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The MN Fixed Gear Classic velodrome races will be held Saturday, June 7 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. and Sunday, June 8 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minn. Premier track cyclists from around the world will be participating in this two-day event, competing for a purse of nearly $5,000. The MN Fixed Gear Classic is a prelude to the Great River Energy Bicycle Festival and the Nature Valley Grand Prix, held June 11-15 in various cities across central Minnesota.

Alberto Contador (Astana) might be wishing he was back at the beach after fending off relentless attacks from Danilo Di Luca (LPR) and Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott) in Friday’s wild 19th stage that saw him save his maglia rosa by the narrowest of margins. Contador saw his grip on the pink jersey trimmed to four seconds to Riccò and 21 seconds to Di Luca and looks vulnerable going into Saturday’s epic stage over the Gavia and the Mortirolo.

Andy Hampsten and his 7-Eleven-Hoonved team appeared to have everything under control before the 1988 Giro d’Italia’s final stage, a long time trial on a rolling circuit at Vittorio Veneto. The American climber, 26, enjoyed a spaghetti lunch after a short morning stage and then rested in his room prior to the Giro’s ultimate challenge.

Balance is a concept that most everyone believes in principle. If you have it, things go along nicely. If you don’t before long things start to unravel. Balance applies to almost everything. As it pertains to cycling, it’s easy to take balance for granted until the unraveling starts. At first, we just happily pedal. Then after lots of happy pedaling, a knee will begin to hurt, or an Achilles will flare up. It’s never both knees, it’s always just one. It’s one side or the other. What went wrong? We just want to pedal. What’s the harm in that?

This Sunday’s 11th edition of the CSC Invitational marks the start of a week of international racing along the East Coast. Many teams will be using the flat 1km course in downtown Arlington, Virginia, as a primer for the upcoming Philly race week (comprised this year of three of the biggest races on the US PRO calendar including the Lehigh Valley (June 3) and Reading (June 5) Classics and culminating in the 24th edition of the Philadelphia International Championship on June 8th.

It was 20 years ago Saturday that Andy Hampsten rode through a blizzard over the Passo di Gavia to claim the pink jersey and become the first and only American to win the Giro d’Italia. Most people seem to remember that it was Hampsten who also won the stage, but it was another young, up-and-coming rider who was first across the line into Bormio on June 5, 1988.

Toyota-United's Dominique Rollin won this week's Ricola Twilight Grand Prix in Basking Ridge, New Jersey Jeff Hopkins (Team Inferno) was a close second to Rollin at the Wednesday night race, now in its third year, held in downtown Basking Ridge. Photographer Kurt Jambretz of Action Images was there to capture the action.

Greg Lemond running with bike during the 1986 Coors Classic

SEVEN SPRINGS, Pa. – Seven Springs Mountain Resort will open the Seven Springs Bike Park on Sat., May 31, 2008. Bike park staff is currently prepping last season’s “Trail-007” with lofty goals for park expansion during the 2008 season.

Organizers of the Great River Energy Bicycle Festival and the Nature Valley Grand Prix announced today an extension of the Saint Paul Riverfront Time Trial – the third stage of the 6-stage, 5-day event – that will not only test the strength of the riders, but will give them a majestic view of the Mississippi River valley and Minnesota’s capital city.

A composite team of top collegiate women cyclists will compete in next month's Nature Valley Grand Prix in Minnesota. The Ryan Collegiate All-Stars Team was selected at the collegiate road national championships earlier this month in Fort Collins, Colorado. Selection was based on the final individual overall standings for riders who were not already on teams that were attending Nature Valley.

Vuelta organizer Victor Cordero is pleased that Contador will be at his race in September, but the Astana rider won't be at next month's Dauphine.

It really comes as no surprise, but now it’s official: Alberto Contador (Astana) says he won’t be racing next month’s Dauphiné Libéré. Leading the Giro d’Italia with just three days to go, Contador will likely head back to the beach once the Giro ends Sunday to resume his vacation that was interrupted when the team received its unexpected Giro invite a week before the race started.

Former world champion Igor Astarloa, who pulled out of the Giro d'Italia after just one stage, is facing dismissal, his Milram team announced Thursday. The team had apparently asked the Spanish rider not to start stage 2 of the Giro after internal blood tests showed an aberrant result. The result did not mean that the 32-year-old Astarloa had tested positive, the team added, noting that a decision to fire him is pending. His lawyer, meanwhile, is contesting the results.

Here's a new selection of reader submitted photos. It's great to see so many of you out there making the best of the variable weather and the occasional road rash. Keep the great photos coming! Submit photos here.

It was a world championship-style victory for Jens Voigt (CSC) in Thursday’s 147km 17th stage that traced the routes of the 2008 and 2009 worlds courses. Voigt attacked an all-star group that included two-time world champ Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) and the national champions of Italy and Spain with 35km to go at the start of two finishing circuits on the Varese worlds course the peloton will see in October. Chasers left it too late and never saw Voigt again as the German diesel hammered home to one of his most impressive victories of his head-banging career.

Green Bay Criterium , July, 2006, Green Bay, WI

Crit happens...

Ride up Mt. Haleakala (Maui, HI) from sea level to 10,023 ft elevation.

