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Italian cyclist Leonardo Piepoli said he had "denied everything" following his doping hearing with the Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) on Thursday. Piepoli was heard just a day after his former Saunier-Duval teammate Ricardo Riccò, who admitted to using EPO. Riccò was kicked out of the Tour de France earlier this month after failing a dope test following the fourth stage time trial. He was fired by Saunier-Duval, who also dismissed Piepoli, claiming he had violated their code of ethics.

Named the Collegiate Cycling Club of the Year in 2004 by USA Cycling and with 21 collegiate national championship titles won since 1994, the Midwestern State University Cycling Team has quite a legacy in collegiate cycling. That's what the Wichita Falls, Texas, school's new cycling team director, Julie Carter, hopes to build upon.

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) suspended Riccardo Riccò on Thursday after the former Saunier Duval rider admitted to using a new version of the banned red-blood-cell-booster EPO.

Following the withdrawal of his team’s title sponsor, Barloworld’s Enrico Gasparotto has signed with the Lampre team for 2009, a decision criticized by his current team manager. Gasparotto reached the agreement this week, following a decision by Barloworld to pull its sponsorship of the team after one of its riders tested positive for a new version of EPO during the Tour de France.

The Astana team has announced that it has reached contract agreements for the 2009 season with nine of its current riders, including American Chris Horner and German Andreas Klöden. The team’s general manager Johan Bruyneel said that in addition to Horner and Klöden, Astana has re-signed Assan Bazayev, Maxim Iglinskiy, Steve Morabito, Dmitriy Muravyev, Daniel Navarro, Gregory Rast and Michael Schär. The nine will be part of a team that already includes 2008 Giro d’Italia Champion Alberto Contador and two-time Tour of California winner Levi Leipheimer.

Bell lap sprint at the Ault Park Criterium - July 9, 2008

Riders round a corner at the Ault Park Criterium - July 9, 2008

One hundred and seventy-five racers representing 15 nations showed up in Canmore, Alberta, Canada, to compete in the 24 Hours of Adrenalin Solo World Championships July 26-27. But the big story was actually a piece of mud. At 10:30 p.m., as defending champion Rebecca Rusch of Ketchum, Idaho, was building an insurmountable lead in the women’s race, so was 47-year-old mountain-bike icon Tinker Juarez, also the 2007 champ.

American Kori Seehafer of the Menikini-Selle Italia Master team won Wednesday UCI Women's World Cup event in Vargarda, Sweden. Seehafer, a Wisconsin native who lives in Colorado, won the 132-kilometer event in a sprint against fellow American Kim Anderson (High Road). The two finished 1:10 ahead of third placed Charlotte Becker. (Results) The win moved Seehafer, who did not have any prior women's World Cup points, into 9th place in the rankings: Women's World Cup road rankings and points following Vargarda road race: 1. Judith Arndt, 260

A video clip showing Australian Cadel Evans snap at a broadcast journalist following the Tour de France’s stage 10 finish at Hautacam has become a minor YouTube sensation, with the clip garnering near 100,000 views and hundreds of comments by race’s end. After taking the yellow jersey, Evans was walked through customary post-stage TV interviews when a microphone windscreen tapped his injured left shoulder, wounded in his race threatening stage 9 crash.

The promoter of the Leadville 100, a 100-mile mountain bike race in Colorado, told a local newspaper that Lance Armstrong has registered for his race and is training nearby for the August 9 event. "It's huge for the race, of course, but even more grand and more meaningful to our community, because now the national and the international spotlight will be on Leadville," promoter Ken Chlouber told the Summit Daily.

With concern growing over a knee injury sustained at a post-Tour de France party, Cadel Evans has withdrawn from the Olympic time trial in Beijing. In a news release issued Wednesday, the Australian Cycling Federation said Evans will be replaced in the event by three-time world time trial champion, Michael Rogers.

