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We cycling fans are a rare breed. Most sports spectators live within that privileged bubble of absolute full coverage. Ball-sport fans are atop that most-spoiled list – they sit comfortably ensconced in theater-like seats, while the game’s jump shots, Hail Mary passes and pickle plays unfold in full view before their eyes. Indeed, an orb-sports fan’s only real excuse for having missed critical action would generally have to revolve around beer – either by standing in line to buy one or by standing in line to expel one. In this relationship there is no secret to proscribed roles: Athletes

McEwen finishes last year's Tour de France time trial to the top of l'Alpe d'Huez

Tuesday's EuroFile: Exhausted Rebellin rules out Giro; Lotto's leaders from Oz; Casagrande bows out

...and warming up for Athens

Lining up for Athens....

Football? Basketball? Bike race? Who cares?

Home of the Bulldog...

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Real fans. Real racing. Real America,

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Don't bet on the appealDear VeloNews,I have read the various Mailbag e-mails in support and against Hamilton as well as the entire text of the arbitration memorandum. Personally, I have no particular bias, one way or the other, toward Hamilton. His case is simply interesting given

DiLuca got a big boost in the Ardennes

Monday's Mailbag: Dueling lawyers; Enough is enough and a strange resemblance?

Monday's Mailbag: Dueling lawyers; Enough is enough and a strange resemblance?

RENO, Nevada (Associated Press) -- On a farm about six miles outsidethis gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smellysheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains andother organs.The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly abouthis plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He can'twait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected into thefetus' brain about two months ago.''It's mice on a large scale,'' Chamberlain says with a shrug.As strange as his work may

Now this is the Santiago Botero we all remember.

Despite losing the jersey at Romandie, Cunego seems ready to take on the Giro.

McGee powers in for second

Botero takes final stage and overall at Romandie

Tech Talk with Matt Pacocha: Hutchinson Bulldog tubeless tires

Tech Talk with Matt Pacocha: Hutchinson Bulldog tubeless tires

Zberg leads

Going up

Piepoli attacks

And so does Cunego . . .

. . . en route to the overall lead

Discovery Channel's Viatcheslav Ekimov was injured Friday during a crash while riding with Lance Armstrong, and the Russian’s Tour de France may be in jeopardy. Armstrong escaped injury in the Austin mishap, but the 39-year-old Ekimov was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was diagnosed with a broken sternum. According to www.thepaceline.com, Armstrong's fan-club website, Ekimov hit a hole in the road, lost control of his bike, hit the stem with his chest and landed on his back. Ekimov hopes to be transported back home to St. Petersburg, Russia, for rehabilitation, according to

Cipollini says goodbye at a press conference on Friday

Contador solos to a stage win

Dekker leads the break

Moncoutie and Zberg on the move

Moncoutie

Garate and Voeckler give chase

Here is just a small reminder that the Outdoor Life Network will broadcasta two-hour summary of the best and biggest stage race in America, the Dodge Tour de Georgia this Sunday, May 1, starting at 5:00 p.m. (eastern time in the U.S.) (Not to spoil the surprise ending, but we think the kid from Colorado did pretty well.)

America’s “breakthrough” professionals in the early 1980s, Greg LeMond and Jonathan Boyer, both developed their stage-racing skills at Colorado’s Red Zinger Bicycle Classic, which became the Coors Classic in 1980. No other bike race in the United States has had so much influence on the sport. Not only did it develop riders, it brought new ones into the sport, provided untold publicity (local, national and international), and made Boulder one of the epicenters of American cycling. While it was the race that was responsible for all those important developments, it was the man behind the race —

Popovych at Paris-Nice

Al Capp's Joe Btfsplk

Cunego en route to victory

Botero seizes the lead

The peloton sails along

Inside Cycling: Aisner and the Coors Classic

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.The real issueEditors,Whether or not Tyler is guilty or innocent of blood doping is not thereal issue.The bottom line is that the test has not been scientifically validated.Nor, from any of the statements I've found or the press coverage I've read,does WADA claim that it is. On

Attorneys representing the U.S. Olympic Committee’s former medical director have subpoenaed a series of documents they allege contain the names of hundreds of athletes whose positive dope tests have been covered up by Olympic officials. Doctor Wade Exum, who until his “forced resignation” in 2000 served as the USOC’s director of drug control administration, filed an employment discrimination suit against his former employers in federal court that summer. A federal appeals court has since ruled that the case was not one that fell within the jurisdiction of the federal judiciary and so the

American Lance Armstrong’s retirement from competition could be short-lived - though his next potential adventure may be on four wheels instead of two. The six-time Tour de France winner is bidding for a seventh yellow jersey in the July 2-24 race, after which he will retire from cycling. However, the 33-year-old Texan has been offered the chance to compete in the Dakar Rally, which will be held next January, alongside NASCAR driver Robbie Gordon. "I received an e-mail from Robbie Gordon two months ago offering me the chance to drive car number three in the next Paris-Dakar," Armstrong

Exum addresses a Denver press conference in 2000

Petacchi takes the stage and the overall lead

Landaluze takes a flyer

Cipo' makes a splash at the '99 Tour

At the 1993 Tour de France

Cipollini cultivates his fan base at the Giro

Winning in Qatar

Who else?

Pereiro

Ravaioli and Rosseler

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Keeping the faithDear Editor,I am responding to the article about Tyler's innocence or guilt by Fred Dreier (see "AFred's Eye View: Questions, questions, questions"). Why is it thata guy who finishes the 2003 Tour with broken collarbone all of a suddenthinks, “Geez, I think

An anonymous e-mail sent Tuesday afternoon quietly marked the end of an era in modern cycling. At 38, and definitely a pedal stroke or two past his prime, Mario Cipollini – the Lion King, Ruler of the Sprints and the Master of Kitsch – said it was time to hang up the cleats. “Announcing my withdrawal less than two weeks before the Giro d'Italia is a painful but honest decision. The public will understand," said Cipollini in a statement released by his team, Liquigas. "Maybe, an ‘old man’ like me, who has given a lot to cycling and has also received a lot, has to recognize when is the

Casey Gibson hits the finish line

It’s Sunday, a dreary and rainy afternoon. It’s far too wet for an enjoyable ride and a modest crowd of local cyclists has turned out to watch a delayed broadcast of Liège–Bastogne–Liège at north Boulder’s Amante coffee shop. Although the television is blaring Alexander Vinokourov’s exciting win, a quick eavesdrop into surrounding conversations reveals a more interesting buzz. The drama of the race is not exactly the subject for today’s talk, and familiar reoccurring questions bounce between conversations.Do you think he really did it?He couldn’t possibly have…but could he have?Do you

Savoldelli: A difference of 0.23 seconds

Cipollini wins at this year's Tour of Qatar

Celebrating the new record at the Giro.

LVDB winner Cavaliere with Bisbee Mayor Ron Oertle

Armstrong and another soon-to-be-retiree at the start

Pate and Tafi tried to animate the day

Vino' had lots of time to celebrate.

Vino' beats Voigt to the line with a nicely timed charge through the final turn.

Discovery locked it down

... and Vinokourov decides that this one needs to be followed

On the Côte de St. Roch (1km at 11.2 percent)

T-Mobile wisely sends Wesseman (r) into the day's first break

Di Luca didn't make the cut on Sunday, but holds the ProTour lead

The dynamic duo on the way up La Redoute