Olympic Games

World women's road champion Marta Bastianelli has tested positive for a banned stimulant in a test conducted by the International Cycling Union (UCI), Italian news agency Ansa reported on Monday. Bastianelli tested positive for the stimulant in a control run by the International Cycling Union (UCI) during the Under-23 World Championships at Verbania on July 5, the competition at which she qualified for next month's Olympic Games in Beijing.

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has been put under the spotlight by a report that claims the world cycling body was paid to help get track cycling's keirin event on the Olympic program in 1996. The BBC reported on its Web site that it possesses documents which "reveal a series of substantial payments to the UCI, which began just two months after the keirin was accepted into the Olympics in December 1996.” The report, which was denied by a top Japanese official, claims that $3 million was "paid by organizers of a Japanese cycling event to the UCI — the world cycling body.”

Denmark's cross-country mountain bike champion Peter Riis Andersen, who was to compete in the Beijing Olympics, has failed a drugs test, the Danish sporting federation DIF said on Monday. Andersen, 28, one of 84 Danish athletes selected to take part in the Games, tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO (erythroipoietin). The DIF have expelled him from the Olympic squad. Andersen, who rides for the German Team ALB-GOLD, won the Danish championships on July 20 and had been hoping for a top 10 finish in the Olympics, which open on August 8.

Another July, another US National Championships coinciding with with the best race ever. That being Mount Snow, Vermont.

Great Britain's cyclists are planning a gold-medal spree at the Beijing Olympics. Defending Olympic champions Bradley Wiggins and Chris Hoy are the leading contenders among a 25-strong team harboring realistic gold-medal hopes in six disciplines. Britain's cyclists impressed in Athens four years ago when Wiggins and Hoy won gold, the men's pursuit team secured silver and Wiggins also won a bronze in the men's Madison alongside Rob Hayles. But the world's top-ranked track cycling team will arrive in China stronger than ever, according to team chief Dave Brailsford.

The past week has been quite a busy one. First, Taylor finished up with the UCI junior track world championships by racing in the points race last Monday. There were two qualifying heats in the afternoon that were used to field the final later on that evening. Taylor went extremely well in the qualifying heat and won a couple of the sprints and also took a lap on the field, winning convincingly. He felt good about the qualifying race and was excited about the final.

Mountain biker Chris Jongewaard failed in his attempt to join Australia's team for next month's Beijing Olympics when he was turned down for selection by the Australian Olympic Committee here Saturday. Jongewaard is facing hit and run and drink-driving offenses relating to a road accident last year which left fellow cyclist Matthew Rex with severe head injuries. He has pleaded not guilty and is due to face court again later this year.

Today marks one week in South Africa for Taylor and I. It's been a good week so far, but there have been the ups and downs. When I left off last time we still didn't have Taylor's bike and the weather had been not so nice.

Australian mountain biker Chris Jongewaard has won his appeal against Cycling Australia for omitting him from the 2008 Olympic squad. The Cycling Australia High Performance Management Committee (HPMC) has decided to allow the 29-year-old to represent his country at the August 8-24 Olympics in Beijing.

And They’re Off! Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa! Today is day 2 for Taylor and me in South Africa. I left Boulder on Monday, was delayed departing from Denver to Dulles and barely made the flight from Dulles to Frankfurt.

USA Cycling has added the final three names to its 24-member Beijing Olympic cycling squad. Roadies Amber Neben (Irvine, California) and Christine Thorburn (Sunnyvale, California) and mountain biker Mary McConneloug (Chilmark, Massachusetts) are the latest additions to the squad that will represent the United States in China next month. They join the 21 riders USA Cycling announced on July 1 (list below). The three earned discretionary selections and were nominated by a nine-person selection committee. A second Games for Thorburn[nid:79896]

French cycling legend and five-time world champion Jeannie Longo on Tuesday clinched a 55th national title in winning the individual pursuit at the national championships in 3:48:896 ahead of great rival and holder Cathy Moncassin. "I started off a bit less quick than Cathy but from half-way I gave it all I had," said the 49-year-old Longo, who later this summer expects to compete in her seventh Olympics. She booked a berth last month with an outstanding win in both the road race and time trial at the French championships.

