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As the Paris-Roubaix weekend draws near, several teams have announced plans to use special edition frames in the legendary race. German brand Canyon Bicycles, sponsor of Silence-Lotto, has created a “Pavé” version of its Ultimate AL frameset for the team to use. And thanks to a wild-card invitation, the BMC racing team will take the start in Compeigne, with four riders piloting a new carbon-aluminum SLX model, instead of the standard ProMachine SLC01 carbon model.

Silence-Lotto's special edition from Canyon Bicycles

Lance Armstrong's 20-minute shower last month may be getting him into more hot water. The French anti-doping agency, AFLD, said Thursday it may go ahead with disciplinary hearings against Armstrong for allegedly violating international anti-doping rules by leaving a French out-of-competition drug tester cooling his heels while Armstrong took a shower after a training ride. Armstrong has denied misbehaving during a test of his hair, urine and blood and notes that the tests came back negative for any kind of banned substance.

Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream) finished third in the 161km fourth stage at the Vuelta al País Vasco in Spain, joining a successful, three-man breakaway on Thursday. Michael Albasini (Columbia-Highroad) kicked to victory, with Jurgen Van den Broucke (Silence-Lotto) coming through second and Vande Velde slotting into third after an all-day break in a hilly, seven-climb stage in Spain’s Basque Country.

Dear Explainer,
I am curious about the rules when it comes to national and international anti-doping agencies’ announcements of a positive doping test. I look back at the Landis case when it seemed that the newspapers knew about a positive A sample before the rider himself did. Like Landis, we all followed the testing process, the follow-ups and then a very public (often ugly) hearing and the appeal to CAS.

Edvald Boasson Hagen. His name doesn’t exactly roll off your tongue, but it’s a name you’d better remember because the young Norwegian is only 21 and he has just won his first spring classic. Ghent-Wevelgem may not be the biggest of the classics, and a lot of young riders have won it and not gone on to bigger and better results. But it seems that Boasson Hagen is a little different, a little more special.

Antonio Colom is one of those Spanish riders well known and respected within the peloton, but perhaps not so famous beyond the Pyrénées. A solid climber and consistent performer in week-long stage races, Colom should be called “Mr. Spring,” for his consistent performances in early season races such as Paris-Nice, Ruta del Sol and the Mallorca Challenge. Colom, who turns 31 next month, is in his 10th season as a professional. After a few years on smaller Spanish teams, he joined the Banesto team in 2004 for three seasons before two years with Astana.

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Kelly Benefit Strategies was arguably the most prominent domestic squad to be denied an invitation to February's Tour of California, but the scrappy team has refocused its season and is currently on a tear, dominating stage races on two continents. At the Tour of Thailand, Kelly's Andrew Bajadali took over the GC lead Wednesday, taking the leader's jersey off the shoulders of teammate Jake Erker, who had led the race all week. With one stage left in Thailand, Kelly leads the team GC and has four riders in the top five on GC.

Agritubel's David Le Lay took a narrow lead in the Circuit de la Sarthe stage race in France on Wednesday, after winning the morning's 94km road race and then finishing 10 seconds off the pace, in 14th place, in the afternoon's 6k individual time trial. Jimmy Engoulvent (Besson Chausures-Sojasun) won the time trial, finishing one second ahead of Astana's Andreas Kloden. American Jeff Louder of BMC was eighth and moved into tenth place on the GC following the time trial. The race concludes Friday.

Scott teases time trial bike

The Nature Valley Grand Prix women’s race is joining the men’s as an invitational in 2009. Both races filled in 2008, with teams being turned away. The men’s race had filled for the past five years, but this was a first for the women.

In a thrilling preview of what awaits in the Tour de France later this summer, some of cycling’s top climbers went mano-a-mano up the precipitous green hills of Spain’s Basque Country in Wednesday’s third stage at the Vuelta al País Vasco. Alberto Contador (Astana) attacked with 5km to go on the short but steep Cat. 1 Alto de Ixua to drop rivals he’ll be facing off against in July and ride into the overall leader’s jersey.

