Road

J.R. Grabinger (Fly V Australia p/b Successful Living) and Janel Holcomb (Webcor Builders) lead the 23rd annual Tucson Bicycle Classic going into stage 3, the Speedway/Anklam Circuit Race. Grabinger holds a 12-second lead on overall runner-up Michael Mathis (CRCA-Empire Cycling Team) with Caleb Fairly (Felt-Holowesko-Garmin) third at 14 seconds. In women’s racing, Holcomb sits just six seconds up on Melissa McWhirter (Veloforma) with Webcor teammate Rebecca Much third at 11 seconds.

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Tecos' Florencio Ramos won stage of la Vuelta Mexico on Saturday, while Team Type 1's Shawn Milne was second and Jackson Rodriguez (Serramenti PVC) continued to lead the general classification. Americans featured in the day's key breakaway and remain atop the sprint and U23 competition leader boards.

Spanish rider Rubén Plaza (Liberty Seguros) won Saturday’s “etapa reina” climbing stage at the Vuelta a Murcia in Spain and Denis Menchov (Rabobank) surged into the overall lead. Plaza was first out of a group of 10 riders that pulled clear after topping over the Cat. 1 Collado Bermejo some 22km from the finish line in Alhama de Murcia. Coming through second was Jesús Herrada (Contentpolis) while Menchov crossed the line third in the 156km fourth stage.

Italian sprinter Danilo Napolitano shot to another victory for his Katusha team after taking the flowers Saturday in the second stage at the Three Days of West Flanders in Belgium. The stocky Italian won ahead of last year’s winner Bobby Traksel (Vacansoleil) while French rider Denis Flahaut (Landbouwkrediet) came through third in the 179.3km stage from Torhout to Handzame. “My teammates did a very good job today,” said Napolitano. “We always ride in the first position and in the final 5km, we took control of the head of the group. I won the sprint even for a little.”

Swedish rider Thomas Lövkvist (Columbia-Highroad) bolted home to victory in the 3rd Monte Paschi Strade Bianche Toscana on Saturday as foreign riders dominated the popular one-day race on gravel roads across Tuscany. Coming through second was German Fabian Wegmann (Milram) at four seconds back with Swiss rider Martin Elmiger (Ag2r-La Mondiale) completing the podium with third.

Alberto Contador says he’s quietly optimistic ahead of Paris-Nice, which begins Sunday with an individual time trial in Amilly. Contador, already a winner at the Volta ao Algarve in his first race of the 2009 season last month, said he hopes to be among the best. “I am not obsessed with winning, because for this time happen everything has to go the right way,” Contador said in an interview released by his press agent. “My idea is to do the best possible and I believe the fans understand this.”

Cameron Evans (OUCH Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis) won a three-up sprint to take the victory at the end of Stage 6 of la Vuelta Mexico. The rolling, 190 km stage saw a break succeed for the third consecutive day. And for the third consecutive day, an OUCH rider made the most of it. “We knew a break had a good shot to stay away to the finish,” Evans said. “We wanted to make sure we had a guy in every move.”

The UCI and the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) reached an agreement on Friday regarding drug-testing measures in the Paris-Nice stage race, which starts on Sunday. "There was a strong desire on both sides to work together," UCI president Pat McQuaid said. AFLD president Pierre Bordry, who declared himself "very satisfied" with the agreement, said the drug-testing program for the Paris-Nice would serve as a test prior to a new collaboration between the two bodies during the 2009 Tour de France.

I got involved with Diabetes Training Camps about three years ago. I’ve been to seven camps since then. I just wrapped up a camp in Tucson with the Triabetes group, which was a departure from the other camps I’ve done in that all the diabetic campers were training for the same goal, an ambitious one, to complete the Ironman in Phoenix in November ’09. All the campers have type one diabetes.

Johnny Hoogerland delivered his Vacansoleil team a victory in the opening stage of the Three Days of West Flanders on Friday. The 25-year-old Dutchman finished ahead of his teammate Jens Mouris as Agritubel’s Kevin Ista came through third in the 176.4km stage from Kortrijk to Bellegem. Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step), winner of the GP Le Samyn on Wednesday, finished out of the podium in ninth. Hoogerland, who finished fifth at the GP Marseillaise and fourth overall at the Etoile de Bessèges to open the season, carries the leader’s jersey into Saturday’s second stage.

Columbia-Highroad’s romp through the opening weeks of 2009 continues.   This time with Frantisek Rabon, who took a surprise victory in Friday’s 16km time trial at the third stage of the Vuelta a Murcia in Spain.  

The 23rd annual Tucson Bicycle Classic gets under way Friday for what should be a sun-splashed weekend of road racing in southern Arizona. Racing begins with the Old Tucson/McCain Loop Time Trial. The course uses a 3-mile stretch of freshly paved road, beginning with gentle rollers leading to a 5 percent climb, then serving up more rollers followed by a 6 percent-plus climb to the finish.

Rock Racing’s David Vitoria rode to his second straight stage win and donned the King of the Mountains jersey Thursday following the fifth stage of the Vuelta Mexico Telmex. Meanwhile Jackson Rodriguez (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni) took over the overall leadership of the race, displacing his teammate Gilberto Simoni.

German cyclist Stefan Schumacher was on Friday banned from racing anywhere in the world by the sport's governing body, the UCI. Schumacher was suspended by French anti-doping agency AFLD from racing in France last month after failing an anti-doping test at the 2008 Tour de France. That penalty, however, has now been extended beyond France's borders. The 27-year-old, sacked from the now defunct Gerolsteiner team, tested positive for banned blood booster CERA, a modern variant of EPO once thought to be undetectable.

Most observers expect Alberto Contador to ride away with the victory at the 67th Paris-Nice, which begins Sunday with a time trial in Amilly. The Spanish climber, who won Paris-Nice as part of his breakout 2007 season, is the five-star favorite following his victory at the Volta ao Algarve to start his season last month. But expectations aside, the eight-day “Race to the Sun” is known to deliver a surprise or two in what’s the season’s first major stage race. There will be plenty of challengers nipping at Astana’s heels among the 20-team field.

Ryder Hesjedal almost rode away with last year’s Monte Paschi Eroica, the new but already wildly popular semi-classic over the dirt roads of Tuscany. The 28-year-old Canadian attacked out of a leading breakaway and was only caught with less than 10km from the line by eventual winner Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) and runner-up Alessandro Ballan (Lampre). Hesjedal will be back with a strong Garmin-Slipstream team to tackle the 190km course littered with dusty sectors of the famous “strade bianche” – or white roads.

Fuji-Servetto will be heading to Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo, but not Paris-Nice. That’s what the Court of Arbitration in Sport ruled Friday in an interim decision that the Spain-based team will be allowed to start the two upcoming Italian races, but stopped short of allowing the team to race at Paris-Nice, slated to start Sunday. Fuji-Servetto is the new name for the troubled Saunier Duval team that last year saw two of its star riders – Riccardo Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli – to test positive for the banned blood booster CERA.

Heavy winds wreaked havoc in Thursday’s second stage at the Vuelta a Murcia in Spain, prompting officials to cut the distance and then halt the race due to blustery weather. Dangerous winds topping 80kph before the race started prompted race organizers to trim the distance by nearly 75km and eliminate the day’s main obstacle at the Cat. 1 Alto de San Juan.