Road

Tony Cruz is back in the European peloton after racing last season on the domestic circuit with Toyota-United. The 35-year-old Californian says he still has unsettled business in Europe and rejoins Discovery Channel more motivated than ever. Cruz talked to VeloNews at length about his career, why he refuses to compromise his integrity and how he still hopes to race the Tour de France this year. Here are excerpts from the recent interview: VeloNews.com: How are you recovering following your classics campaign? Tony Cruz: I have a little problem with the tendon that covers my left knee. It

“It’s the best one-day race in cycling.” American Chris Horner, who placed eighth at last year’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, says this weekend’s coming edition is the highlight of the season. But the Predictor-Lotto man’s assessment could just as easily come from world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic) or defending Liège champion Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne), or any of the 192 riders expected to start the 93rd edition of Liège Sunday, the final race of the spring classics season. “It’s a race almost any type of rider can win — a climber, a Tour rider, a time-trial

With just one stage remaining, Michael Grabinger (Successful Living) and Meshy Holt (Expresscopy.com) lead their respective categories in the 29th La Vuelta de Bisbee. Grabinger scored a pair of runner-up finishes on Saturday’s wind-whipped, double-stage day to move into the overall lead, just five seconds ahead of Phil Zajicek (Navigators Insurance). The victory in the Stage 1 Sulphur Springs Road Race went to Mexico’s Antonio Aldape (Halcones). Adalpe, countryman and teammate David Salomon and Grabinger had been part of a 13-man break that formed at the first bonus sprint in the 79-mile

Australian sprinter Jonathan Cantwell won his second stage in as many days Saturday at stage 6 of the Tour of Virginia, as Alejandro Borrajo continued to cut into Colombian Javier Zapata’s general classification lead. “It’s getting a little surreal by now,” said Cantwell (Kahala-La Grange), who trails Borrajo (Rite Aid) by six points in the sprint classification. Borrajo finished third in Saturday’s criterium stage, earning a four-second time bonus. Zapata (Caico) finished 11th, with the same time as the pack. Borrajo now trails Zapata in the GC standings by eight seconds. The 35-mile

I felt like Bullwinkle J. Moose just after he had pulled his Mr. Know-It-All act and Rocky had made him look like an idiot. I am that idiot. I got signed up for a medical bike fit at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine the other day, part of my preps for Ride the Rockies this summer. I wanted to be ready. I wanted to make sure the bike was ready for me. Andy Pruitt, Ed.D, an internationally known expert in bike fit and cycling physiology, looked me over to try and determine a physical baseline for how I felt and why I felt the way I did on the bike. An X-ray from Boulder Community

Corey Collier (Team Einstein’s) and Meshy Holt (Expresscopy.com) took top honors on Friday as the 29th La Vuelta de Bisbee got under way in southern Arizona. Beautiful weather greeted the 240 riders starting the Mule Pass prologue, a 2.8-mile time trial along Main Street from the heart of Old Bisbee to the top of Mule Pass. Collier was fastest among the elite men with a time of 9:56, besting David Solomon (Halcones) by 14 seconds. Third on the day was Michael Grabinger (Successful Living) at 16 seconds. Only 20 seconds seperate the top eight riders. The women’s field saw Holt finish in

Aussie Jonathan Cantwell claimed a sprint victory at stage 5 of the Tour of Virginia Friday, as Argentinean Alejandro Borrajo continued to whittle down Colombian Javier Zapata’s overall lead. Taking second and the resulting time bonus in a group sprint, Borrajo (Rite Aid) shaved six seconds off Zapata’s (Caico) lead, bringing the Colombian’s GC advantage to just 12 seconds. Cantwell, originally riding support for Kahala-La Grange, was able to take advantage of the group sprint, thanks to the peloton re-materializing in the final kilometers of the race. Early on in the drizzly, 99-mile

Mid-way through a long stint on the road and with what feels like a revolving door of hotel rooms, flights and long drives, I’ve begun to notice some of the quirks that we cyclists end up adopting in an attempt to make hotels and restaurants seem just a bit more comfortable and similar to home. To lay a bit of groundwork, a bit about the Slipstream Sports setup here in Europe: While almost all of us live in Girona, when at the races our one constant is the team RV. The team’s growing and on a bit of a shopping spree right now but at this point we’re hanging out in what most people think of

Although the three final spring Classics have similar protagonists that highlight the classification, the races are quite unique and different from one another. Amstel is a technical course loaded with short steep climbs on tiny roads; Flèche, the shortest of the three, is a race that essentially comes down to one climb, the Mur de Huy, and is a race that is nervous, fast with open roads and fewer climbs; Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the hardest of the three, has longer climbs, is the longest in distance, the most selective and perhaps, the least tactical, as the strongest man usually wins. Under

