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Last Friday afternoon, under dark gray skies that made the moment feel as if night were about to fall, I stepped aboard our team bus, gingerly, and sat down. The bus was empty except for one soigneur who pulled out a washcloth and lotion and began scrubbing the grime off of my tender legs. Moments later Axel and Scott stepped on the bus, neither smiling, and sat down, legs outstretched, leaning way back in the chairs waiting their turn to get cleaned up. They looked beat, and if I could have seen my own face I would imagine it was just the same. Beat, but relieved. The last road stage of a

After a frustrating finish to Monday’s opener, Toyota-United was rejoicing on Tuesday as Ivan Stevic sprinted to victory in stage 2 of the 2007 Tour de Georgia. J.J. Haedo (Team CSC) and Freddie Rodriguez (Predictor-Lotto) crossed second and third, while Daniele Contrini (Tinkoff Credit Systems) retained the leader’s jersey after a 135-mile day filled with crosswinds, crashes and a long, three-man break that wasn’t mopped until the peloton began marching on Rome. Complete results

Slipstream earns wild-card for CataluynaTeam Slipstream earned an important wild-card bid for next month’s 87th Volta a Catalunya race in Spain. The U.S. team’s invitation was among five issued Tuesday by organizers for the ProTour race set for May 21-27 in Spain’s Catalunya region. Other teams earning nods to join the 20 ProTour teams are Spanish teams Andalucia-Caja Sur, Relax-Gam, Fuerteventura-Canarias and Karpin-Galicia. Slipstream’s European base in nearby Girona, Spain, probably helped the squad to obtain the important invite. Earlier this year, Slipstream earned a berth in the

Stage 2 of the Tour de Georgia was a long one, and Casey Gibson was there from start to finish. Here's a sampler of what he saw in the middle.

Bike Friday's Jeff Linder shows off that the Tikit has a cover so your neighbor in the next seat on the subway won't cringe at your greasy bike near their designer jeans. It will roll when folded (and covered) making getting on and off subway

... and is quickly ready to roll for a commute

Mavic C29SSMAX tubeless wheels and Hutchinson Python 29 X 2.1 Tubeless Ready tires save a lot of 29-inch rotating weight. The wheels weigh 1745 grams/pair and sell for $775, while the tires weigh 645 grams and sell for $50 apiece.

Since through-axle forks have appeared on lighter and lighter bikes, it makes no sense to limit 20mm through-axle hubs to Shimano's freeride Saint and Hone groups, since some riders want ever-lighter big-hit bikes; enter the XTR through-axle fron

SRAM and SRM co-designed the Powermeter Pro carbon crank. It has a 12-spline system calibrated for SRM's strain gauges and adds 200 grams to the bike.

Big bamboo: Craig Calfee's new bamboo mountain bike is wrapped with hemp at the joints (sorry).

It is light, stiff, strong, and was getting a lot of test rides at Sea Otter.

The bright red Ellsworth limited-edition (#18 of 500 total that will be made) $4,000 NuVinci CVT-equipped cruiser has a very cool fork. The fat carbon fork legs continue through the double-clamp crown and neck down to form the handlebars.

The inchworm on the indicator of the Nuvinci continuously-variable rear hub transmission on its twist-grip lever shows you where in the range you are. The gear ratio ramps up and down smoothly with no discreet jumps.

The Manitou Minute 29er through-axle fork now joins the White Bros. BW 1.3 as a long- travel fork for a 29-inch wheel with a 20mm through-axle hub.

The 23-pound, 80mm-travel Niner Jet 9 with carbon Pace 29er fork breaks through a new weight barrier for full-suspension 29ers.

Stevic gets his closeup en route to victory

Ian McKissick of BMC laid it down in Rome; happily, despite the nasty crash, he was reported to be okay

Stevic wins it with room to spare

The early break

Toyota in control

Jacques-Maynes goes for the KOM

Toyota-United's Baldwin and Wherry discuss strategy

Chadwick has a dig

As does King

Haedo in the bunch

Discovery motoring along

Hamilton with one to go

The fans turn out

A peachy banner

As the countdown to the fifth edition of the Tour de Georgia hit its final hours, riders in need of a one last spin had to endure a blustery, damp Sunday in Peachtree City. But Monday’s forecast calls for clearing skies and temperatures in mid 60s, good news considering that already the event’s team presentation had to be scrapped because of rain. They did manage to hold a pre-race conference Saturday, where a mix of media, VIPs and team officials were treated to video presentation featuring marquee moments from the race’s first four years. Highlights included Mario Cipollini strutting his

