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Results from urine and blood samples provided by Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and the rest of his US Postal team at last year's Tour de France will not be released for "at least another month", prosecutors in Paris announced Thursday. The decision means that any remaining suspicion surrounding the American team will have to be allayed until after this year's 88th Tour de France which starts in Dunkirk on July 7 and ends in Paris on July 29. "The results from tests made on the urine and blood samples provided by the US Postal team in last year's Tour de France are not

The French dictionary of place names tells us that Dunkirk, city of 70,000 inhabitants, county seat of the Nord department, takes its name from a Dutch word meaning "church of the dunes." According to the same source, the region was reunited with France in 1658, after being ruled by the Spanish monarchy. But other sources tell us that it wasn’t until 1911, with the first appearance of the Tour de France in Dunkirk, that the city actually felt itself to be French. After this, the Tour’s history took its course: Charles Crupelandt, stage winner here in 1912, succeeded Gustave Garrigou; Marcel

St. Omer has grown up around the Notre Dame basilica and St. Denis church. It is a city of art and history, a city that holds, in its Sandelin Museum, beautiful ceramics from Delft, paintings, archaeological artifacts and a masterpiece in gold -- the foot of the cross of St. Bertrin. In short, despite its history of considerable suffering (St. Omer was bombed during both World Wars), life here is good. We suppose it would be even better were it not for a small problem -- never, in 87 editions, has the city hosted the Tour de France! But St. Omer will emerge instantly from its anonymity

If the words carry a double meaning, this hamlet of Le Tap-Cul, which the race swallows in the guise of an hors-d’oeuvre, could be much more than a simple point on the map: an invitation, a warning…. Because in cycling, "tape-cul" (literally "slap-ass") means potholes and cobblestones, potholes and echelons, potholes and pitfalls -- in short, everything the vocabulary can imagine as soon as the peloton rides the back roads of the North. Leaving Calais, this Monday stage heads directly toward Flanders; at 1:30 p.m. it will cross the Belgian border. In Leisele, Gijverinkhove and Hoogstade,

The first time that the Tour de France came to Belgium, on June 26, 1947, a fiery sun was broiling the countryside and Frenchman René Vietto from the Côte d’Azur gave everyone a lesson. Vietto, a natural climber, transformed himself into a flatlander, or should we say a Flandrian; and the best Belgians of the time -- Raymond Impanis, Briek Schotte, Albert Sercu and Prosper Depredomme -- lived the supreme humiliation of being dropped 100km from the finish. "My old friend René," wrote Jacques Goddet for L’Équipe the next day, "you have just accomplished the finest exploit of your career,

The difficult opening to this stage, with its Ardennes climbs of Celles, Marquisette, Ave-et-Auffe and Rendu, should not fool us. The day’s 215km are theoretically reserved for the sprinters, and the renowned Tom Steels could again make his strength known, as long as the German Erik Zabel -- already a record five-time winner of the green jersey -- doesn’t decide to lay the foundations for a sixth triumph in the points competition in Verdun. Aah, Verdun. With or without cycling, for every Frenchman Verdun remains a name that defies understanding, where thousands of soldiers were

When the team time trial returned to the Tour schedule last year, someone wrote of the Nantes-St. Nazaire stage: "We no longer count the big ships that never returned to port, sunk along the way by relays too strong, or not strong enough!" The ONCE team -- clear winners last year (in 70km, they beat U.S. Postal by 46 seconds, Telekom by 1:26, Crédit Agricole by 1:32 and Rabobank by 2:12) -- finished the Tour de France utterly exhausted, while their Spanish rivals, Kelme, Festina and Banesto, came back into the picture and took the first three places in the final team classification. How can

Stage 6 starts in the center of Commercy, which the Tour is discovering for the first time. A rolling start occurs five minutes later, followed by the Void-Vacon hill at the 10th kilometer, and a long trek across the Meuse, Meurthe-et-Moselle and Vosges regions. Certainly, the stage is set, but we know nothing of the strength and the standings of the principal players. Because on this day after the team time trial, like the day after a party, it’s time to take stock -- the optimists find the bottle half-full, the pessimists judge it to be half-empty. Reading the general classification is

