Price: $59 to $129 Web site: www.deuterusa.com Deuter is coming out with three new hydration packs and a brand new drip-proof bit valve. The new Helix valve is standard issue with the 2009 hydration pack range and is also available on its own. The valve can be sealed shut and reopened with a twist. Even when the valve is open it should be resistant to leaking thanks to the new internal, spring-loaded plunger that seals the system.
On Saturday Lance Armstrong returns to pro racing in America. Following the Tour Down Under in January — his first stage race since coming out of retirement — Armstrong returned home to Texas for a week before heading to Astana’s Santa Rosa team camp. A few days before heading to California for the Amgen Tour, Armstrong spoke with VeloNews about his expectations for the race, his teammate and two-time race winner Levi Leipheimer, and his take on some of the other major teams in the race. VeloNews: The Tour of California starts Saturday. How are you feeling?
Spaniard Antonio Colom (Team Katusha) won the penultimate stage of the Mallorca Challenge on Wednesday and charged into the overall lead. Colom won the 143.3km stage around Bunyola in 3:54:49, 56 minutes ahead of Edvald Boasson (Team Columbia-High Road) and Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step). Colom now leads Pineau by 41 seconds going into the finale, a 147.6km leg from Magaluf to Palmanova, with Boasson third in the same time.
The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) on Wednesday summoned Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde to face charges of doping or attempting to dope in relation to the infamous Operación Puerto affair. The Caisse D'Epargne rider has been asked to appear before CONI at Rome's Stadio Olimpico on Monday. CONI said it had also informed the rider's team and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) of the summons. The summons relates to a blood-urine sample given by Valverde on July 21, during the 2008 Tour de France after a stage in Italy.
Winter-weary racers will get a taste of springtime this weekend during the 17th annual John Earley Memorial Valley of the Sun stage race. The? three-day event in and around Phoenix has traditionally been the first stage race ?for many domestic professional and elite regional teams, and the weather should be welcoming, with sunshine and temperatures in the upper 60s.
Caisse d'Epargne won stage two of the 36th Tour Méditerranéen on Wednesday, and Spaniard Luis Sanchez took over the leader’s yellow jersey from Belarussian sprinter Yauheni Hutarovich (Française des Jeux). The American Garmin-Slipstream squad took second in the 25km team time trial between Narbonne and Gruissan, with Barloworld third.
In a year of comebacks, Hayden Roulston has one of the most interesting. No doping bans, no suspicious test results. Instead, Roulston walked away from the sport’s biggest team in 2005 because his heart just wasn’t into it anymore. Six years ago, Roulston was hailed as New Zealand’s most promising talent ever. He signed on with Cofidis at the ripe age of 22, then joined Discovery Channel for the 2005 season. Everything was looking up for the tall, powerful Kiwi.
Mattia Gavazzi is on a roll. The 25-year-old Italian on Diquigiovanni-Androni won the third stage of the Tour de Langkawi on Wednesday which ended in the historic Malaysian port city of Malacca, his third victory in as many days. Australian Chris Sutton (Garmin-Slipstream) team took second place. Gavazzi, the overall race leader, won the 186-kilometer (115.58-mile) stage in four hours, 33 minutes and 29 seconds. Gavazzi won the opening stage from Putrajaya to Senawang on Monday and the second stage from Senawang to Malacca Tuesday.
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Just one day before heading out to the Amgen Tour of California, Tom Zirbel (Bissell Pro Cycling) stopped by the VeloNews offices with his Pinarello FM1 time trial bike. He was on his way out for a last day of training before joining the star-studded peloton in Sacramento for Saturday’s prologue. We got some photos and component highlights, and enjoyed a relaxed conversation with Zirbel.
