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Chausson

Kovarik

Spain's Juan Carlos Dominguez of the upstart Phonak team won the prologue of the Giro d’Italia in Groningen, the Netherlands, over a 6.5km course in the northern Dutch town. Dominguez, one of the last starters, finished in 8:12, one second ahead of Lotto’s Rik Verbrugghe and four seconds in front of Paolo Savoldelli (Alexia) of Italy to take early control of the coveted pink jersey. It was the 31-year-old time-trial specialist's first stage win in a major race although he has earned stage victories in smaller Spanish events like the Tour of Aragon and Catalan Week. It was a banner day

The U.S. team took three medals on day 2 of the second round of the UCI Track World Cup in Sydney, Australia. The medal haul was led by Tanya Lindenmuth, who took gold in the women’s 500-meter time trial. Meanwhile, Jame Carney took silver behind Dutchman Robert slippens in the men’s scratch race, and Sarah Hammer was second behind New Zealand’s Sarah Ulmer in the women’s scratch race. On day 1, Southern Californian Josiah Ng took silver in the keirin, flying the colors of the Malaysian national team, and 7UP-Nutra Fig pro Greg Henderson of New Zealand took third in the points race behind

Cédric Vasseur (Cofidis) overcame a broken derailleur to win the fifth stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk, between Outreau and Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France. Vasseur chased back to the winning breakaway and then attacked on the final climb of the day to beat out fellow Frenchmen Jean-Cyril Robin (Bonjour) and Laurent Brochard (Jean Delatour) for the stage win. Bonjour’s Sylvain Chavanel finished sixth on the day, good enough to take the leader’s jersey from Ravais Belohvosciks (Lampre-Daikin), who missed out on the break. Canadian Michael Barry (U.S. Postal Service), finished ninth on

Today the Giro d'Italia got underway. Finally. Part of me feels like I've been making the journey to this opportunity since last August. That's when Bjarne Riis and I sat down and started to discuss my objectives for the 2002 season. He mentioned that he thought the Giro d'Italia could be a good race for me. Having been so focused on the Tour de France in previous years, I had never given the Giro serious thought. But I liked the sound of it. And so, preparations got underway. Preparation and focus It's hard to fully describe what goes into getting ready for a grand tour. I think it's

As if the 15 percent grade of Cliff Street wasn't enough for the collegiate competitors on day one of the 2002 National Collegiate Cycling Association Road Nationals in Burlington, Vermont on Friday, there was also the 40 mph wind gusts off Lake Champlain to worry about. Under these conditions, Jeff Angerman (University of California at Davis) and Kate Maher (University of California at Berkley) took home the Division I stars-and-stripes jerseys in the Summit Street Criterium, the first of three stages scheduled for the weekend. In the men’s race, Angerman had his hands full when he found

On a blustery spring morning in the Green Mountains near Burlington, Vermont, more than 500 racers representing 60 Division I and II colleges lined up for day two of the 2002 National Collegiate Cycling Association Road Race. Day one saw racers vying for the national criterium titles in the Summit Street Criterium in Burlington. The road race titles on Saturday would be contested nearby in the Mad River Road Race. At the end of a 65-mile day in the saddle most people would fear a 5-kilometer climb with a 20 percent grade stinger to the finish, but both Darby Thomas (University of Colorado)

The joke floating around Snow Summit Resort on Saturday was that the revamped short track course put the short in short track. Minus last year’s brief trip into woods, the 2002 circuit sent riders straight up a quick climb, into a brief chicane, then back into the village via the twisty sidewalk around the resort’s base area. The result was lap times that barely exceeded a minute for both the men and women, and a relentless pace that saw the majority of each field get pulled long before the race was over. Among those who did survive were Alison Dunlap and Ryder Hesjedal, who both took wins

After nine seasons plus one race, the run of the dual slalom came to an end on the sun-soaked slopes of Snow Summit Resort in Big Bear Lake, California. And unlike the early years when Americans dominated the side-by-side gated event, Saturday’s NORBA NCS No. 1 wins went to Aussie Wade Bootes and Frenchwoman Anne-Caroline Chausson. In the men’s bracket Bootes (Trek-Volkswagen) took down Mike King, Chris Kovarik (Intense), and Kirt Voreis (Haro-Lee Dungarees), earning the third dual slalom win of his career. In the final against Voreis, Bootes dropped the opening heat, but managed to make up

Dominguez

Savoldelli was third

Dominguez was a surprise

The tiger ate the zebra

Florit and Dunlap battle in the short track.