Lance Armstrong's Astana team expressed optimism Wednesday over his prospects of recovering from his broken collarbone in time to line up for next month's Tour of Italy. The seven-time Tour de France winner's participation in the Giro, which starts on May 9 was thrown into doubt after he required surgery following his fall in the Vuelta Castilla y Leon race in Spain on March 25. The Texan had a stainless steel plate and 12 screws inserted to stabilize his right collarbone, which was broken in four places, but is now back in training.

The Giro d’Italia is losing one of its marquee stages across the Alps for its centennial celebration due to access problems on the French side of the border. Race officials announced Wednesday that the blockbuster, five-climb 250km stage over the Col d’Izoard and other emblematic climbs in the French Alps scheduled for stage 10 on May 19 between Cuneo and Pinerolo will be altered and stay entirely inside Italy.

Tyler Farrar’s recovery from a shoulder injury is on track and he’s expecting to return to racing next month at the Tour de Romandie. The Garmin-Slipstream sprinter ? who beat back Mark Cavendish in a stage victory at Tirreno-Adriatico in mid-March ? crashed during Milan-San Remo and suffered an AC separation in his right shoulder. No surgery was required, but the injury kept Farrar out of the northern classics this year.

Former world champion cyclist Jobie Dajka of Australia was found dead in his Adelaide home after a long battle with alcoholism and depression, sporting officials confirmed Wednesday. The body of the 2002 keirin world champion was discovered on Tuesday afternoon, with police saying a 27-year-old man's corpse had been found in Adelaide and the death was not being treated as suspicious. While police refused to officially identify Dajka, Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates confirmed his death, describing it as a "very, very sad occurrence".

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Just two and a half weeks after scoring a brilliant sprint victory in the longest of the European single-day races, Milan-San Remo, Mark Cavendish of the Columbia-Highroad team looks all set to add another classic to his burgeoning list of wins.

Lance Armstrong said he is outraged at claims from France that he had not behaved himself during an out of competition drug test earlier this season. The French Anti-doping Agency (AFLD) had announced on Monday that they had compiled a report on the seven-time Tour de France champion's behavior while undergoing the test. AFLD president Pierre Bordry revealed that he had sent the report to the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on March 30. He did not reveal the report's contents.

Enrico Rossi (Ceramica Flaminia) snagged a narrow victory after being away in an 150km breakaway Tuesday to surprise the peloton in the opening stage of the Circuit de la Sarthe in France. Rossi attacked at 35km in the 192km stage and won by a whisker ahead of the chasing pack, taking a 13-second victory ahead of the sprinters and grabbing the leader’s jersey as an added bonus. Besson Chaussures and FDJeux thought they had things under control to set up their fast men, Jimmy Casper and Sébastien Chavanel, respectively.

Yury Trofimov (Bouygues Telecom) upset the chasing peloton to win Tuesday’s second stage at the Vuelta al País Vasco in Spain after slipping away in a four-man breakaway in the six-climb, 160km route. Trofimov dropped fellow escapee Rein Taarame (Cofidis) with 2.5km to go and crossed the line five seconds clear to celebrate a hard-fought victory. Ben Swift (Katusha) led the main pack across the line with third at 1:10 back.

Andreas Klöden lines up Tuesday for the start of the Circuit de la Sarthe as one of the top favorites for victory. The Astana rider, winner of the French race in 2007, revealed he’s on some strong early season form with a stage victory and third-place overall at Tirreno-Adriatico last month and fifth in his season debut at the Volta ao Algarve in February. For the veteran German, races like Sarthe and next month’s Tour de Romandie (which he won in 2008) are all part of a plan to arrive at the Tour de France in the best possible condition.

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Bissell’s Paul Mach and Jeremy Vennell roared into the windswept Columbia River Gorge and took the top two spots on the podium of the inaugural Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic in its very first stage. There was more drama in the women’s competition. Heather Albert (Riverstone Women’s Racing Team) battled Robin Secrist (Veloforma) and Patricia Bailey (Wines of Washington) throughout the three-day, four-stage race, which ran April 3-5. Bailey won three stages, but in the end the difference proved to be Secrist's victory in the stage-2 time trial.