News
News
2008 U23 National Crit Championships
2008 U23 National Crit Championships
VeloNews posts record-breaking circulation, ad-sales numbers
Boulder, CO, August 8, 2008 — VeloNews, the Journal of Competitive Cycling, announced today that it has achieved record high total circulation numbers. VeloNews' most recent filing with the Audit Bureau of Circulations shows a 40% increase in newsstand sales and a 10% overall increase in circulation. This new circulation level is the highest ever in the magazine's 36-year history. The VeloNews ABC filing for the six months ending June 30, 2008 and subject to audit, showed paid circulation of 47,546 and total paid/non-paid circulation of 49,222.
Legally Speaking with Bob Mionske – Where’s the justice?
Bob,
It is difficult to express my outrage after verifying the facts of the Autumn Growhowski story (See “When justice fails”). I find the collision (it should never be called an "accident") terrifying, and the resulting lack of justice simply unacceptable. How can the lawyers in this case sleep at night? In six months, a killer will be free to drive, drink and perhaps kill again...and this is justice?
How could any so-called civilized society act in this manner?
M. M.
Look recalls some Keo pedals
Bicycle Pedals Recalled by Look Cycle; Pedals Can Break Causing Cyclists to Fall WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. Name of Product: KéO Bicycle Pedals Units: About 80,000 (40,000 pairs) Distributor: Look Cycle USA, of San Jose, Calif. Hazard: The steel axle inside the pedal can break, posing a fall hazard to cyclists.
Beijing Olympic Road Race roster
ALGERIA (1)
? Hichem Chabane (Konica Minolta / Bizhub)
ARGENTINA (3)
? Alejandro Alberto Borrajo (Colavita / Sutter Home)
? Juan José Haedo (CSC Saxo Bank)
? Matias Medici (Scott-Marcondes Cesar-Sao Jose dos Campos)
AUSTRALIA (5)
? Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto)
? Simon Gerrans (Crédit Agricole)
? Matthew Lloyd (Silence-Lotto)
? Stuart O'Grady (CSC-Saxo Bank)
? Michael Rogers (Columbia)
AUSTRIA (2)
? Christian Pfannber
After a few days in Beijing, VeloNews’ Fred Dreier says masks seem like a really good idea.
The racing hasn’t yet begun at the Laoshan Velodrome, site of the Beijing Olympics’ track events, but the USA track team has already been jumped. No, it wasn’t a team of big-legged brawny sprinters that pounced on Team America’s trackies, or a gang of cup-toting drug sniffs. It wasn’t the Germans, Russians or Dutch. It was a horde of camera toting news-hungry media men, eager for a story — any story. And on a slow news day, word travels fast.
Zach Bell
Age: 25 (Watson Lake, Yukon)
EVENTS
Madison, Points RacePRIOR OLYMPICS
None Bell and weight lifter Jeanne Lessen are the first Yukon residents to make the summer Olympic team. Bell was ranked 10th in the world by UCI in the scratch race and 11th in points race at the end of 2007-08 season. The eight-time nationals track champion also is one of Canada's top road racers.Scott Erwood
Age: 20 (Surrey, B.C.)
EVENTS
BMXPRIOR OLYMPICS
None Erwood qualified for the Olympic team with his win at a head-to-head race off against jim Brown in July. He was the gold medalist at eh Canadian championships in 2007 and has competed in five world championships. He races for the Crupi trade team.Lehman Brothers invests in SRAM
Component giant SRAM has a new minority owner: Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking. The fund manager is making an undisclosed investment in SRAM, which will retain its senior management, the company announced Thursday. SRAM, which markets products under the SRAM, RockShox, Avid, Truvativ, and Zipp brand names, expects 2008 revenues to approach $500 million. “We have now achieved scale where we believe it is prudent to add an experienced institutional investor to our shareholder base," Stan Day, SRAM's chief executive.
Team Columbia sends 18 cyclists to Beijing
Team Columbia is sending 18 riders from twelve different nations to the Olympic games. While the riders will wear uniforms representing their home nation, it's still a remarkable turnout for the U.S.-based team. “To have so many riders representing their countries at the Olympics, a showcase event, is truly exceptional for Team Columbia. It’s actually made it a little tricky finding riders for all the usual competitions,” team owner Bob Stapleton said. The teams riders will race in the mens and womens road races and on the track.