For the last year, American cross-country mountain bike racer Adam Craig (Giant) has been battling it out on the World Cup and National Mountain Bike Series for a slot on the U.S. team. Last week, after a solid performance at the world championships, Craig got word that he had made the team. This week he shares his journal and includes a report from his Giant teammate, Carl Decker. —Editor

Just the Facts - Who, What, Where, When and Why This article will serve as a basic introduction to a weekly column that I’ll be posting at VeloNews.com over the next couple of months. I am Taylor Phinney’s personal coach and I will be traveling with Taylor and his family from Boulder to the junior world championships in South Africa, and then through the Olympic Games in Beijing. Here is your chance to vicariously travel to the Olympics and get an inside glimpse into the world of a soon-to-be Olympian and his coach.

“I’d shake your hand but this one’s a bit cut up,” says Taylor Phinney as we sit down to talk at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine in Boulder, Colorado. His knuckles show the signs of a brush with the pavement, and an elbow is covered with gauze. Despite the injury and the past two hours spent answering questions from a gaggle of reporters, Taylor is lively and ready to talk. Mom and dad are there, with his coach Neal Henderson, representatives from Team Garmin-Chipotle and even a cinematographer filming a documentary about the 18-year-old world champion.

Todd Wells is heading to China. With his impressive World Cup results this year, Wells grabbed the first of the United States’ two men’s spots for the Beijing Olympics. For the second-straight Games, the Durango, Colorado, resident is donning the stars and stripes to represent his country on cross-country mountain bike racing’s biggest stage.

French cycling legend Jeannie Longo has all but clinched a place in the Beijing Olympics at the age of 49. The five-time world champion staked her claim with an outstanding win in the time-trial at the French National Championships on Thursday. She finshed in 31 minutes 16 seconds, more than a minute ahead of second-placed Edwige Pitel. The French team for China has yet to be named, but her win in the national championships puts her in prime position to grab a spot. [nid:78920]

France's reigning Olympic mountain bike champion Julien Absalon has admitted that losing his world title has relieved him of some of the pressure ahead of this summer's Olympics. Absalon, the world cross-country champion a remarkable four years in a row (2004-2007), failed to finish the men's world championship race Sunday in Italy won by Christoph Sauser of Switzerland.

Spain's Alberto Contador, who is looking to win the Tour of Spain in September to add to victories in the Tour of Italy and Tour de France, said Monday that winning the world's three main cycling races would be better than winning an Olympic medal. "I want to do well at the Tour of Spain even if that means that in order to prepare myself better for it I am not at 100 percent for the Games," he told reporters in Madrid. "I have won the Tour de France and the Giro and if I achieved a triple it would be more historical than getting an Olympic medal," he added.

The Canadian Cycling Association nominated its road racing team for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing this August. Leading the men’s side the selections are Ryder Hesjedal of Victoria who has posted several top-10 international results this season, veteran Michael Barry of Toronto a integral member of the successful High Road pro team and Svein Tuft of Langley, B.C. the America Tour champion last year, who is coming off a quadruple-gold medal performance at the Pan Am Championships.

American Sarah Hammer rode to a bronze medal in the individual pursuit as the second round of the UCI Track World Cup Classics series opened Friday in Beijing. Australian Katie Mactier took the gold with Britain’s Rebecca Romero second. In men’s racing, Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain took the individual pursuit ahead of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Dyudya with Russian Alexander Serov winning the bronze-medal round against American Taylor Phinney. Wiggins, the reigning Olympic and world champion, made a late-race comeback to take the gold. Dyudya led at the 2000- and 3000-meter marks, but Wiggins

Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans and three-time world time-trial champion Michael Rogers say next year's road race at the Beijing Olympics will be tougher than expected. The Australian pair made their assessments after racing on the circuit Saturday as part of at the Good Luck Beijing Road Cycling International Invitational, the official 2008 Olympic test event. Italian Gabriele Bosisio won the race, three seconds ahead of Kazakh Alexandr Dyachenko with Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali third at 0:47. Evans took fifth in the same time. Jon Garcia was the top finisher for the six-man U.S.

