Road

Dear Lennard,What was Ivan Basso using for a bike in today’s time trial up l’Alpe d’Huez?William Dear William,Funny you should ask, since I was just putting a few finishing touches on a piece John Wilcockson sent in last night.Lennard Readying Basso’s rideIvan Basso rode the new bike he will race on Wednesday in the Alpe d’Huez time trial for a few hours on the rest day on Monday. He was planning to ride it in the stage from Valréas to Villard-de-Lans on Tuesday, and his race number 61 was already affixed to the rear end of the carbon-fiber Cervélo. But when weighed on the UCI scales before

Watching the Tour de France, one can easily conclude that one of Lance Armstrong’s biggest strengths is he can be coldly calculating, but the same can be said of the U.S. Postal Service team, which also plays the Tour de France as if it were a game of chess. Armstrong and the team have brought many new things to the Tour, like chiropractors, team chefs, and the scouting of every single stage route prior to the race. Less publicized and perhaps as unprecedented are the tiny details of meticulous planning that the team does. As in chess, every move a team or rider makes during the Tour has

Breanna Loster (Dr. Walker) added a victory in the 200-meter sprint to her 500-meter time trial win on Sunday in the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge, while Mike Creed (U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor), fresh off winning the overall at the Cascade Cycling Classic, claimed a win in the 100-lap points race. Sunday’s racing in Portland, Oregon, began with 200-meter qualifiers for the women’s sprint. Defending champion Annette Hanson (Team Rubicon) qualified second in 13.44 behind Loster (13.28), with top local sprinter Heather Van Valkenberg’s (Sorella Forte) third in 13.80. Hanson lost in the

Dear Lennard,After watching the prologue and the TTT in this year's Tour, I have noticed T-Mobile is not riding rear discs. Why is that? Everyone knows that a rear disc is faster than a non-disc. What gives?John Dear John,First, all of the T-Mobile riders I saw in the prologue used a reardisc. Here is one on the start ramp, on the new Giant time trial frame. As for the team time trial, Dirk Spiers of Giant Europe said that T-Mobile chose to not use rear discs out of concerns raised by that day's strong crosswinds on the course. He is not at all sure that it was the right choice in

Drizzly Oregon weather didn’t keep Trexlertown regular Cassandra Osorio-McKenna (Hot Tubes) from winning the miss-and-out and points race Saturday at the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge, though a couple of events had to be shortened to accommodate the damp conditions, including the men’s scratch race and Madison, won by Milton Wynants and Agustin Margaleff (Uruguay National Team). Saturday’s racing at Portland’s Alpenrose Velodrome began with the 200-meter qualifiers for the sprint tournament. Dean Tracy (Team Rubicon) posted a 12.01, with Stephen McLaughry (Bike Central) upping the ante in

Annette Hanson (Team Rubicon) and Kenny Williams (First Rate Mortgage) kicked off the sixth annual Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge on Friday in Portland, Oregon, with wins in the men’s and women’s pursuit. Hanson, a multiple national and world masters pursuit champ from Kirkland, Washington, won the 3000-meter race in 4:09:87 on the 268-meter, cigar-shaped concrete track ahead of teammate Brie Gudsell of New Zealand and Hot Tubes’ Cassandra Osorio of Florence, South Carolina. In the men’s 4000-meter contest, it was Williams turning a 5:01:64 for 4000 meters to outpace a pair of Kiwis racing

Athens-bound Marie-Helene Premont (Rocky Mountain-Business Objects) took her second consecutive title at the Canadian National Mountain Bike Championships on Saturday in Mont Sainte-Anne, while Ricky Federau (GearsRacing.com) won his first title in the elite men's category. A total of 64 men and 34 women rode through wet and muddy conditions for the chance to win the maple-leaf jersey of the nationalchampion. Premont took charge immediately in the women's 25km, five-lap race, attacking on the first climb and establishing a 10 second gap on Karen Dewolfe (Cannondale), Chrissy Redden

Dear Lennard,What is up with Erik Zabel's shifting cables? Is he trying to hide them like Campagnolo's under the bar tape? Looking at the pics of the finish of Stage 6, looks like Zabel has his Shimano Dura Ace shifter cables routed in this cute little loop around the shifters, and back under the bar tape, a la Campy cable routing. What’s the skinny on this? Looks like he is using Nokon cable housing to make the bend, but why? Is it a visual preference, or a tactile one?Stephen Dear Stephen,Yes, Eric Zabel is one of a number of riders who has concealed shift cables with his Shimano STI

When Domina Vacanze's Filippo Simeoni scampered off the front of the peloton today, he did it astride one of Specialized's new full-carbon, 1100-gram Tarmac S-Works frame. The bike features some pretty cool touches that are worth a closer look. His teammate, Michele Scarponi, gets a special, 40-gram-lighter versionusing finer-weave carbon fabric, while sprint ace Mario Cipollini got his own custom version... well, before he pulled out of the Tour the other day. Last year’s half-aluminum/half-carbon Tarmac will still exist as the Tarmac E5, and the new one has a similar shape to the top