Nothing has changed on the face of the Tour, and the questions that arose yesterday still arise today: Who is in command, who has lost time, who wants to hold on and who wants to do it over? In other words, what remains of the team time trial -- which was presented as the Tour’s first big showdown? Without the ability to foresee the placings, we can still make the following statement: This new stage is short (162.5km); it plays out on terrain that begins to show some elevation, since it connects the Col du Kreuzweg at kilometer 48, the Col de Fouchy at kilometer 67, the Haut-de-Ribeauvillé

Would they already need to take a breather? In any case, on paper, the 222.5km between Colmar and Pontarlier evoke what we call the "stages of transition" — in other words, stages that should just exist to move the race between the more important stages, and so not be a threat to the team leaders. In some way, St. Omer–Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais–Antwerp, Huy–Verdun, Commercy–Strasbourg, Pontarlier–Aix-les-Bains, Pau–Lavaur and Brive–Montluçon also fall into that category this year. It remains, though, that once on the road, maps tend to merge; the history of cycling doesn’t place less

We finally notice it once it enters its second week: this Tour de France is not like the others, and even if it does not claim, with its 3462km, to be the shortest in history (the first editions, almost a century ago, were less than 2500km), it nevertheless equates to a rather low average stage distance. Therefore, since the team time trial, the succession of fairly short stages, multiplying the number of stops, creates the impression that we are postponing, day by day, the head-on collision with the race’s core. A second reading would lead us to believe that the organizers are controlling

Return to the mountainsSince this morning, they are no longer the same, and since we must write what they have become in less than a night, we will portray them as tense, nervous, irritable, distrustful and even elusive, which a psychologist would translate into a simple formula: The racers are scared! Yes, from the first to the last, from the smallest to the biggest, from Jacky Durand who still keeps his good mood, to those who have proven themselves in the mountains -- Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, Roberto Heras and Francesco Casagrande -- all are apprehensive of this day that brings to

Despite a night having passed, the tension hasn’t dropped, and the images of yesterday continue to dance in our minds, confirming Antoine Blondin’s beautiful proposition: "Three-quarters of a century of existence have sufficed for the Tour de France to create and exalt its own privileged geography. Among the modifications that, from one year to the next, can affect the itinerary, we find the permanence of certain hallowed places. They lend to the race a fourth dimension, situated in time, and contribute to the foundation of a sort of classicism." Needless to say, the classicism passed

A second phase of the Tour de France begins today, the morning after the Tour’s first rest day. And what a bizarre and time-warped Tour de France it is -- similar to a Pepe le Moko clock about which legendary cycling historian Pierre Chany once wrote: "When the clock strikes noon, it’s 10 o’clock or 3 o’clock, or even 5 o’clock!" In other words, this "second" Tour is not the same for everyone. If you had to place bets this morning, you could imagine that of the riders in front and the riders behind, the riders ahead are not necessarily those who are best-placed on G.C. For example, consider

It was as if a bomb had exploded on the race: Raymond Poulidor had dropped Eddy Merckx! At 38, the man who writer Antoine Blondin nicknamed "the quadragenarian" had attacked the Belgian legend as they started climbing a mountain that was new to the Tour, but would become infamous from the moment that Poulidor left the master behind. That’s because in this month of July 1974, the battle that unfolded between Seo de Urgel and St. Lary-Soulan -- with the climbs of the Col du Portillon and the Col de Peyresourde, followed by the first-ever finish at the Pla d’Adet summit, at an elevation of 1680

Like kids the first day back at school, they arrive in droves, some laughing, some frowning, but all talking about the mountains with some trepidation. Mountains that embrace the sprinters when the clock strikes 11 but spit them out at the start of the evening, with legs as leaden as a ship’s anchor! Mountains that invite in the climbers and play with them, make fun of them, leaving them to curse in a loud voice, humiliated — but only for a while, because their anger subsides as their muscles stiffen. What time is it now? Two o’clock? Three o’clock? It must be 3 because they’ve already

Is this a third Tour de France that begins today? At first, the idea may make you smile, but the day after the second rest day, what sprinter doesn’t want to take the idea literally? And what sprinter doesn’t dream, on reading the race bible, of marking the race with his imprint and winning a stage? Remaining for the fast finishers are today’s stage to Lavaur, tomorrow’s at Sarran, Thursday’s at Montluçon, Saturday’s at Evry and, of course, Sunday’s in Paris, the toughest to win. Five of the six final stages have been laid out to please sprinters, a race that’s been invisible since July 16,

