All Content

Friday's racing at the USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships crowned 16 national champions in both junior and master categories and locked up a spot on the U.S. World Championship squad for one junior rider. Cyclists from as young as nine to 67 years of age contested the muddy course at Kansas City's Tiffany Springs Park on the second day of competition at the 2008 national championships.

Just days before she attempts to win her fifth national cyclocross title, Katie Compton and her husband/mechanic Mark Legg have decided to switch from a hodge podge of Shimano and Campagnolo drivetrain components to a new set of Dura-Ace 7900 shifters and derailleurs.

Cadel Evans has denied he will ride in next year's Giro d'Italia, putting him at odds with his Silence-Lotto team, reports said. Race organizers on Wednesday announced that the 31-year-old runner-up in the past two Tours de France was set to take on seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong in the Giro next May. The race director of his Belgian team, Roberto Damiani, also said that Evans would ride in the three-week Italian stage race. But Evans, who is currently in Australia preparing another assault on the Tour de France, on Friday denied he would be taking part.

Cyclists will have an opportunity to cycle alongside members of Team Columbia as part of Pedal to Pier, a fund-raising ride slated for Saturday, February 7, 2009. Three hundred participants will be invited to a meet-and-greet coffee with the pros, join them on a scenic metric century or metric half-century ride through San Luis Obispo County, California, and enjoy lunch and a drawing afterward.

While many of the nation's top racers are at the cyclocross national championships in Kansas City this week, USA Cycling announced the dates and locations of 17 national championship events for next year. The organization, however, did not announce a location for the next cyclocross nationals, which are tentatively scheduled for Dec. 11-14 next year. 2009 USA Cycling national championship schedule: *All dates and locations subject to change March 21: USA Cycling BMX National Championships – Desoto, Texas

This Sunday’s mens national elite cyclocross championships are as wide open as any in recent memory, with four former champions, all in peak form, lining up. Defending women’s champion Katie Compton won’t face any former champs in her race, but she will contend with an increasingly deep women’s domestic field, most notably the powerful Georgia Gould. (Womens Favorites) When deciding on favorites, we looked at: - their history at nationals, - the top racers' own opinions of their relative strengths

The USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships opened on Thursday with just over 50 master-aged riders tackling the demanding course at Kansas City's Tiffany Springs Park. Gary Thacker (Louisville, Colo./Chipotle-Titus), Phil Bannister (Putney, Vt./Putney-West Hill), Rob Lea (Taneytown, Md./Team Fuji), Walt Axthelm (Durango, Colo./Durango Wheel Club) and Ronald Riley (Aptos, Calif./Team Santa Cruz) won the first of 35 stars-and-stripes jerseys to be awarded at this year's competition.

European ProTour teams Silence-Lotto and BBox Bouygues Telecom have confirmed they will compete in next month's Tour Down Under in Australia. BBox Bouygues Telecom will send an all-French team and Belgium's Silence-Lotto will field an experienced European contingent. "I am pleased to see Mario Aerts back in Australia riding for Silence-Lotto, he is a Tour Down Under favourite," race director Mike Turtur said Friday. "Mario is a consummate professional in the peloton, having achieved some major cycling milestones in his career."

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

National criterium champion Rahsaan Bahati is optimistic about his status with Rock Racing, the team he has ridden for since 2007, even though he appears to have been relegated to amateur status for the 2009 season.

The last lap of the last event of my 2008 season provided a perfect encapsulation of this first year of serious training and racing. Just after passing the one-to-go sign during the waning moments of the cat. 4 Colorado state championships cyclocross race, I twisted the throttle and moved past two riders into what I’m fairly certain was a top 10 placing.

The 2010 Tour de France will open with a nine kilometer individual time trial through the streets of Rotterdam, race director Christian Prudhomme announced in Rotterdam on Thursday. It will be the first time that the Tour will have started from the Dutch port city, but four other cities in the country — Amsterdam (1954), Scheveningen (1973), Leiden (1978) and 's-Hertogenbosch 1996) have previously enjoyed the honor. The 2009 race kicks off from Monaco.

