Australian Tour de France hope Cadel Evans isn’t going to become Mr. July. The ex-mountain biker – fresh off finishing a solid seventh at Paris-Nice - is eyeing two form peaks this season, with the first one coming just around the corner, in time for next month’s Ardennes classics. “I’ll race Pais Vasco to get ready for the Ardennes,” Evans told VeloNews. “I want to be good in April this year. Last year, I had some headaches in the races. I am hoping for some good results in the spring classics.” The bumpy Ardennes races obviously best suit Evans’ explosive climbing capabilities and he’s

Things are coming together nicely for Tyler Farrar despite an early departure last week from Paris-Nice with a cold. The second-year pro is a key part of Cofidis’ 10-man classics unit and he’s looking forward to working for team captain Nick Nuyens. “It was nice when Nick (Nuyens) won the first race of the season [Etoille de Bessèges in France] – so that’s good for the motivation for everyone,” Farrar told VeloNews. “He’s a great captain and he’s real easy to work for.” So far in 2007, he’s been busy with nearly 20 days of racing in his legs with the meat of his spring classics program

Quick Step-Innergetic stars Tom Boonen and Paolo Bettini promise to be in the mix at this weekend’s Milan-San Remo, but both men readily admit they won’t be 100 percent for the Italian classic. Boonen pulled out of Paris-Nice ahead of Sunday’s finale after not winning a stage for the first time in three years with nagging back pain. The Belgian sprinter underwent chiropractic back treatments Monday and Tuesday and plans a long six-hour training ride Wednesday to test his condition. “Tom has some nagging back pain and that’s never easy for the longest race of the season,” team spokesman

Andreas Klöden (Astana) retained his overall lead after the seventh and final stage to win the 42nd Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race on Tuesday. Koldo Fernandez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) won the 177km stage between Civitella del Tronto and San Benedetto del Tronto in four hours, 38 minutes and 43 seconds after a bunch sprint. It was the Spaniard's first win since he turned professional in 2004. Australian Stuart O'Grady (CSC) came in second and Italian Gabriele Balducci (Acqua e Sapone) was third. Italian sprint king Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) was knocked out of contention for the stage

[nid:37799]The future is now for Alberto Contador after the Spanish climber pulled the double at Paris-Nice on Sunday to win the final stage and claim the overall prize that positions him as Spain’s next great hope. The 24-year-old Discovery Channel rider uncorked a searing attack on the Cat. 1 Col d’Eze to gap overnight leader Davide Rebellin and drove home a stirring victory on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais to turn a six-second deficit into a 26-second winning margin.

Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United) showed why he is rightly regarded as one of the most feared sprinters in the U.S. as he charged out of the field at the Visalia Criterium on Sunday, the last day of the Quad Knopf Sequoia Cycling Classic. Dominguez, who took an impressive win in the final stage of the Amgen Tour of California three weeks ago, topped an all-Toyota podium, along with teammates Ivan Stevic and Henk Vogels. In a women's race that ran full throttle for the first of 43 laps around the 0.7-mile, six-turn course in downtown Visalia, Suzanne de Goede (T-Mobile) took the win, and

For the second time in two weeks, Alberto Contador delivered a big win in the 2007 season ahead of some pretty heady company. Last month at the Tour of Valencia, he beat Spanish sensation Alejandro Valverde at the key climbing stage up Alto de Campello. Contador hit the repeat button Thursday in the explosive 169.5km fourth stage at Paris-Nice. The new Discovery Channel recruit dropped the likes of L’Alpe d’Huez winner Frank Schleck and Tour de France candidate Cadel Evans on the short but steep summit finish to La Croix-Neuve to take an impressive win.

Alexander Areekev (Acqua e Sapone) won the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico on Thursday to take the overall lead of the weeklong stage race. The 24-year-old Russian took the 202km leg from Civitavecchia to Marciano ahead of Italy's Daniele Contrini (Tinkoff Credit Systems). German Sven Krauss (Gerolsteiner) was third. Areekev now leads Contrini by 32 seconds with Krauss third, a further three seconds back. Spanish rider Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d’Epargne), who crashed during the bunch sprint, was taken to hospital with chest injuries. Gutierrez will be under observation for 48 hours;

You can’t blame Tom Boonen if he shot his arms up in triumph thinking that he had won a hard-fought, rising sprint into Maurs at the end of the lumpy 215.5km third stage at Paris-Nice. When he heard over his course radio that Russian rouleur Alexandr Kolobnev -- the lone holdout from the day’s four-man breakaway -- was dangling 20 seconds off the front with 7km to go, he assumed like everyone else his Quick Step henchmen would finish off the job to set up the mass gallop.

