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Although still in its late prototype phase, the Ibis 160 mm Mojo HD has already been ridden to victory by Brian Lopes at the recent Enduro Trophy des Nations in Vars, France.

Spanish puncheur Joaquín Rodríguez (Caisse d’Epargne) knew he had a good shot at stage victory when he saw the short but steep third-category finish-line approach in Thursday’s second stage at the Vuelta a Burgos in northern Spain. Known for explosive ability that’s helped him win, among other victories, the hilltop stage at Tirreno-Adriatico to Monte Lupone two years in a row, Rodríguez turned on the gas Thursday to win the 153km second stage and take the leader’s jersey at the five-day Burgos tour.

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The Intermontane Challenge wrapped up last week with a 30-kilometer time trial, providing a chance for Chris Sheppard (Santa Cruz-WTB-FOX) and Sue Butler (MonaVie-Cannondale) to cement their overall wins in the week-long stage race. Neither winner faced significant threats to their overall race leads, and both protected their positions by riding carefully on the sinewy singletrack of Kenna Cartwright Park just on the edge of Kamloops.

Team Type 1's Alison Powers has wrapped up her overall win of the Women's Prestige Cycling Series with a solid performance at the final event, last week's Cascade Cycling Classic in Oregon. Powers held onto the lead she established at the series' first two events, the Redlands Bicycle Classic and the Joe Martin Stage Race. While Powers' lead was insurmountable after the first few events, the series' team competition went down to the wire, with Team Tibco eventually taking the lead ahead of Powers' Team Type 1 and the Webcor team.[nid:96375]

World champion Allesandro Ballan (Lampre) won a sprint finish for the fifth stage of the Tour of Poland under the rain on Thursday. Ballan's success on the 163km stage from Strzyzow to Krynica Zdroj also gave him possession of the race leader's yellow jersey. Ballan finished ahead of Spaniard Daniel Moreno and Dutch rider Pieter Weening, who are second and third in the overall standings respectively. "I promised to fight in the Tour of Poland and I kept my word," said Ballan after crossing the finish line in a bunched sprint.

Disgraced cyclist Alexander Vinokourov continues his return to competitive cycling this week hoping to show he has not lost too much form over his two-year ban for doping. Once one of the peloton's toughest competitors Vinokourov was revealed as a cheat in 2007 when he tested positive for homologous blood doping (the injection of red cells from a donor) at the Tour de France. The scandal led to the expulsion of his team Astana from the race, and a two-year ban left his career in tatters.

Quick Step’s Tom Boonen is skipping this weekend’s Tour de l’Ain, but has confirmed he will start the Vuelta a España later this month. After a disastrous Tour de France, the Belgian classics star is looking to regroup before the world championships in September. The former world and current Belgian road champion was scheduled to race for the first time since the Tour at Sunday’s start at the four-day Tour de l’Ain, but he still hasn’t fully recovered from a nagging cold that prompted his departureahead of the 15th stage of the Tour.

Lance Armstrong might be training up in the Colorado mountains for next weekend’s Leadville 100, but backers from his new RadioShack team are already working hard behind the scenes to prepare the squad for a high-profile entrance into the elite ranks of the sport. Officials from RadioShack Corporation are planning to unveil its new branding and marketing campaign Thursday in New York and San Francisco, and the cycling team, where Armstrong will race during the 2010 season, will play a central role.

Classic East Coast singletrack gets even better with the unveiling of new cross country courses August 7-9 at the US Kenda Cup East, USA Cycling's Pro XCT Tour in Vermont.

Pennsylvania's Univest Grand Prix is experiencing a late-season growth spurt. The UCI 2.2 race is adding a team time trial on Friday, Sept. 11. The 7.6-mile TTT and Saturday's 100 mile road race will make up a 2-day stage race. The Univest weekend will continue with Sunday's Univest Grand Prix Doylestown Criterium, which is not part of the Friday-Saturday stage race. The stage race is part of the USA Cycling Pro Tour. The new TTT stage will be held in Allenstown and will include two laps of a technical 3.8-mile circuit.

Sturgis ain't just for the hogs. Yes, South Dakota's Black Hills are the home of a huge Harleyfest, but they also boast sweet singletrack and feature festivities for the fat-tire set.

