For a guy who would rather be somewhere else, Thor Hushovd is making the most of a bad situation. The Crédit Agricole fast man surged to an impressive victory in Sunday’s prologue and then sprinted to third in Monday’s first stage to retain his grip on the race leader’s yellow jersey. Not bad for a guy who’d rather be in Italy.
Dear Lennard,
In a recent article you make mention of the fact that you do not use adhesive tapes, like that produced by Tufo, on tubular wheels, preferring instead to use the old system of building up with glue.
Three-time world time trial champion Michael Rogers will be out of competition for at least eight weeks as he recovers from Epstein Barr Virus, his team announced Monday. Team High Road physicians and Rogers' personal doctors confirmed the diagnosis. It is the second time the Australian has had the virus. Rogers plans to rest completely for at least four weeks, the team said. Rogers has not felt strong since last fall, said his agent, Paul DeGuyter.
Paris-Nice organizers shortened Monday's stage 1 due to heavy rain and wind, but the result was one of the most exciting days in years. When the race hit the crosswinds, echelons formed and some favorites risked getting knocked out of contention. In the end, most of them caught back on to the front group and even race leader Thor Hushovd, who had been dropped on the days only climb, caught the front group and finished third to retain his yellow jersey. Graham Watson captured the stage and shared his gallery with VeloNews readers.
On a stage dominated by local riders, Health Net-Maxxis’s John Murphy took the green jersey and sits second overall after the first stage of the Tour of Taiwan. Besides Health Net, the other American team in the race is Team Type 1. Their top rider after the first stage was Emile Abraham in 25th.
One of the worst winter storms of the year ripped across central France on Monday and left the Paris-Nice peloton looking like shredded wheat in a brutal, weather-shortened first stage. Only a Belgian could be happy racing in howling crosswinds, piercing rain and plummeting temperatures, so it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise as Tom Boonen’s favorite lead-out man, Gert Steegmans, out-toughed a reduced bunch in a 40-up sprint on a steep climbing finish into Nevers to claim victory.
welcome to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 1st stage of the 66th edition of "The Race to the Sun," Paris-Nice.
Bobbie Traksel (P3 Transfer) won the Three Days of West Flanders on Sunday after claiming victory in the third and final stage, a 186km leg beginning and ending in Ichtegem. The 26-year-old Netherlander took the final overall four seconds ahead of Belgian Niko Eeckhout (Topsport Vlaanderen) and 15 ahead of Russian Serguei Ivanov (Astana).
German prosecutors are reportedly prepared to drop charges against Jan Ullrich if the fallen cycling star cooperates with a doping inquiry and pays a one million euro fine. The report, which appears in Monday's edition of Focus magazine, suggests the tribunal in Bonn handling Ullrich's case is set to present this deal to the former T-Mobile rider's lawyers.
If it’s short, fast and flat, chances are good that Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricole) will be among the favorites in any opening prologue. The 30-year-old Norwegian sprinter confirmed he’s one of the peloton’s best “short course” time trial specialists Sunday with a solid four-second victory in the wet and windy 4.6km opener at the 66th Paris-Nice.
Paris-Nice used to be cycling’s sparkling season kickoff, a chance for the sport to shake off the winter doldrums and click fully into gear for the year’s first major stage race. The once shining “Race to the Sun” has since been transformed into the sport’s major battleground in the ugly, drawn-out power struggle between cycling’s governing body and the sport’s preeminent race organizer, Amaury Sport Organisation. At the dawn of Sunday’s prologue start of the 66th edition, the UCI and ASO are showing no signs of a last-minute cease-fire.
CSC's powerhouse Fabian Cancellara won Saturday's new Italian one-day, the Monte Paschi Eroica. The long-time amateur race, which includes miles of gravel roads, was held for the first time as a professional race last fall. The first pro edition also was won by a CSC rider, Alexandr Kolobnev.