UCI chief Pat McQuaid has dismissed as "complete false" a report that cycling could be axed from the Olympic Games. A senior European International Olympic Committee member told AFP on Wednesday, speaking under anonymity, that the troubled sport risks being ejected from the Games because of the consistent spate of drug scandals. However, UCI chief McQuaid said Friday that was not on the IOC’s agenda. "That is completely false and is not on the agenda," McQuaid told France 2 television. "The IOC supports cycling, as it does all federations who are trying to fight agaginst doping. The system

Michael Rasmussen hasn’t raced a mountain bike since the 2001 world championships, when he flatted 2km from what looked like an all-but-certain second world title. Since switching to the road, the Dane has evolved into one of the most consistent climbers in the peloton, winning back-to-back best-climber’s jerseys and a stage each year at the 2005-06 Tours de France. For 2008, Rasmussen will be taking another stab at the fat tires in a bid to earn a spot on the Danish Olympic team for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. “I just received my mountain bike from Colnago yesterday at my bike

The on-again, off-again courtship between Russian businessman Oleg Tinkov and Jan Ullrich may be back on again, if recent press reports are to be believed. Back in November 2006, Tinkoff Credit Systems team manager Omar Piscina told Agence France Presse that title sponsor Tinkoff was "a huge fan" and wanted to sign Ullrich, but that the former Tour de France winner didn’t seem interested. "It has been more than a month since we spoke," Piscina said at the time. On Friday, during a team presentation in Moscow, Tinkov confirmed reports that he had tried to sign Ullrich and said the major

Gonzales draws 2-year suspensionFormer Vuelta a España winner Aitor Gonzalez was suspended for two years Friday on doping-related offenses after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld an appeal by the UCI. Spaniard Gonzalez, the 2002 winner, tested positive for methyltestosterone during the Vuelta last year and during an earlier out-of-competition test in August 2005. The Spanish cycling federation decided only to fine him in May after he presented a research report saying that a food supplement he had been taking had been contaminated. However, the CAS said in a statement that Gonzalez

Bogota, Colombia - October 19 (AFP) - Colombian cyclist Maria Luisa Calle has won back the Olympic bronze medal she lost at the Athens Games after she tested positive for a banned stimulant, her coach Jose Julian Velasquez said Wednesday. A spokesman for cycling's international governing body, the UCI, confirmed the news which was also confirmed by the athlete's lawyer. Calle won the bronze medal in the track points competition but was disqualified after she tested positive for heptaminol. Afterwards the 35-year-old protested her innocence and said she had taken paracetamol for a

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

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

THIERS, France (AP)Lance Armstrong is picking his country to finish second in the race for the 2012 Olympics. The Texan endorsed Paris instead of New York when asked Wednesday which city should win the highly competitive bid for the Summer Games. "To be fair, I think that Paris deserves the Olympics,'' Armstrong said in an interview with The Associated Press. ``I think they were arguably the best candidate in 2008 but for different reasons Paris didn't win, and they went to Beijing.'' The six-time Tour de France champion acknowledged he was torn over the decision, and

The five cities looking to host the 2012 Summer Games submitted bids to the International Olympic Committee on Monday, with Paris the front-runner to win next year's vote. London, Madrid, New York and Moscow also turned in documents, each book totaling more than 550 pages. The IOC will evaluate such credentials as venues, security, transportation, hotels and financing. “The bid document in itself is not enough to get you across the line, but it will make your bid better," said London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe, the Olympic 1500-meter champion in 1980 and 1984. “This is what I would

Tyler Hamilton's Olympic gold medal may be safe after the International Olympic Committee dropped disciplinary proceedings against him, but the Phonak rider could still face a two-year ban from cycling based on evidence of blood doping at the Vuelta a España. The IOC announced Thursday that it had dropped disciplinary proceedings against the Olympic time trial champion, begun after "an adverse analytical finding" on his A sample from the Athens Games, taken on August 19 in Athens. Tests on the B sample, taken the same day, proved "non-conclusive" because testers inadvertently placed the

The men's cross country on Saturday rang down the curtain on the cycling events at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, and VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson was on hand to catch the closing action.

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson was braving the Athens heat once again on Friday, capturing the action in the women's cross-country race. Here's a sampling of what he saw.

