Team Rubicon-ORBEA, presently known as Land Rover-ORBEA; Benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation, a first year UCI-continental team, is in search of a title sponsor. Rubicon’s two-year partnership with Land Rover will end December 31st, 2009. In order to continue with the team goals for 2010, the team needs to come up with a title sponsor by November 5th.
After one cyclist slammed into the rear of his car and vaulted over it into oncoming traffic, and another crashed through his rear window, Dr. Christopher Thomas Thompson called 911 and told the operator, “They’ll tell you they are seriously injured, but they’re not.”
Kona’s Ryan Trebon and Barry Wicks went one-two at Sunday’s cold and windy Wissahickon Cross in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, while Luna’s Georgia Gould won by a large margin. The women started off the UCI double-header, and despite the storm that turned the previous day’s Granogue course into a quagmire, the circuit at Wissahickon remained solid, though somewhat cooler than normal.
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Ryan Trebon (Kona) and Georgia Gould (Luna Pro Team) came out on top in the slop at Granogue Cross on Sunday. Suburban Wilmington, Delaware, felt more like northern Europe as riders lined up in 40-degree temperatures and drizzle to tackle a thick slime of mud brought on by three days of steady rainfall. Since 2001, the Granogue course has gained a reputation for its relentless punchy climbs, tricky off-camber descents and searing run-ups, but the addition of greasy mud added a new level of challenge to the UCI Cat 2 event.
Fort Lewis College and Brevard College clinched the Divisions I and II team omniums as the 2009 USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships in California.
The Zipp OVCX Tour paused in Bloomington, Indiana, on Sunday for a quick dive through an untraditional mix of fast single-track, multiple bridges, a paved climb and some sloppy field sections, with fall colors in full bloom. In the elite men’s field it was harvest time with no time to enjoy the landscape as OVCX leader Mitchell Kersting (Bob’s Red Mill) sprinted from the start and never looked back.
Popular Portland ‘crosser Molly Cameron (Portland Bicycle Studio) took the win during the Cross Crusade Sunday in Sherwood when series leader Sean Babcock (Team S&M) flatted in the closing laps of the Men’s A race. Despite taking a tumble on the last lap, masters national champion Wendy Williams (Hudz-Subaru) continued her dominance over the Women’s A field when she won her third straight in another tight back-and-forth battle with Veloforma’s Alice Pennington.
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Natasha Elliott (Garneau) made it two for two on Sunday, winning the second round of the Toronto International Cyclocross, while Jeremy Powers led a Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com sweep of the podium. It was another course entirely that the field tackled on Sunday — instead of square mazes and a climb up the ski hill, racers faced flowing, off-camber turns, spiced with a bit of sand and mud to keep the spectators happy.
Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) and Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli won their respective events at the 28th Chrono des Nations on Sunday in Les Herbiers, France. Vinokourov covered the 48.7km men's course in 1:00:09, 1:07 ahead of French time trial champion Jean-Christophe Péraud (Creusot Cyclisme). Yuriy Krivtsov (Ag2r) finished third at 1:12. It was Vinokourov’s second win of the season and his first for Astana. His victory in the time trial of the Tour de l’Ain came as he rode for a Kazakh national team.
Fort Lewis College and Brevard College posted strong results Saturday at the Colliegiate Mountain Bike National Championships, gaining leads in the Divisions I and II team omnium competitions.
Kurt-Asle Arvesen will race next season for the new British cycling outfit Team Sky, his Saxo Bank team announced on Sunday. The 34-year-old Norwegian champion has raced for the Danish team run by Bjarne Riis since 2004. Arvesen, who won stage 11 of the Tour de France in 2008, was forced to withdraw from this year's Tour after breaking a collarbone in a heavy crash on stage 10.
If Bradley Wiggins is going to ride for Team Sky in 2010, you won’t hear it from him. The British rider is midway through a two-year deal with Garmin-Slipstream but has been heavily linked to the new ProTour team —an organization born with the mission statement of producing a British Tour de France winner in the next five years.
World champion Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) won the second round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup on Sunday in Pizen, Czech Republic. On a circuit made more difficult by a steady rain, Albert took his second consecutive World Cup win in 1:05:13 with Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) second at 19 seconds back. Zdenek Stybar (Telenet-Fidea) finished third at 0:21. American Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) finished 13th at 1:37. Niels leads the World Cup standings with 160 points. Stybar is second with 135 and Klass Vantornout (Sunweb Pro Job) third with 115.
Spanish head-banger Davide de la Fuente is close to penning a deal that will put him in an Astana jersey in 2010. According to the Spanish daily MARCA, all that’s missing is the signature to close the deal that will add some needed firepower to the depleted Astana roster for next season. The arrival of de la Fuente, a hard-nosed rider capable of winning one-day races and sneaking into breakaways, would be good news for Alberto Contador.