Road

Oscar Sevilla was all smiles at the start of Wednesday’s second stage at the Tour of Valencia in what’s his first race back in action after being kicked out ahead of the Tour de France last July. Sevilla, now 30, was among nine riders not allowed to start the 2006 Tour after his named appeared on the infamous Operación Puerto list. Like all riders implicated in the scandal, Sevilla never received any official bans or sanctions, but that didn’t stop his T-Mobile team from letting him go last year. Sevilla has since penned a deal to join Spanish continental team Relax-GAM for the 2007 season

Any sprint victory with Alessandro Petacchi among protagonists is one worth celebrating, especially when it comes in the run-up to the season’s most important race for Italian sprinters. Daniele Bennati (Lampre) snatched a morale-boosting victory ahead of next month’s Milan-San Remo after he surprised a leg-heavy Petacchi, who was forced to chase back from a puncture with nine kilometers to go in the 162.7km Valenciana opener in Alzira. “I knew the only chance to beat Petacchi was to anticipate his sprint and I did that today just at the right moment,” said Bennati, who held off Petacchi by

Follow this link for full Coverage of the 2007 Amgen Tour of California

Questions, and suggestions, about stuck seatposts, especially carbon posts

The season is now fully underway and I now have my first race under my belt: the Tour of California. The race was a triumph for American cycling with massive crowds attending each stage, a world class peloton (likely the best competing at any race in the world at the moment) and a hard fought battle that lasted right up until the penultimate stage. For us, the cyclists, it was a quality event that was well organized, with good hotels, short transfers, and ideal weather. The racing was tough enough for us to gain fitness and progress while not depleting ourselves too much this early in the

Belgian cycling legend Eddie Merckx has paid tribute to embattled German star Jan Ullrich, who announced his retirement from cycling. Ullrich's decision to quit came after he was implicated in an alleged blood-doping network being run by a Spanish doctor, Eufemiano Fuentes, and sacked by his T-Mobile team during last year's Tour de France race. The team said at the time that damaging evidence from Spanish investigators in Madrid prompted the decision to drop its star rider. Announcing his decision Monday, Ullrich, 33, the 1997 Tour de France winner and five-time runner-up, said he

The early season Spanish racing calendar continues this week with the five-stage Volta a la Comunidad Valenciana. With riders anxious to put some racing miles in their legs ahead of the approaching spring classics, the race is enjoying a fine field with top sprinters and classics-hunters looking to hone their form. Among preliminary start lists are such heavyweights as Alexandre Vinokourov, making his season debut in Astana colors. The Vuelta a España champion will likely keep a low profile as Vino is betting everything on being prepared for the Tour de France. Caisse d’Epargne will have a

Overall 1. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, 24:57:24 2. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, at 0:21 3. Jason McCartney (USA), Discovery Channel, at 0:54 4. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, at 1:06 5. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), CSC, at 1:16 6. Christian Vandevelde (USA), CSC, at 1:24 7. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, at 1:32 8. Ben Day (Aus), Navigators Insurance, at 1:38 9. Franco Pellizotti (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, at 1:41 10. Ryder Hesjedal (Can), Health Net Maxxis, at 1:57

Shoreline Drive in Long Beach may not be the Champs-Élysées, but just as the Tour de France traditionally ends with a sprinters’ showdown, so the 2007 Amgen Tour of California climaxed Sunday afternoon with a spectacular mass charge to the line. And just as a surprising winner often takes the Tour’s final stage, so Cuban Ivan Dominguez shocked the heavy hitters of the UCI ProTour and give the stage 7 victory to his domestic American team, Toyota-United.

Eusebio Unzué has had a front-row seat to some of the most exciting exploits in cycling. The affable and passionate sport director for Spain’s Navarra region helped guide Pedro Delgado and then Miguel Indurain into the record books during what were the golden years of Spanish cycling in the late 1980s and mid-1990s. As sport director at Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears, Unzué is already well into his third decade behind the wheel in Spain’s most consistent and successful team. Unzué, who celebrates his 52nd birthday on Monday, has been the right-hand man to team manager José Miguel Echávvari

Pozzato snags Haut VarItalian Filippo Pozzato snagged an impressive victory Sunday in the 39th Tour du Haut-Var as a warm-up toward defending his Milan-San Remo crown next month. The Liquigas captain edged Simon Gerrans (Ag2r) and Spanish rider Ricardo Serrano (Tinkoff) to win the 200km race in the hilly country around Draguignan that also kick-started the season-long French Cup series. Pozzato, the heavy pre-race favorite, covered an early move that included 22 riders in the open half of the race. Leonardo Giordani was the day’s main protagonist after slipping away in a solo move for some

That's a wrap, as they say in Hollywood (hey, it's Oscar night; so sue us). Here's Casey Gibson's final envelope from the Amgen Tour of California.

