There's never an easy day in the Giro d'Italia. Wednesday's 222km dead-flat stage from Faenza to San Dona Di Piave was supposed to be a relatively light day in the saddle before Thursday's difficult stage to Monte Zoncolan. Bad weather and a poorly designed finish with a left turn just 160 meters from the finish line served up a messy conclusion for the 11th stage, with Mario Cipollini (Domina Vacanze) crashing out after Kelme's Isaac Galvez slid into him. Cipollini was later transported to a local hospital for X-rays on his left shoulder, which he was cradling after the spill. No word yet

The course profile alone was enough to strike fear in the hearts of many a rider … or at least enough to make you think the promoter was nuts. Either way, the 140-mile climbers’ fest between Boulder and Breckenridge, Colorado, became a favorite in its three-year history. Unfortunately, race promoter Len Pettyjohn said Wednesday, he has been unable to secure a replacement for title sponsor Saturn after the auto manufacturer pulled out in March, forcing him to cancel the race for 2003. “We had a number of companies interested in replacing Saturn as the titlesponsor, but current economic

I just got back in from Team Big Bear's 15th consecutive National Points Series race. And if you've been following Jason Sumner's online race reports, you know the weekend was full of extremely high-highs (a bevy of fresh faces on the podium) and devastating lows (namely the tragic death of Japanese downhiller Haruko Fujinaka). One event that took place over the weekend that Jason didn't get a chance to write about was the much-vaunted "Super D" downhill held late Saturday afternoon. The event was conceived three years ago by promoters Pat Follet and Tom Spiegel after they saw the need to

Saeco’s Gilberto Simoni wrestled the maglia rosa from Stefano Garzelli after a daring attack in a dramatic shoot-out Tuesday between the Giro d’Italia’s two strongest riders. Simoni jumped hard on a steep but unrated climb 40km from the finish in the difficult, four-climb 202km 10th stage from Montecatini Terme to Faenza. Simoni took an 8-second time bonus after finishing third behind winner Kurt Asle Arvensen (Team fakta) to erase a 31-second deficit to move two seconds ahead of Garzelli. With Thursday’s difficult climbing stage to Monte Zoncolan on the horizon, Simoni took the race into

Coming into the finishing stretch of Stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia, MarioCipollini drove all of his frustration and anger into his pedals as henegotiated the narrow streets of Montecatini Terme Monday afternoon. No one was going to beat him. Not Robbie McEwen, not AlessandoPetacchi and certainly not that Frenchman in Paris, who just hours earlier had once again denied the world champion a spot in the Tour de France. In an angry gesture against his Tour snub, Cipollini won his secondconsecutive stage and established a new mark with 42 career Giro d’Italiavictories. “What motivated me last

How completely bogus (yet entirely predictable) that Mario Cipolliniwas again denied an invitation to this year's Tour de France. Not invite the world champion? I'll bet they wish they didn't have toinvite Lance either. Not to worry Mario, because everyone knowsyou deserve to be there; the fact that you won't be only makes the Tourdirectors look more petty and foolish than they already do. So, they wanted to "give a little boost to the French cycling?" Maybethey should invite only French teams - that way they can be sure of a win.Time to re-run that cartoon from last year - "Le Tour de

In the real world, the choice would have been simple. Do you select a second-rate team with no stand-out riders to start the world’s most important event instead of a squad that’s led by the reigning world champion? Do you select a team that has an outside chance of winning a stage instead of one that will almost guarantee a bunch of victories, along with a likely yellow jersey? The answer doesn’t need to be spelled out. Mario Cipollini’s Domina Vacanze squad should have been a shoo-in; the Frenchmen from Jean Delatour should have been given the boot. And after selecting The French team,

World champion Mario Cipollini did Sunday what everyone expected him to do last weekend: win a stage at the Giro d'Italia and equal the 41-win record held by the late Alfredo Binda. In Sunday's eighth stage, Cipollini shook a monkey off his back that, to some, seemed to be quickly growing into a gorilla after he failed to win a stage in six consecutive sprints that opened the 86th Giro. Domina Vacanze's zebras shot the 36-year-old toward the line and this time no one beat him to the tape. Lotto-Domo's Robbie McEwen took second while three-stage winner Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo)

Teams are holding their collective breath going into Monday’s announcement of the final four teams to race in July’s Tour de France. Several teams are on the bubble to be selected by the Societe du Tour de France for the four wild-card invitations to join 18 other teams already lined up for the July 5 start of the centenary Tour. One of the major question marks is the status of 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich and his now defunct Team Coast, which was suspended two weeks ago by the UCI for not paying riders’ salaries. Bike manufacturer Bianchi stepped forward last week to take over sponsorship

David Clinger and his Prime Alliance team fended off a day of attacks and other pressure to hold on to the overall lead as the inaugural Tour of Connecticut wrapped up with the Houstonic Valley Classic on Sunday. On paper, this wasn’t a day that was supposed favor the sprinters. Nope, Danbury’s Housatonic Valley road course, with its rolling terrain and formidable length shouldn’t have podium that looks like the winners’ list at a typical criterium. Still, the sprinters shined in both the men’s and women’s events Sunday with Russian Vassili Davidenko (Navigators) repeating his win of a year

