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Italian cyclist Dario Frigo received a six-month suspended sentence and 12,000-euro fine Monday for doping during the 2001 Giro d’Italia. The former Paris-Nice and Tour of Romandie winner was forced to pull out of the 2001 Giro, while in second place overall, after Italian police found drugs in his hotel room following the San Remo stage. Judge Paolo Luppi also handed down similar sentences on riders Giuseppe Giuseppe Di Grande and Alberto Elli after the duo were found guilty of using banned substances found after police and drug squad officers raided the hotel rooms of all competing teams

It's an annual event that even armored car drivers now fear. VeloSwap attendeeson Saturday, October 22, drained some $175,000 cash from ATM machines at the National Western Complex in Denver because they had quickly run out of money snapping up deals from the hundreds of vendors selling an incomparable selection of bikes, parts, accessories and clothing. It's no surprise since over the course of its 17-year history, VeloSwap has developed a reputation as the place to go if you need a variety of cycling items as varied as a vintage-condition still-in-the-box Campagnolo Gran Sport

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.He blames it on MarioDear Velo,I've been following JohnWilcockson's stories with great interest the last few weeks. Istarted following bike racing just before the start of the "English" invasion,so they are bringing back lots of fond memories.The other thing I've noticed is

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. Becky Brandt’s “Uh-oh this is gonna hurt” received the same initial reaction from nearly everyone we showed it to: “OUCH!!!” Even though the equipment – and probably the photo itself – are decidedly old school, the shot captures the precise moment that poor rider’s day went to the dogs. (We hope he did better than we suspect that he did.)Congratulations, Becky! Contact us and you win a copy of Graham Watson's "Landscapes

Hoy on his way to winning the last Olympic kilo gold awarded

Cunego in Japan. Healthy again?

Frigo on his way to court this summer in France

VeloSwap mania hits Denver

VeloSwap mania hits Denver

VeloSwap mania hits Denver

VeloSwap mania hits Denver

VeloSwap mania hits Denver

VeloSwap mania hits Denver

Reigning world champion Sven Nijs (Rabobank) took the opening round of the cyclo-cross World Cup Sunday, beating fellow Belgian Bart Wellens by 42 seconds in Kalmthout, Belgium. Czech `crosser Peter Dlask took third, outsprinting Belgian Erwin Vervecken and Tom Vannoppen just a few seconds behind Wellens. Out of a group of nine riders to slip off the front of the filed early on in the race, only Dlask and Wellens could respond to a powerful acceleration by Nijs. Dlask faded back as after he was forced to change bikes due to a mechanical. Wellens himself encountered troubles and changed

Magnus Backstedt said he’s ready for his attempt to break the derny-paced world hour record set for next week on the Welsh track of the Newport Velodrome. "I am in peak form," Backstedt said in a Liquigas-Bianchi team report. Training is going well, and he’s meshed well with his pacer, Britain’s Spender. The 2004 Paris-Roubaix champion is hoping to break the mark of 66.114km set by Dutchman Matthé Pronk. Backstedt is one of the largest riders in the peloton and said his power will be the deciding factor in the record attempt. While Pronk managed 140 pushes on the pedal per minute, Backstedt

Backstedt is synched with his pacer and ready to roll

There’s no ProTour in the mud. Unlike its counterpart on the road, cyclo-cross is sticking with the World Cup format, which kicks off this Sunday in Kalmthout in Belgium. After experimenting with the number of races and length of the schedule the UCI has finally settled upon a 10-race series that wraps up January 22, in Hoogerheide in the Netherlands, a week before the world championships in Zeddam. Half of the World Cup races will be in Belgium (three events) and Holland (two). The remainder will be spread out among the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and France. It makes

Gilberto Simoni will ride the 2006 season with Spanish ProTour team Saunier Duval. The two-time Giro d’Italia champion announced his decision at a press conference Friday morning in Italy. Simoni, 34, said the team will secure him a place in the season’s most important races. Simoni was the focus of interest from several teams in the wake of the collapse of the Sony Ericsson team, which evaporated last week and left a dozen riders looking for a job. Simoni drew offers from Unibet.com and Naturino-Sapore, two continental teams looking to break into the 20-team ProTour league. But Simoni