An exhausted Hesjedal aftre his win.

Bootes charges towards victory.

Chausson earned her first slalom victory.

Calmly, the young man allows himself to be inoculated with the strangeseething liquid … “It is working! There’s power surging through those growingmuscles … millions of cells forming at incredible speed!” — “Meet CaptainAmerica,” by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby It’s time once again for the Giro d’Italia, and despite a cast of charactersthat includes more dopers than a Cheech and Chong film festival, it willbe carried live on OLN rather than on Court TV. Marco “Il Pirata” Pantani, Dario “Pretty Boy” Frigo — the list goeson and on like a Brooklyn police blotter, with Pantani as the least

With a second-place finish on the stage 4 individual time trial, Lampre’s Ravais Belohvosciks moved into the overall lead at the Four Days of Dunkirk in France, taking the leader’s pink jersey from Janek Tombak (Cofidis). Friday was a split stage at Dunkirk, with Jean-Patrick Nazon (La Française des Jeux) winning in a sprint over Lampre’s Jan Svorada. Navigators’ Ciaran Power took fifth. The afternoon presented the riders with a flat 23.3km time-trial course, and it was Crédit Agricole’s Christophe Moreau who posted the fastest time of the day, covering the distance in 27:51.64.

For one it was a breakthrough performance. For the other it was just more of the same. But after a long day of racing at NORBA NCS No. 1 at Snow Summit Resort in Big Bear Lake California, Jimena Florit and Roland Green both had impressive cross-country wins to their credit. Friday’s racing opened with the women taking on three laps of the revamped 7.25-mile circuit, and right from the gun Florit (RLX-Polo Sport) looked to have the strongest legs. The Argentinean national who calls San Diego home pulled away from the pack on the first lap, growing her advantage to 58 seconds by the time she

Friday’s foaming rant: The Giro d’Cheech and Chong

The 'Happy Girl' wins.

Vanlandingham refuels

Another Green day.

Madrigal nips Hesjedal.

Giro favorites lining up: Every year pundits invariably say, "This is the most-widen open (fill in race name) ever." Well, the 85th Giro d'Italia might not meet that clichè, but it certainly will be very competitive. A trio of dominant Italians will be fighting for the spoils while a half-dozen outsiders will be trying to spoil the party. The top favorites are Gilberto Simoni (Saeco-Longoni), Stefano Garzelli (Mapei-Quick Step) and Francesco Casagrande (Fassa Bortolo) and all three enter the Giro with something to prove. The defending champion Simoni wants to win back-to-back Giros

Cofidis’s Janek Tombak pulled on the pink leader’s jersey at the Four Days of Dunkirk in France after winning Thursday’s second stage, 190km from Hellemmes to Steenvorde. Tombak beat Frenchman Didier Rous (Bonjour) for the stage win and took the leader’s jersey away from Patrice Halgand (Jean Delatour). The start of the race saw the ever-present Jacky Durand (La Française des Jeux) initiate an eight-man breakaway that would stay out on the road for the first 50km. That group was absorbed, but countered by Roger Hammond (Palmans-Collstrop) and Roberto Lochowski (EDS-Fakta). That duo would

For the sixth year in a row, and ninth time in 14 years, the NORBA National Championship Series kicks off Friday on the wooded slopes of Snow Summit Resort in Big Bear Lake, California. Day one will feature the men’s and women’s cross country races, with the ladies set to go at 11 a.m., followed by the men at 2 p.m. All the pros will face a revamped 7.25-mile circuit that includes two new hike-a-bike sections and more single track than in years past. The course remains one of the five-race series’ biggest lung-busters. With a starting altitude of 6951 feet above the nearby Pacific Ocean, a

