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Slipstream pushed the aero limits. Its two GC contenders, Tom Danielson and Christian Vande Velde, used Zipp’s 1080 front wheel. The team was given one by Zipp for wind tunnel testing last fall, and purchased the other at Excel Sports in Boulder, Colorado.

The jig measures the bike’s saddle in relationship to the bottom bracket. The nose of the saddle can be no more than 5cm in front of the center of the bottom bracket.

The UCI's Carla Geyer spent Thursday making sure every bike conformed to the standards established by the promoters and the governing body.

Leipheimer was on a different bike for the time trial; his original stars and stripes Madone was cracked in shipping. Trek representatives hand delivered a new custom painted model, but it was just built up Thursday morning without time for a test ride before the stage.

Astana made one major change — larger 54-and 55-tooth chainrings.

All chose Bontrager’s Aeolus 6.5 aero wheelset. The rims’ section measures 65mm.

Toyota-United rider Dominique Rollin’s Fuji SL-1.The team was on its standard road bikes for Thursday’s time trial.

Rock Racing has both Lew and Cole wheels at its disposal. Most of the team attacked the team time-trial on Cole’s deepest section wheels, the Shuriken Carbon Lite T85 wheel

Stage 4's team time trial featured a short, hilly, twisty course. Although race officials banned the use of time trial bikes, disc wheels and aero helmets, equipment choice was still a factor. The teams used their standard road bikes, though many used the deepest-section wheels in their inventory. Race winner Slipstream-Chipotle pushed the limits the furthest, using deep section Zipp wheels and even trying to sneak aero helmet covers past the commissaires.

Former Giro d'Italia champion Ivan Basso, suspended for his involvement in the Operacion Puerto scandal, has signed a two-year contract for 2009 and 2010 with Liquigas, the Italian team announced on Thursday. The 30-year-old Italian's two-year suspension is scheduled to end on October 24. While Basso was origianlly banned on June 15 of last year, he had already spent 243 days under suspension. That figure, however, does not include time he spent as a member of the Discovery team.

Starting the day one man down after Timmy Duggan’s frightful crash on Wednesday, an inspired Slipstream-Chipotle won the Tour de Georgia’s stage 4 team time trial Thursday at the Road Atlanta automotive raceway. Slipstream rode four laps of Road Atlanta’s rolling 2.5-mile racetrack in 19:36, 3.41 seconds faster than Astana, at an average speed of 29.14 miles per hour.

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Summertime at Portland International Raceway on Monday nights means bicycle racing. For 2008’s series we are featuring clinics to introduce women to the sport. These clinics coincide with the Monday night races. This summer will be the 12th season of bicycle racing on Monday nights at PIR. The new clinics will run on the second Mondays of the month, and will focus on the basics of how to get started in racing. There will be a brief intro talk prior to the race start, followed by debriefing after the race.

Cadel Evans almost won Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday and will line up as one of the favorites for Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but July is what’s on his mind these days. Second at Flèche, the Silence-Lotto captain said a strong performance in the Ardennes classics is just an appetizer for what he hopes are better things to come in the Tour de France.

Health-Net-Maxxis rider has been front and center for this Tour de Georgia, grabbing the KOM lead on stage 1 and figuring in a long four-man breakaway on Wednesday's stage 3. Pipp's coach Frank Overton has been sharing Pipp's wattage readings and providing VeloNews readers with some analysis after every stage. He's tickled pink that Pipp has been playing such a central role in the race.

Go211.com is teaming up with BMX pro rider Tara Llanes in hosting an online auction to help raise funds to offset Llanes' ever growing medical costs. The auction begins April 25th at 5pm EST with the bidding ending on May 9th at 5pm EST.

Llanes was seriously injured on September 1st, 2007 while racing at the Jeep KOM Finals. At the present time she is paralyzed from the waist down. She has been working intensely at physical therapy and has very high hopes that not only will she walk again, but ride again as well.

Fairwheel Bikes makes colored hoods for recent Campagnolo and Shimano's Dura-Ace, Ultegra and 105 shift/brake levers. Hoods for SRAM levers will be available later this year. The company says the hoods are exact replacements and are available in six colors. Suggested retail is $25.

http://spotted.savannahnow.com/galleries/index.php?id=333738

German rider Jorg Jaksche, whose one-year doping suspension ends on June 30, will give himself till July to find a new team, he told Eurosport Germany on Wednesday. The 31-year-old, who has previously ridden for Telekom (1998-2000), ONCE (2001-03), CSC (2004) and Liberty Seguros (2005-06), owned up on his own initiative to have been involved in the blood-doping network of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes though he has never failed a test.

Casey Gibson was back at work during Stage 3 of the 2008 Tour de Georgia. Here's the action from his point of view.

The big stiff head tube is good for sprinting and going downhill; Henderson did both faster than anyone else today. A tapered steerer and asymmetric set of bearings are housed within the head tube.

The SRM captured some rather large numbers on Wednesday. Giant uses a proprietary bottom bracket system that fits Shimano’s standard Hollowtech 2 crank.

The rear brake is routed externally except for the final stretch of housing, which is routed through a pierced top tube so that it doesn’t rub the riders legs.

The new version highlights the fine-tuning a manufacturer like Giant does before a product is released to the public. The only sure change we know of at this time is external routing for the derailleur cables. The current version has internally routed derailleur cables.

Henderson’s Giant TCR Advanced SL. This is the same version the team used at the Tour of California. Rumor has it that there will be a new version of the bike out soon.

Highroad’s Greg Henderson went pretty quick to win Wednesday’s stage 3 sprint — 81.3 kph to be exact; that’s more than 50 mph. We were able to take a look at the maximum values on Hendy’s SRM after the stage. Assuming he was putting out his hardest effort of the race in the final sprint it took 1250 watts to win.

While the cages are by Arundel, a brand that’s very prominent across the domestic teams in Georgia.

The SwissStop pads are new to the team. It switched to the Yellow King pads after Redlands. Right now, the mechanics are experimenting to find a pad that provides consistent brake performance in every condition. So far they’re happy with how the Yellow King performs.

The SRAM cogset shaves weight, too.

Fabio Calabria is the smallest rider on the team. He rides a 49cm Orca that skirts the UCI 6.8 kilo limit. On our scale it weighed 6.94 kilos with Zipp’s 404 wheelset. He will ride Zipp’s 202 wheelset on Saturday’s stage to deal with the Brasstown Bald finishing climb. The 202 wheelset drops his bike’s weight below the limit and the team does not plan to add any weight to compensate. “They haven’t been checking the bikes that closely here,” said Davidson. "We’re not against the spirit of the rules, he continued, and we believe there is a certain level of flexibility, efficiency and understanding when it comes to interpreting them. We’re on production stuff that consumers can buy, it’s not like we’re showing up with stuff that no other team can have, so we’ll make sure the bike’s not flagrantly lower, but he’s going to ride the 202s on Brasstown."

J.J. Haedo isn’t the only rider toughing it out at this year’s Tour of Georgia. Team Type 1’s Matt Wilson, too, has a broken wrist and is racing in a soft cast. While pain isn’t too much of a problem, the cast on his right hand and wrist doesn’t allow him enough freedom of movement to easily operate his right Double Tap shifter.

After two slight misfires, High Road’s heavy artillery got its coordinates dialed Wednesday, firing Greg Henderson into the yellow jersey with an explosive win on stage 3 of the Tour de Georgia. Toyota-United’s Ivan Dominguez, winner of stage 1, lost the leader’s jersey when he came off the group in the hilly closing circuits of Gainesville.