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The six-race Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross kicks off Saturday, with top 'cross racers from across the country convening in Portland, Oregon, for the first event, the Cannondale Stümptown Gran Prix. Racing continues Sunday in Tacoma, Washington, at the Clif Bar Grand Prix of cyclo-cross. "We're excited that the first weekend of the inaugural Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross has finally arrived,” said Paul Salvucci, director of operations for the series. “It's expected that there will be a great turnout of racers cranking up the competitive heat to the delight of the

Tell the world what you think

Interbike: Well worth the effort

Gravy

Get them out on the road!

Light and beautiful

Interbike: Well worth the effort

Interbike: Well worth the effort

Zabel out for seasonErik Zabel won’t be lining up to defend his title in Sunday’s Paris-Tours World Cup stop. The German ace broke his heel after falling off a ladder in his home in Unna, Germany. “That puts an end to my season. It is annoying. I was in good form and well-prepared for the Paris-Tours World Cup race,” said the 34-year-old Zabel. T-Mobile team doctors said no surgery is necessary, but it means an early end to Zabel’s season. “Basically the injury is a bone splinter on his heel,” explained team physician Andreas Schmid from the University Clinic in Freiberg. “The injury will

“That last shot turned out like crap,” the shop owner from Ohio said. “Can we take another one?” Towering over the shop owner and his mechanic, Magnus Bäckstedt rested his arms over the shoulders of the two men and smiled. “Thank you! And congratulations on Paris-Roubaix!” “Thank you,” Bäckstedt said and waved. “You know, I’m just not used to this,” he said, ducking out of a booth at the Interbike Trade Show in Las Vegas. “It’s great, but I’m not even too sure how I’m supposed to respond when they tell me what a great rider I am.” Bäckstedt said he has been somewhat overwhelmed by this,

Bäckstedt was surprised at the reception he's received in the U.S.

Bringing kids into the sport is one of Bäckstedt's big interests

Day two of the 2004 Interbike Exposition kicked-off with hundreds of enthusiastic retailers packing shuttle busses and heading 35 miles out of Las Vegas for another day of road, mountain and ‘cross bike test rides in the Nevada desert. With attendance numbers nearing and possibly surpassing last year’s numbers at the increasingly popular Outdoor Demo, manufacturers were kept busy setting up rides on Bootleg Canyon’s miles of tricky singletrack and twisty paved roads. Here’s a look at what made news today. Giant NewsOne thing is standard at Interbike, no matter what the year. It’s the

Chris Horner’s wish to return to the European peloton came true sooner than expected. Moments after crossing the finish line in Verona’s world championships, Horner told VeloNews he was hoping to sign a contract with the Spanish team Saunier Duval as soon as that night. He even joked he wanted to stay in Europe and race in the season’s final two World Cups. “I’d love [them to] slap me on some colors and go ahead and do Paris-Tours and Lombardia,” Horner said. Well, it appears that’s just what’s going to happen. The deal is signed and Horner is set to debut with Saunier Duval at Paris-Tours

The doors of the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas opened up Tuesday morning to the usual swarm of retailers looking for stock, manufacturers looking for customers and bike racers looking for contracts. (We won’t mention the usual gang looking for swag.) Two steps into the hall, many were surprised to spot Tyler Hamilton already cruising the aisles, greeting sponsors, working the crowd and signing autographs. The American Olympic gold medalist decided that even after his positive blood test at the Vuelta a España that he would be attending the trade show. "People say you're crazy to go

Interbike: Another day in the dirt

Interbike: Another day in the dirt

'See anything cool yet?' Yes, as a matter of fact, we did.

The brothers Crank

The brothers' crank

Interbike: Celeb's; bikes; retro' Ti?

Interbike: Celeb's; bikes; retro' Ti?

Interbike: Celeb's; bikes; retro' Ti?

Interbike: Celeb's; bikes; retro' Ti?

Interbike: Celeb's; bikes; retro' Ti?

Interbike: Celeb's; bikes; retro' Ti?

Interbike: Celeb's; bikes; retro' Ti?

Interbike: Celeb's; bikes; retro' Ti?

