Road

There were tears of joy and tears of disappointment Sunday in the final stage of the 56th Vuelta a Espana. U.S. Postal’s Levi Leipheimer broke down in tears moments after finishing second in the 38km time trial and discovering he passed teammate Roberto Heras to vault onto the final podium, the first-ever American finish in the top-three of the three-week Spanish tour. Kelme’s Oscar Sevilla shed tears of disappointment after forfeiting the race leader’s jersey to rival Angel Casero in the 21st stage and losing the 3012km race by just 47 seconds. Casero cemented the biggest victory of his

Here’s a look at Saturday and Sunday’s action at the track world championships from Antwerp, Belgium. — Frenchman Arnaud Tournant upset pre-race predictions to win the world sprint title on Saturday, the main event of the world track championships. The 23-year-old from Roubaix near the Belgian border dominated compatriot and race favorite Laurent Gane over three heats after Gane won the first round and Tournant pulled level in the second. Another Frenchman, Olympic keirin champion Florian Rousseau grabbed bronze after he beat Germany's Jens Fielder in the match for third place. Gane, the

In the final day of competition at the world track championships in Antwerp, Belgium, a dramatic keirin final ended with only two men left upright. Australian Ryan Bayley was first across the line ahead of France’s Laurent Gane. The other four finalists — Jens Fiedler, Jobie Dajka, Pavel Buran and Florian Rousseau — were lying in a tangle of bikes and bodies on the back straight. The high-speed pile-up saw bike parts and riders flying through the air. Fiedler ran the final 125 meters carrying his bike to become possibly the first track cyclist to win a world bronze medal on foot. France’s

After 20 stages and more than 1,800 miles of racing, the 56th Vuelta a España will be decided in Sunday’s final 23.5-mile individual time trial. Saturday’s final climbing stage, the 112-mile 20th stage featuring two category-one climbs up Alto de Abantos high in the mountains north of Madrid, failed to rattle race leader Oscar Sevilla (Kelme), who retained his 25-second lead over Festina’s Angel Casero. Giro d’Italia champion Gilberto Simoni (Lampre) sprinted ahead of iBanesto.com Jose Maria Jimenez on the final switchback to win while U.S. Postal’s Jose Luis Rubiera crossed the line third

Nancy Contreras gave Mexico its first ever world championship victory when she won the women's 500-meter time trial at Antwerp, Belgium on Saturday afternoon. Contreras, 23, was fastest over the first 250 metres, clocking 19.539 and finished strongly in 34.996. A student of languages based at Metepec, some 70 kilometers from Mexico City, Contreras' previous international performances include a silver medal in the Pan American Games. Her husband and coach, Guillermo Guteirrez, was in tears as Contreras received the rainbow jersey. Canada's Lori-Ann Muenther followed her sprint bronze by

Swiss six-day star Bruno Risi took the world points race title for the fourth time in nine years at the Antwerp Sportpaleis on Saturday evening. Risi controlled the race throughout. He led a nine-man group that lapped the field just before half distance and built an unbeatable points score. Argentina’s Juan Curuchet took the silver after finishing the 40-kilometer race in the same lap as Risi but with six fewer sprint points. Franz Stocher of Austria placed third, a further six points in arrears. America’s only rider, Jame Carney, led the race on points in the early stages but missed the

The Vuelta a España’s “other American” -- Guido Trenti -- won Friday’s transition stage while the favorites held their ammunition in check for this weekend’s shootout. With everyone looking forward to the final battle for the overall title of the 56th Vuelta on Saturday and Sunday, it was a perfect day for a breakaway. The peloton followed the script perfectly. Rabobank’s Karsten Kroon and ONCE’s Mikel Zarrabeitia were the first to instigate the break just 30 miles into Friday’s 168-km (112-mile) 19th stage from Cuenca to Guadalajara. Other riders quickly bridged out to form a group of

