All Content

World class velodrome designer Dale Hughes and world class velodrome builder Walter von Luetcken will combine their expertise in a joint venture to design and build the highest quality velodromes on the planet. The newly formed WorldRecord Tracks, Inc. with offices in the Germany and the U.S. will "offer the most advanced design process with the most experienced craftsmen in the world," said Hughes. Said von Luetcken, "This venture will produce the finest and fastest tracks anywhere, period."

The Nissan UCI Mountain Bike World Cup 2008 announced the official launch of ticket sales for the world-renowned event. The World Cup will be held on the 6th, 7th and 8th of June 2008. Fort William will once again play host to the event recognized as “Best Mountain Bike Event in the World” for three consecutive years, as well as “Scottish Sporting Event of the Year 2006”.

The Italian Olympic Committee’s court of last instance acquitted defending Giro d’Italia champion Danilo Di Luca of doping charges on Wednesday. Prosecutors representing the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) had been seeking a two-year suspension for Di Luca after he returned an “anomalous sample” following the 17th stage of last year's Giro in May. Had he been found guilty of a violation, his Giro title, too, would have been negated.

The Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) court of appeals on Wednesday acquitted cyclist Danilo Di Luca on doping charges which, had he been found guity, would have brought a two-year ban. Coni had requested a two-year suspension for the former ProTour champion after he returned an anomalous sample following the 17th stage of last year's Tour of Italy in May. Check back soon for more details

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.

Your tax refund is in the mail, spring is finally here, and the first quarter of the 2008 racing season is finished. Now is a good time to check on your progress and move your nutritional goals up on the priority list to ensure that they are receiving the proper focus. While you may have completed some early season races, chances are that you are building to more important races that take place in the next few months.

Weigh your body-composition goals

Pantani and Indurain 95 Worlds

Indurain Defends Olano's Attack 95 Worlds

Joshua Tree National Park

The line-up for the upcoming Tour de Georgia changed Tuesday when ProTour team Saunier Duval-Scott announced that it would not be able to attend the race. Replacing the Spanish ProTour team is domestic squad Rock Racing, which had filed a lawsuit last week seeking a court-ordered injunction to be invited to the race based on what the team said was an oral agreement with organizer Medalist Sports.

Still savoring his second Paris-Roubaix victory, Quick Step’s Tom Boonen said Tuesday he now wants to focus all of his efforts on retaining his Tour de France green points jersey this July. The 27-year-old Belgian, who celebrated victory in the legendary spring classic on Sunday, said he was going to take a 10-day break after Wednesday's Escaut Grand Prix and recover from a busy spring. "I need to relax on the days following the Paris-Roubaix," said Boonen, who has won six stages on the Tour de France. "You need to let the muscles relax after such a race.

Reigning Olympic and world champion Paolo Bettini has ruled out the possibility that he will ride Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands. The 34-year-old two-time world road race champion has not recovered from the fractured rib he suffered last Thursday in the Tour of the Basque Country. According to his Quick Step team, the Italian hopes to be recovered in time for next week’s Tour of Trentino, (April 22-25), and be fully race fit for Liége-Bastogne-Liége classic on April 27.

Belgian national cyclocross champion Sven Nys signed a three-year deal with Landbouwkrediet-Töissteiner on Tuesday. The contract takes effect January 1, 2009. The 2005 world cyclocross champion, a 10-year veteran of the Rabobank squad, is vying to represent his country in the cross-country mountain bike race at the Olympics this summer in Beijing, China. "You have to feel good in a team; all noses must be in the same direction," Nys told Sporza.be. Nys will join cyclocrosser Rob Peeters and mountain biker Filip Meirhaeghe on Landbouwkrediet.

What better way to begin my maiden voyage into the world of cycling diaries then to write about the Redlands Bicycle Classic, comparing it to racing in Europe in the spring? Racing in California in March and April is not always the best preparation for Europe. It makes you soft. Nice weather, wide open roads, and a small, non-aggressive women's peloton — it’s a pampered life, including host housing that is comparable to living in "Pleasantville.” I have never seen such manicured lawns, houses the size of castles, and host families so welcoming that it is almost surreal.

