Road

After an exciting opening weekend of the classics season – with Thor Hushovd and Tom Boonen taking a pair of victories in Belgium – the hammerheads have plenty on their plates this week. The top draw for the first week of March is Monte Paschi Eroica in Italy, already considered a major event despite only its third year on the calendar. Spanish stage racing continues in the sunny south with the Vuelta a Murcia, where Denis Menchov (Rabobank) is the top name joining mostly Spanish riders in the five-day race.

The 2009 Giro d’Italia promises to be a star-studded affair, with defending Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre expecting to be one of the favorites duking it out for the maglia rosa. The Cervélo captain has some unfinished business of sorts with the Giro. Boasting podium spots in both the Tour (1st in 2008, 3rd in 2006) and Vuelta (2nd in 2005, 07 and 3rd in 2008), the Spanish climber only lacks a top three in the corsa rosa to join an elite club of grand tour podium finishers.

Among all the builders and the wide selections of material, color, construction and size at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, one common theme that I’ve noticed is a distinct respect for all-purpose, utilitarian bikes. Perhaps it’s a reaction to fuel prices during the summer, or simply an expression of the small builders’ ethic, but at least 70 percent of the builders on display are showing some variant of an urban town bike, a cargo bike or an all-purpose touring road bike.

Juan Pablo Magallanes of Mexico’s national squad won the opening stage of the Vuelta Mexico-TelMex, outsprinting his fellow breakaway companion, Francesco Rivera (Amica Chips Knauf). The two left the field early in the day, building up to a lead of 4:15 before being reeled back over the final lap of a nine-kilometer circuit in Lunes del Cerro, in the province of Oaxaca.

In Switzerland, French rider Rémi Pauriol (Cofidis) took his second win on the season ahead of veteran Davide Rebellin (Diquigiovanni) after the pair peeled away in the 178km GP Lugano. The 26-year-old Frenchman won the GP d’Ouverture Marseillaise to open the French calendar on Feb. 1 and takes a victory a month later on the opening weekend of the Swiss calendar. Last year, Rebellin finished second in the GP Lugano to Rinaldo Nocentini, but took revenge on his Italian rival by beating him for the overall at Paris-Nice two weeks later.

Greg Henderson scored a sprint victory in Sunday’s Clásica Almería in the Spanish one-day race controlled perfectly by the Columbia-Highroad team. Henderson out-kicked Graeme Brown (Rabobank) for his first win on the season while Stefano Garzelli (Acqua e Sapone) came through third out of a reduced, 35-strong front group.

Quick Step's Tom Boonen claimed his first big spring classics win of the season at the Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne semi-classic on Sunday. A former world champion, Boonen finished ahead of Columbia-High Road's sprinter Bernhard Eisel of Austria and Britain's Jeremy Hunt (Cervélo TestTeam ), who was third in a bunch sprint for the line. At Sunday's race, held over 194km, the 194-strong field stopped to pay tribute to Belgian racer Frederiek Nolf, 21, who died in his sleep at the Tour of Qatar on February 5.

One striking juxtaposition (among several) that I’ve noticed at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show this year is the use of cutting-edge modern materials and design mixed with old world craftsmanship and utilitarianism. Hand built carbon fiber bikes are dressed in fenders and racks. A hand welded single-speed town bike is built with an integrated seat mast and carbon fiber fork. No matter what the blend of exotic materials, wheels and components, the most common saddle on bikes in the show is a classic leather Brooks.

The sun is just breaking through an overcast sky on Wednesday morning in San Antonio as the Kelly Benefit/ Strategies pro team prepares for another long day on the bike. While many of the KBS racers escaped sub-freezing temperatures to spend two weeks training in the Texas Hill Country, few expected the day’s estimated high of 85-degrees. “Sunscreen, don’t forget the sunscreen,” the team’s soigneur implores.

The Astana Cycling team announced Saturday that Levi Leipheimer suffered an undisplaced fracture of the sacrum in a crash during the third stage of the Amgen Tour of California. As a result of the diagnosis, Leipheimer will not compete in next month’s edition of Paris-Nice (March 6-15) and will delay his return to cycling until March 23, when he competes in the five-day Vuelta a Castilla y León.