The Mail Bag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Olympics coverage much worse than Tour TV Editor:Having read your mailbag and other cycling forums with all the whining about Al, Bob, Phil and Paul during the coverage of the 2004 Tour de France, I found the comments quite comical after hearing some of the butchered commentary during

Aussie Ryan Bayley affirmed his status as world’s fastest man on a bike, taking his second gold medal of the 28th Olympiad by winning the keirin on the final day of track racing in Athens on Wednesday. The shaggy haired 22-year-old shot out from the bunch in the final of the keirin, cruising across the line well ahead of second-place finisher Jose Escuredo of Spain. German Rene Wolff was third, but was later relegated by the judges giving Shane Kelley the bronze, yet another medal for the green and gold. Paired with the Madison win by Graeme Brown and Stuart O'Grady, Australia will leave

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) said on Tuesday it will ask Athens Olympic organizers to try and get medals for cyclists Peter Dawson and Stephen Wooldridge who missed out on a team pursuit gold medal. Dawson and Wooldridge were nearly inconsolable after missing out on Australia's gold medal win on Monday in the 4000m team pursuit after riding in the record-setting qualifying round on Sunday. Under cycling's rules, unlike swimming's relays, only those who ride in the final get the medals. The Olympic rule differs from world championship events, in which all teammates share in the

In a battle of grace and finesse versus brawn and power, the brute force of Australian Ryan Bayley was the ticket to gold in the men’s sprint at the Olympic velodrome on Tuesday. After losing the opening heat of the best-of-three final against Dutchman Theo Bos, Bayley stormed back to take two straight, giving Australia its fourth cycling gold medal of the 28th Olympiad. It’s the best ever showing for the green-and-gold clad team that had been shadowed by a drug scandal on the lead-up to the Games. “After I lost the first heat I just got really agro,” said Bayley, who fits the part of a

Lori-Ann Muenzer earned Canada's first-ever Olympic cycling gold medal in the women's match sprint on the boards of the Athens Velodrome Tuesday. To reach the podium, Muenzer first had to reverse her world championship sprint loss to Australian Anna Meares in the semifinals and then dispatch Russian star Tamilla Abassova in the final. In a sport which rewards youthful power and speed, where certified legends like Florian Rousseau (30) and Jens Fiedler (34) just retired, Muenzer climbed to her sport's summit at 38 years of age and has no plans whatsoever to quit. "Age is just a number

After warming up with a weeklong training camp in France, the American triumvirate of Todd Wells, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Mary McConneloug arrived in Athens on Monday and got their first look at the Mont Parnitha mountain bike venue on Tuesday. With only one sustained descent, and two sharp climbs, Wells said there wouldn’t be much time to rest. “You’re going to be pedaling most of the time,” said the GT-Hyundai rider, who qualified for the Olympic team behind a 10th place finish at the Calgary World Cup. “It’s really dry, kind of loose and pebbly. There’s two climbs and a couple of

It's been an eventful two days at the velodrome in Athens. Photographer Casey Gibson has been there, documenting everything from Australia's team pursuit title to Lori-Ann Muenzer's ride to Canada's first-ever Olympic cycling gold medal.

Olympic cover-upDear Lennard,After watching the Olympic road race and time trial, I noticed an abundanceof tape covering helmet, bike and component logos. Why would countriesgoverning bodies force this on riders knowing that they race professionallyfor other teams?Some examples: Julich and Hamilton covering up the Bell logo on thesides of the TT helmet but not the front. While it looks like most peoplein the TT field were covering up bike and fork logos on the headtubes andfork legs. What gives?ShawnI’ll let Bell Sports answer that:It basically comes down to limits on equipment logo sizes

With all of the hype and excitement at the Athens Olympics, athletes still have to spend their down time getting ready for events, training or just relaxing with friend. During the Olympics, most of that down time takes place in the athletes' village. One frequent VeloNews contributor recently sent us a photo essay of life in the village.

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson is more than a shootist – occasionally, he's an ironist. In sending his shots from Saturday's record-shattering day at the Olympic velodrome, he noted: "Too bad this track is slow, and the heat keeps them from going fast."

