Road Racing

Dutch rider Nikki Terpstra delivered the double for his Milram team at Tuesday’s third stage at the Dauphiné Libéré, winning out of a five-man breakaway and snatching the race leader’s jersey. Sensing that the favorites would be cooling their jets ahead of Wednesday’s decisive individual time trial, five peeled away early on a hilly 182km stage to Saint-Étienne to hold a 1:32 gap to the line.

Hard on the heels of the news in April 2008 that Trek would stop producing road bikes using the LeMond brand name, was the news that the Gary Fisher line would pick up the slack in the road product line. On the surface, it would seem to be as simple as creating a new downtube decal, and swapping out the “LeMond” for a “Gary Fisher.” However, the company made a commitment to completely redeveloping a line of road bikes to do justice to the new nameplate, and the evidence was on display this past weekend in the streets of Philidelphia.

Editor’s Note: VeloNews is not a safety agency. On occasion, bicycle products being tested by VeloNews editors suffer structural failure — saddles break, spokes snap and even crank arms crack. We often do not report such issues as they can be caused by rider error or a manufacturing anomaly, or because the failure happens in a safe way, such as a broken spoke simply causing a wheel to go out of true. Ben Delaney’s experience doesn’t fall into that latter category and he thought it important to let his fellow cyclists know about it.

Angelo Furlan (Lampre) upset Tom Boonen (Quick Step) in a mano-a-mano sprint to win the second stage at the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré on Monday while Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) retained the overall lead. A five-man breakaway — Iñaki Isasi (Euskaltel), Hector González (Fuji-Servetto), Paul Voss (Milram), Stéphane Augé (Cofidis) and Alexandre Pichot (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) — gained an advantage in the long, rolling 228km stage from Nancy to Dijon before Quick Step and Silence-Lotto joined forces to neutralize the aggression with 5km to go.

Bissell’s Paul Mach and Edwige Pitel (Sorella Forte) held off final-stage challenges to lock up overall victories in Oregon’s Pacific Power Mt. Hood Cycling Classic on Sunday. In the women’s race, Pitel ensured her victory over ValueAct Capital’s Leah Goldberg by winning Sunday’s Downtown Hood River Criterium. Similarly, in the men’s event, Chris Baldwin (OUCH-Maxxis) wasn’t able to fight past Bissell’s superior numbers to pull back 13 seconds from Mach, who won the overall GC on the time he gained in the first stage.

There’s no stopping Team Columbia-Highroad’s blond German sprinter André Greipel. He has won race after race since he returned from the injured list a month ago. After a stage win at the Four Days of Dunkirk on May 10, three stages of the Tour of Bavaria in late May, and Germany’s Neuseen Classic last week, he made it six wins in four weeks on Sunday afternoon by taking the 25th anniversary edition of the TD Bank Philadelphia International Championship.

It was double delight for Saxo Bank on Sunday in the final stage of the Tour of Luxembourg as Matti Breschel dashed to a stage victory and Fränk Schleck wrapped up the overall. Breschel’s win made it three straight stage victories and the top prize as Saxo Bank dominated the five-day Luxembourg tour and held off a challenge from Andreas Klöden (Astana). Andy Schleck won Friday’s attack-riddled stage, winning an eight-up sprint that put Kazakh rider Assan Bazayev (Astana) into the leader’s jersey.

Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) powered to a morale-boosting time trial victory Sunday against archrival Alberto Contador (Astana) to open the 61st Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. Evans covered the technical, 12km course in Nancy in 15 minutes, 36.64 seconds, posting the best time on a steep climb at 3km and then holding off Contador by eight seconds to win the stage and claim the leader’s jersey at the eight-day Dauphiné.

It all looked so easy for Team Columbia-Highroad’s Ina Teutenberg as she sped along Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway Sunday morning to win her third TD Bank Liberty Classic. At the line, the veteran German sprinter was two lengths clear of New Zealander Joanne Kiesanowski (Team Tibco) and the top American, third-placed Shelley Olds (Proman Hit Squad), at the head of a 12-strong breakaway group.