It was hard to believe that Alessandro Petacchi hadn’t won a stage all week during the return after a 12-year absence of the Giro di Sardegna in Italy. Was the Italian sprinter losing his touch? A day after losing his chain in the final sprint, Petacchi got his victory in the fifth and final stage to quiet the critics. The veteran Italian was able to beat back compatriot Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) to take the face-saving win. Bennati, meanwhile, winner of yesterday’s stage, sprinted to second and claimed the overall title.

Norwegian Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam) lived up to his promise to focus more on the classics this season by taking an important victory in Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad that officially opened the Belgian racing calendar. Formerly known as Het Volk, the semi-classic delivered a nail-biter to kick start the classics season as Hushovd steered clear of two late crashes to steer to victory ahead of Kevin Ista (Agritubel) with Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank) coming through third.

I came away from my first five hours at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show with more than 350 photos. OK, so only 15 percent of them are usable, but even so, the volume of eye-catching hardware on display is second to none. Most of the products on display are bicycles from small builders that show unique details, exquisite handwork, and timeless paint schemes. Yet even a multi-million dollar company like SRAM has a clever product to offer this market, which is oriented more toward singlespeeds, retro-styled road bikes and urban fixies.

With more than 100 exhibitors and a seemingly endless array of handcrafted bicycles and parts, the North American Handmade Bicycle Show feels like an oasis of optimism amid the current business climate.

Price: $230 Colors: Six colors Sizes: Small to Large Weight: 230 to 270 grams Web site: www.trialtir-usa.com LAS introduces their new top shelf helmet, the Victory. Designed with safety as the most important attribute, the Victory also excels in ventilation, fit, and style.

Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) sprinted to victory Friday at the Giro di Sardegna and overtakes the leader jersey at the end of the 147km fourth stage. Bennati darted ahead of Mirco Lorenzetto (Milram) as the pack came in for the mass sprint into Cagliari on the southern tip of the Mediterranean’s second-largest island. Overnight leader Oscar Gatto (ICS) finished out of the bonuses and slipped to second at six seconds back. Bennati is confident he can hang on for Saturday’s finale and secure the overall victory if it all comes down a sprint as expected.

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Portugal's reigning national champion Joao Cabreira was handed a two-year doping ban on Friday by the Portuguese Cycling Federation. Cabreira, a 26-year-old who won the Tour of the Algarve in 2006, was found guilty of "using a masking substance", according to the federation, prior to providing a recent sample to doping controllers.

The night before the North American Handmade Bicycle Show begins, bikes are unpacked, booths are built, and one of the newest trade shows in the country begins to take shape. Held last year in Portland, Oregon, the annual NAHBS comes to Indianapolis, Indiana, for 2009.

Dominique Rollin is expected to start Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (ex-Het Volk) this weekend in Belgium, culminating a long road that’s taken him from Canada to the most important races in Europe. The 25-year-old Canadian will be a key member of Cervélo’s spring classics squad and he’s relishing the opportunity to race the events that he dreamed about as a boy back in Montreal. Rollin should know some of the circuits well. He raced three years as an amateur at VC Roubaix and lived at the storied velodrome where Paris-Roubaix finishes each year.

The world economic crisis continues to hammer races across Europe. The latest to face difficulty covering its costs in the tough financial climate is the Volta a Catalunya, the weeklong ProTour race held each May in Spain. The race is asking Catalunya’s regional government to help cover half of the race’s 1.2 million euro budget, according to a report by the Spanish wire service EFE.

Price: $1000 Colors: Burnt Orange Sizes: 26 inch Weight: 1865 grams both wheels Web site: www.crankbrothers.com New from the Crankbrothers production line: the all-mountain Iodine wheelset.

Salt Lake City’s Deseret News has reported that police got a break in the case of David Zabriskie’s burglarized home late Tuesday. The paper reported that Salt Lake City’s Joint Criminal Apprehension Team along with the police department’s Lake Metro Gang Unit recovered one of the vehicles stolen from the house of Salt Lake resident David Zabriskie.

