All Content

Do you want to contribute to Mailbag, a regular feature of VeloNews.com? Here's how:

• Keep it short. And remember that we reserve the right to edit for grammar, length and clarity.
• Include your full name, hometown and state or nation.
• Send it to webletters@insideinc.com.

Price: $220 Weight: 350 grams/pair Web site: www.time-sport.com New from Time are the Julien Absalon signature ATAC XS mountain bike pedals. Even if you can't attack like Absalon, at least you can ride the same pedals.

Lance Armstrong will lead the Astana colors at Milan-San Remo on Saturday in his first race on European roads since he retired after winning the 2005 Tour de France. Just like during Australia’s Tour Down in January and the Tour of California in February, Armstrong’s appearance is expected to pique interest for the centenary edition of the Italian classic. It will be Armstrong’s first appearance at Milan-San Remo since 2002, when he finished 44th with the same time as winner Mario Cipollini.

It was another day of epic racing at Tirreno-Adriatico, this time with Michele Scarponi (Diquigiovanni) snatching the stage victory and the leader’s jersey in Monday’s 235km climbing stage to Camerino. Scarponi, back to the winner’s circle after serving a racing ban after being implicated in the Operación Puerto doping scandal, darted ahead of Stefano Garzelli (Acqua e Sapone) to win the stage. Ivan Basso (Liquigas), riding with strength in grand tour-like conditions, crossed third.

Team Type 1's Jesse Anthony won the King of the Mountain title at the seven-stage Tour de Taiwan, which ended Saturday in Taipei. Poland's Je?owski Krzysztof of the Merida Europe team won the overall title, followed by Australia's Peter McDonald (Drapac Porsche) and Roman Zhiyentayev (Kazakhstan National Team). Anthony was 17th on the GC. His teammate Ken Hanson, the only other American to finish the race, was 29th on GC and was sixth in the final stage.

The first Tour of Colorado race will be held March 29th in Superior, Colorado! Get your bikes ready! The famed Koppenberg Road Race opens the 2009 Tour of Colorado season This 5.5 mile course consists of a 2.5 mile dirt section that ends with a short but very steep hill. The 200 meter long "Koppenberg" hill has a 17 percent slope and takes its name from the legendary hill in the Tour of Flanders in the Tour of Flanders. Clearly, a Colorado classic!

Four-time Tour de France stage winner MarkCavendish has been included in a largely experimental 19-man British track cycling squad that will head to the World Championships in Pruszkow, Poland next week. Cavendish, who normally plies his trade with the Columbia-High Road team, is a surprise inclusion in a squad that will be shorn of many of its big names. At last year's Olympic Games Britain won seven of the ten golds on offer at the Laoshan velodrome in Beijing, with Scotland's Chris Hoy claiming three and Bradley Wiggins winning two from both pursuit events.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

It was another day of the double at Tirreno-Adriatico. Twenty-four hours after Joaquim Rodríguez (Caisse d’Epargne) won a stage and claimed the overall leader’s jersey; it was Andreas Klöden’s turn in Sunday’s individual time trial. The veteran Astana rider notched a commanding, 20-second victory in the 30km fifth stage featuring two short but steep hills. With his first victory of the 2009 season, he takes the overall leader’s jersey, six seconds ahead of Thomas Lövkvist (Columbia-Highroad).

Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) trumped compatriot Alberto Contador of Astana to win the 67th Paris-Nice cycling race after the eighth and final stage here on Sunday. Sanchez finished the race one minute ahead of Luxembourg's Frank Schleck in the overall standings, with French rider Sylvain Chavanal a further 9 seconds adrift in third.

It was a double-whammy times two for Caisse d’Epargne in racing across Europe on Saturday. Barely an hour after Luís León Sánchez won the stage and took the overall lead at Paris-Nice in France, Joaquim Rodríguez pulled off the same feat at Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy. Attacking with less than 500m to go up the punishing Montelupone climb, Rodríguez held off Davide Rebellin (Diquigiovanni) to win the hilltop finish and claim the overall leader’s jersey in the 171km fourth stage.

Spain's Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) won the seventh and penultimate stage of Paris-Nice on Saturday to take the leader's yellow jersey. Overnight leader Alberto Contador (Astana) suffered over the final four kilometers, losing almost three minutes. He later admitted that he had forgotten to eat and drink properly. Sanchez broke away 15km from the finish line and eventually came home 50 seconds ahead of Antonio Colom (Katusha), Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank) and French rider Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step). Sanchez said afterwards that everything had gone as expected.

Price: $125/pair Weight: 205 grams Sizes: 700 x 23 only Colors: White! Web site: www.conti-online.com With the popularity of white cycling gear gaining ground, Continental is releasing a limited model GP4000 white tire. The tire will use the same casing and construction as the GP4000 S, including Vectran puncture protection.

Suggest retail:$24.95 Pages: 352

Suggested Retail: $12.24 Web site: www.cacoethespublishing.net

Registration is now open for the Rocky Mountain Bicycle Show 2009. RMBS 09 will be held in Denver, Colorado at the National Western Complex on August 22nd & 23rd. Exhibitors already committed to the show include: Anvil, Argonaut, Bikekulture.com, Black Sheep, Chris Kopp Bicycle Works, Civilian Bicycle Company, Courage, DaVinci Designs, DEAN, Edge Composites, Ground-Up, hudz, King Cage, Longbikes, Microbac Laboratories, Moots, Paketa, Primus Mootry, Rene Herse, Tiemeyer Cycles, Victoria Cycles, Yipsan, and Zinn.

Absa Cape Epic