Goss, Farrar will lead MTN-Qhubeka at Herald Sun Tour.

Fresh off receiving a wildcard invitation to the 2015 Tour de France, MTN-Qhubeka on Thursday announced the roster for February's Jayco Herald Sun Tour built around Grand Tour stage winners Matt Goss and Tyler Farrar.

The 62nd edition of the race will take place February 4-8.

For Australian Goss, the race will be a chance to improve on his runner-up finish on the Sun Tour’s first stage in 2014 into Ballarat, where he was narrowly beaten by Garmin-Sharp’s Nathan Haas. Goss first competed in the race in 2005, representing the Australian national team at just 18. Three years later, while riding for CSC-Saxobank, he won his first two stages of the 2008 edition.

Van Garderen, Nibali, Pinot and Rodriguez to clash at the Tour of Oman.

This year's Tour of Oman will offer an early-season showdown between Tour de France contenders Tejay van Garderen, Vincenzo Nibali, Thibaut Pinot, Rafal Majka and Joaquim Rodriguez, with the mountain finish on Jabal Al Akhdhar (Green Mountain) likely to decide the overall winner of the six-day race.

Many of the Classics riders who will enjoy the flat roads and echelons of the Tour of Qatar will also ride the Tour of Oman to complete their early-season preparation before heading to Belgium for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne.

Katie Hall wins Tour Femenino de San Luis stage 5.

Katie Hall won the Tour Femenino de San Luis’ queen stage on Thursday.

It was Hall’s first major international victory, and UnitedHealthcare’s third at San Luis. Hall out-sprinted Jamildes Fernandes at the mountaintop finish on Mirador del Potrero.

The day before, Team Tibco’s Lauren Stephens won the stage 4 12.8km individual time trial by a fraction of a second over Alison Tetrick. With her TT victory, Stephens assumed the GC lead.

However, with her second-place finish on stage 4, Fernandes jumped from ninth to the top of the general classification. She now leads Stephens by one second.

Machado the man to watch at Santos Tour Down Under.

Recent history of the Santos Tour Down Under indicates that Portugal’s Tiago Machado is the perfect underdog for the six-day opening race of the WorldTour. Having transferred from NetApp-Endura to Katusha, he has made his way to Adelaide with the idea of repaying his old friends [team manager] Viatcheslav Ekimov and [directeur sportif] José Azevedo back for their faith in him.

“This is the beginning of the season so I don’t know exactly what my condition is at the moment but I’ve worked to be in good shape now”, Machado told Cyclingnews in Adelaide prior to training in the hills. “I’ve been able to have a really nice training in Portugal since we haven’t had any rain or negative temperatures.”

(cyclingnews.com)

Luis Leon Sanchez back at Tour Down Under ten years after breakthrough.

While four former winners of the Santos Tour Down Under have made their way back to Adelaide, not counting Allan Davis who returned as a public relation officer one year after retiring from professional cycling, Luis Leon Sanchez - winner in 2005 - is aiming for his second win.

Ten years after winning the race, the Spaniard from Mula is ambitious again as he returns to the WorldTour with Astana after one year at Caja Rural following a fall out with Belkin.

“They’ve been very good to me,” Sanchez said of the Pamplona-based team that backed him for winning the King of the Mountains competition at the Vuelta a España, “But for a rider, the most important league to be part of remains the WorldTour.”

2015 Tour de San Luis LIVE.

Monday's (January 19, 2015) Tour de San Luis Stage 1 departs San Luis at 1:49pm local (11:49am U.S. Eastern, 17:49 CET) and is expected at the finish at Villa Mercedes at around 6:15pm local (4:15pm U.S. Eastern, 22:15 CET).  Tour de San Luis live video streaming is expected for the start and the finish.

Tour of Alberta 2015 adds mountains, sixth stage, and TTT.

The Tour of Alberta will add a sixth stage and make stops through seven official host communities in 2015, as the race is set to run September 2-7. New host cities have been added for the coming year, including Grande Cache, Jasper, Edson, and Spruce Grove, with Edmonton returning as a host for its third year.

