The final — and most important — day of the three-race Wachovia Cycling Series is set to go, and the man to beat is American Fred Rodriguez. At least that’s the hot tip based on betting odds posted by Sportsbook.com. The online casino has made the winner of Thursday’s race in Trenton, New Jersey, a 5-to-2 favorite in the field of 178 riders that will contest the 156-mile USPRO Championship in Philadelphia starting at 9 EST Sunday morning. But Rodriguez, who is coming off three hard weeks at the Giro d’Italia, isn’t so sure the smart money will be on him. The Acqua & Sapone rider knows he

The Tour of Montréal is a three-day, four-stage race. It starts out with a 3km prologue in Lachine, the hometown of Geneviève Jeanson, the Machine from Lachine. We jet out and around a tiny peninsula on bike paths, making a few sharp turns along the wa, and winner and losers are separated by fractions of a second. This course is quick and suits a rider who corners well. Tina Mayolo-Pic, one of the best criterium sprinters in America, took top honors. She blazed the course and finished a half second ahead of me. A few hours later, we headed to Little Italy, where we had an evening criterium.

Joseba Beloki has slammed Tour de France organizers and his own French team, La Boulangere, for not allowing him to take prescribed asthma medication while racing. The Spaniard, who has finished on the Tour de France podium three times from 2000 to 2002, was back on the road this week after breaking a leg in a dramatic crash during last year's Tour, when he was being pursued by five-time race winner Lance Armstrong. Beloki blamed his struggle in the first two stages of this week's Bicicleta Vasca on not being able to treat his asthma attacks because the medicine he has used since childhood

Following last week’s UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, the United States has qualified for six track cycling events at the Olympic Games, including three women’s events and three men’s events. According to USA Cycling, the U.S. has received one start position each in the men’s team sprint, keirin, and points race. For women, the U.S. has one start position each in the sprint, 500-meter time trial and individual pursuit. Start positions were granted based on performance at the world championships and the overall 2004 UCI Track World Cup standings. While the

The highlight of the American racing calendar is the Wachovia week in Philadelphia. It is a week of racing that draws the most interest from spectators and media and is also the week of racing that hosts the strongest pelotons to race on North American soil. Of the three races Lancaster is perhaps the hardest course with its undulating and sinuous course. The peloton is full of motivated racers and the attacks are usually incessant for the entire 145 km event. Often times rain storms or thundershowers grease up the streets and add extra difficulty to the already technical course. This

It was hard to believe Fred Rodriguez even made it to the finish in Trenton, New Jersey, let alone grabbed the win. The American spent much of late Thursday afternoon tinkering with misadjusted seat height, even getting off his bike twice to try to get things sorted out. Finally Rodriguez simply gave up and dealt with the problem, before flying down the final straightaway on West State Street to take the bunch sprint in the second leg of the Wachovia Cycling Series. “I got on my bike this morning and it felt like the seat was a little low,” Rodriguez explained after taking his second win of

Young German rider Patrick Sinkewitz’s edged Spanish mountain goat Francisco Mancebo (Illes Balears) to win Wednesday’s tough climbing stage and move into the overall lead at the Tour of Germany. The 170km stage Wangen to St. Anton hit the 1793-meter Arlberg pass, which shattered the lead group and spelled the end of Michael Rich’s hold on the leader’s jersey. Sinkewitz broke with about 50km to go and counted on support from Paolo Bettini who was also part of the breakaway. “The team was fantastic and Bettini was along side me in the more difficult moments,” said Sinkewitz after taking his

The biggest week of road racing on the U.S. calendar gets rolling late Tuesday afternoon in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with the first leg of the 2004 Wachovia Cycling Series. An expected field of 196 riders will take on 91 miles over 13 laps through Lancaster’s streets and Central Park, vying for a piece of the $20,000 purse. Several short hills and some tricky turns will make this a race for only the strong men. A year ago toughest of the group was CSC’s Jakob Piil, who soloed away from what was left of a shattered field late in the race to take a rain soaked 1:18 victory over Saturn’s Mark

Tom Boonen (Quick Step) continued on his winning ways Tuesday after taking a sprint in the second stage of the Tour of Germany. Set-up by Stefano Zanini and Paolo Bettini, Boonen edged Allan Davis (Liberty Seguros) and Danilo Hondo (Gerolsteiner) to take his 10th win of the 2004 season. “I was able to count on a super team who works very hard in the final 30 kilometers,” Boonen said after winning. “The whole team worked to put me in the ideal conditions to make the sprint. In the last kilometers, Bettini and then Zanini completed a masterpiece. I’m not at 100 percent of my condition, but I

The opening stop of the Wachovia Cycling Series has always been known as a strongman’s race. With three punchy climbs on the seven-mile circuit that winds its way in and out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, it’s not a place for pure sprinters or waif climbers. You better have a little bit of both in you if you want to win this one. Certainly this year’s victor did nothing to dispel that notion. Dutchman Max Van Heeswijk is your classic tough guy, who now has eight wins in 2004 as proof of his diversity. This one, which went down on a mostly sunny Tuesday afternoon in southeast Pennsylvania, came

