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MTB News and Notes: Jeeps, Web sites and Whistler

MTB News and Notes: Jeeps, Web sites and Whistler

Pinotti

Healthy... and fast.

Chrissy got her groove on

Jeanson

Wow, the silly season is certainly upon us again with a veritable truckloadof road and mountain bike races gearing-up just about everywhere. In fact,I just got back from a solid weekend of riding and racing in Moab, Utahwith VeloNews' own Jason Sumner and Jon "SlimJim" Stierwalt. Sure, we were primarily there on assignment to cover the 2003 Tour ofCanyonlands event (check out Jason's race reports earlier this week righthere at velonews.com and also in our upcoming issue #8), but you can'tfault us for also sneaking in a day of freeriding on the amazing PoisonSpider/Portal trails. We even

Danielson

It always seemed like a natural fit for mountain biking: the Jeep King of the Mountain series. But until now you had to be involved in snow sports to wear one of those crowns. That could change come this summer’s latest rendition of the KOM, when the fat-tire sect may be battling for a total prize purse of $100,000 during a three-race series, which will receive three hours of television coverage. And while some of the i’s and t’s still need to be dealt with – mostly regarding scheduling – this is a done deal according to Eclipse TV’s Denise Lavaroni. “It’s definitely happening,” said

Vaughters

After being stuck on replay for three days, the Tour of the Basque Country changed the script in Thursday’s 171-km fourth stage. The five-climb stage didn’t end in a bunch sprint and there wasn’t a new leader, as has been the plot line since Monday. With the overall fight coming down to a nail-biter in Friday’s dual-stage finale, the leading protagonists didn’t want things to get too far out of control. Lampre’s Marco Pinotti scored a huge win after going on a mega solo break to finish just three seconds ahead of the surging peloton while Kelme’s Alejandro Valverde led the bunch across just

Work, work, work, work, work... it never ends for us.

Tech report: Two scoops in every box

Tech report: Two scoops in every box

Tech report: Two scoops in every box

Tech report: Two scoops in every box

J.H.K. is A.W.O.L.

MTB News and Notes: Jeeps, Web sites and Whistler

Jeanson wins the day's only real race

Flanders/Ghent/Roubaix Image Files - 2005

Should I stay or should I go? A delay at the men's start.

Flanders/Ghent/Roubaix Image Files - 2005

Neben and other T-Mobiles fell victim to poor marshalling

Flanders/Ghent/Roubaix Image Files - 2005

Fraser becomes riders' spokeman

Flanders/Ghent/Roubaix Image Files - 2005

And the 'winner' is...

Flanders/Ghent/Roubaix Image Files - 2005

Gord Fraser, Vaughters and road race director Terry Tupper discuss safety

Wauter

Another stage at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and another bunch sprint? Yes, and another photo finish in a race in what's usually a shoot-out between the mountain goats. This time it was Kelme's Alejandro Valverde who had the thicker tires to snatch the win away from Gerolsteiner's Davide Rebellin in Wednesday's 191km stage from Plentzia to Vitoria. Gerolsteiner's Fabian Wegmann was already pumping his arm in celebration, thinking that Rebellin had won when Valverde came from six riders back to score his second win this season. "We went all day thinking it would come down to a sprint, so I was

Flanders/Ghent/Roubaix Image Files - 2005

I'm sure there are going to be two very different points of view regarding what happened in Wednesday's opening stage of the Sea Otter Classic. Some will say that a bunch of whiney professional cyclists just ruined the sport, and alienated sponsors by protesting a so-called “dangerous” course. Others, meanwhile, will say that the riders finally put aside their differences and acted in a unified fashion by standing up to race promoters who have little regard to riders’ safety, and only want to impress sponsors. Well, as a whiney professional, here’s my take on the matter. The problem today

Flanders/Ghent/Roubaix Image Files - 2005

Enlargement is big enough to set as a desktop background

Flanders/Ghent/Roubaix Image Files - 2005

Vogels, Klier and Boonen

Flanders/Ghent/Roubaix Image Files - 2005

Vogels: Tough guy at work

Flanders/Ghent/Roubaix Image Files - 2005

The wind broke things apart

Ghent map

Cipollini: Before the fall

Roubaix Map

Knaven takes a gamble.

Zabel

Knaven gets some company

Tafi

Mid-race stop: riders, race officials and promoters discuss the decision to neutralize the course

Flanders/Ghent/Roubaix Image Files - 2005

The weather in Belgium has turned more seasonable. In other words, if it hasn’t been raining, it’s been really windy, and sometimes both. The north wind cuts through every fabric know to man; chilling me to the bone. This morning I rode in a Windtex thermal jacket with a Windtex thermal vest over the top. I was still cold! For those of you that saw the Tour of Flanders live (I was not lucky enough to see it), you have an idea of what the weather has been like. The irony of this climate is that in training one must always wear thermal clothing, but only shorts and jersey in races. I do not

