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The third and final stage of the Women's Tour of Qatar saw Italy’s Giorgia Bronzini triumph for the second time of the event, outsprinting her rivals to clinch the win on the Al Khor Corniche. Overall victory went to Dutch rider Kirsten Wild. As the 84 remaining riders started, only 6 seconds separated Wild from her closest Bronzini on the GC.

Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) opened his 2009 account with victory in Tuesday’s third stage of the Mallorca Challenge after avoiding a final-turn crash by Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) late in the stage.   The Italian sprinter made it over three rated climbs midway through the 182.6km circuit course starting and finishing in Inca and then avoided a spill in the final kilometer to go that took out Valverde and Manuel Quinziato (Liquigas). Luckily for Valverde, who decided to race to help his teammate Jose Joaquim Rojas challenge for the overall, he wasn't seriously injured.

Scott Nydam completed not one but two team training camps in preparation for the Amgen Tour of California. The BMC rider, who claimed the 2008 King of the Mountains overall title, attended BMC’s January camp in his adopted state of California. Then he hitched onto the back of his friend Levi Leipheimer’s Astana team camp, based near the Santa Rosa area where both men live.

Mark Suprenant remembers the worst time he ever went low. He was at the base of the final climb of the Mount Wachusett road race when he felt his feet go numb. He didn’t have any food, nor did any of the other riders in his group. Suprenant decided to suck it up and ride to the top.

Coming off a fiery debut in the Tour of Qatar where he took two stages, Columbia-Highroad’s fastman Mark Cavendish says he’s ready for more action at the Amgen Tour of California.   “California is a massively important race for our team, and we’ve got a really strong line-up for the general classification,” Cavendish said. “I’ve looked at the route and it’s a very tough course, a lot tougher than last year. On paper, there’s only one stage that seems certain to end in a bunch sprint, so I will be targeting that one for sure.”

Mattia Gavazzi (Diquigiovanni-Androni) maintained his hold on both the points and leader’s jerseys at Malaysia’s Tour de Langkawi, by winning the 160.9km stage to Senawang to Malacca on Tuesday, his second win in as many stages. Gavazzi expressed surprise to have already notched up three victories this year, adding his two Langkawi stage wins to an earlier win at the Tour de San Luis.

David Moncoutie (Cofidis) and Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d’Epargne) are the top names starting the 36th Tour Méditerranéen this week in southern France. The split opening stage of the six-stage, five-day race will feature an afternoon team time trial, where Garmin-Slipstream will be a top favorite on the heels of its narrow victory at the TTT at the Tour of Qatar earlier this month.

Haimar Zubeldia will make his Astana debut at the Tour du Haut Var (February 21-22), where he will lead a team of Spanish and Kazakh riders in the two-day French race. Twice fifth at the Tour de France, Zubeldia joined Astana for 2009 after racing his entire nine-year pro career with Euskaltel-Euskadi.

Making it work

The Tour of Qatar has won its place in the international cycling calendar and it could one day host a Tour de France stage, cycling legend Eddy Merckx believes. This year's race, won last week by Belgian powerhouse Tom Boonen, was the eighth edition of an event which has seen competitive cycling come to the Gulf for the first time. The 64-year-old Merckx, whom many see as the greatest cyclist ever, said he is convinced that the Tour of Qatar has gained in strength during that time.

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Just before a trip to the San Diego wind tunnel, Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong shared some photos and component details of her new Cervélo S2 road bike. Armstrong is a star member of the new Cervélo TestTeam, and the new team is already working to contribute new information to the company. We also caught up by email with Cervélo race engineer Damon Rinard while he was at the San Diego low speed wind tunnel for a few insights.

Bike details

The upcoming Tour of California will showcase one of best fields ever assembled in North America. With current and former champions of the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix, world championships and other big races scheduled to attend, many have asked - is this the best field ever assembled in the United States? Let's take a look.

After Michael Barry’s most recent diary the Tour of Qatar took a distinctly different turn. As most of you have surely read, the morning after Mark Cavendish convincingly won his first of two stages, a young rider on the Topsport-Flanders team was found dead in his hotel room. It was a tragedy in the truest definition of the word, and I can only imagine what it must have been like for his roommate and his family, far away in Belgium; life-changing, to say the least.

Australian cyclist Cadel Evans announced on Monday that he would not compete in the Giro d'Italia this season because he was determined to win the Tour de France in July. The 31-year-old, who was second in last year's Tour, explained that while he would have liked to compete in the Giro it simply did not fit into his plans as he prepares to take on Alberto Contador and seven-time winner Lance Armstrong. "There has been a lot of talk about the Giro in the press," said the Silence team leader.

The Versus network will now air live coverage of the Tour of California weekend stages in addition to its live weekday coverage.

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USA Cycling National Development Team riders Austin Carroll and Guy East become the first American Madison pair to win the U.I.V. Talent Cup Amateur Six-Day competition, which wrapped up with this weekend in Alkmaar, Netherlands. The duo is now guaranteed a professional contract for competition in two UIV Professional Six-day events during the 2010-11 season.

Eva Lutz (Nürnberger) won stage 2 of the Women’s Tour of Qatar on Monday. Veronicca Andreason (Bigla Cycling Team) took second in the 100km stage with Rochelle Gilmore (Lotto-Belison) third at 14 seconds back in a group that included Kirsten Wild (Cervélo TestTeam) and race leader Giorgia Bronzini (Italy). Wild took the leader’s jersey from Bronzini and now holds a five-second advantage over her with Kirtsy Broun (Australia) third at 12 seconds. Stage 1. Eva Lutz (G), Nürnberger, 110km in 2:49:56 (38.839 km/h)

Katusha made it two in a row Monday at the Mallorca Challenge, with Robbie McEwen darting clear for his first European win in 2009. A day after setting up Katusha teammate Gert Steegmans for the victory, McEwen out-kicked compatriot Graeme Brown (Rabobank) in the 176.5km stage, which started and finished in Cala Millor.