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Roman Kreuziger's recent strong performances at the Tour de France, Tour of Switzerland and the Clásica San Sebastián have moved him up to third on the UCI World Ranking, just behind the much-more-heralded Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador. Kreuziger, a 23-year-old with Liquigas, was ninth overall at the Tour de France, and third at the Swiss Tour (which he won in 2008). His second at San Sebastián, behind Quick Step's Carlos Barredo, moved him up from fifth to third in the new rankings released this week.

Teams are already releasing preliminary start lists for the upcoming Vuelta a España (August 29-September 20) and Rabobank will bring a strong team with sights on overall victory and stage wins. The Dutch outfit released 10 names for the Spanish tour and will look to Robert Gesink, who crashed out of the Tour de France with a fractured wrist in stage 5, to take aim for the final podium.

Mikel Astarloza – the Basque climber who facing allegations that he took the banned blood booster EPO – says he never doped ahead of the 2009 Tour de France. Astarloza, winner of stage 16 and 11th overall in the this year’s Tour, is facing a possible two-year ban after urine samples taken in an out-of-competition control June 26, but strongly declared his innocence in an emotional press conference Tuesday.

Carbon mid- and deep-section wheels are all the rage in road racing, and for good reason. A deep aerodynamic profile helps slice through the wind, and using carbon as the rim material helps keep weight to a minimum. Most high-end deep section carbon wheels have that perfect blend of light weight and improved aerodynamics.

Organizers promise some surprises in the third edition of the all-new Tour of Missouri, which kicks off on Labor Day in St. Louis and concludes a week later in Kansas City. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin) won last year’s edition, while George Hincapie (Discovery) triumphed in the inaugural event, and race director Jim Birrell says it will take a strong man to win the 2009 tour, too.

Italian Angelo Furlan (Lampre-N.G.C.) dominated a sprint finish to win the second stage of the Tour of Poland Monday. Furlan beat Belgian Jurgen Roelandts (Silence-Lotto) and Argentina's Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank) to take the victory in the 219km stage between Serock and Bialystok. Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil), the winner of stage was, retained the overall lead despite a tie on time with Furlan, whose teammate David Loosli sits third overall at one second back. Tuesday’s stage 3 is a 225,1km leg from Bielsk Podlaski to Lublin.

Geoff Kabush (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) took aim at a first-ever World Cup win and hit his target in round 6 of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, held Sunday in Bromont, Quebec. Lene Byberg (Specialized) also took her maiden World Cup win, thanks to power, prowess and an 11th-hour tire switch when she decided that mud would become a factor.

The promoters of the Tour of Elk Grove call it the "richest stage race in the world." And with more than $150,000 on the line for a 7.7km time trial, a 150km road race and a 110km criterium, the dollars-per-kilometer average is quite astronomical.

Wheels keep spinning across Europe with a full week of racing in Poland, Portugal and Spain. The ProTour calendar clicked back into gear with Saturday’s Clásica San Sebastián and again on Sunday with the start of the week-long Tour of Poland, which slipped into the calendar slot previously held by the now-defunct Tour of Germany.

Rain and mud can't keep Geoff Kabush and Lene Byberg from admiring their first World Cup wins. Julien Absalon retains overall series lead.

Editor's note: This corrects an earlier version of the article that said Vinokourov was "expected" to ride in Astana kit. Alexander Vinokourov will return to racing Tuesday after serving a two-year doping ban for homologous blood doping at the 2007 Tour de France. Vinokourov will get back in the saddle for Tuesday's criterium race at Castillon-la-Bataille in southwestern France, organizers said.

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Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi) won the 32nd Subida a Urkiola on Sunday. Anton finished eight seconds ahead of Xavi Tondo (Andalucía-Cajasur) and nine up on Freddy Montaña (Boyaca) at the end of the 160.4km Basque Country race near Durango, Spain. Last year's champion, David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne), finished fourth at 10 seconds back.

Marianne Vos (Team DSB Bank) won Sunday’s Open de Suède Vargarda in Sweden, outsprinting Kirsten Wild (Cervélo TestTeam) and Emma Johansson (Red Sun Cycling Team). The 132km circuit race in Vagarda was the eighth round of the women’s 10-race World Cup. Vos has now closed to within three points of World Cup leader Johansson in the series standings, while Wild has moved up from sixth to third overall. The next round of the World Cup, the Grand Prix de Plouay-Bretagne in France, is scheduled for August 22.

Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil) sprinted to victory in the first stage of the 66th Tour of Poland on Sunday. David Loosli (Lampre-N.G.C) and Blazej Janiczak (Polska-BGZ) broke away early in the 96km circuit race in Warsaw and built a lead of some five minutes before the peloton finally retrieved them on the final lap. Columbia-HTC tried to get its train rolling for sprinter Andre Greipel, but Bozic showed him a clean pair of heels with Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre-N.G.C.) third. "It's my first victory in the ProTour, I was waiting for so long,” Bozic said.

Rising Danish prospect Jakob Fuglsang wrapped up overall victory at the Tour of Denmark on Sunday after finishing safely in the main bunch to successfully defend his crown in his national tour. Fuglsang, who won last year racing for the Designa Kokka team, and joined Saxo Bank as a stagiaire after returning from the Beijing Summer Olympic Games, where he competed in mountain biking. Racing full-time on the road this year with Saxo Bank, Fuglsang won stage 3 to take the lead and then rode to fifth in the time trial in stage 5 to defend.

The latest Tour de France doping scandal involving stage-winner Mikel Astarloza could jeopardize the future of one of Spain’s few remaining top professional teams. According to reports in the Spanish media, Astarloza’s provisional suspension for failing an out-of-competition control for the banned blood booster EPO could threaten financial backing of the Euskaltel-Euskadi team.

Stage 4 of the Intermontane Challenge coincided with Benjamin Sonntag’s birthday, but for him it will be most memorable for a trip to the emergency room in Kamloops, British Columbia. Or maybe not — the MonaVie-Cannondale rider lost consciousness for several minutes and doesn’t remember anything until he was stabilized at the ER. But Chris Sheppard remembers. The Santa Cruz-WTB-Fox rider, who won stage 4 and took the race leader’s jersey, was off the front with Sonntag when the crash occurred.

Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) won a wet Clásica San Sebastián in Spain's northern Basque region on Saturday. Barredo beat Czech rider Roman Kreuziger of Liquigas in a sprint to the line at the end of the 237-kilometer mountainous course that begins and ends in the city. The two were seven seconds ahead of a group led by Frenchman Mikael Delage. Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Slipstream) finished fifth.