Road

Christian Vande Velde will be back to the Tour de France for the first time since 2001 after getting the news Monday afternoon that he’s part of the nine-man squad lining up in Liège for Saturday’s start. After weeks of waiting to hear his Tour fate, the 28-year-old was nervously awaiting news from Liberty Seguros manager Manolo Saiz and finally couldn’t take it anymore. He called the Spanish team manager and learned the good news. Also getting a last-minute thumb’s-up is Aussie sprinter Allan Davis, so now at least Vande Velde will have someone to talk to at the team dinner table. Vande

Team Action Sports set a cross-country cycling record when they rolled onto the boardwalk at 1:17 a.m. Sunday at Atlantic City, New Jersey, defeating rivals Team Vail-Go Fast to win the four-man-team competition in the 2004 Insight Race Across America. The record for the category, set in 1995, had been 2905 miles in five days, six hours, and four minutes. This year, Action Sports completed 2959 miles in five days, eight hours, 17 minutes. Vail Go-Fast finished in five days, 10 hours and 26 minutes. “We learned a few things the hard way,” said Nat Faulkner of Action Sports. “We started out

Most of Europe was racing Sunday as several countries capped a week’s racingwith the men’s road race taking center stage. Here’s a round up of themajor nations:France: Thomas Voeckler (La Boulangere) won a three-up sprintagainst Cyril Dessel and Benoît Salmon after the leading trio hada large enough cushion to play games over the final sprint. Sylvain Chavanel(LaBoulangere) led the main bunch through three minutes back.Belgium: Tom Steels (Landbouwkrediet) won his second title inthree years after winning a three-up sprint on a flat 240km course. GeertOmloop (MrBookmaker) and Geert Verheyen

Gord Fraser's smile said it all as he crossed the finish line during the Canadian national road race Sunday in Kamloops, British Columbia — the Health Net-Maxxis rider was finally the national champion, and had moved into strong contention for a spot on his country’s Olympic team. Fraser played a waiting game in the 180km race, sprinting away from a small lead group over the top of the final hill and soloing away to the finish lline. Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) took second, with Alexandre Lavallee (Volkswagen-Trek)third. In the women's race, meanwhile, Lyne Bessette (Team Québec) was dominant,

Juré Robic continues to lead the soloists in the 2004 Insight Race Across America, and the four-time Slovenian national road champion appears to be on track to break the solo average-speed record in just his second outing. "Physically he was good in 2003, but not mentally," said crew member Janez Slapar. "This year he is very good, both physically and mentally." The current average-speed record for solo men is 15.40 mph. At present Robic is maintaining a pace of 15.53 mph. And veteran crew members say Robic's pace will only improve once the road turns skyward in the Appalachian Mountains.

Aussie Brad McGee said he wants to win the Tour de France – next year. The 28-year-old has made steady progress the past few years and is feeling more confident after his breakthrough eighth-place performance in the 2004 Giro d’Italia. “Going for overall victory next year is the goal, and a very realistic one at that,” McGee said in an interview with BBC Sport. “This has been the first year I've gone for the general classification in major races, so I'm a lot leaner to make life easier up the climbs. I'm probably two kilos short of where I need to be for the prologue, but I'm steadily

Team ALS Lightning, the lone recumbent team in the 2004 Insight Race Across America, is expected to cross the finish line in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at approximately 11:30 Eastern time Saturday. Not far behind ALS Lightning are the top two four-man teams, Team Action Sports and Team Vail Go-Fast, which have rarely been separated by more than a half hour during the transcontinental competition, and at one point were only two minutes apart. When last checked, Action Sports was ahead by 35 minutes and expected to reach the finish line by 1:30 a.m. Sunday. For up-to-the-moment race news,

Tour de France organizers on Friday barred David Millar from this year's race after he allegedly told police that he has used doping products. Jean-Marie Leblanc, the Tour's director general, told The Associated Press that the reigning world time-trial champion was out. "We don't want to pollute the Tour,'" he said. The 27-year-old Millar, who has never failed a drug test in his eight-year professional career, is the highest-profile casualty of a decision announced Friday by Tour organizers that all riders investigated or implicated in doping probes will be barred from the event, which

Five-time Tour de France runner-up Jan Ullrich admits it’s going to be tough to derail arch-rival Lance Armstrong as the Texan makes a run for a sixth straight Tour title. The T-Mobile captain brushed aside concerns about early-season fitness problems with his victory at the Tour de Suisse earlier this month. The 30-year-old German said he’s more motivated than ever to win the Tour. “Naturally, Lance is the man to beat,” Ullrich told AFP. “My win in Switzerland confirms my work since the beginning of the season. I had a good race thanks to the team, I showed a strength which I didn't have

Sue Palmer-Komar (Genesis-Scuba) virtually assured herself a position on the Canadian Olympic team after winning the individual time trial Friday at the Canadian National Cycling Championships. Palmer-Komar covered the 30km out-and-back circuit in 43:20, 41 seconds ahead of defending champion Lyne Bessette (Quark). In the men's 40km event, Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) turned a 51:35.56 to decisively beat eight-time defending champion Eric Wohlberg (Sierra Nevada), who was 1:12.66 slower. The circuit was not particularly difficult, but the riders had to battle strong winds and extreme heat —

Tyler Hamilton better brush up on his Spanish as five of his eight Phonakteammates named to start the Tour de France hail from the Iberian Peninsula.Hamilton will be looking to improve on his fourth-place performancein last year’s Tour and will count on the Spanish mountain goats to usherhim through the Tour’s key moments in the Pyrénées and theAlps.Joining Hamilton for the 91st Tour are Spanish riders Oscar Sevilla,Santi Perez, Jose Gutierrez, Oscar Pereiro and Santos Gonzalez. The otherteam members are German rider Bert Grabsch, Frenchman Nicolas Jalabertand Swiss rider Martin Elmiger.

