News

Sacchi likes the weather, but is feeling the heat from McEwen

This time it's Cooke

The rideabout

Laidler spent much of the day on his own and did Sacchi a favor in the process

Friday's foaming rant: Recycled tubes

Friends and family to gather in honor of John Pavlat

I’m not making this stuff up. I really couldn’t. According to an item in last week’s Denver Post, ABC TV was in town recently auditioning for its new reality show, “Are You Hot?” A quote from the Bill Husted column: “You don’t have to be talented to be on this show,” says ABC reality chief Andrea Wong. “You don’t have to sing, you don’t have to dance, you don’t have to do anything – except think you’re hot.” Sounds like the gig I’ve been seeking for years (aside from the hot part) — $100,000 for doing nothing (I know there are those of you who would argue that’s what I’m doing anyway, but I

“TV – a clever contraction derived from the words Terrible Vaudeville … we call it a medium because nothing’s well done.” newsman-turned-comedy writer Goodman Acein a letter to Groucho Marx A TV producer dropped me a note a while back, asking whether I’d be interested in working with him on a show he was pitching to the Outdoor Life Network. This proves what I suspected when I first heard about the original “Survivor” – that TV has finally scraped right through the bottom of the programming barrel and the rotting floor upon which it squats, and has begun burrowing through the rat-infested

Friends and family of bicycle industry veteran, John Pavlat, inviteyou to join in a celebration of his life in San Francisco, California,on Saturday, February 8, 2003 from 2 p.m.-6 p.m. at The Manhattan Loungelocated at 699 Market Street.San Francisco's Manhattan Lounge represents but one facet of John's life, a place where he often reveled in the music that moved and will alwaystouch his soul. In addition to John’s love for music, the celebration ofhis life will also be represented by his other passion – cycling. A group ride is being planned for Sunday morning. The exact details

Hi Bob;I am the coordinator of a youth mountain biking program called IMBA Sprockids. I am trying to find information that proves cycling is safe for kids. If you have any valuable statistics or information that might help me out, it would be greatly appreciated. Many parents and school boards are leery of mountain biking programs for kids because they feel they are dangerous. You and I both know that with proper guidance, cycling is very safe. Thanks,Brandon DwightIMBA Sprockids coordinator Dear Brandon;Your question raises several issues, and I will cover most of these in a cursory

She’ll never be confused with megastars like Kobe Bryant or David Beckham, but after winning the women’s cross-country world championship last September in Austria, even Gunn-Rita Dahle has found the need to duck out of the limelight from time to time. That’s what brought her here to the VeloNews HQ town of Boulder, Colorado, and we caught up with Dahle last week for an exclusive interview. Here are some of the highlights. VeloNews: What brought you to Boulder?Gunn-Rita Dahle: Mostly I just needed some uninterrupted training time and some time away from the stress. After the season ended I

British cyclist David Millar was told Thursday that if he doesn't like the set-up at his French team Cofidis he can go look elsewhere. Millar, who won a stage in last year's Tour de France after winning the prologue in 2000 - but who has been criticised widely for his failure to fulfill what many regard as his star potential - hit out at the team's tactics in sports daily L'Equipe on Wednesday. Cofidis manager Alain Bondue hit back at the 26-year-old Scot's comments. "At the end of the day, we don't force anyone to ride for our team and if our system doesn't

This one was close

Sacchi: Handling the heat?

ONCE tries its hand

Podium boy

Gunn-Rita Dahle

New jersey, same talent

That sinking feeling - the Red Bull Ride

Bondue: Millar has to look at himself in the mirror.

Millar: The system at Cofidis doesn't appeal to me anymore

The new leader

The upcoming Tour of Qatar cycling race will not be threatened by a potential conflict in the Middle East, race organizer Jean-Marie Leblanc said Wednesday. Leblanc said that the race, held in the little Middle East country that juts out into the Persian Gulf east of Saudi Arabia, holds no hidden dangers for any of the sports top names. Leblanc, who visited Qatar recently to examine the situation, said that he feels comfortable holding the race, despite the growing threat of conflict in the region. "The message from Qatar is clear: 'above all tell everyone in Europe that there's no

McEwen and Sacchi joined the main break.