For sure, he will be there, and perhaps from the start in Castelsarrasin, capital of France’s Tarn-et-Garonne region, which like the finish town of Sarran is welcoming the Tour for the first time. According to some sources, he will follow the entire route in the flagship vehicle seated next to Jean-Marie Leblanc, the race director. Others insist that he will arrive incognito and watch the race from the roadside, like so many of his predecessors. Still others tell us that he will head for kilometer 157, at Les Escures, where the Tour enters the Corrèze region. In any case, from the first to

Not so long ago, when the Agrigel-La Creuse-Fenioux team was in the peloton with Thierry Marie and Jacky Durand at its head, they would have regarded this stage as their private hunting ground. Following a proven technique, Durand would offer to attack early on, Marie to leave the field at a certain kilometer. Once together, and riding into the Creuse region, they would have had tremendous fun, and we want to believe that they would’ve found some support. To borrow a line from Molière, "The two of them are as thick as thieves." There couldn’t be a better setting for all this, as the Creuse

Since a certain Greg LeMond took out Laurent Fignon in the final moments of the 1989 Tour, thus imitating Jan Janssen in 1968 and Jacques Anquetil in 1964, everyone demands that the Tour’s final time trial have some degree of drama. Yet this requirement is rarely well received; the Tour plays tricks in its own way, and that way may not necessarily be the way one expects! Besides, how can we demand suspense for the finale, given that a successful Tour de France assumes that the time spent in the mountains has revealed the best riders? And unless we envision that the Alpe d’Huez stage was a

This is a very short stage (149.5km) that on paper appears misplaced in every way! So close to the Champs-Elysées, and so compressed, is it really a stage? The racers will let us know. But will they say the same as the race followers? That’s another question, but we are free to imagine these followers bent over their race bibles, looking at the day’s program. The day begins in the city of Orléans, an old companion of cycling, which has seen Tour stage wins by Frenchmen Jean Stablinski (in 1964) and Pierre Beuffeuil (1966); and Belgians Eddy Merckx and Michel Pollentier (both in 1974). With

The questions that we were asking three weeks ago have since found their answers, questions about race contenders Armstrong, Ullrich, Heras and Casagrande; about Zabel, the man seeking a sixth green jersey, and Laurent Jalabert, the flag-carrier of French cycling. The report card is ready, and we now know whether the American has become a three-time Tour winner, matching his compatriot Greg LeMond. We also know how the race shaped up, and whether the organizers dealt us some winning cards. "This will be a very complete Tour, with a prologue, 10 flat stages, three semi-mountain stages, four

Simoni, Armstrong and Belli

Camenzind wins

Armstrong at the finish

When you meet Tyler Hamilton, you think, "This guy’s too nice to be a pro bike racer." His dark, wavy hair is neatly trimmed, his eyes twinkle, and his mouth always has a hint of a smile. And with his calm, polite demeanor you would think that this slightly built 28-year-old New Englander was a banker sitting down to discuss a line of credit, rather than an elite athlete about to embark on his fifth Tour de France. Hamilton might well have become a corporate lackey, as he majored in economics at the University of Colorado. But while studying at the Boulder campus, he transitioned from

Take a look at the overall NORBA National Championship Series standings through two events (Snow Summit and Snowshoe) and you’ll notice an alarming trend. If the season ended today, the series winners in six of the eight disciplines would be non-Americans and two of the U.S. national championship jerseys would be awarded to Americans who weren’t even in the top-five. Canadians would walk away with three of the overall series titles (Roland Green in the men’s cross country and short track, and Chrissy Redden in the women’s short track), while the Australians would take three more (Mary

George Hincapie is no stranger to the Tour de France. The popular American racer rode his first Tour in 1996 with Motorola when he was just 23, and he has been a fixture at the July race ever since. In his first year, Hincapie had a bad crash and didn’t finish, but he has made steady progress in each of the following years. In 1998, the spring classics specialist had one of his best Tours from an individual standpoint, narrowly missing a chance to wear the leader’s yellow jersey after featuring in a winning breakaway on stage 3. The next two years, however, weren’t about individual goals.

