Road

Belgian rider Kevin Ista (Agritubel) took a win in Thursday´s third stage at the 36th Tour Méditerranéen ahead of French rider Jimmy Engoulvent (Besson Chaussures) in the shortened 70km stage. Organizers reduced the stage from 110km to 70km in a course that ran from Maubec-Coustellet to Istres. A trio pulled clear of the pack, with Ista coming up big with the victory. It was Caisse d’Epargne who placed hot potato with the leader’s jersey, passing the lead from Luis Leon Sanchez to Ivan Gutierrez. [nid:87649]

NorCal’s Ben Jacques-Maynes has been a mainstay domestic pro at the Amgen Tour of California since the race’s first edition in 2006, and he’s back for 2009. Jacques-Maynes, who hails from Berkeley but lives outside of Santa Cruz, will co-captain the Bissell squad alongside fellow time-trial specialist Tom Zirbel.

Katusha’s Toni Colom gave his newly-formed team its first overall stage race victory of the season winning, the Mallorcan Trophy, a five-stage race which ended here Thursday, for the second time. German sprinter Gerald Ciolek (Milram) claimed victory in the fifth and final stage held over 147km between Magaluf and Palmanova. Katusha, Russian-funded and the newest addition to the pro cycling peloton, dominated the race almost from start to finish.

Indonesia's Samai Samai Thursday took the fourth stage of the Tour de Langkawi, ending Mattia Gavazzi's three-stage winning streak. "I never thought that today would be the best day for me in the Tour de Langkawi," said Samai, a member of the Le Tua Cycling Team. "I'm really proud as I only had a month of practice with Le Tua in Malaysia,” he said. “This win proves that now I'm the best rider in Asia."

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After starting an independent anti-doping program by taking samples at the Tour Down Under last month, Lance Armstrong and Anti-Doping Sciences Institute agreed to end the program, Oliver Catlin, the company's CEO and program manager, told VeloNews Wednesday. Catlin, the son of company founder Don Catlin, said expense was a factor, but administration of the program, coordination with other testers and communicating the results to the public also were challenges that led to the "mutual decision to end the program."

Plans to host a ProTour race in Russia this year are being waylaid by the world economic crisis. Officials from the UCI confirmed Wednesday that the planned Tour de Sochi, expected to be held sometime in May, will be pushed back until 2010. “The new UCI race is well-supported by the Russian government and motivated sponsors,” said a UCI statement released Wednesday. “However, the global economic crisis promoted organizers to delay the race.”

Last year’s Tour of California was notable for its cool, rainy weather that combined with a nasty bug going through the peloton to produce a 41 percent attrition rate for the then-eight-day race. This year, riders are hoping to avoid the infection. But there is little hope of escape from a longer, tougher, race and predicted cool, wet and windy weather. Team OUCH's Tim Johnson, known for his ability to race cyclocross in brutal conditions, says he is preparing for the toughest race of his career. "It's going to be friggin' brutal," Johnson told VeloNews Wednesday.

Pre-season strength training carries its own nutritional demands

Price: $59 to $129 Web site: www.deuterusa.com Deuter is coming out with three new hydration packs and a brand new drip-proof bit valve. The new Helix valve is standard issue with the 2009 hydration pack range and is also available on its own. The valve can be sealed shut and reopened with a twist. Even when the valve is open it should be resistant to leaking thanks to the new internal, spring-loaded plunger that seals the system.

On Saturday Lance Armstrong returns to pro racing in America. Following the Tour Down Under in January — his first stage race since coming out of retirement — Armstrong returned home to Texas for a week before heading to Astana’s Santa Rosa team camp. A few days before heading to California for the Amgen Tour, Armstrong spoke with VeloNews about his expectations for the race, his teammate and two-time race winner Levi Leipheimer, and his take on some of the other major teams in the race. VeloNews: The Tour of California starts Saturday. How are you feeling?

Spaniard Antonio Colom (Team Katusha) won the penultimate stage of the Mallorca Challenge on Wednesday and charged into the overall lead. Colom won the 143.3km stage around Bunyola in 3:54:49, 56 minutes ahead of Edvald Boasson (Team Columbia-High Road) and Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step). Colom now leads Pineau by 41 seconds going into the finale, a 147.6km leg from Magaluf to Palmanova, with Boasson third in the same time.

