News

Armstrong didn't like this one.

Can Page do it again?

Compton will start at the front this year - and this time, everyone will be watching her

Wells has been going for quality, not quantity

Johnson is renowned for his toughness in bad weather

And then, there are the Kona boys

Welcome to the national slip-and-slide championships

Got your studded snows on?

Dale Knapp has a look of disbelief on his face en route to winning the 40-44 race

But snow is old news to Kansas boy Steve Tilford, victory in the 45-49

What goes up . . .

When Lance Armstrong strolled into the private air terminal at his hometown airport in Austin for this interview he was dressed down for the gig he was attending that night, starring his fiancée, Sheryl Crow. A small duffle bag over his shoulder, Armstrong wore designer jeans deliberately spotted with white paint, a black Nike-brand T-shirt bearing the gray silhouette of an eagle, thick-soled black punk-style ankle boots, and a sharp, black baseball cap advertising the “SIX Lounge, Austin, Texas.” In the couple of hours before he climbed into an executive jet, Armstrong spoke to VeloNews at

. . . must come down

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.I ride because I rideEditor,I just finished riding the rollers for the evening. I had the `95 world’sin Colombia in the VCR, the volume turned down and the Ipod turned up.I had to, because if I hear Phil misidentify Oliverio Rincon as FernandoEscartin one more time I'm going to

The only guy to do that.

Buddies. Bruyneel has played a critical role in Armstrong's success.

Armstrong had issues with Simeoni

VeloNews and Inside Triathlon name new sales staffDecember 8, 2005Boulder, CO -- VeloNews and Inside Triathlon magazinesannounce important changes to the advertising sales staff at these leadinginternational cycling and triathlon titles:*Promoted to group advertising director for VeloNews and InsideTriathlon is Nick Ramey, a three-year sales veteran of both titles,and most recently advertising director for Inside Triathlon. A competitivecyclist and multisport athlete (Xterra is his favorite event), Ramey leda renaissance in advertising page sales at Inside Triathlon in 2005,setting new

On the heels of a thrilling 2005 Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross Series, that included record fields racing in sweltering Californian heat and a freezing East Coast blizzard, the schedule for the 2006 mixes up locations and dates, adding some variety to the series in it s third year. "Coming off a highly successful second edition of the Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross, we are pleased to announce an exciting schedule for 2006.," said Paul Salvucci, U.S. Gran Prix Director of Operations. "The combination of continued growth in the sport, highly motivated promoters,

This week in Austin, the 2006 Discovery Channel team is enjoying its first get-together of the winter. Missing from the roster, of course, is the name of Lance Armstrong, who hung up his cleats after winning a record seventh consecutive Tour de France last July. A couple of weeks prior to the training camp, VeloNews met with Armstrong in Austin to record his parting shots on his 13 years as a professional cyclist. The interview appears in the December 5 issue of VeloNews, which contains a special section looking back on Armstrong’s career. Included in the issue is a look at all of the

Armstrong collects his final Tour

Armstrong wins the world's in 1993

The 2003 Tour was a tough one; it included the famous cyclo-cross around the fallen Joseba Beloki

Stage 15 of the 2003 Tour was a tough day at the office; Armstrong won that stage

A different sort of ride, post-retirement: Armstrong mountain biking with President Bush in August

A different sort of spotlight: at the Grammys with Sheryl Crow

Is he hurting or not? Armstrong strove to be a tough read

Fraser and his new Cannondale

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Go for it Ivan!Dear EditorI want to voice my support for Ivan Basso in hisquest for the Giro/Tour double. I think it is refreshing to see thatsomeone still has the guts to go for the big prize. Sure, winning the Tourwould be great for Basso, and by going for the win in Italy he is

USA Cycling has selected its team for the UCI Track Cycling World Cup December 9-11 at the Manchester Velodrome in Manchester, England. The riders are Michael Blatchford (Veloworx), Cypress, California; Kevin Belz (CKR Racing), Irving, Texas; Giddeon Massie (Cody) Colorado Springs, Colorado; Christian Stahl (CKR Racing), Bethany, Connecticut; Sarah Hammer Temecula, California; Becky Quinn, Quakertown, Pennsylvania; and Jennie Reed (Gregg's Trek-VW Racing), Kirkland, Washington. Selection procedures for the track talent pool can be found at the USA Cycling website For more about the