The last three years have presented American Tour de France hopeful Bobby Julich with a long and rocky road. As a member of the French outfit Cofidis in 1998, Julich surprised nearly everyone with a third-place finish, but crashes and illness have taken their toll on the man from Colorado ever since. At last year’s Tour, Julich was a glum figure, out of the headlines until Jeroen Blijlevens decided to punch him on the Champs Elysées. But if memories of that, and the year before when Julich crashed out of the Tour in the stage 8 time trial, were on his mind this past March, it didn’t show.

He was there in the Pyrenees, there in the Alps, always ready to do the work necessary to aid in the effort. Like all serious team players, he was willing to put personal ambition aside and maintain focus on the big picture. For the last two years, that big picture has involved a guy named Lance Armstrong and a yellow jersey. This year the jersey is the same color, but Kevin Livingston is ready to do his best to see that someone else is wearing it on the streets of Paris on July 29. In Livingston’s case, his best can amount to a serious contribution. In 1999, Livingston was almost always at

Telekom’s Erik Zabel won the ninth stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Wednesday, 166.8km between Sion and Lausanne, Switzerland. Zabel beat out Gerolsteiner’s Saulius Ruskis and Domo-Farm Frites’ Robbie McEwen in the mass field sprint finish. U.S. Postal Service’s Lance Armstrong retained the leader’s yellow jersey with only one stage to go. Zabel profitted from the work of the Saeco, Domo and Cofidis teams who chased down lone escapee Bert Grabsch (Phonak) before the finish. Grabsch had escaped along with Rolf Huser (Coast) in the town of Martigny, but the German dropped Huser on the one

Twenty-five-year-old Ernie Lechuga picked out a true classic for his first big win since coming back from testicular cancer last year. The DeFeet-LeMond rider added his name to the long list of top riders who have won the Nevada City Classic when he beat out Jelly Belly’s Damon Kluck in the Northern California race, June 24. "So many famous people have won this race, and I’m hoping one day I’ll be one of those famous riders," said Lechuga, whose co-sponsor Greg LeMond is one of those former winners. Lechuga was well on his way three years ago, as one of the top under-23 riders in the U.S.,

There will be only one American team at the Tour de France this year, Lance Armstrong’s U.S. Postal Service formation. The expected debut by Mercury-Viatel was thwarted in May by the Tour organizers’ jingoistic wild-card choice of two extra Division II French teams, as opposed to a second Division I team from the U.S. Despite that, there could still be as many as nine Americans on the start line in Dunkirk. Here is a quick look at each of them, with a review of their 2001 preparation and prospects. Lance ArmstrongAge: 29Height: 5 ft. 11 in. Weight: 165 lbs.Hometown: Austin, TXTeam: U.S.

Italian Daniele de Paoli (Mercatone Uno) took a solo win at the seventh stage of the Tour of Catalonia, 1:20 ahead of Spaniards Fernando Escartin (Coast) and Joseba Beloki (ONCE). Beloki’s ONCE teammate Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano retained the leader’s white jersey. On the queen stage of the tour, passing over four passes in the Pyrenees before the finish atop Els Cortals de Encancamp, de Paoli escaped just 29km into the stage along with Andreas Kloden (Telekom), Santiagor Botero (Kelme-Costa Blanca), Roberto Laiseka (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Pavel Tonkov (Mercury-Viatel) and Daniel Clavero

Several of the major players in the sprints changed teams this year, something that is sure to shake up the dynamics of the Tour’s field sprint finishes. But five-time green jersey winner Erik Zabel hasn’t gone anywhere, and it’s this German rocket who tops our list of the Tour’s best sprinters. 1. Erik Zabel (G), 31, Telekom Until last year, Zabel had won four straight green points jerseys, but hadn’t won a Tour stage since 1998. Perhaps the arrival of leadout man Gianmatteo Fagnini -- formerly Mario Cipollini’s right-hand man -- made the difference: Zabel won the second-to-last stage last

Larsen: From 1st to 33rd

Zabel

On the road to Lausanne

Armstrong (r) and Simoni (l)

