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Johnson is a renowned mudder

Thomas before her suspension in 2002

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside

Organizers unveiled the 2007 Vuelta a España route on Wednesday, with three mountaintop finishes among the highlights, including the return of the punishing Lagos de Covadonga ascent. The three-week race gets under way September 1 in the port city of Vigo, in the northwest province of Galicia. The finale to the 21-stage race will be the traditional finish in Madrid on September 23. But it's the first week of the 3,241km race, and the return of the Lagos de Covadonga as part of the arduous 182km fourth stage, that has next year's challengers excited. ''It will be great for

The French anti-doping lab whose procedures are being challenged by American cyclist Floyd Landis is getting upgraded security to protect its computer systems against hackers. The computers at the Chatenay-Malabry laboratory were breached last month by hackers who stole data and allegedly sent out letters to top officials in a bid to discredit the lab. French Anti-Doping Agency president Pierre Bordry said Wednesday that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's defense advisory council agreed that security must be improved at the lab to make the computer systems more secure. "We have

Greenville Magazine has named Discovery Channel’s George Hincapie the most influential person in his hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. The magazine announced its choice in the

China's Guo Shuang outraced compatriot Gong Jinjie in the finals of the women’s sprint at the 15th Asian Games in Qatar on Wednesday. The 20-year-old Guo took the gold in two straight races, winning the second in 11.986 seconds. South Korea's You Jin A took the bronze. It was Guo’s second gold of this year’s games. She won the 500-meter time trial on Saturday, setting an Asian Games record of 35.175 seconds. In the men’s sprint, Japan's Tsubasa Kitatsuru took the gold ahead of South Korea's Choi Lae-seon. China's Tang Qi collected the bronze. Meanwhile, Cheung King

I just rolled in from the last training ride of the season and it feels pretty good knowing there is just one more weekend of racing. It’s hard to believe that cyclo-cross nationals are here already. I’m looking forward to getting back to the beautiful Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island, because I have a couple of monkeys to shake off my back from last year’s event. More on that later. Last week was big in the Boulder bike-geek world. On Wednesday, Boulder Cycle Sport hosted a fundraiser at the historic Boulder Theater to raise money for junior cyclo-cross development. We

New Venues Highlight 2007 US Gran Prix of Cyclocross ScheduleDecember 13, 2006 (Lebanon, NJ) - The management team of theUS Gran Prix of Cyclocross has announced the dates and venues for the 2007US Gran Prix the Official National Cyclocross Series ofUSA Cycling. The 2007 schedule will again include six days of racing,four of which will take place at new venues. The schedule includes: USGP Trenton - October 27-28 (Mercer County Park, WestWindsor, NJ)* USGP Louisville - November 17-18 (River Road Country Club, Louisville, KY)* USGP Portland, Oregon - December 1-2 (Hillsboro, OR)* New venue for

Race director Victor Cordero announces the 2007 Vuelta route in Madrid

Cover boy Hincapie

From left, China's Guo Shuang with compatriot Gong Jinjie and South Korea's You Jin A

The route

From left, Denis Menchov talks with Alejandro Valverde and Oscar Pereiro during the Vuelta presentation

Show time!

Race announcer extraordinaire Dave Towle and the Mudskippers on

Danny Summerhill and Zack Taylor (left), two beneficiaries from the

Race promoter Brian Hludzinski's son, Vin. A beneficiary for future

TIAA-CREF/Clif Bar manager preps a race rig at the Colorado state championships

Questions on mix-and-match components, fraying cables, carbon comfort, compact cranks and more.

Spanish riders Jesus Hernandez and Alberto Contador were the first of some 50 cyclists linked to the Operación Puerto blood-doping scandal to appear in court, legal sources in Madrid said Tuesday. Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, suspected of masterminding a vast blood-doping network in cycling, football and other sports, will be among those heard following the police raids in Spain just before the Tour de France in July earlier this year. Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich and defending Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso are among several cyclists suspected of working with

South Korea showed why they were the 4km team-pursuit favorites at the Asian Games by smashing the Asian record en route to gold on Tuesday in Qatar. The Korean quartet swapped the lead with Iran until the sixth lap before making the final their own, finishing in 4:12.746, slicing 0.016 second off the previous record, which they set in Sydney in November. Iran had to settle for silver in 4:14.226. "We weren't expecting to beat the record. We knew it was good. This was all about winning the gold medal,” Park told Reuters. Defending champions China took bronze, beating Japan in the

