Van Garderen: 'I did what I could' against Sky.

The first mountain finish of the 2015 Paris-Nice saw American Tejay van Garderen finish fifth after he failed to follow an attack in the final 4km from Team Sky's Geraint Thomas.

Thursday's stage 4 test, which featured six categorized climbs in the final 60km of the day, included the summit finish on the Col de la Croix de Chaubouret, a 10km climb with an average grade of 6.7 percent.

Porte wins atop Croix de Chaubouret.

Richie Porte led home a Team Sky one-two on stage 4 of Paris-Nice from Varennes-sur-Allier to the summit of Croix de Chaubouret with Geraint Thomas second Michal Kwiatkowski in third.

The Sky duo jumped clear of a select group of race favorites inside the final two kilometers of the climb with Porte leading the pair home. Kwiatkowski delivered with a determined solo chase to finish eight second in arrears – an effort that saw him reclaim the race lead with Porte now just one second back, and Thomas in third at three seconds.

Giorgia Bronzini wins Drentse 8.

Giorgia Bronzini won Molecaten Drentse 8 from a breakaway group of seven to earn Wiggle Honda back-to-back wins after Jolien D’hoore won last Sunday’s Omloop van het Hageland.

In calm conditions the pace was kept high in the early part of the race and most of the main contenders came into the local finishing circuit as one group.

As the kilometers ticked by a group of seven escaped with most of the big teams represented. Rabo-Liv being the notable exception.

Tour de Langkawi: Seo Joon Yong takes solo win in Kuantan.

Joon Yong Seo soloed to victory on stage 5 of the Tour de Langkawi, attacking from the day’s breakaway with 25km to go to become the second Korean rider to win a stage of the Malaysian race.

Team Sky begins GC hunt atop Frasier’s Hill at Tour de Langkawi.

It has been a quiet week so far for Team Sky in Malaysia. The British WorldTour team’s second guard has been under the radar and off the podium after five stages of the 20th edition of Le Tour de Langkawi.

As per normal, Langkawi is traditionally a sprinter’s race, and this year is no exception with Andrea Guardini and Caleb Ewan dominating the first half of the eight-day stage race.

Guardini continues to pad his race record of all-time stage wins (17), picking up three more victories this week, while the 20-year-old Australian neo-pro won stage 3 and lifted the yellow leader’s jersey off Guardini in the process.

While Sky sports director Gabriel Rasch admits the team does feel pressure to perform, he’s not concerned about his team’s lack of success so far, and feels confident that his team is more than capable of making up the 26-second deficit on Ewan.

2014-15 Races & Results.

Tirreno-Adriatico - Mar 11-17 (Stages & Results),

Paris Nice - Mar 8-15 (Stages & Results),

Le Tour de Langkawi - Mar 8-15 (Stages & Results),

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),

Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen - Mar 6-8 (Results),

Strade Bianche - Mar 7 (Results),

Strade Bianche Women - Mar 7 (Results),

UCI Track World Championships - Feb 18-22 (Results),

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

More ...

Riders’ association to place delegates at all WorldTour events.

The Cyclistes Professionnels Associés (CPA), the professional rider’s association, will have an official delegate at all future UCI WorldTour events, the group announced Thursday.

The delegates will observe the operations of the races and accept rider input on workplace conditions and other concerns, and will act as an intermediary between riders, race organizers, and the UCI. Following each stage, the delegate will submit a report to the CPA.

“The CPA Delegate’s presence will be positive for the riders, but also the other stakeholders: the race organization, teams, and the UCI. From now on, all stakeholders will be able to interface with one person who synthesizes the peloton’s opinion and the majority of the riders in case of need,” according to a statement from the CPA.

Stephen Roche steps in for Lance Armstrong in promoting Irish charity.

The Cycle Ataxia charity sportive last month courted Lance Armstrong – and the controversy that comes with him – when it requested he be photographed in one of its T-shirts.

Armstrong duly obliged and sent the photo back to event organizer Barry Rice, with his permission to use the image in fundraising activities.