Just like Lance Armstrong, U.S. Postal Service sport director Johan Bruyneel believes Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) is the most dangerous rival for the Texan going into next weekend’s start of the 2004 Tour de France. “He’s still the most dangerous,” Bruyneel said in an interview in the Spanish daily MARCA. “Of the rest of the favorites, Mayo is at the top of the list. There’s Mayo, Hamilton, Heras and Basso and I would also add Menchov. I’m sure I left somebody off.” Bruyneel said he believes Armstrong will be ready to win a record sixth Tour when the race begins July 3 in Liège, Belgium. “We’re

Levi Leipheimer will lead Rabobank in the Tour de France as the 30-year-old American will be anxious to forget his early exit from last year’s edition. Leipheimer wants to improve on his eighth-place debut in 2002 and get past his opening stage crash that took him out of last year’s Tour as the Dutch team announced its nine-man lineup Tuesday. “I missed not doing it last year, so I’m excited to get back to the Tour,” Leipheimer told VeloNews last month. “There’s no way not to be excited about the Tour. I think every year gets better, I’m more experienced, I’m more comfortable in the

Six returning riders from last year’s Tour de France team will line up for U.S. Postal Service to support Lance Armstrong in his quest to win a record sixth Tour. There’s an added emphasis on strength in the mountains as Armstrong will be looking to get all the support he can in a decisive second half of the race, which starts July 3 in Liège, Belgium. “We will have a very strong team in the mountains, stronger than last year,” said U.S. Postal Service sport director Johan Bruyneel in a team press release. “We have six riders from last year and two new guys. Lance is confident he has a

Dear Joe and Dirk,I am a first-year Category 2 racer. My training regime had followed, as closely as possible, given my work schedule, a program looking to peak in mid-June and then again in early August. Just as I was starting to build in much more intensity and longer interval work early in May, I began to find that my legs were not responding as I would have liked. I seemed to fall further into this hole, and now I am far behind where I was even a month ago. Basically, when I get on the bike, and try to put down any sort of sustained effort, it feels like I have been riding for three

Seven leading Australian track cyclists on Tuesday declared themselves drug-free, saying they were furious at being smeared by association with the sport's damaging doping scandal. The seven cyclists, all members of the shadow track sprint team for the Athens Olympics, issued a joint statement denying involvement in drug-taking allegations centering on banned cyclist Mark French. They are Olympians Shane Kelly and Sean Eadie, Ryan Bayley, Jobie Dajka, Rosealee Hubbard, Anna Meares and her sister Kerrie, who has withdrawn from the Athens team after suffering an injury. The eighth shadow

The recent announcement that Discovery Communications would be sponsoring Lance Armstrong and his mates for the next few seasons got me to wondering…. Do you suppose Armstrong might pop in from time to time as a special guest host on one or another of the TV network’s 14 channels, like Animal Planet or Discovery Español? Can’t you just imagine the wily Texan wrestling with an endangered white rhino and somehow relating his past Tour experiences to getting a friendly mauling from the giant albino beast? Or instead of trying to make a Tour de France winner fit its programming mold, might the

The Olympic trials this past weekend in Redlands, California, offered two automatic Olympic team nominations to the winner of the road race and the time trial. Having raced for 16 years, I have competed in a few Olympic trials. In past years, I felt a lot of pressure while trying to make the team; this year, as the first American in the UCI international points standings, I was fortunate enough to be automatically qualified before the trials began. This is not to say I was completely pressure-free, however. My T-Mobile team wanted all three slots on the women’s road squad, which meant we had

Two riders that are sure to face off in the Tour de France prologue July 3 in Liège went head-to-head in Monday’s 23.5km time trial in Stage 3 at the Route du Sud. Mark one up for Bradley McGee. The FDJeux.com rider held off world time trial champion David Millar (Cofidis) to win the stage from Loures-Barousse to Sarp and take the overall lead with one stage to go. McGee, 28, posted a time of 31 minutes, 45 seconds to take his fourth win of the season. Millar stopped the clock 23 seconds slower while German Andreas Kloden (T-Mobile) came through third at 27 seconds slower. McGee -- a winner

The last week I have been racing in the Volta Catalunya, a six-day race that starts on the Costa Brava, climbs through the Pyrénées and finishes back along the coast in downtown Barcelona. For me, and several of the other North Americans in the peloton, it is a race that is close to home, as several of us live in the Catalan town of Girona. This year, Martin Perdiguero dominated the first half of the week’s racing. He won stage 2’s uphill sprint finish, went on to take the mountaintop finish in Andorra with an explosive acceleration in the last meters, and then won the next day’s mountain

