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McEwen claims his 10th career Tour stage win

Boonen had hoped for a stage win, but keeps the jersey

Martinez is just one of Bruyneel's many options at this Tour

Quick Step had a lot of responsibilities on Wednesday

Robbie the Rocket does it again

Boonen stays in yellow

Crédit Agricole on the front

McEwen gets ready for a day in the saddle

The Disco's head to the start

Hincapie ready for a day at the office, too.

The day's break

Fans are still enthusiastic, and today's crowds were very large. Big day for hay bales too.

Landis and crew stayed near the front.

Boonen wants a stage win...

... but McEwen wins another

... and the world champion has to settle for another yellow jersey.

The fans are happy to get a look at whomever makes the podium

VeloNews ventures into video...

... but these guys don't seem too concerned.

CSC doctor Joost De Maeseneer

Stage 4 by the numbers

Stage 4 by the numbers

Tour doctor Gerard Porte assists Dean after he hit the deck in the finale

Belgium

Course: This is another long stage (216.5km), which starts in Luxembourg,passes through Belgium and finishes in the Netherlands. The first halfof the course is mainly on straight, wide highways, while the second half,from where it joins the Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic routeat Vielsalm (107km), is mostly on winding, often narrow, back roads. Withsix climbs in the last 90km — starting with L-B-L’s Haute-Levéeand ending with the Amstel Gold Race’s Cauberg 2km from the finish — thepeloton is almost certain to be split by attacks. History: An almost identical finish to a stage came in 1992,the

The cycling gods were both generous and horribly cruel in dealing out their judgments on the Tour de France peloton in Tuesday’s stage 3 from Esch-sur-Alzette to Valkenburg. Generous to those like stage winner Matthias Kessler (T-Mobile) and Belgian world champion Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic), whose fourth place and time bonuses earned him the overall lead. Fittingly, Boonen’s feat has come in time for him to wear the yellow jersey in Wednesday’s stage through his home country before the Tour re-enters France. “[Wearing the yellow jersey in Belgium] is something that might happen once

1. Matthias Kessler (G), T-Mobile2. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, 00:053. Daniele Bennati (I), Lampre, 00:054. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, 00:055. Erik Zabel (G), Milram, 00:056. Luca Paolini (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:057. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, 00:058. Eddy Mazzoleni (I), T-Mobile, 00:059. Georg Totschnig (A), Gerolsteiner, 00:0510. Fabian Wegmann (G), Gerolsteiner, 00:05 11. Alexandre Botcharov (Rus), Credit Agricole, 00:0512. Mirko Celestino (I), Milram, 00:0513. Rubiera José Luis (Sp), Discovery Channel, 00:0514. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 00:0515. George

Weathersunny, very warm again, light windStage winnerMatthias Kessler (T-Mobile), 4h57:54, 43.605kph – The 27-year-oldGerman earned back some pride for his tarnished team to win in a bold attackon the Cauberg. He held off a late charge to win his first Tour stage withteammate Michael Rogers coming through second.Race leaderTom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic), 14h52:23, 42.788kph – TornadoTom finished fourth at five seconds back to slip into the maillot jaunefor the first time of his career. Three-time world time trial championRogers is just one second behind the world road champion. Overnight

A day after celebrating Robbie McEwen’s stage2 win, the Davitamon-Lotto team was left battered and bruised following the crashed marred stage 3 run from Esch-Sur-Alzette to Valkenburg. McEwen’s lead-out lieutenant Fred Rodriguez got the worst of it after he and Rabobank’s Erik Dekker went down with about 50km to go on Tuesday. Dekker’s injuries included broken teeth and cuts and bruises to his face. Rodriguez injured his right shoulder. Both were taken to the hospital in Verviers, Belgium, for further examination. “It’s a possible broken collarbone and wrist, but we don’t know for sure,”

CSC's Stuart O'Grady is doubtful for the fourth stage of the Tour de France after fracturing a vertebrae in his back here Tuesday. The Tour de France veteran was among several riders who crashed on the undulating 216.5km third stage which played host to a hectic finale. A CSC team spokesman said a CAT scan at a hospital in nearby Genk had shown that O'Grady fractured a vertebrae in his lower back, but that a decision would only be taken on Wednesday morning. "He has fractured it in a way that means he may still be able to race," team spokesman Bryan Nyygard told AFP. "Stuart is

From start-line caravan to finish-line chaos, Casey Gibson covers it all. Here's what he saw between the lines today.

