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Former Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich insisted Sunday that he is above reproach despite blood bags seized in a Spanish doping scandal having been proven to be his by German prosecutors. DNA tests on blood seized in the offices of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes last year have proven that the samples are Ullrich's, say Bonn prosecutors, who are investigating the rider for possible fraud. But in a letter addressed to his fans on his website, the 1997 Tour de France winner said: "These latest findings change strictly nothing of the fact that I'm blameless. "I've never lied

Only at the northern classics would people hope for bad weather. While Americans were wrestling with the possibility of cancelling a snow-boundU.S. Open, northern Europe was basking under temperatures in the 70s, clear skies and almost no wind. For many, it seemed Sunday’s weather was too nice – at least according to several protagonists queried by VeloNews after the Tour of Flanders. “It might have been great for fans and some of the racers, but today’s race was kind of flat and it lacked the spark that makes Flanders such a great race,” said Fabian Cancellara (CSC), who tried to break

The UniBet.com ProTour cycling team faced another setback Monday after being excluded from two more Classics. Unibet.com was already denied participation at Paris-Nice race last month and this coming Sunday's edition of Paris-Roubaix. The team learned on Monday that it will not be allowed to participate in Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege as well. All four events are promoted by Tour de France organizer ASO which said that the exclusions are due to French and Belgian laws barring the advertisement of out-of-country betting and lotteries. The Belgian-Swedish team is sponsored

Instant podium — just add water

And the livin' is easy: Warm weather made for great spectating - and weird racing - at the Tour of Flanders this year.

Don’t tell Alessandro Ballan he’s heir to Italian classics heroes such as Andrea Tafi and Franco Ballerini after his dramatic sprint victory ahead of Leif Hoste in Sunday’s Tour of Flanders. The panache shown by the 27-year-old in winning the crash-laden 91st edition is just the stuff Italian journalists love to turn into legend, but Ballan sees himself as more than a one-trick pony after the biggest victory of his career.

Second-year pro Tyler Farrar is getting his long-awaited view of Europe’s bumpiest roads from inside the peloton during the northern classics. On Sunday, the 22-year-old Cofidis rider competed in the first Tour of Flanders of his promising career, helping push team captain Nick Nuyens to seventh in one of the most important races of the season. Farrar is an integral part of the Cofidis’ northern classics program and will be spending the next week racing across the cobblestones. Up next is Wednesday’s Ghent-Wevelgem —and next weekend, he’s scheduled to start in the Hell of the North,

Ballan wins

Ballan and Hoste working their slim advantage

A little fog, but otherwise a lovely day for a bike race

Panache and power

It was that close

The podium

Acosta was part of an early break . . .

. . . as was Franzoi

World champ Bettini shows his rainbow colors

Knaven chases

Riders pouring into Bruges

Tyler's dream of riding the spring classics has come true

The absence of one the Tour of Flanders' crucial climbs in Sunday's second one-day classic of the season is unlikely to reduce the threat of a possible hat-trick for Tom Boonen. Boonen has won the Belgian epic for the past two years, but even he might be applauding the organizer’s decision to bypass the mythical, and strategically significant Koppenberg. At only 600 meters long, it can hardly be labeled a climb - at least to those more used to watching the big stage racer. But climbing at an average gradient of 11.6 percent on the cobbles makes the Koppenberg a challenge you cannot

Peter Van Petegem lines up Sunday in what could be his last Tour of Flanders. The 37-year-old is synonymous with the Belgian classic and boasts two victories (1999 and 2003) to his list of successes during his 16-year career. Van Petegem made a big switch last year, trading his team captain’s role at Predictor-Lotto for one that’s certainly a notch or two lower in the pecking order at Quick Step-Innergetic. What’s surprising is that Van Petegem couldn’t be happier than to be in his new role of “joker” behind two-time defending Flanders champ Tom Boonen and reigning world champion Paolo

The U.S Open Cycling Championship got under way on Saturday after snow and cold forced a 90-minute delay to the start in Williamsburg, Virginia. Wet snow and steady winds kept the television helicopter grounded, prompting the delay. Same-day television coverage is to be broadcast from 2:30 to 5 p.m. on NBC. More pictures “I agreed with the rider boycotts at Sea Otter [in 2003] and San Dimas [in 2004],” said Health Net-Maxxis team director Jeff Corbett. “But no one wants to look like a wimp on national television.” Happily, the race got rolling, albeit a bit late, and the race caravan

The organization representing UCI ProTour teams has asked cycling authorities to carry out DNA tests on all riders implicated in the Spanish Operación Puerto scandal. The demand comes in the wake of DNA evidence that linked former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich with blood bags found on the properties of tainted doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, as part of the Puerto investigation. In a joint statement, the ProTour teams and the International Association of Professional Cycling Groups (AIGCP) have asked all cycling authorities to use the DNA of cyclists implicated in the affair to discover

The calendar says it's spring — but you wouldn't have known it by the conditions at the start of the inaugural U.S. Open Cycling Championship on Saturday in Williamsburg, Virginia. Senior writer Neal Rogers snapped a few pics of the peloton preparing for heavy weather; they're arrayed below.

