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Olano remained in third in the overall.

Giro: Frigo out

Well it was supposed to be a dramatic day at the Giro d'Italia... it's just that we expected the drama to involve bikes, mountains and athletes instead of police, drugs and lawyers. Stage 18, slated to be the most difficult of the 2001 Giro, has been cancled after police staged a series of raids on team hotels in San Remo last night. But according to reports from teams now arriving at what was supposed to be the finish of today's stage in Anna di Vinadio, the Giro will resume tomorrow, picking up with stage 19's 184km ride from Alba to Busta Arsizio. According to sources close to the

Here in Vinadio, where the most difficult and perhaps most beautiful stage of the Giro was to finish, the mood is somber. The little girls proudly dressed in their bright course marshal’s vests are walking around perplexed, not understanding the explanation of why the riders won’t be coming through and everyone is leaving. People are descending from the mountain in droves – the sheer number of them that had made the trip up this remote, high and narrow road is mind-boggling – and without getting to see any of what they came for. It was heart-wrenching to see the effort that this small

Cyclists and support staff in the Giro d'Italia finally set off for Alba late Thursday to prepare for Friday's 19th stage after a day of arguments and recriminations following raids by anti-drugs police on Wednesday. The searches had kept many riders up until the early hours of the morning, leading to the cancellation of Thursday's 18th stage which had promised to be one of the key stages in the race. For a while on Thursday it looked as though the riders might boycott the rest of the Giro. World governing body the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), in a statement issued in Lausanne,

Dinner started normally enough for me and my family in the San Remo Panrama Hotel. Across the dining room sat the iBanesto.com team, eating huge dinners of pasta, tortillas and steaks. The waiter asked the riders to sign a team photo for his daughter. After obliging, the riders slowly filtered off to bed before the toughest stage of the Giro. The team managers, soigneurs and drivers continued to relax around the dinner table, having dessert and talking, when a guy in normal street clothes came in. My wife poked me and said, "That guy is flashing his police badge at those Banesto guys." Other

Yes, the First Union Invitational in Trenton, New Jersey, came down to a field sprint once again this year, but it was a long early breakaway that played a major role in shaping the outcome at the finish. After the Mercury team spent most of the day chasing after five escapees, U.S. Postal took advantage, launching New Zealander Julian Dean to the win on a warm Thursday evening in New Jersey’s state capital. It was a big win for Dean, who battled knee problems for most of last season, and hadn’t won a race in more than a year. "That’s the thing that means the most," said Dean. "It’s my first

Mario Cipollini and Hein Verbruggen discuss the future of the 2001 Giro.

All dressed up and no race to marshal.

Nobody will be at today's stage-winner press conference

Well, we're here. Let's party anyway.

People went to a lot of trouble all over Vinadio to welcome the Giro.

Bike race? What bike race?

There isn't much to promote or sell here today.

UCI president Hein Verbruggen confers in San Remo.

Dean gets a congratulatory hug.

Hincapie and Rodriguez.

Piziks, Dean and Koerts.

Van Bon on the move.

George and his dad.

5:41 Caucchioli wins his second stage of this Giro d'Italia. Azevado takes second and Telekom's Jan Ullrich leads the chase group by taking third, 27 seconds later. There will be no change in the overall standings, as both race leader Gilberto Simoni (Lampre) and his nearest challenger, Dario Frigo (Fassa Bortolo) finished in the main group at 39 seconds. Stay tuned for a complete race report, coming up. 5:40p.m. Nearing the finish, the two are being chased by a trio including Jan Ullrich. 5:39 p.m. The two leaders are in San Remo and heading to the finish. While Azevado has been

Riccardo Forconi, a member of Marco Pantani's Mercatone Uno outfit, has been pulled from the Giro d’Italia after he failed a dope test, a source close to the Italian team revealed Wednesday. Forconi was withdrawn by his team before the start of the 17th stage in San Remo. Forconi becomes the second rider to fail the new French-pioneered test for banned substance EPO after Alexia rider Pascal Herve, a Frenchman, was revealed to have tested positive Tuesday. He too was withdrawn by his team. Both men were tested on the day of the prologue at Pescara on May 19. Forconi was ejected from

