Great Britain was fastest in morning qualifying for the men´s team pursuit while the upstart Americans finished 12th on a day when they were hoping for more. The Brits stopped the clock in 4:04.074, relegating Australia to second place in 4:04.403. The Dutch were third and the Ukraine fourth to secure spots in the medal rounds on Saturday evening. The Americans – featuring Mike Creed, Mike Friedman, Danny Pate and Brad Huff – posted a time of 4:14.952. It was well short of their goal of 4:09, but faster than the team´s previous best of 4:16 at the Los Angeles World Cup race. “We have the

It took race judges several minutes to decide what French veteran Jerome Neuville already knew – that he won the men´s 15km scratch race in a photo finish. For Neuville, a former roadie who turned to the track to win two world titles in the Madison, his narrow victory over Argentina´s Angel Colla capped a dramatic race marked by a daring breakaway that held out to the end. “It was a long race and I didn´t believe it until the end, even at the line,” Neuville said. “I am so glad I didn´t retire after the Athens Olympics. At 30, people don´t want to see progression, but results. I had a lot

Australia took a nail-biter to win the men’s team pursuit in a pitched battle against arch-rival Great Britain in Saturday’s action at the world track cycling championships. The Brits were fastest in qualifying, but the Aussies clawed back with an impressive victory against the team – racing as England, not Great Britain - that beat them on their home track in Melbourne last month at the Commonwealth Games. "This is the sweetest world title of my four," said Peter Dawson after the Aussies won in 4:01.491 to the British team’s 4:01.527. "The battle was going back and forth and it came down

Olympic champion Paolo Bettini is the hot favorite to win Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race, the eighth event in the 2006 UCI ProTour. The Italian has never won this challenging Dutch classic, but he came in third on his last appearance at the race two years ago, and he has won most of the world’s other hilly classics: Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2000 and 2002, the Clasico San Sebastian in 2003, the Championship of Zürich in 2001 and 2005, and last October, the Tour of Lombardy. At age 32, Bettini is at his peak. His climbing strength has improved over the years, his sprint is better than ever (as he

Germany's Robert Bartko will defend his world pursuit crown against Jens Mouris of the Netherlands at the world track cycling championships in Bordeaux, France, on Friday evening. Bartko, who celebrated the birth of his second child on Thursday, clocked 4:23.115 in his heat to seal the fastest time in qualifying and thus secure his final spot against Mouris who had timed 4:24.045. Britain's Paul Manning, the Commonwealth champion in the 16-lap, 4000-meter event, will race for the bronze medal against Frenchman Fabien Sanchez. Bartko is a two-time winner of the individual pursuit,

When does a classic become a classic? That question has often been asked about the Amstel Gold Race because it wasn’t founded until 1966. That’s 72 years after the oldest of the classics, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and even 30 years after the youngest spring classic, the Flèche Wallonne. But now that the Dutch race has reached its 40th anniversary, most people in the sport agree that Amstel Gold (which is actually "a sturdy, full-flavored bock beer" brewed by Heineken’s Amstel brewery in Maastricht) is finally a true classic. That certainly wasn’t the case with the first edition. Original race

Is it just me, or has it been April Fool’s Day all month long? It seems like every time I go online to check the news, the headlines are straight out of The Onion. In some cases, they’re not at all funny, but are equally as hard to fathom. Just in the past 10 days, a report was published in the science journal Nature on fossil findings that supposedly prove the evolutionary link between fish and land animals. Another report claims that an early Christian manuscript has surfaced after 1700 years including the only known text of what is known as the Gospel of Judas, which postulates that the

Chris Hoy started last but finished first in the men’s kilometer time trial to end an exciting day of racing in the second day of competition at the 2006 world track cycling championships. The British rider was fastest at all the splits to relegate Australian Ben Kersten to silver and crowd favorite Francois Pervis to bronze. Hoy won in 1:01.361, more than a half-second faster than Kersten in 1:02.085. Pervis was third at 1:02.696. Despite a healthy pedigree in the dramatic kilo, Hoy wasn’t so sure he still had it him coming into Bordeaux after disappointment at the recent Commonwealth Games.

