Road

The heavy favorite for Sunday’s Tour of Flanders did everything right and his Eddy Merckx EMX-5 bicycle, free of mechanical problems, followed suit.

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With the domestic pro cross-country season openers under his belt in California, Subaru-Gary Fisher's Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski has a few more trips ahead of him this spring.

IN: Jelly Belly, Kelly Benefit Strategies, Sky. OUT: Jamis, Bahati

Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) won Tuesday’s stage at the Vuelta al País Vasco, this time without a protest, at least not from his part.

The cobbled classics continue Sunday with Paris-Roubaix, however the pro peloton will first take on the 98th edition of Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen, the oldest race in Flanders, on Wednesday.

Book the Sacramento hotel rooms for Danny Van Haute and Jelly Belly-Kenda in May — they will be at the start line for the Amgen Tour of California. The team will have its fifth opportunity to improve on Alex Candelario’s two fifth-place stage finishes at California in 2006, their best showing in the United States’ premiere stage race.

Circuit de la Sarthe - Results

Luís León Sánchez (Caisse d’Epargne) came up first in the opening stage of the Circuit de la Sarthe on Tuesday in France.

The road is only so wide and there are only so many hotel beds in the Central Valley of California. Five U.S. Continental teams got the good news that they’ll have beds for their riders when the Amgen Tour of California leaves Nevada City on May 16. Six others did not make the cut.

When Saxo Bank’s Olympic and world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara won the Sacramento prologue in last year’s Amgen Tour of California, he looked capable of going on to defend the leader’s yellow jersey all the way through to the finish. That’s because the once burly Swiss star had shed several kilos over the 2008-09 winter and was making great improvements as a climber and GC contender.

Basque hills and French cobblestones dominate what’s sure to be an action-packed week of racing in Europe.

Chipped clear-coat, tire blow-outs and more; Zinn fields question on a host of common issues encountered by riders.

2010 UCLA Race results

Dominique Rollin enjoyed his first taste of the cobbled classics and is eager for more.

After three tough events hosted by Mesa State last weekend, the Rocky Mountain Conference thought it could breath a collective sigh of relief coming into this weekend’s short hill climb and criterium, hosted by the Colorado School of Mines. That was, until they woke up Saturday morning and took a look outside.

2010 School of Mines results

2010 Marian University results

Purdue University’s Chris Uberti snagged his second win of the Midwest collegiate season in this weekend’s rainy criterium hosted by Marian University. The women’s race saw Marian’s Jacqueline Kurth take the win on her home turf after a strong effort off the front of the pack.

Michele Scarponi wraps up the overall at Setmana Lombarda.

Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) sprinted to fourth as Oscar Freire (Rabobank) darted to an apparent victory in Monday’s opener Tour of the Basque Country (Vuelta ciclista al Pais Vasco in Spanish) in northern Spain, only to see judges award the win to Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne).

J.J. Haedo wins the 2010 Rund um Köln.

2010 Tour of the Basque Country results

You may not know who the hell Freddy Nietzsche is, but if you've ever raced mountain bikes you know what the philosopher meant when he said "That which doesn't kill us, makes us stronger." Allow Judy Freeman, pro XC racer and Singletrack.com columnist, to explain…

Garmin-Slipstream’s David Millar: a man for the cobbled classics?

Riccardo Riccò (Flaminia) wins a second stage as Michele Scarponi (Androni) wraps up overall victory at the Setmana Lombarda.

Juan José Haedo (Saxo Bank) pips André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) in the Rund um Köln.

Start list, 2010 Tour of the Basque Country

Previous winners of the Tour of the Basque Country

Dean Podgornik wins the 2010 Tour du Maroc.

Dean Podgornik (Loborika) wins the 23rd Tour du Maroc in a closely fought battle with Team Type 1's Valeriy Kobzarenko.

Replay of live coverage for 2010 Tour of Flanders

Fabian Cancellara's Specialized Tarmac SL3.

Fabian Cancellara was obviously the strongest man in the Tour of Flanders, and his Specialized Tarmac SL3 was equally up to the task, despite one small technical difficulty.

University of Colorado engineering student Kiel Reijnen is leading the GC at the Tour of Thailand.

Grace Verbeke wins the women's Tour of Flanders.

Grace Verbeke (Lotto) wins the women’s Tour of Flanders.

Alejandro Valverde hopes to profit from Alberto Contador's absence at the Tour of the Basque Country.

Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) solos to victory in the 2010 Tour of Flanders.

A couple of days before the Tour of Flanders, a few ProTour teams pulled into Kortrijk, Belgium to set up camp and begin preparing for the race.

It was a big day for Skil-Shimano, with Yann Huguet winning one of Holland’s most grueling one-day races just days after finding out it was not going back to the 2010 Tour de France.

