Road Culture

After a week of training with Michael and a couple of his teammates in the Pyrénées, I was feeling super motivated to race. The boys whipped me into flying form, as I followed them up col after col, panting away. They were doing long, steady rides in the mountains in preparation for the upcoming Vuelta a España, but for me, it was like two to five hours of motor pacing each day. I boarded a plane Saturday night for Nuremberg, after a slight glitch in my travel arrangements. I was happy to arrive at the hotel at a reasonable enough hour to have a good dinner and sleep. None of my T-Mobile

After racing in the afternoon the first four days of Thuringen Rundfahrt, we had an early start in the rain on Saturday morning. I have to admit, I was feeling a little groggy when I woke up, and wasn't too excited when I saw the rain, but three cups of coffee and two cups of green tea got me motivated. I give my teammates a hard time about all the Diet Coke they consume, as I don’t really think it is particularly healthy, so they were paying me back with a little grief over my coffee consumption. I guess we all have our vices. The morning stage was short, only 73km, and passed by quickly,

I am excited to be competing again, as I have not raced since early June. I was having some tendonitis problems that began in late June and as a result did not start the Giro d’Italia with my team. I rested my leg and took my time in allowing it to heal. It is hard to take time off the bike mid-season, as everyone is racing and it is easy to start worrying about falling behind with your fitness. I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason, though, and perhaps the rest was needed. In any case, I am happy to be racing my bike again and feeling fresh. Thuringen Rundfahrt is a race I

Ooo-la-la, I am feeling lactic acid in my legs at the moment. Racing in Thuringen involves traveling up and down short, steep climbs all day. They are the type that make one feel maxed out over the top, but since they are not too long, one has time to recover on the descent before the next ascent. I like the terrain here, but it certainly produces painful sensations in the legs. The hills are worse than the famous Manayunk “Wall” in Philadelphia and seem to come more frequently. The past two stages have been fast and challenging. Yesterday, right from the starter’s pistol there was a

I get nervous every year at the start of the Philadelphia Liberty Classic. This race had always been one of my favorites on the U.S. racing calendar. The energy surrounding the event is motivating. I get a rush climbing the Manayunk “Wall”, as the cheering crowd erases any painful sensations that are usually associated with steep climbs. This race gathers most of the cycling industry in the center of Philadelphia as well local and foreign bike fans. The hospitality is incredible, as tents are set up around the course stocked with food and televisions for race viewing. In nineteen years, it

The Tour de Montréal, a three-day, four-stage event, started in Lachine, the hometown of Geneviève Jeanson, with a short, windy prologue. As we all finished, we all received cheers, but the crowd was by far the loudest when she came through with the winning time. She smoked us all, but we were not too worried, as the time gaps were small. After the prologue, the race moved to “Little Italy” in the evening, where we pedaled past the Madonna Della Defesa (Our Lady of Protection) cathedral. This church was built and named to commemorate a miracle said to have occurred in 1898 in Casacalenda,

Before traveling on Friday, I looked up the forecast for Montreal on weather.com. It said rain for the next seven days. I was pleasantly surprised by the sunshine that greeted me as I stepped off the plane and even more excited to wake up to sunshine for the race on Saturday. Each time I have competed in the MontrealWorld Cup, the crowd has grown. The Canadian fans are passionate and were lining the course today, cheering everyone – first to last- and yelling out the names of the home favorites – Genevieve Jeanson, Lyne Bessette and Manon Jutras. The energy on the course was

Craziness That’s what I was thinking on the final lap of the world championship road race when it started to rain and riders where falling down all around me. Rain is common in Belgium in October and we had been fortunate our first few days here, as the sun was shining. I arrived Zolder Thursday morning and rode the course with my American teammates. This is the flattest course I have ever raced on at a world championship and this would make the race wide open, as nearly anyone would have a chance depending on how the tactics would play out and what kind of challenges the weather may

Plouay hosted the Worlds in 2000 and I loved the course, the ambienceat the race and the support of the crowd.This year is the first year they have hosted a women’s World Cup eventhere. It seems a natural place for one since Brittany is the center ofcycling in France and I think Plouay is the center of cycling in Brittany.Each year the men’s race draws massive crowds and is one of the highlightson the French cycling calendar.The area brings back a lot of fond memories for me as Michael and Ispent a few good days here with our mothers in 2000. Earlier this year,when I started racing as a

I am sitting in the warmth and sunshine of Gerona, Spain now - far away from Les Alpes, where I was competing in the La Grande Boucle Feminin just yesterday. Yesterday’s stage was perhaps one of the most epic days on the bike I have ever experienced. It was our third day in the rainy, cold Alps. It was the most difficult stage on the race profile, heading up three major climbs: le col de Madelaine, le col de Glandon, and Vaujuny. It was cold and pouring rain at the start, and the organizers decided to allow us to skip the first fifteen kilometers of the stage, which traveled down a steep