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) on Wednesday summoned Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde to face charges of doping or attempting to dope in relation to the infamous Operación Puerto affair. The Caisse D'Epargne rider has been asked to appear before CONI at Rome's Stadio Olimpico on Monday. CONI said it had also informed the rider's team and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) of the summons. The summons relates to a blood-urine sample given by Valverde on July 21, during the 2008 Tour de France after a stage in Italy.

Winter-weary racers will get a taste of springtime this weekend during the 17th annual John Earley Memorial Valley of the Sun stage race. The? three-day event in and around Phoenix has traditionally been the first stage race ?for many domestic professional and elite regional teams, and the weather should be welcoming, with sunshine and temperatures in the upper 60s.

Caisse d'Epargne won stage two of the 36th Tour Méditerranéen on Wednesday, and Spaniard Luis Sanchez took over the leader’s yellow jersey from Belarussian sprinter Yauheni Hutarovich (Française des Jeux). The American Garmin-Slipstream squad took second in the 25km team time trial between Narbonne and Gruissan, with Barloworld third.

In a year of comebacks, Hayden Roulston has one of the most interesting. No doping bans, no suspicious test results. Instead, Roulston walked away from the sport’s biggest team in 2005 because his heart just wasn’t into it anymore. Six years ago, Roulston was hailed as New Zealand’s most promising talent ever. He signed on with Cofidis at the ripe age of 22, then joined Discovery Channel for the 2005 season. Everything was looking up for the tall, powerful Kiwi.

Mattia Gavazzi is on a roll. The 25-year-old Italian on Diquigiovanni-Androni won the third stage of the Tour de Langkawi on Wednesday which ended in the historic Malaysian port city of Malacca, his third victory in as many days. Australian Chris Sutton (Garmin-Slipstream) team took second place. Gavazzi, the overall race leader, won the 186-kilometer (115.58-mile) stage in four hours, 33 minutes and 29 seconds. Gavazzi won the opening stage from Putrajaya to Senawang on Monday and the second stage from Senawang to Malacca Tuesday.

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Just one day before heading out to the Amgen Tour of California, Tom Zirbel (Bissell Pro Cycling) stopped by the VeloNews offices with his Pinarello FM1 time trial bike. He was on his way out for a last day of training before joining the star-studded peloton in Sacramento for Saturday’s prologue. We got some photos and component highlights, and enjoyed a relaxed conversation with Zirbel.

A simple 20-minute field test can determine your power at threshold and is the best starting point for a power-based training plan. Knowing one’s threshold wattage gives you the ability to use wattage-based training zones and to understand power readout in real time on the bike. Most importantly, you will be able to analyze training data on your computer and measure your cycling improvement. What

U.S. based pro team BMC earned wild card status from the UCI on Tuesday, but some major European teams did not, possibly ruling out starts at the major tours and ProTour events. Agritubel, Acqua e Sapone, LPR and Xacobeo did not receive the wild card label needed which allows riders access to their biological passport and hence the sport's major tours.

The third and final stage of the Women's Tour of Qatar saw Italy’s Giorgia Bronzini triumph for the second time of the event, outsprinting her rivals to clinch the win on the Al Khor Corniche. Overall victory went to Dutch rider Kirsten Wild. As the 84 remaining riders started, only 6 seconds separated Wild from her closest Bronzini on the GC.

Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) opened his 2009 account with victory in Tuesday’s third stage of the Mallorca Challenge after avoiding a final-turn crash by Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) late in the stage.   The Italian sprinter made it over three rated climbs midway through the 182.6km circuit course starting and finishing in Inca and then avoided a spill in the final kilometer to go that took out Valverde and Manuel Quinziato (Liquigas). Luckily for Valverde, who decided to race to help his teammate Jose Joaquim Rojas challenge for the overall, he wasn't seriously injured.

Scott Nydam completed not one but two team training camps in preparation for the Amgen Tour of California. The BMC rider, who claimed the 2008 King of the Mountains overall title, attended BMC’s January camp in his adopted state of California. Then he hitched onto the back of his friend Levi Leipheimer’s Astana team camp, based near the Santa Rosa area where both men live.

Mark Suprenant remembers the worst time he ever went low. He was at the base of the final climb of the Mount Wachusett road race when he felt his feet go numb. He didn’t have any food, nor did any of the other riders in his group. Suprenant decided to suck it up and ride to the top.