“Our host communities are really an integral part of the success of the event,” said Duane Vienneau, executive director of the Tour of Alberta. “Each community is highly involved in the planning of the route and festivals. Their commitment and planning begins months before the race rolls through. Their dedication to this event is one of the many reasons why we are able to showcase Alberta internationally. We are thrilled that all of these communities have come aboard so some of the world’s best mountains and most breathtaking scenery can be seen around the planet.”

The city of Grande Prairie will host a stage 1 team time trial, which is a first for the Tour of Alberta. In 2013 and 2014, the race included individual time trials. Organizers say the TTT is intended to help teams prepare for the world championships in Richmond, Virginia, two weeks after Tour of Alberta.

2014-15 Races & Results.

Santos Women's Tour 2015 - Jan 17-20 (Stages),

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

Tour de San Luis 2015 - Jan 19-25 (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)

Tour of Qatar 2015 route: stage by stage.

What the six-stage Tour of Qatar (February 8-13) may lack in hills and distance, it makes up for in crosswinds and outright pace.

Previous editions of the Middle East race have shown that the often vicious coastal and desert winds can cut the peloton to pieces. And if the riders are lucky enough for the winds to be behind them, speeds can be blistering.

Tactics and position in the peloton can play as much a part as strength for a rider to survive.

News Shorts: Bouhanni debuts in Mallorca, Pozzato in San Luis.

A museum for Purito, Boels-Dolmans presented, Champion System roster.

Zdenek Stybar Gets PEZ’d.

The World cyclo-cross championships are this Sunday, but the reigning champion Zdenek Stybar wont be able to defend his rainbow jersey due to his shoulder injury. We caught up with the Czech road champion at the Etixx – Quick-Step training camp in Spain to talk cross, road and podium girls.

Twice Under 23 World champion, three times professional World champion and nine times National cyclo-cross champion isn’t too bad, but the road is where he want to shine in the future. A handful of road wins including a stage in la Vuelta a España along with top ten places in Milan-Sanremo, San Sebastián and twice in Paris-Roubaix, he’s making a good start.

Garmin buys iKubu bike radar.

Garmin yesterday bought iKubu, a company that is designing computer vision and radar systems for cycling. iKubu has been working on Backtracker, a low-energy bike radar that lets cyclists track vehicles coming up behind them via a LED device on the handlebars.

The Backtracker uses a rear-facing radar that also has a flashing caution light, which flashes faster the closer a car gets to the cyclist.

“iKubu has found a way to implement short-range radar into a low-power system that addresses a common concern among cyclists – identifying potential hazards that are approaching them from behind,” Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “We are delighted to add this technology to the Garmin portfolio.”

Tour Down Under 2015: Who will win?

Strong field for inaugural Santos Women's Tour.

Barnes remains Tour Femenino de San Luis leader after stage 3.

USA Cycling addresses concerns in wake of 2015 ‘cross nationals.

On Wednesday, USA Cycling sent an email to riders who had registered for 2015 cyclocross national championships to address concerns and complaints stemming from the postponed Sunday races.

The following is the complete, unedited letter, which was signed by USA Cycling’s vice president of national events, Micah Rice.

The Wealthiest People in Pro Cycling.

Time for the annual update on the wealthiest people in pro cycling. If you thought this meant Alberto Contador, Mark Cavendish or Peter Sagan, think again because this is about the people rich enough to hire these star riders.

A lot has changed in recent times, volatile stock markets have benefited some but hit others. In the first of a two-part series here are the billionaire and millionaire World Tour team owners and sponsors.

Update: Katie Compton Extends Her Record to an Elite Eleven, Noble Wins U23 Title – 2015 Cyclocross National Championship.

After the unexpected postponement of the 2015 Cyclocross National Championships, everyone still had a job to do on Monday.

For all but one of the Elite Women, the job was to find a way of stopping Katie Compton from winning another National Championship.

Like U23 Logan Owen did just minutes before, Compton managed to put together ten straight victories with her 2014 Nationals win in Boulder. But this season hasn’t been the greatest, by Compton’s own admission. With allergy problems and some losses to Sanne Cant and Meredith Miller, her competition was justified in thinking this might be the year they could topple Compton.

