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My childhood hero. I don't think 'The Garv' ever shaved his legs.

There is a gesture that symbolizes the blooming of a new era in Spanish cycling. In 1991, right after crossing the finish line in the 13th stage of the Tour of France, behind Italian Claudio Chiapucci, Miguel Indurain raised his fist to the sky in Val Louron. It was a gesture of joy and courage; the starting point of a career that led Spaniard Miguel Indurain to win five consecutive Tours of France, from 1991 to 1995. When talking about Indurain racing for Banesto you are talking about a Basque giant, born in 1964, in Villava, Navarra, to whom amateur cycling soon grew too small for him to

Australia's head cycling coach has demanded an apolgy from the head of the Italian cycling federation after casting doubts over his team's record breaking performances at the world track championships in Stuttgart. Giancarlo Ceruti, president of the Italian federation, told Gazzetta Dello Sport that he could not understand the results of the Australian and British pursuit teams at the event claiming that "on the road they are normal riders and on the track they become phenomenons." The Australians took more than two full seconds off their own world record while the British claimed silver,

Will he or won't he race La Vuelta?

The automatic starter keeps things honest

Arnaud Tournant, the first man to break the minute barrier in the kilo', awaits his start

Chillin' like a villain in Belgium

Before the gun - The Aussie pursuit squad awaits the start before smashing the world record

Most of you have probably stopped waiting for my Tour de France wrapup. But for those who might still be interested, here goes. I don't know where to begin, really. It was a wild month for me. I can't remember any other time in my life that was more jam-packed with highs and lows. I talk a lot about living through the suffering cycling offers up, and how the bad days outnumber the good. But it's those one or two elusive good days that make it all worthwhile. Rarely do you experience the depths of disappointment and heights of success in one race. But the Tour de France is unique. You never

In many ways, it is easy to forget that I am living in a foreign country. The unfortunate thing is that it might actually be possible to exist here in Belgium without ever coming to terms with it. By now, the local shops know we are English-speaking and address us accordingly. Ann and Bernard speak English perfectly. With the Internet, it is possible to transport your mind, and therefore the essence of yourself, back to the States in a few millibits per second. The standard pastime between email checks is watching DVD's in the living room – in English, of course. Not that this is anything

Colby Pearce gets ready for the points race

Another frustration - U.S. coach Des Dickie tries to figure out what went wrong for the U.S. in the team sprint

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Jens Fiedler tries to compose himself after being relegated in the sprint competition

Sometimes-Californian Josiah Ng is riding for Malaysia in the keirin

Australian Katie Mactier, who took silver in the pursuit after taking up the discipline in May, meets with her hometown TV crew

Old trackies never die.... American Mark Whitehead and former world champion Michael Hubner trade drinking tales and a few lies

Simon Derney - best named and indispensable part of the keirin

Swiss Bruno Risi celebrates the Madison win

Paolo Bettini overpowers the competition

Ullrich gave it his best for the hometown crowd

Marty Nothstein expands his racing résumé

The slimmed-down Nothstein says he's getting the hang of this road-racing thing

Danny Pate pulled the break like a locomotive

The peloton doing business in the financial district

Wolff screams encouragement as Bergemann begins the last lap.

While many of Nathan O’Neill’s Saturn teammates were celebrating Tom Danielson’s impending overall win at the International /Tour de ‘Toona — and others were preparing to defend Ivan Dominguez’s title at the New York City Cycling Championships — O’Neill sat in a hospital bed three hours away, at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. As the fourth stage of The International came to a field sprint, the Aussie was wearing the leader’s jersey when he was taken out in a gruesome headfirst crash, suffering a broken nose, facial lacerations, and as it would be later discovered, two broken

The Aussies blaze to gold in the team pursuit

Two's a charm. The Australians had to start twice

Brett Lancaster, Luke Roberts, Peter Dawson and Graeme Brown meet the press

In case you're wondering, it's a 55x14

O'Neill, on a better day, after winning the Oak Glen stage at Redlands

My question for the week: How many donuts is too many donuts for one person to eat in a morning? I’m talking all morning – from the time you stumble into work and pour yourself that first cup of coffee until the time you’re ready to haul out for an hour-and-a-half lunch break. Without divulging any numbers, suffice it to say that I powered through a few of those round fried things this morning as I banged out my column, and am just wondering whether I overdid it or not. Drop a line to VN.com and let me know. * * * Last week I proposed letting readers pay $150 to write my column for me.

