Road Racing

Dear Lennard;I remember a while back you mentioned some auto part glue that worked well for glueing on sew-ups. What is it and any tricks to using it? --Ignacio Dear Ignacio;The glue is 3M Fast Tack.Except on Continentals (which have no coating over the base tape), scrape the base tape (instructions in “Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance”). Layer the glue on the rim and tire, letting dry between coats. After the final coat on the rim, stick the tire on. Fast Tack can be problematic with Continentals, as it has a solvent in it that can soak through the base tape and loosen the glue

Strong winds moved riders up the Rhone Valley in a hot and toasty stage Tuesday, with Norwegian Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) winning the bunch sprint into Vienne. The brisk tailwinds pushed the peloton into Vienne nearly a half-hour faster than expected and Hushovd held off Alexandre Usov (Phonak) and Baden Cooke (Fdjeux.com) to grab the victory. A familiar moveJacky Durand (Fdjeux.com) just couldn't help himself and went on the attack in the opening kilometers, quickly followed by U.S. Postal's Victor Hugo Pena and three others, but the move was just as quickly snuffed. But Durand

Suspension is a funny thing. While the majority of mountain bikes soldin the United States these days are full-suspenders, talk to "the averageJoe" on the trail, and you start to get the feeling that knowledge oftenlags far behind technology. Of course, with any broad generalization, there are always exceptions–guysand girls who are 100 percent up-to-speed about rebound, compression andwheel path–but for the most part, the average mountain biker is, at best,lost in a sea of marketing-speak when it comes to understanding and adjustingtheir suspension. I'm not trying to point fingers here,

Bulgarian Plamen Stoianov (Big Mat) endured the heat, a crash and a string of attacks to win the mass gallop in Monday’s 198km first stage of the 55th Criterium du Dauphine Libere. Temperatures soared into the 90s as the peloton drove south out of the mountains near Grenoble into Vaison La Romaine, a quaint Provencal village nestled at the base of Mont Ventoux. Riders went down on a sharp corner just 300 meters from the finish line, cutting the peloton as the bunch came in for the sprint. “I came through clear from the crash and was in good position,” said Stoianov, who raced with Mercury

On the biggest single day of racing in the U.S., the Europeans may have slowed the Saturn train a bit, with Saeco’s Stefano Zanini winning the Wachovia USPRO Championship in a field sprint, but Saturn still took home the stars-and-stripes jersey, with 10-year Saturn veteran Mark McCormack earning the right to wear the American champion’s jersey for the next year. It was a somewhat unexpected ending to a day in Philadelphia that early on began to unfold like recent editions of the race. Of the European teams, CSC was pegged as the favorite, after Jakob Piil and Julian Dean winning Lancaster

Euskaltel's Iban Mayo held off a bunch of favorites including Lance Armstrong to win the prologue time trial of the Dauphine Libere race in Villard-De-Lans, France on Sunday. Mayo, one of the up and coming riders from Spain, dons the race leader's jersey after the short 5.1km ride. The Dauphine, long regarded as a prime warm-up for the Tour de France, ends next Sunday. Prologue results(Click here for FullResults)1. Iban Mayo (SPA), at 0:Euskaltel 8:442. David Millar (GBR), at 0:053. Lance Armstrong (USA), at 0:114. Alberto Lopez de Munain (SPA), at 0:145. Francisco Mancebo (SPA), at 0:156.

Like all streaks, it had to come to an end sometime. Since 1997, German Petra Rossner has held a virtual monopoly on the Wachovia Liberty Classic, the 56 mile former World Cup run concurrently with the USPRO men’s championship in Philadelphia. This year, it was not to be, as Rossner, riding for Equipe Nürnberger this year after five years with Saturn, faced stiff competition from her former team as well as the all-American T-Mobile squad. After a year away from the Saturn squad, Lynne Bessette returned home to end her former teammate’s reign and continued Saturn’s, jumping away from three

Saturn’s Sarah Uhl and Prime Alliance’s Jame Carney were the stars of the show Friday as the Nicole Reinhart Women's Cycling Classic came to the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. The event was held in memoriam of Saturn cyclist Nicole Reinhart, who died after a crash in September 2000 at the BMC Tour of Boston. Uhl won the keirin, the points race and the 3-mile race, the first track-cycling event to offer National Racing Calendar points. In men's racing, Carney took the points race and the keirin, but came up short in the miss-and-out, where he finished third behind

