Viviani wins Dubai Tour stage 2, Cavendish keeps GC lead.

Mark Cavendish was pipped for victory in the second stage of the Dubai Tour by Elia Viviani on Thursday but kept the race leader’s jersey.

The Briton was second on the 185-kilometer run from Dubai International Marine Club to Palm Jumeirah, but the bonus seconds he took in winning Wednesday’s opening stage ensured he remained in the leader’s blue jersey.

Sky’s Viviani, who was third on Wednesday, is now just two seconds behind after clawing back four of the six seconds he lost to Cavendish on the opening stage.

Cavendish finds solace despite defeat in the Dubai Tour sprint.

Mark Cavendish was disappointed to lose the sprint that decided stage two of Dubai Tour but sportingly shook Elia Viviani's hand before climbing onto the podium to pull on the race leader's jersey for another day.

Cavendish, Viviani and Andrea Guardini swapped places on the podium compared to stage one, with Viviani winning for Team Sky, Cavendish taking second and Guardini finishing third.

“I'd have liked to win and I'm disappointed with second but we can take a lot of positive points from today: the power I put out and how Etixx-QuickStep rode,” Cavendish told the media in Dubai at the post-race press conference.

Lefevere impressed with Cavendish's sprinting anger at the Dubai Tour.

Etixx-QuickStep team manager Patrick Lefevere watches Mark Cavendish win stage one at the Dubai Tour from the roadside and liked what he saw.

The experienced Belgian manager has built a large part of his team around Cavendish and expects results in return.

The Manxman had a difficult 2014 season due to illness and his crash at the end of the opening stage of the Tour de France but Lefevere saw first hand that he is still hungry for success, and has started the 2015 season with impressive form and finishing speed.

Impey Tucks for ITT Victory in South Africa.

The first ever African to wear the Tour de France yellow jersey Daryl Impey won the South African time-trial for a fourth time on Thursday.

The 30-year-old Orica rider, who also won the event in 2011, 2013 and 2014, was a full 51 seconds faster than second placed Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg over the 42.7km route.

During the 2013 Tour de France, Impey became Africa’s first overall leader of the world’s most famous race, donning the yellow jersey for two stages.

2014-15 Races & Results.

Ladies Tour of Qatar 2015 - Feb 3-6 (Stages & Results),

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

Tour of Qatar 2015 - Feb 8-13 (Stages),

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

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

Vuelta a España 2015 - Aug 22-Sept 13 (Stages),

UCI Road World Championship 2015 - Sept 20-27 (Stages),

UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships - Jan 31-Feb 1 (Results),

Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race - Feb 1 (Results),

Santos Tour Down Under 2015 - Jan 18-25 (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 ...

World Cup Winners Cant, Pauwels Win at Parkcross Maldegem. Cant’s Season “Cake Without the Icing.”

Kevin Pauwels took an exciting win Wednesday with a narrow lead over six other riders at Parkcross Maldegem, with U23 World Championship runner-up Laurens Sweeck taking second, and Gianni Vermeersch finishing third.

Wout van Aert finished fifth after crashing early in the race and being forced to spend the rest of the laps pursuing the leaders.

The other overall World Cup winner Sanne Cant won the first-ever Women’s Elite Race at Parkcross Maldegem.

Unlike Pauwels, she would not wait until the closing lap to contest victory, and she took a solo win over Sanne van Paassen and Loes Sels.

New Cyclocross World Champions Are All U23.

"Watching the World Championships play out this weekend, I started to feel old.

Obviously, the junior and U23 winners were just kids, and looked like chilly teenagers on the podium.

But when the elite men’s podium all looked like they’d be carded heading into a bar for a victory party, well, that threw me a bit.

And the women’s race was won—after six years of dominance—by 22-year-old Pauline Ferrand-Prevot instead of perpetual favorite Marianne Vos."

Roadtripping India: Part Two.

"When you think of the world's great cycling destinations, India isn't a country that necessarily springs to mind. And yet, when you venture beyond the bustling city streets, India has a wealth of opportunities on offer for the intrepid cyclist.

