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Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) scored a rare win on this side of the Atlantic on Saturday, riding away from all challengers on a muddy course in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Quick Step's Tom Boonen won the third stage of the Franco-Belge stage race on Saturday in a sprint finish ahead of England's Roger Hammond (Cervélo TestTeam) and American Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream). Farrar continues to hold the overall race lead after winning the first two stages in the race which finishes Sunday at Tournai.

Reigning Vuelta a España champion Alejandro Valverde has brought his season to a premature end admitting he needs rest before beginning to plan his race objectives for next season. Valverde was originally slated to compete in the Paris-Bourges race on Thursday and the Paris Tours one-day classic next weekend, but after discussions with his Caisse d'Epargne team he has decided to hang up his bike. "I need to rest both mentally and physically before thinking towards next season and resuming training," said Valverde, who will compete in a few criterium races in the coming weeks.

We could start this year’s first cross’ diary by talking about racing, but for the moment we’re gonna talk about flyin’.

The owners of the Austrian laboratory Humanplasma, already at the center of a huge doping scandal, admitted tax evasion on Friday but denied any role in doping athletes. Officials for the lab admitted not declaring 300,000 Euros earned from taking blood tests from athletes but continued to deny accusations of being involved in doping. "We have informed the authorities for several months," said lab spokeswoman Michaela Eisler. "The blood tests were simply stocked on lab premises. There were no transfusions."

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) made it two in a row Friday at the Circuit Franco-Belge. Just a day after winning the opening stage of the four-day race across the French-Belgian border, Farrar kicked his way to his 10th win on the 2009 season. Farrar won ahead of Alexandre Usov (Cofidis) in the 225.7km second stage from Maubeuge, France to Poperinge, Belgium, with French rider Jimmy Casper (Chausson-Sojasun) coming across the line third.

Had Chicago won its bid for the 2016 Olympics, the MTB venue would have been in Wisconsin. Rio's mountain bike venue hosted the 2007 Pan American games, where Adam Craig took gold.

Rio de Janeiro will become the first South American city to host the Olympics after the International Olympic Committee voted to award the 2016 Games to the former Brazilian capital on Friday. The city of Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics came to an early end after the city was eliminated in the first round of voting during the IOC's site selection meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Press Release

Emboldened by his bronze medal at last weekend’s world championship, Spanish rider Joaquím Rodríguez now wants to win the Giro di Lombardia. Called “Purito” within the peloton, the pint-sized puncheur still has a full racing calendar, with scheduled starts at Paris-Bourges, Paris-Tours, Giro del Piemonte, Giro di Lombardia and the Japan Cup. That heavy end-of-season schedule means there’s no time for celebrating a well-deserved worlds medal that helped save the honor for the heavily-favored Spanish team.

Thor Hushovd wants to make it loud and clear: he’s intending on racing the 2010 Tour de France and defending his green jersey. There were some conflicting reports that the Norwegian winner of the 2009 sprinter’s jersey might skip the Tour, but the Cervélo TestTeam rider confirmed that next July will be much like this year.

An expected 3,500 cyclists will take to the streets of Santa Rosa, California, at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning for the start of the inaugural King Ridge Gran Fondo, a mass-participation ride promoted by local cycling star Levi Leipheimer.

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Lance Armstrong said he still hasn’t decided whether he’ll race at the Tour of California or the Giro d’Italia next season as he prepares for the 2010 Tour de France. That’s according to an interview in the newest issue of Vélo magazine in France. Armstrong provided the first glimpse of what his racing schedule will look like with his new RadioShack team. Like he did in his comeback season last year, he will debut at the Tour Down Under in January in Australia.

he 2009 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships opened in the velodrome at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, on Wednesday as Cody O’Reilly (Bissell) and Cari Higgins (Proman) were awarded the first-ever elite omnium national titles. In all, three national champions were crowned on the first day of competition inside the country’s only 250-meter indoor velodrome.

Lennard Zinn has been spending time in the shop (as always) and had a chance to try out a new hacksaw specifically designed for cutting carbon fiber tubes (like fork steerer tubes, handlebars, and seatposts). He and test editor Matt Pacocha reviewed several additional tools in our November issue, which is on sale now. Also in that issue, we have a rundown of 12 must-have tools for your shop or garage. Effetto Mariposa CarboCut hacksaw Retail price: $65

IMBA will celebrate its sixth annual International Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day on Oct. 3 with events in a dozen countries for 2009.

Recently crowned world champion Cadel Evans promises to honor the rainbow jersey with aggressive racing for the remainder of the 2009 season. The 32-year-old Aussie isn’t wasting any time, and will make his debut in the famed rainbow jersey on October 8 in the Coppa Sabatini in Italy. “I will try to honor the rainbow jersey even if my legs are understandably a little tired after a grueling season,” Evans said during a press conference Thursday at the Silence-Lotto team headquarters.

