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Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong said Monday it would be unrealistic to expect him to win his first race in three years in next week's Tour Down Under. The American cycling great declared he was in the best shape of his life at the start of a season as he prepared to return to professional racing at the age of 37. Armstrong's appearance in the Adelaide tour has generated huge international interest, enough for organisers to take extra security measures to protect him during the event.

What a difference a year makes. This time last January, Bob Stapleton’s team entered the 2008 season without a title sponsor, with a largely young and inexperienced team and uncertain about its future. Flash forward to 2009 and Highroad roars confidently into the season with new sponsor (Columbia, introduced ahead of last year’s Tour de France, back as co-sponsor), a new bike sponsor (Scott) and a bevy of young riders that is the envy of the peloton.

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Lars Boom (Rabobank) took an important step toward the defense of his world cyclocross title, winning the Dutch national championship in Huijbergen on Sunday. Boom beat Thijs Al and veteran Richard Groenendaal in his first major race since injuring his elbow in a big crash in late December. In Belgium, former world champion Sven Nys defended his national title, outsprinting Niels Albert and Kevin Pauwels in Ruddervoorde. [nid:86474] Both Boom and Nys are considered favorites for the world title in the upcoming championships on February 1 in Hoogerheide, in The Netherlands.

Ivan Basso, considered to be one of the favorites going into this May’s Giro d’Italia, is slated to start his 2009 campaign at Argentina’s Tour de San Luis, January 19 to 25. Basso will co-captain the Liquigas team with fellow Italian Vincenzo Nibali. "I am going to Argentina with plans to work hard and come back in good condition,” Basso said. “January is a good month to start your season and to gauge your fitness.

A police security team will shadow cycling superstar Lance Armstrong during his time at Australia's Tour Down Under next week, reports said Saturday. Given the extraordinary interest surrounding the seven-time Tour de France winner's comeback to elite cycling, organizers said they would be taking extra security measures to protect Armstrong. Armstrong is expected to arrive here over the weekend from Hawaii ahead of the January 18 start to the tour, according to the reports.

Defending Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre will kick start his 2009 season at the Tour of California in February to debut with his Cervélo new team colors. The 33-year-old Spanish climber says the Tour remains his top goal for the upcoming season, but said still hasn’t decided if the road to France will pass through the Giro d’Italia or not.

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While the U.S. women's, junior and U23 teams approach this month's Cyclocross World Championships with some of the strongest teams ever, the men's team is surrounded by uncertainty. The country's most accomplished international male racer, Jonathan Page, could be kept out of the race because of a missed doping control in November. And several of the country's top prospects have bowed out, mostly because of road or mountain bike team obligations.

Mavic has issued a voluntary recall of its R-SYS front wheels, the company announced this week. Mavic is advising consumers not to use the front wheels from any of its R-SYS wheelsets (R-SYS, R-SYS Test and R-SYS Premium) because of the possible risk of spoke failure. The system relies on a unique set of tubular carbon spokes. While front wheels rely solely on the tubular carbon spoke, the rears combine those with Zicral spokes and the risk of failure is, therefore, lessened.

Leonardo Piepoli said he fell victim to temptation last summer when he doped during the Tour de France and won a stage using CERA. In an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian climber expressed strong words of regret and misgivings for his decision to take the banned blood booster that has left his career in tatters. “It was a moment of weakness, folly, recklessness. The justification: I was trying to fill a hole in my preparation,” he explained. “What I have done, at 37, with a wife and kid, is unconscionable.”

Columbia’s Michael Rogers finally added a national time trial title to his resume with victory in the Australian cycling championships in Buninyong, Victoria, on Thursday. The three-time world champion last claimed an Australian time trial win in 1996 when he won the U19 event but since then has forged a spectacular career in professional cycling, including three successive world time trial titles between 2003 and 2005.

