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The world’s top cross-country mountain-bike racers begin their final toward the Beijing Olympics, as the UCI World Cup kicks off this Sunday, April 20, in Houffalize, Belgium. The women take to the 6.7km course at 10:30 a.m., and the men at 2 p.m. sharp.

Win a Giant Team Edition bike or a signed jersey – online sweepstake starts Monday San Luis Obispo, CA, 18 April 2008 – Team High Road, Right to Play and Giant Bicycles are pleased to announce the chance to win a team edition Giant Bicycle and a signed Team High Road jersey.

Of rubber, cinders and platform shoes...

With no individual time trial and a trip planned up the steep Brasstown Bald mountain, the seven-day 2008 Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T, appears to be a climber’s race. Odds-on race favorites include 2006 overall winner Tom Danielson (Slipstream-Chipotle), Astana’s U.S. national champion Levi Leipheimer and Rock Racing’s Spanish climbing sensation Oscar Sevilla.

Rock Racing team owner Michael Ball said Friday that his team earned an invite to the Tour de Georgia based on just one simple condition. "They said, 'can you conduct yourselves in a way that doesn't freak us out?' " Ball said in a conference call with reporters. He said that at Georgia he will not be accompanied by the Hollywood-style entourage that followed him at the Amgen Tour of California. He also said the team would not bring podium girl models to Georgia, although he said that's because the models were unavailable, not because of his promise to avoid freaking anyone out.

Wrubleski. Get used to spelling the name.

The Wheel & Sprocket Pro Development Team has been invited by the organizers of the 2008 Nature Valley Grand Prix to bring a men's Midwest regional development team to this year's race. Wheel & Sprocket Pro Development was selected because of its mission to provide developing racers the opportunity to compete at the highest level of the sport.

The Liquigas Team was officially presented on 9th January 2008: up until now that was the first and only time that Daniele Bennati had donned the green-blue strip. More than three months have passed since that day, but the sprinter from Arrezzo will finally get the chance to make his first appearance for his new the team on 20th April during the Giro d’Oro. "I’m curious and excited about this debut. My season is only just starting now and I want to make my mark," Bennati said.

Nazi artillery greeted me on my ride into Houffalize this morning. A German Panther tank sits near the center of the Belgian town that this Sunday hosts the opening round of the UCI mountain-bike World Cup. And to be honest, the sight of enemy armor didn’t faze me, not even while clad in lycra. In the few days I’ve spent in the Ardennes region — which this week hosts the mountain bike World Cup, Fleche-Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege — I’ve grown accustomed to seeing guns, bombs, tanks and other military relics from the second World War.

Click here for complete Tour de Georgia coverage Monday, April 21, stage 1 — The race will make its first ever visit to the seacoast when it starts at Tybee Island. The 71.8-mile stage passes through the coastal lowcountry, with several intermediate sprints before the finish in Savannah. The race has not visited the historic city since it hosted the prologue in 2003.

In addition to race reports, analysis and video clips from the start and finish of each stage, VeloNews.com will provide daily Live coverage from the Tour de Georgia. The Tour de Georgia Web site will host an Adobe Tour Tracker for live GPS tracking, standings, photo galleries, and chat during each stage. Additionally, video coverage will be webcast daily, on wcsn.com in the United States and cycling.tv outside the United States. Steve Schlanger and Nathan O'Neil will commentate the webcasts.

Click here for full Tour de Georgia Coverage Astana (Luxembourg) 2. Chris Horner (USA) 3. Levi Leipheimer (USA) 4. Antonio Colom (Sp) 5. Roman Kireyev (Kaz) 6. Michael Schar (Swi) 7. Aaron Kemps (Aus) 8. Andrey Mizurov (Kaz) 9. José Luis Rubiera (Sp) Team directors: Viatcheslav Ekimov, Alexandr Shefer Team CSC (Denmark) 11. Bobby Julich (USA) 12. Bradley McGee (Aus) 13. Iñigo Cuesta (Sp) 14. Jason McCartney (USA) 15. Anders Lund (Dk) 16. Juan Jose Haedo (Arg) 17. Lasse Bochman (Dk)

Trek development rider Travis Brown was at the Trek team truck at the Sea Otter Classic sporting a never-before-seen set of white and red Bontrager mountain bike shoes. The shoes have a large RXL logo on the middle strap that threw many for a loop. "People keep asking me if they’re from Polo Sport," said Brown. Ralph Lauren was a common sight at Sea Otter in previous years with his now dissolved RLX Polo Sport mountain bike team.

A Swiss investment group, along with some of the company's managers, is buying Pedro's USA back from Swix Sport USA, the ski company that has owned Pedro's for the last decade. Sport adventures International S.A., based in Lausanne, Switzerland, teamed with managers to buy the company. Long-time Pedro's executive Chris Zigmont will become the company's new CEO.

