Georgia Gould delivered a knock-out at the Whitmore’s Landscaping Super Cross Cup in the Hamptons Sunday to take both the race and the North American Cyclocross Trophy Championship. Meanwhile, Todd Wells went toe-to-toe with Jeremy Powers to win the men’s race while Ryan Trebon refused to tap-out after a bad break on lap one.

A day of surprises greeted the NACT competitors at the first day of the Whitmore’s Landscaping Super Cross Cup on Saturday. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the UCI C1 event occurred before most of the Elite competitors had even arrived at the venue. Earlier in the morning, Tim Johnson, tested his injured knee on the trainer and found he couldn’t even pedal a full circle. Johnson injured his knee when he banged it on a wood post while riding to victory in the USGP in New Jersey last Saturday.

Australia's national team won the Melbourne round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics series here on Saturday. The Australian Cyclones, with 112 points, edged out compatriots Team Toshiba, which scored 98 points over three days of competition. Although an impressive performance, the win came in light of only limited participation by the world's strongest track squad, the British national team. Australian Shane Perkins went one better than his Manchester World Cup silver earlier this month to claim the men's sprint with a straight heats win over Frenchman Michael D'Almedia.

Team Barloworld will continue into the 2009 season with hopes of forgetting an embarrassing doping scandal during the Tour de France and hinging its hopes on a bevy of young riders. The South African sponsor initially said it would end its three-year backing of the Italian-based, Britain-registered team after Spanish rider Moises Dueñas tested positive for EPO during the 2008 Tour.

Australia's emerging pursuit talent staked their claim as the riders of the future with a dominant win over Spain in the 4km team pursuit final on day two of the Melbourne round of the 2008-09 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics series on Friday. Olympians Mark Jamieson, 24, and Jack Bobridge, 19, along with reigning junior World Champions Rohan Dennis, 18, and Luke Durbridge, 17 were the clear favorites after a strong qualifying round and they lived up to the expectation.

Although this week’s Garmin-Chipotle team camp has been a series of meetings, fittings, easy rides, meals and team-building exercises, it hasn’t been all fun and games for Tyler Farrar. The 24-year-old sprinter is staying in close contact with his family following an October car-bike collision that left his father, Ed, in intensive care with serious injuries, including spinal trauma.

Price: $23.99 Web site: www.oscycling.com OS Performance Nutrition is a new all-natural multipurpose energy drink mix that is available in four specific formulas suitable for your race situation. OS Endurance for longer, moderate intensity activities. OS Sprint for intense efforts. OS Pre-Load for a pre-race carbohydrate and protein load. OS Re-Load for post-ride recovery. Each formula is available in three flavors.

Michael Barry was back in the spotlight in 2008, winning his first race since the 2005 season with a dramatic stage victory at the Tour of Missouri. He also rode to fifth in the Tour of Ireland and finished ninth in the grueling Olympic road race in Beijing. The 32-year-old Canadian returned to form this year after struggling through a challenging 2007 campaign that was wiped out with a nasty bout of pneumonia. Though he missed out on a slot on the nine-man Tour de France squad, Barry regained his confidence with a consistent and steady season that will carry over into 2009.

Rock Racing has added a wealth of European and domestic talent to its 2009 team roster, signing several top riders in recent days. In a release issued over the weekend the team announced that it had reached deals with former ProTour riders Baden Cooke, Francisco Mancebo, and José Enrique Gutiérrez, as well as top domestic talents Ivan Dominquez, Glen Chadwick, Chris Baldwin and Caleb Manion.

As advertised, the ‘cross course through the Washington County Fairgrounds in Hillsboro, Oregon, was wide-open, grassy and void of anything resembling elevation gain. Several days of dry weather and Sunday’s beautiful, mostly blue skies only added to the warm feelings about how quickly the course could be covered.

“This is definitely my favorite race and that’s my main motivation,” said Costa Rican cyclist Federico Ramirez (BCR-Pizza Hut) after finishing the 2008’s La Ruta de los Conquistadores, on Saturday in Limón, Costa Rica.

