Road

Oscar Freire (Rabobank) won the second stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico race in Tivoli, Italy, on Thursday. The three-time world road race champion also takes the overall lead in the race which ends on Sunday. "I didn't have many ambitions at the start of the stage but I changed my mind during the race," Freire said. Freire, 29, held off compatriot Angel Vicioso and Laurent Brochard of France in a sprint finish over a largely flat course ending in Tivoli, 30 kilometers north of Rome. Friday will see the riders tackling a 228-kilometer stage from Tivoli to Torricella Sicura.

The winds of change blew through Paris-Nice in Thursday’s weather-shortened fourth stage as the peloton traded winter for the mistral. Lance Armstrong packed it in as cold and snow forced organizers to shorten the third stage in a row, but the peloton was back in shorts after the race moved into warmer climes of the Rhone valley. Fabian Cancellara (Fassa Bortolo) put down a Herculean sprint to beat veteran Jaan Kirsipuu (Credit Agricole) against a strong headwind into Montélimar while Bobby Julich (CSC) surged into contention after sneaking into the winning break late in the 101km

Lance Armstrong has dropped out of Paris-Nice, reportedly suffering from a sore throat and fever. "Lance woke up this morning with a sore throat and with the cold weather, he began to feel worse throughout the day," Discovery Channel director Johan Bruyneel said. "By the time we got back to the hotel, he was running a fever and we thought it best that he should withdraw and go home," he added. Armstrong had ridden an undistinguished race, finishing 99th on Wednesday’s stage, the second consecutive stage of the so-called "Race to the Sun" to be shortened in response to wintry temperatures

In what was great weather to go skiing in central France on Wednesday, the Paris-Nice bicycle stage doggedly pushed on despite frigid temperatures and snowy roads that forced organizers to shorten a stage for the second straight day. With snow piled four-feet deep alongside the road, race organizers had no choice but to cut the stage from 174km to 118km and eliminate the highest, snow-covered reaches of the course. Despite an early breakaway that included Floyd Landis (Phonak) and defending champion Jörg Jaksche (Liberty Seguros), the sprinters once again drove it home. Vicente Reynes (Illes

Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) won Wednesday’s opener of Tirreno-Adriatico to take the bragging rights in the race stacked with sprinter talent. The win gives Petacchi a big boost following his upset loss to a resurgent Mario Cipollini (Liquigas-Bianchi) in the pair’s first duel of the season in the Giro di Lucca on Monday. Fassa Bortolo was back to its dominating self, executing the perfect train to deliver Petacchi to the line unchallenged in the 160km stage in Civitavecchia. Bernhard Eisel (FDJeux.com) finished second while Australian champion Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) took

Belgium's Tom Boonen, of the Quick Step team, on Tuesday won the second stage of the Paris-Nice cycling race, reduced to 45km between Aigueperse and Thiers in central France because of snow. The 24-year-old, who had also won the first stage, earned the leader's jersey because of the bonus points he picked up. The Belgian rider finished several lengths ahead of Norway's Kurt-Asle Arvesen and Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych. While Boonen said it had been a good try out for the Milan-San Remo classic later this month he added that taking the overall lead did not put him in pole

Marketing ploy?Dear Lennard,Shimano's website lists the Dura Ace 7800 hubset as being only 10-speedcompatible, but the Ultegra 6600 hubs are listed as both 9- and 10-speedcompatible. Is there actually a difference or is this "10-speed only" designation a marketing ploy?RobertDear Robert,The Dura-Ace hub has an aluminum 10-speed freehub body, while the Ultegrahub has a steel 9-speed freehub body. The 10-speed freehub body has a largerouter diameter and deeper splines. The deeper splines are more resistantto damage to the freehub body’s spline ribs due to torque on the cogs forcingthe

Oh Mexico… I finally finished my base up and got a few days of rest before I had to leave for the Vuelta Sonora Arizona road race. This road race was unlike any I had ever done before and probably will ever do again. Like any trip with a bunch of people you barely know going to a race you’ve never done before you have to take it with a grain of salt. This was no exception. I cut my Monday golf game short to make it home in time to catch a ride to Phoenix in a big van full of my new teammates for the week. The only people I knew on the team were Tulous, Jake and Pate and Tulous wasn’t even

Tom Boonen (Quick Step) won stage 1 of Paris-Nice on Monday, sprinting to victory ahead of a peloton that had been cracked into thirds by a pair of crashes in the final kilometers. Chilly weather, with temperatures barely above freezing, greeted the Race to the Sun as the peloton set off on the 186.5km stage, a relatively flat affair from the Parisian suburb of Etampes south to Chabris, with only the very small Category 3 Cote de Graviers at 10km to stretch the legs. American Fred Rodriguez (Davitamon) took the first intermediate sprint at 42km, edging Rabobank's Erik Dekker and

Jens Voigt (CSC) ripped the short, 4km prologue Sunday to win the Paris-Nice opener and earned the distinction of being the first winner on cycling’s new ProTour while six-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong played it safe 27 seconds slower. Voigt was the hottest thing going on a sunny, but cold day in the Parisian suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux to kick off the season-long ProTour series with the 63rd Paris-Nice. The concise course featured a short punchy climb to start and some tight corners, but it was the on-form Voigt who delivered the winning ride of 5 minutes, 15 seconds. Tour

