Web site: www.elite-it.com or www.realaxiom.com Retail Price: 1,550 Euros (about $2100); Internet racing software is 99 Euros (about $135) The Elite Realpower CT is an indoor trainer that the company claims can accurately simulate up to 20 percent grades and now features Internet racing capabilities.
Suggested Retail Price:: $24.99 Web page: www.thewarmfront.com Material: Malden Mills fleece with water repellent finish. Sizes: Men's and Women's. The Warmfront is a backless fleece vest that can be worn next to the skin or over a jacket or jersey. It can easily be removed with one hand while riding, without removing other layers or a hydration pack. It compacts to fit in a jersey pocket.
Retail Price: $39.95 Web site: www.velogear.com Campagnolo: 75 Years of Cycling Passion is a new book from VeloPress that tells the story of the legendary component supplier from its humble beginning to its new 11-speed Super Record group. The 160-page hardcover "coffee-table" book includes deeply researched history (much of it from the company's private archives), spectacular color photography, rich text, and lavish presentation. It was written by Paolo Facchinetti and Guido Rubino.
The pressure of five rated climbs — and one harrowing descent — made for a decisive stage 2 at Mexico’s Vuelta Chihuahua on Tuesday.
Finishing on top at the conclusion of the 188.7km mostly uphill grind from Parral to Guachochi was Colombian Gregario Ladino (Tecos-Trek), who late in the race soloed away from breakaway companion — and defending Chihuahua champion — Francisco Mancebo (Fercase-Rota dos Moveis). Ladino crossed the line in 4:59:27, with Mancebo trailing in eight seconds later and Tecos-Trek’ Juan Magallanes completing the podium, at 0:22.
Spaniard Javier Benitez burst from the bunch in the final 100 meters to take the stage 1 sprint at the Vuelta Chihuahua on Monday. The Benfica rider stopped the clock in 3:19:30, with Steffen Radochla (Elk Haus-Simplon) and Juan Magallanes (Tecos-Trek) completing the podium at the end of the 147.8km ride from Chihuahua to Camargo. Benitez won by more than a bike length.
USA Cycling awarded the final ten stars and stripes jerseys over the weekend as the 2008 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships concluded at the ADT Event Center velodrome at the Home Depot Center on Sunday.
Jason Sager (SagerSports.com) edged Erik Tonkin (Team S&M) for the victory in Sunday's Cross Crusade race in Portland, Oregon. Ryan Trebon (Kona) lined up on a single speed, taking an early lead, but eventually faded to fifth place. The race attracted 1,267 registrants and was held on a rain-slick course at Alpenrose Dairy. The former USGP venue featured mud, grass, pavement, off-camber turns, gravel, stairs and even a lap in a velodrome. In the women's A race, Sue Butler (Monavie Cannondale) and Wendy Williams controlled the race and went 1-2.
Colombian Leonardo Paez and Swiss Petra Henzi won the second and final round of the UCI Marathon Mountain bike World Cup, held in Ornans, France on October 5. Paez (Gewiss-Bianchi), took a two-minute victory ahead of Swiss rider Lukas Buchli, with newly crowned German marathon champ Karl Platt (Bulls) in third.
With his win, Paez took the World Cup overall, beating defending champ Thomas Dietsch (Gewiss-Bianchi), 390 points to 370. Austrian Alban Lakata (Dolphin-Trek) finished third.
Former Saunier Duval climber Leonardo Piepoli is facing a ban from the sport after the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) announced Monday he had tested positive for banned substances twice at this year's Tour de France. Piepoli, who won a stage and helped former Saunier Duval teammate Riccardo Ricco win two stages at the race, will now come before a CONI commission on Friday in connection with the failed tests on July 4 and 15.
Check out Matt Pacocha's author page.
Taylor Phinney (Garmin-Chipotle) set a new track record in the men’s 4000-meter individual pursuit and won his third national title of the week on Friday at the 2008 U.S. elite track national championships at the ADT Event Center velorome in Carson City, California, on Friday.
During last week’s press conference at Interbike in Las Vegas, in revealing details of his comeback to racing, Lance Armstrong blurted out that he was “looking forward to the Mont Ventoux” stage in the 2009 Tour de France.
Garmin-Chipotle and Metro VW Cycling earned national titles in the team pursuit, as at the U.S. elite track national championships at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, Thursday. Meanwhile Proman’s Cari Higgins narrowly edged Liz Reap-Carlson to take the national jersey in the women’s 500-meter time trial.
Taylor Phinney opened the 2008 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships in Carson, California, with a gold medal in the men's 1 kilometer time trial.
Prosecutors at the anti-doping tribunal of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) have asked that rider Riccardo Ricco be handed a 20-month ban after he tested positive for a new variant of EPO during the Tour de France. Ricco, 24, was suspended from riding by CONI in July after admitting to using the banned blood-booster. He was kicked off the Tour de France and sacked by his Saunier Duval-Scott team after testing positive following the fourth stage time-trial. The team itself subsequently lost both of its title sponsors.
Saturday and Sunday's Jonathan Page Planet Bike Cup elite men's race had a stacked field with Jonathan Page (Planet Bike), Todd Wells (GT), Bjorn Selander (Ridley), Troy Wells (Clif Bar) and on Sunday Tim Johnson (Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale) in Wisconsin for the race. Add to this three Swiss riders, a Canadian and riders from throughout the US and the racing action was relentless on both days.
The Wolf River Rendezvous, 11th race in the 2008 Wisconsin Off Road Series, was the stage for two prodigious victories this Sunday as Cole House and Holly Liske took top honors. Before joining the U23 Development Team, House was a regular WORS series racer (2002 - 2005). Though he was closely followed throughout the five-lap race by teammates Chris Peariso (Adventure 212; 1:34:11) and Thomas Bender (Adventure 212 / Specialized; 1:34:17), House (1:34:10) maintained his lead for the top spot on the podium, which he last occupied in 2004, at the age of 16. [nid:83848]
Alessandro Ballan started Sunday’s men’s elite road race as a helper for the team’s biggest stars but ended the day world champion. Ballan attacked in each of the last three laps, but it was his move with about three kilometers to go to drop a leading group of about a dozen riders that included two Italian teammates that sealed Italy’s third straight rainbow jersey. It was a drag race to the finish, but the 2007 Tour of Flanders champion held on to win the world title on home roads.
Nicole Cooke’s perfect season just got better. Just six weeks after winning the Olympic gold medal in Beijing, the 24-year-old Welshwoman executed seamless tactics Saturday in a thrilling final lap to win her first world title. Cooke followed her instinct to make a final-stage attack by arch-rival Marianne Vos and then pipped her at the line to relegate the Dutch rider to silver with Judith Arndt collected her second bronze medal in the Varese world championships.
With three Italians in the eight-up sprint at the end of Friday’s heated 173km Under-23 world championship race, odds were stacked against Fabio Duarte. So the pint-sized Colombian uncorked a daring attack with 400m to go to leave the remnants of the winning breakaway choking on his fumes and deliver a huge upset against the heavily favored Italians racing on home roads.
Check out Matt Pacocha's author page.
Las Vegas is a good place to put on a show. Jen McRae and Hilton Clarke — each of whom are looking for new teams next year — produced brilliant late season performances with wins at the USA CRITS Finals, held during the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas Thursday night. Clarke said the win under the lights at the Mandalay Bay Resort on the Vegas Strip will not be the end of his season. His Toyota-United team is expected to fold at the end of this season, or perhaps return with a much more modest program next year.
In front of an enthusiastic crowd of thousands, 2006 U.S. national cyclocross champions Ryan Trebon (Kona) and Katie Compton (Spike) won the CrossVegas UCI cyclocross race Wednesday night, held under lights in conjunction with the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas. After surging ahead of a persistent Tim Johnson (Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com) with just under two laps remaining, Trebon finished alone in front of a field that included riders such as Jonathan Page (Planet Bike), Florian Vogel and Thomas Frischknect (Swiss Power), and surprise competitor Lance Armstrong (LiveStrong).
New York City's Ken Harris (CRCA / Jonathan Adler Racing) set a new world masters hour record for the age 40-44 group at the Valley Preferred Cycling Center velodrome in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. On Tuesday evening, Harris added about 400 meters to the old record of 45.189 set by Dr. Neal Stansbury in September 2003 at Manchester, England. The new record is 45.587 kilometers. A UCI official was on site to certify the record. Harris is one of the leaders of a New York-based Adler team, and president of the Century Road Club Association, the largest racing club in the United States.