Dave Zabriskie, winner of a Giro d’Italia stage in 2005, is returning to the Italian stage race next month as part of Team CSC’s nine-man squad for the corsa rosa. Zabriskie, 28, won stage eight in the 2005 Giro and then went on to win the opening time trial at the Tour de France that same year. Coupled with his 2004 Vuelta a España stage victory, the feat distinguishes him as the only American rider to win stages in all three grand tours. The Giro will also mark the grand tour debut of Juan José Haedo, the Argentine sprinter who’s already scored wins in the United States and Europe. Team

As much of the U.S. has shivered and slogged through this spring, down along Arizona’s border with Mexico it’s been all sunshine and temperatures in the mid-70’s. It’s a perfect setting for some serious bike racing — and time to head to Bisbee for the 29th edition of La Vuelta de Bisbee. La Vuelta gives young riders the chance to mix it up with seasoned pros in a blue-collar stage race. Among the 240 riders taking the start for this year’s three-day race are defending champion Phil Zajicek (Navigators); the U23 Team WM squad; two pro teams from Mexico (Halcones and Tecos); and the world deaf

With a victory in stage 4, Argentinean Alejandro Borrajo cut race leader Javier Zapata’s overall lead to 18 seconds Thursday in the 2007 Tour of Virginia. Zapata (Team Caico) came into the stage boasting a 58-second lead over the second-place Borrajo (Rite Aid), but the Argentinean joined an early break on Thursday’s 103-mile stage from Douthat to Waynesboro and stayed away to win. Borrajo, who finished fifth in the points classification in the 2004 Giro d’Italia, rolled through the three Cat. 1 and two Cat. 3 climbs. Sprinter Kayle Leogrande (Rock Racing) mounted a successful chase effort

top 5 : 1. Vos, 2. Cooke. 3. Arndt, 4. Amber Neben, 5. kristin Armstrong (U.S. National)

After a stage in the lead at the Tour of Virginia, Russ Langley gave up the general classification leader’s jersey to Team Caico’s Javier Zapata of Colombia after stage 3 Wednesday. Zapata, down six seconds heading into the third stage, rode clear from an early breakaway on the 110-mile stage through the Alleghany Highlands, the first true road race and the longest of the seven-stage tour. Heading up the Cat 1. Warms Springs Mountain, Zapata launched himself off the front and didn’t look back. Zapata came into stage 3 in 11th place overall after a tough performance in stage 2, a 25-mile

Dear Monique,I have read your interesting and informative article posted on VeloNews.com on 28th march 2007 about EatingRight for Those Long Rides. I have one question relating to the amount of carbohydrate you should consume per hour during your long ride if you have had a pre-ride meal 3-4 hours, 2 hours, or 1 hour before the start of your ride. Do you consume different amounts of carbohydrate per hour during your ride depending on the size and timing of your pre-ride meal> For example, would you consume more per hour of the ride if you have only had a small pre-ride meal 1 hour before you

Long after this spring classics season passes into history, the spate of races that stretch from the baking Tour of Flanders of several weeks ago through this Sunday’s expected 80-degree Liége-Bastogne-Liége might be most remembered for their balmy, unseasonable weather. And when the day comes that the 2007 spring classics results are but answers to a trivia question, Gerolsteiner veteran Davide Rebellin might still be winning races.

The Classics are traditionally hard men’s races held over tough courses under miserable spring conditions. This morning, the day after the Amstel Gold Race, we woke up to another day of glorious sunshine, pulled on our shorts and t-shirts and headed down to the hotel lobby breakfast—not the weather we expected and we nearly all had sunburns from the race. Half of the team from Amstel is staying in Belgium for Fleche and Liege while the others closed the door on their Classics campaign and headed home, as they had been up here since mid-March. Generally teams trade their sprinters and

A Spanish magazine reported on Tuesday that bags allegedly containing the blood of defending Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso will be taken from Spain to Italy for DNA analysis. Basso was suspended by the Discovery Channel team on Tuesday, after theItalian authorities announced they wanted to question him further over his involvement in the Operación Puerto. In May 2006 Madrid police seized bags of blood and doping productsduring a laboratory raid, along with codenames of cyclists and documents that seemed to indicate the existence of a program of organized doping and blood doping.

