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With two more days in the Pyrénées under our belts, we are now on our waytoward the coast and Barcelona on Monday night.On Saturday, we once again started racing fast out of the blocks - notan ideal way to start a stage that has four climbs over 10 km long (see"ONCE'sRodriguez takes stage 8 at Vuelta").  Again, everybody onthe team, save Roberto and Triki, were to follow the attacks and keep therace under control so that they would have a good situation as we nearedthe finish.Forty kilometers into the race we began the big climbs. One after another,they hit us with little recovery in

Dahle rides solo to the World Cup win

World champ Meirhaeghe shows it was no fluke

Valverde showed his quality today

Osa on the attack

Finally finished, Horner could celebrate

Barry was racing to win

A party on the Streets of SF - Postal launches a vicious, but ultimately ineffective, attack.

Sabrina Jonnier and Nathan Rennie are the 2003 World Cup downhill champions, each battling it out on the final run of the season in what were possibly the tightest races in the history of the World Cup. Marla Streb (Luna) and David Vasquez Lopez (MSC Bikes) won their respective races on a muddy, strength-sapping course in Kaprun, Austria, but all attention was on the overall standings. The bottom portion of the course gave many riders problems. If they slid too far down in the final corner, they would get bogged in a swampy dip just before the drop to the finish, with some riders coming to

Someone needs to tell Isidro Nozal he's not supposed to be leading the Vuelta a España. Nozal retained the overall lead in Saturday's eighth stage on a day when all of the Vuelta's main players stayed on equal footing in the four-climb romp across the Pyrénées except U.S. Postal's Manuel Beltran, the one man poised to step into his shoes. Nozal powered the lead group across the line in the sun-blasted Plá de Beret ski area at 3:51 behind stage-winner Joaquin Rodriguez (ONCE-Eroski). Beltran couldn't match the accelerations initiated by a re-energized Aitor Gonzalez (Fassa Bortolo) and lost

The four-cross has been canceled at the World Cup final. Despite using a helicopter to dump gravel on the lower part of the course on Friday, the officials decided that the course was still too dangerous at the top, where no gravel was spread. The decision was not well received – many riders had come to Kaprun just to race the four-cross only to find themselves left with no event. There have been problems with the course since it was built. The organizer simply removed the top layer of grass without packing down the topsoil underneath, and during the past week of rain the course degenerated

Defending Vuelta champion Aitor Gonzalez has had a season he'd like to forget. Now he's making a Vuelta he wants to remember. Although he won a stage at the Giro d'Italia, Gonzalez couldn't deliver the big win for his Fassa Bortolo team. Then his Tour de France was short-circuited by a virus that ran through the Fassa team and sent everyone home early except Ivan Basso and two teammates. Going into the Vuelta's second week, Gonzalez is slowly coming back to life, and he let the peloton see it on the Col del Portillón at 120km into Saturday's eighth stage when he rode strongly over the steep

The Bay Area is heating up as riders from across the globe have amassed in San Francisco for the T-Mobile International, an event that, in just its third year, is being hailed as the strongest field ever assembled on American soil. Organized and directed under San Francisco Cycling LLC, a joint cooperative of Tailwind Sports, the management company that runs the U.S. Postal Service Cycling Team, and Threshold Sports, organizing body of the Pro Cycling Tour, the event has again drawn Postal’s Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, as well as first-time appearances from two-time Giro

The four-cross course was so deadly that Carter was forced to ride it in his undies

Jonnier took second and the overall

Rennie's third place was good enough to claim the Cup

Who'da thunk it? Nozal maintains his lead

Teammate Rodriguez wins the stage

Beltran's in striking distance, but says Heras is the man

A revitalized Gonzales on the attack

Perez leads an assault on the front-runners

Vinokourov, signing autographs for attractive, adoring fans.

95 degrees in the shade

Fraser (1) after the crash

Team Genesis-Scuba’s Candace Blickem, Sue Palmer-Komar and Iona Wynter.

Ken Ilegems, Telekom mechanic, puts the touch on team bikes. “We didn’t bring 27-tooth cogs,” Ilegems said. “The team rode the course today, and now we are looking for them.”

With five kilometers to go to victory in Friday’s difficult four-climb stage, Michael Rasmussen knew he had it in the bag. The former mountain bike world champion held off a counter-attack from U.S. Postal’s Manuel Beltran and Cofidis’ Luis Perez on the Category 1 summit finish to the Cauterets Cam-Basque ski station and slipped across the line to win the seventh stage of the Vuelta a España. “This is a dream come true for me, to win a stage with a mountain top finish in a grand tour,” said Rasmussen, who won in 5 hours, 1 minute, 14 seconds. “By far this is the most important victory of my

