Road

Team Type 1's Matt Wilson will be out of competition for a couple of weeks following a training ride crash that left him with a broken wrist. Wilson was training last Wednesday on the Pacific Coast Highway with Toyota-United’s Heath Blackgrove and Hilton Clarke when the crash occurred. “We were coming up to an intersection and I didn’t see the guy in front of me stop and my bike went straight into him,” Wilson said. “It was a stupid nothing crash. I hit the ground at a bad angle and just broke it.”

The world’s premier female road racers will take to the tarmac this Monday, March 24th, for the second round of the 2008 UCI women’s World Cup, held at Italy’s famed Trofeo Alfredo Binda race, just north of Varese. The race marks the first time since 2005 that Italy has hosted a round of the women’s World Cup. The undulating 121km course includes two long and three short loops, and will run on roads just north of the route of this year's UCI world championships. The 2008 edition marks the 36th running of the Trofeo Alfredo Binda event.

It wasn’t a sprint or an attack over the Poggio that won the 99th Milan-San Remo. It was Fabian Cancellara's instinct for big drama in cycling’s biggest days.

Revising its original plan to reserve its Record Red Ergopower shifters for professionals, Campagnolo announced Thursday that it will offer a limited run of the special heavy-action shifters to the public. The pro Ergo levers incorporate stronger springs for a more tactile action. Campagnolo says that the change was made to appease elite riders who use the crisper action to “feel the shifts at the hardest moments of the race.”

The name on the team jersey is new, as are many of the riders wearing it. But the mission remains the same after nine years under the Jelly Belly banner — to provide a home for developing riders and win some key races along the way.

Agritubel went one-two in the ninth Classic Loire-Atlantique in France on Friday just a day after learning it was going back to the Tour de France. Mikel Gaztanaga, 27, slipped away in a 20km breakaway that held on until the end to keep the race trophy on the team’s shelf. Agritubel won last year with Nicolas Jalabert. Teammate Jimmy Casper came through second while Frédéric Finot (Differdange-Apiflo Vacances) took third at eight seconds adrift. Agritubel was one of three wild cards invited to the 2008 Tour. It will be the team’s third consecutive Tour appearance.

Australian rider Allan Davis, who finished second in the Tour Down Under in January, has joined Belgium's Mitsubishi team, which competes on the second-division Continental Pro circuit. Davis, 27, kicked off his professional career in 2003 under Manolo Saiz with the ONCE and then Liberty teams. Last year, the Australian rode with the now-defunct American team Discovery Channel, under whose colors he finished second at Milan-San Remo.

Fourteen junior cyclists were injured, two of them seriously, when a car plowed into their peloton during a training session Friday in Poland, police said. The youths were hit by the oncoming vehicle on a main road near Kalisz in central Poland, the home of their cycling club, KTK, local police told the country's PAP news agency.

The past week has been one Rock Racing’s Michael Ball would likely rather forget. On Tuesday the team owner and Italian star Mario Cipollini announced that they had parted ways, and on Thursday Tour de Georgia organizers Medalist Sports announced that Rock was not among the 15 teams invited to compete this year.

La Classicissimia, La Primavera – whatever you call it, Milan-San Remo is one of cycling’s most electrifying and prestigious races, one of the sport’s treasured “monuments.” Whoever wins San Remo is king of Italy for a day. Twenty-five eight-man teams line up Saturday in front of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan for the 298km run past the picturesque headlands jutting out of the Italian Riviera toward the finish in San Remo.

Shimano’s electric Dura-Ace is becoming more and more common in the ProTour peloton. Gerolsteiner rider Stefan Schumacher scored a podium placing on it at last year’s world championships. For three years now an electric prototype group has been raced in the spring classics and semi-classics. Last year it was also in cycling’s biggest show, the Tour de France.

Lausanne's Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said Thursday that it would make a judgment on the doping case involving Italian Danilo Di Luca in 10 days time. Tour of Italy champion and former Pro Tour winner Di Luca served a three-month suspension for doping at the back end of last year. He had been implicated in the 'Oil for drugs' affair, accused of using the services of a tainted Dr. Carlo Santuccione, who is suspected of supplying doping products to athletes. But Di Luca took his case to the highest appeal body in an attempt to clear his name.

