Giant Factory Team rider Adam Craig won the 2008 national championship cross-country race in Mount Snow, Vermont, using a single 35-tooth chainring and half of MRP’s System 3 Carbon downhill chainguide. That race underscored his and other top cross-country racers’ commitment to leave behind multiple front chainrings for a light and simple single-ring solution.
Chad Gerlach (Amore & Vita) and Amber Rais (Team TIBCO) wrapped up their respective omnium titles on Saturday in the finale to the Tour de Nez. Jesse Moore (California Giant Berry Farms) won the men’s race, launching a solo break just 10 minutes into the 90-minute criterium, run on a tough 2-mile circuit through the Village at the Northstar-at-Tahoe resort. Graham Howard (Bissell) bridged up and the two kept a 25-second lead on the bunch until Moore’s teammate Justin England jumped the gap, giving Cal Giant the advantage with five laps to go.
Columbia’s Tony Martin won the eighth stage of the Tour of Switzerland from Le Sentier to Crans-Montana on Saturday. Wearing the pink climber's jersey, the German outsprinted Damiano Cunego (Lampre) and Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank), starting his dash to the line 500 meters from the finish. "I realized Cunego was chasing behind, and he got fairly close, but I made it in the first place to the finish all the same," said Martin.
A Belgian court will not re-file the dropped criminal charges that stemmed from Tom Boonen’s first positive test for cocaine despite a second positive in April, local media claimed Saturday. Boonen, however, could still face charges relating to a second positive test for the drug, on April 25 2009. Boonen first tested positive for cocaine in May 2008, although he escaped any criminal charges on the condition he would stay away from any future drugs scandal over a three-year period.
When national criterium champion Rahsaan Bahati rolls up to the start line of the June 28 Manhattan Beach Grand Prix, he will do so once again as a professional cyclist. Bahati, a two-time winner and the defending champion at Manhattan Beach, signed a pro contract with Rock Racing, the team he has ridden with since 2007, he told VeloNews Friday.
Organizers of the Tour de France said Friday they will conduct “a safety experiment” in next month’s race by banning the use of rider radios on two stages. The measure will affect the Limoges-Issoudun stage on July 14 and the Vittel-Colmar stage on July 17. The steps mean that team managers will have to revert to communicating with racers by relying upon more traditional methods.
La Ruta de los Conquistadores, the Costa Rican race organizers call the “World’s Toughest Mountain Bike Race,” is facing nearly $180,000 in debt and a complete reshuffling of its upper management. The financial and managerial storm centers on a dispute between race owner Roman Urbina and former director Luis Diego Viquez, whom Urbina fired three weeks ago. Both parties told VeloNews that their only concern now is that the race survives the crisis.
Windham Resort, a small ski area located 140 miles north of New York City, will host the final round of the 2010 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup on August 28-29. The race will include the big three of World Cup racing: cross-country, downhill and Four-cross. The event marks the first mountain bike World Cup to be held on American soil since 2005, when Angel Fire resort in New Mexico hosted a round of off-road racing’s premier series.
Columbia-Highroad’s André Greipel won his second straight stage win and his ninth win of the season in the Ster-ElektroToer in Holland on Friday, and has now become the race’s overall leader. Greipel was the fastest in the bunch sprint which decided the 179-kilometer hilly stage starting and finishing in Schimmert, outgunning Australian Allan Davis and Slovenian Borut Bozic.
Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen (Columbia-Highroad) won the seventh stage of the Tour of Switzerland, a 204-kilometer ride from Bad Zurzach to Vallorbe on Friday. Last year's winner, Czech rider Roman Kreuziger, was second over the line and Germany's Linus Gerdemann third. It was the fifth stage win at the Swiss tour for the Columbia team.
US National Championships Camp July 27th–August 3rd What: Racing camp for athletes competing in the 2009 Junior/U23 & Elite Time Trial & Road National Championships. Where: Bend, Oregon When: Monday July 27th thru Monday August 3rd (fly out in the morning) Why: USA Cycling’s National Championships are the biggest amateur races of the year. Results in a National Championship event means you are “the MAN” (or WOMAN) and will go on to great performances in your cycling career.
Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde has appealed his doping ban imposed by Italian authorities last month to the world sport's top court said on Friday. The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) last month banned Valverde from racing in Italy for two years due to his alleged involvement in the Operation Puerto blood doping scandal, thereby ruling him out of the Tour de France, which this year passes through Italy's Val D'Aosta region on July 21. Valverde called on the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to "exonerate
Rockstar Games Presents the 36th Annual David Walker Memorial Cycling Classic New York, NY — Rockstar Games is the new presenting sponsor of the venerated Skyscraper Harlem Cycling Classic, it was announced today. The 36th anniversary edition will be be held on its traditional Father’s Day date, Sunday, June 21st, at Marcus Garvey Park in New York City.