Coming off a fiery debut in the Tour of Qatar where he took two stages, Columbia-Highroad’s fastman Mark Cavendish says he’s ready for more action at the Amgen Tour of California.   “California is a massively important race for our team, and we’ve got a really strong line-up for the general classification,” Cavendish said. “I’ve looked at the route and it’s a very tough course, a lot tougher than last year. On paper, there’s only one stage that seems certain to end in a bunch sprint, so I will be targeting that one for sure.”

Mattia Gavazzi (Diquigiovanni-Androni) maintained his hold on both the points and leader’s jerseys at Malaysia’s Tour de Langkawi, by winning the 160.9km stage to Senawang to Malacca on Tuesday, his second win in as many stages. Gavazzi expressed surprise to have already notched up three victories this year, adding his two Langkawi stage wins to an earlier win at the Tour de San Luis.

David Moncoutie (Cofidis) and Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d’Epargne) are the top names starting the 36th Tour Méditerranéen this week in southern France. The split opening stage of the six-stage, five-day race will feature an afternoon team time trial, where Garmin-Slipstream will be a top favorite on the heels of its narrow victory at the TTT at the Tour of Qatar earlier this month.

Haimar Zubeldia will make his Astana debut at the Tour du Haut Var (February 21-22), where he will lead a team of Spanish and Kazakh riders in the two-day French race. Twice fifth at the Tour de France, Zubeldia joined Astana for 2009 after racing his entire nine-year pro career with Euskaltel-Euskadi.

Making it work

The Tour of Qatar has won its place in the international cycling calendar and it could one day host a Tour de France stage, cycling legend Eddy Merckx believes. This year's race, won last week by Belgian powerhouse Tom Boonen, was the eighth edition of an event which has seen competitive cycling come to the Gulf for the first time. The 64-year-old Merckx, whom many see as the greatest cyclist ever, said he is convinced that the Tour of Qatar has gained in strength during that time.

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Just before a trip to the San Diego wind tunnel, Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong shared some photos and component details of her new Cervélo S2 road bike. Armstrong is a star member of the new Cervélo TestTeam, and the new team is already working to contribute new information to the company. We also caught up by email with Cervélo race engineer Damon Rinard while he was at the San Diego low speed wind tunnel for a few insights.

Bike details

The upcoming Tour of California will showcase one of best fields ever assembled in North America. With current and former champions of the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix, world championships and other big races scheduled to attend, many have asked - is this the best field ever assembled in the United States? Let's take a look.

After Michael Barry’s most recent diary the Tour of Qatar took a distinctly different turn. As most of you have surely read, the morning after Mark Cavendish convincingly won his first of two stages, a young rider on the Topsport-Flanders team was found dead in his hotel room. It was a tragedy in the truest definition of the word, and I can only imagine what it must have been like for his roommate and his family, far away in Belgium; life-changing, to say the least.

Australian cyclist Cadel Evans announced on Monday that he would not compete in the Giro d'Italia this season because he was determined to win the Tour de France in July. The 31-year-old, who was second in last year's Tour, explained that while he would have liked to compete in the Giro it simply did not fit into his plans as he prepares to take on Alberto Contador and seven-time winner Lance Armstrong. "There has been a lot of talk about the Giro in the press," said the Silence team leader.

The Versus network will now air live coverage of the Tour of California weekend stages in addition to its live weekday coverage.

USA Cycling National Development Team riders Austin Carroll and Guy East become the first American Madison pair to win the U.I.V. Talent Cup Amateur Six-Day competition, which wrapped up with this weekend in Alkmaar, Netherlands. The duo is now guaranteed a professional contract for competition in two UIV Professional Six-day events during the 2010-11 season.

Eva Lutz (Nürnberger) won stage 2 of the Women’s Tour of Qatar on Monday. Veronicca Andreason (Bigla Cycling Team) took second in the 100km stage with Rochelle Gilmore (Lotto-Belison) third at 14 seconds back in a group that included Kirsten Wild (Cervélo TestTeam) and race leader Giorgia Bronzini (Italy). Wild took the leader’s jersey from Bronzini and now holds a five-second advantage over her with Kirtsy Broun (Australia) third at 12 seconds. Stage 1. Eva Lutz (G), Nürnberger, 110km in 2:49:56 (38.839 km/h)

Katusha made it two in a row Monday at the Mallorca Challenge, with Robbie McEwen darting clear for his first European win in 2009. A day after setting up Katusha teammate Gert Steegmans for the victory, McEwen out-kicked compatriot Graeme Brown (Rabobank) in the 176.5km stage, which started and finished in Cala Millor.

