Road

March is here and your first race may be just around the corner, if you haven’t already toed the line. This is the time of year when intensity must inevitably increase as part of your preparation for the demands of racing. Hard, yet focused, training sessions characterize the build phase of training and mark the end of the base phase.

Sol Cycles growing bamboo frames

CSC's Juan Jose Haedo won the 23rd Clasica de Almeria in Spain on Sunday, beating out Rabobank's Oscar Freire and Graeme Brown in a sprint to take the 187km race.

Quick Step's Steven De Jongh outkicked fellow Dutchman Sebastian Langeveld to win Sunday’s 61st Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in an attacked-riddled race that saw two-time defending world champion Paolo Bettini crash for the second day in a row. The mighty Quick Step train righted itself Sunday with De Jongh’s winning ride a day after missing out on the spoils against an unstoppable Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux) in Het Volk.

Just nine American track racers will journey to the 2008 UCI track world championships, held March 26-30 in Manchester, Great Britain. USA Cycling will send sprinters Jennie Reed, Michael Blatchford and Adam Duvendeck as well as endurance riders Sarah Hammer, Michael Friedman, Bobby Lea, Colby Pearce and Taylor Phinney. Reed races endurance and sprint events.

As the most profitable race promoter in pro cycling, Amaury Sport Organisation wants to dictate how the sport is run. That’s why for the past three years ASO and its surrogates have resisted substantive changes in cycling, particularly those changes involving the elite-level ProTour, which all other parties have embraced. ASO’s insurgency has now come to a head in its bid to independently promote next week’s Paris-Nice. And it appears that this time it has made one step too many.

Rubén Plaza (SL Benfica) wrapped up the overall in the 66th Volta a Valenciana after finishing safely in the pack behind sprinter Alessandro Petacchi (Milram), who bolted to victory in Saturday’s final stage. Runner-up Manuel Vázquez (Contentpolis-Murcia) was left without any option to make up the five-second difference to Plaza in the mostly flat stage around Valencia while Xavier Florencio (Bouygues Telecom) settled for third overall at 21 seconds back.

Belgian rider Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux) won Het Volk for the second time in three years in the best style possible: with a dramatic solo victory. Gilbert, winner of the Belgian season opener in 2006, attacked a lead group of favorites on the Eikenberg climb with about 60km to go in the 199km course across the Belgian heartland of Flanders. [nid:72951]He then reeled in the day’s main breakaway that included Mike Friedman (Slipstream-Chipotle) and before attacking again with a punishing acceleration with 22km to go to solo home to victory.

Another stage at the Volta a Valenciana and another breakaway by a rider from Slipstream-Chipotle. For the fourth stage in a row, the American squad put a man into the main move in the five-day Valencia tour in Spain. This time it was Lucas Euser showing off the argyle with Antonio Piedra (Contentpolis-Murcia) in more than 100km at the front.

Major changes are in store for the unofficial kick off of the classics season with Saturday’s running of the 63rd Omloop Het Volk in Belgium. Narrower roads, more cobblestones and tougher climbs are on tap for the 199km Belgian season opener in what’s always one of the most anticipated races of the year among that rare breed of racer who loves to bash the pavé.

There’s more good news for BMC after the team secured its second major European race invitation of the week. Just days after scoring a bid to race Criterium International (March 29-30), the second-year American squad earned its first ProTour invitation from the Tour de Romandie (April 29-May 4).

The Union Cycliste Internationale has warned teams aiming to take part in races run by the powerful race organizer ASO that “unjust” conditions in the company's contract completely eliminate fundamental rights. ASO runs a number of top events including the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Nice, the week-long stage race which has become the latest bone of contention in the ongoing feud between the UCI and powerful race organizers.

The third stage of the Volta a Valenciana ended on a controversial note Thursday as a misdirected peloton split between a highway and a frontage road in the decisive final 5km of the 166.5km climbing course around Ibi. Ruben Plaza (Benfica) stole away the leader’s jersey from José Iván Gutiérrez (Caisse d’Epargne) in one of the most bizarre mishaps in recent cycling history.