The French team gave something for the packed house to cheer about in a riveting victory over Great Britain in the men’s team sprint in Thursday night at the world track championships. Led by Gregory Bauge, Mickael Bourgain and veteran Arnaud Tournant, the French relegated defending world champions Great Britain into runner-up status as the fans’ enthusiasm seemed to inject the French with energy. "It’s very satisfying to win at home because this team is very young and no one expected much of us," Tournant said. "This will boost the morale for the team for the rest of the weekend." The

George Hincapie won’t face surgery after all. The 32-year-old Discovery Channel rider crashed twice in Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix, injuring one wrist and his right shoulder, but an exam Tuesday found that an operation would not be necessary. Doctors determined that the crash resulted in a third-degree separation of Hincapie's shoulder as well as a severely bruised wrist. His shoulder will be taped and placed in a sling until he can resume riding. "I was happy to hear that I will not need surgery," Hincapie said from his home in Greenville, South Carolina. "I will be off the bike for about

Britain's rich array of track-cycling talent is preparing to battle their Australian, French and Dutch rivals at the world championships beginning Thursday in Bordeaux, France. At last year’s world’s in Los Angeles, Britain's track team dominated the competition with four gold medals, and six medals in total. And at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, they showed that once again they are on form. Riders from Scotland, England, Wales and even the Isle of Man got to fly their national flag on the games’ podium. But both Australia and France have a thing or two to

Just a few minutes before six am Saturday morning we departed Zurich andstarted on a four and a half hour drive to Cadolzburg, Germany for the“Frühjahrspreis des RSC Fürth”. Cadolzburg is in Bayern Germanynear Nürnberg. For once we left not only on time but ahead of schedule.It was the first race I’ve don’t this year where we didn’t drive to therace the day before. So it was a change in thinking to just out ofthe car after the long drive and get on my bike and race.The race had only one climb which we went through four times, it wassteep and on cobbles. The start finish is on the middle of

Introduced at last year’s Interbike trade show, SRAM formally rolled out its new road group at Sea Otter this week, giving media and others the chance to actually ride what the once-little company is using to take on the giants of the component industry. The company is actually introducing two new road groups: the top-of-the-line Force group and the price-point Rival. Both share the same design on all components, with the Force group getting extra touches like carbon fiber lever blades, a magnesium lever body, and titanium gears and bolts. A pair of Force levers, for example, weighs in at

Tom Boonen has been riding like an unstoppable freight train all year, and it may have been another freight train that denied him a shot at a successive win in the toughest of all the Spring Classics. The world champion has been knocking off wins (12 so far this year) almost as fast as some of his fans pound down Belgian beers, but the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix on Sunday became a proving ground for another rising star.

After four years in the post, USA Cycling chief executive officer, GerardBisceglia, was fired last week by board president Jim Ochowicz. Bisceglia was replaced by the organization’s chief operating officer, Steve Johnson, who is also the executive director of the USA Cycling Development Foundation. Bisceglia agreed to sit down with former VeloNews news editor,Charles Pelkey, and discuss his time at the head of the national governingbody, the reasons behind his sudden departure and what he sees as the challenges and opportunities facing the sport of cycling in the United States. In this, the

It’s the question American George Hincapie has had to answer over and over again in the days leading up to Sunday’s 104th Paris-Roubaix: How do you beat Tom Boonen? "We just have to have as many guys as we can, for as long as we can, and make Quick Step work and not give them a free ride," Hincapie said of his Discovery Channel team’s simple strategy. Hincapie knows what it feels like to come close to winning the Queen of the Classics — his second-place finish to Boonen at last year’s Paris-Roubaix was his top result in a string of five top-10 finishes in five attempts — but he still

After 31 laps on the challenging Laguna Seca raceway, after innumerable attacks by riders from all over the world on dozens of teams, three friends from the same town in Tasmania ended up taking the first three places in the SRAM Sea Otter men’s professional road race. Already having wrapped up the king-of-the-mountains competition several laps earlier, Jelly Belly’s Matty Rice timed his last-lap move perfectly, replacing Caleb Manion, his teammate and longtime friend from Launceston, Australia, at the front and rolling across the line alone with a few seconds to spare over another friend

Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) retained the overall race lead of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco after French rider Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom) won Friday's 178km fifth stage fromVitoria to Zalla. Voeckler, 26, who wore the yellow leader's jersey for a week in the 2004 Tour de France, just edged out Germany's Jens Voigt (CSC) in a furious sprint for the line after the pair went off as part of a 10-man breakaway at the 6km mark. Three riders broke clear of the leaders in the last 15km and Voeckler proved strongest as he wrapped up his 16th career stage victory, his first this

Perhaps more than any other world champion, current rainbow jersey holder Tom Boonen most resembles his legendary countryman Rik Van Looy. Van Looy, who was known as the Emperor of Herentals after his hometown, won all of the major one-day classics, including three editions of Paris-Roubaix, which Boonen is attempting to win for a second time this Sunday. Remarkably, Van Looy and Boonen grew up in villages only 30km apart in the flatlands directly east of Antwerp jammed up against the Dutch border. This is not Flanders, the epicenter of Belgian cycling, but a region, once called Brabant,