The first of the European teams have arrived in Australia for this month's Tour Down Under, but the travel details of cycling superstar Lance Armstrong were still under wraps as of Thursday. Race organizers, mindful of the extraordinary interest that the seven-time Tour de France champion's comeback has generated, have not released his arrival plans for fears of an unwieldy media scrum at Adelaide Airport. Armstrong's Astana team is scheduled to arrive early on Sunday, but reports said the American great is not expected until next week, just ahead of the January 18 start of the tour.

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In a year of the comeback, perhaps it’s inevitable that Michael Rasmussen will join the band of riders pedaling back into the fray. The Danish climbing specialist – who was ignominiously ejected from the 2007 Tour de France just days from what appeared to be a likely overall victory and later fired by his Rabobank team – says he’s hoping to race in this year’s Vuelta a España if he can find a team willing to sign him.

Reigning world champion Alessandro Ballan isn’t changing his program going into 2009. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the gangly Italian is focusing on the spring classics, where he helped carve his reputation with victory in Flanders in 2007 and consistency at Roubaix ahead of his breakout victory in Varese last fall. For 2009, his top goals in the first half of the season will be the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. A detour through Milan-San Remo is also likely for the Lampre rider, but a start in the Giro d’Italia remains uncertain.

Milram, Germany’s last remaining professional cycling team, announced its 25-strong squad for the 2009 season on Wednesday. The team, which features 14 new recruits and 17 German riders, is the sole professional cycling outfit in Germany after the demise of Gerolsteiner. Milram will be without retired sprint king Erik Zabel for the upcoming season but will be able to count on two great hopes in Gerald Ciolek and Linus Gerdemann.

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Graeme Brown of Rabobank held off challenges from Robbie McEwen (Team Katuysha), Simon Gerrans (Cervelo Test) and Bernie Sulzberger (Virgin Blue) to win the 2009 Jayco Bay Cycling Classic on Tuesday. Brown led the Classic going into the penultimate stage by the barest margin of one point.

Organizers of the Amgen Tour of California have released details of the 2009 route, a nine-day, 750-mile course that will travel almost the entire length of California, from Sacramento to Escondido. This year's race is one day and about 100 miles longer than the 2008 route. [nid:85582] This year the race will also feature a $15,000 women's criterium, run in conjunction with stage 1 in Santa Rosa.

Organizers of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California have released the list of eight ProTour teams that will compete in the Feb. 14-22 event. Besides the ProTour teams, the race will announce its list of confirmed Continental or Continental Pro teams next month. Full rosters will be released in February. The eight ProTour teams: ·         Ag2r-La Mondiale (FRA) ·         Astana (LUX) ·         Garmin-Slipstream (USA) ·         Liquigas (ITA) ·         Quick Step (BEL) ·         Rabobank (Netherlands)

Do you have some bike suggestions for tall riders?

The new Ten Speed Drive / Ellsworth Factory Cycling Team is hoping to win some races while minimizing its effects on the environment this year. The team was formerly known as Colavita New Mexico presented by JNF Enterprises. “We are dedicated to promoting cycling as a form of transportation and to further public awareness of everyday techniques — from transportation to energy consumption – the public can use to lessen their environmental footprints,” said team director, John Freisen.

Why are my bottom bracket bearings wearing out so quickly?

Jonathan Patrick McCartyis joining former teammate Floyd Landis on the OUCH Presented by Maxxis team. "We'd been talking with Pat for quite some time," said team director Mike Tamayo. "Only in the past week or so were we able to work out an agreement with him."

Belgian cycling star Tom Boonen will know on February 3 if he has to face criminal charges over his positive test for cocaine, the judge investigating his case in the northern city of Turnhout said Tuesday. Boonen, a former world champion and winner of such prestigious races as Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, tested positive for the recreational drug in an out-of-competition test in May last year. The 28-year-old escaped a sports sanction because the test was not held under the auspices of a sport body.

