Several elite ProTour riders, who have built solid reputations in the European peloton, are slated to compete Labor Day weekend in the Greenville Hospital System USA Cycling Professional Championships. Medalist Sports confirmed that George Hincapie (Discovery Channel), Bobby Julich (CSC), Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel), and David Zabriskie (CSC) are among the athletes who will compete in one or more of the dual championship events September 1-2. "We are very pleased to see George, Dave and Levi return along with many of the top Pro Tour riders who don't often compete in the United

Alberto Contador is on vacation this week, but he’ll probably be spending more time than he would like working the phone after last week’s news that his Discovery Channel team is disbanding at the end of the season. The standing Tour de France champion is without a secure future – not to mention most of the other riders and staff on the Discovery Channel payroll. Where Contador could likely end up depends on what kind of reception his new manager, Tony Rominger, receives from prospective ProTour teams. Doubts over Contador’s alleged links to the Operación Puerto investigation could

After 3442 kilometers and 21 grueling stages, Danilo Di Luca stood above all others atop the Milan podium Sunday, as overall winner of 90th Giro d'Italia.

Maglia rosa Danilo Di Luca's victory in the 90th Giro is all but assured after his performance Saturday, which saw him finish eighth to Astana's Paolo Savoldelli in a 43km time trial to Verona. With an enviable two-and-a-half minute advantage to Team CSC's Andy Schleck at the start of the day, Di Luca was never really in danger of losing his overall lead. The Liquigas captain finished just 29 seconds slower than the young Luxembourger, with Schleck also doing more than enough to retain his second place overall.

Friday's foul weather did nothing to curb the inner aggression of Basque Iban Mayo (Saunier Duval-Prodir), whose beautiful pedaling motion returned, to the bane of his breakaway companions, on the 19th stage of the Giro, triumphing with a solo victory in Comano Terme. Not content to sit in a seven-man lead group after the midway climb of the Pian delle Fugazze, especially with Acqua & Sapone's Stefano Garzelli by his side, Mayo chose fellow Spaniard Alberto Losada (Caisse d'Epargne) as his partner in crime.

On a summery Thursday afternoon in Riese Pio X, 33 year-old La Spezia speedster Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) avoided a final corner crash to claim his fourth victory in the 18th stage of the Giro d’Italia. Largely unaided up to the line, Petacchi, seemingly unperturbed after what happened in front of him, closed the gap to Quick Step's Matteo Tosatto with casual aplomb, launching himself down the finishing straight with nearly 600 meters remaining and charged to the line largely unchallenged.

Saunier Duval's climbing king Gilberto Simoni has prevailed again on the wickedly steep slopes of the Monte Zoncolan. "To have won here on Monte Zoncolan means an enormous amount to me, more than being on the podium," the two-time Giro winner panted at the finish line on Wednesday. "It was important to win a stage, more so that it was the Zoncolan, which is the most beautiful.”

Armed with the cunning – and innate sense of timing – that come from 11 years as a professional, 33 year-old Stefano Garzelli, just as he did three days before in Bergamo, gave a textbook display of controlled aggression Tuesday in Lienz, Austria. The reward? His second victory of the 2007 Giro.

We should have known. Ever since the opening day of Giro in Sardegna, when the Liquigas leader shouted at his team-mate Enrico Gasparotto to peel off the front of the train so that he could take the first maglia rosa, we should have known Danilo Di Luca really wanted to win the race more than anyone. The events on that day were downplayed somewhat, with Di Luca saying: "I was not upset, it is important that we as a team win." But out of all the pre-race favorites - Gilberto Simoni, Damiano Cunego, Paolo Savoldelli, and Di Luca - it is the latter who has arguably the weakest team. Each

High up the savage slopes of the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo, 23-year-old young gun Riccardo Riccò came of age with a brilliant victory in the 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Sunday. In a show of strength, unity and sportsmanship, the Saunier Duval duo of Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli out-foxed and out-climbed all others on the queen stage of the race in the Italian Dolomites. With arms aloft, Riccò crossed the line just ahead of maglia verde Piepoli, followed by Ivan Parra (Cofidis), 10 seconds adrift, and Mexican Julio Pérez (Ceramica Panaria-Navigare), a further 32 seconds behind.

If Danilo Di Luca expects to ride into Milan a week from Sunday wearing the maglia rosa on the final stage of the Giro d’Italia he’s going to have to fight for it before that. Had there been any doubt about that, it was certainly erased during Saturday’s 192-kilometer ride from Cantu to Bergamo. In one of the most exciting stages in modern Giro history, Acqua & Sapone's Stefano Garzelli took the fourteenth stage in emphatic fashion Saturday in Bergamo, barely edging out Saunier Duval's Gilberto Simoni and world road champ Paolo Bettini of Quick Step-Innergetic.

