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Saturday’s final round of the 2002 World Cup was supposed to be a final showdown between Paolo Bettini and Johan Museeuw, but an early start list reveals the Lion of Flanders isn’t taking the start. Bettini heads into the 96th Giro di Lombardia with a nine-point lead over Museeuw, but the Belgian isn’t starting so all the Italian has to do is finish the race and avoid a victory by Spain’s Igor Astarloa – who could bounce into first place if he wins and Bettini finishes out of the points.1. Paolo Bettini, 279 points2. Johan Museeuw, 2703. Igor Astarloa, 180.It isn’t clear yet why Museeuw

When the returning top 10 triathletes at the Ironman Hawaii press conference were asked if there might be any surprise contenders emerging from the field on Saturday, returning second place finisher Cameron Brown of New Zealand took the microphone and mentioned 31-year-old Austin, Texas resident Chann McRae. "Yeah, there's a guy called Chann McRae, he's a U.S. Postal rider, and he's here," said Brown. "He could be a new Steve Larsen. He was a fabulous triathlete as a junior, when I was racing as a junior as well. I heard when his contract's up for U.S. Postal, he's coming

What is Johan doing on Saturday?

Just a week after the world championships in Zolder, Saturday’s Giro di Lombardia may turn out to be to be another celebration of the new cooperation among Italian pros.Recently crowned champion Mario Cipollini promises to be at thestart line showing off his rainbow jersey and to help compatriot Paolo Bettini(Mapei) secure the World Cup title. Lombardia wraps up the 10-round WorldCup series and Bettini holds a slim 9-point lead over Belgian Johan Museeuw(Domo). The Lion of Flanders won two World Cup rounds (Paris-Roubaix and HEW Cyclassics)while Bettini won Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Bettini,

Museeuw and Bettini bring the World Cup fight down to the wire.

Even though 1997 Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich walked away from Telekom, his future direction remains undecided. Ullrich is continuing in negotiations to rejoin former Telekom teammate and 1996 Tour champion Bjarne Riis, who now runs the CSC-Tiscali team. Riis, however, is still trying to sign a co-sponsor for the 2003 season. Riis attended the road world championships in Zolder and had hoped to announce the completion of a deal with the man who helped him win the Tour in 1996, but it wasn't to be. Riis is now working hard to bring Tiscali back for 2003 after negotiations with

Monique Ryan is the nutrition columnist for VeloNews and InsideTriathlon magazines and is founder of Personal Nutrition Designs, a consulting 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.Feeding during a 24-hour raceDear Monique;I have a 24-hour mountain bike race coming up soon. Do you have a simpleplan of hydration and nutrition I could follow? Recommendations of typesof foods would be greatly appreciated. -- TMDear TM;I will

Bologna, Italy -- Two-time Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Gotti spoke out in defense of controversial doctor Michele Ferrari in a court hearing related to organized doping in the professional peloton on Wednesday. Gotti, the Alessio team leader who won the Giro in 1997 and 1999, told presiding judge Maurizio Passerini that his hematocrit (volume of red blood cells in blood) reading of 50.7 percent during the Giro in 1998 was probably due to an infection. The elevated reading eventually forced him out of the Giro, and the ensuing Tour of Switzerland. Ferrari, a former employee of the Italian

Jim Rabdau, race director of the largest women’s stage race in North America, has confirmed dates for the 2003 Women’s Challenge, the 20th anniversary edition of the Idaho-based race. Rabdau also noted that the race is close to finalizing a deal with a new title sponsor for the event, support that was in question at the end of the 2002 race, when computer maker Hewlett-Packard ended its sponsorship. Next year’s 10-day, 11-race stage is slated to begin with a prologue on Friday, June 13 and will end in Boise on Sunday, June 23. Rabdau told VeloNews that he will be ready to announce the name

Will ride for Euros -- Ullrich still looking

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.So that's why they're blueDear VeloNews,The light blue colour of nearly all Italian national sporting teams (see"Why so Blue?" in Monday's mail - below) comes from the coat-of-arms ofthe Savoia former royal family; the colour stayed after Italy became a republicin 1946 and

