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Chicchi wins, but Dekkers (L) was later DQ-ed

Creed

Santiago Botero must be relieved he decided to come to Zolder. The Colombian suffered through much of the 2002 Vuelta a España despite winning a stage and wondered out loud if he would compete in the world championships. But a strong fourth-place finish in the Vuelta’s final time trial helped change his mind. On a blustery, flat course in northern Belgium, Botero became the first Colombian to win a world championship gold medal. Riding a 55x11 through strong crosswinds and headwinds topping 25 kph that buffeted the 57 riders, Botero made up time on Michael Rich to edge the German by just 8

What is this, Jamaica? Zolder smoldered under the (relative) tropical heat of a bright autumn sun for the third day in a row. Winds continued to blow hard across the flatlands of Flanders for Thursday’s elite men’s individual time trial, but forecasters are calling for good, old-fashioned bleak Belgian weather for the weekend. Rain, wind and cold; the perfect recipe for an epic weekend of racing. Colombia’s Santiago Botero roared his way to the gold medal, while Germany’s Michael Rich settled for second for the second time in three years and Spain’s Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano hung on for

Monique Ryan is the nutrition columnist for VeloNews and InsideTriathlon magazines and is founder of Personal Nutrition Designs, aconsulting company based in the Chicago area. Ryan will try to answer selectedquestions each week in her regular on-line question-and-answer column. Readers are welcome to send questions to Ryan at WebLetters@7dogs.com.On vegetarianism and cyclingI am a USCF category 3 road race and a vegetarian. I have been racingfor six years and a vegetarian for the past five. Over the past few yearsI have noticed what would appear to be a steady decline in my body’s abilityto

At the world time trial championship in Zolder, American Chris Horner had a disappointing ride, finishing in 36th place, but that didn't stop the always-candid Horner during a post-race interview with VeloNews in which he discussed the race, the U.S. prospects for the elite road race and his plans for next year. How did the day go for you? It's all the same thing, huh? It all boils down to having the best legs. That's always what it is, and I guess they just weren't there. I never felt like they came back, like sometimes when you do a time trial they come back. You start off really good,

The feed zone - Nutrition Q&A with Monique Ryan

Russian Mikhail Ignatiev upset the pre-race favorites and ripped his way through gusting winds to capture the gold medal in the junior men’s individual time trial Wednesday. Ignatiev was fastest at both splits to win in 28 minutes, 30.37 seconds (48.831 kph) to relegate junior track individual pursuit world champion Mark Jamieson into the silver medal by 10.36 seconds. Italian Vincenzo Nibali was good enough for third at 25.98 seconds slower. Cold winds blew hard across the 23.2-km course from Hassalt to Zolder, but they couldn’t slow down the burly Russian. “We are Russians and we are

It was a sunny, blustery autumn day for the second day of competition at the 2002 road cycling world championships. Wind didn’t slow down the winners in Wednesday’s time trial events. Russians dominated the day, with Zoulfia Zabirova and Mikhail Ignatiev winning the day’s gold medals in the women’s and junior men’s respective individual time trials. Millar tops men’s elite fieldDavid Millar goes into Thursday’s men’s elite individual time trial is the favorite in what should be an exciting shootout among cycling’s strongest men against the clock. Defending world time trial champion Jan

In a women’s field that boasted some heavy duty résumés, a virtual unknown almost walked off with the top prize on another calm sunny day in Zolder, Belgium. Indeed, it wasn't until the closing minutes of the women’s world time trial championship, 1996 Olympic champion Zoulfia Zabirova claimed the top prize ahead of Switzerland’s Nicole Brändli, who bumped her surprising countrywoman Karin Thürig down to the bronze medal position. Lost in the shuffle were the two favorites, France’s Jeannie Longo and the Netherlands’ Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel, who had combined to win six of the seven

When I first heard that the world’s were being held in Belgium in October, I envisioned us racing in cold, pelting rain perhaps mixed with some sleet and snow. I didn’t invite any of my family or friends to come watch, because I figured Belgium at that time of the year was really no pleasant place to visit. But wow, did I mess up. I should have invited mom and dad along for the ride. It’s beautiful here right now. Mornings are a little cold. Actually, the afternoons are too, but the crisp smell of fall is in the air and the sun is shining. So you’d think that would make way for me having a

Russia’s Mikhail Ignatiev took the world TT title for junior men Wednesday in Zolder. Australian Mark Jamieson (L) and Italian Vincenzo Nibali (R) took silver and bronze.

