Road

A day of surprises greeted the NACT competitors at the first day of the Whitmore’s Landscaping Super Cross Cup on Saturday. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the UCI C1 event occurred before most of the Elite competitors had even arrived at the venue. Earlier in the morning, Tim Johnson, tested his injured knee on the trainer and found he couldn’t even pedal a full circle. Johnson injured his knee when he banged it on a wood post while riding to victory in the USGP in New Jersey last Saturday.

Australia's national team won the Melbourne round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics series here on Saturday. The Australian Cyclones, with 112 points, edged out compatriots Team Toshiba, which scored 98 points over three days of competition. Although an impressive performance, the win came in light of only limited participation by the world's strongest track squad, the British national team. Australian Shane Perkins went one better than his Manchester World Cup silver earlier this month to claim the men's sprint with a straight heats win over Frenchman Michael D'Almedia.

Floyd Landis will race next year for the new domestic squad OUCH, a revamped version of the Health Net - Maxxis team. The team's title sponsor is the OUCH Sports Medical Center in California. The sports center's co-founder, Dr. Brent Kay, is Landis' personal physician and oversaw his hip resurfacing surgery in 2006.

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This week’s column begins with an apology. My act of contrition goes out to anyone who had the misfortune of witnessing one of several temper tantrums I threw at the last couple Colorado Front Range cyclocross races. See, after having one of my best career ’cross races (a come-from-the-back-of-the-pack 11th in the 35+/cat. 4s at round No. 2 of the Boulder Cup), I’ve gone three straight without making it to the finish line. And in each case I was well ensconced inside the top 10 before being taken down by mechanicals (two poorly timed punctures, one busted chain).

Team Barloworld will continue into the 2009 season with hopes of forgetting an embarrassing doping scandal during the Tour de France and hinging its hopes on a bevy of young riders. The South African sponsor initially said it would end its three-year backing of the Italian-based, Britain-registered team after Spanish rider Moises Dueñas tested positive for EPO during the 2008 Tour.

Italian cyclist Leonardo Piepoli, one of seven riders to fail a drugs test at the Tour de France, saw his hopes of clearing his name shattered Friday when his B-sample showed traces of banned blood booster EPO CERA, the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) said. Piepoli tested positive at the end of the tenth stage of this year's Tour and was then dumped by his Saunier-Duval team.

Rock Racing is hiring former Telecom and T-Mobile coach Rudy Pevenage as director sportif for the 2009 season, adding some top flight team management to complement its expanded roster. The team's choice of Pevenage, however, is sure to get attention for another reason: as Jan Ullrich's former director, Pevenage was tied up in the Operacion Puerto scandal that ended the German racer's career.

Alejandro Valverde has won just about everything he’s wanted in his productive career, except a grand tour. Prolific in one-day classics and smaller stage races, Spain’s “Balaverde” has struggled in GC in three-week grand tours. With two podium finishes in the Vuelta a España, Valverde still believes he can win a major tour.

Australia's emerging pursuit talent staked their claim as the riders of the future with a dominant win over Spain in the 4km team pursuit final on day two of the Melbourne round of the 2008-09 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics series on Friday. Olympians Mark Jamieson, 24, and Jack Bobridge, 19, along with reigning junior World Champions Rohan Dennis, 18, and Luke Durbridge, 17 were the clear favorites after a strong qualifying round and they lived up to the expectation.

Well, today was my first meeting with Andy Pruitt at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. I was warmly greeted by staff, filled out the requisite paperwork and waited to be called in. As I waited I noticed, among the many motivational photos of the outdoors, that there were various autographed photos of athletes from around the world thanking Pruitt for his help; I was quietly hoping that the day would soon come when I’d be able to send him a photo of myself offering him my thanks…

One of the neatest features of Garmin Edge GPS bike computers is the "Virtual Partner," which lets you race against a previous trip over the same course, with your relative positions marked by little cartoon riders on the screen. It's a geeky fun distraction, even if its name is a little creepy. But what if you are a professional racer, looking for tools, not amusement? How could you use that feature?

Andre Greipel will be back to defend his title at the Tour Down Under Jan. 18-25 as Team Columbia confirmed its presence at the season kick-off in Australia. The big, burly German sprinter won four stages and the overall in the 2008 edition and later finished fifth overall in the UCI ProTour rankings. Supporting Greipel will be a strong Columbia lineup, including 2002 champ Michael Rogers and George Hincapie.

