Stories by Fred Dreier

• Posted: Thu, Sep 11th
  Armstrong to race 12 Hours of Snowmass
  Just days since announcing his plans to return to the European road peloton, Lance Armstrong will compete in the inaugural 12 Hours of Snowmass cross-country mountain bike race on Sunday, September ...
• Posted: Wed, Sep 10th
  Olympic cyclists want apology after facemask incident
  Four American Olympic track cyclists want an apology from the United States Olympic Committee for its actions in the wake of their decisions to wear protective facemasks in Beijing last month. On August 4 Americans Sarah Hammer, Jennie Reed, Mike Friedman and Bobby Lea all ...
• Posted: Mon, Sep 1st
  Naef, Kalentieva win Down Under World Cup; new faces top podiums as NMBS series wraps
  Ralph Naef (Multivan Merida) and Irina Kalentieva (Topeak Ergon Racing Team) won their respective races at the penultimate round of the UCI mountain bike World Cup over the weekend. The competition, held August 29-31 at a new venue in Canberra, Australia, provided a preview ...
• Posted: Mon, Aug 25th
  A Fred's eye view - Close encounters of the blurred kind
  During his three-week assignment to cover the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, VeloNews reporter Fred Dreier roamed China's capital city armed with his point-and-shoot digital camera. A professional photographer he is not, but Fred managed to snap a few photos of a side of the ...
• Posted: Sat, Aug 23rd
  US, Canada record worst days ever in Olympic cross-country
  Both Canada and the United States recorded their worst ever finishes in men’s mountain biking in Laoshan, as Geoff Kabush’s 20th place finish — 7:56 down on Absalon — marked the top North American result. Seamus McGrath and Todd Wells were pulled from the race with three ...
• Posted: Sat, Aug 23rd
  Spitz wins scorcher in Beijing
  Germany’s Sabine Spitz owns a closet full of silver and bronze medals from mountain bike racing’s biggest events — the Olympics, world championships and World Cup. The 36-year-old patiently rode in the shadows of ’04 Olympic champ Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå during the four ...
• Posted: Fri, Aug 22nd
  Chausson scores gold in BMX's Olympic debut
  France’s Anne-Caroline Chausson out-pedaled, out-jumped and out-maneuvered the world’s best female BMX riders to win the inaugural Olympic BMX race at the Laoshan cycling venue. The Frenchwoman, who also owns 16 world titles in gravity mountain bike racing, grabbed the ...
• Posted: Thu, Aug 21st
  Strombergs takes gold in BMX
  Maris Strombergs put Latvia on top of the BMX world by taking the inaugural Olympic gold medal in flying fashion. The 21-year-old Latvian, who won the BMX world title earlier this year, earned Latvia its first medal of the 2008 Olympics, crossing the line ahead of Americans Mike ...
• Posted: Wed, Aug 20th
  Fred Dreier’s Olympic Notebook: Jill Kintner’s long road to Beijing
  The Jill Kintner that will compete in Wednesday’s Olympic BMX finals is not the same woman who took her third world title in four-cross mountain biking just 11 months ago. Sure, she still boasts the same chatty personality, curly ponytail and toothy grin — those qualities ...
• Posted: Wed, Aug 20th
  BMX gets off to flyin’ start
  Bicycle Moto Cross — the sport most people know simply as BMX — made its Olympic debut on Wednesday, August 20, as the world’s best riders competed in time-trial seeding and preliminary rounds. Located adjacent to the velodrome and mountain bike course, the Laoshan BMX ...
• Posted: Mon, Aug 18th
  Brits smash record and win gold in team pursuit
  The four-man pursuit squad of Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and individual pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins won Great Britain its fifth gold medal of the 2008 Olympics. Team Great Britain nearly lapped Denmark in the finals of the team pursuit, breaking their own world ...
• Posted: Mon, Aug 18th
  Oh so close: A conversation with Michael Blatchford
  Michael Blatchford might not own the bulky track sprinter’s physique, but the lean, mean American proved this season he can be competitive on the international circuit. Blatchford came up a hair short in Sunday night’s 1/16 round of the men’s match sprint. The 22-year-old ...