After eleven years overseeing USA Cycling’s junior development camps you’d think Barney King would have some crazy stories; maybe a zinger about kids sneaking out of dorm windows or losing someone on a ride. “About the only thing I can think of is a broken collarbone a few years ago.” That’s it. Really. Yet at this year’s camp, held last week at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, one comes to understand that a lack of surprises is just how King likes it. “We try to run a smooth camp. No surprises.”

BH Bikes USA president and CEO Chris Cocalis stopped by the VeloNews office this week to show the new BH G5 frame and fork, which will be debuted at the Tour de France by Team AG2R-LaMondial this weekend. If the G5 bike is any predictor of the team’s pending performance, expect AG2R riders to be climbing and sprinting to victories left and right.

BH Bikes – Big in Spain, still growing in the USA

Tyler Farrar will be something of an oddity when he lines up Saturday for his Tour de France debut – an American sprinter. For the first time in several years, since Fred Rodriguez lined up at Mapei and later at Silence-Lotto, an American will have a legitimate shot at winning a bunch sprint in the Tour. And unlike Rodriguez, who rode his last Tours in support of Robbie McEwen, Farrar will see strong support from his Garmin-Slipstream teammates. Veteran lead-out man Julian Dean will be Farrar’s guide through the high-speed duel of nerves and speed.

Team sport directors are rallying their opposition to plans to ban race radio during two stages during the upcoming Tour de France. Representatives from some of the top teams Monday criticized efforts by Tour officials to ban the use of earpieces and radio links between sport directors and racers during two stages at this year’s race, calling the measure “outdated and inappropriate.”

Rock Racing’s Rahsaan Bahati won his third consecutive Manhattan Beach Grand Prix on Sunday. Colavita Sutter-Home p/b Cooking Light rider Lucas Sebastian Haedo took second in the seaside Southern California NRC criterium while Ken Hanson of Team Type 1 placed third. In the women's race, 16-year old Proman Hit Squad rider Coryn Rivera took the win after riding a smart race and outkicking the competition out of the final turn.

With Damiano Cunego giving the Tour de France a skip to prepare for the world championships, Lampre-NGC will instead focus on trying to win stages and leave the fight for the GC to the other teams. The Italian team brings a nine-man squad full of stage-hunters, with the lone exception of veteran Marzio Bruseghin, who will do what he can to try to finish among the top 10 overall. The improving condition of reigning world champion Alessandro Ballan, who missed the spring classics with poor health, gives Lampre a shot to fight for a stage in the breakaways and transition stages.

French veteran Christophe Moreau will headline Agritubel in what’s expected to be his final Tour de France. The 38-year-old Moreau will anchor an Agritubel team that brings a mix of youth and experience that will be on the hunt for stage victories and perhaps a spell in one of the jersey for Moreau’s exit.

Tom Boonen (Quick Step), whose participation in the next Tour de France may depend on a court order, won the Belgian road cycling championships on Sunday. The 28-year-old outsprinted Philippe Gilbert and Kristof Goddart to claim his first national title as an elite on an undulating 234km course that some felt would not favor the big rider’s strengths. "Philippe was the strongest today,” said Boonen. “I had no legs but I raced with my head. I am especially happy for my team, which did a great job.”

Liguigas is betting on youth for the Tour de France overall, with improving youngsters Roman Kreuziger and Vicenzo Nibali selected to head the Italian team’s hopes. With star rider Ivan Basso skipping the Tour to focus on the Vuelta a España later on this season, Kreuziger and Nibali will be aiming to slot into the top 10 overall.

Gert Steegmans ? the Belgian sprinter who’s refused to sign an anti-doping charter that includes hefty penalties for violations ? has been left off Katusha’s nine-man Tour de France team. Steegmans was put on “non-active” status and not included in the Russian team’s nine-man roster. “All I can say is it’s too bad, I can’t say much more on the topic,” Steegmans told the Belgian daily La Derniere Heure. “I cannot answer anymore questions. I am not even sure I am going to be able to race the Belgian championships (Sunday).”

