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Seven-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong will continue his preparations for the world's greatest race by taking part in the Tour of Luxembourg next week

The United States and world anti-doping agencies are to investigate comments made by Floyd Landis about doping in cycling.

Philippe Gilbert has confirmed he will skip this year's Tour de France to concentrate his efforts on the World Championships.

Brett Lancaster of the Cérvelo TestTeam has become one of Thor Hushovd’s most trusted leadout-men, helping his team to victories in the Tour de France and Volta a Catalunya last year. But Lancaster can win in his own right too, as he proved in Monday’s stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California.

The 30-year-old, 6’2”, 175-pound Australian sprinter entered, and won, his first race at age 14 and never looked back. He began his career on the track, taking home the 2002 and 2003 world championship in the team pursuit. Lancaster won the gold medal in the same discipline at the 2004 Olympics, racing with Graeme Brown, Bradley McGee, and Luke Roberts. The team clocked a time of 3:58.233, good enough to break the world record at the time.

Lancaster began his professional road career with team iTeamNova.com in 2002, then moved to Ceramica Panaria-Navigare from 2003 to 2005.

He took his first professional victory in stage 3 of the 2004 Tour of Langkawi, crossing the line solo after a 150km breakaway. In 2005, Lancaster won the shortest Giro d’Italia prologue in history, covering 1.15km in just 1:20, making him the first ever Ceramica Panaria-Navigare rider to don the maglia rosa.

Lancaster signed on with Team Milram in 2006, moving to his current home at Cérvelo last season. He won the second major prologue of his career in the 2009 edition of the Deutschland Tour, and his win in California marks his first major non-prologue win as a professional.

Career highlights:

• 2nd – 2009 Tour du Poitou-Charentes et de la Vienne (FRA)
• 1st – 2009 Prolog Deutschland Tour (GER) 2009
• 1st – 2005 Prologue Giro d’Italia (ITA)
• 1st – 2004 Olympic Games Team Pursuit
• 1st – 2004 Stage 3 Tour de Langkawi (MAS) 2004
• 1st – 2003 World Championships Team Pursuit 2003
• 1st – 2002 World Championships Team Pursuit 2002

Previous teams:

• 2002 – iTeamNova.com
• 2003-2006 – Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
• 2006-2008 – Team Milram
• 2009-present – Cérvelo Test Team

World champion Cadel Evans of the BMC Racing Team won his first stage of the Giro d’Italia Saturday in epic fashion, out-sprinting a small group at the end of 220 kilometers of riding in rainy, cold and muddy conditions.

‘A Good Position’
Evans is now second overall, 1:12 behind new leader Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana). He becomes the first reigning world champion to win a stage of the Giro since Moreno Argentin in 1987 and the 10th Australian to do it. “I think second is a good position to be in right now,” Evans said. “We’ll see tomorrow how the first true mountain stage goes. There’s a long way to go before Verona.” Evans and Vinokourov shattered the race by driving the pace up the hard-packed limestone climb of Strade Bianchi. “It’s a stage that was suited for me and we prepared for well for it. The course reconnaissance we did paid off.”

A Team Effort
BMC Racing Team Director Sportif John Lelangue said words could not describe the horrific conditions – something he hadn’t seen in 20 years in the sport. “Winning the day wasn’t really the plan this morning, but there was a time bonus, so that helped,” Lelangue said. “I’m really proud of all the guys and the staff, who worked hard to prepare everything for today. We changed Cadel’s BMC at 120 km (as planned) to make sure we had good Easton wheels and we had people stationed on the dirt roads with another spare BMC and wheels.”

