And then it happened again. The Contador verdict is delayed by Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which means Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) has to wait yet a little while, before finding out if he will be banned or not.

CAS says it "intends to publish its decision in the arbitration procedure involving the International Cycling Union (UCI), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Alberto Contador and the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) on Monday 6 February 2012.

"A confirmation as to the date and time of the publication of the decision will be given by the CAS at the end of this week."

There has been quite many questions surrounding the composition of the arbitration panel and this probably delayed the decision process.

It's been almost a year since UCI and WADA appealed the Spanish cycling federation's decision to clear Contador of doping charges. The Spanish rider tested positive for clenbuterol at the 2010 Tour de France.

Will the Tour de France winner be banned for having returned a positive sample for clenbuterol or not? Contador says the positive test was caused by his ingestion of tainted meat, but the UCI and WADA don't seem to believe his explanation fully. It's a shame that it has taken so long, it will feel nice when this case is over.

Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) won the first European pro race of the season, the GP La Marseillaise, yesterday. In the last few weeks, Dumoulin had doubted his current form and feared he may be over-trained, but at least yesterday he seemed to be in excellent form. .

"Until this week, I wasn't very sure of myself," he told Velochrono. "I had the feeling I lacked power. I questioned my preparation over the winter and I asked myself if I had made a mistake. In fact, I didn't take a proper break at all."

At the end of the 148 km-race, Dumoulin outsprinted a group of 15 riders. Cofidis' team tactics worked out very well.

"My role was to wait," Samuel Dumoulin said. "We wanted someone in the break [Rein Taaramae this time]. I was well-protected and when the escape was caught, it was up to Yoann Bagot or Rémy di Grégorio to go up the road. I stayed focussed on a print with Jean-Eudes Demaret at my side." On the final climb with 20 kilometres to go, a selection of 15 riders was made.

"I knew I had to really watch out on the last climb after such a demanding day with the bad weather conditions."
On Wednesday, Dumoulin will start the first European stage race of the season, the Etoile de Bessèges.

"I will try to win where I can. With my profile as an all-rounder, I will have some possibilities. A lot of races end in a sprint."

25-year-old Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) captured his second win at the Cyclo-cross World Championships yesterday.

"I thought about that the last time I rode it, thinking that he was now mine. This feeling is unbeatable. It's the biggest win of my career. Now my season succeeded," Albert said.

The race in Koksijde was attended by a crowd of more than 60 000 people. That's a lot of people.

In mid-November, Niels Albert's cyclo-cross season was interrupted when he broke his trapezoid bone during a training ride. Due to the injury it wasn't possible to take an overall win in any of the three major series. He took victory in Ruddervoorde and Zonhoven, but really needed one big victory to save his season and now he has taken it.

"After the Belgian championships I gathered with my entourage and told them I would put all my money on the world championships," Albert said.

He traveled to Spain with his BKCP-Powerplus manager and friend Christoph Roodhooft to prepare for the race.

"We created a bond there and the people close to me live along with that. If you can pull of a win after these sacrifices then it's no wonder that there are emotions."

"I headed there with the idea that the world championships would be mine, only mine. On the beach I marked out a course with plastic chairs to train on the turns and on how to choose the lines in the sand. The guys from the Topsport-Vlaanderen road team were sitting a bit further with their coffee and must've thought that I was crazy. I'm not the man of the classic training rides. I need these crazy things to become better," Albert said.

HIs preperation worked and he was relaxed before the race and in the end, he won the race ahead of the six other Belgians, who captured the following six positions.

German sprinter Marcel Kittel (Team 1t4i) is suspected of black light treated blood transfusions. A young rider from the Continental ranked Thüringer Energie Team is also said to be involved in a German blood doping investigation.

It was in mid-January that the news of an possible blood doping scandal came out. It seems like a man called Dr. Andreas Franke at the Olympic training camp in Erfurt carried out the procedure; a treatment that is said to have involved removing blood from the athletes, treating it with UV or black light, and re-infusing it.

A German TV-show ARD Sportschau says that 28 athletes may have undergone the treatments, including Kittel, speed skater Claudia Pechstein and track athlete Nils Schumann.

Kittel's Project 1t4i manager Iwan Spekenbrink told Cyclingnews that Marcel Kittel visited Dr. Andreas Franke at the Olympic support site in Erfurt, Germany, in 2008, but says he believes that Kittel had not broken any sporting rules. The athletes visited the doctor when they were sick, Spekenbrink continued.