Pietro Caucchioli (Alessio) earned his second stage win of this Giro d'Italia on Wednesday. Caucchioli, previously thought to be a slow finisher, has joined sprinters Ivan Quaranta, Danilo Hondo and Mario Cipollini with two Giro stage victories apiece by outsprinting fellow breakaway José Azevedo (ONCE) in the Circuit of Flowers. Jan Ullrich, healthier after a day of rest, nabbed his second third place of the Giro, outsprinting Gianni Faresin (Liquigas), who was 27 seconds back. Ullrich’s teammate, Matthias Kessler, was dropped in the sprint for third and finished nine seconds behind Faresin

Colombian cyclist Gustavo Wilches was found to have swallowed 40 capsules of heroin when stopped by customs officials at Bogota's Eldorado airport on Wednesday. The 39-year-old 1990 Tour of Colombia champion cracked under questioning and told police he had swallowed the drugs before attempting to board a flight to Mexico, he was then rushed to hospital for a stomach-pump. Wilches was a top Colombian Tour de France rider in the 1980s. Copyright AFP 2001

The Commercial Color U.S. Women's Open will take place June 8 in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. The event will attract professional women riders from all over the world, and will also kick off the Women's Health and Fitness Weekend at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome, which will pay tribute to Nicole Reinhart, who died last September after a crash during a race in Arlington, Massachusetts. Friday night the "Spirit of Nicole" award, $3000 in scholarship money and prizes, will be presented to the rider who exudes the qualities which Reinhart exemplified during her everyday life and through her

Teams participating in the Giro d'Italia and staying in hotels outside the town of San Remo were subjected to stringent searches by Italian drug squad officers (NAS) Wednesday night. Over 200 officers, reinforced by officers from several large Italian cities, were mobilized in the operation, which involved a number of teams in numerous hotels in and around San Remo. In a hotel on the outskirts of San Remo NAS officers searched the hotels being used by the Mobilvetta and Selle Italia teams. Around 20 officers arrived and began searching all rooms occupied by team riders and team

First Union week continues on Thursday evening with the fastest of the three races, the 91-mile First Union Classic in Trenton, New Jersey. The flat, fast, 7-mile circuit seems to ensure a field sprint finish year after year, while the high speeds string out the peloton for most of the three-hour race, making positioning crucial throughout the race. Defending champion Fred Rodriguez (Domo-Farm Frites) will be on hand to try to defend his title, but a loaded Mercury-Viatel team, fresh off its Lancaster win, will be tough to beat. The race begins on State Street in Trenton, in front of the New

Caucchioli on his way to the win.

Simoni retains the pink jersey.

Up they go.

Ullrich ended up third.

The most prestigious week of road cycling in the United States kicks off Tuesday afternoon with the First Union Invitational in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia. The 91-mile race takes place on a demanding 7-mile circuit through the streets of Lancaster and through Rockford Park along the Conestoga River. The challenging and technical circuit features rolling hills and several short, sharp climbs, giving it the reputation as a tough-man’s course, ideally suited for last year’s winner and 2001’s hottest rider, Trent Klasna of Saturn. Klasna and Saturn will have their hands full

French veteran rider Pascal Herve has been pulled out of the Giro d'Italia by his team after he tested positive for a controlled substance on Tuesday, Alexia team officials announced. "Herve has been pulled out while we wait for a second analysis to show that he knows nothing about this whole affair," his team announced. The 37-year-old Herve, a former Festina rider, is no stranger to doping. He was suspended at the start of this year after he finally admitted during last October's Festina court trial that he had systematically taken EPO while a member of Festina. Herve was thought

Former Giro winner and mountains specialist Marco Pantani on Tuesday blamed flu for his lack of progress in the mountains stages of the Giro d'Italia where he has unceremoniously dropped out podium contention. Pantani also opened his heart on his team's exclusion from this year's Tour de France, saying he would love to return to the showpiece event of international cycling next year, but he first explained why this year he failed to come into his own in the Italian mountains where he dropped to 17th place overall. "I had flu," the 1998 Giro d'Italia and Tour de France winner

Mercury-Viatel fired the opening salvo at the First Union Cycling Series, with Leon Van Bon taking the win at the 91-mile First Union Invitational in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. With two men in a five-man break, Mercury faked out its competition, launching Van Bon to the win with less than a half mile to go through the streets of downtown Lancaster. The Dutch champion soloed across the line, three seconds ahead of breakaway companions George Hincapie (U.S. Postal Service), Trent Klasna (Saturn), Jakob Piil (CSC-World Online) and Baden Cooke (Mercury-Viatel). The five leaders escaped on the 12th

Pantani

Hincapie, Van Bon and Klasna

Moninger took off early.

