Craddock heading home after nasty TDU crash.

Lawson Craddock is heading home following three nights in an Australian hospital recovering from a harrowing crash in stage 4 at the Santos Tour Down Under.

The 22-year-old Texan crashed heavily Friday in the early kilometers of the stage, just as the peloton was picking up speed and coming over some rollers as the day’s main breakaway was forming.

In a freak accident, Craddock evidently punctured his front tire, then bounded into a drainage ditch, with his front wheel collapsing, sending him catapulting over his handlebars. One rider who saw the crash said, “It looked real nasty. I could see him flying over his bike.” Craddock suffered a broken wrist, rib, and sternum, injuries that kept him in the hospital for observation for three days.

In an email to VeloNews, Craddock said he was due to fly back to Texas overnight Tuesday.

The Quiet Man speaks.

The boy lay on the ground for a long, long time. Longer than made any sense. He had fallen heavily, missing a corner, crashing into a ditch. It looked like maybe the kind of fall that could knock you out of a race, but not the kind where you stay down so long. But the boy stayed down.

Tim Pauwels, a barrel-chested 23-year-old with a shock of nearly-white blonde hair lay dying, a ruptured aorta filling his chest with blood. Later, some would say his heart had already stopped before the fall, that he had died on the bike. Nobody would ever know for sure.

In the anguished weeks that followed, his family would forever wonder why help had been so slow to arrive. Why the police who supervised the course had failed to come to Pauwels’ aid. Why the race organization in Erpe-Mere, site of the star-crossed early-season race where Pauwels fell, had not taken to the public address system to seek a doctor from the thousands of fans who lined the track. Or whether they, or their doctors, or his team’s doctors had failed to recognize the warning signs, so clear in the sharp light of hindsight, that something was ailing the young cyclist.

Mark Cavendish: joining Sky was a ‘mistake’ he won’t make again.

Mark Cavendish explained that he will not make the mistake of joining another team like Sky when his contract expires at the end of 2015.

“I made that mistake before,” Cavendish told Belgium’s Het Nieuwsblad newspaper. “I want to stay with Etixx-QuickStep. I love it.

Cavendish terminated his contract with Sky early, after one year of a three-year deal, to join Belgium’s Omega Pharma-QuickStep in 2013. He now has some of the same staff and cyclists around him as he did with HTC-Highroad, including Sport and Development Manager Rolf Aldag and lead-out man Mark Renshaw.

“It’s like in HTC [Highroad]: one big family,” Cavendish continued. “Nobody likes to leave his family behind, but being with this team away from home is a pleasure.”

The 2015 Cyclocross World Championship Preview: The Elite Women in Tabor.

"As the 2015 Elite Women’s World Cyclocross Championship is practically open for the taking by a large number of racers, the folks here at Cyclocross Magazine won’t be making any hard-and-fast predictions, but we will be highlighting ten favorites as well as some outside contenders.

With the weather now verging on the likelihood of snow the day before the Elite Races, the fast course of Tabor will also provide a few areas that will likely cause some spills, especially if the notorious Czech ice comes into play."

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 ...

Ladies Tour of Qatar announces 2015 teams.

The 15 teams which will compete at the 2015 Ladies Tour of Qatar have been announced by its race organzser ASO. The seventh edition of the race, which takes place from February 3-6, will be missing four time champion Kirsten Wild as she concentrates on track racing this season, opening the door for other sprinters to claim overall victory.

Two-time runner up Chloe Hosking will lead her new Wiggle Honda team alongside teammate Georgina Bronzini and will be aiming to be standing on the top step of the podium in 2015.

Carmen Small: My first track race.

"Excitement pours through my veins … Wait that’s not excitement. Its panic — the puking, sweating kind of panic. I run to the bathroom for what seems like the one-millionth time to try to compose myself. I can’t be so nervous that I might puke. Breathe. Come on Carmen. Breathe.

It’s just riding a bike, right?"

Froome and Contador are two of the greatest rivals, says Nicolas Roche.

New Team Sky recruit Nicolas Roche can’t wait to help Chris Froome get one over on his former teammate Alberto Contador at this year’s Tour de France.

The Irishman swapped Tinkoff-Saxo for Team Sky in the offseason and has already spoken of his keenness to play the role of super-domestique for his new team leader.

In an interview with Sky Sports, Roche calls Froome and Contador two of the great rivals of this generation and admits he’s already shared some of the Spaniard’s secrets to Froome.

“I have a good feeling about this year. I feel I could be very useful as a top team-mate with Chris in the Tour. It could be an exciting role,” he said.

Greenbelly Peanut Apricot Meal Bar.

Sometimes you need calories—a lot of calories. Like when you’re out for a full day racing 100-plus miles and you’re pedaling off hundreds (or thousands) of calories without stopping for a meal.

