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Cunego 'ready' for Giro defenseDamiano Cunego said he’s arriving in peak form just in time to defend his Giro d’Italia title. Like arch-rival Ivan Basso, Cunego is also planning on racing in the Tour de France, so both riders are arriving to the Giro a little off peak fitness with the idea of being able to hit their stride for the decisive second half of the Giro. “The victory at Romandie lifted the pressure from me for not having a win so far this season,” Cunego told Datasport. “I had some good feelings in the time trial in Lausanne, but obviously my condition wasn’t at the top. I

With 12 Aussies, five Americans, two Canadians, a Brit and a New Zealander, there may be a record number of English-speakers starting the 2005 Giro d’Italia on Saturday. The teams arrived on Wednesday evening for UCI medical testing and the team presentation. The race itself gets under way with a 1.5km prologue Saturday evening in Reggio Calabria. After three days of relaxation in their hotels, facing a course whose end you can see from the beginning, riders will be exploding out of the start gate. Discovery Channel’s Michael Barry said everyone is “very eager to get started.” The Discovery

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.Armstrong has given hope to millionsEditor:I am writing in response to Mr. Ostermann's letter degrading Lance (See Wednesday’s Mailbag, “. . . but what’s with the trash talk?”). I must say, you are absolutely correct. Lance is a bully, and he is arrogant. He may even be cocky, as most

Raisin at this year's Tour de Langkawi

Voeckler takes the stage

There’s no stopping Belgian phenom Philippe Gilbert in France. After taking a pass on the Giro d’Italia because he felt he wasn’t in top form to compete in the season’s grand tour debut, the Française Des Jeux rider scored an impressive victory in Thursday’s 204km second stage to grab the overall lead at the Four Days of Dunkirk. Overnight leader Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricole) slipped to second after finishing eight seconds back in fifth place. Gilbert charged away from a 19-man breakaway with just three kilometers to go on the course that pounded over two sections of pavé featured in

Tentative start list for 2005 Giro d'Italia - as of Thursday May 5.North American riders in BOLDLampre-CaffitaDamiano Cunego  (I)Gilberto Simoni  (I)Paolo Fornaciari  (I)Evgeni Petrov  (Rus)Andrea Tonti  (I)Marius Sabaliauskas  (Lit)Gorazd Stangelj  (SLO)Sylvester Szmyd  (Pol)Francisco J Vila Errandonea  (Sp)Bouygues TelecomWalter Beneteau (F)Giovanni Bernaudeau (F)Olivier Bonnaire (F)Mathieu Claude (F)Christophe Kern (F)Laurent Lefevre (F)Rony Martias (F)Franck Renier (F)Didier Rous (F)Ceramica PanariaEmanuele Sella (I)Luca Mazzanti (I)Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio (Mex)Paolo Tiralongo

Portuguese rider Nuno Ribeiro has been excluded from the 88th Giro d’Italia after blood screenings conducted Thursday revealed hematocrit levels at 52 percent, two points above the UCI’s permissible 50 percent “speed limit.” The Liberty Seguros rider was the only one of the 198 scheduled starters to fail the routine blood tests carried out by UCI officials in Reggio Calabria ahead of Saturday’s prologue start of the season’s first grand tour. A fifth-year pro, Ribeiro was deemed “inapt” and will take a forced 15-day “health stop,” leaving Liberty Seguros captain Michele Scarponi with one

While working on an upcoming profile on recent Dodge Tour de Georgia best young rider Trent Lowe, the young Aussie asked me, “Are you still doing your Web column, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood?” It was at that moment that I realized that it had indeed been quite a while since I’d put together a collection of ramblings for velonews.com and called it my own. (Note: Our Web editor has also been hitting me up with a consistent barrage of “What gives?” for quite some time now, so he has been holding up his end of the deal, heartless, unsympathetic tyrant that he is.) The answer to Lowe’s question

Team TIAA-CREF is ecstatic to announce that it will be participating in the 2005 Route du Sud. After solid results in both the Tour of Normandie and the Tour de Georgia, the organization of the Route du Sud decided to invite The American based Continental team to the race who's former winners include Laurent Jalabert and Levi Leipheimer. This will be the major summer objective for Team TIAA-CREF, and will hopefully give a few of it's riders the opportunity to perform in front of ProTour teams looking for young talent. Former Route du Sud winner, and Team TIAA-CREF director Jonathan