With a muddy, modified course that was quickly turning into peanut butter and ripping derailleurs off bikes, Compton not only faced stiff competition but the risk of mechanical issues jeopardizing her title chances.

Twenty16-Sho-Air bolsters UCI team roster for 2015.

Twenty16-Sho-Air announced its UCI road team roster for 2015, which has renewed depth of talent and experience after a 2014 season that was focused largely on development.

With the program in its 10th year, Twenty16-Sho-Air has targeted the UCI world road championships in Richmond, Virginia, with riders focusing on selection to the national team for both the elite and junior categories.

The team’s junior development program will integrate its top juniors into the squad for select NRC events — the first being Redlands Classic where the team will field a mixed roster of elite and 17-18 junior athletes.

Climbing specialist Andrea Dvorak returns to the team in 2015, having ridden for the organization from 2011-2013. “Twenty16 presented by Sho-Air is a program that has experienced great success from the junior to Olympic level,” said Dvorak. “Every success inspires the team to do greater things and views its horizon as endless.”

Carmen Small Q&A: Women’s racing, riding in bikinis, the hour record, and more.

Last year, Carmen Small rode with a few guys from Tinkoff-Saxo. They cruised idly through the narrow backroads outside Lucca, Italy, chatting, until one said something she couldn’t believe: He didn’t know who she was. He didn’t even know she raced professionally.

Last year, Small walked into a coffee shop at the bottom of Mount Lemon in Tucson, Arizona, full of cyclists ready to make the climb, in her distinctive Specialized-Lululemon kit. Nobody asked for an autograph, nobody bought her a coffee; nobody seemed to notice. “If you were a man with your results, you would have been mobbed,” her husband said.

He’s right.

Women’s cycling has a problem. Its slow march toward equality can feel like, at times, barely a shuffle.

Kitchen ready for Santos Women's Tour.

Lauren Kitchen is looking to bring her strong early season form into the Santos Women's Tour as she competes as part of the Roxsolt women’s team from January 17-20.

Kitchen placed third in the national criterium earlier this month and will line up in the Adelaide event with teammates Tiffany Cromwell, Loren Rowney, Carlee Tayler and Great Britain’s Lucy Martin. Kitchen is a professional rider for Hi-Tech through most of the road season but along with the rest of the Roxsolt team has been granted dispensation to ride the Santos Women’s Tour.

MTN-Qhubeka to sign Matt Brammeier on two year deal.

Following yesterday’s news that the MTN-Qhubeka team will ride the Tour de France this year, the squad has confirmed that it will sign of a 23rd rider, namely multiple Irish champion Matt Brammeier.

Pending the completion of UCI paperwork, the 29 year old rider is joining the team on a two year deal and is part of a general strengthening of the squad for 2015. He won the Irish road race championship four times plus the time trial championship once, and is regarded as an experienced helper.

His goal will be to give support to both the team’s sprinters and also the all-rounders and climbers.

Page focused on remainder of cyclo-cross season.

Jonathan Page looked relaxed and happy to be headed back to his family in Belgium as he reflected on Monday’s USA Cycling Cyclo-cross Championship race.

“It’s always nicer to win. That’s the only disadvantage of this whole trip. You work so hard and come here for one flippin’ hour and get a flat tire,” Page said as he laughed and threw his hands in the air. “But it’s biking, and I’ve done it for many years. It’s nothing new, but it can take a little bit of wind out of your sails.”

Early during the first lap of Monday’s race it became obvious that Page would be the only rider to challenge Jeremy Powers for the USA title. Page and Powers separated themselves from the field and started trading blows. Unfortunately, disaster struck when Page took his first clean bike of the race on the first lap.

Tour de France to visit Andorra in 2016.

Organizers announced Thursday that the Tour de France will host a stage, and a rest day, in Andorra during the 2016 edition, which is due to start in Normandy.

