Scandolara claims solo victory in Santos Women's Tour opener.

Italy's Valentina Scandolara claimed victory in the opening stage of the Santos Women's Cup in Adelaide.

Scandolara, who has been in Australia watching her Orica-AIS team-mates race over the past couple of weeks, was eager to get her season started and transferred that enthusiasm onto the bike perfectly with a solo victory.

Roxsolt's Lauren Kitchen won the sprint for second, six seconds behind Scandolara with fellow Orica-AIS rider Melissa Hoskins completing the podium.

“I was really looking forward to racing,” said Scandolara.

Fernandes wins Tour Femenino de San Luis.

Brazil’s Jamildes Fernandes claimed overall victory at the Tour Femenino de San Luis in San Luis, Argentina on Friday after successfully defending her lead in the 80.4km circuit race.

Alison Tetrick won the final stage in a solo move, 15 seconds ahead of the field, which was led in by Paola Munoz in second and UnitedHealthcare’s Hannah Barnes in third.

Another American, Lauren Stephens finished second overall, eight seconds behind, after winning the stage 4 time trial on Wednesday. Third place overall went to Ana Paula Polegatch, who also rides for the Brazil national team, alongside Fernandes.

UnitedHealthcare’s Katie Hall claimed the mountains classification, and Barnes was awarded the best young rider title.

Cyclo-cross career in question for Tim Johnson.

While all of the other elite cyclo-cross racers were busy preparing for Sunday's USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships - going through the usual routine of training, napping, pre-riding, and eating only to face a postponed event come race day - three-time elite champion Tim Johnson's race had already been cancelled. Laid up with a back injury, Johnson spent the morning supporting his wife Lyne Bessette in a local running race in Austin on a day when, under ideal circumstances, he would have been contending for title number four.

The 2014-2015 'cross season is over for the 37-year-old Johnson, but he's not ready to quit his involvement in the sport. "The season is over. That's being realistic," Johnson said.

Giant-Alepcin will start the new season with a Santos Tour Down Under line up that includes two of the Dutch squad's top performers from last season in Marcel Kittel and Tom Dumoulin.

Although the team will focus their efforts on the general classification hopes of Dumoulin and Simon Geschke, Kittel will no doubt take a run at any sprint opportunities, including repeating his win last year at the People's Choice Classic two days before the WorldTour race starts.

“Our main focus will be for Tom and Simon to go for the GC, that is our overall target,” said team director Addy Engels. “But when you start a race with Marcel in the team you have to have an eye on the sprint opportunities.

Orica turns to Impey to lead Tour Down Under squad.

The early-season hopes of Orica-GreenEdge suffered a massive blow when last year’s UCI Road Worlds silver medalist Simon Gerrans broke his collarbone during a training ride in late December.

The incumbent Australian national champion and Tour Down Under winner was forced to abandon his ambitions of defending his titles, and instead spend the next two months preparing for the spring classics in March.

With Gerrans on injured reserve, Orica looks to bounce back from its Australian road nationals gold-medal shutout by turning to three-time South African time trial champion Daryl Impey to lead its seven-man squad, which includes Australians Simon Clarke, Luke Durbridge, Michael Hepburn, Mathew Hayman, Cameron Meyer, and New Zealander Sam Bewley. The Tour Down Under runs from January 20-25.

Von Hoff ready to take on the WorldTour sprinters at the Tour Down Under.

Marcel Kittel is the standout sprinter at this year's Tour Down Under but his top billing has done nothing to discouraged those who are planning to take on the German, starting with Sunday's 51km People's Choice criterium in Adelaide.

Newly crowned Australian criterium champion Steele von Hoff will ride for the Uni SA-Australia team after earning selection with his title and an impressive ninth place in the Australian road championships.

Evans’ swan song part of Tour Down Under battle.

Far away from the gloom of European winter, the 2015 UCI WorldTour clicks into gear next week in sunny Adelaide.

Despite its billing as the opener of the WorldTour, the Santos Tour Down Under remains very much an Australian affair. A few big names have made the trek to the southern hemisphere, including Marcel Kittel, Lars Boom, and Ryder Hesjedal, but for most of the European pros, the six-day race in and over the green hills of South Australia is little more than a race-speed training camp.

