Ewan takes triple in Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic.

Caleb Ewan continued his successful start to the season with his third straight victory in Portarlington at the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic after another impressive leadout from his teammates.

The first year professional edged out Steele Von Hoff and Alexander Edmondson in the race to the line and in doing so cemented his lead in the overall with one stage remaining.

Bay Crits hat-trick for Ewan while Mullens goes solo.

While the men’s series is all but settled, the women’s remains wide open, with three riders in contention for the overall victory ahead of the last race at Williamstown.

After Mullens won by herself, Chloe Hosking sprinted for fifth to retain the series lead on 26 points.

But Lauren Kitchen is only two behind after finishing third behind Hosking's Wiggle-Honda team-mate Georgia Bronzini.

The consistent Orica-AIS rider Lizzie Williams was fourth at Portarlington and is now third overall, six points behind Hosking.

Hosking out to defend Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic lead.

Chloe Hosking’s fine start to the 2015 season continued on Sunday with fifth place on day three of the 2015 Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic, in Pontarlington, Victoria.

The result was enough for Wiggle’s new signing to retain her overall lead in the event with one day remaining. However the sprinter acknowledged that with just a two point buffer over her nearest competitor, the overall result was far from secure.

Van der Poel returns to his winning ways in Leuven.

Mathieu van der Poel got the perfect dress rehearsal for the Dutch championships when he took an impressive solo victory in today’s Soudal Classics race in Leuven. The Dutchman rode the final three laps of his own while Tom Meeusen beat Kevin Pauwels and Laurens Sweeck in a three-rider sprint to take second.

While most have been talking about Wout van Aert after the impressive victories in Loenhout and Baal, Mathieu van der Poel has flown under the radar. While van Aert is training under the Spanish sun, the Dutchman proved that he is ready to challenge his archrival when he won today’s Soudal Classics race in Leuven.

Stultiens wins in Leuven.

European U23 champion Sabrina Stultiens won the Soudal Cyclocross Leuven on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The 21-year-old Dutch rider grabbed her second win of the season on an entertaining course, ahead of a large stack of Young Telenet-Fidea riders. On the podium Stultiens was flanked by Ellen Van Loy and Jolien Verschueren. The starting field in Leuven was below par with a late cancellation of Sanne Cant, no Marianne Vos, Katerina Nash and Katie Compton on show.

Anthony and McDonald Take Different Paths to Wins at Resolution Cross Cup Day 1.

Crystal Anthony was able to use her recent experience of the deep mud in Europe to propel herself to a big win today at the surprisingly muddy Resolution Cross Cup just outside Dallas, Texas. This is her second UCI win of the season, the first coming at NBX, where in the same situation, she was fresh off the European racing scene.

Of the four World Cup stages Anthony was present form she consistently finished in the top 25. She finished ahead of Amanda Miller, who with the second place on the day now has stood on the podium at six straight races (five UCI, one Colorado State Championship).

Ian Field and Amira Mellor claim National Trophy Cyclo-cross titles.

Grant Ferguson and Annie Last were the victors on the final day of the National Trophy Cyclo-Cross Series at the Moorways Leisure Centre in Derby on Sunday.

But it was Ian Field and Amira Mellor who took the titles, topping the overall standings after six rounds of racing.

Ferguson put in a storming performance to take victory in the elite men’s category race, but Field claimed his first ever National Trophy title with second spot.

The Elite women’s race also saw a strong ride from the winner with Annie Last pulling out a comfortable lead to top the podium.

Flakemore set for BMC debut this week.

Campbell Flakemore, 22, will be racing alongside Cadel Evans, his childhood hero, during Evans' final three races as a professional.

“It’s pretty cool,” Flakemore said. “I was actually there in 2011 when [Evans] won the Tour de France, so to have seen that and to be racing with him three to four years later is pretty special.”

Flakemore’s first objective will be in the time trial on January 8, where he’ll have the opportunity to compete against the country's best in the race against the clock.

Report: German mainstream TV station ARD to return to showing Tour de France.

German cycling has received a significant boost with reports that that national television station ARD has decided to once again cover the Tour de France.

It and fellow station ZDF backed off on their coverage following numerous doping scandals and completely exited from screening the race in 2012. However the relative lack of scandals since then plus, presumably, the improving fortunes of German riders, have prompted it to reconsider.

Spiegel reports that the station will screen the Tour from 4pm local time until the end of the stage, thus joining Eurosport in showing the race. While the latter has been able to provide coverage to cycling fans, the addition of a mainstream channel should have a positive effect on helping the sport to grow again.

2014-15 Races & Results.