Tour director Christian Prudhomme signed an agreement with Andorra’s tourism minister Francesc Camp for the principality to host the end of one stage, a rest day, and the beginning of the next stage.

It will be the Tour’s first appearance in Andorra in seven years, since Frenchman Brice Feillu triumphed at Arcalis, and fifth in total.

The exact details of the three days in Andorra will be revealed when the full 2016 route for the 103rd Tour is announced in October.

Birzman Swift mini pump.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "Reasonably efficient, great ergonomics and an excellent all-round package."

Specialized Propero II helmet.

BikeRadar verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars. "Brilliant lid for a fantastic price – all the helmet most of us will ever need.

The Propero II's remarkably appealing price of just US$110 / £70 /AU$150 is less than half that of the Prevail and most flagship helmets from other manufacturers. It's light, too, at just 238g"

In the News: Concerns about poor treatment of junior women at ‘cross nationals.

PEZ: Daily Distractions.

(pezcyclingnews.com)

Ask a Mechanic: Bottom bracket adapters.

WADA reviewing Mosquera case but says Spanish court decision can’t be upheld internationally.

Initially second in the 2010 Vuelta a España but later losing that result and incurring a two year ban due to a positive test for hydroxethyl starch, Ezequiel Mosquera was cleared earlier this month by a Spanish court.

However the retired rider’s chance of having his result restored and ban recognized as quashed in a sporting sense appears very uncertain after the World Anti Doping Agency gave its position Thursday on the matter.

“In Spain, there is a civil law process where athletes found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation, and who have been banned from international competition, still have the option to seek redress in the national civil courts,” a WADA spokesman told CyclingTips.

“Spanish athletes who have therefore been banned by the internationally accepted process, including appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, can apply to the civil court in Spain. Any redress received however cannot be upheld internationally and therefore there is no reduction nor change to the sanction imposed pursuant to the World Anti-Doping Code.

IAM’s Beucherie: “A rider who takes cortisone is a sick rider, so he must stop racing.”

IAM Cycling sporting manager Serge Beucherie has spoken about the importance of riders remaining clean, saying that not giving in to temptation to cut corners is crucial on both a personal and professional level.

Beucherie’s team is a member of the MPCC anti-doping movement and he gave his thoughts in a video released by it on Thursday.

“There are many ways to fight against doping,” he said, before explaining what he and others on the team tell the riders signed to it in order to help deter them from taking banned shortcuts.

“The speech to the riders is focussed on two main aspects. Firstly, the rider’s health. ‘Guys, it’s a beautiful sport, don’t ruin your health as there is a life after cycling.’

TDU count down: Race director talks about TDU favorites.

Since it begun seventeen years ago, Mike Turtur has been at the helm of the Tour Down Under as race director. Turtur, himself a gold medallist at the 1984 Olympic Games in the team pursuit, has grown the race from humble origins to an important opening fixture on the WorldTour calendar attracting the biggest names of the sport.

Simon Gerrans is the only rider to have won the race on three occasions but will miss the chance to become the first rider to successfully defend his title having broken his collarbone prior Christmas. Andre Griepel, who holds the record for the most stage wins will also be missing from the race, giving it a new feel for 2015 and the opportunity for riders to step up in their absence.

Phil Gaimon Journal: Not peaking.

"I’ve always lived in warm climates, where it’s easy to be consistent in the winter. For many years after I started racing, I really sucked, so winter was always the best time to make big improvements in my fitness. The only problem: if you’re doing the hard work in the winter, you generally peak in the spring. So I’d always come out swinging at the first local races. When I started to suck less, I’d win something early (San Dimas, Redlands, Merco), but even in the last couple of years, when I only sucked a little, I’d pay for my spring in May or June.

This year, with Optum p/b Kelly Benefits (as I understand it, p/b means “peanut butter”), I’m hoping to not suck at all. California is a big target, so the coach is holding me back. Instead of trying to improve my power in the winter, I’m improving my endurance, getting a real base. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been training. It just means I’ve been spending a lot of time in the gym (only bicep curls and abs), and hours on the bike are more in the 250 watt range than the 400 I might have been chasing in the past."

