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NAHBS, day 1, part II: The Moots Comooter is a commuter bike that costs more than many cars... but what the hey, the mileage is a lot better than even a Prius.

I came away from my first five hours at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show with more than 350 photos. OK, so only 15 percent of them are usable, but even so, the volume of eye-catching hardware on display is second to none. Most of the products on display are bicycles from small builders that show unique details, exquisite handwork, and timeless paint schemes. Yet even a multi-million dollar company like SRAM has a clever product to offer this market, which is oriented more toward singlespeeds, retro-styled road bikes and urban fixies.

After a whirlwind 2008, which saw its riders dominate both internationally and domestically in both mountain biking and cyclocross, the Luna women’s mountain bike team is shifting gears for 2009. Georgia Gould and Catherine Pendrel will take a step back from the UCI World Cup series, focusing on off-road stage races and one-day events in North America. Former world champion Alison Dunlap will end her three-year retirement to race select mountain bike and cyclocross races. And Czech strongwoman Katerina Nash will miss much of the early season to rehab a nagging knee injury.

Alison Dunlap, the last American cross-country rider to bring home a world championship, bid farewell to pro racing in 2005. After more than a decade racing on the road, ’cross and mountain bike, the Colorado Springs resident said she was burned out, largely due to the constant travel and punishing workouts, and that she was ready to step into the next phase of her life — coaching and mentoring aspiring female cyclists.

With more than 100 exhibitors and a seemingly endless array of handcrafted bicycles and parts, the North American Handmade Bicycle Show feels like an oasis of optimism amid the current business climate.

The 2009 Tour of Colorado races and dates have been finalized. Get your bikes ready! The Koppenberg Road Race in Superior, CO opens the 2009 Tour of Colorado series on March 29. This Spring Classic Colorado road race will set the tone of the Series as a difficult event with a long history. Excel Sports in Boulder presents the May 16th Sunshine Hill Climb and the May 17th legendary North Boulder Park Criterium. If any race should be a NRC race, it’s this great criterium!

Price: $230 Colors: Six colors Sizes: Small to Large Weight: 230 to 270 grams Web site: www.trialtir-usa.com LAS introduces their new top shelf helmet, the Victory. Designed with safety as the most important attribute, the Victory also excels in ventilation, fit, and style.

Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) sprinted to victory Friday at the Giro di Sardegna and overtakes the leader jersey at the end of the 147km fourth stage. Bennati darted ahead of Mirco Lorenzetto (Milram) as the pack came in for the mass sprint into Cagliari on the southern tip of the Mediterranean’s second-largest island. Overnight leader Oscar Gatto (ICS) finished out of the bonuses and slipped to second at six seconds back. Bennati is confident he can hang on for Saturday’s finale and secure the overall victory if it all comes down a sprint as expected.

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Portugal's reigning national champion Joao Cabreira was handed a two-year doping ban on Friday by the Portuguese Cycling Federation. Cabreira, a 26-year-old who won the Tour of the Algarve in 2006, was found guilty of "using a masking substance", according to the federation, prior to providing a recent sample to doping controllers.

The night before the North American Handmade Bicycle Show begins, bikes are unpacked, booths are built, and one of the newest trade shows in the country begins to take shape. Held last year in Portland, Oregon, the annual NAHBS comes to Indianapolis, Indiana, for 2009.

Dominique Rollin is expected to start Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (ex-Het Volk) this weekend in Belgium, culminating a long road that’s taken him from Canada to the most important races in Europe. The 25-year-old Canadian will be a key member of Cervélo’s spring classics squad and he’s relishing the opportunity to race the events that he dreamed about as a boy back in Montreal. Rollin should know some of the circuits well. He raced three years as an amateur at VC Roubaix and lived at the storied velodrome where Paris-Roubaix finishes each year.

The world economic crisis continues to hammer races across Europe. The latest to face difficulty covering its costs in the tough financial climate is the Volta a Catalunya, the weeklong ProTour race held each May in Spain. The race is asking Catalunya’s regional government to help cover half of the race’s 1.2 million euro budget, according to a report by the Spanish wire service EFE.

