Road

Sunday marked the official opening of the Basso Era as Ivan Basso (CSC) won the 2006 Giro d'Italia in a dominant fashion that many expect to continue into July’s Tour de France. Basso, 28, insists he’s not out to ascend to Lance Armstrong’s vacant throne and that his overpowering victory in the 89th Giro d’Italia came in a style all his own. "I’m not looking to replace anyone and I have the utmost respect for Lance, but I have my results and I have earned my place in the group," Basso said Sunday morning ahead of the final stage. "I have my name and I only have to show that I am Ivan

Team CSC’s Ivan Basso barnstormed to victory Saturday in the final hard stage of the 89th Giro d’Italia in the style of the man everyone expects Basso to succeed – Lance Armstrong. Basso wasn’t in a giving mood when he dropped an exasperated Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval) with about 4km to go in Saturday’s grueling, 211km 20th stage to win for the third time and widen his grip on the maglia rosa to more than nine minutes with just one day left. An angry Simoni called Basso an "extraterrestrial" for his crushing performance and accused him riding unfairly by asking him to ride easy on the

The fourth round of the cross-country mountain-bike World Cup took riders to the Scottish Highlands on Saturday. Despite cold rain, which was torrential at times, the event featured some of the best racing of the World Cup so far. Julien Absalon (Bianchi Agos) took his third consecutive victory in the men's race, but perennial women's favorite Gunn-Rita Dahle (Multivan Merida) ceded the top spot on the podium to her young teammate Nina Göhl after suffering a flat on the first lap. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher), meanwhile, had a breakthrough ride to finish on the podium

Tom Danielson, weakened by fever and sinus problems, ended his Giro d’Italia just two days shy of finishing but Discovery Channel officials revealed that he’ll reload for the Vuelta a España as the team’s GC rider. Danielson, who was sitting 16th overall at 23:24 back, didn’t start Saturday’s 20th climbing stage over the Gavia and Mortirolo when his conditioned worsened overnight Friday and team sport director Johan Bruyneel decided to pull the plug on his Giro. “He'd been suffering from sinusitis and taking antibiotics ever since the stage to La Thuile last week," Bruyneel told

Riders from Liberty Seguros-Würth vow to keep racing despite the departure of the team’s title sponsor in the wake of the detention of team manager Manolo Saiz as part of a blood-doping scandal in Spain. Officials from Liberty Seguros – the American insurance giant that sponsored the team to the tune of $8.5 million per year – formally ended association with the team’s holding company Saturday, but promised it would pay riders and staff salaries through the 2006 season. "The agreement says that the salaries will be paid until the end of the season if we cannot find another sponsor," team

There’s no stopping Team CSC in this Giro d’Italia, unless they decide to stop themselves. Team CSC was everywhere in Friday’s epic seven-hour haul in the 221km 19th stage that hit such legendary climbs as the Fedaia, Pordoi and San Pellegrino. Bobby Julich and Jens Voigt were in the day’s winning 19-man break, five other Team CSC jerseys were pinned at the front of the main bunch and race leader Ivan Basso widened his hold on the maglia rosa to more than six minutes with just two days left. So what was Voigt doing when he reached over and patted Juan Manuel Garate (Lampre) on the back

Lately, it seems, when there’s been a doping scandal involving cycling, Italy and the Giro d’Italia figured at the center of the storm. Think of Marco Pantani’s expulsion in 1999, the San Remo raids in 2001 and the ejection of Stefano Garzelli while in the leader’s jersey in 2002. This time around, a brewing tempest in Spain involving Liberty Seguros team manager Manolo Saiz, Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and three others reached all the way to the Giro's 18th stage, which began in the mountains of Austria Thursday morning. Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) won his second stage of

Thus far in the Giro d’Italia, the key mountain stages have all featured a singleclimb at the end of an otherwise flat of rolling course. It has been apattern that’s proved perfect for race leader Ivan Basso. Every time —on the Passo di Larciano of stage 8, the Colle San Carlo on stage 13 andMonte Bondone on stage 16 — the CSC team leader has ridden away from allof his chief opponents. Indeed, Wednesday's Stage 17 would have featured a huge climb in the middle, but weather forced the eliminationof the Passo del Erbe from what was to have been the "Queen stage" of theGiro.Perhaps it will

The Queen of stages at the Giro d’Italia proved to be something of a letdown Wednesday as rain, cold and even a bit of late-spring snow forced organizers to eliminate the goat path they had planned to herd the peloton up the 2273m summit at Plan de Corones. Winter-like whiteout conditions high in the Italian Dolomites prompted race organizers to remove the difficult Passo dello Erbe at 97km and then lower the summit finish by about five kilometers, shorting the 133km stage by 18km. Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) won his second stage in five days while Team CSC’s Ivan Basso took more time

If there was a shred of doubt about who was going to win the 89th Giro d'Italia going into Tuesday's climbing stage up Monte Bondone, Ivan Basso emphatically erased it with a dramatic statement high in the Italian Dolomites. If Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval) was racing on pride on his "home mountain," Basso was looking to carve a defining moment in what's been a flawless and dominant performance for the 28-year-old Varenese. With just under seven kilometers to go on the steep Bondone climb, Simoni could only watch Basso and the race leader's pink jersey slip away as Basso