Professional teams caught up in a mounting feud between cycling's world ruling body and major race organizers have announced they will not boycott the first major race of the season next week. The UCI ruled last week that teams aiming to take part in the Paris-Nice stage race would be doing so against the rules of the ProTour, which the UCI introduced more than two years ago. Paris-Nice organizer Amaury Sports Organization (ASO), which also runs the Tour de France, recently declared that it would remove the event from the ProTour calendar and conduct it under the auspices of the French

It was one for the books today — CSC's Stuart O'Grady nearly pulled off a race-changing break, Discovery's George Hincapie was one of the main engines in the successful pursuit, despite a broken arm, and record crowds saw it all happen. So did Casey Gibson, and he was taking pictures. Here they are.

[nid:37650]When people look back at the developing history of the Amgen Tour of California they will say that the race came of age on stage 6 of the 2007 edition. Even though Saturday’s 105.4-mile stage from Santa Barbara ended in a mass sprint in sunny Santa Clarita, won by Team CSC’s J.J. Haedo from T-Mobile’s Greg Henderson and Quick Step’s world champion Paolo Bettini, this was no parade.

Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins returned to the track with a winning individual-pursuit ride on Friday during the final round of the 2006-07 UCI Track World Cup series in Manchester, Great Britain. In his first individual pursuit since winning gold in Athens in 2004, the 26-year-old beat Russia's Alexander Serov in a time of 4 minutes, 17.864 seconds while Australia's Brad McGee was almost five seconds slower. "To do that in a first competitive race - I'm really pleased," said Wiggins. "Because you can go as hard as you like in training but you never know until you get on the

The UCI fired back at rebel race organizers Friday and officially banned ProTour and second-tier continental teams from starting next month’s Paris-Nice race in France. The stern ruling threatens to throw the cycling into turmoil at the start of the 2007 season and marks a definitive split between cycling’s governing body and Amaury Sports Organization, the powerful media conglomerate that also owns such events as the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix. In a tersely written statement issued Friday afternoon, cycling’s governing body said “teams holding a UCI ProTour license and UCI

Petacchi takes win in AlgarveAlessandro Petacchi scored another confidence-boosting win ahead of Milan-San Remo after charging to victory in the third stage of the Tour of the Algarve while Bernard Eisel (T-Mobile) snagged second and moved into the overall lead. Petacchi held off Eisel, the winner of Thursday’s stage, to claim victory for the second time this year and makes up for a relegation earlier this week for dangerous sprinting. Eisel came through second to take the time bonuses to move into the leader’s jersey while Roman Vaitkus (Discovery Channel) was third. "Today was finally

Some people think time trials are boring. Not us. We like to see the 22nd-century aero' technology, parched tongues dragging on the front tire, and those first hints of a fatigue wobble that tell you, "Mmm, hmm, stick a fork in him." Casey Gibson must like them, too, 'cause he sent back a ton of shots from today's Amgen Tour of California ITT in and around Solvang. Then again, we do pay him. . . .

[nid:37630]Seconds after Discovery Channel’s Levi Leipheimer hurtled across the finish line in Solvang to win Friday’s time-trial stage of the Amgen Tour of California, he repeatedly punched the air and let out a guttural scream of excitement. The thousands of fans lining the finishing straight roared their approval for his stunning performance, realizing that it virtually wraps up his overall victory in the eight-day race.

Freire takes Ruta by a second over CioniSpaniard Oscar Freire (Rabobank) won the final stage and the overall at the Ruta del Sol on Thursday, taking the victory from Dario Cioni (Predictor-Lotto) by a single second. The 170.9km stage from Ecija to Antequera was marked by an early break by Netherlander Piet Rooijakkers (Skil-Shimano) and Spaniard Benat Albizuri (Euskaltel-Euskadi), who built a lead of six minutes before being retrieved as the peloton entered Antequera. There, Freire finished two seconds up on a small group containing Cioni, who had led the race since Sunday. Ruta del

Cycling rolls into the 2007 season a house divided. At almost every level of the sport, cycling is facing ruptures of unprecedented proportions. Operación Puerto, the Floyd Landis scandal, the ProTour battle and waning interest among media and fans have left cycling battled and bruised. Rather than circle the wagons and close ranks, cycling’s power brokers are engaged in a incendiary civil war. Divisions run deep and wide: the UCI vs. the grand tours; teams vs. teams; and rider vs. rider over the war on doping. Among the major fractures are: Chinks in the façade of solidarity among

It wasn't exactly the kind of day a photographer enjoys — torrential rain is not kind to camera gear, especially when you're hitching a ride on a moto — but our man Casey Gibson persevered, and the results can be seen below.

