Grega Bole (Amica Chips) sprinted to victory in Saturday’s GP Nobili Rubinetterie-Borgamanero race in Italy. The Slovenian, third in Ronde van Drenthe on Monday, was fastest out of a winning three-man breakaway in the 191.7km course. Fortunato Baliano (CSF) wasn’t so lucky and had to settle for second while Andriy Grivko (ISD) crossed the line third. Daniele Callegarin (CZP) led a six-man group that included former Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti (ISD) and Chris Froome (Barloworld) at 17 seconds back.

Astana's Levi Leipheimer glided up the finishing climb to victory at the Sea Otter Classic road race Friday, finishing just ahead of the three Bissell men with whom he was in a long breakaway. Leipheimer's Santa Rosa training buddy, Paul Mach, took second with his Bissell teammate Morgan Schmitt rounding out the podium. Ben Jacques-Maynes, the fourth man in the break, came in just behind.

Cervélo TestTeam has been the surprise of the 2009 spring classics. The new squad has been racking up impressive results, including podiums in the opening three classics with Thor Hushovd (third at Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix) and the sensational Heinrich Haussler (second at Milan-San Remo and Flanders). That trend continued this week with Dominique Rollin notching his first European podium with third at the Belgian semi-classic Scheldeprijs on Wednesday.

There’s just no slowing down Jimmy Casper.   The French sprinter from Besson-Sojasun bolted to his second win this week after sprinting to victory in the 50th GP de Denain in France on Thursday. Casper also won Paris-Camembert on Tuesday.   Casper, a winner here in 2005 and 2006, covered the 202.7km course, which included a 15.2km circuit completed five times, in 4:40:18.  

Australian cyclist Robbie McEwen revealed on Thursday that he suffered concussion but did not fracture any ribs after falling in the McEwen gets a concussion, but no broken bones in the Scheldeprijs pile-up in Schoten, Belgium. "I have concussion, but my ribs, my collarbone and my pelvis are all intact," he told the Web site of Belgian television station Sporza. The Katusha rider landed heavily after coming off his bike in the closing stages of Wednesday's race and initially expressed fears that he had broken some ribs.

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Australia's Robbie McEwen and Belgium's Tom Boonen may have suffered fractures after both fell during the closing stages of the Scheldeprijs in Belgium on Wednesday. McEwen landed heavily on his right shoulder and seemed to be more seriously injured, according to Belgian TV station VRT. The Australian complained of pain in his head, his neck, his chest and his legs and said he could have concussion, broken ribs and a punctured lung. He was due to undergo medical examination later Wednesday.

Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) avoided a massive pileup in the closing meters of the bunch sprint to win Scheldeprijs on Wednesday in Belgium. Canadian Dominque Rollin (Cervélo TestTeam) steered clear of the mayhem to earn his first European podium with third place while Tony Cruz bolted to fourth in strong showing by BMC Racing that also saw Jeff Louder work into the day’s main breakaway. Louder joined a 14-man breakaway early in the race and was only caught in the closing 10km.

Athens, Georgia hosts 30th Annual Athens Twilight Criterium & Festival Kicks Off 2009 USA CRITS Speed Week & National Series Some of the best professional male and female sprint cyclists in the world will race in the 30th Annual Athens Twilight Criterium on April 25. The riders will compete in separate events that customarily draw an estimated 30,000 spectators to historic, downtown Athens, Ga., every April.

It’s time for pedal-bashers like Tom Boonen and Stijn Devolder to head to the beach.   For anyone with some gas left in the tank, there’s still some unfinished business at Sheldeprijs, typically the final sendoff for riders like Boonen before they take a break ahead of new goals later this season.   After that, the whippet-thin climbers and hilly course specialists step center stage to dominate headlines for the hilly classics of eastern Belgium and southern Holland through the end of April.  

Frenchman Jimmy Casper, riding for Besson-Sojasun, won the 202km Paris-Camembert semi-classic on Tuesday, fending off compatriot Romain Feillu (Agritubel) and Russia's Alexandre Efimkin (AG2R) in a sprint finish. "It's not normally a course for sprinters, so I'll savor it all the more," said Casper. "Conditions were ideal for me. We let the others go for it and then we worked on two kilometers — the last two kilometers. I thought for a moment in the sprint all was lost but then I saw an opening. It's a surprise win."

Defending champion Tom Boonen soloed to victory in a dusty, crash-filled Paris-Roubaix on Sunday as Quick Step, Cervélo TestTeam and Silence-Lotto slugged it out toe to toe over the cobblestone trophy awarded to the victor in the Hell of the North.?? "The race was very hard," said the big Belgian after collecting his third win here, following triumphs in 2005 and 2008. Praising runner-up Filippo Pozzato (Katusha), he added: "This victory for me is the most beautiful because I beat Pozzato, who is a great champion."