Daniele Contrini (Tinkoff Credit Systems) won stage 1 of the 2007 Tour de Georgia on Monday, leaping away from a breakaway to cross the line alone in downtown Macon. The 33-year-old Italian made his move during a series of finishing circuits, using a brick climb to spring away from Ben Day (Navigators Insurance), Doug Ollerenshaw (Health Net-Maxxis) and Mike Sayers (BMC) to win the 98.5-mile stage from Peachtree City to Macon. Full results

Tyler Hamilton’s long absence from top-level racing in the U.S. finally came to an end Monday during the first stage of the Tour de Georgia. Following a five-plus year absence from UCI racing in the States, the 36-year-old finished safely in the bunch (56th for the record) on the 98.5-mile run from Peachtree City to Macon. Afterwards, Hamilton, who recently finished a two-year ban for blood doping, said it was an extraordinary day for him. “It was really emotional seeing [Daniele] Contrini there at the finish line,” said Hamilton of his Tinkoff teammate who took the stage 1 victory. “It was

The late King of Soul, James Brown, was there last year.

Contrini opens Tinkoff's U.S. account

Hamilton at the start in Peachtree City

Kirk O'Bee (Health Net) and Viktor Rapinsky (Navigators) have a dig

Ollerenshaw leads

Toyota waited until too late to join the chase

The leaders with two laps to go

Contrini rips it

It’s not often a rider enters the Roubaix velodrome alone, and an Australian has never done it in the 105-year history of cycling’s hardest one-day race. Stuart O’Grady did both Sunday in an emotional and powerful victory to become the first Aussie to win Paris-Roubaix in the hottest “Hell of the North” as far as anyone can remember.

Extra pix Roubaix

It could be an option if California officials ever have to find a solution to a drought. Hold an edition of the Sea Otter Classic and then just wait for rain. This year the rains came on Saturday, just in time for a weekend of serious racing. The rain came quickly and biblically, temporarily shutting down the dual slalom and ending the women’s road circuit race prematurely. The heavy rain also sent the cross-country racers scrambling for the right tire for the short-track event. Thomas Frischknecht (Swisspower) pulled out a special weapon for the race; a pair of 26-inch Dugast Rhino tubular

Sunday’s Sea Otter downhill race served as the gravity season’s opener. While the cross-country competitors had a chance to dust of the cobwebs at the NOVA National in Fountain Hills, Arizona, a couple of weeks ago, the gravity crew had yet to meet up. The short two-and-a-half minute course produced a surprise win for Brit Rachel Atherton (Animal-Commençal), while Nathan Rennie (Santa Cruz Syndicate) took his third Sea Otter downhill win. Saturday’s rain exacted chaos over the road, short-track and dual slalom races. The latter was postponed four hours — gravity riders finally took to the

Canadian Geoff Kabush and American Georgia Gould continued their strong early season run in cross-country events by winning at the Sea Otter Classic on Sunday. The two won their respective races in different fashion — Kabush in a sprint and Gould in a breakaway. Both riders left the Sea Otter Classic with an elevated sense of confidence heading into next week’s World Cup opener in Houffalize, Beligium. Unlike previous years, the 2007 Sea Otter Classic’s cross-country race was not part of a multi-day stage race, but the event held extra importance for cross-country riders looking to qualify

O'Grady takes a solo victory on the Roubaix velodrome

Extra pix Roubaix

Extra pix Roubaix

O'Grady cruising the cobbles

The victor and the spoils

Boonen left it a little too late

An emotional triumph

The sprint for second

Defending champ Cancellara was cooked

Mud, schmud — the dust was just as bad

The tunnel of cobbled love

Tech Report, with Matt Pacocha - New developments at (a very wet) Sea Otter

Frichi talks tires with Scott’s Adrian Montgomery

Loved by 'cross racers the world 'round, Dugast also offers a beefy MTB tubular

Tires were the topic of the day, as Kabush chats with Maxxis team manager Gary Wolff

Katie Compton winning on 58mm carbon wheels and Dugast Rhino cyclo-cross tires

Tech Report, with Matt Pacocha - New developments at (a very wet) Sea Otter

Manitou’s carbon R7

The Minute MRD

One style of the GT DHi sub-frame

Tech Report, with Matt Pacocha - New developments at (a very wet) Sea Otter

Atherton surprised the competition with a strong ride

On a roll: Kabush has been winning a lot this year

Kabush knows how to celebrate on his birthday weekend.

