The Saxo Bank Pro team is switching from Shimano to SRAM Red components, the component company announced Friday. "We are looking forward to racing with SRAM," said team director Bjarne Riis in a statement released by SRAM. “SRAM Red is proven reliable, remains the lightest gruppo available, and delivers perfect ergonomics. SRAM has demonstrated impressive product development, great quality and intense focus, just like our team," Riis said.
There were a few surprises Friday as race organizers released the names of 25 squads that will start Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Flèche Wallonne next month in the Belgian Ardennes. The LPR team of Danilo Di Luca, winner of Liège in 2007, was left out along with Fuji-Servetto, the Spanish ProTour team. Wild-card teams include new Dutch squad Vacansoleil, the Diquigiovanni team of Davide Rebellin, Belgian teams Landbouwkrediet-Colnago and Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator, Barloworld and Cervélo. Agritubel and Skil-Shimano are also both in.
Nagged by lingering physical problems, Italian veteran Daniele Nardello will retire at the end of this year’s spring classics. The 36-year-old will race in Harelbeke and Brabanconne this weekend as well as the Three Days of De Panne and Tour of Flanders before hanging up the bike for good after Ghent-Wevelgem. “My recovery has been slow from my crash at Tour Down Under,” Nardello said. “And when I didn’t get as fit as I expected at Tirreno-Adriatico, and the stomach virus I suffered at Milan-San Remo, my decision became definitive.”
Ukraine's Yury Metlushenko (Amore e Vita-McDonald's) won a mass sprint finish to claim the fourth stage of the Coppi e Bartali over 162.8km from Massa Finalese to Finale Emilia on Friday. Metlushenko edged out Italian pair Danilo Napolitano (Katusha) and Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) in the bunch sprint. Former Giro d'Italia winner Damiano Cunego (Lampre-NGC) maintained his grip on the leader's pink jersey ahead of Australian Cadel Evans, who is 28 seconds back, and Italian Massimo Giunti, at 32 seconds.
The cobbled classics in Europe are just around the corner, and ProTour team mechanics are likely to be prepping bikes in the coming weeks. In addition to fitting sturdy wheels, wider tires, and other heavy-duty parts, a common practice involves wrapping the handlebars with two or more layers of bar tape to soften the blows from rough roads.
Price: $120 to $220 Sizes: 140mm to 220mm Web site: www.sibexsports.com New for 2009 from Sibex Sports are titanium disc brake rotors. The rotors are available in eight sizes, between 140mm and 220mm, to meet the specific demands of the disc brake market. The Sibex rotors are made from hardened 6/4 titanium for maximum durability.
Two stage races and two victories, not a bad start to the 2009 season for Levi Leipheimer. The Tour of California champion finished safely in the bunch in Friday’s final stage behind winner Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) to wrap up the overall victory in the five-day stage race across northern Spain.
Amber Neben’s 2008 season could adequately be labeled an emotional roller coaster, full of ups and downs. After months of deliberation by USA Cycling, Neben was named to the squad for the Beijing Olympics (up). Despite her talents in time trialing, she was named to the road race team and left off the Olympic time-trial squad (down). During the Olympic road race Neben made the selection on the final climb (up), only to watch in horror as her chain shifted off of her chain ring, and the lead group sped away (down).
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While American readers saw the big news from this week's UCI world track championships to be Taylor Phinney's victory in the men's individual pursuit, there was plenty of other racing at the velodrome in Pruszkow, Poland, on Thursday, including a return to the boards for recent Milan-San Remo winner, Mark Cavendish.
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. The beauty of that rainbow jersey — even when it’s a titch too big. The simplicity of the flowers doled out by ladies in red silky dresses. The glory of hearing your own national anthem and watching your flag raised. This is the view from the podium.
Juan José Cobo (Fuji-Servetto) attacked with just under 2km to go to win Thursday’s 145.4km “queen stage” over two first-category climbs at the 24th Vuelta a Castilla y León. Cobo, who started nearly three minutes out of the GC fight, timed it just right to bolt clear of a reduced pack of leaders to win for the first time this season.