The 71st Flèche Wallonne is set to start Wednesday morning in Charleroi, Belgium, amid swirling controversy surrounding the non-participation of both Discovery Channel’s Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso and the embattled Unibet.com team. The race’s name, meaning the “Walloon Arrow,” stems from its eastwardly course direction from the industrial city of Charleroi to Huy, in the French-speaking Walloon, or Wallonia, region of Belgium — an area that represents roughly one-third of Belgium’s population and one half of its territory. The UCI ProTour race will feature a start list of 24 teams

American Russ Langley won the opening stage of the 2007 Tour of Virginia this morning, taking the five-mile time trial along South Lee Highway through the town of Natural Bridge. With seven stages over six days this year, the Tour of Virginia is the new name of the Tour of Shenandoah.Langley (Battley Harley Davidson-Hudson) posted a time of 8:04 in the opening time trial, edging out second-place finisher Eddy Hilger (Priority Health-Bissel) by just more than a second. Racing continues Tuesday evening with a 25-mile criterium in the heart of Lynchburg. Road racing begins tomorrow with a

During this month’s Sea Otter Classic, Princeton Tec invited some of us on a night ride to roll out its new Switchback lights. Princeton Tec’s Sean Leslie lined up local Monterey bike mechanic, single-speed devotee and high-school senior Erik Ebberoth to lead the ride. Ebberoth took us on some great trails, perfectly suited to testing lights, weaving in and out and up and down through thick underbrush and overhanging trees laden with long strands of moss dangling low over the trail. We slapped the lights on our borrowed full-suspension Konas, which was easy thanks to the quick-open slotted

Discovery Channel rider Ivan Basso will skip Wednesday’s Flèche Wallone and Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège over growing pressure to boycott riders with links to the Operación Puerto doping investigation heats up again. The Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport reported Tuesday that the decision comes following an agreement between Discovery Channel team officials and race organizer ASO, which runs the Tour de France as well as the two upcoming Ardennes classics. Both sides agreed it would be more pragmatic to keep the Italian out of the hilly spring classics to avoid a potentially

Valverde press conference turns uglyA press conference with defending Flèche Wallone-Liège-Bastogne-Liège champion Alejandro Valverde turned ugly Monday when Belgian journalists tried to corner the Spanish rider on links to the Operación Puerto doping investigation. When pressed that his name might be among the scores of nicknames found in police documents as part of the Spanish investigation last May, Valverde said he had nothing to worry about. “I am tranquil,” Valverde told journalists. “I know that I don’t have any problem, because if I did, I wouldn’t have been able to race in

Following the announcement that the Italian Olympic Committee has made additional inquiries regarding Ivan Basso’s involvement in the Operación Puerto case, the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team issued the following news release:DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM MANAGEMENT ASK BASSO TO FOREGO COMPETITION PENDING INVESTIGATIONTeam management at Tailwind Sports has requested that Italian rider Ivan Basso not compete pending further information in a new investigation coming out of Italy. The Italian Cycling Federation and Italian Olympic Committee conducted a full review last fall of Basso’s implication

Final Overall Standings
1. Janez Brajkovic (SLO), Discovery Channel, 1058.9km in 25:26:33 (41.619kph)
2. Christian Vande Velde (USA) CSC, at 0:12
3. David Canada Gracia (Sp) Saunier Duval, at 3:04
4. Rubens Bertogliati (Swi) Saunier Duval, at 3:06
5. Kevin Seeldraeyers (B) Quick Step-Innergetic, at 4:22
6. Scott Nydam (USA) BMC, at 5:35
7. Jeff Louder (USA) Health Net Maxxis, at 6:00
8. Timothy Johnson (USA) Health Net Maxxis, at 6:59
9. Lucas Euser (USA) Slipstream-Chipotle, at 10:08

As the ProTour’s Amstel Gold Race was underway a couple of hours away, mountain-biking’s top pros were starting their own season with the opening World Cup race in Houffalize, Belgium. Often viewed as the European classic of the World Cup circuit, Houffalize stands as the one race every rider wants to win. This year saw two new faces at the top of the podium, as Jose Hermida (Multivan Merida) overcame mechanical problems and a crash with the lead motorcycle to beat Julien Absalon (Orbea) for the men's title, and China's Chengyuan Ren (China National team) won the first World Cup

It would take a true trivia buff to remember the last time a rider won a spring classic with a dozen stitches in his knee, but 26-year-old German Stefan Schumacher of Gerolsteiner did just that at the 42nd Amstel Gold Race on Sunday in the Netherlands. Schumacher, who crashed during the final stage of the Tour of the Basque Country on April 14, came into the Ardennes Classics quite unsure of his fitness, after taking four days completely off the bike in the week before Amstel Gold. He rode on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday leading into the race, and decided to give it a go.

Discovery’s Janez Brajkovic cruised across the line at the end of the 66.8-mile circuit race that capped off the fifth edition of the Tour de Georgia, comfortably ensconced in the overall leader’s jersey as the sprinters in the peloton battled for the day’s stage honors and points.

