Road

Alberto Contador came close Monday to learning that sometimes clichés are true. Ever since he took the Vuelta a España race leader’s jersey with an emphatic victory atop the Angliru on Saturday, he’s been sounding like a broken record and kept repeating that nothing’s won until the final stage in Madrid on Sunday. Contador dodged a bullet Monday when he rode away with relatively light abrasions and scrapes to his left elbow, knee and shoulder after he hit the deck in Monday’s 202km 15th stage after riding into the gutter and falling hard on his left side.

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David García gave Xacobeo-Galicia the stage victory Monday that the team missed when Ezequiel Mosquera didn’t receive much charity from Astana in Sunday’s summit finish high in the Catabrian mountains. García charged out of a busted-up 17-man breakaway with 3km to go, but the real story was Alberto Contador, who brushed off a spill in Monday’s 202km 15th stage from Cudillero to Ponferreda to retain his lead at the 63rd Vuelta a España. [nid:83282]The Vuelta leader fell with about 50km to go, but suffered little more than scrapes to his left knee and elbow.

Reigning world champion Paolo Bettini will spearhead the Italian team's bid to keep the coveted rainbow jersey in Italian hands at the world road race cycling championships in two weeks time. Bettini, a recent two-stage winner at the Vuelta a España, leads a mixed nine-man team which includes climbers such as Damiano Cunego and sprinters like Luca Paolini. Italian national coach Franco Ballerini has no place in the team, however, for Danilo Di Luca, last year's Giro d’Italia champion who sat out a three-month doping ban earlier this year.

With the final curve of the race season in full view, we cycling fans are focused on the remaining professional calendar, as well as our own regular season end. Whether the last event on your calendar is a road race, cross country race, criterium, or century ride, you can dial in a good nutrition plan to fuel your best efforts. Chances are that your nutrition plan will just need a little tweaking before you head into the off season or prepare for cyclocross training and racing.

Any doubts about the seriousness of Lance Armstrong’s recently announced comeback were likely put to rest Sunday, as the recently un-retired seven-time Tour de France champion claimed his latest victory, pairing with two local Colorado pros to win the three-man division of the 12 Hours of Snowmass mountain bike race.

In a blustery, weather-shortened final stage of the Tour of Missouri, Italian Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) surprised Columbia's Mark Cavendish and Garmin-Chipotle's Tyler Farrar to win in St. Louis, as Garmin's Christian Vande Velde secured the overall win in a hotly contested GC battle. Chicchi's stage win, in sight of the city's iconic Gateway Arch, concluded a week-long rivalry between America's biggest pro teams — indeed it was one of only two stages of this year's edition of the "Toura Missoura" that was not won by either Garmin or Columbia.

In many ways, Sunday's cross-country World Cup Final in Schladming, Austria was anti-climactic, since Julien Absalon (Orbea) and Marie-Helene Premont (Rocky Mountain) had already sewn up the overall titles. Despite the lack of a battle for the overall titles, there were still plenty of riders looking for a final good result before the end of the season.

Agritubel's Geoffroy Lequarte said winning the Tour of Britain couldn't have come at a better time as far as the forthcoming world championships are concerned. Finishing in the main field on the final stage 110-kilometer stage between Blackpool and Liverpool in north-west England, Lequarte - who started Sunday with a six-second advantage over the field - had done enough to take the Tour of Britain title. LPR's Alesandro Petachi won the stage while Australia's Matthew Goss, the second-stage winner, took the points title.

German television broadcaster ARD, which screens the Tour de France in that country in partnership with rival network ZDF, said Sunday it greets Lance Armstrong's planned comeback with skepticism. Armstrong, who will be 37 on Thursday, announced last week that he plans to come out of retirement in a bid to win next year's Tour de France for the eighth time. With Armstrong having been accused of doping in the past, Tour organizers have said he will be able to ride in the world's premier event next year if he complies with their strict rules in the fight against doping.

Racing for the U.S. national team, American Tejay Van Garderen won the ninth and final stage of the Tour de l’Avenir Sunday, securing his eighth overall position on the general classification, 3:13 behind Belgian winner Jan Bakelants. American Peter Stetina, who wore the leader’s jersey for one stage, finished the race 10th overall, 4:22 down on GC.

No gifts. Alberto Contador might be Spain’s newest prince, but he’s not ready to play the role of kingmaker yet at the Vuelta a España. Contador wasn’t about to give away a golden opportunity to win his second stage in a row and tighten his grip on the Vuelta’s golden leader’s jersey despite Ezequiel Mosquera’s hope for mercy in Sunday’s 14th stage. The 32-year-old Xacobeo-Galicia rider poured everything into a daring attack with 5km to go in the Vuelta’s final hard mountain summit to drop everyone except Contador and Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer.