Grimaces, frowns and faces of pain abounded during Thursday’s opening prologue at the 2009 Redlands Bicycle Classic. While the 5km journey from downtown Redlands to the top of Sunset Drive wasn’t long, it packed a serious punch in the form of 1000 feet of elevation gain, most of it within the final steep kilometer. The lion’s share of the 350 men and women racers spent the final meters out of the saddle, suffering their way to the summit.
Damiano Cunego won his second stage in a row to take the overall lead in the Coppi e Bartali race following Thursday's 163.4km fourth stage from Borgo San Lorenzo to Serramazzoni. The Lampre rider outsprinted Australian Cadel Evans to take the leader's pink jersey from Italian countryman Giovanni Visconti. The day's racing was marked by a break from Kanstantin Siutsou, Felix Cardenas and Enrico Rossi but they were caught 10km from home. With 1km left Evans made a bid for home on a steep climb but Cunego caught him and pipped him to the post.
The USA Cycling National Development Team's Cole House of Oneida, Wisconsin, won the 130km G.P. Waregem in Belgium Wednesday. Cole also is a member of the U23 BMC team. Around 50 kilometers into the UCI 1.12 race, the 20-year-old joined a 20-rider breakaway. With his teammates Austin Carroll and Taylor Shelden helping control a chase group, House's group stayed out front through several climbs and cobblestone sections. In the final kilometers House outsprinted the remaining 15 riders.
Editor's Note: Rebecca Rusch is competing in South Africa's Absa Cape Epic stage race 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. This stage was reported to be an “easy” day. We are tired, bruised and the effects of this many days of racing are starting to show. Matthew and I are both feeling fine, but the legs are sore and the 5 am wake up call is taking its’ toll on me!
Teenage track sensation Taylor Phinney struck gold in the men's pursuit to end the United States' 16-year wait for the title at the world track cycling championships Thursday. Phinney, who turns 19 on June 27, fulfilled pre-race predictions to overcome a strong challenge from Australian Jack Bobridge, who finished second. Belgian Dominique Cornu won bronze after beating Volodymyr Dyudya. With 2008 world and Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins not competing, the way was open for the likes of Phinney, considered the new sensation of American cycling, to strike gold.
Carlos Sastre clipped out of his pedals following a time trial performance Tuesday at the Vuelta a Castilla y León that might have caused concern among certain quarters. While Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador roared to a one-two sweep in the 28.2km race of truth, Sastre was a lowly 36th at 2:32 off the pace, hardly what one would expect from the defending Tour de France champion. “Tranquilo, todo tranquilo,” Sastre said as he stopped to sign two quick autographs and disappear into a small, Cervélo TestTeam camper van. “Everything’s fine.”
The British team that has dominated track cycling at the Olympics and worlds competition in past years is set to redress the gold medals balance Thursday after missing out on victory four times on the opening day of the world championships in Pruszkow, Poland. Great Britain, which won seven of ten titles on offer at the Beijing Olympics last year, have so far lived up to claims of taking a relaxed approach to a gradual build-up to the London Olympics in 2012.
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. Big surprises on the opening night! Yes!
Lithuanian Simona Krupeckaite won the women's 500 meter time trial in a record time of 33.296 at the world track cycling championships on Wednesday in Pruszkow, Poland Krupeckaite started second from last in the 23-strong field and powered over the two-lap event to beat the early pacesetter, Australian Anna Meares, into second place for the silver medal. In doing so Krupeckaite beat Meares' world record of 33.588, set at the 2007 world championships in Palma de Mallorca. Britain's reigning Olympic sprint champion, Victoria Pendleton, took the bronze medal in 34.102.
Former Giro d'Italia winner Damiano Cunego (Lampre) won the second stage of the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali–Trofeo UniCredit Banca on Wednesday. Cunego edged out Colombian Jose Serpa (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni) in the 182.1km leg from San Lazzaro to Faenza, with third place going to Giovanni Visconti (ISD), the new overall leader. A group of nine riders broke clear on the Monte Trebbo before Cunego and Serpa separated themselves from the rest and the Italian easily took the sprint finish.
Quick Step clicked its classics program into gear Wednesday with victory by Kevin Van Impe in the 64th Dwars door Vlaanderen. Van Impe, 27, out-kicked fellow escapee Nico Eeckhout (An Post), to claim the Belgian semi-classic. The pair jumped with about 20km to go in the 200km semi-classic from Roeselare to Waregem that featured 12 climbs, including the Oude Kwaremount and several sections of cobbles, that served up as a nice appetizer for rougher things to come in the weeks ahead.
