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Image Files Fleche Wallone

[nid:30845]On a day of high drama, riveting plot twists and an outcome that was literally undecided until the last second, the most telling moment may well have come during the ascent of the category 1 Hogpen Gap climb, 96 miles into stage 5 of the Dodge Tour de Georgia. It was there that the world’s most famous bike racer went to the front of a four-rider break and started hammering away for one of his teammates, American Tom Danielson.

It’s always nice going to Paris. Even in January, when the trees are bare, the tables and chairs of sidewalk cafés are chained up, and cold breezes make you turn your collar up as you walk along the Champs-Élysées. It was on that famous avenue, at a lunchtime reception in a swank hotel, that the 1981 Renault-Gitane professional cycling team was presented to the media. The star attraction, of course, was Bernard Hinault. The Frenchman was at the height of his fame, the newly crowned world champion, and eager to win a third Tour de France after knee tendinitis forced him to quit the race in

A steady rain that started in Liège Saturday afternoon is forecast to return Sunday, which - combined with a 20-kph wind from the south - should make the Belgian super-classic even tougher than it already promises to be. The new 260km course has 10 major hills compared with eight last year, and the restoration of the Wanne-Stockeu-Haute-Levée trilogy of climbs has added meat to what was becoming a less demanding race. Even the hot race favorite, Italy’s Danilo Di Luca, seems to agree. The Italian, who is hoping to increase his UCI ProTour lead in this 10th race of the series, said Saturday:

Foggy final 250 meters Road sign for Lance Light reading at the top of the climb clearing up

DENVER (AP) -- A top lawyer for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Friday that the organization stood behind the test that led to Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton's two-year suspension for a blood-doping violation, the first case based on the test designed to detect blood transfusions. An independent panel of arbitrators voted 2-1 to suspend Hamilton for receiving another person's blood, the Colorado Springs-based agency announced earlier this week. Hamilton tested positive for doping on Sept. 11 during the Spanish Vuelta. Hamilton has consistently denied any doping violation and

The cross-country mountain bike World Cup season begins Sunday at the Spa Francochamps Formula One circuit. Spa, 30 minutes south of Liège , is a new stop for the World Cup, and the event is scheduled head to head against the road classic Liège -Bastogne-Liège. The 6.1km circuit is still muddy after a week of near-perfect conditions, so tomorrow's predicted rain is likely to turn it into a treacherous mess. The race begins on the paved race circuit, with the riders immediately heading up a steep climb. At the top they head off-road, into a steep, rooty drop-off, and then begin a

Astarloa patched up, but not packing it itIgor Astarloa is all screwed up – literally. The 2003 world champion is trying to kick-start his season after crashing hard at the Haribo Classic in February, leaving him with a fractured arm. To keep things all in one piece, he’s racing with five screws and a metal plate in his left arm. “Things are going better, but it still hurts,” Astarloa told the Spanish daily MARCA. “I was with the lead group going up the Cauberg (at Amstel Gold), but I wasn’t in good enough shape to challenge for the win. I was upset, because there are going to be few

It was a long day in the saddle at Brasstown Bald, and not just for the riders. We asked ace shooter Casey Gibson if he'd stick around a little longer than usual to provide us with a photo gallery, and he indulged us. Here's what he sent .

Ivan Stevic must like La Vuelta de Bisbee. The 24-year-old Aerospace Engineering-VMG racer has won all three stages so far in this year’s race, held in and around Bisbee, Arizona. Stevic started his weekend with a win in the Mule Pass Individual Time Trial on Friday, then added insult to injury by winning both stages on Saturday – the morning’s 79.3-mile Sulphur Springs Road Race, outsprinting Scott Blanchard (Eclipse Racing) and David Clinger (Webcor), and the afternoon’s 8.3-mile Warren Time Trial, ahead of Ryan Blickem (Landis-Trek-VW) and Mike Dietrich (Fiordifrutta). The women spread

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Image Files Fleche Wallone/Liege-B-L

Fog

Go Lance

VeloNews

Clearing up

The venue at the Spa Francochamps Formula One circuit outside Liège

As you can see, some parts look better than others ...

... while other parts look even worse than others

Tom Danielson, Lance Armstrong, and Christian Vande Velde: Is Tom ready to Tour?

