News

Liberty keeps things under control

Gerolsteiner hoped to set up Hondo

Lopez tries a solo

Leipheimer enjoys a soggy day in the saddle

On the road

The 2006 X.0 rear derailleurs will feature full carbon fiber inner and outer jockey cages.

The carbon cages are backed and rimmed with a carbon alternative to protect the otherwise brittle carbon from chain rubbing and impact. It will be available in three variations: mini cage (gravity); mid-cage (XC/general riding) and long cage

The new X.O shifters share the same general shifting principles as the 2005 X.9 versions, but have been engineered from the ground-up for maximum efficiency and performance.

2005 Junior PCT Grand Prix AnnouncedEvent Features Riders 18 years and Under, Sunday June 5, 2005, AtWachovia USPRO ChampionshipThe Junior Pro Cycling Tour is inviting boys, ages 18 and under, totest their cycling skills at qualifying events for a chance to race inthe Junior PCT Grand Prix.  The event is an invitational points racefor 20 junior male cyclists scheduled to take place at the Wachovia USPROChampionship on June 5, 2005 in Philadelphia.The top 20 qualifiers will race for prizes valuing $1000 on June 5thin the Junior PCT Grand Prix on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway after

The shifter pod can be moved in or out from a rider's hand for perfect ergonomics. The the larger downshifting trigger can be rotated 360 degrees for trigger/finger alignment.

CATCH THE SPIRIT WITH THE FIVE BORO BIKE TOURLARGEST BIKE TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES RETURNS TO NYC ON MAY 1ST30,000 CYCLISTS GEAR UP FOR THE TOUR'S 28TH YEARBike New York, in association with the City of New York and the NewYork City Department of Transportation announced today that the Five BoroBike Tour will return to the city streets on Sunday, May 1, 2005.The Five Boro Bike Tour-presented by Con Edison-will be commemorating its28th year.The largest recreational cycling event in the United States, the FiveBoro Bike Tour began twenty-eight years ago with just 250 participantsand has now

The X.0 triggers feature Zero Loss technology. Thanks to the trigger's high tolerances, four internal bearings and improved ratcheting system, when you press either trigger, a shift is instantaneously engaged.

My first live glimpse of the Tour de France came on June 26, 1963. I was sitting with my bike and a group of French picnickers on a grassy hillside in Picardy. They were big fans of the defending champion Jacques Anquetil, whose hometown of Rouen was the destination for that day’s fourth stage. As the peloton crested the hill and headed our way, the fans warmly applauded the riders, shouting out “Bravo, Jacques!” when they spotted Anquetil in the distinctive red-white-and-blue jersey of his St. Raphaël-Gitane team. Their hero was tucked in behind a teammate, who was wearing the yellow

The new levers feature real carbon fiber covers to provide improved clamshell structural integrity as well as help lighten the overall pods to an impressive 110-115 grams (over the current X.9's 130 grams)

Ah, March has finally arrived. That’s good news for so many reasons. March means spring is around the corner, and that means longer days, greener hills and girls in tank tops. It means that my birthday is coming up, followed by St. Patrick’s Day, one of the greatest non-reasons for getting drunk of all time. It means my income-tax refund is on the way, which should just about pay for the new mountain bike I ordered myself … for my birthday. But best of all, March means I don’t have to hear anyone else say, “It’s only February,” every time the pace heats up, the ride is longer than 35 miles

Cunego at Murcia

Hondo's win surprised even Hondo.

Plaza could only manage second.

Gutiérrez takes third

Leipheimer can take solace in that it's still early in the year...

... as can Damiano Cunego. Cunego is hoping for a win on Saturday.

Hondo is enjoying his time in the jersey.

Sayers

Hondo gets the jersey today and may pass to teammates tomorrow

The sponsorship of domestic cycling teams is a volatile venture. In the past few years, it seems that almost every brand-name team lost its marquee sponsor. Saturn and Mercury, for example, were dismantled and their riders, some of the most competent and successful racers in America, were scattered to the four winds. But turmoil, as tough as it can be, almost always leaves a vacuum. And a vacuum can be an opportunity in the right hands. One group of racers and their sponsors taking advantage of this vacuum is Health Net-Maxxis. Formed only three years ago on a shoestring budget and around

Map2

Leipheimer's season is just starting

Sayers photo

Green at Calgary

map

...more time on the trainer?!?!?!

Sayers photo

De Clerq leads a Belgian sweep at world's in Zolder in 2002

Sayers on the march

Sayers: Leading by example

Hondo - and Gerolsteiner - get their first big win of the season

Murcia in springtime

Gerolsteiner was active all day.