Evans in pursuit.

McEwen's protest gave the win to Cooke

The pro season kicks off in Oz

Brown was not a happy camper

Cooke becomes the first leader of the Tour

Tech Tuesday: XTR feedback

Tech Tuesday: XTR feedback

Tech Tuesday: XTR feedback

In compliance with the gentle New Year directive that all VeloNews editors commence with regular Web columns, I thought it noteworthy to begin my Monday morning discourse by contrasting the events of my weekend with other cycling-minded individuals clear on the other side of the globe. I should preface this by acknowledging that it wasn’t a very eventful weekend around my neighborhood. With my mountain-bike just one working suspension fork away from operational, and 40 mph gusts deterring me from a road ride, I decided to instead take care of some unfinished business. So I finally got

Wellens was suddenly on his own

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood: Tea in the Sahara

Robbie McEwen intends to be the first among a group of talented Australian riders hoping to dominate their national tour, the Tour Down Under, which starts Tuesday in Adelaide. But the Aussies may face some serious competition from the likes of Estonian Jaan Kirsipuu (Ag2R) and Saeco’s Fabio Sacchi, who are spoiling to beat the hosts' advantage. McEwen, fresh from winning his fifth Bay Classic criterium series in seven years, feels the time has come to take the six-day, 735-kilometre race that begins and ends in the South Australian capital Adelaide. McEwen won four of the six stages

Friday's foaming rant: Blood is bad for business

When the VN.com powers granted me my very own Friday morning column, I thought,“Oh great, opposite O’Grady’s Foaming Rant,” and visions danced through myhead of mouse cursors tracking past my by-line and over to the webletters@7dogs.com link to write in about masters racing, erectile dysfunction and George W. Bush (all topics that I promise will never be broached here).But then I decided, toiling in oblivion might not be such a bad deal. I can work on my lifelong goal of becoming ESPN.com’s next Sports Guy, though I don’t think I could watch enough “Saved by the Bell” to qualify for that gig.

“What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully?”– Don CorleoneYou've got to feel sympathy for Gerard Bisceglia. I mean, think about it. Being hired as CEO of USA Cycling must have been like being handed the keys to that nifty little bike shop downtown, only to find out that the previous owner was a crackhead, deep in debt to the local motorcycle gang, and the scooter trash had been running a meth' lab-slash-whorehouse out of the joint. You walk nervously through the ruined door, sagging on its hinges, hear broken glass crunching under foot, see bullet holes

The father of American randonneurs, Jim Konski, died of natural causeson December 17 at James Square Health & Rehabilitation Centre in Syracuse,New York. He was 85.The origins of Konski’s interest in randonnées, the highly popularEuropean form of competitive bike touring, was his friendship with Britishcycling journalist J.B. Wadley in the early 1970s. Wadley was one of thefirst Brits to ride (and write about) Paris-Brest-Paris, which was a probike race from 1891 to 1951. It was revived as a randonnée in 1961and has become that discipline’s Tour de France.Konski not only founded The

Notes from the road

Dear Bob Mionske;I've always been annoyed at the thinly-veiled favoritism that exists in determining the use rights for off-road public land. In my area, horse-riders and hikers get access to almost all trails and many of the prime trails are restricted for their use only. As a regular mountain bike rider, I feel like I'm a second-class citizen. Various arguments are presented to justify these policies. For example, the head ranger at a local state park talks about the damage to sensitive habitat due to mountain bike use and the potential for accidents due to careless behavior. At

Ever since Stephane Girard decided he missed his native France too much, and left his post as USA Cycling’s mountain bike coach back in 2000, the national governing body had been promising to hire a replacement. But like many promises USAC has made over the years, this one didn’t come true — until now. On January 13, two-plus years after Girard left, USA Cycling announced that 26-year-old Matt Cramer had been hired as the organization’s new mountain bike development director. The new job will have two primary duties: developing young American mountain biking talent, and more importantly at