Ten days before the start of the Tour de France is a busy time for any ProTour team manager, but Wednesday was a particularly crazy day for Garmin-Slipstream team manager Jonathan Vaughters. During the same news cycle that reported rumors of Garmin’s interest in signing 2007 Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, the team also released its nine-man Tour roster, leaving off three active riders from last year’s squad.

Garmin-Slipstream brings back some familiar faces with a few new ones for the 2009 Tour de France. The squad released its nine names for next months’ Tour, with Christian Vande Velde as the team captain and Tour debutante Tyler Farrar the man for the sprints. Returning with Vande Velde from last year’s Tour team are David Millar, Ryder Hesjedal, Danny Pate, Dave Zabriskie and Julian Dean. New riders for the team’s Tour hopes this year include Farrar, Irish national champion Dan Martin and Olympic gold medalist Bradley Wiggins.

Milram, the peloton’s lone German team starting the Tour de France, will place its trust and hopes on a pair of young talented but untested riders. Linus Gerdemann and Gerald Ciolek headline Milram’s nine-man Tour squad that includes six German riders.

In a year full of pro cycling surprises — Lance returns, Tyler retires, ASO and the UCI seem to get along — Cervélo’s entrance into the team sponsorship game had to rank high on the unsuspected scale. After a long and fruitful relationship with Bjarne Riis and his CSC squad, the Toronto-based bike company opted to go out on its own and get in the ProTour game. Even more surprising, the new squad managed to sign two of the sports biggest stars in reigning Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre and Norwegian sprint stalwart Thor Hushovd.

The Columbia-Highroad team continued its dominant pace, sweeping the top-three places at the RaboSter Tour in Holland. The three-day event was won for the second year running by Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, taking her 18th victory of the season. Second was Chantal Beltman, just three seconds behind, while prologue winner Linda Villumsen was third at 11 seconds. Columbia-Highroad also finished first in the teams classification, whilst Teutenberg was top rider both in the intermediate sprints and the points competitions.

British climber Emma Pooley (Cervélo TestTeam) wrapped up the Grande Boucle Feminine Internationale after fending off a last-gasp bid by archrival Marianne Vos (DSB Bank) in Sunday’s finale. The Dutch rider Vos won Sunday’s hilly final stage into Anglet, but Pooley was able to mark the moves and finished fourth in a five-up sprint to secure the overall prize of the so-called “women’s Tour de France.” Despite the victory and a 10-second time bonus, Vos couldn’t overcome Pooley.

When national criterium champion Rahsaan Bahati rolls up to the start line of the June 28 Manhattan Beach Grand Prix, he will do so once again as a professional cyclist. Bahati, a two-time winner and the defending champion at Manhattan Beach, signed a pro contract with Rock Racing, the team he has ridden with since 2007, he told VeloNews Friday.

Columbia-Highroad’s André Greipel won his second straight stage win and his ninth win of the season in the Ster-ElektroToer in Holland on Friday, and has now become the race’s overall leader. Greipel was the fastest in the bunch sprint which decided the 179-kilometer hilly stage starting and finishing in Schimmert, outgunning Australian Allan Davis and Slovenian Borut Bozic.

Euskaltel-Euskadi will be hoping for big performances at the Tour de France following relatively lackluster spring campaign.

The Basque Country-based Euskaltel team will ride this year without the services of consistent top-10 threat Haimar Zubeldia (who’s already punched himself a ticket back to the Tour with Astana), so the team will look to Igor Antón and Mikel Astarloza to fill the void.

Astarloza has already finished in the top-10 and rode well to a top-5 finish at the Dauphiné Libéré.

California’s Tour de Nez began Thursday with the downtown Truckee criterium, the first of three days of racing in the 17th edition of the race. Run under sunny skies, warm temperatures and stiff winds, the pro men’s field put on a show for the thousands of assembled fans, as it was Lifetime Fitness/VeloVie rider Chad Gerlach who took the pro men’s race in a one up sprint against Jonathan Baker of the Natural Grocer’s team.