All eyes will be on the home squad of Rabobank at the 42nd Amstel Gold Race Sunday, the biggest cycling event of the year in The Netherlands. Won last by Rabobank in 2001 by now-retired national hero Erik Dekker, the team brings Milan-San Remo winner Oscar Freire and his compatriot Juan Antonio Flecha, as well as 1999 winner Michael Boogerd, who beat Lance Armstrong to win Amstel in 1999. Boogerd – who this week announced plans to retire at the end of the season – has since finished on the podium seven times, a source of pride and also frustration for the Dutch national champion. The Amstel

It’s been a long dry spell for the man they call “Fast” Freddie Rodriguez. But on Saturday the American blazed back into the winner’s column, taking a blistering bunch sprint that concluded the Tour de Georgia’s stage 6 run from the Lake Lanier Islands to Stone Mountain Park. The win was Rodriguez’s first since stage 4 at this same race exactly a year ago to the day. The victory also moved the Predictor-Lotto rider out of a first place tie with Canadian Gord Fraser on the race’s all time stage wins list. Rodriguez now stands alone with four.

A Spanish cycling armada is threatening to spoil Dutch hopes of securing an elusive victory in the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday. The eighth race on the ProTour, and the fifth one-day classic of the series is the only Dutch race on the calendar apart from the Eindhoven time trial. But the hosts’ annual expectation of seeing a tough challenge from the orange-clad home riders, most of whom ride for Rabobank, has taken on special significance this year. Former winner Michael Boogerd will saddle up for his home race for the final time having announced in midweek that he will retire at the end of

It was a long day in the saddle on the way to the Confederate Memorial at Stone Mountain, near Atlanta in Georgia. Our man Casey Gibson was, as always there from start to finish. Here's what he sent home.

Lest any doubt remain about Discovery Channel’s Tour de Georgia dominance after the team took the stage win and the race lead on Thursday, the team repeated the feat Friday atop Brasstown Bald. Storming away from the peloton on the heels of an all-day breakaway, Levi Leipheimer and then Tom Danielson roared up the mountain to finish one-two. And the mountain roared back. Throngs of fans created a wall of sound up the steepest parts of the hors categorie climb to Georgia’s highest point, Brasstown Bald, at 4784 feet.

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said Friday that Ivan Basso's chances of competing in this year’s edition of the race could be hampered by a failure to resolve the Italian star’s implication in the Spanish doping affair. Basso and 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich were among dozens of cyclists implicated in Operación Puerto, which uncovered an alleged blood doping and doping network run by a doctor, Eufemiano Fuentes, in Spain. Both riders were among over a dozen banned from racing last year's Tour de France, which also ended in controversy when American winner Floyd Landis

Boogerd to retire Holland will lose another one of its biggest stars to retirement at the end of this season after Michael Boogerd says his days as a professional are winding down. The big-toothed Rabobank rider, who turns 35 next month, told Dutch journalists Thursday this will be his last season in the peloton. Erik Dekker, who along with Boogerd carried the Dutch torch in the peloton for much of the past decade, retired last year. “It’s a special moment, emotional but not dramatic,” Boogerd said at a press conference. “I want to finish this season in style starting on Sunday.” Boogerd

The second phase of the Spring Classics season begins Sunday with the 42nd running of the Amstel Gold Race on a 252km route of three differing but concentric circuits that begin in the city of Maastricht and end in nearby Valkenberg. Left behind with the cobbled classics are the unseasonable heat and dust of Paris-Roubaix; the weather forecast for Sunday’s race through the rolling green hills of Dutch Limburg in the southeastern Netherlands is 74 degrees and sunny. Also absent will be the majority of hard men who spent the past few weeks racing over the cobblestones of Belgium and northern

While it was another Discovery Channel dominated day at the Tour de Georgia, Colavita-Sutter Home rider Anthony Colby earned a measure of respect for the domestic ranks Friday, placing third on stage 5’s run to the top of Brasstown Bald. The climbing specialist from Durango, Colorado, made it into the day’s prominent breakaway, then held his ground while the rest of that eight-rider move were pushed out of the top five. “Honestly, I did something different,” said the 28-year-old Colby who won a pair of collegiate mountain bike racing titles in 2003 before making his move to the road. “I

It was a tough day in the saddle on Brasstown Bald – not just for the racers, but for the shooters, like our man Casey Gibson, who once again was there from start to finish. Here's what he sent home.

The Discovery Channel juggernaut continued its rampage through the 2007 race season on Thursday, with American Levi Leipheimer taking victory in the Tour de Georgia’s stage 4 time trial, while teammate Janez Brajkovic moved into the overall race lead. Now, with massive climbing horsepower behind him in the form of Leipheimer and Tom Danielson, it’s all but assured that the lithe, 23-year-old Slovenian will be wearing yellow three days from now when this seven-day race finishes up in downtown Atlanta.

