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Mactier's teammates doing the domestique thing

Louder navigates the twisty backside descent

The yellow jersey gets personally involved in the pursuit

Top three on the stage

Jacques-Maynes retains the leader's jersey

Sanders sails solo

Mactier finds herself isolated and forced to chase

Saunier Duval's climbing king Gilberto Simoni has prevailed again on the wickedly steep slopes of the Monte Zoncolan. "To have won here on Monte Zoncolan means an enormous amount to me, more than being on the podium," the two-time Giro winner panted at the finish line on Wednesday. "It was important to win a stage, more so that it was the Zoncolan, which is the most beautiful.”

Tour de France organizers on Wednesday announced the three wild-card teams that will join 18 others for this year's race. Agritubel and Barloworld will join 19 of the 20 teams from the UCI ProTour series for the three-week epic, which begins July 7 in London. Astana, which competes in the Pro Tour, was the third team to be handed a wild-card invitation although its invitation was at the discretion of the organizers as Astana was not ranked on the ProTour last season. It means there will be no place in the Tour de France peloton for the Swedish-registered team Unibet, which this season

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said it would be "shocking" if Bjarne Riis, who has admitted doping when he won the 1996 Tour de France, was involved in this year's race as CSC's sporting director. Riis did not include Ivan Basso at the start of the 2006 Tour de France because of suspicions hanging over the Italian rider in the wake of the Operación Puerto blood-doping scandal. "We have the right to challenge whichever rider or team official we want to," Prudhomme told AFP. "We are speaking with teams and sponsors, but at this time, it would be shocking to have Riis

It was tough news for Tulsa Tough Ride and Race—300 Schwinns destined for school-age kids tackling a special Tough Kids 10km ride on Sunday have gone missing. A 40-foot steel shipping container containing the bikes was apparently stolen last weekend from the Pacific Cycles shipping yard. The youngsters earned the bikes through the Tough Kids Challenge, a program in which middle- and high-school students either participated in Tulsa’s Little 100 cycling event or completed a bicycle-safety education course. Tulsa Tough Ride and Race launched the youth health and fitness initiative this year

NRC individual points leader Ben Jacques-Maynes showed that he is one of the top riders in America by winning stage 2 of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic Wednesday. The Priority Health-Bissell team leader's bunch-sprint win, ahead of Navigators Insurance rider Phil Zajicek, came with a 15-second time bonus, propelling Jacques-Maynes into the race lead. Wednesday's Columbia Hills Road Race, a long, hot affair at 112 miles in dry 90-degree heat, began with a correction in general classification after race officials determined that overnight leader Devon Vigus (California Giant

Simoni and Piepoli celebrate together

Di Luca guts it out toward a hard-fought fourth

Ardila leads the escape

The Dolomites

Piepoli sets the pace

Cunego and Di Luca fight their way up the mountain

Jacques-Maynes takes a win for his twin

. . . and the Health Net chase

The women's field

The doomed break . . .

Armed with the cunning – and innate sense of timing – that come from 11 years as a professional, 33 year-old Stefano Garzelli, just as he did three days before in Bergamo, gave a textbook display of controlled aggression Tuesday in Lienz, Austria. The reward? His second victory of the 2007 Giro.

Erik Zabel’s tearful confession that he doped in the 1990s won’t end his career as a professional racer. Milram announced Tuesday that the German sprinter will keep his place on the ProTour team for the remainder of the 2007 season despite his admission last week that he used the banned blood-booster EPO in the 1990s. “Team Milram’s management and its main sponsor, Nordmilch AG, have decided that Erik Zabel is allowed to continue riding for Team Milram,” the team said in a statement released Tuesday. “Last week Erik Zabel admitted that he once tried performance-enhancing substances in 1996

John Devine followed in the footsteps of some of America’s best young talent following his overall victory at the four-day Ronde de l’Isard this weekend in France. Devine, who is set to join the Discovery Channel team in July, won Friday’s 170km third stage to claim overall victory with a 49-second margin ahead of Belgian Francis De Greef. Foul weather cancelled a morning sector of Saturday’s action, but Devine finished 13th in the 24km time trial to retain his lead. The former mountain biker finished sixth in Sunday’s finale, 14 seconds off the pace set by stage-winner Oscar Sanchez of

