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The top North American cyclo-cross racers were in Amherst, Massachusetts on Saturday for Round 3 of the Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Series in search of UCI points, which will be used for U.S. world’s team selection. In the men’s elite race, an early attack saw Mark McCormack and Tim Johnson of Saturn joined by Marc Gullickson (Mongoose-Hyundai) break clear of the field on the University of Massachusetts at Amherst campus. For those in attendance last year,it was a familiar sight watching Gullickson take on the two Saturn riders. However, things didn’t go according to plan

Mark McCormack wins at Amherst.

Marc Gullickson and Mark McCormack rode together until McCormack's last-lap surge.

Fourth-place finisher Todd Wells shows his mountain biking skills.

Lyne Bessette dominated the women's field again.

Carmen D'Aluisio and Ann Grande battled with Gina Hall for the remaining podium spots

Police raided the headquarters of the Italian cycling federation in Rome on Saturday in connection with an ongoing probe into doping in the sport, judicial sources said. Detectives seized documents relating to disciplinary measures taken by the federation against nine Italian riders, including Dario Frigo and Daniele De Paoli. Both riders were suspended for six months by the Italian federation's disciplinary commission following the highly publicized police raids at this year's Giro d’Italia in June. Frigo was immediately fired by his Fassa Bartolo team. Frigo and De Paoli's bans

Reigning world cross-country champion Alison Dunlap was at the VeloSwap in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday, hawking some old gear and signing autographs. In the midst of the swap madness Dunlap informed VeloNews that her rumored deal with Team Luna Chix is now a done deal. Dunlap added that former GT teammate Kelli Emmett will also be flying the Luna colors in 2002. The pair will join downhiller Marla Streb, who signed on earlier this fall. The Luna team is a new-for-2002 women’s only outfit, that plans to focus attention on women’s specific issues such as breast cancer. Others spotted at the

French cyclist Stephane Barthe will be the sole French rider in Lance Armstrong's US Postal team as of next year, following the departure of Cedric Vasseur. The 28-year-old Barthe, the 1997 French champion, has been retained in the American team as they make preparations for a fourth consecutive Tour de France title. Armstrong has led the team to victory in the past three editions of the world's biggest bike race. Barthe was largely missing from action in 2001 having fractured his forearm at the start of May in the Four Days of Dunkirk race. Copyright AFP 2001

We'll never forget the last time the Tour de France started in Luxembourg, in 1989. Going into the race, defending champion Pedro Delgado of Spain was the race favorite. That tag soon disappeared. Delgado, incomprehensibly, showed up late for his prologue time trial start. Two minutes and 40 seconds late! The next day, still in Luxembourg, Delgado bonked in the team time trial stage. His Reynolds teammates had to wait for him, and they finished dead last, losing almost five minutes. So, after two days of racing, the Spanish hero was 7:20 down on the new race favorite, Laurent Fignon.

French cyclist Richard Virenque has signed a two-year extension to ride for Belgian team Domo-Farm Frites. "I am happy to continue with this team in as much as none of the French teams made a move for me and that is sad," Virenque told the French wire service AFP. The 31-year-old Virenque returned to racing on August 15 after purging a nine month suspension for taking illegal performance-enhancing drugs. One of the most popular cyclists in France, Virenque was shunned by his home teams and eventually signed a three-month contract with Domo-Farm Frites. Wearing Domo colors, he made a

Personalities present at Thursday Tour presentation in Paris had a generally favorable impression of the race’s 2002 route. Here’s what some of them told the reporters for the Agence-France-Presse. Marco Pantani (Mercatone Uno, 1998 winner): "It seems to be a well-balanced Tour. It’d be necessary to be vigilant in the Pyrénées. Then, the time differences for the podium could be made on the Ventoux. The stage to La Plagne is the one that pleases me the most." Richard Virenque (Domo-Farm Frites, five-time KoM): "I’m in a hurry to be in the month of July, for sure, the Tour de France being my