These days, power is getting all the press. With all the power measuring gizmos and fancy analysis software, power has taken over as the main parameter to track. It’s absolutely absolute. It’s like having a dynamometer on your dashboard, measuring your horsepower in real time. Indeed, power is a powerful number, but it’s not the only number that counts. There’s more than one gauge on the dashboard and they are all important.

Speaking of 15mm hubs, even Giant Bicycles, not a traditionally known hub maker had a prototype on hand for the new standard. More will details of just how far the 15mm thru-axle standard reaches will become available in the next few days.

Shimano had a 15mm thru-axle hub on a Fox fork on display, and so did Marzocchi. The Italian suspension manufacturer was showing the new 44 model with its QR15 system.

Fi’zi:k also showed new stick on grippers for its saddles, they are a hit with the gravity crowd and come in packs of three.

Fi’zi:k’s has a new mountain bike saddle called the Tundra, and it’s already winning races under Geoff Kabush’s butt. It’s based off of the design of the Arione and will be available, to start, in two versions, one with K:ium rails and a black cover and another in white with braided carbon rails. Both will be under 200-grams.

The derailleur’s cage is shorter, so that it can be run very close to the cranks outer bashguard. Its short length also gives more tire clearance, and will work especially well for 29-inch wheeled bikes.

Shimano had sharp looking samples of its new SLX group on hand. Here are the wide ratio double crank and double-ring specific front derailleur.

The carbon 29er sports a special fork from RockShox. The decals say Reba Race, but SRAM representatives were keeping their mouths shut, as they have a planned product unveiling scheduled for Friday at noon.

Subaru-Gary Fisher rider Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski isn’t at Sea Otter, instead he’s chasing and Olympic selection, but his new team issue Superfly 29er was at the event.

McGrath says that the 28mm wide ZTR Flow rims give the tire a larger profile than other manufacturers’ 32mm rims because of their unique lack of a bead hook. The rims are lighter too; they’re said to save well over a pound when compared to their competition.

With Maxxis Team manager, Gary Wolff, in Belgium with the cross-country team, mechanic, Adam McGrath was holding down the fort for the gravity racers on the domestic front.

In addition to the Mach 4, Cocalis had a prototype version of the BH Connect on hand. The two-off version of the frame is fitted with a BB30 bottom bracket shell.

The 429 uses much of the same technology as the Mach 4 and 5, including the DW-Link suspension system, direct mount front derailleur and Shimano’s press-in bottom bracket system.

With the world’s best racers descending upon Houffalize, Belgium, for the World Cup opener, the Sea Otter Classic needed to supplement this year’s world class downhill races with something extra to keep the event growing. For the Sea Otter, now in its 18th year, the answer was to bolster the festival and promote the tradeshow aspect of the event. It’s a trend that has been building for the last few years as more and more manufacturers are using the Sea Otter as a launching point for new product coming down the pike.

California or Tibet?

A cold self-portrait

"Look Mom, I got second!"

A Nevada court has delayed ruling on a request by the owners of Lew Racing to bar competitor Edge Composites from displaying or selling products that Lew alleges were made using a “secret process” it developed.

High Road's Edvald Boasson Hagen won in a sprint between four breakaway companions to prevail in the GP Denain on Thursday. The 20-year-old Hagen took a commanding win over AG2R's Jimmy Casper and Credit Agricole's Jimmy Engoulvent. FDJ's Fredric Guesdon trailed by 10 seconds. Hagen was part of a day-long break of 15 that was then whittled down to six riders on the last lap.

Sea Otter 2008 is almost upon us. This event has become a mainstay of the cycling culture, not only for racers but for industry veterans as well. To reward attendees for their unwavering loyalty of this event, Cane Creek is offering headset upgrades to the brand new 110. The offer is available on-site only and will be installed at the venue to factory spec.

High Road is prepared for a tough tactical battle in the Tour of Georgia, says team sports director Allan Peiper. “With the decisive stage to the Brasstown Bald climb coming late in the race, and the team time trial preceding that, teams will have to keep their options open for as long as possible. We’ll be looking to do our best throughout.”

The seventh annual Cox Charities Cycling Classic has been set for Saturday, June 28, in Providence, RI. Recognized as one of the premier cycling events in the country, the Cox Charities Cycling Classic will attract nearly 300 of the top cyclists in the country and thousands of spectators to downtown Providence. The race has been added to USA Cycling’s 2008 National Racing Calendar (NRC), a collection of the 28 most prestigious professional cycling events in the United States.

HIGH ROAD FOCUSES ON KIRCHEN FOR AMSTEL The Netherlands, 17 April 2008 - High Road will be focusing on giving their Luxembourg-born rider Kim Kirchen as good a chance as possible in the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday. Seventh in the Tour of the Basque Country and the winner of two stages, team manager Rolf Aldag says Kirchen - who has regularly placed well in the past in the Ardennes Classics - has more than justified his role as High Road team leader in Holland’s biggest one-day race. “He’s our man for Amstel.” Aldag says.