The inaugural New England Race Week wraps up with the four-day Fitchburg-Longsjo stage race in Massachusetts. The new race series includes eight days of top-tier racing in four Northeastern states. Back on the NRC calendar for 2008, the 49th running of the Fitchburg-Longsjo stage race begins Thursday with a stacked line-up of former winners and top pro riders.

The positive out-of-competition test for cocaine that put defending points champion Tom Boonen out of the Tour de France, and the absence of the top Italian sprinters Alessandro Petacchi and Daniele Bennati, has opened up this year’s green jersey competition; while the decision by exciting newcomer Mark Cavendish to start the Tour rather than focus entirely on his Olympic track preparations gives new interest to the early sprint stages.

Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme is convinced this year's race can take place without the numerous drug-tainted scandals that have left the event fighting for its credibility. The 95th edition of the world's biggest bike race begins Saturday. Ahead of a tough three-week race, devoid of the traditional prologue and with plenty of action promised in an innovative first week, there remain plenty of detractors following the 2007 edition which was blackened by the unceremonious exit of race leader Michael Rasmussen, among others, over suspicions of doping.

A day after he received a suspension from Monaco’s Cycling Federation, former Rabobank star Michael Rasmussen earned something of a victory when a Dutch court ruled that his former team owed him more than $1 million. Rasmussen, who lost his license for two years on Tuesday for lying about his whereabouts in the lead-up to the 2007 Tour de France, won a partial victory in a wrongful dismissal suit he filed against Rabobank for kicking him out of the race and firing him within days.

Price: Not determined. Web site: www.sidisport.it Available: Fall [nid:79113] The Sidi Genius 5 pro woman shoes are part of the company's 2008-2009 season. The shoes feature several new technical features besides the floral fashion. The flower motif was first seen on the feet of Pippo Pozzato, the 2006 Milan-San Remo winner, who debuted the design at this year's spring classic.

Editor's Note: Subaru/Gary Fisher pro endurance racer Nat Ross will be sharing daily diaries from the BC Bike Race with VeloNews.com readers. This is the fourth installment. Mountain Bike Stage Racing is epic and crazy! We are heading into the 5th stage Wednesday, and every day a different team has started with the yellow jersey. Lining up at the start line tomorrow in yellow is Team Kona of Barry Wicks and Kris Sneddon.

Editor's Note: Subaru/Gary Fisher pro endurance racer Nat Ross will be sharing daily diaries from the BC Bike Race with VeloNews.com readers. This is the third installment. Day 3’s course in the BC Bike Race offered some sweet singletrack, deep creek crossings, and majestic views. Today’s high temperatures made for a tough day. It was the third day in a row of unusually hot weather. The course had several long exposed climbs that got to be quite brutal. Needless to say, the two aid stations in the 87Km race were extremely popular. [nid:79098]

And we’re off to the big show! After the past week together in Girona the Garmin-Chipotle team is off for France. Camp, at home for most, provided us with one last opportunity to truly relax, top off sleep stores and log a few last solid training rides before the impending craziness ahead.

Denmark's Michael Rasmussen, who was thrown out while leading the 2007 Tour de France for lying about his whereabouts, has been banned for two years by the Monaco cycling federation, the sport's world governing body UCI said on Tuesday. In a case brought by the UCI in February, a three-member panel organized under the authority of the Monaco Cycling Federation, ruled that Rasmussen had intentionally misled doping authorities regarding his location in the lead-up to last year’s Tour.

USA Cycling named 21 of its 24 nominees to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team on Tuesday, including all 16 men’s athletes across the disciplines of road cycling, track cycling, mountain biking BMX. The governing body also named five automatic women’s nominees across the four Olympic disciplines of cycling. Of the 21 named on Tuesday, 12 earned automatic nominations under USA Cycling’s Olympic selection procedures, while nine other riders were nominated to the Olympic Team by a nine-person selection committee according to USA Cycling’s Principles of Discretion.