It struck me as I sat on top of the world. Well, at least the top of the world according to San Bernardino, California. You see, I had positioned myself at the top of the cross-country course at Big Bear a few weeks ago on a technological mission. I wanted to take count of exactly how many riders would actually use their fork lock-out. A nit-picky mission at best, but with all the talk of suspension efficiency, I wanted to see which riders cared enough to take the time to "flip the switch." My very informal results were very surprising, to say the least. As the lead breakaway pack crested

The CSC squad made it two-for-two at the Wachovia Cycling Series on Thursday, setting up the race for Julian Dean to take a sprint finish ahead of Navigators’ Oleg Grichkine and Saturn’s Viktor Rapinski, and now the Danish squad will have its sights set on Philadelphia’s USPRO Championship and a Wachovia sweep on Sunday. CSC had set the tone for the week with a strong performance in the opener in Lancaster, and the tune kept playing on the fast streets of Trenton. After Jakob Piil’s win at Lancaster, other teams were tipping their hats to CSC, which had both the strength and the numbers in

Dear Lennard Zinn;I am looking for a recommendation for a good chain to use with a '95 Campy Chorus 8-speed EXA-Drive system. The cassette and chainrings are previously unridden, but a new SRAM PC-58, which I believe is intended to be an 8-speed chain, runs a little rough. Any better suggestion? --Bill Veihmeyer Dear Bill;I have found that 8-speed Shimano chains always worked great on that system. --Lennard A mystery skipDear Lennard;I have Campy record 10-speed on two of my bikes, the chain started skipping on one of them, so I figured it was the cog set, I put that same wheel on the

France still rules supreme when it comes to the downhill, although the names on the top step of the podium in Fort William were different from the usual ones. Anne-Caroline Chausson did not race, and Nicolas Vouilloz retired at the end of last year, but Cedric Gracia (Siemens Mobile Cannondale) and Celine Gros (Morzine Avoriaz) made sure that the French national anthem was playing after the first downhill World Cup. French riders went 1-2-3 in the women's race and 1-2 in the men's. Americans David Klaassenvanoorschot, Eric Carter, Todd Bosch and Todd Leduc finished 13th, 17th, 49th and

For nearly two weeks now, there has been little doubt who has been in charge of this Giro d’Italia. On Sunday, the man poised to ride into Milan to claim the final maglia rosa of this race would leave no one on the side of the road wondering just who the race leader might be. Wearing his pink jersey, astride a pink Cannondale, with pink Mavic wheels, Gilberto Simoni had plenty of room to spare as he left the starting gate of Sunday’s 33km time trial through the streets of Milan. By the time he arrived at the finish, the Saeco man had lost a bit of his eight-minute buffer, but easily took the

Gunn-Rita Dahle (Merida) solidified her lead and Filip Meirhaeghe (Specialized) put himself back into contention at the Fort William UCI World Cup race Saturday in Scotland. Both riders took extremely hard-fought victories in front of nearly 6,000 spectators, under the most perfect conditions imaginable. Fort William, in the Scottish Highlands, held its first World Cup – a downhill/four cross – just last year. This year, the organizers added a cross country in the shadow of Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the United Kingdom. The 8.5km course, built by the Scottish Forestry Service at a

Geneviève Jeanson (Rona-Esker) showed once again why she is considered to be one of the best women cyclists in the world by decisively beating a world-class field at the Montréal World Cup on Saturday. British strongwoman Nicole Cooke (Ausra Gruodis-Safi) finished second to Jeanson and extended her overall lead in the World Cup. The 8.2km circuit around and up Mont Royal has been used repeatedly for some of the most celebrated races in cycling-the world championships (1974), the Olympics (1976) and multiple World Cups. This year, the women had to ride the 1.2km climb 12 times, with the

With the 86th Giro d’Italia essentially a foregone conclusion, and most of the sprinters having been eliminated in Thursday’s giant mountain stage, stage 20 was a chance for the domestiques to shine. And at the finish, it was Giovanni Lombardi who outkicked three breakaway companions to seize another victory of opportunity, further distinguishing himself as one of the world’s shrewdest, fastest, and consequently most dangerous riders to have in a breakaway. The Italian with the broad, smiling face is normally the final leadout man in the Domina Vacanze train, charged with delivering Mario

