All Content

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

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 do not necessarily reflect the opinions, policies or positionsof VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, InsideCommunications,

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

The podium

Britain blazed the team-pursuit qualifier and then won gold in the final

Hammer focuses pre-ride

And off she goes

Hi, Mom!

Celebrating with coach and manager Andy Sparks

Huff racing in his scratch-race heat

Henderson racing his heat

Hoy takes the keirin

Wong powers away, carnage in his wake

The national anthem plays

Bos in the keirin prelims

The gold went to a happy Hoy

There's power for you: The top six legs in the keirin

The winning British pursuit team had fans in the Spanish stands

Third place Rafal Ratajczyk regrets not chasing Kam-Po Wong in the scratch race

But not as much as these guys regret laying it down on the unsanded boards

The men's podium, sans Schnell and Craig

JHK took a brief detour through the cactus

The women's podium

Did we miss something?

David Millar says the only way to rid doping from cycling will be if the major teams and sponsors drive change from within the sport. “To me, the buck stops at team management. They can’t just go around and blame it on the riders,” Millar told VeloNews. “They should know what’s going on, they should sign the right kind of riders. [It won’t stop] until the teams and the sponsors take responsibility.” Millar, 30, returned to competition before last year’s Tour de France after serving a two-year ban for admitting to using the banned blood booster EPO. He’s since become an outspoken proponent

A few locals from Barrydale, host of the finish of the fourth stage of the Absa Cape Epic, turned out to greet the riders slogging through the final kilometers of a long, hot day. The fans ran around in the nude, spraying each other with hoses in the sweltering South African afternoon. At least so I heard. I didn’t even see them. By the time I rolled into Barrydale, I was so cross-eyed from the 121km journey that I could only picture myself stepping off of my bike. Not a fire, a free beer tent — and definitely not a gaggle of naked people — could sway me from that. Before embarking on this

Charles Bradley Huff couldn’t quite believe it when he ended up with a bronze medal in the inaugural world track championship omnium. The Slipstream-Chipotle rider has been suffering through a chest cold, a two-day bout of diarrhea and self-described “bad legs,” but consistency and a third-place in the day’s fifth and final event in the kilometer time trial pushed him onto the medal’s podium. “To have such bad legs today yet it’s exciting that I was able to get third somehow,” said Huff. “It just shows in cycling as much as you suffer, you have good days and bad days, you gotta get on your

At least when it comes to business, Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James is something of a multi-sport athlete. The 22-year-old NBA star has purchased an undisclosed ownership stake in the bicycle manufacturer Cannondale, the company announced this week. The 6 foot 8 inch James is no stranger to the bike, according to a Cannondale spokesman. James, a number-one draft pick by the Cavaliers in 2003, spends a lot of time riding in the off-season and organizes the annual “King for Kids Bike-a-thon” in Akron, Ohio, a fundraiser designed to generate funds for local single mothers and their

Sarah Hammer burst onto the international scene last year with her breakthrough gold medal in the women’s individual pursuit. It was a surprise to everyone except Hammer, who was quietly confident she could mine the first U.S. gold medal in a decade and calmly delivered the goods. The 23-year-old no longer enjoys the benefit of being the unknown American and will be in the crosshairs this weekend as she takes aim for two gold medals, first in the pursuit on Friday and the points race on Sunday. VeloNews.com sat down with Hammer after her Thursday afternoon training session on the track to

A golden homecoming for Bradley Wiggins; a podium appearance by an ailing Brad Huff; and a French team-sprint defense that barely registered on a chronometer. It was a busy day at the track world championships in Spain, and our man Casey Gibson was all over it like a sweaty skinsuit. Here's what he sent home.

The author shows great enthusiasm at the start... he'd get over it soon enough.

The 'easiest' stage: a Cape Epic diary

The 'easiest' stage: a Cape Epic diary

The 'easiest' stage: a Cape Epic diary

The 'easiest' stage: a Cape Epic diary

The 'easiest' stage: a Cape Epic diary

The 'easiest' stage: a Cape Epic diary

The 'easiest' stage: a Cape Epic diary

Flat tires suck, for sure, but at least it offers a chance to get some rest.

Stage 6 finished at a tractor museum in Villiersdorp

...dreaming of lunch

Millar - seen here in the yellow jersey at Paris-Nice - says that doping reform will only happen if teams get serious.

Our boy Fred eventually recovered.

Wiggins beat Bartko in the final

The track in Mallorca is the world's newest

James' Cannondale: He liked it so much, he bought the company... at least part of it.

Hammer won the pursuit title in Bordeaux in '06

Huff podiums despite a cold, the trots and 'bad legs'

Huff grits his teeth and guts it out in the points race

Huff starts the pursuit

Czech fans celebrate their first track gold medal ever.

French coach encourages the French team to victory.

Greg Bauge celebrates the upset Team Sprint victory.

Wiggins in the pursuit.

Wiggins is quite comfortable on the podium. He's done this before.

Press awaits the British Women's sprint team.

Riding the omnium, Huff takes on the points race...

... and the pursuit.

The media room is there to keep track of all of it.