Charly Gaul, perhaps the best pure climber the sport of road cycling has ever produced, should have been standing at the Monte Bondone summit finish of Tuesday’s stage of the Giro d’Italia. But Gaul, who won an epic victory on the Bondone climb in 1956, died last December at age 72. The Giro organizers chose the Bondone as the stage 16 finish to mark the 50th anniversary of Gaul’s stage win, which was achieved in apocalyptic conditions. Gaul was only 20 when he turned pro for a French team, Terrot, in May 1953. Within a month he was racing in the second biggest stage race in France, the

Reigning Olympic champion Paolo Bettini Quick Step) put an end to a streak of frustrating finishes this season with a decisive win at the end of Monday’s 190km 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia. Overall race leader, CSC's Ivan Basso, enjoyed what could be described as this Giro's easiest, a completely flat ride from Mergozza to Brescia in the Lombardy region in Northern Italy. Bettini, 32, ended a string of frustrating near-wins, by grabbing the victory from this Giro's other bridesmaid, Pollack, who has also come frustratingly close to victory in most of this Giro's sprint

While no one can do much about the 24-percent pitches on parts of the roadto the finish of Wednesday's 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia, road crewsare making progress in terms of improving the surface on the final fivekilometers on the road to Plan de Corones. VeloNews reader IgorTavella, who sent us a photo update lastweek , has returned and reports that there are great improvementson most of the final portions of the climb. Race officials say that atthis point, if work on the final few hundred meters remain unfinished thosestretches of road will simply be eliminated from the stage.

Cañada wins Catalunya, Bennati takes finaleDavid Cañada (Saunier Duval) held on to his slender two-second lead to claim the biggest win of his decade-long career with overall victory Sunday in the 86th Volta a Catalunya in Spain. Cañada only had to follow the wheel of Santiago Botero (Phonak) in the hilly 121km march from Lloret de Mar that ended with a sprint in downtown Barcelona. Christophe Moreau (Ag2r) finished third at eight seconds back. “Winning here was complicated, there were lots of decisive moments,” the 31-year-old Cañada told reporters. “My team played a crucial role and there

Sundays in Italy are usually reserved for quality time with the family, a nice meal out and an afternoon passeggiato. Not that nearly six hours on the bike and two tough mountains is ever easy, but Sunday’s 224-kilometer 14th stage from Aosta to Domodossola might seem like a Sunday stroll when the hit the likes of Pla de Corones and the Mortirolo on tap later this week. With the 11-man breakaway taking center-stage in the two-climb affair, an impromptu cease-fire between the favorites gave everyone a chance to reflect on what awaits them in the final week of the 89th Giro. Luis Felipe

Cañada takes over in CatalunyaDavid Cañada (Saunier Duval) took over the leader’s jersey at the sixth stage of the Volta a Catalunya after a frenetic stage that saw Slovenian sprinter Matej Mugerli (Liquigas) grab the win. Overnight leader Carlos Castaño (Kaiku) gave up more than five minutes after the group split on the hilly stage and he could only watch his 1:18 lead evaporate on the road in the 166km sixth course from Manlleu to Lloret de Mar and he dropped 23rd overall. The bumpy profile proved fatal to Castaño’s modest Kaiku team, which got out-gunned when 46 riders pulled away early

Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) has won just about every major mountain climb in Spain, including a stage victory in the 2004 Vuelta a España, but the veteran Italian climbing specialist had never won in the Giro d’Italia. Piepoli, 34, has spent much of his 12-year career racing in Spain and all of his wins since 1999 have come on Spanish roads. The featherweight Italian changed that with an emphatic victory in Saturday’s rainy and cold 13th stage over the Colle San Carlo high in the Italian Alps. Piepoli was the only rider strong enough to follow Ivan Basso (CSC) when he turned on the

Tour nine shaping up for Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is zeroing in on its nine riders who will defend the team’s colors in the first Tour de France of the post-Lance Armstrong era. According to sport director Dirk Demol, the nine pre-selected riders include two new faces which have yet to ride the Tour with Discovery Channel. Young Russian Vladimir Gusev and promising Basque rider Egoi Martinez are both penciled in to earn a Tour start position. “It’s not like the past, when we had the whole team for Lance. The team comes with different goals,” Demol told VeloNews. “Of course, there

Joan Horrach (Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears) brought a Spanish accent to the 89th Giro d’Italia in a rough and tumble race that saw Emanuele Sella (Panaria) and Manuele Mori (Saunier Duval) crash twice while they were streaking toward victory. Horrach was the last man standing of a 15-man group that tore away from main bunch in the 171km 12th stage along Italy’s spectacular Cinque Terre coast. A frenetic final half of the stage saw the group whittled down by Sella’s and Mori’s aggression, but the pair crashed while nursing about a 20-second gap and Horrach was able to sneak through for the

Spanish rider Carlos Castaño gave his Kaiku team sweet revenge for being left out of this year’s Vuelta a España with an impressive win in Thursday’s 225km “queen stage” in the Volta a Catalunya. Kaiku was overlooked for a wild-card spot to join this year’s Vuelta and the team’s been simmering ever since. Castaño poured that frustration into his pedals to reel in the attacking Christophe Moreau (Ag2r) on the final climb to Arcalis to win and snatch the overall lead. “I was just thinking about winning the stage, so to take the leader’s jersey is a double bonus for the team,” Castaño said.

