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German cyclist Robert Förster was delighted to give his Gerolsteiner team a winning start to the Tour of Germany when he won the opening stage in Saarbrücken Friday. The 29-year-old Förster won the 183.7km stage in a time of 4:24:16, finishing a field sprint ahead of Danilo Napolitano (Lampre-Fondital) and Milram’s Erik Zabel. Förster will wear the yellow jersey for Saturday's 42.2kms team time trial in Bretten. "This is an important win for us as a team," said Foerster after picking up his first stage win of the German tour. "Everything ran smoothly, the team rode strongly to help me.

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,

Even winning the Tour de France couldn’t help Discovery Channel in its search to find a replacement title sponsor for beyond the 2007 season. Less than two weeks after Alberto Contador won the team’s eighth Tour in nine years, officials from Tailwind Sports officially threw in the towel in their hunt to procure a new sponsor. They blamed a laundry list of cycling’s ills for their failure to convince a sponsor to pony up an estimated $15 million per year to underwrite the ProTour team’s annual budget. “We couldn’t in good conscience ask someone to spend the sort of money that it would

"Maybe I ain't funny no more, you know? Like, maybe I ain't angry at nothin', for real, in my heart. I'm just not mad about it. I don't get it. You mother(bleep)ers want to kill yourselves, that's your business. Just don't do it on my porch." — Richard Pryor, “Live on the Sunset Strip” Cycling’s been good to me. When I first started working for VeloNews back in the late Eighties, I thought I had finally fused profession with passion. Two years later, when I quit newspapering for the tenuous career of a free-lancer, I was certain of it. Cover the occasional bike

Contador has launched an effort to protect his reputation.

Tour winner Alberto Contador was fending off doping allegations in Madrid, as Discovery was folding up its tent in Austin.

Hincapie visits with T-Mobile manager Bob Stapleton at this year's Tour of California.

Förster gets the win

Kurt Vonnegut's picture of cycling

For the past year and a half, mountain-bike icon Tom Ritchey has aimed his time and energy at Project Rwanda. Alongside a growing number of volunteers, Ritchey has undertaken an ambitious plan to help revitalize the central African nation’s economy and public image through the use of the bicycle. Ritchey's involvement with the project centers on designing affordable bicycles to help Rwandan coffee growers distribute their crop. Boyer's job is to establish and develop a team of elite Rwandan cyclists. With a group of reporters, tourists and cyclists in tow, both men will travel to

Tom Ritchey

Ready to ride in Rwanada

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the latest edition of The Prologue, the weekly summary of the news from the world of competitive cycling by your friends at VeloNews.com.

The professional peloton is in post-Tour mode and turning its collective attention to the rest of the season and there's still plenty going on out there.

Geman telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom will remain as the title sponsor of the T-Mobile cycling team until 2010, spokesman Christian Frommert said Thursday. “We remain committed to cycling until 2010,” declared Frommert at a press conference in Saarbrücken ahead of Friday’s start of the Tour of Germany. “Since the end of the Tour de France, we had a series of in-house discussions and met with the team, the German cycling federation and television networks,” Frommert explained. “After a lot of consideration, we concluded that to leave cycling at a time this sport is in crisis would

Linus Gerdemann, who held the yellow jersey for a day on this year's Tour de France, is hoping to win this year's Tour of Germany and restore some pride to German cycling, battered by a succession of doping problems. Having won a stage in this year's Tour de France, the 24-year-old is full of confidence for his home country's event which starts in Saarbrücken on Friday and runs till the following Saturday. "I have felt good since the end of the Tour and I think I can do something special here," said the T-Mobile rider. The reputation of cycling in Germany has been badly

American Taylor Phinney (TIAA-CREF-5280) rode to a world time trial title on Thursday with a victory in the race against the clock at the 2007 UCI Junior Road and Track World Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Phinney clocked a time of 37 minutes, 28.10 seconds over the 28-kilometer course to beat silver medalist John Degenkolb of Germany by 24 seconds. Nikita Novikov of Russia was third, 30 seconds off the pace of Phinney. Phinney’s world championship was the second medal for the U.S. National Team on Thursday after Californian Jerika Hutchinson won the bronze medal in the

Manager Bob Stapleton will continue to lead the T-Mobile program.

Frommert fields questions at a Thursday press conference in Saarbrücken.

Gerdemann took the yellow jersey.

Gerdemann on stage 7 of the Tour de France.

