Road Racing

Erik Zabel might not be as fast as he used to be, but the Telekom veteran still got around the man who is regarded as the peloton’s fastest these days to win Monday´s 10th stage of the Vuelta a España. Fassa Bortolo´s Alessandro Petacchi delivered on his promise to get through the Pyrénées and almost rewarded his team with his third Vuelta victory, but Zabel had his own plans. After Fassa and ONCE worked hard to reel in a six-man break early in the race and control a frenetic final 10km, Petacchi shot to the line with 400 meters to go up a slightly rising finish into Sabadell, a Barcelona

Coming into the final stretch of the T-Mobile International, Saturn’s Chris Horner knew he’d won the race, he just didn’t know preciselywhen. Away on a solo break — with a one-minute advantage over teammate Mark McCormack and loud crowds drowning out his earpiece — Horner passed through the start/finish area on San Francisco’s Embarcadero and kept right on rolling until spectators lining the area waved him around. “I absolutely believed I had another [5-mile] lap to ride,” Horner smiled, adding, “And I would have held them all off if I had to.” Course understanding aside, Horner and USPRO

Gunn-Rita Dahle (Merida) has completed her streak of World Cup victories, taking the fifth and final race in Kaprun in decisive fashion, ahead of teammate and new world champion Sabine Spitz of Germany. Marie-Helene Premont (Oryx) confirmed her status among the elite women riders by finishing third. The weather gods finally smiled, and for the first time in a week racegoers were treated to sunshine. Marga Fullana led the charge up the first steep climb, but by the end of the first of four laps it wasDahle at the front and pulling away. Fullana steadily dropped back, leaving Spitz and Premont

Who could have imagined a bunch sprint atop a 2410-meter chunk of rock in the heart of the Pyrénées? But that's just what happened in Sunday's 174.8km ninth stage. Okay, it wasn't a classic Mario Cipollini train, but Kelme phenom Alejandro Valverde won a 13-up sprint in an exciting summit finish up the "especial" Port d'Envalira climb in Andorra. "I'm very happy. I don't know what to say," said Valverde after nipping Italian Dario Frigo (Fassa Bortolo). "This stage was full speed all day. The team had a lot of confidence in me. I'm very happy with what's happened so far." Despite efforts

Sabrina Jonnier and Nathan Rennie are the 2003 World Cup downhill champions, each battling it out on the final run of the season in what were possibly the tightest races in the history of the World Cup. Marla Streb (Luna) and David Vasquez Lopez (MSC Bikes) won their respective races on a muddy, strength-sapping course in Kaprun, Austria, but all attention was on the overall standings. The bottom portion of the course gave many riders problems. If they slid too far down in the final corner, they would get bogged in a swampy dip just before the drop to the finish, with some riders coming to

Someone needs to tell Isidro Nozal he's not supposed to be leading the Vuelta a España. Nozal retained the overall lead in Saturday's eighth stage on a day when all of the Vuelta's main players stayed on equal footing in the four-climb romp across the Pyrénées except U.S. Postal's Manuel Beltran, the one man poised to step into his shoes. Nozal powered the lead group across the line in the sun-blasted Plá de Beret ski area at 3:51 behind stage-winner Joaquin Rodriguez (ONCE-Eroski). Beltran couldn't match the accelerations initiated by a re-energized Aitor Gonzalez (Fassa Bortolo) and lost

The Bay Area is heating up as riders from across the globe have amassed in San Francisco for the T-Mobile International, an event that, in just its third year, is being hailed as the strongest field ever assembled on American soil. Organized and directed under San Francisco Cycling LLC, a joint cooperative of Tailwind Sports, the management company that runs the U.S. Postal Service Cycling Team, and Threshold Sports, organizing body of the Pro Cycling Tour, the event has again drawn Postal’s Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, as well as first-time appearances from two-time Giro

With five kilometers to go to victory in Friday’s difficult four-climb stage, Michael Rasmussen knew he had it in the bag. The former mountain bike world champion held off a counter-attack from U.S. Postal’s Manuel Beltran and Cofidis’ Luis Perez on the Category 1 summit finish to the Cauterets Cam-Basque ski station and slipped across the line to win the seventh stage of the Vuelta a España. “This is a dream come true for me, to win a stage with a mountain top finish in a grand tour,” said Rasmussen, who won in 5 hours, 1 minute, 14 seconds. “By far this is the most important victory of my

The Vuelta a España always serves up surprises and Isidro Nozal’s winning ride in Thursday’s 43.8km individual time trial ranks as the biggest so far this year. To be sure, Nozal promised he’d put everything into defending his 50-second hold on the race leader’s jersey, but no one expected him to do it in such dominant fashion. Not even Nozal himself. “I thought I had good chances to limit my losses and keep the jersey, but I never dreamed of winning like this,” said Nozal, who powered through fierce winds to beat David Millar by an impressive 1 minute, 20 seconds. Nozal, whose lone

The king is dead; long live the king No, those weren’t obscene gestures from Alessandro Petacchi as he roared across the finish line victorious in Wednesday’s 165km fifth stage of the Vuelta a España. Two fingers, then six and another four followed by another two -- that was Petacchi’s version of sign language for what has been his history-making season. Petacchi became the first rider in history to win at least two stages in every major tour and wanted the rest of the world to know. “I made signs to show that it wasn’t by chance that I won. If you win once you can say it’s just luck,”