Cycling's World Cup moves back onto center stage with Sunday's 253km HEW Cyclassics race in Hamburg, Germany, the sixth stop of the 10-round series. The rolling course features no less than 23 rated climbs, but none are hard enough for the top pros to get out of the big ring. The course heads out into the farmland outside of Hamburg before heading back into the bustling port city for two finishing circuits. Whether it will come down to a bunch sprint or not is kind of a crapshoot. The race hits the short but steep Wasseberg climb three times, the last coming just 15km from the finish,

Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel en route to gold

Franz Stocher gives Austrians a reason to cheer

Not your average bargain-basement concrete track, eh?

Russian rider Sergei Koudentsov has been ruled out of the world track championships here Thursday after an abnormal blood test. The 24-year-old, 11th in the men's 15km scratch race on the first day of the championships on Wednesday, was randomly tested by officials from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) on Thursday. An abnormal hematocrit level - an indication, although not proof, that banned substances could have been used - means he was declared unfit to ride. The Russian may now have to submit a urine sample for testing for the banned endurance enhancer EPO

Britain's Bradley Wiggins claims gold in the pursuit

France's Laurent Gane outkicks the defending champ in the keirin

Natallia Tsylinskaya of Belarus defends her 500-meter crown

Just back from covering the fourth round of the NORBA NCS in Sandpoint, Idaho — an aptly named region — and I think I’ve finally cleaned the chalky silt out of my clothes, equipment and ears. Held at 4500 feet elevation in the quaint Schweitzer ski-resort village, pro and elite-level racers couldn’t have asked for much more in a venue: easily accessible race courses and lodging, live music, a welcoming community, beautiful vistas overlooking Lake Pend Oreille and perfect weather. Spokane-based Round and Round Productions has been hosting the NORBA regional championships at Schweitzer for

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

Stefan Nimke

Arnaud Tournant - 3rd overall

The podium

Franco Marvulli

Olga Slusareva

Derek Wilkerson (Hillenbrand Racing) chokes his way through the dust

Husanova

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood: Short track mind

Perry, in green shirt, with sign

It's like mountain cross, without the jumps and berms, and a whole lot longer

No sooner has the bunting been cleared from the streets of Paris after a dramatic Tour de France, than the world's top sprint and pursuit cyclists are heading for Stuttgart, Germany, for the world track championships. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) moved the event to Germany from China because of the SARS virus - but the Hanns-Martin Schleyer Hall should provide a fitting venue for five days of fierce competition. Australia will again be expected to dominate the medals table, although without Bradley McGee they face a strong challenge from a British squad, buoyed by three gold

Frans fusses with Jed's LeMond

One of the great reasons to ride for the Cycling Center is the partnerships that Bernard has made with other Belgians in the cycling community here. One such person is Frans van Merke. Frans has fit many of the great Belgian professionals, including Nico Mattan, Frank Vandenbroucke, Axel Merckx and Tom Steels. Not too shabby a clientele, eh? And he is nice enough to work with us crazy Americans, with the weirdest equipment he has ever seen. Of course, if it isn’t Campy and isn't steel, well, it is just a little odd. I am poking fun at him a bit, but he definitely likes the most normal

Jan Ullrich was hailed as the real winner of the 2003 Tour de France in the German press after a sensational comeback saw the Bianchi captain push defending champion Lance Armstrong all the way to the finishing line. Although the Olympic champion finished second in the Tour, for a record fifth time, the German media expressed their amazement at how he had turned the clock back and once again become a major force in the sport of cycling. "Jan you are the best as far as we are concerned," declared Germany's best-selling Bild zeitung. Bild claimed Ullrich had captured the imagination of the

