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As it was in the beginning, so it was at the end of the 25th La Vuelta de Bisbee, as Andrew Miller and Manon Jutras won their respective final stages and collected their overall titles. Miller (Landis-Trek-VW) and Jutras (Saturn) were the victors in the Mule Pass prologue on Friday evening, the kickoff to the weekend’s racing in southern Arizona. But while Jutras held her lead throughout La Vuelta, winning three of four stages along the way, Miller lost his yellow leader’s jersey to Viktor Rapinski after the Saturn rider won Saturday afternoon’s Warren Time Trial. Come Sunday, and the

For the last few weeks I feel like these diaries have been my gripes, and excuses as to why Prime Alliance isn't winning. I wouldn't blame anyone who interpreted them that way, but I would give them an earful. Anyhow, I'm not really an excuse maker by nature, I just try to explain things as objectively as I can… it’s just that sometimes it comes across as an excuse. Sometimes it's just depressing, but today my “logical explanation” of events can be summed up with a resounding “good JOB!” Today also was justification and redemption for out ill-fated strategy of yesterday. Just think, if we

Hamilton enjoys a special moment.

... Armstrong was quick to follow.

Those last two kilometers were hard... but worth it.

The oldest and one of the toughest of the classics.

Merckx goes on the Côte de la Redoute...

Julich

Merckx

The man makes his move

The favorites were left to chase

Rodriguez (left) and Clinger (right) made it a close one

Rodriguez, Horner and best young rider, Raisin

Saturn on patrol... shadowed by Rodriguez

Steve Larsen tries his luck

Through it all, Saturn kept a watchful eye on things

Only four Tour de France winners have won Liège-Bastogne-Liège:Eddy Merckx (a record five times), Bernard Hinault and Ferdi Kubler (bothtwice), and Jacques Anquetil (once). Lance Armstrong would like to be the fifth. This Sunday will see the Texan on the start line at Liège foronly the fifth time in his career. Prior to his cancer diagnosis, he finishedsecond in 1994, sixth in 1995 and second again in 1996. He returned towhat is the world’s oldest bicycle classic (founded in 1894) only lastyear, when he finished 65th, 8:12 behind winner Paolo Bettini, after ridingthe 258.5km race in support

Dear Editor;Thanks for the live coverage. As someone who doesn't get OLN I look forward to your live coverage of the classics. The only problem is that it has been taking away from my graduate school work. I keep checking back every five minutes instead of studying!! I may fail, but at least I'll know how the sprint finished. Keep up the great work.Todd ShapiroTodd, we appreciate your comments, but would also like to apologize for the spotty coverage we've had out of the Tour of Georgia this year. We seem to have a good system in place for the big European races and will have a full crew

Chris Horner wanted a hard day. He got it. On Saturday’s stage 4 at the Dodge Tour de Georgia, the race blew apart as anticipated, and the major players of the first four days were all in the spotlight. Navigators and Henk Vogels were on the hotseat after defending the race lead for the past two stages; Horner and Saturn were in the driver's seat, with a course finally suited to their strengths; and Fred Rodriguez continued to exact his revenge following the time penalty he was assessed on stage 1. In the end, Rodriguez won his second stage in a row, Horner took the yellow jersey, and

Gilberto Simoni (Saeco) remained in charge of the Tour of Trentino after a long break dominated Saturday's 165km third stage. Elio Aggiano (Pinzolo) won ahead of three other riders that stayed away for most of the stage from Fondo to Levico Terme in northern Italy. Stefano Garzelli (Sidermec) won the bunch sprint at 8 seconds back to take fifth after the lead group couldn't reel in the break. Simoni finished safely with the peloton to retain the overall lead going into Sunday's 118km final stag, which shouldn't present any major problems for Simoni and his motivated Saeco team. Tour of

Looks like organizer Albert Hopper was right: His 25th La Vuelta de Bisbee may very well boil down to the final climb in today’s Tombstone Road Race. Saturday was a double-stage day in southern Arizona, beginning in the morning with the Sulphur Springs Road Race. After a fairly mellow ride that didn’t see much action until the final miles of the elite men’s 79.3-mile stage, on a long, wide 5-percent grade back into town, Gord Fraser (Health Net) outkicked Saturn teammates Viktor Rapinski and Ivan Dominguez to claim the victory. Nothing was getting away in the 45.8-mile women’s race,

This is about all I can say about how our day went at Tour of Georgia. We tried. No, we didn't actually miss the key move today. Missing a move is to imply "oops I guess we should have been there". No, we did that at Redlands. Here we had a good strategy, carried out perfectly… and then were simply out-powered. We had our man Svein in the early break. We had everyone nice and fresh at the bottom of the last climb, and then we just got smashed. The best laid plansOur plan was to keep David Clinger (who climbs better than Henk, but not as well as the top guys) as close to the leaders as

While the "other" cycling event in Georgia has garnered the headlines this week, the Athens Twilight just kept on partying this weekend as if nothing had happened. And in front of the big, festive Twilight crowd on Saturday night, Genesis Scuba’s Candice Blickem and 7UP-Maxxis’s Dan Schmatz took the biggest wins of their careers in solo fashion. The women’s favorite, former Georgia Bulldog Tina Mayolo-Pic (Diet Rite), had her problems early on, crashing hard about 10 laps into the race when her front tire punctured. Despite hitting her head hard, Mayolo-Pic got back in the race and was

Bartoli has to be among the favorites for Sunday

Armstrong wants this one

Preview: Armstrong aims at Liège-Bastogne-Liège

The men in charge: Rodriguez gets another stage; Horner gets the jersey

Saul Raisin and fans

Landis and company on the move

Vaughters works to bring Clinger back to the leaders.

Workin' for David

Gord Fraser outkicks a pair of Saturns in the morning stage.

Blickem and Schmatz party at Twilight

Blickem and Schmatz party at Twilight

Blickem and Schmatz party at Twilight

Blickem and Schmatz party at Twilight

Blickem and Schmatz party at Twilight

Blickem and Schmatz party at Twilight

Blickem and Schmatz party at Twilight

Blickem and Schmatz party at Twilight

Blickem and Schmatz party at Twilight

Blickem and Schmatz party at Twilight

Saeco's Gilberto Simoni won Friday's climbing stage of the Tour of Trentino in northern Italy and bounced into the overall lead. Simoni and yesterday's winner Stefano Garzelli (Sidermec) traded places, with Simoni taking the flowers this time ahead of the resurgent Garzelli. The opening two days of Tour of Trentino give a nice glimpse of who's in form for the upcoming Giro d'Italia, with both Simoni and Garzelli looking sharp. The race continues with Saturday's 165km third stage from Fondo to Levico Terme. Stage 2, Tour of Trentino (UCI 2.2), Moena to Ronzone 1. Gilberto Simoni (I), Saeco,

Before I dive headlong into my notebook from the Tour de Georgia, er, the Dodge Tour de Georgia, I have to take a few minutes to say thanks to State Trooper Stewart of the Georgia State Patrol, who was kind enough to drive me to the finish line of Thursday’s stage in Columbus after the Navigators team car I was riding in got a flat tire. After logging onto the VN Web site and checking back on our final-hour live coverage, I realize that my editors took a few, um, liberties with the details, so here’s the rest of the story. The Navs pulled over with the flat about 10 miles from the finish.

After a rocky start to his Dodge Tour de Georgia, Fred Rodriguez has just been taking things day by day. Fortunately for the American, things have been getting better with each passing stage. On Friday, the Vini Caldirola rider outsprinted Prime Alliance’s David Clinger and U.S. Postal’s Tony Cruz to take the stage 3 win after 138 miles from Pine Mountain to Rome. Meanwhile, Navigators Henk Vogels retained the race leader’s jersey while a war of words between Saturn and Navigators heated up. Rodriguez was still upset after being assessed a 20-second time penalty for motorpacing after a crash

La Vuelta de Bisbee kicked off its 25th year of bicycle racing in southern Arizona on Friday afternoon with the Mule Pass Time Trial, a little leg-stretcher that climbed 837 feet in just 2.8 miles. Andrew Miller (Landis-Trek-VW) won the elite men’s prologue in 9:42, well short of Malcolm Elliott’s 1993 mark of 9:18, but still 15 seconds ahead of Mike Sayers (Health Net), Miller’s teammate Scott Price, and Saturn’s Viktor Rapinski, all of whom were given the same time as Sayers and Price. Cyclo-crosser Todd Wells (Hyundai-Mongoose) rounded out the top five a further three seconds back. Among

Tantalizing treats available throughout the Tour

Rodriguez made an earlier try at escape with Saturn's Horner

Lionel Syne and the long and lonely road

Pull? YOU pull.

Syne was well ahead of the yammering

Horner had fans out there, too.

Saturn's Ivan Dominguez gets the final countdown.

Stefano Garzelli (Sidermec) won Thursday's opening stage of the Tour of Trentino in northern Italy in a dramatic comeback for the Italian star. Garzelli, who was kicked out of last year's Giro after testing positive for a banned diuretic, beat compatriot Gilberto Simoni (Saeco) and Slovenian Tadej Valjavec (Fassa Bortolo) in a sprint in the 170km stage from Arco to Moena. Tour of Trentino (UCI 2.2), Stage 1, Arco to Moena1. Stefano Garzelli (I), Sidermec, 170.5km in 4:582. Gilberto Simoni (I), Saeco, at 6 seconds3. Tadej Valjavec (Slo), Fassa Bortolo, same time4. Sabaliauskas (Lit), Saeco,

Philadelphia Flyers general manager Bobby Clarke once said that, “I havediscovered the less I say, the more rumors I start.” The folks at USA Cycling would be wise to heed the implied lesson here.In the past few weeks, a period of great silence at USAC headquarters inColorado Springs, the rumors have flown fast and furious regarding thestate and fate of the 2003 NORBA National Championships Series. Among thebest tittle-tattle: cancelled races, no prize money, no TV, no UCI pointsand even no series at all. Of course the truth — as it usually does — liessomewhere in between. After extensive

Hey Bob,Can I get in any legal trouble, or am I breaking any laws, by motor-pacingmy friend behind my Subaru? --PatHillsboro, Oregon Dear Pat;As you will read, I do not recommend that you motor pace your friend,but if you do, I offer the legal ramifications as well as some basic advice.This is the classic “do as I say not as I do” lecture. In fact, when Iwas racing and training, I was not even smart enough to limit my motorpacing to willing and complicit drivers. I was riding a borrowed cyclo-cross bike with limited gearing and wasspun out going downhill with my head down, when the woman I

From looking at the Navigators team car in the closing minutes of stage 2 of the Dodge Tour de Georgia, you’d have been hard pressed to pick it out as the car of the race leader. Sure its windshield was marked with the No. 1, thanks to Henk Vogels starting the day in the yellow jersey, but pulled over by the side of the road in Columbus, Georgia, its rear right tire going flat, the team’s silver wagon looked like just another sign that things were slipping away. Team directors Ed Beamon and Ray Cipollini, and mechanic Mike Spilker, could only watch as the race disappeared up the road,

What a sense of timing. Here after a week of talking about safety, helmets, course closures and otherwise, I figured what the heck, why not start the Tour of Georgia by making myself look like a complete Fred and taking myself out in a prologue? Yes, it really was a first for me, crashing in a time trial, and hopefully a last too. It was the old 'I don't need to brake for that corner' that was my fatal error on that lovely sunny day. I have a history of taking risks in time trials, especially short ones like prologues> I figure if I lose much speed in the corners, I really don't have a

What? No prize list?