Five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong heads the list of cyclists named to the U.S. Olympic team for the Athens Summer Games August 13-29, a spokesman for USA Cycling said on Monday. Armstrong, who will be competing in his fourth Olympics, has a bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Games. He will be accompanied in Athens by Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Bobby Julich and Jason McCartney. Armstrong and Hamilton were selected on the basis of their first- and fourth-place finishes in last year's Tour de France, while Julich and Hincapie qualified based on top-five finishes at

Aaron Olson took the biggest win of his career in the final stage of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce on Sunday, giving Colavita-Bolla its third stage win of the race. Olson jumped off the front of a disintegrating breakaway to solo in, just ahead of a fast closing peloton. Viktor Rapinski (Navigators) beat Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics) in the field sprint for second, wrapping up the points jersey in the process. In the overall standings, Tomasz Brozyna (Action ATI) faced no serious threats to his hold on the race lead, and retained his 41-second margin over Nathan O'Neill

Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) pulled off a one-second triumph in the 68th Tour de Suisse over a bitterly disappointed Fabian Jeker (Saunier Duval) after winning Sunday’s 25.6km race against the clock along the lakeshore at Lugano. Ullrich, who’s using the Swiss tour to fine-tune his form going into next month’s Tour de France, edged time-trial specialist Laszlo Bodrogi (Quick Step) by eight seconds to win the stage. Then all eyes were on the clock. Jeker, who began with a 41-second head start on Ullrich, quickly lost 26 seconds in the opening section, but seemed to be just hanging on to his

Tomasz Brozyna (Action ATI) solidified his lead at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce after finishing second behind Radoslaw Romanik (Hoop CCC) on the difficult climb up Mont Megantic. Scott Moninger (Health Net) managed a strong performance to finish third, and take over third in the general classification. The 5km climb to the Observatory at 1100 meters above sea level has become legendary at Beauce. Averaging 10 percent, with sections as steep as 16 percent in the final 2km, it usually reduces the contenders for the overall title to a handful. This year was no exception, with only Romanik

On a day when timing was everything, Jason McCartney and Kristin Armstrong picked the most important moments to shine. Each took impressive wins at the 2004 Pool Gel USCF National Road Championships, and now both are headed to Athens come August to represent America in the Summer Olympics after winning the Team USA Selection races on Saturday in Redlands, California. Armstrong also picked up a national-championship jersey for her efforts. The genesis of Armstrong’s win came on the third of six laps during the 116.8km women’s race. Taking instructions from T-Mobile team manager Jim Miller to

Nathan O'Neill (Colavita-Bolla), won stage 5 of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce on Saturday, less than a year after suffering a life-threatening injury at the Tour de 'Toona. O'Neill won the 14km individual time trial with a time of 17 minutes and 9.09 seconds, less than a second ahead of Viktor Rapinski (Navigators). Svein Tuft (Symmetrics), was the top North American finisher, in fifth place, 22.41 seconds behind O'Neill, and one spot ahead of Scott Moninger (Health Net). Overall race leader Tomasz Brozyna (Action ATI), finished third in the stage, and continues to hold the yellow

Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) scored a victory in the penultimate stage of the Tour de Suisse on a rainy day that saw Fabian Jeker (Saunier Duval) widen his lead going into Sunday’s time-trial finale. Bettini was part an early break that chugged away from the main pack early in the hilly stage, which pushed south into Switzerland’s Italian-speaking region of Ticino. The break dwindled, and Bettini dropped compatriot Alessandro Cortinovis and Switzerland’s Patrick Calcagni with 5km to go to claim the stage win in the 191km stage from Buchs to Bellinzone. “This is the first time in my career

Photographer Casey Gibson spent a long, long Saturday clicking shutters in Redlands, California, as America's racing men and women fought for spots on the U.S. Olympic team bound for this summer's Games in Athens. Here's a sampling of what he saw.

Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) revealed some chinks in his pre-Tour armor in Friday’s difficult climbing stage and lost control of the race leader’s jersey at the 68th Tour de Suisse. Ullrich lost contact with the climbing specialists on the very steep 13km summit finish to Malbun, on an average grade of 8.7 percent, and surrendered the lead he’s held since the prologue to Fabian Jeker (Saunier Duval). Georg Totschnig (Gerolsteiner) reeled in fading leaders Erwin Thijs and Ben Day (both Mr. Bookmakers.com) as he jumped out of a 10-man chasing group. The Austrian started the day just 25 seconds

Race favorite Chris Horner won’t be at his best come the USA team selection race in Redlands, California on Saturday, but that won’t stop him from showing up at the startline. On Thursday the Webcor rider said he’s had a nasty cold for about a week, and has been on antibiotics since Tuesday. That was the reason he opted to take a pass on the national time trial championship race that was won by U.S. Postal’s David Zabriskie. “I’m not sick enough to miss the race on Saturday, but it definitely wasn’t worth doing the TT,” Horner explained. “I probably could have done half decent, but it’s not

On a steamy, cloudless Thursday in Southern California, David Zabriskie and Christine Thorburn each grabbed time trial wins at the Pool Gel USCF National Road Championships. Besides the stars-and-stripes jersey, Thorburn also earned an automatic berth on the U.S Olympic team, which will compete in Greece in August. “I’m very surprised,” admitted Thorburn (Webcor) of a win that came at the expense of the heavily favored T-Mobile team. “I didn’t even do the time trial last year because I didn’t have the right equipment.”

