Road

This time there were no late climbs or rising finishes. Tuesday’s flat and treacherous arrival into Puertollano in the fourth stage of the Vuelta a España was a flat, fast and furious finish ideal for the pure sprinters. So it was no surprise that Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) made up for the disappointment of losing Monday with a definitive victory ahead of arch rival Tom Boonen (Quick Step).

The Belgian bicycle manufacturer Ridley has announced plans to sponsor the new Katusha cycling team, a Russian squad team organized by Tinkoff owner Oleg Tinkov. Ridley, which has served as the bicycle sponsor of the Silence-Lotto team and its predecessors for the past four years, will begin its sponsorship of Katusha in 2009. The team announced on Monday that it had also signed Silence-Lotto sprint ace Robbie McEwen, meaning the Australian will continue to ride on the carbon frames produced in Belgium.

The second sample provided by Spanish rider Manuel Beltran, who tested positive for erythropoietin (EPO) during the Tour de France, has also tested positive for the blood booster, a source close to the dossier said Tuesday. The test on the second sample, known as the "B" sample, was carried out by French anti-doping agency AFLD which also tested the first sample back in July, the source, who does not want to be identified, told AFP. The anti-doping agency is expected officially to announce the results of the testing on the "B" sample shortly.

I’ve received a lot of mail about our story in the print VeloNews, issue 14, about climbing wheels. It was a great test that revealed a lot about climbing wheels we saw right afterward in the Tour de France. Matt Pacocha rode 50,000 vertical feet on the wheels and performed wind tunnel tests on them, and then we did our own measurements of rotational inertia. For those not understanding what rotational inertia is and how we measured it, please go here. Lennard

Jelly Belly's Bernard Van Ulden and Team Tibco's Lauren Franges took the wins in Atlanta on Labor Day, taking their share of a $30,000 combined prize list at the city's U.S. 10k Classic. Held the same morning as a 10k running race, men race 100k on a fast five-mile loop, finishing on a wide downhill highway. The mens field contained many who had raced in the weekend's USPRO championships in Greenville, South Carolina, including Van Ulden, who was eighth in the USPRO time trial and did not finish the road race. Women raced 10k, with the same wide-open finish as the men.

The multimillion-dollar Russian spending spree that’s energizing the contract market shows no sign of abating soon. Robbie McEwen, three-time green points winner at the Tour de France, and mullet-man Vladimir Karpets are the latest big names lured to the new Katyusha lineup for the 2009 season. Backed by a reported budget worth 30 million euros (about $45 million, said to be split between the professional team and the promotion of cycling within Russia), Katyusha is making a big splash right in the heart of cycling’s silly season.

Tom Boonen (Quick Step) and Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) – two riders who missed this summer’s Tour de France for dissimilar reasons – were both back on the podium spotlight in Monday’s 168.6km third stage at the Vuelta a España. Barred from the Tour after he tested positive for cocaine in late May an out-of-competition test, Boonen jumped off Bennati’s wheel with 100 meters to go into a stiff headwind to claim his first Vuelta stage-win in his career.

Tyler Hamilton (Rock Racing) scored one of the biggest wins of his long career — and the biggest since returning from a two-year doping suspension — on Sunday at the U.S. professional road race championships in Greenville, South Carolina. The 37-year-old Hamilton outsprinted his late-race breakaway companion, 24-year-old Blake Caldwell (Garmin-Chipotle), winning a photo finish by less than a tire’s width after 115 miles of racing.

Columbia put on a textbook display of team tactics at the Tour of Ireland, commanding the stage win and the overall victory on an aggressive final stage that blew the field apart. Frantisek Rabon dispensed of his breakaway companions on the punishing finishing circuit in Cork to take the win 15 seconds ahead of Pezula’s Fredrik Ericsson. Behind, Marco Pinotti countered off the attack of teammate Michael Barry to launch a successful solo bid for the overall.

It was a double-dose of delight for Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) in Sunday’s second stage at the Vuelta a España. Capping what’s been a spectacular season for Spain’s Green Bullet, Valverde opened up a winning sprint with 200 meters to go in a rising finish into Jaén to claim victory and surge into the overall leader’s jersey thanks to time bonuses.

Spaniard David de la Fuente (Scott-American Beef) won the second stage of the Tour of Germany on Sunday. Italy's Pietro Caucchioli Crédit Agricole) finished second with Swede Thomas Lövkvist (Columbia) third after the 182.6km run from Munich to Hesselberg. Germany's Linus Gerdemann (Columbia) finished fifth to hold the overall race lead.