Hey, winners still get flowers...

...but now only the pros get those nifty plastic number plates

The incredible shrinking NORBA NCS

The incredible shrinking NORBA NCS

Garzelli crosses the finish line to win the first stage from Arco to Moena of the 27th Tour of Trentino ahead of second placed Italian Gilberto Simoni

Moreno DiBiase

The peloton heads down the road... as the Nav's tire goes flat.

Navigators in pursuit

The men in the break

Cross-cultural exchange: One Italian rider tries his best to make a good impression on the natives.

Go for broke... just don't let your wife watch. Vaughters in 2000

2002 Giro d’Italia champion Paolo Salvodelli (Telekom) is expected to be back in action by late May, officials from Team Telekom said. Savoldelli crashed while training in the Canary Islands this past winter. Savoldelli is penciled in to start the Tour of Bavaria on May 21-25 and the team hopes the Italian will be ready in time to start the Tour de France. Telekom also lost Cadel Evans for at least two weeks, who fell in Sunday’s Amstel Gold race and broke a clavicle. Dekker sidelined againErik Dekker’s health problems to give the Rabobank star problems. Dekker pulled out of the Amstel

To breakaway on the first climb of a very hilly road race is usually not a smart tactic, especially when there are still 134km and nine more climbs to go. It’s usually even more stupid to attempt such a long shot in a classic as difficult as Belgium’s Flèche Wallonne. Luckily, the little Basque rider Igor Astarloa doesn’t think much of conventional wisdom. On Wednesday, he became the first Spanish cyclist to win the Flèche; indeed, no Spaniard had ever won a classic in Belgium, France or the Netherlands. And Astarloa did it by being strong, audacious, confident, and very, very smart. You

Dear Monique;I have read that you should drink only water with gels. In the past, I’ve taken gels with Gatorade or R4 on the bike and have quite often developed stomach cramps on the run. Why is this? Are there other foods that shouldn’t be ingested with sports drinks while training and racing? Thanks, -- MikeDear Mike;Sports drinks are formulated to provide just the right balance of both carbohydrate and fluid when you are exercising. When you add gels to the mix, the additional carbohydrate can prolong the amount of time it takes for the mix of gel and sports drinks to empty from your

As former Euro peloton rider Nathan O’Neill continues his winning ways here in the States— so far undefeated in a time trial this year, proven again at the Tour of Georgia’s prologue — it’s only natural we would run a profile of the Aussie from Toowoomba, Queensland. Look for a two-page feature of the Saturn rider to land in mailboxes and bike shops next weekend, detailing his move from the D-2 Italian Panaria team to Saturn, the most dominant domestic team of 2003. In the mean time, we thought we’d offer up a few quick responses from his recent VeloNews interview… Five Questions with

In a field of 144 women packed with Olympic, world and European champions, and with the best professional teams all out to win, the incredible Nicole Cooke did it again. The British prodigy won the sixth edition of the women’s Flèche Wallonne, held over the same 97.5km that formed the final loop of the pro men’s race, only three days after doing the same at the Amstel Gold race, and only 10 days after her 20th birthday. Cooke won the race by attacking on the closing one-kilometer climb up the formidable Mur de Huy, which averages 13 percent and has a couple of 19-perecent switchbacks. And

The U.S. pro peloton hasn’t seen much of the Navigators this spring, but the squad made a big impact in its first major road stage on home soil this year, with Henk Vogels winning stage 1 of the Tour de Georgia and taking the race leader’s jersey in the process. Vogels emerged from a lead group of about 30 riders and beat out Schroeder Iron’s Miguel Meza at the end of the 136-mile stage from Augusta to Macon, heading east to west across the center of the state. While the rest of the U.S. domestic teams were out in California in full force for the opening of the season, Navigators had only