Mark Cavendish earned his second stage win at the Tour of Switzerland on Thursday, the 178 kilometer sixth stage from Oberriet to Bad Zurzach. The 24-year-old Columbia-Highroad rider – winner of four stages in last year's Tour de France – won in a sprint finish ahead of Spain's three-time world road race champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank). Cavendish had already won Monday's stage from Davos to Lumino. "It may have appeared easy but it wasn't that evident to me," said Cavendish. "We had to cope with a second category climb eaarly in the stage and then a strong headwind."

Rabobank will bring a strong and balanced team to the 2009 Tour de France, with a quiver full of stage hunters and podium contender Denis Menchov. It will be interesting to see how Menchov performs in the Tour after being pushed to the limit by Danilo Di Luca to claim a thrilling victory at the Giro d’Italia in May. Third last year at the Tour (after Bernhard Kohl's results are negated), Menchov will be one of the favorites for victory, especially if he can ride as consistently and strongly as he did at the Giro.

Tejay Van Garderen (Rabobank) finished with the bunch on Tuesday to take the overall victory in the Circuito Montañes in northern Spain. Vicente Grau Jorda (Camargo-Ferroatlantica-Floortex) won the 152km seventh stage from Potes to Santander in a bunch sprint ahead of Van Garderen’s teammate Boy Van Poppel, with Jorge Martín Montenegro (Andalucía-Cajasur) third. But Van Garderen crossed safely in 39th place to claim the final leader’s jersey by 35 seconds over Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Orbea). Sergio Pardilla Bellón (Carmiooro-A Style) finished third overall at 1:01.

Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank) triumphed in the fourth stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Tuesday. The Dane held off Astana's Maxim Iglinsky by a whisker to take his third victory of the year in the 195km ride from Biasca to Staefa. Tadej Valjavec (Ag2r-La Mondiale) finished third in the nine-man sprint to take the leader's jersey from Saxo's Fabian Cancellara, who crossed 1:03 down on the escapees. Cancellara had led the race since winning the opening time trial.

The Tour de Suisse takes center stage this week as the “other” grand tour enters its decisive stages in the mountains. Going into Tuesday’s fourth stage, Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) is stubbornly hanging onto the leader’s jersey he earned with victory in the opening prologue and shows no signs of letting go. A string of upcoming mountain stages will put Cancellara to the test. There’s a clutch of other races later this week, with events in Slovenia, France and Holland while women’s racing continues with the Grande Boucle Féminine in France.

Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara held on to the lead of the Tour of Switzerland as Britain's Mark Cavendish powered to victory on the 195.4km third stage on Monday. The 24-year-old from the Isle of Man, who won four stages at last year's Tour de France, produced an impressive decisive surge in the dying meters after Norwegian Thor Hushovd's final dash for the line ran out of steam. As Cavendish soaked up the win, Spanish ace Oscar Freire of Rabobank came through late to leave Cervelo's main sprinter Hushovd in third place. [nid:93406]

The 2009 Nature Valley Grand Prix concluded on Sunday in Stillwater, Minnesota, with a GC shake-up in the men’s race and a win by women’s race leader Kristin Armstrong. Philip Mamos (Amore e Vita) and Armstrong (Cervélo TestTeam) both took stage wins by attacking from small breakaways. Armstrong sealed up her fourth consecutive overall victory with her win, and Rory Sutherland (Ouch) took home his third overall victory in as many years by ousting Tom Zirbel (Bissell) with a late attack.

Judith Arndt (Columbia-Highroad) won Sunday’s finale and secured the overall at the four-day Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira in Spain. After Columbia-Highroad teammate Mara Abbott and rival Claudia Hausler of Germany had attacked on the last climb, Arndt powered across to the two stage leaders on a dangerous rain-soaked descent. Arndt then outpowered Hausler in the final sprint for the line in the town of Orduña, while Abbott took third. It was Arndt’s third stage win in four days, and her first stage race victory since winning the Tour of Tuscany in Italy last September.

