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Snowmass NORBA: Kabush, Marks-Marino grab STXC wins

Snowmass NORBA: Kabush, Marks-Marino grab STXC wins

Pruitt and her rig

Joel Panozzo finally nails one

The mad scramble

Todd Wells

Grabbing on to the Luna Train

Course: Time-trial courses don’t come much tougher than this one. From downtown St.-Etienne, the course heads north toward a 7km climb through the village of St. Héand and into the Lyonnais hills. The first time check (17km) is close to the day’s high point at 2769 feet elevation (more than 1000 feet above the start) along a twisting ridge road. Around half-distance, a tortuousdescent drops to the village of St.-Romain-en-Jarez at 1598 feet before a 5km Cat.3 climb lifts the riders back up to 2454 feet at the Col de la Gachet (40km) for the second time split. The final 15km heads down a

Lance Armstrong roared to victory in Saturday's 55.5km time trial in the last real race of his remarkable 14-year career. And he did it with trademark panache, something that some journalists suggested he was lacking this year as he methodically picked apart the competition en route to an unprecedented seventh Tour crown. "Someone asked if you don't win a stage, they say you don't have panache," Armstrong said after beating Jan Ullrich by 23 seconds in the stage 20 time trial. "I came with the intention of doing one thing; that was to win the overall." Barring disaster, Armstrong

This is it: the final time trial of Lance Armstrong’s career. A time trial that offers him the chance to take his only stage win of this Tour, and his first victory of any sort in the 2005 season. If that is not motivation enough for the Discovery Channel team leader and six-time defending champion then there is the desire to impress some of the special guests, such as politician John Kerry and movie star Tom Hanks, who have already arrived at the Tour for Armstrong’s gala celebration banquet Sunday night in Paris. Armstrong goes into his last truly competitive event — Sunday’s road race

Stage Results1. Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, 1:11:462. Jan Ullrich (G), T-Mobile, 00:233. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), T-Mobile, 01:164. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, 01:335. Ivan Basso (I), CSC, 01:546. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, 02:027. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 02:068. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, 02:259. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), Illes Balears, 02:5110. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Illes Balears, 03:05 11. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery Channel, 03:0912. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 03:1013. Christophe Moreau (F), Credit Agricole, 03:1114. Levi Leipheimer (USA),

Australian cycling is crippled in pain by the death of national road team member Amy Gillett and the injuries of her five teammates from an out of control car plowing into them while training in Germany on Monday. The healing process for the sport and the many individuals affected by what happened has only just begun - if at all it can be ever completed. So great are the ramifications likely to be from what must surely be one of the most unimaginably horrific tragedies to ever hit Australian sport. It is a process that began within 24 hours of the incident when organizers of the event

Lance Armstrong knows exactly where he will be next July - sitting in front of his television watching his soon-to-be ex-rivals Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso battle it out for the yellow jersey. Armstrong, who won the 20th and penultimate stage of the Tour de France on Saturday, will retire after the end of Sunday’s 144km 21st stage when he will have guaranteed a seventh consecutive victory on the race. Last year, when he broke the record of the four other riders who, before him, had won the race five times, there had been a reason for sticking around. This year, he said, it was all about

Australian Robbie McEwen will become one of the Tour de France's all-timegreats if he wins a fourth stage in Paris on Sunday. If McEwen wins the 144.5km 21st and final stage of the 3607km Tour onthe Champs Élysées, he will be only the 14th rider – andseventh sprinter – in the post-war era to win four or more stages on theone Tour. “He would be a hero,” said McEwen's Davitamon-Lotto team manager, HendrikRedant. “To win four stages in one Tour is amazing. There are not a lotof guys except those like Eddy Merckx. It will be really, really special.” Merckx, who won the Tour de France

Geek-bikes and skinsuits, bars shaped like wings . . . these are a few of our favorite things. And Casey Gibson was there at the stage-20 time trial to snag a few more shots for our virtual scrapbook. Here they are.

