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Planet Energy and Catalyst Capital Group Inc. will continue as the principal financial sponsors of Team R.A.C.E. Pro (TRP) through 2009, but the team also said Friday that it will soon be ready to offer details about additional support from new sponsors as well. Josée Larocque and Steve Bauer of Cycle Sport Management Inc. said they are both pleased with the progress made during this first year of building a Canadian UCI Continental men’s team. “Our message is clear. We are focused on providing the best possible opportunity for Canadian road cyclists,” said Larocque.

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Toyota-United rider Ivan Stevic is facing a lifetime ban by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) for use of a prohibited substance, possession of prohibited substances and illegal trafficking of prohibited substances dating back to 2004.

Fellow Boulderite Brandon Dwight greeted me at the final finish line of last year’s La Ruta de los Conquistadores with a chilled bottle of Imperial in one hand and a digital camera in the other. The cold booze momentarily soothed the numerous aches and pains I had accrued during the four-day, 250-mile race from Costa Rica’s Pacific to Caribbean coasts.

Price: $59.99 Sizes: Small to XXL Web site: www.pearlizumi.com Pearl Izumi has answered the challenge of fall and winter cycling with the Shine Shoe Cover, which lets riders keep their feet warm and be more visible to motorists when cycling after sunset.

Armstrong played with forearm position during an hour-long media session, then closed the doors for private fit testing

Lance Armstrong’s return to racing had many wondering if his vaunted Formula One crew would also make a come back. That answer came this week with the resurrection of the technical group born years ago to optimize Armstrong’s time trialing. At the San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel Tuesday, several key product engineers and aerodynamicists from the F1 crew regrouped to again push the envelope on Armstrong’s behalf.

The Iceman Cometh seems likely to live up to its moniker on Saturday, when some 2000 mountain bikers will start the 19th annual race along the northwestern bank of Lake Michigan. The 27-mile race from Kalkaska to Traverse City has gained a reputation for chilly temperatures and variable weather. The National Weather Service predicts heavy showers and a high of 40 degrees, although temperatures will be much lower when the race starts at 9 a.m. start at Kalkaska middle school.

Last week, I wrote “we all feel the pain when one of our own is injured.” As I wrote those words, one of our own, Dr. Ed Farrar, lay in critical condition at Central Washington Hospital in Wenatchee, Washington, the victim of a head-on collision with an automobile. Dr.

Bonus Photo - Sorry, the only photos I took of the first annual Rocky Mountain Handbuilt Bicycle Show, in Colorado, were of my own booth for our scrapbook; it didn’t occur to me to document it as a journalist. This photo includes the Lenzsport display featuring a ski lift chair Devin Lenz built to demonstrate loading his full-suspension ski bikes on one. The TV video shows him and friends hucking off cornices and carving turns on the 8-inch travel “bikes.”

The Milan Six-Day is run on a steep, compact, portable velodrome set up in one of the two pavilions dedicated to the Milan Bicycle Show. Every joist and truss is numbered and bolted together in order to ensure the track is smooth.

Joan Llaneras Roselló riding his gold-medal-winning Cervelo P3 with Oval aero split-blade fork and Hed wheels before losing his 6-day teammate Paolo Bettini to a crash at the end of the first night’s madison.

Aussie road sprinter Luke Roberts of Team Kuota-Senges is the last rider in line in this photo. Fighting for position in the final sprint, Roberts crashed with Bettini into Popovych. The Aussie’s left fork blade snapped off of his Cervelo P3, and he received cranio-facial trauma upon impact, but his injuries were less serious than Bettini’s.

Yaroslav Popovych (Lotto) lining up with 6-day teammate Volodymyr Zagorodny. Popovych was moving too slowly high on the track with three laps to go and clipped his right pedal on the steep wall, sending him sliding down the track in the path of Paolo Bettini and Luke Roberts. Popovych was also taken to the hospital.

Paolo Bettini lining up for call-ups with his teammate for the Milan Six, Madison and points-race world champion and Olympic gold medalist Joan Llaneras Roselló. Bettini is moving well here, but he did not respond to requests to move his legs after the crash. He was taken to Sacco hospital in Milan and was released hours later to return to his hotel.

Last night we were supposed to eat dinner with Paolo Bettini to celebrate his career and his last race, but he crashed with three laps to go in the madison on the first day of the Milan Six-Day race. This is the mascarpone-coated cake we were supposed to share with him; we ate it with concern for him, having seen him removed from the track strapped to a backboard.

Can you imagine the president of the United States coming to Interbike and addressing a room full of journalists, especially without sending them through metal detectors and cavity searches beforehand? Hard though that may be to envision, here is Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi doing exactly that at the Milan show, and I had no trouble getting a seat near the front without a single security check.

Far from utilitarian, De Rosa’s new Campagnolo Xenon-equipped carbon kids’ road bike is branded with children’s clothing brand “i Pinco Pallino.” The boy’s model is plain carbon, but this version for girls is covered with Swarovski crystal.

This is the kind of unfortunate English translation you would expect to find on a banner at an Asian bike show much more than at a European one.

The Ambrosio XUL wheelset’s weight has dropped 50 grams (from 1270 to 1220g/pr.) by decreasing the spoke the spoke count to 24 for the rear wheel and 20 for the front. In keeping with the white-bike trend in Milan, the XUL is now available in white. Both the white and standard carbon versions are available with five different decal colors: red, blue, pink, yellow and grey.

