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2006 Milan- San Remo winner Filippo Pozzato, in his new Liquigas kit, was hanging with a few of his old Quick Step buddies.

Santi Perez in his new Relax kit.

Oscar Freire looks pensive before his first race since winning the Vatenfall Classics in August. Plagued by back problems, the three-time world champion said he's riding without pain again.

Freire squirts past the right side of the peloton to win Sunday's Mallorca Challenge opener. He's hoping to regain his form after missing world's for two years running.

Riders spin by with Mallorca's towering cathedral in the background in Sunday's opening stage. The cathedral dates back to the 14th century and is one of the largest in Spain.

The Cat. 2 Coll de Soller will be one of the steep climbs featured in Tuesday's and Wednesday's climbing stages. This year's route includes 15 rated climbs and cuts through the spectacular Tramuntana mountains along Mallorca's rugged

Dutch veteran Michael Boogerd is still going strong. VeloNews spied the big-toothed classics star leading Rabobank on an intense training ride along the mountainous rugged coastline Saturday.

Who says the peloton hasn't gone international? Astana is the first top-level pro team registered in Kazakhstan.

The brother and sister of Isaac Galvez were overcome with emotion in a special homage to the late Illes Balears rider ahead of Sunday's start. Galvez died in a crash during a track race in November. He won two stages in last year's Mallorca C

David Millar is in Mallorca, working to hone his TT skills

Can he make another run at the climber's jersey?

Mancebo found a place to land.

Our latest reader-submitted PhotoGallery is now ready for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of our most recent contest. We had a tough time picking a winner this week, we can assure you. There were two images that stood out in our minds and we kept going back and forth. Fortunately, it was a letter from a reader that settled the question for us. As reader Erin Hinnov remarked, “I like the stark imagery of the White Rim photo, but the story about Josh brought me to tears. If I had to go with just the artistry of the photos, I vote White

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,

International Olympic Committee officials have rebuked World Anti-DopingAgency (WADA) chairman Dick Pound for comments critical of cyclist LanceArmstrong, according to newspaper reports. The Los Angeles Times and New York Times reported thatthe IOC Ethics Commission censure was dated February 2 and came followinga complaint filed in 2005 by the American, a seven-time Tour de Francewinner."It's not common that the IOC comes out and issues a reprimand or awarning about one of their members at all. This is as close to a censureas it could get," Armstrong told the New York Times, calling

German attacker Stefan Schumacher says his planned Tour de France debut later this season will help him decide where his future lies. If he can get through the Tour in good shape, he might try to focus on improving his skills to perhaps battle for the overall prize in the future. If not, he’ll instead focus his energy into winning stages and shining in the classics. It all depends on how things go in July. “I don’t know if I can ever challenge for the Tour, but what happens this year will tell me a lot,” Schumacher told VeloNews before the start of Monday’s stage at the Mallorca Challenge.

February is the perfect time to come out to Arizona and test the early-season fitness. The temperature is ideal, the variety of terrain staggering, and the level of competition at the early races is typically top-notch. Pros, too, flock to Tucson for their warm weather training tune-up, and will often race a few local events before joining their teams for the full-on race calendar. Although the caliber of racing is typically high, participants were caught a bit off guard when Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) and his wife Kristin (Velo Bella) showed up for the Bartlett Lake Time Trial on

In the 20 years that the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame has existed, morethan 100 individuals have been inducted — both in person or posthumously.Their names vary from 1899 world sprint champion Major Taylor to three-timeTour de France winner Greg LeMond. And now you can nominate your favoriterider for consideration in the “class of ’07.” The main requirements are that nominees be U.S. citizens and have notraced for five years — so that rules out nominating shoo-ins like LanceArmstrong and Marty Nothstein for another few years. There are actuallyfive categories of competitors eligible for the

White Rim Trail - Canyonlands National Park Utah

Josh

Schumacher wants to exploit his strengths

Calvente hopes he and the Agritubel team get invited to the Tour

Danielson gets ready to roll

The Danielsons look to be enjoying the warm AZ weather

Danielson in the desert

Local TT stud Drew Miller recovering after his effort, and heading out on the course to check out Tommy D’s ride

Danielson off to a strong start

Kristen lines up

Hall of Fame seeks nominations

With the 2007 Tour de Langkawi now a memory, it’s time to consider the event’s future. Now 12 and counting, Malaysia’s national tour almost didn’t happen this year. Bad debt and the inevitable bad blood that follows had the race on life support for most of 2006. Only an 11th-hour bailout from the government — and some hard work by the Malaysian National Cycling Federation — saved the race from a fate that’s claimed plenty of its brethren over the years. These are expensive propositions that don’t yield the more quantifiable revenue streams of stadium sports. Ask a dozen people whether the

Crédit Agricole’s Anthony Charteau wrapped up the overall victory at the Tour de Langkawi on Sunday as Alberto Loddo added yet another win to his tally, equaling the record of five stage wins in a single year.