Behind the story there is always a greater story, one which is often missed. The Tour of Lombardy unfolded in traditional fashion: a breakaway, a gauged acceleration in the peloton, the knife-stabbing attacks that seal most riders’ fate, and then, finally, the winning attack and the defeated sprints for the places of honor. The favorite won.

Even before Carlos Sastre won the Tour de France this past July, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) had announced that it was ending its long run as a title sponsor of the world’s No. 1 team. And while Sastre’s Tour victory was something of a going-away present to CSC-Saxo Bank, it wasn’t long before news hit that Sastre and bike sponsor Cervélo, both of whom had been with the team since 2002, were also parting ways to start a new project — the Cervélo TestTeam.

The most dominant feature on Stage 2 of La Ruta de los Conquistadores is the 25km paved climb from San Ignacio Acosta to Copalchi, which accounts for roughly one-third of the 76km trip from west to east San Jose. In La Ruta’s trusty race guide, the climb’s profile appears a gradual three-peaked slog up 3000 vertical feet.

It was unfortunate for Matti Breschel that his most important result so far in his young but promising career came on the same day that two Italians finished alongside him on the worlds podium in Varese, Italy. Only one journalist asked the blonde-haired Dane a question during post-race press conference dominated by over-excited Italian journalists lobbing soft balls to winner Alessandro Ballan and silver medalist Damiano Cunego.

What’s the best way to quantify pain? This question popped into my head countless times during today’s opening stage of La Ruta de los Conquistadores, a hellacious 68.7-mile slog from Jaco Beach to the outskirts of San Jose. During the journey I carried my bike up ridiculously steep, muddy slopes, climbed 14,500 feet of elevation gain (much of it in the granny gear) and suffered like a rented mule. I crossed the line cross-eyed and drooling just under eight hours in 42nd place, about two hours behind stage winner Frederico “Lico” Ramirez.

Ukranian Valeriy Kobzarenko, who was one of Team Type 1’s most dependable riders in 2008, will return to the squad in 2009. At the same time, the second-year team announced the signing of promising young Slovenian sprinter Aldo Ino Ilesic.   The two join eight other riders already announced for Team Type 1, a team striving to instill hope and inspiration for people around the world affected by diabetes. Co-founders Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge are two of four riders on the men’s professional roster who have Type 1 diabetes.  

Dear Explainer,
Is there an instance in which a rider returning from a two-year ban has been caught doping again?

A buzz of nervous anticipation hangs thick in the air at Jaco Beach today, as the 400 or so participants in Costa Rica’s 2008 La Ruta de los Conquistadores are picking up race packets, packing bags and preparing for tomorrow’s opening stage. The first of four days packs a serious punch — 68.7 miles and roughly 14,500 feet of elevation gain from Jaco to Ciudad Colon. The day also includes a plethora of super steep ascents, muddy hike-a-bike sections, river crossings and plenty of pain.

German sprint ace Erik Zabel admitts that he’ll probably miss racing, but says his retirement announcement is permanent. With scores of riders committing to comebacks, Zabel insists that, at 38, his farewell at the end of this season will be for good. “I’m sure I will feel a little bit nostalgic, but without a doubt it will be a relief,” Zabel told German reporters during a break at the Six Days of Munich track event. “When you’re not active, you live with less risk. Races with wet roads, snow, crashes … to think that all this is over is very agreeable.”

The UCI C2 HPCX served as the seventh round of the MAC Powered by SRAM Cyclocross Series on Sunday. Unlike the previous day’s sandfest at the Beacon Cyclocross in southern New Jersey, Sunday’s race meandered through a large grassy park next to the business district of Jamesburg. At 2.7 km, the course was technically one of the shortest on this year’s MAC circuit, but the combination of turns, hills and heavy ground from the previous day’s rainstorm made for long lap times, in the eight minute range for the Elite Men.

The Mid-Atlantic Cross Powered by SRAM Cyclocross Series visited New Jersey for the Beacon Cyclocross and its iconic “Amphitheater of Pain” on Saturday. In a switch from past years, the event was run under domestic sanctioning instead of its traditional UCI sanction. But the lack of international stature didn’t seem to hurt, as the event drew record entries and the largest Elite fields in years, which were won by the C3-Sollay.com duo of Wes Schempf and Laura Van Gilder.