Taylor Phinney, the new world junior TT champion

Bobby Julich will take aim for the U.S. national championships next month to earn the Stars ‘n’ Stripes jersey for what will likely be his final year as a pro. The 35-year-old said he’s close to penning a one-year contract extension that will keep him in a Team CSC jersey through the 2008 season. And he’d love nothing better than to win the national title, which has eluded him in his otherwise successful 15-year pro career. “I’d like to try to win a national jersey finally. Either the time trial or the road race, I don’t care. I’d take anything,” Julich said. “It would be fun to have the

Bobby Julich will take aim for the U.S. national championships next month to earn the Stars ‘n’ Stripes jersey for what will likely be his final year as a pro. The 35-year-old said he’s close to penning a one-year contract extension that will keep him in a Team CSC jersey through the 2008 season. And he’d love nothing better than to win the national title, which has eluded him in his otherwise successful 15-year pro career. “I’d like to try to win a national jersey finally. Either the time trial or the road race, I don’t care. I’d take anything,” Julich said. “It would be fun to have the

Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has scheduled a press event this Friday in Spain, but says he will decline to answer reporters’ questions after he reads a prepared statement. Contador issued a release Wednesday notifying media of his plans to read a statement at the offices of Spain’s national sports council – the Consejo Superior de Deportes - in Madrid. Contador will be accompanied by Discovery Channel team director Johann Bruyneel. Since winning the 2007 Tour de France, Contador has been the subject of heightened scrutiny regarding his possible involvement with Eufemio Fuentes,

The Astana cycling team announced Wednesday that Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin tested positive for homologous blood doping following an out-of-competition test in Belek, Turkey on August 1. Kashechkin was suspended by the team pending the outcome of his B sample, should he request that the follow-up test be conducted. Kashechkin's teammate, Alexander Vinokourov was suspended following his own positive for homologous blood doping - the use of a donor's red blood cells to enhance endurance - during the Tour de France. "The positive test by Kasheckin is another blow to the credibility of

Barloworld’s Ryan Cox died on August 1st from complications related to his recent surgery to treat a condition known as iliac artery endofibrosis. Since the death of the 28-year-old cyclist, I’ve received several questions about the problem that led to his surgery and the complications that ultimately took his life. Iliac artery endofibrosis is surprisingly common among elite cyclists and speedskaters. Indeed, two of the men on the Colavita-Sutter Home squad have undergone this same procedure within the last year: Charles Dionne and Hayden Godfrey. Both, thankfully, have had successful

Julich wants to end his career in a slightly different kit.

Ask the Doctor: Ryan Cox and iliac artery endofibrosis

Christian Vande Velde (CSC) and Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) have both confirmed they will race next month’s Vuelta a España. Vande Velde, fresh off a rock solid 15th in the Clásica San Sebastián on Saturday, was the fourth-best American at the Tour de France, slotting in at 25th overall, finishing behind Levi Leipheimer (Discovery) in third, Chris Horner (Predictor-Lotto), 15th, and George Hincapie (Discovery) in 24th. “I will take a little break and then I will get ready for the Vuelta,” said Vande Velde, who’s raced in the Vuelta three times, with a career-best 25th in 2002.

“Wow! You’re a professional cyclist? How cool! You must see everything! How lucky is that! Like one huge paid vacation traveling around the world!” Response: “Yep, see it all. Pretty cool.” To answer honestly with “Well, we see the insides of lots of hotel rooms, airports and a few hundred kilometers of road a day, but it’s not like we actually see anything,” simply isn’t worth the complicated explanation required afterwards. Most people simply can’t believe and that we don’t spend our days cruising town, checking out the sights, doing a bit of shopping, hitting up swank restaurants and

Dear readers,
Most of today's column is devoted to a selection of the many, many interesting letters I got in response to my June 26 column, addressing the many factors that add to - or reduce – rolling resistance.
Lennard

Roundness
Lennard,

Vande Velde rode a solid Tour and is aiming to ride the Vuelta, too.

Fresh ‘Korn: The romance and adventure of the open road

You couldn’t tell that Danilo Di Luca has been the subject of a drugs inquiry since winning the Giro d’Italia in early June. Just as it looked like Di Luca was going to be cleared of links to the so-called “Oil for Drugs” doping investigation in Italy, Italy’s Olympic Committee (CONI) said late last week on its web page it will need more time to review evidence over links to alleged illicit practices. Di Luca, however, showed no signs of tension after racing at this weekend’s Clásica San Sebastián. “I am tranquilo,” Di Luca said after finishing 80th. “I have nothing to worry about. I

Di Luca celebrated a win by teammate Leonardo Bertagnolli at the Clásica San Sebastián.

