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Gusting gale-force winds are not ideal for bike racing. Qatar, a peninsula that juts into the Persian Gulf off of Saudi Arabia, is a wide-open windy desert with few trees and fewer roads. The races are lost on the windy open roads as the peloton quickly splits into echelons, as every rider fights to find shelter in the draft of another rider. To race well in the wind a rider needs great bike-handling skills, unrelenting power, consistent focus and experience.

Former world mountain bike champion Christophe Dupouey committed suicide Wednesday, French cycling officials confirmed. Dupouey, 40, was reportedly despondent ever since he was sentenced to three months in jail in 2006 for his role in Belgium’s “pot belge” doping scandal. More than 40 people were arrested in 2003 as part of an alleged distribution network.

Belgian cyclist Frederiek Nolf, competing in the Tour of Qatar, was found dead in his bedroom Thursday morning prior to stage five, one of the race chiefs, Eddy Merckx, announced.[nid:87315] Nolf, a member of the Topsport Vlaanderen team, was found dead by teammate Kristof Goddaert in their 14th floor shared room at the Ritz-Carlton.

First noticed spec’ed on newer Trek Madone road bikes, the Bontrager XXX Lite Road stem loses a little weight and cuts a sleeker profile than its predecessor. The original Bontrager XXX Lite carbon stem is still available for road and mountain bikes, but this newest model is specified for road use only. A couple of nice touches make it worth consideration as an aftermarket upgrade to any road bike.

The first time I saw a copy of VeloNews, it was still a newspaper. It was the early 1980s and I had just 'discovered' the sport. A friend had an extensive collection of VeloNews, and I just pored over the back issues with a religious fervor in between rides, learning the names of the cycling stars of the late '70s and early '80s. A few years later, when I first saw my name in the back section that listed local and national results, it was a proud moment indeed!

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Director of athletics Pat McDonough left his position with USA Cycling on Monday, the national governing body confirmed. Jim Miller, the organization’s endurance program manager, had been appointed interim director of athletics effective immediately. USAC spokesman Andy Lee confirmed on Wednesday that McDonough was no longer with the federation, but would not elaborate on the terms of his departure. “I can verify that is the case, beyond that I’m not going to comment,” Lee said. “It’s company policy not to comment on personnel issues.”

USA Cycling is distributing nearly $360,000 in rebates from license sales to its 34 local associations, the governing body announced on Wednesday. Local associations receive $10 for every primary adult annual road/track/cyclocross license they sell to a member in their respective geographic areas, according to USA Cycling communications director Andy Lee. They also receive $5 per adult annual add-on license sold.

Dear Explainer guy,
This isn’t your garden variety “explain the unexplainable” type question, but I thought I’d send it in anyway. Most of us readers know, more or less, what companies certain team sponsors are, like Columbia, Garmin and Cervelo. And we know, again, more or less, what certain team names represent or who/what they are, like High Road (why couldn’t they pick a better name?), Astana, Katusha (repeat bad name comment) and Slipstream.

Once teammates on the successful Haro mountain bike team, Canadians Chris Sheppard and Seamus McGrath are together again, this time on Jamis Bicycles’ newly launched cross-country squad. The duo as well as American Blake Harlan and manager/racer Jason Sager complement Jamis' already successful gravity program. The four will focus on cross-country, endurance and all-mountain events in North America.

Bend, Oregon, will be the cycling capital of the United States for the next two years — USA Cycling announced Wednesday that it had awarded the town the 2009-10 junior, under-23 and elite road championships. Six weeks ago USA Cycling announced that Bend would host the next two editions of the cyclocross national championships.

Jimmy Casper delivered his new Besson Chaussures team its first victory of the 2009 season after out-kicking the field in the opening stage Wednesday at the Etoile de Bessèges in southern France. Casper — best known for his stage win in the 2006 Tour de France — crossed the line ahead of compatriot Sébastian Chavanel (Française des Jeux) and Belgian Klaas Lodewyck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) to win the 128.6km stage from Bellegarde to Le Grau-du-Roi in a mass charge to the line.

Top Danish cycling team Saxo Bank has officially ended an internal anti-doping program run by Dr. Ramsus Damsgaard, though he remains with the team. The team previously known as CSC introduced its much-heralded program in the wake of the Operación Puerto drugs scandal, which erupted in Spain in May 2006. But the team said in a newspaper report Wednesday that the introduction of the Union Cycliste Internationale's latest weapon in the fight against doping — the so-called “biological passport” program — had forced management into reconsidering.

Mark Cavendish won his first race of the season by capturing the fourth stage of the Tour of Qatar Wednesday in Madinat Al Shamal. Team Columbia-High Road’s sprint specialist pulled ahead of a small group of riders in the final meters of the 141km stage to secure victory ahead of Germany's Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo TestTeam). Belgian Tom Boonen (Quick Step), who took the race lead from Cervélo’s Roger Hammond after winning Tuesday's stage, had launched the final drive for the line but gave up yards from home.

Brawny Italian sprinter Danilo Napolitano – racing this week at the Tour of Qatar – is hoping a change of team colors will put him back in the heat of the sprints in 2009. After an inconsistent season that saw him miss both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, Napolitano signed with Russian-sponsored Katusha to search out new motivation. With two second-places in the opening three stages at the Qatar race, the new team colors seems to be working so far.

Spanish sprinter Fran Ventoso has finally found a team for the 2009 season, inking a deal to join the Italian team Carmiooro-Astyle. The 26-year-old Ventoso turned pro in 2004 and raced four years with Saunier Duval. He enjoyed a breakout sprint victory in the 2006 Vuelta a España, but struggled last year with Andalucía-CajaSur. He two races early in the season but was overlooked for the team’s selection for the Vuelta.

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Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Team Rock Racing will ride Kestrel RT900 frames for the 2009 season, the bicycle company announced Tuesday. "We have built great relationships with many of Rock Racing's riders through our other brands' sponsorships, and I'm happy they will get the opportunity to race on our bikes in 2009," said Karen Bliss, marketing director at Advanced Sports, Inc., Kestrel's parent company. Advanced Sports also owns the Fuji, Breezer and SE Racing bicycle brands. Rock Racing used Fuji bikes for part of the 2008 season.

With the economy sucking wind like a sprinter on the Angrilu, participating in a pricey sport like bicycle racing must fall far short of the podium for most of us, well behind making the mortgage, the car payment and the utility bill.

The Ridley Noah is one of the latest in series of road frames developed specifically with aerodynamics in mind. As time trial bikes have pushed the aero envelope, many of the technologies discovered for TT use have also found a home on road frames. The added benefits incorporated by Ridley into the $3000 Noah frameset make it possibly one of the fastest road frames available.