“It’s not an investigation at all looking at Marcel,” Spekenbrink told Cyclingnews.

“As a team we’ve not been notified by the UCI, the police or NADA, and that’s what I understand from Marcel, too.”

“This appears to be an investigation into a doctor in Germany and a doctor paid for by public funds. So all the athletes from a certain level and from all sports go and see this doctor.”

“Marcel has visited this doctor when he was sick or getting sick, like many athletes did. What he told me was that in 2008 he also had this UV treatment from this doctor. He was sick, he was sent there and this doctor gave him this treatment. For Marcel, it was a normal doctor helping him when he was sick. It seems that from what I understand, and I’m not an expert, that this method was not prohibited at this time,” he said.

The team will not suspend or take any other action the rider during the ongoing investigation, but the rider will be available to help with NADA with it.

“The fact I have now, and I’m also getting the information from him that he’s not part of any investigation whatsoever because this was a treatment that was not prohibited.”

“If this doctor has done things that are not totally correct, I can imagine a rider would feel misused. This was not a transfusion where they take out litres of blood and put it back. It’s a treatment for giving them some resistance when they have flu.”

The Omega Pharma-QuickStep had a great final day of the Tour de San Luis, as Tom Boonen won the final stage in a downhill sprint and Levi Leipheimer secured victory overall.

Tom Boonen won the stage ahead of Italy's Andrea Guardini (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) and Maximiliano Richeze (Argentina).

"Very fast," Boonen said about the sprint. "We had the fortune today that other teams were interested in the sprint. We already won a lot and other teams were chasing. It wasn't really that hard because those three guys were dead in front.

"We had six guys in the last 15k and just accelerated. [Francesco] Chicchi took the last kilometre in the lead, but it was so fast that you could keep the speed up; the sprint was like 80km an hour. I just started from third position at 200 metres to go and I had the good legs."

The Belgian ProTour squad has had much success during the race. First Francesco Chicchi won the opening two stages, then Levi Leipheimer claimed stage 4's time trial.

Today, Levi Leipheimer finished in the peloton to win the overall general classification at the sixth Tour de San Luis.

"I'm really happy, it was a super-fantastic experience to be a part of this team in this enterprise," said Leipheimer. "We worked well together and we all made sacrifices for one another; this is why we were successful.

"I'm thrilled to have assisted with Chicchi's victories - he seems to have rediscovered his stride and with Tom, who hadn't had a win in a while. On this team no one balks when they're asked to do a job.

"I knew I was in good shape," Leipheimer continued. "In the weeks before the race I trained really well on my hometown roads. I followed an approach similar to the one that has won me the Tour of California three times. My next race will be Paris-Nice.

"Now I need to get away for a few days and recuperate some precious energy. My calendar isn't race heavy. It was a choice we made to try to be in top condition for the events I am targeting."

Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank), who claimed that he was no threat for overall victory ahead of the race, finished second, 46 seconds behind the American rider. Daniel Diaz (San Luis Somos Todos) from Argentina finished third.

Earlier today, Marianne Vos won the cyclo-cross world championships in Koksijde, Belgium. She won almost forty seconds ahead of Daphny van den Brand (The Netherlands) and Sanne Cant (Belgium).

The victory means that Vos overtakes Hanka Kupfernagel (Germany) as record holder with five cross world titles. Fantastic.

“It was not my goal to overtake her but five titles is fantastic,” Vos said.

The Dutch rider struggled on the technical course, but still she quickly earned a comfortable lead and got through the sand stretches ahead of the other women.

“Technically it wasn’t good today. I wouldn’t deserve getting a dune named after me like the Elite Men’s winner will enjoy. Getting a mud section or a stretch of pavement named after me would be more correct,” Vos said.

Vos actually missed the start at 11am, but she quickly recovered and continued the race.

“I missed my first pedal stroke at the start and that raised the adrenaline to the top. If I had the opportunity I would take the initiative and ride my own race. I quickly had a gap but I realized that it would be a long forty minutes,” Vos said.

The American rider Katherine Compton (USA) missed her start as well, but never really came back and later on, she was caught up in a crash. It wasn't the best day in her career.

“I missed my pedal and couldn’t find it. Then I crashed in the first right hand turn before the pit. From there I got stuck in traffic but I’ve never given up. It’s hard to get back. I kind of saw this coming,” Compton said.

