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The rider list for the 2007 Absa Cape Epic speaks volumes of South Africa’s appreciation for off-road racing. Fully three-quarters of the 1200 competitors hail from the host country. Fewer than 50 cyclists from the United States and Canada made the journey to Africa’s southernmost nation for the Cape Epic, yet the event boasted its highest ever population of North Americans. From 'cross racing in Carolina to...Jason Morgan and Tim Hopkin are two Americans currently tackling the 900km race. The two are riding partners, and race cyclo-cross in North Carolina. Hopkin and Morgan are not

Paris-Nice winner Alberto Contador is among those lining up for the Vuelta a Castilla y León.

It's Good to be King

McDowell-Larsen

Thundering herd: Stage 3 kicked off promptly at 7 a.m. from Oudtshoorn

Cannondale-Vredestein pushed the pace early

Race director Kevin Vermaak (right) talks with Christoph Sauser about his penalty

Vermaak then turned to David George

Stefan Schumacher is one of Germany’s brightest hopes for the future. The burly Gerolsteiner is an all-rounder who can sprint as well as climb, as he revealed in his grand tour debut in last year’s Giro d’Italia with two stage wins. “Schumi” returned to the elite ranks last year after racing in smaller German continental teams when his two-year run at Telekom (now T-Mobile) didn’t pan out as well as hoped in 2002-03. He made the most of his chance, taking the overall at the Circuit de la Sarthe, the Tour of Poland and his controversial victory at the Benelux Tour when he swiped out George

VeloNews associate editor Fred Dreier is spending the week in South Africa, attending the Absa Cape Epic mountain-bike race. In addition to regular coverage of this growing event, Dreier has been sending a selection of images from his first trip to Africa.

The first stage of the 2007 Absa Cape Epic produced an unpredicted twist when defending champion, Switzerland’s Christoph Sauser, fell out of contention for the overall on the 101km journey from Knysna to Uniondale. The two-time World Cup champ and his partner, Italian Johan Palhuber, crossed the line nearly 10 minutes down on the Bulls team of Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm, and the Cannondale-Vredestein squad of Roel Paulissen and Jakob Fugelsang. Sauser’s legs weren’t to blame for the time gap. While trying to hold pace, Palhuber, a last-minute replacement for the ailing Liam Killeen,

At 40 years of age and in his 19th season as a professional, Scott Moninger thought he had seen it all. He began his pro career at Team Crest with an overall victory at the Redlands Classic in 1989, and he has since done the rounds with American pro teams: four years with Coors Light, two with Chevrolet-L.A. Sheriff, four years with Mercury, three with HealthNet, and now his first season at Team BMC. Moninger has taken some 250 victories in his incomparable career, and it looked like he had his hands on one more trophy — it would have been his third overall win at Redlands — going into

Amber Neben was simply too strong for the opposition at the Redlands Classic. Wearing the yellow jersey since the prologue on Thursday, she crowned her second overall win in two years by answering every attack from the powerful Webcor Builders team on Sunday’s final stage around nine laps of the grueling Sunset Loop. Runner-up Mara Abbott of Webcor eventually broke away with Neben, and after a long chase they were joined by T-Mobile’s Kim Anderson and Team Lipton’s Kori Seehafer. These four fought out the stage win in downtown Redlands, with Seehafer looking the likely winner until she

Schumacher has big goals for 2007

Schumacher started his season in Mallorca

Schumacher wins ugly at the Eneco Tour

The situation was bad for both, said Schumacher.

It required more than four minutes for the 1086 mountain bikers to pass under the starting line in Knysna.

A modern sporting event gets a traditional send-off.

Along with the usual scrum of reporters, local Knysna school children attended the pre-race press conference

South Africa's downhill great Greg Minnaar hangs out in the tent village in Uniondale prior to the start of stage 2.

Team Rwanda: American Jonathan Boyer and his Rwandan teammate prepare for the first stage in Knysna.

Absa Cape Epic race director Kevin Vermaak talks about the guiding philosophy of the annual event.

Stage 1 winners Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm of Germany

One team mechanic conducts a maintenance workshop for local children in Oudshoorn.

Stage 1 winner Karl Platt high fives the crowd in Uniondale

Riders ready for Stage 2 in Uniondale

Closely matched, Paulissen and Fugelsang cross the line in first place

Masters leaders Andrew McLean (left) and Damian Booth know what good teamwork is

Early on the race often resembles a road event

Bajadali gambled... and won.

Zajicek puts it all on the line

BMC monitored the break, expecting to keep the gap at around a minute. Then everything went wrong.

Moninger slipped from 1st to 9th on GC

Sutherland wins for the second time this week

Anderson wins and Neben celebrates.

Neben led from day one.

Neben knew what she had to do to win the overall.

Anderson avoided a final-corner crash and earned her first win at Redlands.