Classics star Fabian Cancellara already rules the cobbles and now it appears he might be setting his sights on the hillier spring classics, with possible starts this year at Flèche Wallonne and Amstel Gold Race. Cancellara – who is already focusing on Tour of Flanders this year as his top early season goal – could expand into the hillier routes in eastern Belgium and southern Holland.

UCI officials Thursday will officially roll out the new calendar for elite men’s road racing for the 2009 season.

UCI president Pat McQuaid has called a press conference for Thursday at the Geneva International Airport to formally introduce the calendar that’s been in the works for months.

Following several feuding years between the sport’s major players, a cease-fire that took hold last fall will see the ProTour and the so-called “historic” events run side-by-side under the revised UCI “world calendar.”

Under the truce reached last year between the UCI and t

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Editor's Note: Drew Geer is an endurance mountain bike racer who has been using a computer training log since 1998 and has hand-written training logs going back to 1972. He's been an Apple Mac user since 1984. Geer paid retail for each of the products he reviewed in this article.

Double Paris-Roubaix winner Tom Boonen will join his Quick Step teammates this month for a training camp along the sunny Spanish coast. The team will converge at the Spanish resort town of Benicassim for a 10-day camp beginning January 12 to put everyone on the right footing heading into the racing season. Per team tradition, the squad will split into two crews for training rides of different intensity, depending on pending racing schedules.

Living up to the success of last season will be challenging for Saxo Bank, formerly CSC, but team boss Bjarne Riis is cautiously optimistic despite the departure of reigning Tour de France champ Carlos Sastre. Seven riders followed Sastre out the door from the triumphant 2008 lineup, including retired pros Bobby Julich, Michael Blaudzun and Brad McGee and workhorses Iñigo Cuesta, Volodymir Gustov and Allen Johansen.

Day 4 of the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic saw the top professionals punish the bunch with explosive and sustained attacks. The sound of popping was almost audible as the pace and surges whittled the field down. Finally the Australian criterium champion, Bernie Sulzberger of Virgin Blue, won the day, sprinting to the line ahead of a reduced field. Sulzberger said after the win: “It makes me very proud to win wearing the Australian champion’s jersey.”

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Editor's Note:VeloNews cartoonist Patrick O'Grady and web editor Steve Frothingham have offered some year-end perspective on this site recently. Now for a different take we turn to freelance writer Kathie Reid. Reid helped us cover some of the biggest races on the calendar in 2008, but saw some of the most memorable performances from junior racers at the national championships in California.

American Rachel Lloyd (California Giant) was second at the Tervuren, Belgium, cyclocross on Sunday, finishing just behind former world champion Daphny Van den Brand. American Sue Butler was eight, Followed by Canadians Natasha Elliot and Wendy Simms in ninth and tenth. Lloyd and Van de Brand were battling for most of the race after gapping the rest of the group on the first lap when Van den Brand attacked into a sandpit and Lloyd jumped on her wheel. The two worked together for a few laps. Van den Brand crashed in the sand at one point and Lloyd rode solo for about a lap.

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History has a way of repeating itself. The Jayco Bay Cycling Classic proved that with Will Walker of Fuji Servetto taking out day 3 of the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic. Six years ago Walker as a 17-year-old won a stage of the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic with a courageous and powerful breakaway from the main bunch. Walker repeated that performance by breaking away in the last third of the race in an explosive attack and consolidated the gains made until the end.[nid:86289]

The second day of the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic was all about thrills and spills. Graeme Brown of Rabobank took out his first win of the season in impressive style leading a bunch finish which saw Robbie McEwen (Team Katyusha), Baden Cooke (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), Simon Gerrans (Cervelo Test Team) and Nic Sanderson (Rock Racing) finish third, seventh, eighth and tenth respectively.

