Road Racing

There were no major surprises as the U.S. Postal Service team announced its line-up for the upcoming Tour de France. Joining two-time defending champion Lance Armstrong will be three Americans — Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie and Christian Vande Velde; Spaniards Roberto Heras and Jose Luis Rubiera; Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov; Norwegian Steffen Kjaergaard; and Colombian Victor Hugo Pena. The full text of the team’s announcement follows: U.S. POSTAL SERVICE PRO CYCLING TEAM TOUR DE FRANCE TEAM ANNOUNCED Choosing from what he called were 10 valid candidates, the United States Postal Service

When Lance Armstrong enters the start house at the prologue of this year’s Tour de France, he’ll not only be the two-time defending champion, but for the first time in his career he will be the UCI’s world No. 1 ranked rider. The UCI issued its latest rankings on Monday, with Armstrong moving into the top spot, ahead of Liquigas’s Davide Rebellin, thanks to Armstrong’s win at the recent Tour of Switzerland. Telekom’s Erik Zabel is third, with Giro d’Italia winner Gilberto Simoni fourth. UCI road rankings(at July 2)1. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 2098pts 2. Davide Rebellin

Saturday’s stage 3 of the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, saw Saturn hold onto both the men’s and women’s overall leads, while 7UP-Colorado Cyclist’s John Lieswyn and RONA’s Genevieve Jeanson scored the stage wins. In the women’s race, Jeanson attacked early on in the six-lap, 69-mile race, followed by race leader Lyne Bessette (Saturn) and Jane Cosmetics’ Susan Palmer-Komar. On the hot, humid day, the three built up a lead of nearly four minutes, but when Jeanson and Bessette began playing cat-and-mouse, Palmer-Komar took advantage, launching a solo breakaway of her

Telekom’s Jan Ullrich was one of the many national champions crowned on Sunday, as he won the German national championship in Bad Duerrheim, Germany, breaking clear to beat teammate Erik Zabel by 10 seconds. Among the other new national champions were Ludovic Capelle (Belgium), Daniele Nardello (Italy), Didier Rous (Bonjour) and Mercury-Viatel’s Jans Koerts.

France's Laurent Gané took the match sprint title as the World Track Cup continued Saturday in Pordenone, Italy. Other winners included Belarus's Natalia Markovnitchenko in the women's match sprint and Russia's Olga Slioussareva in the women's pursuit. American Tanya Lindenmuth took fourth place in the match sprint, losing to Oxana Grichina in the bronze-medal match.

Slovenia, France, West Virginia, Utah. Steve Peat doesn’t care, he just keeps winning. The moptop Brit continued his win streak at round 3 of the NORBA series in the high alpine air of Deer Valley, Utah, Sunday. To keep the tear alive, Peat had to get past his main rival Nicolas Vouilloz, as well as two-time defending champion at Deer Valley, Chris Kovarik (Intense) of Australia. In the women’s race, Missy Giove (Global) had a wild ride on the loose, dusty 1.5-mile course to beat the Schwinn duo of Elke Brutsaert and Leigh Donovan. For Peat and Vouilloz, there was little pressure, as both

Friday’s stage 2 of the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, saw no change in the overall standings, as Mercury’s Baden Cooke won the men’s 77.5-mile circuit race and Genevieve Jeanson of RONA won the women’s 40.3-mile race. Jeanson beat out Bessette in a big group finish, with Verizon’s Laura Van Gilder third, but the RONA rider could only pick up a few seconds on the day thanks to time bonuses. Jeanson now trails Bessette by 47 seconds In the men’s race, team Saturn was able to hold the race together for race leader Eric Wohlberg, and the race ended with Mercury’s Cooke

Olympic gold medalist Marty Nothstein continues to show his versatility this season, with his latest showing coming at the World Track Cup in Pordenone, Italy, where he scored the silver medal in the kilometer. Nothstein clocked a time of 1:05.890, to finish second behind German Soren Lausberg. In other action on Friday, German Thomas Liese won the gold in the individual pursuit.

The only thing swirling faster than the dust at Deer Valley Saturday afternoon were the short-track racers careening around the base area of the Park City ski resort. The crash-filled men’s race resembled a roller derby, and the women’s race produced a first win for a consistent podium finisher. In the end, Subaru-Gary Fisher’s confident 21-year-old Ryder Hesjedal capped off a stellar weekend with the win, and Jimena Florit (RLX Polo Sport) finally scored what she’s been chasing since short track was invented. In an explosive men’s race, Hesjedal, who also won Friday’s cross-country, dodged

The Saturday night dual slalom is always a show at the Chevy Trucks National Championship Series, and this Saturday’s showdown at Deer Valley lived up to its billing. The red-hot Leigh Donovan (Schwinn) remained undefeated in 2001 with her third straight win, and the men’s race — which featured such compelling battles as Brian Lopes versus Nicolas Vouilloz — was won by another legend, Eric Carter (Mongoose-Hyundai). And if all that weren’t enough, Shaun Palmer was there. To watch. For an example of what the hillside crowd was treated to at the end of a hot day at Deer Valley, consider the