Coming of success in Georgia, Danielson is ready for a support role at the Giro

Ribeiro at this season's team presentation

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood: Playing catch-up, watching rock stars and answering questions

Tafi's a class act

Watch it jiggle

Stage finish and GC: Gilbert now leads Hushovd

Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) drew first blood in the opening stageof the Four Days of Dunkirk in northern France on Wednesday. The Norwegian national champion held off Jimmy Casper (Cofidis) in the153km stage from Dunkirk to Marcq-en-Baroeul to take the opener and jumpinto the leader's jersey. Jaroslaw Zarebski (Intel-Action) came throughthird. Americans Fred Rodriguez (Davitamon-Lotto) and Kirk O'Bee (Navigators)finished safely in the front group, but weren't in the finale to disputefor the stage victory. Amerrican Saul Raisin (Credit Agricole) and ColombianCesar Grajales

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.You just know they’re out thereDear VeloNews,It’s nice the see the number of Euro pro teams with U.S. riders asteam leaders or serious contenders these days. I’ve had fun cheeringfor the Lion King et al for the last couple of years, but it’s also greatto see Floyd and Bobby and Levi out

The results are in and we were, to say the least, a bit overwhelmed by the response to our first request for submissions to the VeloNews.com weekly photo contest. This week's winning photo is Wade Newell's "Racing above the clouds, Cape Epic, South Africa, 2005," a remarkable shot of cross-country mountain-bikeracers working their way across a high plateau in South Africa. No, itwasn't an easy decision, as you might guess from looking at the completegallery of submissions.Wade will receive a signed copy of Graham Watson's "Landscapesof Cycling," which, as you might recall,

World Anti-Doping Agency president Dick Pound has faulted both theInternational Olympic Committee and the official lab of the Athens Olympicsfor mistakes he says enabled Tyler Hamilton to keep his individual time trial gold medal despite “strong evidence” that American was guilty of blood doping at the Games."As far as I understand...[the lab director] blew it and also the IOC blew it," Pound said in an interview with Greek private radio station Skai, broadcast on Wednesday.Pound insists that the former Phonak cyclist tested positive for a blood transfusion in August after winning the Olympic

The Giro d'Italia could face a snag on the first day of the three-week race this Saturday if the trade union representing professional cyclists decides to retaliate against organizers' plans to cut prize money. Eighty-seven professional riders from the CPA (Professional Associated Cyclists) signed a demand for an increase in the minimum wage structure during an assembly two weeks ago at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. It now appears the union could be on a collision course with Giro organizers, RCS, who want to reduce the total pot of prize money on this year's race. The CPA issued a

During the build phase of training, higher intensity and longer workoutsrequire more glycogen for fuel and what you eat the in the few hours beforetraining is essential so that you have adequate fuel to train. This isespecially important when you have two daily training sessions. A perfectlytimed and portioned pre-training meal or snack can replenish fuel depletedfrom a previous training session, provide early morning fuel, and superchargeyou for training later in the day.Metabolically speaking, there are two distinct time periods for pre-trainingmeal timing: 2-4 hours before and 30-60

Ekimov won't make the Tour start this year

Hushovd edges Casper in Marcq-en-Baroeul

Racing above the clouds, Cape Epic, South Africa, 2005

Gerolsteiner’s Davide Rebellin has ruled himself out of the Giro d'Italia only a few days before the prologue in Reggio Calabria, it was reported by the ANSA news agency on Tuesday. The 33-year-old all-rounder had been one of his team's main hopes for the race but Rebellin said he is suffering from fatigue following the three Ardennes Classics. The Ardennes classics include the Amstel Gold Race, the Fleche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège - all of which are raced over distances of over 250km and held within the space of a week. Rebellin became the first rider to win all three of

