News

Never uncork the champagne . . .

. . . until you've crossed the line

Stephen Taft, 63, of Toronto, is racing his first La Ruta. I like to set an objective each year. Last year it was an 800-mile ride. This year it's La Ruta.

John Wong, 42, of Vancouver, is tackling his first La Ruta as part of a three-week vacation cycling Costa Rica's western coast. This is more of a vacation where I get to do a bike race, not just a bike race on my vacation.

Each of this year's 520 participants will receive the famous yellow gear bag

Williams models her rainbow, uh, bikini

A 14-foot cooling-tower fan blows air in a circuit around the tunnel

Styrofoam vanes bend the air around the tunnel’s 90-degree corner

The entire route

The profile for day one

Day two

Day three

Day four

Going up: There's more of this sort of thing in the 2008 Tour of California

The U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross presented by Crank Brothers has partnered with sponsors Clif Bar and Crank Brothers to reduce the amount of trash produced at its events. The goal of the USGP’s “Zero Waste” program is to recycle and compost as much waste as possible, keeping it from landfills or incineration. Each event will have multiple stations for recycling and composting with signs letting spectators know which items go in each station. The series is also using “greenware” and other products that can be recycled or composted. At the first USGP event in Louisville, the program yielded a

The '08 route is a mix of old and new.

Only one person can have a 'Fastest Time Trial Ever: 54.676kph, David Zabriskie' sticker on his bike.

Zabriskie undergoing Retul’s 3D analysis of his pedaling style

Millar mounting his bike with Retul LED emitters in place for 3D pedaling analysis

Jim Felt makes a point to David Millar while Retul’s Todd Carver sticks LEDs on his leg

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,

Rubiera says he's at a turning point.

The Vogelzang committee concluded that Rasmussen shouldn't even have been allowed to start the Tour.

A rough and dusty start as the Redline Cup

Colorado mud

Geoff Kabush signs a juiced-up VeloNews cover at the post-race party

Big crowds turned out for the soon-to-be legendary Boulder Cup

Busted

That ain't no cyclocross bike

Boom beat a top field, including Sven Nys

Brothers Frank and Andy Schleck confirmed Sunday they have extended their deals with the CSC team until 2010. The two Luxembourgers had reached the end of their contracts with the Danish outfit. Andy, 22, finished second in the Giro d'Italia this year and is being touted as a future Tour de France champion, while classics-specialist Frank, 27, won the Amstel Gold Race in 2006.

Compton wins her first World Cup

Gould knocked off the competition in the men's 2/3/4 race before dominating the women's event.

D'Hon't claims Pevenage knew of Ullrich dopingA former Deutsche Telekom soigneur says that the head of the German cycling team knew about Jan Ullrich’s use of EPO in the mid-1990s, according to a report slated for publication in Monday's edition of German weekly magazine Focus. Former Telekom soigneur Jef d'Hont said Rudy Pevenage, the ex-boss of the team, was fully aware of the fact that the 1997 Tour de France winner had used the banned-blood booster. D’Hont, whose memoirs led to a string of high-profile doping confessions earlier this year, said Pevenage told him Ullrich

Dear Readers,
Welcome to the latest edition of The Prologue, the weekly summary of news from the world of competitive cycling by your friends at VeloNews.com.

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,

The president of the UCI, Pat McQuaid, told Danish television on Fridaythat Michael Rasmussen had no place in the sport after lying before theTour de France.Rasmussen, a former two-time winner of the race's polka dot jersey forthe best climber, was pulled out of this year's race by Rabobank whilewearing the fabled yellow jersey due to major doping suspicions arousingfrom revelations that he had missed several random doping controls.Rasmussen said Thursday helied over his whereabouts - having insisted he was in Mexico when anti-dopingcontrollers failed to find him in Europe to carry

Rogers rides during Stage 8 of the 2007 Tour

Dear Bob,Thank you for penning the column. I read with interest your notes on cycling deaths notes on cycling deaths . You raise an interesting point: many cycling deaths result in no criminal legal accountability. I think we all know cyclist who have died on the road. In every instance that you bring up had there been a vehicle involved instead of a cyclist I am sure charges would have been filed as a result of material damage. A question I have, is there a statistic or information on what percentage of cycling deaths result in criminal charges (or any for that matter) being filed? And as a

Ullrich continues to deny allegations that he doped

Jef d'Hont insists Ullrich and others doped on Telekom

Rasmussen was not in Mexico... but he says his boss knew that.

Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: A fatal bias?

Millar brings experience - both good and bad - to the Slipstream roster

Will this route suit the boys in argyle? Vaughters seems to think so.

Vaughters is hoping for a Tour invitation in '08

Baker on the run in Tabor

Dominant in the U.S., Trebon struggled to keep pace in Kalmthout

It's hard to get the 'hole shot' when you start in the 15th row

Baker's father is lending a hand on this trip

The Slipstream crew might even give Backstedt a bigger bike

Zabriskie made the jup from CSC

Travis Brown (Trek-FRS) trumped the goat head thorn problem with NoTubes.com rims and sealant. The tires are the Jones Cross model by Bontrager.

Compton had a few new sponsors to show off including Challenge and Enduro bearings.

Johnson (Cannondale-Leer-cyclocrossworld.com) and Jeremy Powers (cyclocrossworld.com-Leer-Ridley) rode Mavic’s R-SYS clincher wheels with Michelin tires on Saturday.

She rode the Grifo XS in the rear on Sunday.

On Sunday Powers and Johnson rode the new Mavic Cosmic Ultimate wheel with Dugast Typhoon rubber. He took his seat bag off for the race, in case you were wondering.

Her Primus Mootry has a welded scandium rear triangle that is mated via scandium lugs to carbon top, down and seat tubes manufactured by Reynolds.

Powers rides Ridley’s new X-Fire, the red paint scheme is custom for the cyclocrossworld.com team.

Tech Report, with Lennard Zinn - A visit to Guerciotti

The cyclocrosswold.com riders were using Swiss Stop’s green GHP compound instead of the Yellow King carbon compound on the carbon Mavic wheels. They claimed the green compound is quieter.

Paolo and Alessandro Guerciotti run a tight ship

Steve Elmes, former Independent Fabrications front man who's now retired from the industry, helped out Stu Thorne (cyclocrossworld.com) in the pits this past weekend. In lieu of a repair stand he demonstrates the bass guitar derailleur tuning met

The warehouse serves as a distribution point for a host of venerated Italian brands

Barry Wicks (Kona-Yourkey.com) rode file tread tires on Sunday.

Drum roll.....

His were from the ultra-exclusive French maker FMB.

.... the Guerciotti Ducati. Now how cool is that?

His teammate Trebon was on the new Dugast Pipistrello.

Di Luca is having a tough time finding a job for '08.

The case involving Andrey Kashechkin’s challenge to the fundamental structure of doping controls by sports bodies got under way on Tuesday in Belgium. Kashechkin, a former member of the Astana team, tested positive for homologous blood doping - the injection of donated blood to boost endurance - while on holiday in Turkey this past August. His teammate Alexander Vinokourov also tested positive for the same method during the Tour de France in July. The two are the first athletes to test positive for homologous blood doping since American Tyler Hamilton and Spaniard Santiago Perez were charged

Trebon had FSA’s new SL-K Light crank with a ceramic bottom bracket. He chooses the SL-K over the K-Force because it comes with the choice of a 130mm BCD, which he prefers.

Tim Johnson fully focused

Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now ready for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of our most recent contest. Randall Levere sent in a terrific shot of one of our favorite riders with his shot “Tim Johnson fully focused at Cross Nationals 2006, Providence, RI.” Great work, Randall. That’s a nicely composed shot that shows the intensity of cyclocross racing quite well. Please drop us a note at Rosters@InsideInc.comto work out the details and we’ll send you a copy of our new Coors Classic DVD. Meanwhile, go ahead and take a look

Geoff Kabush was sporting a new cap from Dopers Suck.

Nathan O’Neill was terminated from the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis following confirmation of a positive test for the prescription appetite suppressant Phentermine. The team was informed on September 24 that O’Neill’s A sample returned the positive result in a test performed on August 12, following the Tour of Elk Grove. His B sample confirmed the positive result in a test performed on October 24. The team terminated his contract immediately upon notification of the positive B sample on October 29. According to UCI/WADA code, riders can legally use Phentermine out of

Dopers Suck founder and front man Brandon Dwight was in the top 10 on Sunday.

Redline’s new Conquest Team

Todd Wells (GT) was on the podium Saturday and came back from a broken chain on Sunday to finish in the top 10.

TRP supplied its Euro X brake anodized Red, a special color for its sponsored athletes. The fender mounts on the seatstay bridge are new for 2008.