Paterski claims Volta a Catalunya stage win.

Maciej Paterski won the opening stage of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya from a three-man sprint ahead of his breakaway companions Pierre Rolland in second and Bart de Clercq, who crossed the line two seconds back in third place.

De Clercq was the first to start the sprint and opened a small lead but it was quickly shut down by Paterski, who then used the Belgian as a lead-out in the final few hundred metres. Rolland was the next to jump from third wheel, however, Paterski sensed the move and initiated his own winning sprint to the line..

Who Will Put a Volt into the Volta?

Next up in the endless array of Spanish one-week races, it's the turn of flashy Catalunya, artistic, political and footballing hotbed, home to Barcelona and Girona, and a pretty decent supply of mountains. Oh, and World Tour points.

The Volta a Catalunya is Spain's second-oldest stage race, after the Volta a Tarragona (a U23 event now), dating back to 1911 and for years functioning as a nice Tour de France warmup act, back when it was sandwiched between the Giro and Tour. For a while it was repurposed as an alternate to the Giro, in the early stages of the Pro Tour shakeup, and the race saw people like Gustavo Cesar win it.

Nowadays it's been kicked back to late March and probably works better as a warmup for the Ardennes classics and/or the Giro, as long as it's not snowing.

Contador, Froome rue lost opportunity; crucial error made in Volta a Catalunya.

Race favorites Alberto Contador and Chris Froome are each coming to terms with an opening stage which may have cost them their chances of fighting for the final Volta a Catalunya victory, with both riders missing out on a crucial break which gained considerable time.

Polish rider Maciej Paterski shrugged off the effort he put in to finish a fine 22nd in Sunday’s Milan-San Remo, while Frenchman Pierre Rolland finished on the same time. Belgium’s Bart De Clercq was the third member of the break and finished two seconds back.

Volta a Catalunya 2015 Live.

Tuesday's Volta a Catalunya Stage 2 departs Mataro at 12:15pm CET (7:15am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Olot at around 4:55pm CET (11:55am U.S. Eastern).

Volta a Catalunya live streaming video is scheduled to get underway by around 3:30pm CET (10:30am U.S. Eastern, 7:30am Pacific).

Ten reasons to love Dwars door Vlaanderen.

"Wednesday marks the start of the true classics season and first up is Dwars door Vlaanderen, the greatest little race in the world in this humble writer's opinion.

There are bigger and fancier races but none give the same pure joy of bike racing as Dwars. Here's why everyone else should love it too."

Volta a Catalunya Preview.

After a mini-Tour de France and a mini-Giro in Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, the Volta a Catalunya sees a week of stage racing but it’s not a mini-Vuelta. There’s only one summit finish and no time trialling at all.

The field is packed with stage race specialists with Alberto Contador and Chris Froome as the obvious stars yet the outcome is far from predictable.

With a series of tricky stages, variable weather and the hard final stage in Barcelona the winner will need to play their tactical cards carefully.

Degenkolb has his monumental day in Sanremo.

German John Degenkolb had his day along the Italian Riviera Sunday in Sanremo. He fished for years, reeling in bigger and bigger ones, and his dedication resulted in one of the trophy catches: a monument, Milano-Sanremo.

For Giant-Alpecin’s Degenkolb, Milano-Sanremo sits in a special category of bicycle races along with Tour de France stages and the world championships. With his sprint ahead of 2014 winner Alexander Kristoff and Michael Matthews, he took his first win at such a level.

On his palmares, he now counts one of cycling’s five monuments, the biggest catch in the 26-year-old’s career that includes wins at Gent-Wevelgem, the Vattenfall Cyclassics, Paris-Tours, and a staggering nine stages in the Vuelta a España.

2014-15 Races & Results.

Volta Ciclista a Catalunya - Mar 23-29 (History),

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),

Milan San Remo - Mar 22 (Results),

Nokere Koerse - Mar 18 (Results),

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

Paris Nice - Mar 8-15 (Results),

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

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 ...

Osymetric chainrings: do they work?

Three years after Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour de France, Chris Froome continues to use Osymetric chainrings.

Wiggins has reverted to round rings and has continued to win at the highest level, including the World Championship time trial. In addition to Osymetric, Rotor’s Q-rings continue to be used by a considerable number of professional riders, including the former world champion Rui Costa. But should you consider using a cam-shaped ring?

Jean-Louis Talo, a mechanical engineer from Menton, France, produced a prototype Osymetric ring and has spent 22 years trying to convince the cycling world that it works.

