Road

The rumors keep flying, but Astana officials insist they are not expecting a last-minute reversal from Tour de France officials to start this year’s race. Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel said he isn’t anticipating the Tour to follow the recent example of the Giro d’Italia, and said the team is already looking past the Tour for this season. “The Tour has been pretty clear. Straight after the Giro, they said that they are remaining with their initial decision,” Bruyneel told VeloNews. “We’re definitely not counting on it.”

Commerce Bank Liberty Classic 2008 - A Kurt Jambretz Gallery

The Philadelphia International Cycling Championships - A Kurt Jambretz Gallery

The 60th Dauphiné Libéré is a race of seconds – literally – at least through the first two days of racing. A day after losing Sunday’s opening prologue by one second, Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) captured the maillot jaune by that same margin over Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) after the Norwegian sprinter earned finish-line time bonuses in Monday’s 194km first stage from Avignon to Privas.

After quietly sitting in for most of the 156-mile race, CSC’s Matti Breschel went boldly to the front of the Philadelphia International Championship when it mattered most — coming across the finish line. The young Danish rider took the sprint win on Benjamin Franklin Parkway ahead of Kirk O’Bee (Health Net-Maxxis) and three-time Philly winner Fred Rodriguez (Rock Racing).

Levi Leipheimer (Astana) ripped to a dramatic victory in Sunday’s opening prologue at the 60th Dauphiné Libéré in a showdown between the Tour de France favorites. Leipheimer -- who won the 2006 Dauphiné – flew over the 5.6km course into Avignon to stop the clock at 6:10 to take a one-second victory to prologue specialist Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole), with Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) stopping the clock third at six seconds off the pace.

High Road’s Chantal Beltman won the Commerce Bank Liberty Classic in a late-race solo move. After Beltman and her High Road teammates Mara Abbott and Kim Anderson went clear with Tibco’s Joanne Kiesanowski on the last of four trips up Manayunk Wall, America’s strongest women’s team played its numbers. With less than three miles to go, Abbott attacked, drawing out Kiesanowski. Beltman then countered and it was game over.

It may have been the Scottish Highlands rather than the Alps, but the Swiss men were right at home in Fort William for the fifth round of the mountain bike cross-country World Cup. Swiss riders swept the top three spots of the podium, led by Florian Vogel (Swisspower). Vogel's teammate, U23 series leader Nino Schurter, came in right behind, with Christoph Sauser (Specialized) nine seconds back.

Astana has watered down pre-race predictions that its team leader for the Dauphiné Liberé, Levi Leipheimer, will emerge triumphant after a week of tough racing in the Alps. Traditionally a warm-up for July's Tour de France, the hilly week-long race kicks off Sunday with a short time trial and by next Sunday should give some hint as to who's hot and who's not for the upcoming battle for the yellow jersey. With Astana not invited to this year's Tour, the team will be keen to stay on a victory high following Alberto Contador's recent Giro d'Italia triumph.

Linus Gerdemann will be sidelined for at least another month after breaking his left leg during the time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico, his High Road team reports. The crash left the 2007 Tour de France stage winner and yellow jersey holder with fractures on his left upper and lower leg and damage to the cruciate ligaments of his left knee. The extended recovery time means Gerdemann will miss both the Tour and the Olympics.

A challenging and explosive course for the 60th Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré should produce plenty of fireworks in what will be the final dress rehearsal for many Tour de France-bound favorites. Last year’s Tour runner-up, Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), leads an all-star cast for the Sunday start of the eight-day Dauphiné, which will throw plenty at the peloton to assure a wild and unpredictable race.

Marie-Helene Premont (Rocky Mountain), has accomplished the first major goal of her season by winning the fifth round of the mountain bike World Cup in Fort William, Scotland. Premont beat the previous week's winner, Marga Fullana (Massi), by 13 seconds on Saturday, and extended her lead in the overall standings to 60 points. Sabine Spitz (Ghost) finished third, with Lene Byberg (Specialized) and Laurence Leboucher (France) rounding out the podium. Georgia Gould and Catharine Pendrel (both Luna) finished 11th and 12th, respectively.

Sunday marks the 24th edition of the Philadelphia International Championship. Although no longer used to crown the national champion, this grand event of domestic racing boasts the greatest distance and some of the deepest fields in North American cycling. Riders surviving the past week’s racing in Reading and Lehigh will face 156 miles in 10 laps through Philadelphia, including 10 climbs up the famed 17 percent Manayunk Wall. Along with The Wall, the weather will also mount a challenge: forecasters called for a record-breaking high of 96 degrees on Sunday.

