News

When world's come to the spiritual home of cyclo-cross, you can expect a big turn-out, even at 25 euros a head.

A successful defense of the rainbow jersey

An early favorite, Kupfernagel got off to a good start.

Although it wasn't the usual sweep, Belgian fans had plenty to celebrate.

Page didn't seem to mind second place

Big crowds turned out for Sunday's big race

Holland's Gerben De Knegt jumped to an early lead

The obligatory bite-the-medal pose.

Compton quickly worked her way through the crowd.

When De Knegt encountered trouble, countryman Richard Groenendall took over. Belgian fans were none too thrilled at the sight of that much orange in the front of the race.

Compton: 'It's pretty exciting.'

Kupfernagel's troubles started with a mid-race crash and she soon had company

Vervecken began working his way through the crowd

Compton, Salvetat and Leboucher

Chance Noble had a good start, but found himself feeling a bit burned out and finished 39th

American cyclist Floyd Landis has asked French anti-doping officials to delay proceedings against him, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. A spokesman for Landis told the newspaper that his defense team wants to complete his appeal of charges from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) before facing the French inquiry, rather than deal with both cases at once. WADA president Dick Pound said earlier this month that his agency had asked the French organization AFLD to suspend its hearing. While lacking the power to compel the French government group to comply, Pound was optimistic about the

Daniel Neyens works the sandbox en route to 46th place

Joeri Adams took the sprint, but Summerhill made a big impression in Belgium, too.

Charles Marzot finished one spot behind Neyens

The stairs proved decisive.

Boom and Albert hit the stairs together

And then it was just Boom, off on his own

Summerhill and Sinkeldam joined the winning break

Villa rode to third on the day

The fans were loving every minute of it

Boom takes the win

Driscoll works the staircase

Summerhill killin' it in the sandbox

As does Marzot

Payday

Marzot tackles the sand

Albert gave it his best, but conceded that Boom was stronger

Ditto Neyens

Boom on a descent

On the run

Albert, Boom and Villa take the U-23 podium . . .

. . . while Japan's Tetsuya Fujioka takes a header

Jamey Driscoll, top Yank at 36th, and the only North American that the relentless Boom didn't lap

Can Nys add to his rainbow collection on Sunday?

Mark Scanlon brings some ProTour horsepower to Toyota-United

Close friends Chris Wherry and Henk Helmethead Vogels will ride as co-captains.

Harm Jansen, Ivan Dominguez and Kirk Willett discuss the 2007 season.

The team cars feature Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive

Ivan Stevic proudly sports his new Serbian national champion's jersey, the second of his career.

The man, the myth, the Moocher

This is what a Belgian 'crosser calls 'fun'

More of the same

Don't like mud? How about sand?

The backside climb

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The corner preceding the bridge staircase

Applications for inclusion on the 2007 Alison Dunlap Junior Olympic Mountain Bike (ADJOMTB) Race Series are now available to race promoters in PDF format by clicking here. Entering its eighth year, the series was created by USA Cycling to provide racing opportunities for aspiring junior mountain bike athletes across the country. In 2003, world and national champion off-road cyclist Alison Dunlap endorsed the program and has since helped the series reach new levels. In 2007, USA Cycling hopes to add more events to the calendar by continuing to foster relationships with race promoters that

Under the bridge

Patrick Lefévère, the manager of the Quick Step cycling team, launched a passionate defense of his squad on Friday after it was made the target of doping accusations by a Belgian newspaper. Lefévère said he would seek damages against the daily newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, which made the allegations, and which quoted an anonymous rider as saying that a doping culture was allowed to flourish because the team had an informant at the UCI who tipped them off when tests were to be carried out. "The riders don't just take doping products (EPO, growth hormones), but also drugs like ecstasy,

One sketchy dropoff

[Watch Video]

And another, the third on this course

[Watch Video]

The view from on high

Tour de France runner-up Oscar Pereiro is among a group of 10 riders cleared of doping charges, the president of France’s anti-doping agency, Pierre Bordry, announced Thursday. The cases were thrown after it was confirmed the riders had official medical clearances to use certain banned substances. Records leaked to the media last week indicate Pereiro had tested positive for salbutamol, a banned substance often prescribed for asthma sufferers, after the 14th and 16th stages of last year's Tour. Pereiro quickly responded that he that he had been issued a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE)

The ProTour-level Quick Step-Innergetic squad is battling to defend its reputation after a Belgian newspaper alleged that the team structured an elaborate internal doping system, which is being protected by an informant at the sport's world ruling body. The damaging claims have been made in Belgian paper Het Latste Nieuws, which this week launched a salvo at the team, its former star rider Johan Museeuw and the current team manager Patrick Lefévère. Museeuw, the former world champion — known as the 'Lion of Flanders' — surprised many observers on Tuesday by confessing to

Following a year when far too many of cycling’s biggest stars were entangled in doping controversies, the sport’s first major drug-stained newsflash of 2007 centers on influential Belgian team boss Patrick Lefévère. In a series of articles published this week in the Belgian daily Het Laatse Nieuws, the Quick Step manager stands accused of three decades worth of involvement in illegal doping. The Brussels-based newspaper claimed that Lefévère used drugs during his own racing days in the 1970s, and has since overseen their use as team director of the once-mighty Mapei outfit, and then his

Haedo - here winning the finale of the 2006 Tour of California - says time spent in the U.S. is like going to 'racing school.'

Haedo's new look. He will be CSC's only pure sprinter this season.

Vervecken has moved into the role as 'cross's veteran.

World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound said Wednesday that he has asked the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) to postpone its investigation into Floyd Landis until the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency ends its inquiry. Landis tested positive for a skewed testosterone-epitestosterone ratio following Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France and has been fighting to clear his name ever since. "In December we asked the French agency to suspend its inquiry into Floyd Landis until the end of the American anti-doping procedure," said WADA’s Pound. "They seem ready to do that, although without renouncing their

Petacchi hopes the flat roads of Qatar will offer a good start to a string of wins in '07.

The Feedzone with Monique Ryan: Smart scales and oatmeal

The former champ' meets with reporters

Museeuw reads from a prepared statement with his lawyer at his side.

Facing trial on doping charges, former world champion Johan Museeuw on Tuesday admitted to taking drugs in the final months of his career. "In my last year of racing, I made an error, I didn't race faithfully," Museeuw said in a press conference, the first time the 1996 world road race champion has admitted taking drugs. "I wanted to finish my career in style, which pushed me to not play the game honestly." Museeuw’s remarks come after hearing last week that he and others cyclists implicated in a doping scandal will face trial in Kortrijk, Belgium. The Belgian star stands accused of

Two race promoters are planning separate events in Las Vegas as part of the late-September Interbike trade show. Denver-Boulder Couriers promoter Chris Grealish is planning a September 26 UCI cyclo-cross race called Cross Vegas, while USA Crits series promoter Gene Dixon hopes to host the series finale, titled the World Criterium Championships, the following evening. Neither twilight event is directly affiliated with the Interbike trade show, but both hope to draw the thousands of industry folk that flock to Vegas every year. Racing categories will be open to elite men and women. Grealish,

Simoni, at this year's Saunier Duval training camp, may look for off-road gold in Beijing.

Ray Browning, emcee and organizer.

Jeff Broker

Max Testa: Power is the key

Katrina Vogel: Focusing on the interface.