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Herr San-Remo, aka Erik Zabel, says he's ready for the race he's won four times since 1997. Zabel, 31, told La Gazzetta dello Sport he thinks he can win again despite winning just the opening stage at Tirreno-Adriatico. "I've already ridden 5000 kilometers this season and I feel strong. I felt strong in the climbs at Tirreno, and although I didn't win a stage [after the first day], I just lost to Bettini and Cipollini in sprints, but I was close." Zabel is one of 200 riders from 25 teams lining up for the 93rd Milan-San Remo. Zabel called Milan-San Remo the "the world’s of the

In pursuit: Barry put in a heroic effort to protect Zabriskie's hold on the lead.

Alexander won the time trial.

New colors, same old Gord

Berger timed her move just right

Seems like old times. Tilford has a knack for these things.

Cannery Row

Tina Mayolo-Pic

Damon Kluck

Saturday's World Cup opener Milan-San Remo promises to be one of the most competitive in years. A baker's dozen of cycling's biggest Classics riders are roaring into the traditional kick off to the European racing season. Topping the list of favorites is Mario Cipollini, hot off his impressive victory in the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico on Wednesday. The 35-year-old Tuscan has new colors (check that zebra-striped kit), a new bike (Specialized) and a new lease on life (Acqua e Sapone). Cipo is desperate for a victory at Milan-San Remo. Erik Zabel has owned Milan-San Remo,

Jeanson prepares to take on the TT.

Zabriskie on the downtown streets of Monterey.

 VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something inthe pages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.comthat causes you to want to write us, drop us a line at WebLetters@7Dogs.com.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to thisaddress, you are consenting to the publication of your letter.Cycling can clean up like football and baseball didWe all reallyneed to decrease our focus on the UCI to help solve thedoping issue in cycling, and look far more to the team ownership and sponsors.Like the NFL, or Major League Baseball, the anti doping rules

George Hincapie enters what will be his most important World Cup campaign at the Milan-San Remo season-opener Saturday, March 23. It will be the eighth time Hincapie's entered the traditional start of the European racing season. Following his breakthrough season last year, when he won Ghent-Wevelgem and the San Francisco Grand Prix as well as helped teammate Lance Armstrong win a third-straight Tour de France, Hincapie has high hopes for 2002 season. Last week, however, Hincapie was sidelined by a stomach virus that struck March 12 and kept him in bed for two days and out of the

Ghent-Wevelgem

Friel

Italian cyclist Fabio Sacchi, suspended by his Saeco team after banned substances were found at his home at the weekend, needed the products to help his wife become pregnant, his teammate Mirko Celestino said on Tuesday. Sacchi was one of six riders whose hotel room at Rieti was raided Sunday morning at Rieti before the fourth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico but the products were found at a simultaneous search of his home. Amid reports that the substances found were gonadotropina and profasic - which help stimulate testosterone - Celestino revealed that his teammate had confided in him that

Polish cyclist Piotr Wadeckj, who needed brain surgery after a horrific fall in the first stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race last Thursday, says he will return to the saddle when he can, Gazzetta dello Sport reported Tuesday. Wadeckj had been kept in an artificial coma by doctors amid reports that his career might be ended by the fall near the finishing line at Sorrento but, speaking from his hospital bed, he made it clear he intended to carry on riding. The bruised-and-battered-looking Pole said: "I am already thinking of the day when I can start again. It's not just a job, it

Health woes continue for Jan Ullrich. According to a statementreleased from Team Telekom on Tuesday, the 1997 Tour de France championwill not start the Tour de la Sarthe in France on April 9 because he isrecovering from a stress injury to his right knee.Team Telekom doctor Lothar Heinrich said Ullrich will ease on up ontraining schedule to take pressure off the knee in the coming weeks. Ullrichhas been plagued with minor injuries and illnesses since winning the Tourin 1997.Ullrich seems to have reined in his off-season eating problems, buthe continues to struggle to find the winning formula

A proposal to introduce further transparency in the Tour de France by allowing independent doctors to rule on the use of medically-prescribed products by riders was rejected by the president of the sport's governing body Tuesday. It effectively means no new anti-doping measures will be introduced for this year's Tour de France. "We have ruled out accepting the idea of such a (doctor's) panel exclusively for the Tour de France," Hein Verbruggen, the president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), told AFP following a meeting Tuesday with the French sports minister

Dr Michele Ferrari, alleged to be at the hub of a widespread doping operation in cycling, entered the witness box Tuesday to give evidence in his own defense against charges of knowingly administering illegal products to riders. Ferrari, who counts three-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong among his many reported clients, spoke for about an hour. "Being a professional cyclist is a tough job which is bad for your health," said Ferrari who denies the charges. "There are products, not necessarily doping products, which can limit these damages." In a marathon day, which lasted nine

Taj (left) and Habibullah unwrap new bikes

Afghanistan is slated to compete in Athens in 2004. This could be the road squad.

