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The crowd roared as we, the handful of riders that was once over 200 riders large rode slowly around the course on the final lap of the six and a half hour race. Paolo Bettini sat on the front of the 30 man group, blowing kisses to the tifosi as they chanted his name, blew airhorns, rang bells and draped flags over the course. When it was known his teammate had won the title the noise from the Italian crowd intensified. At that moment we could no longer talk in the group, or hear anything coming over our radios, which had the volume cranked to the maximum.

France's national anti-doping agency (AFLD) has offered to test allegedly suspect samples taken from Lance Armstrong during the 1999 Tour de France. Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner, announced last month that he intends to return to the sport following a three-year absence from the peloton.

After the first ten races of the 2008 USA Cycling Cyclocross Calendar, Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) and Natashia Elliott (EMD Serono/Stevens) lead the standings. Page was fourth at the category 1 CrossVegas race and then won both the Mad Cross / Jonathan Page Planet Bike Cup races in Wisconsin the following weekend. Likewise, Elliott was 15th at CrossVegas but won both the Mad Cross events. Men's Standings 1. Jonathan Page (Northfield, N.H.) 145 points

He’s been a fixture in the pro peloton for 15 years, having won six Tour de France points jerseys, three at the Vuelta and four editions of Milan-San Remo, but Erik Zabel is now ready to hang up his cleats. Zabel is winding down his career and will ride in hs final German event when he rides this Friday’s Sparkassen Münsterland Giro in Münster.

Former Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc has questioned Lance Armstrong's motives for returning to race riding next year. Leblanc, Tour director for all of Armstrong's seven titles, says in the editorial in the Velo Star review that the Texan took everyone by surprise by announcing his intention to bid for an eighth Tour de France in 2009.

Trek Bicycles will sponsor a World Cup-level mountain bike team for 2009 built around cross-country racers Liam Killeen and brothers Lukas and Matthias Fluckiger. The squad will also have a gravity component, although that roster has not yet been announced. Australian Martin Whiteley, former boss of the successful Global and G-Cross/Honda downhill teams, will manage Trek’s new team, which will be based in Europe.

With the seasons changing, more and more racers are turning to cyclocross as a way to utilize their late-season fitness, stay in shape or just have some fun in the process. Managing editor Neal Rogers teamed up with national masters 35+ champion and online ’cross diarist Brandon Dwight to shoot some instructional videos. The videos are available on VeloNews.tv.

Editor's Note: Will Frischkorn is a professional rider on the Garmin-Chipotle team who occasionally shares his journals with VeloNews.com readers.

Belgian rider Maxime Monfort announced Monday that he will quit French team Cofidis at the end of this season to race for Columbia over the next two years. The 25-year-old was still under contract with Cofidis, and Columbia would have had to pay an indemnity to release him. Monfort becomes the fifth Belgian to have decided to leave Cofidis at season's end. Nick Nuyens is joining Rabobank, Staf Scheirlinckx the Silence team, and Kevin De Weert has signed for Quick Step. Rik Verbrugghe will retire as a rider and become sporting director at Quick Step in 2009.

Two-time Olympian Todd Wells is heading back to his roots for 2009, leaving GT Bicycles to join the Specialized factory mountain bike team. Wells, 32, raced for Specialized as a semi pro and neo pro from 1996-1998, riding alongside Ned Overend, Steve Tilford, Shaun Palmer and Bart Brentjens. After taking a break from racing, Wells rode with Pacific Cycles from 2001-2008, for the company’s Mongoose brand from 2001-2004 and then for the GT Bicycles brand from 2004-2008.

Lance Armstrong is hoping that a difference of 10 days to comply with UCI rules doesn’t derail his planned comeback at the Tour Down Under in Australia, January 20-25.

The seven-time Tour de France winner expressed optimism Monday that cycling’s governing body would apply common sense when interpreting rules that require a retired rider to register in the UCI’s anti-doping program six months before returning to competition.

Armstrong, 37, confirmed that he officially enrolled with the U.S.

Olympic individual pursuit silver medalist Hayden Roulston of New Zealand capped his stunning return to top-class cycling from a heart condition by signing with the Canadian team Cervelo on Monday. Roulston, 27, who also won a bronze medal in Beijing as a member of the New Zealand pursuit team, rode with Cofidis (2003/04) and with Discovery (2005) until the heart condition known as arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia sidelined him in 2006. It left him short of breath, pushed his heart rate to dangerous levels, and put him at risk of dying every time he got on his bike.

Handing his coveted world title to countryman Alessandro Ballan was the second-best send-off Italian great Paolo Bettini could have wished for, he admitted here Sunday. The only thing better would have been to keeping the rainbow jersey he won in 2006 and 2007, thus becoming only the fifth rider in history to win the world title three times. Ballan, a tall and lanky 28-year-old who won last year's Tour of Flanders, succeeded the diminutive Bettini as the new world champion after a thrilling 260.2km race which proved to be the 34-year-old Bettini's swansong.

