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Ullrich falls off the pace

The 28th La Vuelta de Bisbee gets rolling beginning Friday in the high desert country of southeastern Arizona. Racing in the three-day, four-stage race begins Friday, April 28, with the Mule Pass Time Trial, an uphill charge through the heart of Old Bisbee that gains 837 vertical feet in 2.8 miles. Malcolm Elliott set the elite men’s record of 9:18 in 1993; Leslee Schenk posted the elite women’s best time of 10:33 in 1987. Saturday, April 29, is a double stage day. The Sulphur Springs Road Race (79.3 miles for elite men, 45.8 miles for elite women) tours the rolling rural roads east of

Team CSC’s Jens Voigt has been making new friends all spring. Normally, the German marauder is off the front in some suicidal attack, nose to the wind, a tactic that’s served him well with an impressive haul of 11 wins before the end of April in both 2004 and 2005. This year, he´s been uncharacteristically quiet, hidden away in the bunch and getting a new vision on the peloton. “I´ve discovered riders in the peloton I´ve never seen before,” Voigt said. “I´m finishing in groups I´ve never seen before, so it´s like a whole new view of the world!” It’s not as if the 34-year-old is getting

Last season, Dr. Massimo Testa accepted two new clients: Gerolsteiner’s Levi Leipheimer and me, a cycling coach and amateur racer. Testa worked for over a decade as a sports doctor for pro teams including 7-Eleven, Motorola and Mapei, and is now a sports-medicine physician at the University of California-Davis. Under Testa’s coaching last year, Leipheimer won the Tour of Germany and finished seventh in the Tour de France. I didn’t reach all my personal goals, but did succeed in expanding my coaching abilities. I first tried to hire Testa years ago on an Andy Hampsten bicycle tour in Italy.

German Tour de France hopeful Jan Ullrich said Wednesday that he wouldgo "through the pain barrier" to ensure he is in top condition for theTour start on July 1.A knee injury forced T-Mobile captain Ullrich to postpone his startto the season but the German rider is taking part in the Tour of Romandiein Switzerland, which began on Tuesday, and hopes to get back to his bestover the next two months."The motivation is there but the form is not. But I am glad to be backand free of my knee problems," Ullrich said at his training camp on Wednesday."I have a lot of ground to make up but I have

Australian Robbie McEwen dominated a bunch sprint to win the first stage of the six-day Tour de Romandie Wednesday in Payerne, Switzerland. The Davitamon-Lotto sprinter burst ahead of a small group of contenders in the final 200 meters of the winding, rain-soaked 169km stage finale to cross the finish line in triumph. Italian Mirco Lorenzetto (Milram) finished second ahead of Lampre's Daniele Bennati. Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) finished with the pack in his 2006 season debut, and former Romandie champion Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel), who won the prologue on Tuesday, retained the

Robbie McEwen of Davitamon-Lotto won the rainy first stage of the Tour de Romandie on Wednesday, the most important day of the race for the Australian sprinter. After his respectable finish in the previous day’s prologue in Geneva (he finished 29th, 12:53 behind winner Paolo Savoldelli), he spoke to VeloNews at length about his race, his rib injury last month, and his expectations for the Tour de Romandie. McEwen had gone early in the race, in order to leave more time for cooling down and getting a massage. The road was dry when he raced, and he said he hoped rain would arrive to impede the

Voigt finished more than 10 minutes back at Liège and he couldn't be happier.

McEwen notches another win

McEwen's back where he likes to be, in the thick of the action

Davitamon-Lotto on the front

Savoldelli retains the overall lead

Konyshev took a good, long dig

Water SolutionDear Readers,It seems that whenever it is raining somewhere in the USA, I get questionsabout drain holes in the bottom bracket and rims. In the past, I have advisedpeople to drill their own if they are not present, but of course that isat great risk of voiding their warranties. However, here is a solutionthat might appeal to those whose bikes are filling up with water as wellas for those who do not want to void their warranties.LennardDear Lennard,I recently discovered it's not difficult to drill a hole down the centerof the set screw that holds the cable guide in place

In partone of our interview with Mauro Gianetti we spoke to the SaunierDuval manager about Gilberto Simoni and the North American talent pipeline intothe European peloton. In the second of this two-part interview, Giannettitalks about the team's newest star and the comeback of David Millar, setto return to racing in the 2006 Tour de France just days after his two-yearracing ban ends. VN: The return of Millar will be big news, how did you agree to a contract? MG: We had contact through mutual friends. They told me that Millar had started to train and that he wanted to make a comeback. In