Colombia Selle-Italia Manager :Gianni Savio1 Munoz, Hernan Dario COL 2 Gonzalez, Fredy COL 3 Garcia, John Fredy COL 4 Marin, Ruber COL 5 Mesa, Huberlino COL 6 Khalilov, Mykhaylo VEN 7 Rujano, Jose' VEN Lampre Manager: Maurizio Piovani 11 Missaglia, Gabriele ITA 12 Sciandri, Maximillian GBR 14 Bertogliati, Rubens SVI 15 Righi, Daniele ITA 16 Pinotti, Marco ITA 17 Pagliarini, Luciano BRA 18 Serpellini, Marco ITA Domina Vacanze-Elitron-Rdz Manager : Enrico Paolini 21 Gonzalez Capilla, Santos ESP 22 Martin Perdiguero, Miguel ESP 23 Lobato Elvira, Ruben ESP 24 Cardellini, Lorenzo ITA 25

Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske

Matt Cramer

Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich has finally made it official and signed a three-year contract with Germany's Team Coast. The 29-year-old Ullrich reached an agreement with the team earlier this month after negotiations with the Danish CSC team – headed by his former Telekom teammate Bjarne Riis -- broke down. Ullrich is earning less money with Coast - a reported annual salary of two million euros a year - than he did with the giant Telekom team. But Ullrich’s relationship with Telekom came unraveled after a troubled year in 2002, which saw him undergo two knee surgeries, face

Quick Step’s Kevin Hulsmans and Spanish rider David Arroyo of ONCE-Eroski will miss next week's Tour Down Under after training crashes on Wednesday. Organizers of the Australian tour said Hulsmans, 24, was hit from behind by a car in the center of Adelaide near the end of a four-hour training ride. He will fly home Thursday for surgery after scans identified a fracture of the left femur, just below his hip joint, team doctor Toon Cruyt said. Quick-Step manager Luca Guercilena said it was too late to fly in another rider from Europe and the team, which includes defending Tour Down Under

Ullrich joined Coast along with former Telekom director Rudy Pevenage and training partner Tobias Steinhauser

Super light; Super pricey

Where the links come from

More from Italy and the Front Range of Colorado

A lot of the important work is still done by hand.

Dear Editors,Totally agree with Brad Libby. This sport seems to get more and more expensive. By the time my daughter may want to race, the fees will be $100 for a licenseLet's not hit people that are starting with high fees. Let’s find another way of getting the money.Pros could possibly work it into their budget when they make a proposal to a sponsor. The promoter could do the same. I know it's a lot of work to promote a bike race, but just pencil it into the budget: Free registration to all beginners.(See Brad Libby’s letter, “Give it up for the sport you love”)We've got to

Ending months of speculation, two-time U.S. professional road champion Fred Rodriguez signed with the Italian Division I Sidermec team, joining tour rider Stefano Garzelli and fellow classics rider Gianluca Bartolami. “The economy of cycling is so low right now, “ said Rodriguez, who had been with out a team since his contract with Domo-Farm Frites had expired. “Everyone is so behind in their sponsorship schedules that I had to wait until everything settled down and Sidermec had the position for me.” Rodriguez joins Bortolami as one of the team’s main classics leaders. “With the experience

Investigators in the northern Italian city of Pordenone reported Tuesday that preliminary autopsy results indicate that cyclist Denis Zanette died of natural causes last Friday. The 32-year-old Zanette, who collapsed during a visit to his dentist’s office, apparently died of a previously undetected heart ailment, prosecutor Antonella Dragotto reported. "A cardiac pathology can be hereditary, but can be difficult to diagnose without detailed clinical testing (and can be) aggravated by a bronchial infection,” Dragotto said. She added the full results of testing would not be known for around

Four-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong said Monday he would continue working with controversial Italian doctor Michele Ferrari. The 31-year-old Texan told Le Figaro newspaper in an interview he worked on a daily basis with his full-time coach Chris Carmichael but had a periodic but limited six-year collaboration with Ferrari. "I am not ashamed of it, quite the contrary," he said. "There has never been the slightest ambiguity between us. I have never suspected him of anything, and until I have proof to the contrary I will continue to be fully confident in him. "What counts for me

