More Criteriums over the weekend

Gert Steegmans of Team Quick Step, winner final stage of the Tour de France, beat his team-mates Tom Boonen and Leif Hoste in the Wolvertem, Belgium, criterium.

Milram's Niki Terpstra, who will ride both the road and track events in Beijing, won the criterium in Steenwijk, Netherlands. He beat Fränk Schleck (CSC) and Pieter Weening (Rabobank).

Björn Leukemans, whose testosterone-doping case is winding its way through the Belgian courts, won a criterium race in Buggenhout, Belgium, ahead of former Silence-Lotto team-mate Greg Van Avermaet and Geert Omloop of Mitsubishi-Jartazi.

Quadruple-Tour stage winner Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia continued his winning ways in Heerlen, Netherlands, beating Gert Steegmans (Quick Step) and Bram Tankink (Rabobank).

Over in Austria, Tour de France third-place finisher Bernhard Kohl (Gerolsteiner) won in Gmund ahead of Thomas Rohregger (Elk Haus) and René Haselbacher (Astana). On Friday, Kohl finished second in the Wiener Rathaus Kriterium, in Vienna, with Filippo Pozzato of Liquigas taking first and Haselbacher in third.

Erik Zabel (Milram) out-sprinted former-World Champion Mario Cipollini and Columbia's André Greipel in the Nacht von Hannover (Germany). Ronny Scholz of Gerolsteiner came in ahead of Milram's Ralf Grabsch and Columbia's Marcus Burghardt in Rhede. (SW)