Genevìeve Jeanson has been left off the Canadian Olympic team bound for Athens, according to The Toronto Star. The 22-year-old from Lachine, Québec, was dropped from the squad in favor of Manon Jutras, of Drummondville, Québec. Both riders have struggled this season, but Jeanson also has been dogged by doping suspicions, the perception that she is not a team player and recent allegations that her coach spat at another rider during June’s Canadian national road championships. Jeanson won the Montréal GP World Cup race on May 29, but raced poorly a month later at the Canadian championships

Top Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi has a cracked rib and is still suffering from a badly bruised shoulder, according to his Fassa Bortolo team doctor, and may miss out on next month's Olympics. Petacchi sustained the injuries when he crashed in last Thursday's fifth stage of the Tour de France. He and fellow ace Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini (Domina Vacanze) retired from the race on Friday. An X-ray in Italy on Monday revealed the damaged rib, though the doctor said he was more concerned by the 30-year-old rider's shoulder. "It will require around 30 days for it to heal," said Dr

When Mike Creed won Thursday's road race to gain a nine-second overall lead at Bend's Cascade Cycling Classic, most teams didn't think that his U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor team could defend it with just four riders. But, even with Lance Armstrong and the other guys in France, Postal and Creed pulled out the overall win, making it official after Sunday's criterium in Bend's Old Mill District. Creed crossed the finish line with the first pack of riders, and his 30-second lead was never seriously challenged during the race, a 1.2km loop. "I'm sure all the other teams thought that we would

Dear Lennard,This isn't a technical question per se, but it's still got me scratching my head: why doesn't Lance have rainbow stripes on his sleeves like all the other former World Champions? Chris Dear Chris,He has had them on his jersey in the past. I expected him not to have them on the time trial suit and on the yellow jersey, but sure enough, he does not have it on his road jersey. I figured that since Nike prepared all kinds of special clothes for the Tour, including new versions of the Swift skinsuit for time trials and the HC jersey for mountain stages, maybe in the rush to produce

A pair of North American criterium specialists — Gord Fraser of Health Net-Maxxis and Nicole Freedman of Team Basis — showed their stuff Friday night at the Cascade Classic twilight criterium in downtown Bend, Oregon, taking field sprints in front of a festive downtown crowd. The respective races shared a few similarities: Neither had significant breakaways; both were won in field sprints; and both were won by former winners at the USPRO criterium championships in Downer’s Grove, Illinois (Freedman in 2001, Fraser in 1999). While there were time bonuses on the line in the women’s race —

Mike Creed got by with a little help from his friends on Saturday. And they weren't all on his team. With just three U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor teammates, Creed got some assistance from TIAA-CREF riders during the stage 5 circuit race to hang on to the overall lead at the Cascade Cycling Classic in Bend, Oregon. The two teams struck a deal to help keep Creed in first place and TIAA-CREF's Dan Bowman in eighth place. The plan worked, as the stage ended in a sprint finish that had little effect on GC – Charles Dionne (Webcor) outsprinted Ben Brooks (Jelly Belly-Aramark) in 2:58:48 with

Nestled away in the rugged mountain valleys of central Switzerland, the posh Euro town of St. Moritz is better known for its fur-covered, jet-setting ski bunnies than for high-tech carbon fiber. But for three days in July, carbon was en vogue as Scott showed the press its 2005 product line. The media event July 6-8 showcased the company’s impressive investment into the ever-developing world of carbon-fiber frame construction. Unlike frame manufacturers that simply day-trip over to Taiwan, pick a stock carbon configuration from a major producer, alter a few shapes and call it their own

The overall classification underwent a minor reshuffling Friday at the Columbia River Bank Cascade Cycling Classic, after a rolling 6.6-mile time trial showed who the strongest players at the race truly are. In the women’s race it was recently-crowned national time trial champion Christine Thorburn (Webcor Builders) again disproving the on-paper dominance of the heavily favored T-Mobile squad, winning by two seconds over soon-to-be Olympic teammate Kristin Armstrong of T-Mobile. In third place was defending Cascade champion Lyne Bessette (Quark), nine seconds down. T-Mobile’s Lynn Gaggioli,

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It’s been a tough month of racing for the T-Mobile women’s squad, which saw Webcor’s Christine Thorburn get the better of their strong U.S. national team at the Columbia River Bank Cascade Cycling Classic after she took the elite national time trial championship and nearly repeated the feat several days later, taking second in the national-championship road race. On Thursday, Thorburn, a Bay Area physician specializing in rheumatology, showed why she’s gone from a virtual unknown to Olympic team member in the span of a season, dropping the entire women’s field on the final climb into Three

As in Thursday’s Tour de France stage, which saw an early break succeed, the second stage of the Columbia River Bank Cascade Cycling Classic men’s stage race was won by a member of a break that escaped in the first 15km and stayed away. But unlike the outcome at the Tour, the Oregon win went to a U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor rider – 23-year-old Michael Creed of Colorado Springs, who assumed the overall race leadership with just his second professional win. An on-form Creed, who took fourth last weekend at the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic stage race, was clearly the strongest out of a group

