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As the most profitable race promoter in pro cycling, Amaury Sport Organisation wants to dictate how the sport is run. That’s why for the past three years ASO and its surrogates have resisted substantive changes in cycling, particularly those changes involving the elite-level ProTour, which all other parties have embraced. ASO’s insurgency has now come to a head in its bid to independently promote next week’s Paris-Nice. And it appears that this time it has made one step too many.

Pebble Beach

U.S. Cyclling future: Team Jr. Specialized. Cole, Jackson and Luke

Saint Edwards State Park, Kenmore Wa

Rubén Plaza (SL Benfica) wrapped up the overall in the 66th Volta a Valenciana after finishing safely in the pack behind sprinter Alessandro Petacchi (Milram), who bolted to victory in Saturday’s final stage. Runner-up Manuel Vázquez (Contentpolis-Murcia) was left without any option to make up the five-second difference to Plaza in the mostly flat stage around Valencia while Xavier Florencio (Bouygues Telecom) settled for third overall at 21 seconds back.

Belgian rider Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux) won Het Volk for the second time in three years in the best style possible: with a dramatic solo victory. Gilbert, winner of the Belgian season opener in 2006, attacked a lead group of favorites on the Eikenberg climb with about 60km to go in the 199km course across the Belgian heartland of Flanders. [nid:72951]He then reeled in the day’s main breakaway that included Mike Friedman (Slipstream-Chipotle) and before attacking again with a punishing acceleration with 22km to go to solo home to victory.

Baby it's cold outside!

World Champion flying in TOC '08

Sunset on the Old Pueblo

Damn Camera Bike - it's Zabriskie, honest

A fractured peleton - Sierra Rd - ToC 2008

Tour of CA- Sacramento. Kevin Lacombe

TOC Sacramento 300 To Go

Tour of California Stage 5 - Solvang Time Trial

Top of Perkin's Memorial, Bear Mountain, NY - Ullrich lackner, Herb Jimenez and Rami Parissi of the Aspen East Cycling Team in Upper Montclair, NJ

Ladies love Lucca, Tuscany, home of Mario 'The Lion King' Cipollini

George Attacks!

PAIN IN THE RAIN IN PASADENA

2007 Tdf Podium Stage 17

Bettini & Boonen at Solvang ToC Time Trial warming up

Collegiate Racing at Rutgers

Another stage at the Volta a Valenciana and another breakaway by a rider from Slipstream-Chipotle. For the fourth stage in a row, the American squad put a man into the main move in the five-day Valencia tour in Spain. This time it was Lucas Euser showing off the argyle with Antonio Piedra (Contentpolis-Murcia) in more than 100km at the front.

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

We know it’s been a while, but our latest reader-submitted photo gallery is now ready for your viewing pleasure.

Major changes are in store for the unofficial kick off of the classics season with Saturday’s running of the 63rd Omloop Het Volk in Belgium. Narrower roads, more cobblestones and tougher climbs are on tap for the 199km Belgian season opener in what’s always one of the most anticipated races of the year among that rare breed of racer who loves to bash the pavé.

There’s more good news for BMC after the team secured its second major European race invitation of the week. Just days after scoring a bid to race Criterium International (March 29-30), the second-year American squad earned its first ProTour invitation from the Tour de Romandie (April 29-May 4).

New Colors for Cipo

Bettini Boonen Cancellara sprint Hincapie goes down S1 ATOC

Levi contemplating Stage 5 ITT Tour of CA start house

Tom Zirbel, Stage 7, AMGEN TOC

TT Reflections

Welcome to Croatia-2006

Mario Cipollini Stage 6 Tour of California

The Cowbell Lady at the ToC

Greg Beauton descends in Joshua Tree National Park

Mike Creed at stage one of 2008 TOC---he was sick as a dog that day and not happy about having to ride over 100 miles

Amgen Tour of CA Stage Winner and Best Young Rider, Robert Gesink

David Miller not looking happy with weather on final day of 08 Tour of California

Hammering the scenic road, Tristate Seacoast Century 2005

Tour of California Final Stage Break Away Group

Tom Boonen Tour of Qatar

Astana Riding Tour of California Stage 6 thru Casitas Pass, Ojai, CA

Sutherland and Hincapie Stage 7 Tour of California 08

The Union Cycliste Internationale has warned teams aiming to take part in races run by the powerful race organizer ASO that “unjust” conditions in the company's contract completely eliminate fundamental rights. ASO runs a number of top events including the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Nice, the week-long stage race which has become the latest bone of contention in the ongoing feud between the UCI and powerful race organizers.