In the shadow of the state Capitol, an enthused North Carolina crowd watched Frank Travieso (AEG-Toshiba-Jet Network) take one of the most uncompromising wins of his career at this year's Raleigh Downtown Criterium May 25. Running over a six-turn, L shaped course, the 3-year-old event took place on the front end of the Memorial Day weekend. A high pace did not discourage breakaway attempts, and eventually six men got away —Travieso, Tom Soloday (Kelly Benefit Strategies) John Delong (Alliance), local boys Rich Harper (Abercrombie & Fitch) and David Duncan (Time), and Jittery Joe's

The management of the Spanish team Euskaltel-Euskadi said on Tuesday they had dropped Aketza Pena from the squad based on a positive result from an April 24 test for nandrolone, taken after the first stage of the Tour of Trentino. A statement on the team’s official website said the UCI had informed the team of the result and that Pena was suspended effective immediately. Tests on the A sample found higher-than-permitted levels of nandrolone, a banned anabolic steroid often used by body builders to augment muscle mass, though no figure was mentioned.

Heading into stage 1 of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, Navigators Insurance rider Phil Zajicek had never heard of Devon Vigus. Neither had defending champion Nathan O’Neill of Health Net-Maxxis, nor Toyota-United veteran Burke Swindlehurst. But Vigus, who races for the amateur team California Giant Strawberries-Specialized, was the surprise winner of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic’s 3-mile stage 1 time trial — the only rider to finish in under six minutes, with a time of 5:50. O’Neill finished second, 12 seconds back, with Priority Health-Bissell’s Ben Jacques-Maynes in third at 20 seconds

Garzelli gets his second stage.

Garzelli wins on a day that saw a slow and chilly start to the stage.

The long march

It's hard to get the legs moving when you need to get the blood flowing first.

Individual aspirations may have kept the chase from succeeding.

Some were undoubtedly hoping they could stay

Di Luca had little to fear but the cold.

Those final three climbs shook things up.

Garzelli on the move

Chechu and Co. couldn't close it down

Garzelli takes two, Di Luca safe as Zoncolan awaits

Vigus surprised the field with his victory

O'Neill, who took second, is glad he won't have to defend the jersey straight away

Jacques-Maynes, who finished third, suspects a timing error

Mactier en route to the women's win

Regional honch' Weldon slotted into second

Carroll rides into third

Trebon is out of the saddle and driving hard to the uphill finish

We should have known. Ever since the opening day of Giro in Sardegna, when the Liquigas leader shouted at his team-mate Enrico Gasparotto to peel off the front of the train so that he could take the first maglia rosa, we should have known Danilo Di Luca really wanted to win the race more than anyone. The events on that day were downplayed somewhat, with Di Luca saying: "I was not upset, it is important that we as a team win." But out of all the pre-race favorites - Gilberto Simoni, Damiano Cunego, Paolo Savoldelli, and Di Luca - it is the latter who has arguably the weakest team. Each

The next stage race on USA Cycling’s National Racing Calendar, the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, kicks off Tuesday in Hood River, Oregon. Now in its fifth year and its third as an NRC event, the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic has quickly emerged as one of the top stage races in the U.S., drawing professional and amateurs from several different categories. But with the Commerce Bank Triple Crown series beginning in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, June 3, the final day of Mt. Hood, many teams are either splitting their squads or simply skipping the Oregon race. That’s not to say that the six-stage

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Di Luca's attack on the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo showed who is in charge at this Giro d'Italia.

The race's namesake provides a scenic backdrop

The new Wy’East Road Race replaces the Three Summits course, damaged by flooding

Riders enjoy a little of Oregon's 'liquid sunshine'

High up the savage slopes of the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo, 23-year-old young gun Riccardo Riccò came of age with a brilliant victory in the 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Sunday. In a show of strength, unity and sportsmanship, the Saunier Duval duo of Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli out-foxed and out-climbed all others on the queen stage of the race in the Italian Dolomites. With arms aloft, Riccò crossed the line just ahead of maglia verde Piepoli, followed by Ivan Parra (Cofidis), 10 seconds adrift, and Mexican Julio Pérez (Ceramica Panaria-Navigare), a further 32 seconds behind.