De aan zijn pols geblesseerde mountainbiker Emil Lindgren (Rabo-Giant) mist volgende week de World Cup-manche in Offenburg. Bijna twee weken nadat hij bij de World Cup mountainbike in Houffalize zwaar ten val kwam, moet Emil Lindgren constateren dat zijn herstel langer duurt dan was verwacht. ,,Na een week zag het er nog niet goed uit, daarom besloot ik een tweede scan te laten maken’’, verklaart de Zweedse biker, die in Houffalize op de zesde plaats lag toen hij crashte. ,,Ik verbleef een dag in het ziekenhuis en keerde terug met mijn hand in een brace. Er zit een scheur in het bot van de pols tot de kleine vinger. Volgens de arts mag ik drie weken lang geen druk uitoefenen op mijn hand. Dat betekent dus dat er voor mij even geen outdoor biking inzit.’’ Lindgren probeert zich nu fit te houden door op de hometrainer te fietsen, hard te lopen en gymnastiekoefeningen te doen. ,,Ik hoop dat ik zodoende goed herstel en wil begin juni terugkeren op de bike. Het is erg jammer dat ik geen vervolg kan geven aan mijn goede start in de World Cup in Dalby Forest.’’ Omdat hij in Houffalize uitviel en ook Offenburg mist, is hij weer terug bij af. ,,Als gevolg hiervan zal ik eind juli bij de World Cup in Champéry achterin het veld moeten starten’’, constateert hij teleurgesteld.

LOS ANGELES, May 11, 2010 – American Sarah Hammer clocked what’s expected to be verified as a world record in the 3,000-meter individual pursuit Tuesday at the Pan American Cycling Championships in Mexico, USA Cycling said.

Hammer finished in 3min, 22.269sec, more than 2sec faster than the mark set by New Zealand’s Sarah Ulmer at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) did not immediately confirm Hammer’s time as the world record, although USA Cycling expects that to happen since it was set at a continental championships conducted under UCI rules.

Hammer’s blistering time came in the qualifying round at Aguascalientes. She went on to win the gold medal final.

American Sarah Hammer clocked what’s expected to be verified as a world record in the 3,000-meter individual pursuit Tuesday at the Pan American Cycling Championships in Mexico.

Hammer finished in 3:22.269, more than two seconds faster than the world mark set by New Zealand’s Sarah Ulmer at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The UCI did not immediately confirm Hammer’s time as the world record, although USA Cycling expects that to happen since it was set at a continental championships conducted under UCI rules.

Hammer’s blistering time came in the qualifying round at Aguascalientes.

She went on to win the gold medal final.

Sarah Hammer of the United States has set what's expected to be verified as a world record in the 3,000-meter individual pursuit Tuesday at the Pan American Cycling Championships. Hammer finished in 3 minutes, 22.269 seconds, more than 2 seconds faster than the mark set by New Zealand's Sarah Ulmer at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

HTC-Columbia's Ina-Yoko Teutenberg has sprinted to victory in the Chongming Island round of the World Cup series in China.

Teutenberg's fourth win in five days and HTC-Columbia's first World Cup victory of the season came when the German national road champion outpowered Kirsten Wild of Holland and Australia's Rochelle Gilmore in a tight bunch sprint.

After taking two stages and the overall in the Tour of Chongming Island stage race earlier in the week, Teutenberg had started the World Cup event as the a favourite, and both she and HTC-Columbia handled the pressure perfectly.

"We badly wanted to get a win in the World Cup series, but overall the important thing was the way our team raced, we were really on top of of things," says HTC-Columbia team manager Ronny Lauke.

"I'd checked out the course beforehand and it was clear there were going to be crosswinds and splits in the bunch, and our team was really attentive. After about 60 kilometres, when the first big break of about 20 went, we had six riders in it.

"[HTC-Columbia rider] Judith [Arndt] was really strong, too. She went solo for us on the return section of the race, which forced other teams to chase, and even when the next group got away she still had enough strength to get into that move, along with two more of our riders, [Ellen] Van Dijk and Adrie Visser.

"Then  Judith went again in the last part and that made the other squads work some more. Finally Judith was caught and with about two kilometres to go we started the leadout for Ina. The leadout was so fast that Ina let a gap open with a kilometer to go allowing her three teammates to go for victory ahead of the field."

This forced Cervelo to chase again and they caught the trio with 150 meters to go and Teutenberg was able to come around at the last minute to take the sprint from Wild.

"They needed a photo-finish to decide if Ina had won, but actually it was pretty clear she had got it," added Lauke.

Following an impressive run of victories in China, the HTC-Columbia team's next race will be the Tour de L'Aude in France.