German workhorse Bert Grabsch won Germany’s first world time-trial title since 2001 on Thursday as Canadian Svein Tuft delivered the surprise ride of the day to claim the silver medal. American David Zabriskie powered to bronze in Varese, Italy, claiming his second world championship time trial medal in three years, while Levi Leipheimer didn’t quite have the day he expected and finished just off the podium in fourth.
Check out Matt Pacocha's author page.
The U.S. women’s team struck gold in Wednesday’s time trial at the Varese world championships, but it wasn’t Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong bringing home the rainbow jersey. With pre-race favorite Armstrong slotting into fifth, it was Amben Neben who stormed to victory in the challenging 25.15km course in dramatic fashion to win her first major international time trial race. “I don’t have any words, I’m just so excited, so happy,” Neben said. “I cannot speak right now, I don’t know what to say. It’s a dream come true.”
Host nation Italy started the 2008 world championships in winning fashion on Tuesday as Adriano Malori scored a gold medal for the home team in the under-23 men’s individual time trial. Malori started last but finished first, covering the 33.5km course around Varese in a winning time of 41 minutes, 35.98 seconds (48.389kph). Patrick Gretsch (Germany) stopped the clock in 42:25.65 for silver despite crashing late with Cameron Meyer (Australia) taking bronze in 42:40.34.
Bootleg Canyon in Boulder City, Nevada, has, for the past few years, played host to the traditional opening round of the Interbike Bicycle Trade Show in Las Vegas, offering two days of demo riding before the whole thing moves indoors to the vast Sands Convention Center. VeloNews’s Lennard Zinn and Matt Pacocha were there to get a first-hand opportunity to try out an array of new products, including Shimano’s Electric Dura-Ace group.
Interbike, the largest bicycle trade show in the U.S., opened Monday with the first of two days of outdoor bicycle testing at Bootleg Canyon, a park about a half hour outside Las Vegas, Nevada. After the demos in Boulder City, the show will continue with three indoor days at the Sands Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas.
Tim Johnson and Jeremy Powers of Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com played the numbers on Kona's Ryan Trebon at Sunday's Rad Racing GP in Tacoma, Washington, with Johnson coming away with the win in a two-up sprint. Wendy Simms (Kona) won the women's race after dropping Sue Butler (Monavie-Cannondale.com) in the final lap. The cyclocross race followed Saturday's nearby Star Crossed event in which Powers was able to get the better of Trebon after the Kona rider crashed in the last lap.
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 21st - and Final! - stage of the 2008 Vuelta a España, a largely ceremonial cruise from San Sebastian de los Reyes to the traditional finish in Madrid.
With his third grand tour victory in barely a year, Alberto Contador has quickly grown from cycling’s boy wonder to the peloton’s new alpha male. The 25-year-old Spanish climber lived up to expectations to win the 63rd Vuelta a España to complete cycling’s “triple crown” and becomes just the fifth rider to win all three grand tours.
Vuelta a España director Victor Cordero called the 63rd edition of the Spanish tour the “best in years.” “We are very satisfied to see Contador likely to win and to see the quality of racing during this Vuelta,” Cordero told VeloNews on Saturday evening. “It’s the best Vuelta in years and we hope to build on this momentum in the coming years.”
The domestic cyclocross season began Saturday with a pair of upset wins under lights at the Full Speed Ahead Starcrossed event held at Marymoor Velodrome, in Redmond, Washington, near Seattle. Both the men’s and women’s victories were piloted aboard Cannondales, as Jeremy Powers (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) and Sue Butler (Monavie-Cannondale) emerged as underdog victors against Kona riders — Powers ahead of perennial domestic top dog Ryan Trebon, and Butler against Canadian national champion Wendy Simms.
Against the impressive backdrop of the Lehigh Valley’s South Mountain, the best of the MAC Cyclocross Series opened their 2008 season with the UCI Nittany Lion Cyclocross at Penn State University’s satellite campus in Fogelsville Pennsylvania on Saturday.
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 20th stage of the 2008 Vuelta a España, a 17.1-kilometer individual time trial from La Granja de San Ildefonso to the summit of the Category 1 Puerto de Navacerrada.
Riders will be leaving the starting house beginning at 2:45 p.m. We have posted a complete list of riders and their departure times: www.velonews.com/article/83409
How close was it between Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador in Saturday’s nail-biting 17.1km time trial at the Vuelta a España? Very close. Leipheimer gave his Astana teammate a scare and blasted up the Cat. 1 Puerto de Navacerrada to win his second time trial stage at this year’s Vuelta and chewed considerably into Contador’s 1:17 head start in the Vuelta’s penultimate stage. Leipheimer stopped the clock in 33 minutes, 6 seconds (30.997kph), 31 seconds faster than Contador and Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) to secure second place overall.