Mayolo-Pic takes the sprint

Germany’s Steffen Wesemann won the Peace Race for the fifth time of his career after finishing safely in the lead bunch in Saturday’s final stage. Wesemann won one stage and broke apart the race when he attacked with defending Ondrej Sosenka in stage 4. Sosenka won the stage, but Wesemann grabbed the lead. He never let go and even widened his gap in Friday’s difficult climbing stage. Saturday’s 160km flat stage from Bad Elster to Erfurt offered little chance to shake up the overall standings. Italian rider Enrico Degano (Mercatone Uno) won ahead of Rene Hasselbacher (Gerolsteiner) while

Alessandro Petacchi is pretty in pink yet again Friday after winning his third stage of the 86th Giro d’Italia in what was another disappointing finish for world champion Mario Cipollini. The world champ’s Domina Vacanze zebras burst out of the herd in the finale to sling Cipollini toward the finish line in customary fashion, but when final set-up man Giovanni Lombardi finished his pull, Cipollini stopped pedaling. Super Mario didn’t have the legs to contest the sprint and rolled across sixth. Petacchi, meanwhile, was right on Cipo’s wheel and dashed ahead of Kelme’s Isaac Galvez to clinch

It looks like Jan Ullrich will at least have a team after a new sponsor stepped forward Friday to take over the cash-strapped Team Coast. Whether he starts the Tour de France now depends on race organizers. According to an agreement taken Friday by the Council of Professional Cycling, Bianchi will take over the sponsorship from Team Coast, which was suspended last week by the UCI for not paying riders’ salaries in April, L’Equipe reported. Sport director Rudy Pevenage is reportedly working on a deal to hire the entire Team Coast staff, from the racers on down. The professional body awarded

Host nation Australia was rolling in medals after the first day of competition in the fourth and final round of the 2003 UCI World Cup track-racing series, May 16-18 at Dunc Gray Velodrome in Sydney. Australia has won two gold medals and one bronze in the six finals contested so far in the three-day event, which features almost 200 riders representing 42 countries. Mark Jamieson, Australia’s 19-year-old 4km individual-pursuit champion, posted the fastest qualifying time in the morning - 4:24.425, good enough for selection to the national team for July’s senior world championships in

Saturn's Eric Wohlberg of Canada won the fastest of two heats in the opening stage of the inaugural Tour of Connecticut Friday evening in New Haven. The 75km criterium was run in two heats due to the tight half-mile circuit around New Haven's famed Green. Wohlberg, by virtue of winning the fastest heat, was awarded the yellow jersey, while teammate Ivan Dominquez of Cuba, winner of the slower heat in a terrific sprint battle with Gord Fraser (Health Net), was given the green jersey of best sprinter. Brice Jones (7UP-Maxxis), second in the fast heat, was given the best-climber jersey. Stage

The first of two rest days comes early in the 86th Giro d’Italia, just six days into the three-week march to Milan. There’s been plenty of action and story lines both on and off the bike in what’s been a scandal-free Giro, including Cipollini’s stalled motor, McEwen’s relegation and subsequent redemption, Pantani’s helmet hatred and Petacchi’s run in pink. Here’s a look at where some of the major players stand nearly a week into the Giro: Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) 1st overall Two stage-wins and the maglia rosa, not bad for a guy who’d never won a Giro stage before this year.

One of the greatest all-around athletes in cycling history, Hendrik (“Rik”) Van Steenbergen, died in an Antwerp, Belgium, clinic on May 15 after a long illness. He was 78. At 6-foot-3 and 183 pounds, Van Steenbergen was big for a professional cyclist, but his renowned resilience made him a formidable rider on both road and track throughout his exceptionally long career. In 24 seasons as a professional (1943-1966), Van Steenbergen won 270 times on the road, including three world road championships, eight classics, and 25 stages of the grand tours; and 715 times on the track, including 40

What a great week it’s been for Alessandro Petacchi and what a bad one for Mario Cipollini. Petacchi, deep in the best run of his career, beat the world champion in Wednesday’s fifth stage even before the peloton roared into Catania for the mass sprint. Super Mario’s Domina Vacanze zebras took firm control of the race with 6km to go, and typically the battle among the would-be contenders is the fight to grab Cipollini’s wheel. But Petacchi weaseled his way in front of Cipollini, and when lead set-up man Giovanni Lombardi pulled up, it was Cipollini who was forced to come around

Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich has split from the financially-troubled Team Coast, his manager said Wednesday. “A Team Coast containing Jan Ullrich does not exist any longer,” Wolfgang Strohband told the SID sports news agency. Ullrich signed a four-year contract with the German team in January, but the team was suspended by the UCI last week for non-payment of riders’ salaries in April. Ullrich, winner of the Tour in 1997, left Telekom in September after a dismal season during which he was sidelined by a knee injury and tested positive for amphetamines. Whether this means

