09 Sea Otter: Team Type 1’s Christopher Jones and Bissell’s Kirk O’Bee bridge up to Howes, but all three are eventually absorbed by the Leipheimer chase group.
09 Sea Otter: While Howes pursues the break, others are hunting him.
09 Sea Otter: The break on the climb.
09 Sea Otter: Leipheimer leads the chase over the top.
09 Sea Otter: Howes bombs the corkscrew descent.
09 Sea Otter: Jacques-Maynes, Vennell and Amaran over the top of the corkscrew.
09 Sea Otter: Garmin-Holowesko-Felt’s Alex Howes buries himself in an effort to bridge to the three leaders.
09 Sea Otter: Leipheimer rode in the chase group behind.
09 Sea Otter: Colavita’s Luis Amaran, and Bissell’s Jeremy Vennell and Andy-Jacques Maynes drive the winning move to the podium.
09 Sea Otter: Specialized's Burry Stander, Christoph Sauser and Todd Wells charged off the front.
09 Sea Otter: The men's short track blasts off.
The small Spanish village of Antigüedad hardly even makes the map, but the 500 or so inhabitants have built a tongue-in-cheek monument marking the spot where the hamlet made worldwide headlines. When Lance Armstrong crashed out of the first stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León with a broken clavicle on March 23, the world’s attention turned to the innocuous, narrow stretch of road across the barren fields of northern Spain.
09 Sea Otter: Wells was all grins at the finish.
09 Sea Otter: After Stander drove it for him, Wells rode solo to the win.
09 Sea Otter: Kona's Ryan Trebon lead the early pursuit of the Specialized trio, but later faded.
09 Sea Otter: Subaru-Gary Fisher's Sam Schultz rode into fifth
09 Sea Otter: Jeremiah Bishop closed to a close fourth
09 Sea Otter: After Sauser flatted, Giant's Carl Decker muscled into third.
09 Sea Otter: The short track was a rattling, dusty affair
09 Sea Otter: Specialized's Burry Stander, Christoph Sauser and Todd Wells off the front.
09 Sea Otter: The short track blasts off.
Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank) and Matt Lloyd (Silence-Lotto) crashed heavily in Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race and left the course in ambulances, wearing cervical collars around their necks. Schleck, who won here in 2006, never lost consciousness and was later diagnosed as having suffered a mild concussion, according to his team. There was no immediate word on Lloyd’s condition. "It is not as serious as we first feared," said Saxo Bank sporting director Kim Andersen. "Frank is fine and that is the most important thing. I was really concerned for him when I saw him lying on the ground!"
09 Sea Otter: Andy Jacques-Maynes delivers
Sergei Ivanov (Katusha) won the 44th edition of the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday in a dramatic two-up sprint with Saxo Bank's Karsten Kroon as a frantic chase fell just a few seconds short of success. "For me it's the biggest win of my career," said a clearly delighted Ivanov after emerging the strongest of a final three-man break that also included Robert Gesink (Rabobank), who hung on for third on the steeps of the Cauberg, just a few seconds ahead of the charging peloton.
Evelyn Stevens (CRCA/Radical Media) out sprinted a seven-woman breakaway to win the 62-mile women's Pro-1-2-3 race at the Tour of the Battenkill Saturday. Stevens, in her second year of racing, also won the Valley of the Sun road race in Arizona in February. The 200km (124-mile) men's pro invitational race will be held Sunday. In Saturday's 82-mile pro-am men's race, Chad Beyer (BMC) outsprinted Bissell's Tom Zirbel to take the win. Team Type 1's Ken Hanson was third. [nid:90864]
Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich, who retired in 2007, could be set to return to competitive cycling as a team adviser, it was a former teammate said Sunday. Danilo Hondo, who is competing in the Tour of Turkey for Czech team PSK Whirlpool, told the German tabloid Bild he wants to create a new cycling team and that his former Team Telekom teammate would play a role. "Jan is always a subject (which one talks about when discussing cycling), we have talked about it," Hondo said. “Jan is always a magnet which could make things move things.”
09 Sea Otter: Jacques-Maynes takes it solo
Team Bissell again put its number to use in the Sea Otter circuit, stacking the two key moves of the day with riders. Andy Jacques-Maynes and Jeremy Vennell rode the last few laps together with Colavita’s Luis Amaran, with Jacques-Maynes attacking over the last climb and holding his gap to the finish. Astana’s Levi Leipheimer rode comfortably in the group behind. With the three-time Tour of California champion riding the front of the chase, that group eventually whittled down to a small front group of about 10.
09 Sea Otter: Wells represents the big red S
Halfway through the short track, it was a three-way race for the podium. And all three men were riding for Specialized: Todd Wells, Burry Stander and world champion Christoph Sauser. Sauser burped his tire and did not finish, but Wells charged on for the win, with Stander taking second and Giant’s Carl Decker outsprinting Jeremiah Bishop (Monavie-Cannondale) for third. Kona’s Ryan Trebon and Subaru-Gary Fisher’s Sam Schultz and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski were also in the hunt.
09 Sea Otter: Batty takes the short track
Riding alone the last three laps, Catharine Pendrel (Luna) looked like she had the Sea Otter short track sewn up, but Emily Batty (Trek) had other plans. Chasing just behind with Heather Irmiger (Subaru-Gary Fisher), Batty jumped with half a lap to go on a paved climb, and held her lead to the finish. “I just felt like I had so much energy,” Batty said. “It will be a good opener for (the cross-country race) tomorrow.” Norway’s Lene Byberg (Specialized) leapt past Irmiger and Pendrel to finish second, with Pendrel rounding out the podium.
Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Columbia-Highroad) sprinted to victory Ronde Van Gelderland in the Netherlands on Saturday to claim her 11th win of the 2009 season. Teutenberg worked into the decisive 13-rider breakaway with two Columbia-Highroad teammates that pulled clear in the opening 20km. The group came back after the break lost momentum and there were a flurry of counter-attacks until it regrouped with 10km to go to set up a mass gallop.
The filament-wound carbon shafts are internally butted.
Truvativ’s new Noir posts round out the brand’s cockpit line.
Truvativ’s new Stylo stems. The Team level is 3D forged with 7050-alloy, and comes with titanium or stainless hardware, while the Race stems are made from 6061-alloy.
Avid will have 160mm and 185mm CenterLock rotors available for 2010.
Elixir CR Mag bumps Juicy Ultimate from Avid’s top rung.
RedWin, PinkSlip, Nugget, Tango and Cash are your options. Who comes up with these names?
Five new colors for SRAM and Truvativ drivetrain components.
There’s clearance for a 2.4 tire in there.
The Revelation leads RockShox’s lightweight, long-travel charge.
The Ario line shoots for high performance at economical prices.
The Monarch line now has the option of a Dual Air spring.
1990 world downhill champ Greg Herbold and RockShox product manager Sander Rigney run through SRAM’s 2010 suspension components.
SRAM takes advantage of Sea Otter’s captive audience of domestic and international press every year with a big product launch. This year the brand showed 2010 mountain products from its RockShox, Avid, SRAM and Truvativ lines.
Rock Racing has fired domestic all-rounder Michael Creed, citing poor performance so far this season, and further reducing its roster following Friday's announcement of Tyler Hamilton's retirement. VeloNews has been unable to confirm that two other Rock riders were dismissed this week, as well. Rock Racing spokesmen did not immediately return phone calls and emails seeking confirmation on Saturday.