Giro d’Italia champion Gilberto, who will race for the Saeco team next year, is confident that he has what it takes to deny Lance Armstrong what would be his fourth consecutive victory in the Tour de France. "I have had a look at the route for the 2002 Tour and I like it," said Simoni on Thursday, speaking via the Internet from Japan. "Assuming I am racing [the Tour], I will certainly have a chance of winning it. I am stronger than Armstrong on the climbs." The Italian’s main problem will be getting to the start line, as Saeco is not one of the 16 automatic team selections. Even so, he went

A look at Tour 2002: Shorter but tougher

According to a report in the Danish newspaper Extra Bladet, three-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong called Dr. Michele Ferrari during a stage of the 2000 Tour. In an interview with the paper, Ferrari, who is suspected of having distributed and administered doping substances to athletes, said Armstrong telephoned him during the stage from Courcheval, which saw an attack by Italian Marco Pantani. Ferrari's trial in Italy, a country where sports doping is a criminal offense, resumes December 12. Ferrari said, "Pantani's attack took place a good distance from the finish and I

The domestic cyclo-cross season continues Saturday, October 27, at the Amherst International, a selection race for the U.S. team that will compete in the world championships in Zolder, Belgium. The Amherst race will also crown the 2001 North Atlantic regional champions. A UCI category 3 race, Amherst International is the third leg of the seven-race Verge New England Cyclo-Cross Series and will pay out $3500 in prize money. The event began 11 years ago as a University of Massachusetts dorm-room project by then-student Adam Hodges Myerson, who is still promoting the race today. National

Armstrong

An Italian court of appeals has overturned Marco Pantani’s recent conviction for sporting fraud on the grounds that he was convicted for using drugs in 1995, when the practice was not yet illegal in Italy. The court did not dispute the original facts of the case. Pantani had been sentenced to a suspended three-month prison term for doping-related allegations surrounding a race in 1995 but on Tuesday the court ruled that 'the deed was not enshrined in law as an offence.' Pantani had been admitted to hospital after crashing during the 1995 Milan-Turin classic and medical tests revealed the

Damon Phinney died peacefully at Boulder County Hospice on Sunday, October 21, after a 15-year struggle with metastatic prostate cancer. He was 73. Phinney was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts with roots going back to the earliest times in New England. Both grandfathers were sea captains. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1951 and worked five years for Westinghouse, 10 years for Sundstrand Aviation in Denver, and more than 30 years for Ball Aerospace.

The U.S. cyclo-cross scene continues to heat up, as an important month of racing on the East Coast continued over the weekend, with the Monkey Hill Cyclo-Cross race in Wilmington, Delaware, on Sunday. After the departure of world champion Erwin Vervecken, who dominated last weekend’s SuperCup-ECV doubleheader, the men’s race was wide open at Monkey Hill, with a national-level field assembled for the UCI race. Meanwhile, in the women’s race, Saturn’s Lyne Bessette remained undefeated in her first season of cyclo-cross. With the downsizing of the SuperCup series, other UCI-sanctioned domestic

Kona-VoiceStream’s Bart Bowen will be out of action for 12 weeks following a broken femur at the Monkey Hill Cyclo-Cross race. Bowen crashed on the second lap of the race, landing hard on a pavement section of the course. According to his team, the break in his bone occurred 4 inches below the head of his femur and will require surgery to insert a steel rod into his leg. In a team release, Bowen said, "It’s amazing how fast it happened. One minute you’re having a blast and the next your whole world is upside down." The injury effectively ends Bowen’s cyclo-cross season, as the national

The European Superprestige cyclo-cross series opened in Ruddervoorde, Belgium, on Sunday, with former world under-23 champion Bart Wellens taking the first series lead. Wellens scored a solo win in Ruddervoorde, 59 seconds ahead of runner-up Sven Nijs. World champion Erwin Vervecken, back from his trip to the U.S., was third, another 11 seconds back, while defending Superprestige champion Richard Groenendaal was fourth. The second round of the Superprestige series will take place November 4, in St. Michielsgestel, the Netherlands.