Former Austrian ski coach Walter Mayer has been remanded in custody following his arrest on Sunday on suspicion of dealing in doping substances, a Vienna court announced Wednesday. Mayer, 52, who was involved in a doping scandal at the 2006 Turin Olympics, is suspected of obtaining and providing illegal doping substances, including the banned blood booster EPO. An Austrian cyclist, Christof Kerschbaum, 32, was also arrested as part of the investigation but released on Tuesday after being held in provisional detention for 11 days.
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Price: $5,200 Weight: 26.5 pounds Sizes: 15.5, 17, 19, and 21-inch Colors: Black Web site: www.diamondback.com New from Diamondback is the five-inch travel, 26.5-pound Sortie Black trail bike. Diamondback introduced its Knuckle Box suspension platform a few years ago with the six-inch travel Mission, and then scaled down to the four-inch travel Sortie last year. Understanding the need to find a happy medium, Diamondback designed the 2009 Sortie for five inches of travel.
Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) sprinted to his first victory of the 2009 season in Wednesday’s third stage at the Vuelta a Castilla y León. Levi Leipheimer (Astana) crossed safely with the pack in the second-category summit finish at the San Isidro ski area to retain the overall leader’s jersey he claimed after winning Tuesday’s individual time trial.
Levi Leipheimer roared to victory in the name of Lance Armstrong a day after the seven-time Tour de France champion crashed out of the Vuelta a Castilla y León in northern Spain. Leipheimer topped Astana teammate Alberto Contador in a windy, flat 28.2km individual time trial Tuesday by 16 seconds to win in his European season debut.
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Lance Armstrong will undergo surgery Wednesday to stabilize the collarbone fracture he suffered Monday in a crash during the first stage of Spain’s Vuelta a Castilla y León. Upon returning to the United States Tuesday, Armstrong sought the advice of orthopedic surgeon Douglas Elenz who outlined the risks and benefits of inserting a plate to stabilize his mid-shaft clavicle fracture. X-rays taken in Austin showed that Armstrong’s right clavicle was more seriously damaged than indicated by films taken in a Spanish hospital.
Dear Lennard, I am considering storing my new full suspension bike using a vertical type rack that stores a single bike hanging vertically from the wheel. I was wondering if that could cause any damage to either suspension, front or rear. Does it make sense to hang the bike from the rear wheel? Nir Dear Nir, Hanging it from the front or rear wheel will not hurt it unless either of your shocks leak oil through the upper seals. In that case, hanging it could still be a good thing, because it will alert you to the problem and motivate you to fix it. Lennard
The list of past champions of the Redlands Bicycle Classic reads like a who’s who of American cycling. Thurlow Rogers, who still puts the hurt on SoCal masters and pros, took the inaugural title back in 1985, one year after finishing sixth in the Olympics.
Editor's Note: Rebecca Rusch is competing in South Africa's Absa Cape Epic stage race 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. Absa Cape Epic, Stage 3
After several years of trying to make a breakthrough on the domestic cross-country racing circuit, mountain biker Ross Schnell needed just one event last season to launch his career in a new direction. Schnell’s 2008 win in California's legendary all-mountain race, the Downieville Classic, catapulted him to almost instant widespread fame in both cross-country and downhill circles.
Austrian cyclist Christof Kerschbaum, who was provisionally detained as part of an investigation into the trafficking of doping products, has been released, a judiciary source revealed on Tuesday. The former coach of the Austrian Nordic skiing team, Walter Mayer, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the case on Monday and is still in custody. A spokesman for prosecutors said all the people suspected of trafficking doping products had been questioned.
Danilo Napolitano (Team Katusha) took a bunch sprint to win Tuesday’s kickoff to the 2009 Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali–Trofeo UniCredit Banca. Napolitano took the 81.2km stage 1a in Riccione in 1:58, trailed by Marko Kump (Adria Mobile) and Enrico Rossi (Ceramica Flaminia), who finished in the same time. In the afternoon’s stage 1b, a team time trial, ISD emerged triumphant, covering the 14.3km course in 17:17. Miche-Silver Cross-Selle Italia was second at 17 seconds with CSF Group Navigare third at 19 seconds.