Heading into the inaugural U.S. Open Cycling Championships in Richmond, Virginia, a few names of race favorites were on everyone’s lips: Toyota-United strongmen Henk Vogels and Ivan Dominguez topped the list. Other riders, such as Health Net-Maxxis riders Karl Menzies and Kirk O’Bee and current NRC leader Ben Jacques-Maynes of Priority Health-Bissell were also tossed around. But in the end, two riders not considered favorites — Svein Tuft of Symmetrics and Patrick McCarty of Slipstream-Chipotle — turned the race upside down after forming a winning two-man breakaway more than 15 miles from

Van Petegem is eyeing retirement, but he's not quite ready to hang up his cleats.

Van Petegem last won Flanders in 2003. Now he's riding for the competition

Van Petegem says the first Flanders victory in 1999 remains one of his fondest memories.

The Koppenberg was a classic hurdle, but it was never the only hurdle in the Tour of Flanders

Van Petegem is comfortable in his current role at Quick Step

U.S. Open hits the road after snow delay

The weather has left directors and officials wondering what to do

A delay may allow snow to melt, but wet cobbles await the peloton in Richmond

Grate weather: Riders from Equipe Vallee de l'Aluminum de Vinci stand over a heating grate to stay warm

Slipstream-Chipotle rider Lucas Euser puts some plastic trash bags to good use

Justin England (Toyota-United) and Jonny Sundt (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast) wore latex gloves over their cycling gloves

Ace photog' Casey Gibson: 'It's not the temperature that's the problem, it's the humidity.'

Bernardo Colex (Tecos), from Puebla, Mexico, said he'd never ridden in the snow before

Alex Candelario (Jelly Belly) and Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) stayed warm on a chartered bus during the delay

Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada's Ryan Trebon wore every article of clothing he'd brought, and borrowed a few extra layers

Aussie Henk Vogels (Toyota-United) looked as though there were other things he would prefer to do than race in the snow

Tuft takes the hard-fought win

Some of the fans lining the race route seemed a little frosty

Tuft leads McCarty

With one to go, he's gone

Welcome to sunny — er, snowy — Williamsburg

Last year's race was held in epic conditions

The peloton tackles the cobbled climb

Johnson leads Tuft on an early trip up the big hill

The podium after a cold, hard day in the saddle

Whoops — wrong way

Even the bikes got blankies to keep them warm

Navigators tackling the climb

Chasing, chasing

McCarty workin' it

Tuft powers through the powder

In what is being billed as the “true North American Championship,” the inauguralU.S. Open CyclingChampionships are set for Saturday, April 7, in Richmond, Virginia.The 112-mile men’s race, a stop on the international UCI Americas Tourand the national USA Cycling Pro Tour, will begin in colonial Williamsburg,Virginia and follow the route along the historic Jamestown Plantationsand Civil War battlefields, ending with eight 5.5-mile circuits in downtownRichmond including a brutal cobblestone climb up Libby Hill. The men’s race begins at 8:10 a.m., and the men are expected to enterthe Richmond

Tom Boonen dares to dream of making it three in a row as he lines up as a five-star favorite for Sunday’s Ronde van Vlaanderen. The Quick Step-Innergetic captain talked to the Belgian media Thursday about his chances. “Over these last few days I’ve realized that I really could do something unique – winning the Flanders for the third time in a row, but I’ll also need a bit of luck on my side to do this. It won’t be an easy feat,” Boonen said. “I’m approaching the Ronde in good condition. I’ve done everything possible to be at the Ronde in excellent form.” Boonen has snagged his fair share

The Opener: For the men, the U.S. Open kicks off with a route through Virginia's historic countryside.

The Closer: The men's race ends with eight laps through Richmond

Toyota-United's Dominguez (center) and Vogels (left) are favorites who just might frustrate Americans' hopes of scoring a win at the U.S. Open.

Boonen won last week's E3-Prijs Vlaanderen for the fourth time. Now he's aiming for his third Tour of Flanders.

Mikhail Ignatiev is barely old enough to buy a drink (at least in the U.S.), but his palmares are already overflowing with impressive results. The 21-year-old delivered Russia’s only medal at the recent world track cycling championships with a bronze medal in the men’s points race. Although he’s the defending Olympic gold medalist in the points race, Ignatiev says his future remains firmly planted on the road. In the meantime, the lure of another Olympic gold medal is too great to ignore. “I want to defend my title in Beijing, so I will race more track events early next year to qualify and

College sports fans and cycling enthusiasts will soon get the chance to meet the country’s top women’s cyclists from colleges and universities all across the United States when the Ryan Collegiate All-Star Team takes to the roads at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. This will be the first All-Star team in the history of US collegiate cycling. The Ryan Collegiate Women’s All Star Team, sponsored by development/construction giant Ryan Companies US, Inc, is the result of a partnership between USA Cycling and the Nature Valley Grand Prix, a stage race ranked at the top of USA Cycling’s National

Ignatiev - here at the Mediterranean Tour - sees his future on the road.