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The rock and roll cycling style of Rock Racing has had its first ride on Australian soil competing at the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic in Victoria. The self styled ‘Venom’ cycling kit and painted De Rosa frames stood out in the blur of color. The team — consisting of new signing Aaron Kemps (formerly of Astana), Rahsaan Bahati, Justin Williams and Nic Sanderson — came to Australia for some of the fastest critierium racing in the world. Notable absentee from the start line for Rock was new team member Caleb Manion. Manion signed with Rock Racing after racing with Toyota United.

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Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Tour de France stage winner, Simon Gerrans, a new recruit of the new Cervélo Test Team, won the first stage of the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic in Australia, riding for the local O2 Networks squad on Friday. The race was delayed, in strange circumstances, by more than 90 minutes because Australian sprint ace, Katyusha's Robbie McEwen, had his flight cancelled and was late arriving for the event.

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Can you recommend a tall stem for a tall rider?

Why does my new bike tick?

How will Q-factor affect IB Band Syndrome?

Do you have any advice for correcting leg-length discrepancies?

USA Cycling published its 2009 National Racing Calendar over the weekend, with several surprises, including the Dana Point Grand Prix of Cycling, held April 26, the new Oregon Pro Cycling Race, the June 21 Tour of Winghaven in St. Louis, the July 26 Chicago Criterium and August 8 Tour of Elk Grove, and the San Francisco Twilight Criterium, held September 5. Gone from this year’s NRC schedule are the Sequoia Cycling Classic, the Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix, the Sea Otter Classic, the AT&T Austin Downtown Crit and the Cox Charities Cycling Classic.

American junior Zach McDonald finished second to Dutch rider Corné Van Kessel on Thursday in the GP Sven Nys in Baal, Belgium. McDonald crossed 14 seconds behind Van Kessel to take the runner-up spot with Belgian Sean De Bie (Kon. Balen B.C. V.Z.W.) third at 0:21. In the elite men’s race, Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) won in 57:51, nine seconds up on Czech Zdenek Stybar (Fidea) with Belgian Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) third at 0:25.

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I’ve been in Europe since nationals, a little over two weeks actually and usually by this point in my trip I’m tired and ready to a break and relax for a couple days. A year wiser and happier makes such a difference. This year I made a tough decision to skip the Nommay World Cup in France when I got to Europe, let myself recover, get settled in my new home away from home and then give it the stick in the hardest races of the year.

Twenty teams have committed to racing in the 2009 Tour de Langkawi, the Malaysian stage race scheduled to run from February 9 to 15. The Tour de Langkawi is slated to start in Putrajaya, the home of Malaysian government, and finishing in the country’s capital Kuala Lumpur with the traditional criterium at Dataran Merdeka.

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Torque wrenches and temperature ranges Dear Lennard, I own both deflecting beam and click-type (Giustaforza) torque wrenches. They are stored in my garage where the temperature can get below freezing in the winter and over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Do torque wrenches need to be stored and used within a certain temperature range to maintain accuracy? Gary Answer from Effetto Mariposa:

It seems that joining the international calendar may not have been as important as Tour of the Battenkill Valley promoter Dieter Drake initially thought. Even after being denied a spot on the UCI America Tour in early December — largely due to concerns over the race’s mix of dirt and paved roads — the two-day event has secured a major presenting sponsor in the form of microprocessor manufacturer AMD, and registered nearly 1,300 in the week registration opened.

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California Giant-Specialized has announced its roster for the 2009 racing season. Three riders will leave the squad to move up to the pro ranks — Andy Jacques-Maynes to Bissell Pro Cycling, Ken Hanson to Team Type 1 and Max Jenkins to the Danish team Glud & Marstrand Horsens.

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Two-time Tour Down Under winner Stuart O'Grady will lead Denmark's Team CSC Saxo Bank in Australia’s premiere stage race next month, organizers announced Monday. O'Grady, 35, who won the inaugural tour in 1999 and again in 2001, has ridden in the Tour de France since 1998 and won the gold medal in the Madison at the 2004 Athens Olympics. "Stuart has won here twice before and I know he will hit the race hard, looking to add a third title to his crown," race director Mike Turtur said in a statement.