Cycling was the teen-age Colby Pearce's therapy. He'd take long weekend rides in the Colorado mountains, a distraction from losing his mother to cancer when he was 8 and his father to a heart attack five years later. Pearce never stopped riding. Now, nearly two decades later, he's reached the Olympics as part of a seven-rider American track contingent. Competition at the velodrome opened Friday, with the first U.S. cyclists set to begin competing Saturday. “Everybody, to a degree, has their childhood wrapped up in them,” Pearce said. “They're a product of their past. That's inevitable. I

As his mentor and one-time gold medalist Chris Boardman looked on from inside the velodrome at the Olympics in Athens, Bradley Wiggins scored the second gold medal in two days for the team from Britain, winning the individual pursuit. Wiggins beat back the challenge of Aussie Brad McGee in the final, while Spain’s Sergi Escobar topped the U.K.’s Rob Hayles in the bronze-medal round. Wiggins said his Olympic dream first began while watching Boardman win gold at the 1992 Games in Barcelona. Since then the two have become good friends, as Boardman helped guide his protégé to Saturday’s golden

Britain, desperately searching around Athens for an Olympic gold medal, gets their big chance with an assault on the men's kilometer time trial on the opening day of the track cycling on Friday. The British look strongly placed to break through as they did in Sydney four years ago with world champion Chris Hoy, Craig MacLean or, possibly, defending Olympic champion Jason Queally in strong contention for gold. Back in 2000 it was a similar scenario before Queally became an instant hero when he claimed the kilo ahead of German Stefan Nimke and Australian Shane Kelly. Hoy has the form on the

In the days leading up to women’s Olympic time trial, Dutchwoman Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel admitted she thought she might not be able to start. The triple gold-medalist from Sydney crashed hard in Sunday’s road race and said she had pain all over her body. But with the end of her career looming, Zijlaard-van Moorsel couldn’t let that be her final cycling memory. On Wednesday she authored a more appropriate chapter, winning a gold medal on a sun-kissed 24km course in the coastal suburbs of Athens. Zijlaard-van Moorsel stopped the clock in 31:11.53, 24.09 seconds ahead of American Dede

As the sun crept above the horizon, bringing dawn to a new day here in Athens, Tyler Hamilton awoke with a terrible case of nerves. The afternoon Olympic time trial that awaited him was his last shot to truly erase the disappointment of his failed Tour de France bid a month earlier. Hamilton had said all week he had a good feeling about the 48km race to be contested in the southern suburbs of Greece’s capital, but now it was time to deliver. Half a day later the nice guy of American cycling had seen his premonition come true, besting reigning Olympic TT champion Viatcheslav Ekimov on a

When Bobby Julich crossed the finish line just 26.45 seconds behind teammate Tyler Hamilton in Wednesday’s Olympic individual time trial, it wasn’t just a victory for a man and his country–technology also won in the streets of Athens. Helping to power Julich’s bike were two very unusual chainrings that could very well transform the way we propel our bicycles in the future. Julich was riding a pair of French made, out-of-round, “Osymetric” chainrings which Julich claims have helped him all season. Now before you say, “Biopace,” think again. In a phone interview with VeloNews from France

Following two off days for the cycling events here at the Olympics in Athens, the men’s and women’s time trials are up next at Vouliagmeni Olympic Center. The 25-rider women’s field will kick things off at 1 p.m. local time on Wednesday, followed by 40 men at 3 p.m. The 24km-course starts on Athinas Avenue in front of the Vouliagmeni city hall, then heads down the coastal road to the turnaround at the Agia Marina. Wind will be a major factor in the race, which lacks any serious climbs but has several tough false flats. “The wind was really whipping [on Monday] and even today it’s blowing

Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel hopes to defend her Olympic time trial crowd on Wednesday despite a hard fall that knocked her out of Sunday’s road race and left her with bruises on shoulder, elbow and hip. The 34-year-old Dutchwoman, who won the road race, the individual time trial and the individual pursuit on the track at the Sydney Games four years ago, fell when she clipped Canadian Lyne Bessette’s rear wheel and brought Swiss Nicole Brandli crashing down on top of her. "I feel good, I slept good. I just hope that my legs are good," Zijlaard-van Moorsel said Tuesday of her recovery. "I

