There are serious concerns for the mental and physical well being of Australia's former world sprint champion Jobie Dajka as he awaits Thursday’s verdict from an inquiry into his attack on national coach Martin Barras. Whatever the outcome of the Cycling Australia disciplinary hearing, held and adjourned last Friday, still hanging over Dajka is the threat of assault charges stemming from an incident at the Australian Institute of Sport headquarters in Adelaide last Wednesday. As of Tuesday, Adelaide police said no charges had yet been laid. Since Dajka was taken to Adelaide's Lyell

After three stage wins and an early departure from last month’s Giro d’Italia, Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) resumed his winning ways on Tuesday, taking the fourth stage of the Tour of Switzerland. The Australian national champion easily beat Daniele Colli (Liquigas) at the head of a mass sprint finish in the town of Bad Zurzach. “A stage win here in the Tour de Suisse with this field is pretty worthy,” said the Australian winner, pointing out that many of the UCI Pro Tour’s top sprinters chose the Swiss stage race over the overlapping Dauphiné Libéré. Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) held on to

A local Quebec rider, riding for a local Quebec team won the first stageof the Tour de Beauce, despite the presence of top-flite U.S. squads the likes of Navigators, Health Net and Jittery Joe's. Martin Gilbert (VW-Trek) took the leader's jersey after winning the sprint out of select group of 14 riders who finished just under a minute ahead of the peloton.The 169-kilometer stage started in light rain, and overcast skies doggedthe race all day.  The stage featured the long, rolling climbs whichthe region is famous for.  Jean Sebastien Beland (Equipe Quebec) startedthe action

STILLWATER, Minn. (June 12, 2005) -- Twenty-six seconds is all that separated Webcor Builder’s Christine Thorburn from Quark Cycling Team’s Tina Pic. That’s about as much time as it took to crest Chilkoot Hill, a short climb at a grade of 20-percent that the riders had to tackle 13 times in this final stage of the Great River Energy Bicycle Festival’s Nature Valley Grand Prix. With eight turns, the 1.5-mile course also provided ample spots for breaks to sneak away out of sight. Thorburn’s team was determined not to let either of those affect who wore the general classification leader’s

STILLWATER, Minn. (June 12, 2005) – A spent Shawn Milne rolled through the finish line of the last stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, gasping for air after climbing the 20-percent grade Chilkoot Hill for the last time. “Today was a day you just talk with your legs, and obviously John’s spoke louder,” the Navigator Insurance rider said. For all the talk that transpired over the last two days between Milne and Health Net/Maxxis’ John Lieswyn over the way the leader’s jersey changed hands between the two of them, on Sunday everything was left on the road. Midway through the Stillwater

That sprint got him the points jersey.

Austria's Bernhard Eisel (Fdjeux.com) won a sprint finish in the first stage of the Tour of Switzerland here on Saturday and then thanked Australian teammate Baden Cooke. Eisel finished ahead of Belgian Tom Boonen (Quick Step) and Austrian Peter Wrolich (Gerolsteiner) following the 170km stage from Schaffhausen, but it was sweet revenge for Cooke over Olympic champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step). Bettini launched the sprint finish, but Eisel, having insider knowledge that Cooke was not at his best, was able to claim victory with Bettini fourth and Cooke sixth. "Before the stage, it

Cycling Australia said Saturday it was surprised and disappointed at the decision of the sport's world governing body to axe the men's kilometer and the women's 500m race from the Beijing Olympic program. The two events were removed from the program for the 2008 Games to make way for the Olympics debut of BMX, the UCI said on Friday. "All federations were invited to make submissions to the UCI and this is certainly the first we've heard that the track time trial events were being targeted for removal from the Games program," Cycling Australia chief executive Graham

Jan Ullrich will fine-tune his preparations for next month's Tour de France by racing the Tour of Switzerland, which starts on Saturday. The 31-year-old T-Mobile captain, who has finished second five times in the Tour de France, is still dreaming of repeating his 1997 Tour win. And six-time winner Lance Armstrong (Discovery Channel), who is competing in this week's Dauphiné Libéré in France, has once more designated Ullrich as his major rival for a seventh and final Tour victory. A major factor in whether Ullrich repeats his 2004 overall victory here will be his performance in the

ADELAIDE, Australia -- Former world keirin champion Jobie Dajka, suspended for four months last year for lying to a doping inquiry, faces a longer ban for assaulting the Australian cycling track team's head coach. Dajka said Friday that Cycling Australia had recommended a possible four-year suspension. Dajka has admitted assaulting coach Martin Barras and said he regretted doing so. He testified at a tribunal hearing Friday. Dajka, the 2002 keirin world champion, was suspended and dropped from the Olympic team last year when it was determined he had lied to a doping inquiry. He was

