Road

All is back to normal in the world of downhill racing, with the rainbow jerseys draped safely over the shoulders of their rightful owners. Those owners, of course, are French. On a picturesque autumn day in Colorado’s Vail Valley, Anne-Caroline Chausson and Nicolas Vouilloz won the elite world downhill championships during the second day of competition on Saturday. Between them, the two French downhillers now have 18 world downhill championships. For Vouilloz, whose time of 3:35.20 on the 1.43-mile course was more than two seconds faster than his nearest competitor, it was a bit of

Festina’s Florent Brard retained the overall lead at the Tour de l’Avenir as Italian Graziano Gasparre won the second-to-last stage, 175.5km from Belfort to Montbenoit, France. Brard leads the race for the second straight day, eight seconds ahead of another Frenchman, Sylvain Chavanel (Bonjour), in the overall standings. Mercury’s Baden Cooke, already a stage winner earlier in the week, took second on the day. Another French rider, Big Mat’s Guillaume Auger, set off on the first serious attack of the day, 55km into the race, and was joined by Kevin Hulsmans (Mapei-Quick Step) and Eddy Lembo

American Kimberly Bruckner (Saturn) took the overall victory at the Tour de Suisse Féminin in Switzerland after she and her Saturn team won the prologue and three other stages in the four-day race. Saturn began the week with Anna Millward winning the prologue, and then following up with sprint wins on stage 1 and 2. Saturn was defending Millward’s lead, but on Thursday, a group of five riders escaped and gained nearly six minutes. Bruckner not only marked the break, but attacked on the final climb to take the stage win and the overall lead. On Friday, Germany’s Trixi Worrack took the win in

Kelme´s Santiago Botero got revenge Friday in the hills overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and regained the overall lead of the 56th Vuelta a España after a blistering victory in the 44-km individual time trial. The Colombian won his first stage of this year’s Vuelta after finishing second twice to Cofidis´ David Millar. Pre-race pick Millar was not in peak form, finishing 8th, but American Levi Leipheimer continued to surprise the Europeans with another electrifying ride, finishing second on the hilly, technical course just 29 seconds behind Botero. "I normally start slow in a time trial and

David Millar continued on his winning ways Thursday, taking his second stage of the 56th Vuelta a España. Spain’s Oscar Sevilla of Kelme retained the overall lead in the speedy 180-km (112-mile) 6th stage from Cangas de Onis to Torrelavega that finished 25 minutes ahead of schedule. But this time it wasn’t a prologue or even a time trial for the determined Cofidis rider. Millar proved he’s more than a one-trick pony, winning a fast, tough stage across the foothills of the Cantabria Mountains in northern Spain, holding off Kelme’s Santiago Botero in a two-up sprint. "This proves I am one of

The gang from Canada wouldn’t say it, but you know they were thinking it. Thursday probably won’t be the last time O Canada gets cued up at an awards ceremony here at the UCI mountain bike world championships in Vail, Colorado. The first rendition came courtesy of the country’s team relay squad, which had little trouble taking the four-rider race where each member (junior man, under-23 man, elite man and woman) does a single shortened lap of the cross country course. With Chrissy Redden (Subaru-Gary Fisher) riding the anchor leg, the Canadians finished the 30.16km race in 1:35:13, 26 seconds

Spaniard Constantino Zaballa (Kelme-Costa Blanca) won the eighth stage of the Tour de l’Avenir on Thursday, while Florent Brard (Festina) took over the leader’s yellow jersey after the mountainous 125.5km stage from Gerardmer to Belfort in eastern France. Over the summit of the Col d’Oderen, 64km into the race, one rider was out front, Franck Pencole (BigMat-Auber), chased by Jesus Manzano (Kelme) at 50 seconds and the peloton at one minute. Manzano would catch and drop Pencole on the following climb, and the Spaniard was pursued by a chase group of seven that included Brard and Sylvain

The first mountain stage of any grand tour typically reveals who won’t win, thinning out the pretenders from the contenders. But after Wednesday’s 160-km (99-mile) climbing stage to Lagos de Covadonga, a beyond-category finish high in Spain’s Picos de Europa, the only thing that was clear is that it would probably be a Spanish rider atop the winner’s podium in Madrid when the Vuelta ends Sept. 30. Thirteen Spanish riders filled out the top of the leader board at the end of the Vuelta’s fifth day, with Tour de France revelation Oscar Sevilla holding a narrow 15-second lead over Wednesday’s

An eerie calm returned to the 56th Vuelta a España Wednesday, a day after terrorist attacks back in the United States. Riders from the U.S. Postal Service and Cofidis teams arrived at the start Wednesday morning in sunny Gijon with black armbands. The Vuelta’s fifth stage started with a minute of silence to pay homage to the victims. The troubles back in the United States seemed far away, but the images burned in the minds of many here at the Vuelta. “Last night wasn’t a good night for the team,” admitted U.S. Postal Service director Johan Bruyneel. Members of Spain’s Guardia Civil,

Hungarian Laszlo Bodrogi (Mapei-Quick Step) took over the race leader’s yellow jersey at the Tour de l’Avenir in France on Wednesday after winning the 26km time trial in Rambervillers, France. Bodrogi, who held the race lead for six days last year, took over from Spaniard Juan-Miguel Cuenca, who fell to fourth place overall. On the technical course in Rambervillers, Bodrogi averaged 47.561kph to finish with a time of 32:48, five seconds better than Festina’s Florent Brard. None of the remaining members of the U.S. National Team – David Zabriskie, Danny Pate, Jeff Louder, Damon Kluck and