Jan Ullrich, second in the Tour de France this year, said he is aiming to win a triple of the Tour, the Giro d'Italia and to defend his Olympic title during the next three years. "First I would like another victory in the Tour de France," said the 1997 Tour winner said on his website Friday. "The Giro is important for me, too. The last time I raced in the event I vowed I would return and win it. I would also like to defend my gold medal at next year's Athens Olympics." The 29-year-old Ullrich, winner of the Olympic road race in Sydney, surprised many by making the 2003 Tour de France a real

Michael Rasmussen's big win in Friday's seventh stage of the Vuelta a España further reinforces his belief that he made the right decision to leave behind mountain bike racing at the end of the 2000 season and take a chance on the road. While bigger names such as Cadel Evans and Miguel Martinez have garnered more attention in their transition from fat to skinny tires, Rasmussen's proven the most successful. He scored a big victory in the "queen's stage" of the 2002 Tour of Burgos and capped his conversion with the historic win Friday. "This is the Formula 1 of bicycle racing. It's the best

The international mountain bike season will slide to a wet and muddyfinish this weekend with the World Cup Final in Kaprun, Austria, site ofthe last year's world championships. Nearly all of the teams and riders have arrived from the world’s inLugano, Switzerland to pre-ride the courses. Unfortunately, it is raining,and been doing so for most of the week, with no relief in sight. Indeed,so much rain had fallen by Friday, that the UCI was still debating whetheror not to even run the 4-cross final, because course conditions were sobad. This does not bode well for the weekend - last year, rain

The first time trial is over, we are in the Pyrénées, and the race for the overall is starting to sort itself out. The two big tests for the team leaders have taken place over the past two days: a time trial and a hard mountain stage. Thankfully, our leaders have come out near the top in both tests. Yesterday’s time trial looked easy on paper. The profile showed a flat course on straight roads with a few 180-degree turns in the center of the roadway. We woke up to howling gale-force winds, and when Floyd, Roberto and Triki returned from previewing the course the warning was that it was

Friday's escape.

Nozal still up there.

Perez, Beltran and Cardenas

Fixing the 4-Cross

Coffee with the rainbow club

The Vuelta a España always serves up surprises and Isidro Nozal’s winning ride in Thursday’s 43.8km individual time trial ranks as the biggest so far this year. To be sure, Nozal promised he’d put everything into defending his 50-second hold on the race leader’s jersey, but no one expected him to do it in such dominant fashion. Not even Nozal himself. “I thought I had good chances to limit my losses and keep the jersey, but I never dreamed of winning like this,” said Nozal, who powered through fierce winds to beat David Millar by an impressive 1 minute, 20 seconds. Nozal, whose lone

Dear Bob;I was hit by a car while riding my bike. The driver had insurance,but his insurance company told me that while I can get my medical billspaid, I can’t collect for anything else because I chose the “verbal threshold”on my car insurance. How can my policy affect my ability to recover againstthe other driver?B.G.,New JerseyDear B.G.,Unfortunately, it may be difficult for you to sue the driver or hisinsurance company in New Jersey for so-called non-economic medical injuries—whichinclude such things as pain and suffering, scarring, loss of sexual functioning,or even the temporary loss of

I had an incredible week between the two mountain-bike world championships. It was very hectic, but I enjoyed every minute of being the marathon world champion. I can't really say I was recovered perfectly, but I had big motivation to give it all again in the cross country. Unfortunately, my race went wrong before it even started. The UCI was too lazy to update the world-ranking list after the marathon world championship, which had a huge impact for me. With my points from the marathon I should have been ranked as the best Swiss rider and started in the first row. Instead, I was 11th,

Frischy had a bad start and a disappointing finish in the cross-country ... but he's still the marathon world champ

That hurt!

Millar's time stood up to all but one

Gonzalez rode well, but couldn't match Millar and Nozal.

Landis finished in 30th at 4:33

Galdeano was expected to end the day in gold

Two-time Vuelta winner Alex Zülle (Phonak) finished 13th

The king is dead; long live the king No, those weren’t obscene gestures from Alessandro Petacchi as he roared across the finish line victorious in Wednesday’s 165km fifth stage of the Vuelta a España. Two fingers, then six and another four followed by another two -- that was Petacchi’s version of sign language for what has been his history-making season. Petacchi became the first rider in history to win at least two stages in every major tour and wanted the rest of the world to know. “I made signs to show that it wasn’t by chance that I won. If you win once you can say it’s just luck,”

Roland Green (Trek-VW), the former world cross-country mountain-bike champion and World Cup champ, is heading home from Europe and will skip this week's World Cup final in Kaprun, Austria. According to his team manager, Eric Wallace, "the prostate infection he has had is not clearing up, and the course of antibiotics he is on means that he is tired and unable to sleep. We decided that it was best just to send him home so that he can get healthy for the road world’s." Green has been named to the Canadian time-trial squad for the world road championships in Hamilton, where he will join

