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Halfway through the short track, it was a three-way race for the podium. And all three men were riding for Specialized: Todd Wells, Burry Stander and world champion Christoph Sauser. Sauser burped his tire and did not finish, but Wells charged on for the win, with Stander taking second and Giant’s Carl Decker outsprinting Jeremiah Bishop (Monavie-Cannondale) for third. Kona’s Ryan Trebon and Subaru-Gary Fisher’s Sam Schultz and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski were also in the hunt.

09 Sea Otter: Batty takes the short track

Riding alone the last three laps, Catharine Pendrel (Luna) looked like she had the Sea Otter short track sewn up, but Emily Batty (Trek) had other plans. Chasing just behind with Heather Irmiger (Subaru-Gary Fisher), Batty jumped with half a lap to go on a paved climb, and held her lead to the finish. “I just felt like I had so much energy,” Batty said. “It will be a good opener for (the cross-country race) tomorrow.” Norway’s Lene Byberg (Specialized) leapt past Irmiger and Pendrel to finish second, with Pendrel rounding out the podium.

Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Columbia-Highroad) sprinted to victory Ronde Van Gelderland in the Netherlands on Saturday to claim her 11th win of the 2009 season.   Teutenberg worked into the decisive 13-rider breakaway with two Columbia-Highroad teammates that pulled clear in the opening 20km. The group came back after the break lost momentum and there were a flurry of counter-attacks until it regrouped with 10km to go to set up a mass gallop.  

The filament-wound carbon shafts are internally butted.

Truvativ’s new Noir posts round out the brand’s cockpit line.

Truvativ’s new Stylo stems. The Team level is 3D forged with 7050-alloy, and comes with titanium or stainless hardware, while the Race stems are made from 6061-alloy.

Avid will have 160mm and 185mm CenterLock rotors available for 2010.

Elixir CR Mag bumps Juicy Ultimate from Avid’s top rung.

RedWin, PinkSlip, Nugget, Tango and Cash are your options. Who comes up with these names?

Five new colors for SRAM and Truvativ drivetrain components.

There’s clearance for a 2.4 tire in there.

The Revelation leads RockShox’s lightweight, long-travel charge.

The Ario line shoots for high performance at economical prices.

The Monarch line now has the option of a Dual Air spring.

1990 world downhill champ Greg Herbold and RockShox product manager Sander Rigney run through SRAM’s 2010 suspension components.

SRAM takes advantage of Sea Otter’s captive audience of domestic and international press every year with a big product launch. This year the brand showed 2010 mountain products from its RockShox, Avid, SRAM and Truvativ lines.

Suspension

Rock Racing has fired domestic all-rounder Michael Creed, citing poor performance so far this season, and further reducing its roster following Friday's announcement of Tyler Hamilton's retirement. VeloNews has been unable to confirm that two other Rock riders were dismissed this week, as well. Rock Racing spokesmen did not immediately return phone calls and emails seeking confirmation on Saturday.

The Phlegm-ish Lion (groan…) of the Hakkalügi.

The 55cm Hakkalügi frame weighs 1,100 grams and costs $1,400.

The Hakkalügi will be ready for sale in June.

Ibis has dropouts for the Tranny with derailleur hangers or bottle openers. The design of the bike, with separate front and rear triangles and a slotted fit, allow the bike to be broken down for travel and enough chainstay adjustment to tension a single ring set up without using a horizontal dropout.

Scot Nicol’s Tranny has a new, softer lay-up than the original.

The Mojo SL is available in a new blue.

Indeed!

Brian Lopes, sport legend and Ibis rider, picked the parts.

Ibis donated this Mojo to the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship to help build trails in Downieville, California.

Raffling for a worthy cause is smart fundraising, according to Ibis co-owner and front man Scot Nicol. If the product is cool, the cause is solid and the tickets aren’t too expensive, then you can raise some good money. For example: Last year Ibis donated a Silk SL road bike to fatcyclist.com to support the webmaster’s fight against cancer. That bike brought in $37,500 for the LAF foundation through the Livestrong Challenge avenue.

Michael Lange, a 25-year-old pro cyclist who raced for Jelly Belly last year, has accepted a two-year suspension following a positive test for the stimulent Strychnine last summer at the Tour of Qinghai Lake in China. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which announced the suspension, said Strychnine is prohibited under the USADA and UCI rules. "While Mr. Lange tested positive for a specified substance and has accepted the penalty for the violation, no facts were revealed that he intentionally ingested Strychnine," USADA said in a statement.

