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Dear Bob;I have a question that has been a long standing debate over many beers at the pub, and every one seems to agree I am wrong except me. If you could set me straight I would be grateful. This is a true story. Like most cyclists I have my regular routes, designed for hills, speed, one hour, three hours etc. Part of my ride consists of a road with two lanes in each direction (four lanes total) with a posted speed limit of twenty-five (25) miles per hour. Both sides of the road are filled with small shops with parking lots. The surface is new and smooth and slopes gently down at about a

Ullrich's time trial form is back...

Despite finishing second, Basso was the day's big winner

Sure, but can he climb? Ullrich appears to be getting fitter

Tour with a view: This is one reason we just love the Giro

Olson

Ullrich is not looking back.

Pinotti, Italy's national TT champ rode to a strong third

Honchar

Gutierrez: Still 2nd on GC.

You may have heard about a study recently published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolsim that brought that old childhood favorite drink of chocolate milk into the headlines. This attention getting study did bring up a lot of practical questions regarding your best food and fluid recovery nutrition choices, and a good opportunity to clarify the proper use of various sports nutrition supplements. Let’s take a quick look at the study. Researchers provided subjects with either chocolate milk, a sports drink, or a commercially available recovery drink (there

Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) sat in the shade of some palm trees Wednesday morning saying he’d like to win a stage at the week-long Volta a Catalunya as "a test" before tackling more important goals later this summer. Well, if his sprint victory in Wednesday’s third stage ahead of riders he’s due to square off against in a few weeks is any indication, the big Norwegian seems to be on the right path for the Tour. "It was a tough sprint because of strong headwinds in the finale," Hushovd told reporters. "I’m particularly delighted to win, because today is Norway’s national holiday. I’m on

On the second and final rest day of the 2006 Giro d’Italia, current race leader Ivan Basso spent most of Wednesday afternoon relaxing at his team’s seaside hotel in the beach town of Lido Di Camaiore. Basso did sneak in a two-hour training ride to reconnoiter Thursday’s 50km time trial course that does an oval loop from Pontedera to Pisa and back. The 2005 Tour de France runner-up also held a short press conference at the team hotel. Here are some of the highlights along with comments from Team CSC director Bjarne Riis. Basso on his expectations for the time trial:“I expect to have a good

After the Giro d’Italia’s second long transfer, this one taking therace from Pescara on Italy’s east coast to Pisa on the west, riders wereusing the rest day in Tuscany to scout out Thursday’s time trial courseand take stock of the race before heading into the upcoming week of climbsand more climbs. Stage 11 is a Tour de France-style time trial on a completelyflat 50km circuit around the Arno Valley between Pontedera and Pisa. JanUllrich scouted the course during an April training camp and likes it alot: “Flat and straight — perfect!” Race leader Ivan Basso predicts thatUllrich will ride a

The judging is over and we’ve picked our favorite from among the 100+ submissions offered by our readers for the First Annual Tour de Georgia Photo Contest. Take the time to wander through and see if you agree with the choice we made from among the entries you, our readers, sent in from Georgia. Meanwhile, we’d like to extend our hearty congratulations to Greg Mitts for his candid portrait of this year’s Tour de Georgia winner, Floyd Landis. Greg’s shot captures the personality, character and sense of humor of one this country’s great riders. For your efforts, Greg, you win a pair of

Bass and team director Bjarne Riis

Will Basso be as happy in the Alps?

Stage 17

Landis-joking before start of TT

It wasn’t quite as painful as the Nordic ski jumper that went spiraling down the hill all those years during the intro to ABC’s Wide World of Sports, but watching poor Axel Merckx throw several backward glances as a fast-moving chase group caught the Phonak rider just 150 meters from the line clearly rated as one of cycling’s agony-of-defeat moments. Instead of a heroic solo stage 10 win for the Belgian with the famous name, it was Liquigas lieutenant Franco Pellizotti who got to pop the champagne at the end of the 190km run south from Termoli to Peschici on Tuesday at the Giro

