News

Thousands of mourners gathered in the Basque village of Berango Saturday to pay homage to Spanish cyclist Ricardo Otxoa who was killed during a training accident on Thursday. ]The cyclist's twin brother and Kelme teammate Javier, who finished 13th overall in last year's Tour de France and won the 10th stage, remains in a coma in hospital here. The brothers had been training on a small frontage road when they were hit by a car as they trained at Cartama in the southern province of Malaga. Ricardo, 26, died on his way to hospital and is to be buried later Saturday. Javier is

Basso - seen here in stage 2 -- lost the lead after a hard crash on stage 4

Spanish cyclist Javier Otxoa (Kelme) remained in critical condition on Friday from massive injuries received during a training accident that also killed his twin brother and teammate Ricardo, a hospital spokesman said. The 26-year-old, who finished 13th overall in last year's Tour de France and won the 10th stage on the strength of a long solo breakaway, was being treated in the intensive care unit of a Malaga hospital with serious injuries to his head, back and possibly his spinal chord, the hospital's intensive care chief Juan Antonio Benitez said. Otxoa was having difficulty

Olympic bronze medallist and one-time Linda McCartney team leader Max Sciandri is set to sign a two-year contract with the Italian Lampre team early next week, according to a news release issued by the McCartney squad’s former press officer John Deering.Sciandri and Deering were among a large group of riders and staff let go as Britain’s top pro road team collapsed last month under financial pressures. The team, once thought to be recruiting its way to Division I status, fell apart after failing to secure a major secondary sponsor and receiving only limited from its title sponsor, Linda

Wherry moved up two spots with a strong time trial

Horner

Spanish rider Ricardo Otxoa was killed Thursday in a training accident while his twin brother and Kelme team mate Javier was taken to hospital with serious injuries, a team spokesman said. The two racers were hit by a vehicle as they trained at Cartama in the southern province of Malaga. Ricardo died on the spot while Javier, winner of the 10th stage of last year's Tour de France, suffered serious injuries to his head and body and was reported to be in a coma. Copyright AFP2001

The U.S. Postal Service team opened its 2001 season at the Tour of Algarve, a five-day, five-stage event in Portugal that ended Thursday in Loule. In a press release issued Thursday, the team’s assistant director sportif Dirk Demol reported that the squad is showing good form and riding better than they were at this time last year. Led by Viatcheslav Ekimov's 10th place finish in the overall standings, 25 seconds behind overall winner Andrea Ferrigato (Alessio), the Postals turned in a strong performance for their first race of the season, said Demol. George Hincapie finished sixth in

You’re on a descent, hitting speeds over 40 mph, with a 90-degree turn at the bottom. Suddenly, your glasses fog up.... If you’re a cyclist who wears glasses or contact lenses, you’re well aware of the special problems you face in a sport where clear vision is critical. Cyclists are exposed to a great deal of wind, which often carries debris. If this debris lodges itself underneath a contact lens, it can cause severe discomfort and affect your vision and depth perception — not something you want during training or racing. Eyeglasses offer an alternative to contacts, but they can get dirty,

Hand-off. Bettini lost his yellow jersey, but it was to teammate Lanfranchi.

How far the mighty... Koerts, once in yellow, found himself racing the clock. He lost.

Wherry still holds on to fifth.

McEwen scores one against Kirsipuu

French cycling star Laurent Jalabert has started walking, just two short days after breaking three vertebrae in a freak accident, his team boss said Wednesday. While changing a light bulb, Jalabert fell six feet from a ladder at his home near Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday, fracturing three vertebrae and putting the 32-year-old's immediate career plans on hold. Hospital officials in Geneva have declined to comment on Jalabert's condition, but the CSC-World Online team manager Bjarne Riis said Jalabert’s injuries are a cause of great concern. "Something serious has happened to him,"

Wherry (center) finished with the leaders

The duel between Hervé and Lanfranchi set the stage for a Mapei win.

Mercury-Viatel brought along plenty of climbing talent.

