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Just part of the damage.

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something in thepages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.com thatcauses you to want to write us, dropus a line.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to this address, you are consenting to the publication of your letter. Follow the samplesDear VeloNewsGarzelli's initial response to an apparent positive test for steroidmasking agent Probenecid pretends to add an air of doubt as to whethersuch test results can be trusted."It would be ridiculous to take this product. I don't know how it gotinto

Saying "it's a scary, but necessary decision," Lyne Bessette announced Friday that she is leaving the Saturn cycling team for at least the remainder of the season. The 27-year-old Bessette, winner of last year’s Tour de l'Aude and Hewlett-Packard Women’s Challenge, has been a member of the team for five years, but said that she felt it necessary to take a break from the world's number one women's team in order to "focus on some of my own goals." Bessette said primary on that list of personal goals is a strong performance at this year's world road championships. Bessette

“I notice that you use work and job interchangeably. Oughten to do that. A job’s what you force yourself to pay attention to for money. With work, you don’t have to force yourself.” - Cal, an engineer, in William Least Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways.” According to a story by Jason Sumner in the May 20 VeloNews, most pro mountain bikers aren’t making any money. Welcome to the club, dudes. I believe the late Ed Abbey defined this sort of edge-dwelling as “voluntary simplicity.” But then he didn’t mind sleeping in the back of his truck. Pro cyclists are not unlike the pro journalists who write

Italian rider Nicola Chesini (Panaria), who occupied last place in the Giro, was arrested Thursday at the finish of the fifth stage in Limone Piemonte according to police sources. Although his team had no official explanation, the arrest was believed to be related to that of another Panaria rider, Antonio Varriale, 28. Varriale was not participating in the Giro, and had been arrested late Monday night and suspended by his team and provisionally by the Italian federation. Varriale was charged with possession of stolen goods, associating with criminals, and violation of antidoping

Bessette leaves Saturn

Friday's Foaming Rant: The naked truth about jobs vs. work

Hamilton checks over his injuries after the finish.

After a wild and woolly opening four stages, the Giro d’Italia returnedhome Thursday. Riders took a night flight to Cuneo in northwest Italy whilethe caravan drove overnight from France back to home soil. Friday’s 150-kmfifth stage Fassano to Limone Piemonte features the Giro’s first summitfinish, a day that’s sure to reveal who has the legs to fight for the magliarosa.After four flat stages across Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germanyand France, the Giro gets steep with three rated climbs. The first ratedclimb is the Category III Colletto di Rossana at 84 kilometers. It is a2-km climb rising

This weekend, mountain bikers will converge in Madrid for the opening roundof the 2002 World Cup, but one very familiar and competitive face won’tbe there. Cadel Evans walked away from mountain biking last winter to take a chance on the road and so far he has no regrets. Mapei made the 25-year-old Australian an offer he couldn’t refuse: a two-year deal to ride for one of the world’s best road teams. Evans is currently taking part in the Giro d’Italia, where he is first lieutenant to Stefano Garzelli. VeloNews’ Andrew Hood recently sat down with Evans to talk about his adventures so far on

A new dad as of last Friday, McEwen wanted to make his boy proud.

If it's Wednesday, this must be France, no?

Map of Stage 3 - Giro D'Italia

36 and counting

The lonely road: Streel was on his own for 162km

Rumors have been flying for months that the Spanish Kelme squad is aboutto implode, a la Mercury-Viatel. The longest standing Spanish teamis months behind paying riders, including top star Oscar Sevillawho is reportedly being wooed by Germany’s Telekom team. The Spanish dailies were buzzing with reports that Telekom -- anxiousfor a replacement for fallen star Jan Ullrich -- is trying to convince Sevilla to swap his lime-green Kelme jersey for a pink Telekom kit comeJuly. Ullrich announced last week he will not start the 2002 Tour de France and Sevilla, Spain’s hottest prospect, is in

The United States Anti-Doping Agency is reviewing the positive drug test of cyclist Duane Dickey of Minnetonka, Minn. Dickey tested positive for a combination of drugs, including nandrolone, at last year's Tour of Guatemala. The USADA Anti-Doping Review Board determined that sufficient evidence of doping exists to continue studying Dickey's case. Dickey tested positive for the prohibited substances phentermine, boldenone and nandrolone at the Tour of Guatemala on Oct. 28, 2001. The UCI conducted the test and referred the case to USADA.

