Olympic Games

Theo Bos says he's looking forward to the arrival of Mark Renshaw to Rabobank and says he's mulling a return to the track for another shot at Olympic gold next season.

"I definitely aim for a medal. Preferably gold. Gold's cool."

LONDON (AFP) — Britain's Olympic cycling champion Rebecca Romero confirmed on Monday that she will not compete at the London 2012 Games next summer.

Michael Barry is heading to China for the season-ending Tour of Beijing confident in the knowledge that he has a contract for next year.

Check out Brian Holcombe's author page.

Graham Watson captures the action at the 2011 London-Surrey Cycle Classic, the official test event for the 2012 Olympic road race.

Great Britain's Mark Cavendish won the Olympic road race test event in London on Sunday.

Olympic Games organizers say they will hold a road racing test event a scheduled Sunday despite growing violence in London suburbs.

Tyler Farrar and Mark Cavendish are among the top riders participating in a test event this weekend held on the course to be featured in the 2012 London Olympic Games.

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Italy's Olympic cycling champion Attilio Pavesi has died aged 100 in a retirement home in Buenos Aires, his family announced on Wednesday.

American's Jeremiah Bishop (Cannondale) and Georgia Gould (Luna) posted promising results at a test race held on the 2012 Olympic mountain bike course near London on Sunday.

SYDNEY (AFP) ─ Tour de France champion Cadel Evans would love to ride for Australia at the London Olympics, but only if the course is tough enough.

Test event on new Olympic XC track outside London is scheduled for July 31

USA Cycling released its selection procedures to be used to select members of the men's road squad for the 2012 Olympics in London. The procedures outline the selection process to qualify for the men’s Olympic road race and time trial in London 2012.

Must Reads: London Olympic TT courses finalized; Queally eyes Olys return

After the recent birth of her child, Olympic champion Kristin Armstrong is back on the bike and getting ready to race. She spent some time in San Diego's low-speed wind tunnel with Peanut Butter & Co.-Twenty12 and sponsors dialing in her fit and new equipment.

Julien Absalon is the torch-bearer for a generation of racers. Is he ready to pass the flame to Nino Schurter?

The organizing committee of the 2012 Olympic Games announced dates and ticket prices for cycling events at the London Games on Tuesday.

Cross-country MTB set for Hadleigh Farm, in Essex — 2-hour drive from London

How does ‘cross queen Compton plan to fit in MTB at Rabobank-Giant Off-Road?

Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin continues to insist that he didn’t dope at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, where he won a silver medal.

2011 MTB worlds and 2012 World Cup season results biggest factors

More than two and a half years after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Alexander Kolobnev will finally receive his bronze medal.

USA Cycling has released the selection procedures that will be used to determine the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team across all four Olympic disciplines — road, mountain bike, track and BMX.

In part 2, McQuaid talks about the UCI's agreement with grand tour organizers, why the individual pursuit is gone from the Olympics and whether cyclocross could become a winter Olympic event.

The move from the Subaru-Trek squad to Trek World Racing means Willow is focused on World Cup podiums and London in 2012.

UCI deems 2012 London Olympic MTB course "stunning, challenging."

Eladio Jimenez Sanchez and Massimo Giunti also get two-year penalties, fines, for doping.

The International Court of Arbitration for Sport has rejected Davide Rebellin's appeal against a doping charge from the 2008 Olympics.

The United Kingdom’s Sport performance director Peter Keen says the Sky team's Tour de France efforts may put Olympic dreams at risk.

To raise money for waging a European World Cup campaign and hopeful Olympic berth, six-time national endurance mountain bike champ Pua Sawicki will raffle her Team Mata Carriage C-Force fifth-wheel toy hauler and Ford F-250.

Embattled Italian rider Davide Rebellin is challenging charges that he doped during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and denied that he took performance-enhancing substances.

British cycling great Chris Hoy is ready to abandon the defence of some of his Olympic titles at the 2012 London Games ifit increases his chances of adding to his gold medal collection

Champion triathlete Iván Raña is giving up on his one-year experiment trying to race in the professional ranks to return full-time to triathlon.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today confirmed the new track programme which was proposed by the UCI for the XXX Olympic Games in London 2012. In its report to the IOC after the Beijing Olympic Games, the UCI had requested that 2 extra track events for women be added to the programme in order to increase women participation in the track and indeed to give a more meaningful number of events for women to compete in.

The International Olympic Committeehas approved UCI recommendations to make changes to Olympic track events for 2012.

The International Olympic Committee is reviewing UCI recommendations to make changes to Olympic track events for 2012.

Aussie cycling star was part of Cycling Australia's development program, winning two mountain bike World Cups before his move to the road.

Two-time world champion Paolo Bettini has been accused of tax evasion, allegedly avoiding 11 million Euros in Italian taxes.

The Pro XCT will feature six UCI-sanctioned events in 2010, kicking off in California on March 13. Races follow in Alabama, Wisconsin and Colorado.

New site was chosen last year to replace initial venue after the UCI ruled that it was not challenging enough.

