One by one the team stepped on to the bus, sweat pouring from their faces, their jerseys wide-open, radio earpieces hanging from their salt-encrusted helmet straps, road dirt and carbon brake dust on their faces, veins pulsing on their sweat soaked arms and legs. As helmets were buckled and seats found, each said in his own way, with his own accent, “That was the best lead-out I have ever been a part of.”

For a team to defend a race lead over seven stages takes a tremendous amount of effort on everyone's part to ensure the win. For one rider to do it on his own start to finish is almost unimaginable. But John Murphy of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis pulled it off during the five-day, seven-stage Tour of Atlanta this past weekend, despite having to contend with full squads form a number of teams, including UCI continental team Toshiba. Murphy won the opening-stage time trial by a solid 0:31 margin, but had five members of Toshiba within 0:55 of him after the stage.

Starting under darkening skies with scattered rain showers, the 4th annual Priority Health Tour de Leelanau was fortunate to end in bright sunshine after some very aggressive racing. Organizers said the Tour de Leelanau drew the deepest fields of racers to ever compete in Michigan. Starting in the fishing village of Leland and ending in Peshawbestown on the edge of Traverse Bay, the race course for the Tour de Leelanau traveled from corner to corner of this scenic Michigan county.

David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit Strategies) won Saturday's Kelly Cup criterium in Baltimore's Patterson Park. The 20-year-old Canadian outsprinted Colavita's Kyle Wamsley and compatriot Dominque Rollin (Toyota-United). Mid way through the race a seven-man breakaway formed that included Jonny Sundt and Veilluex from Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast. But with less than ten laps to go the break split and Sundt returned to the field and Veilleux was left in a four-man break. Veilleux went into the last 100 meters on Rollin's wheel then came around Rollin and held off Wamsley for the win.

I’m going to go against the norm this week and start with the bad news. Right now I’m sitting in the Steaming Bean coffee shop in rainy Durango, Colorado, one day out from what is supposed to be my first A-priority event of the 2008 season, the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic road race. For those unfamiliar, the Iron Horse is among America’s longest running cycling events, this year celebrating its 37th anniversary.

It’s unlikely that Mark Cavendish will become the peloton’s new gentleman sprinter, but he was gracious enough Friday to say thanks to Daniele Bennati for not closing down the sprint 100 meters shy of his second win in the 91st Giro d’Italia. The High Road sprinter didn’t elaborate on whether or not he also said arrivederci as he burst past his Liquigas rival in what’s fast becoming recognized as the most lethal last-second punch in the peloton.

Liquigas's Daniele Bennati won Thursday's 12th stage of the Giro d’Italia, winning a furious sprint by the narrowest of margins over Mark Cavendish (High Road) at the end of a 172-kilometer race from Forli to Carpi. Quick Step's Giovanni Visconti finished in the main field and kept the the maglia rosa of the overall race leader.

Italian Alessandro Bertolini (Diquigiovanni) won Wednesday's wild ride into Cesena in the 11th stage at the Giro d'Italia that saw a cascade of crashes in yet another wild day of racing at the corsa rosa. Overnight leader Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step) defended his pink jersey, but only after being dropped twice and overcoming a crash with 30km to go in the 199km, mountainous stage over what were once the training routes of Marco Pantani.

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Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) powered to his second consecutive victory Tuesday to conserve his lead at the 88th Volta a Catalunya in Spain. A winner of Monday’s opening prologue, Hushovd out-kicked Bernard Eisel (High Road) to sprint to victory in the 167.8km stage from Riudellots de la Selva to Banyoles. Hushovd widened his grip on the overall leader’s jersey to second-place George Hincapie (High Road) by 10 seconds thanks to a finish-line bonus.

Emmett, Taberlay Claim NMBS win in Santa Ynez
Kelli Emmett (Giant) took her first-career National Mountain Bike Series cross-country win at the third round of the 2008 series, held May 17-18 at the Chamberlain Ranch in Santa Ynez, California. Visiting Australian Sid Taberlay (Avanti) took his first NMBS victory in the men’s race. Both events saw riders tackle the course in 100-degree heat. Emmett’s victory marked the end of the NMBS winning streak of Georgia Gould (Luna), whose eight-round streak dates back to March of 2007.