Russian rider Vladimir Karpets (Caisse d’Epargne) won the Volta a Catalunya Sunday in Madrid. Spaniard Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) won the seventh and final stage, a 119.3km ride from Lloret de Mar to Barcelona. Karpets, the 2004 winner of the Tour de France's white jersey for the best young rider, thus picks up his fourth victory of the season. "To win such an important race like the Volta a Catalunya is something significant in a rider's career,” said Karpets. "The team started perfectly well, by being the best in the team time trial. After that we were able to control the

More than 15,000 spectators from Germany, France, Switzerland and Belgium braved rain and mud to cheer on the stars of mountain biking at the second round of the World Cup on Sunday in Offenburg, Germany. Nestled in the southwest corner of Germany, next to Switzerland and France, Offenburg is a region of vineyards on the edge of the Black Forest. The cross-country World Cup was restarting after a month-long break, a respite that meant previous results were no clear indication of form. This indeed proved to be the case, with one leader's jersey changing hands, and neither of the

Australia's Bradley McGee will miss the Tour de France for a second year in a row because of an ongoing problem with the herniated disc in his back. McGee, who spectacularly won the prologue of the centenary Tour in 2003 with the slimmest of margins over Britain's David Millar, had been hoping to get back to the world's biggest race after missing it last year. But despite appearing to be on the road to recovery from his back problem, McGee said he has been "forced to face reality.” A statement on the 31-year-old Sydneysider's website explained: "It is time to face facts and

A lovely Sunday ride.

Saunier-Duval throws a one-two punch

Di Luca sends a message to Simoni

Bettini will not give up

Big Guns: Some serious climbing talent went off in pursuit of the original break

The quartet catches the big break... but the early escapees fade fast.

Di Luca leads the chase on the Passo di Giau.

Savoldelli gives chase

Ricco takes a stab

Mazzoleni now sits in second place on GC.

Some say Di Luca passed the big test and is set to win this Giro.

Kalentyeva rippin' it up

Absalon hit the front and stayed there

If Danilo Di Luca expects to ride into Milan a week from Sunday wearing the maglia rosa on the final stage of the Giro d’Italia he’s going to have to fight for it before that. Had there been any doubt about that, it was certainly erased during Saturday’s 192-kilometer ride from Cantu to Bergamo. In one of the most exciting stages in modern Giro history, Acqua & Sapone's Stefano Garzelli took the fourteenth stage in emphatic fashion Saturday in Bergamo, barely edging out Saunier Duval's Gilberto Simoni and world road champ Paolo Bettini of Quick Step-Innergetic.

Former Telekom soigneur Jeff d’Hont said he injected 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich with the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), adding another element to a series of damaging revelations regarding Germany’s top pro cycling team. D'Hont, the former Telekom soigneur whose recent published memoirs led to a string of stunning confessions from former team riders, said in an interview published in Sunday's Bild magazine that he injected Ullrich with EPO. "I injected him once with EPO in the arm," said D'Hont. “It lasted around 10 seconds. It was as if I was injecting

Tina Pic gave the United States Cycling Team its ninth medal and sixth continental title with a victory in the elite women's road race at the 2007 Pan American Road and Track Championships on Saturday. Pic won the 72-kilometer road race to conclude competition for the American squad by outsprinting silver medalist Yumari Gonzales of Cuba and bronze medalist Gina Grain of Canada. Pic's victory gave the American women a sweep of the road events after Alison Powers won Friday's time trial. Given the relatively flat course and short distance of the road race, Pic was designated as

Fresh off a successful European road trip, the professional continental Navigators squad announced its return to domestic criterium racing with a dominant performance at Saturday’s Kelly Cup in Baltimore, Maryland. The team put six men in a 20-strong escape that formed with 15 laps of the 1-mile course remaining, and it was Aussie Hilton Clarke (Navigators) that struck the winning blow, soloing the final four laps to victory and nearly lapping the field in the process. Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine) won the women’s event in tight field sprint over U.S. national criterium champion Theresa

Garzelli wins the stage, Simoni wins time

Di Luca dodges a bullet

Lake Como

Krauss tries to get a jump on the big hill

Rubiera and others give chase