Santos Tour Down Under 2015 - Jan 18-25 (Stages),

Dubai Tour 2015 - Feb 4-7 (Stages),

Giro d'Italia 2015 - May 9-31 (Stages),

Tour de France 2015 - July 4-26 (Stages),

UCI Road World Championship 2014 - Sept 20-27 (Results),

Vuelta a España 2014 - Aug 23-Sept 14 (Results),

Tour de France 2014  - July 5-27 (Results),

Giro d'Italia 2014 - May 9 - June 1 (Results),

More ...

 (cyclingnews.com)

A Conversation with Bob Stapleton.

Caleb Ewan takes stage 2 of Bay Crits.

Gracie Elvin wins stage 2 of the Bay Crits in solo move.

Kessiakoff: I was under pressure from Astana.

Cyclocross Pit Etiquette: The Big Do-and-Don’ts From the Pros.

Greipel, Gallopin will race Volta ao Algarve.

Valverde: "I want to go for the Tour de France podium until I retire."

Alejandro Valverde has made it clear in an extensive interview with Spanish newspaper AS that he will continue to aim for the Tour de France podium and the World Championships rainbow jersey until the end of his career.

“They are the two main objectives, I will go on hunting for them until I retire,” Valverde, who recently re-signed with Movistar until 2017, told AS in his first big interview of 2015.

The 34-year-old currently holds the record for podium finishes in the Worlds roadrace - six since 2003, the first a silver in Hamilton, the most recent being a bronze in Ponferrada - but has never taken gold. In the Tour, although his first breakthrough result was a stage win in 2005 in the Alps and he led the race in 2008, Valverde has been plagued by bad luck and crashes almost every July. His career best has, so far, been fourth overall - in 2014, when he was squeezed off the podium, after a lengthy struggle through the Pyrenees, by France’s Jean Christophe Peraud and Thibaut Pinot in the final week.

Nys: It was just very bad.

In Leuven Sven Nys had hoped to put an end to his bad period but it was not to be for the rider from Baal. Nys finished 12th. Afterwards, he was visibly disappointed. "It was bad, that's all I can say," he told Het Nieuwsblad.

"It was really not good today. I don't know what's wrong but it's nothing specific. I am simply generally poor," he added. "I have probably not recovered enough from the race in Baal. I can't do anything else but try.

"I've tried everything and it just becomes worse. I have to accept that. I am not enjoying cycling because it's annoying that nothing works. That's sport. In any case, I will be at the start of the Belgian Championships in Erpe-Mere. Unless I get sick."

2014 Domestic Sprinters of the Year: Rivera and Holloway.

Coryn Rivera

A few stats on the best female sprinter in North America: She’s 5-foot-1, and weighs 105 pounds. She was born in 1992, and has been racing for 11 years. She is the holder of an astonishing 68 U.S. national titles across road, track, and cyclocross. And, in 2014, she won 10 races in North America, riding for UnitedHealthcare, including the national criterium championship.

Coryn Rivera, 22, is a pint-sized sprinter who packs a colossal finishing kick. In her first season with the new UHC women’s team, the highly lauded Southern California native came into her own, winning the Sunny King Criterium, Tulsa Tough, Gateway Cup, Boston Mayor’s Cup, and the Tour of Utah. She also finished second at the Amgen Tour of California’s criterium, in Sacramento, and sixth at La Course by Le Tour de France, in Paris. On one of the strongest women’s teams in the world, Rivera more than held her own — she punched her way to the front.

Daniel Holloway

Daniel Holloway may not have always beaten riders of the UnitedHealthcare “Blue Train,” but he was always the most likely to upset their podium raids.

No single rider on UHC’s Pro Continental “crit squad” shines brighter than the others, as they seemingly choose at random who among them will be the victor. That is, unless Holloway has anything to say about it. He was the single most dominant sprinter of the year, and he didn’t need a professional team to earn that accolade.

Velo List: The top 10 technical innovations of all time.

The bicycle, and the sport that revolves around it, has changed considerably over the years, morphing as engineering, production, materials science, and the understanding of what makes a good bike have progressed.

The world’s most efficient mode of transportation has seen its fair share of wacky innovations, from air-powered shifting to cable-thin tubes, but the industry, and riders, have always found a way to whittle the bike down into what it is meant to be, removing the silly and keeping the smart. These are the 10 most important technical innovations in the sport’s long history.

Top field expected for Australian TT championship.

What appears to be the best field ever assembled for an Australian time trial title will line up in the elite men’s race on Thursday, January 8, for the 2015 Mars Cycling Australia Road National Championships.