With 1700 athletes converging on Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island, for the Liberty Mutual U.S. National Cyclo-cross Championships, promoters needed to find companies capable of giving every athlete critical pre-race support. Clif Bar has been selected to create the warm-up area and cool-down zone available for every athlete, positioned close to the start-finish area. Mavic and its famous Tour de France 'Service Course' will be on hand to provide mechanical support. And Polar Beverages will operate the water station. "These are the national championships. We appreciate

The Feed Zone with Monique Ryan: Slender for the holidays

The Philadelphia International Championship Bike Race could anchor a revived million-dollar Triple Crown series in 2006, one of the race’s founders said on Tuesday. The 1993 Thrift Drug Triple Crown —which included the 112-mile Thrift Drug Classic in Pittsburgh, the six-day K mart Tour of West Virginia and the ninth running of what then was called the CoreStates USPRO Championship — was won by a young Lance Armstrong, then racing for Motorola, who was victorious in all three rounds and collected the $1 million winner-take-all bonus. "Our race and the Triple Crown first defined Lance as a

He's having fun, isn't he? George Hincapie on the cobbles of the Arenberg Forest

Gaul racing stage 18 of the 1958 Tour, which he won

Gaul in stage 17 of the 1959 Tour

Gaul in 2001, with Bernard Hinault

Gaul on the Col de Porte during stage 21, preparing to descend in a pouring rain

Coelho leads JHK

JHK deals with a dropped chain

We're racing a former Giro champ? Yikes!

So what if the UCI doesn't like discs? This is an ACA race

The TUFO

The Challenge Grifo

Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now up for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of ourmost recent contest. Take the time to wander through that gallery and see if you agree or disagree with our choice of winner. After looking through a remarkable selection of entries, we settled on Brett Rumble’s “Checking the weather on the Galibier.” We get a lot of photos of race leaders battling over the great climbs of the Tour, Giro and Vuelta, but for some reason this shot of the guys fighting not for a stage win, but to just make the

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Is Wilcockson planning a book?Editor:Has John Wilcockson considered writing a book containing all of his "behind the scenes" accounts of the various Tours? I would love it — every time I read one of his Greg LeMond stories it kills me to come to the end. I want to keep going but I have to

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) considers gene doping a developing threat and has pledged to pursue detection methods and enforcement policies to ensure that the practice "never becomes a major issue in sport," an agency spokesperson said following a symposium in Stockholm, Sweden. The December 4-5 meeting, held in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute and the Swedish Sports Confederation, was the second such sponsored by WADA, the first being a March 2002 workshop in New York. The Stockholm meeting brought together more than 50 participants from 15 countries and included

VeloNews Photo Contest: A new winner and a new gallery

Drumming up some support

Peter Dlask

Gerben DeKnegt

Enrico Franzoi

Jonathan Page

Wellens is looking strong at this point in the season

Sven Vanthourenhout

But in the end, it's Nijs again

McCormack goes into nationals on a high note

Johnson takes the series

Bruno Roy more than made up for Saturday

Groenendaal always does well in these conditions...

... but he and Wellens have one big hurdle to get past to win.

Wells gets all Sven Nijs on the barriers

Dickey dogs Bruno Roy

"This is an in-house policy on how we do business in the State Patrol, and it's not something that we invite the citizenry to participate in. "— Jeff Goodwin, spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol, discussing a new 2500-rider cap during an interview with a Denver newspaper "It’s for your own good." Man, did I ever hate hearing that as a kid, especially when it was followed by, "Because I said so." And I don’t like it any more as an alleged adult. Problems with authority, don't you know. So you can imagine how I felt when the word came down that the Colorado State Patrol has

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Forget the heroes, just ride your bikeDear Editor,Since everyone else is jumping in, I figured I’d throw my two-cents in regarding the Heras case, too.I've been riding for 10 years now and until about three years ago the only professional cyclist’s name that I knew with any degree of