Getting a rider ready for the Tour de France, and the six- and seven-hour days in the saddle that come with it, requires a great deal of attention to detail. One detail that gets constant attention before and during the Tour involves the proper set up of new shoes and other equipment. These are often critical issues, because if a new shoe cleat is in even a slightly different position from where the old one was or a seat is a bit higher or lower or more forward or back from what the rider is used to, or the bar is positioned differently than before, it can be a big problem. Riding so hard

The 25th anniversary of the Columbia River Bank Cascade Cycling Classic — a five-day, six-stage NRC event — commences Wednesday, in Bend, Oregon. The race was swept last year by Saturn’s Tom Danielson and Lyne Bessette, and also boasts defending Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong as a former winner. Armstrong won the race in 1998, a season spent returning to the sport after battling with cancer. Other notable past Cascade competitors include Olympic gold medalists Alexi Grewal and Eric Heiden; OLN commentator Bob Roll, former NORBA national cross-country champion Steve Larsen; Bend

As the entire field of 130 racers descended upon the finish line of the opening 93-mile stage of the Cascade Cycling Classic in Bend, Oregon, a handful of names came to mind as the likely eminent stage winner. Would it be Health Net-Maxxis sprinter Gord “Flash Gordon” Fraser, the newly crowned Canadian national champion? Or perhaps Jelly Belly-Aramark’s strongman Alex Candelario would benefit from the long downhill finish. Surely it couldn’t be Webcor’s fast man Charles Dionne, who had spent much of the day in various breakaways. Based on the numbers, a safe bet would be on a Navigators

Today, for the team time trial, I caught a ride in the second of Saeco’s team followcars. It was very interesting from a technical standpoint, even thoughthe team had no mechanical problems until the very last moment. Saeco wasamong the first teams to start, so I watched the remainder of the teamsfrom the finish. In the end, I think that the cycling gods smiled on TylerHamilton for the second day in a row, and they did not Gilberto Simoni,both of which I will explain. The director sportif, Giuseppe Martinelli, is in the first vehicle andcommunicates with the riders over their radio

Tour stuff

Those of you who watched the prologue time trial may have been wondering why some teams were using standard road helmets and others using aero’ helmets. In October 2003 the UCI passed a requirement that all time-trial helmets meet certain safety standards as of January 1, 2004. This threw out the old time-trial helmets, which were little more than thin plastic fairings with straps. Helmet companies were caught largely unprepared by the ruling, so in the spring, most pro teams were racing time trials with standard road helmets. By the Giro d’Italia, many teams were using clear plastic covers

During the Tour, you can now see exactly how hard some of the riders are pedaling, as well as how fast they are going, how fast their pedals are going around, and how fast their heart is pumping. This is due to special agreements between SRM and the Saeco and T-Mobile teams. Even though many riders would like to use SRMs in more races, it is often not possible due to it conflicting with their crank sponsor. Furthermore, the SRM cranks are not as light, and not as stiff as the latest oversized hollow cranks, so riders are reluctant to take that step backward. But now SRM’s Ulrich Schoberer

So what’s up with tubeless tires these days? A fair amount, actually. There are now three teams riding tubeless road tires at the Tour de France. As in the past, teams that have both Mavic and Hutchinson as sponsors are in a position to use them, but now, teams that have both Shimano as a wheel sponsor and Hutchinson tires could ride them as well. Shimano, it seems has joined the group of companies sharing the technology and working together on the project. That group is now Shimano, Mavic, Hutchinson and Michelin, but no Michelin-sponsored teams are racing on them. Mavic’s Chris Zigmont

On a rainy afternoon when pedaling prowess was just as important as downhilling skills, Frenchwoman Celine Gros and Spain’s David Vazquez Lopez scored World Cup wins at the final day of racing in Calgary, Alberta. The combination of a short, relatively flat course, along with extremely muddy conditions, made for a tough test on a track that paralleled the bobsled circuit used in the 1988 Olympics. “You were pretty much pedaling top to bottom,” said American Marla Streb (Luna), who spent some time in the hot seat before being knocked off by teammate Kathy Pruitt. Streb wound up sixth, while

Hi from the Tour de France! I have been in Liège for a few days, visiting the teams and taking lots of photos of bikes and equipment, sometimes even of people. There is always lots of new equipment at the Tour, since every team and sponsor focuses more on this event than any other. When team technical sponsors start developing new products for racing, they always point to the Tour start as the date for completion. There is no better place to premiere a new product, and the riders and teams place so much emphasis on Tour results that they create pressure which helps the development process

On a day with more story lines than a Tom Clancy novel, Filip Meirhaeghe and Gunn-Rita Dahle reaffirmed their status as Olympic favorites, after each took impressive cross-county wins at World Cup No. 6 at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. As for the litany of North American Olympic spot battles, it was Americans Mary McConneloug, Todd Wells and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski closing in on start spots in Athens, while Canadians Marie-Helene Premont, Kiara Bisaro and Seamus McGrath also looked to be a step closer to their Olympic dreams. Following the women’s race, which was yet another dominating