Zabirova took the top prize

Brändli nearly pulled off a major upset

Longo

Kimberly Bruckner

Thürig -- From Swiss duathlons to the podium at Zolder

Clothes Horse - Gary Fisher made his usual stylin' appearance at Interbike.

No, this isn't Bicycling magazine, but every once in a while even we run across a motorcycle we like.

Stella Azzurra's new carbon 'Tirreno' road bar turned quite a few heads in 'Vegas.

Once lost, now found. Lost in transit, the new CF3 by Colnago and Ferrari was delivered safely to 'Vegas afterall.

Tears of joy opened the 2002 road cycling world championships Tuesday as Italian Anna Zugno won the gold medal in the junior women's individual time trial. Starting in the penultimate position in a field of 41 starters, Zugno covered the flat 11.2-km course from Hasselt to Zolder in 15 minutes, 54.21 seconds (42.255 kph) to edge compatriot Tatiana Guderzo by 6.54 seconds. German rider Claudia Hecht finished third at 7.21 seconds slower. Zugno burst into tears after realizing she came across the line with the fastest time. The emotions didn't stop there as she hugged and cried her way

The Interbike International Bicycle Expo moved into its second day at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas on Monday. The mood, despite signs of a troubled economy, have been generally upbeat as crowds of buyers, shop owners and plain old bike geeks work their way through aisles of new product. While manufacturers both big and small got down to the business of selling bikes, the aisles at Interbike also hosted serious negotiations of another kind. At this annual cycling confab, teams and racers have either been seeking new sponsors or putting the final touches on deals to set them up for

With the sun shining and a daylong wind having died away, a triumphant Tomas Vaitkus flew across the line at the Circuit Zolder racetrack in Belgium to take home the men’s under-23 time trial title on the first day of competition at the world road championships. The 20-year-old Lithuanian, the only rider to crack 39 minutes for the 33.2km course on Tuesday, obliterated the competition, finishing 42 seconds better than runner-up Alexandr Bespalov of Russia. Starting second-to-last on the point-to-point course from Hasselt to Zolder, Vaitkus was spared much of the wind that buffeted riders who

Fred Rodriguez is the U.S.’s best hope for a world championship title in the elite men's road race. The Domo-Farm Frites rider had an awesome spring, finishing second at Milan-San Remo and Ghent-Wevelgem, but struggled through the Tour de France after coming down with bronchitis during a trip home to the United States in June. Rodriguez, 29, now says he's fully recovered and believes he has as good a chance as anyone to win at Zolder, a course that's been hyped as the "sprinters" worlds since it was revealed. VeloNews European correspondent Andrew Hood spoke with Rodriguez by phone Tuesday

Ryder Hesjedal, the mountain bike pro who won the four-day, five-stage Volta Cataluyna de l'Avenir road race in mid-September, won't be racing for the Canadians at the Zolder world’s. Hesjedal was expected to race in both of the under-23 events, but crashed during a stage of the Tour de Seine et Marne (Sept. 27-29) and was too banged up to come to Zolder. Canadian team officials said Hesjedal didn't break any bones but was seriously scraped up during the spill and wouldn't be in top form for the worlds. Madrid to host 2005 road worlds The mean streets of Madrid will be the site of the 2005

The Interbike International Bicycle Expo is wrapping up in Las Vegas Tuesday afternoon. As VeloNews editors fold up their laptops and lend a hand breaking down our booth, we thought we’d put up a few more shots of items that caught our interest today. Cervelo – When the Toronto-based frame builder signed on as bike sponsor of the CSC-Tiscali team, Cervelo earned the distinction of being the smallest manufacturer supplying the Division 1 peloton. The company doesn’t reveal its precise numbers, but its safe to say that annual production is somewhere in the mid-four figures. Precise numbers or

The Posties were a big draw at the Sands

Even the famous Marzocchi girls took time off to visit George.

Interbike: Bikes, gossip and the art of the deal

Interbike: Bikes, gossip and the art of the deal

Interbike: Bikes, gossip and the art of the deal

Interbike: Bikes, gossip and the art of the deal

Viva Italia: Zugno led a one-two punch for Italy's junior women

No contest: Vaitkus won by 42 seconds.

