Road

Slipstream rider expected to make a full recovery with no neurological damage

Chances that Alejandro Valverde will repeat his 2006 victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège all depend on what the rain gods decide to do on Sunday. If the peloton is drenched with rain and cold, he might finish even worse than 21st as he did in Flèche Wallonne. But if benevolent skies return, like he saw with a best-ever third at Amstel Gold Race last weekend under a warm Dutch sun, he’ll be in with a shot.

Kona Bicycle has a new line of gloves with models for mountain biker, freeriders, roadies and kids. The men’s Chevron glove ($25) is intended for cross-country. It features a Chamude palm for increased durability, silicone grip finger tips for better braking control and a terry snot wipe thumb. The women’s XC glove offers an air-mesh palm with Chamude overlays for added durability and circulation, 4mm gel palm pad and gripped finger tips.

Jason Sumner and Neal Henderson touch on finding time for it all and staying competitive

Casey Gibson was at the stage 4 team time trial as Slipstream/Chipotle narrowly edged out Astana and High Road to take the day's top prize. Here's some shots of the action at the raceway.

Stage 4's team time trial featured a short, hilly, twisty course. Although race officials banned the use of time trial bikes, disc wheels and aero helmets, equipment choice was still a factor. The teams used their standard road bikes, though many used the deepest-section wheels in their inventory. Race winner Slipstream-Chipotle pushed the limits the furthest, using deep section Zipp wheels and even trying to sneak aero helmet covers past the commissaires.

Former Giro d'Italia champion Ivan Basso, suspended for his involvement in the Operacion Puerto scandal, has signed a two-year contract for 2009 and 2010 with Liquigas, the Italian team announced on Thursday. The 30-year-old Italian's two-year suspension is scheduled to end on October 24. While Basso was origianlly banned on June 15 of last year, he had already spent 243 days under suspension. That figure, however, does not include time he spent as a member of the Discovery team.

Starting the day one man down after Timmy Duggan’s frightful crash on Wednesday, an inspired Slipstream-Chipotle won the Tour de Georgia’s stage 4 team time trial Thursday at the Road Atlanta automotive raceway. Slipstream rode four laps of Road Atlanta’s rolling 2.5-mile racetrack in 19:36, 3.41 seconds faster than Astana, at an average speed of 29.14 miles per hour.

Cadel Evans almost won Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday and will line up as one of the favorites for Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but July is what’s on his mind these days. Second at Flèche, the Silence-Lotto captain said a strong performance in the Ardennes classics is just an appetizer for what he hopes are better things to come in the Tour de France.

Health-Net-Maxxis rider has been front and center for this Tour de Georgia, grabbing the KOM lead on stage 1 and figuring in a long four-man breakaway on Wednesday's stage 3. Pipp's coach Frank Overton has been sharing Pipp's wattage readings and providing VeloNews readers with some analysis after every stage. He's tickled pink that Pipp has been playing such a central role in the race.

Fairwheel Bikes makes colored hoods for recent Campagnolo and Shimano's Dura-Ace, Ultegra and 105 shift/brake levers. Hoods for SRAM levers will be available later this year. The company says the hoods are exact replacements and are available in six colors. Suggested retail is $25.

German rider Jorg Jaksche, whose one-year doping suspension ends on June 30, will give himself till July to find a new team, he told Eurosport Germany on Wednesday. The 31-year-old, who has previously ridden for Telekom (1998-2000), ONCE (2001-03), CSC (2004) and Liberty Seguros (2005-06), owned up on his own initiative to have been involved in the blood-doping network of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes though he has never failed a test.

Casey Gibson was back at work during Stage 3 of the 2008 Tour de Georgia. Here's the action from his point of view.

Highroad’s Greg Henderson went pretty quick to win Wednesday’s stage 3 sprint — 81.3 kph to be exact; that’s more than 50 mph. We were able to take a look at the maximum values on Hendy’s SRM after the stage. Assuming he was putting out his hardest effort of the race in the final sprint it took 1250 watts to win.

J.J. Haedo isn’t the only rider toughing it out at this year’s Tour of Georgia. Team Type 1’s Matt Wilson, too, has a broken wrist and is racing in a soft cast. While pain isn’t too much of a problem, the cast on his right hand and wrist doesn’t allow him enough freedom of movement to easily operate his right Double Tap shifter.