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Levi Leipheimer came to the Giro d’Italia as part of the last-minute invitation for Astana that included Alberto Contador and Andreas Klöden as co-leaders. Leipheimer was at home in California when he got the call and he quickly made arrangements to fly to Sicily. No one knew what to expect. The team wanted nothing more than to make the most of the unexpected situation. Flash forward three weeks and Contador is poised to become just the second Spanish rider to win the Giro.

Gerald Ciolek blasted past the opposition in the opening stage of the Bayern Rundfahrt on Wednesday for victory in a tough uphill sprint. “It was my first win of the season, and it’s come on home soil so that makes it all the more special.” Ciolek said. “I jumped away with 300 meters to go, just after Christian Knees of Milram attacked and I got it by a bike length. I didn’t have a lead-out, it was more a case of every man for himself, but I was doing ok and with 150 meters to go I knew I’d got it.”

Is Mark Cavendish so good that he’s already gifting sprints? In the manner that High Road teammate André Greipel sprinted to victory ahead of Cavendish and Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) ? when Cavendish looked back to Bennati at least three times to check that the Italian wasn’t pulling through ? it would seem so. No way, says Greipel. The burly 26-year-old bristled at the suggestion that the biggest victory of his professional career was handed to him by his younger teammate.

If there were any doubts that Andy Hampsten was entitled to the 1988 Giro’s pink jersey, they would be exposed on the crucial stage 18, an individual 18km mountain time trial from Levico Terme up to the ski station of Vetriolo Terme. With Frenchman Jean-François Bernard out of the race because of a crash the previous day, the logical favorites for the stage win were the other top climber/time trialists: Hampsten, Erik Breukink, Urs Zimmermann and Roberto Visentini.

USA Cycling announced today the 12 junior and U23 cross-country athletes that have been nominated to represent the United States at the 2008 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole, Italy, June 17-22. Four men and two women have been nominated to the U23 cross-country squad, while four men and two women were also nominated to the junior cross-country team.

Soukup, Kraft win Bike the Rock Austrian Christoph Soukup (Fuji) took the second round of Germany’s Bundesliga national cross-country series, the Bike the Rock race in Heubach on May 24. The Austrian climbed away from German Moritz Milatz (Multivan-Merida) and world champion Julien Absalon (Orbea) to take his biggest win of 2008. “My legs worked really fine in the uphill,” Soukup said.

More bumps, rocks and obstacles have been added to Beijing’s Olympic mountain-bike course, which failed to impress riders in its debut last year, according to a UCI expert. Peter Van den Abeele, the UCI’s mountain-bike sports coordinator, and Phil Saxena, a renowned four-cross course designer, traveled to Beijing during May 8-15 to oversee construction on the 6.2km circuit. The course, which sits in a suburban park in western Beijing, now boasts five new sections of tricky, technical riding, plus additional obstacles on five previously built sectors.

Rock Racing is the new title sponsor of the Skyscraper Harlem Cycling Classic. The 35th anniversary edition will be be held on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 15th, at Marcus Garvey Park, 5th Avenue and 121st Streets, in New York City. The crit is a stop on the USA Crits racing series and will be broadcast by World Championship Sports Network (WCSN). Rock Racing team owner Michael Ball said it was important for Rock Racing to support an event that has annually brought world class cycling talent to one of the nation's longest-standing African-American cultural and business centers.

USA Cycling has announced the 12 junior and U23 cross-country athletes that have been nominated to represent the United States at the upcoming 2008 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole, Italy, June 17-22. Four men and two women have been nominated to the U23 cross-country squad, while four men and two women were also nominated to the junior crosscountry team.

Doug Ellis was on the way to the Verona train station when he hitched a ride with a pair of journalists. We couldn’t help but pull out the tape recorder when we drove the chairman of Slipstream Sports on his way to catch a train after the start of Saturday’s 14th stage. Here are excerpts of the in-transit interview: VeloNews: How important was it to win the opening team time trial?

Monday’s spectacular yet controversial stage up Plan de Corones capped a trio of decisive mountaintop finishes that saw Alberto Contador whittle out a slender but perhaps decisive lead going into the final week of the 91st Giro d’Italia. Contador hasn’t won a stage yet, but he’s finessed his way into a 41-second lead over Riccardo Riccò thanks to a superb time trial in stage 10 and three consistent performances across the Dolomites.

One by one the team stepped on to the bus, sweat pouring from their faces, their jerseys wide-open, radio earpieces hanging from their salt-encrusted helmet straps, road dirt and carbon brake dust on their faces, veins pulsing on their sweat soaked arms and legs. As helmets were buckled and seats found, each said in his own way, with his own accent, “That was the best lead-out I have ever been a part of.”

For a team to defend a race lead over seven stages takes a tremendous amount of effort on everyone's part to ensure the win. For one rider to do it on his own start to finish is almost unimaginable. But John Murphy of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis pulled it off during the five-day, seven-stage Tour of Atlanta this past weekend, despite having to contend with full squads form a number of teams, including UCI continental team Toshiba. Murphy won the opening-stage time trial by a solid 0:31 margin, but had five members of Toshiba within 0:55 of him after the stage.

The Colavita Sutter Home team took three of the six podium spots at the Tour of Somerville on Monday. Lucas Sebastian Haedo and Kyle Wamsley took the first two spots in the men's race, while Jonathan Page was third. Wamsley was second at Saturday's Kelly Cup NRC race in Baltimore. National crit champ Tina Pic won the women's race, outsprinting Cheerwine's Kelly Benjamin and Aaron's Erica Allar.