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With his LPR Brakes team barred from racing at Paris-Tours, Alessandro Petacchi couldn’t defend his title from last year’s “sprinter’s classic.” Petacchi won on Sunday anyway, sprinting to victory in the 12th GP Beghelli in Italy ahead of Mihail Khalilov (Flaminia), with Giuseppe Palumbo (Acqua e Sapone) coming across third. LPR Brakes was excluded from Paris-Tours because the team didn’t meet requirements for the UCI’s biological passport program, meaning Petacchi – who won the French classic last year with Milram – wouldn’t be able to defend his title.

The final moments of the 2008 Vuelta Chihuahua were a virtual to-do list for Spaniard Javier Benitez. Fix collar: check. Straighten jersey: done. Blow kisses to crowd: got it. Toss arms in the air and win stage: mission accomplished for the third time in seven days.

Members of Tecos catch up on the news, which included the shooting of 11 people two days earlier in Chihuahua. Mexico’s largest state has been engulfed in the country’s bloody drug war.

The sixth stage of the Vuelta Chihuahua delivered a fitting winner, as the third-year race returned to the state capitol following a five-day clockwise journey around the largest of Mexico’s 31 states. Following a long eight-rider breakaway that survived to the finish, reigning Mexican national road champion Luis Macias (Tecos-Trek) out-kicked Italian Diego Noscotti (NGC Medical), grabbing a razor thin triumph at the end of the 126.3km ride from Cuauhtémoc to Chihuahua. Mexican Marco Rios (Orven) was third on a day that lasted 2:34:23 for the front group.

Kona powerhouse Ryan Trebon withstood attacks from a trio of New England homeboys — and overcame a case of bad legs blamed on jet lag — on Saturday to win his fifth cyclocross race in Gloucester, Massachusetts. In the elite women's race of the 2008 Erdinger Gran Prix of Gloucester, Velo Bella-Kona's Amy Dombroski prevailed to win her first race in Gloucester, after a tough battle that saw five or six women in contention until the end. [nid:84187]

The mid-October heat in Middleton Ohio was matched only by the hot racing action at the Java Johnny’s / Lionhearts International UCI C2 race on Saturday. The women's race saw Katie Compton power away from the field of the country’s top ‘crossers, including Rachel Lloyd, who finished second on the day, and eventual third-place finisher Sue Butler.

Crédit Agricole team manager Roger Legeay has played down the negative effect of cycling's numerous doping scandals as he prepares his riders for their last race as a team. At Paris-Tours this Sunday, the penultimate one-day classic of the season, Legeay will wave goodbye to more than 20 years of cycling history while lamenting his failure to attract a replacement sponsor.

The course at England-Idlewild park rattled bones and tuned wheels to tacos at the Darkhorse Cyclo-Stampede UCI C-2 in Burlington, Kentucky on Friday, October 12th. The Cincinnati area hasn’t seen a soaking in weeks and the victims of the pounding course lined up for post-race massages at the Wellington Orthopedic tent throughout the day. The 80 degree heat compounded the hurt. In the Men’s race, after a lap-3 bike change which sent Barry Wicks (Kona) on the defensive, Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com) took advantage for the win.

Javier Benitez is certainly not lacking for confidence. For the second time in five days at Mexico’s Vuelta Chihuahua, the Spaniard started his victory celebration long before crossing the finish line. But just like the end of stage 1 on Monday, the Benfica rider was fastest finisher at the close of stage 5’s 152.8km ride from Creel to Cuauhtémoc. Benitez stopped the clock in 3:36:52, with German Steffen Radochla (Elk Haus-Simplon) and Mexico’s Juan Magallanes (Tecos-Trek) completing the podium. The top 3 was identical to stage 1’s podium.

20.09.2008 FSA Star Crossed Redmond, WA C2 20.09.2008 Nittany Lion 'Cross Fogelsville, PA C2 20.09.2008 KTR Michigan Double Cross - 1 Springfield Township, MI C1 21.09.2008 KTR Michigan Double Cross - 2 Springfield Township, MI C2 21.09.2008 Rad Racing GP Lakewood, WA C2 24.09.2008 Cross Vegas Las Vegas, NV C1 27.09.2008 Mad Cross I Sun Prarie, WI C2 27.09.2008 Schoolhouse Cyclocross Montpelier, VT C2 28.09.2008 Mad Cross II Sun Prarie, WI C2 28.09.2008 Catamount Grand Prix Williston, VT C2 10.10.2008 The Cyclo-Stampede Burlington, KY C2

Roughly 2000 mountain bikers will head into Southeastern Utah this weekend for the Suzuki 24-Hours of Moab, the largest 24-Hour race on North American soil. In its 13th year the race — organized by the West Virginia-based Granny Gear Productions — has come to own the title “Galactic Championships” of 24-Hour racing, a direct challenge to the 24 Hours of Adrenaline’s World Championships event.

The highly anticipated three-day UCI Cincinnati International Cyclocross Festival begins this afternoon with the Darkhorse Cyclo-Stampede in Burlington Kentucky, just west of the Cincinnati airport. In a last minute development, Trek/VW’s mountain bike superstar Jeremiah Bishop has entered all three events, joining over 80 Elite Men and Women competing for the UCI points and hundreds more in the amateur categories.

It might be called the “sprinters' classics,” but Paris-Tours is a race where opportunists can have their way. The French fall classic has often tipped in favor of attackers who’ve foiled the best-laid plans of the sprinters, with such riders as Frédéric Guesdon (2006) and Erik Dekker (2004) winning thanks to strong late-race tactics.

Lance Armstrong never raced the Giro d’Italia during his seven-year Tour de France reign, but now it’s looking likely that he might be part of the corsa rosa during the race’s centenary. Giro d’Italia director Angelo Zomegnan officially invited Armstrong to the 2009 edition of the three-week national tour of Italy, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. Armstrong has already hinted he’d like to race in the Giro. Speaking to reporters earlier this month, the Texan said skipping the Giro was one of his few regrets during his racing career.

Giro d'Italia chief Angelo Zomegnan said he will not retroactively test samples from the 2008 race in a bid to weed out possible users of CERA, the latest generation of the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin). According to Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday, Zomegnan believes none of the riders on the race - won by Spaniard Alberto Contador - used the drug. "The Giro has already made the necessary checks and the laboratories, as well as the UCI, have affirmed there is nothing to suspect," said Zomegnan. "It would be useless to ask for new tests."

Credit Agricole rider Dmitriy Fofonov has been handed a three-month ban after testing positive for a banned stimulant at the Tour de France. Traces of heptaminol - which is found in products aimed at improving blood circulation - were found in a sample provided by the 31-year-old Kazakh. He was informed of the positive test at the end of the race's 21st and final stage to the Champs Elysees, where he finished 19th overall.