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Weeks of hype and anticipation culminate Saturday as the centennial celebration of cycling’s most colorful and emotional race finally clicks into gear. The Giro d’Italia is celebrating its 100th birthday with all the raw emotion, intense passion and hard-edged racing that makes the Italian grand tour one of the season’s highlights. Stepping center-stage with aplomb is Lance Armstrong, back in his first grand tour since winning the 2005 Tour de France.

Mavic’s TraComp carbon-spoke system, in which the spoke works in both traction and compression, has had a somewhat rocky beginning. A recall this year of all R-Sys front wheels was a black eye for Mavic, a company that has always prided itself on the reliability of its wheels.

In 2007, when Team Bissell’s Ben Jacques-Maynes raced to a fifth place finish at the Joe Martin Stage Race’s uphill, 2 1/2-mile time trial, he said time trial bikes were the norm. “This year I show up and everyone’s on road bikes with light wheels,” Jacques-Maynes said. “I know my time trial bike is light and I can get it up a hill just fine. There’s a half mile of flat road before the climb starts, and being in your time trial position for that section can be the one-second between winning and losing.”

Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov has said he wants to launch a comeback later this year after competing a two-year suspension for a doping offense. "I do not want to end my career on such a sour note. It's time to announce my return to action," the 35-year-old told L'Equipe sports daily. Vinokourov was kicked out of the 2007 Tour de France after being found guilty of blood doping and he was also hit with a two-year suspension from competition. That suspension will come to an end on July 23 leaving him free to find a team.

American Jill Kintner (Red Bull-Intense) and Australian Jared Graves (Yeti-Fox) took home top honors at the Houffalize, Belgium Four-cross World Cup. The race marked the debut of World Cup Four-cross racing at the Houffalize venue, and was the second round of the 2009 series. Kintner, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist in BMX, has been making her return to Four-cross racing after spending a year away from her sport. The three-time world Four-cross champion fumbled her return to the sport at the 2009 World Cup opener in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, where she finished a distant fifth.

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In an eleventh-hour deal, Universal Sports secured rights to the Giro d’Italia and will be airing live, start-to-finish coverage of each stage of the 2009 race. Fans in America will be able to watch complete daily coverage live online at universalsports.com and a taped, same-day show on cable, if Universal’s station is available in their region. After months of negotiations seemed to fall apart between RCS Sport — the Giro’s parent company — and Universal Sports executive producer David Michaels, a deal was completed Thursday morning.

VeloNews reporter Fred Dreier’s three-week stretch of European race coverage was marred by the theft of his shoulder bag, including a camera and computer. However, he managed to score a steal of his own while in Houffalize, Belgium, for the third round of the UCI mountain bike World Cup. He made it home this week with very interesting shots of new SRAM mountain bike parts.

Max Plaxton and Georgia Gould currently lead the USA Cycling Pro Cross-country Tour standings. Plaxton (Sho Air-Specialized) is tops in the men’s field with 195 points, 10 points up on Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher). Gould (Luna) leads Canadian teammate Catherine Pendrel 210 points to 195. So far the Pro XCT has completed two of seven rounds, the March 26 Fontana National cross-country race and the April 19 Sea Otter Classic. Plaxton, the bronze medalist at the 2006 U23 world championships, finished second in Fontana and third at Sea Otter.

Cross-country riders aren’t the only mountain bike racers with a weight obsession. The World Cup gravity crew has been working on trimming grams, too, and that’s a big issue when you have a bike like Yeti’s 303DH, which excels in just about every aspect … except for that hefty number of grams that might be trimmed.

A spokesman for Lance Armstrong says he and his team will start the Giro d'Italia this weekend wearing Astana uniforms, despite ongoing financial difficulties at the team. Armstrong's spokesman Mark Higgins told VeloNews one thing is certain: "It will be Astana colors for the Giro when it starts on Saturday."

The UCI on Thursday confirmed that Katusha rider Christian Pfannberger has been provisionally suspended after failing an out-of-competition test for Recombinant Erythropoietin (EPO). The Austrian rider tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test on March 19 and analysis was conducted at the WADA-accredited laboratory in Seibersdorf, Austria, the UCI reported.

Of all the major players, Carlos Sastre has been the quietest so far through the 2009 season. While riders such as Alberto Contador or Andy Schleck have notched impressive victories, the defending Tour de France champion has been in an early-season hibernation. Sastre insists that he’s fully awoken from his spring slumber and vows to come to life in the three-week Giro d’Italia, starting Saturday in Venice.

Born in the shadow of the Brickyard, Zipp Speed Weaponry has a history like no other company in cycling. Headquartered within sight of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Zipp design, production and testing facility is deeply rooted in both motor sports and bicycle racing. Folded into the carbon laminate of every part that leaves the factory is knowledge gained from years of trial, error and wind tunnel testing.

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