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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.‘Meirhaeghe speaks’ interview stunkEditor:Gotta say, I couldn’t be more disgusted with your magazine – at least, since I decided to stop buying it until it took a more progressive role in helping the sport solve its doping problem. That interview with Filip Meirhaeghe just stunk. How

Petacchi drives to No. 4

Race leader Heras relaxes going into Saturday's mountain stage

The break was doomed from the start – but a guy's gotta try, right?

The peloton kept the break on a short leash on this largely flat stage

And after the usual leadout, Petacchi collected his fourth win of his Vuelta

Roberto Heras insisted that a win on the slopes of Calar Alto wasn’t in his game plan for Thursday. The defending Vuelta a España champion said after winning the 145km 12th stage from Almería to the Observatory complex at Calar Alto that he had simply hoped to “put a little time on some of my main rivals.” Whatever his game plan, the Liberty Seguros team captain found himself putting time on all of his rivals, including Kelme’s Alejandro Valverde and the man who began the day in the leader’s jersey, Floyd Landis of U.S. Postal. Landis finished 3:06 off Heras’s winning time, ending the

Valverde: Hoping to get through itAlejandro Valverde is hopeful he’ll be able to get through Thursday’s brutal climbing stage in the mountains near Almería without too much difficult. The Valenciana-Kelme rider suffered a serious fall early in Tuesday’s stage and showed up for the pre-race sign-in with bandages on his left knee. “I am lucky we had the day off yesterday,” Valverde told VeloNews. “I’m pretty banged up, with the most pain in my knee and my hip. We’ll see how things go but it could be difficult.” Valverde’s crash made national news and some were wondering if he’d be able to

With little fanfare, the Union Cycliste Internationale has ordered a radical change in mountain-bike racing, announcing that in 2005, cross-country racers will no longer be responsible for fixing their own mechanical problems during the World Cup and world championships. The word came down during the recently concluded world championships in Les Gets, France, when UCI mountain-bike coordinator Régis Alexandre told VeloNews associate editor Jason Sumner: “We can't accept that the best rider in the world with a lot of sponsors can lose a race just because of a puncture.” Beg pardon? The

Only two of the five elite American men nominated to the upcoming UCI world road championships in Verona, Italy, have accepted their bids, USA Cycling announced on September 15, leaving speculation on which riders might fill the remaining spots. All five women nominated have confirmed their participation in Verona. USPRO champion Fred Rodriguez (Acqua & Sapone) and 2004 Olympic team member Jason McCartney (Health Net-Maxxis) will compete at the world championships. Tyler Hamilton (Phonak), Bobby Julich (CSC), Levi Leipheimer (Rabobank), and Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie (both of U.S.

San Francisco is one of the most culturally diverse, cosmopolitan cities in North America, and environmentally, it is one of the most beautiful as well. For a cyclist, the beauty of San Francisco is having all the conveniences of a big city, plus great riding to boot. With T-Mobile sponsoring the Grand Prix in San Francisco, I came early to take part in a few media and sponsor events, and managed to squeeze in some enjoyable training each day. We would head towards the Golden Gate Bridge on the Embarcadero, roll across the bridge and then ride up Mount Tamalpais or along the bike path after

Dear Bob,I had my bike stolen yesterday from the enclosed parking garage in my office building. It’s operated by a local company that runs several lots in the San Francisco area. It was locked up to a bike rack bolted to the floor about 30 feet from the lot attendant’s shack. The attendant, by his own admission, watched it happen and didn’t try to stop the guy or call the cops. He said that “customers park at their own risk.” It was a $4000 bike. (I commute in 26 miles one way, so I’m not about to ride a clunker.) Can I sue the building owner or the lot operator?S.M.California Dear S.M.,This

Heras charges off toward a stage win and the overall lead

Valverde

Thursday's Eurofile: Valverde recovering; So is Trenti; Menchov low-key

The gutsy Landis finally slipped back a bit on Thursday

Heras didn't plan to win – but did it anyway

See The Man With No Name out there anywhere?

