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MTB News and Notes: Moving on and breaking out

O’Neill in front of the Natural History Museum in Manhattan, his last day in the “halo” neck brace.

Dear MoniqueI have several triathlons still ahead of me this season and was wonderinghow I should eat for my taper. My upcoming races include one Olympic distanceand half-Ironman distance. How do my energy needs change during a taper?I believe they must be lower. I still need to consume plenty of carbs toglycogen load, don’t I?Thanks,CGWisconsinDear CG;When preparing for any type of race- whether a triathlon, mountainbike race, road race, or adventure race, a taper or 24 hours of rest givesyour muscles a break, keeps you from burning more fuel stores, and allowsyou to replenish your muscle

Team CSC’s Tyler Hamilton received 15 stitches in his left hand after crashing hard in Wednesday’s second stage of the Tour of Holland, but didn’t seriously injure his hip as initially feared. “No broken bones but the cut was bad enough to receive 15 stitches, so it was pretty bad,” said Team CSC’s sport director Sean Yates. “He didn’t break his hip, but it’s very sore and he can hardly walk.” Hamilton went down less than 10km to go and crossed the finish line in a gruesome image with blood splattered on his bicycle and team jersey. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment and

Just back from the final round of the NORBA NCS Series, held in Durango, Colorado, and I think I can speak for my fellow VeloNews associates Miguel Santana and Jason Sumner that the weekend was a complete jam. The three of us managed to sandwich the race coverage with a few fun mountain-bike rides and the occasional visit to a few of the local taverns. The racing was exciting, particularly in the spectator-friendly men’s short track and mountain cross. RLX Ralph Lauren rider Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski’s suicidal move between Geoff Kabush (Kona-Clark’s) and the barriers in the final 10 meters

Horgan-Kobelski left it all on the STXC course

A bike is born: Brown's funky ride

Sydor gives Haywood the thumbs-up

The Durango fans were really into the racing

Lusby atop Mount Evans

Magen Long, at the Cascade Classic

Alessandro Petacchi picked up where he left off in the Tour de France, sprinting to victory in the opening stage of the 43rd Tour of Holland. Petacchi won four stages before packing it in at the Tour and returned to racing Tuesday against an elite group of sprinters with the same result. A breakaway was reeled in just 15km from the finish to set up the mass gallop and Petacchi showed he's a man for all seasons. Petacchi edged Erik Zabel (Telekom) and Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Domo) to score his 18th win of the season and grab the race leader's jersey as well. In addition to his four wins at the

Dear Lennard,Do I have to buy Campy's new tool to properly install the new PermaLinkin a Campy 10-speed chain? I do have a Shimano 9-speed and Park 9-speedchain tools on hand.MortDear Mort,You can do it with a standard chain tool, but you have to be extremelycareful with alignment of the two chain ends with each other, somethingwhich Campy’s new tool ensures. I have done it many times with a Shimanochain tool without problems. By the way, it is just a pin, albeit it avery precisely shaped one, not a PermaLink anymore.LennardThere's gotta be an easier way to do thisDear Lennard,After a bad

Petacchi picks up right where he left off.

Just moments after finishing second in Sunday’s Championship of Zürich, Bianchi’s Jan Ullrich said he won’t be starting next month’s Vuelta a España. The 29-year-old German was expected to start the Vuelta, but will instead prepare for the world championships. Vuelta officials announced earlier that Ullrich was likely to start the season’s last grand tour (Sept. 6-28), but Ullrich said Sunday he will train at home as well as race the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt (Sept. 17-21) in Germany to prepare for the worlds in Hamilton, Canada. “The Spanish tour would make excessive demands of me after

Athens Olympic organizers have started to fight their way back to the good graces of the international sporting community after a long weekend of successful test events that has partly made up for the earlier disastrous start to the Games trials. While criticism and post-mortems on setbacks earlier this month in the test program still went on, hard-pressed organizers of next year's Games won a little bit of breathing room on Sunday. "We know we made mistakes at the start but we think we have started to come back," an Athens Games official said. In the first week of the test events,

