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Mechanics need the right tools to do their jobs. While of course their trucks are stocked with myriad good bike tools, sometimes they choose to use tools they made themselves. Or they appropriate a tool that was made for a different purpose. And the truck itself is a tool that is critical to doing their job.

Homemade truing stand

The Tour of Atlanta is back in 2009, and has several exciting new stages and courses for all levels of racers. Each stage will be hosted by the city of Alpharetta, just miles away from Atlanta. The TOA begins with a short TT, followed by a Criterium on May 22nd. The next two days will feature two races each day, with exciting courses in the heart of Alpharetta. The last stage will be a road race, and it will truly test the mettle of each rider. Here are some of the great features of the 2009 edition:

Lance Armstrong will target a stage win in the Giro d'Italia after falling off the pace in the overall standings, race leader Danilo Di Luca claimed on Thursday. "You mustn't forget that he stopped competing for three years and fractured his collarbone a month and a half before the race," the Italian said after completing the sixth stage. "I saw the footage of the Alpe di Siusi stage (on Wednesday) on television and he gave everything," Di Luca added. "He's doing his best, he's honoring the Giro. I think he'll focus on a stage victory."

The Rocky Mountain Bicycle Show has opened registration to the entire cycling industry. In keeping with the planned evolution of the show, RMBS/09 will include all areas of the cycling industry while highlighting the custom framebuilders in the Framebuilder’s Showcase. Both an industry and consumer show, RMBS/09 offers the opportunity to display cycling related products, sell them, all for hundreds if not thousands of dollars below most trade show rates.

The Kelly Benefit Strategies pro cycling squad heads east this week to field a double defense of last season’s victories at both the Bank of America Wilmington Grand Prix and Baltimore’s Kelly Cup, part of Bike Jam, Baltimore’s premier cycling event. Both races mark what Jonas Carney describes as the real start of the KBS racing program.

Michele Scarponi (Diquigiovanni) soloed home an impressive victory Thursday to leave the chasing peloton in his rear-view mirror in the 2009 Giro d’Italia’s first successful breakaway.   Despite a frenetic chase by Quick Step and Katusha, the sprightly Italian held out after 198km in a five-man move in the 248km sixth stage over two rated climbs to the posh Austrian ski town of Mayrhofen. He won by 32 seconds clear of an impressive Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-Highroad).  

Belgian cycling federation president Laurent De Backer has hit out at the president of world cycling, Pat McQuaid, following the International Cycling Union's (UCI) decision to sanction Tom Boonen. Belgian star Boonen, who recently claimed a third victory in the prestigious Paris-Roubaix one-day classic, tested positive for cocaine in April — less than a year after he first tested positive for the drug, in May 2008.

Lance Armstrong just wants everyone to calm down. Some over-eager fans and media accustomed to watching Armstrong crush the climbs were dismayed Wednesday at the sight of him being dropped on the 24.9km summit finish to Alpe di Suisi, but on the day after, Armstrong was keen to put things in context.

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Team Type 1 announced Wednesday that it has hired Michael Creed, the domestic all-rounder who was fired by Rock Racing last month. “It’s nice to be in a position to help out a deserving American rider like Mike Creed,” Team Type 1 Director Sportif Vassili Davidenko said. “He will definitely be an asset for us in some of the biggest races in the United States this year.”

To start, it might be worth pointing out that these entries are being written via BlackBerry, so I apologize for their sometimes-rambling nature.

Under a strict interpretation of UCI rules, teams are only allowed to ride with “a single design for clothing (colours and layout) which may not be altered for the duration of the calendar year.” However, teams have made changes in the past, with the prior approval of the UCI. The UCI approved, for example, the Discovery team’s switch to a green-themed team kit for the 2007 Tour de France, a change designed to highlight an initiative undertaken by its title sponsor.

Roasted Gingered Salmon with Mango Salsa and more

Team Astana will wear a new kit in either Thursday or Friday's stage of the Giro d'Italia to signal upcoming changes at the team, sources told VeloNews. The team's special kit will include the names of all of the current sponsors, but the design itself will be changed. "There is no sponsor change, just changes to how the jersey looks to represent the significant changes that are ahead for the team," said a source who is in close contact with the team.

Investigators reviewing the records of two Freiburg University Clinic doctors who worked for cycling team T-Mobile allege German rider Andreas Klöden doped during the 2006 Tour de France. Kloeden, who finished second in the Tour three years ago and is currently under contract with the Astana team, is quoted in the 63-page report published by a three-man commission after a two-year investigation. Most of the allegations were outlined in a lengthy story, published in the German magazine Der Spiegel late last month.

Wednesday’s short but explosive climbing stage across the heart of the Dolomiti lived up to its dramatic backdrop at the Giro d’Italia.   The serpentine 24.9km climb up the snow-choked Alpi di Suisi summit at the end of the 125km fifth stage played executioner for some big names and culled the list of would-be winners down to a baker’s dozen.  

Race vehicles are critical for team success at a grand tour. Astana, for example, has in its stable 15 cars, two fully-rigged race-service trucks, one big bus, one medium bus, one small bus, one camionette, and one camper. Not all of them are used in a single race, but the garage the team uses is huge, in order to accommodate the entire fleet.