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You may remember the 5-inch travel Trance X from Eurobike reports, but I was able to ride on in Bootleg Canyon.

IRC's Formula Pro Tubeless road tire has a thinner, more supple casing and stickier rubber than Hutchinson tubeless road tires to further close the gap on performance versus a tubular tire.

A regular King headset base plate is on the left, and the new High-Five base plate is on the right. The High-Five plate adds 5mm to fix bikes with a problem of fork and downtube interference. It costs a mere $12.

Giant’s communication manager Andrew Juskaitis was our personal tour guide on Bootleg’s Caldera trail, a hour and a half long loop with embedded volcanic rock that will bite back if one gets to brash.

Fizik's 2008 high-end mountain-bike saddles are now built to go with specific types of bike riding, which is also dictated by the bike’s suspension travel. So you select the saddle model based on how much suspension travel the bike has.

The 1516 gram Edge-King carbon wheelset is not yet ready for public consumption, but the $699 Classic Cross clincher wheel set is. It’s built with DT’s RR1.1 aluminum rim, King’s Classic Cross hubs and DT’s Competition spokes. The set weighs 1590 gr.

At the end of the ride, it was perfect to find Chris King serving gourmet beef tip sandwiches back in his booth, and yes we all took him up on his offer. Thanks Chris.

Fizik's free gelato was a big hit – who wouldn’t like gelato on a sunny day?

Classic Cross hubs (the two sets at the lower right) are available in an array of colors. The front weighs 136-grams and the rear is 278 grams. The have a five-year warranty and cost $479 for the set. King offers them in 28, 32 and 36 hole versions.

This is a letter you never want to receive.

Pivot's Mach 5 full-suspension trail bike with five inches of rear travel utilizes the tried-and-true DW Link suspension system. Pivot was founded by Titus founder and former owner Chris Cocalis

Magura’s new $175, 415-gram (front, with 160mm rotor) Louise brakeset is available for sale in the U.S. The model accepts all of Magura’s rotors including the Venti, which flows air over the caliper to keep it cool.

Boulder Cycle Sport Wrench, Mike Doyle, dials in the nicest cross bike I have ever ridden.

Thus far Pivot has six bikes using two DW Link frame models, the Mach 5 and the Mach 4 four-inch-travel cross-country frame.

Each year Magura picks a color of the year and offers some special edition products with it. This year the color is pink. 300 sets of the Louise BAT brake will be available in pink.

Ahhhhh.... The fresh smell of tubular glue. It must be 'cross season.

The Bianchi Camos has a flexing carbon chainstay for lateral stiffness, vertical suppleness, and low weight.

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The brakes are Ridley’s 4ZA brand with BBB’s pads and post mount carriers

Barry Wicks and his new Kona Major Jake

Andy Jacques-Maynes's Specialized Tricross S-Works carbon frame

The team is using KORE’s new Kross Race cantilever brake

He relies on a single 42-tooth Rotor chainring mounted onto a 175mm Specialized S-Works carbon crank

FSA provides many of the team’s components including the top-end K-Force Light crank with a ceramic bottom bracket

SRAM Double Tap shifters operate short arm Tektro linear-pull brakes that don’t require adapters to work with road levers

Wicks uses a 44cm K-Force carbon bar

And the Phnom saddle is up to the rigors of cyclocross, says Jacques-Maynes. It has tougher titanium rails than the road-oriented Toupe

Ryan Trebon’s steed mirrors his teammate's, with a few slight differences. Trebon has a Dura-Ace front derailleur (Wicks uses an FSA model)

Pettyjohn

Trebon also prefers an SLK crank

The 2008 Major Jake has brazed cable stops that accommodate a full-length rear brake housing. They also retrofit with stops for a more conventional setup

Heule's carbon Stevens

The Swiss champ has lots of carbon on his bike. The brakes are by Spooky, while the Ritchey WCS fork may set the bar for mud clearance

The wheels are custom with DT Swiss hubs, fitting for a Swiss rider, laced to seldom-seen Ritchey aluminum tubular rims