Somebody once made the mistake of asking “What do you think about out there during five hour races? It can’t all be focus, right?” You asked for it! A sampling of my really, really random inner monologue from the second stage at the Four Days of Dunkirk, starting while rolling from the camper to the start: Wow. It’s really nice today. Why are we starting in a dive strip mall parking lot? Lame. I need to pee.

Colavita's national crit champ Tina Pic won her second Mt. Hood Cycling Classic stage on Sunday while 19-year-old Julie Beveridge (Aaron's) locked up the overall title despite a nasty crash in the last corner of the race. Jeanie Longo-Ciprelli (River City Bicycles) grabbed third place in the sprint and took a four-second time bonus that moved her from third to second on GC, passing three-time Mt. Hood winner Leah Goldstein (ValueAct Capital)

French sprinter Sébastian Chavanel (FDJeux) won the fourth and final stage Sunday to claim the overall title at the Tour de Picardie in France. Chavanel scored time bonuses at intermediate sprints in the afternoon road race of Sunday’s two-part finale to grab the overall crown by a slender, one-second margin.

Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) wants nothing more than to win a stage in the Giro d’Italia wearing the rainbow jersey. “The Cricket” came close but fell short in 2007, and when he successfully defended the world championship last fall in Stuttgart, one of the first things he said he wanted to do was win in Italy wearing the rainbow stripes. Bettini, 34, still has some unfinished business after losing in a photo-finish to Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) in a hotly contested sprint in Sunday’s 218km ninth stage from Civitavecchia to San Vicenzo.

Time differences taken at the finish line in Thursday’s sixth stage at the Giro d’Italia stand for now. Members of the race jury ruled Friday after analyzing photos that a crash involving a police motorcycle just under 1km to go “did not cause a time gap” in the rising finish into the fishing village at Peschici. Astana team officials said they would meet Saturday morning with the president of the race jury to further discuss the issue. Other teams have also protested the decision to let the time gaps stand.

German veteran Sebastian Siedler (Skil-Shimano) survived a finish-line crash to snag the maillot jaune after sprinting to victory in the opening stage of the Tour de Picardie on Friday in France. The 30-year-old Siedler stabbed his bike across the line ahead of Belgian Kenny de Haes (Topsport) and French rider Sébastien Chavanel (FDJeux) in the 179km circuit course from Crécy-en-Ponthieu to Guise.

Astana is looking to make the most of the unexpected trip to the Giro d’Italia. With its marquee lineup that includes Levi Leipheimer, Alberto Contador and Andreas Kloden, the team would normally be expected to dominate the race. But Astana’s invite didn’t come until a week before the 91st Giro kick-started in Sicily last weekend and the team had less-than-ideal preparation for one of the season’s hardest races.

BMC's South African, Darren Lill, won Thursday's second stage of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic by peeling away from the remnants of the peloton on the final climb a bit less than a kilometer to go. Lill, who won the fifth stage at Mt. Hood last year, barely held off a late charge by Health Net's Rory Sutherland and Symmetric's Christian Meier. Lill took over the leader's jersey from Toyota-United's Hilton Clarke, who was dropped by the lead group about 8km from the finish of the hilly circuit race.

Bike fit is no joking matter for a professional racer. Fit is the single most important aspect of the bike. If the bike doesn’t fit, it really doesn’t matter how light or technologically advanced it is — it’s not going to be very fast. Take the case of Liquigas rider Daniele Bennati. He has short legs, long arms and a long torso. So the team’s bike sponsor, Cannondale, built him a custom SuperSix carbon bike, which he has been racing for two and a half months.

The highly anticipated Tour of Atlanta, May 22nd through the 26th, is less than two weeks away from its first event. This inaugural stage race will feature 7 stages in 5 days in, and around, the Atlanta area. The stages provide an exciting mix of time trials, criteriums, and road races to allow racers of all types with a chance to excel and win stages. The most unique aspect to this event will be the street sprints on the first day of racing. The time bonuses awarded for the street sprints may turn out to be the difference between winning and losing the general classification.

For the second day in a row, a breakaway stayed clear of the peloton, with another unsung hero from a smaller team in the form of Matteo Priamo (CSF-Panaria) taking center stage. Unlike yesterday, the attackers had enough rope to end Franco Pellizotti’s four-day run in the pink jersey. Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step) and German Matthias Russ (Gerolsteiner) ended the day tied on time, but Visconti took the maglia rosa based on differences taken in the team time trial.