US PRO road race start list, updated Sunday Aug. 31 Name, Team, Bib Number George Hincapie, Team High Road 2 John Devine, Team High Road 3 Craig Lewis, Team High Road 4 Graham Howard, Bissell Pro Cycling 10 Burke Swindlehurst, Bissell Pro Cycling 11 Scott Zwizanski, Bissell Pro Cycling 12 Aaron Olson, Bissell Pro Cycling 13 Ben Jacques-Maynes, Bissell Pro Cycling 14 Tom Zirbel, Bissell Pro Cycling 15 Garrett Peltonen, Bissell Pro Cycling 16 Omer Kern, Bissell Pro Cycling 17 Edward King, Bissell Pro Cycling 18

The rumor mill is kicking into overdrive that recently crowned Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre won’t be back at CSC-Saxo Bank for the 2009 season. The flames were fanned even more Saturday when team owner Bjarne Riis was quoted in European newspapers as saying that riders like Fabian Cancellara and the Schleck brothers “represent the future of our team.” The 33-year-old Sastre is in the final year of his contract with Riis and has refused to comment on the contract rumors.

The 63rd Vuelta a España is supposed to be a showdown between Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre, but it was Filippo Pozzato of Liquigas who wanted to remind everyone that there are more than two teams in the season’s final grand tour. Liquigas worked in perfect cohesion over a short, but technical 7.7km course in the shadow of the Alhambra to win the opening team time trial, with Pozzato surging across the line first to take the Vuelta’s first leader’s jersey.

Russell Downing of the British squad Pinarello CandiTV captured the race lead with a winning sprint on stage 4 of the Tour of Ireland. Downing took the kick from a 22-man group at the finish in Dingle, after Garmin-Chipotle’s David Millar shattered the field over the Cat. 1 Conor Pass. Downing started the day 32 seconds down on race leader Mark Cavendish. He took the lead through snatching time bonuses at the finish (10 seconds) and at the day’s first and last intermediate sprints (3 seconds a piece).

On the eve of the USPRO Road Race Championships, Garmin-Chipotle showed it intended to dominate the championship weekend in Greenville, South Carolina, taking four of the top five spots in the time trial, led by David Zabriskie. Only Bissell’s Tom Zirbel kept Garmin from taking the entire podium and then some, with a brilliant second place ride, coming in five seconds behind a clean-shaven Zabriskie, who captured his third straight USPRO time trial jersey.

Garmin's David Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde are among the favorites for Saturday's USPRO Time Trial Championships in Greenville, South Carolina.

Astana announced Saturday that Dirk Demol will join the team in 2009 to work as a director sportif. The Belgian is a former winner of Paris-Roubaix (1988) and most recently worked as a team director with Quick Step-Innergetic, where he led Stijn Devolder to the biggest win of his career at the Tour of Flanders. Demol will join Team Astana for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.

Czech cyclist Ondrej Sosenka, who holds the world hour record, has tested positive and has been suspended, the CTK press agency reported on Friday. Sosenka's A sample tested positive for stimulant methamphetamine and, should the B sample prove positive, he would likely be sacked from the PSK Whirlpool-Author team. "The team has already distanced themselves (from Sosenka) and terminated the contract with immediate effect, pending the result of the B sample," PSK manager Vladimir Vavra said.

Sources have confirmed that the Saxo Bank cycling team will race on Specialized bikes during the 2009 season and beyond. Sources close to the team, which now operates under the banner of CSC-Saxo Bank, have confirmed to VeloNews that the Morgan Hill, California-based company is poised to announce the agreement with CSC-Saxo Bank team owner Bjarne Riis.

Scott Bicycles announced Friday that the firm has inked a deal to become the bike sponsor of the U.S.-based Columbia team. The news comes just two days after the Idaho-based bicycle company announced that it was ending its support of the former Saunier-Duval team, which has struggled since the expulsion of star rider Ricardo Riccò from the Tour de France, after testing positive for EPO.

Quick Step is seeing some changes going into the 2009 season, with Tour of Flanders champion Stijn Devolder sticking around and Spanish veteran Juan Manuel Garate heading to Rabobank. After turning pro with U.S. Postal Service in 2004, Devolder joined Quick Step in 2008 and everyone seems pretty pleased with the results. Devolder signed a contract that will keep him at Quick Step through the 2010 season, with a clause for a one-year extension.

Alexander Kristoff followed last year’s successful script and launched an early sprint with 350 meters to go, but Mark Cavendish, as he continues to do with his blossoming career, is following his own plan. At stage 3 of the Tour of Ireland from Ballinrobe to Galway, that plan was simple: win. Cavendish was one of many riders to go down on slick tarmac just over the top of the final categorized climb, but Columbia put him back into the front group and wound it up in the closing kilometers to 70kph.

The 63rd Vuelta a España roars out of Granada on Saturday afternoon in a fitting start with a team time trial in what should be a dogfight between cycling’s two strongest teams and Spain’s two biggest stars. The showdown between Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre and their respective Astana and CSC-Saxo Bank teams should provide plenty of drama during a three-week course loaded with hard mountains spread judiciously among a long string of sprint-friendly stages.