Weight: 19 grams (Ultra Light), 27 grams (standard Nanogram) Suggested retail: $65, with aluminum bolts and a water bottle. Web site: www.speedplay.com Speedplay’s Nanogram carbon fiber bottle cages comes in two versions: the 19-gram Nanogram Ultra Light cage is intended for road bike use only, while the Nanogram cage, at 27 grams, gets the go-ahead for offroad use or behind the saddle triathlon use.

Alejandro Valverde has been a busy man since winning the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré last month.

The Vail Valley Foundation announced Tuesday that it has been forced to “pull the plug” on the inaugural Colorado Stage International Cycle Classic road bike race scheduled for August 22-24, 2008. “When requesting the event be placed on the UCI calendar, we recognized the challenges facing us in finding enough sponsorship support,” said Vail Valley Foundation president Ceil Folz. “The declining economic picture has made these efforts increasingly difficult, and the final straw came last week when we were not able to close a deal with a presenting sponsor.”

Questions about inspecting carbon forks for safety, trying Wippermann chains with Campy 10-speed systems and using Shimano MTB derailleurs with 10-speed road systems. What to do? I'm low on funds and that's the main reason I haven't replaced them as yet. I will add there are no stress fractures or noticeable wear.

Pat McQuaid has expressed his wish for a trouble-free Tour de France but says that it was a mistake for the event to have broken away from the International Cycling Union (UCI). "I am saddened by this, but it is the decision of the organizers,” the international cycling chief said. “It is sad but it has to be accepted. In terms of world cycling it is not a good decision." Speaking to AFP four days before the Tour starts on Saturday in the Britanny port of Brest, McQuaid said he would not be attending the race, which finishes on July 27 in Paris.

The Tour de France starts this weekend as a rebel race. Or at least as a race that’s no longer part of the ProTour format. Cycling’s civil war has now simmered down to a Cold War, as the breakaway races, including the Tour, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España continue on their collective path apart from the ProTour calendar. The ProTour, meanwhile, is alive and kicking. Despite the departure of many of Europe’s most important and prestigious events, the ProTour project is moving forward with an ambitious plans to expand the format to Russia and China in 2009.

Damiano Cunego will be brandishing a new look for the Tour de France and it won’t just be a fresh dye-job on his curly locks. The 2004 Giro d’Italia champ and Lampre team leader is supporting a new anti-doping campaign and has had its slogan tattooed on his left arm. It reads: “I’m doping free.”

Characterizing his defenses as “unfounded,” the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday issued a strongly worded dismissal of Floyd Landis's appeal of his suspension for doping at the 2006 Tour de France. In a 3-0 decision released on Monday, CAS confirmed the initial decision issued by a panel of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) on September 20, 2007.

It's almost July and the Tour de France season has begun. And this year, you can follow every move of the world's largest bike race, no matter where you are, on VeloNews.com. Say you are in line at your bank, or by the side of the road in St. André-de-la-Marche, with your cell phone handy: you can find out who is ahead with live text updates at mobile.velonews.com

Bouygues Telecom will start the Tour de France with a squad loaded with stage-hunters and almost no one for the overall classification. The French team will be headlined by Thomas Voeckler, remembered for his heroic defense of the maillot jaune in the 2004 Tour, and Pierrick Fédrigo, winner of a stage in the 2006 Tour. The team is betting on winning a stage rather than wasting energy in a futile fight for the overall.

Heading into this week's Tour de France, the French Ag2r-La Mondiale team will be looking to fill the void left by the departure of consistent Christophe Moreau with Cyril Dessel and Tadej Valjavec. Moreau, who has consistently been the best French performer in the Tour the past few years, is now racing in Agritubel colors. Ag2r will instead be hoping Dessel can win a stage and Valjavec can pop into the top 10.

Campagnolo’s three new 11-speed groups are tied by two bonds, the Ergopower Ultra shifters and 11-speeds. All are intended and designed for competition. There are numerous technologies, but each is tied to one of these end features — for a full report on the technical features of the group, reference our initial 2009 Campagnolo product report. Aside from that, Chorus, Record and the new Super Record are merely defined by materials.

Michael Ball, owner of the Rock Racing team, says he and his companies will contribute "hundreds of thousands" of dollars to launch a fund to help elite racers who seriously injured while racing. "Let's do the right thing for these guys," Ball told VeloNews.