The Saturday night dual slalom is always a show at the Chevy Trucks National Championship Series, and this Saturday’s showdown at Deer Valley lived up to its billing. The red-hot Leigh Donovan (Schwinn) remained undefeated in 2001 with her third straight win, and the men’s race — which featured such compelling battles as Brian Lopes versus Nicolas Vouilloz — was won by another legend, Eric Carter (Mongoose-Hyundai). And if all that weren’t enough, Shaun Palmer was there. To watch. For an example of what the hillside crowd was treated to at the end of a hot day at Deer Valley, consider the

The traditional four-day start-of-summer/Fourth of July stage race in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, got underway on Thursday, with team Saturn taking the top spots in both the men’s and women’s stage 1 time trial. Eric Wohlberg took the men’s race while Lyne Bessette won the women’s opener at the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic. Bessette’s win marked the start of a four-day showdown with Canadian teenage sensation Genevieve Jeanson (RONA). Jeanson, who has been virtually unbeatable in her carefully selected season schedule, began the time trial one minute ahead of Bessette, the recent winner of the HP

With 1998 winner Marco Pantani uninvited, this 88th Tour de France has the look of a two-horse race, at best. Other than '97 winner and three-time runner-up Jan Ullrich, the rest of defending champion Lance Armstrong's potential rivals look to be too inexperienced, too old - or they're on Armstrong's team! Upsets do happen. But not this year. So here is our assessment of each contender's strengths and weaknesses: 1. Lance Armstrong (USA), 29, U.S. Postal Service plus: The two-time defending champion says: Catch me if you can! His team is stronger than last year, particularly in the

A second phase of the Tour de France begins today, the morning after the Tour’s first rest day. And what a bizarre and time-warped Tour de France it is -- similar to a Pepe le Moko clock about which legendary cycling historian Pierre Chany once wrote: "When the clock strikes noon, it’s 10 o’clock or 3 o’clock, or even 5 o’clock!" In other words, this "second" Tour is not the same for everyone. If you had to place bets this morning, you could imagine that of the riders in front and the riders behind, the riders ahead are not necessarily those who are best-placed on G.C. For example, consider

It was as if a bomb had exploded on the race: Raymond Poulidor had dropped Eddy Merckx! At 38, the man who writer Antoine Blondin nicknamed "the quadragenarian" had attacked the Belgian legend as they started climbing a mountain that was new to the Tour, but would become infamous from the moment that Poulidor left the master behind. That’s because in this month of July 1974, the battle that unfolded between Seo de Urgel and St. Lary-Soulan -- with the climbs of the Col du Portillon and the Col de Peyresourde, followed by the first-ever finish at the Pla d’Adet summit, at an elevation of 1680

Like kids the first day back at school, they arrive in droves, some laughing, some frowning, but all talking about the mountains with some trepidation. Mountains that embrace the sprinters when the clock strikes 11 but spit them out at the start of the evening, with legs as leaden as a ship’s anchor! Mountains that invite in the climbers and play with them, make fun of them, leaving them to curse in a loud voice, humiliated — but only for a while, because their anger subsides as their muscles stiffen. What time is it now? Two o’clock? Three o’clock? It must be 3 because they’ve already

Is this a third Tour de France that begins today? At first, the idea may make you smile, but the day after the second rest day, what sprinter doesn’t want to take the idea literally? And what sprinter doesn’t dream, on reading the race bible, of marking the race with his imprint and winning a stage? Remaining for the fast finishers are today’s stage to Lavaur, tomorrow’s at Sarran, Thursday’s at Montluçon, Saturday’s at Evry and, of course, Sunday’s in Paris, the toughest to win. Five of the six final stages have been laid out to please sprinters, a race that’s been invisible since July 16,

For sure, he will be there, and perhaps from the start in Castelsarrasin, capital of France’s Tarn-et-Garonne region, which like the finish town of Sarran is welcoming the Tour for the first time. According to some sources, he will follow the entire route in the flagship vehicle seated next to Jean-Marie Leblanc, the race director. Others insist that he will arrive incognito and watch the race from the roadside, like so many of his predecessors. Still others tell us that he will head for kilometer 157, at Les Escures, where the Tour enters the Corrèze region. In any case, from the first to

Not so long ago, when the Agrigel-La Creuse-Fenioux team was in the peloton with Thierry Marie and Jacky Durand at its head, they would have regarded this stage as their private hunting ground. Following a proven technique, Durand would offer to attack early on, Marie to leave the field at a certain kilometer. Once together, and riding into the Creuse region, they would have had tremendous fun, and we want to believe that they would’ve found some support. To borrow a line from Molière, "The two of them are as thick as thieves." There couldn’t be a better setting for all this, as the Creuse

Since a certain Greg LeMond took out Laurent Fignon in the final moments of the 1989 Tour, thus imitating Jan Janssen in 1968 and Jacques Anquetil in 1964, everyone demands that the Tour’s final time trial have some degree of drama. Yet this requirement is rarely well received; the Tour plays tricks in its own way, and that way may not necessarily be the way one expects! Besides, how can we demand suspense for the finale, given that a successful Tour de France assumes that the time spent in the mountains has revealed the best riders? And unless we envision that the Alpe d’Huez stage was a