Winning a stage in any grand tour used to be a big deal for the Euskaltel-Euskadi team until the orange-clad Basques barnstormed through this summer’s Tour de France. Haimar Zubeldia and Iban Mayo were the Tour revelations, with Mayo winning at Alpe d’Huez and Zubeldia and Mayo finishing 5-6, respectively. Since both have pulled the plug on their seasons, stage victories might be all Euskaltel can hope for in the 2003 Vuelta a España. Euskaltel worked two riders into the winning move Tuesday and Unai Etxebarria slipped away from an eight-man break with just under 15km to go in the 151km

First off, let's correct an oversight:Last week when I mentioned ceramic bearings (see "TechnicalQ&A with Lennard Zinn: Campy's Carbon Clincher"), I forgotto mention Zipp’s ceramic bearings in the Z3. I wrote about it in a "TourTech" report during this year's Tour de France.--LennardKeeping a classic on the trailsDear Lennard;My question concerns my desire to keep my old Bridgestone MB1 runningas a single speed. I'm afraid during the five years of hard use it underwent,it developed quite a bad case of "indexed steering" and an inability tokeep the headset tight. My local shop informed me that

I just got back to VeloNews's almost fully re-carpeted headquartersafter a bit of time over in Europe covering the 2003 Eurobike trade show.My first time to the show, I was impressed by the superb organization (those crafty Germans!) of the event. Promoters had the foresight to place similar categories of product ineach of the halls (for example, clothing was mostly in one hall, whileItalian manufacturers were mostly placed in another). This organization made the show easier to digest for us ever-complaining journalists as well as the attending professionaland citizen crowds. Look for

Fassa Bortolo's Alessandro Petacchi won the third stage of the 2003 Vuelta a España, a 154.3km race from Cangas de Onís to Santander on Monday. By easily out-sprinting Telekom's Erik Zabel and Quick Step's Tom Boonen, Petacchi became only the third rider in history to win stages in all three grand tours in the same season and the first to do it since 1958, when Italian Pierino Baffi achieved the feat 45 years ago. Petacchi won six stages in the Giro d'Italia and four in the Tour de France this year. "I'm very happy because I wanted to win in the three big races and give this win to the

Cofidis's Luis Perez scored his maiden win in the second stage of the Vuelta a España Sunday, a 148km ride between Gijon and Cangas de Onis. ONCE's Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano was overtaken as the overall race leader by teammate Joaquin Rodriguez. The 29-year-old Spaniard broke away with compatriot Carlos Sastre on the final climb of the day, the first category Fito, and then outsprinted Sastre in the streets of Cangas de Onis. His time at the end of the 148-km stage was three hours 27 minutes 32 seconds -14 seconds ahead of the peloton. The Cofidis rider said: "Last year a fall prevented

Filip Meirhaeghe had been close before. Three times in his long mountain biking career he’d walked onto the podium at the world mountain bike championships, but all three times he’d not been the winner, twice settling for bronze in the late 1990s, before grabbing silver a year ago after finishing an agonizing 19 seconds behind Canadian Roland Green. But this time, with Green not a factor and Meirhaeghe on fire again, the Belgian used a stunning charge from outside the top 10 to finally capture that elusive world title. “I’d had thoughts that I was not meant to win this,” admitted

Despite losing two riders early on, ONCE-Eroski lived up to its role of overwhelming favorite in the opening team time trial event in the Vuelta a España on Saturday. It was a repeat of the Spanish squad's 2002 victory in the same stage over American squad U.S. Postal-Berry Floor. ONCE-Eroski clocked 32 minutes, 1 second for the 28km course starting and finishing in Gijon, 10 seconds faster than Postal and 24 seconds ahead of third-placed Ibanesto.com. Spaniard Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano, 29, crossed the line at the head of the ONCE-Eroski team to take the first gold leader's jersey of

Go ahead, call him the heir apparent. Greg Minnaar is more than worthy. First he shocked the downhill-racing world in 2001, snatching the overall World Cup title from Nicolas Vouilloz. Now, after hiring Vouilloz’s former coach to be his personal trainer, the South African has taken over the spot the retired Frenchman owned for so many years, winning the downhill title at the world mountain biking championships in Lugano, Switzerland, on Saturday. Taking off from the No. 3 qualifier’s spot, Minnaar blasted his way down the steep, 1.45-mile track on Monte Tamaro, posting a 4:37.78. That was

It’s probably to early to call it a full-fledged changing of the guard, but after years of gated-racing domination by the likes of Eric Carter and Brian Lopes, there was a new face atop the four-cross podium at the world mountain bike championships in Lugano, Switzerland, on Friday night. Bolstered by blazing fast starts throughout the night, Czech rider Michal Prokop earned the first major win of his career in front of an estimated crowd of 5000. In the women’s race, there was no big surprise – just the continued domination of Frenchwoman Anne-Caroline Chausson, who earned the fourth (every

