News

Editor:I think Patrick O'Grady has done a fine job of expressing what manyof us have been thinking recently about the sponsorship of bike racing(See “Dog breath:Hard times”) But I think his basic premise can be challenged withtwo words: bull riding. Based on my own random sampling, I'd estimate that OLN devotes roughly16 hours a day to televising professional bull riding. I couldn't findany good data on the number of people involved in recreational bull riding,but I asked around the office, and only one person claims to have triedit, and I'm pretty sure he's lying. My conclusion is that

This will be covered in seating

Target: Hamilton

Crossing with hand power

Two of the most common questions we get at Hamilton 2003 are “why aren’t your tickets on sale?” and “when will they be?” The answer is, they are now and we still have more than six months to go. Now, let me explain why it took longer than you might expect and where the best places are to see the race. Like most other busy downtown cores, Hamilton, Canada’s eighth largestcity with a population of over 500,000 people, doesn’t normally have grandstands for more than 10,000 lining its Main Street. What it does have is big, bustling city hall, a very beautiful and well-attend performing arts

Despite a winter of training and seemingly miraculous recovery from a broken shoulder, Gerolsteiner’s Davide Rebellin will miss the Giro d’Italia it was reported in Berlin on Sunday. According to German sports news agency SID the 31-year-old suffered a reaction to a shoulder injury when he won the Frankfurt Grand Prix last Thursday and has decided not to contest the Giro, which starts on May 10 and runs till June 1. "I trained all last winter with the Giro as my objective," admitted a frustrated Rebellin. "However competing in it now would be too risky. I felt the pain when I was riding

"It's the toughest sponsorship climate I've ever seen. Right now it's justa dry lakebed."Rick Sutton of GaleForcein a chat with Jason Sumner of VeloNews About 8 million people age 7 and older tried mountain biking off-road at least once in 2002, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. More than 82 million tried walking. And we’re surprised that the NORBA National Championship Series has sponsorship troubles? Puh-leeeze. With all due respect to the pros who may be racing for fun like the rest of us this season, if I were the marketing wizard for Chevy Trucks, I would have my

They're working on developing a downhill event, too.

All of the excitement of Mountain-cross, without the insurance hassles

A strong TT made all the difference.

Perez was in yellow... for the day

Laurent Dufaux took second overall

After a while, Jeanson had no one to chase except the masters racers who had started well ahead of her

The alliance up front

Neutral support. When you get a flat, your first job is to find your wheel

Working man's hero

Alexandre Moos (Phonak) dogs Tyler Hamilton (CSC)

Francisco Perez Sanchez (Milaneza-MSS) finally finds the finish line

The 21st century isn't all it's cracked up to be. The mighty Inside Communications Server Farm spent most of Saturday immobilized by a power outage after a peon whose Starbucks card had been rejected tripped over an extension cord en route to the coffee urn at a nearby 7-Eleven. The fan quit spinning, the hamster got all sweaty, the wheel stopped turning, and before you could say, "Al Gore invented the what?", cycling journalism as we know it ground to a halt. We promise it will never happen again. Until the next time. Stay tuned from reports from the 1989 Tour de France, where we understand

Francisco Perez Sanchez (Milaneza-MSS) salutes the crowd as he dons the leader’s jersey with just one stage remaining

Cycling's world track championships, scheduled to take place in China this summer, have been canceled because of fears over SARS, the Union Cycliste Internationale confirmed today. "The UCI wishes to express appreciation to the organizers of Shenzhen, as well as to the Chinese National Cycling Federation," the UCI said in a press release. "The UCI also wishes to confirm that track world championships will most certainly take place in China before the 2008 Olympic Games of Beijing, probably in 2007." This year's track world's was due to be held July 30-August 3 in Shenzen, the southern

Feel like I finally earned my stripes last week. Not because I finally got to cover a U.S. stage race the magnitude of the Tour de Georgia (the Coors Classic and Tour DuPont were a little before my time). No, I’m talkin’ about finally eating at a Waffle House. Having spent the first 22 years of my life in California, I had a valid excuse for a while, but after my extensive American travels - and living within 20 miles of a Waffle House here in Colorado - that excuse was wearing pretty thin. So, it was with great delight that on the third day of the Tour de Georgia, my roommates and I made

The wearing of a hard-shell helmet in elite men's races is to be made compulsory, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) said on Friday. The move, which takes effect in time for the start of the Giro d'Italia in May, comes after the death of Kazakh rider Andrei Kivilev from head injuries at Paris-Nice in March. "The International Cycling Union (UCI) announces that as from 5 May 2003 it will be mandatory to wear a hard-shell helmet in Elite Men's events for classes 4 and above," the UCI said in a statement. "This decision was taken in agreement with all parties represented in the

Tyler Hamilton (CSC) leads the charge.

Francisco Perez Sanchez (Milaneza) fights toward the line.

Laurent Dufaux takes the win and the lead.

Dufaux wins stage, seizes Romandie lead

No, Geneviève Jeanson has not taken to racing cars.

Gord Fraser had the legs today.