This is a very short stage (149.5km) that on paper appears misplaced in every way! So close to the Champs-Elysées, and so compressed, is it really a stage? The racers will let us know. But will they say the same as the race followers? That’s another question, but we are free to imagine these followers bent over their race bibles, looking at the day’s program. The day begins in the city of Orléans, an old companion of cycling, which has seen Tour stage wins by Frenchmen Jean Stablinski (in 1964) and Pierre Beuffeuil (1966); and Belgians Eddy Merckx and Michel Pollentier (both in 1974). With

The questions that we were asking three weeks ago have since found their answers, questions about race contenders Armstrong, Ullrich, Heras and Casagrande; about Zabel, the man seeking a sixth green jersey, and Laurent Jalabert, the flag-carrier of French cycling. The report card is ready, and we now know whether the American has become a three-time Tour winner, matching his compatriot Greg LeMond. We also know how the race shaped up, and whether the organizers dealt us some winning cards. "This will be a very complete Tour, with a prologue, 10 flat stages, three semi-mountain stages, four

There will be only one American team at the Tour de France this year, Lance Armstrong’s U.S. Postal Service formation. The expected debut by Mercury-Viatel was thwarted in May by the Tour organizers’ jingoistic wild-card choice of two extra Division II French teams, as opposed to a second Division I team from the U.S. Despite that, there could still be as many as nine Americans on the start line in Dunkirk. Here is a quick look at each of them, with a review of their 2001 preparation and prospects. Lance ArmstrongAge: 29Height: 5 ft. 11 in. Weight: 165 lbs.Hometown: Austin, TXTeam: U.S.

One prologue. Twenty stages. Two rest days. 3454 kilometers. The joy of finishing in Paris: Priceless.

The post-Tour de France criterium on the streets of Manhattan has been canceled, according to an announcement issued by the promoters. On Tuesday, Threshold Sports announced that the New York City Cycling Championship, scheduled for August 2, will not be held this year, stating that it had been "rescheduled from August, 2001, to August, 2002." The text of the announcement follows: In order to better meet planning and timing needs of key sponsors and thereby ensure a truly world class event, the First Annual New York City Professional Cycling Championship has been rescheduled from August,

Editor's note: Jen Dial, riding as a teammate of Jeannie Longo on Office Depot at the HP Women's Challenge, is providing an inside-the-race look at the biggest women's stage race in America. The latest from her diary: Why is it that every time I climb to the top of the 8,700 ft peak at Galena I end up with a needle in my arm? It probably has to do with the fact that I live as close to sea level as a person can get without being in the water. Still, after the climb up and the race down the other side I'm in much better shape than I was in my first HP Women's Challenge in

There was yet another repeat winner at the USCF elite national track championships on Saturday morning. Jame Carney won his second straight national crown in the men’s points race at the National Sports Center Velodrome in Blaine, Minnesota. Carney has now won the title five times (1991, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2001). Saturday’s race came down to a battle between Carney, Prime Alliance teammate Colby Pearce, and NetZero’s Mike Tillman. The trio was part of a four-rider break that got away from the field in the early going and quickly put a lap on the field. The break’s other member was Tim

News flash: Marty Nothstein actually lost a race at the USCF elite track national championships. But before that happened the Olympic gold medalist added to his unprecedented cache of stars-and-strips jerseys by taking the top spot in the Keirin. That win gave Nothstein his 30th national title, one for every year of his life. In the Keirin final Nothstein was content to sit back during the moto-paced lead-out laps. But when the small motorcycle dropped off the track it was on, and as usual so was Nothstein. The 30-year-old seems to possess a gear not in his foe’s repertoires and he showed it

It sounds outrageous, but one more national title and Marty Nothstein will have a stars-and-stripes jersey for every year of his life. On Friday night the 30-year-old added title No. 29 when he took the men’s sprint at the USCF elite track national championships at the National Sports Center Velodrome in Blaine, Minnesota. It was his third title at these championships. Already he’s won the kilometer time trail and the Olympic sprint. He’ll get the chance to add No. 30 on Saturday when he competes in the Madison. Like so many of the others, Friday night’s win came easy. After advancing to

Hold on. The Tour hasn't started yet! But when it does, we'll offer minute-by-minute coverage of each stage, with info pouring in from our three editors in France. On the Continent for VeloNews.com at the 88th TDF will be:Bryan Jew, Senior WriterLennard Zinn, Senior Tech WriterJohn Wilcockson, VeloNews Editorial Director. If you've been on our site at all this season, you've seen their bylines on countless race reports and features. Ditto if you read the print edition of VeloNews. Relax. The race begins in less than a week. You're in the right spot to satisfy your Tour jones.

