Tom Boonen’s race resume runs deep, having won races and stages around the world. Perhaps best known in the United States for his Tour de France stage wins and two victories at Paris-Roubaix, the Quick Step rider’s favorite race lies in his native Belgium, with the Tour of Flanders.
Frank Vandenbroucke – once one of cycling’s top stars who tumbled into a spiral of drug abuse and an apparent suicide attempt – is back in the winner’s circle. The 34-year-old Vandenbroucke won Saturday’s 15km time trial and grabbed the overall leader’s jersey at La Boucle de l’Artois, a second-division French race. Not counting a 2005 kermesse, Vandenbroucke hasn’t won a race in a decade since he won eight races in 1999, including Het Volk, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, two stages at the Vuelta a España and second in the Tour of Flanders.
Domenico Pozzovivo (CSF-Navigare) picked a good time to win his first race as a professional, winning Saturday’s decisive climbing stage at the Settimana Lombarda in northern Italy. The 26-year-old attacked out of a lead, seven-man group and held off veteran Davide Rebellin (Diquigiovanni) to win by two seconds in the 159km queen stage starting and finishing in Flero. Italian Daniele Pietopolli (LPR) finished third at two seconds back as part of a group of six chasers that also included Rebellin to grab the leader’s jersey with just one stage remaining.
David de la Fuente earned his Fuji-Servetto team an important victory in Saturday’s GP Miguel Indurain to open “Basque Week” in Spain. De la Fuente – the most aggressive rider in the 2006 Tour de France – marked a late-race surge by Alexander Kolobnov (Saxo Bank) and two-time winner Fabian Wegmann (Milram) a mountainous course through the hills around Estella. The 191.4km course featured no less than 11 rated climbs, but wasn’t decided until the final kilometer up a short steep climb to the line.
Two days after winning a stage by default, Candido Barbosa (Palmeiras Resort) won straight up in Saturday’s fourth stage at the Volta ao Alentejo in Portugal. Barbosa out-kicked Daniel Petrov (Madeinox Boavista) in the 164.7km stage from Alter do Chao to Nisa to claim victory. Coming through third was Francisco Mancebo (Rock Racing), giving the American squad its second top-three of the week. There were no major shakeups in the overall standings. Hector Guerra (Liberty Seguros), winner of Friday’s time trial, retained the overall leader’s jersey.
Over the course of a nearly 100-year history, the Tour of Flanders has never been as popular as it is today. With a $2 million budget, crowds estimated at 700,000, and 840 volunteers patrolling the 261.5km route, the fabled cobblestone classic from Bruges to Meerbeke is Belgium’s largest annual sport event. The organizing newspaper, Het Nieuwsblad, devoted 24 pages to its Saturday race preview, and expects to fill another 24 pages on Sunday.
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Fabian Cancellara is ready for the Tour of Flanders, he just doesn’t know how ready. The Saxo Bank star said earlier this year that winning the Ronde van Vlaanderen was a big goal of his — but that was before a shoulder injury and a sinus problem sidetracked his training. On Friday evening in Belgium, Cancellara said the important thing is that he is here to race with his team.
Daniele Bennati isn’t going to let muscle pain keep him out of the Tour of Flanders, though it’s likely he’ll have plenty more of that after Sunday’s punishing course. The Liquigas sprinter confirmed he will race Sunday despite some lingering pain from a crash dating back to the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico. Team doctors said Bennati was suffering from intense muscle pain in his right thigh, which flared up again during this week’s Three Days of De Panne. Bennati, however, insists on racing and the team is standing by his decision.
French rider Jerome Coppel delivered another victory for FDJeux after kicking to victory in Friday’s Route Adélie de Vitré in France. Coppel came through one second ahead of the chasing David Le Lay (Agritubel), with Romain Feillu (Agritubel) coming through third to round out the podium. Critérium International winner Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank) came through with a group at 3:45 in 35th.
Spanish rider Hector Guerra (Liberty Seguros) took control of the Volta ao Alentejo in Portugal on Friday, pulling the double in the 19km time trial. Guerra won the race in 24:05, 18 seconds faster than runner-up Christophe Moreau (Agritubel). Guerra also takes over the lead, moving just two seconds ahead of Vitaliy Kondrut (ISD).
