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Clif Bar's big green bus. Coming to cross race near you.

Clif Bar Development Team Manager, Ben Turner, working on the fuel pump that will power the green bus with bio-diesel.

The beer was flowing in Louisville...

... and so was the free coffee at the Thule tent.

Leipheimer is headed to the Olympics

The United States appears to have qualified only two male cross-country mountain-bike racers to compete at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. This news comes after the UCI released its latest nations’ rankings on October 18 — the U.S. men sit in seventh place with 2019 UCI points, two points behind Sweden. The combined nation ranking for ’06 and ’07 determines the number of berths each country receives for the games. The U.S. men finished 2006 ranked fourth with 2205 points. Should the current 2007 rankings hold through December 31, the U.S.’s combined ranking for both years will be sixth, 129

Levi Leipheimer likes what he sees in the new-fangled Tour de France route unveiled last week in Paris for the 95th edition of the grande boucle. Leipheimer says the interesting mix of shorter time trials and four summit finishes represents a perfect recipe for what he expects will be victory for his new home at Astana. He says whether it’s him or defending champ Alberto Contador stepping on the top rung remains to be seen. “It’s a great course for Alberto and me. We’re really looking forward to next year’s Tour,” Leipheimer told VeloNews in a phone interview from his home in California.

German police said Wednesday they had obtained search warrants for a university clinic and the homes of two doctors in the Freiburg region. The doctors are accused of having supplied doping products to cyclists in the area. "The doctors are accused of having used or rather provided banned substances to several sportsmen, including cyclists," said a police statement. The university clinic in Freiburg is one of the most reputed in the country and specialises in matters involving athletes but it has been dogged by adverse publicity since the spring when former Telekom riders shed light on a

JHK and other Americans would have to sweep the podium in each of three Chilean races in order to earn another spot in Beijing.

Short, fast time trials, coupled with four big mountain-top finishes suits Leipheimer just fine.

If you live in the three-country economic union known as Benelux – and ride a bike – odds are good that it’s a Ridley. The Belgium-based bike maker owns a 45-percent share of the road and ’cross market in its homeland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, according to the company’s international sales manager David Alvarez.

Consumers have more choice than ever when buying road components. Campagnolo, Shimano, SRAM all have viable options for those looking to equip a performance road bike. And those options may broaden even further in the near future with Eric Sampson’s plans to deliver a road group by January 2008. Will Sampson’s soon to be introduced Stratics road group be able to compete with the big three? It’s hard to tell by comparing his preproduction prototypes, but Sampson has the right attitude to compete. He says that he’s not trying to shave every possible gram. He wants to build it light but, first

Don’t think that disgraced Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso is idly wasting his time while he serves out his two-year ban for links to the Operación Puerto doping scandal. The 29-year-old Italian is plotting his return when his ban ends October 24 next year and is already in contact with several teams for what will be a full racing schedule for the 2009 season. According to a story in La Gazzetta dello Sport, Basso has been staying busy since admitting to Italian anti-doping investigators in May that he was a client of Spanish doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, the alleged ringleader of the

Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now ready for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of our most recent contest. Okay. We admit it. We’re old. Maybe that’s why we kept drifting back to El Guapo’s “Where is my time machine?” Nice shot... there's a very "Breaking Away" look to that picture. Are those wood-soled Dettos? We had a pair of those. Please drop us a note at Rosters@InsideInc.comto work out the details and we’ll send you a copy of our new Coors Classic DVD. Meanwhile, go ahead and take a look at our latest gallery,

Ridley's Belgian headquarters are getting a bit crowded

Belgium's biggest cycling star once rode a Ridley

The Mud Men - Ridley sponsors the Fidea 'cross squad

McEwen's green jersey bike never saw the light of day.

A Ridley designer works on custom paint scheme

Each frame is hand-prepped

Frames are each tagged for tracking purposes.

Raw frames ready for painting and assembly

A rainbow of colors to choose from.

The painting begins.

Decal prep'

The logo is applied

Applying the clearcoat.

The oven....

... and the instructions.

Painted frames ready for assembly.

Painted frames ready for a club in New York.

A Fidea 'cross bike on the assembly line

Happily working on the line at Ridley.

A full spectrum of wheels to choose from.

Old Unibet frames waiting to be re-named.

The new replaceable drop-out/derailleur hanger on a 'cross rig.

Ready to ship.

Sampson’s new Diablo S outfitted with a prototype Stratics group.

The new Stratics 10-speed shifter.

Notice the stacked shift levers; the large lever pulls cable and the small releases it.