Saeco's Fabio Sacchi -- one of six riders who had their hotel rooms and homes searched by anti-doping investigators in Rieti, Italy on Sunday -- has been suspended by his team following the “presumed discovery of illegal performance enhancing drugs” in the search of his home. Police have also announced that Sacchi and the other five riders -- Italians Stefano Casagranda, Davide Rebellin, Davide Casarotto, Endrio Leoni and Slovenian Gorazd Stengelj – have been placed under formal judicial investigation. Padua prosecutor Paola Cameran, who is conducting one of two judicial probes into

Editor's Note:VeloNews’s European correspondent Andrew Hood has landed back at his home base in Spain, just in time for the kick-off of the World Cup season.Once he gets his feet on the ground, Hood will be heading to Milan, for this weekend's Milan-San Remo, the first of the major Spring Classics.Throughout the coming months, Hood will be sending back daily reports on what’s happening in the European peloton.Italy's Danilo Di Luca got some revenge a day after losingthe overall lead of the 37th Tirreno-Adriatico, winning the 150-km5th stage from Rieto to Torricella Sicura. The

Riding in her first season in the senior ranks, Britain’s Nicole Cooke (Deia-Pragma Colnago) has won the 12th Trofeo Citta' Di Rosignano, a major event on the women's road calendar in Italy. The 19-year-old Cooke, a winner four rainbow jerseys as a junior, dominated the race which had over one hundred starters, including some of the best of the women’s peloton. Cooke rode aggressively throughout the hilly course, but it was on the final climb that she truly showed her strength and forced the pace. Only one-time world champion Rasa Polikeviciute (H2O-Pasta Zara) could follow. The

Italian drug squad officers swooped in the early hours of Sunday morning on the hotel rooms of several cyclists competing in the Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race, the ANSA news agency reported. In scenes mirroring last year's drug-tainted Giro d’Italia, police searched the rooms of cyclists Davide Rebellin, Fabio Sacchi, Gorazd Stangelj, Davide Casarotto, Stefano Casagranda and Endrio Leoni at 0500GMT. But all six riders were later cleared to start the 12.7km time trial around the central town of Rieti, stage four of the Tirreno-Adriatico. An inhaler was found in Rebellin's room but

Old Teammates: Moninger and Horner both used to wear sea-foam green

Bessette in pursuit. Working with Arndt, the two Saturns eventually reeled Jeanson back in.

Prime Alliance worked to protect Horner's jersey.

Jeanson's escape didn't succeed this year

Frigo seeking redemption

7UP sizzler: Dionne beat Gord Fraser for the win.

Rona's new weapon: Freedman gives Rona criterium speed

Horner still holds the overall...

... as does Arndt.

A motorist was convicted of first-degree murder March 15 in the fatal shooting of a Denver, Colorado area cyclist during a traffic altercation two years ago, and is likely to be sentenced to life in prison without parole, according to The Denver Post. James Hall, 53, shot John Bray point-blank on May 5, 2000, after a chase that began when his pickup truck entered a crosswalk through which the 32-year-old cyclist was riding. Bray swerved around the truck, and Hall pursed him, pulling in front of the cyclist and forcing him to the ground. Witnesses said Hall then took a .25-caliber handgun

Estonian Jaan Kirsipuu, the leader of the French AG2R team, has been ruled out for several weeks after he was knocked off his bike by a car while training, his team said Saturday. Kirsipuu, who won the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Belgian classic race two weeks ago, injured his kneecap in the incident, which occurred while he was riding downhill close to his home at close to 60kph. "Jaan will be out for at least three weeks," said team manager Vincent Lavenu, who added he expects to be without his ace card at least until the end of May. The Estonian sprinter is highly unlikely to take part in a

It’s always a delight to see a new Bob Roll column in VeloNews,and not just because I like the feverish glint in his jaundiced eye. Like some biwheeled, mutton-chopped Quasimodo popping wheelies among the stony gargoyles, ringing the Big Bell with lusty strokes from Thor’s hammer,he draws the angry, torch-waving villagers away from me for a while, giving me a moment to catch my breath and plot new outrages of my own. His “At the Back” in the 30th-anniversary edition, “Eurotrash and theTexas Tornado,” (see VeloNews, March 18, 2002, page 106)  was vintage Bobke, a red flag brandished in the

Our Hero

Petacchi strikes a familiar pose.