The full start list and departure times for the stage 20 individual time trial at the Vuelta a España, a 17.1-kilometer individual time trial from La Granja de San Ildefonso to the summit of the Category 1 Puerto de Navacerrada. Follow the progress of the Vuelta's top riders with our Live up-to-the-minute coverage.
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 19th stage of the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, a relatively short, but potentially difficult 145.5-kilometer race from Las Rozas to Segovia.
The route tackles the southern face of the Category 1 Puerto de Navacerrada (Saturday’s climbing time trial will ride up the northern approach) and then the Cat. 1 Puerto de Navafría before descending toward Segovia.
Challenge, the handmade Italian tire manufacturer, has a new tire that’s ready for the coming cyclocross season. The Grifo Fango mud tire rounds out the brand’s line that includes the Grifo XS file tread, which is built for sand and smooth courses and the Grifo, an all-conditions tire that’s over 20 years old, easily recognized by its chevron tread pattern.
David Arroyo won the second stage in a row for Caisse d’Epargne while Alberto Contador fended off last-gasp attempts to blow apart the race in Friday’s two-climb, 145.5km stage across the rugged sierra north of Madrid to safely retain the overall lead Vuelta a España. Arroyo, 28, is one of the worker bees who occasionally gets to taste the honey themselves. The veteran gregario was fulfilling his obligations to follow the breakaways over two first category climbs to set up team captain Alejandro Valverde when fate turned his way.
Jesse Lalonde (Gary Fisher 29 / BKB / T6) and Holly Liske (Hayes Disc Brakes) won at the Smokin Spoke on Sunday afternoon. The Spoke, the tenth race in the 2008 Subaru-sponsored Wisconsin Off Road Series, was held at Camp Tesomas in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of thr 18th Stage of the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, a 167.4-kilometer ride from Valladolid to Las Rozas. This stage rolls south across the central plateau, starting in Valladolid and climbs over the Sierra de Guardarrama north of Madrid before ending in Las Rozas. The first 122km gradually takes the peloton from an altitude of 700 meters to the start of the day's only rated climb.
Spanish rider Imanol Erviti out-kicked Nicholas Roche from an 18-man breakaway that lit up Thursday’s 18th stage to pump some fresh excitement into the Vuelta a España. With the favorites cooling their jets ahead of this weekend’s final showdown in the mountains north of Madrid, two-time world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) snuck away in the big, dangerous breakaway that the Vuelta was waiting for.
TIME? PRO ?Cycling’s ?Daniel? Ramsey ?took ?the? next-to-last ?leg ?of ?the? 2008? USA?CRITS ?Series ?in? San?Francisco Sunday at ?the ?inaugural? running? of? the ?San ?Francisco? Twilight? Criterium.? Ramsey,? one? of? the ?more ?experienced? members ?of? the? TIME? squad,? was ?the ?beneficiary ?of ?a? mechanical ?that? ?took third ?place ?finisher ?Jorge? Alvarado ?(Kahala/Lagrange) ?out ?of ?the? final? moments? of ?competition.? ?
To VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 17th stage of the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, a generally flat race from Zamora to Valladolid.
Tom Boonen and Paolo Bettini have each won two stages in this year’s Vuelta a España and had already planned to pull out after Wednesday’s stage into Valladolid, so the Quick Step superstars decided to sit up in their final sprint and leave it the second-tier sprinters to take a shot. Budding Belgian talent Wouter Weylandt stepped boldly into the void, holding off a wild sprint ahead of Matti Breschel (CSC-Saxo Bank) to win by a half-tire length to give Quick Step victory its fifth win at the Vuelta.
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 16th stage of the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, a 186.3km race from Ponferrada to Zamora.
The United States Olympic Committee has apologized to four Olympic track cyclists whose decision to wear facemasks into Beijing sparked controversy on the eve of the 2008 games. In a letter to cyclists Mike Friedman, Bobby Lea, Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed, USOC Chief Executive Officer James E. Scherr said, “We apologize if you felt that the USOC or your National Governing Body did not appropriately support you through this incident, and you should rest assured it was not our intent.”