Fresh from retiring from one of the peloton’s most prolific careers, Erik Zabel is still busy at the races. These days he's working with the young riders at Columbia-Highroad. Mark Cavendish won Milan-San Remo after consulting with Zabel. "That was just amazing," Zabel said of Cavendish's closing sprint, and now the German veteran is officially working with several of the young riders on Columbia. "I'm an advisor for the young riders’ development for the Highroad team," Zabel said at the Tour of Flanders.

Only a few riders are capable of winning Sunday’s 107th edition of Paris-Roubaix, and the number of favorites gets even smaller when you consider the strength of their teams. Given that premise, the winner should come from the Columbia-Highroad, Quick Step, Rabobank or Saxo Bank teams. And that means that George Hincapie, Tom Boonen, Stijn Devolder, Juan Antonio Flecha or Fabian Cancellara will be on the top step of the podium in the Roubaix velodrome Sunday evening.

Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream) finished third in the 161km fourth stage at the Vuelta al País Vasco in Spain, joining a successful, three-man breakaway on Thursday. Michael Albasini (Columbia-Highroad) kicked to victory, with Jurgen Van den Broucke (Silence-Lotto) coming through second and Vande Velde slotting into third after an all-day break in a hilly, seven-climb stage in Spain’s Basque Country.

Edvald Boasson Hagen. His name doesn’t exactly roll off your tongue, but it’s a name you’d better remember because the young Norwegian is only 21 and he has just won his first spring classic. Ghent-Wevelgem may not be the biggest of the classics, and a lot of young riders have won it and not gone on to bigger and better results. But it seems that Boasson Hagen is a little different, a little more special.

Antonio Colom is one of those Spanish riders well known and respected within the peloton, but perhaps not so famous beyond the Pyrénées. A solid climber and consistent performer in week-long stage races, Colom should be called “Mr. Spring,” for his consistent performances in early season races such as Paris-Nice, Ruta del Sol and the Mallorca Challenge. Colom, who turns 31 next month, is in his 10th season as a professional. After a few years on smaller Spanish teams, he joined the Banesto team in 2004 for three seasons before two years with Astana.

Former world champion cyclist Jobie Dajka of Australia was found dead in his Adelaide home after a long battle with alcoholism and depression, sporting officials confirmed Wednesday. The body of the 2002 keirin world champion was discovered on Tuesday afternoon, with police saying a 27-year-old man's corpse had been found in Adelaide and the death was not being treated as suspicious. While police refused to officially identify Dajka, Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates confirmed his death, describing it as a "very, very sad occurrence".

Just two and a half weeks after scoring a brilliant sprint victory in the longest of the European single-day races, Milan-San Remo, Mark Cavendish of the Columbia-Highroad team looks all set to add another classic to his burgeoning list of wins.

Yury Trofimov (Bouygues Telecom) upset the chasing peloton to win Tuesday’s second stage at the Vuelta al País Vasco in Spain after slipping away in a four-man breakaway in the six-climb, 160km route. Trofimov dropped fellow escapee Rein Taarame (Cofidis) with 2.5km to go and crossed the line five seconds clear to celebrate a hard-fought victory. Ben Swift (Katusha) led the main pack across the line with third at 1:10 back.

Bissell’s Paul Mach and Jeremy Vennell roared into the windswept Columbia River Gorge and took the top two spots on the podium of the inaugural Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic in its very first stage. There was more drama in the women’s competition. Heather Albert (Riverstone Women’s Racing Team) battled Robin Secrist (Veloforma) and Patricia Bailey (Wines of Washington) throughout the three-day, four-stage race, which ran April 3-5. Bailey won three stages, but in the end the difference proved to be Secrist's victory in the stage-2 time trial.

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Where's Devolder?

Luís León Sánchez continues on his spring rampage, winning the opening stage and donning the leader’s jersey of the Vuelta al País Vasco in Spain. But it almost didn’t happen. The 25-year-old Caisse d’Epargne rider was gapped on a fierce second-category climb with 8km remaining in the 142.5km opening stage and only regained contact with 3km to go.

Long Beach, CA – With no races on the national calendar this week, several riders from the OUCH Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis took to the streets for local races on both coasts. The result was two race wins and one overall omnium title, courtesy of John Murphy and Bobby Lea. On Saturday, Murphy followed up his Redlands Criterium win from the week before by winning a convincing sprint from a nine-rider break in the inaugural Long Beach Bicycle Festival.