The Discovery Channel cycling team has responded to the December 8 decision by the International Professional Cycling Teams (IPCT) to exclude the team from its membership over its signing of Italian Ivan Basso, implicated in the Operación Puerto inquiry. In a similar move in October, IPCT excluded Manolo Saiz's Active Bay company, a decision that was confirmed by a formal vote during the group's December 8 meeting in Brussels. The Discovery Channel's response follows. — Editor The International Professional Cycling Teams (IPCT), a business group developed to represent the

Just over a year ago the grand-tour organizers, ASO, RCS Sport and Unipublic, announced a new race series based on their three events in an attempt to destabilize the UCI ProTour. The plan was quietly withdrawn when the 20 ProTour teams and the ProTour Council voted against it. Now the Tour-Giro-Vuelta group is taking another tack, announced Tuesday. The news release starts: “All their attempts at rapprochement with the Union Cycliste Internationale having ended because of the refusal of the latter to return to an open sporting model, and not wanting their events to be part of a closed

Cross-country racers Max Plaxton and Marie-Héléne Prémont, both of whom ride for Rocky Mountain-Business Objects, have been named Canadian cyclists of the year, according to Canadiancyclist.com. Canadiancyclist.com polls its online readers each year for the awards. The polls were open for two weeks, and software prohibited voters from voting more than once. More than 2000 individuals took part in this year’s voting, which ended December 11. Plaxton, 21, began his 2006 campaign after struggling through illness in 2005. A native of Tofino, British Columbia, he had a strong early season in

USA Cycling on Tuesday announced the winners of its annual “Club of the Year” competition. Of the 1905 USA Cycling-sanctioned clubs in the United States, nine were chosen this year for recognition in three overall divisions and six special categories. The San Diego Bicycle Club earned the Division I Club of the Year distinction, while the Skylands Cycling Club in Sussex, New Jersey, was designated Division II Club of the Year and Team DRT/Deep Blue in Wilmington, Delaware, took home the Division III award. Division I is defined as having 76 or more members, while Division II clubs have

Alberto Contador - seen here after a stage win at the 2006 Tour of Romandy - was among the first cyclists to testify in the Puerto case.

South Korea racing to the win and an Asian record

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside

Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now up for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of ourmost recent contest. Take the time to wander through that gallery and see if you agree or disagree with our choice of winner. We have to admit that we’re total saps at times and that could be why we fell for Helen Powers' “Young fan at cyclo-cross race November, 2005.” As the subject's father - and husband of this week's winner notes, "what kid doesn't like ringing cowbells and eating bagels?" We don't know any. Anyway,nice

On September 25, cross-country mountain biker Jimi Mortensen received a two-year doping suspension from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for missing three out-of-competition tests during an 18-month period from late 2004 to early 2005. Mortensen wasn’t exactly dodging the tests. The Eagle, Colorado, resident says he simply stopped filling out his USADA paperwork because he was fed up with being a part of USADA’s out-of-competition testing group. Mortensen became a member of the group after representing the United States at the 2003 world mountain-bike championships in Lugano,

South Korea's Lee Min Hye won the women's 3km individual pursuit at the 15th Asian Games on Monday, breaking her own record in the process and snapping China’s perfect winning streak over the past four games. Lee won in three minutes, 44.146 seconds, beating the record by 0.073 second. She had set the previous best on Sunday. "I feel like I'm flying in the sky. I want to continue beating the Asian record and join the world stage after this," Lee told the Xinhua news agency. "In the qualifying round, I beat the Chinese riders, so I have expected today's performance.” Li

2007 USA CYCLING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP CALENDAR ANNOUNCEDMore than 650 National Titles in Road, Track, Mountain Bike, BMXand Cyclo-cross on the LineColorado Springs, Colo. (December 11, 2006)— More than 650 nationaltitles will be on the line next year as USA Cycling announced its 2007National Championship Calendar Monday.The 13-race calendar offers an opportunity for competitive cyclistsof all ages, abilities and disciplines to compete for a coveted stars-and-stripesjersey that signifies a national champion.  In 2007, USA Cycling willfeature national championship events in the five recognized