I don’t know about the rest of my fellow weekend warrior ’cross-aholics, but race time is often also deep thoughts time. It’s not like I’m out there unfurling the complexities of E=mc² while hopping barriers. But rarely does a race pass when I don’t find myself pondering something beyond the typical “pedal harder-don’t crash-shit, I crashed-man, I’m cracking-cool, I feel better” merry-go-round.

Planet Energy and Catalyst Capital Group Inc. will continue as the principal financial sponsors of Team R.A.C.E. Pro (TRP) through 2009, but the team also said Friday that it will soon be ready to offer details about additional support from new sponsors as well. Josée Larocque and Steve Bauer of Cycle Sport Management Inc. said they are both pleased with the progress made during this first year of building a Canadian UCI Continental men’s team. “Our message is clear. We are focused on providing the best possible opportunity for Canadian road cyclists,” said Larocque.

Fellow Boulderite Brandon Dwight greeted me at the final finish line of last year’s La Ruta de los Conquistadores with a chilled bottle of Imperial in one hand and a digital camera in the other. The cold booze momentarily soothed the numerous aches and pains I had accrued during the four-day, 250-mile race from Costa Rica’s Pacific to Caribbean coasts.

Aussie road sprinter Luke Roberts of Team Kuota-Senges is the last rider in line in this photo. Fighting for position in the final sprint, Roberts crashed with Bettini into Popovych. The Aussie’s left fork blade snapped off of his Cervelo P3, and he received cranio-facial trauma upon impact, but his injuries were less serious than Bettini’s.

Dear Explainer,
I apologize if this is a dumb question, but when I heard Lance Armstrong was going to race the Giro next year I was confused. Wasn't there a warrant for his arrest or something of that nature in Italy for something akin to witness intimidation?
Rick Mattinson
Salt Lake City Utah Dear Rick,
No, it’s not a dumb question. Like my old boss used to say, “there are no dumb questions!” (Well, actually there are dumb questions - some really dumb ones in fact - but yours isn’t one of them.)

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Jamey Driscoll (Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale) scored double wins at the Cycle-Smart International race in Northampton, Massachusetts, this weekend, while Laura Van Gilder took the win in Sunday's race. Driscoll, in his first year aged out of the U23 category, has developed a formula for success in New England: a steady start on lap 1 and then turning on the pressure for each lap after that until he finds himself alone

The second day of UCI cyclocross racing in Boulder, Colorado, saw repeat scenarios develop as on Sunday, with an identical result in the women’s race and a new winner from the same podium finishers from Saturday’s men’s race. In men’s racing, a lead group quickly formed containing Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com teammates Tim Johnson and Jeremy Powers, Ryan Trebon (Kona) and Saturday’s winner Todd Wells (GT).

On a warm day under clear skies, Melanie Swartz and Ryan Dewald stormed to victory at the Wayne Scott Xross in Fair Hill Maryland on Saturday. The long and relatively flat course through the Cecil County Fairgrounds was fast and technical with few opportunities to recover. In the Elite Men’s race, Greg Wittwer (ALAN North America) took a lead on the first lap and made the rest of the field ? and himself ? suffer. “I was going real hard,” he said after the race. “I saw from the earlier races that the races were staying together in the front and I wanted to spread it out.”

It was no day at the beach for the hundreds of professional and amateur ’crossers who competed in the opening round of the Boulder Cup, held Saturday on a sand-laden course at the Boulder Reservoir in Colorado. Todd Wells (GT) and Georgia Gould (Luna) took wins in the elite races, which stood as the fifth of eight round of the North American Cyclocross Trophy (NACT).

Riders from Britain's successful Beijing Olympic team was out in front again as the hosts won all six golds up for grabs in Manchester Saturday on the second day of the opening leg of the World Cup. Ed Clancy and Geraint Thomas, half of Britain's gold medal-winning and record-breaking team pursuit quartet in Beijing, joined up with Rob Hayles and Steven Burke to enjoy a triumph on their home track. Bradley Wiggins, a member of the team that stood atop the podium in China, opted out in preference for Sunday's Madison while Paul Manning has retired.

