On Sunday, the focus in Baltimore changed from cyclo-cross nationals to the SuperCup as the weekend drew to a close, but the races were no less exciting than they had been the day before. On a completely different course, newly re-crowned national champion Alison Dunlap (Clif Bar) put a cap on her weekend by completing the nationals-SuperCup double in convincing fashion, riding away from a field loaded with challengers. In the men's race, Jonathan Page (Richard Sachs) made up for a disappointing fourth-place in the nationals race by winning a fast-paced shootout that eventually boiled down to

When the clouds blew away over night, and the sun came out Saturday morning to dry the nationals cyclo-cross course in Baltimore, it looked as if some of the element of chance would be taken out of the men’s and women’s elite races at Patterson Park. Gone were the slick, muddy conditions that threw Friday’s masters races into chaos. Instead, racers on Saturday were greeted with a sure, tacky surface on a cool but sunny day. But luck would intervene nevertheless.

Riding the coattails of its performance at the 2000 Olympics, British cycling hit the jackpot when it was announced that money from the National Lottery will fund a four-year development program at the rate of 4 million pounds (approximately $5.6 million) annually. Cycling, for many years the redheaded stepchild of British sport, is reaping the reward for its medal-winning efforts at Sydney 2000. The team emerged with one gold — won by Jason Queally in the 1km time trial — a silver in the Olympic sprint; bronzes in the team pursuit and women’s pursuit, plus a couple of fourth place

With the national championships just two weeks away, many of America’s best cyclo-cross riders showed up in Wayland, Massachusetts for the fifth stop of the Verge New England Cyclo-Cross Series last Saturday. In the men’s pro race, a group of 11 moved to the front early, with Todd Wells (Mongoose-Hyundai), Saturn’s Mark McCormack and Tim Johnson the most well known names. But it was Matt Svatek (Wheelworks-Cannondale) surprising the group by launching an attack that saw him go clear for two laps. But unwilling to let Svatek ride away with the race, Wells took it upon himself to reel in the

Whether it was Geneviève Jeanson’s amazing performance at Redlands or cross country day at the world championships in Vail, North America and North Americans provided some of the year’s best bike racing. In this final installment of the 2001 VeloNews Awards we reveal the winners of the North American Awards. Note: All awards are for performances on North American soil. RIDE OF THE YEARGeneviève Jeanson entered the 99km final stage of the Redlands stage race with a healthy lead of nearly two minutes. Well, she didn't rest on her laurels. Within a kilometer of the start of the tough

The December 17 issue of VeloNews, the 14th annual VeloNews Awards issue, includes our "10 best" list, the things we will remember most about bike racing in 2001. Of course each of us had our own ideas about what stood out this year, so in addition to the final list, here is a look at some other memorable happenings according to the writers and editors of VeloNews. KIP MIKLER, EDITOR1. It’s rare for me to take in a race as a spectator, but in September I left the notebook behind and went to San Francisco for the Grand Prix. I joined thousands of rowdy fans soaking in the atmosphere and the

Since the start of the cyclo-cross season, American Jonathan Page has been living in Switzerland, contesting a European ’cross campaign. His biggest test to date came on Saturday at the opening round of the World Cup, in Monopoli, Italy. Page finished 23rd, 3:01 behind race winner Sven Nijs. With a top 20 placing, Page would have met a selection criteria for an automatic berth on the U.S. team for cyclo-cross world’s in Belgium. The following day, Page was back in Zurich for a local Swiss race. He’ll have one more crack at a top 20 World Cup finish, in Spain, December 2, before returning

Dutch sprint specialist and four-time Tour de France stage winner Jeroen Blijlevens signed a one-year contract with the Belgian Domo-Farm Frites squad on Friday. The 29-year-old, whose name means 'good life', has had two dreadful seasons and failed to add to his 73 career wins at all this past season, riding for Lotto. Blijlevens, who also has four career stage wins in the Tour of Spain, barely did better than that in the 2000 campaign chalking up two victories with Italian Polti team. Blijlevens has also fallen foul of the sport's authorities on more than one occasion. He

After highly successful seasons on both the men's and women's fronts, the team Saturn line-ups won't look much different for the 2002 season. The men's team will welcome three new riders -- Damon Kluck, Will Frischkorn and Jay Sweet -- while the women will add only one new face, 23-year-old Jessica Phillips. The men will see two departures this off-season, with Canadian Michael Barry heading to the U.S. Postal Service and Matt DeCanio joining Prime Alliance. In Kluck, 24, Frischkorn, 20, and Sweet, 26, Saturn will get an infusion of young talent on the men's side. Kluck

BASSANO, Italy — It is Monday morning and I’m still too drowsy to fully engage in the level of excitement with which my Italian work mates face the most mundane of activities. Our PR guy Marco mentions some event that evening hosted by Ciclismo magazine and so I somewhat reluctantly volunteer to go along, thinking it will be good to show my face and help schmooze some free press. I didn’t really understand exactly what we were going to, but figured it would be good for the company. My first clue was as we were leaving and he said "you’re going to wear that?" We arrive at an auditorium and