Spaniard Alejandro Valverde of the Caisse d'Epargne team won the Tour of Murcia cycling race for the third time on Saturday. Compatriot Kolko Fernandez, riding for Euskaltel-Euskadi, won the 134.9km fifth and final stage from San Javier to Murcia. Valverde, winner in 2004 and 2007 and who stamped his mark on this year's renewal in Friday's stage, said that having achieved one of his targets for the season, he hoped it would prove to be a launchpad for the rest of his campaign.
Alejandro Valverde pedaled himself into position Friday to win the Vuelta a Murcia for the third time. The Caisse d’Epargne rider won the decisive 23.1km climbing time trial and moved into the overall lead with just one stage remaining in the five-day stage race in Spain with his first win of the 2008 season. Valverde, who hails from the Spanish region, won the race against the clock from Alhama to Aledo in 33 minutes, 32 seconds, some two seconds faster than Stefano Garzelli (Acqua e Sapone) and six seconds faster than 2007 Tour de France champion Alberto Contador (Astana).
Following a successful debut last year, the Monte Paschi Eroica will be held March 8 in Italy over 181km that includes seven sectors of gravel. World champion Paolo Bettini and his Quick Step-Innergetic will be among the 8-man squads taking the start, along with High Road and Slipstream-Chipotle. Last year’s edition was held in the fall in Tuscany, and was won by CSC’s Alexandr Kolobnev soon after he took second at the world championships.
Swiss rider Aurélien Clerc (Bouygues Telecom) sprinted to victory in the opening stage Friday of the Three Days of West Flanders and claimed the overall leader’s jersey in the west Belgian race. Clerc was fastest in the 176km stage from Courtrai to Bellegem, finishing ahead of Belarussian Jevgeni Goetarovitsj (FDJeux), with Dutch rider Bobby Traksel (P3 Transfer-Batavus) coming through third.
World cycling chief Pat McQuaid on Friday stoked the feud with race organizers Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), accusing them of colluding to form a private league with the backing of the French cycling federation. International Cycling Union (UCI) president McQuaid made his accusations in a column in French daily Le Monde just two days before the start of the Paris-Nice stage race.
Earlier this week, UCI president Pat McQuaid emailed pro racers warning they could be fined or banned from future UCI events — including the world championships — if they race in next week’s Paris-Nice stage race. Paris-Nice's owner, ASO, is running the race independently of the UCI. So how can McQuaid make these threats?
Following weeks of dispute between cycling’s international governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), the organizer of the Tour de France, UCI president Pat McQuaid sent the following open letter to the French newspaper Le Monde on Friday.
Filmmaker Brian Vernor is best known in the bicycle industry for his documentary “Pure Sweet Hell,” which chronicled the cyclocross lifestyle on 8mm black-and-white film. His most recent project is filming and riding the Tour d’Afrique, a four-month bicycle adventure road race across the African continent. This year marks the sixth running of the race, which begins in Cairo, Egypt, and finishes in Cape Town, South Africa. Riders pass through 10 countries at an average distance of 75 miles a day.
Following is the full text of the email UCI president Pat McQuaid sent to professional racers on March 4. Aigle, 4th March 2008 Ref: President / gr Dear Rider, You are aware of the difficulties we have with the forthcoming edition of Paris-Nice and I wanted to write to you personally to express my sympathy for the position you find yourself in and to explain the situation as I see it. I am writing at the request and with the support of the organisation that looks after your interests as a rider, the CPA.
The international cycling union UCI on Thursday announced a new anti-doping foundation as part of its latest battle to rid the sport of cheats. With a budget of five million euros a year, the goal of the foundation "is to permit the improvement of resources available in the anti-doping battle", said a UCI statement. The new group will be headed by UCI president Pat McQuaid and made up of Peder Pedersen (Denmark), Daniel Baal (France), Artur Lopes (Portugal) and George Ruijsch Van Dugteren (South Africa).
