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MADRID, Spain (AP)- Three cyclists have denied a French newspaper report accusing them of testing positive for EPO during the 1999 Tour de France. Le Journal du Dimanche reported Sunday that Spanish rider Manuel Beltran, Denmark's Bo Hamburger and Colombia's Joaquim Castelblanco are suspected of being among those whose frozen urine samples reportedly tested positive at a French laboratory. Last month, the French sports daily L'Equipe reported that six urine samples provided by Lance Armstrong were among 12 specimens that were positive for EPO during the 1999 race. Armstrong, a

The second rest day has arrived and is now nearly gone. Today however was a real rest day, unlike our last “rest” day where we spent a good portion of the day traveling in the team cars. Yesterday, Liberty Seguros rocked the race and flipped the standings in their favor with Roberto now in gold. Not only did their team dominate the stage but also Roberto completely crushed all of his rivals. It is hard to explain how fast he went uphill, how fast the stages have been the last few days, and how strong the Liberty team has been since the start. Despite crashes and losing a rider, they still

The last rest day, and it is a real rest day this time. No trains, no planes, no automobiles. Just riding the bike for 35 easy miles and then eating and massage. Not such a bad day. But we are in León and (sorry Andy Hood) but this place is in the middle of nowhere. Granted, I am sure that there is more to do than ride and massage, but it doesn't take long before all you can see around here is the horizon. We went to a restaurant last night and we ate and drank everything within sight: Pizza, pasta, tiramisu and some freezing cold table wine. The temp helps it go down better. The

Danielson had to overcome a stomach bug to keep in the hunt

Roberto Heras usually wins when the road turns uphill, but the three-time Vuelta a España champion won Sunday’s rainy epic thanks to a daring attack going downhill. Heras punched the accelerator on the treacherous descent off the day’s penultimate climb with some 45km to go, opening a small gap on overnight leader Denis Menchov (Rabobank). With four Liberty Seguros teammates waiting up the road, that’s all it took to build the winning difference. "We knew it would be hard today, more so with the rain," said Heras, who won in 4 hours, 53 minutes, 53 seconds. "There’s still another week to

Australian Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) won a sprint victory in the 73rd Grand Prix de Fourmies-La Voix du Nort in Fourmies on Sunday. McEwen outkicked Stefan Van Dijck (MrBookmaker) and Jean-Patrick Nazon (AG2R Prévoyance) to win the 200km race. Results1. Robbie McEwen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 200km in 4:28:02 (45.376 km/h)2. Stefan Van Dijck (Ned), Mr Bookmaker), same time3. Jean-Patrick Nazon (F), AG2R Prévoyance), s.t.4. Anthony Ravard (F), s.t.5. Jean-Luc Delpech (F), s.t. Bronzini, Scholz win NurembergAustralian Oenone Wood (Team Nürnberger) clinched the women’s World Cup on Sunday

In each grand tour, riders are faced with extremes: extreme weather; extremely hard courses; extremely good legs; extremely bad legs; extremely painful road rash and extremely good and bad moral. After three weeks, nearly every rider in the bunch has experienced each of the extremes. Extreme weather conditions are a natural part of three weeks of bicycle racing around a country filled with varied terrain and climatic zones. The first week of the Vuelta was stifling hot and dehydration and heat stroke forced several riders out of the race. Today, it was the cold and rain that caused the

Britannia ruled on Sunday at the World Cup downhill finals in Fort William, Scotland, with Steve Peat (Orange) and Tracy Moseley (Kona-Les Gets) delivering a pair of wins to the partisan crowd of over 10,000. Greg Minnaar (G-Cross Honda) and Sabrina Jonnier (Intense) had already won their respective overall titles, and the top three were pretty much set. But riders still had a lot of desire to win in front of the fanatical downhill fans that Fort William attracts. The 2.46km course runs in an almost straight line down the side of one of the mountains that makes up the Ben Nevis range. With

Heras puts his stamp on the Vuelta

Menchov limps to the line

Scarponi was one of four Liberty riders to make the break

Heras pressures Menchov

Heras on his own

Beloki was in there, too

Scarponi provides the springboard for Heras

Menchov guts it out

Sastre dogs Menchov before eventually dropping him

Minnaar got the air (and the series win)

But Peat got the press (and the day's win)