Track powerhouses Britain will be without a host of big names as the four-year cycle towards the London Olympics in 2012 clicks into gear at the world championships in Poland this week. Britain claimed an astonishing seven of the ten track gold medals on offer at the Beijing Olympics last year but will be without three of the stars who, in Beijing, won six golds between them.
Lance Armstrong’s broken right collarbone won’t keep him out of the Tour de France, but being competitive in time for the May 9 start of the Giro d’Italia remains a major question mark. Whether Armstrong can recover in time to start July’s Tour is not a major concern for Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel, but he’s not so sure about the Giro with the start in Venice just six weeks away.
It’s official: Tyler Farrar will miss this year’s northern classics. The bad news was confirmed by doctors Sunday, who diagnosed an acromioclavicular (AC) separation in Farrar’s right shoulder resulting from his crash in the 100th Milan-San Remo. “It’s not severe enough to require surgery, nothing is broken,” Farrar told VeloNews by telephone. “It’s not that bad of an injury, it’s just bad enough that you couldn’t race a cobblestone classic. It’s just an inconvenient timing.”
Monumental. The night before a race, the last thing I do before I climb into bed is to prepare my bag for the next day. Each rider has a suitcase and a race bag. The suitcase travels to the finish in the team truck and we carry the race bag, which holds everything we’ll need for the day, in the bus on the way to the start. With everything ready to go, tucked in bed, I look over the race book one last time before closing my eyes.
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Morgan Chedhomme (Auber 93) won the prologue to the Tour de Normandie on Monday. The 22-year-old Frenchman covered the 5.1km course in Mondeville in 6:20, four seconds faster than Thomas Berkhout (Rabobank) and five better than Frederik Wilman (Joker-Bianchi). His average speed was more than 48 km/h. Tuesday’s second stage takes the 130 riders from Colombelles to Forges-les-Eaux.
Very few people will be talking about the biggest win of Joaquín Sobrino’s career. The Burgos Monumental rider sped to victory in the opening stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León, but the world’s media were focused on the crash involving Lance Armstrong (Astana) with about 15km to go. The seven-time Tour de France winner went down in a nasty pileup as the peloton was completing its chase of a four-man breakaway and left the race in an ambulance (see main story).
After a relative lull in mid-March, with the European racing schedule dominated by two big races (Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico) and the first classic of the season with Milan-San Remo, the peloton is making up for lost time. There are major races this week in Spain, Belgium and Italy and the women’s World Cup begins in Switzerland. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s jump right in:
Lance Armstrong crashed hard in Monday’s opening stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León and was transported by ambulance to a hospital in nearby Palencia, Spain. Race organizers and the Astana team doctor confirmed that the seven-time Tour de France champion had broken his right collarbone after Armstrong underwent an X-ray at a hospital in the city of Valladolid. “Lance suffered a fracture of the middle third of the right collarbone as well as some bruises on his right hip and arm,” said team doctor Pedro Celaya, who was with Armstrong at the hospital.
Fly V Australia's Ben Day turned a blistering opening time trial performance into an overall victory at the three-day San Dimas Stage Race in California this weekend. Day's teammate Jonathan Cantwell won the final stage criterium, ahead of Colavita's Lucas Haedo and OUCH-Maxxis' John Murphy. Team Type 1's Shawn Milne added to Team Type 1’s polka dot jersey collection by winning the King of the Mountains classification.
An unnamed cyclist and former Austrian Nordic ski coach Walter Mayer, who was involved in the 2006 Turin Olympics doping scandal, have been arrested in connection with new doping allegations, Vienna prosecutors said Monday. Mayer, who was arrested Sunday, is suspected of having provided a top Austrian cyclist with the banned blood booster EPO, prosecution spokesman Gerhard Jarosch said. The cyclist, who has not been named, was arrested on March 13 for trafficking.
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Stuart O'Grady, who was injured in a fall during Milan-San Remo on Saturday, will be forced to skip the Spring Classics, his Saxo Bank team said Sunday. The 35-year-old Australian fractured his right collarbone and has broken a rib. He also suffered bruising between the lungs and the ribs. "It is extremely sad to see the Classics disappear because of a crash," O'Grady said. "The past several months of hard work had a purpose and focus – the classics and especially Paris-Roubaix. Now I've seen it all crumble, but hopefully I'll get the opportunity to come back later."
