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The 14th Annual VeloNews Awards issue hits the streets this week featuring three-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong as the VeloNews International Cyclist of the Year. This is the second consecutive year the U.S. Postal Service rider has won VeloNews’s top honor, making him just the second athlete to win the award twice. Past winners of the award, which started in 1988, include Greg LeMond (1989), Miguel Indurain ('92, '94) and Juli Furtado ('93). To reach his new point of excellence and win his third consecutive Tour de France, Armstrong worked harder than ever during

The December 17 issue of VeloNews, the 14th annual VeloNews Awards issue, includes our "10 best" list, the things we will remember most about bike racing in 2001. Of course each of us had our own ideas about what stood out this year, so in addition to the final list, here is a look at some other memorable happenings according to the writers and editors of VeloNews. KIP MIKLER, EDITOR1. It’s rare for me to take in a race as a spectator, but in September I left the notebook behind and went to San Francisco for the Grand Prix. I joined thousands of rowdy fans soaking in the atmosphere and the

Lance Armstrong

Dunlap's win was the best of the best.

San Francisco treat

Rasa Polikeviciute wins world's.

Longo wins again.

Hincapie wins a classic.

Green crosses the line in Quebec.

Perez wins at the Giro.

The downhill at world's.

Afghan cycling enthusiasts, forced off their bikes by the Taliban, are back in the saddle. About 20 cyclists in full gear staged their first race in five years from the capital, Kabul, on Sunday after the city fell to forces of the Northern Alliance. Braving a potholed road that crosses the heavily mined former front line, they traveled 40 km (25 miles) north to the town of Charikar at the base of the Panjsher valley. The Taliban had outlawed public sports events in line with their strict interpretation of Islamic law that also obliged men to wear beards and women to leave their homes only

Spain's Olympic track cycling champion Juan Llaneras said that on Monday he would take legal action after being cleared of doping. Llaneras, who won the men's points race title at the Sydney Olympics and holds five world titles, had been suspended on September 30 after, in official parlance, testing "non-negative" for the endurance-boosting drug EPO at the world championships in Antwerp, where he won the silver medal. But last week the UCI cleared him of all accusations after analysis of a second urine sample. "I've lived through a nightmare," Llaneras said. "I was innocent and

Mick Hannah cashed in on his world-champion potential Monday, signing a deal to ride for the Haro-Lee Dungarees mountain bike team in 2002. Hannah, who just turned 18, first made waves in the gravity-racing world at last March’s Sea Otter when he nearly knocked off Brian Lopes in the dual slalom. Three months later Hannah hit the mark, taking out Lopes — and everybody else — at the NORBA season opener at Big Bear, where he won the downhill and dual slalom. The young Aussie also took third at the World Cup downhill in Vancouver, but saw his season cut short at the NORBA finals in Vermont

Ten new races highlight the 2002 AMBC schedule, which was released by USA Cycling on Monday. All told the series will consist of 25 stops, starting in Gainesville, Florida in February, and finishing up at the Piney Hills Fall Classic in Ruston, Louisiana in late October. New events on the calendar include the High Point Ranch Roundup in Ada, Oklahoma, The Stump Jump 2002 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the Chile Challenge in Angel Fire, New Mexico, and Blast the Mass in Snowmass, Colorado. AMBC events are good places for those riders who are just entering the racing scene. The races allow

For the past four years, University of Colorado doctoral student Allen Lim has been conducting research on some of the top cyclists in the U.S. pro peloton. This Friday, Lim will give a lecture on the use of power meters in cycling training, to be followed by a roundtable discussion featuring several top professionals. The evening, entitled "The science and art of training with power," will feature a presentation by Lim on his doctoral research, followed by a panel featuring Jonathan Vaughters, Clark Sheehan, Doug Ziewacz, Michael Barry, Dede Demet Barry and Colby Pearce. The event will take

Hannah in his new duds.

Hannah is one of the numerous talents to come out of Australia recently.

