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Dear Readers,Today’s column is the first of a three-part series written by attorney Bruce Epperson. Whether you are a triathlete, bike racer or just interested in bikes, the business/legal history of the bicycle is a rich one.– Bob MionskeThe Monopoly Machine, Part 1 "For a decade afterward came the wonderful battles of bicycle patents. All along Pope extended this department, and practically was in the position of a Czar of the business. . . Pope was largely hated and the Columbia was called the monopoly machine." - Bicycling World, 1902 Starting in 1879, the infant bicycle industry was

The athlete . . .

. . . and the artwork

Health Net-Maxxiss Mike SoPro Jones jumps on the anti-doping/body-art bandwagon: He advises that his self-decoration cost three bucks for the markers, took three minutes to apply and less than one to remove

Gilbert outkicks the bunch

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood: Who draws the line between rights and responsibilities?

Voigt hangs onto the lead

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.Say 'cheese'Editor:Here's the man, David Clinger, riding on a sunny day in the Santa Monica Mountains. Shane V. Luncinski(pictured next to Clinger in photo No. 2)Canoga Park, California That’s it? Big dealEditor:Boy, am I ever disappointed. Judging from the deafening geshrei

Armstrong to tell all in chat with OprahSix-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong reportedly will announce whether he’ll try for No. 7 on Friday’s “Oprah Winfrey Show.” Armstrong and rocker Sheryl Crow will join Oprah for their first interview together, according to a press release. Also on the agenda: The superstar couple shares how they first started flirting and why Crow is now writing love songs. Armstrong opens up about being a single father and Oprah asks, "Do you want to have more children?" Oprah challenges Lance to a bike race (with a few conditions). Crow debuts her new

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to write about two American riders who have found themselves at odds with their domestic road teams over matters that aren’t strictly related to their jobs. In Matt DeCanio’s case, Ofoto-Sierra Nevada released him for expressing an admittedly controversial view of drug use in cycling. As for David Clinger, Webcor told him that his new full-face Maori-style tattoo was not an image the team cared to be associated with. I’m not going to weigh in with my opinion on either case - at least, not in this week’s column - primarily because I wrote 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.Clinger’s phiz sparks a quizEditor:Let's break the David Clinger situation down to a level that all can grasp with a quick quiz: 1. Professional cycling is mostly:A. A sportB. A businessC: A fun way to get a tan2. To pay bills a pro cycling team depends on:A. Donations from other

Ford-Basis Women's Cycling Team is officially announcing its roster for the 2006 season today. "I realized how late I was in posting our 2005 Ford-Basis team announcement, so I decided to be the first to post a 2006 announcement," says team director Nicole Freedman. "This legally binds our sponsors to another season, correct?" Five riders return to the Ford-Basis cycling team. Freedman (Boston, MA), the 2000 US Olympian and two-time U.S. national champion, continues to mentor the developing squad. "And this is how to wear a training bra," she has been heard to encourage after a race.

Joseba Beloki has ambitious plans for 2005

Team Ford-Basis

Valverde wins at Mallorca for the second day in a row

Voigt hangs on for the win

The break

Gerolsteiner chases

Marco Pantani: The Legend of a Tragic ChampionEdited by John Wilcockson For Immediate Release: On February 14, 2004, Italy’s most recent Tour de France champion Marco Pantani died alone in a hotel room at the Adriatic beach town of Rimini. He was only 34 years old. Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, who lost to Pantani in two stages of the 2000 Tour, said: “I had deep respect for Marco. Cycling has indeed lost a great champion and a great personality.” Some 30,000 fans attended the funeral, to remember a man who they affectionately nicknamed The Pirate for his bandanna-covered shaved

The Lion King has roared once already in 05, in Qatar

Valverde scores one for the home team

Tankink and Pozzato on the Poggio

PRESS RELEASE: Marco Pantani: The Legend of a Tragic Champion

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.Cultural respect and Maori tattoosEditor:Facial tattoos have specific meanings for Maori, and the designs are based on the spirituality of family and ancestors. Getting a moko knockoff in Argentina is about as culturally respectful as having the Stars and Stripes tattooed on your butt by