Liberty Seguros stamped its authority on the final stage of the Vueltaa Murcia in southern Spain. Aussie sprinter Allan Davis won his second stage in three days whileKoldo Gil wrapped up the overall title after finishing strong in Saturday’sclimbing stage at Collado Bermejo. Despite some early attempts at breakaways, the sprinter teams controlledthe pace to set up the bunch. Davis held off Danilo Hondo (Gerolsteiner),a winner of the first two stages, to snag his second victory on the season. Gil, 27, confirmed his status as one of Spain’s rising stars. He heldoff Damiano Cunego

Beautiful sunny weather and a near absence of wind opened the door for the sprinters as T-Mobile’s Ina Teutenberg and Juan Jose Haedo of Colavita scored wins in the McLane Pacific Foothills Road Race in California’s Central Valley on Sunday. The course, a 24-mile loop with a long flat stretch on the back side, was full of power hills that kept racers’ legs humming as the fields threw attacks and kept the pace high for the NRC’s season-opener. In the women’s race, active was the key word for the day as T-Mobile, Quark, and Webcor threw off a steady stream of attacks. Usually a windy race,

Six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong opens his 2005 campaign in Paris-Nice on Sunday when professional cycling enters a new era – that of the 20-team, 27-race ProTour. This will be Armstrong's first start in Paris-Nice since 1999, when he used the race as a training run on the way to returning to Paris in July as winner of his first Tour. He finished second to Laurent Jalabert in 1996 when riding for Motorola and won a stage in 1995. Armstrong’s Discovery Channel line-up includes Viatcheslav Ekimov, Yaroslav Popovych and Paolo Savoldelli, the 2002 Giro d'Italia winner, who

Spaniard Pedro Arreitunandia (Barloworld) won the fourth stage of the Vuelta a Murcia on Saturday, outsprinting compatriot Koldo Gil (Liberty Seguros). Damiango Cunego (Lampre-Caffita) crossed third at 40 seconds back. In finishing second, Gil took the overall lead from Germany’s Danilo Hondo (Gerolsteiner), who slipped to ninth overall at more than two minutes back. “I attacked to win the stage, but I could not drop Arreitunandia in the finale,” said Gil. “He benefited from my effort, but I take the lead on general classification, and barring incident I should win this tour, which will be

Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (T-Mobile) and Gord Fraser (Health Net-Maxxis) sprinted to victory on Saturday in the McLane Pacific Cycling Classic Downtown Grand Prix in Merced, California. The course, a flat, fast, 0.8-mile loop, had just enough turns to keep it interesting, and a slight southerly headwind on the one longer straightaway turned the end of most races into a field sprint. In the women’s pro/1-2 race, T-Mobile kept the pace high, launching attacks from the first lap and finishing with a clean set-up for their sprinter, Teutenberg. “It’s early in the season and it still hurts! It’s

Allan Davis ended Danilo Hondo’s winning streak at the Vuelta a Murcia on Friday, scoring his first win of the 2005 season in the 155km third stage from Mula to Fortuna. The Aussie sprinter shot past Hondo with 250 meters to go to win easily. Hondo finished second to retain his 21-second overall lead after winning Wednesday’s opening sprint and Thursday’s time trial. “I’m very happy to win,” Davis said on Spanish TV. “The team did great work today, so I really wanted to win for them. It was hard today, with a lot of wind and rain, but the team did a great job setting up the sprint, so I

It may be March, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s springtime. Just ask anyone who toed the start line for stage 1 of the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen (3 Days of West Flanders) on Friday. The race was canceled about 50km from the start in Kortrijk after the snow started falling, rapidly coating the roads just outside of Roselare. This was the second event to be canceled this week (the first was (Memorial Samyn Fayt-le-Franc), after the riders endured a miserably cold two days of racing last weekend as the northern classics season kicked off with Het Volk and

Last month I mentioned I had the opportunity to drop in on SRAM’s 2006 OE product camp in Oracle, Arizona, for a sneak peek at what’s comin’ down the pipe from the Chicago folks for 2006. While I was able to post some details about SRAM’s new products, only now are we allowed to show you some of the tantalizing photos. Here’s a collection of what’s what from SRAM for next year.

The opening stage of the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen was called off Friday some 50km into the race due to heavy snow. Heavy snow started piling down and created dangerous race conditions, leaving organizers with the undesirable choice of canceling the 159km opening stage after it already started. It was a second bit of ill fortune for the Belgian race, which coincides with the ProTour debut of Paris-Nice on Sunday and Tirreno-Adriatico later next week. As a consequence, just five ProTour teams - among them Navigators and Discovery Channel - were among the squads taking today's

Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Caffita) says he wants to win Saturday’s stage of the Vuelta a Murcia that finishes atop the Collado Bermejo and has been dedicated as the “Cima Pantani” in honor of fallen star Marco Pantani. The defending Giro d’Italia champion is making is season debut in Spain and said he wants to make an early season test of his form. He can’t think of a better way than atop the twisting climb in the mountains of southern Spain. “I know it won’t be easy, but I would dedicate this win to Marco, who was my idol as well as my friend,” Cunego told Spanish journalists before the start