Jean Delaour’s Patrice Halgand won the opening stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk in northern France, taking the 181.6km stage over breakaway companions Janek Tombak (Cofidis) and Linas Balciunas (Ag2R). The trio were part of a lead group of about two dozen riders that formed 75km into the race and included some notable sprinters as well as last year’s Dunkirk winner Didier Rous (Bonjour). The group would finish three-and-a-half minutes over the field, with Mapei’s Andrea Tafi and CSC’s Laurent Jalabert among those missing out. As the race approached the finish in Wasquehal, the attacks

Armstrong recon mission: Lance Armstrong will survey key stages in the 2002 Tour de France in the coming weeks, just as he's done every year since 1999. Armstrong is scheduled to travel in June with U.S. Postal Service directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel and possibly other teammates to examine new climbs and time trial courses in the 2002 route. Bruyneel says this year they've slightly tweaked a strategy that's paid off for the three-time defending Tour de France champion. "We've changed it a little bit from past years," Bruyneel told VeloNews. "We're going to do it later

Former winner Jan Ullrich (Telekom) revealed Wednesday that he has pulled out of this year's Tour de France because of an injury to his right knee, giving Lance Armstrong a huge boost in his bid to win a fourth successive Tour in July. The 28-year-old German, winner of the world's toughest bicycle race in 1997 and reigning Olympic road race champion, has been fighting the injury for some time and feels that he will be unable to regain full fitness in time for the July 6-28 race. "It makes no sense, every time I increase my effort the pain comes back," he revealed on his Web site. It

All the studying is over. Tyler Hamilton is ready for his final exam. Hamilton heads to the Netherlands on Wednesday to begin the three-week journey that he hopes will end June 2 on the final podium in Milan. Hamilton, 31, goes into the Giro d’Italia with big ambitions and even bigger pressure. He left U.S. Postal Service last year after signing a lucrative two-year deal to lead CSC-Tiscali as the team's top GC rider. Just this week, top CSC brass were quoted in Danish newspapers, expressing sponsor frustration over the lack of headline-grabbing results so far this year. Worse for

With her dominating win at the Tour of the Gila, Rona’s Genevieve Jeanson closed to within six points of Saturn’s Lyne Bessette in the latest stage-race standings of the VeloNews Bro Tour, VeloNews’s unofficial, season-long "virtual" series tracking the U.S. road scene.Bessette’s teammate Kimberly Bruckner moved into second place, just one point behind Bessette, while Jeanson is fourth.In the men’s standings, Prime Alliance’s Chris Horner continues to hold a commanding lead over 7UP-Nutra Fig’s John Lieswyn. VeloNews Bro Tour: Stage Races (after 4 of 7 events) Men 1. (1) Chris Horner,

Hamilton

Juan Miguel Mercado just keeps winning races. The 23-year-old Spanish phenom clinched the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon on Monday to add to his Setmana Catalana victory in March. Mercado's victory is the fifth stage-race win of the season for ibanesto.com. Too bad the Spanish team won't be going to the Giro d'Italia, where Unai Osa finished third overall last year. Joining Mercado on the final podium were Joan Horrach (Milaneza) and Leonardo Piepoli (ibanesto.com), second and third respectively. Mercado won Sunday's climbing stage to take the overall lead. Angel Edo won the final

Italy's Dario Frigo successfully defended his Tour of Romandie title Sunday following an accident-packed 18.3km fifth and final stage time-trial. Swiss rider Alex Zulle won the stage, his second in a row. Zulle finished 24 seconds ahead of Tacconi-rider Frigo with Britain's David Miller third at 0:40 in a race which was marred by the death of a Swiss policeman. The 50-year-old policeman lost control of his motorbike as he cleared the road before the arrival of the peleton. He hit a lamppost and died an hour later. In a second incident, a pedestrian was in a serious condition after breaking

Mercury’s Chris Wherry and Rona’s Genevieve Jeanson each capped off their overall wins at the Tour of the Gila by taking their respective stage wins in the Gila Monster Road Race on Sunday. Wherry added the final stage to go along with his stage 1 time trial win, while Jeanson’s was her fourth stage win out of five. As she had done on both of the other road stages, Jeanson attacked early and opened up a big gap. The Canadian was left unchallenged, and would finish 5:47 ahead of Saturn’s Kimberly Bruckner on the stage. On the long finishing climb through the Gila national forest, Bruckner and

Frigo held on for the win.