Young fan at cyclo-cross race Nov 2005

VeloNews Photo Contest: A new winner and a new gallery

Lee speeds to victory

If there was any doubt that Sven Nys is on a seemingly endless roll this season, the Belgian 'cross phenom' put it to rest as he scored his fifth successive win cyclo-cross’s Superprestige series, taking Round 5 at Hamme-Zogge, Belgium, on Sunday. Nys further solidified his already formidable series lead over fellow Belgian Bart Wellens, who again finished second on Sunday. For North American ‘cross fans, the big news came in the form of a top-ten finish by Kona’s Ryan Trebon, who came across the line some four minutes back from the hard-charging Nys. Nys, who lost to Wellens in the

The calendar may say December but the weather said otherwise at Sunday’s final round of the 2006 Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Series, the Caster’s Cyclocross in Warwick, Rhode Island. The ’06 Series closed out just as it began, with temps in the 50s and Lyne Bessette (Cyclocrossworld.com) and Tim Johnson (Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com)stamping their authority all over the Elite Women’s and Men’s events. Bessette’s win, her fifth in five Series starts, cemented her position as the 2006 Verge NECCS overall champion while Mark McCormack (Clif Shot) took home the overall title

Nys looks to be on track to win the Superprestige, the World Cup, the Belgian national title and World's. What's left?

Guo Shuang won the women's 500-meter time trial in record time and teammate Feng Yong took the men's 1-kilometer time trial with another Asian Games' record as China claimed both titles contested Saturday in track cycling. Guo, who trains at the UCI's world cycling center in Switzerland, won her event in 35.175 seconds, an Asian Games record, well ahead of silver medalist Hsiao Mei Yu of Taiwan, who was clocked at 36.190. You Jin-a of South Korea, racing with a knee injury, was third with a time of 36.961. "I feel good and proud," she said. "I tried my best to win the

Verge titles on the line this weekendComing into the final weekend of the 2006 Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Series, the race for the elite championships hangs in the balance. Both races of the Rhode Island doubleheader, Saturday’s W.E. Stedman Grand Prix in South Kingston and Sunday’s Caster’s Cyclocross in Warwick, offer very different race experiences in which series titles will be decided. The W.E. Stedman course, a fast, open, and often blustery tour around the grounds at the Curtis Corner Middle School, favors sheer strength over technique while Sunday’s Caster’s track

Picking up where they left off two weeks ago, the wife-husband duo of LyneBessette (Cyclocrossworld.com) and Tim Johnson (Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com)won Saturday’s W.E. Stedman Grand Prix in South Kingston, Rhode Island,the sixth round of the 2006 Verge New England Championship Cyclo-CrossSeries. Less than 20 miles from the site of next week’s U.S. national Championships,the penultimate Verge NECCS race went to form, with Bessette dominatingthe Elite Women’s field and Johnson forming an early breakaway and thensoloing in for the Elite Men’s win.On a dry afternoon with temperatures

The soon to be infamous Dam Run-up

Jon Card (Cane Creek) celebrates his win

Anne Schwartz (Flying Rhino Cycling Club) collects her fourth straight win

Sachs wins the Illinois title

Bessette

Spain's sporting media has reacted quickly to reports from the French newspaperLe Monde that claimed four top Spanish football clubs were linkedwith Dr Eufemiano Fuentes who is alleged to have masterminded a vast blood-dopingnetwork.The four clubs in the firing line are Real Madrid, Barcelona, Real Betisand Valencia.Fuentes denied the Le Monde report, which was written after oneof the newspaper's reporters procured documents containing allegationswhich have as yet been unfounded. However in a separate interview with the newspaper Fuentes claimedthat Barcelona, the current

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside

Bart Wellens (Fidea) showed his heels to Sven Nys (Rabobank) in round eight of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup on Friday in Milan. Wellens finished more than a minute ahead of the World Cup leader, who in turn was trailed five seconds later by teammate Sven Vanthourenhout, making for yet another all-Belgian podium. American Ryan Trebon (Kona) finished 22nd at 5:34. UCI Cyclo-cross World CupRound 8 — Milan, ItalyTop 101. Bart Wellens (B), Fidea, 1:06:202. Sven Nijs (B), Rabobank, at 1:023. Sven Vanthourenhout (B), Rabobank, at 1:074. Francis Mourey (F), Française des Jeux, at 1:145. Klaas