At the start of the year, Team CSC brass were predicting that a stronger, more confident Juan José Haedo would win more in his second season in Europe. So far, the Argentine ace is living up to expectations. After winning races in Argentina and in California earlier this season, Haedo won Sunday’s Clásica de Almería ahead of three-time world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank).
Next month's AT&T Tour de Georgia route will include a quick pass into South Carolina for the first time and replace an individual time trial with a hilly team time trial held on a motorsports track. It also will feature a new route for one of the key stages in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Organizers released details of the 7-stage race on Thursday. This will be the sixth edition of the race, which starts Monday April 21.
Tour de France champion Alberto Contador isn’t exactly holding his breath expecting Tour organizers to change their minds on its controversial decision to exclude his Astana team from cycling’s marquee race. “It seems unlikely, even though I am receiving the support from everyone, from the other riders and from the public,” Contador told the Spanish sports daily MARCA. “Being optimistic, I see 0.5 percent of the possibilities that the Tour would reconsider its posture.”
Sébastien Joly (FDJeux) will be the first person to tell you that he’s not going to win seven Tours de France, let alone one, after fending off a bout with testicular cancer that struck him midway through the 2007 season. Comparisons to Lance Armstrong are inevitable for the 28-year-old Frenchman, who returned to competition in February after missing last year’s Tour as he underwent surgery and radiotherapy.
A German rider with a penchant for lightweight rides has put together a 3195-gram (7.04-pound) road bike that he says is sturdy enough for him to ride up to 1000 kilometers a week. Günter Mai from Lampertheim has modified virtually every part on the bike, including the set of custom Lew Racing Pro VT-1 wheels. Off the shelf VT-1 wheels weigh 850 grams a pair and are made for use by riders up to 185 pounds. They sell for about $6000, while custom wheels like Mai's cost $15,000.
Spanish veteran José Luís “Chechu” Rubiera was looking at retirement last winter following the collapse of his Discovery Channel team, where he rode alongside Lance Armstrong for five of his seven Tour de France victories. New-look Astana offered him a lifeline with a one-year contract and the popular Spanish rider didn’t take long to pay back the favor.
The head of the French Cycling Federation says he will go to court — and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy if necessary — if the international cycling federation UCI punishes pro cyclists taking part in next week's Paris-Nice race. Meanwhile the head of the U.S. cycling federation is urging all sides to negotiate and a group representing the teams has asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to intercede.
Philippe Gilbert (Francaise des Jeux) is back on the top spot of the podium just days after blowing the doors off everyone in Het Volk. The 25-year-old Belgian out-kicked the main pack to win the 39th GP Samyn in a sprint to snag his fifth win of the year. Gilbert finally got it right in the Belgian race from Frameries to Dour after finishing second the past two years in a row. This time, he relegated Kevin Ista (Agritubel) to runner-up position with Aleksejs Saramontins (Rietumu Bank) coming through third.
American cross-country mountain bike racer Adam Craig has his sights set on the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. That means for the next few months he will be battling it out on the World Cup and National Mountain Bike Series with his fellow Americans for a slot on the U.S. team. In between races, Craig skis, kayaks and is the rally car co-driver for his Giant teammate Carl Decker. VeloNews.com is along for the ride. —Editor
A closed tunnel will force route changes for the 99th edition of Milan-San Remo on March 22 and make the season’s longest classic four kilometers longer than usual. Race officials announced Tuesday that the additional climb, called Mànie, comes about 100km from the finish just before the arrival of three headlands at Capo Mele, Capo Cervo and Capo Berta as the route dips down to the Mediterranean Sea. The climb will have a technical descent and could play a factor in the decisive part of the race when the peloton typically begins in earnest to reel in dangerous breakaways.
Danilo Di Luca faces a two-year ban and the possible loss of his 2007 Giro d’Italia title in a hearing scheduled for April 1 in Rome. The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has scheduled a hearing to review the results of medical tests conducted on May 30, which showed “very strange” hormone levels and offered indirect evidence of doping.