The coordinated terrorist attacks in the United States sent shockwaves through the Vuelta a España on Tuesday, overshadowing the 175-km (108-mile) fourth stage from Leon to Gijon. Racers from the U.S. Postal Service team and others heard whispers of what had happened in the United States, but didn’t realize the extent of the attack until they reached the finish line in Gijon. “We heard a little bit during the race but we didn’t know how severe it was,” said Chann McRae, riding in his first race with U.S. Postal Service. “Once we got onto the team bus, we were all watching CNN and all the

Mercury’s Baden Cooke won the sixth stage of the Tour de l’Avenir, a 193km stage that finished on a Category 2 climb in Gerardmer, France. Spaniard Juan-Miguel Cuenca (Kelme-Costa Blanca) held onto the yellow leader’s jersey, finishing 22nd on the stage. The peloton reached the 3km final climb together, after reeling in lone breakaway Sergei Kruszhevskiy (Saint Quentin-Oktos), the last of many escapees on the day. On the final climb, iBanesto.com’s Russian Denis Menchov launched the attack, with only Cooke able to follow. The Australian Mercury rider, known more for his sprinting prowess

Crashes disrupted the third stage of the 2001 Vuelta a España on Monday, with a late-race crash splitting the peloton and causing some of the pre-race favorites to lose time. Erik Zabel (Telekom) easily won his second consecutive stage in a bunch sprint while Cofidis’ David Millar retained the overall lead in the flat but windy 87-mile (140-km) stage from Valladolid to Leon across Spain’s desolate meseta. Only 34 riders finished with the Zabel group after several riders went down on the narrow streets of Leon just eight kilometers from the finish. Riders got hung up behind the spill and

I woke up at around 10 am. My weight is still at 64 kilos. Breakfast of rice, eggs, croissants and coffee. Felt pretty good, not tired at all. Rode to start for sign in. Lots of cheers, even songs for Roberto. We had a team meeting in the bus. Basically the same plan as yesterday, keep Roberto near the front and out of trouble. Today Benoit and Victor would be his shadows. There was a small hill at start of the race so Johan stressed the importance of keeping Roberto up front early on. Matt White offered a little entertainment on the bus when he put a techno tape on the sound system,

Telekom’s Erik Zabel has never raced in the Vuelta a España, but the veteran German sprinter let the peloton know Sunday he’s the quickest man in the race when it comes to a bunch sprint. Zabel won his first career Vuelta stage in the first chance he got. Saturday’s individual time trial was dominated by David Millar (Cofidis), who easily retained his overall lead in Sunday’s 147-km (91-mile) second stage from Salamanca to Valladolid across Spain’s flat meseta. The stage was flat as a pancake until the final kilometer, when the course shot up a steep hill to the finish. The profile blew up

Just minutes after George Hincapie won the San Francisco Grand Prix, San Francisco mayor Willie Brown addressed the huge crowd assembled in front of the Ferry Building along the waterfront. "You want the race next year?" said the mayor, dressed in a mustard sportscoat and matching hat. And he was met with an enthusiastic roar from thousands of spectators. By all measures, the first-year race was a huge success. "This was a Barry Bonds home run into the water," said Mark Gorski, U.S. Postal Team general manager and head of Tailwind Sports, the organization that put together the Grand

Woke up felling pretty good. Weight still at 64 kilograms. Breakfast was bread with honey, bread with Nutella, cereal combo of muesli and Special K and an omelet. Sign in was at the traveling village similar to the one at the Tour de France. My assignment today was to be with Roberto for the entire race. Benoit and I were to be his shadows. We have to stop with him if he pees, flats or has some other mechanical and take him back to the group. Basically we are supposed to make sure that Roberto never has to hit the wind, we have to close all the gaps for him move him up in the field when he

With the cancellation of the women’s race at next week’s BMC Software Tour of Houston, the San Rafael Women’s Criterium in San Rafael, California, became the final event for the women in the BMC Software Grand Prix, and Saturn’s Ina Teutenberg put on a show that was worthy of a series finale. The German lapped the field twice en route to winning both the race and the overall series title on Saturday in the city in Marin County, across the bay from San Francisco. Teutenberg was part of a 10-rider break that was initiated early in the race by Gatorade-Olbas’s Dede Demet-Barry. Also included in

While the media focus in San Francisco over the weekend focused on Lance Armstrong and the inaugural San Francisco Grand Prix, most of the major U.S. men’s teams were on hand in San Rafael the day before, to contest the San Rafael Criterium and fight for a piece of the $10,000 prize list. And while all the sprinters were licking their chops for what looked to be a field sprint finish, Saturn’s Mark McCormack left them all hungry as he pulled off a surprise win on the final lap. After a day of sparring among Mercury, 7UP-Colorado Cyclist, Saturn and Navigators, the field was still all

David Millar won the opening time trial of the 2001 Vuelta a España on Saturday, confirming that he’s one of the top time trialists in cycling. The 24-year-old Cofidis rider said his crash in the opening prologue of the 2001 Tour de France weighed heavily on his mind during the technical, tight 12-km course through the streets of Salamanca. “This victory means as much to me as the victory in the Tour last year in the prologue,” said Millar, who won in 14 minutes, 56 seconds with an average speed of 48.214 km/h. “In every curve, I was thinking about the crash in the Tour. I was trying to

