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The team formerly known as Saunier Duval and then Scott-American Beef, has a new title sponsor for the 2009 season. The new Fuji-Servetto squad will retain its ProTour status. The team was close to collapse after the positive doping test of Italian climbing sensation Ricardo Riccò at the Tour de France. Both Riccò and teammate Leonardo Piepoli were both found to have used the new EPO variant, known as CERA.

Alberto Contador’s busy off-season is finally coming to a close and cycling’s latest “triple crown” winner is keen to get back on the bike. The Spanish climber heads to Spain’s Canary Islands this week for Astana’s first pre-season training camp ahead of the 2009 season, where he will finally meet his new teammate Lance Armstrong face-to-face.

It's a holiday tradition in many parts — the post-Thanksgiving ride to celebrate the season, give thanks, and maybe burn off a few of the 10,000 calories consumed at the table on Thursday. Here's just a sampler of some of the rides this weekend:

South to the border

American Katie Compton (Spike Shooter) and Belgian Erwin Vervecken (Fidea) won the fourth round of the cyclocross World Cup, the Cross of Koksijde Dunes, in Belgium on Saturday. Compton outsprinted world champion Hanka Kupfernagel, beating the German by one second to the line on Saturday. Kupfernagel, who won her fourth world cyclocross title in January, finished 17 seconds ahead of Holland's Daphny van den Brand. Compton’s win moves her to seventh place in the overall World Cup standings, with 110 points, well behind Kupfernagel’s solid first place, with 220.

Price: $34.95 Web site:www.roadrashrepairkit.com Road rash: Large, shallow abrasions caused by sliding across pavement without a full Kevlar suit. Symptoms: Loss of sleep, reduced mobility, and hypersensitivity to hot water, resulting in unpleasant cold showers and general crankiness.

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Former Gerolsteiner rider Stefan Schumacher, who failed a doping test at the Tour de France, said Thursday he will sue the French anti-doping authorities (AFLD) for defamation. "I have been judged and pilloried," Schumacher, who has always denied doping, wrote on his Web site. "My conscience is clear." "I don't want to stop here and I will not stop here," Schumacher added. "The people who have always believed in me and continue to do so and don't deserve this." Schumacher is one of four riders to have failed a test for the new EPO variant known as CERA at this year's Tour de France.

Just in time for off-season training, VeloPress is pleased to announce the release of Weight Training for Cyclists: A Total Body Program for Power and Endurance by Ken Doyle and Eric Schmitz. The book is now available in the U.S. and Canada in bookstores, bike shops, and online. Cyclists need more than just powerful quads and chiseled calves. Cyclists need total body strength-a strong core and solid upper body-to ride with power and endurance. Put simply, stronger muscles last longer and stabilize the body, improving technique and efficiency.

German milk-product manufacturers Milram is considering an early exit from its multi-million Euro sponsorship of the professional cycling team, a German newspaper report claimed on Thursday. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, the company has sought legal advice about whether it can finish its sponsorship agreement before the contract expires in 2010. The current sponsorship contract is reported to be worth eight million Euros ($10.3 million) a year.

As Americans pause to give thanks at the beginning of this holiday season, it’s a good time for us to look past some of the outrages we’ve experienced this past year and reflect on what we cyclists have to be thankful for.

The Ohio State Championships were held in Columbus this past weekend on a course that featured equal parts power and equal parts skill. However, the presence of strong winds on race day made the power sections more significant, as three sections of lengthy straightaway went straight into a headwind. The park was extremely spectator-friendly, with most watchers perched up on the finish line hill looking down on the entire course.

Another unseasonably dry Oregon afternoon greeted about 500 competitors at the Kruger's Crossing Cyclocross Classic, the closing race of Portland's local 'cross scene before the Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix comes to town Dec. 6 and 7 for its finale. [nid:85434] Held on Sauvie's Island, an agricultural area and migratory bird sanctuary about 20 minutes from downtown Portland, the course sent riders careening along rutted farm roads, through berry fields, pastures, a barn, over a pile of pumpkins and past a dead rat. And, of course, we shouldn't forget the beer garden and bonfire.

In my travels this fall I've gathered a notebook and a camera memory card full of neat new products — or soon-to-be-maybe products — that have yet to find a home on VeloNews.com. Here is a buffet table full of a few of them:

Speedplay's new mountain pedal

Web site: www.geargrinder.com Geargrinder is a new casual cycling apparel company that features eco-friendly clothing and accessories for the everyday rider. The clothing is ride-ready, yet suitable for looking and feeling good off the bike or after a ride.

