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Tour de France champion Alberto Contador isn’t exactly holding his breath expecting Tour organizers to change their minds on its controversial decision to exclude his Astana team from cycling’s marquee race. “It seems unlikely, even though I am receiving the support from everyone, from the other riders and from the public,” Contador told the Spanish sports daily MARCA. “Being optimistic, I see 0.5 percent of the possibilities that the Tour would reconsider its posture.”

Sébastien Joly (FDJeux) will be the first person to tell you that he’s not going to win seven Tours de France, let alone one, after fending off a bout with testicular cancer that struck him midway through the 2007 season. Comparisons to Lance Armstrong are inevitable for the 28-year-old Frenchman, who returned to competition in February after missing last year’s Tour as he underwent surgery and radiotherapy.

Crossing the Gator Pit

Cesar Grajales guts it out on Brasstown Bald last year.

Mai's bike. He says he rides up to 1000km a week on it.

A German rider with a penchant for lightweight rides has put together a 3195-gram (7.04-pound) road bike that he says is sturdy enough for him to ride up to 1000 kilometers a week. Günter Mai from Lampertheim has modified virtually every part on the bike, including the set of custom Lew Racing Pro VT-1 wheels. Off the shelf VT-1 wheels weigh 850 grams a pair and are made for use by riders up to 185 pounds. They sell for about $6000, while custom wheels like Mai's cost $15,000.

Coming off an impressive 2007 season, Kona CLUMP riders Andreu Lacondeguy, Paul “Bas” Basagoitia and Grant “Chopper” Fielder automatically qualified for the 2008 Nissan Qashqai Challenge (NQC). The five-event series will take place from April through May at five different European venues with the Grand Final slated for London, UK.

Spanish veteran José Luís “Chechu” Rubiera was looking at retirement last winter following the collapse of his Discovery Channel team, where he rode alongside Lance Armstrong for five of his seven Tour de France victories. New-look Astana offered him a lifeline with a one-year contract and the popular Spanish rider didn’t take long to pay back the favor.

The head of the French Cycling Federation says he will go to court — and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy if necessary — if the international cycling federation UCI punishes pro cyclists taking part in next week's Paris-Nice race. Meanwhile the head of the U.S. cycling federation is urging all sides to negotiate and a group representing the teams has asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to intercede.

Philippe Gilbert (Francaise des Jeux) is back on the top spot of the podium just days after blowing the doors off everyone in Het Volk. The 25-year-old Belgian out-kicked the main pack to win the 39th GP Samyn in a sprint to snag his fifth win of the year. Gilbert finally got it right in the Belgian race from Frameries to Dour after finishing second the past two years in a row. This time, he relegated Kevin Ista (Agritubel) to runner-up position with Aleksejs Saramontins (Rietumu Bank) coming through third.

The season is still a few weeks away, plenty of time to hit the powder

Decker speeds through another stage of Washington's Doo Wop Rally

Craig (left) and Decker with their rallying machine, the Wheels of Teal

American cross-country mountain bike racer Adam Craig has his sights set on the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. That means for the next few months he will be battling it out on the World Cup and National Mountain Bike Series with his fellow Americans for a slot on the U.S. team. In between races, Craig skis, kayaks and is the rally car co-driver for his Giant teammate Carl Decker. VeloNews.com is along for the ride. —Editor

IRVINE, Calif. -- Enjoying the outdoors is as natural as riding a bike and Shimano American Corporation and the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) have teamed up to promote how important the activity is. Shimano is a major manufacturer of bicycle components and IMBA is a national advocate for responsible riding and trail construction. Together they are releasing the new document, The Economics and Benefits of Mountain Biking at the National Bike Summit in Washington D.C. March 4 – 6, 2008.

A closed tunnel will force route changes for the 99th edition of Milan-San Remo on March 22 and make the season’s longest classic four kilometers longer than usual. Race officials announced Tuesday that the additional climb, called Mànie, comes about 100km from the finish just before the arrival of three headlands at Capo Mele, Capo Cervo and Capo Berta as the route dips down to the Mediterranean Sea. The climb will have a technical descent and could play a factor in the decisive part of the race when the peloton typically begins in earnest to reel in dangerous breakaways.

Props to Wilcockson
Dear Velo,
What an excellent article by John Wilcockson! It would seem clear that ASO, as owners of the most prestigious event in cycling (the Tour de France and others such as Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Nice), are seeking to widen their control in cycling, which would ultimately undo all the work to make professional cycling an organized world-wide sport.

Offroad in Burma

Riders race through downtown Brian Head when the resort hosted a stop on the National Mountain Bike Series (NMBS) in 2006

Competitors in this summer's four-day endurance mountain bike race in Brian Head, Utah, will tackle 170 miles of racing and 14,000 feet of climbing. Riders at the American Mountain Challenge, August 21-24, will compete as individuals, much like Costa Rica's La Ruta de los Conquistadores race. The race is being organized by Tom Spiegel and Jeff Frost, who promoted the National Mountain Bike Series (NMBS).