Dear Lennard,
I've just read your article article about the SRAM ceramic bottom bracket and its maintenance. We at CeramicSpeed have been working with ceramic bearings for the past 11 years, introducing systems for bicycle applications eight years ago.

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the latest edition of The Prologue, the weekly summary of news from the world of competitive cycling by your friends at VeloNews.com.

Fox doesn’t have a fancy name for its somewhat sheltered race product program. It’s simply called the Fox Race Development Program, and it does just that. It takes Fox’s current products and pushes them to limits that can only be achieved by the best riders in the world, all over the world. Then modifies them to work better. Come spring Fox unveils what the program fixed, reworked and improved for the coming model year.

Stuart O'Grady took another step towards erasing the memory of the Tour de France crash which nearly ended his career with a stunning ride at the Paris-Roubaix classic Sunday. O'Grady, the first Australian to claim cycling's biggest one-day prize in 2007, went into the cobblestone-riddled epic lacking full form and knowing that only "a miracle" would give him the chance of a repeat. But he produced a stunner to finish fifth shortly after his CSC team leader Fabian Cancellara had been humbled only by an explosive winning sprint from Belgian Tom Boonen.

Italian sprinting star Alessandro Petacchi continued his 2008 winning ways in the Tour of Turkey (UCI 2.1/April 14-20). He won the first stage from Izmir to Kuþadasý in a photo finish, for his seventh win of the season. Second, by a hair, was the Argentinian Ruben Guillermo Bongiorno (CSF Group-Navigare), and third was Spaniard Javier Benitez Pomares (Benfica). The stage win also gave Petacchi the overall lead.

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.

One-time Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich continues to maintain his innocence, despite paying a "six figure" fine to end the doping fraud case that has dogged him since July 2006. The public prosecutor’s office in Bonn announced on Monday that it was formally ending an investigation of the German cyclist after Ullrich paid a fine in the case. Prosecutors had accused the 1997 Tour de France winner of taking performance-enhancing drugs, leading to a fraud case against the 34-year-old based on his alleged deception of the public, sponsors and his team.

Alexi making his move in 1984

Kyle Gritters (Health Net-Maxxis) broke free from a large break to take first at the Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix Sunday in Ojai, California. He was followed closely by teammate John Murphy and Toyota-United’s Hilton Clarke. Australian Tiffany Cromwell (Colavita-Sutter Home) soloed across the line in the women’s race, well ahead of teammate Iona Wynter-Parks, who also finished alone, before Rachel Tzinberg (Bicycle John’s) took the bunch sprint just seconds later.

Minutes before the start of Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix in the French town of Compiegne, Slipstream-Chipotle boss Jonathan Vaughters predicted big things for his young Dutch rider, Martijn Maaskant. “Martijn is going to have a good ride today — he is going to be the surprise of the race,” Vaughters said. The 24-year-old Maaskant did not disappoint. In just his first crack at “The Hell of the North,” Maaskant finished fourth in the Roubaix municipal velodrome, crossing the line 3:39 behind race winner Tom Boonen.

The nasty rain didn’t show up for the 106th Paris-Roubaix, but a superb Tom Boonen sure did. On a Sunday of cool sunshine and favorable winds, the Quick Step team leader took his second Roubaix victory, three years after the first, with an unstoppable sprint over his final breakaway companions Fabian Cancellara (CSC) and Alessandro Ballan (Lampre).

Wet weather changes everything in Paris-Roubaix, and the forecast for this Sunday’s 106th edition is rain showers with a brisk tail wind throughout the day. These conditions will pose a new challenge for many riders, including the media’s big favorite, 2006 winner Fabian Cancellara of CSC. The big Swiss has never ridden the Hell of the North in the rain, and although he feels 100 percent better than he did at last weekend’s Tour of Flanders, he tipped other riders to be on the podium in the Roubaix velodrome Sunday night.