Charles Dionne (Canadian National) finally scored the result he has been hoping for - a stage win at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce. Dionne was one of the most dominant riders all day in the 180 kilometer stage that began and finished in the small town of Lac Etchemin, helping to initiate the day-long break, and then attacking repeatedly in the last 30 kilometers to finally engineer a solo win. Tomasz Brozyna (Action ATI), the overall leader, rode comfortably in the pack all day, as his team set tempo at the front. With three ranked climbs (two Category 2 and one Cat. 3), plus the

If there was any doubt that Jan Ullrich would be ready in time for theTour de France, the German erased it in Thursday’s grueling 185.4km sixthstage of the Tour de Suisse.The 1997 Tour winner retained the overall lead at the Swiss tour afterfine work by T-Mobile teammate Giuseppe Guerini helped break up the mainbunch on the final of two climbs that punctuated the difficult stage throughthe Swiss Alps.Swiss rider Nicki Aebersold (Phonak) held on from an early move to takethe stage victory, but all eyes were on Ullrich to see if he would wilton the mountain steeps.Ullrich, who once again faced

It’s always an interesting mix at the startline of the elite men’s road race held annually at the U.S. national road championships. For every aspiring, young Cat. 1 who’s hoping to parlay a podium performance into a pro contract, you’ll find a guy like Chris Walker. The 42-year-old was a pro with Nutra-Fig back in the mid 1990s, but today he’s sporting the kit of California-based amateur team Labor Power. The squad’s name is a reference to the law practice of primary sponsor Roger Worthington, whose client base is people who’ve been injured in the workplace. But Walker stamped his own

Tomasz Brozyna (Action ATI) took the yellow leader's jersey from Ivan Dominguez (Colavita Olive Oil) on day two of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce, after an early race split in the field reduced the number of contenders dramatically. Brozyna won the 180-kilometer stage in front of Viktor Rapinski (Navigators) and Radoslaw Romanik (Hoop CCC Polsat), while Dominguez finished a whopping 17:36 back with the decimated main peloton. Stage two was packed with the kind of terrain Beauce is infamous for a seemingly unending series of two- and three-kilometer climbs of seven and eight percent. Eric

oung Russian Vladimar Karpets (Illes Balears-Banesto) retained theoverall lead at the 84th Volta a Cataluyna in Wednesday’s summit finishup the Coll de Pal after finishing fourth behind the persistent MiguelAngel Martin Perdiguero (Saunier Duval). Martin Perdiguero, a winner in Tuesday’s roller-coaster stage,proved he can win on any terrain and put the Russian under pressure. Itlooked like Colombian Félix Cárdenas (Cafés Baqué)would win, but he was reeled in by a group of four riders. Perdiguero shotaway in the final punch and trimmed Karpets’ hold on the leader’s jerseyto just six

Rabobank’s Robert Hunter continued his promising run up to Tour de France form by winning the fifth stage of the Tour of Switzerland as it finished in Adelboden Wednesday. T-Mobile team leader Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, retained the overall lead of the race that ends on Sunday. Hunter was part of a three-man break that dominated the day’s action in the 162-kilometer stage from Bätterkinden to Adelboden. Hunter, a winner in stage 3, joined Michael Blaudzun (CSC) and Murilo Fischer (Domina Vacanze) in an attack about 50 kilometers into the rolling stage that ended with a

America’s top cycling talent competes this week for a chance to representthe United States at the Olympic Games. Three athletes will earn that privilege in Redlands, Calif. at the PoolGel USCF Elite National Championships and Team USA Selection Race.This year the U.S. will be sending five men and three women to Athens to compete in road cycling. To earn a spot on that squad, it’s quite simple: Win in Redlands and a trip to Athens will follow in August. One of those five spots for the men’s team, and two for the women, will result from this week’s competition in Southern California.The winner

Ivan Dominguez (Colavita-Bolla Wines) outsprinted Canadian Olympic hopefuls Charles Dionne (Canadian National) and Mark Walters (Navigators) to take the first stage and the leader's jersey at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce Tuesday in Quebec City. Dominguez also donned the Points jersey, while Adam Wadecki (Action ATI) took the Climber's jersey after a race-long breakaway that was only caught in the final lap. Stage 1 threw riders into hard terrain right away, with 10 laps of a 12-kilometer circuit that featured a sharp kilometer-long 11-percent climb and an upward sloping finish into

Lotto’s Robbie McEwen won a sprint finish to take his second stage victory at the Tour of Switzerland on Tuesday. McEwen finished the fourth stage of the Swiss tour, a 211.6km race from Le Sentier to Batterkinden, ahead of Fassa Bortolo’s Francesco Chicchi and Olaf Pollack of Gerolsteiner. Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) continues to hold the overall race lead. Ullrich, a main threat to Lance Armstrong in next month's Tour de France, is two seconds ahead of Switzerland's Oscar Camenzind. Chicchi thought he had won the stage and lifted his arms in a victory salute but McEwen came through on the