The third round of the 4-cross mountain bike World Cup got under way Friday under a most un-Scottish sunny sky. Fort William has a seven-year tradition of top-notch racing — however, great weather is not one of the attributes that springs to mind when regulars think of Fort Bill. A steady breeze even kept the biting midge flies away during the race.

The Reading Classic 2008: A Kurt Jambretz Gallery

Retail:$19.99 Web site:www.pacelineproducts.com Chamois Butt’r Eurostyle is formulated to produce a cooling and soothing effect for cyclists who prefer a traditional European style chamois cream. The cream ingredients include menthol, witch hazel and Brazilian peppertree. It is intended as a non-greasy skin lubricant and a conditioner for synthetic or leather chamois.

Ina-Yoko Teutenberg is making the most of her time in America. In the span of three days, the German High Road rider has won a pair of Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling criteriums, gotten her hair done and purchased new shoes. “Things are cheap here to begin with,” said Teutenberg of her weeklong stay in southeastern Pennsylvania that included a day of shopping on Wednesday. “Throw in the strength of the Euro and it’s even better.”

It’s not that his team’s Redlands Classic victory meant nothing, or that no one was paying attention to its prologue podium sweep at the Tour of Colombia. But clearly Oscar Sevilla’s win at Thursday’s Reading Classic was just a little sweeter for the Spaniard and his Rock Racing squad. Heretofore better known for flashy team kit, outlandish team boss Michael Ball, and a major run-in with the Tour of California organizers, on this day Rock Racing was simply the best team in a field that included four Tour de France-bound squads and all the top U.S.-based outfits.

Classics specialist Philippe Gilbert has signed to ride with Silence-Lotto, the team announced on Thursday. The 26-year-old Gilbert, who earlier this season won the Het Volk classic for the second time in his career, will leave current employers Francaise des Jeux at the end of the season, Silence-Lotto announced. Among Belgian professional teams, Silence-Lotto is second only to Quick Step, and features top riders including sprinter Robbie McEwen and Tour de France runner-up Cadel Evans, both of Australia.

Thursday’s Reading Classic, the second round of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling, offers both redemption and a final tune-up before Sunday’s grand old race through the streets of Philadelphia. Like Tuesday’s Lehigh race, the course is relatively short at 75 miles, yet the course in Reading, Pennsylvania, demands three trips up the switch-backing, mile-and-a-half, Mt. Penn. Described as a power-climbers’ ascent, look for riders able to accelerate over the top but still produce a big-time finishing sprint.

Weight: 250g Price: $54.99 Colors: white, black, silver, faux carbon The limited edition white Raceblade fender from SKS is intended for fashion conscious road riders. The quick release fenders fit 700 tires from 18 to 23mm and come with an adapter for aero forks. The fenders mount quickly with no tools. Besides the limited edition white color, the fenders are available in black, silver and faux carbon finishes.

Lehigh Valley Classic 2008- A Kurt Jambretz Gallery

Just when it looked as though healing was coming to the scarred relationship between the grand tour organizers and the Union Cycliste Internationale, the wounds just opened again. After the recent Giro d’Italia and April’s Paris-Roubaix were successfully run under UCI regulations as part of the international body’s Historical Calendar, it seemed that the upcoming Tour de France might be similarly promoted.

Three American track riders are locked and loaded for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and five spots are still up for grabs. Californian Sarah Hammer, Coloradan Taylor Phinney and Washington’s Jennie Reed all own spots for Beijing based on their 2008 results. USA Cycling will hold a talent camp June 15-16 at the ADT Events Center in Carson, California, to decide the final spots for the games.

American cross-country mountain bike racer Adam Craig (Giant) has his sights set on the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. That means for the next few months he will be battling it out on the World Cup and National Mountain Bike Series with his fellow Americans for a slot on the U.S. team. VeloNews.com is along for the ride. —Editor

Sizes:Eight, sloping. Colors: Three Web site: www.colnago.com Available: October 2008. Price: not available The Colnago CX-1 is the first product to come out of the company's Revolution development and design project. The company says the CX-1 was designed for "young racing riders who have asked for an aggressive, ultra-modern frameset. The CX-1 is a high-performance frameset with a dynamic ride that will allow riders to fly up climbs."