Sports publisher seeks editorial assistant for VeloPress. The editorial assistant will provide administrative and editorial support for acquisitions editors. Duties include: maintaining schedules and editorial files; preparing and transmitting manuscripts to production; writing copy; participating on editorial and marketing teams; attending select events and trade shows. Candidates should have strong communication skills, attention to detail, and excellent organizational skills. An interest in sports or prior publishing experience is desirable.

Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen has confirmed that he plans to leave Silence-Lotto for a new team next season. McEwen has reportedly signed with Tinkoff Credit Systems squad, but in an interview with The Australian newspaper, the Aussie sprinter declined to confirm that. “I've signed with a new team for next year but I'll wait until later in the year to make any announcements about what I'm doing and let the new team announce it,” McEwen told the paper. “Whatever team it is, I'll let them announce it.”

Before we get to storytime I’ve got a bit of homework for everyone … click on this link. Read about my motoring habits. And maybe prove that I’m more popular than last week’s “Celebrity Drive” subject, Sammy Hagar … Not bloody likely.

The Italian ANSA news agency has reported that cyclist Ricardo Riccò, who tested positive for a new form of EPO, following the 4th stage of the Tour de France, has admitted to having doped in preparation for the French tour. According to ANSA, the former Saunier Duval rider made the admission at a hearing before the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) on Wednesday. The 24-year-old Riccò, who won two stages at the Tour before exiting the race for testing positive for a new product known as Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator (CERA), was called before a CONI panel on Wednesday.

World champion cyclist Marta Bastianelli has been ordered to before an Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) hearing on August 5 after failing a dope test this month. The 21-year-old has been kicked off the Italian Olympic team but protested her innocence, claiming she had inadvertently consumed the banned stimulant flenfluramina. Bastianelli blamed her pharmacist for preparing an herbal mixture aimed at weight loss but containing the stimulant.

Pedaling to Italian restaurants--in Heidelberg!

Zogics Citra Wipes Retail price: $10 for eight wipes Website: www.zogics.com Zogics Citra Wipes are handy little single-use packs for cleaning the grime from your hands after road and trailside repairs. They're easily stuffed into a seat bag or hydration pack, and the solvent in the wipe is citrus-based and therefore nontoxic; in fact, Zogics claims the whole thing to be biodegradable (the wipe, not the packaging.)

Geritt Beytagh thought he had the legs and lungs to win the 2008 USA Cycling national downhill championships after his qualifying run. He qualified first despite breaking his chain with one-third of the punishing course remaining. So when the 24-year-old crossed the line in the finals, looked up and saw he’d evicted ’05 champ Cody Warren from the hot seat by three seconds, Beytagh confirmed his suspicions: He’s stronger and faster than ever. Why?

Now that the champagne has lost its fizz and the podium girls are back to their day jobs, the cycling world now waits with bated breath until that last anti-doping control winds through the labyrinth of syringes, gyroscopes, laser prisms and other weapons in the arsenal at the labs. Until the final sample comes back clean, no one can afford to breathe easy. Anyone who loves the Tour is desperate to avoid that final-hour “worst-case scenario” that could once again send cycling to its knees.

Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans pulled out of the one day criterium held in Flanders on Tuesday with a reported injured knee. According to organizer Denis Bolle the Australian cyclist sustained the problem at a party put on by his team Silence Lotto in a Parisian cafe on Sunday night to celebrate the end of the Tour. "It shows a flagrant lack of respect," said Bolle, adding he had only been told of Evans' absence "a few hours before the criterium."

It's been a great summer for bike racing. Now that the Tour is over, let's see what our readers have been up to. As always, keep the photos coming - click here to submit your own!

Tubes, tubulars or NoTubes?
Dear Lennard,
I'm currently running Campy 10-speed and am interested in running Hutchinson Tubeless Tires. It appears that the only officially approved system is the Shimano Dura-Ace wheelset, which is obviously not an option for me. My question is will a wheelset with rims that do not have pierced spoke holes on the interior (like the Mavic Ksyrium SL, Campy Shamal Ultra or Fulcrum Racing Zero) suffice and is there anything special that has to be done to make them work?
Phil

Anticipation! Tour de Ephrata Criterium - Crash at the Cat 3 finish line has a worried rider holding on for a potential pile-up.