UCI President Pat McQuaid sent the following letter to professional cycling teams that have chosen to participate in Paris-Nice on Wednesday. The letter was distributed to media on Thursday - Editor

Dear Sirs,

After three solid off-season training camps, the entire High Road team is now racing, having initiated the season on four fronts: in California, in Portugal, in Italy and France. After being away from the races for the longest period since I was thirteen - seven months - I was happy to get the first race under my belt in Laigueglia, Italy.

Skil-Shimano, the Dutch-based continental team, seems to be one of the new darlings of ASO after receiving recent invitations to both Paris-Nice and Criterium International. The fourth-year team is a blend of aging and aspiring Europeans mixed in with Japan’s most promising talent, including Fumy Beppu, who joined in 2008 after a three-year stint with Discovery Channel. Maarten Den Bakker, one of the oldest riders in the peloton at 39, said the race invitations are welcome news.

Enrique Franco, the man who saved the Vuelta a España in the late 1970s, died Wednesday in Spain after a long illness. He was 74 years old. Franco was the former director Unipublic, the sports organizing company who bought the troubled Vuelta in 1979 and helped turn the struggling three-week stage race into a world force. The Vuelta was floundering from a lack of cycling stars and threats from the Basque terrorist group ETA when Franco’s Unipublic agreed to take over Spain’s top stage race.

Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in this country, a contributor to heart attacks, high blood pressure, and strokes. Of course, regular exercise and training is good for your heart and raises the helpful HDL cholesterol, but you still need to pay attention to the foods that you consume for optimal heart health.

Three American teams will be among 19 squads fighting for the honors in the Criterium International in late March. High Road, Slipstream-Chipotle and BMC all earned invitations to compete in the three-stage, two-day race held in the French Ardennes. The race is dubbed the “mini Tour de France,” in part because it’s organized by the Tour owners, ASO, and because it features the three classic elements of a stage race, with a time trial, a climbing stage and a road course well-suited for sprinters.

Cycling's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, suffered a serious blow to its authority on Wednesday as the sport’s top teams voted to enter the first major stage race of the season, Paris-Nice. UCI president Pat McQuaid had called on teams to boycott the race as part of his body's ongoing dispute with the race's parent company Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) - also the organizers of the Tour de France. ASO aims to run the race under the auspices of the French Cycling Federation

Erik Zabel isn’t washed up yet. The 37-year-old Milram ace out-sprinted younger rivals to snag his first win of what will likely be his final season in the 178km second stage of the Volta a Valenciana in Spain. Zabel — who saw his reputation sullied last year after admitting he used the banned blood booster EPO during the 1996 season — finished off an exciting stage that saw Slipstream-Chipotle’s Timmy Duggan feature in the day’s main breakaway.

Officials at the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) requested Wednesday that Giro d’Italia champion Danilo Di Luca be banned for two years for an abnormal hormone test. The abnormal result — not a direct doping positive — was returned after the 17th stage of the Giro from Lienz in Austria to Monte Zoncolan on May 30. "Anti-doping prosecutors have requested that the cyclist Danilo Di Luca be brought before a judge to answer accusations of doping, with reference to an abnormal result," said a CONI statement.

A cancer scare a year ago is fueling newfound ambitions for Belgian attacker Philippe Gilbert (Française des Jeux) heading into this year’s classics campaign. At the beginning of the 2007 season, the 25-year-old was alarmed by the sudden appearance of any ugly black mole on his left leg and immediately went to the doctor. Before he knew it, he was hustled into surgery not knowing whether or not he’d ever race again.

A banged up Magnus Bäckstedt (Slipstream-Chipotle) will return to competition in next month’s Tirreno-Adriatico stage race in Italy, a move that puts him on track to shine in the spring classics. Bäckstedt, 33, snapped his collarbone in a finish line crash during stage 5 at the Tour of Qatar last month. Following surgery, the 2004 Paris-Roubaix champion says his recovery is going better than expected.

