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You could never tell by talking to him, but Julian Dean is a man under the gun. New Zealand’s reigning national road race champion is in the final year of his contract with Crédit Agricole and knows he needs to perform if he wants keep his place with the French ProTour team. But instead of worrying too much about the future, Dean remains the same laid-back rider that made him a fan favorite on the U.S. Pro circuit during his days with Mercury and U.S. Postal. “It’s the first race of the season so some guys have done a bit more prep than others,” said the soft-spoken Dean on the morning of

Tyler Hamilton is savoring his first days back in the peloton after more than two years in exile in what was one of the most controversial doping cases in cycling history. Riding in Tuesday’s GP Marseillaise and today’s opening stage of the five-day Etoile de Besseges in southern France, Hamilton told French journalists he wants to put his troubles behind him and focus on earning a slot in the Giro d’Italia (May 12-June 3). “I have to be realistic and it will take a little time. I especially hope to ride the Giro d’Italia, that will be a big challenge,” he told AFP. “I hope to be there, but

American Floyd Landis is pinning hopes of retaining his Tour de France title on what he and his supporters claim are sloppy practices at the French national doping laboratory at Châtenay-Malabry when he makes an appearance in front of a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency panel on May 14. Landis’s attorneys will also be hoping to that sloppy testing by a French lab and not doping was the reason behind his failed test on his way to victory in last year's Tour de France, when they make an appearance before France’s anti-doping agency (AFLD) on Thursday. In a conference call here Wednesday, Brian

Riders endured all the elements in Wednesday’s opener at the l’Etoile de Bessèges with Italian Angelo Furlan delivering the victory through rain, sleet, wind and eventually sun. The Crédit Agricole sprinter out-kicked Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile) and compatriot Ruggero Marzoli (Tinkoff Credit Systems) to win the 148.2km stage from Pezenas to Palavas-les-Flots in a bunch sprint. Several riders tried in vain to escape the clutches of the peloton in France’s first stage-race of the season. The bunch rejoined for three finishing circuits with Unibet.com working hard to try to control any escapes

Four-out-of-five: Loddo's won four of the five sprints he's contested in this Tour

The need for speed: Early attacks kept the whole field strung out.

The chase picked up...

... and the weather turned a little rough.

Dean sports the black-and-white of New Zealand's road champ

Dean works for Charteau here at Langkawi

Charteau: Can the man in yellow stay in yellow?

Huff describes the joys of sprinting in Malaysia

Furlan relishes his win

With Charteau leading at Langkawi, the Crédit Ag' boys get a second yellow jersey.

Peiper positive on Olson, BarryT-Mobile sport director Allan Peiper is raving about the possibilities for new team members Michael Barry and Aaron Olson. Both are part of the team’s new international profile that includes riders from a dozen nations. Speaking on the team’s web page, Peiper said both riders can expect plenty of room to stretch their wings in the refitted T-Mobile organization. Barry is hoping to earn his first berth for the Tour de France this July. “It is a new challenge from Michael. He is a seasoned pro, having raced for so many years at U.S. Postal/Discovery Channel,”

The 2007 Tyler Hamilton Foundation AUCTION opens for bidding onFebruary 6, 2007 at 8:00 AM Mountain Time.Our goal this year is to raise money to help support THF'smission to empower individuals through cycling. We need your support! Thisis an exciting and fun way to help us, and at the same time have a chanceto win cool items!We'll be adding new items to our catalog for you to preview as the auctiondate approaches. Check back often to see what's new. Feel free to placea Watch on your favorites, so that you'll know as soon as bidding begins!Contact us at THFGala@cmarket.org or

Italian Alberto Loddo pulled off a hattrick of stage victories at the Tour de Langkawi Tuesday, winning the Tour’s fifth stage in a field sprint at the end of a 167-kilometer race from Kota Bharu to Kuala Terengganu. With the most of the field finishing together, Crédit Agricole’s Anthony Charteau easily held on to the comfortable four-minute lead in the overall standings, a buffer he earned on Sunday in the stage to Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands.