Tanya Lindenmuth’s stranglehold on women’s sprinting in America continued on Friday morning at the USCF elite track national championships. The diminutive 22-year-old from Trexlertown, Pennsylvania easily dispatched Jennie Reed in back-to-back heats to win her third straight national championship at the National Sports Center Velodrome in Blaine, Minnesota. "Jennie let me keep the front and that’s dangerous with me," Lindenmuth said. "I like to ride up there and today that worked for me." Earlier in the week Lindenmuth won her third straight 500-meter time trail title, giving her six

Day 3 of the five-day USCF elite track national championships came to an abrupt halt at 6:35 p.m. local time when ever-threatening skies finally opened up and drenched the track at the National Sports Center velodrome in Blaine, Minnesota. Racing was immediately postponed until Friday, because even if the rain had receded quickly, there was no hope of the wooden track drying during the nighttime session. The men’s sprint 1/8th final was the only portion of the evening’s program contested. Those moving on to the next round were Olympic gold medalist Marty Nothstein, Garth Blackburn, Giddeon

Marty Nothstein added another national title to his resume Tuesday at the Great River Energy USCF track nationals in Blaine, Minnesota. While you might expect to see Nothstein, America’s only Olympic gold medalist in cycling at the 2000 Sydney Games, walk through the sprint competitions, his newest title is in the kilometer time trial. "I haven’t been able to spend much time on the track since the Olympics, but things came together," said Nothstein. "I didn’t consider myself the favorite out here today and I haven’t ridden the kilo in a long time. I really didn’t feel any pressure but I

I had not realized how much I had wanted to believe in Dario Frigo until the news came of his departure from the race. For weeks, I had been attending daily press conferences with him – every day that he was in the pink jersey and after his time trial stage win. I had started mulling over in my mind what I would be writing about him on Sunday night or Monday to wrap up the Giro in VeloNews. I would have been writing, whether he had managed to take back the jersey on the (cancelled) stage 18 or stage 20 or not, about what a breath of fresh air he had been. This young man’s appeal was

The Giro is continuing as scheduled today, although the atmosphere is almost surreal. At the start, it was if nothing had happened, yet everything had. There were crowds there as usual, the sign-in happened as usual, and riders hung out in the tent city next to the sign-in booth... all just as usual. What was different was the subject of every conversation going on, whether it was among the riders in the start village or among people in the cafés. Nobody was talking about whether Simoni would win the Giro or who would win this stage. Everyone was talking about the drug scandal. Even

After a gut-wrenching break from it, the riders got back to business today, and if anything is business as usual at the Giro, it is Mario Cipollini crossing the line with his arms upraised after a beautifully executed sprint. Marco Zanotti and Danilo Hondo followed the Lion King in after the 163km stage to Busto Arsizio. Marco Pantani had gone home the night before complaining of the flu, and Rik Verbrugghe also did not show up at sign-in. Otherwise, the setting was normal, but at the start in Alba the subject of every conversation among riders, fans, journalists and officials was the same,

Dinner started normally enough for me and my family in the San Remo Panrama Hotel. Across the dining room sat the iBanesto.com team, eating huge dinners of pasta, tortillas and steaks. The waiter asked the riders to sign a team photo for his daughter. After obliging, the riders slowly filtered off to bed before the toughest stage of the Giro. The team managers, soigneurs and drivers continued to relax around the dinner table, having dessert and talking, when a guy in normal street clothes came in. My wife poked me and said, "That guy is flashing his police badge at those Banesto guys." Other

Here in Vinadio, where the most difficult and perhaps most beautiful stage of the Giro was to finish, the mood is somber. The little girls proudly dressed in their bright course marshal’s vests are walking around perplexed, not understanding the explanation of why the riders won’t be coming through and everyone is leaving. People are descending from the mountain in droves – the sheer number of them that had made the trip up this remote, high and narrow road is mind-boggling – and without getting to see any of what they came for. It was heart-wrenching to see the effort that this small

The Commercial Color U.S. Women's Open will take place June 8 in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. The event will attract professional women riders from all over the world, and will also kick off the Women's Health and Fitness Weekend at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome, which will pay tribute to Nicole Reinhart, who died last September after a crash during a race in Arlington, Massachusetts. Friday night the "Spirit of Nicole" award, $3000 in scholarship money and prizes, will be presented to the rider who exudes the qualities which Reinhart exemplified during her everyday life and through her

First Union week continues on Thursday evening with the fastest of the three races, the 91-mile First Union Classic in Trenton, New Jersey. The flat, fast, 7-mile circuit seems to ensure a field sprint finish year after year, while the high speeds string out the peloton for most of the three-hour race, making positioning crucial throughout the race. Defending champion Fred Rodriguez (Domo-Farm Frites) will be on hand to try to defend his title, but a loaded Mercury-Viatel team, fresh off its Lancaster win, will be tough to beat. The race begins on State Street in Trenton, in front of the New

5:41 Caucchioli wins his second stage of this Giro d'Italia. Azevado takes second and Telekom's Jan Ullrich leads the chase group by taking third, 27 seconds later. There will be no change in the overall standings, as both race leader Gilberto Simoni (Lampre) and his nearest challenger, Dario Frigo (Fassa Bortolo) finished in the main group at 39 seconds. Stay tuned for a complete race report, coming up. 5:40p.m. Nearing the finish, the two are being chased by a trio including Jan Ullrich. 5:39 p.m. The two leaders are in San Remo and heading to the finish. While Azevado has been