New Italian team ISD ended Mirco Lorenzetto’s two-day stranglehold on the Giro di Sardegna, with Oscar Gatto sprinting to victory in Thursday’s 181km third stage from Oristano to Tortoli. The hilly stage featured more than 3,000 meters of climbing, but the top teams reeled a two-man break, but not before 22 riders slipped away near the end. Giovanni Visconti led things out for his teammate Gatto to keep a lid on world champion Alessandro Ballan (Lampre), who finished second but is in good position to win the overall with two stages left.

With two victories and a second place overall at the Tour of Qatar, Heinrich Haussler is starting off his 2009 season on a winning note. Haussler – who turned 25 on Wednesday – is obviously feeling right at home at the new Cervélo TestTeam. Nickamed the “Racing Kangaroo,” Haussler’s father is German and his mother Australian. He was raised Down Under, but moved to Germany as a junior once he decided to give it a shot to race his bike professionally.

Suffering, speed and sore legs. Game on. The fans were fervent, the racing intense, and the media abundant. From Australia to Qatar to California the races were closely followed and cycling seems to be more popular than ever. For a month Mark Cavendish and I have traveled together: from hotel to hotel, from plane to plane, and from the Middle Eastern arid wind to the California rain. Our suitcases quickly became our homes on the road. We finished stages not knowing where we were ? the town was just another name and the finish line crossed another stage completed.

The much-rumored British road team is about to become a reality. The British sports channel Sky Sports will invest 30 million pounds over four years to back a British-based elite men’s pro team with the goal of winning the Tour de France by 2013. The British cycling federation, which announced the news on its web site yesterday, will manage and direct the team when it hits the road starting next season.

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One of the lingering tech questions from the Amgen Tour of California has finally been answered, at least partially. As early as the prologue, a reader wrote to inquire about Jelly Belly’s time trial bikes, which are GT-branded but not shown on the GT Bicycles Web site. The GT-sponsored team also used these frames (with a different paint scheme) last season. We finally tracked down Michael De Leon, PR and advocacy manager for the Cannondale Sports Group, to get some of the story.

Mirco Lorenzetto used to lead out Alessandro Petacchi; now he’s beating him. The Lampre sprinter dashed to his second consecutive victory in the Giro di Sardegna on Wednesday, winning stage 2 and taking the overall lead in the five-day Italian stage race. A day after beating Petacchi in Tuesday’s opener, Lorenzetto out-kicked Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) to win the 164km stage from Porto Torres to Santu Lussurgiu.

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Price: $195 to $225 Weight: 160 grams at 225mm Sizes: 27.2mm by 225 to 400mm Colors: Red, orange, blue, green, pewter, pink and black Web site: www.kenteriksen.com The Sweetpost is a new boutique seatpost from Eriksen Cycles. Based in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and established in 2006, Eriksen Cycles is a small producer of titanium bicycle frames and seatposts. [nid:88617]

A handful of Dutch reporters made the trip down to Portugal last week for the Volta ao Algarve, a small race that typically doesn’t attract much attention from the international press. This year was different because Theo Bos – the five-time world champion on the track – made his debut on the road with the Rabobank continental team. A victory in a small criterium on Feb. 15 made front-page news in the Dutch papers, but Bos had a tougher time in the hilly Algarve course against a tougher field. He abandoned in the fourth stage that featured a second-category summit finish.

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The women of ValueAct Capital are on a mission. Of course, winning races is primary. “My goal is to be one of the top three teams,” team director Lisa Hunt said at their February 10-18 training camp in Healdsburg, California. “We were top five last year. I’m confident we can be one of the top three this year.” Now in their fourth year, though, their mission has expanded. “We’re really out there to promote women’s cycling,” said Sharon Allpress, a racer on the team since 2007. “Not just to promote it, but to help it grow.”

Editor's Note: Writer/photographer Mark Johnson, who reported on his day a Garmin-Slipstream team car during stage 4 of the Tour of California, spent Sunday on Palomar Mountain in San Diego County, waiting for the final stage to come up the road.