T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokourov has pulled out of next month's Tour de France after a fall during the Tour of Switzerland over the weekend, spokesmen for his team confirmed Monday. "Vinokourov won't be on the Tour," team spokesman Matthias Schumann told AFP. Vinokourov, 30, suffered several torn ligaments to his right shoulder after the fall during the second stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Sunday and will remain hospitalized for a further two days. He was also forced out of the Tour de France two years ago with injury. "It's a very difficult period for him because he was getting

Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Domo) outsprinted a large group of finishers to win the second stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Sunday. Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) retained the overall lead after finishing in the main pack in the flat, 170 kilometer ride from Dürrenroth to Rheinfelden. Featuring flat, mainly wide roads the stage two of the Tour of Switzerland was destined to finish in a field sprint. Still, a seven-man group, including former Giro d'Italia champion Stefano Garzelli, managed to breakaway, but the group was eventually reeled in as McEwen’s Lotto team joined up with Olaf Pollack’s

Given that McGuire Pro Cycling’s Dave McCook had won three sprint finishes in three days at the Nature Valley Grand Prix, it would have been a safe bet he’d be a favorite for a race titled the “Stillwater Criterium.” But the notorious 1.3-mile Stillwater Criterium is not your ordinary criterium; with its steep and narrow Chilkoot Hill climb through Stillwater’s upscale neighborhoods, dishing up an average grade of 18 percent and over 3000 feet of total climbing, Stillwater is one of the most feared crits on the North American circuit. Like the Fillmore Street climb in San Francisco, 39x25

A soon-to-be-published book entitled “L.A. Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong” alleges that the five-time Tour de France winner has been involved in doping since recovering from cancer in 1998. Charges made in the book, co-written by award-winning Sunday Times sports reporter David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, a cycling specialist formerly with L'Equipe, appear in this week's L'Express, a weekly magazine. The book itself is slated for release on Tuesday. Their book recounts the allegations of a former U.S. Postal physiotherapist that Armstrong used the banned blood booster EPO

In the end, the 56th Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré came down to a 21km time trial. Not just any time trial, but last Thursday’s uphill test from the Vaucluse vineyards to the mile-high tip of Mont Ventoux, the “windy mountain.” Spanish Tour de France hope Iban Mayo of Euskaltel-Euskadi won the time trial, and so won the race: the most important victory so far of his young career. The three stages before the Ventoux were neutralized by the top three teams — Euskaltel, Phonak and U.S. Postal — wanting to keep their respective leaders in good shape for the time trial. And once Mayo broke the

Photographer Graham Watson had another busy day at the Dauphiné Libéré on Sunday. With Stuart O'Grady off the front and the big stars keeping tabs on the gap, our man Graham had a full day charging around on the back of his driver's motorcycle. Now that things have settled down, here's a small sample of what came off of the digital chip in one of his many Nikons.

Michael Rasmussen, the willowy Dane who came late to road racing after winning the 1999 world mountain-bike championship, was all smiles Saturday evening after taking a brilliant solo stage win at the Dauphiné Libéré. Tyler Hamilton, despite maintaining his second place on GC, 36 seconds down on Ivan Mayo, was just relieved to have finished the four-hour mountain stage in one piece. Phonak team leader Hamilton crashed halfway down the long, dangerous descent of the Col de la Morte (“Pass of the Dead”) along with two others, his Spanish teammate Santos Gonzales and Frenchman Walter Beneteau.

The image of McGuire Pro Cycling’s Dave McCook surging across the finish line, arms raised triumphantly in the air, was repeated — again — at the Nature Valley Grand Prix as the 34-year-old sprint veteran made it three-for-three Saturday, piloting his red Jamis Comet across the finish line in Red Wing, Minnesota, ahead of Emile Abraham (Monex) and Erik Saunders (Ofoto-Lombardi Sports.) From a spectator’s standpoint, Saturday’s sprint finish was as exciting a finish as one could ask for, as the field closed in on a three-man breakaway of Eric Wohlberg (Sierra Nevada), Erik Saunders

Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) won the first stage of the Tour of Switzerland in Beromuenster Saturday, outsprinting Swiss duo Oskar Camenzind (Phonak) and Fabian Jeker (Saunier Duval) after a relatively flat 176km ride between Sursee and here. American Bobby Julich (CSC) finished 13th in the same time. The Tour of Switzerland has begun with a time-trial prologue since 1993, but this year the organizers decided against including it. The race, which runs till June 20 and is one of the big pre-Tour de France preparation races, has also be reduced in stages from 10 to nine. Results1. Jan Ullrich (G)

Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) will use the nine-day Tour of Switzerland starting on Saturday as the main stepping stone to peaking for cycling's premier contest, the Tour de France next month. The 1997 Tour de France winner has long been seen as the most realistic challenger to American Lance Armstrong's grip on cycling's top prize. Seventh in last week's Tour of Germany, Ullrich does not expect to beat teammate Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, the defending champion, who is favored to retain his title, but the mountainous stages will provide ideal training for France. "This is my last big

Photographer Graham Watson was a busy man at the Dauphiné Libéré on Friday, what with breaks, chases, weigh-ins and podium ceremonies. Here's a small sample of what he saw.

