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In Feltre, Italy, this week, just 15km away from the memorial to Tullio Campagnolo at the summit of the Croce d’Aune pass, Campagnolo reintroduced its Super Record racing group. Super Record was Campagnolo’s mystical racing group, but it has been decommissioned for more than 20 years. For 2009, it, along with new Record and Chorus groups, will help celebrate the brand’s 75th anniversary. In addition to the groups, Campagnolo will offer new versions of its four top wheelsets: Hyperon Ultra Two, Bora Ultra Two, Shamal 2-Way Fit and Eurus 2-Way Fit.[nid:77896]

For the third time in 10 days, a major international cycling team has announced a new title sponsor heading into next month’s Tour de France. GPS maker Garmin International has signed on as the title sponsor of American professional continental team Slipstream-Chipotle through 2010, Garmin and the team announced Wednesday.

There are cyclists that can plan out their entire season in advance. They have names like Alberto, Tom, Levi, Cadel, Gilberto, and Sylvain. There are a few more that fall on that list, but not many. Everybody else?

Steeped in history and with its hilly, winding stone-lined roads and historic town centers, can New England become the epicenter of American cycling? Five New England race promoters hope so. Race promoters from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire have formed an association to co-promote five races over one week, June 28th – July 6th. George Gantz, president of Fitchburg Cycling Club, which puts on the venerable Fitchburg Longsjo Classic, started talking about the idea a couple of years ago.

The world’s best cross-country riders must find their fast early this year, as the June 17-22 UCI world mountain bike championships, held in Val di Sole, Italy, fall nearly three months ahead of its traditional September date. August’s Beijing Olympics — fat tire racing’ most important event of the year — is to blame for the schedule change. With medal contenders eyeing Beijing, the new date for worlds has potential to shakeup the traditional pecking order in the cross-country events.

France’s four-person squad of Jean-Christoph Peraud, Arnaud Jouffroy, Laurence Leboucher and Alexis Vuillermoz stormed to a convincing win in the first event of the 2008 UCI mountain bike world championships, the team relay. The French led from start to finish, and stomped pre-race favorites Switzerland by more than two minutes. “It was very challenging at the start because [the Swiss] were favored to win,” Peraud said with the aid of a translator. [nid:77862]

Silence-Lotto's Robbie McEwen won a sprint finish in the 170km fourth stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Tuesday for his second consecutive stage win. The 35-year-old McEwen crossed the line ahead of Spaniard Oscar Freire of Rabobank and German Gerald Ciolek of High Road in exactly the same order as in Monday's third stage. [nid:77868]

NBC Sports is investing in World Championship Sports Network, an online sports video provider that will be renamed UniversalSports.com. The companies also will launch a new television network called Universal Sports. “Universal Sports will provide a terrific year-round home to almost all Olympic sports and the athletes who give our viewers such compelling stories,” said Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics.

Australian cyclist Nathan O'Neill has been banned from competition for 15 months for a doping violation, officials said Tuesday. The Commonwealth Games gold medallist and eight-time Australian time trial champion tested positive for the stimulant Phentermine after winning the Tour of Elk Grove in Illinois last August. He was racing for the Health Net squad at the time.

Spain's recently-crowned Tour of Italy champion Alberto Contador has said he wants to compete in the Beijing Olympics. "The next objective is the Olympic Games," he told Spanish public television late Monday. Contador said he wants to take part in the road race and the time trial in August, although he is "more mentally prepared for the time trial." "But the two events are very hard and it remains to be seen how I will perform," he said. "To be 100 percent, you must arrive in China well beforehand, and I don't know what the training conditions will be like."

Questions about fork failure from squirrel collisions, talcum powder and rolling resistance and bottom bracket life spans.

Michael Mathers (Rocky Mountain Racing) and Judy Freeman (Tough Girl/Contessa) won the opening event of the Winter Park Mountain Bike Series this weekend, a tough hillclimb up a ski resort access road with more than 2,000 feet of climbing and a finish at over 11,000 feet elevation. Mathers won in 33:12, followed by single speeder Walt Wehner (WaltWorks/Fuentes Design) in 33:24 and Tokyo Joe’s rider Brady Kappius at 33:50. It was the first time in series' 16-year history that three riders eclipsed the 34-minute mark.[nid:77853]

American Taylor Phinney, the 2007 world junior time trial champion, set a new world junior pursuit record Monday at the ADT Event Center velodrome in Carson, California. Phinney’s time of 3:16.589 in the 3000-meter individual pursuit broke Australian Michael Ford’s four-year-old record of 3:17.775. It was the first world record set at the ADT Event Center — the same track where Phinney won a pursuit World Cup in January.

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