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Suspended Austrian racer Bernhard Kohl has accused the doctor of his former Gerolsteiner team of overseeing an organized doping program at the 2008 Tour de France. In an interview published in the Austrian newspaper Kurier, Kohl charged said that physician Mark Schmidt was closely involved in doping riders. The 27-year-old former chimney sweep has admitted doping during the race, in which he had apparently won the king of the mountains jersey and finished third in the overall standings. Kohl’s results have since been negated.

It was a pair of Australian sprinters battling for opening honors at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour Sunday in the former gold-mining town of Ballarat, with Fly V Australia’s Jonathan Cantwell edging out Garmin-Slipstream’s Chris Sutton in a bike throw to the line. Cantwell got the better of Sutton after the Garmin rider opened his sprint 200 meters from the line out of a group of 18 riders that separated from the peloton halfway through the 60-minute “preface” criterium, which does not count towards the overall classification.

The Cincinnati UCI3 Festival moved north Saturday to the pocket-sized Sunset Park in Middletown, Ohio, for the Java Johnny’s – Lionhearts International; and Jeremy Powers and Katie Compton once again delivered an old-fashioned whuppin.'

Tim Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) and Katerina Nash (Luna Chix) dominated the first day of the inaugural Providence Festival of Cyclocross in Rhode Island on Saturday. The race was held under dry, fast conditions at Roger Williams Park, a sprawling in-town venue strewn with duck ponds, a carousel, a zoo and a Parthenon-like stage that made a perfect podium. The park, which hosted the national cyclocross championships in 2005 and 2006, also was home to the Interbike trade-only bike demo days Thursday and Friday and a public bike expo this weekend.

2009 World Cup champ Julien Absalon has extended his contract with mountain bike manufacturer Orbea with an eye on London Olympics.

The time trial is said to be the race of truth: a rider alone, without aid of drafting, sets off in a race against the clock.

Robert Gesink made up for some of his Vuelta a España disappointment by winning the 100th edition of Italy’s Giro dell'Emilia on Saturday. The Rabobank rider beat Denmark's Jakob Fuglsang (Saxo Bank) and Swede Thomas Lovkvist (Columbia-HTC) in a sprint finish after 198.2km and five ascents of the San Luca climb. Australia's new world champion Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) finished fourth at 20 seconds, and 10 seconds ahead of Kazakhstan's Alexander Vinokourov (Astana). It was Geesink's first win since a crash forced him out of Vuelta contention last month.

Only Saturday’s 72-mile (118 km) stage at the Vuelta a Chihuahua stands in the way of Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) delivering a victory. “I’m feeling relaxed, with no pressure,” Sevilla said. “I have very talented teammates around me who know what to do to make sure I maintain my lead through to the end.”

Jeremy Powers (Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com) and Katie Compton (Planet Bike) were victorious by wide margins in Friday’s Cyclo Stampede, the opener of this year’s Cincinnati UCI3 Cyclocross Festival. But the race was truly dominated by the team of Mother Nature and Gravity. Mother Nature delivered plenty of pre-race rain, while gravity took advantage of riders as they rode, or rather, tried to ride, the multiple off-camber straights and turns on the course. Even Compton was victimized by the muddy slopes, falling twice and running off course in the first lap.

The 58th Jayco Herald Sun Tour, Australia’s second-largest stage race behind the Tour Down Under, takes place in Victoria from October 11-17, beginning in Ballarat on Sunday and ending in Melbourne six days later. Confirmed teams include American squads Garmin-Slipstream, led by Bradley Wiggins, Bissell, led by Ben Jacques-Maynes, Jelly Belly, led by Brad Huff, and Rock Racing, led by Ivan Dominguez.

Two-time Olympic cross-country mountain bike champion Julien Absalon has inked a deal extending his contract with Orbea for three years, until the London Olympics in 2012. "I have been with Orbea for three years and I want to continue with them,” Absolon said Friday. "The London Olympics are the big goal," said Absolon, who won back-to-back gold medals in the Athens and Beijing Games in 2004 and 2008. The 29-year-old Absalon, who won a silver medal in the 2009 mountain bike world championships in Canberra, Australia, has also won the world title four times (2004-2007).

Organizers said Friday that they are still finalizing the route of the fifth edition of the Amissa Bongo Tropical, slated for January 19 to 24 in the west central African country of Gabon. "We expect to finalize the route by the end of the month,” the organizers said in a statement. “We are considering routes through the Haut-Ogooué, Moyen-Ogooué and Woleu-Ntem and a finish in (the capital of) Libreville."

24-hour championships for 2009 are being held in conjunction with the 24-Hours of Moab event. Pua Sawicki shoots for Guinness Book of World Records as Chris Eatough rides into the sunset at race.

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”Accidental” ingestion?

Caisse d’Epargne’s Daniel Moreno won the fourth stage at Mexico’s Vuelta a Chihuahua Thursday, as Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) increased his lead in the overall standings with a third-place finish on the day. Sevilla finished 19 seconds behind Moreno in the 192km stage from Guachochi to Parral. Michael Rasmussen (Tecos Trek), who held the overall lead earlier in the race, was second, two seconds behind Moreno.

Niels Albert is on a roll. The world cyclocross champion, a rider who became the discipline’s new prince last season, started his season with four victories in the lead-up to the first World Cup in Treviso, Italy, which he went on to win. Until now, Sven Nys has been regarded as the king of ’cross, but he’s had a very different start to his season. After a top-15 placing at the 2009 mountain bike world championships, his cyclocross season had a rocky start.

Press Release

A total of 1,620 racers have started at least one Gravity East event in the second year of the series. This weekend it's the finals at Plattekill in New York with Neko Mulally likely to grab championship.

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