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Leipheimer: In good position for the podium?

Craig lights it up early

Killeen on the fire-road climb

The women hit the rock garden

Course: There is only an early cat. 4 climb on this transitionalstage across the Midi between the Alps and Pyrénées, so it’sa rare chance for the sprinters to come to the fore. A choppy 20km finishingcircuit awaits the peloton in the streets of Montpellier, where there’sa short, 200-meter-long finish straight. History: No less than 24 stages have finished in Montpellier.The latest was in 1994, when Dane Rolf Sørensen took the honorsin a two-man break with Aussie Neil Stephens. Favorites: The tight finish should see attacks by the likes ofFlecha and Erik Dekker in a bid to trump the Aussie

Following the expulsion of one rider and the arrest of another, talk of doping at the Tour de France has re-emerged as the doctor of one of France's top teams said the race is still being “contested on two levels.” For Gerard Guillaume, the doctor of the Francaise des Jeux team of Bradley McGee and Baden Cooke, his riders simply can't keep up with a peloton whose speeds have amazed everyone in the first 12 days of the race. The Tour, which American Lance Armstrong is bidding to win for a seventh consecutive time, has so far been raced at a punishing pace, leaving some complaining

If American Chris Horner had hoped to leave an impression on his first Tour de France, he can consider his mission accomplished. The 33-year-old California native, who joined the Spanish squad Saunier Duval-Prodir at the end of the 2004 season after three seasons spent dominating the domestic calendar, came painfully close to winning stage 13 in Montpellier on Friday. But he was caught before the line by a hard-charging peloton. Instead of an amazing victory, Horner could only watch as Aussie Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) took his third sprint win of this Tour by edging out Stuart O’Grady

Stage Results1. Robbie McEwen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 3:43:142. Stuart O’Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 00:003. Fred Rodriguez (USA), Davitamon-Lotto, 00:004. Guido Trenti (USA), Quickstep, 00:005. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:006. Anthony Geslin (F), Bouygues Telecom, 00:007. Forster Robert (G), Gerolsteiner, 00:008. Magnus Backstedt (Swe), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:009. Gianluca Bortolami (I), Lampre, 00:0010. Christopher Horner (USA), Saunier Duval, 00:00 11. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros, 00:0012. Baden Cooke (Aus), Francaise des Jeux, 00:0013. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner,

Many people have been asking what those wheels with red hubs like old Mavic Heliums were on David Moncoutie’s bike. The Cofidis rider won stage 12 on the new Mavic Ksyrium ES Dixieme Anniversaire wheels, which indeed are supposed to honor and carry on the tradition of those Heliums, which premiered 10 years ago in the Tour as special climbing wheels, ridden by luminaries like Laurent Jalabert and Richard Virenque, among many others. The front and rear rims of the 10th Anniversary Ksyrium ES are different, with the front being lighter. Mavic says the tubular version weighs 625 grams () and

Levi ready for uphill challengeOn the fight for the podium I feel good. I feel better than I have in the Tour before. I think the GC will continue to sort out a little bit. I’ve been trying to save as much energy as possible because I know what’s coming up. It’s definitely going to be decisive. It’s hot now, tomorrow and the next day are going to be very decisive. The day after tomorrow (Sunday) when we get to the bottom of Pla-d’Adet, it’s going to explode, it’s going to be every man on his own. It’s going to be very painful. On Saturday’s stage to Ax-3 Domaines Follow the best, but there’s

Friday's relatively flat transitional stage almost lived up to that tradition that would have had the day's breakaway succeed. Almost. Our man Casey Gibson captured scenes of the day's stage before, during and after the heart-breaking finish into Montpellier, where Saunier Duval's Chris Horner was caught just meters from the line after being on the attack for more than 160km.