We are preparing for the first stage race of the year: the Fleche de Sud, in Luxembourg. The longer that I spend in Europe, the greater appreciation I have for the incredible support needed to race. Going to a stage race in the U.S. is a lot easier, really. Yes, it is comforting to have someone in the feedzone to hand up a bottle, but not necessary. I know plenty of riders, good riders, that have done races like Gila, or Fitchburg unassisted. Well, that’s just not possible in Europe. At a minimum, you need someone in the feedzones, and someone driving the team car in the caravan (that

Spanish rider Jose Manuel Maestre (Relax Fuednlabrada) won the opening stage Tuesday of the 47th Vuelta a Asturias in northern Spain after barely holding on to a long escape. Joining Maestre were Fabrice Salanson (La Boulangere) and Julien Laidoun (AG2R), but Maestre dropped them with 25km to go in the 166km course with several rated climbs from Oviedo to Llanes. Phonak and Milaneza-MSS worked hard in vain to bring him back. Maestre finished just two seconds ahead of the peloton, led by Angel Edo (Milaneza-MSS). "I tell you, the final 15km were brutal," Maestre said. "I gave it everything

They can’t take this one away from Robbie McEwen. Just two days after the Aussie was relegated for dangerous sprinting, McEwen drove past Alessandro Petacchi’s left shoulder for the win. He didn’t bump him or barge him nor did he stick out his tongue, so the race judges can’t say a thing. “It was a very, very difficult sprint. It was very fast in the last kilometer. I grabbed Petacchi’s wheel and I saw a good moment to make a move,” McEwen told AFP. “This victory helps me to forget the disqualification in Matera. No, this isn’t revenge for what happened there.” On Tuesday, race judges took

Italy Fassa Bortolo rider Alessandro Petacchi (L) puts his head down during the final sprint with Australian Lotto domo's Robbie McEwen (R)

Stefano Garzelli erased memories of his controversial ejection from last year’s Giro d’Italia in a dramatic gesture Monday over the oven-hot roads of southern Italy. The 2000 Giro champion peeled away from peloton in the steep final 400 meters of the 145km third stage to grab the victory and vault into second place overall. Fassa Bortolo’s Alessandro Petacchi fought hard to retain the maglia rosa, but Garzelli’s win is a clear message that he’s a legitimate contender for the overall prize. “It’s an important victory for me because after 11 months without competing it gives me confidence.

Jason McCartney scored a big win for team 7UP-Maxxis over the weekend, while Lynn Gaggioli (Velo Bella) continued a strong 2003 campaign at the Joe Martin Stage Race NRC event in Fayetteville, Arkansas. McCartney beat out Saturn's Eric Wohlberg, while the women's race was a two-rider battle between Gaggioli and Sue Palmer-Komar (Genesis Scuba). Wohlberg jumped to the early race lead when he won the 113-mile stage 1, four seconds ahead of McCartney and Jelly Belly-Carlsbad Clothing's Ben Brooks, with the next closest group more than four minutes behind. McCartney would come back, however,

Robbie McEwen’s feisty style cost him a victory in Sunday’s second stage of the Giro d’Italia. Alessio’s Fabio Baldato was awarded the win after race judges stripped McEwen of the victory for dangerous riding in the closing 200 meters of the stage. McEwen, known for his aggressive riding style, was relegated to 70th place. McEwen edged Baldato by a bike-length at the end of the 177km stage from Copertino to Matero in Italy’s “heel,” but replays showed the Lotto-Domo man pressing Baldato into the race fences in the frenetic charge to the line. “McEwen told me after the race he didn’t see

With Team Coast slapped with its second racing ban in two months, 1997 Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich could soon be heading to a new team. The UCI banned Coast from racing Thursday until the team can provide money up front for team expenses through the end of the season. The team was en route to the Peace Race when the news broke Thursday evening and didn’t start Friday’s first stage. For Ullrich, who has returned from knee surgery and a doping ban, the news could mean he’ll be looking for a few team in time to start the Tour in July. “If the situation remains what it is, we will have

If your rooting interests were on a solely regional basis, the first day of the 2003 National Collegiate Cycling Association Road National Championships was a good day no matter what time zone you were pulling for. The breakdown of winners from the Treasure Island Criterium covered all reaches of the country, with Yale’s Marissa Kellogg, Midwestern State’s Stephanie Hannos, Colorado College’s Robbie King, and UC-Santa Cruz’s Ben Jacques-Maynes each grabbing victories on Friday in Northern California. Kellogg’s was the first of the day, as the cognitive-science major from the Ivy League

Dane Lars Michaelsen won his first race since the 2000 season after he edged Ag2r’s Jaan Kirsipuu to take the 200km second stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk on Thursday. The Team CSC rider overcame a back injury in February but missed the spring classics and only returned to competitive racing last weekend. Michaelsen, 34, cracked a vertebra when he crashed when a time trial handlebar snapped during a team training camp in Tuscany. “He tried to come back for the classics and tried to race at Harelbeke (March 29) and De Panne (April 1-3), but he just wasn’t up for it,” said Team CSC sport