Organizers on Thursday announced the 15, 8-rider teams that will compete in next month's Tour de Georgia. A total of 120 professional cyclists will compete in the 600-mile, seven-day event to be held April 21-27. The final field:

• Astana
• CSC
• Gerolsteiner
• High Road
• Saunier Duval-Scott
• BMC
• Slipstream-Chipotle
• Symmetrics
• Bissell
• GE-Marco Polo
• Health Net-Maxxis
• Jelly Belly
• Jittery Joe's
• Team Type 1

Cyclists in the now defunct Team T-Mobile "probably" took doping products under the supervision of Freiburg university doctors, according to an independent report published on Thursday. And the 23-page interim report, published by the commissioned inquiry into the doping scandal at Freiburg's University Medical Clinic, has also named two more doctors involved in the scandal. The report sheds light on the doping practices of Team T-Mobile — who changed their name from Team Telekom in 2004.

Tour de France organiser ASO on Thursday named the 20 teams it has selected for this year's race. The line-up includes the American team Slipstream-Chipotle. Team director Jonathan Vaughters said the invitation was a relief. "I found out about 5 minutes ago," Vaughters told VeloNews Thursday morning.

Milan-San Remo is the season’s first big fish and cycling’s most important one-day race for sprinters never fails to deliver one of the most exciting battles of the year. Changes in both the finish area due to work on the Via Roma and the addition of a new climb called Le Manie with about 100km to go are sure to add new drama to one of the year’s most important contests.

This year's Tirreno-Adriatico featured classic Italian scenery, a string of blistering sprint finishes, and a key 26km time trial on stage 5 that largely determined the overall win for CSC's world champion, Fabian Cancellara.

Tour de Georgia organizers on Wednesday released details of one of the most anticipated stages at this year's race — stage 4's 10-mile team time trial, to be held at Road Atlanta, a race car track 50 miles outside Atlanta. At a media event at the track, race organizers spelled out the logistics for the event: four circuits on the hilly, 12-turn track for each 8-man team. Two teams will be on the track at at a time and the team's time will be taken from the fifth team member across the line.

Generalities — I’m heading deep into them here in the coming paragraphs. That said, the differences in racing styles from one country to another are pretty entertaining. Racing styles differ dramatically, and while some countries have an “international” feel, most manage to retain their individuality pretty well, even with a chunk of the field from afar. I’ve also noticed a little parallel between racing style, and the mentality of the country behind it (Warning: BIG GENERALITIES HERE).

Quick Step is so deep in talent on its classics team it can put up a half-dozen candidates for victory. With the team’s big stars Tom Boonen and Paolo Bettini resting their guns for Saturday’s Milan-San Remo, other riders are getting a chance to step into the spotlight. Last week, it was Gert Steegmans winning two stages at Paris-Nice.

Milan-San Remo will have an extra team after all, but it won’t be Rock Racing. Just a day after Mario Cipollini cut ties with the American team, race organizers of Saturday’s “La Primavera” announced that Miche-Silver Cross would fill the final slot for the classics season opener. Rock Racing and Cipollini were hoping for a last-minute bid to start Milan-San Remo, a race Cipollini won in 2002, but race organizers opted to go with the San Marino-based continental team instead.

Mario Cipollini’s relationship with the American team Rock Racing has ended, and the Italian is quashing rumors that he might jump into this weekend’s Milan-San Remo for a different team. “Unfortunately I've had to end my relationship with the American Rock Racing team that started a few months ago,” the former world champion said Tuesday. European papers had speculated that Cipollini would join the Tinkoff Credit Systems team for Milan-San Remo, but he said he was only interested in joining a team if he could be involved with its management and development.

The International Cycling Union says it will open discipline hearings on the French cycling federation and its president for their role in the UCI's spat with Paris-Nice organizer Amaury Sport Organization. And in a press release issued Tuesday, the UCI says it will meet with teams and rider representatives on March 25th to discuss "measures appropriate to the situation."

Dear Lennard, Question for you re: forks for long head tubes. I'm 6'4" and have a Seven Axiom with a roughly 30cm head tube and a Seven rebadged Reynolds carbon fork on it. It is a bit flexy when braking while cornering and I'd like to improve that. What options are out there and how do they rate vs. each other? I know Alpha Q makes one with a steerer long enough (as seen on your bike) as does Storck, but want to understand if they are better than the Reynolds vis a vis flex/rigidity. Ted Dear Ted,

CSC's Fabian Cancellara held on to win the 43rd edition of the Tirreno-Adriatico following Tuesday's seventh and final stage. Italian Francesco Chicchi of Liquigas won the 176km run around San Benedetto del Tronto. But the 26-year-old Swiss, the current double world time-trial champion, kept hold of the leader's blue jersey and set himself up as one of the hot favorites for Saturday's Milan-San Remo.