Rabobank’s Sven Nijs won his second consecutive Superprestige cyclo-cross race, taking the fourth round of the series in Gieten, the Netherlands. The young Belgian beat out compatriots Bart Wellens and Tom Vannoppen. Nijs increased his lead in the overall series. He now holds a 16-point advantage over Wellens. In Gieten, Nijs took advantage of an excellent start, and only Sven Vanthourenhout and Richard Groenendaal could keep his wheel early on, but both would drop back late in the race. Wellens mounted a late challenge, but couldn’t catch Nijs, falling seven seconds short. Round 5 of the

Belgian Matthew Gilmore and Australian Scott McGrory won the 61st edition of the Six Days of Ghent, which concluded Sunday. They beat out the Swiss duo of Bruno Risi and Kurt Betschart, while Etienne De Wilde and Andreas Kappes took third, the only other team on the same lap as the winners. Page ninth in Switzerland American Jonathan Page (Richard Sachs) took ninth at the UCI Category 2 race in Meilen, Switzerland on Sunday. On a cold, rainy day, Page picked his way through the pack on a muddy, grassy course to record his best result of his European campaign. Page will contest the second

Former world champion Richard Groenendaal (Rabobank) scored his first win of the season on Saturday at the UCI race in Coxyde, Belgium, on the North Sea. Groenendaal took a solo win, finishing 29 seconds up on world champion Erwin Vervecken (Spaarselect).

The doping case against Spanish track cyclist Juan Llaneras has been closed by the UCI, according to the Spanish cycling federation. Llaneras had tested "non-negative" at the world track championships in Antwerp, Belgium, on September 30. However, Llaneras’s second sample showed no trace of erythropoietin (EPO) according to the Spanish federation, and the case has been closed.

The chief executive officer of USA Cycling is close to signing a new two-year extension of her employment contract, the organization’s outgoing president Mike Plant confirmed this week. According to sources, the board of directors of USA Cycling voted to renew the contract of chief executive officer Lisa Voight in an executive session during the organization's October meeting. Plant reportedly proposed offering Voight a two-year deal, a recommendation later endorsed by a majority of the board. Voight confirmed that the board had approved the extension proposal, though the contract was

On Tuesday night, Kristin Armstrong gave birth to her and Lance Armstrong’s twin daughters, Isabelle Rose and Grace Elizabeth, who arrived at 8:54 p.m. and 8:57 p.m. respectively. Isabelle Rose weighed in at 5 lb. 12 oz., Grace Elizabeth 5 lb. 2 oz. Parents and children are doing well.

A local politician in Italy's southern province of Puglia has made a formal protest to the government and the organizers of the Giro d'Italia over what he sees as an exclusion of the south of Italy in next year's race. The 2002 Giro will take in five European countries outside Italy (Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, France and Germany) in honor of the advent of the Euro but its southernmost point will be at Benevento near Naples in the Catania province. That means the country's four southernmost provinces - Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily - will all be excluded. "It is

Since the start of the cyclo-cross season, American Jonathan Page has been living in Switzerland, contesting a European ’cross campaign. His biggest test to date came on Saturday at the opening round of the World Cup, in Monopoli, Italy. Page finished 23rd, 3:01 behind race winner Sven Nijs. With a top 20 placing, Page would have met a selection criteria for an automatic berth on the U.S. team for cyclo-cross world’s in Belgium. The following day, Page was back in Zurich for a local Swiss race. He’ll have one more crack at a top 20 World Cup finish, in Spain, December 2, before returning

The home nation continued its domination at the ninth annual running of La Ruta de los Conquistadores, the brutal three-day, 408km off-road stage race in Costa Rica. Jose Bonilla (Pizza Hut-Costa Rica) fought off a challenge from American Tinker Juarez (Volvo-Cannondale) to win the November 16-18 race. Bonilla broke away from Juarez in the second of three stages near the base of a grueling 9000-foot climb, the crux of the 108km second day. The strategic move, planned ahead of time by Bonilla's coach Andres Brenes, extended his 30-second lead from day one to an insurmountable 16 minutes.

