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BikeNZ has named its men’s long list for this month’s UCI Road World Championships in Geelong, Australia, with its big-named ProTour riders leading the charge for medals. Riders in contention for the elite men’s team include Julian Dean (Garmin Transitions), Hayden Roulston (HTC Colombia) and Greg Henderson (Team Sky), while former Dane Linda Villumsen and USA Cycling National Racing Calendar champion Cath Cheatley will lead the women’s squad. “This is probably the ...

Grand Prix Cycliste ProTour sporting manager Charly Mottet believes that the courses for Canada's two ProTour events will be one of the toughest in professional cycling's premier series. For 14 years Mottet was race director of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré stage race in France, a traditional warm-up event for the Tour de France, so he's very familiar with the construction of testing circuits that offer plenty for riders and fans alike. His role came after a successful ...

With Eurobike now firmly cementing its status as the world's most important bicycle trade show, this year's 19th running will bring a record-setting 1,090 exhibitors, 35,000 dealers, and 1,500 journalists into a massive 100,000m2 (1.08m ft2) exhibition space in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Kicking things off will be a one-day demo event in nearby Austria where we'll be able to ride firsthand some of the coming season's newest gear, followed by three days indoors and even a public day on Saturday. While ...

Rabobank's Oscar Freire couldn't contest yesterday's sprint finish in Murcia after breathing difficulties forced the veteran fast man into 120th place, over 10 minutes behind stage winner Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam). "It was a bad day for me," Freire told Europa Press after the finish. "I was not breathing well and I realised that it wasn't happening for me - unfortunately today was a stage for me. "It was clear that I noticed straight away that I didn't feel good; ...

Filippo Pozzato is hoping he won't be wearing the regular Katusha uniform for longer than the duration of the Vuelta a España. Whilst he doesn't sport the Italian national champion's jersey anymore, there's another he'd like to don - the rainbow stripes of world champion. "My form is good," said the newly-mustachioed Italian prior to the start of stage six in Caravaca de la Cruz. "I'm getting better and better. In the first two hilly finishes I was up there helping Joaquin ...

Saxo Bank team boss Bjarne Riis may be willing to let one of his top riders out of his contract, but if anyone wants time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara, it will come at the steep price of €3 million. The French newspaper L'Equipe reported today that Riis has not come out and stated that he would hold Cancellara to the remaining year of his contract with Saxo Bank, but said that any team wishing to buy him out would have to fork over the sum, equivalent to the budget of some ...

Pauline Ferrand Prevot is used to winning, both on and off road. The French woman earned her second consecutive junior cross country world mountain bike championship on Wednesday at Mont-Saint-Anne, Quebec, Canada. It was also her second world title of the year; earlier this season she won the junior women's road race world championships. Wednesday marked her first time competing in Canada and the petite racer, with a long blond braid, smiled and patiently answered reporters' questions while beaming ...

While Norwegian Thor Hushovd has not been able to beat the world's top sprinters this season, he still proved he has what it takes to win in the Vuelta a España's sixth stage to Murcia. By surviving the category 2 ascent of the Alto de la Cresta del Gallo with 17km to go, Hushovd also proved he could be a prime favourite at the world championships in Melbourne in one month's time. It was the third Vuelta stage of his career, with today's win adding to one in Cuenca (2005) and Leon in 2006. ...

British national road race champion Geraint Thomas has withdrawn from the Great Britain team for the road world championships in Melbourne due to tiredness after an intense season of racing with Team Sky. He finished second behind Thor Hushovd on stage three of the Tour de France that covered the cobbles used in Paris-Roubaix, and wore the best young rider's white jersey for four days. The 24-year-old Welshman was named as one of two riders to support Mark Cavendish's bid for the world title but ...

Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford has admitted that the British team is looking to strengthen its line-up for 2011 but has refused to reveal the names any of the riders he is currently negotiating with. "We're doing our business behind closed doors this year. Last year there was a lot of speculation about which riders we were going to sign and it became counter-productive," Brailsford told Cyclingnews . "People shouldn't think we're not in the market for good riders. We are. But ...

