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Is he aiming for another?

Casagrande at last year's Tour of Switzerland

Julien Absalon's gold medal bike was among host of celeb' rides in Friedrichshafen,

EuroBike: By the sea, by the beautiful sea

EuroBike: By the sea, by the beautiful sea

EuroBike: By the sea, by the beautiful sea

EuroBike: By the sea, by the beautiful sea

Brown found himself running the steep climb early on in the race after getting stuck behind slower riders, but later in the race could power up it in his monster gear

Legend Ned Overend chose to run the slightly heavier than a SID World Cup, but much stiffer and Motion Control equipped, '05 RockShox Reba

Maverick riders Abby Hippley and Ariel Lindsley were spotted riding Maverick American's new SC 32 race/ride fork. It features 125mm of travel and can be on-the-fly adjusted down to 80mm for climbing

Giant-Pearl Izumi rider Jared Rando was seen running the long-time ultra secretive Michelin 'System'. To date, no one outside of Michelin techs have seen was lurks inside this self-sealing, semi-tubeless downhill tire system

Held at pen-point Maxxis tire developer Chris Wyatt revealed the prototype tires on the Luna riders' bikes will be called 'ADVantage' and will offer higher volume and agressive tread patterns for loose terrain. Vanlandigham and Dunalp both rode them

Missy 'The Missile' put in a lightning-fast qualifying run, but some course tape delayed her arrival to the final run finish lin

The Colombian government and its national Olympic committee announced plans to appeal the disqualification of track cyclist Maria Luisa Calle Williams after she tested positive for a stimulant following the women’s points race. Calle Williams was stripped of her bronze medal in the event after testing positive for the stimulant Heptaminol. The bronze medal was then awarded to American Erin Mirabella, the only U.S. podium spot in an Olympic track event this year. Colombia earned just one other medal in the games, a bronze won by Mabel Mosquera in the 53kg category of women's weightlifting.

Hamilton at the Tour

The loose gravel start of the short track required the front row to 'dig in' to avoid wheelspin. Looked just like the start of a 250 main moto

Hydration packs might not be the coolest pro accessory but the Hydrapak Air Scoop Team is the sleakest option available with its customizable outer flap

Shonny Vanlandingham turned her Vetta computer into this minature shrine to The Artist Formerly Known As Prince for little on-trail motivation

Adam Craig chose to run a stock '04 Giant singlespeed frameset ($500) and a 40x16 gear in the short track

Talk about keeping yourself occupied during your race....

Travis Brown also chose to race a single speed. His Trek 9.8 Elite hardtail came eqquiped with a wild assortment of parts including this Russian titanium Sibex fork (www.sibexsports.com)and 34x14 gearing

Both Craig and Brown ran Sibex titanium forks. Craig with the disc brake version and Brown with the canti version

Sibex Sports's Scott Mares showed his clean-looking Cossack cyclocross bike. At only $1200 for frame and fork, this Russian-made titanium rig seems like a steal

The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and Museum is excited to announce the2004 INDUCTEES TO THE MOUNTAIN BIKE HALL OF FAME & MUSEUM.They are as follows;Matt Hebberd-PioneersPat Follet and Tom Spiegel-PromotionKurt Loheit-AdvocacyPaul Thomasberg-IndustryTheir biographies are listed below.They join fellow mountain bike legends who are all listed at mtnbikehalloffame.com.Plan to attend the 17th Annual Mountain Bike Hall of Fame InductionCeremony in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 7th, 2004 at 6:30 P.M. The ceremonyis held during the annual Interbike Trade Show which is located at theSand's Expo and

Olympic Complex walkway.

The Mail Bag 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.It's more than medalsEditors,Stephen Burke claims to be mystified by Stuart O'Grady's block in thefinal lap of the Olympic Madison race (see Burke’s letter “O'Grady blockedBrits in Madison” Friday’sMailbag). Well mate, it shouldn't be too hard to work that one out. Aa any Aussiewill

The Closing Ceremonies.

Main map

More from the Closing Ceremonies.

Danielson showed his stuff on Mt. Evans

It's all over. Party time.

The men's 50-rider field...

Bigmap

...which only briefly contained Hesjedal.

Sauser, with broken chain in hand, was out early as well.

Absalon's winning ride.

Hermida got all choked up...

...talking about the crash that almost cost him a medal.

Crotia's No. 1 high jumper (she didn't win).

The Olympic flame above the stadium entrance.

A fountain in the Olympic Complex.

Haven and Tyler Hamilton and that souvenir they picked up in Athens

Not a bad day's haul: Dede gets silver, Tyler gold and Bobby grabs a bronze

With the Olympics done I finally got around to emptying out the digicam from the last few days. Below you’ll find a sampling of sights from the men’s cross-country, the final night of track and field and scenes from the Closing Ceremonies and the main Olympic Complex.

Lots of interesting architecture in this place.

Growing suggestions by critics before the Athens Games that IOC president Jacques Rogge would falter in his attempt to carry out his promised war on doping in the Olympics have been proved wrong. The 62-year-old former surgeon did more than wage a war - he oversaw a massacre that will be felt for years by those athletes who remain convinced that cheating and drug taking is the way to gold. While the 20-plus victims might have spilled tears instead of blood as they queued up to file out of the athletes' village in disgrace, their Olympic futures were dead and buried. Greek sprint idols

Mirabella in the points race

Three-up

Kabush

Minnaar

Pruitt had a helluva margin

In this case, it is about the bike.

Seamus McGrath cracked the top 10 in ninth

Little Mig cracked, period; he would not finish

A flag-waving Absalon celebrates his triumph

Wells got gapped on the start loop but finished 19th

Absalon paid homage to his late father at the finish

Wells

Absalon doling out the pain on the descents ...

Vanlandingham all by her lonesome

... and through the woods

Kabush cracks a cold one

Hermida and Brentjens battled for the silver . . .

Carter takes the risks – and the win

. . . and Hermida won

Kinter shows her heels to the field

Brentjens had to settle for bronze

The medalists in the final cycling event of the 2004 Athens Olympics

Julien Absalon gave France something to cheer about

And he gave the credit to his late father

Jose Antonio Hermida took the silver

Bart Brentjens collected the bronze

Liam Killeen gutted it out for fifth

Thomas Frischknecht had a bad start, then fought his way to seventh

The Mail Bag 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.Olympics coverage much worse than Tour TV Editor:Having read your mailbag and other cycling forums with all the whining about Al, Bob, Phil and Paul during the coverage of the 2004 Tour de France, I found the comments quite comical after hearing some of the butchered commentary during

Mary McConneloug

Frischkorn bundles up for the brisk stage

The last three weeks Paolo Bettini and Davide Rebellin have done some serious racing - especially Bettini, who has competed in the Olympics on top of the three World Cups. The Championships of Zürich was the last of the World Cups until the two final weekends in October - Paris Tours and Tour of Lombardy. Rebellin and Bettini have been dueling for the lead the last few weeks, and Bettini is slowly tugging Rebellin’s leader’s jersey from his shoulders, consistently placing in front of him in the races. Zürich is a tough race with one large rolling loop and then four hilly 40km loops. The