Road Racing

They were the kind of cyclo-cross conditions the UCI once said it washoping to get away from: pure, unadulterated slop; mud that sprayed a mist of brown muck over everyone and everything from the moment the gun wentoff; gunk that clogged up derailleurs; the kind that forced a bike changenearly every time the course wound past the pits. In other words, Sunday'sGrand Prix Holland, the final round of the UCI's World Cup, was tailor-madefor Richard Groenendaal.And while the seasoned cyclo-cross veteran thrived in the muddy conditionsin front of an enthusiastic home field crowd, American Alison

German Thorsten Wilhelms erased a 1-second deficit during the final stage of the Tour of Qatar to take the overall win on Friday. Wilhelms was first across the line in the 123.5km run from Sealine Beach to Doha, posting a winning time of 3:18:22. That was good enough to give the Team Coast rider a 5-second bulge over second-place finisher Damien Nazon in the final standings. Rudi Kemna of the Netherlands was third. Nazon had entered the day in the lead, but finished ninth in the final stage. Other notables included Laurent Jalabert, who was 15th on Friday and finished fifth overall, and Jan

Behind a strong second-place effort in the fourth stage, Frenchman Damien Nazon moved into first place overall at the five-day Tour of Qatar. Lampre rider Alberto Loddo took the stage win, a 125.5km run from Ras Laffan to Doha. Nazon’s lead is a scant one second over German Thorsten Wilhelms. Sweden’s Magnus Backstedt is six seconds back. Previous day’s overall leader, Brazilian Luciano Pagliarini, had a rough day during the fourth stage, falling out of the top 10 all together. Other notables include Telekom’s Jan Ullrich who finished 12th on Thursday and is 13th overall, and Laurent

Brazilian Luciano Pagliarini now shares the overall lead with Sweden's Magnus Backstedt in the Tour of Qatar after the third stage on Wednesday. Lampre team rider Pagliarini put in a surge midway through the 179km stage to end the day tied with Backstedt of the Fakta team, who finished fourth behind winner Thorsten Wilhelms of Germany. In the stage from the dromedary racetrack in Camelodrome to Doha, Laurent Jalabert finished 31st to leave the Frenchman seventh overall, seven seconds behind the leaders in a tightly packed first 10 who are separated by just eight seconds. Jan Ullrich of

Swedish Fakta rider Maagnus Backstedt took over the lead in the five-day Tour of Qatar on Tuesday, while Frenchman Damien Nazon got the win in the second stage. Nazon completed the 131km run from Al Zubarah to Doha in 3:04:16, outgunning Brit Jeremy Hunt at the finish. Backstedt’s lead is two seconds over Brazilian Luciano Pagliarini, while Nazon is four seconds back. Day one leader Ivan Quaranta was ninth on Tuesday and fell to fourth in the overall.

Ivan Quaranta of Italy picked off the 117km opening stage of the five-day Tour of Qatar in Doha on Monday, winning a sprint finish at the expense of Brazilian Luciano Pagliarini and Jean-Patrick Nazon of France. Quaranta crossed the line in 2:43:44. Sweden's Magnus Backstedt led a nine-man escape after 26km and Frenchman Laurent Jalabert also joined the hunt as the leading pack held out until some 8km from the finish. Quaranta, a junior world track champion a decade ago, then chose his moment to snatch the victory. The Index-Alesia rider has been in good form over the past two seasons with

Belgian Sven Nijs put everything together on Sunday to win the fifth round of the cyclo-cross World Cup series, the Grand Prix of Switzerland, in Wetzikon. Nijs beat countrymen Mario De Clercq and defending champion Erwin Vervecken to solidify his position at the top of the World Cup standings. Nijs, who hadn’t had a top finish in the past few weeks, took matters into his own hands from the start at Wetzikon. His early aggression left behind everyone but Rabobank teammate Richard Groenendaal. Groenendaal, however, fell victim to a crash, allowing Nijs to solo home for the victory, while De

You couldn't blame Michael Rogers for demanding a spare bike be ready for immediate use as he rode the final kilometers to victory in the Jacob’s Creek Tour Down Under in Australia on Sunday. After all, he learned 24 hours before winning the 733km race how "Lady Luck" can abruptly barge her way in unannounced and throw every winning hope into disarray. That a quick-minded spectator was there to lend Rogers his own bike on the previous stage was the most poignant moment behind his overall victory - by 21 seconds over Russian Alexandre Botcharov (AG2R) and 30 seconds on South Australian

Australian Michael Rogers overcame scorching heat, a near disasterous crash with a race marshal’s motorbike and his rivals to take overall leadership of the Jacob’s Creek Tour Down Under in Australia on Saturday. In the toughest stage of the race, 156km from Gawler to Tanunda, Rogers (AIS) finished second, 10 seconds behind Australian and former mountain-biker Cadel Evans (Mapei). Then 11 seconds behind him in third-place came Italian Daniele Nardello (Mapei). Going into the sixth and final stage, Rogers will now lead the race by 21 seconds from Russian Alexandre Botcharov (AG2R) and 30