Health Net-Maxxis is riding a big wave of momentum, and John Lieswyn shot the curl on Thursday. The veteran rider and former champion of the Nature Valley Grand Prix overcame a deficit of more than two minutes to catch a break of 16 and then kept motoring to win the second stage of the Minnesota race, the 92-mile Mankato Road Race. It marked the fourth consecutive road-race win for Health Net, by four different riders. “It was a team victory of the greatest magnitude,” Lieswyn said. “Right now, it feels like we have a V-8 under the hood.” Lieswyn shared the spotlight with teammate Tyler

When Levi Leipheimer, Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis labored up Mont Ventoux on Friday, battling for the leader’s jersey at this year’s Dauphiné Libéré, their presence emphasized how far American cycling has come in this sport once dominated by Europeans. But the current generation of English-speaking riders is not the first one to produce contenders at the Continent’s leading stage races, especially the Dauphiné. In the early 1980s, America’s Greg LeMond, Australia’s Phil Anderson, Britain’s Robert Millar and Ireland’s Sean Kelly all won stages or challenged for overall victory at the

An officiating error and a late-race crash combined to shake up the men’s standings in the Nature Valley Grand Prix on Friday. Shawn Milne (Navigators Insurance) won the Minneapolis Downtown Classic and collected the leader’s jersey after a lap counter that read 2 for two laps gave him an unexpected edge over a small lead group confused about just when stage 3 of the NVGP was supposed to end. Milne sprinted for the line when the lap counter should have read 0, but his sprint turned into an attack when race officials began ringing the bell signaling the final lap. “I went for it, but I

A second is not very long, but less than one tick of the second-hand has cost Levi Leipheimer two important victories inside four days of racing at the Dauphiné Libéré. The 31-year-old lost Wednesday's windy, demanding 47km individual time trial to Santiago Botero (Phonak) by a narrow 0.70 seconds. That bitter disappointment comes after losing Sunday's prologue to compatriot George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) by an even more slender 0.17 seconds. So why was Leipheimer smiling after standing atop the podium in sunny Roanne? Because he was wearing the overall leader's jersey, and

"Cycling in the News" is a regular service of VeloNews.com. Readers,reporters and friends are encouraged to send links to current stories aboutcompetitive cyclists and cycling that appear in the mainstream media. Ifyou come across a news item that you believe may be of interest to otherVeloNews readers, we would be grateful if you choose to send it to Rosters@InsideInc.com.Bernama.com - Malaysian National News Agency - June 6, 2005Mahathir Gets Award For Support Of Cycling EventsPUTRAJAYA, June 6 (Bernama) -- The International Cycling Union (UCI)Monday presented Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad with

Ag2R's Samuel Dumoulin moved into the overall leader's jersey after winning the second stage of the Dauphiné Libéré, a 187-kilometer race from Givors to Chauffailles, on Tuesday. The AG2R rider prevailed in a sprint on what was the final, relatively flat stage ahead of Wednesday's 47km time trial – a stage in which Lance Armstrong is favored to win and thus claim his first victory of the season. Dumoulin takes over the race lead from Discovery's George Hincapie. Dumoulin - whose international fame has largely been confined to the distinction being the smallest rider at the

Often called the most grueling athletic event in the world, the 2005 Tourde France is professional cycling’s most well known race. With less thana month until the Tour’s opening, VeloNews is pleased to announcethe release of its 2005 edition of the "Official Guide to the Tour deFrance." A collaboration between VeloNews, the journal of competitive cycling, and the Société du Tour de France, the 2005 Official Guide is titled “Grand Finale: Armstrong Aims at Tour Win 7” and features:Detailed rider profiles of Tour hopefuls Jan Ullrich, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, Ivan Basso,

For six Julys in a row, George Hincapie has been one man Lance Armstrong could always count on. The New Yorker is the only teammate who’s been on the Texan’s record six consecutive Tour de France victories. But it’s June, Hincapie is in the leader’s jersey at the Dauphiné Libéré, and this time the tables are turned. In Monday’s long, flat opening road stage pushing west away from the Alps where the real race will be decided later this week, it was Armstrong’s turn to help his ever-loyal lieutenant. The six-time Tour champion helped chase down a breakaway to set up a mass sprint and keep

Despite the three Category 1 climbs on the final stage, this year’s Mt. Hood Cycling Classic in and around Hood River, Oregon, was largely won (and lost) on the time trial stages. Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) set the stage for his overall win by breezing to victory in both the stage 1 prologue and the stage 3 time trial. His lead going into the last stage was enough to hold off the climbing prowess of challengers Andy Bajidali (Vitamin Cottage) and Justin England (Health Net-Maxxis). Scott Moninger (Health Net-Maxxis) was well positioned going into the stage 3 time trial, but a broken chain 50

While the Keystone State already has a town with the name, Philadelphia might want to start thinking of borrowing the moniker “Germantown” for a few hours every year. Ina Yoko Teutenberg (T-Mobile) became the eighth German winner in the 11 editions of the Wachovia Liberty Classic, out-kicking a select break at the end of the 57.6-mile race. The gigantic women’s field was scheduled for four laps of the 14.4-mile lap, but less than half-way through the opening tour a careless cross of wheels sent riders scattering and created the first of several scenes of havoc on a nervous first lap. But as