The Tour of California is starting to become interesting as there are still several riders with a good shot at winning the overall classification after Wednesday’s hard and fast stage into San Jose. It seems every team wants to make the race hard on race leader, Levi Leipheimer’s team, Discovery Channel, and today they had to control the race on the front for most of the stage—and it was certainly not an easy stage to control as it was hilly and windy, and the peloton that sat in their draft feisty. Since the start, we, T-Mobile, have been fighting hard for a stage win. We narrowly missed

[nid:37614]Just as sunshine followed rain on Thursday’s beautiful ride along the Big Sur coast at the Amgen Tour of California, so the stage 4 victory in San Luis Obispo by world champ Paolo Bettini of Italy was just a trailer for Friday’s time-trial showdown. Going into the rolling 14.5-mile TT in Solvang, Discovery Channel’s Levi Leipheimer still has a three-second margin over his main challenger, Jens Voigt of CSC, but a half-dozen others remain in contention, including three-time world TT champion Michael Rogers of T-Mobile, who’s 19 seconds back.

Boonen turns it up in RutaTom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) is back in the winner’s column after coming out of a self-imposed hibernation since the Tour of Qatar in January. The Belgian out-kicked Danilo Napolitano (Lampre-Fondital) to win Wednesday’s 179.2km fourth stage from Cabra to Córdoba at the Ruta del Sol in Spain to claim his sixth victory barely a month into the 2007 season. Boonen raced discreetly last week at the Mallorca Challenge without contesting the sprints and kept his head low during the opening three stages of the five-day Ruta while he battled through a stomach

Wednesday's stage from Stockton to San José turned into a real bike race when a 17-man break scampered off the front of the main field early in the race. With race leader Levi Leipheimer under pressure, the Discovery Channel team put the hammer down and delivered the yellow jersey to the base of Sierra Road in time to reel in the escapees.Our guy Casey Gibson was there to document the action.

Cyclists in many parts of the country are ready to leave behind long rideson the trainer and eagerly await warmer weather and putting in some qualityroad miles. As you continue to train and prepare for the 2007 season, don’tignore a small, but essential component of your training diet. Adequateiron intake and optimal iron stores are essential to putting in full effortson the bike. Low iron stores can impair athletic performance, and correctingiron deficiency that has led to full blown anemia, can take several monthsto correct, potentially bringing an unwelcome halt to your training andracing

[nid:37587]Things didn’t start well for Team CSC at this year’s Amgen Tour of California. Largely due to shifting wind conditions, the squad’s time-trial specialists, including Dave Zabriskie and Fabian Cancellara, who went one-two at the 2006 world time trial championships, were shut out of the top three spots in the opening prologue in San Francisco.

Ignatiev wins againMikhail Ignatiev is quickly proving he can bump shoulders with the big boys. The 21-year-old Russian won for the second time in a week with a victory Tuesday in the 44th Trofeo Laigueglia in Italy. The Tinkoff Credit Systems rider – who won the third stage last week at the Tour Méditerranéen – put down a surprise attack with about 7km to go after the peloton split going over the 690m Passo Balestrino in the 188km hilly march. The 2004 Olympic points champion had enough in the tank to hold off some chasing Italians to snag the win. Coming through second at four seconds

Argentinean ace J.J. Haedo blasted to the front of another all-ProTour sprint finish Tuesday to win the second stage of the Amgen Tour of California. After yesterday’s chaotic finish, Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) was happy to have remained intact and safely inside an upright peloton after three circuits of downtown Sacramento concluded the 116-mile stage from his hometown of Santa Rosa.

For the second year in a row, American Levi Leipheimer took the podium of the Amgen Tour of California as the race leader in his hometown of Santa Rosa. This year, however, it wasn’t under circumstances the Discovery Channel rider would have chosen. Australian sprinter Graeme Brown (Rabobank) won Monday's Stage 1 after Leipheimer went down in a 50-rider pile-up with two 3-mile laps of a downtown finishing circuit remaining in the 156.4km stage.