Today was an early start to the day by Spanish standards with an 8am wake up and 9am team ride to preview the TT course. I felt a little odd this morning with an upset stomach. I'm not sure if it was from something that I ate last night or just nerves. A lot of people turned out today to watch stage 1 lining the course from start to finish. The course itself was very technical with a minimum of 15 turns, many of them narrow or tight after the apex. I came off the start ramp ready for a good ride repeating in my head, "Seize the day." I accelerated quickly with my heart rate at 170, which is

The last major three-week stage race of the 2001 season kicks off Saturday under the intense Iberian sky of this bustling college town in western Spain. The 21-stage, 2986-km (1851-mile) Vuelta a España is a climber’s paradise, featuring seven summit finishes on some of the steepest roads race organizers could find this side of the Pyrenees. There’s no Lance Armstrong or Jan Ullrich, but some of the top names in cycling are here to duke it out in the 56th running of the Vuelta. Among the 21 teams will be two troubled riders looking to regain past glory, Mercatone Uno’s Marco Pantani and

EDITOR’S NOTE: Antonio Cruz is a 29-year-old American racing in his first season in Europe with the U.S Postal Team. He will be sending VeloNews readers daily updates throughout this year’s Vuelta a España. Welcome to my Vuelta Journal. This will be both my first grand tour and my first on-line journal. I will be calling my agent, Max Burgos, every day to file these reports; he will then transcribe them and send them to VeloNews. From my mouth to your computer all in the same day. As this is all a new experience for me, I will try to give a sense of what I am going through day by day. Not

Editor's note: The following is an update from stage 2 of the Tour de l'Avenir offered by the Mercury cycling team. What a long day! The Tour de l'Avenir is reserved for young riders, it's nicknamed "the little brother" of the Tour de France, but stage 2 was even longer than the stages in the Tour de France: 249.5 kilometers. They all made it, except Will Frischkorn, which is not a surprise. Mercury's young talent struggled to recover from his back injury and he felt that he couldn't last long. "This situation is more difficult to handle mentally than physically", he said. After a good

Saturn’s Petra Rossner scored her third successive stage win at the women’s Tour of the Netherlands on Thursday, taking the first of the day’s two stages, a wind-blown 85-kilometer road race in Bergeijk. Rossner, who earned stage wins on both Tuesday and Wednesday, now leads the six-day, seven-stage event by 16 seconds over Vlaanderen’s Debbie Mansveld and 29 over Acca Due’s Diana Ziliute. That lead may endangered, however, later on Thursday as competitors take on a 26-kilometer time-trial, one of Ziliute’s specialities. With such a slim margin in the overall standings between the top five

Three-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong will close his season with his only U.S. racing appearance of the year this weekend. Armstrong will head a field of 131 riders at the inaugural San Francisco Grand Prix, to be contested in the streets of San Francisco on Sunday. The 125-mile race will be contested on a 10-mile circuit in the Financial District, North Beach, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Marina and Pacific Heights in the famous city by the bay. Armstrong will be joined by a full U.S. Postal Service squad, including Ghent-Wevelgem winner George Hincapie, Olympic time trial champion

Belorussian Alexandre Usov (Phonak) won the 180km first stage of the Tour de l'Avenir, winning a field sprint into the town of Craon. Usov edged out Nicolas Liboreau (Bigmat)and Francaise des Jeux' Jean-Patrick Nazon to take the opening stage of France’s “Tour of the Future,” the event touted as a “little brother” to the Tour de France. The stage was marked by a long escape of eight riders, including Mercury’s Baden Cooke. The group was caught with 14km to go, however, setting up a field sprint won by Usov.

The 2001 Tour de l’Avenir, or "Tour of the Future," begins on Thursday in France, with 21 teams of six riders, or 126 riders total, enrolled in the premier stage race for riders 25-years-old and younger. The 10-day race will begin in the town of Cosse-le-Vivien in western France and then cross the country from west to east before finishing in Morteau, near the German border. The race will really heat up in the final four days, beginning with the 26km stage 7 time trial in Rambervillers. That will be followed by three days in the Vosges mountains, including the final day’s circuit race that

Labor Day weekend in Vermont has traditionally been filled on the calendar by the Killington Stage Race, but with the cancellation of that national calendar race, the gap was filled this year by the new Howard Bank Green Mountain Stage Race. The race combined elements of two well-known Vermont races, the Mad River Road Race and the Burlington Criterium, to create the new four-day event. In the men’s race, Mercury’s Scott Moninger took the overall title, based on finish- and intermediate-points, by winning two difficult stages, the 8.1-mile mass-start prologue climb to the Bolton Valley

With no National Racing Calendar races on the schedule over Labor Day, the U.S. peloton was split between a number of races across the country. In addition to the Green Mountain race in Vermont, a number of top riders headed to the US10k in Marietta, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta, on Monday. Navigators came away with the win, with Glen Mitchell soloing away before the finish to beat Zaxby’s Max Finkbiener. Held in conjunction with the US10k running race and a weekend sports and entertainment festival, the cycling race offered a prize list of $10,000 and drew a number of top names,