Tyler Farrar did what he had to do in to wrap up the overall title at the Delta Tour Zeeland in Holland on Sunday. The Garmin-Slipstream rider sprinted ahead of archrival Alessandro Petacchi (LPR Brakes) in Sunday’s 185km stage, finishing second to winner Robert Wagner (Skil-Shimano), but ahead of Petacchi, who crossed the line third. When the time bonuses were added up, Farrar came out on top, winning the three-day race in southern Holland by 11 seconds ahead of Petacchi. Wagner claimed third overall at 13 seconds back.

There were two races for Bernhard Eisel in Sunday’s 150km second stage at the Tour de Suisse — the first to try to win the stage, and the second to try to confirm a spot on Columbia-Highroad’s highly competitive nine-man Tour de France team. The Austrian sprinter achieved the first and went a long way toward securing the second after out-kicking the bunch in a tightly fought sprint to win Sunday’s romp around Davos.

Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) on Sunday won his second successive Dauphiné Libéré cycling race as Dutchman Stef Clement (Rabobank) won the final stage, a 146km hump from Faverges to Grenoble. American Timothy Duggan (Garmin-Slipstream) took second ahead of Frenchman Sebastien Joly (Française des Jeux), all three having been members of an initial 28-man breakaway. World time-trial champion Bert Grabsch (Columbia-Highroad) enjoyed a long spell at the head of affairs before being reeled in 37km from the finish.

The breakaways finally found success in Saturday’s Mankato Road Race at the 2009 Nature Valley Grand Prix, in Minnesota. Andrew Crater (Wheel & Sprocket) and Alexis Rhodes (Webcor Builders) both delivered wins from small escape groups after 92 miles of aggressive and unpredictable racing.

Max Plaxton pulled off mountain biking’s version of a Hail Mary pass to win Saturday’s Sand Creek International cross-country race, the fourth round of USA Cycling’s Pro Cross-country Tour (ProXCT). Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) appeared to have the Sho Air-Specialized rider boxed out on the final band of twisting singletrack, which descended a steep fall line before spitting riders onto a stretch of pavement to the finish. Whoever left that trail in the lead had the upper hand in the sprint to the line.

Tyler Farrar kept the overall leader’s jersey Saturday at the Delta Tour Zeeland race in Holland. Just a day after winning the prologue, the Garmin-Slipstream sprinter dashed to second in the 181.7km second stage and retained the leader’s jersey in the three-day Dutch race. Italian star Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) was fastest in the stage from Middelburg to Goes, crossing the line 3h59.10 (45.58lph). Farrar came through second with Bobbie Traksel taking third and Baden Cooke (Vacansoleil) coming across fourth in the mass sprint.

Colavita’s Sebastien Haedo and Brooke Miller (TIBCO) delighted fans on the crowded streets of Uptown Minneapolis by uncorking powerful sprints to win Stage 3 of Minnesota’s Nature Valley Grand Prix on Friday evening. The second criterium in a busy week of racing brought the racers back into the Twin Cities. This year, however, the race was moved to Uptown Minneapolis from the downtown course that has been used in years past. The pancake-flat, six-corner criterium was the perfect venue for fans to take in the action as the racers sped around Calhoun Square at twilight.

Heather Irmiger and Todd Wells both rode 29-inch wheeled mountain bikes to victory at the Carmichael Training Systems Sand Creek short track in Colorado Springs. The event was the second round of the 2009 Trailwatch.net national short-track series, and was held at Bear Creek Terrace Park on the western edge of the city.

Tyler Farrar is back in the winner’s circle Friday after claiming an impressive victory in the prologue of the Delta Tour Zeeland in Holland. The Garmin-Slipstream rider put his sprinter legs to good use on a short, 2.7km course in Hulst to open the three-day race in Holland, posting the fastest time of 3 minutes, 8.29 seconds (51.622kph). The blistering pace meant another win for Farrar, who has shown in the past he can put down a good prologue performance.

