TEHRAN (VN) — The International Presidency Tour is in its fourth year and the parcours make this race one of toughest in the world with the race crossing 3,400-meter mountain passes. Many of the foreign teams were shocked to see the stage profiles with only a few days' notice, which suddenly turned the 708km five-day race into a race from hell, designed for bantam weight climbers.
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Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Sungard), his nation and his team each zoomed up the UCI WorldTour rankings, released Monday following the completion of the Giro d'Italia.
I felt like a rock star racing in the USA’s most prestigious race in the stars and stripes for the winning team.
MILAN, Italy (VN) — How far can Alberto Contador go? That's the question that many are asking after Sunday's victory at the 2011 Giro d'Italia, when Contador claimed his sixth grand tour victory in his young, but controversial career.
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Gregg Bleakney leaves the photo pit and wanders around the piazza in Milan as the 2011 Giro d'Italia comes to a close.
Will Alberto Contador race the Tour de France? That depends on how he recovers — and how the Court of Arbitration for Sport rules on his ongoing clenbuterol case.
Alberto Contador’s face didn’t give anything away Sunday as Giro organizers played a wrong Spanish national anthem associated with Franco’s fascist regime during Sunday’s post-race celebration.
1. David Millar (GBR), Garmin-Cervélo 2. Alex Rasmussen (DEN), HTC-Highroad, at 7 3. Alberto Contador Velasco (ESP), SaxoBank-Sungard, at 36 4. Richie Porte (AUS), SaxoBank-Sungard, at 43 5. Yaroslav Popovych (UKR), Team RadioShack, at 55
Alberto Contador locked up the 2011 Giro d’Italia with a strong third-place ride in the final-stage time trial in Milan, a stage won by Garmin-Cervélo’s David Millar.
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Solid teamwork and cunning strategy made the difference for the winners of the pro men’s and pro women’s Summit Criterium on day one of the two-day Superior Morgul Classic Saturday in Superior, Colorado.
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MILAN, Italy (VN) ─ The 2011 Giro d'Italia was called by some the hardest in years. Going into Sunday's final stage, 159 survivors were lining up for the final act into Milano.
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David Zabriskie on course during the 2011 USA Cycling pro time trial.
Casey B. Gibson was snapping away in South Carolina during the USA Cycling pro time-trial championships.
The 20-year-old BMC Racing neo-pro, who could manage only seventh place in the race against the clock, said he struggled to recover from the hardest race of his life and is tired of talking about the problems that have marked much of his rookie season.
In a Giro in which the mountains played such a central role, it was fitting that everyone who had anything left in the tank threw it all on the line.
Dave Zabriskie (Garmin-Cervélo) won the individual time trial on Saturday at the USA Cycling pro road championships in Greenville, South Carolina.
Ned Overend wins his fifth Iron Horse Bicycle Classic road race as Mara Abbott wins her fourth in a row.
When I described the course of the Giro’s final time trial to my cab driver as we drove from my hotel to the Milan central train station, “That’s horrendous! I’m going to stay home that day; there’s no point to even taking my taxi out!”
GREENVILLE, South Carolina (VN) - Scott Zwizanski is a late scratch for the time trial at the U.S. Professional National Championships in Greenville, South Carolina.
1. Vasili Kiryienka (BLR), Movistar,6:17:03 2. José Rujano Guillen (VEN), Androni Giocattoli, at 4:43 3. Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (ESP), Team Katusha, at 4:50 4. Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez (COL), Acqua & Sapone-Caffe Mokambo, at 5:31
Vasili Kiryienka wins the 20th stage of the Giro d'Italia after spending more than 200km on the attack in the 242km race from Verbania to Sestriere.
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Tom Zirbel's Jamis Xenith T2 time trial machine
MACUGNAGA, Italy (VN) – Alberto Contador is so strong at this Giro d’Italia he can start gifting stage victories.
The difficulties — or, rather, the over-the-top difficulties — of this month’s Giro d’Italia conclude this Saturday with a final gnarly mountain stage that features the dreaded Colle delle Finestre and a concluding climb to Sestriere for the eighth summit finish in two weeks.
Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) won stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia on Friday, crossing just ahead of race leader Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Sungard), who rocketed out of a dwindling chase in the final kilometer to shadow the Italian across the line.
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The headline event in the States this weekend is the USA Cycling Professional National Championships in Greenville, South Carolina. Not to be lost in the shadows, however, are the oldest race on the National Racing Calendar, the Tour of Somerville, the 40th Iron Horse Bicycle Classic and the final stop on the Nature Valley Pro Ride.
Joe Dombrowski knows how to speedily spin over mountains, but these days he’s even more adept at navigating his way up the pro ranks. Last spring, the 20-year-old Virginia native was a USA Cycling Category 3, mixing it up with the locals at office park crits and rural road races around the mid-Atlantic. This year, he’s earned podium spots at pro domestic and European stage races, quickly emerging as one of Trek-Livestrong’s best weapons in the mountains.
TERMINE, Italy (VN) – Peter Stetina calmly stepped out of his pedals and sipped an energy drink after finishing the 18th stage of the Giro d’Italia. From the look of his reaction, you would have never guessed he’s just days from finishing his first grand tour in what many are calling one of the most grueling Giros ever.
SAN PELLEGRINO TERME, Italy (VN) – Sometimes the best racing in the Giro d’Italia happens before RAI begins to broadcast the race. That was certainly the case in Thursday’s short but explosive 151km 18th stage from Morbegno to San Pellegrino Terme.
Road rash treatment, skewer placement, vans in the caravan and more
Stage 18
SAN PELLEGRINO, Italy (VN) — Apparent delays in Alberto Contador's hearing in his ongoing doping case could open the door for him to race this year's Tour de France despite having the risk of disqualification from last year's victory.
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Igor Anton’s Orbea Orca GDi2
This weekend brings in the U.S. Professional National Championships in Greenville, South Carolina, and the story is as much who will be there as who won’t.
Stage
FELTRE, Italy (VN) ─ Neil Stephens had a front-row seat during the Miguel Indurain era as a racer and he's seen the rise of Alberto Contador as a sport director working in the peloton. The ex-pro said the two Spanish riders have very different racing styles that result in the same thing: winning stage races.
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LZ fields questions on Mario's bikes, disc brake rotors, seized bottom brackets and power meter drag