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The Mail Bag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 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.The frivolity continuesEditor:If a court — even a French one — sanctions a litigant for frivolously abusing the legal process, isn't the abuse compounded by continuing to pursue the matter? Just wondering. Deborah KleinSan Antonio,

Calling Lance Armstrong “an authentic champion” but a selfish one, Liberty Seguros team manager Manolo Saiz has declared that he doesn't want to see the 32-year-old American win an unprecedented sixth Tour de France. Saiz, who managed the Spanish ONCE team until the company pulled out of the sport last year after 11 years' involvement, feels that former race greats such as five-time winners Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault were cut from very different cloth than Armstrong. "Thanks to his experience, his mental strength and his nose for racing, I would say that Armstrong has an 80 percent

Italian Danilo Di Luca (Saeco) intends to sue Tour de France organizers for barring him because he is under investigation in Italy for doping offences. Di Luca was among 14 riders charged by Italian police earlier this year. "I'm going to sue the Tour de France and ask for considerable damages," Di Luca told Reuters after returning to Italy from Liège, where the Tour will start on Saturday. "I decided to take legal action after the meeting with race director Jean Marie Leblanc. Not being able to ride the Tour de France has caused huge damage to my image. I've been working hard for two

Roll call of past Tour de France winners: 1903 Maurice Garin (F) 1904 Henri Cornet (F) 1905 Louis Trousselier (F) 1906 Rene Pottier (F) 1907 Lucien Petit-Breton (F) 1908 Lucien Petit-Breton (F) 1909 Francois Faber (LUX) 1910 Octave Lapize (F) 1911 Gustave Garrigou (F) 1912 Odile Defraye (B) 1913 Philippe Thys (B) 1914 Philippe Thys (B) Stopped because of WWI 1919 Firmin Lambot (B) 1920 Philippe Thys (B) 1921 Leon Scieur (B) 1922 Firmin Lambot (B) 1923 Henri Pelissier (F) 1924 Ottavio Bottechia (I) 1925 Ottavio Bottechia (I) 1926 Lucien Buysse (B) 1927 Nicolas Frantz (LUX) 1928 Nicolas

Five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong fended off questions Thursday about doping allegations two days ahead of the race’s prologue time trial. The 32-year-old American, who will saddle up for Saturday’s 6.1km time trial without the yellow jersey in a bid to win a record sixth crown, said he had little comment to make about the book, “LA Confidentiel - les secrets des Lance Armstrong”, which cites several former colleagues who allege that he has taken the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO). One of the book’s co-authors, David Walsh, was present ,and Armstrong reiterated

BMC, the leading, high-end Swiss brand, has developed a new time-trial cycle for Tyler Hamilton to use during the Tour de France. Because seconds can often mean the difference between victory and defeat in the Tour de France, BMC has spared no expense in making the best materials available to Hamilton & Co. Together with leading Swiss aerodynamics and ergonomics technicians and engineers, we have developed a radical riding machine, blazing new paths at the same time. The aim was not only to set new records in terms of aerodynamics. We also wanted to use revolutionary technologies in the

A confident Tyler Hamilton says he believes he can win the Tour de France. “No question, I’m here to win. I’m here with a strong team, we’re motivated and they expect me to do well. There’s more pressure, but I like that,” he said. “ When asked if he could be the ride to topple Lance Armstrong, Hamilton said he would give it a try. “Lance will be stronger than last year, so we have to be stronger than last year,” said the Man from Marblehead. “Lance and I are friends off the bike, but on the bike we’re competitors.” Hamilton said Armstrong’s troubles in 2003 give him and other rivals

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Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: Velo citron

PRESS RELEASE - BMC has a new secret weapon for Tyler Hamilton and Team Phonak

PRESS RELEASE - BMC has a new secret weapon for Tyler Hamilton and Team Phonak

PRESS RELEASE - BMC has a new secret weapon for Tyler Hamilton and Team Phonak

PRESS RELEASE - BMC has a new secret weapon for Tyler Hamilton and Team Phonak

Hi Bob-I have had some bad luck with a new bicycle purchase and was wonderingif there is a type of Lemon Law with bicycles similar to those concerningthe purchase of motor vehicles?Thanks,M.B. Dear M.B.,So, you got a lemon, huh? It is hard to contemplate this question (orfor that matter, life) without mentioning that hackneyed, homespun advicethat if life gives you... no, no, I will refrain. Lemon laws were designed to protect consumers who may not be able toassess possible defects in an automobile prior to the purchase. The inabilityof consumers to obtain fair and prompt redress for