The importance of gluing in earnestDear Lennard,I read with interest your detailed plan for gluing tubulars in yournewCycling Primer. One thing I left out in my process of gluing on a newtire is to scrape the latex on the base tape on my Vittoria Open Corsa– it did not look like it had anything to scrape. Anyway, since I havealready put a couple layers of glue onto the base tape and mounted thetire, how can I go back and re-scrape and re-glue this tire? Or is it toolate?AndrewDear Andrew,Interesting timing on this, as I just wrote an article on tubular gluingfor the VeloNews issue No.8,

IMBA Signs Breakthrough Agreement with National Park ServiceMay 2, 2005If you've ever tried to enjoy a National Park by mountain bike, chancesare you've been disappointed. With some notable exceptions, America's premierpark system is closed to off-road riding.That's going to change with a new five-year agreement just signed bythe IMBA and the National Park Service. For the first time, National ParkService leaders in Washington, D.C., have formally recognized mountainbiking as a positive activity, compatible with the values of our NationalPark system.The agreement offers

Lennard Zinn, bicycle frame builder and technical guru, will host a clinicon mountain bike maintenance and repair at the Denver Flagship REI storeon May 5 at 7:00 p.m.Sincethe first edition of Zinn & the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance in1996, thousands of mountain bikers have depended on this well-organizedand clearly illustrated reference guide. The newly-released fourth editionincludes the most recent technology from leading mountain bike manufacturers,along with even more tips and detailed illustrations to keep your bikeready for the trail.Lennard Zinn is author of several books

We cycling fans are a rare breed. Most sports spectators live within that privileged bubble of absolute full coverage. Ball-sport fans are atop that most-spoiled list – they sit comfortably ensconced in theater-like seats, while the game’s jump shots, Hail Mary passes and pickle plays unfold in full view before their eyes. Indeed, an orb-sports fan’s only real excuse for having missed critical action would generally have to revolve around beer – either by standing in line to buy one or by standing in line to expel one. In this relationship there is no secret to proscribed roles: Athletes

McEwen finishes last year's Tour de France time trial to the top of l'Alpe d'Huez

Tuesday's EuroFile: Exhausted Rebellin rules out Giro; Lotto's leaders from Oz; Casagrande bows out

...and warming up for Athens

Lining up for Athens....

Football? Basketball? Bike race? Who cares?

Home of the Bulldog...

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Real fans. Real racing. Real America,

Despite Santiago Botero’s win in the Tour de Romandie over the weekend, Italian Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) continued his hold on the ProTour series lead. After ripping through April, winning the Vuelta a Pais Vasco, Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallone, Di Luca’s lead wasn’t under fire in the last week of the month. Bobby Julich (CSC) and George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) remained in the top 10 with 75 points. Alberto Contador (Liberty Seguros), the young Spanish rider who won a stage at Romandie, nudged into the top 10 with 67 points. In the team standings, Rabobank continued its hold

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.Don't bet on the appealDear VeloNews,I have read the various Mailbag e-mails in support and against Hamilton as well as the entire text of the arbitration memorandum. Personally, I have no particular bias, one way or the other, toward Hamilton. His case is simply interesting given

It was two former champions winning it all on Sunday in the fifth and final stage of the Outside Magazine Tour of the Gila, The Gila Monster Road Race. The pro men’s race offered an exciting finish with Team Seasilver’s Burke Swindlehurst coming from behind to win for the third time. Starting the stage 23 seconds behind overall leader Andrew Bajadali of Vitamin Cottage, Swindlehurst won the 106.4-mile stage in 4:55:38. Tecos’ Ubaldo Mesa followed Swindlehurst 25 seconds later to take second while Aerospace Engineering-VMG’s Ivan Stevic finished third, 33 seconds behind the leader. Bajadali

DiLuca got a big boost in the Ardennes

Monday's Mailbag: Dueling lawyers; Enough is enough and a strange resemblance?

Monday's Mailbag: Dueling lawyers; Enough is enough and a strange resemblance?