VeloNews Editor at large John Wilcockson makes the case for keeping a proven draw by disposing of an event with little public interest — the team sprint.

Facing a ban after a positive test for EPO, Gabriele Bosisio pleads his innocence at a hearing with the Italian Olympic Committee.

In a new weekly column, "Out of Dish," Singletrack.com will scour the nether-regions of cyberspace for cycling-related material and then disgorge, plop and present it right on your doorstep. And it won't (hardly) ever be in a burning paper bag.

Fan of the individual pursuit are circulating an online petition to urge the UCI to keep the event in the Olympics.

Question: "I recently read about the UCI’s decision to strip Davide Rebellin of the silver medal he 'won' at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing because he tested positive for CERA. As my kid would say, 'big whoop.'"

Readers chime in on Olympic plans, tarnished silver and apologies.

Removing individual pursuit from the Olympics is a mistake, John Wilcockson tells UCI President Pat McQuaid

2009 World Cup champ Julien Absalon has extended his contract with mountain bike manufacturer Orbea with an eye on London Olympics.

Had Chicago won its bid for the 2016 Olympics, the MTB venue would have been in Wisconsin. Rio's mountain bike venue hosted the 2007 Pan American games, where Adam Craig took gold.

Rio de Janeiro will become the first South American city to host the Olympics after the International Olympic Committee voted to award the 2016 Games to the former Brazilian capital on Friday. The city of Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics came to an early end after the city was eliminated in the first round of voting during the IOC's site selection meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Mark Cavendish, the only member of Britain's successful track cycling team to fail to win a medal at the Beijing Olympics, has hit out at the nation's obsession with the Games. Cavendish went to Beijing as the Madison world champion alongside Bradley Wiggins, but the duo's competitions earlier in the year left them weary and they finished ninth. The 23-year-old from the Isle of Man had won four Tour de France stages in July, while Wiggins had already won golds in the individual pursuit and team pursuit by the time he competed in the Madison.

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) announced Tuesday it has learned that one of that country's athletes tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance at last summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing. According to a news release issued Tuesday, CONI was informed of a positive A sample and has notified the athlete of the result. Under the provisions of the World Anti-Doping Code, he or she has the option to ask that his B sample be tested to confirm the result.

British sportsman of the year, Chris Hoy, may be in line for an even greater honor according to British media reports this weekend. Hoy, who earned three gold medals at this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, has been recommended for a knighthood, one of the few active competitors to ever have received the honor.

A federal jury has awarded more than $300,000 to mountain bike racer Susan Haywood for USA Cycling’s failure to report race results to the UCI, an act of negligence, the court concluded, that cost her a spot on the 2004 Olympic team. In the summer of 2004 Haywood was embroiled in a global race for UCI points with Mary McConneloug to secure a nomination to the country’s only slot for women in the upcoming Olympic Games in Athens. By mid-July, Haywood was initially given the nomination, leading McConneloug by a single point, 1489 to 1488.

Victoria Pendleton has told 2012 Olympic Games chiefs it will be an embarrassment if women are not allowed to compete in the same number of races as male cyclists. Pendleton triumphed in the women's sprint in Beijing, one of eight golds won in an impressive total haul of 13 medals secured by the British track team at the Laoshan Velodrome. However, in China there were only three women's events on the track compared to seven for men. And that has left Pendleton feeling her achievement was "insignificant" compared to the three golds won in Beijing by British team-mate Chris Hoy.

Chris Hoy, who won three gold medals on the velodrome at this summer's Beijing Olympics, is launching a program to seek out and develop his successor in time for the 2012 London Olympics and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The cyclist launched the Chris Hoy Scholarship Tuesday at Murrayshall House Hotel in Scone Perthshire, the location of the Stone of Destiny where Kings of Scotland were crowned. The project will work with companies that invest in grass roots sports and support the development of Great Britain’s future Olympians.

Blood samples taken at the Beijing Olympics are to be reanalyzed for a new variant of the banned blood booster EPO using a new detection system developed for the Tour de France, the IOC announced Wednesday. The retroactive controls are designed to seek out the presence of the new generation of EPO known as CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator).

The United States Olympic Committee has apologized to four Olympic track cyclists whose decision to wear facemasks into Beijing sparked controversy on the eve of the 2008 games. In a letter to cyclists Mike Friedman, Bobby Lea, Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed, USOC Chief Executive Officer James E. Scherr said, “We apologize if you felt that the USOC or your National Governing Body did not appropriately support you through this incident, and you should rest assured it was not our intent.”

Four American Olympic track cyclists want an apology from the United States Olympic Committee for its actions in the wake of their decisions to wear protective facemasks in Beijing last month. On August 4 Americans Sarah Hammer, Jennie Reed, Mike Friedman and Bobby Lea all stepped off their flight at Beijing’s Capital International Airport wearing black masks to protect against Beijing’s air pollution. The masks were issued to the cyclists from the sports science department of the USOC.