Riva del Garda, a small town at the northern tip of Lake Garda, has become one of Europe’s major mountain-bike Meccas over the past decade, largely due to the spectacular trails coming down the mountains overlooking the dark waters of the deep, narrow Alpine lake nestled in Italy’s northern border. For the last eight years, Riva has hosted a springtime mountain-bike festival and manufacturer show that this year attracted around 10,000 visitors, mostly from Germany. Mountain bikers filled the town for five days and tried their legs en masse on the second day of the festival in an off-road

Salient features: The Deda Magic bar has a 31.8mm clamping area (rather than the standard 26.0mm) and comes in a medium-depth ergo bend or a deep-drop round bend. The bar has a "K.E.T." (Kinetic Energy Treatment) that hardens the metal by "bomb-peening" it with heavy shot. The Magic stem is cold-forged in three dimensions, a process that allows Deda to create unique shapes without compromising the strength-to-weight ratio. Likes: The stiffness of this stem and bar combination is immediately noticeable, especially in long sizes. When sprinting or climbing out the saddle there is no noticeable

Gilberto Simoni once again showed attentiveness, sharp wits, courage and great descending skills to turn a sudden rainstorm to his advantage on final descent of the May 31 stage. The Lampre-Daikin team captain came up one second short of taking Frigo’s shirt from him, but he is poised ideally to take it tomorrow on the tough, long stage tomorrow in the high Dolomites. The 139km 12th stage was won by Frigo’s teammate Matteo Tosatto in a three-up sprint from Slovenian Zoran Klemencic and Simoni. The stage was animated by the other Verbrugghe, Ief, who made two long solo breakaways today, the

You may have thought that Il Diablo, a.k.a. Didi Senft, is the craziest guy that follows the major European bike races. But that’s only because you see him waving his pitchfork on TV and you haven’t seen some of the unique race groupies who don’t get on TV. My current choice for most way-out is Skippy, an Australian who rides every single stage on his bike ahead of the peloton. He starts on the course a couple of hours before the race starts and finishes each stage just before the peloton. The publicity caravan that precedes the racers has around a hundred cars in it, each with a giant

Pablo Lastras escaped a 10-man breakaway group with four kilometers to go and held a solo advantage of a handful of seconds to win this 187km stage that crossed the Slovenian-Italian border seven times. Giovanni Lombardi won the sprint from Uros Murn and the rest of the nine pursuers. The stage rolled east through hilly and beautiful forested country along the Austrian border north of Slovenia’s Triglavski national park and crossed into Italy before heading south up a large first-category climb of the Passo del Predil at 63km. At the top of the pass, it crossed back into Slovenia and

In the first mountaintop finish of the Giro, Rik Verbrugghe lost almost five minutes and Dario Frigo overcame a crash just before the base of the 17km climb to the Santuario di Montevergine to take the pink jersey. Danilo DiLuca won the sprint finish to the stage after Mexican Julio Perez (Panaria), who had broken away at the beginning of the climb, broke his chain with only four kilometers to go while holding an 18-second lead. Coming through Avellino with 20km to go, riders encountered a long stretch of rough and wet cobblestones. The pavé was rough and uneven to just drive over, and,

After winning stage two, Danilo Hondo said he hoped to soon repay Giovanni Lombardi for putting him in perfect position for the sprint. Well, after the leadout Lombardi gave him again today, Hondo is going to have to come up with a really nice gift for his Deutsche Telekom teammate. With 500 meters to go, it appeared that Hondo was leading Lombardi out and evening the score. The two were in third and fourth positions when the Italian suddenly came around to give the German his wheel. Hondo didn’t realize it was Lombardi and bumped him, thinking it was somebody else trying to take his

Jan Ullrich may not be looking so good, but Deutsche Telekom still has plenty of firepower to call upon. In the uphill switchback sprint at the end of this 167km flat stage, Danilo Hondo, a German with an Italian name, got past Rafael Mateos in time to raise his forefinger in triumph. Mateos looked to be pulling off a surprise win for his small team sponsored by a company that makes plastic bags for collection and recycling of various materials. The Spanish Colpack-Astro rider had a gap of several bike lengths with 200 meters to go, but Hondo shot out of the group and passed him.

