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What a March it’s been for Sylvain Chavanel. Earlier this month, the Cofidis rider became the first Frenchman to win a stage at Paris-Nice en route to ninth overall in the Race to the Sun since 2002. On Wednesday, the 28-year-old soloed home in the 200km semi-classic to become the first Frenchman to win Dwars door Vlaanderen on a cold, grimy afternoon in Belgium’s Flanders region.

Fran Ventoso (Andalucía-CajaSur) won the third stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León on a day that lived up to his name. “Ventoso” means windy in Spanish, but strong northern breezes couldn’t stop his explosive sprint atop a one-kilometer rising finish to snag the win in a perfectly timed acceleration past Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi). Overnight leader Alberto Contador (Astana) retained his four-second lead over teammate Levi Leipheimer while Christian Vande Velde (Slipstream-Chipotle) slotted up to fifth and Slipstream retained the team classification lead.

The organizers of the Tour de France said Wednesday they are having talks in Madrid on the possibility of buying up to 49 percent of the Tour of Spain. "There is a hypothetical possibility of a minority participation, of between one to 49 percent, in the capital of Unipublic," a subsidiary of Spanish television group Antena 3 and which organizes the Tour of Spain, said Patrice Clerc, the president of the Amaury Sport Organisation. "We considering all possibilities to work together," he told a news conference.

The Iowa City Cycling Club today announced the 31st Annual Edition of the Old Capitol Criterium and Iowa City Road Race weekend, set for April 26-27,2008 in Iowa City, Iowa. This year's weekend event features a combined prize list of over $10,000, making it one of the Midwest's largest race weekends on the bicycle racing calendar.

A deeper pro field, a longer course and a heftier prize purse highlight the 2008 Absa Cape Epic, the world’s premier mountain bike stage race, which begins this Friday, March 28. In its fifth year, South Africa’s self-coined “Magical and Untamed African MTB race” will again send teams of two spinning from the port city of Knysna through the country’s mountainous and arid Western Cape before finishing at the Lourensford Wine Estate outside of Cape Town.

Rapha’s pricy, chic line of retro-modern cycling clothing is built from a mix of technical and natural fibers including Merino wool, wool hybrids and synthetic fabrics by Swiss Schoeller. They’re then tested by an outfit of London bicycle messengers, the Rapha Continental test squad, and — not to mention — cycling legend Andy Hampsten.[nid:73678]

The world track championships begin in Manchester, England, on Wednesday with the host nation’s Great Britain team expecting to dominate the five-day event. As if home advantage wasn’t enough, Team GB can lean on the experience and talent of riders such as Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Victoria Pendleton, as well as the fast-track progression of a clutch of young hopefuls.

The slippery slope of weight management.

Martin Gilbert on his way to winning the 2007 USPro Criterium Championship

Fast Fun @ Hoehn Del Mar Criterium Series

The UCI and the organization representing professional cyclists met in Geneva on Tuesday to discuss the possible imposition of penalties on riders who recently participated in Paris-Nice. A delegation of riders representing the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés (CPA) asked for a meeting with the international governing body in order to clarify questions regarding the risks assumed by teams and riders who opt to participate in events not officially sanctioned by the UCI.

With three race weekends down and five to go in the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference schedule the Colorado State University Rams Cycling Team has a commanding lead in the conference title race. At the University of Colorado’s Criterium on Sunday, the CSU Rams showed once again why they are the force to be reckoned with in the RMCCC with commanding performances coming from every category.

The World Anti-Doping Agency says the International Cycling Union should help pay the legal expenses for the Floyd Landis appeal, rather than suing the WADA's former president. The UCI announced last week that it was suing former WADA chief Richard Pound and the WADA for comments it says Pound made critical of the UCI's efforts to combat doping in cycling. In a statement released Tuesday, the WADA said the allegations against Pound are "unfounded" and promised to "robustly defend" Pound and the agency.

Organizers have announced that seven of the state’s top races will constitute the first Tour of Colorado, beginning Saturday, May 10th and concluding over the Labor Day Weekend. The 2008 Tour of Colorado will feature several Colorado State Championship events as well as The State Games of The West. Overall results will be kept for five of the most competitive categories and classes.

The heat is on in chilly Manchester. The British press says it was the coldest Easter in 40 years but inside the velodrome it is definitely starting to warm up. You can feel the heat pouring from the vents. A hot track is a fast track: the air is less dense. It’s physics — bodies hurl through space faster with less resistance. This storied Manchester track is the British national cycling center. It’s the home of SEVEN current world champs. And it is proven that, in the right conditions on this track, world records will fall.

World champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) admits he’s not in good enough shape to tackle the demands of the cobble-stoned climbs at the Tour of Flanders and is giving a pass on the Belgian monument along with E3 Prijs Vlaanderen. He will race instead in the Vuelta a País Vasco in Spain’s Basque Country ahead of the hillier courses at Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallone, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège that favor his riding style.

Liquigas went full bore in the double-stage opener of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy on Tuesday. The 2002 U23 world champion Francesco Chicchi sprinted to victory in the morning road stage and then the Italian squad won the 11.8km team time trial afternoon stage ahead of Acqua e Sapone and Tinkoff Credit Systems.

Henk Vogels doubles up with a pair of victories in Colorado, Ivan Stevic returns to racing with a 2nd place finish After a late spring snow storm dusted Boulder, Colorado Saturday evening, it was a bright and sunny Easter Sunday for the 100-man field toeing the line for the 60-minute Colorado University Research Park Criterium. With a number of local pros on hand, the pace was fast from the start. Toyota-United used their strength in numbers to establish the winning break in the opening 25 minutes.

Retired pro Dan Schmatz retired from the sport in the most unexpected of ways last September when he hit an armadillo during stage 2 of the Tour of Missouri. Schmatz tumbled to the ground, fracturing his collarbone and effectively ending not only his season but his career, which he’d planned to finish out at the end of the week in his hometown of St. Louis.

Karsten Kroon (CSC) wanted to win a stage at Paris-Nice earlier this month to demonstrate he’s on track for the upcoming spring classics. He could only manage second in a breakaway stage into Sisteron, but the 32-year-old Dutch rider made up for the close call with a tidy sprint finish Tuesday in the second stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León to prove his point.

The organizer of next month’s three major spring classics named the 25 teams invited to participate in Paris-Roubaix, Fleche Wallone and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Paris-Roubaix on Tuesday. As expected, the Astana team of defending Tour de France champion Alberto Contador was not included on the list issued by the Amaury Sport Organisation, the private firm that also organizes the Tour.

Our annual Buyer's Guide features some in-depth factory tours. You'll have to pick up a copy for the full story, but here are some photo outtakes from our tour of the Calfee factory in La Selva Beach, California, taken by VeloNews photo editor Brad Kaminski. Make sure to check out the Buyer's Guide to read Fred Dreier's full article on Calfee, as well as factory tours of Specialized, Masi, Primus Mootry and other builders, big and small, around the globe.

The five members of Trek-Volkswagen’s factory team, as well as members of the squad’s regional team, gathered in Moab, Utah, this month for a warm weather training camp. The group spun big miles on Moab’s famous trail systems, hitting Amasa Back, the Sovereign trail and areas of the old Tour of the Canyonlands course.

Going back to the drawing board won’t be an option for Team Australia at the end of the world track cycling championships this week. With the Beijing Olympics just around the corner, the Australians — and fellow track giants Britain and France - know it's now time to set down markers or forget dreaming about gold medal success in China this August. Australia set a blistering pace on the Athens Olympic velodrome in 2004, but for the past two years the Aussies have been playing catch-up to the new track pacesetters Britain.