Great Britain's track cyclists scored gold in five World Cup events at the Manchester Velodrome on Friday night in their first action since the team’s domination of events at the Beijing Olympics. Performance director Dave Brailsford said it was time to concentrate less on Britain's exploits in China, where the team won seven of 10 events in the velodrome, and to look towards the London Olympics in 2012. And his team was in a confident mood as a mixture of familiar faces and new names took top step on the podium as the Manchester leg of the World Cup series kicked off.

The Giro d’Italia will have some pretty spectacular digs for its 100th anniversary bash. Giro officials announced that the centennary edition of the rosa corsa will begin May 9 in Venice. The Giro will return to city of canals for the first time in 12 years. With Lance Armstrong leading an all-star cast that also will likely include 2008 Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre and Damiano Cunego, the Giro couldn’t ask for a better send off to celebrate a century of history.

Britain's track team may have dominated the boards of the Olympic velodrome in China, but for the man who helped orchestrate those remarkable achievements it's back to business. Dave Brailsford, the Performance Director of British track cycling, returned from Beijing a happy man after seeing his riders claim seven of the 10 gold medals on offer at the Laoshan velodrome in August. But he won't let his squad of deserved medal winners rest on their laurels.

USA Cycling is launching a revamped track program intended to get young trackies more international experience early in their careers. In recent years, USAC has sent national teams to four track World Cups each season. Under the new program, the team will send some riders to all the UCI Track Calendar events, as appropriate, including European Grand Prix races and 6-day races. USA Cycling also will launch several domestic track training camps.

The nation’s top cyclocross racers will descend upon Boulder, Colorado, this weekend for a pair of UCI events held under expected warm, sunny skies. Saturday’s event, a UCI C2, will be held along the sandy shores of the Boulder Reservoir, while Sunday’s Boulder Cup, a UCI C1, will be held on the grass at Harlow Platts Park. Both events are part of the North American Cyclocross Trophy series, which culminates November 23 at Whitmore’s Landscaping Super Cross Cup in Southampton, New York.

Cervélo TestTeam is pleased to announce that Rotor Bike Components has become a sponsor of the team.   Rotor Bike Components will supply both the men and women’s Cervélo TestTeams with Q-Rings (oval chainrings), Agilis Evo cranks and Sabb bottom brackets.   “We are very pleased to be part of this new project,” said Ignacio Estellés, Rotor CEO. “In signing our 2-year agreement Rotor commits to apply its engineering to developing exciting new products, technologies and manufacturing methods, to provide the Cervelo TestTeam with the most advanced cycling components.”  

Victoria Pendleton has told 2012 Olympic Games chiefs it will be an embarrassment if women are not allowed to compete in the same number of races as male cyclists. Pendleton triumphed in the women's sprint in Beijing, one of eight golds won in an impressive total haul of 13 medals secured by the British track team at the Laoshan Velodrome. However, in China there were only three women's events on the track compared to seven for men. And that has left Pendleton feeling her achievement was "insignificant" compared to the three golds won in Beijing by British team-mate Chris Hoy.

Chris Hoy, who won three gold medals on the velodrome at this summer's Beijing Olympics, is launching a program to seek out and develop his successor in time for the 2012 London Olympics and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The cyclist launched the Chris Hoy Scholarship Tuesday at Murrayshall House Hotel in Scone Perthshire, the location of the Stone of Destiny where Kings of Scotland were crowned. The project will work with companies that invest in grass roots sports and support the development of Great Britain’s future Olympians.

Tim Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) slapped high-fives and jubilantly raised his arms skyward as he coasted alone across the finish line to win Sunday’s Derby City Cup No. 2, the second round of the 2008 Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross. The Massachusetts native was all grins and hugs at the awards ceremony following the elite men’s race — and for good reason. Johnson’s victory came just one day after he was a non-factor in Saturday’s race, won in dominating fashion by rival Ryan Trebon (Kona).