Next year's Tour de France is set for a two-stage incursion to Barcelona, according to the Catalan city's Mayor Jordi Hereu on Tuesday. "This is important for the city, but also for the Tour, for cycling and sport in general," said Hereu. The city's top sports coordinator, Pere Alcober, said Barcelona would host a stage finish on July 8 and the start of a stage on July 9. Dates for next year's race, which is scheduled to start in the principality of Monaco, have yet to be confirmed by race organizers.
It was a fast and exciting conclusion Tuesday into Zamora to one of the slowest and most tedious stages any grand tour has endured in years. Tom Boonen (Quick Step) pipped Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas) to win his second stage of this year’s Vuelta a España, but the 186.3km stage was marked by its sluggish speed and lackadaisical attitude of the peloton.
Alberto Contador came close Monday to learning that sometimes clichés are true. Ever since he took the Vuelta a España race leader’s jersey with an emphatic victory atop the Angliru on Saturday, he’s been sounding like a broken record and kept repeating that nothing’s won until the final stage in Madrid on Sunday. Contador dodged a bullet Monday when he rode away with relatively light abrasions and scrapes to his left elbow, knee and shoulder after he hit the deck in Monday’s 202km 15th stage after riding into the gutter and falling hard on his left side.
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 15th stage of the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, a 202-kilometer ride from Cudillero to Ponferrada.
David García gave Xacobeo-Galicia the stage victory Monday that the team missed when Ezequiel Mosquera didn’t receive much charity from Astana in Sunday’s summit finish high in the Catabrian mountains. García charged out of a busted-up 17-man breakaway with 3km to go, but the real story was Alberto Contador, who brushed off a spill in Monday’s 202km 15th stage from Cudillero to Ponferreda to retain his lead at the 63rd Vuelta a España. [nid:83282]The Vuelta leader fell with about 50km to go, but suffered little more than scrapes to his left knee and elbow.
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 14th stage of the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, a 158.4-kilometer race from Oviedo to a mountain-top finish at the Fuentes de Invierno Ski Resort.
It's another tough day, opeing with a series of Category 3 climbs:
The Alto del Padrón (which summits at12.km)
The Alto de San Tirso (22km)
The Alto de Santa Emiliano (34.5km)
Any doubts about the seriousness of Lance Armstrong’s recently announced comeback were likely put to rest Sunday, as the recently un-retired seven-time Tour de France champion claimed his latest victory, pairing with two local Colorado pros to win the three-man division of the 12 Hours of Snowmass mountain bike race.
In a blustery, weather-shortened final stage of the Tour of Missouri, Italian Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) surprised Columbia's Mark Cavendish and Garmin-Chipotle's Tyler Farrar to win in St. Louis, as Garmin's Christian Vande Velde secured the overall win in a hotly contested GC battle. Chicchi's stage win, in sight of the city's iconic Gateway Arch, concluded a week-long rivalry between America's biggest pro teams — indeed it was one of only two stages of this year's edition of the "Toura Missoura" that was not won by either Garmin or Columbia.
In many ways, Sunday's cross-country World Cup Final in Schladming, Austria was anti-climactic, since Julien Absalon (Orbea) and Marie-Helene Premont (Rocky Mountain) had already sewn up the overall titles. Despite the lack of a battle for the overall titles, there were still plenty of riders looking for a final good result before the end of the season.
Agritubel's Geoffroy Lequarte said winning the Tour of Britain couldn't have come at a better time as far as the forthcoming world championships are concerned. Finishing in the main field on the final stage 110-kilometer stage between Blackpool and Liverpool in north-west England, Lequarte - who started Sunday with a six-second advantage over the field - had done enough to take the Tour of Britain title. LPR's Alesandro Petachi won the stage while Australia's Matthew Goss, the second-stage winner, took the points title.
No gifts. Alberto Contador might be Spain’s newest prince, but he’s not ready to play the role of kingmaker yet at the Vuelta a España. Contador wasn’t about to give away a golden opportunity to win his second stage in a row and tighten his grip on the Vuelta’s golden leader’s jersey despite Ezequiel Mosquera’s hope for mercy in Sunday’s 14th stage. The 32-year-old Xacobeo-Galicia rider poured everything into a daring attack with 5km to go in the Vuelta’s final hard mountain summit to drop everyone except Contador and Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer.
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 13th stage of the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, a 209.5-kilometer race from San Vicente de la Barquera to the top of the Alto de L´Angliru.