Laurent Jalabert will be off of his bike for at least a month after fracturing three vertebrae in a freak accident while changing a light bulb in his home in Geneva, Switzerland late Monday. The 32-year-old Jalabert was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors diagnosed the fractures in his lower back during a CAT scan on Tuesday. Jalabert was changing a light bulb when he lost his balance and fell. The one-time world’s number one is a member of the Danish CSC team — a team that most recently competed under the sponsorship of the computer component manufacturer Memory Card. The team is

Mercury-Viatel's Koerts holds a 42-second lead over Quaranta

This isn't the Giro, is it?

Lochowski was on his own for 85km.

After nearly two decades and seven world titles astride those venerable Ritchey steel frames, the Ritchey-Yahoo! Squad will not be riding Tom’s bikes in 2001. Thomas Frischknecht — 1996 world cross-country champion — and Martino Fruet will not only be riding bikes from other builders, it looks like they’ll be riding — GASP! — aluminum frames. Frishi for one, however, will have to wait a bit before racing on the scandium Scott that he is having built. Doctors have told him that he’ll be unable to race for at least a month after a February 7 training ride accident resulted in a dislocated joint

Red Zinger Bicycle Challenge race director Len Pettyjohn, said Monday that the 2001 edition of the race is “a 100-percent certainty,” though the event will probably take place under the name of a new title sponsor. Pettyjohn told VeloNews that he would be ready to announce the identity of the race’s new title sponsor within a month. He, however, did offer one hint, noting that this year’s winner “will probably be driving home in a new car,” from a race now scheduled for August 11. Pettyjohn was also the director of the former Mercury Tour, a mountain-bike stage race in Steamboat, Colorado,

Moninger took the 2000 Zinger. If he wins this year, he may be driving home in style.

The race leader has everyone's attention

Tuft, Okazuki and Langella

The peloton enjoyed the scenery on the way to Melaka

The break stayed out for nearly 200km

Barry has been active all week

Degano had time to celebrate

In the VeloNews road season preview issue (February 5, 2001), we inadvertently left Massachusetts’s Kevin Monahan off of the 7-Up-Colorado Cyclist team roster, and we heard about it quickly from some of our readers. We caught up with the entire team on Thursday at its Boulder, Colorado, training camp. Six inches of new snow on the ground and temperatures in the teens put a damper on the festivities. "This sucks," said newcomer Dave McCook. "I didn’t come here to ski." The team made plans for a snowshoe excursion on Friday, but Thursday was a day for indoor training, testing and team

Koerts scored Mercury's second stage win

Moninger leads the Mercury chase

Sure enough, Monahan was there.

Killing time in the meetings.

Juan-Carlos Pineda

No ride on Thursday

After getting off to a late start, Prime Alliance continues to round out its team, and on Thursday it announced the addition of 20-year-old Ryan Miller, the 1999 under-23 national time trial champion. In addition to his 1999 title, Miller also won 15 national championships as a junior. The Kirkland, Washington, rider was a member of the Nutra Fig team in 2000. With the addition of Miller, Prime Alliance now boasts three of the top young Americans in Miller, 20-year-old Michael Creed (runner-up at the U-23 national road and time trial championships) and 21-year-old Danny Pate (1999 elite

Koerts and Fraser feel the heat

Frank McCormack keeps an eye on things for Saturn

The yellow jersey takes it to the line

U.S. national criterium champion Laura Van Gilder will race for the TalgoAmerica.com squad for the 2001 season. In 2000, Talgo America, a North American train manufacturer with corporate offices in Seattle and Washington, D.C., signed on as a sponsor of the Altoona Cycling Team’s women’s squad. This year, Talgo takes over title sponsorship. The team will be called TalgoAmerica.com. Earlier this year, Van Gilder was expected to ride for the Canadian Intersports team, along with Catherine Marsal, Elizabeth Emery and Anne Samplonius. However, that team has yet to be finalized, and Van Gilder