The Cable GuyDear Lennard,To my untrained eye, Vision Tech brake cables look strikingly similarto Shimano STI derailleur cables. I notice that Team CSC uses Nokoncables with the Vision Aero Brake Levers. What are my options fordifferent brands of cables (and housings) to use with the Vision levers,other than the Vision cables. (I already have extra STI cables, soinstead of buying new Vision cables, if it is safe and compatible, I wouldthink I could use these.)ChrisDear Chris,The Vision DragOn Brake Cable is just a brake cable with a shift cableend to fit into one of those little tiny Vision

As directeur sportif for the top team in North America, JeffCorbett has carved out a nice position for himself at Health Net-Maxxis.A former pro racer, Corbett, 36, founded the 7Up team in 1998, managingand racing on its various incarnations, as the team became 7Up-ColoradoCyclist in 2000 and 7Up-Nutra Fig in 2001. Corbett’s last year as a rider-managerwas 2002, the year Canadian Charles Dionne put the 7Up-Nutra Fig team onthe map with a win at the San Francisco Grand Prix ahead of Henk Vogelsand Lance Armstrong. In 2003 Corbett focused solely on directing the 7Up-Maxxisteam, which merged

Cycling woke from its winter-long hibernation Tuesday with just enough drama on and off the bike to christen the 2007 season in appropriate fashion. A behind-the-scenes row involving Unibet.com’s jerseys at the GP d’Ouverture La Marseillaise couldn’t spoil an exciting victory by Jeremy Hunt and the return to racing by Tyler Hamilton. Hunt out-kicked Hamilton’s new Tinkoff Credit Systems teammate Mikhail Ignatiev to give Unibet.com the win on the 126km course from Gardanne to Luminy near Marseille to officially open the 2007 European racing season. The French calendar opened with

Corbett (L) with Jeff Louder

Tim Johnson and new recruit Ryder Hesjedal adjust the SRM.

Johnson (L) will be serving as road captain for the 2007 season

A younger roster for 2007.

Hesjedal, Ollerenshaw, Menzies, Louder. At 29, Menzies (c) is a HealthNet veteran

Rory Sutherland all dressed up and ready to ride.

Russell Downing and a stern-looking Menzies

Who's that? Hunt scores a win, but you have to guess what team he's on.

UniBet can't show it's colors in France.

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. Take the time to wander through that gallery and see if you agree or disagree with our choice of winners this week. This time around, we found ourselves coming back to Bob Clark’s “Colorado Aspen,” a shot of riding on trails in Colorado’s High Country in the fall. Congratulations, Bob. Nice work. It looks like the trail is covered with gold coins. It’s a stellar shot (and stands in contrast with goofy photo you sent in

Italian Alberto Loddo claimed his second stage victory at the Tour de Langkawi Monday in an intense bunch sprint that resulted in at least 10 riders crashing just 50-meters from the finish line.

The directive for the day was simple. If a promising move peeled off the front of the peloton during the early portions of the Tour de Langkawi’s stage three run from Kuala Kangsar to Cameron Highlands, Slipstream team director Johnny Weltz’s wanted one of his six riders to be there. Beyond that he asked only that they make sure to “help each other out.” Weltz knew that the first climbing test of this 10-day event in Malaysia would challenge his young team in ways it hadn’t yet faced in 2007. He was cautiously optimistic that they would be up to the task. “I feel like we can be

The 2007 road racing season kicks off this week in Europe after a long winter full of doping innuendo and infighting between cycling’s major powers. First up is the French traditional opener Tuesday at the Grand Prix d’Ouverture La Marseillaise followed by the five-day Etoile de Bessège. Seven ProTour teams are among the 18-team field for the 140km La Marseillaise opener, including Ag2r, Bouygues Telecom, Crédit Agricole, Cofidis, FDJeux, T-Mobile and Unibet.com. Etoile start Wednesday in Pézenas and wraps up Sunday in Bessèges with a mix of stages across southern France. The expansive

Hot on the heels of his headline-grabbing second-place performance at the UCI World Cyclo-cross Championships, American Jonathan Page (Morgan Blue) was back in the spotlight Saturday, February 3 at the GVA Series race in Lille, Belgium. In a well-publicized bit of defiance Page refused to take the start of the race after his team mechanic and close friend Frankie Van Haesebroucke was assaulted and hospitalized by the race organization’s security guards. According to Page, Van Haesebroucke was collared from behind by two security guards after a misunderstanding with a course marshal in the

