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US National Championships Camp July 27th–August 3rd What: Racing camp for athletes competing in the 2009 Junior/U23 & Elite Time Trial & Road National Championships. Where: Bend, Oregon When: Monday July 27th thru Monday August 3rd (fly out in the morning) Why: USA Cycling’s National Championships are the biggest amateur races of the year. Results in a National Championship event means you are “the MAN” (or WOMAN) and will go on to great performances in your cycling career.

Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde has appealed his doping ban imposed by Italian authorities last month to the world sport's top court said on Friday. The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) last month banned Valverde from racing in Italy for two years due to his alleged involvement in the Operation Puerto blood doping scandal, thereby ruling him out of the Tour de France, which this year passes through Italy's Val D'Aosta region on July 21. Valverde called on the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to "exonerate

Rockstar Games Presents the 36th Annual David Walker Memorial Cycling Classic New York, NY — Rockstar Games is the new presenting sponsor of the venerated Skyscraper Harlem Cycling Classic, it was announced today. The 36th anniversary edition will be be held on its traditional Father’s Day date, Sunday, June 21st, at Marcus Garvey Park in New York City.

Due to the steady growth of the Iron Hill Twilight Criterium and the expected spectator turnout associated with its rise in popularity, event organizers are looking for additional volunteers to help with racecourse marshaling, security, medical support and traffic control. The event is taking place in downtown West Chester on Saturday, July 11, 2009 from 5 PM to 9 PM.

Zipp Speed Weaponry of Speedway Indiana announced today that it will continue in its role as title sponsor of the Zipp OVCX Cyclocross through the 2009 season.  The Zipp OVCX Series encompasses the tri-state region of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky; an area that series officials have noted is larger than Italy.  The announcement marks the third consecutive year that Zipp has sponsored the fastest growing series in America’s fastest growing cycling discipline.  “We feel it’s important to sponsor this race series when it’s in our own back yard,” says Zipp Marketing Manager Andy Paskins,

Broome County STOP-DWI is pleased to announce that the 2009 Chris Thater Memorial will expand to include the Chris Thater Memorial Music Festival. The Chris Thater Memorial - recognized as one of America's premier cycling and running events - will now feature a music festival including eleven bands. The Chris Thater Memorial will take place August 29th-30th at Recreation Park in Binghamton.

The Belgian Quick Step team announced Friday that it is reviewing its legal options in a final-hour bid to overturn a decision by Tour de France race organizers to ban classics specialists Tom Boonen from the 2009 edition. Tour officials announced Thursday that Boonen would not be allowed to start the 2009 Tour on July 4, citing Boonen’s recent troubles with a second out-of-competition test for cocaine.

Astana named six of its nine riders who will battle for overall and stage wins in next month's Tour de France, where Alberto Contador of Spain will start as a yellow jersey favorite.

Contador, the 2007 champion, will be joined by seven-time winner Lance Armstrong, Andreas Klöden, Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych and Haimar Zubeldia.

The remaining three riders will be picked from a group that includes Jani Brajkovic, Chris Horner, Benjamin Noval, Dmitriy Muravyev, Sergio Paulinho, Gregory Rast and Tomas Vaitkus.

Euskaltel-Euskadi will be hoping for big performances at the Tour de France following relatively lackluster spring campaign.

The Basque Country-based Euskaltel team will ride this year without the services of consistent top-10 threat Haimar Zubeldia (who’s already punched himself a ticket back to the Tour with Astana), so the team will look to Igor Antón and Mikel Astarloza to fill the void.

Astarloza has already finished in the top-10 and rode well to a top-5 finish at the Dauphiné Libéré.

Dutch cycling great Steven Rooks became the latest retired cyclist to confess to taking EPO in a book released this week. The 48-year-old - second in the 1988 Tour de France when he won the classic Alpe d'Huez stage - admits in the book about the Tour de France "Het laatste geel" (The last yellow) that he resorted to taking the drug after his best years were behind him. "Yes, I took EPO. It was necessary in order to compete at the highest level," said Rooks.

California’s Tour de Nez began Thursday with the downtown Truckee criterium, the first of three days of racing in the 17th edition of the race. Run under sunny skies, warm temperatures and stiff winds, the pro men’s field put on a show for the thousands of assembled fans, as it was Lifetime Fitness/VeloVie rider Chad Gerlach who took the pro men’s race in a one up sprint against Jonathan Baker of the Natural Grocer’s team.

Sprinter Ivan Dominguez has returned to the U.S.-based Rock Racing team after a five-month ProTour stint with Fuji-Servetto. Dominguez initially signed with Rock Racing before the 2009 season, but left the team in early January to accept a spot with the new ProTour squad. His return to domestic racing was a personal decision, he said, based on a desire to be closer to his family and the races he loves.

The 2009 American Mountain Classic stage race has been canceled, although promoters hope to resurrect the event as soon as next year. Organizer Tom Spiegel of Team Big Bear, said the five-day mountain bike stage race was scheduled for August 20-24 in Brian Head, Utah. Spiegel said the race suffered from low pre-registration numbers, a fact he suggested was due to the current economic climate.

Mark Cavendish earned his second stage win at the Tour of Switzerland on Thursday, the 178 kilometer sixth stage from Oberriet to Bad Zurzach. The 24-year-old Columbia-Highroad rider – winner of four stages in last year's Tour de France – won in a sprint finish ahead of Spain's three-time world road race champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank). Cavendish had already won Monday's stage from Davos to Lumino. "It may have appeared easy but it wasn't that evident to me," said Cavendish. "We had to cope with a second category climb eaarly in the stage and then a strong headwind."

