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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.

The RXR uses Time’s patented RTM molding process. RTM allows the frame to be easily repaired by removing and replacing damaged tubes. This gives some piece of mind considering the RXR module costs $6000.

The seat tube sports an aero shape with a wheel cutout up through the entirety of the Translink seat mast. The RXR made its debut at the Tour de France and participated in the Olympic road race and the 2008 world championships.

Time’s new aero road bike, the RXR, has a frame that comes in under a kilo. The module, which includes a fork, Translink seatmast, headset and stem weighs 1.7 kilos.

Stinky, Kona’s 7-inch platform, comes with shorter chainstays, a 1.5-inch headtube and a new array of rocker links and oversized fasteners. Stinky comes with ISCG mounts and cable bosses that make it Hammerschmidt ready.

The Major Jake is the team issued Kona factory ’cross frame. It’s scandium and built for production with a Shimano Ultegra transmission. Kona equips it with Alpha Q’s CX20 fork, the same model the team uses.

The Kapu is built with Dedacciai SAT steel, bronze welded with chrome lugs. It has rack and fender mounts along with clearance for larger 25mm tires as a standard feature. Ultegra and FSA parts round-out the package.

Kona reports that in this day and age of carbon, its steel bikes are selling better than ever, so for 2009 it updates its lugged Kapu with a 1.125 head tube and fork steerer.

Kona only makes women’s specific triathlon bikes, because according to Kona’s Pat White, “who wants to see men in spandex?” The Lisa TR builds off an aero shaped 7005-aluminum tubeset.

Kona’s utility hauling bike the Ute is back and refined for its second season. The 2009 bike has a new U-style kickstand and improved rack and waterproof bag system.

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Taylor Phinney (Garmin-Chipotle) set a new track record in the men’s 4000-meter individual pursuit and won his third national title of the week on Friday at the 2008 U.S. elite track national championships at the ADT Event Center velorome in Carson City, California, on Friday.

A New York race promoter is planning a six-day UCI cat. 2.2 professional stage race across upstate New York, to be held August 8-13, 2009.

Greetings from seat 15B of Continental flight 34, Denver to Houston. It’s leg No. 1 of a two-flight journey that will deposit me in Chihuahua, Mexico, a few days ahead of next week’s seven-stage Vuelta a Chihuahua. I can’t tell you a whole lot about the race at this point, except that it has a lot of climbing (the north-central Mexican state of Chihuahua is roughly along the same latitude line as Colorado and the Rocky Mountains), Garmin-Chipotle is sending a team, and I think I’ll get to see Copper Canyon, a gap in the earth so grand it apparently dwarfs Arizona’s Grand Canyon.

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Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Chipotle) is putting his strong end-of-season form to good use at this week’s Circuit Franco-Belge. After finishing second to Tom Boonen (Quick Step) in Thursday’s opener, Farrar slipped into the race leader’s jersey in Friday’s 184km stage from Bray Dunes to Poperinge in west Belgium. Mark Renshaw (Credit Agricole) won the sprint with Farrar clawing his way to his second-straight second place, good enough to put him into the lead by two seconds ahead of Boonen.

USA Cycling and American Levi Leipheimer have clarified the events surrounding the Astana rider’s non-participation in the world road championship race held Sunday in Varese, Italy. Contradicting earlier reports, the national federation acknowledged Friday that Leipheimer had never intended to compete in the road race. “Instead, [Leipheimer’s] focus was solely on the time trial earlier in the week, an event in which he won an Olympic bronze medal in Beijing this summer, as well as both individual time trial stages at the Vuelta a España last month,” USA Cycling stated.

The New England duo of Maureen Bruno Roy and Matt Roy will announce their new team, MM Racing, with a launch party at Wheelworks in Belmont, MA Friday October 3rd from 7-10pm.

During last week’s press conference at Interbike in Las Vegas, in revealing details of his comeback to racing, Lance Armstrong blurted out that he was “looking forward to the Mont Ventoux” stage in the 2009 Tour de France.

Team CSC-Saxo Bank star Fränk Schleck has admitted he paid nearly 7000 euros to alleged blood-doping guru Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes in 2006, but denied he doped or ever met Fuentes. CSC-Saxo Bank boss Bjarne Riis suspended Schleck from racing Friday until Luxembourg authorities decide whether or not to move ahead with a disciplinary hearing that could result in a possible two-year racing ban.

Linda Willsey distinctly remembers the moment: She was on her bike, riding home from work, when the car door was flung open directly into her path. There was barely time to yell “No!” before she was sailing through the air, landing on her back, fracturing a vertebra and sustaining multiple contusions.

Jan Ullrich says he believes Lance Armstrong can win another Tour de France, but it won’t be against him. The 34-year-old German, who three times finished second to Armstrong, says the Texan is capable of scoring an eighth Tour title, but shot down rumors that he might be mounting his own comeback. “I think he could win the Tour again. He has a great life and great women, but that is not his calling. He has that in his sport,” Ullrich told the German news service DPA. “If he manages the challenge mentally, his body will also be up to it.”