Tyler Farrar (Cofidis) won’t need surgery on his broken left collarbone and hopes to be back racing as early as May. Farrar, 21, crashed hard in a finish-line spill in Tuesday’s first stage at the Circuit de la Sarthe in France, suffering a broken collarbone and other cuts and abrasions. X-rays showed the break won’t require anything more than some quiet recuperation. "It’s not a displaced fracture, so it wasn’t that bad. At first they were thinking I needed surgery," Farrar told VeloNews on Thursday. "Other than that, I have some scrapes and bruises, but considering how it could have been,

European riders dominated the first day of racing at the 2006 Sea Otter Classic as Frenchman Jean-Christoph Peraud (Orbea) and Norway’s Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesja easily won Thursday’s super cross-country event. Held on the Laguna Seca speedway’s tarmac and on soggy double-track on the surrounding hillsides, the super-XC proved to be a sloppy kickoff to the four-stage cross-country competition. Heavy rain helped transform the course’s off-road sections into impassable quagmires midway through the women’s event. Large holes and hub-deep mud stopped racers dead in their tracks, forcing men and

Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) made a late break for the line to win Wednesday's third stage of the Vuelta a Pais Vasco and maintain his overall lead. It was his second win in a row and maintained his slender lead over compatriot Alberto Contador (Liberty Seguros) by less than a second. The 170km stage, from Segura to Lerin, featured six climbs, with the peloton climbing over a Cat. 2 and a Cat. 1 climb in the opening 40km. Three punchy Cat. 3s marked the final half of the course before the short but steep climbing finish into Lerin. The final 700 meters featured ramps as steep as

It was a day for the sprinters at Wednesday’s Ghent-Wevelgem, and Norwegian Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) proved that Italian speedster Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) can indeed be beat in a dead-flat drag race. Of course, if you’re Hushovd, it helps if that drag race comes at the end of a gritty, 210km Belgian slugfest. Hushovd, the green jersey points winner at the 2005 Tour de France, edged out the fast-improving German David Kopp (Gerolsteiner), who took second, and Petacchi, who was third, to become the first Norwegian to win Ghent-Wevelgem in the race’s 72-year history.

Tyler Farrar (Cofidis) and Saul Raisin (Crédit Agricole) both saw all their off-season hard work go to waste in a pair of costly crashes during Tuesday’s opening stage at the Circuit de la Sarthe, leaving both of the young pros with broken clavicles that will sideline them for at least a month. Farrar was caught up in an ugly pile-up with 200 meters to go as the peloton was in full sprint, while Raisin crashed with about 2km to go; he also collected a broken rib, bruises and road rash to go along with the snapped clavicle. It means Raisin won’t be starting next month’s Giro d’Italia, while

German Robert Forster (Gerolsteiner) sprinted to victory in Tuesday's first stage of the Circuit de la Sarthe, a 193km leg between Mouilleron-le-Captif and Saint-Mars-la-Jaille. Forster outkicked Italian Alberto Loddo (Selle Italia) and France's Anthony Ravard (Bouygues Telecom) to take the stage and the lead on general classification. The finale was marred by a dramatic crash on the finishing straight that took down several riders, including Americans Tyler Farrar (Cofidis) and Saul Raisin (Crédit Agricole), along with Ceramica Panaria-Navigare teammates Brett Lancaster of

Euskaltel-Euskadi is more than a professional team for the cycling-crazed Basques. The team’s distinctive orange jerseys are part of the cultural landscape of the hilly region of northern Spain and the Tour of the Basque Country is their home race. Samuel Sanchez gave local fans something to cheer about in the Vuelta al País Vasco, ending the team’s early season winless streak with a daring attack with 7km to go in Tuesday’s 155km second stage to give the team its first win of the 2006 season and snatch the leader’s jersey. "The only thing we haven’t done this year was win," Sanchez said.

Renowned sprinter Robbie McEwen (Aus) of Davitamon-Lotto, Floyd Landis (USA) of Phonak Hearing Systems, and defending champion Tom Danielson (USA) of Discovery Channel headline the field of professional cyclists competing at the 2006 Ford Tour de Georgia. Event organizers Medalist Sports announced today the eight-man rosters for each of the 15 teams, including six ProTour teams, two U.S.-based Professional Continental teams and seven Continental teams from the America Tour . "The Ford Tour de Georgia continues to attract the best professional cyclists in the world. This year race fans will

The Sea Otter Classic, the world's largest bicycling festival, welcomes an international field of pro gravity racers to compete in downhill, dual slalom and mountain cross. This multi-sport, four-day "Celebration of Cycling" begins on April 6 at Laguna Seca Recreation Area in Monterey, California. The festival draws the top Olympic, pro and amateur athletes from over 30 countries for intense competition in front of audiences of 50,000+. Sea Otter's MTB Gravity OmniumPro downhill finals: Sunday, April 9, 10 a.m.The downhill (DH) course at the Sea Otter Classic is emerging from the

