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Jeanson says she is at Redlands 'to have fun.' Winning is fun.

Greenis wearing Postal colors for the week.

Crashes took their toll on a rainy Paris-Nice today, with Axel Merckx the principal victim of a 25-rider pile-up two-and-a-half kilometers from the line. Merckx finished the stage, but was taken to the hospital after the race. Earlier, Joseba Beloki, third finisher in the Tour last year, was put out by a broken rib after he collided with another rider while taking nature's call on the move. A reduced lead group fought out the stage finish in Clermont Ferrand, where Stuart O'Grady led out from 250 meters, but was overhauled just before the line by the Belgian Fabian De Waele. He took the

For the second-straight offseason Mary Grigson has dislocated her left shoulder, this time during the first stage of the Tour de Snowy. The injury has left the defending NORBA cross-country champion on the shelf for the opening portion of the 2001 campaign, and there’s a chance it could jeopardize her entire season. "I’m definitely out for Sea Otter and I’d say there’s only a 20 percent chance I’ll be ready for Napa," said the 30-year-old Australian. "Right now I can’t reach my arm over my head. If I go six weeks and the shoulder hasn’t healed, I’ll probably need to have a shoulder

De Waele

Mattan retains the overall lead

Belgian rider Nico Mattan (Cofidis) won the Paris-Nice cycling prologue over 6.2km through the streets of Nevers on March 11. The 29-year-old came in ahead of British teammate David Millar (at 0:08), with France’s Florent Brard in third, a further second behind during the stage made difficult by persistent rain. Mercury-Viatel's Peter van Petegem finished fifth and Floyd Landis 11th. Defending champion Andreas Kloden of Germany, who shot into the limelight with his surprise win last year, but who has had recent health problems, was 24 seconds behind the leader. Paris-Nice, under the

Spaniard Aitor Gonzalez (Kelme) won the Tour of Murcia on March 11 after winning the fifth and final stage, a 12.9km time-trial through the streets of Murcia on Sunday. Gonzalez was joined on the podium by compatriots Javier Pascual Llorente and Mikel Zarrabeitia, second and third respectively. The Spaniard, who turned professional 1998, was the only rider to finish the time-trial in under 15 minutes (in 14:57), with Italy's Marco Velo second in 15:07 and Spaniard Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano 15:18. U.S. Postal’s Lance Armstrong finished in fifth position in the TT (in 15:25), with former

Mattan on the sprint to victory

The 2000 champ, Kloden finished 24 seconds down

Spain's Francisco Cabello came from behind to take the overall lead in the Tour of Murcia cycling race after winning the 166.2km fourth stage between Alcantarilla and Aledo on March 10. "We've been looking for this victory since the beginning of the season and we dedicate it to the Ochoa brothers," Cabello said, visibly moved at the thought of his Kelme team-mates. Ricardo Ochoa was killed during an accident near Malaga on February 15. which left his twin Javier (13th overall in the 2000 Tour de France) in a deep coma. Cabello's time of 4:15:15 brought him in three seconds ahead of

Australian Anna Millward (Saturn-Timex) won the Canberra World Cup cycling race with a devastating sprint finish here on March 10. Millward, 29, beat Dutch champion Mirjam Melchers and fellow Australian Rochelle Gilmore in a mass sprint finish to the 20-lap 102- kilometer race. It was her third win in the race in as many years and earned her the first World Cup leader's jersey for 2001. "I was extremely nervous before the race today, trying to do it for the third time running. In bunch sprints, so many things can happen -- you might not get a clean run through and it might all come to

In an unsigned statement issued late Thursday, USA Cycling said it would request a review and consider an appeal of a recent Colorado appeals court decision upholding a legal challenge of the organization's attempt to "streamline" its bylaws two years ago. The court ruled that a lawsuit filed by former U.S. Cycling Federation trustee Les Earnest rightly pointed out that USA Cycling's board of directors had not fully justified their use of "emergency" provisions in its attempt to implement 24 pages of bylaw changes without submitting them for review by the membership of its affiliate