Australia’s new generation of road racing stars came under fire from veteran Scott Sunderland on Friday for allegedly causing a bone-chilling crash that could endanger his 2002 season. For Robbie McEwen (Lotto) Friday’s 141km fourth stage in the Jacob’s Creek Tour Down Under brought his third victory in the race and sixth in 15 days, but it was a different story for Sunderland (Lotto), Australia’s second-highest ranked rider on the world standings who has also been leading the climbers’ category here. McEwen won the stage from the Adelaide suburb of Unley to the former whaling station of

THE only thing that can seemingly stop Australia's Robbie McEwen from racing in full flight at the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under is the finish line. By winning Thursday's 149km third stage on the Willunga circuit south of Adelaide, McEwen (Lotto) took his tally of wins in 14 days to five. McEwen won so comfortably, he could have been sitting in an armchair sipping fine wine in one of the many bed-and-breakfasts in the region. It was also the Queenslander's second stage win for the tour. And it saw the recently crowned Australian road champion take leadership in the sprinters' points

Stuart O’Grady’s (Crédit Agricole) bid to win the Jacbob's Creek Tour Down Under a third time hangs in the balance after he lost nearly a minute in Wednesday’s blistering-fast second stage of the South Australian event. Canberra's Michael Rogers (AIS) won the 150km stage from Italian Fabio Sacchi (Seaco), who deposed Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Adecco) as overall race leader. Third at the same time was Italy's Andrea Tafi (Mapei). McEwen, the winner of stage one on Tuesday night, rode aggressively all day and was instrumental in the first major attack of the day. The overnight race leader and

Australian champion Robbie McEwen was the first to raise his hands in triumph at the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under with an emphatic win in Tuesday night's first stage. McEwen (Lotto) won the 47km criterium at the Adelaide, Australia, beachside suburb of Glenelg from Corey Sweet (Uni of South Australia) and Dutch champion Jans Koerts (Domo). The trio formed the winning breakaway after only nine of 25 laps on the 1.88km circuit and held off a chase group of 10 riders after lapping the main bunch with four laps to go.

Belgian Erwin Vervecken won the Grand Prix of France on Sunday in Nommay, besting fellow Belgian Mario DeClercq by 11 seconds. Dutchman Richard Greonendaal was third. The race was the fourth stop in the cyclo-cross World Cup series. Vervecken’s win continued his country’s dominance of the 2001-02 World Cup series, which has seen a Belgian (Sven Nijs, 2; DeClercq, 1; Vervecken, 1) win every race thus far. Nijs, held on to the top spot in the overall standings, though he finished 10th at the race in France. American Marc Gullickson finished in 14th place, while teammates Tim Johnson and

World champion Erwin Vervecken won the sixth round of the Superprestige cyclo-cross series on Sunday in Diegem, Belgium, where he beat out fellow Belgians Mario De Clercq and Peter Van Santvliet. Sven Nijs, sixth on Sunday, retained the overall lead after six of eight rounds. For Vervecken, it was his third win in the series this season, after his earlier victories in Sint-Michielgestel, the Netherlands, and Hoogstraten, Belgium. In Diegem, the Belgians dominated the race from start to finish, as they have been doing all season. In the end, it came down to a final-lap battle between

Johannes Huseby notched the biggest win of his career Saturday, beating New England cyclo-cross legend Frank McCormack in a two-up sprint to the finish line at the Castor’s Cyclo-Cross race in South Kingston, Rhode Island. It wasn’t a bad day for the McCormack family, however, as brother Mark clinched the 2001 Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Series title with a third-place finish. After initiating the winning breakaway, Huseby (Independent Fabrication) had to withstand Team Saturn’s dreaded one-two McCormack punch. Huseby not only survived, but launched a series of scorching

On Sunday, the focus in Baltimore changed from cyclo-cross nationals to the SuperCup as the weekend drew to a close, but the races were no less exciting than they had been the day before. On a completely different course, newly re-crowned national champion Alison Dunlap (Clif Bar) put a cap on her weekend by completing the nationals-SuperCup double in convincing fashion, riding away from a field loaded with challengers. In the men's race, Jonathan Page (Richard Sachs) made up for a disappointing fourth-place in the nationals race by winning a fast-paced shootout that eventually boiled down to

When the clouds blew away over night, and the sun came out Saturday morning to dry the nationals cyclo-cross course in Baltimore, it looked as if some of the element of chance would be taken out of the men’s and women’s elite races at Patterson Park. Gone were the slick, muddy conditions that threw Friday’s masters races into chaos. Instead, racers on Saturday were greeted with a sure, tacky surface on a cool but sunny day. But luck would intervene nevertheless.

A day marked by sloppy conditions and sloppy racing drew to a close with an almost perfect performance, as DEVO’s Adam Craig took the men’s under-23 title at the USCF national cyclo-cross championships in Baltimore, Maryland, on Friday. Craig’s stars-and-stripes jersey was the last of 11 handed out on the first day of the nationals weekend.