Germany's two-time Olympic cycling track champion Jens Lehmann has been dropped from the individual pursuit team for this week's world championships it was announced by the national cycling federation (BDR) on Monday. The 35-year-old, 75-time national and international medalist, finished second in the recent German trials but was replaced by another double Olympic champion in Robert Bartko. Bartko did not compete in the trials but team coach Bernd Dittert opted for Bartko after he timed faster in a private test on June 30. Bartko will line-up alongside Daniel Becke, who won the national

Lehmann at last year's world's in Copenhagen

The Ruler of Retro: If you think this looks bad – click for the larger version

Hopes of a completely clean centenary Tour de France have been dashed by the news that an unidentified rider has tested positive for banned endurance enhancer EPO (erythropoietin), officials confirmed here Sunday. It is the first positive test of the 90th edition and centenary race that was won for the fifth consecutive time by American Lance Armstrong of the US Postal team. The first sample has tested positive for EPO although it will be a few days before the results of a B sample are known. "The rider concerned is not someone who has won a stage," a race official told AFP here Sunday,

It doesn't get much better

Results Stage 20Overall, points, Kom, Team and other standings listed below1. Jean-patrick Nazon (F), Jean Delatour, 3:38:492. Baden Cooke (Aus), FDJeux.com, 00:003. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Lotto-Domo, 00:004. Luca Paolini (I), Quick Step-Davitamon, 00:005. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:006. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), Credit Agricole, 00:007. Erik Zabel (G), Telekom, 00:008. Romans Vainsteins (Lat), Caldirola, 00:009. Gerrit Glomser (A), Saeco, 00:0010. Damien Nazon (F), Brioches La Boulangere, 00:0011. Fabrizio Guidi (I), Bianchi, 00:0012. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, 00:0013. Laurent

French cycling legend Bernard Hinault, one of five riders to have won the Tour de France five times, has hailed this year's eventful centenary edition as exceptional. And Hinault, the last Frenchman to win the race in 1985, said the increased challenge to Lance Armstrong's yellow jersey this year doesn't mean the 31-year-old American five-time winner is on the wane. "This year's race has been exceptional on all levels - as a competition and as a spectacle but also the way it has been organized,” Hinault said. "It's been one big party and there was suspense right up to the end because, even

Lance Armstrong's fifth Tour victory was the hardest by far, but also the sweetest in terms of his popularity on the roads of France. The Texan, a personal friend of U.S. President George W. Bush, had not exactly been France's most-loved athlete in recent years and was booed on the climb to the Mount Ventoux last year. But despite Franco-American tensions over the Iraq war, there was no animosity whatsoever from the crowds this year, and fans seemed won over by Armstrong's struggling and suffering in this year's race. The American, who made himself available to sign autographs and

The curtain has just fallen on Lance Armstrong's fifth and hardest Tour de France victory, and the American is already setting his sights on an unprecedented sixth. The 31-year-old cancer survivor joined the sport's select club of five-time champions when he won the centenary Tour on Sunday; now, he hopes to inaugurate a new century of the world's showcase cycling event. Neither Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, nor Spaniard Miguel Induráin, the only rider before him to have won five straight Tours – not even Eddy "The Cannibal" Merckx, the greatest rider ever – were able to

Remember our "Out-of-the-Way" contest from the other day, when we offered a free copy of our 2003 Tour de France book to the "viewer" following the Tour via VeloNews.com from the most unusual spot on the planet? After verifying his mailing address and checking a few other things – including the pictures posted here – the winner is Army Captain Rick Trimble, who is doing a Tour of Baghdad at one of Saddam Hussein's former presidential palaces in the Iraqi capital. “There are a large number of palaces all over the country and in Baghdad,” says Rick. “This particular one is called the Main

Ho-hum

Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and his U.S. Postal team mates were each fined for sporting an illegal jersey during the last stage to Paris. The nine U.S. Postal riders wore a jersey showing the emblem of their sponsors, an eagle, instead of their regular gear on Sunday. They were fined 200 Swiss francs ($148.5) while the U.S. Postal team was handed a 4,500-franc fine. Armstrong won 400,000 euros ($459,500) for his Tour victory.