Price: $90 Colors: Red, orange, pink, yellow, green, blue, silver, and black Web site: www.rockymounts.com RockyMounts is replacing its Lariat SL rack with the all-new PitchFork. The new rack is RockyMounts' standard in fork-mounted bike carriers for Thule and Yakima crossbars. The new design is a bit more sleek with a low-profile design for better aerodynamics.
Another sprint in Italy and another victory for Alessandro Petacchi. The Italian snagged his second win at the Settimana Lombarda in Friday’s stage into Vertova to retain his grip on the overall lead. Already a winner on Wednesday (plus a member of LPR’s winning team time trial squad to open the race Tuesday), Petacchi made easy work of Luca Paolini (Acqua e Sapone). Francisco Ventoso, the Spanish sprinter on Carmiooro, crossed the line third in the 183.6km course. The race continues Saturday with the 159km fifth stage starting and finishing in Flero.
Shimano is revamping its Ultegra group, cutting weight from the second-in-line road parts and, in trademark trickle-down fashion, incorporating many features that the company added to its Dura-Ace group last year. The company claims that the new Ultegra 6700 group will be more than 150 grams lighter than the current Ultegra 6600 and 45 grams lighter than the Ultegra SL group.
Rabobank 1 Brown, Graeme 2 Flecha Giannoni, Juan... 3 Hayman, Mathew 4 Horrillo Mun?oz, Pedro 5 Leezer, Tom 6 Nuyens, Nick 7 Stamsnijder, Tom 8 Van Emden, Jos Quick Step 11 Boonen, Tom 12 Devolder, Stijn 13 Hovelijnck, Kurt 14 Hulsmans, Kevin 15 Tosatto, Matteo 16 Van Impe, Kevin 17 Velo, Marco 18 Weylandt, Wouter Silence - Lotto 21 Cretskens, Wilfried 22 Elijzen, Michiel 23 Hoste, Leif 24 Kaisen, Olivier 25 Lang, Sebastian 26 Ljungblad, Jonas 27 Roelandts, Jurgen 28 Scheirlinckx, Staf
Tom Boonen has won the Tour of Flanders twice, but that doesn’t at all diminish his desire for a win again here at the first cobbled classic. “I’m eager,” Boonen told VeloNews. “It’s a big challenge trying to be good in that same period every year. And I’ve achieved that goal almost every year. I think my sensation now is a little bit better than the same period last year. But being good and winning are still a big difference.”
Astana has its fingers crossed for a strong showing in Sunday’s Tour of Flanders, bringing a mixed squad of young yet ambitious riders keen to prove their place among the favorites. With GC riders like Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador cooling their jets after finishing 1-2 in the Vuelta a Castilla y León last week, the Astana squad brings its Kazakh contingent to the Belgian classic. Maxim Iglinskiy, third in the E3-Prijs Vlaanderen last weekend, will be the team’s best chance, with riders like Assan Bazayev and Dmitriy Muravyev hoping to be in the mix.
Columbia-Highroad brings a multi-pronged attack for Sunday’s Tour of Flanders, with George Hincapie and Marcus Burghardt lining up as the team’s two top options. The veteran American, third at Flanders in 2006, and Burghardt, winner of the 2007 Ghent-Wevelgem, will be supported by a strong Columbia team laden with motivated riders.
Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre continues on his road toward the Giro d’Italia with a trip to the hilly, six-day Vuelta al País Vasco. The Cervélo TestTeam captain wants to see marked improvement in his condition during challenging and highly competitive week of racing in Spain’s hilly Basque Country. “It’s the last stage race that I will race before the Giro and I hope to feel the accumulation of the work I’ve done,” Sastre said. “The goal is to arrive at the start of the Giro in the best condition.”
The public prosecutor's office in Vienna on Friday announced five new arrests in the anti-doping case that has rocked Austrian sport over the last few weeks. Five unnamed people were arrested in the provinces of Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria and Carinthia between February and the beginning of April, said prosecutor spokesman Gerhard Jarosch. Some of them were active in the "fitness and weight training" sectors and are suspected of dealing in doping agents on a commercial scale, thereby contravening anti-doping and pharmaceutical laws, Jarosch said.