Australian Robbie McEwen held off two of his biggest rivals to win the first stage of Tirreno-Adriatico Wednesday in Civitavecchia, Italy. Predictor-Lotto’s 34-year-old sprint specialist, winner of 11 stages in the Tour de France, pulled clear of Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) on the last curve with one of his trademark bursts of speed to win the 160km race in 4 hours, 38 minutes and 24 seconds. Freire, a former three-time world champion, crossed second with the Norwegian Hushovd third. McEwen said he called on his experience of two years ago to help him win the

[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.

[nid:37738]It was expected to be a showdown between Daniele Bennati and Tom Boonen in the first stage of Paris-Nice, but it was French sprinter Jean-Patrick Nazon who surprised everyone with a long charge to the line in Buzançais on Monday. Nazon, who’s been all but invisible since winning a pair of Tour de France stages in 2003-04, burst down the left side of the peloton after sniffing out a hole with 200 meters to go.

Tom Boonen starts Sunday’s Paris-Nice as a man on a mission. The Belgian sprinter is building his form for his annual assault on the spring classics, where he has ruled with an iron fist the past two seasons. A back-to-back winner of the Tour of Flanders and the rare Flanders-Roubaix double in 2005, Boonen entered the 2007 season with new motivation and maturity. After an emotional and demanding 2006 season that saw him shine as the world champion, Boonen said he’s more than happy not to have to carry the burden of the rainbow jersey. That’s not to say Boonen is any less ambitious this

[nid:37731]Last year, David Millar underwent wind-tunnel testing for the first time and settled into a new, sleeker aerodynamic position that on paper should have made him faster. Instead, the Scot found he actually lost power — so this season he chucked the scientific posture and replaced it with his tried-and-true position, honed over years of trial and error.

Paris-Nice, the first major stage race of the season, gets under way on Sunday without 2006 champion Floyd Landis and the Unibet.com team. The seven-stage, 1260km Race to the Sun will start with a 4.7km prologue around the Parisian suburb of Issy-Les-Moulineaux . Belgium's Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic)) and Italian rival Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) are expected to compete for the sprint finishes in the early stages. The riders will then make their way towards the south coast, with the seventh and final 129km stage being held in and around Nice on March 18. Being a short but

Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) won the fourth stage of Spain’s Tour of Murcia and seized the overall lead on Saturday. Valverde covered the 23.3km individual time trial between Alhama de Murcie and Aledo in 32 minutes, 57 seconds, beating José Angel Gomez (Saunier Duval-Prodir) by 31 seconds and Angel Vicioso (Relax-Gam) by a further four seconds. He now has 35 seconds on Vicioso and 52 on Manuel Lloret (Fuerteventura-Canari) going into Sunday’s final stage, a comparatively flat 151km leg from Ceuti to Murcie. Di Luca wins Milan-TurinDanilo Di Luca (Liquigas) outsprinted

Under sunny California skies in the small Sierra foothills town of Raymond, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Priority Health) and Tina Pic (Colavita-Sutter Home) donned the leaders' jerseys after winning the first stage of Bentley's Central Valley Classic, the second race on this year's NRC calendar. Jacques-Maynes crossed solo in the men's 102.5-mile race, though Eric Wohlberg (Symmetrics) was bearing down on him in the final kilometer. "Wohlberg was closing fast,” Jacques-Maynes said. “This last 1K was the slowest 1K I've ever done. I was definitely hurting by that point. At the

A healthy North American presence will highlight next week’s Paris-Nice with no less than eight riders from five teams represented. The robust contingent reflects the continued strong position of U.S. and Canadian riders in the European peloton. Paris-Nice will mark the continental arrival of most of the Americans. Tyler Farrar (Cofidis) has been racing in Europe for nearly a month while Michael Barry (T-Mobile) was in Mallorca for his team presentation and training camp last month. Tour of California champion Levi Leipheimer, joined by Discovery Channel teammate Tom Danielson, will be

USA Cycling announced on Thursday its selection of riders who will representthe United States at the 2007 UCI Track World Championships in Palma deMallorca March 29-April 1.Headlining the roster for the women’s squad is defending world championin the three-kilometer individual pursuit, Sarah Hammer (Ouch Pro Cycling). Hammer captured the world title last year in Bordeaux, France – the firstfor an elite American track rider since 1996 – where her mark of 3:37.227in the gold-medal final was just fast enough to edge Olga Slyusareva (RUS)for the rainbow jersey.This year, Hammer will have her