With the 90-meter Nordic ski jump used at the 1988 Winter Olympics serving as a backdrop, Czech rider Michal Prokop and Frenchwoman Sabrina Jonnier cruised to convincing four-cross wins at round No. 5 of the UCI World Cup series at Calgary's Canada Olympic Park on Friday. It was the second straight World Cup win for Prokop and third straight for Jonnier, pushing both riders over the top in the race for the series crown. Both now have insurmountable leads with one race to go. Despite qualifying third behind Eric Carter and Roger Rinderknecht, Prokop (Author) had little trouble in his run to

Lance Armstrong on Friday lost his appeal against a ruling denying him the right to insert a denial against accusations of doping published in a book released last week. The five-time Tour de France winner's lawyer, Christian Charriere-Bournazel, took action over the book "L.A. Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong" by award-winning Sunday Times of London journalist David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, a cycling specialist formerly with French sports daily L'Equipe. The book, which alleges Armstrong used banned drugs, focuses on statements attributed to Emma O'Reilly, a soigneur who

Let’s start things off with a first-look at Tyler Hamilton’s freshly unveiled BMC time-trial bike, which he will ride at this year’s Tour de France (from a BMC press release): The core structure of the bike is a 100% carbon-fiber monocoque frame — and when we say carbon-fiber, we really mean it: Even the smallest details, such as our fork drop-outs and derailleur cage, are made of carbon-fiber. The revolutionary new fork-stem design (patent pending) sets the standard in cycling technology. In addition to perfect aerodynamics, we also achieve maximum rigidity from the minimum possible

World time trial champion David Millar was formally placed under judicial investigation on Thursday for illegal possession of toxic products, his lawyer said. Millar told a court west of Paris that he had used the banned blood booster Erythropoietin (EPO), a fact he had already revealed during 48 hours of police custody last week, lawyer Paul-Albert Iwens said. The 27-year-old rider was released with no restrictions on his freedom of movement, Iwens said. Millar was detained last week over allegations he had used EPO, and was subsequently barred from racing in the Tour de France which

As mentioned in the nutrition column for June10th, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Academy of Sciencesrecently made recommendations for sodium intake that are targeted primarilyfor sedentary Americans. In this column we will take a look at a few keypoints regarding sodium and sodium sweat losses as it relates to enduranceathletes.The IOM has recommended that sodium intake be at 1500 milligrams daily.This recommendation is based on the fact that research supports that reducedintake of sodium coupled with increased potassium intake can help preventthe increase in blood pressure

Former U.S. Postal rider Stive Vermaut died early Wednesday morning in Roeselaere, Belgium. Vermaut suffered a heart attack on the morning of June 13, while out on a training ride. The heart attack deprived Vermaut's brain of oxygen and his death Wednesday was the result of the effects of the resulting damage. Doctors had initially expressed hope of an eventual recovery and kept the 28-year-old Belgian on life support in an artificial coma, but Vermaut's condition deteriorated over the past three days and he died on Wednesday. Vermaut suffered from a congenital heart defect, first detected

June has been a little hectic. We started out the month in the Alps previewing the Tour de France climbs. Our training camp finished just in time for the challenging one day Classique des Alps race, which I decided to sit out, since I had done so much riding in the days proceeding. But it was a successful race for our team, with four Phonak guys in the top 10. My teammate Oscar Pereiro won, which was a big victory for the entire organization. So we headed to the Dauphine Libere on a high note, which started a day later. My personal goal was to try and test myself as well as some new

Christian Vande Velde will be back to the Tour de France for the first time since 2001 after getting the news Monday afternoon that he’s part of the nine-man squad lining up in Liège for Saturday’s start. After weeks of waiting to hear his Tour fate, the 28-year-old was nervously awaiting news from Liberty Seguros manager Manolo Saiz and finally couldn’t take it anymore. He called the Spanish team manager and learned the good news. Also getting a last-minute thumb’s-up is Aussie sprinter Allan Davis, so now at least Vande Velde will have someone to talk to at the team dinner table. Vande

Team Action Sports set a cross-country cycling record when they rolled onto the boardwalk at 1:17 a.m. Sunday at Atlantic City, New Jersey, defeating rivals Team Vail-Go Fast to win the four-man-team competition in the 2004 Insight Race Across America. The record for the category, set in 1995, had been 2905 miles in five days, six hours, and four minutes. This year, Action Sports completed 2959 miles in five days, eight hours, 17 minutes. Vail Go-Fast finished in five days, 10 hours and 26 minutes. “We learned a few things the hard way,” said Nat Faulkner of Action Sports. “We started out

Most of Europe was racing Sunday as several countries capped a week’s racingwith the men’s road race taking center stage. Here’s a round up of themajor nations:France: Thomas Voeckler (La Boulangere) won a three-up sprintagainst Cyril Dessel and Benoît Salmon after the leading trio hada large enough cushion to play games over the final sprint. Sylvain Chavanel(LaBoulangere) led the main bunch through three minutes back.Belgium: Tom Steels (Landbouwkrediet) won his second title inthree years after winning a three-up sprint on a flat 240km course. GeertOmloop (MrBookmaker) and Geert Verheyen