My Bike World

Lead us not into temptation...Yarmouth Clam Festival Bike Race, July 20th 2008

Killer up-hill sprint finish

Nelsonville Star Brick Criterium

The big bucks are in Las Vegas for the 2008 mountain bike race year. At the Mountain’s Edge Cactus Cup, September 19–21, everyone has a chance to walk away a winner, with a total prize purse of $25,000 up for grabs. Also, in an unprecedented move in mountain bike racing, a percentage of registration fees payback pool to all male and female categories, which include Pro, Semi-Pro (men’s class only, no women’s class available), Expert, Sport and Beginner.

World women's road champion Marta Bastianelli has tested positive for a banned stimulant in a test conducted by the International Cycling Union (UCI), Italian news agency Ansa reported on Monday. Bastianelli tested positive for the stimulant in a control run by the International Cycling Union (UCI) during the Under-23 World Championships at Verbania on July 5, the competition at which she qualified for next month's Olympic Games in Beijing.

Carlos Sastre's triumph in the Tour de France over the weekend has capped a "magical" year for Spanish sports, Spanish media said Monday just two weeks before the Olympic Games get underway. "Sastre's triumph in the Tour marks the end of the two most fruitful months in Spanish football," the daily newspaper El Mundo wrote with photographs of the cyclist on the Champs Elysees after his win on Sunday. "Sastre conquers Paris in a magical year for Spanish sports," wrote rival daily El Pais.

Increased suspense, a boom in television ratings and happy sponsors left Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme in a buoyant mood two days prior to the end of this year's race. But with the ever-present threat of cheats lingering, the Frenchman knows it is far too early to talk of a definitive turnaround for the sport. After years of controversy the reputation of the race was tarnished by a minority of drugs cheats. But compared to recent scandals, this year's Tour got off comparatively lightly.

PRESS RELEASE Date: 28 juillet / July 2008 Statement from Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) The UCI would like to comment on a recent BBC report regarding the UCI and the Japanese organisers of keirin racing. UCI looked into this matter when questions were first raised by the BBC in early June. A thorough examination of our records and interviews with those involved has turned up no evidence that this was anything other than a straightforward, completely proper arrangement to promote track cycling.

Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans (Silence-Lott) dismissed as “unfounded rumor” speculation he has suffered a knee injury that could threaten his participation in next month’s Olympic Games in Beijing. Evans, 31, finished second in Tour de France for the second straight year and on Sunday night joined his Silence Lotto team mates for the traditional post-Tour dinner in Paris. Evans said he did slip on a wet floor but it was no more than that.

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has been put under the spotlight by a report that claims the world cycling body was paid to help get track cycling's keirin event on the Olympic program in 1996. The BBC reported on its Web site that it possesses documents which "reveal a series of substantial payments to the UCI, which began just two months after the keirin was accepted into the Olympics in December 1996.” The report, which was denied by a top Japanese official, claims that $3 million was "paid by organizers of a Japanese cycling event to the UCI — the world cycling body.”

Denmark's cross-country mountain bike champion Peter Riis Andersen, who was to compete in the Beijing Olympics, has failed a drugs test, the Danish sporting federation DIF said on Monday. Andersen, 28, one of 84 Danish athletes selected to take part in the Games, tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO (erythroipoietin). The DIF have expelled him from the Olympic squad. Andersen, who rides for the German Team ALB-GOLD, won the Danish championships on July 20 and had been hoping for a top 10 finish in the Olympics, which open on August 8.

For Australia's Cadel Evans, the Olympic road race in Beijing is already too far on the horizon. For the immediate future, the 31-year-old wants to concentrate on winding down at the one-day criteriums which follow the end of the Tour de France — and then put his bike to rest. Evans' overriding feeling was one of "relief" on Sunday after he finished his fourth Tour campaign with an impressive fourth top ten finish. Yet his second consecutive runner-up spot, a year on from losing the yellow jersey by 23 seconds to Spaniard Alberto Contador, must have hurt.