Dutchman Leon Van Bon snatched the overall victory at the Tour of the Netherlands after joining a six-man breakaway on the final day of the race on Saturday. The Mercury rider finished 6 seconds ahead of fellow Dutchman Erik Dekker (Rabobank) in the overall. Dekker won the 228.4km final stage between Blerick and Landgraaf, while Van Bon finished fifth. The breakaway group escaped 79 kilometers into the race and built a gap that couldn’t be closed by race leader Sergei Gontchar and his Liquigas team. Dekker was not part of the original break, but he bridged up with 15km to go and then

With one day remaining, world time trial champion Sergei Gontchar (Liquigas-Pata) held onto the overall lead at the Tour of the Netherlands, while Telekom’s Danilo Hondo took the stage 5 win on Friday. U.S. Postal Service’s Viatcheslav Ekimov holds down third place overall, with Mercury’s Leon Van Bon just behind in fifth. Americans Dylan Casey (U.S. Postal Service) and Chris Wherry (Mercury) also find themselves in the top 10. Gontchar took the race lead on Thursday’s stage 4 time trial, a 23km course in Denekamp. The Ukrainian beat Dutchman Bart Voskamp (Bankgiroloterij) by 33 seconds,

The line-up for the 38th Tour de l’Avenir in France was released on Friday, and two American teams will be among the 21 squads. Both Mercury and the U.S. National Team will field six-man teams in the 10-day west-to-east trip across France. The Mercury team will consist of Australians Baden Cooke and Matt Wilson, Americans Will Frischkorn, Ernie Lechuga and Phil Zajicek, and Canadian Svein Tuft. The U.S. National Team will feature Matt Decanio, Mark Fitzgerald, Damon Kluck, Jeff Louder, Danny Pate and David Zabriskie. Among other riders to watch will be Hungarian Laszlo Bodrogi, world

It’s already been an epic year for Canadian mountain bikers, with Roland Green winning the World Cup overall, and Ryder Hesjedal and Chrissy Redden having breakout seasons. Come September those three, plus a host of others will be making the trip south to Vail for the world championships, trying to bring rainbow stripes back to Canada for the first time since 1996 when Alison Sydor won the cross country. Green and Hesjedal will be trying to become the first Canadian males to ever win a world championship. For a look at the complete lineup that the Canadians will be bringing to Colorado click

On Monday, USA Cycling announced the 77-racer team that will represent the U.S. at the world mountain bike championships in Vail, Colorado, September 8-16. Among the cross-country team is two-time Olympian Alison Dunlap (GT), who finished sixth in this year’s overall World Cup standings. Fellow Olympian Ruthie Matthes (Trek-Volkswagen), who just won the national championship, also made this year's squad. Matthes announced her retirement earlier this year, making the world championships the last race of her professional career. Other automatic qualifiers included Susan Haywood (Trek-West

A field of the continent's top riders were readying for a 19km time trial on Saturday, August 25, when warm-ups were interrupted by the day's buzz: Geneviève Jeanson (Rona) was abandoning the race. Rumor was confirmed as fact when Jeanson's directeur sportif Andre Aubut announced that his star rider would not be starting the TT in Bedford. In a statement, Aubut said that Jeanson experienced pain on the back of her right thigh. The decision was made a few minutes into Jeanson's warm-up when the pain and discomfort became obvious. "Geneviève wanted to start in spite of the pain, but it would

It’s been a good swing up the East Coast for Canadian Chrissy Redden. A week after the Ontario resident won the cross-country and short track at the NORBA finals in Mount Snow, Vermont, Redden thrilled the home-country fans, winning the cross-country at the World Cup finals in Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec. Redden (Subaru-Gary Fisher) trailed an on-form Caroline Alexander (Specialized) for much of the six-lap, 32.5km race. But Alexander dropped her chain on the final trip up race’s main climb, and surrendered all but 15 seconds of what had been a 30-second lead. From there, Redden was able to close

Jan Ullrich is becoming cycling's second-place hero. The 28-year-old German finished second behind Paolo Bettini of Mapei in a four-up sprint in Sunday's Championship of Zurich, giving the Telekom rider his third second-place finish in this World Cup race. "I am very angry I finished second again," Ullrich said after losing by a bike length to an ecstatic Bettini. "This race is tailor-made for me. Some day I will come back here to win." The bitter disappointment for Ullrich comes just weeks after finishing second to Lance Armstrong in the 2001 Tour de France, where he's finished second four

Saturday’s double stage of the Grand Prix Feminin du Quebec saw Saturn sweep the two stages, Intersports Pia Sunstedt move into the race lead, and Canadian teenager Genevieve Jeanson withdraw from the race due to a knee injury. Saturn won each of the day’s stages, with Lyne Bessette winning the morning’s 19.1km time trial, seven seconds ahead of AutoTrader.com’s Amber Neben and 31 seconds better than Sunstedt. With her third place, Sunstedt moved ahead of another Saturn rider, Anke Erlank, into the overall lead. In the afternoon, Sunstedt protected her 21 second lead in the 40km criterium.

Canadian Lori-Ann Muenzer took her second gold medal at the World Track Cup round No. 5, in Ipoh, Malaysia, on Sunday. Muenzer, who had already won the match sprint gold earlier in the weekend, won the women’s 500-meters, ahead of German Katrin Meinke and China’s Wang Yan. In other racing, Americans Colby Pearce and Jame Carney took silver in the Madison, behind the Swiss pair of Franco Marvulli and Alexander Aeschbach, and Marty Nothstein took bronze in the keirin, behind 19-year-old Australian Jobie Dajka and France’s Florian Rousseau.

