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Georgia Gould (Luna) and Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) each won their respective NOVA National cross-country races in Fountain Hills, Arizona, on Sunday, scoring 30 UCI points as pro riders begin to rack up valuable points in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. For Gould the win completed a sweep of the weekend events, where the Luna rider was the golden girl of the three days of racing at and near McDowell Mountain Park in Fountain Hills. Sunday proved the hottest day of the weekend with temperatures rising into the 90s by the time women started racing at 1:00 p.m. The men’s event started in heat

'What's not to like about this guy?' said one network official.

McDonough and endurance coach Colby Pearce at world's in Mallorca

McDonough has high hopes for Beijing

Voigt takes a step toward winning his third Critérium International

Hoy powers to another kilo title

Next on the agenda is a new world record.

Lövkvist en route to dominating the final stage

Voigt takes the win ahead of Lövkvist and Valverde

Julich, who spent some time in the hot seat during the finale, wound up top American in 15th overall at 2:03

Bates in the lead

Colby Pearce launches Sara Hammer into the pts race

Bos with his coach

The Bos

Franco Marvulli and Bruno Risi

It's been a party for the last few days

Pendleton earns gold No. 2

Reed had to settle for fifth

Hammer leads the points race... but scored no points.

Gould dominated women's races all weekend

Kabush is on-form in these early season races

JHK gets help in the tech zone

A big field that was trimmed by heat, distance and mechanicals

Wells and Kabush fought it out until the final lap

This one really came down to a battle between Gould and McConneloug

The women's podium

The men's podium

"The Apartment" Sound like a reality-TV show? Fortunately it’s not, at least not this one … yet. Instead, it’s about our main team apartment in Girona, Spain. While a few riders have places of their own, Slipstream has a couple of apartments scattered around town for our use. I’m on the long program this spring, roughly three months, and pulled a bit of seniority to grab one of the choice rooms (read: big-ish with some sunlight). With seven – that’s SEVEN! - riders in the joint right now, having a little spot that is all your own becomes increasingly more valuable. First, a bit of history:

French coach Florian Rousseau has blasted the race tactics of Australian Mark French, who was disqualified from the men's keirin at the track world championships in Palma de Majorca, Spain. French was disqualified by race officials at the world track cycling championships Friday after a potentially dangerous maneuver that effectively ended the medal hopes of Rousseau's star keirin rider Kevin Sireau. Eventual gold medalist Chris Hoy of Great Britain won the second-round heat, in which the top three go through to the finals, ahead of defending Dutch champion Theo Bos and another

Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm locked up their overall victory at the 2007 Absa Cape Epic on Saturday, finishing third in the eighth and final stage of the weeklong mountain-bike race across South Africa. While the day was won by the Swiss duo of Thomas Zahnd and Sandro Spaeth (Texner-Stoeckli), overall honors at the weeklong stage race depended on the outcome of a tough final-day battle between the two Germans from Team Bulls and Jakob Fugelsang and Roel Paulissen (Cannondale-Vredestein). While Platt and Sahm enjoyed a four-minute buffer over the pair in second place, the contest was far from

Defending Olympic champion Anna Meares beat her own world record with a new time of 33.588 to win Australia’s first gold medal at the Palma de Mallorca world championship. Meares set the previous record in November with 33.944, but shaved nearly a half-second off on the new boards at the Palma velodrome. “I felt really good right from the gun,” said the tearful Meares. “Just as this season has progressed, I’ve gotten better and better. "I wasn’t sure if a world record would be possible because I didn’t know the condition of this track. I didn’t think about it. I just went through the

German Olaf Pollack (Wiesenhof) won the first stage of the Critérium International on Saturday. Pollack took the 179km leg from Asfeld to Charleville after a violent storm pounded the racers in the final 15km, disrupting what proved to be a bunch sprint. The German easily outpaced Italian Angelo Furlan (Crédit Agricole) and Spaniard Mikel Gaztanaga (Agritubel), all of whom were given the same time as the winner.

What should have been the third consecutive day of medal celebration for the resurgent U.S. track team turned into bitter disappointment Saturday when Rebecca Quinn was relegated in the women’s 10km scratch race after sprinting to third. Quinn made a spectacular finishing surge to squeeze between two riders coming out of turn four to earn what most observers thought was a well-deserved bronze medal. Moments after celebrating with her coaches, however, a UCI official whispered to USA Cycling’s athletic director Pat McDonough the bad news. By the time McDonough had a chance to review the

It was another full day at track world's in Spain — the Aussies finally got themselves a medal, as did the host nation, and the Brits continued their winning ways. Casey Gibson was on the job once again and sent us the following photos.

It wasn’t a real Fat Boy criterium, but it sure felt like one. Call it what you like, but Georgia Gould (Luna) and Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) took convincing wins at the first NMBS short track in Fountain Hills, Arizona. The races were run in an unusual format; both the men and women started after dark. The women sprung from the line just before 8 p.m. and the men had to wait until half past eight for their start. However inconvenient the late hour, riders and spectators seemed to relish it was truly an exciting race. The surprisingly challenging course ran through an abandoned downtown lot

The Bulls celebrate their victory.