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Garmin-Slipstream rider Blake Caldwell, who narrowly missed out on a national road championship in a photo finish against Tyler Hamilton last September, fell while training in Spain Thursday and broke his femur. Team manager Jonathan Vaughters confirmed that Caldwell had fractured the neck of his femoral head while training in Girona. “It’s a similar injury to what happened to Floyd Landis,” Vaughters said. “Hopefully Blake won’t have all the same problems Floyd had.”
Samuel Caldeira (Palmeiras Resort-Prio Tavira) was first across the line in the second stage of the Volta ao Alentejo in Portugal on Thursday, but judges relegated him for dangerous sprinting. Instead, Filipe Cardoso (Liberty Seguros) was awarded the victory in the 209.9km stage, with Cesar Quiterio (CC Loulé) taking second and Bruno Lima (Madeinox Boavista) with third.
Frederik Willems (Liquigas), won the Three Days of De Panne on Thursday following the race-concluding 15.3km time trial which was won by Garmin’s Bradley Wiggins. Willems nipped in ahead of Dutch racers Joost Posthuma and Tom Leezer for his third career success in seven years as a pro. Wiggins won the time trial, which followed on from a 112km third regular stage where Isle of Man sprinter Mark Cavendish saw off all-comers with his second consecutive victory over Australian rival Robbie McEwen.
Another sprint at Settimana Lombarda in Italy, but a different winner this time as Mattia Gavazzi gives underdog Diquigiovanni yet another win on the 2009 season. Gavazzi won the 164km third stage by out-kicking Yuri Metlushenko (Amore e Vita), with former world track champion Theo Bos (Rabobank continental) continuing to show progress with his second consecutive third place. Overnight leader Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) conserved the leader’s jersey going into Friday’s fourth stage.
One of the most famous and unique endurance races in the world takes place annually in Alaska. The Iditarod sled dog race was won on March 18, when Alaskan Lance Mackey reached the end of the 1049-mile route from Anchorage to Nome in nine days, 21 hours, 38 minutes and 46 seconds. The last finisher came in nearly six days later.
Quick Step 1. Stijn Devolder 2. Tom Boonen 3. Sylvain Chavanel Kevin De Weert Kevin Van Impe Maarten Wynants Matteo Tosatto Carlos Barredo Silence-Lotto 11 CRETSKENS Wilfried 12 DELAGE Mickael 13 GILBERT Philippe 14 HOSTE Leif 15 LANG Sebastian 16 SCHEIRLINCKX Staf 17 VAN AVERMAET Greg 18 VANSUMMEREN Johan AG2R-La Mondiale 21 CLERC Aurélien 22 DION Renaud 23 ELMIGER Martin 24 HINAULT Sébastien 25 PINEAU Cédric 26 POULHIES Stéphane 27 ROUSSEAU Nicolas 28 SMUKULIS Gatis Astana 31 BAZAYEV Assan 32 IGLINSKY Maxim
Garmin-Slipstream is enjoying its best March ever. With stage victories by Christian Vande Velde in Paris-Nice and Tyler Farrar in Tirreno-Adriatico, the team has stepped up nicely in its second season at the elite level. David Zabriskie rode to third at the Castilla y León tour last week and Danny Pate capped a strong spring with third overall at Critérium International. The results marked the first podiums at top-level, European stage races for both riders.
Milram will bring its young guns to the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, hoping for a shot at surprising the favorites. The team is betting its lot on Niki Terpstra and Martin Velits, with strong support from former Paris-Roubaix winner Servais Knaven and riders like Gerard Ciolek.
In a repeat of his victory Wednesday, Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad) relegated Robbie McEwen (Katusha) to second place for the second day running at the Three Days of De Panne. The recently crowned Milan-San Remo champion roared to victory in Thursday’s short, 112km stage, pushing back a threat from McEwen by a half-wheel. Dutch rider Andre Schulze came through third. Overnight leader Filippo Pozzato (Katusha), who won the opening stage as part of a breakaway, lost 40 seconds and ceded the leader’s jersey to Frederik Willems (Liquigas).
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Ghent-Wevelgem is one of Belgium's classic April races, held every year on the Wednesday between the bookending weekends of The Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. The first race, held in 1934, was brutal, taking riders over rough cobblestone roads. It hasn't gotten any easier. Long called "the sprinter's classic," because of its relatively flat run-in, today riders must twice climb the very steep, narrow and cobbled Kemmelberg climb. It is here the race is often decided.
