Road

Henk Vogels (Mercury) has been to Canada exactly twice: The first time was in 1994 when, as a member of the Australian team, he won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, BC, in the team time trial. The second is his current trip to the GP Cycliste de Beauce, where he won Wednesday’s third stage and took the overall lead in the race. Obviously, Canada agrees with him…. The third stage, at 190km, was the longest of the race. A single loop around the town of Lac Etchemin, it promised long rolling climbs of 7-8 percent, and strong winds. With less than a minute separating the first 35

Italian Gianluca Bortolami (Tacconi Sport-Vini Caldirola) took the overall race lead at the Tour of Switzerland after scoring the stage win in a two-up finishing sprint with breakaway companion Peter Wrolich (Gerolsteiner). Bortolami’s win came on the third stage of the Swiss race, 162.7km from Reinach to Baar. Australian Robbie McEwen (Domo-Farm Frites) won the field sprint for third, 2:53 behind Bortolami. Bortolami and Wrolich escaped at the 70km mark, from a group of six that also included Laurent Jalabert (CSC-World Online), and at one point extended their advantage to 9:19 over the

The ONCE team of Joseba Beloki and Jorg Jaksche took command on day 1 of the Tour of Catalonia on Thursday, winning the stage 1 team time trial and putting Spaniard Marcos Serrano into the leader’s white jersey. Beloki and Jaksche put themselves into good position for the overall, as their ONCE team finished the difficult 20.5km stage around Sabadell 47 seconds ahead of the Festina team of Angel Casero and 53 seconds ahead of Kelme and Oscar Sevilla. Among the other favorites, iBanesto.com’s Jose-Maria Jimenez lost 58 seconds, Telekom’s Andreas Kloden 1:08, and the Crédit Agricole squad of

Ina Teutenberg flew into the finish of the 10th stage of the HP Women's Challenge Thursday at the head of this 12-day stage race's first full field sprint, adding yet another win to a race that has been almost completely dominated by her Saturn team. Saturn, which has pretty much controlled the race since the start more than a week ago, continues to protect Lyne Bessette’s very substantial 3:20 overall lead over second-place Judith Arndt (German national). It was nearly 100 degrees and almost 100 miles at the HP Women's Challenge on Thursday. And while the long trip from Twin Falls to

There is no more fitting way to end a race against the clock than on a drag racing track, where you can see the seconds ticking off as you take a lap. Though certainly not the fastest vehicles on the Firebird Raceway outside Boise, the usual speedsters turned in the quickest runs of the day. I hate time trailing…more than anything in the world. I love climbing though, and this course held a little more water for me as it turned up the famous "Freeze-Out Hill", known more for its inclusion in the final stage into Boise. I thought of it as my only hope. I thought it would be good for

Mercury's Gord Fraser ended his longest winless streak in four years on Tuesday in convincing style, taking the second stage in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce - Canada's only UCI-sanctioned stage race. Canadian Charles Dionne (7UP-Colorado Cyclist) finished third in the stage, behind Robert Foster of Team Nurnberger. Remegijus Lupeikis of Lithuania, riding for the Mroz-SupraDyn team, replaced his teammate Piotr Chmielewski in the overall leader's position by 1 second after receiving a time bonus during the stage. The 162km stage began in Charny, on the outskirts of Quebec City, and

Lance Armstrong retained his lead at the Tour of Switzerland Wednesday, after German Erik Zabel of Telekom won the opening road stage, 178km from Europa Park (Rust) to Basel. In a mass sprint finish, Zabel outsped Italian Paolo Bettini of Mapei-Quick Step and Saulius Ruskys of Team Gerolsteiner to take his 15th win of the season. Armstrong -- winner of Tuesday’s stage 1 time trial -- retained his overall lead by just three seconds, after Paris-Roubaix winner Servais Knaven of Domo-Farm Frites picked up a pair of two-second time bonus. The stage started in Rust, Germany, and passed through

Former Festina rider Richard Virenque has hit back at claims alleging he bribed Germany's former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich to allow him to win a stage in the 1997 Tour de France, while Ullrich said Wednesday he is "sick and tired" of being implicated in "unproven" indirect claims that he took drugs and accepted bribes.The bribery claims were made by former Festina team manager Bruno Roussel, who also claimed that other offers made by Virenque to riders who could have helped him win the Tour in 1997 were laughed off.In his tell-all book "Tour of Vices," which went on sale

Editor's note: Jen Dial, riding as a teammate of Jeannie Longo on Office Depot at the HP Women's Challenge, is providing an inside-the-race look at the biggest women's stage race in America. The latest from her diary: The warm ups are getting shorter as the days get longer and hotter here at the HP Women's Challenge. It's the time in the race when everyone has had a great day and a not-so-great day. Everyone is tired, and people become easily amused and excited by things other than the bike race. As we left Twin Falls on the way to Buhl, Idaho, Trout Capital of America, we crossed a

Lyne Bessette took advantage of a small opportunity in the closing kilometers of Wednesday’s Twin Falls to Buhl stage of the HP Women’s Challenge and scored her first stage win of this 12-day tour through Idaho. Overall race leader since last week’s head-to-head time trial, Bessette has played her hand carefully while racking up an advantage of more than three minutes on second-place Judith Arndt. “It’s nice,” said Bessette, the winner of this year’s Tour de l’Aude. “Usually if I win a tour, I don’t end up winning a stage, so when I saw the opportunity, I took it.” Bessette finished seconds

