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Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi (LPR Brakes-Ballan) opened The Tour of Britain on Sunday with an exciting sprint finish in the shadow of Big Ben, holding off Rob Hayles (Great Britain) and Magnus Backstedt (Garmin-Chipotle) to take victory in London. The rain relented long enough to allow the peloton to attack the 10-lap, 86km circuit in relatively dry conditions in front of an estimated crowd of more than 100,000.

Ukrainian Yuri Metlushenko (Amore e Vita-McDonalds) won his second North American sprint finish of 2008 on Sunday, pulling away from the field in the final 200 meters to take the Univest Criterium of Doylestown in Pennsylvania. Jake Keough (Kelly Benefits Strategies-Medifast) took second with Yosvany Falcon (Toshiba-Santo) third, and Swede Frederik Ericcson (Cykelcity.se.-Klehr Harrison) claimed the overall omnium championship to provide a truly international finish to the 11th annual Univest Grand Prix.

Silence-Lotto’s Robbie McEwen advanced Australia fair by winning the 213.7km Cyclassics ProTour event ahead of compatriots Mark Renshaw and Allan Davis as the green and gold ruled in Hamburg, Germany, on Sunday. The day after Germany's Linus Gerdemann (Gerolsteiner) won the Tour of Germany, Silence Lotto's McEwen stole the show from the local professional riders as Australian riders did a 1-2-3 in Hamburg to win the 13th edition of the Cyclassics event.

Garmin-Chipotle’s Lucas Euser rode to an epic victory in Saturday’s Univest Grand Prix in Pennsylvania, relying on a dominant team performance that drove the outcome of the race every bit as much as the soggy remnants of Tropical Storm Hanna. After nearly four hours in Hanna’s rain, Euser attacked breakaway companion Frederik Ericsson (CykelCity) in a blinding downpour and near-darkness to secure his first professional victory.

Saturday is the last dealer day at the Eurobike show in Friedrichshafen, Germany. This is arguably not only the biggest but also the most important bike show in the world.

Alessandro Ballan (Lampre) was close all season in races he was expected to win: third in Paris-Roubaix and second in Monte Paschi Eroica and GP Ouest France-Plouay. With the 63rd Vuelta a España’s tackling its first summit finish, everyone expected the Spanish mountain goats to take over -- and no one expected Ballan. But it was the classics head-banger who delivered the surprise victory through pouring rain and cold and snuck away with the leader’s jersey as an added bonus.

Brendan Cornett (Cyclemania) found a clean line through the final corner and brought it up the short, steep finish climb to win the Topsfield road race in Massachusetts on Saturday. Second place went to Ciaran Mangan (CCB/Volkswagen). Third spot was Brad Sheehan. The race is held on a challenging 4.25 mile scenic loop on very narrow stone wall-lined New England roads. The rain held off for the race, although there was heavy rain before and after the rain associated with hurricane Hannah.

As the organizer of the third of the world’s three grand tours, Victor Cordero spotted a unique opportunity to turn the 2008 Vuelta a Espana into something special when Spaniard Alberto Contador won this year’s Giro d’Italia.

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I’d like to tell you that this week’s headline refers to a late-summer triumph here on the ultra-competitive Boulder road racing circuit, but I can’t. No mountain bike wins either. Not even a lotto scratch ticket.

Garmin-Chipotle’s Will Frischkorn returns to Souderton, Pennsylvania, this weekend to defend his title at the Univest Grand Prix, lining up against a top field of domestic and international teams in a race that has grown to be one of the country’s largest. The weekend features Saturday’s tough 100-mile road race, which courses through the rolling countryside of Bucks and Montgomery counties before the uphill finish in Souderton, and continues on Sunday with the fast, tactical Univest Criterium of Doylestown.

The biggest crowds all day were not for autograph signings but for trying the bike with Shimano’s Dura-Ace 7900 electronic shifters on it. Hold down a shift lever to get a green LED indicator of battery level. Push a button for three seconds next to the LEDs, and they light up red, indicating that you are in adjustment mode. At 12 steps per shift, the adjustment you then perform with the shift buttons to line it up (by ear, while riding) under each cog is a finer adjustment step than turning the notched barrel adjusters on a Shimano cable system. And if you crash on the derailleur, it moves resistance-free out of the way. Then you push the adjustment button repeatedly once you are back up and riding to dial it in.

With a Vibram sole, Kanji letters, and no hint of a Shimano logo unless you look carefully for the imprint in the suede upper, this shoe has already become a hit with the flat-pedal crowd.

Using stereo lithography, Zipp can make a newly-designed wheel within a day out of plastic that it can test in a wind tunnel. The cost of $10,000 per wheel is steel for an unrideable wheel, but it is far cheaper than making a mold and producing only a single prototype or two out of it.

You can bolt an inner chainring to it from the inside with four bolts, or run it as a single ring. The Vuma crank is available from 165mm to 180mm.

The new Zipp Vuma time trial crank claims to be not only the most aerodynamic crank on the market, based on wind tunnel tests, but also the stiffest. The big chainring bolts on with 10 bolts and is essentially a ring of teeth on the exterior of a carbon disc. Tests of flex on the chainring with the chain under heavy load in a cross-chain position reveal far less tooth deflection than with any other crank, according to Zipp.

The Deda Zero Nero stem is all carbon with no metal inserted in it – the strongest thing you can build with carbon is a full monocoque. But to attach it to the handlebar and steering tube, you need metal parts. A full aluminum handlebar clamp that wraps around the carbon holds the bar firmly, and two pinch bolt clamps secure the top and the bottom of the stem to the steerer.

The Eurobike show started on Thursday in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and it is a huge show. Here are a few interesting shots from Day 1.

Carlos Sastre couldn’t put it off anymore. Despite his hope to ride the Vuelta a España without any unnecessary distractions, the rumor mill of where the 2008 Tour de France champion was going to land in 2009 was turning into just that. To end the growing media circus, Sastre confirmed what many already knew. After seven years racing under the tutelage of Bjarne Riis and Team CSC, Sastre will join the start-up Cervélo Test Team for 2009.