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Spaniard Javier Benitez burst from the bunch in the final 100 meters to take the stage 1 sprint at the Vuelta Chihuahua on Monday. The Benfica rider stopped the clock in 3:19:30, with Steffen Radochla (Elk Haus-Simplon) and Juan Magallanes (Tecos-Trek) completing the podium at the end of the 147.8km ride from Chihuahua to Camargo. Benitez won by more than a bike length.

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USA Cycling awarded the final ten stars and stripes jerseys over the weekend as the 2008 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships concluded at the ADT Event Center velodrome at the Home Depot Center on Sunday.

Jason Sager (SagerSports.com) edged Erik Tonkin (Team S&M) for the victory in Sunday's Cross Crusade race in Portland, Oregon. Ryan Trebon (Kona) lined up on a single speed, taking an early lead, but eventually faded to fifth place. The race attracted 1,267 registrants and was held on a rain-slick course at Alpenrose Dairy. The former USGP venue featured mud, grass, pavement, off-camber turns, gravel, stairs and even a lap in a velodrome. In the women's A race, Sue Butler (Monavie Cannondale) and Wendy Williams controlled the race and went 1-2.

Colombian Leonardo Paez and Swiss Petra Henzi won the second and final round of the UCI Marathon Mountain bike World Cup, held in Ornans, France on October 5. Paez (Gewiss-Bianchi), took a two-minute victory ahead of Swiss rider Lukas Buchli, with newly crowned German marathon champ Karl Platt (Bulls) in third.

With his win, Paez took the World Cup overall, beating defending champ Thomas Dietsch (Gewiss-Bianchi), 390 points to 370. Austrian Alban Lakata (Dolphin-Trek) finished third.

German cyclist Stefan Schumacher, a double stage winner at this year's Tour de France, has tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin), according to L'Equipe website on Monday. Gerolsteiner rider Schumacher is the second rider named Monday to be caught using a new generation of EPO called CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator) at this year's race.

Former Saunier Duval climber Leonardo Piepoli is facing a ban from the sport after the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) announced Monday he had tested positive for banned substances twice at this year's Tour de France. Piepoli, who won a stage and helped former Saunier Duval teammate Riccardo Ricco win two stages at the race, will now come before a CONI commission on Friday in connection with the failed tests on July 4 and 15.

It’s official; “comeback” is the word of the year in professional cycling. Following in the wake of Mario Cipollini (un-retired and then retired again), Lance Armstrong (un-retired and already making waves) and Alexander Vinokourov (trying to beat a doping rap and un-retire), Mexican great Raúl Alcalá is now getting back in the game.

Alexander Vinokourov, banned for a year after doping at the 2007 Tour de France, confirmed on Sunday that he wants to return to the sport. The 35-year-old told Belgian TV station Sporza that he wants to race again in 2009. "I love cycling. I want to come back because I didn't want to end my career in this way. I feel as if I can win once again the big races."

Phinney flies to another elite national title.

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Spaniard Juan-Antonio Flecha claimed his first notable victory this season when he won the Circuit Franco-Belge Sunday after a final stage won by Belgian Sebastien Rosseler of Quick Step. Rosseler's victory on the fourth and final stage put smiles back on the worried faces of Quick Step after their leader, former world champion Tom Boonen, crashed 75km into the ride. Boonen got back up slowly and feeling the pain, but was apparently uninjured and looks likely to bounce back for a victory bid at the Paris-Tours classic next week.

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong hit back Saturday at insinuations that he sullied cycling's premier event, saying he reigned over the race when the sport's popularity was at a peak. "The last time I checked, I won the Tour seven straight years and was never once found to be guilty of doping despite seven years of intense scrutiny," Armstrong said in a statement.

Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi and his LPR team have been forced off next weekend's Paris-Tours race for failing to agree to the UCI's new blood passport program. Organizers of the French one-day classic, ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation), said Saturday that two other teams, Mitsubishi and Collstrop, will also be denied a start for the same reason.

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Chipotle) lost control of the leader’s jersey at the Circuit Franco-Belge in Saturday’s third stage when a late breakaway stayed clear of the pack. Ten riders pulled clear in the closing kilometers and Farrar, despite a strong effort to close down the gap, finished in the main pack in 12th at 18 seconds back. Farrar, who overtook the lead in Friday’s second stage, tumbled from first to 11th at 23 seconds back with one stage left to go. Belgian national champion Jurgen Roelandts (Silence-Lotto) pulled the double to win the stage and overtake the lead.

It’s the doping scandal that will never end. Just days after a Spanish judge tried to close the legal proceedings for a second time on Operación Puerto, an appeal has been filed to keep the case open yet again. Ruling judge Antonio Serrano signed off on the long-running scandal Sept. 26 when he ruled that no laws had been broken in the alleged blood doping ring under existing Spanish law at the time of the May, 2006 raids. Despite the latest ruling, lawyers asked Spain’s attorney general to reconsider the case and move forward with possible prosecutions.

Disgraced Tour de France star Alexander Vinokourov has announced plans to return to professional cycling, with the Astana team of Lance Armstrong, according to reports in Belgium on Saturday. The 35-year-old Russian from Kazakhstan was handed a one-year ban after testing positive for homologous blood doping at the 2007 Tour de France, from which his former team Astana, then under different management, was thrown out.

The Vibraser will be ridden by Time’s pro teams in the classics and in training for its added comfort.

Giant’s TCX is ready to roll from the showroom floor to the cyclocross race course. It is easily one of the best-priced workhorse cyclocross racer’s for 2009. The Aluxx alloy bike borrows technology including a tapered steerer tube and big ‘MegaDrive’ down tube from the new TCR line.

The devil is in the details and Giant didn’t miss one on its new cross-country race rig, Anthem X, it equipped the rig with blue anodized alloy water bottle cage bolts.

Giant incorporates a co-pivot to provide more Maestro suspension travel at a reduced weight for its Anthem platform. The new 4-inch travel bike is called Anthem X.

The old 96er, yep, Moots’ Gristle is named after a steak in the movie the Great Outdoors. Jon Cariveau, Moots Brand Manager, says that he likes how the smaller rear wheel handles versus a straight 29er. It’s got more snap, but you have the roll-through of the front wheel.

The Vision drink system allows you to drink without breaking your aero position. FSA claims it makes the bike faster than without. Hydra Pak makes the internals that hold one liter and it can be refilled on the fly.

FSA’s XC-150 wheelset is 15QR compatible and weighs 200 grams.

FSA’s RD-488 carbon tubular wheel is improved with uni-directional carbon rim walls, a 3k weave in the spoke bed and basalt brake track. External Spline drive nipples and a respectable 1390 gram weight make a perfect carbon wheel for ’cross.

FSA was the first major manufacturer to start the Ceramic Revolution, and it continues with headsets in 2009.

Time will cash in on the color white for 2009 with its new RXS Racer pedal. It features a hollow steel axle, a composite body and Time’s Angular float, lateral float and Sensor technology, which regulates the feel of the float. The pedals weight 260 grams per pair.

The Vibraser will be ridden by Time’s pro teams in the classics and in training for its added comfort.

Time has a new traditionally tubed frame called the VRS Vibraser. The new bike has double the Vectran fiber when compared to the VXRS ULTeam frame. The added vectran makes the frame almost 200 grams heavier but offers superior road shock absorption.