Danielson rode off the front and stayed there, seizing the stage and the overall lead

Leipheimer tagged along with Danielson, but couldn't hold the pace in the finale

Landis fought valiantly, but was outmanned and outgunned on Brasstown Bald

Health Net worked early for sprinter Henderson

McCartney on the attack

Vande Velde launches, hoping to set up either Julich or Zabriskie

Something you don't see every day: a six-time Tour champ working for a young up-and-comer

Landis and Armstrong were all smiles at the start

But once the gun fired, Discovery went after Landis's jersey with a vengeance ... here, Cruz and Danielson are shown working together

Zabriskie was in the thick of things until the final kilometers

And youngsters Lowe and Raisin continued their struggle for the best young rider title

Image Files Fleche Wallone/Liege-B-L

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Image files - Tour de Georgia Stage 5 and 6

Image files - Tour de Georgia Stage 5 and 6

Rogers photo

Image files - Tour de Georgia Stage 5 and 6

The results sheet for stage 4 of the Dodge Tour de Georgia showed CSC’s Brian Vandborg as the day’s winner. And indeed the Dane did win the wicked 133.4-mile test from Dalton to Dahlonega, finishing in 5:33:02. But the bigger victor on a Friday afternoon where racers were brutalized by wind, rain and hail, was American Floyd Landis.

Last year, Davide Rebellin hit a winning streak that all the pundits thought was once a generation. The Amstel-Flèche-Liège hat-trick had never been done before and no one thought it could be matched anytime soon, certainly not Rebellin himself who said he doubted he could repeat the treble. Now, a year on, and just a week or so after Tom Boonen (Quick Step) delivered the Flanders-Roubaix double, Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) is on the verge of repeating the unrepeatable. The question going into Sunday’s Lìege-Bastogne-Liège is: Who can stop Di Luca? After a frustrating 2004 season, Di

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’s UCI contributions are disturbingEditor:Learning that Lance Armstrong has donated money to the UCI for drug-testing research was disturbing (See Thursday’s Eurofile). It seems like too much of a conflict of interest. I am not surprised that he wanted to keep it quiet, seeing

Stocking up for a day's worth of racing Dalton Georgia native and Credit Agricole rider Saul Raisin has plenty of fans here in Georgia Pate in his new cycling shorts Health Net looking pro It's Earth Day Disco bus gets mobbed at start

Due to health problems, Michael Barry’s book signing following the Tour de Georgia is canceled. Michael Barry will not be present at Sunday’s book signing following the Tour de Georgia due to health reasons. Signed copies of his new book, "Inside the Postal Bus," will still be available for purchase at the Roswell Bicycles booth all day Sunday, while supplies last. Please call Roswell Bicycles at 770-642-4057 for more information on book sales at the event. More information on "Inside the Postal Bus" can be found at VeloGear.com.

The sun was shining from a clear blue sky Friday on the 260km course of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the 91st edition of which takes place on Sunday. It was almost like summer, with early tourists hiking the wooded trails of the Ardennes, anglers out in the trout streams, and cows lounging around their meadows of lush, green grass. But this sort of weather is unusual for Belgium, a country that on average has 203 days of rainfall a year, and only three days of what the locals call “excessive heat” — warmer than 30 degrees C (or 86 degrees F). It was great weather for the 25 teams that will contest

Ivan Stevic (Aerospace Engineering-VMG) and Maatje Benassi (Excel Sports) opened the 27th edition of La Vuelta de Bisbee with victories in the Mule Pass Individual Time Trial on Friday. The prologue climbs 837 feet in just 2.8 miles, and Stevic wasted no time in getting to the finish, clocking a 9:39, nine seconds better than Phil Wong (Fiordifrutta) and 16 faster than Cody Peterson (3D Racing). David Clinger (Webcor) finished 13th, 37 seconds back . In the women's race, meanwhile, Benassi crossed the line in 12:13, 20 seconds ahead of Brooke Ourada (T-Mobile) and a further seven

Gamera? No, chimera

Disco bus

Earth Day

Net bus

Pate

Saul

Supplies

Hail

Vandborg snatches the win from Ekimov

Rubiera clocked in early for a long day at the office

Phonak set about defending Landis's lead

McCartney, meanwhile, was working for The Boss

Landis with Ekimov on his wheel

Armstrong on the ascent

An appreciative public applauds the peloton

There were two definite declarations to be made following the third stage of the Dodge Tour de Georgia in Rome on Thursday. First, if it wasn’t already, American Floyd Landis made it clear that with or without the services of the now-suspended Tyler Hamilton, the future of the Phonak team is in solid hands as it heads into the important months of the 2005 season.

