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Quesada, Mercado and Sevilla fighting to stay in contact

Verbrugghe's had a great Vuelta

And then there were three

Mancebo goes for it

Scarponi gives chase

Andorra to E. E. Aramón Cerler, (186.6Km)

Denis Menchov isn’t one to show too much emotion, but the hard-nosed Russian pumped his fist in elation moments after roaring to victory in Sunday’s 48km time trial along Spain’s Costa Brava. The Rabobank captain took 49 seconds on overnight race leader Roberto Heras (Liberty Seguros) to win his second time trial of this year’s Vuelta. The victory shot him back into overall lead and pumped new life into the race as the Vuelta heads to back-to-back summit finishes in the Pyrénées starting Monday. “I’m very satisfied with this victory,” said Menchov, who was nine seconds faster than Ruben

While it might not make for thrilling storytelling, defending world champions Julien Absalon and Gunn-Rita Dahle confirmed on Sunday that when the stakes are highest, they are, respectively, the top cross-country racers in the world. Both riders took Olympic and world championship titles last year, and both crossed the finish line in Livigno, Italy, alone to repeat as world champs. It was the third world title for the 32-year-old Dahle (Norway), who also won in 2002 and lost her lead in 2003 after a pair of punctures, and the fifth title for the 24-year-old Absalon (France), who was the

For our third day at the Eurobike show in beautiful Friedrichshafen, Germany, let’s take a quick tour of some new brands coming to the U.S., and new products from some established brands. Then, in our final report, we’ll take a look at the scene here, inside the halls and out in the courtyard, in an attempt to convey the unique flavor of this terrific show, now in its 14th year. AX LightnessAX Lightness components, much coveted by weight freaks, have been trickling into the U.S. for a couple of years. Production quantities are small, so they are sometimes hard to find. But if you have your

Allegations of doping against seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong appear to be continuing, with a former soigneur from the American's team adding fuel to the scandal which has rocked cycling. Dutchman Ron Jongen, who worked with Armstrong's former team US Postal in 1999 - the year in which it has been alleged he tested positive six times for banned blood booster EPO (Erythropoietin) - claims he witnessed "strange occurrences" during that year's race, which was Armstrong's first victory on the Tour following his recovery from cancer 18 months previously. Jongen

Menchov now top rivalDenis Menchov has positioned himself to be the top rival to stop Roberto Heras (Liberty Seguros) from winning a record fourth Vuelta a España. Menchov, 27, had never won a time trial in his six-year pro career. Now he’s won two in the opening half of the 2005 Vuelta and he’s putting the scare in Heras and his Liberty Seguros team. “The time trial isn’t Roberto’s speciality, so he had a good ride Sunday. We can only be satisfied,” said Liberty Seguros sport director Manolo Saiz. “Menchov was strong today and we’ll see how he can do in the high mountains. He’s very

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong will donate $500,000 to help cancer patients displaced by Hurricane Katrina get treatment. Armstrong said Saturday he expects the money will be used to help transport cancer patients to hospitals and cancer centers for treatment. He said more money from his namesake cancer survivorship foundation could be donated in the future. "If you've started treatment and you miss a week or two weeks, it's potentially fatal," Armstrong said. "For me and the foundation, we just looked at that and asked not just what can we do, but how does it

My roommate, Tom Danielson had a fantastic ride and moved himself up into the top five overall. He is a great time trialist but an even better climber so he is motivated for the coming days. Both of us have been sweating up a storm the last 24 hours as our hotel has no air conditioning and gets direct sunlight for most of the day. We have the door and the windows open to try and get a breeze through the room but it doesn’t seem to be doing much other than attracting the tourists to our room who have no qualms about coming in and saying “hello.” The highlight of the time in Lloret has

Fabian Wegmann’s first trip to the United States was capped on Sunday afternoon with a tidy profit earned near San Francisco’s Financial District. The 25-year-old German, who rides for Levi Leipheimer’s Gerolsteiner squad, won the 108-mile Barclays Global Investors Grand Prix after catching John Lieswyn (Health Net-Maxxis) and Jason McCartney (Discovery Channel) in the final two miles, then outsprinting the two Americans for the $15,000 winner’s purse. While the sun finally broke through the famous San Francisco fog in time to shine on Wegmann as he sped across the finish line on the

Tom Danielson might have had trouble falling asleep Sunday night a few hours after riding the best time trial of his career, but it wasn’t because of any post-stage euphoria. A karaoke show was in full flight in his hotel courtyard, and he was hoping the singers would shut up soon enough for him to catch some shuteye before hitting two difficult climbing stages in the Pyrenees beginning Monday. Danielson shot to fifth place overall in the Vuelta a España after his strong sixth-place finish in Sunday’s 10th stage around the party town of Lloret de Mar. While revelers were bringing the Spanish

No 24-hour mountain bike race is ever easy. Yet somehow in most of his five previous 24 Hours of Adrenaline Solo World Championship victories, Trek’s Chris Eatough has made it seem so. In most years he’s crossed under the finish banner looking like someone who’s just finished a training ride, and his post-race comments have been enthusiastic. That certainly wasn’t the case as Eatough earned his sixth title on Sunday. True, while wrapping up his last lap at 12:08 p.m., he smiled and held his arms up in triumph as he broke the finish-line tape. But that jubilant moment soon gave way to

Menchov takes the stage and the lead

The unstoppable Dahle led from start to finish

A light brake, but designed well enough not to make you nervous about stopping

AX works its magic on the crankset, too

The Isaac Impulse

The Isaac Force

The Isaac Joule

Isaac's dropouts show exquisite attention to detail

Absalon repeated his 2004 triumph, too

Menchov wins his second stage of the Vuelta

Heras rode well... a little too well in some corners

Pena takes second for the day

Mancebo takes third

Sastre improved his chances for a shot at the overall

Piil showed that CSC takes these TTs seriously

Another nice example of Isaac's work

The Kysrium ES

The ES's front hub...