Team officials say they are confident of landing new sponsors to allow the Spanish squad Saunier Duval to continue next season despite the departure of its title sponsor. Team manager Joxean Fernández Matxin told the Spanish daily MARCA that the appropriate paperwork has been filed with the UCI to assure the team a presence in the peloton next year. Matxin said negotiations are continuing with potential new title sponsors, but he’s confident enough that he’s moving forward with plans to race in 2009.

The Tour de France is heading back to Holland in 2010. Tour officials announced Thursday that the 2010 Tour will start in Rotterdam. More details will be provided in an official ceremony on Dec. 11 in the Dutch port city, officials said. “Rotterdam is an important metropolitan area with assurance of success,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme told AFP. “It’s doing everything so that people can get around on the bike. It’s in this spirit that the city wants the grand départ.” The Dutch city was picked ahead of Utrecht, Holland, and Dusseldorf, Germany.

Garmin-Chipotle’s fall training camp started out with a bang this week. A literal bang, actually, as the team kicked off its second annual November meet-and-greet camp with a round of paintball in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, near the team’s U.S. headquarters of Boulder, Colorado. After three unseasonably warm days of the weeklong camp — which started on Monday and ends on Sunday and includes bike and clothing fittings, sponsor meetings, casual training rides and a Saturday evening team presentation — the paintball excursion stands out as the highlight.

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We’re back and the racing has been abundant. I picked up a win in Toronto two weeks ago and a podium last weekend at the USGP in New Jersey. Now the biggest races of the year loom on the horizon and I’m looking forward to them all: the USGP Finals in Portland and the national championship weekend in Kansas City. But, as a change of pace, this diary isn’t going to be about racing.

Michael Barry was back in the spotlight in 2008, winning his first race since the 2005 season with a dramatic stage victory at the Tour of Missouri. He also rode to fifth in the Tour of Ireland and finished ninth in the grueling Olympic road race in Beijing. The 32-year-old Canadian returned to form this year after struggling through a challenging 2007 campaign that was wiped out with a nasty bout of pneumonia. Though he missed out on a slot on the nine-man Tour de France squad, Barry regained his confidence with a consistent and steady season that will carry over into 2009.

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Todd Wells (GT Bicycles) is on top of the Crankbrothers U.S. Grand Prix of Cyclocross standings for the first time in his career, following his win Sunday and second place Saturday at the Mercer Cup in New Jersey.[nid:85247] Wells, a two-time national champion in cyclocross, passed Jesse Anthony (Jamis) who had led the series after the first weekend. Anthony fell to sixth place following a disappointing weekend in the Garden State. (Complete men's standings)

Why do my Speedplay cleats wear out?

Katie Compton (Spike Shooter) won the third round of the Superprestige cyclocross series on Sunday at the Aspere-Gavere race in Belgium. World champion Hanka Kupfernagel skipped the race, run in wet and very muddy conditions. The hallmark of the course was a steep, muddy downhill chute that caused many falls, some of them race-ending, like the one that sent Niels Albert to the hospital with an injured spleen. Compton got off to a comfortable start in third position after a front-row start, with Saskia Elemans leading and Daphny van den Brand in second.

Following her double wins at the USGP Mercer Cup races in New Jersey this weekend, Georgia Gould (LUNA) has landed on top of the USA Cycling national cyclocross standings. Gould takes over the lead from Laura Van Gilder.[nid:85220] Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale), who finished fourth and third in New Jersey, remains on the top of the men's rankings although his teammate Tim Johnson is closer, thanks to his first place Saturday (Johnson did not start Sunday).

With only the Whitmore’s Landscaping Super Cross Cup remaining, the battles for the inaugural North American Cyclocross Trophy series are still tight.   

Women's battle: eight is enough

Lance Armstrong has revealed that he fears being attacked by spectators when he makes his return to the Tour de France next year. The American, a seven-times winner of the Tour, believes he could be targeted by French fans angry that doping allegations surrounding him have helped to destroy the credibility and the magic of cycling's most famous race.

With Lance Armstrong, Carlos Sastre, Damiano Cunego and Ivan Basso already confirmed to start the centenary celebration of the corsa rosa, another big name has announced that he will race the 2009 Giro d’Italia. Denis Menchov (Rabobank) is the latest to confirm his presence in the Giro, set to begin May 9 in Venice. “Why would we want to change the program?” asked Rabobank sport director Erik Breukink in the Dutch daily De Telegraaf. “We saw last year the double worked well, so this year we’ll follow the same program, with the Giro before the Tour.”

