Columbia-Highroad’s Ina-Yoko Teutenberg on Monday took her second win in this year's Tour de l'Aude — her 17th career win in the French stage race. American Amber Neben (Nurnberger Versicherung) maintained her overall lead in the 10-day race, which has one more day of relatively flat racing before hitting the mountains on Wednesday. Teutenberg avoided a last-kilometer crash to come away with the stage 3 win.

Columbia-Highroad’s Ina-Yoko Teutenberg on Monday took her second win in this year's Tour de l'Aude — her 17th career win in the French stage race. American Amber Neben (Nurnberger Versicherung) maintained her overall lead in the 10-day race, which has one more day of relatively flat racing before hitting the mountains on Wednesday. Teutenberg avoided a last-kilometer crash to come away with the stage 3 win.

One team that’s been uncharacteristically quiet so far through this Giro d’Italia is Saxo Bank. The former CSC squad is usually at the sharp end of the Giro peloton, riding to victory with Ivan Basso in 2006 and second with Andy Schleck in 2007. This year, however, the team came without a strong GC candidate and is taking a different approach to the season’s first grand tour.

Mark Cavendish kept the Columbia-Highroad party rolling on Sunday, delivering the team’s third consecutive victory in the controversial stage in Milan. Cavendish out-kicked Allan Davis (Quick Step) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) to win for the first time in the 2009 Giro. Here’s what Cavendish had to say after the victory: How important was it for you to win today?

What was supposed to be celebration of cycling in the heart of Milan turned into a bitter farce Sunday after riders angrily neutralized the 165km ninth stage for what they labeled a dangerous circuit. Mark Cavendish gave Columbia-Highroad its third consecutive victory, but the protesting peloton only raced the final 10km as all sides started pointing fingers at one another. A day after Spanish rider Pedro Horrillo plummeted nearly 150 feet into a ravine and spent the night in a medically induced coma, a week’s worth of nervous racing reached the boiling point for the rattled peloton.

Just over a week ago Team Saxo Bank’s Matthew Goss was anxiously awaiting the start of his first ever grand tour. Goss, of Australia, has decided to share much of his grand tour debut through his own words as recorded within his training journal, along with his power and heart rate data collected from his SRM power meter. Stay tuned for more updates as told by Matthew as he endures one of the world’s hardest sporting events.

Opportunistic

Columbia-Highroad’s juggernaut at the 2009 Giro d’Italia continued Saturday as Kanstantsin Sivtsov used a bold solo breakaway late in the 208km stage to deliver a stunning solo victory 21 seconds clear of the hungry pack. Columbia almost made it a podium sweep, with Friday’s winner Edvald Boasson Hagen taking his second runner-up spot in three days while Michael Rogers was pipped by race leader Danilo Di Luca (LPR) for third.

The days have been long but fruitful. We have ridden more kilometers in the last week than most cyclists ride in a month, yet the hours in the saddle still seem to be passing quickly. The stages raced are slowly becoming a blur as our travel is incessant and every movement begins to blend together. What highlights the stages and separates them in my memory are our triumphs. It seems that all we have been doing the last week is eating, riding, sitting in the bus and sleeping. And, somehow, it seems we are eating and riding more than we are sitting or sleeping.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but there is a lot more to riding bikes than just training for the next race. And while I know that might sound obvious, for me anyway, that simple truth got lost for a little while. During the last year, I’ve been willingly immersed in an exciting new world of power meters, intervals, thresholds and watts. I trained indoors on powder days, bailed on friendly group rides so I could stick to my workout plan, and skipped a few Friday night bacchanals so I’d be fresh for Saturday’s ’cross race.

Columbia-Highroad knew its young steed Edvald Boasson Hagen would probably win a stage in his Giro d’Italia debut, they just didn’t expect it so soon. Sport director Ralf Aldag thought Boasson Hagen, who turns 22 on Sunday, would be a factor in breakaways in the second half of the Giro. But just a day after sprinting to second, the tall Norwegian outfoxed a veteran group of five riders to hand Columbia-Highroad another stage victory.

