Cycling continued

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GK, I just came here to post that Article about Renshaw. The pics are


CANNOT WAIT for Tour of Cali. I ride up to Mt Baldy once a month, weather permitting. It's a very popular ride around here and with it being on a Saturday the crowds will be out in full force. Totally freakin' awesome!

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Thor will ride Lombardia to show off his pretty new jersey

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Future world champion?

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Ted King and Timmy Duggan, formerly of Garmin, are officially signed with Liguigas. How appropriate that the self-proclaimed King of Style joins the most stylish pro team!

And congrats to David Millar on time trial gold in Commonwealth games. Alex Dowsett got silver

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Cyclingnews article about Thor's first race in the rainbow jersey

Thor takes the starting line in his nifty new kit

complete with fancy new socks

ETA: And yay to Gilbert for his repeat victory.

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Apparently there were some rumors that the newly crowned World Champion might be riding for a team other than Garmin next year. Vaughters tries to cut through the rumors on twitter. Vaughters has such a way with words

Man, all the rumors about Thor are pretty entertaining. His contract was filed with the UCI on Oct. 1st, with no buy out clause.

Put more simply: I will pan fry my nuts and eat them if Thor is racing for another team in 2011. How's that for a guarantee?

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Giro di Lombardia closed out the road season today. Gilbert continued his late season form with an impressive win in very nasty weather. Although I suspect Andy Schleck may still get one more win this season before the Tour down Under starts next year.

It's been an interesting season, although my favorite race was probably the Giro - great scenery, great drama, epic stages and non-stop surprises each day. And ending the race in an ancient coliseum adds a class of touch and history.

The Tour was also good in that it promised a fun rivalry - particularly with Bert and Andy changing teams like that, but Bert's little trouble put a bit of a cloud over that promise.

Fabian continues to delight on and off the bike, and Thor in a rainbow jersey is a nice way to end the year. And kudos to Cadel who shook off the "wheel sucker" rumors and proved a very worthy and admirable world champion all season. His stage win in the Giro qualified as a career highlight and I loved how he used the jersey's prestige to help a number of good causes during the year.

Nibali's rides at the Giro and the Vuelta gave a promise of fun to come and the Tyler/Cav rivalry is building into a very entertaining storyline. And will the Velits brother actually make HTC commit some resources to a grand tour contender?

Lots to look forward to next year, but not to worry, the Tour Down Under isn't too far away and the figure skating Grand Prix season starts next week.

ETA: Enigmatic Cav is a great teammate for the Isle of Man Commonwealth team., and then whines about merely being paid his contract amount.

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the TdF announcement fashion show. Andy and Frank learned from last year 's fashion faux pas and are wearing jackets this time.

Frank and Thor share a joke, Menchov doesn't think it's funny

The rider gallery

Cav sees something he likes

Voeckler will apparently be riding just slightly off the coast in the ocean.

Looking from the other side

Oh yeah, they also announced the route, and it's full of steep mountains (4 mountain top finishes)- and a team time trial.

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Cav sees something he likes

Must be a sprint.

for the team time trial! As a Cav fan, booooooo at the new intermediate sprint rules. So the tour is going into Italy, eh? But no prologue and the tour starts in France. Not surprised to see a mountainous root for the 100th anniversary of Les Alps. Thrilled that L’Alpe d’Huez is back on the agenda. And the individual time trial is back to the 2nd to last day.

Limited time trialing will be good for Andy. Even better if he has Fabian for the TTT. Any more word on that?

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Not a good week for the UCI, CAS rules that Vino doesn't have to pay his $1.7 million fine and Pellizotti is cleared in the passport doping case for lack of evidence in a setback to the biological passport system.

Team Lux officially announced its first signings including Daniele Bennati, even though all the people announced had been largely confirmed a few weeks agol Nothing official on Cancellara yet.

ETA: However Team Lux just signed Jens!

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ETA: However Team Lux just signed Jens!

Andy is my favorite GC guy (as if you all couldn't tell) and I was worried that the move to a Lux team was going to be a mistake and cost him a lot of team support. I'm thrilled that it seems like they will have some great support riders (and Jens is awesome). I'm still anxious to know where Fabian is going.

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Nothing official yet, but the latest update on Cancellara and Team Lux

Cance claims Velo d'Or

ETA: They announced the Giro route earlier this week, and it's set to visit a lot of sites with historic significance. And, as usual, it's very climby.\

More on the Giro route, including a fun stage on Mt Etna

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Bruyneel suspended for Feb and March for the wrong jersey episode at the TdF, or more likely his comments about the officials. Fines aplenty for Johan, the DSs and the riders, with all the money going to a Swiss cancer charity.

Barredo also suspended for 2 months (although one report I read said 3 mos - something like that) for his attack with the bike tire. I believe his suspension starts on Jan 1.

Fabian officially joins Team Lux - Fabian Wegman that is. Fuglsang also signs with Team Lux, no shock there. Linus Gerdemann also joins, bringing the pretty to the team.

[Theatregirl1122]

Fabian officially joins Team Lux - Fabian Wegman that is.

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Live chat with Tyler Farrar at Podium Cafe this Tuesday. Even if you can't make it for the live chat, be sure to check it out. I'm sure it will be interesting (someone will ask wax or shave, I'm sure).

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Did we know that Mick Rogers was leaving HTC to sign with Team Sky? Why are you doing this to me, Mick? What is he going to do with Team Sky? I'm lost on this one.

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I didn't know, but the Velits brothers success may have played a factor. Either that or he's sick of doing leadouts for Cav. Or it's just that Sky still has boatloads of money.

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Funny ongoing twitter exchange between Taylor Phinney and Jeremy Abbott. They're both up for USOC athlete of the month, and they've had some cute tweets. Jeremy warning that "that 5 time world champion doesn't know who he's dealing with" and Taylor pointing out that it's a battle between two spandex sports.

[Theatregirl1122]

Funny ongoing twitter exchange between Taylor Phinney and Jeremy Abbott. They're both up for USOC athlete of the month, and they've had some cute tweets. Jeremy warning that "that 5 time world champion doesn't know who he's dealing with" and Taylor pointing out that it's a battle between two spandex sports.

This is totally weirding me out. The first time Jeremy mentioned Taylor it took me a minute to realize who had posted the tweet.

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Saul Raisin's "Raisin Hope" Foundation is having an online auction that includes Thor Hushovd's autographed TdF points jersey. to Thor who has always supported Saul's efforts - it's nice to see him being so helpful to a former teammate.