The top North American cyclo-cross racers were in Amherst, Massachusetts on Saturday for Round 3 of the Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Series in search of UCI points, which will be used for U.S. world’s team selection. In the men’s elite race, an early attack saw Mark McCormack and Tim Johnson of Saturn joined by Marc Gullickson (Mongoose-Hyundai) break clear of the field on the University of Massachusetts at Amherst campus. For those in attendance last year,it was a familiar sight watching Gullickson take on the two Saturn riders. However, things didn’t go according to plan

We'll never forget the last time the Tour de France started in Luxembourg, in 1989. Going into the race, defending champion Pedro Delgado of Spain was the race favorite. That tag soon disappeared. Delgado, incomprehensibly, showed up late for his prologue time trial start. Two minutes and 40 seconds late! The next day, still in Luxembourg, Delgado bonked in the team time trial stage. His Reynolds teammates had to wait for him, and they finished dead last, losing almost five minutes. So, after two days of racing, the Spanish hero was 7:20 down on the new race favorite, Laurent Fignon.

The domestic cyclo-cross season continues Saturday, October 27, at the Amherst International, a selection race for the U.S. team that will compete in the world championships in Zolder, Belgium. The Amherst race will also crown the 2001 North Atlantic regional champions. A UCI category 3 race, Amherst International is the third leg of the seven-race Verge New England Cyclo-Cross Series and will pay out $3500 in prize money. The event began 11 years ago as a University of Massachusetts dorm-room project by then-student Adam Hodges Myerson, who is still promoting the race today. National

Not everyone came to race, but the ones who did gave the crowd in downtown Miami plenty to cheer about at the final stop of the Pro Cycling Tour on Sunday. In the men’s race in was recent Prime Alliance addition Chris Horner getting to the line first in the 85-minute, plus five laps criterium that snaked its way around a 1.4-mile circuit in the shadow of the city’s skyscrapers. The event was originally slated to run 90 minutes, but when CycleScience’s Joel Chavez crashed hard into a barrier near the end of the first lap and had to be taken to the hospital, the race was neutralized, then

The women's sprint finish was a close as it can get.

Italian Danilo Di Luca of the Cantina Tollo team dominated a sprint finish to win the 95th edition of the Tour of Lombardy, the final event in the 2001 UCI World Cup road series. On-form Dutchman Erik Dekker lifted the World Cup trophy after finishing 13th in the 10th and final event. The 25-year-old Di Luca, an up-and-coming professional who was beaten by a whisker here two years ago, made sure of victory this time as he completed the rain-soaked 258km ride from Varese to Bergamo. He held off fellow escapees Giuliano Figueras (Panaria) and Michael Boogerd (Rabobank), who finished second

Now in its 16th year, Greenville, South Carolina’s two-day Michelin Cycling Classic has become one of America’s greatest events, a true season-ending classic. Cyclists from across the country and overseas gathered to join battle for one of the last times in 2001, with the streets of beautiful downtown Greenville as their battleground. And, though both days were contested on the same course, they led to very different results, with Juan-Carlos Pineda (7UP-Colorado Cyclist) and Jonas Carney (Prime Alliance) emerging victorious in the men’s events, while Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Saturn) and Robin

Home team Great Britain topped the medals chart at the world masters track championships in Manchester, England, but U.S. riders reached the top step of the podium more than anyone else. In all, the U.S. team scored 19 gold medals and 47 total, while Great Britain took 16 gold and 68 total medals. For results from the final two days of competition, click on "View Race Results."

Another world's road race is over. And, for the third year running, the blue-ribbon event came down to whom was fastest in the final straightaway. Two years ago, in Verona, Italy, a dozen riders were still together when "unknown" Spanish rider Oscar Freire sprinted out of the last turn to win by four seconds. In 2000, at Plouay, France, there were two dozen that fought out the finish, with Latvian Romans Vainsteins taking the sprint and Freire in third. Now, in Lisbon, Portugal, almost four dozen riders were still together to contest the finish -- an unimaginable outcome for a race that had

After losing the junior men's time trial by 44 hundredths of a second last Wednesday, 18-year-old Oleksandr Kvachuk from Ukraine was in tears. So close, but so far. On Saturday, Kvachuk put that disappointment behind him and made a blistering solo break, to win the 121km road race by 1:07 over a chase group of four that was brought home by Dutchman Niels Scheuneman — whose silver medal joins the bronze he scored in the time trial. Commenting on his win, Kvachuk said, "After the time trial I was sad -- so today I decided to show that I am a real champion." He proved that with an astonishing

In a long career at the elite level Lithuanian twin Rasa Polikeviciute has almost won a host of big races -- a time-trial bronze medal at last year's world's, second at the women's Tour de France in 1994 and ’96, a silver medal in the road race at the 1996 world's, and third overall at this year's Hewlett-Packard Challenge and the Tour of Tuscany. Finally, on Saturday afternoon, the 31-year-old sprinted to her own rainbow jersey in an ultimately exciting elite women's 121km road race. Polikeviciute knew she was in good form -- fourth in the time trial on Wednesday -- but as she said: "In the

After taking her second rainbow jersey of the week, and her fourth world title in 12 months, Nicole Cooke said something quite insightful about the key to her amazing success. The defending junior women's road race champion was asked if she had an idol. After thinking for a few seconds, she replied, "Not really.... I set my own targets rather than following the lead of others." And that's exactly what the 18-year-old Brit did in the six-lap, 72.6km race on Friday morning. After the 64 starters rode as a pack for two easy laps, they reached the start of the main climb on lap 3. Feeling

Results from day 4 of the world master's track championships in Manchester, England. Click on "View race results."