Neal Henderson is the Sport Science Manager at Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. He is a USA Cycling certified coach and works with a diverse clientele at BCSM. He has been Taylor Phinney’s personal coach since 2006 and traveled with Phinney and his family in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics. This is his wrap-up column following the Olympics. The 2008 Olympic Games have officially ended and Taylor Phinney had the best finish for an American men’s individual pursuit rider since Steve Hegg won gold in 1984.

During his three-week assignment to cover the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, VeloNews reporter Fred Dreier roamed China's capital city armed with his point-and-shoot digital camera. A professional photographer he is not, but Fred managed to snap a few photos of a side of the games not seen by all.

Both Canada and the United States recorded their worst ever finishes in men’s mountain biking in Laoshan, as Geoff Kabush’s 20th place finish — 7:56 down on Absalon — marked the top North American result. Seamus McGrath and Todd Wells were pulled from the race with three laps remaining, and officials yanked Adam Craig off the course with one lap to go. McGrath and Wells finished in 44th and 43rd place, with Craig in 29th. In 1996 Canadian Warren Sallenback was the top North American finisher in 13th place, and in 2000 and 2004 Kabush and McGrath both placed ninth, respectively.

Frenchman Julien Absalon took his mountain bike status to new heights on Saturday when he became the first rider to defend the men's Olympic cross country title. US and Canadian men had a dismal day, with Canadian Geoff Kabush the top North American finisher in 20th place. At only 28 years old, he said motivating himself for a third consecutive gold in London should be no problem. "The Olympic Games is a massive motivation for every athlete and four years passes quickly, as it has from Athens to Beijing," said Absalon.

Germany’s Sabine Spitz owns a closet full of silver and bronze medals from mountain bike racing’s biggest events — the Olympics, world championships and World Cup. The 36-year-old patiently rode in the shadows of ’04 Olympic champ Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå during the four years in which the Norwegian ruled over the sport.

The two BMX gold medalists at the Beijing Olympic Games trained on numerous occasions on the BMX track at the World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland. Latvia’s Maris Strombergs took the gold medal in the men’s competition, while the French rider Anne-Caroline Chausson claimed Olympic glory in the women’s event. Maris Strombergs and his Olympic team mates trained four times at the WCC this year. Their fourth and final training camp finished on August 15th, when they flew directly to Beijing for the final countdown to the competition.

France’s Anne-Caroline Chausson out-pedaled, out-jumped and out-maneuvered the world’s best female BMX riders to win the inaugural Olympic BMX race at the Laoshan cycling venue. The Frenchwoman, who also owns 16 world titles in gravity mountain bike racing, grabbed the biggest single prize of her storied career ahead of compatriot Laetitia le Corguille. Amerian Jill Kintner crossed the finish line in third to bring the United States its first-ever medal in Olympic BMX.

Maris Strombergs put Latvia on top of the BMX world by taking the inaugural Olympic gold medal in flying fashion. The 21-year-old Latvian, who won the BMX world title earlier this year, earned Latvia its first medal of the 2008 Olympics, crossing the line ahead of Americans Mike Day and Donny Robinson. “It didn’t matter if it was the Olympics, the world championships or the European championships, the feeling is the same,” Strombergs said. “I was very cool and concentrated.”

Antipass Kwari is under no illusions about his chances of medal glory ahead of this Saturday's Olympic mountain bike gold race. But his coach Wayne Davidson is getting excited about the opportunity Kwari, the first Zimbabwean to compete in Olympic mountain biking, has to showcase the sport to Africa. "The importance of this cannot be put into words. It is absolutely monstrous for us," said Davidson. "Cycling is very difficult to develop in Africa. With one soccer ball you can have 22 players. To develop a cyclist you need one bicycle. It's beyond the means of most people.

The women's Olympic mountain bike race has been postponed until Saturday because of rain damage to the course, the UCI confirmed on Thursday. The decision follows the postponement of the sem-final rounds of BMX competition earlier in the day. The women's mountain bike race, held on a 4.5km loop to be raced for approximately 1 hour 40 minutes, was due to be held on Friday. [nid:82158]It means that both the women's and men's Olympic races will be held on Saturday, with a scheduled start of 10:00 a.m. for women and 3:00 p.m. for the men.

A year ago, the world’s elite mountain bikers poured into Beijing for a test event on the Olympic course and the results were not encouraging. Riders were gagging on the oppressive heat and thick smog. Some were literally vomiting from the double-whammy sucker punch of heat and pollution. A fast, wide-open course provided few challenges and many were wondering if the Chinese had blown it. Flash-forward a year and things are very different ahead of Friday’s and Saturday’s races on the Laoshan mountain bike course.

The Jill Kintner that will compete in Wednesday’s Olympic BMX finals is not the same woman who took her third world title in four-cross mountain biking just 11 months ago. Sure, she still boasts the same chatty personality, curly ponytail and toothy grin — those qualities aren’t going anywhere. But the Kintner of today is a bigger, badder, stronger version of her former self. Bulging triceps flex from under her shirtsleeves, thick hamstrings and quads fill out her jeans. She’s ripped.