Andy Rogers and Caz Whitehead recently ventured to the Indian state of Karnataka with Exodus Travels to begin a two-week-long journey along the country's south-western coastline.

This is the second and final part of a series about that journey. We pick up the story with Caz and Andy about to tackle the long, tough climb to the town of Ooty."

Dubai Tour 2015 Live Dashboard ...

2015 Dubai Tour LIVE.

Thursday's Dubai Tour Stage 2 (the Nakheel stage) departs Dubai at 10:55am local (7:55am CET, 1:55am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Palm Jumeirah at around 3:30pm local (12:30pm CET, 6:30am U.S. Eastern).  Dubai Tour live video streaming is expected to begin at around 1:30pm local (10:30am CET, 4:30am U.S. Eastern).

Tour of Qatar 2015 Live Dashboard.

A look ahead to the 2015 Tour of Qatar (February 8-13): race info, stages, teams and more.

2015 Hour Record LIVE stream - Rohan Dennis Attempt.

Rohan Dennis takes a shot at the hour record. Tune in on Sunday February 8 (1.50pm local time, GMT +1).

McGrane on McQuaid: “Doping by amateurs was reason I wanted change.”

Cycling Ireland doctor Conor McGrane has said the continued doping problem facing young Irish riders abroad was the biggest reason he opposed the Irish federation nominating Pat McQuaid to run for a third term as UCI president.

Responding to McQuaid’s assertion that Irish begrudgery was the motivation of many who opposed his re-election, McGrane he said he has no regrets about being one of his most vocal opponents.

“My main motivation was knowing that underage lads going over to the continent were being exposed to doping,” he said.

Since the election, Cookson has been in power for over a year. Thus far McGrane feels his tenure has been disappointing.

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t think he has been much of an improvement,” he said.

“I personally would have preferred somebody like Tracey Gaudry to go for it,” he said of the Australian vice president of the UCI.

Armitstead plots cycling domination: Flanders and worlds wins.

Lizzie Armitstead is on her way to winning the Ladies Tour of Qatar, but she wants more. Team Boels-Dolmans’ Brit wants to dominate the world by winning the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) and the world road championships in 2015.

“They are career-defining races,” Armitstead said after putting on the race leader’s golden jersey in Qatar.

“If you win Flanders and the world championships then you can retire a happy lady.”

Armitstead sprints into lead at Ladies Tour of Qatar.

Lizzie Armitstead took the reins from her teammate Ellen Van Dijk in Qatar on Thursday, winning stage 3, and slipping into the overall race lead. Van Dijk started Thursday in the lead after winning Wednesday’s stage.

The Briton, 26, claimed her first win of the season in a field sprint to Al Khor Corniche, after a 93.5km day that began in Souq Waqif. Second place went to American Shelly Olds; Lucinda Brand rounded out the podium in third.

The final sprint was contested by about 35 riders after the peloton split early in the day, thanks in part to the efforts of the Boels-Dolmans team.

Longo Borghini with suspected concussion.

Elisa Longo Borghini was taken to a local hospital with a suspected concussion after crashing on stage 3 of the Ladies Tour of Qatar on Thursday.

The Italian was lying sixth overall heading into the stage but crashed mid-way through. According to her team manager, Rochelle Gilmore, the rider was responsive and willing to finish the stage.

“I’m pretty sure she won’t race tomorrow. I’ll be going to the hospital and I’ll strongly advise her not to race.”

Optum recovering after ‘brutal’ Ladies Tour of Qatar start.

Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies is recovering after a “brutal” start to the Ladies Tour of Qatar this week, where one rider failed to start with food poisoning and another was carried away on a stretcher.

“It was brutal,” sport director Patrick McCarty told VeloNews.

McCarty leaned on his silver car packed near Doha’s Souq Waqif as his remaining four cyclists prepared for stage 3 under 86-degree heat. In the same capital city, but not at the start, Maura Kinsella remains in the hospital with two broken ribs, while Annie Ewart sits in the Sheraton Hotel recovering.