Former Coors Classic competitors, team personnel, race officials and media from all over the country descended on the University Bicycles store in Boulder, Colorado, Thursday night, for the launch of a new DVD that chronicles the complete 1977-88 history of the pioneering stage race. The store was an appropriate location for the launch, being only a half-mile from the North Boulder Park circuit that nearly always hosted the finish of the Classic. Photo contestWe noticed a lot of you brought your cameras to the Coors Classic DVD release bash, which inspired us to declare a special photo

A decision made at a special meeting of the International Professional Cycling Teams (IPCT) group on Friday could threaten the future status of the Discovery Channel team. The group voted to exclude Discovery from its membership over its signing of Italian Ivan Basso, who is implicated in the Operación Puerto inquiry, according to a source that attended the meeting in Brussels. However, the vote does not mean that the American team loses its UCI ProTour license, which enables it to race in all of the ProTour events. The IPCT, a business group chaired by Quick Step’s Belgian team manager

Phinney signs autographs

The teeming hordes at University Bicycles in Boulder

Screening the new Coors Classic DVD

From right, Steve Tilford with Andy Hampsten and Hampsten's 10-year-old daughter Emma

From left, Thomas Prehn, Marianne Martin and John Bowen, a former Boulder Spoke amateur racer turned Boulder radiologist

Alexi Grewal obliges a fan

Len Pettyjohn and Kent Fonda, the former program manager for the Coors Light team, now doing private advertising and marketing in Colorado

Fans kept Phinney scribbling

Basso and Bruyneel

Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle announces Pro Continental statusand roster for 2007Boulder, CO, December 6, 2006 - In a bold move upward for 2007,Team TIAA-CREF not only becomes Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle, but movesup a big notch into the UCI's Professional Continental category. The team'sunique cross-Atlantic schedule consists of racing the USACycling ProfessionalTour, the European Continental Tour and hopefully a few ProTour wildcardstarts. This schedule will prove challenging but rewarding for both ridersand sponsors.“We are happy to be growing - and growing at a rate that

World and Olympic champion Paolo Bettini said Thursday he would rather quit cycling than have to produce a DNA sample as part of the sport's fight against drugs. "If they ask me for my DNA I'm ready to call time on my career. I've already won a lot," Bettini told the Italian news agency ANSA. In October the professional cycling teams association came out in favor of its members having to produce a DNA sample to help prove their guilt or innocence in any drugs case. The move is part of wider efforts by the UCI to eradicate doping after a season in which the Operación Puerto

Tour de France sprint champion Robbie McEwen has been confirmed to spearhead his team's bid for stage victories at the Tour Down Under, to be held over a week of sun-soaked racing in January. McEwen won the Tour de France green jersey, the sprinters' top prize, for the third time this year, along with three stages and three stages at the Giro d'Italia. The 34-year-old could appear as one of the big names at the Tour Down Under, held around Adelaide on January 16-21, wearing a re-designed team jersey. Lotto, McEwen's team for the past few seasons, has a new main sponsor in

VeloNews Chosen to Produce Official Amgen Tour of California GuideFor immediate release:December 6, 2006 Boulder, CO – The Amgen Tour of California, North America’spremier professional stage race, has chosen VeloNews to produce its officialevent guide. Hitting the roads from February 18-25, the 2007 event willbe even bigger than the 2006 inaugural race, which saw an estimated 1.3million spectators watch the eight-day stage race. The 2007 Amgen Tourof California will again host 16 professional teams, headed by the world’stop UCI ProTour teams CSC and Discovery Channel, which are making the

Bettini winning stage 2 of the 2006 Vuelta a España

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.Steve Tilford: The man, the myth, the old guySteve,You raised the bar man! (see "Dunkedbut undaunted, Tilford wins KLM 'cross") All of my old stories racing just got smaller. How fast I used to bejust got a

