All Content

Vuelta Notebook: Landis done; Casero happy; Mayo ponders future; what's next

Winning the points jersey in the Tour de France would make the season for most sprinters. But for Thor Hushovd, the stocky Norwegian who snagged the green jersey this year without winning a stage, taking a victory in Wednesday’s 176km fifth stage at the Vuelta a España is the highlight he’ll cherish most. “This is the biggest win of the year for me,” said Hushovd, who made it over a punchy climb 12km from the finish to drive home the sprint. “I won the green jersey at the Tour this year, but to win a stage in the Vuelta is very big for me.” Hushovd came off the fifth wheel and roared to a

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.Tuna Canyon: Cycling or psych-ling?Editor:Scheduling a race on road bikes down Tuna Canyon/Las Flores Canyon can only mean that insurance rates for promoters must have really dropped. Whereas its sister road on the north side of the coastal range (Stunt Road) does indeed have stretches

Italian national team coach Franco Ballerini can leave the Vuelta a España confident that Alessandro Petacchi is on track for the Madrid world championships. Somewhat surprisingly, Ballerini was still holding out judgment on the Italian sprinter. Back-to-back victories Monday and Tuesday went a long way toward shoring up his confidence in the Fassa Bortolo sprinter. “These victories give us confidence in Petacchi that we can build a team entirely around him. Because if he’s not where he needs to be, we might bring a team with two leaders,” he said. “Petacchi still needs to prove he’s

The half-dozen favorites for Sunday’s elite men’s world cross-country championship had best take notice: Spain’s Jose Antonio Hermida has come to Italy to take home the rainbow jersey. Indeed, the Spaniard earned rainbow jerseys of a sort for himself and his three relay teammates on Wednesday in Livigno, erasing a gap of nearly four four minutes as the team’s anchor man to cross the line alone, 19 seconds ahead of the home team’s elite woman, Joahnnes Schweiggl. France finished third, 30 seconds back. A world-championship staple since 1999, the team relay consists of four racers from the

He doesn’t have a huge client base or a high-tech, on-line coaching Web site, but you can’t argue with the success cycling coach Rick Crawford has achieved. The Durango, Colorado resident started out working with the likes of Lance Armstrong and Chann McRae in the 1980s, and today boasts a clientele that includes mountain-bike standout Shonny Vanlandingham, reigning USPRO champ Chris Wherry and 2005 Tour de Georgia winner Tom Danielson, who is currently riding the Vuelta a España, hoping to make it to the finish of his first grand tour. Recently VeloNews sat down with Crawford to find out

So if you go faster, is it cooler? We experimented with that idea today as we averaged almost 30mph over the course of the stage today. And the answer is, it just gets you to the finish line faster. It was still in the upper 90s today but, after the last few days, that now feels cool. I even saw some clouds today, but I still lost five pounds during the race. Michael Barry, our guy Jacob Piil and a few friends set off around the 60k mark today and I really thought that they were going to pull it off. If they had managed to stay away, it would have put Michael in the jersey with Jacob

Today, our little Discovery team supporter, Liam, got a chance to coo for daddy, as Michael went away in the early break and was virtual leader on the road for quite a while. Although, his luck ran out when the sprinters' teams decided to chase and the break of 8 riders was caught at the base of the final climb with 15 km to the finish. For Discovery, the plan was to have Benoit Joachim, Stijn Devolder and Michael cover the early breakaways and to help Max Van Heeswijk in the final sprint. The pace was high from the start and all guys commented that it felt like the Vuelta of years

Hushovd overpowers a swift bunch

Barry, shown leading Wednesday's break, hopes for a world's berth

McGee is enjoying his tenure as race leader

Heras and Sastres punched it on the climb

McGee stayed out of trouble and in the lead

Finot and Piepoli in a spot of bother

Leblacher and Piil on the move

Ardila at the head of affairs in the finale

Française des Jeux working for McGee

Crawford (left) has worked with Danielson dating back to his college days.

Crawford was very optimistic about Danielson's chances as the Vuelta neared the end of the first week.

Wherry moved to Durango to be closer to his coach.

Wherry shows off his stars-and-stripes cruiser outside his new home in Durango.

Get ready ... get set ...

Hermida and company are delighted

McConneloug awaiting her turn at the course

Crawford is also director of the successful Fort Lewis College cycling team.

Vuelta Notebook: Ballerini confident; Barry eyes world's; Gerdemann impressive; what's next

Two sprints and two victories for Alessandro Petacchi. This might be the Vuelta a España, but for the top sprinters taking part in the 232km fourth stage, the 2005 Vuelta’s longest stage played out as a preview for the September 25 road world championships in Madrid. “I was better than yesterday, so that’s encouraging,” said Petacchi, who won a wide-open charge to the line ahead of Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) and Erik Zabel (T-Mobile). “This win gives me confidence that I am in good shape.” Brad McGee (FDJeux) enjoyed a relatively easy, but hot day in the leader’s jersey as a four-man