The Tour of Flanders dates to 1913. Photographer Graham Watson has not been capturing its action for that long, but you might find some surprises among our favorite Watson photos from the last three decades of the race. This Sunday's race is sure to create some more memorable scenes, and Watson, and VeloNews, will be there to capture them. Check back Sunday for more of his photos, along with live coverage and a race report from VeloNews' John Wilcockson.
The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) ordered that the former coach and doctor of now-retired cyclist Geneviève Jeanson be banned from sport for life, after concluding that they had “aided, abetted and assisted” in providing EPO to Jeanson throughout her career. Relying on direct testimony from Jeanson, the panel found that André Aubut and physician Maurice Duquette had directly administered synthetic erythropoietin to Jeanson, including times during the early part of her career while she was a minor.
Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) won the second stage of the Settimana Lombarda in northern Italy to retain control of the leader’s jersey. The Italian sprinter held off compatriot Danilo Napolitano (Katusha) and former track world champion Theo Bos (Rabobank) in the stage Wednesday into Calcinate. The 35-year-old Petacchi was already the leader after his LPR team won the team time trial to open the race on Tuesday. The race continues Thursday with the third stage.
Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad) bolted to a sprint victory Wednesday in the second stage of the Three Days of De Panne in Belgium. The recently crowned Milan-San Remo champ beat back Robbie McEwen (Katusha) and Italian Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) in the 219km start into Coxyde. "It was a long day for the team, who worked very hard. I'd have liked to help one of my teammates win it — but with McEwen in my slipstream that wasn't possible. I had to sprint myself to win it," Cavendish said.
Glen Chadwick of Rock Racing narrowly missed out on victory and a chance at taking the leader’s jersey in the first stage of the Volta ao Alentejo in Portugal on Wednesday. The Kiwi was beaten to the line by Maxime Bouet (Agritubel), who won the 159km opening stage and took the leader’s jersey in the five-day race. Vitaliy Kondrut (ISD) came through third. With time bonuses, Bouet leads Chadwick by five seconds, with Kondrut slotting into third at eight seconds adrift.
Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri on Wednesday called for Alejandro Valverde, embroiled in a Spanish blood doping probe, to be suspended for two years. Last month, Valverde told an Italian anti-doping hearing he had not done anything wrong and was in no way mixed up in Spain's Operación Puerto scandal.
Theo Bos is racing this week at the Settimana Lombarda in northern Italy with the Rabobank continental team in what’s his third stage race since switching from the track. The former world sprint champion admitted he was a bit nostalgic watching the world track championships last week in Poland, but the Dutch sprinter remains firm in his commitment to give the road a shot.
Óscar Freire is expected to return to competition in time for the Vuelta al País Vasco next week in Spain. The three-time world champion is still recovering from a crash at the Tour of California that left him with two broken ribs and difficulty with breathing. The injuries forced Freire to skip his first major goal of 2009 at Milan-San Remo. Rabobank officials are hopeful the Spanish sprinter’s condition continues to improve.
Editor's Note: Rebecca Rusch competed in South Africa's Absa Cape Epic stage race on on a Mixed team with fellow American Matthew Weatherley-White. Rusch, a two-time 24-hour mountain biking world champion, is sharing her daily diaries with VeloNews readers. Her stage 5 and 6 diaries were not published until today because VeloNews used up its March quota on the word "epic".
Price: $2 per bar Weight: 40 grams Flavors: Cranberry Nut and Chocolate Peanut Butter Web site: www.forzegps.com Forze GPS is a new health bar from PacificHealth Laboratories, makers of Accelerade and Endurox products. Not so much a mid-race snack, Forze GPS is intended to help curb hunger to help keep endurance athletes lean.
Editor's Note: Rebecca Rusch competed in South Africa's Absa Cape Epic stage race on on a Mixed team with fellow American Matthew Weatherley-White. Rusch, a two-time 24-hour mountain biking world champion, is sharing her daily diaries with VeloNews readers. Her stage 4 and 5 diaries were not published until today because VeloNews used up its March quota on the word "epic".