World champion Erwin Vervecken led a Belgian sweep of the top four placings at the fifth round of the Superprestige cyclo-cross series in Hoogstraten, Belgium, Saturday. In a race which saw Belgian riders collect eight of the top-10 spots, Vervecken beat Mario De Clerq and Sven Nijs in the finishing stretch to chalk up his second win of the series. Vervecken and Nijs battled for most of the race before being joined by DeClerq on the last lap. Nijs was unable to match Vervecken’s finishing speed, but the 25-year-old’s third-place finish allowed him to retain the Superprestige lead with three

Reigning national champion Tim Johnson made the most of his last race in the 2001 stars-and-stripes jersey, darting away from two breakaway companions to claim victory at Round 6 of the Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Series at Wasserman Park in Merrimack, New Hampshire on Sunday. In the women’s race, Canadian Lyne Bessette picked up another ‘cross win, locking up the overall Verge championship. More importantly, she said she’s going to take the sport a bit more seriously now, and will likely compete at next month’s world championships in Belgium. Johnson had been swapping the

With the national championships just two weeks away, many of America’s best cyclo-cross riders showed up in Wayland, Massachusetts for the fifth stop of the Verge New England Cyclo-Cross Series last Saturday. In the men’s pro race, a group of 11 moved to the front early, with Todd Wells (Mongoose-Hyundai), Saturn’s Mark McCormack and Tim Johnson the most well known names. But it was Matt Svatek (Wheelworks-Cannondale) surprising the group by launching an attack that saw him go clear for two laps. But unwilling to let Svatek ride away with the race, Wells took it upon himself to reel in the

Belgian Sven Nijs made it 2-for-2 on Sunday, holding off countryman Bart Wellens to take the win at the second round of the cyclo-cross World Cup in Igorre, Spain. Two weeks ago Nijs won the World Cup opener in Monopoli, Italy. Nijs now has a 20-point lead in the overall standings of the six-race series, with Wellens in second, followed by Richard Groenendaal, Mario De Clercq and Jiri Pospisil. In the race in Spain Nijs finished with a time of 1:02:42, 50 seconds faster than Wellens. Reigning world champion Erwin Vervecken was third, at 1:25, followed by De Clercq at 1:35, and Groenendaal

Rabobank’s Sven Nijs won his second consecutive Superprestige cyclo-cross race, taking the fourth round of the series in Gieten, the Netherlands. The young Belgian beat out compatriots Bart Wellens and Tom Vannoppen. Nijs increased his lead in the overall series. He now holds a 16-point advantage over Wellens. In Gieten, Nijs took advantage of an excellent start, and only Sven Vanthourenhout and Richard Groenendaal could keep his wheel early on, but both would drop back late in the race. Wellens mounted a late challenge, but couldn’t catch Nijs, falling seven seconds short. Round 5 of the

Former world champion Richard Groenendaal (Rabobank) scored his first win of the season on Saturday at the UCI race in Coxyde, Belgium, on the North Sea. Groenendaal took a solo win, finishing 29 seconds up on world champion Erwin Vervecken (Spaarselect).

Belgian Sven Nijs won the opening round of the 2001-02 UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup in Italy Saturday with a win over fellow Belgian Bart Wellens. Italian Daniele Pontoni finished third after Erwen Vervecken and Richard Groenendaal – the 2001 and 2000 world champions – both suffered mechanical difficulties. Groenendaal led early but was slowed on the second lap when he punctured both tires. The 2000 world champion would recover to finish fourth, just over a minute off Nijs’s winning pace. Nijs took the lead just before the halfway point of the race, which took him 58 minutes and 18 seconds

Saturday's SuperCup cyclo-cross races in Chicago showed that the Bears don't have a monopoly on down-to-the-wire finishes in the Windy City. Ann Grande (Kona-Voicestream) and Marc Gullickson (Mongoose-Hyundai) both took thrilling victories that weren't decided until the final lap of the flat, grassy course in Washington Park. The two elite races gave the loud Chicago crowd a treat to go along with the beautiful, fall-like weather in the middle of November. In the women's race, the talk going in centered around Lyne Bessette's (Saturn) undefeated streak in her first season of cyclo-cross, and

Organizers of the 2002 Tour of Italy bid to put the doping scandals of 2001 behind as details of the 2002 Giro were revealed at an announcement in Milan on Saturday. The route for the 3,333.5km race over 20 stages was unveiled by Candido Cannavo, director of the sponsoring newspaper Gazzetta dello sport and race director Carmine Castellano. The 2002 Giro will cover six countries, including Italy. It begins with a 6.5km time time in the Dutch coastal town of Groningen on May 11 and the first four stages cover Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France before entering northern Italy on May 17.

