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Popovych finished ninth and slipped to sixth overall

U.S. TT champ Baldwin rode to seventh on the day

Danielson gets a boost from fans along the route

Ekimov rode to 15th on the day

When all was said and done, Landis was on top

But if he falters in the hills, Danielson will be waiting

Aussie Stuart O´Grady returned to action in Monday’s Rund um Köln after missing the northern classics with injuries. O´Grady cracked some ribs in a high-speed fall at Tirreno-Adriatico in early March, forcing him to the sidelines for Milan-San Remo and Tour of Flanders, two classics where he’s previously finished on the podium. A healthy O´Grady is back on the bike and looking to rebuild his form for the Tour de France. This year, O´Grady said he'll be at the service of team captain Ivan Basso and won’t be chasing the green jersey. "If it was going to happen, it would have happened by

Spanish riders virtually overran the 70th edition of the Flèche Wallonne classic on Wednesday. Whenever there was a significant break, a Spaniard was in it; and when it came to the stiff finishing climb up the Mur de Huy, one Spaniard after another attacked before Alejandro Valverde surged in the final 200 meters to score his first victory in a ProTour classic.

Yaroslav Popovych sure knows how to impress the boss. With Discovery Channel’s Lance Armstrong looking on for the first time here in Georgia, the rising star from the Ukraine made a late-race escape to win Stage 2 of the 2006 Ford Tour de Georgia on Wednesday.

Cycling legend and Colorado native Davis Phinney was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Tuesday night in Denver. The Tour de France stage winner, who racked up 300 wins in his professional career, headed up an inductee class that included longtime University of Colorado women’s basketball coach Ceal Barry and Denver Broncos defensive lineman Dennis Smith. A graduate of Boulder High School, Phinny won a bronze medal at the 1984 Olympic games in the team time trial, as well as two stages of the Tour de France — one in 1986 and another in 1987. In 2000 Phinney was diagnosed with

Check out all the videos from the Tour de Georgia. Exclusive race highlights and interviews. Check out https://www.velonews.com/vntv/

The U.S. Postal Service ain't got nothin' on Casey Gibson when it comes to the "neither rain nor . . . " bit. He was out there on a rainy day in Georgia, bringing it all back home to you. Here it is.

O'Grady - seen here at the 2004 Tour - says that as a member of CSC he has other goals and responsibilities

Valverde kicks into overdrive at the finish

Popovych gets the win

Arrieta and Finot launched the first major break of the day

The podium: Two Spaniards and a Dutchman

Freire and Moos on the attack

Liquigas worked for defending champ Di Luca, to no avail

The Mur de Huy

Extebarria and Valverde sprint for it

And Valverde gets it

He who hesitates is lost

O'Bee clears the KOM

The mid-day train through Georgia (apologies to Gladys Knight and the Pips)

Viatcheslav Ekimov shares a moment with director Johan Bruyneel and a VIP of the Tour-winning persuasion

Attention, France: In Georgia, they stop the train so a bike race can pass

Floyd Landis (Phonak) looks ahead to Thursday's time trial

Davitamon-Lotto looks forward to delivering Fred Rodriguez to a stage win (but not today)

Race leader Lars Michaelsen (CSC) shadowed by teammate Jakob Piil

Alas, Popo' got the stage and the overall lead . . .

. . . and you know what that means

We’ve posted the submissions of our reader-submitted Sea Otter Photo Gallery and encourage you to take a look. Take the time to wander through and see if anything strikes your fancy. Let us know what you think by dropping us a note at Rosters@InsideInc.com and we’ll take your views into account when we name a winner later this week. This also gives us the opportunity to announce our second event-specific contest here at VeloNews.com and encourage viewers to send in new photos from this week’s Tour de Georgia. Again, our rules are slightly different than our usual contest, so be sure to

Rebellin dreams of one moreTwo years ago, Davide Rebellin was riding the best wave of his career, surging to an incredible treble that included a sweep of the Ardennes classics with back-to-back wins at Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. This year, a banged-up Rebellin is dreaming of winning just one. A crash at the Tour of the Basque Country earlier this month left the Gerolsteiner captain with some injuries to his ribs, but it´s not stopping him of aiming for more Ardennes glory. “I´d love to win another, because it would serve as a kind of confirmation,” Rebellin

Like a good real-estate agent, Lars Michaelsen knows that location is everything – especially when it comes to the waning moments of a bunch sprint. While some of the race's top sprinters were missing from the end game, the longtime CSC pro outgunned American Fred Rodriguez (Davitamon-Lotto) and Aussie Caleb Manion (Jelly Belly) on Tuesday to win the 128.9-mile gallop from Augusta to Macon on day one of the 2006 Ford Tour de Georgia.