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Michele Scarponi (Diquigiovanni) soloed home an impressive victory Thursday to leave the chasing peloton in his rear-view mirror in the 2009 Giro d’Italia’s first successful breakaway.   Despite a frenetic chase by Quick Step and Katusha, the sprightly Italian held out after 198km in a five-man move in the 248km sixth stage over two rated climbs to the posh Austrian ski town of Mayrhofen. He won by 32 seconds clear of an impressive Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-Highroad).  

Wednesday’s short but explosive climbing stage across the heart of the Dolomiti lived up to its dramatic backdrop at the Giro d’Italia.   The serpentine 24.9km climb up the snow-choked Alpi di Suisi summit at the end of the 125km fifth stage played executioner for some big names and culled the list of would-be winners down to a baker’s dozen.  

While the Tour de France is formulaic in its structure, the Giro is a mishmash of stages. Four days into the race and there have been three different leaders, challenging finishes and varied terrain. The Tour doesn’t reach the mountains until the end of the first week whereas here, in Italy, we rode into the sharp white-faced Dolomites today. And from here on, the race will not relent.

I’m back.

Tuesday’s first mountain stage provided an interesting antipasti of who’s going to be the main attraction in this centenary Giro d’Italia.   Danilo Di Luca (LPR), the 2007 Giro champion, sprinted to victory ahead of 2000 Giro winner Stefano Garzelli (Acqua e Sapone) out of an elite group of about 40 riders to remind everyone that he’s still a force to reckon with.  

Rarely has a modern grand tour entered the mountains as early as does this year’s Giro. After a brief team time trial and two flattish stages disrupted by crashes (because of the maximum-size field of 198 riders racing on narrow, technical finishing circuits), the three-week race heads for the Dolomites on Tuesday.

There’s never a dull moment at the Giro d’Italia.   Just when it seemed like things were bordering on routine, all hell broke loose and the final 50km of the 198km march from Grado to Valdobbiadene turned into a crash derby.   Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream) was the primary victim, crashing out with a broken rib with about 50km to go before another spill with about 12km to go completely blocked the entire breadth of the road just as the peloton ramped up for the sprint.

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This year, Ted King is making his professional European racing debut with the upstart Cervélo TestTeam.

On the final day of the Joe Martin Stage Race, a technical criterium with over 100 feet of climbing per one-mile lap, OUCH-Maxxis played perfect defense to secure Rory Sutherland’s third consecutive victory. At the race’s finish, it was Team Type 1’s Chris Jones and Luis Amaran of Colavita-Sutter Home emerging from the remnants of a 10-rider break to finish first and second in the stage, respectively. Amaran’s teammate, Lucas Sebastian Haedo, won the field sprint, putting him on the podium for the third time in the three days.

Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Caisse d'Epargne) won the Four Days of Dunkirk following Sunday's sixth and final stage. Andre Greipel (Columbia-Highroad) took the 172.3km finale in a sprint finish ahead of Jurgen Roelandts (Silence-Lotto) and Frenchman Sebastien Chavanel (Française des Jeux). Da Costa, who assumed the overall lead on Saturday, became the first Portuguese to win the event. The 22-year-old turned pro just two years ago with the modest Benfica team before switching to Caisse d'Epargne.

Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) has won 164 races during his long career, but his relegation of British sprint ace Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad) to second on Sunday was one of his sweetest victories. Only the 2005 Milan-San Remo and his first career Giro stage win in 2003 — versus Mario Cipollini — mean more to the 35-year-old, who was back in the Giro d’Italia winner’s circle Sunday for the first time since serving his controversial racing ban last year.

“It was tense from the word go,” said Mike Tamayo, director of OUCH-Maxxis, the team leading the Joe Martin Stage Race heading into Saturday’s 92-mile circuit race. But despite a breakaway containing many of the top general classification riders staying away late into the race, at the finish it was again Colavita-Sutter Home’s Lucas Sebastian Haedo placing first in a large field sprint ahead of Johnathan Cantwell (Fly V-Successful Living) and Nic Sanderson (Rock Racing).