Tammy Thomas came within one race of achieving her dream in her debut at the track world championships in Antwerp, Belgium on Friday. But instead the 31-year-old personal fitness instructor from Mississippi took the silver medal on her first world championship appearance. Thomas had to settle for a silver medal, after being beaten 2-0 by Russia’s Svetlana Grankovskaia in the best-of-three sprint finals. "I just didn’t have the legs in the race for the gold," Thomas lamented. "She was faster than me and I just couldn’t get it done. I’m happy with the silver though. This makes my

For more than two weeks, the numerous Italians in the peloton seemed more interested in chatting with the gorgeous Vuelta a España podium girls than winning stages. The flirting stopped long enough during Thursday’s 95-mile 18th stage from Albacete to Cuenca for an Italian finally to score, a stage victory that is. Cantina Tollo’s Filippo Simeoni profited by an untimely crash by iBanesto.com Santi Blanco, who held a comfortable margin over a 12-man breakaway but slipped on an oil patch while descending off a category-three climb just 12 km from the finish. Simeoni was the lead chaser and

First-time world championship rider Tammy Thomas won through to the last four of the women’s sprint in Antwerp, Belgium on Thursday. Beaten by Germany’s Susan Panzer in the first match of the quarterfinals, Thomas hit back to level the scores and then won the decider with an attacking ride from the front, clocking 12.257 and 12.435 seconds. Also through to the semis is Canada’s Lori-Ann Muenzer, who took the first match against Szilvia Szabolcsi (Hungary) only to be relegated to second place for straying across the sprinters line. Unfazed by the upset, Muenzer took no chances in the two

The winds of change blew through the 56th Vuelta a España and it was the U.S. Postal Service team at the center of the storm. With 35 km to go in the 159-km 17th stage, U.S. Postal Service attacked hard and split the group in the windy flats from Murcia to Albacete across Spain’s barren meseta. Juan Miguel Mercado (ibanesto.com), who started the day third, and David Plaza (Festina), who started fifth overall, were among the casualties. Postal kept driving and finished 1 minute, 12 seconds ahead the second group. Lampre’s Robert Hunter bounded out of the lead group to take his second

The first rainbow jersey of the 2001 World Track Championship went to Arnaud Tournant of France who won the kilometer time trial for the fourth straight year. Tournant, the final starter in the 21-rider field brought the event to a thrilling climax with a time 1 minute, 2.571 seconds, for a clear victory over last year’s silver medalist, German Soren Lausberg who clocked a 1:03.363 on Tuesday in Antwerp, Belgium. Tournant was the huge favorite, having dominated the event for the past four years since taking Australian Shane Kelly's title in 1998. But the Frenchman went one better than

The 56th Vuelta a España entered its final week with another fast day in the saddle in Tuesday’s 153-km (95-mile) 16th stage that finished well under the expected time following Monday’s rest day. Domo’s Tomas Konecny was fastest to the line while Kelme’s Oscar Sevilla easily retained the overall lead for the sixth day. U.S. Postal’s Roberto Heras and Levi Leipheimer remained in their respective fourth and sixth places overall. A steady breeze pushed the peloton along at a brisk pace to the day’s major obstacle, the category-two Cresta del Gallo just 13 kilometers from the finish line in

Stage 14 This is longest stage of the Vuelta, with a nice profile to boot. The legs seem to be OK this morning on the way down for breakfast. It's a shame sometimes we are not able to enjoy our surroundings and accommodations to the fullest. We were right on the coastline just south of Valencia. After breakfast it was back to the room to try and squeeze in another half-hour of sleep. On the way over to the race everyone seemed a little quiet. I think we all had today's stage on our minds. The team meeting was short and to the point: Benoit, Victor and myself in the early breakaways. It was

