Okay… I think my “bring me a rock” exercise is done for the day. Here’s the news.

• The third round of the Nissan Topsport Flanders Trophy series will be Sunday in Gavere.  Francis Mourey, Christian Heule and Erwin Vervecken are expected to appear, but the focus is on Sven Nys who has gone 2 weeks without winning a race. (Sportwereld.be)
• The 2009 Tour of Georgia has been cancelled. Race management vows that the race will return in 2009 and that they will use this extra year to better plan the race and continue their search for a title sponsor. Organizers were bouyed by the pledged participation of Lance Armstrong, but even that was not enough to draw in a major underwriter. (AP)
• Frank Vandebrouke is close to signing with the new Cinelli-Endeka squad, where his best friend Nico Mattan is DS (Sportwereld.be)
• The maker of Stan’s NoTubes wheels and tires is suing Specialized over alleged patent infringement involving Specialized’s Roval wheels. (Velo News)
• Niels Albert feels that in order to compete on the road, you need to dope, but cyclocross is cleaner. He cites doping as the main reason that he focuses on ‘cross (Sportwereld.be)
• The legal battle between Jan Ullrich and Team Coast continues. Earlier this week, Ullrich won a settlement of 340,000 euros plus back interest for wages withheld when the team believed that he had doped. Now, former Team Coast owner Guenther Dahms has sued Ullrich for criminal libel, alleging that Ullrich lied in court when he said that he didn’t dope. (Radsport News)
• In other legal news, Stefan Schumacher is in a court battle to get his wages from the Quick Step team. He feels that he has a valid contract and that the restesting of samples from the 2008 Tour de France for CERA is not valid. Quick Step team boss Patrick Lefevre says that he has no room on his team for riders that don’t want to follow the team’s fundamental rules (that would be you, Mr. Schumacher) (Radsport News)
• The Six Days of Ghent starts on Tuesday and tickets for three of the days have already sold out. Seems that Belgian fans are more passionate about Six Day racing than those in Germany right now - Munich reportedly had the lowest turnout in several years. (Sportwereld.be)
• Luxembourger Kim Kirchen (Columbia) will once again focus on the spring classics and the Tour de France for 2009. He will substitute Dauphine Libere for the Tour of Switzerland, however, as he feels that will better prepare him for the Tour de France. (Radpsort News)
• Filippo Simeoni wants to keep his rivalry with Lance Armstrong on the road but extended an olive branch to the seven time Tour winner, expressing an interest to cooperate on charitable causes. “We are rivals on the bike, but we can be friends in charity works,” he said. “He is dedicated to the fight against cancer, and I am dedicated to [Italian blood donation association] AVIS. These are two solidarity projects that could be united in one important event for the world of sport and society. I would like to ride with Armstrong side by side to promote our projects for a good cause.” (Sportweek.nl)

Yesterday was a nice day for a ride here around BWN HQ. The jacket sleeves came off about halfway out on the ride.

Tags: BWN HQ, cancer, Christian Heule, columbia, Erwin Vervecken, EUR, Filippo Simeoni, France, Francis Mourey, Frank Vandebrouke, Georgia, germany, Jan Ullrich, kim kirchen, Lance Armstrong, LTD., Munich, Nico Mattan, Nissan, NISSAN DIESEL MOTOR CO., Nissan Topsport Flanders Trophy, Patrick Lefevre, stefan schumacher, Switzerland, Team Coast, Tour de France News, united states