The post-world’s party for Mario Cipollini will continue through at least next season. Cipollini says he wants to race next year so he can return to his favorite spring classic as world champion. “I want to go back to win Milan-San Remo next year wearing the rainbow jersey,” Cipollini told the Italian press. The 35-year-old roared into the world title Sunday and will race Saturday in the World Cup closing race at Giro di Lombardia in what could be his last race with Acqua & Sapone. “I will race Lombardia out of respect to the World Cup and the rainbow jersey and to help (Paolo) Bettini

A reader asks about regaining confidence after a race crash

Mark your calendars, but don’t buy your tickets quite yet. USA Cycling has announced the dates for next year’s Chevy Trucks NORBA National Championship Mountain Bike Series, but the venues “have yet to be determined.” Promoted by GaleForce Sports Marketing, the 2003 NORBA season will include five races starting on May 15. GaleForce president Rick Sutton said that the sites of those five events will be announced soon. “We’re working on a number of venues,” said Sutton. In the meantime, spectators planning to attend and riders planning to participate in next year’s NCS events can get

Retirement is no longer in the picture.

Where can I get large mountain bike shoes?

Italian newspapers were not in short supply of superlatives Monday after sprinter Mario Cipollini won the men's world championship road race title for the first time in his career. Cipollini, 35, exploded clear of the pack in a mass sprint finish to win the 159-mile race in Zolder, Belgium by two bike lengths on Sunday to become the first Italian since Gianni Bugno in 1992 to win the coveted rainbow jersey. Nicknamed the 'Lion King', Cipollini won with an average speed of 46.538kph, the fastest ever in a world championship, and saw him beat joint favorites Australian Robbie McEwen and

How can I stop my Look pedals from creaking?

What a year. On Sunday in Zolder, Belgium, Mario Cipollini capped an incredible, sometimes turbulent season by taking the world champion's crown that he has coveted ever since the Zolder course was announced. Cipollini was carried along by a unified Italian squad that delivered him to the line with the precision usually reserved for a well-oiled professional trade team. And at the finish, Cipollini easily beat out Australian Robbie McEwen and German Erik Zabel for the rainbow jersey, and left his two rivals fighting for the scraps. The Zolder course had "sprinter" written all over it, with

Marc Gullickson (Mongoose-Hyundai) won his second straight Verge New England championship cyclo-cross series race of the year at the ECV Cyclo-cross in Gloucester, MA. Unlike last week when "Gully" attacked on the opening lap and rode alone for the rest of the race, this was a tactical win where U.S. National Champion Todd Wells was instrumental in setting up his teammate's victory.

Craziness That’s what I was thinking on the final lap of the world championship road race when it started to rain and riders where falling down all around me. Rain is common in Belgium in October and we had been fortunate our first few days here, as the sun was shining. I arrived Zolder Thursday morning and rode the course with my American teammates. This is the flattest course I have ever raced on at a world championship and this would make the race wide open, as nearly anyone would have a chance depending on how the tactics would play out and what kind of challenges the weather may

European cycling fans never cease to amaze me. It is a total circus around here. Jiri Manus, the U.S. National team director, traveled to Zolder as soon as it was named the home of 2002 World Championships. He staked out the best hotel location for the U.S. contingent, and he did a very good job of it. Our hotels are located right on the course. We can look out our hotel window, watch the race go by, and then rush back to our TV and continue watching it live on EuroSport. I love EuroSport! The road race circuit is the same for all categories; 13.3 kilometers. The entire circuit is

Moreau

A unified Italian squad was unbeatable.

Proof that this course was made for sprinters.

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The first successful breakaway of the 2002 World Road Race Championships delivered French junior Arnaud Gerard to victory on Saturday in Zolder, Belgium. Gerard emerged from a six-man group to take the sprint finish ahead of Jukka Vastaranta of Finland and Nicolas Sanderson of Australia. The weather in Zolder was cool and cloudy for the second day in a row, after three days of sunshine earlier in the week for the time trial championships. On Saturday morning, the junior men set a blazing pace from the start as the field of 164 riders exploded off the line, on their way to an average speed of