Italy has its new star. Fresh-faced Damiano Cunego (Saeco) raced like a seasoned pro to dominate the 2004 Giro d’Italia. The blond-haired former junior world champion won four stages and conquered the 20-stage Giro in surprising fashion for a 22-year-old largely unknown beyond Italian cycling just over one month ago. “This has been a dream race for me,” Cunego said after beating Ukraine Serhiy Honchar (De Nardi) by 2:02. “I would have not believed before I started that I would win this Giro. It’s very satisfying.” With the 87th Giro d’Italia now part of history, Cunego becomes the youngest

Dutchman Theo Bos crashed twice en route to his quarter-finals sprint victory on Saturday, then arose on Sunday to dethrone French world champion Laurent Gane and win the sprint gold medal on the final day of the world track cycling championships Sunday in Melbourne, Australia. The former junior world kilometer champion refused to be daunted by either his injuries or his opponent and twice furiously powered to the line ahead of Gane, a seven–time world gold medalist who was a member of the gold-medal-winning French squad in the team sprint on Wednesday. "It's unbelievable... I can't believe

Italian cycling fans hardly had time to mourn the death of former champion Marco Pantani when a new star emerged to assume Il Pirata's mantle during the three-week Giro d’Italia: 2004 champion Damiano Cunego (Saeco). Cunego, a fresh-faced rider from Verona who until this year was hardly known to the wider cycling public, scored a major upset when he held on to the pink jersey that he audaciously claimed at the start of this year's race. The fact that the 22-year-old Saeco rider defied his team captain, two-time winner and defending champion Gilberto Simoni throughout, has merely reinforced

When CSC took over the title sponsorship of the seven-year-old Clarendon Cup NRC race – now the CSC Invitational – the company was obviously hoping to gain a little extra exposure for the brand. That sponsorship paid off in spades on Sunday, when CSC’s Dane Lars Michaelsen, fresh from Europe, gave the company double exposure by just nipping Gord Fraser (HealthNet-Maxxis) in a photo-finish field sprint. It was not a day for breakaways, with no move lasting longer than several laps around the flat, six-turn, 1 kilometer circuit in Arlington, Virginia. With 20 laps remaining, the Navigators

Stefano Garzelli (Vini Caldirola) salvaged a disappointing Giro d’Italia with an emotional stage victory Saturday in a grueling stage that paid homage to fallen hero Marco Pantani over the legendary Passo di Mortirolo. Once seen as a natural inheritor of Pantani’s crown after winning the 2000 Giro, Garzelli held off two-time Giro champion Gilberto Simoni (Saeco) to win the three-climb, 122km stage from Bormio to Presolana high in the Italian Alps. “I wanted to try to win today to save something of this Giro, which has been very disappointing for me,” said Garzelli, who zipped away from

Australia powered to its third consecutive team-pursuit crown at the world track cycling championships Saturday in Melbourne, Australia, beating back a spirited challenge from Great Britain. The Australian combination of Peter Dawson, Ashley Hutchinson, Luke Roberts and Stephen Wooldridge trailed in the mid-stages before pulling away to win the gold-medal final by 1.5 seconds in 4:00.322 seconds. Spain beat the Netherlands in the ride-off for bronze. The British quartet of Robert Hayles, Paul Manning, Christopher Newton and Bryan Steel laid down a stern challenge. They diced with the

Fast Freddy survives the mountains to sprint once more in Milan

The dream is over for Damiano Cunego. The Saeco revelation won his fourth stage of the 2004 Giro d’Italia on Friday and nudged two days closer to turning his phenomenal run very much into a reality. “It no longer feels like a dream,” Cunego admitted after winning the three-climb, 118km stage. “It’s a reality now that I can win this Giro. I can’t get nervous now. There are only two stages left, so we have to stay calm.” Cunego is now less than 48 hours away from becoming the youngest Giro winner since Giuseppe Saronni won at 21 in 1979. Mother Nature and the Giro’s peloton threw a lot at

Over the last few years, a trip to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles has meant either sneaking out late at night for a fourth meal of the day while visiting family in SoCal, or insane 16-hour stealth road trips. But now chicken and waffles have landed in the least likely of places, Boulder, at a new restaurant here in town. A report will definitely be forthcoming. On a related topic, according to an AP report, a 53-year-old man is suing the company that promotes the Atkins Diet, “alleging that following the high-fat meal plan clogged his arteries and threatened his health.” Gee, you think? Seems