Lechuga (left), with Fred Rodriguez before USPRO

Americans at the Tour

Americans at the Tour

Americans at the Tour

Americans at the Tour

Americans at the Tour

Americans at the Tour

Sprinters: The men who cause mayhem

Sprinters: The men who cause mayhem

Sprinters: The men who cause mayhem

Two-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong put himself in a commanding position Tuesday as he won the eighth stage of the Tour of Switzerland, a 25.5km uphill time trial to Crans-Montana. The 29-year-old American, who will be bidding for a third successive Tour de France triumph next month, took the overall leader's yellow jersey off Italian Wladimir Belli (Fassa Bortolo), who could finish in only the fifth fastest time. Armstrong now leads Giro d’Italia champion Gilberto Simoni, second on the stage, by 1:02 overall. Simoni was 1:25 back of Armstrong on the stage, followed by Tyler

Ivan Gotti (Alessio) took the win at stage 6 of the Tour of Catalonia while Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (ONCE) took over the race leader’s jersey from teammate Marcos Serrano after the hot, mountainous 184km stage between Les Borges Blaques and Boi Taull in Spain. Gotti was part of a dozen-rider break that escaped 42km into the race. The break would gain up to four minutes as it headed toward the final climb at Boi Taull, with grades of 12 percent. There, Gotti and Spaniard Aitor Kintana (Jazztel) would attack, while behind, the rest of the break began to get caught by the remnants of the

Armstrong

Simoni

Hamilton

Oh, impatient ones. Here's where you'll drop by when the clock starts ticking on July 7. We've got two great shooters for the site this year: Graham Watson and Casey B. Gibson. Plus, Bryan Jew and Lennard Zinn will have digital cameras with them as they interview riders, team mechanics and directeurs sportif.

One prologue. Twenty stages. Two rest days. 3454 kilometers. The joy of finishing in Paris: Priceless.

"Tuft by name, tough by nature," was overall winner Henk Vogels' comment about GP Cycliste de Beauce final stage winner Svein Tuft (Team Canada). While Tuft took stage 7, Vogels was able to give Mercury-Viatel its first ever win at Beauce after Saturn was unable to exert enough pressure to crack its rivals. Mercury had good reason to worry - last year they had Scott Moninger in the lead going into the final stage, only to lose it all when they succumbed to relentless attacks by other teams. This year the course seemed custom made for such a situation; 15 laps of an 11km circuit with 2.5km

Spain’s Oscar Laguna (Relax-Fuenlabrada), soloed in for victory at the fifth stage of the Tour of Catalonia on Monday, coming in 10 seconds ahead of New Zealander Julian Dean of the U.S. Postal Service. Laguna was part of an eight-man breakaway group, and the Spanish rider escaped 12km from the finish to capture the victory, while ONCE’s Marcus Serrano retained the leader’s white jersey. On the flat, 178km transitional stage from Granada to Vila Seca, the breakaway group attained a maximum lead of more than nine minutes, which made Laguna the virtual leader on the road. However, Serrano’s

Italian rider Stefano Garzelli (Mapei-Quick Step) came home alone in Naters, Switzerland, after escaping for 135km to win Monday's 156.5km seventh stage of the Tour of Switzerland from Locarno. The 27-year-old, who won the 2000 Giro d’Italia, crossed the line 4:22 ahead of compatriot and teammate Michele Bartoli (Mapei-Quick Step), while Czech Tomas Konecny (Domo-Farm Frites) was third 7:27 behind and just ahead of American George Hincapie (U.S. Postal Service). Fassa Bortolo’s Wladimir Belli retained his one second overall lead over this year's Giro champion, Gilberto Simoni

Garzelli

The chase over the Col de Nufenen

Bartoli survived for second place

Without incident. That was my biggest goal in the HP Women's challenge this year. Certainly I had people tell me otherwise. "That's a pretty small goal," I heard, or "30th place isn't worth defending." Well, it is to me. This is my fourth consecutive try at this race. The first one saw me starved, dehydrated and hooked up to an IV on day two. The second was supposed to be revenge. It was perfect until a flat on the last day in the first kilometer of the race forced me to chase all day and lose 20 spots. That was pure heartbreak. Last year, well, that crash was famous enough that the

