News

Milram has a friend watching over things

Basso fans come in all shapes and sizes

Now you know where they get those delicious cuts of beef from.

You may recognize this as Maxwell Smart's Vespa helicopter.

Technical Q&A with Lennard Zinn: A Giro Gallery

We know that it’s been a while since our last weekly contest and we’ll try to get these back on track, folks. Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now up for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of ourmost recent contest. Take the time to wander through that gallery and see if you agree or disagree with our choice of winner. Of all of the submissions several of us – and many of you – kept coming back to Kenneth Alan’s “Work Vehicle,” a nicely composed tribute to the bikes some of us actually use to earn a living. Congratulations Mr.

Course Details

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Drug-raid stats astoundingEditor:After reading the articles regarding the recent Liberty Seguros drug bust I was completely surprised by the magnitude of the findings. Found were more than 200 containers of blood and a few thousand capsules of EPO. Are that many riders risking their

Editor's Note: We began corresponding with Major Jason A. Bryan during the Giro d'Italia. Bryan, a fan of VeloNews.com's Live Coverage, is currently deployed to Iraq.As you can see from Bryan's most recent e-mail, the major is a cyclist, a fan of the sport and a guy just trying to maintain his legs despite some rather unusual obstacles.The perimeter is 18.5 km. My goal for June is 1000 km, which means many, many 18.5 km intervals. I’ve been riding a lap every morning and night to steadily eat away at the target. It is way too hot now to even think about riding during the

It's all in the details. Below you'll find links to each stage of the 2006 Tour de France. Each page contains maps and details of the course. LIVE COVERAGE LINKSTAGE DETAILS LINK Prologue - July 1Strasbourg (7.1 km) Stage 1 - July 2Strasbourg > Strasbourg (184.5 km) Stage 2 - July 3Obernai > Esch-sur-Alzette (228.5 km) Stage 3 - July 4Esch-sur-Alzette > Valkenburg (216.5 km) Stage 4 - July 5Huy > Saint Quentin (207 km) Stage 5 - July 6Beauvais > Caen (225 km) Stage 6 - July 7Lisieux > Vitré (189 km)

Tune in every day throughout the Tour de France for live, up-to-the-minute coverage of all 21 days of the world's greatest sporting event. VeloNews.com will continue its long tradition of providing insightful commentary throughout the final three hours of each stage, including interviews from the starting line, observations from current and former pros and updates from our reporters in the field. Check in with VeloNews.com every day at 8:00 a.m. (Eastern time in the U.S.). There will be a link right off the front page. LIVE COVERAGE LINKSTAGE DETAILS LINK Prologue - July

Vinokourov wants to race

Work Vehicle

Major Bryan, in his team kit...

Wegmann nails it

With sprinters' teams nipping at his heels, even an 18-minute lead wasn't enough for Nicolas Inaudi

Voeckler on the attack, wih Wegmann on his wheel.

Zabriskie and Landis

Spring in France

... and dressed for a day at the office.

Course Details

Zabriskie dons the first yellow jersey of the Dauphiné

Hincapie took the runner-up slot

O'Grady slotted into third

A surprise winner for sure

At the start

Sayers on the attack

Toyota at the front

The Union Cycliste Internationale hit back at the World Anti-Doping Agency Saturday amid ongoing hostilities over a report that cleared Lance Armstrong of 1999 Tour de France doping allegations. In a statement, the UCI called on WADA to clarify whether it had put pressure on a French laboratory to take steps that would have enabled the identification of athletes in subsequent research on doping samples. Moves to bypass confidentiality and conduct research without an athlete's consent would have violated the World Anti-Doping Code, it added. "WADA should not be allowed to divert the

Stage 4 visits the slopes of the Ventoux

McCormack celebrates his win

Huff takes a flyer

Cruz gives it a shot

McCormack bides his time

Pic has been celebrating wins all season

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Vino’ didn’t steal anything: He got it fair and squareEditor:What does Andrew Hood mean when he writes that "Alexandre Vinokourov swiped [Levi Leipheimer's] hard-earned fifth place at the Tour de France" last year (see "Eye on the prize: A conversation with Levi Leipheimer")? Before