Daniele Nardello (Telekom) held off a late charge by Jan Ullrich (Bianchi) with just 2km to go in Sunday's eighth round of the World Cup series to win the 236.6km Championship of Zurich. Nardello jumped away from a lead group of 18 riders with 9km to go in the closing flat along Lake Zurich while the lead group sent off dozens of unsuccessful counterattacks in a cat-and-mouse game that favored the Italian. Ullrich punched the accelerator with just under 2km to go, but it was too late. Nardello won in five hours, 55 minutes and 30 seconds with an average speed of 39.932 kph to deliver his

A dramatic day of short track racing at the NORBA series finals in Durango, Colorado, saw two Americans enter the day leading the overall series, with one just managing to keep the title and the other watching it slip away in the final seconds. Canadian Seamus McGrath (Haro-Lee Dungarees) took a runaway victory in the men’s NORBA short track final Sunday, and with American series leader Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (RLX Ralph Lauren) unable to stay in the top-three after a gripping finish line crash, McGrath climbed high enough to take the series title as well. Coming into the final lap of a

You’ve got to feel for Chris Kovarik. Three times now the Australian has entered the final day of the NORBA NCS series with the overall lead and three times he has finished the day without the overall crown. Instead it was South African Greg Minnaar grabbing the series prize, after the Haro-Lee Dungarees rider finished second to Kovarik’s third at Durango Mountain Resort in southwest Colorado. That meant the pair finished deadlocked atop the final overall standings, but with Minnaar owning the advantage Sunday, the tiebreaker fell his way. “I had a mistake free run, but it was on a wet

A year ago, when Kevin Monahan crossed the line at the USPRO Criterium Championship in Downers Grove, everything was up in the air. After a late-race crash took out half the field, Henk Vogels took the race win, with Monahan and Robbie Ventura (U.S. Postal Service) in a photo finish for second place. What a difference a year makes. After winning the race outright, Monahan began the celebration almost immediately, riding up and down Main St. Downers Grove and high fiving the crowd. It capped a day that saw another repeat victory – Tina Mayolo Pic (Diet Rite) taking the women’s crown – and

Nardello outlasts a late charge from Ullrich

Bettini was content to let others make the race

Hincapie made two bids for freedom

Nardello burns his matches

Ullrich was a marked man

McGrath leads Horgan-Kobelski on the first lap

Horgan-Kobelski running his bike across the finish line

Men's 2003 short track overall champs, from left: Chris Sheppard, Paul Rowney, Seamus McGrath, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Geoff Kabush

Sydor makes it two in a row

Women's 2003 short track overall champs, from left: Dara Marks, Chrissy Redden, Sue Haywood, Katerina Hanusova, Mary McConneloug

Minnaar toasts teammate Seamus McGrath, who won the short track overall.

Kovarik nearly caught the rider in front of him.

Carter and Streb are the national champs.

Griffiths soaks in the glory.

Looks can be deceiving, especially when it comes to one of the most volatile weather locations in the U.S. With 70-degree temperatures and light winds at the bottom of the Mount Washington Auto Road, it looked like the 600-plus racers would have a relatively pleasant trip up the 7.6-mile ascent. But the final 2.5 miles found riders battered by 50-mph winds and blinded by near-whiteout fog. The weather took the steam out of Tom Danielson’s assault on his year-old course record, though the Saturn rider did win the race for the second year in a row. Danielson dropped the field in the first 500

Two dominating rides — one by Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and the other by Luna rider Shonny Vanlandingham — capped off the NORBA cross-country series final in Durango, Colorado on Saturday. Hesjedal’s win, by a 1:07 margin, secured the overall NORBA series title, while RLX-Ralph Lauren rider Jimena Florit, eighth on the day, took the women’s overall honors for the second consecutive year. In the national title chase, Florit’s teammate Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski clinched a second consecutive title of his own, finishing third on the day, while Seven Cycles’ Mary McConneloug was