Five years away from the trade show and Bagny hasn't missed a beat

The first of two days of the Interbike Outdoor Demo kicked off on Monday, October 4 without a hitch. This was the second year at the Bootleg Canyon venue above Boulder City, NV and overlooking Lake Mead. The trail system is extensive and challenging and keeps growing, unlike the previous location, which was threatened by development and would continue shrinking until it disappeared. This year, in addition to cross-country trails, downhill trails, a BMX loop, and various large man-made jumps of different sizes, there is a cyclo-cross trail with obstacles to mimic a European ‘cross course

Seattle— RacerMate, Inc., of Seattle, Washington, manufacturer of the CompuTrainer electronic bicycle training system, will stage 4-rider indoor bike races at each of the 2004 VeloSwaps scheduled for Denver, October 23, Chicago, October 30, and San Francisco, November 13. 10km/6.4-mile races will be held throughout the day to showcase RacerMate's new MultiRider Software which allows up to 8 riders to race together using a single PC computer. Cyclists, celebrities and journalists are invited to participate in the CompuTrainer Indoor Time Trials VeloSwap Challenge to get an understanding of

Doug Bradbury

The 'Eli'

Tomac and friend

The Cake

Mechanics test their skills

Rest and RecoveryDear Joe and Dirk,Help me understand "recovery days." I know what all the training manuals,including yours, say, and my body sure seems to need them. My problem is,I never hear about pros having them. Every time I read about a pro's trainingschedule, it involves riding three to six hours a day, and none of it soundseasy. I asked a member of Sierra Nevada, our local pro team, about recoverydays and he looked at me like I was insane. Or, read Bob Roll's descriptionof training with Lance for a week in "Bobke 2" -- no recovery days there,I'll tell you. So are the pros just

The "Weekend 'Cross Wrap" is a service of VeloNews.com.Stories and results are provided by race promoters and are not producedby VeloNews or VeloNews.com. Promoters are welcome to submit race reportsthroughout the cyclo-cross season to Rosters@7Dogs.com.Reports may be edited for length and clarity.

The Mail Bag 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.Hey, how ‘bout that Horner!!!?Editors,I just wanted to make your readers aware that Chris Horner got eighthplace in this year’s World Championship Road Race (see "Three'sa charm: Freire earns his third rainbow jersey"). I am tired ofthis guy getting results with all odds against him and

How satisfying it must feel to be Oscar Freire when the days grow shorter and the leaves begin to turn. There’s something extra gratifying about winning the last big event of the year, when instead of just getting back to work in the following weeks, you can enjoy the success in the quiet off-season. Winning the world championships is cycling’s version of a walk-off homer, the buzzer beating swish. And no one in today’s pro ranks does it better than Freire, a Spaniard who put his name alongside cycling legends Alfredo Binda, Rik Van Steenbergen and Eddy Merckx by winning his third world road

As Freire wins, Horner's big grin shines through from the back

Le Mevel got the attacks started

Spain in charge

Favored for a medal, Bettini's day did not go as planned.

Baldwin was in the break

Rafaá Chtioui dropped like a rock off the final passage over the Torricelli climb to electrify an already attack-riddled junior men's road race Saturday and make history. The tall, gangly Tunisian didn’t win. That honor went to calculating Czech rider Roman Kreuziger, but Chtioui took second and became the first African rider to win a world road championship medal. “All of Tunisia is smiling with me now,” said the happy 6-foot-3 18-year-old from a suburb of Tunis. “It’s the first time a Tunisia has won anything in cycling and it’s the first time an African has won a medal. I am very

The European Union's top court has thrown out a complaint by two swimmersthat the International Olympic Committee's anti-doping rules infringedtheir EU right to work.Spain's David Meca-Medina and Slovenia's Igor Majcen, two professional long-distance swimmers, once banned from international competition for two years on doping charges, argued that the IOC's rules were discriminatory and excessive.But in a ruling issued Thursday the Court of First Instance said that two simply had no case."They (anti-doping measures) are intended to preserve the spirit of fair play," the court ruled.

Apparently we Americans have a rhotic “r.” No, not an E-rotic “r,” a rhotic “r,” meaning we have a hard pronunciation of the letter “r.” British and other English dialects do not have this cat-like growl. Maybe we are more animalistic in this linguistic isolation. I would say we are more barbaric. Barrrrbarick. I’ll tell you one thing, I feel barbaric scrapping for a piece of bread in this biketalk fixed-gear haven. Portland is the only place where fashion is determined by retro bike hats and messenger gear, a quasi-ethereal ideal world for us vane legged fanatics. In a way the bicycle

Nursing a five-second lead with 3km to go, the real question for Judith Arndt wasn’t whether she was going to win the elite women’s world championship race in Verona, Italy, but which finger she was going to raise coming across the line. Few forget Arndt’s finish-line gesture at the Athens Olympics, when she flipped the bird as she came across the line second because she was angry German teammate Petra Rosner was left off the team. With Rosner now quietly retired, the 28-year-old Arndt attacked on the final descent off the Torricelle climb midway through the final 14.75km lap of the

UCI president Hein Verbruggen had a message to renegade bike races threatening to derail his baby: The ProTour will start in 2005 whether you like it or not. Of course, Verbruggen hasn’t risen so high in international sport without being diplomatic. While the daggers still seem to be drawn in the power struggle between the UCI and cycling’s grand tours, Verbruggen was all smiles when he tried to gloss over differences threatening to derail major changes to cycling’s international calendar. “The ProTour is beyond the point of no return,” Verbruggen told a packed press conference Saturday