Bobby Julich (CSC) says cycling’s peloton gets the message when it comes to the doping issue. The 36-year-old veteran believes that the majority of riders support clean racing and realize the credibility gap facing the sport as it enters a decisive season. That’s not to say everyone is happy with new demands made by anti-doping agencies.

Team High Road's Linus Gerdemann will be unable to train for one to two months, his team says, after breaking his leg in two places in a crash at Tirreno-Adriatico Sunday. The 25-year-old says he hopes to back in time for this summer's Tour de France. "I will do my very best to be back on the bike as soon as possible and I will fight to become part of the 2008 Tour de France," Gerdemann said. Following the crash Gerdemann was flown to a Hamburg hosipital, where he was treated by a team physician.

Former professional rider, team director and television commentator Frankie Andreu is directing the ZteaM under-25 racing team at June's Tour of Pennsylvania, a U25 event. ZteaM is a national cycling club supporting the growth of masters, elite, and youth cycling through club riding and racing. The group is funded by national and regional sponsors, and its own members.

When a professional bike race rolls into town, it’s not that unusual for teams to visit local schools to talk to children about cycling and encourage them to attend the upcoming races and/or compete in the kids’ race. It’s a bit more unusual, though, for them to offer free helmets to 50 children.

Flanders is hell. Flanders is beautiful. The terrain and environment are terrible for cycling: the wind howls, the roads are bumpy, cracked or cobbled, the air is damp when it isn’t raining and rarely does the sun shine. But the roads are packed with cyclists. There is a race nearly everyday somewhere in Flanders that crisscrosses the bleak open muddy farm fields. The Flandriens know, feel, and live the sport.

Dede Barry’s 2002 win in Montreal stood as America’s sole women’s road World Cup victory before Katheryn Curi-Mattis out-sprinted breakaway companion Emma Rickards to take Australia’s 2008 Geelong World Cup last month. The two attacked with 75km remaining in the 120km race, then held off a hard-charging Team High Road — looking to set up sprinter Ina Teutenburg. The finished a minute ahead of the pack in the Feb. 24 race.

Rabobank's Oscar Freire won a sprint finish to the sixth and penultimate stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico race in Italy on Monday. Freire took the 196km stage from Civitanova Marche and Castelfidaro ahead of two Italians — Filippo Pozzato and Danilo Di Luca. Fabian Cancellara of CSC retained the overall lead ahead of Tuesday's final stage.

NEWS FLASH: I put Centaur Ergopower levers on my SRAM Red-equipped bike and have been riding it happily ever since with nary a hiccup in the shifting. I have a SRAM 10-speed chain, SRAM Red chainrings, SRAM Red front derailleur, SRAM Red rear derailleur, and SRAM Red 10-speed cogset mated with the Centaur 10-speed Ergopower levers. This means that Campagnolo and SRAM 10-speed road shifters, including their bar-end models, pull almost exactly the same amount of cable with each click.

So … ?

In a hard, fast race full of attacks but few breaks, world-class German sprinter Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Team High Road) triumphed in the final stretch of the Visalia Criterium on Sunday, pulling around Brooke Miller (Team Tibco), who took second just in front of teammate and lead-out, Lauren Franges. Rounding out the top five were Canadian Anne Samplonius (Cheerwine) and Meredith Miller (Aaron’s).

Marathon cross-country specialists Thomas Dietsch (Gewiss-Bianchi) and Pia Sundstedt (Rocky Mountain) grabbed wins at the 90km UCI marathon World Cup opener in Manavgat, Turkey on Sunday. American Monique “Pua” Sawicki (Ellsworth-Topeak) finished in seventh place in the women’s race.

Starting and finishing in Nice, the riders battled the local cat 1 climbs in the final stage of the 2008 Paris-Nice.

John Murphy relied on some savvy team work by his Health Net - Maxxis team to preserve his lead in the Tour de Taiwan Sunday. Murphy and his teammates successfully defended the lead against challenges from last year's winner Team Type 1's Shawn Milne, who started the stage 9 seconds behind Murphy on the GC.