The race billed as ‘an extreme sporting event before there were extreme sports’, the Audi Mount Washington Bicycle Hillclimb, was held Sunday in unusually fair weather conditions - particularly for the mountain known by Native Americans as "the home of the storm." While neither the men’s nor women’s records fell, both divisions found themselves worthy winners, as Saturn pro Tim Johnson and first-year racer Karen Bockel (Gatorade/Olbas) emerged victorious in the 7.6-mile, 12 percent average grade event. The men’s race was over nearly before it started, as Johnson put into practice lessons

Back in late July at the fourth stop of the NORBA national championship series, Roland Green made it known that he was planning on skipping the two upcoming World Cup races in Europe even though he was the overall leader at the time. Green said he wanted to concentrate on his preparation for September’s world championships in Vail, and though he knew he was giving up something big, it would pay off later. Well guess what? Turns out Green didn’t give up a thing. On Sunday at the World Cup finals in Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec, the Trek-Volkswagen rider won the tough, technical men’s cross country

Jame Carney scored the bronze medal in the points race on Saturday, the highlight of the U.S. squad’s performance in the first two days of the fifth and final round of the UCI World Track Cup, in Ipoh, Malaysia. Mathew Gilmore, riding for Belgium, won the points race on Saturday night, with Denmark’s Jimmi Madsen edging Carney for second place by one point, 16 to 15. The next best U.S. performance came from Erin Mirabella, who finished fourth in the women’s pursuit, won by Germany’s Christina Becker. Canadian Lori-Ann Muenzer won the match sprint.

After two stages of rolling terrain, the climbers came to the forefront in stage 3 of the Grand Prix Feminin International du Quebec on Friday. The 99km stage began in Richford, Vermont, and ended in stage winner Lyne Bessette's (Saturn) hometown of Knowlton, Quebec.

If you believe Erik Dekker, the Championship of Zurich on Sunday is the decisive race in the 2001 World Cup. Dekker, a Dutch rider on the Rabobank team who leads the 10-race World Cup series, has 269 points going into the eighth round. Dekker, a winner at the Amstel Gold Race this year, is 69 points ahead of last week’s HEW Cyclassics winner, Erik Zabel. With Telekom’s Zabel missing the Meisterschaft von Zurich, as it’s called in Swiss German, Dekker’s nearest rivals are more than 100 points in arrears. "I think if I can finish among the top eight at Zurich, it could be the end of the

For the first time in the nine-year history of the World Cup downhill series, someone from outside the European continent has captured the men’s overall title. On Saturday, 19-year-old South African Greg Minnaar, finished second on the sun-soaked slopes of Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec, at the World Cup finals. But the man ahead of him wasn’t named Nicolas Vouilloz, which meant the Global Racing rider had overtaken the Frenchman in the overall points standings. "I thought I had a chance today and it worked out," said an elated Minnaar, moments after seeking out his parents in the large crowd and

If every dual on the World Cup circuit came off like the one on Saturday at Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec, there might actually be some hope for this much-maligned discipline. In front of a crowd that was three and four deep along both sides of the course, and included several hundred more fans sitting in the finish-line grandstands, fellow Southern Californians Leigh Donovan and Eric Carter came out on top of an event that featured plenty of exciting bar-banging action. In the woman’s bracket Donovan emerged to pick up her fourth win of the year, and put an exclamation point on a stellar season

Stage 2 of the Grand Prix Feminin International du Quebec was a 123km circuit race starting and finishing in Frelighsburg, near the U.S.-Canadian border southeast of Montreal. The peloton split on the first of two climbs, approximately 20km into the stage. At the 50km mark, Intersports rider Catherine Marsal initiated a break from the front group that would eventually put her in the leader's jersey. The group of five riders also included Ina Teutenberg (Saturn), Nicole Cooke (UK National Team), Katrina Berger (AutoTrader.com) and Nicole Demars (800.com). Within the first 5km they put 30

American Chris Wherry took second in the final stage of the Tour du Limousin, a stage won by Frenchman Gilles Bouvard (Jean Delatour). Another Frenchman, Franck Bouyer (Bonjour), held on for the overall win at the four-day race in France. Despite a brutal heatwave, six riders went on the attack in the middle of the race: Laurent Paumier, Pierrick Fedrigo, Christophe Mengin, Stéphane Goubert, Eddy Seigneur and Juan Manuel Cuenca. When their lead grew to over three minutes, that put Cuenca into the race lead on the road, forcing Bouyer’s Bonjour team to chase. The escapees were finally caught

Spaniard Juan Miguel Mercado (iBanesto.com) won the Vuelta a Burgos in Spain, which concluded on Friday in Burgos with the 164km fifth stage, won by former world champion Oscar Freire (Mapei-Quick Step). Mercado, just 23 years old, took over the violet leader’s jersey on the second day of the five-day race. Friday’s final stage was animated by Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, who made a break at the 17km mark and was joined by Czech rider Pavel Padrnos, Dane Bjarke Nielsen, Italian Elio Aggiano and Spaniard Miguel Angel Pena. The five built up a lead of up to four minutes, but

French amateur Franck Laurance won a sprint finish at the third stage of the Tour du Limousin in France on Thursday. Bonjour’s Franck Bouyer retained the overall lead, six seconds ahead of Patrick Jonker (Big Mat) after the 193.2km stage between Ussel and La Souterraine. The 193km stage saw a breakaway of almost 160km, starting at the 25th km when eight riders escaped. That group gained a lead of 4:20, but was brought back into the fold with 10km to go, setting up the sprint finish won by Laurance. American Bobby Julich (Crédit Agricole) took fifth in the sprint, and held onto eighth place

