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Belgian Niels Albert may have some reason to thank his Dutch rival Lars Boom for his win in the elite men’s event at the world cyclocross championships in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands, on Sunday. The defending world champion didn’t even come close to affecting the race on his home turf in Holland, but his strong performances at worlds last year and in this year’s World Cup series may have given the usually dominant Belgians reason to set aside personal interests and work together as a team.

Having decided to bid for the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics, Qatar is now hoping to host a stage of the Tour de France some time in the future. Serious talks are underway between Tour de France officials and the Qatar Cycling Federation to bring the toughest cycling race to the streets of the oil and gas rich state, the Gulf Times newspaper reported on Sunday. Transporting hundreds of cyclists with all their gear from Europe may seem a huge logistical problem but officials have a solution for that too: just arrange an Airbus A-380.

There’s an old Dutch saying that notes that when two dogs are fighting for a bone, it’s often the third dog that ends up getting it. Holland’s Marianne Vos may have remembered that old line when she sat firmly in the middle of what appeared to be a battle for the women’s world cyclocross championship between Germany’s Hanka Kupfernagel and American Katie Compton on Sunday in Hoogerheide, in the Netherlands. Because of the bitter cold, the Hoogerheide course remained hard and fast for the women's race, and was likely to remain the way for the following men's event.

U.S. based Pro Continental team BMC is hoping to get wild card status again this year so it can earn invitations to ProTour events. Team director Gavin Chilcott left the team's training camp last week to fly to Swizerland to appear before the UCI License Commission. In a team statement. Chilcott said the team has applied for wild card status, which among other things, requires that the team participate in the UCI's Biological Passport anti-doping program. The team attained wild card status in 2008.

Ask Germany’s Philipp Walsleben which cyclocross races he hasn’t won as an Under-23 this season and takes him a bit to answer. “I think it’s three this season,” he answers with some hesitation, “but that’s as an U23 rider. I still have long way to go as an elite.”

"Current economic realities" have caused Michigan-based health insurance company Priority Health to pull its sponsorship of three major midwestern races, and at least one of the events has canceled its 2009 edition. Tour de Leelanau race director Steven Brown informed the Union Cyclist Internationale (UCI) on Friday that it was canceling the UCI category 1.2 event, which had been scheduled for May 24.

Dutchman Tijmen Eising continued his season-long romp through the junior ranks of international cyclocross, riding away from the field within the first 300 meters of the world championship in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands, on Saturday. Eising, the overall World Cup champion and winner of three of the series’ six races, took early command of the field on Saturday.

The long winter wait is over for fans champing at the bit to see some real European bike racing. The 2009 European calendar officially opens this weekend in France with the 26th GP La Marsellaise featuring 17 teams lining up for a 136.8km circuit on Sunday. The loop course around Marseille in southern France tackles some local climbs, including the Col de la Gineste, hard enough to give the adventurous rider a chance to escape the clutches of the main pack. The finish won’t be at Marseille’s glamorous Vieux-Port due to local roadwork and has been moved out toward the university.

A forecast calling for drizzle and cloud cover couldn’t scare away the 60 or so bike riders who showed up to the Holiday Inn in Temecula to ride with Floyd Landis and the 11 other members of the OUCH-Maxxis professional cycling team. The two-hour spin through nearby Fallbrook came at the beginning of the week long OUCH training camp, and the team organization opened it up to sponsors, media and the public.

On a plane bound for the Persian Gulf, the peloton sat together on our way to start the season. In an odd contrast of environments we traveled from Paris to Qatar, from the damp gray to the arid sun, from rolling roads in green and brown pastures to straight flat motorways in desert sand. Slowly, cycling is planting its roots in other cultures.

The weekend is here and it’s the biggest race in cyclocross: The world championships. If 'cross were included in the Olympics, we’d all have a bigger race to look forward to every four years. While talk of the Olympics is happening, so far it’s only talk. For now, we’ve got the rainbow stripes and it’s the highest honor any 'cross racer can achieve.