Argentina's Martin Garrido won both the stage and the leader's jersey of the Tour of Murcia on March 9, as he outsprinted Italians Enrio Leoni (yesterday's winner) and Giovanni Lombardi. The time bonus helped the Team Relax rider take over the yellow jersey from Nuremberg's Werner Riebenbaur, who now is third overall, at 7 seconds. The stage, on a 152.4km route between Cieza and Archena, was marked by a long break by Guido Trenti and Tony Bracke, but like previous days, the teammates of sprinters worked to chase down the break and position their power riders for the final

France's Tour VTT -- the granddaddy of mountain bike stage races -- may be reincarnated next season. The race, which first ran in 1994 and folded after the 1997 event, is organized by the Société du Tour de France; the company is looking at reviving the event in August of 2002, according to comments made on March 8. "There has been a kind of frustration on behalf of mountain bike enthusiasts," declared Jean-François Pescheux, sporting director of the Société. One option being studied is to open the event to the general public, rather than restricting it to elite riders, as was done in

Okay, okay we admit it; we've lusted after Campagnolo Record components about as long as we've been riding (which in our case means five-speed freewheels and friction shifting). Normally we wouldn't make a big deal about someone's promotional contest, but… hey, you can win a Campy 10-speed Record group and, oh yeah, wheels and clothes, too. Log on to win.campagnolo.com and give its "Win Your Record" contest a shot. If you win because you went through this site, you owe us a set of pedals, okay?

Once again the Tour of Murcia ended in a field sprint, but today's fastest rider was Team Alessio's Endrio Leoni, while Jeroen Blijlevens and Bjorn Leukemans finished second and third, respectively. Yesterday's sprint king, Werner Riebenbaure (Nuremberg), held on to the leader's jersey after rolling in sixth for the day. The stage was marked by the long break by Italian Fabio Roscioli and Belgian Sven Njis, who rode clear at the 24km mark. But the pair was reeled in after 120km, and the sprinters worked to position themselves in the closing 17km. Lotto's Tayeb Braikia (Lotto) was expected

For Alain Gallopin, Mercury-Viatel’s new French assistant directeur sportif, the team’s 10-day training camp in Southern California was a chance to get acquainted with many of his new riders. In particular, Gallopin got the chance to meet the American riders who weren’t too familiar to the European-based Gallopin. But with at least one American, Gallopin already had a bond that was rock solid. “Horner, he is my friend for life,” Gallopin said of Chris Horner, who was with Gallopin for three years in the Française des Jeux program. “I am his spiritual father.” Horner had an up-and-down time

Kim Bruckner and the Saturn team fended off final-day challenges from world road champion Zinaida Stahurskaia (GAS Sport) to win Tour de Snowy, the Australian stage race that marks the unofficial start to the women's road season. In another of the race's many two-stage days, most of the attention was focused on the climbs in the morning's 69.3km stage from Tumbarumba to Tumut, especially a long 12km climb near the start. That climb represented the last real chance for Stahurskaia to knock Bruckner out of the lead. But Saturn would have none of that and the team successfully shadowed every

Nearly two months after the cancellation of the World Cup stop in Whistler, Canada, the UCI has announced that Grouse Mountain will replace the famed ski area as host site for the year’s first mountain-biking "triple." Downhill/dual Round 3 and cross country Round 4 of the World Cup series will take place July 4-8 at the small ski resort, which is just 15 minutes from downtown Vancouver. The event will be put on by Gestev Inc., the organization behind the numerous World Cup races at Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec, and last year’s cross country in Mazatlan, Mexico. Grouse Mountain was one of two

Team Nuremberg's Werner Riebenbauer won the 147km first stage of the Tour of Murcia on March 7, while American Antonio Cruz (US Postal) grabbed third, and Argentina's Martin Garridoa (Realx-Fuenlabrada) finished second in the mass sprint. Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich and Marco Pantini, had an easy ride, finishing in the main bunch on the route between Murcia and Aguilas, in the southeast of Spain.. The sprint finish brought about a huge fall of riders, with Lotto's Tayeb Braikia the main victim. Breikia, 27, and winner of Saturday's Classique d'Almeria, suffered facial injuries and

Cruz had the legs to hang on in today's mass sprint in Spain.

