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Ullrich rode Romandie in April and will return to Switzerland this month

Leipheimer has been showing good form all season

(L-R) Stevic, Frattini, and Lagutin

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.Simoni, please...enoughEditors,Can this man not take defeat graciously? His most recent tantrums duringand following the Giro are reminiscent of his loss to Cunego. I wonderwhat whiny comment he would have had if Basso had given him a stage win?Tony WhethamCourtice, OntarioJust drop the

Spanish continental team Comunidad Valenciana could lose its wild-card bid to start the 2006 Tour de France following implication of its assistant sports director in an on-going doping investigation in Spain. The Spanish sports daily AS reported Wednesday that the Societe du Tour de France could rescind the team’s Tour invitation as soon as Thursday. AS reported that the decision has already been made, but that Tour officials are waiting in part because of the funeral of Philippe Amaury, the owner of the media group that bears his name which includes the Tour, L´Equipe and Le Parisien.

Dutch investigators cleared Lance Armstrong of doping in the 1999 Tour de France on Wednesday, and blamed anti-doping authorities for misconduct in dealing with the American cyclist. A 132-page report recommended convening a tribunal to discuss possible legal and ethical violations by the World Anti-Doping Agency and to consider "appropriate sanctions to remedy the violations." The French sports daily L'Equipe reported in August that six of Armstrong's urine samples from 1999, when he won the first of his record seven-straight Tour titles, came back positive for the

Editor's Note The Union Cycliste Internationale, Lance Armstrong and the World Anti-Doping Agency both issued statements following the release of a UCI-requested investigator's report regarding allegations of doping by Armstrong in the 1999 Tour de France.(Read the FULL REPORT)  Statement from the UCIThe International Cycling Union has learned with great surprise de declarations conveyed to the Dutch press by Mr. Emile Vrijman, independent investigator within the frame of the urine sample analysis during the 1999 Tour de France case.The UCI firmly deplores the behaviour of Mr.

Nathan O'Neill (Health Net-Maxxis) and Alison Powers (Rio Grande-Sports Garage) won the opening stage of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic on Wednesday in Hood River, Oregon. O'Neill covered the three-mile time trial stage in six minutes and seven seconds. Powers did it in 7:17. The course gained only 150 feet in elevation, but it was not flat. Riders were greeted with a steep hill immediately out of the start house followed by a descent of more than a mile and a steep climb at the finish. Second for the men was Ryan Trebon (AEG-Toshiba-Jetnetwork) in 6:16, followed by Ian McKessick

A member of the Guardia Civil holds up blood transfusion equipment found during a raid on May 24.

Comunidad Valenciana director Vicente Belda may not be smiling after this week

Armstrong announcing plans to retire in 2005 (file photo)

The Simoni-Basso spat shows no signs of dying a quick death. Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval) and Ivan Basso (CSC) have been trading barbs ever since Simoni accused Basso of trying to sell Saturday’s 20th stage over the Gavia and Mortirolo climbs in the Giro d’Italia. According to a report on the Italian wires, Simoni is scheduled to appear before the Italian cycling federation to offer his version of claims that Giro winner Basso wanted money to let Simoni win the Giro’s penultimate stage. The dispute has been fueling headlines since Simoni’s finish-line diatribe, when he accused Basso of

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.New team for Gilberto?Editor,Say, is Gilberto Simoni trying to become the captain of the Bicciniand Monini racing team?An angry Simoni called Basso an "extraterrestrial" for hiscrushing performance and accused him riding unfairly by asking him to rideeasy on the perilous descent off the

We know that it’s been a while since our last weekly contest and we’ll try to get these back on track, folks. 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. This past contest offered up an especially difficult set of choices, but we ultimately settled upon Steve Jacoubowsky’s shot of Robbie-Hunter taking on the prologue at the Tour of California. Congratulations