On Sunday, Lance Armstrong will pay tribute to his former teammate at Motorola, Fabio Casartelli, who died in a crash on the descent of Porte d'Aspet a decade ago. Casartelli was the reigning Olympic road race champion in 1992, and joined Armstrong's team soon afterwards for what was supposed to be a promising future - until his fatal crash on the Pyrenean descent. On what should prove an emotional weekend for the American six-time winner of the Tour, remembering Casartelli will be one of the foremost things on the American's mind. "It's going to mean a lot, because it is

The Discovery Channel team will probably try to stop Lance Armstrong’s main rivals from attacking him on Saturday’s stage 14 into the Pyrénées. But that won’t be a simple task on what looks like being a very long, hot day under a blazing sun. In the four to five hours of racing before stage 14 even reaches the two forbidding climbs at the end, there are sure to be many attacks. And should those breaks include some of those riders between five and 10 minutes back on GC — such as Kazakhstan’s Alex Vinokourov (T-Mobile) and Andrey Kashechkin (Crédit Agricole) or Australians Cadel Evans

As the Tour de France soars high into the Pyrénées this weekend, an equally exciting high-country battle will be fought in northern Idaho as the NORBA National mountain-bike series returns to the Schweitzer Mountain resort. The Schweitzer stop is the first this season to feature all six NORBA disciplines: marathon, cross-country, short track, downhill, super-descent and mountain cross. It’s the NORBA series’ third consecutive visit to the resort, and race organizers have spent the past two weeks cutting new single-track, roping off the marathon course and building the four-cross track. They

My hats off to the Americans in this year’s Tour de France. In today’s 173.5 kilometer stage from Miramas to Montpellier, one American in particular rode remarkably for the whole stage but lost the race in the last kilometer. Another American lead out the winner of the stage in the last kilometer and still finished third for the stage. All this while three other American’s hold places in the top 10 on General Classification. We sure have come a long way! 150 kilometers in the lead but 150 meters short at the lineJust 17 kilometers into the race American Chris Horner found himself with

Stage 13 - Miramas to Montpellier >173.5km

Stage 13 - Miramas to Montpellier >173.5km

McEwen rockets out to another stage win

Mavic's Ksyrium ES Dixieme Anniversaire wheels

Yeah, but what's its weight in Belgian ale?

Just plain-vanilla aluminum posts

Horner makes it into a break

Davitamon-Lotto clocks in for McEwen

Horner workin' it

May I have your attention, please?

McEwen praised his team in general and Fast Freddie in particular

Armstrong's next big test comes this weekend

A descent into what is the mosh pit in front of the Discovery bus...

...where grown men and women crush small children up against the barriers to get an autograph or a look at Lance ...or his friend.

Geez, who is she looking for?

Armstrong has a specific rig for the flat stages, too.

Close-up

Horner gets a day out front...

... he's in there somewhere.

Super German photog Giro works out of his office in the back of a van, and transmits photos from the finish line.

Waiting to award the best young rider jersey

Rasmussen is looking a little gaunt on the podium today. Rumor has it that he will simply dry up and blow away after the Pyrenees.

A look ahead to Stage 14: This could be tricky

A look ahead to Stage 14: This could be tricky

Voeckler makes it, too

Da Cruz and Horner proved less than simpatico in the break

The beauty of tactics: How to blow it with 150 meters to go

Course: This third alpine stage bypasses the area’s big climbs— Izoard, Vars and Allos — and instead sticks to the valleys and foothills.The (mild) sting in the tail comes when the race reaches Digne-les-Bains,where the riders do a 40km loop, the first half up and over the narrowCat. 2 Col du Corobin, the last half on a rolling main road back into town. History: Digne was a regular stage town in the 1930s and ’40s,but the Tour hasn’t returned here since 1969 when Merckx outsprinted breakcompanion Felice Gimondi over a course that included Vars and Allos. Favorites: With the GC hierarchy

With 11 stages down and 10 to go, the French have yet to win a stage of this 92nd Tour de France. The home fans have had to be satisfied by some aggressive-riding awards by the likes of Laurent Brochard, Christophe Mengin and Thomas Voeckler, and the overall challenge of Christophe Moreau (who moved up to third overall on Wednesday). But what they really want is a stage win. With almost 100 riders now more than an hour behind race leader Lance Armstrong, there is a good chance for riders out of the overall picture to make successful bids for a stage victory. And the French will be trying

David Moncoutié gave the French something to cheer about on Bastille Day while Lance Armstrong kept a low profile on the Tour de France’s hilly 187km stage on Thursday. Moncoutié tore away from a 13-strong break late on the day’s second to last climb to score the first French win of the 2005 Tour while Armstrong coasted and roasted through a hot day as the Tour rolled south from the Alps into sunny Provence. “It was a stage for a bold man, not for the best man in the Tour,” said Moncoutié, who also won a stage last year. “I was not the best rider in the Tour, but the strongest in the break.