In no way does that suggest the racing is somehow easy. In fact, the race has progressively become harder over the past half decade, so much so that record-stage-winner André Greipel, with 18 stages, decided to skip it altogether. The race is world-class, with an exemplary organization, perhaps the best on the WorldTour circuit, and the rowdy Aussie fans turn out in force that would make most European races jealous.

Orica-GreenEDGE ready to scale new heights.

The serious climbs in the biggest races are the next challenge for top Australian cycling team Orica-GreenEDGE.

And they plan to keep developing potential Grand Tour contenders from their own ranks, with general manager Shayne Bannan non-committal on whether they might chase Tasmanian Richie Porte.

The first Australian team to compete at the Tour de France has enjoyed consistent results since their 2012 debut, with number one rider Simon Gerrans and new star Michael Matthews securing a string of big wins.

Gerrans' absence with a broken collarbone and Matthews' European program leaves them in the rare position this month of starting the season on the back foot.

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.

Skjerping replaces an injured Acevedo ahead of Tour de San Luis.

Janier Acevedo was set to lead his Cannondale-Garmin team at the upcoming Tour de San Luis, however, a recent knee injury will prevent him from starting, the team confirmed on Friday. The team replaced their Colombian climber with Norwegian talent Kristoffer Skjerping.

The team are still hoping for a top overall placing, however, their goals have shifted more toward stage victories during the seven-day race held from January 19-25 in the Argentinean province of San Luis.

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 ...

Janel Holcomb and Robin Farina, Commentary: The march toward equality doesn’t have to be slow.

"In his January 2015 VeloNews article, “Women’s movement: The slow march toward equality,” Matthew Beaudin characterized the women’s cycling movement as “filled with potential, largely unrealized,” heavily supporting the “We can’t change the sport overnight” position of UCI president Brian Cookson. Therein lies the problem — the attitude of “we can’t” versus “we will.”

As important is the need to identify and shatter many of the myths holding back the development of women’s cycling. For instance, contrary to popular thought, the viewership and readership of women’s cycling is not a function of public interest. Rather it is the outcome of a lack of persistent intentional promotion by cycling teams, national and international cycling governing bodies, and cycling race promoters.

For example, television ratings are determined by three primary factors: whether the program is (1) in prime time when most people are watching, (2) scheduled at a predictable time so people know when and where to tune in (with both of these factors determined by the programming administrator), and (3) promoted — advertised so the event is known to the viewership and perceived to be important and exciting. The high ratings achieved by the last women’s FIFA World Cup reflected ESPN’s delivery of all three of these elements."

Cancellara's interest in Hour Record wanes.

Fabian Cancellara has played down any possibility that he may re-commence his attack on the Hour Record. Cancellara says that the decision by the UCI to alter the equipment regulations left him with little motivation to make an attempt.

“I really started this hour and then suddenly it gets changed from the UCI in a way that I don’t have this motivation,” Cancellara said during a conference call from his team’s latest training camp in Majorca.

“At the moment I am focussing on other things and not who is doing it or where they’re doing it or how it’s going to go,” he said. “The last thing I want to do is make a one-hour show and at the moment it looks like everyone wants to do a show.”

Hour record: Post-surgery, Dowsett pledges to keep trying for original date.

Although considerable doubt was raised about Alex Dowsett’s prospects of going for the world hour record on February 27 due to his crash this week and resulting broken collarbone, the Briton has said that he will still aim for the original date.

Dowsett fell while training on Tuesday and suffered the injury, necessitating an operation to pin the fracture. He and his Movistar team issued a video Friday which updated his situation and included the pledge to keep trying for the original schedule.

“Surgery yesterday went extremely well. I should be out of hospital today or tomorrow,” he said in the video.. “The haemophilia usually keeps me in a day or two longer than normal, but it looks like they will be sending me home quite soon.”

First Confused, Then Overjoyed: Turner Ramsay on Her 15-16 Junior Women Win.

“One lap to go, just one lap to go for Turner Ramsay!” the voices screamed over the intercom. A bell rang on the lap line, backing up what the announcer was saying and the digital lap count was reading.