Rock Racing's Rahsaan Bahati won his second Manhattan Beach Grand Prix on Sunday, outsprinting Ricardo Escuela (Successful Living), and Brad Huff (Jelly Belly). “I had a lot of trust in my teammates and they delivered,” Bahati said before being congratulated by Rock Racing Team Owner Michael Ball and a host of teammates and cheering fans. “With a lap to go, I was concerned about us getting swarmed. But our lead out was tremendous. The guys started sprinting with a kilometer to go.”

David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast) wrapped up the overall at the American Eagle Outfitters Tour of Pennsylvania on Sunday as Daniel Holloway (VMG-Felt) collected the final stage win in downtown Pittsburgh. Holloway — who also won the tour’s opening criterium Tuesday in Philadelphia — sprinted to victory in the finale ahead of Keven Lacombe (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast) and Erik Barlevav (Time Pro Cycling). The 50-mile race, run on a 1.5-mile, four-corner circuit, was interrupted by a tornado warning and heavy rains that required spectators to take cover.

Luna swept the top three spots on the podium in Sunday’s short track cross country during the fourth stop of the National Mountain Bike Series at the Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah. Katerina Nash took the honors in 23:47, with Catherine Pendrel second at 11 seconds back and Georgia Gould third at 48 seconds. Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) won the men’s race in 23:39, four seconds ahead of Ryan Trebon (Kona) with Carl Decker (Giant) third at 11 seconds.

Française des Jeux on Sunday announced that Philippe Gilbert and Sandy Casar would lead its team, which includes three Tour novices, at the Tour de France. "The choice was not easy because three-quarters of the guys were on the same level," team boss Marc Madiot told AFP. Three newcomers, Arnaud Gerard, Yoann Le Boulanger and Jeremy Roy, will make their debuts when the Tour kicks off on Saturday in Brest. Belgian Gilbert won the Het Volk in Belgium earlier this year, while Casar won the 18th stage at last year's Tour.

Newly crowned French cycling champion Nicolas Vogondy will ride for Agritubel at the Tour de France, alongside last-minute inclusions Freddy Bichot and David Le Lay. "It is a homogenous team with guys who can help Christophe (Moreau) in the mountains, sprinters, and those who can contest the breakaways and stage victories," team boss Denis Leproux told AFP. French climber Le Lay, the only Tour newcomer in the Agritubel line-up, joined the team during the season.

European countries selected elite men’s national road champions on Sunday, with Nicolas Vogondy scoring victory in France and Fillippo Simeoni earning the Italian title.

France

Editor's Note: Subaru/Gary Fisher pro endurance racer Nat Ross will be sharing daily diaries from the BC Bike Race with VeloNews.com readers. This is the first installment.

Stage 1 Shawnigan Lake to Lake Cowichan

Under brilliant blue skies and a hot summer sun, the BC Bike Race start gun fired to launch more than 400 riders from around the world into the first stage of the second annual multi-stage mountain bike event. Over the next 7 days, racers will cover stages totalling more than 550 kilometers as they race a combination of singletrack and logging roads from Victoria to Whistler.

Luna's Czech rider, Katerina Nash, beat teammate Georgia Gould to win the Kenda cross-country event at the Deer Valley Resort race on Saturday. In the men's race, Kona's Ryan Trebon prevailed over Jeremiah Bishop (Trek/VW) and Canadian Geoff Kabush, (Team Maxxis). Check back to VeloNews.com on Sunday for a complete report on the cross-country, as well as a report on the downhill, dual slalom and short track events.

Kyle Wamsley (Colavita-Sutter Home) outsprinted his breakaway companions Saturday to win the Cox Charities Cycling Classic in Providence, Rhode Island. It was the seventh edition of the hilly riverfront criterium and the race's first appearance on the National Racing Calendar. A stiff headwind along the back stretch — combined with constant primes for the first 20 laps — kep the field together for the first half of the race.