Dear readers;Just as I was about to send this column in today, I received a pressrelease that might interest a few of you, particularly if you are in needof a good carbon fix. Campagnolo announced on Thursday that its carbon Hyperon wheels are nowalso available as clinchers. "The carbon rims for clincher tires turned out to be much more complicatedthan expected," the release noted. "It was not a matter of adapting therim for tubular tires but of designed a completely new rim. The requirementsof a rim for clincher tires are completely different from those of a rimfor tubular tires. Issues of

After a two-day hiatus, racing at the 2003 world mountain bike championships in Lugano, Switzerland, got rolling again Wednesday with Australia’s Lisa Mathison running away with victory in the junior women’s cross-country in the morning, and Poland taking the team relay in the afternoon. It was Mathison’s second straight junior crown, as she also won in Kaprun, Austria last year. “I thought it would be way tougher this year because there were more second-year juniors in this race,” said Mathison about her chunky 3:54 margin over second-place finisher Eva Lechner of Italy. Almut Grieb of

American riders dominated the downhill competition at the Masters Mountain Bike World Championships, taking six of eight titles awarded. Four other categories did not have titles awarded because each had only one rider. The UCI announced shortly before the world’s that a minimum of three riders were required for a title to be awarded (originally, the organization had said six, but reduced it to three after protests). All four were upper age groups, three of them women's categories, and U.S. riders won these events also. Lars Tribus (Chumba Racing), won the hotly contested men's 30-34 group

Mark McCormack (Saturn) and Geneviève Jeanson (Rona-Esker) followed their victories in Friday’s prologue by winning stage 1 of the Mad River Valley Green Mountain Stage Race, the Moretown Circuit Race. McCormack, who has won this race in each of the previous two years, got into a break with Mark Walters (Navigators), Cameron Hughes (LeMond Fitness-Cra-Z Soap), Tim Johnson (Saturn), and Alex Lavallee (Trek-Volkswagen) at the top of the second KOM sprint. With the top-three overall riders on board, the group maintained its lead, despite several attempts from riders in the field to bridge.

After 78km of racing through the foothills of the Swiss Alps in harsh, windy conditions, the battle for the World Mountain Bike Marathon Championship in Lugano came down to the final 100 meters on Sunday as hometown hero Thomas Frischknecht outsprinted Bart Brentjens of the Netherlands to claim the first-ever world marathon title. Carsten Bresser of Germany rounded out the podium in third, four minutes behind the leaders. With more than 9300 feet of climbing and strong alpine winds, the elements and topography alone provided enough opportunity for the favorites to sort themselves out at

Erin Mirabella (Frisco Cycling Club) lapped the field and held off a late charge by Ashley Kimmet (Colavita-Bolla) to win the women’s points race Saturday during the final night of the USCF National Track Cycling Championships in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. The race started off slowly, but soon began to break apart. An attack by Lauren Shirock (Coyote Cycling) got the action rolling. Then Mari Holden (Team T-Mobile) and Kimmet, the 2001 junior world silver medalist in the points race, got away to take the lead with 35 laps remaining. Mirabella and Sarah Hammer (Team T-Mobile) charged to

Steve Tilford (Shimano-Moots) was among four Americans to claim world titles on Saturday during the first day of the Masters Mountain Bike World Championships in Bromont, Québec. Tilford took his fifth masters world’s title in the men's 40-44 age group, finishing nearly four minutes ahead of Thierry Salomon of Switzerland, with Patrick Meersschaert (Belgium) third. Other U.S. titlists were 70-year-old Frederic Schmidt (Waco Bicycle Club) in the 65-plus category, Seattle's James Wagner (Ti Cycles) in the 60-64 category and Lydia Barter (Team Bicycle Alley) in the women's 50+ age

It’s the second night of the 2003 Eurobike trade and the VeloNews crewand I just had dinner with Jan Ullrich –well, kind of…To be honest, we were seated next to him as he went about his businessentertaining a table full of Bianchi corporate brass. In Friedrichshafenfor an autograph signing session at the Bianchi booth on Saturday, it wasrefreshing to see Ullrich slurping down his pasta only a few feet awayfrom our table. Refreshing not because he ordered the same dish as I did,but because he so very nonchalantly signed autographs from the occasionalpasserby who recognized him.The highlight of

Photo Gallery: U.S. National Track Championships -Day 3

I tore the LAX airport tags off of my duffel early Tuesday morning and once again subjected myself to that little-too-close-for-comfort, very hands-on “magic wand” security screening at Denver International Airport. With the memories of my recent visit to Southern California for Giant’s2004 product introduction still fresh in my mind, I adjusted my seatbelt physically preparing myself for a bumpy ride, while psychologically amping myself for the cultural about-face that’s makes Europe so very Europe.You know, breakfast lunch and dinner featuring every meat product under the sun, showers

It was a rough-and-tumble evening of racing at the 2003 USCF National Track Cycling Championships at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, as T-Mobile’s Chris Witty took the win in the women’s 500 and Jonas Carney took the win in what at times was a heated points race. That points race proved to be dramatic… almost as dramatic as the fight it triggered afterward. Early on, Prime Alliance, Ofoto-Lombardi, T.E.A.M. Fuji, and Navigators spread the points across the board with each trying to make a move that would stick – none of which was successful. Prime Alliance’s

