Philippe Gilbert News

Former rider Bobby Julich, who left a coaching position with Team Sky last year after admitting doping during his professional career, has joined BMC as a consultant, the Swiss-based cycling team said on Sunday.

Team Cannondale domestique Ted King is always quick with a wisecrack, this time in response to how thin and fit he's looking.

New Zealand native Jeremy Vennell, who lives in Santa Rosa, was voted the event's overall most aggressive rider in 2012; Jason McCartney, now age 39, finished third overall in the 2007 TOC and has won the King of the Mountain classification three times.

Tejay van Garderen, the leading American finisher in the 2012 Tour de France, and Peter Sagan of Slovakia, the world's No.

World champion Philippe Gilbert will pedal his rainbow bands around California next week in his American debut, but isn't yet sure what to make of a tricky Amgen Tour of California parcours.

For the second year-in-a-row Philippe Gilbert has gone without a win in the Ardennes Classics or to be more specific, simply a win in the opening four months of the season.

Monday was even worse than usual in Belgium as cycling fans woke up hung over for all the wrong reasons.

Fans are kept at bay outside the RadioShack-Leopard team bus, awaiting the emergence of Andy Schleck.

The steep climbs that punctuate the woods and moors of eastern Belgium have borne witness to tactical battles both real - as in World War II's furious Battle of the Bulge, which laid siege to Bastogne, the turnaround point of Sunday's LiA ge-Bastogne-LiA ge race - and figurative.

In fact, there was hardly a stir. Journalists and fans seemed more interested in chasing Vincenzo Nibali and Philippe Gilbert than the defending LiA ge-Bastogne-LiA ge champion.

Time is running out for Philippe Gilbert and his quest to win a spring classic in the world champion's jersey.