Road

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The Race Across America is always a challenge—nothing about riding 3000 miles from the West Coast to the East Coast could ever be considered easy. But this year it is going to be particularly tough for a solo to win as possibly the most competitive, most experience field to grace this 28-year old event is now on course. Among those on an eastward heading to Annapolis, Maryland are two past winners and several riders with top five rides in their RAAM palmares.

What is the environmental impact of a ProTour race?

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The UCI’s anti-doping chief Anne Gripper said the vast majority of the elite peloton appears to be riding clean after months-long analysis of tell-tale blood parameters. Gripper was speaking at a press conference in Paris Wednesday where it was announced the pioneering 'biological passport' scheme launched by the UCI had snared five riders.

Milram's Niki Terpstra won the 6.9km prologue of the Ster Elektrotoer sgtage race in Holland on Wednesday, taking the first leader's jersey of the race. Terpstra beat Liuwa Westra (Vacansoleil) by two seconds.

Columbia-Highroad's Michael Albasini won the fifth stage of the Tour of Switzerland, a 202-kilometer race from Staefa in Switzerland to Serfaus in Austria. Tadej Valjavec (Ag2r) retained the race lead, even managing to drop his biggest rival on Wednesday – Saxo Bank's Andy Schleck - down the overall standings. Valjavec now leads Swiss rider Oliver Zaugg, of Liquigas, by 14 seconds with four stages remaining.

The Union Cycliste Internationale is seeking disciplinary measures against five riders based on results from its so-called “biological passport” program. The five — 2003 world road champion Igor Astarloa, Pietro Caucchioli (Lampre-N.G.C.), Francesco De Bonis (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni), Ruben Lobato Elvira and Ricardo Serrano (Fuji-Servetto) — are said to be in “apparent violation of the Anti-Doping Rules on the basis of the information provided by the blood profile in their biological passports,” the UCI charged in a press release Wednesday.

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Lance Armstrong will continue his preparations for the Tour de France by racing in the Nevada City Classic on Sunday, the seven-time Tour de France champion has announced. Armstrong said he and Astana teammates Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner will compete in the 49th edition of the Nevada City Classic, which is run on a a 1.7km circuit in the historic mining town nestled in the northern California mountains.

Former Rock Racing rider Tyler Hamilton has accepted an eight-year suspension from sport after a positive doping test earlier this year, his second violation since 2004. Hamilton could have faced a lifetime ban due to his 2004 suspension for homologous blood doping, a violation first noted by anti-doping officials at that year’s Olympic Games.

The strongest, most durable bike at the ShoAir Pro XCT mountain bike race in Colorado Springs this past weekend wasn’t a full-suspension, cross-country racing rig, or even an all-mountain trail bike. It was a 45-pound, coaster-braked singlespeed, equipped with riser bars, a rear rack, fenders and is capable of carrying a 100-kilogram cargo load. But it’s not a bike you’ll ever see in your local bike shop.

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Tejay Van Garderen (Rabobank) finished with the bunch on Tuesday to take the overall victory in the Circuito Montañes in northern Spain. Vicente Grau Jorda (Camargo-Ferroatlantica-Floortex) won the 152km seventh stage from Potes to Santander in a bunch sprint ahead of Van Garderen’s teammate Boy Van Poppel, with Jorge Martín Montenegro (Andalucía-Cajasur) third. But Van Garderen crossed safely in 39th place to claim the final leader’s jersey by 35 seconds over Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Orbea). Sergio Pardilla Bellón (Carmiooro-A Style) finished third overall at 1:01.

Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank) triumphed in the fourth stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Tuesday. The Dane held off Astana's Maxim Iglinsky by a whisker to take his third victory of the year in the 195km ride from Biasca to Staefa. Tadej Valjavec (Ag2r-La Mondiale) finished third in the nine-man sprint to take the leader's jersey from Saxo's Fabian Cancellara, who crossed 1:03 down on the escapees. Cancellara had led the race since winning the opening time trial.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmed Tuesday that disgraced Kazakh cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov must serve out a two-year doping ban until late July. In a statement the court said it had set aside the one-year suspension handed down by Kazakhstan's cycling federation in December 2007, following an arbitration request. It decided instead that Vinokourov's period of ineligibility, which was applicable after he and his Astana team were expelled from the 2007 Tour de France for blood doping, should run for two years under international cycling rules.