The final podium.

Mercury controlled for Wherry (in purple)

Climbing through the Gila national forest

While the stage 4 criterium at the Tour of the Gila had little effect on the general classification, it did a lot to reinforce who’s in charge at this year’s race in New Mexico: Mercury on the men’s side, Rona on the women’s. Not only did the teams keep their respective race leaders, Chris Wherry and Genevieve Jeanson, safe and out of trouble, they also delivered two of the supporting players, Gord Fraser and Karen Bockel, to stage wins. For Mercury, it was a return to the hey-days, as the lead-out train delivered its Canadian finisher Fraser to the line after a day of hard work. After

Racers were wishing they had snow tires Saturday on a day better suited for skiing than a bike race through the Swiss Alps in the fourth stage of the Tour of Romandie. Snow and heavy wind forced organizers to shorten Saturday’s "queen’s stage" to the ski station at Leysin to just 84.9 kms, eliminating the Col des Planches and Villars-sur-Ollon due to inclement weather. Alex Zulle didn’t seem to mind the heavy snow falling at the finish line at the category-one finish at 1257 meters at Leysin. The 33-year-old Swiss rider, who’s enjoying his best season since he finished second to Lance

Zulle takes the stage.

Frigo remains in front.

Evans on the attack.

The peloton.

Brice Jones leads the Mercury train

German newspapers are reporting that Jan Ullrich is facing disciplinary action from his Telekom team after the cyclist was stripped of his driver’s license following a hit and run incident early this week. The 1997 Tour de France champion reversed his Porsche 911 into a row of parked bicycles and hit a railing in the center of the southwestern city of Freiburg early Wednesday and drove off, his manager Wolfgang Strohband confirmed. An eyewitness took the number of the car and contacted police who took a blood sample from the cyclist and subsequently withdrew his license. The 28-year-old

In vino veritas.– proverb quoted by Plato, Symposium 217 No doubt many of us had a bad moment over our morning eye-openers today when a cycling Web site offered the headline, “Ullrich loses his license.” Happily, it wasn’t his racing license – but it might as well have been.Apparently the 1997 Tour de France champ got overserved on Tuesday, hopped into his Porsche 911 with teammate Alexandre Vinokourov and a couple of hotties, then backed into a bicycle rack near Freiburg. A bike rack, of all things. Then he did what many twenty-something guys with a snootful of vino would do – he left the

Tyler Hamilton didn’t start at the Tour of Romandie this week because oflingering problems with allergies, but CSC-Tiscali team officials say hisGiro d’Italia preparations remain on schedule.Team boss Bjarne Riis told Danish journalists Friday at pressconference for this weekend’s CSC Classic in Denmark that the team didn’twant to take any chances before the May 11 start of the Giro, where theteam hopes he can finish in the top-5.“His training program has been perfect except for these problems,” Riissaid. “We didn’t want to risk anything for the Giro and our ambitions arestill the

Acqua & Sapone’s Giovanni Lombardi won his second stage in three days Friday, winning a sprint while defending champion Dario Frigo widened his overall lead in the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland. Lombardi's Acqua & Sapone team set up the 32-yea-old with perfection, delivering him an easy victory over Saulius Ruskys (Gerolsteiner) and Mapei's Robert Hunter. Frigo finished 10th as the main bunch split coming into the finish and the Italian took an additional five seconds on his key rivals. Racers slogged through heavy rains for the third consecutive day and there's no let-up expected in

On Friday, Saturn’s Mark McCormack took Team Mercury by surprise as he sprinted away in the final 400 meters for the day’s stage win at the Tour of the Gila in Silver City, New Mexico. Mercury still continues to lead the overall with Chris Wherry and Scott Moninger first and second, but McCormack’s win broke the race stranglehold by the 13-strong Mercury team. In the women’s race, Genevieve Jeanson put on a one-woman show, riding away early and holding off a six-rider chase that included four Saturn riders and Jeannie Longo. On Thursday, Jeanson’s Rona team set her up perfectly for the final

