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Alejandro Valverde could barely enjoy his victory Sunday at the Dauphiné Libéré when the questions started again: will he or won’t he be at the start line in Monaco on July 4 for the 2009 Tour de France? Since May, Valverde is banned for two years from racing in Italy for what authorities say is clear evidence linking him to the Operación Puerto blood doping scandal. The year’s Tour dips into Italy for about 80km during stage 16, enough to likely torpedo Valverde’s hopes for a shot at the Tour podium despite being arguably in the best form of his career.

The 2009 Nature Valley Grand Prix concluded on Sunday in Stillwater, Minnesota, with a GC shake-up in the men’s race and a win by women’s race leader Kristin Armstrong. Philip Mamos (Amore e Vita) and Armstrong (Cervélo TestTeam) both took stage wins by attacking from small breakaways. Armstrong sealed up her fourth consecutive overall victory with her win, and Rory Sutherland (Ouch) took home his third overall victory in as many years by ousting Tom Zirbel (Bissell) with a late attack.

I’ve probably spent less than 10 hours riding tubular tires. I’m not ashamed to admit that I come from a mostly mountain bike background. I’ve never wanted to bother with gluing tubular tires, despite the significant benefits in lighter weight and supple ride quality.

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Judith Arndt (Columbia-Highroad) won Sunday’s finale and secured the overall at the four-day Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira in Spain. After Columbia-Highroad teammate Mara Abbott and rival Claudia Hausler of Germany had attacked on the last climb, Arndt powered across to the two stage leaders on a dangerous rain-soaked descent. Arndt then outpowered Hausler in the final sprint for the line in the town of Orduña, while Abbott took third. It was Arndt’s third stage win in four days, and her first stage race victory since winning the Tour of Tuscany in Italy last September.

Scott Zwizanski (Kelly Benefit Strategies) won the Tour de Beauce on Sunday as Bernard Sulzberger (Fly V Australia) collected the final stage win in the St. Georges circuit race. The 130km race consisted of 12 loops of 10.8km with a climb on each lap just before the finish line. Breakaways coalesced and faded under the watchful eye of Zwizanski’s Kelly Benefits squad until the eighth lap, when a dangerous nine-man move containing the Colombian National Team’s Sergio Luis Henao and Darwin Artapuma — second and third on GC, respectively — went clear.

Tyler Farrar did what he had to do in to wrap up the overall title at the Delta Tour Zeeland in Holland on Sunday. The Garmin-Slipstream rider sprinted ahead of archrival Alessandro Petacchi (LPR Brakes) in Sunday’s 185km stage, finishing second to winner Robert Wagner (Skil-Shimano), but ahead of Petacchi, who crossed the line third. When the time bonuses were added up, Farrar came out on top, winning the three-day race in southern Holland by 11 seconds ahead of Petacchi. Wagner claimed third overall at 13 seconds back.

There were two races for Bernhard Eisel in Sunday’s 150km second stage at the Tour de Suisse — the first to try to win the stage, and the second to try to confirm a spot on Columbia-Highroad’s highly competitive nine-man Tour de France team. The Austrian sprinter achieved the first and went a long way toward securing the second after out-kicking the bunch in a tightly fought sprint to win Sunday’s romp around Davos.

Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) on Sunday won his second successive Dauphiné Libéré cycling race as Dutchman Stef Clement (Rabobank) won the final stage, a 146km hump from Faverges to Grenoble. American Timothy Duggan (Garmin-Slipstream) took second ahead of Frenchman Sebastien Joly (Française des Jeux), all three having been members of an initial 28-man breakaway. World time-trial champion Bert Grabsch (Columbia-Highroad) enjoyed a long spell at the head of affairs before being reeled in 37km from the finish.

The breakaways finally found success in Saturday’s Mankato Road Race at the 2009 Nature Valley Grand Prix, in Minnesota. Andrew Crater (Wheel & Sprocket) and Alexis Rhodes (Webcor Builders) both delivered wins from small escape groups after 92 miles of aggressive and unpredictable racing.

Max Plaxton pulled off mountain biking’s version of a Hail Mary pass to win Saturday’s Sand Creek International cross-country race, the fourth round of USA Cycling’s Pro Cross-country Tour (ProXCT). Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) appeared to have the Sho Air-Specialized rider boxed out on the final band of twisting singletrack, which descended a steep fall line before spitting riders onto a stretch of pavement to the finish. Whoever left that trail in the lead had the upper hand in the sprint to the line.

Fly V Australia teammates Charles Dionne and Alessandro Bazzana went one-two on Saturday in stage 5 of the Tour de Beauce. Otavio Bougarelli (Garneau) was third in the 125km Ville de Québec criterium. A 14-man break formed up on the third lap and went on to build a lead that surpassed five minutes.

Tyler Farrar kept the overall leader’s jersey Saturday at the Delta Tour Zeeland race in Holland. Just a day after winning the prologue, the Garmin-Slipstream sprinter dashed to second in the 181.7km second stage and retained the leader’s jersey in the three-day Dutch race. Italian star Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) was fastest in the stage from Middelburg to Goes, crossing the line 3h59.10 (45.58lph). Farrar came through second with Bobbie Traksel taking third and Baden Cooke (Vacansoleil) coming across fourth in the mass sprint.

For the second day in a row, a Frenchman won in a breakaway at the Dauphiné Libéré, this time with veteran head-banger David Moncoutie snagging an impressive victory in the week’s hardest stage over the French Alps. And for the third year in a row, it appears that Cadel Evans will finish runner-up, but it’s not for a lack of trying. The Silence-Lotto captain has finished second twice in a row at the Dauphiné before going on to second at the Tour de France in 2007 and in 2008.

Saxo Bank’s Fabian Cancellara may well have put a tough spring behind him as he scored an impressive win in the opening time trial of the Tour of Switzerland on Saturday. Cancellara covered the tough 7.8km course from Mauren to Ruggell, in Liechtenstein, in a time nine minutes and 21 seconds. Defending champion Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) was 19 seconds slower with Astana’s Andreas Klöden rounding out the podium at 22 seconds.

Bike racing is quite unlike the mainstream “stick-and-ball” sports that most Americans grew up playing, and can often be confusing, or a even a complete mystery. Even other endurance sports, such as marathon running or triathlon, lack the complexities and tactics of professional road cycling. In those sports, the person that is in the front of the race is usually the one that wins. That’s seldom always the case in cycling. In fact, it’s possible to win the Tour de France without crossing the line first on any of the 21 stages.