Giro news: Colombia-Selle Italia Division II Colombia-Selle Italia is hoping for big things from its fleet of sleek Colombian climbers. It’s been a few years since the glory days of the Colombian mountain goats (even Santiago Botero is better in the time trial than on the steeps), so it’s hard to tell if this team can bring back the mystic. John Freddy Garcia was the rider race judges ruled that Francesco Casagrande barged into the fences on a Category 3, leading to Casagrande’s early exit from last year’s Giro.Colombia-Selle Italia José J. Castelblnaco (Col)Freddy González (Col)John Freddy

They say the Salad Days of mountain bike racing are dead and gone... whoever "they" are. If you've been following Jason Sumner's recent reports on the current state of the NORBA National Points Series, it's clear that the current model of "prime time" pro racing is currently on life support. Even World Cup events (Telluride) are not immune from decreased sponsorship involvement. Like it or not, big-time (i.e. cash, big rigs, gala events and liberal TV coverage) pro mountain bike racing ain't what it used to be. Even our very own Patrick O'Grady has chimed in on current events, claiming,

Frenchman Frederic Finot (Jean Delatour) won the 190-kilometer stage fromDunkirk to Roost Warendin as part of a two-man break that held off themain peloton in Wednesday's opening stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk. With the win and time bonuses, Finot grabs the race lead of the five-day,six-stage race across the flats of northern France after finishing aheadof Stephane Berges (Ag2r). Tom Steels (Landbouwkrediet) led the main bunchat 2:05 back. The 49th Four Days of Dunkirk continues Thursday with the 200-kilometersecond stage from Sin le Noble to Bapaume. Stage 1, Four Days of Dunkirk,

Tyler Hamilton is back at his home-base in Spain after an amazing run when he became the first American to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege and then pulled off the rare double to take the overall title at the Tour of Romandie. Only Ferdi Kubler (1951) and Bernard Hinault (1980) have equaled the feat and Hamilton’s the first to do it since Liege was bumped back a week in this year’s racing calendar. “It’s been an incredible eight days,” Hamilton told VeloNews on Tuesday. “I didn’t have time to really reflect on my Liege win before I started Romandie. I didn’t want to rest on my laurels and relax too

For decades, there has been a friendly but heated rivalry between theU.S. and Canada in bicycle racing. Nowhere has that been more evident thanin the Pacific Northwest, where riders from both sides of the border havedone battle in such storied races as the Cascade Classic, Gastown GrandPrix, Tour of White Rock, and the Tour of Willamette. Another skirmish between the North American rivals took place this pastweekend at the three-day, four-stage Columbia Plateau Stage Race, and theCanucks unquestionably came out on top, winning seven of a possible eightstages and taking all six overall podium

Two of the most common questions we get at Hamilton 2003 are “why aren’t your tickets on sale?” and “when will they be?” The answer is, they are now and we still have more than six months to go. Now, let me explain why it took longer than you might expect and where the best places are to see the race. Like most other busy downtown cores, Hamilton, Canada’s eighth largestcity with a population of over 500,000 people, doesn’t normally have grandstands for more than 10,000 lining its Main Street. What it does have is big, bustling city hall, a very beautiful and well-attend performing arts

I can sum up the last week in Belgium with one word: wind. Windier than average, which is to say "lots of wind." Luckily, the wind has been blowing from the south, which means that the temperature has been relatively mild. Some Belgians will tell you that the reason for so much wind (irrespective of global circulation models and regional weather patterns) is that France sucks, and Holland blows. Perhaps it is for this explanation that actual weather forecasting seems even more voodoo here than in the good ol' USA. Weather on the 8's, forget about it. Doppler radar, no way. Hey man, we

Danes celebrated cycling during its most important weekend of racing in fine fashion, with national riders Frank Hoj (fatka) winning Saturday’s GP S.A.T.S. and Jakob Piil (CSC) taking the big win in Sunday’s CSC Classic. The two Danish powerhouses dominated both races, the most important one-day races on the Danish cycling calendar. The only things bigger are the Danish national championships and the Tour of Denmark. Saturday’s race took the peloton over gravel and dirt roads around Herning, the hometown for 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis. But it was fatka’s Hoj that stole the show

A gutsy solo move in the final three laps of Saturday’s fourth stage of the Tour of the Gila propelled Tecos’s Florencio Ramos Torres to a win, robbing the field’s prominent sprinters from an opportunity to strut their stuff… and earn their paychecks. Of course the day’s biggest and most unexpected development came during the women's race when Rona’s Genevieve Jeanson did not win. We repeat: Jeanson did not win. At least that’s how the news should probably sound with Jeanson so dominant in U.S. women’s cycling these days, but that story line would take due credit from the strength and

Swiss rider Laurent Dufaux (Alessio) took the overall jersey from Italian Simone Bertoletti in the Tour of Romandie on Friday when he won the third stage of the event between Moudon and Loeche-Les-Bains, a stage that was marred when Spaniard Francisco Perez Sanchez (Milanez) was mistakenly directed off the course in the final kilometers. Dufaux and Perez Sanchez of Milaneza were credited with the same time and placing on the stage, with Swiss rider Fabian Jeker, also of Milaneza, second and Phonak's Alexandre Moos third. Italian Giosue Bonomi (Saeco) was forced to pull out early in the