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Cycling Photographer Graham Watson to Visit Boulder for Exhibit Opening Watson's Travelling Photography Exhibit "Eyes on the Tour de France"Opens February 15 Boulder, CO, February 5, 2007 - Cycling photographer Graham Watsonwill make a rare visit to the cycling-crazed town of Boulder, Coloradoto open an exhibit of his fine art photography at Amante Coffee in northBoulder on February 15th at 7:30 p.m. From 6:00-7:30 p.m., Watson will autograph posters and books of hisphotography at the Boulder Cycle Sport bike shop, located adjacent to AmanteCoffee. Graham Watson

Tyler Hamilton will likely race on European roads Tuesday for the first time since serving a two-year racing ban in what’s sure to be an emotional comeback after one of the most contentious doping cases in cycling history. Hamilton (Tinkoff Credit Systems) is expected to start Tuesday’s Grand Prix de La Marseillaise and then line up for his first European stage race since 2004 in the five-day Etoile de Bessèges on Wednesday. Hamilton, 35, is named on start lists for both French races that will mark his first European-level competition since the 2004 Vuelta a España when he pulled out after

Colorado Aspen

Loddo wins another

At the helm: Weltz is guiding a young and talented crew in Malaysia

Huff struggles

Patour stays with Huff

Post-race assessment

Creed refuels for tomorrow

Getting instructions

A quick fix

Chasing back

Water is critical on a day like this

A Langkawi Journal: A day with Slipstream

Rolando Ravello as Marco Pantani

Press Release: Graham Watson to Visit Boulder for Exhibit Opening

Hamilton made his last appearance as a pro in the 2004 Vuelta.

Welcome to a new and regular feature on VeloNews.com. Each Sunday throughout the race season we expect to be interviewing major players within the cycling community, from racers to team directors to race organizers and retired stars. This first installation we catch up with Tyler Farrar, the up-and-coming sprinter/would-be classics specialist entering his second elite pro season with trademark enthusiasm and energy. Of the new generation of Americans breaking in the European scene, Farrar’s enjoyed the highest profile. Even when racing among the espoirs ranks, he already had a pro contract

Ask Pat McQuaid if he’s happy he took the job of UCI president and his first reaction is laughter. During a tenure that began in the fall of 2005, the Irishman has seen his sport saddled by doping controversies and internal squabbling. The latest row is the UCI’s ongoing battle with ASO, the organization that owns the Tour de France and several smaller races, including Paris-Nice. ASO recently balked at allotting a Paris-Nice start position to Unibet.com, the newest ProTour team. McQuaid has countered that ASO is being deceptive about their true intentions, and are intent on breaking the

Anthony Charteau Sunday became the first Frenchman to claim the yellow jersey after conquering stage three of the Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia, which saw racers ride up the popular Cameron Highlands. It was an unexpected finish for Charteau, who is not considered to be among the more renowned climbers in the race and was to have set the pace for teammate and main rider, Francesco Bellotti.

Farrar at this year's Cofidis presentation

McQuaid visits the Tour de Langkawi

McQuaid congratulates the Tour's jersey holders

Charteau has a four-minute buffer on GC

Argentine Maximiliano Richeze earned an impressive win at the end of the second stage of the Tour de Langkawi on Saturday, edging out a hard-charging field at the end of a 166-kilometer stage between the Malaysian cities of Kangar and Kulim. Richeze, who along with his Ceramiche Panaria teammate, Ruben Bongiorno, were pipped at the end of Friday’s opening stage by Italian Alberto Loddo (Selle Italia), fought hard in the final 250 meters to fend off a big group of strong sprinters, earning both the checkered flag and the overall leader’s jersey.

Scroll through the list of winners from past 11 editions of the Tour de Langkawi, and there are only a few names that really jump off the page. There is the Discovery Channel’s Tom Danielson, who turned his 2003 win of the Malaysian national tour into a ProTour contract with Fassa Bortolo in ’04. Fellow American Chris Horner is also there, but he endured a sizable gap between his 2000 Langkawi victory and a return to the European peloton in 2005. Indeed, while the early-season stage race has always attracted major league talent — Tafi, Vinokourov, Bettini and Landis are names that have

Richeze makes it look easy

George, at Thursday's presentation, knew he had his work cut out.