Rabobank’s Sven Nijs outrode a strong group of the world’s best to win the third round of the Superprestige cyclo-cross series in Asper-Gavere, Belgium on Sunday. Nijs beat countryman Tom Vannoppen and Dutch champion Richard Groenendaal. Nijs powered through a tough course in Gavere as a member of a six-man lead group made up of five Belgians -- Nijs, Vannoppen, Bart Wellens, Mario Declercq and world champion Erwin Vervecken – as well as the Netherland’s Groenendaal. Nijs took advantage of his superior handling skills in the course’s technical sections and gradually built a small, but

It was another Saturn day in U.S. cyclo-cross on Saturday as Tim Johnson and Lyne Bessette scored wins in the elite events at Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s Chameleon cyclo-cross, another in the eastern seaboard’s large number of UCI-sanction ‘cross events. The course proved ideal for Bessette, a neophyte ‘crosser with a great road resume, as she took advantage of the long, open and largely flat course. Despite a handful of off-camber sections and a tough, but short, climb Bessette cruised to an easy win, almost as if she’d been taking on another road race. Bessette attacked right from the gun

Peter Wedge (Kona) is proving to be unbeatable when it comes to the Canadian cyclo-cross national championships, having just won his fifth consecutive title on Sunday in Edmonton, Alberta. The New Brunswick rider, who rides for Sympatico.ca on the road and Kona off-road, rode away from the 32 strong field on the second lap, never to be seen again. Mountain bike pro Andreas Hestler (Rocky Mountain) battled all race with Carter Hovey (Bolla-Bianchi) for second place, finally pulling away in the last lap and a half of the 10-lap competition. Hovey took the bronze medal. The women’s event

World champion Erwin Vervecken won the second round of the Superprestige cyclo-cross series in Sint-Michielsgestel, the Netherlands, on Sunday, outsprinting fellow Belgian Sven Nijs at the finish. Vervecken and Nijs had broken clear of the rest of the field, which was led in by another Belgian, Bart Wellens, who won the opening round of the series in Ruddervoorde, Belgium, in October. In all, Belgians took the top seven places on Sunday, with Dutchman Gerben De Knegt the first non-Belgian finisher, taking eighth. With the win, Vervecken moved into a tie for the series lead with Wellens,

With no SuperCup races west of Chicago this year, a UCI race in Boulder, Colorado, on Saturday was the next best thing, and Mongoose’s Marc Gullickson and Kona-Voicestream’s Gina Hall came away with the big wins. The men’s race came down to the wire, as Gullickson had his hands full with another local favorite, Travis Brown (Trek-VW). Gullickson had just returned home to Boulder after three weeks on the East Coast for a SuperCup and some UCI races, while Brown had only done a handful of local races this fall. But when the dust cleared after the first half of the race, it was Brown hanging

When it comes to the collegiate national mountain bike championships, everybody is chasing the state of Colorado. A year ago it was the University of Colorado at Boulder and Mesa State College taking the Division I and II team titles. This time around Fort Lewis College and the U.S. Air Force Academy pulled off the sweep at the event which took place at Plattekill Mountain in Roxbury, New York, October 26-28. The 2001 championships marked the first time in its eight-year history that the event had come to the Northeast, but that didn’t stop hundreds of athletes from schools all over the U.S.

Austrian cyclist Peter Wrolich will set his sights on the 2002 Tour de France after winning Australia's Herald Sun Tour Melbourne, Australia on Sunday. Wrolich, 27, secured his first win in the 11-day race around the state of Victoria with a 15th place in Sunday's 44-kilometer street event on the Geelong waterfront. American Dave McCook won the 44km criterium. Wrolich said his regular European employer, German squad Gerolsteiner, is re-organizing over the northern winter and will try to gain a start in next year's Tour, where Wrolich aims to be a competitor. Wrolich took over the yellow

Giro d'Italia overall champion Gilberto Simoni's spurt at the end of the penultimate lap in steady rains brought him his first victory at the Japan Cup cycling road race Utsunomiya, Japan on Sunday. The 28-year-old Italian covered the 11 laps of the 14.1-kilometer course over the 151.3km race in 4:16:58, beating Australian Cadel Evans, who took second and Christophe Brandt of Belgium, who was third. Evans and Brandt both timed 4:17:49 in a photo finish. "It was a surprise victory for me, because I hadn't expected to win," Simoni said. "I'm glad I was able to show my good performance in

The top North American cyclo-cross racers were in Amherst, Massachusetts on Saturday for Round 3 of the Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Series in search of UCI points, which will be used for U.S. world’s team selection. In the men’s elite race, an early attack saw Mark McCormack and Tim Johnson of Saturn joined by Marc Gullickson (Mongoose-Hyundai) break clear of the field on the University of Massachusetts at Amherst campus. For those in attendance last year,it was a familiar sight watching Gullickson take on the two Saturn riders. However, things didn’t go according to plan

The U.S. cyclo-cross scene continues to heat up, as an important month of racing on the East Coast continued over the weekend, with the Monkey Hill Cyclo-Cross race in Wilmington, Delaware, on Sunday. After the departure of world champion Erwin Vervecken, who dominated last weekend’s SuperCup-ECV doubleheader, the men’s race was wide open at Monkey Hill, with a national-level field assembled for the UCI race. Meanwhile, in the women’s race, Saturn’s Lyne Bessette remained undefeated in her first season of cyclo-cross. With the downsizing of the SuperCup series, other UCI-sanctioned domestic

The European Superprestige cyclo-cross series opened in Ruddervoorde, Belgium, on Sunday, with former world under-23 champion Bart Wellens taking the first series lead. Wellens scored a solo win in Ruddervoorde, 59 seconds ahead of runner-up Sven Nijs. World champion Erwin Vervecken, back from his trip to the U.S., was third, another 11 seconds back, while defending Superprestige champion Richard Groenendaal was fourth. The second round of the Superprestige series will take place November 4, in St. Michielsgestel, the Netherlands.

