World cyclo-cross cham­pion Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) ended his sea­son on a high with vic­tory in the Cyclocross Masters indoor race in Hasselt.

Riders faced sec­tions of sand, jumps, steps and logs as thou­sands of cross fans watched the rid­ers for the last time this win­ter. There was a party atmos­phere at the event as the rid­ers enjoyed their last race before tak­ing a break.

Albert came back from a poor start to join Sven Nys, Zdenek Stybar and Kevin Pauwels at the head of the race. Nys looked set to win after a pow­er­ful surge but he made a mis­take on the final cor­ner and Albert quickly took advan­tage and sprinted to vic­tory. Stybar fin­ished sec­ond, with Nys just a lit­tle fur­ther behind. Pauwels fin­ished fourth.

Albert had a dif­fi­cult first part of the sea­son and was affected by a wrist injury. However after switch­ing to Colnago bikes in January, he peaked per­fectly for the world cham­pi­onships and rode away from his rivals to take the rain­bow jer­sey in Koksijde, in front of thou­sands of Belgian cyclo-cross fans.

“I’ve won nine races and became the world cham­pion. I can lived with that,” Albert joked after his amaz­ing season.

Albert, Nys and all the other cyclo-cross rid­ers will now take a well-earned break from rac­ing before switch­ing to the road in the sum­mer to lay down the foun­da­tions for next winter’s cyclo-cross season.

A few hours after the Hasselt race, Nys tweeted: “Away from the world, no tweets, sms or phone. Next week I’ll be back.”

Ernesto Colnago is 80 today and has cel­e­brated his birth­day with a spe­cial lim­ited edi­tion bike that is set to become a col­lec­tors’ item.

The spe­cial bike is called the C59 Ottanta – which means eighty in Italian and has a gold fin­ish. It was inspired by the iconic Colnago bikes of the past that were used so suc­cess­fully by so many leg­endary pro­fes­sional rid­ers and loved by thou­sands of cyclists around the world.

The C59 Ottanta has Master-like arabesque lug dec­o­ra­tions and Ernesto Colnago’s sig­na­ture, yet is made from the best pos­si­ble car­bon fibre and fit­ted with Campagnolo Super Record EPS 11s elec­tronic components.

Colnago is known for its iconic ace of clubs logo but the C59 Ottanta has a spe­cial head badge: the orig­i­nal ‘Eagle and Arrow’ logo that was cre­ated in 1954 inspired by a head­line in the local news­pa­per that described Colnago as fast as an arrow when he won a race.

Just 80 exam­ples of this very spe­cial lim­ited edi­tion bike will be made and 20 have already been snapped up by col­lec­tors around the world.

Despite turn­ing 80, Colnago was busy in his office in Cambiago, pre­fer­ring to work than cel­e­brate his birth­day. He is still the first to arrive at the Colnago offices, just across the street from his home and is always the last to leave. Most peo­ple are hap­pily retired at 80 but Colnago does not intend to retire just yet.

“My 80th birth­day is an inter­me­di­ate sprint, it’s the not the fin­ish of my race. I still love to work and cre­ate new bikes. I don’t want a cake or a big party, the spe­cial bike is my way of shar­ing my birth­day,” he said.

Pierre Rolland defied the cold and the chas­ing pelo­ton at the Etoile de Bessèges to give Team Europcar its first win of the 2012 season.

Rolland was the rev­e­la­tion of the 2011 Tour de France, win­ning the stage to L’Alpe d’Huez and the best young rider’s white jer­sey. He used his class and excel­lent early sea­son form to ensure his Colnago C59 was first over the line.

Rolland raced with con­fi­dence. He secured a place in the eight-rider break­away that shaped the stage; then while other rid­ers strug­gled and were left behind, he and Franck Vermeulen man­aged to hold off the chas­ing pelo­ton on the fin­ish­ing cir­cuits and then Rolland won the two-rider sprint.

“All the guys rode really well,” Team Europcar directeur sportif Ishmael Mottier explained. “We placed two rid­ers in the first break of 13 rid­ers and then when they came back, Pierre made the race hard and forced the break. He’s had a good win­ter, he’s con­fi­dent of his form and you can see it in the way he’s rac­ing. He wanted to pay back the other guys in the team for their work.”

Thanks to his stage vic­tory, Rolland now has an excel­lent chance of over­all vic­tory in the early sea­son stage race.