The second night of the 2003 USCF National Track Cycling Championships at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania played out under beautiful skies with low humidity and moderate temperatures. The fair weather proved to be a big help as times in both the men’s kilometer and team pursuit were quicker than in 2002. Team pursuit qualifiersIn the team pursuit final, the Jelly Belly/Carlsbad Clothing team featuring Tyler Farrar, Mariano Friedick, Curtis Gunn, and individual pursuit champion Adham Sbeih proved to be unbeatable after qualifying first this morning. The squad

Keirin and pursuit highlighted the action on the opening day of the 2003 USCF National Track Cycling Championships in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday. Marty Nothstein showed that he hadn’t lost too much of his track fitness when he rode away with the U.S. keirin title, one of two events the Navigators man hopes to take on in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Tuesday’s opening events began with a strong pursuit ride by Saturn’s Sarah Uhl. Uhl, in her first individual pursuit competition, took on former national pursuit champion Erin Mirabella (Frisco Cycling Club) in the final for first

I strongly believe in the use of torque wrenches for properly and safelyassembling bicycles. However, I have become somewhat gun-shy about it dueto unexpected negative consequences of using them that have been relayedto me.Two of these unexpected consequences came from misinterpretation andmisprinting of torque information I wrote in my maintenance books. Onecase, which we went over here on this site, concerned a reader who misunderstooda torque number from the torque table in the first edition of my mountainbike maintenance book. He interpreted the torque setting for a single

1996 USPRO road champion Eddy Gragus (Trek-VW All Stars) won the general classification at the Estes Cycling Challenge, held August21-24 in and around Estes Park, Colorado. In the 3-mile prologue time trial, Gragus beat Ofoto’s Andy Bajadali by a scant eight-tenths of a second, setting up a two-man contest that would carry into the race’s final stage. Gragus took sixth the following day in the hot 84-mile Masonville road race, but was penalized 30-seconds for a centerline violation, putting Bajadali — second at Estes last year to Mercury’s Tom Danielson — in the lead by 19 seconds after

Despite crashing in the final corner of the final lap, Team USA's Larssyn Staley captured the gold medal in the women’s 20km points race Wednesday at the 2003 UCI Junior World Track Championships in Moscow. The Beaverton, Oregon, resident, who races for Hot Tubes back home, had lapped the field and accumulated 35 points before the crash – enough to win the rainbow jersey over Lithuanian Agne Bagdonaviciute, who finished with 33 points to claim the silver medal. Laura Telle of Latvia was third with 27 points. Staley was transported to the hospital for X-rays of her back, but was expected to

Tis’ the season for 2004 product intro's. Our own Lennard Zinn just got back from Specialized’s introduction in Morgan Hill, California, while I caught an early flight Wednesday morning to sunny So. Cal. Wednesday to catch a glimpse of Giant’s 2004 offerings. Located one hour north of Los Angeles, the Newbury Park based Giant USA headquarters is the main base of operations for the second most popular brand sold in the United States (behind Trek). Interesting to note is that Giant not only produces its own bikes and components, but also produces many of its direct competitor’s frames. Only

Dear Lennard,Do I have to buy Campy's new tool to properly install the new PermaLinkin a Campy 10-speed chain? I do have a Shimano 9-speed and Park 9-speedchain tools on hand.MortDear Mort,You can do it with a standard chain tool, but you have to be extremelycareful with alignment of the two chain ends with each other, somethingwhich Campy’s new tool ensures. I have done it many times with a Shimanochain tool without problems. By the way, it is just a pin, albeit it avery precisely shaped one, not a PermaLink anymore.LennardThere's gotta be an easier way to do thisDear Lennard,After a bad

A dramatic day of short track racing at the NORBA series finals in Durango, Colorado, saw two Americans enter the day leading the overall series, with one just managing to keep the title and the other watching it slip away in the final seconds. Canadian Seamus McGrath (Haro-Lee Dungarees) took a runaway victory in the men’s NORBA short track final Sunday, and with American series leader Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (RLX Ralph Lauren) unable to stay in the top-three after a gripping finish line crash, McGrath climbed high enough to take the series title as well. Coming into the final lap of a

You’ve got to feel for Chris Kovarik. Three times now the Australian has entered the final day of the NORBA NCS series with the overall lead and three times he has finished the day without the overall crown. Instead it was South African Greg Minnaar grabbing the series prize, after the Haro-Lee Dungarees rider finished second to Kovarik’s third at Durango Mountain Resort in southwest Colorado. That meant the pair finished deadlocked atop the final overall standings, but with Minnaar owning the advantage Sunday, the tiebreaker fell his way. “I had a mistake free run, but it was on a wet

A year ago, when Kevin Monahan crossed the line at the USPRO Criterium Championship in Downers Grove, everything was up in the air. After a late-race crash took out half the field, Henk Vogels took the race win, with Monahan and Robbie Ventura (U.S. Postal Service) in a photo finish for second place. What a difference a year makes. After winning the race outright, Monahan began the celebration almost immediately, riding up and down Main St. Downers Grove and high fiving the crowd. It capped a day that saw another repeat victory – Tina Mayolo Pic (Diet Rite) taking the women’s crown – and

