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The Dolphin-Trek squad of Alban Lakata and Bart Brentjens took the fourth stage of the Absa Cape Epic, winning the 121km journey from Riversdale to Swellendam in 4:28:38. The duo finished 23 seconds ahead of MTN Energade and race leaders Cannondale-Vredestein.

Today started off a little rocky. We overslept by an hour and Benno had to knock on the motor home window to wake us up. I guess the cumulative fatigue is taking over and we needed the sleep. It was nice to have the extra snooze, but it made the morning ritual a bit hectic. We made it to the start on time and had the usual rude wake up call with a long uphill climb on cold, tired legs. We found our groove though and were motoring along through the course.

It's been something of a tradition here at VeloNews to start the month of April with things a bit skewed from the normal. In the past, on April 1st, we've fired Patrick O'Grady, revealed the development of new mag-lev wheel bearings, declared Dick Pound to be head of the UCI (with Hein Verbruggen taking the helm of WADA) and scorched the French countryside with fatally flawed sunflowers that perfectly match the color of the Maillot Jaune. Yup, it's April Fool's Day.

The Italian Olympic Committee’s (CONI) court of last instance suspended the doping case against Giro d'Italia champion Danilo Di Luca on Tuesday in order to allow three scientists to analyze a sample provided by the LPR team rider last May. CONI has requested a two-year suspension for the former Pro Tour champion after he returned an anomalous sample following the 17th stage of last year's Tour of Italy in May. A decision was expected Tuesday but instead judge Francesco Plotino asked for the sample to be re-analyzed by independent scientists with a view to reconvening on April 16.

Juan Pablo Santiago Duran y Smith captured the first stage of the Pesce d'Aprile demi-classic on Tuesday, after riding away from the remnants of the peloton on the brutal final climb to Pesciolino. The win marks a turning point in cycling, being the first conducted under controversial rules developed by Tour de France organizer, the Amaury Sport Organisation. “Juanpa showed he can pedal a bike from point A to point B faster than the other guys,” said Stefano Puchi, the team's general manager.

Responding to numerous reader complaints, VeloNews publisher Andy Pemberton announced Tuesday that the site will be abandoning its new design after a four-month trial period, starting some time after April 1. “To fully comply with the many, many emails we're received on this issue - most typed in capitals and without punctuation - we will revert to the site as it was presented originally, in 1996,” Pemberton said. Outgoing web developer Kevin Hankens said he was not at all bitter about the seven months of 70-hour weeks he spent developing the new site design.

As a companion to our annual Buyer's Guide we are featuring some behind-the-scenes photos, taken by VeloNews photo editor Brad Kaminski during his visit to the Specialized headquarters in Morgan Hill, California. To read Fred Dreier's complete article on the Specialized factory, along with an array of other factory tours, you'll have to grab a copy of our Buyer's Guide.

Scores of favorites for this weekend’s clash at the Tour of Flanders will be stretching their legs in preparation this week at the Three Days of De Panne. Starting Tuesday, the 32nd edition of the race is contested on four stages over three days on windswept course that provides a good preview of who’s on form heading into Sunday’s Flanders. The route hits such cobblestone sections as Leberg, Berendries, Stuivenberg, Eikenberg and the Tiegemberg sectors that the peloton will see on Sunday.

For domestic road racers, the road to the top is a long one. USA Cycling's National Racing Calendar includes 35 events across 23 states, stretching from the Amgen Women's Criterium, held during the Tour of California in February, through to the Priority Health Grand Cycling Classic in September in Michigan. The men's series starts this week with the Redlands Bicycle Classic in California. The womens series began with the Amgen Womens Criterium.

Professional endurance competitor Rebecca Rusch has tackled her fair share of adventure races and 24-Hour mountain bike races throughout the years. Now, the Idahoan is in South Africa, competing alongside teammate Cristina Begy in the Absa Cape Epic, a nine-day endurance mountain bike stage race across the country’s scenic Western Cape. And we’re along for the ride. — Editor

The lead has again changed the men’s division at South Africa’s 2008 Absa Cape Epic as the Cannondale-Vredestein squad of Jakob Fuglsang and Roel Paulissen won the stage 3 journey from Calitzdorp to Riversdale, and assumed the yellow leader’s jersey after the Songo.info team of Burry Stander and Christoph Sauser abandoned.

If you haven’t heard of him already, Greg Van Avermaet is a name to watch in the upcoming northern classics. Strong and fast, the 22-year-old Silence-Lotto sprinter won five races last year as a neo-pro. Some in Belgium are already calling him the “next Tom Boonen.” Van Avermaet, shy and reserved, shrugs off such talk.

David Salomon (P&S-Specialized) and Leda Cox (America's Dairyland) were crowned the champions of the 22nd Tucson Bicycle Classic after the third and final stage on Sunday. Brian Forbes (RideClean) and Clare Vlahopoulos (America's Dairyland) won their respective races during the finale, the Artisan Prosthetics Circuit race, run on a rolling, 5.6-mile loop with 300 feet of climbing per lap.

Barry Wicks’ transition from top-tier cyclocrosser to mountain bike strongman appears to be going well. The 26-year-old Kona rider, already a household name on the domestic ‘cross scene, took his first-ever NMBS victory at Sunday’s short-track in Fontana, California. Wicks out-sprinted breakaway companion Adam Craig (Giant) to take the STXC win and then followed up the victory with another win, again out sprinting Craig to take the Super D title.

If Jennie Reed couldn't quite believe her world title, then neither could the home crowd at the Manchester velodrome. Reed's jubilant gold medal in the women's keirin, the climactic event in five days of racing, was greeted with stunned silence by the British fans who had become drunk on the success that Team GB had claimed in the 2008 World Track Championships. "This is the first world championship of my career and I have got a gold medal so I am just elated," Reed said, as she came off the track.

Symmetrics’ Cameron Evans did what was necessary to overtake Rock Racing’s Oscar Sevilla on Sunday, taking the overall title at this weekend’s San Dimas Stage Race in California. Evans joined a winning break in the Cannondale Incycle Old Town Classic and, over the course of the 90-minute, six-corner criterium, grabbed just enough time to take the overall title by one second over the one-time Tour de France best young rider.

Spring Training on the Blue ridge Parkway

Real Men *Enjoy* Short Track (Fontana 2008)

The International Tour de Toona has been scaled down from a seven-day stage race to a one-day criterium this year, but hopes to return as multi-stage event in 2009, The Altoona Mirror reported Saturday. Race director Larry Bilotto said several issues contributed to the decision, including two ongoing lawsuits. The Altoona Bicycle Club, which runs the event, is currently involved

God has indeed saved the queen, judging by the number of times we heard the British national anthem during the world track championships in Manchester. I don’t know the lyrics, so I kept singing our domestic knockoff, “My country ’tis of thee. . . .” I was dying to hear the American national anthem.

Professional endurance competitor Rebecca Rusch has tackled her fair share of adventure races and 24-Hour mountain bike races throughout the years. Now, the Idahoan is in South Africa, competing alongside teammate Cristina Begy in the Absa Cape Epic, a nine-day endurance mountain bike stage race across the country’s scenic Western Cape. And we’re along for the ride. —Editor

Day three of the 2008 Absa Cape Epic produced a third stage winner in the men’s category, as Jakob Fuglsang and Roel Paulissen (Cannondale-Vredestein) took top honors. The two, runners-up in 2007, gapped race leaders Christoph Sauser and Burry Stander (Songo.info) on the grueling 137km journey from George to Calitzdorp. Stander and Sauser, however, retained their overall lead.