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- The good times of the SS State Championship will be a part of the 2013 Leadbelt XC. Race day schedule remains the same for everyone, classes remain the same except the addition of a womens SS class. Race distance, prizes and cash payout are all bigger for SS. More info to come from the mastermind making this happen.
2013 Leadbelt XC
Saturday June 15th 2012
Registration begins at 7:00 AM and closes 15 min before start of race. Riders meeting 15 before each race.
9:00 3HR Marathon Male and Female
11:00 CAT 1 Expert 3 Laps, 11:02 SS 3 Laps 11:04 CAT 2 Sport 11:06 CAT 3 Beg/Jr 1 Lap
2:00 PM Kids race. Under 10, 20 Minutes plus a lap. 10-14, 30 Minutes plus a lap.
CLASSES
CAT 1 Expert $30
Open Expert35+ Expert
Women Open
CAT 2 Sport $25
Open Sport35+ Sport
Women Open
SS $30
Men Open, Women Open
CAT 3 Beginner $25
Open Beginner35+ Beginner
Women Open
JR 15-18 $10
Marathon $25
Mens Open
Womens Open
Kids
Under 10 Free
10-14 Free
CAT 1 Expert racers must have a current annual USAC License. All other participants do not need an annual USAC license. Awards to top 3 in each posted class. Cash payout Cat1, combined overall results. Cash Payout SS.
The course will be approximately 8 miles in length with mostly single track trail. The course is a unique mix of woods trails, open savannah, creek crossings and even a culvert to ride through. The course will be well marked with blue arrows and ready for pre-rides on or before June 1st.
Parking in Gravel Lot across the road from Pim-Day Use Area.
A new and separate course will be marked for the Kids classes and should be about 1 miles in length. The Kids course will remain open for Kids and parents use throughout the day. Kids ride and race for FREE.
St. Joe State Park is smoke free and alcohol free.
Information needed? Mark Grumke 314-406-0973 or mhgrumke@sbcglobal.net
This event held Under USAC Permit. All USAC rules apply
Location: St. Joe State Park, 2800 Pimville Road
Park Hills, MO 63601, Race start at Pim-Day Use Area just inside the park entrance Directions from St. Louis, I55 south to Hwy 67 south (exit 174B) to Hwy 32 west; go 2.8 miles to left turn on Pimmville road, Brown DNR park signage. Go 2 miles to park entrance. Parking in gravel lot across the road from signup and start. 
John Atapuma and Claudio Corti are hoping to deliver another shot to Colombia cycling with a stage win in the Dolomites this week. Photo: Gregor Brown | VeloNews.com IVREA, Italy (VN) — Team Colombia hopes to take advantage of the Giro d’Italia’s final high-mountain stages this week and continue the country’s cycling rebirth.
In the cold French ski town Valloire early this morning, general manager Claudio Corti discussed the weather. The Giro’s 16th leg was ready to depart and head back into Italy, where the week’s forecast gave him little reason to smile.
The Italian journeyman put out his cigarette and expressed his concerns.
“When the Giro organizer RCS Sport selected our team as a wildcard, I was already thinking about the Gavia-Stelvio stage to Val Martello,” he told VeloNews. “I’d be very sorry if we don’t do this stage because it’s the only one that’s raced completely at attitude, with two passes at 2600 and 2700 meters.”
RCS Sport is thinking about cutting the Gavia and Stelvio passes out of Friday’s stage 19 and arriving to Val Martello from the east if snow prohibits passage. A decision will only be made on Friday morning.
John Atapuma exited the team’s black bus, dressed for the cold start up the Col du Télégraphe. Corti looked at him. He believes Atapuma could win the Val Martello stage, or the day after to Tre Cime di Lavaredo if the weather holds. It would be ideal as Andreas Botero is visiting to follow the two stages. He heads the Colombian Ministry of Sport, which sponsors the team.
Atapuma, 25, last year won the Passo Pordoi stage in the Giro del Trentino and placed second in the Amgen Tour of California’s Mount Baldy stage.
“Colombia is very content of our showing. Clearly, though, we still want to win a stage, which would be the best for our team,” Corti added. “We have good riders here; we had four in the final group at three kilometers to go on the Galibier. Atapuma is the most adapted to do something that day to Val Martello and [Fabio] Duarte could go with the other favorites if attacks don’t go.”
A golden era for Colombia
Colombian cycling is enjoying a golden era thanks to its namesake UCI Pro Continental team and riders like Rigoberto Urán and Sergio Henao (Sky). What it has now is something as powerful, if not more so, than it had in the 1980s, when Luis Herrera won the Tour de France’s Alpe d’Huez stage and Café de Colombia sponsored a major team.
Last week, Urán gave Colombia its 16th stage win in the Giro d’Italia. Sitting third overall, he is ready to give his country its first top-five GC result since Oliviero Rincon’s fifth in 1995. Carlos Betancur (Ag2r La Mondiale) could add to the celebrations if he keeps hold of the young riders’ white jersey.
After Atapuma rode to sign-in, Corti said the Giro was helping Colombia.
“We are now seeing the strong riders, like Urán, finally showing well. Urán’s already been here for seven years. He’s been able to improve on his training and riding,” Corti said. “My team, these boys will be much stronger in three or four years than what they are now. Racing the Giro helps them understand their physical limits and how they can really suffer on a bike for three weeks.”
Corti, for now, will keep an eye on the weather forecast. A sunny day or two could help his riders fulfill his dream.

