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Three-time Amgen Tour of California champion Levi Leipheimer will contest the road and circuit races this Friday and Saturday at the Sea Otter Classic, event officials confirmed Thursday night. Leipheimer lives in Santa Rosa, California, 170 miles from Sea Otter’s home at Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey. Leipheimer has raced Sea Otter before. In 2006 when riding for Gerolsteiner, the Montana native played a decisive role as a one-man team in the circuit race on the 2.6-mile loop. That year Jelly Belly’s Matty Rice took the win ahead of Health Net’s Karl Menzies.

09 Sea Otter: And win Schmitt did - the biggest of his budding career, he said

09 Sea Otter: Jacques-Maynes told Schmitt he was going to win

09 Sea Otter: Bissell put Jacques-Maynes, O'Bee and Schmitt off the front

09 Sea Otter: Land Rover was the only other full team to contest Bissell

09 Sea Otter: Criterium winner Morgan Schmitt

09 Sea Otter: Bissell delivered an easy win to Schmitt

Team Bissell steamrolled the Sea Otter Classic criterium Thursday, attacking the field en masse until they had three men clear. Morgan Schmitt was given the win after riding essentially a three-man team time trial with Ben Jacques-Maynes and Kirk O’Bee. With the field split into two groups behind them on an out-and-back course, Bissell’s three leaders decided the podium on the road. Jacques-Maynes, one of Bissell’s marquee riders who has already found success this year, let Schmitt know who got the top step.

09 Sea Otter: Fat or skinny, big or small, all bikes find a place at the Otter

09 Sea Otter: Four days of forecasted sunshine makes for happy campers

09 Sea Otter: More than 250 brands set up shop in the expo

09 Sea Otter: Riders of all ages ride and race the Otter

09 Sea Otter: A reflective view from the Ibis trailer

09 Sea Otter: "Big C" has been coming to Sea Otter for more than 10 years

2009 Sea Otter Classic

Nearly 20 years ago some 350 mountain bikers congregated to race cross-country and dual slalom at the Laguna Seca Challenge. The events of that 1991 weekend eventually grew into the Sea Otter Classic, which this year will host multiple thousands of racers competing in the widest range of disciplines of any event in North America.

Buried deep in a press release from the Cyclistes Professionnel Asociés released on Thursday was a rather troubling statistic. According to the CPA, there are a total of 866 riders registered with the UCI for the 2009 season. That total marks a drop of 21 percent in respect to 2008 and a 29 percent drop from 2007. The group said that a total of 476 riders were registered with 18 ProTour teams and another 390 riders with continental teams.

It’s official: Lance Armstrong will be in Venice next month to race the 2009 Giro d’Italia. "The recovery is going well and the plan is to be at the Giro," Armstrong spokesman Mark Higgins told VeloNews. Several Italian media outlets reported that Armstrong confirmed to race officials Thursday that he will be at the May 9 start of the centenary Giro.   Both La Gazzetta dello Sport and Tutto Bici reported that Giro race director Angelo Zomegnan received official confirmation from Armstrong on Thursday.  

Price: $750 to $3,350 Weight: Rim 195 grams Sizes: 606 effective rim diameter Web site: www.edgecomposites.com When it comes to weight, Edge Composites wants nothing to do with it for the new 25 Tubular wheelset, the company's premium climbing wheelset, with a low aero 24mm profile.

It’s a format not commonly seen in American races, but team managers preparing for this weekend’s Tour of the Battenkill say their teams are ready for the one-day race’s combination of dirt and paved roads and steep climbs.

Less than one year ago Scott Tedro was just another passionate and affluent cyclist whose growing love for the sport had persuaded him to invest some cash in at the grassroots level.

There’s just no slowing down Jimmy Casper.   The French sprinter from Besson-Sojasun bolted to his second win this week after sprinting to victory in the 50th GP de Denain in France on Thursday. Casper also won Paris-Camembert on Tuesday.   Casper, a winner here in 2005 and 2006, covered the 202.7km course, which included a 15.2km circuit completed five times, in 4:40:18.  

Steven Cozza had a front-row seat for his debut at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday.   The 24-year-old bolted into the day’s main breakaway and then led the move across the famous Arenberg cobblestone section. Luckily, he wasn’t seriously injured in a late-race crash on a slick corner and was able to finish the race.   Things didn’t go as expected for the Garmin-Slipstream crew, who were quietly optimistic Martijn Maaskant would reach the final, top-three podium.  

Australian cyclist Robbie McEwen revealed on Thursday that he suffered concussion but did not fracture any ribs after falling in the McEwen gets a concussion, but no broken bones in the Scheldeprijs pile-up in Schoten, Belgium. "I have concussion, but my ribs, my collarbone and my pelvis are all intact," he told the Web site of Belgian television station Sporza. The Katusha rider landed heavily after coming off his bike in the closing stages of Wednesday's race and initially expressed fears that he had broken some ribs.