With three men off the front of the field by more than one minute in the final kilometers of the USPRO Championships, held Sunday in Philadelphia, two truths had become self-evident: there would be an all-American podium, meaning one rider was going to win the race as well as the stars-and-stripes national champion’s jersey awarded to the first American across the line. Out of a dwindling 40-man breakaway that had gone clear early in the 156-mile race, Chris Horner (Saunier Duval-Prodir) and Chris Wherry (Health Net-Maxxis) escaped on the last of 10 trips over the infamous Manayunk Wall,

Fassa Bortolo dominated the five-stage Tour of Luxembourg, but it’s Laszlo Bodrogi (Credit Agricole) who’s sneaking away with the trophy Sunday. Fassa Bortolo won three stages in four days, but Bodrogi was just fast enough in the deciding time trial to secure the overall victory by just 0.13 seconds. The deciding stage was Saturday's 10.8km time trial when Fassa’s young gun Fabian Cancellara won, but couldn't quite make up enough time to Bodrogi. Despite winning the stage, the difference remained less than a half-second in the overall. An early breakaway Sunday ruined

It’s the stuff of legend, the subject of a recent documentary and the race all North American racers dream of. On Sunday, June 5, the single most important day of racing on the American calendar takes place in Philadelphia — the 156-mile USPRO Championship — and by day’s end, one rider will be crowned U.S. national champion. An open national championship with nearly $150,000 in prize money, the event known as “Philly” is open to riders from Europe and beyond, meaning that there could be two winners on Sunday - the first man across the line, and the first American and subsequent national

Three days after he became the first American to earn a world pro road championship medal, the silver, at Goodwood, England, in September 1982, Greg LeMond began the Tour de l’Avenir (Tour of the Future) as the hot favorite. Then 21, LeMond was hungry to win a big European race, not least because he was about to renegotiate his contract with Cyrille Guimard’s Renault-Gitane team. LeMond had already established himself as a budding stage-race rider by winning Colorado’s 1981 Coors Classic in his rookie year, then following up with a string of excellent finishes in early 1982 (second at the

Saul Raisin is back on the bike and preparing for the upcoming Tour de Suisse (June 11-19). The 22-year-old Crédit Agricole rider said he’s been training normally for two weeks following an incident in the opening stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk in early May. A motorcycle knocked him off his bike during the stage, injuring his hip and collarbone. “I am training and riding again. I have been riding on the road for two weeks now and my first race back will be the Tour of Swiss,” Raisin told VeloNews. “I have no set goals but just to finish and help my team as much as possible. It is good

There’s a saying that’s come en vogue these days that’s applicable across many horizons in life: When it’s on, it’s on. And for the domestic Health Net-Maxxis team, the Wachovia Cycling Series has been on. The team followed up its win by Greg Henderson in Lancaster Tuesday with another sprint win Thursday evening in Trenton, New Jersey, this time coming from cagey veteran Gord Fraser. Add in Ivan Dominguez’s win at the CSC Invitational in Arlington, Virginia, on May 29, and the powerhouse team has taken three sprint wins in three consecutive races with three different riders. Looking at the

Horner concedes that Health Net is hard to beat in a sprint.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania- Heading into June, the big wins just keep coming for the Health Net Pro Cycling Team presented by Maxxis. Coming off Ivan Dominguez’s win at the CSC Invitational in Arlington, Virginia, on May 29, Health Net came in to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on May 31 for the 91-mile opening round of the three-race Wachovia Cycling Series as the undisputed top team in the U.S. And the team lived up to its reputation, putting four men into the race-winning 14-rider breakaway and setting up New Zealander Greg Henderson for a bunch sprint victory, beating American national champion

Despite his troubles, Rodriguez was still there for the final sprint

The final stage of the Giro d'Italia is traditionally a parade into Milan, followed by a series of fast circuit racing leading up to a massive field sprint and this year held true to tradition. The riders lined up in Albese Con Cassano, a small town on the edge of Como decorated in pink to start and then paraded towards Milan, with a stop for gelato and cookies along the way. T he mood was relaxed and the Discovery team staff served champagne to all the other team cars in the caravan during the race. Everything was going smooth until Sean Yates got a flat tire in the first Discovery

For once, there wasn’t a surprise in the Giro d’Italia. Sunday’s 119km final stage unfolded just like everyone expected, with Alessandro Petacchi riding the fumes of his Fassa Bortolo train to his fourth stage victory of this year’s corsa rosa. Beyond that, there was hardly a day where something unexpected didn’t happen. From Ivan Basso’s stomach problems to Damiano Cunego’s collapse to José Rujano’s near revolt, the 88th Giro has packed plenty of surprises per kilometer. “This victory has been very satisfying because it was a very challenging and interesting Giro,” said Paolo Savoldelli,

The Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home team sent a powerful message Saturday at the Kelly Cup, the pro men’s event of the Baltimore BikeJam in Patterson Park. The squad took four of the top five spots in Maryland, spearheaded by winner Aaron Olson and runner-up Mark McCormack. New Zealander Glen Mitchell (Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada) was third. The top trio was part of a five-man break that went away just a few laps into the race, 40 laps of a 1-mile circuit. After a warm, sunny morning, the race began in a windy downpour as an afternoon storm blew through the city. Bad weather, the subsequent

Michael Carter and Karen Kingsley won the 34th annual Iron Horse Bicycle Classic road race on Saturday, a Colorado monument with 5500 feet of climbing over its 47-mile course between Durango and Silverton. The 42-year-old Carter (Colorado Velo) emerged triumphant from a three-man battle with Mitch Moreman and the apparently immortal Ned Overend, who were racing for the new Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory team. As Carter assaulted the 10,660-foot Coal Bank Hill, Moreman and Overend struggled to hold the pace. Carter reached the summit first, shot down the wicked descent, climbed alone up

ARLINGTON, VA – Ivan Dominguez (HealthNet Maxxis) and Laura Van Gilder (Team Quark) out sprinted their respective break-away companions to win the CSC Invitational on Sunday. Dominguez was the last sprinter standing in a four-man break formed only thirty minutes from the finish. Break mates Kirk O'Bee (Navigators), Ivan Stevic (Aerospace Engineering-VMG) and Bobby Julich (CSC), after trying several times to attack the HealthNet sprinter, could do nothing more than watch Dominguez power out of the last turn and throw his bike across the line for the win. Van Gilder nipped Ina Teutenberg

Stage 19 was a nail-biter to watch - all the protagonists were fighters, giving every ounce of energy on the road. Discovery’s Paolo Savoldelli looked to be in danger on the Colle delle Finestre, steadily losing time to Lampre’s Gilberto Simoni, Selle Italia’s José Rujano and Liquigas’s Danilo Di Luca, but he fought back, flew down the descent and chased all the way up the final ascent into Sestriere and essentially won the race, as Sunday’s final stage is sure to be a parade commandeered by the sprinters in the final meters. Rumor has it that on the final stage of the Giro, townspeople stop

Always the crowd pleaser, Canadian Genevieve Jeanson surprised a few people and turned a few heads when she pulled off another World Cup win in Montreal this weekend. She won Saturday's race in similar style to her 2004 victory, taking the win with an uphill sprint finish in the final 300 meters of the race. The international women's field of just under 100 riders found the 12 lap, 99.6km event to be something of a race of attrition. The field stayed together for the first 10 laps of the race, despite a series of early attempts to break away. The attacks that did happen were futile

Ivan Basso won’t win this year’s Giro d’Italia, but a stage victory high in the Italian Alps sent a warning shot to anyone thinks the 27-year-old Team CSC leader gives up easy. Basso doggedly refused to quit despite ceding 40 minutes to what were his fellow overall contenders up the mighty Stelvio last weekend and then roared back to the winner’s circle Thursday with an emphatic solo win in the 194km 17th stage. “I never considered quitting the Giro. I came here to win and when my physical problems wouldn’t allow that to happen, I had to change my focus to winning a stage,” said Basso, who

Third brake lever on CSC’s TT bikesDear Lennard,From the UK - watching the TT at the Giro on Eurosport the other day I noticed CSC were running what seemed to be a third brake lever on the aero’ extension. Can you give any insight to this, as there is nothing on the team website - i.e., would it be wired up like a 'cross lever? Why hasn't anyone done it before and so on?Stuart Dear Stuart,A number of people wrote me about this. A lot of people with sharp eyes out there! Yes, David Zabriskie and Ivan Basso placed 1-2 using Cervelo P3s (one aluminum, one carbon) with a second

After the second Giro d’Italia rest day, the competitors were eager to race in stage 16. From the start, the pace was very high and groups of riders were flying off the front. Race leader Paolo Savoldelli’s Discovery Channel teammates had their work cut out for them, as they could only afford to let riders go up the road if they posed no threat to the maglia rosa. The team was forced to chase, and with the help of Fasso Bortolo, which preferred to keep the bunch together for sprinter Alessandro Petacchi, they managed to keep the riders in check until Discovery allowed a group with the right

It’s amazing to think a Frenchman hasn’t won a stage in the Giro d’Italia since Laurent Jalabert did so in in Lumezzane in 1999. That’s a sign that,France isn’t the cycling powerhouse it used to be.That the Giro had truly become a national tour that attracted little attention beyond the Alps.Some combination of the twoIt may be the third choice, since both factors are probably a little true, but the Giro is growing in stature and French cycling seems to be slowly on the rebound. A whole new crop of young French riders are making their presence felt in the peloton. Wednesday’s 210km