“Annie fell sick with food poisoning and couldn’t start. It’s tough because a race like this you have to commit and it’s tough to make last-minute decisions,” McCarty continued.

Talk: Greg Van Avermaet.

Greg Van Avermaet has come so close to the big win in the cobbled Classics, will this be his year?

We caught up with the non-beer drinking Belgian at the BMC training camp to talk Classics, cobbles, Tour, beer and Yorkshire!

Van Avermaet has had some good wins in his 10 year professional career and he has a sack full of top ten placings, apart from his win in Paris-Tours there isn’t that big Classic win.

He wants to be King of the Flanders cobbles, but the man from Lokeren can turn his hand to just about any of the one day races. ..

A cobbled future for Zabel, son of the sprint king.

The long, green-tinted shadow of his father may forever tail him, but Rick Zabel does not dream of Champs-Elyseés sprints or perfect leadouts, but of rough cobbles, steep bergs, and the hardest one-day races.

Zabel the younger fancies himself a classics man, and this year, his second in the professional ranks, he hopes to take on the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix for the first time.

Despite his pedigree, Zabel has no delusions of youthful triumph.

Should he line up in Brugge and Compiegne this season, his duties will be strictly obedient.

But two or three years down the line, following a few trial runs and plenty of tutelage from experienced teammates, the young German thinks he can mix it up at the front of the premier classics.

2015 Ladies Tour of Qatar LIVE.

Thursday's Stage 3 starts at 2:00pm local (12:00pm CET) (6:00am U.S. Eastern).

Finish at around 4:17pm local (2:17pm CET) (8:17am U.S. Eastern).

Live video from -- local (-- CET) (-- U.S. Eastern).

From Inside Peloton: More than a Cannibal.

After the retirement of Eddy Merckx in the late 1970s, the cycling world waited almost 30 years for his replacement.

When it did arrive, it was Dutch … oh yeah, and it was a woman.

Actually, it’s much more complicated than that.

Nicknames like “Cannibal” and “Female Merckx” are aimed at Marianne Vos from all sides, but there is far more to her than simply being a 25-year-old winning machine from the nearly-unpronounceable town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, in the south of the Netherlands.

Geoghegan Hart shouldn’t rush to sign professional contract, says Merckx.

Tao Geoghegan Hart needs to take his development steadily and not rush to the professional ranks, explained team Axeon General Manager Axel Merckx.

Geoghegan Hart celebrated his 19th birthday in March, but rode strongly against riders sometimes three-times his age in the Under 23 ranks in 2014.

Last year, he placed third in the Under 23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, 10th in the Tour de L’Aviner and 15th in the Tour of Britain.

Van Dijk takes control at the Ladies Tour of Qatar.

American team’s nightmare start at the Ladies Tour of Qata.

Lucy Garner’s Ladies Tour of Qatar: Stage two.

Ladies Tour of Qatar shorts: Heartbreak for Hosking.

Daily Distractions.

Video: We can beat Cavendish, says Eisel.

Say you're sorry, Lance Armstrong.

Once again, I'm waiting for Lance Armstrong to say that he's sorry.

Police reports show that he hit two parked cars, apparently after he'd been drinking, then let his girlfriend take the blame. So far he hasn't said anything. But I think I know how this will go.

Last time I wanted Armstrong to apologize, it was for the doping.

But in 2013, when he confessed his sins to Oprah Winfrey, the secular priestess of wayward celebrities, I couldn't help but wonder for what exactly he was apologizing.

WADA President Reedie: More governments need to make doping illegal.

The president of the World Anti Doping Agency, Craig Reedie, has called on more governments to criminalize doping, saying that acting in this way will play a vital part in helping prevent the current problems escalating and spilling over into everyday society.

“Sport is now a hugely lucrative industry, and there is a real area of concern with drugs being counterfeited, illegally produced, trafficked and distributed – and ultimately these drugs get in the hands of elite athletes and, increasingly, members of the public,” he said in a WADA statement, requesting an escalation of preventative measures.

Jans wins controversial second stage in Besseges.

Roy Jans confirmed his potential as a future top sprinter when he won today’s second stage of Etoile de Besseges in a bunch sprint.