Ivan Stevic (Aerospace Engineering-VMG) and David Clinger (Webcor Builders) headline the pro men’s field in the 27th edition of La Vuelta de Bisbee Stage Race, which kicks off Friday. The three-day, four-stage event in the high-desert terrain of southeastern Arizona features an uphill prologue time trial, two road stages and an individual time trial, with more than 175 miles of racing and 10,000 feet of climbing for the pro/1-2 field. Stevic was the revelation of the Sea Otter Classic road stage race April 14-17 in Monterey, California. The 24-year-old Serb won the stage-2 circuit race and

The smooth running of this year's Giro d’Italia appeared further assured Thursday after an agreement between the race organizers and the 20 ProTour teams who had been threatening to boycott the season’s first grand tour. Giro organizers had been under threat of a possible boycott of the race, which begins in three weeks time in Reggio de Calabria because of a dispute over appearance fees. According to the professional cycling teams' union, represented by Liberty Seguros boss Manolo Saiz and Quick Step's Patrick Lefevere, agreement with Giro d'Italia director Angelo Zomegnan

Paris -- The organizers of the Tour de France have renewed their agreement with VeloNews to produce the North American edition of the Official Tour de France Guide for another two years. The Tour and VeloNews have collaborated on the Guide since 2000. The Official Guide to the Tour de France is a high-quality, perfect-bound magazine of 148 pages that exhaustively previews each year's Tour de France. Appearing in June before each year's race, the Guide is packed with features, photos and stats on the world's largest annual sporting event. And with American hero Lance Armstrong

Landis nails it

Armstrong struggled a bit on Thursday

Armstrong concedes he has work to do before July

Zabriskie

Julich finishes fourth on the day

Baldwin rode well, despite the sketchy conditions.

Landis knew early that he stood a chance to win the stage

Eki', too, had a strong ride.

Last year, Danilo Di Luca could only watch as rival Davide Rebellin inched away to victory on the Huy climb at the end of Flèche Wallone. Fresh off his victory in Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race, Liquigas-Bianchi rider starts Wednesday’s race as one of the favorites but Di Luca said he’s prefer to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège instead. “I won’t look for the victory at all costs. If I happened to be in good position in the final, I will fight,” Di Luca said. “The Flèche’s route is very suitable for me, but I confirm that Liège-Bastogne-Liège is the race I like the more.” Liquigas-Bianchi will come to

Start List - Flèche Wallone, 2005GEROLSTEINER1. Davide Rebellin (I)2. Marcus Fothen (G)3. Andrea Moletta (I)4. Ronny Scholz (G)5. Marco Serpellini (I)6. Fabian Wegmann (G)7. Beat Zberg (Swi)8. Marcus Zberg (Swi)DAVITAMON - LOTTO12. Serge Baguet (B)13. Christophe Brandt (B)14. Cadel Evans (Aus)15. Bjorn Leukemans (B)16. Axel Merckx (B)17. Koos Moerenhout (Nl)18. Wim Van Huffel (B)19. Preben Van Hecke (B)RABOBANK21. Oscar Freire (Sp)22. Erik Dekker (Nl)23. Thomas Dekker (Nl)24. Theo Eltink (Nl)25. LÖwik Gerben (Nl)26. Mickael Rasmussen (Dk)27. Rory Sutherland (Aus)28. Remmert Wielinga

After he won the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday, a rejuvenated and revitalized Danilo Di Luca said that his next goal was this coming weekend’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège. “That’s a race I’ve always dreamed about winning,” he said. So how come he won the Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday? “Good question,” Di Luca replied. “This morning, we decided that we would see what happens in the race. Well, [Jens] Voigt was riding very, very strong in the break. It was the decision of my director [Roberto] Amadio, and me too, to make my teammates ride.”

For the hopeless romantics among us, a victory by Andrea Tafi in the second stage of the Dodge Tour de Georgia would have been a fairy tale with the classic happy-ending. Tafi, the 38-year-old one-time Paris-Roubaix champion and always one of the sport’s most compelling characters, rolling off the front and soloing home for the win in what will be one of his last events as a professional. It was almost too good to be true — and it turns out it was.

Britain’s Nicole Cooke (Safi-Pasta Zara) once again stamped her formidable authority on the longest kilometer in cycling — the infamous Mur de Huy — taking her second win in the women’s Fleche Wallonne in Huy, Belgium on Wednesday. Cooke won her first Fleche Wallonne title in 2003. Round 5 of 11 in this year’s women’s World Cup series, the 8th edition of the Flèche Wallonne Femmes followed the final 105km and six climbs of the 201.5km men’s race. The women’s course eliminates the men’s run from Charleroi to Huy, picking up the course as it loops through the Ardennes south of Huy. On the

One reporter called it "the Black Monday of American cycling." Just like that, in the matter of a few hours on April 18, the U.S. lost two of the best Tour de France riders of a generation. First, Lance Armstrong, the undisputed king of the Tour, announced he’s abdicating the throne after making a run for a seventh crown come July. Then, Tyler Hamilton, heir apparent and former right-hand man, was delivered a devastating two-year racing ban for illegal blood transfusions. If you add in the ProTour ethics code, Hamilton won’t be able to even think about riding the Tour for four years, when