Dear Readers, I’ve discovered the ultimate in compatibility of shifting components: Sturmey-Archer 3-speed shifters and hubs work perfectly with Campagnolo, Shimano or SRAM 9-, 10-, or 11-speed drivetrains. What a sweet deal! Now you can avoid all of those flashy colorful bikes and get top performance with a nice, practical black bike with steel upright handlebars. Or you can simplify your flashy lightweight modern bike with a practical, three-position lever.
Lance Armstrong’s coach says the seven-time Tour de France winner is paying extra attention to his sprint as he prepares for his return to top-level racing following his broken collarbone. Armstrong is working on his top-end speed with weights in the gym and on the stationary trainer, coach Chris Carmichael told LanceNews.com, a new Competitor Group Web site launched Wednesday, April 1. Short, intense sprint workouts on the trainer should pay dividends later in the season, he said.
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Rudy Pevenage – the former Telekom sport director who’s now behind the wheel at Rock Racing – suggested there was more than one large-scale doping ring operating in Europe when the Operación Puerto scandal erupted in May 2006. Peverage -- who tutored 1997 Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich throughout much of his career – said in an interview with the Basque daily GARA that alleged ringleader Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes wasn’t the only doctor working illicitly with elite athletes.
The U.S.-based Rock Racing team has released a revised roster for the upcoming Volta ao Alentejo, one that does not include U.S. road champion Tyler Hamilton. Hamilton, who recently missed Spain's Vuelta a Castilla y León due to bronchitis, was originally listed as team leader for the Rock squad slated to compete at the Volta ao Alentejo, which begins Wednesday in Portugal. Hamilton was listed as team leader in a roster submitted on March 10. He has since been replaced by Spaniard David Martin.
The May issue of VeloNews features an interview with David Clinger, once one of America's greatest hopes for success in Europe, where he raced with Festina and with Lance Armstrong on U.S. Postal. In recent years, Clinger's career has stalled as he has battled addiction. He is best known for his facial tattoos, which he is now in the process of having removed.
The Italian team of defending champion Danilo Di Luca, LPR, won the opening team time trial in Tuesday’s first stage of the Settimana Lombarda. The team covered the 18.7km course in 20 minutes, 54 seconds, nipping Katusha by six seconds with the Rabobank continental team, featuring Tejay Van Garderen, stopping the clock for third at 23 seconds back. LPR sprinter Alessandro Petacchi was first across the line to snag the leader’s jersey.
Austrian cyclist Bernhard Kohl, stripped of third in last year's Tour de France for drugs, faces a maximum five-year prison sentence after admitting Tuesday to blood-doping and other offences. Kohl told a press conference that he had gone to the Viennese laboratory Humanplasma for transfusions with blood supplied by his former manager Stefan Matschiner. "He (Matschiner) supplied me doping products. I did blood-doping three or four times," Kohl said.
Reigning Olympic time trial champion Fabian Cancellara is expected to start Sunday’s Tour of Flanders despite coming off an injury-plagued spring that forced him to forfeit a defense of his title at Milan-San Remo. Cancellara has suffered a string of illnesses, including an early exit from the Tour of California, and then a shoulder injury that forced him to miss nearly two weeks of training in early March. Earlier this year, Cancellara said winning the Tour of Flanders was one of his top goals of the season.
Filippo Pozzato continues on his strong pre-Flanders form, notching victory in the opening stage of the Three Days of De Panne in Belgium. Pozzato, who won the Prijs Harelbeke on Saturday, out-kicked fellow escapee Frédérick Willems (Liquigas) to win the stage and take the first leader’s jersey in the four-stage, three-day race. Greg Van Avermaet (Silence-Lotto) won the bunch sprint, some 57 seconds back to take third place.
It’s crunch time for George Hincapie and his quest to win a northern classic. The 35-year-old enters the most important week of his racing calendar more confident than ever that an elusive trophy from Flanders or Roubaix will soon be his. The Columbia-Highroad rider says he’s feeling “stronger than ever” and has enjoyed one of the best winter preparations of his career, racing in the Tour Down Under for the first time and spending most of January training in California.
Dear Lennard,
I always wondered about hanging my mountain bikes vertically too but not really worried about the shocks but about the hydraulic brakes and what that might do to the lines. Is it fine?
