Prairie Cycle Club – Bicycle Club for Champaign County, Illinois

With seven menandrsquo;s races and nine womenandrsquo;s events on the 2008 NRC now complete, Rory Sutherland leads the overall individual standings on the men's side while Laura Van Gilder is the current womenandrsquo;s leader. The teams currently atop the standings include the Health Net Pro Cycling Team presented by Maxxis in the menandrsquo;s rankings and the Cheerwine Professional Cycling Team in the womenandrsquo;s. The next race on the USA Cycling National Racing Calendar will be the Mount Hood Cycling Classic, May 13-18. The Bank of America Wilmington Grand Prix is also quickly approaching in Wilmington, Del. on May 17.

The 2008 USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships concluded on Sunday as Lees McRae College claimed the overall Division I team title and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won the overall Division II team championship. Eight individual titles were also awarded on Sunday as the three-day event closed with criterium racing in Old Town Fort Collins.

Stellar performances by the University of California-Davis and Fort Lewis College in the road races led to a tie in the Division I omnium standings on day two of competition at the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships. Massachusetts Institute of Technology was able to hold their lead in the Division II standings after a day of windy road racing in the foothills west of Fort Collins.

Just three months before Bicycle Motocross (BMX) makes its Olympic debut in Beijing this August, American Donny Robinson won the third round of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup series on Saturday. Along with compatriot Kyle Bennett, Robinson was one of two Americans to qualify for the finals. Bennett finished fourth behind runner-up Jared Graves (AUS) and bronze medalist Maris Strombergs (LAT). Bennettandrsquo;s fourth-place effort yielded enough points to finish the 2007-08 season as the top American in the international rankings. In the women's race, Arielle Martin finished fifth.

The USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships started up with the team time trial competition in northern Colorado on Friday. With traditional powerhouses shining in Division I and some impressive underdog performances in the Division II Time Trial, the University of California andndash; Davis and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the early lead in the overall team standings.

Over the course of the last several years, most of the United States' top world-class women's cyclists were identified by USA Cycling at an early age and invited to the national governing body's annual Women's Talent Identification Camp for a week of physiological testing, training, instruction and educational seminars. This year the camp is scheduled for July 14-18 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and hopes to find more athletes with the potential for world-class success...like it did last year in Megan Guarnier.

Over the past two weeks the American women posted some impressive results in Europe, all five of the USA Cycling National Calendars heated up, the USA Cycling National Development Team won the Team GC at Fleche du Sud, American mountain bikers contested two UCI Mountain Bike World Cup events, tracksters earned three medals at the Pan American Games, elite BMX riders prepared for the upcoming UCI BMX Supercross World Cup in Copenhagen, collegians headed to Fort Collins for the May 9 start of the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships and much more....

USA Cycling announced today that the national headquarters for competitive cycling in the United States will remain in Colorado Springs during a ceremony at America the Beautiful Park in which the city was also nationally recognized for being a Bicycle Friendly Community. Thanks to the generous support of Nor'wood Development Group and several other local organizations, USA Cycling has secured a new building on the city's north side which will include a conference center, education and training facilities and office space for more than 60 employees.

The USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships will head to Fort Collins, Colo. for the first time in history, May 9-11. Nearly 500 student-athletes representing more than 60 colleges and universities from across the country will compete to win one of 18 cycling national titles. Hosted by the 2008 Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference DI champions, Colorado State University, the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships will see men and women from Division I and Division II institutions compete for individual championships and for team titles including the prestigious omnium classification.

Dotsie Bausch gave the United States its second medal at the 2008 Pan American Road and Track Championships on Monday with a victory in the womenandrsquo;s 3000-meter individual pursuit. Bausch clocked a winning time of 4 minutes, 2.91 seconds to win the gold medal by five seconds over Ana Rocio Bernal (COL). On Sunday, American Cody Oandrsquo;Reilly captured a bronze medal in the menandrsquo;s 15-kilometer scratch race. The 2008 Pan American Road and Track Championships continue through May 11.