Hincapie figured Mercury was setting up Cooke.

Even in a good old-fashioned American downtown criterium, Mercury-Viatel’s strengthened European line-up was clearly evident on Sunday. Mercury’s Dutch champion Leon Van Bon sprinted to victory in the second edition of the U.S. Postal Service Capital Cup in Washington D.C. Van Bon was followed closely by fellow Mercury Dutchman Jans Koerts and U.S. Postal’s Kiwi sprinter Julian Dean. The Capital Cup field included strong lineups from all of the U.S. professional mainstays. Postal, Mercury and Saturn, as well as Navigators and 7UP-Colorado Cyclist all have their Philadelphia men racing

Team Mercury-Viatel’s Jans Koerts battled swirling winds and a blistering pace to win the mass field sprint at Sunday’s Clarendon Cup criterium in Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Koerts’s teammate Gord Fraser finished second, nudging out Vassiliy Davidenko of the well-organized Navigators team. A group of five broke off the front 12km into the race, but that group was caught almost immediately. Next to try an escape was local D.C. rider Russ Langley (National Capital Velo Club), who fired up the crowd with a solo break. For nearly nine laps around

Ivan Quaranta joined Danilo Hondo and Mario Cipollini with two Giro stage victories by winning the field sprint at the end of this 142km stage finishing in Parma, the birthplace of Giuseppe Verdi, to whom this Giro is dedicated in the 100th anniversary of his death. Endrio Leoni (Alessio), Cipollini, and Hondo followed Quaranta in at the finish. This 16th stage from Erbusco had one small climb with a KOM at km 4.7, won again by green jersey Fredy Gonzalez (Selle Italia), and it was flat the rest of the way. The first hour was traversed at a crawl — 30 kph — and it did not pick up a lot after

If you happened to be one of the many race fans who took in either of late-April’s big domestic races — the First Charter Criterium in Shelby, North Carolina, or the Twilight Criterium a day later in Athens, Georgia — you might have come away asking yourself, "Who the heck is NetZero?" Entering the weekend, most people had regarded this Los Angeles-based team as little more than pack fodder in the rough-and-tumble domestic racing scene. This territory belonged to teams like Mercury-Viatel and Saturn, the Navigators and Prime Alliance. Certainly the new NetZero pro team, made up of

Napa World Cup winner José Antonio Hermida might not be a household name in mountain-bike racing, but standing next to the under-23 world champion on the first World Cup podium of the 2001 season last month was someone even more unfamiliar to fans. So you could hardly blame Hermida when he goofed on the guy’s name. While talking with reporters, Hermida said, "I put an attack on the uphill and I [caught] Thomas." The 26-year-old German sitting immediately to the right of Hermida interrupted: "Marc." "Oh, Marc," apologized Hermida. "No problem. Don’t feel sorry for me today," answered Marc

Riva del Garda, a small town at the northern tip of Lake Garda, has become one of Europe’s major mountain-bike Meccas over the past decade, largely due to the spectacular trails coming down the mountains overlooking the dark waters of the deep, narrow Alpine lake nestled in Italy’s northern border. For the last eight years, Riva has hosted a springtime mountain-bike festival and manufacturer show that this year attracted around 10,000 visitors, mostly from Germany. Mountain bikers filled the town for five days and tried their legs en masse on the second day of the festival in an off-road

Salient features: The Deda Magic bar has a 31.8mm clamping area (rather than the standard 26.0mm) and comes in a medium-depth ergo bend or a deep-drop round bend. The bar has a "K.E.T." (Kinetic Energy Treatment) that hardens the metal by "bomb-peening" it with heavy shot. The Magic stem is cold-forged in three dimensions, a process that allows Deda to create unique shapes without compromising the strength-to-weight ratio. Likes: The stiffness of this stem and bar combination is immediately noticeable, especially in long sizes. When sprinting or climbing out the saddle there is no noticeable

Most cyclists have experienced a few aches and pains along the way. Most of the time, it just comes with the territory and a little bit of rest is all you need. Sometimes, though, the aches and pains can grow into something more serious: overuse injuries. Overuse injuries are prolonged rubs, grinds and tears of soft tissue that cause pain and limit riding. As the name implies, they occur over time and are caused by irregular or excessive forces applied to a soft tissue such as cartilage or tendons. Overuse injuries may also occur as a result of an improperly rested acute injury. Common