The fourth edition of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic in Hood River, Oregon, starts Wednesday with NRC recognition for the second year despite the fact that the event is a jewel won annually by regional talent since its inception in 2003. As in years past, the race is sponsored by Full Sail Brewery, which is headquartered in Hood River, about 50 miles west of Portland on the Columbia River George. The quaint mountain-river town with a population of 20,000 is regarded as a Mecca by sailboarders worldwide and is a pushing-off point for skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, backpacking and climbing

A Spanish magazine on Tuesday printed the names of four riders supposedly linked to Spanish doctors under scrutiny by authorities as part of the so-called "Operación Puerto" blood-doping investigation. The weekly magazine Interviú said Oscar Sevilla (T-Mobile), Santiago Botero (Phonak) and Ángel Vicioso (Liberty Seguros-Würth) were videotaped with a hidden camera as they entered a Madrid building that housed the clinic of José Luis Merino Batres, a hematologist who authorities suspect ran an extensive blood-doping operation. The story, which used police sources, also linked recorded phone

Maybe Simoni should just let his legs do the talking.

Hampsten in '88: Pretty darn tough for skinny little climber dude.

Robbie-Hunter-TOC Prologue

It seems like Ryder Hesjedal has been racing his bike forever. Whether racking up wins as one of North America’s most consistent performers on the dirt or bumping shoulders with the European peloton on the road, it’s sometimes hard to remember that the guy is only 25 years old. Since walking away from mountain biking after the 2004 World Championships, Hesjedal has quietly been making strides on the road. Despite crashing out of the 2005 Giro d’Italia, Hesjedal made important gains in form and confidence in what was his first full season racing on the road. A switch to Phonak in the winter

Hesjedal feels like he's fitting in at Phonak

Sunday marked the official opening of the Basso Era as Ivan Basso (CSC) won the 2006 Giro d'Italia in a dominant fashion that many expect to continue into July’s Tour de France. Basso, 28, insists he’s not out to ascend to Lance Armstrong’s vacant throne and that his overpowering victory in the 89th Giro d’Italia came in a style all his own. "I’m not looking to replace anyone and I have the utmost respect for Lance, but I have my results and I have earned my place in the group," Basso said Sunday morning ahead of the final stage. "I have my name and I only have to show that I am Ivan

The competition for the overall women's road World Cup title tightened up Saturday after the Montreal round, the seventh in the season-long series. Judith Arndt (T-Mobile) took a closely contested win over series leader Nicole Cooke (Univega) to move to within 49 points of the lead. Oenone Wood (Nurnberger Versicherung) did not race in Montreal and is now a distant third in the standings, with the World Cup fast becoming a battle between Cooke and Arndt. The traditional circuit added a 1km false-flat section along the base of the main climb, with the number of laps correspondingly

World Cup leaders Michal Prokop (Author) and Jill Kintner (GT) didn’t lose a single heat en route to their respective finals during the 4-cross on Sunday in Fort Willliam, Scotland. In the downhill, meanwhile, Australian Sam Hill (Monster-Iron Horse MadCatz) took the win and the series lead, while Tracy Moseley (Kona Les Gets) topped the women’s competition. Gravity events are definitely the crowd favorites in Fort William, with thousands braving rain and below-average temperatures to stand in the mud for hours and cheer the riders on. After a torrential rain soaked the cross-country,

Basso collects the trophy

Forster takes the finale

A team effort

The podium

Riis and Basso toast their victory

Okay, you just knew we were gonna lay one of these on you, right?

Team CSC’s Ivan Basso barnstormed to victory Saturday in the final hard stage of the 89th Giro d’Italia in the style of the man everyone expects Basso to succeed – Lance Armstrong. Basso wasn’t in a giving mood when he dropped an exasperated Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval) with about 4km to go in Saturday’s grueling, 211km 20th stage to win for the third time and widen his grip on the maglia rosa to more than nine minutes with just one day left. An angry Simoni called Basso an "extraterrestrial" for his crushing performance and accused him riding unfairly by asking him to ride easy on the