Belgian Sven Nijs won the opening round of the 2001-02 UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup in Italy Saturday with a win over fellow Belgian Bart Wellens. Italian Daniele Pontoni finished third after Erwen Vervecken and Richard Groenendaal – the 2001 and 2000 world champions – both suffered mechanical difficulties. Groenendaal led early but was slowed on the second lap when he punctured both tires. The 2000 world champion would recover to finish fourth, just over a minute off Nijs’s winning pace. Nijs took the lead just before the halfway point of the race, which took him 58 minutes and 18 seconds

Saturday's SuperCup cyclo-cross races in Chicago showed that the Bears don't have a monopoly on down-to-the-wire finishes in the Windy City. Ann Grande (Kona-Voicestream) and Marc Gullickson (Mongoose-Hyundai) both took thrilling victories that weren't decided until the final lap of the flat, grassy course in Washington Park. The two elite races gave the loud Chicago crowd a treat to go along with the beautiful, fall-like weather in the middle of November. In the women's race, the talk going in centered around Lyne Bessette's (Saturn) undefeated streak in her first season of cyclo-cross, and

Organizers of the 2002 Tour of Italy bid to put the doping scandals of 2001 behind as details of the 2002 Giro were revealed at an announcement in Milan on Saturday. The route for the 3,333.5km race over 20 stages was unveiled by Candido Cannavo, director of the sponsoring newspaper Gazzetta dello sport and race director Carmine Castellano. The 2002 Giro will cover six countries, including Italy. It begins with a 6.5km time time in the Dutch coastal town of Groningen on May 11 and the first four stages cover Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France before entering northern Italy on May 17.

2002 Giro to pass through six countries

Grande led Bessette for most of the race

Grande gets the jump after the 'six-pack.'

Gullickson, Johnson and Candelario

Wells' attack set up Gullickson's win

There’s a new Steve Larsen these days and he seems a heck of a lot happier than the old one.

Dutch sprint specialist and four-time Tour de France stage winner Jeroen Blijlevens signed a one-year contract with the Belgian Domo-Farm Frites squad on Friday. The 29-year-old, whose name means 'good life', has had two dreadful seasons and failed to add to his 73 career wins at all this past season, riding for Lotto. Blijlevens, who also has four career stage wins in the Tour of Spain, barely did better than that in the 2000 campaign chalking up two victories with Italian Polti team. Blijlevens has also fallen foul of the sport's authorities on more than one occasion. He

Deer Valley, July 2000

Where's the bike?!?!? With an improvement in his run, Larsen may prove to be unbeatable in triathlon.

Larsen surprised 'em all at Wildflower

After solicitations from several European teams after his third place at September's Vuelta a España, American Levi Leipheimer signed a lucrative contract with the top Dutch team, Rabobank. It was an offer that his present team, U.S. Postal Service, couldn't match. Rabobank is hoping that Leipheimer will be the Tour de France contender it has been seeking for a number of years. Giro d'Italia winner Gilberto Simoni will ride for the Italian Saeco team next season. Simoni signed a two-year contract with the team and will join Tour of Lombardy winner Danilo Di Luca, who transfers

Money talks: Leipheimer will ditch the Postal colors for Rabobank in '02.

The U.S. Postal Service team announced its 2002 roster on Wednesday, with seven new additions including Americans David Clinger, Floyd Landis and Chann McRae, along with Canada’s former Saturn rider Michael Barry. Other new faces on defending Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong’s squad are Belgian Tom Boonen, Italian Gianpaolo Mondini and Czech rider Pavel Padrnos. "I think we have put together a very well balanced group of new riders to the team, which wasn't an easy task after losing riders such as Viatcheslav Ekimov, Tyler Hamilton and Levi Leipheimer," said team director Johan

After two years of partnership, Zaxby's Franchising will not renew its sponsorship of the Zaxby's professional cycling team for the 2002 cycling season the team announced in a press release on Wednesday. The team is currently searching for a new title sponsor. According to the release, Zaxby's Franchising, a franchiser of chicken restaurants in the Southeast, decided to pull all sports sponsorships -- including sponsorships of its ASA racecar driver and several professional golfers -- in order to redirect that money toward television advertising. "Television is really a more