The Nov. 16 installment of the Chicago Cyclocross Cup traveled to the southern suburb of the Village of Lansing. The course was flat as a pancake; however, it was filled with multiple twisty sections and a loose sand pit.

The VisitPA.com Pennsylvania State Cyclocross Championships take place this Saturday, November 29, in Allentown.  For the first time, cyclocross organizers throughout the Mid-Atlantic region have set aside the upcoming weekend for the various state and regional championship races, with the result that the all of the state championships have raised their profile and seem to be benefitting from the general perception that a state championship carries more significance than it has in the past.  As is the norm throughout much of the country, the VisitPA.com Pennsylvania State Cyclocross Champion

Championship cyclocross racing returns to Louisville on Sunday, November 30 for the Zipp OVCX Tour’s “Storm the Greens”.  Held at Champion’s Park, the same venue as the Papa Johns Derby City Cup USGP series opener earlier this year, this year’s Storm the Greens races also serve as the Kentucky State Championships.  And though the event serves as Kentucky’s championship event, riders from throughout the Midwest will be competing.   

Dear USA Cycling Members, Now that the 2008 calendar year is coming to a close, I’d like to once again thank you for your continued support of USA Cycling and your participation in this great sport.

American Tom Danielson will be starting his second season with Garmin next year, but he’s looking at it as a fresh start. After a frustrating year that started with a broken shoulder and little fitness, the former Discovery Channel rider and Tour de Georgia champion is eager to get cracking with off-season training this winter. He sat down with VeloNews during team camp to talk about Belgian racing, rehabbing a shoulder and battling with his own brain. VeloNews: What’s new, Tom?

Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador will train together for the first time in the Astana team in Spain's Canary Islands this month, Astana said. Seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong, who announced his comeback to cycling after a three-year hiatus earlier this year, and Contador, who has won all three of the sport's three-week grand tours, will take part in the November 30 to December 8 session on the island of Tenerife, an Astana spokesman said.

Newport Beach, CA - November 25, 2008 - - Over $20k was raised last Saturday night for the SoCal Interscholastic Cycling League by dinner attendees and silent auction bidders. Cycling legends Gary Fisher and current BMC Professional Racer Tony Cruz elevated the evening, while 24 Hour National Champion "Pua" Sawicki interacted with several cycling stars of tomorrow at the event.

Rain drops fall heavily on my jacket as I weave my way through throngs of haughtily dressed Japanese women, each staring disapprovingly at me though their transparent Hello Kitty umbrellas, as they go about their upscale shopping in downtown Kobe city. I am searching for an elusive Coffee/Bike/Dog Grooming/Hair Salon that is rumored to hold the best coffee in the Kansai region of Japan. It is closed. I end up at a eerily familiar Mr Doughnut and, two cups of grime and five doughnuts later, I make my way back out into the rain and begin my search for home.

Dear Explainer,
Katusha? Isn’t that the rockets that have and are killing Americans? Am I wrong? What does Katusha have to do with cycling and why does Katusha have a ProTour license?!?!
Jim Manning Dear Jim,
Well, for a short question we have a lot to cover. Where to start? Maybe, since we are a cycling publication, let’s first look at the team before we discuss the relevance of naming it after a mobile artillery unit.

Weston Schempf and Betsy Shogren turned in strong performances to win the Men’s and Women’s 1-2-3 classes at the Squadra Coppi Tacchino Ciclocross (i.e.: “Turkey Cyclocross”) on Sunday at Ida Lee Park in Leesburg, Virginia.

Colavita-Sutter Home has announced its 2009 team roster, which includes most of re-signed its core squad for the 2009 season and added Aaron Olson, who comes to the team from Bissell.    Returning riders include Cuba's Luis Amaran, Argentinean sprinters Alejandro and Anibal Borrajo and Sebastian Haedo, climber Anthony Colby, Kyle Wamsley, and all-arounders Luca Damiani, Davide Frattini, and Tyler Wren.  Olson raced for Colavita in 2004 and 2005 before heading to Europe to ride with Saunier-Duval and T-Mobile.  He returned to the domestic peloton last year with Bissell.