Tom Danielson, weakened by fever and sinus problems, ended his Giro d’Italia just two days shy of finishing but Discovery Channel officials revealed that he’ll reload for the Vuelta a España as the team’s GC rider. Danielson, who was sitting 16th overall at 23:24 back, didn’t start Saturday’s 20th climbing stage over the Gavia and Mortirolo when his conditioned worsened overnight Friday and team sport director Johan Bruyneel decided to pull the plug on his Giro. “He'd been suffering from sinusitis and taking antibiotics ever since the stage to La Thuile last week," Bruyneel told

The fourth round of the cross-country mountain-bike World Cup took riders to the Scottish Highlands on Saturday. Despite cold rain, which was torrential at times, the event featured some of the best racing of the World Cup so far. Julien Absalon (Bianchi Agos) took his third consecutive victory in the men's race, but perennial women's favorite Gunn-Rita Dahle (Multivan Merida) ceded the top spot on the podium to her young teammate Nina Göhl after suffering a flat on the first lap. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher), meanwhile, had a breakthrough ride to finish on the podium

Riders from Liberty Seguros-Würth vow to keep racing despite the departure of the team’s title sponsor in the wake of the detention of team manager Manolo Saiz as part of a blood-doping scandal in Spain. Officials from Liberty Seguros – the American insurance giant that sponsored the team to the tune of $8.5 million per year – formally ended association with the team’s holding company Saturday, but promised it would pay riders and staff salaries through the 2006 season. "The agreement says that the salaries will be paid until the end of the season if we cannot find another sponsor," team

A smiling Basso hoists a picture of his new son as he crosses the finish line

Basso was enjoying himself – Simoni less so

An angry Simoni called Basso an 'extraterrestrial'

Basso, meanwhile, just wanted to savor his victory

The main event: The Gavia

The pass separated the sheep from the goats

Another look at the Gavia

Gutierrez working the Mortirolo

Basso and Simoni, mano a mano

Savoldelli pulled out all the stops on the descent

But it was Basso's day to shine

Göhl en route to victory

Absalon surges to the finish

There’s no stopping Team CSC in this Giro d’Italia, unless they decide to stop themselves. Team CSC was everywhere in Friday’s epic seven-hour haul in the 221km 19th stage that hit such legendary climbs as the Fedaia, Pordoi and San Pellegrino. Bobby Julich and Jens Voigt were in the day’s winning 19-man break, five other Team CSC jerseys were pinned at the front of the main bunch and race leader Ivan Basso widened his hold on the maglia rosa to more than six minutes with just two days left. So what was Voigt doing when he reached over and patted Juan Manuel Garate (Lampre) on the back

The first triple of the Mountain Bike World Cup takes place this weekend in Fort William, Scotland. This is race No. 4 in the cross-country series, and No. 2 for the gravity riders. The cross-country and 4-Cross events take place on Saturday, with the downhill on Sunday. Training had been less than enjoyable Friday, with constant rain and cold wind. Weather forecasts call for it to clear overnight and warm up considerably for the rest of the weekend. The circuit used for the cross-country is almost identical to past years. Despite the rain and mud, riders report that the whole course is

Garate wins

Class Act: After following Garate's wheel for 5km, Voigt declined to contest the sprint.

Garate and Voigt joined the day's early break and stayed away all day.

Voigt rode up to Valjavec and then joined Garate when the Spanish champion bridged and attacked

Piepoli put the hurt on the peloton

Savoldelli lost contact and Danielson paced him up the final climb

Basso and Simoni swept up most of the break... and put time on Gutierrez and Savoldelli

Game Over? Basso enters the last big day in the mountains with 6:07 on Gutierrez

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

DOPERSSUCK.COM AND SOCKGUY DONATE FUNDS TO JUNIOR CYCLISTSBoulder, CO – May 24, 2006 – Dopers Suck and SockGuy have createda new sock featuring the Dopers Suck logo and will donate a portion ofthe proceeds to junior cycling development programs across the country.“Whether racing or training, I wanted to provide athletes with a wayto express their beliefs about performance enhancing drugs and what betterway to do it that with a sock! And, what better sock company to work withthan SockGuy? SockGuy makes the highest quality, best fitting custom socksin the cycling industry and they were really

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