It was no surprise Danilo Hondo (Gerolsteiner) won Wednesday’s opener in a bunch sprint at the Vuelta a Murcia in Spain, but no one expected him to beat the specialists in Thursday’s 22km individual time trial. But that’s just what happened as Hondo laid down the fastest time on the flat course of 25 minutes, 35 seconds. No one even came close, with Spanish national time trial champion Rubén Plaza stopping the clock in second some 19 seconds slower. “It’s a surprise for me,” Hondo admitted. “I knew all the split times and had information from my teammates who were among the favorites. I am

As you continue your basic training and prepare for the coming raceseason, you appreciate the importance of matching training with the properamounts of energy, carbohydrate, protein and fats (See "TheFeed Zone: February 16th"). During this training cycle, you canalso focus on types of food choices you consume to provide quality nutritionand variety to your daily and training diet.Daily DietThis is one of the best times of the year to experiment with new foodsand recipes. While you can still keep convenience and time in mind (what’sgood, quick, and easy?), don’t keep falling into the same old

Well, I am back home from Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun. I can’t believe that it has already been a week since we raced. Most of you have seen the results and it was an exciting start to the season for our team. We had first and second overall, and won every stage. I lost third on GC at the finish of the criterium. We had made Genevieve Jeanson work hard and she rode great. It was impressive and she moved into third overall. As I mentioned in my first journal, I had hoped that the training in Phoenix would help me on the Acacia Park group rides. It was a joke, but every joke has some

I’m back from camp and I have never been so happy to be home. Camp number three is in the bag. It was a long one and to make matters worse we rode the trainers inside for the last three days. You might well ask why on earth we would ride trainers in “sunny Tuscany.” Well, it wasn’t for our fitness or for our health and certainly not for our sanity. I’ll get back to that. We had a great start to the camp with the boys returning from the Tour of Med’ high on another win. We had a Champaign toast with the whole team and watched a few clips of the other half of our team putting it "into the

American Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner), three-time Tour de France podium man Joseba Beloki (Liberty Seguros) and defending Giro d’Italia champion Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Caffita) headline Tuesday’s start of the five-day Vuelta a Murcia in Spain. Leipheimer is just getting his season started and will be looking to reach peak fitness in time for a top 5 at the 2005 Tour de France. Cunego, meanwhile, officially kicked off his season in Sunday’s Clasica de Almeria and will race Murcia to continue to build form to his title defense at the Giro in May. “I feel I have done a good job in the build

German sprint ace Danilo Hondo (Gerolsteiner) drew first blood at theVuelta a Murcia in Spain on Wednesday, scoring his first win of the 2005season.Cloudy skies gave way to afternoon sun, but cool temperatures and strongwinds reminded everyone of the cold front that swept through Spain overthe weekend leaving high mountain roads clogged with snow.Several riders tried in vain to slip away from the peloton, includingaging classics warrior Andrea Tafi (Saunier Duval) and Peter Wuyts (Mr.Bookmaker), who were away in a breakaway but reeled in with 15km to go.The pace was torrid for so early in the

As I mentioned last week, it wouldn’t be until today – March 1 – that I could speak freely about a few of Manitou’s new-for-2006 products. If you couldn’t guess from my somewhat cryptic comment last week, Manitou is back to taking a serious look at the cross-country segment for 2006. Welcome to the lightweight, high-performance world of the Manitou R-Seven. While the race-oriented Skareb served its purpose quite nicely for the past three years, Manitou’s Joel Smith recently explained that it’s the company’s goal to “redefine suspension for the XC market.” Considering what Manitou has

In the firstpart of our conversation with Bobby Julich, the American looked backat what has turned out to be a wise decision to sign with Bjarne Riis's CSC team in Denmark at the end of 2003. For Julich, 2004 can only be seen as remarkable, a comeback season in which he won a stage in the Tour of the Basque Country, finished third overall at Paris-Nice and took home the bronze medal at the Olympic time trial.“The confidence is back, not the cockiness that maybe I had after 1998, but now I am confident that I am back to the highest level,” Julich noted.In today’s installment, Julich talks

Tyler Hamilton could know his cycling future as soon as the end of next week after a three-day hearing before the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency began Monday in Denver. Hamilton is facing a possible two-year racing ban, but has vowed to clear his name with a vigorous defense. A team of lawyers has been working to prepare material to present to the three-person USADA panel to demonstrate inconsistencies in the blood doping test. Hamilton’s lawyer, Howard Jacobs, told The Denver Post’s John Henderson the defense is “fairly optimistic” it can disprove the validity of the test. “It helps that if you

Bobby Julich enjoyed a very successful comeback season in 2004, winning a stage in the Tour of the Basque Country, finishing third overall at Paris-Nice and taking home the bronze medal at the Olympic time trial. For Julich, a return to the elite levels of racing was especially sweet. Since his 1998 Tour de France podium ride, the popular Colorado rider struggled to find the winning legs. In joining Team CSC and Bjarne Riis, Julich discovered the team he was always looking for. With his feet firmly planted on the ground, the 33-year-old enters the 2005 campaign with high hopes of building

Discovery Channel’s George Hincapie won the 58th edition of the Belgian semi-classic Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne on Sunday, as the American outsprinted his breakaway partner Kevin Van Impe (Chocolade Jacques). The two men slipped off the front of an elite group of riders nearing the end of the 190-kilometer race through the Belgian countryside. The two leaders finished 14 seconds of a hard-chasing Bert Roesems (Davitamon-Lotto). The race, held in cold and cloudy conditions, threw riders into tough conditions including a brutally icy headwind at points. The day was a battle of attrition with