Poland's Piotr Chmielewski (Mroz) took the lead after the first stage of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce on Monday evening. The 7-day, 8-stage race is the only UCI sanctioned race (2.4) in Canada. The first stage followed a unique format, with each team covering a 13.3 km circuit in a team time trial formation. The race was staged around the historic Plains of Abraham in Quebec City. The fastest team then nominated a member who would wear the yellow leader's jersey for the next stage. Chmielewski's Mroz team finished 8 seconds ahead of the Saturn squad and 19 seconds in front of

Lance Armstrong began this year’s Tour of Switzerland in fine form on Tuesday, winning the 7.9km prologue time trial in the German town of Rust. Armstrong posted a time of 9:44.22 through the streets of Rust, and only Frenchman Laurent Jalabert prevented a Postal Service sweep of the podium. Jalabert was second in 9:49.36 followed by Armstrong teammates Tyler Hamilton and Viatcheslav Ekimov in third and fourth, respectively.

In an about-to-be-released book, former Festina team manager Bruno Roussel alleges that bribery among Tour de France rider was common practice when he was a manager. Roussel’s "Tour of vices" is due to be published on Wednesday, and the French newspaper Le Monde has been serializing the book.Roussel, who has admitted organizing doping allegedly for health reasons in his team before the Festina scandal erupted in 1998, claimed that former king of the mountains Richard Virenque had "bought" a stage victory from German rider Jan Ullrich in 1997.Roussel also said that Virenque's bribe offer

She may have been something of a surprise when she rode to a second-place finish, at U.S. road nationals in Redding, California this year, but Earthlink’s Amber Neben may have just pulled her last surprise performance. The 26-year-old mountain-bike racing immunologist is beginning to make a name for herself as a serious road racer, especially after chasing down a nearly successful break, and going to a solo win in Tuesday’s eighth stage of the HP Women’s Challenge in Idaho. Meanwhile Saturn’s Lyne Bessette maintains a tight hold on the overall lead of the Women’s Challenge, with a 3:13

Trixi Worrack of the German national team sprinted out of an elite group of leaders Monday to take the seventh stage of the 2001 HP Women’s Challenge as it finished atop a long climb up to southern Idaho’s Pomerelle ski area. The 19-year-old’s win did little to alter the overall standings of this race, with Saturn’s Lyne Bessette now leading by more than three minutes. But included in the group of top finishers was Worrack’s teammate Judith Arndt who has moved past Acca Due O’s Rasa Polikeviciute to take over second place. Worrack and Arndt were among a group of five, including Bessette,

Prime Alliance’s Jonas Carney won the Nature Valley criterium in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday after a controversial finish to the 90-minute event. Carney topped Navigators’ Franky Van Haesebroucke and U.S. Postal Service’s Robbie Ventura in the downtown event, the second race in the Nature Valley Grand Prix, part of the Touchstone Energy Classic which included the U.S. elite track nationals in Blaine, Minnesota. Sunday’s event came down to a field-sprint finish, with the Navigators train leading the way on the final lap. Heading into the final turn, Carney dove to the inside, touching off

The Classique du Quebec is a one-day road race that was held Saturday as a lead-up event to the Grand Prix de Beauce, which begins Monday. The UCI ranked race was held around the island of Orleans, just outside the city of Quebec. Riders headed out from Quebec to complete two loops around the island before heading back to the city, for a total of 165 kilometers. On the second loop of the island a lead group of 14 formed, including Canadians Gord Fraser (Mercury), Dominique Perras (Team G.S. Ficonseils), Eric Wohlberg (Saturn), Czeslaw Lukaszewicz (Team Canada) and Mark Walters (Navigators),

Frenchman Christophe Moreau won the Dauphine Libere stage race, which finished in Chambery, France, on Sunday. The Frenchman took the win by a slim one-second margin over Mercury-Viatel’s Pavel Tonkov following the seventh and final stage. German Jens Voigt of the Credit Agricole team won the 125km stage between Vizille and Chambery. Voigt’s teammate, American Bobby Julich, finished third on the day, at 1:12. Moreau, fourth in last year's Tour de France, came out on top of tough seven-day race that saw five leaders. Moreau took the overall leader's blue-and-yellow jersey on Friday from

Australian Cadel Evans might have a future on the road. Volvo-Cannondale’s star of the World Cup mountain-bike circuit completed a surprising win at the Tour of Austria stage race Sunday. The 24-year-old Evans, riding for Saeco, took the lead in the fourth stage, which finished atop the Kitzbuhl Horn. The lanky Aussie made a solo attack to win that 154km stage by 25 seconds. Mapei rider Daniele Nardello won Sunday’s seventh and final stage, but Evans maintained his overall lead to take the win with a 47-second margin over Austrian Hans Peter Obwaller. Another mountain-bike racer, Italian

He did once say that "it ain't over till it's over," but the Saturn team is putting that old Yogi-ism to the test at the HP Women's Challenge. Until today, the 12-day Idaho stage race had been a two-woman contest between Saturn's Lyne Bessette and the venerable French champion Jeannie Longo, competing with a composite team, sponsored by Office Depot. But by the end of today's flat and wind-blown 80-mile stage – won by Saturn’s Petra Rossner – Longo was knocked back to tenth place overall, more than 11 minutes back and Bessette now enjoys a lead of more than two minutes over second-place Rasa

