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After numerous doping scandals surrounding the Tour de France in recent years, the German city of Düsseldorf has withdrawn its bid to host the start of the 2010 race, it was announced Thursday. Düsseldorf mayor Dirk Elbers formally withdrew the city’s candidacy after a meeting in the west German city on Wednesday night, saying it would have cost 6 million euros (8.5 million US dollars) to host the start. "We had promised ourselves a raised positive profile all over the world through the Tour's coverage, but that is not assured now," Elbers told German sports agency SID.

Spanish rider Imanol Erviti out-kicked Nicholas Roche from an 18-man breakaway that lit up Thursday’s 18th stage to pump some fresh excitement into the Vuelta a España. With the favorites cooling their jets ahead of this weekend’s final showdown in the mountains north of Madrid, two-time world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) snuck away in the big, dangerous breakaway that the Vuelta was waiting for.

Feedback Sports racer Lisa Hudson used a steady approach to win the King of the Rockies Finale to the Winter Park mountain bike series, and in the process she took the season-long title. Her win was her first of the season in the series, but her consistency through the summer and her breakout performance on the toughest course of the year made the title fitting.

TIME? PRO ?Cycling’s ?Daniel? Ramsey ?took ?the? next-to-last ?leg ?of ?the? 2008? USA?CRITS ?Series ?in? San?Francisco Sunday at ?the ?inaugural? running? of? the ?San ?Francisco? Twilight? Criterium.? Ramsey,? one? of? the ?more ?experienced? members ?of? the? TIME? squad,? was ?the ?beneficiary ?of ?a? mechanical ?that? ?took third ?place ?finisher ?Jorge? Alvarado ?(Kahala/Lagrange) ?out ?of ?the? final? moments? of ?competition.? ?

This weekend's Mountain's Edge Cactus Cup in Las Vegas will feature several big names from the original 1990s version of Cactus Cup, as well as some top current riders, including 2000 Olympic medalist and current world champion Christoph Sauser. Riders returning from the Cactus Cup hey day include Mountain Bike Hall of Famer Tinker Juarez. “The Cactus Cup is one of those events that brings many facets and faces in the sport together,” said Juarez. “I’m looking forward to racing and to reconnecting with old friends from around the world,” he says.

It might seem odd that the rider who’s finished second in the past two editions of the Tour de France would welcome back the rider who ruled the race with an iron fist for seven years straight. But that’s Cadel Evans for you, perhaps the most polite rider in the peloton. Lance Armstrong’s looming return to elite cycling might have most pros quietly muttering in their muesli, but Evans is openly welcoming back Big Tex.

SRAM T-shirt off your back giveaway - Day 2 of Interbike: Stop by the SRAM booth while supplies last. SRAM employees will be wearing a commemorative T-shirt Day 1 of Interbike's indoor show (Wednesday September 24th). If you want one and are willing to wear it in exchange for the shirt off your back, here's what to do: - Stop by the SRAM booth on Wed.,Sept 24th to check out the shirt and see how cool it is. - Come back on Thurs., Sept. 25th wearing a shirt your willing to part with. - take off your shirt. (ladies you can head to the restroom around the corner)

The MAC Cyclocross Series opens its 2008 campaign this weekend with a pair of established races that are new to the MAC.  The season kicks-off in the cycling hotbed of Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania with the Nittany Lion Cyclocross at Penn State University’s Fogelsville Campus on Saturday September 20.  The UCI C-2 event features over $4,000 in prize money.  Even though two other UCI races are being held in America that day, the Nittany Lion Cyclocross, by virtue of its earlier Eastern Time Zone, is laying claim as the first American UCI cyclocross race of the 2008-2009 season.

TREK BECOMES FIRST NATIONAL SPONSOR OF FREIKER BIKE-TO-SCHOOL PROGRAM Grant Enables Nonprofit Advocacy Group To Build Meters, Expand Program Trek Bicycle Corporation —through its 1 World 2 Wheels SM initiative—has made a major grant to Freiker a bike-to-school program based in Boulder, Colorado.

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Chris Carmichael admits he was stunned when Lance Armstrong first started talking about coming out of retirement to make a run at an eighth Tour de France title. But a few months after first hearing the news, America’s best-known cycling coach has embraced the idea of trying to help Armstrong retake the yellow jersey in Paris.

Miguel Indurain doesn’t doubt that Lance Armstrong will be able to return to a high level in his comeback in 2009. But the five-time Tour de France champion wonders if Armstrong will be able to win the Tour again after being away from competition for more than three years. “I’m sure he will be able to return to competition, but to win again is something else,” Indurain said on Spanish television TVE. “It’s a lot of time, but he’s maintained his fitness. Above all, he’s a professional. The question is whether he can return to his same level.”

Tom Boonen and Paolo Bettini have each won two stages in this year’s Vuelta a España and had already planned to pull out after Wednesday’s stage into Valladolid, so the Quick Step superstars decided to sit up in their final sprint and leave it the second-tier sprinters to take a shot. Budding Belgian talent Wouter Weylandt stepped boldly into the void, holding off a wild sprint ahead of Matti Breschel (CSC-Saxo Bank) to win by a half-tire length to give Quick Step victory its fifth win at the Vuelta.

Veteran Belgian cyclist Rik Verbrugghe, who rides for Cofidis, announced Wednesday he will retire after next month's Tour of Lombardy. Verbrugghe said he had found it difficult to bounce back from a dramatic crash in the 2006 Tour de France, when he broke his leg after careering down a ravine. "I went through a dark period back then, a difficult reassessment. And even though I returned to the top level, after this incident I started to think of ending my career," the 34-year-old said Wednesday. Verbrugghe fell in last month's San Sebastian Classic, breaking his collarbone.

The United States Olympic Committee has apologized to four Olympic track cyclists whose decision to wear facemasks into Beijing sparked controversy on the eve of the 2008 games. In a letter to cyclists Mike Friedman, Bobby Lea, Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed, USOC Chief Executive Officer James E. Scherr said, “We apologize if you felt that the USOC or your National Governing Body did not appropriately support you through this incident, and you should rest assured it was not our intent.”

Next year's Tour de France is set for a two-stage incursion to Barcelona, according to the Catalan city's Mayor Jordi Hereu on Tuesday. "This is important for the city, but also for the Tour, for cycling and sport in general," said Hereu. The city's top sports coordinator, Pere Alcober, said Barcelona would host a stage finish on July 8 and the start of a stage on July 9. Dates for next year's race, which is scheduled to start in the principality of Monaco, have yet to be confirmed by race organizers.

Olympic medalists Kristin Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer will headline a strong U.S. team for the upcoming Varese world road cycling championships Sept. 23-38. Seventeen athletes will compete in Elite and U23 categories as part of a squad that is defined by experience on the women’s side and youth on the men’s.

Armstrong hopes to make history

Cyclocross star Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) and Lea Davison (Trek-Volkswagen) escaped with overall wins at Wisconsin’s Chequamegon 40 on Saturday. The event is the highlight of the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, a weekend of mountain bike races and events in and around Cable, Wisconsin. The famed race once again began with a mass start of 1700 participants in downtown Hayward, Wisconsin, before following the American Birkebeiner ski trail to Cable.

It was a fast and exciting conclusion Tuesday into Zamora to one of the slowest and most tedious stages any grand tour has endured in years. Tom Boonen (Quick Step) pipped Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas) to win his second stage of this year’s Vuelta a España, but the 186.3km stage was marked by its sluggish speed and lackadaisical attitude of the peloton.