Leipheimer starts his season with Gerolsteiner

Cunego and Tafi on the attack

Tafi tries his luck with Wuyts

Two-time cross-country world champion Roland Green announced Tuesdaythat he has been retroactively suspended for six months after testing positivefor a banned substance at the Houffalize, Belgium round of the World Cuplast May (see "Paulissen,Dahle rule Houffalize World Cup"). Green's suspension commenced July 4, 2004 and will conclude April 4th of this year. That is obviously longer than six months, but the suspension includes the UCI's pre-defined "inactivity period" for mountain bike racers, which runs from November through January. A hearing was recently conducted through the

Cunego has big goals this season

Former three-time world cyclo-cross champion Mario De Clercq has been banned from the sport for four years and cyclo-cross rider Ben Berden for 15 months, the Belgian cycling association (LRVB) announced Wednesday. De Clercq, who retired in November 2004, was involved in the so-called"Jose Landuyt affair," a scandal involving a veterinarian who admittedselling performance-enhancing drugs. Berden is banned until April 2006 after testing positive for the bloodbooster EPO (erythropoietin) in a cyclo-cross competition in Essen, Germanyin December. De Clercq's lawyer Peter Callebaut said

Beloki is still on the road to recovery

Julich's season was highlighted by a medal-winning performance in Athens

John Tomac was on-hand in Gran Canaria, Spain to show off Manitou's R-Seven

Tech Report: Manitou comes back to cross-country

Tech Report: Manitou comes back to cross-country

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.What’s up with OLN?Editor:What is going on with OLN's 2005 cycling coverage? Last year they dropped daily coverage of the Vuelta late in the season, and now this year the only decent coverage of a race is going to be of the Tour. Major cuts include dropping daily coverage of the Giro

With last year’s needle-prick and transfusion tube scandals still fresh in my mind, the big question surrounding all of that hubbub remains unanswered: What is the proper way to punish a doper? Sure, you can slap ‘em with suspensions, fine their bank accounts dry, drag their names through a trough of mud and make their public image darker than an Angus steer’s tuckas on a moonless prairie night. But will it do any good? Of course, the teams, too, have their own “Don’t do it” policies. But with the pressure to win augmented by the long list of hungry replacements (who will do anything to

This story originally appeared as Timothy Carlson’s weekly column onthe website of our sister publication InsideTriathlon. Because the issue of doping seems to transcend sportingdisciplines, we decided that Mr. Carlson’s column was worthy of a seriouslook from interested parties outside of the sport of Triathlon. - Editor "No, no!' said the Queen. “Sentence first - verdict afterwards.”“Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice loudly. “The idea of having the sentence first!'”“Hold your tongue!” said the Queen, turning purple.“I won't!” said Alice.“Off with her head!” the Queen shouted at

Julich has found a happy home at CSC

"Cycling in the News" is a regular service of VeloNews.com. Readers,reporters and friends are encouraged to send links to current stories aboutcompetitive cyclists and cycling that appear in the mainstream media. Ifyou come across a news item that you believe may be of interest to otherVeloNews readers, we would be grateful if you choose to send it to Rosters@InsideInc.com.Khaleej Times - March 14, 2005UAE plans continental cycling teamDUBAI — UAE is planning to form a continental cycling team toparticipate in all major championships around the world. The proposed teamof 16 cyclists, will

Nuyens goes it alone

Up the Grammont

Nuyens celebrates his bold victory

CSC's Tristan Hoffman broke his left leg in a crash while descending the Mur de Grammont

The Piil escape

Eki' at the front

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.We got the predictable ton of letters regarding Fred Dreier’s inaugural column on a pair of ugly motorist-cyclist conflicts. Some readers proposed vengeance via violence and/or vandalism, others counseled peace, still others recommended leaving enforcement to the law, and a few even

Last week, I wrote about some of the pioneer American racers who had ambitions of professional careers in Europe. One of them was Michael Hiltner, who was sampling the Italian cycling scene in the early 1960s at the same time as several cyclists from the British Isles were already breaking into the then-exclusive ranks of continental pro racing. Among the most successful were Englishmen Brian Robinson and Tom Simpson. Robinson was the first English-speaking rider to win a stage of the Tour de France (in 1958), while Simpson was the first to win a monumental classic and the first to wear the

Flecha clings to a nine-second lead and gets the win

Peter Van Petegem celebrates his third win at Het Volk

Johan Museeuw winning Het Volk in 2003

Another lousy day for a tech editor . . . .

Saunier Duval's Paris-Roubaix machine

More clearance for bigger rubber . . .

. . . in this case, custom Conti' tubies

Bigger chain rings

And top-mounted brake levers

Iban Mayo is here to get in shape for July

Dear Readers,Over the last two columns, (see "Part1" and "Part2" )attorney Bruce Epperson has been describing how Colonel AlbertPope, the “Rockefeller of Bicycles,” used the 1866 Lallement patent, thebasic patent covering all bicycles made in the United States, to monopolizethe then-infant bicycle industry, and how this monopoly was threatenedby an obsure patent lawsuit dealing with, of all things, whale-oil lamps!This week, in the last of three parts, we look at how Pope’s lawyers triedto save the Lallement patent by creating a monopoly that would not onlylast until the patent expired in

It seems the biggest news of the past week is Lance Armstrong’s decision to race at the 2005 Tour de France. His announcement on Tuesday, February 16th, confirmed, changed or confused the plans of racers, product managers, publicists, tourists, executives and journalists everywhere. Oh, like he wasn’t going to race. Come on, Lance! You couldn’t really skip the Tour, could you? Even if he had announced he wasn’t planning on racing, couldn’t you see him having a change of heart some time around the Dauphine Libéré? I can picture him watching Iban Mayo, Ivan Basso and Roberto Heras battle it