Magnus Bäckstedt was hoping for more in Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix when he finished 47th at 9:39 back, but simply finishing the punishing “Hell of the North” tasted almost like victory for the big Swede. Bäckstedt has been cursed with bad luck and injuries since his breakthrough 2004 Roubaix victory. He missed last year’s Roubaix after crashing early in the season and then blew out his shoulder in a nasty, high-speed track racing accident in October. And then doctors found a melanoma on Bäckstedt’s chest that required two surgeries. “Stuff keeps getting thrown at me,” Bäckstedt told VeloNews.

[nid:38252]Janez Brajkovic wasn’t even supposed to be at the Tour de Georgia. Originally the lithe Slovenian climber was slotted to race Pays Basque for Discovery Channel, while Tour de France veteran Jose Rubiera was coming to America.

Britain's Mark Cavendish claimed his biggest road race win to date by outsprinting Australian ace Robbie McEwen into Schoten, Belgium, in the Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen semi-classic on Wednesday. T-Mobile's Cavendish thus succeeds Belgium's former world champion TomBoonen as the Scheldeprijs champion on the 100th anniversary of the Flemish semi-classic. The 21-year-old from the Isle of Man, who won Commonwealth Games track gold in the men's scratch race in Melbourne last year, inched past McEwen in the closing meters of the largely flat 197km race to seal a surprise

After a frustrating finish to Monday’s opener, Toyota-United was rejoicing on Tuesday as Ivan Stevic sprinted to victory in stage 2 of the 2007 Tour de Georgia. J.J. Haedo (Team CSC) and Freddie Rodriguez (Predictor-Lotto) crossed second and third, while Daniele Contrini (Tinkoff Credit Systems) retained the leader’s jersey after a 135-mile day filled with crosswinds, crashes and a long, three-man break that wasn’t mopped until the peloton began marching on Rome. Complete results

Slipstream earns wild-card for CataluynaTeam Slipstream earned an important wild-card bid for next month’s 87th Volta a Catalunya race in Spain. The U.S. team’s invitation was among five issued Tuesday by organizers for the ProTour race set for May 21-27 in Spain’s Catalunya region. Other teams earning nods to join the 20 ProTour teams are Spanish teams Andalucia-Caja Sur, Relax-Gam, Fuerteventura-Canarias and Karpin-Galicia. Slipstream’s European base in nearby Girona, Spain, probably helped the squad to obtain the important invite. Earlier this year, Slipstream earned a berth in the

Stage 2 of the Tour de Georgia was a long one, and Casey Gibson was there from start to finish. Here's a sampler of what he saw in the middle.

It’s a sign of the times. It used to be that the 29-inch mountain-bike was the thing of the fringe elements of the cycling world. No more… at least if the tech expo at Sea Otter was any indication. Major labels – Mavic, Hutchinson and Manitou among them – have recently embraced the concept and have rolled out a host of products including tubeless 29er wheel and tire sets and new long-travel 29er forks. Another theme is that of the event itself as well as many of the products promoted at it being ever more green. Clif Bar ran all of its vehicles for the event on recycled-cooking-oil Bio

Last Friday afternoon, under dark gray skies that made the moment feel as if night were about to fall, I stepped aboard our team bus, gingerly, and sat down. The bus was empty except for one soigneur who pulled out a washcloth and lotion and began scrubbing the grime off of my tender legs. Moments later Axel and Scott stepped on the bus, neither smiling, and sat down, legs outstretched, leaning way back in the chairs waiting their turn to get cleaned up. They looked beat, and if I could have seen my own face I would imagine it was just the same. Beat, but relieved. The last road stage of a

Last Friday afternoon, under dark gray skies that made the moment feel as if night were about to fall, I stepped aboard our team bus, gingerly, and sat down. The bus was empty except for one soigneur who pulled out a washcloth and lotion and began scrubbing the grime off of my tender legs. Moments later Axel and Scott stepped on the bus, neither smiling, and sat down, legs outstretched, leaning way back in the chairs waiting their turn to get cleaned up. They looked beat, and if I could have seen my own face I would imagine it was just the same. Beat, but relieved. The last road stage of a

Tyler Hamilton’s long absence from top-level racing in the U.S. finally came to an end Monday during the first stage of the Tour de Georgia. Following a five-plus year absence from UCI racing in the States, the 36-year-old finished safely in the bunch (56th for the record) on the 98.5-mile run from Peachtree City to Macon. Afterwards, Hamilton, who recently finished a two-year ban for blood doping, said it was an extraordinary day for him. “It was really emotional seeing [Daniele] Contrini there at the finish line,” said Hamilton of his Tinkoff teammate who took the stage 1 victory. “It was

