Haussler kicks himself for missing out when most kneeded (pun intended). And for Hushovd, what a way to make your season.

Now that was like a real race. One moment the sprinters were in and then they were out. Gilbert made his expected bold bid but too far out; yet it wasn't his fault - where else could he attack? And when it looked like a faltering Gilbert would get caught by the defending champion, they were all swallowed up by the dropped yet regrouped riders instead. And when the name "Hushovd" was seen to be included in the re-combined front group - well the obvious was about to happen, and it did.

I bet Haussler was kicking himself for racing too soon on that crook knee.  

UCI Road World Championships: Elite Men Road Race, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com

It was a course for the tough sprinter; a man made of iron that could get over the climbs and launch a brutal uphill sprint: enter Thor Hushovd (Norway). The final sprint in Geelong, Australia was perfectly suited to the Norwegian rider and with a clear run down the left hand barrier, Hushovd secured a year in the rainbow colours of UCI Road World Champion.

The good news

Now for some good news?

• Allan Davis (as expected) won the final stage of the Qinghai tour. Plenty of Aussies finished this hard, high-altitude race, too, as this pic attests. Rhys Pollck was best placed Aussie overall
• Aussie-laden HealthNet-Maxxis won the Tour de Toona TTT (helps to have Nathan O'Neill on the team, let alone Karl Menzies and Rory Sutherland...).
  

Other races, other places...

Nice win for Karl Menzies at Superweek, where Karl leads and Jonathan Clarke is in 2nd overall.

And Allan Davis has pulled off another sprint win in the Qinghai tour. That's 3 so far...

DiLuca tops Giro, Zabel confesses.. and more

Danilo DiLuca has taken the lead (again) in what is turning out to be a good, combative Giro. With the Zoncolan still to come, it may still become great. Simoni proved his worth again and Cunego is not far off the pace. The hillclimb TT comes next, which should give Cunego a boost. We shall see!

Meanwhile a tearful Erik Zabel has confessed to EPO doping in the '96 TdF. He dropped it quickly, he says, due to side effects and was obviously regretful - as you would be. His teammate at the time, Rolf Aldag, admitted at the same T-Mobile press conference (hmmm, funny that Zabel gate-crashed this party, eh?) to more extensive doping and stopped when his haematocrit was consistently over 50. I guess he got a bit worried about (a) getting caught and (b) adverse health effects. I don't balme him, or Erik for that matter. We are all fallible and build our lives incrementally on our decisions, both good and bad. Sometimes we make mistakes - but seeing that it's a mistake and righting it matters. Admitting to doping when you're unlikely to be caught - although there's more than just a slight chance of being given up by the suspect T-Mobile doctor or even one of your ex-teammates - takes a lot of strength. Zabel could have just sat on it and waited but chose to come clean before his name was brought up. Is there a lesson here for other ex-T-Mobile /Telekom riders?

And some good news - Alby Davis takes a win after some close results. He bested both Baden Cooke and Bennati in the Catalunya stage 3 sprint. Tell us again you really weren't involved in Operacion Puerto and Dr Fuentes, Allan. Thinking of which, another rider cleared of Puerto-affiliation - Oscar Sevilla - took a tough stage 4, Michael Rogers taking 2nd. Both riders moved up the classification and will fight it out in the TT. For which I can hardly wait!