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Manuel Beltran hasn’t been with U.S. Postal Service very long, but he already feels at home just three days into his debut as one of Lance Armstrong’s blue and white Posties. “There are a lot of riders right now who’d like to be in my skin,” Beltran told VeloNews on Tuesday evening just before dinner at the team hotel along the Rhone. “I am honored that I am racing with Armstrong. Who wouldn’t be?” Just a month ago, Beltran was riding with Team Coast and was wondering whether his next pay check would show up. When the UCI finally pulled the plug on the troubled German team, it didn’t take

With Philly week behind us, all eyes — well, okay, at least those focused on domestic road racing — now turn to the four-day, five-stage Nature Valley Grand Prix. The premiere component of the twin cities’ Great River Energy Bicycle Festival, Nature Valley begins Thursday, June 12, in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Last year’s event, a three-day omnium — scored on cumulative finishing positions, rather than overall time — was won by John Lieswyn (7UP-Maxxis) and Laura Van Gilder, who rode for Trek Plus but now rides for Saturn. For 2003, the event sees several important changes: the event has been

Armstrong in his favorite color

Looking to Paris?

The Kivilevs joined Armstrong on the podium

Millar still in second

Mayo didn't expect to keep the jersey

The Iron Range Road Race

The Stillwater Criterium

The Winona Road Race

I get nervous every year at the start of the Philadelphia Liberty Classic. This race had always been one of my favorites on the U.S. racing calendar. The energy surrounding the event is motivating. I get a rush climbing the Manayunk “Wall”, as the cheering crowd erases any painful sensations that are usually associated with steep climbs. This race gathers most of the cycling industry in the center of Philadelphia as well local and foreign bike fans. The hospitality is incredible, as tents are set up around the course stocked with food and televisions for race viewing. In nineteen years, it

Dear Lennard;I remember a while back you mentioned some auto part glue that worked well for glueing on sew-ups. What is it and any tricks to using it? --Ignacio Dear Ignacio;The glue is 3M Fast Tack.Except on Continentals (which have no coating over the base tape), scrape the base tape (instructions in “Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance”). Layer the glue on the rim and tire, letting dry between coats. After the final coat on the rim, stick the tire on. Fast Tack can be problematic with Continentals, as it has a solvent in it that can soak through the base tape and loosen the glue

Strong winds moved riders up the Rhone Valley in a hot and toasty stage Tuesday, with Norwegian Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) winning the bunch sprint into Vienne. The brisk tailwinds pushed the peloton into Vienne nearly a half-hour faster than expected and Hushovd held off Alexandre Usov (Phonak) and Baden Cooke (Fdjeux.com) to grab the victory. A familiar moveJacky Durand (Fdjeux.com) just couldn't help himself and went on the attack in the opening kilometers, quickly followed by U.S. Postal's Victor Hugo Pena and three others, but the move was just as quickly snuffed. But Durand

Patrick O'Grady cartoons from recent issues of VeloNews magazine.

TUESDAY: Stages one and two of the Dauphine-Libere were fairly similar. Both featured rolling terrain, and ended with field sprints. There was a nasty crash inside one kilometer to go yesterday. I was lucky to stay out of trouble. Overall, the day went better than I expected, mainly because I felt better than I thought I was going to. I’m still not firing on all cylinders, but at least I’m starting to come around. Today we had a nice tail wind all day, which was good, considering it’s been ridiculously hot here in France. I finished yesterday’s stage feeling, and probably looking like a

Suspension is a funny thing. While the majority of mountain bikes soldin the United States these days are full-suspenders, talk to "the averageJoe" on the trail, and you start to get the feeling that knowledge oftenlags far behind technology. Of course, with any broad generalization, there are always exceptions–guysand girls who are 100 percent up-to-speed about rebound, compression andwheel path–but for the most part, the average mountain biker is, at best,lost in a sea of marketing-speak when it comes to understanding and adjustingtheir suspension. I'm not trying to point fingers here,

Finishing in Vienne

Out front for much of the day

Mayo

Crossing the Rhone

Cyclo-cross nationals were 'blessed' with rains - Published in VeloNews - January 6, 2003

NORBA turns 20! Published in VeloNews - February 3, 2003

World Anti-Doping Agency tightens its rules - Major League Baseball has rules, too! -- Published in VeloNews - March 3, 2003