Vos started to extend her lead quite early in the race and on the last lap, she didn't have to worry a lot and as she did no mistake, she could take it quite easy in the end and celebrate her fifth world title.

Rumours say that Davide Rebellin will be the next fallen star to sign with the Continental-ranked Team Christina Watches-Onfone.

According to Ekstrabladet.dk, Rebellin's agent has talked to the team. The 40-year-old Rebellin finished third in the Europe Tour last year whilst riding for Miche-Guericotti, but couldn't find a team for the 2012 season.

Team Christina Watches-Onfone has 14 riders, but if the team management wants to, the team has the money for two more signings.

Rebellin tested positive for EPO-CERA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he took silver in the road race. After the positive test, he had to return the silver medal and was given a two-year suspension.

The Team Christina Watches-Onfone is almost like a haven for earlier suspended riders. At least it feels like that. The team has some young Danish riders, but the team's international riders or international famous riders have at some point in their careers been called dopers, like Michael Rasmussen and Rebellin's former Gerolsteiner team mate Stefan Schumacher.

Mathieu Perget (AG2R) crashed on stage 5 of the Tour de San Luis and broke the pelvis.

“Mathieu is suffering from a fractured pelvis on the left side. This fracture doesn’t affect the hip joint but only the iliac wing,” Eric Bouvat, the team’s medical officer said.

The rider will undergo surgery to speed up his recovery and team hopes he can start training again in three weeks and return to racing within six weeks.

The still overweight Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) claimed his second stage win this year.

Despite having completed the sporting ban, Alejandro Valverde's points will not count toward his team's sporting criteria, which means the ranking used by the UCI to decided which teams will be in the following year's WorldTour. None of his points will count for the next two seasons.

After finished second to GreenEdge's Simon Gerrans at the Tour Down Under, Valverde is currently sitting in second in the WorldTour rankings, but those points will not help his Movistar team when the 2013 WorldTour is decided.

Last automn, yhe UCI has decided to disqualify riders who are returning from bans from scoring points for two years following their return.

"It was supported by the majority of the teams. Its a good rule, I think," the teams association (AIGCP) president Jonathan Vaughters said.

15 teams earns automatic consideration for the next WorldTour season, based on the points that the riders have collected during the year, but also team points and other criteria such as ethical and financial merits.

Many of cycling's top teams have suffered from economical problems at some point. Now it seem like the French team Cofidis may have to merge with another top teams to stay alive. In an interview with La Voix Du Nord, Cofidis general manager Eric Boyer said a merger would help the team to get a better budget, but also make the team more attractive to the top riders, as a bigger budget means the team could fight for a WorldTour license again.

"This year we have seen mergers between some great teams: RadioShack and Leopard-Trek, Quick Step and Omega Pharma. I also have had this discussion for two years," Boyer said. "We began by giving it lip service. Last year, it was more serious. I hope we can go through with our idea at the end of the year."

When Sylvain Chavanel left the team at the end of 2008, the problems started. The rider who took stage wins in Paris-Nice and the Tour de France, and wore the leader's jersey at the Vuelta a Espana, was signed by the QuickStep team.

"In 2010 we wanted to bring Sylvain Chavanel back, and we were prepared to increase our budget to strengthen the team and apply for a [WorldTour] license," Boyer said. "However, we didn't find anyone to replace him and gain the necessary UCI points. We remain on the same budget in 2011."

Today, Cofidis budget is estimated to be between 8.5 and 9 million Euros, which is far below that of the biggest WorldTour teams. It's actually around 3.5 million Euros less than when the team was last in the WorldTour in 2009.

So far, the team has been lucky to be given wildcard spots in the Tour de France, but other teams like Team Europcar, Saur-Sojasun and Bretagne Schuller are fighting for a spot as well. It's not easy.

"I think the situation will continue. The Tour will no longer be able to satisfy all the French teams," Boyer said. "More and more foreign teams are built with a budgets at around 12 million euros. They have great champions, who are expensive. The organizers cannot do without them. It's a pity [Estonian Rein] Taramaae is not French ... "

"If our team doesn't contest the Tour, then it doesn't exist. All of our best riders would leave."

Tour Méditerranéen has once more been added to the European Tour for the 2012 season, despite the fact that the race was said to be in jeopardy in December. At the time, the French Cycling Federation (FFC) announce that it had not granted a license to the event.

Thankfully the organisers met with the FFC and French Cycling League presidents and together they decided that the race would continue.