Boulder, Colorado —Nationally known cycling attorney Bob Mionske will discuss bias against cyclists and cyclists' rights at events across the U.S. this spring. These events are part of Mionske's national tour in support of his new book Bicycling & the Law: Your Rights as a Cyclist. Bicycling & the Law is a complete legal reference for cyclists confronted with questions about traffic law, harassment, theft, and other common issues.

The third stage of the Volta a Valenciana ended on a controversial note Thursday as a misdirected peloton split between a highway and a frontage road in the decisive final 5km of the 166.5km climbing course around Ibi. Ruben Plaza (Benfica) stole away the leader’s jersey from José Iván Gutiérrez (Caisse d’Epargne) in one of the most bizarre mishaps in recent cycling history.

UCI President Pat McQuaid sent the following letter to professional cycling teams that have chosen to participate in Paris-Nice on Wednesday. The letter was distributed to media on Thursday - Editor

Dear Sirs,

The Canadian Cycling Association is pleased to unveil the 2008 National Mountain Bike Calendar. Seven sites will welcome the best mountain bikers of Canada and elsewhere. On the schedule are nine Olympic cross-country events, six downhill events and two four-cross events. The season will start in Baie-St-Paul on May 11 where precious UCI points will be offered early in the season to help athletes who wish to enter a World Cup event. Since 2007, riders need a minimum of 20 UCI points in order to enter a World Cup event.

Defending world champion Brian Lopes will ride for Ibis this year.

Lopes and Ibis

The NorCal High School Mountain Bike League (the League), which recently released a new rulebook for its 2008 racing season, is banning the consumption of caffeine at their competitions. This progressive stance is motivated by concerns for high school athletes’ health, as well as in response to a tremendous surge of new caffeinated energy products and related marketing seen thus far in the 2000’s.

After three solid off-season training camps, the entire High Road team is now racing, having initiated the season on four fronts: in California, in Portugal, in Italy and France. After being away from the races for the longest period since I was thirteen - seven months - I was happy to get the first race under my belt in Laigueglia, Italy.

Skil-Shimano, the Dutch-based continental team, seems to be one of the new darlings of ASO after receiving recent invitations to both Paris-Nice and Criterium International. The fourth-year team is a blend of aging and aspiring Europeans mixed in with Japan’s most promising talent, including Fumy Beppu, who joined in 2008 after a three-year stint with Discovery Channel. Maarten Den Bakker, one of the oldest riders in the peloton at 39, said the race invitations are welcome news.

Enrique Franco, the man who saved the Vuelta a España in the late 1970s, died Wednesday in Spain after a long illness. He was 74 years old. Franco was the former director Unipublic, the sports organizing company who bought the troubled Vuelta in 1979 and helped turn the struggling three-week stage race into a world force. The Vuelta was floundering from a lack of cycling stars and threats from the Basque terrorist group ETA when Franco’s Unipublic agreed to take over Spain’s top stage race.

Think Pink by the Rhone in Geneva, Switzerland

Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in this country, a contributor to heart attacks, high blood pressure, and strokes. Of course, regular exercise and training is good for your heart and raises the helpful HDL cholesterol, but you still need to pay attention to the foods that you consume for optimal heart health.

Three American teams will be among 19 squads fighting for the honors in the Criterium International in late March. High Road, Slipstream-Chipotle and BMC all earned invitations to compete in the three-stage, two-day race held in the French Ardennes. The race is dubbed the “mini Tour de France,” in part because it’s organized by the Tour owners, ASO, and because it features the three classic elements of a stage race, with a time trial, a climbing stage and a road course well-suited for sprinters.

Cycling's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, suffered a serious blow to its authority on Wednesday as the sport’s top teams voted to enter the first major stage race of the season, Paris-Nice. UCI president Pat McQuaid had called on teams to boycott the race as part of his body's ongoing dispute with the race's parent company Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) - also the organizers of the Tour de France. ASO aims to run the race under the auspices of the French Cycling Federation

Erik Zabel isn’t washed up yet. The 37-year-old Milram ace out-sprinted younger rivals to snag his first win of what will likely be his final season in the 178km second stage of the Volta a Valenciana in Spain. Zabel — who saw his reputation sullied last year after admitting he used the banned blood booster EPO during the 1996 season — finished off an exciting stage that saw Slipstream-Chipotle’s Timmy Duggan feature in the day’s main breakaway.