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Scott teases time trial bike

The Nature Valley Grand Prix women’s race is joining the men’s as an invitational in 2009. Both races filled in 2008, with teams being turned away. The men’s race had filled for the past five years, but this was a first for the women.

In a thrilling preview of what awaits in the Tour de France later this summer, some of cycling’s top climbers went mano-a-mano up the precipitous green hills of Spain’s Basque Country in Wednesday’s third stage at the Vuelta al País Vasco. Alberto Contador (Astana) attacked with 5km to go on the short but steep Cat. 1 Alto de Ixua to drop rivals he’ll be facing off against in July and ride into the overall leader’s jersey.

Lance Armstrong's Astana team expressed optimism Wednesday over his prospects of recovering from his broken collarbone in time to line up for next month's Tour of Italy. The seven-time Tour de France winner's participation in the Giro, which starts on May 9 was thrown into doubt after he required surgery following his fall in the Vuelta Castilla y Leon race in Spain on March 25. The Texan had a stainless steel plate and 12 screws inserted to stabilize his right collarbone, which was broken in four places, but is now back in training.

The Giro d’Italia is losing one of its marquee stages across the Alps for its centennial celebration due to access problems on the French side of the border. Race officials announced Wednesday that the blockbuster, five-climb 250km stage over the Col d’Izoard and other emblematic climbs in the French Alps scheduled for stage 10 on May 19 between Cuneo and Pinerolo will be altered and stay entirely inside Italy.

Tyler Farrar’s recovery from a shoulder injury is on track and he’s expecting to return to racing next month at the Tour de Romandie. The Garmin-Slipstream sprinter ? who beat back Mark Cavendish in a stage victory at Tirreno-Adriatico in mid-March ? crashed during Milan-San Remo and suffered an AC separation in his right shoulder. No surgery was required, but the injury kept Farrar out of the northern classics this year.

Former world champion cyclist Jobie Dajka of Australia was found dead in his Adelaide home after a long battle with alcoholism and depression, sporting officials confirmed Wednesday. The body of the 2002 keirin world champion was discovered on Tuesday afternoon, with police saying a 27-year-old man's corpse had been found in Adelaide and the death was not being treated as suspicious. While police refused to officially identify Dajka, Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates confirmed his death, describing it as a "very, very sad occurrence".

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Just two and a half weeks after scoring a brilliant sprint victory in the longest of the European single-day races, Milan-San Remo, Mark Cavendish of the Columbia-Highroad team looks all set to add another classic to his burgeoning list of wins.

Lance Armstrong said he is outraged at claims from France that he had not behaved himself during an out of competition drug test earlier this season. The French Anti-doping Agency (AFLD) had announced on Monday that they had compiled a report on the seven-time Tour de France champion's behavior while undergoing the test. AFLD president Pierre Bordry revealed that he had sent the report to the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on March 30. He did not reveal the report's contents.

Enrico Rossi (Ceramica Flaminia) snagged a narrow victory after being away in an 150km breakaway Tuesday to surprise the peloton in the opening stage of the Circuit de la Sarthe in France. Rossi attacked at 35km in the 192km stage and won by a whisker ahead of the chasing pack, taking a 13-second victory ahead of the sprinters and grabbing the leader’s jersey as an added bonus. Besson Chaussures and FDJeux thought they had things under control to set up their fast men, Jimmy Casper and Sébastien Chavanel, respectively.

Yury Trofimov (Bouygues Telecom) upset the chasing peloton to win Tuesday’s second stage at the Vuelta al País Vasco in Spain after slipping away in a four-man breakaway in the six-climb, 160km route. Trofimov dropped fellow escapee Rein Taarame (Cofidis) with 2.5km to go and crossed the line five seconds clear to celebrate a hard-fought victory. Ben Swift (Katusha) led the main pack across the line with third at 1:10 back.

Andreas Klöden lines up Tuesday for the start of the Circuit de la Sarthe as one of the top favorites for victory. The Astana rider, winner of the French race in 2007, revealed he’s on some strong early season form with a stage victory and third-place overall at Tirreno-Adriatico last month and fifth in his season debut at the Volta ao Algarve in February. For the veteran German, races like Sarthe and next month’s Tour de Romandie (which he won in 2008) are all part of a plan to arrive at the Tour de France in the best possible condition.

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Bissell’s Paul Mach and Jeremy Vennell roared into the windswept Columbia River Gorge and took the top two spots on the podium of the inaugural Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic in its very first stage. There was more drama in the women’s competition. Heather Albert (Riverstone Women’s Racing Team) battled Robin Secrist (Veloforma) and Patricia Bailey (Wines of Washington) throughout the three-day, four-stage race, which ran April 3-5. Bailey won three stages, but in the end the difference proved to be Secrist's victory in the stage-2 time trial.

Jim Miller, who has been the interim director of USA Cycling since February, was named to the position effective Monday. Miller, 38, has been at USA Cycling for seven years. He was hired to manage the USA Cycling-run T-Mobile Women’s Professional Cycling Team, and later became director of the women’s national road team before overseeing all of USA Cycling’s endurance-specific programs, including junior, U23 and women’s.

USA Cycling is hosting 34 athletes in Europe this month, exposing them to some character-building April racing. The organization has brought 14 U23 men, six juniors and 14 women to Europe. The group will race a total of 130 days collectively. “This season marks the 10th year of our U23 National Team program, and the group of athletes we have competing this month represents one of the largest and most talented groups in recent memory,” said Steve Johnson, USA Cycling's chief executive officer.

After a relatively mild winter, colder temperatures and frequent snowfall have come to Colorado. The wide variation in our springtime weather — from 50s and sun one day to 20s and snow the next — has created a perfect opportunity to put the Castelli Insolito Radiation winter jacket to the test. With a retail price of $500, this jacket is not for the faint of heart. But it is packed with features that make it suitable for fall, winter, and springtime rides. I found that this single Castelli jacket could potentially replace two or three separate pieces of my winter wardrobe.

Editor's Note: Be sure to check out the VeloNews.com Cobbles Week home page, which will be updated with previews, interviews and race coverage as this week continues. The page includes Mapmyride maps of the three cobbled classics, a special retrospective gallery of spring classics covers from VeloNews, going back to 1987, and Graham Watson galleries. Basque hills and French cobblestones dominate racing this week in Europe.

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Where's Devolder?

Pua Sawicki and Sid Taberlay took convincing wins at San Diego’s Sagebrush Safari, the third round of the new Sho Air-Specialized U.S. Cup of mountain bike racing. The race was also the third round of the Kenda Cup West. Although it fell just one week after the Fontana National, which was the opening round of USA Cycling’s Pro cross-country tour, the Sagebrush did not see Fontana winners Georgia Gould or Geoff Kabush in attendance. Both riders were en route to the World Cup opener, held this Sunday in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

Although not as harsh as Paris-Roubaix, the cobbles of the Tour of Flanders do warrant a few concessions from racers’ typical bikes. For wheels, standard steel spokes and box rims are the rule (although of course there are exceptions). Beyond that, each team's mechanics have their own take on the ideal set-up for the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Here are a few of the details we found at a few teams’ hotels and inside the start village in Brugge.

Flanders Tech: The team version of the S-Works Tarmac features a shorter headtube than the consumer model. The pro model is available for 2009 at retail as a frameset.

Unlike Paris-Roubaix, where mechanics will often install 25 or even 28c tires, the Tour of Flanders isn’t considered rough enough to run more than a 21 or 23c tire by most riders.