This time there won’t be an asterisk next to his victory. Oscar Freire (Rabobank) unleashed a masterful sprint to win Saturday’s centenary celebration of Milan-San Remo ahead of Allan Davis to claim victory in emphatic style to erase the memories of 2004 when he won by a whisker ahead of the celebrating Erik Zabel.

The Australian cycling community was in shock Saturday upon hearing that Damian McDonald, a 34-year-old retired cyclist who took a gold medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, had been killed in a massive collision in Melbourne’s Burnley Tunnel. In a scene Australian newspapers have described as horrific, an eight-vehicle pileup sparked a series of explosions and a subsequent blaze believed to have topped 1000 degrees. Motorists reported a “huge” fireball erupting from the crash scene, causing more than 400 people to leave their vehicles and flee the tunnel. Sprinklers and

A volley of shouts greeted the lead group of 20 riders as they sped toward the wooded summit of the Buffelsnek climb, the first serious incline of the 2007 Absa Cape Epic. The upcoming feed zone would be the only chance for a water fill for the next 45km, they said, and anyone who had doubts about running on empty under the African sun should stop for a bottle. A collective moan came from the pack as the athletes hit their brakes. Everyone in the group stopped. The problem was caused by a broken-down truck on Prince Alfred Pass, the day’s highest and final climb. The obstacle prevented the

The men’s and women’s criterium stages of the Redlands Classic on Saturday had almost identical results, with each dominated by a small breakaway group (five for the men, four for the women) that finished half-a-minute ahead of the pack.

Freire nails it.

The day's escape was expected...

A good part of the day involves a pleasant ride along the coast

Kopp suffered a broken nose and a concussion.

The traditional start in Milan...

... the usual celebration in San Remo...

... with a long and beautiful ride in between.

Voeckler on the attack.

Popovych quickly countered that move, leaving Voeckler behind, but Pellizotti stayed with him for a while.

Popovych was caught at the base of the Poggio.

Ricco and Gilbert were caught with 2km to go

.. chased when things got worrisome...

... and eventually reeled in.

Gilbert leads on the Poggio

Freire wins Milan-San Remo

Ready to race

Sutherland on the attack...

Moninger easily protected his hold on the jersey

BMC monitored the field before and after the day's break went.

... and takes the win.

Ready to ride, Redlands attracts one of the top women's fields in the U.S.

Teutenberg moves toward the front of the field

Up and comer Brooke Miller leads the break.

Neben: 'You have to make a decision about today or tomorrow.'

Teutenberg: 'There's no reason not to work'

Teutenberg initiated the break

It's Moninger and England again, only on a flat course.

Slipstream came to the front of the chase, but couldn't get away.

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David Millar – fresh off his victory in the prologue at Paris-Nice – says he’s taking aim at the overall title at next month’s Tour de Georgia. The Saunier Duval-Prodir rider – who vows he’s left behind his cheating ways after serving a two-year ban for admitting to French authorities he used EPO – says Georgia is an ideal race for his characteristics. “I’m going for the overall at Georgia,” said Millar, who ended up 12th overall at the Race to the Sun. “It’s a good race for me. I’m feeling good at Paris-Nice, things went better than expected there.” First, he’s going to take in a few

Some of cycling’s brightest stars will be absent or battling injury on Saturday as Milan-San Remo celebrates its centenary. While defending champion Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas) will be on hand, absent from the 2007 edition of “La Primavera” will be last year's Giro d’Italia winner, Ivan Basso (Discovery Channel), and former ProTour series winner Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas). Basso, 29, has struggled to recover from spraining a wrist at Tirreno-Adriatico last Friday, while Di Luca is still experiencing the after-effects of flu. Meanwhile, world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic)

The world’s longest mountain-bike stage race, South Africa’s Absa Cape Epic, kicks off on Saturday. The eight-day event, which bills itself as “The Magical and Untamed African Mountain-Bike Race,” begins at the seaside resort town of Knysna (pronounced nice-nuh), and traces a winding line through South Africa’s vast interior before finishing on March 31 at the Lourensford Wine Estate, just outside of Cape Town. The 1086 professional and amateur mountain-bike racers participating in the 2007 event face intimidating statistics: 886 kilometers of pedaling and 15,045 meters of climbing separate

Two climbers from Boulder, Colorado, won the pro men’s and pro women’s Oak Glen stage of the Redlands Classic on Friday afternoon. But that’s where the similarity ends. Men’s winner (and new race leader) Scott Moninger is 40 years old and has won about 250 races in his 18 seasons as a professional. Mara Abbott is 21, still at college, and in only her second season as a road racer. Her victory over prologue winner (and still race leader) Amber Neben moved Abbott into second place overall. After he out-kicked Toyota-United’s Justin England for the stage win, the omnipotent Moninger (BMC)

Millar hopes for a peachy Georgia

Ekimov has been Discovery's lucky charm this season