Tyler Farrar is back in the winner’s circle, sprinting to victory Thursday in the opening stage of the Circuit Franco-Belge. Farrar out-kicked Danilo Napolitano (Katusha) to claim victory in the 213.6km stage from Templeuve, France, to Mouscron, Belgium. Tom Boonen (Quick Step) came across third in the mass gallop and Saxo Bank's JJ Haedo rounded out the top four. The win also puts the leader’s jersey on Farrar’s back after the opening stage of the four-day Franco-Belge race.

Alexander Kolobnev is quickly earning a reputation as a rider who delivers in major international competition. With his second world championship silver medal in three years, and a fourth-place that could turn into bronze from last summer’s Beijing Summer Olympic Games, the consistent Russia knows how to pack a punch come crunch time. “They call me the sniper,” Kolobnev told VeloNews. “You have one shot, then you have to wait 364 days until the next chance.”

We all saw how well American Tyler Farrar performed at this year’s Tour de France, where he placed in the top-five of field sprints an astonishing five times. Sure, like every sprinter, he was overshadowed by Columbia-HTC’s Mark Cavendish. But given that it was Farrar’s first Tour, his consistency was a success in itself. But when Farrar won the Vattenfall Cyclassics on August 16, and then followed it up with three consecutive stage wins at the Eneco Tour of the Benelux, we knew it was time to write a feature on the 25-year-old gentleman sprinter from Wenatchee, Washington.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

If you think Xterra riding isn't "real" mountain biking, just ask Conrad Stoltz and Ned Overend. Oh, and they'll also tell you all about the benefits of riding 29ers while they're at it.

British sprint specialist Mark Cavendish has pulled out of Paris-Tours, the road sprint classic on October 11, his Columbia team announced on Wednesday. Cavendish, who won six stages at this year's Tour de France, had already withdrawn from the world championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland with a lung infection. The Isle of Mann rider recently pulled out of September's Tour of Missouri after two stage wins with the same problem.

The B-sample requested by former Silence-Lotto rider Thomas Dekker has confirmed his positive drugs test for the banned blood-booster EPO, the Dutch ANP news agency reported on Wednesday. The wire service said that Dekker has accepted the findings and is awaiting his sanction. The sample was originally taken on December 24, 2007, but new procedures introduced since then allowed for further tests which revealed a positive reading for EPO and the rider was ruled out of this year's Tour de France three days before the start in July.

A glance down the world championship results sheet reconfirms the notion that the best way to assure a shot at the rainbow jersey is to race the Vuelta a España … and to finish it. The entire top 10 of the elite men’s road race Sunday in Mendrisio competed in the Vuelta. Most of them rode all the way to Madrid, and the three that didn’t finish the Vuelta shared a total of five stage victories.

Dear Explainer, My wife asked me on a ride out on the roads of North Boulder County "what causes washboards?" I promised her I'd pose the question to you; she's gotten wise to my usual male "authoritative sounding but full of BS answers." I used to think washboards were caused by the braking action of cars but their presence on straight away sections makes me rethink that theory. Dig deep, we need to know. Brook Watts Dear Brook,

Alberto Contador spent time this week speaking with Spanish school children about a new book by author Jordi Sierra i Fabra, a collection of stories about the cyclist's early years and the challenges he's faced in his career. The two-time Tour de France champion presented the book aimed at children, “Querer es Poder,” (Where there’s a will, there’s a way) to a group of students Monday, but one story he’d like to conclude is where he will race in 2010. Contador said everything remains undecided about his home for the upcoming season.

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Press Release

Press Release

Sixteen-year-old Neko Mulally went two-for-two at the first major gravity race at the new Vertical Earth Mountain Bike Park at Blue Mountain.

The UCI’s Licensing Commission has renewed the four-year ProTour license of the Italian Lampre team and a granted a one-year renewal to Milram, but denied the renewal applications of Bbox Bouygues Telecom and Cofidis. The license commission "has decided not to award a UCI ProTour license to the French teams Cofidis ... and Bbox Bouygues Telecom," the UCI said, without offering details for the refusal.

American national time trial champion Jessica Phillips didn’t win the elite women’s world time trial championship last week. She didn’t take a medal, or even finish in the top 10. And, designated as an alternate, she didn’t participate in Saturday’s road race, either. Yet just rolling out of the start ramp of the world time trial championship wearing national team colors was a victory in itself for the Aspen, Colorado, native. She finished 14th out of 41 starters, 2:11 behind the winner, U.S. teammate Kristin Armstrong.

Early retirement

In lieu of rim strips, Velocity’s plugs for eyeleted and non-eyeleted spoke holes are narrower than rim tape and reusable.

Dear Readers, As many of you know, I spent last week in Las Vegas, attending the Interbike trade show and the outdoor demo that preceded it. While my tech department colleagues and I have been posting stories and photos since the start, we’ll be doing more over the next few days. There was just so much there, it’s hard to offer even a glimpse at everything that struck us in a single story, or even two or three. Looking through my files last night, I spotted some interesting items I’d like to share with you today.