The chief of the Colorado State Patrol will meet with state legislators and event organizers after an outcry from the cycling community over the chief’s decision to cap the size of organized rides at 2500 cyclists. Rep. Michael Merrifield, D-Manitou Springs, told VeloNews on Friday that he, two other legislators and event organizers will sit down with Col. Mark Trostel on December 12 to discuss the edict. Critics say the cap threatens established rides like the Elephant Rock Bicycle Festival, which attracts nearly 7000 cyclists each year, and will drive away new events, like the Denver ride

Tom Danielson and Bob Roll will host a fund-raiser for the Fort Lewis College Cycling Scholarship Fund on December 16 in the community Concert Hall in Durango, Colorado. Among the other cycling luminaries scheduled to attend are USPRO champion Chris Wherry, Michael and Dede Barry, Ned Overend, Todd Wells and Shonny Vanlandingham. Doors open at 5 p.m., with a social and silent auction scheduled from 5:30 to 6:15. The main event runs from 6:30 to 7:30. Tickets are available online at www.tomdanielson.com/pages/scholarship.htm. Cost is $10 (students); $20 (balcony and orchestra); and $25

Whether it’s the FSR suspension or Body Geometry saddle technology, Specialized has invested millions of dollars designing products that enhance the riding experience of a wide range of people. Securing such innovations with patent protection makes it possible for Specialized to continue this kind of investment, thereby better serving riders while ensuring that Specialized dealers have a bright future filled with constantly improved, differentiated and revolutionary bikes and equipment. Under the terms of a recently reached agreement, Scott USA admits that its existing Genius bicycle

With nine stages remaining in the 1985 Tour de France, Frenchman Bernard Hinault seemed to be on a clear course to his fifth overall victory. He was 5:23 ahead of his American teammate Greg LeMond in second place, and 6:06 ahead of third-placed Irishman Stephen Roche. Not much was expected to change on stage 14 from Villard-de-Lans to St. Étienne, a transitory stage that featured the fairly gentle Cat. 1 Col de l’Oeillon and Cat. 4 Croix de Chabouret climbs just before the fast descent into the finish. Colombian mountain goat Lucho Herrera attacked on the major climb to add points to his

The Colorado State Patrol has reconsidered its decision to set a 2500-rider cap on organized cycling events in the state, according to Rep. Michael Merrifield, D-Manitou Springs. "The latest is that the CSP is backing off to ‘study the issue’ for the next year," Merrifield told VeloNews Friday evening. "I intend to keep up the pressure." Col. Mark Trostel, chief of the CSP, told a press conference at the patrol’s Lakewood headquarters that while he had "had a lot of input in support of this, too," he had decided "in the spirit of cooperation and problem solving" to delay implementation of

The Elephant Rock may be riding off into the sunset

Simoni plans a trip to California, then another crack at the Giro

Did the fifth yellow jersey in Hinault's collection arrive in part to a misunderstanding?

Hinault still sports signs of his crash in stage 19

A newcomer to cyclo-cross, Chris Horner, will line up to race at the Liberty Mutual U.S. National Cyclo-cross Championships. Horner recently made his cyclo-cross debut at the final two races in the Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross in California. Starting from the middle of the pack, Horner made up for a lack of prowess with pure power. He placed 13th and 11th, respectively, and earned crucial UCI points to secure a good start position in Providence. Rhode Island.

Pevenage continued to work with Ullrich, despite the row with Godefroot.

Organizers unveiled the route of the 2006 Tour de Georgia on Tuesday, highlighting the addition of three new host cities – including Chattanooga, Tennessee – and the legendary steep climb up Brasstown Bald Mountain. Scheduled for April 18-23, 2006, the fourth edition of the Tour de Georgia, North America’s only UCI Hors Classe (2.HC) stage race, will include 12 Southeastern cities in two states. The Tour de Georgiawill begin in Augusta on Tuesday, April 18, and conclude its 650-plusmiles of racing with in Alpharetta on Sunday, April 23. The race will returnto the Georgia communities of

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Confidence in WHAT?Dear Editors,I would hope that the UCI has internal review of its press statements (not to mention its doping tests).The UCI'srecent statement regarding Heras' B sample could be telling. TheUCI is quoted that it has "full satisfaction with the way the