The domestic Cannondale mountain-bike team has inked a three-year sponsorship deal with Bear Naked Granola, a natural-food company out of Darien, Connecticut. The cash sponsorship begins in mid-season for the Cannondale team, which sponsors more than 40 professional and amateur racers. "This deal is going to allow us to run the team at a greater level than we have the past two years," said team director Matt Jewett. "We already have a team that brings a lot to domestic racing. This will allow us to bring the personalities and performance of our team outside of the bike industry." The deal

Paolo Savoldelli of Italy, the pokerfaced deputy of the Discovery Channel team, won the prologue of the Tour de Romandie on Tuesday, mastering the sharp corners and hairpins of a 3.4km circuit through Geneva, Switzerland. The race saw the return of T-Mobile’s German centerpiece Jan Ullrich, who has been out of competition with a knee injury. Ullrich appeared tanned and shaggy after a week of training in Tuscany, Italy. A team spokesman said his knee was 100 percent – no pain, stiffness or swelling. Savoldelli won Romandie in 2000, when it was some 812km long. This season, the 60-year-old

Technical Q&A with Lennard Zinn: Water build-up and Shimmy solutions

Gianetti has put together a strong squad for '06...

... and has put a lot of stock into two of his stars.

A fan reacts as Savoldelli shifts gears en route to victory

Ullrich makes his racing debut for 2006

Valverde slots into second

McGee takes third

Pereiro grabs fourth

Bodrogi rounds out the top five

Saunier Duval-Prodir rolls into the heart of the 2006 as a dramatically different team. Eleven riders from last year are gone, replaced by big names such as Gilberto Simoni, David Millar, Koldo Gil and Luciano Pagliarini. Now in its third year in formation, Saunier Duval has matured in its goals and aspirations, taking aim for bigger fish, namely the Giro d’Italia with two-time champion Simoni. The return of Millar after a two-year racing ban is sure to attract a lot of attention, even more so if Millar can snag the yellow jersey in the opening prologue at the Tour this year in what will be

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.A pat on the editorial backEditor:Your live online coverage of the Tour de Georgia is absolutely fantastic. Well done, VeloNews. Michael DowToronto, Ontario, Canada P.S. Could you please ask John Wilcockson if he would possibly be interested in tutoring me? I'd be honored to follow

Tour de France hopeful Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) will finally launch the start of his season at the Tour de Romandie on Tuesday where a strong line-up awaits the German in the Swiss Alps. Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears), the recent winner of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Flèche Wallonne one-day classics, will be one of the headline acts in the race, which serves as a warm-up for the upcoming Giro d'Italia. Although the 653km race starts and finishes with time trials through the streets of Geneva and Lausanne, the rest of the six-day event snakes through the hills and

Mauro Gianetti

Final Overall 1. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, 24:00:54 2. Thomas Danielson (USA), Discovery Channel Pro Cycling, 00:04 3. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery Channel Pro Cycling, 01:55 4. Gutierrez Cataluna José Enrique (Sp), Phonak, 02:11 5. Janez Brajkovic (SLO), Discovery Channel Pro Cycling, 02:15 6. David Zabriskie (USA), CSC, 02:31 7. Nathan O'Neill (Aus), Health Net Maxxis, 03:45 8. Marco Pinotti (I), Saunier Duval, 03:54 9. Christopher Baldwin (USA), Toyota-United, 04:01 10. Augusto Cesar Augusto (Col), Navigators Insurance, 04:20

Chalk one up for the little guys. Following a five-day shutout in which domestic teams failed to win a single stage and only managed two top-three finishes against their ProTour foes, Toyota-United speedster Juan Jose Haedo earned a measure of redemption for the U.S.-based squads at the Ford Tour de Georgia, taking a bunch-sprint win on the final day of racing. The Argentine finished half a bike length ahead of Canadian Gord Fraser (Health Net-Maxxis), with Phonak’s Aurelien Clerc third at the finish of Sunday’s 118.2-mile stage from Cumming to Alpharetta.

Alejandro Valverde, whose fans sometimes call him Balaverde, the Green Bullet, added a second notch to his list of classics victories on Sunday in a riveting 92nd edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, raced on a splendidly sunny spring day. The verdict was always in doubt after repeated attacks in the finale failed to break up a 12-strong group that eventually contested a ragged sprint, which Valverde of Caisse d’Épargne-Illes Balears clearly won from the Italians Paolo Bettini of Quick Step-Innergetic and Damiano Cunego of Lampre-Fondital.