Rice said it was only when he had the picture of the disgraced star in his hands that he started asking around properly about Armstrong and realized the extent of his deceit.

Now Ireland’s only elite world road champion and Tour de France winner Stephen Roche has stepped into the breach.

Trek unveils all-new adventure bikes.

Trek has released three all-new adventure bikes, the 520, 720 and 920, designed to battle all terrain and provide a solid platform for anyone who wants to explore on two wheels.

The most ‘road-ready’ of these is the 720, which Trek describes as “the roadie’s touring bike” due to the fact that is uses traditional road bike geometry.

2015 Paris-Nice LIVE.

Friday's Paris-Nice Stage 5 departs Saint-Etienne at 11:05am CET (6:05am U.S. Eastern) and is expected to finish at Rasteau at around 3:55pm CET (10:55am U.S. Eastern). 

Paris-Nice live streaming video should get underway at around 2:00pm CET (9:00am U.S. Eastern, 6:00am Pacific).

Paris-Nice: Matthews wins stage 3.

Kwiatkowski loses his race lead to Matthews going into mountains.

Michael Matthews made the most of a perfect lead-out from his Orica-GreenEdge team to take victory on stage 3 of Paris-Nice. The Australian was delivered to the front in the final two corners and powered home to beat Davide Cimolai and Giacomo Nizzolok.

Matthews also moves into the race lead, just one second ahead of Michael Kwiatkowski.

Guardini makes it three at Tour de Langkawi.

Andrea Guardini got back to winning ways at the Tour de Langkawi, seeing off Jakub Mareczko and yellow jersey Caleb Ewan to secure his third victory in four stages.

Riders yet to receive prize money for 2014 French races.

De Telegraaf reported today that the French Cycling Federation has yet to pay out prize money for the country's 2014 races, including the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix. Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali, for example, is still waiting to receive the nearly €540,000 he is owed for winning the French Grand Tour.

The FCC has placed more than €2 million in a bank account rather than distributing it to teams and riders, saying it is waiting for results from drug tests to ensure that no doped riders receive prize money.

The FCC said it will payout prize money once a year.

Tirreno-Adriatico: Debusschere wins stage 2 in Cascina.

Jens Debusschere won the second stage at Tirreno-Adriatico in a crash-marred bunch sprint. Peter Sagan was second and Sam Bennet third in the chaotic sprint.

Adriano Malori kept the overall lead, and the time bonus moved Sagan up to second place, in the same time. Fabian Cancellara is third.

Etixx QuickStep to investigate Cavendish's dropped chain in Tirreno Adriatico.

Mark Cavendish’s Etixx-QuickStep team has said it will move quickly to investigate what caused kis chain to drop and so spark a crash at the end of stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico in Cascina.

It seems that Tom Boonen suffered a similar problem in a sprint at the Tour of Qatar.

Cavendish was perfectly placed and about to launch his sprint with 250 meters to go when his chain jumped outwards and off his big chain ring.

Cavendish managed to stay upright despite the sudden loss of power but moved slightly. Elia Viviani was unable to avoid Cavendish and was the first to crash. Sacha Modolo and several other riders also went down hard.
Both Viviani and Modolo got up and finished the stage but suffered multiple injuries.

Tirreno Adriatico: Sagan Still Without a Win.

Italian Adriano Malori, who won the opening stage time-trial on Wednesday, retained the overall race lead with Sagan now in second place on the same time, thanks to a finishing bonus, with Swiss Fabian Cancellara third, one second behind.

The overall race favorites, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana, avoided the carnage and kept their powder dry, notably for the uphill finish on stage three as well as a much hillier stage four on Saturday.

Women’s WorldTour, two-tiered system among changes proposed by UCI Women’s Working Group.

The proposals put forth by the UCI have been developed by the UCI Women’s Working Group, a team of seven individuals formed in December 2014.

Team members include: rider representatives Ashleigh Moolman Pasio and Evelyn Stvens, team manager representatives Rochelle Gilmore, Kristy Scrymgeour, Eric van den Boom and Martin Barras, and sports economics expert Alberto Celani.