With two stage wins and the points jersey lead to his credit, Alessandro Petacchi vows he won’t abandon the Vuelta a España as the race heads Friday into three decisive and very difficult climbing stages in the Pyrenees. Petacchi was heavily criticized after abandoning the Tour de France in the opening mountain stage in the Alps, pulling out on the first major climb of the race after winning four stages and controlling the points jersey. “I like this jersey a lot and I want to arrive in Madrid to win the jersey,” Petacchi said after winning Wednesday’s fifth stage. “This is like the jersey

For the last two stages we have had 54 tooth chainrings fitted on our bikes. On Tuesday we left the coast and headed directly south towards Burgos. The wind howled at our backs as we headed inland towards the center of the country. Thankfully, we had those bigger gears on our bikes, as we were often rolling along in the 54x11 at 70kph. Tuesday’s stage was nervous from the start, as everybody was anticipating a battle for the front on the hills and in the wind. Racing in a nervous peloton drains your energy. We were constantly fighting to push to the front and keep everybody together and

Quite a bit of attention is being given to this weekend’s T-Mobile International (formerly the San Francisco Grand Prix). With Tour winner Lance Armstrong, Alexander Vinokourov (Telekom), Gilberto Simoni (Saeco) and Stefano Garzelli (Vini Caldirola-Sidermec) expected, the demanding course should be as exciting as a World Cup event. “Possibly the best field ever gathered in the U.S. for a one-day race,” suggested T-Mobile’s sports manager Herwig Reus. But for all the attention that is being paid to the men’s race, it should be noted that the women’s field stands to see some of the bigger

Dear Monique:What is your opinion regarding the effect of sodium phosphate loadingon cycling performance for a time trial?Thanks,LKDear LK;Sodium phosphate is a phosphate salt, and phosphate salts can playan important role in metabolism at it relates to sports performance. Phosphatesalts may buffer lactic acid and produce energy via the oxygen energy system-and consequently enhance performance during aerobic endurance activities.The important questions regarding the use of phosphate salts are the following.Does the research support that phosphate salt loading actually improvesperformance? Are

Madrid bound?

A long finish line celebration today

The escape

Bobby J and the Telekom squad in pursuit

Nozal gets another day in the jersey

That's us on Stage 4...

...and us on Stage 5.

Barry on the bus

Winning a stage in any grand tour used to be a big deal for the Euskaltel-Euskadi team until the orange-clad Basques barnstormed through this summer’s Tour de France. Haimar Zubeldia and Iban Mayo were the Tour revelations, with Mayo winning at Alpe d’Huez and Zubeldia and Mayo finishing 5-6, respectively. Since both have pulled the plug on their seasons, stage victories might be all Euskaltel can hope for in the 2003 Vuelta a España. Euskaltel worked two riders into the winning move Tuesday and Unai Etxebarria slipped away from an eight-man break with just under 15km to go in the 151km

Australian Cadel Evans (Telekom) has retired from the Vuelta a España after breaking his collarbone in a fall, it was revealed on Tuesday. The former mountain bike World Cup champion, considered an outside bet for overall victory, did not start the fourth stage from Santander to Burgos following a fall in the closing stages of Monday’s race in rainy conditions. The Australian, who had been ambitious to excel in stage races –even leading the 2002 Giro d’Italia for a day - has had an unfortunate season, breaking his collarbone three times this year, first at the Amstel Gold race in April and

French rider Pierrick Fedrigo (Credit Agricole) won the 136km sixth stage of the Tour of Avenir from Saint Flour to Mende on Tuesday. Spanish rider Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel) retained the overall lead. Ullrich expected to sign with Bianchi Despite threats to move to another team, Tour de France runner-up Jan Ullrich is expected to sign a three-year contract extension with Bianchi. Ullrich, 29, has complained that he needs a stronger team if he wants to dethrone Lance Armstrong in next year’s Tour. His former Telekom team came out last week with public comments that he’s welcome back at the

First off, let's correct an oversight:Last week when I mentioned ceramic bearings (see "TechnicalQ&A with Lennard Zinn: Campy's Carbon Clincher"), I forgotto mention Zipp’s ceramic bearings in the Z3. I wrote about it in a "TourTech" report during this year's Tour de France.--LennardKeeping a classic on the trailsDear Lennard;My question concerns my desire to keep my old Bridgestone MB1 runningas a single speed. I'm afraid during the five years of hard use it underwent,it developed quite a bad case of "indexed steering" and an inability tokeep the headset tight. My local shop informed me that

I just got back to VeloNews's almost fully re-carpeted headquartersafter a bit of time over in Europe covering the 2003 Eurobike trade show.My first time to the show, I was impressed by the superb organization (those crafty Germans!) of the event. Promoters had the foresight to place similar categories of product ineach of the halls (for example, clothing was mostly in one hall, whileItalian manufacturers were mostly placed in another). This organization made the show easier to digest for us ever-complaining journalists as well as the attending professionaland citizen crowds. Look for

Evans on Monday, after his crash

The break

Evans on Monday

Jeker

The jersey is still in ONCE's hands

FIR was just one of a few compaines exhibiting all-carbon clincher wheelsets