Euskaltel’s Gorka Gonzalez has been barred from riding the Tour de France, which starts in Liège on Saturday, after a pre-race blood screening test on Thursday. Gonzalez was the only rider among the 189 riders from 21 teams registered for the July 3-25 race to raise suspicion. The rest were declared fit to race. Pre-race screening controls test the volume of red blood cells. If the hematocrit level is above the permitted threshold of 50, a rider is barred from racing for two weeks and will undergo further tests. The hematocrit test is merely an indicator of doping, though offers no

BOULDER, CO, --Tim Blumenthal, executive director of theInternational Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), has been picked froma pool of more than 500 applicants to lead The Bikes Belong Coalition.Bikes Belong is the industry trade group dedicated to putting more peopleon bikes more often. Blumenthal will begin work as the organization's executivedirector in September.Blumenthal has served as IMBA's chief staffer since 1993, followingfive years as a board member. When he began as IMBA's first fulltime employee,the organization had a $70,000 annual budget and fewer than 1,000

Gilberto approaching Tour de France. He reveals his favorite for theoverall classification, his ambitions, and his “secret weapon”: “I’ve muchmore energy than last year”Q- Gilberto, this year’s Tour is different for you compared tolast year. Then you’d triumphed at the Giro and had clear ambitions todo well in the overall. This year?A- ”I’m still convinced I’ve got the right characteristics tobe a contender at the Tour. Naturally the experience of last year taughtme a lot and I’m trying to use it all this year”.Q- What are your objectives?A- ”I’m going to start the race quietly and prudently.

The Mail Bag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 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.Drugs driving this fan away from sportEditor:I'm a long-time Canadian athlete who competed in triathlons for over 10 years before switching to cycling. It's the most exciting sport I've ever done, and I've turned into a huge fan. Over the past

Tour de France chief Jean-Marie Leblanc said Tuesday that he doubted claims in a recently-published book which alleges that five-time winner Lance Armstrong has been involved in doping. "I'm skeptical," Leblanc told AFP of the book "La Confidential - The Secrets of Lance Armstrong" which alleges the 32-year-old American has used the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin) since his recovery from cancer in 1998. The allegations caused such a storm that Armstrong's U.S. Postal team launched a futile attempt to have a note inserted on the book cover instructing readers of its supposed

CSC and Phonak have both announced their teams for the Tour De France. And, Boy, Oh, Boy are we happy to be apart of helping both teams perform at their best! ZIPP Speed Weaponry is proud to be a part of the biggest bike event ever. We can see it all now, like a window on the world, the stage wins and the glory of combat as the winners of each team step up into the light. And we can see them trying out the best wheels ever: ZIPP 202, 303 and 404's for the every day rigors of the road and the ZIPP 909's for the rough Time Trial stages. We are proud to be the supplier of these wheels and

Tuesday's EuroFile: Leblanc voices support for Armstrong

PRESS RELEASE - Phonak and CSC set up teams for the Tour De France

Zipp 303s

Zipp 404s

Zipp 909s

June has been a little hectic. We started out the month in the Alps previewing the Tour de France climbs. Our training camp finished just in time for the challenging one day Classique des Alps race, which I decided to sit out, since I had done so much riding in the days proceeding. But it was a successful race for our team, with four Phonak guys in the top 10. My teammate Oscar Pereiro won, which was a big victory for the entire organization. So we headed to the Dauphine Libere on a high note, which started a day later. My personal goal was to try and test myself as well as some new

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 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.A Millar’s tale: It just doesn’t fitEditor:I hope it's not true, just more silly gossip. We love David Millar here. The archetypal “whingeing pom,” who tells it like it is and moans when it hurts. The great British hope, who we all expect to

Tyler Tunes: Getting ready to ride

When Tyler Hamilton’s name is mentioned as a potential winner of theTour de France, the suggestion is usually followed by the qualification:But he’s too nice. That’s not to say that nice guys never win the Tour. For example, there are few cyclists as gentlemanly as Miguel Induráin,and didn’t he win the race five times? The question of “niceness” comesup with the well-mannered Hamilton because people do not see the same killerinstinct in him as they do in defending champion Lance Armstrong. Hamilton is a late developer, a little like Induráin. In hisfirst six Tours, the great Spanish rider

