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The Rocky Mountain Bicycle Show kicked off its second year on Saturday at Denver’s National Western Complex. Eye candy abounded, and a steady stream of visitors kept the 70 or so exhibitors busy talking most of the day. Free microbrew samples ensured that spirits were high, and the relative coolness of the vast hall sheltered visitors and exhibitors alike from the 96-degree heat outside.

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) took the leader's jersey from Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) after placing second in Sunday’s fifth stage of the Eneco Tour behind Lars Bak (Saxo Bank). Bak made his dash for the line 5km out to edge Boasson Hagen by two seconds with Italian Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre-N.G.C.) third. Farrar missed out in the late breakaway and came in 30 seconds adrift to see Hagen pass him overall by 15 seconds following the 204.3km stage to Sirrard in the Netherlands.

Russell Downing (Candi TV) stuck it to the ProTour squads at the Tour of Ireland Sunday, escaping on the weather-shortened circuits of Cork to take the overall win and second on the stage behind Norway’s former road and cross-country champion Lars Petter Nordhaug (Joker-Bianchi). Saxo Bank animated the rain-drenched stage from Bantry along the southern coast to Cork. With five riders within shooting distance of the GC, the Danish ProTour team stacked many of the day’s early breaks and pushed the pace.

Tour de France stage-winner Juan Manuel Garate will be part of Rabobank’s starting nine for the upcoming Vuelta a España. Garate, who won atop Mont Ventoux ahead of Tony Martin (Columbia-HTC), crashed during the Clásica San Sebastián earlier this month and broke a finger. He’s been able to recover in time and will be at the start line Saturday in Assen, Holland for the commencement of the 64th Vuelta. The presence of the veteran Spanish climber brings added firepower to the strong Rabobank squad for the season’s third and final grand tour.

Martin Reimer isn’t a household cycling name. Yet. The 22-year-old Cervélo TestTeam rider captured his first pro win in his rookie year at the German national championships in June. This weekend he’s riding in the Tour of Ireland, where on Saturday he placed sixth on stage 2 behind Mark Cavendish. As with the other Cervélo riders in Ireland, Reimer hopes to help teammate Philip Deignan win a stage or climb up the general classification. After placing fourth on stage 1, Deignan sits fourth overall headed into the final stage Sunday.

Veteran Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi has penned a two-year deal to join Lampre. That’s according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, which reported that the 35-year-old from La Spezia is set to jump back into the ProTour ranks for 2010-11 with the Lampre squad. The move is significant for Petacchi because it will allow him back into the most important races on the calendar, including the Tour de France, which he hasn’t raced since 2003.

Felt-Holowesko's Alex Howes has a unique way of signaling attack, but riders might take note in the future if the reigning U23 road champion opts for unusual nutritional choices near the finish of a race. On Sunday, near the end of the tough 153km fourth stage, Howes bit off a hunk of hot dog and shot away from the day's long breakaway to take his first NRC win on the mountaintop finish at Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort at the 2009 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. [nid:96996]

Liquigas-Doimo heads to the 64th Vuelta a España with a strong team and even stronger ambitions. Led by GC threats Ivan Basso and Roman Kreuziger, Liquigas will start the Spanish tour with high hopes for a shot at overall victory as well as stage victories with the likes of Daniele Bennati and Manuel Quinziato.

British rider Emma Pooley (Cervélo) won Saturday’s GP de Plouay in a solo move in the ninth round of the 10-race World Cup series. Pooley won 2:30 ahead of the nearest rival after leaving the pack behind in a lone breakaway of more than 50km. The Olympic time trial silver medalist was surprised she hung on to win. Nicole Cooke gave chase on the last lap at the Cote de Kerihuel, but the Olympic champion couldn’t hold the pace, and Pooley stayed clear to claim her second World Cup win of the year.

The final race on the 2009 Pro GRT will be the Whiteface 5K Downhill, Aug. 30 in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Lance Armstrong isn’t the only man racing at the Tour of Ireland who has already retired once from the sport. British rider Malcolm Elliott came back in 2003 at the age of 41, and he doesn’t intend to quit after this season, either. Elliott turned pro in 1984 with Raleigh-Weinmann. He came to the attention of American cycling fans in 1993 when he joined Chevrolet-LA Sheriffs.

Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) did what he does best at the end of stage 2 of the Tour of Ireland. After a fast, slightly downhill leadout from his man Bernie Eisel, Cavendish turned on the afterburners to take the victory ahead of Rabobank’s Michael Van Staeyen and Saxo Bank’s Stuart O’Grady. “It’s great to win,” Cavendish said. “It was a tough circuit but once the peloton came back together we took control with 2km to go.”

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) won the fourth stage of the Eneco Tour on Saturday, his third victory of the stage race through the Benelux countries. Farrar, further secured his hold on the overall leader’s jersey, outsprinting Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia) and Italian Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre). Farrar also won the first and second stages. Sunday’s fifth stage covers 204.3 kilometers over many of the same roads included in the Amstel Gold Race. The Eneco Tour ends Tuesday, with a 13.1km time trial in Amersfoort, in Holland.

If money hadn’t been tight at this year’s Tour of Ireland, Lance Armstrong and the other notables in the field would have been tracing the wheelmarks of Irish legends Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche in a historic time trial. But the world’s economic downtown forced the organizers to shorten their race from five to three days. “Our biggest regret was cutting the time-trial stage,” race development director Darach McQuaid toldVeloNews. “We were going to repeat the famous time trial from Carrick-on-Suir to Clonmel.”

The top ten of the general classification at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah after the stage 3 individual time trial is filled with familiar names – Mancebo, Baldwin, Bookwalter. One name in that top ten is making waves in the Beehive State this week – that of fifth-place Kelly Benefit Strategies rookie Matthew Busche.