Spaniard Iban Mayo of Euskaltel-Euskadi won the sixth stage of the Dauphiné Libéré on Saturday. The 23-year-old, who scored his first major win in May at the Midi Libre, finished the 193km stage between Pontcharra and Briancon ahead of Mercruy-Viatel’s Pavel Tonkov and race leader Christophe Moureau of Festina. Moureau retains the leader’s jersey, one second ahead of Tonkov. American Jonathan Vaughters of the Credit Agricole team, winner of the stage 4 time trial, abandoned the race. Also abandoning was Scotsman David Millar of the Cofidis team. Millar had worn the leader’s jersey earlier

Luxembourg native Kim Kirchen of the Fassa Bortolo team scored a home stage win at the Tour of Luxembourg Saturday. American Fred Rodriguez of Domo-Farm Frites lost the overall lead to Dane Jorgen Bo Petersen of Team Fakta. Petersen finished the 102km stage fourth, 10 seconds behind Kirchen’s winning time of 2:11:49. Rodriguez will go into Sunday’s final stage second overall, 14 seconds behind Petersen.

Saturn's Lyne Bessette moved into the overall lead of the HP Women's Challenge as she beat race leader Jeannie Longo (Office Depot) in a short head-to-head time trial near the edge of the Sun Valley resort area Saturday morning. This style of stage is unique to the HP and a favorite of race director Jim Rabdau, pitting closely matched GC riders against one another in a side-by-side, no drafting time trial. Riders earn a five-second time bonus for beating her opponent and additional bonuses for catching riders who started 30 seconds ahead. Beginning with last place GC rider (who rode with a

The Dutch National Team’s Chantal Beltman sprinted out of a lead group of three to take a stage win at the HP Women’s Challenge Elkhorn Circuit Race Saturday. However, the big news of this fifth stage is that overall race leader Lyne Bessette (Saturn) was among that group of three that finished 1:20 ahead of the field and second-placed Jeannie Longo (Office Depot). Bessette had just moved into the leader’s jersey Saturday morning in a head-to-head time trial against Longo. As the 18-lap, 28.8-mile stage began on Saturday evening, Bessette enjoyed just a small 12-second advantage over the

Saturn's Frank McCormack was the winner of the Nature Valley Grand Prix Road Race on Saturday in Plainview, Minnesota. McCormack beat out two Navigators riders, Kirk O’Bee and Glen Mitchel, who took second and third respectively. The 102-mile NRC race was held on a 34-mile circuit one-and-a-half hours south of Minneapolis. The toughest part of the race was a pair of 1-mile climbs up a river bluff. Riders will be back in action on Sunday at the Nature Valley Grand Prix Criterium, which takes place on the grounds of the Minnesota state capitol in St. Paul.

“You know, I think I really like this stage,” said Alison Dunlap as she stood in the middle of the main street through downtown Ketchum, Idaho. She should like this stage, she’s now won it three times. Dunlap, riding for a composite squad sponsored by Boise Cascade Office Products, won the 62.3-mile Stanley to Ketchum road in a fashion similar to the way she’s done before: stay in the mix up Galena Pass, rejoin the leader or leaders, notch the speed up on the long downhill and then time her sprint perfectly. While Dunlap did her stuff, the two women atop the overall standings – Jeannie Longo

Think it's tough to finish a Tour stage? How about having to sit down and write down a recap of the day's action? We've got three Americans -- Tyler Hamilton, Fred Rodriguez and Kevin Livingston -- lined up to dish out daily snapshots of what it's like to ride the Tour. Our trio of riders will rotate through as they deliver same-day reports while the day's details are still fresh in their minds. And with the time change from Europe to North America, you could be reading reports before dinner, just as these guys are headed to bed. Dear Diary...indeed.

Britain's David Millar became the fourth race leader to lose the coveted yellow-and-blue jersey of the Dauphiné Libéré stage race in France on Friday. Frenchman Christophe Moreau, riding for Festina, did the honors of stealing the jersey after the 151km fifth stage between Romans and Grenoble. Moreau finished sixth on the day, 33 seconds behind stage winner Andrei Kivilev. The Cofidis rider from Kazakhstan won a sprint finish to grab his first professional stage win. Moreau’s overall lead is tenuous, as Mercury-Viatel’s Pavel Tonkov sits just one second behind Moreau. Millar has made

Volvo-Cannondale mountain-bike racer Cadel Evans impressed the road racing world with a win at the fourth stage of the Tour of Austria Thursday. Riding for Saeco-Cannondale, the 24-year-old showed good climbing form on the 154km stage that started in Bad Gasteinz and finished with a climb up to the Kitzbuhl Horn. Evans escaped with 3km to go and soloed in for the lead. He holds a 47 second lead over Austrian Peter Obwaller. In fifth overall is another mountain-bike pro, Dario Cioni of Italy.