Nice View: Grouse Mountain overlooks Vancouver

Italy's 1998 Tour de France champion Marco Pantani extended a warm welcome to two-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong on March 6, when he declared he'd like to teach the Texan a lesson in this week's Tour of Murcia. The race in Spain runs March 7-11. Pantani, who's currently enmeshed in a series of judicial investigations in Italy over doping offences, pits his wits against Armstrong and the 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich in this week's 640km race. While both Armstrong and Ullrich are making their seasonal debuts, 31-year-old Pantani will be seeking to put the disappointment

It was supposed to be another match up between Tour de Snowy race leader Anna Millward and reigning world road champion Zinaidaia Stahurskaia … and it was, to a point. As the season-opening Australian stage race moved into serious climbing, Stahurskaia challenged Millward and forced her out of the leader's jersey. But Millward's Saturn team was ready and just as she faltered, her teammate Kim Bruckner was ready to take up the challenge winning the stage and keeping the jersey in the family. Saturn has clearly dominated the race from the start, with Millward winning the first three stages and

Pantani about Armstrong: 'I really don't like that American way of his.'

Bruckner moved in to the overall lead with a 1:30 margin.

World women’s road champion Zinaida Stahurskaia (GAS Sport) showed that this year’s Tour de Snowy would not be the exclusive realm of Saturn’s hometown favorite Anna Millward as she rode away from the field on the first major climb of this five-day, season opening Australian stage race. But Millward, too, proved herself to be a worthy competitor as the Australian worked tirelessly to catch Stahurskaia in the closing kilometers of the day’s 77.3 km stage, preserving her lead in the overall standings. Stahurskaia had been touted as Millward’s biggest threat, even as the Australian charged her

The two top teams from last year’s National Racing Calendar kicked off the 2001 NRC season with impressive sweeps at the McLane Pacific Cycling Classic in Merced over the weekend. On the men’s side, Australian Baden Cooke took both the road race and criterium for Mercury-Viatel, while Ina Teutenberg and Lyne Bessette took one win apiece for the Saturn women’s team. The weekend began with the Downtown Grand Prix on Saturday. With 19 laps remaining in the 45-lap, 36-mile women’s race, a group of seven escaped on the fast, eight-turn, 0.8-mile circuit. Teutenberg made an attempt at a solo

Mercury-Viatel’s Belgian recruit, Peter Van Petegem, scored his first victory for the American team on Sunday at the 54th Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne semi-classic in the north of Belgium. Van Petegem was in a group of five that had escaped from a lead group of 14 late in the race. Van Petegem faced off against Hans De Clercq (Lotto), Jo Planckaert (Cofidis), Marc Wauters (B) and Chris Peers (Cofidis) in the finale and beat De Clercq to the line for the win in Kuurne. "I absolutely wanted to win something very quickly for my new team," said Van Petegem after the 188km race.

Stahurskaia

Cooke

Teutenberg

Sunday, the second day at Australia’s five-day Tour de Snowy offered a bit of a repeat of the first: a two stage day, marked again by the dominance of the Saturn women’s team and by Anna Millward in particular. The morning kicked off with a very short 35.9km stage from Jindabyne to Thredbo. Despite a series of breakaway attempts, the Saturn squad kept reign on the field and reeled in the final attackers with just a kilometer to go. Again, the stage was set for a Saturn-led field sprint and the team followed its script as written: Millward scooted home to take her third successive stage in