It’s hard to believe that on a day when Ivan Basso nearly doubled his hold on the overall standings at the 2006 Giro d’Italia, the big story was another rider. But that’s just what happened when German Jan Ullrich stole the show — and the stage 11 win — in the 50km time trial from Pontedera to Pisa and back. Starting long before the Giro’s top GC hopefuls on a sunny, warm Thursday afternoon near Italy’s Ligurian Sea, Ullrich blistered the flat, oval shaped course that passed by Pisa’s famed leaning tower, posting a day’s best 58:48. From there, the waiting game began. It was more than three

After the Giro d’Italia’s second long transfer, this one taking therace from Pescara on Italy’s east coast to Pisa on the west, riders wereusing the rest day in Tuscany to scout out Thursday’s time trial courseand take stock of the race before heading into the upcoming week of climbsand more climbs. Stage 11 is a Tour de France-style time trial on a completelyflat 50km circuit around the Arno Valley between Pontedera and Pisa. JanUllrich scouted the course during an April training camp and likes it alot: “Flat and straight — perfect!” Race leader Ivan Basso predicts thatUllrich will ride a

You may have heard about a study recently published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolsim that brought that old childhood favorite drink of chocolate milk into the headlines. This attention getting study did bring up a lot of practical questions regarding your best food and fluid recovery nutrition choices, and a good opportunity to clarify the proper use of various sports nutrition supplements. Let’s take a quick look at the study. Researchers provided subjects with either chocolate milk, a sports drink, or a commercially available recovery drink (there

Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) sat in the shade of some palm trees Wednesday morning saying he’d like to win a stage at the week-long Volta a Catalunya as "a test" before tackling more important goals later this summer. Well, if his sprint victory in Wednesday’s third stage ahead of riders he’s due to square off against in a few weeks is any indication, the big Norwegian seems to be on the right path for the Tour. "It was a tough sprint because of strong headwinds in the finale," Hushovd told reporters. "I’m particularly delighted to win, because today is Norway’s national holiday. I’m on

On the second and final rest day of the 2006 Giro d’Italia, current race leader Ivan Basso spent most of Wednesday afternoon relaxing at his team’s seaside hotel in the beach town of Lido Di Camaiore. Basso did sneak in a two-hour training ride to reconnoiter Thursday’s 50km time trial course that does an oval loop from Pontedera to Pisa and back. The 2005 Tour de France runner-up also held a short press conference at the team hotel. Here are some of the highlights along with comments from Team CSC director Bjarne Riis. Basso on his expectations for the time trial:“I expect to have a good

For many of the 20 ProTour teams lining up for the 86th Volta a Catalunya, the week-long race is an obligation to fulfill their end of the ProTour bargain to get assured starts in important races like the Tour de France. For small teams like Andalucía-Paul Versan, which got snubbed in its bid to earn a start in the Vuelta a España later this summer, races like these become their Tour. Luis Perez, a 25-year-old Spanish rider who had never won a race before as a professional, earned his modest Andalucía-Paul Versan squad some bragging points after soloing to victory in the 156.8km second

While the Giro d’Italia enters its second rest day on Wednesday, noteveryone in Italy is resting.We received an e-mail from reader Igor Tavella, who was on the upper reaches of the Plan de Corones this past Sunday and saw that road crews are still working to pave the final 5km of what will be the steepest section of road in this Giro d'Italia. "Maybe it is of interest to you to know that I took some pictures aboutthe works on the new road to the Plan de Corones," Igor writes. "Now theyare working day and night to be able to finish the road. Due to the last snowfalls they had to stop

It wasn’t quite as painful as the Nordic ski jumper that went spiraling down the hill all those years during the intro to ABC’s Wide World of Sports, but watching poor Axel Merckx throw several backward glances as a fast-moving chase group caught the Phonak rider just 150 meters from the line clearly rated as one of cycling’s agony-of-defeat moments. Instead of a heroic solo stage 10 win for the Belgian with the famous name, it was Liquigas lieutenant Franco Pellizotti who got to pop the champagne at the end of the 190km run south from Termoli to Peschici on Tuesday at the Giro

Steep, steep, steepDear Lennard,I recently read that Discovery director Johann Bruyneel is planningon putting a 34X29 on some of his riders' bikes for Stage 17 of the Giro.I don’t think Shimano makes either a compact Dura-Ace crank or a 29 cog.Any idea what they plan on using?James Dear James,I am in Italy now putting on a bikecamp with Connie Carpenter and Davis Phinney. We will be hookingup with the Giro starting at the Pontedera time trial on Thursday. I ameager to see the Stage 17 finish climb and the gearing teams use for it,too. According to Shimano USA and confirmed by Shimano

Team CSC’s Fabian Cancellara hadn’t raced since winning Paris-Roubaix more than a month ago, but nothing could stop the adrenalin and killer instincts from kicking in when the big Swiss rider clipped into the pedals ahead of Monday’s opening 12.5km time trial to open the 86th Volta a Cataluyna. Once he got his big motor warmed up, the 6-foot-3, 180-pounder just let it rip. "I never dreamed of winning today until I rode the course this morning and I thought to myself, ‘Why not risk it and try to win?’" Cancellara said. "My next big goal isn’t until the Tour, but this was an opportunity I

Tomas Vaitkus pulled off two great feats at the close of Monday's 132km run from Francavilla al Mare to Termoli. In winning the bunch sprint down the main drag of this sleepy beach town on the Adriatic, Vaitkus became the first Lithuanian to win a Giro d'Italia stage. But maybe more impressive was the fact that Vaitkus did so ahead of Robbie McEwen, heretofore unbeatable in mass gallops at this year's Giro. McEwen actually finished fourth on stage 9, with Vaitkus (Ag2r), Paolo Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic) and Olaf Pollack (T-Mobile) all besting the Davitamon-Lotto rider.