A cyclist was killed Friday when he crashed during the fifth stage of the Tour of Colombia. Juan Barrero, a 31-year-old Colombian, suffered serious head injuries after he got tangled up with other cyclists and fell while negotiating a fast downhill curve. He had a cardiac arrest and died while being transported from a small hospital to a larger one, said Orlando Cardona, director of the San Vicente de Paul Hospital, located about 100 miles west of Bogota. Two other cyclists were also injured in the crash, Cardona said. "The fall was massive and Juan took the brunt of it," said his

When they came into pro cycling a decade ago, American George Hincapie and Aussie Stuart O’Grady were hot-shot sprinters. They loved mixing it up with the true field sprinters. Over the years, as Hincapie transformed himself into a one-day classics rider and a devoted Tour de France lieutenant for Lance Armstrong, Hincapie sacrificed his finishing speed. As for O’Grady, he still goes for the bunch finishes, but rarely wins one. On Friday, though, there were no other racers around when O’Grady of Cofidis and Hincapie of U.S. Postal sprinted out the stage 5 finish of the Dauphiné in Sisteron.

One year after a dramatic crash nearly ended his cycling career, Aussie hardman Henk Vogels (Navigators Insurance) returned to the top step of a race podium, assuming the overall race lead at the Nature Valley Grand Prix following Friday's wet downtown criterium . Vogels didn’t take the criterium win — that honor went to McGuire Pro Cycling’s Dave McCook, who went two-for-two in sprint finishes following Thursday’s stage win in Virginia, Minnesota. Still, returning to the spotlight was a poignant moment for the man from Perth, given an ankle-shattering crash at the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic

Back in 1999 at the Dauphiné Libéré, on a sun-filled June afternoon of 80-degree weather, Jonathan Vaughters raced up the Giant of Provence, Mont Ventoux, faster than anyone in history. His record time for the 21.6km between the tree-shaded village of Bedoin and the bare, exposed 6263-foot summit was 56:50, an average speed of 22.8 kph. It was a record that the now-retired Colorado climber expected to be beaten on Thursday, when the weather was almost identical to that of five years ago. There were several factors that backed up Vaughters’s prediction. First, bicycle technology and training

On a day that began in disarray for the pro men’s field and ended in disasterfor a handful of pro women, Gina Grain (Victory Brewing) and Dave McCook(McGuire Pro Cycling) took chaotic field sprints to win the second stageof the Nature Valley Grand Prix in Virginia, Minnesota. With high winds blowing across Northern Minnesota for the Iron Rangeroad race, both the women’s and men’s fields found it difficult to escapethe safety of the peloton, culminating in the pair of field sprints after80-plus miles of racing. (The women raced 84.79 miles, while the men raced83.) Both finishes could be

In early 2004 the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Food and Nutrition Boardreleased Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) for water and sodium (potassium,chloride, and sulfate recommendations were also included in this report).You may have heard about these dietary guidelines for Americans and Canadians,which are designed for the average adult who may be sedentary or mildlyactive, not for triathletes and cyclist who training regularly, often formore than two hours per session. In establishing the guidelines, the expertpanel reviewed the scientific literature for quality of the research andthe

Watching the Giro or catching some of the action from Wachovia week, did you happen to notice “Fast” Freddie Rodriguez’s choice of pedals? While his team is officially sponsored by Look pedals, keen eyes may have spotted the fact that the newly recrowned USPRO National Champion was riding a pair of Crank Brothers Triple Ti Egg Beaters. We asked the folks at Crank Brothers about that one and marketing director Christina Orlandella said Rodriguez has been using the pedal for most of the year. “He’s been riding the Egg Beaters for the last four months and in that time he's won three big

Racing begins Wednesday, June 9, at Minnesota’s Nature Valley GrandPrix, a five-day stage race that serves as the primary component of theGreat River Energy Bicycle Festival, a weeklong celebration of cyclingcomplete with live music shows, stunt riders and a traveling tech expo.Coming off the Wachovia Cycling Week, riders from many top domesticmen’s teams are expected, including Chris Horner of Webcor Builders, 2002NVGP winner John Lieswyn of Health Net-Maxxis, Eric Wohlberg of SierraNevada, Tim Larkin of Ofoto-Lombardi Sports, Robbie Ventura of U.S. Postal-BerryFloor, Marty Nothstein and

Joseba Beloki has admitted he is facing an uphill battle to be 100-percent ready for this year's Tour de France, where American Lance Armstrong will saddle up for an attempt at a record sixth yellow jersey. The 30-year-old Spaniard has had a nightmare season so far after missing the remainder of 2003 because of the crash during last year's Tour when he was being chased by Armstrong on the 16th stage to Gap. The Spaniard, who has finished three times on the Tour podium and would normally be a challenger to the U.S. Postal team's seemingly unstoppable leader, has since switched teams although

AG2R Prevoyance’s Nicolas Portal won the third stage of the Dauphiné Libéré on Wednesday, a 180-kilometer race from 180 km from St Etienne to Aubenas. Portal jumped out early with a small pack of rivals on the hilly route, crossing the finish line in 4:41:42. Estonia's Janek Tombak of Cofidis was second, and Euskaltel rider Iker Flores of Spain finished third. Both finished 51 seconds after Portal. Five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, teammate Floyd Landis and fellow Americans Levi Leipheimer and Tyler Hamilton finished in a group of 18, which finished 1:49 after the leader.