Why does my tubular tire thump near the valve stem? I have ridden them several times and I have noticed a significant pulsation whenever I coast at 20-28 mph. I don't notice it when I am pedaling although it is probably there.

The Tour de Suisse takes center stage this week as the “other” grand tour enters its decisive stages in the mountains. Going into Tuesday’s fourth stage, Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) is stubbornly hanging onto the leader’s jersey he earned with victory in the opening prologue and shows no signs of letting go. A string of upcoming mountain stages will put Cancellara to the test. There’s a clutch of other races later this week, with events in Slovenia, France and Holland while women’s racing continues with the Grande Boucle Féminine in France.

A doping investigation initially targeting two University doctors has now snared four more, albeit on lesser charges, according to German public prosecutor Wolfgang Maier on Monday. Maier confirmed a report, to appear Tuesday in the Badischer Zeitung newspaper, which claimed four other doctors have been actively investigated in the case. Maier did not reveal names but told the SID agency they faced lesser charges to those of Lothar Heinrich and Andreas Schmid, both of whom were sacked two years ago for helping administer doping substances.

Alejandro Valverde's win at the Dauphine solidified his position atop the UCI's world rankings, and also brought hit team, Caisse d'Epargne, and country, Spain, to the top of their respective rankings. Valverde has earned points at Fleche Wallone (where he was seventh), the Tour de Romandie (where he was in the top 10 in three stages) and with his wins at the Volta Catalunya and the Dauphine. The rankings are weighted toward the grand tours, which is how Denis Menchov remains in third with the 218 points he picked up on the way to winning the Giro d'Italia.

French cycling team Cofidis unveiled a nine-man Tour de France team Monday which manager Eric Boyer has shaped principally for success in the mountains. Frenchman David Moncoutie, who won the hilly penultimate stage of the Dauphine Libere on Saturday, will be the team's main hope on the Tour's climbs along with fellow specialists Amael Moinard and Remi Pauriol. Christophe Kern, who also impressed during the Dauphine, has also been given instructions to perform well in the Alps and Pyrenees.

Team Astana has suspended Kazakh rider Assan Bazayev for 15 days for not providing sufficient whereabouts information required as part of the UCI’s biological passport program. The 28-year-old Bazayev was supposed to start the nine-day Tour de Suisse on Saturday, but Astana officials slapped him with an internal, 15-day racing ban Friday because he wasn’t being vigilant enough about informing anti-doping controllers on where he was.

Astana has revealed its short list for the upcoming Tour de France. Fifteen riders are vying for nine spots on the Astana tour squad, which will be anchored by returning seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong and 2007 Tour winner Alberto Contador. Also all but assured of spots are Tour podium finishers Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden.

Ever since Shimano introduced the 7900 Di2 group at last fall’s Interbike show, it’s been surrounded by questions (as is any revolutionary new product). At first, the major question was simply Shimano’s wisdom in daring to venture down a path previously abandoned by Mavic and Campagnolo. Then the question was: will it pass the litmus test of adoption by professional riders and mechanics, who are historically traditional and resistant to change? Finally, will the parts ever actually become available at retail — and if so, will consumers buy?

Defending Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre is headed to Switzerland to preview some of the key mountain stages for next month’s race. Sastre, fresh off winning two stages at the Giro d’Italia and finishing fourth overall, will join teammates from his Cervélo TestTeam to train in the Alps until Friday. “The riders who will dispute the Tour are going to take some deep training rides and personally I want to review some of the climbs that I don’t know of the stages that will be featured in the Alps,” Sastre said before traveling to Geneva on Monday.

Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara held on to the lead of the Tour of Switzerland as Britain's Mark Cavendish powered to victory on the 195.4km third stage on Monday. The 24-year-old from the Isle of Man, who won four stages at last year's Tour de France, produced an impressive decisive surge in the dying meters after Norwegian Thor Hushovd's final dash for the line ran out of steam. As Cavendish soaked up the win, Spanish ace Oscar Freire of Rabobank came through late to leave Cervelo's main sprinter Hushovd in third place. [nid:93406]

Tejay Van Garderen moved into the overall lead Monday after stage six at the Circuito Montañes in northern Spain, an important proving ground for up-and-coming pros. The American rider on the Rabobank continental team finished second to Sergio Pardilla (Carmiooro) in the 143.6km stage from Torrelavega to Santo Toribio, some 20 seconds behind the Spanish rider. With just one stage remaining, Van Garderen moves up into the overall lead, now 35 seconds ahead of Jonathan Castroviejo (Orbea), with Pardilla slotting into third at 1:01 back.

It’s looking more likely that a Japanese rider will be at the Tour de France for the first time in more than a decade. Bbox Bouygues Telecom has named Yukiya Arashiro as one of the riders assured to start the 2009 Tour on July 4 in Monaco. The others include Thomas Voeckler, Pierrick Fédrigo, Pierre Rolland and William Bonnet. Bouygues team boss Jean-René Bernaudeau had high praise for Arashiro, a former Japanese national time trial and road champion who’s racing in Europe for the first time this season.

Alejandro Valverde could barely enjoy his victory Sunday at the Dauphiné Libéré when the questions started again: will he or won’t he be at the start line in Monaco on July 4 for the 2009 Tour de France? Since May, Valverde is banned for two years from racing in Italy for what authorities say is clear evidence linking him to the Operación Puerto blood doping scandal. The year’s Tour dips into Italy for about 80km during stage 16, enough to likely torpedo Valverde’s hopes for a shot at the Tour podium despite being arguably in the best form of his career.

The 2009 Nature Valley Grand Prix concluded on Sunday in Stillwater, Minnesota, with a GC shake-up in the men’s race and a win by women’s race leader Kristin Armstrong. Philip Mamos (Amore e Vita) and Armstrong (Cervélo TestTeam) both took stage wins by attacking from small breakaways. Armstrong sealed up her fourth consecutive overall victory with her win, and Rory Sutherland (Ouch) took home his third overall victory in as many years by ousting Tom Zirbel (Bissell) with a late attack.

I’ve probably spent less than 10 hours riding tubular tires. I’m not ashamed to admit that I come from a mostly mountain bike background. I’ve never wanted to bother with gluing tubular tires, despite the significant benefits in lighter weight and supple ride quality.

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Judith Arndt (Columbia-Highroad) won Sunday’s finale and secured the overall at the four-day Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira in Spain. After Columbia-Highroad teammate Mara Abbott and rival Claudia Hausler of Germany had attacked on the last climb, Arndt powered across to the two stage leaders on a dangerous rain-soaked descent. Arndt then outpowered Hausler in the final sprint for the line in the town of Orduña, while Abbott took third. It was Arndt’s third stage win in four days, and her first stage race victory since winning the Tour of Tuscany in Italy last September.

Scott Zwizanski (Kelly Benefit Strategies) won the Tour de Beauce on Sunday as Bernard Sulzberger (Fly V Australia) collected the final stage win in the St. Georges circuit race. The 130km race consisted of 12 loops of 10.8km with a climb on each lap just before the finish line. Breakaways coalesced and faded under the watchful eye of Zwizanski’s Kelly Benefits squad until the eighth lap, when a dangerous nine-man move containing the Colombian National Team’s Sergio Luis Henao and Darwin Artapuma — second and third on GC, respectively — went clear.

Tyler Farrar did what he had to do in to wrap up the overall title at the Delta Tour Zeeland in Holland on Sunday. The Garmin-Slipstream rider sprinted ahead of archrival Alessandro Petacchi (LPR Brakes) in Sunday’s 185km stage, finishing second to winner Robert Wagner (Skil-Shimano), but ahead of Petacchi, who crossed the line third. When the time bonuses were added up, Farrar came out on top, winning the three-day race in southern Holland by 11 seconds ahead of Petacchi. Wagner claimed third overall at 13 seconds back.