Moseley scores one for the home folks

Poland's national stage race, the Tour de Pologne which begins on Monday, will make a quantum leap from its original incarnation when it hosts the 24th round of the UCI ProTour. The event began as an amateur race in 1928 but has now risen to the highest echelons of pro cycling. Four of the top 10-ranked riders in the individual ProTour rankings - series leader Danilo Di Luca of Italy (Liquigas), Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile), American Bobby Julich (Team CSC), and Italian Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) -- will be among those on the start line in the northern Polish city of

Way back in the eighth century, King Pelayo won a battle against the attacking Moors at the Lagos de Covadonga that marked the beginning of the Reconquest of Spain, which lasted 700 years. As the Spanish tend to do, they built a huge cathedral marking the spot. Flash forward to 2005 and Saturday’s epic climbing stage high in Spain’s spectacular Picos de Europa, and Roberto Heras unleashed an attack just as the peloton rode past this monument of Spanish fortitude. The three-time champion was hoping - and praying - for a similar turning of the tide in his increasingly vain efforts to shake

Australian Robbie McEwen warmed up for the world road race championships in two weeks time by winning a sprint finish for the Paris-Brussels cycling classic Saturday in Brussels. The Davitamon rider sprinted home ahead of Dutch rider Stefan Van Dijck (MrBookmaker) and Frenchman Jean-Patrick Nazon (AG2R). "It's a team victory," said McEwen, winner here already in 2002. "My teammates, headed by Axel Merckx, put in great work to chase down the leaders. Then Peter (Van Petegem), Nico (Mattan) and Bjorn (Leukemans) put everything in place to fend off attacks." McEwen notched up his 24th

We started with a small team today, four riders. Given the fact that the team is so small, many of the staff have also packed up and headed home as well. It is tough watching them go home and I felt bad for Triki today as he watched us head off to the race without him. On paper, today was one of the toughest days of the Vuelta with several second category climbs and a hard twelve-kilometer climb at the finish. Thankfully, it didn’t turn out to be all that leg crushing as the peloton was somewhat lethargic and let a dozen or so riders get up the road that were not a threat to the

The 2005 mountain-bike World Cup is drawing to a conclusion. Saturday brought the final races in the cross-country and four-cross events at Fort William, Scotland, and while all four events proved anti-climactic, in that the series winners were already known, that did not mean poor racing, with two first-time World Cup winners crowned. Women's cross-country This was the easiest race to pick. World champion and World Cup leader Gunn-Rita Dahle (Multivan Merida) came into the final race with an insurmountable lead - plus she had won the Fort William race the previous two years. The real

Jimenez wins

Menchov sticks to Heras like glue

Jimenez going for the gusto

Charteau leading the escape

Haussler made the break, too

Sastre gave it a shot, but came up short

Covadonga

Scarponi working to launch Heras

Mission accomplished for Danielson

A beautiful day ... for breaking someone's legs in hilly Asturias

Imagine your surprise: Dahle wins the finale

"While I'm absolutely enjoying my time as a retired athlete with Sheryl and the kids, the recent smear campaign out of France has awoken my competitive side.” – Lance Armstrong, quoted on the Discovery Channel team’s website, about the likelihood of a comeback Okay, remember, you heard it here first: Lance comes back, Tyler gets off, and with Tyler’s fabled vanishing twin, Skyler – visible at last thanks to the miracle of modern jurisprudence – they tackle the 2006 Tour. No team, no director, and especially no soigneurs. They grab all the usual jerseys, including a couple nobody ever

UCI president Hein Verbruggen said Friday no action would be taken against Lance Armstrong following the recent allegations of doping against the American cyclist. Armstrong, who retired after his seventh consecutive Tour de France victory in July, has been accused of using banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin) by French sports daily L'Equipe in an article two weeks ago which showed details of 1999 drugs tests. Armstrong has vehemently denied the allegations, and said he is prepared to make a comeback from retirement just to spite the French organizers of the world's toughest

It’s one thing to celebrate a win too early at the finish line, but it’s something else entirely to celebrate 100 yards from the tape. Maurico Ardila (Davitamon-Lotto) looked to have the attack-laden 13th stage in the bag when he threw his hands up in victory ahead of Oscar Pereiro (Phonak) and Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi). The only problem was, his victory gesture came as he rode under the day’s King of the Mountains banner atop the category-three finish. There was still another 100 yards or so of asphalt to the finish line and the ever-attentive Sánchez shot past the confused

