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Barry, Hincapie and Klasna

Today was an early start to the day by Spanish standards with an 8am wake up and 9am team ride to preview the TT course. I felt a little odd this morning with an upset stomach. I'm not sure if it was from something that I ate last night or just nerves. A lot of people turned out today to watch stage 1 lining the course from start to finish. The course itself was very technical with a minimum of 15 turns, many of them narrow or tight after the apex. I came off the start ramp ready for a good ride repeating in my head, "Seize the day." I accelerated quickly with my heart rate at 170, which is

Millar Time!

This could make up for the Tour prologue.

A strong performance by Leipheimer

Bannister as Murdoch -- or was that Murdoch as Bannister?

The last major three-week stage race of the 2001 season kicks off Saturday under the intense Iberian sky of this bustling college town in western Spain. The 21-stage, 2986-km (1851-mile) Vuelta a España is a climber’s paradise, featuring seven summit finishes on some of the steepest roads race organizers could find this side of the Pyrenees. There’s no Lance Armstrong or Jan Ullrich, but some of the top names in cycling are here to duke it out in the 56th running of the Vuelta. Among the 21 teams will be two troubled riders looking to regain past glory, Mercatone Uno’s Marco Pantani and

EDITOR’S NOTE: Antonio Cruz is a 29-year-old American racing in his first season in Europe with the U.S Postal Team. He will be sending VeloNews readers daily updates throughout this year’s Vuelta a España. Welcome to my Vuelta Journal. This will be both my first grand tour and my first on-line journal. I will be calling my agent, Max Burgos, every day to file these reports; he will then transcribe them and send them to VeloNews. From my mouth to your computer all in the same day. As this is all a new experience for me, I will try to give a sense of what I am going through day by day. Not

Vuelta a España: Heras on the line

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

Armstrong headlines S.F. Grand Prix

Armstrong

The 2001 Tour de l’Avenir, or "Tour of the Future," begins on Thursday in France, with 21 teams of six riders, or 126 riders total, enrolled in the premier stage race for riders 25-years-old and younger. The 10-day race will begin in the town of Cosse-le-Vivien in western France and then cross the country from west to east before finishing in Morteau, near the German border. The race will really heat up in the final four days, beginning with the 26km stage 7 time trial in Rambervillers. That will be followed by three days in the Vosges mountains, including the final day’s circuit race that

World U23 champion Evgeni Petrov will ride for Mapei

Dawn Bourque took gold in the women's 35-39 downhill.

Piemme not ready for golf yet.

American riders dominated almost all aspects of the Masters World Championships of mountain biking this past weekend in Bromont, Quebec. The U.S. performance continued on Sunday in the downhill as Americans took gold medals in 6 of 13 categories and 13 of 31 medals awarded (6 gold, 2 silver, 5 bronze), repeating a stellar performance on Saturday in the cross-country. France finished second in the medal count with 6 medals (4 gold, 2 bronze) and Canada third (4 medals - 3 silver, 1 bronze). 495 riders from 21 countries participated at the World Masters Championships, ranging in age from 30

Tilford took the men's 40-44 cross-country event in Bromont

The line-up for the 38th Tour de l’Avenir in France was released on Friday, and two American teams will be among the 21 squads. Both Mercury and the U.S. National Team will field six-man teams in the 10-day west-to-east trip across France. The Mercury team will consist of Australians Baden Cooke and Matt Wilson, Americans Will Frischkorn, Ernie Lechuga and Phil Zajicek, and Canadian Svein Tuft. The U.S. National Team will feature Matt Decanio, Mark Fitzgerald, Damon Kluck, Jeff Louder, Danny Pate and David Zabriskie. Among other riders to watch will be Hungarian Laszlo Bodrogi, world

Gontchar

Odds and ends from last weekend’s World Cup final at Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec. — With Mick Hannah out for the rest of the year after breaking his collarbone at Mount Snow, Global Racing has signed 16-year-old Finnish junior Matti Lekihoinen to race for the team at the world championships in Vail. Team director Martin Whiteley said if Koinen wins at world’s his team will sign the reigning European junior downhill champion for 2002. — GT’s Steve Peat was at Mont-Ste-Anne but didn’t race. The early-season World Cup leader is still recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in practice at the

Spicoli or Kovarik?

Chann McRae found deliverance in the form of the U.S. Postal Service team from what's been a frustrating few months with Mercury. McRae, who hasn't been paid since June, signed a one-off deal to race with the Posties in the upcoming Vuelta a España, Sept. 8-29. "I finally got a good break after some hard times," McRae said from his home in the mountains outside of Madrid. "I always seem to have good form late in the season, so it works out well for everyone." McRae's surprise addition to the Postal Service team bolsters efforts to defend the Vuelta title for Roberto Heras.

