The NY Times today reported that the UCI is preparing to charge “one, three or six” riders with doping.  

Set to be the first case against an athlete (or athletes) based on the Biological Passport, a measure of an athlete’s blood profile over time that looks for anomalies or spikes in certain markers that indicate the person has or is likely to have used illegal performance enhancers.  The testing program was instituted at the beginning of last season.

“It’s a completely new form of fighting against doping,” Mr. McQuaid said last week at a news conference held during the Tour of California. “I do believe that the whole biological passport program is going to be the future of antidoping or one aspect in the arsenal of the future of antidoping.”

A first offense gives the rider a 2-year suspension.  Full story is here.

Rudy Project is extending the deal originally offered direct to consumers via their website into retail stores, with a few changes.

For one, it’s $1.01 (after shipping) more through the retailer, but you get a warm fuzzy for supporting your local bike shop.. The second change is you get a sweet looking backpack…or do you?  Read “more” to find out…  

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Simple bike hack…literally.  Thomson seatpost boxes make very good hacksaw sleeves, making them safer for travel and keeping the kiddie’s fingers away from the blades.

A little packing tape around it a few times adds some structural integrity and closes off the end.  Another pic after the break shows there’s room to grow, making this a versatile opportunity to use cardboard in an environmentally responsible way. Reduce, reuse, recycle…that’s our motto.

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Lynskey has just released images of their new titanium seatpost.  Built to last, it comes with a “No Questions Asked” guarantee…meaning you can ram your seat into the drive thru rain shelter and they’ll replace it with…wait for it…no questions asked!  You’re SOL on your frame, roof rack, seat, etc., though.

It’s light, weighing only 170g (350mm) to 190g (410mm), but can be used for road, mountain and freeride bikes with no rider weight limit.  It’s made of 3al/2.5v titanium with 6061 Aluminum mounting hardware.

Read “more” for another photo and pricing…

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Who: Georgia Bikes! and others including event sponsors will host over 1,000 cyclists from Decatur, and Roswell led respectively by their Mayors, Bill Floyd and Jere Wood for “Georgia Rides to the Capitol.” Other mayors are expected to join at the starts or along the way since the 66-city strong Metropolitan Atlanta Mayors Association (MAMA) has endorsed the ride in conjunction with a pledge of support for development of a regionally-connected bicycle and pedestrian system. Speakers will include local and state dignitaries.

What: This is the fourth year for “Georgia Rides to the Capitol,” an event where cyclists will embark on police-escorted rides to the Capitol in order to raise support for improved conditions for all types of bicycling in Georgia, including the development of regional systems of bicycling and pedestrian networks.

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USA Cycling announced the creation of a new professional gravity mountain bike series designed to recognize the top gravity racers in America. The USA Cycling Pro Mountain Bike Gravity Tour (ProGRT) will consist of five events, including three UCI-sanctioned races, throughout the United States. Together, these races will provide world-class athletes with a consistent stage to showcase their downhill and 4-Cross skills.

Beginning in May of 2009, the ProGRT will visit four states and offer series ranking points to top finishers, resulting in overall individual titles for men and women. In addition, competitors will also have the opportunity to accumulate international ranking points as three of the five races are inscripted on the UCI calendar.

Read “more” for calendar and purse info…

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As a part of its mountain development program, USA Cycling will be hosting a series of European development camps in the spring/summer of 2009. The U23 and junior cross-country camps will be based in Kirchzarten, Germany, each running for a three-week period. All interested parties must complete and return petitions for one of the three camps to USA Cycling National Mountain Bike Development Director Marc Gullickson no later than April 1. Click here for more information.

The first camp will run May 7 – 25 and will be open to U23 riders only. While the second and third camps, May 28 – June 15 and June 18 – July 6, will be open to both U23 and junior 17-18 riders. All riders who are eager to improve through international competition are encouraged to use these camps as a primary development tool.

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Salsa Cycles has issued a recall notice for its CroMoto bicycle stem, pictured above. The stems may crack or break, which would cause you to fall and go boom.

These stems were painted to match and included as original equipment on the following complete Salsa La Cruz, Casseroll Singlespeed, Casseroll Triple, El Mariachi, and Ala Carte bicycles sold by QBP from November 5, 2007 to December 31, 2008.

The recall also includes both road and mountain aftermarket stems in all extensions and rises, except the 60mm, 70mm and 80mm extension lengths. Aftermarket stems were painted black and were sold from March 31, 2008 to December 31, 2008.

Bike shops that sell Salsa stems can call Quality Bicycle Products at 877-774-6208, and you can see a full list of affected models and bikes that were sold with the stem  as an OEM part and download a consumer alert poster here.

For now, consumers should contact the place of purchase to discuss replacement options.

Either some Taiwanese folks are very good at photoshop and cut and paste, or these are some legitimate spy shots of the upcoming SRAM XX 2×10 mountain bike component group we reported on earlier.  Per the picture, weight is spec’d at under 2,300g.

Our hunch is this will trickle some RED tech over from their road side and other upgrades from their current XO components:

DERAILLEURS: The rear is likely to include a full carbon cage for the pulleys, and our guess is they’ll have ceramic bearings, too.  What’s different is the upper plate seems to be solid whereas the XO is open to reveal the spring.  From the pic, it looks like the limit screws are placed on either end as opposed to both on the front (pic of current XO der after the break).  The bottom linkage could be carbon fiber. It also looks like the knuckle will be aluminum rather than a composite/carbon material.

On the front, the actuating arms are pretty tall, indicating they’re designed to move across a wide space.  If so, it could mean the rings are spaced a little further apart to avoid noisy rubbing when the chainline is going from small-small or big-big.  If you’ve ever ridden a compact crankset on the road, you know what I’m talking about, and it effectively limits the range you want to use on the cassette.  Wider spacing of the front rings would solve this, although it’d be interesting to see how they keep the chain from dropping between the rings if they’re too wide.

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Covering F.K. Day’s efforts spearheading the World Bicycle Relief organization, MSNBC published a story yesterday telling how his project has provided more than 50,000 bicycles world wide.  The goal of WBR is to help areas that have been hit by disaster or lack traditional transportation infrastructure so people can get to and from supplies, food and healthcare.

Now, it’s starting a new program called Bikes for Education with a goal of delivering 50,000 bicycles to children and families in Zambia to help them get to school.  They will be used by administrators, teachers and the children.  Mr. Day is one of the founders of SRAM.  Read the MSNBC story here.

TEKO has released new “low” style environmentally responsible cycling socks made with 100% certified recycled polyester. 65% of tekoPOLY comes from post-industrial manufacturing waste and 35% comes from post consumer waste, like plastic bottles.

Soft and durable socks, tekoPOLY fiber cannot absorb moisture which means it dries very fast – ideal for biking and running. They feature built in arch support and blister prevention, and they’re breathable to keep feet cool and comfortable.

Read “more” to see pricing, another men’s color and the women’s colors and styles…

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BikeBiz was showing a sneak peek of these new Knog 8 Ball gloves from a tradeshow, but they’re already up on Bikeman’s website for $40, although they’re showing as “out of stock” so perhaps they’re not “in stock” yet. Quality Bicycle Parts (QBP) will be the US distributor, and they say the gloves start shipping end of April.

They’re made of hand stitched fine grained goatskin leather. Dense lateral strength. Double stitching at all key wear points. Perforated venting on back and fingers. These are real leather, keep in mind they will stretch a bit after several wears.