Editor’s note: In his new weekly web column, VeloNews European correspondent Andrew Hood takes you behind the headlines. This week he looks at Mario Cipollini’s comeback attempt, how Bobby Julich helped secure Dave Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde contracts at Team CSC, and Graeme Obree’s remarks on Lance Armstrong’s talk of making a run at the world hour record. Check back each Tuesday for more. Will the Lion King roar again?Mario Cipollini couldn’t have hoped for a better start to the 2005 season with his stage victory last week in the Tour of Qatar. After two lackluster seasons, a

Monterey, California — MotionBased Technologies and Sea Otter Classic, the most celebrated cycling festival in North America, have teamed up to provide athletes with detailed course descriptions to train for races. Riders simply strap on their GPS devices and they’re instantly empowered with online performance analysis and mapping. The 15th annual Sea Otter Classic will be held this year on April 14-17, 2005, at the Laguna Seca Recreation Area, Monterey, California. “We’re excited to partner with MotionBased Technologies,” says Frank Yohannan, president and CEO of Sea Otter Classic. “By

If I could go through it all again,the slender iron rungs of growing up,I would be as young as any,a child lostin unreality and loud music.   –Robert Traill Spence Lowell, Realities These crazy kids today, with their mouthy web sites and Maori tattoos. They got no respect, do they? And that stuff they call music – why, it’s just noise. There has been no end of the old viewing-with-alarm lately, thanks to the madcap antics of Matt DeCanio and David Clinger. Once clean-cut, happy young men, the kind a lucky team director could feel good about taking home to meet the sponsor, they

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.Webcor’s decision on Clinger’s tattoo is shockingEditor:I am shocked by Team Webcor's stand against David Clinger and his choice of "artistic expression.” (see Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood: Webcor gets a new look – one it's not happy with") I was surprised that a clean-cut,

Boulder, Colorado – Tuesday, February 8, at Boulder’s Flatirons Theater, Boulder-based cyclists star in “Pro: The Movie”. “Pro” is a feature-length film shot at the 2004 US Professional Road Cycling Championships in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Boulder riders Scott Moninger, Chris Wherry, Dan Schmatz, Michael Barry, Will Frischkorn, Mike Jones, Greg Henderson, Alex Candelario and Jonas Carney play substantial roles in a movie that offers an insider’s view of the biggest cycling event in North America. Racing legends Andy Hampsten (winner of the 1988 Tour of Italy), Nelson Vails (silver

TEMPE, Arizona - Do you believe that you can ride a bicycle the 494 miles from San Diego to Flagstaff, Arizona, in 24 hours? This year, the organizers of the Insight Race Across America aim to make everyone a believer. While history tells us that the Insight Race Across America (RAAM) is the same to ultra-distance cyclists as the Tour de France is to road racers, recent years have brought significant changes to the organization of the world's greatest ultra-cycling challenge. First was the Corporate Challenge that emerged in 2002, making it a realistic prospect for weekend warrior teams

1. What is RSS?RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is an easy way to keep up with your favorite news. An RSS feed contains headlines and links to full news stories. If you click an RSS link, you will see XML (or eXtensible Markup Language) code in your browser. This is to be expected, since you do not view RSS content through a browser. You view the headlines through an RSS news reader. 2. What are RSS Readers?RSS news readers are small software programs that aggregate RSS feeds and display the story information. They allow you to scan headlines from hundreds of news sources in one

Mancebo, seen here at the 2004 Tour of Germany, is looking to France this year.

Mancebo (r) with co-captain Alejandro Valverde at last weeks team presentation

Freire does it again

Discovery riders Mike Creed, Patrick McCarty, and Michael Barry look forward to the finale

Yellow jersey Cox takes a corner early on

The peloton passes the Abdul Samat, a former palace in downtown KL

Headed for home

A federal court jury in Minnesota last Friday concluded that a New York manufacturer violated the terms of a contract when the firm dropped Greg LeMond’s name from a line of mass-market bicycle accessories sold in Target stores. The jury awarded LeMond a total of $3.46 million dollars in what the three-time Tour de France winner said was a “very conservative” estimate of potential royalties that he would have earned had PTI Holdings Inc. properly marketed the brand and honored the contract for its full 10-year term. “I think it was a fair judgment,” LeMond told VeloNews Monday. “I mean,