The University of Vermont won for a second day in a row at the collegiate national road championships on Saturday. UVM's Colin Jaskiewicz took the Division 1 men's criterium win at the race in downtown Fort Collins, Colorado, the day after teammates Jamey Driscoll and Will Dugan went 1-2 in the road race.

Mark Cavendish was cool as a cat as he watched team after team fall short of besting Columbia-Highroad on the flat 20.5km course in Lido di Venezia. The Cannonball had plenty of time to consider he was about to become the first British rider to wear the maglia rosa. Columbia started first among 22 teams and he had to wait nearly two hours to secure the victory until Giro rookie Lance Armstrong led final-team Astana across the line 13 seconds short.

The University of Vermont took the top two spots at the division I men’s Collegiate National championship road race on Friday, while Carla Swart (Lees-McRae College) repeated in the D1 women’s road race title. In Division 2, Princeton's Nick Frey solo'd for the men’s title, while Emma Bast (Mount Holyoke College) took the sprint in the women's race.

With Mark Cavendish primed for the sprints, and Michael Rogers and Thomas Lövkvist riding with no pressure for the GC, Columbia-Highroad has its bases covered on the eve of the Giro d’Italia. The squad brings a balanced team with a heavy emphasis on stage victories and breakaways with no pressure but quiet ambition to perform well in the GC.

A deluge of early morning rain dampened Fayetteville’s Ozark Mountain roads on the Friday morning prior to the 110-mile second stage of the Joe Martin Stage Race. When the skies finally parted, it was OUCH-Maxxis’s Rory Sutherland outsprinting a large field to take second place behind Colavita-Sutter Home-Cooking Light’s Lucas Sebastian Haedo. Sutherland secured the overall lead in the process via a 10-second time bonus.

Weeks of hype and anticipation culminate Saturday as the centennial celebration of cycling’s most colorful and emotional race finally clicks into gear. The Giro d’Italia is celebrating its 100th birthday with all the raw emotion, intense passion and hard-edged racing that makes the Italian grand tour one of the season’s highlights. Stepping center-stage with aplomb is Lance Armstrong, back in his first grand tour since winning the 2005 Tour de France.

In 2007, when Team Bissell’s Ben Jacques-Maynes raced to a fifth place finish at the Joe Martin Stage Race’s uphill, 2 1/2-mile time trial, he said time trial bikes were the norm. “This year I show up and everyone’s on road bikes with light wheels,” Jacques-Maynes said. “I know my time trial bike is light and I can get it up a hill just fine. There’s a half mile of flat road before the climb starts, and being in your time trial position for that section can be the one-second between winning and losing.”

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Garmin-Slipstream’s Giro d’Italia starts upside down, with the team’s most important stage coming on day 1 and everything else after that being a bonus in the three-week Italian grand tour starting Saturday. With that in mind, the American team lines up with a loaded squad that should bring more firepower in the team’s quest to defend its title in the team time trial in the opening stage in Venice.

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The Italian L.P.R. Brakes team appears to have its bases covered for the upcoming Giro d’Italia. The team will boast the firepower of Alessandro Petacchi in the sprint stages and then work for 2007 champion Danilo Di Luca for the overall title. Sprint ace Petacchi will be back in his first grand tour since the 2007 Vuelta a España following his controversial ban for high levels of the asthma medication Salbutamol. A winner of 19 Giro stages, Petacchi will also take aim for the points jersey.