Daniele Contrini (Tinkoff Credit Systems) won stage 1 of the 2007 Tour de Georgia on Monday, leaping away from a breakaway to cross the line alone in downtown Macon. The 33-year-old Italian made his move during a series of finishing circuits, using a brick climb to spring away from Ben Day (Navigators Insurance), Doug Ollerenshaw (Health Net-Maxxis) and Mike Sayers (BMC) to win the 98.5-mile stage from Peachtree City to Macon. Full results

As the countdown to the fifth edition of the Tour de Georgia hit its final hours, riders in need of a one last spin had to endure a blustery, damp Sunday in Peachtree City. But Monday’s forecast calls for clearing skies and temperatures in mid 60s, good news considering that already the event’s team presentation had to be scrapped because of rain. They did manage to hold a pre-race conference Saturday, where a mix of media, VIPs and team officials were treated to video presentation featuring marquee moments from the race’s first four years. Highlights included Mario Cipollini strutting his

It’s not often a rider enters the Roubaix velodrome alone, and an Australian has never done it in the 105-year history of cycling’s hardest one-day race. Stuart O’Grady did both Sunday in an emotional and powerful victory to become the first Aussie to win Paris-Roubaix in the hottest “Hell of the North” as far as anyone can remember.

It could be an option if California officials ever have to find a solution to a drought. Hold an edition of the Sea Otter Classic and then just wait for rain. This year the rains came on Saturday, just in time for a weekend of serious racing. The rain came quickly and biblically, temporarily shutting down the dual slalom and ending the women’s road circuit race prematurely. The heavy rain also sent the cross-country racers scrambling for the right tire for the short-track event. Thomas Frischknecht (Swisspower) pulled out a special weapon for the race; a pair of 26-inch Dugast Rhino tubular

Extra pix Roubaix

Sunday’s Sea Otter downhill race served as the gravity season’s opener. While the cross-country competitors had a chance to dust of the cobwebs at the NOVA National in Fountain Hills, Arizona, a couple of weeks ago, the gravity crew had yet to meet up. The short two-and-a-half minute course produced a surprise win for Brit Rachel Atherton (Animal-Commençal), while Nathan Rennie (Santa Cruz Syndicate) took his third Sea Otter downhill win. Saturday’s rain exacted chaos over the road, short-track and dual slalom races. The latter was postponed four hours — gravity riders finally took to the

Don’t discount Team CSC’s Stuart O’Grady as a candidate for the win in Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix. The 33-year-old Aussie might not be one of the five-star favorites to win the “Hell of the North,” but he can be a wildcard, behind teammate and defending champ Fabian Cancellara. (VeloNews.com will offer up-to-the-minute live coverage of Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. – Editor) “Stuey” barreled into this year’s classics season in his best form in years. After a string of top-five finishes, O’Grady is intent on snagging his first victory since 2004, when he won a stage at the Tour de France, two at the

It’s hard to believe that a strike by firefighters and security personnel on another continent could be mucking up race director Jim Birrell’s day. But that was just the case Friday — the 13th — as Birrell worked from his office, dealing with the final i’s and t’s ahead of Monday's start of the Tour de Georgia. A 10-hour work stoppage at the Brussels International Airport forced the delay or cancellation of almost every arriving and departing flight Friday. That meant major headaches for holiday travelers, and scrambled plans for members of the CSC, Quick Step-Innergetic and

Bumping elbows with the pros — that’s what Sea Otter is about. Subaru-Gary Fisher professional racer Sam Schultz knows the feeling. The young racer was at Laguna Seca raceway on Friday for SRAM’s launch of its new Monarch air shock platform. He recounted a time not so long ago when he would come to the big events looking around to see what the fast guys were riding. Now we’re checking out what he’s riding, whether he knows it or not. But Sea Otter is about more than just who's using the stuff. The cycling festival gives tech geeks a chance to check in with a host of industry engineers,

Former world champion Tom Boonen will be among the Belgians feeling the weight of expectation going into Sunday’s edition of Paris-Roubaix, arguably the toughest one-day cycling race in the world. The 26-year-old Belgian has already won once at the “Hell of the North,” as the 111-year-old race is known. But given his frustrating run through the Belgian one-day classics this month, Boonen and compatriots Leif Hoste and Peter Van Petegem will be eager to redress the balance. The three are among a handful of contenders — including defending Roubaix champion Fabian Cancellara and Italians

Halfway through a Laguna Seca circuit race that started under sunny skies, officials cancelled the pro women’s event after hard driving rains sent rivers of mud streaming across the auto racetrack. About 8 laps into a 22-lap event, rain started falling and temperatures plummeted. Soon, the water was coming down so hard riders had difficulty seeing while descending the famed Corkscrew, which sends riders screaming down 300 winding vertical feet in a matter of seconds. Instead of shortening the event — by announcing one lap to go as riders came through the start/finish on the 2.2-mile course —

