Road Racing

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.

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,

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alison Sydor and Roland Green confirmed their status as Canada's top mountain bike racers when they won the Canadian National Mountain Bike Championships cross-country titles Sunday. At the Sun Peaks ski resort in Kamloops, British Columbia, the two Victoria-based professionals, teammates on the U.S.-based Trek-Volkswagen squad, convincingly beat the strongest fields ever assembled for a Canadian championship. Green took the lead early in the 5 lap, 32.5km men's event, with only Seamus McGrath (Haro-Lee Dungarees) able to hold his wheel on the steep climbs. The duo gradually opened a gap on

Geneviève Jeanson (Rona) locked up her win at the six-day Tour de 'Toona by joining a two-woman break 8km from the finish of Sunday's 48-kilometer Coca Cola Downtown Criterium in Altoona, Pennsylvania, while Saturn’s Harm Jansen battled down to the wire with Navigator’s ace sprinter Vassili Davidenko to take the overall men’s title. Jeanson and stage winner Kimberly Davidge (Saturn) finished 37 seconds ahead of the peloton after launching a breakaway with 8 km of racing left, right after Jeanson's teammate Meshy Holt (Rona) was caught by the field after her own solitary effort off the

The cross-country course in Leysin, Switzerland — site of this week's Tissot-UCI Mountain Bike World Cup — is steep. At 6.3km in length, each lap begins with 2km of fast descending, first through bumpy cow-trodden grass and then down a wooded single-track plunge. Then, for the next four kilometers (60 percent of the total lap), the course points straight back up toward the finish line. It's brutal on even the most seasoned riders, as they discovered Sunday in round six of the series. First victim was the seemingly unbeatable Spaniard Marga Fullana (Specialized), who succumbed to a resurgent

On another hot, muggy day in central Florida, eight more stars-and-stripes jerseys -- plus a little cash -- were handed out at the USCF Espoir/Junior National Road Cycling Championships. Most of the cash -- $150 of $500 -- went to Nathan Rogut (Plano Cycling), who was the winner of the non-national championship espoir criterium. Rogut was part of a four-rider break that escaped during the early going of the 44-lap race around a pancake-flat, 1.5-mile course at the Gainesville Raceway. That group, which also included Friday’s espoir road race national champion Mike Friedman (Mike Frasse’s

The first European triple of the Tissot-UCI World Cup mountain-bike season kicked off Saturday in the mountains of Switzerland, featuring the gravity crew for the first half of the weekend. And in varying stages of sun, clouds and rain, four riders took the wins in downhill and dual, making the picture for the overall championships a bit clearer. Frenchman Mickael Pascal of the Dutch-based Be One team won his second downhill of the year, while GT’s Katja Repo captured her first World Cup downhill win after coming close several times. Then, hours later in the dual, American Brian Lopes

Dane Jankowiak has never been to Europe and Sara McLarty doesn’t consider herself a bike racer. But after both rode to surprise victories in the 17-18-year-old division road races at the junior national championships on a hot, drippy Saturday in muggy Florida, a trip to October’s road world’s in Portugal coutesy of an automatic berth on the U.S. national team has become reality. Jankowiak, who says his primary sponsor is his parents, got away from the pack on the eighth of 10 laps, then barley held off the late charge of Rigo Meza to win the 102km race with a time of 2:27:26. The course was

The most telling moment at Friday’s espoir national road race championship didn’t happen on the road, but afterwards during the awards ceremony. With medals handed out and the champion’s jersey awarded, the five top finishers raised nine of their combined 10 hands in triumph. The lone exception was the left hand of second-place finisher Ian Dille, who refused to acknowledge the man to his left, race winner Mike Friedman. According to Dille, Friedman had broken the code, cutting a deal out on the course, then reneging as the pair came to the finish line. "After we got away, he told me not to

The hours leading up to Thursday’s national espoir time trial championship were not the most settling for Michael Creed. First, the 20-year-old Prime Alliance rider was awaken at 3 a.m. but what he called "a guy going crazy" at the liquor store nearby his room at the Comfort Inn in Gainesville, Florida. Later that morning, Creed stood by while team manager Kirk Willett had to smash a window on the team’s van after the keys got locked inside. "It wasn’t the best way to start the day," Creed admitted. But none of that seemed to matter a few hours later when Creed out-dueled teammate Danny

Vassili Davidenko (Navigators) and Saturn's Anke Erlank took the third stage of Pennsylvania's Tour de 'Toona on Thursday, a circuit race contested on a 20.1-mile loop near Holidaysburg. With her win, Erlank has moved into the overall lead in the six-day stage race. Meanwhile Saturn's Harm Jansen holds a narrow three-second lead over his teammate Eric Wohlberg in the overall standings. The women's race was peppered with attacks from the start. But Genevieve Jeanson and her Rona team was intent on keeping a tight reign on the field and most of the efforts were quickly reeled back in. One

Alessio’s Alessandro Bertolini won the the 56th Getxo Circuit race Tuesday, which has been renamed the Ricardo Otxoa Memorial race in honor of the Basque cyclist who was killed in an accident last year. Bertolini won a sprint finish to pip fellow breakaway rider Spaniard Francisco Caballo of the Kelme team in 3:58:59 following the 175km race, over 12 laps of a 14.6km circuit. ONCE’s Joseba Beloki, who finished third in the Tour de France on Sunday, crossed the line in fourth some nine seconds behind the leading duo.Copyright AFP2001

As the workmen traveling with the Tour de France for the past three weeks were happily breaking down the press room for the final time, we pulled a few good shots off the 64meg chip on Lennard Zinn’s digital camera. As Lennard flies home after a year in Europe, we thought we’d share a few of those shots from the last days of the 2001 Tour de France.

