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Former world champion Tom Boonen will be among the Belgians feeling the weight of expectation going into Sunday’s edition of Paris-Roubaix, arguably the toughest one-day cycling race in the world. The 26-year-old Belgian has already won once at the “Hell of the North,” as the 111-year-old race is known. But given his frustrating run through the Belgian one-day classics this month, Boonen and compatriots Leif Hoste and Peter Van Petegem will be eager to redress the balance. The three are among a handful of contenders — including defending Roubaix champion Fabian Cancellara and Italians

Halfway through a Laguna Seca circuit race that started under sunny skies, officials cancelled the pro women’s event after hard driving rains sent rivers of mud streaming across the auto racetrack. About 8 laps into a 22-lap event, rain started falling and temperatures plummeted. Soon, the water was coming down so hard riders had difficulty seeing while descending the famed Corkscrew, which sends riders screaming down 300 winding vertical feet in a matter of seconds. Instead of shortening the event — by announcing one lap to go as riders came through the start/finish on the 2.2-mile course —

Events surrounding the 2007 Tour de Georgia officially kicked off Saturday afternoon in Peachtree City, which meant two things were less than 48 hours away: The start of stage 1 and — more significantly — the return of Tyler Hamilton. The 2004 Olympic time trial champion has been racing in Europe since January, but Monday will mark the first time Hamilton turns the cranks in a UCI race on American soil since the 2001 San Francisco Grand Prix. Since then, the now 36-year-old has seen quite a few ups and a healthy share of downs, at a rate few of us will ever know. He won stages at the Tour

Dan Ramsey took a big win for his Successful Living team in at the Sea Otter Classic NRC men’s circuit race. After spending the majority of the race off the front in a two-man move, Ramsey was caught by a small group, but soon attacked again, hoping to set up one of his three teammates who had been brought across. Instead, Ramsey held his solo gap for the final six laps. “I knew I had to be the first one to attack because I had been off the front all day,” Ramsey said. “I was guessing one of my teammates would take the race, not me. I’m really happy for the team. We needed this. I’d like to

After two days of mild temperatures and sunshine, Central California’s skies served the 2007 Sea Otter Classic a full dose of rain, wind and chills. Raindrops began hitting Laguna Seca’s tarmac at 10 a.m. and by noon, gusting winds had that rain falling horizontally. The weather quickly reduced the usually busy Sea Otter expo area into a soggy ghost town. A few brave souls ventured out to watch the races, clad in blue ponchos handed out by Volkswagen. The foul weather led to an early end to the women’s NRC road race and a postponement for the men. But for mountain-bike racers, who had

It looked like strong, cool breezes and sunny skies were to be the reward for those who still retained the sour memories of the torrential rains and near constant crashes of the 2006 Jacksonville Cycling Classic. "You would come around a turn and be hit with a 30 mile an hour wind that would all but knock you down," recalled AEG-Toshiba-Jet Network rider Todd Henriksen. But Henriksen and the rest of the Pro Men's field got at least a small reminder of last year's event when two small but thorough cloud bursts soaked the one-kilometer-long course just minutes before the start. Those

Kelli Emmett (Giant) getting fit for Shimano’s new heat moldable SH-M300 mountain shoe.

Tara Llanes dials in her Giant Trance Advanced (carbon) for the Super D.

Notice the odd-colored swingarm. It looks like it’s from an aluminum Anthem. Giant is testing how a carbon front end mates to an aluminum rear end. The aluminum swingarm has more tire clearance as an added advantage.

3) Niki Gudex designed her own graphics for her race bike. She rode the Ransom in the Super D.

4) Travis Brown (Trek-FRS) talks tires with Schwalbe’s Henry Horrocks.

Brian Lopes’s GT sports a custom rainbow saddle.

Travis Pastrana’s Subaru racing car.

Really, it’s his.

How's that for a booth? Trek-Volkswagen erected a full-sized two-car garage.

Inside, artists silk-screened custom T-shirts.

Felt was showing its final preproduction prototypes of its Redemption trail bike. The chassis relies on Felt’s Equilink design to deliver 7 inches of travel.

Specialized’s new Captain tire, designed by Ned 'The Captain' Overend. The S-Works version is set to cost $45 and the Control version $35.