Gerard Bisceglia continued his USA Cycling Reunion Tour on January 11 by meeting with a group of American Cycling Association executive-committee members, employees and licensees in Denver. After once again conceding the missteps of the previous administration, the CEO of USA Cycling made his pitch for the 2000-plus-member ACA – formerly the Bicycle Racing Association of Colorado - to rejoin the national governing body, which it left in 1999. Flanked by USAC marketing vice president Sean Petty, Bisceglia said the new USA Cycling “is not a Politburo that pretends to develop five-year plans

U.S. Postal’s Floyd Landis suffered a broken hip in a bike accident Saturday. In a press release issued Monday, the team reported that Landis suffered a complete oblique fracture of the right femoral neck when he went down hard on his bike returning from a workout at his local gym near his home in Murrieta, California on Saturday afternoon. Landis underwent 90 minutes of surgery at Inland Valley Medical Center in nearby Wildomar Saturday evening and had three titanium screws placed in his hip. "I was about 20 minutes from home and returning from the gym," said Landis. "I was riding down

Groenendaal wins in the Netherlands

Jan Ullrich is poised to sign a three-year contract early next week with the German Coast team, his manager Wolfgang Strohband said Saturday. Strohband said that the 1997 Tour de France champion should be officially presented by the team in Essen on Wednesday, January 15. "Now I'm going to get together with Jan and Rudy Pevenage and we'll meet Coast at the beginning of the week," said Strohband. "Some details have still to be worked out." Belgian Pevenage, the sporting director of the Telekom team for eight years, recently left the German squad to join former team leader

He may have talent, but David Millar’s team thinks he hasn’t been living up to it. The top British rider in the European peloton has been told by his French Cofidis team to ramp up his effort this year and start living up to the potential that some believe might one day even win him the Tour de France. Cofidis manager Alain Deloeuil, speaking at the launch of the 2003 squad in Paris on Friday, said he wants Millar, who won a stage in last year's Tour de France to "start working harder". "David was a bit compromised last year because he was ill at the start of the season, but this

Everyone’s crazy except you and me, and I’ve been wondering about you lately.- AnonymousThe VeloNews.com letters column has been stuffed like a Florida ballot box of late with informed opinions about masters and juniors, rednecks and yuppies, and SUVs. Pretty much everyone agrees that one or another of these things sucks like a Hoover upright crosswired to a black hole, especially those SUVs. And it's true, the land-schooner commanders - soccer moms, George C. Scott-as-George S. Patton wanna-bes, and bondage aficionados with sweaty dreams of perpetual confinement in steel and leather

The UCI has released its list of 30 Division I road teams for the 2003season, taking the first major step in the process of determining whichsquads will participating in this year's major World Cup and three majortours. The 10 top-ranked teams among the Division I squads are automaticallyqualified for World Cup races and the season’s three major tours: The Girod’Italia, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España.The UCI's "Top Club"ibanesto.com (Sp)Cofidis (F)Team Coast (G)CSC (Dk)Fassa Bortolo (I)Gerolsteiner (G)Lotto-Domo (B)ONCE (Sp)Rabobank (Nl)U.S. Postal (USA) Other teams (Tour

Fassa Bortolo’s Denis Zanette died after suffering an apparent heart attack at his dentist’s office in the northern Italian city of Pordenone in on Friday. Zanette, who had become a father for the first time shortly after the start of the Giro in May, collapsed suddenly and lost consciousness at his dentist’s office. He was declared dead soon after emergency medical personal brought him to Pordenone’s main hospital. Medical officials said preliminary reports indicated that the 32-year-old cyclist had died of massive heart failure. Investigating magistrate Antonella Dragotto immediately

Friday’s foaming rant: Juniors and masters and vans, o my!

Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske

It’s about as far away from a mountain bike race as you can get, but when the two-time reigning world cross-country champ decides to show up at Malaysia’s Tour de Langkawi it’s news. Roland Green has committed to ride in the 10-day road stage race in Malaysia as part of Canada’s national team. Joining the Trek-Volkswagen pro will be fellow mountain bikers Seamus McGrath and Peter Wedge, plus roadies Gord Fraser, Cory Lange and Alexandre Lavallee. And while it will surely be an uphill battle against a solid slate of Euro pros, you have to count Green as at least a dark horse candidate for

Greetings Mr. Mionske,I am a professional triathlete here in the U.S. I am Brazilian and moved here about two years ago and at first I stayed here as a tourist. Now I am a student in Florida. I am planning on applying for the p-1 visa. Can I do that by myself? If not, how much will lawyers usually charge for this service? F.B.Florida Dear F.B,The answer to your inquiry is located in section 214.2(p), C.F.R. A P-1 visa status applies to aliens who wish to stay in the U.S. temporarily "to perform at [a] specific athletic competition as an athlete, individually or as a team, at an

Editors,Given the volume of responses to my letter (see “Mostmasters agree”), I think it would be fair to let me reply. First,I have no political agenda, and I am certainly not one of the "spoiledvets" mentioned in Jay Kidd's reply (see “Biscegliais right”). I spend countless hours mentoring, training, promotingand racing with cyclists of all ages, including a number of juniors.What I get from some of these responses is a general impression thatmasters racers deserve less because some "17-year-old has a real chanceat cycling becoming a big and long lasting part of his/her life," and

Fassa Bortolo’s Michele Bartoli, who crashed during a pre-season training ride in Spain two days ago, has in fact fractured his pelvis, his team announced Thursday. "Michele has suffered a fractured pelvis and needs to relax," team spokesperson Miriam Nordman wrote in an e-mail to media, after confirming the rider's arrival back in Italy. "He will see a specialist tomorrow (Friday) to assess the extent of the damage,” she added. "We cannot say how long he will be out of action until he has seen a doctor. We will know more tomorrow." In his diary notes that appear on his personal

Despite a name change, Mario Cipollini’s Acqua e Sapone team will enterthe 2003 season largely intact as it aims to build upon its successes oflast year.Cipollini, who had toyed with the idea of forming a team with formerTour and Giro winner Marco Pantani, will again head a team that includeshis trusty lead-out man Giovanni Lombardi.The team, now sponsored by the Italian resort owner Domina Vacanze,will include most of the same riders as last year, and in similar RobertoCavalli-designed, zebra-patterned racing uniforms. One notable absencefrom the '03 team is American Guido Trenti, who

Editors,It may have played itself out in letters already, but I wanted to tossout a reply, as a master, and level the field a bit.I can honestly say that for every young rider with an attitude, I havecome in contact with a masters rider with not only a superiority complex,but also the unfortunate ability to make their comments and actions twiceas bad because they have the experience to pour salt in the wound withthe accuracy of a Navy SEAL sniper.I have met more than my share of "I am so above it all,” know-everything,critical-of-anyone, snobbish, nose-in-the-air,

Former world No. 1 cyclist Michele Bartoli could face a long time on the sidelines amid fears he broke his pelvis in a heavy fall while training in Spain his team reported Tuesday. It would be a bitter blow for the 32-year-old Fassa Bortolo rider, who had roared back to form after a series of injuries to win the Amstel Gold Cup race and the Tour of Lombardy last year. "I don't know much about what happened," team spokesperson Miriam Nordeman said Tuesday. "I know he hurt his pelvis and perhaps he has fractured it, but we'll have to wait and see how it is when he returns

The U.S. Postal Service team released its 2003 roster on Tuesday, listingan experienced squad of 20 riders headed by LanceArmstrong and Roberto Heras.From the looks of the team for '03, the team appears to be followinga simple "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy, leavingmuch of the 2002 roster intact. As Armstrong aims for his fifth consecutiveTour de France win this year he has a roster of 17riders with some grand tour experience to chose from."For the first time in a long time, we have been able to retain everyonefrom the Tour de France team and almost everyone from the

Fausto Pinarello shows off his latest creation, the Prince SL