The Czech Republic made it a six-pack of stage victories at Australia’s Crocodile Trophy Sunday as VIG+ Racing’s Kejval Lubos delivered on the promise he showed during Saturday’s stage at Chillagoe. This time there was no blowing up at the death as Lubos and breakaway partner Tomas Kozak made it another “Czech-one-two” when the race reached its annual stop-over at Mount Mulgrave Station, a cattle grazing property almost as large as some European principalities.

Lampre’s Damiano Cunego won the Japan Cup on Sunday, edging out Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step) and Liquigas’s Ivan Basso who was competing in his first race since being swept up in the Opera?ion Puerto doping scandal. The 30-year-old, now riding for the Liquigas team, finished behind compatriots Damiano Cunego — winner of the Tour of Lombardy — and former national champion Giovanni Visconti in the 151 kilometers Japan Cup.

Ryan Trebon (Kona) and Katerina Nash (Luna) took impressive solo victories at the opening day of the 2008 Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross, at Champion’s Park in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday.

The Czech VIG+ Racing team continued its complete dominance Friday at the 2008 Crocodile Trophy with Martin Horak scoring his first stage win and fourth consecutive stage win for his team as the off-road classic reached the Australian outback town of Chillagoe. The victory will be remembered for all the right reasons, with Horak, in the most sporting of gestures, rendering assistance when his breakaway partner, Kristof Hertsens of Belgium (Team Lingier) crashed.

It’s been an interesting end of season for American pro team Garmin-Chipotle and its team manager Jonathan Vaughters. The Garmin squad saw some impressive late-season performances by Dave Zabriskie, who finished third at the world time trial championship, and young riders Tyler Farrar and Steven Cozza.

Tomas Trunschka took a hard-fought stage win on Thursday — his second in three days — to keep the Czech team VIG+ Racing atop the leaderboard in the 2008 Crocodile Trophy. The Czechs attacked early in the 122km stage from the rainforest of Koombooloomba Dam to the outback cattle station at Gunnawarra Lagoon. Martin Horak got the ball rolling when the lead bunch entered the mountainous, technical powerline track, which has claimed many victims in this race. [nid:84540]

Cervélo TestTeam is pleased to announce the signing of Simon Gerrans of Australia, Martin Reimer of Germany, Inigio Cuesta and Xavier Florencio of Spain as well as Gabriel Rasch of Norway.

Cycling BC is proud to present the first annual Cycling BC Coaches Conference on November 22, 2008. The conference will welcome coaches from across the province and throughout the Pacific Northwest. The aim of the conference is to provide coaches with a forum to discuss topics relevant to performance and development of the sport. The theme of this year’s conference is: Innovative Coaching: New Approaches to Cycling Success Program 10:00-10:15 Introduction and Sign In. 10:15-11:00 Richard Wooles: The Cycling BC athlete development model 11:00-11:15 Break

What’s most clear from Wednesday’s announcement of the 2009 Tour de France is that the winner will have to maintain top form from the very first day in Monaco on July 4 to the finish in Paris on July 26.

The winners of Pennsylvania’s Wissahickon Cyclocross, round four of the Mid-Atlantic Cyclocross (MAC) Series, served up an exhibition of different ways to win a ‘cross race on Sunday. Laura Van Gilder (C3-Sollay.com) won the women’s race in the last minute of competition, while Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com) won the men’s race in the first minute of action.

In a classic edition of the Cyclocross at Granogue saw a double dip of Kona as Ryan Trebon (Kona) and Dee Dee Winfield (Velo Bella – Kona) scored wins in the Autumn classic. Both wins came down to last lap moves in the UCI C1 event.

Stuart O'Grady locked up the overall title of Australia’s Herald Sun Tour on Saturday, fending off a mid-race challenge from his most serious competitor, Ben Day (Toyota United) missed a chance to score bonus seconds in an intermediate sprint in a 66-kilometer, 33-lap race through the streets of Melbourne.