Columbia-HTC will bring sprinter Mark Cavendish, time trialist/GC rider Michael Rogers and strongman George Hincapie to this year's Tour of Missouri, the race announced Wednesday. Cavendish won three stages at Missouri last year, and Hincapie won the overall title in the race's first edition in 2007. The race is being held Sept. 7-13 this year. “I really enjoyed Tour of Missouri last year," Cavendish said. "Cycling fans in America are genuinely enthusiastic about watching us race, which makes for a great atmosphere.”

What a week it’s been for Euskaltel-Euskadi. First, its captain and Tour de France stage-winner, Mikel Astrarloza, pops positive for EPO in a pre-Tour doping control, some nasty business that raises questions about the team’s future, not to mention its ethical integrity. Then Igor Antón wins Sunday’s Urkiola climbing race in the heart of Basque Country to remind everyone that the “orange tide” isn’t going down without a fight.

Norwegian ace Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) won the fourth stage of the Tour of Poland on Wednesday after outshining teammate André Greipel in a sprint finish. Greipel, wearing the race leader's jersey, finished second on the 239.7-kilometer stage from Naleczow to Rzeszow but was later relegated by race officials after impeding the sprint of Australia's Allan Davis.

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Time is still marching on
Dear Explainer, I was happy to see that the Tour de France reintroduced the team time trial to this year’s race. It raised a question that has bothered me for a long time, though. While I understand that teams are assigned the finishing times of the fifth rider to cross the line, what happens to those riders who finish behind the fifth rider? More importantly, what happens to teams that, for whatever reason, have to start the TTT with fewer than five riders? Jonathan Bergner Washington, D.C.

Alexander Vinokourov is back from his two-year doping ban, but his immediate future is anything but certain. In fact, the only thing certain about the charismatic Kazakh rider and his racing plans is shrouded in uncertainty. Besides a few vague public comments, almost no one is willing to go on the record to answer some basic questions on whether or not Vinokourov will be racing in an Astana jersey, a sure sign that something is cooking.

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FatCyclist.com, in partnership with Shimano and Orbea, is holding a fundraiser to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF). The winner of the ten-day (August 4 - 13) contest will become the owner of a true dream bike: an Orbea Orca or Diva (winner's choice), outfitted with the Shimano Di2 group and PRO components, a retail value of approximately $9,600.

Some experts believe that poor vitamin D status can often be a problem among athletes, and affect your overall health and ability to train.

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Steve Hed has never approached business in a conventional way. When he first met his wife, Anne, she was a struggling young triathlete who wanted to race the Ironman. She went into Grand Performance bike shop in Minneapolis because she’d heard that its owner often helped triathletes with expenses. Her heart sank when the barefoot guy covered in grease in the back of the shop turned out to be Steve Hed, the shop’s owner, but she asked anyway.

This is one tallboy you can't guzzle, but Santa Cruz's venture into the world of 29ers with the carbon Tallboy is sure to instill a buzz.

Roman Kreuziger's recent strong performances at the Tour de France, Tour of Switzerland and the Clásica San Sebastián have moved him up to third on the UCI World Ranking, just behind the much-more-heralded Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador. Kreuziger, a 23-year-old with Liquigas, was ninth overall at the Tour de France, and third at the Swiss Tour (which he won in 2008). His second at San Sebastián, behind Quick Step's Carlos Barredo, moved him up from fifth to third in the new rankings released this week.

Teams are already releasing preliminary start lists for the upcoming Vuelta a España (August 29-September 20) and Rabobank will bring a strong team with sights on overall victory and stage wins. The Dutch outfit released 10 names for the Spanish tour and will look to Robert Gesink, who crashed out of the Tour de France with a fractured wrist in stage 5, to take aim for the final podium.

Mikel Astarloza – the Basque climber who facing allegations that he took the banned blood booster EPO – says he never doped ahead of the 2009 Tour de France. Astarloza, winner of stage 16 and 11th overall in the this year’s Tour, is facing a possible two-year ban after urine samples taken in an out-of-competition control June 26, but strongly declared his innocence in an emotional press conference Tuesday.

Carbon mid- and deep-section wheels are all the rage in road racing, and for good reason. A deep aerodynamic profile helps slice through the wind, and using carbon as the rim material helps keep weight to a minimum. Most high-end deep section carbon wheels have that perfect blend of light weight and improved aerodynamics.

Organizers promise some surprises in the third edition of the all-new Tour of Missouri, which kicks off on Labor Day in St. Louis and concludes a week later in Kansas City. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin) won last year’s edition, while George Hincapie (Discovery) triumphed in the inaugural event, and race director Jim Birrell says it will take a strong man to win the 2009 tour, too.