RENO, Nevada (Associated Press) -- On a farm about six miles outsidethis gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smellysheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains andother organs.The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly abouthis plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He can'twait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected into thefetus' brain about two months ago.''It's mice on a large scale,'' Chamberlain says with a shrug.As strange as his work may

Phonak’s Santiago Botero signaled his return to winning ways by claiming overall victory in the Tour of Romandie, the 11th race of the 27-leg Pro Tour series. Botero claimed victory after winning the final stage time trial held over a 20.4-kilometer route in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Sunday. The Colombian, a former world champion in the discipline, came over the finish line to beat Australian specialist Brad McGee, with overnight race leader Damiano Cunego of Italy finishing third on the stage. Botero's victory comes in the wake of a relatively barren spell, most of which he endured

Erik Zabel won for the first time this season after taking Sunday’s Rund um den Henninger Turm in Frankfurt for the third time of his career. The 34-year-old German ace has been stuck a cold spell this season, unable to score a victory despite some close calls. The T-Mobile rider slipped away with a group of 20 riders with 35km to go in what proved to be the winning move of the 211km race. Zabel broke free with a 300-meter sprint to the line and was timed in 5 hours, 10 minutes, 34 seconds in a ride through Frankfurt's streets to score his 149th career victory. Alejandro Borrajo

David Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde will be spending much of May plying the roads of Italy after being selected as part of the nine-man Team CSC squad for the upcoming Giro d’Italia. The two Americans will be riding in support of Team CSC captain Ivan Basso in the hunt for the maglia rosa in the season’s first three-week tour which kicks off with a short prologue May 7 in Reggio Calabria. It will be the first Giro for both riders. “I think we have a strong team and I know for sure that all our riders are extremely motivated to go all out for Ivan,” said Team CSC boss Bjarne Riis. “No

Until recently I had forgotten how much fun it is to just get out and ride for the sake of riding. Over the past 10 winters (give or take a few) I have been logging mile-upon-mile, all in the name of establishing a good base to support my body throughout the next six to eight months of torture it would be put through racing. You see for the last 15 years, right up until about 8 months ago, I was working hard to be a professional cyclist. In some ways I made it, and lived a small part of the dream I had been chasing. I have raced in the pro-class at NORBA Nationals, and I have stood atop

Now this is the Santiago Botero we all remember.

Despite losing the jersey at Romandie, Cunego seems ready to take on the Giro.

McGee powers in for second

Botero takes final stage and overall at Romandie

Tech Talk with Matt Pacocha: Hutchinson Bulldog tubeless tires

Tech Talk with Matt Pacocha: Hutchinson Bulldog tubeless tires

Mario Cipollini said if he couldn’t live up to his own expectations, he didn’t want to let down the legion of fans who’ve followed his 17-year career. The 38-year-old -- the winner of a record 42 stages on the Giro d’Italia and 189 career victories – decided to pull the plug just a week before the start of the 2005 Giro. “I didn't feel up to my usual standard," Cipo said during a press conference Friday. “Two months ago I gave my best to win the Milan-San Remo race but on the same day I understood that it was time to admit to my limits. My mind was still competitive, but I didn't

Ina Yoko Teutenberg (T-Mobile) and Jose Delarosa (Tecos) claimed victories on Friday in stage 3 of the Outside Magazine Tour of the Gila. The Fort Bayard Inner Loop Road Race added up to 80 miles with 5781 feet of climbing for men, and 77.9 miles with 5854 feet of vertical for women. The men’s stage wound up as a 26-man dash for the line, with Delarosa’s teammate Gregorio Ladino crossing the line first. But when Ladino was relegated for a centerline violation in the final kilometer, the victory went to Delarosa, with Neil Shirley (Team Seasilver) second and David Clinger (Webcor Builders)

Spaniard Alberto Contador (Liberty Seguros) won the 144km fourth stage of the Tour de Romandie on Saturday between Chatel St-Denis and Les Paccots ahead of Italians Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre). In finishing third and picking up bonus time, Cunego took the overall race lead from Santiago Botero (Phonak) as the Lampre rider warms up for the defense of his Giro d'Italia title next month. Botero crossed sixth on the stage and slipped to second overall, three seconds back, with just Sunday's 20.4km individual time trial in Lausanne remaining. Denis

Discovery Channel's Viatcheslav Ekimov was injured Friday during a crash while riding with Lance Armstrong, and the Russian’s Tour de France may be in jeopardy. Armstrong escaped injury in the Austin mishap, but the 39-year-old Ekimov was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was diagnosed with a broken sternum. According to www.thepaceline.com, Armstrong's fan-club website, Ekimov hit a hole in the road, lost control of his bike, hit the stem with his chest and landed on his back. Ekimov hopes to be transported back home to St. Petersburg, Russia, for rehabilitation, according to