Team Columbia and Garmin-Chipotle continued to pound one another — and the rest of the field — at the Tour of Missouri, with Mark Cavendish taking stage 6 in a sprint and Christian Vande Velde retaining the jersey after his Garmin teammates patrolled the front on an aggressive, windy day. Toyota-United’s Ivan Dominguez took second, followed by Jelly Belly’s Brad Huff, a Missourian native hoping for a home-state win.

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Alberto Contador (Astana) is king of the hill in Spain. Spain’s climbing sensation added more fodder to the argument that he’s the best contemporary rider with a thrilling victory atop the most vicious climb in Europe. Contador attacked with 5km to go in Saturday’s 209.5km 13th stage to drive home victory up the feared Angliru climb and grab the overall lead at the Vuelta a España.

Call it situational amnesia, call it intense athletic focus, call it an innate (perhaps genetic) animal instinct for winning bicycle races. Just don't expect a lot of details when you ask Rabobank's 20-year-old Boy Van Poppel how he won Friday's fifth stage of the Tour of Missouri. “People always ask how you do it and ... I forget. I always forget what I am doing because it goes very fast and I don't think. You don't think, you do it. If you think, maybe you don't win.”[nid:83124]

The first mountain bike World Cup titles of 2008 were awarded Friday in Schladming, Austria, with 4-cross world champion Rafael Alvarez de Lara Lucas (Specialized) taking his first title and Anneke Beerten (MS Intense) her second. Romain Saladini (Team Sunn) won the men's final, while Czech rider Romana Labounkova took her first-ever win in the women's race.

Levi Leipheimer (Astana) enters Saturday’s showdown in the Angliru in perfect position. Teammate Alberto Contador has an entire nation – not to mention the whole Vuelta peloton – watching his every move. Poised in second place at 11 seconds back, the veteran American can bide his time and watch the fireworks before making his move. Back to the Vuelta for just the second time since his breakthrough third place in 2001, Leipheimer is in prime position to make a run for his third career grand tour podium and perhaps even more.

Alessandro Petacchi (LPR Brakes) grabbed his second stage win of the Tour of Britain in Gateshead, England, on Friday while France's Geoffroy Lequatre retained the leader's yellow jersey. Rob Hayles (British National) just missed out on catching Petacchi on the line after a sprint finish to the sixth stage while stage four and five winner Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Columbia was a place further back. Lequatre, who rides for Agritubel, retained the yellow jersey for the third successive day with home hope Steve Cummings second in the overall standings.

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Former world champion Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert will spearhead Belgium's bid for the world road race championships' rainbow jersey later this month. Both riders are among a strong nine-man team, announced by the Belgian cycling league (RLVB) Friday, which also includes Vuelta a España stage winner Greg Van Avermaet and Tour of Flanders champion Stijn Devolder. Boonen is one of several top riders hoping to come out top on the road race course at Varese, Italy on September 28 - and will likely have extra motivation.

Whatever the reasons for Lance Armstrong deciding to make a comeback to the Tour de France after a three-year absence — whether to raise awareness of a worldwide cancer initiative, to lay to rest the decade-old doping accusations that still hound him or simply for the heck of it — he knows that the eyes of the world will be on him.

Saturday’s summit finish up the feared Angliru should provide Alberto Contador (Astana) with the launching pad he’s been impatiently waiting for to rocket decisively into the lead at the Vuelta a España. So far through nearly two weeks of racing, determined rivals have stymied the precocious Spanish climber on roads that he claims just haven’t been steep enough for his taste.

Anyone thinking Christian Vande Velde had the overall win locked up at the Tour of Missouri was reminded Thursday that nothing is over in stage racing until the last finish line. The Garmin-Chipotle rider's 21-second lead over Columbia’s Michael Rogers looked to be in serious jeopardy on stage 4, an undulating 95-mile route from Lebanon to Rolla with three KOM points — a trio of rollers arbitrarily chosen by the race organization out of dozens that unfolded before the peloton.

Lance Armstrong’s comeback could keep José Luís “Chechu” Rubiera on the bike for another year. The 35-year-old Spanish rider was planning on retiring at the conclusion of the 63rd Vuelta a España, but now he’s considering racing one more season to be part of Armstrong’s planned return to competition in 2009.

Lance Armstrong’s comeback seems to have fueled ambitions in others who’ve hung up the cleats but are now having second thoughts. Dutch rider Michael Boogerd and Spanish climber Joseba Beloki both say they’re open to returning, but Jan Ullrich says he isn’t interested in re-entering the fray.

Columbia’s Edvald Boasson Hagen took his second consecutive stage win of this year’s Tour of Britain with a late surge 700 meters before the finish line in Dalby Forest, holding off breakaway companions Matt Goss (CSC-Saxo Bank) and Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes-Ballan) as the field closed in. The Norwegian had earlier showed his excellent time-trialing skills by bridging a 12-second gap from the peloton to join three other breakaway riders as the race paced through Beverley.