Last April's inaugural U.S. Open road race was held in epic snowy conditions — and with nearly unprecedented network television coverage — in Virginia. This year's event is likely to be quite different. The 112-mile professional event has been moved to Providence, Rhode Island, on May 31. And while promoters are still negotiating a title sponsor and TV deal, they say the date and location change will soon make it a fixture on the domestic calendar.
Bart Gillespie (Monavie-Cannondale) and Kelli Emmett (Giant) won the opening round of Utah’s 2008 Intermountain Cup, the Red Rock Desert Rampage, held in St. George on March 1. Gillespie, overall winner of the 2007 series and the seventh-place finisher at the 2007 USA Cycling national cross-country championships in Mount Snow, Vermont, dominated the men’s race, beating second-place finisher Cale Redpath (3D Racing) by nearly seven minutes.
Graeme Brown (Rabobank) got revenge for losing Sunday’s Clásica de Almería by sprinting to victory Tuesday in the opening stage of the five-day Vuelta a Murcia in Spain. Brown and Rabobank teammate Oscar Freire were upstaged by Juan José Haedo (CSC) on Sunday, but the Aussie sprinter got it right in 197.3km stage from San Pedro del Pinatar to Lorca to snag his second win on the 2008 season.
Cyclists who race in the Paris-Nice stage race next week risk stiff suspensions, fines and bans from the Olympics and the World Championships, the UCI said on Tuesday. The riders themselves have asked for written assurances from team bosses that any fines and their salaries if they are suspended would be picked up by the teams. However, the UCI made plain in an email sent to the 17 ProTour teams set to take part that the riders risked serious punishments aside from the bans, suspensions of up to six months and fines of up to 10,000 Swiss francs.
Will orthotics help my foot pain?
Racers and teams face an uncomfortable choice ahead of this weekend’s Paris-Nice as the war between cycling governing body and the powerful race organizer, Amaury Sport Organisation, reaches a breaking point. To start Sunday’s Paris-Nice prologue means riders could be slapped with a six-month racing ban by an angry and frustrated UCI, but to skip Paris-Nice would torpedo teams’ chances of competing in ASO’s long list of marquee races that includes the Tour de France. The danger of bans, however, is already prompting some riders to balk at the season’s first major stage race.
A recurring pain
Dear Lennard,
I'm writing because I just read the shoe review in the VeloNews Buyer's Guide, and you mention in there that you use a custom orthotic.
I was happy to see that the Shimano SH R300's I just purchased got high marks, but I am still having issues with my right foot even with the new shoes. I got the new shoes because I was having the problem with my four-year-old Northwave Evolutions.
Belgian Roel Paulissen (Cannondale-Vredestein) and Czech Tereza Hurikova took overall victories at the Afxentia Stage Race, a three-day cross-country race held on the island of Cyprus. The competition included two cross-country races — each counting as rounds of Cyprus’ Sunshine Cup series — as well as an individual time trial sandwiched between.
One of the legends of American bike racing is planning a 6-day-style track race for this fall in Las Vegas, to coincide with the Interbike trade show there. Jack Simes III, a member of the U.S. Olympic team in 1960, '64 and '68, and coach of the 1976 Olympic team, has booked the arena at Mandalay Bay resort on the Vegas strip, and plans to hold the events on a new 166-meter plywood track. The races would be held September 23-25, with events from about 7 p.m. until 1 a.m. each night. Planned events include Madison races, sprints, one-lap record attempts and motor-paced Derny races.
Some big-name riders are confirmed at the 28th Vuelta a Murcia, starting Tuesday and ending Saturday in southern Spain. The race will give them a chance to stretch their legs ahead of the season’s first major races. Some 12 teams, including the beleaguered Astana squad, will tackle a bumpy, five-day course that also includes a 23km climbing time trial that’s sure to decide the overall classification.
Last month, Travis Ott, Gary Fisher’s brand manager and Subaru-Gary Fisher team director, personally delivered a new cross-country racing version of the brand’s HiFi full suspension frame to team riders Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Heather Irmiger. During our meeting in their hometown of Boulder, Colorado, at one of the coffee shops preferred by the pros, Horgan-Kobelski and Irmiger, who are married, gave the bikes a good look over while Ott ran through the basics of the new design.