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Dutchman Thijs Al (Be One) won the cyclocross world cup in Friday in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, prevailing over Belgians Kevin Pauwels and Sven Vanthourenhout. The top American male was Jamey Driscoll in 26th, followed closely by new U.S. champion Ryan Trebon in 27th. American national champ Katie Compton (Spike) was fourth. Compton won the Nommay, France, world cup, but her husband Mark Legg said she had bad legs Friday. "On the race day the legs didn't feel good and she couldn't open it on on the road or fast pedaling sections," Legg said. [nid:86170]

It's been a big year in professional cycling and the editorial staff at VeloNews took some time to look back at 2008 for our 21st annual awards issue.

Topping the list is the magazine's pick for International Cyclist of the Year, Alberto Contador. In the past, our editors' picks have often been at odds with those of our readers, but there seemed to be a strong consensus for 2008. A VeloNews.com reader poll showed overwhelming support for the man who won two of cycling's three grand tours this year.

Team Type 1 has hired a new director sportif, Vassili Davidenko, and a new assistant director, Gord Fraser, for the 2009 season. Davidenko was Team Type 1’s assistant director last year under Ed Beamon, who is not returning, the team said. “We were very fortunate to have someone with Ed’s experience to help guide us down the path of success in our first year,” said Team Type 1 General Manager Tom Schuler. “With Vassili and Gord, we have two former pros who can also relate well to the challenges a rider faces on and off the bike.”

The Amgen Tour of California will be expanded in 2009, covering more than 800 miles over nine days and visiting 16 host cities, race presenter AEG announced Wednesday. The fourth Amgen Tour will begin February 14 with a road stage in Sacramento — a first for the race — and finish in Escondido on February 22. Also for the first time, the riders will cross the Golden Gate Bridge at the beginning of stage 3.

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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was among the guests earlier this week as the country's first fully professional cycling team, Katyusha, convened in chilly Moscow.

Managed by former Paris-Roubaix winner Andre Tchmil, Katyusha features some of cycling's elder statesmen like Australian Robbie McEwen and Filippo Pozzato of Italy, as well as younger talents such as former Olympic points race champion Mikhail Ignatiev.

It is the first Russian-owned team to compete in European cycling's elite, and will do so as of January 200

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Riders Elodie Touffet and Claudia Häusler, along with sports director Patrick Banfi, have signed with Cervelo TestTeam, the squad has announced. Touffet has been a member of Gauss RDZ Ormu (2008), Menikini-Selle Italia-Gysko (2007), Nobili-Rubinetterie-Menikini-Cogeas (2006) and Pruneaux d”agen (2005), with French National Championship rankings of third in 2006 and fourth in 2007.

Though BMC's Jeff Louder has not made a point of getting out of the cold and snow Utah has offered these last few weeks, he has been pleased with the results from his creative training regime. Content to make use of the wintry conditions by snowshoeing and skate-skiing, Louder nevertheless is looking forward to returning to riding on the road at the team training camp in California, as this chat with team media rep Georges Luechinger makes clear. Q: How are you coping in the cold; has it been snowing for you since September?

Ridding the rim of remnants
Dear Lennard,
I have some carbon tubular rims that I glued Vredestein Fortezzas into, and when I removed them there were parts of the casing stuck to the rim (I think it might have been latex that covered the casing but it wasn't able to be removed before mounting). Is there a safe way to remove this substance from a carbon rim?
Jared Dear Jared,

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The United States’ best-ever female collegiate cyclist is not an American. But someday she might be. South Africa’s Carla Swart, 21, just capped off a mind-boggling collegiate campaign, taking an unprecedented 11 national (both individual and team) titles in road, mountain bike, cyclocross and track. Grabbing that many jerseys in a single year is a feat that no collegiate racer ? man or woman ? has yet accomplished in the history of the National Collegiate Cycling Association.

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