It’s Alejandro Valverde against a galaxy of stars at the five-day Vuelta a Murcia starting in Spain on Wednesday. The Spanish sensation won his “hometown” race in 2004 and is fresh off overall victory at last week’s Tour of Valencia, but the lack of a summit finish and the inclusion of a tough individual time trial could spoil the chances for Balaverde. “I am not in optimum conditions to win,” Valverde told the Spanish daily AS. “After looking at the route, everything points that the climbing time trial between Alhama and Aledo will be decisive and there will be other favorites. This will

Samuel Sánchez believes someday he might be able to challenge for the Tour de France, but first he wants to prove himself in the Vuelta a España. After years nipping at the edges of major success, the Euskaltel-Euskadi attacker broke through last year to finish third overall in the 2006 individual ProTour standings after an season that included victory at the GP Zürich, second at Flèche Wallone, two stages at the Vuelta al País Vasco, a stage at the Vuelta and seventh overall. He also played a key role in last year’s world championships, springing teammate Alejandro Valverde toward the

This being my first VeloNews.com journal, let me start by introducing myself. I’m 25; hail from Boulder, Colorado, where I live with my wife, Cheynna; and ride for Team Slipstream Sports-Chipotle. The past two years, under the banner of TIAA-CREF, our program has made a slow and steady progression towards a full bi-continental program, and this year we have full schedules in both the States and Europe. As a Professional Continental team we’ll be doing some of the biggest non-ProTour races in the world and hoping for the occasional ProTour wildcard invite. In this journal I aim to provide a

A day after losing Het Volk, Tom Boonen took revenge in Sunday’s Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne. The Quick Step-Innergetic captain took an emotional sprint victory to earn a valuable confidence-booster in the opening weekend of Belgian racing. Gert Steegmans gave him a perfect leadout and Boonen dramatically finished off the job to finish ahead of Marcel Sieberg (Milram). “Winning in Belgium always gives me a special buzz,” Boonen said. “I wasn’t sure how things would go today after yesterday’s falls as I was still suffering with a bit of a backache at the beginning of the race. My teammates were

Italian Filippo Pozzato proved he’s the strongman of the early season after taking an impressive victory Saturday in the Belgian season opener at Het Volk ahead of Spanish headbanger Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank) and pre-race favorite Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic). A winner last week at the Tour du Haut-Var, the Liquigas captain delivered on his promise to be a protagonist in the 62nd Het Volk thanks to a brilliant finale that combined strength with savvy. “This victory was sensational because it came in front of some big names – Flecha, Boonen, Nuyens, O’Grady – who will be favorites

Surprise was the word of the day in the final stage of the five-day Volta a la Comunidad Valenciana, which wrapped up Saturday in sunny Spain. Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) expressed his delight in winning his first stage race of the 2007 campaign when he came to Valencia without any intention of doing so while Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) bowled over everyone with yet another sprint victory over Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) in the final charge into Valencia. “I am very happy that I was able to achieve it with the help of the team. The truth is at the start I never imagined I

Alberto Contador gave Discovery Channel its first win of the season on European roads after taking an impressive victory in Friday’s 162km stage of the Volta a Comunidad Valenciana. The Spanish prodigy outclassed the likes of Damiano Cunego (Lampre) and Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) in the seven-climb “queen stage” that ended with the short but steep Cat. 1 summit at Alt del Campello. Valverde finished 13 seconds back to sneak into the leader’s jersey thanks to time bonuses and could walk away with the overall title with just one sprinter’s stage left. Tadej Valjavec

There were plenty of power meters being used at this year’s Tour of California, largely because it offered a unique early season opportunity for riders to test themselves against some of the world’s best. Indeed, four teams made racing with a power meter a very high priority at the eight-day California race, because this would be the best field the world would see prior to Paris-Nice. What better opportunity to start collecting crucial numbers? The professional teams Predictor-Lotto (Belgium), T-Mobile (Germany) and Slipstream (USA) as well as the U.S. National Team each stressed the

Two out of three ain’t bad, at least as far as Daniele Bennati is concerned. The Lampre sprinter took down Alessandro Petacchi in Thursday’s third stage of the Valencia tour in Spain, and this time there wasn’t a flat tire for Petacchi to hang the loss on. “I am happy to beat him again because it’s never easy to beat Petacchi,” said Bennati, who bolted a bike length ahead of the Milram captain in the 151.8km third stage into Vila Real. Bennati also recaptured the overall leader’s jersey with time bonuses. Bennati beat Petacchi in Tuesday’s opener, but only after Petacchi was forced to

