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Disgraced former Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso said Thursday that his two-year doping suspension was the best thing that could have happened to him. Basso was tipped to win the 2006 Tour de France, shortly after cruising to victory in the Giro, but he was caught up in the infamous Operación Puerto scandal and barred from taking part. He later admitted to having contacted the tainted laboratory involved in the affair with plans to engage in blood-doping, a move that earned him a two-year ban from the sport. He has spent his time working for various charities.

Team CSC, ranked No. 1 in the world, heads the list of 17 squads slated to race this year’s Amgen Tour of California, organizers AEG announced Thursday. The 650-mile stage race starts February 17 in Palo Alto and ends seven days later in Pasadena. The field includes teams that compete on the UCI ProTour as well as U.S. domestic squads. Hoping to defend his 2007 title will be Levi Leipheimer, riding this season for the newly reformed Astana team.

For the third consecutive year, the international mountain bike teams, tech support and race organizers’ group (IMTTO) has awarded the prestigious IMTTO Event Of The Year trophy to Rare Management, organizers of the UCI mountain-bike and trials world championships held in Fort William, Scotland. The management firm also hosted rounds of the UCI World Cup in Fort William starting in 2002, and won the IMTTO award for its World Cup rounds in 2005 and 2006.

North America’s only stop on the 2007-08 UCI track World Cup kicks off Friday at the continent’s premier velodrome, the ADT Event Center Velodrome at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, just south of Los Angeles. As the third of only four World Cup rounds on the 2007-08 calendar, the LA World Cup stands as an important stepping-stone in Olympic qualification for the 2008 Beijing Games. Series winners will earn automatic qualifications for the Games. USA Cycling is to name its track Olympic long teams on Tuesday.

ProTour teams issued a statement Thursday calling on non-ProTour teams to join them in adopting the so-called biological passport. The International Professional Cycling Teams (IPCT), which represents the 17 ProTour teams, said it would refuse to compete with Continental teams that do not adopt the anti-doping measure. "The 17 ProTour teams will only agree to race against teams from the Professional ranks (Continental teams) if they adopt the biological passport for their riders," said the IPCT statement.

I just crawled out of bed after two days of racing and for some funny reason I’m sore. Back, legs, triceps, ego. They all tingle with a slightly bruised sensation. Now, unless you consider repeated swigs of beer followed by swallowing fat-laden hors d’oeuvres a unique type of interval training, I haven’t done much to keep myself in race shape since U.S. cyclocross nationals, and let me tell you, I could feel the burn. Although I suffered like an American cross racer in Belgium (hey, wait a sec’) it felt great to have my tubies rolling on foreign soil.

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Dear Readers,
Two weeks ago, we received a letter to the editor from Darin Baer asking about the availability of insurance for expensive bikes. We received several letters in response, including one asking about protection for the rider. We figured all of it might be a good subject for our legal columnist to take on. - Editor

Dear VeloNews,

Early season European races keep adding top names to their start lists as the 2008 campaign nears closer to opening. Spain’s Vuelta a Murcia, a longtime favorite for Tour de France challengers to kick-start their respective season, will once again see its fair share of marquee riders in 2008. Euskaltel-Euskadi announced this week that Vuelta a España podium man Samuel Sánchez and top-10 Tour de France finisher Mikel Astarloza will both be among the starters for the orange-clad Basques.

A Spanish judge has ordered the French daily Le Monde to pay a fine of 300,000 euros ($440,000) to FC Barcelona after it reported that the soccer team was linked to the Operación Puerto doping scandal. The ruling stems from stories published December 7 and 8, 2006, when the paper reported that several of the top soccer team’s stars were working with controversial Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, the ringleader of the alleged blood doping ring. The paper couldn’t back up the claims and was subsequently sued by the club, one of the most powerful in European soccer.

Team CSC had already closed out its lineup for 2008, but 24-year-old Lasse Bøchman was so impressive at the team’s training camp this month in Mallorca that team boss Bjarne Riis decided to offer him a contract.

Thomas Voeckler knows he’ll never win the Tour de France, but he’d sure love to win a stage someday. Voeckler rose to prominence with his brave run in the maillot jaune in the 2004 Tour de France. Since then, he’s been trying to confirm that scrappy performance with a stage victory. Despite some daring attacks and close calls, he’s come up empty in the hunt for the rare Tour stage win. Voeckler, 28, enters the 2008 campaign as one of the top riders at Bouygues Telecom, the French team lacking GC contenders but packed with riders eager to make a mark on the race.

Self Portrait in Ocotillo CA

L. H. “Ronnie” Thomson, president of the L.H. Thomson Company, died on Sunday. He was 68. Thomson was born on January 17, 1939, in Byron, Georgia. An entrepreneur, inventor, and philanthropist, he was best known in cycling circles for the high-end seat posts and stems his company made. The L.H. Thomson Company holds numerous patents on its components, and has sold more than 1 million Thomson-label products.

Retired Dutch cyclist Michael Boogerd and his former teammate Denis Menchov have denied any connection to a laboratory targeted by anti-doping authorities for storing athletes' blood. The duo were among a number of athletes, including former Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen and a number of biathletes and cross country skiers, named in a report Tuesday by German television channel ARD as clients of Vienna-based laboratory Humanplasma.

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