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Road Racing

Brown outguns Hunter at Langkawi

The warning came courtesy of Andrea Tafi at the team dinner Tuesday night. "Don’t eat too much for breakfast tomorrow," he announced. "Wednesday will be a hard day."

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News

Armstrong refuses French drug panel request

Three-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and seven of his U.S. Postal team cyclists have rejected a call to appear before a Paris drugs' tribunal. Sources in Paris close to the 15-month investigation into possible misuse of doping agents by the American team that Armstrong had rejected the summons which had called on eight U.S. Postal riders to appear as "witnesses" in the investigation. The probe was launched in November 2000 to determine whether US Postal had broken laws relating to the use of drugs or incitement to use them, after a French television crew filmed team staff

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Road Racing

Big shake-up at the half-way point of Langkawi

The list of contenders for the 2002 Tour de Langkawi overall title was drastically diminished Tuesday, following a major shake-up on the race’s fifth day, a 129.7-kilometer trip south from Bangi to Melaka. Those still alive include Mapei-Quick Step’s Robbie Hunter, who retained the yellow jersey he’s owned since the first day of this race, last year’s TDL overall winner Paolo Lanfranchi (Alexia Alluminio), and even young Canadian mountain biker Ryder Hesjedal.

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News

Moreau breaks collarbone, out for three weeks

France's Christophe Moreau (Credit Agricole) will be out for three weeks after breaking his right collarbone in the season-opening "La Marseillaise" Grand Prix in Aubagne, in southern France, on Tuesday.The race organizers said Moreau, who was fourth in the Tour de France two years ago, fell as he came around a downhill bend during the 144km race. Moreau, 30, was due to undergo an operation on Wednesday. The former Festina rider suffered the same injury two years ago at the start of the 2000 season, when he broke his collarbone in the early season Etoile de Besseges. Tuesday's 144km

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Road Racing

Hunter ups his lead at Langkawi

While sports fans across America were taking in the final moments of one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, racing was just getting underway on Monday here in Malaysia. And while Stage 4 wasn’t as dramatic as the New England Patriots stunning win over the St. Louis Rams, it was by far the most exciting day of racing yet in the 2002 Tour de Langkawi.

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Road

Langkawi gallery

With two more stages in the books at the Tour de Langkawi, here's another sampling of sights unique to this 10-day race in Southeast Asia.

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Road Racing

Degano ends Hunter’s run

Another day, another sprint at the Tour de Langkawi. But for the first time this year someone other than Robbie Hunter crossed the line first. Led by a strong chase, then lead-out from his Panaria team, Italian Enrico Degano emerged from the peloton on the final straightway to take the win on Sunday in Malaysia. Degano and 131 others were all credited with the finishing time of 2:38:44 in the 129.6-kilometer stage.

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Road Racing

Leboucher takes women’s race in Zolder; Dunlap fourth

It was supposed to be a battle of the world champions – the defending world cyclo-cross champion Hanka Kupfernagel from Germany and the reigning world mountain-bike champion from the U.S., Alison Dunlap. Instead, it was a former rainbow jersey winner from France who bided her time, made her move at the right moment and scored the win in the world women’s cyclo-cross championship in Zolder, Belgium on Sunday morning. In the end, Kupfernagel and Dunlap had to settle for second and fourth as 1998 world women’s mountain-bike champion Laurence Leboucher soloed in for the win, nearly a minute

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Road Racing

Belgians go 1-2-3 in Zolder

To call it a sweep is something of an understatement. The Belgians were much more dominant than that. Mario De Clercq led an all-Belgian field sprint to the finish line Sunday, scoring his third rainbow jersey in five years in front of wild and very partisan crowd in Zolder Belgium. The 35-year-old De Clercq cruised across the line ahead of fellow Belgians Tom Vannoppen and World Cup winner Sven Nijs. The trio managed to put aside the usual Belgian infighting to cooperate nearly all the way to the finish, crossing just ahead of a hard-charging Richard Groenendaal of the Netherlands.

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Road Racing

Hunter chases down another win at Langkawi

You could see this one coming a mile away — or 183.5 kilometers for that matter. That was the distance of the Tour de Langkawi’s Stage 2 run north along the western cost of Malaysia from Klang to Sitiawan. But one look at the dead flat course profile, and you knew the final kilometer would be the only one that mattered. And with a sprint in the cards, no one holds a stronger hand here in Southeast Asia than Mapei-Quick Step and its South African speedster, Robbie Hunter.

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Road

Photo gallery: Tour de Langkawi

Far from the traditional cycling battlegrounds of Europe and North America, Malaysia provides a steady stream of unfamiliar sites and scenes. Here’s a sampling from the first two days of racing at the 10-day Tour de Langkawi.

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Road Racing

Pauwels takes junior title for home crowd

Score one for the home team. The Belgian cyclo-cross squad began what fans hope will become a pattern for the weekend when 17-year-old Kevin Pauwels soloed in to take the junior men’s race at the cyclo-cross world championships in Zolder, Belgium, on Saturday. Pauwels had spent the bulk of his 45-minute race cutting away at a sizeable lead group that was eventually pared down to just two. After a furiously fast start on the paved start/finish straight of Zolder’s local auto track, Pauwels emerged at the head of a lead group that hit the steep, sandy opening climb that quickly broke apart

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Road Racing

Verhagen takes a squeaker in Zolder

Davy Commeyne thought he had it in the bag. After dangling at the frontsmall group of leaders over the final two laps of the Under-23 men's worldcyclo-cross championship race in Zolder, Belgium, on Saturday, the youngBelgian had succeeded in fighting off a last-minute charge by Czech riderTomas Trunschka and closing sprint by Italian Franzoi Enrico."I looked to my left," Commeyne said. "There was no one coming."The problem was, he hadn't looked to his right. Had he glanced in thedirection of the wall lining the finishing straight at Zolder's motor speedway,he might have noticed the blaze

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Road Racing

Hunter continues Mapei’s dominance at Langkawi

Robbie Hunter is best known for his sprinting, but on Friday the blond South African showed he has other talents, taking the 20.3km Stage 1 time trial at the Tour de Langkawi. Hunter’s win meant that once again the Mapei-Quick Step crew would be defending the race’s yellow jersey. A year ago the Italian-based team won just about everything meaningful in Malaysia, led by Paolo Lanfranchi’s overall crown.

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Cyclocross Racing

A look at the world’s course in Zolder

Welcome home. If cyclo-cross has a home, Belgium has to be it. This is where cyclo-cross belongs. The assembly of broadcast towers outside of the pressroom might tell you that. Or maybe it’s Belgian Television’s two hour prime time special devoted to cyclo-cross and this weekend’s world championship in Zolder. If not, maybe the 3000 fans lined up to watch practice laps on Friday might tell you that, in Belgium, cyclo-cross is more than just a pastime. And now that the world championship is home again in Belgium, the Flemish hosts are pulling out all the stops. This weekend’s world

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