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The U23 worlds race is always an unpredictable affair, but French phenomenon Romain Sicard did what just about everyone thought he would. Fresh off winning the Tour de l’Avenir in dominating fashion ahead of a strong U.S. team earlier this month, Sicard surged away from a fractured peloton with two laps to go in the 13-lap, 179.4km course Saturday to win France’s first U23 world title since competition began in 1996.

The cycling future of the Astana team, whose star rider is Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, could be in doubt, UCI president Pat McQuaid said Saturday. Astana, whose ProTour license is currently under review, is hoping to impress the UCI licensing commission to avoid the revocation of the final year of its ProTour status. However, McQuaid said there were several areas of concern.

Kristin Armstrong’s farewell race ended with an exclamation point as she powered into the winning, four-rider move in Saturday’s elite women’s road race. Tatiana Guderzo (Italy) – a bronze medalist in the road in the Beijing Olympic Summer Games – attacked on the final lap and soloed to victory 19 seconds clear of a three-rider chase group featuring Armstrong in the 124km race under cloudy skies in Mendrisio.

In what’s no surprise, the Italian and Spanish teams are leading the odds to win Sunday’s elite men’s world title. Just as they have for the past decade, Italy and Spain bring deep squads with two or three options to win the season’s most important one-day race on the calendar. Leading Sunday for Italy will be last year’s runner-up Damiano Cunego, with defending champion Alessandro Ballan and Filippo Pozzato waiting in the shadows. Spain comes with Alejandro Valverde, with Olympic gold medalist Samuel Sánchez and three-time world champ Óscar Freire ready to step up.

Women track cyclists could be among the biggest winners at the London Olympics after the UCI said it has the goal of ensuring "gender parity" at the 2012 Games. There are currently, there are 10 track cycling events contested at the Olympics. But while men compete in seven competitions, the women get to contest just three: the sprint, the individual pursuit and the points race. UCI president Pat McQuaid said it is now time to redress the balance so the men and women compete in five events each, acknowledging that the move will mean losing some men's disciplines.

UCI president Pat McQuaid said sport’s international governing body can do nothing to stop Alejandro Valverde from racing the world championships road race on Sunday. Valverde is currently serving a two-year ban in Italy handed down by the country's Olympic Committee (CONI). Despite admitting he believed Valverde was involved in the Operación Puerto doping scandal that erupted in Spain in May 2006, McQuaid said he would not extend that ban worldwide until the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rules on two appeals later this year.

Fabian Cancellara is dreaming of carving a place for himself in the pages of cycling history by becoming the first rider to ever win the world championship in both the road race and time trial in the same year. After dominating Thursday’s world time trial championship, winning his third rainbow jersey in the discipline in four years, the Swiss powerhouse is audaciously proclaiming his intentions of taking aim at the world road title.

Fuji can’t sell its 2010 track frame in the U.S. built up as a bicycle due to government regulations (there are no drillings for brakes). Fuji used the integrated seatmast first in its track bikes; it only adopted the style for the road bike this season.

The Fuji SST 1.0 first showed up under Fuji-Servetto's Ivan Dominguez, and will be the team’s bike for 2010. The frame uses the increasingly standard tapered head tube diameters of 1 1/8-inch at the top and 1 ½-inch below.

Fuji uses something called RIB – reinforced I-beam — in its SST 1.0. This cutout shows the stabilizing flat layer that runs across the diameter of tube.

Carbon fiber disc rotors? Yup, courtesy Fibre-Lite, as are the carbon chain rings.

The Di2 front derailleur is mounted with a carbon fiber Parlee clamp.

The battery pack tucks under the stem.

Old Shimano Flight Deck buttons were wired into a Di2 group and mounted snug against the grips.

TT bikes weren’t the only ones with Di2 at the show. Fair Wheel Bikes built up a mountain bike with a modified electric road group.

Besides a sweet stem paint job, Martin also runs Di2.

Tony Martin placed third at the world time trial championships this week. His other TT bike was at Interbike.

No brake back here. It’s down under the bottom bracket.

Kestrel’s 4000LTD will run you a cool $10,829.

2009 Interbike: With Di2, you can shift at the end of the bar extensions and at the brake levers.

Adding electric shifting to a bike adds options for shifting positions. It also adds a substantial cost.

Orbea’s Ordu is one of an increasing number of time trial bikes running Shimano’s electric Di2 group.

Cannondale engineers shoot for the moon with concept bikes, such as this commuter option, then work down to something viable for the marketplace.

Cannondale’s Flash weighs 16.6 pounds. The frame features continuous carbon fiber strands that run the length of the design. For example, the top tube fibers run from the head tube, around the seat tube, down through the chain stays.

Dubbed a “Bead Seat Clincher,” the Reynolds system features a two-depth inner. The clincher sits in the deeper valley when mounted. When the tube is inflated, the clincher’s bead is pushed out into the top valley. Since the tire’s bead circumference is substantially smaller than the rim’s outer, the tire sits snugly.

“We didn’t pick the depth, the depth picked us,” said Paul Lew. The original mold had to be modified, as the inner trailing edge was sharp to the touch. The rim will be built up early in 2010 with a RZR hub and spokes.

The Reynolds 92.2 rim is remarkable in two ways: it’s a carbon clincher without a bead hook, and the rim is substantially wider than a standard tire.

With its RZR wheelset, Reynolds has plenty of buzz in its booth at Interbike. But the company’s forthcoming 92.2 rim is equally as remarkable, as the carbon model redefines how a clincher tire mounts to a rim. Paul Lew works as a consultant for Reynolds. In addition to his cycling experience, Lew has built unmanned flying vehicles. His inspiration for the 92.2 came from aerospace designs. “No aircraft wheel uses a hook,” Lew said, referring to the inner lip of a clincher rim that typically holds a clincher tire in place.

Wheels, hydration, helmets, lights and more: Singletrack.com's Zack Vestal runs down Interbike for you.

Out of the Arizona desert comes the Titus crew and their dually carbon 26ers, alu and ti options and a Rockstar 29er.

The Tour of Ireland will return to a five-day schedule in 2010, organizers announced Friday. The dates for the 2010 edition were confirmed at the UCI Congress in Mendrisio, Switzerland, this week. The dates for the five-day tour are 18th to 22nd August 2010.

Unlike a grand tour or a classic, or any other major annual bike race, the world road championships is the sport’s only prestigious event that has the whole world looking on — and the organizers have only one chance to do it right. That’s because the Union Cycliste International selects a different country (and city) every year to be the host.

Markus Storck has long wanted 2005 Ford Ironman Hawaii Triathlon World Champion Faris Al-Sultan to race on his bikes, and when the sale of Cannondale opened up the opportunity to put his fellow German on a Storck, he quickly got to work. Even while working on prototyping a new electric bike and constructing a new building, Storck came up with the Aero 2. “I got no sleep for four months,” says Storck, “and now I need a vacation.”

Garmin-Slipstream’s Bradley Wiggins has disputed reports that he is looking for ways to get out of the final year of his contract with the American-sponsored team. Responding to interpretations of an earlier BBC report that implied that staying with Garmin-Slipstream is unlikely to boost his hopes of finishing on the Tour de France podium next year, Wiggins said he has no plans to leave his team. “I have a lot of love for Garmin and these stories are not my thoughts on Garmin,” Wiggins said in an email to VeloNews.