The world masters track championships continue this week in Manchester, England. The U.S. continued its strong performance, with American riders picking up five more gold medals on day 3. For results from day 3, click on "View race results."

The U.S. took home five gold medals in the opening two days of competition at the world masters track championships in Manchester, England. On the men’s side, Keith Harrison (60-64) and Stan Gregg (55-59) won their respective 500-meter time trials, while Alphonso Whaley took gold in the 40-44 750-meter time trial. On the women’s side, Linelle Betts (45-49) and Suzie Tignor (35-39) won their 500-meter time trials. For results from Manchester, click on "View Race Results."

It wasn’t the expected sprinter who won the 95th Paris-Tours in France on Sunday, it was a climber. And it wasn’t just any climber, it was Frenchman Richard Virenque, who pulled off a major personal coup in winning the second-to-last race of the 2001 UCI World Cup series. Virenque, formerly of Festina and now riding for Domo-Farm Frites, just returned to competitive racing in August after serving a lengthy suspension from the sport after the Festina doping scandal of 1998. Spaniard Oscar Freire (Mapei-Quick Step) finished second in Sunday’s 254.5km race in France, and German sprinting ace

Stage 17 I woke up pretty slow this morning. Benoit, who usually out sleeps us all, was out the door before I even sat up. The hotel we were in was the same one we stayed at during the Vuelta Murcia. The town of Murcia is very nice and they love cycling. After breakfast it was back to the room to stretch and watch Benoit doze in and out of sleep as the radio speaker in the bathroom blared out with Europop songs that never make it back home. Benoit woke up for a second, stared at me in wonder and said, "Man you stretch too much." Soon after we were downstairs and on our bikes to the

Here’s a look at Saturday and Sunday’s action at the track world championships from Antwerp, Belgium. — Frenchman Arnaud Tournant upset pre-race predictions to win the world sprint title on Saturday, the main event of the world track championships. The 23-year-old from Roubaix near the Belgian border dominated compatriot and race favorite Laurent Gane over three heats after Gane won the first round and Tournant pulled level in the second. Another Frenchman, Olympic keirin champion Florian Rousseau grabbed bronze after he beat Germany's Jens Fielder in the match for third place. Gane, the

In the final day of competition at the world track championships in Antwerp, Belgium, a dramatic keirin final ended with only two men left upright. Australian Ryan Bayley was first across the line ahead of France’s Laurent Gane. The other four finalists — Jens Fiedler, Jobie Dajka, Pavel Buran and Florian Rousseau — were lying in a tangle of bikes and bodies on the back straight. The high-speed pile-up saw bike parts and riders flying through the air. Fiedler ran the final 125 meters carrying his bike to become possibly the first track cyclist to win a world bronze medal on foot. France’s

After 20 stages and more than 1,800 miles of racing, the 56th Vuelta a España will be decided in Sunday’s final 23.5-mile individual time trial. Saturday’s final climbing stage, the 112-mile 20th stage featuring two category-one climbs up Alto de Abantos high in the mountains north of Madrid, failed to rattle race leader Oscar Sevilla (Kelme), who retained his 25-second lead over Festina’s Angel Casero. Giro d’Italia champion Gilberto Simoni (Lampre) sprinted ahead of iBanesto.com Jose Maria Jimenez on the final switchback to win while U.S. Postal’s Jose Luis Rubiera crossed the line third

Nancy Contreras gave Mexico its first ever world championship victory when she won the women's 500-meter time trial at Antwerp, Belgium on Saturday afternoon. Contreras, 23, was fastest over the first 250 metres, clocking 19.539 and finished strongly in 34.996. A student of languages based at Metepec, some 70 kilometers from Mexico City, Contreras' previous international performances include a silver medal in the Pan American Games. Her husband and coach, Guillermo Guteirrez, was in tears as Contreras received the rainbow jersey. Canada's Lori-Ann Muenther followed her sprint bronze by

Swiss six-day star Bruno Risi took the world points race title for the fourth time in nine years at the Antwerp Sportpaleis on Saturday evening. Risi controlled the race throughout. He led a nine-man group that lapped the field just before half distance and built an unbeatable points score. Argentina’s Juan Curuchet took the silver after finishing the 40-kilometer race in the same lap as Risi but with six fewer sprint points. Franz Stocher of Austria placed third, a further six points in arrears. America’s only rider, Jame Carney, led the race on points in the early stages but missed the