Phonak riders Santiago Botero and Giro d’Italia runner-up José Enrique Gutiérrez will not race again until their relationships with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes are clarified, team officials announced Friday. Both riders have been linked by the Spanish media to Fuentes, who was among five people detained last month as part of an alleged blood doping ring. Phonak team officials said Friday that neither racer will compete until “examinations bring more clarity to the picture.” “Botero and Gutiérrez are neither dismissed nor suspended. In the interests of the team and to ensure calm for

World Anti-Doping Agency chairman Dick Pound rejected the conclusions from an investigation that cleared cyclist Lance Armstrong of 1999 Tour de France doping allegations, saying Friday it "borders on farcical." Dutch attorney Emile Vrijman was appointed by the International Cycling Union (UCI) last October to investigate the credibility of reports by the French newspaper L'Equipe claiming Armstrong used EPO in 1999, the first of his seven successive Tour wins. The newspaper said urine tests purportedly from Armstrong tested positive for EPO once tests not available in 1999 were applied

Liberty Seguros cycling team director Manolo Saiz, arrested on doping charges, was released Wednesday after being questioned by police, the Civil Guard said. — The Associated PressManolo Saiz has found a new sponsor to underwrite his ProTour team, barely a week after insurance giant Liberty Seguros pulled the plug on its $8.5 million-a-year deal. — Andrew Hood, VeloNews So, Lance Armstrong is innocent and everybody else is guilty. Thank God we finally got that settled. Now we can say to hell with bicycle racing and find a respectable sport to follow, like cockfighting. Being a clean cyclist

Golden, CO - Bigfoot Productions (BFP), a newly formed event production and promotional company founded by industry veterans and Yeti Cycles principals Chris Conroy and Steve Hoogendoorn, today announces the acquisition of the assets of Cycle Cyndicate, owner and operator of the Mountain States Cup (MSC), one of the premier mountain bike (XC, STXC, DH, MX, DS, SD) race series in the United States. Mike McCormack, bicycle and ski industry veteran and co-founder of Breckenridge, Colorado-based Maverick Sports Promotions will serve as managing director of the new venture. Series originators Eric

Danielson was a worker bee at the Giro, not the role he will play in the Vuelta.

Saiz has a new title sponsor

Botero, seen here at last year's Tour, may spend the next few weeks waiting by the phone.

Dear Bob,In Texas, is it legal to ride two abreast or must all riders be single file? I appreciate your help,T.B.,Texas Dear T.B.,Grab yer ridin’ pardner, T.B., because riding two abreast is legal in Texas. Yee-Haw! To find out why, let’s mosey on over to the Texas Transportation Code. Section 551.103, which governs the operation of bicycles on the roadway, and states in part:Persons operating bicycles on a roadway may ride two abreast.Persons riding two abreast on a laned roadway shall ride in a single lane. Persons riding two abreast may not impede the normal and reasonable flow of

It seemed like Levi Leipheimer couldn’t catch a break last year. Despite some great racing and excellent form, victories were slipping through his fingers in the narrowest of margins. He lost the Tour de Georgia by four seconds and a time trial victory at the Dauphiné Libéré by less than one second. Then came the final insult when Alexandre Vinokourov swiped his hard-earned fifth place at the Tour de France with all the world watching on the Champs Élysées. But Leipheimer scored a sweet payback with the best victory of his career at the Tour of Germany two weeks later. It made all the hard

The French sports newspaper that accused Lance Armstrong of doping stood by its reporting Thursday, a day after an investigator cleared the seven-time Tour de France champion. ''There is nothing to retract from the revelations,'' L'Equipe said in an editorial that concluded: ''For our part, we remain convinced of the need to battle without compromise against the mafialike tendencies that still and always threaten the sport of cycling. Both in the method and the substance, L'Equipe stands firm.'' The newspaper repeated its allegations of last August