Dan Ramsey took a big win for his Successful Living team in at the Sea Otter Classic NRC men’s circuit race. After spending the majority of the race off the front in a two-man move, Ramsey was caught by a small group, but soon attacked again, hoping to set up one of his three teammates who had been brought across. Instead, Ramsey held his solo gap for the final six laps. “I knew I had to be the first one to attack because I had been off the front all day,” Ramsey said. “I was guessing one of my teammates would take the race, not me. I’m really happy for the team. We needed this. I’d like to

It looked like strong, cool breezes and sunny skies were to be the reward for those who still retained the sour memories of the torrential rains and near constant crashes of the 2006 Jacksonville Cycling Classic. "You would come around a turn and be hit with a 30 mile an hour wind that would all but knock you down," recalled AEG-Toshiba-Jet Network rider Todd Henriksen. But Henriksen and the rest of the Pro Men's field got at least a small reminder of last year's event when two small but thorough cloud bursts soaked the one-kilometer-long course just minutes before the start. Those

Fabian Cancellara (Team CSC) is still steaming over missing victory in Sunday’s Tour of Flanders. The reigning world time trial champion tried to will his way to the top podium spot, but a mix of tactics, a lack of cooperation from breakaway partners and simply too nice of weather that made for a larger than normal peloton foiled his chances. The 26-year-old will line up Sunday as defending champion at Paris-Roubaix. He told VeloNews he has one aim. “I want to double,” he said flat out. “I don’t know if my form is as good as last year, I was a little sick at Tirreno that set me back a little,

The 17th edition of the Sea Otter Classic opened Thursday under sunny skies and blustery winds. The wind brought cooler temperatures, but no one was complaining too much after a soggy setup on Wednesday. For the VeloNews tech crew, our day opened offsite at the re-launch of Tomac Bicycles, during an event hosted by Joel Smith, a former employee of Answer Products, and brand namesake John Tomac. The company is taking it small this time, testing the waters with only eight employees and a product line built around three core frames. Tomac’s name first graced the down tube of a bicycle in 1999

The carnage from crashes Wednesday on the Kemmelberg descent during Ghent-Wevelgem has triggered calls for the treacherous cobblestoned section to be removed from the spring classic. Opinions were split. Some felt the harrowing pavé descent was just too steep for today’s high-speed peloton. A seeming majority felt that such hazardous, yet historic landmarks should remain in the northern classics despite the danger. Regardless of the opinions, the facts remained harsh. Dozens of riders fell and nearly all earned a trip to local hospitals, most with broken bones. Here’s an official list of

Here we are, just getting ready to head full steam into the 2007 racing season, and the 2008 product is already starting to ship. When did we have a chance to enjoy our '07 bikes? Trek just started shipping copies of Travis Brown’s 69er single-speed to its dealers last week. And here in Santa Cruz, California, just north of Monterey and the Sea Otter Classic, we’re seeing 69ers with gears and even suspension. It’s the same on the Gary Fisher side. There was hardly even time to get excited about its new economical aluminum trail bike, the HiFi, a bike with great value and even greater

Juan José Haedo was the center of attention Wednesday at the start of Ghent-Wevelgem as journalists scrambled to get word with the “man who beat Petacchi” in Monday’s Rund um Köln. The Argentine ace made easy work of Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) and Graeme Brown (Rabobank) to win for the first time on European roads. The victory boosted his profile as he makes the leap from domestic racing in the United States to a largely European schedule with Team CSC. “It was an important victory in front of people like Petacchi and Brown, I can only be happy with the win,” Haedo told VeloNews before

Tyler Farrar broke his left kneecap Wednesday in a harrowing crash on the dangerous Kemmelberg cobblestone descent in Ghent-Wevelgem. Farrar, 22, was transported to a hospital in Ieper, Belgium, where X-rays found a fracture to his patella. Cofidis officials said surgery isn’t required, but he’ll likely be sidelined for at least a month. “He was behind [Jimmy] Casper when he crashed and everyone started to brake, but I don’t know precisely what caused him to fall,” said Cofidis sport director Alain Deloeuil. “There are no other broken bones.” Deloeuil said Farrar should be able to return

Wednesday’s spectacular crashes on the sketchy Kemmelberg cobblestone descent in Ghent-Wevelgem had some critics suggesting the road is too dangerous to be part of the otherwise flat 220km route across western Flanders. More than a dozen riders crashed in two harrowing descents off the narrow, twisting road. Among the victims in the spectacular, high-speed spills were American Tyler Farrar (Cofidis), who broke his kneecap, and Frenchman Jimmy Casper (Unibet.com), who suffered major cuts to his face and nose and was in hospital awaiting surgery. But UCI officials said they had no intention

German rider Marcus Burghardt outfoxed one of the savviest riders in the peloton to win a crash-marred Ghent-Wevelgem ahead of three-time world champion Oscar Freire. The T-Mobile prospect scored the first win of his career in impressive manner after powering away from Freire and three other escapees with 1.3km to go in the 220km march across western Flanders.