Meares rips the 500, beating her own world record

Pollack celebrates his first victory of 2007

A sloppy, scary sprint

Quinn thought she had made the right move to get the medal

Meares burning up the boards

Quinn is a killer bike handler and that may have cost her on Saturday.

Llaneras takes an emotional victory for the host nation

Quinn before the bad news.

Quinn shares a moment coach Colby Pearce after hearing of the judges' decision.

The four-time champ mourns his lost Madison partner

Bos blasts into the sprint final

Pendleton celebrates

Meares and her coach celebrate Australia's first gold of this year's championships

She collected a bronze in the sprint to go with it

Llaneras blazes towards the points-race gold

Creed was still suffering the effects of a bad cold and didn't make the medal round

Bourgain advanced in the sprint

Chiappa didn't

Pendleton prepares herself for another run at gold

Lining up for the points race

Kabush wrangles the holeshot in the men's event

women’s warm up, Georgia Gould, Shonny Vanlandingham, Katerina Nash

Gould off on her own

Sydor chasing with Nash in tow

Craig at the front

Men’s Super D podium

Popping the cork: The women’s Super D podium

Sarah Hammer put down a dominating performance Friday in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, defending her world title in the women’s individual pursuit Friday and putting the world on notice that she’s the rider to beat going into next year’s Olympic Summer Games. Hammer becomes the first American to defend a world track title since Rebecca Twigg in 1984-85. She also set a new U.S record and personal best with 3:30.213. “I wanted that so bad. To do it twice is amazing,” Hammer told VeloNews at the finish. “I thought going in I was going to win. I was confident in myself.” Hammer was fastest in

As it stands, China's hopes of an unprecedented Olympic gold medal in track cycling currently lie with women's sprint star Shuang Guo, women who turned in the fastest time in Friday’s sprint qualifying round. But in 17 months time, the medal odds could look decidedly better for the hosts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and it could be thanks to one of the sport's biggest legends. China's first Olympic track medal came through Yong Hua who won silver in the women's 500 meter time trial at Athens in 2004. But former four-time Olympic champion Daniel Morelon, who also amassed

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There was a time, before Sea Otter, Fontana or Waco, when the Specialized Cactus Cup signaled the official kick-off to the domestic mountain-bike season. In the early 1990s, when mountain-bike racing was at its peak, the Cactus Cup near Phoenix served as a rite of spring for the likes of John Tomac, Tinker Juarez and Ned Overend as they battled under warm skies and among towering saguaros. As is now the case with Sea Otter, the Specialized Cactus Cup races filled many needs, from warm-weather retreat to consumer trade show to early season reunion for scores of riders who had not seen one

Germans Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm (Bulls) regained the overall lead of the Absa Cape Epic on Friday after finishing second in the penultimate stage. The stage win went to Bart Brentjens and Rudi van Houts (Dolphin), but the real contest was between the Bulls and Roel Paulissen and Jakob Fugelsang (Cannondale-Vredestein), who snatched the leaders’ jerseys from Platt and Sahm after winning the previous day’s stage. Platt and Sahm caught and passed their rivals with 30km to go in the 116km stage from Villiersdorp to Kleinmond and will take an advantage of three-and-a-half minutes into

It was raining gold in Spain, and the U.S. and Britain had their buckets out. Casey Gibson was on hand with his array of cameras and lenses; here's what he sent home.

The 2007 Tour of Utah will be canceled due to a lack of sponsorship, and its executive director has stepped down, the race’s board of directors announced Friday in Salt Lake City. The six-day, six-stage, 400-mile race had been scheduled for July 2-7. “In assessing our current staff, meeting personally with community stakeholders and business leaders, and observing the Tour of California bicycle race, I believe that we have the foundation in place to build a well-respected and successful event,” said board chairman Greg Miller. “We hit the ground running in January, and after getting up to

Organizers on Friday released the list of 21 teams slated to race the U.S. Open Cycling Championships April 7 in Virginia. The 112-mile men’s race, a stop on the UCI Americas Tour (UCI 1.1) and the national USA Cycling Pro Tour, starts in Williamsburg and finishes in Richmond. A nine-lap women’s race in Richmond will use the western section of the men’s course. Among the athletes bound for Virginia are Ivan Dominquez and Henk Vogels (Toyota-United); Svein Tuft (Symmetrics); Fausto Marcelino Muñoz (Tecos de la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara); and Danny Pate

The NOVA National opened Friday with Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and Georgia Gould (Luna) winning their respective time trials at McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Fountain Hills, Arizona. Horgan-Kobelski covered the 7-mile course in 19 minutes and 44 seconds, while Gould finished in 22:47. The time trial used some of the park’s roughest trails — undulating with sharp corners, drops and dips. And the vegetation lining the course was even rougher, as Horgan-Kobelski learned after cutting one of the final corners a little too close. “I came in a little hot to one of the

Wiggins leads the British pursuit squad as it charges to a sub-4:00 qualifier.

Having played a major role in Felicia Ballanger's five-year win streak, Daniel Morelon is now helping China establish a program.

Guo's 11.149 in Friday’s qualifying round was the best of the day

Hammer races into the gold-medal round

The podium after Stage 7

Hammer wins her second consecutive world title

Celebrating on the podium

Reed wound up 15th in the sprint and now looks ahead to the keirin