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.Jens is the manEditor:To preface, I am a huge Jens Voigt fan. His positive attitudeabout his career and his life inspire me. As well as his determinationon the bike, and his humility in "knowing his role" while helping teammateswin races, even when he isn't winning them himself. For

Alejandro Valverde has been uncharacteristically quiet so far this season, winning just one stage at the Vuelta a Murcia back in March. Instead, the usually prolific Illes Balears rider has been diligently preparing for the Ardennes classics and the Tour de France, his two major goals for the first half of the 2006 season. Monday’s opening stage of the Vuelta al País Vasco presented a nice testing ground for both challenges. With a bumpy 130km four-climb stage to open hostilities in the six-day race across northern Spain’s Basque Country, including the Cat. 1 Alto de Jaizkibel – an old

Proving once again that he thrives under pressure, Belgian superstar Tom Boonen shouldered the hopes of Belgium’s cycling fans and delivered a win for the home team. With the world champion’s rainbow stripes wrapped around his chest, and a real live rainbow arching in the sky overhead, Boonen beat the odds on Sunday to become the first man to win the Tour of Flanders two times in a row since Eric Leman did it in 1972 and ’73.

Most of the rabid cycling fans lining the Halsesteenweg at Meerbeke, Belgium, this coming Sunday afternoon, will be hoping for a repeat of the 2005 Tour of Flanders result: a win for favorite son Tom Boonen. Those fans know that Quick Step-Innergetic’s Boonen’s not a shoo-in because the 258km course that faces the likely 200 starters is full of potential pitfalls: diabolical pavé stretches like the Paddestraat, steep hills like the 400-meter, 12.5-percent Paterberg, and countless off-camber blind turns that guide the riders through a maze of narrow back roads through the lush green

Bernhard Eisel (FDJeux) made a ferocious sprint Wednesday to win the 227km second stage at the Three Days of De Panne and grabbed the overall lead for the effort. Eisel – who finished second in Tuesday’s opener -- came around Baden Cooke (Unibet.com) and out-kicked Danilo Napolitano (Lampre) to score the emphatic victory and nudged into the leader’s jersey thanks to time bonuses. A three-man break dominated most of the day’s action with Discovery Channel glued at the front of the peloton to protect the jersey for overnight leader Leif Hoste. Lampre, Quick Step and Davitamon-Lotto surged to

Dear readers, Back at Christmas, I threw in a letter from a reader claiming that rotating weight makes almost no difference on a wheel – that it takes negligible energy to bring it up to speed, and that the only thing that really matters when climbing is the overall weight of the bike, not how it’s distributed. Since then, I have gottena lot of mail about this, and a trip to France last week piqued my interest in this subject again. Perhaps some of you remember when I did a test in VeloNews seven years ago (in the 6/28/99 issue) of wheel inertia by building a rotational pendulumin my garage.

Leif Hoste (Discovery Channel) shot to victory in Tuesday’s opener at the Three Days of De Panne with a late burst to win a three-up sprint after a 50km breakaway held off the peloton. Hoste sprang with just about 75 meters to go to come around the hard-charging Austrian Berhnard Deisel (FDJeux) and Gert Steegmans (Davitamon-Lotto) to win the 194km stage from Middelkerke to Zottegem under sunny skies that saw many riders in short sleeves. "It was nice to win today after all the second and third places," Hoste told Belgian journalists. "It was very windy today and I’m not yet thinking about

Hoste proves fastest in a three-up sprint

At the Redlands Bicycle Classic road race Sunday, Amber Neben (SC Velo), Health Net-Maxxis and Toyota-United demonstrated three of the myriad ways to win. In the 100km women’s race, Neben launched a solo attack on the second of nine technical laps and never looked back. In the 148km men’s competition, Health Net-Maxxis used its full team to successfully defend Nathan O’Neill overall lead. And Toyota-United’s Juan Jose Haedo — well, he just sprinted like hell. Scroll down for a gallery of Casey Gibson photos The road race began on Saturday’s criterium course, then climbed up out of

Ivan Basso (CSC) grabbed his first victories of the 2006 season with an impressive display in this weekend’s Criterium International, winning Sunday’s morning road race and sewing up the overall title with a strong afternoon time trial. Only Alberto Martinez (Agritubel) could best Basso in the 8.3km time trial to conclude the three-stage, two-day test under cloudy skies in northern France. For Basso, one of the favorites for July’s Tour de France, the victory is a positive shot of morale going into larger goals coming this season. “I know that I’m in good shape and it’s very important for

Health Net-Maxxis successfully defended Nathan O’Neill’s lead in the Redlands Bicycle Classic criterium Saturday, taking the stage and the sprinter’s jersey in the process. With four competitors less than 30 seconds behind O’Neill after Friday’s time trial — and 44 seconds of bonuses up for grabs — Health Net-Maxxis had one objective in the 90-minute competition: defend. And defend the team did, riding as a compact eight-man unit at or near the front for nearly the entire race, taking most of the inter-race time bonuses and handily reeling in all attacks. And once the defensive objective