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.‘Piss off the French’ by ignoring TourEditor:If Lance Armstrong wants to "piss off the French,” he should consider riding the Giro and the Vuelta in 2006, bypassing the Tour de France completely. Given the massive media coverage the follows him on and off the bike, the other two grand

Tom Danielson wrapped up his second week in the Vuelta a España solidly in sixth place overall, a result that’s impressed Discovery Channel team boss Johan Bruyneel. “He’s still up there in the GC. After two weeks, he’s done a lot better than we expected,” Bruyneel said after Friday’s stage. “We’re very satisfied with how he’s ridden so far.” Danielson couldn’t quite follow the favorites up the final ramps of the category-three finish on Friday, ceding 44 seconds to the top five but retained his sixth place, now at 5:47 back. Bruyneel said Danielson came into the Vuelta without any

Quebec's reigning road champion Charles Dionne has inked a two-year deal with the ProTour team Saunier Duval-Prodir team for 2006 and 2007. Dionne, winner of the San Francisco Grand Prix in 2002 and 2004, said he initially began talking with the Spanish team after his win in ’04. He put the final signature on his contract only 10 minutes before this year’s race in San Francisco on September 4. “This is the realization of one of my biggest dreams,” Dionne said from his home in St. Redempteur, Quebec. “It took a couple more years than what I thought it would take to get [to race in

09/09/2005: UCI DECLARATION : 1999 Tour de France samples analysisAs we announced on Monday, August 29, 2005, the Union Cycliste Internationale(“UCI”) is undertaking an investigation into the recent press reports fromFrance. The article published by the French newspaper L’Equipe concernedtesting apparently conducted by a French laboratory of urine samples fromthe 1999 Tour de France. Our initial investigation has identified a greatmany issues and we are in the process of gathering the information we need.The UCI is currently unable to express any judgement on these cases, asit does not have

Sadly, we are now down to four riders. The bus seemed empty this morning when we had our meeting before the start; we only had five riders on the start line. Tomorrow it will be even worse as Triki had to abandon today as a result of the knee injuries he sustained in yesterday’s crash. The speed was high, very high right from the start. We rode at about 60 kph for the first 25 kilometers. It actually never really slowed down a whole lot as we averaged 49.5 kph for 191km. At one point I heard one of the Fassa riders comment to another that we weren’t bicycle racing but motorbike racing.

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong celebrated a legal victory and a UCI statement of support Friday, capping a busy week that included his engagement and hints at a 2006 comeback. A UCI statement said no action would be taken against Armstrong over claims by the French sports daily L'Equipe that his 1999 urine samples tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin). "Lance is encouraged," said Bill Stapleton, an attorney for Armstrong. "They seem to be conducting a meaningful investigation and they seem to be asking the right questions." The UCI

All right, so in hindsight maybe my last entry wasn’t exactly spot on. Maybe you could even say that I put a hex on Jakob and myself. But, as they say, hindsight is 20-20 and I am not looking back. I found myself on the deck for the third time. Jakob was so bad that he had to stop the race and spend the night in the hospital. The maids there had some nice souvenirs. We left brand new helmets (broken), a pair of glasses (broken) and some gels (full) and a cap (in great shape!) for good measure. It was a huge pile up and there were more than a few injuries. It always puts things into

Sanchez celebrates

Baranowski and Steels hit the deck

It was all she wrote for Steels

Horrillo had to pay a visit to the doctor, too

Heras soldiered on with a heavily bandaged knee

Ardila leads

Lara has a go

A new kit for Charles

Michael Barry's Diary: The incredible shrinking peloton

Stage 14 = That last climb is a mother...

Disaster can strike at any time in a bicycle race, just ask Roberto Heras. The three-time Vuelta a España champion was rolling along safely tucked in the main bunch when suddenly someone clipped tires with less than 40km to go in Friday’s 12th stage, causing riders to drop like dominos all around. Jakob Piil (CSC) dropped out with a concussion and Niels Scheuneman (Rabobank) broke his hand, but all eyes were on the frail Heras. The Liberty Seguros rider fell hard on his left knee, leaving him with blood streaming down his leg as he gingerly remounted the bike. Nothing was broken, but Heras

