Road

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.

The Astana team says it has resolved its financial problems. Unpaid bank guarantees had meant the Kazakh team had been threatened with expulsion from this year's Tour de France, which begins on July 4. "The financial problems as of today are resolved," said Alain Gallopin, one of the team's sporting directors. Astana's riders were able to wear their traditional jerseys at the beginning of the third stage of the Criterium Dauphine Libere on Monday.

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.

Bernhard Kohl ? the Austrian rider who tested positive for the blood-booster CERA during last year’s Tour de France ? admitted that blood doping was the most effective way to cheat. In an extensive interview with the French sports daily L’Equipe, Kohl said extractions of blood began nearly a year before competition.

American Chris Horner is back on his bike and confident he will make Astana’s Tour de France squad come July. He’s less sure about when his next paycheck might arrive. Horner, 37, had the strongest grand tour performance of his career in May at the Giro d’Italia, where he rode in support of compatriot Levi Leipheimer until abandoning the race at the start of stage 11.

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.

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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.

Three top riders on the Katusha cycling team are refusing to comply with new internal anti-doping rules imposed by the Russian-backed program, a team official said on Sunday. The trio who are refusing to sign contracts including the new conditions are Australian Robbie McEwen and Belgians Gert Steegmans and Kenny De Haes, Katusha's sporting director Serge Parsani told Agence France Presse. Under the stringent new conditions, racers testing positive would have to pay a fine amounting to five times their annual salary.

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.

BMC lines up Sunday for the 61st Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré in what will arguably be the team's most important stage race since its inception. A seven-man squad begins the grueling eight-day stage across the French Alps with high hopes of putting a man in the top-10 overall and making a strong impression against the top ProTour squads.

Bernard Hinault never had the reputation of guarding his tongue when he ruled the peloton as the patron. Now 54, it’s obvious some things haven’t changed. Le Blaireau — the Badger — didn’t hold back when he fielded questions during a presentation this week in Montereau, the starting village of the final stage of the 2009 Tour de France. The last French winner of the Tour had an opinion on just about everything, and didn’t hold back when it came to criticizing the current state of the French peloton.

Everyone is calling him the pre-race favorite for victory at next week’s Dauphiné Libéré, but Alberto Contador isn’t buying into it. The Spanish climber insists he wants to use the eight-day French race across the Alps – which opens Sunday with an individual time trial in Nancy -- as a trampoline for success in the Tour de France in July.

It doesn’t seem possible that Edvald Boasson Hagen, the budding superstar at Columbia-Highroad and favorite to win this Sunday’s TD Bank Philadelphia International Championship, wasn’t even born when Eric Heiden won the inaugural edition of the 156-mile race in June 1985.

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.

Spain's Alberto Contador on Friday said that he considers Astana teammate and Tour de France rival Lance Armstrong as "just another member of the team." Contador said relations between the two men are cordial. "We've not seen each other a huge amount since the start of the season," said the 26-year-old, who was speaking before the start of the Criterium Dauphine Libere, which starts on Sunday. "Two or three days in California, two or three days in Tenerife and one day at the Tour of Castilla y Leon. It's not much, especially as we are not the

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.

Astana has yet to pay a bank guarantee on which their racing future depends, manager Johan Bruyneel said Friday. "The problem has not yet been sorted," Bruyneel told AFP regarding pending payments due from the Kazakh cycling federation, the team's owner. In midweek, the UCI said the team had provided financial guarantees which would allowing Astana to retain their license. But Bruyneel explained there were still loose ends to tie up. "The bank guarantee which was incomplete has been reconstituted, that is

The 61st Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré clicks into gear this weekend in the traditional dress rehearsal ahead of the Tour de France with a highly anticipated duel between Alberto Contador and Cadel Evans. While many eyes will be on those two for a glimpse of bigger things to come in July, the outright battle for overall victory should be wide open, with such names as Ivan Basso, Igor Anton, Robert Gesink, ambitious French riders such as Rémy Di Gregorio and Pierre Rolland lining up in one of the most competitive fields in years.

Former Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong became a father for the fourth time late Thursday. Armstrong, who recently returned from competition at the Giro d’Italia, arrived in Aspen, Colorado, earlier this week to join his girlfriend Anna Hansen in time for the birth of a seven-pound-five-ounce son, named Max. Armstrong announced last December that he and Hansen were expecting their first child together. Armstrong also has three children with his former wife Kristin.

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.

Editor’s Note: This article is based on a recent conversation with Tejay Van Garderen. It was conducted before Van Garderen suffered a crash with an automobile while training in Lucca, Italy on Thursday. The American, who was descending a narrow road, averted a head-on collision with the car, which was driving up the hill, but his training bike was destroyed in the crash. Van Garderen was taken to a local hospital but suffered only minor scrapes and bruises in the encounter.

PRESS RELEASE

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).

The French team Cofidis will continue into the 2010 season, extending the team’s life for at least one more year. Cofidis, which began in 1997, is one of the oldest sponsors in the peloton. The French credit company was considering ending its long-running sponsorship at the end of this season, but decided to back the team for at least one more year. “The adventure continues,” team manager Eric Boyer told AFP.

Alberto Contador returns to competition this weekend for the first time since April to race the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré in France, where he will line up as the pre-race favorite.

After a busy spring, the Spanish climber enjoyed a brief resting period and then recently did some hard efforts during recon missions of some of the key Tour stages in the Alps and Pyrénées.

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.

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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.

I’m back. After my last fit session, I rode several times with my new saddle, new pedals and new position. I felt good, but I was still feeling that all-too-familiar burning sensation after about 90 minutes of recovery-pace riding. I was beginning to get really frustrated. I thought that I had plateaued and really wasn’t making any improvements. I decided to take a few weeks off the bike; the decision was partially my own, and partially dictated by my schedule — final exams were coming up and I really had no time to do anything but grade my students’ work.

The Astana team has passed a sort of financial stress test by the UCI, which said Wednesday that the team could continue to hold its ProTour license and compete in upcoming events. Astana secured a bank guarantee in time to meet a deadline of midnight Tuesday. The UCI said Astana could start the Tour of Luxembourg, which begins Wednesday evening with a prologue time trial. "The UCI has verified that Astana has fulfilled the conditions," the organisation said in a statement, one of those conditions being the fulfillment of outstanding sponsorship contracts.

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.

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