Last night was another opportunity to try to catch some extra zzz's, but it wasn't to be with the heavy machinery working outside our window. At breakfast for the first time since the start of the Vuelta a Espana I was at the table before anyone else. Hey, at this point I need all the firsts I can get. Maybe this was a could sign for today’s stage. I signed a couple of autographs on our way to the start and the people replied, "Gracias Victor Hugo Pena." There's only one way to change this confusion amongst the fans: I need a stage win! Even Victor is calling me Victor in the peloton. I

Jonas Carney (Prime Alliance) and Jenny Eyerman (jane Cosmetics) won the pro men’s and women’s races at the Mercury Cycling Classic of Irvine in California on Sunday. Held on a 1.5-mile loop at the Irvine Spectrum in Orange County in front of Mercury's newly-opened international headquarters, each lap included nine turns and an out-and-back section. With the Saturn Cycling Team virtually absent from the inaugural event, the racing was wide open. In the 90-minute men's race, Pro Cycling Tour leader Trent Klasna was the only member of the Saturn team in attendance. He faced domestic powers

Chris Eatough called it the "toughest race" he’d ever done, and Mary Grigson likely would have agreed. But that didn’t stop the pair from taking the 2001 24-hour solo world championship titles at Hurkey Creek Park in Idyllwild, California, on Sunday. Things didn’t go so well for some of the other race favorites, however, as reigning 24-hour national champion Tinker Juarez dropped out after completing just five laps, and mountain-biking legend Rishi Grewal was good for just seven laps before he bowed out. The primary culprit for all those troubles was the heat. Temperatures topped out near

Sunday’s 207-km (128-mile) 15th stage was the longest of the 56th Vuelta a España and the accumulation of the kilometers two weeks into the race took its toll on the peloton. It was a good day for U.S. Postal Service but a bad one for Levi Leipheimer, whose chances of finishing on the final podium suffered a setback when he lost contact with the lead group on the final climb to the beyond-category Alto de Aitana. The miles didn’t slow down Milaneza’s Klaus Moller, who followed an attack by U.S. Postal’s Jose Luis Rubiera all the way to the top of the beyond-category Alto de Aitana. “I used

Jens Voigt of the Credit Agricole team succeeded Lance Armstrong as Grand Prix des Nations champion when he won the 74km time trial event in France Saturday. Voigt’s American teammate Jonathan Vaughters finished 15th, 4:20 off of the German’s winning time of 1:34:13. Hungarian Laszlo Bodrogi was second, 11 seconds back. Last year, Armstrong cruised to victory in the Grand Prix des Nations while preparing for the 2000 Sydney Olympics in September. The three time Tour de France winner won that contest by 1:41.

There was no calm before the storm in Saturday’s transition stage along Spain’s Mediterranean Coast. Heavy rains pounded the peloton during the 170-km (105-mile) 14th stage from Tarragona to Vinaros on the eve of the difficult and decisive climbing stage to Alto de Aitana. Lampre’s Juan Manuel Garate won his first-ever professional victory, easily beating iBanesto.com’s Jon Odriozola after the pair pulled away from a 14-man breakaway. Kelme’s Oscar Sevilla retained the overall lead, but racers were already thinking about Sunday’s long, steep climb to Alto de Aitana. “It’s going to be a very

Stage 11 Today was one of those stages that you try and put in the back of your mind until the day arrives. I remember looking at the entire Vuelta profile on line stage by stage. I thought to myself, OK, oooh, oh that's a good one, and then stage 11 comes up and you don't say anything, you just move onto the next stage as if nothing had been seen. Down at breakfast the mood was relaxed with everyone eating a little extra to help fuel those legs to victory. At our team meeting Johan gave the specific orders to each of the riders as to their role for the stage. Mine was to go with the early