Tammy Thomas came within one race of achieving her dream in her debut at the track world championships in Antwerp, Belgium on Friday. But instead the 31-year-old personal fitness instructor from Mississippi took the silver medal on her first world championship appearance. Thomas had to settle for a silver medal, after being beaten 2-0 by Russia’s Svetlana Grankovskaia in the best-of-three sprint finals. "I just didn’t have the legs in the race for the gold," Thomas lamented. "She was faster than me and I just couldn’t get it done. I’m happy with the silver though. This makes my

First-time world championship rider Tammy Thomas won through to the last four of the women’s sprint in Antwerp, Belgium on Thursday. Beaten by Germany’s Susan Panzer in the first match of the quarterfinals, Thomas hit back to level the scores and then won the decider with an attacking ride from the front, clocking 12.257 and 12.435 seconds. Also through to the semis is Canada’s Lori-Ann Muenzer, who took the first match against Szilvia Szabolcsi (Hungary) only to be relegated to second place for straying across the sprinters line. Unfazed by the upset, Muenzer took no chances in the two

The French Olympic sprint team heads for gold.

The Olympic sprint podium.

The first rainbow jersey of the 2001 World Track Championship went to Arnaud Tournant of France who won the kilometer time trial for the fourth straight year. Tournant, the final starter in the 21-rider field brought the event to a thrilling climax with a time 1 minute, 2.571 seconds, for a clear victory over last year’s silver medalist, German Soren Lausberg who clocked a 1:03.363 on Tuesday in Antwerp, Belgium. Tournant was the huge favorite, having dominated the event for the past four years since taking Australian Shane Kelly's title in 1998. But the Frenchman went one better than

The 56th Vuelta a España entered its final week with another fast day in the saddle in Tuesday’s 153-km (95-mile) 16th stage that finished well under the expected time following Monday’s rest day. Domo’s Tomas Konecny was fastest to the line while Kelme’s Oscar Sevilla easily retained the overall lead for the sixth day. U.S. Postal’s Roberto Heras and Levi Leipheimer remained in their respective fourth and sixth places overall. A steady breeze pushed the peloton along at a brisk pace to the day’s major obstacle, the category-two Cresta del Gallo just 13 kilometers from the finish line in

American Olympic sprint champion Marty Nothstein and the Chinese national team will not compete at the track cycling world championships, which are slated to begin Wednesday at the SportPaleis in Antwerp, Belgium. Nothstein, who recently turned in a sub-par showing at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, has turned down the chance to race at the event in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. The move will reduce the U.S. team to just five men and four women. The Chinese, who won two medals at last year’s championships, apparently bowed

Jonas Carney (Prime Alliance) and Jenny Eyerman (jane Cosmetics) won the pro men’s and women’s races at the Mercury Cycling Classic of Irvine in California on Sunday. Held on a 1.5-mile loop at the Irvine Spectrum in Orange County in front of Mercury's newly-opened international headquarters, each lap included nine turns and an out-and-back section. With the Saturn Cycling Team virtually absent from the inaugural event, the racing was wide open. In the 90-minute men's race, Pro Cycling Tour leader Trent Klasna was the only member of the Saturn team in attendance. He faced domestic powers

Markus Zberg was the first rider to abandon the 56th Vuelta a España when he crashed in the opening time trial on Sept. 8 in Salamanca and dislocated his shoulder. In Friday’s 206-km (128-mile) 13th stage, brother and Rabobank teammate Beat Zberg won one for the family. Zberg held off seven other riders in a breakaway in a frenetic sprint to take his first stage victory in a three-week grand tour. But his victory was just as much for his brother as it was for himself. “This victory means a lot to me. My brother was very distraught when he crashed and I dedicate this victory to him,” said

Chris Horner has been granted clearance by the UCI to leave the troubled Mercury team and finish out the 2001 season as a member of Prime Alliance. Horner is making the move to Prime Alliance in time to race this weekend in Irvine, California, and has contracted to race for the team in 2002. Horner will be joined by fellow Mercury rider John Peters for the 2002 season. Prime Alliance general manager Roy Knickman said Horner will serve as "a sort of co-leader with Danny Pate," the team's most promising young rider. Knickman said that the team's title sponsor has been pleased with the

Great Britain’s Nicole Cooke, the reigning world junior road champion, added another laurel to her collection in the junior women’s cross-country in Vail on Sunday morning. As in Plouay last October, she finished alone, but this time, she got a little help from the confusion of her breakaway companion on the course’s final turn. From the start, Maja Wloszczowska of Poland, last year’s world junior cross-country champion and the reigning European champion, applied pressure on the long, 700-vertical-foot climb of the Vail Village Loop. Wloszczowska crashed on the technical descent but