Saeco's Gilberto Simoni won one for himself today, punching the air to underscore the statement he had just made by launching the move that mattered during a final flurry of attacks in the Giro d’Italia’s 19th stage. "I did not plan on going for the stage win, but when the race exploded with 3km to go and everyone was attacking, I decided to give it everything I had to win,” Simoni said. “This win was for me, not for my team or my sponsors.” The Cascata del Toce was the longest stage of this year’s Giro, at 239km, ending with a hard climb to an awesomely powerful waterfall on the Toce

This is one of those days that they will be talking about for years to come. Sure, the 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia had many of the elements in place before the start: the mountains, among them the Cima Coppi, marking the Giro's highest spot; the weather, with touches of wet snow marking the highest climbs and a contest that, despite the apparent dominance of a single rider, could still be altered on the 174 mountainous kilometers between Santuario DiVicoforte and Valle Varaita. But when you take the human element and throw it into the mix, well... suddenly you see why Thursday at the

Alessandro Petacchi showed once again that he is the man to beat in sprint stages at this Giro, even if he’s bruised, battered and bandaged from that fall in Sunday’s time trial. The big man from La Spezia got a great leadout by his Fassa Bortolo team and held off Lampre’s Jan Svorada for a tire-width win after the short, 117km run westward through the level Po valley. Despite the short, relatively flat stage, “Peta’” said it was far from easy for him. “It was another hard victory, because I am still in so much pain on my left side and it was so hot,” Petacchi said. “I am very fatigued

Images from Giro Stage 17 - May 28, 2003

Tuesday is a rest day at the Giro d’Italia, a time for riders to recuperateas well as jawbone with each other and the media. VeloNews's Lennard Zinnis making the rounds and seeing what riders and teams have planned forthe final push to Milan, where the 86th edition of the Giro ends with anindividual time trial on Sunday.Simoni’s eating pizza, feeling good and thinking of FranceTo celebrate his good form and excellent positioning to take this Giroback home with him, Gilberto Simoni plans to go and eat a pizza."I have a strong desire to change the menu today," he says.Pizza is a variation from

Dear Lennard Zinn;I have the original Specialized version of the Hed 3, 3-spoke carbon fiber rear wheel. It is rear 700C tubular rim with a Regina 7-speed freewheel on a chrome-moly frame. The problem lies with the binding of the wheel when the quick release is clamped down. If the quick release is tightened so that the wheel does not move when jarred from the side, the wheel is very reluctant to spin, and you can feel the friction when the wheel is spun. When the quick release is loosened so that the wheel spins freely, the wheel is easily dislodged to the side. In fact, at Ironman Florida,

Seems like the whole staff from Avid (including the company's outspoken tech-savvy president Wayne Lumpkin) stopped by the office just a short time ago to go over the details of its anticipated Juicy 7 hydraulic disc brake. While still not 100 percent production ready (we're expecting the first production set in two weeks) Lumpkin wanted to make darn-sure we were fully up-to-speed on the details of the brake's design and features. Most importantly, Lumpkin went over the motivation behind and the use of the pad contact point adjustment dial. First off, Lumpkin was clear to point out that

With or without Mario Cipollini here, Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) is continuing his reign as the dominant sprinter of the Giro, despite being in the hospital for an evening following a hard crash in Sunday’s time trial. In the process, Petacchi taught a good lesson in courage in this most learned town, “the Cambridge of Italy,” Pavia. “I can’t believe I won; I couldn’t even walk after yesterday’s race,” said “Peta,” who finished dead last in the time trial and has now won his fifth stage the following day. “I thought I had broken my hip, and I didn’t even think I could

This was supposed to be one of those days where we found out whether the 86th Giro d’Italia would continue to be a race or not, depending largely on whether Stefano Garzelli could take a minute or so out of the guy in the pink jersey. But rather than nip away at the lead of Gilberto Simoni, Garzelli – regarded as the superior time trialist of the two – actually lost to the Saeco rider in a 42.5km time trial from Merano to Bolzano. No, the Giro d’Italia is far from over, but it sure took a big step in that direction Sunday. Unlike a Tour de France contest between, say, Lance Armstrong and

World champion Gunn-Rita Dahle led her Merida team to a 1-2-3 finish in the opening round of the women's cross-country World Cup in St Wendel,Germany, while Christophe Sauser (Siemens Mobile Cannondale) surgically dissected the men's field to earn the right to don the blue Series leader jersey. Top North American finishers were Alison Dunlap (Luna) and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (RLX-Polo Sport), a distant 12th and 15th respectively. St Wendel, nestled among the rolling hills in the picturesque Saarsland region, just south of the Mosel River, is a regular stop on the World Cup circuit, with 2003