The weather has been perfect for cycling the last few days in the Adriatic coast town of Pescara and should hold for Saturday’s start of the 84th Giro d’Italia. This race promises to be highly competitive, with no clear favorite and a course that does not favor any particular type of rider. Fassa Bortolo’s world no. 1, Francesco Casagrande, really wants to win the Giro to erase the memory of last year’s bitter loss on the second-to-last stage, as well as to place himself among the grand champions. The climber from Tuscany has an incredible team backing him, including Paris-Nice and Tour de

Hernan Buonahora (Col), Selle Italia-Pacific, 34This Colombian veteran likes long, hard, hilly races. He hasn't won many races in Europe, but his sixth place overall at the 2000 Giro is testimony to his endurance. Giuseppe Di Grande (I), Tacconi Sport-Vini Caldirola, 27When Di Grande had four victories in 1997, including a stage win at the Giro, his Mapei team expected much more. But it didn't happen, and in 2000 he had another mediocre season with Festina. It's time for things to pick up again. Danilo Di Luca (I), Cantina Tollo-Acqua & Sapone, 25Di Luca showed promise in his Giro debut as a

Besides overall contenders Casagrande, Garzelli. Gotti, Pantani and Simoni, these are the climbers who could win a stage or shoot for the best climber's jersey. Wladimir Belli (I), Fassa Bortolo, 30After a year with Festina, Belli returned to an Italian squad last year, and posted his best Giro finish, seventh overall. His main task will be to keep team leader Casagrande at the front in the high mountains, and to mark other race contenders -- work that could also enable Belli to win a stage. "Chepe" Gonzalez (Col), Mobilvetta-Trentini, 32Two King of the Mountain titles and two mountain

Jeroen Blijlevens (Nl), Lotto-Adecco, 29On his day, Blijlevens is one of the fastest sprinters in the peloton -- and also one of the most unpredictable. With Lotto having no true G.C. candidates, the Dutchman could get the support he needs for a stage win. Mario Cipollini (I), Saeco, 34The flamboyant Cipollini has been around the pro ranks since 1989, but he really caught fire in the late 1990s. In1999, he captured a staggering five Giro and four Tour de France stage wins. A drop-off in production last year

Francesco Casagrande (I), Fassa Bortolo, 30 By most standards, Francesco Casagrande's 2000 season was a hit. He won the prestigious Flèche Wallonne classic, finished the season ranked No. 1 in the world, and took second in the Giro But when your main objective of the season is to win the Giro and that goal slips through your figers on the second-to-last day, it can only be called a disappointment. Pain from a sciatic nerve in the stage-20 time trial cost Casagrande the race in 2000; but with climbers like Belli and Frigo to back him up this year, he'll be out for redemption. Stefano Garzelli

To say that Rik Verbrugghe’s prologue speed of almost 59 kph makes him the fastest time trialist of all time is both accurate and misleading. Never before in the history of major prologue time trials (introduced to the Tour de France in 1967, the Giro in 1977) has there been one that wasn’t on a circuit or out-and-back course. The previous prologue record of 55.152 kph set by world hour record holder Chris Boardman at the 1994 Tour was on a 7.2km course that had five 90-degree turns, a complete traffic circle turnaround and even some cobblestones to negotiate! The course at Pescara on

The Giro is a race in touch with history, and its organizers love to use it as a vehicle to mark important dates. Five years ago, for example, they decided to commemorate the centennial of the modern Olympiad by starting the Giro in Athens, Greece, and having the race visit Lausanne, Switzerland, home of today’s Olympic movement. Last year’s event opened at the Vatican, to mark Jubilee Year, the 2000-year celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. And this year, the Giro remembers Italy’s most-loved composer, Giuseppe Verdi, who died 100 years ago. That’s why the course for the 2001 Giro was

At an awards ceremony in Madrid on Saturday, five-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain criticized race organizers for not keeping Italian climber Marco Pantani in the 2001 race. Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc a week ago named five wild-card teams, but did not include Pantani's Italian outfit, Mercatone Uno. "As a supporter, it upsets me that such great riders as Pantani are not going to the Tour de France," Indurain said. "The organizers have followed the rules, taking the top 15 teams and invitations are their affair. It all depends on their sponsors. (The organizers)

Italian cyclist Michele Bartoli confirmed on Thursday that he would be taking part in July's Tour de France despite pulling out of the Giro d’Italia, which gets underway May 19. The 30-year-old leader of the Mapei team, who won the Het Volk Classic in March, pulled out of the Giro complaining that he was exhausted and did not want to run the risk of competing before the Tour de France. He also announced that he would be racing in the Tour of Germany from May 29 to June 4, the Tour of Switzerland from June 19-28 and the Italian road race championship on July 1. Copyright AFP 2001

Union Cycliste International president Hein Verbruggen said Friday that Tour de France organizers have placed parochial interests ahead of the sport in their decision to issue wildcard invites to two Division II French teams and not to the teams of Italy's 1998 champion Marco Pantani and sprint ace Mario Cipollini. Verbruggen, in an interview with the Dutch news agency ANP, said that in the future different measures will be in place as to who was invited to the major Tours if they did not qualify automatically through the world rankings. "The Tour organizers placed chauvinistic and

Tour de France race director Jean-Marie Leblanc ruled out any chance of reversing Wednesday’s decision not to invite Mercatone Uno and their team leader Marco Pantani, Italy’s1998 Tour champion, to this year’s race. Leblanc admitted the choice hadn't been easy, but in the end was unanimous among the electors. "However, we mustn't go back on the decision because that would be admitting we were wrong," LeBlanc said on Thursday. "Anyway, if we made an exception of Mercatone-Uno [Pantani's team] why not then Saeco [the team of ace sprinter Mario Cipollini]?" he added. Defending

