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Price: $14 to $30 Sizes: 250 to 1000 milliliters Web site: www.cantitoeroad.com Caffelatex is a new kind of tire sealant that foams as a means to better coat the tire with sealant. The makers of Caffelatex believe their trademark "ActiFoam" causes the sealant to foam when ridden or shaken, thus completely filling the tire cavity with sealant. In turn, the foaming action should help to keep the tire beads sealed and assist in sidewall puncture prevention.

Price: $3,388 Colors: Blue, red, or white Web site: www.ridetommasini.com Tommasi introduces their new X-Fire road bike. The X-Fire uses double and triple butted Columbus XCR stainless steel to compliment its ride quality. The X-Fire is available in both stock and custom geometry. The stock geometry frames are also available in both classic and compact geometry. Tommasini recommends their carbon FKT56 fork to best suit the geometry of the X-Fire.

Katusha’s Laszlo Bodrogi is finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel following a long and painful recovery from a broken femur suffered in last August’s Tour of Germany. The Hungarian time trial specialist, winner of the silver medal at the 2007 world time trial championships, said he hopes to return to competition at the Four Days of Dunkirk on May 5-10.

Frank Schleck, the victim of a nasty crash in the Amstel Gold Race, has been cleared to start Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Saxo Bank announced Thursday that the Luxembourg national champion will line up for Liège alongside his younger brother, Andy Schleck. The pair finished third and fourth last year, respectively. Schleck was a victim of a crash late in Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, prompting him to renounce Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday, where Andy Schleck finished second to Davide Rebellin (Diquigiovanni).

The French anti-doping agency (AFLD) said Friday it would not be taking disciplinary action against Astana’s Lance Armstrong for, what the agency had earlier alleged, violations of protocol during an out-of-competition test. Armstrong fell afoul of the French agency in March when he left an out-of-competition drug tester’s line of sight — a violation of World Anti-Doping Agency protocol — to take a post-training ride shower while his team manager confirmed the tester’s validity. Armstrong announced via his Twitter account, that he learned that he had been cleared.

It was the battle of the uphill sprint specialists in Friday’s third stage at the Giro del Trentino with South African Robbie Hunter (Barloworld) winning for the third time this season. Hunter had the most gas in the tank to fend off Stefano Garzelli (Acqua e Sapone) to win the 160km course with a rising finishing into Innervillgraten as the four-day race dipped into Austria. Danilo Di Luca crossed the line third despite efforts by his LPR team to dominate the stage.

Disgraced Italian cyclist Dario Frigo has been handed a three-month suspended jail term by a French appeals court following his arrest during the 2005 Tour de France in relation to a doping affair. At a first court hearing in Albertville, Frigo and his wife Susanna were both given a six-month suspended jail term, and fined a total of 8,757 euros after Susanna Frigo was discovered transporting doping products in her car. The couple appealed that decision and late Thursday the appeal court handed down suspended three-month jail terms to both Frigo and his wife.

The Giro d’Italia threw a lifeline to the Spanish team, Fuji-Servetto, by including the team in this year’s corsa rosa.

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Team Columbia’s Marco Pinotti reached the line in the front group in Wednesday’s Fleche Wallone classic, finishing 40th, 54 seconds behind the winner Davide Rebellin. More importantly however for Pinotti was the sixth-place finish of his teammate, Thomas Lövkvist, who crossed the line just six seconds behind Rebellin.

Team Jamis races Edge tubular mountain bike wheels at Sea Otter

2009 Columbia-Highroad

Instead of racing the Giro d’Italia, a bitter Daryl Impey is returning to his home in South Africa to recover from his horrific crash at the Tour of Turkey last weekend. Barloworld team officials said Impey — the first-year pro landed in the barriers Sunday after contact with track star Theo Bos (Rabobank) in a controversial finish-line crash that’s still creating aftershocks — will have to fly back to his native South Africa lying down in the plane. Two attendants will travel with the Tour of Turkey winner on his trip from London to South Africa.

In an exciting preview of what awaits next month in the Giro d’Italia, some of Italy’s big guns went mano-a-mano in Thursday’s summit finish at Alpi di Pampeago in the Giro del Trentino. Ivan Basso (Liquigas) walked away with neither the stage victory nor the race leader’s jersey, but he put everyone on notice that he could be the man to beat come next month.

Baseball has films such as “Field of Dreams” and “The Natural.” Football has “Rudy” and “Brian's Song.” Basketball has “Hoosiers” and … “White Men Can't Jump?” (okay, there are probably better examples than that last one.)

The Fuji-Servetto team, has been invited to race in next month's Giro d'Italia, the team announced this morning. The team also announced its long team for the event. The team will bring nine riders to the race, chosen from among: Juanjo Cobo, Fredrik Kessiakoff, Eros Capecchi, Ricardo Serrano, Jesus del Nero, Ermanno Capelli, Alberto Benitez, Iker Camano, Hector Gonzalez, Josep Jufre, Javier Megias and Angel Gomez. Other teams for this year's Giro: Organisers published the list of 22 teams for the Giro and Fuji, whose team director is Italian Alvaro Crespi, were included

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Cervélo sprinter Thor Hushovd will skip this year's Giro d'Italia to concentrate fully on his bid for stage wins and another run at the green jersey at the Tour de France in July. Hushovd, a former Tour stage winner and green points jersey recipient, had a solid spring classics season with two third places at Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix and a victory in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

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Dutchwoman Marianne Vos (DSB Bank) attacked inside of 200 meters remaining on the Mur de Huy and never looked back, sprinting to her third-career victory at the La Flèche Wallonne Femenine, the fourth round of the 2009 UCI World Cup. Vos out-kicked World Cup leader Emma Johanson of Sweden for the win. American Amber Neben (Nürnberger) was the top North American finisher in fourth place.

