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Bernard Hinault never had the reputation of guarding his tongue when he ruled the peloton as the patron. Now 54, it’s obvious some things haven’t changed. Le Blaireau — the Badger — didn’t hold back when he fielded questions during a presentation this week in Montereau, the starting village of the final stage of the 2009 Tour de France. The last French winner of the Tour had an opinion on just about everything, and didn’t hold back when it came to criticizing the current state of the French peloton.

Everyone is calling him the pre-race favorite for victory at next week’s Dauphiné Libéré, but Alberto Contador isn’t buying into it. The Spanish climber insists he wants to use the eight-day French race across the Alps – which opens Sunday with an individual time trial in Nancy -- as a trampoline for success in the Tour de France in July.

It doesn’t seem possible that Edvald Boasson Hagen, the budding superstar at Columbia-Highroad and favorite to win this Sunday’s TD Bank Philadelphia International Championship, wasn’t even born when Eric Heiden won the inaugural edition of the 156-mile race in June 1985.

The infamous Columbia River Gorge winds whipped themselves into a frenzy Friday and tried to whip the riders as well in the stage 2 time trial at the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic. OUCH-Maxxis' newest rider, Chris Baldwin, nipped race leader Paul Mach (Bissell), tightening the GC battle with two stages left. The women's race is also very tight with prologue winner leader Edwige Pitel (Sorella Forte) winning the stage and taking back the leader's jersey. Three-time Mt. Hood victor Leah Goldstein now sits in second just two seconds back.

The Kelly Benefit Strategies Pro Cycling Team is proud to announce that more than $42,000 has been raised as it kicks off a yearlong fundraising drive in support of World Bicycle Relief.

Spain's Alberto Contador on Friday said that he considers Astana teammate and Tour de France rival Lance Armstrong as "just another member of the team." Contador said relations between the two men are cordial. "We've not seen each other a huge amount since the start of the season," said the 26-year-old, who was speaking before the start of the Criterium Dauphine Libere, which starts on Sunday. "Two or three days in California, two or three days in Tenerife and one day at the Tour of Castilla y Leon. It's not much, especially as we are not the

Jelly Belly, Team Type 1, and Colavita-Sutter Home presented by Cooking Teams are confirming for this year's edition of the Tour de WingHaven on June 21 within the WingHaven community of O'Fallon, Missouri. Professional teams registered to date include UCI Continental teams Jelly Belly, Team Type 1, and Colavita - Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light.

The Raleigh Boys, the cycling team from the seventies that put America on the international stage, will be part of the 50th Fitchburg Longsjo Classic, July 2nd -5th, and its Past Champions Celebration Banquet being held in Fitchburg, MA. This year, the four day stage race includes a special celebration dinner, which is open to the public, on the Fourth of July and will include many of the Longsjo Classic’s past champions along with the Raleigh Boys, who are being sponsored by Wheelworks Bicycle Stores/ Cycling Centers, a major Bay State retailer.

Native son Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) scored a stage victory in the Tour de Luxembourg Sunday, while Astana's Assan Bazayev took over the leader's jersey. The younger of Saxo's Schleck brothers took the sprint ahead of his teammate Matti Breschel and Aitor Galdos of Euskaltel-Euskadi. The three were part of a 15-rider break that formed about 12 kilometers before the finish. The break included Bazayev, who was sixth on the stage, at the same time as Schleck.

Astana has yet to pay a bank guarantee on which their racing future depends, manager Johan Bruyneel said Friday. "The problem has not yet been sorted," Bruyneel told AFP regarding pending payments due from the Kazakh cycling federation, the team's owner. In midweek, the UCI said the team had provided financial guarantees which would allowing Astana to retain their license. But Bruyneel explained there were still loose ends to tie up. "The bank guarantee which was incomplete has been reconstituted, that is

The 61st Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré clicks into gear this weekend in the traditional dress rehearsal ahead of the Tour de France with a highly anticipated duel between Alberto Contador and Cadel Evans. While many eyes will be on those two for a glimpse of bigger things to come in July, the outright battle for overall victory should be wide open, with such names as Ivan Basso, Igor Anton, Robert Gesink, ambitious French riders such as Rémy Di Gregorio and Pierre Rolland lining up in one of the most competitive fields in years.

Former Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong became a father for the fourth time late Thursday. Armstrong, who recently returned from competition at the Giro d’Italia, arrived in Aspen, Colorado, earlier this week to join his girlfriend Anna Hansen in time for the birth of a seven-pound-five-ounce son, named Max. Armstrong announced last December that he and Hansen were expecting their first child together. Armstrong also has three children with his former wife Kristin.

Just days after finishing second in the Giro d’Italia, Danilo Di Luca is making his case about racing the Vuelta a España later this season. With his LPR team already overlooked for the spring classics and the Tour de France, Di Luca is pulling out all the stops in a bid to gain an invitation to the season’s third grand tour. “After a Giro like this, I deserve a chance to race the Vuelta,” Di Luca told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “If they invite us to the Vuelta, Petacchi would race as well, and we would give them a spectacle.”