Liberty went to the front and charged up the final climb

Valverde attacked despite his painful injuries

Heras knows it's a long way to Madrid

Following an out-of-competition test two days before the Mont-Ste-Anne World Cup, the then-reigning world cross-country champion Filip Meirhaeghe found out that he had tested positive for EPO on July 27. Meirhaeghe didn’t fight the result, immediately announcing his retirement from the sport. Since then he’s spent time working on his neighbor’s farm while he tries to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. Meirhaeghe also made a surprise appearance at the world mountain bike championships in Les Gets, France, where he hoped to clear the air with some of his former sponsors and

Two-time Vuelta a España winner Roberto Heras (Liberty (Seguros) appears to be the favorite to join Swiss racer Tony Rominger as the only triple victor after a stage-11 crash left chief rival Alejandro Valverde (Comunidad Valenciana-Kelme) battered and bruised. Wednesday is a rest day in the Vuelta, the first since the tour began September 4 in León, and the teams and race staff will travel from Caravaca to Almería, where Thursday’s decisive mountain stage will start. The 145km route between Almería and Observatorio Astronómico de Calor Alto, with two Category 1 climbs and a beyond-category

Two weeks ago, when we arrived at the start of the Vuelta, we sat down as a team, had a meeting and talked about our goals for the race. The team time trial was our first goal — from there, we would aim for stage victories, first in the field sprints with Max and second as individuals trying to win out of breakaways. Max pointed to the third and 11th stages as ones he was looking to win. The third stage ended up being too hard an uphill sprint for him, and he didn’t make it to the 11th — but Dave did, and he took the stage in his grasp and rode away with the victory. Dave has had a lot of

World champion Igor Astarloa (Lampre) will not be starting the grueling stage 12 of the Vuelta a España on Thursday – instead, he plans to concentrate on defending his title at the world road championships next month. "I need to polish my form with some specific training for (next month's) world championships in Verona." Astarloa told Reuters. "Last year I pulled out two days earlier in the Tour of Spain and won the worlds, so this year I will adopt the same strategy." Hushovd extends contract with Credit AgricoleNorwegian Thor Hushovd has extended his contract with Credit Agricole until

The Shimano “Little 100” is a short-track, 4-team member bicycle relay race for middle school children. It is based on the 50+ year-old “Little 500” event, a premier intramural collegiate cycling event at Indiana University, and is an expansion of the existing “Little 100” junior racing program in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The “Little 100” will be held on a 1/8-mile indoor track at the Denver VeloSwap. Heats for this demonstration event will be held throughout the day. Racers will ride custom single-speed bicycles provided by Indiana University. 2004 Olympic Time Trial Gold Medal winner, Tyler

SOUDERTON, Pa., September 10, 2004—Univest Corporation of Pennsylvania (listed on NASDAQ: UVSP), today announced that Jonathan Vaughters, a former professional rider and a stage winner at the 2001 Tour de France, will lead the Cyclosportif 100K ride at the seventh annual Univest Grand Prix on Saturday, September 18. All proceeds from the ride will benefit the Indian Creek Foundation in Harleysville, Pa. Vaughters, considered one of the greatest mountain racers in U.S. history, was a long-time record holder on the famous Mt. Ventoux (France) climb, a record he set in the 1999 Dauphiné

Friday, September 10, was a day of both good and bad news for the T-Mobile International, now in its fourth year. While Lance Armstrong’s withdrawal due to tendonitis certainly diminished the number of spectators and media attention the race had expected, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s surprising enthusiasm for the event — a lingering question mark following the departure of former Mayor Willie Brown, a major advocate for the costly race — was underlined by Newsom’s announcement that the race would return in 2005 and beyond. As late as August of 2003, the future of that year’s event was