The latest rendition of four-rider gated racing took place Wednesday afternoon on the sun-drenched slopes of Les Relais Ski Resort in Lac-Beauport, Quebec, just 15 minutes north of Quebec City. The event, dubbed the Schwinn-Toyota Biker-Cross, served as a prelude for the upcoming World Cup finals slated for Saturday and Sunday at nearby Mont-Ste-Anne. After nearly three hours of delay-marred racing, it was Schwinn’s Mickael Deldycke and Jamis rider Katrina Miller who walked away with the bulk of the $10,000 pot offered up at the made-for-TV affair. The longest delay occurred when a semi-pro

Julie Young (Autotrader.com) donned the leader's jersey at the end of the first stage of the Grand Prix Feminin International du Quebec. Young was a member of a nine-rider breakaway that got away 18km into the 97km stage around the town of Farnham, south and east of Montreal. The break was initially composed of Young, her teammate Sarah Ulmer, Julia Farell (VeriZon), Andrea Hannos (VeriZon), Pia Sundstedt (Intersports), Charlotte Hopkinson (Great Britain), Melissa Holt (Rona), Ina Teutenberg (Saturn) and Anke Erlank (Saturn). Holt was called back to the peloton to support an unsuccessful

Italy's Massimo Apollonio, riding for the Vini Caldirola team, won a spectacular sprint finish to take the fourth stage of the Tour of Burgos in Medina de Pomar, Spain, on Thursday. Spaniard Juan Miguel Mercado of the ibanesto.com team retains the overall leader's purple jersey after the 184km run between Ona and Medina de Pomar. Apollonio won a bunch sprint finish on the descent into Medina De Pomar to edge ahead of Argentine Martin Garrido and Spain's former world champion Oscar Freire in 4:33:55. The iBanesto.com team blocked most breakaway attempts during the day to conserve Mercado's

Frenchman David Moncoutié took the second stage of the four-day Tour de Limousin in France, while stage 1 winner Franck Bouyer (Bonjour) held onto the race lead. Mercury’s Chris Wherry and Crédit Agricole’s Bobby Julich both finished in the top 10 on Wednesday, and moved into 10th and eighth, respectively, in the overall standings. Wednesday’s 166.5km stage from Saint-Just-le Martel to Ussel was a relatively calm one. The main breakaway of the day — containing Bruno Thibout (Jean Delatour), Gilles Maignan (Ag2R) and Gilles Canouet (French national team) — was caught shortly before the

Francesco Casagrande (Fassa Bortolo) won the 55th edition of the Coppa Agostoni, a UCI 1.2 race in Lissone, Italy. Casagrande beat last year’s winner Jan Ullrich (Telekom), catching the German 200 meters from the line after Ullrich had attempted a long attack at the finish of the race. "To beat Ullrich, it’s a double success," said the Italian, whose main objective for the end of the season is the world road championships in Lisbon, Portugal, in October. As for Ullrich, he thought he would be able to hold on with his late-race move. "I’m satisfied with my performance," he said, "but really,

Spaniard Carlos Sastre of ONCE won the 154km third stage of the Vuelta a Burgos on Wednesday in San Juan del Monte, Spain. Juan Miguel Mercado (iBanesto.com) retained the overall lead, ahead of U.S. Postal Service’s José-Luis Rubiera. Wednesday’s stage from Briviesca to San Juan del Monte finished with a 4km climb, with the attacks starting from the base of the hill. Spaniards Santos Gonzalez and Francisco Cerezo tried in vain, before Belgian David Bruylandts gained a lead of a few dozen meters. Bruylandts finally cracked about 400 meters from the finish, where he was passed first by

Spaniard Juan Miguel Mercado of the iBanesto.com team won the Tour of Burgos second stage as Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong eased over the 158km ride from Covarrubias to Lagunad de Neila Tuesday. Armstrong’s teammates Jose-Luis Rubiera and Levi Leipheimer put in a strong showing for the American team, finishing second and seventh, respectively, on the stage. Mercado, who takes hold of the leader's purple jersey from Italy's Andrea Tafi of the Mapei team, broke away from two compatriots, Rubiera and Eladio Jimenez (iBanesto.com) on the Lagunas de Neila climb. Mercado crossed the

Here’s how to watch a professional downhill race at Mount Snow, Vermont, site of the 2001 Chevy Trucks NORBA finals. Put on some sturdy shoes and head up the hill to the section known as "Yard Sale." It’s near the bottom of the 1.5-mile course, so it’s not too far. You’ll know you’re getting closer from the roar of the crowd. Once you’re at this mangled piece of hillside, where the trail drops 100 vertical feet through tight woods, pick out a stout guy and stand behind him — there is going to be carnage. Rocks, sticks and dust will fly. Bikes will fly and riders, too. And as the experienced

After a day of intermittent rain showers, which at times drenched the early races, the sun finally shown down on Downers Grove, Illinois, for the main event on Sunday, the USPRO Criterium Championship. And on the gorgeous late-afternoon in the suburb of Chicago, a pair of riders shared the day in the sun, with Saturn’s Dutchman Harm Jansen taking the win and Navigator’s Kirk O’Bee sprinting into the national champion’s jersey. With both the prestige of the overall win and the prize of the stars-and-stripes jersey at stake, Saturn and Navigators took different approaches to the race, and it