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.Photo contest recalls love of cyclingEditor:After reading countless letters about this doping scandal and that, my feelings for cycling have become twisted. Seeing all the beautiful photographs sent in as part of your contest reminded me why I love cycling. It’s not about Lance, Tyler,

Collegiate racing does its best to ensure that a wide number of racers have shots at coming home a winner. With eight individual races, four team time trials, an individual omnium title and a team omnium title at stake, the collegiate national road championships –held this year in Lawrence, Kansas (the cultural capital of the state, I’m told) – provided chance after chance for racers to stand atop a podium. Still, at the race banquet, I watched as the same individuals were called up to claim their respected team and individual titles. Now cycling, by its nature, is a sport that offers its

It's good to sit down and count your blessings every now and then. Well, starting with yesterday, the real blessing came in the form of the first 50km of the stage being bagged. That decision definitely had a good impact on moral, especially after what happened on Sunday. On Monday morning, we woke up to pouring rain and, at 7000 feet, the prospect of riding downhill for 40k, after an 11-kilometer climb, was just depressing. We were preparing for the worst, but God bless the peloton's Italian Mafia. The Italians just made it clear: “Hell no, we won't go!” It would have been

Fassa Bortolo’s Alessandro Petacchi took his third win in the weather-shortened 15th stage as the Giro d’Italia trudged into its final week. Poor weather prompted officials to move the start to the bottom of day’s big climb, making it a relatively easy, if soggy day in the saddle for the 159 remaining riders. After a long breakaway by Roy Sentjens (Rabobank), Fassa’s silver train was back on track and catapulted Petacchi to an easy win ahead of the sprinter-depleted field. Erik Zabel (T-Mobile) came through second while Olympic champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) took third. “Today the

Torrington, CT, May 22—Defending champion Mark McCormack, (Colavita-Sutter home), took both the final stage and the overall victory in the 137-mile Litchfield Hills stage of the Tour of Connecticut. With 14 miles remaining, it looked like the Navigators team had the win sewn up for race leader Vasili Davidenko, as the team was setting tempo on the finishing circuit. It was at this point, McCormack realized, “I had nothing to lose.” McCormack and Todd Wells (Capital Velo) attacked and rode away from both the field and the entire Navigators team. With the gap at over a minute, the time

Two days, two dramatically different courses - same result. Vassili Davidenko (Navigators Insurance) took the second stage of the Tour of Connecticut almost as easily as he took the first. The “almost” is because on Saturday, he had to climb nearly 8000 feet in 60 miles to win. Still, while he conceded that his form “is good,” Davidenko added that the victory “was about my team.” After a flurry of early attacks, the race found its rhythm - steady-hard at the front, attrition at the back. TIAA-CREF’s Timmy Duggan took off on his own on the third of 15 laps and stayed away for eight.

Alessandro Petacchi catapulted to his second stage win of the 88th Giro d’Italia in what turned out to be a slow 178km roll between giants. Following the sparks in Thursday’s stage to Zoldo Alto and the epic climbs lying in wait in the Dolomites this weekend, the peloton seemed content to enjoy Friday’s sunny passeggiata from Alleghe to Rovereto. “These sprints after the mountains are always difficult, but the team was motivated to win. I could still feel yesterday’s stage in my legs,” said Petacchi, who won easily ahead of Paride Grillo (Panaria). “This year it’s been harder to win stages,

If you’re not racing mountain bikes in Europe during May, you’re not doing any big races. I’m not heading over until the third round of the World Cup May 29 in Houffalize, Belgium, so that means some serious down time. You might think I’d take some time off, maybe go to a warm beach somewhere, or even just hang out in Durango. But I can’t seem to sit still for a single weekend, so I’ve been hitting the road circuit. It’s a good thing I’m a bike racer. I already got in some good road racing this past February with a six-day race in Mexico. Then, after Sea Otter, I headed to New Mexico for the

After Thursday’s mountainous throw-down, it looks as though the Giro d’Italia is coming down to a two-man battle, eh? Funny, for all the hype built up around the double-pronged danger of Lampre’s Damiano Cunego and Gilberto Simoni, the winners of the past two years, it’s now CSC’s Ivan Basso, a rider who has never won a grand tour, wearing the maglia rosa. While the Giro is far from over, it appears Basso is the strongest man in the race, with only Discovery Channel’s Paolo Savoldelli, the 2002 Giro winner, able to hang with him in the mountains. And while no one wins a grand tour by luck,

Davitamon-Lotto’s Australian sprint ace Robbie McEwen, winner of three stages of this year's Giro d’Italia, announced Friday that he was quitting the race after the day's 12th stage. "I'm going home," said McEwen, who is wearing the points leader's jersey. "The plains are behind us now. I'm sorry to leave but after the Giro I've still got the Tour de France and the world championship. To race everything would be too much. It's a big and beautiful Giro. Goodbye to the tifosi!" During his three previous appearances in the Giro McEwen, 32, also quit before the