Giro d’Italia winner Gilberto Simoni will ride for the Italian Saeco team next season, the team announced on Monday. Simoni signed a two-year contract with the team and will join Tour of Lombardy winner Danilo Di Luca, whose transer from Cantina Tollo was announced several weeks ago. In other team news, Fassa Bortolo announced that it has added former world time trial champion Sergei Gontchar, up-and-coming Swiss-American rider Sven Montgomery and Italian Giani Faresin for the 2002 season.

Bowen before his crash.

Gully makes his way to the win.

The unbeatable Besette.

Going up at Monkey Hill.

Not everyone came to race, but the ones who did gave the crowd in downtown Miami plenty to cheer about at the final stop of the Pro Cycling Tour on Sunday. In the men’s race in was recent Prime Alliance addition Chris Horner getting to the line first in the 85-minute, plus five laps criterium that snaked its way around a 1.4-mile circuit in the shadow of the city’s skyscrapers. The event was originally slated to run 90 minutes, but when CycleScience’s Joel Chavez crashed hard into a barrier near the end of the first lap and had to be taken to the hospital, the race was neutralized, then

Only Horner and Carney were around at the finish.

The break left early and never came back.

Hincapie was in street clothes long before the race was over.

Klasna shows off his new hardware.

The women's sprint finish was a close as it can get.

Your women's winner.

Italian Danilo Di Luca of the Cantina Tollo team dominated a sprint finish to win the 95th edition of the Tour of Lombardy, the final event in the 2001 UCI World Cup road series. On-form Dutchman Erik Dekker lifted the World Cup trophy after finishing 13th in the 10th and final event. The 25-year-old Di Luca, an up-and-coming professional who was beaten by a whisker here two years ago, made sure of victory this time as he completed the rain-soaked 258km ride from Varese to Bergamo. He held off fellow escapees Giuliano Figueras (Panaria) and Michael Boogerd (Rabobank), who finished second

Di Luca attacks.

Di Luca took Figueras at the line.

Dekker (left) lifted the World Cup, while Vainsteins finished third overall.

Former women's world road race champion Zinaida Stahurskaia of Belarus has been handed a four-month, off-season suspension by cycling's world governing body UCI Friday after failing a dope test in June. The ban from the International Cycling Union (UCI) was confirmed by officials from the Belarus cycling federation in Minsk on Friday. The 30-year-old Stahurskaia, who tested positive for a banned diuretic in the women's Tour of Italy, was banned from defending her title at the world road race championships in Lisbon, Portugal, last month in accordance with UCI

Nico Mattan of Cofidis won the Tour of Piedmont in northern Italy on Thursday after all but 17 riders were declassed for falling too far behind in the 190km race. Mattan was one of the instigators of the decisive breakaway, which began just 20km into the race. The leaders quickly began to build up their lead, until it exceeded 17 minutes. At the 135km mark, the lead had reached 17:40, prompting the rare decision from the race directors to force the peloton out of the race. The race directors said there was no justification for the passivity of the main field, and that they had to open parts

Italian Mirko Celestino (Saeco) won the 86th edition of Milan-Turin in Italy on Wednesday, as the European pro peloton prepared for the final World Cup classic of the year, Saturday’s Tour of Lombardy. Last year’s Milan-Turin was cancelled due to floods in northern Italy, but this year, Celestino won the 203km one-day classic, outsprinting Niki Aebersold (Coast) and Eddy Mazzoleni (Tacconi-Vini Caldirola) at the finish, after a lead group of nine went off the front on the final difficult climb, the Superga. Celestino won two World Cup races in 1999, the HEW Cyclassic and the Tour of

A week after filing a formal complaint with USA Cycling, NetZero riders have begun to see some of the back pay and expenses owed to them from the second half of the season, with the remainder promised to them by the beginning of next week. According to NetZero team rider Mike Tillman, "A percentage of what was owed was deposited into my account this week," and he had been told by team manager Marty Church that the balance would be paid by next week. Another rider, Michael Johnson, was also told by Church that "all of us will have our money by next week," as was Jamie Paolinetti. The