Gord Fraser's smile said it all as he crossed the finish line during the Canadian national road race Sunday in Kamloops, British Columbia — the Health Net-Maxxis rider was finally the national champion, and had moved into strong contention for a spot on his country’s Olympic team. Fraser played a waiting game in the 180km race, sprinting away from a small lead group over the top of the final hill and soloing away to the finish lline. Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) took second, with Alexandre Lavallee (Volkswagen-Trek)third. In the women's race, meanwhile, Lyne Bessette (Team Québec) was dominant,

Juré Robic continues to lead the soloists in the 2004 Insight Race Across America, and the four-time Slovenian national road champion appears to be on track to break the solo average-speed record in just his second outing. "Physically he was good in 2003, but not mentally," said crew member Janez Slapar. "This year he is very good, both physically and mentally." The current average-speed record for solo men is 15.40 mph. At present Robic is maintaining a pace of 15.53 mph. And veteran crew members say Robic's pace will only improve once the road turns skyward in the Appalachian Mountains.

Aussie Brad McGee said he wants to win the Tour de France – next year. The 28-year-old has made steady progress the past few years and is feeling more confident after his breakthrough eighth-place performance in the 2004 Giro d’Italia. “Going for overall victory next year is the goal, and a very realistic one at that,” McGee said in an interview with BBC Sport. “This has been the first year I've gone for the general classification in major races, so I'm a lot leaner to make life easier up the climbs. I'm probably two kilos short of where I need to be for the prologue, but I'm steadily

Team ALS Lightning, the lone recumbent team in the 2004 Insight Race Across America, is expected to cross the finish line in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at approximately 11:30 Eastern time Saturday. Not far behind ALS Lightning are the top two four-man teams, Team Action Sports and Team Vail Go-Fast, which have rarely been separated by more than a half hour during the transcontinental competition, and at one point were only two minutes apart. When last checked, Action Sports was ahead by 35 minutes and expected to reach the finish line by 1:30 a.m. Sunday. For up-to-the-moment race news,

Tour de France organizers on Friday barred David Millar from this year's race after he allegedly told police that he has used doping products. Jean-Marie Leblanc, the Tour's director general, told The Associated Press that the reigning world time-trial champion was out. "We don't want to pollute the Tour,'" he said. The 27-year-old Millar, who has never failed a drug test in his eight-year professional career, is the highest-profile casualty of a decision announced Friday by Tour organizers that all riders investigated or implicated in doping probes will be barred from the event, which

Five-time Tour de France runner-up Jan Ullrich admits it’s going to be tough to derail arch-rival Lance Armstrong as the Texan makes a run for a sixth straight Tour title. The T-Mobile captain brushed aside concerns about early-season fitness problems with his victory at the Tour de Suisse earlier this month. The 30-year-old German said he’s more motivated than ever to win the Tour. “Naturally, Lance is the man to beat,” Ullrich told AFP. “My win in Switzerland confirms my work since the beginning of the season. I had a good race thanks to the team, I showed a strength which I didn't have

Sue Palmer-Komar (Genesis-Scuba) virtually assured herself a position on the Canadian Olympic team after winning the individual time trial Friday at the Canadian National Cycling Championships. Palmer-Komar covered the 30km out-and-back circuit in 43:20, 41 seconds ahead of defending champion Lyne Bessette (Quark). In the men's 40km event, Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) turned a 51:35.56 to decisively beat eight-time defending champion Eric Wohlberg (Sierra Nevada), who was 1:12.66 slower. The circuit was not particularly difficult, but the riders had to battle strong winds and extreme heat —

Tyler Hamilton better brush up on his Spanish as five of his eight Phonakteammates named to start the Tour de France hail from the Iberian Peninsula.Hamilton will be looking to improve on his fourth-place performancein last year’s Tour and will count on the Spanish mountain goats to usherhim through the Tour’s key moments in the Pyrénées and theAlps.Joining Hamilton for the 91st Tour are Spanish riders Oscar Sevilla,Santi Perez, Jose Gutierrez, Oscar Pereiro and Santos Gonzalez. The otherteam members are German rider Bert Grabsch, Frenchman Nicolas Jalabertand Swiss rider Martin Elmiger.

Just like Lance Armstrong, U.S. Postal Service sport director Johan Bruyneel believes Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) is the most dangerous rival for the Texan going into next weekend’s start of the 2004 Tour de France. “He’s still the most dangerous,” Bruyneel said in an interview in the Spanish daily MARCA. “Of the rest of the favorites, Mayo is at the top of the list. There’s Mayo, Hamilton, Heras and Basso and I would also add Menchov. I’m sure I left somebody off.” Bruyneel said he believes Armstrong will be ready to win a record sixth Tour when the race begins July 3 in Liège, Belgium. “We’re