Looks can be deceiving, especially when it comes to one of the most volatile weather locations in the U.S. With 70-degree temperatures and light winds at the bottom of the Mount Washington Auto Road, it looked like the 600-plus racers would have a relatively pleasant trip up the 7.6-mile ascent. But the final 2.5 miles found riders battered by 50-mph winds and blinded by near-whiteout fog. The weather took the steam out of Tom Danielson’s assault on his year-old course record, though the Saturn rider did win the race for the second year in a row. Danielson dropped the field in the first 500

Two dominating rides — one by Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and the other by Luna rider Shonny Vanlandingham — capped off the NORBA cross-country series final in Durango, Colorado on Saturday. Hesjedal’s win, by a 1:07 margin, secured the overall NORBA series title, while RLX-Ralph Lauren rider Jimena Florit, eighth on the day, took the women’s overall honors for the second consecutive year. In the national title chase, Florit’s teammate Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski clinched a second consecutive title of his own, finishing third on the day, while Seven Cycles’ Mary McConneloug was

Whether you believe the pro-am event on the eve of the USPRO Criterium Championship in Downers Grove, Illinois, is a preview to the main event or simply just a tune-up, the Navigators put on a show, delivering Vassili Davidenko and Marty Nothstein to the line one-two in the men’s race, while in the women’s event, former national champion Nicole Freedman (Team Basis) showed she’s ready to take on the big teams in Sunday’s national title race. Freedman struggled with the hot, humid conditions in the suburbs of Chicago, but when the race boiled down to a field sprint after 45 minutes, the

Day one of the NORBA National Championship Series finals closed with an action-packed mountain cross that saw Eric Carter and Sabrina Jonnier walk away with the overall series titles. Carter and fellow American Jill Kintner took the U.S. national titles, with Jonnier and Frenchman Cédric Gracia earning the race wins at Durango Mountain Resort in Colorado on Sunday. Carter’s titles sweep came after he faced off with fellow American Mike King in the men’s final. The pair came into the day first and second in the overall standings, and if King had won the final, Carter needed to finish no worse

American Giddeon Massie has advanced to the semifinal of the men’s sprint with a successful ride against Venezuela’s Johnny Hernandez Thursday. Teammate Stephen Alfred was narrowly defeated by Colombian sprinter Jonathan Marin in the third heat of the morning session. Massie will ride in the sprint semifinal set to start at 9:00 a.m. Friday morning. Later Thursday morning Massie led the team sprint with one of his fastest laps this season, posting a 23.669 to start the U.S. team off. Stephen Alfred rode the second leg with Christian Stahl anchoring the three-man team. The team advanced to

The U.S. Pan American Cycling Team added three more medals to the medal count Wednesday starting off with a silver medal ride in the women’s 500m time trial by Chris. The winning momentum continued later in the afternoon when sprinters Tanya Lindenmuth and Giddeon Massie each won medals in the keirin. The Olympic medallist in speed skating found her form on the track and stayed steady throughout the 500m test to clinch the silver medal in 36.304. Nancy Contreras (Mex) won the event in 35.463. Yumari Gonzalez (Cub was third clocking a 36.559. Witty’s silver medal at the Pan Am Games is the

So just putting the finishing touches on our power measurement system test and gotta admit that, for the last few days on a bike, I feel like a true dork (yes, even more than usual). This embarrassing fact struck me this past Sunday while huffing up one Boulder’s beautiful local canyons. The eight-mile grind from my house up to the small town of Ward offered plenty of time to contemplate the assortment of flashing signals, heart rate limit alarms and 60-times-per-second-acquired wattage data from the three (yes, three!) power systems strapped to my bike. With more wiring than the

Coming off the biggest win of his young road career, hometown favorite Marty Nothstein returns to the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown tonight to defend his title in Nestor's Keirin Cup. Nothstein has dominated the racing in Nestor's Keirin Cup like no other rider in history. He has won the event seven times, including three in a row for the second time. Nothstein, who is seeking to win the event a fourth straight year, is fresh off a win at the second annual New York City Championships, a 100-kilometer criterium race through lower Manhattan. The Olympic gold medalist and

There's no stopping Paolo Bettini, even when he's marked as the man to beat. Bettini attacked up two decisive climbs late in Saturday's 227km Clasica San Sebastian to win his third World Cup victory of the season and his second in a week after holding off compatriot Ivan Basso (Fassa Bortolo) in a two-up sprint. "Everyone said that I was the favorite, but it's true I have great form and I wanted to attack and take advantage of the situation," said Bettini, who won in 5 hours, 44 minutes, 42 seconds. "We started the race thinking about taking the World Cup lead, but at the base of the

A quick recap for those just joining the program: in my column last week I made mention that the Trek TT bikes used in the Tour de France were showing up in the worldwide media sporting modified Shimano headsets. I went on to discuss how I felt this odd, considering Chris King was the official headset sponsor for the team. Most interesting was the response I received from Chris King representative Jacki Sterner, indicating that the Postal mechanics didn’t “have time” to install headsets on the Tour bikes. A simple technical reason (stack height, cup fit) would have quelled my curiosity, but