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During Paris-Nice, one of the Saunier Duval riders, Francisco José Ventoso, asked me what races I would be competing in the coming month. I ran down the list and at the mention of Pays Basque he stopped me and said, “this year is hard, una puta madre, and my teammates all tell me the climbing is incredible.” I am now two days into the race and I can attest to the fact that Francisco was right. The last two days have been hard, hard days of racing with nonstop climbing: yesterday we had nine categorized climbs and today eight. There is no time to chat in the bunch once the break is gone and

Several big-name riders who skipped Tour of Flanders will be the main protagonists Wednesday for Ghent-Wevelgem in the midweek, sprinter-friendly classic. The 210km route from Deinze to Wevelgem is mostly flat except for two passages over the Kemmelberg at 153km and 174km. The climb almost always splits the bunch and it’s sometimes a close call before the peloton comes back together again before roaring into Wevelgem for the sprint. Defending champion Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricole), Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto), Allan Davis (Discovery Channel), Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) and Baden

PressureDear Lennard,Regarding your March 27 column, I work for Boeing and have traveled a lot with my altimeter. At cruising altitude (41,000 feet) the internal fuselage altitude is effectively 6600ft, and will be even lower with the new 787. We all climb passes that high.I also wanted to point out that the entire fuselage is the same pressure, that includes the lower cargo section and passenger space. Think of it as one big balloon. So, I travel with inflated tires, primarily to provide that extra measure of rim protection.JohnDear John,Thanks; you've answered the one question I had

Only at the northern classics would people hope for bad weather. While Americans were wrestling with the possibility of cancelling a snow-boundU.S. Open, northern Europe was basking under temperatures in the 70s, clear skies and almost no wind. For many, it seemed Sunday’s weather was too nice – at least according to several protagonists queried by VeloNews after the Tour of Flanders. “It might have been great for fans and some of the racers, but today’s race was kind of flat and it lacked the spark that makes Flanders such a great race,” said Fabian Cancellara (CSC), who tried to break

The UniBet.com ProTour cycling team faced another setback Monday after being excluded from two more Classics. Unibet.com was already denied participation at Paris-Nice race last month and this coming Sunday's edition of Paris-Roubaix. The team learned on Monday that it will not be allowed to participate in Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege as well. All four events are promoted by Tour de France organizer ASO which said that the exclusions are due to French and Belgian laws barring the advertisement of out-of-country betting and lotteries. The Belgian-Swedish team is sponsored

Don’t tell Alessandro Ballan he’s heir to Italian classics heroes such as Andrea Tafi and Franco Ballerini after his dramatic sprint victory ahead of Leif Hoste in Sunday’s Tour of Flanders. The panache shown by the 27-year-old in winning the crash-laden 91st edition is just the stuff Italian journalists love to turn into legend, but Ballan sees himself as more than a one-trick pony after the biggest victory of his career.

Second-year pro Tyler Farrar is getting his long-awaited view of Europe’s bumpiest roads from inside the peloton during the northern classics. On Sunday, the 22-year-old Cofidis rider competed in the first Tour of Flanders of his promising career, helping push team captain Nick Nuyens to seventh in one of the most important races of the season. Farrar is an integral part of the Cofidis’ northern classics program and will be spending the next week racing across the cobblestones. Up next is Wednesday’s Ghent-Wevelgem —and next weekend, he’s scheduled to start in the Hell of the North,

Heading into the inaugural U.S. Open Cycling Championships in Richmond, Virginia, a few names of race favorites were on everyone’s lips: Toyota-United strongmen Henk Vogels and Ivan Dominguez topped the list. Other riders, such as Health Net-Maxxis riders Karl Menzies and Kirk O’Bee and current NRC leader Ben Jacques-Maynes of Priority Health-Bissell were also tossed around. But in the end, two riders not considered favorites — Svein Tuft of Symmetrics and Patrick McCarty of Slipstream-Chipotle — turned the race upside down after forming a winning two-man breakaway more than 15 miles from

The absence of one the Tour of Flanders' crucial climbs in Sunday's second one-day classic of the season is unlikely to reduce the threat of a possible hat-trick for Tom Boonen. Boonen has won the Belgian epic for the past two years, but even he might be applauding the organizer’s decision to bypass the mythical, and strategically significant Koppenberg. At only 600 meters long, it can hardly be labeled a climb - at least to those more used to watching the big stage racer. But climbing at an average gradient of 11.6 percent on the cobbles makes the Koppenberg a challenge you cannot