VeloNews photo editor Galen Nathanson rushing to get that last shot.

LOOK! Now it says Cervelo.

Interbike winding down in 'Vegas

Interbike winding down in 'Vegas

Interbike winding down in 'Vegas

Interbike winding down in 'Vegas

Gentlemen, and ladies, start your engines. Beginning Tuesday at noon with the junior women's individual time trial and concluding Sunday with the elite men's road race, the automobile racetrack in Belgium's Flanders region is the center of the world for road racing. Road racing with two wheels and no motor, that is. The 2002 road cycling world championships are set to get underway. Perhaps it's no mistake that Zolder rhymes with Boulder. During the next six, action-packed days, 10 rainbow jerseys and 30 world championship medals will be awarded. Twenty-five American athletes will be going

The Lampre cycling team members who were Sunday questioned by police after the Paris-Tours World Cup race, on Monday blasted the operation as part of a doping witch hunt to placate the media. Police sources said they wanted to question the riders about the ongoing investigation into Edita Rumsas, the wife of Lithuanian rider Raimondas Rumsas. She has been held in a French prison since her arrest in July and is to be questioned by an investigative magistrate on Tuesday after investigators found a large collection of performance-enhancing drugs in her car following the Tour de France, in

Cipo' has won everywhere but at world's

Jakob Piil took his most important victory of his career while Paolo Bettini widened his overall World Cup series lead to nine points over rival Johan Museeuw in Sunday's Paris-Tours race. Piil, a 29-year-old Danish rider on the CSC-Tiscali team, was the worthy winner over Frenchman Jacky Durand, who played rope-a-dope over the final 10km in the 253-km World Cup race on a sunny, brisk autumn day in France. Durand refused to take a pull after the pair dropped two riders from an original five-man break that attacked with just 5 km in the monster 252-km race. Durand, who won Paris-Tours in

French police arrested the entire Lampre cycling team in Tours, France, on Sunday two days before the wife of one of their riders is scheduled to be questioned about a host of doping products found in her car. Police swooped on the Italian team's cyclists after the Paris-Tours World Cup race won by Denmark's Jakob Piil, riding for CSC. A police source said they would be questioned about the investigation into Edita Rumsas, the wife of Lithuanian rider Raimondas Rumsas. She has been held in prison since her arrest at the French-Italian border in July and will be questioned by an

The doors opened on the 2002 Interbike International Bicycle Expo on Sundayas crowds of dealers, industry types and shop rats descended on the SandsConvention Center in Las Vegas. In the mix, VeloNews editors scouredthe halls for a glimpse at what will by plying the roads and trails inthe coming year. We'll offer updates throughout the show, but these are things that jumpedout at us on our first day. Pinarello Dogma: With a front triangle built using Dedacciai'snew magnesium tubeset, the Dogma stole show today as every roadie in Vegasmade a pilgrimage to visit this near-holy beauty. With

Marc Gullickson of Mongoose/Hyundai flew across the country to start in the DownEast Cyclo-Cross. His competition saw him fly away early in the race. The former U.S. National Champion and Overall SuperCup champion grabbed the lead on lap 1, breaking away with the newly married Jonathan Page (Richard Sachs), and never looked back as he claimed the race title. With that win, Gullickson also takes the blue leader's jersey in the 2002 Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Series. Gullickson had an atypically poor start in his first 'cross race of the year, and had to work hard to pull back

Lampre's Ludo Dierckxsens is escorted by police after the entire team was arrested by French police in Tours.

Pinarello Dogma

Specialized's S-Works Epic

It's show time in Las Vegas

Telekom has signed Italian classics specialist Daniele Nardello on a one-year deal, the team announced Saturday. Nardello, who was Italian champion last year, has been recruited to "reinforce the team mainly in the (one-day) classics," said Telekom team spokesman Olaf Ludwig. As well as 30-year-old Nardello Telekom, who failed to re-sign their troubled former Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich last week, have also signed Australian Cadel Evans and Italian Paolo Savaldelli, this year’s Giro d’Italia winner. Both of the latter arrived from Mapei while Belgian Mario Aerts and German

Richard Virenque may have surprised the field last year, but a peloton full of anxious sprinters is unlikely to allow the once-shamed climber to escape for another win in the relatively flat Paris-Tour World Cup race on Sunday. Virenque, 32, shocked the rest of the field to win last year's Paris-Tours, the penultimate race of the season-long World Cup, after an audacious breakaway in the company of feisty French compatriot Jacky Durand. Welcomed by a legion of fans who have supported him through the agonies of the Festina drugs trial two years ago, Virenque's victory had little effect in

