German ace Judith Arndt out-kicked American Kristin Armstrong to win the women’s Tour of Flanders, the third round of the 2008 UCI women’s World Cup. It was the fourth career World Cup victory for Arndt, the silver medalist from the 2004 Olympics, and the first for her team under its new High Road label. “It was a perfect victory; a perfect day for us,” said Arndt. “It was a team victory.”
Emilia Fahlin (Team High Road) and Jeff Louder (BMC) won Saturday’s 1st Centennial Bank-KWB Wealth Managers Criterium, the second stage of the 2008 Redlands Classic in California. Fahlin, a 19-year-old Swede, took the bunch sprint ahead of a hard-driving women’s peloton in Saturday’s 1st Centennial Bank-KWB Wealth Managers Criterium. Hot on her wheel was Canadian Alex Wrubleski (Webcor Builders) and Advil-Chapstick’s Brenda Lyons.
Katerina Nash (Luna) and Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) won the short track on Saturday during round two of the National Mountain Bike Series in Arizona. One short, loose climb added significantly to the technical challenge of racing in the desert terrain of McDowell Mountain Regional Park outside Fountain Hills. The women dismounted, but some of the men were able to ride it. Kona teammates Ryan Trebon and Barry Wicks opened a small gap early in the pro men's race, but Kabush, the 2007 short-track national series champion, soon bridged up to form a trio.
The Absa Cape Epic stage race wrapped up Saturday with the Bulls team — comprising the German riders Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm — capturing the final stage while the overall title goes to the Cannondale Vredestein duo of Denmark's Jakob Fuglsang and Belgium's Roel Paulissen. With a nine-minute time advantage built up of over the last couple of stages, the Cannondale Vredestein team solidified their position by finishing in the lead bunch. The Bulls team secured second place overall.
Fabian Wegmann (Gerolsteiner) won in Spain and Tony Martin (High Road) took the flowers in Holland in weekend racing across Europe. In Spain’s GP Miguel Indurain, Wegmann repeated his victory from two years ago by being first up the climbing finish at the 950-meter El Puy in Estella. Wegmann profited from the work of his Gerolsteiner teammates to control the pace made easy work of Michael Albasini (Liguiqas), who crossed the line second some two seconds ahead of third-place Joaquin Rodríguez (Caisse d’Epargne).
The possibility of chaos on the 'Koppenberg' and mayhem on the 'Muur' lies in store for the more ambitious hard men of the peloton during the Tour of Flanders here on Sunday. If, as predicted, the rain, wind and hail hit the race it could, according to local media, lead to "apocalyptic" scenes not witnessed on the race since 1985. Belgium's biggest one-day bike race is considered one of the toughest classics in the world because the latter part of the 264 km which leads the peloton from Bruges to Meerbeke is littered with 17 steep climbs.
A few glimpses of sunshine were interrupting the rain showers Saturday evening in Belgium, partially drying out the 24 sections of cobblestones and 17 hellingen included in the 92nd Tour of Flanders.
High Road’s stage race specialist Kim Kirchen will be back in action in the Tour of the Basque Country, which starts on Monday in Legazpi. The Luxemberg-born rider had to miss out on the E3 Harelbeke one-day race, and the Tour of Flanders because of illness, but will be back for the grueling six-day stage race in northern Spain. “He’s a little bit behind where he should be form-wise because of falling ill, but his focus remains very much on the Ardennes Classics.” team manager Rolf Aldag said.
Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel will saddle up for his first Tour of Flanders one-day classic on Sunday and find himself in the unexpected position of being a potential race winner. Alongside two-time winner Tom Boonen, Swiss hard man Fabian Cancellara, and last year's runner-up Leif Hoste, Chavanel — on paper — looks to have little chance of winning Belgium's biggest one-day classic. However two victories in the space of 10 days on the muddy, cobbled roads of northern Belgium have hoisted the 28-year-old Cofidis rider in with the big favorites.
Fabian Cancellara's scintillating early season form will be tested to the full when he lines up as one of the favorites for what could be a rain-lashed Tour of Flanders this Sunday. As the early spring classics move up a gear ahead of next week's 'Hell of the North' at Paris-Roubaix, the Swiss all-rounder has every right to believe he can win the 264km one-day classic from Bruges to Meerbeke.
Health Net's Rory Sutherland saw his yellow jersey move on.
The men's peloton rolls through the park on the first lap.
After a lot of suffering alone, Santiago Botero is happy with his win.
Botero shows the total effort in his face.
Chris Baldwin animates the chase of Botero.
The women's peloton being led by Webcor and Aaron's.
