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Trevor Linden

A beautiful day in British Columbia and leader's still maintain grip on overall

Longtime race director Jean-Marie Leblanc has finally retired, leaving Christian Prudhomme in charge of the Tour de France. The 2007 edition starts in London on Saturday, and with no clear favorite, it is shaping up to be one of the most open races in years. Lance Armstrong, who won seven straight Tours beginning in 1999, has retired. Last year's winner, Floyd Landis, is still under the cloud of doping accusations. Other big names, such as Ivan Basso, have fallen afoul of the crackdown on drugs in the sport. But Prudhomme insists that other stars will emerge to take their

Alessandro Petacchi lost his spot on Milram’s Tour de France team on Wednesday after being charged with doping by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), according to Agence France Presse. CONI's anti-doping prosecutor, Ettore Torri, asked the Italian cycling federation (FCI) to ban the 33-year-old sprinter for one year following a "non-negative" doping test after the third of his five stage wins at the Giro d'Italia. The urine sample Petacchi gave at Pinerolo on May 23 showed an unusually high level of salbutamol, a substance primarily used to treat asthma. “We signed the ProTour

Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes – the controversial doctor at the center of the Operación Puerto doping scandal – made his first public appearance since the alleged doping ring was uncovered last May in Spain. Fuentes refused to answer journalists’ queries as he left a conference at the University of King Juan Carlos in Aranjuez on Wednesday. “I support protecting athletes’ health, and the professional life of an athlete is 10 to 12 years, and after that, they have the rest of their lives to live, and doping can go against your health,” Fuentes said after participating in a conference titled,

Tour de France hopeful Andreas Klöden said Wednesday that he was weary of trying to clear his name as other members of his Astana team are suspected of doping. "I have nothing to confess," Klöden told German daily Die Welt. "You have to believe me when I say that I have never done anything illegal." On Wednesday, Klöden signed the UCI’s anti-doping pledge, but admitted that he wasn’t happpy about it. "I didn't have a choice in order to compete in the Tour de France ... but I felt violated by this procedure. I no longer enjoy competing in the Tour de France. It's like a suspended

Alessandro Petacchi lost his spot on Milram’s Tour de France team on Wednesday after being charged with doping by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), according to Agence France Presse. CONI's anti-doping prosecutor, Ettore Torri, asked the Italian cycling federation (FCI) to ban the 33-year-old sprinter for one year following a "non-negative" doping test after the third of his five stage wins at the Giro d'Italia. The urine sample Petacchi gave at Pinerolo on May 23 showed an unusually high level of salbutamol, a substance primarily used to treat asthma. “We signed the ProTour

With yet another day at the B.C. Bike Race being dominated by the Trek-Volkswagen duo of Chris Eatough and Jeff Schalk, we opted for a photo gallery to tell the story of stage 4’s 58.5km ride from Earl’s Cove to Sechelt on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast. After finishing stage 3 with a thrill ride down the technical trails outside Cumberland, stage 4 kicked off at dawn Wednesday with the entire B.C. Bike Race entourage loading up for the short drive from Cumberland to the BC Ferries terminal at Little River. From there it was an 1:20 ride to Powell River, then a quick bus transfer to the

Coloradans Shonny Vanlandingham and Jay Henry claimed the 2007 USA Cycling marathon cross-country national titles by winning the Firecracker 50 race in Breckenridge, Colorado, on Thursday. Both took their first-ever marathon titles by finishing first over the two 25-mile laps that included a total of 10,800 feet of vertical gain and multiple trips above 11,000 feet altitude. In its seventh year, the Firecracker 50 celebrated its largest-ever field of 710 riders. As per usual, the race kicked off at 11:00 a.m. sharp, and riders enjoyed a neutral start in downtown Breckenridge as the first

Prudhomme continues the tradition of former journalists running the world's biggest bike race.

Petacchi, shown winning his second of five stages in this year's Giro

Petacchi, shown winning his second of five stages in this year's Giro

Drying out from Stage 3

Schalk limbers up aboard the ferry

La Ruta's Manuel Prado

Heading for the docks

Off the boat and onto the bikes

The race start at Earl's Cove

Gumby is going for a ride

Schalk leads going into the final feed

Hestler drives the chase through the forest

Another scenic: This time, it's mainland British Columbia

Home sweet home: race founder Dean Payne and his beloved Seventies-era motorhome

And now, how the other half lives: Hestler and his VW van

The parade start is really part of the local 4th of July parade.

Henry celebrates his national title.