Samantha Cools
Age: 22 (Airdrie, Alta)
EVENTS
BMXPRIOR OLYMPICS
None Cools has been training in Switzerland since November, at a sports center with an exact replica of the Beijing BMX track. She is ranked fourth in the world in BMX, she is a five-time world junior champion and 13-time Canadian champion. Cools won her first BMX race at age three on bike built by her father.Kyle Bennett
Age: 28 (Conroe, Texas)
EVENTS
BMXPRIOR OLYMPICS
None Bennett won the World BMX Championship in 2002, 2003 and 2007. His stepfather is John Purse, a well-known BMX racer from the 1990s. Bennett earned anautomatic spot on the Olympic team by making the finals of the UCI World Cup in Copenhagen, Denmark, this spring.Svein Tuft
Age: 31 (Langley, B.C.)
EVENTS
Road race and time trialPRIOR OLYMPICS
None Tuft, 31, is best known to U.S. cycling fans for his win at the snowy 2007 U.S. Open in Virginia and the Redlands prologue that year. The Langley, British Columbia resident began bike racing in 1999 and had stints on the Broadmark Capital, Mercury and Prime Alliance teams before joining the Symmetrics team, which also is home to Zach Bell, who is racing on the track in Beijing. Tuft, the four-time Canadian time trial champ, is hoping to bring the country its first Olympic road cycling medal since Steve Bauer’s silver in 1984.Giddeon Massie
Age: 26 (Zionhill, Pennsylvania)
EVENTS
Team SprintPRIOR OLYMPICS
2004 An established track talent, Massie has earned the gold medal in the keirin at the 2003 Pan American Games, an event at which he also earned a silver in the sprint competition. Massie also acts as a spokesman for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in its “My Health. My Sport. My Victory. I Compete Clean” campaign.Geoff Kabush
Age: 31 (Victoria, B.C.)
EVENTS
Mountain bike cross-countryPRIOR OLYMPICS
2000 (9th) Kabush has Olympic experience is has been consistently one of the top North American cross-country riders on the international scene, with a silver and bronze at World Cup events and a 9th place at the 2000 Olympics. The 31-year-old Team Maxxis rider is having a great season this year, defending his Canadian cross-country title and taking second place at the Mont Ste. Anne World Cup.Gina Grain
Age: 38 (Burnaby, B.C.)
EVENTS
Points RacePRIOR OLYMPICS
None Grain, like fellow Olympians Alex Wrubleski and Erinne Willock, is a member of the the Webcor Builders trade team. In 2006 she was ranked number one in the world in the scratch race.Adam Duvendeck
Age: 26 (Santa Barbara, California)
EVENTS
Team SprintPRIOR OLYMPICS
2004 A former kilometer racer, Duvendeck has made the transition to team sprint. A one-time student of 1984 Olympian Rory O'Reilly, Duvendeck has earned elite national titles in the keirin, team sprint, kilometer and matched sprint. He will team up with Giddeon Massie and Michael Blatchford in the team sprint, an event in which they hold the U.S. record.Jill Kintner
Age: 26 (Seattle, Washington)
EVENTS
BMXPRIOR OLYMPICS
None Kinter, considered one of the best gold medal prospects on the U.S. Olympic cycling team, is also a top mountain biker. She is a former junior world champion in BMX and is ranked #1 by USA Cycling in the BMX category for 2008 and earned an automatic spot on the team.Ryder Hesjedal
Age:27 (Victoria, B.C.)
EVENTS
Road race and time trialPRIOR OLYMPICS
2004 (Mountain bike cross-country) Hesjedal, who just completed his first Tour de France with the Garmin-Chipotle team last month, is one of the most successful converts from top-level mountain bike to the road. Hesjedal, 28, was second at the 2003 world cross-country mountain bike championships and on the road has won a Canadian time trial championship and the mountain competition at the 2007 Tour de Georgia.Amber Neben
Age: 34 (Irvine, California)
EVENTS
Road RacePRIOR OLYMPICS
None Over the years, Neeben has distinguished herself as one of the world’s best road racers, twice winning France’s Tour de l’Aude. A former collegiate mountain bike racer, Neben made her road debut at the 1998 Hewlett Packard Women’s Challenge and earned a spot on the U.S. team for the world road championships that year.Donny Robinson
Age: 25 (Napa, Calif.)