Stage Winner: Jan Svorada (Slovakia), Lampre-Daikin---------------------------------- Overall Lead: Lance Armstrong (USA) U.S. Postal Service Sprinter: Erik Zabel (G), Deutsche Telekom Climber: Laurent Jalabert (F) CSC-Tiscali Under 25: Oscar Sevilla (Sp) Kelme-Costa Blanca Click below for full results and overall.

Pennsylvania rider Sarah Uhl won the women's match sprint against defending champion Christin Muche (Germany) on Saturday to earn the first gold medal for the U.S. at a world junior championship since 1991. Uhl won the event in two straight rides on July 28, at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome, in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. The 17-year-old took the first ride after holding her lead position going in to the third turn of the final lap. With the second ride, Muche pulled close in the second turn of the last lap, but didn't have the speed to pass. Jessica Grieco -- now an Outdoor Life Network

On the final day of the Tour de France this year, many of the images were the same as the past two years. The U.S. Postal Service team led the peloton onto the Champs-Elysées in Paris under sunny skies, the lead guard for a yellow-jersey-clad Lance Armstrong. Armstrong donned the final yellow jersey of the race, and was joined on the podium by the same runner-up and third place riders, Jan Ullrich and Joseba Beloki. It was a near-perfect day in Paris, but at least one rider was hoping to change things a bit from last year. Stuart O'Grady entered the day with a two-point lead in the points

Volvo-Cannondale’s Anne-Caroline Chausson demonstrated her continuing mastery of downhill racing in Japan Sunday, when the champion made it five-for-five for the season and three-for-three at the Arai ski resort. France also came out on top in the men’s competition, as Nicolas Vouilloz (Vouilloz Racing Team), finally uncorked one in the 2001 World Cup season, and uncork one he did, winning by a huge margin of nearly seven seconds. Arai Mountain & Snow Park celebrated the return of World Cup downhill mountain-biking for the third time since 1998, bringing out crowds by the tens of thousands

Stage Winner: Erik Zabel (G), Deutsche Telekom, 149km in 3:12:27---------------------------------- Overall Lead: Lance Armstrong (USA) U.S. Postal Service Sprinter: Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole Climber: Laurent Jalabert (F) CSC-Tiscali Under 25: Oscar Sevilla (Sp) Kelme-Costa Blanca Click below for full results and overall.

Face it. The race for the yellow jersey at the Tour de France has been pretty much over for a week. No matter how many times someone has said, “Anything can happen,” the fact remained that Lance Armstrong put a stranglehold on the race lead in the mountain stages which concluded last week. And Friday, he put the final exclamation mark on his win by putting in another dominant performance in the final individual time trial. But while the race between Armstrong and Jan Ullrich has been put to rest, there’s still another compelling battle that will come down to the final day in Paris. In

Schwinn’s Leigh Donovan kept her win streak alive with a Saturday night dual win in Japan. Donovan’s third World Cup dual win allowed her to keep her leader’s jersey and stretch her lead in the overall standings. Australian world champion Wade Bootes (Trek-Volkswagen) won his first World Cup final of the season in front of massive crowds at the Arai ski area. Thousands of spectators came out for a race that didn't end until nearly 10:00 p.m. This week's World Cup dual had course controversy once again, as the men’s race in particular made a heavy favorite of the first rider out of the gate.

5:13[local time] Armstrong has finished in 1:14:16. He has won the stage by 1:23 over Igor González de Galdeano and beat Ullrich by 1:38. Wow. Click here to see preliminary finishing results and starting times for Stage 18 TT.2:15[local time] 5:10[local time] Ullrich has finished in second place -- a likely third -- at 1:15:55. 5:06[local time] Joseba Beloki has finished with a strong 1:16:48, good enough for fifth, but more importantly, he has locked in third place overall. At the third time check, Armstrong has crossed with a 1:07:27 - 1:14 better than Gonzales and 1:36 up on

Starting times for Stage 18 time trial Click "View Results" to see starting times and preliminary TT results

With a five-minute lead, overall victory virtually assured, and three stage wins in his pocket, there wasn’t much left for Lance Armstrong to race for on Stage 18’s 61km individual time trial from Montluçon to Saint-Armand-Montrond. Except that, there’s always something for Armstrong to race for at the Tour. On Friday, it was about validating his worthiness to lead the Tour de France. As if that were ever in doubt. But in doing so, Armstrong took his game to another level, one that he said he’s never reached before. On a hot, humid day, over undulating forest roads, Armstrong knew from the

Stage Winner Lance Armstrong (USA) U.S. Postal Service, 60.5km in 1:14:16---------------------------------- Overall Lead: Lance Armstrong (USA) U.S. Postal Service Sprinter: Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole Climber: Laurent Jalabert (F) CSC-Tiscali Under 25: Oscar Sevilla (Sp) Kelme-Costa Blanca Click below for full results and overall.