With more than 10,000 feet of climbing on tap, the 92-mile Wy’East Road Race was supposed be the day for riders to shake up the overall GC of the 2009 Pacific Power Mt. Hood Cycling Classic. But little changed in the overall after stage 3 as OUCH-Maxxis rider Chris Baldwin, who started the day 15 seconds down on race leader Paul Mach, failed to detach the Bissell rider from his wheel after several blistering attacks in the final kilometers. Trek-Red Truck’s Rob Britton won the stage in 4:07:31, just one second ahead of Baldwin and Mach.

Fuji-Servetto sprinter Ivan Dominguez will race the TD Bank Philadelphia International Championship aboard a prototype 2010 Fuji SST bike. Fuji has only produced five such frames, and Dominguez is giving the company final feedback before it begins full production for the 2010 model year line. The 2010 SST represents an evolution of the 2009 model, with the most obvious differences being the integrated carbon seatmast instead of a seatpost, and a 1.5-inch lower headset instead of the 1 1/8-inch version.

The infamous Columbia River Gorge winds whipped themselves into a frenzy Friday and tried to whip the riders as well in the stage 2 time trial at the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic. OUCH-Maxxis' newest rider, Chris Baldwin, nipped race leader Paul Mach (Bissell), tightening the GC battle with two stages left. The women's race is also very tight with prologue winner leader Edwige Pitel (Sorella Forte) winning the stage and taking back the leader's jersey. Three-time Mt. Hood victor Leah Goldstein now sits in second just two seconds back.

Native son Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) scored a stage victory in the Tour de Luxembourg Sunday, while Astana's Assan Bazayev took over the leader's jersey. The younger of Saxo's Schleck brothers took the sprint ahead of his teammate Matti Breschel and Aitor Galdos of Euskaltel-Euskadi. The three were part of a 15-rider break that formed about 12 kilometers before the finish. The break included Bazayev, who was sixth on the stage, at the same time as Schleck.

One day after just missing the top podium spot in the prologue of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, the Bissell Cycling Team stomped its way to a one-two finish in the Cooper Spur Circuit Race, capitalizing on time bonuses to claim the top two GC spots as well. Bissell’s Paul Mach surged away from the lead group with just a few kilometers remaining and took the 85-mile race’s top prize. Mach’s teammate Morgan Schmitt crossed the line second after momentarily catching Mach on the finishing pitch. California Giant-Specialized rider Justin England finished third.

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Katusha's Danilo Napolitano won the first stage of the Tour de Luxembourg on Thursday, winning a field sprint at the end of the 157km race from Luxembourg to Mondorf-les-Bains. Switzerland's Gregory Rast of Astana, the winner of Wednesday's prologue, retained the overall leader's jersey, two seconds ahead of Jonathan Hivert (Skil-Shimano).

Oregon’s Pacific Power Mt. Hood Cycling Classic swung into action with the Panorama Point prologue time trial on Wednesday. Warp9bikes.com-Tristar’s Mike Olheiser made the team’s trip from Alabama to the Northwest worthwhile by taking the 3.1-mile race ahead of Paul Mach (Bissell Cycling Team) and Chris Baldwin, who signed with OUCH-Maxxis just in time to race Mt. Hood. Olheiser covered the course with a time of 6:12.63. Mach, meanwhile, nipped Baldwin, clocking in at 6:14.47, a tenth of a second better than Baldwin's 6:14.57.

Grégory Rast (Astana) carved out his first victory on the 2009 season in Wednesday’s prologue at the 69th Tour of Luxembourg on a technical, 2.7km course in the streets of the capital. Rast – a winner of the Luxembourg tour in 2007 – covered the course in 3 minutes, 48 seconds to claim the opener of the five-day race. Stopping the clock for second was Jonathan Hivert (Skil-Shimano) at two seconds slower with Romain Feillu (Agritubel) third at four seconds adrift.

Editor’s note: The Clothesline is new column about clothing, shoes, helmets and other cycling accessories. Perhaps the most personal of gear choices, clothing testing is subjective. Two riders can try the same jersey or helmet and come back with completely different opinions. With that in mind, we will try to get at least two editors sampling a product for a few weeks before reporting back on the fit and features. We hope you find it helpful. If it’s true that no two fingerprints are the same, is it fair to say that no two, um, butts are the same?

