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The cross-country mountain bike World Cup resumes on Sunday in St-Felicien, Quebec, a small town 300 kilometers northeast of last weekend's race at Mont Ste Anne. St-Felicien is a last minute replacement for Angelfire (New Mexico), after the organizers of the planned triple there abruptly pulled the plug last December. The area is a beautiful but sparsely populated region in the wilderness of eastern Quebec (roads, literally, end not far from St-Felicien). The area has never held a race of this magnitude before (they do have held a well-regarded Canada Cup race), however, Mont Ste Anne

German Jörg Jaksche, one of dozens of cyclists implicated in the Operación Puerto doping scandal that erupted last year, admitted Saturday that he used banned substances for years. In an interview published in Saturday's edition of the German weekly Der Spiegel, Jaksche admitted his involvement in the blood-doping network run by Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, where he was known by the pseudonym "Bella." "I'm Bella. It's my blood which was found in three bags (at Dr Fuentes offices). I was a client of Dr. Fuentes from 2005 to 2006 in Madrid," admitted the 30-year-old former

The newest player in mountain-bike stage racing debuts Sunday on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, when the B.C. Bike Race: The Pacific Traverse kicks off with a 67-mile run from Sooke to Lake Cowichan. It’s the first of seven stages that will see the inaugural event’s 200 racers make a 324-mile single-track-laden trip north and then inland toward the stage-7 finish at the famed Whistler ski and mountain bike resort. Total elevation gain for the week is in excess of 36,000 feet. A ferry ride will get the race caravan across the Strait of Georgia. Taking its cues from the likes of Costa

Jaksche won Paris-Nice in 2004.

Chris Eatough prepares for his 'taxi' ride . . .

. . . to Vancouver Island

Victoria

In an apparent vote of confidence, the Milram team has named Alessandro Petacchi to its Tour de France team despite suspending the sprinter for a suspicious doping test at the Giro d'Italia. The 33-year-old Petacchi won five stages at this year's Giro, however last week it was revealed he tested positive for elevated levels of Salbutamol, a substance primarily used to treat asthma.Salbutamol is a banned substance but riders suffering from asthma are allowed restricted use of the drug if they can provide a medical certificate. The World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list notes,

German Jörg Jaksche, one of dozens of cyclists implicated in the Operación Puerto doping scandal which erupted last year, is set to make a series of stunning revelations about current doping practices. Jaksche's lawyer Michael Lehner said on Friday the German, who has protested his innocence but been suspended from all competition due to his alleged links to the affair, will reveal all in German weekly magazine Der Spiegel on Monday. The Tour de France begins in London on July 7, and organizers and the sport's world ruling body have taken serious steps in a bid to finally bring an

Vinokourov has a lot riding on this team

Petacchi may be celebrating in July.

Giro d'Italia winner Danilo Di Luca and Milram sprint star Alessandro Petacchi have been asked to appear before the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) next week as part of two separate doping investigations. Petacchi hopes to to clear his name in time for the Tour de France, which begins a week from Saturday in London. The 33-year-old Italian sprinter, who as a precautionary rather than an official measure has been suspended by his team, will be interviewed on the morning of Monday, July 2 by CONI's anti-doping prosecutor, Ettore Torri. CONI is the governing body for all sport in

The lightest buckle road shoe on the market, a 184-gram helmet worn by five ProTour teams and a host of new and refined bicycles were just a few of Specialized’s planned road offerings for 2008, shown to the international media late this week in Navacerrada, Spain. There was plenty to gawk at, including the Transition time-trial rig with hidden rear brake and the new Tarmac SL2 featuring a beefy 1.5-inch lower steerer tube and massive chainstays. The Tarmac SL2 also offered the first semi-public glimpse of the upcoming top-shelf road group from SRAM, dubbed Red. Although none of the demo

Petacchi hopes to get the Salbutamol issue settled by next week.

The Tarmac SL2

Every little bit counts. The Transition tucks its rear brake where it produces the least drag.

S-Works Ruby

Specialized unveils ’08 goods, plus a peek at SRAM Red

The S-Works Road Shoe, just 250 grams

The Transition TT rig

The new SRAM Red rear derailleur...

... and the shifters that make it work.

