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TREK BECOMES FIRST NATIONAL SPONSOR OF FREIKER BIKE-TO-SCHOOL PROGRAM Grant Enables Nonprofit Advocacy Group To Build Meters, Expand Program Trek Bicycle Corporation —through its 1 World 2 Wheels SM initiative—has made a major grant to Freiker a bike-to-school program based in Boulder, Colorado.

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Chris Carmichael admits he was stunned when Lance Armstrong first started talking about coming out of retirement to make a run at an eighth Tour de France title. But a few months after first hearing the news, America’s best-known cycling coach has embraced the idea of trying to help Armstrong retake the yellow jersey in Paris.

Miguel Indurain doesn’t doubt that Lance Armstrong will be able to return to a high level in his comeback in 2009. But the five-time Tour de France champion wonders if Armstrong will be able to win the Tour again after being away from competition for more than three years. “I’m sure he will be able to return to competition, but to win again is something else,” Indurain said on Spanish television TVE. “It’s a lot of time, but he’s maintained his fitness. Above all, he’s a professional. The question is whether he can return to his same level.”

Tom Boonen and Paolo Bettini have each won two stages in this year’s Vuelta a España and had already planned to pull out after Wednesday’s stage into Valladolid, so the Quick Step superstars decided to sit up in their final sprint and leave it the second-tier sprinters to take a shot. Budding Belgian talent Wouter Weylandt stepped boldly into the void, holding off a wild sprint ahead of Matti Breschel (CSC-Saxo Bank) to win by a half-tire length to give Quick Step victory its fifth win at the Vuelta.

Veteran Belgian cyclist Rik Verbrugghe, who rides for Cofidis, announced Wednesday he will retire after next month's Tour of Lombardy. Verbrugghe said he had found it difficult to bounce back from a dramatic crash in the 2006 Tour de France, when he broke his leg after careering down a ravine. "I went through a dark period back then, a difficult reassessment. And even though I returned to the top level, after this incident I started to think of ending my career," the 34-year-old said Wednesday. Verbrugghe fell in last month's San Sebastian Classic, breaking his collarbone.

The United States Olympic Committee has apologized to four Olympic track cyclists whose decision to wear facemasks into Beijing sparked controversy on the eve of the 2008 games. In a letter to cyclists Mike Friedman, Bobby Lea, Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed, USOC Chief Executive Officer James E. Scherr said, “We apologize if you felt that the USOC or your National Governing Body did not appropriately support you through this incident, and you should rest assured it was not our intent.”

Next year's Tour de France is set for a two-stage incursion to Barcelona, according to the Catalan city's Mayor Jordi Hereu on Tuesday. "This is important for the city, but also for the Tour, for cycling and sport in general," said Hereu. The city's top sports coordinator, Pere Alcober, said Barcelona would host a stage finish on July 8 and the start of a stage on July 9. Dates for next year's race, which is scheduled to start in the principality of Monaco, have yet to be confirmed by race organizers.

Olympic medalists Kristin Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer will headline a strong U.S. team for the upcoming Varese world road cycling championships Sept. 23-38. Seventeen athletes will compete in Elite and U23 categories as part of a squad that is defined by experience on the women’s side and youth on the men’s.

Armstrong hopes to make history

Cyclocross star Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) and Lea Davison (Trek-Volkswagen) escaped with overall wins at Wisconsin’s Chequamegon 40 on Saturday. The event is the highlight of the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, a weekend of mountain bike races and events in and around Cable, Wisconsin. The famed race once again began with a mass start of 1700 participants in downtown Hayward, Wisconsin, before following the American Birkebeiner ski trail to Cable.

It was a fast and exciting conclusion Tuesday into Zamora to one of the slowest and most tedious stages any grand tour has endured in years. Tom Boonen (Quick Step) pipped Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas) to win his second stage of this year’s Vuelta a España, but the 186.3km stage was marked by its sluggish speed and lackadaisical attitude of the peloton.