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Ben Swift (Katusha) took a hugely popular first professional win in Friday's seventh stage to become the first British stage winner in the Tour of Britain since Paul Manning in 2007. The Katusha rider sprinted to victory ahead of teammate Filippo Pozzato, with race leader Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) in third. Boasson Hagen extended his overall lead ahead of Rabobank’s Kai Reus to 23 seconds and retained points jersey.

Another cold, rainy day seemed to take the spark out of the Vuelta a España in the last mountain stage going into this weekend’s finale. Juanjo Cobo (Fuji-Servetto) won out an elite, eight-man group to make it clear over the Cat. 1 Puerto de Navacerrada late in the four-climb, 179.8km 19th stage from Ávila to La Granja while Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) all but secured his first overall victory in a three-week grand tour.

The future of two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is still far from certain, but Garmin-Slipstream remains a top option if he can break his remaining year contract with the troubled Astana team. Contador said Garmin would be an attractive choice if can reach an agreement with Astana officials to exit the Kazakh-backed team. “(Garmin) is a very interesting option. It’s an interesting team, a strong team, an experienced team,” Contador said Friday. “They did a great job at the Tour this year and it would be a good option for me.”

Editor's Note A version of this review first ran in VeloNews.com last December, too late for most cyclocross racers to make tire buying decisions for the race season. Matt has reviewed the information to make sure it is still relevant, and re-written parts. Watch for Matt's review of some new Vittoria cyclocross tubulars soon — and look for the VeloNews issue containing the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross Guide on newsstands October 1.

Recently-crowned Tour of Portugal champion, Nuno Ribeiro, tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO before the race, the rider said confirmed Friday after being notified by cycling's world ruling body. Ribeiro also won the race in 2003 but his recent victory is now under a cloud after the results from doping control prior to the race, on August 6, were officially released Friday. The 32-year-old's Liberty Seguros team announced Friday that two other riders with the team, Spaniards Hector Guerra and Isidro Nozal, had also tested positive for EPO.

This cyclocross season, filmmaker Andy Frothingham will be following two professional racers through their seasons, checking in with them at events around the country and at their homes in Colorado between races. The first episode is presented here today. The featured riders are Amy Dombroski of the Richard Sachs team and Jonathan Baker of the Hudz-Subaru Cycling Team.

Despite reports to the contrary, Garmin-Slipstream team manager Jonathan Vaughters says Bradley Wiggins will continue to ride in blue-and-orange argyle in 2010. Responding to a story in Friday’s edition of the British newspaper The Guardian that described a Team Sky buy-out of Wiggins’ contract with Garmin for 2010, Vaughters told VeloNews via email, “It’s just untrue. There is no agreement in existence like this.”

National level cyclocross begins this weekend with the Full Speed Ahead Star Crossed on Saturday, and the Rad Racing Gran Prix on Sunday. This is also the first of five weekends of the North American Cyclocross Trophy (NACT). Star Crossed is under the lights of the Marymoor velodrome in Seattle, Washington. Racers will put their early-season cyclocross ability to the test. Star Crossed is known for its boisterous atmosphere, thanks to the 360-degree viewing, beer garden, deep prize list and DJs.

Singletrack.com has found a great new product that will keep the coming fall chill from your head while at the same time ward off the bike-industry-induced lust for the coming 2010 mountain bikes.

Garmin-Slipstream lost three riders in Thursday’s 18th stage at the Vuelta a España, leaving the squad with just four going into the final weekend of the race. Ryder Hesjedal and Christian Meier did not start and Tom Danielson abandoned early in the stage from Talavera de la Reina to Ávila. Hesjedal’s exit was planned to allow him a few days’ recovery ahead of the world championships next weekend while Meier suffered a death in his family.

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Many were surprised to see Dave Zabriskie’s name absent from the list of riders on the U.S. national squad headed to the world championships next week in Switzerland. A two-time worlds time trial medalist, Zabriskie said he’s feeling the wear and tear of a long racing season. “My body is pretty beat up. My Achilles is acting up and I’ve done worlds the last four or five years,” Zabriskie wrote VeloNews in an e-mail. “I need one off every now and then.”

It’s been a long time since an Irishman won a stage at a grand tour. You have to go all the way back to the glory days of the Roche-Kelly golden era, with Stephen Roche taking the last win for Ireland in the 1992 Tour de France. Since then, there have been some close calls, but it’s mainly been a famine as Irish fans have patiently waited for a new crop of Irish riders to come through the ranks.