VeloNews technical writer Lennard Zinn is a frame builder,a former U.S. national team rider and author of several books on bikesand bike maintenance. This is the second of Zinn's weekly VeloNews.comcolumns devoted to addressing readers' technical questions about bikes,their care and feeding and how we as riders can use them as comfortablyand efficiently as possible. Readers can send brief technical questionsdirectly to Zinn. We'll try to printa representative sample of questions each Thursday. First, some follow-up from last week Lastweek there were a couple of questions that encouraged an

Ullrich: better on the bike than behind the wheel

Winer (left) and Whiner (right)

Lombardi

Men at work: Lozano and Pronk were caught with 26km to go

Jeanson

Marco Pantani and Mario Cipollini will be on the sidelines for this summer's Tour de France after their teams again failed to receive one of the five wildcard invitations handed out Thursday by Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc. The Mercatone Uno team of Pantani, winner of the 1998 Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, and the Acqua e Sapone team of sprinter Mario Cipollini, winner of the Milan-San Remo race in March, failed to receive wildcards. French teams Jean Delatour and BigMat and the German Team Coast outfit of reigning Tour of Spain champion Angel Casero similarly failed to make

The final team selection for the 2002 Tour de France brought a wide rangeof reactions from the top players in Europe. Here's a sampling of someof the reactions in the wake of Thursday's announcement: Johan Bruyneel, director sportif U.S. Postal Service:"I think it's what was expected," Bruyneel told VeloNews fromSpain. "Everybody knew that it was going to be Saeco with Simoni and withseven French teams still to be selected, at least four of them going becausethere's an unwritten rule that says that Tour de France has to have asmany French riders as possible. There are no

Learning from their mistakes of a year ago, Tour de France director Jean-MarieLeblanc and his team selection committee at least explained thistime why they are snubbing Italy’s most popular cycling stars Mario Cipolliniand Marco Pantani.You may remember that in May last year, when announcing the five wild-cardteam selections for the 2001 Tour, Leblanc said that he took the numberof French teams up to eight because his committee favored the potentialof young-generation home teams over the possible failure of older-generationforeign teams. This year, in his announcement in Paris Thursday

Dario Frigo continues his early season comeback by surprising the field in a late-race attack that earned him a stage win and the overall lead in Switzerland’s Tour du Romandie. Frigo, who was sacked by the Fassa Bortolo team during the police raids at the Giro d'Italia last year, jumped off the front of the peloton in Romandie's second stage with two kilometers to go. It's the second win of the year for the defending Romandie champion, who also won a stage at Paris-Nice in March. With the victory, Frigo moves into the overall lead going into Friday's third stage, a rolling 178-km stage

Day 2 of New Mexico’s Tour of the Gila saw the peloton tackle the Mogollon Pass Road Race, 70 miles for the women and 92 miles for the men, with both groups ending on the 5.5-mile Category 1 climb for which the stage is named. In the end, time trial winners Chris Wherry (Mercury) and Genevieve Jeanson (Rona), extended their holds on the overall race leads. Jeanson took a solo win, while Wherry and teammate Scott Moninger rode away together on the final climb, with Moninger taking the stage win. In the men’s race, another windy day, coupled with the presence of more than a dozen Mercury

Marco Pantani’s day went from bad to worse on Thursday after the anti-doping panel of Italy's Olympic Committee (CONI) recommended a four-year ban for the former Giro d'Italia and Tour de France winner for allegedly using insulin to boost his performace in last year's Giro. The recommendation came just hours after the Tour de France again snubbed Pantani’s Mercatone Uno squad when race director Jean-Marie Leblanc announced the final five wild-card slots for the 2002 Tour. While the Tour decision was disappointing, it was not entirely unexpected. So, too, the CONI recommendation

Not at the Tour: Come July, Cipollini won't be doing this in France (but the two guys behind him might).