Luke Durbridge, Jack Bobridge, Damian Howson and Campbell Flakemore have all been time trial world champions at the under-23 level and will all be on the start line. Multi-time track world champion Michael Hepburn returns as the defending champion, while his Orica-Greenedge teammate Cameron Meyer won the title in 2010 and 2011.

It’s South Australia's Rohan Dennis, fifth in the time trial at the 2014 UCI Road World Championships, who has been labeled by many of his rivals as the man to beat.

‘I want to be faster this year:’ Bennett targeting cycling’s top sprinters.

Marcel Kittel said that he was wary of all of his usual rivals heading into the new season, but also aware that threats to his position at the top of the sport could arrive from leftfield.

“I am curious that maybe someone new is coming,” he told CyclingTips, making clear that he was taking nothing for granted.

One of those who will be intent on trying to make life hard for Kittel, Mark Cavendish and all of the other established sprinters is the young Irishman Sam Bennett. The 24 year old had a strong first pro season, clocking up three UCI-ranked wins and quickly underlining his position as the fastest rider on his NetApp-Endura team.

Brammeier still without 2015 contract.

Matt Brammeier is still waiting to hear from the team he has been in contact with if he will be offered a contract for this season.

“I am still waiting for it to be finalized,” said Brammeier, who preferred not to go on record about the team’s identity at this point in time. “I am hoping that everything is going to plan and that it will be sorted out soon.”

He has been training hard to ensure that if the offer comes through, he will be in shape to show he deserved the contract.

Evans ready to begin farewell tour at nationals.

"I suppose I'm looked at in a different regard by the cycling public now, which is somewhat larger than it was in 1992," the 37-year-old said. "I'm going to Ballarat to ride the best race I can. If I get a result, that's even better. I'm going there to race well and do my best."

Evans witnessed firsthand just how much the sport has grown during last year's Australian championships, when he finished second on the Buninyong course behind Simon Gerrans.

Team Wiggins to make debut at Challenge Majorca.

Bradley Wiggins’s new team will make its competitive debut at this month’s four-day Challenge Mallorca event – albeit without the 2012 Tour de France champion.

Although no official launch date has been announced for the new squad, Team Wiggins’s eight riders are expected to take part in the popular Balearic event, which comprises of four-consecutive one-day races between January 29 and February 1.

Wiggins will join the team that bears his name during the UCI’s permitted transfer window in June; he will ride for Team Sky prior to that, with an assault on Paris-Roubaix his biggest target.

Lezyne Road Drive Mini.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "Another well-thought-out product from Lezyne.

With a claimed maximum pressure of 160psi it had a lot to live up to – but our doubts proved groundless. The length and the 18cm stroke mean you get up to a very good pressure at double-quick speed. This reached around 80psi after 200 strokes, one of the highest figures of any pump we’ve tested."

PEZ: Daily Distractions.

(pezcyclingnews.com)

Steve Tilford: Weird Day/Stressful Driving.

How did cycling compare to other sports in doping in 2014? What countries, sports are dirtiest?

The Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC) has published the interesting information graphic below, comparing the number of doping positives in cycling last year with other sports.

Only cases concluded and proven in 2014 have been included in the MPCC data.

Athletics [Track and Field] was by far the worst offender last year, with 95 known proven positives.

That was followed by baseball’s 62 cases and weightlifting’s 28 before cycling comes in in fourth position with 16 cases.

Incredibly, considering the financial rewards on offer in soccer and the sheer numbers playing the game worldwide, there were only seven known and proven positive cases last year.

Film Review: Le Vélo de Ghislain Lambert.

“The loser” is a regular in comedy films yet celebrated in cycling where the lanterne rouge can be a hero. Add on scenes from retro Belgium circa 1970 and insert a comic actor with good timing and an elastic face and things get better.

This Belgium film dates from 2001 and is widely available, complete with English subtitles. If cycling films are rare, this is a gem.

The main role is played by Benoît Poelvoorde, a Belgian comedian and actor with a string of awards to his name; film students might know his earlier Man Bites Dog film. Poelvoorde goes for full comic effect, at times there’s an exaggerated wobbling style on the bike but often it’s the way he pulls faces that makes the laughs.

Scinto: I could not take it anymore.

Many of the doping cases that have marred Italian cycling in recent years, have been linked to the Neri Sottoli team. Di Luca, Santambrogio, Rabottini have all tested positive while wearing the jersey of Luca Scinto's team, meaning that the team's credibility has been questioned. And Scinto has not been spared any criticizm. Now it has become too much for the Italian as the pressure has been growing during the last two years. "I had to go to the office of the US Attorney to talk about things that have little to do with cycling. It's disappointing," he laments.