A rash of new anti-doping controls and cycling’s tightening noose around would-be cheaters is ruffling some feathers in the peloton. Riders staged a protest before the start of Sunday’s final stage at Paris-Nice for what they characterized as unfair treatment of Kevin Van Impe, a Belgian rider who was forced to give urine samples for a surprise control Saturday as he was preparing the funeral of his infant son.

Health Net-Maxxis' John Murphy held onto the overall lead and the points competition lead following Saturday's penultimate stage of the Tour de Taiwan. The stage was a 58km criterium held outside the Taipei International Bicycle Show, a major industry event. Murphy held off a challenge from last year’s winner, Shawn Milne of Team Type 1. Milne won the event last years for the Health Net team and entered Saturday's stage seven seconds behind Murphy.

Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara (Team CSC) took the overall lead at Tirreno-Adriatico after winning Sunday’s fifth stage, a 26km time trial from Macerata to Recanati. The two-time world time-trial champion finished in 33 minutes and 41 seconds, with American David Zabriskie (Slipstream-Chipotle) second at at 0:22 and Thomas L?okvist (Team High Road) third at 0:53.

Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) survived a flurry of attacks to win the 66th edition of Paris-Nice on Sunday after Luis-León Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) took the slimmest of victories in the final stage around Nice. Rebellin, who saw the leader's jersey slip away to Alberto Contador in the finale last year, was delighted to have held onto it this time around.

Tour de France organizer Amaury Sport Organization (ASO) said Sunday it would announce next week which teams it has selected for this year's race. ASO made the announcement after holding "constructive" talks with teams ahead of the final stage of Paris-Nice, which it also organises.

Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo Lifeforce) put the hurt on a world-class field of pro women Saturday, winning the 40km Yokohl Ranch Exeter Time Trial, with over four minutes separating her from second place Aussie, Alex Rhodes (Team High Road), and third place Canadian, Felicia Gomez (Aaron’s). Canadian national time trial champion Anne Samplonius (Cheerwine) came in fourth, followed by US National Team member, Katharine Carroll (Aaron’s).

Chavanel got his redemption as Gesink lost the yellow jersey to Rebellin during stage 6. Graham Watson was there to document it all.

Belgian cyclist Kevin Van Impe was taken for a routine drugs test just as he was at the crematorium filling in papers following the death of his baby son, media reported Saturday. The Quick Step rider was at Lochristi crematorium when a drugs tester turned up and demanded he provide a sample, warning that otherwise he could face a two-year suspension. "He wouldn't even come back later in the day. It was either do it right on the spot or it would be taken as if I had refused," Van Impe told Web site www.sport.be.

Italian sprint king Alessandro Petacchi gained revenge on Oscar Freire by claiming the fourth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico over 166km from Porto Recanati to Civitanova Marche on Saturday. Three days ago Petacchi was edged out by Freire in the race's opening stage. But this time the Team Milram rider turned the tables on the Spanish Rabobank leader with Italian Filippo Pozzato of Liquigas in third. Those three are the big favorites for the important Milan-San Remo classic on March 22.

Bright-eyed, 21-year-old Robert Gesink might have time on his side, but Davide Rebellin used all of the savvy of his 15-year career to snatch away the Paris-Nice yellow jersey Saturday in nail-biting sixth stage won by Sylvain Chavanel.

After a solid debut to the 2008 season, Slipstream-Chipotle can’t catch a break in Paris-Nice. Bad news keeps piling up just as the team was looking to impress ASO bosses this week and earn a ticket to the Tour de France. While optimistic it will earn an invite to July’s big dance, team insiders are hoping that Tour brass will consider the team’s strong anti-doping message and consistent early season results rather than how it’s stumbling through the season’s first major stage race.

Health Net-Maxxis rider Kyle Gritters followed course directions in Friday's Tour de Taiwan stage — even when the race officials didn’t — to win the stage. Gritters' teammate John Murphy retains the overall lead and the leads the points competition in the race, which concludes Sunday. The rolling, 127km stage was chaotic, according to team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo, due to the rainy, windy conditions. But he said things got really interesting in the latter part of the stage.

Graham Watson captured the action, including Barredo's narrow victory during stage 5 of the 2008 Paris-Nice.

