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Jeff Louder (BMC) and Amber Neben (Nurnberger Shoair) retained their yellow jerseys after the dust settled in bunch sprints for both the men’s and women’s Redlands Downtown Criteriums in Saturday’s stage 2 at the Redlands Cycling Classic. The top five in the men’s GC remained virtually unchanged, while Neben’s advantage over second placed Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Columbia-High Road) narrowed from 14 seconds to just 2 seconds due to time bonuses.

Denmark relieved Britain of yet another world crown when they won the men's Madison gold at the world track cycling championships in Pruszkow, Poland, Saturday. Australia took the silver with the Czech Republic claiming the bronze. Defending champions Britain, featuring the two-man team of Mark Cavendish and fellow Manxman Peter Kennaugh, finished sixth at a lap down. Kennaugh suffered a crash before the seventh of the 10 sprints where points can be picked up for the first four riders over the line during the 200-lap race.

There’s a commonly held sports adage that says the best way to get better at your chosen activity is to play with people who are better than you. I certainly don’t agree with this in all cases. Hoops with LeBron would only equal thunder dunks in face. I’d probably drown in Michael Phelps’ wake. And clearly Troy Polamalu could rip all our heads off.

Lampre’s Damiano Cunego wrapped up his second Coppi e Bartali title on Saturday despite being beaten in a sprint finish by Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) on the fifth and final stage. Evans, the reigning champion, edged out Cunego, also the 2006 winner, and Italian Giovanni Visconti at the end of a 178.5km trek from Scandiano to Sassuolo. The Australian, who finished second overall, had begun the day 28 seconds behind Cunego with Massimo Giunti a further four seconds back.

Besson Chaussures-Sojasun’s Jimmy Casper showed off his strong early season form Saturday, winning the opening stage of France’s Critérium International , a 190km ride from Monthois to Charleville-Mézières. The 30-year-old Casper had already won two stages in Etoile de Bessèges in February. Casper said he was especially pleased to be a member of a small continental squad making a mark on a prestigious race . Casper was quick to praise Christian Prudhomme, the director of cycling at ASO, for having "invited a small team to the Critérium International.”

Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) got the big win he was looking for with victory in the E3 Prijs Harelbeke on Saturday. Considered a preview for next weekend’s Tour of Flanders, the Italian out-kicked Tom Boonen (Quick Step) to win by a bike length. Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) came in third to round out the podium.

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Youth and wisdom. Four laps pretty much flat out. The kilo is short. Painful. Taylor rode off the track with his head down, I could tell from the stands that he was disappointed. Or as coach Neal said, “he’s stunned.” The former World Champion (2003) Stefan Nimke cranked a 1.00.666 in the ride just before T took to the track. Blazing fast. A sea level world best time. Taylor rode slightly faster than he rode in Copenhagen and set a new American record – but it was a full second behind the German. Deflated, he rolled to the infield to warmdown.

Jeff Louder (BMC) and Amber Neben (Nurnberger Shoair) emerged as the overall race leaders after a tough and windy Beaumont Circuit Race, the first stage of the 2008 Redlands Bicycle Classic on Friday. Louder followed a daring attack by Peter Stetina (Felt-Holoweko-Slipstream) over the day’s final climb, then put enough distance between himself and GC leader Ben Day (Fly V Australia) to snatch the yellow jersey, thanks to the 10-second bonus he snatched for the stage victory.

After winning gold in the 4k individual pursuit, American Taylor Phinney was second in the 1 kilometer time trial at the world track championships in Poland. Phinney rode a 1 01.611, Connie Carpenter told VeloNews in an email. That's about the same time as he did at the Copenhagen world cup last month, but a full second slower than the gold medalist, German Stefan Nimke. Mohd Rizal Tisin made history to hand Malaysia their first ever world championships medal with bronze in a time of 1:01.658.

The Saxo Bank Pro team is switching from Shimano to SRAM Red components, the component company announced Friday. "We are looking forward to racing with SRAM," said team director Bjarne Riis in a statement released by SRAM. “SRAM Red is proven reliable, remains the lightest gruppo available, and delivers perfect ergonomics. SRAM has demonstrated impressive product development, great quality and intense focus, just like our team," Riis said.

There were a few surprises Friday as race organizers released the names of 25 squads that will start Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Flèche Wallonne next month in the Belgian Ardennes. The LPR team of Danilo Di Luca, winner of Liège in 2007, was left out along with Fuji-Servetto, the Spanish ProTour team. Wild-card teams include new Dutch squad Vacansoleil, the Diquigiovanni team of Davide Rebellin, Belgian teams Landbouwkrediet-Colnago and Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator, Barloworld and Cervélo. Agritubel and Skil-Shimano are also both in.

Nagged by lingering physical problems, Italian veteran Daniele Nardello will retire at the end of this year’s spring classics. The 36-year-old will race in Harelbeke and Brabanconne this weekend as well as the Three Days of De Panne and Tour of Flanders before hanging up the bike for good after Ghent-Wevelgem. “My recovery has been slow from my crash at Tour Down Under,” Nardello said. “And when I didn’t get as fit as I expected at Tirreno-Adriatico, and the stomach virus I suffered at Milan-San Remo, my decision became definitive.”

Ukraine's Yury Metlushenko (Amore e Vita-McDonald's) won a mass sprint finish to claim the fourth stage of the Coppi e Bartali over 162.8km from Massa Finalese to Finale Emilia on Friday. Metlushenko edged out Italian pair Danilo Napolitano (Katusha) and Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) in the bunch sprint. Former Giro d'Italia winner Damiano Cunego (Lampre-NGC) maintained his grip on the leader's pink jersey ahead of Australian Cadel Evans, who is 28 seconds back, and Italian Massimo Giunti, at 32 seconds.