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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. Ugly crash in Mexico Dear Editors,

For the first time in its history, the women’s field at Minnesota’s Nature Valley Grand Prix, part of the Great River Energy Bicycle Festival, has filled and registration has been closed early. At 145 riders, the Nature Valley Grand Prix field is likely to be the largest women’s race of the year, compared with 140 for the Montreal World Cup, 120 for the Liberty Classic and 84 for the Mount Hood Classic.

Mix-and-match
Dear Lennard,
At one time I read in your column that you can change Campy 9-speed ergo shifters to 10-speed. Is this true and what are the details?
Guido Dear Guido,

With the introduction of its top-level Red group last fall, upstart road component manufacturer SRAM took a shot directly across the bow of the industry leader. Shimano’s soon-to-be-released 7900 series Dura-Ace group is clearly a direct response to Red and it adds considerable firepower to the full-on techno' wars raging among the three big component manufacturers.

Dear Readers,

The wet cobbles were icy slick from street cleaners that rinse off the grime from the morning delivery trucks, the sticky ice creams from the after school snacking kids and the alcohol from the late night revelers. I rode through the old town of Girona cautiously, my bike slipping and skidding in the corners, to meet the “boys” for a training ride; the shopkeepers who were sweeping their steps in daily routine, waved a friendly hello and smiled.

Sunday’s final time trial gave Slipstream-Chipotle and High Road the perfect way to celebrate what’s been a very successful Giro d’Italia for both teams. Five riders from the two U.S.-registered teams filled out the top-six in the final stage of the 91st Giro, with Marco Pinotti scoring High Road’s fourth stage victory of the race while Christian Vande Velde and Danny Pate capped a successful Giro with fifth and sixth, respectively.

Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel celebrated his 11th grand tour victory from behind the steering wheel of a team car with Alberto Contador’s unlikely Giro d’Italia win Sunday. Bruyneel answered questions about the team’s anti-doping program and Contador’s unexpected rise; here are excerpts from the press conference: Question: Can you talk about the team’s work with Damsgaard?

Taylor Phinney and Danny Summerhill, VeloNews magazine’s joint selection as the 2007 North American juniors of the year, each had impressive rides on European soil over the past weekend.

As is air pressure. Durin SL costs $939.

The Durin SL features Albert SL a non-adjustable compression damping cartridge. Rebound is externally adjustable.

Durin SL is Magura’s new no-hold-barred cross-country race fork. It’s available in 80mm and 100mm travel configurations.

Durin Marathon 120 weighs 3.42-pounds in its fixed travel version and 3.49-pounds with FCR. The forks cost $900 and $1069 respectively.

The Albert Select can be fork or handlebar remote mounted. Magura’s travel adjustment FCR (Flight Control Remote) also available on Thor and Durin 120 and is only operable via remote.

The Albert Select damper with an adjustable platform is featured on Thor and Durin 120.

Thor features a post mount that offers a direct attachment for a 7-inch (180mm) rotor.

The new 140mm fork, nicknamed Thor, weighs less than 4-pounds and costs $975.

The Julie HP is Magura’s new price point brake. It features a master cylinder that’s made from injection molded composite. It costs just $126 per wheel and relies on the same brake pads as Marta and Magura’s heavier duty brake, Louise.

The Magnesium brake features all titanium hardware, including caliper mounting and rotor bolts.

The new Marta SL Magnesium is the flagship of the redesigned line. The entire brake package is claimed to weight less than 300-grams. It costs $369.

Another look at the 335 gram Marta SL. Magura weights include lever, caliper, a 700mm line, rotor and all of the attachment hardware needed to post mount the brake.

The Marta SL costs $319 and features the new stitched carbon brake lever, which drops 5-grams from the weight of the standard Marta.

Marta and Marta SL feature the same forged aluminum master cylinders and calipers; the latter houses a larger pad than the earlier edition.

With an aluminum lever, a price of $275 and a weight 340 grams per wheel Marta is the base model of the Marta line.

Magura’s Marta three-model brake line-up is new for 2009. This is the first time the brake has been redesigned since its introduction at Interbike in 2001. While Hayes may have been the first to popularize disc brakes for mountain bikes, Magura’s Marta is responsible for making a high performance hydraulic disc brake light enough for even gram-counting cross-country racers to accept. The fact that it has had a seven-year run, without change, in such a competitive market is a testament to the strength of the original design.

For many domestic teams, the next eight days in Pennsylvania can define a successful or disappointing season. No disrespect to the emerging tours of California, Missouri and Georgia, but the trio of races commonly referred to as Philly Week historically boast some of the deepest fields in all of North American bike racing and a podium spot in Lehigh Valley, Reading or Philadelphia will undoubtedly be placed near the top of any riders palmares.

On Sunday, two-time Italian national time trial champion Marco Pinotti proved yet again that he is one of the world’s best in that specialty, particularly when it comes to the grand tours.

If you were to think of the upcoming Commerce Bank series as a stage race rather than a series of three one-day races, then Arlington, Virginia’s CSC Invitational criterium would be the prologue. Like those brief preambles to the big tours, the CSC race certainly doesn’t hold all the answers to what will unfold in the coming days, but it can provide a bit of a peek at what’s to come.

Sunday was Atherton Day at the downhill World Cup, as Rachel Atherton and her brother Gee (both Animal Commencal) swept the titles at VallNord in Andorra. Their wins follow brother Dan Atherton's victory the evening before in the 4X, making this definitely the first time a family of riders have all won World Cups at the same event.

Alberto Contador is so happy with his pink jersey that he says he wouldn’t want to swap it for a yellow jersey even if the Tour de France organizers change their minds about his team’s exclusion. The defending Tour champ secured overall victory at the Giro d’Italia in Sunday’s final-day time trial and said the unexpected victory makes up for the controversial exclusion his Astana team from the 2008 Tour.

Now Alberto Contador can go back to the beach. After interrupting a vacation a month ago to pack his bags to head to Italy, the defending Tour de France champion secured one of the most unlikely victories in cycling history to claim the 91st Giro d’Italia on Sunday. “It’s never been so worth it to leave a vacation early,” Contador said. “I didn’t know I was coming to the Giro until eight days before the race. This Giro has a special flavor and perhaps means more to me than last year’s Tour.”