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Stage 15, Embrun to Prato Nevoso, Italy, 182km

Team CSC-Saxo Bank once again executed near-perfect tactics in Sunday’s 15th stage and this time they got the big prize: the yellow jersey. CSC did just about everything right in the three-climb stage to Prato Nevoso and turned a one-second deficit into a seven-second lead to Bernhard Kohl. With a four-man breakaway staying clear to take the day’s flowers, CSC had its plan ready to fire up.

Katie Compton (Spike Shooter-Primus Mootry) and Jeremiah Bishop (Trek-Volkswagen) took solo victories on Sunday in the short-track cross-country race at the 2008 USA Cycling national mountain bike championships at Mount Snow, Vermont. Compton, the four-time national cyclocross champ, attacked from the gun to take her first career elite mountain bike title ahead of Mary McConneloug (Seven-Kenda). McConneloug crossed the line 34 seconds in arrears with Lea Davison (Trek-Volkswagen) charging her way into third and Kelli Emmett (Giant) outsprinting Willow Koerber for fourth.

Stage 15 of the 2008 Tour de France proved a mixed bag for the Garmin-Chipotle team. First, the good news: Danny Pate got into the day’s four-man breakaway, finishing third on the stage after a valiant ride fell just short in the final kilometer. And GC leader Christian Vande Velde stayed with the GC favorites on the category 1 climb up Plato Nevoso, crossing the line two seconds behind newly crowned race leader Frank Schleck (CSC).

For 2009, Trek’s Gary Fisher brand built a new trail bike, the Roscoe, and refined its HiFi line. Gary Fisher (the man) described the Roscoe as “a go-anywhere, confidence-inspiring bike.” The 5-inch travel bike features suspension technology co-designed by Fox and Gary Fisher. The new Dual Rate Control Valve (DRCV) rear shock is an evolution of Fox’s successful RP23. While it still has three external adjustment settings and the on/off Propedal lever, the similarities end there.

Australian Simon Gerrans caused a minor sensation on Sunday by winning the tough 15th stage of the Tour de France on the race's third mountain finish in the Italian Alps. The 28-year-old from Melbourne, however, was quick to give a nod to Australian great Phil Anderson, without whom he might never have got on a bike. Gerrans, who rides for Credit Agricole, bagged a prestigious first win in the race after attacking breakaway companions Egoi Martinez of Euskaltel and Garmin's Danny Pate in the final 150 meters of the rain-lashed 183km stage.

Into the Alps we went today and it was an epic. It was pouring rain at the start, coming down in sheets. This was when the long bomb break with our man Pate in it took off. Then as we started up Angel pass, a nearly 25k beast that took us up to 2700 meters, the sun poked through and with the humidity so thick it was like a sauna. Then the wind kicked up, absolutely battering us up the open slopes of the climb and cooling things back off.

Spain's 2006 Tour de France champion Oscar Pereiro has suffered shoulder injuries following a spectacular fall during the 15th stage of the Tour de France on Sunday. According to a first official diagnosis Pereiro has a sprained shoulder but has not injured his leg or his back, as previously believed. "He is not complaining of pain in his legs or his back," said a doctor accompanying Pereiro to hospital.

Team CSC-Saxo Bank battered and isolated race leader Cadel Evans in the first Alpine stage Sunday, coming away with the yellow jersey on the shoulders of Frank Schleck as the GC race tightened.[nid:80475] Evans fell to third, one second behind Gerolsteiner's Bernard Kohl and eight seconds behind Schleck. American Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle) is in fifth at 38 seconds, still very much in the hunt.

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Kelly Benjamin of Cheerwine Pro Cycling and Andrew Pinfold of the hometown Symmetrics Pro Cycling won Saturday's Bosa Properties Criterium; the fourth win for each of them at Canada's seven-event BC Superweek. Benjamin threw her bike across the finish line just ahead of Australian Ruth Corsets for the win. The Kansas City cyclist immediately raised her arms in victory, although it took officials a few minutes to examine the photo-finish before they declared her the winner.

Quadruple stage winner Mark Cavendish has pulled out of the Tour de France prior to the 15th stage, the first of three days in the Alps here Sunday, according to his Columbia team. Cavendish has been one of the stars of the July 5-27 race so far, winning four bunch sprints to set a new British record for stage wins in a single edition. He was victorious on stages 5, 8, 12 and 13. But the 23-year-old from the Isle of Man admitted he was suffering fatigue following two tough weeks of racing. "I've done enough here with four stages," said Cavendish.

There are seven major mountain climbs to tackle in the next three stages of the 95th Tour de France: the Col Agnel, Prato Nevoso, Col de la Lombarde, Cime de la Bonette, Col du Galibier, Col de la Croix de Fer and L’Alpe d’Huez. Race leader Cadel Evans has ridden them all in training, and he is ready to defend his yellow jersey, starting with Sunday’s stage 15 that heads into Italy with a mountaintop finish at the ski station of Prato Nevoso.

Linnea's cycling workout on Skyline Drive

Kenyan-born Briton Chris Froome hit out at Barloworld teammate Moises Duenas here on Saturday after the Spaniard's positive doping control at the Tour de France. Duenas's positive test for the banned blood booster EPO (erythrpoietin) on stage 4 has been one of three on the race, but is the first to force a drastic decision on the part of a team sponsor. On Saturday Barloworld, which made its debut on the Tour last year when Robbie Hunter won his first stage and Colombian Mauricio Soler won the King of the Mountains jersey, said it was quitting the sport.

Last year Adam Craig came to Mount Snow for the USA Cycling national mountain bike championships with a pretty good idea he’d win. And he did, by a whopping three minutes. That wasn’t the case in 2008. While Craig did emerge victorous from the race, finishing ahead of Kona’s Ryan Trebon by just over two minutes, the Giant rider didn’t expect to cross the line first. Drained by a season spent chasing Olympic selection and facing a fast, less-technical course, altered by race officials for erosion reasons, Craig simply hoped for the best.

Cadel Evans has been poring over cycling's history books as he prepares to put his yellow jersey on the line during three crucial days of climbing at the Tour de France. But the 31-year-old Aussie has not ruled out trying to forge alliances, if needed, in a bid to counter some of his big rivals for the race's main prize. Evans finished the 14th stage here Saturday suffering, like most of the peloton, from the searing temperatures as the race headed slowly upwards to the foot of the Alps. "I'm kind of surprised to hold the jersey this far, to be honest," said Evans.

Drew Geer and Mark Gouge are racing the Jeantex Bike Transalp 2008 powered by Nissan, an eight-stage epic mountain bike stage race, from Füssen, Germany, to Riva del Garda, Italy, passing through Austria and Switzerland. The two are racing for the Chipotle-Titus-VeloNews team and are providing daily journals and photos. The following report from Geer is about Friday's stage 1, a 75-kilometer route. "There will be some tarmac and you will go fast. You will walk your bike, but you will not mind because it will be so beautiful."