All Content

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

Australia is now assured both gold and silver medals in the main event of the world track cycling championships after Jobie Dajka joined compatriot Sean Eadie in the final in Copenhagen Sunday. Dajka, the 20-year-old keirin champion, dominated reigning champion Arnaud Tournant of France over the two legs of their semi-final, minutes after 33-year-old Eadie had ousted Florian Rousseau twice in their semi. Australia, who are leading the gold medals charge here, have not won the men's sprint title since Darryn Hill won in Bogota in 1995.

Australia's Sean Eadie won the world sprint title at the world track cycling championships in Copenhagen Sunday after beating compatriot Jobie Dajka in a third leg decider. It is Australia's first medal in track cycling's main event since Darryn Hill won the sprint title in Bogota in 1995. France, who won all three medals last year, took the bronze when Florian Rousseau held off his compatriot and the reigning champion Arnaud Tournant in their two-heat match. Meanwhile, French duo Jerome Neuville and Franck Perque handed France their only gold medal here when they retained their world

More than 35,000 fans poured into Madrid’s largest soccer stadium Sunday to watch Kelme’s Aitor Gonzalez become crowned the 2002 Vuelta a Espana champion on a dramatic final-day time trial duel. Gonzalez won the 41-km individual time trial and erased a 1 minute, 8 second-deficit to Roberto Heras to grab the race leader’s jersey away from the U.S. Postal Service rider who held the lead since the treacherous Angliru stage a week ago. "I came to this Vuelta to win," said Gonzalez, who beat defending champion Angel Casero by 1:23 in the time trial. "Nobody counted me among the favorites, and

Australian Robbie McEwen did enough in the final stage in Tournai, Belgium, Sunday to win the Franco-Belge cycle race. The Lotto rider, who came in fifth behind France's Sandy Cesar in the 180km fourth stage, headed the overall standings by two seconds from Belgian Tom Boonen of US Postal. The win came at the end of a month, which saw McEwen come home first in the Paris-Brussels classic. Copyright AFP 2002

Today was the last stage of the Tour of Spain. The plan was for me to go out as hard as I could for the first 20km to give Johan some split times for Roberto. After that, I just kept on going to the finish, it was dicey going into the soccer stadium and I was glad I was wearing clear lenses or I would've been blind in the dark. We went into Real Madrid locker room. Matt White was pretty excited and jumped in the hot tub. We took showers and made our way back to the hotel, but first we made a Dunkin’ Donuts stop, they were tasty but didn't sit to well in my stomach. Once back at the hotel

Australian Baden Cooke scraped home in the Paris-Correze cycle race in Brive, France on Sunday to mark up what he rated the best win of his young career. Cooke, who has had possession of the leader's yellow jersey since his opening stage success in the event devised by former Tour de France champion Laurent Fignon, had to dig deep to hold on to his one second overnight lead over Bernhard Eisel of Austria. The 24-year-old really showed his mettle though as he was going so easily he raced alone without the support of his fdjeux.com teammates for much of the stage until Nicolas Vogondy

Cyclo-cross season is officially underway in the state of Washington, where local pros Jonny Sundt (K2) and Dale Knapp (Kona) went toe-to-toe over the weekend in two races held in the span of less than 24 hours.

The Miami Cycling Classic, Sunday, September 29, went a little bit coconuts when Saturn’s Eric Wohlberg pedaled to victory in the course’s first solo finish, according to race manager and producer, Lee Marks of Velo Racing. Chris Wherry of Mercury followed for second and Saturn’s Ivan Dominguez took out Mercury’s Henk Vogels on the line in a bunch sprint for third place in the final race of the Pro Cycling Tour. “That was a great race. It was the first time the race hasn’t ended in a bunch sprint, except for '99 when Mercury with Fraser and Sayers pulled it off,” said Marks. “The race was

That last time trial rearranged the podium.

Gonzalez hammers towards the win.

Heras could not hold his lead.

Beloki overtook Sevilla to grab the last podium place.

Showtime: Sundt gives the spectators a reason to hoist their beers.

In the dark: Knapp chases up one of the two run-ups at Marymoor.

Sunset in Seattle: Two junior racers from Rad Racing negotiate the barriers.

Thighmaster: Knapp charges up one of SeaTac's natural run-ups.

