Lance Armstrong: Brian Cookson should have banned Astana.

Lance Armstrong believes Brian Cookson has not delivered on his campaign promises since taking over at the International Cycling Union (UCI).

Cookson, the ex-head of British Cycling, beat Ireland's Pat McQuaid in a bitter election in late 2013.

But Armstrong is unimpressed with what he has seen of the president so far.

"If McQuaid had made the same decisions Cookson has made in his first year, he would have been lynched," said the disgraced cyclist.

"Do we like what we have got so far?"

Stevens to defend Women's Tour of New Zealand title despite delay.

Two years have passed since Evelyn Stevens won the Trust House Women's Tour of New Zealand, but she will be the defending champion when the race returns next month.

Stevens beat Australian Shara Gillow to win the UCI women's event in 2012 while racing for the Specialized-lululemon team.

Since then the race has had a two-year hiatus due to financial restraints, however the women's event will return this year thanks to the hard work of race director Jorge Sandoval.

The five-stage tour will take place entirely in the Wairarapa region in the lower North Island, from 18 to 22 February. The event is the third on the 2015 UCI Women’s Calendar following races in Argentina and Qatar.

Meeusen: It's unbelievable what such a hellish week can do.

Yesterday Tom Meeusen ended an eventful week by finishing 18th in the World Cup race in Hoogerheide. The cyclocross rider can now focus on the World Championships next Sunday in Tabor where he is one of the podium contenders.

Meeusen started the race like a rocket. "I knew I could not fight for the win but I absolutely wanted to show myself. Therefore I made an immediate acceleration. The support of the fans gave me a wonderful feeling. I had goose bumps from all these encouragements," Meeusen told Sporza.

"However, I did not feel healthy. It's unbelievable what such a hellish week does to your body. My neck, my back, everything in my body was stuck. The physiotherapist has had to do a lot of work with me. I also need to take antibiotics for my sinuses. In was not an option to ride in the front."

Iserbyt Dominant Again in Hoogerheide Junior Men’s Race, Gage Hecht Grabs Holeshot, Podiums.

Eli Iserbyt continued his dominant season with a 48 second victory at an extremely muddy Hoogerheide World Cup, wrapping up the overall 2014/2015 World Cup title in the process.

Newly-crowned US Junior Cyclocross National Champion Gage Hecht had a great start, rocketing down the long starting pavement sitting in sixth, and then moving up quickly as the group hit the dirt. Hecht would hit the first muddy hairpin descent on foot at the front, leading the entire field around the off camber downhill turn.

Iserbyt would pass Hecht and run away with the day’s victory and World Cup title, but Hecht would fight tooth and nail to make sure that Iserbyt would be the only one to pass him in his fight for second.

2014-15 Races & Results.

UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships - Jan 31 (Races),

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

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

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

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

Tour de San Luis 2015 - Jan 19-25 (Results),

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

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 ...

Fifteen teams set to contest Ladies Tour of Qatar.

The Ladies Tour of Qatar will be holding its seventh edition this year from February 3-6. Although defending four-time champion Kirsten Wild (Hitec Products) won’t make the trip to Doha in early February, Amy Pieters (Liv-Plantur) and Chloe Hosking (Wiggle-Honda) — second and third place last year, respectively — will be on hand.

News shorts: Gaviria courted by WorldTour, Greipel and Valverde to Mallorca.

Contador's Vuelta-winning Tarmac up for auction, MTN personalizes jerseys.

Andy Fenn relishing prospect of Classics campaign with Sky.

Three years on from the startling start to his career with Omega Pharma-Quick Step, when he won the opening two days at the Majorca Challenge, Andy Fenn will go into the 2015 edition of the Spanish race on Thursday hoping for a similar lift-off having switched from the Belgian super-squad to Team Sky.

Winless since those two victories, the 24-year-old Scot admits that his confidence has dipped since that heady beginning to his career at the top level. “I did lose confidence a bit at Quick Step, but it wasn’t all bad,” he tells Cyclingnews.

Roll Fast, Stop Hard.