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Alberto Contador brushed off a minor crash in a Sunday criterium honoring compatriot Joan Llaneras just as he’s poised to join Lance Armstrong at an Astana team camp early next month. The Giro-Vuelta double champion hit the deck during the ACP Criterium on Sunday and was showing some minor cuts and scrapes as a result. “I’m fine, I have some superficial scrapes on my shoulder and face. In the end, it wasn’t as bad as I thought,” Contador told reporters. “The impact was hard despite going at a slow speed. It was no big deal.”

Rock Racing has added a wealth of European and domestic talent to its 2009 team roster, signing several top riders in recent days. In a release issued over the weekend the team announced that it had reached deals with former ProTour riders Baden Cooke, Francisco Mancebo, and José Enrique Gutiérrez, as well as top domestic talents Ivan Dominquez, Glen Chadwick, Chris Baldwin and Caleb Manion.

German cyclist Patrik Sinkewitz, who last year admitted to doping, plans to make his comeback in January at the Tour of Majorca riding for Team PSK Whirlpool, it was announced on Monday. "I have signed a one-year contract," the 28-year-old told German television channel TVnews Hessen having joined the Czech Republic-based team and is looking forward to the five-day race around the Spanish island early next year. Having tested positive for the steroid hormone testosterone on June 8 2007, Sinkewitz was later banned for a year.

The Cervélo TestTeam keeps adding firepower and filling out both its roster and support staff as the squad prepares for its 2009 debut.   The latest addition is the arrival of Marcello Albasini as sport director. The 51-year-old coach, who’s worked with several young budding Swiss pros, including Fabian Cancellara as a junior, is the father of pro cyclist Michael Albasini.   “This is a dream come true,” Albasini said in a team release. “I’m really happy to have the opportunity to develop myself and to work next year together with the Cervélo TestTeam riders.”  

Italian cyclist Riccardo Riccò on Monday filed an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), seeking a reduction in his two-year doping suspension, noting that he had cooperated with investigators after being found positive at the Tour de France. Riccò, 24, was suspended from riding by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) in July after admitting to using a new variant of the EPO. He was kicked out the Tour and was subsequently fired by his Saunier-Duval team after testing positive following the Stage 4 time-trial.

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As advertised, the ‘cross course through the Washington County Fairgrounds in Hillsboro, Oregon, was wide-open, grassy and void of anything resembling elevation gain. Several days of dry weather and Sunday’s beautiful, mostly blue skies only added to the warm feelings about how quickly the course could be covered.

Hayden Roulston revived his stalled professional career with two breakout Olympic medals on the track this summer in Beijing, but for 2009, the Kiwi will return his focus to the road. Roulston will put his track ambitions on hold as he joins Cervélo on a one-year contract for 2009 that will mark his return to the elite levels of the European peloton for the first time since a chaotic 2005 season.

Cooler, windier weather on Day 2 of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross Mercer Cup, presented by Knapp's Cyclery, in New Jersey, made Saturday's tough race conditions look easy by comparison. Thicker, stickier mud competed with gusting winds for an extra punch in the gut but Day 2 saw a repeat for the women, with LUNA teammates Georgia Gould and Katerina Nash clinching gold and silver by a wide margin. It was GT’s Todd Wells who emerged the victor in the men’s event.

Samuel Sánchez continues to soak up the attention that comes with the Olympic gold medal. Everywhere he goes, journalists are knocking down his door for an interview. This week, “Samu” is on vacation in Spain’s Canary Islands and told reporters there more details about his racing schedule for the upcoming season. He’ll skip the 2009 Tour de France (where he finished seventh overall last year) and focus on trying to win the Vuelta a España.

Mud so thick that racers had to pedal downhill set the stage for Day 1 of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross Mercer Cup, in New Jersey on Saturday. In races of attrition, in which time gaps grew to a minute or more among the top five, Georgia Gould (LUNA) and Tim Johnson (Cyclocrossworld-Cannondale) bested the competition through tough, power-stealing conditions.

“This is definitely my favorite race and that’s my main motivation,” said Costa Rican cyclist Federico Ramirez (BCR-Pizza Hut) after finishing the 2008’s La Ruta de los Conquistadores, on Saturday in Limón, Costa Rica.