As if the torrents of rain that soaked last week’s Tour of Georgia weren’t enough to dampen the state’s bicycle racing fan base, the clouds once again offered up soggy conditions for the 25th running of the Athens Twilight Criterium, in downtown Athens, on Saturday. The estimated crowd of 15,000 was noticeably smaller for this race – in past years it had swelled to more than 40,0000. “It’s a little smaller this year, but Twilight night is still the biggest non-football event in this town,” said race director Gene Dixon, who has organized the race every year since it’s inception in 1980.

Silver City, N.M. - Silver City residents handed over the streets of their historic downtown for the fourth stage of The Outside Magazine Tour of the Gila Saturday. In return, they got the chance to see something special, both Todd Wells and Cat Malone winning their first National Race Calendar stage victories. Wells sprinted across the finish line, leading a peloton of 83, to finish the race at 1:34:33 in the men’s pro. A former national mountain bike champion, Wells said this win gave him a little vindication as a road racer. “I do a lot of cyclo-cross racing, which is similar to

Cipollini says goodbye at a press conference on Friday

Contador solos to a stage win

Dekker leads the break

Moncoutie and Zberg on the move

Moncoutie

Garate and Voeckler give chase

Zberg leads

Going up

Piepoli attacks

And so does Cunego . . .

. . . en route to the overall lead

It seems international politics can even trickle down to stymie bicycle racers. Yaroslav Popovych, the promising grand tour rider in his first season with Discovery Channel, has been having problems getting the proper visa following the recent political upheaval in his native Ukraine that made headlines worldwide. After some early season racing, Popovych had returned to the Ukraine to settle some paperwork issues, an ordeal that won’t keep him from starting this summer’s Tour de France. “It’s been difficult for him to obtain the necessary visa due to the change in governments but I talked

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.The real issueEditors,Whether or not Tyler is guilty or innocent of blood doping is not thereal issue.The bottom line is that the test has not been scientifically validated.Nor, from any of the statements I've found or the press coverage I've read,does WADA claim that it is. On

Mexico’s Team Tecos crossed one-two in stage 2 of the Outside Magazine Tour of the Gila on Thursday, while T-Mobile’s Kim Baldwin collected both the stage win and the overall leader’s pink jersey. Ubaldo Mesa (Tecos) won the mountainous, 94-mile Silver City-Mogollon Pass Road Race in 4:11:43, 29 seconds ahead of teammate Gregorio Ladino. Ivan Stevic (Aerospace Engineering-VMG), second overall at last week’s La Vuelta de Bisbee stage race in Arizona, finished third. Andrew Bajadali (Vitamin Cottage), sixth on the day at 48 seconds back, moved into the overall lead, three seconds ahead of

Here is just a small reminder that the Outdoor Life Network will broadcasta two-hour summary of the best and biggest stage race in America, the Dodge Tour de Georgia this Sunday, May 1, starting at 5:00 p.m. (eastern time in the U.S.) (Not to spoil the surprise ending, but we think the kid from Colorado did pretty well.)

It was a comeback of sorts for both protagonists in Friday’s hard-fought third stage at the Tour de Romandie. Damiano Cunego – winless so far in the 2005 season – emphatically put to rest any notion that he’s not up to the task of defending his Giro d’Italia title. Santiago Botero, meanwhile, slipped into the leader’s jersey after two frustrating and unproductive seasons in the T-Mobile/Telekom team. For both, it was a return to the winner’s circle. And it bodes well for both riders as they look to larger goals later in the season. Cunego slipped ahead Russia's Denis Menchov

America’s “breakthrough” professionals in the early 1980s, Greg LeMond and Jonathan Boyer, both developed their stage-racing skills at Colorado’s Red Zinger Bicycle Classic, which became the Coors Classic in 1980. No other bike race in the United States has had so much influence on the sport. Not only did it develop riders, it brought new ones into the sport, provided untold publicity (local, national and international), and made Boulder one of the epicenters of American cycling. While it was the race that was responsible for all those important developments, it was the man behind the race —