Fred Rodriguez (Acqua & Sapone) etched his name in the history books in stage 9 when he became the fifth American to win a stage at the Giro d’Italia. Rodriguez also did what few have been able to do in the past two seasons – get around Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) in full flight. VeloNews European correspondent Andrew Hood caught up with “Fast Freddy” before the start of the Thursday’s stage. Following are excerpts from the interview – Editor VeloNews: Congratulations on the big victory, tell us how it happened? Fred Rodriguez: Petacchi’s team is so strong it’s so hard to get there

Yeah, Pavel, you tell ’em, babe. Tell ’em how it is. Fight the power. Damn the man! I’m referring, of course, to the unseen “up yours” finish-line salute Thursday’s Giro d’Italia stage winner threw as he crossed the line. Tonkow explained his reasoning — “No one's got any faith in me, everyone thought I was finished” — but actually, I felt like throwing the same gesture at a race last week, to the unidentified genius that took out my rear wheel in the first 5km of the Colorado Roubaix on a flat, straight and completely manageable dirt road. I’d been focusing on this local race for months

Pavel Tonkov (Vini Caldirola) gave the 2004 Giro d’Italia a blast from the past as race leader Damiano Cunego (Saeco) safely fought through some bike problems in Thursday’s 153km 17th stage. A winner of the 1996 Giro, Tonkov attacked on the day’s major hurdle at the Category 2 Passo della Mendola at 99km and dropped fellow escapee Alessandro Bertolini (Alessio-Bianchi) with 16km to go to win his first Giro stage since 2002. Tonkov’s finish line gesture wasn’t your typical kisses-to-the-heavens thankfulness. After adjusting his helmet and pointing to himself as No. 1, the 35-year-old Russian

Britain's Chris Hoy claimed his second world kilometer title on Thursday, trumping French great Arnaud Tournant in the final at the world track cycling championships in Melbourne, Australia. The Flying Scotsman hurtled around the four laps of the Vodafone Arena, clocking 1:01.599, to once again get the better of four-time kilo world champion Tournant, who was timed at 1:01.957. Dutchman Theo Bos took the bronze medal ahead of defending world champion Stefan Nimke of Germany and Australians Ben Kersten and Shane Kelly. Hoy beat Tournant by one-thousandth of a second for his first world crown

Pavel Tonkov put a lot of thought into his solo win today – then perfectly executed several very calculated tactical moves. First, we have to understand the Vini Caldirola rider's motivation. He starts the day in 19th place, almost 10 minutes down on race leader Damiano Cunego (Saeco). He is probably a bit upset about not being higher on general classification after some bad luck and a day with bad legs. He would like to gain back some time and maybe take a stage win. Clearly, he needs to get away. As the Passa della Mendola approaches, there is an attack, and Alessandro Bertolini

France’s Franck Perque won the men's points race over 40 kilometers on the opening night of the world cycling track championships in Melbourne, Australia, on Wednesday. Perque raised his arms in triumph in claiming France's first-ever points race gold medal at the world championships with a tally of 35 points. Uruguay's Milton Wynants, who fell in a collision with Australian Mark Renshaw and rejoined the race 16 laps from home, took the silver medal with 31 points from Argentina's Juan Esteban Curuchet third with 28 points. "It's great to be able to carry the French emblem but I don't feel

I came down to Trieste the afternoon prior to the Giro d’Italia stage13 time trial in Trieste last Saturday to watch a skeleton crew of mechanicssetting up bikes and equipment while their teams and other support staffwere out on the road racing to Treviso toward Alessandro Petacchi's sixth sprint victory. For me, it was a good time to talk to mechanics, as they were workingalone or in pairs, and were free from fulfilling the panicked requests ofriders, coaches and other mechanics. One mechanic working alone on his team’s time trial bikes was SaunierDuval’s David Fernandes. The truck that

Showing class beyond his years, Damiano Cunego (Saeco) vaulted back into the overall lead of the 87th Giro d’Italia after taking a dramatic solo victory in Tuesday’s four-climb 16th stage. After losing the jersey in Saturday’s time trial, the 22-year-old erased a 1 minute, 48-second deficit to recapture the maglia rosa, and this time he might keep it for good. Cunego holds a 1:14 lead over Serhiy Honchar (De Nardi) after an electrifying display of confidence and strength as the Giro pushed into the first of four decisive stages high in the Dolomites. “I’m very content with how things

Lotto’s sprint ace, Robbie McEwen, pulled out of the Giro d'Italia on Tuesday to safeguard his chances of reclaiming the sprinter's green jersey in the Tour de France. "I've already had a lot of racing this season and I've got to think of the Tour de France," said McEwen, second in Monday's 15th stage behind Fassa Bortolo’s Alessandro Petacchi, before he flew home to Belgium. It was the third year running he had pulled out of the Tour of Italy before the mountain stages. "There's no point in jeopardizing our chances in the Tour de France in the mountain stages here," said his Lotto team