Alessandro Petacchi gingerly stepped off the sign-in podium ahead of Wednesday’s second stage at the Volta a Comunidad Valenciana. Even though he says his left knee is close to 100 percent after his disastrous crash in last May’s Giro d’Italia, the Gentleman Sprinter isn’t taking any chances. “My leg isn’t yet 100 percent, but it’s getting better and better,” said Petacchi, who won a long sprint ahead of Spain’s Vicente Reynes. “At [Tour of] Qatar, I couldn’t make the sprints against [Tom] Boonen because my knee hurt, but my condition improved in Algarve and now I am feeling even better

The season is now fully underway and I now have my first race under my belt: the Tour of California. The race was a triumph for American cycling with massive crowds attending each stage, a world class peloton (likely the best competing at any race in the world at the moment) and a hard fought battle that lasted right up until the penultimate stage. For us, the cyclists, it was a quality event that was well organized, with good hotels, short transfers, and ideal weather. The racing was tough enough for us to gain fitness and progress while not depleting ourselves too much this early in the

Any sprint victory with Alessandro Petacchi among protagonists is one worth celebrating, especially when it comes in the run-up to the season’s most important race for Italian sprinters. Daniele Bennati (Lampre) snatched a morale-boosting victory ahead of next month’s Milan-San Remo after he surprised a leg-heavy Petacchi, who was forced to chase back from a puncture with nine kilometers to go in the 162.7km Valenciana opener in Alzira. “I knew the only chance to beat Petacchi was to anticipate his sprint and I did that today just at the right moment,” said Bennati, who held off Petacchi by

The early season Spanish racing calendar continues this week with the five-stage Volta a la Comunidad Valenciana. With riders anxious to put some racing miles in their legs ahead of the approaching spring classics, the race is enjoying a fine field with top sprinters and classics-hunters looking to hone their form. Among preliminary start lists are such heavyweights as Alexandre Vinokourov, making his season debut in Astana colors. The Vuelta a España champion will likely keep a low profile as Vino is betting everything on being prepared for the Tour de France. Caisse d’Epargne will have a

Shoreline Drive in Long Beach may not be the Champs-Élysées, but just as the Tour de France traditionally ends with a sprinters’ showdown, so the 2007 Amgen Tour of California climaxed Sunday afternoon with a spectacular mass charge to the line. And just as a surprising winner often takes the Tour’s final stage, so Cuban Ivan Dominguez shocked the heavy hitters of the UCI ProTour and give the stage 7 victory to his domestic American team, Toyota-United.

Eusebio Unzué has had a front-row seat to some of the most exciting exploits in cycling. The affable and passionate sport director for Spain’s Navarra region helped guide Pedro Delgado and then Miguel Indurain into the record books during what were the golden years of Spanish cycling in the late 1980s and mid-1990s. As sport director at Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears, Unzué is already well into his third decade behind the wheel in Spain’s most consistent and successful team. Unzué, who celebrates his 52nd birthday on Monday, has been the right-hand man to team manager José Miguel Echávvari

Pozzato snags Haut VarItalian Filippo Pozzato snagged an impressive victory Sunday in the 39th Tour du Haut-Var as a warm-up toward defending his Milan-San Remo crown next month. The Liquigas captain edged Simon Gerrans (Ag2r) and Spanish rider Ricardo Serrano (Tinkoff) to win the 200km race in the hilly country around Draguignan that also kick-started the season-long French Cup series. Pozzato, the heavy pre-race favorite, covered an early move that included 22 riders in the open half of the race. Leonardo Giordani was the day’s main protagonist after slipping away in a solo move for some

[nid:37650]When people look back at the developing history of the Amgen Tour of California they will say that the race came of age on stage 6 of the 2007 edition. Even though Saturday’s 105.4-mile stage from Santa Barbara ended in a mass sprint in sunny Santa Clarita, won by Team CSC’s J.J. Haedo from T-Mobile’s Greg Henderson and Quick Step’s world champion Paolo Bettini, this was no parade.

Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins returned to the track with a winning individual-pursuit ride on Friday during the final round of the 2006-07 UCI Track World Cup series in Manchester, Great Britain. In his first individual pursuit since winning gold in Athens in 2004, the 26-year-old beat Russia's Alexander Serov in a time of 4 minutes, 17.864 seconds while Australia's Brad McGee was almost five seconds slower. "To do that in a first competitive race - I'm really pleased," said Wiggins. "Because you can go as hard as you like in training but you never know until you get on the

[nid:37630]Seconds after Discovery Channel’s Levi Leipheimer hurtled across the finish line in Solvang to win Friday’s time-trial stage of the Amgen Tour of California, he repeatedly punched the air and let out a guttural scream of excitement. The thousands of fans lining the finishing straight roared their approval for his stunning performance, realizing that it virtually wraps up his overall victory in the eight-day race.

Petacchi takes win in AlgarveAlessandro Petacchi scored another confidence-boosting win ahead of Milan-San Remo after charging to victory in the third stage of the Tour of the Algarve while Bernard Eisel (T-Mobile) snagged second and moved into the overall lead. Petacchi held off Eisel, the winner of Thursday’s stage, to claim victory for the second time this year and makes up for a relegation earlier this week for dangerous sprinting. Eisel came through second to take the time bonuses to move into the leader’s jersey while Roman Vaitkus (Discovery Channel) was third. "Today was finally

The Tour of California is starting to become interesting as there are still several riders with a good shot at winning the overall classification after Wednesday’s hard and fast stage into San Jose. It seems every team wants to make the race hard on race leader, Levi Leipheimer’s team, Discovery Channel, and today they had to control the race on the front for most of the stage—and it was certainly not an easy stage to control as it was hilly and windy, and the peloton that sat in their draft feisty. Since the start, we, T-Mobile, have been fighting hard for a stage win. We narrowly missed

[nid:37614]Just as sunshine followed rain on Thursday’s beautiful ride along the Big Sur coast at the Amgen Tour of California, so the stage 4 victory in San Luis Obispo by world champ Paolo Bettini of Italy was just a trailer for Friday’s time-trial showdown. Going into the rolling 14.5-mile TT in Solvang, Discovery Channel’s Levi Leipheimer still has a three-second margin over his main challenger, Jens Voigt of CSC, but a half-dozen others remain in contention, including three-time world TT champion Michael Rogers of T-Mobile, who’s 19 seconds back.

[nid:37587]Things didn’t start well for Team CSC at this year’s Amgen Tour of California. Largely due to shifting wind conditions, the squad’s time-trial specialists, including Dave Zabriskie and Fabian Cancellara, who went one-two at the 2006 world time trial championships, were shut out of the top three spots in the opening prologue in San Francisco.

Boonen turns it up in RutaTom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) is back in the winner’s column after coming out of a self-imposed hibernation since the Tour of Qatar in January. The Belgian out-kicked Danilo Napolitano (Lampre-Fondital) to win Wednesday’s 179.2km fourth stage from Cabra to Córdoba at the Ruta del Sol in Spain to claim his sixth victory barely a month into the 2007 season. Boonen raced discreetly last week at the Mallorca Challenge without contesting the sprints and kept his head low during the opening three stages of the five-day Ruta while he battled through a stomach

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.

Ignatiev wins againMikhail Ignatiev is quickly proving he can bump shoulders with the big boys. The 21-year-old Russian won for the second time in a week with a victory Tuesday in the 44th Trofeo Laigueglia in Italy. The Tinkoff Credit Systems rider – who won the third stage last week at the Tour Méditerranéen – put down a surprise attack with about 7km to go after the peloton split going over the 690m Passo Balestrino in the 188km hilly march. The 2004 Olympic points champion had enough in the tank to hold off some chasing Italians to snag the win. Coming through second at four seconds

For the second year in a row, American Levi Leipheimer took the podium of the Amgen Tour of California as the race leader in his hometown of Santa Rosa. This year, however, it wasn’t under circumstances the Discovery Channel rider would have chosen. Australian sprinter Graeme Brown (Rabobank) won Monday's Stage 1 after Leipheimer went down in a 50-rider pile-up with two 3-mile laps of a downtown finishing circuit remaining in the 156.4km stage.

Freire wins in RutaOscar Freire drove home the bunch Monday to win the second stage of the Ruta del Sol, a 156.6km stage from Vegas del Genil to Cazorla in southern Spain. The three-time world champion held off Francisco José Ventoso (Saunier Duval-Prodir) in the mass sprint to snag his second win of the 2007 season. The Rabobank sprinter, who just missed victory in Sunday’s opener after Dario Cioni (Predictor-Lotto) held off a long breakaway, clawed within one second of Cioni’s lead thanks to time bonuses. The race continues Tuesday with the third stage. Hamilton satisfied, eyes Georgia

After a several months of training we are now ready, and eager to race. The last few weeks the eight-man T-Mobile Tour of California squad has been in Buellton, California training and fine-tuning for the coming season. Storm after storm blew through Boulder every weekend during the last months of 2006 and the first months of 2007 and after spending a few good weeks in the sun in Mallorca, I wasn’t too keen to train outdoors in the snow or indoors on the trainer, so I made the decision to head to the California for some sun and time in the saddle. Prior to our team camp I rode alone in

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.