Cervelo's Ted King outsprinted OUCH-Maxxis' Tim Johnson Sunday at New England's traditional road season opener, the Michael Schott Memorial Circuit Race, on Marblehead Neck in Massachusetts. The Pro/1-3 race featured a few nationally known pros with New England connections, including King, Johnson, Adam Myerson, Mark and Frank McCormack and young cyclocross star Nick Keough.

Luca Paolini (Acqua e Sapone) sprinted to his first victory of the 2009 season in Sunday’s sixth and final stage at the 39th Settimana Lombarda. Paolini out-kicked last year’s Italian champion Giovanni Visconti (ISD) and Miguel Angel Rubiano (CZP) in a photo finish out of a four-up sprint to claim the win in the 153km stage from Montello to Bergamo and conclude the week of racing across northern Italy.

Ina Teutenberg (Columbia-Highroad) sprinted to victory in the sixth women's Tour of Flanders, held over the cobblestones in the heart of Flanders from Oudenaarde to Ninove. Coming across the line second in the second round of the women’s World Cup series was Kirsten Wild (Cervélo TestTeam) with Emma Johansson (Red Sun) rounding out the podium in third.

When Stijn Devolder was asked Sunday what was different about his second Tour of Flanders victory in two years, he was close to tears. “A friend of mine died at the Tour of Qatar in February, and I promised to remember him the first time I won a race this year,” Devolder said. He was talking about Frederiek Nolf, the Topsport Vlaanderen team rider who died in his sleep one week short of his 22nd birthday.

Tom Boonen’s race resume runs deep, having won races and stages around the world. Perhaps best known in the United States for his Tour de France stage wins and two victories at Paris-Roubaix, the Quick Step rider’s favorite race lies in his native Belgium, with the Tour of Flanders.

Over the course of a nearly 100-year history, the Tour of Flanders has never been as popular as it is today. With a $2 million budget, crowds estimated at 700,000, and 840 volunteers patrolling the 261.5km route, the fabled cobblestone classic from Bruges to Meerbeke is Belgium’s largest annual sport event. The organizing newspaper, Het Nieuwsblad, devoted 24 pages to its Saturday race preview, and expects to fill another 24 pages on Sunday.

Another sprint in Italy and another victory for Alessandro Petacchi.   The Italian snagged his second win at the Settimana Lombarda in Friday’s stage into Vertova to retain his grip on the overall lead.   Already a winner on Wednesday (plus a member of LPR’s winning team time trial squad to open the race Tuesday), Petacchi made easy work of Luca Paolini (Acqua e Sapone). Francisco Ventoso, the Spanish sprinter on Carmiooro, crossed the line third in the 183.6km course.   The race continues Saturday with the 159km fifth stage starting and finishing in Flero.

Samuel Caldeira (Palmeiras Resort-Prio Tavira) was first across the line in the second stage of the Volta ao Alentejo in Portugal on Thursday, but judges relegated him for dangerous sprinting.   Instead, Filipe Cardoso (Liberty Seguros) was awarded the victory in the 209.9km stage, with Cesar Quiterio (CC Loulé) taking second and Bruno Lima (Madeinox Boavista) with third.  

Frederik Willems (Liquigas), won the Three Days of De Panne on Thursday following the race-concluding 15.3km time trial which was won by Garmin’s Bradley Wiggins. Willems nipped in ahead of Dutch racers Joost Posthuma and Tom Leezer for his third career success in seven years as a pro. Wiggins won the time trial, which followed on from a 112km third regular stage where Isle of Man sprinter Mark Cavendish saw off all-comers with his second consecutive victory over Australian rival Robbie McEwen.

Another sprint at Settimana Lombarda in Italy, but a different winner this time as Mattia Gavazzi gives underdog Diquigiovanni yet another win on the 2009 season. Gavazzi won the 164km third stage by out-kicking Yuri Metlushenko (Amore e Vita), with former world track champion Theo Bos (Rabobank continental) continuing to show progress with his second consecutive third place. Overnight leader Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) conserved the leader’s jersey going into Friday’s fourth stage.

Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad) bolted to a sprint victory Wednesday in the second stage of the Three Days of De Panne in Belgium. The recently crowned Milan-San Remo champ beat back Robbie McEwen (Katusha) and Italian Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) in the 219km start into Coxyde. "It was a long day for the team, who worked very hard. I'd have liked to help one of my teammates win it — but with McEwen in my slipstream that wasn't possible. I had to sprint myself to win it," Cavendish said.