There has still been no official word from the UCI regarding the fate of the cancelled mountain bike World Cup triple in Whistler, but VeloNews has learned that at least two Canadian locations, Sun Peaks Resort and Grouse Mountain, are in the process of submitting bids to replace Whistler, and are being considered by cycling’s world governing body. Sun Peaks, a ski area 45 minutes from Kamloops, British Columbia, has already been awarded this year’s Canadian national mountain biking championships. "They’ve been running Canada Cups there for a long time," said Aaron McConnell of Altitude

Koerts holds onto yellow for another day

Stage 1 winner Fraser leads the peloton

In a deal that’s been rumored for some time, Tomac USA, the bicycle company owned and operated by legendary rider John Tomac and pioneer designer Doug Bradbury, has joined forces with American Bicycle Group, which owns Litespeed, Merlin and Quintana Roo. The deal will shift most of the marketing, production and day-to-day operations responsibilities from Tomac to American Bicycle Group. "It’s not a buyout where they own the business," Tomac said. "It’s a licensing agreement that gives us access to resources we were lacking in the past." The Tomac USA product line consists of three aluminum

With his Rabobank teammates chasing behind, Dutchman Michael Boogerd was able to sit in for a free ride in the lead group up front, and he emerged freshest from a five-man breakaway to take the win on stage 4 of the Majorca challenge. The Boogerd group also included Swiss Fabian Jeker and Spaniards Felix Garcia Casas, Francisco Cabello and Juan José de los Angeles. Those four were forced to do the bulk of the work when Rabobank took up the chase late in the race, and at the finish, Boogerd took the sprint from Jeker with relative ease. Two minutes behind, Telekom’s Erik Zabel beat out Luca

The 7-Up-Colorado Cyclist team training camp got off to a rough start on Monday when rider-manager Jeff Corbett crashed hard on the first team ride of the year outside Boulder, Colorado. Corbett fractured the L1 and T12 vertebrae in his back and sustained other assorted lacerations and bruises. He’s expected to miss at least three months of the season. Riding in gusty winds, the squad was in a tight echelon when Corbett knocked bars with teammate Kevin Monahan. "Before I could back off or anything, I was on my way down," said Corbett. The team flagged down a passing motorist, who gave

Fraser takes stage 1

Czech cyclo-cross fans in Tábor had plenty to celebrate this morning when their countrymen Martin Bina, Radomir Simunek Jr. and Jan Kunta grabbed all three podium spots in today’s junior men’s race. Indeed, Czech riders took four of the top six spots in the race and now added to the home team’s overall dominace of the championships thus far. Of the nine medals awarded to this point, Czech riders have won five. When the junior men’s team arrived in Tábor to prepare for their world championship event this morning, it looked as though attendance might be a bit on the sparse side. A week of cold

You start fast and stay out front. Simple and obvious words to live by in cyclo-cross. Here in Tábor that fast start has counted for everything. Hanka Kupfernagel, Sven Vanthourenhout and Martin Bina all rode like mad for the opening 800 feet of pavement and dove into the first stretch of dirt among the first and then stayed there. In the elite men’s race, Erwin Vervecken joined the winner’s club in the same fashion, but he had some pretty tough company when he rounded that critical turn. And starting his race at the other end of the 57-man field, American Marc Gullickson fought through the

Gully did himself proud

Djernis cheering section. He came from Copenhagen to cheer on Henrik

How many chickens died for these Belgian fans' toppers?

Lion in winter. More than a fan this Dutchman works for the national squad

If you keep count, Belgian colors are most prevalent

Long drive: they drove straight through from Brittany.