After a double day of competition on Saturday at the Joe Martin Stage Race, Gord Fraser (Health Net-Maxxis) retained his overall lead in the men’s race and Erinne Willock (Webcor-Platinum) moved into the top spot in the women’s general classification. Fraser won the field sprint of a 92-mile road race in the morning, then finished ninth in the 2.5-mile uphill time trial – 19 seconds behind teammate Scott Moninger – to stay in the lead. Meanwhile, Tina Pic (Colavita-Cooking Light) took the women’s 69-mile road race, but Willock won the afternoon’s time trial to move into first overall, 20

Collegiate athletes mobbed the streets of downtown Lawrence, Kansas, on Sunday for the third and final race of the 2006 USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships. The finale, a criterium run on a one-mile course, saw Division I and II men’s fields race 65 minutes plus three laps and the women’s fields race 55 minutes plus three laps. The D-II men hit the streets first. The race held extra importance, as the team omnium was nearly tied after Friday’s team time trial and Saturday’s road race. Defending champions Whitman College trailed Lees-McRae College by a mere seven points. Both

Arkansas has been good to Gord Fraser (Health Net-Maxxis). In the final event of the Joe Martin Stage Race, a technical downtown criterium, Fraser won his third sprint finish and maintained his overall title. In the women’s race Erinne Willock finished fourth, 10 seconds down on race winner Kori Seehafer, to maintain first in general classification. Entering the final stage with the top two riders on general classification, Fraser and Scott Moninger, the Health Net-Maxxis racers had one thing on their mind – playing defense. On a criterium course in downtown Fayetteville featuring eight

If there is such a thing as a psychological advantage in bike racing, Ivan Basso now has it. The Team CSC leader also now owns the maglia rosa of race leader and no less than a 1:34 edge on his chief rivals in the 2006 Giro d’Italia. All this came courtesy of a stunning display of climbing force at the close of the 171km stage 8 run from Civitanova Marche to the 1289-meter summit finish at Maielletta-Passo Lanciano. Following a sharp attack from fellow Giro favorite Damiano Cunego 4km from the finish, Basso latched onto the Lampre-Fondital rider’s wheel, and then mercilessly dropped the 2004

On Saturday morning before the tough stage 7 run from Cesana to Saltara, VeloNews got an opportunity to look inside the Team CSC truck. Besides the expected slew of bikes and bike parts, the big rig also has a small kitchen, washer and dryer, and even a built in pressure-washing system. A big thanks to our guide, CSC mechanic Nicholas Legan, who was busy using nail polish to cover up a small paint chip in of the team bike’s forks when we showed up for our tour in at the team’s hotel in the stage 6 finishing town of Forli.

Spectators lining the start/finish line of today’s 2006 collegiate road national championships at Perry Lake, Kansas, saw four very different race finishes, with Brent Bookwalter (Lees-McRae), Sarah Uhl (Penn State), Mark Hardman (Virginia) and Mara Abbott (Whitman College) emerging as winners. The day kicked off promptly at 8 a.m., with the women’s Division I and Division II fields taking to the road at Perry Lake, a boating and fishing destination about 15 miles west of Lawrence. Both women’s divisions circled the rolling 28-mile loop twice, with the 75-woman Division I race hitting the

Saturday’s 236km stage from Cesana to Saltara certainly won’t decide the overall winner of the 2006 Giro d’Italia, but it may have revealed some cracks in at least one of the pre-race favorites. While Belgian Rik Verbrugghe was off the front gunning his way to a hard-fought solo stage win, Italian Danilo Di Luca was noticeably absent from a fast-closing group that included the rest of the Giro’s big GC guns — Paolo Savoldelli, Gilberto Simoni and Damiano Cunego. At the finish Di Luca (Liquigas) managed to limit his losses to second-place finisher Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) to 20

It takes a lot of things to make a ProTour team tick, and one of those is food — lots of it. During a grand tour like the Giro d’Italia riders must consume massive amounts of calories just to keep the legs churning. But if just one of those meals is bad, things can go wrong in a hurry. That’s why many teams — including CSC — employ a full-time chef who accompanies them on the road. On Friday night VeloNews sat down with Dane Søren Kristiansen, head chef for the squadre of Ivan Basso, Bobby Julich and the rest of Bjarne Riis’ boys. After part of the team – including Ivan Basso - fell ill at

VeloNews correspondent Jason Sumner is in Italy covering the Giro d'Italia for both the web and print versions of VeloNews. Part of his duties include a visit to the start before the stage begins and he invariably sends us photos for our Live Update pages. Just in case you missed them there, here is today's sampling:

Aussie speedster Robbie McEwen continued his dominating run at the 2006 Giro d'Italia, grabbing a convincing stage-6 win at the finish of the dead flat, 227km run along the Po Valley from Busseto to Forli. The triumph gave the "Pocket Rocket" three victories at this year’s Giro, bring his career total to 11. One spot back of McEwen was T-Mobile’s Olaf Pollack, who was no match for the Davitamon-Lotto speedster. Still, he could take solace in the new pink jersey he would be taking back to the team hotel. Coming into the day, Pollack had trailed teammate and GC leader Sergei Honchar by 10

Raisin recovery could take a yearSaul Raisin’s road to recovery continues in a rehabilitation center in Atlanta, but according to postings on his personal web page, his complete recuperation could take between nine months to a year. Raisin promised his parents he’d do it in “six months” as he works to regain full strength after his life-threatening crash in early April. “Every day I see lots of improvement. It is going to be a long hard road. For the most part I find myself eating candy and chocolate to keep my head happy,” Raisin wrote. “I am getting better, but I am still far away from

Some 400 collegiate racers are expected to descend upon Lawrence, Kansas, this weekend for the 2006 USA Cycling Collegiate Road Nationals. The three-day event, hosted by the Kansas University Cycling Club, includes a team time trial, road race and criterium, awards national-championship jerseys to individual race winners, and crowns team and individual champions in a points-based omnium. Schools with 15,000 students or more compete in Division I, while smaller schools race Division II. Last year’s DI team winner was the University of Colorado-Boulder, which ended the University of

VeloNews correspondent Jason Sumner is in Italy covering the Giro d'Italia for both the web and print versions of VeloNews. Part of his duties include a visit to the start before the stage begins and he invariably sends us photos for our Live Update pages. Just in case you missed them there, here is today's sampling:

The 2006 collegiate national road cycling championships kicked off Friday with the team time trial competition. The course sent riders on a rolling 14-mile out-and-back course along Kansas’ Highway 10, which runs along the western end of Lawrence, home of the University of Kansas. USA Cycling rules required teams to compete with either three or four riders, with the third rider to cross the finish line determining the team’s final time. Stiff winds kicked up before competition began at 8:30 a.m., blowing parallel to the course. Riders began with the winds at their backs, but after two miles

Tina Pic (Colavita) and Health Net’s Gord Fraser won their opening stages at the Joe Martin Stage Race in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Friday, the opener in a growing three-day event with a healthy fan base and an increasing prize list. In a hard fought up-hill sprint to the line, Gord Fraser (Health Net-Maxxis) won the 110-mile men’s road race, beating Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) and Alex Candelario (Jelly Belly) to the line. Fraser’s win came thanks to the help of his Health Net-Maxxis teammates Scott Moninger and Nathan O’Neill, who worked to chase down a dangerous break of four riders that

Call Thursday statement day at the 2006 Giro d’Italia, with a pair of very loud and clear messages being broadcast to the cycling world. No. 1: Don’t read too much into the lackluster prologue-time-trial effort of Ivan Basso last Saturday, when he surrendered 23 seconds to 2005 Giro champ Paolo Savoldelli. Basso and his Team CSC squad looked just fine during stage 5’s team time trial, scorching the flat, 35km course from Piacenza to Cremona in a day’s-best 36:56. And while everyone is paying attention, it’s probably too early to count out Jan Ullrich and his T-Mobile squad for this summer’s

Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi could miss July´s Tour de France after recovering from surgery Wednesday for a cracked knee cap suffered in his fall and subsequent abandon in stage three of the 89th Giro d’Italia. Doctors said the two-hour operation in Pisa's San Rossore clinic went well, but Petacchi will need at least five weeks to recover from the injury, putting a July 1 start in the Tour de France in doubt. “I hope the X-rays I will undergo in three weeks will enable me to shorten my absence. I am eager to start racing and winning again, but I don't want to jeopardize my

After a bouncy ride through the spring classics, there is no hotter team in the ProTour than Davitamon-Lotto. Since the end of April the Belgian squad has grabbed three stage wins, plus the overall at Switzerland’s Tour de Romandie, and taken a pair of stage wins here at the 2006 Giro d’Italia. VeloNews caught up with directeur sportif Allan Peiper during Wednesday’s rest day at the Giro to find out what is driving the team’s turnaround. VeloNews: Fair to say Davitamon-Lotto has it going in the right direction? Allan Peiper: Yeah, we had a rough trot through the classics and couldn’t get

With many of the top favorites for the Tour de France racing this month in the Giro d’Italia, one name absent is that of the tenacious attacker Alexandre Vinokourov. After last racing in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Vinokourov is continuing with his patient and quiet preparation for the Tour. The demands of the 21-stage Giro don’t figure part of that plan. “We never thought of racing the Giro. In fact, our thinking is the opposite,” Vinokourov told VeloNews. “We want to stay away from the stresses of racing and prepare specifically for the Tour.” Vinokourov, 33, is putting everything this year on

After a transfer by charter plane from Liège, Belgium to Parma, Italy, on Tuesday night and a rest day in Cremona — the city of the 17th-century violinmaker Antonio Stradivari— the 89th Giro d’Italia continues Thursday with a crucial team time trial. The opening four stages resulted in a series of surprises — Paolo Savoldelli’s stage 1 time trial win; Robbie McEwen easily defeating Alessandro Petacchi at Charleroi; Stefan Schumacher’s brilliant stage win at Namur; and Petacchi’s crash that fractured his left kneecap and put him out of the sport for a likely couple of months. So can we expect