Italian Mattia Gavazzi (Diquigiovanni-Androni) won the first stage of the Tour de Langkawi cycling race in Malaysia's administrative capital of Putrajaya on Monday. Australian Chris Sutton from Garmin Slipstream took second place.[nid:87467] Gavazzi won the 133.8 kilometre (83.14 mile) stage in three hours, six minutes and 42 seconds. The seven-stage race began in Putrajaya, south of Kuala Lumpur on Monday and heads south to the tourist town of Malacca, then north to the Genting Highlands, before ending on February 15 in the capital Kuala Lumpur.

The road racing debut of former world triathlon champion Iván Raña couldn’t have started worse. Raña crashed in his first road race with Xacobeo-Galicia in Sunday’s high-speed circuit course at the Mallorca Challenge in Spain. Initial reports indicated a broken clavicle, but team officials are reporting a dislocated shoulder, which means only a two-week recovery period.

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The questions came in to us here at VeloNews after stage 5 of the Tour Down Under: What sunglasses did Lance have on? The answer: Oakley’s new sports spec, called Jawbone.

Colors: Pearl white with light blue details Sizes: 36 to 43; half sizes 39.5 to 42.5 Price: $170 Web site: www.northwave.com The Devine S.B.S. is Northwave’s high-end women’s road shoe. It is the women’s specific equivalent road shoe to the men’s Typhoon S.B.S. Northwave says that its lower heel and forefoot volume is more accommodating to a woman’s foot.

Two days after the end of the men's Tour of Qatar, the first women's event began with a 94-kilometer stage that started at the Islamic Art Museum in Doha and finished at Doha Shafallah. Italian national team member Giorgia Bronzini won by outsprinting Dutch riders Kirsten Wild and Ellen Van Dijk. The silver points’ jersey went to Wild while Van Dijk becomes the best young rider of the event. [nid:87443]

Frenchman Thomas Voeckler of Bouygues Telecom claimed overall victory in the Etoile de Besseges stage race, formerly the traditional season-opener, here Sunday. Voeckler, who famously battled the advances of Lance Armstrong to keep hold of the Tour de France yellow jersey in 2004, finished comfortably ahead of Slovenian Jure Kocjan and Russian Yuri Trofimov, last year's winner, in the general classification. Another Frenchman, Jean-Eudes Demaret of Cofidis, won the fifth and final stage after 145 km of racing between Gagnieres and Besseges. [nid:87402]

Fly V Australia rider Ben Day won a snowy and rainy Boulevard road race in east San Diego County Saturday while Floyd Landis used the hilly 90-mile hometown event to quietly return to racing after a two-year suspension. Landis’ Canadian OUCH teammate Cameron Evans took second while Fly V Australia riders and Amgen Tour of California invitees David Kemp, Charles Dionne, and Bernard Sulzberger rounded out the third through fifth. The race rolled out in a driving snowstorm that had barreled into the mountains 60 miles east of downtown San Diego the morning of the event. [nid:87423]

Defending champions Diquigiovanni-Androni from Venezuela are favourites to claim the yellow jersey once again in this year's Tour de Langkawi, which begins Monday. Twenty teams are competing in the seven-stage event, which takes in some of Malaysia's top tourist spots over the 1,031.7 kilometer (641 mile) route — scaled down from nine stages last year.

Katusha went one-two in the opening leg of the Mallorca Challenge with Gert Steegmans flying across the line ahead of teammate Robbie McEwen. Caisse d’Epargne sprinter José Joaquin Rojas came through third.   The 116km circuit course in Palma de Mallorca officially opened the 2009 Spanish calendar and the Russian-sponsored Katusha had its way against an international field.  

Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) opened the Italian racing season in the same way he’s done the past five seasons, with victory in the GP Costa degli Etruschi. Just like he’s done every year since 2005, “Ale-Jet” crossed the line Saturday with his arms raised high in triumph in Italy’s first race of the season.

Belgian rider Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil) won Saturday’s 153km fourth stage at Etoile de Bessèges for his first victory since a two-year ban was overturned last year. The Flemish cycling federation slapped Leukemans with a two-year racing ban for a case dating back to the 2007 world championships when he popped for synthetic testosterone. His Predictor-Lotto team sacked Leukemans in late 2007 and the team later fired a doctor who allegedly gave Leukemans a product called Prasteron that triggered the positive test.