With its shorter distance and steeper finish, the Flèche Wallonne is a perfect transition from last Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race and next Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The Flèche is only 202km, compared with the Amstel’s 253km and Liège’s 262km, and that shorter distance sometimes gives early breaks a better chance of survival, but the finish on the infamous Mur de Huy (a kilometer at 9.5 percent, with two bends topping 19 percent in the middle) gives the Flèche its defining feature. The past two years, Amstel winners Danilo Di Luca (2005) and Davide Rebellin (2004) have also won the Flèche,

It’s been nearly six years since former junior national team rider Greg Strock charged that his coach and other team officials had doped him without his consent in the early 1990s, and it will be at least a few more months before a jury hears arguments in the case. On Tuesday, the matter made its first appearance in a courtroom as a U.S. District Court judge heard arguments on defense motions to dismiss. Strock, now a medical doctor and a member of the faculty at the University of Indiana Medical School, joined former teammate and fellow plaintiff Erich Kaiter in Denver as attorneys argued

Ace shooter Casey Gibson was on hand Tuesday as the Ford Tour de Georgia kicked off in Augusta ... here's what he sent home.

Rebellin had a great run in '04

Race Finish

Greg Strock (r) consults with a member of his legal team outside the Federal Court House in Denver

Wenzel (c) with attorney Reid Kelly (r) and USAC attorney William Senter speak to reporters outside the Federal Court House in Denver

Olson on his own

Michaelsen on the podium

What could rival an autograph from Discovery Channel's Viatcheslav Ekimov?

How about James Brown?

The peloton marches through Georgia

Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) and Floyd Landis (Phonak) mind each other

Jackson Stewart (Kodakgallery.com-Sierra Nevada) gets a little face time for the sponsor

Janez Brajkovic (Discovery Channel) gets some lunch

Chris Baldwin (Toyota United) chases

J.J. Haedo (Toyota United) is a blur when he lights it up

It’s almost difficult to believe that a year has passed since last year’sTour de Georgia, which will be remembered not only for an aggressive raceseparated by nine seconds between Americans Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimerand overall winner Tom Danielson, but also for the pre-race press conferencethat brought the world the news that Lance Armstrong would retire after attempting a historic seventh Tour de France victory. In Armstrong’s swan song American race appearance, the defending 2004Tour de Georgia champion had an admittedly sub-par time trial and rodein support of his young teammate

Danielson looking to repeat without the world's best domestique at his side

Tour de Georgia: Top Americans looking for victory on home soil

Tour de Georgia: Top Americans looking for victory on home soil

The road up Brasstown Bald will again be decisive

Stage 4 - From Dalton to Dahlonega

Theo Bos made it look easy in a daring showdown against Craig MacLean to win his second match sprint world title in three years. MacLean’s brawn was no match for Bos’s pounce. The big Dutchman sprang away from the Scot after a cat-and-mouse game in two heats to win the men’s sprint title in Sunday’s final day of action at the world track cycling championships in Bordeaux, France. "This world title comes at a high level because all the riders coming off the Commonwealth are in really good shape, so this means a lot for me," said Bos, who’s been nicknamed by the Dutch press as the "Boss of

Many experts predicted that Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race would end in a bunchsprint up the climb to the finish on the infamous Cauberg hill in Valkenberg.The experts were wrong, and after a blizzard of attacks in the final 60km,CSC’s Frank Schleck emerged from a 10-man break with 10km to go and scoredhis first-ever classics victory. “It never hurts to attack,” said Schleck, who is the first rider fromLuxembourg to win a classic in more than 50 years. “I saw that [Sergei]Ivanov attacked, I saw that [Paolo] Bettini attacked, so I decided to takemy chance.”

Friedman and Huff get a trial by fire in the Madison

Schleck picked the right time to attack

Bos does it again

It was Bettini's chase of Wesseman that set Schleck for the win

Michael Boogerd and his Rabobank teammates missed the bus this time.