Brown wins the final sprint

The peloton charges towards the line in the heat in Putra Jaya

A base jumper pops his chute over the start line at the base of the KL

Ryan Cox in the leaders jersey near the top of the first climb

Walters leads the chase over the first climb

The massive Putra Jaya mosque near the finish

Grinding

Raisin had a great ride and was the top finisher for Credit Agricole

Voeckler before the start of Thursdays stage at Qatar

The Once Were Warriors look didnt go over with Webcor team management

McEwen finally punches his way through to victory

Wow. File this week’s column under the “Stranger Than Fiction” heading. Or, following last week’s story about Matt DeCanio and the Ofoto-Sierra Nevada squad parting ways, maybe we should designate this as chapter 2 of “How to lose your job before ever toeing a start line with the team.” So, where to begin? When three-time NRC winner Chris Horner left the upstart domestic Webcor Builders squad to take his rightful place among the world’s elite in Europe, the first question many asked was, “What will happen to Webcor?” That question seemed to have been answered when Webcor announced that it

But Michaelsen got the big prize

Giroscopic Sports Management is pleased to present Team Biovail, which will be competing in road cycling events throughout North America in 2005. Team Biovail continues to build on an existing five-year franchise and is actually two distinct teams. The Elite Women's team focuses on key Pro-Am races in the U.S. and Canada while the Master Men's team will contest events primarily in Canada. Women's Elite Team: Newcomer Amanda Shaw, 2004 Ontario provincial ’cross champion, returning rider Anna Garnett, Jennifer Stephenson, Nanci Dodman and newcomer Tracey Vincze. Men's Masters

CSC swept the podium

American cyclist Will Frischkorn will moving into a team leadership role as he joins newly crowned national champion Ian Macgregor in heading up Team TIAA-CREF in 2005. Sponsored by Fortune 68 financial services company TIAA-CREF, the team begins its second season with a full slate of the country’s most exciting young up-and-coming riders. Frischkorn, who comes to TIAA-CREF after serving as a key teammate for Chris Horner at Saturn, is widely recognized as one of the country’s top talents. An accomplished rider at only 23, Frishkorn has won stages in the Ronde de L'isard and the Tour

The final circuit race

What we read and how we communicate have always been important elements in the evolvement of our sport. At the outset of professional road racing in the late nineteenth century, the editors at newspapers and magazines not only reported the events but they also dreamed up the races and put them on. The world’s very first long-distance road race, from Paris to Rouen along the length of the Seine valley, was sponsored in 1869 by a magazine called the Vélocipède Illustré. Another title, Véloce-Sport, organized the first Bordeaux-Paris classic in 1891, Le Petit Journal put on the inaugural

Tom Simpson on the cover of Sporting Cyclist

A sprint to the line at Genting

Cox was clearly not intimidated

The two leaders emerged from a shrinking lead group as the climb to Genting took its toll

Grajales managed fifth

Danielson

Barry

Cipo gets his first win in his new kit.

Thomas Voeckler and friend.

Michaelsen had some troubles Thursday, but his lead remained safe

PROFESSIONAL AND AMATUER ROAD CYCLISTS ROLL INTO MORGAN HILL TO COMPETE IN THE MORGAN HILL GRAND PRIXSpecialized Bicycle Components Creates a Road Race in its HometownMorgan Hill, Calif, - The Morgan Hill Grand Prix, Northern California’snewest and most eagerly-awaited professional and amateur road race, willtake place on April 10, 2005, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Between 300-500pro and amateur athletes, and approximately 2,000 spectators are expectedto attend.“It's really great to be involved in the creation of a local race,"says Mike Sinyard, Founder and President of Specialized

Yup, its a Panaria jersey crossing the line first.

Koji Fukushima

Brown grabs win No. 3 at Langkawi

Brett Lancaster leads out of the last corner, around 300 meters to the finish. Brown is sitting about 8th here, and still wins.

Herbolds riding skills were about the only thing we could document with a camera

Discovery mechanic Geoff Brown makes a few on-the-road adjustments