In a season dominated by the monster Saturn team, the little guys finally had a chance to do some damage on Sunday at the women’s national criterium championship in Downer’s Grove, Illinois. It came down to a battle royale between two of the fastest women in the county, who had a total of one teammate between them. In the end, Nicole Freedman (Credit Suisse First Boston) had one move too many for defending champion Laura Van Gilder (Verizon Wireless), who struggled through a tough race to put herself in a position to fight for the win. Going into the race, everybody was looking to see what

In a wet national criterium championship that turned into a rain-soaked crash-festival, Go-Mart’s Ben Sharp was able to stay out of trouble and earn his first elite national championship jersey, outsprinting breakaway companion Tim Larkin (Lombardi Sports) for the win. The rain began 10 laps into the 50-lap championship race in Downers Grove, Illinois, on Sunday morning, and definitely contributed to the outcome of the race. Sharp’s Go-Mart squad was one of the strongest teams in the race, along with the Mercy Fitness team from Arkansas, and both squads were among the most active in the

It was a tale of two Erik’s in the HEW Cyclassics World Cup race Sunday. Erik Zabel finally won the race that was missing on his extensive palmares while Erik Dekker finished third and took a decisive lead in the 2001 World Cup series with just three races to go. Both Eriks were jubilant. Erik the First verified his status as German sports hero, while Erik the Second is en route to becoming the first Dutch rider to win the overall World Cup title. The 251-km (155-mile) race burned with a slow fuse. The seventh stop of the 10-round World Cup series started sluggishly but ended loud like a

Alfa Lum’s Joane Somarriba rode into Paris Sunday, victorious in her second successive Grande Boucle feminine cycliste after finishing the 14th and final stage with the main field. Russian cycliste Olga Slioussareva won the 117.8 km stage from Pierrelaye (Val-d'Oise) to Paris, reaffirming her hold on the overall sprint-points jersey.Somarriba was greeted by a large number of Basque fans lining the final circuit on the on the prestigious avenue Foch, west of Paris. The Basque cyclist, who has lost the leader’s jersey only between the 7th and 9th stages of the Grand Boucle, bested her

Does a two-hour cross-country effort combining endurance and technical skills on the tricky natural terrain of a Vermont forest have anything in common with the effort required to go all out on short, flat man-made circles for 20 minutes? Doesn’t seem like it does, but Roland Green and Chrissy Redden, winners of Friday’s NORBA cross-country race at Mount Snow — the one with the woods and the roots and the endurance and all that — also won Sunday’s short-track race, proving one thing: When you’re on, you’re on. "It was all elbows," reported Redden after she completed the weekend sweep on a

Eric Carter and Leigh Donovan go way back. The two Southern California slalom racing vets each won their first NORBA dual slalom race eight years ago at Snow Summit, California. So it was fitting that, at Donovan’s last NORBA dual slalom race, the two were back on the top of a podium together. This time, they were there as dual slalom national champions -- Carter for the third time, Donovan for the fifth. The end result was the same, but the routes Carter and Donovan took at the final race of the 2001 NORBA dual slalom series at Mount Snow, Vermont were not. Donovan, riding for Schwinn, was

Mercury’s Derek Bouchard-Hall has engineering degrees from Princeton and Stanford. The guy’s no dummy. So when people around him are toying with the laws of physics, he knows what to do: hit the brakes. A little smarts went a long way for Bouchard-Hall on Saturday night in Downers Grove, Illinois, as he saved his skin and won the USPRO Criterium warm-up race, the Extran Pro-Am Challenge. Bouchard-Hall was setting up for a field-sprint finish to the 32-lap race on the tight, one-mile, eight-corner course in Downers Grove, heading into the final turn right alongside Saturn’s Ivan Dominguez and

Jan Ullrich could walk down just about any street in America unrecognized. The 28-year-old German with distinctive red hair doesn’t have that luxury in his home country. More than 50 fans cheered Ullrich early Saturday afternoon as he pulled up in front of the posh Hamburg Park Hyatt for the 6th Annual HEW Cyclassics bike race. Dressed in a leather coat, jeans and designer shoes, Ullrich patiently signed autographs and posed for pictures. Ullrich is one of Germany’s major sports stars, outranked only by top soccer players and Formula One racer Michael Schumacher. Ullrich, who lived here

The NORBA women’s cross-country season wrapped up in fitting fashion Friday at Mount Snow, Vermont, as the Subaru-Gary Fisher duo of Mary Grigson and Chrissy Redden dominated, just as they have all season. On a damp day in the green hills of southern Vermont, Redden attacked early and Grigson coolly defended her overall title. For the second consecutive year, Redden won at Mount Snow, while Grigson cruised behind her teammate to finish second, 1:24 behind Redden’s winning time of 2:01:00. Grigson, who won three out of five in the 2001 series, took the overall NORBA NCS National

52 to stand trial after Giro doping swoopAn Italian court is expected to try 52 defendants, mainly cyclists, for sporting fraud, after police raids during the Giro d’Italia on June 6, judicial sources in Florence announced Friday. A judicial inquiry was opened into the cases of 86 people by Florence district prosecutor Luigi Bocciolini after police raids on hotels used by cyclists at San Remo had turned up suspected banned substances. After the subsequent analysis of the suspect medications, authorities have issued the Italian equivalent of indictments against 52 of the original group