Alberto Contador has downplayed the significance of his first race alongside new Astana teammate Lance Armstrong in the Vuelta a Castilla y León that gets underway on Monday. The pair will be joined by 2009 Tour of California winner Levi Leipheimer, but Contador rejected suggestions the race would be a dry-run for this summer's Tour de France. "It's a coincidence (that we're racing together), but it will help us see how things go in a race," he said on his personal website.
If there was any doubt about who is cycling’s most exciting sprinter, Mark Cavendish erased it Saturday with an explosive victory in the 100th Milan-San Remo. Judges had to break out the zoom lens to determine Cavendish the winner in a photo-finish to a devastated Heinrich Haussler as Cervélo TestTeam went two-three with Thor Hushovd rounding out the podium. Haussler pounced out of the left side of the pack with 350 meters to go —he said to set up Hushovd — only to look back and see that Hushovd wasn’t on his wheel and a surging Cavendish was closing in fast.
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Milan-San Remo didn’t end the way Tyler Farrar would have liked. The Garmin-Slipstream rider -- fresh off beating eventual winner Mark Cavendish in a bunch sprint this week at Tirreno-Adriatico – crashed out with a possible broken clavicle. Farrar flew back to his home base in Belgium on Saturday night and will be treated by doctors there, but team officials are worried that the injury could take Farrar out of the upcoming northern classics.
Lance Armstrong wanted a long, hard day at the office and that’s what he got in Saturday’s Milan-San Remo. In his first race back on European roads since winning the 2005 Tour de France, Armstrong lost contact with the fast-charging peloton near the top of the Cipressa climb with about 25km to go. A lead group of about 40 riders stayed clear to fight for the victory while the seven-time Tour champion -- racing for the first time since the conclusion of Tour of California on Feb. 22 -- crossed the line in 125th at 8:19 in the second group.
Fly V Australia's Ben Day and Columbia-Highroad's Mara Abbott won Friday evening's 3.7-mile prologue up a piece of Glendora Mountain Road in the San Gabriel Mountains.[nid:89496] Mitchell Clinton was there to photograph the action for VeloNews. The race continues Saturday with a 84-mile circuit race for the men; pro women will do 56 miles.
Mark Cavendish proved the skeptics wrong yet again. After most experts believed he couldn’t get over the late-race climbs, the Columbia-Highroad rider sprinted to a dramatic victory to win the 100th Milan-San Remo. Here are excerpts from his post-race press conference: Question: What does it mean to you to win a classic?
Professional endurance competitor Rebecca Rusch has tackled her fair share of adventure races and 24-Hour mountain bike races throughout the years. Now, the Idahoan is back in South Africa, competing for the second time in the Absa Cape Epic, endurance mountain bike stage race across the country’s scenic Western Cape. And we’re along for the ride. — Editor
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Lance Armstrong says his return to the top spot of the winner’s podium at the Tour de France is no guarantee. The seven-time Tour champion is confident he will attain a high level come July, but admitted he cannot take for granted he will be the same rider who won barnstormed to seven consecutive titles from 1999-2005.
Lance Armstrong clicks into his pedals Saturday for the 100th Milan-San Remo in his first European race since winning the 2005 Tour de France, but even he admits he isn’t expecting to stand on the winner’s podium. The seven-time Tour champ acknowledges the Italian classic doesn’t suit his style of racing, yet Armstrong is promising to make a strong showing in the 298km race.
Fabian Cancellara won’t be defending his Milan-San Remo title on Saturday and admits that he likely won’t be back at his best in time for the northern classics. A training crash and illness have derailed Cancellara’s hopes of repeating his extraordinary spring campaign last year that saw him win Monte Paschi, Tirreno-Adriatico and San Remo and claim second in Paris-Roubaix. Cancellara told VeloNews his spring campaign is all but a wash this year.
BMC is one of three American teams invited to this year's Paris-Roubaix. Garmin-Slipstream and Columbia-Highroad are the other teams invited to the April 12 event. "It shows the level of confidence that the race organizations have in our future," team directeur sportif John Lelangue said.