For most people, the 2003 World Cycling Championships being held up and down the Niagara Escarpment in Hamilton, Ontario will begin October 6. For me, they began February 7 in Montreal when I loaded a few necessities in a U-Haul trailer and my big dog in my old truck and drove up the 401, the Trans-Canada Highway, as hundreds of thousands of other Quebec Anglophones have done, to join the Hamilton 2003, the Organizing Committee (OC) for the Worlds as the Competition Coordinator. What will follow in this space for the next few months will be a blog-typecolumn (web log) of how one goes about

Yuriy Krivtsov takes stage 2 at Romandie.

I think for the rest of my life, April 27th, 2003, is going to stay with me as something special. Achieving victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège is something my team and I will always look back on with amazement and pride. It sounds kind of trite to say it like this, but it's true - everything came together perfectly for us on Sunday. The entire CSC team rode incredibly well together. There wasn't one guy on our squad who didn't play a role. All in all, it was a fantastic day, top to bottom. Heading out, I was a little concerned about the weather. It rained hard on Saturday and the forecast for

Rona in charge

Editor:I knew that it was only a matter of time before some uninformed dolt would write in to discuss Lance Armstrong’s superiority over Eddy Merckx in response to Eddy's critique of Lance. In response to Justin Maines’s inept letter (see “Of Cowboys and Cannibals”) - duuuude, put down the bong, turn off the Limp Bizkit, pull out your nose ring and listen up. Here are the stats. Eddy's wins: Five Tour victories (including a record 35 stage wins and 96 days in yellow), five Giros, one Vuelta, three world championships, the hour record, three Paris-Nices, one Tour of Switzerland, seven

Organizers of the 2003 Capital Cup have been forced to cancel the Washington, D.C. Pro/Am event due to an eleventh-hour withdrawal of an unspecified sponsor. Given the short notice, the likelihood of finding a replacement is unlikely, and Arlington Sports, Inc., the promoting organization, is unwilling to take on the financial risk of finding another sponsor at this late date. “It’s too late now,” explained race director Rob Laybourn. “We’re hoping that we can bring the race back next year.” Laybourn added that Arlington Sports will now focus its efforts on continuing to develop the sister

Sayers

MTB News and Notes: Alternative racing

Ang Sheldrake

The course map

MTB News and Notes: Alternative racing

MTB News and Notes: Alternative racing

Gunn-Rita Dahle

Tick, tick, tick, tick...

The 'nerve center'

The camera sees all

On the Côte de la Redoute

This part really hurt.

Dear Mr. Mionske,Has anyone ever legally defined just what it means to "stop" at a stopsign when on a bicycle? Do you have to stop pedaling, stop rolling, stopand get out of your saddle, put one foot on the ground, count to ten andsay a hail mary before proceeding, what? I had a vehement argument withan officer for citing me the other day because he said I "ran thru traffic",meaning, from what I could understand, that he felt I was suppose to yieldlonger before crossing the street in the face of a car approaching frommy left who did not have a stop sign. He implied that I should have let the

Mario Scirea is one of cycling’s hardest-working pros. The 37-year-old veteran has only won two races in his career that started in 1989, but for a rider like Scirea, it’s not his victories that he’s paid to earn. Scirea is the man that drives Mario Cipollini’s train to the finish line in cycling’s fast and furious sprinting stages. Last year, with Scirea’s uncompromising help, Cipollini enjoyed his best season ever. Next week, Scirea will line up for the start of the Giro d’Italia and will have the pressure on his shoulders as Cipollini eyes breaking the stage-win record set by Alfredo

'Felony ugly?' But Obi-Wan . . .

Editor:Is Eddy Merckx a protective daddy or a bitter has-been (See "Merckxcritical of Armstrong after Liège)? Either way, why does the cycling community give so much credit to his babblings? In his day he wasgreat. In today's era he would only be slightly more successful than hisson. He wouldn't stand a chance at the Tour, and only the rolling classicswould offer him a chance (no big climbs and no pure sprints). He calls Lance Armstrong arrogant. That goes to show you Merckx's ownarrogance, to think that he knows all and that we really care what he thinks.Any athlete at the top of his game

A look at the Tour of the Gila

A look at the Tour of the Gila

Small towns, big fields

Bertoletti: Now and then riding like Jacky Durand actually does work.

The chase came just a little too late

Saiz

The Mail bag: Of Cowboys and Cannibals

Will Hincapie be ready for July?

Last year's event included pro cross-country as well.

Jeanson: She just keeps going and going and going and...

Jeanson, Fraser take Gila opener

Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano, the ONCE rider who wore the leader's yellowjersey in last year's Tour de France, has been suspended for six monthsin France by its national anti-doping body CPLD. Tuesday’s announcement means that Galdeano will have to miss this summer'sTour de France, the most prestigious cycling event in the world. The Basque rider, who finished fifth in last year's race having spentseven days in yellow, was punished after positive tests for Salbutamol,including one from after the sixth stage of last season's race. Cycling's world governing body UCI did not ban the rider,

Eddy Merckx

Dirty is bad

Clean is good!

Technical Q&A with Lennard Zinn

Fabian Cancellara

Laurent Dufaux

Hamilton

Moos

Cancellara takes Romandie opener

Galdeano can't race in France for six months.

Bob threads the needle in Fruita