Levi Leipheimer will lead Rabobank in the Tour de France as the 30-year-old American will be anxious to forget his early exit from last year’s edition. Leipheimer wants to improve on his eighth-place debut in 2002 and get past his opening stage crash that took him out of last year’s Tour as the Dutch team announced its nine-man lineup Tuesday. “I missed not doing it last year, so I’m excited to get back to the Tour,” Leipheimer told VeloNews last month. “There’s no way not to be excited about the Tour. I think every year gets better, I’m more experienced, I’m more comfortable in the

Dear Joe and Dirk,I am a first-year Category 2 racer. My training regime had followed, as closely as possible, given my work schedule, a program looking to peak in mid-June and then again in early August. Just as I was starting to build in much more intensity and longer interval work early in May, I began to find that my legs were not responding as I would have liked. I seemed to fall further into this hole, and now I am far behind where I was even a month ago. Basically, when I get on the bike, and try to put down any sort of sustained effort, it feels like I have been riding for three

Six returning riders from last year’s Tour de France team will line up for U.S. Postal Service to support Lance Armstrong in his quest to win a record sixth Tour. There’s an added emphasis on strength in the mountains as Armstrong will be looking to get all the support he can in a decisive second half of the race, which starts July 3 in Liège, Belgium. “We will have a very strong team in the mountains, stronger than last year,” said U.S. Postal Service sport director Johan Bruyneel in a team press release. “We have six riders from last year and two new guys. Lance is confident he has a

Seven leading Australian track cyclists on Tuesday declared themselves drug-free, saying they were furious at being smeared by association with the sport's damaging doping scandal. The seven cyclists, all members of the shadow track sprint team for the Athens Olympics, issued a joint statement denying involvement in drug-taking allegations centering on banned cyclist Mark French. They are Olympians Shane Kelly and Sean Eadie, Ryan Bayley, Jobie Dajka, Rosealee Hubbard, Anna Meares and her sister Kerrie, who has withdrawn from the Athens team after suffering an injury. The eighth shadow

The Olympic trials this past weekend in Redlands, California, offered two automatic Olympic team nominations to the winner of the road race and the time trial. Having raced for 16 years, I have competed in a few Olympic trials. In past years, I felt a lot of pressure while trying to make the team; this year, as the first American in the UCI international points standings, I was fortunate enough to be automatically qualified before the trials began. This is not to say I was completely pressure-free, however. My T-Mobile team wanted all three slots on the women’s road squad, which meant we had

The last week I have been racing in the Volta Catalunya, a six-day race that starts on the Costa Brava, climbs through the Pyrénées and finishes back along the coast in downtown Barcelona. For me, and several of the other North Americans in the peloton, it is a race that is close to home, as several of us live in the Catalan town of Girona. This year, Martin Perdiguero dominated the first half of the week’s racing. He won stage 2’s uphill sprint finish, went on to take the mountaintop finish in Andorra with an explosive acceleration in the last meters, and then won the next day’s mountain

The recent announcement that Discovery Communications would be sponsoring Lance Armstrong and his mates for the next few seasons got me to wondering…. Do you suppose Armstrong might pop in from time to time as a special guest host on one or another of the TV network’s 14 channels, like Animal Planet or Discovery Español? Can’t you just imagine the wily Texan wrestling with an endangered white rhino and somehow relating his past Tour experiences to getting a friendly mauling from the giant albino beast? Or instead of trying to make a Tour de France winner fit its programming mold, might the

Two riders that are sure to face off in the Tour de France prologue July 3 in Liège went head-to-head in Monday’s 23.5km time trial in Stage 3 at the Route du Sud. Mark one up for Bradley McGee. The FDJeux.com rider held off world time trial champion David Millar (Cofidis) to win the stage from Loures-Barousse to Sarp and take the overall lead with one stage to go. McGee, 28, posted a time of 31 minutes, 45 seconds to take his fourth win of the season. Millar stopped the clock 23 seconds slower while German Andreas Kloden (T-Mobile) came through third at 27 seconds slower. McGee -- a winner

Five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong heads the list of cyclists named to the U.S. Olympic team for the Athens Summer Games August 13-29, a spokesman for USA Cycling said on Monday. Armstrong, who will be competing in his fourth Olympics, has a bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Games. He will be accompanied in Athens by Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Bobby Julich and Jason McCartney. Armstrong and Hamilton were selected on the basis of their first- and fourth-place finishes in last year's Tour de France, while Julich and Hincapie qualified based on top-five finishes at

Aaron Olson took the biggest win of his career in the final stage of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce on Sunday, giving Colavita-Bolla its third stage win of the race. Olson jumped off the front of a disintegrating breakaway to solo in, just ahead of a fast closing peloton. Viktor Rapinski (Navigators) beat Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics) in the field sprint for second, wrapping up the points jersey in the process. In the overall standings, Tomasz Brozyna (Action ATI) faced no serious threats to his hold on the race lead, and retained his 41-second margin over Nathan O'Neill

Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) pulled off a one-second triumph in the 68th Tour de Suisse over a bitterly disappointed Fabian Jeker (Saunier Duval) after winning Sunday’s 25.6km race against the clock along the lakeshore at Lugano. Ullrich, who’s using the Swiss tour to fine-tune his form going into next month’s Tour de France, edged time-trial specialist Laszlo Bodrogi (Quick Step) by eight seconds to win the stage. Then all eyes were on the clock. Jeker, who began with a 41-second head start on Ullrich, quickly lost 26 seconds in the opening section, but seemed to be just hanging on to his