EVENTS
BMXPRIOR OLYMPICS
None One of the top-ranked riders in the world, Robinson won the 2008 Elite Men Supercross World Cup Champion and finished first at the Olympic qualifier event in June. He has been racing since he was five and is no won the Hyper Bicycles trade team.Todd Wells
Age: 32 (Durango, Colorado)
EVENTS
Cross-countryPRIOR OLYMPICS
2004 Wells has been racing mountain bikes since 1996 and is a two-time national cyclocross champion, a background that may suit him well on the Beijing cross-country course. He has been a U.S. national cross-country champion in 2001 and 2005. He competed in the Athens Games in 2004, turning in the top American finish in the cross-country race.Leigh Hobson
Age: 37 (Cambridge, Ontario)
EVENTS
Road racePRIOR OLYMPICS
None Hobson is having one of best years ever on the bike, winning a stage at the Tour of the Gila and landing atop the NRC rankings for a time. She also was third at the Montreal World Cup. Hobson, a member of the Cheerwine team, plans to retire from racing at the end of this season and return to full-time teaching. But the Olympic road race, which is on her 38th birthday, could be one of her final chances for glory.Alex Wrubleski
Age: 24 (Regina, Saskatchewan)
EVENTS
Road racePRIOR OLYMPICS
None Wrubleski is a former speed skater and triathlete who has been bike racing for just three years. She won the national time trial and road championships in 2006 and took the road title again this year. The Webcor Builders team member, 24, also won the Redlands Bicycle Classic overall title this year.Seamus McGrath
Age: 32 (Millgrove, Ontario)
EVENTS
Mountain bike cross-countryPRIOR OLYMPICS
2004 (9th) McGrath, 32, competed in Athens in 2004, placing ninth. He also won silver in the 2002 Commonwealth Games. McGrath started biking when he was 14 years old. This year he’s been Mr. Consistency on the World Cup circuit, with a 9th place finish at the Offenburg, Germany, race and 8th at the Mont Ste. Anne World Cup.Christine Thorburn
Age: 38 (Sunnyvale, California)
EVENTS
Road Race, Time TrialPRIOR OLYMPICS
2004 Thorburn is a medical doctor who took up cycling at Stanford Medical School. She returns for her second Olympics, competing in both the road race and time trial. Thorburn is one of the country’s strongest time trialists, competing and training while still maintaining a full-time work schedule as a rheumatologist in Palo Alto, California.Mike Day
Age: 23 (Santa Clarita, California)
EVENTS
BMXPRIOR OLYMPICS
None Mike Day turned pro at age 17 and has racked up many prestigious wins, including a first place in the AA Pro category at the ABA World Championship in 2005. He also was the 2007 Elite Men Supercross World Cup Champion. Day races for GT Bicycles/RedbullDave Zabriskie
Age: 29 (Salt Lake City, Utah)
EVENTS
Road race and time trialPRIOR OLYMPICS
None Zabriskie is a solid road racer and one of the world’s best time trialists. He holds the distinction as the only American to have won stages in each of the world’s grand tours, starting with his from-the-gun solo attack in the 2004 Vuelta and followed by time trial victories in the 2005 Giro d’Italia and Tour de France. With the record for riding the fastest individual time trial in Tour de France history, covering a 19km route at a speed of 54.66kph, Zabriskie has to be considered one of the favorites for a medal in the race against the clock. A teammate of Vande Velde’s on Garmin-Chipotle, Zabriskie returns to racing after a serious accident in this year’s Giro d’Italia.Catherine Pendrel
Age: 28 (Kamloops, B.C.)