Colavita’s Alejandro Borrajo and Erica Allar (ValueAct Capital Team) sprinted to wins in the second stage of the 2009 Nature Valley Grand Prix, a 66.5-mile road race through rural Minnesota. Despite a challenging course and aggressive racing, both Tom Zirbel (Bissel Pro Cycling) and Kristin Armstrong (Cervélo Test Team) retained their overall race leads.

Colavita’s Sebastien Haedo and Kristy Broun (Riverstone CDA) raced to victory in Stage 2 of the 2009 Nature Valley GP on Wednesday in the Downtown St. Paul Criterium. With plenty of fast action on the streets of St. Paul, the evening criteriums did not have a significant impact on the overall standings, with Bissel’s Tom Zirbel and Cervélo’s Kristen Armstrong holding the overall leads they first established in the opening time trial on Wednesday morning.

BMC's Danilo Wyss won the first stage of the Tour de Beauce on Tuesday, taking the first leader's jersey of the Canadian stage race. Early in the 165km stage, the Swiss rider and Team Type 1's Darren Lill bridged to a ten-man breakaway. In the final five kilometers, the break came apart, and Wyss took the sprint from four others. Lill was second. It was a good day for BMC, whose Chad Beyer had initiated the break. Beyer ended up with the KOM jersey and the lead in the U23 competition. Wyss also took the lead in the points competition.

Dutch rider Nikki Terpstra delivered the double for his Milram team at Tuesday’s third stage at the Dauphiné Libéré, winning out of a five-man breakaway and snatching the race leader’s jersey. Sensing that the favorites would be cooling their jets ahead of Wednesday’s decisive individual time trial, five peeled away early on a hilly 182km stage to Saint-Étienne to hold a 1:32 gap to the line.

Hard on the heels of the news in April 2008 that Trek would stop producing road bikes using the LeMond brand name, was the news that the Gary Fisher line would pick up the slack in the road product line. On the surface, it would seem to be as simple as creating a new downtube decal, and swapping out the “LeMond” for a “Gary Fisher.” However, the company made a commitment to completely redeveloping a line of road bikes to do justice to the new nameplate, and the evidence was on display this past weekend in the streets of Philidelphia.

The Wisconsin Off Road Series is shaping up to be a three-way battle for the top spot between brothers Jesse and Mark Lalonde and Sheboygan racer Brian Matter. A Triple Crown winner in 2004 and cyclocross world championship team member last winter, Matter (Gear Grinder) powered to the top spot this Sunday at the WORS Big Ring Classic in Wausau, Wisconsin.

Angelo Furlan (Lampre) upset Tom Boonen (Quick Step) in a mano-a-mano sprint to win the second stage at the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré on Monday while Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) retained the overall lead. A five-man breakaway — Iñaki Isasi (Euskaltel), Hector González (Fuji-Servetto), Paul Voss (Milram), Stéphane Augé (Cofidis) and Alexandre Pichot (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) — gained an advantage in the long, rolling 228km stage from Nancy to Dijon before Quick Step and Silence-Lotto joined forces to neutralize the aggression with 5km to go.

Bissell’s Paul Mach and Edwige Pitel (Sorella Forte) held off final-stage challenges to lock up overall victories in Oregon’s Pacific Power Mt. Hood Cycling Classic on Sunday. In the women’s race, Pitel ensured her victory over ValueAct Capital’s Leah Goldberg by winning Sunday’s Downtown Hood River Criterium. Similarly, in the men’s event, Chris Baldwin (OUCH-Maxxis) wasn’t able to fight past Bissell’s superior numbers to pull back 13 seconds from Mach, who won the overall GC on the time he gained in the first stage.

It was double delight for Saxo Bank on Sunday in the final stage of the Tour of Luxembourg as Matti Breschel dashed to a stage victory and Fränk Schleck wrapped up the overall. Breschel’s win made it three straight stage victories and the top prize as Saxo Bank dominated the five-day Luxembourg tour and held off a challenge from Andreas Klöden (Astana). Andy Schleck won Friday’s attack-riddled stage, winning an eight-up sprint that put Kazakh rider Assan Bazayev (Astana) into the leader’s jersey.

