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Sprinter ace Robbie McEwen says he won’t be jealous come July about Cadel Evans’ rising prominence on Silence-Lotto for the 2008 season. With Evans bucking for the Tour de France overall, McEwen will take a back seat on the Belgian team where he’s enjoyed marquee status for the past decade en route to winning three green points jerseys.

The UCI is putting a positive spin on its beleaguered ProTour series as the 2008 racing season starts Tuesday with the six-day Tour Down Under just as some heavy hitters are calling it a “failure.” Now in its fourth year, the ProTour series makes its first foray beyond Europe this week in a move that’s being hailed by UCI leaders as the first of a “gradual globalization” effort that could include major stage races in Russia and China as soon as next year.

BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Skins(TM), the global leader in the development and manufacture of engineered gradient compression technology, announced today it has been named an Official Supplier to Team Inferno, Team Bissell, Team Flexpoint, Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast Pro Cycling and Skins/Summit Six Racing Team. The product will be supplied for use to all team members, and will be worn for enhanced training, faster recovery and travel.

American Jenny Reed owns a trophy case full of World Cup medals — 17 to be exact. But before Sunday night, only one of them was gold. The 29-year-old Reed doubled that Sunday night by winning the keirin, holding off a hard charging Willy Kanis of the Netherlands in the finals. “With the keirin I’ve always had a good level of confidence,” said the Momentum Cycling ace, who took her other World Cup gold in the keirin at the Manchester World Cup in 2004. “But when I know my sprint is going good, that bumps my confidence up even more.”

Pat McDonough has faced his share of ups and downs since taking control of the U.S. track program after the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The lowest of the low came at the 2005 world championship, where the U.S. earned no medals at its home track, the ADT Event’s Center in Los Angeles. That failure was followed by another loss, when Australian coach Gary West — whom McDonough had chosen to rebuild the program — quit after only a few months on the job.

Winter Bike League: Athens' finest!

Take that, podium girl! (or, the mild-mannered Savoldelli shows his dark side)

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Hanka Kupfernagel and Lars Boom (Rabobank) won the mud-splashed eighth round of the UCI cyclocross World Cup on Sunday in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands. Coming just one week before the world championships in Treviso, Italy, the race was an important benchmark for checking who is on form — and two riders definitely not up to snuff were U.S. champions Katie Compton (Spike Shooter) and Tim Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com). Compton was a non-starter, reportedly suffering from jet lag after returning to Europe. And Johnson was a DNF, thanks to an untimely cold.

Former sprint king Mario Cipollini will indeed race for Michael Ball’s Rock Racing team this season, his lawyer confirmed Sunday. Cipollini spent last week at the U.S. team’s training camp in Malibu, California. But on Thursday, he threw some doubt on whether he would be joining the team. "It's not an easy transition," he said in a telephone chat with Rai television. "We'll see. We're still in talks. But compared to two days ago, things are a bit more difficult. Something has happened."

It was an unpredictable precursor to the Tour Down Under as Germany's André Greipel, a relative unknown to most, upstaged his more fancied local talent to claim first blood among the sprinters in the Down Under Classic. The fourth-year pro, not quite as muscled as his Australian counterparts Robbie McEwen and Mark Renshaw - the two riders he convincingly beat to the line Sunday evening in Glenelg - patiently waited for Graeme Brown's Rabobank train to tire before his High Road crew placed him in the hot seat two-and-a-half laps from home.

American continental professional team Slipstream-Chipotle has received an invitation to compete at this year’s Giro d’Italia, Slipstream team manager Jonathan Vaughters confirmed with VeloNews Saturday. Vaughters got the news last week from RCS director Angelo Zomegnan, who is expected to announce the full list of teams invited to the Giro in coming days. In addition to the May 10-June 10 Giro, Vaughters said Slipstream would compete in other RCS events such as Milan-San Remo, held March 7, and Tirreno-Adriatico, held March 12-18.

Scott Sunderland’s ride of a lifetime in the men’s 1000 meter time trial netted the young Australian his first-ever World Cup gold medal, and smashed his existing personal best time by nearly one second. The effort also sent the hulking 20-year-old back to the Australian team pits with a trash can in-tow. Sunderland, whose massive legs and enormous neck appear better suited for a football game than a bike race, spent the next 15 minutes buckled over, losing his lunch after his winning ride.

Speed - 6 Day Race Stuttgart

It can't be sunny in socal all the time!

Happy below freezing in New York

Defending champion Martin Elminger will be one of five past champions contesting the 10th edition of the Tour Down Under, which begins in the South Australian beachside town of Glenelg on Sunday, January 20. Stuart O'Grady (1999, 2001), Mikel Astarloza (2003), Luis León Sánchez (2005) and Simon Gerrans (2006) make up the rest of the past winners back for another crack at the title. However, they may well face their biggest challenge yet.

That's Nolan JAMES Armstrong to you!

Rahsaan Bahati taking a moment to pose!

Year and half old Jackson riding on the 4th of July

Seventeen-year-old Taylor Phinney can pen another page in his quickly growing book of cycling successes. Riding just the seventh individual pursuit of his career, the high school senior rode with the calculated panache of a veteran to grab his first-ever World Cup victory, defeating Dutchman Jenning Huizenga in a winning time of 4:26:09. “I just suffered through it. I think the person who can suffer the most wins this race,” Phinney said. “I didn’t expect to win when I was six or seven laps in.”

Think back to your first impressions of Floyd Landis. Possibly they trace back to his days as a scrappy pro mountain biker. Perhaps you first took note of him when he was a bleached-blonde star of the sea foam-green Mercury domestic road squad. Or maybe you came to know Floyd as Lance Armstrong’s lieutenant at U.S. Postal Service, or as he developed into the underdog GC rider at Phonak who broke through to win the 2006 Tour de France. Remember the permanent grin, the cunning observational comments, and the sarcastic laughter? Those days, at least for the time being, are over.

American Sarah Hammer, the two-time defending world pursuit champion, posted the fastest time of the day in the women’s pursuit at the opening day of the UCI track World Cup at the ADT Events Center in Carson, California. Unfortunately for Hammer, her 3:38:00 in the 3000-meter event took place in the bronze medal round rather than the gold medal final.