Stung by the exclusion of three of its top riders from last week’s Amgen Tour of California, the Rock Racing team announced plans to launch an aggressive internal team anti-doping program on Tuesday. “This internal anti-doping initiative underscores Rock Racing's, and Team Owner Michael Ball's, willingness to take every measure to ensure that its members race clean and fair,” a team press release noted.

Craig Calfee hopes to prove that one person with one idea can make a difference in some of the poorest corners of the planet. The maker of some of the most exclusive and sought after carbon-fiber bikes on the market, Calfee plans to use his knowledge to teach Africans how to build themselves bamboo cargo bikes.

Why bamboo?

The sprinters were sharpening their knives before Tuesday’s opening stage of the five-day Volta a Valenciana in Spain, but a late-race attack featuring 24 riders stayed away to foil their chances. Spanish rider José Iván Gutiérrez (Caisse d’Epargne) out-kicked compatriot Ruben Plaza (SL Benfica) and Xavier Florencio (Bouygues Telecom) to snag the win and take the overall leader’s jersey in the 157km stage from Sagunto to Port de Sagunto.

The original Blur LT was introduced three years ago and the all-mountain rig has become the brand’s bestseller. But the company is releasing a remodeled design intended to keep it at the top of its heap. The most visible new feature is the use of a carbon fiber upper VPP link. Less visible but more important is a careful re-tooling of the linkage’s shock rate. Santa Cruz engineers mellowed the rate out to offer a supple beginning stroke and and a linear feel all the way through to bottom out.

Professional teams caught up in a dispute between the Union Cycliste Internationale and major race organizers are poised to make a decision which could force an end to the dispute between the two warring parties. The UCI on Monday effectively warned teams they could be sanctioned if they turned up to race at Paris-Nice, the first major European stage race of the season, on March 9-16.

Victory in Portugal’s five-day Tour of the Algarve bodes well for both the immediate and long-term prospects of rising Belgian talent Stijn Devolder. The former Discovery Channel rider is taking on an ambitious 2008 calendar that includes a detour through the cobblestones of northern France and Belgium before a run at the top-10 at the Tour de France.

This past weekend’s trip to the Wisconsin north woods for the 35th American Birkebeiner, which for many cyclists is a festival of extreme winter cross-training, got me thinking about traditions. Being able to count on the recurrence of a tradition is comforting. Yet underneath, traditions can be fragile, no matter how long they have survived.

The war between the UCI and major race organizers took a significant new twist on Monday as world cycling’s governing body warned that it might have nothing to do with Paris-Nice, the European calendar's first major race of the season.

Tour de France champion Alberto Contador will look to continue venting his frustration on the bike when he saddles up for the five-day Tour of the Valencia Community on Tuesday. The Spaniard and his Astana team are still digesting the bitter pill of being left out of the Tour de France, and the Giro d'Italia due to controversial decisions by the respective race organizers.

Italian cyclist Marco Fertonani will serve a two-year ban for doping after a last-ditch appeal to the Italian Olympic Commitee (CONI) failed on Monday. Fertonani, formerly of the Caisse d'Epargne team, failed a test for testosterone following his fourth-place finish in the Tour Mediterraneen in February 2007. The 31-year-old appealed to CONI's appeals judge, claiming that the French laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry, which dealt with his samples, had made an error.

With more rain and another long breakaway, Casey Gibson was not deterred. He spent another long day with the peloton capturing the action. The 2008 Tour of California didn't present much fun in the sun, so Casey managed to shoot a few painful grimaces during the stage as well as some very relieved smiles on the podium.

Belgian Stijn Devolder (QuickStep) won the 34th edition of Portugal's Tour of the Algarve Sunday, on a day when Team High Road's Bernhard Eisel won his fourth career Algarve stage, this time by solo'ing away from a breakaway in the final kilometers. The Austrian was followed at 3 seconds by Benfica's Rui Costa and Celestino Pinho of Barbot-Siper in the 194-kilometer stage finishing in Portimão. Devolder was joined on the GC podium by Cofidis's Sylvain Chavanel and Astana's Tomas Vaitkus of Lithuania.