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,

Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now ready for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of our most recent contest. This last round of photos offered up some exceptional images and you really need to take a look, but we have to celebrate the sheer cheekiness of the man in the black t-shirt in Brandon Dwight’s “The Message is Delivered.” Yeah, yeah, we could go on and wax poetic about the message and how we're not making any accusations and yada, yada, yada… but, bottom line is that it’s a great shot and it made a lot of us

The Message is Delivered

After losing valuable ground on the NRC front during Charlotte, North Carolina’s prize-rich Presbyterian Hospital Invitational Criterium, Toyota-United’s Ivan Dominguez evened the score just up the road in Winston-Salem at the 2007 Hanes Park Classic. Dominguez sat comfortably in the field during most of Sunday’s 90-minute effort, content on waiting for the right moment to make up for a disappointing 15th place showing the day before. “Yesterday I was a little tired but from the second lap, I told my guys ‘Hey, keep the race together because I feel good.’ And I love this heat.” The extreme

Arvesen wins Danish tourNorwegian Kurt-Asle Arvesen (CSC) won the Tour of Denmark on Sunday. Britain’s Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile) won the sixth and final stage, a 175.6km leg between Praestoe and Frederiksberg. Arvesen thus becomes the first two-time winner of the Danish tour, his first victory here having come in 2004. It is the fourth consecutive victory here for a CSC rider. "It's fantastic," Arvesen told The Associated Press. "I never thought I could do this." Tour of DenmarkStage 61. Mark Cavendish (GB), T-Mobile, 175.6km in 4:05:172. Juan José Haedo (Arg), CSC, same time3. Graeme

With doping positives and the ejection of the yellow jersey, the news from this year’s Tour de France was predictably dour. Indeed, with reporters spending three weeks in the race’s scandal-plagued – and essentially closed – environment, many were prepared to write the obituary for France’s national tour. But sorting through the numbers and viewing the event from outside the “bubble” of the Tour caravan shows that the race deservedly remains one of the world’s most popular sporting events. Numbers on the roadThis year’s Tour began, with great hope and ambition, on the streets of London.

Belgian Greg van Avermaet (Predictor-Lotto) claimed victory in the German classic Rund um die Hainleite on Saturday. Van Avermaet outsprinted Germans Sven Krauss and Paul Martens to win the 201km race around Erfurt. Italian Alessandro Petacchi (Milram), who has returned to racing following a positive test for salbutamol, finished with the bunch, well behind the 11-man break that contested the victory. The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) had recommended to the Italian cycling federation (FCI) that Petacchi be banned from cycling for 12 months after a urine sample he gave at Pinerolo on May

With plenty of heavy hitters coming out of the Tour de France looking to light up the 225km Clásica San Sebastián on a hot Saturday in northern Spain, it was Leonardo Bertagnolli – with only five days of racing in his legs all season – who stole the prize. Bertagnolli, who only returned to training in early May after being sidelined with a cardiac arrhythmia for five months, outgunned Spanish veteran Juan Manuel Garate (QuickStep-Innergetic) in a two-up sprint to claim his most important victory of his career. “I’ve only raced five days this year. Though I didn’t expect to win, I knew the

In Saturday’s battle of the NRC titans at the Presbyterian Invitational Criterium in Charlotte, North Carolina, Health Net-Maxxis rider Frank Pipp followed a late move by Jesse Anthony (Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada) and grabbed the win four and a half laps later. It was an intense effort that unexpectedly delivered another key win over the team’s close competitors, Toyota-United.

London provided a unique - and popular - setting for this year's Grand Départ

Police estimate that 2.1 million fans turned out for the ride to Canterbury

In splendid isolation for three weeks, sometimes journalists miss the big picture

Fans turned out throughout the Tour.

Van Avermaet takes the win

Troubles or no, some of us can't help but love the Tour

Bertagnolli exults after outsprinting his breakaway companion

The Clásica

Di Luca, only recently returned to competition after taking a break following his Giro d’Italia victory in May

Lopez, De Walle and Albasini

Garate and Bertagnolli have a go

Française des Jeux chases

Bertagnolli pops his cork

The men's podium

The women's podium

It’s time for cycling to forget the Tour de France and all of its scandals as the international racing calendar kicks back into gear Saturday with the 27th Clásica San Sebastián in the heart of Spain’s Basque Country… at least for one day. Perhaps there couldn’t be a better tonic for cycling’s woes than a good old-fashioned race and the always-exciting Clásica could just be the ticket. With its spectacular backdrop – San Sebastián is easily one of Europe’s most glamorous cities – coupled with the passion that comes from the fiery Basque fans, the Clásica could help cycling fans remember

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,

Rabobank manager, Theo de Rooy has resigned, according to a team statement issued Friday. De Rooy became the center of some controversy on July 25th, when he dismissed Michael Rasmussen from the team, while the Danish rider was leading the Tour de France. The team said that de Rooy had "decided to step down, in consultation with the Rabobank." De Rooy fired Rasmussen for allegedly lying about his whereabouts in an attempt to avoid out-of-competition doping tests. Rasmussen, who has vehemently denied the accusations, missed tests in May and June. The two-time Tour de France climber's