Djernis cheering section. He came from Copenhagen to cheer on Henrik

Lion in winter. More than a fan this Dutchman works for the national squad

If you keep count, Belgian colors are most prevalent

Groenendaal's cheering section should be large, loud and orange on Sunday

It was all a matter of keeping his cool, said Sven Vanthourenhout about winning the men’s Under-23 world cyclo-cross title on Saturday. The 20-year-old Belgian said that when he came to Tabor for the world championships, he was beginning to have doubts about his chances. But it was the pros on the formidable Belgian squad, he said, who told him to relax and convinced him that he could do it. “I was nervous even when I rode warm-up laps this morning,” Vanthourenhout said. “I wasn’t taking the right lines, I wasn’t keeping my footing….” But after the start, when he ran into trouble,

Cyclo-cross, an admittedly small niche in a relatively small sport, has a passionate fan base, especially in Europe. The world championships this weekend in Tabor in the Czech Republic have attracted fans from across the continent. Busloads of Belgians, trainloads of Dutch and long car caravans of Swiss have descended on this Czech city. And with them, they bring all the markings of true fans, hoping to make their affiliations quite clear. Flags are everywhere, but hats and the occassional spike-spined orange jumpsuit can do a lot to clarify who it is you're cheering for. Racing

A little help from her friends. Kupfernagel celebrates with Germany's biggest fan.

Vantourenhout kept his cool... until he got the jersey.

Czech fans had reason to celebrate.

Long drive: they drove straight through from Brittany.

The saga known as Missy took another twisted turn two weeks ago during a training ride near Durango, Colorado. According to Giove, she was riding just south of the small Colorado town when she crashed, then fell off the edge of a "17 to 25-foot high" sheer cliff. The ensuing landing left her with a broken left leg and severely strained ligaments in both knees. "It was just a routine crash until I slid right off, bike and all," said Giove, reigning national downhill champion and runner up in last year’s World Cup standings. "But broken bones are a lot better than tears, so I’m not even

Knapp is relaxed and ready.

Djernis says this may well be his last 'cross race.

Let it snow. The weather gods seem to like cyclo-cross.

Well, Kansas doesn't have these nifty Soviet-style apartment blocs.

Mapei's Paolo Bettini, who won the prestigious Liege-Bastogne-Liege race last year, was bitten by a female monkey while training in Malaysia, on January 31. The Italian champion was bitten while training in Malaysia for the Tour of Langkawi. Bettini and a group of riders were giving the monkey some sweets when, after a brusque movement by Bettini, it got scared and bit him on the left knee, according to team reports. The Mapei rider was given antibiotics as a precaution after medical advice. Copyright AFP 2001

Team Saeco officials vowed to put their disappointing 2000 season behind them as they unveiled its 2001 team line-up, in San Marino on January 30. "The program for 2001 is to improve on last year," was the blunt assessment of team manager Claudio Corti. Last year was hardly a memorable year for a team that had little to celebrate on track or road, and whose talisman Mario Cipollini saw injury curtail his appearances. But Tuesday's launch served to turn the page and fuel hope for more prosperity in the team's seventh year of competition for the red-shirted outfit. "The year 2000 was

With UCI paperwork due into USA Cycling, the Division III line-up in the U.S. is becoming clear. Among the eight U.S. teams, six are previewed in the Feb. 5 issue of VeloNews -- 7-Up-Colorado Cyclist, Zaxby's, Jelly Belly, NetZero, Prime Alliance and Noble House. Details of the two remaining teams, DeFeet-LeMond and RealityBikes.com, have come out this week. The DeFeet-LeMond team makes the move from the amateur ranks to Division III after several successful seasons. Last year, highlights included third place at the espoir national time trial championship and fourth at the elite

Heras, earlier this month, riding at the Postie's Arizona training camp.

The Mapei team held its official team launch Saturday, revealing a massive outfit that enters the 2001 season with an emphasis on young talent and internationals. Twenty-four of Mapei’s 41 riders are Italian, but this year’s line-up includes athletes from 12 different nations. Mapei’s youth movement is carried by eight new professionals, including teenagers Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland and Bernhard Eisel of Austria. Other promising young riders making their debut in the professional ranks include under-23 world champion Yevgeny Petrov of Russia and Czech hope Pavel Zerzan. Petrov, 22,