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Zabel: ‘2008 season could be my last’

German sprint ace, Erik Zabel, said Thursday the 2008 season could very well be his last in the professional peloton. Zabel, a record six-time consecutive winner of the Tour de France's green jersey, discussed his future plans as his Milram team unveiled a significantly restructured squad for the upcoming season. The 37-year-old German, who hit the headlines last year when he admitted to having "briefly" used the banned blood booster EPO early in his career while he raced with Deutsche Telekom, said he is already thinking about life away from the bike.

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News

Exhibitor Records fall for NAHBS in Portland

SPEEDWAY, Indiana – Following a promising buildup The North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS), the world’s largest trade/consumer show for custom-built bicycles, is on the verge of selling out all 185 exhibitor spaces as it heads to the cycling-friendly city of Portland, Oregon, for the first time in the show's three-year history. The 2008 show will be held in the Oregon Convention Center, Portland, February 8-10.

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Road Gear

Tech Report: Van Dessel’s BB30 frame

On the heels of FSA's introduction of its BB30 bottom bracket system, Van Dessel has announced that its new BB30 Rivet frames are in now production, with delivery slated for late March. Built around the BB30 bottom bracket shell, Van Dessel’s Rivet will also feature a 1.5-inch lower headset bearing, in keeping with the recent trend of manufacturers moving to larger diameters at both bottom bracket and head tube.

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Wednesday’s Mailbag: Charity; noise; role models

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.

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News

The Site of the Day: Casey Gibson, Photographer

Hey, we're not above promoting our own friends and one of our favorites has to be our old buddy Casey Gibson, a photographer who probably spends more time on the road than most pro riders. It's always a pleasure to hook up with Casey at races, both here in the U.S. and an increasing number of international events as well. Sure, he's a grumpy old coot, but then again, so are we. Go ahead, click on Casey B. Gibson Photography, look around for a bit and you'll see why he's been a fixture at VN for as long as any of us can remember.

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Road

Ball signs Sevilla, invites Landis to camp

Rubber has yet to hit the road in ’08, but second-year continental road team Rock Racing continues to generate considerable attention, this time because of reports that owner Michael Ball has been courting Floyd Landis to fill an unspecified team advisory position. Word of the deposed 2006 Tour de France champion’s involvement with the team came in the wake of director sportif Frankie Andreu’s departure based on “differences” in philosophy with Ball.

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Road Gear

A visit with Giovanni Pelizzoli

You may not have ever heard of Giovanni Pelizzoli, but it’s likely you have seen his work on Ciöcc or Guerciotti frames, either one of which would be sufficient introduction of this small, graying, bespectacled framebuilder and frame painter. Pelizzoli’s shop is located in Curno, the village on the outskirts of Bergamo in north-central Italy that has long served the finish for the final classic of the season, the Tour of Lombardy.

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Road

Spanish federation declines to pursue Mayo case

Spain’s national cycling federation announced Monday that it has no plans to pursue further action against Iban Mayo regarding an alleged positive for EPO during the 2007 Tour de France. The Saunier Duval climbing specialist was cleared of charges that he used EPO during the Tour after a B sample test, analyzed by the Belgian national anti-doping lab in Ghent last October, apparently came back negative. However, the UCI said it questioned the outcome of the test and had the sample re-tested at the French national anti-doping laboratory at Châtenay-Malabry.

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Monday’s Mailbag: How to help cycling

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.

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Cyclocross Racing

Nys retakes Belgian national ‘cross title

Rabobank’s Sven Nys earned the fifth national cyclocross title of his career as he outpaced his closest challenger, defending champion Bart Wellens, in the Belgian championship race in Hofstade on Sunday. The 31-year-old World Cup leader and world’s No. 1 repeated a feat he’d accomplished in 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2006 and remains a favorite for the world’s championship race, scheduled for Treviso, Italy, on the 26th of this month. Belgium, like most countries, schedules its national championship race for Sunday.

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News

Investigations focus on T-Mobile docs

“Eufemiano Fuentes used dog names like ‘Birillo’ and ‘Piti’ to archive the blood bags of his clients,” Werner Franke observed wryly. “The Telekom- and T-Mobile doctors applied stickers of cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse to identify the blood they had in storage.”

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Road

Andreu leaves Rock Racing

Citing differences “with business strategies and the direction the team is headed,” director Frankie Andreu has ended his contract with Rock Racing.

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Road Gear

FSA to launch BB30 threadless bottom bracket

Editor’s note: Tech editor Matt Pacocha is on vacation in Belgium racing cyclocross for two weeks. Upon his return, he will be buried in producing the 2008 VeloNews Buyer’s Guide. I won’t spill the beans about what he is working on, but I will say it involves thousands of dollars of product, highly calibrated tools and a band saw. Until the Buyer’s Guide ships in early February, I will be filling in for him on Tech Reports. — Ben Delaney

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This Week in Pro Cycling – January 3, 2008

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

It's been a slow week in cycling, as most everyone - including riders themselves - has used the holiday season to take a well-earned break from work and use the time to relax a little. We hope you had a safe and enjoyable New Year's celebration and that you've managed to delay your return to work until at least next week.

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Cyclocross Racing

Franzoi skips nationals; Fisher gets a hand

Italy’s defending national cyclocross champion, Enrico Franzoi, has opted out of the opportunity to defend his title this weekend, saying that he hopes to recover from a month-old ankle injury in time for the world championships in Treviso. The 25-year-old Franzoi, who recently moved to the Liquigas team, said lingering problems from an ankle injury suffered during November's World Cup event in Koksijde, Belgium, will keep him out of this weekend’s Italian national championships in Scorzè, near Venice.

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Behind the wheel again – Pettyjohn looks ahead to ’08

It’s been nearly 14 years since Len Pettyjohn sat behind the wheel of a car loaded with bikes, orchestrating the strategy of a team of cyclists over a radio and, frankly, he hasn't really missed it all that much. After a long break – and perhaps against his better judgment – Pettyjohn is poised to jump behind the wheel of a Toyota-United team car and spend about 40 percent of the coming year on the road again.

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The best of 2007 – A Casey Gibson Gallery

Sorting through his hard drive as 2007 wound down, photographer Casey Gibson realized two things as he reviewed images from last year. One, he's racked up an awful lot of frequent flyer miles over the past 12 months and, two, he's had the chance to see some terrific bike racing. We asked him to look through those files and send us some of his favorites from a year that began in San Francisco at the Tour of California and wrapped up in a snowy and windswept park in Kansas City for the national cyclocross championship.

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Giro d'Italia

’08 Giro route announced

The 91st edition of the Giro d'Italia will begin in Palermo and end in Milan after covering 3423.8km over 23 days, it was announced on Saturday. The exact course for the 2008 Giro, which begins May 10, was presented at a ceremony in Milan's Arcimboldi Theatre. It will begin with a team time trial and end with a 23.5km race against the clock. There will also be two other time trials throughout the race, including a 13.8km mountain time trial finishing atop the famous Plan de Corones.

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