Bike World News

The city of Stuttgart’s request for an injuction to bar Paolo Bettini from racing in the World Championships road race on Sunday has been rejected, so he will be lining up to defend his rainbow jersey.
T-Mobile is revamping their team for 2008, adding 10 new riders, the most notable of which is George Hicnapie and Bradley Wiggins.
The Tour Down Under will receive ProTour status in 2008, a year earlier than anticipated.
Mario Cipollini hosted a swank party during Interbike at the Mirage on Wednesday, then went out and raced in the …

The racing season is winding down very quickly. The Tour of Missouri is finished, the Worlds are on the horizon, and the Vuelta will be coming to a close in Madrid on Sunday.

Monday the 17th was the second rest day. 

Tuesday’s Stage 16 is a relatively short (161km) but tough day, featuring 2 Category 2 climbs and 1 Category 3 climb.

154 riders started today. The peloton stayed together today until the 58 km mark, when 18 racers managed to pull off the front. The lead built to 4 minutes, and then …

Vuelta de Espana – Stage 11:
The day started with a two man breakaway at the 8km mark that saw it’s biggest gap at the 40km point. The peloton was taking it easy, working only hard enough to let the break not get any bigger.  At 120km, the peloton started to reel in the break and they had made up the 3 minute advantage by km 150. 

 The Milram and Lampre-Fondital teams, along with Rabobank, did the majority of the work to make up the break. By the final 10 km, the …

Several weeks ago, while out on a group ride, I had 3 flats within the space of less than 2 hours and 25 miles. I only had one tube on me, but was fortunate enough to be riding with some very generous people that not only shared tubes with me, but also helped me put them in. One of these individuals took a look at my wheels and theorized that my flats were likely being caused by tube to rim contact, as opposed to road debris or pinch flats. 

When …

Here are some of the latest headlines from the world of cycling. 

Giro winner Danilo diLuca faces yet another hearing about doping allegations.
Michael Cavendish’s outstanding debut season continues with a stage win at the Tour of Benelux. Nick Nuyens of Cofidis is holding on to the overall lead.
Young rider Stijn Vanderbergh fended off the riders of Team CSC to win the second stage of the Tour of Ireland.
Levi Leipheimer is very close to making a deal for 2008.
On Trust But Verify: It’s been 3 months since the close of Floyd Landis’ …

Look. Over there in your garage. Behind that pile of old cardboard boxes from your last move. Or maybe under a dusty old drop cloth. It’s your bicycle.

Clear away those old boxes and stick them in your recycle bin. Pull that bike out, dust it off and throw a leg over it. Do you remember how fun it was to ride when you were a kid, before you ever dreamed of owning or driving a car? It’s still fun, and it’s an easy, healthy and environmentally responsible way of getting …

Alberto Contador was coming down with something at the finish of the Tour, and states that he “was no longer the strongest rider on the team.” We also learned today that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has opened an investigation against Contador related to his alleged involvement with the Operation Puerto affair. This overturns the UCI’s earlier decision to acquit Contador of any involvement in the case.
Floyd Landis will be riding in the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race this weekend. Lance was scheduled to appear, but at this point …

No big changes today as the race leaders try to save their legs for tomorrow’s individual time trial. Today’s race was won by Sandy Casar. He launched an attack late in the race despite an earlier crash into an unleashed dog, and managed to hang on to it to the end, despite a dogged pursuit by Alex Merckx, Laurent Lefevre and Michael Boogerd.
Alberto Contador had his first official day in the yellow jersey. He missed a small break in the peloton at the end of today’s race that caused him …

Today’s stage started with no one wearing the yellow jersey. Michael Rasmussen was dismissed from the Rabobank team when it was discovered that he lied about his whereabouts when he was supposed to be available for an out of competition test in June. To read more about it, see my entry from earlier today.
Today’s results:

Daniele Bennati
Marcus Fothen
Martin Elmiger
Jens Voigt
David Millar

General Classification:

Alberto Contador
Cadel Evans
Levi Leiphiemer
Carlos Sastre
Haimar Zubeldia

American Chris Horner hangs tough in 14th place, with Christian Vandevelde and George Hincapie at 24th and 26th place respectively.
Points: Boonen
Mountains: Soler
Young Rider: Contador
Team: Discovery …

Yesterday, I posted about Alexandre Vinokourov’s amazing wins in Saturday’s time trial and on Monday’s stage from Foix to Loudenvielle. 

Today, the news comes that Vino has tested positive for homologous  blood transfusion after Saturday’s time trial. He was immediately dismissed by his team and his entire team has dropped out of the Tour. 

At this point, I can’t help but think that this is going to ultimately affect many of the other teams’ sponsorship, media coverage of the race and many other things. I had hoped that we could make it …