It all looked so easy for Team Columbia-Highroad’s Ina Teutenberg as she sped along Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway Sunday morning to win her third TD Bank Liberty Classic. At the line, the veteran German sprinter was two lengths clear of New Zealander Joanne Kiesanowski (Team Tibco) and the top American, third-placed Shelley Olds (Proman Hit Squad), at the head of a 12-strong breakaway group.

It doesn’t seem possible that Edvald Boasson Hagen, the budding superstar at Columbia-Highroad and favorite to win this Sunday’s TD Bank Philadelphia International Championship, wasn’t even born when Eric Heiden won the inaugural edition of the 156-mile race in June 1985.

Native son Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) scored a stage victory in the Tour de Luxembourg Sunday, while Astana's Assan Bazayev took over the leader's jersey. The younger of Saxo's Schleck brothers took the sprint ahead of his teammate Matti Breschel and Aitor Galdos of Euskaltel-Euskadi. The three were part of a 15-rider break that formed about 12 kilometers before the finish. The break included Bazayev, who was sixth on the stage, at the same time as Schleck.

One day after just missing the top podium spot in the prologue of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, the Bissell Cycling Team stomped its way to a one-two finish in the Cooper Spur Circuit Race, capitalizing on time bonuses to claim the top two GC spots as well. Bissell’s Paul Mach surged away from the lead group with just a few kilometers remaining and took the 85-mile race’s top prize. Mach’s teammate Morgan Schmitt crossed the line second after momentarily catching Mach on the finishing pitch. California Giant-Specialized rider Justin England finished third.

The 2009 Women’s Prestige Cycling Series resumes next week at the Nature Valley Grand Prix stage race held in Minnesota, June 10 – 14. Following the season opener at Redlands and the Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas, Webcor moved into the lead in the Best Young Rider and Team classification, while Team Type 1 stretched its lead in the Individual standings.

Katusha's Danilo Napolitano won the first stage of the Tour de Luxembourg on Thursday, winning a field sprint at the end of the 157km race from Luxembourg to Mondorf-les-Bains. Switzerland's Gregory Rast of Astana, the winner of Wednesday's prologue, retained the overall leader's jersey, two seconds ahead of Jonathan Hivert (Skil-Shimano).

Oregon’s Pacific Power Mt. Hood Cycling Classic swung into action with the Panorama Point prologue time trial on Wednesday. Warp9bikes.com-Tristar’s Mike Olheiser made the team’s trip from Alabama to the Northwest worthwhile by taking the 3.1-mile race ahead of Paul Mach (Bissell Cycling Team) and Chris Baldwin, who signed with OUCH-Maxxis just in time to race Mt. Hood. Olheiser covered the course with a time of 6:12.63. Mach, meanwhile, nipped Baldwin, clocking in at 6:14.47, a tenth of a second better than Baldwin's 6:14.57.

Grégory Rast (Astana) carved out his first victory on the 2009 season in Wednesday’s prologue at the 69th Tour of Luxembourg on a technical, 2.7km course in the streets of the capital. Rast – a winner of the Luxembourg tour in 2007 – covered the course in 3 minutes, 48 seconds to claim the opener of the five-day race. Stopping the clock for second was Jonathan Hivert (Skil-Shimano) at two seconds slower with Romain Feillu (Agritubel) third at four seconds adrift.

I’m back. After my last fit session, I rode several times with my new saddle, new pedals and new position. I felt good, but I was still feeling that all-too-familiar burning sensation after about 90 minutes of recovery-pace riding. I was beginning to get really frustrated. I thought that I had plateaued and really wasn’t making any improvements. I decided to take a few weeks off the bike; the decision was partially my own, and partially dictated by my schedule — final exams were coming up and I really had no time to do anything but grade my students’ work.