American Kimberly Bruckner (Saturn) took the overall victory at the Tour de Suisse Féminin in Switzerland after she and her Saturn team won the prologue and three other stages in the four-day race. Saturn began the week with Anna Millward winning the prologue, and then following up with sprint wins on stage 1 and 2. Saturn was defending Millward’s lead, but on Thursday, a group of five riders escaped and gained nearly six minutes. Bruckner not only marked the break, but attacked on the final climb to take the stage win and the overall lead. On Friday, Germany’s Trixi Worrack took the win in

David Millar continued on his winning ways Thursday, taking his second stage of the 56th Vuelta a España. Spain’s Oscar Sevilla of Kelme retained the overall lead in the speedy 180-km (112-mile) 6th stage from Cangas de Onis to Torrelavega that finished 25 minutes ahead of schedule. But this time it wasn’t a prologue or even a time trial for the determined Cofidis rider. Millar proved he’s more than a one-trick pony, winning a fast, tough stage across the foothills of the Cantabria Mountains in northern Spain, holding off Kelme’s Santiago Botero in a two-up sprint. "This proves I am one of

Spaniard Constantino Zaballa (Kelme-Costa Blanca) won the eighth stage of the Tour de l’Avenir on Thursday, while Florent Brard (Festina) took over the leader’s yellow jersey after the mountainous 125.5km stage from Gerardmer to Belfort in eastern France. Over the summit of the Col d’Oderen, 64km into the race, one rider was out front, Franck Pencole (BigMat-Auber), chased by Jesus Manzano (Kelme) at 50 seconds and the peloton at one minute. Manzano would catch and drop Pencole on the following climb, and the Spaniard was pursued by a chase group of seven that included Brard and Sylvain

USA Cycling announced Wednesdayits team for the 2001 World Track Cycling Championships. Ten athletes willrepresent the United States at the competition, which takes place Sept.26-30 in Antwerp, Belgium. Marty Nothstein (Trexlertown, Pa.), Jeff LaBauve (Frisco, Texas), GarthBlackburn (Houston), Jame Carney (Durango, Colo.), Colby Pearce (Boulder,Colo.) and Mike Tillman (Santa Monica, Calif.) comprise the men’s roster,while Tanya Lindenmuth (Trexlertown, Pa.), Tammy Thomas (Pembroke Pines,Fla.), Jennie Reed (Kirkland, Wash.) and Erin Mirabella (Chula Vista,Calif.) make up the women’s

The coordinated terrorist attacks in the United States sent shockwaves through the Vuelta a España on Tuesday, overshadowing the 175-km (108-mile) fourth stage from Leon to Gijon. Racers from the U.S. Postal Service team and others heard whispers of what had happened in the United States, but didn’t realize the extent of the attack until they reached the finish line in Gijon. “We heard a little bit during the race but we didn’t know how severe it was,” said Chann McRae, riding in his first race with U.S. Postal Service. “Once we got onto the team bus, we were all watching CNN and all the

Mercury’s Baden Cooke won the sixth stage of the Tour de l’Avenir, a 193km stage that finished on a Category 2 climb in Gerardmer, France. Spaniard Juan-Miguel Cuenca (Kelme-Costa Blanca) held onto the yellow leader’s jersey, finishing 22nd on the stage. The peloton reached the 3km final climb together, after reeling in lone breakaway Sergei Kruszhevskiy (Saint Quentin-Oktos), the last of many escapees on the day. On the final climb, iBanesto.com’s Russian Denis Menchov launched the attack, with only Cooke able to follow. The Australian Mercury rider, known more for his sprinting prowess

Crashes disrupted the third stage of the 2001 Vuelta a España on Monday, with a late-race crash splitting the peloton and causing some of the pre-race favorites to lose time. Erik Zabel (Telekom) easily won his second consecutive stage in a bunch sprint while Cofidis’ David Millar retained the overall lead in the flat but windy 87-mile (140-km) stage from Valladolid to Leon across Spain’s desolate meseta. Only 34 riders finished with the Zabel group after several riders went down on the narrow streets of Leon just eight kilometers from the finish. Riders got hung up behind the spill and

I woke up at around 10 am. My weight is still at 64 kilos. Breakfast of rice, eggs, croissants and coffee. Felt pretty good, not tired at all. Rode to start for sign in. Lots of cheers, even songs for Roberto. We had a team meeting in the bus. Basically the same plan as yesterday, keep Roberto near the front and out of trouble. Today Benoit and Victor would be his shadows. There was a small hill at start of the race so Johan stressed the importance of keeping Roberto up front early on. Matt White offered a little entertainment on the bus when he put a techno tape on the sound system,

Telekom’s Erik Zabel has never raced in the Vuelta a España, but the veteran German sprinter let the peloton know Sunday he’s the quickest man in the race when it comes to a bunch sprint. Zabel won his first career Vuelta stage in the first chance he got. Saturday’s individual time trial was dominated by David Millar (Cofidis), who easily retained his overall lead in Sunday’s 147-km (91-mile) second stage from Salamanca to Valladolid across Spain’s flat meseta. The stage was flat as a pancake until the final kilometer, when the course shot up a steep hill to the finish. The profile blew up