Till this 13 kilometer uphill race of truth, surprises have been few at this 90th Giro d'Italia. But Marzio Bruseghin's performance Friday was exactly that. With nowhere to hide on the slopes leading to the Santuario Di Oropa, 32 year-old Bruseghin defied the odds to win the thirteenth stage and stun everyone including himself with a superlative ride against the clock.

[nid:38705]Liquigas leader Danilo Di Luca has emerged unscathed and on top in the Giro's first big day in the mountains, taking the stage in Briançon and the maglia rosa to boot. Only five riders finished within 20 seconds of Di Luca, and only two-time Giro champion Gilberto Simoni was able to match him stroke for stroke on the savage slopes of the Col d'Izoard.

This is the Alessandro Petacchi we all remember, the world-class sprinter delivered to the line by a well-orchestrated machine of a lead-out team and fending off a field of the world’s best over the last meters of a stage. It’s enough to make a guy forget the last 12 months.

In a Giro d’Italia that’s being hyped as a showdown between the young guns, a pair of grizzled veterans stole the spotlight in Tuesday’s grueling 250km climbing stage sun-baked mountains above Genova. Leonardo Piepoli and Andrea Noè, two unsung workhorses in an age of millionaire GC captains, clawed their way to the podium at the end of an explosive battle that saw the end of Marco Pinotti’s pink jersey run.

In a nation that’s produces sprinters like Texas churns out linebackers, Danilo Napolitano hardly rated on the power rankings in the Italian sprinter hierarchy. All that changed Monday for the 26-year-old Sicilian when he bullied his way past Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto) and Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) to win the 177km ninth stage by a whisker.

Kurt-Asle Arvesen doesn’t win very often, but when he does, he has a knack for beating some pretty big names. The 32-year-old CSC rider scored his 15th professional win in Sunday’s 200km eighth stage ath the Giro d’Italia with style, out-sprinting reigning world champion Paolo Bettini (QuickStep) in a stinking hot stage that saw a 22-man breakaway featuring George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) take four minutes out of the main peloton.

It was a bike stab to turn the page on a year of suffering. Alessandro Petacchi jammed his bike across the line in Saturday’s seventh stage to win for the second time in a week and officially close the book on his long comeback from injury in last year’s Giro d’Italia. The Milram rider timed his move perfectly to win a high-octane sprint on the Mugello race circuit ahead of Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricole) and Paolo Bettini (QuickStep-Innergetic) by a half-wheel length.

Danilo Di Luca called this one. Secure in his leader’s jersey at the end of Thursday’s stage to Frascati, the Liquigas rider said that Friday’s stage – with three moderate to tough climbs spread along the route – would be a prime opportunity for a break-away effort to succeed and perhaps relieve him of the pressure of defending the maglia rosa for a while. Right, on both counts.

No one seemed particularly happy with the finish of the fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia on Thursday - except the guy who won it. Gerolsteiner’s Robert Förster emerged at the front of a mad dash through a frightening closing kilometer at the end a 173-kilometer stage from Teano to Frascati to score the second Giro stage victory of his career. Overall race leader Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas) finished comfortably in the main field to hold on to his 26-second advantage over teammate Franco Pellizotti on general classification.

Danilo Di Luca repeated his victory atop the Montevergine climb from 2001 in Wednesday’s rainy and crash-marred fourth stage, but things have changed a lot for “The Killer” since those heady days six years ago. Back then, Di Luca was the hot, emerging star who everyone predicted would one day win the Giro d’Italia. Other than come close with fourth overall in 2005, Di Luca has never delivered on that promise.

You could almost hear the “delete” buttons being tapped in the Giro d’Italia pressroom in Cagliari on the Island of Sardinia on Monday. All of those stories about how Milram’s Alessandro Petacchi was a washed-up version of yesterday’s news were sent to the trash can as the man known as Ale-Jet scored his 20th Giro stage win at the end of a largely flat, 181-kilometer stage from Barumini to Cagliari.

Robbie McEwen doesn’t speak much Italian, but he knows enough to tell TV reporters at the finish line in a hot and challenging 205km second stage along the west coast of Sardinia that was he was tickled pink with his 12th career Giro d’Italia stage victory. The Australian pocket rocket bolted past a wilting Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) and held off a late burst by Paolo Bettini (QuickStep) to notch his 153rd career victory.

The Giro d’Italia just wouldn’t be the same without a good dose of polemica, the favored pastime of this passionate nation of 60 million souls, and there was plenty of it in Saturday’s opening stage of the 90th corsa rosa. [nid:38529]UCI president Pat McQuaid got things off to a good start when he showed up an hour before the team time trial between the Caprera and La Maddalena islands to tell Italian journalists there would be no deal-making for scandal-marred Ivan Basso (see "McQuaid:No breaks for Basso").

