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Ivan Basso, whose Operación Puerto-related racing ban ends next week, is back in the spotlight and he’s hoping it will be for sporting reasons alone. Basso faced the media for the first time in a press conference Friday in Italy and seemed anxious to put the focus on racing and not on his links to the Puerto doping scandal. Basso’s ban officially ends October 24 and he will race for the first time since April 2007 at the Japan Cup on October 26 as part a two-year contract with Liquigas.

Stuart O’Grady won Friday's stage five individual time trial of Australia's Jayco Herald Sun Tour and took back the race leader’s yellow jersey, which he is likely to hold until the end of the week-long race. O’Grady started the day four seconds down on his CSC - Saxo Bank teammate Lars Bak, but after charging around the undulating 16km time trial course in the Yarra Valley he now holds a 17 second gap over Bak with Toyota-United’s Ben Day in third place overall at 19 seconds behind.

A new bike: It’s the time of year for new stuff. Interbike is over, but every manufacturer has something that’s still new, and they’re all excited to talk about their latest and greatest. Giant Bicycles is no exception. Andrew Juskaitis, Giant’s Global Communications coordinator, made a trip out to VeloNews’ home of Boulder, Colorado, for a fall ride on his brand’s new Anthem X performance cross-country bike, which Adam Craig rode to victory at this year’s national cross-country championships in Mount Snow, Vermont.

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Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) stormed to victory in a long sprint at the 94th Giro del Piemonte on Thursday to claim his seventh and last victory of the 2008 season. Bennati out-kicked Luca Paolini (Acqua e Sapone) to win the 199km run from Novi Ligure to Lagnasco in northern Italy with Alexandre Usov (Ag2r-La Mondiale) slotting into third. Liquigas was determined to set up its 28-year-old sprinter, reeling in a two-man breakaway and then kept on the pressure to tamp down any late attacks to set up the mass gallop.

Weight: 25 grams Fit: small to medium faces Suggested retail: $59.95 Web site: www.tifosioptics.com The Tifosi Tyrant T-V660 is a new model for 2009. The frame is composed of TR-90 nylon front and injected aluminum arms. The Tyrant’s arms allow for a semi-rigid, adjustable ear piece that once adjusted, will stay in place for a custom fit. The adjustable nose piece brings the Tyrant closer to or away from the cheeks.

Sizes: 39 to 48 Colors: black; aluminum/silver; pearly white; aluminum/dark blue; faux patent leather red Web site: www.sidisport.com Retail price: 298 Euro (About $400) Sidi's MTB Dragon 2 Carbon Srs is the shoe worn by Olympic champion Julien Absalon. The shoe features an adjustable mechanism that allows for a snugger and safer fit around the heel, preventing slippage during climbs or sprints. The Dragon 2 also includes Sidi's Mtb Carbon Srs sole, in nylon with a carbon steel core from heel to toe.

Quebecer Marie-Héléne Prémont has changed her mind about retiring at the end of the 2008 season. The 31-year-old Premont — who in 2007 announced she would hang it up after 2008 — will race the UCI World Cup and world championships. The news comes after Prémont enjoyed her best-ever season, which saw her claim the 2008 World Cup overall title.

The avalanche of positive drug tests has buried the 2009 Tour of Germany. The organizers and the German cycling federation (BDR) announced Thursday that they were canceling the nine-day event due to the recent spate of doping positives. “We regret this decision, but it had to be taken," said race organizer Kai Rapp. Linus Gerdemann (Columbia) won the 2008 edition. The 2009 race had been scheduled for August 29-September 6. On Tuesday, organizers of the Tour of Stuttgart canceled their six-day event, saying recent failed doping tests have tarnished the sport's image in Germany.

Austria's Bernhard Kohl, winner of the mountains competition at this year's Tour de France and third overall, has been sacked by Silence-Lotto after testing positive for CERA, the new generation of banned blood booster EPO. Kohl admitted to using CERA on Wednesday, 48 hours after he failed a test for the drug in retroactive controls carried out by France's national anti-doping agency. Geert Coeman, general manager of the Belgian team, confirmed Thursday that Kohl's three-year contract with the team had been canceled.

German media giants ARD and ZDF announced Thursday they will not cover the Tour de France because of the recent spate of positive drug tests. "The sporting value of the Tour de France has been reduced by the accumulation of failed drugs tests. Therefore, its broadcast value has sunk deeply,” said ARD chairman Fritz Raff after the decision was made following a meeting in Cologne. ARD, the No. 1 broadcaster in Germany, ceased broadcasting the 2007 Tour in the middle of the race after German rider Patrick Sinkewitz tested positive for testosterone.