Steep, steep, steepDear Lennard,I recently read that Discovery director Johann Bruyneel is planningon putting a 34X29 on some of his riders' bikes for Stage 17 of the Giro.I don’t think Shimano makes either a compact Dura-Ace crank or a 29 cog.Any idea what they plan on using?James Dear James,I am in Italy now putting on a bikecamp with Connie Carpenter and Davis Phinney. We will be hookingup with the Giro starting at the Pontedera time trial on Thursday. I ameager to see the Stage 17 finish climb and the gearing teams use for it,too. According to Shimano USA and confirmed by Shimano

For many of the 20 ProTour teams lining up for the 86th Volta a Catalunya, the week-long race is an obligation to fulfill their end of the ProTour bargain to get assured starts in important races like the Tour de France. For small teams like Andalucía-Paul Versan, which got snubbed in its bid to earn a start in the Vuelta a España later this summer, races like these become their Tour. Luis Perez, a 25-year-old Spanish rider who had never won a race before as a professional, earned his modest Andalucía-Paul Versan squad some bragging points after soloing to victory in the 156.8km second

While the Giro d’Italia enters its second rest day on Wednesday, noteveryone in Italy is resting.We received an e-mail from reader Igor Tavella, who was on the upper reaches of the Plan de Corones this past Sunday and saw that road crews are still working to pave the final 5km of what will be the steepest section of road in this Giro d'Italia. "Maybe it is of interest to you to know that I took some pictures aboutthe works on the new road to the Plan de Corones," Igor writes. "Now theyare working day and night to be able to finish the road. Due to the last snowfalls they had to stop

Pellizotti takes big win at Giro

Merckx had a go ... but it wasn't to be

How do you gear for Stage 17's 5km of 20+ percent grades?

And where did you ride today?

Lampre on the front

Basso and Sastre

Lampre cranking it up

The sprint was a mere formality

Danielson rolls it

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

The tough (unpaved) road ahead - A reader's look at Stage 17

Tomas Vaitkus pulled off two great feats at the close of Monday's 132km run from Francavilla al Mare to Termoli. In winning the bunch sprint down the main drag of this sleepy beach town on the Adriatic, Vaitkus became the first Lithuanian to win a Giro d'Italia stage. But maybe more impressive was the fact that Vaitkus did so ahead of Robbie McEwen, heretofore unbeatable in mass gallops at this year's Giro. McEwen actually finished fourth on stage 9, with Vaitkus (Ag2r), Paolo Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic) and Olaf Pollack (T-Mobile) all besting the Davitamon-Lotto rider.

Team CSC’s Fabian Cancellara hadn’t raced since winning Paris-Roubaix more than a month ago, but nothing could stop the adrenalin and killer instincts from kicking in when the big Swiss rider clipped into the pedals ahead of Monday’s opening 12.5km time trial to open the 86th Volta a Cataluyna. Once he got his big motor warmed up, the 6-foot-3, 180-pounder just let it rip. "I never dreamed of winning today until I rode the course this morning and I thought to myself, ‘Why not risk it and try to win?’" Cancellara said. "My next big goal isn’t until the Tour, but this was an opportunity I

A fast and furious finish

Cancellara takes a risk and it pays off

After warming up on the course, Cancellara thought, 'Why not risk it and win?'

The Phonak rig

Vaitkus had two good reasons to win

An easy day for Basso

The traditional doomed early break

Quick Step chasing ... in vain, as things worked out

Stop for a little wine? Nah . . .

If there is such a thing as a psychological advantage in bike racing, Ivan Basso now has it. The Team CSC leader also now owns the maglia rosa of race leader and no less than a 1:34 edge on his chief rivals in the 2006 Giro d’Italia. All this came courtesy of a stunning display of climbing force at the close of the 171km stage 8 run from Civitanova Marche to the 1289-meter summit finish at Maielletta-Passo Lanciano. Following a sharp attack from fellow Giro favorite Damiano Cunego 4km from the finish, Basso latched onto the Lampre-Fondital rider’s wheel, and then mercilessly dropped the 2004

On Saturday morning before the tough stage 7 run from Cesana to Saltara, VeloNews got an opportunity to look inside the Team CSC truck. Besides the expected slew of bikes and bike parts, the big rig also has a small kitchen, washer and dryer, and even a built in pressure-washing system. A big thanks to our guide, CSC mechanic Nicholas Legan, who was busy using nail polish to cover up a small paint chip in of the team bike’s forks when we showed up for our tour in at the team’s hotel in the stage 6 finishing town of Forli.