Basque climbing sensation Iban Mayo once had the cycling world on edge. With his dramatic stage victory at Alpe d’Huez in the 2003 Tour de France and his impressive victory at Dauphiné Libéré in 2004, Mayo was hyped as potential candidate to dethrone Lance Armstrong at the Tour. But Mayo fell on hard times, abandoning the 2004 Tour in humiliation and struggling through health issues in 2005. He rebounded in 2006 with a stage victory at La Toussuire in the Dauphiné and overall victory at the Tour of Burgos to show glimpses of the former giant-killer This year, the Basque climber is hoping

Langkawi's dedicated crew celebrates another edition

The bike in Malaysia is more tool than anything else...

... and racing is still something of a novelty.

Will he race?

Giant-Asia takes the team prize.

Loddo adds another check to his win column

The final stage takes the peloton through...

The peloton rolls off for an 80km closer to a 10-day tour

... an assortment of Kuala Lampur neighborhoods.

Mayo is sporting a new kit this year

Anthony Charteau is well on his way to winning the Le Tour de Langkawi overall title, following a largely tactical ride from Putrajaya to Seremban on Saturday. Although the ninth – and penultimate – stage of the Tour put the Crédit Agricole rider up against the winding roads of Kuala Klawang, he kept up with the leaders over the course of day’s many climbs to maintain his 1:02 over Jose Serpa (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovannio), who won Thursday’s decisive stage to the Genting Higlands.

While soon-to-be overall winner Anthony Charteau and four-time stage winner Alberto Loddo will be the names most remembered from the 2007 Tour de Langkawi, arguably the most newsworthy accomplishment belongs to the Giant Asia Racing Team. By placing three riders in the top 30 on Saturday, the Taiwan-based squad all but locked up the 10-day race’s team title. And we are not talking about the Asian team title. They are going to beat everyone. Giant Asia entered stage 9 one second back of Charteau’s Crédit Agricole team, but more than made up that deficit during Saturday’s 173km run from

Some of cycling’s biggest names are scheduled to line up Sunday for the opening stage of the five-day Mallorca Challenge, but a breakout of the flu is keeping some top stars away from the annual Spanish season opener. A nasty bout of flu is taking its toll on the European peloton, with such riders as Oscar Pereiro and two-time champ Alejandro Valverde (both Illes Balears) and Gilbert Simoni (Saunier Duval-Prodir) all doubtful for Sunday’s 100km opener along Palma de Mallorca´s historic bay. "Several of our riders have been very sick with the flu and they’ve been sent home," Illes Balears

Elite USA Cycling Coach Presents Base Building Clinics in Santa CruzThomas Chapple will discuss early-season training techniques fromhis new bookBoulder, CO, February, 2007 - This February, elite USA Cyclingand Ultrafit coach Thomas Chapple will discuss the concepts of base trainingin Santa Cruz, CA. Cyclists often think that preparing for next seasonmeans piling on the miles, but long rides at high or even medium intensitiestoo early in the season can actually do more harm than good. In his comprehensiveguide BaseBuilding for Cyclists: A New Foundation for Endurance and Performance,Chapple

Tinkoff gets its first win

Saturday's ride appears to have given the boys from Giant Asia a lock on the team title

No one was conceding anything to Charteau on Saturday.

The Mosque at Putrajaya

Serpa and Rujano keeping cool

Lange took a flyer in the last kilometer.

Anthony Charteau maintened his hold on the jersey Saturday.

Charteau closing in on Langkawi title as Tinkoff gets its first-ever win

Charteau closing in on Langkawi title as Tinkoff gets its first-ever win

The Tinkoff boys were active all day

Dean leads the chase

Press Release - Base Building Clinics in Santa Cruz

For the second time in as many years Jose Serpa was first man across the line at the top of the hors categorie Genting Highlands stage, but the Colombian Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni rider couldn’t make up enough time to unseat the overall race leader Anthony Charteau.