The Alps – Stage 7 - We are in the Alps and it has been pouringrain, but the scenery is incredible despite the water dumping down. Wehave been pedaling through the clouds, up and down the cols and along thelush green valley floors. We’ve covered some amazing terrain.The organization at this race gets better and better each year, althoughthere are always long transfers, sometimes before and after the stage.We had what was supposed to be a thirty-five kilometer transfer to thestart of today’s stage, but turned out to be at least sixty, on mountainroads, which turned into one hour in the cars.At

Editor's note: T-Mobile's Dede Demet-Barry is sending regular reports back from the Grande Boucle Feminin -- once called the Women's Tour de France. This is the first of her reports I am three days and four stages into La Grande Boucle Feminin.It’s been neat to be back at this race, as it presents the utmost challengesin women's cycling. We will race for fifteen days – starting in S’Hertogendenbosch, The Netherlands traveling through Belgium and into France, hitting the Alps and the Massifs Centrales before finishing in Paris. All the best women in the world are here.I am

Dede Demet-Barry has come up with a new training strategy for winning races:1. Retire for 20 months and go to school full-time.2. Race a total of two races in the lead-up to the big event.3. Get a new bike, with the wheels arriving on the morning of the race.4. Get dropped at the start of the final lap. Demet-Barry did all of these things, but still managed to win what some consider the hardest race on the women’s World Cup circuit. The Montreal race is the sixth round of the season-long World Cupseries. The riders cover 99 kilometers in 12 laps, and must climb the slopes of Mont Royal

Oh, impatient ones. Here's where you'll drop by when the clock starts ticking on July 7. We've got two great shooters for the site this year: Graham Watson and Casey B. Gibson. Plus, Bryan Jew and Lennard Zinn will have digital cameras with them as they interview riders, team mechanics and directeurs sportif.

She came to Redlands in top form, ready to act as team leader for the Saturn-Timex women's team in North America's road season opener. But on the second stage of the six-day event, Bessette gave a strong lead out to teammate Ina Teutenberg who then crashed at the line in front of her. Teutenberg suffered some serious cuts to her face, requiring 32 stitches. Bessette, meanwhile, broke her collarbone, putting a temporary halt to what could still be a very productive season. We had a chance to chat with Bessette at the side of the road during the Sunset Road Race, the final stage at

One face you didn't expect to see at Redlands this year was that of Jeroen Blijlevens. But there he was, taking part in the 17th edition of the Redlands Bicycle Classic. The Dutch sprinter was in California, because of a "slight delay" to the start of his 2001 season. Though he has an impressive résumé that includes five stage wins at the Vuelta España, two stage wins at the Giro d'Italia and four at the Tour de France, Blijlevens has most recently gained attention for a fight on the last day of the 2000 Tour. After finishing the final stage in Paris, Blijlevens charged at American Bobby

For Alain Gallopin, Mercury-Viatel’s new French assistant directeur sportif, the team’s 10-day training camp in Southern California was a chance to get acquainted with many of his new riders. In particular, Gallopin got the chance to meet the American riders who weren’t too familiar to the European-based Gallopin. But with at least one American, Gallopin already had a bond that was rock solid. “Horner, he is my friend for life,” Gallopin said of Chris Horner, who was with Gallopin for three years in the Française des Jeux program. “I am his spiritual father.” Horner had an up-and-down time

The newest entry in the Guiness Book of World Records belongs to a bicycle rider. On Wednesday, in the high desert of Southern California, the firstever bicycle speed-wheelie record was set by Kona Clump, freak rider Bobby Root, according to a press release issued by Kona. Riding his 2001 Kona Roast, equipped with a 54-tooth chainring, slick tires, disc brakes, high tech speed and angle meters, and miniature cameras, Root pedaled his bike — yes, pedaled, no tow — in a van-draft up to 86.1 mph. He then popped the front end up and rode a wheelie for over 35 yards. Then, with cops, cameras

Mercury's Chris Horner moved to Bend, Oregon, this winter and started on a new look, arriving at training camp with a fledgling "mountain-man" beard. "I admit, it looks terrible right now, but I'm going to keep on growing it," he says. Should he keep going, or nip this problem in the bud? Click "more" to check Horner out, then make the call in the Velo Poll.

While the U.S. Postal Service team's mini-camp began in Tucson, Arizona, earlier this week, the other Division I U.S. team, Mercury-Viatel, is gearing up for its camp in Southern California, with riders starting to arrive this weekend and the camp officially starting on Monday, January 15. Last month, VeloNews sat down with Mercury director John Wordin to discuss the off-season and the team's goals for the upcoming year. While this interview took place before the addition of Viatel as a co-title sponsor and the addition of riders Peter Van Petegem, Geert Van Bondt, Wim Vansevenant,