After two slight misfires, High Road’s heavy artillery got its coordinates dialed Wednesday, firing Greg Henderson into the yellow jersey with an explosive win on stage 3 of the Tour de Georgia. Toyota-United’s Ivan Dominguez, winner of stage 1, lost the leader’s jersey when he came off the group in the hilly closing circuits of Gainesville.

Stefano Garzelli (Acqua e Sapone) won stage 2 of the Giro del Trentino on Wednesday. The Italian took the 178km leg from Torbole to Torri del Benaco ahead of compatriots Mauro Finetto (CSF) and Riccardo Chiarini (LPR). Jure Colcer (LPR) took the leader’s jersey from Volodymyr Zagorodny (NGC Medical-OTC Industrial), the winner of Tuesday’s opening time trial, a 9.7km race against the clock from Arco to Riva del Garda.

Dutch phenom Marianne Vos outgunned her challengers on the painfully steep slopes of the Mur de Huy to take a repeat win at the Flèche Wallonne women’s World Cup. Vos scaled the brutal kilometer-long pitch the fastest, dropping Marta Bastionelli (Italian National), Judith Arndt (High Road) and three-time winner Nicole Cooke (Great Britain) near the summit to take the fourth World Cup round of 2008. The victory was reminiscent of her 2007 victory, which saw Vos ride a tiring Cooke up the 25 percent pitch, then sprint to victory in the closing meters.

Sea Otter is over, but this year’s expo was bigger than ever and the overflow of what we saw there can and will go on for the rest of the week. In this edition we’ll look at brakes from Magura, Ridley frames, Rotor cranks and accessories from Lezyne.

SRAM trickles down its technologies rather quickly. It was two years ago that the company launched its road line at the Sea Otter Classic. That initial introduction included both the Force and Rival groups. Early last fall at the Eurobike tradeshow, SRAM unveiled Red. And now SRAM introduced improved Force and Rival groups, by incorporating the most pertinent shifting technologies of the Red group; namely Zero Loss and its adjustable reach levers.

It was a mur too far for Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) as Kim Kirchen (High Road) sprang past the attacking Australian on the final ramps of the knee-busting steeps up the Mur de Huy on Wednesday to win a wet and wild Flèche Wallonne.

Cycling dynasties are built around one or two leaders and a team of domestiques who are willing to pedal to the death for their leader. Faema, Molteni, Flandria, La Vie Claire, Systeme U, Banesto, ONCE, U.S. Postal all became dynasties, not only because had leaders who could win the biggest events but also because those teams included a core of riders who were strong enough to perform but sacrificed their own chances for the leader and, above all, for the team.

Joy Industrial's Novatec hubs may become a popular item among wheelbuilders, because they allow relatively easy swaps between four different front hub/fork drop out standards. Riders with multiple wheels and forks in their garages also might find these hubs convenient. The 4in1 front hubs can interchange — without tools — to fit standard quick releases, or 9mm, 15mm or 20mm thru axles.

Eyebrows, and a few voices, were raised at the conclusion of stage 2 of the Tour de Georgia Tuesday when race officials announced that they had awarded the day’s most aggressive rider prize to G.E.-Marco Polo’s Rhys Pollock rather than Toyota-United’s Justin England.

What kind of power did it take for Health Net-Maxxis rider Frank Pipp to win the KOM jersey in stage 2 of the Tour of Georgia? According to his coach, Frank Overton, it took 874 watts or 12.5 watts/kg for 30 seconds. "Pipp jumped 100 meters before a 90-degree left hand turn (12 secs @ 948w) then gave it full gas for 873 watts for the next 15 seconds, accelerating all the way to the line, " Overton said.

Our man on the ground, Casey Gibson, was following stage two of the 2008 Tour de Georgia. Here's what he saw.

You don’t need to tell J.J. Haedo to harden up — he’s tough enough; he’s racing in Georgia with a broken wrist. He’s got a little extra tape on his bars to soften the ride as well as on his wrist as a brace, but that’s it. He’s a tough guy. As for his bike, it’s a pretty standard issue. VeloNewsTechnical Editor Matt Pacocha checked it out Tuesday.

Domestic team Bissell opened up its caravan vehicle passenger seat to VeloNews during stage 2 of the Tour de Georgia. And with four and a half hours of racing, there was plenty of time for small talk with team director Glen Mitchell. Mitchell, a two-time member of New Zealand Olympic teams, spent much of his career riding for North American teams, including Navigators Insurance, Sierra Nevada and Priority Health, before retiring in 2006. Last year he took a position behind the wheel at Priority Health, which became Bissell in 2008.