Heras looks good for a third Vuelta

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and some bike racer

It’s as predictable as the swallows to Capistrano: Big tour, flat stage, early break, heart-breaking capture and a field sprint. It happens so often that one begins to wonder, why bother? But every now and then one of those early gambles pays off. This time it was U.S. Postal’s David Zabriskie who hit the jackpot in the 11th stage of the Vuelta a España with an exhausting 161km solo ride to the finish. The win added another to the team’s laurels this Vuelta, as team leader Floyd Landis stayed in the maillot de oro for another day, keeping the jersey in Postal hands, where it’s been since

The United States could host the world cyclo-cross championships within five years and will likely see a World Cup stop as soon as next year. Peter Van den Abeele, the UCI’s cyclo-cross coordinator, says a world championships and a World Cup stop in the United States is a real possibility. “I will be traveling to America and seeing about what kind of interest there is there,” Van den Abeele told VeloNews. “I would like to see a World Cup race in USA sooner, maybe even next season, and why not the world championships? Cyclo-cross is really growing in the United States and I’d like to take the

A spent, salty Zabriskie crosses the line after 160km off the front alone

Valverde crashed shortly after Zabriskie took off

And the peloton waited just a little too long to get serious about chasing . . .

Time trial champ Zabriskie pushed all the way to the line

Race leader Landis, trailing teammate Barry, stayed in the bunch

A weary Zabriskie salutes from the podium

It almost had to be. Not only had Kelme’s Eladio Jimenez won when the 2000 Vuelta finished here at Xorret de Catí, he had done so while working for his then Banesto team leader, the late Jose Maria Jimenez, who won the stage in 1998. On Monday, after winning the tenth stage of the 2004 Vuelta a España, Eladio Jiminez took his laurels from none other than the great 1960s climbing sensation Julio Jimenez. Are we beginning to see a pattern here? Unlike his win in 2000 – a battle of top climbers – Jimenez’s win this time around came at the end of a long, long, break that began in the first

The race is now into the mountains and things are beginning to really shake up in the overall classification. The race is moving along nicely for us as Floyd is in gold and Triki is in the top 10. After their incredible rides in the TT they have managed to maintain their positions at the top of the classification for the last week. It has been an awesome ride for the team so far – we have won a stage and carried the leader’s jersey since the start in Leon. In the time trial it was expected that Victor, Floyd and Dave would ride well but it was a real surprise when Vic finished a close

Jimenez takes his second career victory on this mountain

Two-time world champ Friere was in the sprinters' break on this mountain stage

. . . including Heras, who slipped away with Valverde and Piepoli on the final grind

Mancebo was back in the bunch with the challengers for the overall . . .

Thirsty work for Valverde

Well, they said the Vuelta a España would open up when it hit the hills. It was, after all, in the script. Sunday’s 162km ride from Xátiva to the beyond-category mountaintop finish at Alto de Aitana was put there for a reason, and, simply put, that reason was to shake up the general classification in a way that no stage in this race has thus far managed to do. And it should come as no surprise that it was defending champion Roberto Heras (Liberty Seguros) who did much of the shaking. While he may have finished four seconds in arrears of the day’s winner, Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval),

Gunn-Rita Dahle almost didn’t start the world championships after coming down with a cold following her gold medal performance in Athens, but she’s glad she did. The Norwegian shook off a week in bed and post-Olympic letdown to become the first woman mountain biker to pull off the world title-Olympic champion double. And now she’s a week away from sewing up the World Cup and delivering an unbeatable triple. “Today was a matter of getting rhythm and being very careful with bike,” said Dahle, who covered the 30km course in 2 hours, 2 minutes, 12 seconds. “I felt good from the start and did my

Australian Oenone Wood finished third in the Tour of Nüremberg on Sunday to claim the 2004 women's World Cup title. The ninth and last leg of the series was won by Germany’s Petra Rossner, who outsprinted a 21-rider lead group at the end of the 116.1km race. But the overall title went to Wood, with 334 points. Rossner was second overall with 293, while countrywoman Allemande Angela Brodtka wound up third with 229. Tour de Nuremberg1. Petra Rossner (G), 116km in 2:53:492. Angela Brodtka (G), s.t.3. Oenone Wood (Aus), s.t.Final World Cup overall (after 9 of 9 rounds)1. Oenone Wood (Aus), 334

