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The sixth stage of the Vuelta Chihuahua delivered a fitting winner, as the third-year race returned to the state capitol following a five-day clockwise journey around the largest of Mexico’s 31 states. Following a long eight-rider breakaway that survived to the finish, reigning Mexican national road champion Luis Macias (Tecos-Trek) out-kicked Italian Diego Noscotti (NGC Medical), grabbing a razor thin triumph at the end of the 126.3km ride from Cuauhtémoc to Chihuahua. Mexican Marco Rios (Orven) was third on a day that lasted 2:34:23 for the front group.

Kona powerhouse Ryan Trebon withstood attacks from a trio of New England homeboys — and overcame a case of bad legs blamed on jet lag — on Saturday to win his fifth cyclocross race in Gloucester, Massachusetts. In the elite women's race of the 2008 Erdinger Gran Prix of Gloucester, Velo Bella-Kona's Amy Dombroski prevailed to win her first race in Gloucester, after a tough battle that saw five or six women in contention until the end. [nid:84187]

The mid-October heat in Middleton Ohio was matched only by the hot racing action at the Java Johnny’s / Lionhearts International UCI C2 race on Saturday. The women's race saw Katie Compton power away from the field of the country’s top ‘crossers, including Rachel Lloyd, who finished second on the day, and eventual third-place finisher Sue Butler.

Crédit Agricole team manager Roger Legeay has played down the negative effect of cycling's numerous doping scandals as he prepares his riders for their last race as a team. At Paris-Tours this Sunday, the penultimate one-day classic of the season, Legeay will wave goodbye to more than 20 years of cycling history while lamenting his failure to attract a replacement sponsor.

The course at England-Idlewild park rattled bones and tuned wheels to tacos at the Darkhorse Cyclo-Stampede UCI C-2 in Burlington, Kentucky on Friday, October 12th. The Cincinnati area hasn’t seen a soaking in weeks and the victims of the pounding course lined up for post-race massages at the Wellington Orthopedic tent throughout the day. The 80 degree heat compounded the hurt. In the Men’s race, after a lap-3 bike change which sent Barry Wicks (Kona) on the defensive, Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com) took advantage for the win.

Javier Benitez is certainly not lacking for confidence. For the second time in five days at Mexico’s Vuelta Chihuahua, the Spaniard started his victory celebration long before crossing the finish line. But just like the end of stage 1 on Monday, the Benfica rider was fastest finisher at the close of stage 5’s 152.8km ride from Creel to Cuauhtémoc. Benitez stopped the clock in 3:36:52, with German Steffen Radochla (Elk Haus-Simplon) and Mexico’s Juan Magallanes (Tecos-Trek) completing the podium. The top 3 was identical to stage 1’s podium.

20.09.2008 FSA Star Crossed Redmond, WA C2 20.09.2008 Nittany Lion 'Cross Fogelsville, PA C2 20.09.2008 KTR Michigan Double Cross - 1 Springfield Township, MI C1 21.09.2008 KTR Michigan Double Cross - 2 Springfield Township, MI C2 21.09.2008 Rad Racing GP Lakewood, WA C2 24.09.2008 Cross Vegas Las Vegas, NV C1 27.09.2008 Mad Cross I Sun Prarie, WI C2 27.09.2008 Schoolhouse Cyclocross Montpelier, VT C2 28.09.2008 Mad Cross II Sun Prarie, WI C2 28.09.2008 Catamount Grand Prix Williston, VT C2 10.10.2008 The Cyclo-Stampede Burlington, KY C2

Roughly 2000 mountain bikers will head into Southeastern Utah this weekend for the Suzuki 24-Hours of Moab, the largest 24-Hour race on North American soil. In its 13th year the race — organized by the West Virginia-based Granny Gear Productions — has come to own the title “Galactic Championships” of 24-Hour racing, a direct challenge to the 24 Hours of Adrenaline’s World Championships event.

The highly anticipated three-day UCI Cincinnati International Cyclocross Festival begins this afternoon with the Darkhorse Cyclo-Stampede in Burlington Kentucky, just west of the Cincinnati airport. In a last minute development, Trek/VW’s mountain bike superstar Jeremiah Bishop has entered all three events, joining over 80 Elite Men and Women competing for the UCI points and hundreds more in the amateur categories.

It might be called the “sprinters' classics,” but Paris-Tours is a race where opportunists can have their way. The French fall classic has often tipped in favor of attackers who’ve foiled the best-laid plans of the sprinters, with such riders as Frédéric Guesdon (2006) and Erik Dekker (2004) winning thanks to strong late-race tactics.

Lance Armstrong never raced the Giro d’Italia during his seven-year Tour de France reign, but now it’s looking likely that he might be part of the corsa rosa during the race’s centenary. Giro d’Italia director Angelo Zomegnan officially invited Armstrong to the 2009 edition of the three-week national tour of Italy, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. Armstrong has already hinted he’d like to race in the Giro. Speaking to reporters earlier this month, the Texan said skipping the Giro was one of his few regrets during his racing career.

Giro d'Italia chief Angelo Zomegnan said he will not retroactively test samples from the 2008 race in a bid to weed out possible users of CERA, the latest generation of the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin). According to Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday, Zomegnan believes none of the riders on the race - won by Spaniard Alberto Contador - used the drug. "The Giro has already made the necessary checks and the laboratories, as well as the UCI, have affirmed there is nothing to suspect," said Zomegnan. "It would be useless to ask for new tests."

