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Lately, it seems, when there’s been a doping scandal involving cycling, Italy and the Giro d’Italia figured at the center of the storm. Think of Marco Pantani’s expulsion in 1999, the San Remo raids in 2001 and the ejection of Stefano Garzelli while in the leader’s jersey in 2002. This time around, a brewing tempest in Spain involving Liberty Seguros team manager Manolo Saiz, Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and three others reached all the way to the Giro's 18th stage, which began in the mountains of Austria Thursday morning. Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) won his second stage of

The after-shocks from the so-called “Operación Puerto” that rocked Spanish cycling in the wake of the arrests of Liberty Seguros team manager Manolo Saiz and sports doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and three others are already rippling through cycling. Liberty Seguros announced Thursday it’s immediately ending its multi-million-dollar sponsorship with the ProTour team while Spanish authorities are reporting that as many as 200 riders and athletes could be implicated in a widespread doping network. “The implications of Manolo Saiz´s detention are highly alarming: they damage our name and cycling’s

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Schumacher catches and passes Bruseghin in a charge to the line

Gadret's Giro is over.

A strong break on a course that favored a small group

Ullrich even tried to join in the fun...

The chase wasn't furious.

Forster on the descent

Jonathan Patrick McCarty

Wednesday's cold, rain and snow gave way to a beautiful Alpine spring day on Thursday.

The Queen of stages at the Giro d’Italia proved to be something of a letdown Wednesday as rain, cold and even a bit of late-spring snow forced organizers to eliminate the goat path they had planned to herd the peloton up the 2273m summit at Plan de Corones. Winter-like whiteout conditions high in the Italian Dolomites prompted race organizers to remove the difficult Passo dello Erbe at 97km and then lower the summit finish by about five kilometers, shorting the 133km stage by 18km. Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) won his second stage in five days while Team CSC’s Ivan Basso took more time

The Spanish government warned Wednesday that it was committed to its zero-tolerance stance on doping in sports in the wake of the arrest of the manager of Spanish cycling team Liberty.Manolo Saiz was arrested Tuesday on doping charges and detained at the drugs squad's headquarters.Saiz and four others who were arrested - including the Valence team sporting director Ignacio Laberta and a former doctor to the Kelme and ONCE teams Eufemiano Fuentes - are part of a huge investigation into cycling by the Spanish police.The newspaper El Pais reported that more than 200 blood bags destined for

Thus far in the Giro d’Italia, the key mountain stages have all featured a singleclimb at the end of an otherwise flat of rolling course. It has been apattern that’s proved perfect for race leader Ivan Basso. Every time —on the Passo di Larciano of stage 8, the Colle San Carlo on stage 13 andMonte Bondone on stage 16 — the CSC team leader has ridden away from allof his chief opponents. Indeed, Wednesday's Stage 17 would have featured a huge climb in the middle, but weather forced the eliminationof the Passo del Erbe from what was to have been the "Queen stage" of theGiro.Perhaps it will

Madrid, Spain (AP) - Liberty Seguros cycling team director Manolo Saiz, arrested on doping charges, was released Wednesday after being questioned by police, the Civil Guard said. Saiz will still have to go before a judge. Four other men arrested along with Saiz, one of the biggest names in Spanish cycling, remain in custody. They still have to be questioned by the Civil Guard, a paramilitary police unit of the Interior Ministry. It was not clear when Saiz would go before a judge. The other four detainees include Eufemiano Fuentes, a physician who has worked for several Spanish cycling

Basso lengthened his lead, even as Piepoli won Stage 17

.. then Piepoli breaks things up

Piepoli wins another

No, not today: Officials eliminated the anticipated climb to Kronplatz.

The unsuccessful break...

... and the successful chase.

Perez Cuapio animates the climb....