Christoph Sauser has a new Specialized tire too; it's called the Sauserwind. It will also carry prices of $45 for the S-Works and $35 for the Control version.

Crank Brothers has a new short spindle kit for its eggbeater, this one is made from stainless steel rather than titanium and costs $40.

World champ Jill Kintner’s GT is sporting a custom white set of Juicy Ultimate brakes.

The caliper matches the lever.

SRAM unveiled a bunch of new product, including a new X.0 rear derailleur. The major change is in the cage — instead of full carbon, the inner length of the pulley cage is aluminum.

The Monarch uses a dual air style spring and has a number of adjustment options and usage configurations.

Vivid is RockShox’s new World Cup level coil over rear shock. It features two external rebound adjusters and a low-speed compression adjustment. It also has three interchangeable bottom-out bumpers called drop stops.

Continental has a new 2.4-inch tire called the Mountain King. The Supersonic version weighs 550 grams and costs $50.

Knog’s Frog safety light now comes in nine different colors. The new styles will cost $12 and boast an eight-hour continuous or 160-hour blinking burn time.

O'Grady leads his team through a stretch of cobbles, during a reconnaissance ride on Thursday.

Danielson - here on his way to winning atop Brasstown Bald in 2006 - comes to Georgia as a strong favorite.

A moment to savor. Cancellara's win was enough to erase the memory seven miserable hours in the saddle.

Boonen hopes to overcome the frustrations he's experienced this past week.

Oh the agony. Boonen and Ballan put their chase on hold because of a freight train.

O'Grady is feeling as fit as ever.

Ramsey takes the win on his own

Dan Ramsey and Andy Jaques-Maynes in the early break

Before the storm.

Rain, rain, rain

Compton does it on her own

Trebon tries an early dig...

... Peraud, however, handily counters and rides in for the win.

Rollin powers in for the win

Benjamin grabbed the right wheel.

Fabian Cancellara (Team CSC) is still steaming over missing victory in Sunday’s Tour of Flanders. The reigning world time trial champion tried to will his way to the top podium spot, but a mix of tactics, a lack of cooperation from breakaway partners and simply too nice of weather that made for a larger than normal peloton foiled his chances. The 26-year-old will line up Sunday as defending champion at Paris-Roubaix. He told VeloNews he has one aim. “I want to double,” he said flat out. “I don’t know if my form is as good as last year, I was a little sick at Tirreno that set me back a little,

The 17th edition of the Sea Otter Classic opened Thursday under sunny skies and blustery winds. The wind brought cooler temperatures, but no one was complaining too much after a soggy setup on Wednesday. For the VeloNews tech crew, our day opened offsite at the re-launch of Tomac Bicycles, during an event hosted by Joel Smith, a former employee of Answer Products, and brand namesake John Tomac. The company is taking it small this time, testing the waters with only eight employees and a product line built around three core frames. Tomac’s name first graced the down tube of a bicycle in 1999

“(N)o one wants to look like wimps on national television."—Health Net-Maxxis team director Jeff Corbett while discussing whether the inaugural U.S. Open Cycling Championships should be run as scheduled despite wintry weather With all due respect to everyone who took a beating from hypothermia in Virginia or cobblestones in Belgium during this past week, Jeff Corbett had it exactly right. Cycling — and pro cycling in particular — is not for wimps. This is the time of year when colorfully clad cyclists start popping up like migratory tulips on our potholed roads, inspiring bored columnists

Canadian Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) and Czech Katerina Nash (Luna) showed off their early season fitness by winning a short cross-country time trial at the 2007 Sea Otter Classic on Friday. Once an important component of the Sea Otter Classic’s mountain-bike stage race, the time trial provided the first serious separation in general classification. But with Sea Otter ditching the stage-race format for 2007, the time trial offered little more than an opportunity to tests their legs and to give winners bragging rights and a chance to stand atop a podium. That’s not to say the riders didn’t take

Cancellara says he doesn't need a train to win at Roubaix

Joel Smith, John Tomac and the Carbide cross-country bike.

A closer look at the Carbide.

The brand is back

The Spyder

The flex stay design

Scott USA’s Addict SL...

...sports a unique integrated bottom bracket...

Hutchinson and Mavic teamed up for a new 29-inch offering.

Sauser’s custom 2X9 carbon crank.

