Mariah Carey

Amber Neben

Personal information
Full name	Amber Neben
Height	1.60 m (5 ft 3 in)
Weight	2008: 48 kg (106 lb)
Team information
Current team	Team Flexpoint
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Allround
Major wins
Template:FlagiconUCI 2008 UCI Woman's World Time Trail Champion

Amber Neben (born February 18, 1975) is an American cycle racer who won the U.S. national road race championship in 2003 and is the only active American female cyclist to win multiple UCI category 1 stage races, having won the Gracia Tour in 2002, theTour du Montreal in 2003 and the Tour de l'Aude in 2005 and again in 2006. Neben is racing for Team Flexpoint.

Biography

As a young junior in junior high and high school, Neben's principal athletic activities were centered around soccer and cross-country running. She attended the University of Nebraska on a track and cross-country scholarship, but developed stress fractures from running. Forced to curtail her running activities, she became an undergraduate assistant coach with the distance running program. Only subsequently, after graduating from college, did she take up the sport of cycling.

Meanwhile, she graduated from the University of Nebraska with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and went on from there to obtain a Master's degree in biology from the University of California, Irvine.

Her initial foray into cycle racing was as a mountain bike racer. While concentrating on MTB racing for several years, Neben also participated in road cycle racing. It was in this latter discipline that she enjoyed her greatest successes. A major breakthrough occurred during the 2001 Women's Challenge race, where she won the Rupert to Pomerelle stage with its culminating long, steep climb to the finish, becoming only the 4th American to win a stage at the Women's Challenge since it became a UCI event.

Following this, she concentrated almost exclusively on road cycling, being selected to the Road World Championship team in both 2001 and 2002.

In 2003, following the Montreal World Cup race, Neben tested positive for the banned substance 19-norandrosterone. The actual test results were not reported and confirmed until after the Tour du Montreal, which she won. Neben chose to appeal the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and, in the meantime, accepted a provisional suspension which began in mid-July 2003.

Neben claimed that the positive test result had occurred as the result of taking supplements which were contaminated with the banned substance. A formal hearing before the North American CAS Panel was held later that year and in a report issued in October 2003, the Panel concluded that a doping violation had occurred, but further stated that it was not an intentional doping violation.

In a split decision, the Panel decided that Neben should be suspended for 6 months from any race activity dating back to the beginning of her voluntary withdrawal and, further, that she would be required to submit to regular doping tests over the following 18 months. There were other conditions imposed as well.

Neben was thus eligible to participate in sanctioned racing for the year 2004. In the U.S. Olympic Trials held in June of that year, she finished in 2nd place in the Time Trial, missing first place and a spot on the 2004 Olympic team by just 8 seconds.

In the Spring of 2005, Neben achieved her greatest success up to that point in her cycling career when she won the Tour de l'Aude ahead of a strong international field. In 2006, Neben repeated her stage race victory in the Tour de l'Aude.

After a very strong season in 2007 and the first half of 2008, in which she scored several more high finishes in international and national competition, Neben was named to the 2008 U.S. Olympic road cycling team where she placed 33rd in the road race event at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.. Later in 2008 she became the World TT Champion.

Palmarès

2001

1st Stage victory, GP Féminin International du Canada (cat. 2)

1st Cascade Cycling Classic

1st 3 stage victories

5th Women's Challenge (cat. 1)

1st Stage victory, Women's Challenge

2nd United States National Road Race Championships

1st California State TT Championships (cat I-III)

2002

2nd United States National Road Race Championships

2nd United States National Time Trial Championships

2nd Housatonic Valley Classic

1st Gracia Cez-Ede (cat. 1)

1st Mountains jersey, Gracia Cez-Ede

1st Stage victory, Gracia Cez-Ede

2003

1st Le Tour du Montreal

1st United States National Road Race Championships

4th Gracia Tour

Stage victory, Gracia Tour

2004

7th Giro della Toscana (cat. 1)

Stage victory, Giro della Toscana

2nd United States National Time Trial Championships

2005

2nd United States National Time Trial Championships

1st Tour de l'Aude (cat. 1)

Stage victory, Tour de l'Aude

2006

2nd La Route de France Feminin (cat. 2)

2nd L'Heure D'Or Feminin

2nd Thuringen-Rundfahrt (cat. 1)

3rd United States National Road Race Championships

2nd United States National Time Trial Championships

1st Pan American Cycling Championships Time Trial

1st Tour de l'Aude (cat. 1)

2nd Gracia Tour (cat. 2)

1st Redlands Bicycle Classic

2 stage victories, Redlands Bicycle Classic

2007

1st Redlands Bicycle Classic

1st Stage victory, Redlands Bicycle Classic

1st Route de France Féminine

1st Stage victory, Route de France Féminine

2nd Thuringen-Rundfahrt

3rd United States National Road Race Championships

2nd United States National Time Trial Championships

3rd Giro San Marino

2008

3rd Grand Prix de Suisse / Souvenir Magali Pache

2nd overall Giro d'Italia Femminile

3rd stage 5

2nd satge 6

2nd stage 7

1st overall Tour Cycliste Féminin International Ardèche

2nd satge 2

2nd stage 4

3rd Chrono Champenois - Trophée Européen

1st Template:FlagiconUCIUCI Road World Championships - Time Trial

Photo gallery

• 
  2002 Women's Challenge
• 
  Stanley TT (2002 Women's Challenge)

External links

• Amber Neben's official web site
• Amber Neben's team (Dutch/English language)
• CAS arbitration ruling in Amber Neben case (pdf file)
• Daily Peloton interview