All of Tunisia is smiling

Kreuziger takes junior road race in Verona

Tina Mayolo didn't make the final selection Saturday

Arndt takes a risk

Edita Pucinskaite gives chase

After three days of time trial competition in Bardolino, Italy, road racing at the 2004 world championships got underway on a foggy Friday morning in the city of Verona. The first to don the rainbow stripes in Verona was Marianne Vos of the Netherlands, the winner of the 73.75km junior women’s road race. On a course similar to the one used in 1999, when road world’s were last held here, Vos won on a solo breakaway after escaping 8km from the finish near an ancient Roman arena in Verona’s Piazza Brà. After several attempts by others to get away on the Torricelle climb, the main obstacle in

Team officials announced Friday that Italian Saeco and Lampre squads will join forces in 2005 to ensure a position in the troubled UCI ProTour. Officials from both sides met Thursday in Bologna to finalize the plans. Lampre president Emanuele Galsbusera and Saeco president Sergio Zappella have agreed to fuse the teams ahead of the proposed ProTour. The planned renovation of cycling's international calendar is undergoing a difficult birth. A scheduled press conference Friday was postponed until Saturday as UCI officials and representatives from the renegarde grand tours tried to hammer out a

Doctor Michele Ferrari, who has worked with several top cyclists including six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, was found guilty of sporting fraud and given a 12-month suspended sentence by a court in Bologna, Italy, on Friday. However Ferrari, the former doctor of several cycling teams - most notably Gewiss in the mid 1990's - was acquitted of distributing doping products which could endanger health. Just 10 days ago, Italian prosecutor Lorenzo Gestri had recommended a 14-month prison sentence for Ferrari for administering performance-enhancing substances to cyclists. On

After producing two solo wins in two races on the opening day of the road racing portion of the world road and time trial championships in Verona, Italy, on Friday, it’s clear that the course, with its punchy climb up the Torricelle, can be selective. In Friday afternoon’s race, the little known Belarussian Kanstantsin Siutsou became the latest gold medalist after winning with flair in the under-23 men’s road race. Siutsou, impressive in the manner in which he stood up to the powerhouse squads including Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia and Spain among others, outlasted everyone to

Wow, is it really October already? I guess it must be, from today’s activity in my checking account. Judging from the automatic deposit of my twice-a-month paycheck, and my impending automatic mortgage payment, it must be the beginning of the month again. Between debit and credit cards and online payments, it’s amazing how you never actually even see your money these days. Then again, the way I tend to blow through cash when it’s in hand, I suppose that’s a good thing.

The Mail Bag 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.Dario, Dario, say it ain't so DarioAn open letter to Dario Cioni: I believe in you!!!!!It is absolutely unbelievable that Dario has been declared unfit torace (see "Cioniout of world's" in Friday's EuroFile). He works so hard and everythingI know about Dario Cioni leads me to believe

The Professional Cycling Council (CCP), one of the most influential decision-making bodies in the sport, announced Friday that the impending ProTour series would now include 20 and not 18 teams. The CCP's decision here at the world cycling road race championships follows a request by the International Association of Professional Cycling Teams (AIGCP) to increase the number of teams to 20 in 2005 instead of 2006, as was initially planned. It means the likes of Saeco, which announced its merger with Lampre on Friday, will be virtually assured of a place and other teams can aspire to join

Crank Brothers cyclocross series takes on European flairBOSTON – Reigning Italian national champion Daniele Pontoni is planningto race all six events in the inaugural Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix ofCyclocross, bringing all the luster of a former two-time world championto the series, which kicks off on Saturday Oct. 9th with the CannondaleStumptown Cyclocross Classic, in Portland, Oregon.Pontoni, who finished fourth in the World Championship last February,is no stranger to either the American cyclocross scene or the North Americanfavorites. He raced here in Supercup events in 1999 and 2000,

MORGAN HILL, CA –October 1st, 2004.  The Gerolsteiner Teamhave selected Specialized as their bicycle supplier of choice for 2005and beyond. The partnership ensures that Specialized S-Works bikes willbe present and highly visible in all Pro Tour cycling events in comingyears, including the Giro, Tour, Vuelta, and every major internationalrace. The team is presently third in UCI rankings and boasts World Cupleader Davide Rebellin and USA standout Levi Leipheimer, who will ridewith Specialized optics as well as the team frame.As the agreement between the German-based team and the Morgan Hill

A classic setting for the road opener

Simeoni (front) now says his testimony was worth the cost

Found guilty of malpractice, Ferrari leaves the courtroom in Bologna.

Dekker takes the sprint for second.