (Prime Alliance) and Jenny Eyerman (jane Cosmetics) won the pro men’s and women’s races at the Mercury Cycling Classic of Irvine in California on Sunday. Held on a 1.5-mile loop at the Irvine Spectrum in Orange County in front of Mercury's newly-opened international headquarters, each lap included nine turns and an out-and-back section. With the Saturn Cycling Team virtually absent from the inaugural event, the racing was wide open. In the 90-minute men's race, Pro Cycling Tour leader Trent Klasna was the only member of the Saturn team in attendance. He faced domestic powers

Chris Eatough called it the "toughest race" he’d ever done, and Mary Grigson likely would have agreed. But that didn’t stop the pair from taking the 2001 24-hour solo world championship titles at Hurkey Creek Park in Idyllwild, California, on Sunday. Things didn’t go so well for some of the other race favorites, however, as reigning 24-hour national champion Tinker Juarez dropped out after completing just five laps, and mountain-biking legend Rishi Grewal was good for just seven laps before he bowed out. The primary culprit for all those troubles was the heat. Temperatures topped out near

Martinez is hanging up the fat tires.

Carney

Sunday’s 207-km (128-mile) 15th stage was the longest of the 56th Vuelta a España and the accumulation of the kilometers two weeks into the race took its toll on the peloton. It was a good day for U.S. Postal Service but a bad one for Levi Leipheimer, whose chances of finishing on the final podium suffered a setback when he lost contact with the lead group on the final climb to the beyond-category Alto de Aitana. The miles didn’t slow down Milaneza’s Klaus Moller, who followed an attack by U.S. Postal’s Jose Luis Rubiera all the way to the top of the beyond-category Alto de Aitana. “I used

Jose Maria Perez, director sportif of Relax-Fuenlabrada was suspended Sunday by his employers following controversial remarks made about the ONCE team and their former world champion Abraham Olano. Perez claimed on Spanish radio last week that Olano had won the world title in 1995 with a hematocrit reading (the percentage of red blood cells) of 62, and that ONCE had a 2.5 million dollar "pharmacy budget.” Perez, whose team only has an overall budget of 11,000 dollars, also claimed that Swiss rider Alex Zulle, with the iBanesto team, "was not riding well" because he had been deprived of his

Jens Voigt of the Credit Agricole team succeeded Lance Armstrong as Grand Prix des Nations champion when he won the 74km time trial event in France Saturday. Voigt’s American teammate Jonathan Vaughters finished 15th, 4:20 off of the German’s winning time of 1:34:13. Hungarian Laszlo Bodrogi was second, 11 seconds back. Last year, Armstrong cruised to victory in the Grand Prix des Nations while preparing for the 2000 Sydney Olympics in September. The three time Tour de France winner won that contest by 1:41.