Arndt irked at German federation, not CarriganJudith Arndt says her hand gesture as she crossed the finish line in Sunday's women's road race in Athens was not directed at Australian winner Sara Carrigan, but rather at the German cycling federation for excluding her partner, Petra Rossner, from the German Olympic cycling team. Asked by reporters if her finger gesture was aimed at Carrigan, the 28-year-old said: "It wasn't anything to do with Sara. We gave the gold away. Petra is the best sprinter in the world. I'm sad that she did not ride with me. I dedicate my medal to her." The

Och’ fined for water handup outside feed zoneU.S. Olympic road coach Jim Ochowicz was fined Sunday for giving a bottle of water to a rider outside the approved area during the men's road race on Saturday. Ochowicz was fined the equivalent of about $162 by the UCI. No rider was named or fined, officials said. Temperatures topped 100 degrees on parts of the course Saturday, so race officials allowed team cars to pass water and food to riders over an expanded stretch of the course. Temperatures were cooler for the women's road race Sunday along the same 8.2-mile course, but the more generous

It was a hot one out there in Athens on Saturday, and not just for the riders – Casey Gibson found himself schlepping a few jillion pounds of camera equipment around the men's road race in 90-plus temps and using public transportation: "Way too hot and the first race I ever covered using the subway," Casey reports. After a day like that, what could we do but run everything he sent us?

Four years ago she was the toast of Olympic cycling, after winning three gold medals at the 2000 Games in Sydney. But this time around Dutchwoman Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel brings more modest goals to the Games in Greece, where she’ll focus on the time trial and individual pursuit. “I don’t want to take too many risks [in the road race] because the other races are more important to me,” said Zijlaard-Van Moorsel, three days before the women’s cycling events kicked off with the 118.8km road race in downtown Athens on Sunday. “The individual pursuit is my first aim for sure. That’s what I

Just 24 hours before some of top European road pros get down to business in the hunt for Olympic medals, confusion was the order of the day after the UCI attempted to conduct drug tests on several high profile teams at the Olympic Village in Athens. According to a report on the T-Mobile Web site, Germans Jan Ullrich, Andreas Klöden, Erik Zabel, Jens Voigt and Michael Rich arrived for the test, but after an hour-long wait it became clear that it wouldn't take place. It was cancelled because the Italian and Dutch team management objected to the UCI conducting drugs tests at the Olympic

The final selection for the U.S. road team has been made, and it will be Christine Thorburn joining Dede Barry as America’s representatives in the Olympic time trial on Wednesday (August 18), a team source confirmed to VeloNews Thursday morning. Thorburn, who rides for the Webcor team back in the States, grabbed the spot ahead of T-Mobile rider Kristin Armstrong. Thorburn is the reigning U.S. national time trial champion, a title she won at the Olympic trials in Moreno Valley, California in mid June. On that day Thorburn stunned the heavily favored T-Mobile squad, taking an eight-second win

More sights from the lead-up days to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Photographer Casey Gibson is in Athens for the 2004 Summer Games and sent us these glimpses of the U.S. team as they practice for the weekend's road races.

With just three days until the first of 18 cycling gold medals are handed out at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, Tyler Hamilton and the rest of the U.S. team were set to get their first look at the Olympic road race course late Wednesday afternoon. But no matter what they found on the streets of the downtown Athens course, both the men’s and women’s squads like their chances. Six of the team’s eight riders spent part of the afternoon in the International Zone (where the media is allowed) at the Olympic Village, doing interviews. Hamilton was the first to show up, and says that though

Here's a look at some of the sights on the days leading up the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

After six months of chasing UCI points, a weeklong delay in the initial announcement, an arbitration hearing and an appeal of that decision, the battle for the lone women’s start spot on the U.S. Olympic cross-country team is finally over. On Friday afternoon in a federal courthouse in downtown Denver, Judge Phillip Figa denied a motion filed by Sue Haywood’s attorney asking the court to vacate the original arbitration decision that awarded that lone start spot to Mary McConneloug, and allow for another arbitration hearing. Haywood (Trek-Volkswagen), who was at the courthouse in Denver,