Saturn and Navigators both came to the Uptown Greenwood Professional Cycling Challenge expecting to win. And so it was no surprise that between them, the two teams had five riders in a 14-man break that led the 50-mile race from midway on. But when push came to shove Thursday night on the streets of Greenwood, South Carolina, in the third race of the South Carolina Heritage Cycling Series, it was Ofoto-Lombardi pulling off an upset as the big boys concentrated on each other. Ofoto’s Erik Saunders took a flyer out of the front group with less than eight laps remaining, building a 10-second

It was just another day at the office for Geneviève Jeanson (Rona-Esker), who soloed off the front of the pack 12 miles into the 76-mile third stage of the Tour of the Gila on Friday morning, tacking an additional 5 1/2 minutes onto her overall lead. But Gord Fraser (Health Net) had to win his race in company, pouncing at the line on Steve Cate (Mathis Brothers) and Todd Wells (Hyundai-Mongoose) like a famished tabby on a pair of field mice, showcasing to whoever is paying attention that he is to be considered a racer of note in domestic cycling and is in top form early in the season. For

Mario Scirea is one of cycling’s hardest-working pros. The 37-year-old veteran has only won two races in his career that started in 1989, but for a rider like Scirea, it’s not his victories that he’s paid to earn. Scirea is the man that drives Mario Cipollini’s train to the finish line in cycling’s fast and furious sprinting stages. Last year, with Scirea’s uncompromising help, Cipollini enjoyed his best season ever. Next week, Scirea will line up for the start of the Giro d’Italia and will have the pressure on his shoulders as Cipollini eyes breaking the stage-win record set by Alfredo

Ukrainian Yuriy Krivtsov won the second stage of the Tour of Romandie on Thursday but Italian rider Simone Bertoletti retains the overall lead with three days of the event remaining. Krivtsov, riding for Jean Delatour, put in a dominant performance after breaking from the pack early in the race and sprinted home to claim a comfortable victory. He finished the 178.2km test from Couvet to Lucens in four hours, 19 minutes and 36 seconds to finish 12 seconds ahead of Swiss Phonak rider Martin Elmiger. The chasing pack were one minute and 23 seconds behind Krivtsov, with Italian Angelo Furlan,

I think for the rest of my life, April 27th, 2003, is going to stay with me as something special. Achieving victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège is something my team and I will always look back on with amazement and pride. It sounds kind of trite to say it like this, but it's true - everything came together perfectly for us on Sunday. The entire CSC team rode incredibly well together. There wasn't one guy on our squad who didn't play a role. All in all, it was a fantastic day, top to bottom. Heading out, I was a little concerned about the weather. It rained hard on Saturday and the forecast for

Geneviève Jeanson (Rona-Esker) did her solitary thing Thursday, extending her overall lead to nearly four minutes in just the second stage of New Mexico’s Tour of the Gila. Meanwhile, Drew Miller relied upon his Trek-VW All Stars team to keep the race under control and leave him free to do what he does best - climb. With perfect weather (clear, with temperatures in the 70s), the 92-mile men’s race offered up two sprint bonuses for riders with GC aspirations. Early on, a 13-man group that included Mike Sayers, two Health Net teammates and a couple of strong Mexican climbers from Team Tecos

Editor:Is Eddy Merckx a protective daddy or a bitter has-been (See "Merckxcritical of Armstrong after Liège)? Either way, why does the cycling community give so much credit to his babblings? In his day he wasgreat. In today's era he would only be slightly more successful than hisson. He wouldn't stand a chance at the Tour, and only the rolling classicswould offer him a chance (no big climbs and no pure sprints). He calls Lance Armstrong arrogant. That goes to show you Merckx's ownarrogance, to think that he knows all and that we really care what he thinks.Any athlete at the top of his game

With the nation’s newest and richest stage race — the Dodge Tour de Georgia — just wrapped up, the five-stage Holiday Inn Express Tour of the Gila, held in Silver City, New Mexico, won’t be pulling in the same caliber of road teams as it has in years past. “It’s going to be a mountain bikers’ training ground this year,” noted race director Jack Brennan, regarding the absence of top domestic teams like Saturn, Prime Alliance and Navigators in the men’s NRC event. “With [NORBA National Championship Series #1] Big Bear two weeks away, it’s a perfect chance for them to get in some racing

Saturn's Viktor Rapinski rode to the top spot on the podium at the first race of the inaugural South Carolina Heritage Cycling Series in Anderson, S.C., Tuesday, April 29. Rapinski took the win in a two-man break with Danny Pate of Prime Alliance. Rapinski, Pate, Saturn's Chris Horner and Roberto Gaggioli of Monex landed the first four spots after lapping the main field 1-1/2 times. Saturn dominated the race from the beginning, with Trent Klasna attacking after the initial lap. His attack went unchallenged and grew into a lead of more than 20 seconds before he rejoined the peloton.