At the races, the NetZero cycling team was one of the success stories of the early season, highlighted by Jamie Paolinetti and Graeme Miller sweeping the Shelby-Athens weekend in April. Off the bike, though, things weren't quite so rosy, as several NetZero riders didn't get paid their salary or expenses since late spring. According to rider Michael Johnson, the team management stopped paying in June. Later in the year, he received a check for prize money from the USPRO criterium, and the check bounced. "I signed a contract and did what I was told," said Johnson. "They didn't

Ten months after accepting the position as chief marketing officer for USA Cycling, Mary Monroe has resigned. Contacted on Tuesday, Monroe declined to comment, other than to say she was pleased with her decision. Monroe’s departure marks the second time in less than a month that a management-level employee has left in frustration. USCF and USPRO managing director Evan Call resigned at the end of September. He has since moved to Utah and is working on projects associated with the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Now in its 16th year, Greenville, South Carolina’s two-day Michelin Cycling Classic has become one of America’s greatest events, a true season-ending classic. Cyclists from across the country and overseas gathered to join battle for one of the last times in 2001, with the streets of beautiful downtown Greenville as their battleground. And, though both days were contested on the same course, they led to very different results, with Juan-Carlos Pineda (7UP-Colorado Cyclist) and Jonas Carney (Prime Alliance) emerging victorious in the men’s events, while Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Saturn) and Robin

The election results are in and tallied, but the dispute over the future direction of USA Cycling is far from over, says Les Earnest, the man who forced the governance issue on the organization’s annual election ballot. Earnest said that despite the lopsided defeat of Proposition B, his democratic reform initiative, he plans to continue a legal fight challenging the means by which USA Cycling and the supporters of the competing Proposition A presented the issues on the ballot and campaigned for their proposal. Proposition A, which was supported by San Francisco investment banker Thomas

Home team Great Britain topped the medals chart at the world masters track championships in Manchester, England, but U.S. riders reached the top step of the podium more than anyone else. In all, the U.S. team scored 19 gold medals and 47 total, while Great Britain took 16 gold and 68 total medals. For results from the final two days of competition, click on "View Race Results."

Now that the big trade shows – Germany’s Friedrichshaffen, Italy’s Milan trade show and the Interbike in Las Vegas – are over, we’re finally taking the time to sort through our hard drives, pick through our suitcases and look through the few hundred pictures and thousand brochures we brought home. While not everything will make it into the pages of VeloNews, we thought we might just pop a few of these on to the web for your perusal. Of course, this is just a quick glance at the innumerable cool products, goofy ideas and strange characters that popped up in the aisles at the Sands Convention

Speedplay's Richard Bryne has been cutting back the weight on his 'ongoing project' bike. His 650c-wheeled Holland is now under 11 pounds... and quite rideable.

Masi is back in a big way, since the folks at Haro picked up U.S. distribution. Competing for attention with the classic Masi models, like the Volumetrica, are new aluminum/carbon models, boasting flashy graphics and even (GASP!) flat bars!

It says it's a Masi, but where did those bars come from?

It's an Italian combo: Last year, Colnago and Ferrari teamed up to produce a limited edition carbon road bike, the CF-1. This year, they figured it was time to go off-road, with the CF-2. No word yet on the Ferrari SUV.

While Masi, Ferraris and others made flashy appearances, the buzz of the show seemed to focus on these things. Every other company from Taiwan had something in minature.

GT's loss.... Back when GT signed a deal to produce frames for the Lotto team, the work fell to the talented hands of Dave Tiemeyer. The old GT is bankrupt, Lotto's on Litespeeds and we can buy bikes direct from Dave.

Padding: A few years ago Gipiemme released a super-light all carbon 100-gram saddle that made weight freaks happy, but did little to make a long ride anything other than torture. Now, they've added a scant 20 grams, but put it in the right places

Time had to rethink the Star-Fangled nut since its all-carbon steerer tube is reinforced with an 'X' of carbon. So, they've devised a spacer with a bit of a grip. It's elegant and they say it holds just fine.