The Société du Tour de France on Wednesday surprised many by announcing the names of five wild-card teams that will be invited to compete in the 2001 Tour. The announcement brings the total number of participants to 189 riders, representing 21 teams. As expected, the Belgian Lotto-Adecco team topped a list that also includes Denmark’s CSC-World Online, the Basque country team of Euskaltel-Euskadi and two additional French teams, BigMat-Auber 93 and La Française des Jeux. Notably absent from the list are the Mercatone Uno team of 1998 Tour winner Marco Pantani, the Saeco squad of super

In selecting two more French teams and excluding Mercatone Uno and Mercury-Viatel, Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc has devalued this year’s 88th Tour. Wednesday morning in Paris, Leblanc announced five wild-card selections — not four as originally scheduled — to create a field of 21, nine-man teams that will contest the race, July 7-29. The “new” teams are BigMat-Auber 93 and La Française des Jeux of France; CSC-World Online of Denmark; Euskaltel-Euskadi of Spain; and Lotto-Adecco of Belgium. “To invite 21 teams is a circumstantial measure,” said Leblanc, in explaining that French

First it was foot-and-mouth disease in England. Now it’s bad weather in Switzerland. In both cases the outcome is the same: cancelled mountain bike races. The latest casualty is the second race in Switzerland’s Swiss Cup series scheduled for May 6 in Luekerbad. The cancellation came after severe weather in the last few weeks dumped six-and-a-half feet of snow on the upper section of the course, and made other sections inaccessible because of the danger of falling rocks and landslides. This latest cancellation has messed up the schedules of some of the world’s top pros. Thomas Frischknecht

A Danish newspaper claims to have the inside line on which teams will be given the four remaining Tour de France spots and Marco Pantani's Mercatone Uno team and the American Mercury squad aren't among them. Copenhagen’s daily Berlingske Tidende reported on Monday that CSC-WorldOnline, the team of France's former world number one Laurent Jalabert, is going to get one of the four wildcard entries to this year's Tour de France. Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc will reveal the names of the four teams on May 2, but the newspaper reported that sources within the Tour

Oscar Camenzind outsprinted Davide Rebellin, David Etxebarria, Francesco Casagrande and Michael Boogerd in an exciting finish to the Ardennes classic, Liége-Bastogne-Liége. The Swiss Lampre-Daikin star followed the moves of the powerhouse Fassa Bortolo team of Casagrande and Raimondas Rumsas, who led in the bunch seconds after the first five. Another Fassa Bortolo rider, Dario Frigo, had been off the front for well over the hour in a group that shrunk from 13 down to six by the time it was caught with a mere 10km to go. Fassa Bortolo then lined the field out on the approach to the

It looks to be a fine day tomorrow for Liége-Bastogne-Liége. The weather reports call for mostly sunny skies with scattered rain and temperatures in the high 40s. Expect a strong ride from Fassa Bortolo, especially Raimondas Rumsas. His teammates Francesco Casagrande, Dario Frigo, Wladimir Belli and Ivan Basso, second Wednesday in the Fléche Wallonne after a day-long breakaway, will all be dangerous on this course too. Mapei’s Michele Bartoli and Paolo Bettini, last year’s winner, Rabobank’s Michaël Boogerd, and Liquigas-PATA’s Davide Rebellin are all be riders to watch as well. The

Organizers of the classic Amstel Gold Race have been forced to alter the event's course due to fears of foot-and-mouth disease, the Dutch news agency said Tuesday. New sections had to be added as roads along the border between Belgium and the Netherlands have been closed. In particular, the Pietersberg climb, the final difficulty in the race, has been eliminated as the road is closed to traffic. All bicycles and accompanying vehicles will be disinfected before the race gets underway in Maastricht on April 28. The Amstel is the fifth event in the UCI World Cup and one of the

Lotto’s Andreï Tchmil crashed in a training accident on Tuesday and is now questionable for Sunday's Liege-Bastogne-Liege race in his home country, according to team sources in Belgium. Tchmil sustained bruises to his elbow when he collided with a camper van. He had also fallen in Sunday's Paris-Roubaix race although he remounted to finish eighth. Copyright AFP2001

Just a few hours after finishing Paris-Roubaix, George and I met for dinner. We talked about the day, about the season, and about the future. All in all, George is happy. He knows he can win Paris-Roubaix, and that the best years are still to come. Everything was going great up until the Arenberg Forest. George made a good move and said he was having no real problems finding a good line. He was leaving people behind and making it look easy. When the front tire punctured, controlling the bike was almost impossible. Johan Bruyneel told him on the radio that there were wheels waiting at the

When the Crédit Agricole team’s Jérome Neuville crashed on the cobblestones at Quievy, 110km into the Hell of the North, he could not have known how close he was to becoming a human pancake. But as the bright yellow Mavic neutral service car slid toward the Frenchman’s prostrate body, the fear in his eyes registered the danger. That was the last we saw of him from inside the car, as driver Antonio Pacheco swerved to the right to avoid Neuville’s legs sprawled across the road. We hit something, and hard, but we could not tell if it was only his bike or if we had hit him as well. We jumped