Fred Rodriguez maintained his overall lead as Estonian Jaan Kirsipuu won the second stage of the Tour of Luxembourg Friday. Rodriguez, the Domo-Farm Frites rider who won the USPRO championships in Philadelphia June 10, is on a roll. He took the overall lead at Luxembourg when he won stage 1 on Thursday. Kirsipuu, riding for the AG2R team, won Friday’s 214km stage between Wormeldange and Beckerich in a sprint finish. Finishing second was Italian Alessandra Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo). Rodriguez holds a lead of 9 seconds over Frenchman Eddy Lembo of the Jean Delatour team. Bulgarian Ivaila

American Jonathan Vaughters won Thursday’s time trial stage at the Dauphiné Libéré stage race in France. The Credit Agricole rider from Colorado covered the 43km time trial between Beaumes-de-Venise and Valreas in southeastern France three seconds faster than second-place David Millar (Cofidis), who took the overall lead. Vaughters is now second overall, 20 seconds behind Millar. Millar, who wore the first yellow jersey of last year's Tour de France after winning the prologue, is determined to win the Dauphiné and maintain the kind of form he will need going into this year's Grande Boucle.

It’s a good day for Americans racing in Europe. Just four days after winning the USPRO Championship in Philadelphia, Fred Rodriguez won stage 1 of the Tour of Luxembourg on Thursday. The Domo-Farm Frites rider covered the 182km stage in 4:26:22, beating Frenchman Eddy Lembo (Jean Delatour) in a sprint finish. Friday’s 214km stage is considered the most difficult of the four-day stage race in the small country of Luxembourg.

Jeannie Longo has held on to her overall lead in the HP Women’s Challenge, but the 42-year-old French rider may be facing serious challenges from three riders -- Germany’s Judith Arndt, Rasa Polikeviciute (Acca Due O-Hewlett-Packard) and Saturn’s Kimberly Bruckner – who joined a winning break in the closing miles of the 58-mile Lowman to Stanley road race on Thursday. Arndt powered in to the sprint of the lead group of four that included Longo’s Office Depot teammate, Joan Wilson, the last member of a break that started just a few miles into this hilly and wind-blown stage near the Sawtooth

Editor’s note: Jen Dial, racing in the HP Women’s Challenge with the Office Depot Team, will be checking into VeloNews.com daily with her view from inside the race. After Wednesday’s stage 1, Jen "had tea’ with the one and only Jeannie Longo, who happens to be Jen’s teammate at the Idaho stage race. Jeannie Longo asked us to "stop by and have tea" after our massages. And why wouldn't we? After suffering all day in the wind and winning the opening stage of the Hewlett Packard Women's Challenge, she has plenty to celebrate. Obviously the celebration has to be such that everyone can race again

Marco Pantani will have his driver’s license confiscated and will be fined after being caught speeding, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Wednesday. The former Tour de France and Giro d'Italia winner was clocked at 118 mph on the E45 motorway Tuesday. Police temporarily gave him back the license so he could continue his journey to Rome and back to his Cesenatico home. Pantani, who made headlines last year when he lost control of his car and damaged a handful of others, could lose his license for one to three months.

Belgian champion Axel Merckx of the Domo-Farm Frites team took the overall leader's yellow-and-blue jersey at the Dauphiné Libéré stage race in France Wednesday. Merckx, the 28-year-old son of Eddy, who won Dauphiné 30 years ago, took over from Frenchman Laurent Roux after finishing 10th on the 184km stage between Guilherand-Granges and Carpentras. Venezuelan Unai Etxebarria won the stage, holding off a chase group led by Russian Denis Menchov of the iBanesto.com team. The chase group finished three seconds off Etxebarria's pace. American Jonathan Vaughters of the Credit Agricole team

The Saturn women’s team has had a run of things this season, dominating individual events, stage races and even the World Cup. 2001 has pretty much belonged to Saturn, save the occasional run-in with a French-speaking rider usually willing to take on the entire squad by herself. And that’s what happened on the opening day of the 2001 HP Women’s Challenge…. Nope, Genevieve Jeanson is back training in Arizona. This time it was Jeannie Longo. Longo, riding for a composite team sponsored by Office Depot, joined and then dominated a decisive early break in the 69.5-mile road race from Boise to

Jean Delatour rider Laurent Roux won the second stage of the Dauphiné Libéré in France Tuesday. Roux outsprinted Axel Merckx of the Domo-Farm Frites team to win the 170km race between Bron and Firminy. Roux takes over the overall lead, with a pad of seven seconds over Merckx. Swede Glen Magnusson, also a Domo-Farm Frites rider, is third overall, at 1:31. American Bobby Julich (Credit Agricole) finished 22nd Monday and sits 33rd overall, 1:58 off Roux’s time.

Fabian De Waele of the Lotto-Adecco team won the 227km first stage of the Dauphiné Libéré in Bron, France, on Monday. Prologue winner Didier Rous, a member of the Festina team ejected from the 1998 Tour de France for doping, retained the overall leader's jersey after winning Sunday's prologue. Rous now rides for the French Bonjour team. De Waele, a 26-year-old Belgian, won the stage in a sprint, holding off the challenges of Damien Nazon (Francaise des Jeux) and veteran Christophe Agnolutto (AG2R), who had tried to make a break for it on the final approach.