Liquigas will try to play the outsiders role in Sunday’s Tour of Flanders, with a handful of riders with freedom to go for it if they have the legs.

Bad boy Riccardo Riccò is back in the winner’s circle following victory in Saturday’s third stage at the Settimana Lombarda in Italy.

Cancellara is relaxed and confident heading into the Tour of Flanders.

Contested Sunday alongside the Ronde Van Vlaanderen will be the seventh running of the women’s Tour of Flanders, or Ronde Van Vlaanderen Vrouwen, which begins in the town of Oodenarde and loops east, also ending in Meerbeke, near Ninove.

The VeloNews crew spots two pairs of Bontrager wheel prototypes in the team parking lot.

Zirbel accepts a two-year suspension

Just a few days in advance of the Tour of Flanders, BMC Racing Team chief mechanic Ian Sherburne assembled a new race bike for team captain George Hincapie. Friday marked Hincapie’s first look at the new rig, the bike he hopes will take him across the Flanders finish line first.

Bbox has enjoyed an excellent four-week run, with a stage victory by William Bonnet at Paris-Nice, a stage victory and the overall at Critérium International with Pierrick Fédrigo and two stage victories to open the Three Days of De Panne this week.

Mattia Gavazzi (CSF) won a mass sprint in the second stage of the Settimana Ciclista Lombarda in northern Italy.

Two-time Ronde van Vlaanderen champion Tom Boonen has broken with one of his annual traditions as he bids Sunday to join an elite club of three-time winners on Sunday.

Katusha’s Filippo Pozzato has pulled out of the Tour of Flanders one-day classic because of a lingering ailment, Gazzetta dello Sport reported Friday.

The women’s 10-round World Cup series continues Sunday with the 7th Tour of Flanders in Belgium.

Easter Sunday’s 70-percent chance of rain and forecast temperatures in the upper-40s won’t likely dampen what is expected to be one of the most hotly contested and wide-open editions of the Tour of Flanders in years.

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We can barely keep pace with the ongoing roll out of new cycling products. Fortunately the manufacturers are telling us about gear that’s available in bike shops right now (or very soon), so you can get tricked out and on the road for spring pronto.

American Sarah Hammer won her third individual pursuit world title last week in Copenhagen aboard a Felt TK1. VeloNews takes an up-close look at the bike that did the deed.

There are some heavyweights heading to this year’s Giro d’Italia, confirmed Thursday with the release of the preliminary start list.

Armstrong to make rare Flanders appearance, Cavendish and Eisel on HTC-Columbia's Flanders team, Dominique Rollin heads the injury-plagued Cervelo squad

Fresh off back-to-back stage races at San Dimas and Redlands, the U.S. peloton is largely in rest and recovery mode this week.

Top favorite Filippo Pozzato and his Katusha teammate Serguei Ivanov might miss Sunday’s Tour of Flanders.

Garmin-Transitions’ David Millar won the overall title of the Three Days of De Panne after winning the final time trial, a 14km race against the clock between Koksijde and De Panne on Thursday.

Farrar gets stage win at De Panne

Encouraged by the success of its sister website Singletrack.com, VeloNews.com soon will branch out once again — this time, into the largely untapped bicycle-touring market.

The Tour de France will be trading the Champs-Élysées for Main Street following news that the Walt Disney Company (DIS) has purchased Tour owner ASO.

Alberto Contador’s spring campaign and even this summer’s Tour de France could be in doubt following doctors’ decision to perform three hours of reconstructive hand surgery on Thursday.

VeloNews.com will deliver live web coverage of the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, along with a race report, tech reports, results and photo galleries.

Quick Step's Tom Boonen and four teammates rode 150 kilometers of the Tour of Flanders course on Wednesday, and called the exercise "quite useful."

A French rider on BBox Bouygues was successful for the second day in a row at the Three Days of De Panne while David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) remains in contention for overall victory.

Edvald Boasson Hagen will skip this weekend’s Tour of Flanders but hopes to be able to race Paris-Roubaix later next month.

Peter Stetina is making the most of his rookie year at Garmin-Transitions.

Sprint star Mark Cavendish will skip the Giro d’Italia in order to race in this year’s Tour of California, his team announced Wednesday.

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USA Cycling’s National Racing Calendar (NRC) kicked off last weekend with the Redlands Bicycle Classic in California.

Steve Chainel (Bbox Bouygues) won out of a breakaway to claim victory Tuesday in the opening stage of the Three Days of De Panne in Belgium.

Last year’s runner-up Heinrich Haussler and experienced German rider Andreas Klier will not race this weekend’s Tour of Flanders.

A reader asks about this year's Tour de France invitations.