Never before has there been such a plethora of leading time trialists on display in an American stage race as fans will see this Sunday and next Friday at the Amgen Tour of California. Three of the top four from last year’s world TT championships will be competing — gold and silver medalists Fabian Cancellara and Dave Zabriskie of CSC, and their former teammate Brian Vandborg, now with Discovery Channel — along with the top two from the Tour de France prologue, Thor Hushovd of Crédit Agricole and George Hincapie of Discovery. Joining them are such powerful riders against the clock as CSC’s

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

Buyer’s Guide CorrectionBrain fade set in on the finishing sprint for the VeloNews Buyer’sGuide. The North American Handmade Bicycle Show, March 2 – 4, takes placein San Jose, California, not San Diego as the Buyer’s Guide states. Forcomplete information, visit the Show’s site: www.handmadebicycleshow.com 

Organizers of the 2007 Amgen Tour of California on Wednesday released a list of riders* slated to compete in this year’s event, slated to begin in San Francisco.  North American riders in bold*Team rosters are subject to changeProTour TeamsDiscovery Channel Pro Cycling Team [USA]The Discovery Channel’s big off-season news was the controversial signing of Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso from CSC — controversial because, despite his being cleared to race by the Italian authorities, his status regarding the Spanish blood-doping scandal Operación Puerto could change through 2007. Basso won’t be

When half a dozen of the world’s top professional cycling teams showedup for the start of the inaugural Amgen Tour of California in February2006, they didn’t quite know what to expect. Was this going to be an early-seasonevent only half-heartedly contested by Tour de France riders nervous aboutpeaking too soon? Or would the stars allow their lieutenants to race forthe win while using the race as training for themselves?In the end, the efforts made by overall winner Floyd Landis and hismain challengers DaveZabriskie, BobbyJulich, GeorgeHincapie, LeviLeipheimer and Cadel Evans proved they could

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18: PROLOGUEINDIVIDUAL TIME TRIALPresented by Union BankSTART: Justin Herman Plaza,San Francisco, 1 p.m. to 3:23 p.m.DISTANCE: 1.9 milesLifestyle Festival Presented by Health NetHOURS: 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19: STAGE1Presented by HerbalifeSTART: Sausalito, 11 a.m.DISTANCE: 96.7 milesSPRINTS: Point Reyes, Tomales, Bodega BayFINISH: Santa RosaETA: 3:13 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.Lifestyle Festival Presented by Health NetHOURS: 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20: STAGE2START: Santa Rosa, 10 a.m.DISTANCE: 116.3 milesSPRINTS: Winters, DavisFINISH:

Not much has been revealed about the new stage race due to take place on the East Coast this August, but the Montréal-Boston Tour is likely to be the biggest cycling event New England has seen since the second Tour de Trump finished in Boston in May of 1990. The eight-day, 1200km race will feature four days in Canada’s Québec province, followed by one day in Vermont, two days in New Hampshire, with the finale in Massachusetts. Race organizer Daniel Manibal, who also runs the women’s Montréal World Cup race and Tour du Grand Montréal stage race in June, has indicated that there will be a

Angel Fire ski resort sits in a secluded corner of northern New Mexico, about two hour’s drive from Santa Fe. A far cry from the mega resorts in neighboring Colorado, Angel Fire prides itself as a winter and summertime playground where the crowds are light and the price of admission is low. Like many other ski areas, Angel Fire hosts mountain-bike races in the summer — the Chile Challenge is a regular stop on the Mountain States Cup. In 2005, the venue hit the pinnacle of its mountain-bike racing when it hosted a stop on the UCI World Cup — the first American World Cup since 2001. Angel Fire

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.