Team Wurth officials Manolo Saiz and Jose Ignacio Labarta, both implicated in the Spanish cycling doping scandal, were on Thursday asked to step down from their posts on the Associazione Internazionale Gruppi Sportivi Professionistici, the professional group representing teams and team staff at the UCI. Spanish cycling has been hit by the scandal which saw five people arrested last week on suspicion of involvement with blood doping. The five arrests came after a series of raids which uncovered a blood doping network involving taking samples from riders and oxygenating the blood cells

Ullrich rode Romandie in April and will return to Switzerland this month

Leipheimer has been showing good form all season

(L-R) Stevic, Frattini, and Lagutin

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Simoni, please...enoughEditors,Can this man not take defeat graciously? His most recent tantrums duringand following the Giro are reminiscent of his loss to Cunego. I wonderwhat whiny comment he would have had if Basso had given him a stage win?Tony WhethamCourtice, OntarioJust drop the

Dutch investigators cleared Lance Armstrong of doping in the 1999 Tour de France on Wednesday, and blamed anti-doping authorities for misconduct in dealing with the American cyclist. A 132-page report recommended convening a tribunal to discuss possible legal and ethical violations by the World Anti-Doping Agency and to consider "appropriate sanctions to remedy the violations." The French sports daily L'Equipe reported in August that six of Armstrong's urine samples from 1999, when he won the first of his record seven-straight Tour titles, came back positive for the

Editor's Note The Union Cycliste Internationale, Lance Armstrong and the World Anti-Doping Agency both issued statements following the release of a UCI-requested investigator's report regarding allegations of doping by Armstrong in the 1999 Tour de France.(Read the FULL REPORT)  Statement from the UCIThe International Cycling Union has learned with great surprise de declarations conveyed to the Dutch press by Mr. Emile Vrijman, independent investigator within the frame of the urine sample analysis during the 1999 Tour de France case.The UCI firmly deplores the behaviour of Mr.

A member of the Guardia Civil holds up blood transfusion equipment found during a raid on May 24.

Comunidad Valenciana director Vicente Belda may not be smiling after this week

Armstrong announcing plans to retire in 2005 (file photo)

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.New team for Gilberto?Editor,Say, is Gilberto Simoni trying to become the captain of the Bicciniand Monini racing team?An angry Simoni called Basso an "extraterrestrial" for hiscrushing performance and accused him riding unfairly by asking him to rideeasy on the perilous descent off the

We know that it’s been a while since our last weekly contest and we’ll try to get these back on track, folks. Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now up for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of ourmost recent contest. Take the time to wander through that gallery and see if you agree or disagree with our choice of winner. This past contest offered up an especially difficult set of choices, but we ultimately settled upon Steve Jacoubowsky’s shot of Robbie-Hunter taking on the prologue at the Tour of California. Congratulations

Maybe Simoni should just let his legs do the talking.

Hampsten in '88: Pretty darn tough for skinny little climber dude.

Robbie-Hunter-TOC Prologue

It seems like Ryder Hesjedal has been racing his bike forever. Whether racking up wins as one of North America’s most consistent performers on the dirt or bumping shoulders with the European peloton on the road, it’s sometimes hard to remember that the guy is only 25 years old. Since walking away from mountain biking after the 2004 World Championships, Hesjedal has quietly been making strides on the road. Despite crashing out of the 2005 Giro d’Italia, Hesjedal made important gains in form and confidence in what was his first full season racing on the road. A switch to Phonak in the winter

Hesjedal feels like he's fitting in at Phonak

The podium

Riis and Basso toast their victory

Okay, you just knew we were gonna lay one of these on you, right?

Basso collects the trophy

Forster takes the finale

A team effort

A smiling Basso hoists a picture of his new son as he crosses the finish line

Basso was enjoying himself – Simoni less so

An angry Simoni called Basso an 'extraterrestrial'

Basso, meanwhile, just wanted to savor his victory

The main event: The Gavia

The pass separated the sheep from the goats

Another look at the Gavia