Not everyone came to race, but the ones who did gave the crowd in downtown Miami plenty to cheer about at the final stop of the Pro Cycling Tour on Sunday. In the men’s race in was recent Prime Alliance addition Chris Horner getting to the line first in the 85-minute, plus five laps criterium that snaked its way around a 1.4-mile circuit in the shadow of the city’s skyscrapers. The event was originally slated to run 90 minutes, but when CycleScience’s Joel Chavez crashed hard into a barrier near the end of the first lap and had to be taken to the hospital, the race was neutralized, then

Italian Danilo Di Luca of the Cantina Tollo team dominated a sprint finish to win the 95th edition of the Tour of Lombardy, the final event in the 2001 UCI World Cup road series. On-form Dutchman Erik Dekker lifted the World Cup trophy after finishing 13th in the 10th and final event. The 25-year-old Di Luca, an up-and-coming professional who was beaten by a whisker here two years ago, made sure of victory this time as he completed the rain-soaked 258km ride from Varese to Bergamo. He held off fellow escapees Giuliano Figueras (Panaria) and Michael Boogerd (Rabobank), who finished second

Nico Mattan of Cofidis won the Tour of Piedmont in northern Italy on Thursday after all but 17 riders were declassed for falling too far behind in the 190km race. Mattan was one of the instigators of the decisive breakaway, which began just 20km into the race. The leaders quickly began to build up their lead, until it exceeded 17 minutes. At the 135km mark, the lead had reached 17:40, prompting the rare decision from the race directors to force the peloton out of the race. The race directors said there was no justification for the passivity of the main field, and that they had to open parts

Italian Mirko Celestino (Saeco) won the 86th edition of Milan-Turin in Italy on Wednesday, as the European pro peloton prepared for the final World Cup classic of the year, Saturday’s Tour of Lombardy. Last year’s Milan-Turin was cancelled due to floods in northern Italy, but this year, Celestino won the 203km one-day classic, outsprinting Niki Aebersold (Coast) and Eddy Mazzoleni (Tacconi-Vini Caldirola) at the finish, after a lead group of nine went off the front on the final difficult climb, the Superga. Celestino won two World Cup races in 1999, the HEW Cyclassic and the Tour of

Home team Great Britain topped the medals chart at the world masters track championships in Manchester, England, but U.S. riders reached the top step of the podium more than anyone else. In all, the U.S. team scored 19 gold medals and 47 total, while Great Britain took 16 gold and 68 total medals. For results from the final two days of competition, click on "View Race Results."

Another world's road race is over. And, for the third year running, the blue-ribbon event came down to whom was fastest in the final straightaway. Two years ago, in Verona, Italy, a dozen riders were still together when "unknown" Spanish rider Oscar Freire sprinted out of the last turn to win by four seconds. In 2000, at Plouay, France, there were two dozen that fought out the finish, with Latvian Romans Vainsteins taking the sprint and Freire in third. Now, in Lisbon, Portugal, almost four dozen riders were still together to contest the finish -- an unimaginable outcome for a race that had

Erwin Vervecken and Lyne Bessette each made it 2-for-2 for the weekend by winning the second stop of the ECV Cyclo-Cross series on Sunday at Stage Fort Park in Gloucester, Massachusetts. A day earlier, the pair took victory in the opening round of the SuperCup series held on a slightly different track at the same seaside park in the famous New England fishing town.

It’s called 24 Hours of Moab, but it actually took the Trek-Volkswagen team of Travis Brown, Chris Eatough, Sue Haywood and Alison Sydor 25 hours and two minutes to take the Coed Pro/Am title in one of the most exciting 24-hour team races to date. After 25 hours of four-person relay racing (two male, two female) in the Utah desert, it all came down to a last-lap showdown between Sydor, a 24-hour rookie despite her three world titles and multiple World Cup wins, and Gretchen Reeves of Team Beaver Creek II. When Brown finished the team’s 21st lap at 11:53 a.m. on Sunday and handed the baton

After losing the junior men's time trial by 44 hundredths of a second last Wednesday, 18-year-old Oleksandr Kvachuk from Ukraine was in tears. So close, but so far. On Saturday, Kvachuk put that disappointment behind him and made a blistering solo break, to win the 121km road race by 1:07 over a chase group of four that was brought home by Dutchman Niels Scheuneman — whose silver medal joins the bronze he scored in the time trial. Commenting on his win, Kvachuk said, "After the time trial I was sad -- so today I decided to show that I am a real champion." He proved that with an astonishing

In a long career at the elite level Lithuanian twin Rasa Polikeviciute has almost won a host of big races -- a time-trial bronze medal at last year's world's, second at the women's Tour de France in 1994 and ’96, a silver medal in the road race at the 1996 world's, and third overall at this year's Hewlett-Packard Challenge and the Tour of Tuscany. Finally, on Saturday afternoon, the 31-year-old sprinted to her own rainbow jersey in an ultimately exciting elite women's 121km road race. Polikeviciute knew she was in good form -- fourth in the time trial on Wednesday -- but as she said: "In the