Johan Bruyneel expressed optimism about the return of Lance Armstrong and promised that the powerful Astana team would ride for the strongest rider. In a lengthy interview in the Belgian daily, La Dernière Heure, the Astana sport director said Armstrong’s imminent return would help him rediscover the thrill of directing a professional team.

Behind the story there is always a greater story, one which is often missed. The Tour of Lombardy unfolded in traditional fashion: a breakaway, a gauged acceleration in the peloton, the knife-stabbing attacks that seal most riders’ fate, and then, finally, the winning attack and the defeated sprints for the places of honor. The favorite won.

A grim reality sets in at the midpoint of any multi-day mountain bike stage race. The anxious buzz of the event’s first half has all-but petered out, and riders no longer speak only in the tone of optimism. Legs are drained and bodies are exhausted, perhaps injured. Bikes creak and squeak. Butts are sore. For some, the knowledge that half of the journey still remains is enough to drive the motivation straight into the basement. Many contemplate quitting, or simply wonder how in God’s name they plan to reach the finish line. [nid:85129]

After trading barbs over a four-year-old incident during the Tour de France, Italian champion Filippo Simeone and American Lance Armstrong have apparently buried the hatchet.

Even before Carlos Sastre won the Tour de France this past July, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) had announced that it was ending its long run as a title sponsor of the world’s No. 1 team. And while Sastre’s Tour victory was something of a going-away present to CSC-Saxo Bank, it wasn’t long before news hit that Sastre and bike sponsor Cervélo, both of whom had been with the team since 2002, were also parting ways to start a new project — the Cervélo TestTeam.

The Tour de Georgia will not be held next year, but the race's backers say it will be back in 2010. The race's board of directors announced Friday that they will use 2009 to "plan ahead and properly position" the race for 2010. "We believe that this unique and exciting event will endure," said Tom Saddlemire, a member of the board and recently retired CFO of GE Energy. The race backers said that by many measures the event has been wildly successful.

The seventh stop of the Chicago Cyclocross Cup traveled to the village of Northbrook, a suburb north of Chicago. The race brought out the dedicated to mix it up in the treacherous 'cross conditions.

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The most dominant feature on Stage 2 of La Ruta de los Conquistadores is the 25km paved climb from San Ignacio Acosta to Copalchi, which accounts for roughly one-third of the 76km trip from west to east San Jose. In La Ruta’s trusty race guide, the climb’s profile appears a gradual three-peaked slog up 3000 vertical feet.

Ukrainian cyclist Yaroslav Popovych has signed a two-year contract with the Astana team, which boasts seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong on its books. The 28-year-old Popovych joined up once more with team boss Johan Bruyneel whom he rode for when at the Discovery Channel team from 2005 to 2007.

FOX Racing will produce two commemorative suspension components — a special 40 RC2 fork and DHX RC4 shock — based on development that netted championship titles in men’s and women’s downhill worlds in 2009. Only 200 of each will be produced for consumers.

It was unfortunate for Matti Breschel that his most important result so far in his young but promising career came on the same day that two Italians finished alongside him on the worlds podium in Varese, Italy. Only one journalist asked the blonde-haired Dane a question during post-race press conference dominated by over-excited Italian journalists lobbing soft balls to winner Alessandro Ballan and silver medalist Damiano Cunego.

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What’s the best way to quantify pain? This question popped into my head countless times during today’s opening stage of La Ruta de los Conquistadores, a hellacious 68.7-mile slog from Jaco Beach to the outskirts of San Jose. During the journey I carried my bike up ridiculously steep, muddy slopes, climbed 14,500 feet of elevation gain (much of it in the granny gear) and suffered like a rented mule. I crossed the line cross-eyed and drooling just under eight hours in 42nd place, about two hours behind stage winner Frederico “Lico” Ramirez.

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Former Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich won nearly a half-million dollars in back pay from his one-season run at Team Coast in 2003 after a German court ruled in his favor Wednesday.   The 1997 Tour winner was back at the center of attention Wednesday with a court appearance in a long-running dispute between the now-tainted German star and the defunct Coast team, whose manager, Günther Dahms, refused to pay part of Ullrich’s salary because he said the rider was doping.  

Editor’s note:Tom LeCarner, VeloNews’ copy editor, is a 41-year-old longtime cyclist and former racer who has been struggling with tendonitis this year. Specialized has offered to help Tom overcome his injuries with its Body Geometry equipment and treatment by Andy Pruitt of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. Tom will report on if and how he progresses in a regular column on VeloNews.com. His first piece here gives some background of the causes of his injuries.