French media have reported that American Floyd Landis has declined a U.S.Anti-Doping Agency request to release remaining urine samples from lastsummer’s Tour de France for additional testing. Landis, who is scheduled to appear before a USADA panel in May, hadbeen asked to permit the release of remaining B-samples for tests to detectthe presence of exogenous testosterone. Landis tested positive for an elevated testosterone/epitestosteroneratio following his spectacular come-from-behind stage17 victory at the Tour. The win ensured his overall title at the Tour,but that win was called into

Due to a quality issue with the titanium alloy used in the mountingbolt of a limited number of the new Force road group’s front brakes, SRAMhas issued a voluntary recall to consumers in possession of the brakes.Roughly 10 have failed. SRAM asks consumers discontinue riding until the front Force brake caliperhas been replaced.According to SRAM' media manager, Michael Zellmann, the problem was identifiedthrough SRAM’s internal quality process. A small number of the titaniummounting bolts failed during the installation process. There have beenno injuries associated with the defect. Affected

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,

USA Today reported Friday that the Discovery Channel is expected to drop its title sponsorship of the cycling team that bears its name at the end of the 2007 season. The decision not to renew the team’s contract at the end of a three-year contract comes only days after the firing of company CEO Billy Campbell, a strong advocate of the team sponsorship, on Monday of this week. Campbell, who helped push the television network’s initial co-sponsorship in 2004, also pushed the company to assume full title sponsorship in 2005, when the U.S. Postal Service ended its support for the team. The

Floyd Landis blasted the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on Friday regarding the agency’s efforts to subject cleared doping samples from last Tour de France to additional testing. Landis tested positive for an elevated testosterone/epitestosterone ratio after winning stage 17 of the Tour last July but has challenged the handling of the sample and testing conditions at the French national anti-doping laboratory (LNDD) at Châtenay-Malabry, which processed the dope test. In a statement issued Friday, Landis said he was responding to a report in the French sports newspaper l'Equipe

Serpa likes the climb at Genting, although he might have appreciated it more had it been longer.

Gianni Savio congratulates the day's winner and vows to keep fighting

Walter Pedraza stayed with Serpa as long as he could

Serpa recovers and watches the clock

A short stage, with a killer finish

Up, up and away....

Serpa and new Asian GC leader Ghader Mizbani

'I try to go as long as I can until I blow,' explained Duggan

Charteau keeps the jersey

Serpa wins at Genting, but Charteau battles to hold Langkawi lead

Landis, on his way to doping control after his stage 17 win

SRAM issues road brake recall

Hincapie may wear stars-and-stripes again in '08, but the globe won't be there.

Wearing thick gloves, long tights and hats beneath their helmets, New Mexican cyclists of all ages crowded the parking lot of the Anderson-Abruzzo Balloon Museum in Albuquerque on a brisk Saturday morning on February 3. They awaited the arrival of the Navigators Insurance and Lipton professional cycling teams, both of which had come to Albuquerque for a winter training camp. When both squads rolled up, accompanied by riders from the neo-pro Cycling Center team, the entire group of 200 hit the streets for a group ride. It isn’t often that professional cycling teams spin alongside locals

Japan’s Shinichi Fukusima proved that persistence and hard work are the key to success as he became the first Asian to win a stage in this year’s Tour de Langkawi following a strong 174km ride from Kuantan to Karak. The stage win for the rider from the Nippo-Meitan Hompo team was only the third stage victory for an Asian rider in the 12-year history of the tour, following wins by Wong Kam Po in 2000 and Koji – the younger brother of Shinichi – Fukushima in 2005.

Damiano Cunego has marked two very clear goals for his 2007 racing. Cunego, who said he enjoyed “excellent” winter training, is motivated to have a strong run at the Giro d’Italia podium and shine in the spring classics. “Compared to 2006, it’s true there are less difficult stages but I don’t agree with those who said it’s less difficult,” Cunego told the Italian web page cicloweb.it. “It’s a balanced course with a few decisive days.” Cunego won the 2004 Giro in spectacular fashion, but suffered through media pressure and health issues in 2005 only to bounce back with a solid campaign last