My friends, I want you to take a quick gander at this map of Tuna Canyon, a steep, narrow rut just north of balmy Malibu, California. See that squiggly dark line labeled “Tuna Canyon Road” that spins out of the park entrance? Looks a little twisty, eh? Well, that one-lane patch of asphalt drops more than 2000 feet in two miles to the ocean. Shooting down that thing on a road bike would be akin to bombing a giant-slalom ski course on a toboggan. Here’s a little write up I found online about what driving Tuna Canyon Road is like. “Owing to its narrowness and difficult sharp turns, Tuna Canyon

In Argamasilla de Alba, Spain… Danielson’s cool with itTom Danielson said he’s holding up fine under the heat of the opening stages of the 60th Vuelta a España. The Discovery Channel rider came across the line safely in the main bunch to remain 11th overall at 1:17 back. “I’m feeling good,” Danielson said at the finish line as he grabbed a drink from one of the team soigneurs. “We’re riding as a team. We’ve had no problems at all.” Danielson said he hasn’t been adversely affected by the scorching temperatures that have cooked the peloton in the opening four days of the race. The

Press Release: Follow the Vuelta and win cool stuff!If you tune into VeloNews.com's Daily Live Coverage of the Vuelta aEspana, you have a chance to win an Illes Balears team-issue helmet everyday of Spain's national tour and you might win a lightweight carbon Kuips Abyss frame set, when the peloton reaches Madrid.We're happy to announce that DPMSports.com - the sponsor of VeloNews.com's LIVE COVERAGE of the the Vuelta is giving away an Illes Balears team issue helmet by Spiuk to each of the winners of our daily contest, a name drawn at random from those who submitted the

The last few days have been tough, not because it has been fast, but rather because of the intense heat. The peloton is sluggish and the racing not very animated as a result. Only when the finish line is near does the pace pick up, the peloton becomes nervous and the racing gets exciting. Otherwise, the major objective of nearly every team has been to keep riders hydrated and not to expend too much energy. It’s easy to dig a hole too deep to climb out of when the temperatures rise over 35 degrees Celsius (95F) in the shade, of which there is little. Today’s stage was a little frustrating

Deep in the Alps of northern Italy, the village of Livigno is draped in orange. Orange ribbons hang from businesses and residences, orange posters adorn shop windows — a local bike shop’s employees have even dyed their hair orange. The chosen color of the 2005 UCI mountain-bike world championships will be visible everywhere in Livigno from the team relay on Wednesday through the elite men’s cross-country on Sunday. A small village of just 5000 residents situated between Milan, Munich and Zürich, Livigno has enthusiastically embraced the world championships it was awarded back in 2002. The

Petacchi does it the hard way after his silver train stopped a little short of the station

Express elevator to Hell, going down!

Kabush wants a top-10 at world's

So far, so good: Danielson is comfortable with the Vuelta

How hot was it?

Hot enough to keep slathering on the sunscreen

Leading the way through the Spanish sunshine

And then they were three

Joachim and Pasamontes tried a late dash, to no avail

All together now

McGee pays a visit to the doc on an otherwise uneventful, if hot, day in the saddle

Does this place scream mountain-bike racing or what?

The village within a village

The cross-country profile

Going down . . .

The longest world's four-cross yet

Take me to the bridge

Vuelta Notebook: Danielson keeping cool; Petacchi looks toward Madrid; but not Valverde

The sprinters got their first shot in the 153km third stage of the Vuelta a España and Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) took full advantage. In another blistering hot day, the Milan-San Remo champion sent a message loud and clear to his would-be rivals for the upcoming world championships, taking a sprint victory ahead of three faces he’s expecting to see next month on the roads of Madrid. “To win ahead of three of best sprinters in the world is very satisfying,” Petacchi said moments after scoring his 13th career Vuelta victory. “No one could come around my sprint and no one could beat

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 smokescreen for the uninformed?Editor:In 1999 you didn't need to worry about surprise out-of-competition tests for EPO, nor did you have to administer microdoses to stay under the radar. You brought your hematocrit up to your desired target level with twice- or thrice-weekly shots,

T-Mobile announced Monday that Italian rider Lorenzo Bernucci had agreed to join the German squad, signing a two-year deal. The 25-year-old Bernucci, who rode for Fassa Bortolo this season, hopes to build on his impressive debut in the 2005 Tour de France, where he won the sixth stage ahead of T-Mobile’s Alexandre Vinokourov, keeping the rubber side down in a rain-soaked final corner that saw a score of riders slipping, skidding and piling into the course barriers. "The switch to the T-Mobile team is an important step in my career," said Bernucci. "My win at the Tour de France showed what I

Johan Bruyneel is signing some of the young top prospects to fortify Discovery Channel as the team enters the post-Lance Armstrong era. Five new faces will be part of the Discovery Channel team for 2006, including Australian Trent Lowe, Russian classics specialist Vladimir Gusev, Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel), Belgian hope Jurgen Van Goolen (Quick Step) and Janez Brajkovic (Krka), a young Slovenian rider who made his Discovery Channel debut at the Tour of Benelux. “These are the young riders that we can help build the future of the team,” Bruyneel said Monday morning. “There’s not going to be