Saturn’s Anna Millward quickly established herself as the woman to beat in the 2001 Tour de Snowy as the 1999 World Cup winner took both stages contested on the opening day of the Australian stage race that marks the start of the women’s road season. Millward scored an impressive early win in the opening 30km criterium around the town center of Cooma. Fighting off riders from an impressive field of European, Australian and American riders – including the reigning world champions Zinaida Stahurskaia and Mari Holden -- Millward teamed up with fellow Aussie Kristy Scrymgeour, one of the newest

Mapei’s Michele Bartoli won Saturday's Het Volk semi-classic, a 200km race between Ghent and Lokeren.The Italian champion won a sprint finish to come in ahead of Belgian Hendrik Van Dijck (Lotto) Matthe Pronk (Rabobank). Bartoli, who suffered a serious injury to his right leg after an accident in the 1999 Tour of Germany, is now back in top form following this result in Belgium's season-opening event. At 30, he is now in the kind of shape which saw him top the world rankings at the end of the 90's. The result upstaged Belgian riders who have only been beaten five times in 55

Switzerland's Fabian Jekker (Maia) won the Tour of Valencia following the fifth and final stage, a 23.5km time-trial around the east coast city of Valencia. Dutch rider Michael Boogerd, who predicted on taking the lead Tuesday that the race would hinge on the time trial, was proved correct when Jeker, who finished 15th in the stage, nipped him by 13 seconds overall and 13 seconds on the day to snatch victory. "This is a great victory for me," said Jeker after the biggest win of his career. The time trial through the streets of Valencia was affected by lashing rain. "At the end I was

Italian national champion and multi-classic winner Michele Bartoli sent a strong message today with a convincing win over a world class field in the Belgian season opener Het Volk. The 30 year-old Mapei-Quick step rider returned to form late last season following a difficult knee injury, and with today’s win showed that he may again be on the level that has already placed him among the sport’s legendary classics riders. The 200 kilometer test between Gent and Lokeren, covering much of the same terrain as the classic Tour of Flanders, got off to a chilly start with temperatures barely

Graham Watson

Schwinn/GT Limited, the European division of Schwinn, has gone into administrative receivership, the British equivalent of an American bankruptcy proceeding. According to the British bicycle industry news service, BikeBiz UK, the company may have as many as 11 containers of bikes held up in port because the company lacked the necessary funds to pay for them. A spokesman for the American division of Schwinn confirmed the European division's dire financial situation, and added that the move would have no impact on the firm's North American operations. However, the willingness to let

Showing fine form heading into the spring classics, Rabobank’s Michael Boogerd won the toughest stage of the Tour of Valencia on a rainy day in Spain. The Dutch World Cup threat won Friday’s 147.2km stage 4, a mountainous journey between Benidorm and Campello pass. Boogerd, who also won the first stage, beat Fabian Jeker of Switzerland, Italian rider Leonardo Piepoli and Alexandre Vinokurov of Kazakhstan in a sprint finish to tighten his grip on the overall lead. Mercatone Uno’s Marco Pantani had failed to start Friday's stage because he was suffering from a high fever and bronchitis.

In its third year of existence, the GAS women’s road team promises to be a force to be reckoned with in everything from major Tours to World Cup individual races and overall. Sponsored by an Italian jeans and sportswear company, the team has added more power this season to an already star-studded roster. At the team introduction on February 26, GAS spokesman Piergiorgio Dal Santo said, "We want to be the Mapei team of women’s cycling, both in terms of setting the standard for professionalism as well as by being the best team in the world." Joining 1997 world road champion and 2000 Giro

A lot of question marks hang over the men who will be battling for supremacy in this year's spring classics, which kicks off Saturday with the traditional Belgium season-opener, the Omloop Het Volk. The only sure things are that the weather will be cold -- a max of 37 degrees F. is forecast -- and the 200km race will be played out on its nine short climbs and 16 sections of cobblestones. It was raining Friday, ensuring that Saturday's course, under partly cloudy skies, will be as treacherous as ever. Double-comeback man Johan Museeuw will be defending his title, this time at the

