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Lance Armstrong will come out of retirement next year to compete in five road races with the Astana team, according to sources familiar with the developing situation. Armstrong, who turns 37 this month, will compete in the Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour de France — and will race for neither salary nor bonuses, the sources, who asked to remain anonymous, told VeloNews. Armstrong's manager, Mark Higgins, did not respond to questions. And an Astana spokesman denied the report to The Associated Press.

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American veteran Bobby Julich, a former podium finisher at the Tour de France, has announced the end to his 15-year professional career. Julich relaunched his career with the CSC team of former 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis in 2004, and could now join the team on a coaching/managerial basis. "I have had a long career as a professional cyclist and it has been an honor to be part of a team like Team CSC for the last five years," said Julich, who followed his Olympic time trial bronze medal in 2004 with a strong 2005 season.

Bernhard Kohl, the Austrian chimneysweep who rode to a surprising third place in the Tour de France this year, has signed a contract with the Silence-Lotto team of Tour runner-up Cadel Evans. Kohl, who also won the climber’s jersey at the Tour, is currently a member of the German Gerolsteiner team, which is closing its doors at the end of the season.

The 63rd Vuelta a España might look like it’s still a close race after rolling out of two hard days in the Pyrénées. Sure, David Moncoutie (Cofidis) won a well-deserved comeback stage victory out of an all-day, five-man breakaway and Levi Leipheimer (Astana) recaptured the race leader’s jersey at the end of Sunday’s 151km eighth stage to Pla de Beret. And, yes, it still looks tight on paper, with the GC stacked with seven riders within less than three minutes of the lead.

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.