Another world's road race is over. And, for the third year running, the blue-ribbon event came down to whom was fastest in the final straightaway. Two years ago, in Verona, Italy, a dozen riders were still together when "unknown" Spanish rider Oscar Freire sprinted out of the last turn to win by four seconds. In 2000, at Plouay, France, there were two dozen that fought out the finish, with Latvian Romans Vainsteins taking the sprint and Freire in third. Now, in Lisbon, Portugal, almost four dozen riders were still together to contest the finish -- an unimaginable outcome for a race that had

Erwin Vervecken and Lyne Bessette each made it 2-for-2 for the weekend by winning the second stop of the ECV Cyclo-Cross series on Sunday at Stage Fort Park in Gloucester, Massachusetts. A day earlier, the pair took victory in the opening round of the SuperCup series held on a slightly different track at the same seaside park in the famous New England fishing town.

It’s called 24 Hours of Moab, but it actually took the Trek-Volkswagen team of Travis Brown, Chris Eatough, Sue Haywood and Alison Sydor 25 hours and two minutes to take the Coed Pro/Am title in one of the most exciting 24-hour team races to date. After 25 hours of four-person relay racing (two male, two female) in the Utah desert, it all came down to a last-lap showdown between Sydor, a 24-hour rookie despite her three world titles and multiple World Cup wins, and Gretchen Reeves of Team Beaver Creek II. When Brown finished the team’s 21st lap at 11:53 a.m. on Sunday and handed the baton

Bessette has won every 'cross race she's entered.

Grande was second for the second straight day.

Vervecken leads Johnson over a pair of barriers.

Feel the love: Teamwork earned the Trek crew the win in the desert.

There have been some most unusual numerical coincidences at the 2001 world road championships here in Lisbon, Portugal, this week. Of the five time trials contested on the first three days, four of the eventual winners were fourth fastest at the first time split. The exception was elite women's winner Jeannie Longo, who was second at that first time check. The road races started in similar vein on Friday: Both of the races ended in solo winners who finished exactly 17 seconds ahead of the runner-up. Could this trend continue through the final three races of the weekend? That might be too

After losing the junior men's time trial by 44 hundredths of a second last Wednesday, 18-year-old Oleksandr Kvachuk from Ukraine was in tears. So close, but so far. On Saturday, Kvachuk put that disappointment behind him and made a blistering solo break, to win the 121km road race by 1:07 over a chase group of four that was brought home by Dutchman Niels Scheuneman — whose silver medal joins the bronze he scored in the time trial. Commenting on his win, Kvachuk said, "After the time trial I was sad -- so today I decided to show that I am a real champion." He proved that with an astonishing

In a long career at the elite level Lithuanian twin Rasa Polikeviciute has almost won a host of big races -- a time-trial bronze medal at last year's world's, second at the women's Tour de France in 1994 and ’96, a silver medal in the road race at the 1996 world's, and third overall at this year's Hewlett-Packard Challenge and the Tour of Tuscany. Finally, on Saturday afternoon, the 31-year-old sprinted to her own rainbow jersey in an ultimately exciting elite women's 121km road race. Polikeviciute knew she was in good form -- fourth in the time trial on Wednesday -- but as she said: "In the

For the past eight years, the Italian national pro men's road squad has been the team to beat at the world's. And each time, the team has been beaten. The closest the famous azzuri have come to taking the supreme rainbow jersey was a silver medal by the now-retired Claudio Chiappucci in 1994. Two others have won bronze medals: Marco Pantani in 1995 and Michele Bartoli in 1996 and ’98. Bartoli is back as one of the Italian team's leaders, and his recent transfer to the Fassa Bortolo trade team should bring some focus to his newest assault on the title. That's because Fassa Bortolo also has

Trek-Volkswagen took the most dramatic win of the day, but when the dust settled in Moab, there were hundreds of other images and stories to be shared among the finishers. Here are a few:

One has nearly a lifetime’s worth of experience. The other was riding in the second cyclo-cross race her career. Still, the results were the same, as reigning world champion Erwin Vervecken and ‘cross newby Lyne Bessette walked away with wins at the opening round of the SuperCup series on a foggy Saturday afternoon in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Longo leads the escape

Rock, paper, scissors: The common method to decide who starts.

Vervecken was smooth over the barriers.

Bessette was good enough on the run-ups.

Johnson goes up and over.

Vervecken leads the early break through the sand pit.