Dwars Door Vlaanderen 2015 Live Dashboard.

A work in progress for 2015 Dwars Door Vlaanderen live and delayed coverage.

Most live feeds will be country restricted, but unrestricted links will appear in bold. Check back at race time for more links.

Degenkolb wins Milan-San Remo.

John Degenkolb blasted out of a powerful group of survivors to win a rain-soaked, crash-packed Milano-Sanremo on Sunday.

The 106th edition of “La Classicissima” began in rain and ended in sun, and after a late pileup on the winding descent off the Poggio dramatically thinned the herd of contenders, it was the German speedster taking a narrow sprint victory over defending champion Alexander Kristoff with Michael Matthews third.

“It’s really a fantastic moment,” a delighted Degenkolb told Rai Sport. “The race happened exactly as we hoped it would. I really love this place… four years in a row I’ve been here trying to win this race. I know the course, and the Via Roma, it’s special to win here. It’s amazing.”

Report: Riis suspended by Tinkov, could Dane be on his way out of the sport?

Amid rumors that he could be facing a lengthy – or possibly permanent – ban from the sport as a result of the pending Anti Doping Denmark investigation into professional cycling, Bjarne Riis has reportedly been suspended from the Tinkoff-Saxo team by its owner Oleg Tinkov.

Danish newspaper BT announced the news Monday, saying that recent poor performances by the team are the reason for the decision.

It points out that Riis was not present at Milan-San Remo on Sunday, a race which was one of Tinkov’s big targets for the season. The team’s designated leader there, Peter Sagan, finished just off the podium in fourth place.

Wippert wins Taiwan opener.

Drapac's Wouter Wippert sprinted to victory in the opening stage of the Tour de Taiwain.

"We worked together today very nicely. With five kilometers to go (Adam) Phelan was going full gas, keeping me out of the wind and then with one kilometer to go (Travis) Meyer took me up on his wheel. I am pleased with our efforts and form."

It was a short and fast 52km stage to open the six-day tour. Three riders escaped from the peloton on the circuit in Taipei but they were caught with 10km to go, just as the field entered the final lap.

Audrey Cordon wins three-up sprint at Cholet Pays de Loire Dames.

Audrey Cordon outsprinted compatriot Amelie Rivat in a three-up sprint to win Cholet Pays de Loire Dames on Sunday. Mirima Bjørnsrud rounded out the podium.

The victory is Cordon’s second at the French circuit race and her third appearance on the podium. She sprinted to second last year to Emma Johansson. Cordon’s results marks a continuation of the Wiggle Honda hot-streak that includes wins by Giorgia Bronzini and Jolien d’Hoore in Drenthe last weekend.

UCI checks 36 Milan-San Remo bikes for motors.

The UCI and Italian police carried a surprise check on 36 bikes after the finish of Milan-San Remo, suspicious that some riders and teams may have used hidden motors during the race. Nothing was apparently found during the checks and all the bikes were eventually given back to the teams.

Cyclingnews understands that 11 Trek bikes from the Trek Factory Racing team, 11 Specialized bikes from Etixx-Quick Step and 11 Specialized bikes from Tinkoff-Saxo were checked by the UCI in a special tent erected in the bus parking area.

The bikes of the three podium finishers: John Degenkolb, Alexander Kristoff and Michael Matthews were also checked in the podium area.

Gazzetta dello Sport reported that bikes from the Astana were also tested, but the team has told Cyclingnews that their bikes were not.

Milan-San Remo to remain a race for the sprinters says Vegni.

Mauro Vegni, the race director of Milan-San Remo, has confirmed that the race route for the Italian Classic will remain the same for the foreseeable future, with the no further climbs added or changes made to the route to make a more selective race.

In recent years race organizer RCS Sport has tried to insert the Pompeiana climb near Imperia in the final 40km of the race. However bad weather during the winter sparked landslides and closed the road, forcing the 2014 and 2015 editions to follow the classic route over the Cipressa and Poggio.

Rachel Neylan joins ORICA-AIS.

Rachel Neylan, a world championship silver medalist in 2012, will join ORICA-AIS and race with the outfit until the end of the season.

Over the winter in Australia, Neylan, 33, enjoyed her most successful period of racing since the world championships podium.

“I am everything — happy, thrilled, proud, and honored to be part of ORICA-AIS in what is a pivotal and timely step forward in my cycling career,” Neylan said in an Orica press release.