With Operación Puerto eliminating defending champion Ivan Basso and potential contenders Michele Scarponi and Tyler Hamilton, the list of potential winners is much shorter. This will lead to a more uncertain Giro, but the podium is almost sure to be contested by the big four: Cunego, Simoni, Savoldelli and Di Luca. TOP FAVORITES Damiano Cunego (I), Lampre-Fondital Age:25 Giro highlights: Overall winner, four stage wins and 11 days in the maglia rosa in 2004, 4th overall in 2006 (but almost 20 minutes back), 18th in 2005, 34th in 2003. The skinny: After being zapped by mononucleosis in

UCI PROTOUR TEAMSAg2r (F)Race numbers: 51-59GC contender: New team leader Rinaldo Nocentini (I) is most interested in winning a stage.Best sprinter: Alexandre Usov (Blr) had a top-three stage finish in the 2004 Giro. Other rider to watch: Carl Naibo (F), a late replacement, is a useful climber.Giro will be a success if: Nocentini wins a stage.Astana (Swi)Race numbers: 11-19GC contender: Paolo Savoldelli (I) is looking for his third Giro title after contending and then falling sick in 2006Other rider to watch: Eddy Mazzoleni (I) is a strong climber riding support for Savoldelli.Giro will be a

UCI president Pat McQuaid said he expects the Operación Puerto doping investigation to haunt this year’s Tour de France and other major races. With reports of a larger, 6000-page dossier poised to be released by Spanish authorities, The Associated Press reported that McQuaid said it might take the rest of the year to fully digest the mountain of new evidence and documents as part of the ongoing investigation. Until then, cycling’s governing body might not be able to do much to keep riders out of racing action because it needs more time to figure out which riders might be sanctioned and

After a low-profile spring, Oscar Pereiro is getting serious about racing during this week’s Tour de Romandie as he ramps up his preparation ahead of the Tour de France. Pereiro – who could be named Tour winner if Floyd Landis loses his legal battle to clear his name of doping allegations – has been relatively quiet so far this year. After the Tour, the Spanish rider will race the Vuelta a España, so all along he’s planned his season to have a strong second half. The Caisse d’Epargne captain is hoping for a strong performance in the six-day Romandie. “I will take the start at Romandie in

The Giro d'Italia and Tour de France may be a long way off for some - but the conclusion of the spring classics season on Sunday has brought the pink and yellow jerseys that much closer. The Tour of Romandie begins Tuesday with six of days of mostly climbing in the Swiss mountains signaling the steady run in to the first two Grand Tours of the season. The three-week Giro begins on May 12, and the tour of Romandie gives the race's pink jersey aspirants a chance to test their legs over some tough climbing terrain. Cadel Evans of the Predictor-Lotto team is the reigning champion, but

Ivan Basso said Tuesday that he is "at peace" with himself ahead of his Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) hearing on doping allegations that may well decide his future as a cyclist. Basso, last year's Giro d’Italia winner and a pre-race favorite for the 2007 Tour de France, quit Discovery Channel on Monday noting that ongoing suspicions on him were damaging the team and its hunt for a new title sponsor. The decision has ruled him out of defending his Giro title in less than two weeks time, and has likely ruled him out of the Tour de France for the second year running. The 29-year-old

Dave Zabriskie, winner of a Giro d’Italia stage in 2005, is returning to the Italian stage race next month as part of Team CSC’s nine-man squad for the corsa rosa. Zabriskie, 28, won stage eight in the 2005 Giro and then went on to win the opening time trial at the Tour de France that same year. Coupled with his 2004 Vuelta a España stage victory, the feat distinguishes him as the only American rider to win stages in all three grand tours. The Giro will also mark the grand tour debut of Juan José Haedo, the Argentine sprinter who’s already scored wins in the United States and Europe. Team

Fabian Cancellara (Team CSC) is still steaming over missing victory in Sunday’s Tour of Flanders. The reigning world time trial champion tried to will his way to the top podium spot, but a mix of tactics, a lack of cooperation from breakaway partners and simply too nice of weather that made for a larger than normal peloton foiled his chances. The 26-year-old will line up Sunday as defending champion at Paris-Roubaix. He told VeloNews he has one aim. “I want to double,” he said flat out. “I don’t know if my form is as good as last year, I was a little sick at Tirreno that set me back a little,

[nid:37751]The 177km second stage of the eight-day Paris-Nice started with a lot of high hopes. David Millar was talking a wire-to-wire yellow jersey run. Thomas Voekler almost held off the peloton to steal a dramatic breakaway win. Everyone else was looking at Daniele Bennati and Tom Boonen. No one was looking at Franco Pellizotti.