Wesseman managed to hold on for second.

Vande Velde returns to the peloton

On the Cauberg

Great Britain was fastest in morning qualifying for the men´s team pursuit while the upstart Americans finished 12th on a day when they were hoping for more. The Brits stopped the clock in 4:04.074, relegating Australia to second place in 4:04.403. The Dutch were third and the Ukraine fourth to secure spots in the medal rounds on Saturday evening. The Americans – featuring Mike Creed, Mike Friedman, Danny Pate and Brad Huff – posted a time of 4:14.952. It was well short of their goal of 4:09, but faster than the team´s previous best of 4:16 at the Los Angeles World Cup race. “We have the

Members of the U.S. men´s pursuit team on Saturday morning raced with an homage to Saul Raisin emblazoned on their helmets in the qualifying round. In a show of solidarity with the injured Raisin, the team wrote, “Raisin Hell” on their racing helmets. “We´ve been thinking about him all week,” said team member Mike Creed. “It´s hit everybody pretty hard.” Raisin, 23, is showing signs of improvement after coming out of a coma earlier this week. Raisin crashed in the Circuit de la Sarthe and nearly died when he suffered a brain hemorrhage. Vande Velde rides with eye on GiroChristian Vande

It took race judges several minutes to decide what French veteran Jerome Neuville already knew – that he won the men´s 15km scratch race in a photo finish. For Neuville, a former roadie who turned to the track to win two world titles in the Madison, his narrow victory over Argentina´s Angel Colla capped a dramatic race marked by a daring breakaway that held out to the end. “It was a long race and I didn´t believe it until the end, even at the line,” Neuville said. “I am so glad I didn´t retire after the Athens Olympics. At 30, people don´t want to see progression, but results. I had a lot

Australia took a nail-biter to win the men’s team pursuit in a pitched battle against arch-rival Great Britain in Saturday’s action at the world track cycling championships. The Brits were fastest in qualifying, but the Aussies clawed back with an impressive victory against the team – racing as England, not Great Britain - that beat them on their home track in Melbourne last month at the Commonwealth Games. "This is the sweetest world title of my four," said Peter Dawson after the Aussies won in 4:01.491 to the British team’s 4:01.527. "The battle was going back and forth and it came down

Olympic champion Paolo Bettini is the hot favorite to win Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race, the eighth event in the 2006 UCI ProTour. The Italian has never won this challenging Dutch classic, but he came in third on his last appearance at the race two years ago, and he has won most of the world’s other hilly classics: Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2000 and 2002, the Clasico San Sebastian in 2003, the Championship of Zürich in 2001 and 2005, and last October, the Tour of Lombardy. At age 32, Bettini is at his peak. His climbing strength has improved over the years, his sprint is better than ever (as he

Mike Creed readies for the team pursuit

The Aussies blazing along

Bettini, 32, is at his peak

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.Does that make us ... uhhhh... Fair and Balanced?Dear VeloNews,After your articles about former USA Cycling CEO Gerard Bisceglia (seepartone and parttwo) my thoughts were of never joining such an organization.The passion in his words left me feeling that we lost a vital part of USACycling

Germany's Robert Bartko will defend his world pursuit crown against Jens Mouris of the Netherlands at the world track cycling championships in Bordeaux, France, on Friday evening. Bartko, who celebrated the birth of his second child on Thursday, clocked 4:23.115 in his heat to seal the fastest time in qualifying and thus secure his final spot against Mouris who had timed 4:24.045. Britain's Paul Manning, the Commonwealth champion in the 16-lap, 4000-meter event, will race for the bronze medal against Frenchman Fabien Sanchez. Bartko is a two-time winner of the individual pursuit,

When does a classic become a classic? That question has often been asked about the Amstel Gold Race because it wasn’t founded until 1966. That’s 72 years after the oldest of the classics, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and even 30 years after the youngest spring classic, the Flèche Wallonne. But now that the Dutch race has reached its 40th anniversary, most people in the sport agree that Amstel Gold (which is actually "a sturdy, full-flavored bock beer" brewed by Heineken’s Amstel brewery in Maastricht) is finally a true classic. That certainly wasn’t the case with the first edition. Original race