British national champion Nicole Cooke (Safi Pasta-Zara Manhattan) broke away on the final climb up San Francisco's steep Taylor Street to win the T-Mobile International on Sunday. It was the second consecutive win here for the 21-year-old Cooke, who soloed in for the victory ahead of the charging field in the 51.6-mile race, which started and finished on the Embarcadero, near San Francisco's famous Ferry Building. After Quark’s Manon Jutras spent a lap away with a maximum lead of 50 seconds, the French Canadian was brought back with two laps remaining. T-Mobile’s Dede Barry then

You might think a weekend that included a broken arm for Anne-Caroline Chausson, a DNF for Miguel Martinez and no podiums for Cédric Gracia would be considered a disaster for French mountain biking. And you might think it was even worse when you added in the fact that this was the weekend of the world mountain bike championships — and the event was being held in France. But clearly a new era has dawned for the country that puts on the world’s biggest cycling show each summer. And while the French may continue to search for new stars at their grand tour in July, their fat-tire ranks are thick

The third time was not a charm for Jason McCartney, who was off the front alone and apparently bound for victory in the final miles of the T-Mobile International in San Francisco Sunday. His Health Net-Maxxis team had put five riders - McCartney, Danny Pate, Mike Sayers, John Lieswyn and Mike Jones - into an early 15-man break in the hilly 108.4-mile race, the finale of the 2004 Pro Cycling Tour. With nine 8.8-mile laps and five five-mile laps, the course dished up a total of 23 trips up the steep Fillmore and Taylor Street climbs, peaking at gradients of over 20 percent. Also in the break

A California teen-ager is America's newest national sprint champion as the USCF Elite Track National Championships concluded this weekend at the Superdrome in Frisco, Texas. Eighteen-year-old Michael Blatchford of Cypress, California, began his season by setting records in the 200-meter qualifying rounds at the Pan Am Championships and went on to become the junior national match-sprint champion and the silver medalist in the sprint at the junior world championships. On Friday, he added an elite-level national title to his collection, beating 2004 Olympian Giddeon Massie (Lansdale,

Piepoli pips Heras in the finale

Heras was in the driver's seat on the final climb

Absalon heads to the end of the rainbow.

Frischknecht made the podium once again.

Landis fights his way back to hold onto the overall lead

Heras charges toward the finish with Piepoli in tow

Cardenas and Lastras kept going after Phonak pulled Valjavec back

Barry drives the Postal train

Hamilton shows the strain of a hard day in the hills

Cardena, Lastras and Valjavec

Menchov took a skidder some 10km in, and got back up to finish seventh

Is Blatchford fast?

Fast enough to beat Olympian Massie

Mercy Cycling didn't show any . . .

. . . Mercy beat the TIAA-CREF-5280 duo

Quinn took the scratch race . . .

. . . while Goodwin claimed the keirin

Cooke solos to victory yet again

The Brit just nicked Mayolo-Pic for the win

Dionne repeats in San Francisco

McCartney went long again . . . but this time, it didn't pay off

Postal got busy . . .

. . . but so did Horner and Dionne

And there you have it

Barry climbs

Bessette won the QOM

Jackson attacks

There will not be a ninth elite world downhill title for Anne-Caroline Chausson this year. According to a team staffer the Frenchwoman crashed hard in Saturday morning’s downhill practice session in Les Gets, and will not be able to race in either the downhill of four-cross finals this afternoon. According to the team source, Chausson injured her shoulder and was taken off the course in an ambulance before being transferred to a helicopter for the trip to a nearby hospital. Coming into the day, Chausson was the overwhelming favorite to win both the downhill and four-cross titles, after