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Subaru-Gary Fisher team rider Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski began his mountain bike racing career in Winter Park, Colorado, just south of the SolVista Resort, the site of the 2009 and 2010 Mountain Bike National Championships. For all intents it’s a home course for JHK and his wife, fellow Subaru-Gary Fisher racer, Heather Irmiger, who each took home national cross-country titles this weekend.

Defending Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre lashed out Monday for being shown a "lack of respect" coming into this year's race. And the Spaniard, now almost out of contention for a second consecutive victory on the race, said he believes that "certain riders" are conspiring to make sure he does not win the Tour de France. After the first of three days in the Alps Sastre's yellow jersey hopes have faded after he slipped further down the general classification on Sunday's summit finish to Verbier.

Spanish newspapers on Monday celebrated Alberto Contador's seizure of the yellow jersey in the Tour de France declaring that his win on Sunday marked the end of an era for Lance Armstrong. "Contador marks the end of Armstrong," reported top-selling daily newspaper El Pais which published a photo of the smiling 26-year-old Spanish rider as he donned the yellow jersey he had not worn since his Tour win in 2007.

Georgia Gould (Luna) and Adam Craig (Giant) out-suffered their respective fields to claim short-track wins at the 2009 USA Cycling national mountain bike championships in Granby, Colorado. The two proved strongest on the course at the SolVista resort, which featured a single long, lung-searing climb to the top of a beginner ski hill and a loose, winding descent back to the start/finish. The loop was noticeably large at nearly half a mile in length, and the course’s size stretched out the field in both races.??

“Contador was the strongest today,” Saxo Bank’s Fränk Schleck said shortly after Sunday’s intense stage 15 to Verbier. “And now it will be very difficult for us to win the Tour de France. But we will try again.” Saxo Bank surprised many on Sunday by being the team that took charge of the race on the initial slopes of the 8km climb to the finish. “We launched the attack like we planned,” said team boss Bjarne Riis. “And we are very pleased with … the results of our efforts to create the race.”

The 15th stage of the Tour de France marked a big shift of momentum in the race for the yellow jersey. Photographer Casey Gibson was there to catch the action.

Five kilometers of Swiss asphalt was all the Alberto Contador needed to show the Tour de France peloton who’s the new boss. The Spanish climber spun his spindly legs to drop Lance Armstrong, the Schleck brothers and all the other doubters and second-guessers who have been needling him for months about whether he could win the Tour. Contador pulled out his imaginary pistol and shot those doubters right between the eyes.

Britain's Bradley Wiggins called for calm on Sunday as he produced a "fantastic" display of climbing on the Tour de France 15th stage to move up to third overall in the standings. "It's a long way to go, let's not get too excited," said the Garmin-Slipstream rider, who now has only Astana’s Lance Armstrong and new race leader Alberto Contador in front of him. Wiggins, a track specialist who is the reigning world and Olympic pursuit champion, has stunned admirers and rivals alike with a consistent display throughout that has kept him in contention for the yellow jersey.

Saxo Bank leader Andy Schleck insisted Sunday that his team will "try until we die" to take the yellow jersey from Alberto Contador and his Astana team. Contador dominated Sunday's 15th stage on the first of three days in the Alps after leaving his rivals behind on the 8.8km climb into the Swiss ski resort of Verbier. Schleck, who claimed the white jersey for the highest-finishing rider aged 25 and under last year, was the only contender to counter-attack Contador and in the end his gutsy performance moved him up to fifth overall at 2:26.

An emotional Cadel Evans said he suffered the "worst day" of his Tour de France career on Sunday's 15th stage where he slipped back to over four minutes off the leading pace. The Silence-Lotto rider started the 207.5km stage from Pontarlier three minutes and seven seconds adrift but after the 8.8km climb to Verbier had lost still more time, slipping to 4:27 behind new race leader Alberto Contador (Astana).

Lance Armstrong has conceded that his dreams of winning an eighth yellow jersey in the Tour de France this year may have been shattered on Sunday’s climb to Verbier. Armstrong was left suffering early on the 8.8km climb to Verbier, where teammate Alberto Contador launched a decisive attack that showed him to be Astana's best chance of winning the race. The 37-year-old American said afterwards Contador had proved that he is the "strongest rider in the race.” And he indicated that it would now be difficult for him to aim for an eighth Tour crown.