This is a stage that everyone has either been waiting for or dreading. We suspect that the majority of the remaining 154 riders in the Vuelta fall into that latter category.
Team Columbia and Garmin-Chipotle continued to pound one another — and the rest of the field — at the Tour of Missouri, with Mark Cavendish taking stage 6 in a sprint and Christian Vande Velde retaining the jersey after his Garmin teammates patrolled the front on an aggressive, windy day. Toyota-United’s Ivan Dominguez took second, followed by Jelly Belly’s Brad Huff, a Missourian native hoping for a home-state win.
Alberto Contador (Astana) is king of the hill in Spain. Spain’s climbing sensation added more fodder to the argument that he’s the best contemporary rider with a thrilling victory atop the most vicious climb in Europe. Contador attacked with 5km to go in Saturday’s 209.5km 13th stage to drive home victory up the feared Angliru climb and grab the overall lead at the Vuelta a España.
Call it situational amnesia, call it intense athletic focus, call it an innate (perhaps genetic) animal instinct for winning bicycle races. Just don't expect a lot of details when you ask Rabobank's 20-year-old Boy Van Poppel how he won Friday's fifth stage of the Tour of Missouri. “People always ask how you do it and ... I forget. I always forget what I am doing because it goes very fast and I don't think. You don't think, you do it. If you think, maybe you don't win.”[nid:83124]
The first mountain bike World Cup titles of 2008 were awarded Friday in Schladming, Austria, with 4-cross world champion Rafael Alvarez de Lara Lucas (Specialized) taking his first title and Anneke Beerten (MS Intense) her second. Romain Saladini (Team Sunn) won the men's final, while Czech rider Romana Labounkova took her first-ever win in the women's race.
Levi Leipheimer (Astana) enters Saturday’s showdown in the Angliru in perfect position. Teammate Alberto Contador has an entire nation – not to mention the whole Vuelta peloton – watching his every move. Poised in second place at 11 seconds back, the veteran American can bide his time and watch the fireworks before making his move. Back to the Vuelta for just the second time since his breakthrough third place in 2001, Leipheimer is in prime position to make a run for his third career grand tour podium and perhaps even more.
Whatever the reasons for Lance Armstrong deciding to make a comeback to the Tour de France after a three-year absence — whether to raise awareness of a worldwide cancer initiative, to lay to rest the decade-old doping accusations that still hound him or simply for the heck of it — he knows that the eyes of the world will be on him.
Saturday’s summit finish up the feared Angliru should provide Alberto Contador (Astana) with the launching pad he’s been impatiently waiting for to rocket decisively into the lead at the Vuelta a España. So far through nearly two weeks of racing, determined rivals have stymied the precocious Spanish climber on roads that he claims just haven’t been steep enough for his taste.
for live coverage of stage 11
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 12th stage of the Vuelta a España, a 186.4-kilometer race from Burgos to Suances.
Today's stage a potential leg-breaker ideal for head-bangers looking to finally hold off the sprinters.
Anyone thinking Christian Vande Velde had the overall win locked up at the Tour of Missouri was reminded Thursday that nothing is over in stage racing until the last finish line. The Garmin-Chipotle rider's 21-second lead over Columbia’s Michael Rogers looked to be in serious jeopardy on stage 4, an undulating 95-mile route from Lebanon to Rolla with three KOM points — a trio of rollers arbitrarily chosen by the race organization out of dozens that unfolded before the peloton.
Columbia’s Edvald Boasson Hagen took his second consecutive stage win of this year’s Tour of Britain with a late surge 700 meters before the finish line in Dalby Forest, holding off breakaway companions Matt Goss (CSC-Saxo Bank) and Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes-Ballan) as the field closed in. The Norwegian had earlier showed his excellent time-trialing skills by bridging a 12-second gap from the peloton to join three other breakaway riders as the race paced through Beverley.
Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) jumped with 300 meters to go on a rising finish into rainy Suances to fend off an attacking Alberto Contador on Thursday to win for a second time in the 63rd Vuelta a España. Bettini, who won on a similar finish into Toledo in stage 6, fended off compatriot Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) in a wild and wet stage into northern Spain that saw Alejandro Valverde’s podium chances fade when he lost more than three minutes.
to VeloNews.comcom's Live Coverage of the 11th stage of the 2008 Vuelta a España, a 178-kilometer race from Calahorra to Burgos.