"Cycling in the News" is a regular service of VeloNews.com. Readers, reporters and friends are encouraged to send links to current stories about competitive cyclists and cycling that appear in the mainstream media. If you come across a news item that you believe may be of interest to other VeloNews readers, we would be grateful if you choose to send it to rosters@InsideInc.com.Wheels on ice: Slip-sliding and loving itThe New York TimesThe mass perforation of Brownie Lake began at noon, when eight rolling tires, thousands of shiny screw tips and the fast-pumping legs of four bike riders were

To say it’s been a difficult past two years for Simon Donnellan would be an understatement. The Brit’ turned resident of Malaysia has been at the center of a Tour de Langkawi firestorm, which saw the race on the brink of cancellation before being rescued by the Malaysian government. Donnellan first became involved with the 10-day event while working as a radio engineer for The Events Group, a U.K.-based sports management company that helped run the race during its formative years. He then made a move he probably now regrets, agreeing to buy the event from its local organizers in late 2004.

Belgian Wilfried Cretskens (Quick Step) was crowned winner of the Tour of Qatar after the sixth and final stage on Friday. Tom Boonen, Cretskens's compatriot and teammate, won the 134km stage between Sealine Beach and Doha. Indeed, Boonen won four of the tour’s six stages. But the overall win went to 33-year-old Cretskens, the first tour success of his career. The one stage the former world champion failed to win, on Thursday, saw Cretskens leapfrog him into the leader's jersey and maintain a lead of more than two minutes. "Today was a very special day," said Cretskens. "The team

Ex-Phonak team manager John Lelangue blasted Floyd Landis in an interview with AFP and said he feels personally “betrayed” by the American Tour de France winner. In one of his first public interviews since the collapse of the Phonak team following the Landis doping case, a bitter Lelangue expressed his confidence in the anti-doping controls, adding that the American shouldn’t count on any support from him. “I suffered an enormous deception, a true human betrayal on the part of Landis,” Lelangue told AFP. “I told him at the time that I believed the tests and I believed the results and that

Italy’s Alberto Loddo (Selle Italia-Serramenti) provided a sizzling start to the 12th edition of the Le Tour de Langkawi when he charged to the line to claim the first stage on a day when Malaysia’s first continental team, LeTua Cycling, grabbed two top-10 slots in the overall classification Friday.

French Sports Minister Jean-Francois Lamour has called for the postponement of next week's French anti-doping agency (AFLD) hearing into the case of Floyd Landis until the American cyclist has appeared before the U.S Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Lamour said that he was speaking as vice-president of the world anti-doping agency (WADA) and not in his capacity as French sports minister. "It's wiser to await the hearing of Landis by the USADA," said Lamour. "It's not a recommendation but an opinion. It's more productive to focus on the American hearing (scheduled for March)

UCI chief Pat McQuaid says the organizers of Paris-Nice are violating international cycling rules by refusing to invite one of the 20 ProTour teams to its event, and charged that Amaury Sports Organization has hopes of "breaking" the UCI’s ProTour series. The UCI has threatened to bar ASO from running its race, which is sanctioned by the UCI and can be held only if the organizer respects all UCI rules and regulations. "The UCI will not budge on a matter of rules and the legitimate rights of teams and riders," said McQuaid from Malaysia in a telephone interview with AFP. "I hope the

American and international anti-doping officials on Friday disputed assertions by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that the league will be unable to test players for human growth hormone until a better test is developed. Goodell, speaking during the NFL’s “state of the league” address on Friday suggested that American professional football leads other sports in drug testing, but said he doubted the league would be able to test for HGH because “there is no reliable test right now." Goodell’s claim, however, was disputed by Travis Tygart, chief counsel at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, who said

Track sprinter Stephen Alfred accepted an eight-year suspension from competition this week after testing positive for exogenous testosterone or its precursors and for human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). Alfred, 39, showed an elevated testosterone/epitestosterone (T/E) ratio in an out-of-competition test conducted by USADA on May 28, 2006. Follow-up tests indicated that the testosterone imbalance resulted from the presence of exogenous testosterone.

Simon Donnellan

Cretskens takes the yellow jersey

The bunch smells the barn

Loddo takes the first stage

Malaysia's LeTua team is the focus of a lot of local attention

The Tour is only a part of Malaysia's big tourism push

Welcome to Malaysia

Loddo in the leader's jersey

Pre-race rubdown