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A few days after Boonen's victory, the photos are still rolling in from Paris-Roubaix. Despite this year's mostly dry conditions, teams were ready with bikes for all conditions. Padded bar tape, oversized tubular tires, box section aluminum rims, and closely matched front chainrings were virtually standard equipment. Other teams took things a step further, using cyclocross bikes, cantilever brakes, bar-top brake levers, and in some cases, custom hybrid road/cyclocross frames. Reporter Andrew Hood and photographer Graham Watson captured a few photos of team bikes just prior to the race.

Oft-injured Óscar Freire will be a surprise starter at this weekend’s Amstel Gold Race, something that will make title sponsor Rabobank happy.   The three-time world champion is still on the comeback trail from his crash at February’s Tour of California that left him with two broken ribs and kept him out of Milan-San Remo.   Freire made it through the demanding Vuelta al País Vasco last week and Rabobank team officials confirmed Tuesday that Freire will ride at Amstel.  

It’s time for pedal-bashers like Tom Boonen and Stijn Devolder to head to the beach.   For anyone with some gas left in the tank, there’s still some unfinished business at Sheldeprijs, typically the final sendoff for riders like Boonen before they take a break ahead of new goals later this season.   After that, the whippet-thin climbers and hilly course specialists step center stage to dominate headlines for the hilly classics of eastern Belgium and southern Holland through the end of April.  

The Quick Step team will line up at the 2009 Tour of Missouri, the race announced Tuesday. The team, currently leading the UCI word rankings, will join Astana, Cervelo TestTeam, Columbia-Highroad, Garmin-Slipstream, Liquigas and others at the event now in its third year. “It is a big win for Missouri that the world No. 1 ranked team has chosen to participate in one of the world’s top bike races,” Missouri Lt. Governor Peter Kinder said in a statement. Rosters for the Sept. 7-13 event will be announced this summer.

The U.S. Open of Cycling, scheduled for May 16, in Rhode Island, has been canceled, the event's promoter announced Tuesday. The event was first run in April of 2007 as the U.S. Open Cycling Championships, starting in Williamsburg, Virginia and ending in Richmond. "Unfortunately, we have not been able to secure the sponsorship needed to run the US Open of Cycling this year and are canceling the event," said Richard Durishin, Executive Director of the U.S. Open Cycling Foundation said.

Frenchman Jimmy Casper, riding for Besson-Sojasun, won the 202km Paris-Camembert semi-classic on Tuesday, fending off compatriot Romain Feillu (Agritubel) and Russia's Alexandre Efimkin (AG2R) in a sprint finish. "It's not normally a course for sprinters, so I'll savor it all the more," said Casper. "Conditions were ideal for me. We let the others go for it and then we worked on two kilometers — the last two kilometers. I thought for a moment in the sprint all was lost but then I saw an opening. It's a surprise win."

Kristin Armstrong is famous for both her success in bicycle racing, and the “type-A” attention to detail that keeps her climbing the podium at critical races every season. After a dropped chain in 2006 nearly cost her a gold medal at the world time trial championships, she resolved to never let the same mechanical malady derail another performance. She used a custom machined aluminum chain catcher in Beijing to help win gold. Now, after demand from both ProTour team mechanics and the public, a new K-Edge Chain Catcher has been refined for retail sale.

Swedish rider Emma Johansson (Red Sun) dashed to victory Monday in the Tour de Drenthe in Holland to take the third round of the 10-leg World Cup series. Johansson was the fastest out of a group of six riders that escaped in the 138km course. She ruined chances for a hometown victory, out-kicking Dutch riders Loes Gunnewijk and Chantal Black, second and third, respectively. Germany’s Ina Teutenberg led the main pack across the line to take seventh at seven seconds back.

Junior national team member Adam Leibovitz finished third overall in a very tight race at the Ster Van Zuid-Limburg stage race in Belgium on Monday, after leading the race through the weekend. Leibovitz won Friday's prologue, and held the overall lead through road stages on Saturday and Sunday, entering the final stage on Monday with a one-second lead over Belgium's Jonathan Breyne. On Monday, Leibovitz, from Indianapolis, finished in the pack at 66th, 22 seconds behind a six-rider breakaway.

As XTERRA superstar Jamie Whitmore continues her battle against cancer, her friends, family, sponsors, and fans continue to find ways to help with the ever-increasing cost of her medical care. Zeal Optics is hosting the "5k fun run for Jamie" at their Boulder, Colorado office on Sunday, April 19th at 10 a.m.  It's just $10 to enter (all of that goes to Jamie) and includes post run food and two raffle tickets for the $1,000 worth of great prizes that were donated for the event.  Learn more and register here.

Germany's Heinrich Haussler may have had a frustrating season so far at the major events, with second places at Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, but he is on the top rung at one race: the UCI individual points rankings. Haussler's recent consistency has moved him into first place in the rankings, up from second place behind Allan Davis the last time the points were tallied. Meanwhile, Alberto Contador's win at the Tour of the Basque Country has vaulted him from 13th to second in the rankings.