After finding great success with the compact road crank design it debuted in the 2002 Tour de France under Ivan Basso, FSA is pushing the concept to the mountain bike market. Carbon and alloy double-ring cranksets for off-road are among the new 2010 offerings from the company with headquarters in Italy, Washington and Taiwan. FSA is also expanding on the Vision line it acquired in 2004, positioning it as a road and triathlon brand with wheels, aerobars and more.

Sprint finishes decided both the men’s and women’s professional events at Sunday’s Bump N’ Grind cross-country race, held at Oak Mountain state park in Pelham, Alabama. The event was the third round of the 2009 USA Cycling Pro Cross-country tour (ProXCT), and the second round of the Kenda Cup East. In the men’s race, Australian rider Sid Taberlay (Sho Air-Specialized) out kicked Coloradan Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher). Luna teammates Georgia Gould and Catherine Pendrel went toe-to-toe in the women’s event, with Pendrel coming out on top.

Denis Menchov vaulted to the top of the UCI World Rankings this week, a position he owes entirely to his performance at the Giro d'Italia.

Colavita's Argentinean sprinter Sebastian Haedo has moved up from eighth to second on the latest National Racing Calendar individual rankings. Defending NRC champ Rory Sutherland (OUCH-Maxxis) remains in first place in the rankings, thanks to his win at the Joe Martin Stage Race and several stage wins and stage podiums this season.

Fresh off the Madrid World Cup course, and ready for travel to Alabama and the Bump n’ Grind cross country race last week, Subaru-Gary Fisher team rider Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski’s Superfly 29er hardtail has a new look.

Belgian cyclist Tom Boonen still hopes to ride in the Tour de France in July, contradicting officials who said he would not race after he tested positive for cocaine earlier this year. "I hope to take part in the Tour and we are attempting to reach agreement with the organizers as we want to avoid legal proceedings," the 28-year-old told reporters at a cycling festival at Gullegem in Belgium on Tuesday.

Everyone's favorite 1965 Charlton Heston film, in which he stars as Michelangelo tirelessly painting 12,000 square feet of the Sistine Chapel, takes place in the Vatican City.

Can I use a Campy 11-speed shifter with a 10-speed cassette?

Uvex, a leader in cycling helmets in Europe, is not well known in the United States. But the German brand hopes to change that through a new distribution agreement with Magura USA. I had a chance to try the Uvex FP1 Race helmet, the same lid as worn by sprinter Mark Cavendish and his Columbia-Highroad teammates. It’s exceptionally light, fits well, is very comfortable, has passable ventilation and is noticeably lighter than most other helmets I’ve worn.

Why do my vintage Campy shifters not shift well?

Why does my vintage Campagnolo drivetrain shift on its own?

Why does my Campagnolo hub have only eight ball bearings?

Mountain Khaki's Daniel Ramsey didn’t think much of his chances in a field sprint in Sunday’s Riverview Criterium. So he attacked with five laps to go in the NRC event and held off a hard-charging field to win ahead of Rahsaan Bahati (Rock Racing) and Bernard Sulzberger (Fly V Australia). "I just went off of instinct," said Ramsey after winning the third round of Oklahoma’s Tulsa Tough criterium series. "I don't think I've ever placed top 20 in a field sprint before, so my best option was to attack.”

British rider Mark Cavendish wants to make amends for his premature exit from last year's Tour de France by claiming the green sprint jersey in Paris next month. Cavendish pulled out of the 2008 Tour after the 14th stage after four stage wins because of a combination of fatigue and his desire to concentrate on the Beijing Olympics. But the 24-year-old Columbia-Highroad sprinter regrets that decision and wants to become only the second cyclist from Great Britain to win a jersey in the Tour following the King of the Mountains title won by Scot Robert Millar in 1984.

Editor's note: VeloNews Technical Editor Zack Vestal visited Zipp Speed Weaponry's Indiana factory this spring and reported on the company's history in part 1 of this article. In part 2, Vestal gets behind some of the company's philosophy and practices in product development and production.