Saeco’s Gilberto Simoni started Saturday’s decisive 14th stage decked out head to toe in pink, his helmet, socks and cycling shorts matching the maglia rosa he obviously has no intention of giving up. Simoni attacked with 5km to go on the steep, 8.8km climb to Alpe de Pampeago high in the Italian mountains to win his second stage in three days and extend his overall lead to 1:19 over second-placed Stefano Garzelli (Vini Caldirola-Sidermec). Simoni once again dropped his rivals on the steepest roads of the Giro d’Italia, and only Garzelli remains close enough to be a threat. Going into

Friday’s calm after the storm at Monte Zoncolan served up another chance for Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) to strut his stuff. And strut he did in the 149km 13th stage from Pordenone to Marostica. With Mario Cipollini out of the Giro d’Italia with injuries after setting a new record with 42 career stage victories, it was up to Cipo’s heir apparent, Daniele Bennati, to make a run at derailing Petacchi. At just 22, Bennati is going to be very good someday. But Petacchi is already very good, and he proved it by outsprinting the young protégé to win for the fourth time in this year’s

Burke Swindlehurst (Navigators) and Becky Broeder (Intermountain Cycling Organization) won the first stage of Montana’s Ecology Center Classic Friday in a race that was cut short after support vehicles ran out of spare wheels. The 100-mile Pintler Road Race stage near Phillipsburg, Montana, about 40 miles southeast of Missoula, included a seven-mile stretch of newly graded gravel road called Rock Creek Road - and 25 wheel changes on that section alone, almost all the result of punctures. The race had been slated to cover Rock Creek Road once more, but after support vehicles for both the

Gilberto Simoni delivered on his promise to be the main protagonist up Monte Zoncolan, winning Thursday’s 12th stage in the epic shootout between the stars to tighten his grip on the overall lead. The Saeco rider attacked with 3km to go from the menacing summit. The Giro’s strongest men were trading shots on the steepest road in Italy and the tifosi were eating it up. Simoni hoped for more, but he finished 34 seconds ahead of pesky Stefano Garzelli (Caldirola-Sidermec) and Francesco Casagrande, who came across third at 39 seconds in arrears. The win consolidates Simoni’s hold on the

Thursday’s elite national road championships in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, saw a continuation of the T-Mobile dominance on the women’s side with Amber Neben leading a 1-2-3 sweep by the women’s national team. In the men’s race, Mike Voight brought home the first-ever elite national road champion’s jersey for the longtime East Coast regional powerhouse Snow Valley team, after an epic day of racing that ended in the rain after five hours in the saddle. The brutal 28-mile course beginning and ending in the Seven Springs ski resort featured a wide variety of climbs, from short, steep power

It’s a story we’ve seen in the U.S. all season long: the complete and total domination of the podium by a single team uniform. But no, this time it wasn’t the yellow-and-red of the Saturn men sweeping the top spots. On Wednesday, the all-American T-Mobile squad took the top five places at the elite time trial national championships, with two-time defending champion Kimberly Bruckner leading the charge. The Saturn men, meanwhile, were denied the top spot at the awards ceremony, as Navigators’ Chris Baldwin had a breakthrough victory, beating Saturn phenom Tom Danielson by 42 seconds. On a

I just got back in from Team Big Bear's 15th consecutive National Points Series race. And if you've been following Jason Sumner's online race reports, you know the weekend was full of extremely high-highs (a bevy of fresh faces on the podium) and devastating lows (namely the tragic death of Japanese downhiller Haruko Fujinaka). One event that took place over the weekend that Jason didn't get a chance to write about was the much-vaunted "Super D" downhill held late Saturday afternoon. The event was conceived three years ago by promoters Pat Follet and Tom Spiegel after they saw the need to

There's never an easy day in the Giro d'Italia. Wednesday's 222km dead-flat stage from Faenza to San Dona Di Piave was supposed to be a relatively light day in the saddle before Thursday's difficult stage to Monte Zoncolan. Bad weather and a poorly designed finish with a left turn just 160 meters from the finish line served up a messy conclusion for the 11th stage, with Mario Cipollini (Domina Vacanze) crashing out after Kelme's Isaac Galvez slid into him. Cipollini was later transported to a local hospital for X-rays on his left shoulder, which he was cradling after the spill. No word yet