Alessandro Petacchi faces a race against the clock to prove his innocence over an alleged doping offense so that he can take part in the Tour de France, which starts in London on July 7. The 33-year-old sprinter produced a "non-negative" urine sample when tested by Italian anti-doping officials after the third of his five stage wins at this year's Giro D'Italia at Pinerolo on May 23. The Milram sprint star also won the Giro's points jersey. His sample showed unusually high levels of Salbutamol, a substance primarily used to treat asthma. Salbutamol is a banned substance but

If the past three weeks are any indication, Trek is going to have a very good year in 2008. Earlier this month, Trek unveiled thenew 2008 Madone. It’s an impressive bike that challenges a number of age-old approaches to frame – and component - design. Lennard Zinn saw the technology first hand, reported on it here and has a more detailed impression in the latest issue of VeloNews, issue 13, due out July 9th. Following that tough act, Trek’s mountain-bike suspension designers, engineers and product managers unveiled a completely new version of the Fuel EX, as a side note to the Madone

For the last half-decade, Olympic champion Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjå has been the most dominant force in all of mountain-bike racing. But this year the Norwegian’s famous smile and blonde curls have gone missing from the top step of the podium. After showing uncharacteristic chinks in her armor in losses at the first two World Cup races of 2007, Dahle-Flesjå skipped World Cup rounds in Switzerland and Quebec, retreating to Norway for a round of medical tests discover if the problem was rooted in health issues. The diagnosis? A stomach virus has robbed her of her famously strong legs. Now, the

Discovery Channel unveiled the nine-rider cast that will try to rekindle the Lance Armstrong glory years when it heads to London for the start of the 2007 Tour de France. As expected, Levi Leipheimer got a full vote of confidence from Discovery sport director Johan Bruyneel on Wednesday, and will lead America’s lone ProTour team at the Tour. “He’s capable of being on the podium,” claimed Bruyneel during an hour-long telephone-conference call that included cycling and mainstream media from both sides of the Atlantic. Bruyneel said he wasn’t concerned with Leipheimer’s failure to defend his

Discovery Channel unveiled the nine-rider cast that will try to rekindle the Lance Armstrong glory years when it heads to London for the start of the 2007 Tour de France. As expected, Levi Leipheimer got a full vote of confidence from Discovery sport director Johan Bruyneel on Wednesday, and will lead America’s lone ProTour team at the Tour. “He’s capable of being on the podium,” claimed Bruyneel during an hour-long telephone-conference call that included cycling and mainstream media from both sides of the Atlantic. Bruyneel said he wasn’t concerned with Leipheimer’s failure to defend his

Petacchi won five stages and the points jersey at this year's Giro.

Trek’s new Fuel EX, in the top end 9.5 dress: OCLV carbon front triangle with Shimano XTR and SRAM X.0 components.

The new EVO one-piece rocker link.

The ABP concentric pivot.

The Full-Floater, a floating suspension mount.

The three make up the new R1i tuned rear end.

Dahle-Flesja could miss the rest of the 2007 season

The pint-sized Russian can win in any conditions

: Marga Fullana has returned with refined technical skills

Chengyuan (left) and her Chinese compatriots may lack experience, but they know how to go hard

The 2007 Tour squad is built around one rider: Levi Leipheimer

Hincapie is something of a fixture.

Contador's win at Paris-Nice defined much of his year.

Discovery is returning to a tried-and-true strategy

The 2007 Tour squad is built around one rider: Levi Leipheimer

Hincapie generally knows what he's doing in July.

Contador's win at Paris-Nice defined much of his year.