'Cross worlds were crazy this year: the fans didn’t disappoint, the track was similar to the Leguna Seca raceway and the weather was pretty reasonable too. Thank you to all the people who came out and cheered on their fellow countrymen and women and especially the ones who cheered for me. It’s an amazing experience to be racing thousands of miles away and to hear so many people screaming your name. I was diggin’ the vibe in the morning watching Katie Compton give the ladies field a real leg whippin’. She rode strong and left it all out there on the course.

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Slovenian rider Jure Kocjan (Carmiooro A-Style) pulled the double, winning Friday’s third stage and taking the overall lead at the Etoile d’Bessèges in France. After two opening stages won in bunch sprints by Jimmy Casper (Besson Chaussures), Wednesday’s hilly profile was sure to decide the GC. A screw up that took the peloton down the wrong road and then nasty weather forced organizers to trim the stage from 133.4km down to 76.5km.

Tom Danielson is champing at the bit to unleash at the Amgen Tour of California. Garmin-Slipstream’s climber is coming off of a team training camp down in Silver City, New Mexico, where he and teammate Christian Vande Velde arrived a week early to get in additional miles in the high desert mountains. Now, he’s spending a week with his old coach Rick Crawford, doing hours of motorpacing up into the mountains around Boulder, Colorado, and getting comfortable in his new time trial position.

Australian sprinter Aaron Kemps (Rock Racing) has withdrawn from the upcoming Amgen Tour of California after being treated for a hernia this week. Surgeons in his hometown of Bundaberg, Australia, operated on Kemps on Wednesday and he is expected to fully recover. That recovery, however, will not come in time for Kemps to toe the line at the California tour, which is scheduled to begin February 14.

Garmin-Slipstream’s Magnus Bäckstedt, winner of Paris-Roubaix in 2004, has announced that he will retire from cycling effective immediately.

Lance Armstrong didn’t turn up for his Astana team’s Wednesday meet-and-greet with the media, but the seven-time Tour de France champ’s presence was unmistakable.

Belgian Tom Boonen (Quick Step) won the Tour of Qatar in Doha on Friday following Columbia's Mark Cavendish's sprint victory in the sixth and final stage. The win was Cavendish's second stage win in a tour marked by the untimely death of 21-year-old Belgian Frederiek Nolf on Thursday. Cavendish dedicated his stage win to the young rider and his family.

Ivan Basso (Liquigas) makes his first race appearance on home roads since his Operación Puerto ban as the Italian and Spanish calendars open this weekend. Basso already debuted his 2009 season at the Tour de San Luís in Argentina last month, but will race on Italian roads for the first time since the 2007 Tirreno-Adriatico in Saturday’s GP Costa degli Etruschi.

After a taste of the yellow jersey in the 2008 Tour de France, Kim Kirchen is taking aim for even more in 2009. The 30-year-old isn’t standing up and calling himself a candidate for overall victory, but he is staking out a realistic goal of the top-5 and, with a little luck, the podium. With back-to-back seventh place Tour finishes, Kirchen has the confidence that his time trialing has improved enough to let him expect to make further improvements in 2009.

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Price: $17.99 Size: 4 ounces Web site: www.hincapie.com Hincapie Sportswear stepped up its retail line with SkinDefense, an advanced sunscreen perfected for cyclists and other endurance athletes. The 4-ounce non-aerosol spray bottle is perfect for a jersey pocket or saddlebag, though that might not be necessary because a single application provides sweat-proof solar protection for up to five hours.

Price: $59.95 Web site: www.silcapompe.it

Parlee Cycles has made a leap into the big leagues by committing to sponsor the Fly V Australia (presented by Successful Living) pro team. The official announcement is pending, but other team component sponsors include Edge Composites (wheels, stem, bar, seatpost and fork), SRAM Red drivetrain, TRP brakes, and Fi'zi:k saddles.

Jimmy Casper made it two in a row for his Besson Chassures team at the Etoile de Bessèges.   The veteran French sprinter out-kicked younger rivals Romain Feillu (Agritubel) and Alexandre Blain (Cofidis) in the 149.2km second stage to win for the second day in a row and solidify his grip on the leader’s jersey in the five-day stage race. With the win and time bonuses, Casper is nursing a 14-second lead to Feillu and Sébastian Chavanel (FDJeux) going into Friday’s third stage.  