Markus Zberg was the first rider to abandon the 56th Vuelta a España when he crashed in the opening time trial on Sept. 8 in Salamanca and dislocated his shoulder. In Friday’s 206-km (128-mile) 13th stage, brother and Rabobank teammate Beat Zberg won one for the family. Zberg held off seven other riders in a breakaway in a frenetic sprint to take his first stage victory in a three-week grand tour. But his victory was just as much for his brother as it was for himself. “This victory means a lot to me. My brother was very distraught when he crashed and I dedicate this victory to him,” said

Joseba Beloki is unlikely to start Saturday's 14th stage of the Vuelta a España, a source close to the Spaniard's ONCE team reported Friday. Beloki, who has placed third in the past two editions of the Tour de France and was a co-favorite for the Vuelta here, is thought to have a viral infection. ONCE team officials sent blood tests away for analysis on Wednesday afternoon and Friday's subsequent results indicated that Beloki had the start of a respiratory infection. Beloki was seen in tears on Tuesday as he struggled in the 12th stage in the Pyrenees while he was wearing the leader's

The three-day battle of the Pyrénées is over and Kelme’s Oscar Sevilla walked away standing tall in the overall leader’s jersey. There were no major shake-ups in the overall standings in 12th stage of the 2001 Vuelta a España, a 17-km (10.5-mile) climbing time trial Thursday to Arcalis, deep in the heart of the Andorran Pyrenees. The top-four riders in the overall maintained their positions but defending Vuelta champion Roberto Heras (U.S. Postal Service) slipped to sixth as stage-winner Jose Maria Jimenez (ibanesto.com) continues his steady climb in the g.c. Jimenez won his third

It was the best of times and the worst of times in the 11th stage of the Vuelta a España, depending, of course, on who you talked to. Wednesday was very good for Kelme’s Oscar Sevilla, who regained the overall lead. It was very bad for ONCE’s Joseba Beloki, who bonked and dropped like a rock to 26th in the overall standings after losing nearly 20 minutes to the leaders in the tough, six-climb 154-km (95-mile) stage over the Andorran Pyrénées. It was pretty good for U.S. Postal’s Levi Leipheimer and Roberto Heras, who moved up to fourth and fifth overall, respectively. It was better still

The first day of the Vuelta a España’s shootout of the Pyrénées ended with puff instead of bang in the first of three-straight climbing stages, but everyone expects the fireworks to begin for real in Wednesday’s six-climb etapa reina. Santiago Blanco won his biggest stage of his career, delivering a dramatic solo victory high in the Catalan Pyrénées during Tuesday’s 168-km (104-mile) 10th stage from Sabadell, a suburb of Barcelona, to La Molina, a ski resort already sprinkled with the first snow of the season. ONCE’s Joseba Beloki easily retained his overall lead for the third day when he

My rest day started at 9:30 on Monday morning with a knock on the door from one of our staff. I think I could have easily slept another 10 hours. That probably wouldn't have been too wise. Breakfast was more on the light side, since in the past I've had a tendency to eat too much between races and then paid the price. Juice, bread, cereal, and fruit were plenty for the training we had planned. Roberto Herras knew exactly where to ride in the busy streets of Barcelona to get us out of town quickly and into the surrounding hills. Johan thought between two and two-and-a-half hours was plenty

Riders from the U.S. Postal Service team went on a three-hour training ride during Monday’s rest day to keep their legs fresh for the upcoming battle in the Pyrenees. The 56th Vuelta a España hits a trio climbing stages Tuesday to Thursday that will determine whether or not Roberto Heras can repeat as Vuelta champion. So far, the quiet Spanish rider has had difficulty in the Vuelta’s first two climbing stages and sits in eighth place overall at 2:47 back. “I haven’t thrown in the towel yet,” Heras said. “It’s true I am not going well right now. I don’t know exactly why, but at the same

My apologies for not having any reports for the last few days. Due to the tragedy in New York and the spotty phone and Internet service that followed, my agent – who lives about a mile away from the World Trade Center – was unable to consistently reach me. I will be filing a catch up report tomorrow along with the daily report. Yesterday was the last day before the rest day. The peloton was definitely not ready to rest quite yet. We set a record time of around 55km an hour! The day was extremely windy and everyone -- including our team -- seemed to be on the attack, hoping to split up