3:02 p.m. With half a mile to go Fred Rodriguez broke away from the lead group and held on to win the 17th USPRO Championship. Rodriguez finished the 156-mile race. Second place went to Saturn’s Trent Klasna. George Hincapie came across third, after winning a sprint with Fabrizio Guidi. Check back soon for full reports on both the men's and women's races. 2:54 The gap between the six leaders and the field has now grown back up to 22 seconds with just three miles to go. 2:51 The gap between the group of six and the field has been whittled to 15 seconds. Mercury’s Henk Vogels, who launched

12:42 p.m. German Petra Rossner has done it again. Saturn's German sprint power won the Liberty Classic in Philadelphia for the fifth straight time. Rossner's finishing time was 3:01:47. The good news for Saturn continued as Australian Anna Millward finished second to retain her overall World Cup lead. Dutch rider Debbie Mansfeld was third, followed by Canadian Sandy Espeseth (Intersports) and Mirjam Melchers (Acca Due-O). Stay tuned for a complete report on the race. 12:03 p.m. The sun has broken through the clouds, the temperature is 80 degrees, and the women's field went over the

Mario Cipollini won a sprint spread across the full width of the road to take the final stage and his fourth win of the 2001 Giro d’Italia and the 34th of his career. Once again, Danilo Hondo was right alongside him but lacked that little bit of extra speed and forcefulness. And eight years after he won the amateur Giro d’Italia, Gilberto Simoni has won the professional Giro by 7:31 over Abraham Olano, the largest margin since 1973, when Eddy Merckx beat Johan De Muynck by 7:42. Stage 21 traversed a flat, straight trajectory from Arona along Lago Maggiore and southeast to Milano, where 10

Frenchman Didier Rous of the Bonjour team won the 4km prologue at the rain-soaked curtain raiser to the 53rd edition of the Dauphine Libere cycle race in Morzine, France, on Sunday. Rous, France's No. 1 rider this season who won the Four Days of Dunkirk race and the Climbers Trophy, finished a second faster than Australian Bradley McGee. Britain's David Millar, who won the Tour de France prologue last year in his first appearance in the world's greatest cycling race, came in third, 3 seconds adrift of Rous. Copyright AFP 2001

While the NBA Finals fever generated by the Sixers-Lakers series has swept over Philadelphia, a couple hundred thousand boisterous spectators used the First Union USPRO Championships as the perfect tailgate party. The fans were out in force, and they were treated to a spectacular show. In the finale, defending USPRO champion (and runner-up last year to winner Henk Vogels) Fred Rodriguez (Domo-Farm Frites) beat out Saturn’s Trent Klasna and U.S. Postal’s George Hincapie in an all-American, 1-2-3 finish. Rodriguez slipped away in the final 500 meters to became the first American winner since

It’s seems like it’s become one of those inevitable things in cycling, just like Domo (and before them Mapei) winning Paris-Roubaix, the Belgians dominating cyclo-cross and Mario Cipollini winning Giro stages. Petra Rossner will win the First Union Liberty Classic World Cup. If it’s the beginning of June and there are women racing in Philadelphia, you might as well just write Rossner’s name down in the win column. The crew-cut Saturn rider made it four in a row – and five overall - in Philadelphia, winning the inevitable field sprint while towing teammate Anna Millward into second place, to

Ina Teutenberg won the New York City Women's Challenge on Saturday. The race in New York is considered a warm-up event for Sunday’s First Union Liberty Classic, the sixth stop on the Women's World Cup Tour. Teutenberg got the win by taking the final sprint out of a five-woman break. The small group contained Teutenberg her Saturn teammate Kim Davidge, plus Jenny Eyerman (Jane's Cosmetics), and Intersports teammates Elizabeth Emery’ and Erin Carter. That group escaped half way through the race after a solo break by Saturn’s Anke Erlank was absorbed. In the final sprint, it was Teutenberg

George Hincapie, teammate of two-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, has signed a contract extension with the U.S. Postal team through the end of the 2004 season, it was announced Saturday. "George has been our team's leader for the World Cup and classic races for the past two years and this year he proved that he can win a big classic race," said the U.S. Postal team's director, Johan Bruyneel, in a statement. "His physical potential is still improving and he can count on all the support of the team in his attempt to win what we consider his race, Paris-Roubaix." The

Spaniard Iban Mayo of the Euskaltel team eased over the finish line to win the 11th edition of the Alps Classic, a 175 km run between Aix-les-Bains and Chambery, France on Saturday. The 23-year-old Mayo, who recently collected his first major race win when victorious in the Grand Prix Midi-Libre last month, held off American double Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong to finish first. Armstrong beat Russian Pavel Tonkov in a sprint finish to come second, with Tonkov third. Mayo, who comes from the Basque country, launched a solitary attack in trying weather conditions and held off the

With Dario Frigo fired for doping, there was nobody else to worry about, and Gilberto Simoni could throw caution to the wind and make an audacious 49km solo to get the stage win he felt had been missing from his Giro victory. After this rainy, 181km stage amid dampened spirits, Simoni now leads second-placed Abraham Olano by 7:31. The riders ascended twice the first-category Mottarone climb rising above the western shore of Lago Maggiore. The first time up, Matthias Kessler broke away, and Danilo Di Luca caught and dropped him. Giuliano Figueras (Panaria) and Marzio Bruseghin (iBanesto.com)

Cyclists in the Giro d'Italia Friday arrived in Alba for the start of the 19th stage Friday, moving to put behind them the events that had led to the cancellation of Thursday's 18th stage. The riders arrived for the start just before at 1:00p.m. for the 163km run from Alba to Busto Arsizio with only Italian Marco Pantani, of the Mercatone Uno team, and Belgian Rik Verbrugghe of the Lotto outfit absent. Both had already indicated they would withdraw for health reasons in decisions that had nothing to do with the events that had briefly put the entire Giro in danger on Wednesday and