Theo Bos is racing this week at the Settimana Lombarda in northern Italy with the Rabobank continental team in what’s his third stage race since switching from the track. The former world sprint champion admitted he was a bit nostalgic watching the world track championships last week in Poland, but the Dutch sprinter remains firm in his commitment to give the road a shot.

Lance Armstrong’s coach says the seven-time Tour de France winner is paying extra attention to his sprint as he prepares for his return to top-level racing following his broken collarbone. Armstrong is working on his top-end speed with weights in the gym and on the stationary trainer, coach Chris Carmichael told LanceNews.com, a new Competitor Group Web site launched Wednesday, April 1. Short, intense sprint workouts on the trainer should pay dividends later in the season, he said.

Filippo Pozzato continues on his strong pre-Flanders form, notching victory in the opening stage of the Three Days of De Panne in Belgium.   Pozzato, who won the Prijs Harelbeke on Saturday, out-kicked fellow escapee Frédérick Willems (Liquigas) to win the stage and take the first leader’s jersey in the four-stage, three-day race.   Greg Van Avermaet (Silence-Lotto) won the bunch sprint, some 57 seconds back to take third place.  

It’s crunch time for George Hincapie and his quest to win a northern classic. The 35-year-old enters the most important week of his racing calendar more confident than ever that an elusive trophy from Flanders or Roubaix will soon be his. The Columbia-Highroad rider says he’s feeling “stronger than ever” and has enjoyed one of the best winter preparations of his career, racing in the Tour Down Under for the first time and spending most of January training in California.

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Geoff Kabush (Rocky Mountain-Maxxis) and Georgia Gould (Luna) took home impressive wins at the opening round of USA Cycling’s Pro Cross-country tour (ProXCT), held at Southridge Park in Fontana, California. The race was also the second round of the Kenda Cup West, the West Coast half of the ShoAir-Specialized U.S. Cup series.

It’s another busy week of racing in Europe, with stage races in Belgium, Portugal and Italy, the second round of the women’s World Cup and a smattering of one-day races in France and Spain. Without question, the main feature is the Tour of Flanders on Sunday. In cycling-crazed Belgium, this is their Super Bowl. The entire nation seems to come to a standstill to watch the 258.9km battle from Brugge to Meerbeke (with plenty of beer-drinking along the way). This year’s route features 16 of the infamous cobble-stoned climb where most of the major attacks go down.

BMC's Jeff Louder and Columbia Highroad's Ina Yoko Teutenberg won the 2009 Redlands Bicycle Classic's overall titles Sunday, as Kyle Wamsley (Colavita) and Alison Powers (Team Type 1) grabbed the stage wins. Apparently every second does count. The overall wins came down to just 1 second for Teutenberg, and to just 5 seconds for Louder. Teutenberg accumulated enough time bonuses in the final stage to take the jersey away from Amber Neben (Nurnberger Shoair) who fell to second place, while Alison Powers (Team Type 1) took third, 27 seconds down.

Frenchman Gregory Bauge overcame a tough test against Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang to win the world sprint crown at the world track cycling championships in Pruszkow, Poland. on Sunday. Awang took the silver medal with another Frenchman, Kevin Sireau, beating Australian Shane Perkins to take the bronze. The men's sprint tournament is traditionally the most coveted of all track cycling events, and it lived up to that billing thanks to the unexpected rise of Awang to the final.

Editor's Note: Connie Carpenter is in Pruszkow, Poland, covering the Track World Championships for VeloNews.com while supporting her son, Taylor Phinney. Carpenter is a former world champion on the track and an avid fan of track cycling. Track cycling seems much bigger and more diverse than ever before. While some may criticize the Brits for winning just two jerseys here in Poland, most of us are admiring the fact that so many countries represented so well … with the Aussies dominating the medal tally with ten medals.

Marianne Vos out-kicked Emma Johannson to win the Trofeo Binda on Sunday and grabs the first leader’s jersey to open the 2009 women’s World Cup. Vos surged ahead of her Swedish rival in a two-up sprint to claim the opening round of the World Cup series. Olympic time trial champion Kristin Armstrong crossed the line at 3:34 back to round out the podium with third.

French rider Anthony Geslin delivered FDJeux a big victory Sunday at the Brabantse Pijl in Belgium. Geslin won out of an eight-man group that pulled clear in the closing 30km of the 193.5km circuit course. Fabian Wegmann (Milram) tried to surprise the group and sprang off the final wheel with 250 meters to go with an explosive sprint. The German opened a promising gap, but Geslin was able to recover and catch him at the line to secure victory.

Editor's Note: Connie Carpenter is in Pruszkow, Poland, covering the Track World Championships for VeloNews.com while supporting her son, Taylor Phinney. Carpenter is a former world champion on the track and an avid fan of track cycling.