100 years for a million treesA new humanitarian project for Saunier Duval´s 100th anniversary.The team raced the 2006 season in support of the 30 fundamental HumanRights around the world. Next year is the team´s main sponsor 100thanniversary, and the SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR team will celebrate it in a remarkableway as a token of their gratitude to Saunier Duval, which is not only supportingthe team but cycling in general as well. Is there any better way to doit than becoming involved in an initiative aimed at saving our planet?The project, to be carried out thanks to the support of

Kazakhstan, which won the men's team time trial when it was last held in the Asian Games in 1994, did it again on Wednesday. The Kazakh team completed the flat 70.3km course in a time of 1:24:40.7 to win by more than a minute over Iran. Japan took bronze, just five seconds behind the Iranians. South Korea, which won the 2006 Asian Championships, finished out of the medals in fourth. "Our expectations were only to win," said Andrey Mizurov, who was a bronze medalist in the individual time trial in 1994, a feat he repeated in this year's edition. "Since 1994 we haven't changed

Six new cities, an increase in difficulty, a reshuffling of stages and a new, elaborate network television contract were unveiled Wednesday for the second Amgen Tour of California. Veteran pro Mike Sayers (BMC Cycling) was the only pending race competitor present among a dozen city officials and sponsor representatives as the route was detailed in the new City Hall chambers in Sacramento, where the second stage will conclude. Sacramento, Stockton, Seaside, Solvang, Santa Clarita and Long Beach are new venues. San Francisco, Sausalito, Santa Rosa, San Jose, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara

Los Angeles, CA., December 6, 2006 — The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team and United Bicycles, LLC, today announced an exclusive sponsorship and licensing agreement with Fuji Bicycles/Advanced Sports Inc., (ASI) manufacturer and distributor of Fuji Bicycles, a global brand with over 40 international distributors. As part of the multi-year agreement, the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team will be racing on Fuji carbon frames with graphics and design featuring Toyota-United colors. The Fuji-United bicycle will be the official team issue bicycle of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling team during the

It's just that riding fast was the only way he knew how to stay warm.

Wednesday's Mailbag: Tough old guy; Friends in faraway places

Last year's stage 4 takes the peloton along the coast

The 2007 Fuji-United Team Issue bike

The 2007 route

Sure, they're all like that, sirDear Lennard,I go through at least two chains (Shimano 7701) every year and replacethem myself. They have always come sealed in a plastic package withtwo connecting pins. I recently ordered a couple of Shimano 9-speedchains (7701) from an Internet retailer. When they arrived they werein boxes for a 10-speed chain (CN 7800) and were not sealed in the usualplastic wrapper. The connecting pin was also already partially insertedinto the outer link with the guide snapped off. All 116 links werestill there. The customer service rep’ told me this is the way

Few of the hundreds of journalists and cycling dignitaries who attended the unveiling of the 2007 Giro d’Italia in Milan on Saturday would disagree with the view that there’s likely to be a repeat winner. The past seven editions of the Giro d’Italia have been won by five Italian racers — Ivan Basso (2006), Paolo Savoldelli (2005 and 2002), Damiano Cunego (2004), Gilberto Simoni (2003 and 2001) and Stefano Garzelli (2000) — all of whom posed for the paparazzi in the futuristic Teatro degli Arciboldi on December 2. Those five men were the headliners at the glitzy gathering — particularly

China's Li Meifang successfully defended her Asian Games cycling individual time trial title here on Tuesday to add the gold to her 2004 and 2005 Asian Championship crowns. Kazakhstan's Zulfiya Zabirova won silver with South Korea's Lee Min Hye claiming bronze. Li covered the flat 23.86km course in a time of 31:17:85 to win by almost a full minute from Zabirova. "From the beginning I planned to win," said Li after extending China's record in the event to a perfect four gold. "The road felt good, the surface was beautiful and being flat is good for the required

I normally don’t enjoy writing journal articles about my day-to-day activities, because I think it would be quite boring. However, today is a bit different for me because it’s Sunday and I had the day off from the bike shop, so I thought I’d give you a peek at a day off from work in the life of a shop owner and cyclo-cross racer. 7:30 a.m.There’s nothing like waking up to some bright Colorado morning sunshine. Although the sun is shining, it has been quite cold here in Boulder and snow that fell earlier in the week has yet to melt. My girlfriend Heather and I walked our dog, Oban, through