Alberto Contador received a hero’s welcome upon his return to Spain on Monday, with politicians toasting him and thousands of fans cheering him upon his arrival in Madrid’s Barajas airport. But before the recently crowned Giro d’Italia winner had a chance to celebrate his unlikely victory, there’s already growing speculation the 2007 Tour de France champ can complete cycling’s “grand tour triple crown” with a run at the Vuelta a España this fall.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) has threatened sanctions against riders and teams competing in this year's Tour de France after organisers announced Tuesday that the race will take place under the jurisdiction of the French Cycling Federation (FFC). (The UCI's complete press release.)

Launching what his competitors called a late-race hail Mary, Ukraine’s Yuri Metlushenko scored a razor-thin sprint win in Tuesday’s Lehigh Valley Classic. Aussie Karl Menzies (Health Net-Maxxis) was second by half a tire width at the opening round of the 2008 Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling, with American Brad Huff (Jelly Belly) trailing home in third.

Mix-and-match
Dear Lennard,
At one time I read in your column that you can change Campy 9-speed ergo shifters to 10-speed. Is this true and what are the details?
Guido Dear Guido,

With the introduction of its top-level Red group last fall, upstart road component manufacturer SRAM took a shot directly across the bow of the industry leader. Shimano’s soon-to-be-released 7900 series Dura-Ace group is clearly a direct response to Red and it adds considerable firepower to the full-on techno' wars raging among the three big component manufacturers.

The wet cobbles were icy slick from street cleaners that rinse off the grime from the morning delivery trucks, the sticky ice creams from the after school snacking kids and the alcohol from the late night revelers. I rode through the old town of Girona cautiously, my bike slipping and skidding in the corners, to meet the “boys” for a training ride; the shopkeepers who were sweeping their steps in daily routine, waved a friendly hello and smiled.

Sunday’s final time trial gave Slipstream-Chipotle and High Road the perfect way to celebrate what’s been a very successful Giro d’Italia for both teams. Five riders from the two U.S.-registered teams filled out the top-six in the final stage of the 91st Giro, with Marco Pinotti scoring High Road’s fourth stage victory of the race while Christian Vande Velde and Danny Pate capped a successful Giro with fifth and sixth, respectively.

Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel celebrated his 11th grand tour victory from behind the steering wheel of a team car with Alberto Contador’s unlikely Giro d’Italia win Sunday. Bruyneel answered questions about the team’s anti-doping program and Contador’s unexpected rise; here are excerpts from the press conference: Question: Can you talk about the team’s work with Damsgaard?

Taylor Phinney and Danny Summerhill, VeloNews magazine’s joint selection as the 2007 North American juniors of the year, each had impressive rides on European soil over the past weekend.

Magura’s Marta three-model brake line-up is new for 2009. This is the first time the brake has been redesigned since its introduction at Interbike in 2001. While Hayes may have been the first to popularize disc brakes for mountain bikes, Magura’s Marta is responsible for making a high performance hydraulic disc brake light enough for even gram-counting cross-country racers to accept. The fact that it has had a seven-year run, without change, in such a competitive market is a testament to the strength of the original design.

For many domestic teams, the next eight days in Pennsylvania can define a successful or disappointing season. No disrespect to the emerging tours of California, Missouri and Georgia, but the trio of races commonly referred to as Philly Week historically boast some of the deepest fields in all of North American bike racing and a podium spot in Lehigh Valley, Reading or Philadelphia will undoubtedly be placed near the top of any riders palmares.

On Sunday, two-time Italian national time trial champion Marco Pinotti proved yet again that he is one of the world’s best in that specialty, particularly when it comes to the grand tours.

If you were to think of the upcoming Commerce Bank series as a stage race rather than a series of three one-day races, then Arlington, Virginia’s CSC Invitational criterium would be the prologue. Like those brief preambles to the big tours, the CSC race certainly doesn’t hold all the answers to what will unfold in the coming days, but it can provide a bit of a peek at what’s to come.

Alberto Contador is so happy with his pink jersey that he says he wouldn’t want to swap it for a yellow jersey even if the Tour de France organizers change their minds about his team’s exclusion. The defending Tour champ secured overall victory at the Giro d’Italia in Sunday’s final-day time trial and said the unexpected victory makes up for the controversial exclusion his Astana team from the 2008 Tour.

