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“Lean and mean” is the mantra at USA Cycling ahead of the debut of five days of track cycling competition Friday at the Laoshan Velodrome. The eight-athlete team hits the boards in nine events with realistic hopes of striking gold on the women’s side and ambitions of playing the spoiler on the men’s side. “Overall, we’re saying, let’s hold the bar very high, but let’s aim for something that’s realistic,” said USA Cycling team leader Pat McDonough before the team’s final training session Thursday at the velodrome.

To the casual observer, it may seem as though tempers have been rising along with the temperatures this summer, but as we’ll see, we know that the summer heat has nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, add higher gas prices, more bikes on the road, and — why not? — alcohol to the usual tension between motorists and cyclists, and you’ve got a potent cocktail for conflict.

Options: Available to fit Campagnolo or Shimano brakes. Weight: 24 grams/pair Web site: www.serfas.com Retail: $70. Includes pads for aluminum and carbon rims. Serfas carbon fiber brake pad holders are intended to be lighter and stronger than other pad holders. The company also claims the pad holders dissipate heat quickly and evenly. The titanium mounting nut allows a fully adjustable pad angle. The pad itself has a three-stage braking surface.

The top stage racers in the country wasted no time Thursday in tearing apart the general classification at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. A select group of 13 riders emerged during the day’s third and final mountain pass as the most likely contenders for overall victory, while Garmin-Chipotle’s 24-year-old Blake Caldwell took his second career Tour of Utah stage win. For the second consecutive day, the stage winner came out of a small breakaway, and for the second consecutive day the winner wore a Garmin-Chipotle jersey, which was then traded for yellow atop the podium.

Call it MaskGate.

Four world-class track cyclists land in one of the most polluted cities in the world and want nothing more than to protect the one organ – their lungs – that most determines whether or not they’ll win an Olympic medal.

They don masks, given to them by their Olympic governing body, and an international scandal erupts.

Sarah Hammer, Jennie Reed, Michael Friedman and Bobby Lea unintentionally created a furor on August 5 when they walked into Beijing’s international airport wearing USOC-issued masks to cover their nose and mouths.

What a way to

Here are some interesting factoids and other non-essential, but mildly entertaining, factlets from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games data base: DOUBLE TIME: Fabian Cancellara (Swi) did more than win gold in the time trial and bronze in the road race. “Spartacus” became only the fifth rider to win a medal in both road events in the same Olympic Games.

Dutch rider Thomas Dekker has confirmed that he is looking for a new contract after a fallout with his Rabobank team over alleged “abnormal blood values” in a UCI test earlier this year. Dekker’s agent, Jacques Hanegraaf, told the Dutch news service ANP that both sides decided it would be “mutually beneficial” for the rider to look for another team.

REGISTRATION OPEN FOR “OLD SKOOL” ZIPP OVCX TOUR OPENER Registration has opened for the Zipp OVCX Tour’s season opener on September 14. The Cyclosport Cyclo-Cross at Riverview Park in Loveland Ohio, near Cincinnati, will be the first cyclocross for any of the U.S.A.’s major cyclocross series in 2008. The course will be a fitting challenge to start the year according to promoter Ryan Lindsay, “This course has a bit of everything to throw at you, pavement, grass sections, lots of off camber, and a classic lung-bursting run-up.”

Neal Henderson is the Sport Science Manager at Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. He is a USA Cycling certified coach and works with a diverse clientele at BCSM. He has been Taylor Phinney’s personal coach since 2006 and will is traveling with Phinney and his family in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics.

Jason Donald (Garmin-Chipotle) bridged to an early breakaway and then won the Tour of Utah's first stage after working a day-long break. Donald's win in the 101-mile flat-to-rolling stage gives him the early overall lead in the stage race. Second place went to Sheldon Denny of the Fan Sports Network team; third was Brad White of Successful Living. Thursday's second stage is hillier: the University Health Care Road Race, at 84.6 miles, has four climbs. It begins in downtown Ogden and ends in Salt Lake City.

World Anti Doping Agency president John Fahey said earlier this week that the Olympic movement should consider banishing cycling and weight lifting from the Games because they are sports that have doping problems. UCI president Pat McQuaid immediately shot back that no other sport is doing as much as cycling to fight the cheats, and that several major sports have been dragging their heels on anti-doping issues for years.

Colors: Black Sizes: Waist sizes: 28, 32, 34, 36, 38-inches. Material: 100 percent polyester outer shell with poly/spandex liner and one-piece molded chamois Suggested retail: $110 Web site: www.yeticycles.com Yeti's new Raptor shorts are part of the company's new 2008 Ride Wear line of comfortable, baggy tech jerseys and shorts that are designed for long trail rides and gravity riding.

German rider Linus Gerdemann (Team Columbia) won the Tour de l'Ain cycling race after the fourth and final stage on Wednesday. Gerdemann clocked 14:14:03 over the four stages to finish 12 seconds ahead of French rider David Moncoutie of Cofidis, with AG2R rider Stephane Goubert of France third at 36 seconds. The 25-year-old German, holder of the yellow jersey after his victory on Tuesday, and his Columbia teammates were dominant on the hilly Bugey stage.

Suggested retail: To be determined Size: 26 x 2.00 Weight: 630 grams Web site:www.geax.com The Geax Saguaro Tubular is 26 x 2.00 tubular mountain bike tire, part of Geax's revamped 2009 model line. The Saguaro has very round profile, with a polycotton casing derived from road racing tires. The casing is designed to offer comfort and low rolling resistance. The casing is hand made of Corespun K 290TPI cotton and Kevlar fibers.

Suggested retail: $9.99 Capacity: 21 ounces Web site: www.rocketsciencesports.com The Rocket Bottle is an aerodynamic water bottle that fits standard bottle cages. Rocket Science claims that wind-tunnel testing shows the bottle has 16 percent less drag than a standard bottle, which the company says equates to saving 53 seconds in a 40km time trial.

I remember a hot, muggy day in Savannah, Georgia, way back in 1983. The state time trial was an event I had looked forward to for a long time. I had trained really hard for it, and always enjoyed the test against the clock. This particular year, I showed up with a secret weapon, and I planned to blow everyone away with it. The secret weapon was a first-generation funny bike. No more “Eddy Merckx style” for me.