One day after just missing the top podium spot in the prologue of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, the Bissell Cycling Team stomped its way to a one-two finish in the Cooper Spur Circuit Race, capitalizing on time bonuses to claim the top two GC spots as well. Bissell’s Paul Mach surged away from the lead group with just a few kilometers remaining and took the 85-mile race’s top prize. Mach’s teammate Morgan Schmitt crossed the line second after momentarily catching Mach on the finishing pitch. California Giant-Specialized rider Justin England finished third.

Editor’s Note: This article is based on a recent conversation with Tejay Van Garderen. It was conducted before Van Garderen suffered a crash with an automobile while training in Lucca, Italy on Thursday. The American, who was descending a narrow road, averted a head-on collision with the car, which was driving up the hill, but his training bike was destroyed in the crash. Van Garderen was taken to a local hospital but suffered only minor scrapes and bruises in the encounter.

PRESS RELEASE

The 2009 Women’s Prestige Cycling Series resumes next week at the Nature Valley Grand Prix stage race held in Minnesota, June 10 – 14. Following the season opener at Redlands and the Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas, Webcor moved into the lead in the Best Young Rider and Team classification, while Team Type 1 stretched its lead in the Individual standings.

Minneapolis, Min., May 29th, 2009 — The Kelly Benefit Strategies Pro Cycling team is auctioning off a "hot lap" in the team car to benefit World Bicycle Relief. The winner of the eBay-based auction, which starts today, will get behind the scenes access to all the action as the KBS pro cycling team races in the 25th Annual TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship, June 7th.

Katusha's Danilo Napolitano won the first stage of the Tour de Luxembourg on Thursday, winning a field sprint at the end of the 157km race from Luxembourg to Mondorf-les-Bains. Switzerland's Gregory Rast of Astana, the winner of Wednesday's prologue, retained the overall leader's jersey, two seconds ahead of Jonathan Hivert (Skil-Shimano).

The French team Cofidis will continue into the 2010 season, extending the team’s life for at least one more year. Cofidis, which began in 1997, is one of the oldest sponsors in the peloton. The French credit company was considering ending its long-running sponsorship at the end of this season, but decided to back the team for at least one more year. “The adventure continues,” team manager Eric Boyer told AFP.

Alberto Contador returns to competition this weekend for the first time since April to race the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré in France, where he will line up as the pre-race favorite.

After a busy spring, the Spanish climber enjoyed a brief resting period and then recently did some hard efforts during recon missions of some of the key Tour stages in the Alps and Pyrénées.

Oregon’s Pacific Power Mt. Hood Cycling Classic swung into action with the Panorama Point prologue time trial on Wednesday. Warp9bikes.com-Tristar’s Mike Olheiser made the team’s trip from Alabama to the Northwest worthwhile by taking the 3.1-mile race ahead of Paul Mach (Bissell Cycling Team) and Chris Baldwin, who signed with OUCH-Maxxis just in time to race Mt. Hood. Olheiser covered the course with a time of 6:12.63. Mach, meanwhile, nipped Baldwin, clocking in at 6:14.47, a tenth of a second better than Baldwin's 6:14.57.

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Grégory Rast (Astana) carved out his first victory on the 2009 season in Wednesday’s prologue at the 69th Tour of Luxembourg on a technical, 2.7km course in the streets of the capital. Rast – a winner of the Luxembourg tour in 2007 – covered the course in 3 minutes, 48 seconds to claim the opener of the five-day race. Stopping the clock for second was Jonathan Hivert (Skil-Shimano) at two seconds slower with Romain Feillu (Agritubel) third at four seconds adrift.

The mission was simple: cram my Subaru with enough bikes, tubes, wheels and chamois to outfit Astana, and drive 360 rugged miles from Boulder to the other end of Colorado. Spend three days surfing couches, mooching beer and otherwise freeloading my way around Durango's cycling community. Have some laughs, see some old friends and — how could I forget — pin on a race number for the 38th annual Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. Do it all without breaking the bank — or getting dropped.

I’m back. After my last fit session, I rode several times with my new saddle, new pedals and new position. I felt good, but I was still feeling that all-too-familiar burning sensation after about 90 minutes of recovery-pace riding. I was beginning to get really frustrated. I thought that I had plateaued and really wasn’t making any improvements. I decided to take a few weeks off the bike; the decision was partially my own, and partially dictated by my schedule — final exams were coming up and I really had no time to do anything but grade my students’ work.

The Astana team has passed a sort of financial stress test by the UCI, which said Wednesday that the team could continue to hold its ProTour license and compete in upcoming events. Astana secured a bank guarantee in time to meet a deadline of midnight Tuesday. The UCI said Astana could start the Tour of Luxembourg, which begins Wednesday evening with a prologue time trial. "The UCI has verified that Astana has fulfilled the conditions," the organisation said in a statement, one of those conditions being the fulfillment of outstanding sponsorship contracts.

Editor’s note: The Clothesline is new column about clothing, shoes, helmets and other cycling accessories. Perhaps the most personal of gear choices, clothing testing is subjective. Two riders can try the same jersey or helmet and come back with completely different opinions. With that in mind, we will try to get at least two editors sampling a product for a few weeks before reporting back on the fit and features. We hope you find it helpful. If it’s true that no two fingerprints are the same, is it fair to say that no two, um, butts are the same?