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Christian Vande Velde stepped off the Slipstream-Chipotle team bus Sunday morning along the beach at Cerfalù with a big smile on his face. Proudly decked out in the maglia rosa, Vande Velde was clearly enjoying his moment as the first American since Andy Hampsten won the 1988 Giro to wear the Giro’s leader’s jersey. “We hope today goes just like yesterday, but we know it’s a complicated stage,” Vande Velde said. “To win yesterday’s stage was our big goal, everything else is just icing on the cake at this point.”

Category 1 racer Ryan Barnett is recovering in an Atlanta hospital from a collision with a car on May 3. Barnett, who is the marketing manager for Blue Competition Cycles, was out for a quick spin prior to Sunday's Sandy Springs Classic criterium when the accident occurred, said Blue's Brady Rogers. Barnett fractured his skull, broke ribs and his pelvis and fractured his back in the T3 and T4 vertebrae area, Rogers said. He said Barnett has some paralysis from the waist down.

VeloNews staff and wire reports David Zabriskie’s 2008 Giro d’Italia ended Sunday when he was caught at a pileup with about 55km to go in the 207km second stage from Cerfalù to Agrigento. Zabriskie, 29, went down with several other riders as the peloton approached a railroad crossing. Zabriskie, who started the day second overall, was knocked off his bike and was unable to rejoin the pack. Doctors immediately attended to the reigning U.S. time trial champion and transported him to a local hospital.

Phil Zajicek (Health Net-Maxxis) and Mara Abbott (Team High Road) won the kickoff to the 2008 Tour of Colorado race series on Saturday in Boulder. The 9.14-mile Excel Sports Sunshine Hill Climb up Sunshine Canyon served up 3226 feet in elevation gain with a maximum grade of 23 percent. Conditions didn’t make the climb any easier, with temperatures in the low 40s under cloudy skies at the start and mid-30s with snow at the finish.

Cofidis rider Stephane Auge of France claimed overall victory in the Four Days of Dunkirk cycling race on Sunday. Norwegian Thor Hushovd, riding for the Credit Agricole team, won Sunday's sixth and final 128.4km stage between Coudekerque and Dunkirk in a sprint finish. Please check back soon for results.

Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott) uncorked a tremendous sprint in the final 100 meters to win Sunday’s exciting 207km second stage, but Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) snuck into fourth to short circuit Christian Vande Velde’s run in the maglia rosa by just one second.

Carla Swart clung to the back of the elite seven-woman breakaway in the waning minutes of the 2008 Division I women’s road championship, held Saturday in Fort Collins, Colorado. Outnumbered and without teammates, the Lees-McRae sophomore didn’t appear to have the numbers or legs to win. Looks, however, can be deceiving.

Cuban Missile and Two Calebs

Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita-Sutter Home) took the stage 2 sprint win at the Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas. Action Images photographer Kurt Jambretz was there to catch all the action.

The Podium (left to right) Rory Sutherland (Heath Net-Maxxis), Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita-Sutter Home), and Kyle Gritters (Health Net)

Slipstream-Chipotle’s victory in Saturday’s team time trial began weeks ago. The building blocks of the team’s historic victory that put Christian Vande Velde as the first American in the pink jersey in 20 years started with the team’s meticulous planning and execution. Just days after the Ardennes classics, the team gathered in its European base in Girona, Spain, to work on the time trial rotations and technique.

Jill Taylor, the fiancée of Slipstream-Chipotle soigneur Johnny Coln (affectionately known as Soigny Johnny – pronounced Swanny Johnny) brings on gasps and giggles by balancing two forks on the tips of two toothpicks.

Shanks filing the “Nader hooks,” a.k.a. “wheel retention tabs,” off of a new Oval Jetstream fork destined for Magnus Bäckstedt’s Felt team bike.

Allen Lim exclaimed “I should have been Italian,” when he saw his Giro badge. It says: “Allen Lim. Allenatore.” You see, in Italian, “allenare” means “to train,” and an “allenatore” is a “trainer.” Hence, he “allenates” the Slipstream-Chipotle team and could heretofore be known as “The Allenator!”

Oops! McEwen’s bike said 90th Giro d’Italia on it, but this is the 91st Giro! A Silence-Lotto team mechanics made a “1” and sticks it on.

McEwen’s new bike has a 2009 fully-redesigned Ridley Oval-licensed Jetstream road fork and seatstays. Both the stays and the fork feature split aero blades with a new shape designed by MIT aerodynamics guru Mark Drela. The fork and stays are not only aerodynamic themselves, but their split blades also suck air away from the spokes and reduce the aerodynamic drag of each wheel. And at sprinting speeds of over 70kph, not to mention all of the hours spent riding leading up to it, every ounce of aerodynamic drag and watt of power saved makes a difference.

Robbie McEwen says that his new Jetstream-equipped road bike is “the fastest thing I’ve ever ridden.” He won the second stage of the Tour de Romandie on the first iteration of it, an all-black bike without paint. This second one, painted especially for him for the Giro, lists all of the towns in which he has gained Giro stage victories. Or that was the intention, anyway; McEwen says that one town was left off.

Slipstream-Chipotle’ secret weapon: “Chef Willy,” Slipstream-Chipotle’s Swiss chef, has been cooking for American teams for decades at major tours. He was cooking for the 7-Eleven team when Andy Hampsten won the Giro, and he was there for every one of Lance Armstrong’s Tour victories. Now Slipstream-Chipotle hopes he will bring the same kind of good fortune. Barred from the kitchen at the posh Hotel Torre Normanna (temporary residence until stage 1 of Slipstream-Chipotle, High Road, Saunier Duval-Scott, AG2R-La Mondiale, Rabobank, and CSC) south of Palermo, he has time at dinner to joke with David Millar.

I have been in Sicily since Wednesday and have been watching the buildup in excitement and preparation among the teams, both riders and staff members. The atmosphere has been light and was getting less so as the race draws closer. And here also is the first of many cool Giro bikes you will see here in the coming days and weeks.