Following Friday’s rain soaked criterium championship in downtown Madison, Wisconsin the 2004 collegiate national championship continued Saturday when students from around the country participated in a brutal road race through the blossoming countryside of Black Earth, WI. In the first event of the day, the Division 1 women’s road race, a daring breakaway went clear of the main field on the first lap of the 60 mile, four lap race. At its peak, the break would enjoy a lead of almost two minutes, but the early success would not come without a price, as the course’s two brutal climbs would

Cyclists from 43 nations have arrived in Melbourne, Australia, to contest this week’s 2004 UCI Track Cycling World Championships at the Vodafone velodrome. More than 200 cyclists will contest 15 Championship events, six individual disciplines for men and women and three men’s team events, over the five days of racing as they battle for the honor of a gold medal and the right to wear the coveted rainbow jersey of World Champion. The Championships is also the last chance for nations to qualify places for the Athens Olympic Games and for the cyclists their opportunity to earn a place on their

Well, enough is enough. I finally decided to call it a day and I’m going back home tomorrow. I started this morning, even though I was feeling worse than I was yesterday. After about 50 kilometers, I realized that there was no getting past this chest cold and I decided to ride to the feedzone and pull out then. It’s been more difficult mentally than physically in some ways. I really don’t like racing when I can’t put 100 percent into it. It’s just not my style. I sure didn’t like just trying to hang on and barely making it to the finish line. The last couple of days, I’ve come to the

One of those days. It seems like every time there is a straightaway like today, it doesn’t seem to work out. It was long stage today, but maybe a touch too easy for my liking. Being totally flat, we were pretty much guaranteed that Fassa Bortolo was going to be in control at the front. I would sometimes prefer it if there were a few hills to break things up. But we started the day well. Everyone on the team was motivated and I felt good. I have good legs right now and the team has confidence in my ability as a sprinter. We took something of an all-or-nothing gamble today when the whole

Fassa Bortolo’s Alessandro Petacchi equaled the Giro d’Italia’s post-war record of seven stage wins in a single edition of the race by claiming the 14th stage in the ancient Croatian coastal city of Pula on Sunday.The 30-year-old sprint ace timed 4:08:58 to come in ahead of American Fred Rodriguez. Petacchi’s teammate and lead-out man, Marco Velo, rounded out the top three. Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych of Landbouwkrediet finished in the main field and continues to hold the overall leader's jersey, the maglia rosa, which he earned after a strong time trial performance on Saturday. It was the

It was a good sprint. For the last few days I’ve been really frustrated by not being able to get into position to do my own sprint. Today, it was different. The team really rallied out there to get me up to the right spot going into the last few hundred meters and they did a great job. Our main focus was to stay together today, so that we could set up for the sprint as a team and we did it. And for a while there, we had good little train going toward the finish. We were lacking a little power toward the end, maybe, and we allowed Fassa Bortolo to take over the front of the peloton again,

Well, I made it another day. I’m still not feeling so great when it comes to my respiratory system. My legs feel fine, but sometimes, it’s like a car when it red-lines. I’m afraid the engine just cuts out at a certain point. I have good legs, but once I start pushing it hard, the lungs just can’t support the leg work that I am doing and I feel like I am going to blow. I did what I could for Angelo today. I sat back behind him a couple of spots and then as we were coming in toward the finish, I waited to see what I could do to move him up, maybe take him on my wheel and launch an attack. I

Christophe Moreau (Credit Agricole) won the fourth stage of the Tour du Languedoc-Roussillon on Saturday and took the overall lead for good measure. Moreau, who outkicked U.S. Postal’s Viatcheslav Ekimov at the end of the 161km stage from Le Pont du Gard to Mende, said: “I used my mental strength, my experience and my energy to win. This is like a rebirth for me.” The Frenchman now has an overall lead of 12 seconds on Ekimov and 27 seconds on Iker Flores (Euskaltel-Euskadi) with just one stage remaining. Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong finished 15th on the day, 2:08 behind Moreau, advancing

After 30 miles of going toe-to-toe on the steep hills of Waterbury, the protagonists in Saturday's Waterbury circuit race ended up deciding things in a cat-and-mouse sprint, with Jeff Louder (Navigators Insurance) scoring a big win for the New Jersey-based team, ahead of breakaway companions Chris Wherry (Health Net-Maxxis) and Will Frischkorn (Colavita Olive Oil) in the Tour of Connecticut. Stage 4 of the tour brought the race back to the Waterbury circuit introduced last year, featuring a brutal climb averaging around 9 percent and twisting its way through Waterbury neighborhoods before a

Louder takes the three-up sprint

Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) is a step closer to tying a Giro d’Italia stage-win record after claiming his sixth victory on Friday. The Italian speedster once again held off Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Domo), who finished second to the seemingly unstoppable Italian, with Alexandre Usov (Phonak) finishing third. "I'm really happy to have won for the sixth time here, which equals my record here last year," said Petacchi after coming a step closer to becoming the fourth rider of the modern era to claim seven stages in a single edition of the race. "I don't know what the