Spectators lining the start/finish line of today’s 2006 collegiate road national championships at Perry Lake, Kansas, saw four very different race finishes, with Brent Bookwalter (Lees-McRae), Sarah Uhl (Penn State), Mark Hardman (Virginia) and Mara Abbott (Whitman College) emerging as winners. The day kicked off promptly at 8 a.m., with the women’s Division I and Division II fields taking to the road at Perry Lake, a boating and fishing destination about 15 miles west of Lawrence. Both women’s divisions circled the rolling 28-mile loop twice, with the 75-woman Division I race hitting the

Gunn-Rita Dahle (Multivan-Merida) once again made it a race for second place in the Madrid women’s cross-country race, but the all-powerful Norwegian is finally finding some challengers nipping at her heels. Dahle dropped a revived Marga Fullana (Spiuk-Illes Balears) on the first of five laps and then held off a late charge by nemesis Marie-Helene Premont (Rocky Mountain) to win for the second time this World Cup season. "This course is so fast you can never let up even for a moment or they’ll get you back," Dahle said after winning in 1:39:11. "I thought maybe I went out too hard and I was

After a double day of competition on Saturday at the Joe Martin Stage Race, Gord Fraser (Health Net-Maxxis) retained his overall lead in the men’s race and Erinne Willock (Webcor-Platinum) moved into the top spot in the women’s general classification. Fraser won the field sprint of a 92-mile road race in the morning, then finished ninth in the 2.5-mile uphill time trial – 19 seconds behind teammate Scott Moninger – to stay in the lead. Meanwhile, Tina Pic (Colavita-Cooking Light) took the women’s 69-mile road race, but Willock won the afternoon’s time trial to move into first overall, 20

Timing is everything, especially on a fast, high-speed course in Madrid’s Casa de Campo, where passing lanes are as rare as they are on a Spanish mountain highway. Reigning world champion Julian Absalon (Bianchi) took some choice words of advice from his coach in the closing half-kilometer and sneaked past arch-rival Christoph Sauser (Specialized) to secure victory Sunday in the second round of the men’s World Cup mountain bike series. "I tried to drop him on the final hard climb, but he was too strong and I thought it would be a sprint, but my coach told me to get past him in the last flat

The Executive committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency, meeting in Montreal this week, has delayed a decision on whether to include the use of so-called "altitude tents" on its banned practices list until at least September of this year. The tents, and other equipment designed to mimic high-altitude hypoxic conditions, have been used by some athletes to artificially elevate their red blood cell counts. The committee issued the following statement in connection with a proposed review of the agency's position on the use of such equipment:Artificially-Induced Hypoxic ConditionsThe

Collegiate athletes mobbed the streets of downtown Lawrence, Kansas, on Sunday for the third and final race of the 2006 USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships. The finale, a criterium run on a one-mile course, saw Division I and II men’s fields race 65 minutes plus three laps and the women’s fields race 55 minutes plus three laps. The D-II men hit the streets first. The race held extra importance, as the team omnium was nearly tied after Friday’s team time trial and Saturday’s road race. Defending champions Whitman College trailed Lees-McRae College by a mere seven points. Both

Arkansas has been good to Gord Fraser (Health Net-Maxxis). In the final event of the Joe Martin Stage Race, a technical downtown criterium, Fraser won his third sprint finish and maintained his overall title. In the women’s race Erinne Willock finished fourth, 10 seconds down on race winner Kori Seehafer, to maintain first in general classification. Entering the final stage with the top two riders on general classification, Fraser and Scott Moninger, the Health Net-Maxxis racers had one thing on their mind – playing defense. On a criterium course in downtown Fayetteville featuring eight

Basso wins and takes over the jersey.

The truck is a big part of the CSC arsenal

Our tour guide, Nicholas Legan.

As expected, lots and lots of bikes...