One has nearly a lifetime’s worth of experience. The other was riding in the second cyclo-cross race her career. Still, the results were the same, as reigning world champion Erwin Vervecken and ‘cross newby Lyne Bessette walked away with wins at the opening round of the SuperCup series on a foggy Saturday afternoon in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

After taking her second rainbow jersey of the week, and her fourth world title in 12 months, Nicole Cooke said something quite insightful about the key to her amazing success. The defending junior women's road race champion was asked if she had an idol. After thinking for a few seconds, she replied, "Not really.... I set my own targets rather than following the lead of others." And that's exactly what the 18-year-old Brit did in the six-lap, 72.6km race on Friday morning. After the 64 starters rode as a pack for two easy laps, they reached the start of the main climb on lap 3. Feeling

He's only 21, but Yaroslav Popovich from Ukraine already seems like a seasoned veteran. And he should fit right into the pro peloton when he joins the Domo team next year. One quality that will stand him in good stead in the paid ranks is his ability to overcome the pressure of expectation. He was expected to win Friday's grueling under-23 road race -- and he did. A year ago, he came up short by three seconds at the world's, beaten into second place by the young Russian Evgeni Petrov. And if Popovich hadn't had to race the final lap-and-a-half stuck in the 53 chainring after his front

Results from day 4 of the world master's track championships in Manchester, England. Click on "View race results."

With 6.2km remaining of Thursday's elite men's time trial, at the high point of the Lisbon course, 770 feet above sea level, it looked as though the race was over. Leading the 38.7km world championship by seven seconds over Colombia's Santiago Botero was Britain's David Millar, while prerace favorite Jan Ullrich seemed to be fighting a losing battle in third place, 10 seconds back. All that remained was a steep descent, a short uphill and a fast downhill to a tail-wind run to the finish, 500 feet below. And when Millar crossed the line to improve Botero's earlier best time of 52:01 by five

The world masters track championships continue this week in Manchester, England. The U.S. continued its strong performance, with American riders picking up five more gold medals on day 3. For results from day 3, click on "View race results."

In what was probably the closest finish in any world time trial championship, only 78 hundredths of a second covered the first three finishers in Wednesday morning's junior men's event. The one who came up lucky in the 19.2km time trial was Jurgen Van den Broeck, a pale-faced, crewcut, 18-year-old who bec ame the first Belgian to win any sort of medal at a world's time trial. He beat runner-up Oleksandr Kvachuk from Ukraine by less than half-a-second, while Dutchman Niels Scheuneman took the bronze medal.

Even Jeannie Longo herself said it! "This title was more emotional than the others ... the crowning of my career,” said the veteran French phenom after taking the 13th world championship in her illustrious career. Why so emotional? "Well, you know my age," added Longo, who will be 43 on October 31. It was also emotional for the manner in which she snatched the elite women's time-trial by four-tenths of a second over the startling Swiss racer Nicole Brändli -- who was just six years old when Longo won her first rainbow jersey 16 years ago! Brändli set out like a rocket on the 19.2km course

The U.S. took home five gold medals in the opening two days of competition at the world masters track championships in Manchester, England. On the men’s side, Keith Harrison (60-64) and Stan Gregg (55-59) won their respective 500-meter time trials, while Alphonso Whaley took gold in the 40-44 750-meter time trial. On the women’s side, Linelle Betts (45-49) and Suzie Tignor (35-39) won their 500-meter time trials. For results from Manchester, click on "View Race Results."

A year ago in the road world’s at Plouay. France, the petite but powerful Nicole Cooke gave Britain a startling gold medal in the junior women’s road race. She expected to win, and in her press conference said that she was very upset that she hadn’t been allowed to ride at the Sydney Olympics -– she was too young. Cooke was clearly a young woman who knew what she wanted and seemed determined to go places. This year, her rabid ambition took her to the world junior women’s cross-country title at Vail a few weeks ago, and on Tuesday morning in Lisbon, Portugal, she added a third rainbow jersey

American Danny Pate won the men's under-23 world championship time-trial in Lisbon, Portugal Tuesday. Pate was an easy winner posting a time 38 seconds faster than silver medallist Sebastian Lang of Germany, while South Africa's James Perry was just one-third a second slower than Lang. Pate later said he’d had difficulty setting aside thoughts of the tragic events of September 11 as he prepared for the world championships.