“I have so much admiration for the passion of Gerry Ryan and Shayne Bannan to bring this Australian team to fruition with such success, and it’s something I have worked hard and aspired to be part of since its inception.

Vitus Vitesse Evo Team.

A French marque with a long history in frame building, these days Vitus are owned by Chain Reaction Cycles and have become the online retailer’s showcase brand.

Frame construction is a mix of Toray t800 and t1000 high-modulus carbon fibre built around an FSA BB386 Evo bottom bracket and asymmetric rear stays. It also uses sloping geometry, another feature becoming more popular as manufacturers look for extra ways to add more comfort to their frames.

The best women’s bike saddles.

With the boom in women's cycling, manufacturers are finally waking up to the fact that female riders have very different needs to their male counterparts.

"Shrink it and pink it" certainly doesn't work with saddles, so here's our pick of the best women's saddles currently on the market.

The Giant TCX SLR 1.

"As I rounded the bend in the trail, I noticed the singletrack tilt upward at an angle that was going to require a compromise of some sort. The intersection of that grade, a 36×28 low gear and my coming-off-a-virus fitness meant that I was either going to have to find a way to stand without spinning the rear tire, or dismount.

Given that my companions - a bunch of Giant employees - were a minute up the trail, standing turned out to be the only answer my pride would allow.

I was out with the boys from Giant (yes, they employee women, but none of them were on this ride) for one of their typical lunch rides. We were riding some coastal singletrack near their headquarters in Newbury Park.

This bedroom community of the great metropolitan expanse of Los Angeles lies within the Conejo Valley just above Ventura offers cyclists easy access to great roads and plenty of singletrack."

The Moment The Race Was Won: Milan-Sanremo.

John Degenkolb sprints on the Via Roma. He was the fastest in the sprint but in order to contend he rode an impressive final kilometer to get into position, going in the wind to overtake several riders after a clever ride in the final kilometers, with ideal positioning on the Poggio.

Just like last year a start in the rain. An 11 man group quickly established a lead of over 10 minutes, one way to keep warm. Just like last year Matteo Bono, Martin Tjallingi and Jan Barta were in the move too.

No sooner did the move reach a double-digit advantage than Trek, Tinkoff-Saxo and Katusha started setting the pace, signalling no freedom for the fugitives.

Formidable team to support Contador in Catalonia.

Volta a Catalunya is once again shaping up to become an attraction for the big stars of stage racing. With only one day in the high mountains but numerous GC contenders, stage 4 to La Molina should see sparks fly.

Tinkoff-Saxo sends a team of climbers spearheaded by team captain Alberto Contador, who continues his preparation ahead of the Giro.
 
Off the back from a week of racing at Tirreno-Adriatico, Contador hopes to have a successful race backed by a strong team.

Daily Distractions.

PEZ: EuroTrash Sanremo Monday!

The CIRC report: A missed opportunity.

There has been considerable comment on the much anticipated CIRC report — and reactions have predictably varied across the spectrum. There seems to be general agreement that, in terms of the first of its three major objectives, the Commission has put together a reasonable historical narrative about doping in the sport.

But there is little information not already well-known to anyone with the interest to plow through the document, and contrary to Brian Cookson’s warning, there really aren’t “a lot of worms” here.

The narrative is vague and non-committal in places. For example, it states that doping is “probably not as endemic” now as it used to be, and that today, a “good number” of athletes and teams are trying to participate in cycling without doping.

There has already been wide ridicule of the varying allegations that somewhere between 20 and 90 percent of the current peloton is still doping.

Kreuziger blasts delays in his doping case .

Czech cyclist Roman Kreuziger, accused of doping over abnormalities in his biological passport, has slammed anti-doping bodies over delays in his case that has hampered his career.

“I never cease to be amazed. Another delay,” the 28-year-old Tinkoff-Saxo rider wrote on Twitter, blaming the Court of Arbitration for Sport alongside the international cycling association UCI and the WADA anti-doping watchdog.

The CAS has proposed June 10 “for the hearing and (the) verdict a month later. UCI/WADA rejected 2 proposed dates!” Kreuziger said.

Originally, the hearing was scheduled for the turn of March and April.

Thomas on a rocky road working in tandem with Armstrong.

During some of the most intense times of what will be remembered as the Lance Armstrong Years, it was never difficult to convince anyone with a half-open mind that he was a fraud. The responses fitted into various categories; sadness, anger, shock and a lot of indifference.