Argentinean ace J.J. Haedo blasted to the front of another all-ProTour sprint finish Tuesday to win the second stage of the Amgen Tour of California. After yesterday’s chaotic finish, Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) was happy to have remained intact and safely inside an upright peloton after three circuits of downtown Sacramento concluded the 116-mile stage from his hometown of Santa Rosa.

Defying an increasing wind that saw the likes of world time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara (CSC) fall out of contention, Levi Leipheimer stormed to the Amgen Tour of California prologue win on Sunday atop Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. The last rider to leave the starting house, Leipheimer flew down the flat one-mile stretch of The Embarcadero along the water before turning onto the steep Telegraph Hill climb towards Coit Tower with pitches as steep as 22 percent.

The Amgen Tour of California is just rolling into its second year as a domestic event, but its organizers hope it can become the fourth grand tour of worldwide bicycle racing. "Our finish line is to host a grand tour," said Shawn Hunter, president of AEG Sports, during a kickoff press conference at the Argonaut Hotel at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. "People laughed when we said that over a year ago. They said, ‘Let’s see you pull off one year of the race first.’ Well, we did, and we’re constantly looking for ways to improve. We want to grow this into a fourth grand tour. We want to

Tyler Hamilton will likely race the 2007 Giro d’Italia after Tinkoff Credit Systems was among 22 teams named Friday to start the corsa rosa in May. Hamilton, who returned to racing last week following a two-year racing ban, said returning to the Giro was one of his top goals for the 2007 season. Hamilton won a stage and finished second overall in the 2002 Giro. Giro organizers RCS Sport released its official start list Friday with some controversy. Left out was new ProTour team Unibet.com, which has been facing the scorn of Giro and Tour de France officials as part of the ever-widening

The ongoing feud between the grand tours and the UCI turned nastier this week when Giro d’Italia organizers said they will guarantee invitations to only 18 of the 20 teams in the ProTour league for the upcoming edition of the corsa rosa. The decision shows just how deep the divisions are between cycling’s most important race organizers and the sport’s governing body. While there’s been no official word from the UCI, a strong reaction is expected. Giro organizer RCS Sport said new ProTour team Unibet.com won’t be allowed to race the season’s first grand tour (May 12-June 3) and said the

German attacker Stefan Schumacher says his planned Tour de France debut later this season will help him decide where his future lies. If he can get through the Tour in good shape, he might try to focus on improving his skills to perhaps battle for the overall prize in the future. If not, he’ll instead focus his energy into winning stages and shining in the classics. It all depends on how things go in July. “I don’t know if I can ever challenge for the Tour, but what happens this year will tell me a lot,” Schumacher told VeloNews before the start of Monday’s stage at the Mallorca Challenge.

American classics hope Tyler Farrar will be staying with Cofidis through the end of his contract this season and won’t be joining Discovery Channel - at least for now. Farrar’s name was linked to the American team last week when he appeared on a list of Discovery Channel riders for the 2007 season. The 22-year-old admitted he’s spoken with Discovery Channel representatives, but denied he was poised to leave the French team just as the 2007 season kicks into gear. “I was just as surprised as everyone else. I was at the Cofidis team presentation and someone pulled out a copy of Het Laatste

At its customary pre-season training camp in Solvang, California, the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team opened the doors of the Royal Scandinavian Inn to the media on Monday and Tuesday for an opportunity to meet the team’s riders. In lieu of an official team presentation, which will be offered via video on the team’s Web site, thepaceline.com, team representatives arranged one-on-one interviews with print, Web and video journalists in Solvang, a small Danish settlement in central California. Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, a part owner of the team, was in attendance at

Tour de France runner-up Oscar Pereiro wants an apology from French authorities after what he says was a smear campaign to slight his reputation. The Spanish rider expressed satisfaction that the French anti-doping agency Thursday threw out cases of 10 riders after it was confirmed that riders had medical clearances to use certain banned substances that popped up in anti-doping controls during last year’s Tour de France. "The damage can be repaired from France," Pereiro told the Spanish news agency EFE. "I could have my name cleared by an apology and regret fromLe Monde and the French

Discovery Channel doesn’t have the Lance Armstrong guarantee anymore, so the squad has to find satisfaction in more modest goals. The team no longer rules the Tour de France like it did seven Julys in a row, but a gutsy solo victory by Egoi Martinez in Wednesday’s 11th stage of the Vuelta a España delivered the team a unique accomplishment in the first year of the post-Armstrong era - stage victories and stints in leader’s jerseys in all three grand tours. “This victory was important for the team,” said Martinez, who shot away from a pair of riders with 12km to go. “Even without Armstrong,

Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) pipped two Germans in a tight sprint to end an otherwise long trudge across the sun-baked plains of northern Spain in Thursday’s 177km sixth stage from Zamora to León. The Norwegian came around big German André Greipel (T-Mobile) in the final 75 meters and held off another German, Erik Zabel (Milram), to sneak to his first victory in the 2006 Vuelta a España after three second places earlier this week. "It’s true I’ve had a problem to win a stage here, but I think it cost me a little when I got the leader’s jersey. You always think about trying to defend a