Collegiate women at the 2006 Beanpot Criterium in Somerville, Massachusett

Perhaps not surprisingly, German media have slammed Jan Ullrich after reports that DNA samples have definitively linked the 1997 Tour de France champion to several packets of blood seized during police raids of properties owned by Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. Ullrich, 33, retired last month, after his career evaporated due to his link to the Spanish investigation dubbed Operación Puerto. Ullrich has maintained his innocence throughout and continued to do so after a Bonn prosecutor announced results of DNA tests on Tuesday. A glance at headlines from Germany’s major news outlets,

Michaelsen’s last ride loomingLars Michaelsen – the 38-year-old Team CSC rider – will retire after competing in Paris-Roubaix later this month. A winner of the 1995 Ghent-Wevelgem and a two-time top-five finisher at Roubaix, Michaelsen said he couldn’t think of a better scenario to end his career. “The spring classics have always been where my heart beats, so it’s a good way to say goodbye to this fantastic sport,” he said. “Paris-Roubaix will be my last race. I’m hoping to have the legs and be up there in the Arenberg forest and to be in the selection, then we’ll take it from there. The

After a seven-year partnership, Nike and Trek will part ways at the end of 2007. The decision, a result of the $15 billion sports giant’s new exclusive focus on high-end cycling shoes and apparel, sparked rumors that Nike is abandoning the sport altogether. Since 1999, Trek has been a Nike licensee and the primary distributor for Nike Cycling, the marketing of which had centered on seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong. Nike recently downsized its in-house cycling division. However, the Nike-Trek split doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the Nike’s cycling division, said Maggie

Lawyers acting on behalf of former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich claimed Wednesday that blood seized in a Spanish doping scandal and linked to the former German cycling star were not in themselves proof of doping. On Tuesday, prosecutors in Bonn announced that DNA tests on blood seized in the offices of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes last year confirmed that nine bags of the 200 confiscated were Ullrich’s. "If all that is evoked is confirmed then all that has been found is theblood of our client in Spain, but that does not in itself mean that doping took place. We are a long way off

ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue announced today that AT&T will contribute $500,000 to become a major sponsor of the Tour de Georgia, which will be held the week of April 16-22. "I am very pleased that our newest corporate citizen is continuing the long legacy of civic participation established by BellSouth and Cingular Wireless," Governor Perdue said. "I have met with representatives from the new AT&T and remain convinced the company will continue to have a tremendous impact on our state’s economy for decades to come." This year’s Tour de Georgia marks the fifth year for the race, and the

Crankworx ColoradoWhistler Resort, home of the Crankworx Freeride Festival, has partneredwith Colorado’s Winter Park Resort to produce Crankworx Colorado. The eventwill be held at Winter Park, Colorado July 5-7, 2007. Like the Canadian event, the Colorado Crankworx will feature a cross-countryrace, a downhill event modeled after Whistler’s notorious Air Downhill,a Super D and a Big Air competition. The Colorado event will also featurea Slopestyle competition, which combines dirt jumping and on-bike aerobatics.The Winter Park Slopestyle course will be designed by famous course designerJohn

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you havea comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen incycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write toWebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name andhome town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writersare encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.The letters published here contain the opinions of the submittingauthors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positionsof VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,

The end of a legend? A workman packs up a poster of the 1997 Tour winner following his February retirement announcement.

Michaelsen will ride Paris-Roubaix and then retire.

The first big mountain-bike race of the season isn't just a chance to see which racers have been following their off-season training programs — it's an opportunity for gearheads to gauge which manufacturers have been doing their homework. For most companies, design, prototyping and testing generally take place one, two, even three years ahead of production. So the racecourse is one of the best places to get a look at what may be coming down the production pike. At this week’s NOVA National at McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Fountain Hills, Arizona, there were plenty of

The sourceDear readers,I received a boatload of great responses on creaking noises from the March7 column, and it is something so commonly plaguing all of us as cyclists that I’m running a whole list of the fixes for them that I did not mention.LennardIt's the headsetI also have a Basso Diamante that I occasionally have creaking issueswith. Like many creaking issues, it's hard to track down where the noiseis coming from. I suggest it isn't coming from the seat area with the riderwho sent you the question. I would check the front of the bike. First,make sure the quick release

Some of the bags of plasma and blood confiscated during police raids on the offices of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes belong to 1997 Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich, German authorities said Tuesday. Bonn prosecutor Friedrich Apostel says there is “no doubt” that the blood in those bags came from Ullrich, the German wire service SID reported Tuesday. Ullrich denied any links to Fuentes, alleged to be the mastermind of a blood-doping ring uncovered last May by Spanish authorities and later dubbed Operación Puerto. Fuentes allegedly used the code names “Hijo de Rudicio,” “Jan,” and

LiteSpeed is toying with a new suspension design

Tech Report with Matt Pacocha - A look ahead