Mr. and Mrs Henry

Vanlandingham has her eye on the Olympics... and a few other challenges

Rabobank will see a passing of the baton as Michael Boogerd, the major Dutch rider of his generation, starts his final Tour de France while emerging star Thomas Dekker makes his Tour debut. Boogerd will be starting his 12th consecutive Tour that will also be his last. The 36-year-old will retire at the end of the 2007 season. A winner of two Tour stages and twice in the top 10, Boogerd dreams of one more glory ride before hanging up the cleats this year. “In other years, I started strongly and felt weaker while nearing the end of the race. Right now, I am not feeling that well because of a

Rabobank will see a passing of the baton as Michael Boogerd, the major Dutch rider of his generation, starts his final Tour de France while emerging star Thomas Dekker makes his Tour debut. Boogerd will be starting his 12th consecutive Tour that will also be his last. The 36-year-old will retire at the end of the 2007 season. A winner of two Tour stages and twice in the top 10, Boogerd dreams of one more glory ride before hanging up the cleats this year. “In other years, I started strongly and felt weaker while nearing the end of the race. Right now, I am not feeling that well because of a

Giro d'Italia winner Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas) and Astana’s Eddy Mazzoleni, who were due to be interviewed by anti-doping investgators this week, had their hearings postponed on Tuesday. The two cyclists are to be quizzed by Ettore Torri, the anti-doping prosecutor of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), over their alleged relationship with a doctor suspected of supplying them with doping products. Doctor Carlo Santuccione is under investigation for allegedly trafficking banned substances to several top Italian sportsmen, including former world champion pole vaulter Giuseppe

Team Fuji-Salamander teammates Shane Kline and Nik Reinert both collected their third national titles of the week Monday as the 2007 USA Cycling Junior Track National Championships continued at the 7-Eleven Velodrome in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Kline won the men's 17-18 sprint and later teamed up with Reinert to win the Madison, adding a second and third stars-and-stripes jersey to the one he won in Sunday's kilometer time trial. For Reinert, the victory in the Madison complemented his earlier wins in the individual pursuit and the points race. Kline posted the fastest time in

Seated at the foot of Colorado’s rugged Tenmile range, the Summit County town of Breckenridge will once again host its marquee fat-tire event, the July 4 Firecracker 50 mountain-bike race. For 2007 the event serves as USA Cycling’s national marathon cross-country mountain-bike championships. The race traces its roots back to 2000 when current race director Jeff Westcott and Mountain States Cup organizer Mike McCormack thought of ways to spice up Breckenridge’s Independence Day parade. “We were hanging around on July 4 watching the usual parade of real-estate agents and commercialism,”

Québec’s Mont-Ste-Anne resort has hosted a stop on the UCI’s mountain-bike World Cup for 17 years, and Chantal Lachance has been there since day one. As the vice president for Gestev, the event’s production company, she has helped the Mont-Ste-Anne race grow into a three-weekend-long festival. Now called Velirium (www.velirium.com), the festival brings tens of thousands of spectators, amateur racers and partiers to Mont-Ste-Anne each year. IThe World Cup has ventured sparingly onto North American soil during the pst half-decade; however, it has always come back to Mont-Ste-Anne. VeloNews sat

Day 3 of the B.C. Bike Race: The Pacific Traverse saw a repeat of stage 1 and 2, with all five categories featuring back-to-back-to-back winners, including the Trek-Volkswagen teammates Jeff Schalk and Chris Eatough. The Trek duo strengthened their grip on the overall standings Tuesday, finishing the 83km run from Port Alberni to Cumberland in 4:00:10, 8:05 ahead of Manuel Prado and Jason First (La Ruta de los Conquistadores-Sho Air). Andreas Hestler and Kevin Calhoun (Rocky Mountain-Haywood Securities) were third on the stage, ceding 10 seconds to the La Ruta team. Trek now leads the

Boogered starts his final Tour de France on Saturday

Tour de France 2007: Boogerd’s last, Dekker debuts; Barloworld feeling aggressive

Tour de France 2007: Boogerd’s last, Dekker debuts; Barloworld feeling aggressive

Boogered starts his final Tour de France on Saturday

Tour de France 2007: Boogerd’s last, Dekker debuts; Barloworld feeling aggressive

Tour de France 2007: Boogerd’s last, Dekker debuts; Barloworld feeling aggressive

Lachance and Gestev president Patrice Drouin

At the start

A day with many logging roads on the menu

The long climb

It was one of those days for some.

Taking in the view

Schalk and Eatough still tops in B.C.

Michelle Newton, one half of top women's team.