Dear Explainer,
What does one do in order to secure a job as a cycling team soigneur? What are the qualifications? What are the limitations? What are the pros and cons?
Thanks,
David Barr Hello David,

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Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Australia's Robbie McEwen and Belgium's Tom Boonen may have suffered fractures after both fell during the closing stages of the Scheldeprijs in Belgium on Wednesday. McEwen landed heavily on his right shoulder and seemed to be more seriously injured, according to Belgian TV station VRT. The Australian complained of pain in his head, his neck, his chest and his legs and said he could have concussion, broken ribs and a punctured lung. He was due to undergo medical examination later Wednesday.

Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) avoided a massive pileup in the closing meters of the bunch sprint to win Scheldeprijs on Wednesday in Belgium. Canadian Dominque Rollin (Cervélo TestTeam) steered clear of the mayhem to earn his first European podium with third place while Tony Cruz bolted to fourth in strong showing by BMC Racing that also saw Jeff Louder work into the day’s main breakaway. Louder joined a 14-man breakaway early in the race and was only caught in the closing 10km.

Dear Lennard, I saw the Prestaflator tool showed on VeloNews.com. Looks cool, but what kind of compressor is reasonable and affordable for road tires?  I have looked at compressors in the past and I generally only find industrial-like ones for nail guns, etc.  Is there an affordable one just for low volume higher pressure road tires? Samuel Dear Samuel,

Like many professional racers, Tony Cruz (BMC Racing) has a love-hate relationship with Paris-Roubaix. With Cruz, it’s mostly a love thing with the pavé, the history and the drama of the race, but he hates it that his dreams have been torpedoed by bad luck. Despite starting with high hopes in the team’s Paris-Roubaix debut, mechanical difficulties foiled Cruz’s ambitions Sunday and he was unable to reach the velodrome in what was his sixth Roubaix start of his career.

Tom Boonen is holding off his vacation for another few days.   The recently crowned Paris-Roubaix champion will line up Wednesday for 97th Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen before heading to the beach.   The Quick Step captain will be going for his third crown in the mid-week semi-classic, considered the final chapter for riders specializing in the northern classics before putting an end to their early season racing schedule.[nid:90514]  

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Price: $300 Web site: www.thecompetitiveedge.com New from Tanita, makers of precision scales and body composition monitors, the BC-558 Ironman InnerScan Body Composition Monitor. What sets the BC-558 apart from other body composition scales is its ability to measure the composition of each body segment — trunk, right arm, left arm, right leg, and left leg.

The Sea Otter Classic, which runs this Thursday through Sunday, is now in its 19th year. From humble origins in 1991, when just 450 attendees populated the event, to 2008, when almost 10,000 participants and 50,000 spectators packed the venue for the four-day festival, Sea Otter has become a fixture on the spring calendar.

Jersey Competition Highlights Rising Stars in The Sport Minneapolis (April 2, 2009)---,The Protein People, makers of Active Protein Complex (APC) will join the Nature Valley Grand Prix as the sponsor of the Best Young Rider competition in 2009. This program supports developing talent by putting cyclists in the spotlight at one of the nation’s top professional stage races. Stage one of the 2009 Nature Valley Grand Prix begins in St. Paul on Wednesday, June 10 and continues with daily stages in Cannon Falls, Minneapolis, Mankato, and Stillwater.

Canada’s spring cycling classic, Paris to Ancaster, is becoming more competitive daily. The latest additions to the start list are Jelly Belly professional Jeremy Powers and Planet Energy’s Mark Batty. Powers, 24 from Boston, Massachusetts is making his debut in the race but will immediately jump to the top of the list of race favorites due to his strong cyclocross results . He won six races in 2008, including the Toronto international cyclocross and is a 5 time member of the United States national team. “The Jelly Belly professional team is the longest

Staunton, IL is proud to host the 21st Annual Tour de Donut and 4th Annual Rib Cook-off on Saturday, July 11, 2009. The Tour de Donut is a unique bike race, in which you can eat donuts at the designated stops in order to reduce your race time. Last year, more than 850 riders participated in the race. Registration for the race is now open at http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=8040 .

Team Type 1's Alison Powers is the first leader of the 2009 Women’s Prestige Cycling Series, a points series. Powers earned the title thanks to a consistent strong performance at the Redlands Bicycle Classic, the traditional series opener. The series includes four events and only riders on teams who register with the series are eligible. So, for example, Team Columbia-Highroad's Ina Yoko Teutenberg won Redlands, but does not appear in the series points rankings because her team is not signed up with the series.

Athens, Georgia hosts 30th Annual Athens Twilight Criterium & Festival Kicks Off 2009 USA CRITS Speed Week & National Series Some of the best professional male and female sprint cyclists in the world will race in the 30th Annual Athens Twilight Criterium on April 25. The riders will compete in separate events that customarily draw an estimated 30,000 spectators to historic, downtown Athens, Ga., every April.