At this point in the 2005 Tour de France, Tom Boonen had already given his Quick Step team a couple of stage wins and taken the green jersey. Twelve months later, he again leads the points competition and he starts Wednesday’s stage 4 in Huy, Belgium, wearing the yellow jersey of race leader — but without winning any of the opening stages. The world champion would like to change that win-less record as soon as possible. But, first, let’s see what has kept Boonen from adding to his list of 17 season victories. After coming an excellent 12th in Saturday’s prologue, the tall Belgian was the

Stage 3: Esch-sur-Alzette to Valkenburg - 216.5km

Stage 3: Esch-sur-Alzette to Valkenburg - 216.5km

A tough route that covered some Classic terrain

If at first you don't succeed: Kessler wins by 50 meters after missing a win by that same margin on Monday

Arrieta: The most aggressive

Stage Stats: Stage 3

Stage Stats: Stage 3

World Champion gets a new jersey for Wednesday's stage

Voigt says he expects an early break to succeed one of these days

Rodriguez and Dekker are both out of the Tour

Voigt at the start: He had plans for a busy day

Good luck... and don't dope.

Hushovd's second day in yellow

Hincapie may aim for another jersey

On the road

Doing the day's voice over

Kessler wins

and has reason to celebrate after Monday's heartbreaker

and his T-Mobile teammate, Rogers, leads the field in.

Fourth-placed Boonen gets the jersey

Valverde knew the truth the moment he stood up

Rodriguez and Dekker

Arrieta tried to hold off the field but fell victim to the Cauberg

Kessler's win was that much sweeter after Monday

Boonen wears yellow into Belgium tomorrow

He's got the jersey. Now he wants a stage.

Stage 4: Does this one suit Boonen?

Course: The Tour’s second longest stage (228.5km) opens with two significant Cat. 3 climbs in the forested hills of the Vosges and closes with two shorter Cat. 4 climbs on the France-Luxembourg border just before the finish. In between is 150km of rolling terrain through the agricultural Lorraine region. There’s bound to be an early breakaway on such a long stage, but the straight wide roads favor the sprinters’ teams in pulling things back together before the final 20km. The two Cat. 4 climbs with 16km and 13.5km to go, followed by two smaller, unrated ones in the last 5km, could spawn a

After suffering a stroke of bad luck in a finishing sprint for the second straight day at the Tour de France, it might seem like the gods are against Thor Hushovd. If that’s the case, they’ll have to try harder to hold back the big Norwegian, who snatched the yellow jersey back from American George Hincapie with a third-place finish behind Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) and Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) in the 228.5km stage 2 from Obernai, France, to Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg. In a long jaunt north from the Alsace region of eastern France to the industrial mining and steel

1. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto2. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, 00:003. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:004. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, 00:005. Daniele Bennati (I), Lampre, 00:006. Luca Paolini (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:007. Stuart O’Grady(Aus), CSC, 00:008. Bernhard Eisel (A), Francaise des Jeux, 00:009. Erik Zabel (G), Milram, 00:00 10. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner, 00:0011. Cristian Moreni (I), Cofidis, 00:0012. Inaki Isasi (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:0013. Michael Albasini (Swi), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:0014. Francisco Ventoso (Sp), Saunier Duval, 00:0015.

When it comes to having things just so, few riders in the ProTour peloton can match Levi Leipheimer. Gerolsteiner’s No. 1 Tour hope often makes his own mechanical adjustments, wanting to make sure his bike is exactly the way he wants it. For the second year in a row the American is aboard the Specialized Tarmac SL, a lightweight full carbon steed from the Morgan Hill, California-based company. The bike has a claimed weight of 895 grams for the frame and 300 grams for the fork. Here’s a closer look at Leipheimer’s bike on the morning of stage 2 of the 2006 Tour de France.