Davis Phinney may well qualify as a cycling legend. These days, though, the man who has won more bike races than any other American is facing the toughest challenge of his life: Living with early-onset Parkinson’s disease. Each May, during the final week of the Giro d’Italia, I have the pleasure of working to put on a bike camp in northern Italy with Phinney and his wife, 1984 Olympic Gold medalist Connie Carpenter. The two have been hosting bike camps in the U.S. and in Europe for many years, but now the physical difficulty ramps up steeply each year as his disease progresses. Phinney,

Under sunny skies on an afternoon that had seen rain in Minneapolis earlierin the day, Canadian Lyne Bessette took the opening time trial of the NatureValley Grand Prix, held along the Mesabi Trail in Virginia, Minnesota. The Quark rider posted a time of 11:23.90 (28.5 mph) over the narrow,rolling and often falsely-flat 5.4-mile pedestrian/bike path, 2.16 secondsfaster than RONA’s Katrina Grove, whose early time of 11:26.06 had heldup for most of the afternoon. After a hard-luck performance at the Liberty Classic in Philadelphia,where Bessette had multiple mechanicals followed by a crash

The Wachovia Classic in Philadelphia, now in its 20th year, has become a regular summertime event. Like the T-Mobile Grand Prix in San Francisco, it is one of the most prestigious one-day races in America and hosts some of the best racers in the world. What makes it most special for the racers is the fans. Hundreds of thousands of fans line the course, cheering and partying. There are a couple of grandiose block parties on the Manayunk Wall and at the start/finish line. The energy is incredible – it pushes us up the hill. The women’s race had its biggest field ever, with 190 starters,

Each season I look forward to going back to Philadelphia for the Wachovia races. I like the city, the races are the best in North America, and the crowds are incredible. This year the trip to Philly was my first to America since the start of the year. I have been watching the results in America from overseas but have yet to race against all the new stars of the U.S. peloton. Lining up for the start in Lancaster was a bit strange as there were all sorts of new jerseys and new faces on the line. The race in Philly almost always unfolds in the same manner. A breakaway, sometimes quite a large

Not wanting to disappoint his sponsor, Spanish rider José Enrique Gutierrez Cataluña took the overall lead in the Dauphiné Libéré on Tuesday after winning the second stage, a 181km ride from Bron to St. Etiene. Gutierrez delivered the for the Chief Executive Officer of Phonak Hearing Systems, his team's sponsor, who had warned he would be at the finish and “did not want to be disappointed.” Gutierrez, who will be 30 on June 18, came home seven seconds to the good of the peloton with his teammate Cyril Gussel of France in second and Australian Stuart O'Grady in third, while overnight leader

Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricole) won the trench war in Monday’s 231km first stage of the 56th Dauphiné Libéré, taking a bunch sprint ahead of former teammate Stuart O’Grady (Cofidis) and Baden Cooke (FDJeux.com). Prologue winner Iban Mayo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) retained the overall lead on a sunny day dominated by a long solo break by Jimmy Casper (Cofidis). Casper took a page out of the Jacky Durand racing manual, attacking in the first four kilometers of the Dauphiné’s longest stage. The peloton was happy to let him ride away and at one point opened up an 18-minute gap. Once the bunch got a

Dear Joe and Dirk,I am fairly new to the cycling world and compete in duathlons. I have an entry level Trek bike and would like to know what basic equipmentI should add to improve my time without spending a fortune. I was thinkingabout getting aero’ bars and clipless pedals. Is there anything else thatyou can recommend? I am still learning basic technique and ride two days per week, whilerunning the other days. My aerobic capacity is good, I just need to developmy skills and learn how to climb.Lisa Leggett Dear Lisa,Good question. I see you'd like to invest some money into new equipmentin

Iban Mayo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) won the first round of the battle of theTour de France stars in Sunday’s prologue at the Dauphiné Libéré– but just barely. Mayo made up for being second in Saturday’s Classique des Alpes andupstaged Americans Tyler Hamilton (Phonak) and Lance Armstrong (U.S. PostalService) in the 5.4km prologue to open the eight-day race high in the FrenchAlps in what’s the final exam for many favorites heading into next month’sTour. Phonak’s Oscar Pereiro, fresh off his victory in Saturday’s Alps Classic,set a fast early time but Mayo came through less than a second faster

The earliest predictor came courtesy of the local weathermen. While it rained all day Saturday, the forecast for Sunday’s USPRO Championship in Philadelphia was for a cool but dry day. Just the kind of conditions that would make for a relatively easy trip during the 156-mile race held on a primarily flat circuit in the City of Brotherly Love. And while no one could have been feeling particularly fresh after this near-six-hour effort, 44 riders were still in play on the race’s long finishing stretch down Benjamin Franklin Parkway. That left both the race outcome and the U.S. national title in

