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Italian Andrea Ferrigato took over the lead of the Etoile de Besseges stage race in France Thursday with a win in the 143km second stage. Riding for Alessio, Ferrigato outsprinted fellow Italian Lorenzo Bernucci (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) to the finish. The two finished 15 seconds ahead of the field, which was led by stage 1 winner Robbie McEwen of Australia. Aided by a tailwind for most of the day, riders averaged close to 45 kph during Thursday’s stage between Marseille and Sainte-Tulle. Belgian Jurgen Vermeersch (Landbouwkrediet) tried an escape with 25km to go but never gained more

Di Biase (r) blasts by Galli.

The lead peloton heads for home.

Hesjedal cools off after Stage 7.

The Malaysian tifosi.

On this course, the start counted for everything.(All photos from Friday practice)

... because once on dirt, things narrowed quickly

Through the woods

No barriers, but this hill forced most to run

The grounds of the Sacramentskirche were closed to all but riders and cameras.

Ferrigato took the lead from the red-hot McEwen

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."

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

Brown nips Hunter.

The peloton rolls by.

Hunter shows the effects of the day.

The aftermath of a crash.

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.

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

Hunter and Salomone head for home.

Hesjedal with a post-race smile.

The trip to the top of Genting could include a trip through the clouds.

The TDL cavalcade.

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.

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.

Di Biase after his win on Monday.

Tafi feels the effects of the climb.

The group makes the trip up Fraser Gap.

A ferry heads to the island of Penang, which sits in the Indian Ocean.

Salted fish in the market at Lumut.

Hunter meets his fans at Tapah.

Downtown Ipoh, site of Stage 3's finish.

Heading out with the family.

Racing along a plam-tree lined road.

The rules of visiting a mosque.

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.

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

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.

Degano (left) takes the sprint.

Tafi drives the break.

Leboucher collected her second rainbow jersey in Belgium

Dunlap missed the podium by one spot.

The women's podium

Happy Happy Belgians. Flemish fans celebrate the home team sweep.

De Clerq crosses the finish line.

Johnson's 13th-place equaled the best by an American.

The Belgians, led here by Nijs, were one big happy family.

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.

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.

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

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

Hunter celebrates his win.

Hunter and Tafi after another successful day in Malaysia.

The locals take in the race.

The Putra Mosque near the Stage one TT.

Another welcoming committee.

The Malaysian Prime Minister explains bike racing.

Sponsor cars.

The warm-up band.

Fans at 60 mph.

Looking down on the finish of Stage 2.

The next generation.

Box seats.

Timing transponder.

Jesse Anthony gets a good luck kiss from Mom before the start in Zolder.

Pauwels

Is that bat in your hand or are you just happy to see Verhagen? Dutch fans celebrate a win over rival Belgians

(from left to right: A shocked Commeyne, Verhagen and Trunschka

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.

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

Hunter dons the yellow jersey.

Tafi gets his countdown.

The streets weren't always clear.

Welcome race fans

The four world championship races start and finish on pavement directly in front of the grandstands.

The hills start within a few hundred meters of the start.

Ann Grande scoots past on of the many homes that dot the course.

American Jonathan Page surveys one of the trickier descents

Even in practice laps, this tree at the bottom of one tough hill led to a few close calls.

Back on pavement, the course goes over itself before heading into the woods again.