“While the Board of Directors of the Ligue Nationale de Cyclisme [National League of Cycling] has twice refused the placing of the Tour Mediterranean on the calendar, the French Cycling Federation (FFC) has, via its President, David Lappartient, ensured with the UCI that this race will indeed figure on the international calendar in 2012,”FFC wrote in a statement.

18 teams will start the 2012 race: WorldTour squads Vacansoleil-DCM, Saxo Bank, GreenEdge, FDJ - BigMat, Movistar, Garmin-Cervélo, Astana and AG2R-La Mondiale will be joined on the line by Accent.Jobs-Willems Veranda's, Acqua & Sapone, Team Type 1-Sanofi, Europcar, Cofidis, Bretagne Schuller, Spidertech and Saur Sojasun, as well as Continental teams VC La Pomme Marseille and Endura Racing.

The 38-year-old George Hincapie was expected to retire after the 2011 season, but decided to continue for yet another year. Now, it seems like he isn’t ruling out a continuance next year either.

The BMC Racing Team rider will start his nineteenth elite season in the Strade Bianche race in Italy on March 3rd.

“I am kind of on a month to month basis,” he told Velonation. “I am just really focussed on the now. This team is so cool…it has been a real pleasure just riding with them, the best riders in the world.

“For me, it is so exciting to see how far this team has come. I know I have played a big part in how big it has become, so right now I just want to enjoy that.

“I’ll make a proper decision and announcement sometime in the middle or towards the end of the year.”

If everything works as planned, Hincapie will race the Tour de France, which means he will have particapted in a record of seventeen starts in the French Grand Tour.

Hincapie had a lot of personal success earlier in his career, but has mostly worked for others. When he left Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, many people believed Hincapie would now start winning a lot of races and become the team star. However, things didn't exactly turn out that way.

He never really became a star, just an extremely good domestique. Last year, he helped Cadel Evans to win the Tour de France in 2011 and he wants to do the same in 2012, but Hincapie also hopes to help the new signings Philippe Gilbert and Thor Hushovd in the spring Classics and other races.

“I have enjoyed spending time with them and I am really looking forward to racing with them,” he said.

If he enjoys things in the near future, don't be surprised to see him back in the peloton in 2013.

During the 2012 season British rider Bradley Wiggins wants to win the Tour de France and he will work hard to make his dream come true.

“It takes a lot to win the Tour de France. I certainly think I'm physically capable now – more than ever,” he told the Guardian. “I proved that last year. But it's as much about the process that goes into it in the eight months before the Tour as much as me saying: 'Yeah I can win it.' It's a way of life. A complete mentality and you need to buy into it a long way out. I've done that.

“It's just belief really. I believe in myself and the people around me. I just have to keep putting the work in, and I'll get the rewards. I just don't know what those rewards are yet.”

In the 2009 edition of the race, Wiggins went from being a rider who had never contended in a Grand Tour to someone that could win a Grand Tour in the future. He finished fourth that year, just 37 seconds off the podium. In 2010, the race didn’t go well for him but last season he is still strong when he won the Criterium du Dauphiné.

He was confident that he would be able to finish on the podium, but he crashed on stage seven and broke his collarbone. He had to abandon. A little more than one more later, he had recovered and went to the Vuelta a España, where he finished third overall.

“It was such a massive step forward for me, and Team Sky,” he said, “but I've not dwelled on it as much as other past successes. It's just been a case of: 'Right, let's move on to the next challenge.'”

“Last year proved that I've become much more of a complete rider,” he explained. “I'm not just a time triallist any more. I've become more of a climber now – who still keeps that time trial as strong as ever.

“It gives me such self-belief. I feel a different athlete. I feel a different person in a lot of ways. I feel much more professional and dedicated to my trade than I used to be. I appreciate this ability I've got – and don't take it for granted any more. That fits every aspect of my life now.”

This season, Wiggins has to goals for 2012, the Tour de France and also the Olympic time trial.

“That's the challenge – for me to do both,” he said. “So to actually beat Tony [Martin] in London and win the time trial would be huge, especially after the Tour.”

Tom Boonen (The Omega Pharma-Quick Step) has difficulties to choose if he would rather win Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders. He loves them just as much.

Last year, Boonen suffered from injuries and now he hopes “to be strong for the Spring Classics”.

Knee problems plagued him in 2010, then he opened the 2011 season in a good way, winning the first stage of the Tour of Qatar. He also won the Gent-Wevelgem for the second time, but after that race, problems started.