David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit Strategies / Medifast) won his second consecutive stage on Saturday and took the overall lead of the American Eagle Outfitters Tour of Pennsylvania. [nid:78968][nid:78965] Veilleux finished with his teammate and fellow Canadian, stage 2 winner Keven Lacombe, after dropping the remaining breakaway companion in the final kilometers of the 91-mile stage from Ligonier to downtown Pittsburgh. Phil Gaimon (Fiordifrutta) held on for third.

Samuel Sánchez will be back at the Tour de France only for the third time in his career, so he’s looking to make up for lost time. His two previous Tour starts, in 2002 and 2003, both ended early when he missed time cuts. Since then, Sánchez has grown in stature both as a rider and as a team leader. Despite riding into third overall at last year’s Vuelta a España, “Samu” has no pretensions about riding for GC in the Tour. He’ll leave that task to Euskaltel-Euskadi teammates Haimar Zubeldia and Mikel Astarloza, who finished fifth and ninth last year, respectively.

Kelly Benefit's Canadian strong man David Veilleux won Friday's soggy fourth stage of the American Eagle Outfitters Tour of Pennsylvania, surviving torrential rain and nearly 7,000 feet of climbing to win the sprint ahead of breakaway companions into Latrobe, Pennsylvania. South Africa’s Christoff Van Heerden (Konica Minolta) finished third and moved into the race lead. [nid:78955]

With their team barred from this year's Tour de France, Astana teammates Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner have decided to race in the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic instead. The five-day race will take place in and around Bend, Oregon, on July 9-13.

Specialized is on a roll with its sponsored athletes and not-yet-released bikes. Christoph Sauser just won the world mountain bike championships on a new Epic, which will be formally introduced next week and available later this year. But the bike that’s here now is the Roubaix SL2, the bike Tom Boonen won Paris-Roubaix on this spring, well before it was available for sale.

As the bike industry continues its headlong charge for stiffer-lighter-faster hardware, Shimano is keeping up its end of the deal with the upcoming Dura-Ace road group. VeloNews got a chance to ride the 10-speed group. Here are some brief first opinions.

More than 30 years after company founder Mike Sinyard brought the Specialized Turbo to market as a high-performance clincher, the Californian company is releasing another Turbo. This time, it’s a tubeless road model. Not yet available, the Turbo Tubeless was designed in conjunction with the tubeless Roval wheel that Specialized will sell. Weighing in at 290 grams, the S-Works Turbo Tubeless model features a supple 127tpi casing and, thanks to the lack of a tube, very low rolling resistance. Other models will be available later in the year.

The last weekend in June will see the National Racing Calendar split between coasts with a pair of big money criteriums. For the right coasters, the Cox Charities Cycling Classic in Providence, Rhode Island will be making its debut on the men’s NRC calendar on Saturday while the West Coast will host the 47th edition of the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix in Manhattan Beach, California, on Sunday.

Bahati guides us through the bent paperclip by the ocean

Riders throughout Europe are contesting national championships this week, with several countries holding time trials on Wednesday and Thursday. In the Russian time trial championship, Astana’s Vladimir Gusev was the fastest rider on the difficult circuit of Krylatskoe in Moscow. Young talented rider Timofey Kritskiy (Team Katyusha) was second, Vladimir Karpets (Caisse d’Epargne) third.[nid:78932]

Fiordifrutta’s Jamie Driscoll took a slim victory in the longest stage of the American Eagle Outfitters Tour of Pennsylvania on Thursday. The 168-kilometer stage was made even more difficult when strong winds and rain threatened the international field at the starting line in Camp Hill. While the sun broke through as riders lined up, but the strong winds continued to disrupt the day.

Belgian superstar Tom Boonen is the major absence from the Quick Step team's Tour de France roster, announced Thursday, due to a recent positive test for cocaine. The news of Boonen's career setback — which will not lead to sporting sanctions — left Tour de France officials to quickly decide he was not welcome at the July 5-27 race. The Belgian outfit had hoped for some clemency for the race's reigning green jersey champion, underlining the fact he tested positive for a recreational drug. But Quick Step has accepted the Tour owners' (ASO) decision.