EVENTS
Mountain bike cross-countryPRIOR OLYMPICS
None Pendrel, 28, who races for the Luna trade team, is in top form for the Olympics after scoring her first World Cup victory, at Bromont, Quebec, in July. Pendrel’s previous top placings include a sixth place at the 2007 world championships, a gold medal at Pan American Games that year and a second-place at the Canadian cross-country championships.Bobby Lea
Age: 24 (Mertztown, Pennsylvania)
EVENTS
Points Race, MadisonPRIOR OLYMPICS
None Raised in a family of bike racers, Lea entered his first competitive cycling event when he was just four years old. He is a full-time road pro with the U.S.-based Rite Aid team, but has managed to collect eight U.S. titles on the track as well. He earned a silver medal in the 2008 world Madison championships, riding with Colby Pearce in Copenhagen last February. Lea will team up with Michael Friedman in the Madison in Beijing this month.George Hincapie
Age: 35 (Greenville, South Carolina)
EVENTS
Road racePRIOR OLYMPICS
1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 The U.S.’s top classics rider, Hincapie has to be considered a factor in any single-day event. The Team Columbia rider will be one of the experienced pros lining up in Beijing, competing in the Olympics since 1992 and riding in every Tour de France since 1996.Sarah Hammer
Age: 24 (Temecula, Calif.)
EVENTS
Individual Pursuit, Points RacePRIOR OLYMPICS
None In 2006, Hammer became the first American woman to win a world pursuit title since Rebecca Twigg’s rainbow ride in 1995. She successfully defended her title in 2007. Hammer also broke Twigg’s 11-year-old national record in the women's 3-kilometer individual pursuit in 2006 with a time of 3:32.865. Since then she's lowered the mark four times, most recently with a time of 3:30.213. She remains among the gold medal favorites for the pursuit.Adam Craig
Age: 26 (Bend, Oregon)
EVENTS
Cross-countryPRIOR OLYMPICS
None A 12-time national champion in an assortment of cycling disciplines, Craig is recognized as one of the country’s best cross-country racers. Like his teammate Todd Wells, Craig has a solid background in cyclocross, which may be the ideal preparation for this year’s Olympic cross-country course. After winning three consecutive U23 national cross-country titles (2001-03), he won the elite title in 2007. Craig also won the unofficial world single-speed mountain bike championship in Aviemore, Scotland in 2007.Michael Barry
Age: 32 (Toronto, Ontario)
EVENTS
Road racePRIOR OLYMPICS
1996-2004 Michael Barry, a member of the Team Columbia, brings a wealth of Olympic and professional experience to the team. Barry, 32, is a veteran of the U.S. Postal and Discovery Channel teams and was a support rider for Lance Armstrong. Barry, who writes a regular column for VeloNews.Com, attended Trinity College and the University of Toronto and lives most of the year in Gerona, Spain.Jennie Reed
Age: 30 (Kirkland, Wash.)
EVENTS
Match SprintPRIOR OLYMPICS
2004 Reed is one of the most successful sprinters Since winning her first gold medal in national competition in 1998, Reed has earned 12 more national titles, the World Cup title in 2004 and three medals at world championship events. She has also dabbled in endurance track events, recently as a part of the winning pursuit team at the 2007 national championships.Jason McCartney
Age: 34 (Coralville, Iowa)
EVENTS
Road racePRIOR OLYMPICS
2004 The former Discovery team rider won a stage at last year’s Vuelta a España, which led to his current deal with CSC-Saxo Bank, just as the American team was winding down. McCartney earned a spot on the Olympic team in 2004 by winning the Olympic Trials Road Race. His impressive record as a professional in Europe earned him a discretionary pick to this year’s team.Michael Blatchford
Age: 22 (Cypress, California)
EVENTS
Team Sprint, Match SprintPRIOR OLYMPICS
None Blatchford is the youngest sprinter on the U.S. team, but brings a solid record in international competition to Beijing. Blatchford earned a bronze medal in the sprint at the 2006 world championships and gold in the same event at the 2007 Pan American Championships. Along with Olympic teammates Giddeon Massie and Adam Duvendeck, Blatchford holds the U.S. national record in the team sprint.Kristin Armstrong
Age: 34 (Boise, Idaho)
EVENTS
Road race and time trialPRIOR OLYMPICS
2004 Armstrong made a strong Olympic debut in 2004 with an eighth-place finish in the road race. She has since distinguished herself as a solid time trialist, winning the world championship in 2004. The 34-year-old Armstrong will compete in both the road race and time trial in Beijing on the heels of a solid season of racing in the U.S. in 2008.Levi Leipheimer
Age: 34 (Santa Rosa, California)