Four weeks ago J.J. Haedo was out motorpacing in Girona when a dog darted in front of his friend’s motorcycle. The driver hit the brakes; Haedo hit the motorcycle and broke his hand. After an initial X-ray failed to reveal any breakage, Haedo continued to ride for a week, even starting Castilla y Leon. “I tried to race,” he said. “I did the prologue, but on the next day I had to pull out because there was too much pain.”

The Italian Olympic Committee’s appeal of a decision to exonerate Alessandro Petacchi of a doping charge is weighing on the sprint king’s mind. Petacchi continues to ride while the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) considers the case, and won two stages at the Tour of Turkey recently. But he says the doping case is getting to him. Petacchi returned a “non-negative” test for elevated levels of salbutamol last season. It's a drug used by asthma sufferers and Petacchi has clearance to take it.

A tender hand didn’t slow CSC’s J.J. Haedo in the sprint finale of the second stage of the Tour de Georgia. Haedo took a convincing win in Augusta ahead of High Road’s Greg Henderson, stage 1 winner Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United) and Tyler Farrar (Slipstream-Chipotle). Just a week out of a cast, Haedo is riding Georgia with his left hand heavily taped. Tuesday’s flat to rolling stage from Statesboro concluded after two, 5-mile laps of Augusta that ventured across the Savannah River into South Carolina.

Look no further than the results sheet from Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race to see who’ll be bucking for the win in Wednesday’s mid-week classic at 72nd Flèche Wallonne. With the menacing wall at the Mur de Huy waiting at the end of the 10-climb, 199.5km course, the punchy climbers who shined on the Cauberg will be looking to hit the repeat button.

People constantly ask me, “What do you see as the next big innovation coming with road bikes?” Their eyes tend to glaze over if I reply with any of the incremental improvements that every bike show or exhibition, like last week’s Sea Otter, is rife with. A new oversized bottom bracket standard will only briefly hold their interest. No, they want the goods, the “Next Big Thing.” It looks like the third coming of electronic shifting may be here soon, so mentioning that will no longer placate them. But what else is coming around the bend?

Kenda showed a 650B (also known as 27.5-inch) John Tomac Nevegal at the Taipei Cycle show last month. The company showed the new tire diameter in a 2.35-inch width and said a 2.1-inch width will be available soon. The diameter splits the difference between traditional 26-inch mountain bike sizes and the fast growing 29-inch hoops, said Kenda's Jim Wannamaker. "From a design standpoint, this new wheel size makes sense. It allows a bigger wheel to be

Health Net-Maxxis rider Phil Zajicek was unable to return to racing that the Tour de Georgia this week because the UCI has yet to approve his use of the medications he takes to treat Crohn's disease. The medications that Zajicek is taking to help control his Crohn’s are approved for use outside of competition, according to his team. However, they require an exception from the UCI for in-competition use. His roster spot for the Tour de Georgia will be taken by veteran Kirk O’Bee.

Rather than sitting on their hands after a couple of years of furious product development, SRAM engineers have been hard at work coming up with more new stuff for road, mountain and triathlon bikes.

Avid Elixir

A fast start to the 2008 Tour de Georgia saw Ivan Dominguez take the first stage sprint into Savannah. Casey Gibson was there to catch the riders en route.

One of the most interesting moments of the Tour de Georgia’s opening stage developed midway through the race, when two former overall winners, Chris Horner and Tom Danielson, jumped into a 13-man breakaway following the second intermediate sprint. Also in the breakaway were CSC’s Bobby Julich and Rock Racing’s Victor Hugo Peña. And while Horner is clearly in Georgia to ride for Astana team leader Levi Leipheimer, Danielson, who has been nursing a herniated L5 vertebra tracing back to the opening stage of the 2007 Vuelta España, entered the race as an unknown factor.

Ivan Dominguez won stage 1 of the 2008 Tour of Georgia on a unique bike, built with Fuji’s Aloha CF1 carbon fiber time-trial frame mated to the brand’s standard FC-330 road fork. VeloNews technical editor Matt Pacocha managed to check out the bike before Dominguez launched it to victory.

The sixth Tour de Georgia began Monday with a short and — for Toyota-United — sweet stage from Tybee Island into Savannah. Ivan Dominguez battled his way through the well-orchestrated lead-outs of Gerolsteiner and High Road to take a commanding sprint win on the 70.4-mile flat stage ahead of Jelly Belly’s Nic Sanderson and Gerolsteiner’s Robert Förster.

