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Fassa Bortolo’s Alessandro Petacchi took his third win in the weather-shortened 15th stage as the Giro d’Italia trudged into its final week. Poor weather prompted officials to move the start to the bottom of day’s big climb, making it a relatively easy, if soggy day in the saddle for the 159 remaining riders. After a long breakaway by Roy Sentjens (Rabobank), Fassa’s silver train was back on track and catapulted Petacchi to an easy win ahead of the sprinter-depleted field. Erik Zabel (T-Mobile) came through second while Olympic champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) took third. “Today the

In its first two weeks, the Giro d’Italia covered 2500km between Reggio Calabria and Livigno, a journey that’s only 1600km if one does a straight shot in the car. On Sunday, as the riders entered Livigno after having completed back-to-back, six-and-a-half-hour stages through the Dolomites, they passed a sign on the road that read, "Only 1000km to go.” En route to Livigno, the passed over several difficult climbs, including the infamous Passo Stelvio, where each of the 48 switchbacks are numbered. It was on the Stelvio that the peloton blew to pieces. At the finish line, each rider looked

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.Savoldelli the stoicEditor:Have you ever seen an athlete as stoic as Paolo Savoldelli? This guy seems to lack any kind of emotion. He seems so cold-blooded (in agood way). Lance Armstrong describes George Hincapie as "fingers in the nose" because his demeanor never changes whether

Reports have recently surfaced that Tyler Farrar (Health Net-Maxxis) has signed with Cofidis for the 2006 season, but the subject of those reports says that it’s news to him. “Actually that is all a big misunderstanding,” Farrar told VeloNews. “It all came out of a mix up in the translation from a French Web site. The reality is that [a Cofidis team representative] had said he had offered me a spot for 2006, and everyone took that to mean that I had signed for 2006. I have not signed with Cofidis.” Farrar, the current U.S. U23 national time trial and criterium champion, recently finished

Petacchi snags win No. 3

A short but soggy day in the saddle

Savoldelli got wet like everybody else . . .

. . . but the Discovery Channel leader clung to the lead going into Tuesday's rest day

The mighty 2758m Passo dello Stelvio in Sunday’s three-climb 14th epic stage lived up to its billing and took its toll on the160 ragged riders remaining in the 88th Giro d’Italia. The monstrous climb eliminated Paolo Savoldelli’s most dangerous rival – Team CSC’s Ivan Basso -- but the Discovery Channel falcon quickly found himself having to fend off new ones. Savoldelli kept his hold on the maglia rosa in the grueling 210km march across the Dolomites, but the margin was trimmed to less than a half-minute after the ever-resilient Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) followed an electrifying

Discovery Channel brass is hoping Yaroslav Popovych will be able to carry the torch for the team once Lance Armstrong rides off into the sunset following this summer’s Tour de France. The 25-year-old Ukrainian set the cycling world on notice this week in Spain, winning the seven-day Volta a Cataluyna ahead of a ProTour field that included 1997 Tour champion Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile). “I can't say now I was surprised I won, because I've worked hard in all the time I've been away from racing,” Popovych said after finishing safely in the main bunch in Sunday’s finale. Norwegian

Let’s just call today’s entry “How I spent my 29th birthday.” Well, I spent my 29th birthday on my bike… for eight hours…if you count the ride in the neutral zone, the race and the little uphill slog I had to make to the hotel above the finish line. Pretty stupid, huh? To say that today was a long day would be something of an understatement. I’m sure you can imagine that it was a hard day, mentally and physically. Sure it was tough physically, but the mental part was really tough with Ivan suffering as he did. After yesterday, we knew there problems, but he’d only lost a little bit of

Torrington, CT, May 22—Defending champion Mark McCormack, (Colavita-Sutter home), took both the final stage and the overall victory in the 137-mile Litchfield Hills stage of the Tour of Connecticut. With 14 miles remaining, it looked like the Navigators team had the win sewn up for race leader Vasili Davidenko, as the team was setting tempo on the finishing circuit. It was at this point, McCormack realized, “I had nothing to lose.” McCormack and Todd Wells (Capital Velo) attacked and rode away from both the field and the entire Navigators team. With the gap at over a minute, the time

Parra does it again

Basso had another appalling day in the saddle

Di Luca, meanwhile, showed his strength once again

Savoldelli cramped, but hung onto his lead

Parra solos away to his second stage win

The Stelvio takes no prisoners

McCartney clocking in for the day's shift

Discovery takes the front

Atienza, Parra and Osa

Cunego and Laverde

Parra gets his second stage

Hey, Barry, this is just like Boulder!