The National Racing Calendar is drawing to a close, with the final weeks of racing hitting the south and southeast regions of the country. This past weekend saw a pair of NRC events, the Mercy Celebrity Classic in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and the CycleFest 2001 in West Palm Beach, Florida. At the Mercy Celebrity Classic, Chris Horner (Prime Alliance) and Rachel Purvis (Athlete’s by Design) took the men’s and women’s races respectively. In West Palm Beach, Ivan Dominguez (Saturn) and Rebecca McClintock (jane Cosmetics) took the wins in the NRC event on Sunday. Sunday’s Bill Bone Grand Prix NRC

It wasn’t the expected sprinter who won the 95th Paris-Tours in France on Sunday, it was a climber. And it wasn’t just any climber, it was Frenchman Richard Virenque, who pulled off a major personal coup in winning the second-to-last race of the 2001 UCI World Cup series. Virenque, formerly of Festina and now riding for Domo-Farm Frites, just returned to competitive racing in August after serving a lengthy suspension from the sport after the Festina doping scandal of 1998. Spaniard Oscar Freire (Mapei-Quick Step) finished second in Sunday’s 254.5km race in France, and German sprinting ace

A trio of one-day classics in Italy last weekend gave a late indication on how the world road championship will play out on October 14 in Lisbon. First, Russian champion Dmitri Konyshev, 35, led home a five-man breakaway in the uphill finish to a fast, tough Coppa Sabatini. Then, in the very hilly Tour of Emilia, Olympic and German champion Jan Ullrich broke clear with Italian standouts Davide Rebellin and Francesco Casagrande — and then outsprinted them for the win. And finally Belgium's 38-year-old Andreï Tchmil joined a late attack, jumped away from them with a kilometer to go, and held

Las Vegas, the beacon in the desert, is a particularly bright one for the bicycle industry in this challenging year. Coming into the fall, the bike business was already reeling from high-profile bankruptcies like Schwinn and GT and from having many other companies on life support. Then came September 11, and it seemed unlikely that many would even be willing to fly to Las Vegas for the major selling event of the entire year and the only time that small and mid-sized companies get to put their products in front of bike dealers. The heaving of a collective sigh of relief was almost audible

Here’s a look at Saturday and Sunday’s action at the track world championships from Antwerp, Belgium. — Frenchman Arnaud Tournant upset pre-race predictions to win the world sprint title on Saturday, the main event of the world track championships. The 23-year-old from Roubaix near the Belgian border dominated compatriot and race favorite Laurent Gane over three heats after Gane won the first round and Tournant pulled level in the second. Another Frenchman, Olympic keirin champion Florian Rousseau grabbed bronze after he beat Germany's Jens Fielder in the match for third place. Gane, the

In the final day of competition at the world track championships in Antwerp, Belgium, a dramatic keirin final ended with only two men left upright. Australian Ryan Bayley was first across the line ahead of France’s Laurent Gane. The other four finalists — Jens Fiedler, Jobie Dajka, Pavel Buran and Florian Rousseau — were lying in a tangle of bikes and bodies on the back straight. The high-speed pile-up saw bike parts and riders flying through the air. Fiedler ran the final 125 meters carrying his bike to become possibly the first track cyclist to win a world bronze medal on foot. France’s

There were tears of joy and tears of disappointment Sunday in the final stage of the 56th Vuelta a Espana. U.S. Postal’s Levi Leipheimer broke down in tears moments after finishing second in the 38km time trial and discovering he passed teammate Roberto Heras to vault onto the final podium, the first-ever American finish in the top-three of the three-week Spanish tour. Kelme’s Oscar Sevilla shed tears of disappointment after forfeiting the race leader’s jersey to rival Angel Casero in the 21st stage and losing the 3012km race by just 47 seconds. Casero cemented the biggest victory of his

After 20 stages and more than 1,800 miles of racing, the 56th Vuelta a España will be decided in Sunday’s final 23.5-mile individual time trial. Saturday’s final climbing stage, the 112-mile 20th stage featuring two category-one climbs up Alto de Abantos high in the mountains north of Madrid, failed to rattle race leader Oscar Sevilla (Kelme), who retained his 25-second lead over Festina’s Angel Casero. Giro d’Italia champion Gilberto Simoni (Lampre) sprinted ahead of iBanesto.com Jose Maria Jimenez on the final switchback to win while U.S. Postal’s Jose Luis Rubiera crossed the line third

Nancy Contreras gave Mexico its first ever world championship victory when she won the women's 500-meter time trial at Antwerp, Belgium on Saturday afternoon. Contreras, 23, was fastest over the first 250 metres, clocking 19.539 and finished strongly in 34.996. A student of languages based at Metepec, some 70 kilometers from Mexico City, Contreras' previous international performances include a silver medal in the Pan American Games. Her husband and coach, Guillermo Guteirrez, was in tears as Contreras received the rainbow jersey. Canada's Lori-Ann Muenther followed her sprint bronze by

Swiss six-day star Bruno Risi took the world points race title for the fourth time in nine years at the Antwerp Sportpaleis on Saturday evening. Risi controlled the race throughout. He led a nine-man group that lapped the field just before half distance and built an unbeatable points score. Argentina’s Juan Curuchet took the silver after finishing the 40-kilometer race in the same lap as Risi but with six fewer sprint points. Franz Stocher of Austria placed third, a further six points in arrears. America’s only rider, Jame Carney, led the race on points in the early stages but missed the

The Vuelta a España’s “other American” -- Guido Trenti -- won Friday’s transition stage while the favorites held their ammunition in check for this weekend’s shootout. With everyone looking forward to the final battle for the overall title of the 56th Vuelta on Saturday and Sunday, it was a perfect day for a breakaway. The peloton followed the script perfectly. Rabobank’s Karsten Kroon and ONCE’s Mikel Zarrabeitia were the first to instigate the break just 30 miles into Friday’s 168-km (112-mile) 19th stage from Cuenca to Guadalajara. Other riders quickly bridged out to form a group of