Boogerd kept the leader's jersey with his second stage win

World champion Zinaida Stahurskaia adds firepower to GAS

World Cup runner-up Pia Sundstedt will be a one-day force

Euskatel-Euskadi rider David Etxebarria gave Spanish fans a home win in the third stage of the Tour of Valencia Thurday. The Spaniard won a sprint for the line at the end of the 149.5km stage between Denia and Benidorm. Extebarria outsprinted fellow Spaniard Aitor Gonzalez and an on-form Erik Dekker (Rabobank) to win from the lead group of seven with a time of 3:43:59. Dekker’s teammate and fellow Dutchman Michael Boogerd, who won Tuesday's first stage, holds the overall leader's yellow jersey, ahead of Switzerland’s Fabian Jeker and Italian Leonardo Piepoli. Thursday's stage, featuring

The ever-secretive UCI still hasn’t tipped its hand on where the cancelled Whistler World Cup is going to end up, but talk out of Vancouver is that the Grouse Mountain bid submitted by Gestev Inc. is just days away from being accepted. "It’s not a done deal, but we’re confident, otherwise we wouldn’t be talking about it," said Stuart McLaughlin, president of Grouse Mountain Resorts. "We should have confirmation in the next week or so, and then we really get to work." It’s expected that the Grouse event will retain World Cup "triple" status — hosting cross country, downhill and dual — and

The 2001 Pro Cycling Tour will begin in March on the West Coast and conclude eight months later on the other side of the country in October. The 14-race series will include some of the highest-profile road races in the United States. On Thursday, Threshold Sports unveiled the schedule for the season-long series, which begins March 22 at the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California. Among the events returning to the Pro Cycling Tour line-up are the BMC Software series, the First Union Cycling series, the U.S. Postal Service Clarendon Cup and the Chris Thater Memorial. New additions include

Boys of spring: Postal riders Christian Vande Velde (r) and George Hincapie tackled one of Valencia's climbs.

For Telekom’s sprint star Erik Zabel, it almost looks too easy. Zabel took stage 2 of the Tour of Valencia in Spain Tuesday, adding to his pile of early season victories by winning a sprint finish in the 179.5km race between Segunto and Denia in eastern Spain. U.S. Postal Service rider George Hincapie finished third, just behind second-placed Biagio Conte of Italy. Rabobank’s Dutch classics rider Michael Boogerd retained the overall lead by finishing sixth. Right behind Boogerd in the overall are Swiss riders Fabian Jeker and Alex Zulle, along with Italian Leonardo Piepoli, all with the

Not too many cyclists get things named for them. There's a Sean Kelly Square in Carrick-on-Suir, Ireland; there's streets named after Tour de France heroes; and the Aussies named their Olympic velodrome for the 1930s track racer Dunc Gray. But these things generally happen after the athlete has retired ... or died. So the naming Wednesday at the Nike world headquarters in Beaverton. Oregon, of the Lance Armstrong Sports & Fitness Center is unusual, to say the least. "It makes me feel kinda old," said the 29-year-old Armstrong, who jetted in with his family Tuesday evening from Santa

Boogerd held onto the yellow jersey

Rabobank’s Michael Boogerd won the first stage of the Tour of Valencia on Tuesday, while Telekom’s Jan Ullrich made a last-minute decision to withdraw from the event. Ullrich made his decision on Monday night, and will instead make his season debut at next week’s Tour of Murcia, where Lance Armstrong and Roberto Heras (U.S. Postal) will also kick off the racing season. The first stage of the Tour of Valencia was contested on a 166.5km circuit beginning and ending at Puerto Sagunto. Thirty kilometers from the finish, Swiss Alex Zulle (Coast) set a rhythm up the Cat. 1 Garbi climb that only