Like Kabush, Gould has had a great start to 2007

Canadian Kiara Bisaro was second... more than four minutes back.

Bumping elbows with the pros — that’s what Sea Otter is about. Subaru-Gary Fisher professional racer Sam Schultz knows the feeling. The young racer was at Laguna Seca raceway on Friday for SRAM’s launch of its new Monarch air shock platform. He recounted a time not so long ago when he would come to the big events looking around to see what the fast guys were riding. Now we’re checking out what he’s riding, whether he knows it or not. But Sea Otter is about more than just who's using the stuff. The cycling festival gives tech geeks a chance to check in with a host of industry engineers,

Don’t discount Team CSC’s Stuart O’Grady as a candidate for the win in Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix. The 33-year-old Aussie might not be one of the five-star favorites to win the “Hell of the North,” but he can be a wildcard, behind teammate and defending champ Fabian Cancellara. (VeloNews.com will offer up-to-the-minute live coverage of Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. – Editor) “Stuey” barreled into this year’s classics season in his best form in years. After a string of top-five finishes, O’Grady is intent on snagging his first victory since 2004, when he won a stage at the Tour de France, two at the

It’s hard to believe that a strike by firefighters and security personnel on another continent could be mucking up race director Jim Birrell’s day. But that was just the case Friday — the 13th — as Birrell worked from his office, dealing with the final i’s and t’s ahead of Monday's start of the Tour de Georgia. A 10-hour work stoppage at the Brussels International Airport forced the delay or cancellation of almost every arriving and departing flight Friday. That meant major headaches for holiday travelers, and scrambled plans for members of the CSC, Quick Step-Innergetic and

Former world champion Tom Boonen will be among the Belgians feeling the weight of expectation going into Sunday’s edition of Paris-Roubaix, arguably the toughest one-day cycling race in the world. The 26-year-old Belgian has already won once at the “Hell of the North,” as the 111-year-old race is known. But given his frustrating run through the Belgian one-day classics this month, Boonen and compatriots Leif Hoste and Peter Van Petegem will be eager to redress the balance. The three are among a handful of contenders — including defending Roubaix champion Fabian Cancellara and Italians

Halfway through a Laguna Seca circuit race that started under sunny skies, officials cancelled the pro women’s event after hard driving rains sent rivers of mud streaming across the auto racetrack. About 8 laps into a 22-lap event, rain started falling and temperatures plummeted. Soon, the water was coming down so hard riders had difficulty seeing while descending the famed Corkscrew, which sends riders screaming down 300 winding vertical feet in a matter of seconds. Instead of shortening the event — by announcing one lap to go as riders came through the start/finish on the 2.2-mile course —

Events surrounding the 2007 Tour de Georgia officially kicked off Saturday afternoon in Peachtree City, which meant two things were less than 48 hours away: The start of stage 1 and — more significantly — the return of Tyler Hamilton. The 2004 Olympic time trial champion has been racing in Europe since January, but Monday will mark the first time Hamilton turns the cranks in a UCI race on American soil since the 2001 San Francisco Grand Prix. Since then, the now 36-year-old has seen quite a few ups and a healthy share of downs, at a rate few of us will ever know. He won stages at the Tour

Dan Ramsey took a big win for his Successful Living team in at the Sea Otter Classic NRC men’s circuit race. After spending the majority of the race off the front in a two-man move, Ramsey was caught by a small group, but soon attacked again, hoping to set up one of his three teammates who had been brought across. Instead, Ramsey held his solo gap for the final six laps. “I knew I had to be the first one to attack because I had been off the front all day,” Ramsey said. “I was guessing one of my teammates would take the race, not me. I’m really happy for the team. We needed this. I’d like to

After two days of mild temperatures and sunshine, Central California’s skies served the 2007 Sea Otter Classic a full dose of rain, wind and chills. Raindrops began hitting Laguna Seca’s tarmac at 10 a.m. and by noon, gusting winds had that rain falling horizontally. The weather quickly reduced the usually busy Sea Otter expo area into a soggy ghost town. A few brave souls ventured out to watch the races, clad in blue ponchos handed out by Volkswagen. The foul weather led to an early end to the women’s NRC road race and a postponement for the men. But for mountain-bike racers, who had