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Spain's triple world champion Oscar Freire was on Thursday forced to shelve his return to action which had been penciled in for the Tour of Castille and Leon from March 23-27, his Rabobank team said. Freire, who suffered broken ribs in a nasty fall during the Tour of California in February, has not recovered fully from the accident. "Oscar can't train normally," said Rabobank team sporting director Erik Breukink.
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Mark Cavendish isn’t expecting to win his first crack at Milan-San Remo, but he’s getting some advice from someone who has. Four-time winner Erik Zabel has been quietly working and training with the British sprinter since retiring. Cavendish is expecting that expert advice to pay dividends sooner than later. “He knows every race by the back of his hand, so it’s perfect for me,” Cavendish told VeloNews. “It takes away at least one year for experience. We’re talking and training together all the time, at the races or after.”
Options in aftermarket brakes have multiplied in recent years. A category once defined by feathery but flimsy-looking carbon and aluminum has matured, and the TRP R960 is evidence that shedding weight need not result in shredded skin from a blown corner. At 245 grams for the pair (with pads, but minus mounting hardware) they are almost 50 grams lighter per pair than Shimano Dura-Ace, but proved to function almost as well.
Henk Vogels is back. Well, sort of. After a career that included a pair of top-10 finishes in Paris-Roubaix, second at the 2003 Gent-Wevelgem, wins at the USPRO road and criterium championships, an overall victory at the Tour de Beauce and an Australian national road title, Vogels quietly retired at the end of the 2008 season. There was no announcement, no send-off race or ceremony — just a shift, from the bike to the driver’s seat in a new role as team director.
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The domestic stage-racing calendar opens up this weekend with the three-day San Dimas Stage Race. The race begins Friday with a 3.7-mile climbing prologue, followed Saturday by a hilly road race run on a 7.15-mile circuit. The race concludes Sunday with the Old Town Grand Prix, raced on a 1.2-mile circuit in downtown San Dimas. Rising Canadian star Cameron Evans of OUCH-Maxxis returns to San Dimas Friday as the defending champion.
A bad crash during training this week meant a trip to the hospital and now a break from racing for Team Saxo Bank’s Fränk Schleck. The rider from Luxembourg skidded and crashed on a downhill curve. Seven stitches on the chin and a heavy contusion on his left wrist was the immediate damage.
More than 200 men and nearly 150 women will line up for the Redlands Bicycle Classic, starting Thursday March 26. “Not only is this one of the largest number of entrants we’ve had for both the men’s and women’s fields, but it’s also one of the most prestigious,” said Race Director Dan Rendler. “The women’s field reads as a ‘who’s-who’ of female cycling, while the men’s field features 11 of the 13 registered UCI Continental teams.” Among the women are five current national champions, one current world champion and the current NRC champion.
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Italy's reigning world champion Alessandro Ballan and Olympic time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland have both pulled out of this weekend's Milan-San Remo race, their teams announced on Wednesday. Ballan, who had also withdrawn from the Tirreno-Adriatico, must take a fortnight off owing to an infection on the orders of Lampre team doctor Dr. Carlo Guardascione.
Add Mark Cavendish to the growing list of people who think Daniele Bennati is one of the big favorites for Milan-San Remo. The British sprinter easily handed Bennati defeat in Tuesday’s final stage at Tirreno-Adriatico, but when pressed to give one name who would win Saturday, Cavendish thought long and hard before saying, “Bennati.” “Three hundred kilometers at 23 is a long way,” said Cavendish, discounting his own chances for his San Remo debut. “I will be ready to win San Remo in a few years. Bennati looks strong. He can get over the climbs and he has the sprint.”
Price: Tubular $2500; Clincher $2800 Weight: Tubular 1840g/pair; Clincher 1910g/pair Web site: www.bontrager.com New from Bontrager, the high profile Aeolus 9.0, a 90mm-deep time trial wheelset. As with past Aeolus models, the 16 spokes are embedded within the rim for better aerodynamics. Why upgrade to the 9.0 model? Bontrager reports that the Aeolus 9.0 is 10 seconds faster over 40km than the Aeolus 6.5.
Tom Boonen leaned back on the hood of the Quick Step team car on a sunny morning in San Benedetto del Tronto before the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico. Life was good. The sun was out, his form was closing in on its annual spring peak and, most importantly, his left knee wasn’t giving him any problems.