Pantani finished well off the pace

Telekom's Erik Zabel won Sunday's 21st edition of the Luis Puig Trophy, 182km from Benidorm to Valencia, Spain. Zabel won the race for the third time in his career, outsprinting Sven Teutenberg (Festina) and U.S. Postal Service's George Hincapie. A trio of Spaniards - Xavier Zandio, Cesar Garcia Calvo and Juan Antonio Flecha - maintained a breakaway of about 100km, but the sprinters' teams held the threesome in check, finally bringing them back with 8km remaining in the race. On Tuesday, the five-day Tour of Valencia will commence, marking the debut for Zabel's teammate, 1997 Tour de France

Despite racing conditions that were better suited for wrestling than riding, Brian Lopes made a triumphant return to serious BMX racing with a win at the mud-marred ABA SoCal Nationals on Febraury 24. Lopes won the AA Pro class race in Ontario, California, then finished second in the Pro Open event. "That was my first real BMX race in two or three years," Lopes said, "It felt good to let everyone know that could still do well in BMX if I want to." In the days leading up to the race, rain had turned the track into a muddy mess, and at one point it looked like the event would be postponed

Zabel

Brian Lopes

The story of Italy's most famous and most tortured cyclist Marco Pantani might take another unexpected turn in the not-so-distant future as his team considers putting its top rider into mountain-bike races next year. In a report in Sunday’s Corriere dello Sport Felice Gimondi, the president of Pantani’s Mercatone Uno team was quoted as saying that the “Pirate” might even compete in next year’s world mountain-bike championships. Gimondi, himself a former cycling great, said he believed that the future of the sport lay in mountain biking and said the team was actively considering

Will Pantani seek refuge off-road?

After 42 days in the hospital, Fred Mengoni is going home. Friday night will be Mengoni’s last at St. Mary’s Hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida. Saturday a friend will drive him back to his home in New York City. "I am a lucky guy. I could have been dead," said Mengoni, who is considered one of American cycling’s greatest patrons. "For a month I couldn’t even talk. Now I’m walking and talking. I feel great." Back in early January, the 77-year-old Italian born Mengoni crashed his bicycle while trying to avoid an oncoming car. The incident left Mengoni with a broken pelvis, broken ribs,

The tangled legal affairs of Italy's most famous cyclist, Marco Pantani, were further complicated on Thursday by two new developments. Forli Judge Luisa Del Bianco, who presided over the case that ended with the 1998 Tour de France and Tour of Italy winner being convicted and sentenced to a three-month suspended prison term on doping-related charges in December, reopened that inquiry because of the disappearance of the cyclist's medical records. In a separate development investigators from Florence, working under the instruction of Ferrara prosecutor Pierguido Soprani, seized files

Dutch cycling ace Erik Dekker won the Ruta del Sol race here on Thursday, easily retaining his lead during the 171km fifth and final stage, which was taken by Spaniard Mickel Artetxe. Dekker, 29, who won three stages in last year's Tour de France, was never troubled by his main challengers on Thursday letting a group of riders, who were not going to challenge for the overall lead, slip away to share out the finish. Dekker first took over the race lead on Monday, when he finished second in stage 2, the 178.5km ride from Sevilla to the mountain finish of Santuario de Nuestra Senora de

French cycling star Laurent Jalabert's immediate career remained in the balance on Thursday, as the rider's release from a Geneva hospital was pushed back, Danish television reported. The 32-year-old leader of Danish team CSC/World Online, fell two meters from a ladder in a freak accident at his home near Geneva last week, fracturing three vertebrae. Team manager, former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis, said on Thursday he would be travelling to Geneva to discuss plans for Jalabert's physiotherapy and in a bid to rebuild his morale. Jalabert, cycling's world No. 1 for

Problems mounting: Pantani is facing several legal battles.

Winner: Dekker led from stage 2 on.

Good and bad: American Fred Rodriguez was ninth in the final stage but 101st in the overall.