U.S. Postal Service announces 2002 squad

Italian sports doctor Michele Ferrari has been summoned to testify in front of the anti-doping panel of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), the panel announced Monday. Ferrari, set to face doping-related allegations in a trial next month and the subject of a separate probe by Ferrara magistrates, has been asked to appear on November 21 after CONI received documents relating to the two cases. Ferrari, based in Ferrara and a pupil of another controversial physician Professor Francesco Conconi, has been the mentor of many leading cyclists including America's three-times Tour de France

Rabobank’s Sven Nijs outrode a strong group of the world’s best to win the third round of the Superprestige cyclo-cross series in Asper-Gavere, Belgium on Sunday. Nijs beat countryman Tom Vannoppen and Dutch champion Richard Groenendaal. Nijs powered through a tough course in Gavere as a member of a six-man lead group made up of five Belgians -- Nijs, Vannoppen, Bart Wellens, Mario Declercq and world champion Erwin Vervecken – as well as the Netherland’s Groenendaal. Nijs took advantage of his superior handling skills in the course’s technical sections and gradually built a small, but

It was another Saturn day in U.S. cyclo-cross on Saturday as Tim Johnson and Lyne Bessette scored wins in the elite events at Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s Chameleon cyclo-cross, another in the eastern seaboard’s large number of UCI-sanction ‘cross events. The course proved ideal for Bessette, a neophyte ‘crosser with a great road resume, as she took advantage of the long, open and largely flat course. Despite a handful of off-camber sections and a tough, but short, climb Bessette cruised to an easy win, almost as if she’d been taking on another road race. Bessette attacked right from the gun

After Gullickson rolled a tire, Johnson was pretty much on his own.

Gullickson came back from an unlucky start to take second.

Rookie? The only thing Bessette doesn't know about 'cross is losing.

Editor’s note: Following the court's first rejection of their lawsuit, Earnest and his co-plaintiffs advised attorney Andrew Rosen to offer to drop their right to an appeal if USAC would withdraw its claim against Earnest for nearly $3000 in copying costs. Rosen sent the letter on January 4, 2000Date: January 4, 2000To: Barton Enoch, via facsimile transmissionFrom: Andrew RosenRe: Earnest v. USA CyclingDear Mr. Enoch: I still have received no ruling on our objection to your Bill of Costs. However, in light of the final ruling on our motion for post-trial relief, the time clock on

USA Cycling and Les Earnest have been waging a legal battle ever since the governing body’s board of directors adopted a reorganization plan nearly three years ago. The lawsuit and appeal process have cost both sides a great deal of time and money and left the functional structure of the organization in limbo. But, according to documents recently acquired by VeloNews, that battle would have ended in January of 2000, had USA Cycling accepted a settlement offer forward by Earnest’s attorney.

Former Alessio and Mercury pro Nicklas Axelsson has been thrown of the Swedish team after admitting to "knowingly" using the banned endurance drug EPO during the world road championships in Lisbon last month. Axelsson, who was riding for the Italian Alessio team, tested positive for erythropoietin (EPO) on the last day of the October 9-14 championships where he finished 18th in the men's road race. The 29-year-old rider, whose career highlights were a third place in the Tour of Lombardy one-day race and sixth overall in last year's Tour of Italy, admitted to a Swedish newspaper

The U.S. chase for UCI cyclo-cross points returns to the mid-Atlantic region this weekend with Saturday’s Chameleon Cyclo-Cross Championship in Landisville, Pennsylvania. UCI points serve as the primary criteria for U.S. team selection to next February’s world cyclo-cross championships in Zolder, Belgium. Confirmed starters in the Men’s Elite field include reigning national champion Tim Johnson (Saturn), Jonathan Sundt (K2 Bike) and Adam Hodges Myerson (Bikereg.com). Other top riders expected to come in search of points include SuperCup National Series Champion - Marc Gullickson

Former 7-Eleven pro and Tour de France stage winner Jeff Pierce has been named USA Cycling’s vice president of athletics. Pierce will oversee competition, athlete development and coaching development programs, filling a position quite similar to that recently vacated by director of competition Sean Petty. The appointment and Petty’s recent shift to the post of vice president of marketing represent an organizational shift, with top-level administrators now responsible for the operations of all of USA Cycling’s road and mountain bike programs, rather than having separate directors for both the