The Mt. Hood Cycling Classic ventured into new territory Wednesday with a new venue for the sixth year of the event: a hilly criterium held in a verdant city park wrapping around a long-extinct volcano. The new event delivered large crowds and down-to-the-wire racing action that saw the mens and womens overall leads switch hands in the final meters of the crits. The fact that Portland was enjoying some of the nicest weather of the spring only helped improve the festive atmosphere in Mt. Tabor Park.

Organizers of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling have announced the 20 professional women’s teams that will contest a three-race battle in southeastern Pennsylvania in early June. At stake is a $34,000 prize purse that includes $5000 for the overall series winner.

Nichole Wangsgard and Lucas Sebastian Haedo — both of Colavita-Sutter Home — scored criterium wins in the final stage of Arkansas’ May stage race. Health Net's Rory Sutherland and Cheerwine's Robin Farina took the overall. Action Images photographer Kurt Jambretz was there to capture all the action.

Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) survived to win a crash-laden 222km third stage at the Giro d’Italia on Monday that saw scores of riders hit the deck in a nervous, technical race around the flanks of Mt. Etna. While Europe’s most active volcano remained quiet, there was plenty of action on the road as wind and light rain thrashed the peloton in what was one of the few chances for sprinters in this climb-heavy edition of the Giro.

Tiny Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina, can finally say it owns the best collegiate road cycling team in the United States. After a series of near misses at collegiate cycling’s biggest race, the Bobcats finally grabbed the coveted Division I team omnium, squeaking by Fort Lewis College, 473-424. The Bobcats’ Andrew Talansky and Carla Swart also took home the Division I individual omnium titles — another first for the school of 900 students.

Christian Vande Velde stepped off the Slipstream-Chipotle team bus Sunday morning along the beach at Cerfalù with a big smile on his face. Proudly decked out in the maglia rosa, Vande Velde was clearly enjoying his moment as the first American since Andy Hampsten won the 1988 Giro to wear the Giro’s leader’s jersey. “We hope today goes just like yesterday, but we know it’s a complicated stage,” Vande Velde said. “To win yesterday’s stage was our big goal, everything else is just icing on the cake at this point.”

Cofidis rider Stephane Auge of France claimed overall victory in the Four Days of Dunkirk cycling race on Sunday. Norwegian Thor Hushovd, riding for the Credit Agricole team, won Sunday's sixth and final 128.4km stage between Coudekerque and Dunkirk in a sprint finish. Please check back soon for results.

Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Scott) uncorked a tremendous sprint in the final 100 meters to win Sunday’s exciting 207km second stage, but Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) snuck into fourth to short circuit Christian Vande Velde’s run in the maglia rosa by just one second.

Carla Swart clung to the back of the elite seven-woman breakaway in the waning minutes of the 2008 Division I women’s road championship, held Saturday in Fort Collins, Colorado. Outnumbered and without teammates, the Lees-McRae sophomore didn’t appear to have the numbers or legs to win. Looks, however, can be deceiving.

Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita-Sutter Home) took the stage 2 sprint win at the Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas. Action Images photographer Kurt Jambretz was there to catch all the action.

McEwen’s new bike has a 2009 fully-redesigned Ridley Oval-licensed Jetstream road fork and seatstays. Both the stays and the fork feature split aero blades with a new shape designed by MIT aerodynamics guru Mark Drela. The fork and stays are not only aerodynamic themselves, but their split blades also suck air away from the spokes and reduce the aerodynamic drag of each wheel. And at sprinting speeds of over 70kph, not to mention all of the hours spent riding leading up to it, every ounce of aerodynamic drag and watt of power saved makes a difference.

Christian Vande Velde might have the pink jersey, but it was a team victory in every sense of the word Saturday for Slipstream-Chipotle in the 23.6km team time trial to open the 91st Giro d’Italia. Vande Velde, 31, becomes the first American since Andy Hampsten won the 1988 Giro to don the prized maglia rosa, but he’d love nothing more than to have eight more to pass among his teammates.

In Palermo, Italy Rabobank is trying a new approach this year for its quiet but steady Russian GC threat, Denis Menchov. After watching him win two of the past three editions of the Vuelta a España after racing the Tour de France, the team figures three hard weeks of racing is just what Menchov needs ahead of July’s Tour.

Frenchman Pierrick Fedrigo, riding for the Bouygues Telecom team, claimed victory in the fourth stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk race on Friday. Fedrigo beat home Australian Allan Davis and Spaniard Jose Joaquin Gil Rojas in a sprint finish. Frenchman Stephane Auge, of Cofidis, retained the race leader's jersey after the 193km stage between Wasquehal and Calais.

