Road

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.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

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.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

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.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

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.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

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.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

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.

Recent word that the UCI was poised to impose an immediate change to its equipment regulations regarding aerodynamic tubing caused a small panic at this week’s Amgen Tour of California. Rumor had it that cycling’s international governing body was ready to apply rules that would have kept a significant number of time trial bikes off the starting line in Friday’s stage 6 time trial at Solvang.

Stage 5 was the longest stage, at 134 miles, and had the lowest power readings of the Tour so far.  

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

There are two bikes in the Cervélo TestTeam stable here at the Amgen Tour of California. The S2 and S3 are new aero road models and are available to consumers in 2009 and what the team is currently racing. Interestingly, none of the riders are using Cervélo’s R3 frame. Even Carlos Sastre, a R3 holdout, is competing on an aerodynamic road bike.

Garmin announces Mac compatibility

Moments before the start of stage 5 of the Amgen Tour of California on Thursday morning, Lance Armstrong was waiting to be called to the line in Visalia. He had a moment for a quick conversation about Friday’s upcoming time trial in Solvang. “So, Lance, you’ve got your stolen TT bike back. Will you be using it tomorrow?” “No, that’s too risky. We don’t know what happened to it. So I’ll be riding the replacement.” “Have you tested the new bike yet?”

There’s no better combination in bike racing than sunshine, Lance, Levi … and Mark Cavendish. While America’s two top champions are the favorites with their legions of fans all along the route of this fourth Amgen Tour of California, Columbia-High Road’s Cavendish is fast becoming a crowd favorite.

Price: $245 Sizes: 133mm length Weight: 175 grams Web site: www.fullspeedahead.com The K-Wing Aero Integrated seatpost by FSA was designed with the intention of unifying the aero seat tube standards in the industry. It is highly adjustable with carbon aero spacers and the ability to direct the saddle side to side by up to five degrees. The post is built with a carbon Kevlar composite and stainless steel hardware and weighs just 175 grams.

A steep, 200-meter rising finish at the end of Thursday’s hilly 183km second stage in the Volta ao Algarve looked tailor-made for Damiano Cunego or Alberto Contador. But those big-name riders have bigger fish to fry later this year, which opened the door for Basque sprinter Koldo Fernández to pull the double, taking the stage win and the leader’s jersey. The Euskaltel-Euskadi speedster bolted ahead of Portuguese sprinter Manuel Cardoso (Liberty Seguros) to claim his first win of the year, with Gerard Ciolek (Milram) coming through third.

The French Anti-doping Agency AFLD on Thursday handed German cyclist Stefan Schumacher a two-year ban from racing in France after failing a doping test at the 2008 Tour de France, his lawyer said. The decision issued by the AFLD applies only to events contested on French soil, said Schumacher's attorney Michael Lehner. That ruling, however, may be extended globally if the German cycling federation or the UCI pursue the case. Schumacher said he would fight the ban.

Davide Rebellin (Diquigiovanni) might want to reconsider his decision to retire at the end of this season. The veteran Italian snagged his second stage win of the week at the Ruta del Sol and almost snuck away with the overall in the fourth and final stage, a 168km leg from Torrox Costa to Antequera. Joost Posthuma (Rabobank) finished nine seconds back of the attacking Rebellin with the rest of the front pack to claim a two-second victory over Xavier Tondo (Andalucía-CajaSur) in the five-day race across Spain’s Andalucía region.

Editor's Note: Mark Johnson spent stage 4 of the Amgen Tour of California in a Garmin-Slipstream support car with team director Matt White and mechanic Tom Hopper.

Anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri said Thursday that a blood sample found in the laboratory central to the Operación Puerto scandal belongs to Alejandro Valverde. Torri made his claim following a hearing attended by the Spanish rider at the headquarters of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) in Rome. Upon Valverde’s arrival, the public prosecutor's office in Rome announced its own investigation into his actions.

By taking in more of California’s varied terrain this year, the organizers of the Amgen Tour of California have given the peloton some challenging new courses. But the downside has been the logistics. In order to include the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday, the Sierras on Wednesday and Palomar Mountain for the finale this coming Sunday, long transfers have been inserted between every stage.

We had the opportunity to review power data from three riders from the 4th stage of the Amgen Tour of California. In addition to Gustav Larsson (Saxo Bank) and Rory Sutherland (OUCH), we also reviewed the download from Liquigas' Kjell Carlstrom. The three filled different roles on Wednesday and their power data shows just what sort of effort each of those jobs requires.

Gustav Larsson

No one was surprised when former NRC champion Laura Van Gilder got the call-up at the start of the Amgen Tour of California’s Women’s Criterium in Santa Rosa on Sunday. What did come as a surprise, though, was that the 44-year-old Pennsylvania-based rider with more than 300 career wins wasn’t wearing the team kit of Juice Plus as expected, but was instead outfitted as a guest rider for the local Sugar CRM team.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Just how confident is Rabobank that its Dutch phenom will win the Amgen Tour of California’s best young rider’s competition for a third consecutive year? Consider this: the Dutch bank is sponsoring the best young rider’s competition, the leader of which wears an orange and blue near-replica of Rabobank’s team jersey. Asked about the color coordination, the 22-year-old Gesink laughed.

Even Mark Cavendish didn’t expect to win stage 5 of the Amgen Tour of California on Wednesday. “It wasn’t a stage I’d targeted,” he admitted after bringing home a furious field sprint in Clovis, just holding off Tom Boonen of Quick Step, with Saxo Bank’s J.J. Haedo in third. The field sprint meant that there were no changes in the GC, with Levi Leipheimer of Astana keeping the yellow jersey by a 24-second margin over Columbia’s Michael Rogers.