Meridith Miller off the front.
Miller climbing alone through the park.
Kim Anderson kept the peloton in order.
Katharine Carroll celebrates her win in the sprint, and on the podium.
Abbott on the podium with the yellow jersey.
Mara Abbott attacks the lead group, and only Alex Wrubleski is able to go with her.
Rock Racing's Santiago Botero won Friday's stage 1 circuit race at the Redlands Bicycle Classic, after soloing away from a five-man breakaway. In the women's race, Aarron's Katherine Carroll won the stage in a sprint. Casey Gibson was there to capture the action in photos.
Liam Killeen (Specialized) and Sarah Kaufmann (Roaring Mouse) won the NOVA Marathon as the second leg of the National Mountain Bike Series kicked off on Friday at McDowell Mountain Regional Park outside Fountain Hills, Arizona. Killeen won his 70-mile race in 4:00:43, five minutes up on Evan Plews (Scott USA). Tinker Juarez (MonaVie-Cannondale) finished third in 4:13:09.91. Kaufman won the women’s race in 5:14:53, nearly an hour ahead of runner-up Kristen Hayden Phillips (Red Rock), who finished in 6:09:56. Caroline Goulard (Sho-Air) was third in 6:19:09.
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 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 Today's report is from Ryan (Specialized mechanic and DJ for the camp)
Former Olympic track cyclist Tammy Thomas was found guilty of three counts of perjury on Friday. Thomas, the first defendant charged in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative investigation, was acquitted of two counts of lying to a federal grand jury investigating the BALCO case, but the jury in a federal district court found her guilty of three counts.
Greg LeMond and track and field star Edwin Moses will speak at the unveiling of a statue honoring African-American cycling pioneer Major Taylor in Worcester, Massachusetts, next month. The statue is the culmination of a long-term effort by local fans of Taylor, who lived in Worcester at the height of his career. LeMond won one of his cycling world championships 80 years after Taylor. The statue of the "Worcester Whirlwind," created by sculptor Antonio Tobias Mendez, is Worcester's first monument to an African-American.
Colombian Santiago Botero (Rock Racing) took the win in Friday’s Beaumont Circuit Race, the first stage of the Redlands Cycling Classic — and his first win in America. After working in a break with five other riders beginning in the second of five 17-mile laps, he attacked in the final lap and powered across the finish line a resounding 52 seconds ahead of Sebastian Haedo (Colavita-Sutter Home) and Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell) in second and third.
Competitive cyclists are not patient people. They tend to go directly to the pain, work too hard too early, and mistakenly overlook the real limiter of their performance simply because it doesn’t hurt enough to satisfy their addiction to pain.
The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. Write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company.
Tyler Hamilton is looking at the glass half full. After the Rock Racing team captain was prohibited from racing at the Amgen Tour of California and his team was not invited to this month’s Tour de Georgia, it would be understandable for Hamilton to be discouraged following Rock’s devastating loss of the race lead by one second in the final stage criterium of the San Dimas Stage Race on Sunday. Not the case, Hamilton said Wednesday evening as he rode in a team car towards the Redlands Classic.
In the penultimate stage of this year's Absa Cape Epic, some new faces competed for the men's stage win, while the overall standings were largely unchanged for the men and women's events. In a surprise stage finish, the Full-Dynamix Rsm team — Sweden's Fredrik Kessiakoff and Italy's Massimo Debertolis — took top honors for the first time during this year’s event. Hot on their heels was the USN/adidas team, Brandon Stewart and Max Knox, who arrived seven seconds later.
Under a dreary Southern California sky that made for nearly ideal time trial conditions, Mara Abbott (Team High Road) surprised few by winning the Redlands Cycling Classic prologue — The Sun Time Trial — by a resounding 25 seconds over second placed national team member Katharine Carroll (Aaron’s). Abbott’s teammate, Kim Anderson, rounded out the podium less than 1 second behind Carroll.
Photographer Casey Gibson captured the action at the Redlands Bicycle Classic prologue, a fast uphill 5km held under hot and sunny conditions in California on Thursday. Gibson will be following the traditional domestic season opener in its entirety for VeloNews.
Patrice Clerc, the president of the company which owns the Tour de France, has rejected claims by world cycling's ruling body that his ultimate aim is to set up a parallel world cycling federation. Clerc, president of ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation), said Friday in Le Monde that recent claims by International Cycling Union (UCI) chief Pat McQuaid were wide of the mark. McQuaid said last week that he suspected ASO, with whom the UCI has been feuding intensely in recent months, of setting up a parallel cycling federation.