There were two races for Bernhard Eisel in Sunday’s 150km second stage at the Tour de Suisse — the first to try to win the stage, and the second to try to confirm a spot on Columbia-Highroad’s highly competitive nine-man Tour de France team. The Austrian sprinter achieved the first and went a long way toward securing the second after out-kicking the bunch in a tightly fought sprint to win Sunday’s romp around Davos.

Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) on Sunday won his second successive Dauphiné Libéré cycling race as Dutchman Stef Clement (Rabobank) won the final stage, a 146km hump from Faverges to Grenoble. American Timothy Duggan (Garmin-Slipstream) took second ahead of Frenchman Sebastien Joly (Française des Jeux), all three having been members of an initial 28-man breakaway. World time-trial champion Bert Grabsch (Columbia-Highroad) enjoyed a long spell at the head of affairs before being reeled in 37km from the finish.

The breakaways finally found success in Saturday’s Mankato Road Race at the 2009 Nature Valley Grand Prix, in Minnesota. Andrew Crater (Wheel & Sprocket) and Alexis Rhodes (Webcor Builders) both delivered wins from small escape groups after 92 miles of aggressive and unpredictable racing.

Max Plaxton pulled off mountain biking’s version of a Hail Mary pass to win Saturday’s Sand Creek International cross-country race, the fourth round of USA Cycling’s Pro Cross-country Tour (ProXCT). Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) appeared to have the Sho Air-Specialized rider boxed out on the final band of twisting singletrack, which descended a steep fall line before spitting riders onto a stretch of pavement to the finish. Whoever left that trail in the lead had the upper hand in the sprint to the line.

Fly V Australia teammates Charles Dionne and Alessandro Bazzana went one-two on Saturday in stage 5 of the Tour de Beauce. Otavio Bougarelli (Garneau) was third in the 125km Ville de Québec criterium. A 14-man break formed up on the third lap and went on to build a lead that surpassed five minutes.

Tyler Farrar kept the overall leader’s jersey Saturday at the Delta Tour Zeeland race in Holland. Just a day after winning the prologue, the Garmin-Slipstream sprinter dashed to second in the 181.7km second stage and retained the leader’s jersey in the three-day Dutch race. Italian star Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) was fastest in the stage from Middelburg to Goes, crossing the line 3h59.10 (45.58lph). Farrar came through second with Bobbie Traksel taking third and Baden Cooke (Vacansoleil) coming across fourth in the mass sprint.

For the second day in a row, a Frenchman won in a breakaway at the Dauphiné Libéré, this time with veteran head-banger David Moncoutie snagging an impressive victory in the week’s hardest stage over the French Alps. And for the third year in a row, it appears that Cadel Evans will finish runner-up, but it’s not for a lack of trying. The Silence-Lotto captain has finished second twice in a row at the Dauphiné before going on to second at the Tour de France in 2007 and in 2008.

Saxo Bank’s Fabian Cancellara may well have put a tough spring behind him as he scored an impressive win in the opening time trial of the Tour of Switzerland on Saturday. Cancellara covered the tough 7.8km course from Mauren to Ruggell, in Liechtenstein, in a time nine minutes and 21 seconds. Defending champion Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) was 19 seconds slower with Astana’s Andreas Klöden rounding out the podium at 22 seconds.

Bike racing is quite unlike the mainstream “stick-and-ball” sports that most Americans grew up playing, and can often be confusing, or a even a complete mystery. Even other endurance sports, such as marathon running or triathlon, lack the complexities and tactics of professional road cycling. In those sports, the person that is in the front of the race is usually the one that wins. That’s seldom always the case in cycling. In fact, it’s possible to win the Tour de France without crossing the line first on any of the 21 stages.

