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www.probikepool.com is presenting a new FANTASY CYCLING Web site! Make up your own team at the Tour de France and you could win $60,000 in cash and prizes. The Tour pool is sponsored by Velonews.com, Kuota Bikes, Louis Garneau and Thule. Steps for participation: 1. Visit www.probikepool.com 2. Click on the yellow registration button to create your account. 3.Select the "Expert pool" option and build your fantasy cycling team The Expert pool option requires a $21 fee paid by Paypal.

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. Write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company. Smoking bike Editors, re: the photo of the Specialized chainstays.

“I’d shake your hand but this one’s a bit cut up,” says Taylor Phinney as we sit down to talk at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine in Boulder, Colorado. His knuckles show the signs of a brush with the pavement, and an elbow is covered with gauze. Despite the injury and the past two hours spent answering questions from a gaggle of reporters, Taylor is lively and ready to talk. Mom and dad are there, with his coach Neal Henderson, representatives from Team Garmin-Chipotle and even a cinematographer filming a documentary about the 18-year-old world champion.

The inaugural New England Race Week wraps up with the four-day Fitchburg-Longsjo stage race in Massachusetts. The new race series includes eight days of top-tier racing in four Northeastern states. Back on the NRC calendar for 2008, the 49th running of the Fitchburg-Longsjo stage race begins Thursday with a stacked line-up of former winners and top pro riders.

The positive out-of-competition test for cocaine that put defending points champion Tom Boonen out of the Tour de France, and the absence of the top Italian sprinters Alessandro Petacchi and Daniele Bennati, has opened up this year’s green jersey competition; while the decision by exciting newcomer Mark Cavendish to start the Tour rather than focus entirely on his Olympic track preparations gives new interest to the early sprint stages.

Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme is convinced this year's race can take place without the numerous drug-tainted scandals that have left the event fighting for its credibility. The 95th edition of the world's biggest bike race begins Saturday. Ahead of a tough three-week race, devoid of the traditional prologue and with plenty of action promised in an innovative first week, there remain plenty of detractors following the 2007 edition which was blackened by the unceremonious exit of race leader Michael Rasmussen, among others, over suspicions of doping.

A day after he received a suspension from Monaco’s Cycling Federation, former Rabobank star Michael Rasmussen earned something of a victory when a Dutch court ruled that his former team owed him more than $1 million. Rasmussen, who lost his license for two years on Tuesday for lying about his whereabouts in the lead-up to the 2007 Tour de France, won a partial victory in a wrongful dismissal suit he filed against Rabobank for kicking him out of the race and firing him within days.

Price: Not determined. Web site: www.sidisport.it Available: Fall [nid:79113] The Sidi Genius 5 pro woman shoes are part of the company's 2008-2009 season. The shoes feature several new technical features besides the floral fashion. The flower motif was first seen on the feet of Pippo Pozzato, the 2006 Milan-San Remo winner, who debuted the design at this year's spring classic.

Editor's Note: Subaru/Gary Fisher pro endurance racer Nat Ross will be sharing daily diaries from the BC Bike Race with VeloNews.com readers. This is the fourth installment. Mountain Bike Stage Racing is epic and crazy! We are heading into the 5th stage Wednesday, and every day a different team has started with the yellow jersey. Lining up at the start line tomorrow in yellow is Team Kona of Barry Wicks and Kris Sneddon.

17 year old Alex Grossman a.k.a. Alejandro Grossmani (Fantasy Euro Italian Race Name) of JIMENEZ VeloSport/VICTORIA Realty Group - the night before the 2008 NJ State RR, 6/28/08

In the buff

Editor's Note: Subaru/Gary Fisher pro endurance racer Nat Ross will be sharing daily diaries from the BC Bike Race with VeloNews.com readers. This is the third installment. Day 3’s course in the BC Bike Race offered some sweet singletrack, deep creek crossings, and majestic views. Today’s high temperatures made for a tough day. It was the third day in a row of unusually hot weather. The course had several long exposed climbs that got to be quite brutal. Needless to say, the two aid stations in the 87Km race were extremely popular. [nid:79098]

Two of Nebraska’s most popular races, the Dave Babcook Memorial Stage Race and the Papillion Twilight Criterium, have joined to create the Omaha Cycling Weekend. With a total prize list of more than $12,000, additional omnium payouts, a cycling tour to promote pancreatic cancer research, and children’s races and activities, there will be something for everyone.