Normally the peloton would have looked forward to a day like this. The sun was shining brightly over the three country corner between Germany, France and Luxembourg and 228km through a lovely landscape of vineyards, sun flower fields and lush forests lay ahead of the riders. Instead, the atmosphere was tense at the start in the Alsatian town of Obernai on Monday morning. Especially the German teams Gerolsteiner and T-Mobile seemed nervous. Just when most thought doping was off the agenda and they could focus on cycling, the riders and team directors were confronted with unpleasant

It didn’t last very long, but George Hincapie enjoyed every second of his run in the yellow jersey. The 33-year-old ceded the maillot jaune back to Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) after not contesting Monday’s sprint into Esch-sur-Alzette with 21st place and dipped to fourth overall at 16 seconds back. “I didn’t sleep in it, but I was very happy,” Hincapie told VeloNews before Monday’s start. “The night was so different than the night before, when I was thinking about how everything I could have done different (after losing the prologue by less than one second). To be so close to the yellow

Australian rider Michael Rogers confirmed Monday that his T-Mobile team bosses ordered him to sever all contact with controversial Italian sports doctor Michele Ferrari. Rogers also openly confirmed that he has been trained by Ferrari since the second half of last year. “I have been working with him for this year and a little it of last year; obviously just (with) training programs and what not,” Rogers told VeloNews on Tuesday. “I rated him because I think he is the best coach in the world. Just look at some of the athletes he has worked with.” News of Rogers’ association with Ferrari

Former cycling trainer Freddy Sergant was sentenced to four years in jail Monday in a trial centered on a doping ring that supplied a cocktail of amphetamines, cocaine and heroin to riders in France and Belgium. Sergant received the harshest of 23 sentences, with none of the defendants escaping punishment. The sentencing comes amid a scandal that threw the Tour de France into chaos on the eve of the race. Several top cyclists were withdrawn Friday because of a doping investigation in Spain. Sergant, a Belgian believed to be the key figure, also was fined more than $230,000. His wife,

WeatherSunny, into low 90s, light to moderate winds Stage winnerRobbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto), 5h36:14, 40.775kph – The plucky Aussie sprinter won his ninth Tour stage in his ninth career Tour start, improving on his second place from Sunday. The 34-year-old proved he still has the best finish-line kick, relegating world champion Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) to second. Those two are sure to knock heads again. Sunday’s winner, Jimmy Casper (Cofidis), got dropped and finished 172nd at 9:14 back. Race leaderThor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole), 9h54:19 – The Norwegian brushed off a cut to

From start-line caravan to finish-line chaos, Casey Gibson covers it all. Here's what he saw between the lines today.

I was struck when reading this question about what a strange world some of us cyclists live in, where bodily encounters with solid objects and even riding over fallen riders are commonplace. It got me thinking in the wee hours not only about bicycle geometry, which was the original gist of the question, but also about bruising, inflammation, Tyler Hamilton’s lower back and heart attacks! Now, either these are more closely connected than we may think, or maybe I should do more sleeping and less pondering in the wee hours, as connections between divergent thoughts that seem so profound long

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.The testing sucks, but racing rulesEditor:How is it that nine of the riders in 2006 the Tour de France were on the Operación Puerto list, but all 198 riders tested perfectly clean? What is wrong with the testing? Even Jörg Jaksche, who was "having stomach troubles," tested clean. One

When Levi Leipheimer first looked at the course for the 2006 Tour de France he fingered Stage 3 from Esch-sur-Alzette to Valkenburg as the one he would study the most in the first week. Starting in Luxembourg, crossing Belgium and ending in the Netherlands, the 216.5km stage saves its teeth for the end: six categorized climbs and two sprints in the final two hours of racing. And these are not just any old climbs. The first is the Côte de la Haute-Levée, one of the key climbs of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the last, 2km from the finish, is the infamous Cauberg that concludes another spring

Cycling politics and controversy aside, I’m stoked about the Tour deFrance. I sure hope OLN provides coverage to the American ForcesNetwork (AFN) so I can enjoy a few stages on television. We got everyvolley of the French Open and PLENTY of World Cup coverage; hopefully they’lldo the same for the TdF.The best part of all is the fact that the completion of “The Tour” willmark yet another milestone in the completion of “my tour.” When thepeloton crosses the finish line in Paris, I’ll be that much closer to achievingmy ultimate goal… going home.Our softball team is now gimp with pulled

Stage 2: Obernai to Esch-sur-Alzette - 228.5km

Stage 2: Obernai to Esch-sur-Alzette - 228.5km

McEwen wins a mad dash to the line... Hushovd pops a pedal, but wins the jersey back

A team mechanic makes final adjustments to Leipheimer’s Specialized Tarmac SL.

The timing chip makes sure Leipheimer and the rest of the Tour peloton are precisely tracked.

Leipheimer’s Specialized Tarmac SL