A year after winning the race on his first visit, Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde will once again be in Normandy on Tuesday to get his teeth into the Paris-Camembert, even as he awaits the outcome of a doping investigation into him in Italy. Two weeks ago, the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) anti-doping prosecutor demanded a two-year ban for Valverde, embroiled in a Spanish blood doping probe. In March, Valverde, nicknamed The Green Bullet, told an Italian anti-doping hearing he had not done anything wrong and was not in any way mixed up in Spain's Operation Puerto scandal.

The Jelly Belly Team is flying halfway across the world for its next race: the Jelajah Malaysia 2009. This eight day stage race will begin April 19 in Kuala Selangor and end in a criterium in Kuala Lumpur on the 26th. The riders traveling to compete are Brad Huff, Bernard van Ulden, Matty Rice, Matt Crane, Will Routley and Kiel Reijnen. “This is one of the biggest races in Asia and we are very excited to be able to participate, with 15 other teams from all over the world,” said Team Director Danny Van Haute.

Price: $40 Web site: www.prestaflator.com

Price: $1,700 Sizes: Four sizes Web site: www.litespeed.com Litespeed is re-releasing its titanium Pisgah mountain bike frame. Features on the new Pisgah include the RDS dropout system for quick conversion to singlespeed dropouts, new geometry showcasing an oversized tube set, asymmetric chain stays for maximum drivetrain stiffness, power transfer and tire clearance.[nid:90491]

Price: $60 Weight: 180 to 200 grams Sizes: 650 x 23 and 700 x 19, 23, and 25 Colors: Black Web site: www.bontrager.com The folks over at Bontrager are more than excited about their newest performance tire, the Race X Lite Aero TT tire. After testing this new tire they have concluded that it is the fastest tire on the market. Bontrager believes that the new Race X Lite Aero TT tire will shave seconds off of your time trial.

Wilier Triestina USA today announced The Gear of the Year title its 2009 all-carbon monocoque Izoard road bike was awarded by industry leading publication Outside Magazine. The fourth model in the Wilier Triestina lineup following the Cento1 and Le Roi road bikes and the Cento Crono time trial bike, all ridden by ProTour team Lampre and reigning World Champion Alessandro Ballan, the Izoard proved to be the most bike for the money based on Outside road test and review scores.

China's Jin Long made history for his country here on Sunday by competing in arguably the world's toughest one-day classic bike race, the prestigious Paris-Roubaix. Unfortunately for Jin, his pre-race fears of not being able to negotiate the 27 sections of bone-shaking cobblestones peppered throughout the northern French epic came true as he failed to make it to the 100km mark. As a result, Jin did not make it to the finish line in Roubaix's famous outdoor velodrome where Belgian star Tom Boonen triumphed to join the elite club of three-time winners.

Sixteen people were injured, three of them seriously, when a race organizers’ motorbike struck a crowd of spectators during Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. Fire and rescue officials from Lille said 15 victims had to be evacuated, including three in serious condition, including a 4-year-old child. Colonel Bruno Moulart, commander of emergency intervention, said the injured were members of the same family, adding that he did not believe any lives were at risk. The victims were being transported to hospitals in Lille and Valenciennes, according to police.

Defending champion Tom Boonen soloed to victory in a dusty, crash-filled Paris-Roubaix on Sunday as Quick Step, Cervélo TestTeam and Silence-Lotto slugged it out toe to toe over the cobblestone trophy awarded to the victor in the Hell of the North.?? "The race was very hard," said the big Belgian after collecting his third win here, following triumphs in 2005 and 2008. Praising runner-up Filippo Pozzato (Katusha), he added: "This victory for me is the most beautiful because I beat Pozzato, who is a great champion."

Editor's Note: Will Frischkorn is a pro with the Garmin-Slipstream team. He is participating in Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. You can read his previous VeloNews.com columns here.

Fresh from retiring from one of the peloton’s most prolific careers, Erik Zabel is still busy at the races. These days he's working with the young riders at Columbia-Highroad. Mark Cavendish won Milan-San Remo after consulting with Zabel. "That was just amazing," Zabel said of Cavendish's closing sprint, and now the German veteran is officially working with several of the young riders on Columbia. "I'm an advisor for the young riders’ development for the Highroad team," Zabel said at the Tour of Flanders.

South African Greg Minnaar was mobbed by spectators after winning the downhill race Sunday at the UCI World Cup downhill event in Pietermaritzburg. Minnaar received a reception normally reserved for South African football, rugby union and cricket stars after pipping Australian Mike Hannah for first place on a forest-lined course near the KwaZulu-Natal city. Competition was fierce with 28 finalists cracking the four-minute barrier and Minnaar clocked 3:43.44 after sailing over jumps and pedaling furiously through flatter sections.

The following rosters were provided by ASO, organizers of Paris-Roubaix and updated as of Saturday, April 11.

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