Angel Edo of Spain won the penultimate stage of the Tour of Portugal on Saturday. He covered the 130km ride from Mondim de Basto to Favaios in a provisional time of 3:19:13. Danail Petrov of Bulgaria was second. Portuguese Nuno Ribeiro, who finished third in the stage, retained the yellow jersey as overall leader. Sunday’s final stage will be a 36.7km time trial in Viseu. Results1. Angel Edo (Sp), Milaneza-MSS, 130km in 3:19:13. (average speed: 39.153 km/h)2. Daniel Petrov (Bul), at 0:013. Nuno Ribeiro (Por) s.t.4. Claus Moller (Den), at 0:045. Pedro Arreitunandia (Sp), at

Judith Arndt (Nürnberger) easily won Saturday’s penultimate stage of the Grande Boucle Féminin, a 36.2km individual time trial in Flers. The German finished nearly a minute faster than Russian Olga Zabelinskaïa and 1:43 ahead of Swiss Susanne Ljungskog. Overall leader Joane Somarriba of Spain, who finished fourth on the day, consolidated her position on GC; she seems unlikely to lose her lead in Sunday’s final stage, which concludes in Paris. Meanwhile, Arndt’s stage-winning performance on Saturday elevated her to third overall. Results>1. Judith Arndt (G), 36.2km in 51:30 (average speed:

Whether you believe the pro-am event on the eve of the USPRO Criterium Championship in Downers Grove, Illinois, is a preview to the main event or simply just a tune-up, the Navigators put on a show, delivering Vassili Davidenko and Marty Nothstein to the line one-two in the men’s race, while in the women’s event, former national champion Nicole Freedman (Team Basis) showed she’s ready to take on the big teams in Sunday’s national title race. Freedman struggled with the hot, humid conditions in the suburbs of Chicago, but when the race boiled down to a field sprint after 45 minutes, the

Day one of the NORBA National Championship Series finals closed with an action-packed mountain cross that saw Eric Carter and Sabrina Jonnier walk away with the overall series titles. Carter and fellow American Jill Kintner took the U.S. national titles, with Jonnier and Frenchman Cédric Gracia earning the race wins at Durango Mountain Resort in Colorado on Sunday. Carter’s titles sweep came after he faced off with fellow American Mike King in the men’s final. The pair came into the day first and second in the overall standings, and if King had won the final, Carter needed to finish no worse

Danielson powers his featherweight bike up Mount Washington

Jeanson tried to stick with Danielson, but couldn't match his speed

The weather kept Danielson from breaking his record and blew Jeanson off her bike

Hesjedal rolls through the DMR village.

Your 2003 national cross country champions.

Vanlandingham won in her hometown.

With a base elevation of 8793, the Durango cross country was a lung buster.

Florit was gassed from the altitude, but still won the overall.

Carter on his way to the overall title.

King settled for second overall.

The 2003 national mountain cross champ.

There will be a subtle change at this year’s USPRO Criterium Championship in Downer’s Grove, Illinois, this weekend, but it could make an impact on the competition. In a departure from years past, the race organizers have pared the maximum team size down from 10 riders down to eight riders, while the minimum team size goes from six to five. By limiting the team sizes, USPRO Crit hopes to level the playing field and keep the big teams from completely dominating the action. While the difference between eight and 10 may not seem like much, it will add up over the course of a 100km criterium.