ENVE offers its complete wheels with DT-Swiss or Chris King hubs. We chose DT's because they are compatible with Shimano's CenterLock splined and six-bolt rotors (with an adaptor) and can be converted without tools to accept different thru-axle systems and drivetrains—so the ENVEs can keep up as bike parts evolve. The SES 3.4s are muscular—they hardly flex during the hardest efforts, and they track well through turns. They feel rigid on anything but pristine tarmac, but damp small vibrations well.

When ridden back-to-back with the Zipps, however, the ENVEs seemed more sluggish and less compliant, and didn't provide as much road feedback, which gave the ride a slightly numb quality. In addition, internal nipples make it harder to true the wheels or adjust spoke tension. However, the SES 3.4s cornered more precisely than the Zipps and weigh 35 grams less, despite their deeper rim profile.

Lance Armstrong: I’d probably dope again.

Lance Armstrong says he would dope all over again, if he had to.

In an interview with the BBC, Armstrong admitted that it’s the “honest answer” that “people don’t like to hear.”

“If I was racing in 2015, no, I wouldn’t do it again, because I don’t think you have to,” he said.

“If you take me back to 1995, when it was completely and totally pervasive, I’d probably do it again. People don’t like to hear that.”

The former seven-time Tour de France winner went on to say that the era in which he chose to start doping was an “imperfect time,” and though it was a bad decision, ultimately it propelled the sport’s growth to greater heights.

Limitless: Rohan Dennis’ 2013 Alberta win threw the doors wide open.

Rohan Dennis has always been open to possibilities.

It wasn’t, however, until a week of racing in Canada that he began to believe that these possibilities might become realities. Looking out from the podium as overall winner of the 2013 Tour of Alberta, the 23-year-old Garmin-Sharp rider from Australia began to imagine a very different future for himself as a professional bike racer.

Dennis is a two-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist in the team pursuit. He’s been an outstanding time trialist, finishing second (twice), third, fifth, and ninth in TTs at major races in 2013, and was 12th at the 2013 world championship in Florence. Add to this raw power his natural climbing prowess and you have a rare breed indeed. It’s the sort of alchemy that led Bradley Wiggins to a Tour de France win, and a path that Garmin boss Jonathan Vaughters sees his young prodigy following.

Aussies to UCI: Keep the Tour Down Under in January.

Don’t mess with our Tour Down Under. That’s the message from Australians to cycling’s governing body.

The UCI continues to discuss reforms to be introduced by 2017 that could include a major shakeup of the WorldTour calendar. One complaint is that the current racing calendar is too long and jumbled, running from January to October. Some want to hone the calendar into something tighter and more comprehensible, and that could mean a change of date for the Santos Tour Down Under.

At this stage, there is nothing concrete, but there is growing consensus among some quarters that the Tour Down Under would better fit into a leaner WorldTour calendar if it were in late February instead of its current slot in January.

No one in Australia, however, agrees with that logic.

Hour Record heats up: Who are the main contenders for the crown?

This year will be the year of the Hour Record. By the end of 2015 there will, almost without doubt, be a new name next to the longest distance ridden by a cyclist in 60 minutes on a track.

Interest in the Hour Record has rocketed since the UCI revised its rules to allow the use of modern track pursuit bikes, rather than the confusing old-fashioned machines previously specified.

Jens Voigt was the first to set a new mark under the revised rules on September 18 in Switzerland. Media and fan interest in the event was huge, revitalising the feat that had lain dormant for a decade.

Voigt’s record was swiftly beaten by its current holder, Matthias Brändle, and it is his distance of 51.850 kilometers that the selection of riders must now beat.

UCI delays new rankings system after catching heat.

The radical points and ranking system implemented on January 1 lasted only three weeks. Over the weekend, cycling’s governing body scratched its changes and reverted to the WorldTour scales used through 2014 season.

“It has indeed become clear that the new ranking system was presenting teams and riders with considerable problems,” UCI President Brian Cookson wrote in a letter to teams and related associations, which was obtained by VeloNews.

The UCI updated its road race regulations Saturday to eliminate the massive text overhaul it made in red print on January 1. The January 24 changes put the points and ranking system back in line with the one used since the WorldTour replaced the former World Cup in 2005.

Wiggins out of Challenge Mallorca with Qatar debut pencilled in.

