All Content

How much did Health Net-Maxxis rider Frank Pipp pitch in in Thursday's stage 4 team time trial? How about 396 normalized watts and 362 average watts for 20:17? That's the report from Pipp's coach, Frank Overton. "Not bad for the fourth stage, when you’ve been off the front for 40 percent of the entire race," Overton said.

After days of racing, hours of hard labor, crashes, strategizing and dozens of employed strategies, attacks and counterattacks, the overall competition at the Tour de Georgia comes down to a simple question: who has the best power-to-weight ratio? The few favorites still in contention for the overall title will answer this physical test on the slopes of Brasstown Bald Mountain, where stage 6 concludes Saturday.

After sitting behind a ProTour engine over 133 hilly miles, Bissell’s Richard England timed his sprint right to take stage 5 of the 2008 Tour de Georgia on Friday. Slipstream-Chipotle’s Trent Lowe finished in the select front group of 22 riders to take the yellow jersey from High Road’s Greg Henderson, who had a hard day and came off the group on the second KOM climb.

Jittery Joe's team boss Micah Rice has been filming throughout the Tour de Georgia and posting the footage online daily. "I've got every single sprint finish, but I've also got things like the pre-race team meeting where in six minutes of footage you can watch the entire team talking about the plan for the day," Rice said. "We have an interview with Cody (Stevenson) after his crash, road rash and all. And we have interviews with various people as the day moves on. We have a ton of stuff up there."

Slipstream rider expected to make a full recovery with no neurological damage

Chances that Alejandro Valverde will repeat his 2006 victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège all depend on what the rain gods decide to do on Sunday. If the peloton is drenched with rain and cold, he might finish even worse than 21st as he did in Flèche Wallonne. But if benevolent skies return, like he saw with a best-ever third at Amstel Gold Race last weekend under a warm Dutch sun, he’ll be in with a shot.

Kona Bicycle has a new line of gloves with models for mountain biker, freeriders, roadies and kids. The men’s Chevron glove ($25) is intended for cross-country. It features a Chamude palm for increased durability, silicone grip finger tips for better braking control and a terry snot wipe thumb. The women’s XC glove offers an air-mesh palm with Chamude overlays for added durability and circulation, 4mm gel palm pad and gripped finger tips.

Jason Sumner and Neal Henderson touch on finding time for it all and staying competitive

Dear Readers,
Wyatt Earp tried his hand at many things in his long and colorful life; at various times he worked as a farmer, teamster, buffalo hunter, saloon-keeper, gambler, and miner, among his many other occupations, but it was as a lawman in the Old Wild West that Earp found the immortality of lasting fame—and most of all, for his work as a sometime-lawman in Tombstone, Arizona. For a scant three months, beginning around July of 1880, Wyatt Earp was the Deputy Sheriff for southern Pima County.

Casey Gibson was at the stage 4 team time trial as Slipstream/Chipotle narrowly edged out Astana and High Road to take the day's top prize. Here's some shots of the action at the raceway.

Pearl Izumi also made special aerodynamically dimpled helmet covers for the team’s standard road helmets. Lim said the covers could save 7-10 watts at a 30mph speed, but promoters wouldn't allow their use on Thursday.

Allen Lim shows off a prototype cooling-vest made by the team’s clothing sponsor Pear Izumi.

Vande Velde wore a cooling vest before and after the event. This one is made by Arctic Heat.

Slipstream mechanic Daimeon Shanks gives Danielson’s bike a final run through before the start.

Slipstream pushed the aero limits. Its two GC contenders, Tom Danielson and Christian Vande Velde, used Zipp’s 1080 front wheel. The team was given one by Zipp for wind tunnel testing last fall, and purchased the other at Excel Sports in Boulder, Colorado.

The jig measures the bike’s saddle in relationship to the bottom bracket. The nose of the saddle can be no more than 5cm in front of the center of the bottom bracket.

The UCI's Carla Geyer spent Thursday making sure every bike conformed to the standards established by the promoters and the governing body.

Leipheimer was on a different bike for the time trial; his original stars and stripes Madone was cracked in shipping. Trek representatives hand delivered a new custom painted model, but it was just built up Thursday morning without time for a test ride before the stage.

Astana made one major change — larger 54-and 55-tooth chainrings.

All chose Bontrager’s Aeolus 6.5 aero wheelset. The rims’ section measures 65mm.

Toyota-United rider Dominique Rollin’s Fuji SL-1.The team was on its standard road bikes for Thursday’s time trial.

Rock Racing has both Lew and Cole wheels at its disposal. Most of the team attacked the team time-trial on Cole’s deepest section wheels, the Shuriken Carbon Lite T85 wheel

Stage 4's team time trial featured a short, hilly, twisty course. Although race officials banned the use of time trial bikes, disc wheels and aero helmets, equipment choice was still a factor. The teams used their standard road bikes, though many used the deepest-section wheels in their inventory. Race winner Slipstream-Chipotle pushed the limits the furthest, using deep section Zipp wheels and even trying to sneak aero helmet covers past the commissaires.

Former Giro d'Italia champion Ivan Basso, suspended for his involvement in the Operacion Puerto scandal, has signed a two-year contract for 2009 and 2010 with Liquigas, the Italian team announced on Thursday. The 30-year-old Italian's two-year suspension is scheduled to end on October 24. While Basso was origianlly banned on June 15 of last year, he had already spent 243 days under suspension. That figure, however, does not include time he spent as a member of the Discovery team.

Starting the day one man down after Timmy Duggan’s frightful crash on Wednesday, an inspired Slipstream-Chipotle won the Tour de Georgia’s stage 4 team time trial Thursday at the Road Atlanta automotive raceway. Slipstream rode four laps of Road Atlanta’s rolling 2.5-mile racetrack in 19:36, 3.41 seconds faster than Astana, at an average speed of 29.14 miles per hour.

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.

Summertime at Portland International Raceway on Monday nights means bicycle racing. For 2008’s series we are featuring clinics to introduce women to the sport. These clinics coincide with the Monday night races. This summer will be the 12th season of bicycle racing on Monday nights at PIR. The new clinics will run on the second Mondays of the month, and will focus on the basics of how to get started in racing. There will be a brief intro talk prior to the race start, followed by debriefing after the race.

Cadel Evans almost won Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday and will line up as one of the favorites for Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but July is what’s on his mind these days. Second at Flèche, the Silence-Lotto captain said a strong performance in the Ardennes classics is just an appetizer for what he hopes are better things to come in the Tour de France.

Health-Net-Maxxis rider has been front and center for this Tour de Georgia, grabbing the KOM lead on stage 1 and figuring in a long four-man breakaway on Wednesday's stage 3. Pipp's coach Frank Overton has been sharing Pipp's wattage readings and providing VeloNews readers with some analysis after every stage. He's tickled pink that Pipp has been playing such a central role in the race.