He abandoned the Tour de France with a concussion and the Vuelta a Espana with a broken scaphoid.

In the last two years I have had a list of 15 riders that I want to see while they are still racing, Boonen and Sergey Lagutin are the only two on the original list that I still haven't seen. Maybe this year I will have a chance to see at least Boonen, at least if he is injury free.

“As for injuries, they are overcome,” Boonen told biciciclismo.com. “This winter, in addition to my work on the bike, I have increased training in the gym. In the last two years I have had long periods of inactivity that made me lose my best physical tone, which I have now recovered. So I think I'll be stronger.”

Participating in some of the Spring Classics are of course his big goal. He really love those races.

“I cannot choose a single race. I'm going to train to be strong for the Spring Classics and be able to win any of them," he said. Even picking between Paris-Roubaix (which he won in 2005, 2008 and 2009) and the Tour of Flanders (which he won in 2005 and 2006) is impossible.

“Those two are the most important races of the year. It would be a success to win either one of them. I cannot choose one or the other. For me they are at the same level. I love them equally. It would be like choosing between Mom and Dad.”

If Team Sky wants to win the Tour de France, it should give the leadership role to Christopher Froome, Stephen Roche ays. He also says that the team's plan to go for both the yellow and green jerseys at the Tour this year could backfire.

Team principal Dave Brailsford has said, from the start of the team. that the team wants to take one Tour de France within five years.

“Initially I felt that that that was just a commercial pitch because a Tour de France winner doesn’t just come along like that,” Roche told telegraph.co.uk.

"So who’s Brailsford got in his pocket capable of winning the Tour? Wiggins? Well maybe now, but not at the time. But now we look at it differently so I think Brailsford was very courageous to come out and announce that," he said.

“For me, though, I think Froome is the one: he’s got a great attitude, great ability, he time-trials well, climbs well and recuperates very well and can last the three weeks. Ok, Bradley’s there, but he’s now targeted. People know Bradley, whereas Froome could benefit from the limelight being on Bradley and Cavendish.”

Mark Cavendish joined the team this year and plans to win the green points jersey again. If the team attempts to give him that jersey, plus taking the overall title, the team will have to work very hard, maybe too hard.

“They might, though, lose everything by targeting both. It will be very difficult for them,” said Roche.

“Cavendish has a habit of getting himself docked points for his conduct. In this year’s Tour any misconduct will be severely punished so if he realistically wants to win the green jersey he will have to be careful."

“How are they going to coordinate the sprints for Cavendish so that he’s happy he has a good lead-out? How are they going to cope with Froome and Wiggins when they can’t ride in the lead-out for Cavendish? Then Cavendish’s lead-out man can’t ride for them. It’s going to be a nightmare for the management, I wouldn’t like to be them at all.”

Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) is provisionally set to ride the Tour de France in 2012, but it seems like he would like to race the Giro d’Italia. The route of this year's Giro d'Italia suits him better than it did last season.

Liquigas co-leader Ivan Basso will be the leader in the Giro, but Nibali would like to give it a chance as well.

“If you ride the Giro, doing the Tour well isn’t possible,” Nibali told Biciciclismo. “I really like the Giro, it’s a race that has given me a lot and has a better route for me this year. I would like to ride it. Ivan will do the Giro and the Vuelta, I don’t think he will go to the Tour. But in any case, the season is long and the programme can change.”

Nibali has finished on the podium at the Giro in the past two seasons.

“For an Italian, the Giro is really beautiful. It’s hard to pass up on the Giro,” he said. “The Tour is a very important race and I haven’t ridden it since 2009. In fact, I prefer the route of the Tour because the climbs are longer but less steep, whereas at the Giro they’re shorter and more explosive. But the Giro is the Giro, and all that signifies…”

In the early part of the season, Nibali will race the Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and the Ardennes classics, after those races, his Grand Tour season will be fully decided.

“Tirreno and San Remo are goals. The last two years I’ve tried on the Poggio but it’s very difficult to get away alone, the route doesn’t suit me,” he said. “Even when Gilbert attacked last year, he couldn’t stop Goss from winning.”

This year, Thor Hushovd hopes to climb the podium at Paris-Roubaix and he hopes he takes the victory. A race, where he will get help from his BMC teammate George Hincapie.

“He's going to be very important,” Hushovd told ProCycling.no.