Beñat Intxausti celebrated his deceased friend, Xavier Tondo, when he won at the Giro d'Italia on Tuesday. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com IVREA, Italy (VN) — Nearly two years to the day after he watched helplessly as Xavier Tondo died in his arms, Beñat Intxausti (Movistar) won a stage at the Giro d’Italia in his friend’s name.
In Tuesday’s transition stage at the Giro, Intxausti followed the winning attacks over a tricky finishing circuit to kick to victory in a three-up sprint. He pointed to the heavens to dedicate the win to Tondo as he crossed the line.
“To win nearly two years to the day of the accident means a lot to me. It was a special day in my life,” Intxausti said. “He would be happy that I won today. I dedicate this not only to him, but to the team, and everyone who was close to him.”
On May 23, 2011, Intxausti was witness to the freak accident that saw Tondo die when he was trapped between a garage door and a car while preparing for a ride during a high-altitude training camp in Spain’s Sierra Nevada.
The promising 27-year-old Spaniard has been forever scarred by the tragic death of Tondo, a journeyman rider who was finding his place in the pro peloton just as the sport was starting to clean up.
As could be expected, the tragedy knocked Intxausti off-balance. He struggled through the remainder of the 2011 season as his Movistar team gave him space to try to work through the pain and remorse.
Even this year, he was hesitant about joining his Movistar teammates at a Sierra Nevada training camp before the Giro. Spanish daily MARCA reported that Intxausti was preparing to go alone to Tenerife instead, but only at the last moment decided to head back to Sierra Nevada. The team made precautions not to go near the scene of the accident.
Last year, the Basque rider started to slowly regain the confidence he needed to get back on track. He was tapped as Spain’s next promising grand tour rider after finishing third in the 2010 Vuelta al País Vasco (Tour of the Basque Country). And though he’s delivered some consistent results, including 10th in the Vuelta a España and victory in the Vuelta a Asturias last year, he hasn’t quite delivered on the hype, in large part due to the momentum he lost in 2011.
In last year’s Giro, he was hanging in the top 10 until the final week, when he simply couldn’t follow any longer before eventually settling on a disappointing 38th.
Intxausti’s victory on Tuesday revealed he’s riding into the final week on a much higher level.
“It’s a great feeling to raise my arms in victory. That’s the idea I had when I came to this Giro,” he said. “My goal is to finish off this Giro in the top 10. We’ll see in the coming days if that’s possible.”
Following Sunday’s win up the snowbound Col du Galibier by Giovanni Visconti, the victory was the second in a row for Movistar. Add to that Alex Dowsett’s surprise victory in the stage 8 individual time trial, and Movistar is among the Giro’s most successful teams.
It was that time trial that seemed to spoil what was a phenomenal start to this Giro for Intxausti. After Movistar rode to second in the team time trial, Intxausti grabbed the pink jersey in stage 7 and carried the maglia rosa into the ITT. Typically solid against the clock, Intxausti buckled on the long, challenging course, losing four minutes and dropping like a rock out of GC picture.
He never gave up on his overall ambitions, however, and has slowly been picking up time on struggling rivals. With Tuesday’s 20-second time bonus, he clawed back into the top 10, now ninth overall, at 5:47.
With less than one minute separating sixth and ninth on GC, there should be quite a dogfight among the lower half of the top 10 during the trio of decisive climbing stages later this week.
“That time trial was terrible for me. I hope to do better in the climbing time trial [Thursday]. The favorite is [Nibali], but the terrain suits me well,” he said. “I was feeling good on the rest day and I knew I had good legs. I hope to finish off the Giro on a strong note.”
With Movistar flying high, the team promises to keep attacking.
“These results are important for me and for my team,” he said. “They’ve really believed in me and given me the support I needed. To win this stage, we are all very content.”
Intxausti wants to pay back Movistar, and Tondo, with a strong finale to the 2013 Giro.
IVREA, Italy (AFP) — Following the positive doping control of Sylvain Georges last week, the Ag2r La Mondiale team decided Tuesday to withdraw itself from the Critérium du Dauphiné in early June out of respect for the rules of the Movement for a Credible Cycling
“This is a blow for riders, sport management, and team partners,” team boss Vincent Lavenu told Agence France Presse.
Lavenu is a founding member of the MPCC.
MPCC rules require member teams to impose a self-fixed one-week suspension if they experience two positive doping controls in less than 12 months, regardless of the product in question.
The French team has recorded positive cases with Sylvain Georges, who tested positive for the stimulant heptaminol at the Giro d’Italia last week, and Steve Houanard, who tested positive for EPO late in 2012.
“The team is right in his boots, it fulfills its commitments vis-à-vis the MPCC and the fight against doping, even if it is not easy and if it is penalized,”said Lavenu. “We respect the rules as they are written. There was fault and everyone is penalized.”
The Critérium du Dauphiné, which serves as a dress rehearsal before the Tour de France, takes place in the region where the Chambery-based team is headquartered.
“The Dauphiné is an important race for us; this is the first time in 22 years we will not be there,” said Lavenu.
The team’s decision is a first in accordance the internal rules of the MPCC.

Editor’s Note: This video is courtesy of Global Cycling Network. The opinions expressed in this video do not necessarily represent the opinions of VeloNews.com, Velo magazine or the editors and staff of Competitor Group, Inc.





