Colavita’s Sebastien Haedo and Brooke Miller (TIBCO) delighted fans on the crowded streets of Uptown Minneapolis by uncorking powerful sprints to win Stage 3 of Minnesota’s Nature Valley Grand Prix on Friday evening. The second criterium in a busy week of racing brought the racers back into the Twin Cities. This year, however, the race was moved to Uptown Minneapolis from the downtown course that has been used in years past. The pancake-flat, six-corner criterium was the perfect venue for fans to take in the action as the racers sped around Calhoun Square at twilight.

Heather Irmiger and Todd Wells both rode 29-inch wheeled mountain bikes to victory at the Carmichael Training Systems Sand Creek short track in Colorado Springs. The event was the second round of the 2009 Trailwatch.net national short-track series, and was held at Bear Creek Terrace Park on the western edge of the city.

Tyler Farrar is back in the winner’s circle Friday after claiming an impressive victory in the prologue of the Delta Tour Zeeland in Holland. The Garmin-Slipstream rider put his sprinter legs to good use on a short, 2.7km course in Hulst to open the three-day race in Holland, posting the fastest time of 3 minutes, 8.29 seconds (51.622kph). The blistering pace meant another win for Farrar, who has shown in the past he can put down a good prologue performance.

Scott Zwizanski (Kelly Benefit Strategies) took over the lead of the Tour de Beauceon Friday, after winning the stage 4 20km time trial. It was a battle of the Z's as Zwizanski took a narrow stage victory over Fly V Australia's Phil Zajicek, who put up the fastest time for awhile, before Zwizanski came in 26 seconds faster. Trek-Livestrong's young New Zealander, Jessie Sergent, was third. Overnight race leader Sergio Luis Henao of the Colombia national team was 21st at 1:42 behind Zwizanski and fell to second on the GC, at 1:03 behind. His teammate, Darwin Atapuma, is third.

Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouygues Telecom) delivered a French stage victory Friday out of a breakaway in the short, 106km sixth stage from Gap to Briancon at the Dauphiné Libéré. Overnight leader Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) rode confidently in the main pack as 14 riders escaped over the day’s main obstacle up the Col d’Izoard to finish 16th with the same time as archrivals to retain his narrow 16-second lead going into the final weekend of racing.

Twenty-one teams are heading to the Vuelta a España in late August, but not everyone is going to be happy. Among the major teams left on the sidelines for the season’s third grand tour are two ProTour squads, the Russian-backed Katusha and Spanish Fuji-Servetto teams, as well as the Italian continental standout, LPR. The Vuelta organization, which released its list of invitees Friday morning, included 16 of 18 ProTour teams among the starting lineup.

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Colavita’s Alejandro Borrajo and Erica Allar (ValueAct Capital Team) sprinted to wins in the second stage of the 2009 Nature Valley Grand Prix, a 66.5-mile road race through rural Minnesota. Despite a challenging course and aggressive racing, both Tom Zirbel (Bissel Pro Cycling) and Kristin Armstrong (Cervélo Test Team) retained their overall race leads.

Jonathan Vaughters' Garmin-Slipstream squad has had it rough with injuries and illnesss for the first half of the season. Injuries to team leaders, including Christian Vande Velde's multiple fractures suffered in a stage 3 crash at the Giro d'Italia and David Millar's severe shoulder injury on the final day of Paris-Nice, have created an oddly easy environment for roster selection in April and May. 

Two amateur racers died Tuesday while on a training ride after being struck by an SUV near Tulsa, Oklahoma. Another rider was seriously injured in the crash. The driver of the SUV, 38-year-old Tausah Borland, was detained Tuesday evening on suspicion of drunk driving. She was released after posting bail of $100,000. An Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokesman told VeloNews that it could be four to five weeks before Borland's blood test results are available and county prosecutors decide whether to charge her.

Two time Tour de France champion Laurent Fignon has confirmed that he has been diagnosed with advanced intestinal cancer. “My cancer is an advanced cancer because it has metastasized,” the 48-year-old Fignon said in an interview to be broadcast on French television on Sunday. “We know for certain it’s in the pancreas and we don’t know the rest. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I am optimistic. I am going to fight and I am sure I can win the battle.” Fignon said he began treatment as soon as the diagnosis was confirmed.