And we’re off to the big show! After the past week together in Girona the Garmin-Chipotle team is off for France. Camp, at home for most, provided us with one last opportunity to truly relax, top off sleep stores and log a few last solid training rides before the impending craziness ahead.

Denmark's Michael Rasmussen, who was thrown out while leading the 2007 Tour de France for lying about his whereabouts, has been banned for two years by the Monaco cycling federation, the sport's world governing body UCI said on Tuesday. In a case brought by the UCI in February, a three-member panel organized under the authority of the Monaco Cycling Federation, ruled that Rasmussen had intentionally misled doping authorities regarding his location in the lead-up to last year’s Tour.

USA Cycling named 21 of its 24 nominees to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team on Tuesday, including all 16 men’s athletes across the disciplines of road cycling, track cycling, mountain biking BMX. The governing body also named five automatic women’s nominees across the four Olympic disciplines of cycling. Of the 21 named on Tuesday, 12 earned automatic nominations under USA Cycling’s Olympic selection procedures, while nine other riders were nominated to the Olympic Team by a nine-person selection committee according to USA Cycling’s Principles of Discretion.

Weight: 19 grams (Ultra Light), 27 grams (standard Nanogram) Suggested retail: $65, with aluminum bolts and a water bottle. Web site: www.speedplay.com Speedplay’s Nanogram carbon fiber bottle cages comes in two versions: the 19-gram Nanogram Ultra Light cage is intended for road bike use only, while the Nanogram cage, at 27 grams, gets the go-ahead for offroad use or behind the saddle triathlon use.

Alejandro Valverde has been a busy man since winning the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré last month.

The Vail Valley Foundation announced Tuesday that it has been forced to “pull the plug” on the inaugural Colorado Stage International Cycle Classic road bike race scheduled for August 22-24, 2008. “When requesting the event be placed on the UCI calendar, we recognized the challenges facing us in finding enough sponsorship support,” said Vail Valley Foundation president Ceil Folz. “The declining economic picture has made these efforts increasingly difficult, and the final straw came last week when we were not able to close a deal with a presenting sponsor.”

Questions about inspecting carbon forks for safety, trying Wippermann chains with Campy 10-speed systems and using Shimano MTB derailleurs with 10-speed road systems. What to do? I'm low on funds and that's the main reason I haven't replaced them as yet. I will add there are no stress fractures or noticeable wear.

Kelly Magelky (Trek-Volkwagen) and Jennifer Gersbach (Dale’s Pale Ale-Spot Bikes) won the second event of the Winter Park Mountain Bike Series on Sunday. Magelky took the early lead in the 16.1-mile Cross Country Super Loop, then withstood a late charge from Braden Kappius (Tokyo Joe’s) to win in 1 hour, 19 minutes, 45 seconds. Kappius settled for second in 1:19:46, with Michael Mathers (Rocky Mountain Racing), winner of the June 14 Hill Climb Kickoff, finishing third in 1:21:51.

Pat McQuaid has expressed his wish for a trouble-free Tour de France but says that it was a mistake for the event to have broken away from the International Cycling Union (UCI). "I am saddened by this, but it is the decision of the organizers,” the international cycling chief said. “It is sad but it has to be accepted. In terms of world cycling it is not a good decision." Speaking to AFP four days before the Tour starts on Saturday in the Britanny port of Brest, McQuaid said he would not be attending the race, which finishes on July 27 in Paris.

The Tour de France starts this weekend as a rebel race. Or at least as a race that’s no longer part of the ProTour format. Cycling’s civil war has now simmered down to a Cold War, as the breakaway races, including the Tour, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España continue on their collective path apart from the ProTour calendar. The ProTour, meanwhile, is alive and kicking. Despite the departure of many of Europe’s most important and prestigious events, the ProTour project is moving forward with an ambitious plans to expand the format to Russia and China in 2009.

Damiano Cunego will be brandishing a new look for the Tour de France and it won’t just be a fresh dye-job on his curly locks. The 2004 Giro d’Italia champ and Lampre team leader is supporting a new anti-doping campaign and has had its slogan tattooed on his left arm. It reads: “I’m doping free.”

Characterizing his defenses as “unfounded,” the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday issued a strongly worded dismissal of Floyd Landis's appeal of his suspension for doping at the 2006 Tour de France. In a 3-0 decision released on Monday, CAS confirmed the initial decision issued by a panel of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) on September 20, 2007.