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.Trecker off base on BekeEditor:I wanted to reply to Mike Trecker's comments about Belgian triathlete Rutger Beke's overturned doping offense. (See Thursday’s Mailbag: "Repeat until caught, then lie"). Mr. Trecker makes it seem that Beke was guilty, found a loophole, and now seeks

I met Kyle Strait for the first time this past summer at the World Cup race in Angel Fire, New Mexico. The 17-year-old freeride phenom had just completed his final downhill run, finishing with a respectable 4:47 on the dusty, rocky course. I had heard about Strait’s heroics in freeride competitions, but considering the deep talent pool at Angel Fire (Greg Minnaar, Chris Kovarik, Fabien Barel, to name a few), his run, while smooth and solid, wasn’t exactly memorable. It turned out to be good for 21st place, about 13 seconds off Minnaar’s winning pace, and, to be honest, it slipped out of my

On starting the "Inside Cycling" column earlier this year I said that my first goal would be to give you a basic story of road racing in "English-speaking" countries. Not a complete history, but the stories behind the "firsts" — first road races in the various countries, first riders to compete in major competitions (such as world championships, classics or tours), and then the first to achieve significant results in those events. Regarding the biggest race of all, the Tour de France, I’ve written about the pioneers from Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States. The first to finish

Another dream season for Nijs?

Saunier Duval team boss Mauro Gianetti and Simoni

Gerdemann at this year's Tour of Switzerland

Four hours of Rampage in a tin

Irmiger swaps Tokyo Joe's kit for Subaru-Gary Fisher come '06

Vanlandingham has the arm strength to swim an Xterra

The self-contained Exposure

They make a helmet-mounted model, too

The Viking attacks

Two-time Giro d’Italia champion Gilberto Simoni is the flavor of the month these days as teams compete to sign the 34-year-old veteran. Just a day after Belgian continental team Unibet.com announced it was trying to lure Simoni, the Spanish wires were reporting that Spanish ProTour team Saunier Duval has also made an offer. Simoni had penned a deal to ride with Giancarlo Ferretti in 2006, but Sony Ericsson – touted as title sponsor of the team – pulled out of the deal, leaving Simoni and a dozen others without contracts. Simoni has had no trouble capturing the attention of the top teams,

Team Ford-Basis Comes to a CloseAfter three successful seasons sponsoring the Ford-Basis Women’s cyclingteam, Ford and Basis will be leaving women’s cycling.The team was founded in 2002 as a developmental team aimed at helpingup-and-coming riders progress towards the 2008 Olympics. The team recruitedprimarily top collegiate cyclists. Each season, as the riders adjustedto the professional ranks, the team saw increasing success.  2005saw the team's achievements reach new heights, with the squad earning eightprofessional victories and over 20 podium placings.Said founder Nicole

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.Discs, are they okay or not?Dear VeloNews,I've seen allusions to a lifting of the ban on disc brakes for `cross bikes in a couple of places, (most recently the article by Matt Pacocha), but is this for real? I've Googled and looked on the UCI website, but have found nothing. While

World sport's main arbitration body CAS on Thursday confirmed it had accepted an appeal by Colombian cyclist Maria Luisa Calle who tested positive for a banned substance at the 2004 Athens Olympics. CAS said the track rider, who came third in the women's points competition to hand Colombia an historic Olympic medal in the sport but was then disqualified, can now keep her Olympic bronze medal. Calle tested positive for a banned stimulant, heptaminol, which she said was contained in a medicine. The 35-year-old had protested her innocence saying she had taken paracetamol for a

Simoni has options

Workhorse: Aldag was a tireless team player

A big year for Liquigas

Russian Pavel Tonkov announced his retirement from professional cycling. Tonkov, 36, won the 1996 Giro d’Italia and was one of the most successful Eastern European riders to break into the pro ranks following the fall of the Iron Curtain in the early 1990s. “The moment has arrived to say enough is enough with racing,” Tonkov told Europa Press. “I’m sure my future will be in cycling, where I will try to put my experience at the disposition of young riders.” Tonkov was born in 1969 in the Russian town of Ichevsk and won the world junior championships in Bergamo in 1987, which soon became his