The 13th year of the NORBA national championship series will feature two new locations. But two standbys are absent from the calendar, meaning for the second year in a row the series will consist of just five events. New for 2002 will be stops at Alpine Valley, Wisconsin, and Durango, Colorado. Gone will be Mammoth Mountain, California, and Deer Valley, Utah. Holdovers include Snowshoe, West Virginia, Mount Snow, Vermont and Big Bear Lake, California. According to a USA Cycling press release, Deer Valley was pulled from the lineup due to scheduling conflicts, while planned capitol

The International Mountain Bicycling Association is hoping to bring mountain biking advocacy leaders, top federal land managers and key representatives of other trail and conservation groups from around the world together at the organization’s 2002 Mountain Bike Advocacy Summit, near Moab, Utah, April 18-21, 2002. The summit scheduled to be held at the brand new Red Cliffs Adventure Lodge on the banks of the Colorado River in the majestic Castle Valley, 15 miles east of Moab. By bringing together a dynamic, diverse group for four days of workshops, panel discussions and brainstorming, IMBA

Peter Wedge (Kona) is proving to be unbeatable when it comes to the Canadian cyclo-cross national championships, having just won his fifth consecutive title on Sunday in Edmonton, Alberta. The New Brunswick rider, who rides for Sympatico.ca on the road and Kona off-road, rode away from the 32 strong field on the second lap, never to be seen again. Mountain bike pro Andreas Hestler (Rocky Mountain) battled all race with Carter Hovey (Bolla-Bianchi) for second place, finally pulling away in the last lap and a half of the 10-lap competition. Hovey took the bronze medal. The women’s event

World champion Erwin Vervecken won the second round of the Superprestige cyclo-cross series in Sint-Michielsgestel, the Netherlands, on Sunday, outsprinting fellow Belgian Sven Nijs at the finish. Vervecken and Nijs had broken clear of the rest of the field, which was led in by another Belgian, Bart Wellens, who won the opening round of the series in Ruddervoorde, Belgium, in October. In all, Belgians took the top seven places on Sunday, with Dutchman Gerben De Knegt the first non-Belgian finisher, taking eighth. With the win, Vervecken moved into a tie for the series lead with Wellens,

Wedge

With no SuperCup races west of Chicago this year, a UCI race in Boulder, Colorado, on Saturday was the next best thing, and Mongoose’s Marc Gullickson and Kona-Voicestream’s Gina Hall came away with the big wins. The men’s race came down to the wire, as Gullickson had his hands full with another local favorite, Travis Brown (Trek-VW). Gullickson had just returned home to Boulder after three weeks on the East Coast for a SuperCup and some UCI races, while Brown had only done a handful of local races this fall. But when the dust cleared after the first half of the race, it was Brown hanging

Gullickson leads early.

Sundt

Mapel

Hall

Thomas leads Hall

Italian cyclist Massimo Strazzer and Spaniard Juan Llaneras are facing six-month bans from the sport after having returned “non-negative” EPO test results at the recent world track championships. Strazzer and Llaneras both returned the so-called "non-negative findings" from tests carried out in Antwerp, Belgium at the 2001 World Track Championships in which Llaneras won a silver medal in the Madison and Strazzer competed in the team pursuit. Currently both riders are considered innocent until the results of their “B samples” are released. If that confirms the finding of the first they will

According to an Associated Press report from earlier this week, French judicial officials have not found any evidence of doping in their ongoing investigation into the U.S. Postal Service team. The French investigators are testing blood and urine samples from the team from the 2000 Tour de France, the second of Lance Armstrong's three consecutive Tour wins. "For now, we don't have test results that prove that doping products have been taken," said Francois Franchi, the assistant to Paris prosecutor Sophie-Helene Chateau. The investigation began in November 2000, following

After highly successful seasons on both the men's and women's fronts, the team Saturn line-ups won't look much different for the 2002 season. The men's team will welcome three new riders -- Damon Kluck, Will Frischkorn and Jay Sweet -- while the women will add only one new face, 23-year-old Jessica Phillips. The men will see two departures this off-season, with Canadian Michael Barry heading to the U.S. Postal Service and Matt DeCanio joining Prime Alliance. In Kluck, 24, Frischkorn, 20, and Sweet, 26, Saturn will get an infusion of young talent on the men's side. Kluck