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Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) jumped with 300 meters to go on a rising finish into rainy Suances to fend off an attacking Alberto Contador on Thursday to win for a second time in the 63rd Vuelta a España. Bettini, who won on a similar finish into Toledo in stage 6, fended off compatriot Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) in a wild and wet stage into northern Spain that saw Alejandro Valverde’s podium chances fade when he lost more than three minutes.

Germany's Stefan Schumacher, who won both time trial stages of this year's Tour de France, has signed a two-year contract to ride for Quick Step next season, it was announced on Thursday. With his previous team Gerolsteiner set to disband at the end of the year, the 27-year-old, who won a bronze medal winner at the world road championships in Stuttgart last year, is delighted to sign for the Belgium-based outfit.

As with elsewhere in the cycling world, there are a number of opinions at the Tour of Missouri about Lance Armstrong’s comeback. Here are those of three men with managerial roles at the top of the sport.

Bob Stapleton

The world championships are still more than two weeks away, but the big dogs are starting to hit their fighting form. Wednesday’s hot and windy 11th stage at the Vuelta a España across the meseta looks nothing like the undulating roads around Varese the pros will square off on Sept. 28, but a thrilling finish-line duel between Tom Boonen and Oscar Freire gave a titillating preview of what’s waiting.

Australia's Stuart O'Grady has inked a new deal with CSC that will keep him with the Danish outfit for another two years, the team announced Wednesday. O'Grady, one of the most successful Australians in the peloton and a former winner of the tough Paris-Roubaix one-day classic, was thought to be winding down towards eventual retirement. However, the 35-year-old Adelaider admitted the lure of another two years with one of the world's most successful teams was too enticing to pass up.

Racing just a few hundred miles from his team sponsor’s headquarters, Garmin-Chipotle rider Christian Vande Velde won the Tour of Missouri’s difficult stage 3 time trial and is poised to take overall victory when the race finishes in St. Louis on Sunday.

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Four American Olympic track cyclists want an apology from the United States Olympic Committee for its actions in the wake of their decisions to wear protective facemasks in Beijing last month. On August 4 Americans Sarah Hammer, Jennie Reed, Mike Friedman and Bobby Lea all stepped off their flight at Beijing’s Capital International Airport wearing black masks to protect against Beijing’s air pollution. The masks were issued to the cyclists from the sports science department of the USOC.

A challenging uphill final stretch made for an exciting stage finish to day four of the Tour of Britain, as Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Columbia) came from behind to beat breakaway companion Giairo Ermeti (LPR Brakes - Ballan) on the line in Stoke-on-Trent. Race leader Emilien Berges punctured with around 7k to go, losing over a minute and dropping to ninth place overall. Teammate Geoffroy Lequatre inherited the yellow jersey going into Thursday's stage in Yorkshire. Ben Swift won all of the day’s three E.ON King of the Mountains climbs to overtake Kristian

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The possible arrival of seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong to Astana could complicate Alberto Contador’s plans to win his second Tour crown. If the 2007 Tour champion is quietly cursing Armstrong’s imminent comeback, however, he certainly isn’t giving anything away publicly. The Spanish climber said Wednesday that Armstrong would be welcomed with open arms if the Texan rejoins his former sport director Johan Bruyneel at Astana.

Even Johan Bruyneel doesn’t know where Lance Armstrong is going to race next year in his comeback season. The Belgian director - who led Armstrong to seven consecutive Tour crowns - said the news of Armstrong’s return caught him by surprise, but he’s already greasing the wheels for his return to Astana. “I spoke with him yesterday and he hasn’t decided anything,” Bruyneel said before the start of Wednesday’s stage. “Considering the relationship that we have, we would not permit him to race with another team. There’s no way.”

Lance Armstrong will be able to compete in next year's Tour de France as long as he fully submits to the latest anti-doping controls, the race's director Christian Prudhomme said on Wednesday. The 36-year-old American rocked the world of cycling on Tuesday by confirming that he was planning an audacious comeback with a view to winning a record eighth Tour de France next summer.

There were no surprises in Springfield. With his second consecutive field-sprint victory at the Tour of Missouri, a mad dash to the finish line in the university town of Springfield, Columbia phenom Mark Cavendish extended his 2008 win streak to 16 road victories as well as a world Madison championship on the track. Additionally, the 23-year-old from the Isle of Man — also known as a Manxman, or, in street slang, a “Manxsta” — has now won multiple stages at this year’s Giro d’Italia, Three Days of De Panne, Tour de France, Tour of Ireland and the Tour of Missouri.

Crédit Agricole couldn’t imagine a better going away present than a stage victory Tuesday in the 63rd Vuelta a España in what’s its swansong grand tour. The long-standing French team — set to fold at the end of the 2008 season after a new sponsor couldn’t be found to replace the departing French bank — earned a rare bunch sprint victory with French veteran Sébastien Hinault.