Cycling's latest drug scandal widened late Friday as Fassa Bortolo's Dario Frigo was fired by his team and forced to withdraw from the Giro d'Italia on the heels of new drug allegations. Frigo, who was in second place in the Giro's overall standings, was released by his squad after admitting to team officials that Italian authorities had discovered performance-enhancing drugs in his room during the police sweep conducted in San Remo Wednesday night. In a telephone news conference Friday, Fassa Bortolo team manager Giancarlo Ferretti confirmed that Frigo had admitted to him that authorities

Well it was supposed to be a dramatic day at the Giro d'Italia... it's just that we expected the drama to involve bikes, mountains and athletes instead of police, drugs and lawyers. Stage 18, slated to be the most difficult of the 2001 Giro, has been cancled after police staged a series of raids on team hotels in San Remo last night. But according to reports from teams now arriving at what was supposed to be the finish of today's stage in Anna di Vinadio, the Giro will resume tomorrow, picking up with stage 19's 184km ride from Alba to Busta Arsizio. According to sources close to the

Cyclists and support staff in the Giro d'Italia finally set off for Alba late Thursday to prepare for Friday's 19th stage after a day of arguments and recriminations following raids by anti-drugs police on Wednesday. The searches had kept many riders up until the early hours of the morning, leading to the cancellation of Thursday's 18th stage which had promised to be one of the key stages in the race. For a while on Thursday it looked as though the riders might boycott the rest of the Giro. World governing body the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), in a statement issued in Lausanne,

Yes, the First Union Invitational in Trenton, New Jersey, came down to a field sprint once again this year, but it was a long early breakaway that played a major role in shaping the outcome at the finish. After the Mercury team spent most of the day chasing after five escapees, U.S. Postal took advantage, launching New Zealander Julian Dean to the win on a warm Thursday evening in New Jersey’s state capital. It was a big win for Dean, who battled knee problems for most of last season, and hadn’t won a race in more than a year. "That’s the thing that means the most," said Dean. "It’s my first

Riccardo Forconi, a member of Marco Pantani's Mercatone Uno outfit, has been pulled from the Giro d’Italia after he failed a dope test, a source close to the Italian team revealed Wednesday. Forconi was withdrawn by his team before the start of the 17th stage in San Remo. Forconi becomes the second rider to fail the new French-pioneered test for banned substance EPO after Alexia rider Pascal Herve, a Frenchman, was revealed to have tested positive Tuesday. He too was withdrawn by his team. Both men were tested on the day of the prologue at Pescara on May 19. Forconi was ejected from

Pietro Caucchioli (Alessio) earned his second stage win of this Giro d'Italia on Wednesday. Caucchioli, previously thought to be a slow finisher, has joined sprinters Ivan Quaranta, Danilo Hondo and Mario Cipollini with two Giro stage victories apiece by outsprinting fellow breakaway José Azevedo (ONCE) in the Circuit of Flowers. Jan Ullrich, healthier after a day of rest, nabbed his second third place of the Giro, outsprinting Gianni Faresin (Liquigas), who was 27 seconds back. Ullrich’s teammate, Matthias Kessler, was dropped in the sprint for third and finished nine seconds behind Faresin

Teams participating in the Giro d'Italia and staying in hotels outside the town of San Remo were subjected to stringent searches by Italian drug squad officers (NAS) Wednesday night. Over 200 officers, reinforced by officers from several large Italian cities, were mobilized in the operation, which involved a number of teams in numerous hotels in and around San Remo. In a hotel on the outskirts of San Remo NAS officers searched the hotels being used by the Mobilvetta and Selle Italia teams. Around 20 officers arrived and began searching all rooms occupied by team riders and team

Mercury-Viatel fired the opening salvo at the First Union Cycling Series, with Leon Van Bon taking the win at the 91-mile First Union Invitational in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. With two men in a five-man break, Mercury faked out its competition, launching Van Bon to the win with less than a half mile to go through the streets of downtown Lancaster. The Dutch champion soloed across the line, three seconds ahead of breakaway companions George Hincapie (U.S. Postal Service), Trent Klasna (Saturn), Jakob Piil (CSC-World Online) and Baden Cooke (Mercury-Viatel). The five leaders escaped on the 12th

Even in a good old-fashioned American downtown criterium, Mercury-Viatel’s strengthened European line-up was clearly evident on Sunday. Mercury’s Dutch champion Leon Van Bon sprinted to victory in the second edition of the U.S. Postal Service Capital Cup in Washington D.C. Van Bon was followed closely by fellow Mercury Dutchman Jans Koerts and U.S. Postal’s Kiwi sprinter Julian Dean. The Capital Cup field included strong lineups from all of the U.S. professional mainstays. Postal, Mercury and Saturn, as well as Navigators and 7UP-Colorado Cyclist all have their Philadelphia men racing

Team Mercury-Viatel’s Jans Koerts battled swirling winds and a blistering pace to win the mass field sprint at Sunday’s Clarendon Cup criterium in Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Koerts’s teammate Gord Fraser finished second, nudging out Vassiliy Davidenko of the well-organized Navigators team. A group of five broke off the front 12km into the race, but that group was caught almost immediately. Next to try an escape was local D.C. rider Russ Langley (National Capital Velo Club), who fired up the crowd with a solo break. For nearly nine laps around