The domestic Priority Health team enjoyed a great first day in its first Tour of California, with Ben Jacques-Maynes taking third in the prologue and Brian Sheedy winning the race’s first King of the Mountains jersey. "This whole team is really coming together well," said Jacques-Maynes before Sunday’s prologue. "I think we’re really going to show ourselves. People may not have heard of us before now; we’ve been an upstart team. But people are really going to know us by the end of this tour." Racing the Tour of California last year under Sierra Nevada’s banner, Jacques-Maynes muscled his

Freire wins in RutaOscar Freire drove home the bunch Monday to win the second stage of the Ruta del Sol, a 156.6km stage from Vegas del Genil to Cazorla in southern Spain. The three-time world champion held off Francisco José Ventoso (Saunier Duval-Prodir) in the mass sprint to snag his second win of the 2007 season. The Rabobank sprinter, who just missed victory in Sunday’s opener after Dario Cioni (Predictor-Lotto) held off a long breakaway, clawed within one second of Cioni’s lead thanks to time bonuses. The race continues Tuesday with the third stage. Hamilton satisfied, eyes Georgia

A last-ditch meeting Monday between the UCI and ASO made little headway toward solving the disagreements threatening to push the ProTour league into chaos. The UCI issued a terse statement Monday evening saying it would be reviewing its options on how to deal with the upstart race organizers after being snubbed yet again by officials from ASO, the organizers of such events as the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Nice. "ASO has staked its position, with contempt of the function and legitimacy of the UCI as an international federation, and plans to substitute it with a destabilizing

Narrow, nervous and windy — that was the report from Stage 1 of the 2007 Amgen Tour of California, which saw more than one rider hit the deck between Sausalito and Santa Rosa. But Casey Gibson's shots remind us that it's not all pain and suffering out there. Take a peek.

After a several months of training we are now ready, and eager to race. The last few weeks the eight-man T-Mobile Tour of California squad has been in Buellton, California training and fine-tuning for the coming season. Storm after storm blew through Boulder every weekend during the last months of 2006 and the first months of 2007 and after spending a few good weeks in the sun in Mallorca, I wasn’t too keen to train outdoors in the snow or indoors on the trainer, so I made the decision to head to the California for some sun and time in the saddle. Prior to our team camp I rode alone in

The 2006 season was not a good one to be a cycling doctor, but the string of doping scandals that traumatized cycling last year could have a positive effect on the sport. In the wake of the departure of franchise rider Jan Ullrich, T-Mobile has instituted a groundbreaking monitoring program it says will guarantee that its riders are not cheating. And in the process, they hope to help rebuild the credibility of the sport in the eyes of fans and media. Dr. Lothar Heinrich has been a T-Mobile doctor since 1995. But he nearly quit cycling following the revelations that came out of the Operación

Defying an increasing wind that saw the likes of world time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara (CSC) fall out of contention, Levi Leipheimer stormed to the Amgen Tour of California prologue win on Sunday atop Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. The last rider to leave the starting house, Leipheimer flew down the flat one-mile stretch of The Embarcadero along the water before turning onto the steep Telegraph Hill climb towards Coit Tower with pitches as steep as 22 percent.

The world’s top cycling team in 2006, Team CSC, spent the first two weeks of February at a training camp in Gilroy, California. Team director Bjarne Riis didn’t pick the self-proclaimed "Garlic Capital of the World" for its plethora of pungent produce, but for its farm roads swooping into and around the Santa Cruz Mountains, which provide an ideal training ground. Plus Gilroy sits a short spin away from roads that will be the battleground for the first half of the Amgen Tour of California, which begins today in San Francisco. CSC has lofty goals in California, as demonstrated by the depth of

A thousand cyclists marched through the Spanish city of Vigo on Sunday to demand that Oscar Pereiro be declared the winner of the 2006 Tour de France. "It's great to see the people support me," said the Caisse d'Epargne rider, who finished second to Floyd Landis in last year’s Tour. The American subsequently tested positive for a skewed testosterone-epitestosterone level and faces arbitration before the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Sunday’s protest was dubbed the "yellow march" in reference to the color of the winner's jersey in the Tour. Organizers say they will now send a

It was a short race, but a dramatic one, with a former trash-truck driver holding off some of the best riders in the world — until defending prologue winner Levi Leipheimer clocked in and went to work. Casey Gibson was there to capture it all; here's what he sent home.