Rochelle Gilmore claimed opening World Cup honors with victory in the first round of the series in Geelong, Australia, on Sunday The 23 year old, riding for the New South Wales Institute of Sport team, outsprinted defending World Cup Series champion and 2004 Geelong winner, Oenone Wood, 24, (Team Nürnberger) with Katherine Bates (Ton van Bemmelen) coming home third to give Australia a clean sweep of the podium. Ninety-three riders from 16 countries started the race including the reigning World Champion, Judith Arndt of Germany (Team Nürnberger) and Olympic Champion Sara Carrigan (Ton van

"Go get him." "No, you get him...." And so it went.... The last 15km of the 60th edition of the Omloop Het Volk presented the peloton with a classic dilemma: Chase the one man off the front and risk setting up a win for the competition, or hope someone else chases and risk losing if no one does. They opted for the latter, and that gave 25-year-old Nick Nuyens all he needed to stay away to claim victory, just seconds ahead of a field of pre-race favorites, including his Quick Step teammate and compatriot Tom Boonen.

Italian Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo), stamped his final mark of authority on the sixth edition of the Volta Communidad Valencia on Saturday, winning the fifth and final stage and claiming the overall victory to boot. It was the Italian speedster’s third stage win of the Volta. "For me, with my characteristics, it is very difficult to win a small tour like this one, but I have been very fit since the beginning of the season and I knew that I could race a good tour,” Petacchi said. Spain’s Francisco Ventoso (Saunier Duval) was second on the stage, a 149.5km circuit around Valencia,

Just got back in the office after a five-day trip (or was it six? I’ve never been good with time travel) to check out a bit of Manitou’s 2006 suspension technology. While trapped on Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, one of the Canary Islands, just off the coast of Morocco, I’m pretty sure I signed a piece of paper promising I wouldn’t spill the beans on the new fork. So I’ll be particularly brief and vague here; the full story can be told on March 1. Manitou, which in my opinion has set the standard for freeride and downhill suspension over the past five years, has chosen to dump a ton of R&D into

Tom Boonen (Quick Step) and Peter Van Petegem (Davitamon) are among the favorites in the traditional Belgian season-opener, the Omloop Het Volk, on Saturday. The 200km course between Ghent and Lokeren includes plenty of climbing along with 19km of cobbles, and forecasters are predicting unpleasant weather, perhaps even some snow. Last year’s edition was canceled due to heavy snow and bitter cold, but this time organizers guarantee that the race will come off regardless of the temperatures. Though it’s not included in the new UCI ProTour, Het Volk remains a monument for Flamands, the first

Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha defied a spirited chase and wintry weather to claim stage 4 of the sixth annual Volta Ciclista Comunidad Valencia on Friday Bitter weather, a mixture of rain and snow, marked the stage from Alzira to Valada, and though organizers trimmed the route from 161km to 156km, the conditions nevertheless took a heavy toll on the field. Among those who abandoned were Christophe Moreau, Andreas Klöden, Erik and Thomas Dekker, and Stefano Garzelli, along with seven of Kaiku’s eight riders. Flecha and fellow Spaniards Xabier Zandio (Illes Balears) and Rafael Casero (Saunier

T-Mobile star Jan Ullrich will re-start his preparation for the 2005 Tour de France on April 5 in the Circuit de la Sarthe, his manager Rudy Pevenage confirmed on Thursday. T-Mobile rider Ullrich, 31, suffered a setback in training and will miss the Tours of Murcia and Cologne on March 3 and March 28 respectively. "Jan will start with the Tour of Sarthe on April 5 and then onto Aragon," said Pevenage. "It is the same preparation as two years ago." Ullrich has finished runner-up five times in the Tour, four since his victory in 1997, and is determined to end the dominance of American Lance

Some days it pays to take chances and in the third stage of the Volta ComunidadValenciana on Thursday an early gamble paid off nicely for Kaiku’sAndoni Aranaga and David Blanco (Valencia-Kelme).Blanco charged out of the main field just 2.5km into the day’s stage. He was joined by Aranaga at 10km and the two set about building what turned into a solid 15-minute lead.Usually able to calculate precisely when to pull in a break, the FassaBortolo team of race leader Alessandro Petacchi waited just a little too long to begin its chase and the two escapees managed to reach the finish with a margin

Alessandro Petacchi continued to show-off his early season form Wednesday,winning his second successive stage at Spain’s Volta Ciclista Comunidad Valenciana. With a day of frequent attacks ending in another field sprint, Petacchi easily beat Isaac Galvez (Illes Balears - Banesto) and Liquigas’s Luciano Pagliarini to the line.The day's stage featured a largely flat, 178-kilometer route from largely flat route from Xàbia to Port de Sagunt. The only rated climb was a Cat. 2 ascent with 33km remaining.The day featured several attacks, with the Saunier Duval team of race leader Constantino