While the Web-based cycling community was all a-Twitter over the recent theft and return of Lance Armstrong's time trial bike, another cyclist has suffered a bigger loss of personal property, but did not discover it until he returned from the recent Amgen Tour of California. Salt Lake City Police have issued an appeal for the public's help in recovering items stolen in a burglary at the home of Garmin-Slipstream’s David Zabriskie. According to police, the break-in occurred while Zabriskie was in California for the recent Amgen Tour.

Mirco Lorenzetto dashed to victory in a bunch sprint in the opening stage of the Giro di Sardegna in Italy on Tuesday. Lampre went one-two to fend off arch-rival Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) as Lorenzetto finished just ahead of teammate Enrico Gasparotto. Reigning world champion Alessandro Ballan gave a perfect lead-out to Lorenzetto to set up the victory in the 184km stage starting and finishing in Olbia. Pre-race favorite Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) came through sixth.

World Anti-Doping Agency president John Fahey on Tuesday praised Lance Armstrong's comeback and the "phenomenal" interest the U.S. cyclist generated for cycling and the campaign against cancer. Fahey, who was operated on for lung cancer in 2001, applauded Armstrong's own personal struggle against cancer and the donations the U.S. cyclist generated during his comeback from retirement at Australia's Tour Down Under last month.

Officials from the Spanish cycling federation are asking for records and test results from the recently re-opened Operación Puerto doping investigation that could lead to possible racing bans, the Spanish sports daily AS reported in its Tuesday edition. Citing unnamed sources, the paper reported that the federation requested blood test results and documentation from a Madrid court Monday. That information could be used to issue racing bans for cyclists and technical staff involved in the alleged blood-doping ring.

David Millar wants nothing more than to return to the winner’s circle in 2009. Last year, Millar was a key ingredient in Garmin-Slipstream’s successful debut on the highest international level, not only helping in the frontlines but also playing an essential backroom role in helping organize and manage the team. With Garmin-Slipstream on solid footing, the veteran Scot can return to focus on racing and getting results.

Weight or air resistance?

The Amgen Tour of California wrapped up successfully with another win for Astana’s Levi Leipheimer. Also "winning" were the spectators who were treated to both great racing and an impressive consumer expo at every stage finish. Despite nasty weather for the first three days, traffic at stage finishes was heavy, and downright crowded whenever the sun came out.

Lance Armstrong’s racing season will continue after the 2009 Tour de France. The seven-time Tour winner confirmed he will race the third Tour of Ireland Aug. 19-23 and then host the first Livestrong Global Cancer Summit in Dublin Aug. 24-26. The 37-year-old Armstrong wrapped up the Amgen Tour of California on Sunday, where he finished a solid seventh overall in support of Astana teammate and winner Levi Leipheimer.

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With two laps of the finishing circuit remaining in the penultimate stage of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California, Fränk Schleck attacked on his Specialized Tarmac SL2 — but victory eluded him. Undaunted, Schleck again took the initiative during the final stage on Palomar Mountain and then out-sprinted his lone breakaway partner, Liquigas’ Vincenzo Nibali, in a short kick to the line.

With so much racing going on in Europe at any one time, we start this new weekly feature previewing the upcoming racing action to help fans – and us – keep track of who’s going where. There’s the ProTour, the Historic calendar and the European Tour, not to mention women’s and amateur racing. For this space, we’ll keep our eye on "D," all of the above, minus the U23/amateur scene. It’s still late February, but there are plenty of races to keep things interesting. Het Volk – oops, we mean the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – opens the classics season in Belgium.

Rory Sutherland, as usual, closed out the Tour of California with a top result. Just like in the 2008 edition, Rory finished the final stage a wheel length behind George Hincapie. But this time instead of coming for the win, George and Rory were sprinting for third place just 40 seconds behind the winning duo of Frank Schleck and Vincenzo Nibali.

To win his third consecutive Amgen Tour of California, Levi Leipheimer needed every bit of help he received from his seven Astana teammates. That was emphasized on Sunday when 10 riders broke clear on the upper reaches of Palomar Mountain, and Leipheimer was the only Astana man who could follow the attacks. “But even though he was alone on Palomar,” said Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel, “I could see Levi was comfortable.”