Now Alberto Contador can go back to the beach. After interrupting a vacation a month ago to pack his bags to head to Italy, the defending Tour de France champion secured one of the most unlikely victories in cycling history to claim the 91st Giro d’Italia on Sunday. “It’s never been so worth it to leave a vacation early,” Contador said. “I didn’t know I was coming to the Giro until eight days before the race. This Giro has a special flavor and perhaps means more to me than last year’s Tour.”

Julien Absalon (Orbea) can be beaten. After three rounds of the World Cup, when the world champion looked untouchable, he faltered on Saturday in the high altitude conditions in Andorra, while Christoph Sauser gave Specialized their first World Cup victory of the season.

The second round of the 4X World Cup in Andorra was a bit of a slow speed affair, after rain in the morning undid some of the work the organizers had done to repair the ruts and soft spots from earlier in the week. Despite that, there was some exciting racing on a course that allowed riders to pass multiple times, and saw more than one come from behind win in the qualifying heats.

High Road's Judith Arndt won the Montreal World Cup road race Saturday, the second time in three years she has won the race. Her win pads her lead in the World Cup standings. Arndt attacked on the final climb of the 11-lap circuit with year's winner Fabiana Luperini. Arndt won the two-up sprint to take her second World Cup win this season. “I love coming to Montreal,” Arndt said before the race, “even though I’m always really tired when I get here [after coming straight from Tour de l‘Aude]. It’s a really great race and a great atmosphere.”

Alberto Contador (Astana) is 28.5km from winning a Giro d’Italia he never expected to start. The Spanish climber deflected a flurry of last-gasp attacks from arch-rival Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott) over the Gavia and Mortirolo in Saturday’s 232km mountain shootout to retain the maglia rosa and roll into Sunday’s final-day time trial with the narrowest of margins.

Marga Fullana (Massi) became the fourth World Cup winner in four races this season, with a completely dominating performance Saturday at VallNord in Andorra. Another breakthrough for Pendrel Canada's Marie-Helene Premont (Rocky Mountain) finished third behind Eva Lechner (Colnago), but added to her lead in the overall standings. Catharine Pendrel (Luna) put a second Canadian rider on the podium with her best ever World Cup result in fourth place.

Steven Cisar led the United States Cycling Team on Saturday with a silver medal in the elite men's contest at the 2008 UCI BMX World Championships in China. As one of two Americans to qualify for the final eight-man main, the Californian finished 0.384 seconds off the pace of winner Maris Strombergs (LAT), while Stifiso Nhlapo (RUS) took the bronze and American Donny Robinson (Napa, California) placed fourth.

This year's Tour de Georgia brought almost $40 million in economic impact to the state, a university study has found. The estimated total is about 40 percent more than last year. North Georgia College and University determined economic impact using data collected by crowd intercept surveys at all race starts and finishes.

Alberto Contador (Astana) might be wishing he was back at the beach after fending off relentless attacks from Danilo Di Luca (LPR) and Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott) in Friday’s wild 19th stage that saw him save his maglia rosa by the narrowest of margins. Contador saw his grip on the pink jersey trimmed to four seconds to Riccò and 21 seconds to Di Luca and looks vulnerable going into Saturday’s epic stage over the Gavia and the Mortirolo.

Andy Hampsten and his 7-Eleven-Hoonved team appeared to have everything under control before the 1988 Giro d’Italia’s final stage, a long time trial on a rolling circuit at Vittorio Veneto. The American climber, 26, enjoyed a spaghetti lunch after a short morning stage and then rested in his room prior to the Giro’s ultimate challenge.

Balance is a concept that most everyone believes in principle. If you have it, things go along nicely. If you don’t before long things start to unravel. Balance applies to almost everything. As it pertains to cycling, it’s easy to take balance for granted until the unraveling starts. At first, we just happily pedal. Then after lots of happy pedaling, a knee will begin to hurt, or an Achilles will flare up. It’s never both knees, it’s always just one. It’s one side or the other. What went wrong? We just want to pedal. What’s the harm in that?

This Sunday’s 11th edition of the CSC Invitational marks the start of a week of international racing along the East Coast. Many teams will be using the flat 1km course in downtown Arlington, Virginia, as a primer for the upcoming Philly race week (comprised this year of three of the biggest races on the US PRO calendar including the Lehigh Valley (June 3) and Reading (June 5) Classics and culminating in the 24th edition of the Philadelphia International Championship on June 8th.