Dear Joe and Dirk,I seem to recall once reading about not going into the Red Zone too early in one’s training season. Although I am new to mountain biking - the season I am focusing on - I do have a couple years under my belt of triathlon and cyclo-cross racing, so this won’t be my first year of following a training program. Presently, I am in my Base 1 phase and I’m wondering about entering a “C-priority” race (or two) that fit into my Base 3 timeline (April). Will going into the red zone so early hurt my training program, which is being built around peaking in July for my “A-priority”

Astarloa sidelinedSpain's 2003 world road race cycling champion Igor Astarloa is set to be on the sidelines for the next two months due to a double fracture of his right arm and wrist, his Italian team Barloworld revealed on Wednesday. The 28-year-old suffered the injuries during a race in Marseille, France, last Sunday and will have to rest for a month before resuming training towards the end of March. It will mean Astarloa missing the opening classic races of the season including Milan-San Remo. Wesemann drops German citizenshipT-Mobile's Steffen Wesemann has announced that he

With frame materials and production processes becoming so advanced,one must wonder if there is room for the custom frame builder to competewith major manufacturers. Dotting the map from coast to coast, custom buildersare often individuals working in their garages making one frame at a time.These individuals rarely have home offices to visit, so to get a read what’snew with custom builders, VeloNews visited the 1st Annual HandmadeBicycle Show, held in Houston, Texas, in January.Aftera lap of the show floor, it was evident that these builders favor variety.The 30 craftsmen who went to Houston

Unwelcome floatDear Lennard,I have 1997 Campy chorus (9-speed) on my bike and other than the factthat I have to replace the right lever indexing spring every four years,I love it.My friend has '99 Chorus (also 9-speed) and is not as happy. It seemsthat sometime between those two years Campy changed the "balance" of thesprings in the right lever and the rear derailleur, so that instead ofclicking into one set position, the rear derailleur has about 1-2 millimetersof lateral "float" that allows you to center the chain on the selectedcog. Maybe they thought it was a good idea for folks who

Gerolsteiner’s sprint ace, Danilo Hondo says, it’s only a matter of time before he scores a major win, with a victory in one of the major classics or a stage in the Tour de France topping his wish-list. “I am more self-confident now, that’s now doubt. Riding on this team is very helpful for me, because I am a team leader,” Hondo said during the team’s training camp last month. “When I was riding at Telekom (1999-2003), I was often the helper even though I won two stages in the Giro (in 2001). I was never given many chances to have the team working for me. That’s the way it was on that team,

Ina Teutenberg (T-Mobile) did it again on Sunday, winning the final stage of the Valley of the Sun, the Orpheum Lofts Downtown Capitol Criterium in downtown Phoenix. Teutenberg outkicked Magen Long (The Bicycle Store) and Genevieve Jeanson (Rona) on the figure-8-shaped, 1-mile loop to claim her second consecutive stage win. Teutenberg’s teammate Kristin Armstrong, meanwhile, finished safely in the field to claim the overall victory ahead of another teammate, Kimberly Baldwin. Jeanson rounded out the top three. In men’s racing, Tyler Farrar (Health Net-Maxxis) outsprinted Roberto Gaggioli

Portuguese rider Hugo Sabido (Paredes-Beira Támega) upset some biggernames to take the final stage and the overall title as the Tour of theAlgarve wrapped up Sunday. A year ago, U.S. Postal Service swept to victory with Floyd Landis.Discovery Channel tried to use the same strategy with José LuisRubiera, but “Chechu” couldn’t quite match the pace set by Sabido in thefinal ramps of the Cat. 2 climb in the 165km stage from Lagoa to Alto doMalhao. Rubiera earned a spot on the final podium thanks to his efforts, takingthird just behind Stuart O’Grady (Cofidis), who finished second overallto

The Netherlands emerged the overall winners of track cycling's World Cupafter finishing second to Australia in the fourth and final event in Sydneyon Sunday.The Australians ended the Sydney leg with 132 points after claimingfour gold, two silver and three bronze medals and six other top ten placingsto finish 12 points clear of the Netherlands.The Dutch came away from the final event with six gold medals and 120points but it was enough to crown them overall World Cup champion nationwith 360 points from Russia (324), Great Britain (297) and Australia (281).Australian Anna Meares won her

So we awoke this morning to the sound of rain again. Today (Saturday) was the 57-mile road race, held – not without some irony – in the desert of Casa Grande. The team was psyched and ready to start the day. We started with the normal team meeting where director Andrezj asked us all “so what are you going to do today team?” To which Brooke quickly replied “whatever we feel like, gosh.” I don’t think she got enough sleep last night. We decided that rain or shine we were going to race hard. Lesson Number 1 from the Rex Kwan Do School of fighting. We wanted to win and maintain our

T-Mobile wasn't content to just phone it in as the Valley of the Sun stage race kicked off Friday with the Trek Individual Time Trial, held on a 12-mile course at Sun Valley Parkway west of Phoenix. Despite the unseasonably rainy weather, Kristin Armstrong won the race against the clock in 25:58 – and she was joined on the podium by two teammates, Kimberly Baldwin and Mari Holden. And three other T-Mobiles – Kori Seehafer, Rebecca Much and Lara Proepsch – made it into the top 10. In the men’s race, Brian Sheedy (Advantage Benefits) took top honors in 23:21, followed by Ryan Blickem

