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The world championships began with an unscheduled event, early morning blood draw from the UCI. The Holiday Inn was targeted at an ungodly hour for our teenage son (7am!) and no doubt, no one else was happy either. In any case, the Brits, Aussies, Dutchies and USA team were all tested. Welcome to the big leagues. Luckily, Taylor exercised his prerogative as a teenager and went directly went back to sleep after a little breakfast, of course (another prerogative of the teenager?

Until Wednesday morning, David Brailsford's ethical stance on Team GB's attitude to doping had been unquestioned. The British team's Performance Director has long championed clean and fair competition and maintained that any deviation from that philosophy would not be tolerated.

Taylor Phinney continued his quest for a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team on Wednesday, lowering his personal best time in the men's individual pursuit by more than two seconds and recording a new world-record time for a junior. His mark of 4:22.358 seconds placed him eighth in his first-ever UCI Track World Championships while his time of 3:17.523 at the 3-kilometer mark — the distance juniors typically race — surpassed the previous world record of 3:17.775 set by Michael Ford (AUS) in 2004. Phinney's previous personal best over four kilometers was 4:24.364.

Olympic pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins lifted British spirits by successfully defending his individual pursuit crown here at the world track cycling championships on Wednesday. Wiggins overpowered surprise Dutch finalist Jenning Huizenga in a time of 4:18.519 to claim his second consecutive gold after his victory in Mallorca last year. Huizenga, who had beaten Wiggins in qualifying, finished in 4:23.474 to claim the silver medal. Russian Alexei Markov claimed the bronze after beating New Zealand's Hayden Roulston in their medal match-up.

Niklas Axelsson’s career looked dead in the water when he tested positive for EPO at the 2001 world cycling championships. He admitted his guilt and was later banned for four years by the Swedish cycling federation. The 35-year-old then mounted a comeback in 2004, but was stricken with testicular cancer in 2007 only to reappear yet again with Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli this season. Persistence paid off Wednesday when he won the 175.6km second stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy.

With only a few months to go until BMX's Olympic debut, there's a lot at stake at this weekend's second annual USA Cycling BMX National Championships in DeSoto, Texas. DeSoto's Metroplex BMX, the world’s first covered BMX track, will host the event, which will award national titles in 52 classifications, from the under-12 cruiser class up to masters classes. "It would mean a lot to be able to represent my country at the most prestigious event in the world," said Kyle Bennett (Free Agent), the top ranked continental racer who holds a 42-point

Britain's cycling director Dave Brailsford admitted on Wednesday the world track cycling championships had begun under a cloud after endurance rider Rob Hayles failed a blood screening test. Britain is the team to beat at the championships, which they dominated last year in Spain, and are considered track cycling's global pacesetters five months ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Their bid to get off to a positive start here on Wednesday however hit the skids when both Hayles and Dutch rider Pim Ligthart failed routine blood screening tests.

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.