After racing from the north to the south to the center of the boot, we finally reached Rome and completed the last fourteen kilometers of the Giro. In the flamboyant, dramatic fashion that we have now become accustomed to after three weeks of racing in the circus, we whizzed by Rome’s historical sites, snaked through the cobbled city streets and, finally, turned our last pedal strokes in front of the coliseum. The course provided drama for the television audience but also put many riders on edge due to its technical aspects.

Lance Armstrong said his 12th-placed finish in the Giro d'Italia was "promising" ahead of this year's Tour de France. Armstrong came into the Giro insisting that he was not there to contest for the win. "I came in open-minded. I did not know what to expect, obviously because of the crash in Castilla y Leon, the time off the bike and the trip over here," Armstrong said. "In my view it has been a hard three weeks. In the second half of the race I showed that I was certainly getting better and I think we can take that away from here. It is promising for June and July."

American Taylor Phinney (Trek-Livestrong) won the Paris-Roubaix Espoirs on Sunday, emerging first from a group of 11 that entered the Roubaix velodrome together. Phinney, 18, becomes the first American to win the race for riders under 23. The 170km race has been held since 1967 and has been won by budding professionals including Yaroslav Popovych, Thor Hushovd, Stephen Roche and Frédéric Moncassin.

Rabobank's Lars Boom finished second in the final time trial of the Tour of Belgium Sunday to clinch the final overall victory. Quick Step's Sébastien Rosseler won the stage in 20:53, followed by Boom at six seconds. Brent Bookwalter (BMC) was the top American on the stage and overall, coming in 13th at 41 seconds in the final stage, and 19th on the GC. Boom, 23, said he hasn't raced much since the end of cyclocross season. He was the 2008 cyclocross world champion.

Race leader Denis Menchov won the Giro d’Italia on Sunday despite suffering a fall in the last kilometer of the final stage, a 14.4km time trial through Rome. Menchov, now the third Russian to win the Giro, added the title to his two Vuelta a España victories in 2005 and 2007. The 31-year-old Menchov beat 2007 Giro champion Danilo Di Luca (LPR) by 41 seconds over the course of the three-week tour, with Liquigas’ Franco Pellizzoti rounding off the podium finishers a further 1:18 adrift.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, has everything you’d want in a National Racing Calendar criterium series: historic downtown districts filled with old brick buildings and freshly paved streets; immense amounts of prize money (making the event the second highest pro payout in the nation); and lax open container laws, leading to an especially enthusiastic local fan base.

Alejandro Borrajo (Colavita-Sutter Home) nipped Kenneth Hanson (Team Type 1) by just inches to win the U.S. Air Force Clarendon Cup criterium in Arlington, Virginia, on Saturday, extending the squad’s ownership of the title after Luca Damiani’s win last year (when the race was known as the CSC Invitational). In the women's race, BMW Bianchi's Erica Allar showed how to race without a team, taking a last-lap flyer that paid off.

Britain's Emma Pooley (Cervelo TestTeam) won in a solo break in Saturday's women's World Cup road race in Montreal, finishing 1 minute, 14 seconds ahead of the pursuers. Pooley attacked on the first of 11 laps through the city and rode alone for most of the 110.7km race. Sweden's Emma Johansson (Red Sun Cycling Team) took the field sprint for second, and Germany's Trixi Worrack (Nurnberger Versicherung) was third. Johannsson also took over the lead of the World Cup rankings. The previous leader, Holland's Marianne Vos, did not race.

Belgium's Bert De Waele (Landbouwkrediet - Colnago) won the fourth stage of the Tour of Belgium in a sprint Saturday, finishing ahead of compatriot Greg van Avermaet (Silence-Lotto) and Dutchman Lars Boom (Rabobank), the new overall leader. Boom is the Dutch national road and time trial champion, as well as the 2008 world cyclocross champion. He took the black leader's jersey from Slovenian rider Borut Bozic, who couldn't keep pace with the leading pack over the race's many picturesque peaks in south-east Belgium.