WOODSTOCK, Georgia— Starting in March, leading sports nutrition and supplement manufacturer Dedicated Athlete will break new ground in the fight against illegal doping, unveiling a first-of-its-kind program that allows customers to make direct donations to the non-profit Cycling Ethics Foundation. The progressive program will be run through Dedicated Athlete’s revamped online store, www.DedicatedAthlete.com, where customers will be able to contribute to the anti-doping fight simply by clicking on the appropriate button on the checkout page.

Danilo Di Luca faces a two-year ban and the possible loss of his 2007 Giro d’Italia title in a hearing scheduled for April 1 in Rome. The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has scheduled a hearing to review the results of medical tests conducted on May 30, which showed “very strange” hormone levels and offered indirect evidence of doping.

Last April's inaugural U.S. Open road race was held in epic snowy conditions — and with nearly unprecedented network television coverage — in Virginia. This year's event is likely to be quite different. The 112-mile professional event has been moved to Providence, Rhode Island, on May 31. And while promoters are still negotiating a title sponsor and TV deal, they say the date and location change will soon make it a fixture on the domestic calendar.

Bart Gillespie (Monavie-Cannondale) and Kelli Emmett (Giant) won the opening round of Utah’s 2008 Intermountain Cup, the Red Rock Desert Rampage, held in St. George on March 1. Gillespie, overall winner of the 2007 series and the seventh-place finisher at the 2007 USA Cycling national cross-country championships in Mount Snow, Vermont, dominated the men’s race, beating second-place finisher Cale Redpath (3D Racing) by nearly seven minutes.

Graeme Brown (Rabobank) got revenge for losing Sunday’s Clásica de Almería by sprinting to victory Tuesday in the opening stage of the five-day Vuelta a Murcia in Spain. Brown and Rabobank teammate Oscar Freire were upstaged by Juan José Haedo (CSC) on Sunday, but the Aussie sprinter got it right in 197.3km stage from San Pedro del Pinatar to Lorca to snag his second win on the 2008 season.

Graeme Brown at the 2008 Tour Down Under

Cyclists who race in the Paris-Nice stage race next week risk stiff suspensions, fines and bans from the Olympics and the World Championships, the UCI said on Tuesday. The riders themselves have asked for written assurances from team bosses that any fines and their salaries if they are suspended would be picked up by the teams. However, the UCI made plain in an email sent to the 17 ProTour teams set to take part that the riders risked serious punishments aside from the bans, suspensions of up to six months and fines of up to 10,000 Swiss francs.

Will orthotics help my foot pain?

PHILADELPHIA —Planning is well underway for the 2008 Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling events, and now you have the opportunity to become a part of this world-class professional cycling series. The public is invited to experience the excitement of professional cycling first-hand by volunteering with Pro Cycling Tour, the organizers of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling. The dates and locations for the races are as follows: * Commerce Bank Lehigh Valley Classic – Tuesday, June 3, 2008 * Commerce Bank Reading Classic – Thursday, June 5, 2008

Racers and teams face an uncomfortable choice ahead of this weekend’s Paris-Nice as the war between cycling governing body and the powerful race organizer, Amaury Sport Organisation, reaches a breaking point. To start Sunday’s Paris-Nice prologue means riders could be slapped with a six-month racing ban by an angry and frustrated UCI, but to skip Paris-Nice would torpedo teams’ chances of competing in ASO’s long list of marquee races that includes the Tour de France. The danger of bans, however, is already prompting some riders to balk at the season’s first major stage race.

A recurring pain
Dear Lennard,
I'm writing because I just read the shoe review in the VeloNews Buyer's Guide, and you mention in there that you use a custom orthotic. I was happy to see that the Shimano SH R300's I just purchased got high marks, but I am still having issues with my right foot even with the new shoes. I got the new shoes because I was having the problem with my four-year-old Northwave Evolutions.

Stage One Stretch Run

Wet Photogs

Graham Watson Hangs out in CA

Cancellara trying to get to Solvang TT start house

Triple Bypass 2007 - Loveland Pass 11,990 feet

Belgian Roel Paulissen won the GC at the Afxentia Stage Race.

Czech Tereza Hurikova took the overall at the Afxentia Stage Race.

Belgian Roel Paulissen (Cannondale-Vredestein) and Czech Tereza Hurikova took overall victories at the Afxentia Stage Race, a three-day cross-country race held on the island of Cyprus. The competition included two cross-country races — each counting as rounds of Cyprus’ Sunshine Cup series — as well as an individual time trial sandwiched between.

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