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The world’s best cross-country mountain bike racers will break out the hardtails this weekend for the fourth round of the UCI World Cup, held Sunday in Madrid, Spain. The dusty course spins an eight-kilometer circuit through an urban park in the Spanish capital, and includes plenty of fast hardpack and flat pedaling sections. Speeds on the track are high — the Madrid course lacks serious technical obstacles, but includes a plethora of punchy climbs, loose corners and gravel.

German cross-country racer Wolfram Kurchat caught and dropped Olympic champ Julien Absalon on the seventh and final lap to win the May 17 Bike the Rock cross-country race in Heubach, Germany. The event was the third round of the 2009 MTB-Bundesliga International, Germany’s national cross-country racing series.

Dear Readers, While doing Live Updates during the Giro d’Italia this past week, I am pleased to see that our new update tool offers readers the chance to chime in with questions during our coverage. We do get to read all of them and I often try to include some of them during our coverage. Unfortunately, I can’t answer all of them personally. But there are some pretty interesting questions posed and I thought I’d use this week’s column to answer some of the more common questions I’ve received over the last few days.

When there’s a race against the clock, Fabian Cancellara is usually the man to beat. But the reigning Olympic time trial champion just laughed when asked by VeloNews if he was a favorite for Thursday’s climb-heavy race against the clock along the Cinque Terre coast. “No, it’s a crazy course. I won the Olympics, but what we have on the map tomorrow is crazy,” the Saxo Bank rider said. “This is more like a cyclo-tourist event. It’s pretty from Sestri Levante to Cinque Terre, it’s nice for the show, but I think a time trial of 1 hour, 40 minutes is a bit crazy.”

Is Lance Armstrong boycotting the assembled media at the Giro d’Italia? Astana team officials say that’s not the case, but the seven-time Tour de France champion is playing hard-to-get for journalists covering the centenary edition of the corsa rosa. “It’s not a boycott, but he’s not happy with what the Italians wrote about him: that he was the instigator of the protest on Sunday,” Astana team spokesman Philippe Maertens told VeloNews. “From now on, Lance said he wants to focus on the race and help Levi to try to win the Giro.”

Steve Larsen, probably the only professional who competed and won major races as a mountain biker, road biker and triathlete, died Tuesday evening after collapsing during a running workout. Larsen was 39 and he and his wife Carrie Larsen have five children. "He was doing a track workout and he collapsed. They did CPR immediately and an ambulance arrived quickly, but they weren't able to save him," his friend Michael Nyberg told VeloNews Another friend of the family confirmed Larsen's death, saying that an autopsy is pending, but that he apparently suffered a heart attack.

Mark Cavendish (Columbia-High Road) couldn’t help himself when the 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia hit the coast road that leads down the Italian Riviera and toward the finish line of greatest glory of his young, but prolific career at Milan-San Remo. The pack hit the Via Aurelia after a revived Lance Armstrong led the peloton down the Passo di Turchino at full speed ahead toward Arenzano.

Team Astana lost a key support rider in the Giro d'Italia Wednesday when Chris Horner dropped out due to injuries from a crash early on Tuesday's stage. Meanwhile, team leader Levi Leipheimer took a fall mid-way through Wednesday's stage but quickly remounted and continued, telling team officials he was not seriously hurt. And American Christian Vande Velde, who left the Giro after a crash on stage 3, has learned he suffered more bone fractures than originally thought.

As we near the summit of the mountain the speed increases. The peloton passes the one-kilometer to go sign, riders suddenly burst out of their saddles to hold the wheel in front, no longer able to maintain the speed while seated. Over the race radio we are told the descent is dangerous and that we should race for the front of the peloton to avoid crashes and take fewer risks. Every director in the motorcade behind gives the same command, which lifts the pelotons’ speed and creates instantaneous nervousness in the group.

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Ted King is making quite the impression with his Cervélo TestTeam in his grand tour debut. Cervélo sport director Jean-Paul Van Poppel said the team is pleased with how the 26-year-old from New Hampshire is holding up midway through the Giro d’Italia. “Ted is doing fine. He’s a good team worker and we’re really happy with him,” Van Poppel said. “He has a fantastic attitude. He’s a well-mannered American boy. He’s pretty quiet, but you can tell he pays attention and he’s learning. There’s no better education for a young rider like him than a stage race.”

Regina Bruins (Cervelo TestTeam), a 22-year-old Dutch rider, took the lead of the Tour de l'Aude Tuesday, after finishing fourth in a four-woman breakaway that came in more than two minutes ahead of the overnight race leader, American Amber Neben. The stage was won by multi-discipline world champion Marianne Vos, also from the Netherlands. Britain's Nicole Cooke was second and Germany's Claudio Hausler (Cervelo) was third.

On Thursday, July 16, 2009, Bahati Racing and Cannondale will host its first Ultimate Pro-Tour Cycling Experience camp. This four-day training camp led by the 2008 National Criterium Pro Cyclist, Rahsaan Bahati, provides professional riding instruction, as well as guidance for strength training, racing tactics and skills, sports nutrition, recovery, and time and energy management.

Race leader Danilo Di Luca put a rose-colored stamp of authority on the 2009 Giro d’Italia on Tuesday, winning the race’s longest stage in a late solo attack that left the other GC favorites choking on his fumes as they ceded critical seconds on the general classification. Di Luca tightened his grip on the maglia rosa heading into Thursday's critical long individual time trial, expanding his lead to 1:20 to second-place Denis Menchov (Rabobank) on a day that saw quite a bit of reshuffling in the overall standings.

A motorcyclist escorting media at the Tour of Italy died after being involved in a traffic accident Tuesday morning, race organizers announced. Fabio Saccani, 69, was driving to the start of the race's 10th stage at Cuneo in the Italian Alps when the accident occurred near the town of Bra in the north-west of Italy. Organizers held a minute's silence for the veteran motorcyclist, who was participating in his 33rd Giro d'Italia, at the awards ceremony following stage 10.

Michael Rogers (Columbia-Highroad) is poised to leap back into the spotlight of a grand tour for the first time since crashing out of the 2007 Tour de France. Rogers was the “virtuel maillot jaune” on the road in stage 8 before crashing on the descent of the Cormet de Roselend. That was nearly two years ago and after a bumpy road back, Rogers is returning to peak form, just in time for a run at maglia rosa.

Lance Armstrong defended Sunday’s rider protest and called for stronger representation among the peloton to protect its interests. Speaking in a seven-minute video posted on his personal web page late Monday night during the Giro d’Italia’s first rest day, Armstrong described his role in helping forge the controversial rider protest in Sunday’s ninth stage.

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Athena joins the ranks of 11-speed groups

Following this weekend's racing in the Mid-Atlantic, Rory Sutherland (OUCH-Maxxis) and Alison Powers (TeamType 1) continue to lead the National Racing Calendar standings. Sutherland, the 2008 NRC champ, took over the lead following his win at the Joe Martin Stage Race. Powers was second at the SRAM Tour of the Gila and won the Joe Martin.