Good morning and welcome to stage 20 of the Vuelta a España. Saturday's 141.2-km 20th stage from Avila to the Warner Bros. theme park in the outskirts of Madrid features two category-three climbs — Alto de la Paramera at 15 km and the Alto Navas del Rey at 66 km. It's rolling flat to the finish with a sharp descent about 5 km from the finish. With tomorrow's time trial to come, all expectations are that today's stage will end in a sprint. 3:35 p.m. Just 3km into the race Oscar Laguna (Relax) has gone off the front. Behind him the peloton seems uninterested. 3:45 p.m. With 60km to go Laguna

The penultimate stage of the 57th Vuelta a Espana went to script: a long breakaway and the sprinter teams taking control for a mass gallop to the line. But Alessio’s Angelo Furlan ruined the storyline for Fassa Bortolo Alessandro Petacchi and Telekom’s Erik Zabel as he pipped the favorites for his second victory in the final week of the Vuelta. But for everyone fighting for the final spoils in the Vuelta, Saturday’s 141-km stage couldn’t have been better. Sunday’s final-day time trial was on the minds of everyone. U.S. Postal’s Roberto Heras will put all of his frail climber’s body into

Chris Newton bounced back from a disappointing performance in the men's team pursuit qualifying to win the points race crown at the world track cycling championships here on Saturday to hand Britain their third gold medal in as many days. Newton, who celebrates his 29th birthday on Sunday, collected a total of 76 points in the 40km endurance race in which 20-30 riders race for bonus points every 2000 meters, or eight laps of the track. Austria's Franz Stocher came second with 50 points while Argentine Juan Curuchet finished third on 49. Newton, who said it was mainly his fault that

Furlan gets his second.

Good morning and welcome to VeloNews.com’s Live coverage of the 19th stage of the 2002 Vuelta a España.Today’s 177-km 19th stage from Bejar to Avila is a difficult, up-and-down climbing stage with three rated climbs: the category-three Alto de la Hoya at 8 km; the category-one Puerto de Serranillos at 115 km; and the category-two Puerto de Navalmoral at 155 km. The final kilometer is flat, but there's a sharp climb up to the city with 3 km to go. The finish at Avila is much tougher than it looks. It's quite steep coming into Avila, a beautiful city surrounded by the best-preserved medieval

It ain’t over ‘til it’s over, and this Vuelta a España isn’t over yet. Kelme’s Aitor Gonzalez squeezed four seconds out of the final ramps along the medieval walls of historic Avila in Friday’s 177-km 19th stage to remind everyone that Roberto Heras shouldn’t be crowned the winner of the 57th Vuelta yet. If the tension wasn’t enough going into Sunday’s final-day time trial, second-place Gonzalez made it that much more interesting, reducing Heras’ margin to 1 minute, 8 seconds. “No pasa nada,” said an unfazed Heras at the finish line. “Four seconds, that’s nothing. I was a little blocked in

The 60th annual Milan International Bicycle Show fulfilled expectations of beautiful Italian designs in bicycles, components and soft goods. It also exceeded expectations of visitor interest. The aisles were constantly packed with passionate Italian cyclists who could not help but caress thecolorful two-wheeled creations in the booths. In general, the Italian show is better at showing off whatever is cool about our sport than other shows, and the visitors respond to it. There was even an entire hall devoted to road racing – including mass-participation Gran Fondo races. Paradigm-shattering

For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall. – II Samuel, 22:30I’m suffering a crisis of faith. Adri Van der Poel, whom cyclo-crossers revere as God, is rewriting the Bible by supporting barrier-free course design in his role as technical director for the UCI World Cup. “I have nothing against barriers, but the simple presence of barriers doesn’t make it a cyclo-cross race,” Van der Poel told VN news editor Charles Pelkey as part of a World Cup preview to be published in the October 21 issue. “What they do accomplish is to give a huge advantage to those who

Australia's world record holders in the men's team pursuit event won the gold medal at the world track cycling championships in Copenhagen Friday holding off Germany in an exciting final. Australia, who are the medals pace-setters in the competition so far, timed an impressive 4min 00.362sec to add the world crown to the Commonwealth title they won in world record time in August. Germany finished in 4:07.384 with Britain claiming the honors in the match-up for the bronze medal against a sluggish Ukraine. Australia and Britain have emerged as the main attraction at these world

iBanesto.com's Jose Garcia Acosta