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Road Racing

Six-day track racing on tap for Vegas

One of the legends of American bike racing is planning a 6-day-style track race for this fall in Las Vegas, to coincide with the Interbike trade show there. Jack Simes III, a member of the U.S. Olympic team in 1960, '64 and '68, and coach of the 1976 Olympic team, has booked the arena at Mandalay Bay resort on the Vegas strip, and plans to hold the events on a new 166-meter plywood track. The races would be held September 23-25, with events from about 7 p.m. until 1 a.m. each night. Planned events include Madison races, sprints, one-lap record attempts and motor-paced Derny races.

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Road

Big names at Spain’s Murcia tour

Some big-name riders are confirmed at the 28th Vuelta a Murcia, starting Tuesday and ending Saturday in southern Spain. The race will give them a chance to stretch their legs ahead of the season’s first major races. Some 12 teams, including the beleaguered Astana squad, will tackle a bumpy, five-day course that also includes a 23km climbing time trial that’s sure to decide the overall classification.

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News

JHK and Ott

JHK expects to race the ProCaliber at this year’s National Championships at Mount Snow in Vermont.

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News

The co-molded stays

Fisher’s new co-molding technique introduced on HiFi Carbon is used to attach the aluminum mounts to the carbon stays. The multi-link HiFi design is 29-percent stiffer than the Race Day.

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Road Gear

Gary Fisher’s new 2008 HiFi XC

Last month, Travis Ott, Gary Fisher’s brand manager and Subaru-Gary Fisher team director, personally delivered a new cross-country racing version of the brand’s HiFi full suspension frame to team riders Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Heather Irmiger. During our meeting in their hometown of Boulder, Colorado, at one of the coffee shops preferred by the pros, Horgan-Kobelski and Irmiger, who are married, gave the bikes a good look over while Ott ran through the basics of the new design.

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Road

Haedo relishes morale-boosting win

Juan José Haedo (CSC) is riding high into this week’s Vuelta a Murcia following an impressive victory Sunday against three-time world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank) in the Clásica de Almería. The Argentine ace edged Freire by inches in a photo finish to score only his second win on European soil at the end of what was his first day of racing on the continent this year. The newly confident Haedo looks even stronger this year as he roars into his second season with Team CSC.

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Road Training

Spring Forward to Race Intensity

March is here and your first race may be just around the corner, if you haven’t already toed the line. This is the time of year when intensity must inevitably increase as part of your preparation for the demands of racing. Hard, yet focused, training sessions characterize the build phase of training and mark the end of the base phase.

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Kona Bikes and Kingdom Trails Association unite, again

FERNDALE, Washington —In efforts to continue their outreach to the biking world and grassroots projects, Kona Bicycle Company and Kingdom Trail Association (KTA) in East Burke, Vermont, have, again, joined forces to unveil an exciting program on and off the dirt. Looking to assist in the maintenance and preservation of the non-motorized, multi-use trail system in the area, Kona will be working closely with KTA members and trail crew to increase environmental awareness and trail sustainability. As the official bike of Kingdom Trails’ Trail Crew/Bike Patrol, Kona will also outfit the crew.

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News

Bettini crashed out after just 9km.

Quick Step's world champion, Paolo Bettini, left the race following a crash 9km from the start. He complained of injuries to his wrist and arm.

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Road Gear

More bamboo, Commencal lands in the U.S., and more

Sol Cycles growing bamboo frames

Craig Calfee's not the only one making bikes from bamboo. Princeton student and racer Nick Frey is racing this spring's collegiate season on a prototype bamboo frame. Frey and some partners plan to put the frame into (custom) production this summer, to be marketed under the Sol Cycles name. Frey's bike, a 62-centimeter, weighs 16.2 pounds built up with mostly Dura-Ace parts and Zipp 404 wheels.

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Road Racing

Quick Step’s De Jongh wins Kuurne

Quick Step's Steven De Jongh outkicked fellow Dutchman Sebastian Langeveld to win Sunday’s 61st Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in an attacked-riddled race that saw two-time defending world champion Paolo Bettini crash for the second day in a row. The mighty Quick Step train righted itself Sunday with De Jongh’s winning ride a day after missing out on the spoils against an unstoppable Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux) in Het Volk.

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Road Racing

U.S. sending small squad to track worlds

Just nine American track racers will journey to the 2008 UCI track world championships, held March 26-30 in Manchester, Great Britain. USA Cycling will send sprinters Jennie Reed, Michael Blatchford and Adam Duvendeck as well as endurance riders Sarah Hammer, Michael Friedman, Bobby Lea, Colby Pearce and Taylor Phinney. Reed races endurance and sprint events.

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Road

Inside Cycling: ASO’s renegade Paris-Nice threatens pro cycling’s future

As the most profitable race promoter in pro cycling, Amaury Sport Organisation wants to dictate how the sport is run. That’s why for the past three years ASO and its surrogates have resisted substantive changes in cycling, particularly those changes involving the elite-level ProTour, which all other parties have embraced. ASO’s insurgency has now come to a head in its bid to independently promote next week’s Paris-Nice. And it appears that this time it has made one step too many.

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Road

Plaza wraps up Valencia, Petacchi takes finale

Rubén Plaza (SL Benfica) wrapped up the overall in the 66th Volta a Valenciana after finishing safely in the pack behind sprinter Alessandro Petacchi (Milram), who bolted to victory in Saturday’s final stage. Runner-up Manuel Vázquez (Contentpolis-Murcia) was left without any option to make up the five-second difference to Plaza in the mostly flat stage around Valencia while Xavier Florencio (Bouygues Telecom) settled for third overall at 21 seconds back.

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Road Racing

Attacking Philippe Gilbert soloes to Omloop Het Volk victory

Belgian rider Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux) won Het Volk for the second time in three years in the best style possible: with a dramatic solo victory. Gilbert, winner of the Belgian season opener in 2006, attacked a lead group of favorites on the Eikenberg climb with about 60km to go in the 199km course across the Belgian heartland of Flanders. [nid:72951]He then reeled in the day’s main breakaway that included Mike Friedman (Slipstream-Chipotle) and before attacking again with a punishing acceleration with 22km to go to solo home to victory.

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Road Racing

Lorenzetto wins uphill sprint in Valencia

Another stage at the Volta a Valenciana and another breakaway by a rider from Slipstream-Chipotle. For the fourth stage in a row, the American squad put a man into the main move in the five-day Valencia tour in Spain. This time it was Lucas Euser showing off the argyle with Antonio Piedra (Contentpolis-Murcia) in more than 100km at the front.

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News

VeloNews Photo Contest 2/29/08

We know it’s been a while, but our latest reader-submitted photo gallery is now ready for your viewing pleasure.

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Road

Belgian spring kicks off with Het Volk

Major changes are in store for the unofficial kick off of the classics season with Saturday’s running of the 63rd Omloop Het Volk in Belgium. Narrower roads, more cobblestones and tougher climbs are on tap for the 199km Belgian season opener in what’s always one of the most anticipated races of the year among that rare breed of racer who loves to bash the pavé.

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Road

BMC invited to ride Tour of Romandie

There’s more good news for BMC after the team secured its second major European race invitation of the week. Just days after scoring a bid to race Criterium International (March 29-30), the second-year American squad earned its first ProTour invitation from the Tour de Romandie (April 29-May 4).

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