French team Ag2r will be hoping it can repeat its successful 2006 Tour de France, when it pushed Cyril Dessel and recently crowned French champion Christophe Moreau into the top 10 overall. The team’s dream run through the 2006 Tour – which also included a one-day run in yellow by Dessel and a stage victory by Sylvain Calzati into Lorient in stage eight – helped take the sting out of losing the services of team leader Francisco Mancebo, who was implicated in the pre-Tour Operación Puerto purge. While many of the other French teams are on a youth movement, the 36-year-old Moreau seems to

Alessandro Petacchi, who produced a suspicious urine sample when tested for doping at the Giro d'Italia in May, attended a hearing at the headquarters of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) in Rome on Monday. The 33-year-old Milram sprinter was quizzed by CONI's anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri for two hours as he attempted to clear his name by explaining how his use of the asthma drug Salbutamol was purely therapeutic. Petacchi hopes to prove his innocence so that he can take his place at the Tour de France, which starts next Saturday. The team has named Petacchi to its team,

Sunday was a big day for Team Fuji-Salamander at the 2007 USA Cycling Junior Track National Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Colleen Hayduk collected her second national title of the weekend at the 7-Eleven Velodrome with a victory in the women’s 17-18 sprint. Nik Reinert also captured a second title, in the men’s 17-18 3km individual pursuit. And Shane Kline won the men’s 17-18 kilometer time trial. After earning the top seed with a 200-meter qualifying time of 12.273 seconds, Hayduk took two straight rides from Dana Feiss (Young Medalist Cycling) in the final to claim another

Rahsaan Bahati (Rock Racing) outsprinted Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United) in the final stretch of Sunday’s Manhattan Beach Grand Prix criterium. Bahati’s teammate Kayle Leogrande hit two birds with one stone by towing Bahati into the final sprint and finishing third overall. Successful Living teammates Curtis Gunn and Daniel Ramsey dominated the first half of the race. A three-man breakaway containing Gunn formed in the first lap, and when a prime was announced for the second lap, Gunn picked up the pace, leaving the other two to be caught by the peloton. The second big attack came from

Tour No. 1 bib missingThere won’t be a No. 1 bib in this year’s Tour de France typically handed out to the previous year’s winner. With the legal status of last year’s Tour winner Floyd Landis still in limbo, the 2007 Tour will start without having an official winner. With runner-up Oscar Pereiro waiting in the wings, the Tour has decided to skip the prestigious No. 1 bib. “We wanted to make a symbolic gesture,” Jean-Francois Pescheux told AFP. It’s the first time in Tour history there won’t be a No. 1 bib in the race, Pescheux said. Instead, Tour officials have decided to remove numbers

Former Telekom director Walter Godefroot has stepped aside from his role as consultant to the Astana team following doping allegations by one of his former riders. Godefroot was accused of complicity in systematic doping by former Telekom rider Jörg Jaksche, who gave a no-holds barred interview with Der Spiegel over the weekend. Astana team boss Marc Biver announced the news of Godefroot's absence from the Tour, starting this weekend, while also ruling out an internal inquiry within the Swiss-based Kazakh team amid doping allegations against two of their riders. "Walter has a contract

It's all in the details. Below you'll find links to each stage of the 2007 Tour de France. Each page contains maps and details of the course. STAGE - DATESTAGE DETAILS Prologue - July 7London (7.9 km) Stage 1 - July 8London > Canterbury (203 km) Stage 2 - July 9Dunkirk > Ghent (168.5 km) Stage 3 - July 10Waregem > Compiègne (236.5 km) Stage 4 - July 11Villers-Cotterêts > Joigny (193 km) Stage 5 - July 12Chablis > Autun (182.5 km) Stage 6 - July 13Semur-en-Auxois > Bourg-en-Bresse (199.5 km) Stage 7

Trek-Volkswagen teammates Chris Eatough and Jeff Schalk made it 2-for-2 at the B.C. Bike Race: The Pacific Traverse on Monday, taking a convincing win on stage 2 of the seven day race and increasing their overall lead in the seven-day event that finishes on Saturday in Whistler. The American east coasters now own two stage wins and a 6:02 advantage in the G.C., with North Vancouver teammates Andreas Hestler and Kevin Calhoun (Rocky-Mountain-Haywood Securities) again settling for second place. Eatough and Schalk covered the 118km from Lake Cowichan to Port Alberni in 4:34:06, with

Moreau wore yellow at the Dauphiné. Can he dream of the same color in July?

Tour de France 2007: French teams dreaming big

Tour de France 2007: French teams dreaming big

Tour de France 2007: French teams dreaming big

Tour de France 2007: French teams dreaming big

Tour de France 2007: French teams dreaming big

Pereiro will probably have the lowest number at the Tour, but it won't be No. 1.

Another day at the office kicks off

What was your commute like this morning?

Heading for home...

... and Trek wins again

Eatough cleans up.