NORBA takes a 'leadership' role in 24-hour racing - Published in VeloNews - April 4, 2003

George Hincapie had the 'misfortune' of missing the Spring Classics - Published in VeloNews - April 19, 2003

Pro roadies declare 'Condition Orange' at Sea Otter - Published in VeloNews - May 5, 2003

One team emerged dominant this spring - Published in VeloNews - May 19, 2003

NORBA's National Championship Series begins another successful season - Published in VeloNews - June 2, 2003

Jan Ullrich gets a new team, but the jerseys are late - Published in VeloNews - June 16, 2003

Cannondale falls off the edge of bankruptcy -- and lands it (but they had to use a bicyle to pull it off) - VeloNews - February 24, 2003

Tuning In

Tuning In

Tuning In

Bulgarian Plamen Stoianov (Big Mat) endured the heat, a crash and a string of attacks to win the mass gallop in Monday’s 198km first stage of the 55th Criterium du Dauphine Libere. Temperatures soared into the 90s as the peloton drove south out of the mountains near Grenoble into Vaison La Romaine, a quaint Provencal village nestled at the base of Mont Ventoux. Riders went down on a sharp corner just 300 meters from the finish line, cutting the peloton as the bunch came in for the sprint. “I came through clear from the crash and was in good position,” said Stoianov, who raced with Mercury

We all know what it is like explaining bicycle racing to non-racers. We've all been there; explaining the intricacies of drafting to our closest family and friends. The earnest attempt to comprehend the words from your mouth is always betrayed by the glazed over look in their eyes. Bicycle racing is an experience. Bicycle racing is cooperative (in the sense that it is a mass start event) so often people imagine it as a fun run: “come on guys, we can make it to the finish together!” Their only other explanation of bicycle riding has come from an office partner who has a nephew raising

An in-form Australian, Michael Rogers, wrapped up the Tour of Germany in Sarrebruck on Monday, adding to his victory in the Tour of Belgium two weeks ago. The 23-year-old finished in the peloton at the end of the seventh stage, the 173.2km ride from Bad Durkheim being taken in a mass sprint finish by Germany's Olympic track champion Olaf Pollack. Rogers ended with a one-minute and 19-second advantage over Portugal's Jose Azevedo while Telekom’s Alexander Vinokourov was third, a further 33 seconds adrift. Vinokourov’s former Telekom team-mate, the 1997 Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich

'...but I’m no Mario Cipollini,' said Stoianov.

Challenging terrain

Mayo stays in yellow.

An interactive experience

On the biggest single day of racing in the U.S., the Europeans may have slowed the Saturn train a bit, with Saeco’s Stefano Zanini winning the Wachovia USPRO Championship in a field sprint, but Saturn still took home the stars-and-stripes jersey, with 10-year Saturn veteran Mark McCormack earning the right to wear the American champion’s jersey for the next year. It was a somewhat unexpected ending to a day in Philadelphia that early on began to unfold like recent editions of the race. Of the European teams, CSC was pegged as the favorite, after Jakob Piil and Julian Dean winning Lancaster

Lance Armstrong said Sunday that "mathematics" was not foremost on his mind as he prepared to continue his Tour de France preparations by racing the Dauphine Libere. Armstrong, the U.S. Postal team leader, is aiming for a record-equaling fifth Tour victory this year and, as usual, is riding the Dauphine Libere stage race this week as part of the build-up. The race, in the south-east of France, includes some key climbing stages which will give the 31-year-old Texan a good indication of his fitness less than four weeks before the July 5 start of this year's centenary race. But he refrained

Euskaltel's Iban Mayo held off a bunch of favorites including Lance Armstrong to win the prologue time trial of the Dauphine Libere race in Villard-De-Lans, France on Sunday. Mayo, one of the up and coming riders from Spain, dons the race leader's jersey after the short 5.1km ride. The Dauphine, long regarded as a prime warm-up for the Tour de France, ends next Sunday. Prologue results(Click here for FullResults)1. Iban Mayo (SPA), at 0:Euskaltel 8:442. David Millar (GBR), at 0:053. Lance Armstrong (USA), at 0:114. Alberto Lopez de Munain (SPA), at 0:145. Francisco Mancebo (SPA), at 0:156.