Tomasz Brozyna (Action ATI) solidified his lead at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce after finishing second behind Radoslaw Romanik (Hoop CCC) on the difficult climb up Mont Megantic. Scott Moninger (Health Net) managed a strong performance to finish third, and take over third in the general classification. The 5km climb to the Observatory at 1100 meters above sea level has become legendary at Beauce. Averaging 10 percent, with sections as steep as 16 percent in the final 2km, it usually reduces the contenders for the overall title to a handful. This year was no exception, with only Romanik

On a day when timing was everything, Jason McCartney and Kristin Armstrong picked the most important moments to shine. Each took impressive wins at the 2004 Pool Gel USCF National Road Championships, and now both are headed to Athens come August to represent America in the Summer Olympics after winning the Team USA Selection races on Saturday in Redlands, California. Armstrong also picked up a national-championship jersey for her efforts. The genesis of Armstrong’s win came on the third of six laps during the 116.8km women’s race. Taking instructions from T-Mobile team manager Jim Miller to

Nathan O'Neill (Colavita-Bolla), won stage 5 of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce on Saturday, less than a year after suffering a life-threatening injury at the Tour de 'Toona. O'Neill won the 14km individual time trial with a time of 17 minutes and 9.09 seconds, less than a second ahead of Viktor Rapinski (Navigators). Svein Tuft (Symmetrics), was the top North American finisher, in fifth place, 22.41 seconds behind O'Neill, and one spot ahead of Scott Moninger (Health Net). Overall race leader Tomasz Brozyna (Action ATI), finished third in the stage, and continues to hold the yellow

Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) scored a victory in the penultimate stage of the Tour de Suisse on a rainy day that saw Fabian Jeker (Saunier Duval) widen his lead going into Sunday’s time-trial finale. Bettini was part an early break that chugged away from the main pack early in the hilly stage, which pushed south into Switzerland’s Italian-speaking region of Ticino. The break dwindled, and Bettini dropped compatriot Alessandro Cortinovis and Switzerland’s Patrick Calcagni with 5km to go to claim the stage win in the 191km stage from Buchs to Bellinzone. “This is the first time in my career

Photographer Casey Gibson spent a long, long Saturday clicking shutters in Redlands, California, as America's racing men and women fought for spots on the U.S. Olympic team bound for this summer's Games in Athens. Here's a sampling of what he saw.

Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) revealed some chinks in his pre-Tour armor in Friday’s difficult climbing stage and lost control of the race leader’s jersey at the 68th Tour de Suisse. Ullrich lost contact with the climbing specialists on the very steep 13km summit finish to Malbun, on an average grade of 8.7 percent, and surrendered the lead he’s held since the prologue to Fabian Jeker (Saunier Duval). Georg Totschnig (Gerolsteiner) reeled in fading leaders Erwin Thijs and Ben Day (both Mr. Bookmakers.com) as he jumped out of a 10-man chasing group. The Austrian started the day just 25 seconds

Race favorite Chris Horner won’t be at his best come the USA team selection race in Redlands, California on Saturday, but that won’t stop him from showing up at the startline. On Thursday the Webcor rider said he’s had a nasty cold for about a week, and has been on antibiotics since Tuesday. That was the reason he opted to take a pass on the national time trial championship race that was won by U.S. Postal’s David Zabriskie. “I’m not sick enough to miss the race on Saturday, but it definitely wasn’t worth doing the TT,” Horner explained. “I probably could have done half decent, but it’s not

On a steamy, cloudless Thursday in Southern California, David Zabriskie and Christine Thorburn each grabbed time trial wins at the Pool Gel USCF National Road Championships. Besides the stars-and-stripes jersey, Thorburn also earned an automatic berth on the U.S Olympic team, which will compete in Greece in August. “I’m very surprised,” admitted Thorburn (Webcor) of a win that came at the expense of the heavily favored T-Mobile team. “I didn’t even do the time trial last year because I didn’t have the right equipment.”

Charles Dionne (Canadian National) finally scored the result he has been hoping for - a stage win at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce. Dionne was one of the most dominant riders all day in the 180 kilometer stage that began and finished in the small town of Lac Etchemin, helping to initiate the day-long break, and then attacking repeatedly in the last 30 kilometers to finally engineer a solo win. Tomasz Brozyna (Action ATI), the overall leader, rode comfortably in the pack all day, as his team set tempo at the front. With three ranked climbs (two Category 2 and one Cat. 3), plus the

If there was any doubt that Jan Ullrich would be ready in time for theTour de France, the German erased it in Thursday’s grueling 185.4km sixthstage of the Tour de Suisse.The 1997 Tour winner retained the overall lead at the Swiss tour afterfine work by T-Mobile teammate Giuseppe Guerini helped break up the mainbunch on the final of two climbs that punctuated the difficult stage throughthe Swiss Alps.Swiss rider Nicki Aebersold (Phonak) held on from an early move to takethe stage victory, but all eyes were on Ullrich to see if he would wilton the mountain steeps.Ullrich, who once again faced