Menzies en route to winning two sprints and the crit

Alexandre Vinokourov’s road to the Tour de France won’t be going through Georgia this year. Vinokourov’s Liberty Seguros team isn’t making the trek next month for the Tour de Georgia, and Vinokourov – who won the final stage and the overall at the Vuelta a Castilla y León - will instead defend his title at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. “This year I am preparing everything for the Tour and we are planning to have no pressure before that,” Vinokourov told VeloNews in an interview this week. “I think I can return to the Tour podium.” The battling Kazakh – third overall in the 2003 Tour and fifth last

Despite having a good excuse for a bad ride, Health Net-Maxxis’s Nathan O’Neill put in the day’s best performance in the opening 5km time trial of the Redlands Bicycle Classic. Fresh off a plane from Australia, where he won the Commonwealth Games time trial, O’Neill smoked the opening section of the 680-vertical-foot course and kept a big gear going over the steeper final part for the winning time of 9:17.82. It may have been California, but it wasn’t exactly a day at the beach — not after that long flight from Oz, right after winning a 40km time trial. "I got off the bike 10 meters after

No one really expected Alexandre Vinokourov (Liberty Seguros) to forfeit his leader’s jersey in Thursday’s challenging climbing stage in the Vuelta a Castilla y León. While Marco Fertonani was chasing the second straight stage win for Illes Balears, 29 seconds ahead of Manuel Beltrán (Discovery Channel), Vinokourov shot away from the lead group of favorites to actually extend his lead with just one stage to go. "I felt good and I made my work relaxed. I was on the wheel all day and I attacked in the final kilometer," Vinokourov said. "I feel that I am good looking ahead to the Tour. Today

What a difference a year makes for the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon. In 2005, not one ProTour team lined up in May because of commitments to the Vuelta a Cataluyna and Giro d’Italia. With Setmana Catalana postponed this year, Castilla y Leon was bumped up into its slot in April and now the race is enjoying its best action ever. Witness Wednesday’s exciting 181km march south across Spain’s rolling meseta from Zamora to Salamanca. Wind, attacks, breakaways and tricky finish made for a top-flight day at the races. Spanish veteran Chente García Acosta (Illes Balears) attacked with 800m to go in

Discovery Channel’s Yaroslav Popovych and Jason McCartney went one-two in Tuesday’s 11km individual time trial in the Vuelta al Castilla y Leon, but Alexandre Vinokourov (Liberty Seguros) grabbed the overall lead. Heavy cross- and tailwinds prompted many of the big guns to ride with 55 rings for the mostly flat course across northern Spain’s windswept meseta. McCartney set an early fast time, only to be bested by Popovych by 1.45 seconds. The win marks the first for Discovery Channel in Europe this season to go along with George Hincapie’s two victories in the Tour of California. The

Charles Bradley Huff (TIAA-CREF) won Stage 1 of the 26th Tour de Normandie on Tuesday, outsprinting Spain’s Vidal Celis (Orbea) and France’s Saïd Haddou (Auber 93). "I started my sprint with 300 meters to go, which is way, way too long. But I got it anyway," said Huff. "We were all over the place, as the sprint was nuts, but somehow everyone contributed and it worked well." The 211km stage from Mondeville to Forges les Eaux was long, cold and buffeted with cross winds. Rabobank was ever present at the front of the race, protecting the lead of defending Tour of Normandie champion Kai Reus,

Nathan O'Neill and Oenone Wood led Australia to a gold and silver medals sweep of the cycling individual time trials on the oceanside road course Tuesday at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. The seven-time Australian time trial champion, O'Neill finished the 40km course in 48 minutes, 37.29 seconds. Teammate Ben Day was second, 24.38 seconds behind, and New Zealander Gordon McCauley took the bronze. Wood covered the 29km out-and-back course in 37 minutes, 40.87 seconds, 15.2 seconds clear of Kathryn Watt, who won the 1992 Olympic road race for Australia. Their teammate

Melbourne, Australia, (AFP) - The Isle of Man claimed just their third gold medal in Commonwealth history in Melbourne Sunday and the man responsible immediately dedicated his stunning win to the father of a promising youngster killed in a freak cycling accident. In an emotion-packed night at Melbourne's Multi-Purpose Venue velodrome, the team from the tiny island in the Irish sea celebrated alongside their near neighbors Scotland as the two comparative minnows smashed Australia and England's golden grip in track cycling. First it was the Scots who raised the roof at the venue,