Tammy Thomas came within one race of achieving her dream in her debut at the track world championships in Antwerp, Belgium on Friday. But instead the 31-year-old personal fitness instructor from Mississippi took the silver medal on her first world championship appearance. Thomas had to settle for a silver medal, after being beaten 2-0 by Russia’s Svetlana Grankovskaia in the best-of-three sprint finals. "I just didn’t have the legs in the race for the gold," Thomas lamented. "She was faster than me and I just couldn’t get it done. I’m happy with the silver though. This makes my

For more than two weeks, the numerous Italians in the peloton seemed more interested in chatting with the gorgeous Vuelta a España podium girls than winning stages. The flirting stopped long enough during Thursday’s 95-mile 18th stage from Albacete to Cuenca for an Italian finally to score, a stage victory that is. Cantina Tollo’s Filippo Simeoni profited by an untimely crash by iBanesto.com Santi Blanco, who held a comfortable margin over a 12-man breakaway but slipped on an oil patch while descending off a category-three climb just 12 km from the finish. Simeoni was the lead chaser and

First-time world championship rider Tammy Thomas won through to the last four of the women’s sprint in Antwerp, Belgium on Thursday. Beaten by Germany’s Susan Panzer in the first match of the quarterfinals, Thomas hit back to level the scores and then won the decider with an attacking ride from the front, clocking 12.257 and 12.435 seconds. Also through to the semis is Canada’s Lori-Ann Muenzer, who took the first match against Szilvia Szabolcsi (Hungary) only to be relegated to second place for straying across the sprinters line. Unfazed by the upset, Muenzer took no chances in the two

The winds of change blew through the 56th Vuelta a España and it was the U.S. Postal Service team at the center of the storm. With 35 km to go in the 159-km 17th stage, U.S. Postal Service attacked hard and split the group in the windy flats from Murcia to Albacete across Spain’s barren meseta. Juan Miguel Mercado (ibanesto.com), who started the day third, and David Plaza (Festina), who started fifth overall, were among the casualties. Postal kept driving and finished 1 minute, 12 seconds ahead the second group. Lampre’s Robert Hunter bounded out of the lead group to take his second

The first rainbow jersey of the 2001 World Track Championship went to Arnaud Tournant of France who won the kilometer time trial for the fourth straight year. Tournant, the final starter in the 21-rider field brought the event to a thrilling climax with a time 1 minute, 2.571 seconds, for a clear victory over last year’s silver medalist, German Soren Lausberg who clocked a 1:03.363 on Tuesday in Antwerp, Belgium. Tournant was the huge favorite, having dominated the event for the past four years since taking Australian Shane Kelly's title in 1998. But the Frenchman went one better than

The 56th Vuelta a España entered its final week with another fast day in the saddle in Tuesday’s 153-km (95-mile) 16th stage that finished well under the expected time following Monday’s rest day. Domo’s Tomas Konecny was fastest to the line while Kelme’s Oscar Sevilla easily retained the overall lead for the sixth day. U.S. Postal’s Roberto Heras and Levi Leipheimer remained in their respective fourth and sixth places overall. A steady breeze pushed the peloton along at a brisk pace to the day’s major obstacle, the category-two Cresta del Gallo just 13 kilometers from the finish line in

Jonas Carney (Prime Alliance) and Jenny Eyerman (jane Cosmetics) won the pro men’s and women’s races at the Mercury Cycling Classic of Irvine in California on Sunday. Held on a 1.5-mile loop at the Irvine Spectrum in Orange County in front of Mercury's newly-opened international headquarters, each lap included nine turns and an out-and-back section. With the Saturn Cycling Team virtually absent from the inaugural event, the racing was wide open. In the 90-minute men's race, Pro Cycling Tour leader Trent Klasna was the only member of the Saturn team in attendance. He faced domestic powers

Chris Eatough called it the "toughest race" he’d ever done, and Mary Grigson likely would have agreed. But that didn’t stop the pair from taking the 2001 24-hour solo world championship titles at Hurkey Creek Park in Idyllwild, California, on Sunday. Things didn’t go so well for some of the other race favorites, however, as reigning 24-hour national champion Tinker Juarez dropped out after completing just five laps, and mountain-biking legend Rishi Grewal was good for just seven laps before he bowed out. The primary culprit for all those troubles was the heat. Temperatures topped out near

Sunday’s 207-km (128-mile) 15th stage was the longest of the 56th Vuelta a España and the accumulation of the kilometers two weeks into the race took its toll on the peloton. It was a good day for U.S. Postal Service but a bad one for Levi Leipheimer, whose chances of finishing on the final podium suffered a setback when he lost contact with the lead group on the final climb to the beyond-category Alto de Aitana. The miles didn’t slow down Milaneza’s Klaus Moller, who followed an attack by U.S. Postal’s Jose Luis Rubiera all the way to the top of the beyond-category Alto de Aitana. “I used