Quick Step’s Paolo Bettini saddles up for a crucial eighth leg of the World Cup in Zürich, Switzerland, on Sunday knowing that Jan Ullrich could throw a major wrench into the works and end his impressive run of victories. The 29-year-old Italian champion took the World Cup lead last week after his stunning victory in the San Sebastian Classic. That win, which Bettini timed to perfection with a winning sprint ahead of compatriot Ivan Basso - Italy's best placed rider in the recent Tour de France - gave Bettini a 97-point lead over Lotto-Domo’s Peter Van Petegem. However on Sunday Bettini's

American Giddeon Massie has advanced to the semifinal of the men’s sprint with a successful ride against Venezuela’s Johnny Hernandez Thursday. Teammate Stephen Alfred was narrowly defeated by Colombian sprinter Jonathan Marin in the third heat of the morning session. Massie will ride in the sprint semifinal set to start at 9:00 a.m. Friday morning. Later Thursday morning Massie led the team sprint with one of his fastest laps this season, posting a 23.669 to start the U.S. team off. Stephen Alfred rode the second leg with Christian Stahl anchoring the three-man team. The team advanced to

A capacity field of 600 is expected for Saturday’s Mt. Washington Auto Road Hill Climb near North Conway, New Hampshire. Despite the full field, most of the attention will be paid to the favorites as Tom Danielson (Saturn) and Genevieve Jeanson (RONA-Esker),work to to defend their titles and evensurpass their own record-breaking performances of twelve months ago. It was then that, under near-perfect conditions- a rarity for the mountain infamous for having some of the worst weather on the planet- that Danielson and Jeanson shattered the course records held by Tour de France hero Tyler

Russian Zoulfia Zabirova (RRG Lobili) won Friday’s 12th stage of the Grande Boucle Féminin, a 128.5km run from Trélazé to Gorron. Spaniard Joane Somarrib (Bizkaia) held onto the overall lead with two days remaining in the race. Zabirova, racing in her fifth Tour Féminin, attacked the group 3km from the finish to win the stage. Somarriba took a three-second bonus sprint to remain the favorite for the overall going into Saturday’s 37km time trial in Flers. –Copyright 2003/AFP Results:1. Zoulfia Zabirova (Rus), RRG Lobili, 128.5 km in 3:10:42. (average speed: 40,430 km/h)2. Petra Rossner (G)

After two straight years at the East Coast mountain-biking hotbed of Mount Snow, Vermont, the NORBA National Championship Series has come west for its series finale. The locale is Durango, Colorado, no stranger to big-time racing itself. The southwestern tourist town was the site of the first UCI-sanctioned world championships back in 1990, and has played host to both World Cup and NORBA stops over the years. It’s also the site of the annual Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. Pro racing begins Friday with qualifying for the mountain cross. The men’s and women’s cross country finals are Saturday

When it comes time for the world championships in September, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more motivated racer than American Brian Lopes. And that’s assuming Lopes will be able to race at all. After breaking his left ankle at the Fort William World Cup in June, the Hyundai-GT rider has faced a longer than expected rehabilitation process that will keep him out of this weekend’s NORBA NCS finals in Durango, Colorado. That leaves only the world’s and World Cup finals for Lopes to contest this year “The plan had been to come back for Durango,” Lopes said. “I even had a plane ticket.” But

Cofidis’ David Millar roared to his third time trial victory of the season in Thursday’s 14.4km fourth stage of the Vuelta a Burgos while iBanesto.com’s Pablo Lastras all but sewed up overall victory with just one stage to go. Millar held off a list of favorites for the upcoming Vuelta a España, easily beating defending Vuelta champion Aitor Gonzalez (Fassa Bortolo) by 12 seconds, Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (ONCE) by 21 seconds and Angel Casero (Bianchi) by 23 seconds. Millar, who won a time trial at the Tour of West Flanders and the final time trial of the 2003 Tour de France earlier this

Hi Bob,My racing bike was stolen from my garage and my insurance company hasasked for the original purchase receipt, which I no longer have. What shouldI do?Tim J.Dear Tim;I am assuming you have made a proper claim with your insurance carrierand that you have standard homeowner’s coverage. You are not required toproduce the original receipt in order to recover for your loss.You should go to a shop that sells the make and model of bicycle thatwas stolen and ask if they can provide a replacement cost estimate. Schedulea time for your visit and be ready to provide the make, model and yearof the

