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The world economic crisis continues to hammer races across Europe. The latest to face difficulty covering its costs in the tough financial climate is the Volta a Catalunya, the weeklong ProTour race held each May in Spain. The race is asking Catalunya’s regional government to help cover half of the race’s 1.2 million euro budget, according to a report by the Spanish wire service EFE.

Up-and-coming Columbia-Highroad pro. Edvald Boasson-Hagen will have his first real taste of the spring Classics this weekend when he races Het Nieuwsblad [formerly Het Volk] and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. “Edvald has had a great first year as a pro with us in 2008, winning three stages of the Tour of Britain as well as a stage of the Eneco Tour,” pointed out team sports director Allan Peiper. “But we want to see what he can do in the Classics as well.”

Price: $1000 Colors: Burnt Orange Sizes: 26 inch Weight: 1865 grams both wheels Web site: www.crankbrothers.com New from the Crankbrothers production line: the all-mountain Iodine wheelset.

Quality Bicycle Products, the owner of the Salsa Cycles brand, is recalling some Salsa CroMoto SUL threadless and quill stems sold last year, after receiving reports that two of the stems broke in use. The company is working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to conduct the recall. In a letter to dealers on Thursday, the company said the breakages were caused by a manufacturing defect and that one rider crash and broke his or her wrist as a result of the stem failure,

"These stems were painted to match and included as original equipment on the following

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Salt Lake City’s Deseret News has reported that police got a break in the case of David Zabriskie’s burglarized home late Tuesday. The paper reported that Salt Lake City’s Joint Criminal Apprehension Team along with the police department’s Lake Metro Gang Unit recovered one of the vehicles stolen from the house of Salt Lake resident David Zabriskie.

New Italian team ISD ended Mirco Lorenzetto’s two-day stranglehold on the Giro di Sardegna, with Oscar Gatto sprinting to victory in Thursday’s 181km third stage from Oristano to Tortoli. The hilly stage featured more than 3,000 meters of climbing, but the top teams reeled a two-man break, but not before 22 riders slipped away near the end. Giovanni Visconti led things out for his teammate Gatto to keep a lid on world champion Alessandro Ballan (Lampre), who finished second but is in good position to win the overall with two stages left.

With two victories and a second place overall at the Tour of Qatar, Heinrich Haussler is starting off his 2009 season on a winning note. Haussler – who turned 25 on Wednesday – is obviously feeling right at home at the new Cervélo TestTeam. Nickamed the “Racing Kangaroo,” Haussler’s father is German and his mother Australian. He was raised Down Under, but moved to Germany as a junior once he decided to give it a shot to race his bike professionally.

Suffering, speed and sore legs. Game on. The fans were fervent, the racing intense, and the media abundant. From Australia to Qatar to California the races were closely followed and cycling seems to be more popular than ever. For a month Mark Cavendish and I have traveled together: from hotel to hotel, from plane to plane, and from the Middle Eastern arid wind to the California rain. Our suitcases quickly became our homes on the road. We finished stages not knowing where we were ? the town was just another name and the finish line crossed another stage completed.

The much-rumored British road team is about to become a reality. The British sports channel Sky Sports will invest 30 million pounds over four years to back a British-based elite men’s pro team with the goal of winning the Tour de France by 2013. The British cycling federation, which announced the news on its web site yesterday, will manage and direct the team when it hits the road starting next season.

Intermontane Delivers on Single-track – Stage Profiles Released plus New Sponsors The Intermontane Challenge is rolling into 2009 on the gas with the release of our long awaited and hugely anticipated Stage Profiles! Thanks to Course Designer Dustin Adams, the Intermontane will contain a ton of awesome single-track and deliver on our promise to create a true off road mtb stage race – Kamloops style!

Kelly Benefit Strategies Official Team Launch Set for Feb 26 Team Unveils New Jerseys, New Bikes and New Athletes, San Antonio, TX Minneapolis, Min., February 20, 2009 – After an unofficial winter camp in Winter Park, CO, the Kelly Benefit Strategies pro cycling team moves this weekend to San Antonio, TX to begin intensive race preparation for the 09 season and an official team launch event next week. The KBS program will introduce the 2009 lineup, unveil new jersey designs and demo the team’s new Fisher road line at the team launch February 26.

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One of the lingering tech questions from the Amgen Tour of California has finally been answered, at least partially. As early as the prologue, a reader wrote to inquire about Jelly Belly’s time trial bikes, which are GT-branded but not shown on the GT Bicycles Web site. The GT-sponsored team also used these frames (with a different paint scheme) last season. We finally tracked down Michael De Leon, PR and advocacy manager for the Cannondale Sports Group, to get some of the story.

Dear Explainer,
There is something that I don’t understand following the recent reports that A-Rod tested positive for steroids. Why is Major League Baseball not required to conduct drug testing in accordance with the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency, given that baseball is an Olympic sport? It has been said many times in VeloNews and other publications that the UCI must test per WADA requirements in order to maintain IOC eligibility. Why the double standard?

Mirco Lorenzetto used to lead out Alessandro Petacchi; now he’s beating him. The Lampre sprinter dashed to his second consecutive victory in the Giro di Sardegna on Wednesday, winning stage 2 and taking the overall lead in the five-day Italian stage race. A day after beating Petacchi in Tuesday’s opener, Lorenzetto out-kicked Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) to win the 164km stage from Porto Torres to Santu Lussurgiu.

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Price: $195 to $225 Weight: 160 grams at 225mm Sizes: 27.2mm by 225 to 400mm Colors: Red, orange, blue, green, pewter, pink and black Web site: www.kenteriksen.com The Sweetpost is a new boutique seatpost from Eriksen Cycles. Based in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and established in 2006, Eriksen Cycles is a small producer of titanium bicycle frames and seatposts. [nid:88617]

A handful of Dutch reporters made the trip down to Portugal last week for the Volta ao Algarve, a small race that typically doesn’t attract much attention from the international press. This year was different because Theo Bos – the five-time world champion on the track – made his debut on the road with the Rabobank continental team. A victory in a small criterium on Feb. 15 made front-page news in the Dutch papers, but Bos had a tougher time in the hilly Algarve course against a tougher field. He abandoned in the fourth stage that featured a second-category summit finish.

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The women of ValueAct Capital are on a mission. Of course, winning races is primary. “My goal is to be one of the top three teams,” team director Lisa Hunt said at their February 10-18 training camp in Healdsburg, California. “We were top five last year. I’m confident we can be one of the top three this year.” Now in their fourth year, though, their mission has expanded. “We’re really out there to promote women’s cycling,” said Sharon Allpress, a racer on the team since 2007. “Not just to promote it, but to help it grow.”