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Rabobank mechanic registered one of the all-time best bike changes to keep Denis Menchov in pink in Rome

Editor's Note: Will Frischkorn is a member of the Garmin-Slipstream ProTour team and writes regular journals for VeloNews.com. Click to read Frischkorn's previous journals. Half way already?

Sylvester Szmyd is one of those riders who do all the dirty work yet rarely get the praise. The 31-year-old Polish rider toiled for years in the shadow of Damiano Cunego at Lampre before switching over to super-domestique duty at Liquigas, where he rode superbly at this year’s Giro d’Italia to help Franco Pellizotti secure his first career podium with third overall.

Christian Vande Velde, who sustained major injuries after crashing out of the Giro d’Italia in May, will compete in the 2009 Tour de Suisse later this week, Garmin-Slipstream confirmed Thursday. The Swiss tour marks Vande Velde’s return to racing following his harrowing crash in stage three of the Giro, when he suffered seven fractures, including five vertebrae, one rib and his pelvis. No surgery was necessary and the American, who finished fifth in last year’s Tour de France, was back on his bike just days after final medical examinations and has kept up the pace ever since.

It seems the on-again, off-again Lance Armstrong biopic is back on track. According to a flurry of movie-industry Web sites, Armstrong’s return to competition has put fresh legs into efforts by Hollywood producer and director Frank Marshall to create a full-length movie about the seven-time Tour de France champion’s life. According to a report on The Hollywood Reporter, Gary Ross, who penned and directed the Oscar-nominee film, “Seabiscuit,” has been hired to write a draft of an Armstrong script.

While cycling’s grand tours represent some of the best bike racing in the world, they also offer a lot of us a first-hand look at some of the best racing bikes in the world. I spent some time at this year’s Giro d’Italia and sorting through my files, I wanted to share a look at two bikes that really caught my eye in Italy last month.

David Zabriskie’s Giro TT bike

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Colavita’s Sebastien Haedo and Kristy Broun (Riverstone CDA) raced to victory in Stage 2 of the 2009 Nature Valley GP on Wednesday in the Downtown St. Paul Criterium. With plenty of fast action on the streets of St. Paul, the evening criteriums did not have a significant impact on the overall standings, with Bissel’s Tom Zirbel and Cervélo’s Kristen Armstrong holding the overall leads they first established in the opening time trial on Wednesday morning.

Trek’s development of a new TTX time trial bike could almost have been predicted: Giant, Scott, and Specialized have all engineered new TT frame platforms for their ProTour teams in the last 12 months, while Trek’s design cycle apparently remained static (at least in public). (Editor's Note: If you don't recall, click the links for articles on Giant's new bike, Scott's new bike and Specialized's new bike.)

Tom Zirbel (Bissel Pro Cycling) and Kristin Armstrong (Cervélo TestTeam) stormed over a wet, 6-mile time trial course on Wednesday to take the opening stage of the 2009 Nature Valley Grand Prix in Minnesota.

Disgraced Austrian cyclist Bernhard Kohl on Wednesday vowed to sue French sport daily L'Equipe after they published an interview with him in which he spoke about doping at the 2008 Tour de France. Kohl, who was stripped of his third-place finish and the best climber's jersey after testing positive for EPO CERA, denies claiming that the race's top 10 cyclists "could have been positive" or that it was strange that only three cyclists failed post-race drug tests.

Reigning world time trial champion Bert Grabsch (Columbia-Highroad) won Wednesday’s fourth stage at the 61st Dauphiné Libéré, while Australia Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) finished second and recaptured the overall leader’s jersey. Grabsch stopped the clock in 51 minutes, 26.48 seconds, overcoming a 12-second mid-race deficit to Evans to win by seven seconds on an undulating 42.4km course east of Valence.