ITS-Santa Cruz team director Derin Stockton checked in with VeloNews on Thursday with an update on downhiller John Waddell. The 22-year-old Aussie spent nearly a month in a coma following a crash at the end of his run at the Mont-Ste-Anne World Cup downhill on June 28, when carried too much speed into the finish-area jump and overshot the landing. The majority of the impact was to Waddell's head, which led to an extensive stay in a Quebec City hospital. Waddell was checked out of the Quebec hospital in mid-July, and then flown home. It wasn’t until then that he came out of his coma and woke

The U.S. Pan American Cycling Team added three more medals to the medal count Wednesday starting off with a silver medal ride in the women’s 500m time trial by Chris. The winning momentum continued later in the afternoon when sprinters Tanya Lindenmuth and Giddeon Massie each won medals in the keirin. The Olympic medallist in speed skating found her form on the track and stayed steady throughout the 500m test to clinch the silver medal in 36.304. Nancy Contreras (Mex) won the event in 35.463. Yumari Gonzalez (Cub was third clocking a 36.559. Witty’s silver medal at the Pan Am Games is the

Hesjedal is the men's XC leader.

Green was slowed in the early season, but has been hot lately.

Florit could win back-to-back crowns.

Haywood is the short track leader.

Griffiths must make up some ground.

Carter has his sights on the mountain cross.

Marlux rider Dave Bruylandts got a well-deserved victory in Wednesday'sgrueling climbing stage from Huerta del Ray to Lagunas de Neila high abovethe Spanish meseta in the third stage of the Tour of Burgos.Bruylandts, 27, has been close since finishing second in Sunday's Subidaa Urkiola behind iBanesto.com's Leonardo Piepoli. In Tuesday's climbingstage, he was second behind yet another Banesto, Chente Garcia Acosta.There was no stopping the determined Belgian, who worked himself intoa six-man break that hit the bottom of the 20km climb with an 8 minutegap on the main bunch. Bruylandts finally

C’était un très mauvais coup pour George Hincapie d’avoir du renoncer aux Classiques du printemps. Le New-Yorkais de 30 ans, qui habite en Caroline du Nord à présent, se sentais capable de remporté une de ses courses d’avril préferée: Paris-Roubaix ou le Tour des Flandres. Mais il a été battu par un parasite, tellement qu’il avait du mal à respirer, et il a manqué trois mois de compétition. Pardon moi, but I — like the rest of the VeloNews editorial staff — seem to be stuck in the language land of the French. No, not because we’re suffering withdrawals from Le Tour, but because we have been

Dear Monique;My questions is about Thermotabs or salt replacement pills. Duringmy last 1/2 IM race I took 2 tabs at the two-hour mark and then 2 at the4 hour mark of a 6 hour race. I noticed a big difference in my performancefrom my prior races and had no cramping or fatigue like I did before.I have heard varying recommendations about how much salt/tablets thebody can take in during a race like that and I would like to know if thereis a limit - or if it just condition specific. I've heard professionalssay that you can take a lot of them as long as you are drinking water....but,I've also heard

Tranquility. It is not something I would always associate with a densely populated county like Belgium. According to my handy CIA Factbook, there are 10.2 Million Belgians in a country the size of Maryland. Yet, more often than not I am astounded by how quiet it can be here. Tonight we are cooling off from a “heat wave” that equates to standard summer temperatures in the Midwest. The air is perfectly still and out in the fields you might here a tractor cutting hay but beyond that all you hear is the clatter of bicycle chains. Enjoy the national pastime: a bicycle ride. How quiet it can

So just putting the finishing touches on our power measurement system test and gotta admit that, for the last few days on a bike, I feel like a true dork (yes, even more than usual). This embarrassing fact struck me this past Sunday while huffing up one Boulder’s beautiful local canyons. The eight-mile grind from my house up to the small town of Ward offered plenty of time to contemplate the assortment of flashing signals, heart rate limit alarms and 60-times-per-second-acquired wattage data from the three (yes, three!) power systems strapped to my bike. With more wiring than the

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