In addition to his Sports Illustrated cover, Armstrong has gotten plenty of press since his third win in Paris. This 'Five Years From Now' spoof appeared in ESPN: The Magazine.

Green won the battle and the war on Sunday.

Hesjedal and Green: Two names to remember come worlds.

Redden celebrates her first World Cup win.

Alexander settled for second.

Bettini wins

Ullrich, Bettini and Casagrande (r-l)

Hincapie in the lead group

Dekker

Minnaar hoists his hardware while a stoic Vouilloz looks on.

The party begins.

A rider makes his way down towards the St. Lawrence river below.

The chase for the overall World Cup downhill title has come down to one run — fastest man take all. That’s because Global Racing’s Greg Minnaar closed the gap between himself and Nicolas Vouilloz (Vouilloz Racing) to just eight points after posting the top time in Saturday morning’s semifinal at the World Cup finals in Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec. By winning the semis Minnaar picked up 50 points, while Vouilloz was third earning just 30 points, finishing 3.02 seconds behind Minnaar’s time of 5:03.76. The point differential between any of the first six places in the finals would be enough push

Chausson gets some medical attention.

If you believe Erik Dekker, the Championship of Zurich on Sunday is the decisive race in the 2001 World Cup. Dekker, a Dutch rider on the Rabobank team who leads the 10-race World Cup series, has 269 points going into the eighth round. Dekker, a winner at the Amstel Gold Race this year, is 69 points ahead of last week’s HEW Cyclassics winner, Erik Zabel. With Telekom’s Zabel missing the Meisterschaft von Zurich, as it’s called in Swiss German, Dekker’s nearest rivals are more than 100 points in arrears. "I think if I can finish among the top eight at Zurich, it could be the end of the

Chausson's busted brake.

Minnaar was fastest in qualifying.

Vouilloz on his way to third in the semis.

Minnaar and members of the Global Racing team celebrate his overall title.

Jonnier crosses the line for the win.

Donovan sails to another win.

Lopes would eventually lose to King, but that didn't stop him from taking the overall title.

His future's so bright he's...

Marsal

Two weeks ago Greg Minnaar earned a place in history when he won the downhill at Kaprun, Austria, becoming the first rider from the African continent to win a World Cup race. Now the 19-year-old is chasing an even bigger achievement, the World Cup overall title. When the curtain raises on the men’s downhill at the World Cup finals in Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec on Saturday, the Global Racing rider will find just 28 points separating himself from a storied place in the annals of mountain-bike racing. That’s the margin the unassuming teenager — currently second overall — needs to make up to overtake

Though six events will be contested at this weekend’s World Cup finals in Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec, only two will have significant bearing on the top of the overall standings — the men’s downhill and the men’s cross-country. Saturday will feature a battle between Nicolas Vouilloz (Vouilloz Racing) and Greg Minnaar (Global Racing) to decide the downhill championship. Coming in Vouilloz has a slim 28-point lead over the 19-year-old from South Africa. Vouilloz has won five of the last six overall titles, including three straight, but has struggled this year, winning just one race. Minnaar,

Minnaar

Minnaar's winning run at Kaprun.

Deldycke out in front in the finals.

Bootes and Gracia get a little air-time.

Chausson and Llanes fight for second, while Donovan fights gravity.

Jackie Simes II, with Joe Murray at the 1999 induction in to the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame.

Larkin and Sharp escaped on glassy roads

Zabel pleases the home crowd.

Dekker still leads the World Cup race.

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

Missy Giove, U.S. downhill champion again, is not afraid.

Who? Learn the name: Todd Leduc, national champion

O'Bee, Jansen, Bouchard-Hall

The new national champion

Freedman topped the podium

Legends: Carter (left) took out Lopes in the final.

Perfection: Chausson was untouchable in her first NORBA dual slalom race.

Candelario, Bouchard-Hall and Clarke

Bouchard-Hall takes the win

Scrymgeour leads Teutenberg and Berger

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

Sweep: Redden rejoices after winning for the second time in as many days

Too much: When Green made the final attack, no one could respond.

Susanne Ljunkskog

You can't touch this: Green was in a class of his own at Mount Snow.

It's a party: A big crowd played hooky to romp around the woods of Mount Snow.

New 'do: McGrath's new haircut is fast.

Just like home: Redden was right at home in the rain and roots.

Luperini takes the win with Somaribba just behind.

Somarriba won the ever-important time trial.