If there was a shred of doubt about who was going to win the 89th Giro d'Italia going into Tuesday's climbing stage up Monte Bondone, Ivan Basso emphatically erased it with a dramatic statement high in the Italian Dolomites. If Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval) was racing on pride on his "home mountain," Basso was looking to carve a defining moment in what's been a flawless and dominant performance for the 28-year-old Varenese. With just under seven kilometers to go on the steep Bondone climb, Simoni could only watch Basso and the race leader's pink jersey slip away as Basso

Charly Gaul, perhaps the best pure climber the sport of road cycling has ever produced, should have been standing at the Monte Bondone summit finish of Tuesday’s stage of the Giro d’Italia. But Gaul, who won an epic victory on the Bondone climb in 1956, died last December at age 72. The Giro organizers chose the Bondone as the stage 16 finish to mark the 50th anniversary of Gaul’s stage win, which was achieved in apocalyptic conditions. Gaul was only 20 when he turned pro for a French team, Terrot, in May 1953. Within a month he was racing in the second biggest stage race in France, the

Manolo Saiz, manager of the Liberty-Seguros team has been arrested on doping charges, the Cadena Ser radio station reported on Tuesday. "Police have arrested Manolo Saiz and the Liberty team doctor Eufemiano Fuentes on suspicion of being involved in doping," the radio said. Saiz was reportedly detained in Spain and is not with his team at the Giro d'Italia. "At the moment we are unable to confirm anything," a spokesman for the Liberty Seguros team said. "We have not yet been unable to contact the sporting director." The Spanish Cycling Federation could not immediately confirm the

All by himself: Basso's solo win puts him way ahead on GC

Simoni managed to hang with Basso...

... for a bit.

Simoni held on for second

Gutierrez and Piepoli

Savoldelli, with Rubiera, risks losing his podium spot

Reigning Olympic champion Paolo Bettini Quick Step) put an end to a streak of frustrating finishes this season with a decisive win at the end of Monday’s 190km 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia. Overall race leader, CSC's Ivan Basso, enjoyed what could be described as this Giro's easiest, a completely flat ride from Mergozza to Brescia in the Lombardy region in Northern Italy. Bettini, 32, ended a string of frustrating near-wins, by grabbing the victory from this Giro's other bridesmaid, Pollack, who has also come frustratingly close to victory in most of this Giro's sprint

While no one can do much about the 24-percent pitches on parts of the roadto the finish of Wednesday's 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia, road crewsare making progress in terms of improving the surface on the final fivekilometers on the road to Plan de Corones. VeloNews reader IgorTavella, who sent us a photo update lastweek , has returned and reports that there are great improvementson most of the final portions of the climb. Race officials say that atthis point, if work on the final few hundred meters remain unfinished thosestretches of road will simply be eliminated from the stage.

Road Work: An update on the road to the Plan de Corones

Road Work: An update on the road to the Plan de Corones

Road Work: An update on the road to the Plan de Corones

Road Work: An update on the road to the Plan de Corones

Road Work: An update on the road to the Plan de Corones

Road Work: An update on the road to the Plan de Corones

Road Work: An update on the road to the Plan de Corones

Road Work: An update on the road to the Plan de Corones

Road Work: An update on the road to the Plan de Corones

Basso may have Savoldelli on his wheel in coming days, too.

This time he gets it.

Never more than 4:50 up on the field, this one was doomed to failure.

The chase

Super Domestique: Since Ullrich is using the Giro for training, he's getting some new duties for this race

Young Americans: Olson and McCartney

Sundays in Italy are usually reserved for quality time with the family, a nice meal out and an afternoon passeggiato. Not that nearly six hours on the bike and two tough mountains is ever easy, but Sunday’s 224-kilometer 14th stage from Aosta to Domodossola might seem like a Sunday stroll when the hit the likes of Pla de Corones and the Mortirolo on tap later this week. With the 11-man breakaway taking center-stage in the two-climb affair, an impromptu cease-fire between the favorites gave everyone a chance to reflect on what awaits them in the final week of the 89th Giro. Luis Felipe

In a repeat of last weekend's World Cup in Madrid, reigning Olympic and world champions Julien Absalon and Gunn-Rita Dahle each earned convincing cross-country wins on a muddy Sunday at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium. With three of six races now complete, Absalon (Bianchi-Agos) has a commanding 225-point lead over Bart Brentjens (Giant) in the overall standings. Dahle (Multivan-Merida), who's won all three World Cups this year, is 260 points up on German Sabine Spitz (Specialized). A win is worth 250 points. The victory brings Dahle's career total to 25, leaving her just three

Cañada wins Catalunya, Bennati takes finaleDavid Cañada (Saunier Duval) held on to his slender two-second lead to claim the biggest win of his decade-long career with overall victory Sunday in the 86th Volta a Catalunya in Spain. Cañada only had to follow the wheel of Santiago Botero (Phonak) in the hilly 121km march from Lloret de Mar that ended with a sprint in downtown Barcelona. Christophe Moreau (Ag2r) finished third at eight seconds back. “Winning here was complicated, there were lots of decisive moments,” the 31-year-old Cañada told reporters. “My team played a crucial role and there

Still in pink

This break actually succeeded.