Woke up felling pretty good. Weight still at 64 kilograms. Breakfast was bread with honey, bread with Nutella, cereal combo of muesli and Special K and an omelet. Sign in was at the traveling village similar to the one at the Tour de France. My assignment today was to be with Roberto for the entire race. Benoit and I were to be his shadows. We have to stop with him if he pees, flats or has some other mechanical and take him back to the group. Basically we are supposed to make sure that Roberto never has to hit the wind, we have to close all the gaps for him move him up in the field when he

With the cancellation of the women’s race at next week’s BMC Software Tour of Houston, the San Rafael Women’s Criterium in San Rafael, California, became the final event for the women in the BMC Software Grand Prix, and Saturn’s Ina Teutenberg put on a show that was worthy of a series finale. The German lapped the field twice en route to winning both the race and the overall series title on Saturday in the city in Marin County, across the bay from San Francisco. Teutenberg was part of a 10-rider break that was initiated early in the race by Gatorade-Olbas’s Dede Demet-Barry. Also included in

While the media focus in San Francisco over the weekend focused on Lance Armstrong and the inaugural San Francisco Grand Prix, most of the major U.S. men’s teams were on hand in San Rafael the day before, to contest the San Rafael Criterium and fight for a piece of the $10,000 prize list. And while all the sprinters were licking their chops for what looked to be a field sprint finish, Saturn’s Mark McCormack left them all hungry as he pulled off a surprise win on the final lap. After a day of sparring among Mercury, 7UP-Colorado Cyclist, Saturn and Navigators, the field was still all

Editor's note: The following is an update from stage 2 of the Tour de l'Avenir offered by the Mercury cycling team. What a long day! The Tour de l'Avenir is reserved for young riders, it's nicknamed "the little brother" of the Tour de France, but stage 2 was even longer than the stages in the Tour de France: 249.5 kilometers. They all made it, except Will Frischkorn, which is not a surprise. Mercury's young talent struggled to recover from his back injury and he felt that he couldn't last long. "This situation is more difficult to handle mentally than physically", he said. After a good

Saturn’s Petra Rossner scored her third successive stage win at the women’s Tour of the Netherlands on Thursday, taking the first of the day’s two stages, a wind-blown 85-kilometer road race in Bergeijk. Rossner, who earned stage wins on both Tuesday and Wednesday, now leads the six-day, seven-stage event by 16 seconds over Vlaanderen’s Debbie Mansveld and 29 over Acca Due’s Diana Ziliute. That lead may endangered, however, later on Thursday as competitors take on a 26-kilometer time-trial, one of Ziliute’s specialities. With such a slim margin in the overall standings between the top five

Belorussian Alexandre Usov (Phonak) won the 180km first stage of the Tour de l'Avenir, winning a field sprint into the town of Craon. Usov edged out Nicolas Liboreau (Bigmat)and Francaise des Jeux' Jean-Patrick Nazon to take the opening stage of France’s “Tour of the Future,” the event touted as a “little brother” to the Tour de France. The stage was marked by a long escape of eight riders, including Mercury’s Baden Cooke. The group was caught with 14km to go, however, setting up a field sprint won by Usov.

AutoTrader.com director Mike Neel announced Tuesday that he will be leaving his post with the country’s number two women’s racing team this Thursday and close out the year working with Italy’s Saeco men’s squad and “finishing up the details on a new project for 2002.” Neel told VeloNews that he will take up a new role with Saeco, acting as an assistant director for the team while it competes in the upcoming San Francisco Grand Prix and the 2001 BMC Tour of Houston. Saeco is sending an eight-man team to the U.S. including sprinting ace Mario Cipollini and American Justin Spinelli. Neel, the

With one day remaining, world time trial champion Sergei Gontchar (Liquigas-Pata) held onto the overall lead at the Tour of the Netherlands, while Telekom’s Danilo Hondo took the stage 5 win on Friday. U.S. Postal Service’s Viatcheslav Ekimov holds down third place overall, with Mercury’s Leon Van Bon just behind in fifth. Americans Dylan Casey (U.S. Postal Service) and Chris Wherry (Mercury) also find themselves in the top 10. Gontchar took the race lead on Thursday’s stage 4 time trial, a 23km course in Denekamp. The Ukrainian beat Dutchman Bart Voskamp (Bankgiroloterij) by 33 seconds,

Crank up those VCRs. The Saturn Cycling Classic will be hitting the airwaves on Thursday, August 30. If you missed seeing it live, or just want to re-live the suffering caused by a 140-mile-long course that covers 14,000 feet of climbing and twice crests climbs at altitudes over 11,000 feet, ESPN2 will be broadcasting a 30-minute recap of the race at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time. Crédit Agricole’s Jonathan Vaughters – riding for the HandleBar and Grill squad – battled down to the wire with Mercury’s Chris Horner for the first prize, a brand-new, yet-to-be-released Saturn VUE Sport Utility