Sitting in a plush hotel lobby several hours before the final stageof the Dodge Tour de Georgia, CSC’s Bobby Julich is acutely aware thathe’s just one flat 75-mile ride away from a well-earned rest. It’s beena tough but successful spring campaign for Julich, and tomorrow he’ll beback at his home in Reno, Nevada, taking a week off the bike with teammateand good friend Jens Voigt. If all goes as planned today, Julich will finish the Tour de Georgiafourth overall behind race leaders Lance Armstrong, Voigt and Chris Horner.Coming into the weeklong race, his CSC team was aiming to ride in

For a guy who spends the month of July under the klieg lights of the Tourde France, Jan Ullrich’s preparations for the Tour are largely unknown.In fact, apart from a plethora of pre-season interviews arranged at hisT-Mobile team’s Spanish training camp back in January, followed by hisonly pre-Tour clash with Lance Armstrong reported en masse by the Germanmedia at the Tour of Murcia in March, Ullrich’s plans for his annual July rendezvous with the Tour have mostly fallen below the radar. The 30-year-old German looked good at his training camp, having alreadyspent two months of alternating his

The harder and longer the race, the more Levi Leipheimer likes it. And the 30- year-old Rabobank rider thinks he’ll really like the 2004 Tour de France. With the first serious mountains not coming until the climbing finish to La Mongie in stage 12, Leipheimer figures he’ll be firing on all cylinders just in time for the Tour’s decisive moments. “Each grand tour I’ve done, I’ve always been better in the third week,” Leipheimer told VeloNews. “It’s a strong point for me and I like it if the final week of the Tour is the most difficult. It favors me.” Leipheimer has made a mark for himself

Hamilton - Too nice to beat Lance?

On the bike, Hamilton is as tough as they come.

Hamilton - Too nice to beat Lance?

Hamilton - Too nice to beat Lance?

Vande Velde may be headed back to the Tour

Ullrich has spent much of 2004 training outside of the public eye.

Voeckler tops in France

Leipheimer - He loves a tough race

Leipheimer will be Rabobank's sole GC man at the '04 Tour.

Prokop didn't care for the course — but he won anyway

I’ve heard it said that it doesn’t matter if you win by one secondor five minutes, so long as you win. At the end of the day, being victoriousis more important than your margin of victory; but no one involved in LanceArmstrong’s bid to win a sixth Tour de France wants to experience anythinglike last year. Lance’s preparation for the 2004 Tour de France has beenfocused on building a substantial lead over the competition; we have nointention of repeating the “too close to call” scenarios from last summer. In a stage race, distancing yourself from your rivals is critical forreducing stress and

Coach Carmichael: Tailoring nutrition to training

Carmichael and Armstrong have put the emphasis on training quality rather than quantity.

Peat pounds the tricky course

Jonnier: Second no longer

Jonnier does the double

Although the official announcement of the USA Olympic track squad wasn’t made until Friday morning, that didn’t stop TIAA-CREF from throwing a celebratory gathering for team rider/manager Colby Pearce in Denver on Wednesday evening, 36 hours ahead of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s approval of USA Cycling’s nominations. Pearce will contest the Olympic points race based on his third-place finish in the overall World Cup standings. His highlight of the 2004 season came in the season’s final World Cup in Sydney, where he took a gold medal. A bronze in the fourth round of the World Cup also

When Lance Armstrong finished the 2003 Tour de France, even though he wonthe race for the fifth year in a row, he was full of doubts. Not much went right for him last year. His marriage broke up; he headed into the Tour with a gastro-intestinal infection picked up from his son; he developed sciatica from using new cleats in his shoes; and then he fell in the mass pileup on stage 1. And that was just the beginning. After that came the rubbing-brake-pad incident on the Col du Galibier, his near-crash at Gap, dehydration in the first time trial, and his fall at the foot of Luz-Ardiden. That he

New Graham Watson book documents Armstrong career in photos

Jersey winners Cooke, Armstrong, Virenque and Menchov on the 2003 final podium.

Gerard Vroomen, Phil White and Ivan Basso in the MIT wind tunnel.

Riis and Basso study the data.