Kerry chums it up with Discovery crewSen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) was hanging out at the Discovery Channel bus before the start of the 20th stage of the Tour de France. Dressed in a button-down sports shirt, chinos and penny-loafers, the cyclist and former presidential candidate looked on as Lance Armstrong warmed up for the race on his stationary bike. With hundreds of fans looking on, and scores of photographers snapping pictures of the scene, Kerry chatted with George Hincapie, Chris Carmichael and Sheryl Crow. “I wished him well and congratulated him on an extraordinary accomplishment,

With his seventh consecutive Tour de France victory locked up, Lance Armstrong is ready to ride the final stage of his final Tour and the very last competitive event of his professional cycling career. He did say Saturday night that after retirement he might show up to race a local cyclo-cross or mountain-bike race, or even a 10K run or triathlon. But this is it for Lance the pro cyclist. Stage 21 of the 92nd Tour de France finishes on the Champs-Élysées for the 30th year. It previously finished in the velodromes at Vincennes (1968-74) and the Parc des Princes (1904-67). The first Tour, in

Sen. John Kerry thinks Lance Armstrong would make a terrific politician -- but fears he'd be running for the other party. Watching Armstrong during his warmup for Saturday's time trial, the Democrat from Massachusetts listed the Texan's winning qualities. “What's made him so special at the Tour de France, and as an athlete, is the level of focus, discipline, intelligence, strategic ability, and obviously, his endurance - his ability to just take it on and go,” Kerry said. Those qualities would serve Armstrong well in politics, Kerry said. But Armstrong is also friendly

Standing under an overhanging roof 40 minutes after the completion of the men’s cross-country at the NORBA national stop in Snowmass on Saturday, Geoff Kabush couldn’t help but feel a little lucky. Not only had he just grabbed a come-from-behind victory on the steep slopes of this Colorado ski resort, but he’d done so just minutes before a wicked summer squall rolled across the valley, dumping so much rain that the mountain cross had to be postponed until Sunday. “It would have sucked to be out in this,” said Kabush, turning a leery eye towards the hard-falling rain that according to race

Hello!I made the final podium in Paris! Well, assuming nothing happens on the final ride to the finish. For me, today’s time trial went pretty much as I had hoped and expected. What happened to Mickael Rasmussen was absolutely awful for him. I regret not winning the stage, but I have to admit that Lance was, once again, the best one out there. For T-Mobile, we earned two very beautiful stage wins – the two won by Vino’ and Guero’- but again, we come away without the one prize we had our eyes on: the yellow jersey. The fact that we failed in that effort yet again is disappointing to us as a

Scott Moninger (Health Net-Maxxis) won the annual Bob Cook Memorial Mount Evans Hillclimb on Saturday. Run under warm temperatures and sunny skies, the 28-mile race – which starts at 7540 feet in Idaho Springs and climbs to the 14,264-foot summit of Mount Evans - was a far cry from last year’s cold and stormy conditions. But that doesn mean Moninger's win came easily. Team TIAA-CREF went on the attack early, sending national champ Ian MacGregor up the road. A chase group containing Moninger, former world mountain bike champion Ned Overend (Specialized), Boulder racer Burke Swindlehurst

Stage 20 - St.-Etienne to St.-Etienne >55.5km

Stage 20 - St.-Etienne to St.-Etienne >55.5km

Armstrong gets his stage win and clinches victory in Paris

Rasmussen started six minutes before Armstrong, so this was not a good sign.

Local and international cyclists created a memorial to Gillett at the site of this week's tragedy.

McEwen may not get the jersey again, but he wants another win on the Champs Élysées

Did this cost Robbie the jersey? Well, do the math....

Karpets set the early top time

A raging Ullrich bumped teammate Vino' down a notch

Julich had a solid ride

Vino' showed his strength

Dad goes out as a champ

Rasmussen had an appalling ride

Landis crossed sixth

Hincapie finished eighth

Horner finished 25th

Basso started fast, but faded

Commentator Jean-Rene Godart has some fans, it seems

You think the French are tired of not winning their national tour?