Eisel back on top in AlgarveA day after slipping back into the overall lead, Austria’s Bernhard Eisel (FDJeux.com) emphatically won his second stage of the Tour of the Algarve to confirm his lead with one day to go. Eisel held off Stuart O’Grady (Cofidis) and Fabian Wegmann (Gerolsteiner) to take the victory and consolidate his hold on the overall lead. The win marked Eisel’s third win during his early season stop in Portugal, with one stage win in the GP Costa Azul and two in Algarve. Sunday’s finale ends with a climb, giving the climbers a chance to make up some lost time on the

Ina Teutenberg (T-Mobile) and John Murphy (Krystal-SCV) took their respective field sprints on Saturday to win the Landis Cyclery Road Race, stage 2 of the Valley of the Sun. The stage, run on a 16-mile loop in the desert near Casa Grande, south of Phoenix, was rolling to flat with a moderate climb to the finish line. Teutenberg handed T-Mobile its second consecutive stage victory in the 57-mile women’s race, beating Genevieve Jeanson and stage-1 winner Kristin Armstrong to the line. Armstrong held onto her overall lead, with teammates Kimberly Baldwin and Mari Holden second and third at

World sprint champion Theo Bos claimed his second win of the Sydney UCI World Cup track cycling meet in Sydney with victory over Australian Jobie Dajka in the sprint on Saturday. Bos won his final 2-0 and led another night of Dutch success at the Dunc Gray Velodrome with compatriots Marlijn Binnendijk winning the women's individual pursuit and Yvonne Hijgenaar claiming the 500m time trial. Bos, who won the world title in Melbourne last May, beat eight-time world champion Laurent Gane of France for the keirin title on Friday's opening night along with Levi Heimans win in the

I can’t believe the first race of the year is already here. I guess that there have been a couple of smaller races in California and Arizona, but for those of us from states where there is winter, this is a complete shock to the system. It’s still snowing in Colorado Springs! I was just out shoveling my driveway a couple days ago. The T-Mobile Professional Cycling Team is kicking off its season at the Valley of the Sun stage race in Phoenix, Arizona. This race has a great reputation for tough early season racing in the warm sunshine. I always look forward to any early season racing in

Alexei Markov (Milaneza-Maia) won the third stage of the Volta ao Algarve in Portugal on Friday, outkicking Bernard Eisel (Française des Jeux) and Hans Dekkers (Rabobank) in the bunch sprint to claim the victory. By finishing second on the 200km stage from Vila do Bispo to Lagos in southern Portugal, meanwhile, Austria’s Eisel collected a six-second bonus and took the overall lead from Belgian Tom Steels (Davitamon-Lotto). Steels, who crossed in 25th place, slipped to second overall, at two seconds behind. Australian Stuart O’Grady (Cofidis) sits third at three seconds back. –Agence France

Riders from the T-Mobile women’s team, TIAA-CREF and Health Net-Maxxis are among those stretching their legs in Arizona this weekend during the 13th annual Valley of the Sun-John Earley Memorial Stage Race. The race, hosted by the White Mountain Road Club, begins today with the Trek Individual Time Trial, held on a 12-mile course at Sun Valley Parkway west of Phoenix. Racing continues Saturday with the Landis Cyclery Road Race in Casa Grande and concludes Sunday with the Orpheum Lots Downtown Capital Criterium at Wesley Bolen Plaza in Phoenix. More than $15,000 in cash and prizes is up for

World sprint champion Theo Bos led a Dutch hat-trick of victories on the opening night of the fourth and final UCI World Cup track event at Dunc Gray Velodrome on Friday in Sydney. Bos claimed the keirin title while Levi Heimans won the men's 4km individual pursuit and Wim Stroetinga took out the men's 15km scratch race. Bos beat eight-time world champion Laurent Gane of France in the ride-off for first and second place with Czech Republic's Pavel Buran beating Australian Joel Leonard for third. “We've trained very hard here and done a lot of kilometers on the road,” said

Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) used his stalwart train to catapult him to his second straight stage win in the Ruta del Sol while Francesco Cabello (Comunidad Valenciana) realized a career-long dream of winning on home roads after securing the overall title. The rolling course from Sevilla to Chiclana de la Frontera in Spain’s Andalucía region looked to favor the sprinters, but two riders slipped away early and nearly stole the spotlight. José Antonio López (Kaiku) and Carlos Castaño (Paul Versan) attacked early and built up a 3-minute advantage halfway through the stage, but the pair

Well, it's finally over!The 2005 VeloNews Buyer's Guide has been printed and will be hittingmailboxes and newsstands next week. The late nights, frantic flipping throughtattered productcatalogs, desperate searches through image CDs and annoying late-nightcell phone calls to product managers are over...for the time being. The end result? The largest Buyer's Guide that VeloNewshas ever published (at 156 pages). With a feature section on14 of the coolest ProTour bikes available in 2005, a report on custom buildersand five detailed race scenarios features, I'm certain you'll

Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) blazed to victory in Wednesday’sfourth stage of the Ruta del Sol. It’s the second win of the year for theItalian sprinter, who kept Max Van Heeswjk (Discovery Channel) from snaggingthe win. Tom Boonen (Quick Step) came through third while Oscar Freire(Rabobank) and Erik Zabel (T-Mobile) rounded out the top 5. The pace was furious in the 161km stage from La Guardia de Jaénto Córdoba, with the peloton finishing some 30 minutes faster thanexpected. Petacchi’s winning time came with an average time of 44.3 kphthanks to a gusting