The final day of the Tour de l’Avenir in France belonged to a Russian and an Australian, who dashed French hopes at the world’s premier stage race for riders 25 years and younger. iBanesto.com’s Denis Menchov snuck away for the overall victory, snatching the race lead from Frenchman Florent Brard (Festina), while Mercury’s Baden Cooke took his second stage win of the race and the green points jersey. Cooke and Menchov escaped the peloton on the last of five climbs up the Cat. 1 Côte du Chauffaud, escaping 4km from the summit of the climb. They crested the climb with 28 seconds on the chase

Germany’s Judith Arndt won the final round of the UCI Women’s World Cup, the 140km Rotterdam Tour in the Netherlands on Sunday. Saturn’s Anna Millward took the overall World Cup title, despite abandoning the final round on a rainy, windy day in the Netherlands. At the start of the final finishing circuit, with about 20km to go, Arndt escaped from a group of seven which had gone off earlier in the race. Despite the wind and the rain, the German powered away on the final lap, putting more than three minutes on the closest chaser in those closing kilometers. At the finish, Arndt had her first

Strong crosswinds and tailwinds blasted the peloton in Sunday’s 179-km (111-mile) ninth stage of the Vuelta a España from Logrono to Zaragoza, splitting the race into echelons across the flats of northern Spain. ONCE’s Igor Galdeano shot free of the lead group of 40 riders in the final three kilometres. He finished alone to earn his third career Vuelta stage victory as well as the record for the fastest-ever road race at an average speed of 55.17kph. Teammate Joseba Beloki retained the overall lead Sunday and Galdeano says his ONCE team is reinvigorated following Beloki’s big ride

The under-23 men’s cross-country category is one that breeds rivalries. It’s this middle ground between junior and elite categories where young riders looking to make a career of it have a lot to prove. Junior achievements spell potential, under-23 achievements spell contracts. Past all-star rivalries have included Cadel Evans versus Miguel Martinez, and today’s top battle seems to be the one between 21-year-old Julien Absalon of France and 20-year-old Ryder Hesjedal of Canada. Both are top World Cup threats — Absalon scored his first win at Durango this year — and both came to the world

Alison Dunlap said she started thinking about the 2001 world championships when she hit a tree during the cross-country race at last year’s Olympics in Sydney. On that day, the Colorado Springs, Colorado resident would have to settle for seventh, but she vowed things would be different when the world championships came to her home state. A year later, the 32-year-old made good on that pledge, putting together a stunning last-lap charge to win the cross country on the damp slopes of Vail Mountain. Dunlap entered the final lap of the race in third place, 54 seconds behind race leader Gunn-Rita

With the sun setting on the Vail Valley and the 2001 UCI World Mountain Bike Championships in Colorado on Sunday, Canadian Roland Green put the finishing touches on an historic season that saw many firsts for him and for Canada. First Canadian male to win a World Cup, first Canadian male to win the overall World Cup, and now, first to win the world championship. Green, who made it clear all year long that the world championship was the main focus of his season, started the day as one of a handful of favorites. In the end, the man who put up the toughest battle against the Canadian was Dane

The topsy-turvy 2001 Vuelta a España delivered up its fifth leadership change in eight days in Saturday’s 195-km (121-mile) stage from Reinosa to the first-category summit finish at Alto Cruz de la Demanda. Joseba Beloki (ONCE) took the “maillot oro” after finishing second behind stage-winner Jose Maria Jimenez (ibanesto.com), marking the first time the young Basque rider has ever led a major three-week stage race despite twice finishing third overall in the Tour de France. Beloki accelerated with two kilometers to go and opened up a gap on the struggling Oscar Sevilla (Kelme), who started

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

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

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

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 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,

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.