Brussels, Belgium (AP) - Belgian triathlete Rutger Beke is suing the World Anti-Doping Agency and two drug labs, seeking 185,000 euros ($221,000) in damages after his 18-month doping suspension was lifted due to doubts over the accuracy of his EPO test. Beke's lawyer, Johnny Maeschalck, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that the athlete had sought an amicable settlement with WADA. "We received a negative answer from WADA," Maeschalck said. "We had at least hoped to be able to discuss the issue but we were rejected." Beke, the 2003 Ironman runnerup, won an appeal in August

Paris (AP) - A United Nations treaty to fight doping in sports was unanimously passed Wednesday by the 191 UNESCO member states. The treaty, however, will not be enforced until 30 member governments ratify it. Then, only those that have ratified the accord will be bound by it.The International Convention Against Doping in Sport, which would require regular doping tests and common penalties, seeks to draw governments into what has long been mainly the domain of national sporting federations. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is hoping the treaty will be put

Bogota, Colombia - October 19 (AFP) - Colombian cyclist Maria Luisa Calle has won back the Olympic bronze medal she lost at the Athens Games after she tested positive for a banned stimulant, her coach Jose Julian Velasquez said Wednesday. A spokesman for cycling's international governing body, the UCI, confirmed the news which was also confirmed by the athlete's lawyer. Calle won the bronze medal in the track points competition but was disqualified after she tested positive for heptaminol. Afterwards the 35-year-old protested her innocence and said she had taken paracetamol for a

1996 Giro winner, Pavel Tonkov sent a message to doubters when he won a stage in the 2004 edition

Spanish continental team Comunidad Valenciana will pass on trying to make a jump to the ProTour in 2006. According to an interview in the Spanish sports daily AS, team officials say the ProTour demands are simply beyond their budget. “They demand that we considerably increase our budget to enter the ProTour and at this moment we’re not ready to do it,” said team manager José Luis Aznar in AS. “We saw what happened to Giancarlo Ferretti and we’ve opted to remain prudent and wait one more year.” The announcement comes as a surprise as Comunidad Valenciana has been one of the most vocal critics

Can I just have the new crank?Dear Lennard,I have an older Serotta Legend with 9 speed Dura-Ace and I wonderedif I can replace the crank set-up to the new stiffer 10 speed without compatibilityissues as I would like to leave the 9 speed rear end as is. Seems likeI remember Velo doing an article on this subject last year but I have forgottenthe particulars as to efficiency and effectiveness.GeorgeDear George,I have done it, and it works fine.LennardLong legs and lots of climbingDear Lennard,I'm 6 foot 4 with a 36-inch inseam and I prefer to run 180mm cranks. I also ride a lot of

Center-pull cantilever brakes, once common on mountain bikes, are now completely gone from the racing circuit. However, as summer winds down, the leaves turn and cyclo-cross bikes come out of hiding, the center-pull cantilever can once again enjoy the spotlight. To understand what makes a good cyclo-cross brake, you first have to understand some of the intricacies of cantilever geometry, lever ratios and the whole idea of mechanical advantage. At the most basic level, a brake and its lever must be matched in terms of mechanical advantage. A prime example is a linear-pull brake (the

VeloSwap moves to San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center for October29 eventFor Immediate ReleaseOctober 18, 2005San Francisco -- VeloSwap, the world's largest consumer bicycleshow and swap, will move to the acclaimed San Francisco Concourse ExhibitionCenter in downtown San Francisco for its October 29 event. The 3rd annualSan Francisco VeloSwap and Sports Expo will fill 100,000 square feet andhost some 250 vendors and exhibitors, and attract an estimated 8,000 cyclingenthusiasts.The SF Concourse Exhibition Center is a striking contemporary glassand steel pavilion highlighted with sand

What sort of man reads VeloNews?

Carlos Garcia Quesada and Javier Pascual during this year's Vuelta. The team plans to remain a Continental squad for `06.

Avid's perfect for dry and fast courses. Not great in the mud, though.

Empella: Lots of clearance

Spooky has it, too.