Prosecutors at the anti-doping tribunal of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) have asked that rider Riccardo Ricco be handed a 20-month ban after he tested positive for a new variant of EPO during the Tour de France. Ricco, 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-Scott team after testing positive following the fourth stage time-trial. The team itself subsequently lost both of its title sponsors.

Saturday and Sunday's Jonathan Page Planet Bike Cup elite men's race had a stacked field with Jonathan Page (Planet Bike), Todd Wells (GT), Bjorn Selander (Ridley), Troy Wells (Clif Bar) and on Sunday Tim Johnson (Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale) in Wisconsin for the race. Add to this three Swiss riders, a Canadian and riders from throughout the US and the racing action was relentless on both days.

The Wolf River Rendezvous, 11th race in the 2008 Wisconsin Off Road Series, was the stage for two prodigious victories this Sunday as Cole House and Holly Liske took top honors. Before joining the U23 Development Team, House was a regular WORS series racer (2002 - 2005). Though he was closely followed throughout the five-lap race by teammates Chris Peariso (Adventure 212; 1:34:11) and Thomas Bender (Adventure 212 / Specialized; 1:34:17), House (1:34:10) maintained his lead for the top spot on the podium, which he last occupied in 2004, at the age of 16. [nid:83848]

Brad McGee, will retire from racing at the end of this season for a new career as a team director with the CSC-Blaxo Bank team, according to a press release from the Australian cycling federation. "A quick look back now on my cycling career and it is nothing but smiles, even the tough bits," said McGee who started racing a bike when he was ten years old. "You just grow with it and I'm sure it will give me the strength to get through this next chapter of my life."

Dee Dee Winfield (Velo Bella/Kona) and Wes Schempf (C3-Sollay.com) scored impressive wins in Sunday’s Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross in Buckeystown, Maryland.

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Italy will be the toast of Europe tomorrow, but back in Spain, the national team is going to get roasted. Spain was favored to win gold Sunday and complete the season sweep that’s included victories in all three grand tours and the Olympic Games, but anger and frustration poured out of Spanish riders at the end of Sunday’s race that will forever be remembered as a lost opportunity. “We really blew it today,” said Spanish national coach Paco Antequera. “We should have had one of our big riders in that group. We let the world title slip away.”

Steven Cozza had never raced anything longer than 230km and he had never raced against the big boys in a world championships. Now the 23-year-old can tick both of those off his list. Cozza led the five-man U.S. worlds squad with a very solid 23rd at 1:40 back of winner Alessandro Ballan as part of the first chase group in a very successful men’s elite world’s debut.

Alessandro Ballan started Sunday’s men’s elite road race as a helper for the team’s biggest stars but ended the day world champion. Ballan attacked in each of the last three laps, but it was his move with about three kilometers to go to drop a leading group of about a dozen riders that included two Italian teammates that sealed Italy’s third straight rainbow jersey. It was a drag race to the finish, but the 2007 Tour of Flanders champion held on to win the world title on home roads.

CSC team manager Bjarne Riis has spoken out against recent doping suspicions over one of his top riders, Luxembourger Frank Schleck, calling for the case to be judged on "the facts.” The Dane, who confessed last year to using banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin) during his career, also refuted rumors that he, too, is linked to the Opera?ion Puerto affair. Schleck wore the Tour de France yellow jersey for two days in July but has become the latest big name cyclist to be linked to the Puerto affair which erupted in Spain in May 2006.

The UCI has raised doubts over whether Lance Armstrong will be allowed to compete at January's Tour Down Under in Australia. Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner, has targeted the first ProTour race of the season as his comeback race after a three-year absence from the professional peloton. However the international ruling body, said Armstrong would have to show that he has complied UCI's “biological passport” rule demanding that athletes must be registered with an anti-doping program for at least six months six months prior to competing.

Two of Australia's champion cyclists Oenone Wood and Natalie Bates raced their final event today at the World Championships in Italy bringing to an end careers both can be proud of. "I feel pretty good actually," said Wood after stepping off the bike after today's elite women's road race in Varese. "It was probably hard to make the decision initially but I think it's the right decision to make."

Two-time defending world champion Paolo Bettini of Italy confirmed on Saturday he will retire after the final race of the world road race championships. The 34-year-old Italian, a favorite to win gold in the men's road race here on Sunday, was emotional as he said the men's road race on Sunday would be the last race of his career. "I've had a lot to reflect about the past few months and the idea has just grown in my head," said Bettini. "I've decided, in all serenity, to end my career."