Juan José Haedo (CSC) is riding high into this week’s Vuelta a Murcia following an impressive victory Sunday against three-time world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank) in the Clásica de Almería. The Argentine ace edged Freire by inches in a photo finish to score only his second win on European soil at the end of what was his first day of racing on the continent this year. The newly confident Haedo looks even stronger this year as he roars into his second season with Team CSC.
March is here and your first race may be just around the corner, if you haven’t already toed the line. This is the time of year when intensity must inevitably increase as part of your preparation for the demands of racing. Hard, yet focused, training sessions characterize the build phase of training and mark the end of the base phase.
CSC's Juan Jose Haedo won the 23rd Clasica de Almeria in Spain on Sunday, beating out Rabobank's Oscar Freire and Graeme Brown in a sprint to take the 187km race.
Quick Step's Steven De Jongh outkicked fellow Dutchman Sebastian Langeveld to win Sunday’s 61st Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in an attacked-riddled race that saw two-time defending world champion Paolo Bettini crash for the second day in a row. The mighty Quick Step train righted itself Sunday with De Jongh’s winning ride a day after missing out on the spoils against an unstoppable Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux) in Het Volk.
Just nine American track racers will journey to the 2008 UCI track world championships, held March 26-30 in Manchester, Great Britain. USA Cycling will send sprinters Jennie Reed, Michael Blatchford and Adam Duvendeck as well as endurance riders Sarah Hammer, Michael Friedman, Bobby Lea, Colby Pearce and Taylor Phinney. Reed races endurance and sprint events.
As the most profitable race promoter in pro cycling, Amaury Sport Organisation wants to dictate how the sport is run. That’s why for the past three years ASO and its surrogates have resisted substantive changes in cycling, particularly those changes involving the elite-level ProTour, which all other parties have embraced. ASO’s insurgency has now come to a head in its bid to independently promote next week’s Paris-Nice. And it appears that this time it has made one step too many.
Rubén Plaza (SL Benfica) wrapped up the overall in the 66th Volta a Valenciana after finishing safely in the pack behind sprinter Alessandro Petacchi (Milram), who bolted to victory in Saturday’s final stage. Runner-up Manuel Vázquez (Contentpolis-Murcia) was left without any option to make up the five-second difference to Plaza in the mostly flat stage around Valencia while Xavier Florencio (Bouygues Telecom) settled for third overall at 21 seconds back.
Belgian rider Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux) won Het Volk for the second time in three years in the best style possible: with a dramatic solo victory. Gilbert, winner of the Belgian season opener in 2006, attacked a lead group of favorites on the Eikenberg climb with about 60km to go in the 199km course across the Belgian heartland of Flanders. [nid:72951]He then reeled in the day’s main breakaway that included Mike Friedman (Slipstream-Chipotle) and before attacking again with a punishing acceleration with 22km to go to solo home to victory.
Another stage at the Volta a Valenciana and another breakaway by a rider from Slipstream-Chipotle. For the fourth stage in a row, the American squad put a man into the main move in the five-day Valencia tour in Spain. This time it was Lucas Euser showing off the argyle with Antonio Piedra (Contentpolis-Murcia) in more than 100km at the front.
Major changes are in store for the unofficial kick off of the classics season with Saturday’s running of the 63rd Omloop Het Volk in Belgium. Narrower roads, more cobblestones and tougher climbs are on tap for the 199km Belgian season opener in what’s always one of the most anticipated races of the year among that rare breed of racer who loves to bash the pavé.
There’s more good news for BMC after the team secured its second major European race invitation of the week. Just days after scoring a bid to race Criterium International (March 29-30), the second-year American squad earned its first ProTour invitation from the Tour de Romandie (April 29-May 4).