Basso had no reason to chase and every reason to relax.

CSC in control

The break had a healthy margin going into the last climb and actually added to it on the way up.

Dahle's streak continues...

... as does Absalon's

JHK finishes 16th

Meirhaeghe riding the road to redemption?

Prémont was again the top North American

McConneloug found some portions frustrating.

Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) has won just about every major mountain climb in Spain, including a stage victory in the 2004 Vuelta a España, but the veteran Italian climbing specialist had never won in the Giro d’Italia. Piepoli, 34, has spent much of his 12-year career racing in Spain and all of his wins since 1999 have come on Spanish roads. The featherweight Italian changed that with an emphatic victory in Saturday’s rainy and cold 13th stage over the Colle San Carlo high in the Italian Alps. Piepoli was the only rider strong enough to follow Ivan Basso (CSC) when he turned on the

Two weeks after the Giro d’Italia kicked off here in southeastern Belgium, the World Cup mountain bike circuit has come to Wallonia for the third stop of the six-race cross-country series. Following a full slate of junior and amateur racing Saturday, both the pro men and pro women will do battle Sunday at Spa Francorchamps. The ladies are first up at 11 a.m. local time, with the men to follow at 2 p.m. The big buzz during the lead-up to the race was the expected size of both fields. In Madrid last weekend 212 men toed the start line, with 108 women showing up for the women’s race. With

Cañada takes over in CatalunyaDavid Cañada (Saunier Duval) took over the leader’s jersey at the sixth stage of the Volta a Catalunya after a frenetic stage that saw Slovenian sprinter Matej Mugerli (Liquigas) grab the win. Overnight leader Carlos Castaño (Kaiku) gave up more than five minutes after the group split on the hilly stage and he could only watch his 1:18 lead evaporate on the road in the 166km sixth course from Manlleu to Lloret de Mar and he dropped 23rd overall. The bumpy profile proved fatal to Castaño’s modest Kaiku team, which got out-gunned when 46 riders pulled away early

Piepoli climbed brilliantly and took risks on the descent

Last year at Spa

The course

Basso did all of his damage on the way up, but had a lot more to lose than Piepoli on the wet descent into the Alpine village of La Thuile.

Rujano showed a flash of his style from last year... and then went home.

Savoldelli: Still third, but losing time

Simoni held his own against everyone, but Basso

The day's doomed-to-fail break had but 30 seconds once the climbing started

Cunego had to take some risks on the descent

Tour nine shaping up for Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is zeroing in on its nine riders who will defend the team’s colors in the first Tour de France of the post-Lance Armstrong era. According to sport director Dirk Demol, the nine pre-selected riders include two new faces which have yet to ride the Tour with Discovery Channel. Young Russian Vladimir Gusev and promising Basque rider Egoi Martinez are both penciled in to earn a Tour start position. “It’s not like the past, when we had the whole team for Lance. The team comes with different goals,” Demol told VeloNews. “Of course, there

Joan Horrach (Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears) brought a Spanish accent to the 89th Giro d’Italia in a rough and tumble race that saw Emanuele Sella (Panaria) and Manuele Mori (Saunier Duval) crash twice while they were streaking toward victory. Horrach was the last man standing of a 15-man group that tore away from main bunch in the 171km 12th stage along Italy’s spectacular Cinque Terre coast. A frenetic final half of the stage saw the group whittled down by Sella’s and Mori’s aggression, but the pair crashed while nursing about a 20-second gap and Horrach was able to sneak through for the

In its second year at Lawrence, Kansas, the collegiate road race championships served up another weekend of unexpected winners, heartbroken losers and drama. And that was just at the Holiday Inn post-race banquet (pity anyone who ordered the steak dinner). As was the case last year, I returned from Kansas with a tape recorder and camera filled with strange college-racing tidbits — stuff far too weird and extraneous to fit into my magazine feature, but ideal for the web. So I present to you the second annual Fred’s Eye View Collegiate Cycling Awards. Stylie Guy AwardThe nationals banquet