With a world champion, winners of all three of last year’s grand tours and a top-notch field of sprinters, does the Giro d’Italia boast the best lineup of the season? If you ask the riders ahead of Saturday’s start of the 91st Giro, they seem to agree. “Without any shadow of a doubt, this year’s Giro has the best field of any race,” said defending champion Danilo Di Luca (LPR). “We have a deep field in the Giro this year. Whoever wins this Giro can be proud of what they achieve.”

Editor’s note: Watch for John Wilcockson’s Friday morning column on a regular basis, taking you inside the world of cycling. This week he introduces one of the young, unsung heroes of the European peloton. Matt Lloyd loves racing in Italy. So when he lines up Saturday with his Silence-Lotto team at the Giro d’Italia he’ll feel right at home.

Belgian Kenny De Haes of the Topsport team claimed victory in the third stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk race Thursday after upsetting Norwegian sprint ace Thor Hushovd at the line. Frenchman Stephane Auge of Cofidis retained the race leader's jersey after the 193km stage from Le Cateau-Cambresis to Saint-Quentin, France. Cofidis and the Skil team of the race's best climber Clement Lhotellerie, were forced to work throughout most of Thursday's stage to protect their respective jerseys.

With help from Rob Jones The third round of the 2008 UCI cross-country World Cup saw the world’s top riders battle on a sun-baked band of dust and gravel in the heart of Madrid, Spain. The fast, almost road-like course was a far cry from the muddy, wooded tracks in Houffalize, Belgium and Offenburg, Germany. The Madrid course favored riders with huge engines, strong legs and the mental strength to keep the gas pedal floored for two solid hours.

Belgium's Gert Steegmans of the Quick Step team won a sprint finish in the second stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk on Wednesday. France's Stephane Auge of the Cofidis team retained the leader's pink jersey after the 192km stretch from Henin-Beaumont. Steegmans, who averaged an impressive 40.2km/h, crossed the line just ahead of Australia's Marc Renshaw and Jean-Patrick Nazon of France.

The International Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, (CAS) ruled Tuesday that Italian sprint star Alessandro Petacchi will be ineligible to compete until August 31, because of a doping case stemming from last year's Giro d'Italia.

Stephane Auge of Cofidis claimed the leader's pink jersey, and victory in the first stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk after stunning the top sprinters in the race here Tuesday. Auge and fellow Frenchman Clement Lhotellerie broke away from the main peloton, including sprint heavyweights such as German Erik Zabel and Norwegian Thor Hushovd, at the 72km mark and never looked back.

It’s hot here. Windy too. I’m at the Tour of the Gila and a recurrent theme thus far is how hot, dry, and windy it is. Everyone is finishing with loads of salt on their faces and their clothing. There have been many heat casualties so far and it’s supposed to get hotter as the week goes on. I am hearing the familiar story about how they were seeing extraordinarily high HR (cardiac drift) and low power at the end of the race, and I’m looking at them at the finish and they have big goose bumps, and they are cramping and chilling … classic symptoms of heat distress.

If you believe Barloworld team manager Claudio Corti, Colombian climbing sensation Mauricio Soler is starting next week’s Giro d’Italia only with ambitions to win a stage or two. Instead of making a run for the maglia rosa, Corti says the Giro will serve as a springboard for Soler to improve on his remarkable haul in last year’s Tour de France that included 11th place overall, a stage victory and the best climber’s jersey.

Toyota-United made it two NRC victories in a row during a big weekend of racing in the Southeast, by taking the win at Sunday’s Nalley Historic Roswell Criterium just outside of metro Atlanta. Caleb Manion benefited from the same race situation that delivered teammate Hilton Clarke to the line first during the Sunny King Criterium on the previous day in Anniston, Alabama. In Anniston, Manion figured in the winning breakaway, and in Roswell he was also one of four riders that left the 70-man field behind.

Sebastian Haedo, younger brother of CSC sprinter Juan Jose Haedo, did the family name proud on Sunday by winning the U.S. Air Force Cycling Classic in Arlington, Virginia. The Colavita-Sutter Home sprinter scored what could be a breakthrough win in his young professional career by coming out ahead in the bunch kick that decided this third event of USA Cycling’s Pro Tour calendar. “It’s very important because it’s a UCI race,” said Haedo at the finish. “We’ve been having a great year and getting so many second places, we needed a big win.