CSC team captain Ivan Basso appears to be the favorite for this year's tour de France, seven time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong said Tuesday. The 34-year-old Texan was present in Belgium attending the last of four Giro d’Italia stages in that country. Armstrong was there to support his former teammate and defending Giro champion Paolo Savoldelli, who won the first stage. But Armstrong said he had few doubts that Basso, twice a podium finisher behind him in the two most recent Tours de France, was the likely winner of both this year’s and the Tour de France (July 1-23). "At

Following his second stage win at the 2006 Giro d'Italia, Robbie McEwenbrushed off the idea that he had ascended the crown of world's fastestbike racer. But there was no denying that the Australian Davitamon-Lotto man hasalready made an indelible mark on this year's tour of Italy. In the waning moments of the hilly 193km run from Wanzee to Hotton,McEwen calmly bided his time, then launched across the line to take secondstage win in three days, and his 10th career victory at the Giro. "I've won two sprints here this year, sure, but there are still a lotof tough rivals," said

Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) knew what he had to do and did it — he stayed glued to the wheel of Scott Moninger (Health Net-Maxxis) during the final stage of the Teleperformance Tour of the Gila — the fabled Gila Monster Road Race — and came away with the overall victory. Meanwhile, overall leader Kristin Armstrong (Team Lipton) extended her margin during the women’s finale, winning the stage and securing her title. The Gila Monster sent pro men off on a 100-mile loop from Silver City to Pinos Altos with 9360 feet of climbing. Women raced an abbreviated loop, covering 66 miles with 5420

Metaphorically, the 2km, 400-foot cobblestone ascent up Namur’s Citadelle hill represented the end of a very long climb for Stefan Schumacher. In a literal sense, it marked the passage from up-and-coming rider to the new holder of the 2006 Giro d’Italia’s maglia rosa. Indeed, the 24-year-old Gerolsteiner’s win of the rain soaked, stage 3 slog from Perwez to Namur was as big and bold as they come. Following a day marred by crashes — including one that left Italian sprint star Alessandro Petacchi nearly 15 minutes off the back and eventually out of the race — Schumacher jumped away from

Sprint ace Alessandro Petacchi is out of the Giro d’Italia after fracturing his left kneecap during a fall in Monday’s stage to Namur in Belgium. The Milram speedsters, who has 19 career stage wins in the Giro, may be out of the Tour de France as well, a team spokesman said. "The doctors did not say how long he would be out for," said the spokesperson. "We will have to wait for the next examination in Italy. However, it looks almost certain he will not be fit for the Tour de France." Earlier, the 32-year-old sprinter had tried to sound optimistic about his chances of making it through

Rahsaan Bahati (TIAA-CREF) and Alison Powers (Rio Grande-Sports Garage) won Saturday’s Downtown Silver City Criterium, stage 4 of the Teleperformance Tour of the Gila. The race was run on a 1.08-mile closed course with four 90-degree corners and 60 feet of climbing per lap. Men covered 40 laps, women 25. Bahati outkicked a tough bunch, crossing ahead of Gord Fraser (Health Net-Maxxis) and Ken Hanson (BMC Racing Team). Poweres, meanwhile, stole a march on the women, finishing 16 seconds up on Team Lipton’s Laura Van Gilder and Kristin Armstrong, the race leader. GC remained unaffected, with

Great Britain’s Nicole Cooke captured her second win out of three World Cups in GP Castilla y León in northern Spain on Sunday. Cooke out-kicked Judith Arndt of Germany to grab the victory and widen her overall World Cup series lead in the sixth leg of the 12-round series. Six riders splintered away from the peloton under pressure from the rising finish into Valladolid. Kimberly Anderson (T-Mobile) was the top American in 23rd at 36 seconds back. With the win, Cooke widened her overall series lead, with Arndt jumping up from fifth to second with her second-place finish. After stepping

Count Robbie McEwen among a very select group. He is one of the few people with the power to make Alessandro Petacchi nervous. That ability paid big dividends on Sunday, as the Aussie sprint star easily beat Petacchi to the line during the bunch sprint that concluded stage 2 of the 2006 Giro d’Italia. “I think I may be the only rider that can force Alessandro to make small mistakes or try to change his tactic,” said McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) after taking victory in the 197km run from Mons to Charleroi-Marcinelle. “When [Petacchi] looked around and saw me on his wheel, I think it made him a

Credit Fontana with a first in the history of the NORBA National Mountain Bike Series: Defending cross-country champions Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) and Shonny Vanlandingham (Luna) coasted across the finish line side by side to win the first round of the 2006 series. Kabush, who was leading the four-lap men’s race, caught Vanlandingham just as she was wrapping up the victory in the three-lap women’s event. “I saw her coming through the last couple of whoops and heard people cheering for her,” Kabush said. “It’s pretty rare that two winners get to roll across together so I gave it some gas.”