Never before has there been such a plethora of leading time trialists on display in an American stage race as fans will see this Sunday and next Friday at the Amgen Tour of California. Three of the top four from last year’s world TT championships will be competing — gold and silver medalists Fabian Cancellara and Dave Zabriskie of CSC, and their former teammate Brian Vandborg, now with Discovery Channel — along with the top two from the Tour de France prologue, Thor Hushovd of Crédit Agricole and George Hincapie of Discovery. Joining them are such powerful riders against the clock as CSC’s

The Amgen Tour of California is just rolling into its second year as a domestic event, but its organizers hope it can become the fourth grand tour of worldwide bicycle racing. "Our finish line is to host a grand tour," said Shawn Hunter, president of AEG Sports, during a kickoff press conference at the Argonaut Hotel at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. "People laughed when we said that over a year ago. They said, ‘Let’s see you pull off one year of the race first.’ Well, we did, and we’re constantly looking for ways to improve. We want to grow this into a fourth grand tour. We want to

Ace shooter Casey Gibson was clicking away on Saturday as the second Amgen Tour of California prepared to get under way. Here's a sampler of what he saw.

Luis León Sánchez (Illes Balears-Caisse d’Epargne) hopes his victory in the Mallorca Challenge will help put behind him some painful chapters that were threatening to overwhelm his promising career. The 23-year-old claimed the unofficial overall title Thursday at the five-day Mallorca series (riders are allowed to pick and choose which stages they start) and he said the win takes some weight off his shoulders. “I was motivated to achieve a victory as soon as possible to send it to my brother,” Sánchez told EFE, referring to his older brother who died in a quad accident last year. “I’ve done

Tyler Hamilton will likely race the 2007 Giro d’Italia after Tinkoff Credit Systems was among 22 teams named Friday to start the corsa rosa in May. Hamilton, who returned to racing last week following a two-year racing ban, said returning to the Giro was one of his top goals for the 2007 season. Hamilton won a stage and finished second overall in the 2002 Giro. Giro organizers RCS Sport released its official start list Friday with some controversy. Left out was new ProTour team Unibet.com, which has been facing the scorn of Giro and Tour de France officials as part of the ever-widening

With the hours counting down to the start of the Amgen Tour of California, race officials have one small request: Please leave your cans of paint at home. Medalist Sports technical director Chuck Hodge, one of the men responsible for designing stage routes, also has the responsibility of applying for race permits to city and county officials. Whether it’s at the Tour of California or Tour de Georgia, Hodge said one of the biggest obstacles in the permit-application process comes down to community anger over roads covered with the painted names of riders. "I know every cycling fan thinks

Buyer’s Guide CorrectionBrain fade set in on the finishing sprint for the VeloNews Buyer’sGuide. The North American Handmade Bicycle Show, March 2 – 4, takes placein San Jose, California, not San Diego as the Buyer’s Guide states. Forcomplete information, visit the Show’s site: www.handmadebicycleshow.com 

Perhaps more than anyone, Spanish rider Oscar Pereiro laments the slow wheels of justice when it comes to resolving the Floyd Landis doping case at the 2006 Tour de France. Pereiro, as runner-up in last year’s Tour, has the most to gain if Landis loses in his bid to prove his innocence against doping charges. And Pereiro maintains he has lost the most of any of the other protagonists in the unfortunate scenario if Landis becomes the first rider of the modern era to have his Tour crown stripped away. “I couldn’t and my team couldn’t maximize the benefits of a Tour victory because of this

Organizers of the 2007 Amgen Tour of California on Wednesday released a list of riders* slated to compete in this year’s event, slated to begin in San Francisco.  North American riders in bold*Team rosters are subject to changeProTour TeamsDiscovery Channel Pro Cycling Team [USA]The Discovery Channel’s big off-season news was the controversial signing of Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso from CSC — controversial because, despite his being cleared to race by the Italian authorities, his status regarding the Spanish blood-doping scandal Operación Puerto could change through 2007. Basso won’t be

The ongoing feud between the grand tours and the UCI turned nastier this week when Giro d’Italia organizers said they will guarantee invitations to only 18 of the 20 teams in the ProTour league for the upcoming edition of the corsa rosa. The decision shows just how deep the divisions are between cycling’s most important race organizers and the sport’s governing body. While there’s been no official word from the UCI, a strong reaction is expected. Giro organizer RCS Sport said new ProTour team Unibet.com won’t be allowed to race the season’s first grand tour (May 12-June 3) and said the

When half a dozen of the world’s top professional cycling teams showedup for the start of the inaugural Amgen Tour of California in February2006, they didn’t quite know what to expect. Was this going to be an early-seasonevent only half-heartedly contested by Tour de France riders nervous aboutpeaking too soon? Or would the stars allow their lieutenants to race forthe win while using the race as training for themselves?In the end, the efforts made by overall winner Floyd Landis and hismain challengers DaveZabriskie, BobbyJulich, GeorgeHincapie, LeviLeipheimer and Cadel Evans proved they could