(velonews.com)

Family Feud Stirs Controversy Among Cyclists.

Family Feud isn’t known for being controversial programming. Despite its combative moniker, the show’s battles tend to stay between the two competing families—not engage an entire community off-screen.

But Australian cyclist community were less than amicable when their national Family Feud broadcast chose the category "What is something annoying that a cyclist might do?" for its game show question, with horrific offenses like “ring a bell,” “wear Lycra,” and even more discouragingly, “everything,” appearing as answers.

Australian Cycle Alliance president Edward Hore says he was shocked by the question and thinks the program only brought up cycling as a ratings grab because the subject is controversial.

Charlie Hebdo, le dopage & cartoons.

"Very interesting article in today’s The Guardian by Suze Clemitson about how Charlie Hebdo taught her more about the reality of doping in cycling than she would ever have read in the pages of Pro Cycling or Cycling Snooze."

“I learned more about the murky world of cycling from the cartoonist’s pen than from the editorial team of L’Equipe and their ilk'” she writes. “The cartoons – those precise, puerile, perfect slashes of black pen on white paper – gave the game away by daring to show openly what others could or would only to hint at.”

Giro’s 2015 wildcard teams decided?

Organizer RCS Sport will name its Giro d’Italia teams next week on the heels of the Tour de France’s wildcard announcements. It may already have decided on teams, however, with Androni Giocattoli, Bardiani-CSF, Colombia, Nippo-Vini Fantini, and Southeast expected to get the nod.

RCS Sport will welcome the 17 first-division teams — all have guaranteed spots to race in every WorldTour event — and five second-division teams on what is referred to as “wildcard” invitations.

In addition to the Giro d’Italia, May 9 to 31, RCS Sport will name the teams to race in March’s Tirreno-Adriatico stage race and one-day classic, Milano-Sanremo.

The organizer has 20 second-division teams that it can choose from to fill the Giro d’Italia’s five open spots, but the pool is actually much shallower. Race director Mauro Vegni wants to have an Italian flavor in the 2015 edition, which will push off from Liguria’s shores and stay within the country’s border all but one day when it cuts through neighboring Switzerland.

2015 POV Camera Shootout: iON Air Pro 3 Wi-Fi.

Coming into this test, we viewed the iON Air Pro 3 Wi-Fi as a possible dark horse contender. Although iON makes a full line of POV cameras and accessories, it doesn’t have the same brand recognition as the other manufacturers in our test. The Air Pro 3 Wi-Fi is iON’s flagship POV camera and there is a lot of performance packed into its sleek, waterproof case.

The Wi-Fi version we tested comes with a “Wi-Fi Podz” unit, which allows it to connect wirelessly to a smartphone via the free iON Camera mobile app. External controls are simple with just an on/off button and an easy-to-use switch to start and stop video recording. The Air Pro 3 has great performance specs, including full HD video at 60 FPS, 720p at 120 FPS, 12-megapixel still photos – and it’s waterproof to nearly 50 feet without any extra housing.

Unfortunately, we found the iON Air Pro 3 Wi-Fi’s video quality lacking.

LifeBeam Smart Helmet review.

At first glance the LifeBeam Smart Helmet looks just like the Lazer Genesis it is built on. That is until you notice the solid panel at the back and the sensor unit inside the front of the helmet.

The optical sensor unit sits snugly on your forehead when you put the helmet on, reading heartrate data and passing it through to the LifeBeam’s “brain” at the back. This data is then transmitted via ANT+ to a compatible device, such as a Garmin head unit.

The sensor itself feels soft and is able to move around a little, meaning it doesn’t feel like you’ve got something jabbing into your head while you’re riding. In fact, I stopped noticing the sensor within a minute of putting the helmet on.

More electronic bike gadgets from CES 2015.

This year's Consumer Electronics Show wasn't just filled with camera gear to help you put together that awesome edit you've always wanted.

There was also lots of other bike-friendly electronica on hand to help make your next ride a little more entertaining, your next mountain bike camping trip a little more fun and your precious smartphone a little less apt to blow up when you crash.