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After repeatedly hinting at it during the world championships and World Cup finals, Nicolas Vouilloz made it official Friday, announcing his retirement from professional downhilling. In a news release posted on his Web site, www.NicolasVouilloz.com, the 26-year-old Frenchman said he wanted to focus more attention on product development, rally car racing, and possibly starting a family with his longtime girlfriend Sandrine. Vouilloz also said that he plans on competing in downhill marathon events like those of the Megavalanche series, where runs typically exceed an hour in length. Vouilloz

Three's a charm - Head-to-head against Zabel, Cipo' left no doubts.

Sevilla in Gold -- Friday was a day to relax.

Sevilla

The day was marked by another early escape.

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something in the pages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.com that causes you to wantto write us, drop us a line.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to this address, you are consenting to the publication of your letter.Short and to the pointRe: Chris Doig's letter. (see"But does he know the words?" in " Thursday's Mail bag ").You turd. How you can mention 9/11 and bicycle racing in the same sentence bewilders me.Ed BeaudetAustin, Texas Guido is not taking a roster spotChris Doig (USCF

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something in thepages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.com that causesyou to want to write us, drop us a line.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to thisaddress, you are consenting to the publication of your letter.Trenti not unusualEditor:People are complaining about the Guido Trenti situation, but let usnot forget this is hardly an unprecedented situation. Max Sciandri is adual citizen of England and Italy. I remember him saying he took out aBritish license because he knew he would not get

Small amounts of human growth hormone and testosterone were among the bannedproducts seized by French customs officials from the car of Edita Rumsas,wife of Lithuania's Tour de France third-placed finisher Raimondas, theFrench newspaper L'Equipe reported Thursday. Edita Rumsas has been held in prison since being picked-up on July28 - the day of the final stage of the Tour de France - while her husbandhas refused to return to France to answer questions over the affair inwhich he claimed the products were for his mother-in-law. However L'Equipe now reports that Rumsas' wife

Jonathan Boyer, the first American to participate in the Tour de France, appeared in a Salinas, California, courtroom Thursday and entered guilty pleas to 10 felony counts of child molestation. During a scheduled arraignment, the 46-year-old Boyer pleaded guilty to seven counts of lewd acts with a child and three counts of penetration by foreign object in a case involving a single unnamed girl. Seaside police arrested Boyer on May 16 after the now-16-year-old girl told them Boyer had sexually molested her beginning when she was 11. At the time, Boyer posted $300,000 cash bail and was

Heras timed his move to perfection.

Heras was alone for the last 3km.

Sevilla didn't win this battle, but so far, he's winning the war

Simoni animated the stage.

Working man -- Vande Velde has been there when it counts

Heras timed his move perfectly

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something in thepages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.com that causesyou to want to write us, drop usa line.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to thisaddress, you are consenting to the publication of your letter.Why Guido?Hello:Just read that U.S. Cycling has appointed an Italian to the U.S. squadfor the world's just because he happens to have a U.S. license. (see"U.S. names world'sroad squad"). No wonder U.S. Cycling is in such ill repute. Theycan't even find U.S. citizens to put

Trentin wins.

Trentin wins.

Sevilla.

The Postal team and the rest of the peloton took a moment to remember the events of a year ago.

Zarrabeitia keeps the jersey in ONCE's hands.

USA Cycling on Tuesday released the U.S. team full roster for the upcoming2002 World Road Cycling Championships, Oct. 8-13, in Zolder, Belgium.Thirteen discretionary nominations were added to an earlier list ofautomatic slots released last week. The 25 athletes nominated earned theirberths on the World Championships team based on winning national road competitiontitles earlier this season and for consistent, outstanding results in internationalcompetition.The elite men's road race team, with the largest delegation of athletes(7 men), will be led by Domo-Farm Frites’ Fred Rodriquez. Among

Sea Otter Classic co-founders Rick Sutton and Frank Yohannan on Tuesday announced the formation of a new board of advisors, a step the two promoters say will movethe race to a higher level.“For the better part of 12 years, we’ve dedicated our efforts to the creationof a family-style festival, celebrating the unabashed joys of the sport ofbicycling,” said Sutton. “Today, we take a significant step toward our futuregrowth. The Classic is proud to announce a distinguished Board of Advisors.Our intent is to maximize the background and expertise that each of theseleaders brings to our

Cipo' is making his mark on the third major tour now, too.

Don't stop thinking about tomorrow. Beloki faces the hills in Stage 5.

A hot day in the saddle. Temperatures moved into the mid-90s on Tuesday.

Bruyneel sprints - Postal director helps Matt White regain his momentum.