Ramsay meanwhile, had her hands in the air in a victory salute. Before the race, she had been told that her race would be cut to the correct time, that her lap count would be one less than shown. But with the conflicting messages, she grabbed back onto her hoods and took off into a sprint after the line to get back to speed. 150 meters later, an official was waving her in as if she was going to be lapped by the other fields.

When I had seen the event play out, I thought the official had made a mistake, and that Ramsay was joining the scores of 15-16 junior women who were pulled in the early goings of the race.

Rohan Dennis targets UCI Hour Record mark of 52.5km.

Former track star Dennis – a team pursuit silver medallist at London 2012 – will attempt his hour record at the Velodrome Suisse, with compatriot Jack Bobridge scheduled to take it on later this month.

Given the current mark of 51.852km, set by Matthias Brandle in October, could well fall to Bobridge, Dennis has instead set an ambitious target distance and feels his track background stands him in good stead.

“When I look at my experience on the track and the numbers I have been doing on the track and road, it’s within reach.

“There’s a number in my head, 52.5km. I’d be happy with that but I’m trying to push towards 53km.”

Cassani optimistic about Italian cycling new generation of riders.

Italian national coach Davide Cassini is optimistic that Italian cycling can have a successful season in 2015, despite its financial woes and years of doping scandals, predicting that an Italian rider will finally win a major one-day Classic, six years after Damiano Cunego won Il Lombardia.

Cassani travelled to Argentina with an Italian national team on Thursday which will ride the Tour de San Luis. He is also the national team co-ordinator, delegating management of the other disciplines to a series of different coaches.

Italy’s wildcard hopefuls tense ahead of Giro selection.

The tension will remain high in Italy this weekend ahead of Monday’s 2015 Giro d’Italia wildcard team announcement. For the Italian second-division teams, like Nippo-Vini Fantini, racing the world’s second biggest stage race on home soil means everything.

“Many teams ask for a Giro d’Italia wildcard invitation because it’s a huge event that gathers attention around the world,” the team’s general manager, Francesco Pelosi told VeloNews.

“For Italian teams it is THE major event. It offers huge visibility at home and globally for the Italian teams, like the Tour de France for the French teams or the Vuelta a España for the Spanish ones. But given the event’s reach, it’s normal that the foreign teams are also bidding to attend.”

Organizer RCS Sport should announce the 22 teams that will race its 2015 Giro d’Italia, May 9 to 31, on Monday. In reality, it will only fill five spots as the 17 first-division teams have guaranteed invitations to all the WorldTour events.

News shorts: Battaglin to lead Italian national team at Tour de San Luis.

Chevrier to IAM Cycling, Synergy Baku train in Calpe, Bigla unveils new look.

Apple action-sports camera - what we know so far.

Earlier this week, Apple was granted a patent for an action-sports camera design. The patent was originally filed back in 2012. While patents don’t guarantee products will make it to reality, here’s what we know about the Apple 'camera' so far, and what we hope to see.

According to PatentlyApple, this patent includes intellectual property acquired from Kodak in 2013. It’s likely that if the product does come into being, it won’t look like the product pictured in original patent. Instead, it may adapt the technology to something more ‘Apple-esque’. Or perhaps we’ll see some of these design elements merged into a phone?

Given Apple is soon to release its ‘watch’, we suspect this will be the wearable device that communicates with the camera. Much like the watch will allow advanced control of an iPhone camera, we also suspect the same level of integrated connectivity to be available with the camera.

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

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

PEZ: Daily Distractions.

Steve Tilford: USA Cycling’s Explanation of Austin’s Cross Nationals Issues on Sunday/Monday.

Tom Southam: Tour Down Under takes over Adelaide.

"On arriving at the Adelaide Hilton, Graeme Brown revealed he’d been doing some counting.

“I have spent six months of my life in this hotel,” he casually informed me in the lift.

I laughed of course, but he was serious. And he proved it. I can’t remember the math but fourteen days a year for thirteen years gives you a number roughly divisible by six months. You can try it yourself.

By design or default, the Adelaide Hilton is right at the heart of the Tour Down Under - in more ways than one. Staying in one hotel for an entire race is a real rarity, making the logistics of the race far simpler, the riders and staff more relaxed, and ultimately more accessible to the public."

Women's Strade Bianche race route revealed.