Niklas Axelsson (PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni) slipped into the leader's jersey at Tirreno-Adriatico on Friday after finishing third in stage 3. Spaniard Joachim Rodriguez (Caisse d'Epargne) won the 195km leg from Gubbio to Montelupone with Italian Danilo Di Luca (Team LPR) second. An early escape by Jose Garcia Acosta (Caisse d'Epargne) and Lloyd Mondori (Ag2r) took a lead of more than eight minutes before being swept up in the final 20km.

Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) is one of those riders who can do just about anything. He chases down breakaways for the GC captains, goes on the attack to take off the pressure in the spring classics and even managed to finish 10th in last year’s Vuelta a España. Friday was payback time for the 26-year-old Barredo, who attacked late in the 172.5km fifth stage across Provence to drop the remnants of a 17-man breakaway and claim Quick Step’s third win in six days of racing at the 66th Paris-Nice.

UCI chief pat McQuaid on Friday promised to back reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador should he decide to take legal action over his exclusion from this year's race. The tour's organisers, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), ruled on February 13 that Contador's Astana team would be barred from competing in this year's race as a result of doping scandals over the past two years. But International Cycling Union (UCI) president McQuaid said the decision is unfair.

Unibet.com, the ProTour team that disintegrated last year after being barred from most events, is back, with a new name and new sponsor. The UCI has granted a one-year "wild card" license to the Swedish UCI professional continental team Cycle Collstrop, sponsored by a timber company. Last year the team was granted a ProTour license while sponsored by Unibet.com, a Swedish gambling Web site.

American Shawn Milne (Team Type 1) won Thursday's fifth stage of the Tour de Taiwan, moving into second place behind Health Net's John Murphy. It was the first professional race victory for the team. Milne won the Tour de Taiwan last year while on the Health Net team. His victory on Thursday came in a field sprint at the end of the 92-mile Hsinchu City circuit race, the event's longest stage. Murphy was sixth, while also picking up three points and a two-second time bonus for his second place in an intermediate sprint. Murphy is leading the GC and the points competition.

Graham Watson was following the tough stage 4, finishing up the infamous Mt. Ventoux.

Italian Raffaele Illiano (Diquigiovanni-Androni) won the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico on Thursday, edging out countryman Enrico Gasparotto (Barloworld) in a sprint finish. Niklas Axelsson (Diquigiovanni-Androni) was third. The trio, with German Linus Gerdemann (Team High Road) and Saunier Duval teammates Riccardo Ricco and Eros Capecchi, went clear of the peloton on the last climb of the day, about 25km from the finale of the 203km leg from Civitavecchia to Gubbio.

Robert Gesink (Rabobank) couldn’t have picked a bigger stage to announce himself to the world. Holland’s first pure climber in a generation surged into the yellow jersey after Thursday’s summit finish on Mont Ventoux in a searing attack with 5km to go that left everyone choking on his fumes — except 2007 Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto). While Evans slipped past to win the stage, Gesink proved he’ll be a man to reckon with as he took control of Paris-Nice with three tough stages to go.

The information-technology company CSC is leaving professional cycling when its contract with Riis Cycling expires at the end of this year. A company spokesman said the decision reflects a shift in priorities as CSC makes new investments to implement a long-term growth plan. "Our involvement in the sport of cycling has been a positive and productive experience," said Henrik Bo Pedersen, the CSC executive responsible for overseeing the sponsorship.

The National Race Calendar resumes this weekend with the Sequoia Cycling Classic in Central California. The town of Exeter will be the start of Saturday’s Yokohl Ranch Exeter Time Trial, a 40-kilometer out-and-back course with two significant climbs, and neighboring Visalia will host Sunday’s Visalia Criterium.

John Murphy of Health Net - Maxxis finished seventh in the third stage of the Tour of Taiwan, retaining the leader's jersey he earned earlier this week. Murphy's team said he used the climbing form developed at the Tour of California to stay within three seconds of the Australian stage winner, Peter McDonald (Drapac Porsche). McDonald moved up to second on GC, five seconds behind Murphy. Shawn Milne of Team Type 1 was third on the day and is now fourth on GC.

Titus Cycles, Inc., an Arizona high-end bicycle makers, has been purchased by Great Arizona Investments, a group that has holdings in a variety of industries. The new owners have created a business called GAI Cycles to operate Titus and any other cycling projects they enter. Titus, based in Tempe, had been owned by Vyatek Sports. The company was founded in 1991 and makes road and mountain bikes in stock and custom sizes, from aluminum, carbon and titanium. Titus CEO Pat Hus said the company has grown significantly in the last three years.