A Women’s WorldTour, two divisions for teams and a proposed plan to slowly introduce a minimum wage were among the topics discussed at UCI Women’s Team seminar held in Siena last Sunday.

Mara Abbott: On eating crow and racing in Europe.

I remember when my dad taught me the phrase “eating crow”.

As a kid, I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever heard - “Even the gizzard???” I would always exclaim, proud of my witty use of avian anatomy.

For those who have not heard the phrase, one “eats crow” when forced to admit error in a previously asserted viewpoint. For instance: I have spent the last few years confidently proclaiming that I wanted to ride primarily in the United States - that above all, I would never sign on for a full season in Europe.

So you could say that this year, as the only American on the Eurocentric Wiggle Honda team, I am eating crow. Fortunately, it has so far turned out to taste pretty good.

Why Trek used velodrome testing to prepare for the Paris-Nice uphill time trial.

The seventh and final stage of this year’s Paris-Nice is the climb of the Col d’Eze. It’s seen action in various editions of the French stage race since 1968, most recently in 2013 when Richie Porte took the stage win and cemented his overall victory.

At 9.6km long the Col d’Eze climb isn’t up there with the mammoth mountains that the sport tackles in the heart of the Alps, Pyrenees or Dolomites but it’s a decisive climb, particularly given it falls on the last day of the race. The climb has an average gradient of 4.7% and rises 501 meters over its 9.6km.

It’s a far cry from what a velodrome has to offer so why would a team take its riders for an expensive and intense session in one of the world’s leading indoor velodromes to prepare for it?

Tom Boonen undergoes surgery for shoulder dislocation.

Tom Boonen has undergone a surgical procedure to rectify the shoulder joint dislocation he suffered after crashing during stage one of Paris-Nice on Monday.

Although it was initially suspected that the 34-year-old Belgian Classics star had fractured his collarbone, a medical examination revealed that he had suffered from an acromioclavicular (AC) joint dislocation.

Boonen’s surgical procedure was undertaken in a hospital in Herentals, and his Etixx-QuickStep team reports that it went well.

Analysis: Is Geraint Thomas coming of age at Paris-Nice?

Geraint Thomas has been a double Olympic gold medalist, placed top ten in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, won top-tier time trials and taken some impressive stage race results.

One-day Classics, stage races, track medals, even grand tours; he could have his pick from any.

Thomas’ only problem was that he was in danger of settling on none of them.

NAHBS 2015, Part VI.

What separates the category award winners from Best in Show is little more than a matter of degrees.

While we don’t have a hard and fast rule regarding framesets being ineligible for Best in Show, they lack the extra degrees of consideration that have gone into a bike once it is painted and built up with parts.

Mark DiNucci’s entry for Best Lugged Frame caused me to reconsider that position for the better part of a day.

2015 Tirreno-Adriatico LIVE.

Friday's Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 3 departs Cascina at 11:15am CET (6:15am U.S. Eastern) and is expected to finish at Arezzo at around 4:13pm CET (11:13am U.S. Eastern).

Tirreno-Adriatico live streaming video should get underway at around 2:30pm CET (9:30am U.S. Eastern, 6:30am Pacific).

Tirreno-Adriatico: Malori wins opening individual time trial.

Daily Distractions.

EuroTrash Tirreno Thursday!

Rowney taken out by spectator in Drenthe finish.

A spectator caused Australian Loren Rowney to crash at the finish of the Ronde van Drenthe race in the Netherlands on Thursday.

Video footage shows a man, standing against the barriers on the right side of the finish chute. He appears to have reached out and grabbed Rowney’s handlebars. She went tumbling to the ground, right before the finish line.

Nicole Cooke: CIRC report is admirable but authorities must do more on drugs.

"There is much to admire in the CIRC report. Its terms of reference were never designed to flush out hitherto unknown dopers but it does score highly in its forensic analysis of cycling’s governance.

In this it is scathing.

It is obvious that the leadership of the UCI did not always execute its responsibilities competently; so the spotlight falls on the past presidents Hein Verbruggen and Pat McQuaid.