In the 20 years that the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame has existed, morethan 100 individuals have been inducted — both in person or posthumously.Their names vary from 1899 world sprint champion Major Taylor to three-timeTour de France winner Greg LeMond. And now you can nominate your favoriterider for consideration in the “class of ’07.” The main requirements are that nominees be U.S. citizens and have notraced for five years — so that rules out nominating shoo-ins like LanceArmstrong and Marty Nothstein for another few years. There are actuallyfive categories of competitors eligible for the

Crédit Agricole’s Anthony Charteau wrapped up the overall victory at the Tour de Langkawi on Sunday as Alberto Loddo added yet another win to his tally, equaling the record of five stage wins in a single year.

Anthony Charteau is well on his way to winning the Le Tour de Langkawi overall title, following a largely tactical ride from Putrajaya to Seremban on Saturday. Although the ninth – and penultimate – stage of the Tour put the Crédit Agricole rider up against the winding roads of Kuala Klawang, he kept up with the leaders over the course of day’s many climbs to maintain his 1:02 over Jose Serpa (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovannio), who won Thursday’s decisive stage to the Genting Higlands.

For the second time in as many years Jose Serpa was first man across the line at the top of the hors categorie Genting Highlands stage, but the Colombian Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni rider couldn’t make up enough time to unseat the overall race leader Anthony Charteau.

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you havea comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen incycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write toWebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name andhome town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writersare encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.The letters published here contain the opinions of the submittingauthors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, policies or positionsof VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, InsideCommunications,

Wearing thick gloves, long tights and hats beneath their helmets, New Mexican cyclists of all ages crowded the parking lot of the Anderson-Abruzzo Balloon Museum in Albuquerque on a brisk Saturday morning on February 3. They awaited the arrival of the Navigators Insurance and Lipton professional cycling teams, both of which had come to Albuquerque for a winter training camp. When both squads rolled up, accompanied by riders from the neo-pro Cycling Center team, the entire group of 200 hit the streets for a group ride. It isn’t often that professional cycling teams spin alongside locals

Japan’s Shinichi Fukusima proved that persistence and hard work are the key to success as he became the first Asian to win a stage in this year’s Tour de Langkawi following a strong 174km ride from Kuantan to Karak. The stage win for the rider from the Nippo-Meitan Hompo team was only the third stage victory for an Asian rider in the 12-year history of the tour, following wins by Wong Kam Po in 2000 and Koji – the younger brother of Shinichi – Fukushima in 2005.

Making the leap from top-flight amateur to ProTour neo pro is never easy. But throw in a continent’s worth of distance from cycling’s European epicenter and the task becomes exponentially harder. That’s the challenge that faces South African Daryl Impey, one of the top national team riders at this year’s Tour de Langkawi. Through seven stages, the 22-year-old from Johannesburg has scored three top 10 finishes in the five bunch sprint finishes, and he is one of only two riders to sprint ahead of the race’s dominant force, four-time stage winner Alberto Loddo (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni). On

After a spending a day in their normal team kits, riders from the Belgian-Swedish Unibet.com team were forced back into their distinctive question-marked jerseys Thursday at the Etoile de Bessèges. Oddly enough, the team resumed its winning ways with the switch, as Unibet’s Baden Cooke easily won the sprint at the end of the 155km second stage from Nîmes to Saint-Ambroix. The team was once again required to wear jerseys sans the name of its title sponsor because French authorities said the team – sponsored by an online betting site - was promoting gambling and “lotteries,” which are banned

The man is on a streak. Alberto Loddo scored his fourth win at the Tour de Langkawi Wednesday, again frustrating Ceramiche Panaria’s Maximiliano Richeze in a charge to the line at the end of a 137-kilometer ride from Kuala Terengganu to Cukai. Loddo (Selle Italia-Serramenti) charged across the line ahead of the main field, which included Crédit Agricole’s Anthony Charteau, the overall race leader who was more than content to finish in 59th place, secure in the knowledge that he holds a four-minute buffer with Friday’s short, but decisive, ride to the Genting Highlands ahead.

You could never tell by talking to him, but Julian Dean is a man under the gun. New Zealand’s reigning national road race champion is in the final year of his contract with Crédit Agricole and knows he needs to perform if he wants keep his place with the French ProTour team. But instead of worrying too much about the future, Dean remains the same laid-back rider that made him a fan favorite on the U.S. Pro circuit during his days with Mercury and U.S. Postal. “It’s the first race of the season so some guys have done a bit more prep than others,” said the soft-spoken Dean on the morning of