Shimano's low-profile is the right tool for some conditions

SRP's submission to the canti' market

Cane Creek's short canti'

Linear-pull brakes are cheap and strong, but you have to jump through a few hoops to make them work on a 'cross bike

Wicks, Gould tops in Verge Mid AtlanticOctober 16, 2005, Bridgeton, NJ, USA-Kona riders dominated Sunday’s second race of the $30,000 Verge Mid Atlantic Cyclocross Series with wins in both UCI Elite races, and a convincing podium sweep in the UCI Elite Men’s event in Bridgeton, New Jersey. The three-century-old river port town is the county seat and boasts a city park almost as large as the town itself. Within the park, residents can find a riverside beach, an amphitheater and even a small zoo. Unfortunately for the eastern regulars of the Verge Mid Atlantic Cyclocross Series, the zoo wasn’t

Riders and staff are scrambling to try to find new jobs in the wake of news last week that the Sony Ericsson deal to take over the sponsorship for Fassa Bortolo fell through. The mobile communications giant issued a terse statement Friday saying it had no intention of sponsoring a professional racing team despite news that Italian manager Giancarlo Ferretti had already penned more than a dozen riders to long-term contracts. Ferretti was on the verge of tears when he told La Gazzetta dello Sport that an intermediary had misled him and others in believing that a multi-year, multimillion

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.Land of the rising cyclist?Hey Guys,I was looking at Discovery Channel’s line up and saw a cyclist fromJapan. For me this is a first, seeing a pro rider from the land of therising sun.Can you tell us more about him and have there been others? Could youimagine Mr. Beppu in yellow?

The 11th annual 24 Hours of Moab saw a few upsets to pre-race predictions and witnessed the emergence of new contenders in the men's and women's solo category. Usually a bridesmaid at the 24 Hours of Moab, Keith Bontrager's Masters' team has routinely placed second, with the exception of a win five years ago. After two victories at Granny Gear races earlier this year in California and West Virginia, Bontrager stood in position to sweep all three races. This time team Bontrager Wheelworks succeeded in steadily building a lead until this morning when the team received

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. Jeremy Furman’s shot “Cycling’s Future” stood out for us. You can’t tell whether the young rider won or lost… and it really doesn’t matter. He’s got a fan base and that counts for everything.Congratulations Jeremy! Contact us and you win a copy of Graham Watson's "Landscapes of Cycling."Go ahead and take a look at our latest gallery,decide what you like and let us know what you think by dropping a noteto

Lennard Zinn book signing at Veloswap DenverOctober 17, 2005 – Denver, CO – Lennard Zinn, bicycle framebuilder and technical guru, will sign copies of his two new books at theVeloGear booth during Veloswap Denver on Saturday, October 22 from11:00 a.m. until noon.Lennard Zinn is the author of Zinn& the Art of Road Bike Maintenance, newly updated in its secondedition and just published this fall. He has also written Zinn& the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance, published this summer inits fourth edition.Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance covers every component ofa road

Will Sprint For Food: Collapse of the Sony deal means O'Grady and others are scrambling for contracts

Before Saturday’s Tour of Lombardy, which was celebrating its centennial, Olympic champion Paolo Bettini was totally relaxed, chatting with friends and signing autographs for the fans who gathered at the start in Mendrisio, Switzerland. Asked by RAI television how he saw the day going, the 31-year-old Quick Step-Innergetic team leader said he would see how things went, follow the wheels, and maybe go for the final sprint. More than six hours later, on the misty lakeside in Como, Italy, he was there for the final sprint, but he didn’t just "follow the wheels." Bettini exploded the race on the

Ace cycling shooter Graham Watson was on hand as the inaugural ProTour wrapped up with the Tour of Lombardy on Saturday - here's a sampling of what he saw through the lens.

Imagine escaping a weekend of cyclo-cross racing in the Pacific Northwest with nary a raindrop having fallen on your head. You’d feel pretty lucky, right? Well, that luck ran out, way out, for any racer that showed up for Saturday’s opener of the 2005 Verge New England Championships Cyclo-Cross Series, the Downeast Cyclo-Cross in New Gloucester, Maine. Fields already sodden from a week of rain greeted racers, and the rain grew steadier and heavier as the day went on, peaking in intensity for the most anticipated events: elite men and women. But even the hub-deep puddles and wheel sucking

Bettini closes out the ProTour with a win

The Bettini group

Simoni and Bettini

DiLuca atop his final ProTour podium of 2005

Schleck fought the good fight

Bettini launches

'The race of the falling leaves' runs around the shores of Lake Como

The peloton motors along

Rebellin led the chase and took the bunch sprint for fifth

Schleck had a late go, hoping to foil Bettini and Simoni

American Vande Velde was among the 101 starters who failed to finish; just 91 riders made it to the line

Voight working the feed zone