Potential drugs cheats at the 2009 Tour de France will face the biggest anti-doping army ever seen at a major sports event next month, UCI president Pat McQuaid warned on Wednesday. McQuaid, speaking at an anti-doping conference in Paris, also officially welcomed the French National Anti Doping Agency (AFLD) back to the race after their muddy relationship last year.

UCI president Pat McQuaid said that Caisse d’Epargne’s Alejandro Valverde faces a worldwide two-year doping ban if the governing body acts on key evidence, which has yet to be forwarded by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI). Valverde has been effectively ruled out of this year's Tour de France after CONI recently barred him from racing in Italy for two years. CONI claims that a blood sample from Valverde, taken at Cuneo, Italy during the last year's Tour de France, matches blood samples from the Operación Puerto blood doping investigation in Spain.

The USA Cycling Junior National Team capitalized on a dominant performance in the prologue of Switzerland’s Tour du Pays de Vaud, as Nathan Brown (Covington, Tennesee/Hot Tubes) wrapped up the win in the overall classification of the four-stage race on June 7. The squad swept the prologue podium with Brown clocking the fastest time to slip into the yellow leader’s jersey. Adam Leibovitz (Indianapolis, Indiana/Nuvo Cultural) and Lawson Craddock (Houston, Texas/Hot Tubes) joined Brown on the podium in second and third, respectively.

UCI president Pat McQuaid said several riders currently under suspicion of doping will be named publicly next week, and are likely to face sanctions. McQuaid, attending an anti-doping conference in Paris on Wednesday to announce plans for the fight against doping at next month's Tour de France, would not give any details on the riders involved.

Quick Step’s Tom Boonen has been given the green light from the UCI to compete in next month's Tour de France despite a recent, second positive test for cocaine. Boonen, the winner of major one-day classics and Tour de France stages, sparked controversy last month when it was revealed he had tested positive for cocaine for the second time in a year. It led to immediate calls for him to be banned from this year's showcase event, and the UCI is set to launch disciplinary proceedings against Boonen for bringing the sport into disrepute.

Not often are the words “chain” and “condom” uttered in the same sentence, much less in the name of a bicycle product. Don’t worry, you have not inadvertently stumbled into the wrong website, nor has VeloNews.com been hijacked by an S & M fetish merchant site. But with a name like Chain Condom, we had to check it out — and it turns out to not only have a unique name, but an unusual backstory as well.

BMC's Danilo Wyss won the first stage of the Tour de Beauce on Tuesday, taking the first leader's jersey of the Canadian stage race. Early in the 165km stage, the Swiss rider and Team Type 1's Darren Lill bridged to a ten-man breakaway. In the final five kilometers, the break came apart, and Wyss took the sprint from four others. Lill was second. It was a good day for BMC, whose Chad Beyer had initiated the break. Beyer ended up with the KOM jersey and the lead in the U23 competition. Wyss also took the lead in the points competition.

Katie Compton and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski grabbed wins and big payouts at Saturday’s Teva Mountain Games cross-country race in Vail, Colorado. The June 4-7 Teva Games included the cross-country race, a road hillclimb, kayak and rock climbing competitions and other “mountain culture” events. “The Teva Games is pretty special. I won it a few years ago and told myself I wanted to come back,” said Horgan-Kobelski. “The event is well organized and a lot of people show up. It’s a national-caliber event.”

Spanish cyclist Antonio Colom has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for the banned substance EPO, the UCI revealed on Tuesday. Colom had been scheduled to race for the Katusha team in the Tour de France, which begins on July 4. The 31-year-old finished fifth in Paris-Nice in March after winning the race's final stage. Colom has been provisionally suspended ahead of a hearing with the Spanis cycling federation.

Columbia-Highroad's Ina-Yoko Teutenberg was the big winner this weekend on the NRC. The sprinter's win at the Liberty Classic moved her up from fifth to second on the women's individual rankings. Her win also contributed to the team's rise from sixth to fourth on the women's team rankings. Alison Powers remains atop the women's standings, as does her Team type 1 squad.