Discovery is returning to a tried-and-true strategy

Discovery Channel returns to this year’s Tour de France with aspirations of finishing on the top-three podium when the race ends July 29 in Paris. That’s a marked contrast from the days when Lance Armstrong ripped through seven consecutive Tour victories from 1999-2005. The American team thought they had another winner in Ivan Basso, but the Italian has since been banned for two years for his involvement in the Operación Puerto case that threw Discovery’s plans into chaos. The team will reload with veteran Levi Leipheimer, who was brought on as outright team captain months before Discovery

Although news about the inaugural Tour of Missouri has been sparse over the past few months, the race is all systems go, says Medalist Sports managing partner Chris Aronhalt. Medalist Sports, which oversees race management for the Amgen Tour of California, the Tour de Georgia and the USA Cycling National Professional Championships, will also manage the Tour of Missouri, scheduled for September 11-16. The race will begin in Kansas City and finish in St. Louis. In a year that has seen both the Tour of Utah and the Montréal-Boston UCI stage races canceled due to lack of sponsorship, some had

Dear readers,I’ve been wanting to write about rolling resistance for years, and I’ve had ongoing e-mail conversations with a number of you on the subject. Indeed, I’ve built up enough of it to compile a collection of some of the most interesting.Lennard WaterDear Lennard,As I was riding though an unexpected rainstorm, I noticed that, even with the rain, it seemed to take less effort to ride on the wet road than when it is dry (all other things – especially wind and temperature – being constant). I know that there is less friction when it comes time to stop or to turn. Could it be possible

Leipheimer hopes to time his peak for the big one this year.

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. One image in particular that caught our attention was Rick Bazluke’s “Swiss Alps in August.” How cool is that? Nice work Rick! Please drop us a note at Rosters@InsideInc.comto work out the details and we’ll send you a copy of our new Coors Classic DVD. Meanwhile, go ahead and take a look at our latest gallery,decide what you like and let us know what you think by dropping a noteto Rosters@InsideInc.com. Please note

It really has been a hell of a year for Oscar Pereiro. Ever since he gained nearly 30 minutes on the road to Montélimar in stage 13 of last year’s Tour de France, his life hasn’t been the same. He finished runner-up to Floyd Landis, but his life was thrown into turmoil after the American failed anti-doping controls. Everyone in Spain hailed him as the virtual winner of the 2006 Tour, but as the 2007 Tour is a week away from starting in London, the case remains unresolved. Last winter, the French alleged that Pereiro didn’t provide necessary paperwork to prove he had clearance to use an

Swiss Alps in August - 2006

Pereiro has his eye on July

Danish cycling team CSC defended its title at the Eindhoven team time trial in the Netherlands on Sunday. CSC clocked a time of 53 minutes and 36 seconds to win the 48.6km ProTour race, just one second ahead of surprise podium finishers Team Tinkoff. Milram finished third at 13 seconds. American Bobby Julich was delighted with the team's ride. "We're the best in the world for the second straight year, and I think we deserve it," said Julich, one of the main protagonists of the eight-man group, which included David Zabriskie, Christian Vande Velde, Michael Blaudzun, Matthew Goss,

Spaniard Oscar Sevilla (Relax) won the Route du Sud after Sunday's final stage. French rider Frederic Finot (Roubaix-Lille Metropole) won the 181km finale between Vielha and Saint-Gaudens. Final overall1. Oscar Sevilla (Sp), Relax, 17:06:512. Massimo Giunti (I), at 1:063. Markus Eibegger (A), at 1:564. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), at 2:035. Alexandre Botcharov (Rus), at 2:066. Moises Duenas Nevado (Sp), at 2:167. Pasquale Muto (I), at 2:448. Tomasz Marczynski (Pol), at 2:499. Nicolas Hartmann (F), at 2:5010. Amael Moinard (F), at 3:24

Reversing a half-minute deficit to his teammate and maillot jaune Vladimir Efimkin at the start of the day, Caisse d'Epargne's Vladimir Karpets produced a superlative time-trial performance in the streets of Bern to capture overall victory at the 2007 Tour de Suisse. "The time trial was very difficult, so I'm really, really happy to have this yellow jersey," said Karpets. "This is my second important victory this season after winning the Tour of Catalunya. The other favorites performed as I expected, but for me, the big surprise was [Stijn] Devolder." Less surprising was the

Alexandre Vinokourov has a score to settle with the Tour de France. Last year, he was sidelined from starting the Tour after five of his then-Astana teammates were implicated in the infamous Operación Puerto. While Vinokourov was never linked to the damaging scandal, the team didn’t meet the number of riders required to start and he spent July at home for the first time in nearly a decade. Now the unquestioned boss of the fearsome Astana team, Vinokourov looks unstoppable as the Tour de France approaches. At 33, it could be his last chance to win the Tour and he admits as much. In an