The aluminum and carbon rear derailleur.

The front derailleur and cranks.

Stratics parts are in the foreground (black derailleur, brake, bottom bracket and shifter) and the more economical Showtime parts are in the background (polished brake and derailleur.)

The internal mechanism is replaceable using two Phillips head screws.

The Stratics rear derailleur uses alloy pulley wheels with low-friction sealed cartridge bearings.

Sampson’s new Stratics TT bar.

The alloy aero brake levers weigh 65-grams and cost $45. They have been designed to be comfortable as well as aerodynamic.

Sampson’s $300 seat and new carbon Stratics seatpost.

Basso says he's riding and staying fit.

Where is my time machine?

Five-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain said he never took banned performance-enhancing substances during his illustrious career. In a full-page interview with Indurain in Sunday’s edition of the Spanish sports daily MARCA, the 43-year-old Spaniard was asked by journalist Olga Viza what he would say if someone asked him directly if he doped. “I would say ‘no.’ I passed all the controls, thousands of them, so many I lost count. It’s something normal; you win, you pass controls and there’s no problem,” Indurain said. “What’s happening today is that everything is in doubt.” Indurain’s

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or 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 here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,

Weston Schempf (C3-Sollay.com) and Betsy Shogren (FORT Factory Team) pulled away early to take commanding victories in Sunday’s inaugural DCCX Cyclocross Race presented by DCMTB-City Bikes in Washington, D.C. The event, held on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home and promoted by the DC Mountain Bike Team, featured a course muddied up by three days of rain, with rooted, swooping curves, open road, two sets of tricky barriers and a Paris-Roubaix-style brick section. “Props to whoever put it together,'' Schempf said. “There was a lot of good rhythm to it.''

Thanks to impressive finishes by its downhillers, Fort Lewis College defended its Division I collegiate mountain-bike national title during the 2007 USA Cycling collegiate national championships in Banner Elk, North Carolina. The Skyhawks defeated Lees-McRae College, host of the championships, 730 to 635. Taking the Division II title was the Colorado School of Mines, which edged Warren Wilson College, 636-626. Fort Lewis took the lead in the team omnium competition after Benjamin Sonntag grabbed the win in the cross-country on Friday. But Lees-McRae answered the challenge on Saturday with

Indurain won the first of his five Tours de France in 1991.

The U.S. Grand Prix of Cyclocross came to Kentucky for the first time in its history on Saturday. VeloNews editor Ben Delaney took advantage of the opportunity to take a close look at the race rigs of some the country's best 'crossers. PartIIPartIII

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Stu Thorne couldn’t call the weekend anything but a success, with Tim Johnson taking the second race of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross to make it a sweep for Thorne’s Cyclocrossworld.com team. And Katie Compton showed she needed no team to complete her one-woman domination of the races in Louisville, Kentucky, although Georgia Gould gave her a run for her money, finishing 26 seconds back despite a third-row start.

The cyclocrossworld.com team is riding Gore’s Ride-On cables on SRAM Red drivetrains.

Jeremy Powers runs a rear derailleur cable with a continuous sheath (note the thicker cable on the far left) to keep grime out.

Lyne Bessette does not run the sheathed cable, but soon will, according to cyclocrossworld.com owner Stu Thorne.

Bessette can choose between a double-ring bike and a single, 42-tooth ring bike set up.

The cyclocrossworld.com team largely ran Dugast Rhinos (above), but had Dugast Tyhpoons (below) on hand, too.

Bessette’s carbon TRP brakes.

And Powers’ alloy version.

A number of riders on SRAM drivetrains were running Shimano chains.

A number of riders on SRAM drivetrains were running Shimano chains.

Team Maxxis runs custom orange Raze tires and Paul cantilevers.

Many team riders also have Rotor cranks and bottom brackets.

And Shimano Dura-Ace drivetrains.

Adam McGrath runs a single chainring. (McGrath did not race the first USGP due to a death in the family.)

The Rotor S1 stem features unique thread spacing: the faceplate has tight spacing, while the stem itself has wider spacing, resulting in a ramping effect when tightening the bolts.

And the stem bolts forego heads for an internal option.

Geoff Kabush runs two Dura-Ace levers.

And a very Maxxis-looking name plate.

Kabush’s double Rotor ring set-up.

Georgia Gould’s bike features a makeshift cable sheathing courtesy of the ingenuity of her husband and mechanic, Dusty LeBarr.

A sheath is run along what would be bare cable along the top tube and chainstay.

And held in place with ferrules.