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Crédit Agricole couldn’t imagine a better going away present than a stage victory Tuesday in the 63rd Vuelta a España in what’s its swansong grand tour. The long-standing French team — set to fold at the end of the 2008 season after a new sponsor couldn’t be found to replace the departing French bank — earned a rare bunch sprint victory with French veteran Sébastien Hinault.

There were no surprises in Springfield. With his second consecutive field-sprint victory at the Tour of Missouri, a mad dash to the finish line in the university town of Springfield, Columbia phenom Mark Cavendish extended his 2008 win streak to 16 road victories as well as a world Madison championship on the track. Additionally, the 23-year-old from the Isle of Man — also known as a Manxman, or, in street slang, a “Manxsta” — has now won multiple stages at this year’s Giro d’Italia, Three Days of De Panne, Tour de France, Tour of Ireland and the Tour of Missouri.

To read the full article, please visit: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/09/armstrong200809 In a VF.com exclusive, Lance Armstrong tells historian and Vanity Fair contributor Douglas Brinkley that he’s “one hundred percent” going to compete in the Tour de France next summer. “I’m going back to professional cycling. I’m going to try and win an eighth Tour de France,” the anti-cancer crusader and seven-time Tour winner says.

Statement by Lance Armstrong Regarding Global Cancer Fight and His Return to Professional Cycling AUSTIN, Texas – September 9, 2008 – Today, Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor, founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and cycling champion, released the following statement regarding his return to professional sports:

Emilien Berges (Agritubel) won the third stage of the Tour of Britain on Tuesday, taking the overall leader's yellow jersey from Alessandro Petacchi (LPR Brakes-Ballan). Berges broke away from eight other escapees on the flat run into Burnham, crossing the line just ahead of his teammate Geoffroy Lequarte. Italian Gabriele Bosisio (LPR Brakes-Ballan) finished third.

In a statement released Tuesday afternoon and in an article published on VanityFair.com, Lance Armstrong confirmed VeloNews.com's Monday report that he will return to professional road racing in 2009, including making a run at winning an eighth Tour de France.

Riders and managers at the Tour of Spain Tuesday reacted to the rumors of Lance Armstrong's return to the sport: Johan Bruyneel (Astana general manager): We've heard the rumors starting a few weeks ago when he rode this mountain bike race (Leadville 100). Right now all we can say it's a rumor. What’s sure, if he wanted to come back, I wouldn’t say no. And I could never imagine him riding for another team. It would be here. And if he did come back, it would be to win. But right now, all I can say is that it’s rumors.

Peter Stetina stormed into the leader’s jersey Tuesday at the Tour de l’Avenir and took such a formidable lead that he could become the first American to win the race since Greg LeMond in 1982. Stetina, 21, joined a five-man breakaway that surged away in the opening kilometers of a hilly stage across the Massif Central in the 181.5km fourth stage from Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise to Saint-Flour. Holland’s Ricardo Van der Velde won the stage out of the breakaway, but Stetina takes a 2:27 lead over Frenchman Jerome Coppel.

Six-time Tour de France stage winner Thor Hushovd will be riding for the new Cervélo TestTeam in the upcoming season. The thirty-year-old Norwegian is the second rider to join the new team, following 2008 Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre of Spain. In addition to the six individual and one team stage victories in the Tour, Hushovd also won the green jersey in the points classification in the 2005 Tour. In 2006, he won the Belgian semi-Classic Gent-Wevelgem, and is a three-time Norwegian champion.

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Lance Armstrong’s former sporting director says reports of the American’s comeback are merely “a rumor,” and Astana’s press officer repeated his denial that the team had struck any deal with the seven-time Tour de France champion. In dismissing the story first reported by VeloNews.com, Astana’s Johan Bruyneel told Agence France Presse that it would be “difficult” for the 36-year-old American to return to the top level of the sport. Still, Bruyneel added: "If he were serious about a comeback ... myself having a team I could not imagine him at CSC or Rabobank,” he said.

Dear Readers,
I’m back in Boulder for a few hours after returning from Eurobike in Friedrichshafen, Germany and am working ahead a bit before heading off to Moab. By the time you reading this, I’ll be shepherding 100 middle school students around trails in Moab as I’ve done every third year since 1999 with Horizons K-8, a public school in Boulder of which my wife is principal.

JBV Coaching, in conjunction with Fulcrum Coaching, will be providing a new cyclocross clinic on September 13 at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston Virginia, famed as the location for the MAC series? annual season-ending race, the Capital Cross Classic. The full-day clinic will cover cyclocross techniques, tactics and procedures and is open to riders of any ability level, but is limited to just 30 future stars. Cost is $100. Interested riders can register for the Cyclocross clinic presented by JBV Coaching & Fulcrum Coaching on BikeReg.com

Mark Cavendish (Columbia) won the first stage of the 2008 Tour of Missouri on Monday, outkicking Garmin-Chipotle's Tyler Farrar in a chaotic field sprint at the end of a 90-mile stage that started in St. Joseph. On a rainy, cool day, Cavendish's teammates reeled in a three-man breakaway in the final miles, then drilled the pace on the final three technical circuits, reducing the size of the front group to only 25 riders at one point.

Australia's Matthew Goss (CSC-Saxo Bank) won the second stage of the Tour of Britain after outsprinting the field on Monday. Goss avoided the chaos caused by a collision towards the end of the stage in Newbury, south-west of London, and finished just ahead of the Garmin-Chipotle duo of Julian Dean and Chris Sutton. Alessandro Petacchi (LPR Brakes), who won the first stage in London, retained the overall leader's yellow jersey after a sixth-place finish.

Call it the hot potato leader’s jersey. Egoi Martínez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) became the seventh rider in nine days of racing to hold the golden jersey at the 63rd Vuelta a España. Astana might have had the jersey when it started Monday’s 200.8km ninth stage across the southern flanks of the Pyrénées, but it sure didn’t want to have it when the race arrived in Sabiñánigo some five hours later.

Lance Armstrong will come out of retirement next year to compete in five road races with the Astana team, according to sources familiar with the developing situation. Armstrong, who turns 37 this month, will compete in the Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour de France — and will race for neither salary nor bonuses, the sources, who asked to remain anonymous, told VeloNews. Armstrong's manager, Mark Higgins, did not respond to questions. And an Astana spokesman denied the report to The Associated Press.

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American veteran Bobby Julich, a former podium finisher at the Tour de France, has announced the end to his 15-year professional career. Julich relaunched his career with the CSC team of former 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis in 2004, and could now join the team on a coaching/managerial basis. "I have had a long career as a professional cyclist and it has been an honor to be part of a team like Team CSC for the last five years," said Julich, who followed his Olympic time trial bronze medal in 2004 with a strong 2005 season.