Up-and-coming Columbia-Highroad pro. Edvald Boasson-Hagen will have his first real taste of the spring Classics this weekend when he races Het Nieuwsblad [formerly Het Volk] and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. “Edvald has had a great first year as a pro with us in 2008, winning three stages of the Tour of Britain as well as a stage of the Eneco Tour,” pointed out team sports director Allan Peiper. “But we want to see what he can do in the Classics as well.”

Price: $1000 Colors: Burnt Orange Sizes: 26 inch Weight: 1865 grams both wheels Web site: www.crankbrothers.com New from the Crankbrothers production line: the all-mountain Iodine wheelset.

Quality Bicycle Products, the owner of the Salsa Cycles brand, is recalling some Salsa CroMoto SUL threadless and quill stems sold last year, after receiving reports that two of the stems broke in use. The company is working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to conduct the recall. In a letter to dealers on Thursday, the company said the breakages were caused by a manufacturing defect and that one rider crash and broke his or her wrist as a result of the stem failure,

"These stems were painted to match and included as original equipment on the following

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Salt Lake City’s Deseret News has reported that police got a break in the case of David Zabriskie’s burglarized home late Tuesday. The paper reported that Salt Lake City’s Joint Criminal Apprehension Team along with the police department’s Lake Metro Gang Unit recovered one of the vehicles stolen from the house of Salt Lake resident David Zabriskie.

New Italian team ISD ended Mirco Lorenzetto’s two-day stranglehold on the Giro di Sardegna, with Oscar Gatto sprinting to victory in Thursday’s 181km third stage from Oristano to Tortoli. The hilly stage featured more than 3,000 meters of climbing, but the top teams reeled a two-man break, but not before 22 riders slipped away near the end. Giovanni Visconti led things out for his teammate Gatto to keep a lid on world champion Alessandro Ballan (Lampre), who finished second but is in good position to win the overall with two stages left.

With two victories and a second place overall at the Tour of Qatar, Heinrich Haussler is starting off his 2009 season on a winning note. Haussler – who turned 25 on Wednesday – is obviously feeling right at home at the new Cervélo TestTeam. Nickamed the “Racing Kangaroo,” Haussler’s father is German and his mother Australian. He was raised Down Under, but moved to Germany as a junior once he decided to give it a shot to race his bike professionally.

Suffering, speed and sore legs. Game on. The fans were fervent, the racing intense, and the media abundant. From Australia to Qatar to California the races were closely followed and cycling seems to be more popular than ever. For a month Mark Cavendish and I have traveled together: from hotel to hotel, from plane to plane, and from the Middle Eastern arid wind to the California rain. Our suitcases quickly became our homes on the road. We finished stages not knowing where we were ? the town was just another name and the finish line crossed another stage completed.

The much-rumored British road team is about to become a reality. The British sports channel Sky Sports will invest 30 million pounds over four years to back a British-based elite men’s pro team with the goal of winning the Tour de France by 2013. The British cycling federation, which announced the news on its web site yesterday, will manage and direct the team when it hits the road starting next season.

Intermontane Delivers on Single-track – Stage Profiles Released plus New Sponsors The Intermontane Challenge is rolling into 2009 on the gas with the release of our long awaited and hugely anticipated Stage Profiles! Thanks to Course Designer Dustin Adams, the Intermontane will contain a ton of awesome single-track and deliver on our promise to create a true off road mtb stage race – Kamloops style!

Kelly Benefit Strategies Official Team Launch Set for Feb 26 Team Unveils New Jerseys, New Bikes and New Athletes, San Antonio, TX Minneapolis, Min., February 20, 2009 – After an unofficial winter camp in Winter Park, CO, the Kelly Benefit Strategies pro cycling team moves this weekend to San Antonio, TX to begin intensive race preparation for the 09 season and an official team launch event next week. The KBS program will introduce the 2009 lineup, unveil new jersey designs and demo the team’s new Fisher road line at the team launch February 26.

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