Stories by Ben Delaney

• Posted: Fri, Mar 7th
  Gravel roads return in Eroica
  Following a successful debut last year, the Monte Paschi Eroica will be held March 8 in Italy over 181km that includes seven sectors of gravel. World champion Paolo Bettini and his Quick Step-Innergetic will be among the 8-man squads taking the start, along with High Road and ...
• Posted: Sun, Feb 24th
  Leipheimer breathes easier in California
  Levi Leipheimer has proven immune to all the pressures, dangers, fatigue and sickness of the 2008 Amgen Tour of California. With one final stage left, it seems all but certain that Astana will defend Leipheimer’s overall lead into Pasadena and the record books. Only 91 of ...
• Posted: Thu, Feb 21st
  The Tour of California heads south as the podium battle narrows
  As predicted, stage 3 proved itself pivotal to the overall of the Amgen Tour of California. While we don’t yet know who will take the overall title, we can probably rule out 115 of the 120 men left in the race. Those still with a realistic chance include defending champion ...
• Posted: Wed, Feb 20th
  Astana's Levi Leipheimer takes the lead after third stage of the 2008 Amgen Tour of California
  Rabobank’s 21-year-old Robert Gesink climbed his way to the biggest win of his young career Wednesday in stage 3 of the Amgen Tour of California. Levi Leipheimer, who went clear with Gesink from a select bunch of chasers over Sierra Road, finished second on the day to take the ...
• Posted: Wed, Feb 20th
  The Tour's true shakedown begins over Mt. Hamilton, Sierra Road
  The real race for the overall begins Wednesday at the Amgen Tour of California. After a prologue and two stages for the sprinters, stage 3 takes the riders up and over five categorized climbs, including the race’s only hors categorie mountain. After three ...
• Posted: Tue, Feb 19th
  Boonen bounds to California win, as Farrar moves into jersey
  Tom Boonen has now won stages of major races on three continents. The big Belgian blew past High Road’s Mark Cavendish to grab the stage 2 win of the Amgen Tour of California in a drizzly downtown Sacramento. Gerolsteiner’s Heinrich Haussler came second with the recently ...
• Posted: Tue, Feb 19th
  California stage 2: Davids and Goliaths
  Like most stage races, the overall at the Amgen Tour of California boils down to who can climb and time trial. With only a 2.1-mile prologue and a single Cat. 3 climb ridden thus far, the major players are already moving forward, indicating who has the suds for the ...
• Posted: Mon, Feb 18th
  JJ Haedo makes it look easy
  Yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara had both hands up in the air well before any of the sprinters crossed the stage 1 Tour of California finish line — his CSC teammate JJ Haedo had the clear win. After three laps of a crowd-packed Santa Rosa circuit, Haedo hit from his CSC ...
• Posted: Mon, Feb 18th
  Wegmann rides proto electric Dura-Ace in California
  Gerolsteiner rider Fabian Wegmann is the one rider in the Amgen Tour of California on the latest prototype version of the Shimano Dura-Ace group. VeloNews spotted it before the start of stage 1 in Sausalito, and got the walkthrough with ...
• Posted: Mon, Feb 18th
  Farrar, Cavendish, other sprinters could take California jersey today
  Astana’s Levi Leipheimer put in the best prologue ride of the overall favorites at the Amgen Tour of California. However, Fabian Cancellara's leader’s jersey may well go to a sprinter following today’s stage. Eight fast finishers all sit ...
• Posted: Sun, Feb 17th
  Cancellara wins Amgen opener
  What more fitting an opening to the Tour of California than the best racers in the world flying down asphalt between rows of palm trees, and who a more fitting winner than current world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (CSC)? The Swiss rider turned a time of 3:51.211 to ...
• Posted: Sun, Feb 17th
  Flat route favors Wiggins and Cancellara?
  For the first year, the Amgen Tour of California is opening with a dead-flat prologue, a 2.1-mile runway down University Avenue in Palo Alto into Stanford University. World and Olympic individual pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins and world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara ...