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Trek-Volkswagen rider Jeff Schalk and Monique “Pua” Sawicki (Mata-Ellsworth) rode to victory at Tennessee’s Cohutta 100 on Sunday, the first race of the 2008 National Ultra Endurance mountain-bike series. Schalk outlasted Dan Vallencourt to win by 2:24, and Sawicki dominated the women’s field, crossing the line with a 56-minute advantage on Cheryl Sorenson. Her winning time of 7:44:00 set a new course record for women by nearly 50 minutes. Approximately 200 riders tackled the full 100-mile distance, which spun around Copperhill, Tennessee.

Pedro's biodegradable Green Fizz cleans the bikes and creates no oil slick on the pond behind.

Colorful base maps on the Garmin Edge 705’s big screen and share-ability between units offer easy route finding.

Calfee's tandem is torsionally stiff and smooth riding. Bamboo frames now account for 25 percent of Calfee’s total production, and 33 percent of the company’s road frame production.

The Reba 29 with Maxle Lite 20mm through axle QR offers more travel, less weight, and more stiffness.

Top-loading pads make pad change easy in the Elixir R. The G3 rotor saves 10g, and the entire brake is 20g lighter than a Juicy 7.

The tapered bore and integrated reservoir surrounding the piston (which is white, surrounded by a black O-ring, just behind the spring) are visible in this clear model of the Elixir master cylinder. The inside of the black, bell-shaped rubber bladder visible behind the piston is open to the air to equalize pressure inside the reservoir.

The Elixir R has an elegant shape, nice lever feel and movable pivot location.

Rather than sitting on their hands after a couple of years of furious product development, SRAM engineers have been hard at work coming up with more new stuff for road, mountain and triathlon bikes.

Avid Elixir

A fast start to the 2008 Tour de Georgia saw Ivan Dominguez take the first stage sprint into Savannah. Casey Gibson was there to catch the riders en route.

One of the most interesting moments of the Tour de Georgia’s opening stage developed midway through the race, when two former overall winners, Chris Horner and Tom Danielson, jumped into a 13-man breakaway following the second intermediate sprint. Also in the breakaway were CSC’s Bobby Julich and Rock Racing’s Victor Hugo Peña. And while Horner is clearly in Georgia to ride for Astana team leader Levi Leipheimer, Danielson, who has been nursing a herniated L5 vertebra tracing back to the opening stage of the 2007 Vuelta España, entered the race as an unknown factor.

The big sprinter relies on Bontrager’s slightly heavier Race X Lite carbon bar, in a 44cm width. He chooses Cateye to keep track of the K’s.

The carbon seat clamp uses two bolts and is sure not to slip.

The seat tube section is massive; also notice the trick Euro-style number holder.

Dominguez’s bike is different from his teammates. He forgoes Fuji’s super light SL-1 frame for a rather unique set up. The Aloha CF1 time-trial frame is both stiffer and more aerodynamic than the road model, the former being the most important attribute to Toyota’s star sprinter. Besides the heavier frame, he opts for Bontrager’s 65mm deep Aeolus 6.5 wheels, where again the story is stiffness and aerodynamics.

Ivan Dominguez won stage 1 of the 2008 Tour of Georgia on a unique bike, built with Fuji’s Aloha CF1 carbon fiber time-trial frame mated to the brand’s standard FC-330 road fork. VeloNews technical editor Matt Pacocha managed to check out the bike before Dominguez launched it to victory.

The sixth Tour de Georgia began Monday with a short and — for Toyota-United — sweet stage from Tybee Island into Savannah. Ivan Dominguez battled his way through the well-orchestrated lead-outs of Gerolsteiner and High Road to take a commanding sprint win on the 70.4-mile flat stage ahead of Jelly Belly’s Nic Sanderson and Gerolsteiner’s Robert Förster.

This week coach Frank Overton will be analyzing the power readings from Health Net-Maxxis rider Frank Pipp, as he competes in the Tour de Georgia. VeloNews will be sharing Pipp's SRM power files and Overton's analysis after each stage. Those interested in seeing the complete power files can download them from Fascatcoaching.com. What follows is Overton's preview of the race. -- Editor

Spain's 2007 Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is to reappear in the Criterium du Dauphine on June 8 he announced on Monday. The 25-year-old, who has been controversially barred from this year's Tour de France because his Astana team were not invited by the organisers, has been out of action since winning the Tour of the Basque Country on April 12. Contador, who took a week's rest after his victory, explained that while he had resumed training he has been taking antibiotics for the toothache that plagued him during the Tout of the Basque Country.

Racers, dignitaries and the media mingled on Sunday during the kickoff press conference for the 2008 Tour de Georgia, held at The Mulberry Inn in downtown Savannah. Our man Casey Gibson was there with cameras clicking; here's what he sent home.

Miguel Martinez (Look) and Kelli Emmett (Giant) sliced through the wind on Sunday to win their respective cross-country races at the Sea Otter Classic. France's Martinez, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist, escaped a strong eight-rider group on the second lap at Laguna Seca Raceway in California. Short-track victor Sam Schultz (Subaru-Gary Fisher) took silver with Sid Taberlay (TIS) third. “In France, the Sea Otter Classic is a very prestigious race. To win here makes me very happy,” Martinez said.

The climax of South Africa’s 2008 Absa Cape Epic mountain-bike race came in the final kilometers of stage 5, a hot, dusty 146km slog from Swellendam to Bredasorp on April 2. Belgian Roel Paulissen rode the rim of a Mavic Crossmax SLR rear wheel for nearly 18 kilometers on gravel and pavement to preserve his Cannondale-Vredestein team’s lead. The sketchy move paid off: Paulissen and his teammate Jakob Fuglsang lost only three minutes on the day, and went on to take the race’s overall win four days later.

Nothing was going to spoil Damiano Cunego’s good mood after winning in Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race. Not even a journalist asking him if he still believes he can be a GC threat in grand tours. In fact, it’s the question that perhaps Cunego is better suited to the classics than three-week tours that sometimes irks Italy’s “Little Prince.” Despite some hiccups since his breakthrough 2004 Giro d’Italia victory, he’s never lost faith that he can shine in both.

Fox has a slew of improvements to its product line for 2009, but two stand apart: A remote lockout for the F80, 100, 120 RL forks and a new thru-axle standard called 15QR, which is an option for all of its 32mm stanchion forks.

The Everti 29R is a hardtail titanium 29er frame, designed and built in British Columbia. Kurt Knock of Everti said the frame has been in development for about a year. It features 3/2.5 titanium, with double-butted top and seat tubes, and straight-gauge elsewhere. The downtube is oversized and ovalized at the head tube, and the head tube is longer than most 29ers to distribute the extra stress created by a longer fork, Knock said. The frame also features a mini-gusset at the head tube/downtube juncture and full length cable housing.

Robson looking good after one lap as JB signals his next move (Durand, WI Road Race)

Intensity at the Superdrome!!!

Peter Glassford at the 2008 Sea Otter Pro XC race

Early morning poseur attack by Team Orven at Walburg, TX

Cane Creek is no longer content to cede the high-end headset business to Chris King and has a number of options in the new 110 model for that category, including the $500 wood-inlaid 110 Reserve presented at the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show.

Another view.

Cane Creek has ceased making road and mountain bike wheels, choosing to focus on its headset and rear shock business. The only wheels it continues to build are carbon track wheels, still employing the nipples at the hub flange.

Ritchey’s new WCS Echelon road pedals take a Look Keo cleat and joins the WCS Peloton pedal, which takes the original Look cleat.

The Ritchey/Syncros single-bolt seatpost clamp is simple and easy to use, as long as the post is on the bike so gravity assists you). As the bolt pulls the clamp ears against the rails from the side (squeezing them against an inboard stop), the lower lips of the clamp ears follow a tapered surface to pull the clamp down against the rails. Three different clamp pieces are available for standard rails and two different dimensions of oversized carbon rails.