"In light of the overwhelming vote of the membership for Proposition A at the 2001 annual meeting, the Board of Directors believes it is necessary and appropriate to take steps to support that vote and the mandate of the members given the pending Wade litigation that seeks to invalidate the vote. Therefore, be it moved that the Board amend and restate the bylaws of USA Cycling in the form dated October 23, 2001, to become effective on January 1, 2002, should the Wade action result in the membership vote for Proposition A at the 2001 annual meeting being declared invalid or void, or an

The USA Cycling board of directors last week adopted a proposal designed to "protect the mandate," of votes cast in support of a reorganization plan approved recently by voters in a membership-wide election. The board approved a measure as a means of establishing a second method of implementing the recently passed "Proposition A," a proposal offered by USA Cycling Development foundation board member Mick Hellman. The board took the action in anticipation of the possible success of pending legal action by USCF members Bret Wade and Les Earnest. Contacted on Wednesday, Earnest said he had

When it comes to the collegiate national mountain bike championships, everybody is chasing the state of Colorado. A year ago it was the University of Colorado at Boulder and Mesa State College taking the Division I and II team titles. This time around Fort Lewis College and the U.S. Air Force Academy pulled off the sweep at the event which took place at Plattekill Mountain in Roxbury, New York, October 26-28. The 2001 championships marked the first time in its eight-year history that the event had come to the Northeast, but that didn’t stop hundreds of athletes from schools all over the U.S.

Klein Bicycle Corporation has announced that it will move its manufacturing operations from Chehalis, Washington, to the home base of its parent company Trek, in Waterloo, Wisconsin, in February of 2002. A news release issued on Tuesday stated that "the move is part of an overall Klein strategy to make the product line more competitive, reduce lead times to better serve customers and prepare for an exciting 2003 product line manufactured in Waterloo." According to the company, all Chehalis-based Klein employees will be offered similar positions with Trek while Klein founder and CEO Gary

USA Cycling competition director Sean Petty has been named as the governing body’s new vice president of marketing, filling a position similar to that recently vacated by Mary Monroe. Monroe resigned as USA Cycling’s chief marketing officer two weeks ago. Chief operating officer Steve Johnson said Petty’s appointment represents an internal restructuring in which the organization will no longer rely on executive directors overseeing the operations of affiliated organizations like the U.S. Cycling Federation and NORBA. NORBA director Leslie Klein was fired in April and USCF director Evan

The Fort Lewis team.

BASSANO, Italy — It is Monday morning and I’m still too drowsy to fully engage in the level of excitement with which my Italian work mates face the most mundane of activities. Our PR guy Marco mentions some event that evening hosted by Ciclismo magazine and so I somewhat reluctantly volunteer to go along, thinking it will be good to show my face and help schmooze some free press. I didn’t really understand exactly what we were going to, but figured it would be good for the company. My first clue was as we were leaving and he said "you’re going to wear that?" We arrive at an auditorium and

Austrian cyclist Peter Wrolich will set his sights on the 2002 Tour de France after winning Australia's Herald Sun Tour Melbourne, Australia on Sunday. Wrolich, 27, secured his first win in the 11-day race around the state of Victoria with a 15th place in Sunday's 44-kilometer street event on the Geelong waterfront. American Dave McCook won the 44km criterium. Wrolich said his regular European employer, German squad Gerolsteiner, is re-organizing over the northern winter and will try to gain a start in next year's Tour, where Wrolich aims to be a competitor. Wrolich took over the yellow

Giro d'Italia overall champion Gilberto Simoni's spurt at the end of the penultimate lap in steady rains brought him his first victory at the Japan Cup cycling road race Utsunomiya, Japan on Sunday. The 28-year-old Italian covered the 11 laps of the 14.1-kilometer course over the 151.3km race in 4:16:58, beating Australian Cadel Evans, who took second and Christophe Brandt of Belgium, who was third. Evans and Brandt both timed 4:17:49 in a photo finish. "It was a surprise victory for me, because I hadn't expected to win," Simoni said. "I'm glad I was able to show my good performance in