Sastre unsure as Vuelta expects heavy Spanish accentWith the “Puerto Nine” not welcome and a host of foreign stars expected to skip the season’s final grand tour, Vuelta a España organizers are putting a heavy Spanish accent of the 2006 edition. Race organizers revealed a preliminary start list Tuesday that’s laden with Spanish stars and lean on foreign riders. Defending champion Denis Menchov and his Danish climbing Rabobank counterpart Michael Rasmussen are the biggest foreign stars expected for the Aug. 26 start in Málaga. Confirmed Spanish riders include Tour de France runner-up Oscar

If any greater upset were possible in the stage 7 time trial of the Tour de France, then anyone who witnessed today’s race of truth would have been pressed to think of one. The 52km St. Grégoire to Rennes time trial in Brittany was decisive, mainly because of the way it seriously compromised the Tour-winning hopes of so many pre-race favorites. No rider really emerged as a standout contender to win the first post-Lance Armstrong Tour — but there was a major a shift in the balance of power, from Discovery Channel to T-Mobile. Take out the stage winner, Ukrainian Sergei Gontchar (T-Mobile),

Perhaps it’s premature to look ahead to the afternoon of July 23, 2006, when a new champion of the Tour de France will be crowned on the Champs-Élysées. Perhaps it’s naïve to look past the latest doping scandal to bring professional cycling to its knees. But for the continued popularity of our sport — which has never been at a higher point in the United States — we have to move on. It takes months, sometimes years before the judiciary resolves complicated cases like Operación Puerto; for instance the Cofidis team scandal of January 2004 is only going to court a few weeks from now, 30 months

Editor's Note: Michael Barry, pro cyclist with the DiscoveryChannel Cycling Team and author of Insidethe Postal Bus: My Ride with Lance Armstrong and the U.S. Postal CyclingTeam, analyzes the team’s chances for the 2006 Tour de Franceand how the Discovery Channel team dynamic has changed going into thisfirst Tour of the post-Lance era.In 2005, Lance Armstrong retired from the sport the moment he crossedthe finish line on the Champs-Elysées in yellow. It was his seventhconsecutive victory, a record that will likely not be broken for decades.He retired from our sport as the maître; with his

Editor's Note: Michael Barry, pro cyclist with the DiscoveryChannel Cycling Team and author of Insidethe Postal Bus: My Ride with Lance Armstrong and the U.S. Postal CyclingTeam, analyzes the team’s chances for the 2006 Tour de Franceand how the Discovery Channel team dynamic has changed going into thisfirst Tour of the post-Lance era.In 2005, Lance Armstrong retired from the sport the moment he crossedthe finish line on the Champs-Elysées in yellow. It was his seventhconsecutive victory, a record that will likely not be broken for decades.He retired from our sport as the maître; with his

The Simoni-Basso spat shows no signs of dying a quick death. Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval) and Ivan Basso (CSC) have been trading barbs ever since Simoni accused Basso of trying to sell Saturday’s 20th stage over the Gavia and Mortirolo climbs in the Giro d’Italia. According to a report on the Italian wires, Simoni is scheduled to appear before the Italian cycling federation to offer his version of claims that Giro winner Basso wanted money to let Simoni win the Giro’s penultimate stage. The dispute has been fueling headlines since Simoni’s finish-line diatribe, when he accused Basso of

Sunday marked the official opening of the Basso Era as Ivan Basso (CSC) won the 2006 Giro d'Italia in a dominant fashion that many expect to continue into July’s Tour de France. Basso, 28, insists he’s not out to ascend to Lance Armstrong’s vacant throne and that his overpowering victory in the 89th Giro d’Italia came in a style all his own. "I’m not looking to replace anyone and I have the utmost respect for Lance, but I have my results and I have earned my place in the group," Basso said Sunday morning ahead of the final stage. "I have my name and I only have to show that I am Ivan

Team CSC’s Ivan Basso barnstormed to victory Saturday in the final hard stage of the 89th Giro d’Italia in the style of the man everyone expects Basso to succeed – Lance Armstrong. Basso wasn’t in a giving mood when he dropped an exasperated Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval) with about 4km to go in Saturday’s grueling, 211km 20th stage to win for the third time and widen his grip on the maglia rosa to more than nine minutes with just one day left. An angry Simoni called Basso an "extraterrestrial" for his crushing performance and accused him riding unfairly by asking him to ride easy on the