Over the past two weeks in American cycling USA Cycling announced several new developmental camps, Americans fared well at the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup in Australia, the U.S. women earned a fourth place world ranking on the road, the USA Cycling National Development team was busy racing in Europe, the National Racing Calendar continued, the USA Cycling Professional Tour resumed with the Tour de Georgia, sixteen Americans contested the first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Belgium, officials and coaches continued their education and much more....

The opening round of the 2008 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup took place in Houffalize, Belgium over the weekend where a record field of more than 400 riders lined up for the first event that factors into Olympic team selection. Of the sixteen Americans that competed in the elite menandrsquo;s and womenandrsquo;s cross country events, Georgia Gould posted the top finish with a fifth- place effort in the womenandrsquo;s race on Sunday. In menandrsquo;s competition, Todd Wells posted the best American result with an 11th-place finish.

This season, several American women - all members of domestic trade teams - are sacrificing bigger salaries, stability and time with loved ones to pursue their dreams of becoming world-class cyclists in the international peloton or future world championship participants and Olympians. Based at USA Cycling's European Residence Center in Lucca, Italy throughout much of spring and summer, the five women are all part of USA Cycling's Women's National Team program which provides them with European racing opportunties, instruction and resources.

Attention Masters Athletes: Following last week's announcement regarding the registration procedures, rules and eligibility requirements for the 2008 USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships, USA Cycling today released further information, including a complete event schedule, course maps and profiles and lodging information. All information pertaining to the 2008 USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships is available on the event website.

The United States continued to illustrate its depth in BMX racing on Sunday when David Herman won the men's race at the second round of the 2008 UCI BMX Supercross World Cup and Arielle Martin finished second in the women's event. Herman turned in the biggest result of his career against a world-class field just two months before the U.S. Olympic Team trials, set for June 14 in Chula Vista, Calif. Despite four men in the semifinals, Herman was the only American to advance to the eight-man final. Meanwhile, in the women's race, Martin was joined by Jill Kintner and Amanda Geving in the final as her compatriots placed fifth and sixth respectively.

The USA Cycling National Development Team displayed one of its best team performances in years with all six riders placing among the top 45 in the second round of the UCI Nationsandrsquo; Cup on April 12. Cole House led the team across the line, finishing seventh in the Tour of Flanders. The squad will now head to France to contest round three of the world's premier U23 race series at Le Cote Picarde on April 16.

This week, two Americans turned in outstanding performances in major European events as Christian Vande Velde and Lauren Franges finished near the top of the standings in France and the Netherlands respectively. At the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe, a 2.1-ranked four-day UCI stage race in France, Vande Velde won the stage-two time trial and finished second overall. Meanwhile, Franges finished sixth and won the Best Young Rider Category at the Drentse 8 van Dwingleoo, a UCI 1.1-ranked single-day race in Holland.

Now that the 2008 competitive cycling season is in full swing, it's time to begin thinking about this season's USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships. Scheduled for June 30 - July 6 in Louisville, Ky., this year's edition will see several changes based on valuable feedback from USA Cycling members. Some changes include the elimination of field size limits and the addition of qualifying heats when necessary, the implementation of on-site registration and race-day packet pick-up, a refund option in case your plans change, and an escalating registration fee structure. Please read the following guidelines to become familiar with the changes and registration process for 2008.

With the 2008 Olympic Games just four months away, the United States is currently illustrating its strength as one of the top women's road cycling nations in the world, referenced by a pair of women in the top ten of the UCI's individual international rankings, another two in the top ten of the UCI Women's Road World Cup standings after three races, and a fourth-place nation's ranking. With the incredible depth of talent USA Cycling has developed over the course of the last several years, American women look to move up the rankings further with significant international events on the horizon.

Over the past two weeks in American cycling, the USA Cycling Board of Directors elected three new officers, nine Americans brought home three medals including a world title from the 2008 UCI Track World Championships, Olympic hopefuls earned more points toward their road to Beijing at the USA Cycling BMX National Championships, the national governing body announced a pair of Women's Regional Development Camps set for this summer, the NRC got cranked up with a trio of races as did the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Calendars, Collegiate Cycling heated up and much more....