Tyler Hamilton’s dramatic victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège was the lead sports story in European newspapers Monday (well… after soccer news, of course). “Hamilton, the first,” read the French daily L’Equipe. “An American in Liège,” wrote Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport. “The Other American,” wrote Spain’s MARCA. Hamilton’s win was the first by an American at “La Doyenne,” the oldest classic in cycling. Greg LeMond finished third in 1984, beaten in a sprint by Irishman Sean Kelly and Aussie Phil Anderson. Armstrong was runner-up in both 1994 and 1996 and the Texan entered Sunday’s race as the

Word from the Trek-Volkswagen camp is that while Roland Green is beat up pretty bad, he should be fine come the NORBA NCS season opener, May 17-18, at Big Bear Lake, California. According to Eric Wallace, the Trek-VW team manager, Green received 13 stitches in his face after crashing out of the final stage of the Tour de Georgia road race in Atlanta on Sunday. “He has three on his left orbital, two below his left eye and the rest are on his lip,” said Wallace, describing the state of the two-time defending world cross-country champion. “He’s completely bruised and battered in the face, but

If Tyler Hamilton doesn’t achieve any thing else in his career — and he certainly will — his stunning victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday will always hold a special place in his heart. Shortly after winning the 89th edition of the world’s oldest classics (and one of the toughest) on a rainy afternoon in the green hills of the Belgian Ardennes, he made a cell-phone call to his wife Haven at their home in Gerona, Spain. “She just screamed,” Tyler reported. “She had just as hard a job as I did of believing what’s happened.”

Saturday’s stage from Dalton to Gainesville pretty much sealed the overall Dodge Tour de Georgia victory for Saturn’s Chris Horner, but there was still some unfinished business and suspense left for the grand finale in downtown Atlanta on Sunday. In the end, though, there was no catching Horner. Meanwhile, Fred Rodriguez fell short of a third consecutive stage win when Prime Alliance’s David Clinger scored his biggest victory for his new team. The race began on a near-perfect afternoon, under sunny skies at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park in downtown. On the docket was 10 laps of a fast

Only four Tour de France winners have won Liège-Bastogne-Liège:Eddy Merckx (a record five times), Bernard Hinault and Ferdi Kubler (bothtwice), and Jacques Anquetil (once). Lance Armstrong would like to be the fifth. This Sunday will see the Texan on the start line at Liège foronly the fifth time in his career. Prior to his cancer diagnosis, he finishedsecond in 1994, sixth in 1995 and second again in 1996. He returned towhat is the world’s oldest bicycle classic (founded in 1894) only lastyear, when he finished 65th, 8:12 behind winner Paolo Bettini, after ridingthe 258.5km race in support

Dear Editor;Thanks for the live coverage. As someone who doesn't get OLN I look forward to your live coverage of the classics. The only problem is that it has been taking away from my graduate school work. I keep checking back every five minutes instead of studying!! I may fail, but at least I'll know how the sprint finished. Keep up the great work.Todd ShapiroTodd, we appreciate your comments, but would also like to apologize for the spotty coverage we've had out of the Tour of Georgia this year. We seem to have a good system in place for the big European races and will have a full crew

Chris Horner wanted a hard day. He got it. On Saturday’s stage 4 at the Dodge Tour de Georgia, the race blew apart as anticipated, and the major players of the first four days were all in the spotlight. Navigators and Henk Vogels were on the hotseat after defending the race lead for the past two stages; Horner and Saturn were in the driver's seat, with a course finally suited to their strengths; and Fred Rodriguez continued to exact his revenge following the time penalty he was assessed on stage 1. In the end, Rodriguez won his second stage in a row, Horner took the yellow jersey, and

Gilberto Simoni (Saeco) remained in charge of the Tour of Trentino after a long break dominated Saturday's 165km third stage. Elio Aggiano (Pinzolo) won ahead of three other riders that stayed away for most of the stage from Fondo to Levico Terme in northern Italy. Stefano Garzelli (Sidermec) won the bunch sprint at 8 seconds back to take fifth after the lead group couldn't reel in the break. Simoni finished safely with the peloton to retain the overall lead going into Sunday's 118km final stag, which shouldn't present any major problems for Simoni and his motivated Saeco team. Tour of

This is about all I can say about how our day went at Tour of Georgia. We tried. No, we didn't actually miss the key move today. Missing a move is to imply "oops I guess we should have been there". No, we did that at Redlands. Here we had a good strategy, carried out perfectly… and then were simply out-powered. We had our man Svein in the early break. We had everyone nice and fresh at the bottom of the last climb, and then we just got smashed. The best laid plansOur plan was to keep David Clinger (who climbs better than Henk, but not as well as the top guys) as close to the leaders as

While the "other" cycling event in Georgia has garnered the headlines this week, the Athens Twilight just kept on partying this weekend as if nothing had happened. And in front of the big, festive Twilight crowd on Saturday night, Genesis Scuba’s Candice Blickem and 7UP-Maxxis’s Dan Schmatz took the biggest wins of their careers in solo fashion. The women’s favorite, former Georgia Bulldog Tina Mayolo-Pic (Diet Rite), had her problems early on, crashing hard about 10 laps into the race when her front tire punctured. Despite hitting her head hard, Mayolo-Pic got back in the race and was

