News

Gentlemen, start your engines

Horrilo leads the escape

Milram's pursuit gets a little TV time

A long day at the office for Ale-Jet

Chadwick takes a close one

Carroll took the stage and the leader's jersey

Priority riding on the front

Toyota stacks a break

Piepoli sets the pace

Cunego and Di Luca fight their way up the mountain

Jacques-Maynes takes a win for his twin

. . . and the Health Net chase

The women's field

The doomed break . . .

It was tough news for Tulsa Tough Ride and Race—300 Schwinns destined for school-age kids tackling a special Tough Kids 10km ride on Sunday have gone missing. A 40-foot steel shipping container containing the bikes was apparently stolen last weekend from the Pacific Cycles shipping yard. The youngsters earned the bikes through the Tough Kids Challenge, a program in which middle- and high-school students either participated in Tulsa’s Little 100 cycling event or completed a bicycle-safety education course. Tulsa Tough Ride and Race launched the youth health and fitness initiative this year

Simoni and Piepoli celebrate together

Di Luca guts it out toward a hard-fought fourth

Ardila leads the escape

The Dolomites

Those final three climbs shook things up.

Garzelli on the move

Chechu and Co. couldn't close it down

Garzelli takes two, Di Luca safe as Zoncolan awaits

Vigus surprised the field with his victory

O'Neill, who took second, is glad he won't have to defend the jersey straight away

Jacques-Maynes, who finished third, suspects a timing error

Erik Zabel’s tearful confession that he doped in the 1990s won’t end his career as a professional racer. Milram announced Tuesday that the German sprinter will keep his place on the ProTour team for the remainder of the 2007 season despite his admission last week that he used the banned blood-booster EPO in the 1990s. “Team Milram’s management and its main sponsor, Nordmilch AG, have decided that Erik Zabel is allowed to continue riding for Team Milram,” the team said in a statement released Tuesday. “Last week Erik Zabel admitted that he once tried performance-enhancing substances in 1996

Mactier en route to the women's win

The management of the Spanish team Euskaltel-Euskadi said on Tuesday they had dropped Aketza Pena from the squad based on a positive result from an April 24 test for nandrolone, taken after the first stage of the Tour of Trentino. A statement on the team’s official website said the UCI had informed the team of the result and that Pena was suspended effective immediately. Tests on the A sample found higher-than-permitted levels of nandrolone, a banned anabolic steroid often used by body builders to augment muscle mass, though no figure was mentioned.

Regional honch' Weldon slotted into second

Garzelli gets his second stage.

Carroll rides into third

Garzelli wins on a day that saw a slow and chilly start to the stage.

Trebon is out of the saddle and driving hard to the uphill finish

The long march

It's hard to get the legs moving when you need to get the blood flowing first.

Individual aspirations may have kept the chase from succeeding.

Some were undoubtedly hoping they could stay

Di Luca had little to fear but the cold.

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,

Di Luca's attack on the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo showed who is in charge at this Giro d'Italia.

The race's namesake provides a scenic backdrop

The new Wy’East Road Race replaces the Three Summits course, damaged by flooding

Riders enjoy a little of Oregon's 'liquid sunshine'

Kalentyeva rippin' it up

Absalon hit the front and stayed there

Australia's Bradley McGee will miss the Tour de France for a second year in a row because of an ongoing problem with the herniated disc in his back. McGee, who spectacularly won the prologue of the centenary Tour in 2003 with the slimmest of margins over Britain's David Millar, had been hoping to get back to the world's biggest race after missing it last year. But despite appearing to be on the road to recovery from his back problem, McGee said he has been "forced to face reality.” A statement on the 31-year-old Sydneysider's website explained: "It is time to face facts and

A lovely Sunday ride.

Saunier-Duval throws a one-two punch

Di Luca sends a message to Simoni

Bettini will not give up

Big Guns: Some serious climbing talent went off in pursuit of the original break

The quartet catches the big break... but the early escapees fade fast.

Di Luca leads the chase on the Passo di Giau.

