CPA meeting held in Liège

87 riders, including Di Luca, Bettini, Valverde, Moncoutié, Chavanel, Wesemann, Voigt, Dekker, Gilbert, Kirchen and Jeker took part in the meeting of the CPA (riders association) that was held in Liège under Francesco Moser's presidency. Expressing their desire to play an increasingly important role within professional cycling, they asked the International Cycling Union to be more attentive to their opinions.

Among other points, the riders expressed themselves about the road racing reform, the ProTour, which the riders generally support. Nevertheless, the rider representatives expect their minimum salary to proportionally increase with the growing number of race days required by all the UCI ProTour teams. It was concluded that the amount of €50,000 will have to be reached in the next few years.

The riders accepted the principle of the participation of the professional continental teams in the UCI ProTour events. However, they pointed out that all the participants in the same race should be subjected to the same rules with regard to the fight against doping (medical monitoring, and the riders' whereabouts for out-of-competition testing).

Steve Hed is the aerodynamics guru who makes sure that Lance Armstrong and the Discovery Channel team have the quickest, slipperiest equipment for the all-important time trials in events like Georgia and the Tour de France. Cyclingnews' Mark Zalewski spoke to Hed before the Georgia stage three time trial to find out what's new and what's coming in time trial equipment.

Cyclingnews' was able to have a chat with the guru behind many of the latest advancements in bicycle aerodynamics in between tweaks and adjustments. We kicked off by asking Hed about the most recent improvements in time trial technology.

Steve Hed: It's interesting. Time trial bikes are finally catching up. Now what you are seeing is going to be interesting -- to see who does the next [big] redesign. I mean people are looking at what everyone else is doing and it all looks pretty good. Things are more sleek and a lot more aero than they were four or five years ago.