If you’re one of those readers who reads a book from cover to cover, you may have noticed that in the acknowledgements for Bicycling & the Law, I thanked Cronometro, the Madison, Wisconsin shop owned by Colin O’Brien. I first met Colin back in our college days, when we were in the same Latin class. I noticed that his legs were shaved, and we struck up a conversation about that.

It was a crisp fall day here in Boulder as I pulled up to the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine with my bike on my car and all my gear in a bag. I was swiftly directed to the locker room and changed into my kit while my bike was rolled away to the fit lab by a staff member for “calibration.” I was then brought into the biomechanical fit lab, which was impressive, and, frankly, a bit intimidating. When I walked in, my bike was already there in the center of the room, mounted to a trainer, which was hooked up to a remote unit that controlled the wattage output.

Sizes: 43, 46, 51, and 56cm Price: $2500 Web site: www.carryyourdreams.com Just in from France: the new Lapierre Passport, a full suspension folding mountain bike and travel case. When packed inside of its travel case, this 24.5-pound, aluminum mountain bike only weighs 35 pounds, which means no extra weight fees for air travel.

Luxembourg's anti-doping agency will not open a disciplinary case against Fränk Schleck, who said he transferred nearly 7000 euros in March 2006 into an account belonging to Eufemiano Fuentes, the alleged ringleader of the Operación Puerto doping ring. According to European news reports and a press release from Schleck's Saxo Bank team, the agency found no evidence of actual doping violations and has decided to close the case.

It is the week before the US National Championship of Cyclocross and I am having trouble figuring out a good topic for my biweekly VeloNews.com journal. I wish this was because I am so focused and preoccupied with the impending championship event, but in reality my mind wanders as I think of the upcoming off season that directly follows the race.

USA Cycling announced today the creation of a new professional cross country mountain bike series designed to recognize the top off-road racers in America. The USA Cycling Pro Mountain Bike Cross Country Tour presented by Sho-Air (ProXCT) will consist of seven UCI-sanctioned events throughout the United States, providing world-class athletes with a consistent stage on which to ply their trade.

Australian cycling ace Cadel Evans is set to take on seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong in the Giro d'Italia next year, race organizers announced Wednesday. The 31-year-old — runner-up in the past two Tours de France — will also face Italian stars Ivan Basso, Damiano Cunego and Danilo Di Luca in what will see the race in its 100th year since its creation. Evans wore the overall leader's pink jersey for a day during the 2002 edition and eventually finished 14th overall.

IVÁN DOMÍNGUEZ SIGNS WITH FUJI - SERVETTO

Cuban sprinter Ivan Dominguez has won just about every major one-day race in the U.S. since he defected from the Cuban national team at the 1998 Goodwill Games in New York City. Now the "Cuban Missile" is headed to the Fuji-Servetto ProTour team for the 2009 season, and he'll get his first chance to race in Europe at age 32. And, in an interview with VeloNews Wednesday, Dominguez said he didn't want to hear from any doubters about his chances at success. "For those people, I say, just keep it to yourselves and let me try," he said.

Dear readers,
This week’s question was originally submitted to our legal beagle Bob Mionske. He sent it on to The Explainer who, unfortunately, has been writing about doping questions longer than he would like to admit.
The Explainer

The French team which won this year's overall team classification at the Tour Down Under in Australia, Francaise des Jeux, will be returning in 2009 to defend its crown, organizers said Wednesday. "We will expect a competitive team performance in 2009 by Francaise des Jeux," race director Mike Turtur said. The team includes Jeremy Roy, who finished second overall in the 2008 Giro d'Italia Sprint Classification, and who Turtur said would be striving to secure sprint jersey points at the Tour Down Under.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Defending Elite Men's champion Tim Johnson (Middleton, Mass.) and Women's Elite champion Katie Compton (Colorado Springs, Colo.) are among the nation's best athletes ready to line up at this week's USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships in Kansas City, Kan. Nearly 1,800 entries have been received for the 38 races between Thursday and Sunday at Kansas City's Tiffany Springs Park. The complete event schedule and more information are available here or at http://www.kccrossnationals.com.