While yesterday's stage was a day for the sprinters, with Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) timing his finishing kick to perfection to top Koldo Fernandez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) in Lorca, today's 151km sixth stage from Caravaca de Cruz to Murcia contains a sting in the tail which should rule out the peloton's fast men. While the profile of the stage is predominantly flat, the category two Alto de la Cresta del Gallo ascent looms with 17.4km to the finish. The tricky, ...

Riccardo Riccò will make his debut with his new Vacansoleil squad, at the Giro della Romagna one-day race in Italy on Sunday. The 27-year-old ended his contract with the Ceramica-Flaminia squad last month in order to ink a two-year deal with the Dutch team. He will be joined by fellow Italians Matteo Carrara, Alberto Ongarato and Marco Marcato for the 211.7km-long circuit around the towns of Lugo and Faenza Also on the roster will be Uzbek Sergey Lagutin, Slovenian Borut Bozic and Pole and ...

Philippe Gilbert's contract with Omega Pharma-Lotto will be modified “instantly” if he should win the world championship, the team has said. The Belgian ProTour team does not want to risk losing a second world champion, after Cadel Evans left the team last year after taking the title in Mendrisio. Gilbert is currently leading the Vuelta a Espana, going into his third day in the leader's red jersey. The Belgian has traditionally performed best late in the season, and is one of the favourites ...

The intestinal virus that forced Bernhard Eisel of HTC-Columbia out of the Vuelta a España may also take him out of this year's world championships. The Austrian rider said that it might now be too difficult to get into shape for the road race in Melbourne the beginning of October. “Going to the Worlds without racing, that doesn't make any sense,” Eisel told the APA news agency. Eisel, 29, abandoned early in the fourth stage of the Vuelta, suffering from diarrhoea, vomiting ...

While Carlos Sastre started the Vuelta a España having done only 51 days of racing this season (including the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France), his compatriot Luis Leon Sanchez already had 70 days under his belt when the race kicked off from Seville last Saturday. The Caisse d'Epargne rider started the year in Australia with a stage win at the Santos Tour Down Under in January. He compiled six wins as he added the individual time trial of the Volta ao Algarve in February, stage one and the ...

Following the announcement that the Cervélo TestTeam would disband at season's end, Theo Bos has returned to Rabobank, where he began his career on the road at the beginning of 2009. The 27-year-old has signed a two-year contract to ride for the Dutch ProTour team, having spent this season riding for Cervélo, to which he moved at the end of 2009. He quickly rose to prominence on the road at the Prémio de Abertura in February last year, which he won whilst riding for the Rabobank ...

As a raft of team sponsorships are announced for 2011, German bicycle manufacturer has switched its technical support to Russian ProTour outfit Katusha for the next three years. After a recent meeting between Focus managing director Mathias Seidler and Team Katusha president Andrei Tchmil, the German company decided to continue its participation in the ProTour, albeit with a different squad. Over the past two years Focus has been a technical partner of Team Milram, although it's well known that ...

Tyler Farrar's fantastic win in Lorca confirmed that the American from Garmin-Transitions is the most improved sprinter in professional cycling since he claimed his first Grand Tour victory at the Vuelta a España one year ago. Not only did he score for the seventh time this year, but Farrar also felt relieved after beating Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) for the first since the 2009 Tirreno-Adriatico. "Of course it's always nice to win against the best sprinter in the world but it's even ...

Taylor Phinney has confirmed he has received an offer from BMC and the new Luxembourg team  to turn professional in 2011 but insists he has not ruled out other offers as he considers his options. Phinney was widely expected to turn professional with Lance Armstrong's RadioShack team after riding for the Trek-Livestrong team since 2009 and as a stagiaire with RadioShack at the Tour of Denmark. However, his apprenticeship with the team ended prematurely due to a knee injury and he is hesitant ...

Invisible man Denis Menchov is once again in a threatening position in a Grand Tour as he lies in fourteenth position overall at the Vuelta a España, just 1:11 behind race leader Philippe Gilbert. The Russian had ridden discreetly on both uphill stage finishes in Malaga and Valdepeñas de Jaén but stayed close to the front on each occasion. “It was a good result for me,” Menchov told Cyclingnews before the start of stage 5 in Guadix. “It was the first difficult ...