Scinto has now decided to step down from his position at the head of Neri Sottoli and in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, he has explained his decision. "Yes, I was disappointed by some riders which I had believed in. They turned out to be doing the opposite of what I thought. And I started to wonder. For some time, it was no longer the same, I lacked spark and passion ... I was considered one of the best directors but had something in my stomach. I could not take it anymore."

De Buyst and De Ketele defend lead in Rotterdam.

Jasper de Buyst and Kenny De Ketele lost a bit of ground on the third day of the Six-Days of Rotterdam. However, the Belgians defended their leads and are still one lap ahead of Alex Rasmussen/Michael Mørkøv, Iljo Keisse/Niki Terpstra and David Muntaner/Albert Torres.

de Buyst and De Ketele retained their lead in the 33rd Six Days of Rotterdam. The Belgian pair saw their rivals reduce the deficit but it was not enough to dispose the Belgians. Michael Mørkøv and Alex Rasmussen are currently second, one lap behind. The two Danes have more points than de Buyst and De Ketele, 153 compared to 143.

Talk: John Deering.

Over the years there have been a few teams run short of money during the season, but none as spectacularly as the Linda McCartney team in 2001. The money was gone by the end of the Tour Down Under and the dream was gone.

It all seemed too good to be true; a guy called Julian Clarke gets an idea over a supermarket trolley to rope Linda McCartney Vegetarian Foods in to sponsor a professional cycling team. He’s not a cyclist, he’s a dreamer but he pulls it off; Paul McCartney pens a tune for the team website, the team rides and wins a stage in the 2000 Giro – and come so close to making it two stage wins. They win the Giro del Lazio, too and the following season they net Jacob’s Creek Wines and Jaguar cars as co-sponsors – a real coup.

The trouble is that the whole edifice is built upon sand; neither Jacob’s Creek or Jaguar have signed up and inevitably, it collapses, Julian Clarke disappears and the team enters cycling legend. (And you may be interested to know that a certain Bradley Wiggins was on the team roster when it all went wrong). John Deering was their PR man on the roller coaster ride that was the Linda McCartney team and he wrote a book about it; ‘Team On The Run’.

2014 North American Mountain Bikers of the Year: Pendrel and Wells.

Catharine Pendrel. She’d tasted world championship glory before. Pendrel, 34, won the 2011 cross-country worlds in Champery, Switzerland. But the former dressage rider, who quickly transitioned from riding horses to riding mountain bikes, had also tasted defeat.

Pendrel fought her way through rough seasons in 2012 and 2013, riding to a disappointing ninth place at the London Olympics.

But 2014 proved to be her year of redemption, despite a broken collarbone in April that scuttled her plans to travel to the South African and Australian World Cups.

The slightly built Canadian from New Brunswick was never far from the front after her recovery. She won the World Cup round in Windham, New York. In the other four rounds she contested, Pendrel was never out-side of the top-five, and finished on the podium twice. This earned her second place in the final World Cup standings.

News shorts: Police stop Nibali on icy Italian roads, Devriendt to Wanty-Groupe Gobert for two years.

Tom Devriendt will the 21st rider for the Belgian Professional Continental team Wanty-Groupe Gobert for this season. The 23-year old moves up from the Continental-ranked Team 3M. He is a sprinter who can also lead out sprints.

“I want to learn in my first ear, especially from the older, more experience guys,” he said in a team press release. Sport director Hilaire Van Der Schooner said, “He has potential and I have been following him for a while now. In our team he now gets the chance to show that he has the capabilities to become a pro cyclist.”

Spanish court overturns Ezequiel Mosquera’s disqualification, ban.

It comes too late for an embittered Ezequiel Mosquera, but a Spanish court has overturned a disqualification, and returned his second place in the 2010 Vuelta a España as well as a victory atop the Bola del Mundo climbing stage.

According to Spanish media reports, a Spanish court three months ago nullified a two-year racing ban and disqualification for the 39-year-old Mosquera. There were no details of the ruling, but the decision came from a Spanish civil court and only hit Spanish newspapers over the weekend.

Tinkov: Grand Tours should be shortened.

Oleg Tinkov has spoken to BBC Sport about his Grand Tour Challenge and whether he really believes someone can win all three grand Tours in one season.

"OK, I understand that three-week races with just five weeks between them are extremely tough," Tinkov agreed.

He thinks it would be possible if the Grand Tour are shortened to two weeks rather than three, even if some riders don’t share his opinion, even two of his stars, Ivan Basso and Alberto Contador.

"But the solution could be shortening the stages, or the whole race, or perhaps just leave the Tour at three weeks.”

Pro Womens Cycling: Bay Crits 2015 – videos for Stages 1 & 2.