It was 20 years ago Saturday that Andy Hampsten rode through a blizzard over the Passo di Gavia to claim the pink jersey and become the first and only American to win the Giro d’Italia. Most people seem to remember that it was Hampsten who also won the stage, but it was another young, up-and-coming rider who was first across the line into Bormio on June 5, 1988.

Toyota-United's Dominique Rollin won this week's Ricola Twilight Grand Prix in Basking Ridge, New Jersey Jeff Hopkins (Team Inferno) was a close second to Rollin at the Wednesday night race, now in its third year, held in downtown Basking Ridge. Photographer Kurt Jambretz of Action Images was there to capture the action.

A composite team of top collegiate women cyclists will compete in next month's Nature Valley Grand Prix in Minnesota. The Ryan Collegiate All-Stars Team was selected at the collegiate road national championships earlier this month in Fort Collins, Colorado. Selection was based on the final individual overall standings for riders who were not already on teams that were attending Nature Valley.

It really comes as no surprise, but now it’s official: Alberto Contador (Astana) says he won’t be racing next month’s Dauphiné Libéré. Leading the Giro d’Italia with just three days to go, Contador will likely head back to the beach once the Giro ends Sunday to resume his vacation that was interrupted when the team received its unexpected Giro invite a week before the race started.

Former world champion Igor Astarloa, who pulled out of the Giro d'Italia after just one stage, is facing dismissal, his Milram team announced Thursday. The team had apparently asked the Spanish rider not to start stage 2 of the Giro after internal blood tests showed an aberrant result. The result did not mean that the 32-year-old Astarloa had tested positive, the team added, noting that a decision to fire him is pending. His lawyer, meanwhile, is contesting the results.

It was a world championship-style victory for Jens Voigt (CSC) in Thursday’s 147km 17th stage that traced the routes of the 2008 and 2009 worlds courses. Voigt attacked an all-star group that included two-time world champ Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) and the national champions of Italy and Spain with 35km to go at the start of two finishing circuits on the Varese worlds course the peloton will see in October. Chasers left it too late and never saw Voigt again as the German diesel hammered home to one of his most impressive victories of his head-banging career.

Levi Leipheimer came to the Giro d’Italia as part of the last-minute invitation for Astana that included Alberto Contador and Andreas Klöden as co-leaders. Leipheimer was at home in California when he got the call and he quickly made arrangements to fly to Sicily. No one knew what to expect. The team wanted nothing more than to make the most of the unexpected situation. Flash forward three weeks and Contador is poised to become just the second Spanish rider to win the Giro.

Is Mark Cavendish so good that he’s already gifting sprints? In the manner that High Road teammate André Greipel sprinted to victory ahead of Cavendish and Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) ? when Cavendish looked back to Bennati at least three times to check that the Italian wasn’t pulling through ? it would seem so. No way, says Greipel. The burly 26-year-old bristled at the suggestion that the biggest victory of his professional career was handed to him by his younger teammate.

If there were any doubts that Andy Hampsten was entitled to the 1988 Giro’s pink jersey, they would be exposed on the crucial stage 18, an individual 18km mountain time trial from Levico Terme up to the ski station of Vetriolo Terme. With Frenchman Jean-François Bernard out of the race because of a crash the previous day, the logical favorites for the stage win were the other top climber/time trialists: Hampsten, Erik Breukink, Urs Zimmermann and Roberto Visentini.

Rock Racing is the new title sponsor of the Skyscraper Harlem Cycling Classic. The 35th anniversary edition will be be held on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 15th, at Marcus Garvey Park, 5th Avenue and 121st Streets, in New York City. The crit is a stop on the USA Crits racing series and will be broadcast by World Championship Sports Network (WCSN). Rock Racing team owner Michael Ball said it was important for Rock Racing to support an event that has annually brought world class cycling talent to one of the nation's longest-standing African-American cultural and business centers.

Doug Ellis was on the way to the Verona train station when he hitched a ride with a pair of journalists. We couldn’t help but pull out the tape recorder when we drove the chairman of Slipstream Sports on his way to catch a train after the start of Saturday’s 14th stage. Here are excerpts of the in-transit interview: VeloNews: How important was it to win the opening team time trial?

Monday’s spectacular yet controversial stage up Plan de Corones capped a trio of decisive mountaintop finishes that saw Alberto Contador whittle out a slender but perhaps decisive lead going into the final week of the 91st Giro d’Italia. Contador hasn’t won a stage yet, but he’s finessed his way into a 41-second lead over Riccardo Riccò thanks to a superb time trial in stage 10 and three consistent performances across the Dolomites.