Columbia-HTC's Edvald Boasson Hagen claimed a fourth successive stage win to stretch his lead in the Tour of Britain standings to 19 seconds with two stages left to race. The 22-year-old won a sprint finish at the end of the 183.7-km sixth stage in England's west country and he will now expect to hold off second-placed Kai Reus over the course of Friday's penultimate stage and the 92.5-km race to the finish in London on Saturday. Boasson Hagen hit the front at 300 meters to go and nobody was able to pass him. Martin Reimer was second and Russell Downing was third.

Pearl Izumi is one of those companies that pushed to have a few 2010 products ready to show in July, for early looks. In Monaco we had a quick look at some clothing and high-end shoes. But now that fall tradeshow season is in full swing, Pearl has the entire line on display, and by the looks of things, Pearl is not resting on past success. Along with consistently innovative clothing, Pearl is charging ahead with shoe development, and has packed their high-end shoes with features that happily trickle down to mid-priced levels affordable by average riders.

The brain behind CamelBak's latest offering — the VeloBak — talks to Singletrack.com about developing the idea of wearable hydration for cyclists.

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How can I route the Ergopower shift cable without kinking it?

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The unification race will pit top Kenda Cup East and Kenda Cup West series riders against one another for ultimate bragging rights with a U.S. Cup Unification Series title.

Where else but in Europe can Europe's "Final Countdown" be blared at high decibels without a hint of corniness? Let Adam Craig explain.

What started off as a snoozer ended up as a fairytale, at least for 22-year-old French rider Anthony Roux. With the chasing peloton breathing down his neck, the second-year pro from FDJeux took a huge dig with 2km to go to drop the remnants of the day’s main five-man break, reel in the attacking Martin Maaskant (Garmin-Slipstream) with 1km to go, flick him and then squirt across the line just a few bike lengths ahead of the hard-charging pack.

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Norway's Edvald Boasson Hagen claimed a third successive stage win to move into the overall lead of the Tour of Britain on Wednesday. The 22-year-old won a sprint finish ahead of Italian Filippo Pozzato and Britain's Russell Downing to claim his sixth Tour of Britain stage victory in two seasons. He now leads Dutch rider Kai Reus by nine seconds. In third place is Australia's Chris Sutton, who believes his hopes of winning the Tour may have gone as a result of Garmin-Slipstream teammate Bradley Wiggins' decision to quit the race.

The North American Cyclocross Trophy (NACT) series was created as a way to bring some of the best cyclocross races into the spotlight. After a successful inaugural season in 2008, the series is back with an additional weekend of races. In 2008, the eight-race series was decided at the final venue in Southampton, New York. Ryan Trebon took a close win over Jeremy Powers for the men and Georgia Gould bested Amy Dombroski for the women’s overall title.

Alejandro Valverde, Oscar Freire and Samuel Sanchez will lead Spain's bid to win the men's road race title at the world cycling championships next week in Mendrisio, Switzerland. All-rounder Valverde is the current Tour of Spain leader and has in the past narrowly missed out on winning cycling's coveted rainbow jersey, a feat achieved by Freire a record-equalling three times. Sanchez, who is currently ranked third in the Tour of Spain, is the reigning Olympic road race champion who like Valverde excels on hilly, selective courses.

Jake Keough (Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Laura Van Gilder (Mellow Mushroom) lead the 2009 USA CRITS Series after four events. The season-long series holds its penultimate event this Thursday night in Dallas, the TX TOUGH criterium. The finals are a week later during the Interbike show in Las Vegas. Keough is also leading the Champion System’s Best Young Rider (U25) Competition, while BMW-Bianchi’s Erica Allar is in the lead on the women’s side. Battley Harley Davidson’s Russ Langley and Colavita Sutter Home’s Cath Cheatley still holds the Storck Most Laps Led jersey.

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During the middle part of the 2009 racing season the Subaru-Gary Fisher team gave Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, a racer with a preference for hardtails, a new full-suspension bike. To the surprise of many he raced it in some of the biggest events during the second half of this season. JHK rode Fisher’s new Superfly 100 in two world cups, the marathon national championships, which he won, and the last two stops of the Pro XTC series (where he won the overall series).

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