Grega Bole (Amica Chips) sprinted to victory in Saturday’s GP Nobili Rubinetterie-Borgamanero race in Italy. The Slovenian, third in Ronde van Drenthe on Monday, was fastest out of a winning three-man breakaway in the 191.7km course. Fortunato Baliano (CSF) wasn’t so lucky and had to settle for second while Andriy Grivko (ISD) crossed the line third. Daniele Callegarin (CZP) led a six-man group that included former Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti (ISD) and Chris Froome (Barloworld) at 17 seconds back.

It was a battle of the Frenchmen in Saturday’s Tour du Finistère in western France in the fourth leg of the French Cup series. Dimitri Champion (Bretagne-Schuller) lived up to his name to bring home the flowers in the 199.3km course around Quimper. Fourth last year in the French national championships, Champion drove home a solo victory ahead of Pierrick Fédrigo (Bouygues) and Anthony Geslin (FDJeux). Champion was part of the winning move that split in the final lap of the finishing circuit. He attacked with 8km to go and held off the chasers to snatch a hard-fought victory.

A Spanish judge has once again blocked efforts by cycling authorities to get their hands on evidence from the Operación Puerto doping ring. Antonio Serrano — the Spanish judge who’s handled the legal proceedings since police blew the lid open on the Spanish doping scandal in May 2006 — ruled Wednesday to deny releasing Puerto evidence to the Spanish cycling federation (RFEC).

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The latest and possibly most significant tech development being revealed here at the Sea Otter classic in Monterey is a completely free, inexhaustible, universally available energy source: the sun. In contrast to Thursday’s windy chill, exhibitors and spectators alike were treated to possibly the warmest day on the Laguna Seca infield in recent memory. Actual dust was found coating some of the otherwise shiny and new bike parts on display. Giant

Editor's Note VeloNews technical editor Zack Vestal attended FOX Racing Shox' 2010 model year introduction this week. This is his second report on he new products. His first report was published Thursday. FOX Racing Shox product and marketing managers had some difficulty at Zaca Station, peeling the cycling media away from the desert trucks and motorbikes on display. But when Mario Galasso, bike product manager, began showing off the new 2010 FOX forks and rear shocks, he quickly earned everyone’s attention.

Sea Otter 09: Leipheimer came for training and left with a win

’10 SRAM: Zipp also offers its Tangente aero tire in a 23mm width, as shown on this new 303.

’10 SRAM: The Roubaix-proven 303, with a suited tire glued to its wide tire bed.

’10 SRAM: It’s hard to tell a difference from Red, aside from graphics and chainring spec.

’10 SRAM: The new crank screams SRAM as loud as Red.

’10 SRAM: BB30 shaves weight and stance width; two important features for racers.

’10 SRAM: The Force brakes also feature a new subtle gunmetal finish.

’10 SRAM: The brakes feature the biggest design change, a shape modeled after Red.

’10 SRAM: The new derailleurs have a new finish also.

’10 SRAM: The new shifters have a unidirection carbon finish (instead of a weave) and white graphics.

'10 SRAM: Half an hour before starting the Sea Otter road race (which he won), Leipheimer gave his two cents on SRAM.

'10 SRAM: SRAM’s road product team liason Alex Wassmann was on hand to introduce Force and team Astana star Levi Leipheimer.

'10 SRAM: The new Force features the same shifting mechanism as before, but with new graphics and a BB30 crank option.

On Friday, SRAM released its new Force group, which features redesigned brakes, new graphics and the addition of a BB30 crank. The company also displayed its latest version of Zipp 303 wheels, which first hit the road on the cobbles of the 2009 Paris-Roubaix. SRAM Force With the inclusion of the new BB30 crank and bottom bracket, a Force group now weighs 1,957 grams (the standard group with a GXP crankset weighs 2,097 grams).

Sea Otter 09: Leipheimer in the field

Sea Otter 09: The road race featured a short, sharp climb on each of 8 laps

Sea Otter 09: California Giant Strawberry led the chase

Sea Otter 09: Leipheimer and three Bissells rode half the race off the front

Sea Otter 09: Leipheimer at the start

Sea Otter 09: Leipheimer wins with ease