VdV down again; Danielson okayChristian Vande Velde (CSC) was caught up in Thursday’s big crash that took out CSC teammate Jakob Piil. The Dane was knocked unconscious and taken to a local hospital for overnight observations, but early indications are that he wasn’t otherwise seriously injured. Vande Velde, however, was banged up when riders fell in front of him like bowling pins. “Everyone went down in front of me and I went down on top of them,” Vande Velde said. “I fell on the same place I did the other day. I have a big hematoma there and I kind of aggravated it. I crashed Monday and

Dear Bob;I read that a bicyclist in California was arrested for failure to produce identification. Are cyclists required to wear ID while riding? Can you explain what legal issues are involved?RJSouth Carolina Dear RJ,So, you read about the case where, as the dissenting judge observed, a bicyclist “was sentenced to a prison term for the trivial public offense of riding the wrong way on a residential street.” Should you be worried? The dissenting judge is. Was a bicyclist actually sentenced to prison for riding against traffic? “Well,” Justice Brown wrote in her dissent, “not exactly.” The

After close to two weeks of racing and thousands of kilometers coveredthe race for several riders ended today with a nasty crash thirty kilometersfrom the finish. In cycling all of the hard work, suffering, teamwork,training, dieting can be nullified in a second when a crash occurs. This morning we woke up expecting a straightforward day witha little crosswind and a quick run into the finish. The race actually startedoff a little easier than expected with Fassa Bortolo putting their teamon the front from the first kilometers to keep things under control inhopes of another victory for

Once again, Petacchi

Heras gets medical attention after the fall

Stage 13: One bump at the end could shake things up a bit

Meandering through the vinyards of Rioja, the stage should have been an easy one for all concerned

Painful... but how serious is it?

Who else?

Pasamontes spent a lot of time on his own.

Hoping to help Zabel, Aldag takes a pull

The peloton starts to pick up the pace...

Denis Menchov survived the battle of the Pyrénées and now he’s gaining confidence he can win the war of the Vuelta. The dogged Russian stayed glued to the wheel of Roberto Heras through two summit finishes on terrain that the Spanish rider clearly had the upper hand. “I am starting to believe I can win this Vuelta,” Menchov said as he crossed the line at Cerler with the same time as Heras. Menchov maintained his 47sec lead to Heras and entered Wednesday’s rest day optimistic for what remains of this Vuelta. Difficult climbing stages Saturday and Sunday could be Heras’s last chance to

The Eurobike trade show in Friedrichshafen first opened its doors in 1991. Back then it was a funky little thing that felt more like a gathering of the tribe than the prestigious international event it has become today. Friedrichshafen city’s old trade fair arrangement contributed to that feeling, consisting as it did of a mismatched hodgepodge of creaky buildings connected by a confusing warren of halls and passageways. The buildings were clumped around an irregular courtyard that the Eurobike show filled with test tracks, jumps, a BMX freestyle arena and the inevitable overflow of

PARIS (AP) - Lance Armstrong plans to train with his team this winter, increasing speculation he will end his retirement and attempt an eighth straight Tour de France win. “It's definitely an open possibility, I know he is on the bike," Discovery Channel team director Johan Bruyneel told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday. “He absolutely wants to be part of the training camp in December and wants to get fit to compete with the guys there," Bruyneel said, adding that Armstrong can decide to return as late as February. When Armstrong retired in July after his

The rest day is a couple of hours from ending and tomorrow’s daily schedule has already been placed under our hotel room door. The day flew by, as they all seem to do these days, and I feel a little more rested and the pain in my legs has released slightly as well. We woke up early this morning, early enough that we needed an alarm to get up, to travel to our next hotel that was a road trip away. At just before nine in the morning a motorcade of Discovery team cars rolled out and by noon we were at our hotel and then on our bikes for a small training session before lunch. The ride was low

Is the glass half empty or half full? For opportunists like Jakob Piil, every day that passes is another day that he didn't get to win, so his glass is half full. But for the people just trying to finish and go home, the glass is half empty, with every mountain stage another day in hell. Well, we are really more than halfway there, to be honest. But sometimes those last weeks can feel like much more. With one more rest day, a time trial and a finale in Madrid, things look more or less downhill from here. But since we aren't on the podium yet, we either have to wait for others to

Menchov believes he can keep that jersey all the way to Madrid

Saturday's Stage 14 is gonna be a tough one.

Impromptu set-ups pop up all over the Eurobike courtyard.

Felt fenced off a small BMX arena.