Saeco's Gilberto Simoni won Friday's climbing stage of the Tour of Trentino in northern Italy and bounced into the overall lead. Simoni and yesterday's winner Stefano Garzelli (Sidermec) traded places, with Simoni taking the flowers this time ahead of the resurgent Garzelli. The opening two days of Tour of Trentino give a nice glimpse of who's in form for the upcoming Giro d'Italia, with both Simoni and Garzelli looking sharp. The race continues with Saturday's 165km third stage from Fondo to Levico Terme. Stage 2, Tour of Trentino (UCI 2.2), Moena to Ronzone 1. Gilberto Simoni (I), Saeco,

After a rocky start to his Dodge Tour de Georgia, Fred Rodriguez has just been taking things day by day. Fortunately for the American, things have been getting better with each passing stage. On Friday, the Vini Caldirola rider outsprinted Prime Alliance’s David Clinger and U.S. Postal’s Tony Cruz to take the stage 3 win after 138 miles from Pine Mountain to Rome. Meanwhile, Navigators Henk Vogels retained the race leader’s jersey while a war of words between Saturn and Navigators heated up. Rodriguez was still upset after being assessed a 20-second time penalty for motorpacing after a crash

Stefano Garzelli (Sidermec) won Thursday's opening stage of the Tour of Trentino in northern Italy in a dramatic comeback for the Italian star. Garzelli, who was kicked out of last year's Giro after testing positive for a banned diuretic, beat compatriot Gilberto Simoni (Saeco) and Slovenian Tadej Valjavec (Fassa Bortolo) in a sprint in the 170km stage from Arco to Moena. Tour of Trentino (UCI 2.2), Stage 1, Arco to Moena1. Stefano Garzelli (I), Sidermec, 170.5km in 4:582. Gilberto Simoni (I), Saeco, at 6 seconds3. Tadej Valjavec (Slo), Fassa Bortolo, same time4. Sabaliauskas (Lit), Saeco,

From looking at the Navigators team car in the closing minutes of stage 2 of the Dodge Tour de Georgia, you’d have been hard pressed to pick it out as the car of the race leader. Sure its windshield was marked with the No. 1, thanks to Henk Vogels starting the day in the yellow jersey, but pulled over by the side of the road in Columbus, Georgia, its rear right tire going flat, the team’s silver wagon looked like just another sign that things were slipping away. Team directors Ed Beamon and Ray Cipollini, and mechanic Mike Spilker, could only watch as the race disappeared up the road,

To breakaway on the first climb of a very hilly road race is usually not a smart tactic, especially when there are still 134km and nine more climbs to go. It’s usually even more stupid to attempt such a long shot in a classic as difficult as Belgium’s Flèche Wallonne. Luckily, the little Basque rider Igor Astarloa doesn’t think much of conventional wisdom. On Wednesday, he became the first Spanish cyclist to win the Flèche; indeed, no Spaniard had ever won a classic in Belgium, France or the Netherlands. And Astarloa did it by being strong, audacious, confident, and very, very smart. You

The U.S. pro peloton hasn’t seen much of the Navigators this spring, but the squad made a big impact in its first major road stage on home soil this year, with Henk Vogels winning stage 1 of the Tour de Georgia and taking the race leader’s jersey in the process. Vogels emerged from a lead group of about 30 riders and beat out Schroeder Iron’s Miguel Meza at the end of the 136-mile stage from Augusta to Macon, heading east to west across the center of the state. While the rest of the U.S. domestic teams were out in California in full force for the opening of the season, Navigators had only

Vogels held his own on the climbs and nailed them all in the sprint

The sprint at Meza

Vogels held his own on the climbs and nailed it in the sprint.

Rabobank’s Levi Leipheimer will be at the start line for this week’s Ardennes classics to cap what’s been a solid buildup throughout the spring for the American. The hilly courses suit Leipheimer’s strengths better than the cobbles and Liege-Bastogne-Liege will be his World Cup debut. Leipheimer said his role will be to help Rabobank teammate Michael Boogerd as much as possible and perhaps look for an opportunity if it presents itself. Otherwise, Leipheimer said he’s happy with his form coming out a series of Spanish races and he’s already looking ahead to the Tour de France. “I’m happy

As he sat under a shade tree along the start-finish straight of the Tour de Georgia prologue, John Lieswyn couldn’t help but reflect on the last major professional stage race in the U.S., the Tour du Pont. "This is just as professional as the Tour du Pont, and it’s only the first year. They’re obviously using the same blueprint for this race," he said. And while the Georgia race has a long way to go before it reaches du Pont proportions, it still had Lieswyn and all of the other 139 starters excited for the upcoming six days. "I don’t get nervous before a race anymore very often," Lieswyn