Beloki, the invisible man

And Horner, who - incredibly - is having fun in a 55.5km time trial after 19 stages of high-speed racing through France

Julich rolls it to a solid fourth

Leipheimer did less well, but looks set for that top-five finish he's been dreaming of

Future racers, or just today's young fans?

A fan cannot survive the Tour on mineral water, you know

It was a little humid in Snowmass

The men blaze the start

Vanlandingham is in another league right now . . .

. . . as teammate Alison Dunlap rolls toward retirement

Course: At 153.5km, this is the 2005 Tour’s second shortest road stage, but certainly not the easiest. The climbs aren’t particularly difficult, but the roads are often narrow and twisting, the perfect ingredients for another breakaway. There’s a fast downhill toward Le Puy before a final short, up-and-down loop into the backside of town. History: Only two Tour stages have finished at Le Puy. The last time, in 1996, the stage went to the Swiss Pascal Richard, who went on to take the following month’s Olympic title in Atlanta. Favorites: Teams yet to win a stage will be going for the

This time Giuseppe Guerini saw the people who wanted to take his photo. En route to winning Friday's stage 19, a hilly 153km from Issoire to Le Puy-en-Velay, Guerini enjoyed a clean run to the finish line. That’s something he didn’t get on his way to winning at L'Alpe d'Huez in 1999. Back then, a fan - the now infamous "Erik the Photographer" - capturing Guerini’s victorious pedal strokes about a kilometer from the line forced the Italian to fall before finishing. “Yes, L’Alpe d'Huez is more dangerous,” said a smiling Guerini, 35, when reminded at his post-stage press

Stage Results1. Giuseppe Guerini (I), T-Mobile, 3:33:04, 43.225kmp for 153.5km2. Sandy Casar (F), Francaise des Jeux, 00:103. Franco Pellizotti (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:104. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Phonak, 00:125. Salvatore Commesso (I), Lampre, 02:436. Arvesen Kurt-Asle (Nor), CSC, 02:487. Nicolas Portal (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, 02:488. Bert Grabsch (G), Phonak, 02:489. Sylvain Chavanel (F), Cofidis, 02:4810. Pieter Weening (Nl), Rabobank, 03:50 11. Jose Azevedo(P), Discovery Channel, 04:2112. Carlos Da Cruz (F), Francaise des Jeux, 04:2113. Juan Antonio Flecha (Sp), Fassa Bortolo, 04:2114.

Leipheimer aiming for fifthLevi Leipheimer needs a strong ride in Saturday’s 55.5km individual time trial at Saint Etienne to reach his stated goal of finishing among the Tour’s top five. Standing in front of him is Spanish rider Francisco Mancebo, fifth overall at 1:04 ahead of sixth-place Leipheimer. Under normal conditions, Leipheimer is a stronger, more consistent time trialist, but the final week of the Tour is something else altogether. “It will be difficult to make up more than a minute in the time trial,” Leipheimer said. “It's not a normal time trial. It's hilly and that

Sprinter Alessandro Petacchi ended his six-season stay with Fassa Bortolo by signing with the team's top Italian rival, Domina Vacanze, on Friday. The 31-year-old cyclist, who opted out of the Tour de France to keep himself fresh for the world road race championship in September, has agreed a three-season deal. Petacchi received other offers but wanted to stay in Italy. Having lost their top rider and with their main sponsor pulling out, the Fassa Bortolo team will fold at the end of the current season.

On Thursday T-Mobile took back the lead in the overall team competition of the Tour and Jan Ullrich took back 36 seconds from Mickael Rasmussen, putting himself in a good position to claim the third podium spot in the final time trial on Saturday. Victory in the team competition and third overall, results most teams would be very pleased with at the end of the Tour. Not so T-Mobile. “We’re disappointed that we didn’t get the yellow jersey,” says new team director, former star sprinter Olaf Ludwig. “That was clearly our goal. We wanted to isolate Lance, which we managed to do a few times.