Sweden’s Susanne Ljungskog (Mixte Alverti) won the 12th stage of the Grande Boucle feminine, a mountainous 131.7-kilometer stage from Valreas to Superdevoluy, on Friday. Alfa Lum’s Joane Somarriba, who finished in sixth, more than five minutes behind Ljungskog, retains her hold on the overall lead. Ljungskog outsprinted her breakaway companion Russian Svetlana Boubnenkova to take the stage. The two escaped from a group of five that had successfully chased down a 93-kilometer solo breakaway effort by Germany’s Regina Schleicher. With just 25km to go to the finish, the five – Boubnenkova,

Maybe Roland Green’s onto something. The Trek-Volkswagen rider from Canada has taken some flak for choosing to skip several European World Cup rounds, and therefore forfeiting any shot at winning the World Cup, something no North American has done in a long, long time. But if the form Green showed while winning at Mount Snow, Vermont, on Friday afternoon is any indication, a few weeks at home have done him well. There was plenty of good racing among the 108 men’s starters at Mount Snow, but none of it involved Green, who cruised for the win and the overall NORBA cross-country title. Aboard

Spain’s Joane Somarriba extended her lead in La Grand Boucle Féminine on Thursday during stage 11, a 125km run from Langogne to Vernoux en Vivarais. Somarriba (Alfa Lum R.S.M.) finished second behind Italy’s Fabiana Luperini (Edilsavino), though both riders were credited with the same time, 3:23:08. Jeanie Longo (Swam-Slovakia), who had been second in the overall G.C. entering the day’s racing, finished in a group 2:05 back, which dropped Longo to fourth overall, at 4:52. With her win, Luperini jumped from sixth to second overall, and is now 3:33 behind Somarriba in the chase for the title

Following the 10th stage at the 15th running of La Grand Boucle Féminine, defending champion Joane Somarriba has retaken the lead in the world’s biggest stage race for women. Entering the 10th of 14 stages, the Spanish Alfa Lum rider had found herself in second place, six seconds behind Lithuanian Rasa Polikieviciute (Acca Due O). But Somarriba won the stage 10 individual time trial to move back in front, 2:41 ahead of France’s Jeannie Longo. Previous race leader Polikieviciute fell to seventh, 4:34 behind Somarriba. Somarriba started the 15-day race by taking the opening time trial in her

Lance Armstrong’s decision to skip the Classica San Sebastian has cost him more than a shot at the World Cup title. With the release of the latest UCI road rankings, Armstrong’s hold on the top spot is also slipping. The three-time Tour de France winner, who was alone at the top, is now in a dead heat with Italian Davide Rebellin, who finished third at the World Cup race in Spain. Click on the results icon below to see the rankings.

Swiss legend Thomas Frischknecht (Ritchey-Yahoo!) did it again when he won Sunday's cross-country World Cup in Kaprun, Austria. The Swiss legend finished nearly a minute ahead of Australian Cadel Evans (Volvo-Cannondale). Frischknecht justified his hero status in mountain biking, a status gained by racing for 11 seasons (including the first world chamionships in 1990) and winning at least one World Cup in all but one of those seasons. The women's cross-country race featured two other impressive figures in Spain's Marga Fullana (Specialized) and Russian newcomer Irina Kalentieva (Merida

With a brand new copy of Saturn’s new SUV going to the winner, the prize list at Colorado’s Saturn Cycling Classic isn’t exactly the prize list you’d see at your typical office park criterium. Of course, the rather atypical course -- 140 miles and 15,000 feet of climbing -- meant you’d have to work to even get a peek at that prize list. In this, the second edition of a bike race that sprang from the twisted and somewhat sadistic mind of organizer Len Pettyjohn, a new sponsor had joined the effort and upped the stakes. Jonathan Vaughters, recently back from a disappointing early end to his

Laurent Jalabert took his Tour de France form straight into Spain and outfoxed three Italians to win the Clasica San Sebastian on Saturday. Jalabert, a winner of two stages and the best climber’s jersey in the 2001 Tour de France, edged Francesco Casagrande (Fassa Bortolo), Davide Rebellin (Liquigas) and Wladimir Belli (Fassa Bortolo) to win the first World Cup victory for his Danish CSC-Tiscali team. "I was worried when you have three Italians, two on the same team, I thought the only way I could win is if I had the strongest legs," said Jalabert, who won in 5 hours, 17 minutes, 54 seconds.

And then there was one. With just one World Cup downhill now remaining on the calendar, the competition was heated on Saturday as riders scrambled for points — and slid their way down a muddy mountainside in Kaprun, Austria. It's round seven of the Tissot-UCI Mountain Bike World Cup this weekend, and it's a triple. South Africa's Greg Minnaar (Global Racing Team) had the most to celebrate, winning his — and the African continent's — first World Cup victory ever, the highest step of his season-long podium appearances. While Anne-Caroline Chausson (Volvo-Cannondale) didn't surprise anyone

Lance Armstrong is still feeling the effects of his post-Tour de France jet-setting and is skipping Saturday’s Clasica San Sebastian, the traditional kick off to the second half of the World Cup racing season. Armstrong returned to Europe this week after celebrating his third consecutive Tour victory with a whirlwind American visit and had been expected to race here. But U.S. Postal Service director Johan Bruyneel said Armstrong barely rode his bike during his U.S. tour and decided he didn’t have to legs to compete at the highest level in the gruelling 227-km (137-mile) race through Spain’s