They say the best way to perfect a skill is to go to where that skill is practiced perfectly. For cyclocross, Belgium is that place. Cycling fanaticism in Belgium is difficult to explain. There is really no correlation to it in the United States. Football is the easiest association, in the scale of the fan base and the spectacle, but the true Belgian cyclocross fan is more deeply rooted to the athlete than the true football fan.

Bobbles, bubbles and beer — there was all that and more last weekend during the Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships in Portland, Oregon. Canadian Drew MacKenzie won the men’s crown, beating the likes of Ryan Trebon, Nat Ross, Steve Fassbinder and Adam Craig. Sue Butler took top honors in the women's race, winning a come-from-behind battle.

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Team Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale doubled up this past weekend during the UCI 1 Toronto International Cyclocross in Toronto, Canada, putting Jeremy Powers atop the podium on Saturday with Tim Johnson taking the win on Sunday. Canadians had plenty to cheer about, too, as Ottawa’s Natasha Elliott (Stevens-EMD Sorono) scored two consecutive victories on the muddy Centennial Park course.

The South African Barloworld cycling team has done an about-face and decided to return to the sport five months after withdrawing over doping at the Tour de France. Chris Fisher, head of corporate marketing at Barloworld, a South African multinational company, said Tuesday that the company's sponsorship had been "both successful and popular" and that the decision had been taken to carry on in 2009.

Emanuele Sella (Societa CSF Gruppo Navigare) faces a yearlong suspension after testing positive for CERA in an out-of-competition check on July 23. While the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommends a two-year ban, the prosecutor for the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) asked that Sella receive a one-year ban after the rider admitted his guilt and co-operated during his trial in August, the ANSA news agency reported. CONI's anti-doping committee will hear Sella's case on December 1.

German sprint ace Erik Zabel admitts that he’ll probably miss racing, but says his retirement announcement is permanent. With scores of riders committing to comebacks, Zabel insists that, at 38, his farewell at the end of this season will be for good. “I’m sure I will feel a little bit nostalgic, but without a doubt it will be a relief,” Zabel told German reporters during a break at the Six Days of Munich track event. “When you’re not active, you live with less risk. Races with wet roads, snow, crashes … to think that all this is over is very agreeable.”

I just returned from Europe after visiting both the Milan bike show and a Formula 1 team in Silverstone, England that designs and has built aerodynamic carbon handlebars and bikes. At the Milan show, big news was the acquisition of Italian suspension maker Marzocchi by Tenneco, Inc. of Lake Forest, Illinois through the assumption of Marzocchi’s approximately $15 million in debt. Tenneco will lease Marzocchi’s Bologna manufacturing plant and will take over Marzocchi sales, marketing and customer service operations in the USA and Canada and purchasing and sales operations in Taiwan.

The Cervélo Test Team continues to add names to its lineup, this time bringing on 25-year-old Oscar Pujol to the new team for the 2009 season. Pujol, a close friend and training partner of Tour de France champion and top Cervélo recruit Carlos Sastre, turned pro this year with the Burgos Monumental continental Spanish team.

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Trek-Volkswagen rider Jeremiah Bishop claimed the men's win at this weekend’s 10th annual Iceman Cometh, a Michigan mountain bike race that caps registration at 2000 because of its immense popularity. In his first attempt, Bishop set a course record on the 27-mile course of 1:28:31. In the women's race, Amanda Carey (Kenda Titus Hayes), finished in 1:45:45, more than two minutes ahead of Susan Stevens (Brodie) and Heather Irmiger (Gary Fisher).

Nineteen year old Pete Ostroski in Intervale, New Hampshire, won this weekend's Porky Gulch Classic, an unusual omnium race held at Mount Washington, New Hampshire. Ostroski won two of the weekend's three events: the Toughest Two hillclimb, which ascends the first two miles of the Mount Washington Auto Road; and the Story Land Criterium, held on a hilly, narrow course inside a children's amusement park. In the Porky's third event, the Rockpile Rampage cyclocross race, Ostroski finished second to Todd Wheelden, who was second on the first two events and wound up second overall.

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Monique Ryan reviews a new study on caffeine consumption after exercise

Recently retired pro Rik Verbrugghe will join Quick Step as the Belgian team’s fifth sport director in 2009. The 34-year-old Belgian announced his retirement at the end of this season with Cofidis and will quickly step into the shoes as sport director at Quick Step, where he rode for one season in 2005.