This week coach Frank Overton will be analyzing the power readings from Health Net-Maxxis rider Frank Pipp, as he competes in the Tour de Georgia. VeloNews will be sharing Pipp's SRM power files and Overton's analysis after each stage. Those interested in seeing the complete power files can download them from Fascatcoaching.com. What follows is Overton's preview of the race. -- Editor

Spain's 2007 Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is to reappear in the Criterium du Dauphine on June 8 he announced on Monday. The 25-year-old, who has been controversially barred from this year's Tour de France because his Astana team were not invited by the organisers, has been out of action since winning the Tour of the Basque Country on April 12. Contador, who took a week's rest after his victory, explained that while he had resumed training he has been taking antibiotics for the toothache that plagued him during the Tout of the Basque Country.

Racers, dignitaries and the media mingled on Sunday during the kickoff press conference for the 2008 Tour de Georgia, held at The Mulberry Inn in downtown Savannah. Our man Casey Gibson was there with cameras clicking; here's what he sent home.

Nothing was going to spoil Damiano Cunego’s good mood after winning in Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race. Not even a journalist asking him if he still believes he can be a GC threat in grand tours. In fact, it’s the question that perhaps Cunego is better suited to the classics than three-week tours that sometimes irks Italy’s “Little Prince.” Despite some hiccups since his breakthrough 2004 Giro d’Italia victory, he’s never lost faith that he can shine in both.

Fox has a slew of improvements to its product line for 2009, but two stand apart: A remote lockout for the F80, 100, 120 RL forks and a new thru-axle standard called 15QR, which is an option for all of its 32mm stanchion forks.

The Everti 29R is a hardtail titanium 29er frame, designed and built in British Columbia. Kurt Knock of Everti said the frame has been in development for about a year. It features 3/2.5 titanium, with double-butted top and seat tubes, and straight-gauge elsewhere. The downtube is oversized and ovalized at the head tube, and the head tube is longer than most 29ers to distribute the extra stress created by a longer fork, Knock said. The frame also features a mini-gusset at the head tube/downtube juncture and full length cable housing.

Technical writer Lennard Zinn is canvassing Sea Otter for tidbits — today he comes back with (among other things), three different ways on one team to devise a 2X9 system on a cross country bike.

Julien Absalon can cross Houffalize off his list. Before his victory at Sunday’s World Cup opener in Belgium, the Frenchman had won on every classic World Cup course save this one. In 2007 he came close, but had to settle for second behind a streaking Jose Antonio Hermida.

It might surprise you to find out just what it takes to build a one-off bike. Travis Brown can sure tell you. The Trek test rider and product developer lost one after last year’s early fall single-speed world championships. Trek built Brown a custom polished one of a kind 69er single speed for the event in September. After a pre-ride, derby and race, Brown UPS’d his bike back to the U.S. and the men in brown promptly lost it.

The Cauberg climb was the scene of a stunning finale Sunday of a wild, action-packed Amstel Gold Race that saw Damiano Cunego (Lampre) score a huge victory against the attacking Frank Schleck (CSC). Realizing his only shot against faster rivals such as Cunego and third-place finisher Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) was to attack, the Luxembourger surged away with a vengeance with 500 meters to go to drop everyone out an elite group of nine riders except Cunego. Schleck’s raid almost worked, but Italy’s “Little Prince” had another ending in mind.

Two of Italy’s biggest stars are on the mend and hope to be back at their best in time for major upcoming goals. Two-time world champ Paolo Bettini is skipping both Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallone due to a broken rib suffered in last week’s Vuelta al País Vasco while Daniele Bennati will finally make his debut with Liquigas following a lengthy recovery from a knee injury.

Powerful gusting winds didn’t sway 19-year-old Tiffany Cromwell (Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home) or Michael Grabinger (Successful Living), who took NRC victories on the Laguna Seca Raceway Saturday at the Sea Otter Classic. The men’s and women’s events played out very differently. Cromwell rode solo off the front of a break for the final few laps. Grabinger, however, made it into an unusual four-man breakaway with two teammates and David Clinger (Rock Racing). The men lapped the field — twice — before Successful Living lined up a leadout in the stiff crosswind.

Anna Milkowski is a member of Team Advil-Chapstick. This diary entry was completed a few hours after she won the 2008 Tour of the Battenkill Valley in New York — Editor Redlands exists as a haze — a temporary exchange of lobster gloves and neoprene flippers for sunscreen and swimming pools — then a quick return to winter. The experience hinted I had survived this challenging winter of indoor riding and even a yard-sale crash on black ice, but the season began for real today with the Battenkill Roubaix in Salem, New York.