In a case that could have major implications in the fight against doping in sport, a Swiss civil court late last week under-cut a two-year ban against German rider Danilo Hondo and ruled to allow him to resume racing while the court considers the case. The case is believed to be the first time a civil court has over-ruled a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a non-governing body charged with settling doping disputes in sport. “There’s never been a ruling like this, when an ordinary court suspends a decision by (CAS),” attorney Michael Lehner told AFP. “It’s a true victory for

Alessandro Petacchi and Tom Boonen lined up as the five-star favorites for Saturday’s 97th running of Milan-San Remo, but it was Boonen’s Quick Step-Innergetic teammate Filippo Pozzato sneaking away as the surprise winner. Pozzato marked an attack by Alessandro Ballan (Lampre-Fondital) near the top of the decisive Poggio climb with about 7km to go and then rode the coattails of a six-man lead group to hold off the fast-charging peloton.

If the cobbles belong to the Belgians, then the Via Roma finishing straight at Milan-San Remo belongs to the Italians. The current king of “La Classicissima” is Alessandro Petacchi, who returns as the heavy favorite and all the pressure that comes with it. His win in the final stage at Tirreno-Adriatico revealed “Ale-Jet” is right on target. “If everything goes right, I know I can win Milan-San Remo for a second time,” Petacchi told reporters. “The final Poggio climb will be the key to the race. If I can get over it with the leaders and with a couple of teammates, I’ll have a great chance

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.More video, pleaseEditor:Hey, great job on the Paris-Nice video summary. The editing and quality pics were great. How about doing it live for the Giro? I'd even pay real money to see it. Phil StruveAvon, Colorado More video for Macs, pleaseEditor:Kudos for posting the Paris-Nice

After a solid effort at Tirreno-Adriatico with eighth-place overall, GeorgeHincapie has decided to bypass this weekend’s Milan-San Remo. “I just had a little cold during Tirreno, so I was not feeling 100 percent,”Hincapie told VeloNews. “I prefer to just rest and recover.”Hincapie is scheduled to race next at Three Days of De Panne, whichhe won in 2004, before ramping up for his run at the spring classics. Secondoverall last year at Paris-Rouabix, he’s hoping to step up on higher onthe podium.Discovery Channel will line up with a solid team looking to throw somecurveballs at the marquee

The season’s first UCI ProTour classic, Milan-San Remo, which takes place this Saturday for the 97th time, is nowadays regarded as a sprinters’ race. That’s because in the past nine years a mass sprint finish has been avoided only twice. In 1999, an inspired Andreï Tchmil made a solo, final-kilometer attack to hold off a 68-strong pack by less than a second. And in 2003, Paolo Bettini held tough with breakaway partners Mirko Celestino and Luca Paolini to win, 11 seconds ahead of a chasing 68-man peloton. The past two years, Oscar Freire and Alessandro Petacchi scored their sprint victories

What a difference a year makes for Chris Horner. Twelve months ago, he was making an uncertain return to Europe. Flash forward to 2006 and Horner is a very happy camper at Davitamon-Lotto, secure in a two-year contract and a place in this year’s Tour de France. “I’m on the list. Unless I take myself out of it with an injury or illness, I’m going,” Horner told VeloNews. “It’s better that than the position I was in last year, when I didn’t know if I was going or not.” Last year, riding with Saunier Duval-Prodir, Horner didn’t secure his Tour ticket until he proved himself with a dramatic

Dutchman Thomas Dekker (Rabobank) won the 41st Tirreno-Adriatico on Tuesday, as Italian Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) sprinted to victory in the seventh and final stage. Petacchi won the 166km finale in San Benedetto del Tronto ahead of Australian Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto), Italian Paride Grillo (Ceramica Panaria-Navigare) and Norwegian Thor Hushvod (Crédit Agricole). "I didn't want to finish without a stage win," said Petacchi. "My teammates worked well in the final kilometers and carried me until the final 180 meters. I preferred to leave the sprint until as late as possible as

Floyd Landis won more than Paris-Nice on Sunday. He secured the trust and confidence of his Phonak teammates as they look confidently toward this summer’s Tour de France. His teammates rallied around Landis to preserve his slender nine-second margin in Sunday’s nervous, four-climb finale to win his second major stage race inside a month. And in the process, the team and Landis promoted themselves as one of the favorites for July. "The most important thing was the confidence of the team and their ability to stay focused on the race," Landis said. "As far as confidence for the Tour, this is

Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) sprinted to victory in stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico on Saturday. The Norwegian beat Italian Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) and Spain’s Oscar Freire (Rabobank) in the finale to the 219km stage from Paglieta to Civitanova Marche. Freire retained the overall race lead. Sunday's fifth stage is a 20km individual time trial around Servigliano.