A former team soigneur says Rock Racing’s Kayle Leogrande told her last July that he used performance-enhancing drugs at Wisconsin's International Cycling Classic, also known as Superweek.

Overall Results

Adding a ray of sunshine to an otherwise cloudy week of racing for Team High Road, American George Hincapie won the final stage of the 2008 Amgen Tour of California on Sunday, the 93.4-mile journey from Santa Clarita to Pasadena. The American took the victory in downtown Pasadena ahead of breakaway companions Michael Creed, Jason McCartney, Rory Sutherland and Tom Zirbel. [nid:72801]

Levi Leipheimer has proven immune to all the pressures, dangers, fatigue and sickness of the 2008 Amgen Tour of California. With one final stage left, it seems all but certain that Astana will defend Leipheimer’s overall lead into Pasadena and the record books. Only 91 of the original starting 132 riders made it to the finish line in Santa Clarita. A stomach virus has taken out more than a dozen riders, while crashes, fatigue, hypothermia and other factors have removed players from what has been the toughest-ever Tour of California.

American Katheryn Mattis (Webcor Builders) outsprinted Australia's Emma Rickards (Cervelo Lifeforce) to claim victory in the opening round of the UCI Women's Road Cycling World Cup series Sunday in Geelong, Australia. The pace was high from the gun with 12 riders breaking away early. But Team High Road powered the chase on the front of the peloton and the break were reeled in on the fourth lap. Cervelo Lifeforce riders then launched a series of attacks with Rickards finally breaking clear followed close behind by Mattis.

The tears in Mark Cavendish's eyes at the podium presentation for stage 6 of the Amgen Tour of California on Saturday were not from joy, but frustration. While the 22-year old High Road rider won the bunch kick in downtown Santa Clarita after the 105.4-mile journey from Santa Barbara, shortly before the ceremony race officials told the Brit he had been relegated to last place. His foul? Hanging onto a team car a few miles from the finish, while his bike was being fixed after a crash. [nid:72746]

German cyclist Patrik Sinkewitz, suspended for a year after a positive drugs test last June, could face a prison sentence if he persists in concealing the names of others guilty of doping offenses. A report in Monday's edition of Der Spiegel, quoting sources close to the case, say German criminal investigators looking into the allegations of improper doping practices at the private University Clinic Freiburg are starting to "lose patience with Sinkewitz.”

Barring disaster, Astana's Levi Leipheimer appears to have a lock on the overall 2008 Amgen Tour of California's winner's jersey.

After a long day in the rain on Thursday, the sun smiled on riders and on photographer Casey Gibson who spent his Friday capturing images of the 15-mile time trial in Solvang.

Astana’s Levi Leipheimer took a substantial leap forward in his quest to defend his Amgen Tour of California victory, winning the stage 5 individual time trial in Solvang. The American, who was the final rider to leave the starting gate, finished the rolling 15-mile course in 30:47, 29 seconds up on British time trial champ David Millar (Slipstream-Chipotle), with American Christian Vande Velde in third at 45 seconds back.

Gerolsteiner's Robert Förster won a mass sprint Friday in the third stage of Portugal's Volta ao Algarve, winning the stage while retaining his overall lead. Förster took the 208km stage from Vila Real S.Antontio to Loule after his team and Quick Step pulled back an early breakaway, catching its lone survivor, Belgian Gianni Meersman (Française des Jeux), in the final 600 meters. Belgian Jurgen Roelandts (Silence-Lotto) and the Frenchman Lilian Jegou (Française des Jeux) finished second and third in the sprint.

Fabian Cancellara was clearly not a happy man. At the end of Wednesday’s decisive stage 3 ride into San Jose, the CSC star threw a water bottle to the ground and climbed into his team car for a ride to his hotel. He wasn’t in the mood for a post-race talk with reporters.

Toyota-United’s Dominique Rollin may be celebrating Thursday’s 7 1/2-hour march as his best-ever day as a professional cyclist, but he’s likely the only rider in the Amgen Tour of California peloton to feel that way.