Many cyclists are currently building their aerobic endurance, muscularstrength, and flexibility in anticipation of more specific training inthe coming weeks and months. Just as this training cycle requires you followa specific mix of volume and intensity, your nutritional intake must matchup so that you have the required energy and fluids at the most optimaltimes for your training and recovery.As you continue to build your volume, your energy and carbohydrate requirementsincrease. During this base cycle, you may also be interested in losingweight. This is a good time of year to adopt

Serge Baguet (Davitamon-Lotto) used his wile to win his second stagein a row in a wind-blasted Ruta del Sol while perennial runner-up FranciscoCabello (Comunidad Valenciana) slipped into the overall lead.Russian workhorse Viatcheslav Ekimov put Discovery Channel into thewinning break in Tuesday’s blustery third stage that saw overnight leaderCarlos García Quesada lose grip of the leader’s jersey.Strong crosswinds blasted the bunch right from the start in the 164kmmarch from just outside Granada to Jaen across the heart of Spain’s spectacularAndalucia region. García Quesada and Johan

It's lemmony fresh, too!Dear Lennard,Could you recommend a good method and/or product to clean and maintaina titanium frame (unpainted finish)? Also, do you have any suggestionsto keep aluminum parts (i.e. Campy hubs, etc.) clean and shiny?E.J.Dear E.J.,You can clean the titanium frame first with soap and water and thenwith a solvent on the greasy patches that did not come clean. Be carefulyou don’t remove decals, if you use a really strong solvent like acetone(and make sure you wear gloves and a respirator). Usually, a biodegradabledegreaser is sufficient to clean it up. After cleaning,

It’s been a year since Marco Pantani was found dead in room 5-D of the Hotel Le Rose in Rimini, Italy. The autopsy later confirmed the iconic Italian cycling hero had died of a cocaine overdose. A year later, Italy continues to mourn his tragic death and is still trying to come to grips with the loss of Italy's most successful grand tour racer of his generation. Pantani’s life slowly unraveled after being kicked out of the 1999 Giro d’Italia just a few days short of winning a second consecutive title. The UCI’s “vampires” discovered his red blood cell count too high and Pantani left the

Belgian rider Serge Baguet (Davitamon-Lotto) held off climbing specialistLeonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) to win Monday’s second stage of the Rutadel Sol in southern Spain. Carlos García Quesada (Comunidad Valenciana) held onto the overalllead after crossing the line fourth just nine seconds slower than Baguet.Piepoli and Belgian John Vansummeren (Davitamon-Lotto) attacked early onthe climbing finish to La Zubia while Quesada and Baguet followed the aggression. A six-man break went away early, carving out a three-minute lead onthe bunch, but Comunidad Valenciana did the work to close down

Carlos García Quesada and his Comunidad Valenciana team delivered what might be the knock out punch in the opening stage Sunday in the Ruta del Sol in southern Spain. Quesada won the hilly 150.5km route from Benalmádena and Comares thanks to heavy pressure that split the peloton early, leaving only a group of 19 riders to contest for the spoils. With a start list heavy with sprinters, many of the big teams had riders present in the break and no one seemed interested in putting up a chase. Quesada, a runner-up last year to Juan Carlos Domínguez, attacked hard on the final climb coming into

The World According to Wells……Some of you may be familiar with my stories from my columns in the VeloNews magazine. These online journal entries will follow the same pattern trying to give you a racer’s perspective on the mountain bike and cyclo-cross circuit through out the year. As you may or may not know, the mountain bike season officially kicks off the first weekend of March with the Texas NORBA National. Since I do a full domestic schedule of cyclo-cross through the fall and winter that leaves only a few months to recover from a season of traveling the world and gear up for the next

Still no phone at our house in good old Girona. I think that sums up a modern-day house. Okay, maybe you have high-speed cable and then a cell phone; that is more than intelligent. But here in Spain you can't have one without the other. So I'm sitting here choking down second-hand smoke. Tyler used to always comment on how he would "smoke a pack of cigarettes" while he checked his e-mail. Being from Chicago I thought he was being a bit extreme, until I found myself in the same situation. I feel like I have to throw my clothes in the incinerator after going down there. Okay,

Jens Voigt consolidated his lead in the Tour Méditerranéen on Saturday as Team CSC won the stage-4 team time trial, a 36km run between Bouc-Bel-Air and Berre l'Etang (Bouches-du-Rhône). Liquigas-Bianchi, whose leader, Italian Franco Pellizotti, was second overall going into Saturday’s stage, had a 17-second lead over CSC and 20 seconds on Rabobank at 16km. But CSC turned on the power in the final kilometers, and Liquigas – despite the best efforts of Pellizotti, Mario Cipollini and Swede Magnus Backstedt – saw its lead evaporate. At the end, CSC crossed 16 seconds up on Liquigas and

Voigt scores again in Tour MedJens Voigt (CSC) padded his lead in the Tour Méditerranéen on Friday, soloing to victory in stage 3 from La Garde to the summit of Mont Faron in Toulon. The 137km stage was animated at the foot of the day’s first climb, Fourches, at 32km. Five riders – Frenchmen Mickael Delage (Francaise des Jeux) and Lénaïc Olivier (Agritubel), Italian Alessandro Donati (Acqua & Sapone), Estonian Janek Tombak (Cofidis) and the Belgian Kristof Trouvé (MrBookmaker.com)– broke away and built a four-minute lead by 80km. Behind, Voigt’s team began a chase, assisted by the