Editor's Note: The following column was written by Matt Shriver, an Exercise Specialist and Senior Level Coach with Colorado Premier Training. He also is a professional cyclist currently racing with the Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling team.

Team Columbia is bringing a star-studded team to next month's Tour of Missouri, with British speedster Mark Cavendish joining time trialist Michael Rogers and defending Missouri cahmp George Hincapie. The race announced Thursday that the Columbia will bring Rogers and Cavendish, along with the previously announced team roster of Hincapie, Austrian Bernhard Eisel, Canada’s Michael Barry, young Americans John Devine and Craig Lewis, and three-time Italian time trial national champion and Tour of Italy stage winner, Marco Pinotti.

The complete 2008 Tour of Missouri roster:

Set aside for the day’s top riders, the winner’s circle in Loughrea served as a photo booth as fans of all ages took turns posing for pictures with Mark Cavendish. The Team Columbia rider again won handily at the Tour of Ireland, in the 158km stage 2 from Thurles to Loughrea, and the popularity of the four-time Tour de France stage winner is only swelling.

USPRO Road Race start list, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008:

Canadian bike maker Cervélo will own and sponsor a new European pro road team next season, tentatively titled the Cervélo TestTeam, although the company may announce a title sponsor in the next few weeks. The company's future with Team CSC-Saxo Bank, which it has supplied since 2002, is uncertain. "That hasn't been determined yet," said spokesman Peter Donato. A press release announcing the new team quotes Cervelo co-founder Gerard Vroomen, speaking as if he had little expectation that the company will supply CSC in 2009.

Cycling team Gerolsteiner has virtually ended all hope of finding a new sponsor and are set to sell off their assets at the end of October, their team manager said on Thursday. In September 2007, the German mineral water manufacturers announced they would not renew their sponsorship at the end of 2008 season and the Gerolsteiner team had been unsuccessfully trying to find a new benefactor.

Thirty-eight year old Eric Zabel will lead the Milram team at the Vuelta a Espana starting Saturday. The German vet will lead an otherwise young team looking for stage wins at the Spanish tour. The team's average age is under 25.

Sastre leads CSC-Saxo Bank

Daniel Martin is sick, but he isn’t sweating it. Actually, he is sweating, quite a bit, as a fever works to burn out the remnants of food poisoning he picked up Sunday at the conclusion of the Tour of Portugal. But the young Irish national champion is continuing to race at the Tour of Ireland. Meanwhile, his teammate Magnus Bäckstedt continues to work through a stomach bug he picked up at the Giro d’Italia in May.

Ben Delaney, VeloNews' Editor in Chief, is a master wordsman, but, by his own description, a Cat. 5 photographer (apologies to our Cat. 5 readers ...). Nevertheless, overcome by the beauty and the sheer Irishness of the countryside on the first day of the Tour of Ireland, the chief sent in this gallery with some behind-the-scenes views of the race. The lad'll be going pro in no time.

After a troubled season, highlighted by the positive doping test of Ricardo Riccò, the team once known as Saunier Duval has lost its second title sponsor in as many months. Scott Bicycles announced Wednesday that it will discontinue its sponsorship of the re-labeled Scott-American Beef cycling team at the end of the 2008 season.

Neither a four-man breakaway nor getting spit out on a climb could stop Columbia’s Mark Cavendish from taking a commanding sprint win in the opening stage of the Tour of Ireland. Columbia rode the front of the peloton all day, then strung it out in the rush to the flat finish along River Suir in downtown Waterford.

Cadel Evans is staying put, but rumors are flying that Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre might be lured away from CSC-Saxo Bank. Silence-Lotto announced Wednesday that Evans, runner-up in the past two editions of the Tour, penned a two-year contract extension with the Belgian team through the 2010 season. “Silence-Lotto proudly announces that Cadel Evans has signed a contract for the next two seasons. This agreement is proof of his confidence in the Silence-Lotto team,” a press release said. “Next season the Tour the France will be the main goal for Cadel Evans.”

Spaniard Jose Ivan Gutierrez, riding for Caisse d'Epargne, won the Tour of Benelux in Brussels as Latvia's Raivis Belohvoscicks (Saunier Duval) won Wednesday's final stage, an 18km time trial around Mechelen. Gutierrez was second on the stage, 8 seconds back. He finished without a saddle, which fell off his bike with about 800 meters to go, according to reports.

Astana brings a loaded team looking for nothing short of domination in the 63rd Vuelta a España that opens with a team time trial Saturday in sunny Granada. Still miffed it was left out of the 2008 Tour de France, the Astana blue swaggers into Granada with its A-team for the season’s third tour with overall victory as the main objective. Andreas Klöden and Levi Leipheimer provide heft to the nine-man lineup, but it’s budding Spanish super star Alberto Contador who will be captain of this ship.

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