Dear Explainer, By now, we’ve all probably seen the crash that highlighted the final kilometer of this year’s Giro d’Italia. While I was actually hoping for Danilo Di Luca to pull off a miracle win, I am pleased that he didn’t do it by having race leader Denis Menchov crash and lose enough time to lose the Giro.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Sprint finishes decided both the men’s and women’s professional events at Sunday’s Bump N’ Grind cross-country race, held at Oak Mountain state park in Pelham, Alabama. The event was the third round of the 2009 USA Cycling Pro Cross-country tour (ProXCT), and the second round of the Kenda Cup East. In the men’s race, Australian rider Sid Taberlay (Sho Air-Specialized) out kicked Coloradan Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher). Luna teammates Georgia Gould and Catherine Pendrel went toe-to-toe in the women’s event, with Pendrel coming out on top.

Colavita's Argentinean sprinter Sebastian Haedo has moved up from eighth to second on the latest National Racing Calendar individual rankings. Defending NRC champ Rory Sutherland (OUCH-Maxxis) remains in first place in the rankings, thanks to his win at the Joe Martin Stage Race and several stage wins and stage podiums this season.

Five-time U.S. cyclocross champion Katie Compton was hospitalized for an asthma attack on Sunday after racing Alabama’s Bump n’ Grind cross-country race, the third round of USA Cycling’s Pro Cross-country Tour (ProXCT). Compton, who was riding at the front of the race alongside Luna riders Catherine Pendrel and Georgia Gould, was forced to abandon on the third of four laps after suffering breathing problems. Paramedics hooked Compton to an oxygen flow and took her to a nearby hospital.

Mountain Khaki's Daniel Ramsey didn’t think much of his chances in a field sprint in Sunday’s Riverview Criterium. So he attacked with five laps to go in the NRC event and held off a hard-charging field to win ahead of Rahsaan Bahati (Rock Racing) and Bernard Sulzberger (Fly V Australia). "I just went off of instinct," said Ramsey after winning the third round of Oklahoma’s Tulsa Tough criterium series. "I don't think I've ever placed top 20 in a field sprint before, so my best option was to attack.”

British rider Mark Cavendish wants to make amends for his premature exit from last year's Tour de France by claiming the green sprint jersey in Paris next month. Cavendish pulled out of the 2008 Tour after the 14th stage after four stage wins because of a combination of fatigue and his desire to concentrate on the Beijing Olympics. But the 24-year-old Columbia-Highroad sprinter regrets that decision and wants to become only the second cyclist from Great Britain to win a jersey in the Tour following the King of the Mountains title won by Scot Robert Millar in 1984.

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Price remembers Larsen

Rather than aiming for a win, Shawn Milne (Team Type 1) started Sunday’s U.S. Air Force Classic in Arlington, Virginia, planning to spend the day working for his team’s sprinters, Kenneth Hanson, who’d been second at the Clarendon Cup the day before, and Serbian Aldo Ino Ilesic. A few laps of the 7.8 mile circuit later, he wasn’t sure he could even do that. But by race’s end, it was Milne throwing his hands up at the line.

American Taylor Phinney (Trek-Livestrong) won the Paris-Roubaix Espoirs on Sunday, emerging first from a group of 11 that entered the Roubaix velodrome together. Phinney, 18, becomes the first American to win the race for riders under 23. The 170km race has been held since 1967 and has been won by budding professionals including Yaroslav Popovych, Thor Hushovd, Stephen Roche and Frédéric Moncassin.

Race leader Denis Menchov won the Giro d’Italia on Sunday despite suffering a fall in the last kilometer of the final stage, a 14.4km time trial through Rome. Menchov, now the third Russian to win the Giro, added the title to his two Vuelta a España victories in 2005 and 2007. The 31-year-old Menchov beat 2007 Giro champion Danilo Di Luca (LPR) by 41 seconds over the course of the three-week tour, with Liquigas’ Franco Pellizzoti rounding off the podium finishers a further 1:18 adrift.

