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A new climb with 20km to go lived up to expectations, breaking Liège-Bastogne-Liège wide open, but Alejandro Valverde relied on tactical savvy and his fiery finish-line punch to win La Doyenne for the second time in three years Sunday. After working into the decisive four-man move, Spain’s “Green Bullet” collaborated with Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) to fend off searing attacks from the Schleck brothers on the Saint-Nicolas climb with 5.5km to go only to relegate the Italian to bridesmaid status with his winning sprint.

Two years ago, Liam Killeen was just a small step away from joining the top ranks of cross-country mountain biking. After years of slow but steady improvement, Killeen had a breakthrough 2006, winning the Commonwealth Games and the Sea Otter Classic, and regularly duking it out with Julien Absalon, Jose Hermida and the other big dogs of the World Cup. The 25-year-old Brit, known for his shy, quiet demeanor, was riding a wave of newfound confidence.

It was standing room only in Germany’s Black Forest, as a crowd of some 17,000 crowded the 5.1km Offenburg mountain-bike course to catch a glimpse of the second World Cup of 2008. Reigning world and World Cup champs Julien Absaslon (Orbea) and Irina Kalentieva (Ergon-Topeak) did not disappoint the fans, as each rode consistent efforts to repeat their respective victories from 2007.

Gregorio Vega (Team Tecos) won his second consecutive stage of La Vuelta de Bisbee on Saturday morning, then finished eighth in the afternoon’s time trial to hold a 21-second lead going into Sunday’s final stage, the Tombstone Road Race. In women’s racing, Marisa Russell (Procon-FNBA) won the Sulphur Springs Road Race and Kelly McDonald (Touchstone Climbing) the Warren Time Trial; McDonald took the yellow jersey from Chloe Forsman (Luna).

A View From L'Alpe du Huez

Despite a recently diagnosed injury that has kept him in near-constant pain, Rock Racing’s Rahsaan Bahati roared across the line at the Athens Twilight Criterium to capture his first major victory of the 2008 season. In a race that featured a relentless pace throughout in front of thousands in downtown Athens, Georgia, Bahati was able to beat a charging field to the line with enough time to lift his arms to the sky in tribute to a fallen friend.

Casey Gibson shares his images from an epic day that saw Kanstantin Sivtsov take a big win in front of the race favorites.

“In professional cycling, success is all about picking battles you can win," said Frank Overton, who coaches Health Net-Maxxis rider Frank Pipp, who is competing in the Tour de Georgia this week. On Saturday's stage 6, which ended with the brutal Brasstown Bald climb, the numbers don't lie, Overton said. "The men who can make greater than 6.3 watts/kg choose to come to the front of the race on the winner-take-all Brasstown Bald. They knew they could climb that fast and therefore they conserved their precious energy in four previous stages for one climb.

First of all, it's pronounced “Sweets-off.” If you can't get the last name, you can go with “Koste,” which is short for Kanstantin. But whatever you call him, Kanstantin Sivtsov left his stamp on American racing Saturday with a commanding win atop Brasstop Bald. The stage win, which also moved him into the leader's jersey by four seconds over Slipstream-Chipotle's Trent Lowe, has put him on the map for many cycling fans.

Former two-time winner Paolo Bettini has played down his chances of a third victory in the prestigious one-day classic Liege-Bastogne-Liege this Sunday. The reigning world and Olympic champion will saddle up as the Quick Step team's biggest hope of winning the 261km race but the Italian could be forgiven if he winces with pain on several of the 12 punishing climbs. Bettini is still recovering from arm and rib injuries sustained in a heavy crash at the Tour of the Basque country earlier this month, a setback which he says could have left him off a lot worse.

The addition of a punishing climb at the end of the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic is willing on-form Australian Cadel Evans to grab what would be his biggest one-day victory to date. The world's oldest one-day race is held over 261 km on Sunday, with 12 climbs of varying length and difficulty set to test the climbers, but also the 'punchers' who can keep pace with the specialists on the steep ramps during the one-day races.

Kanstantin Sivtsov (High Road) attacked Levi Leipheimer (Astana) and race leader Trent Lowe (Slipstream-Chipotle) in the final 500 meters to win the sixth stage of the Tour de Georgia and move into the overall lead on Saturday. Sivtsov, the under-23 world champion in 2005, started the day six seconds down on Lowe in eighth place, but well off most people’s radars.

With the opening day jitters gone from their legs, the worlds’ top cross-country mountain bikers head to Offenburg, Germany for the second round of the 2008 UCI World Cup. The event falls one week after riders took their first taste of World Cup racing at the opening round in Houffalize, Belgium, just a three-hour drive away. The women take to the course at 10:30 a.m. and the men’s race begins at 2:30 p.m. Central European Time. For those looking to watch the action, the Web site www.universalbikeracing.com is broadcasting live coverage of all the World Cups.

At the Tour de Georgia, mechanics spent the night before Saturday’s decisive Brasstown Bald stage switching cassettes on wheels. In place of 10-speed units with a 21, 23 or 25 as the lowest gear, riders’ rear wheels for today have 26, 27 and even 28 teeth. Unfortunately for most riders, adding that metaphoric “extra gear” isn’t quite so easy — either you have it or you don’t to make it up Brasstown near the front. [nid:75387]

A new climb with about 20 kilometers to go in Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège should pump fresh excitement into one of the oldest races in cycling. The steep climb at La Roche aux Faucons ("Falcon's Rock") is giving hope to riders such as Damiano Cunego, Frank Schleck and Cadel Evans that the hardest of the Ardennes classics will be even more explosive. “I think this climb will make the final more selective and even harder,” said Cunego, winner at Amstel Gold Race. “This is a true climb that I think will change everything. I see a small group pulling away and staying away.”

If Friday’s prologue time trial is any indicator of what the weekend has in store, La Vuelta de Bisbee will come down to Team Tecos vs. the rest of the field. Tecos riders posted seven of the top 10 times in the 2.8-mile hill climb, which began on Main Street in Old Bisbee and ascended through Tombstone Canyon to the top of the Mule Pass Tunnel. The Guadalajara-based team brought nine riders to the 30th installment of the three-day race.