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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

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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'

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.

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 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.

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

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

DiLuca takes the win and the jersey, beating Simoni - who trails on GC by 2:34 - at the line..

Not an easy day on the Agnello

Piepoli drives an elite group

With two low-risk escapees ahead, Saunier kept tabs on anyone else that tried to get away.

Piepoli provided a lot of power

Di Luca charges off near the top of the Izoard.

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

Perhaps it was with no small measure of irony that Allan Davis – one of the nine riders kicked out of last year’s Tour de France for being implicated in the Operación Puerto blood doping ring – won stage three at the Volta a Catalunya on Wednesday one year to the day the scandal exploded on front pages across Europe. The investigation into the alleged blood doping ring has since paralyzed cycling and the sport is grappling on how to tread the confusing and treacherous legal waters spawned by the scandal. Despite the tough language coming out of the UCI that confirmed Puerto riders such as

Di Luca attacks on the Col D'Izoard.

OLYMPIC CYCLIST TEACHES KIDS ABOUT CYCLING AND TEAMWORKColorado Cyclist Erin Mirabella Debuts Children's Book AboutBike RacingBoulder, CO, May, 2007 - VeloPress is pleased to announce thepublication of Olympic cyclist Erin Mirabella's first children's book,Gracie Goat's Big Bike Race. The book is now available at VeloGear.comand will be available in bookstores throughout North America in June 2007. Inspired by Mirabella's own Olympic experiences, Gracie Goat's Big BikeRace addresses teamwork and facing one's fears with a creative and lightheartedtouch that

It’s over — for now. After nine long days that gyrated wildly between mundane and melodramatic, the Floyd Landis arbitration hearing concluded Wednesday with lawyers from both sides making impassioned closing arguments. Lead USADA prosecutor Richard Young said it was a case of simple science that should lead the three-person arbitration panel to rule against Landis, and find him guilty of using synthetic testosterone to win the 2006 Tour de France. The Landis side countered that the results produced at the French national anti-doping lab were completely unreliable, and that anything but a

Petacchi wins the drag race

Press Release - Olympic cyclist teaches kids about cycling and teamwork

The aftermath of an ugly crash at the line

Bettini hasn't had a lot of luck in this Giro.

Buffaz on the attack.

Noe was grateful for an easy day in the saddle.

Not exactly a frantic chase, the peloton gradually picked up the pace and got their man when they needed to.

Petacchi nails it.

Stage 12. Can you blame anyone for leaving?

Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now ready for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of our most recent contest. We could probably come up with any assortment of artistic and aesthetic reasons for naming this week’s winning photograph. Hey, some of you might even buy it. Bottom line, though, is that after a week of tawdry doping news, the thought of heading to Moab with our young son had a lot more appeal than did a picture of some top-of-the-heap pro’ bike racer racing to the line for a paycheck. Sorry. So we’re naming Matthew

What’s more important, character or science? That was the principal question on the penultimate day of the Floyd Landis arbitration hearing, and could be the crux of whether or not Landis is found guilty of using synthetic testosterone to win the 2006 Tour de France. In one corner was USADA attorney Matt Barnett, who used most of Tuesday’s morning session to attack Landis’s integrity, wondering about the spate of doping offenses on his Phonak team, why he’d penned a hateful Internet post directed at Greg LeMond, and what motivated him to stand by when his business manager made a

German doctors Lothar Heinrich and Andreas Schmid, implicated in systematic doping by a former Telekom team cyclist, were suspended on Tuesday by their employer, the University Hospital Freiburg. "This measure was taken in consultation with the two interested parties: it is provisional, the time for the independent commission of inquiry to make its conclusions known," the hospital said in a statement, adding that they were ending their association with the team that evolved out of Telekom, T-Mobile. Heinrich and Schmid ended their association with T-Mobile after revelations by a former

Piepoli held off some powerful climbers.

'Chicken' wants to race the road and the trail in Beijing

Di Luca reeled in and ultimately passed the young Schleck

Noè wasn't feeling too grumpy after the stage finish.

This was the second long break for Hincapie in this Giro

Liquigas put a lot into the chase

Parra tries to hold off the inevitable...

Piepoli makes contact first.

A good day for Saunier Duval

Hincapie has been busy.

The escapees

German rider Danilo Hondo said on Tuesday he was abandoning his legal fight against a two-year suspension for doping and would concentrate on resuming his career next year. "There are too many uncertainties to continue with legal appeals," Hondo said. "I am now going to wait for the end of my suspension. I'm sure I can ride for another three or four years." His ban ends in January 2008. Hondo, 33, who rode under a Swiss license for the Gerolsteiner team, was suspended after he twice tested positive for the banned stimulant carphedon during the Tour of Murcia in Spain in March 2005. He