Near-record setting temperatures sent dust, gravel and rocks flying at the Tour of the Battenkill Valley on Saturday, but racers from the Great White North, perhaps the least adjusted to the heat, managed to dominate the event. Bruno Langlois, racing for Team Volkswagen, pipped five-time Canadian national champion Mark Walters (Team R.A.C.E.), following an 82-mile event that sent racers over a combination of dirt and paved roads in a quiet corner of New York State.

The list of favorites for Sunday's Amstel Gold Race seems nearly as long as the number of years the race has been held: 43. For the first time in more than a decade, neither one of Holland’s eternal favorites for Amstel Gold — Erik Dekker or Michael Boogerd — can be counted on to carry national pride. Each won Amstel once, beating Lance Armstrong each time in what was one of the biggest wins in each of their respective careers.

Team Type 1 Sets Sights On A Stage Win In Georgia Tybee Island, Ga. — Team Type 1 brings an arsenal to the Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T that is equipped to deliver a stage win during the seven-day, 590-mile (949.5 km) race that begins Monday. Team Type 1’s roster for the race will be Emile Abraham (TRI), Moises Aldape (MEX), Fabio Calabria (AUS), Glen Chadwick (AUS), Chris Jones (USA), Valeriy Kobzarenko (UKR), Ian MacGregor (USA) and Matt Wilson (AUS).

As the Sea Otter Classic swings into full force in addition to people pouring in for the festival and the races kicking into gear, there proved to be no shortage of new stuff to see. The weather is holding, which is always a question in April on the Monterey Peninsula, so without further ado let us dive right into it.

Dotsie Bausch (Colavita/Sutter Home) and Ruth Clemence (Simple Green) outkicked the women's pro field with two laps to go in the road race before battling each other in a power struggle all the way to the finish. The 20-women field stayed tightly packed for most of the race until a restless Clemence made a move, bringing Bausch with her. "I tried to attack on a hill to break things up and we just stayed away," Clemence said.

Giant Bicycles gets to add one more Super D win to go with the two it picked up last year in the debut event at the Sea Otter Classic. Carl Decker succeeded in overpowering former World Cup downhill pro Jurgen Beneke (Marin/Mercury Rev) on a short climb near the top and managed to stay away from Beneke for the remainder of the three-mile race. "I wanted to be up over the top before Jurgen, who is very strong in the downhill," said Decker.

With no individual time trial and a trip planned up the steep Brasstown Bald mountain, the seven-day 2008 Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T, appears to be a climber’s race. Odds-on race favorites include 2006 overall winner Tom Danielson (Slipstream-Chipotle), Astana’s U.S. national champion Levi Leipheimer and Rock Racing’s Spanish climbing sensation Oscar Sevilla.

Rock Racing team owner Michael Ball said Friday that his team earned an invite to the Tour de Georgia based on just one simple condition. "They said, 'can you conduct yourselves in a way that doesn't freak us out?' " Ball said in a conference call with reporters. He said that at Georgia he will not be accompanied by the Hollywood-style entourage that followed him at the Amgen Tour of California. He also said the team would not bring podium girl models to Georgia, although he said that's because the models were unavailable, not because of his promise to avoid freaking anyone out.

Click here for complete Tour de Georgia coverage Monday, April 21, stage 1 — The race will make its first ever visit to the seacoast when it starts at Tybee Island. The 71.8-mile stage passes through the coastal lowcountry, with several intermediate sprints before the finish in Savannah. The race has not visited the historic city since it hosted the prologue in 2003.

In addition to race reports, analysis and video clips from the start and finish of each stage, VeloNews.com will provide daily Live coverage from the Tour de Georgia. The Tour de Georgia Web site will host an Adobe Tour Tracker for live GPS tracking, standings, photo galleries, and chat during each stage. Additionally, video coverage will be webcast daily, on wcsn.com in the United States and cycling.tv outside the United States. Steve Schlanger and Nathan O'Neil will commentate the webcasts.