Chris Horner was a little hectic Friday morning in a desperate search for his cycling cleats before the start of the 201.5km fifth stage at Paris-Nice. The Davitamon-Lotto rider eventually found them tucked inside the team bus and he had the chance to reflect on the final three stages of Paris-Nice before heading for the start. “I’m going to sit back and relax wait for the final climb. Hopefully the legs I had the other day will be appear again,” Horner told VeloNews. “I’m kind of surprised how good I’m going this early in the season.” Going into Friday’s stage, Horner was poised quietly

Three-time world champion Oscar Freire Gomez (Rabobank) sprinted to victory and claimed the overall lead during the third stage of Tirreno-Adriatico on Friday. The Spaniard donned the leader’s jersey thanks to a 10-second time bonus and the abandonment of race leader Paolo Bettini (Quick Step), who was taken to hospital following a crash and may miss the start of the classics season. The day began in controversial circumstances as organizers refused to shorten the undulating, 183km course as requested by team managers and riders, who were concerned about the cold, wet and windy

There were plenty of reasons for Floyd Landis to smile Thursday after enjoying his first full day in the yellow jersey in the 193km fourth stage at Paris-Nice. The weather had improved nicely, Tom Boonen sprinted to his third win in four days and Landis’s Phonak team didn’t have to work too hard when Quick Step-Innergetic took control late to reel in a breakaway to set up the mass gallop. "Today was no problem at all," Landis said as he strode onto the podium to don the race leader’s yellow jersey. "It’s treating me good." There were no major shake-ups in the overall standings, with Landis

Floyd Landis (Phonak) ground just about everyone into the asphalt in Wednesday’s hilly 168.5km third stage to capture the overall leader’s jersey at Paris-Nice in an impressive display. Just in case the Euros hadn’t noticed that Landis came flying out of the gates this season with a big win in the debut Amgen Tour of California, he provided a wake-up call dropping everyone except Spain’s Patxi Vila (Lampre) to surge into the yellow jersey and position himself as the favorite to win Europe’s first major stage-race of the year. "I knew I had good legs after my victory in the Tour of

Italy's Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) sprinted to victory in the first stage of the 41st Tirreno-Adriatico on Wednesday. Bettini, who won the 2004 edition of the race, outsped Germany's Erik Zabel (Milram) and Norway's Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) to take the opener, a 167km stage around the Tivoli region. "Last year I suffered in this race because I'd had a lot of health problems. This year my form is much better, and I've shown it," Bettini said afterward. "I have to thank my teammates because they did a great job helping me on the climb to the finish. "Winning is

The 19th Taipei International Cycle Show opened March 8 in Taiwan, giving product managers four days to put the finishing touches on the 2007 model year, just two months and change into 2006. The show’s first day produced a number of new items; here are some of the highlights. SRAMSRAM has been doling out bits of information regarding its new road group of late, but that doesn’t mean the company has been neglecting the rest of its line. SRAM "leaked" some dirt on its X.9 mountain-bike derailleur and shifters last week, and while we can’t tell you much more now (expect details to be released

Three-time world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank) headlines an all-star field for Tirreno-Adriatico set to begin Wednesday in Tivoli along Italy’s western coast. The race of “due mari” pushes east across the middle of the Italian peninsula and serves as an ideal proving ground for contenders for Milan-San Remo. Among the former MSR winners taking the start include Freire, Alessandro Petacchi and Erik Zabel (Milram) and Paolo Bettini (Quick Step). Other big names include Michael Boogerd and Erik Dekker (Rabobank), 2003 world champ Igor Astarloa (Barloworld), last year's Tour green jersey

No offense to Allan Davis or anyone else in Tuesday’s finish line dash, but it’s going to take more than a good try to stop Tom Boonen. The reigning world champion sprang to his second consecutive victory in Paris-Nice in Tuesday’s hilly 200km second stage and widened his lead to 17 seconds over prologue winner Bobby Julich (CSC). The Quick Step-Innergetic train did nice work to set up the mass gallop after reeling in a long breakaway by French rider Nicolas Crosbie (Agritubel). Boonen made easy work of relegating Davis to a consecutive second-place and earned his ninth win on the 2006

Christian Vande Velde (CSC) was forced to abandon the 64th Paris-Nice after crashing hard on his left shoulder in a tumble in Tuesday’s hilly second stage. X-rays later showed that there was no break in his clavicle and Vande Velde was optimistic that he could be back on the bike in time to start his next scheduled race, Criterium International, at the end of March. "There’s nothing broken, that’s the good news," Vande Velde told VeloNews via telephone. "It hurts pretty bad, though. When you get to know your body pretty well, you know when something’s not right." Vande Velde said he