Stuttgart’s world track championships wrapped up on a high note for Germany as its sprinters showed the host country’s riders were still capable of a bit of teamwork. After the implosion of its team pursuit squad, Germany demonstrated the depth of its sprint program by fending off a strong challenge in the gold medal round from the French to secure the world team sprint competition on Sunday. The final in the three-lap event – formerly tagged with the somewhat confusing moniker of “Olympic Sprint” – pitted Germany’s Carsten Bergemann, Jens Fiedler and Rene Wolff against a strong French

Quick Step's Paolo Bettini tried for three weeks to win a stage at the 2003 Tour de France but fell short. Now, a week later at Sunday's HEW Cyclassics race in Germany, the Italian upstaged local favorite Jan Ullrich (Bianchi) to win his second World Cup victory of the season. "This is a great race, no matter what people say," said Bettini, who moved into second overall in the World Cup standings. "Some criticize it because the course is relatively undemanding, but look how exciting it was. I'm delighted with this victory, and I'm looking forward to winning this race again." Ullrich and

Just moments before a sudden rainstorm swept across Lower Manhattan on Sunday afternoon, former track-racing superstar Marty Nothstein delivered a lightning bolt of his own when he unleashed his world-class speed to win the second annual New York City Cycling Championship on the streets of New York. "I’ll tell you what," said Nothstein, whose rich track-racing resume includes the Olympic gold medal he won at the Sydney Games in 2000. "Since winning the Olympics, I’ve only been focusing on one thing, and that’s coming out to these criteriums to try and become one of the dominant

At the International-Tour de Toona, Saturn completed a sweep of the men’s and women’s races as Lyne Bessette wrapped up the women’s title on Sunday, while Tom Danielson overtook Navigators Chris Baldwin to win the men’s race, which concluded on Saturday. Danielson entered the final stage trailing Baldwin by 20 seconds, but the Saturn rider broke clear in the race, bridging to early breakaways Tim Johnson (Saturn), Brice Jones (7UP-Maxxis) and Baldwin's Navigators teammate Mark Walters. With Johnson and Danielson powering the breakaway, Danielson rode into the race lead. Walters sat on and

They’ve said the track in Stuttgart, with its aged wooden surface is a fast one. It took the Australian pursuit team to prove just how fast as the four-man team of Graeme Brown, Peter Dawson, Luke Roberts and Brett Lancaster smashed the existing world mark – set by the Aussie squad a year ago – by more than two seconds Saturday. Facing a British team that included Robert Hayles, Paul Manning, Bryan Steel and individual pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins, the Australians knew they had to ride a sub-four-minute pursuit just to remain competitive in the final. The two teams both appeared nervous

World champions Australia boosted its chances of defending its team-pursuit title after topping qualifying here Friday at the world track cycling championships. The foursome of Graeme Brown, Peter Dawson, Ashley Hutchinson and Stephen Wooldridge clocked an impressive 4:03.26 to launch their bid for Australia's first gold of the championships. Britain, who came third in the team event last year behind second-placed Germany, came a close second with France qualifying in third and New Zealand placing fourth. In the absence of a pursuit team from the hosts, who are the reigning Olympic

Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel wasn’t sure what to think when she lined up against Katie Mactier to successfully defend her title in the women’s individual pursuit final at the world track cycling championships on Friday. “Before the world championships, I really had no idea who she was,” remarked Van Moorsel just before her start, “but you have to admit she’s riding really well, no?” Van Moorsel was by no means alone in the Stuttgart velodrome this week. As far as the track world is concerned, Mactier is a complete neophyte, having taken up the discipline only after encountering visa

Broadmark Capital’s Cameron Evans and Saturn’s Laura Van Gilder took the stage wins on Friday at the International-Tour de ’Toona, while Chris Baldwin (Navigators) and Lyne Bessette (Saturn) lead the overall standings. Baldwin assumed the race leadership when Saturn’s Nathan O’Neill couldn’t start the day’s stage, as a result of injuries suffered at the end of Thursday’s stage. On Friday, the men’s race saw an eight-man breakaway group form at the end of the first of four 20-mile circuits. Included in the group were Evans, Kris Hedges and Ian Dille of Snow Valley, Oscar Piñeda (7UP-Maxxis)

Britain's Bradley Wiggins will meet Australian Luke Roberts in the final of the men's individual pursuit Thursday at the world track cycling championships. Wiggins, 23, who set a blistering time of 4:17.34 in qualifying on Wednesday, sailed through his 16-lap heat against Russian Alexey Markov in 4:20.243 on Thursday. Meanwhile, Roberts booked his second consecutive championship final. The 26-year-old won silver last year in Copenhagen behind compatriot Bradley McGee, who is not competing. The winner of the prologue in this year's Tour de France is undergoing tests to determine the cause of

Bradley Wiggins got a bit of scare Thursday night in Stuttgart, but he had a plan, a schedule and a touch of confidence and held on to win the world individual pursuit title in a tighter than expected gold-medal final against Australian Luke Roberts. Wiggins, who had set the high mark in qualifying rounds and turned in the best time in the semi-final, said he enjoyed the role of being the favorite going into the final. “At least the others knew what they had to aim for,” Wiggins said of his impressive 4:17 he set on Wednesday. And aim is precisely what Roberts did, leading the 4000-meter

