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Americans captured four medals and one world title last weekend at the 2008 UCI masters road world championships in St. Johaan, Austria. Kenny Fuller of Corona del Mar, California won the world title in the men’s 60-64 time trial to lead the U.S. medal performances. Fuller clocked a winning time of 26:6.62 seconds over the 20-kilometer course to finish 2.46 seconds up on silver medalist Kare Christoffersen of Norway.

How happy was Paolo Bettini after ripping across the finish ahead of Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux) victorious in Thursday's sixth stage at the Vuelta a España? The two-time reigning world champion pumped both arms in the air, then his fist and before yelling something very Italian that might not be printable, even on the Web. Ever since 2005, Bettini's used the Vuelta as a trampoline for success at the world championships. He's won at least one stage in each Vuelta since then and won back-to-back rainbow jerseys in 2006-07.

Felt Bicycles has extended its sponsorship of Team Garmin-Chipotle presented by H30 until 2011. Under the extension, Team Garmin-Chipotle will race exclusively on Felt’s framesets for the next three years, including Felt models F1, Z1, AR and DA in 2009.

After many years with the same booth, Campagnolo has a new booth to celebrate the introduction of 11-speed cogsets to the world.

... but Isaac managed to snag it first.

It seems amazing that nobody has thought of using “Aerotic” as a model name for a time trial or triathlon bike before ...

Trek’s EX, Top Fuel full-suspension and 9 Series hardtail mountain bikes get the super-wide, net-molded bottom bracket shell like the Madone; the bearings press in (by hand) into net-molded (not machined after molding) bearing sockets.

Mavic is back in the pedal business now. Having been on the cusp of the date when Look’s patent ran out, the company changed the Look cleat design slightly to avoid a conflict. Nonetheless, the system works essentially the same as a Look or a Shimano SPD-SL, and the cleat looks similar.

On a standard threaded bottom bracket, the lateral position of Ultra-Torque cranks is held in place by means of a snapring on the drive side that locks the drive-side bearing inboard of holes in the threaded external bearing cup. But what about a current Trek Madone or a BB30 frame? Campagnolo, and, in this case, its fully-owned subsidiary, Fulcrum, have come up with new “OS-Fit” adaptors for frames like this and a tool for installing them.

The Campagnolo Ultra-Torque crank system has a problem with press-in bottom bracket bearing systems, because the bearings are attached to the crank spindle and are not pressed into threaded cups or into the frame.

The Eurobike show starts Thursday in Friedrichshafen, Germany, but I wandered around during setup yesterday and collected some photos. The show goes through Saturday for dealers, and Sunday is open to the public. I’m here through Saturday morning; I fly home on Sunday in order to accompany 100 middle-schoolers to Moab on Monday for a week of mountain biking.

On Sunday, three-time Italian time trial champion Marco Pinotti won the Tour of Ireland with a solo attack in the last 10k of the stage. The textbook attack was setup by his Columbia teammate Michael Barry, who was caught leading into the final circuit in Cork.

The career plans of Carlos Sastre were the subject of widespread speculation Wednesday, as the reigning Tour de France champion was linked to both the new Russian team Katusha and Canada’s Cervelo squad. The 33-year-old, whose contract with CSC expires at year's end, was reported to have signed a two-year deal with Katusha. That team, financed by a group of Russian companies, which has also recently snapped up Australian Robbie McEwen, Belgian Gert Steegmans and Italian Filippo Pozzato. Sastre, however, dismissed the report as speculation.

Back in 2001, Levi Leipheimer became the only American to stand on the Vuelta a España podium with a breakout third-place finish that announced his arrival to the elite levels of the sport. Flash forward to Wednesday’s 42.5km individual time trial on the flat, wide-open roads around Cuidad Real and Leipheimer made more history at the Vuelta. Following a fabulous come-from-behind victory, Leipheimer becomes the fifth American to win a Vuelta stage and just the second to wear the leader’s jersey.

It’s the “Tour de France” for the Under-23 crowd. The 45th Tour de l’Avenir clicks into gear Friday with an opening prologue followed by nine days of racing on a course that slices straight south across France toward the Pyrénées. Nineteen teams of six riders aged from 19 to 22 for a total of 114 riders will fight for the honors in the most prestigious U23 race on the calendar. Former winners include the likes of Felice Gimondi, Joop Zoetemelk and Greg LeMond, so success in the Avenir typically bodes well for a strong career in the pro ranks.

1. Aurélien Clerc, Bouygues Telecom, starts at 1:41 p.m.
2. Oscar Gatto, Gerolsteiner, starts at 1:42 p.m.
3. Stef Clement, Bouygues Telecom, starts at 1:43 p.m.
4. Cyril Lemoine, Credit Agricole, starts at 1:44 p.m.
5. Kevin Van Impe, Quick Step, starts at 1:45 p.m.
6. Ivan Santaromita, Liquigas, starts at 1:46 p.m.
7. Volodymyr Diudia, Team Milram, starts at 1:47 p.m.
8. Fco. José Martinez Perez, Andalucia-Cajasur, starts at 1:48 p.m.
9. Mikhail Ignatiev, Tinkoff Credit Systems, starts at 1:49 p.m.
10.