It isn’t often that a 100-mile mountain bike race is decided by who has the strongest legs at the end. But that’s exactly what happened in the open men’s division at Saturday’s Mohican 100, the second stop of the National Ultra Endurance mountain bike series. Reigning marathon and short track national champion Jeremiah Bishop (Monavie-Cannondale) took the win after outfoxing his five breakaway companions in the final three miles. “It was pretty nerve racking,” Bishop said. “I was on the edge of cramping the whole time. My attack was kind of a Hail Mary pass.”

Tulsa, Oklahoma, has everything you’d want in a National Racing Calendar criterium series: historic downtown districts filled with old brick buildings and freshly paved streets; immense amounts of prize money (making the event the second highest pro payout in the nation); and lax open container laws, leading to an especially enthusiastic local fan base.

Alejandro Borrajo (Colavita-Sutter Home) nipped Kenneth Hanson (Team Type 1) by just inches to win the U.S. Air Force Clarendon Cup criterium in Arlington, Virginia, on Saturday, extending the squad’s ownership of the title after Luca Damiani’s win last year (when the race was known as the CSC Invitational). In the women's race, BMW Bianchi's Erica Allar showed how to race without a team, taking a last-lap flyer that paid off.

Britain's Emma Pooley (Cervelo TestTeam) won in a solo break in Saturday's women's World Cup road race in Montreal, finishing 1 minute, 14 seconds ahead of the pursuers. Pooley attacked on the first of 11 laps through the city and rode alone for most of the 110.7km race. Sweden's Emma Johansson (Red Sun Cycling Team) took the field sprint for second, and Germany's Trixi Worrack (Nurnberger Versicherung) was third. Johannsson also took over the lead of the World Cup rankings. The previous leader, Holland's Marianne Vos, did not race.

Belgium's Bert De Waele (Landbouwkrediet - Colnago) won the fourth stage of the Tour of Belgium in a sprint Saturday, finishing ahead of compatriot Greg van Avermaet (Silence-Lotto) and Dutchman Lars Boom (Rabobank), the new overall leader. Boom is the Dutch national road and time trial champion, as well as the 2008 world cyclocross champion. He took the black leader's jersey from Slovenian rider Borut Bozic, who couldn't keep pace with the leading pack over the race's many picturesque peaks in south-east Belgium.

Philippe Gilbert finally notched a stage win for the Silence-Lotto squad on Saturday, sprinting to victory in the 20th stage of the centenary Giro d’Italia. Denis Menchov (Rabobank) and Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes) continued their battle over the maglia rosa, but the cagey Russian held onto the race lead — actually padding it with two bonus seconds poached from his rival at an intermediate sprint going into Sunday’s finale, a 14.4km time trial through the streets of Rome.

Slovenia's Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil) won the third stage of the Tour of Belgium (Ronde van België) on Friday to retain the overall race lead. Bozic followed up on Thursday's stage success to edge out Danilo Napolitano (Katusha) and Belgian Kristof Goddaert (Topsport Vlaanderen) in a sprint for the line. He extended his lead over stage 1 winner Sergei Ivanov (Katusha) to 14 seconds, with Australian Graeme Brown (Rabobank) another second adrift. American Brent Bookwalter (BMC) is in 11th on the GC. His teammate Jeffrey Louder is 94th and Ian McKissick is in 121st after three stages.

Danilo Di Luca keeps chipping away at Denis Menchov’s grip on the maglia rosa, but he keeps running out of asphalt. And now he’s running out of time. Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) climbed to his second sublime stage victory Friday in the 164km 19th stage, ending atop the brooding Mont Vesuvius. But all eyes were on the showdown between Menchov and his slender 26-second advantage to Di Luca.

Australian sprint star Robbie McEwen has ruled himself out of taking part in the Tour de France after undergoing surgery on a fractured tibia. The 36-year-old Katusha rider underwent surgery on Thursday after suffering a heavy fall on the second stage of the Tour of Belgium in Knokke-Heist. "I had an accident today in tour of Belgium, broke my tibia," McEwen said on his Twitter account late Thursday. "Operation, two screws in it. Luckily the tendon is ok. Hit a barrier. "Thanks everyone for your support. I promise you this, I will be back."