FDJeux.com’s Carlos Da Cruz won a sprint finish to take the first stage of a star-studded Circuit de la Sarthe in Fontenay le Comte, France, on Tuesday. In a race featuring American four-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and Germany's Jan Ullrich, Da Cruz stole the limelight after 188km ride from Nantes, taking the leader's jersey in the process. The 28-year-old Frenchman crossed the line in 5:10:13, beating Russian Alexei Sivakov in a sprint to the line. The rest of the main peloton arrived almost six minutes later, with Ullrich placing 22nd at 5:52, and Armstrong finishing

Editor:To Scott Moninger: You are a champion, you have always been a champion,and this decision just proves even "clean" champions can get screwed. Howmuch proof do you have to present and demonstrate your absolute innocence?How ironic that someone who has always strongly supported drug testingand USADA should be the one who is shafted by the very organization hehas championed (see "Moningergets one-year suspension.") Keep your head high; you have been wronged, and those of us who followcycling know it. We want to see you back on the course. S. Lee Yay, UCI; boo, USADAEditor:Mandatory

Vicioso takes Stage 2 at Basque

He's back in the saddle again...

Armstrong is coming on form... Ullrich will trail for a while.

Iban Mayo ended Euskaltel's drought after he won the opening stage of the 43rd Vuelta al Pais Vasco in northern Spain on Monday while CSC's Tyler Hamilton finished third. It's the first win of the season for Mayo and the first for his Euskaltel-Euskadi team, still hoping to earn a wild-card bid to race in the 2003 Tour de France. The usually high-flying Euskaltel team has been quiet this spring, out-classed by other teams hoping for a Tour bid such as Domina Vacanze, Ag2r, Milaneza-MSS and Brioches La Boulangere. One win won't get the orange-clad Basques into the Tour, but a solid week at

I don't know what to say. I guess I should just stick my head in a hole and not say anything. But, I'll blabber, just for you. How in the world I could just let 1-2-3 Saturn combo ride away must seem a mystery to the velo world? No, I'm not so stupid as to just let them go away thinking they'd come back in time for dinner. It went like this: Our first objective was to get David Clinger in secure in the KOM jersey. All he needed was to win the first KOM to wrap it up 100 percent. Our second objective was to win the stage. This was most likely to be Clinger or Danny Pate. So, off I went

Vaughters' view: Nice guys finish... uh... fourth?

Camenzind: Out for three weeks

Ullrich

Bettini gives chase

Eki' in pursuit

Pieri

Building an insurmountable lead

O'Grady

Jeanson on a long training ride... er... solo break

Noxt exciting, but really impressive

Solo win... with lots of back-up

Russian Oleg Grishkine delivered a huge win for the Navigators in Sunday's 25th GP Rennes in France. Griskhine held off Andris Naudzus (CCC Polsat) and Jeremy Hunt (Oktos) to win the first race in Europe this year for the Navs. Griskhine's win also serves as a repeat for the Navigators, who won GP Rennes last year with Kirk O'Bee. The 157.5km circuit course ended in a bunch sprint and the Russian scored the victory for Navigators, now on their second tour of Europe this spring. Teammate Henk Vogels came across seventh after just missing victory in Friday's Route Adelie. The GP Rennes was

The red-hot run of Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski continued on a sunny Sunday in Moab, Utah, as the RLX Ralph Lauren rider picked up his second straight win of the 2003 mountain bike season, taking the cross country at the Tour of Canyonlands. In the women’s pro race it was SoBe-Cannondale’s Kerry Barnholt grabbing a runaway victory, besting her nearest competitor by almost six minutes. Two weeks removed from his stage race win at the Nova Desert Classic in Arizona, Horgan-Kobelski shot down a field that included reigning U.S. national short track champion Todd Wells, and the Specialized duo of Jay

Primed and ready: Fans turn out in mass for the Tour of Flanders

Some day this is gonna work. Durand goes on the attack

On Saturday, the eve of the 87th Tour of Flanders, some of Johan Museeuw’s fans had already taken to the rough streets that define the gritty spring classic race in northern Belgium. On hallowed climbs including the Old Kwaremont and the infamous 22-percent Koppenberg, the buzz had already begun. The crisp, sunny day brought out scores of supporters wearing their favorite team jerseys and riding their own bikes on the same cobblestone roads that will decide round 2 of the UCI World Cup on Sunday. Many had the same question on their minds: Can Museeuw win Flanders for a fourth time?

It’s not the biggest series in the country, or the most prestigious. But with stops in legendary fat-tire towns like Crested Butte and Moab, plus high-alpine beauties like Steamboat Springs and Snowmass, the nine-race Mountain States Cup certainly holds its own. This year’s series, which is actually a merger of the old Spirit of the Rockies and Mountain States Cup, got rolling Saturday just outside Moab, Utah, with day one of the Tour of Canyonlands. That brought the downhill, contested on the rocky slopes of the Moab Rim Trail, a 1.5-mile track that’s more slickrock than dirt. The day’s pro

Tour of Flanders Preview: Can Museeuw do it?