Here's an opportunity to own a collectors’ item and help out a good causeat the same time.The Ross Dillon Hope Fund is auctioning off one of Levi Leipheimer’sTour de France jerseys on E-Bay.The jersey is complete with Leipheimer’s official Tour numbers on theback. Signatures are located on the front and include all the members ofthe Rabobank tour team including Leipheimer, former Tour stage winner ErikDekker, and this year's Tour stage winners Michael Boogard and KarstenKroon. Leipheimer finished this – his first Tour de France – in eighthplace in the overall standings.All money from

Cipollini scores his first Vuelta stage win.

Beloki still in the lead.

Beating the best, Di Luca edges Zabel

ONCE

Beloki

The Postal team delivers

The wife of Lampre’s Raimondas Rumsas lost another round in her ongoing legal battle to be released from prison as a court in Grenoble, France, rejected a request to end her detention that began when she was arrested for possession of drugs in July. Edita Rumsas, wife of the third-place finisher in this year’s Tour de France, has been held in custody at Bonneville women's prison for more than six weeks on suspicion of provoking, inciting and offering drugs for consumption. The 28-year-old mother-of-three was picked up in the French Alps on July 29 - the day the Tour finished - with

USA Cycling named the winners of the first-annual Center of Excellence Awards on Friday. The new program is designed to recognize outstanding cycling clubs around the country with cash awards to assist in their structural development. Nine clubs across the country were selected for this honor, and each will receive a cash award of up to $2000.The Center of Excellence winners met certain criteria with respect toorganization, business management and athlete development programs forjuniors and under-23 athletes. The clubs provided evidence of long-termbusiness plans and solid structures for

The final major tour of the 2002 season gets underway Saturday in Valencia, Spain. The Vuelta a España features shorter, livelier stages than the Giro or Tour, but remains a hotly contested battle nonetheless.This year's 3144-km (1949-mile), 21-stage race features three time trials and four very difficult climbing stages. The climber that can defend in the races against the clock will likely come out on top.The 2002 Vuelta features eight flats stages, 10 stages with medium to difficult mountains, including four summit finishes which will likely decide the race. There's no opening

Nestor Evancevich, founder and principle officer of American BicycleRacing, died in his sleep during the night of Wednesday, September 4. ABR is a national membership organization that promotes the sport ofbicycle racing and was the first of a series of organizations to successfully break away from the sport's national governing body, USA Cycling and focus almost exclusively on grassroots cycling. During the 1980's, Evancevich was instrumental in the rapid growth ofbicycle racing in Illinois and the greater midwest. He became the Illinois USCF District Rep in 1985 when there were

Simoni and Casagrande want to finish this one. (file photo)

World champion Oscar Freire won’t be going to CSC-Tiscali after all,according to reports in the Spanish sports daily AS. Freire and the Danish team have been going back and forth for weeks and seemedpoised to sign a two-year deal. But according to AS, Freire sent an e-mailto Johnny Weltz declining the offer so the two-time world champion couldconsider others. Reportedly deals from Quick Step, worth more money and forthree years, and iBanesto.com are on the table. Banesto only has one yearleft with its title sponsor and seems to looking to reduce its roster nextyear, but a chance to grab

Freire -- (file photo)

Germany’s Telekom team is on the verge of signing Giro d’ Italia winnerPaolo Savoldelli, team manager Walter Godefroot said Tuesday.Godefroot said the team has also offered a new contract to 1997 Tourde France winner Jan Ullrich, who is sitting out a six-month banafter he tested positive for amphetamines in June. Godefroot said Savoldelli, of the Italian Index-Alexia team, has agreedterms with Telekom. "All we need is his signature," he said.The 29-year-old Italian is likely to be called to work for former Tourwinner Ullrich once and if he officially returns to competition on March23, 2003.It

A letter from Frischy: I'll keep trying

The investigation into charges that the U.S. Postal team of Lance Armstrong used banned drugs during the 2000 Tour de France has been scrapped for lack of evidence, legal sources said Monday. The investigation was opened in November 2000, after French television reporters revealed film of team staff disposing of medical waste at a highway rest stop, prompting rumors that Armstrong's powerful team had won the Tour for him by using illegal substances. But investigators found it impossible to identify any doping agents used in blood samples given by members of the US Postal team and it had

Dahle takes the cross country in Kaprun.

Dunlap strugles up one of the slick climbs.

One of the brutal creek crossings.

Nothstein

Uhl's win was close

Green

Absalon wins again.

Hesjedal has seen better days.

Naef was the surprise of the day.

The women's four-cross podium.

Emmeline Ragot

LeBauve takes the win over Massie

Nothstein and Oelkers and paired up against the Prime Alliance of Carney and Pearce in the Madison

Reed tookthe first-ever first women’s keirin national

Pearce and Carney in the Masdison

Sam Hill

Vouilloz checks out his latest hardware.

Chausson explains her win.

Racing was televised live.

Peat looks on as Nico wins again.

Vouilloz's machine.