Garmin-Chipotle and Metro VW Cycling earned national titles in the team pursuit, as at the U.S. elite track national championships at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, Thursday. Meanwhile Proman’s Cari Higgins narrowly edged Liz Reap-Carlson to take the national jersey in the women’s 500-meter time trial.

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Source Endurance Announces Research Division and Appoints Steve Zinkgraft as Research Director

Patrice Clerc is no longer director of Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the company that owns and operates the Tour de France and several other major cycling events. Clerc's position has been taken over by Jean-Etienne Amaury, whose mother Marie-Odile, is the president of the Amaury publishing group — which owns ASO. The position change was announced Wednesday. ASO's director general, Gilbert Ysern, also is leaving, and will be replaced by Yann Le Moennier, who had been the marketing director. Christian Prudhomme, the Tour de France director, remains in his job.

REISTAD, FRISCHKORN ELECTED TO USPRO BOARD OF TRUSTEES Reistad Also Receives Seat on USA Cycling Board of Directors Following a special election to determine the two athlete representatives on the USPRO Board of Trustees, USA Cycling announced today that Nicholas Reistad (Athens, Ga.) and Will Frischkorn (Boulder, Colo.) have won the two open seats. Reistad was also elected to the USA Cycling Board of Directors as the Athlete Director representing USPRO. Forty-four athletes voted in the election, which represents more than 50% of the athletes eligible to vote.

Taylor Phinney opened the 2008 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships in Carson, California, with a gold medal in the men's 1 kilometer time trial.

Italian cyclist Riccardo Riccò was on Thursday banned for two years by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) after he tested positive for EPO during the Tour de France. Riccò, 24, was suspended from riding by CONI in July after admitting to using the banned blood-booster. He was kicked off the Tour de France and sacked by his Saunier-Duval team after testing positive following the fourth stage time trial.

Switzerland’s BMC Bicycles and Cadence Performance and Multi-Sport Centers of Philadelphia and New York have joined the MAC Cyclocross Series as Official Partner of the 2008 MAC season, starting with opening weekend on September 20 and 21. 

The San Francisco peninsula-based team Third Pillar is looking for Cat 3 riders for next season. On top of a free Louis Garneau clothing kit, riders receive incentives like subsidized winter training camps and free race entries for all participants in a race if any team member reaches the podium. The team practices almost weekly in the off-season to apply professional level tactics to amateur racing. Third Pillar is limited to about 15 members, almost exclusively Cat 4 elites and masters. Despite its small size, it had 11 wins and 30 podium finishes last year.

C-3 Sollay.com, one of the Mid Atlanic’s strongest cyclocross teams, looks excitedly forward to the 2008 ‘cross season. The team is lead by returning elite riders Wes Schempf, 2006 Pennsylvania State Champion Andy Wulfkuhle, Beth Mason, Heidi VonTeitenberg, Diane Grim and Elizabeth Harlow. Junior sensation Sam O’Keefe, who took 4th at Nationals last year, will be working for a strong fall season. The team will also feature Elite Master’s riders Chris Nystrom, Jeff Cordisco, Michael Kolb and Kris Auer. Auer also serves as the team director.

Team CSC-Saxo Bank rider Frank Schleck was questioned by authorities from the Luxembourg anti-doping agency (ALAD) Wednesday evening over alleged links to Operación Puerto ring-leader Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes. The center of the inquiry was an alleged 6,991.91 euro bank transfer from Schleck into Fuentes’ Swiss account in March 2006 that was discovered by prosecutors investigating the case in Bonn, Germany.

Lance Armstrong has rejected an offer from France’s anti-doping agency to retest urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France.

Raisin Hope, the charity foundation established by former professional rider Saul Raisin, is holding its second annual charity ride in Dalton, Georgia, on Saturday, October 4. Raisin, a Dalton native then racing for Credit Agricole, suffered a traumatic brain injury in a crash while racing the Circuit de la Sarthe in April 2006.

The arrival of Lance Armstrong shouldn’t force the departure of Alberto Contador, at least that’s what Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel says. Despite media reports to the contrary, Bruyneel insists there’s plenty of room for both stars on the team and Armstrong’s much-anticipated return to competition.

It’s case closed without charges for Spain’s infamous Operación Puerto doping scandal. Antonio Serrano — the Spanish judge in charge of the lengthy and controversial investigation into the alleged blood doping ring — officially ended legal action on the case this week, several Spanish media reported Wednesday. Serrano ruled that under existing Spanish law at the time of the police raids no laws were broken and signed off on papers to close the case without filing charges.

Organizers of the Cincinnati International Cyclocross Festival have announced that Olympian and multi-time mountain bike and cyclocross champion Georgia Gould will be competing at all three races of the Festival from October 10 through 12.  She will join Katie Compton in a renewal of their years-long duel for supremacy of the Elite Women’s division.