With the season’s first grand tour clicking into gear this weekend, there’s not a lot on the international calendar this week. Stage races in France and Poland are the main highlights, along with the fifth leg of the women’s World Cup this weekend in Switzerland. Otherwise, all eyes will be on the buildup for the Giro d’Italia, starting Saturday in Venice. Tuesday to Sunday

Dear Readers,
I’m in the Denver airport about to fly to Italy for the Giro d’Italia. I have enjoyed a lot of the feedback from a few recent columns, and I thought you might as well. Next time you hear from me will be from the Giro, so look for some cool bikes for the team time trial soon.
Lennard

Colavita-Sutter Home teammates Kyle Wamsley and Tina Pic both needed the finish-line camera to confirm their respective victories in Sunday's Global BMW Sandy Springs Criterium in Sandy Springs, Georgia. The photo finish in the men's USA CRITS Speed Week finale gave Wamsley the edge over Ken Hanson (Team Type 1) and Andrew Pinfold (OUCH-Maxxis), while Pic took the win from Kori Seehafer (Team Type 1) and Brooke Miller (Team Tibco). It was so close at the line that a weary Wamsley didn’t even realize he had won until announcer Chad Andrews congratulated him on the victory.

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Czech rider Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) won the Tour of Romandie after the fifth and final stage which was won by three-time world champion Oscar Freire in Geneva on Sunday. Freire scored his second win in the Swiss stage race in bunch sprint for his Rabobank team holding off the threat of promising young American Tyler Farrar of the Garmin team. Kreuziger, an up-and-coming stage race specialist who is only 23 years old, won the Tour of Switzerland last year having finished runner-up in the 2008 edition of the Tour of Romandie.

Moving one step up on the winner’s podium from his place in 2008, Karl Menzies of the OUCH Pro Cycling Team beat out Colavita-Sutter Home speedster Kyle Wamsley to win the 2009 installment of the Sunny King Criterium in Anniston, Alabama Saturday. “This is a great town (to race in).” Menzies said after his win. “I finished second here last year to Hilton Clarke, and I didn’t want to finish second here again.” Despite early bouts of heavy showers, the weather was once again ideal for racing by the time the pro squads took to the 1.1 km course.

VeloNews, along with two other reporters, sat down with Chris Horner, Levi Leipheimer and Lance Armstrong Saturday morning at the house where they're bunked, up in the hills outside of Silver City, New Mexico.

The UCI mountain bike World Cup heads to the Ardennes region of Belgium this weekend as the town of Houffalize adds four-cross to its popular off-road menu. Houffalize’s history in the World Cup dates back to 1992, and the venue has become a favorite among riders and spectators. Each year tens of thousands of fans fill the small town, which sits in a deep valley 25 miles northeast of Bastogne, to drink beer, ride bikes and cheer for their favorite pros.

Colavita's Lucas Sebastian Haedo won a field sprint to end Thursday's second stage of the SRAM Tour of the Gila in New Mexico, as Levi Leipheimer finished in the lead pack to retain his overall lead heading into Friday's time trial stage. Leipheimer's teammates on the Mellow Johnny's team, Lance Armstrong and Chris Horner, slaved at the front of the pack for much of the day, keeping in check a four-man breakaway containing Floyd Landis (OUCH-Maxxis).

Three-time world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank) won the second stage of the Tour de Romandie on Thursday after a breakaway by teammates Cadel Evans and Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) was stifled just a few kilometers before the finish line. The Silence-Lotto duo took advantage of the hilly course around northwestern Switzerland to break away on the final climb near the town of La Chaux-de-Fonds. But Evans, the 2006 Romandie winner, and Gilbert were reeled in by the peloton led by late entry Alejandro Valverde just four kilometers from the finish.

Did they come to race or train? The "Mellow Johnny's" team — AKA Astana's Levi Leipheimer, Lance Armstrong and Chris Horner — just couldn't resist going for the win Wednesday at the SRAM Tour of the Gila. Leipheimer sprang from a disintegrating pack on the finish climb, taking a clear win ahead of young phenom Peter Stetina (Felt-Holowesko Partners-Garmin) and recently-rehired Chris Baldwin (Rock Racing). Leipheimer said he had some doubts about whether the team should go for the win so early in the five-day race.

One big breakaway and a stage victory can change everything for a professional cyclist. Just ask Simon Gerrans, a fifth-year pro at Cervélo TestTeam who scored a breakthrough win in last year’s Tour de France in stage 15 to Prato Nevoso in Italy.