Ivan Quaranta joined Danilo Hondo and Mario Cipollini with two Giro stage victories by winning the field sprint at the end of this 142km stage finishing in Parma, the birthplace of Giuseppe Verdi, to whom this Giro is dedicated in the 100th anniversary of his death. Endrio Leoni (Alessio), Cipollini, and Hondo followed Quaranta in at the finish. This 16th stage from Erbusco had one small climb with a KOM at km 4.7, won again by green jersey Fredy Gonzalez (Selle Italia), and it was flat the rest of the way. The first hour was traversed at a crawl — 30 kph — and it did not pick up a lot after

Gilberto Simoni has been saying for two days, ever since he took over the pink jersey, that he would not lose much time in the time trial. He was good on his word, crushing former world time trial champions Abraham Olano and Sergei Gontchar and losing only 29 seconds to specialist and second-placed Dario Frigo in a 55.5km time trial on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda. If it was not already apparent, especially after the disqualification of third-placed Wladimir Belli yesterday, this has become a two-man race. Frigo’s best hand to play was the time trial, so Simoni might very well have

The day after climbing four first-category passes, the riders hit two more, and the results were once again devastating for some top riders. The top two on GC, however, showed that they can recover overnight from a brutal stage, and once again, Simoni was the strongest climber and Frigo was almost as good. Carlos Contreras (Selle Italia-Pacific) won the 166km stage in a sprint from five others, just barely beating Wladimir Belli. Unai Osa (iBanesto.com) followed in third ahead of Simoni, Frigo and Contreras’s teammate Hernan Buenahora. But Fassa Bortolo’s co-captain Belli was thrown out of

Quebec's bicycle racing phenomenon Geneviève Jeanson has answered all naysayers to her abilities with a race-dominating performance at the Montreal Women's World Cup on June 2, which saw her finish over seven minutes ahead of her closest rival. Quebec's other cycling star, Lyne Bessette, finished third, losing a sprint to Sweden's Susanne Ljungskog. Jeanson came into the race, the fifth in the season long series, with fans anxious to see how the young Lachine rider would do against a full field of the top pros in the world. Among the 80 assembled riders was Bessette's Saturn racing team,

After coming as close yesterday as one could without actually getting the maglia rosa, Gilberto Simoni took it from Dario Frigo by 48 seconds on a tough day in the Dolomites under sunny skies. And Mexican Julio Perez, already the sentimental hero of this Giro, finally broke through with the stage win he has shown himself so deserving of. Simoni finished with him, while Frigo placed third, 45 seconds back. The 225km stage climbed four first-category passes and totally shook up the overall standings. While at the start in Montebelluna there were a couple dozen names clustered within two

Disgraced Italian rider Sergio Barbero was unceremoniously ejected from the Giro d'Italia by his Lampre team prior to the start of the 12th stage in Gradisca d'Isonzo on May 31; the move followed the announcement that he was one of the two riders who tested positive for EPO (erythropoietin) during the Tour of Romandy at the start of May. Lampre general manager Giuseppe Saronni said he told Barbero not to turn up at the start line, although he could still have officially taken part in the race. "We asked him not to turn up for the day's stage," Saronni said. "He asked for a second

Belgium's Tom Steels (Mapei) narrowly beat World Cup holder Erik Zabel in yesterday's first stage of the Tour of Germany, a 210.4km stretch from Hamburg to Hanover on May 29. Steels, who has won nine stages of the Tour de France, said his win over the leader of the powerful Telekom team gave him a boost ahead of this year's Tour de France. "It was a great battle between me and Erik and I'm still breathing hard," said the 29-year-old. "It's good to have beaten him again and that encourages me for the Tour de France." The second stage is a 173km run from Goslar to Erfurt on

Telekom's sprint ace Erik Zabel won a field sprint to take the second stage of the Tour of Germany, on May 30. Today's 173km stage ran between Goslar and Erfurt. The German gained revenge on Belgian rider Tom Steels -- who beat him to the line on Tuesday -- to record his 12th win of the season and take the overall race lead. Zabel, the current World Cup leader, stopped the clock after 4:21:06 of racing, to come in ahead of Moldova's Igor Pugaci (Saeco) with Russian Guennadi Michailov (Lotto) in third position. The race centered around the early solo break of Swiss rider Roger Beuchat

In the five-day Ronde de I'Isard d'Ariege, U.S. National teammates Michael Creed and Danny Pate racked up strong results. Though Pate eventually abandoned the French event due to sickness (but not before placing sixth in the opening stage), it was Creed who earned a second-place finish in stage two, a stage win in the race finale, and a podium spot for snagging third overall on the final standings. In that final stage, Creed was part of a four-rider break, and finished in a dead heat with Belgian Johan Van Summeren. The officials couldn't pick a winner from the finish photo, and awarded the

After 10 stages, Fassa Bortolo’s Dario Frigo continues to hold on to a slim lead in the Giro d’Italia as the race left Italy for a two-day detour into neighboring Slovenia. Liquigas’s Denis Zanette won the stage that finished in this former Yugoslav republic’s capital city of Ljubljana. Zanette broke away from a nine-man lead group about six kilometers from the finish of this 212km stage. Zanette finished three seconds ahead of another Italian, Marion Manzoni, with Spain's Isidro Nozal in third. Frigo came home more than 10min off the pace but since none of the lead group posed much of an

