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Cinque!

Blessed are the cyclists, for they shall never get positive commercialpress.”The Race Bible” - Book of Ed, Chapter 12, Verse 3 We interrupt our regularly scheduled technical talk to bring your this important news at Hamilton 2003: We just got another 1.25 million Canadian dollars. Since our CDN dollar is now over the 73-cent U.S. mark, this starts to be real money. VeloNews readers are indeed a privileged group because the news of this influx of cash to our organization is a well-kept secret, especially in Toronto, about 60km away. That this would be the case is very strange, though no

As you have probably already seen we have a new look today. The same content is still there, we just thought that after 2+ years it was time for some sprucing up. The colors are a little brighter than before. We've updated the site colors of VeloNews.com to match our print publication. There is more content on the front page so you can get more stories at first glance. The latest/hottest stories are on the top of the page, plus we've categorized the additional stories by headings. We've heard the saying if it isn't broke don't fix it, in response we say that every once in a while the bike

That's as high as he got them. Petacchi wins with a grimace.

Petacchi opted to start, even though his hip and back are covered in road rash

... then along came Aitor Gonzalez

Another day, another bottle

Simoni did more than minimize the damage...

Is the Termin-Aitor back?

The kiss

The sparkling wine

Backstedt had to wait for the biggies to start...

The power of the jersey...

... and support from the fans, all drove Simoni to excel.

Good design or illegal paraphernalia?

Gunn-Rita Dahle

Sauser wins a battle of attrition

Editor:In reference to Jed Schneider’s article regarding USA Cycling and possible porn magazine sponsorship, I really don't think it's realistic to think that the porn industry is going to lower itself to that point. Joe Erwin San Fernando is porn's hideawayEditor:Jed Schneider may hold a master's degree in geography from the University of Kansas, which keeps him from getting lost in Flanders, but he's way off on where his porn comes from (see "Tales from the gutter: Mark gets the win!"). San Fernando Valley is the porn capital of the world, not Orange County. Orange County is a

Gilberto Simoni attacks to pad his lead over Stefano Garzelli.

Garzelli and Raimondas Rumsas chase the race leader.

The peloton weaves its way through the Dolomites.

Gonzales chases mountain points.

Riders climb the Alps during the 162km 14th stage

Pack of riders climbing in the Alps

Pack of riders climbing in the Alps

Saeco rider and current leader Gilberto Simoni

Vini Caldirola rider Stefano Garzelli (L) and Lituanian Lampre rider Raimondas Rumsas

Saeco rider and current leader Gilberto Simoni is cheered on as he climbs

Saeco rider and pink jersey holder Gilberto Simoni pushes to the finish line

Simoni still gets the bottle every day.

Jayson Blair joins the VeloNews.com staff.

One more hint that this is not your average bike race.

Will we see rainbows in July, too?

“Good evening, sports fans, Biff Barf here in the Biff Barf Sportlight Spotlight, biffin’ ’em up and barfin’ ’em right back atcha! I call ’em the way I see ’em - and if I don’t see ’em, I make ’em up!” – George Carlin as sportscaster Biff Barf in “The 11 O’Clock News” from “FM & AM” After Jayson Blair got popped for writing fiction in the news columns of The New York Times, America’s legendary paper of record, you’re probably wondering whether anything you read these days can be trusted. Well, rest assured, we here at VeloNews go the extra kilometer to make certain that your cycling news is

Number Four

Garzelli attacks on the final hill.

Rosina hill

Petacchi gets No. 4

Petacchi celebrates

The former site of the Iraq National Olympic Headquarters, complete with its recognizable five rings on the wall outside and a toppled statue of Saddam Hussein inside the walls, stands a charred wreck. It sits near the Canal Expressway in Western Baghdad, filled with a few poor Baghdad residents sifting through the wreckage for something useful to loot. Already, the head of the statue of Saddam that once stood outside had been sawed off and taken away. According to the New York Times, a metal framework used for administering electric shocks to athletes who didn’t perform, was taken to a

Simoni celebrates.

... and leaves Casagrande to ride his own race

Glory days in San Francisco.

Simoni shines

Simoni makes his move...

Voight

Belli

Neben on the attack

Marzio Bruseghin

T-Mobile in control

The day's first escape

Neben wins

The climb all have been dreading

Pantani says he's back; Thursday showed he might be right

Thursday was tough... even on the 'easy' parts.

Pantani showed some of his old form

I didn’t have a lot to say about anything this week, so I decided to run with the short-attention-span special. No Snowmass to replace TellurideRegarding the fate of the cancelled Telluride World Cup, all the talk at Big Bear was that a Colorado-based promoter was in talks with the UCI and that there was a good chance the event would end up at Snowmass, a ski area near Aspen. Well, we got a call Wednesday morning from the promoter, CycleCyndicate’s Eric Jean, and he said that it just wasn’t going to work out. “We couldn’t make it happen financially,” Jean told me. “We needed about $225,000,

Garzelli minimized the damage.

Editor:Last year I went to France to follow the Tour. I was well aware of the history of Mario Cipollini in the Tour, good and bad - but my feeling was that the Tour de France went beyond what was reasonable and into the realm of personal vendetta when spots for additional teams opened up after the 2002 Giro and Cipollini's team was not selected. I enjoyed my trip to the Tour immensely, but in every sprint, I knew that the best was not there, though Cipollini had done what the Tour had demanded, reinventing himself with breakaway wins, courageously traversing mountains, a grand-tour finish

Simoni established his supremacy in the mountains.

“Life is what happens when you’re making other plans,” John Lennon once said. Words of wisdom, Lennon’s fortune-cookie philosophy, and lately it seems I’ve been experiencing plenty of life - which, I suppose, beats the alternative. Maybe I should stop making other plans. For starters, with mortgage rates dipping to a 40-year low last week, I’ve been actively looking into buying my first place, which means applying for my first home loan - a procedure that has thus far involved countless conversations with various real-estate agents, lenders, sellers, and my mother - who, in my case,

Simoni managed to make even the steep parts look easy.

Dear Bob;Do you have any information regarding the procedures and method inwhich athletes are selected by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency drug testing?What is their authority to test? Is the testing method fair and legal asimplemented? What are the ramifications for an athlete who fails to showup for testing?TJColorado Dear TJ;You raise two separate legal questions:1) What are the limits of the authority of the USADA to requiretesting; and2) What are the limits on the USADA or the National GoverningBody (NGB) for enforcing non-compliance, either after a positive test ora failure to comply with

Simoni wins.

Australian Lotto domo rider Robbie Mc Ewen raises his arms after crossing the finish line

Australian Lotto domo rider Robbie Mc Ewen raises his arms after crossing the finish line

Mario Cipollini arrives at the finish line after he crashed on the last corner

The men from Tenax

The day started nice

Simoni avoided the carnage, but was angry.

Pettyjohn concedes defeat

Baldwin surprised the Saturn boys

Bruckner

Long

The course profile alone was enough to strike fear in the hearts of many a rider … or at least enough to make you think the promoter was nuts. Either way, the 140-mile climbers’ fest between Boulder and Breckenridge, Colorado, became a favorite in its three-year history. Unfortunately, race promoter Len Pettyjohn said Wednesday, he has been unable to secure a replacement for title sponsor Saturn after the auto manufacturer pulled out in March, forcing him to cancel the race for 2003. “We had a number of companies interested in replacing Saturn as the titlesponsor, but current economic