It’s always an interesting mix at the startline of the elite men’s road race held annually at the U.S. national road championships. For every aspiring, young Cat. 1 who’s hoping to parlay a podium performance into a pro contract, you’ll find a guy like Chris Walker. The 42-year-old was a pro with Nutra-Fig back in the mid 1990s, but today he’s sporting the kit of California-based amateur team Labor Power. The squad’s name is a reference to the law practice of primary sponsor Roger Worthington, whose client base is people who’ve been injured in the workplace. But Walker stamped his own

Tomasz Brozyna (Action ATI) took the yellow leader's jersey from Ivan Dominguez (Colavita Olive Oil) on day two of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce, after an early race split in the field reduced the number of contenders dramatically. Brozyna won the 180-kilometer stage in front of Viktor Rapinski (Navigators) and Radoslaw Romanik (Hoop CCC Polsat), while Dominguez finished a whopping 17:36 back with the decimated main peloton. Stage two was packed with the kind of terrain Beauce is infamous for a seemingly unending series of two- and three-kilometer climbs of seven and eight percent. Eric

oung Russian Vladimar Karpets (Illes Balears-Banesto) retained theoverall lead at the 84th Volta a Cataluyna in Wednesday’s summit finishup the Coll de Pal after finishing fourth behind the persistent MiguelAngel Martin Perdiguero (Saunier Duval). Martin Perdiguero, a winner in Tuesday’s roller-coaster stage,proved he can win on any terrain and put the Russian under pressure. Itlooked like Colombian Félix Cárdenas (Cafés Baqué)would win, but he was reeled in by a group of four riders. Perdiguero shotaway in the final punch and trimmed Karpets’ hold on the leader’s jerseyto just six

Rabobank’s Robert Hunter continued his promising run up to Tour de France form by winning the fifth stage of the Tour of Switzerland as it finished in Adelboden Wednesday. T-Mobile team leader Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, retained the overall lead of the race that ends on Sunday. Hunter was part of a three-man break that dominated the day’s action in the 162-kilometer stage from Bätterkinden to Adelboden. Hunter, a winner in stage 3, joined Michael Blaudzun (CSC) and Murilo Fischer (Domina Vacanze) in an attack about 50 kilometers into the rolling stage that ended with a

America’s top cycling talent competes this week for a chance to representthe United States at the Olympic Games. Three athletes will earn that privilege in Redlands, Calif. at the PoolGel USCF Elite National Championships and Team USA Selection Race.This year the U.S. will be sending five men and three women to Athens to compete in road cycling. To earn a spot on that squad, it’s quite simple: Win in Redlands and a trip to Athens will follow in August. One of those five spots for the men’s team, and two for the women, will result from this week’s competition in Southern California.The winner

Ivan Dominguez (Colavita-Bolla Wines) outsprinted Canadian Olympic hopefuls Charles Dionne (Canadian National) and Mark Walters (Navigators) to take the first stage and the leader's jersey at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce Tuesday in Quebec City. Dominguez also donned the Points jersey, while Adam Wadecki (Action ATI) took the Climber's jersey after a race-long breakaway that was only caught in the final lap. Stage 1 threw riders into hard terrain right away, with 10 laps of a 12-kilometer circuit that featured a sharp kilometer-long 11-percent climb and an upward sloping finish into

Lotto’s Robbie McEwen won a sprint finish to take his second stage victory at the Tour of Switzerland on Tuesday. McEwen finished the fourth stage of the Swiss tour, a 211.6km race from Le Sentier to Batterkinden, ahead of Fassa Bortolo’s Francesco Chicchi and Olaf Pollack of Gerolsteiner. Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) continues to hold the overall race lead. Ullrich, a main threat to Lance Armstrong in next month's Tour de France, is two seconds ahead of Switzerland's Oscar Camenzind. Chicchi thought he had won the stage and lifted his arms in a victory salute but McEwen came through on the

T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokourov has pulled out of next month's Tour de France after a fall during the Tour of Switzerland over the weekend, spokesmen for his team confirmed Monday. "Vinokourov won't be on the Tour," team spokesman Matthias Schumann told AFP. Vinokourov, 30, suffered several torn ligaments to his right shoulder after the fall during the second stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Sunday and will remain hospitalized for a further two days. He was also forced out of the Tour de France two years ago with injury. "It's a very difficult period for him because he was getting

Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Domo) outsprinted a large group of finishers to win the second stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Sunday. Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) retained the overall lead after finishing in the main pack in the flat, 170 kilometer ride from Dürrenroth to Rheinfelden. Featuring flat, mainly wide roads the stage two of the Tour of Switzerland was destined to finish in a field sprint. Still, a seven-man group, including former Giro d'Italia champion Stefano Garzelli, managed to breakaway, but the group was eventually reeled in as McEwen’s Lotto team joined up with Olaf Pollack’s