Jan Ullrich, of the Coast team, claimed his first victory in 18 months on Monday attacking 55km from the finish to win the 88th edition of the Tour of Cologne. Ullrich, the 29-year-old Olympic champion and the only German to have won the Tour de France (1997), recently returned from a long lay-off due to a drugs ban and undergoing operations on a troublesome knee. In his first competition on native soil in 19 months, a slimmed down Ullrich showed he could soon be a force to be reckoned with by initiating a breakaway with around 55km to go on one of the 203km course's numerous small

The Tour of Aragon seemed stuck on rewind for Sunday's final stage. Leonardo Piepoli finished safely in the middle of the bunch sprint to wrap up his third overall title while Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) finished at the front of the mass gallop to win his third stage of the week. Piepoli won Wednesday's opening stage up the Category 1 summit finish to Cerler and saluted to the heavens with three fingers held high. The rest of the week became nothing more than a defensive battle for iBanesto.com to keep a lid on things until everyone arrived to Zaragoza for the final stage. Winds

No one expected Telekom’s Alex Vinokourov to win Sunday’s 38th Amstel Gold Race. Least of all him. “I’ve never won a one-day race until today,” the 29-year-old Kazakh said after the finish. [nid:24206]That is, except for a criterium or two in post-Tour de France appearances. But a criterium is little league compared with the mega-status of a classic like Sunday’s. “I rode the last 80km of the course on Friday,” Vinokourov said. “I learned that you have to be at the front all the time. It’s very technical, turning, left, right, up, down, on very narrow roads.”

Fassa Bortolo's Alessandro Petacchi won his second stage of this year's Tour of Aragon, easily taking the bunch sprint in Saturday's 168km fourth stage from La Muela to Borja. Petacchi pushed Spanish rider Angel Edo (Milaneza-MSS) into second place for the third straight day. iBanesto.com's Leonardo Piepoli finished safely in the main bunch to retain the overall lead going into Sunday's finale. The defending champion will only have to worry about strong winds that could cut up the main bunch, because otherwise the final stage presents little challenge to his hold on the lead. Sunday's 149km

They’ll never forget you ’til somebody new comes along. – The Eagles, “New Kid in Town” There’s a new kid in town this month - the Dodge Tour de Georgia, a prologue and five stages. According to the official web site, it starts in Savannah and ends in Atlanta, traversing “the rolling hills of central Georgia and the state’s rugged northern mountains … a beautiful and ever-changing landscape for the cyclists as they do battle in breathtaking sprints and grueling climbs.” Sounds great. New races are great. In the Land of Golden Arches, where NASCAR is king, all bicycle races are great, even

I’m working on my tan. Oh, man. Working on my tan.– Tim Curry, “Working On My Tan” Colorado just sprinted past spring and plowed straight into summer,like Tom Boonen center-punching a finish-line photographer. This wouldbe a marvelous thing indeed, were it not for this pigmentation problemI seem to have developed over the winter. Where does this unearthly skin tone come from, this Day-Glo, über-ofayeggshell white, a pallor one might expect in the time-machine love childof a Wellsian Morlock and Bruce Willis in “Twelve Monkeys?” If a guy had something like an actual springtime to work with,

I’m a curious person. I raced my bike quite successfully after my two kids went to kindergarten and I no longer had to hire a sitter just so I could sneak out and train. Women in the peloton are always amazed to find out that I have a white-collar high stress day job, two special needs boys, and still manage to get by as a Cat. 2. But I know I’m hardly alone. On the podium of a mountain bike race a couple years ago the woman in third place tried to say something smug to my friend and I who were first and second. “Well I have to go home now to my husband, job, and 3 kids.” We laughed. As if!

I gotta start hanging out at DIA (Denver International Airport) more often. This past Wednesday, I'm on my way to the Sea Otter with our photo editor, Galen Nathanson, when who other than "Charlie Hustle" Pete Rose rolls up to the first class counter. Picture this: an aging overweight white fella wearing a pair of the goldest pair of Dolce Y Gabana shades (complete with gold grandma "safety" chain), a honest-to-goodness man-blouse, a pair of overly tight-fitting black chinos and topping off the whole kit with a pair of the fruitiest pointed boots you've ever done seen. Galen and I were

Peter Van Petegem proved that his fortitude is harder than the cobbles of northern France in a dramatic victory in Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix. Van Petegem (Lotto-Domo) had better luck than most in a day dominated with crashes and punctures and becomes the first rider to win the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in the same year since Roger de Vlaeminck in 1977. Dario Pieri (Saeco) earned a well-deserved second-place while Viatcheslav Ekimov scored the second consecutive third-place podium finish for the U.S. Postal Service team in cycling’s "Hell of the North."

Ryder Hesjedal (Subaru-Gary Fisher) is anxious to win mountain bike races and wants to do it on his own terms. His feisty racing style sometimes comes back to haunt him, but win or lose the 22-year-old remains unphased. Hesjedal made the race in Sunday’s 36-mile cross country race, the final stage of the 2003 Sea Otter Classic mountain bike stage race, attacking from the gun and stringing out the 106-man pro field. But in the end Hesjedal couldn’t match a final surge from his friend, countryman and overall winner, Roland Green (Trek-VW), who won his third stage of the four-stage race. Green