Sure, there’s no shortage of energy bars, chews, and gels you can stuff in your pockets, but you’ll need to stuff in a lot of them, and most are meant to be snacks rather than meal replacements.

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.

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

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

Pat McQuaid: Lance Armstrong 'a scapegoat'.

Lance Armstrong has been harshly treated, according to former head of world cycling Pat McQuaid.

Armstrong, 43, was given a life ban from all sport and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping.

McQuaid, former president of world governing body the International Cycling Union (UCI), said he had "a certain sympathy" with the American.

He told BBC Radio 5 live: "He was very much made a scapegoat, there was a witch hunt after Armstrong."

What to expect from the month of February.

The Tour Down Under and the Tour de San Luis was a small appetizer but now it is time for the season to kick off in earnest.

During the month of February, the peloton will head back to cycling’s European heartland while also offering a solid block of racing in the Middle East and even though it is still mostly about preparation, exciting racing will be in store throughout the month.

The clash between Chris Froome, Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana in Vuelta a Andalucia will be a highlight just like the start of the classics season at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

CyclingQuotes.com takes an in-depth look at the racing in February before selecting the riders to watch in the coming month.

Pro Team Sponsors: What Do They Do?

You probably know what Trek, Cannondale and Giant make but do you know your Soudal from your Jumbo or what Lampre does?

Tom Southam: Confidence is the absence of doubt.

The French journalist Jean Francois Quénet can read a bike race. He's been around the sport his entire life, seen riders come and go and races develop and change. So when he came up to me, notepad in hand, before the final stage of the Tour Down Under, and started asking questions about what winning the stage there that day would mean, I knew that we were in with a very serious chance of actually winning.

There is no quarter given in a race of the level of the Tour Down Under. Yes, it is only January, but, as my riders experienced, no one is giving up a wheel, or the opportunity to sniff out some UCI points for their team, points are after all the currency by which most teams look to justify their existence.

Points scored in January count exactly the same as those picked up throughout the rest of the season.

Rider Interview: Niki Terpstra.

Niki Terpstra is a man of many facets: twice World champion in the team time trial, Dutch track and road National champion and then throw in winning the Tour of Qatar and Paris–Roubaix and you get the idea. We caught up with him the day after he won the Rotterdam 6 day.

The Etixx – Quick-Step team media day was the morning afteri Terpstra won the Rotterdam ‘6 day’ with teammate Iljo Keisse and Niki did look a little tired, but with coffee in hand and dark glasses for the bright sun light he was ready to be quizzed by a handful of journalists.

Roman Kreuziger’s highs and lows.

Roman Kreuziger is free to race. He begins in February with the Tour of Oman, but he is unable to plan too far ahead with a court expected to rule on his biological passport case.

Attempting to prove that he did not dope, the Czech announced this weekend that he passed a lie detector test. But for many, that only served to highlight the many highs and lows of his nine-year cycling career.

Wiggins set to debut rainbow jersey at Tour of Qatar.

The organizers of the Tour of Qatar have announced the 18 teams which will ride the six-stage event, which takes place from February 8-13, among them are Team Sky, which will give Bradley Wiggins his first outing in the rainbow jersey of individual time trial World Champion.

Wiggins was originally scheduled to start his season in Mallorca, but the team opted to shift his debut to Qatar.

While sprinters like Marcel Kittel, Peter Sagan, Nacer Bouhanni and Alexander Kristoff will be expected to animate the majority of the stages, the 10.9km time trial on stage three will be the main test for the general classification contenders like Wiggins, Fabian Cancellara and Philippe Gilbert.

Many of the riders in action in Qatar will also ride the hillier Tour of Oman that starts a few days later.

SRAM Red wireless electronic group details discovered.

SRAM still isn't yet talking openly about its upcoming wireless electronic road group but sponsored teams and riders are continuing to test the new bits in competition, most recently in Australia at the Tour Down Under with the Ag2r-La Mondiale squad.

Although not much appears to have changed since the group's last public appearance, we've since learned that the novel shifter actuation will likely be called 'eTap or 'ETAP' (a play on SRAM's long-running 'DoubleTap' moniker) and that group will most likely simple be called Red with a stylized 'e'.

SRAM is at least no longer forcing team mechanics to fabricate faux wiring since we blew the lid on the wired charade last May.

Merckx Masterpiece: The EDDY70.

Eddy Merckx Cycles relaunches steel-bike production. With the launch of the EDDY70 racing bike Eddy Merckx Cycles is opening a new chapter. That is, one of modern, high-quality steel racing bikes.

The first fruit of this project, of which only 70 examples will be produced, is the forerunner of a new Heritage collection, which will be available from September at a selection of bike stores. The EDDY70 bike can be ordered from 7pm on January 28th exclusively via EDDY70.com and will cost $17,500.

Lance Armstrong: I’d probably dope again.

Daily Distractions.