Those who didn’t care came from different places. There were those who argued as everyone was doping, it was surely okay for Armstrong to do the same. The “they’re all at it” argument. You pointed out they all weren’t at it and clean cyclists were having their careers stolen.

Porte moves on from stormy 2014, targets Giro d’Italia.

It all nearly unraveled with 18.2 kilometers remaining in the 181.5km stage 6 on March 14, at the 73rd edition of Paris-Nice — a race Australian Richie Porte won in 2013.

However, the bloody and bruised 30-year-old Tasmanian quickly remounted his visibly battered Pinarello road bike to finish 1 minute behind stage winner and new race leader Tony Gallopin.

The heavily favored Porte, who had won stage 4 in dramatic fashion two days earlier with teammate Geraint Thomas immediately in tow, remained in second on general classification (GC) but fell from 1 second off GC to 36 seconds with the seventh and final stage remaining — a short, sharp, 9.6km individual time trial up the Category 1 Col d’Ãze in Nice.

Poggio crash knocks Stybar and Kwiatkowski from contention.

With Mark Cavendish lagging behind on the Poggio after dropping his chain on the Cipressa and having to chase back on, Etixx-QuickStep's hopes for a Milan-San Remo victory fell on the shoulders of Zdenek Stybar and World Champion Michal Kwiatkowski.

But those hopes, too, were dashed when a crash on the decsent off the Poggio took both riders out of contention.

Believe in yourself: Loren Rowney on dreams, fears and failure.

"I’m 11 years old. My eyes glued to the TV screen and my palms are sweaty. I’m full of nervous energy, butterflies in my stomach, as I wonder if she can do it.

Cathy Freeman is about to start the women’s 400m at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. I feel like I’m about to start the race next to her. Three months earlier, I had been on that very track racing the Pan Pacific Games, where I had won double bronze in the 800m & 1500m.

The gun sounds the race into action. From the start, it’s clear that Cathy is in it to win it. I watch with bated breath until she crosses the line. First. Cathy is an Olympic champion.

I want that to be me."

Peter Velits to undergo surgery.

Slovakian national time trial champion Peter Velits will have surgery on his left leg to treat an overuse injury, the BMC Racing Team announced Monday.

BMC Racing Team Chief Medical Officer Dr. Max Testa said the injury has developed over the past few months. Part of the BMC Racing Team's victorious team time trial squad at the world championships last September, Velits's best finish this season has been 27th on Stage 1 at the Tour of Oman.

"His leg has definitely been bothering him the past few weeks," Dr. Testa said. "So after the medical staff consulted with an external specialist, we decided it was best for him to have surgery."

Zipp Firecrest 202 clincher disc wheelset review.

Zipp unveiled its first disc-equipped wheelset in July 2013. Built with Firecrest 303 rims, the wheelset was designed to appeal to cyclocross racers that were migrating to disc brakes. A disc-specific version of Zipp’s 88/188 hubset was created as part of the project.

A year later, Zipp released its second disc-equipped wheelset, this time with Firecrest 202 clincher rims to appeal to road riders that were adopting disc brakes. The wheels utilised the same hubset (named 88/188D) developed for the Firecrest 303 disc-equipped wheels.

In both instances, the rims were standard 202 and 303 designs. With the aerodynamics and engineering carefully refined for both designs, Zipp didn’t see the need to look closely at any gains that might be made in the absence of a braking track.

UCI expects new weather protocols to be in place by Giro d’Italia start.

The UCI says that it expects an initial agreement on extreme weather protocols to be in place ahead of the 2015 Giro d’Italia after riders, teams and organizers agreed that an action plan was needed to protect riders in extreme weather conditions.

The decision was made in a preliminary meeting in Milan held on Friday, with cycling’s governing body saying they will meet again in the near future to thrash out the details of the new plan.

“The group considers the safety and the health of riders as an absolute priority,” the UCI said in a statement.

Mechanical scuppers Mark Cavendish’s Milan-San Remo chances.

Mark Cavendish’s says his chain slipped-off his bike towards the finale of the 2015 Milan-San Remo on Sunday, causing him to lose time and possibly a second victory in the monument, which was won by Giant-Alpecin sprinter John Degenkolb.

A kilometer-and-a-half before the top of the Cipressa climb, around 23 kilometers to race to San Remo on Italy’s northwest coast, the chain came off the outside of the Etixx-Quick Step rider’s Specialized bicycle. He was apparently using an unmarked SRAM chainring, instead of a team issue chainring from sponsor FSA.