On Tuesday, Saturn’s Nathan O’Neill and Lyne Bessette took the day’s stage wins and moved into the overall leads at the International stage race in Altoona, Pennsylvania, displacing previous race leaders Chris Baldwin (Navigators) and Genevieve Jeanson (RONA-Esker). After a day of heavy attacking by Saturn and RONA, Bessette broke clear late in the race, soloing over the final climb and then powering her way to the race win, 34 seconds ahead of defending champion Heather Albert (Team Basis), with the main field of about 20 another nine seconds behind. After entering the day trailing Jeanson

Stefan Nimke spent a long and nerve-wracking spell in the “hot seat” Wednesday night as the 25-year-old German set an early standard in the men’s kilometer time trial at the 2003 world track championships in Stuttgart. Pounding out an impressive personal best of 1:01:225, Nimke thought that perhaps he stood a chance of making the podium “but not a gold medal with a field like this here, no.” But despite his early start and a field of serious contenders – including defending world champion Chris Hoy, three-time world champion Shane Kelly and the feared Frenchman Arnaud Tournant, the first

With a month's worth of Tour tech coverage tucked away, I feel obligated to adjust the spotlight back to the mountain bike. But before I get knee-deep in dirt donkey tech, I feel compelled to bring-up one remaining Tour question still rolling around in my head. If Chris King [headsets] is such a big supporter of U.S. Postal, why didn't Trek's TT bikes (there will be more photos run of Lance on his TT bike than on any other bike) have King headsets installed? Instead, the TT bikes sported the antiquated threaded 1-inch Shimano mountain-bike headsets. These headset have had their threads

Saturn’s Ina Teutenberg and Snow Valley’s Kris Hedges grabbed the stage wins at stage 2 of the International stage race in Pennsylvania, while RONA’s Geneviève Jeanson and Navigators Chris Baldwin retained the overall race leaders’ jerseys. With both RONA and Navigators riding to defend their race leaders, the men’s race saw several opportunists take advantage to break clear, while the women’s race came down to a field sprint at the end of the 74-mile day in Johnstown. The three-man breakaway in the men’s race contained Hedges, Webcor’s Marc Hagenlocher and 7UP-Maxxis’s Oscar Pineda. The

Italian Michele Bartoli (Fassa Bortolo) took the overall lead from France’s Stephane Berges (AG2R-Prevoyance) Wednesday by winning the third stage of Belgium’s Tour des Regions Wallonnes, a 200.3km run from Namur to Bouillon. Bartoli, 33, outkicked a group that had broken away on the last of eight climbs, including Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych, Luxembourger Kim Kirschen (Fassa Bortolo) and Belgians Peter Farazijn (Cofidis), Jurgen Van Goolen (Quick Step-Davitamon) and Dave Bruylandts (Marlux-Wincor Nixdorf). Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Davitamon) took the bunch sprint at eight seconds back.

Franco Marvulli of Switzerland defended his men's 15km scratch title at the opening day of the world track cycling championships in Stuttgart, Germany. The 24-year-old Swiss won the inaugural scratch world title last year in Copenhagen. Meanwhile, Olga Slusareva of Russia won the women's 24km points title. Edita Kubelskiene of Lithuania came second with Yoanka Gonzalez of Cuba taking the bronze in the 22-lap race.

On Sunday in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, Belgian Danny In’t Ven (ICSA) took the final stage of the 17-day International Cycling Classic-Superweek, beating Saturn’s Ivan Dominguez in the Bodyworks by Concours Whitefish Bay Classic. Earlier in the weekend, Prime Alliance’s Jonas Carney took his second stage win of Superweek when he beat Ofoto-Lombardi’s Jackson Stewart in the Bank One Food Folks & Spokes on Friday. On Saturday, Stewart took a stage win of his own, winning the Great Downer Avenue Bike Race in Milwaukee ahead of Jacob Erker (Schroeder Iron). In the overall, Saturn’s Viktor

Chrissy Redden (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and world champion Roland Green (Trek-Volkswagen) emerged as winners from a dry, dusty cross-country course on Northern Idaho’s Schweitzer Mountain, round four of the five-round NORBA National Championship Series. For Redden, the win brought her within 68 points of series leader Jimena Florit (RLX Ralph Lauren), while Green moves up to 15th place in the series, with two wins out of the four events. Although the temperature was ideal on the 10.6-mile course, with its 950 feet of elevation per lap, a long dry spell in the region has left heavy dust

A pair of Intense-Fox riders — Chris Kovarik of Australia and Sabrina Jonnier of France — took top honors at the round four of the NORBA mountain-cross championship series at Schweitzer Mountain Saturday, albeit in a very different manner. Jonnier, the 22-year-old from Nice, won after cutting inside on Australian Katrina Miller (Jamis), who crashed out of the lead. Kovarik, the event’s fastest qualifier, held his first gate and simply jumped first and rode away from Eric Carter (Mongoose-Hyundai), and teammates Mike King and Greg Minnaar (Haro-Lee Dungarees). “I had my hardtail and flat