McEwen and friends in a happier moment, before the sprint was lost, the law called and his ticket for home punched

And then there were two. After months of hype and 10 exciting stages of pyrotechnics, 150 kilometers of pavement up the grinding Passo Duran and to the summit finish to Zoldo Alto turned the 88th Giro into a two-man race. It wasn’t supposed to be that way, but Ivan Basso’s piston-shot legs spun a tale of destruction in his wake. Only the inspired Paolo Savoldelli, the 2002 Giro winner wracked by two seasons of injury and frustration, could hang on. Team CSC’s Basso surged into the maglia rosa after a string of vicious accelerations left his rivals withered on the steep roads in the

Robbie McEwen is a puckish little scrapper who’s made a career of knocking the crown off the big dogs. But pulling a hat-trick against the formidable Fassa Bortolo train in the opening 10 days of the 88th Giro d’Italia is something else. McEwen might as well be called the giant killer of the corsa rosa and the Davitamon-Lotto rider played his David card yet again in Wednesday’s 212km snoozer that started slow, got wet and ended hot across the flats of the Po Valley. With the ominous Dolomites brooding to the north, the peloton was in no hurry to go anywhere until it charged onto three laps

With two selective stages over the weekend, the strengths and weaknesses of the Giro favorites were displayed. Ivan Basso (CSC) lost a little in stage 7 to Damiano Cunego and Gilberto Simoni (Lampre), while the reverse occurred in stage 8, and Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) was consistent and showed his form is only getting better as the race progresses. Dave Zabriskie (CSC) surprised some by winning the stage-8 time trial, but in my mind, he was one of the favorites going into it. Dave has been knocking at the door of a major international TT win for quite some time. His fifth-place

Backstedt carries Gasparotto to win in CataluynaThere’s no better wheel to be on than one belonging to the big Swede with speed, Magnus Backstedt. The 2004 Paris-Roubaix winner blocked the wind and a lot more in the perfect set-up for young Liquigas-Bianchi teammate Enrico Gasparotto, who shot to victory in Tuesday’s second stage of the Volta a Cataluyna. “Backstedt was decisive in my victory today,” said the 23-year-old after scoring his first win in the pro ranks. “He brought me to the front in the last kilometer and accelerated very fast. It was like following a race horse.” Thanks to

Wow - what a Giro we're seen so far. After two individual time trials, eight road stages, and 1592 kilometers, the top 10 riders overall are separated by two minutes and 11 seconds, the top 20 by 3:48, and the top 50 by 8:29. That last figure alone can be lost on one bad day in the mountains. Heck - it can be lost on one ’Big Bird’ turns pink flamingo. It all started when that character known as “Big Bird” – a.k.a., 25-year-old Australian Brett Lancaster (Ceramica Panaria-Navigare) - decided to ditch Sesame Street that evening and ride down the Lungomare Italo Falcomata in Reggio

If at first you don't succeed... Try, try again. That's the motto being adopted by Fassa Bortolo, who, after several failed attempts, finally got their Silver Train in motion, sending Alessandro Petacchi to the line for his first stage victory of the 2005 Giro. It would have been a travesty if he didn't win. With wide-open streets and generous corners, the stage was tailor-made for his team to deliver their man in fine form to the line. And that's exactly what the team managed to do on Monday, at the close of a 139km race from Firenze to Ravenna. With his lead-out men

A new technical criterium at the Joe Martin Stage Race in Fayetteville, Arkansas, proved the undoing of Jelly Belly-PoolGel as the 28th annual stage race concluded on Sunday. Scott Moninger (Health Net) leapt into first place on general classification after finishing a close second to Garrett Peltonin (Advantage-Endeavor), who won the fourth and final stage. Health Net sent Chris Wherry and John Lieswyn out to an early lead in the 90-minute race, building a 40-second gap on the main field. Teammate Greg Henderson bridged up as Jelly Belly led a furious chase, decimating the peloton. About

When Greg LeMond and Jonathan Boyer became teammates on Renault-Gitane at the start of 1981, there were expectations that America’s top two riders would form a winning alliance. But their contrasting personalities and different styles of racing saw them grow apart rather than connect. Although Boyer was the first American to ride the Tour with Renault that year, he soon moved with another American, John Eustice, to Sem-France Loire, a French team led by Irish star Sean Kelly. At the same time, LeMond established himself as the heir apparent to Bernard Hinault at Renault. After winning the

Andy Bajadali (Vitamin Cottage) and Ann Trombley (Excel Sports) stood atop the final podium at the Excel Sports Boulder Stage Race on Sunday, a double-stage day that began with a brutal hill climb and ended in a furiously contested criterium. Racing began with the morning’s Sunshine Canyon Hill Climb, a 9-mile stage that climbed 3300 feet. In the men’s race, Chris Baldwin (Navigators Insurance) initiated the winning move early on the first steep pitch. “There were six guys left, and I’m like, ‘God, this is the race,’” said. Andy Bajadali (Vitamin Cottage), who took second in front of Mitch