Saeco’s Gilberto Simoni wrestled the maglia rosa from Stefano Garzelli after a daring attack in a dramatic shoot-out Tuesday between the Giro d’Italia’s two strongest riders. Simoni jumped hard on a steep but unrated climb 40km from the finish in the difficult, four-climb 202km 10th stage from Montecatini Terme to Faenza. Simoni took an 8-second time bonus after finishing third behind winner Kurt Asle Arvensen (Team fakta) to erase a 31-second deficit to move two seconds ahead of Garzelli. With Thursday’s difficult climbing stage to Monte Zoncolan on the horizon, Simoni took the race into

Dear Lennard,I've seen recent photos of Tyler's TT bike he used in the prologueat the Tour of Romandie and I noticed he had three shifters mounted tohis bars.He had bar-end shifters on his aero bar, and a Dura-Ace STI shifteron the right side of his bullhorn bar. Is it actually possible to threadtwo shifters into the same rear derailleur, and if so, what would the advantagebe even on what was described as a technical course? Of course he did revert back to a traditional brake on the right sidefor the final TT, so maybe CSC needed a replacement lever and didn't haveone other than the STI?

Coming into the finishing stretch of Stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia, MarioCipollini drove all of his frustration and anger into his pedals as henegotiated the narrow streets of Montecatini Terme Monday afternoon. No one was going to beat him. Not Robbie McEwen, not AlessandoPetacchi and certainly not that Frenchman in Paris, who just hours earlier had once again denied the world champion a spot in the Tour de France. In an angry gesture against his Tour snub, Cipollini won his secondconsecutive stage and established a new mark with 42 career Giro d’Italiavictories. “What motivated me last

World champion Mario Cipollini did Sunday what everyone expected him to do last weekend: win a stage at the Giro d'Italia and equal the 41-win record held by the late Alfredo Binda. In Sunday's eighth stage, Cipollini shook a monkey off his back that, to some, seemed to be quickly growing into a gorilla after he failed to win a stage in six consecutive sprints that opened the 86th Giro. Domina Vacanze's zebras shot the 36-year-old toward the line and this time no one beat him to the tape. Lotto-Domo's Robbie McEwen took second while three-stage winner Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo)

It was bound to happen sooner or later, and on Sunday in Big Bear Lake, California, it finally did. After combining for 20 straight wins on the NORBA national championship series circuit, neither Roland Green or Ryder Hesjedal had the guns to stay with Jose Adrian Bonilla, as the Costa Rican grabbed the first NCS win of his career with a victory in the short track. In the women’s race it was another first-timer, Trek-Volkswagen’s Sue Haywood, who beat back the challenge of fellow American Alison Dunlap. Bonilla’s win came courtesy of a perfectly timed attack with 2 laps to go in the

Quick, in the long illustrious mountain-bike racing career of Eric Carter, how many big-time downhill races has the American won? Got your answer? Well if you said anything but zero before this weekend, you would have been wrong. But Carter changed that on the steep slopes of Snow Summit Resort on Sunday, earning the first major downhill victory of his career. In doing so the Hyundai-Mongoose rider ended a long slump for U.S. riders that dated back to Myles Rockwell's win at the 2000 world championships. The last NORBA DH win for an American male was at round No. 2 in 2000 (also

This time, it was revenge for Stefano Garzelli. A year after his days in the Giro d’Italia were numbered because of a positive doping test, Garzelli returned to the top of the mountain in Saturday’s 146km stage to Terminillo. The 2000 champion is back in the pink jersey after an emotional victory ahead of Saeco’s Gilberto Simoni in the Giro’s first mountain stage, which saw the chances for many pre-race favorites fade to black. “It was a great stage for me and a very special day,” said Garzelli after racking up his second stage win in a week. “Exactly one year ago I won the stage to Limone

On a perfect blue-sky day in Southern California, Canadian Ryder Hesjedal and American Alison Dunlap each took wins at the NORBA NCS season opener at Snow Summit Resort. Hesjedal’s triumph brought an end to the seven-race win streak of fellow Canadian Roland Green, who hadn’t lost an NCS cross-country since he was a no show at race No. 3 in 2001. Green, still suffering the effects of a bad crash at the Tour de Georgia, did not finish Saturday’s race. But while Hesjedal’s win ended Green’s streak, it kept alive the run of consecutive NORBA victories the pair of training partners have strung