Stuart O’Grady won Friday's stage five individual time trial of Australia's Jayco Herald Sun Tour and took back the race leader’s yellow jersey, which he is likely to hold until the end of the week-long race. O’Grady started the day four seconds down on his CSC - Saxo Bank teammate Lars Bak, but after charging around the undulating 16km time trial course in the Yarra Valley he now holds a 17 second gap over Bak with Toyota-United’s Ben Day in third place overall at 19 seconds behind.

Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) stormed to victory in a long sprint at the 94th Giro del Piemonte on Thursday to claim his seventh and last victory of the 2008 season. Bennati out-kicked Luca Paolini (Acqua e Sapone) to win the 199km run from Novi Ligure to Lagnasco in northern Italy with Alexandre Usov (Ag2r-La Mondiale) slotting into third. Liquigas was determined to set up its 28-year-old sprinter, reeling in a two-man breakaway and then kept on the pressure to tamp down any late attacks to set up the mass gallop.

Sizes: 39 to 48 Colors: black; aluminum/silver; pearly white; aluminum/dark blue; faux patent leather red Web site: www.sidisport.com Retail price: 298 Euro (About $400) Sidi's MTB Dragon 2 Carbon Srs is the shoe worn by Olympic champion Julien Absalon. The shoe features an adjustable mechanism that allows for a snugger and safer fit around the heel, preventing slippage during climbs or sprints. The Dragon 2 also includes Sidi's Mtb Carbon Srs sole, in nylon with a carbon steel core from heel to toe.

After playing second fiddle on two occasions in sprint finishes, former Tour de France sprint champion Baden Cooke finally took the honors on stage 3 of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. Cooke, riding for Barloworld, had been edged out by early Tour leader Matt Goss (CSC - Saxo Bank) on the opening two days, but atoned in a desperate scramble to the line in Marysville. Canadian Dominque Rollin (Toyota-United) was second on the stage and was among the riders who protested Cooke's finish. Officials, however, upheld the win.

Alessandria, Italy ? The peloton, stretched thin into a long single line, stuck to the white line marking the edge of the road with the riders on the front pushing the cool yet fresh autumn air as they rode a hard tempo to control the race and bring back the breakaway. Leaves blew on to the course, acorns and chestnuts spotting the road, and the odor of fermenting grapes was pungent as we passed the vineyards known for producing the best wines in Italy.

Stuart O'Grady continued the CSC-Saxo Bank domination of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, winning the second stage, after his 21-year-old teammate, Matt Goss, of Tasmania, won the prologue and stage 1. The American teams Toyota-United, Team Type 1 and Jelly Belly are participating in the week-long race. The best placed rider from an American team is Toyota-United's Australian Ben Day, who is in fourth, 20 seconds behind race leader O'Grady.

11. Unplug the port on one of the drop-bar dual-control levers, and you can plug in additional shift button to have on, say, the bar tops for climbing or the bar drops for sprinting.

For the second day in a row Matt Goss, of the CSC Saxo Bank team, relegated Tour de France green jersey winner Baden Cooke to the minor placings by winning the opening stage. And just like Sunday, Goss attributed a large portion of his win in the 130km trek from Traralgon to Inverloch to the work of his teammates, particularly Stuart O’Grady, who broke away from the peloton with 65km remaining only to be caught 15km from the finish.

Belgian one-day specialist Philippe Gilbert handed his Francaise des Jeux team the ideal farewell gift by winning the Paris-Tours one-day classic on Sunday. Gilbert's first victory in the 102nd edition of the race, held over 252km, comes only weeks before he ends his five-year stay with the French outfit by moving to Silence-Lotto. The Belgian had been among a four-strong group of frontrunners that was being hunted down by the peloton inside the closing kilometer. However the four worked together to keep the pack at bay.

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It shook out a bit differently, but the second day of the Erdinger Gran Prix of Gloucester ended up with the same men and women atop the podium: Kona's Ryan Trebon and Velo Bella-Kona's Amy Dombroski. Trebon and national champ Tim Johnson (Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale) separated themselves from the field on the first lap and dueled for most of the one hour race on another Indian Summer day on the Massachusetts coast. Just like Saturday, however, Trebon ramped up the pace in the last two laps and Johnson was simply unable to keep up.

