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The 2009 Tour de France turns vertical Sunday with the second of three summit finishes that will go a long way toward deciding who wears the yellow jersey in Paris. Everyone seems to have an opinion on what’s going to happen next, but no one will really know until the final climb up Mont Ventoux next weekend. That uncertainty has built huge anticipation ahead of the final week of racing. The GC is still wound up tight and, despite Astana’s stranglehold on the leader board, the race could still be won by the daring.

The Subaru-Gary Fisher team must now silkscreen “His” and “Hers” national championship jerseys for Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Heather Irmiger. The husband-and-wife teammates, together since their dorm days at the University of Colorado and married in 2005, escaped with cross-country wins at the 2009 USA Cycling national mountain bike championships at SolVista resort in Granby, Colorado. At the line, Horgan-Kobelski called the win, his fifth national cross-country title, “unreal.”

Although Sunday’s stage 15 from Pontarlier in France to Verbier in Switzerland is 207.5km long, the first 200km is almost irrelevant in the context of who will wear the yellow jersey into Monday’s rest day — unless something totally unexpected happens before the leaders reach the climb to the finish.

Five seconds separated George Hincapie (Columbia-HTC) from the yellow jersey in Saturday’s hilly stage across eastern France. How those five seconds are dissected will be the source for debate throughout the remainder of the 2009 Tour de France. At the finish line Besancon, Hincapie seemed poised to move into the maillot jauneafter riding into the day’s winning 12-man breakaway on the hilly 199km 14th stage from Colmar to Besancon. The American started the stage 28th at 5:25 back and was the best-placed rider in the move.

It was another wild day at the Tour de France. Photographer Casey Gibson was there from start to finish.

Thor Hushovd (Cervélo) might seem like a polite gentleman off the bike, but they don’t call him the “Bear from Grimstad” for nothing. For the second day in a row, Hushovd’s emotions got the most of him at the finish line and he was screaming just moments after coming across the line in the intense battle for the green jersey. Yesterday, after battling through the cold and snow to Colmar to regain the green jersey, Hushovd roared at Peter Velits (Milram) for pipping him at the line.

Saxo Bank’s Jens Voigt admitted Saturday he felt like punching someone in anger after a flat tire cost him the chance to stay with a breakaway group on the 14th stage of the Tour de France. The 37-year-old suffered a back-wheel puncture at the 57km mark and despite receiving a new wheel from the neutral support vehicle; he lost his place in a 13-man escape which included eventual stage winner Sergei Ivanov of Katusha. The flat-tire cost him 40 seconds with the German insisting he was powerless to close the gap and resigned himself to being caught by the peloton.

A spectator has been killed and two others injured on the Tour de France Saturday after being hit by a police motorbike on the 14th stage, French radio reported. The accident happened in the village of Wittelsheim, about 40km from the start of Saturday's stage in Colmar The radio later reported that a woman in her 60s died at the scene. According to France Info radio the woman was crossing the road after the breakaway group of riders had passed, when she was hit by one of the several police motorbikes that accompany the race.

Katusha's Sergei Ivanov won Saturday's stage 14, a mostly flat transition stage from Friday's day in the mountainous Verges region and Sunday's first day in the Alps. Ivanov attacked his 11 breakaway companions in the final 11 kilometers and used his time trial skills to roll away to an impressive win. His breakaway companion George Hincapie almost snagged the yellow jersey from Rinaldo Nocentini, finishing just five seconds too late to take the lead.[nid:95377]

Cav' in early break?

Astana won’t have its ace in the hole as it confronts the decisive final week of the 2009 Tour de France. With Levi Leipheimer’s early departure, the team will have to decide to go all in with either Lance Armstrong or Alberto Contador. There’s no more full house. The American was fourth overall at 39 seconds back, poised for a run at the Tour podium – and more – when he crashed out Thursday in a fluke late-race spill when he came in too hot into a left-hander and crashed, breaking a bone in his right wrist.

American Tyler Farrar is targeting the Tour de France 14th stage as he bids to beat British sprint king Mark Cavendish in a 'fair and square' speed battle. Cavendish has been the undisputed speed king with four wins so far but Farrar is one of the few riders to have beaten him this year when he won the third stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico in March. With the Tour de France moving into the Alps on Sunday, Saturday's rolling route from Colmar to Besancon could, if the sprinters' teams decide to chase down anticipated breakaways, end in a bunch finish.

Colin Cares and Amy Dombroski required fresh, clean stars-and-stripes jerseys Friday after taking the U23 crowns at the 2009 USA Cycling national mountain bike championships, held at SolVista resort in Granby, Colorado. Both riders crossed the line coated in layers of dirt and trail grime after suffering mid-race crashes. Cares even had a sizable rock wedged between the vents of his helmet. “I went down on the last lap — I just washed out on a loose corner,” said Cares, who hails from Boulder, Colorado. “The adrenaline kicked in. I got right back on my bike.”

The Italians are already making their mark on the 2009 Tour de France, with Rinaldo Nocentini enjoying his seventh day in yellow after defending it over the Vosges on Friday through the rain and cold. Incredibly, Nocentini is the first Italian in yellow since the 2000 Tour, when Alberto Elli wore the maillot jaune for a few days before the Pyrénées. Franco Pellizotti is another Italian making headway in Friday’s five-climb stage when he bounced passed Basque climber Egoi Martínez to claim the polka-dot climber’s jersey.