The Union Cycliste Internationale has warned teams aiming to take part in races run by the powerful race organizer ASO that “unjust” conditions in the company's contract completely eliminate fundamental rights. ASO runs a number of top events including the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Nice, the week-long stage race which has become the latest bone of contention in the ongoing feud between the UCI and powerful race organizers.
The third stage of the Volta a Valenciana ended on a controversial note Thursday as a misdirected peloton split between a highway and a frontage road in the decisive final 5km of the 166.5km climbing course around Ibi. Ruben Plaza (Benfica) stole away the leader’s jersey from José Iván Gutiérrez (Caisse d’Epargne) in one of the most bizarre mishaps in recent cycling history.
UCI President Pat McQuaid sent the following letter to professional cycling teams that have chosen to participate in Paris-Nice on Wednesday. The letter was distributed to media on Thursday - Editor
Aigle, 27 February 2008
Ref: Presidence / fb
Dear Sirs,
After three solid off-season training camps, the entire High Road team is now racing, having initiated the season on four fronts: in California, in Portugal, in Italy and France. After being away from the races for the longest period since I was thirteen - seven months - I was happy to get the first race under my belt in Laigueglia, Italy.
Skil-Shimano, the Dutch-based continental team, seems to be one of the new darlings of ASO after receiving recent invitations to both Paris-Nice and Criterium International. The fourth-year team is a blend of aging and aspiring Europeans mixed in with Japan’s most promising talent, including Fumy Beppu, who joined in 2008 after a three-year stint with Discovery Channel. Maarten Den Bakker, one of the oldest riders in the peloton at 39, said the race invitations are welcome news.
Enrique Franco, the man who saved the Vuelta a España in the late 1970s, died Wednesday in Spain after a long illness. He was 74 years old. Franco was the former director Unipublic, the sports organizing company who bought the troubled Vuelta in 1979 and helped turn the struggling three-week stage race into a world force. The Vuelta was floundering from a lack of cycling stars and threats from the Basque terrorist group ETA when Franco’s Unipublic agreed to take over Spain’s top stage race.
Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in this country, a contributor to heart attacks, high blood pressure, and strokes. Of course, regular exercise and training is good for your heart and raises the helpful HDL cholesterol, but you still need to pay attention to the foods that you consume for optimal heart health.
Three American teams will be among 19 squads fighting for the honors in the Criterium International in late March. High Road, Slipstream-Chipotle and BMC all earned invitations to compete in the three-stage, two-day race held in the French Ardennes. The race is dubbed the “mini Tour de France,” in part because it’s organized by the Tour owners, ASO, and because it features the three classic elements of a stage race, with a time trial, a climbing stage and a road course well-suited for sprinters.
Cycling's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, suffered a serious blow to its authority on Wednesday as the sport’s top teams voted to enter the first major stage race of the season, Paris-Nice. UCI president Pat McQuaid had called on teams to boycott the race as part of his body's ongoing dispute with the race's parent company Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) - also the organizers of the Tour de France. ASO aims to run the race under the auspices of the French Cycling Federation
Erik Zabel isn’t washed up yet. The 37-year-old Milram ace out-sprinted younger rivals to snag his first win of what will likely be his final season in the 178km second stage of the Volta a Valenciana in Spain. Zabel — who saw his reputation sullied last year after admitting he used the banned blood booster EPO during the 1996 season — finished off an exciting stage that saw Slipstream-Chipotle’s Timmy Duggan feature in the day’s main breakaway.
Officials at the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) requested Wednesday that Giro d’Italia champion Danilo Di Luca be banned for two years for an abnormal hormone test. The abnormal result — not a direct doping positive — was returned after the 17th stage of the Giro from Lienz in Austria to Monte Zoncolan on May 30. "Anti-doping prosecutors have requested that the cyclist Danilo Di Luca be brought before a judge to answer accusations of doping, with reference to an abnormal result," said a CONI statement.