Due to the steady growth of the Iron Hill Twilight Criterium and the expected spectator turnout associated with its rise in popularity, event organizers are looking for additional volunteers to help with racecourse marshaling, security, medical support and traffic control. The event is taking place in downtown West Chester on Saturday, July 11, 2009 from 5 PM to 9 PM.
Zipp Speed Weaponry of Speedway Indiana announced today that it will continue in its role as title sponsor of the Zipp OVCX Cyclocross through the 2009 season. The Zipp OVCX Series encompasses the tri-state region of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky; an area that series officials have noted is larger than Italy. The announcement marks the third consecutive year that Zipp has sponsored the fastest growing series in America’s fastest growing cycling discipline. “We feel it’s important to sponsor this race series when it’s in our own back yard,” says Zipp Marketing Manager Andy Paskins,
Broome County STOP-DWI is pleased to announce that the 2009 Chris Thater Memorial will expand to include the Chris Thater Memorial Music Festival. The Chris Thater Memorial - recognized as one of America's premier cycling and running events - will now feature a music festival including eleven bands. The Chris Thater Memorial will take place August 29th-30th at Recreation Park in Binghamton.
The Belgian Quick Step team announced Friday that it is reviewing its legal options in a final-hour bid to overturn a decision by Tour de France race organizers to ban classics specialists Tom Boonen from the 2009 edition. Tour officials announced Thursday that Boonen would not be allowed to start the 2009 Tour on July 4, citing Boonen’s recent troubles with a second out-of-competition test for cocaine.
Astana named six of its nine riders who will battle for overall and stage wins in next month's Tour de France, where Alberto Contador of Spain will start as a yellow jersey favorite.
Contador, the 2007 champion, will be joined by seven-time winner Lance Armstrong, Andreas Klöden, Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych and Haimar Zubeldia.
The remaining three riders will be picked from a group that includes Jani Brajkovic, Chris Horner, Benjamin Noval, Dmitriy Muravyev, Sergio Paulinho, Gregory Rast and Tomas Vaitkus.
Euskaltel-Euskadi will be hoping for big performances at the Tour de France following relatively lackluster spring campaign.
The Basque Country-based Euskaltel team will ride this year without the services of consistent top-10 threat Haimar Zubeldia (who’s already punched himself a ticket back to the Tour with Astana), so the team will look to Igor Antón and Mikel Astarloza to fill the void.
Astarloza has already finished in the top-10 and rode well to a top-5 finish at the Dauphiné Libéré.
Dutch cycling great Steven Rooks became the latest retired cyclist to confess to taking EPO in a book released this week. The 48-year-old - second in the 1988 Tour de France when he won the classic Alpe d'Huez stage - admits in the book about the Tour de France "Het laatste geel" (The last yellow) that he resorted to taking the drug after his best years were behind him. "Yes, I took EPO. It was necessary in order to compete at the highest level," said Rooks.
California’s Tour de Nez began Thursday with the downtown Truckee criterium, the first of three days of racing in the 17th edition of the race. Run under sunny skies, warm temperatures and stiff winds, the pro men’s field put on a show for the thousands of assembled fans, as it was Lifetime Fitness/VeloVie rider Chad Gerlach who took the pro men’s race in a one up sprint against Jonathan Baker of the Natural Grocer’s team.
Sprinter Ivan Dominguez has returned to the U.S.-based Rock Racing team after a five-month ProTour stint with Fuji-Servetto. Dominguez initially signed with Rock Racing before the 2009 season, but left the team in early January to accept a spot with the new ProTour squad. His return to domestic racing was a personal decision, he said, based on a desire to be closer to his family and the races he loves.
The 2009 American Mountain Classic stage race has been canceled, although promoters hope to resurrect the event as soon as next year. Organizer Tom Spiegel of Team Big Bear, said the five-day mountain bike stage race was scheduled for August 20-24 in Brian Head, Utah. Spiegel said the race suffered from low pre-registration numbers, a fact he suggested was due to the current economic climate.
Mark Cavendish earned his second stage win at the Tour of Switzerland on Thursday, the 178 kilometer sixth stage from Oberriet to Bad Zurzach. The 24-year-old Columbia-Highroad rider – winner of four stages in last year's Tour de France – won in a sprint finish ahead of Spain's three-time world road race champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank). Cavendish had already won Monday's stage from Davos to Lumino. "It may have appeared easy but it wasn't that evident to me," said Cavendish. "We had to cope with a second category climb eaarly in the stage and then a strong headwind."