I thought yesterday was hot. Then came today. Between the two, I spent the hottest two days I have ever spent on the bike. Today at the top of one climb it was 45.5 degrees Celsius. That seems hot to me but when I found out that equates to about 113 Fahrenheit, I realized there was a reason why we all felt so horrible. Today we trudged through another day in southern Spain. We haven't broken any records, but we have suffered. On average we all drank about a gallon and a half and then upon arriving at the bus keep drinking like we've been in the Sahara for weeks. I thought that I

Cycling’s international governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale said Monday it will investigate reports of positive drug tests at the 1999 Tour de France, but stopped short of specifically naming seven-time winner Lance Armstrong. The allegations, which surfaced last week in the French daily sports newspaper L'Equipe, said Armstrong used the performance-enhancing drug EPO to help win his first Tour de France in 1999. Armstrong has denied the allegations. The UCI said it regretted the breach of confidentiality in the disclosure of samples, but said it was pressing ahead with

Wow, so much to discuss this week. This column is coming to you from the pressroom of the world mountain-bike championships in Livigno, Italy, so I want to crank this puppy out and get to putting together a nice preview of the week ahead. The recent allegations surrounding Lance Armstrong and EPO at the 1999 Tour de France have obviously taken center stage, not just on our Web site but across the world. And once again, it’s hard to know whom or what to believe. Clearly the editorial staff at L’Equipe felt ready to take this story to press, risking its professional reputation to bring down

As I sit at home in Girona watching the Vuelta on television with our new baby Liam on my lap, I am content knowing that I am not out there dealing with the heat the boys are racing in the south. Today the temperatures were once again extreme as they raced through the arid center of Spain. Michael consumed 15 water bottles in the 153 kilometer stage and still felt dehydrated. He was in a breakaway at one point today with 10 or so other riders and said that every one of the guys in the break was too hot to put forth any effort. Essentially, their bodies are using so much energy just to

Petacchi pummels 'em at the end of a hot day in Spain

Stick a fork in him. Vande Velde was cooked slowly throughout the entirety of today's stage

No pressure for Danielson at the Vuelta

It was a hot time in the old town of Montoro

Pascual Rodríguez has a go

Aldag's kit is a little the worse for wear after a spill

Gutierrez took a digger, too

FDJeux works for race leader McGee

McGee enjoys another appearance with the podium girls

Hoste and Van Heeswijk sweat under the Spanish sun

Vuelta Notebook: Discovery's youth movement; Landis hopeful; Phonak realistic; heat unrelenting

Brad McGee (FDJeux) collapsed at the finish line Sunday, just like he did Saturday after coming up just three seconds short of victory, but this time the Aussie had something to smile about. McGee jetted into the Vuelta a España’s golden jersey, becoming the first Australian to wear the race leader’s jersey in all three grand tours. For the 29-year-old Aussie, the mark of distinction helps erase a season of disappointment and frustration. “I went so deep in the prologue I was vomiting for 30 minutes after the race,” said McGee, who finished second to Leonardo Bertagnolli (Cofidis) in the

George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) added another prize to his trophy cabinet on Sunday by sprinting to victory in the GP de Plouay, the 23rd race of the inaugural ProTour. The American outkicked Alexandre Usov (AG2R -Prevoyance) and Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) to win the 212km race around Plouay. Hincapie almost celebrated prematurely, raising his arms as Usov bore down upon him. But he managed to hang on to edge the AG2R rider. The win came in what has been a stellar year for Hincapie. He finished second in Paris-Roubaix, then won Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne; collected two stages and

Saunier Duval wants more AmericansAttention domestic pros: Saunier Duval wants you. With the imminent departure of Chris Horner at the end of the 2005 season, Saunier Duval boss Mauro Gianetti told VeloNews the team wants to keep its presence in the American market. "We want two riders," Gianetti said. "It's good for the team to have strong Americans." Gianetti said he was disappointed Horner will leave the team at the end of the season to join Davitamon-Lotto for a two-year deal, but quickly added he understand Horner's decision. Gianetti said team has been pleased with Horner's

Today’s stage to Cordoba was the one I feared the most when I looked at the course profiles a week ago, after I found out I was going to be starting the race. I feared it not because of its difficulty, but because the last time we did this stage, in 2003, I suffered unbelievably from start to finish. Back then we were racing for Roberto Heras, and we had to keep him in the front of the peloton and out of the wind while also ensuring we had representation in the breakaways. The attacks began from the start and never relented until the line was crossed in Cordoba. Today, thankfully, the race

In a fitting bit of things coming full circle, Adam Craig (Giant), winner of the rain-soaked opening race of the 2005 NORBA cross-country series way back in March, closed out the series with a similarly damp victory in the Mt. Snow pro men’s short track, the final event of the season-long competition. And just as he did back in Texas almost seven months ago, Craig raced most of the day in Vermont with Geoff Kabush (Maxxis), the year’s most prolific winner on the cross-country circuit. Craig and Kabush made the decisive break in the short track, getting away on the fourth lap with Carl Decker

Bertagnolli wins

Hincapie adds another ProTour feather to his cap

McGee gets the jersey

Stage 3: Córdoba to Puertollano

It was a hot one in Andalusia

Bertagnolli solos away