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The American Slipstream-Chipotle squad endured a day of highs and lows at the 2008 Tour of Flanders, the American squad’s debut at Belgium’s biggest one-day race. The high came at the finish line, where the team’s 24-year-old Belgian rider Martin Maaskant was the 12th man to cross the line, finishing 21 seconds in arrears alongside a handful of the sport’s classics stars, including George Hincapie, Alessandro Ballan, Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen.

Danilo Di Luca (LPR) won the Settimana Lombardia race on Sunday following the sixth and final stage over 162.7km around Bergamo. Teammates Paolo Savoldelli and Daniele Pietropolli finished second and third respectively. Italy's Francesco Failli (Acqua e Sapone), won the stage in a sprint finish. It was the 43rd career win for 32-year-old Di Luca, the reigning Giro d'Italia champion. Di Luca is embroiled in an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to have a three-month suspension he served for a doping offense last year overturned.

German ace Judith Arndt out-kicked American Kristin Armstrong to win the women’s Tour of Flanders, the third round of the 2008 UCI women’s World Cup. It was the fourth career World Cup victory for Arndt, the silver medalist from the 2004 Olympics, and the first for her team under its new High Road label. “It was a perfect victory; a perfect day for us,” said Arndt. “It was a team victory.”

Emilia Fahlin (Team High Road) and Jeff Louder (BMC) won Saturday’s 1st Centennial Bank-KWB Wealth Managers Criterium, the second stage of the 2008 Redlands Classic in California. Fahlin, a 19-year-old Swede, took the bunch sprint ahead of a hard-driving women’s peloton in Saturday’s 1st Centennial Bank-KWB Wealth Managers Criterium. Hot on her wheel was Canadian Alex Wrubleski (Webcor Builders) and Advil-Chapstick’s Brenda Lyons.

Katerina Nash (Luna) and Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) won the short track on Saturday during round two of the National Mountain Bike Series in Arizona. One short, loose climb added significantly to the technical challenge of racing in the desert terrain of McDowell Mountain Regional Park outside Fountain Hills. The women dismounted, but some of the men were able to ride it. Kona teammates Ryan Trebon and Barry Wicks opened a small gap early in the pro men's race, but Kabush, the 2007 short-track national series champion, soon bridged up to form a trio.

The Absa Cape Epic stage race wrapped up Saturday with the Bulls team — comprising the German riders Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm — capturing the final stage while the overall title goes to the Cannondale Vredestein duo of Denmark's Jakob Fuglsang and Belgium's Roel Paulissen. With a nine-minute time advantage built up of over the last couple of stages, the Cannondale Vredestein team solidified their position by finishing in the lead bunch. The Bulls team secured second place overall.

Fabian Wegmann (Gerolsteiner) won in Spain and Tony Martin (High Road) took the flowers in Holland in weekend racing across Europe. In Spain’s GP Miguel Indurain, Wegmann repeated his victory from two years ago by being first up the climbing finish at the 950-meter El Puy in Estella. Wegmann profited from the work of his Gerolsteiner teammates to control the pace made easy work of Michael Albasini (Liguiqas), who crossed the line second some two seconds ahead of third-place Joaquin Rodríguez (Caisse d’Epargne).

The possibility of chaos on the 'Koppenberg' and mayhem on the 'Muur' lies in store for the more ambitious hard men of the peloton during the Tour of Flanders here on Sunday. If, as predicted, the rain, wind and hail hit the race it could, according to local media, lead to "apocalyptic" scenes not witnessed on the race since 1985. Belgium's biggest one-day bike race is considered one of the toughest classics in the world because the latter part of the 264 km which leads the peloton from Bruges to Meerbeke is littered with 17 steep climbs.

A few glimpses of sunshine were interrupting the rain showers Saturday evening in Belgium, partially drying out the 24 sections of cobblestones and 17 hellingen included in the 92nd Tour of Flanders.

High Road’s stage race specialist Kim Kirchen will be back in action in the Tour of the Basque Country, which starts on Monday in Legazpi. The Luxemberg-born rider had to miss out on the E3 Harelbeke one-day race, and the Tour of Flanders because of illness, but will be back for the grueling six-day stage race in northern Spain. “He’s a little bit behind where he should be form-wise because of falling ill, but his focus remains very much on the Ardennes Classics.” team manager Rolf Aldag said.

Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel will saddle up for his first Tour of Flanders one-day classic on Sunday and find himself in the unexpected position of being a potential race winner. Alongside two-time winner Tom Boonen, Swiss hard man Fabian Cancellara, and last year's runner-up Leif Hoste, Chavanel — on paper — looks to have little chance of winning Belgium's biggest one-day classic. However two victories in the space of 10 days on the muddy, cobbled roads of northern Belgium have hoisted the 28-year-old Cofidis rider in with the big favorites.

Fabian Cancellara's scintillating early season form will be tested to the full when he lines up as one of the favorites for what could be a rain-lashed Tour of Flanders this Sunday. As the early spring classics move up a gear ahead of next week's 'Hell of the North' at Paris-Roubaix, the Swiss all-rounder has every right to believe he can win the 264km one-day classic from Bruges to Meerbeke.

Health Net's Rory Sutherland saw his yellow jersey move on.

The men's peloton rolls through the park on the first lap.

After a lot of suffering alone, Santiago Botero is happy with his win.

Botero shows the total effort in his face.

Chris Baldwin animates the chase of Botero.

The women's peloton being led by Webcor and Aaron's.

Meridith Miller off the front.

Miller climbing alone through the park.

Kim Anderson kept the peloton in order.

Katharine Carroll celebrates her win in the sprint, and on the podium.

Abbott on the podium with the yellow jersey.

Mara Abbott attacks the lead group, and only Alex Wrubleski is able to go with her.

Rock Racing's Santiago Botero won Friday's stage 1 circuit race at the Redlands Bicycle Classic, after soloing away from a five-man breakaway. In the women's race, Aarron's Katherine Carroll won the stage in a sprint. Casey Gibson was there to capture the action in photos.

Liam Killeen (Specialized) and Sarah Kaufmann (Roaring Mouse) won the NOVA Marathon as the second leg of the National Mountain Bike Series kicked off on Friday at McDowell Mountain Regional Park outside Fountain Hills, Arizona. Killeen won his 70-mile race in 4:00:43, five minutes up on Evan Plews (Scott USA). Tinker Juarez (MonaVie-Cannondale) finished third in 4:13:09.91. Kaufman won the women’s race in 5:14:53, nearly an hour ahead of runner-up Kristen Hayden Phillips (Red Rock), who finished in 6:09:56. Caroline Goulard (Sho-Air) was third in 6:19:09.

Professional endurance competitor Rebecca Rusch has tackled her fair share of adventure races and 24-Hour mountain bike races throughout the years. Now, the Idahoan is in South Africa competing in the Absa Cape Epic, a nine-day endurance mountain bike stage race across the country’s scenic Western Cape. And we’re along for the ride. - Editor Today's report is from Ryan (Specialized mechanic and DJ for the camp)