Tasmanian Ben Grenda was second and New South Wales rider Mitchell Bulleen finished third in Monday night’s race.

Van Velthooven, 21, told the ABC he was surprised of the win by the slimmest of margins.

“This morning I was really flat and thought this was going to be a long day but a few races out there, nice indoor velodrome and it’s nice and warm and a good crowd,” Velthooven said.

“The crowd always gets it so much better, gets the nerves running and it’s really great here, love the crowd, love the racing, love the riders.”

Van Velthooven scooped the pool winning the lightning handicap final earlier in the night.

“I don’t know if anyone else has done the double but its great to actually get the double here, I would never have thought that,” he said.

Tasmanian rider Emma Lawson has won the final of the women’s wheel race at the Launceston Cycling Carnival.

She beat Rebecca Werner of South Australia while fellow Tasmanian Georgia Baker finished third in last night’s race.

But it wasn’t easy pickings for the Belgium rider, having to overcome an awful start, which saw him kilometers of the main group.

The Powerplus rider said he was happy with the events conditions, which suited him to a tee.

“Today’s course, with the rain and the mud, is what I like,” he said.

“The ground was very slippery, but still fast, the best condition for me. I hope to come back in January for Worlds, but hopefully it’s still without snow and ice then,” Albert said.”

Albert finished 19 seconds ahead of compatriot Sven Nys, who finished in seconds place overall.

Despite being pipped for the title, the Landbouwkrediet-Colnago cyclist said he can take many positives out of the loss.

“Now I’m improving my start position for the future races and I can head to the Koppenbergcross with ease of mind. We’ll see some more interesting races in the near future,” he said.

Hometown hero Zdenek Štybar was out sprinted over the finish line and had to settle for third spot.

Kevin Pauwels finished fourth overall, with French champion Francis Mourey rounding out the top five.

Albert now holds a strong lead of 25 point over his nearest rival after two rounds, with Štybar his nearest rival.

The next round of the World Cup round will be in Nommay, France, on November 8.

The British world champion showed he is all class by winning the six-day event in Melbourne over the weekend, and confirming his status as one of the worlds best riders.

After building a five second lead over Garmin-Slipstream teammate Chris Sutton, in the penultimate stage, Wiggins pushed the pedals even harder, adding another six seconds to the margin to win by 11 seconds to his nearest rival.

That rival was Sutton, who finished in second place, while Australian sprinter Jonathon Cantwell took the third spot on the podium.

Despite winning six world crowns and three Olympic gold medals in the sport of raod cycling, 29 year-old Wiggins had never won a stage race victory in his professional career, until now.

There was, however, debate over who the Garmin – Slipstream team would choose as the cyclist they want to win.

Many thought Sutton would be the sentimental choice, but, the decision to go with Wiggins has been far from criticized, even by Australians.

The cyclist who finished fourth in this year’s Tour de France will sure to be a major contender when he returns to Paris next year and may still return to our shores for a shot at back-to-back Herald Sun Tour titles.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=agx0PkhTDek

The Garmin Slipstream rider, who finished fourth in this years Tour de France, started off the tour in mediocre form, sitting on the edge of the top five for the first few stages.

But, with the end of the  Victorian race nearing an end, Wiggins stepped up a gear, taking out the past two days of competition.

As expected, the British rider dominated the field in yesterday’s 10km time trial through the states mountain region of Geelong.

Wiggins covered the undulating journey in 13 minutes, 7.5 seconds, 14.35 seconds faster than his nearest rival, Garmin teammate Svein Tuft from Canada.

He now holds an overall lead of five seconds to his nearest rival, teammate Chris Sutton, and 32 seconds over third placed Jonathan Cantwell.

It seems destined the yellow jersey will end up on the back of one of the two Slipstream Garmin riders, but the question remains, who?

According to Wiggins, the battle for the overall win will not hinder the relationship of the two friends.

“I haven’t been in this position before, so I don’t know how we will work it out. But if he (Sutton) wants to win, he can win. We always ride together, we get on really well and we are close both on and off the bike. I might let him have it,” Wiggins said.

The final stage will take place today in Melbourne.

The forty year-old out-powered his younger competitors throughout the 149km, to claim the win ahead of Jonathan Cantwell and Chris Sutton, who rounded out the podium on day one.

The cycling veteran is no stranger to the world scene, having won four stages of the Tour de France during his career and said his that despite his age, he has always continued to ride.

“I never retired. For the last two years I have been mostly at home in Estonia but I never stopped riding. Now I am riding around the world in places I did not ride so much before,” Kirsipuu said.

“If I have a number on my back, I am a rider. I don’t want to feel ridiculous.”

Former world champion and Tour favourite, Bradley Wiggins, finished in fourth spot, leading home the main peloton in a time of 3 hours, 41 minutes and 58 seconds.

The Briton looked comfortable all day and is expected to be right up in the mix of things for the reminder of the week.

Matthew Wilson was the best placed Australian, finishing in seventh spot, while Nick Aitken finished 14th.

Stage two will begin tomorrow 10:30am local time, and see riders cycle over 143 kilometres from Colac to Warrnambool.

The event will wrap up this Saturday 17 Oct, with the final stage in the states capital city, Melbourne.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=agx0PkhTDek

The LPR Brakes riders have been provisionally suspended which means Bosisio and De Bonis will be banned from cycling until their cases are heard by the Italian cycling federation and a penalty handed down.