Scott Moninger won the sixth stage of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce stage race on Saturday, moving into second overall behind his Mercury teammate Henk Vogels. Eugen Wacker (Mroz-Supradyn Witaminy) was second on the stage, half a second back, and John Lieswyn (7Up-Colorado Cyclist) was third. The sixth stage was a 15km individual time trial in the town of St Georges de Beauce, and Moninger was the favorite, having won the same stage in 2000. "I really wanted to try to move into second overall before tomorrow's final stage. It is crucial for us to have two riders in good position, so

Trek-Volkswagen rider Roland Green continued his dominance of the second leg of the NORBA National series by adding a short track title to Friday’s cross-country victory, while Chrissy Redden (Subaru-Gary Fisher) took the women’s race. The highly tactical men’s race began with Green sitting on the front of the fast-moving group in the early laps, challenged strongly by Snow Summit short track champ Ryder Hesjedal (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and his teammate Pavel Tcherkassov. In those first several laps, Hesjedal fell victim to trouble with his single-chainring setup. He was forced to dismount

World champion Wade Bootes (Trek-Volkswagen) proved why he wears the rainbow stripes Saturday, topping a strong field to win the dual slalom at NORBA National No. 2 at Snowshoe, West Virginia, while Leigh Donovan (Schwinn) continued her storming farewell tour with a split-heat victory over Tara Llanes (Yeti-Pearl Izumi). The slalom got off to a shaky start when qualifying was postponed Friday evening. The same line of thunderstorms that nearly drowned cross-country competitors fed foot-deep pools in some sections of the slalom course and reduced the rest to oil-like slickness. As a

Tour de France contender Joseba Beloki (ONCE-Eroski) won the fourth stage of the Tour of Catalonia in Spain on Sunday, while his teammate Marcos Serrano re-took the leader’s white jersey from Santos Gonzalez. Beloki finished in front of Oscar Sevilla (Kelme-Costa Blanca) and Miguel Angel Martin on stage 4, a short, nervous and hilly trip over second- and third-category climbs around Barcelona. Sevilla was the instigator of an attack on the final climb, 15km from the finish, and was followed only by Beloki. The two crested the climb with about a 30 second lead, but from that point, Beloki

The 2001 HP Women’s Challenge finished in Boise, Idaho on Sunday in a style reflective the way this race has gone over the past 12 days: the Saturn women’s team in control, especially when it counted. Finishing the day’s 55.2-mile final stage from Middleton to Boise, Saturn’s Ina-Yoko Teutenberg grabbed her second stage win of the race while teammate Lyne Bessette cruised across the line in the field having secured a nearly five-minute lead in the final general classification. The Saturn team in general and Bessette in particular had been in charge ever since the first stage of this 13-stage

Russia's Sergeui Ivanov, of the Fassa Bortolo team, won a sprint finish to take Sunday's 174km sixth stage of the Tour of Switzerland, which started and finished in Mendrisio, Switzerland. Ivanov came from behind to cross the line in 4:00:27, just ahead of Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov (Telekom), France's Laurent Jalabert (CSC-World Online) and Switzerland's Alexandre Moos (KIA-Swiss) in the sprint to the line. Ivanov’s Italian teammate Wladimir Belli, who finished in 11th position at five seconds behind the leaders, retained the overall leader's yellow jersey with a one-second advantage

Steve Peat (GT) followed through on the promise he showed in the morning downhill practice session at the NORBA National in Snowshoe, West Virginia, where he recorded the course record of 4:55. On the money run, the British World Cup contender shattered that mark by 13 seconds and took the downhill victory in sloppy conditions on Sunday. After a hard winter of training, Peat seems on his way to a dream season. "I just feel like I’m riding so well, the bike’s just perfect, and the team is just one big family." Unfortunately, it was a scattered family this weekend, as many of the GT

Moninger

Bessette (center) had a big lead going into the last day.

Teutenberg (left) gets congratulated by teammate Kristy Scrymgeor

Ivanov

Belli

Australian Henk Vogels (Mercury-Viatel) kept his yellow jersey for another day at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce, despite finishing five minutes and three seconds behind stage 5 winner Philippe Koehler of Mapei-Quick Step. Koehler barely managed to hold off Canadian national champion Czeslaw Lukaszewicz (Team Canada) in a two-man mountain top finish to take the stage; his first win as a professional racer. The 170km fifth stage is considered the most difficult of the seven-stage, 959km race. The stage culminates with a 5.5km climb to the Mont Megantic observatory, atop the highest paved