Less is more for Alejandro Valverde in 2009, at least that’s what Caisse d’Epargne is banking on as Spain’s best all-rounder takes aim for the Tour de France podium. With the idea of goal of peaking during July, Valverde will race less with the hopes of a big payoff on the Champs-Elysées. “I’ve decided to focus everything on the Tour,” Valverde said during the team’s presentation Thursday in Paris. “I’ll arrive in Monaco with less kilometers in my legs, but with more experience, which counts for something, too.”

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The inclusion of a never-used climb dubbed Mont Ventoux’s “little sister” should prove decisive in the eight-day Paris-Nice. Garmin-Slipstream and Columbia-High Road each received invitations Thursday to start the 67th Paris-Nice as officials released details of the eight-day route with a few surprises thrown in for the season’s first major stage race. Just a day after being snubbed for the Giro d’Italia, Fuji-Servetto and Barloworld were both left off a list of 20 teams invited to the Race to the Sun, set for March 8-15.

Filippo Pozzato makes his season debut in his new team colors at Katusha this weekend at the Tour of Qatar a very different rider than he was one year ago. After a sub-par 2008 campaign with just two minor victories and a snub at selection for the Italian national team for the world championships in Varese, a fresh start at the Russian-sponsored Katusha is just what Pozzato says he needs to erase the bad memories.

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Giro’s vision was 20-20 when it signed Alberto Contador to promote its new eyewear line.

The Oregon Pro Cycling Classic will be a little late getting to the start line — the 500-mile, seven-day race is being postponed to 2010 after organizers were unable to secure a title sponsor and the necessary money to run the event this year. The National Racing Calendar event had been scheduled for May 11-17, kicking off with a prologue in Portland and stage finishes in Salem, Corvallis, Timberline Lodge, Hood River and Mt. Hood Meadows before returning to Portland for a concluding circuit race.

Italian national road champion Filippo Simeoni, who famously had a run-in with Lance Armstrong during the 2004 Tour de France, is not among the riders invited to this year’s Giro d’Italia. Simeoni’s Flaminia Bossini team was not on the preliminary list of 20 teams announced Wednesday. Other teams absent from the initial list include Cofidis, Euskaltel, Française des Jeux and Fuji, formerly Saunier Duval.

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I was looking through some blogs last night and came upon Bike Snob NYC . This guy writes a great blog and this post in particular gives some humorous TIPS that I though I would post. Cycling should be an enjoyable endeavor. However, if you find yourself in an amateur road race in the first place you’re the sort of person who seeks suffering rather than avoids it. If you simply must participate in amateur road racing, here are some tips to help ameliorate the adverse effects: Know Your Limits There is a fine line between ambition and delusion. The former is the fuel for success, and the latter is the way to ruin. I believe it was either Sheldon Brown or Ben Franklin who said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” This is especially true when it comes to road racing. Basically, if you’ve never won a race before, you’re not suddenly going to start winning them now. So settle down, pick a wheel to follow, and stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, though, too many people fail to realize this, especially in the lower categories, where everybody stupidly sees him-or herself as a potential winner. When everyone’s going for the podium the result is a pile-up. It becomes like some moronic slapstick routine where eight people bend down to pick up the same $100 bill and just end up bashing their heads together as a gentle breeze carries the money down the street. The reason the higher categories generally see fewer crashes is not because

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While a few teams were racing Down Under, the Kelly Benefit Strategies team took advantage of everything a Northern Hemisphere had to offer this weekend, getting in some slope time at Colorado's Winter Park and Mary Jane downhill resort and the nearby Snow Mountain Ranch nordic ski area. VeloNews photographer Casey B. Gibson tagged along to capture some of the action. Casey reported no snowball fights, but noticed a contrast between the team's Canadian stalwarts and its Southern California contingent.

Dear Lennard,
Can I run a new CN-7900 chain with 7800 derailleur, cassette, and FSA crank set (53/38)? It is time to replace my 7800 chain and would like to upgrade to the CN-7900 chain.
Mike

It looks like Tom Boonen (Quick Step) will face stiffer competition in this year’s Tour of Qatar.