Dura-Ace SRM crank is fitted with a custom 46-tooth Dura-Ace outer ring, produced for sponsored athletes only

Ritchey alloy cockpits can be found on both of Heule’s bikes

Molly Cameron was sporting new wheels from sponsor Chris King. The 68mm Edge carbon rims were laced to new high-flange, cyclo-cross specific hubs

Danish national champion Joachim Parbo has been riding SRAM for three weeks and gives it a thumbs up

Parbo's cockpit is a mix of Selcof

The final podium

Bennati v. Petacchi at the line

Th-th-that's all, folks

A toast to the finale

Kolobnev enjoys a treat of a different sort

The weary peloton heading for home

Second stage win in two days, Sánchez fights his way on to the podium

Barring alien abduction, Menchov seems set to win in Madrid on Sunday

Sastre did what he needed to preserve his position on GC

Evans says fatigue may be taking its toll

McCartney now has his eye on Stuttgart..

Vande Velde finished 14th, 41 seconds off of Sánchez's time.

Backstedt set the day's early standard.

Sánchez wins, climbs podium; Menchov secures; Sastre endures

San Lorenzo

Jeanson was regarded as fierce competitor.

Reaction was muted Friday in Spain following the news that Floyd Landis failed in his bid to fend off doping allegations from his disputed 2006 Tour de France victory. Oscar Pereiro - the man set to inherit the Tour crown – said the 2-to-1 decision against Landis will end what he described as a “14-month purgatory.” “Now I can start to believe it a little more. I’m still missing some sort of official notification from the UCI or the Tour organizers before I can say with certain,” Pereiro told Spanish radio. “Of course we’ll celebrate it once it’s confirmed. After a year of rumors and more

The picture that saved me 1000 words:Rarely a man of few words, we think O'Grady hit this one right on thehead. Do you agree or did he miss the mark? Letus know. Be sure to include your FULL NAME and HOME TOWN. Letters maybe edited for length and clarity.

17 professional years, with some 275 victories.

Former junior world champion Geneviève Jeanson admitted to doping during her career in an interview with Radio-Canada’s news magazine "Enquête."

Sánchez had a good day in the saddle, but missed passing Evans on GC by a scant nine seconds.

Friday's Foaming Rant: O'Grady weighs in on 'the decision'

Moninger in yellow at Redlands

Sastre battled to take time on Menchov, but it was no dice

Menchov stuck to Sastre like glue

It wasn't a great day for Evans, who slid to third on GC

But Efimkin was, and it cost him his second place overall

Welcome to Avila

Avila is Sastre country, cobbles and all

Perez wins

And Menchov is one day closer to a final victory

Two of three panel members said this win was dirty.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/VelonewsAudioPodcast

Dear Readers,Last column (Deliveranceof the bird man), we had a letter from C.W. in “deepest darkestWest Virginia” asking about self-defense, after his club ride was buzzedby “the clan from deliverance.” In response to the buzzing, the club’sfearless leader extended a one-fingered salute to the offending clan, whichresulted in the car sliding to a stop across the club’s path and a confrontationbetween “the enraged and rather large passenger.” This column, we’ve gotsome follow-up questions from readers, and next column, we’re going totake a second look at whether or not “flipping the bird” is

Oscar Pereiro was formally named the winner of the 2006 Tour de France on Thursday after American authorities ruled against Floyd Landis's appeal for failing a doping test, the sport's world governing body, the UCI, said. Pereiro finished the 2006 race in second place, 57 seconds behind Landis but the American tested positive after the race following his 17th stage win at Morzine, three days before the end of the race. "We can right now say that Pereiro is the winner of the Tour without waiting for a possible appeal by Landis to the Court of Arbitration for Sport," UCI president

Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: More thoughts on the bird man

Perez Sanchez steals a march on a squabbling break

Landis is stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title.

Sastre said he was done with attacking ... yeah, right

Sorensen and Vande Velde were there to lend a hand

Menchov and Evans weren't caught out