For the first eight of the 15 laps in Saturday’s Waterbury Circuit Race in Waterbury, Connecticut, it looked like racing as usual on the men’s pro circuit. That is, Saturn’s Chris Horner was dancing all over the field on a brutal course that saw an attrition rate of nearly 75 percent. But in the end, a potent combination of patience and strength finally paid off for Prime Alliance, the team that has spent the better part of the past three months watching Horner and his Saturn teammates ride away from them. David Clinger (Prime Alliance) sprung loose from the dwindling pack on lap 12 and

The first day of racing at the NORBA NCS season opener in Big Bear Lake, California wrapped up with wins from one very familiar name, and one that’s just starting to make its way round the pits. The name everyone knows was longtime pro Eric Carter, who used a great start to out duel Brian Lopes in the men’s mountain cross final. The new name was young Jill Kintner, who parlayed her No. 1 qualifying position into the first NORBA win of her short mountain biking career. Carter came in as just the No. 3 qualifier, but said he anticipated the gate drop perfectly in the final. “I started moving

With the Big Bear cross-country course offering predominantly dry, fast fireroad conditions, it was no surprise that most of pro men chose to run hardtail rigs. In fact, a straw poll of the top-20 call-ups revealed 17 hardtails and only three full-suspension rigs (two Giant NRS's and one Specialized Epic). Coincidence or not, both the Giant and Specialized pro teams mandate that their riders ride full-suspension technology–like it or not. By the end of the race, the winner and top nine finishers rolled across the line on hardtails. Full suspension was nowhere to be found. And while the

Alessandro Petacchi is pretty in pink yet again Friday after winning his third stage of the 86th Giro d’Italia in what was another disappointing finish for world champion Mario Cipollini. The world champ’s Domina Vacanze zebras burst out of the herd in the finale to sling Cipollini toward the finish line in customary fashion, but when final set-up man Giovanni Lombardi finished his pull, Cipollini stopped pedaling. Super Mario didn’t have the legs to contest the sprint and rolled across sixth. Petacchi, meanwhile, was right on Cipo’s wheel and dashed ahead of Kelme’s Isaac Galvez to clinch

Host nation Australia was rolling in medals after the first day of competition in the fourth and final round of the 2003 UCI World Cup track-racing series, May 16-18 at Dunc Gray Velodrome in Sydney. Australia has won two gold medals and one bronze in the six finals contested so far in the three-day event, which features almost 200 riders representing 42 countries. Mark Jamieson, Australia’s 19-year-old 4km individual-pursuit champion, posted the fastest qualifying time in the morning - 4:24.425, good enough for selection to the national team for July’s senior world championships in

Saturn's Eric Wohlberg of Canada won the fastest of two heats in the opening stage of the inaugural Tour of Connecticut Friday evening in New Haven. The 75km criterium was run in two heats due to the tight half-mile circuit around New Haven's famed Green. Wohlberg, by virtue of winning the fastest heat, was awarded the yellow jersey, while teammate Ivan Dominquez of Cuba, winner of the slower heat in a terrific sprint battle with Gord Fraser (Health Net), was given the green jersey of best sprinter. Brice Jones (7UP-Maxxis), second in the fast heat, was given the best-climber jersey. Stage

The first of two rest days comes early in the 86th Giro d’Italia, just six days into the three-week march to Milan. There’s been plenty of action and story lines both on and off the bike in what’s been a scandal-free Giro, including Cipollini’s stalled motor, McEwen’s relegation and subsequent redemption, Pantani’s helmet hatred and Petacchi’s run in pink. Here’s a look at where some of the major players stand nearly a week into the Giro: Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) 1st overall Two stage-wins and the maglia rosa, not bad for a guy who’d never won a Giro stage before this year.

What a great week it’s been for Alessandro Petacchi and what a bad one for Mario Cipollini. Petacchi, deep in the best run of his career, beat the world champion in Wednesday’s fifth stage even before the peloton roared into Catania for the mass sprint. Super Mario’s Domina Vacanze zebras took firm control of the race with 6km to go, and typically the battle among the would-be contenders is the fight to grab Cipollini’s wheel. But Petacchi weaseled his way in front of Cipollini, and when lead set-up man Giovanni Lombardi pulled up, it was Cipollini who was forced to come around

They can’t take this one away from Robbie McEwen. Just two days after the Aussie was relegated for dangerous sprinting, McEwen drove past Alessandro Petacchi’s left shoulder for the win. He didn’t bump him or barge him nor did he stick out his tongue, so the race judges can’t say a thing. “It was a very, very difficult sprint. It was very fast in the last kilometer. I grabbed Petacchi’s wheel and I saw a good moment to make a move,” McEwen told AFP. “This victory helps me to forget the disqualification in Matera. No, this isn’t revenge for what happened there.” On Tuesday, race judges took