Team Type 1 went on the attack in Thursday's fourth stage of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, but it was Panasonic's Chris Jongeward who won what was billed as the week-long race's most decisive stage. After the mountain top stage finish, CSC - Saxo Bank's Stuart O'Grady gave up his leader's jersey to teammate Lars Bak. Team Type 1 Sport Director Ed Beamon said he was disappointed that the racing was not more aggressive on the slopes of the finishing climb to Australia's popular ski resort, Mount Buller.

The Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast team wraps a successful 2008 season this coming weekend with a return to France, where the squad will race the Criterium de Levallois, just outside of Paris on October 19. The race marks the second outing in France this year, with KBS/M finishing second in the Tour des Pyrenees in August where they also took first on points.

Despite trying to cash in on his Olympic gold medal, Samuel Sánchez says he’s likely to stay with Euskaltel-Euskadi for the 2009 season and beyond. What is certain is that his final race in 2008 will be at this weekend’s Giro di Lombardia, with a start in Thursday’s Giro di Piemonte thrown in for good measure. “I felt pretty good at Paris-Tours. I arrived with the front group after 252km, a good distance for me,” Sánchez told the Diario Vasco. “I will go to Lombardia with the idea of racing to win. To win? At least I will try.”

One of the important skills lawyers-in-training (a.k.a. “law students”) learn in law school is the ability to argue either side of a case. That can be tough for the average non-lawyer to wrap their mind around, but it’s an essential skill, because a lawyer has to be able to identify the legal issues at stake in any case, and to understand the arguments both for and against a particular legal point.

Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale) and Katie Compton (Spike Shooter) won at Cincinnati's three-day cyclocross festival this weekend, but while Powers took over the men's lead of the USA Cycling cyclocross standings, Amy Dombroski took over the women's lead. Dombroski (Velo Bella-Kona) scored double wins at the Erdinger Gran Prix of Gloucester in Massachusetts. Kona's Ryan Trebon, who won both days at Gloucester, is now in second on the standings. After 15 contests on the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Calendar, the current standings: Men

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VeloNews.com publishes a diary from Kona pro cyclocross racer Barry Wicks every other Wednesday. Wicks' column alternates with one by Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale's Jeremy Powers

With three weeks to go until its November 5 kickoff date, the Baja Epic — a four-day cross-country race in northern Mexico — has finalized its route. The race will cover approximately 250 miles and include 24,000 feet of climbing. The race runs November 5-8. The opening stage starts on the beach at the resort city of Rosarito and runs 65 miles to Santa Veronica, and includes 7800 feet of elevation gain. Stage 2 is the longest day, and includes 81 miles as riders journey from Santa Veronica to Ojos Negros.

Tour de France king of the mountain Bernhard Kohl admitted on Wednesday that he had doped in preparation for this year’s race. In a Wednesday evening press conference in Vienna, Austria, Kohl took full responsibility for a “bad decision,” driven at least in part by the fear that he wouldn't land a new contract when his Gerolsteiner team announced plans to fold at the end of 2008. Kohl denied that there was a systematic doping program at Gerolsteiner, despite the fact that his teammate, Stefan Schumacher, was also found to be positive for the new variant of EPO, known as CERA.

After playing second fiddle on two occasions in sprint finishes, former Tour de France sprint champion Baden Cooke finally took the honors on stage 3 of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. Cooke, riding for Barloworld, had been edged out by early Tour leader Matt Goss (CSC - Saxo Bank) on the opening two days, but atoned in a desperate scramble to the line in Marysville. Canadian Dominque Rollin (Toyota-United) was second on the stage and was among the riders who protested Cooke's finish. Officials, however, upheld the win.

Lance Armstrong’s comeback might not include the 2009 Tour de France, at least that’s what the seven-time Tour winner is hinting at this week. Armstrong confirmed Monday that the Giro d’Italia will be part of his 2009 racing schedule and told Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport that the May grand tour could be his major goal for next season.

Italian cyclist Marta Bastianelli, the 2007 women's road race world champion, has been handed a one-year ban by the anti-doping tribunal of the Italian Olympic Committee for failing a drugs test. Bastianelli, 21, missed the Beijing Olympics after testing positive for flenfluramine, a stimulant, at the European under-23 championships in Verbania, northeast Italy, in July. The year ban was backdated to August 7 and will run until August 6, 2009. Bastianelli's lawyer Giuseppe Napoleone said she will appeal the decision to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Alessandria, Italy ? The peloton, stretched thin into a long single line, stuck to the white line marking the edge of the road with the riders on the front pushing the cool yet fresh autumn air as they rode a hard tempo to control the race and bring back the breakaway. Leaves blew on to the course, acorns and chestnuts spotting the road, and the odor of fermenting grapes was pungent as we passed the vineyards known for producing the best wines in Italy.