With a show of raw power reminiscent of Tom Boonen’s victories in the spring classics, Canadian Dominique Rollin muscled his way to a solo victory in the Amgen Tour of California’s rain-soaked fourth stage. The 25-year-old shattered a dwindling seven-man breakaway with 15 miles remaining in the brutal 135.3-mile slog from Seaside to San Luis Obispo, and then held off breakaway companions George Hincapie (High Road) and Iker Camano (Saunier Duval-Scott) by 18 seconds to take the biggest win of his young career.

Brooke Miller won the 2008 Amgen Women's Criterium, an event held during the first stage of the Amgen Tour of California and the first event of this year's National Racing Calendar. Miller, a Cleveland resident who won ten races in Europe last year in her first season racing abroad, edged Cheerwine’s Laura Van Gilder and Team High Road’s Emila Fahlin

Tomas Vaitkus delivered a dose of revenge for his beleaguered Astana team by taking the team’s first win of the 2008 season in the 189.5km second stage at the Volta ao Algarve, a day after his teammate Levi Leipheimer took the lead at the Tour of California. Overnight leader Robert Förster (Gerolsteiner) came through second in the mass gallop to retain his place atop the GC, with Vaitkus slotting in at second at just one second back.

Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) made it three in a row while Pablo Lastras (Caisse d’Epargne) wrapped up the overall title at the 54th Vuelta a Andalucía-Ruta de Sol. The 154.6km fifth and final stage from Antequera to Córdoba ended just as both protagonists could have hoped. The 34-year-old “AleJet” made easy work of Denis Flahaut (Saunier Duval) and Sebastian Siedler (Skil Shimano) while Lastras finished safely in the pack to secure the top spot on the podium.

As predicted, stage 3 proved itself pivotal to the overall of the Amgen Tour of California. While we don’t yet know who will take the overall title, we can probably rule out 115 of the 120 men left in the race. Those still with a realistic chance include defending champion Levi Leipheimer (Astana), world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (CSC) and three Slipstream-Chipotle riders: Dave Zabriskie, David Millar and Christian Vande Velde.

Rabobank’s 21-year-old Robert Gesink climbed his way to the biggest win of his young career Wednesday in stage 3 of the Amgen Tour of California. Levi Leipheimer, who went clear with Gesink from a select bunch of chasers over Sierra Road, finished second on the day to take the leader’s jersey. Slipstream-Chipotle’s Tyler Farrar started the day in the jersey — but with a stomach bug. He dropped out midway through the stage. However, it was inevitable that the American sprinter would have relinquished the lead on the race's most difficult climbing stage.

Tyler Farrar, the young Slipstream-Chipotle rider who took the yellow jersey following Tuesday’s stage, only got to show it off for about 50 miles on Wednesday, as he dropped out with stomach bug that is spreading through the peloton. “I had a bit of a rough night last night,” Farrar said before the start Wednesday. He said then that he thought he was feeling better, but he was dropped by the pack on the first hill. He caught on on the descent, only to be dropped again. He climbed into a team car before the day’s major climbs began.

VeloNews publisher, Andy Pemberton, was on the scene in Modesto this morning capturing the action at the start of stage 3. After a wet stage 2, the sunshine was a welcome change for racers and spectators alike.

Gerolsteiner sprinter Robert Förster opened his account for the 2008 season with a sprint victory in the first stage of the five-day Tour of Algarve in southern Portugal. Förster out-kicked Tomas Vaitkus (Astana) in a bunch sprint with German veteran Erik Zabel (Milram) coming through third in the 164km stage from Albufeira to Faro. Förster will wear the leader’s jersey going into Thursday’s 189.5km stage from Lagoa to Lagos.

Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) made it two in a row at the Vuelta a Andalucía-Ruta del Sol while race leader Pablo Lastras (Caisse d’Epargne) stayed in the driver’s seat with just one stage to go. A five-man breakaway was reeled in just in time for the sprinters to take over, with Petacchi making easy work of Borut Bozihc (Cycle Collstrop) to claim the 173.5km march from La Guardia de Jaén to Ecija.