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This Week in Pro Cycling - January 18, 2008
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the latest edition of The Prologue, the weekly summary of news from the world of competitive cycling by your friends at VeloNews.com.
More than a simple re-cap of recent events, this week's Prologue offers a glimpse of what the future holds at VeloNews.com. Over the years, we've received a lot of letters from readers offering suggestions on how we might improve the delivery of news on our site. With the addition of new features, including VeloNews.TV, but the basic structure of the site has remained the same. Well, for the past few months our resident code-wizard, Kevin Hankens, has been working tirelessly to incorporate your suggestions into the most comprehensive redesign of VeloNews.com we've ever had. Because we consider our newsletter subscribers to be among our most loyal readers, we thought we'd give you an early look at the Beta Version of our new site. http://www.velonews.com/
It's slated to be rolled out next week, but we'd like to hear your reaction to the changes we've made. As an added bonus, we've posted Neal Rogers' exclusive interview with deposed Tour de France winner Floyd Landis only on the new site, so you'll also get a first look at what he has to say as he approaches the final chapter in his long struggle to clear his name. You won't see that interview anywhere else but on Beta.VeloNews.com, so have a look.
In somewhat related news, former world champion Mario Cipollini may be back on the bike for next month's Tour of California. The reported deal comes on the heals of an Italian tax court's ruling that the sprint ace owes more than $1 million in back taxes. Are they related? Are they related? We're not sure, but we're betting he won't be riding for free.
While Cipo' may be heading to the U.S., I am on my way to Italy next week for the 2008 World Cyclocross Championships in Treviso. While both the men's and the women's fields have their favorites, we could be in for some terrific racing to settle the race for the rainbow. The man who has been the perennial favorite at world's events for most of the last decade comes into Treviso as the rider to beat. Interestingly, Sven Nys has won the world's elite title just once in his career. This year, it's his teammate - last year's U23 champion Lars Boom - may be his biggest hurdle. Boom scored an impressive victory at last weekend's World Cup event in Leivin, France. Indeed, Boom appears poised to become the first non-Belgian to grab the rainbow since another Nys teammate - Richard Groenendaal - did the same in 2000.
Be sure to check in over the course of the weekend of the 26th and 27th for complete coverage of all events in Treviso.
Meanwhile, let us know what you think of the changes at VeloNews.com. We're hoping you enjoy them, but we're to listen to any suggestions and observations you might have.
Sincerely,
Charles Pelkey
Editor, VeloNews.com
CPelkey@insideinc.com
