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Italian Mattia Gavazzi (Diquigiovanni-Androni) won the first stage of the Tour de Langkawi cycling race in Malaysia's administrative capital of Putrajaya on Monday. Australian Chris Sutton from Garmin Slipstream took second place.[nid:87467] Gavazzi won the 133.8 kilometre (83.14 mile) stage in three hours, six minutes and 42 seconds. The seven-stage race began in Putrajaya, south of Kuala Lumpur on Monday and heads south to the tourist town of Malacca, then north to the Genting Highlands, before ending on February 15 in the capital Kuala Lumpur.

We didn’t exactly trigger a torrent of responses with last week’s story about membership numbers at a trio of U.S. cycling organizations, in which we asked whether the stuttering economy might affect your racing and bike-shopping plans. This could be a function of our Web site’s design; stories slip off the homepage faster than Mark Cavendish ditching a lead group in the final 200 meters. Or it could reflect the utter insanity of the premise. “Cut back on racing? You bet — just as soon as they pry my Madone 6.9 Pro from my cold, dead fingers!”

The road racing debut of former world triathlon champion Iván Raña couldn’t have started worse. Raña crashed in his first road race with Xacobeo-Galicia in Sunday’s high-speed circuit course at the Mallorca Challenge in Spain. Initial reports indicated a broken clavicle, but team officials are reporting a dislocated shoulder, which means only a two-week recovery period.

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The questions came in to us here at VeloNews after stage 5 of the Tour Down Under: What sunglasses did Lance have on? The answer: Oakley’s new sports spec, called Jawbone.

Lance Armstrong may have his eye on yet another record: the hour. Armstrong made a visit to the ADT Event Center velodrome Sunday to conduct tests on two different bikes. He was accompanied by Johan Bruyneel, Steve Hed, Chris Carmichael, a video crew with boom mike and a still photographer, among others. He made a half-dozen runs of roughly ten laps each, first on a nearly stock Trek F1 track bike equipped with 28-spoke wheels, drop bars and, of course, an SRM power meter.

Colors: Pearl white with light blue details Sizes: 36 to 43; half sizes 39.5 to 42.5 Price: $170 Web site: www.northwave.com The Devine S.B.S. is Northwave’s high-end women’s road shoe. It is the women’s specific equivalent road shoe to the men’s Typhoon S.B.S. Northwave says that its lower heel and forefoot volume is more accommodating to a woman’s foot.

Two days after the end of the men's Tour of Qatar, the first women's event began with a 94-kilometer stage that started at the Islamic Art Museum in Doha and finished at Doha Shafallah. Italian national team member Giorgia Bronzini won by outsprinting Dutch riders Kirsten Wild and Ellen Van Dijk. The silver points’ jersey went to Wild while Van Dijk becomes the best young rider of the event. [nid:87443]

Frenchman Thomas Voeckler of Bouygues Telecom claimed overall victory in the Etoile de Besseges stage race, formerly the traditional season-opener, here Sunday. Voeckler, who famously battled the advances of Lance Armstrong to keep hold of the Tour de France yellow jersey in 2004, finished comfortably ahead of Slovenian Jure Kocjan and Russian Yuri Trofimov, last year's winner, in the general classification. Another Frenchman, Jean-Eudes Demaret of Cofidis, won the fifth and final stage after 145 km of racing between Gagnieres and Besseges. [nid:87402]

Fly V Australia rider Ben Day won a snowy and rainy Boulevard road race in east San Diego County Saturday while Floyd Landis used the hilly 90-mile hometown event to quietly return to racing after a two-year suspension. Landis’ Canadian OUCH teammate Cameron Evans took second while Fly V Australia riders and Amgen Tour of California invitees David Kemp, Charles Dionne, and Bernard Sulzberger rounded out the third through fifth. The race rolled out in a driving snowstorm that had barreled into the mountains 60 miles east of downtown San Diego the morning of the event. [nid:87423]

Defending champions Diquigiovanni-Androni from Venezuela are favourites to claim the yellow jersey once again in this year's Tour de Langkawi, which begins Monday. Twenty teams are competing in the seven-stage event, which takes in some of Malaysia's top tourist spots over the 1,031.7 kilometer (641 mile) route — scaled down from nine stages last year.

Katusha went one-two in the opening leg of the Mallorca Challenge with Gert Steegmans flying across the line ahead of teammate Robbie McEwen. Caisse d’Epargne sprinter José Joaquin Rojas came through third.   The 116km circuit course in Palma de Mallorca officially opened the 2009 Spanish calendar and the Russian-sponsored Katusha had its way against an international field.  

Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) opened the Italian racing season in the same way he’s done the past five seasons, with victory in the GP Costa degli Etruschi. Just like he’s done every year since 2005, “Ale-Jet” crossed the line Saturday with his arms raised high in triumph in Italy’s first race of the season.

Belgian rider Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil) won Saturday’s 153km fourth stage at Etoile de Bessèges for his first victory since a two-year ban was overturned last year. The Flemish cycling federation slapped Leukemans with a two-year racing ban for a case dating back to the 2007 world championships when he popped for synthetic testosterone. His Predictor-Lotto team sacked Leukemans in late 2007 and the team later fired a doctor who allegedly gave Leukemans a product called Prasteron that triggered the positive test.

Christophe Dupouey, pictured with Jerome Chiotti and Filip Meirhaeghe, was world champion in 1998.

'Cross worlds were crazy this year: the fans didn’t disappoint, the track was similar to the Leguna Seca raceway and the weather was pretty reasonable too. Thank you to all the people who came out and cheered on their fellow countrymen and women and especially the ones who cheered for me. It’s an amazing experience to be racing thousands of miles away and to hear so many people screaming your name. I was diggin’ the vibe in the morning watching Katie Compton give the ladies field a real leg whippin’. She rode strong and left it all out there on the course.

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Slovenian rider Jure Kocjan (Carmiooro A-Style) pulled the double, winning Friday’s third stage and taking the overall lead at the Etoile d’Bessèges in France. After two opening stages won in bunch sprints by Jimmy Casper (Besson Chaussures), Wednesday’s hilly profile was sure to decide the GC. A screw up that took the peloton down the wrong road and then nasty weather forced organizers to trim the stage from 133.4km down to 76.5km.

Danielson rides with a wireless PowerTap hub, which gives him power readings on his Garmin 705 computer on the handlebar, and his coach power readings on the PowerTap computer on the scooter behind.