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The fifth day of the 2009 BC Bike Race saw a sizable line of riders queue up outside the Obsession Bikes bike maintenance tent at the finish line in Langdale. After five days of racing, the wrenches-for-hire had seen just about every mechanical calamity known in the world of mountain bike maintenance. Since day one, the business has attacked between 60-70 bikes a night, often times working on the rigs into the wee hours of the morning.

Bissell’s Tom Zirbel and Alison Powers (Team Type 1) won the first stage of the 2009 Fitchburg Longsjo Stage Race in central Massachusetts on Thursday, with each taking a damp and foggy 14.3 kilometer time trial win. The first stage of the four-day NRC race, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, began with a deluge. While the early-morning Category 4 riders and Juniors faced the TT course in pounding rain, the water backed off to a gentle mist by the time the first Pro women started at 12:45 pm.

The 2009 Tour de France begins Saturday, but by Thursday the giant show had already overwhelmed the small streets surrounding Monaco’s Port Hercule. Spectacular yachts and sailboats pack the docks in the port, and now, a row of trucks and buses belonging to the 20 teams contesting the Tour can be counted in the mix.

The term “handmade” is a rarity in today’s age of automated production. Fewer brands are holding onto their heritage, and are increasingly seeking cheaper, quicker and less labor-intensive production options.

Tom Boonen will find out on Friday whether he has been granted a last minute reprieve to compete in the Tour de France which starts in Monaco on Saturday. The former world road race champion, and current Belgian national champion, was barred from the Tour following a positive test for cocaine in April. Boonen's fate is being decided by the French Olympic Committee's arbitration panel. The Quick Step rider missed last year's Tour for the same reason.

Despite reaping the benefits of worldwide fame and spectacular fortune, even Lance Armstrong admits his chosen career is not 100 percent healthy. Doping scandals, contentious leadership battles, and an oftentimes tepid sponsorship climate have all conspired against cycling. But even in the face of such scrutiny, the seven-time Tour de France winner is certain of one thing — bike racing is here to stay.

Jens Voight ponders a question about racing without radios, and then suggests, "Why don't we race for two days with our brake cables cut?"

We recently bumped into Jim Felt, head bike designer of his namesake company Felt Bicycles, in the Cote d’Azur airport. He is in the middle of a three-week trip that first took him to Aigle, Switzerland, to visit the UCI, where he met with Jean Wauthier, the organization’s technical director and Phillippe Chevallier, the road coordinator. Felt was on his way to the start of the Tour de France in Monaco where he’ll be embedded with the Garmin team for the first 10 days of the race. Felt was happy to talk about his meeting with the UCI while waiting for his traveling companions.

Saxo Bank manager Bjarne Riis expressed confidence that his team will be tough to beat in the race for the maillot jaune in this year’s Tour de France. Riis, the 1996 Tour winner who two years ago admitted to having used the banned blood booster EPO as a rider, won the race for the first time as manager last year when Spaniard Carlos Sastre triumphed for CSC.

The mechanics at the ’10 Canndonale product release in Park City, Utah certainly had their work cut out for them. It was their job to assemble and disassemble 250, ride-ready road, mountain, and commuter bikes for 500 visiting Cannondale dealers during a two-week period. At the tail end of the Cannondale international sales meeting, VeloNews was given the opportunity to preview and ride the bikes of next year.

Bobby Julich says fans and cyclists are in for a real treat come Saturday when the 15.5km individual time trial at Monaco opens the 96th Tour de France. The ex-pro — who retired after the 2008 season and now works with the Saxo Bank team as technical advisor, counseling his teammates on equipment and time trial preparation — says the Monaco time trial puts an exclamation mark on the front end of the Tour.

PRESS RELEASE

The Garmin-Slipstream team announced on Thursday that Martijn Maaskant will replace injured Irish rider Dan Martin on its Tour de France roster. Martin, who has been suffering from tendinitis in his knee, concluded that he would be unable to ride the upcoming three-week race, leaving a gap on the team's roster, which will now be filled with Maaskant. The team said that Martin had been working closely with Garmin's medical staff to resolve the issue but finally concluded that competing in the Tour posed too great a threat to his long-term prospects.

Alexander Vinokourov said Wednesday he intends to ride for Astana later this year or there will be serious consequences for those who keep him from riding on the Kazakh-financed team. In a press conference held in Monaco in advance of Saturday’s Tour de France start, Vinokourov, whose suspension for homologous blood doping ends on July 24, said there’s no possibility that he would ride for any team other than the one he helped establish in 2006.

Italy's San Patrignano drug rehabilitation facility sparks passion for frame building among recovering addicts. Its framebuilding shop is directed by Gianni Pegoretti, Dario Pegoretti's brother, whose shop lies in the valley below. VeloNews' Lennard Zinn and Don Karle visited the San Patrignano and Dario Pegoretti facilities this spring. To read Zinn's article, you'll have to pick up an August issue of VeloNews, available on newstands this week. Here we are sharing some of Karle's photos that would not fit in the magazine."

Yellow jersey contender Cadel Evans remains upbeat despite the unwelcome news that his Silence-Lotto teammate Thomas Dekker has been ruled out of the Tour de France due to a positive doping control. Dekker, a two-time Dutch champion, was set to help Evans in this year's July 4-26 race but found out Wednesday that a sample from December 2007, kept for later re-testing, had tested positive for the banned blood-booster EPO.

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It seemed fitting that Wednesday's fourth stage of the 2009 BC Bike Race fell on Canada Day, as Stage 4 exposed the 400 or so racers to more of Canada than any day other of this year’s race.