After racing the final 22 kilometers alone, off the front, Francaise des Jeux rider Philippe Gilbert crossed the finish of Omloop Het Volk last week in victory. It was the second Het Volk win for the Belgian; his first came in 2006. The 2008 win was special to two of his sponsors and was a milestone for road technology, because Gilbert crossed the line on a tubeless wheel and tire.

Finally the race to the sun presents some welcome sunshine. Graham Watson was there to capture the action.

Oscar Freire (Rabobank) proved fastest among an elite group of sprinters on Wednesday, winning the first stage of Tirreno-Adriatico. Freire won the 160km stage around Civitavecchia in 4:10:01, just nicking Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) and Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Caisse D'Epargne). The former world champion will wear the leader's blue jersey in Thursday's second stage, over 203km from from Civitavecchia to Gubbio.

Disgraced German cyclist Patrik Sinkewitz on Wednesday has denied reports claiming he made allegations about former T-Mobile teammates' doping practices to federal officers. "I did not say anything concrete on the doping practices of other riders," Sinkewitz told German tabloid Bild on Wednesday. "I do not know where this information comes from."

A Frenchman hasn’t stood atop the Paris-Nice podium since Laurent Jalabert won the last of his three straight titles in 1997. Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) promises he can restore French pride in the "Race to the Sun" after moving into the race leader’s jersey in Wednesday’s roller-coaster stage that saw Finnish rider Kjell Carlström (Liquigas) take a breakaway stage victory into St. Étienne.

Another wet day at Paris-Nice and photographer Graham Watson was there to keep track of events.

Health Net’s John Murphy moved into the overall lead at the 2008 Tour de Taiwan, solidifying his hold on the sprint jersey as well by earning sprint points and time bonuses in the 111-kilometer second stage. Murphy won the second and third intermediate sprints out on the road during a circuit race, run on a 14 km course, and finished 10th on the stage while helping teammate Kirk O’Bee to 7th on the stage. Time bonuses for the two sprints moved him ahead of previous leader Kam Po Wong of Team Hong Kong.

What can I do about foot pain while cycling?

Current and former world road champions Paolo Bettini, Tom Boonen, Igor Astarloa and Oscar Freire will be among those toeing the start line at the opening of Tirenno-Adriatico Wednesday. Aside from the rainbow stripes, these men share another trait in common: a desire to win the season’s first big one-day classic, Milan-San Remo. Other world-class sprinters slated to race T-A include CSC’s Stuart O'Grady, Milram teammates Alessandro Petacchi and Erik Zabel, and Silence-Lotto’s Robbie McEwen. The seven-day, 1122km race opens in Mar Tirreno and heads east to Mar Adriatico.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmed Tuesday that it will examine Giro d’Italia champion Danilo Di Luca's appeal against a three-month ban for his connection with a doping scandal on March 20. The rider was suspended in October 2007 for his association with Italian doctor Carlo Santuccione, the key figure in the so-called “oil for drugs” scandal, dating back to 2004. Santuccione was investigated for allegedly supplying banned substances to Italian sportsmen.

Crashes and nasty weather are turning the 66th Paris-Nice into a war of attrition as Gert Steegmans (Quick Step) sprinted to his second straight win Tuesday in an exciting, attack-riddled 201km soggy march. The big Belgian didn’t want to wait for the bunch and made easy work of a four-up sprint on a slight rise into Belleville, three seconds ahead of a 44-rider chase group that was missing several GC contenders, among them Fränk Schleck (CSC – 76th at 2:56) and Haimar Zubeldia (Euskaltel-Euskadi – 53rd at 1:15) and José Angel Gómez Marchante (Saunier Duval – abandon).

It’s not often you see Gert Steegmans first in line. Since last season, the 6-foot, 3-inch Belgian has often been second in line at Quick Step, developing into the preferred lead-out man for cycling superstar Tom Boonen. Before that, he was the pilot for Robbie McEwen at Silence-Lotto. The soft-spoken Steegmans is never one to shove his way into the limelight, but when he won Stage 2 in last year’s Tour de France, he couldn’t help but get noticed. This season, Steegmans is getting more freedom to ride for his own victories.