It’s no surprise that cycling analysts proclaim the 2007 Tour de Franceto be a wide-open contest.No former winner will be on the start line, and only three men in thisyear’s race — Alexander Vinokourov (third in 2003), Andreas Klöden(second in ’04 and third in ’06) and Oscar Pereiro (second in ’06) — haveever reached the podium. While he may still be young enough to win cycling’sgreatest race, 35-year-old Lance Armstrong hasn’t entertained any rumorsof a comeback since retiring after taking his seventh Tour title two yearsago. And 1998 Tour winner Marco Pantani died of a cocaine overdose in

Four national champions were crowned on Friday as the 2007 USA Cycling Junior Track National Championships kicked off at the 7-Eleven Velodrome in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Colleen Hayduk (Team Fuji-Salamander) set a national record in the women’s 17-18 500-meter time trial and earned an automatic nomination to represent the United States at the UCI Junior Track World Championships later this summer in Mexico. Hayduk’s time of 36.656 seconds surpassed the old record of 37.280 previously held by Missy Thompson. Behind Hayduk, Dana Feiss (Young Medalist Cycling) took second in 38.740, while

France — AG2R team leader Christophe Moreau continued to display his race form ahead of the Tour de France by winning his first-ever French road-race crown Sunday in Aurillac. The 36-year-old winner of last month’s Dauphiné Libéré escaped late in the race and finished with a two-minute lead on Pierrick Fedrigo and Patrice Halgand. The Netherlands — Rabobank rider Koos Mourenhout won the Dutch national road race championship Sunday in Maastricht. Mourenhout finished ahead of Sebastien Langeveld and Maarten den Bakker after a solo attack in the final lap of the race. Switzerland —

1903 - Maurice Garin, (F) 1904 - Henri Cornet, (F)* 1905 - Louis Trousselier, (F) 1906 - Rene Pottier, (F) 1907 - Lucien Petit-Breton, (F) 1908 - Lucien Petit-Breton, (F) 1909 - Francois Faber, (Lux) 1910 - Octave Lapize, (F) 1911 - Gustave Garrigou, (F) 1912 - Odile Defraye, (B) 1913 - Philippe Thys, (B) 1914 - Philippe Thys, (B)Suspended due to war 1919 - Firmin Lambot, (B) 1920 - Philippe Thys, (B) 1921 - Leon Scieur, (B) 1922 - Firmin Lambot, (B) 1923 - Henri Pelissier, (F) 1924 - Ottavio Bottechia, (I) 1925 - Ottavio Bottechia, (I) 1926 - Lucien Buysse, (B) 1927 - Nicolas Frantz, (Lux)

One week before the Tour de France begins without Floyd Landis defendinghis title, the U.S. cyclist who tested positive for exogenous testosteronecan only wait to learn his fate.Landis, who could become only the second winner in the 104-year historyof the famed French race to be stripped of his title, made several appearancesin suburban Philadelphia last week, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.A three-member arbitration panel heard Landis' appeal of his dopingban in May. The panel is expected to issue a ruling sometime in the nextweek or so and the result could be appealed to the Court

It is becoming clear that there are two dominant riders in this year's cross country World Cup series - Julien Absalon (Orbea) and Irina Kalentyeva (Ergon-Topeak). Both won their respective men's and women's races at the fifth round in St-Felicien, Québec, on Sunday. It was the fourth win for Absalon and the third for Kalentyeva. With one race remaining, Absalon has mathematically won the men's series, while Kalentyeva increased her lead over Marie-Helene Premont (Rocky Mountain-Haywood), virtually assuring herself of the women's title. St-Felicien is a new venue for

Saunier Duval-Prodir riders will carry a bit less weight over the big climbs than other teams, since their innovative Castelli Superleggera jerseys weigh a mere 70 grams (in size L), less than half the weight of a traditional cycling jersey when dry. And a soaked Superleggera jersey (due to perspiration or rain) weighs only 140 grams, compared to 400 grams for a standard team jersey. Castelli claims that a Superleggera jersey would provide a one-minute advantage over the course of a five-hour mountain stage. Keep an eye on those jerseys in coming weeks.

If history is any indication, the 2007 Tour de France will be full of surprises. Whenever there are no former winners on the start line — as will be the case this year — anything can happen. That was certainly the case with last year’s race, which had the largest number of surprises since Lance Armstrong took the first of his seven victories in 1999 — the only other time in the past 30 years when there were no previous winners in the field. While uncertainty is a given, there are still favorites for the overall. The Astana team is led by two former podium finishers, German Andreas Klöden

Trek-Volkswagen teammates Chris Eatough and Jeff Schalk grabbed a hard-fought sprint victory over local favorites Andreas Hestler and Kevin Calhoun (Rocky Mountain-Haywood Securities) on Sunday in stage 1 of the B.C. Bike Race on Vancouver Island. Eatough and Schalk covered the 67 miles from Sooke to Lake Cowichan, primarily gravel road with a pair of swoopy single-track sections, in 4:22:32. Hestler and Calhoun were five seconds back on Canada Day, with Manuel Prado and Jason First (La Ruta-Sho-Air) taking third at 2:14. The race features teams of two riders who must stay within two