Cyclist Jobie Dajka was dropped from Australia's Olympic team after being found to have lied to a doping inquiry involving the country's top cyclists, the Australian Olympic Committee announced on Friday. Dajka admitted on Thursday he had been untruthful when he told an inquiry that he had not injected himself with performance-enhancing drugs in the room of a former teammate at the Australian Institute of Sport's cycling base in Adelaide. DNA evidence subsequently contradicted Dajka's statement to the inquiry, which was chaired by lawyer Robert Anderson, QC, the AOC said. "Given Anderson's

Australian trackster Ben Kersten will have his appeal to be reinstated to the Athens Olympic team heard by a Cycling Australia (CA) tribunal on Thursday, his manager said on Monday. Kersten is appealing the decision by CA to remove his nomination for the Olympic team after Sean Eadie, the man he was called up to replace, was renominated by CA after being cleared of trying to import banned human growth hormones. The appeal is not connected with Eadie’s drugs tussle, but based on the assertion that Kersten should have been picked ahead of Eadie in the first place. Kersten originally missed

In a classic truth-is-stranger-than-fiction tale Mary McConneloug has won her arbitration case and been awarded the lone women’s start spot on the U.S. Olympic cross-country team. This was a reversal of Friday’s USA Cycling announcement, which had awarded the spot to Sue Haywood after a week of deliberation. But McConneloug appealed that ruling and after a four-hour conference call on Monday that included USAC staff, Haywood, McConneloug and their legal counsel, an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association reversed the decision on Tuesday. McConneloug challenged the original

Tour de France race leader Thomas Voeckler, of the La Boulangere team, has won his place on France's Olympic team for the men's road race in Athens. Voeckler, who has given the hosts plenty to smile about on the race since taking the yellow jersey over a week ago from Lance Armstrong, is expected to hand it over to the American five-time winner in the near future. The 24-year-old Voeckler only has a 22-second lead on US Postal's team leader ahead of Tuesday's tough 180km stage over seven climbs in mountains south of the Alps. However Voeckler's feisty performances on the race, and

After a week of counting, recounting and recalculating UCI points, USACycling announced the formal nomination of Sue Haywood to the 2004 U.S.Olympic Mountain Bike Team.Haywood’s nomination comes after a dramatic year-long pursuit of UCIpoints resulted in her position as the top-ranked American in the world,but the West Virginian emerged in that position only after the the UnionCycliste Internationale issued its final tally of points standing as ofJuly 12.After counting UCI rankings and including points earned points fromthe July 2003 short track race at the NORBA National in Sandpoint,

With Lance Armstrong declining his spot on the U.S. Olympic road team, USA Cycling on Wednesday officially nominated Levi Leipheimer as Armstrong’s replacement on the five-man team, joining George Hincapie, Bobby Julich, Tyler Hamilton and Jason McCartney. Leipheimer’s nomination was primarily based on USA Cycling’s automatic selection criteria, which gives a nomination to any rider that places top-five in a UCI hors-categorie stage race, the highest UCI stage-race ranking outside of a grand tour. Leipheimer placed fifth at the Tour of the Basque Country in April, but was initially passed

Genevìeve Jeanson has been left off the Canadian Olympic team bound for Athens, according to The Toronto Star. The 22-year-old from Lachine, Québec, was dropped from the squad in favor of Manon Jutras, of Drummondville, Québec. Both riders have struggled this season, but Jeanson also has been dogged by doping suspicions, the perception that she is not a team player and recent allegations that her coach spat at another rider during June’s Canadian national road championships. Jeanson won the Montréal GP World Cup race on May 29, but raced poorly a month later at the Canadian championships

Five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has bowed out of this year’s Olympics in Athens according to a team spokesman. The announcement comes just two days after the 2000 bronze medalist was named to the five-rider team that will compete in Greece. Armstrong, who is currently racing at the Tour, said he wanted to spend the month of August with his three children. Meanwhile, USA Cycling athletics director Steve Johnson said his organization has a short list of possible replacements that includes Floyd Landis, Chris Horner, Levi Leipheimer and Freddy Rodriguez, and that a decision