Losing a minute and a half to Jan Ullrich over the 47km between Gaillac and Cap’Decouverte in the Tour’s first long time trial was probably not what Lance Armstrong had in mind when he worked with Nike to develop the Swift Spin skinsuit that he, his teammates and the category leaders wear in the Tour time trials. The suit should "give about 30 seconds to a minute advantage in a 58km Tour de France individual time trial depending upon what version of the suit is worn," according to Dr. Chester Kyle, the cycling aerodynamicist heading up the Swift skinsuit project. Armstrong also did not

Over the past five years, we have gotten used to writing about American victories in the Tour de France on an American bicycle equipped withAmerican wheels. However, until today, we always meant Armstrong. But the same could now be said about stage 16’s stage winner, Tyler Hamilton, who displayed true American grit in toughing out an amazing solo ride to Bayonne after being dropped in the early going and then catching and dropping the breakaway. Tyler was riding on Zipp wheels and a Cervélo frame, both of which are as North American as pumpkin pie. FramesOver the years, we have heard a

Gilberto Simoni, whose nickname is Spider (or Spiderman), finally came away with some glory in the Tour today. The spider is known for its ability to climb vertical surfaces, and Simoni demonstrated that today. But his special autographed Cinelli Ram bar shows off the Spider even more! The paint job on his Ran is unique, but so is the tilt of the drops relative to the stem, which were custom-made by Cinelli for Simoni. In fact, a number of Rams were built custom to riders on Saeco and ONCE for the Tour, all whipped out within a month. To meet the requirements of each racer, Cinelli

The final day of the weeklong Whistler Gravity Festival came to close Sunday with the crowning of Canada’s last pair of 2003 national mountain bike champions. Roland Green and Marie-Helen Premont each took convincing cross-country wins on a tough, technical track that wound its way through Whistler, British Columbia. In the men’s race Green (Trek-Volkswagen), Ryder Hesjedal (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and Seamus McGrath (Haro-Lee Dungarees) cracked open a small gap during the first of five laps around the 7.6km course, then steadily pulled away from a group of chasers that included Mathieu Toulouse

Pacific Northwest riders turned in solid performances Friday as the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge kicked off in Portland, Oregon. In its fifth year, the AVC – the sixth race in the American Velodrome Challenge Series – featured temperatures in the mid-90s baking the 268-meter concrete oval with its steep, 43-degree banks. And the racing was equally hot. Portland’s Larssyn Staley (Hot Tubes), just back from winning gold in the pursuit and points race at junior nationals, opened the morning session by taking a hard-fought victory in the women’s 3000-meter pursuit with a 4:05:47. Heather

You may have noticed Armstrong’s flat carbon handlebar in the team time trial on his new superlight Trek time-trial bike. According to Trek, one of Lance's goals going into this year's Tour was to lighten his entire time-trial setup. His frame has been stiffened and lightened with a composite honeycomb inside the carbon in the areas around the bottom bracket and head tube, technology that was premiered on the Trek OCLV mountain-bike frames a number of years ago. The aero’ bars Armstrong had previously used weighed anywhere from 800 to 1000 grams for the bar/stem combo, according to Trek.

Fair or unfair — a topic that’s been debated extensively — the 2003 women’s Canadian national downhill champion is Vancouver’s Michelle Dumaresq. The reason for the deliberation: Six years ago Dumaresq was a man. But after living “two many years in the wrong body” Dumaresq underwent sexual reassignment surgery, and with the blessing of the UCI, she’s been racing as a female pro downhiller for the last two years. Saturday she grabbed the biggest win of her career. “I’ve trained a long time for this and this is what I was always pointing to,” said Dumaresq, after besting Claire Buchar by 2.62

Day two of the Whistler Gravity Festival saw France’s Cédric Gracia grab his second victory in as many days, while Great Britain’s Tracy Moseley was the women’s downhill victor. The stage Tuesday was Whistler’s famed A-Line trail, where riders contested a jump littered 4-minute-plus run down from the midway point of the Whistler Village Gondola. After qualifying second behind Aussie Nathan Rennie (Iron Horse-MadCatz), Gracia (Siemens-Cannondale) blasted down the hill in the final to unseat Be One’s Bas De Bever. Gracia and De Bever were the only two riders to go below the 4:11 mark, with

It’s one of the most overused adjectives when it comes to mountain-bike racing, but in this case “epic” really did apply. With heavy rain moving in and out all day, and a legitimately tough course serving as the stage, the fourth stop of the UCI World Cup concluded with a pair of cross-country races that produced enough drama to fill a week of daytime television. When it was all done, the day’s heroes were Norwegian Gunn-Rita Dahle and Belgian Roel Paulissen, each taking World Cup victories after spending full days at the front. For Paulissen, the win was a long time coming, erasing his name

The final stage of the Cascade Cycling Classic, a 1km afternoon criterium, was held Sunday in Bend, Oregon, and as expected, Saturn’s Tom Danielson and Lyne Bessette held onto their overall leads, with Bessette and Alex Candelario (Prime Alliance) winning the stage. Held in the town’s Old Mill district, the flat five-corner criterium offered no real possibility for changes in the general classification: Bessette held a near five-minute lead on second-placed Heather Albert (Team Basis), while Danielson’s 49-seond lead over Jonathon Vaughters (Prime Alliance) was protected by the strongest