Mavic France placed a voluntary recall on all of its front R-SYS wheels this winter and a domestic recall followed suit two weeks later. The reason for the domestic delay was the CPSC’s approval of Mavic USA’s action plan for the recall. That plan was considered voluntary, but Mavic used verbiage and took action that made is seem more serious. Mavic stated consumers should “immediately cease use” and took the added measure of shipping R-SYS owners its Aksium model, which relies on steel spokes, until the situation can be rectified.

Astana's Alberto Contador started his season out with a victory by winning Portugal's Volta ao Algarve stage race on Sunday. Contador finished in the pack — in 96th place — on the 166km stage from Vila do Obispo to Portimao. Contador finished in the same time as stage winner Henrich Haussler (Cervelo TestTeam). Contador had taken the overall lead on the strength of his second place in the stage 3 mountain top finish and then his commanding win in stage 4's 34km time trial.

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Ever since the Amgen Tour of California organizer Medalist Sports began mapping out the 2009 course about a year ago, rumors started circulating about their plan to include a climb up 5,123-foot Palomar Mountain near San Diego. The rumors about its inclusion turned to speculation about its effect when the plan was confirmed: the peloton would indeed tackle the 13-mile-long climb midway though stage 8’s 97-mile course between Rancho Bernardo and Escondido.

Ag2r-La Mondiale’s Rinaldo Nocentini scored a tough win in stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California aboard BH’s G4 Global Concept team bike on Saturday. While we don’t have the winner’s bike to profile, we did catch up with the team earlier in the week and managed to grab some shots and details about the team’s bikes, produced by Spain's Fabricante de bicicletas de Álava.

Gustav Larsson survived another fast-paced stage and finished safely ensconced in the peloton, which finished about two minutes behind the day’s winning break. Saxo Bank was represented in the break by Frank Schleck who put in a very strong attack with two laps to go on the Rose Bowl circuit in Pasadena, but came up short, taking eighth place. The action among the leading group of ten was similar to a Belgian kermesse: one attack after another.

Nine days after missing an Amgen Tour of California pre-race press conference due to a training crash, OUCH-Maxxis rider Floyd Landis met with a packed pressroom inside the Rose Bowl on Saturday. After comments by stage winner Rinaldo Nocentini and the day’s most courageous rider Christian Vande Velde, Landis filed into the cavernous pressroom. His appearance represented the first real chance most journalists in the room had to speak with the former AToC winner, since access to him before and after each stage this week has been very limited.

While the Liquigas team hasn’t had the race it might have wished for at this year’s Amgen Tour of California, it does appear to have a new bike. When questioned, Cannondale reps only acknowledged that the team has been testing prototype frames. The prototypes were created using the feedback Daniele Bennati provided after racing on a Super Six frame with custom geometry last year. That frame also served as a proving ground for Cannondale to test the use of high modulus carbon fiber, which is now found in the 2009 production model.

It can be difficult to judge just how difficult a race is until you can make a direct comparison with a previous result. That was the case Saturday, when enormous crowds, probably the biggest of the week, showed up at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to see the finale to stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California. This stage from Santa Clarita was identical to the one that George Hincapie won 12 months ago, when he covered the 89-mile course in a time of 3:50:57. This year, the time of stage winner Rinaldo Nocentini of AG2R-La Mondiale was 26 minutes faster!

New Mexico's Tour of Gila stage race will hold its 23rd edition this spring, thanks to recent donations that have offset much of an expected budget shortfall. Race director Jack Brennan told VeloNews on Saturday that the event's price list will be reduced 15 percent for all categories and the event is still searching for a title sponsor. The event will remain part of the National Racing Calendar, he said. "Although fundraising goals have not yet been fulfilled we are definitely going ahead with the 2009 event," Brennan said.

A day after being relegated to a rare second place on a summit finish, Alberto Contador turned in an authoritative time trial victory Saturday to take the overall lead at Portugal’s Volta ao Algarve. Contador beat back the likes of teammate Andreas Klöden and reigning world time trial champion Bert Grabsch (Columbia-High Road) on a fairly challenging 33.7km course in the hills along the Algarve Coast to snag his first win of the season and secure the overall leader’s jersey.