Telekom’s Erik Zabel continues to lead the world cycling rankings released by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) on Monday: 1. Erik Zabel (G) -- 2538 pts2. Paolo Bettini (I)--2113 3. Erik Dekker (Nl)-- 1770 4. Lance Armstrong (USA)--1731 5. Jan Ullrich (G)--1705 6. Gilberto Simoni (I) -- 1630 7. Oscar Sevilla (Spa) -- 1431 8. Oscar Freire (Spa)-- 1310 9. Francesco Casagrande (I)-- 1255 10. Laurent Jalabert (F) -- 1244 11. Juan Miguel Mercado (Sp)-- 1232 12. Jens Voigt (Ger) 1167 13. Joseba Beloki (Sp)-- 1160 14. Davide Rebellin (I) --1143 15. Danilo Di Luca (I) -- 1063 16. Giuliano

Tyler Hamilton’s exploits in the Giro d’Italia headline Americans racingin Europe this week. Hamilton is the only American starting in the Giro(yeah, we know, Acqua & Sapone’s Guido Trenti races with American licensebut is Italian) as Telekom’s Kevin Livingston and Bobby Julichwill be racing elsewhere in the coming weeks to get ready for the Tourde France.No American teams are in the Giro. Hamilton’s Giro didn’t start theway he would have hoped. The CSC-Tiscali team captain skidded into barriersin Saturday’s opening prologue, but luckily he wasn’t injured and finished34 seconds off the

The new leader

There were good crowds in Cologne

Cipo' had just one day to show off his pink zebra shorts

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something in thepages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.com thatcauses you to want to write us, dropus a line. Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to this address, you are consenting to the publication of your letter. Yeah...what he said! Wahoo! Way to go, Patrick! (see "Friday'sfoaming rant: The Giro d'Cheech and Chong") Couldn’t have said it bettermyself—and believe me, I’ve tried! Let the dogs run, baby, howling and snapping at the heels of Frigo,Pantani, and company. It’s hard

Cipollini winning, a familiar sight

Tyler Hamilton shook off his prologue crash

The Netherlands said good-bye to the Giro

Cipollini traded zebra stripes for pink

Chausson

Kovarik

Chausson earned her first slalom victory.

Dominguez

Savoldelli was third

Dominguez was a surprise

The tiger ate the zebra

Florit and Dunlap battle in the short track.

An exhausted Hesjedal aftre his win.

Bootes charges towards victory.

Calmly, the young man allows himself to be inoculated with the strangeseething liquid … “It is working! There’s power surging through those growingmuscles … millions of cells forming at incredible speed!” — “Meet CaptainAmerica,” by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby It’s time once again for the Giro d’Italia, and despite a cast of charactersthat includes more dopers than a Cheech and Chong film festival, it willbe carried live on OLN rather than on Court TV. Marco “Il Pirata” Pantani, Dario “Pretty Boy” Frigo — the list goeson and on like a Brooklyn police blotter, with Pantani as the least

Friday’s foaming rant: The Giro d’Cheech and Chong

The 'Happy Girl' wins.

Vanlandingham refuels

Another Green day.

Madrigal nips Hesjedal.

Giro favorites lining up: Every year pundits invariably say, "This is the most-widen open (fill in race name) ever." Well, the 85th Giro d'Italia might not meet that clichè, but it certainly will be very competitive. A trio of dominant Italians will be fighting for the spoils while a half-dozen outsiders will be trying to spoil the party. The top favorites are Gilberto Simoni (Saeco-Longoni), Stefano Garzelli (Mapei-Quick Step) and Francesco Casagrande (Fassa Bortolo) and all three enter the Giro with something to prove. The defending champion Simoni wants to win back-to-back Giros

Armstrong recon mission: Lance Armstrong will survey key stages in the 2002 Tour de France in the coming weeks, just as he's done every year since 1999. Armstrong is scheduled to travel in June with U.S. Postal Service directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel and possibly other teammates to examine new climbs and time trial courses in the 2002 route. Bruyneel says this year they've slightly tweaked a strategy that's paid off for the three-time defending Tour de France champion. "We've changed it a little bit from past years," Bruyneel told VeloNews. "We're going to do it later

Hamilton

Former winner Jan Ullrich (Telekom) revealed Wednesday that he has pulled out of this year's Tour de France because of an injury to his right knee, giving Lance Armstrong a huge boost in his bid to win a fourth successive Tour in July. The 28-year-old German, winner of the world's toughest bicycle race in 1997 and reigning Olympic road race champion, has been fighting the injury for some time and feels that he will be unable to regain full fitness in time for the July 6-28 race. "It makes no sense, every time I increase my effort the pain comes back," he revealed on his Web site. It

With her dominating win at the Tour of the Gila, Rona’s Genevieve Jeanson closed to within six points of Saturn’s Lyne Bessette in the latest stage-race standings of the VeloNews Bro Tour, VeloNews’s unofficial, season-long "virtual" series tracking the U.S. road scene.Bessette’s teammate Kimberly Bruckner moved into second place, just one point behind Bessette, while Jeanson is fourth.In the men’s standings, Prime Alliance’s Chris Horner continues to hold a commanding lead over 7UP-Nutra Fig’s John Lieswyn. VeloNews Bro Tour: Stage Races (after 4 of 7 events) Men 1. (1) Chris Horner,

Juan Miguel Mercado just keeps winning races. The 23-year-old Spanish phenom clinched the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon on Monday to add to his Setmana Catalana victory in March. Mercado's victory is the fifth stage-race win of the season for ibanesto.com. Too bad the Spanish team won't be going to the Giro d'Italia, where Unai Osa finished third overall last year. Joining Mercado on the final podium were Joan Horrach (Milaneza) and Leonardo Piepoli (ibanesto.com), second and third respectively. Mercado won Sunday's climbing stage to take the overall lead. Angel Edo won the final

Frigo held on for the win.

