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Pescara, Italy — Each hundred meters of the two final kilometers of every stage is signed at the roadside. On a flat stage I take little notice of the signs as we speed through the kilometers in two minutes as the sprinters charge to the line at the head of the peloton. On a mountain stage, I feel every pedal stroke as my legs labor to turn over the cranks. The final few kilometers never seem to pass fast enough. Monday, we spent nearly eight hours on our bikes racing from Pergola to Monte Petrano. The last meters we rode were painfully long.

Cervelo's Heinrich Haussler remains atop the UCI World Rankings, thanks to his strong performances at in the spring classics, including the Tour of Flanders (where he was second), Milan-San Remo (also second) and Paris-Roubaix (seventh).

Cyclists at Wisconsin's Kenosha Velodrome will ride a lap of honor before a memorial race Tuesday evening in remembrance of Donald Vanderbrook, who died after a crash at the track last week. Vanderbrook, who was 50, died of head injuries when four riders went down just before the bell lap of a Senior Category 4-5 points race last Tuesday evening. "Four riders got tangled up and went down. It must have been the way he landed; it wasn't very high speed," race director Len Cabaltera told VeloNews.

An exhausted Michael Rogers was speaking from experience on Monday after the Giro d’Italia’s gigantic stage 16 to Monte Petrano when he said, “I have just spent the toughest day and the hottest day I have ever experienced in the saddle.”

Trek Livestrong's Bjorn Selander was the top American overall at the four-day Fleche du Sud stage race in Luxembourg. Selander finished 14th overall in the UCI category 2.2 event, 1:22 behind race winner Simon Zahner of Switzerland. Selander's teammate Taylor Phinney won the race's prologue and was third on stage 1 to retain his leader's jersey. However, Phinney crashed hard on the third stage at the base of the final hill, losing more than two minutes. Phinney wound up 45th on the final GC. Trek-Livestrong's Ben King was the next American behind Selander, in 17th.

Now that summer is here, I am guessing just about all of the VeloNews readers are training for a goal event that’s coming up soon. You’ve prepared for months, meticulously laying down your “base;” performed intervals up the wazoo and participated in numerous group rides. Now what?

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Steve Larsen remembered

When the news of Tom Boonen’s positive test for cocaine surfaced on May 9, the Belgian media was left reeling; only a few months earlier, Boonen had been relieved to hear that he wouldn’t be criminally charged for last year’s out of competition positive cocaine test, and suddenly here he was, in the same trouble again. How could Boonen – megastar, playboy, media darling and the closest thing to a national hero that Belgium has – be defended for such a boneheaded move?

Bike races are a circus-like spectacle best witnessed firsthand. This is especially apparent at a race the size, caliber and prestige of the Giro d'Italia. Obviously the cyclists whizzing by at breathtaking speed and the unique dynamics of the races themselves are fascinating, but to experience the race caravan is like taking a stroll through the Vegas strip.

Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light) won the 66th annual Tour of Somerville in style on Monday. The 26 year-old Argentian rider beat Jake Keough (Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Aldo Ino Ilesic (Team Type 1) to the line in a full-on field sprint to take the storied New Jersey criterium, the country's oldest bike race still in existence. With the win Haedo defended his victory from 2008 and joined a short list of riders to take the event in consecutive years.

Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) surged out of the anonymity of the peloton Monday with a dramatic stage victory in a grueling, seven-hour march across the Apennines to re-energize his hopes of overall victory at the Giro d’Italia. Denis Menchov (Rabobank) rode shrewdly to sprint to second, expanding his lead over second-place Danilo Di Luca (LPR), while Levi Leipheimer (Astana) saw his hopes of winning the Giro fade when he ceded 2:51 to drop from third to sixth, 3:21 back. “I was not as strong as those guys, it is plain and simple,” Leipheimer said at the finish line.

Chris Wherry (Hotel San Jose) and Carmen Small (Colavita-Sutter Home) won the elite Iron Horse criteriums on Sunday in Durango, Colorado. It was the third consecutive crit win for Wherry and the second for Small. A three-man breakaway containing mountain biker Sam Jurekovic (Sho Air-Specialized), Dan Bowman (Kelly Benefits) and Jesse Dekrey formed midway through the hourlong men’s race, on an eight-corner course around downtown Durango.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

In order to challenge Denis Menchov and Danilo Di Luca for victory in this centennial Giro, Levi Leipheimer, Franco Pellizotti, Carlos Sastre, Ivan Basso and Michael Rogers have to go on the attack in the final week. But where and when they attack is all important because in the first two weeks they have been unable to out-climb race leader Menchov or runner-up Di Luca. So if the challengers can’t gain the time they need on this week’s three summit finishes, at Monte Petrano on Monday, Blockhaus on Wednesday and Mount Vesuvius on Friday, what can they do? The short answer is: Tactics.

Julien Absalon (Orbea) has had a carbon crown and steerer for his 32mm stanchioned SID World Cup since late last season and now you can have one too. RockShox has announced that the SID World Cup, its flagship cross-country racing fork, will get an upgrade for 2010. After a two-year absence, RockShox will bring back the carbon crown and steerer for the World Cup model.

Claudia Hausler (Cervélo TestTeam) took the overall victory in the 25th edition of the Tour de l'Aude on Sunday as Columbia-Highroad’s Ina-Yoko Teutenberg collected her third stage win in this year’s race, out-kicking Noëmie Cantele (Bigla Cycling Team) and Emma Johansson (Red Sun Cycling Team). Teutenberg, who thus claimed her 18th career stage at the tour, gave all the credit to teammate Chantal Beltman.

Olympic champion Julien Absalon (Orbea) won the fourth round of the UCI cross-country mountain bike World Cup on Sunday in Madrid. Absalon collected his victory in 1:44:32, more than a minute ahead of runner-up Ralph Naef (Multivan Merida). Naef’s teammate Moritz Milatz crossed third at two minutes back. The women’s race was a good deal closer — Margarita Fullana Riera (Massi) took the win in 1:28:24, just four seconds ahead of Marie-Helene Premont (Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) with Lene Byberg (Specialized Factory Racing) third at 15 seconds back.

It was two-for-one again in Sunday’s 15th stage, as the Giro d’Italia unfolded with two races within one that was almost as hot and blistering as the searing temperature on the tarmac. Leonardo Bertagnolli (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni) won the battle for the kisses from the podium girls, the sole survivor of a 16-man breakaway that went clear early in a tremendously hot, hilly 161km from Forli to Faenza.