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Veteran sprinter Tina Pic (Colavita-Sutter Home) scored a sixth victory in the Historic Roswell Criterium on Sunday while relative newcomer Tom Soladay (Team Mountain Khakis) took a surprise win from a field of hardcore sprinters. The event was the second in the USA CRITS Speedweek series and the sixth on the 2009 National Racing Calendar.

The dust is still settling following Sunday’s exciting conclusion of the spring classics with Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but there’s no time for the European peloton to catch its breath. There’s a full menu of racing this week in what’s a transition between the one-day spring classics into the season’s first major grand tour, with the centenary Giro d’Italia looming in Venice on May 9.

In stark contrast to the gentle winds coming off of the Pacific Ocean just below the race course, Rahsaan Bahati (Rock Racing) and Nikki Butterfield (Webcor Builders) both powered out of their respective fields to win bunch sprints in the Dana Point Grand Prix in the Southern California city of Dana Point on Sunday afternoon.

Andy Shleck times his attack to perfection on the Côte de la Roche aux Faucons and rides alone to victory in the 95th La Doyenne

The Little 500 in Bloomington, Indiana, has many traditions and teams that are contenders every year. There have even been what people consider dynasties in the race, such as the Delta Chi teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Out of that program came some disgruntled riders who decided to form their own independent team in 1984, calling themselves the Cutters, after the fictional team from the movie "Breaking Away." They won the race that year and the team has gone on to win eight more times since, including the past two years.

Heath Blackgrove took a surprise victory at the 30th running of the Athens Twilight Criterium Saturday in downtown Athens, Georgia. The Team Hotel San Jose rider was one of three survivors from a large breakaway late in the 80km race that refused to cooperate long enough to secure its survival to the finish. “It’s the biggest crit in America, and I’ve heard a lot of stories about it. So to win the first time doing it, with a crowd like this, is pretty special,” he said.

Garmin-Slipstream sprinter Tyler Farrar will return to racing next week after recovering from a shoulder injury that sidelined him during the spring classics. Farrar suffered an AC separation during a crash at Milan-San Remo and will race the Tour de Romandie (April 28-May 3) before a likely start at the Giro d’Italia next month. “The shoulder has healed up so I’m getting back in the game,” Farrar told VeloNews. “I’m currently down to ride the Giro, so Romandie is a way to get my legs going again before Italy.”

Big time criterium racing returns to the southeastern United States as it does every year at this time with two major events scheduled back to back in the Peach state of Georgia – Saturday’s Athens Twilight Criterium and the Historic Roswell Criterium the following day. The 30th running of the Athens Twilight Criterium will once again take place beneath the streetlights of one of the South’s biggest college towns. Because of its proximity to the University of Georgia, the crowds around the 1km course can on occasion reach the 40,000 mark.

Luxembourger Frank Schleck has been cleared to start Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège after crashing hard at last week’s Amstel Gold Race. “I joined the boys for a ride down in Bastogne [today] and it’s the first day I have felt better,” Schleck said. “I have one more day to get better and I hope to make the best of it.”

It was the battle of the uphill sprint specialists in Friday’s third stage at the Giro del Trentino with South African Robbie Hunter (Barloworld) winning for the third time this season. Hunter had the most gas in the tank to fend off Stefano Garzelli (Acqua e Sapone) to win the 160km course with a rising finishing into Innervillgraten as the four-day race dipped into Austria. Danilo Di Luca crossed the line third despite efforts by his LPR team to dominate the stage.

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Cervélo sprinter Thor Hushovd will skip this year's Giro d'Italia to concentrate fully on his bid for stage wins and another run at the green jersey at the Tour de France in July. Hushovd, a former Tour stage winner and green points jersey recipient, had a solid spring classics season with two third places at Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix and a victory in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

Dutchwoman Marianne Vos (DSB Bank) attacked inside of 200 meters remaining on the Mur de Huy and never looked back, sprinting to her third-career victory at the La Flèche Wallonne Femenine, the fourth round of the 2009 UCI World Cup. Vos out-kicked World Cup leader Emma Johanson of Sweden for the win. American Amber Neben (Nürnberger) was the top North American finisher in fourth place.