Slovenian Martin Hvastija (Alessio) took the fourth stage of the Ruta del Sol in Spain on Wednesday — a 175km run from Cabra to Benalmadena. Hvastja finished in a time of 4:39.27. Leonardo Piepoli (iBanesto.com) was 27 seconds back in second, while Dave Bruylandts (Domo-Farm Frites) was third, 48 seconds off the pace. There were no changes in the overall standings, as Rabobank’s Erik Dekker finished 10th, maintaining his lead. Rabobank teammate Marc Wauters remained second, six seconds back of Dekker, while Kazakhstan’s Aleksandr Sheffr (Alessio) is still third, trailing by nine seconds.

Motoring: Hvastija heads for the win.

Up they go: The Spanish countryside provided pleasant scenery.

The three-day Valley of the Sun stage race in Phoenix, Arizona, February 16-18, saw Mercury complete a three-stage sweep in the men’s Pro-I race, while Canadian Genevieve Jeanson continued her early-season preparations by winning the women’s title. Mercury’s Derek Bouchard-Hall won the opening time trial, and Aussie teammate Baden Cooke rounded out the weekend by winning the road race, criterium and overall title. Jeanson meanwhile won the time trial and road race. AutoTrader.com’s Tina Mayolo took second in the road race and first in the criterium, and her time bonuses allowed her to

Italian cyclist Mirko Celestino, riding for the Saeco team, won Tuesday's Trofeo Laigueglia, a 173km run starting and finishing in the town of that name. It was an all-Italian podium with last year's winner Daniele Nardello of the Mapei team finishing second, and Davide Rebellin, of the Liquigas outfit, in third. The 26-year-old Celestino, who joined Saeco from the now defunct Polti outfit, nipped his rivals in a sprint finish to clinch victory in the race that has historically been the curtain-raiser on the Italian cycling season, though other races have already been staged this

German Erik Zabel (Telekom) won a sprint to capture the third stage of the Ruta del Sol on Tuesday. But in the overall standings Erik Dekker (Rabobank) was able to preserve his lead, staying six seconds ahead of Belgium Marc Wauters. Kazakhstan’s Aleksandr Sheffr, Belgian Andrei Tchmil, and German Jan Schaffrath round out the top five in the general classification. The stage was an 180km ride between Luque and Jaen. Zabel was the overall winner of the race in 1997. Max Van Heeswijk of The Netherlands and Italian Endrio Leoni finished second and third in Tuesday’s stage. Tomorrow’s 175km

Dekker leads the pack.

Alcala de La Real creates a nice backdrop for the Ruta.

Cannondale expanded its motorized product range this weekend with the release of its FX400 All-Terrain Vehicle. The ATV joins Cannondale’s MX400 motocrosser released last year and the XC400 cross-country motorbike, due for release in April. The first of the ATVs was delivered last week to Pennsylvania motorsports dealer Gatto Cycles to what the company says was a very enthusiastic reception. The $8000 FX400 sports a four-stroke engine with electronic fuel injection, and the industry’s first twin-spar perimeter aluminum ATV frame. Cannondale founder & president Joe Montgomery praised the

French cyclist Laurent Jalabert, who’s been in the hospital for the last week after falling off a ladder at his home, and fracturing three vertebrae in his lower back, could be heading home soon, according to his CSC-World Online team. But for now doctors at the hospital in Geneva have suggested Jalabert stick around at least a few more days. "The most important thing is that he returns to normal life," said CSC director Johnny Weltz. "It’s not much fun to stay in the hospital. But it’s necessary to keep him there for a few more days, and look after these fractures that can't be

Rabobank’s Erik Dekker took over the overall lead at the Ruta del Sol Monday after finishing second to Kazakhstan's Aleksandr Sheffr (Alessio) in the race’s second stage. Fellow Rabobank rider Marc Wauters was third, while Andrei Tchmil (Lotto) and Jan Schaffrath (Telekom) were fourth and fifth. Strong winds during the early part of the stage made for few attacks during the 178.5km ride from Sevilla to the mountain finish of Santuario de Nuestra Senora de Araceli. Dekker, Tchmil, Sheffr, and Mikhailov didn’t try their move until the stage’s final climb. Sheffr was the strongest, pulling