There’s no stopping Team CSC in this Giro d’Italia, unless they decide to stop themselves. Team CSC was everywhere in Friday’s epic seven-hour haul in the 221km 19th stage that hit such legendary climbs as the Fedaia, Pordoi and San Pellegrino. Bobby Julich and Jens Voigt were in the day’s winning 19-man break, five other Team CSC jerseys were pinned at the front of the main bunch and race leader Ivan Basso widened his hold on the maglia rosa to more than six minutes with just two days left. So what was Voigt doing when he reached over and patted Juan Manuel Garate (Lampre) on the back

Lately, it seems, when there’s been a doping scandal involving cycling, Italy and the Giro d’Italia figured at the center of the storm. Think of Marco Pantani’s expulsion in 1999, the San Remo raids in 2001 and the ejection of Stefano Garzelli while in the leader’s jersey in 2002. This time around, a brewing tempest in Spain involving Liberty Seguros team manager Manolo Saiz, Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and three others reached all the way to the Giro's 18th stage, which began in the mountains of Austria Thursday morning. Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) won his second stage of

The Queen of stages at the Giro d’Italia proved to be something of a letdown Wednesday as rain, cold and even a bit of late-spring snow forced organizers to eliminate the goat path they had planned to herd the peloton up the 2273m summit at Plan de Corones. Winter-like whiteout conditions high in the Italian Dolomites prompted race organizers to remove the difficult Passo dello Erbe at 97km and then lower the summit finish by about five kilometers, shorting the 133km stage by 18km. Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) won his second stage in five days while Team CSC’s Ivan Basso took more time

If there was a shred of doubt about who was going to win the 89th Giro d'Italia going into Tuesday's climbing stage up Monte Bondone, Ivan Basso emphatically erased it with a dramatic statement high in the Italian Dolomites. If Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval) was racing on pride on his "home mountain," Basso was looking to carve a defining moment in what's been a flawless and dominant performance for the 28-year-old Varenese. With just under seven kilometers to go on the steep Bondone climb, Simoni could only watch Basso and the race leader's pink jersey slip away as Basso

Charly Gaul, perhaps the best pure climber the sport of road cycling has ever produced, should have been standing at the Monte Bondone summit finish of Tuesday’s stage of the Giro d’Italia. But Gaul, who won an epic victory on the Bondone climb in 1956, died last December at age 72. The Giro organizers chose the Bondone as the stage 16 finish to mark the 50th anniversary of Gaul’s stage win, which was achieved in apocalyptic conditions. Gaul was only 20 when he turned pro for a French team, Terrot, in May 1953. Within a month he was racing in the second biggest stage race in France, the

Sundays in Italy are usually reserved for quality time with the family, a nice meal out and an afternoon passeggiato. Not that nearly six hours on the bike and two tough mountains is ever easy, but Sunday’s 224-kilometer 14th stage from Aosta to Domodossola might seem like a Sunday stroll when the hit the likes of Pla de Corones and the Mortirolo on tap later this week. With the 11-man breakaway taking center-stage in the two-climb affair, an impromptu cease-fire between the favorites gave everyone a chance to reflect on what awaits them in the final week of the 89th Giro. Luis Felipe

Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) has won just about every major mountain climb in Spain, including a stage victory in the 2004 Vuelta a España, but the veteran Italian climbing specialist had never won in the Giro d’Italia. Piepoli, 34, has spent much of his 12-year career racing in Spain and all of his wins since 1999 have come on Spanish roads. The featherweight Italian changed that with an emphatic victory in Saturday’s rainy and cold 13th stage over the Colle San Carlo high in the Italian Alps. Piepoli was the only rider strong enough to follow Ivan Basso (CSC) when he turned on the

It wasn’t quite as painful as the Nordic ski jumper that went spiraling down the hill all those years during the intro to ABC’s Wide World of Sports, but watching poor Axel Merckx throw several backward glances as a fast-moving chase group caught the Phonak rider just 150 meters from the line clearly rated as one of cycling’s agony-of-defeat moments. Instead of a heroic solo stage 10 win for the Belgian with the famous name, it was Liquigas lieutenant Franco Pellizotti who got to pop the champagne at the end of the 190km run south from Termoli to Peschici on Tuesday at the Giro

Tomas Vaitkus pulled off two great feats at the close of Monday's 132km run from Francavilla al Mare to Termoli. In winning the bunch sprint down the main drag of this sleepy beach town on the Adriatic, Vaitkus became the first Lithuanian to win a Giro d'Italia stage. But maybe more impressive was the fact that Vaitkus did so ahead of Robbie McEwen, heretofore unbeatable in mass gallops at this year's Giro. McEwen actually finished fourth on stage 9, with Vaitkus (Ag2r), Paolo Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic) and Olaf Pollack (T-Mobile) all besting the Davitamon-Lotto rider.