Vande Velde had lots of company on his birthday ride on Sunday

Baldwin and Davidenko chasing McCormack, but they are down to three chasers with about 3 laps to go.

McCormack fights back to take Tour of Connecticut

Bryan Smith had a long breakaway, and the field suffered in the rain until the last 50 k.

A cheeky Tim Duggan rides to the front of the peloton and waves at them to come along

A canopy of trees made the day beautiful, but didn't keep out the rain.

With one lap to go, only Grishkin and Davidenko are left in the chase, and the gap is getting bigger.

Tim Johnson leads the peloton up one of the beautiful climbs in the rain.

Wow, McCormack snatched the stage and GC from Navigators on a cold, miserable day in CT.

Well, well, well, this Giro d’Italia just keeps getting more interesting by the day. In Saturday’s 218km grind-fest high in the spectacular Dolomites, Discovery Channel’s Paolo Savoldelli snatched the leader’s jersey away from CSC’s Ivan Basso with a powerful attack on the day’s final climb and proved yet again he’s a top candidate for the overall victory. Savoldelli followed a move by two-time Giro champion Gilberto Simoni (Lampre-Caffita) midway up the day’s fifth and final climb on the Cat. 1 Pontives. A struggling Basso, weakened by a stomach bug, couldn’t answer as “Il Falco” surged

French rider Anthony Charteau (Bouygues Telecom) won the battle in Saturday’s 198km sixth stage but Yaroslav Popovych (Discovery Channel) edged closer to winning the war of the Volta a Cataluyna. Charteau was part of a 10-man breakaway that dominated the late going of the 198km hilly run from Llivia to Pallejá. The fifth-year veteran shot clear with just over a kilometer to go to surprise the leaders, including such names as Santiago Botero (Phonak), Christophe Moreau (Crédit Agricole) and Paco Lara (T-Mobile). No one reacted immediately and Charteau threw everything into the attack to win

Two days, two dramatically different courses - same result. Vassili Davidenko (Navigators Insurance) took the second stage of the Tour of Connecticut almost as easily as he took the first. The “almost” is because on Saturday, he had to climb nearly 8000 feet in 60 miles to win. Still, while he conceded that his form “is good,” Davidenko added that the victory “was about my team.” After a flurry of early attacks, the race found its rhythm - steady-hard at the front, attrition at the back. TIAA-CREF’s Timmy Duggan took off on his own on the third of 15 laps and stayed away for eight.

The Dolomites have taken their toll on the peloton. The legs are aching and the energy is waning. There were 40 riders popped off the back on the first climb of stage 13 and it was not even a categorized climb. The riders were trudging up this steep ascent in their 39x25s and they had five categorized climbs and more than 200km ahead of them. I always know from the sound of my husband’s voice when the fatigue has set in during a grand tour. There is little if any response when I ask Michael questions and the conversation generally becomes fairly dull - I can talk at him, but his energy

Savoldelli goes it alone

Savoldelli leads Simoni

Savoldelli in pink

Basso struggled in the finale

Cunego and Simoni on the attack

Zabriskie labors on Basso's behalf

Passa Gardena - what a view, eh?

And here's another postcard

Barry and VeloNews diarist Vande Velde

Bettini in the break

Parra on the podium

Chris Baldwin (Navigators) and Geoff Kabush (Jittery Joe's) bridging to the break with about five laps remaining

Race leader Vassili Davidenko (Navigators) cornering

Tim Duggan (TIAA-CREF) on a solo

Davide Frattini (Colavita-Sutter Home) and Baldwin in the break

Jittery Joe's rider Craig Wilcox's bike with sheared off carbon fork, after hitting another rider on the descent

The Navs' Oleg Grichkine leads the peloton

Mark Walters (Navigators) suffers on the climb

Tim Johnson (Jittery Joe's) heads down the descent

Dominique Perras (Kodak-Sierra Nevada) earning the best climber's jersey

Davidenko winning again, and looking glad to have the race over

The podium: Davidenko, Frattini and Baldwin

The submissions continue and we've posted another new Photo Gallery., the fourth one this week. As you know our winner from last week's contest was "Ace assaultsHogpen," by Ronnie Fields, an excellent shot that reflects both great composition and creative "dark room" work in PhotoShop. Congratulations to Ronnie Fields, who will receive a signed copy of Graham Watson's "Landscapes of Cycling." As we said, it was a difficult choice and there were several photoswe thought worthy of mention. Our list of honorable mentions includes:Jay Christy's "Giro d'Italia 2004: Stage 4,

