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Tour de France stage winner, Simon Gerrans, a new recruit of the new Cervélo Test Team, won the first stage of the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic in Australia, riding for the local O2 Networks squad on Friday. The race was delayed, in strange circumstances, by more than 90 minutes because Australian sprint ace, Katyusha's Robbie McEwen, had his flight cancelled and was late arriving for the event.

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• Keep it short. And remember that we reserve the right to edit for grammar, length and clarity.
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Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Can you recommend a tall stem for a tall rider?

Why does my new bike tick?

How will Q-factor affect IB Band Syndrome?

Do you have any advice for correcting leg-length discrepancies?

USA Cycling published its 2009 National Racing Calendar over the weekend, with several surprises, including the Dana Point Grand Prix of Cycling, held April 26, the new Oregon Pro Cycling Race, the June 21 Tour of Winghaven in St. Louis, the July 26 Chicago Criterium and August 8 Tour of Elk Grove, and the San Francisco Twilight Criterium, held September 5. Gone from this year’s NRC schedule are the Sequoia Cycling Classic, the Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix, the Sea Otter Classic, the AT&T Austin Downtown Crit and the Cox Charities Cycling Classic.

American junior Zach McDonald finished second to Dutch rider Corné Van Kessel on Thursday in the GP Sven Nys in Baal, Belgium. McDonald crossed 14 seconds behind Van Kessel to take the runner-up spot with Belgian Sean De Bie (Kon. Balen B.C. V.Z.W.) third at 0:21. In the elite men’s race, Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) won in 57:51, nine seconds up on Czech Zdenek Stybar (Fidea) with Belgian Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) third at 0:25.

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Dear Explainer,
A good friend of mine recently got a contract offer from a bike team. While I am happy for her, I was floored when I learned that she would only get about $5000 a year for her efforts. Five thousand dollars a year? How can they sign someone up for what has to be less than the minimum wage? Even though she’s just happy for the chance to ride, how can that even be legal?
Marianne J
Westchester, New York

Editor's Note: At the serious risk of self-indulgence, VeloNews' web editor Steve Frothingham has decided to share some memories of his first year with the Web site.

I’ve been in Europe since nationals, a little over two weeks actually and usually by this point in my trip I’m tired and ready to a break and relax for a couple days. A year wiser and happier makes such a difference. This year I made a tough decision to skip the Nommay World Cup in France when I got to Europe, let myself recover, get settled in my new home away from home and then give it the stick in the hardest races of the year.

Twenty teams have committed to racing in the 2009 Tour de Langkawi, the Malaysian stage race scheduled to run from February 9 to 15. The Tour de Langkawi is slated to start in Putrajaya, the home of Malaysian government, and finishing in the country’s capital Kuala Lumpur with the traditional criterium at Dataran Merdeka.

What if there was something you could do to improve your health and fitness, save money, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, improve air quality, and reduce your carbon footprint, all at the same time—would you do it?

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It's not always easy to be VeloNews' editorial cartoonist. I've been on the job for nearly 20 years — my first contribution, starring the Old Guy Who Gets Fat in Winter, appeared in the March 1989 issue — and it often seems as though the same old problems keep popping up issue after issue, year after year, immortal pests in an eternal "Groundhog Day" game of Whac-A-Mole. How many different ways can a guy say, "Doping sucks?"

Torque wrenches and temperature ranges Dear Lennard, I own both deflecting beam and click-type (Giustaforza) torque wrenches. They are stored in my garage where the temperature can get below freezing in the winter and over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Do torque wrenches need to be stored and used within a certain temperature range to maintain accuracy? Gary Answer from Effetto Mariposa:

It seems that joining the international calendar may not have been as important as Tour of the Battenkill Valley promoter Dieter Drake initially thought. Even after being denied a spot on the UCI America Tour in early December — largely due to concerns over the race’s mix of dirt and paved roads — the two-day event has secured a major presenting sponsor in the form of microprocessor manufacturer AMD, and registered nearly 1,300 in the week registration opened.

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California Giant-Specialized has announced its roster for the 2009 racing season. Three riders will leave the squad to move up to the pro ranks — Andy Jacques-Maynes to Bissell Pro Cycling, Ken Hanson to Team Type 1 and Max Jenkins to the Danish team Glud & Marstrand Horsens.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

History was made, new talents were revealed as drugs cheats and one of sport's biggest names, Lance Armstrong, decided to emerge from retirement to show rivals ten years his junior a trick or two. In all, 2008 was another topsy-turvy year for cycling but for fans drama was abundant from the spring one-day classics through the Olympics and the three grand tours to the end-of-season world championships. For better or for worse, cancer survivor Armstrong decided to end a three-year hiatus from the sport and return to competition in a bid to promote the global fight against cancer.

Two-time Tour Down Under winner Stuart O'Grady will lead Denmark's Team CSC Saxo Bank in Australia’s premiere stage race next month, organizers announced Monday. O'Grady, 35, who won the inaugural tour in 1999 and again in 2001, has ridden in the Tour de France since 1998 and won the gold medal in the Madison at the 2004 Athens Olympics. "Stuart has won here twice before and I know he will hit the race hard, looking to add a third title to his crown," race director Mike Turtur said in a statement.

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Former U.S. cyclocross champion Jonathan Page has been notified that he missed an anti-doping test at the World Cup at Koksijde, Belgium, on November 29. UCI anti-doping officials have forwarded a report of the missed test to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for review. UCI anti-doping coordinator Peter Van den Abeele told the Belgian website Sport.be that Page failed to appear for a drug test despite being notified that he had been randomly selected. Page, however, said that he had not heard anything about the test until he was informed that he had missed it three weeks later.

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