You can’t rest on your laurels in the world of cycling. The old adage that you’re only as good as your last race appears to apply doubly in the product world these days. Barely have consumers had time to get their hands on the stuff introduced at Interbike, when new, lighter, faster (and probably pricier) product is making early appearances in the peloton. This year’s Mallorca Challenge turned into a prime opportunity for manufacturers to try out new gear on teams and to offer reasonably orchestrated “sneak peeks” at the some beautiful product that will likely appear in shops by year’s

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18: PROLOGUEINDIVIDUAL TIME TRIALPresented by Union BankSTART: Justin Herman Plaza,San Francisco, 1 p.m. to 3:23 p.m.DISTANCE: 1.9 milesLifestyle Festival Presented by Health NetHOURS: 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19: STAGE1Presented by HerbalifeSTART: Sausalito, 11 a.m.DISTANCE: 96.7 milesSPRINTS: Point Reyes, Tomales, Bodega BayFINISH: Santa RosaETA: 3:13 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.Lifestyle Festival Presented by Health NetHOURS: 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20: STAGE2START: Santa Rosa, 10 a.m.DISTANCE: 116.3 milesSPRINTS: Winters, DavisFINISH:

Not much has been revealed about the new stage race due to take place on the East Coast this August, but the Montréal-Boston Tour is likely to be the biggest cycling event New England has seen since the second Tour de Trump finished in Boston in May of 1990. The eight-day, 1200km race will feature four days in Canada’s Québec province, followed by one day in Vermont, two days in New Hampshire, with the finale in Massachusetts. Race organizer Daniel Manibal, who also runs the women’s Montréal World Cup race and Tour du Grand Montréal stage race in June, has indicated that there will be a

For the past few days, VeloNews European correspondent Andrew Hood has been chasing feature stories on the Balearic Island of Mallorca, a big draw for professional cycling teams hoping to shake out their winter kinks under sunny skies. The Mallorca Challenge serves as an early season warm-up that boasts an unusual format, allowing riders to compete in individual races or to vie for an overall title. This weekend saw a victory by ace sprinter Oscar Freire, who hasn’t raced since August. The three-time world champion hopes for a big year after injuries have forced him to miss the 2005 and 2006

David de la Fuente only found he was going to the 2006 Tour de France a week before the start, but the plucky 25-year-old Spaniard made the most of the opportunity. The Saunier Duval-Prodir rider snagged the best climber’s jersey in the third stage only to recapture it in the Pyrenees and nearly ride it all the way to Paris before Michael Rasmussen surged late to take it away for good. His panache earned him the most combative rider’s prize and lots of attention from the Spanish press. “It was an amazing experience and once that I took advantage of from the start,” De la Fuente told VeloNews.

Less than a week after SRAM announced a voluntary recall of a limited numberof Force frontbrake calipers, the company has expanded the recall to include rearcalipers. The expansion is due to incorrect grain structure in the titaniumused to manufacturer the caliper mounting bolts of both front and rearbrakes.SRAM urges consumers not to ride a bicycle equipped with the affectedbrakes. The mounting bolt can fail causing the brake caliper to detachfrom the frame of fork.SRAM assures its partners that the issue has been corrected and thatit has ended its relationship with the suspect supplier. The

German attacker Stefan Schumacher says his planned Tour de France debut later this season will help him decide where his future lies. If he can get through the Tour in good shape, he might try to focus on improving his skills to perhaps battle for the overall prize in the future. If not, he’ll instead focus his energy into winning stages and shining in the classics. It all depends on how things go in July. “I don’t know if I can ever challenge for the Tour, but what happens this year will tell me a lot,” Schumacher told VeloNews before the start of Monday’s stage at the Mallorca Challenge.

February is the perfect time to come out to Arizona and test the early-season fitness. The temperature is ideal, the variety of terrain staggering, and the level of competition at the early races is typically top-notch. Pros, too, flock to Tucson for their warm weather training tune-up, and will often race a few local events before joining their teams for the full-on race calendar. Although the caliber of racing is typically high, participants were caught a bit off guard when Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) and his wife Kristin (Velo Bella) showed up for the Bartlett Lake Time Trial on

Crédit Agricole’s Anthony Charteau wrapped up the overall victory at the Tour de Langkawi on Sunday as Alberto Loddo added yet another win to his tally, equaling the record of five stage wins in a single year.