Hushovd won the Under-23 version of the race in 1998, and finished third in 2009 and second in 2010. Last year, he finished eighth.

Hincapie has long aimed for the top of the race himself, finishing second in 2005, but it seems like he has given up his dream.

Hincapie “is a rider who likes to pick up some extra motivation when he help a strong leader,” said Hushovd's personal trainer, Atle Kvålsvoll. “He showed that at Lance Armstrong's side, and he has done a good job for Cadel Evans. I think he would be happy to help Hushovd in Roubaix.

“He knows this race inside and out. He knows the game, makes the right choices along the way and is always where he should sit in the main field. Besides, Hincapie enjoys great respect, which makes it difficult to push away a rider. In Paris-Roubaix, it is he who controls the team on the road, while Thor can use his energy in the crucial places."

Laurent Jalabert believes that Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) can do something good at the world championships in Valkenburg in September. Jalabert was checking out the course on Tuesday.

“Thomas Voeckler has all the required qualities as well as the experience, physical resistance and intelligence,” Jalabert told L’Équipe.

If Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) races the Worlds, Jalabert says he might encourage the rider to attack in the early parts of the race.

“If it’s going to be decided on the final climb, then I don’t think he has the means to compete for the win,” he said. “But his best performances come when he goes on the attack 50km from the finish.”

The 2012 Worlds begin in Maastricht and the riders must race around 100km before reaching the circuit at Valkenburg. The first part has a lot of twisting roads and the riders must take it a little easy there, so that they don't make a lot of mistakes.

“The first 100km aren’t the most difficult, but they are delicate and you’ll have to take care that a break doesn’t go from distance,” he said. “After that, another race begins.”

When reaching the circuit, the peloton will tackle ten laps of a 16.5km circuit; a route that features the climbs of the Bemelerberg and the Cauberg.

“If a rider like Gilbert decides to attack on the Cauberg, he is capable of going all the way, but he might also stall.”

Oscar Pujol continues to train and prepare for the 2012 season, but there is one problem. He doesn't have team.

When training, he still wears his 2011 Omega Pharma team kit, but without a professional contract for 2012, and the time is running out. He must find a new team or he will have to get a new job.

“Things are a little complicated because I don’t have a team for this year but I’m still training normally and I’m still motivated,” the Spaniard told Cyclingnews.

“If I get an opportunity I want to be as strong as I can, so it’s important keep my head up and still work with the same attitude as before.”

Even if he hasn't found a team yet, he still hasn't considered retirement.

“I called everybody but they all said they were full. I’m not really looking for money, I just want to race and show myself. I really just want to enjoy the bike, that’s my real passion in life,” he said.

“At the moment I’ll carry on waiting. I don’t have a plan for the future at the moment but there are some options. I can maybe try mountain biking or cross but for now I’m focussing on road. I think I’m good enough to be in a big team, I just don’t know why there’s no opportunity at the moment.”

Race leader Francesco Chicchi won for the second straight day at the Tour de San Luis. Things didn't work exactly as his Omega Pharma-Quick Step had planned, but the team surely has no reason to compain, as teammate Tom Boonen took second. Both riders actually crossed the finish line in Juana Koslay with their arms aloft.

"It's the first time I win two stages in a row during the same race, it's a great feeling," Chicchi said. "Winter training and the serene atmosphere in the team are bringing in great results. Let me thank my team once again. The guys raced a team time trial again today and they took Tom and I by the hand up until the very last kilometre."

The team had planned to work hard for Boonen to win stage 2, as Chicchi won a stage yesterday, and before the stage, the uphill finish seemed to suit Boonen's strengths better.

"I was supposed to help Boonen's sprint in the end, seeing as that was what we had decided during the morning meeting," said Chicchi. "I started the sprint with [Jimmy] Casper and Tom right on my wheel. About 300 meters from the finish line I looked behind me and I didn't see Tom anymore."

Boonen didn't have the best run to the finish line and was a little worried in the last kilometer.

"It was pretty amazing," Boonen told Cyclingnews. "With one kilometre to go I thought I'd lost the sprint. There was a little incident and I lost maybe 10 or 15 spots and Chicchi didn't see me. I came back to the front on Casper's wheel, then I was on Chicchi's wheel. He started the sprint, then I started my sprint, and in the last 50 metres we saw each other side-by-side. We both put our hands up, none of us jumped, and it was nice."

The American rider Jake Keough (UnitedHealthcare) took third place.