The final podium.

Mercury controlled for Wherry (in purple)

Climbing through the Gila national forest

Zulle takes the stage.

Frigo remains in front.

Evans on the attack.

The peloton.

Brice Jones leads the Mercury train

Winer (left) and Whiner (right)

Lombardi

Men at work: Lozano and Pronk were caught with 26km to go

Jeanson

German newspapers are reporting that Jan Ullrich is facing disciplinary action from his Telekom team after the cyclist was stripped of his driver’s license following a hit and run incident early this week. The 1997 Tour de France champion reversed his Porsche 911 into a row of parked bicycles and hit a railing in the center of the southwestern city of Freiburg early Wednesday and drove off, his manager Wolfgang Strohband confirmed. An eyewitness took the number of the car and contacted police who took a blood sample from the cyclist and subsequently withdrew his license. The 28-year-old

In vino veritas.– proverb quoted by Plato, Symposium 217 No doubt many of us had a bad moment over our morning eye-openers today when a cycling Web site offered the headline, “Ullrich loses his license.” Happily, it wasn’t his racing license – but it might as well have been.Apparently the 1997 Tour de France champ got overserved on Tuesday, hopped into his Porsche 911 with teammate Alexandre Vinokourov and a couple of hotties, then backed into a bicycle rack near Freiburg. A bike rack, of all things. Then he did what many twenty-something guys with a snootful of vino would do – he left the

Tyler Hamilton didn’t start at the Tour of Romandie this week because oflingering problems with allergies, but CSC-Tiscali team officials say hisGiro d’Italia preparations remain on schedule.Team boss Bjarne Riis told Danish journalists Friday at pressconference for this weekend’s CSC Classic in Denmark that the team didn’twant to take any chances before the May 11 start of the Giro, where theteam hopes he can finish in the top-5.“His training program has been perfect except for these problems,” Riissaid. “We didn’t want to risk anything for the Giro and our ambitions arestill the

Ullrich: better on the bike than behind the wheel

Marco Pantani and Mario Cipollini will be on the sidelines for this summer's Tour de France after their teams again failed to receive one of the five wildcard invitations handed out Thursday by Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc. The Mercatone Uno team of Pantani, winner of the 1998 Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, and the Acqua e Sapone team of sprinter Mario Cipollini, winner of the Milan-San Remo race in March, failed to receive wildcards. French teams Jean Delatour and BigMat and the German Team Coast outfit of reigning Tour of Spain champion Angel Casero similarly failed to make

The final team selection for the 2002 Tour de France brought a wide rangeof reactions from the top players in Europe. Here's a sampling of someof the reactions in the wake of Thursday's announcement: Johan Bruyneel, director sportif U.S. Postal Service:"I think it's what was expected," Bruyneel told VeloNews fromSpain. "Everybody knew that it was going to be Saeco with Simoni and withseven French teams still to be selected, at least four of them going becausethere's an unwritten rule that says that Tour de France has to have asmany French riders as possible. There are no

Learning from their mistakes of a year ago, Tour de France director Jean-MarieLeblanc and his team selection committee at least explained thistime why they are snubbing Italy’s most popular cycling stars Mario Cipolliniand Marco Pantani.You may remember that in May last year, when announcing the five wild-cardteam selections for the 2001 Tour, Leblanc said that he took the numberof French teams up to eight because his committee favored the potentialof young-generation home teams over the possible failure of older-generationforeign teams. This year, in his announcement in Paris Thursday

Marco Pantani’s day went from bad to worse on Thursday after the anti-doping panel of Italy's Olympic Committee (CONI) recommended a four-year ban for the former Giro d'Italia and Tour de France winner for allegedly using insulin to boost his performace in last year's Giro. The recommendation came just hours after the Tour de France again snubbed Pantani’s Mercatone Uno squad when race director Jean-Marie Leblanc announced the final five wild-card slots for the 2002 Tour. While the Tour decision was disappointing, it was not entirely unexpected. So, too, the CONI recommendation

Not at the Tour: Come July, Cipollini won't be doing this in France (but the two guys behind him might).

Graham Watson

Another wet day.

Wherry (l) and Moninger tackle the climb

Telekom's Erik Zabel won the Rund um den Henninger Turm in Frankfurt on Wednesday, nipping Jo Plankaert (Cofidis) and Serguei Ivanov (Fassa Bortolo) in a sprint finish.The Telekom squad pulled back a three-man break with 30 km to go andthe race came down to a bunch sprint, with the world No. 1 rider pushingPlankaert into another loss. The Belgian has been active throughout thespring without securing a victory. Ivanov, second at Amstel Gold, continuedon his fine form with third. World champion Oscar Freire (Mapei)crossed the line fourth.1. Erik Zabel (G), Telekom, 206 km in 5:00:17 (41.26

Lombardi wins one in the rain

Mr. Prologue remains in the lead