With the 2007 Tour de Langkawi now a memory, it’s time to consider the event’s future. Now 12 and counting, Malaysia’s national tour almost didn’t happen this year. Bad debt and the inevitable bad blood that follows had the race on life support for most of 2006. Only an 11th-hour bailout from the government — and some hard work by the Malaysian National Cycling Federation — saved the race from a fate that’s claimed plenty of its brethren over the years. These are expensive propositions that don’t yield the more quantifiable revenue streams of stadium sports. Ask a dozen people whether the

Basque climbing sensation Iban Mayo once had the cycling world on edge. With his dramatic stage victory at Alpe d’Huez in the 2003 Tour de France and his impressive victory at Dauphiné Libéré in 2004, Mayo was hyped as potential candidate to dethrone Lance Armstrong at the Tour. But Mayo fell on hard times, abandoning the 2004 Tour in humiliation and struggling through health issues in 2005. He rebounded in 2006 with a stage victory at La Toussuire in the Dauphiné and overall victory at the Tour of Burgos to show glimpses of the former giant-killer This year, the Basque climber is hoping

Anthony Charteau is well on his way to winning the Le Tour de Langkawi overall title, following a largely tactical ride from Putrajaya to Seremban on Saturday. Although the ninth – and penultimate – stage of the Tour put the Crédit Agricole rider up against the winding roads of Kuala Klawang, he kept up with the leaders over the course of day’s many climbs to maintain his 1:02 over Jose Serpa (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovannio), who won Thursday’s decisive stage to the Genting Higlands.

While soon-to-be overall winner Anthony Charteau and four-time stage winner Alberto Loddo will be the names most remembered from the 2007 Tour de Langkawi, arguably the most newsworthy accomplishment belongs to the Giant Asia Racing Team. By placing three riders in the top 30 on Saturday, the Taiwan-based squad all but locked up the 10-day race’s team title. And we are not talking about the Asian team title. They are going to beat everyone. Giant Asia entered stage 9 one second back of Charteau’s Crédit Agricole team, but more than made up that deficit during Saturday’s 173km run from

Some of cycling’s biggest names are scheduled to line up Sunday for the opening stage of the five-day Mallorca Challenge, but a breakout of the flu is keeping some top stars away from the annual Spanish season opener. A nasty bout of flu is taking its toll on the European peloton, with such riders as Oscar Pereiro and two-time champ Alejandro Valverde (both Illes Balears) and Gilbert Simoni (Saunier Duval-Prodir) all doubtful for Sunday’s 100km opener along Palma de Mallorca´s historic bay. "Several of our riders have been very sick with the flu and they’ve been sent home," Illes Balears

For the second time in as many years Jose Serpa was first man across the line at the top of the hors categorie Genting Highlands stage, but the Colombian Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni rider couldn’t make up enough time to unseat the overall race leader Anthony Charteau.

Due to a quality issue with the titanium alloy used in the mountingbolt of a limited number of the new Force road group’s front brakes, SRAMhas issued a voluntary recall to consumers in possession of the brakes.Roughly 10 have failed. SRAM asks consumers discontinue riding until the front Force brake caliperhas been replaced.According to SRAM' media manager, Michael Zellmann, the problem was identifiedthrough SRAM’s internal quality process. A small number of the titaniummounting bolts failed during the installation process. There have beenno injuries associated with the defect. Affected

Japan’s Shinichi Fukusima proved that persistence and hard work are the key to success as he became the first Asian to win a stage in this year’s Tour de Langkawi following a strong 174km ride from Kuantan to Karak. The stage win for the rider from the Nippo-Meitan Hompo team was only the third stage victory for an Asian rider in the 12-year history of the tour, following wins by Wong Kam Po in 2000 and Koji – the younger brother of Shinichi – Fukushima in 2005.

Wearing thick gloves, long tights and hats beneath their helmets, New Mexican cyclists of all ages crowded the parking lot of the Anderson-Abruzzo Balloon Museum in Albuquerque on a brisk Saturday morning on February 3. They awaited the arrival of the Navigators Insurance and Lipton professional cycling teams, both of which had come to Albuquerque for a winter training camp. When both squads rolled up, accompanied by riders from the neo-pro Cycling Center team, the entire group of 200 hit the streets for a group ride. It isn’t often that professional cycling teams spin alongside locals