Second act for Cipo'?The recently retired Italian champion Mario Cipollini may make a second career as a television personality. According to Eurosport, the deep-voiced playboy was close to accepting an offer to work as one of the broadcaster’s “consultants” for the Tour de France – the expert commentators narrating the broadcast. “We wanted to have Cipollini too,” says executive producer Patrick Chassé, who oversees the Eurosport coverage. “He wanted to spend the holidays with his family, so it was not possible.” “Maybe next year,” says Chassé. McEwen ready to rage on

The reasons behind those long stemsDear Lennard,Judging from photos, it seems that the pros favor longer stems than the rest of us. Is there any truth in this observation? If so, does it have to do with pros being fitted with smaller frames than amateur/recreational riders, or just preferring a longer reach?Tom Dear Tom,Yes, they definitely do favor long stems. For instance, all of the Bontrager carbon stems on the Discovery team bikes are 140mm. Riders on the team using shorter stems (130mm mostly) do not have carbon stems because only 140mm stems were delivered at the team training camp in

The Tour may be winding down, but our man Casey Gibson isn't. He's still snapping away out there; here's what caught his eye on stage 19.

Simon Gillett has gone to the University Clinic in Jena, Germany, to visit five Australian cyclists injured in the tragic accident that claimed the life of his wife, 29-year-old Amy Gillett, on Tuesday. Gillett died instantly when a teenage driver lost control of her vehicle, crossed to the other side of the road and plowed into the six-member Australian women's team, which was training for the Thuringen Rundfahrt, which was to start the next day. Gillett's funeral will be held July 29 in Ballarat. South Australian Alexis Rhodes, 20, and Tasmanian Louise Yaxley, 23, remain in

I just competed in my hometown race, the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge (AVC). The AVC has always been one of my favorite races, but it wasn’t in my plans for the season until I broke my back and was given a leave of absence my team in Switzerland. I returned to Portland, thinking there’s no place like home to recover. I got back on the bike after a couple weeks, and figured that since I was here and on the bike again, maybe I’d be able to race. My coach argued that normally, one should get a full month of just riding before even thinking about the sort of intensity that a race like this

After four races spread out over three and a half months, the battle for the men’s overall cross-country title on the NORBA National Mountain Bike Series couldn’t be any closer. Coming off last weekend’s event at Schweitzer Mountain Resort, Idaho, American Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and Canadian Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) are dead even with 642 points apiece. That will make Saturday’s men’s cross-country event at stop No. 5 in Snowmass, Colorado, the featured event on a day that will also include the women’s cross-country, plus a full slate of evening mountain-cross action. The

This is not the time for Lance Armstrong to take chances, push harder, let it all hang out. Unless, that is, he wants to check off the one accomplishment he's lacked on his final Tour de France: a stage win to call his own. The Discovery Channel captain has taken and held a commanding overall lead without winning a single stage, and Saturday's final time trial gives him an excellent chance to change that. The rolling 55.5km route at Saint-Etienne in central France should suit a fast roller and climber like Armstrong. But it will also severely test legs worn out by the thousands of

Stage 19 - Issoire to Le Puy-en-Velay >153.5km

Stage 19 - Issoire to Le Puy-en-Velay >153.5km

Guerini collects a second career Tour stage win

Casar took the sprint for second, not the prize he was after.

Guerini gets the green light from T-Mobile

Illes Balears works to keep the gap reasonable.

Pelizzotti joins in to add some horsepower

Is this contest already settled?

Nicely timed, Giuseppe,

Guerini was almost denied his 1999 stage win.

After gluing up nine sets of tubulars, clinchers probably start looking pretty good

Why is this man laughing?

Probably because he thinks this man is going to win the 2006 Tour

Landis and his James Bond eyewear