Ambrosio’s Pista wheel is more than just a track wheel; its tough aluminum rim is designed to see hard single-speed urban use as well. Its “flip-flop” rear hub allows mounting either a track cog on one side or a single-speed road cog on the other.

The 66th Milan Bicycle Show is the first major show since the financial meltdown. The mood was not upbeat the first day of the show, but it was election news from the U.S. that raised spirits on day two. That the show is very small was determined long ago when the booths were reserved, but the outlook on the market probably was largely created in October. Reflecting a common theme heard around the show, Lorenzo Piotto, marketing manager for Elite, said, “We are in a difficult period now.”

Defending Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre says he’s all but certain to skip next year’s Vuelta a España and said he’s looking forward toward a possible showdown with Lance Armstrong at the 2009 Tour. Speaking to reporters at an engagement in Spain, Sastre reconfirmed that he’ll likely start the Giro d’Italia to prepare for the Tour and then skip the Vuelta, where he finished third overall in September.

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Italian veteran Davide Rebellin, looking for a contract following the dissolution of his Gerolsteiner team at the end of this season, will ride for Diquigiovanni in 2009. The Italian news service ANSA reported that an accord has been reached for the 37-year-old Rebellin to join the Italian continental team for at least one season. The Italian team, directed by the dapper Gianni Savio, will lead the classics squad for the team heading into next year. Rebellin completed the “Ardennes sweep” in 2004 when he won Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Liège all in a row.

Dear Explainer,
I apologize if this is a dumb question, but when I heard Lance Armstrong was going to race the Giro next year I was confused. Wasn't there a warrant for his arrest or something of that nature in Italy for something akin to witness intimidation?
Rick Mattinson
Salt Lake City Utah Dear Rick,
No, it’s not a dumb question. Like my old boss used to say, “there are no dumb questions!” (Well, actually there are dumb questions - some really dumb ones in fact - but yours isn’t one of them.)

Leonardo Piepoli, one of seven riders to fail drug tests at the Tour de France, has demanded a counter-test, according to the French national anti-doping agency (AFLD) on Wednesday. Piepoli, one of four who tested positive for a new strain of a banned blood booster EPO called CERA, will be controlled in the coming weeks AFLD said, without giving further details. Last month Austria's Bernhard Kohl became the seventh positive doping case after being controlled retroactively for CERA, joining Italians Piepoli and Riccardo Ricco and Germany's Stefan Schumacher.

Since my last diary, I’ve driven to Connecticut, jumped a plane south to Louisville and then west to Boulder to race the hotbeds of cyclocross!

Lance Armstrong hit the wind-tunnel this week in San Diego to further prepare for his return to racing, but he didn’t provide any more clues on whether or not he’d be starting the Tour de France. The seven-time Tour winner remains uncommitted toward racing in July, telling The Associated Press that he still hasn’t made a definitive decision on whether he’ll start the 2009 Tour.

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That wasn’t just any old Trek XO cyclocross bike Travis Brown was riding in last weekend’s Boulder and Redline Cup races — it was a prototype belt-driven bike. The Trek product tester first raced the anodized green machine, dubbed the XOB, at CrossVegas, held in conjunction with the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas.

Bissell Inc. will continue as the title sponsor of the Bissell Pro Cycling Team in 2009, the squad announced on Tuesday. Mark Bissell, chairman and CEO of Bissell Inc., will assume ownership of the team, which will be managed and directed by Glen Mitchell. Eric Wohlberg will be sport director. “The team has had a fantastic year and has surpassed the goals that we had in the beginning of the year,” said Mitchell. “I am very excited about becoming more involved with the team, and I look forward to the challenges ahead in building this team to the next level.

Italian road cycling great Paolo Bettini was taken to hospital on Tuesday after crashing and hitting his head on a security barrier during the Six Days of Milan track festival, ANSA reported. The 34-year-old, who announced his retirement from road racing in September, was racing the Madison with Spanish veteran Juan Llaneras when he crashed alongside Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych. Bettini's helmet broke upon impact with a security barrier. His neck and head were immediately immobilized before the emergency services rushed him to the Sacco hospital in Milan.

German public broadcaster ARD has been told it has no basis on which to bring a premature end to its contract with Tour de France organizers to televise the race during 2009-11. A spate of recent doping scandals, some of which involved German and Austrian riders, prompted ARD and fellow German broadcaster ZDF to announce their intention to stop broadcasting the world's biggest bike race.

Sizes: 49 to 59 cm Retail Price: Frameset: $1,200 Web site: www.rideblue.com/cxc The Blue CXc Carbon Cross frameset is the high-end version of Blue’s two cyclocross frame options. Though still considered a new company, its capabilities to perform at the highest level were proven by David Frattini at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships.

Recently retired Bobby Julich will be staying on with Saxo Bank-IT Factory next season in a new position as “rider development manager.” Julich ended his 16-year racing career this summer and will take on a managerial role in technical development, testing and time trial coaching for the squad where he enjoyed his most successful years from 2004-08.

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The premier event for single speed cyclocross enthusiasts returns to Portland this weekend, November 8th and 9th. A weekend of racing dedicated solely to those who race with just one gear, the Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships (SSCXWC) gathers top-level racers from across the country and beyond to compete for the top prize in this category. Registered riders include Adam Craig, Ryan Trebon and returning champions Wendy Williams and Barry Wicks.