Technical FAQ: Cracked carbon seatposts and more.

Frankie Andreu willing to cooperate with whistleblower suit against Armstrong.

Frankie Andreu says he will cooperate fully if he is subpoenaed in the False Claims Act case against Lance Armstrong and his US Postal Service team associates. The whistleblower (qui tam) case was first was raised by Floyd Landis is 2010 after he confessed to doping while a member of the team.

The government joined the suit in 2013 and although Armstrong's agent Bill Stapleton and business partner Bart Knaggs reportedly agreed to settle with the government, Armstrong's attorneys continue to fight charges they defrauded the government by cheating with performance enhancing drugs.

Andreu could be given a summons to appear as early as March, but he is not sure why.

Andreu told Cyclingnews he was called several days ago by Sharif Jacob a partner at Keker & Van Nest, who are representing Armstrong in the case. Mr Jacob did not return a call from Cyclingnews at time of publication but Andreu provided details.

Betsy Andreu: Armstrong’s not sorry; his lawyers will subpoena Frankie.

“Sorry is just a word unless it is acted upon.”

Responding to claims made by Lance Armstrong to the BBC in which he said that some of those whom he tried to apologize to had rebuked his efforts, Betsy Andreu has said that she believes his attempts were hollow and meaningless, and that the truth of his stance is reflected in more recent actions.

Speaking to CyclingTips on Monday, Andreu disclosed that her husband, former Armstrong team-mate Frankie Andreu, had been told by a lawyer acting for the Texan that he would be subpoenaed as part of the current Qui Tam whistleblower lawsuit.

Andreu is clear on what she believes the action is really about. “We see this as nothing more than a tactic to try to drain us mentally and financially,” she said. “But it is not going to work. Lance obviously hasn’t learned his lesson that I am not a doormat. Is he stupid?”

Armstrong critical of UCI president Brian Cookson.

Lance Armstrong has claimed that Brian Cookson has not delivered on his campaign promises since becoming president of the UCI.

During a long interview with the BBC, a few days after the two-year anniversary of his doping confession, Armstrong suggested that Cookson has failed to signal a new direction in the fight against doping because of the way he handled the Astana WorldTour license decision and the unusual fast-tracking of the decision to give Chris Froome a TUE for the corticosteroid prednisolone during the 2014 Tour de Romandie.

Armstrong says he has “protected nobody” in evidence to UCI reform commission.

Lance Armstrong has confirmed he has appeared before the UCI’s Cycling Independent Reform Commission twice and insisted he will protect nobody in his testimony.

Previously called the truth and reconciliation commission, the process will investigate all aspects of doping in cycling in the 1990s and 2000s.

It will include the UCI’s handling of doping and was established by UCI president Brian Cookson.

He succeeded Ireland’s Pat McQuaid, who was president of the world governing body when Armstrong made his comeback in 2009.

McQuaid was chairman of the UCI road commission for eight years before he took over as president in 2006.

Jered Gruber: Iceland—Seriously?

The beaten, rocky dirt road is barely discernible from the beaten, rocky ground next to it, and just off that barely visible passage is our wind-stricken sanctuary for the evening.

We push open the door of the hut, and a giant of a man stands up with a half-smile. He's roughly double my size, and he's Russian. He's hiking across the Highlands, Iceland's lonely interior. We're trying to ride our bikes across it. He looks us up and down. "I saw birds blown backward today," he says. "I could barely keep moving forward in the wind."

"We didn't do much better," Ashley says. "I got blown off my bike." He glances outside, and Ashley and I half expect to see a rock rolling away or at least a sheep carried off into the distance. Nothing moves, save for dust that ripples urgently along the mostly flat ground.

He looks back at us, "I haven't seen anyone in days, birds are flying backward. How do I know I'm alive? We could be dead."

Following strong Tour performance, Bardet gunning for further progression in 2015.

After taking sixth in the 2014 Tour de France, Ag2r la Mondiale rider Romain Bardet has made his ambitions clear as he prepares for his first race of the current season.

The 24 year old made important progress last season, improving his overall performance in the Tour from 15th to that sixth place and also winning both La Drome Classic and the young rider classification in the Tour of Oman.

His other results include second in the Tour de l’Ain, fourth in the Volta a Catalunya and fifth in the Critérium du Dauphiné.

Park Tool founder Howard Hawkins passes away.

Howard Hawkins, 82, passed away Monday at his Arizona home.

Hawkins, along with Art Engstrom, and the company’s many employees, built an iconic brand around the notion that few tools were available to fix bicycles as they became more complex to repair in the 1960s.

As a result they began making their own tools and the first was a bicycle repair stand. The stand took the bike off the floor and made it easy for mechanics to repair it. Local bike shops soon adopted it and then executives at the Schwinn Bicycle Company liked it so much they requested a production model.

PEZ: EuroTrash Cav Monday!