Bobby Julich is one-for-one in Europe so far in the 2006 season, ripping to a narrow victory in Sunday’s opening prologue of the 64th Paris-Nice. “I simply had killer legs,” he recounted on the team’s web page. “The route suited me perfectly and I really had the feeling that I was fast. It was a special feeling to start as the last one and be able to keep everyone behind me. It's always a great feeling to win and it's quite a good statistic to kick off my European season: one start – one win!” Julich expressed surprise at his condition in a race where he didn’t expect to challenge

The rainbow jersey curse has yet to strike Tom Boonen so far this year. The reigning world champion put down a textbook-perfect sprint to win Monday’s first stage of Paris-Nice and snatch the yellow jersey away from Bobby Julich (CSC) thanks to time bonuses. It was Boonen’s eighth win in the young 2006 season, and the Belgian was already looking ahead to the spring classics moments after slamming the door shut on Allan Davis (Liberty Seguros). "It’s good to have won the stage because now I can take it easy until the end of Paris-Nice," Boonen told reporters. "For me, this race is ideal

Boonen sprints into the overall lead

Tom Boonen has been enjoying some quality training sessions around his new home in Monaco and hopes to roll into Sunday’s start of Paris-Nice ready to pop for a win or two during the eight-day “Race to the Sun.” “The weather is great and the area in and around Monaco is perfect for this important training as there are some good up hill sections,” Boonen said in a Quick Step-Innergetic release. “My teammates Kevin Hulsmans, Kevin Van Impe and Steven De Jongh have also joined me here in Monaco. It’s certainly more fun and stimulating training together.” The reigning world champion will head

José Iván Gutiérrez (Illes Balears) surged into the overall lead at the Vuelta a Murcia on Friday after ripping through an impressive early season win in the 21.3km individual time trial. Gutiérrez – a four-time Spanish national time trial champion and world championship silver medalist last year in Madrid – showed off the best time-trial position of any Spanish rider going, taking more than 1 minute out of teammate Alejandro Valverde during Stage 3. Also showing good early season form was Alexandre Vinokourov, making his presence felt for the first time this season with a strong

Aussie Anna Meares outfought American Jennie Reed to take the gold medal in the sprint on Friday at the fourth and final round of the UCI World Cup Series, being staged at Sydney's Dunc Gray Velodrome through Sunday. The Athens Olympic time trial champion, who qualified fourth fastest, claimed the victory without conceding a single race, winning every match along the way. In the semi-finals Meares defeated Tamilla Abassova of Russia, the 2005 world championship silver medalist, to set up her gold-medal showdown with Reed. In their first match, Meares attacked from the front and Reed was

It was early March and the questions were already beginning: When was Alejandro Valverde going to win his first race of the season? The Spanish sensation usually roars out of the gate, as he did two years ago when he won a stage just hours after getting off a plane at the Mallorca Challenge in February. This year, Valverde is taking aim at bigger fish, but the 25-year-old couldn’t help himself when he smelled the finish line in the bumpy 172.4km second stage of the Vuelta a Murcia. Following the wheel of compatriot Santos González (3 Molinas) over the Cat. 1 climb some 16km from the finish

Spanish roads must remind Heinrich Haussler of his native Australia, because the young Gerolsteiner rider took another impressive victory in the attack-heavy opener of the Tour of Murcia on Wednesday. Haussler, whose father is German and mother is Australian, was raised Down Under until he left for Germany at 14 to chase his dream of becoming a professional racer. That dream turned into reality when Gerolsteiner signed him to a two-year deal last year and he quickly repaid the favor, winning a stage in last year’s Vuelta a España. Haussler, who turned 22 last weekend, easily outkicked Ariel

Ten-time German national champion, Ina Teutenberg, 31, (T-Mobile) claimed opening honors for the 2006 UCI Women's Road Cycling World Cup Series with a sprint victory on the 119km (eight lap) course in Geelong, Australia, on Sunday. Teutenberg proved too powerful over the final 200 meters holding off Japan's Miho Oki (Nobili Rubinetterie) and 2006 Australian road champion, Kate Bates (Team Nürnberger) who collected the minor placings. "Winning the first world cup it doesn't go any better," said Teutenberg after the race. " The team can relax now a little bit until we go back to

The inaugural Amgen Tour of California is one for the books, and for two riders, it couldn’t have ended better. Saturday’s field-sprint winner, T-Mobile’s Olaf Pollack, narrowly edged out another tour double-stage winner, J.J. Haedo of Toyota-United, to win the final stage Sunday, a 76.5-mile circuit race in Redondo Beach. Pollack's teammate Andre Greipel rounded out the podium.

Killian Patour tries out a new frame before the start. Comfortable as it is, it's regarded as worthless in a sprint.

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.

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.ToC on TV: The pros speakGive ESPN2 a breakEditor:Let's give ESPN2 a little break on the coverage of the Amgen Tour of California. As a producer and bike racer myself, I have to agree the first-day camera work, talent and directing was at times capable of inducing seasickness.