Day two of the 2005 NCCA Collegiate Road Cycling National Championships saw riders tackle the 23.2-mile loop around Perry Lake, roughly 20 miles outside of downtown Lawrence, Kansas. The relatively flat course featured a handful of rolling hills, and the varied terrain matched with gusty winds made for a variety of results at the finish line. The women’s Division I road race managed to stay clumped together throughout the entire two-lap, 56.4-mile ordeal. Early in the race they were packed tightly enough to send several riders to the tarmac, including last year’s road-race winner, Stephane

Anderson, Eposti take stage 2 in BoulderKim Anderson (Colavita-Cooking Light) outsprinted Mari Holden (T-Mobile) to win stage 2 of the Excel Sports Boulder Stage Race on Saturday, while Paul Eposti (Haul n’ Ass) caught a lead trio napping and slipped past for the victory in the men’s race. The 8.5-mile Boulder-Roubaix circuit, which was mostly dirt, wrought a fair amount of havoc among the peloton. No follow vehicles were allowed, though three pits were set up along the circuit, so when Ann Trombley (Excel Sports) flatted in the early going of the 42.5-mile women’s race, teammate Maatje

After two days of rain swamped the streets of Lawrence, Kansas, the NCCA Collegiate Road Cycling National Championships opener on Friday was a seminar in crash avoidance, and not everyone passed. “It was pretty crazy for the entire race. I just tried to stay at the front and stay out of trouble,” said Stanford’s Amber Rais, who won the 60-minute women’s Division I race in Friday’s Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Criteriums, run on a rain-slick, L-shaped, mile-long course in downtown Lawrence. After local hero Steve Tilford started the day off with a victory in the 45-minute open crit, the hourlong

Baldwin, Holden win Boulder Stage Race kickoffChris Baldwin (Navigators) and Mari Holden (T-Mobile) won the opening stage of the 2005 Excel Sports Boulder Stage Race on Friday, a short individual time trial that took in the hardest sections of the old Morgul Bismarck course outside Superior, Colorado. Baldwin was the only rider to post a time under 16 minutes for the hilly TT, which climbed 1100 feet in seven miles, ascending the fabled Wall, Hump and feed-zone hills. Baldwin covered the course in 15:42, besting teammate Phil Zajicek by 29 seconds, with Tim Duggan (TIAA-CREF) third at 34

When the sprint is rough, tough, tight and twisty, there's only one person you should bank on. Despite missing the entire spring due to a virus, speed demon Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) is just about back to his best form, winning today's crash-filled finale in Marina di Grosseto with apparent ease. In fact, in a rare show of generosity, the 32-year-old Queenslander tried to give the stage to his fellow Aussie and loyal lead-out man, Henk Vogels, soft-pedaling in second wheel with a kilometer to go, and allowing Vogels to surreptitiously sail off the front. It was a great move,

I am officially out of touch with the outside world. I had no idea that they evacuated the capitol and the White House the other day because of what they thought might be some kind of terrorist attack. I don't even know what day that was... heck I don't even know what day this is. My daily concerns tend to focus on just a few things: eating, sleeping and spending the stage helping to keep Ivan out of trouble here and there. We've already done one week of racing and when we're not on the bike, we're often looking for something – anything – to do. That's especially

With a few of the tifosi a little disheartened by what they saw on Wednesday, some may have been hoping to see another of their guys in pink. Well today, Danilo Di Luca gave them their wish. After his performance in L'Aquila, the 29-year-old darling of Italian cycling has surely won all the hearts of his countrymen. As they did at Pais Vasco, Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and two days ago in Giffoni Valle Piana, his Liquigas-Bianchi team rode their hearts out, setting Di Luca up perfectly for the final kilometer and in a finale like Thursday’s, the speedster from Spoltore proved

Another unpredictable day in Italia. It's the only way to describe this first week of the 2005 Giro d'Italia, where, yet again, on a stage seemingly set for the pure sprinter, things went horribly wrong. Just as he did three days ago in Tropea, Paolo Bettini (QuickStep) foiled the fast guys' plans, attacking with vengeance on a not-so-straightforward finale, then burying the hatchet with a punchy sprint finish. Or so he thought... Only Baden Cooke (La Française des Jeux) had the legs and the audacity to challenge Bettini, but suspect sprinting tactics from the Olympic road champ

The common thread we've seen running through the last two stages of the Giro has involved an early breakaway of riders hoping to stay away for the stage win, but falling just short. In the final kilometers of stage 3, the riders passed over a category-2 climb, and indications of who's on form were provided. All the favorites fared well, but a few stood out, like Damiano Cunego and stage winner Danilo Di Luca. Di Luca has had a spectacular start to the season, with two World Cup victories in April. We could see him in the maglia rosa in the next few days, as he is a climber and can