In the country’s only three-day weekend of UCI cyclocross, Katie Compton (Spike Professional/Primus Mootry) and Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com) completed their respective hat-tricks in the Cincinnati International Cyclocross Festival, winning the BioWheels/United Dairy Farmers Harbin Park International on Sunday.

With his LPR Brakes team barred from racing at Paris-Tours, Alessandro Petacchi couldn’t defend his title from last year’s “sprinter’s classic.” Petacchi won on Sunday anyway, sprinting to victory in the 12th GP Beghelli in Italy ahead of Mihail Khalilov (Flaminia), with Giuseppe Palumbo (Acqua e Sapone) coming across third. LPR Brakes was excluded from Paris-Tours because the team didn’t meet requirements for the UCI’s biological passport program, meaning Petacchi – who won the French classic last year with Milram – wouldn’t be able to defend his title.

The sixth stage of the Vuelta Chihuahua delivered a fitting winner, as the third-year race returned to the state capitol following a five-day clockwise journey around the largest of Mexico’s 31 states. Following a long eight-rider breakaway that survived to the finish, reigning Mexican national road champion Luis Macias (Tecos-Trek) out-kicked Italian Diego Noscotti (NGC Medical), grabbing a razor thin triumph at the end of the 126.3km ride from Cuauhtémoc to Chihuahua. Mexican Marco Rios (Orven) was third on a day that lasted 2:34:23 for the front group.

Javier Benitez is certainly not lacking for confidence. For the second time in five days at Mexico’s Vuelta Chihuahua, the Spaniard started his victory celebration long before crossing the finish line. But just like the end of stage 1 on Monday, the Benfica rider was fastest finisher at the close of stage 5’s 152.8km ride from Creel to Cuauhtémoc. Benitez stopped the clock in 3:36:52, with German Steffen Radochla (Elk Haus-Simplon) and Mexico’s Juan Magallanes (Tecos-Trek) completing the podium. The top 3 was identical to stage 1’s podium.

It might be called the “sprinters' classics,” but Paris-Tours is a race where opportunists can have their way. The French fall classic has often tipped in favor of attackers who’ve foiled the best-laid plans of the sprinters, with such riders as Frédéric Guesdon (2006) and Erik Dekker (2004) winning thanks to strong late-race tactics.

Francisco Mancebo is the new overall leader of the Vuelta Chihuahua, and if things work out the way the Spaniard hopes, the soon-to-be newest member of Rock Racing. On Thursday, Mancebo (Fercase-Rota dos Moveis) took a big step toward defending his 2007 title in this UCI 2.2 America Tour race, finishing third in the rolling 18.9km time trial from Pitoreal to Divisadero, and jumping from second to first in the overall standings.

Bernhard Eisel (Columbia) played off the interests of the French teams Thursday to sneak away with Paris-Bourges, the final round of the season-long French Cup series. Eisel followed Cédric Pineau (Ag2r-La Mondiale) into the day’s main breakaway just 18km into the 194km race and then nipped him in a photo finish. “It was a very fast start (48kph in first hour). I didn’t think it was going to be enough, but 13 minutes was good,” Eisel said.

Chris Jones will return to ride for Team Type 1 for the 2009 season while the second-year professional squad is also adding the stars-and-stripes jersey of U.S. Elite Criterium Champion Ken Hanson to its roster.   Jones, 29, scored his second straight top 10 finish at the Greenville Hospital System USA Cycling Professional Road Race Championship after winning the Patterson Pass Road Race earlier in August. The Redding, Calif., native also played a key role at the Vuelta Mexico and the Tour of Arkansas, both of which were won by Team Type 1’s Glen Chadwick.  

Spaniard Javier Benitez burst from the bunch in the final 100 meters to take the stage 1 sprint at the Vuelta Chihuahua on Monday. The Benfica rider stopped the clock in 3:19:30, with Steffen Radochla (Elk Haus-Simplon) and Juan Magallanes (Tecos-Trek) completing the podium at the end of the 147.8km ride from Chihuahua to Camargo. Benitez won by more than a bike length.