Riders endured all the elements in Wednesday’s opener at the l’Etoile de Bessèges with Italian Angelo Furlan delivering the victory through rain, sleet, wind and eventually sun. The Crédit Agricole sprinter out-kicked Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile) and compatriot Ruggero Marzoli (Tinkoff Credit Systems) to win the 148.2km stage from Pezenas to Palavas-les-Flots in a bunch sprint. Several riders tried in vain to escape the clutches of the peloton in France’s first stage-race of the season. The bunch rejoined for three finishing circuits with Unibet.com working hard to try to control any escapes

Four-out-of-five: Loddo's won four of the five sprints he's contested in this Tour

Italian Alberto Loddo pulled off a hattrick of stage victories at the Tour de Langkawi Tuesday, winning the Tour’s fifth stage in a field sprint at the end of a 167-kilometer race from Kota Bharu to Kuala Terengganu. With the most of the field finishing together, Crédit Agricole’s Anthony Charteau easily held on to the comfortable four-minute lead in the overall standings, a buffer he earned on Sunday in the stage to Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands.

Italian Alberto Loddo claimed his second stage victory at the Tour de Langkawi Monday in an intense bunch sprint that resulted in at least 10 riders crashing just 50-meters from the finish line.

The directive for the day was simple. If a promising move peeled off the front of the peloton during the early portions of the Tour de Langkawi’s stage three run from Kuala Kangsar to Cameron Highlands, Slipstream team director Johnny Weltz’s wanted one of his six riders to be there. Beyond that he asked only that they make sure to “help each other out.” Weltz knew that the first climbing test of this 10-day event in Malaysia would challenge his young team in ways it hadn’t yet faced in 2007. He was cautiously optimistic that they would be up to the task. “I feel like we can be

Argentine Maximiliano Richeze earned an impressive win at the end of the second stage of the Tour de Langkawi on Saturday, edging out a hard-charging field at the end of a 166-kilometer stage between the Malaysian cities of Kangar and Kulim. Richeze, who along with his Ceramiche Panaria teammate, Ruben Bongiorno, were pipped at the end of Friday’s opening stage by Italian Alberto Loddo (Selle Italia), fought hard in the final 250 meters to fend off a big group of strong sprinters, earning both the checkered flag and the overall leader’s jersey.

Belgian Wilfried Cretskens (Quick Step) was crowned winner of the Tour of Qatar after the sixth and final stage on Friday. Tom Boonen, Cretskens's compatriot and teammate, won the 134km stage between Sealine Beach and Doha. Indeed, Boonen won four of the tour’s six stages. But the overall win went to 33-year-old Cretskens, the first tour success of his career. The one stage the former world champion failed to win, on Thursday, saw Cretskens leapfrog him into the leader's jersey and maintain a lead of more than two minutes. "Today was a very special day," said Cretskens. "The team

Italy’s Alberto Loddo (Selle Italia-Serramenti) provided a sizzling start to the 12th edition of the Le Tour de Langkawi when he charged to the line to claim the first stage on a day when Malaysia’s first continental team, LeTua Cycling, grabbed two top-10 slots in the overall classification Friday.

Belgium's Greg Van Avermaet (Predictor-Lotto) won the fifth and penultimate stage of the Tour of Qatar on Thursday. Van Avermaet beat home German Marcel Sieberg and Frenchman Stephane Poulhies in a sprint finish to the 156km stage between Al-Zubarah and Mesaieed. Fellow Belgian Wilfried Cretskens (Quick Step), who was part of the race-deciding 10-man breakaway, took the race leader's jersey from teammate and compatriot Tom Boonen, who finished 20th, more than two minutes down, along with the main chasing pack. Tour rookie Van Avermaet was overjoyed with his stage win. "It's my

This could be the pivotal stage of this year’s Amgen Tour of California. Stage 6 is not only long, at 105 miles, but it features four King of the Mountain climbs, two sprints and a demanding finishing circuit in Santa Clarita. With this year’s individual time trial being less selective than last year’s, there could be several contenders separated by just a few seconds at this point in the race. After a start in view of the Santa Barbara shoreline, Stage 6, which is sponsored by Health Net, will be the last chance for a solid favorite to emerge before the circuit race finale in Long Beach.

The Stage 7 circuit race is flat and fast, and sure to be a favorite with spectators. This is where the sprinters will come to the fore, as the pack races 10 laps around a circuit course in downtown Long Beach. Sponsored by Amgen, the stage includes part of the famous Long Beach Grand Prix course used for CART races. These roads are wide and fast. Views of San Pedro Bay and the Pacific Ocean will be visible for the entire course, with a backdrop of the famed Queen Mary in the bay. Course designers expect a hard sprint to the finish. Just like with the grand tours of Europe, a win on the