A cancer scare a year ago is fueling newfound ambitions for Belgian attacker Philippe Gilbert (Française des Jeux) heading into this year’s classics campaign. At the beginning of the 2007 season, the 25-year-old was alarmed by the sudden appearance of any ugly black mole on his left leg and immediately went to the doctor. Before he knew it, he was hustled into surgery not knowing whether or not he’d ever race again.
A banged up Magnus Bäckstedt (Slipstream-Chipotle) will return to competition in next month’s Tirreno-Adriatico stage race in Italy, a move that puts him on track to shine in the spring classics. Bäckstedt, 33, snapped his collarbone in a finish line crash during stage 5 at the Tour of Qatar last month. Following surgery, the 2004 Paris-Roubaix champion says his recovery is going better than expected.
Stung by the exclusion of three of its top riders from last week’s Amgen Tour of California, the Rock Racing team announced plans to launch an aggressive internal team anti-doping program on Tuesday. “This internal anti-doping initiative underscores Rock Racing's, and Team Owner Michael Ball's, willingness to take every measure to ensure that its members race clean and fair,” a team press release noted.
Craig Calfee hopes to prove that one person with one idea can make a difference in some of the poorest corners of the planet. The maker of some of the most exclusive and sought after carbon-fiber bikes on the market, Calfee plans to use his knowledge to teach Africans how to build themselves bamboo cargo bikes.
The sprinters were sharpening their knives before Tuesday’s opening stage of the five-day Volta a Valenciana in Spain, but a late-race attack featuring 24 riders stayed away to foil their chances. Spanish rider José Iván Gutiérrez (Caisse d’Epargne) out-kicked compatriot Ruben Plaza (SL Benfica) and Xavier Florencio (Bouygues Telecom) to snag the win and take the overall leader’s jersey in the 157km stage from Sagunto to Port de Sagunto.
The original Blur LT was introduced three years ago and the all-mountain rig has become the brand’s bestseller. But the company is releasing a remodeled design intended to keep it at the top of its heap. The most visible new feature is the use of a carbon fiber upper VPP link. Less visible but more important is a careful re-tooling of the linkage’s shock rate. Santa Cruz engineers mellowed the rate out to offer a supple beginning stroke and and a linear feel all the way through to bottom out.
Professional teams caught up in a dispute between the Union Cycliste Internationale and major race organizers are poised to make a decision which could force an end to the dispute between the two warring parties. The UCI on Monday effectively warned teams they could be sanctioned if they turned up to race at Paris-Nice, the first major European stage race of the season, on March 9-16.
Victory in Portugal’s five-day Tour of the Algarve bodes well for both the immediate and long-term prospects of rising Belgian talent Stijn Devolder. The former Discovery Channel rider is taking on an ambitious 2008 calendar that includes a detour through the cobblestones of northern France and Belgium before a run at the top-10 at the Tour de France.
This past weekend’s trip to the Wisconsin north woods for the 35th American Birkebeiner, which for many cyclists is a festival of extreme winter cross-training, got me thinking about traditions. Being able to count on the recurrence of a tradition is comforting. Yet underneath, traditions can be fragile, no matter how long they have survived.
The war between the UCI and major race organizers took a significant new twist on Monday as world cycling’s governing body warned that it might have nothing to do with Paris-Nice, the European calendar's first major race of the season.
Tour de France champion Alberto Contador will look to continue venting his frustration on the bike when he saddles up for the five-day Tour of the Valencia Community on Tuesday. The Spaniard and his Astana team are still digesting the bitter pill of being left out of the Tour de France, and the Giro d'Italia due to controversial decisions by the respective race organizers.
Italian cyclist Marco Fertonani will serve a two-year ban for doping after a last-ditch appeal to the Italian Olympic Commitee (CONI) failed on Monday. Fertonani, formerly of the Caisse d'Epargne team, failed a test for testosterone following his fourth-place finish in the Tour Mediterraneen in February 2007. The 31-year-old appealed to CONI's appeals judge, claiming that the French laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry, which dealt with his samples, had made an error.