Race leader Vinokurov and his shadow, Jalabert

Duel: It came down to Green and Horner on the climb

Worker bees: Prime Alliance did their job for Horner.

Shocker: Arndt took the overall from Jeanson with an 80-mile breakaway win.

Close but no cigar: Klasna couldn't hold them off at the end.

Headed home: Bessette hammers up the final climb.

Judith Arndt and Genevieve Jeanson

Klasna (c) on the attack

Mari Holden (Cannondale-USA)

Lyne Bessette and Genevieve Jeanson

Horner's happy

Bernard Sainz, the cycling physiotherapist who was jailed after being caught up in another illicit drugs affair, remains behind bars in Paris after again being denied bail by a French court. Sainz, known in the milieu of cycling as "Doctor Mabuse" and the man once accused of supplying drugs potions for professional cyclists, was arrested in Belgium on February 27 after police found amphetamines and syringes in his car when he was stopped for a speeding offence. Upon his release from a Belgian jail, he was re-arrested in France for having broken the conditions imposed on him in 1999 in the

In its 73rd year of publication, the New York Public Library¹s Books For TheTeen Age List selects the best of the previous year¹s publishing forteenagers. Lennard Zinn¹s book, "Zinn And The Art Of Road Bike Maintenance"(VeloPress) has been selected for this year's list by the young adult librarians who read and review all of the titles chosen. Indeed, we were a bit surprised by the choice, initially assuming that Zinn's mountain bike book was the one chosen. Apparently, road bikes are not passé to all teenagers. The new books on the List will be on display at a reception for the

Familiar foes: Klasna and Horner were at it again.

We’ve all seen those beat-looking guys lounging around the freewayexits, holding battered cardboard signs that read, “Will work for food,”or “Need gas money.” But how often have you seen one flourishing a placardreading, “Need $170,000 to put on national-championship bike race?”That’s what we saw posted alongside the Infobahn on March 13, as TrinitySports Group — promoter of the USCF’s 2002 Elite Road Cycling Championships,slated for July 18-21 in Nashville, Tennessee — put the event’s title andpresenting sponsorships onthe block at the Internet auction houseeBay.The minimum bid for the title

Jalabert and Rous

The race to the sun

Smashing: Jeanson beat her old course record by 22 seconds.

Confident: Horner said his team is ready to defend.

Mark Walters (Navigators)

Lyne Bessette (Saturn)

Tom Boonen (U.S. Postal)

Mark McCormack (Saturn)

Mari Holden (Cannondale - USA Cycling)

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something inthe pages of VeloNews, or see something on VeloNews.com that causesyou to want to write us, drop us a line at WebLetters@7Dogs.com.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mailto this address, you are consenting to the publication of your letter.Drooling over RollDear VeloNews;Bob Roll is a hero.As an intern at VeloNews in 1998, I transcribed Roll's handwrittenscrawl of the story of a now famous trip he took to Boone, NC. with ChrisCarmicheal and a guy named Lance, and laughed so hard I drooled on my

Army Sgt. Phil Svitak, an avid cyclist, was killed March 4 in a shootoutwith al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan. He was amongseven Americans to die when enemy fighters targeted two Chinook helicoptersin separate attacks.Svitak, 31, was a member of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment,based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and raced for the YMCA/Sun & SkiSports Cycling Team, managed by Trinity Sports Group of Franklin, Tennessee,He was an expert-class mountain biker and occasionally raced the road asa Cat. 5.In a March 11 memorial service at the Campbell Club on post,

Fassa Bortolo’s Fabio Baldato won the Tour of Etna in Catania, Italy, Tuesday, sprinting clear of the peloton to triumph in the closing 100 meters.

French cycling coach Bernard Sainz, refused bail last week amid fresh dopingallegations, and then released on appeal, has been jailed again for non-compliancewith his bail conditions, Belgian judicial sources said Monday.Sainz, physiotherapist to Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke, was arrested10 days ago after police found amphetamines and syringes in his car whenhe was stopped for a speeding offence. He was taken into custody last Thursday. A court in Termonde, northernBelgium, on Tuesday ruled Sainz would remain behind bars because of theseriousness of the allegations, and because of