Savoldelli gives chase

Ricco takes a stab

Mazzoleni now sits in second place on GC.

Some say Di Luca passed the big test and is set to win this Giro.

Garzelli's Giro is already a success

Simoni puts in an attack in Bergamo.

More climbing ahead on Sunday

Former Telekom soigneur Jeff d’Hont said he injected 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich with the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), adding another element to a series of damaging revelations regarding Germany’s top pro cycling team. D'Hont, the former Telekom soigneur whose recent published memoirs led to a string of stunning confessions from former team riders, said in an interview published in Sunday's Bild magazine that he injected Ullrich with EPO. "I injected him once with EPO in the arm," said D'Hont. “It lasted around 10 seconds. It was as if I was injecting

Garzelli wins the stage, Simoni wins time

Di Luca dodges a bullet

Lake Como

Krauss tries to get a jump on the big hill

Rubiera and others give chase

Di Luca's not too worried...

but maybe he should be.

Britta Bannenberg, the legal expert who launched a fraud charge against Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich last July, said on Friday revelations about practices in the Telekom team may lead to those charges being dropped. Bannenberg, a Criminology specialist, lodged a complaint in July 2006 against the 1997 Tour de France winner after packets of blood found in the offices of doping-scandal doctor Eufemiano Fuentes were linked to the German. But Bannenberg is having second thoughts after it emerged the use of EPO, the blood-booster agent, was rife within Telekom. Erythropoietin stimulates the

Bjarne Riis, winner of the 1996 Tour de France, admitted Friday that he had taken the banned blood-boosting drug EPO while competing for the German team Telekom. "I have taken banned substances, I have taken EPO. I bought it and took it myself," he said, Riis said at a press conference, adding that team doctors bore no responsibility for his actions. "It is ultimately the cyclists themselves who must take responsibility," he said. Riis said he took EPO from 1993 until 1998, including the 1996 season when he won the Tour de France. Asked if he was a worthy Tour de France winner, Riis

In an emotional press conference Friday, Bjarne Riis became the first racer to admit he took banned performance-enhancing products on his way to winning the Tour de France. Riis ended Miguel Indurain’s five-year streak in 1996 and admitted Friday he used the banned blood booster EPO, steroids and human growth hormones from 1993 to 1998. Riis, now owner and manager of Team CSC, verged on tears as he publicly recanted his drug use. The 43-year-old Dane said he always regretted using the banned substances. “It’s possible that I’m not a hero anymore,” he said. “I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed

The Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) has recommended a 21-month suspension for 2006 Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso for his involvement in the Operación Puerto blood-doping scandal, the ANSA news agency reported on Friday. Coni's anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri has asked the Italian cycling federation to hand out the suspension because of Basso's guilt in "using or attempting to use banned substances," according to the same source. The UCI's ethics rules would keep Basso from signing a contract with ProTour teams for an additional 21 months, but the grand tours do

Stage 13

Bruseghin powers in for a win

Simoni tried a couple of digs on the lower slopes of the Izoard.

One of the top cyclists of the past 15 years, Erik Zabel of Germany, admitted on Thursday that he had taken the banned blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO) while competing for German team Telekom in 1996. "I took EPO in 1996 but I stopped taking it after a week because of secondary effects," a visibly emotional Zabel told a press conference. "It was my only experience with doping in my whole career." The Telekom team was a major force in 1996, when one of its riders, Bjarne Riis of Denmark, won the Tour de France. Zabel, one of the world's leading sprinters, said he was unsure what

Greetings Bob,Coming from Germany and now cycling in Atlanta, mostly as a commuter, I havethe following question: Would you know of an insurance I could enroll in that covers two example situations:Aa car hits me and my bike - I am injured, the bike is damaged and the driver does not have insurance (does happen, yes ...).I cause an accident (my fault) and the car crashes into something - driver is hurt, car is damaged, I am fine.Any info would be very much appreciated - thank you very much!RegardsC. L.Georgia Dear C.L.,Your question could not be more timely! This Memorial Day weekend marks