Andreas Klöden (Astana) is back in the winner’s circle for the second time this season after taking a narrow, one-second victory over teammate Janez Brajkovic in Wednesday’s opening time trial at the Giro del Trentino. Astana went one-two on a mostly flat, but technically challenging 17.5km course near Lago di Garda in northern Italy to open the four-day Trentino tour. Klöden, winner of a time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico in March, covered the course in 18 minutes, 21 seconds (53.292kph) to secure the victory and snatch the overall leader’s jersey.

There’s no secret why Davide Rebellin pointed to his head after winning his third La Flèche Wallonne title on Wednesday. The Italian veteran proved he had the legs to summit the Mur de Huy alongside the other strongmen of the Ardennes races. But it was the cagy Italian’s brains that earned him the winning margin on the slopes of the feared climb. “It might just be the best of my three wins," Rebellin said. “I've been working hard in that respect (climbing)."

Dear Readers,
A bike tech column is going to naturally gravitate toward discussing new equipment. I regularly get letters, however, extolling the virtues of a more sustainable approach with less emphasis on the latest equipment. Given that it’s Earth Day, I thought it a good time to give voice to a couple of these letters. And for Earth Day (and every day), ride your bike and avoid motorized transportation as much as you can.
Lennard

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Kristin Armstrong wants to end her long and successful career this year on a winning note. The ideal scenario would be recapturing the rainbow jersey in the world championships in September in what will be her last major competition of her career. Rather than leave the sport after winning the Olympic gold medal in the individual time trial in Beijing last summer, Armstrong made the commitment to race this year, in part, to help nurture young talent on her Cervélo TestTeam.

All eyes will be on Dutchwoman Marianne Vos at Wednesday’s La Fleche Wallonne Femenine, the women’s component of Fleche-Wallonne. Vos is the two-time defending champion of the women’s race, which this year marks the fourth round of the UCI women’s World Cup. And Vos won the last World Cup, the Ronde van Drenthe, held in her home country on April 13.

Specialized is working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to recall some 2004-era Roubaix road bikes and some 2009 model year mountain bikes. The road bikes are being recalled because a riveted brake cable stop on the frame can come loose. The mountain bikes are being recalled because the handlebars can break. In both cases, the company and the CPSC are advising owners to stop riding the bikes immediately and return them to a Specialized dealer.

The Roubaix recall:

X-rays revealed Tuesday that Tom Boonen suffered a fissure in his right foot during a finish-line pileup at Scheldeprijs last week in Belgium.   Doctors ordered a 10-day rest for the recently crowned Paris-Roubaix champion, but Boonen’s injury couldn’t have come at a better time.   Considering that his first major goals of the season are already in the rear view mirror, Boonen could be philosophical about the setback.  

Price: $50 Sizes: One month supply Web site: www.intelligentendurance.com Intelligent Endurance is a new supplement producer that aims at improving athletic performance through the use their combination of vitamins, minerals, and herbs. Intelligent Endurance believes that their daily serving of ten natural ingredients will help to holistically bring the mind and body together to promote endurance and help the athlete reach his or her full potential.

Price: $60 Weight: 250 to 265 grams Sizes: 700x18-23 and 700x25-32 Colors: Black, white, silver, and carbon Web site: www.sks-germany.com The new SKS Raceblade fender is a wrap-around fender made for frame and fork designs that typically prohibit the use of traditional fenders. The Raceblade mounts tightly to a bicycle's seatstays and fork blades — no eyelets necessary.

Statistics can’t quite illustrate the challenge posed by the Mur de Huy, the final climb of La Fleche Wallonne. Sure, the climb’s average gradient is 9.3 percent. The road soars up 420 feet over the course of three-quarters of a mile. One particularly nasty ramp hits 25 percent. And the climb comes at the tail end of a five-hour race.

Dutch racer Theo Bos says he feels sick about Sunday’s crash in the final kilometer of the Presidential Tour of Turkey. His crash with yellow jersey wearer Daryl Impey (Barloworld) has generated a huge amount of Internet chatter and calls for Bos to be punished for his role in it.

Luxembourg's Frank Schleck has pulled out of Wednesday's Fleche-Wallonne race and is doubtful for Sunday's Liege-Bastogne-Liege after his fall in the Amstel Gold Race, his Saxo Bank team revealed on Tuesday. Schleck was taken to hospital after falling spectacularly during the Dutch race on Sunday but was discharged shortly afterward. The 29-year-old had hoped to compete in all three Ardennes classics this season, but his team said the seriousness of his fall prompted them to take extra precautions.