Swiss rider Martin Elmiger handed his Phonak team a welcome victory in the 162km third stage of the Tour du Languedoc-Roussillon in Aigues-Mortes on Friday. Elmiger, a 25-year-old mountain-bike specialist who also plays golf and skis cross country, welcomed the win with open arms after believing he had been pipped at the line. Ukrainian Yuryi Krivtsov (AG2r Prevoyance) threw everyone, including the race announcer, into disarray when he raised his arms in victory after crossing the finish line. But Elmiger was given the decision after a photo finish indicated he had won by three

The Mail Bag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 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.Single-speeding and simplificationEditor:With the increase in both complexity and cost of equipment to the recreational user, is it any wonder there's been some grass-roots backlash evident in the increasing popularity of single-speed racing?

Stage races are like a crash course in tactics and Racing 101. If you really want to learn fast, sign up for some stage races. Depending on the length of the race, you can learn three or four months’ worth of lessons in just one event. Today’s Giro d'Italia stage finished in another beautiful lead-out by Fassa Bortolo, sending Alessandro Pettachi off to his sixth stage win this year. But there are other lessons to be learned, aside from the picture-perfect lead-out. What do you do if you are on a team that does not have a powerful sprinter or isn’t strong enough to provide the 10km

With the laps counting down on Friday night's New Haven criterium and the peloton breathing down the necks of a seven-man breakaway, overall race leader Mark McCormack took it upon himself to keep the lead group out front, and in the process delivered teammate Ivan Dominguez to Colavita Olive Oil's second win in three stages of the Tour of Connecticut. The Friday night festivities in Connecticut featured 60 laps of a pancake-flat, four-corner, half-mile circuit around the New Haven Green, starting and finishing at the steps of the state courthouse. From the gun, the pack set a blistering

Ivan Dominguez (Colavita Olive Oil) powered to the win in the third stage of the Tour of Connecticut in Friday in New Haven, Connecticut, beating Charles Dionne (Webcor) by less than a wheel in a spectacular hour of racing. Mike Sayers (Health Net) crossed third. The victory, Colavita's second, kept team leader Mark McCormack in the leader's yellow jersey going into stage four Saturday in Waterbury. The race was fast and furious from the first lap as the 87 cyclists fought for position on the technical circuit. On the final laps a break of eight finally stuck, and race leader McCormack saw

This was not a very good day for me. The frustrating thing was that I had great legs. I felt great. I thought I’d put myself into just the right spot coming into the finish and help up there and then it just didn’t happen. The finish today was just chaotic. I almost killed myself coming in. The day was pretty much under the control of Fassa Bortolo all the way from the start. They allowed a small break to get away, mostly just to keep things under control in the field, and then they just held a very moderate pace. Actually, it really slowed down toward the last 30km today. It was more like

With a coveted spot on the TIAA-CREF Cycling team on the line for the overall men’s and women’s individual champions, the 2004 collegiate national road cycling championships kicked off Friday afternoon with a round of criteriums on the streets of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Early morning thunderstorms threatened to stop the races before they started, but the weather was only the beginning in what would be one of the most dramatic days in all of collegiate racing. After a heart-breaking second-place finish at last year’s collegiate national championship road race, the University

It was a long day in the saddle. A long day, a hot day and a day with a lot of climbing. It was a lot harder than I expected. We built our strategy for the day on the assumption that the race would be won in a breakaway today. Most of our guys were working hard to get into anything that went and we were always represented when something did go. Before the start my teammate, Rinaldo Nocentini, came up and said “I’ve already made the deal. There are four or five of us going to go right at the start!” Of course, our strategy was the pretty much the same as everyone else’s and the speed was

Alessandro Petacchi applauded as he crossed the line a victor for the fifth time of the 2004 Giro d’Italia. He wasn’t clapping for his fast legwork, but rather for his teammates in the trenches. The gentleman sprinter was full of praise of his Fassa Bortolo “Silver Train,” who pushed the Italian to a relatively easy sprint victory in the hilly 146km 10th stage from Porto Sant' Elpidio to Ascoli Piceno. “I clapped my hands in praise of my teammates. I really want to thank them for the work they did today,” said Petacchi, who finished ahead of compatriot Marco Zanotti (Vini Caldirola) and

The Mail Bag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 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.Single-speeding offers a challengeEditor: I am writing in response to Andrew Juskaitis’s single-speed article. I race a single speed in the Wisconsin WORS series . Personally speaking, if I had to race my age group (40 plus) rather than in a

It’s been a long time since I competed in a 10-day tour. The approach is a little different from the shorter tours – in a race this long, it’s important to conserve one’s energy for the critical moments. So at the start of the Tour de L’Aude, I took a good look at the race bible, which contains all of the stage distances and course profiles. With my team, we determined what we thought would be the most significant stages based on the difficulty of the mountain passes and the time trials. We have broken the race up into segments. The first stage did not look too difficult, so we agreed that

