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At the 2007 Interbike, Cipollini promoted Max Lelli’s new line of frames. No word on who is making these frames.

Mavic has 6 pairs of the Cosmic Carbone Ultimate wheels to support its sponsored squads at the race, Health Net-Maxxis and Saunier Duval-Scott.

The evening before the prologue of the third annual Amgen Tour of California, mechanics scrambled to assemble the hundreds of bikes that will be raced over the next eight days. VeloNews took a stroll around the parking lot of the race hotel for a perspective on what's happening.

The second stage of the inaugural Tour of the Province of Grosseto on Saturday wasn’t exactly a thing of beauty. First, riders refused to contest the final sprint, calling the finishing straight too narrow and dangerous. So instead of barreling headlong down the sprint, the peloton rode at a snail’s pace across the line in protest, leaving Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas) in the leader’s jersey going into Sunday’s third stage.

The sprinters were back in their element in Saturday’s fourth stage at the Tour Mediterranean with Colombian Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) snagging the victory. Duque is unique that he’s fast in the flats while most of his compatriots do best when the road heads uphill. A day after Alexandre Botcharov (Crédit Agricole) climbed his way into the leader’s jersey atop Mont Faron, Duque out-duked French fast man Jimmy Casper (Agritubel) with Belarussian Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJeux) coming through third in the 152km fourth stage between Saint-Cannat and Marignane.

It may be the smallest team to line up for the Amgen Tour of California, but Rock Racing has managed to be the biggest story on the eve of this country’s largest stage race. Team owner Michael Ball announced late Saturday that the team would start only five of the eight riders on the roster he had submitted.

Rock Racing team owner Michael Ball insisted Saturday that his team will start with all eight of the riders whose names he submitted to race organizers — including Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevilla and Santiago Botero — or none at all. “We live as a team, and we’ll die as a team,” Ball said.

He’s done it two years running, but scoring a pair of stage wins will be tougher than ever this year for J.J. Haedo. CSC’s big Argentinean sprinter currently holds the record for career Amgen Tour of California stage wins at four. This year he will have no fewer than three current and former world champion sprinters to deal with in the form of Paolo Bettini (2006-07), Tom Boonen (2005) and Oscar Freire (1999, 2001 and 2004).

At an afternoon event hosted by Phil Liggett in Palo Alto, California, Team High Road presented its entire men’s and women’s 2008 teams. With 29 men and 13 women hailing from 14 different nations, 41 riders in all were presented, in three segments: the women’s team, its under-26 “young guns”, and the team’s elite veterans. The only rider unable to attend was Kate Bates, who was ill. High Road is the only ProTour team to also have a world class women’s component, and with its recent change in designation, it’s now the only U.S.-based ProTour team.

A rider in his ninth year as a pro, a director whose career spans 24 years, and an unified team with the best climber in the race. It was this winning combination that, barring disaster, will grant Moldavian Ruslan Ivanov the best victory of his career Sunday as the Tour de Langkawi concludes in Kuala Lumpur.

The final round of the 2007-08 UCI Track World Cup Classics got underway in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Friday as the U.S. contingent collected a pair of bronze medals on opening night of the three-day competition. Sarah Hammer placed third in the women's 3000-meter individual pursuit while countrywoman Theresa Cliff-Ryan claimed her first career World Cup medal with a third-place effort in the women's 10-kilometer scratch race.

Ben Kneller (Jittery Joe's) and Lana Atchley (Team Rock) won their respective time trials on Friday to kick off the Valley of the Sun Stage Race in Arizona. Kneller won the flat, out-and-back 22km Trek Time Trial in Buckeye in 29 minutes, 27 seconds. He crossed five seconds up on both Sam Johnson (Hagens Berman Cycling Team) and Karl Bordine (Star WVO). Atchley took a more convincing win, finishing in 32:26, 58 seconds ahead of Emily Zell (Proman Racing) and 1:40 up on Catherine Dickson (Tribe Racing).

As the Amgen Tour of California brings world-class racing to the United States next week, nine ProTour teams representing 27 nations will be on hand to illustrate the growing interest in American cycling. After racing full-time in Europe for the past seven years, Tour de France stage winner Dave Zabriskie (Salt Lake City, Utah/Slipstream-Chipotle) is happy to see the U.S. become a destination for European teams.

Team High Road officials say the team will start May’s Giro d’Italia, despite reports earlier this month that the race’s organizers would ban the U.S.-based team. The team will hold a news conference Friday afternoon in Palo Alto, California, to announce its participation in several events organized by RCS Sport, including the Giro d’Italia. A team press release quotes Angelo Zomegnan, the director general of RCS Sport.

Alexandre Botcharov (Credit Agricole) won Friday's stage of the Tour Med to take the GC lead from teammate Thor Hushovd.

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

Russian Alexandre Botcharov (Credit Agricole) switched places with teammate Thor Hushovd atop the leader board in the 35th Tour Mediterranean after winning alone atop Mont Faron. The towering climb above France’s glittering Cote d’Azur turned the leaderboard upside down as the lean climbers took control of the race away from the dominating sprinters.

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