On a controversial day when the peloton stopped four times to protest against cold conditions, he held off Alexandre Blain and Bob Jungels while Kris Boeckmans defended his lead despite a crash in the sprint.

Jayco Herald Sun Tour: Meyer wins in Bendigo to take overall race lead.

A late attack from a select group group that formed on the first climb of the day saw Cam Meyer trump New Zealand national champion Joe Cooper to move into the overall race lead after the 146km stage.

Pat Bevin won the sprint for third place ahead of defending champion Simon Clarke with the riders riders occupy the top of the GC in stage order.

Aggressive Power shows off climbing prowess into Bendigo.

With stage one of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour heading straight up a category one climb, it was an intimidating affair for the majority of the 89 riders who started in Mt Macedon but not so for Rob Power.

The 19-year-old, taking part in the race on the Australian U23 team, skipped away from Brendan Canty in the final 20m of the climb, which featured gradients between 10-12%, to claim the first KOM points of the day, showcasing his climbing talents.

He then took maximum points on the second climb of the day up Mt Alexander to move to 48 points, 20 ahead of Canty.

In Praise of the MPCC.

The Mouvement Pour Un Cyclisme Crédible or MPCC is sometimes the butt of jokes but what if we celebrated its achievements and laughed at those who try to mock the sport?

This group of teams has grown and led the way on anti-doping policies, often seeing the UCI copy the rules later on and taking a stance to safeguard rider health too.

The MPCC was founded during the 2007 Tour de France by seven teams wanting to create a tighter set of rules than the UCI or WADA Code when it came to anti-doping and ethics. It’s a voluntary, self-regulatory body. Members sign up and agree to stick to rules which go beyond the UCI’s standard.

Gaimon itching to show himself with Optum.

This season will start with another period of adjustment for Phil Gaimon, the former Jelly Belly, 5-hour Energy and Bissell rider who earned his way to the WorldTour last year with Garmin-Sharp, only to see himself slip off the roster when the team merged with Cannondale in the off-season.

But any questions about whether Gaimon would fit in and feel at home with another new team were answered quickly at the Optum Pro Cycling training camp when he walked out of the team house for a media interview in his bare feet, pajama bottoms and a bathrobe, joking with his teammates, staff and anyone else within earshot along the way.

The only thing lacking from this picture of domestic bliss was a dog to fetch his slippers and newspaper.

Sagan poised to start 2015 season under monumental pressure.

Will Peter Sagan stand and deliver a monumental victory this season?

That will be one of the major storylines of 2015 as the precocious Slovak makes his Tinkoff-Saxo debut at the Tour of Qatar (2.HC) on Sunday in what will be a highly anticipated start with huge expectations on his shoulders this season.

Whether he shrugs off that pressure and knocks it out of the park remains to be seen.

How to Pack a Bike for Shipping.

"Assuming you are not buying an expensive bike case, which can be costly, here is the smart, safe way to package up your bike.

Along with some useful pics we took with our friends at Evans Cycles, here are some tips to reduce the cost of your delivery and ensure your bike arrives in tip-top condition.

All you need is a good box, some packing materials, strong tape, a set of allen keys, an adjustable wrench and half an hour."

Reviewed: The versatile Lazer Z1 helmet.

When one thinks of a helmet, “versatile” might not be the first adjective that comes to mind. But that’s exactly what the Lazer Z1 is. Thanks to its aftermarket Aeroshell, the Z1 can transform from a lightweight and airy summer helmet to a windproof lid, perfect for winter riding.

The Z1 is a top-of-the-line helmet through and through. Its weight — at 276 grams for a size large — is within grams of Giro’s Synthe and Smith’s Overtake. It is also attractive. Ventilation is superb, and the Z1’s price backs all of this up. At $270 the Z1 is $20 more expensive than the Synthe and Overtake. Its price is comparable to the Poc Octal, but the Lazer Aeroshell will set you back an additional $20. If you live anywhere in North America, you’ll get use out of this add-on at some point, though it likely won’t be in an attempt to make yourself more aerodynamic.