Wednesday morning, a spring snow storm hit Colorado Springs. I managed to get to the airport, but soon learned that my departure for France would be delayed until Thursday. When I arrived back at the office, the entire staff was silently huddled around one computer. I peered over their shoulders to see live images of the final kilometer of Ghent-Wevelgem. Thank you, Mother Nature, for closing the airport George Hincapie is the strongest I have ever seen him. His power outputs are the highest they have ever been and his ability to maintain intense efforts is great. His strong performances

George Hincapie scored a huge victory on Wednesday, becoming the first American to win Ghent-Wevelgem and the first American to win a European classic since Lance Armstrong won Fleche Wallonne in 1996. But now Hincapie turns his attention to his biggest personal objective of the season, Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix. "It gives me good confidence," Hincapie said about his win in Wevelgem. "I knew I was riding well. Obviously I’m going to be more marked now, because I’ll be one of the favorites. But it’s a good confidence booster for Sunday." And despite the hoopla surrounding his win, Hincapie

The organizers of Paris-Roubaix are constantly looking for ways of making their cobblestone classic a little more challenging. And the course for the 99th edition this Sunday looks to be the most challenging yet -- both from the perspective of its rugged route and the expected weather conditions: cold, wet and windy. From the start outside Napoleon's former palace in the town of Compiëgne -- 80km northeast of Paris -- the opening two hours of the race are on smooth, straight, rolling roads through Noyon, Ham and St. Quentin. With a forecast for west wind, the field of 190-or-so riders

Italian rider Andrea Tafi will take part in this Sunday's Tour of Flanders, the second event in the World Cup season, alongside Mapei teammates Michele Bartoli and Paolo Bettini. The 34-year-old Tafi, who had been doubtful for the race due to intestinal problems, was finally declared good to go by his Mapei team Friday. The Tuscany rider, who already has four World Cup victories to his name, pulled out of this week's Trois jours de Panne last Tuesday. Copyright AFP 2001

One of the staples of the summer racing season is no more. The Killington Stage Race, which was first run in 1987, has been cancelled due to financial problems. "It was just costing to much to do the race," said Tom Vinson, USA Cycling’s North Atlantic regional coordinator, who added that he was informed of the news by race organizers on Thursday. "I didn’t know it was coming, but it wasn’t a surprise either. It’s been a financial battle every year." The race, which was held over Labor Day weekend, made its debut 14 years ago as a two-day event. In its heyday it ballooned to a four-day,

If the spring storm parked over the San Francisco Bay area doesn’t move out soon, it could be a gloomy start, weather-wise, to the 2001 Tissot-UCI World Cup series, which kicks off in Napa, California, this weekend. The amateur riders will slog it out in the rain on Friday, before the pro action — featuring all but one of the six medallists from the 2000 Olympic Games — starts Saturday. A little rain — or in this case, a lot — won’t put much of a damper on an event held at the most elegant of World Cup venues, the Domaine Chandon winery. This year marks the fifth year that the series will

Tour de France organizers unveiled their version of cycling's Ten Commandments in Paris Thursday — a plan of action aimed at stamping out doping in the peloton this year and setting a precedent for the future. The 10-point plan, costing over 10 million francs ($1.4 million) over the next three years, focuses on banning riders who are caught doping from the start of the race, maintaining vigilance throughout the three-week event, and promoting "clean" sports practices in the future. The measures are aimed at assuring the skeptical, and preventing a fiasco similar to that which nearly

The HP Women's Challenge cycling race will return to network television when CBS Sports broadcasts the 2001 race on Saturday, July 14. The one-hour telecast will highlight all 13 stages of the 12-day race, including the grueling mountain climbs. Organized by Women's Challenge, Inc. and sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Company through 2002, the event is one of the world's toughest races both for the caliber of competitors and the demanding nature of the courses. The 2001 race will be run from June 13-24 and will cover over 688 miles of tough Idaho terrain. The 2001 HP Women's

The American Velodrome Challenge kicked off the season this past weekend in San Diego. Throughout the year riders will compete for ranking points that will assist USA Cycling coaches in determining future U.S. national cycling teams and athletes for upcoming international races. In addition to the San Diego stop, the American Velodrome Challenge will travel to eight other velodromes. For more information on the series check out www.americantrackracing.com Here’s the rest of the year’s schedule: April 19-April 20: San Jose, California;May 4-May 5: Frisco, Texas;June 1-June 2: Houston,

Milan-San Remo is the first big classic and the chance for many riders to cop a big win. It has ended many times in a large sprint, as well as in solo victories. Erik Zabel (Deutsche Telekom) has won three of the last four editions and looks to be the strong favorite again, having shown good form in February and March races in Spain. After interviewing many team mechanics the day before the race, in fact, those who would make a prediction of a rider not on their own teams, Zabel was the one. Milan-San Remo is not only the first of the major classics, but it is also the longest. The course is