If defending champion Paolo Savoldelli is feeling the pressure, you sure couldn’t tell on the opening day of the 2006 Giro d’Italia Saturday. First Il Falco sailed to a commanding 11-second win in the 6.2-kilometer stage 1 prologue in Seraing, Belgium. Then, with an encouraging crowd cheering him on, the Discovery Channel captain doused two helpless podium girls with champagne before taking a big pull from the oversized bottle of bubbly. Who was this guy heretofore better known for stoicism than stage antics? Well, it’s far too early to call him the ‘new’ man to beat here at the Italian

Giro d’Italia race director Angelo Zomegnan would love to see a repeat of last year’s race — his first at the helm of the world’s No. 2 grand tour — when Paolo Savoldelli, Gilberto Simoni, José Rujano and Danilo Di Luca were all battling for the pink jersey only 24 hours before the finish in Milan. This year, Zomegnan has again placed one of the toughest mountain stages on the final weekend (as well as packing the final week with similarly challenging stages) in the hopes that the above four riders, along with Ivan Basso and Damiano Cunego, will again leave the outcome in doubt until the

Health Net-Maxxis teammates Gord Fraser and Scott Moninger went one-two on Friday during the Teleperformance Tour of the Gila’s Inner Loop Road Race. Michael Dietrich (KodakGallery.com-Sierra Nevada) took third with race leader Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) fourth. The top four were all given the same time, and Baldwin retained his grip on the overall. Dotsie Bausch (Colavita-Cooking Light) outsprinted Rachel Heal (Victory Brewing) and Laura Van Gilder (Team Lipton) to win the women’s race. GC remained unchanged, with Team Lipton’s Kristin Armstrong leading Anne Samplonius (Team Biovail) by

With the 2006 Giro d’Italia kicking off with a 6.2-kilometer individual time trial in Seraing, Belgium, on Saturday, teams are at their hotels and now all that’s left is the waiting… and a bit of prognosticating. Our editors take a detailed look at this year’s Giro in the current issue of VeloNews. Here’s an updated look at the teams and their chances for success in the first of this year’s grand tours. DISCOVERY CHANNEL (USA)Race numbers: 1-9GC contender: Paolo Savoldelli (I): Il Falco is looking for his third Giro win. Last year he showed his ability to come into form as the race went

Davitamon-Lotto grabbed another win after big Belgian Gert Steegmans outkicked recently crowned Madison world champion Isaac Galvez (Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears) to win the third stage at the Four Days of Dunkirk. Four riders – Geoffroy Lequattre, Jimmy Engoulvent, Frédéric Finot and Mathieu Drujon – tried their luck at 59km into the 181km march from Fontaine-au-Pire to Hénin-Beaumont. The French quartet built up a two-minute lead, but they needed a bigger head start than that to hold off the sprinters. Race leader Roberto Petito’s teammates on Tenax led the charge and then stepped

Scott Moninger (Health Net-Maxxis) and Kristin Armstrong (Team Lipton) won the mountainous Stage 2 of the Teleperformance Tour of the Gila on Thursday, with Armstrong moving into the overall lead. Moninger, a two-time Gila champion, finished three seconds ahead of Stage 1 winner Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) and third-placed Burke Swindlehurst (Navigators) on the final 5.5-mile climb to the finish of the 92-mile run from Silver City to Mogollon, which featured more than 5600 feet of climbing. “We’re doing what we can with only three guys here,” Moninger said. “We have to pick and choose

After the race, I transferred all my stuff from my team car to the USA Cycling team car and began my journey with them. Shannon Koch and I decided to head to our hotel by bike. Jim, the national team coach, told me it was a short ride. He was right. It was just 12km, but it was over a climb and after just finishing my first World Cup, it felt more like 50. The general morale with the team was good, though, and I was happy to be racing with them in the coming week. The next day we headed to Salzburg, Austria. The stage race in the Czech Republic did not start until Thursday and Jim didn?t

Itaian Roberto Petito (Tenax) grabbed the lead at the Four Days of Dunkirkafter winning Thursday’s second stage between Arques and Le-Cateau-Cambresis.Petito was part of a breakaway that pulled clear in the 204km stagethat also hit some cobblestoned road across northern France. Petito heldoff Stephane Petilleau (Bretagne-Jean Floch) to claim the stage as thebreakaway faded under pressure from the chasing peloton. Simone Cadamuro(Milram) led the main bunch across the line for third at 37 seconds back.Petito now leads Petilleau by four seconds while overnight leader FrancescoChicchi (Quick

Chris Baldwin (Toyota United) and Anne Samplonius (Team Biovail) won the first stage of the Teleperformance Tour of the Gila on Wednesday. Baldwin, the reigning U.S. national time-trial champion, covered the Tyrone Time Trial – a 15.7-mile out-and-back course with 1070 feet of climbing – in 34:51, 40 seconds up on Scott Moninger (Health Net-Maxxis) and 1:21 on Burke Swindlehurst (Navigators). Samplonius won in 40:33, with Kristin Armstrong (Team Lipton) second at 0:20 and Erinne Willock (Webcor) third at 0:53. Thursday's Stage 2, the Silver City-Mogollon Road Race, sends men off for 92

Fred Rodriguez (Davitamon-Lotto) just missed a victory in Wednesday’s 161km opener of the Four Days of Dunkirk after Italian Francesco Chicchi (Quick Step-Davitamon) out-kicked him in a bunch sprint.The rival Belgian teams went head-to-head not for the first time this season and once again it was Quick Step getting the better end of the bargain. It was Chicchi’s second win of the season to go along with a stage he won in the Drie Daagse Van West Vlaanderen in March.“Today I had the ‘pilot’ of Wouter Weylandt. I lost the wheel and then followed the wheel of teammate Steven de Jongh, only