Dear Lennard Zinn,I bought a used Ti mountain bike frame (Litespeed Obed) a few yearsback. Quite a while ago I noticed that I couldn't remove the allen boltsholding one of the water bottle cages. They spin but they don't come out.I'm not sure if the threads are stripped or what. Now the cage is bustedand I'd like to get it off. Any suggestions? --ColbyDear Colby,One possibility is that they are stripped; could be the bolts, couldbe the frame. The other is that those are failed riveted-in, rather thanwelded-in water-bottle mounts. (Is the entire flange spinning, or justthe bolt?) If the bolts

For the second time in my life, I felt like an 18-year-old girl standing on a porch waiting for a prom date that would never show up (don't ask me about the first time). No need to read into that statement too much - what I’m talking about is the feeling I got when Sunday's round No. 3 of the Subaru Mountain States Series was "postponed" due to inclement weather. Finally getting a feel for "mountain" weather here in Colorado, I had a good idea Friday night's rainstorm would somehow turn to snow later in the evening. So when I awoke to six inches of wet, sloppy snow on the lawn on Saturday, I

Stefano Garzelli erased memories of his controversial ejection from last year’s Giro d’Italia in a dramatic gesture Monday over the oven-hot roads of southern Italy. The 2000 Giro champion peeled away from peloton in the steep final 400 meters of the 145km third stage to grab the victory and vault into second place overall. Fassa Bortolo’s Alessandro Petacchi fought hard to retain the maglia rosa, but Garzelli’s win is a clear message that he’s a legitimate contender for the overall prize. “It’s an important victory for me because after 11 months without competing it gives me confidence.

Jason McCartney scored a big win for team 7UP-Maxxis over the weekend, while Lynn Gaggioli (Velo Bella) continued a strong 2003 campaign at the Joe Martin Stage Race NRC event in Fayetteville, Arkansas. McCartney beat out Saturn's Eric Wohlberg, while the women's race was a two-rider battle between Gaggioli and Sue Palmer-Komar (Genesis Scuba). Wohlberg jumped to the early race lead when he won the 113-mile stage 1, four seconds ahead of McCartney and Jelly Belly-Carlsbad Clothing's Ben Brooks, with the next closest group more than four minutes behind. McCartney would come back, however,

Robbie McEwen’s feisty style cost him a victory in Sunday’s second stage of the Giro d’Italia. Alessio’s Fabio Baldato was awarded the win after race judges stripped McEwen of the victory for dangerous riding in the closing 200 meters of the stage. McEwen, known for his aggressive riding style, was relegated to 70th place. McEwen edged Baldato by a bike-length at the end of the 177km stage from Copertino to Matero in Italy’s “heel,” but replays showed the Lotto-Domo man pressing Baldato into the race fences in the frenetic charge to the line. “McEwen told me after the race he didn’t see

On another blue sky day in Northern California, the final installment of the 2003 NCCA national road championships concluded with a road race only the climbers could love. Situated an hour north of San Francisco on the east side of the bay, the 15.5km circuit near Crockett was all about ascending, the crux a 2km slog up McEwen Road that reached 15 percent at its steepest section. That brought out some little gears on Sunday, with most of the women running 27s in the rear (several triples and a few mountain bike cassettes were also spotted), while the majority of the men slipped on 25s.

It was Alessandro Petacchi - not Mario Cipollini - winning Saturday’s 201km opening stage of the 2003 Giro d’Italia in a mass gallop. On a day when everyone expected the world champion to tie the 41-win mark set by Alfredo Binda, Petacchi played the spoiler to win his first career Giro stage. “It’s as good as it can get,” Petacchi said. “It was kind of like three for one. I won my first Giro stage of my career, earned the maglia rosa, and I beat Cipollini who’s in the rainbow jersey. Not bad.” The opening stage of the 86th Giro was flat as a pancake, winding along the spectacular coast

They played down the home-course advantage, but it couldn’t have hurt the chances of the four-man team from Cal-Berkeley when it came time to contest the team time trial at day two of the NCCA national road championships in Northern California on Saturday. After all, the 13-mile lollipop-shaped circuit was designed by one of the club’s members, and the Bears also had the benefit of going last, meaning they knew where they stood during most of their near-hour trip around the scenic rolling countryside near Livermore. But the bottom line when it comes to time trialing is power, and on this