If there is such a thing as a psychological advantage in bike racing, Ivan Basso now has it. The Team CSC leader also now owns the maglia rosa of race leader and no less than a 1:34 edge on his chief rivals in the 2006 Giro d’Italia. All this came courtesy of a stunning display of climbing force at the close of the 171km stage 8 run from Civitanova Marche to the 1289-meter summit finish at Maielletta-Passo Lanciano. Following a sharp attack from fellow Giro favorite Damiano Cunego 4km from the finish, Basso latched onto the Lampre-Fondital rider’s wheel, and then mercilessly dropped the 2004

Saturday’s 236km stage from Cesana to Saltara certainly won’t decide the overall winner of the 2006 Giro d’Italia, but it may have revealed some cracks in at least one of the pre-race favorites. While Belgian Rik Verbrugghe was off the front gunning his way to a hard-fought solo stage win, Italian Danilo Di Luca was noticeably absent from a fast-closing group that included the rest of the Giro’s big GC guns — Paolo Savoldelli, Gilberto Simoni and Damiano Cunego. At the finish Di Luca (Liquigas) managed to limit his losses to second-place finisher Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) to 20

Sergei Honchar quietly accepts his second maglia rosa of this Giro.

Aussie speedster Robbie McEwen continued his dominating run at the 2006 Giro d'Italia, grabbing a convincing stage-6 win at the finish of the dead flat, 227km run along the Po Valley from Busseto to Forli. The triumph gave the "Pocket Rocket" three victories at this year’s Giro, bring his career total to 11. One spot back of McEwen was T-Mobile’s Olaf Pollack, who was no match for the Davitamon-Lotto speedster. Still, he could take solace in the new pink jersey he would be taking back to the team hotel. Coming into the day, Pollack had trailed teammate and GC leader Sergei Honchar by 10

Call Thursday statement day at the 2006 Giro d’Italia, with a pair of very loud and clear messages being broadcast to the cycling world. No. 1: Don’t read too much into the lackluster prologue-time-trial effort of Ivan Basso last Saturday, when he surrendered 23 seconds to 2005 Giro champ Paolo Savoldelli. Basso and his Team CSC squad looked just fine during stage 5’s team time trial, scorching the flat, 35km course from Piacenza to Cremona in a day’s-best 36:56. And while everyone is paying attention, it’s probably too early to count out Jan Ullrich and his T-Mobile squad for this summer’s

Following his second stage win at the 2006 Giro d'Italia, Robbie McEwenbrushed off the idea that he had ascended the crown of world's fastestbike racer. But there was no denying that the Australian Davitamon-Lotto man hasalready made an indelible mark on this year's tour of Italy. In the waning moments of the hilly 193km run from Wanzee to Hotton,McEwen calmly bided his time, then launched across the line to take secondstage win in three days, and his 10th career victory at the Giro. "I've won two sprints here this year, sure, but there are still a lotof tough rivals," said

Metaphorically, the 2km, 400-foot cobblestone ascent up Namur’s Citadelle hill represented the end of a very long climb for Stefan Schumacher. In a literal sense, it marked the passage from up-and-coming rider to the new holder of the 2006 Giro d’Italia’s maglia rosa. Indeed, the 24-year-old Gerolsteiner’s win of the rain soaked, stage 3 slog from Perwez to Namur was as big and bold as they come. Following a day marred by crashes — including one that left Italian sprint star Alessandro Petacchi nearly 15 minutes off the back and eventually out of the race — Schumacher jumped away from

Count Robbie McEwen among a very select group. He is one of the few people with the power to make Alessandro Petacchi nervous. That ability paid big dividends on Sunday, as the Aussie sprint star easily beat Petacchi to the line during the bunch sprint that concluded stage 2 of the 2006 Giro d’Italia. “I think I may be the only rider that can force Alessandro to make small mistakes or try to change his tactic,” said McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) after taking victory in the 197km run from Mons to Charleroi-Marcinelle. “When [Petacchi] looked around and saw me on his wheel, I think it made him a

Giro d’Italia race director Angelo Zomegnan would love to see a repeat of last year’s race — his first at the helm of the world’s No. 2 grand tour — when Paolo Savoldelli, Gilberto Simoni, José Rujano and Danilo Di Luca were all battling for the pink jersey only 24 hours before the finish in Milan. This year, Zomegnan has again placed one of the toughest mountain stages on the final weekend (as well as packing the final week with similarly challenging stages) in the hopes that the above four riders, along with Ivan Basso and Damiano Cunego, will again leave the outcome in doubt until the

Davitamon-Lotto grabbed another win after big Belgian Gert Steegmans outkicked recently crowned Madison world champion Isaac Galvez (Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears) to win the third stage at the Four Days of Dunkirk. Four riders – Geoffroy Lequattre, Jimmy Engoulvent, Frédéric Finot and Mathieu Drujon – tried their luck at 59km into the 181km march from Fontaine-au-Pire to Hénin-Beaumont. The French quartet built up a two-minute lead, but they needed a bigger head start than that to hold off the sprinters. Race leader Roberto Petito’s teammates on Tenax led the charge and then stepped