Wednesday, May 11As I mentioned before, this is my first Giro d’Italia. I’ve ridden the Tour de France before, but this is different. On the surface, the racing is much more relaxed. You have the attacks at the start, then maybe a break forms… and then everything is pretty much controlled until the end, when they pull the guys back and then you see this rush to the line. While it is more relaxed on one level, that changes things down the road, so you end up with some moments when you’re totally bored and others when it’s complete panic. Take Tuesday for example. We were pretty relaxed and

It was a battle of the bumping elbows on the mean streets of Santa Maria del Cedro in southern Italy, but fearless Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) slipped through unscathed to claim both the win and the maglia rosa. The first 181 kilometers of the 182km second stage along the absolutely stunning Calabrian coast unfolded pretty much as can be expected, but then things got downright ornery as the peloton bore down on the final 1000 meters. There was an outright rebellion as Crédit Agricole and Davitamon-Lotto refused to step aside for Fassa Bortolo and undisputed sprint king Alessandro

Jackson Stewart (Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada) and Christine Thorburn (Webcor Builders) won their respective races in the 32nd Testarossa Vineyards Cat's Hill Classic on Saturday in Los Gatos, California. Los Gatos native Stewart outsprinted his longtime friend, former teammate, and 1998 Los Gatos High School classmate Zach Walker (McGuire-Langdale) for the win. Stewart and Walker, with Ben Haldeman (Webcor Builders) and Glen Mitchell (Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada), had broken away with 15 laps remaining. Mitchell lost contact with four laps remaining and drifted back to a chasing trio -

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.Lance talks the talk and walks the walkEditor:Come on, people, whether you like him or not, you have to realize talking trash and backing it up is what has made Lance Armstrong who he is today, way before cancer came along. Think back over the last few years: When Italy's Gilberto

I have to say the Giro is really cool. It’s my first time in this race … in fact, it’s the first time for a bunch of guys, everyone from 20-year-old kids, in their first year, up to Erik Zabel, who is making his first appearance at the Giro at the age of 34. He’s done something like 12 Tours de France, but never the Giro, until this year. The ProTour is part of the reason. Every top team has to be here and riders are looking at the season a little bit differently. Instead of spending May training, they come here to help the team, spin the legs and get some nice weather to boot. I figure

Finishing on the podium Saturday night and just two seconds behind Australian maglia rosa Brett Lancaster, the smart money was on Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) to earn a stage win and take over the leader's jersey at the end of Sunday's 208 kilometer stage from from Reggio Calabria to Tropea. But a short, but steep, final rise to the finish seemed to nearly derail the Silver Train of Fassa Bortolo, opening the door for a well-timed final kilometer attack from QuickStep's Paolo Bettini. Timing his jump to perfection, and reminiscent of the attack that led to his Olympic

Fedrigo claims Dunkirk; Rodriguez third in finaleFred Rodriguez (Davitamon-Lotto) finished third in Sunday's final stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk in northern France. Adam Wadecki (Intel Action) won the mass gallop to wrap up the five-stage race, with Tomas Vaitkus (Ag2r) second. Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouygues Telecom) finished safely in the main bunch to sew up the overall title. Stage 5 results1. Adam Wadecki (Pol) Intel Action, 165.5km in 3:43:192. Tomas Vaitkus (Lit), Ag2r Prevoyance, same time3. Fred Rodriguez (USA), Davitamon-Lotto, s.t.4. Crescenzo D'Amore (I), Acqua & Sapone,

Aussie Brett Lancaster (Ceramica Panaria-Navigare) put his gold-medal track skills to good use Saturday evening, winning the short prologue to kick-start the 88th Giro d'Italia and grab the first maglia rosa. The 25-year-old from Victoria posted a time of 1 minute, 20 seconds for the 1.15km prologue, run under brilliant spring skies in Reggio Calabria, with Sicily and the brooding Mt. Etna in the backdrop. The course was peculiar for a grand-tour prologue; long and straight, with nary a curve, it was a drag strip for the start of what should be an exciting corsa rosa. But it suited

A long sprint to third place for Petacchi

From this Saturday’s prologue in REGGIO CALABRIA all the way through to the final sprint in Milan on Sunday, May 29, VeloNews.com is pleased once again to offer live up-to-the-minute coverage of the 88th edition of the Giro d’Italia. With commentary from VeloNews reporters, photos and even contests, viewers can be kept abreast of developments in Italy’s national tour, the first major three-week race to be conducted under the auspices of the UCI’s new ProTour.

Voeckler wins in Dunkirk, Gerdemann takes overFrench champion Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Télécom) won Wednesday’s third stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk, but the real story was new overall leader Linus Gerdemann. The 22-year-old German moved into the yellow jersey (as well as the best climber’s jersey and the young rider’s jersey) in his first race with Team CSC. Talk about some serious podium time. “I have three jerseys, I have three jerseys,” was all Gerdemann could muster after leaving the podium, trying to convince himself what had just happened was real. Gerdemann wisely followed an