Quick Step's Tom Boonen has been banned from competing in the Tour de France due to his positive drug test for cocaine, organizers ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation) announced on Thursday. The 28-year-old tested positive for cocaine in April, less than a year after he first tested positive for the drug in May 2008. The three-time winner of Paris-Roubaix may also face disciplinary proceedings by UCI. Boonen's team have backed him and previously promised to provide legal support if he was refused entry to the Tour.

Rabobank will bring a strong and balanced team to the 2009 Tour de France, with a quiver full of stage hunters and podium contender Denis Menchov. It will be interesting to see how Menchov performs in the Tour after being pushed to the limit by Danilo Di Luca to claim a thrilling victory at the Giro d’Italia in May. Third last year at the Tour (after Bernhard Kohl's results are negated), Menchov will be one of the favorites for victory, especially if he can ride as consistently and strongly as he did at the Giro.

The Columbia-Highroad juggernaut continues, with German sprinter André Greipel charging to victory in the second stage of the Ster Elektotoer in Holland on Thursday. Greipel out-kicked Danilo Napolitano (Katusha) and Tom Boonen (Quick Step) in the second stage from Eindhoven to Sittard-Geleen. Overnight leader Niki Terpstra (Milram) finished safely in the pack to retain his leader’s jersey in the five-day Dutch race.

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The Astana team announced Thursday that it has reached an agreement with its Kazakh sponsors that will ensure its continued operation through the year. In a release issued Thursday, the team credited productive meetings between Johann Bruyneel and intermediary Rinus Wagtmans, who served as a representative of Kazakhstan’s government for an accord, “which gives riders and staff of the Team sufficient guarantees for the operation and functioning of the Team for the remainder of the season.”

The stage 3 crash that American Christian Vande Velde suffered at May’s Giro d’Italia, which resulted in vertebra, pelvic and rib fractures, dealt a heavy blow to the Garmin-Slipstream leader’s hopes for a strong follow-up to his fourth-place finish in the 2008 Tour de France.

A panel of independent experts has concluded that Quick Step’s Tom Boonen did not actually ingest the cocaine for which he tested positive six weeks ago, Belgian media reported Thursday. The panel based its conclusion on the small quantity of the substance found in the Belgian racer's hair samples examined by the Belgian University of Louvain and the University of Strasbourg in France, Sporza television reported.

Luis León Sánchez says he’s ready to lead Caisse d’Epargne if star Alejandro Valverde isn’t allowed to race. Valverde is appealing a decision by Italian authorities to ban him for two years for what they say is clear evidence linking him to the Operación Puerto blood doping scandal. If Valverde isn’t allowed to race the Tour, his Caisse d’Epargne team will lean heavily on the 25-year-old León Sánchez during the season’s most important race.

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The Race Across America is always a challenge—nothing about riding 3000 miles from the West Coast to the East Coast could ever be considered easy. But this year it is going to be particularly tough for a solo to win as possibly the most competitive, most experience field to grace this 28-year old event is now on course. Among those on an eastward heading to Annapolis, Maryland are two past winners and several riders with top five rides in their RAAM palmares.

What is the environmental impact of a ProTour race?

Former world downhill champion Melissa “Missy” Giove and two alleged co-conspirators were arrested in New York Tuesday, charged with plans to distribute some 400 pounds of marijuana. Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested the 37-year-old Giove, 26-year-old Tamara Geagly and 30-year-old Eric Canori north of Saratoga Springs, New York. Earlier unconfirmed reports that investigators had also seized some $2 million in cash appear to have been inaccurate.

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The UCI’s anti-doping chief Anne Gripper said the vast majority of the elite peloton appears to be riding clean after months-long analysis of tell-tale blood parameters. Gripper was speaking at a press conference in Paris Wednesday where it was announced the pioneering 'biological passport' scheme launched by the UCI had snared five riders.

Milram's Niki Terpstra won the 6.9km prologue of the Ster Elektrotoer sgtage race in Holland on Wednesday, taking the first leader's jersey of the race. Terpstra beat Liuwa Westra (Vacansoleil) by two seconds.

Columbia-Highroad's Michael Albasini won the fifth stage of the Tour of Switzerland, a 202-kilometer race from Staefa in Switzerland to Serfaus in Austria. Tadej Valjavec (Ag2r) retained the race lead, even managing to drop his biggest rival on Wednesday – Saxo Bank's Andy Schleck - down the overall standings. Valjavec now leads Swiss rider Oliver Zaugg, of Liquigas, by 14 seconds with four stages remaining.

The Union Cycliste Internationale is seeking disciplinary measures against five riders based on results from its so-called “biological passport” program. The five — 2003 world road champion Igor Astarloa, Pietro Caucchioli (Lampre-N.G.C.), Francesco De Bonis (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni), Ruben Lobato Elvira and Ricardo Serrano (Fuji-Servetto) — are said to be in “apparent violation of the Anti-Doping Rules on the basis of the information provided by the blood profile in their biological passports,” the UCI charged in a press release Wednesday.

Dear Explainer, I read with interest the story about Tyler Hamilton’s eight-year suspension from cycling. In the article you mention also that Geneviève Jeanson accepted a 10-year ban for her second doping violation.