Jan Ullrich is becoming cycling's second-place hero. The 28-year-old German finished second behind Paolo Bettini of Mapei in a four-up sprint in Sunday's Championship of Zurich, giving the Telekom rider his third second-place finish in this World Cup race. "I am very angry I finished second again," Ullrich said after losing by a bike length to an ecstatic Bettini. "This race is tailor-made for me. Some day I will come back here to win." The bitter disappointment for Ullrich comes just weeks after finishing second to Lance Armstrong in the 2001 Tour de France, where he's finished second four

Canadian Lori-Ann Muenzer took her second gold medal at the World Track Cup round No. 5, in Ipoh, Malaysia, on Sunday. Muenzer, who had already won the match sprint gold earlier in the weekend, won the women’s 500-meters, ahead of German Katrin Meinke and China’s Wang Yan. In other racing, Americans Colby Pearce and Jame Carney took silver in the Madison, behind the Swiss pair of Franco Marvulli and Alexander Aeschbach, and Marty Nothstein took bronze in the keirin, behind 19-year-old Australian Jobie Dajka and France’s Florian Rousseau.

Jame Carney scored the bronze medal in the points race on Saturday, the highlight of the U.S. squad’s performance in the first two days of the fifth and final round of the UCI World Track Cup, in Ipoh, Malaysia. Mathew Gilmore, riding for Belgium, won the points race on Saturday night, with Denmark’s Jimmi Madsen edging Carney for second place by one point, 16 to 15. The next best U.S. performance came from Erin Mirabella, who finished fourth in the women’s pursuit, won by Germany’s Christina Becker. Canadian Lori-Ann Muenzer won the match sprint.

After two stages of rolling terrain, the climbers came to the forefront in stage 3 of the Grand Prix Feminin International du Quebec on Friday. The 99km stage began in Richford, Vermont, and ended in stage winner Lyne Bessette's (Saturn) hometown of Knowlton, Quebec.

Stage 2 of the Grand Prix Feminin International du Quebec was a 123km circuit race starting and finishing in Frelighsburg, near the U.S.-Canadian border southeast of Montreal. The peloton split on the first of two climbs, approximately 20km into the stage. At the 50km mark, Intersports rider Catherine Marsal initiated a break from the front group that would eventually put her in the leader's jersey. The group of five riders also included Ina Teutenberg (Saturn), Nicole Cooke (UK National Team), Katrina Berger (AutoTrader.com) and Nicole Demars (800.com). Within the first 5km they put 30

Spaniard Juan Miguel Mercado (iBanesto.com) won the Vuelta a Burgos in Spain, which concluded on Friday in Burgos with the 164km fifth stage, won by former world champion Oscar Freire (Mapei-Quick Step). Mercado, just 23 years old, took over the violet leader’s jersey on the second day of the five-day race. Friday’s final stage was animated by Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, who made a break at the 17km mark and was joined by Czech rider Pavel Padrnos, Dane Bjarke Nielsen, Italian Elio Aggiano and Spaniard Miguel Angel Pena. The five built up a lead of up to four minutes, but

Julie Young (Autotrader.com) donned the leader's jersey at the end of the first stage of the Grand Prix Feminin International du Quebec. Young was a member of a nine-rider breakaway that got away 18km into the 97km stage around the town of Farnham, south and east of Montreal. The break was initially composed of Young, her teammate Sarah Ulmer, Julia Farell (VeriZon), Andrea Hannos (VeriZon), Pia Sundstedt (Intersports), Charlotte Hopkinson (Great Britain), Melissa Holt (Rona), Ina Teutenberg (Saturn) and Anke Erlank (Saturn). Holt was called back to the peloton to support an unsuccessful

Italy's Massimo Apollonio, riding for the Vini Caldirola team, won a spectacular sprint finish to take the fourth stage of the Tour of Burgos in Medina de Pomar, Spain, on Thursday. Spaniard Juan Miguel Mercado of the ibanesto.com team retains the overall leader's purple jersey after the 184km run between Ona and Medina de Pomar. Apollonio won a bunch sprint finish on the descent into Medina De Pomar to edge ahead of Argentine Martin Garrido and Spain's former world champion Oscar Freire in 4:33:55. The iBanesto.com team blocked most breakaway attempts during the day to conserve Mercado's

French amateur Franck Laurance won a sprint finish at the third stage of the Tour du Limousin in France on Thursday. Bonjour’s Franck Bouyer retained the overall lead, six seconds ahead of Patrick Jonker (Big Mat) after the 193.2km stage between Ussel and La Souterraine. The 193km stage saw a breakaway of almost 160km, starting at the 25th km when eight riders escaped. That group gained a lead of 4:20, but was brought back into the fold with 10km to go, setting up the sprint finish won by Laurance. American Bobby Julich (Crédit Agricole) took fifth in the sprint, and held onto eighth place

Jackie Simes II, 1936 national road champion and U.S. Bicycling Hall of Famer, died August 10 at age 87 of heart failure following a series of strokes. He died in a hospital near his home in New Tripoli, Pennsylvania. A second-generation racer, Simes inspired his son, Jack Simes III, to compete in a career that spanned three Olympics and a silver medal in the pursuit at the 1968 world championships, and grandsons, Ryan Simes Oelkers and Jack Simes IV to make the Simes family span more than a century of racing. Referred to by friends as Jackie, he was born John Weston Simes II on January