Paul
Dear Paul,
That’s a good question. If the bike is hanging vertically with the front wheel up, there would be no problem, because any air bubbles would gravitate toward the lever, which would be where you’d want them. But how about with the rear wheel up?
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Park Tool started in 1956 as Hazel Park Cycle Center, a bike shop on the northern edge of of the Twin Cities, adjacent a park of the same name. Owners Art Engstrom and Howard Hawkins fed themselves through the cold Minnesota winters by sharpening ice skates, and they built their own bike tools. They made the original Park Repair Stand out of old parts, and they patented the clamp’s design. The base that held it steady was a huge artillery shell casing filled with concrete attached to metal clawed chair feet. The “Hazel Park Bicycle Repair Stand Company” was born.
Geoff Kabush (Rocky Mountain-Maxxis) and Georgia Gould (Luna) took home impressive wins at the opening round of USA Cycling’s Pro Cross-country tour (ProXCT), held at Southridge Park in Fontana, California. The race was also the second round of the Kenda Cup West, the West Coast half of the ShoAir-Specialized U.S. Cup series.
It’s another busy week of racing in Europe, with stage races in Belgium, Portugal and Italy, the second round of the women’s World Cup and a smattering of one-day races in France and Spain. Without question, the main feature is the Tour of Flanders on Sunday. In cycling-crazed Belgium, this is their Super Bowl. The entire nation seems to come to a standstill to watch the 258.9km battle from Brugge to Meerbeke (with plenty of beer-drinking along the way). This year’s route features 16 of the infamous cobble-stoned climb where most of the major attacks go down.
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BMC's Jeff Louder and Columbia Highroad's Ina Yoko Teutenberg won the 2009 Redlands Bicycle Classic's overall titles Sunday, as Kyle Wamsley (Colavita) and Alison Powers (Team Type 1) grabbed the stage wins. Apparently every second does count. The overall wins came down to just 1 second for Teutenberg, and to just 5 seconds for Louder. Teutenberg accumulated enough time bonuses in the final stage to take the jersey away from Amber Neben (Nurnberger Shoair) who fell to second place, while Alison Powers (Team Type 1) took third, 27 seconds down.
Frenchman Gregory Bauge overcame a tough test against Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang to win the world sprint crown at the world track cycling championships in Pruszkow, Poland. on Sunday. Awang took the silver medal with another Frenchman, Kevin Sireau, beating Australian Shane Perkins to take the bronze. The men's sprint tournament is traditionally the most coveted of all track cycling events, and it lived up to that billing thanks to the unexpected rise of Awang to the final.
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Editor's Note: Connie Carpenter is in Pruszkow, Poland, covering the Track World Championships for VeloNews.com while supporting her son, Taylor Phinney. Carpenter is a former world champion on the track and an avid fan of track cycling. Track cycling seems much bigger and more diverse than ever before. While some may criticize the Brits for winning just two jerseys here in Poland, most of us are admiring the fact that so many countries represented so well … with the Aussies dominating the medal tally with ten medals.
Marianne Vos out-kicked Emma Johannson to win the Trofeo Binda on Sunday and grabs the first leader’s jersey to open the 2009 women’s World Cup. Vos surged ahead of her Swedish rival in a two-up sprint to claim the opening round of the World Cup series. Olympic time trial champion Kristin Armstrong crossed the line at 3:34 back to round out the podium with third.
French rider Anthony Geslin delivered FDJeux a big victory Sunday at the Brabantse Pijl in Belgium. Geslin won out of an eight-man group that pulled clear in the closing 30km of the 193.5km circuit course. Fabian Wegmann (Milram) tried to surprise the group and sprang off the final wheel with 250 meters to go with an explosive sprint. The German opened a promising gap, but Geslin was able to recover and catch him at the line to secure victory.
Olympic road champion Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) won for the first time in 2009 after nipping David de la Fuente (Fuji-Servetto) at the line to claim Sunday’s GP de Llodio in Spain. Sánchez covered the 175.5km course in 4 hours, 3 minutes, 58 seconds, crossing the line just ahead of De la Fuente, the winner in 2007. Rounding out the podium was Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia), who came through one second back. JJ Rojas (Caisse d’Epargne) led across a dozen-strong chase group at 21 seconds slower.
Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank) was fast just enough in Sunday’s individual time trial to win the Critérium International for a record-tying fifth time. The veteran German was fifth in the 8.3km course in Charleville-Mézières and held off a challenge from Danny Pate (Garmin-Slipstream), who started the third and final stage in second place, just seven seconds off Voigt’s time.
Editor's Note: Connie Carpenter is in Pruszkow, Poland, covering the Track World Championships for VeloNews.com while supporting her son, Taylor Phinney. Carpenter is a former world champion on the track and an avid fan of track cycling.
Jeff Louder (BMC) and Amber Neben (Nurnberger Shoair) retained their yellow jerseys after the dust settled in bunch sprints for both the men’s and women’s Redlands Downtown Criteriums in Saturday’s stage 2 at the Redlands Cycling Classic. The top five in the men’s GC remained virtually unchanged, while Neben’s advantage over second placed Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Columbia-High Road) narrowed from 14 seconds to just 2 seconds due to time bonuses.
Denmark relieved Britain of yet another world crown when they won the men's Madison gold at the world track cycling championships in Pruszkow, Poland, Saturday. Australia took the silver with the Czech Republic claiming the bronze. Defending champions Britain, featuring the two-man team of Mark Cavendish and fellow Manxman Peter Kennaugh, finished sixth at a lap down. Kennaugh suffered a crash before the seventh of the 10 sprints where points can be picked up for the first four riders over the line during the 200-lap race.
There’s a commonly held sports adage that says the best way to get better at your chosen activity is to play with people who are better than you. I certainly don’t agree with this in all cases. Hoops with LeBron would only equal thunder dunks in face. I’d probably drown in Michael Phelps’ wake. And clearly Troy Polamalu could rip all our heads off.
Lampre’s Damiano Cunego wrapped up his second Coppi e Bartali title on Saturday despite being beaten in a sprint finish by Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) on the fifth and final stage. Evans, the reigning champion, edged out Cunego, also the 2006 winner, and Italian Giovanni Visconti at the end of a 178.5km trek from Scandiano to Sassuolo. The Australian, who finished second overall, had begun the day 28 seconds behind Cunego with Massimo Giunti a further four seconds back.
Besson Chaussures-Sojasun’s Jimmy Casper showed off his strong early season form Saturday, winning the opening stage of France’s Critérium International , a 190km ride from Monthois to Charleville-Mézières. The 30-year-old Casper had already won two stages in Etoile de Bessèges in February. Casper said he was especially pleased to be a member of a small continental squad making a mark on a prestigious race . Casper was quick to praise Christian Prudhomme, the director of cycling at ASO, for having "invited a small team to the Critérium International.”
Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) got the big win he was looking for with victory in the E3 Prijs Harelbeke on Saturday. Considered a preview for next weekend’s Tour of Flanders, the Italian out-kicked Tom Boonen (Quick Step) to win by a bike length. Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) came in third to round out the podium.
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Youth and wisdom. Four laps pretty much flat out. The kilo is short. Painful. Taylor rode off the track with his head down, I could tell from the stands that he was disappointed. Or as coach Neal said, “he’s stunned.” The former World Champion (2003) Stefan Nimke cranked a 1.00.666 in the ride just before T took to the track. Blazing fast. A sea level world best time. Taylor rode slightly faster than he rode in Copenhagen and set a new American record – but it was a full second behind the German. Deflated, he rolled to the infield to warmdown.
Jeff Louder (BMC) and Amber Neben (Nurnberger Shoair) emerged as the overall race leaders after a tough and windy Beaumont Circuit Race, the first stage of the 2008 Redlands Bicycle Classic on Friday. Louder followed a daring attack by Peter Stetina (Felt-Holoweko-Slipstream) over the day’s final climb, then put enough distance between himself and GC leader Ben Day (Fly V Australia) to snatch the yellow jersey, thanks to the 10-second bonus he snatched for the stage victory.
After winning gold in the 4k individual pursuit, American Taylor Phinney was second in the 1 kilometer time trial at the world track championships in Poland. Phinney rode a 1 01.611, Connie Carpenter told VeloNews in an email. That's about the same time as he did at the Copenhagen world cup last month, but a full second slower than the gold medalist, German Stefan Nimke. Mohd Rizal Tisin made history to hand Malaysia their first ever world championships medal with bronze in a time of 1:01.658.