Gilbert wins in Tour MedBelgian Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux.com) hung on to win the second stage of the 32nd Tour Méditerranéen. Gilbert’s victory in the 131km stage from Villeneuve-Loubet to Bormes-Les-Mimosas makes up for an error in the final stretches of the GP d’Ouverture La Marseillaise, when he steered off course. Team CSC’s Jens Voigt finished fifth to retain the overall lead. Tour MéditerranéenStage 2 results1. Philippe Gilbert (B), Française des Jeux, 131km in 3:10:45 (41,206 km/h)2. Franck Schleck (Lux), CSC, s.t.3. Kim Kirchen (Lux), Fassa Bortolo, s.t.4. Bram De Groot (Ned),

Jens Voigt (Team CSC) used his strong early season form to hold off the hard-chasing peloton and win Wednesday’s opening stage of the Tour Méditerranéen that hit the Poggio en route from San Remo to Menton. Voigt was part of a four-man break that pulled clear over the Poggio, forcing such sprinter teams as Gerolsteiner and Liquigas to chase hard to set up their men Danilo Hondo and Mario Cipollini. With the lead down to 20 seconds, the others lost their verve and were ready to give in to the inevitable, but not the irrepressible German. He shot away with 6km to go and held the peloton at

Computing CP zonesDear Joe and Dirk,My goals for the coming season are two centuries, so I have invested in a power meter. Now I am ready to start using a combo of heart rate and power to train. I am a bit overwhelmed with how to go about computing my different Critical Power zones. Do you have any advice?JTJT,The advantage of training with power is that you can make your training as objective as possible. I like to say training with power is like viewing the world in three dimensions instead of two, as most cyclists do. The addition of power to one's training metrics can elevate the

Dear Lennard,I have two sets of wheels I use for my bike with two different sets of clinchers, each with a different maximum-pressure rating. My race wheels have tires with a max pressure rating of 116 psi (Michelin Pro Race). However, my training wheels have tires with a max pressure of 145 psi (Vredestein Fortezza Tri Comp). I use my training wheels as my pit wheels while racing. If I have to change a wheel during a race, will the different pressures between the front and rear cause me handling problems or other dangers? Secondly, I am 175 pounds and use paired-spoke wheels (Shimano

Valverde gets his in MallorcaIn a week that’s seen some big names take early season victories, it was only a matter of time before Alejandro Valverde would bounce into the winner’s circle. The 24-year-old Spanish sensation won more than 15 races last year and it didn’t take long for him to notch his first victory of the 2005 season. Valverde sprang back to life by peeling away from the main bunch to win the Trofeo Soller and give home team Illes Balears a much-desired win. Conditions were horrible during the 164km stage, which featured three tough climbs, with wind, snow and rain pelting

It’s two for two for Oscar Freire, who scored his second straight victory in just two days of racing in the 2005 season. A day after making his season debut a winning one at the Trofeo Mallorca, the reigning world champion won Monday’s Trofeo Alcudia in similar fashion. It’s not bad for a guy who only has about 2500km in his legs when many of his competitors might have double or triple that amount. “I didn’t start training seriously until after Christmas and then I got sick with a cold, so I haven’t been able to put in the kilometers I normally would,” Freire said after Sunday’s win. “To

With the king of Malaysia looking on from the VIP seats at the finish line, Aussie Graeme Brown affirmed his status as ruler of the Tour de Langkawi sprints, easily taking the 10th and final stage of the 2005 Tour de Langkawi on Sunday in downtown Kuala Lumpur. The win was Brown’s fifth at the 10th anniversary of the Malaysian national tour, upping his all-time wins record to nine.

Freire wins season opener in Trofeo MallorcaReigning world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank) got his season started on a nice note with a sprint victory against Isaac Gálvez (Illes Balears) in Sunday’s Trofeo Mallorca. With Erik Zabel (T-Mobile) and Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) also in the field for the opener of the five-day Mallorca Challenge, the three-time world champion made his season debut in the rainbow jersey a pleasant one. Freire’s win comes as somewhat of a surprise, considering just yesterday the Spanish sprinter was complaining of an early season bout with the flu. He follows in

You could not have scripted a more appropriate ending for the ninth stage of the 2005 Tour de Langkawi on Saturday. The 164.8km run from Menara Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya started with the standard early attacks, continued with solid team tactics by Barloworld, and concluded with Ceremica-Panaria coming to the front to deliver yet another sprint win for Aussie Graeme Brown. The win was Brown’s fourth at the 10th anniversary of this 10-day race in Malaysia, and it extended his all-time wins record to eight.

Jose Rujano’s run at the overall Tour de Langkawi title won’t officially come to an end until the finish of Sunday’s stage 10 criterium in Kuala Lumpur. But in his mind, the pint-sized Venezuelan climber’s concession likely came with 3km to go in Friday’s stage 8 run from Kuala Kuba Baru to the top of the Genting Highlands. It was there that Rujano’s chief rival in the chase for the GC title, South African Ryan Cox, rolled up beside him and gave him a glaring gaze of confidence.