Hometown favorite Anne-Caroline Chausson and first-time winner Nathan Rennie were fastest Sunday on a speedy, rocky downhill course high in the French Alps. On a mountain more famous for being climbed up, cycling’s fastest downhillers ripped down a wide-open course criticized for its lack of technical challenges. With wide sweeping turns and long straights, the course favored big riders and that was certainly true in the men’s field, where young bucks Rennie and Chris Kovarik ruled the roost. A decent crowd turned out under brilliant sunny skies to catch the action for the second round of

SUNDAY: It’s been over a month since my last race, so it’s good to be getting back to business. However, I’m not sure I’ll be riding at the level I was at Liege-Bastogne-Liege or the Tour of Romandie this week. But that’s okay; my goals aren’t quite the same here at the Dauphine-Libere. When the first leg of the season came to a close in early May, I took a week long break from the bike to allow my body a little time to recuperate. After the down time, I started training specifically for the Tour de France. The goal being, to allow my body to recover and to slowly rebuild my strength in a

Like all streaks, it had to come to an end sometime. Since 1997, German Petra Rossner has held a virtual monopoly on the Wachovia Liberty Classic, the 56 mile former World Cup run concurrently with the USPRO men’s championship in Philadelphia. This year, it was not to be, as Rossner, riding for Equipe Nürnberger this year after five years with Saturn, faced stiff competition from her former team as well as the all-American T-Mobile squad. After a year away from the Saturn squad, Lynne Bessette returned home to end her former teammate’s reign and continued Saturn’s, jumping away from three

Armstrong: My first priority is to win again

Mayo

Sunday's Euro-file: Mayo at Dauphine; Rogers in Germany

The new USPRO champion

McCormack wasn't necessarily favored today.

Klasna on the run

A dangerous break

Crowd control in Philly

Didn't we see this guy, or his brother, at the Tour?

Bessette on her way to break a streak

Jutras on the attack

Saturn’s Sarah Uhl and Prime Alliance’s Jame Carney were the stars of the show Friday as the Nicole Reinhart Women's Cycling Classic came to the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. The event was held in memoriam of Saturn cyclist Nicole Reinhart, who died after a crash in September 2000 at the BMC Tour of Boston. Uhl won the keirin, the points race and the 3-mile race, the first track-cycling event to offer National Racing Calendar points. In men's racing, Carney took the points race and the keirin, but came up short in the miss-and-out, where he finished third behind

Jose Azevedo (ONCE-Eroski) claimed Saturday's fifth stage of the Tour of Germany to capture the overall lead in the seven-day race. The Portuguese rider beat teammate Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano, last year's winner, at the end of the day's bumpy, 191km ride from Ravensburg, at the foot of the German Alps, to Feldberg, in the Black Forest. The two finished in the same time. Spain's Isidro Nozal Vega and German Joerg Jaksche came third and fourth, 24 and 25 seconds back, to give ONCE four of the top five places. Azevedo takes over from Swiss Gregory Rast at the top of the overall standings,

Rain poured down on Philadelphia on Saturday, putting a damper on the pre-race festivities at the Wachovia USPRO Championship, but rain or shine, Sunday’s race promises to be just as much of a classic as any of the previous 18 editions. As always, the U.S. professional teams have brought out their "A" squads, and they will be tested by six European teams intent on winning the most prestigious race in America. Heading the list of contenders will be the Danish CSC team, which won both of the lead-up events to USPRO, with Jakob Piil winning in Lancaster on Tuesday and Julian Dean taking a

There was nearly a French revolution in Saturday’s 4-Cross after riders threatened to protest the second round of the World Cup against what they deemed an unimaginative course and called it little more than a shortened downhill course. While the riders decided to race, many weren’t happy with the Alpe d’Huez course that featured few jumps, berms and other features that are supposed to make 4-Cross so exciting. “Especially in the dry, the course was really bad,” said men’s winner Eric Carter (Mongoose-Hyundai). “This was like a ski race. Every right hand turn was the same, every left hand

Francisco Mancebo takes the Classique des Alpes.

What is it?