Barloworld’s team training camp in Tuscany took a turn for the worst when 21 team bikes were stolen in Castagneto Carducci, the team reported Thursday. The team reported that the theft was discovered Thursday morning by the hotel management when they noticed that the lock of the storeroom where the 32 Bianchi team bikes were kept had been forced open.   Italian police in Donoratico were immediately contacted and investigations begun to try to determine the culprit behind the crime.  

Price: $175 to $380 Web site: www.rudyprojectusa.com KarbonEye

Gusting gale-force winds are not ideal for bike racing. Qatar, a peninsula that juts into the Persian Gulf off of Saudi Arabia, is a wide-open windy desert with few trees and fewer roads. The races are lost on the windy open roads as the peloton quickly splits into echelons, as every rider fights to find shelter in the draft of another rider. To race well in the wind a rider needs great bike-handling skills, unrelenting power, consistent focus and experience.

Belgian cyclist Frederiek Nolf, competing in the Tour of Qatar, was found dead in his bedroom Thursday morning prior to stage five, one of the race chiefs, Eddy Merckx, announced.[nid:87315] Nolf, a member of the Topsport Vlaanderen team, was found dead by teammate Kristof Goddaert in their 14th floor shared room at the Ritz-Carlton.

First noticed spec’ed on newer Trek Madone road bikes, the Bontrager XXX Lite Road stem loses a little weight and cuts a sleeker profile than its predecessor. The original Bontrager XXX Lite carbon stem is still available for road and mountain bikes, but this newest model is specified for road use only. A couple of nice touches make it worth consideration as an aftermarket upgrade to any road bike.

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Director of athletics Pat McDonough left his position with USA Cycling on Monday, the national governing body confirmed. Jim Miller, the organization’s endurance program manager, had been appointed interim director of athletics effective immediately. USAC spokesman Andy Lee confirmed on Wednesday that McDonough was no longer with the federation, but would not elaborate on the terms of his departure. “I can verify that is the case, beyond that I’m not going to comment,” Lee said. “It’s company policy not to comment on personnel issues.”

USA Cycling is distributing nearly $360,000 in rebates from license sales to its 34 local associations, the governing body announced on Wednesday. Local associations receive $10 for every primary adult annual road/track/cyclocross license they sell to a member in their respective geographic areas, according to USA Cycling communications director Andy Lee. They also receive $5 per adult annual add-on license sold.

Bend, Oregon, will be the cycling capital of the United States for the next two years — USA Cycling announced Wednesday that it had awarded the town the 2009-10 junior, under-23 and elite road championships. Six weeks ago USA Cycling announced that Bend would host the next two editions of the cyclocross national championships.

Jimmy Casper delivered his new Besson Chaussures team its first victory of the 2009 season after out-kicking the field in the opening stage Wednesday at the Etoile de Bessèges in southern France. Casper — best known for his stage win in the 2006 Tour de France — crossed the line ahead of compatriot Sébastian Chavanel (Française des Jeux) and Belgian Klaas Lodewyck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) to win the 128.6km stage from Bellegarde to Le Grau-du-Roi in a mass charge to the line.

Top Danish cycling team Saxo Bank has officially ended an internal anti-doping program run by Dr. Ramsus Damsgaard, though he remains with the team. The team previously known as CSC introduced its much-heralded program in the wake of the Operación Puerto drugs scandal, which erupted in Spain in May 2006. But the team said in a newspaper report Wednesday that the introduction of the Union Cycliste Internationale's latest weapon in the fight against doping — the so-called “biological passport” program — had forced management into reconsidering.

Mark Cavendish won his first race of the season by capturing the fourth stage of the Tour of Qatar Wednesday in Madinat Al Shamal. Team Columbia-High Road’s sprint specialist pulled ahead of a small group of riders in the final meters of the 141km stage to secure victory ahead of Germany's Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo TestTeam). Belgian Tom Boonen (Quick Step), who took the race lead from Cervélo’s Roger Hammond after winning Tuesday's stage, had launched the final drive for the line but gave up yards from home.

Brawny Italian sprinter Danilo Napolitano – racing this week at the Tour of Qatar – is hoping a change of team colors will put him back in the heat of the sprints in 2009. After an inconsistent season that saw him miss both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, Napolitano signed with Russian-sponsored Katusha to search out new motivation. With two second-places in the opening three stages at the Qatar race, the new team colors seems to be working so far.