When Danilo Di Luca and the other 197 starters in the 89th Giro d’Italialine up for the first road stage in Belgium on Sunday, they will standfor a moment of silence. Their thoughts will reach out to 262 coalminers,more than half of them Italian, who died 50 years ago in the Bois de Caziermining disaster at Charleroi-Marcinelle, where Sunday’s stage finishes.Di Luca will be particularly affected because more than one third of theItalians who lost their lives in that 1956 tragedy were from the Italianracer’s home province of Pescara. Choosing to start the 2006 Giro in the heart of Belgian’s

After a frustrating 2005 campaign, Damiano Cunego looks to be back in the form he had two years ago when he surged to a surprising and dominant Giro d’Italia victory in 2004. His victory in Saturday’s GP Industria was his sixth in this year’s campaign and reveals the 22-year-old is back at his best in time for the Giro. “Damiano is ready,” Lampre sport director Giuseppe Martinelli told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “For the Giro, we’ll bring a squad built around him, a team that’s strong for the climbs and that will support him. The favorite is Ivan Basso, who will be able to gain some minutes

Reigning NRC champion Scott Moninger (Health Net-Maxxis), a quartet of national champs and two three-time winners are among the athletes slated to race the Teleperformance Tour of the Gila May 3-7 in and around Silver City, New Mexico. Defending titlist Burke Swindlehurst (Navigators) and fellow three-timer Drew Miller (Successful Living.com-ParkPre) will be hunting that elusive fourth victory during the 20th annual NRC race. Swindlehurst is bringing just one teammate with him — but it happens to be Phil Zajicek, fresh off last weekend’s overall victory at La Vuelta de Bisbee in

While XTR shifting systems made waves at last month?s Sea Otter Classic, Shimano left us in the dark concerning the details of the rest of the group. Still we don?t have the whole story, but Shimano has now offered a look at the new braking options the group will offer. The two most interesting features of the new system are the perpendicular or radial master cylinder on the brake lever and new mono-body design on the calipers. The new lever design frees up space on the bar and provides for a smoother modulating brake, while the single forged mono-body caliper lightens the system and

Mating Mavic, Campy and ShimanoDear Lennard, I've got some 2004 Mavic Cosmic Carbones with a Campy cassette and have recently bought a bike with Dura-Ace 10 transmission. What would I have to do to use the Cosmics on this bike?Andy Dear Andy,Those wheels would not shift worth beans using a Campy 10 cogset with a Shimano 10 transmission. You could buy and install a Shimano 10-speed cogset and a Mavic freehub body for Shimano (called "M10"), interchanging it with that "ED10" freehub body and Campy cogset. Alternatively, you may be able to locate some aftermarket cogs for a Campy freehub

There’s good news for Saul Raisin as it appears he could be returning to the United States soon following a life-and-death struggle in a French hospital. The 23-year-old lapsed into a life-threatening coma following a crash last month in the Circuit de la Sarthe, but according to a report posted on his web page, Raisin is improving by the day and he’s expected to travel back to Georgia to begin rehabilitation. “Hopefully this will be our last report from France. Saul is strong enough to move home and we have started the ball rolling,” his parents wrote. “Saul is improving every day. He is

The finale of La Vuelta de Bisbee, the Tombstone Road Race, lived up to its reputation as the decisive stage on Sunday as Phil Zajicek (Navigators) confirmed his grip on the overall lead while Felicia Gomez (Webcor) displaced Mari Holden (T-Mobile) in the women’s competition. La Vuelta wrapped its 28th year under clear skies, light winds and mild temperatures as riders braced themselves for the day’s labors (87 miles and more than 6400 feet of climbing for elite men, and 58 miles-4400 feet for women and masters). The rolling terrain west of Bisbee allowed a break to form 38 miles into the

Every picture tells a story, don't it? Rod Stewart certainly thought so, and so does Mason Ibas, who forwards these pictures of the men's Tombstone Road Race, which wrapped up the 28th annual La Vuelta de Bisbee on Sunday.

The second day of The 28th La Vuelta de Bisbee saw the lead change hands in both the men’s and women’s fields. Phil Zajicek (Navigators) pulled on the yellow jersey after Friday’s prologue, but found himself down by 18 seconds after Saturday morning’s Stage 1 Sulphur Springs Road Race, won by Joey Thompson (Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Daniel Vaillancourt (CCB-VW-Time) was second and Mike Telega (California Giant) third, both in the same time. But Zajicek reclaimed the jersey after the Stage 2 Warren Time Trial, posting a time of 14:31, 14 seconds ahead of Curtis Gunn (Successful

Cadel Evans of Australia snatched victory at the 60th edition of the Tour de Romandie on Sunday, decisively winning the time trial that concluded the Swiss stage race and putting an exclamation mark on the statement his Davitamon-Lotto team made here this week. With his 22-second margin on the 20.4km course, Evans leapfrogged over the two Spaniards who preceded him in the standings at the start of the day. Those two men, Alberto Contador (Liberty Seguros) and Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears), finished second and third on general classification. "This morning I woke up