Canadian mountain biker Ryder Hesjedal is returning home a little earlier than expected, due to injuries suffered in a crash at last week’s Tour of Seine et Marne. Hesjedal was in a lead group when he went down, bruising ribs, his back and his wrist. The incident will force him to miss the world road championships. The 21-year-old had been penciled in to ride in the under-23 time trial in Zolder, and was also in contention for one of the three starter positions for the U23 road race. Following his win at the mountain bike World Cup finals at the beginning of September, Hesjedal had been

Oscar Sevilla told 800 fans Thursday night in his hometown that he’d like to leave his Kelme team because he said the team hasn’t lived up to its promises.Disappointed that he finished fourth, just off the 2002 Vuelta a España podium, Sevilla said he’s fed up with Kelme and wants to get out of the one year remaining on his contract.“I’d like to change teams, but I know it would be complicated,” Sevilla told more than 800 people in a fiesta in his honor at his hometown in Ossa de Montiel.“I still have a year left on my contract, but if Kelme would let me out of if, but it’s not just up to me,”

Bettini is in a tight race with Museeuw for World Cup dominance.

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across something in the pages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.com that causes you to want to write us, drop us a line.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to this address, you are consenting to the publication of your letter. The truth is out thereEditor'Cross as a winter Olympic sport? (see Monday's Mail bag "Why not?")hmmmmm.....Why were the 2000 'cross nationals held on the frozen Kansas tundra back in2000? Then why was Lisa Voight released from her CEO position, but still takes home

The 96th Paris-Tours on Sunday will be an exciting preview for the upcoming world championships in Zolder. The 257-km course from Saint Arnoult en Yvelines, just south of Paris, rolls through the lush wheat fields in central France to Tours. The course is similar in length to Zolder and doesn’t feature challenging features to break the race, so it will likely be a final chance for the sprinters to stretch their legs before heading to Belgium for the worlds Oct. 8-13. Domo’s Richard Virenque will be back to defend his surprise victory last year when he held on for victory after making an epic

This is the first in what will become a regular question-and-answer column by sports nutritionist Monique Ryan, MS, RD. Ryan is a regular columnist for VeloNews and Inside Triathlon magazines andis founder of Personal Nutrition Designs, a nutrition consulting companybased in the Chicago area. Readers are welcome to send questions to Ryan at WebLetters@7dogs.com.Question - I am concerned that I may develop sodiumdepletion during my longer rides and runs, and also during competition.It seems that it is a more common problem for cyclists and triathletes.What  can I do to prevent this from

BOULDER, CO -- VeloNews.com, the online Web site for VeloNews magazine,is headed for a 60-percent increase in page views this year after recordingrecord traffic levels for the month of July. The numbers, as audited byABC Interactive (ABCi), show significant increases over July 2001 in impressionsand unique visitors, the two most important metrics for measuring Web traffic.Total ABC Interactive-audited page impressions for the site hit 8,206,533in July 2002. In addition, the VeloNews.com site recorded 4.8 million pageviews of its minute-by-minute race coverage during the Tour de France,for a

It's been almost a full year since Manitou (in conjunction with Cane Creek, RaceFace, and Chris King) unveiled the evolutionary OnePointFive standard. And while most of the initial gee-whiz (or so-what?) factor has worn off, most of us are left wondering how an oversize headset, steerer and stem (not to mention frame) will really improve our riding? We’ve seen an increasing number of manufacturers producing OnePointFive standard components and forks, (a surprise move with once-skeptical Marzocchi adopting the standard) but most of us are still searching for some harder reasoning to

Can Virenque repeat or is there another surprise winner in store?