The results for Bosisio come from a report from the WADA accredited laboratory in Lausanne indicating an Adverse Analytical Finding of Recombinant EPO in a urine sample collected from him at an out-of-competition test on September 2, 2009.

De Bonis, on the other hand, tested positive for the new-generation EPO called Cera during the first stage of the Tour of Italy on May 7.

The 27 year-old De Bonis and 29 year-old Bosisio, who this year came runners up in the Italian national time trial championship, both have the right to appeal by requesting further analysis of his B sample.

Under the World Anti-Doping Code and the UCI Anti-Doping Rules no further details can be given at this stage.

The findings once again put the sport of cycling in turmoil and will once again have damaging consequences for those involved in the industry.

It has been an uphill battle since the drug findings that clouded the 2007-08 Tour de France’s and it appears there will be more mountains to climb before this issue is finally put to rest.

With only five km’s left to the finish line, the Garmin-Slipstream rider suffered a puncture in his tyre, which saw him fade away from the main paleton.

It appeared that the unfortunate event would see second placed Belgian champion Tom Boonen steal the prized crown, before an inspired Farrar found an extra gear and managed to re connect with the main group with less than three minutes of riding left.

The American finished eight seconds ahead of Boonen in the overall classifications and 14 seconds from third placed Roger Hammond.

But while the main celebrations were heard form Farrar and his podium compatriots, Saxo Bank rider Juan José Haedo was all smiles after his first stage victory in the event.

The Argentinean sprinter completed a well-deserved win ahead of Yauheni Hutarovich and Hammond.

Jose Haedo celebrated a double victory with his final stage efforts also earning him the sprinters jersey for the event.

The Argentine finished five points ahead of Hutarovich, who again had to settle for the second place.

The Swiss Cervelo Test Team took out the classification for best team of the event and Holland’s Tom Veelers the white jersey for the best young rider.

202 riders set out for 19 laps of 13.8 km circuit totaling 262.2 km, but after seven hours there was to be only one to cross the finish line in front, the Silence-Lotto wheel of Evans.

The win was a historical day for the boy from Geelong, earning him his first ever world championship crown, and first major one-day win.

The gold medal also capped off an up and down season for Evans, who, at one point, seemed destined to split with his Silence Lotto team after major disagreements.

In a race dominated by Spaniards, it was hometown hero, and reigning champion, Fabion Cancellara, who was expected to win, and for the majority of the race it seemed destined to happen.

With two laps remaining Cancellarra made his move on the break away group and eventually found himself leading the race.

But, on the final climb of the race and only 5km to the finish line, Evans made his move, chasing down, then breaking away from the group and opening up a lead of almost half a minute, one that proved too large to cut down,

Post race, a tearful Evans was ecstatic at his victory and said overcoming the Spaniards was his main focus during the ride.

“I’ve been thinking about this race for two years,” Evans said.

“Spain had the numbers. When one Spanish guy went away, no one was going to chase him down, so that’s why when Spain made a move, I made sure I was there”

Russian Alexandr Kolobnev and Spain’s Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver took home the silver and bronze medals respectively, while Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez finished in fourth spot.

Cancellara, who claimed gold in the men’s time trial only days earlier, had to settle for fifth place.

The 21-year-old, also the first north French rider to win an event at this year’s championships, finished nearly half a minute ahead of his nearest rival in an impressive performance.

He completed the 179.4km course in four hours 41.54 minutes after breaking clear with only 10km left.

The 166-rider lineup repeated the circuit 13 times for the total distance.

Colombia’s Carlos Alberto Betancur snatched the silver medal after overhauling Russia’s Egor Silin in the last few meters to also finish 27 seconds behind Sicard.

Betancur was aiming to become the second successive Colombian to win the race after Fabio Duarte last year but was no match for the Frenchman.

Sicard, who won the nine-stage Tour de l’Avenir, a race for under-23s, earlier this month, said he was very pleased with the result and that despite the tough journey, he maintained self belief the entire time.

“It was a very, very difficult race but the racer is more important than the course,” he said.

Betancur said he was disappointed not to win.

The under-23 race was added to the world championships in 1996 and has been a successful addition to the schedule.

After finished second, third and fourth in the event in recent years, the Caisse d’Epargne rider took out the crown on the final day of racing, finishing 55 seconds in front of countrymen Samuel Sánchez, and 1’ 32” ahead of Aussie Cadel Evans.

While it was Velverde’s tour, the day belonged to Germany’s André Greipel, who won the final, and 21st stage from Rivas-Vaciamadrid to central Madrid.

After 112 kilometres on relatively flat terrain, it was down to the sprinters’ to fight it out at the end, with Greipel proving too strong, pipping Italian Daniele Bennati and Slovak Borut Bozic at the line.

The German rider also took out the green jersey for the best sprinter of the tour, beating his nearest rival, Velverde, by 39 points.

At the age of 29, Velverde has now proved he is a genuine contender in world cycling with his stellar performance.

After claiming the yellow jersey from Evans on the ninth stage, Valverde played a ultra-defensive game, slowly increasing his advantage by taking seconds here and seconds there over his rivals, rather than making the single-all out attack that tends to be what wins riders major tours.

It was also a return to form for Evans, who only last month was rumoured to be splitting with his Silence Lotto team after his poor Tour de France performance.

In other classifications, David Moncoutie was crowned the best climber finishing a massive 87 points ahead of second placed David De La Fuente.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=viZOTaGpt1w