The Koppenberg Circuit Race lived up to its namesake on Sunday, dishing out rough dirt roads, wind and a leg-breaking climb that shattered fields and crowned two new champions in the elite men's and women's events: Will Frischkorn (Colavita-Bolla) and Ann Trombley (Excel Sports). The women's race didn't stay together long, as Trombley, a former Olympic mountain-bike racer, Shannon Tupa (Tokyo Joe's) and Erin Huck (Denver Spoke) surged up the rutted Koppenberg on the first lap and found themselves away early on. Huck eventually dropped back, but even with the second group chasing hard,

“Fast” Freddy Rodriguez was fast enough Monday to score the biggest win of the 30-year-old Californian’s career after snatching victory in the ninth stage of the 87th Giro d’Italia. Rodriguez surprised sprint master Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) by jumping with 300 meters to go. The two-time U.S. champion buried his pedals to open up a two-bike gap and had enough in the tank to hold Petacchi by a wheel. “It’s the best day of my career,” Rodriguez beamed in Italian to TV interviewers. “I tried to take Petacchi by surprise, rushing from behind, and it paid off.” Petacchi, a winner of

Well now, this is a nice note to start these Giro diaries on. Even though I won in the last couple hundred meters of today’s stage, this really began yesterday. For the last 24 hours, I’ve been very upset. Because of that, I’ve been totally focused on winning today. Yesterday was a very disappointing day for me. Coming into the finale yesterday I felt really good – better even than I felt today – and as we hit the last corner, McEwen hooked me really hard and I had to shut down my sprint. Last night, after that, we had a big discussion on the team, trying to decide how we were going to

The Mail Bag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 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.Who was that Phonak rider on Highway 36?Editor:Any reason Tyler Hamilton would be back on U.S. soil? I saw him riding north on Highway 36 on May 11. I would be surprised if anyone not only had full cold-weather Phonak gear, but also a BMC team

Fassa Bortolo’s Alessandro Petacchi once again dominated a sprint finish at the Giro d’Italia to win the eighth stage of Italy’s national tour, a 210km race from Giffoni Valle Piana to Policoro. It was Petacchi's fourth victory of this year's race, which was still being led by 22-year-old Saeco team rider Damiano Cunego. Petacchi, who last year became the first rider in history to win at least three stages in the three major Tours of Italy, France and Spain in same year, proved simply too fast for Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen as he surged towards his tenth-ever Giro stage victory.

Iban Mayo (Euskaltel) scored his second win of the month after snatching the overall title Sunday in the final stage of the Vuelta a Asturias in northern Spain after a remarkable demonstration of attacking style. A winner last weekend at the Clasica Alcobendas, Mayo erased a 46-second deficit to Colombian Felix Cárdenas (Cafés Baqué) in an attack-filled final stage over steep hills from Cangas del Narcea to Oviedo. Mayo made a surprise attack on a steep climb out of the seaside fishing village at Cudillero with 50km to go. Cárdenas was unable to follow the explosive move and could only

Reigning USPRO champion Mark McCormack (Colavita Olive Oil) put in a strong performance Sunday to win the 137-mile opening stage of the Tour of Connecticut. The stage began with a 117-mile opening loop around scenic Litchfield County, with the start and finish in Torrington. The day threatened rain, but instead provided beautiful sunshine for the 120 cyclists at the start. After just five miles, a nine-man break went away and forged a 4.5-mile lead on the field by mile 20. Olympic champion Marty Nothstein (Navigators) won the first and second sprints of the day just before the break was

Adding a short track win to her cross-country victory one day earlier, 2001 world cross-country champion Alison Dunlap (Luna) made a clean sweep of the weekend at the second round of the NORBA National Mountain Bike Series, held Sunday in Sonoma, California. Giant-Pearl Izumi’s Carl Decker took the men’s event, his biggest win to date, taking a tight bunch sprint aboard a borrowed road bike. The short track was but one component of the two-day California Outdoor Sports Championships at Sonoma's Infineon Raceway, which also saw the return of a NORBA dual slalom race, won by Sabrina Jonnier

A rare 10-man sprint at a mountain-bike race

Dunlap comes around Barnholdt to take the women's short track sprint

Saturday was a day of out with the old, in with the new at the 87th Giro d’Italia. A banged-up Mario Cipollini (Domina Vacanze) didn’t take the start, still smarting from his dramatic crash in stage 4, while young gun Damiano Cunego (Saeco) snatched his second stage victory in a week and slipped on the maglia rosa after winning atop the climbing finish to Montevergine di Mercogliano near Naples. The 37-year-old Cipollini’s early exit left the proud Lion King without a Giro stage win for the first time since 1989 and some were wondering if he’d be back next year for another shot at the

American Jennie Reed claimed the 200 World Cup keirin title on Saturday after finishing second to China's Shuang Guo during the fourth and final round of the series in Sydney, Australia. Germany’s Katrin Meinke was third. Meanwhile, another American, Colby Pearce, lapped the field not once, but twice to win the men's 30km points race in the Dunc Gray Velodrome. Pearce ended rwith 50 points, 14 ahead of 2002 world champion Chris Newton of Great Britain (36 points plus1 lap). Two-time world champ Juan Llaneras Rosello, last year’s silver medalist in Stuttgart, was third (35 points plus1 lap),

Lance Armstrong wasted no time upon his return to Europe on Monday – he’s already been on a scouting mission to L’Alpe d’Huez. The five-time Tour de France winner said the 15km climbing time trial will be a decisive stage in the upcoming Tour, when Armstrong will try to win an historic sixth victory. L’Equipe reported Armstrong rode the legendary climb several times solo on Wednesday before being joined Thursday by teammates Manuel Beltran, Chechu Ruiera and Jose Azevedo. Armstrong will return to racing next week for the Tour du Languedoc-Roussillon (May 19-23) in southern France with

Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) overcame rain-soaked roads and a fast downhill finish to win the 164km sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia from Spoleto to Valmontone on Friday. Petacchi beat Olaf Pollack (Gerolsteiner) and Alejandro Borrajo (Ceramiche Panaria) to the line in a bunch sprint for his third stage win of this year's race. Last year's winner, Gilberto Simoni (Saeco) retained the overall race lead after finishing in the same time as Petacchi. Teammate Damiano Cunego is second, 13 seconds behind, and Yaroslav Popovych (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) is third, a further eight seconds

Italian police on Friday arrested four alleged drug dealers suspected of supplying cocaine to Italian cycling great Marco Pantani, who died of an overdose in February. Police sources had said they were pursuing one person they believed supplied the deadly dose to the 1998 Tour de France winner. Pantani was found dead in a hotel room in the coastal resort town of Rimini on February 14. "Searches are still under way," a Rimini police official told Reuters. He added there would be a news conference later in the day. Pantani won the Giro d'Italia in 1998 but was disqualified while leading

Robbie McEwen couldn’t have asked for a better finish than the one that was handed to him at the end of stage 5 of the Giro d’Italia on Thursday. For sure, the 177-kilometer ride from Civitella in Val di Chiana to Spoleto, featured one of the flattest courses of this year's Giro, but the peloton was treated to a challenging finishing circuit that seemed to suit the Lotto-Domo rider’s talents more than anyone else’s in the peloton. By the time riders had completed three trips around the 7.3km loop through Spoleto, the steep 1.4km hill had taken its toll on some of the field’s better

As luck would have it, a few members of the VeloNews staff and I were able to sneak away two weeks ago to Moab for a little product testing/vacation mountain bike riding. But before we hit hit the legendary slickrock, I wanted to make sure to bring along a fair share of mountain bike product to test in the harsh desert environment. Coincidentally, RockShox is nearing final production of its 2005 Pike and Reba suspension forks, which provided me the perfect opportunity to beg to borrow one for a bit of test riding. A quick call to one of the RockShox product managers resulted in a

A few members of the VeloNews staff and I were able to sneak away two weeks ago to Moab for a little mountain-bike product testing that was part work, part vacation. Coincidentally, RockShox is nearing final production of its 2005 Pike and Reba suspension forks. And as luck would have it, a quick call to a RockShox product manager resulted in a freshly-built, long-travel Pike being delivered just in time for our departure. I planned to install the Pike on my 2004 Specialized S-Works in the classy digs of Moab’s Apache Motel, then head for the trails. Silly me – I forgot that Pike is a

It’s been a bit of an eventful day. First off, I really twisted my ankle last night. The thing is, I was just walking down the stairs to dinner. So I had to have that taped up and it’s a bit swollen and a bit sore to walk around on. I spent the early part of the day trying to test that out a bit. In fact, it was my ankle that really made me try a shot at that break today. I really wanted to do the sprint today, but early on I tried a couple of times to do a couple of good accelerations. It hurt my foot a little too much when I really accelerated, so I figured I should try something else… if

What’s the difference between a fall and a crash? Ask Alessandro Petacchi and Mario Cipollini. The former suffered a fall midway through the rainy 184km fourth stage of the 87th Giro d’Italia, but rebounded to win his second stage in four days. The latter crashed 200 meters from the line, landing hard on his left side before getting hit by another rider in the hard-charging bunch. Cipollini finished the stage – 150th at 1:35 back -- and didn’t suffer any broken bones, but the cycling world will have to wait until Thursday to see if Cipollini’s spirit was crushed in the horrific high-speed