The feed zone - Nutrition Q&A with Monique Ryan

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across somethingin the pages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.comthat causes you to want to write us, dropus a line.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to thisaddress, you are consenting to the publication of your letter.From the pulpitGuys,I don't want to drag this out any longer than need be.But I just wanted to say to O'Grady that as a Christian pastor and acyclist, I wasn't offended in the least by your "Losing my religion" column.(see Friday's foaming rant: "Losin'my religion"

Just three days after winning the Vuelta a España, Aitor Gonzalez is getting some heat from his Kelme sport director Vicente Belda. Gonzalez is likely to leave Kelme at the end of this season and, considering the fallout from his controversial Vuelta victory, he likely won't be leaving many friends behind. Belda, speaking to the Spanish sports daily MARCA, called Gonzalez "undisciplined" and criticized him for celebrating his Vuelta victory with Miguel Antonio Martin Perdiuguero, the Acqua & Sapone rider who helped U.S. Postal's Roberto Heras at La Covatilla. "What do his teammates

With offers from everywhere, Gonzalez is likely to kiss-off Kelme for 2003

The recent winner of the 2002 Vuelta a España is certainly the man of the hour. According to reports in the Spanish press, Aitor Gonzalez is now considering offers from six teams including Telekom, Saeco, Acqua & Sapone, Quick Step, Kelme and iBanesto.com. Gonzalez earned $54,000 this season with Kelme and is said to be seeking an annual contract worth an estimated $600,000. Gonzalez said he’s interested in being the sole captain of a team. “I’m not interested in a team like U.S. Postal Service because they already have Lance Armstrong. Kelme is difficult because there are three leaders

For the first time in seven years, U.S. cyclo-crossers will not havea national SuperCup series to target. Whether it was the original eight-racecontest in 1996 held under the auspices of USA Cycling, or the abbreviatedthree-race, east-of-the-Rockies schedule run last year by the Kiron Group,the SuperCup has been the only game in town when it came to a nationalseries.And now, for lack of sponsorship, it’s gone.But don’t fret, fans and racers. With a whopping 18 UCI races scheduledin the United States, there promises to be as much high level racing asever. And beyond that, a sport that once was

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across somethingin the pages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.comthat causes you to want to write us, dropus a line.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to thisaddress, you are consenting to the publication of your letter.More Olympic ‘crossDear Editor;Cyclo-cross in 2006? Yes!Dan Kerner (see Monday'sMailbag -- "Why Not?") is on to something with his suggestion thatcyclo-cross be introduced to the Winter Olympics. As a citizen of Winnipeg,Canada, where it is not uncommon to reach -30 F in the winter

Aitor may have been thinking of his bank balance when he celebrated in Madrid.

The magic number U.S. Postal Service sport director Johan Bruyneel was 1:30. Bruyneel thought if Roberto Heras had that much time, he stood a chance to hold off Aitor Gonzalez in Sunday’s final time trial. But Heras only went in with a 1:08 margin and it quickly became clear it wasn’t going to be Heras’ day. “I had hope because the first time trial Roberto had done very well because he lost 1:36 to Aitor. I was confident he could do very well with the motivation of the yellow jersey. I knew it would be difficult because that for Roberto because this course was for specialists,” he said.

VeloNews.com welcomes your letters. If you run across somethingin the pages of VeloNews magazine or see something on VeloNews.comthat causes you to want to write us, dropus a line.Please include your full name and home town. By submitting mail to thisaddress, you are consenting to the publication of your letter.Oh Lord, what hath he wrought?Editor;Long live barriers.  (see “Friday'sfoaming rant: Losin' my religion”)I'm such a retro-grouch luddite that I sometimes frown on the bunnyhop. Barriers and portage were originally invented to thaw the frozen feetof riders who'd

VeloNews technical writer Lennard Zinn is a frame builder, a former U.S.national team rider and author of several books on bikes and bike maintenance.This is Zinn's regular VeloNews.com column devoted to addressing readers'technical questions about bikes, their care and feeding and how we as riderscan use them as comfortably and efficiently as possible. Readers can sendbrief technical questions directly to Zinn. We'll try to print a representativesample of questions regularly.First, some follow-up from previous columns:Comment on rim weight:Froma July, 2002 column,"As an aside- the old wheels

Good Morning and welcome to VeloNews.com’s coverage of the 21st and final stage of the 2002 Vuelta a España. It’s all come down to a contest between race leader Roberto Herras of the U.S. Postal team and Kelme’s Aitor Gonzalez. The two men are separated by a scant 1:08… possibly enough of a buffer for a super-motivated Herras to save his overall lead in the Vuelta. But Gonzalez has already beat Herras in this tour’s other individual race against the clock, besting the Postal man by 1:34 over the course of the 36.5km timer trial on September 16. Today’s 41 km individual time trial from