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MOUNT CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. (VN) — He entered the favorite and Levi Leipheimer stamped his name on the USA Pro Cycling Challenge with a stage 1 win Tuesday here. Leipheimer (RadioShack) said Wednesday night that the finale gave him confidence against the underdog Colombians from Gobernacion and EPM-UNE, but that the race would be difficult to control.

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. (VN) — The motivation running through the Garmin-Cervélo squad to win the inaugural USA Pro Cycling Challenge runs wide and deep.

" ... I always find solace in telling myself that I will only feel better as the stage goes on. Luckily, today I was telling myself the truth ... "

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. (VN) — Claiming that the only other times he’d been close to 10,000 feet elevation was “in an airplane,” Leopard-Trek’s Fränk Schleck said he was “surprised — very surprised” by his third-place finish in Crested Butte Tuesday on the opening road stage of the 2011 USA Pro Cycling Challenge.

Erik Slack’s Team Exergy Felt F1. An unusual selection of parts.

Stage

• 1. Kristin Armstrong Savola, Peanut Butter & Co. Twenty 12, in 1.35'58"
• 2. Janel Holcomb, Colavita / Forno D'asolo, at 40  
• 3. Anne Samplonius, Now Cycling/now And Novartis For Ms, at 2:37  
• 4. Kristin Mcgrath, Peanut Butter & Co. Twenty 12, at 2:37  
• 5. Andrea Dvorak, Colavita / Forno D'asolo, at 2:37  

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Stage 1

• 1. Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team RadioShack in 4:29:22
• 2. Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Col) Gobernacion De Antioquia - Indeportes Antiquia 0:00:04
• 3. Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:00:07
• 4. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team
• 5. Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo

• 1. Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team RadioShack 4:37:47
• 2. Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:00:11
• 3. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Highroad 0:00:17
• 4. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team
• 5. Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:30

BOULDER, Colo. (VN) — The ongoing 2011 USA Pro Cycling Challenge traces its inspiration back to the Coors Classic (1980-1988), and its predecessor, the Red Zinger Classic (1975-1979). But stage racing in the Colorado Rockies dates back even earlier, at least to the 1965 North American Bicycle Championships.

SNOWMASS VILLAGE, Colo. (VN )— Kristin Armstrong (Peanut Butter & Co.-Twenty12) soloed to victory in Tuesday's 35 mile stage 2 road race to take the overall lead in the 2011 Aspen/Snowmass Women's Pro Stage Race.

Could Levi Leipheimer be headed to the new Omega Pharma-Quick-Step fusion for next season?

Svein Tuft powered to victory in GP Stad Zottegem on Tuesday to deliver SpiderTech's first European victory of the 2011 season.

HTC-Highroad sport director Jens Zemke said Cavendish was spent from the effort of the first four days of racing. "He had nothing left. He was totally empty," Zemke told VeloNews. "He said he was so tired he could have fallen asleep in the car. It was 40C on the road today. He had no more power and could not continue."

Australia has named its teams for the UCI road world championships, to be held in Copenhagen from September 19 to 25:

Nick Legan ferrets out some tech tidbits from the USAPCC prologue

• 1. Kristin McGrath (Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY 12) 0:29:15.50
• 2. Kristin Armstrong-Savola (Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY 12) 0:00:03.52
• 3. Janel Holcomb (Colavita / Forno D'Asolo) 0:00:16.34
• 4. Amanda Miller (HTC Columbia Women's Team) 0:00:46.93
• 5. Kelly Crowley (Metromint Cycling) 0:00:47.83

The final event of the MTB World Cup racing season (#7 of the year) was last weekend in Val Di Sole, Italy. Gwin had already wrapped up the title, but still showed up to the event on said prototype bike and crushed it to win with a time of 3:10.35 …

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NUE series leader and three-time defending champion, Jeff Schalk (Trek Mountain Co-Op) became the first in the Men's Open this year to win four races following his win at Pierre's Hole 100 in what has arguably been one of the most hotly contested seasons ever.

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Cannondale's new aero Slice. Ready for Basso's use.

ASPEN HIGHLANDS, Colo. (VN) — Kristin McGrath of the Peanut Butter & Co.-TWENTY 12 team won the opening stage of the three-day Aspen Snowmass Women’s Pro Stage Race on Monday, completing the 7.8 mile course from the Aspen Highlands ski resort up Maroon Bells Road in 29 minutes and 15 seconds, climbing about 1,500 feet in altitude along the way.

For the final 4:55 of Sutherland’s ride he was able to churn out 426 watts, averaging 35.2 mph. Over the entire time trial he averaged 414 watts, for an average speed of 35.8 mph.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (VN) — Cadel Evans rode into Colorado Springs on the tail of a whirlwind publicity tour following his Tour de France win last month. After finishing ninth in the prologue Monday, Evans was satisfied, but stopped short of predicting big things when the race heads uphill Tuesday.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (VN) — For a team that is just eight weeks away from its demise, HTC-Highroad had a banner day in Colorado Springs on Monday at the USA Pro Cycling Challenge prologue, taking three leader’s jerseys with stage winner (and race leader) Gretsch, best young rider Tejay van Garderen, and most aggressive rider, Colorado Springs native Danny Pate.