RCS Sport has revealed the route of the first edition of the women's Strade Bianche race, with the likes of Marianne Vos, world champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and their rivals facing 17km of dirt roads during a hilly 103km race on Saturday March 7, the same day as the men's race.

The men's Strade Bianche race covers the usual 200km route and includes close to 50km of the dirt roads that twist through the Chianti vineyards and rolling fields. Both races start in the picturesque hilltop village of San Gimignano and end in the Piazza il Campo in the centre of Siena. The women's race will start 90 minutes before the men. A Strade Bianche Grand Fondo will also be held on the Sunday. RCS Sport has announced that it will not organize the Roma Maxima race on Sunday March 8.

Cancellara: Bradley Wiggins a serious contender for Paris-Roubaix.

Fabian Cancellara admits Bradley Wiggins will be a force to be reckoned with at Paris-Roubaix, what is likely to be the Brit’s last race for Team Sky.

The three-time Hell of the North winner said Wiggins impressed a lot of people with his ninth-place finish on the cobbles last year, proving how serious he was to win the historic race.

Last year Cancellara simply said “good luck” when he heard of the 2012 Tour de France winner’s desire to win in Roubaix, but now admits Wiggins could challenge in any of the cobbled classics.

“What Bradley will do, nobody knows,” he said. “We know he’s going to go for Roubaix but he can also be competitive at the Tour of Flanders.

Van der Poel and van Aert with the Pro's in Tabor.

After Mathieu van der Poel announced that he will contest the world championship cyclocross with the professionals earlier this week, his 20-year old rival Wout van Aert did the same today.

Van Aert was scheduled to start the world championship with the espoirs. However after lots of prayers from the fans and from the riders themselves, the best two riders of this season will now compete at the highest level on February 1st in Tabor.

Both riders are way below the espoir limit of 22-years, while van Aert is 20 van der Poel is only 19-years old. And while the young stars stated for weeks that they wanted to ride with the professionals, their teams were reluctant to rush them.

At the official team presentation later today, Van Aert and Vastgoedservice – Golden Palace will explain this decision.

Olympic road race adapted to start and finish on Copacabana Beach.

Cycling’s governing body, the UCI, has announced changes to the Rio 2016 road race route meaning both the men’s and women’s races will now start and finish at the Copacabana beach.

In December, organizers announced the races would start and finish in Flamengo Park, but the new route moves them 9km south to the historic Copacabana Fort.

The adapted routes do not see a change in the race distances – 256.4km for the men, 130.3km for the women – and riders will still pass through Ipanema, São Conrado and Vista Chinesa.

News Shorts: No Tour for Slagter, Majka to ride Tour and Vuelta.

Ballan Cas verdict delayed.

2015 POV Camera Shootout: Drift Ghost-S.

Although it’s one of the larger and heavier POV cameras in our test, the Drift Innovations Ghost-S makes up for its size and weight with straightforward controls and a two-inch color LCD display for composing and playing back videos. This makes it one of the easiest POV cameras to use.

It’s also waterproof to nearly 10 feet without an external waterproof housing; and with up to 3.5 hours of recording time, it has the best battery life in this test. Spec-wise, it compares very well. It records 1920×1080 full-HD video at 60 frames per second and high-speed 720p video at up to 120 frames per second.

It can take 12-megapixel still photos at up to 10 frames per second and it has a wide range of time lapse settings. It also has built-in Wi-Fi and can be controlled remotely with the included remote control or via a smartphone/tablet app. Video quality is good, although it’s not the best in this test.

Five-a-side: This week's new bike gear.

"It’s peak-riding season Down Under, and so our third roundup of new 2015 road and mountain bike gear comes with a whole lot of summer riding treats soon to be enjoyed by our Australian team. We've got mountain and road bikes from Merida and Polygon, along with an endurance-roadie from Norco. Additionally, we have some new tools, a tasty stem and plenty more."

Orbea Orca M30.

BikeRadar verdict: 3.5 out of 5 stars. "Excellent chassis, but overall package is let down by poor-quality tires.

ts ride is a revelation. It’s not breathtakingly light, but that’s how it feels: light, lively and responsive."

5 Standout Women’s Winter Cycling Tights.

Keep your lower half warm with these excellent bottoms.