Chris Eatough collected his fifth national 24-hour solo mountain-biking championships on July 29 at Wisconsin’s 24 Hours of Nine Mile. The six-time world 24-Solo champion went blow for blow with Nat Ross (Subaru-Gary Fisher) before finally pulling away from the Coloradan during the night. While 24-Solo racing is still considered a fringe sport for the physically tough/mentally insane, the 2007 U.S. championships featured an impressive 45 entrants. Still, Eatough has taken a step back from his bread-and-butter this season, and has spent 2007 diversifying his racing. The Maryland native won

Xavier Florencio surprised a strong field to win in 2006.

Florencio dons the traditional

Eatough

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the latest edition of The Prologue, the weekly summary of news from the world of competitive cycling by your friends at VeloNews.com.

Dear BobI live and bike in Texas. A few weeks ago friends in a cycling club were stopped and cited for failure to stop at a 4-way stop sign. Having ridden a few times with the group, I believe the officer to be correct, as the group rarely stopped at 4-way stop signs. However, a few cyclists were also cited for failure to carry their driver's license. I am a little confused as I seem to recall biking for 12 years or so before I qualified by age for a driver's license. I personally carry a RoadID strapped to my ankle in the event of an unfortunate incident. The officer insisted

Tour de France winner Alberto Contador said Thursday that the forced exit of Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen, which paved the way for his own victory, was fundamentally unfair and set a bad precedent for the sport. "I don't know what is really behind it, but I do know that what should not be possible is to be told in the middle of the race that you can't participate when there was no problem at the beginning," Contador said in an interview with radio Cadena Ser. "I would have liked to have won in another way," he added. Rasmussen was kicked off the Tour by his Rabobank team while

Bettini will have the chance to defend his rainbow jersey in Stuttgart next month.

Contador says he would have preferred to win another way.

South African Ryan Cox died Tuesday weeks after doctors performed surgery to repair a constriction in his iliac artery, a problem common in cyclists. The 28-year-old Cox, who had reported numbness, weakness and other problems with his left leg earlier in the year, had been diagnosed with a problem similar to that experienced by CSC’s Stuart O’Grady in 2002. Cox, with financial assistance from Barloworld teammate Robbie Hunter, underwent surgery in early July. Cox’s coach Clint Curtis told Bicycling South Africa that the rider showed classic symptoms of an arterial constriction. "He

Dear Monique,I just read your column about fish. I don’t eat fish for many reasons, some of which you mentioned in your article. I didn’t hear you mention flaxseed oil, which surprised me because I am told that it is a great alternative to fish, yet with a much lower or no risk of contamination. I was hoping that you could explain the difference and if it isn’t, what else could I include in my diet. Thanks,Adam Hi Adam,As you are aware, foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids may alleviate or prevent a variety of health problems. But getting enough omega-3s can be a unique modern dietary

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,

Levi Leipheimer rode the 2007 Tour de France just as he said he would, executing his plan of peaking in the final week of the race to perfection. With all the hardest stages packed into the Tour’s final nine days, Leipheimer passed on trying to defend his title during June’s Dauphiné Libéré for fear of peaking too soon. The veteran American hit his stride just in time and doubled in the Tour’s final time trial to secure a spot on the podium and win a stage. “I’m extremely happy to win a stage. It’s been a lifelong dream to win a stage at the Tour and to be on the podium is going to be

Cox's win at Genting in 2005 sealed his overall victory at Langkawi that year.

Leipheimer made it to the podium in Paris

The T-Mobile cycling team has fired Patrik Sinkewitz, the rider who failed a drugs test in the run up to the Tour de France, after he decided not to have a second urine sample analyzed. The 26-year-old's decision means he accepts the test's result and concedes that he violated T-Mobile's Code of Conduct after he was found to have abnormal levels of testosterone following an out-of-competition test taken on June 8th by the German anti-doping agency (NADA). the 2004 Tour of Germany winner said he had been using widely-available gel Testogel - a replacement therapy for low

Electronic shifting is not necessarily a new idea. Mavic, for example, twice tried to roll out the concept in the 1990s. Remember Zap and Mektronic? While those early efforts never really gained traction, they did represent a first step away from reliance on the old tried-and-true woven steel cable. These days, there are several systems at various stages of development. A couple even showed up at the Tour de France this year. Hands down, we were most impressed by the effort Campagnolo engineers have put into the project in recent months. Campagnolo insists that all of its parts are still