Susanne Ljungskog survived crashes, rain and a blistering pace to prevail over a three-rider break in the final kilometer to win the world title in Saturday's exciting, rough and tumble 128-km elite women's road race. The Swede didn't stop after she bridged out to three riders who were narrowing down on victory just 600 meters to the finish-line. Ljungskog roared to the gold medal in 2 hours, 59 minutes, 15 seconds (42.845 kph) while Swiss rider Nicole Brandli took her second silver at these world's and Spanish rider Joanne Somarriba hung on for bronze. "I felt strong and I just did it

It was another exciting day at the world championships Saturday under cloudy skies and cool temperatures. French rider Arnaud Gerard won the junior men's road race marred by a horrible finish-line crash that took down a half-dozen riders. Susanne Ljungskog won the women's road race that was equally blighted with spills. The 2002 world's conclude Sunday with the elite men's road race.Wauters hometown hopefulMarc Wauters, a Belgian rider on the Rabobank team, knows every inch of the Zolder world's course. Wauters lives just 5 kilometers away and first rode the course as a young boy.Since then,

U.S. national cyclo-cross champion Todd Wells of Mongoose-Hyundai flew the colors of the stars-and-stripes jersey in the first Central Massachusetts Cyclo-cross To End Homelessness. Last year's revelation picked up where he left off last year, breaking away early with his teammate Marc Gullickson, and taking his first UCI 'cross win of 2002. A steady rain on race day turned the course into a slick, muddy quagmire by the time the elite men took the line at 3:00 for the last race of the day.Wells and Gullickson both had good starts, but the real rocket on lap one was Clif Bar rider Andy

Somarriba and Carrigan

Demet-Barry was top American finisher

Ljungskog

Edita Rumsas, the wife of Lithuanian cyclist Raimondas Rumsas and charged with drugs offences, has been freed from the Bonneville women's prison on bail, her lawyer Veronique Coudray said Friday. Lithuanian Rumsas had been held in the French prison since her arrest in July after investigators found a large variety of performance-enhancing drugs in her car following the Tour de France, in which her husband placed third. Bail was fixed at 20,000 euros ($20,000) and, according to Coudray, the 28-year-old Rumsas intends to go to Italy once the sum has been paid. The mother-of-three was

Dutch rider Suzanne De Goede sprinted her way to the gold medal in the women's junior road race on a cold Friday morning in Zolder while American Magen Long finished a strong fifth place. Long started the sprint early, but De Goede came around to win in dominant fashion in 1 hour, 59 minutes. German Claudia Stumpf took silver while Swede Monica Holder hung on for the bronze. Long was ecstatic with the solid finish, the best result so far by an American at the 2002 world cycling championships. Long almost didn't come to the world's because he mother is sick back home in the hospital, but

Belgium’s weather turned foul just in time for the road races. Riders woke up to a bone-chilling morning Friday for the junior women’s and U23 road races. Clouds built as the afternoon went on and it never warmed up. Forecasters are calling for a chance of rain Saturday. Italy and Holland were the big winners Friday, with Francesco Chicchi from Italy taking a dramatic U23 bunch sprint marred by a crash in the final 200 meters to the line. Dutch rider Suzanne De Goede won the junior women’s gold medal while American Magen Long took fifth for the best American result so far. Milne's rocky

On the first day of the road races at the world championships in Zolder, Belgium on Friday, things played out the way they were anticipated, with cold, overcast weather and races that boiled down to field sprint finishes. In the under-23 men's race, things worked out perfectly for Italian Francesco Chicchi, who came out of no-man's land to pull off the sprint win on the Circuit Zolder auto racetrack. Chicchi stayed in front of an ugly pileup with 250 meters to go, and then came from six spots back, swooped across the road from right to left, and then came around Dutchman Hans Dekkers at the

All but one of the seven stops on next year’s mountain bike World Cup have been set, and like last year North America will be the site of three of those events. Back for another go round are Mont-Ste-Anne, Grouse Mountain and Telluride, which will all host triple events (cross country, downhill and four-cross) in 2003. Both the Canadian locales have hosted triples in the past, but this will be Telluride’s first three-race event after debuting on the circuit with downhill and four-cross last year. (There was a non-World Cup cross-country stage race at the Colorado resort that was run in

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

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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