Graham Watson

Another wet day.

Wherry (l) and Moninger tackle the climb

USA Cycling’s chief operating officer Steve Johnson has been named as the organization’s interim chief executive officer until a permanent replacement for the departing Lisa Voight is named later this year. Voight announced her intention to resign from the CEO’s post on May 1st, in order to devote time to her family. Voight is now nine-months pregnant with twin girls. Following her parental leave, Voight is slated to take on the job of USA Cycling’s Senior Advisor for Olympic and International Relations to USA Cycling. Johnson, who is also a candidate for the CEO post, assumed the

Telekom's Erik Zabel won the Rund um den Henninger Turm in Frankfurt on Wednesday, nipping Jo Plankaert (Cofidis) and Serguei Ivanov (Fassa Bortolo) in a sprint finish.The Telekom squad pulled back a three-man break with 30 km to go andthe race came down to a bunch sprint, with the world No. 1 rider pushingPlankaert into another loss. The Belgian has been active throughout thespring without securing a victory. Ivanov, second at Amstel Gold, continuedon his fine form with third. World champion Oscar Freire (Mapei)crossed the line fourth.1. Erik Zabel (G), Telekom, 206 km in 5:00:17 (41.26

Giovanni Lombardi(Acqua & Sapone) won the first stage of the Tour de Romandie on Wednesday, a 187-kilometer ride from Geneve to Malleray-Bevilard, taking a bunch sprint on a wet and cold day in Switzerland. Lombardi, who used to be the set-up man for Erik Zabel for many years at Telekom, is now doing the same thing for Mario Cipollini. Lombardi says his return to an Italian team "makes it easier to communicate," adding that working for Cipo "is an honor. He's the best sprinter in cycling." Cipollini skipped the race because of a cold, opening the door for his reliable lead-out man to

The 2002 Tour of the Gila got underway in Silver City, New Mexico, on Wednesday amid blustery conditions for the opening 15.7-mile out-and-back time trial. The five-day stage race in the southwest New Mexico is known for its often-blazing heat, but on Wednesday, Mercury’s Chris Wherry and Rona’s Genevieve Jeanson battled fierce winds on their way to the opening-stage victories. The time trial course features a steady uphill on the way out, and finishes with a wide but fast descent on the way back. In the men’s race, Wherry mastered the course and the extreme conditions to top Saturn’s time

Lombardi wins one in the rain

Mr. Prologue remains in the lead

Jeanson

Rik Verbrugghe won the opening prologue Tuesday in the Tour of Romandie, the top race of the week in Europe. The Lotto racer posted a time of 4:13 in the prologue course in Geneva, Switzerland, edging two national riders to take the leader’s jersey. The six-day race through the Romandie region of Switzerland is the final warm-up before the May 11 start of the Giro d’Italia and many of the Giro contenders are here honing their form. Results:1. Rik Verbrugghe (B), Lotto, 4:132. Alexandre Moos (Swi), Moos, at 0:013. Martin Elmiger (Swi), Phonak, at 0:024. Saulius Ruskys (Ltu), Gerolsteiner, at

Sierra Nevada-Cannondale rider Ryan Smith was stabbed to death in theearly morning hours of Sunday, April 28, in Sacramento. According to team director Mike Neel, the 23-year-old first-year pro was fatally wounded during an argument inside his girlfriend’s apartment building and collapsed in the street. Police later arrested the woman’s formerboyfriend, 21-year-old Ryan Moreno. “From talking to his roommate who witnessed the whole thing, Ryan wasn'teven aware he had been stabbed," Neel told VeloNews. Smith collapsed in the street in front of his girlfriend's apartment building as

The National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA) announced three changes this week to the 2002 Chevy Trucks NORBA National Championship Series. The U.S. pro national dual slalom champion will be crowned in a one-day showdown at the season opener at Snow Summit, California. The Snow Summit event goes down May 9-12 in Big Bear Lake, California. The top American finisher in the pro men's and women's categories on Saturday, May 11, will be awarded the 2002 pro national dual slalom title. The five-race series traditionally uses all its stops to determine pro champions in various