Jeff Louder (BMC) and Amber Neben (Nurnberger Shoair) retained their yellow jerseys after the dust settled in bunch sprints for both the men’s and women’s Redlands Downtown Criteriums in Saturday’s stage 2 at the Redlands Cycling Classic. The top five in the men’s GC remained virtually unchanged, while Neben’s advantage over second placed Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Columbia-High Road) narrowed from 14 seconds to just 2 seconds due to time bonuses.

Denmark relieved Britain of yet another world crown when they won the men's Madison gold at the world track cycling championships in Pruszkow, Poland, Saturday. Australia took the silver with the Czech Republic claiming the bronze. Defending champions Britain, featuring the two-man team of Mark Cavendish and fellow Manxman Peter Kennaugh, finished sixth at a lap down. Kennaugh suffered a crash before the seventh of the 10 sprints where points can be picked up for the first four riders over the line during the 200-lap race.

There’s a commonly held sports adage that says the best way to get better at your chosen activity is to play with people who are better than you. I certainly don’t agree with this in all cases. Hoops with LeBron would only equal thunder dunks in face. I’d probably drown in Michael Phelps’ wake. And clearly Troy Polamalu could rip all our heads off.

Lampre’s Damiano Cunego wrapped up his second Coppi e Bartali title on Saturday despite being beaten in a sprint finish by Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) on the fifth and final stage. Evans, the reigning champion, edged out Cunego, also the 2006 winner, and Italian Giovanni Visconti at the end of a 178.5km trek from Scandiano to Sassuolo. The Australian, who finished second overall, had begun the day 28 seconds behind Cunego with Massimo Giunti a further four seconds back.

Besson Chaussures-Sojasun’s Jimmy Casper showed off his strong early season form Saturday, winning the opening stage of France’s Critérium International , a 190km ride from Monthois to Charleville-Mézières. The 30-year-old Casper had already won two stages in Etoile de Bessèges in February. Casper said he was especially pleased to be a member of a small continental squad making a mark on a prestigious race . Casper was quick to praise Christian Prudhomme, the director of cycling at ASO, for having "invited a small team to the Critérium International.”

Jeff Louder (BMC) and Amber Neben (Nurnberger Shoair) emerged as the overall race leaders after a tough and windy Beaumont Circuit Race, the first stage of the 2008 Redlands Bicycle Classic on Friday. Louder followed a daring attack by Peter Stetina (Felt-Holoweko-Slipstream) over the day’s final climb, then put enough distance between himself and GC leader Ben Day (Fly V Australia) to snatch the yellow jersey, thanks to the 10-second bonus he snatched for the stage victory.

After winning gold in the 4k individual pursuit, American Taylor Phinney was second in the 1 kilometer time trial at the world track championships in Poland. Phinney rode a 1 01.611, Connie Carpenter told VeloNews in an email. That's about the same time as he did at the Copenhagen world cup last month, but a full second slower than the gold medalist, German Stefan Nimke. Mohd Rizal Tisin made history to hand Malaysia their first ever world championships medal with bronze in a time of 1:01.658.

Ukraine's Yury Metlushenko (Amore e Vita-McDonald's) won a mass sprint finish to claim the fourth stage of the Coppi e Bartali over 162.8km from Massa Finalese to Finale Emilia on Friday. Metlushenko edged out Italian pair Danilo Napolitano (Katusha) and Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) in the bunch sprint. Former Giro d'Italia winner Damiano Cunego (Lampre-NGC) maintained his grip on the leader's pink jersey ahead of Australian Cadel Evans, who is 28 seconds back, and Italian Massimo Giunti, at 32 seconds.

While American readers saw the big news from this week's UCI world track championships to be Taylor Phinney's victory in the men's individual pursuit, there was plenty of other racing at the velodrome in Pruszkow, Poland, on Thursday, including a return to the boards for recent Milan-San Remo winner, Mark Cavendish.

Men’s Scratch

Juan José Cobo (Fuji-Servetto) attacked with just under 2km to go to win Thursday’s 145.4km “queen stage” over two first-category climbs at the 24th Vuelta a Castilla y León. Cobo, who started nearly three minutes out of the GC fight, timed it just right to bolt clear of a reduced pack of leaders to win for the first time this season.

The Songo.info team of Burry Stander and Christoph Sauser partially made up for stage 4's penalty and mechanicals to win stage 5 and move back into contention for the overall. Songo.info finished 1:14 seconds ahead of the second team of Trek-Brentjens on the stage. It was Songo.info's fourth stage win.