Liquigas-Cannondale rider fastest Italian of the year so far after green and blue team pulls back the break.

Garmin makes it back-to-back wins in Med.

Hard and fast Nordzeecross course sees two favourites escape and the Czech champion is faster than the Belgian at the finish.

Despite her nearing retirement European champion Daphny van den Brand (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) keeps racking up the wins. And just like last weekend in Hoogstraten the 33-year-old finished ahead of Nikki Harris (Telenet-Fidea) and Pavla Havlikova (Telenet-Fidea).

2011-2012 Cyclocross season action continues Saturday with Superprestige Cyclocross at Middelkerke.  There will once again be live streaming video.  The first Middelkerke live stream is expected to start about 30 minutes before the Elite Men race begins. Live streaming video: Elite Men: 4:00pm CET (10:00am U.S. Eastern).

CyclingNews: Races & Results.
Tour Méditerranéen Cycliste Professionnel (Stages),
Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria Challenge Calabria (Stages & results),
Superprestige Middelkerke (Elite men results),
Superprestige Middelkerke (Elite women results),
Tour of Oman (Stages),
Tour of Qatar (Stages & results),
Amgen Tour of California (Stages ),
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Alberto Contador said at his press conference earlier this week that he would come back from his two-year doping suspension in August, and on Friday took the first step towards that return to racing. The Spaniard went for his first training ride since the Court of Arbitration for sport ruled on his doping case.

"To have 50,000 drunk, ’cross obsessed Belgians cheering for us in rows five to six deep is something I don’t think much is going to match up to. People still tell me I am crazy for riding ’cross and to be honest I think they’re all crazy for not giving this sport a go!"

Alexandr Vinokourov (Astana) will make his 2012 European race debut at the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali at the end of March. The Kazakhstani rider begins his season later this month at the Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia, but surprisingly Coppi e Bartali will mark Vinokourov’s first race on Italian soil since the 2010 Giro d’Italia - a race he led for several days.

The Tour of Qatar finished yesterday with Tom Boonen taking his fourth overall win. As much as the race is about sprint finishes, Boonen looked far more complete and thanks to his team, always in the right place at the right time. It’s good for him but does this translate to results in the crucial spring classics? It depends how superstitious you are…

“Jan Ullrich missed his last chance to win back even a little of his credibility, because he failed to come clean."  -  Dagmar Freitag CyclingNews

"It's not a pleasant experience ... It was difficult at times," he said. "But I was confident that we would always end up in this place." Armstrong and the US Postal team were under Federal investigation on possible fraud charges. However last Friday the US Attorney’s office in Los Angeles closed the two-year long investigation.

A little more than a year after being diagnosed with testicular cancer, 20-year-old Connor O'Leary is set to return to top-level cycling with the Bontrager-Livestrong development team. But it hasn't been an easy trip from the top of sport to the depths of life-changing illness and back.

Trek Bicycle Corporation’s HQ in Waterloo, Wisconsin is an impressive place to visit. The 205,000 sq ft facility houses 800 employees, and one of the only large-scale bicycle manufacturing factories left in the US.

"Before Chris Horner took off for Europe this week to compete in his fifth Tour de France, which starts Saturday, July 2, he invited us to sit down with him to talk about his long career and his goals at the world's biggest bike race. He also let us follow him around as he started his day and headed out for a training ride on his hometown roads around San Diego."

"If the points obtained by Alberto Contador, representing approximately 68% of the Saxo Bank-Sungard team’s total points, are disregarded, his team would no longer be considered to fulfil the sporting criterion required for the UCI WorldTour."

The Daily Distraction.

Jan Ullrich's statement concerning his doping past and two-year ban have been met with disappointment in Germany. In addition, questions have arisen as to his continued participation in Grand Fondos and similar cyclo-sportive races.

The dust has finally settled on the shock decision to give high-flying Alberto Contador the same punishment for having clenbuterol in his system as that Chinese bloke no one had heard of.

The Perfect Storm began as a typical rainstorm before turning into a raging cyclone that battered the Eastern seaboard of the United States for seven days in the fall of 1991. Professional cycling has just endured its own perfect storm, which also lasted for seven days.

"Completely disassemble-able and BPA-free, the Relaj Water Bottle has an extra-long nipple that’s designed to keep the bottle away from the face and out of the rider’s line of vision.  The funnel shape is also intended to reduce the need to tip the head back when fluid levels are low- both for safety and for those with a reduced range of motion.  The burp-type valve is removable for cleaning and an optional ice pack threads into the bottom cover."

PEZ In The Trenches: The Berlin Six Day.

"The 101st Berlin Six Day Race: The race was first held in 1909 when Americans Floyd McFarlane and Jimmy Moran won a US promoted event. Despite the race not being run during the war years this is the most prolific of all the six days - in 1926 there were three six days held in the city and as recently as 1970 there were two races held."

"Besides Tom Boonen being in near-peak form, what else did we learn from the Tour of Qatar?"

Italian Classics specialist plans to be back on two wheels as soon as possible.

Police in Grenoble discovered that Patrice Ciprelli, husband and coach of French cyclist Jeannie Longo, spent 19,800 dollars on 15 purchases of the banned performance-booster EPO (erythropoietin) since 2007, a source close to the investigation told AFP on Friday.