Monster-Ironhorse teammates and defending world champions Sam Hill and Sabrina Jonnier took top honors in the third World Cup event on downhill racing’s calendar, held June 24 at Mont-Ste-Anne Resort in Quebec. Jonnier scored a healthy two-second win over Brit Tracy Moseley (Kona-Les Gets), while Hill narrowly edged out South African Greg Minnaar (G-Cross Honda) for his victory. In the small circle of gravity mountain-bike racers, Quebec’s Mont-Ste-Anne resort is known for serving up heavy doses of speed. Along with testing a rider’s technical skills, the mountain’s famed downhill track

The structure of bicycle racing always carries with it a built-in contradiction: It takes a team to win the general classification in the name of one rider, and it takes a group of strong individuals to win stages in the name of the team. Sunday's results in the Nature Valley Grand Prix put a fine point on this truism. Under a blazing hot sun and light breezes, Ivan Stevic and the Toyota-United team micromanaged the peloton to win the overall contest on Chilkoot Hill in Stillwater, Minnesota. But they could barely contain Health Net, a team that is bursting at the seams with talent and

Karpets in yellow

Vino' wants another yellow jersey in July

Hill shows why he gets to wear the rainbow

Hill, Jonnier take fast Mont-Ste-Anne downhill

Lopes

Stevic wins his first U.S. stage race and credits his team

Pipp's charge on the 24-percent slopes of Chilkoot Hill may have inspired his team to dominate the stage, with Health Net finishing 1, 3 and 5 on the day.

Do you ever get the feeling that master's racers across America breathe a sigh of relief whenever they see 47-year-old Steve Tilford racing in the pro's field?

Abbott and Armstrong formed an effective alliance

Abbott didn't want a gift... and Armstrong wasn't handing any out.

For the team

Stevic and Armstrong take overall titles at Nature Valley

Kristin Armstrong and Ivan Stevic both put a decisive stamp on this race Friday, but there was plenty of cake to go around for consolation. Toyota-United's Stevic, who regained the yellow jersey from Health Net's Kirk O'Bee in Friday morning's time trial by a six-second margin, had his hand firmly on the wheel for almost the entire race — the second of the day, run on an exciting 1km course set in the heart of Minneapolis in front of a captive audience of 30,000. With a fair sky and cool breezes, Toyota-United weren't just protecting Stevic's lead — they were

Who is he? And how did he do it? These were the questions being asked over and over again in at the finish line in Schwarzsee Saturday, after a complete unknown from Unibet escaped a ravenous bunch in the final kilometer to win the eighth stage of the Tour de Suisse. His name's Uran — Rigoberto Uran. He's from Colombia, and barely 20 years old. As a junior, he was four-time junior national champion, three times on the track and once on the road. Since turning professional for Italian team Tenax Salmilano two years ago, before switching to Unibet this year, he had no results to speak

Julien Absalon (Orbea) continued his dominance of the 2007 UCI World Cup of cross-country mountain biking, taking his third consecutive World Cup victory of the year at Québec’s Mont-Ste-Anne resort. The 28-year-old Frenchman chased down a surging Jose Antonio Hermida (Multivan-Merida) in the sixth of seven laps to take his second career win at Mont-Ste-Anne. Riding his way into third was a resilient Geoff Kabush (Maxxis), who scored the top North American result. Absalon now commands the 2007 World Cup standings, where he leads Hermida 950-680. “Jose started very fast, and I had to work

The penultimate stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix was an 86-mile tour through the cornfields of Southern Minnesota. But in its final miles, the route dropped into the river city of Mankato, and finished on a brutal 1000-meter climb that was repeated three times. It was the Midwest's approximation of a mountain-top finish, particularly after a long day on hot and humid rollers. For the women, the cornfields were all prelude, with two small breakaways — one for 25 miles by Rushlee Buchanan (Apple Jazz) — that turned out to be fruitless. When the women hit the first circuit, Kristin

Cornfields, climbing and kids — our man Casey Gibson caught it all during Saturday's penultimate stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix in Minnesota.

Race leader Stevic

O'Bee takes the sprint

Van Gilder wins the women's race

Armstrong holds the lead