After a day of intermittent rain showers, which at times drenched the early races, the sun finally shown down on Downers Grove, Illinois, for the main event on Sunday, the USPRO Criterium Championship. And on the gorgeous late-afternoon in the suburb of Chicago, a pair of riders shared the day in the sun, with Saturn’s Dutchman Harm Jansen taking the win and Navigator’s Kirk O’Bee sprinting into the national champion’s jersey. With both the prestige of the overall win and the prize of the stars-and-stripes jersey at stake, Saturn and Navigators took different approaches to the race, and it

In a season dominated by the monster Saturn team, the little guys finally had a chance to do some damage on Sunday at the women’s national criterium championship in Downer’s Grove, Illinois. It came down to a battle royale between two of the fastest women in the county, who had a total of one teammate between them. In the end, Nicole Freedman (Credit Suisse First Boston) had one move too many for defending champion Laura Van Gilder (Verizon Wireless), who struggled through a tough race to put herself in a position to fight for the win. Going into the race, everybody was looking to see what

It was a tale of two Erik’s in the HEW Cyclassics World Cup race Sunday. Erik Zabel finally won the race that was missing on his extensive palmares while Erik Dekker finished third and took a decisive lead in the 2001 World Cup series with just three races to go. Both Eriks were jubilant. Erik the First verified his status as German sports hero, while Erik the Second is en route to becoming the first Dutch rider to win the overall World Cup title. The 251-km (155-mile) race burned with a slow fuse. The seventh stop of the 10-round World Cup series started sluggishly but ended loud like a

Alfa Lum’s Joane Somarriba rode into Paris Sunday, victorious in her second successive Grande Boucle feminine cycliste after finishing the 14th and final stage with the main field. Russian cycliste Olga Slioussareva won the 117.8 km stage from Pierrelaye (Val-d'Oise) to Paris, reaffirming her hold on the overall sprint-points jersey.Somarriba was greeted by a large number of Basque fans lining the final circuit on the on the prestigious avenue Foch, west of Paris. The Basque cyclist, who has lost the leader’s jersey only between the 7th and 9th stages of the Grand Boucle, bested her

Jan Ullrich could walk down just about any street in America unrecognized. The 28-year-old German with distinctive red hair doesn’t have that luxury in his home country. More than 50 fans cheered Ullrich early Saturday afternoon as he pulled up in front of the posh Hamburg Park Hyatt for the 6th Annual HEW Cyclassics bike race. Dressed in a leather coat, jeans and designer shoes, Ullrich patiently signed autographs and posed for pictures. Ullrich is one of Germany’s major sports stars, outranked only by top soccer players and Formula One racer Michael Schumacher. Ullrich, who lived here

Does a two-hour cross-country effort combining endurance and technical skills on the tricky natural terrain of a Vermont forest have anything in common with the effort required to go all out on short, flat man-made circles for 20 minutes? Doesn’t seem like it does, but Roland Green and Chrissy Redden, winners of Friday’s NORBA cross-country race at Mount Snow — the one with the woods and the roots and the endurance and all that — also won Sunday’s short-track race, proving one thing: When you’re on, you’re on. "It was all elbows," reported Redden after she completed the weekend sweep on a

Mercury’s Derek Bouchard-Hall has engineering degrees from Princeton and Stanford. The guy’s no dummy. So when people around him are toying with the laws of physics, he knows what to do: hit the brakes. A little smarts went a long way for Bouchard-Hall on Saturday night in Downers Grove, Illinois, as he saved his skin and won the USPRO Criterium warm-up race, the Extran Pro-Am Challenge. Bouchard-Hall was setting up for a field-sprint finish to the 32-lap race on the tight, one-mile, eight-corner course in Downers Grove, heading into the final turn right alongside Saturn’s Ivan Dominguez and

Following the 10th stage at the 15th running of La Grand Boucle Féminine, defending champion Joane Somarriba has retaken the lead in the world’s biggest stage race for women. Entering the 10th of 14 stages, the Spanish Alfa Lum rider had found herself in second place, six seconds behind Lithuanian Rasa Polikieviciute (Acca Due O). But Somarriba won the stage 10 individual time trial to move back in front, 2:41 ahead of France’s Jeannie Longo. Previous race leader Polikieviciute fell to seventh, 4:34 behind Somarriba. Somarriba started the 15-day race by taking the opening time trial in her

With a brand new copy of Saturn’s new SUV going to the winner, the prize list at Colorado’s Saturn Cycling Classic isn’t exactly the prize list you’d see at your typical office park criterium. Of course, the rather atypical course -- 140 miles and 15,000 feet of climbing -- meant you’d have to work to even get a peek at that prize list. In this, the second edition of a bike race that sprang from the twisted and somewhat sadistic mind of organizer Len Pettyjohn, a new sponsor had joined the effort and upped the stakes. Jonathan Vaughters, recently back from a disappointing early end to his