Iñigo Cuesta gave Saunier Duval its second consecutive stage victory in Friday’s 17km climbing time trial high in Andorra while Discovery Channel’s Yaroslav Popovych solidified his hold on the leader’s jersey. Cuesta won in 37 minutes, 18 seconds, some 26 seconds faster than teammate Leonardo Piepoli, Thursday’s winner. Popovych, making his first race appearance since March because of visa problems, came through fifth and holds a 20-second lead on Piepoli and 59 seconds on David Moncoutie (Cofidis). "I am as surprised as anybody, I never expected this," the former amateur world champion

Alessandro Petacchi catapulted to his second stage win of the 88th Giro d’Italia in what turned out to be a slow 178km roll between giants. Following the sparks in Thursday’s stage to Zoldo Alto and the epic climbs lying in wait in the Dolomites this weekend, the peloton seemed content to enjoy Friday’s sunny passeggiata from Alleghe to Rovereto. “These sprints after the mountains are always difficult, but the team was motivated to win. I could still feel yesterday’s stage in my legs,” said Petacchi, who won easily ahead of Paride Grillo (Panaria). “This year it’s been harder to win stages,

If you’re not racing mountain bikes in Europe during May, you’re not doing any big races. I’m not heading over until the third round of the World Cup May 29 in Houffalize, Belgium, so that means some serious down time. You might think I’d take some time off, maybe go to a warm beach somewhere, or even just hang out in Durango. But I can’t seem to sit still for a single weekend, so I’ve been hitting the road circuit. It’s a good thing I’m a bike racer. I already got in some good road racing this past February with a six-day race in Mexico. Then, after Sea Otter, I headed to New Mexico for the

After Thursday’s mountainous throw-down, it looks as though the Giro d’Italia is coming down to a two-man battle, eh? Funny, for all the hype built up around the double-pronged danger of Lampre’s Damiano Cunego and Gilberto Simoni, the winners of the past two years, it’s now CSC’s Ivan Basso, a rider who has never won a grand tour, wearing the maglia rosa. While the Giro is far from over, it appears Basso is the strongest man in the race, with only Discovery Channel’s Paolo Savoldelli, the 2002 Giro winner, able to hang with him in the mountains. And while no one wins a grand tour by luck,

Davitamon-Lotto’s Australian sprint ace Robbie McEwen, winner of three stages of this year's Giro d’Italia, announced Friday that he was quitting the race after the day's 12th stage. "I'm going home," said McEwen, who is wearing the points leader's jersey. "The plains are behind us now. I'm sorry to leave but after the Giro I've still got the Tour de France and the world championship. To race everything would be too much. It's a big and beautiful Giro. Goodbye to the tifosi!" During his three previous appearances in the Giro McEwen, 32, also quit before the

The Discovery Channel team had a special visit on the rest day, as Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel flew in for dinner at the team hotel. The two unexpected visitors provided a little extra motivation and shared some laughs with team, especially when the usually shy and conservative looking Tony Cruz showed up to dinner with a Mohawk. After the Giro's first rest day, several other riders in the bunch had trimmed their manes to cool themselves in the mountain stages ahead. Rain threatened much of stage 10, but very little actually fell on the peloton. Aside from the wild ride

“I came around the last corner, saw the line, and knew I had to go." Winning stage 1 of the Tour of Connecticut on Friday was that simple for Vassili Davidenko (Navigators Insurance). The Russian sprinter has been on a tear of late, but he needed his team to make the victory happen. The 80-lap race around the half-mile rectangle around the New Haven commons was a festival of speed. Despite a fairly steady stream of attacks, no one could get more than a handful of seconds, and not for very long. With both the Navigators and Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home squads looking to keep things together

Fassa's fast man does it again

Who is that man in the plain white jersey?

Basso enjoys a day in the pink

Going up

Hey, mate... are those mountains up ahead?

Schnyder goes for a little free publicity

McEwen and friends in a happier moment, before the sprint was lost, the law called and his ticket for home punched

That's one packed peloton

McCartney bellies up to the rolling Discovery bar

Fassa finishing fast

Baldwin leads his Navigators mob through a corner with five laps to go