Landis adds the Georgia title to an already-stellar early campaign

Valverde celebrates

Horner scored an eighth-place finish

Boogerd on the attack

The Bettini group on La Redoute

Whatever you do, hold your line

Valverde wins

The podium

Boogerd and Rodriguez on the march

Haedo wins the stage

Landis had a mechanical, but stayed cool and collected the overall

The jersey winners enjoy the prerogative of the podium

Frischkorn and Louder have a dig

A beautiful day after some rainy riding

And an appreciative crowd

Toyota at the front

And Haedo has something to celebrate

Make that an extra-beautiful day

The amazing spring run of Floyd Landis continued on Saturday, as the American stared down a stiff challenge from Tom Danielson and the Discovery Channel team during the brutal Stage 5 climb up Brasstown Bald at the 2006 Ford Tour de Georgia.

Since his break-through victory last Sunday at the Amstel Gold Race, FrankSchleck has seen his stock rise like a meteor. “He seems like a fragileguy,” his CSC team manager Bjarne Riis commented this week, “but he hasa huge resistance.”Schleck confirmed his good form on Wednesday at the Flèche Wallonne,where he was one of three riders, with CSC teammate Karsten Kroon and SamuelSanchez of Euskaltel, who finished at the top of the Mur de Huy just behindwinner Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d’Épargne-Illes Balears.In placing fourth at the Flèche, Schleck rode a smart race inview of the difficulties

Mano a mano, Danielson and Landis battled on Brasstown Bald

Landis had his game face on before the race got under way

Frischkorn leads an early break

McCartney and Euser ride together in the rain

Euser watches McCartney vanish up the road

It was another rainy day at the start

Phonak in charge

Popo' labors on Danielson's behalf

Danielson attacked and attacked, but couldn't shed Landis

The day's top three

‘Chechu’ free to fly againJosé Luis Rubiera has been a fixture at Discovery Channel since joining the team for the 2001 season, but now he’s relishing the opportunity to show what he can do. Always a loyal lieutenant to seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, “Chechu” is free to fly again this year as the team reloads in the post-Armstrong era. Speaking to journalists at the recent Tour of the Basque Country, the Spanish climbing ace says he’s looking forward to chance to stake out some results for himself. “We have a lot of experience on this team from many years and we all

Fred Rodriguez must like it in Dahlonega. For the second time in thefour-year history of the Tour de Georgia, the American speedstersprinted to a stage win in this small college town at the base of theBlue Ridge Mountains. Rodriguez burst across the line ahead of Italian Matteo Tosatto (QuickStep-Innergetic) and Discovery’s Yaroslav Popovych to grab victory inthe 118.9-mile stage that begin in Dalton.

A more aggressive, more exciting edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège resulted last year when the organizers restored the “Bermuda Triangle” to the Belgian classic’s 262km course. The series of three critical climbs — Côte de Wanne, Côte de Stockeu and Côte de la Haute-Levée — in the space of just 12km around the town of Stavelot split the peloton into shreds. Only 35 riders from the 180-strong pack emerged from the “triangle” with a chance of winning. As a result, none of the pre-race favorites had more than a couple of teammates to help them in the final 80km. This gave an opening for CSC’s

A more aggressive, more exciting edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège resulted last year when the organizers restored the "Bermuda Triangle" to the Belgian classic’s 262kmn course. The series of three critical climbs — Côte de Wanne, Côte de Stockeu and Côte de la Haute-Levée — in the space of just 12km around the town of Stavelot split the peloton into shreds. Only 35 riders from the 180-strong pack emerged from the "triangle" with a chance of winning. As a result, none of the pre-race favorites had more than a couple of teammates to help them in the final 80km. This gave an opening for

Daddy Fred on the podium

Rodriguez celebrates

As Landis lunches, he hopes for a better ride on Brasstown Bald this time around

McCartney nearly did it again

Riding in the rain

And again

Rodriguez makes his move

Phonak in control, waiting for tomorrow

Zabriskie: Can he attack on Brasstown Bald?

The trio on the run

Spanish rider David Muñoz (Comunidad Valenciana) snatched the third stage of the Giro di Trentino in Italy on Thursday, but Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Fondital) remained safely in the race leader’s jersey. With the win in the 168km stage from Romeno to Tione, Muñoz marks just his second victory of his career to go along with a stage in the 2002 Tour of Portugal. Muñoz escaped with five other riders just 10km into the day’s course and was fastest of the bunch. Cunego, meanwhile, remained safely inside the peloton to retain the race leaders’ jersey. The 2004 Giro d’Italia champion sounded

Dear Bob:I have the good fortune to live in Southern Minnesota where the roadsare in good condition, and relatively free of traffic. Our club ridesare always quite enjoyable and take us on some very pleasant routes throughlocal farmland. Most of the roads we ride on have very minimal traffic,to the point where a car goes past us (in either direction) often onlyonce every 10 or 15 minutes. In general, most motorists are quiteconsiderate, but as always there are a few who feel that bicyclists simplydo not belong on the roads.Minnesota law states that bicyclists are allowed to ride two