I’m relieved… I think my heart has finally started to beat again. As you might recall, the other day I said that I was not feeling up to contesting the sprint, figuring that it was not my day and I wanted to stay out of it, mostly out of respect for the guys who were in a position to contest it. Well, today I was feeling up for it, got myself into the mix and had a very, very, very close call when Cipo’ went down. I even had his bike clipping my foot as he went down, so I just missed it. I stopped breathing there and my heart is just now starting up again. Some times it is just so, so close

One thing you have to keep in mind about tactics is that they have to change to suit the circumstances. All teams start the day with a general plan, but then everyone has to be ready at a drop of a pedal stroke to change that plan and improvise. This is certainly what happened in today’s stage at the Giro. I can fully imagine the Fassa Bortolo team meeting this morning before the start of the stage. “This should be an easy day. All we have to do is keep the group together and set up Alessandro for the sprint with 10 kilometers to go. Every one knows their job on the lead out, so let’s get

Iban Mayo (Euskaltel) sent another shot across the bow with a dramatic win in Tuesday’s Subida al Naranca one-day climbing race in northern Spain’s rugged Asturias region. Just days after sweeping to victory in the Clasica Alcobendas in the mountains north of Madrid last weekend, the Basque rider punched the accelerator with 2km to go to drop the bunch on the short, but steep climb. In further proof that the Alpe d’Huez stage-winner from last year’s Tour de France is hitting some fine early season form, Mayo set a new record up the 5.2km climb to the Naranco summit, covering the distance

Well, a guy can’t be too disappointed with that. Today worked out nicely for the team. It was actually a bit better than we might have expected for the first mountain-top finish. Despite all of that heavy Saeco firepower driving at the front of the field, our little Alessio team got two of our guys - Franco Pellizotti and Andrea Noe' – into the top ten. Franco crossed in third, 16 seconds behind Simoni and Andrea took tenth at 34 seconds. Not bad. I’m sure that if you’ve seen any of this on television, you can tell that it’s really hard going up against Saeco right now. As far as I am

The Saeco team knew it had a real talent on its hands this spring when Damiano Cunego scored a string of wins - five over the course of just 10 days - leading up to the Giro d'Italia. Last Friday, just before the start of Italy's national tour, the team added another two years to the young rider's contract and just in time, too. The 22-year-old from Verona scored on Monday what will surely be the first of a string of grand tour stage wins in coming years, as he edged Brad McGee in a sprint into Pontremoli. The day's 184-kilometer stage began in Novi Liguri, not far from Castellania, the

Alessandro Petacchi picked up right where he left off last season, winning the first grand tour sprint finish of the year and setting himself up for a repeat of his spectacular record-setting 2003 season when he earned at least three stage victories in each of the three grand tours. The first road stage of the Giro d’Italia covered 143 stunningly beautiful kilometers between Genoa and the truffle capital of Alba. While the peloton took a moderate approach to the opening kilometers of the stage, a great deal of intensity was reserved for a hard-fought touch-and-go sprint battle between

It was a chaotic day… pretty much like every first stage in a big tour. You’ve probably already read about the way today’s stage went and, as you know, the day started out at a very easy pace and just got faster and faster and faster as we got closer to Alba. At least for me, it wasn’t exactly the best course on which to start a three-week tour. I mean I do feel good – actually really good – on the road right now. It’s just that on a three-week tour it always takes me at least a day or two to get into the rhythm of it. In the big tours, the final 10 or 15km are just so much faster than

Well, here we go. This is the first big race I’ve done after Paris-Roubaix, and despite the fact that I’ve done the Giro d’Italia before, this time it’s all new to me. It’s just been a pretty strange time, these last few weeks, leading up to the Giro. Winning something like Paris-Roubaix really does a job on your life (see "Backstedt a big surprise at Paris-Roubaix"). For one thing, people are actually paying attention to me when I’m just doing little things like warming up for the prologue. That never really happened before. Today, media were constantly coming by to ask questions, others

This story appears in the current issue of VeloNewsAFTER A COUPLE of rough-and-tumble years that included doping scandals, challenges from the Vuelta a España and snubs from Tour de France stars, the Giro d’Italia seems poised toreclaim its rightful position as one of cycling’s legendary events.Following an exciting 2003 edition that saw Gilberto Simoni return todominance over a strong field, the 87th Giro will cover a balanced 20-stage,3435km route that has only three summit finishes during its May 8-30 run,yet contains more climbing than last year’s race (61,000 feet versus 57,000).And with

GILBERTO SIMONI (I)SAECO: WINNER 2001, 2003The two-time Giro champion took his time finding his racing legs goinginto May. Typically firing on all cylinders by early April at the Tourof the Basque Country, “Gibi” was still pack fodder at the Tour of Aragon, just three weeks before the Giro’s start. Simoni blamed rain andcold weather for his sluggish start, but that’s all part of his plan. Afterstorming to victory in the Giro last year, Simoni suffered an equally dramaticmeltdown in the Tour de France, despite his confident declarations thathe would derail Lance Armstrong. “This year we are