Damiano Cunego has marked two very clear goals for his 2007 racing. Cunego, who said he enjoyed “excellent” winter training, is motivated to have a strong run at the Giro d’Italia podium and shine in the spring classics. “Compared to 2006, it’s true there are less difficult stages but I don’t agree with those who said it’s less difficult,” Cunego told the Italian web page cicloweb.it. “It’s a balanced course with a few decisive days.” Cunego won the 2004 Giro in spectacular fashion, but suffered through media pressure and health issues in 2005 only to bounce back with a solid campaign last

Making the leap from top-flight amateur to ProTour neo pro is never easy. But throw in a continent’s worth of distance from cycling’s European epicenter and the task becomes exponentially harder. That’s the challenge that faces South African Daryl Impey, one of the top national team riders at this year’s Tour de Langkawi. Through seven stages, the 22-year-old from Johannesburg has scored three top 10 finishes in the five bunch sprint finishes, and he is one of only two riders to sprint ahead of the race’s dominant force, four-time stage winner Alberto Loddo (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni). On

After a spending a day in their normal team kits, riders from the Belgian-Swedish Unibet.com team were forced back into their distinctive question-marked jerseys Thursday at the Etoile de Bessèges. Oddly enough, the team resumed its winning ways with the switch, as Unibet’s Baden Cooke easily won the sprint at the end of the 155km second stage from Nîmes to Saint-Ambroix. The team was once again required to wear jerseys sans the name of its title sponsor because French authorities said the team – sponsored by an online betting site - was promoting gambling and “lotteries,” which are banned

Dear Monique:I have read your column in VeloNews for a while and have bothenjoyed and appreciated the knowledge. I have a questions about weightloss and it’s effect on the immune system.For the past few years I have been competing in the sport of triathlon.This year I decided to race bikes for the first six months. I knew thatbecause of the importance of the power to weight ratio, I would need tolose both “after season” weight from last year and some additional bodyfat to be competitive in the climbs.I set out to lose most of the weight (was 180 lb.) during the first12 weeks. I wrote down

You could never tell by talking to him, but Julian Dean is a man under the gun. New Zealand’s reigning national road race champion is in the final year of his contract with Crédit Agricole and knows he needs to perform if he wants keep his place with the French ProTour team. But instead of worrying too much about the future, Dean remains the same laid-back rider that made him a fan favorite on the U.S. Pro circuit during his days with Mercury and U.S. Postal. “It’s the first race of the season so some guys have done a bit more prep than others,” said the soft-spoken Dean on the morning of

Tyler Hamilton is savoring his first days back in the peloton after more than two years in exile in what was one of the most controversial doping cases in cycling history. Riding in Tuesday’s GP Marseillaise and today’s opening stage of the five-day Etoile de Besseges in southern France, Hamilton told French journalists he wants to put his troubles behind him and focus on earning a slot in the Giro d’Italia (May 12-June 3). “I have to be realistic and it will take a little time. I especially hope to ride the Giro d’Italia, that will be a big challenge,” he told AFP. “I hope to be there, but

Riders endured all the elements in Wednesday’s opener at the l’Etoile de Bessèges with Italian Angelo Furlan delivering the victory through rain, sleet, wind and eventually sun. The Crédit Agricole sprinter out-kicked Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile) and compatriot Ruggero Marzoli (Tinkoff Credit Systems) to win the 148.2km stage from Pezenas to Palavas-les-Flots in a bunch sprint. Several riders tried in vain to escape the clutches of the peloton in France’s first stage-race of the season. The bunch rejoined for three finishing circuits with Unibet.com working hard to try to control any escapes

The man is on a streak. Alberto Loddo scored his fourth win at the Tour de Langkawi Wednesday, again frustrating Ceramiche Panaria’s Maximiliano Richeze in a charge to the line at the end of a 137-kilometer ride from Kuala Terengganu to Cukai. Loddo (Selle Italia-Serramenti) charged across the line ahead of the main field, which included Crédit Agricole’s Anthony Charteau, the overall race leader who was more than content to finish in 59th place, secure in the knowledge that he holds a four-minute buffer with Friday’s short, but decisive, ride to the Genting Highlands ahead.

Peiper positive on Olson, BarryT-Mobile sport director Allan Peiper is raving about the possibilities for new team members Michael Barry and Aaron Olson. Both are part of the team’s new international profile that includes riders from a dozen nations. Speaking on the team’s web page, Peiper said both riders can expect plenty of room to stretch their wings in the refitted T-Mobile organization. Barry is hoping to earn his first berth for the Tour de France this July. “It is a new challenge from Michael. He is a seasoned pro, having raced for so many years at U.S. Postal/Discovery Channel,”