Both saved their most vigorous efforts for the pursuit of people they believed had 'defamed the UCI and its presidents.'”

Anger, frustration permeates peloton in wake of CIRC report.

There’s the public face, and then there’s what they really think.

Reactions to the UCI’s headline-grabbing CIRC Report have been muted and guarded from inside the peloton, but turn off the tape recorder and you begin to hear a different story

There is a blend of anger, frustration, and apathy in light of the release, on Monday, of the long-awaited report from the Cycling Independent Reform Commission that portrayed today’s peloton in a very mixed light. As part of its sweeping study of the EPO era, the three-member panel also suggested that doping remains a major problem within cycling.

Geraint Thomas: I’d bet all the money I have that Froome and Wiggins are clean.

Geraint Thomas has given his reaction to some of the findings in the Cycling Independent Reform Commission’s report into doping in professional cycling, saying that he finds it ‘insulting’ that some people consider that cycling is ‘still really filthy’.

Thomas made it clear that he thinks his Tour de France-winning Sky team-mates Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins ride clean.

A section of the CIRC report relating to doping in cycling today included a statement from an unnamed current professional rider, who felt that “90% of the peloton was doping, although he thought that there was little orchestrated team doping in the manner that teams had previously employed.”

Chris Froome on Lloyd Mondory’s EPO positive: ‘What an idiot’.

Chris Froome took time to answer fans’ queries in an impromptu Twitter question-and-answer session on Wednesday, including his reaction on hearing the news this week that French rider Lloyd Mondory had tested positive for EPO.

“What an idiot” was Froome’s reply to Alexandre Mignot who asked “What was your first thought when you learned Lloyd Mondory’s positive test?”.

Mignot then followed the answer up, asking Froome whether he thought this because Mondory doped or got caught. “Because he doped obviously,” said Froome.

Astana carry on as usual despite license concerns.

There may be a dark cloud of uncertainty hanging over Astana at the moment, but its team at the Tour de Langkawi is determined to carry on with business as usual.

In February the UCI requested that the Kazakh team’s WorldTour license be revoked following an audit conducted by the Institute of Sport Sciences of the University of Lausanne (ISSUL).

It came after five positive tests in a year for riders associated with the team (two coming from the Astana Continental team that has since been suspended) which led Brian Cookson to say they were drinking in the last chance saloon.

Compass Tires: Standard vs. Extralight.

Compass tires are available in two versions: standard and extralight.

What is the difference between the two?

The difference is in the casing. The standard casing is already quite light and supple, but for the Extralight, we worked with Panaracer to push the envelope further.

These tires use a casing material that is also used on high-end tubular tires, and not usually available for clinchers.

Stages Cycling indoor bike launched.

Stages Cycling jumped into the power-meter game at the end of 2012, but its parent company, Foundation Fitness, had already been producing indoor bikes for two decades. In fact, the genesis of the left-crank power meter Stages now sells came from Foundation Fitness.

The Stages Indoor Cycling bikes will be sold to gyms and individuals. Unlike many one-size-fits-all gym bikes, the SC3 and SC2 were clearly designed by cyclists.

BikeRadar had a chance to ride the SC3, and a few things were notable. The Gates carbon belt drive is smooth and quiet. Height and fore/aft adjustments are quick and easy for the saddle and the handlebars.

2015 Tour de Langkawi LIVE.

Friday's Tour de Langkawi Stage 6 departs Maran at 3:00pm local (8:00am CET, 3:00am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Karak at around 5:19pm local (10:19am CET, 5:19am U.S. Eastern).

Tour de Langkawi live streaming should begin at around 4pm local (9:00am CET, 4:00am U.S. Eastern).

Lee’s Lowdown: Strade Bianche Thoughts!

Night moves: Anti-doping authorities seek expanded testing hours.

In the fight against doping, what is the definition of a proportional response?

The CIRC report, released late Sunday by the UCI, proposes an increase in overnight testing for riders, utilizing a new exception within the UCI’s 2015 Anti-Doping Rules.

The proposal, if acted upon, could see riders roused at any hour of the night to provide samples to anti-doping officials.