Credit Agricole rider Dmitriy Fofonov has been handed a three-month ban after testing positive for a banned stimulant at the Tour de France. Traces of heptaminol - which is found in products aimed at improving blood circulation - were found in a sample provided by the 31-year-old Kazakh. He was informed of the positive test at the end of the race's 21st and final stage to the Champs Elysees, where he finished 19th overall.

They like to call the Gran Prix of Gloucester the "New England 'Cross Championships," although with a winners' list peppered with names like Knapp, Bessette, Johnson, Trebon, Gould, Dunlap, Gullickson and even Vervecken, that might not be going far enough.

Francisco Mancebo is the new overall leader of the Vuelta Chihuahua, and if things work out the way the Spaniard hopes, the soon-to-be newest member of Rock Racing. On Thursday, Mancebo (Fercase-Rota dos Moveis) took a big step toward defending his 2007 title in this UCI 2.2 America Tour race, finishing third in the rolling 18.9km time trial from Pitoreal to Divisadero, and jumping from second to first in the overall standings.

Bernhard Eisel (Columbia) played off the interests of the French teams Thursday to sneak away with Paris-Bourges, the final round of the season-long French Cup series. Eisel followed Cédric Pineau (Ag2r-La Mondiale) into the day’s main breakaway just 18km into the 194km race and then nipped him in a photo finish. “It was a very fast start (48kph in first hour). I didn’t think it was going to be enough, but 13 minutes was good,” Eisel said.

The US Gran Prix of Cyclocross is adding several features to encourage growth of the sport in the junior and U23 ranks. The three-weekend USGP series will now include the CyclocrossWorld.com / USGP Junior Race Series. Two events in the series — New Jersey's Mercer Cup presented by Knapp's Cyclery and The Portland (Oregon) Cup presented by Stanley have been named the official U23 and Junior Worlds qualifying races and are the only sanctioned UCI Junior races on the American cyclocross calendar.

The Sand Creek Fall Classic mountain bicycle race will be held Saturday, October 18th at Cheyenne Mountain State Park in Colorado Springs, CO. This is the final race in the Colorado mountain bike race season and is organized by Sand Creek Sports, Inc. As with the June Sand Creek Series, this event is sponsored by Ascent Cycling, Carmichael Training Systems, Front Range Orthopaedics, Rocky Mountain Lasers and new for this race, About The Shot Photography. Links to all sponsors can be found on the www.sandcreeksports.com site.

Chris Jones will return to ride for Team Type 1 for the 2009 season while the second-year professional squad is also adding the stars-and-stripes jersey of U.S. Elite Criterium Champion Ken Hanson to its roster.   Jones, 29, scored his second straight top 10 finish at the Greenville Hospital System USA Cycling Professional Road Race Championship after winning the Patterson Pass Road Race earlier in August. The Redding, Calif., native also played a key role at the Vuelta Mexico and the Tour of Arkansas, both of which were won by Team Type 1’s Glen Chadwick.  

Erik Zabel will ride into retirement in Sunday’s 102nd edition of Paris-Tours in what will be the German’s last race as a professional. Zabel, 38, announced his retirement ahead of the Varese world championships, where he crossed the line arm-in-arm with Paolo Bettini, another riding retiring at the end of the 2008 season. Zabel is a three-time winner of what’s considered the sprinter’s classic, first taking the flowers in 1994 in what was his first major victory.

Garmin-Chipotle has signed on to be part of the UCI ProTour series, the UCI reported Thursday. The American team was awarded a four-year license to join the beleaguered, season-long series managed by the UCI. Under a “cease-fire” accord reached with organizers of the three grand tours, a restructured ProTour calendar will be part of a world calendar that marks the return of major races to the UCI fold for 2009.

Mexico’s ongoing — and frequently tragic — drug war literally took center stage at the Vuelta Chihuahua on Wednesday. Following stage 3’s 155.9km grind from Guachochi to Creel that included seven rated climbs but had only limited impact on the overall standings, a group of peaceful protesters unfurled several banners proclaiming their frustration with the lack of police action since the August 16 killings of 13 residents in this small tourist town that’s a gateway to stunning Copper Canyon.

Just after his dramatic win at the U.S. professional road championships, Tyler Hamilton sat down with VeloNews managing editor Neal Rogers to talk about the win, his return from a two-year doping suspension and his personal life, including his pending divorce and his realization of the difference between acquaintances and real friends. The complete interview is in the latest issue of VeloNews, but here are a few highlights: Hamilton on his big win in Greenville:

The domestic road team known this year as Team Inferno is relaunching in 2009 as a UCI Continental Pro Team to be titled "Kenda Pro Cycling presented by Spinergy." The team's backers say it will have the distinction of being supported entirely by bicycle industry sponsors and will include an all-American staff and roster.

Welcome to my new diary on VeloNews.com, a diary that will offer an exciting, behind-the scenes look into my cycling ventures as I tour around the United States and Europe racing cyclo-cross this fall and winter. I’m certain there will be great moments inevitably accompanied by some less exciting ones: Crashes, gossip, name-dropping, interviews; lousy drivers, flight attendants and race promoters. Just make sure you read every other Wednesday during this 'cross season, and I’ll do my part to keep it exciting.