Emilien Berges (Agritubel) won the third stage of the Tour of Britain on Tuesday, taking the overall leader's yellow jersey from Alessandro Petacchi (LPR Brakes-Ballan). Berges broke away from eight other escapees on the flat run into Burnham, crossing the line just ahead of his teammate Geoffroy Lequarte. Italian Gabriele Bosisio (LPR Brakes-Ballan) finished third.

Riders and managers at the Tour of Spain Tuesday reacted to the rumors of Lance Armstrong's return to the sport: Johan Bruyneel (Astana general manager): We've heard the rumors starting a few weeks ago when he rode this mountain bike race (Leadville 100). Right now all we can say it's a rumor. What’s sure, if he wanted to come back, I wouldn’t say no. And I could never imagine him riding for another team. It would be here. And if he did come back, it would be to win. But right now, all I can say is that it’s rumors.

Peter Stetina stormed into the leader’s jersey Tuesday at the Tour de l’Avenir and took such a formidable lead that he could become the first American to win the race since Greg LeMond in 1982. Stetina, 21, joined a five-man breakaway that surged away in the opening kilometers of a hilly stage across the Massif Central in the 181.5km fourth stage from Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise to Saint-Flour. Holland’s Ricardo Van der Velde won the stage out of the breakaway, but Stetina takes a 2:27 lead over Frenchman Jerome Coppel.

Six-time Tour de France stage winner Thor Hushovd will be riding for the new Cervélo TestTeam in the upcoming season. The thirty-year-old Norwegian is the second rider to join the new team, following 2008 Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre of Spain. In addition to the six individual and one team stage victories in the Tour, Hushovd also won the green jersey in the points classification in the 2005 Tour. In 2006, he won the Belgian semi-Classic Gent-Wevelgem, and is a three-time Norwegian champion.

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Lance Armstrong’s former sporting director says reports of the American’s comeback are merely “a rumor,” and Astana’s press officer repeated his denial that the team had struck any deal with the seven-time Tour de France champion. In dismissing the story first reported by VeloNews.com, Astana’s Johan Bruyneel told Agence France Presse that it would be “difficult” for the 36-year-old American to return to the top level of the sport. Still, Bruyneel added: "If he were serious about a comeback ... myself having a team I could not imagine him at CSC or Rabobank,” he said.

Dear Readers,
I’m back in Boulder for a few hours after returning from Eurobike in Friedrichshafen, Germany and am working ahead a bit before heading off to Moab. By the time you reading this, I’ll be shepherding 100 middle school students around trails in Moab as I’ve done every third year since 1999 with Horizons K-8, a public school in Boulder of which my wife is principal.

Mark Cavendish (Columbia) won the first stage of the 2008 Tour of Missouri on Monday, outkicking Garmin-Chipotle's Tyler Farrar in a chaotic field sprint at the end of a 90-mile stage that started in St. Joseph. On a rainy, cool day, Cavendish's teammates reeled in a three-man breakaway in the final miles, then drilled the pace on the final three technical circuits, reducing the size of the front group to only 25 riders at one point.

Australia's Matthew Goss (CSC-Saxo Bank) won the second stage of the Tour of Britain after outsprinting the field on Monday. Goss avoided the chaos caused by a collision towards the end of the stage in Newbury, south-west of London, and finished just ahead of the Garmin-Chipotle duo of Julian Dean and Chris Sutton. Alessandro Petacchi (LPR Brakes), who won the first stage in London, retained the overall leader's yellow jersey after a sixth-place finish.

Call it the hot potato leader’s jersey. Egoi Martínez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) became the seventh rider in nine days of racing to hold the golden jersey at the 63rd Vuelta a España. Astana might have had the jersey when it started Monday’s 200.8km ninth stage across the southern flanks of the Pyrénées, but it sure didn’t want to have it when the race arrived in Sabiñánigo some five hours later.

Lance Armstrong will come out of retirement next year to compete in five road races with the Astana team, according to sources familiar with the developing situation. Armstrong, who turns 37 this month, will compete in the Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour de France — and will race for neither salary nor bonuses, the sources, who asked to remain anonymous, told VeloNews. Armstrong's manager, Mark Higgins, did not respond to questions. And an Astana spokesman denied the report to The Associated Press.

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American veteran Bobby Julich, a former podium finisher at the Tour de France, has announced the end to his 15-year professional career. Julich relaunched his career with the CSC team of former 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis in 2004, and could now join the team on a coaching/managerial basis. "I have had a long career as a professional cyclist and it has been an honor to be part of a team like Team CSC for the last five years," said Julich, who followed his Olympic time trial bronze medal in 2004 with a strong 2005 season.