A look at the new lightweight SRAM cassette that Levi Leipheimer used in the USAPCC prologue

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (VN) — There haven’t been many instances during his 15-year career that Christian Vande Velde has ridden a downhill prologue — and even fewer times that he’s started off a time trial stage as one of the first 12 riders out of the start house.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (VN) — HTC-Highroad's men's team, in the final half year of its existence, continues to post top results. On a sweltering day with Pikes Peak as a backdrop, the team's 24-year-old German time trial specialist, Patrick Gretsch, powered to a win here Monday on the largely downhill 5.2-mile prologue of the first USA Pro Cycling Challenge.

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Quarq’s CinQo Saturn power meter: Knowledge is power, and vice versa.

TOTANA, Spain (VN) - Andrew Talansky is making his grand-tour debut with one simple goal: arriving to Madrid.

Stage

• 1. Pablo Lastras Garcia, Movistar Team (mov), in 3:58:00
• 2. Sylvain Chavanel, Quickstep Cycling Team (qst), at 15
• 3. Markel Irizar Aranburu, Team RadioShack (rsh), at 15
• 4. Ruslan Pydgornyy, Vacansoleil-Dcm Pro Cycling Team (vcd), at 15
• 5. Nicolas Roche, Ag2r La Mondiale (alm), at 1:43

• 1. Pablo Lastras Garcia, Movistar Team (mov), in 8:25:59
• 2. Sylvain Chavanel, Quickstep Cycling Team (qst), at 20
• 3. Markel Irizar Aranburu, Team RadioShack (rsh), at 1:08
• 4. Ruslan Pydgornyy, Vacansoleil-Dcm Pro Cycling Team (vcd), at 1:24
• 5. Jakob Fuglsang, Leopard Trek (leo), at 1:55

TOTANA, Spain (AFP) — Spanish rider Pablo Lastras (Movistar) won the third stage of the Tour of Spain and took the overall leader's red jersey on Monday on a 164-kilometre ride from Petrer to Totana.

Swiss rider Grégory Rast will join his compatriot Fabian Cancellara on pLeopard-Trek for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, the team announced Monday.

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USA Pro Cycling Challenge prologue starting times

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"Terrified, I arrived with my training partner Andy Guptill two weeks early to acclimate and preview stages. “You’re a different rider than you were two years ago,” my coach said."

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Cadel Evans dismisses reports of a rift in the BMC Racing team over world road champion Thor Hushovd's signing and says the Norwegian's ability to perform in the spring races would take some pressure off of him early in the year.

Billed as a rematch between Tour champion Cadel Evans and runner-up Andy Schleck, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge is the first time the Tour’s top riders have crossed paths since the final podium presentation on the Champs-Élysées.

Graham Watson captures the action in stage 2 of the 2011 Vuelta a España.

HTC-Highroad promises to ride its last grand tour with its collective head held high as Tim Duggan hopes to clinch an extension with Liquigas-Cannondale.

Vattenfall Cyclassics

• 1. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor), Team Sky, 4:49:39
• 2. Gerald Ciolek (Ger), Quick Step, s.t.
• 3. Borut Bozic (Slo), Vacansoleil-DCM, s.t.
• 4. Simone Ponzi (Ita), Liquigas-Cannondale, s.t.
• 5. Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Esp), Movistar, s.t.

Tyler Farrar found himself forced to choose between the Vuelta and the Vattenfall this year.

Stage 2

• 1. Christopher Sutton, Team Sky, at 4:11:41
• 2. Vicente Reynes, Omega Pharma-Lotto, same time
• 3. Marcel Kittel, Skil-Shimano, s.t.
• 4. Tyler Farrar, Garmin-Cervélo, s.t.
• 5. Matti Breschel, Rabobank Cycling Team, s.t.

Chris Sutton sprints to victory in Vuelta's 2nd stage; Daniele Bennati takes lead.

Edvald Boasson Hagen wins the 2011 Vattenfall Cyclassics.

Who are the big names in the smaller teams you should look for on the Colorado roads next week? These riders didn’t feature in France in July, but could very well win stages or even contend in the overall in Colorado in August.

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Casey B. Gibson shoots a very soggy U.S. pro crit championships in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Ned Overend and Tinker Juarez go one-two on Mount Washington as Marti Shea defends her 2010 crown.

Jakob Fuglsang wants to keep his red jersey; Iñigo Cuesta is on the sidelines; and organizers hope an earlier race draws bigger crowds.

Men

• 1. Eric Young, Bissell Pro Cycling Team
• 2. Charles Huff, Jelly Belly-Kenda
• 3. Jacob Keough, UnitedHealthcare
• 4. Isaac Howe, Kenda Pro Cycling-Geargrinder
• 5. Alexander Candelario, Kelly Benefit Strategies

Women

• 1. Theresa Cliff-Ryan, Colavita Forno D’Asolo Pro Cycling
• 2. Laura Van Gilder, Mellow Mushroom
• 3. Kelly Benjamin, Colavita Forno D’Asolo Pro Cycling
• 4. Carmen Small
• 5. Samantha Schneider, Tibco-To The Top