A new study released by researchers in Denmark raises further questions about the effectiveness of the urine test used to detect the presence of the red-blood-cell-boosting drug EPO. The test has been in use in cycling since 2000 and is currently the detection method regarded as standard in anti-doping laboratories around the world.

French cycling legend Jeannie Longo has all but clinched a place in the Beijing Olympics at the age of 49. The five-time world champion staked her claim with an outstanding win in the time-trial at the French National Championships on Thursday. She finshed in 31 minutes 16 seconds, more than a minute ahead of second-placed Edwige Pitel. The French team for China has yet to be named, but her win in the national championships puts her in prime position to grab a spot. [nid:78920]

Liquigas will lineup without green-jersey candidate Daniele Bennati for next week’s Tour de France. The Italian sprinter has been forced out of the Tour after problems with his Achilles tendon that flared up during Giro d’Italia, where he won three stages and the points jersey.

George Hincapie will be heading to France for the 13th time of his career as part of the Team Columbia-High Road roster revealed Wednesday. Hincapie, 35 on Sunday, said the team brings a diverse squad with strong options for stage victories and a shot at the top 10. “I’d love to win another stage,” Hincapie told VeloNews. “We have a good team. We’ll have a great team for the sprinters. We have Tommy (Lovkvist) for the young rider’s jersey and we’ll have Kim (Kirchen) for the overall, so hopefully we can meet all those goals.”

The Tour of Ireland is back for 2008 and both top-level American teams will be starting the five-day, five-stage race across the green hills of the Emerald Isle set for August 27-31. Team Columbia, with likely starts from Mark Cavendish and Michael Rogers, and Garmin-Slipstream both confirmed they would be among 16 international teams lining up in Dublin.

Suggested retail: $299 Web site: www.sampsonsports.com Available: This month. Sampson Sports' new Stratics SL road bike brakes tip the scale at 231 grams per pair. The brakes are dual-pivot front and rear, with cold-forged arms, carbon fiber pad holders, adjustable shoe angle, easy to use cable adjusters and indexed quick-release openers. The brakes are available with a red anodization, clear coated for durability.

Canadian all-rounder Keven Lacombe (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast/USA) jumped ahead of a late-race, 18-rider breakaway to triumph in stage 2 of the American Eagle Outfitters® Tour of Pennsylvania on Wednesday. LaCombe took his first stage win ahead of the South African speedster Christoff Van Heerden (Konica Minolta) and Ryan Baumann (Sakonnet Technology).

High Road Sports has announced the riders that will start the 2008 Tour de France. The roster consists of nine riders from eight different countries, and five aged 25 and under. “We plan to be competitive in every stage without losing the focus on the support for Kirchen in the General Classification” explains Team Director Rolf Aldag. “This team is able to exploit and dictate the tactics on some stages”.

When Americans think of cycling, the first, and often only, thing that pops to mind is the Tour de France. For me, starting out as a truly fredly 15-year-old on an ill-fit bike wearing kits that I can’t help but cringe at now, it was the same. The Tour is the pinnacle of the sport; the dream of every young cyclist. My career has taken twists and turns, had some big swings up and down, but I’m now on track to take part in the biggest of the big: The Tour de France.

Philadelphia’s downtown cycling fans were offered a second round of excitement Tuesday afternoon when the current U.S. national criterium champion, Daniel Holloway (VMG-Felt) lit up the final 200-meters in Stage 1B of the American Eagle Outfitters Tour of Pennsylvania presented by Highmark Healthy High 5. Holloway captured a convincing field sprint victory in this elite U25 competition ahead of Jacob Keough (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast) and Christoff Van Heerden of South Africa (Konica Minolta Continental) in the 25-lap criterium of day one.

Steven Van Vooren (Johan Bruyneel Cycling Academy) won the kickoff to the inaugural American Eagle Outfitters Tour of Pennsylvania on Tuesday in Philadelphia. Vooren took stage 1a, a 3.51km prologue time trial in Philadelphia, in four minutes and 18 seconds. Keven LaCombe (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast) was second at three seconds back with Christoff Van Heerden (KON-Konica Minolta Continental) third at four seconds.