Sauser’s S-Works Epic race bike

Yeah, there's nothing to this whole bike-racing thing — unless you count the cold and the cobbles

Love the Otter: Kabush shows off one of his prizes

Kabush and Nash tops at Otter TT

The carnage from crashes Wednesday on the Kemmelberg descent during Ghent-Wevelgem has triggered calls for the treacherous cobblestoned section to be removed from the spring classic. Opinions were split. Some felt the harrowing pavé descent was just too steep for today’s high-speed peloton. A seeming majority felt that such hazardous, yet historic landmarks should remain in the northern classics despite the danger. Regardless of the opinions, the facts remained harsh. Dozens of riders fell and nearly all earned a trip to local hospitals, most with broken bones. Here’s an official list of

Here we are, just getting ready to head full steam into the 2007 racing season, and the 2008 product is already starting to ship. When did we have a chance to enjoy our '07 bikes? Trek just started shipping copies of Travis Brown’s 69er single-speed to its dealers last week. And here in Santa Cruz, California, just north of Monterey and the Sea Otter Classic, we’re seeing 69ers with gears and even suspension. It’s the same on the Gary Fisher side. There was hardly even time to get excited about its new economical aluminum trail bike, the HiFi, a bike with great value and even greater

USA Cycling on Thursday announced the eight-member squad that will represent the USA Cycling National Development Team at the Tour de Georgia April 16-22. The third event on the inaugural USA Cycling Professional Tour calendar and a UCI 2.HC-ranked race, the Tour de Georgia will feature some of the top European-based UCI ProTour squads as well as other top domestic and international pro cycling teams. Supported heavily by Specialized, AMD, the USA Cycling Development Foundation and VMG Racing, The USA Cycling National Development Team is comprised of some of the best and brightest young

The arbitration panel scheduled to review the doping case of Floyd Landis has ruled that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency may retest Landis’s remaining B from last summer’s Tour de France for the presence of exogenous testosterone. Landis allegedly tested positive for a skewed testosterone-epitestosterone ratio following his remarkable come-from-behind performance in the 17th stage of the 2006 Tour. While the panel, in a 2-1 decision, voted to allow the testing of remaining B samples, it deferred a ruling on whether the resulting evidence could be admitted in Landis’s suspension hearing, now

Mio Technology Europe will sponsor the Discovery Channel cycling team for this year’s Tour de France and the rest of the 2007 season, GPS Business News reported Thursday. Mio Technology is a European manufacturer of global positioning systems. It was not clear if the sponsorship would continue into 2008. The Discovery Channel team is currently searching for a new title sponsor to replace Discovery Communications, which announced in February it would end its three-year title sponsorship at the end of the 2007 season. GPS Business News reports that the sponsorship offers Mio “a good way to

California’s coastal winds bombarded the hundreds of riders, spectators and vendors gathered at the Laguna Seca speedway near Monterey for the opening day of the17th annual Sea Otter Classic. But despite the threatening conditions, the skies offered sunshine and no rain, leaving the Otter’s traditional footwear of choice — knee high mud waders — nowhere to be seen. Traditionally, gravity and cross-country mountain-bike riders use Sea Otter’s opening day to pre-ride the courses crisscrossing Laguna Seca’s grounds. This year was no different — long lines of full-face-helmet wearing gravity

Farrar broke his patella on the drop off of the Kemmelberg.

Matt Wilson escaped with only a sprained wrist.

Gary Fisher’s new HiFi Carbon Pro

The non-drive side of the new bike. Check out the co-molded link and shock attachment points.

Cut-aways illustrating the co-molding process, these are for the seat tube link.

Fisher’s new Superfly carbon 29er hardtail, it’s designed in the Waterloo, Wisconsin, but will be made overseas.

Fox Racing Shox new 29-inch fork built exclusively for Gary Fisher and Trek, featuring a 51mm offset, this one relies on F Series RLC internals.

Fisher’s new HiFi 29er

Bontrager was showing a Prototype Rhythm 29 wheelset with a modified crow’s foot lacing pattern with 24 spokes.

The new Paragon hardtail

And its shaped tubing

Trek’s new full-suspension 69er, there is rumor that one will be spec’d how Brown races his, with a single front chainring.

The geared 69er hardtail...

..shares its seatstays with the original single-speed 69er hardtail.