After surrendering the title for a year to Canadian Lyne Bessette (Quark), Petra Rossner (Nurnberger) reasserted her dominance in the Wachovia Liberty Classic, rocketing to a seventh win in a bunch gallop

World champions became World Cup leaders in the first round of the Downhill World Cup Sunday in Fort William, Scotland. Anne-Caroline Chausson (Commencal-Oxbow) and Greg Minnaar (Team G-Cross Honda) both rode totally new bikes to their victories as well. The 2.66km course required a complete range of skills, with fast, rocky, technical sections at the top, a high-speed section in the middle and a series of jumps spread throughout. Add the constant showers that swept through the region to make slick surfaces, and you had a true World Cup course. Despite not liking the course, Chausson was

Spain's Francisco Mancebo (Illes Balears) won the 186km sixth stage of the Tour of Germany on Saturday while Germany's Patrik Sinkewitz (Quick Step-Davitamon) courageously defended his overall lead in this difficult stage from Kulmbach to Oberwiesenthal. Mancebo was the strongest on the final 6km climb toward the Fichtelberg summit at 1214 meters, crossing in 4:54:49, beating German Jens Voigt (CSC), second overall, and race leader Sinkewitz. The 1997 Tour de France winner, Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile), finished 37 seconds back in 12th spot and dropped from third to seventh overall. The

The final — and most important — day of the three-race Wachovia Cycling Series is set to go, and the man to beat is American Fred Rodriguez. At least that’s the hot tip based on betting odds posted by Sportsbook.com. The online casino has made the winner of Thursday’s race in Trenton, New Jersey, a 5-to-2 favorite in the field of 178 riders that will contest the 156-mile USPRO Championship in Philadelphia starting at 9 EST Sunday morning. But Rodriguez, who is coming off three hard weeks at the Giro d’Italia, isn’t so sure the smart money will be on him. The Acqua & Sapone rider knows he

Look introduced a line of high-tech, French-made carbon goodies during the company’s 2005 product unveiling Thursday in San Jose, California. Most impressive is the latest incarnation of the HSC fork line, the HSC 5 SL. Retailing for $500, this all-carbon fork is truly “all-carbon.” Using a new proprietary process working with super-high-modulus carbon fiber, Look has been able to produce the first road fork with a carbon steerer, legs and even drop-outs. No bonding is used in the production of this breakthrough fork; instead, the unit is molded as one continuous element. “This is designed

For the third consecutive week Gunn-Rita Dahle (Merida) won the women's World Cup cross-country race, and for the third consecutive week there was a new winner in the men's race, with Christoph Sauser (Siemens Mobile Cannondale) soloing in ahead of teammate and World Cup leader Roel Paulissen. It was no surprise to see Dahle off the front by the end of the first of four laps, but the woman chasing her was new: Marie-Helene Premont (Oryx). Premont rode an impressive race - only her third of the season - and only conceded 1:46 to Dahle by the end, the closest result of this season. "I was

Joseba Beloki has slammed Tour de France organizers and his own French team, La Boulangere, for not allowing him to take prescribed asthma medication while racing. The Spaniard, who has finished on the Tour de France podium three times from 2000 to 2002, was back on the road this week after breaking a leg in a dramatic crash during last year's Tour, when he was being pursued by five-time race winner Lance Armstrong. Beloki blamed his struggle in the first two stages of this week's Bicicleta Vasca on not being able to treat his asthma attacks because the medicine he has used since childhood

The Tour of Montréal is a three-day, four-stage race. It starts out with a 3km prologue in Lachine, the hometown of Geneviève Jeanson, the Machine from Lachine. We jet out and around a tiny peninsula on bike paths, making a few sharp turns along the wa, and winner and losers are separated by fractions of a second. This course is quick and suits a rider who corners well. Tina Mayolo-Pic, one of the best criterium sprinters in America, took top honors. She blazed the course and finished a half second ahead of me. A few hours later, we headed to Little Italy, where we had an evening criterium.

Looking over my notes from the Big Bear national mountain bike race, I realize there were quite a few interesting bits of info that I wasn’t able to include in the print article I wrote for VeloNews issue No. 10. First off, this third round of the 2004 off-road race season had more roll-outs than an oriental rug factory, so here are my brief notes on the following subjects: Mongoose FreedriveMongoose’s Chris Holmes grabbed my arm and hustled me into the Mongoose pits to take a peek at a bit of 2005 ‘Goose tech. While I had the opportunity to see some initial drawings of its Freedrive system

It was hard to believe Fred Rodriguez even made it to the finish in Trenton, New Jersey, let alone grabbed the win. The American spent much of late Thursday afternoon tinkering with misadjusted seat height, even getting off his bike twice to try to get things sorted out. Finally Rodriguez simply gave up and dealt with the problem, before flying down the final straightaway on West State Street to take the bunch sprint in the second leg of the Wachovia Cycling Series. “I got on my bike this morning and it felt like the seat was a little low,” Rodriguez explained after taking his second win of