... and a cool new rear hub.

The Pace RC40

The RC31 keeps things light and is a perfect choice for some race situations.

The Scott Ransom...

.. and a closer look at same.

The Scott Plasma is all about aerodynamics...

... down to the smallest detail.

Seven's Diamas...

A.. and a close look.

Fans of our Live Coverage know about Spiuk's helmets...

... but the Spanish manufacturer also takes an interesting approach to saddles, like this road model...

... and the new Freeride.

Danielson's feeling strong, but knows he's still learning

Wegmann celebrates

Wegmann saved a little something for that last climb

Up Taylor they go

Rodriguez chasing, first on his bike . . .

. . . and then on a spare after a dustup with a moto

Lieswyn thought McCartney was the strongest guy in the break

Leipheimer and Hincapie missed out this time around

Vuelta Notebook: Menchov rises to the challenge; Heras penalized

The women's podium

The men's podium

In 2002, Mario Cipollini won Milan-San Remo, dominated the sprints at the Giro d’Italia, skipped the Tour de France (his team wasn’t invited), returned to the Vuelta a España to win three stages in the first week to abandon by stage eight, then stormed into Zolder and walked away with the rainbow jersey. In 2005, Alessandro Petacchi is close to repeating that script. After winning Milan-San Remo, Petacchi ruled at the mountainous Giro and then skipped the Tour (his team was invited) to arrive fresh for the world title. In Saturday’s 189km eighth stage the Fassa Bortolo speedster put the

French downhill racers Fabian Barel and Anne Caroline Chausson won their respective world elite downhill championships in Livigno, Italy, on Saturday. Both contests were decided by less than one second, with Barel getting the best of Aussie Sam Hill by only 0.77, and Chausson beating compatriot Sabrina Jonnier by less than four-tenths of a second. It was the second consecutive rainbow jersey for Barel, the 2004 champion. “Last year I rode well but I made mistakes,” Barel said. “I won because Steve Peat [Great Britain] crashed in the end. Of course, that’s the sport, you have to ride from

The Eurobike trade show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, is a wonderful place to gather information. It turns out it also is a good place to generate misinformation, as we inadvertently did yesterday. After seeing the Sram road group prototypes, we speculated about the shifting system, noticing that there was one shift lever behind the brake lever on each side, but no apparent way for the brake lever to swing or rotate to provide the other half of the shifting equation. Well, that’s because the one lever does it all. Today, we talked with two people who have used the system -- neither one of

Vuelta race leader Roberto Heras (Liberty Seguros) faces a major test in Sunday’s 48km time trial in Lloret de Mar. The undulating course zips up down along the entire route with four climbs along the way, including the Cat. 3 Alto de Tossa at 21.4km. The hilly profile should help Heras limit the damage against the time-trial specialists, who will find the technical course provides few opportunities to truly open up the throttle. Heras will have another advantage in that he knows the course well - he lives in nearby Girona. “It’s a hard course and it’s not tailored for the specialists

The United States jumped up to second place in the medal count at the world mountain-bike championships Saturday night on the successes of Americans Brian Lopes and Jill Kintner, both of whom swept every round of their respective four-cross heats on the way to a pair of gold medals. The rainbow jerseys awarded in Livigno, Italy, were the first and second for the U.S. over the past four days of racing, with Tara Llanes’s bronze in the four-cross the nation’s only other medal thus far. With elite cross-country racing remaining on Sunday, France leads the nation rankings with seven

Though its relationship with the city of San Francisco has occasionally shown signs of strain since its 2001 debut, the annual late-summer race here has gotten nothing but love from the tens of thousands of spectators who come out to watch each year. With a charming Golden Gate city backdrop and ladder-steep climbs, the race that took on the name of its new sponsor a few weeks ago to become the Barclays Global Investors Grand Prix has quickly earned a distinguished place on the American cycling calendar. Or, in the words of the Jittery Joe’s-Kalahari rider Tim Johnson, a veteran of all four

We have finally arrived in Catalonia and are close to Girona tonight. Dede and Liam were at the finish today and I will get to spend the evening with them as well as tomorrow as we’ll be in Lloret de Mar for two days. Lloret is a strange town that reminds me of Niagara Falls. It is overpopulated with tourists and tourist attractions and it not one of the more attractive towns on the Costa Brava. Next to our hotel there are haunted houses, wax museums, and water parks. Tonight we’ll enjoy a buffet dinner with hundreds of sunburned tourists. Today’s stage looked flat on the profile but any

Say what you will about the kind of lunatics who ride their bikes nearly non-stop from noon to noon. And gripe all you want about the 24 Hours of Adrenaline Solo World Championships lacking an official rainbow-striped blessing from the UCI. For the 150-plus riders vying for glory in Whistler, British Columbia, this is their world and their world’s. Most racers awakened to the sound of rain on Saturday. Fingers crossed in hope when the rain subsided by 8 a.m., but that hope was short-lived. By the noon start all riders had at least donned rain jackets, and many had mounted fenders. After the

That's No. 3 for Petacchi

Campagnolo's Eurus clincher....

... comes in silver, too, and...

... tubular versions.

Cinelli's Neo Carbo

De Rosa's Dual HF refelcts the company's design philosphy

Deda's Supernatural works beautifully with Shimano shifters

Deda's TT stem, a beautiful combination of carbon and aluminum

Fi’zi:k gets Freeky

Fulcrum's Racing Speed...

... and Racing Light

Italmanubri’s K-Sword now offers an Integral version

ITM goes off-road

The Pinarello Dogma

The Pinarello F413