The Tour de France loves to give out second chances. And this year, it seems like they’re everywhere. Of course, there’s Lance Armstrong, who’s living out his second life after his recovery from cancer. But after that, there are plenty of other less monumental examples. Laurent Jalabert, for example, has transformed himself from a perennial July disappointment into a new, aggressive, attacking Tour rider who’s taken two Tour stage wins and the polka dot jersey this year. And on Thursday, the Tour was introduced to Serge Baguet, who really is living out a second career. The Belgian

Saturn dominated the first day of the 2001 Canadian National Road Championships, with Eric Wohlberg and Lyne Bessette winning their respective time trials. The national championships are being held in the town of Dieppe, New Brunswick, on the east coast of Canada. The elite men covered 2 circuits of the 20 kilometer road race course, while the women and espoir men did two loops of a shortened 13 kilometer circuit. Both were rolling, with no major climbs. Conditions were perfect, except for a very strong wind that was in the face of riders as they finished. Bessette's main rival was

In late July in France, there are plenty of pleasant ways to spend a sunny summer afternoon during vacation season. Riding a bicycle for nearly six hours in 90-degree weather is not one of them. But after two-and-a-half weeks, and more than 1600 miles covered, that’s what the riders in the Tour de France face for most of the final week. These are the dog days of the Tour, when many of the weary riders are just looking forward to getting to Paris. Still, even during the dog days, every day presents another chance for glory or disappointment, and Wednesday’s Stage 16 from Castelsarrasin to

Jan Ullrich has done everything he can to lose weight off of his body. He and his mechanics have also gone to extraordinary lengths to take a full kilogram off of the bike he uses in the mountains. The big German also has some particular preferences about his components, and his mechanics and suppliers clearly bend over backward to accommodate them. Ullrich’s climbing frame is a lighter version of his Pinarello Prince. It appears to have standard Prince carbon fork and seatstay wishbone, but the aluminum main tubes have thinner walls, and the down tube is smaller diameter. As his climbing

In today's opening session of the 2001 World Junior Track Championships, USA's Tyler Farrar qualified for the quarterfinal round of the men's 3km individual pursuit. Farrar -- in only his fourth pursuit ride of his career -- clocked a 3:29.701 on the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. Competition runs from July 25 to 29. The morning's fastest time, in hot, muggy conditions, went to defending world junior champion Volodymyr Dyudiya (Ukraine) in 3:27.090. Germany's Christopher Meschenmoser was second (3:27.350) and Dyudiya's countryman, Vitaliy Kondrut next

The Tour de France resumed on Tuesday, following the mountains and Monday’s rest day, and with Lance Armstrong having all but wrapped up the yellow jersey, the race was once again turned over to the opportunists in the peloton. Headbangers. Donkeys. Call them what you want. The breakaway artists were at it again on Stage 15, and Lotto’s Rik Verbrugghe grabbed the stage win after an escape of more than 100 miles. The longest day of the Tour, a 232.5km west-to-east journey from Pau to Lavaur, began on a sour note, as American Jonathan Vaughters (Crédit Agricole) abandoned the race. Vaughters

Stage Winner: Rik Verbrugghe (B) Lotto, 232.5km iin 5:15:21---------------------------------- Overall Lead: Lance Armstrong (USA) U.S. Postal Service Sprinter: Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole Climber: Laurent Jalabert (F) CSC-Tiscali Under 25: Oscar Sevilla (Sp) Kelme-Costa Blanca Click below for full results

Roland Green probably won’t ever forget his back-to-back World Cup flats that likely cost him a pair of cross-country wins, but after the weekend he’s had at Mammoth Mountain in California, the pain has certainly been eased. A day after winning the cross country at NORBA NCS No. 4, Green added to his haul by running away with Saturday’s short track. It’s the second time this year the Canadian Trek-Volkswagen rider has doubled up at an NCS stop, a feat he also accomplished at NORBA No. 2 in Snowshoe, West Virginia. In the women’s race Alison Dunlap was fastest in a hard-fought affair,

Eric Carter and Tai-Lee Muxlo took down all comers on their way to wins in the dual slalom at NORBA NCS No. 4 at Mammoth Mountain in California. It was the 11th slalom victory of Carter’s career. For Muxlo it was her first. Carter (Mongoose-Hyundai) had about as difficult trip to victory as one could have. He barley got by Michael Ronning (Intense) in the first round, then had to take out Fabien Barel (GT), Mick Hannah (Global Racing) and Wade Bootes (Trek-Volkswagen), before facing Brian Lopes (GT-Fox) in the finals. In the finals, though, Carter got a break when Lopes’s front tire washed