Lance Armstrong on Friday lost his appeal against a ruling denying him the right to insert a denial against accusations of doping published in a book released last week. The five-time Tour de France winner's lawyer, Christian Charriere-Bournazel, took action over the book "L.A. Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong" by award-winning Sunday Times of London journalist David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, a cycling specialist formerly with French sports daily L'Equipe. The book, which alleges Armstrong used banned drugs, focuses on statements attributed to Emma O'Reilly, a soigneur who

Five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong heads the list of cyclists named to the U.S. Olympic team for the Athens Summer Games August 13-29, a spokesman for USA Cycling said on Monday. Armstrong, who will be competing in his fourth Olympics, has a bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Games. He will be accompanied in Athens by Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Bobby Julich and Jason McCartney. Armstrong and Hamilton were selected on the basis of their first- and fourth-place finishes in last year's Tour de France, while Julich and Hincapie qualified based on top-five finishes at

America’s top cycling talent competes this week for a chance to representthe United States at the Olympic Games. Three athletes will earn that privilege in Redlands, Calif. at the PoolGel USCF Elite National Championships and Team USA Selection Race.This year the U.S. will be sending five men and three women to Athens to compete in road cycling. To earn a spot on that squad, it’s quite simple: Win in Redlands and a trip to Athens will follow in August. One of those five spots for the men’s team, and two for the women, will result from this week’s competition in Southern California.The winner

Concerns about venue readiness at this summer’s Olympics have been well documented, but it appears that at least the cross-country mountain-bike course is ready to go. That was certainly the sentiment following this past weekend’s E1 test event at the Parnitha Olympic Venue where Frenchman Julien Absalon and Norway’s Gunn-Rita Dahle each grabbed victories. Absalon outgunned a field that included reigning Olympic champ Miguel Martinez, and 1996 Games victor Bart Brentjens. Absalon’s final mark of 1:57:07 was 11 seconds better than Martinez, with Swiss rider Ralph Näf in third at 0:57,

Nicole Freedman, the 2000 U.S. national road champion and Sydney U.S. Olympic team member, filed an appeal Saturday against the UCI with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The appeal takes issue with the Team Basis rider’s latest UCI ranking, which in effect prevents Israel from sending anyone to the elite women's road race in the Athens Olympic Games this August. Freedman, who holds dual citizenship with Israel and the United States, says her UCI point total is off by three. According to UCI Olympic rules, since Israel is ranked outside of the top 21 nations in the world for

There have already been showdowns in Cyprus, Waco, Puerto Rico and Italy,and now comes word that the battle for spots on the U.S. Olympic team willhead to South America for the 2004 Pan American Championships in Baños,Ecuador, April 22-25.On Wednesday USA Cycling announced that all the main players in theOlympic MTB team chase have been named to the U.S. Pan Am team, and withbig UCI points on the line, one can only assume that everyone will show.For the record, America’s female contingent will include Alison Dunlap,Mary McConneloug and Sue Haywood, while Adam Craig, Jeremy

The UCI released the start spot list for next summer’s Olympic cross-country races on Tuesday, making it official that the U.S. will be sending just two men and one woman (see "Dunlap a long shot for Athens?"). Canada will have five riders total, three women and two men. All told 32 countries were on the list that included nations from six continents, North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.On the men’s side 48 of the 50 starting places have been allocated. The women’s field is full, with all 30 of the spots accounted for. According to UCI rules, those final two places

World time trial champion David Millar says the 2004 Athens Olympics will overshadow the Tour de France in his season’s goals and is eyeing an appearance in track racing to bolster his chances. “I competed in the Sydney Olympics and it was a great lesson for me,” Millar said in a press conference this month. “The Athens Olympics are now one of my biggest objectives from here on. The Tour de France is my second objective for next year, and the World Championships will come third. “Sydney was a magnificent experience, and I learned a lot. I now know what to expect from the Olympics, and yes,

The U.S. Cycling Federation’s 2004 Elite National Road Championships, to be held June 16-19 in and around Redlands, California, will determine three members of the 2004 U.S. Olympic team, USA Cycling announced Friday. Nominations will go to the winners of the elite women's time trial and road race, and to the winner of the USA Cycling Team Selection Race, an invitational with a field limited to the top 150 U.S. athletes in the USCF National Racing Calendar standings as of June 1; the top 50 U.S. athletes in the UCI road rankings on that date; and the top five U.S. finishers in the Armed