It could have been 2006 at the Mountain Bike World Cup in Madrid, with Julien Absalon (Orbea) and Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå (Multivan Merida) winning this third round of the series. For Absalon, it was business as usual, as he took his third straight victory. However, for Dahle Flesjå it was an emotional moment as she completed her journey back to the forefront of the field after a year of illness. Absalon cemented his lead in the men's overall standings, while Marie-Helene Premont (Rocky Mountain) donned the leader's jersey for the women, the third leader in three races.

Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) won the fifth and final stage of the Tour de Romandie as Astana’s Andreas Klöden took the overall title. Bennati proved fastest of the bunch after it swept up a late break by Nick Nuyens (Cofidis), who took off with 10km to race and was reeled in 5km from the finish of the 152.4km stage from Le Bouveret to Lausanne. Markus Zberg (Gerolsteiner) and Maxim Iglinsky (Astana) took second and third on the day while Klöden crossed with the bunch to secure the overall win ahead of Roman Kreuzger (Liquigas) and Marco Pinotti (Team High Road).

Hilton Clarke stood on the top step of an all-Aussie podium at this year’s Sunny King Criterium in Anniston, Alabama, having secured Toyota-United’s second major victory of the day. Clarke’s teammate Henk Vogels took the win at the Tour of the Gila’s Downtown Silver City Criterium earlier in the day.

Milram sprint specialist Alessandro Petacchi will miss next week’s start of the Giro d’Italia after he was diagnosed with bronchitis, the German/Italian team said Saturday. "I'm very sorry that I won't be able to start in the Giro d'Italia," said Petacchi in a statement. "Yesterday (Friday), I thought that I would be able to start, even if my condition is very bad because I have not been able to train the last 12 days. I feel better now but there is not enough time for a good training.

Toyota Motor Sales, USA, will not renew its three-year contract to sponsor the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team, the team announced Friday. Team owner Sean Tucker held a conference call with team riders, staff and managers to tell them that the car company will let its three-year contract expire at the end of this season. Tucker said he is looking to find another sponsor in the next 100 days.

Kelly Benefit Strategies rider Alex Candelario negotiated a tricky circuit and rode his leadout train to victory in the latest installment of the USA CRITS Speed Week series on Thursday in Greenwood, South Carolina, “The team rode really well,” Candelario said. “We knew we’d probably be riding for a field sprint, so we lined up all the boys with 10 laps to go. They did a great job of keeping guys in check. One of the Rock Racing guys jumped in the final, but Martin Gilbert responded and dropped me off at 250 meters to go.”

Robbie McEwen (Silence-Lotto) sprang from a mad dash to the line to win stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie on Thursday. The Aussie speedster free-lanced his way to the front in a chaotic bunch sprint and shot off Milram rider Björn Schröder’s wheel to claim his first victory of 2008 ahead of Daniele Bennati (Lampre) and Matti Breschel (CSC). Michael Albasini (Liquigas) retained the overall lead.

Michael Albasini (Liquigas) seized the lead of the Tour de Romandie on Wednesday as Maxim Iglinsky (Astana) won stage 1, a 182km grind from Morges to Saignelégier. The Liquigas man, third in Tuesday's prologue and second today ahead of Markus Zberg (Gerolsteiner), proved fastest of an elite group that chased down a late breakaway by Alexandre Botcharov (Crédit Agricole), Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Jussi Veikkanen (Française des Jeux) on the descent from the category-1 climb to Saulcy.

Mark Cavendish continued High Road's winning streak by claiming the kickoff to the Tour de Romandie on Tuesday. The Brit won the 1.9km prologue in 2:07:60 ahead of Daniele Bennati (Liquigas), who was given the same time. Michael Albasini (Liquigas) rounded out the podium at one second back.

Italian Davide Rebellin conceded defeat to the "faster legs" of Spanish rival Alejandro Valverde after their thrilling battle for one of the most prestigious crowns in one-day cycling Sunday. A runner-up to Italian Danilo Di Luca last year and winner in 2006, Valverde left Rebellin struggling to match his pace when he capped the tough, 12-climb 261km epic with a winning sprint a few hundred meters from the finish line. Rebellin's victory here in 2004 rounded off a superb week in which he won the Amstel Gold Race and the Fleche Wallonne classics.