The body Fabrice Salanson, who was found dead in his hotel bed ahead of the Tour of Germany, showed no traces of doping substances, state prosecutors in Dresden, Germany, said Friday. Salanson, 23, was slated to begin the German tour on Tuesday, but his roommate and friend Sylvain Chavanel found him dead when he woke up that morning. The Dresden prosecutors' findings, from hair, urine and blood samples, confirmed early, provisional tests. They also established the cause of death as heart-related. Salanson turned professional in 2000 with Bonjour and switched to Boulangere at the end of the

I saw Ichiro Suzuki the other day. Now, I’m no stargazer, but I have to admit it was a surprise, and a little bit cool, to see the Seattle Mariners’ star as I was taking a stroll through the streets of Philadelphia. The man’s definitely got an aura, even if I only saw him for the three seconds it took him to walk from the side door of the Ritz-Carlton to the bus waiting to drive the team to the Vet for that night’s game. And of course, he needed to have his Oakleys on for that three seconds outside. I took the sighting as a sign, that I needed to go to the Vet to catch a game, and grab a

The Tour de Montréal, a three-day, four-stage event, started in Lachine, the hometown of Geneviève Jeanson, with a short, windy prologue. As we all finished, we all received cheers, but the crowd was by far the loudest when she came through with the winning time. She smoked us all, but we were not too worried, as the time gaps were small. After the prologue, the race moved to “Little Italy” in the evening, where we pedaled past the Madonna Della Defesa (Our Lady of Protection) cathedral. This church was built and named to commemorate a miracle said to have occurred in 1898 in Casacalenda,

Two cycling team managers, one of whom works with the team of Yaroslav Popovych, third in this year's Giro d'Italia, were being held under house arrest Thursday as police continue a widespread doping investigation in Brescia, Italy. Olivano Locatelli and William Dazzani are suspected of buying and selling illicit substances for riders, according to Brescia magistrates at a press conference. Locatelli, 47, has resigned his position as manager with the Belgian outfit Landbouwkrediet, while Dazzani runs the women's squad Team 2002. The revelations will prove damaging for the Belgian team,

Defending USPRO champ Chann McRae is thinking like a wild card rather than a favorite.

It struck me as I sat on top of the world. Well, at least the top of the world according to San Bernardino, California. You see, I had positioned myself at the top of the cross-country course at Big Bear a few weeks ago on a technological mission. I wanted to take count of exactly how many riders would actually use their fork lock-out. A nit-picky mission at best, but with all the talk of suspension efficiency, I wanted to see which riders cared enough to take the time to "flip the switch." My very informal results were very surprising, to say the least. As the lead breakaway pack crested

There won’t be any surgery and the long-term prognosis is good, butafter breaking his left ankle last weekend at the World Cup in Fort William,Scotland, it will be at least 8 weeks before American Brian Lopes is backracing his bike. That means the reigning world, World Cup and NORBA champion will missthe next three World Cups and the next three NORBA stops, and it takeshim out of the running for the big prize money on offer at the Jeep Kingof the Mountain series set to commence later this month. Despite all this, though, Lopes says the worst part is all the downtime he’s going to have to

Former mountain-bike world champion Michael Rasmussen is now firmly entrenched on the road. Last season, he rode in support of Tyler Hamilton’s second-place finish at the Giro d’Italia and won a difficult mountain stage at the Tour of Burgos in August. The Dane penned a two-year deal to join Rabobank and has eyes of making the 2003 Tour de France team and lending help to another American – this time Levi Leipheimer. Unfortunately for Rasmussen, he crashed during a team training camp in May and broke his hand, throwing in doubt his start for July’s Tour de France. VeloNews European

For the second week running, Australian Andy Graham absolutely owned theWednesday Worlds circuit race in downtown Denver, Colorado. Over 100 riderslined up on a drizzly, cold evening to decide who would be the championfor this, the second edition of the 2003 Wednesday Worlds.The women’s turnout was dismal, but a few brave souls jumped in themen’s races, getting some valuable mid-week training around the enormousInvesco Field at Mile High. T-Mobile’s Lara Kroepsch stayed in the men’smasters race, then lasted a few laps in the pro-I-II race.“It’s gonna be a hard,” she said just before the start

While most of America’s top mountain-biking pros will head off to NORBA No. 2 in Snowshoe, West Virginia a week from now, there will be a four-rider U.S. contingent making a slightly longer trip to the start line. On Thursday, USA Cycling released the roster for its team that will travel to Medellin, Colombia next week to contest the Pan American Championships cross-country race on June 15. Members include Frank Mapel (Specialized), Carl Decker (Giant-Pearl Izumi), Kim Anderson (T-Mobile) and Heather Irmiger (Ritchey-K2). They’ll be joined by USAC’s Eric Moore, who will serve as the team’s