With the 2006 Giro d’Italia kicking off with a 6.2-kilometer individual time trial in Seraing, Belgium, on Saturday, teams are at their hotels and now all that’s left is the waiting… and a bit of prognosticating. Our editors take a detailed look at this year’s Giro in the current issue of VeloNews. Here’s an updated look at the teams and their chances for success in the first of this year’s grand tours. DISCOVERY CHANNEL (USA)Race numbers: 1-9GC contender: Paolo Savoldelli (I): Il Falco is looking for his third Giro win. Last year he showed his ability to come into form as the race went

Fred Rodriguez (Davitamon-Lotto) just missed a victory in Wednesday’s 161km opener of the Four Days of Dunkirk after Italian Francesco Chicchi (Quick Step-Davitamon) out-kicked him in a bunch sprint.The rival Belgian teams went head-to-head not for the first time this season and once again it was Quick Step getting the better end of the bargain. It was Chicchi’s second win of the season to go along with a stage he won in the Drie Daagse Van West Vlaanderen in March.“Today I had the ‘pilot’ of Wouter Weylandt. I lost the wheel and then followed the wheel of teammate Steven de Jongh, only

After a frustrating 2005 campaign, Damiano Cunego looks to be back in the form he had two years ago when he surged to a surprising and dominant Giro d’Italia victory in 2004. His victory in Saturday’s GP Industria was his sixth in this year’s campaign and reveals the 22-year-old is back at his best in time for the Giro. “Damiano is ready,” Lampre sport director Giuseppe Martinelli told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “For the Giro, we’ll bring a squad built around him, a team that’s strong for the climbs and that will support him. The favorite is Ivan Basso, who will be able to gain some minutes

Rebellin dreams of one moreTwo years ago, Davide Rebellin was riding the best wave of his career, surging to an incredible treble that included a sweep of the Ardennes classics with back-to-back wins at Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. This year, a banged-up Rebellin is dreaming of winning just one. A crash at the Tour of the Basque Country earlier this month left the Gerolsteiner captain with some injuries to his ribs, but it´s not stopping him of aiming for more Ardennes glory. “I´d love to win another, because it would serve as a kind of confirmation,” Rebellin

With its shorter distance and steeper finish, the Flèche Wallonne is a perfect transition from last Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race and next Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The Flèche is only 202km, compared with the Amstel’s 253km and Liège’s 262km, and that shorter distance sometimes gives early breaks a better chance of survival, but the finish on the infamous Mur de Huy (a kilometer at 9.5 percent, with two bends topping 19 percent in the middle) gives the Flèche its defining feature. The past two years, Amstel winners Danilo Di Luca (2005) and Davide Rebellin (2004) have also won the Flèche,

Levi Leipheimer has opted to start his season a little differently than originally planned and will be at the starting line when Tirreno Adriatico kicks off in Italy Wednesday. Leipheimer, who had originally planned to kick off his European campaign at the Settimana Internazionale (March 21-26) decided that after the Tour of California his form was good enough to start the season a little early. "Levi is hot right now and wants to ride," said Gerolsteiner director Christian Henn. "It doesn’t make sense for him to stay in Santa Rosa (California) and wait around to start racing and hope that

In what’s sure to be one of the most-watched comebacks in recent racing history, David Millar is expected to roll down the start ramp for the opening prologue of the 2006 Tour de France on July 1, just days after his two-year racing ban ends. Some think the former world time trial champion - who admitted to French police in June, 2004, he took the banned blood booster EPO en route to some of his biggest victories – should never race again. Others, however, believe Millar can return to the elite of the sport as a clean rider. Millar has promised as much in a pair of emotional testaments at

In a blur of pink, T-Mobile’s Olaf Pollack streaked across the finish line at the Amgen corporate campus in Thousand Oaks, upsetting a hard-charging field to win stage 6 of the Amgen Tour of California on Saturday. It was the first victory of the season for Pollack’s German T-Mobile squad, and a nice present for T-Mobile's bike sponsor, Giant, whose USA headquarters lies just two miles from the finish line.

A colorful, rolling postcard for the State of California begins Sundayin San Francisco, ending a week later, on February 26, in Redondo Beach.Along the route — which will also highlight Marin County, Big Sur, SanLuis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Thousand Oaks — a who’s-who list of topAmerican cyclists will begin their racing seasons fighting to win the inauguralAmgen Tour of California, an event that has quickly emerged as the topUCI stage race in North America. Sixteen teams comprising 128 riders from more than 25 countries willtackle the 600-mile tour. Among the athletes scheduled to compete