With 7km left in the 212km stage, Denis Zanette of Liquigas-PATA attacked eight breakaway companions he had been with for 123km and rolled in alone through the streets of the Lubljana, the capitol of Slovenia. He crossed the line, arms upraised, throwing kisses to the huge crowd that was happily welcoming the Giro on this warm, sunny day. Mario Manzoni (Alexia) outsprinted Isidro Nozal (ONCE-Eroski) three seconds later, and the rest of the breakaways finished at 15 seconds – 10 minutes up on the main pack. The top rankings didn't change, with a dozen riders wedged within a minute of overall

It couldn’t have been easier for Mario Cipollini. Instead of having to duke it out in another physical sprint like other flat stages have ended in, the Lion King was able to roll to an easy sprint win because of a crash behind him in the last corner. While most of Italy is as up and down as a crumpled rug, over the millennia the mighty Po River has ground down every bit of topography in a crosswise swath where the country widens at the top of the boot. Consequently, stage nine, which ran northeast for 142km in the Po valley and crossed the river once, was flat as a pancake and certain to

The Tour of Somerville is famous for the names that dot its deep winners list. Olympians, national champions, and trendsetters have all won this race that has taken place on Memorial Day for nearly 60 years. But the 2001 edition of the race paid tribute to a rider who will never have the chance to put her name in the event's record books: Nicole Reinhart. Reinhart, a star sprinter for the Saturn women’s team, died from injuries sustained in a crash in a race last fall. But now, thanks to the committee that organizes this quintessential American race, the spirit of Reinhart - a rider who

On a day when a tireless 40-year-old animated the action all day long, it was an up-and-coming 26-year-old on a first-year team who stole the show at the elite men’s national road race championship in Redding, California, on Saturday. A teary-eyed Remi McManus of the Boise Stars team accepted the national championship jersey after outsprinting four breakaway companions at the end of the 111-mile race. The finish came down to McManus and four others: Brice Jones (Mercy Fitness), Patrick Heaney (Lombardi Sports), Tim Unkert (Capital Velo Club) and Chris Walker (Triathlete Zombies). Of those,

Once again, Julio Perez was the animator of a pivotal stage and came agonizingly close to winning it. The pack had not even left the vacation spa town of Montecatini Terme when the Mexican Panaria rider attacked with five others just two kilometers into this difficult 185km stage. Among those with him was Pietro Chaucchioli, who rolled into Reggio Emilia alone 183km later. Behind, in a small chase group finishing a minute behind the 26-year-old Alessio winner was ONCE’s José Azevedo, who came within a whisker of taking over the maglia rosa. After 9km, a group of 11 took off after Perez’s

Iban Mayo ( Euskaltel Euskadi) achieved his first career win by taking the final overall victory of the Grand Prix Midi Libre, following the end of the sixth and final stage as the race concluded in Sete Sunday. The 23-year-old, who only turned professional last year, had an overall 35 second advantage on stage winner and former champion here Benoit Salmon of France following the final run between Florac and Sete. Mayo, a virtual unknown, set a cracking pace under the blazing sun and was in second position following the double climb of 12 percent incline of Mont Saint-Clair. But French

Canada’s Lyne Bessette overcame a final stage challenge to lock up her second overall win at France’s Tour de l'Aude on Sunday. Germany’s Judith Arndt and Bessette successfully chased down breakaway attempt by Susanne Ljungskog (Vlaanderen) the winner of the women’s edition of the Milan-San Remo World Cup, La Primavera Rosa. With 40 kilometers remaining in the final stage, Lungskog – who started the day in fifth place overall at 7:50 -- moved off the front of the field in an attempt to lock in a solo win, and a possible upset in the overall standings. But the two race leaders – Bessette in

At Saturday’s national road race championships, Saturn’s Kimberly Bruckner demonstrated again that she was the strongest woman on the roads of Redding. Two days after winning the national time trial championship, Bruckner broke away with Harbour Lights’ Amber Neben 27 miles into the 69-mile championship road race and eventually soloed in for her second national title in three days. Saturday’s women’s race consisted of four laps of a hilly, 14-mile circuit west of Redding, with a six-mile starting and finishing tail from town to the circuit. The 64-woman field was content to stay together at

Canadian Lyne Bessette held on to her overall lead in the Tour de L’Aude as AutoTrader.com's Sarah Ulmer won eighth stage of the French stage race. A break of 10 riders escaped the field at the halfway point of the 122km stage between Limoux and Espéraza. None of the escapees posed a threat to Bessette’s grip on the overall lead. The American Autotrader team had two of its riders in the break – Ulmer and the team’s new recruit Katrina Berger. Berger attacked as the lead group -- now down to eight riders -- reached the final finishing circuit. With her teammate ahead, Ulmer sat on as the

Stefano Zanini outsprinted a group of 49 riders to win the longest stage of the Giro, beating Gabriele Missaglia and Jan Ullrich after a great leadout from Stefano Garzelli. For the first time in the race, the Olympic road champion was feeling well enough again to come over the top of a big climb with the front group and even to mix it up in the sprint. The 239km stage started in Rieti in the province of Lazio, headed north through the entire length of Umbria and finished in Montevarchi in Tuscany. It started slowly, winding along picturesque roads in hilly country along lakes and past