There’s no secret why Davide Rebellin pointed to his head after winning his third La Flèche Wallonne title on Wednesday. The Italian veteran proved he had the legs to summit the Mur de Huy alongside the other strongmen of the Ardennes races. But it was the cagy Italian’s brains that earned him the winning margin on the slopes of the feared climb. “It might just be the best of my three wins," Rebellin said. “I've been working hard in that respect (climbing)."

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All eyes will be on Dutchwoman Marianne Vos at Wednesday’s La Fleche Wallonne Femenine, the women’s component of Fleche-Wallonne. Vos is the two-time defending champion of the women’s race, which this year marks the fourth round of the UCI women’s World Cup. And Vos won the last World Cup, the Ronde van Drenthe, held in her home country on April 13.

Statistics can’t quite illustrate the challenge posed by the Mur de Huy, the final climb of La Fleche Wallonne. Sure, the climb’s average gradient is 9.3 percent. The road soars up 420 feet over the course of three-quarters of a mile. One particularly nasty ramp hits 25 percent. And the climb comes at the tail end of a five-hour race.

Dutch racer Theo Bos says he feels sick about Sunday’s crash in the final kilometer of the Presidential Tour of Turkey. His crash with yellow jersey wearer Daryl Impey (Barloworld) has generated a huge amount of Internet chatter and calls for Bos to be punished for his role in it.

Beer wasn't atop my list of cravings as I inched up the Cauberg, rolled under the jumbotron and crossed the final finish line of the Amstel Gold Race cyclosportive. Pedaling 250 kilometers through Hollands hilly Limberg region had me wanting to get off my bicycle – pronto. The freezing rain that fell for the final two hours also didn't exactly put yours truly in the mood for some chilly suds. And after stuffing waffles and the sugary Euro sports drink Isostar down my pie hole for 10 hours, I craved something salty: corn chips, popcorn or frites.

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The Ardennes classics at Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastone-Liège dominate the European racing calendar this week. Race organizers wisely get out of the way and let these two behemoths take center stage in an exciting finale to the spring classics season. In Italy, the Giro del Trentino serves as a preview of who’s on form for the upcoming Giro d’Italia while the women’s World Cup continues with the Flèche Wallonne Féminine on Wednesday.

Wednesday, April 22

What is one to make of a season that has involved multiple crashes while also riding on the best form of a near 20-year professional career? If you’re Chris Horner, you look at the glass half full. The always-smiling Horner, the number-three American on an all-star Astana team that also features Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer, departed the Tour of the Basque Country earlier this month after a crash sent him flying over his handlebar and sliding under a guardrail, injuring his right shoulder.

Sergei Ivanov (Katusha) won the 44th edition of the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday in a dramatic two-up sprint with Saxo Bank's Karsten Kroon as a frantic chase fell just a few seconds short of success. "For me it's the biggest win of my career," said a clearly delighted Ivanov after emerging the strongest of a final three-man break that also included Robert Gesink (Rabobank), who hung on for third on the steeps of the Cauberg, just a few seconds ahead of the charging peloton.

Evelyn Stevens (CRCA/Radical Media) out sprinted a seven-woman breakaway to win the 62-mile women's Pro-1-2-3 race at the Tour of the Battenkill Saturday. Stevens, in her second year of racing, also won the Valley of the Sun road race in Arizona in February. The 200km (124-mile) men's pro invitational race will be held Sunday. In Saturday's 82-mile pro-am men's race, Chad Beyer (BMC) outsprinted Bissell's Tom Zirbel to take the win. Team Type 1's Ken Hanson was third. [nid:90864]

Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Columbia-Highroad) sprinted to victory Ronde Van Gelderland in the Netherlands on Saturday to claim her 11th win of the 2009 season.   Teutenberg worked into the decisive 13-rider breakaway with two Columbia-Highroad teammates that pulled clear in the opening 20km. The group came back after the break lost momentum and there were a flurry of counter-attacks until it regrouped with 10km to go to set up a mass gallop.