Colby Pearce and Colby Pearce

Armstrong - Ready for No. 6

June 25, 2002USA Cycling's board of directors named retail and food industry executive Gerard Bisceglia as the organization’s new chief executive officer on Tuesday, replacing Lisa Voight who left the post in May. Bisceglia, 52, most recently president of Shogun Express, a restaurant management firm in Scottsdale, Arizona, was national sales manager for the Southland Corporation’s 7-Eleven chain when the firm ventured into cycling sponsorship in the 1980s. Bisceglia served as a trustee on the board of U.S. PRO from 1997 to 2001. During a Tuesday conference call, the USA Cycling board

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 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 it ain't so, DavidVeloNews,It is sad to hear that David Millar has used banned substances (see“Paper reports that Millar admits to doping”). I was really rooting for him when his chain skipped in last year's Tour. The fact that he admitted

Just in time for his attempt at a sixth consecutiveTour win, Rodale is set to release in July “Lance Armstrong: Images ofa Champion,” a 208-page volume chronicling the Texan’s extraordinary career,with images from renowned cycling photographer Graham Watson and photocaptions and commentary provided by Armstrong. While Watson’s decade of race photos takes center stage, the true gemscan be found in revealing testimonials written by five-time Tour winnersMiguel Induráin and Eddy Merckx, as well as U.S. Postal team director Johan Bruyneel. The photo album focuses on Armstrong’s

YELLOW JERSEYThe yellow jersey — or maillot jaune — is worn by the overallrace leader, the rider who has covered the overall distance in the leastamount of cumulative time. Time bonuses (12 seconds for winning a roadstage, six seconds for winning an intermediate sprint) are deducted, andtime penalties (for infractions like dangerous riding or accepting pushesfrom spectators on the climbs) are added to riders’ stage times beforecalculating their GC (general classification) times.A major change this year is that there will be a limit on the time lostby any team (and consequently by each rider

"I am afraid to add up all of the money we have spenton the development of this bike,” says Phil White, one of the two foundingowners of Cervélo. White is speaking about the R2.5, the carbon bikeon which Team CSC won three Tour stages in 2003, including Tyler Hamilton’sepic solo stage 16 win. Those stage wins, and even the presence of Cervéloat all on a top Division 1 pro team, may be a surprise to those accustomedto seeing Tour victories only from bigger companies or long-establishednames. To White and his partner, Gerard Vroomen, however, it is merelythe culmination of many years of hard

Gutierrez and Hamilton at the Dauphine

The Mail Bag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 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.Do Americans never cheat?Editor:Is it my almost-European persecution mania or am I right in the impression that some of your correspondents believe that European cyclists are all dirty drug users and all American riders are clean,

Lennard Zinn does it again! With the release of "Zinn’s Cycling Primer: Maintenance Tips and Skill Building for Cyclists" American cycling's übergeek brings our favorite pastime to a new level.Zinn,the author of the best-selling "Zinnand the Art of Mountain-Bike Maintenance" and "Zinnand the Art of Road Bike Maintenance," takes a comprehensive approachwith an understanding that successful, enjoyable cycling depends on a hostof factors, including a well-tuned bicycle, a balanced and healthy bodyand the proper interface between the two.Zinn takes the reader through the essentials of bicycle

The late Charles Bukowski and friend

Still Postal's main worry

Six returning riders from last year’s Tour de France team will line up for U.S. Postal Service to support Lance Armstrong in his quest to win a record sixth Tour. There’s an added emphasis on strength in the mountains as Armstrong will be looking to get all the support he can in a decisive second half of the race, which starts July 3 in Liège, Belgium. “We will have a very strong team in the mountains, stronger than last year,” said U.S. Postal Service sport director Johan Bruyneel in a team press release. “We have six riders from last year and two new guys. Lance is confident he has a

Aiming for six.

Aiming for six.

French in better times.

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) banned Australian cyclist and former world junior champion Mark French for life on Monday over doping offenses, including the trafficking of banned substances. French, 19, was found guilty by the Court of Arbitration for Sport last month of trafficking gluco-corticosteroid and equine growth hormone and was handed a two-year suspension. Trafficking, however, attracts a lifetime ban under AOC rules. The AOC noted that the lifetime ban, the first time such a penalty has been imposed, could be reduced to a minimum of eight years if French gave evidence

A French judge on Monday rejected a bid by attorneys representing Lance Armstrong to insert a denial of accusations of doping published in a book released last week. Armstrong, 33, seeking a record sixth consecutive Tour de France in July, has vowed to take legal action over the new book "L.A. Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong" which alleges he used banned drugs. Armstrong's lawyer Christian Charriere-Bournazel told AFP on Monday he had filed an appeal of the ruling. "I am very disappointed," he said. "I don't share the court's view." Charriere-Bournazel said he hoped the