One by one the team stepped on to the bus, sweat pouring from their faces, their jerseys wide-open, radio earpieces hanging from their salt-encrusted helmet straps, road dirt and carbon brake dust on their faces, veins pulsing on their sweat soaked arms and legs. As helmets were buckled and seats found, each said in his own way, with his own accent, “That was the best lead-out I have ever been a part of.”

The Colavita Sutter Home team took three of the six podium spots at the Tour of Somerville on Monday. Lucas Sebastian Haedo and Kyle Wamsley took the first two spots in the men's race, while Jonathan Page was third. Wamsley was second at Saturday's Kelly Cup NRC race in Baltimore. National crit champ Tina Pic won the women's race, outsprinting Cheerwine's Kelly Benjamin and Aaron's Erica Allar.

A pair of gravity veterans took home the USA Cycling 4X Pro National Championship in Angel Fire, New Mexico on Sunday. Rich Houseman (Temecula, California) claimed the stars-and-stripes jersey for the pro men, while Melissa Buhl (Chandler, Arizona) won the title for pro women.

Frayed nerves that were already threadbare after two torturous weeks at the 91st Giro d’Italia spilled over Monday in the 12.9km mountaintop time trial up gravel roads to Plan de Corones. While it made for great TV and proved popular with the tens of thousands of fans who trekked up the summit, it proved to be another source of irritation in an already exasperated, race-weary peloton.

At least there were two riders who were in high spirits after Monday’s grueling 12.9km climbing time trial up the spectacular summit at Plan de Corones. While nearly the entire peloton was a chorus of complaints over the difficulty of the controversial 16th stage up slippery gravel roads with grades as steep as 24 percent, Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) and Alberto Contador (Astana) both had plenty of reason to celebrate.

When Andy Hampsten survived the snowstorm over the Passo di Gavia at the 1988 Giro d’Italia and took over the maglia rosa (see Hampsten and the 1988 Pink Jersey: Part 1) the battle to become the first American to win the world’s second most prestigious grand tour was far from over. There were still seven days to go, including two time trials and four mountain stages, before the finish in Vittorio Veneto.

Price: $65 Web site:Parktool.com Weighs a lot: Park’s latest digital bike scale has a capacity of 55 pounds, and reads in pounds or kilograms on an oversized digital display. In kilograms it measures and displays to .01kg (.01 kg = 10 grams). In the pounds mode the resolution is 1 oz. (1 oz. = 28.35g). Its composite resin housing can be clamped in a bike stand or hung from a hook in the ceiling. Its two-prong hook is silicone coated to protect your bike’s finish.

Price: Shorts: $75; jerseys: $70. Sizes: Small to XXXL Web site: www.teamtype1.org Team Type 1 is a domestic professional team developed to inspire people living with diabetes. The team is now making its jerseys, shorts, gloves and other gear available to the public.

Starting under darkening skies with scattered rain showers, the 4th annual Priority Health Tour de Leelanau was fortunate to end in bright sunshine after some very aggressive racing. Organizers said the Tour de Leelanau drew the deepest fields of racers to ever compete in Michigan. Starting in the fishing village of Leland and ending in Peshawbestown on the edge of Traverse Bay, the race course for the Tour de Leelanau traveled from corner to corner of this scenic Michigan county.

Alberto Contador (Astana) went from beach bum to Spain’s best chance to win the Giro d’Italia since Miguel Indurain won back-to-back editions in 1992-93. Contador rides into Monday’s decisive individual time trial at Plan de Corones nursing a slender but significant 33-second lead to Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Prodir).

Spain's Gustavo Cesar (Karpin Galicia) claimed the overall victory in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya on Sunday. Jose Leon Carrasco (Andalucia-Cajasur) took the sixth and final stage, a 122.1km run from Palleja to Barcelona. France's Remi Pauriol (Crédit Agricole) took an eight-second overall lead into the finale, but finished outside the top 10 and slipped to third overall behind Cesar and Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d’Epargne).

Susanne Ljungskog (Menikini-Selle Italia) won the Tour de l'Aude on Sunday. The ninth and final stage, a 71km leg around Limoux, went to Germany's Judith Arndt (Team High Road), who outsprinted Ljungskog and Nicole Cooke of the British national team.