If your rooting interests were on a solely regional basis, the first day of the 2003 National Collegiate Cycling Association Road National Championships was a good day no matter what time zone you were pulling for. The breakdown of winners from the Treasure Island Criterium covered all reaches of the country, with Yale’s Marissa Kellogg, Midwestern State’s Stephanie Hannos, Colorado College’s Robbie King, and UC-Santa Cruz’s Ben Jacques-Maynes each grabbing victories on Friday in Northern California. Kellogg’s was the first of the day, as the cognitive-science major from the Ivy League

They say the Salad Days of mountain bike racing are dead and gone... whoever "they" are. If you've been following Jason Sumner's recent reports on the current state of the NORBA National Points Series, it's clear that the current model of "prime time" pro racing is currently on life support. Even World Cup events (Telluride) are not immune from decreased sponsorship involvement. Like it or not, big-time (i.e. cash, big rigs, gala events and liberal TV coverage) pro mountain bike racing ain't what it used to be. Even our very own Patrick O'Grady has chimed in on current events, claiming,

Frenchman Frederic Finot (Jean Delatour) won the 190-kilometer stage fromDunkirk to Roost Warendin as part of a two-man break that held off themain peloton in Wednesday's opening stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk. With the win and time bonuses, Finot grabs the race lead of the five-day,six-stage race across the flats of northern France after finishing aheadof Stephane Berges (Ag2r). Tom Steels (Landbouwkrediet) led the main bunchat 2:05 back. The 49th Four Days of Dunkirk continues Thursday with the 200-kilometersecond stage from Sin le Noble to Bapaume. Stage 1, Four Days of Dunkirk,

Dear Lennard,I am refitting the components on my son’s bike, and was looking for150mm crank arms. Where did you find them? Are they single, double or triples?--Ron Dear Ron,HSC makes 150mm in double or triple. www.hscycle.comTA used to make that length as well, but I have not seen any in years.--Lennard Dropping the chainDear Lennard,My chain continues to jump past my small chain ring when I go fromthe big ring 53 to the small 39 tooth. This always seems to happen at themost inopportune times. I have the front derailleur adjusted to where itis all but touching the chain in the 39X25 combo.

For decades, there has been a friendly but heated rivalry between theU.S. and Canada in bicycle racing. Nowhere has that been more evident thanin the Pacific Northwest, where riders from both sides of the border havedone battle in such storied races as the Cascade Classic, Gastown GrandPrix, Tour of White Rock, and the Tour of Willamette. Another skirmish between the North American rivals took place this pastweekend at the three-day, four-stage Columbia Plateau Stage Race, and theCanucks unquestionably came out on top, winning seven of a possible eightstages and taking all six overall podium

In the mountains surrounding Silver City, New Mexico this Sunday, Canadian cycling phenom’ Geneviève Jeanson (Rona Esker) and Flagstaff, Arizonan, full-time father, husband, mechanical engineer, and self-proclaimed ‘old, club rider,’ Drew Miller tucked their third Tour of the Gila overall wins each under their respective belts on Sunday. Showing two different types of cycling dominance -- Jeanson purely overmatching her competition, Miller outworking and outplaying his -- the men’s and women’s races were each decided before they had reached the halfway mark earlier this weak. In a

What a week it’s been for Tyler Hamilton. Just a week after becoming the first American to win Liège-Bastogne- Liège, Hamilton erased a 46-second deficit in Sunday’s final-day time trial to claim the overall title at the Tour of Romandie in Switzerland. “I’m incredibly happy and it’s like a dream come true to win them both,” Hamilton said of his rare Liège-Romandie double. “I didn’t know how well I did in the time trial. I didn’t have time splits, so I went as hard as I could. I knew there was a lot at stake, but I am surprised to win by that margin.” The 20.4km time trial was well-suited

Spaniard Francisco Perez Sanchez (Milaneza-MSS) took the lead in the Tour of Romandie on Saturday after winning the 146.5km stage between Monthey and Chatel-St-Denis on the penultimate day of the event. Perez Sanchez cruised home alone on the final kilometer after overtaking second-placed Italian Eddy Mazzoleni (Vini Caldirola-Sidermec), who eventually finished 21 seconds behind, on the final mountain climb. Swiss riders Fabian Jeker (Milaneza-MSS) and Alexandre Moos (Phonak), finished third and fourth. American Tyler Hamilton (CSC) was fifth. The start was delayed by three minutes as