Click here for full Tour de Georgia Coverage Astana (Luxembourg) 2. Chris Horner (USA) 3. Levi Leipheimer (USA) 4. Antonio Colom (Sp) 5. Roman Kireyev (Kaz) 6. Michael Schar (Swi) 7. Aaron Kemps (Aus) 8. Andrey Mizurov (Kaz) 9. José Luis Rubiera (Sp) Team directors: Viatcheslav Ekimov, Alexandr Shefer Team CSC (Denmark) 11. Bobby Julich (USA) 12. Bradley McGee (Aus) 13. Iñigo Cuesta (Sp) 14. Jason McCartney (USA) 15. Anders Lund (Dk) 16. Juan Jose Haedo (Arg) 17. Lasse Bochman (Dk)

Trek development rider Travis Brown was at the Trek team truck at the Sea Otter Classic sporting a never-before-seen set of white and red Bontrager mountain bike shoes. The shoes have a large RXL logo on the middle strap that threw many for a loop. "People keep asking me if they’re from Polo Sport," said Brown. Ralph Lauren was a common sight at Sea Otter in previous years with his now dissolved RLX Polo Sport mountain bike team.

These days, power is getting all the press. With all the power measuring gizmos and fancy analysis software, power has taken over as the main parameter to track. It’s absolutely absolute. It’s like having a dynamometer on your dashboard, measuring your horsepower in real time. Indeed, power is a powerful number, but it’s not the only number that counts. There’s more than one gauge on the dashboard and they are all important.

With the world’s best racers descending upon Houffalize, Belgium, for the World Cup opener, the Sea Otter Classic needed to supplement this year’s world class downhill races with something extra to keep the event growing. For the Sea Otter, now in its 18th year, the answer was to bolster the festival and promote the tradeshow aspect of the event. It’s a trend that has been building for the last few years as more and more manufacturers are using the Sea Otter as a launching point for new product coming down the pike.

A Nevada court has delayed ruling on a request by the owners of Lew Racing to bar competitor Edge Composites from displaying or selling products that Lew alleges were made using a “secret process” it developed.

High Road's Edvald Boasson Hagen won in a sprint between four breakaway companions to prevail in the GP Denain on Thursday. The 20-year-old Hagen took a commanding win over AG2R's Jimmy Casper and Credit Agricole's Jimmy Engoulvent. FDJ's Fredric Guesdon trailed by 10 seconds. Hagen was part of a day-long break of 15 that was then whittled down to six riders on the last lap.

Most of the Graham Watson photos you see in VeloNews and on VeloNews.com illustrate the race action and, of course, the classic victory shots. His photos of the spring classic atmosphere are less often seen. Here's a selection of his atmosphere shots from this years Tour of Flanders, Ghent-Wevelgem, and Wallers-Arenberg.

Last year, the women’s world championship road race covered 172 kilometers, a distance that stirred little comment. With that in mind, it may be difficult to recall that as recently as 1990 a proposed 129km women’s road race was deemed “excessive” by the sport’s international governing body, which refused to sanction it. That race, and the 16 other stages surrounding it, not to mention the 22,000 feet the stages climbed and the 1067km (663 miles) they covered, took place anyway.

High Road's Mark Cavendish won the 207km Grand Prix de l'Escaut (also known as the Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen) for the second successive year on Wednesday just ahead of top sprinters Tom Boonen of Belgium and Australia's Robbie McEwen. Germany's Eric Zabel took fourth place but it needed a photo-finish to separate Cavendish and former world road race champion Boonen.

Chris Horner thought he was trading up when he left his role of helping Cadel Evans at Lotto to ride in support of Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer at Astana. Exclusions from many of the season’s biggest races, however, could mean Horner will miss the Tour de France for the first time in four years. Instead of riding up l’Alpe d’Huez come July, he’ll likely be at the Cascade Classic.

The Italian Olympic Committee’s court of last instance acquitted defending Giro d’Italia champion Danilo Di Luca of doping charges on Wednesday. Prosecutors representing the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) had been seeking a two-year suspension for Di Luca after he returned an “anomalous sample” following the 17th stage of last year's Giro in May. Had he been found guilty of a violation, his Giro title, too, would have been negated.

The Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) court of appeals on Wednesday acquitted cyclist Danilo Di Luca on doping charges which, had he been found guity, would have brought a two-year ban. Coni had requested a two-year suspension for the former ProTour champion after he returned an anomalous sample following the 17th stage of last year's Tour of Italy in May. Check back soon for more details

Your tax refund is in the mail, spring is finally here, and the first quarter of the 2008 racing season is finished. Now is a good time to check on your progress and move your nutritional goals up on the priority list to ensure that they are receiving the proper focus. While you may have completed some early season races, chances are that you are building to more important races that take place in the next few months.

Weigh your body-composition goals