With just two days left in the nine-day Amgen Tour of California, only six of the 17 teams have won a stage. That means that 11 others are still eager to taste victory, especially those teams that have major American sponsors. Top of this list of teams is Rabobank, followed by Liquigas and Quick Step.

Giant Bicycles had something special at the Amgen Tour of California: Two teams riding a time trial bike it’s developing. This isn’t out of the ordinary, except for the fact that one of the teams has a different bike sponsor. You’ll notice that Rabobank and Columbia are on quite similarly designed bikes, but one says “Giant” on its downtube, while the other sports a “Highroad techdev” label.

Gustav Larsson placed third in Friday's stage 6 time trial in Solvang. This is one place better than his fourth place finish last year and was a full 47 seconds faster. He averaged 486 watts for just over 30 minutes. This new SRM data file also made us aware that we need to update his functional threshold power (FTP) value from the original setting of 415w. Gustav’s FTP is now set at 470 watts which is about 5 percent lower than his 30-minute power value he set Friday.

Price: $36 Sizes: About 28 servings, 125 calories per scoop Web site: www.myogenesis.net

Price: $100 Sizes: 90, 100 and 110mm Weight: 119 to 125 grams Colors: Dark gray or black Web site: www.sixsixone.com Sunline, a producer of high-end downhill components, will have a new crosscountry stem on the market beginning in April. The Sunline XC 1 stem is aesthetically similar to stems by Rotor and Thomson, which can be attributed to their machining process.

Price: $65 Colors: Carbon finish Weight: 28 grams Web site: www.arundelbike.com

Levi Leipheimer is an undemonstrative guy. So when the Astana team leader thrust up his arms and raised three fingers 10 meters before he crossed the finish line on Friday’s stage 6 of the Amgen Tour of California, that was big. The three fingers signaled his third consecutive victory in the 15-mile Solvang time trial, and it may well signal his third overall victory come Sunday night in Escondido.

Katusha’s early season haul continued Friday as Toni Colom out-kicked triple-crown winner Alberto Contador (Astana) in the final meters of a summit finish to win the stage and take the overall leader’s jersey in stage three at the Volta ao Algarve. Colom – fresh off winning the Mallorca Challenge earlier this month – had a stronger kick at the end of the steep, second-category climb up the Alto do Malhao to relegate Contador to a rare second-place on a summit finish.

Alejandro Valverde vows to race this weekend in France despite facing a possible two-year racing ban and even jail time in Italy for his alleged links to the Operación Puerto blood doping scandal. Valverde appeared before Italian authorities on Thursday, but is scheduled to race with his Caisse d’Epargne teammates in this weekend’s two-day Tour du Haut Var in France starting Saturday.

1. Francesco Chicchi Liquigas 12:00 p.m.
2. Andy Guptill Colavita/sutter Home P/b Cooking Light 12:01 p.m.
3. Jacopo Guarnieri Liquigas 12:02 p.m.
4. Freddy Rodriguez Rock Racing 12:03 p.m.
5. Alessandro Vanotti Liquigas 12:04 p.m.
6. Karl Menzies Ouch Presented By Maxxis 12:05 p.m.
7. Daniel Oss Liquigas 12:06 p.m.
8. Adam Hansen Team Columbia-High Road 12:07 p.m.
9. Carlos Sastre Candil Cervelo Test Team 12:08 p.m.
10. Jeffry Louder Bmc Racing Team 12:09 p.m.
11. Curtis Gunn Fly V Australia P/b Successful Living Foundation 12:10 p.m.
12.

No time trial is a shoo-in. Just ask Cadel Evans, who was the overwhelming favorite to depose Carlos Sastre at the Tour de France last July in the final TT at St. Amand-Montrond. The Aussie could never get his momentum going and Sastre, a modest time trialist, comfortably held on to the overall lead. Astana’s Levi Leipheimer, who’s now a superb time trialist, so he should have no problems defending his yellow jersey in Friday’s 15-mile time trial at the Amgen Tour of California. But nothing is guaranteed.