The Santa Cruz premier of Road to Roubaix, a 2008 release about the fabled race over the cobbled roads of northern France, known as The Hell of the North. Get revved up for the Tour of California cycling race, which roars into Santa Cruz the next day. Also Showing these Shorts: Goodbye Tomorrow, by local filmaker Brian Vernor Millar's Tale, about Garmin-Slipstream rider David Millar NorCal High School Mountain Bike League Plus a Raffle featuring these prizes and more: A $5,000 Carbon Giant Road Bike donated by Bicycle Trip
A simple 20-minute field test can determine your power at threshold and is the best starting point for a power-based training plan. Knowing one’s threshold wattage gives you the ability to use wattage-based training zones and to understand power readout in real time on the bike. Most importantly, you will be able to analyze training data on your computer and measure your cycling improvement. What
The VELOVE Winter Bicycle Festival is about to transform downtown Santa Rosa into a bicycle wonderland during Valentines Day weekend, February 14-15. Held in conjunction with the 2009 Amgen Tour of California, VELOVE is packed with events for everyone, including bike competitions, race viewing parties, non-profit fundraising events, a pro race team signing and plenty more. It is a joint production between Bike Monkey, the City of Santa Rosa, Mainstreet and West Coast GoldSprints. To learn more and register for events, visit www.VeloveFestival.com
The Licence Commission today granted “wild card” labels to the following 13 teams, for a period of one year: • Vorarlberg – Corratec (AUT) • Landbouwkrediet – Colnago (BEL) • Topsport Vlaanderen – Mercator (BEL) • Andalucia – Cajasur (ESP) • Contentpolis – AMPO (ESP) • Barloworld (GBR) • Ceramica Flaminia – Bossini Docce (IRL) • ISD (ITA) • Skil – Shimano (NED) • Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team (NED) • Cervelo Test Team (SUI) • BMC Racing Team (USA) • Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni – Androni Giocattoli (VEN)
U.S. based pro team BMC earned wild card status from the UCI on Tuesday, but some major European teams did not, possibly ruling out starts at the major tours and ProTour events. Agritubel, Acqua e Sapone, LPR and Xacobeo did not receive the wild card label needed which allows riders access to their biological passport and hence the sport's major tours.
The third and final stage of the Women's Tour of Qatar saw Italy’s Giorgia Bronzini triumph for the second time of the event, outsprinting her rivals to clinch the win on the Al Khor Corniche. Overall victory went to Dutch rider Kirsten Wild. As the 84 remaining riders started, only 6 seconds separated Wild from her closest Bronzini on the GC.
Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) opened his 2009 account with victory in Tuesday’s third stage of the Mallorca Challenge after avoiding a final-turn crash by Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) late in the stage. The Italian sprinter made it over three rated climbs midway through the 182.6km circuit course starting and finishing in Inca and then avoided a spill in the final kilometer to go that took out Valverde and Manuel Quinziato (Liquigas). Luckily for Valverde, who decided to race to help his teammate Jose Joaquim Rojas challenge for the overall, he wasn't seriously injured.
Scott Nydam completed not one but two team training camps in preparation for the Amgen Tour of California. The BMC rider, who claimed the 2008 King of the Mountains overall title, attended BMC’s January camp in his adopted state of California. Then he hitched onto the back of his friend Levi Leipheimer’s Astana team camp, based near the Santa Rosa area where both men live.
Mark Suprenant remembers the worst time he ever went low. He was at the base of the final climb of the Mount Wachusett road race when he felt his feet go numb. He didn’t have any food, nor did any of the other riders in his group. Suprenant decided to suck it up and ride to the top.
Coming off a fiery debut in the Tour of Qatar where he took two stages, Columbia-Highroad’s fastman Mark Cavendish says he’s ready for more action at the Amgen Tour of California. “California is a massively important race for our team, and we’ve got a really strong line-up for the general classification,” Cavendish said. “I’ve looked at the route and it’s a very tough course, a lot tougher than last year. On paper, there’s only one stage that seems certain to end in a bunch sprint, so I will be targeting that one for sure.”
Mattia Gavazzi (Diquigiovanni-Androni) maintained his hold on both the points and leader’s jerseys at Malaysia’s Tour de Langkawi, by winning the 160.9km stage to Senawang to Malacca on Tuesday, his second win in as many stages. Gavazzi expressed surprise to have already notched up three victories this year, adding his two Langkawi stage wins to an earlier win at the Tour de San Luis.
David Moncoutie (Cofidis) and Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d’Epargne) are the top names starting the 36th Tour Méditerranéen this week in southern France. The split opening stage of the six-stage, five-day race will feature an afternoon team time trial, where Garmin-Slipstream will be a top favorite on the heels of its narrow victory at the TTT at the Tour of Qatar earlier this month.
Haimar Zubeldia will make his Astana debut at the Tour du Haut Var (February 21-22), where he will lead a team of Spanish and Kazakh riders in the two-day French race. Twice fifth at the Tour de France, Zubeldia joined Astana for 2009 after racing his entire nine-year pro career with Euskaltel-Euskadi.
The Tour of Qatar has won its place in the international cycling calendar and it could one day host a Tour de France stage, cycling legend Eddy Merckx believes. This year's race, won last week by Belgian powerhouse Tom Boonen, was the eighth edition of an event which has seen competitive cycling come to the Gulf for the first time. The 64-year-old Merckx, whom many see as the greatest cyclist ever, said he is convinced that the Tour of Qatar has gained in strength during that time.
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