Team Sky has confirmed their line-up for the Challenge Mallorca with Bradley Wiggins now set to miss the race and begin his 2015 campaign at the Tour of Qatar instead.

Wiggins was originally down to race the set of one day races in Spain which start with the Trofeo Santanyi-Ses Salines-Campos on January 29 and continues on January 30 with the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana. Riders are allowed to skip events within the challenge and Wiggins was set to miss the Trofeo Alcudia-Platja de Muro on January 31 before returning to action at the final race, the Trofeo Palma on February 1.

The Moment The Race Was Won: Tour Down Under.

Rohan Dennis confirms title at Santos Tour Down Under.

Tour Down Under: Wippert wins final stage in Adelaide.

Down Under: The Big Finalé.

Nine things we learned from the Tour Down Under.

Daily Distractions.

PEZ: EuroTrash Cav Monday!

Lance Armstrong two years on - the same, but different.

At first glance, Lance Armstrong is as he always seemed: supremely fit, ultra-confident, smart and eloquent.

But look into the whites of his eyes from a few feet away, as I did when we spoke at length in Texas last week, and you see it - a weariness, at times even a sadness. It is then you see the subtle but inevitable toll sport's most spectacular fall from grace has taken.

“Losing Irish vote galls me, but Irish begrudgery not new for McQuaids.”

Former UCI president Pat McQuaid said his failure to secure the Irish nomination to contest the 2013 election to become president for another term still galls him.

Though he subsequently managed to secure a nomination to run, the Dubliner was ousted by Brian Cookson following months of bitter disputes.

When questioned on the subject at the An Post Chainreaction team training camp in Calpe, Spain, McQuaid refused to be drawn on how his successor was performing since taking office 16 months ago.

“That’s not something I really want to comment on,” offered McQuaid.

“I know a lot of what’s going on and I’ve had a lot of contact from people on the inside and as I say I’d prefer to say nothing.”

Airgas-Safeway disappointed after missing Tour of California invitation.

“I'm not sure why the organizers would not extend an invitation to my team,” Airgas-Safeway principle Chris Johnson said. “I have a very strong group of young riders. Luis Lemus, for example, won the most courageous rider jersey in last year's race on the Mt. Diablo stage when he was riding for Jelly Belly, and for them to not want to include Chris Horner, who is a former winner of the race and a Grand Tour champion, is hard to understand.

“I also think including national brands like Airgas and Safeway would have been a great thing for the race as they would have helped bring in a fresh audience,” Johnson said. “I respect that the organizers are in a hard position and recognize that there are a lot of qualified teams and deserving athletes, but I still don't agree with their decision to exclude us.”

Greipel confirms race plans as far as Giro d'Italia.

Germany’s André Greipel has released his 2015 race program as far as the Giro d’Italia, a race the sprinting star last tackled in 2010. Cycling’s most prolific winner of 2014 will start his season in the Challenge Mallorca on Thursday.

The 32-year-old racked up 16 wins last year, including a stage of the Tour de France, a stage of the Eneco Tour, two stages in the Tour Down Under, Paris-Brussels and the national road-race title. His Belgian Classics campaign, though, was wrecked by an injury in Ghent-Wevelgem that meant he could only return to racing at the Tour of Turkey.

See Me! Sugoi’s Zap & Limar’s Velov.

"Limar’s Velov Helmet & Sugoi’s new Zap Reflective Jacket are a couple of new things I’m wearing with the idea that being not dead is a lot more important than trying to look like a blacked out bad-ass… I mean do you really think you look “mean” or tough to the general public because the skin tight spandex you’re wearing is harder to see?

"So I roll up and immediately one of my friends says “hello sunshine, where’s your basket and streamers?”"

Core Bike 2015 - new stuff from Kinesis, Poc, Astute, Topeak, Bont, Cygolite and more.

"Hello from Core Bike! We're here treading the garish carpets of Whittlebury Hall near Silverstone for another year at the trade show where the UK distributors of cycling's top end brands show off their wares.

There's lots to see, and we'll cover it all in detail in due course, but here are some highlights from our first trawl around the rooms. So stay tuned for more!"

UCI back tracks on ranking and points system for 2015.

Evans says goodbye to the Tour Down Under.