It’s a country roughly the size of Maryland, and with a population of less than 10 million. But when it comes to cycling, Belgium is one of the most tradition- and talent-rich powerhouses in the world. It can boast more elite men’s world road champions than France or Italy, and the little tri-lingual nation hosts a huge number of major UCI races, including classics such as the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Flèche Wallonne, Ghent-Wevelgem and Het Volk. In addition to the great names of the past — Merckx, Van Looy, Van Steenbergen, De Vlaeminck, Van Impe — Belgium continues to churn

24-hour nationals tries again for Winter Park The 2001 24 Hours of Adrenalin NORBA National Solo and Team Championship. The name doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but what that longwinded tag is trying to say is that, for the second straight year, NORBA will sanction a 24-hour off-road national championship event. This year’s event will be held August 4-5, at Winter Park, Colorado. Last year’s championship was also scheduled for Winter Park, but that event was derailed when local U.S. Forest Service officials refused to grant Winter Park Resort the permits needed to run the event. In the

With a rest day tomorrow, Quaranta gets an extra day to savor a stage win

He's chill like that. Gabrielle Colombo takes a break on the road.

The NetZero squad work together for Miller's win at Twilight.

Hanisch is likely to have a smaller number next time you see him.

Some fair goers took the opportunity to ride the trails without leaving the tent, while others remembered golden rides in the pl

By moving the bridge to the back, Manitou adds stiffness and saves weight.

In RockShox Iore, Judy begat SID and SID begat Duke.

The Magic's big clamp makes this a seriously stiff combo.

Back off, buddy

Once a soccer player, Moeman now lives for cycling.

The Moermans host as many as eight riders at a time.

Athens was the fifth AMBC race this year.

Canada’s hockey teams may not have fared very well in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, but America’s neighbors to the north are having quite a spring when it comes to racing mountain bikes. Two weeks after Roland Green became the first Canadian male to win a World Cup cross-country race, countryman Ryder Hesjedal led a Maple-Leaf sweep of the short track cross country at NORBA national No. 1 at Snow Summit Resort in Big Bear Lake, California. Hesjedal got his win by making a gutsy pass to overtake Seamus McGrath at the top of the climb on the race’s last lap. The 20-year-old Subaru-Gary

The dual slalom at NORBA national No. 1 will likely go down as the beginning of a youth movement. After years of seeing names like Brian Lopes and Wade Bootes at the top of the results sheet, it was a trio of under-21 kids who ruled the day at Snow Summit Resort in Big Bear Lake, California. The winner was the youngest of them all, 17-year-old Mick Hannah of the Global Racing team. The Australian teenager was part of an all Global final where he squared off with Greg Minnaar, a 19-year-old from South Africa. Minnaar reached the final by knocking off Lopes (GT-Fox) and Bootes

Gilberto Simoni has been saying for two days, ever since he took over the pink jersey, that he would not lose much time in the time trial. He was good on his word, crushing former world time trial champions Abraham Olano and Sergei Gontchar and losing only 29 seconds to specialist and second-placed Dario Frigo in a 55.5km time trial on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda. If it was not already apparent, especially after the disqualification of third-placed Wladimir Belli yesterday, this has become a two-man race. Frigo’s best hand to play was the time trial, so Simoni might very well have

Mick Hannah might not have known it, but he made a little history on Sunday. In winning the downhill at NORBA national No. 1 at Snow Summit Resort in Big Bear Lake, California, he became just the second man to ever capture both the dual slalom and downhill on the same weekend. The other guy on that list: Brian Lopes, who did it once in 1995 and once in 1996. Throw in the fact that Hannah is just 17 years old, and he probably deserves a record all his own. In the downhill Hannah (Global Racing) started far back of the favorites because he lacked a NORBA ranking, but when the youngster stormed

Hesjedal outlasts McGrath, while Green comes across third.

Hesjedal on the attck in the early going.

Dunlap exults as she crossed the line.

Florit was out fron for much of the race, but couldn't hold on at the end.

Hannah takes out Minnaar in the final.

Bootes looked fast here, but ended up fourth.

Donovan on her way to another win at Big Bear.

Who me worry? Even yesterday, Simoni had numerous reasons to smile about the Giro.

On the road, Frigo closed to within seven seconds of Simoni.

It was all Aussies at the top of the men's downhill podium.

Despite his rainbow jeresy, Rockwell could do no better than 16th.