Stage 12 Results1. David Moncoutie (F), Cofidis, 4:20:062. Sandy Casar (F), Francaise des Jeux, 00:573. Angel Vicioso (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 00:574. Patrice Halgand (F), Credit Agricole, 00:575. Jose Luis Arrieta (Sp), Illes Balears, 00:576. Franco Pellizotti (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:577. Axel Merckx (B), Davitamon-Lotto, 00:578. Juan Manuel Garate (Sp), Saunier Duval, 00:579. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 03:1510. Stuart O’Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 03:15 11. Massimo Giunti (I), Fassa Bortolo, 03:1512. Stephan Schreck (G), T-Mobile, 03:1813. Giovanni Lombardi (I), CSC, 03:2114. Robbie

Joseba Beloki - Facing his demons two years onIt was two years ago today that Joseba Beloki suffered that horrible high-speed crash on the descent of the Col de la Rochette, just as the 2003 Tour de France exited the Alps. Images of that fall, on the day’s last switchback, as he and Lance Armstrong were chasing Alexandre Vinokourov into Gap, sit in the minds of everyone who witnessed it. Beloki, who is back racing the Tour for the first time since then, says the scars of what was his most frightening moment on the bike are still very fresh in his mind. In an interview with the French sports

A few hours before the Tour de France peloton left Briançon on Thursday, one man, who had just days earlier been leading the race, grabbed a ride to the airport. CSC’s Jens Voigt had little choice but to fly home to Berlin after missing the time cut by a mere 41 seconds on Wednesday’s stage, one that featured the feared Col du Galibier. Before his flight, Voigt took time to speak with a small group of German reporters about the events leading up to his unfortunate exit from the Tour. Voigt said his performance on Wednesday had been hampered by illness, something he’d felt come on in Grenoble

Tour de France Comes to the Big Screen in Live HD Simulcast in 53 MovieTheatres Across the United States on July 16“Live. Loud. Large: Tour De France Stage 14 on the Big Screen”Presented by The Tyler Hamilton Foundation, National CineMedia andOutdoor Life® NetworkA portion of the proceeds to benefit the Tyler Hamilton Foundationand the Davis Phinney FoundationFans won’t want to miss the chance to watch the top cyclists battlelive and uninterrupted in high-definition on the Big Screen as The TylerHamilton Foundation hosts a live simulcast of Stage 14 of the 92nd Tourde France in 51 Regal

It was a scorcher on the Tour on Wednesday - meteorologically speaking, anyway, and results-wise, too if you happened to be French. So it's no surprise that ace shooter Casey Gibson's attention was drawn to the cool, blue waters of a lake the Tour passed en route to Digne-les-Bains. "We were thinking we should join all of those vacationers rather than work 16-hour days," notes Casey. "Looks lovely, eh?" That it does. And us too fat for a Speedo . . . .

Each Tour team has a bus and a slew of station wagons. But otherwise, teams vary widely in the other vehicles they bring along, and this has changed even further with the advent of the Pro Tour. And of critical interest to all of the teams is security of all of those bikes and expensive wheels and parts they carry along. Most teams have a bus and a big truck. The buses for the riders are roomy inside and have comfortable seats, tables and other amenities, such as espresso machines. Teams use them as conference rooms for entertaining guests or negotiating team sponsorships, as well as for

Today was one of those days that you just put your head down, ride and wait for the finish. It’s not that this stage was so hard, it’s that I suffered so much yesterday that I am still trying to recover. To start, I came down on the descent of the Col de la Madeleine and then spent the rest of the day hurting. I was on my own, just trying to get back on to the grupetto and I locked up my front wheel in a corner and landed on my back. You may remember last year that, after the highlight of winning at Roubaix, a lot of my problems later in the season revolved around my back. As it turned

Stage 12 - Briançon to Digne-les-Bains >187km

Stage 12 - Briançon to Digne-les-Bains >187km

Moncoutie gives the French something else to celebrate on Bastille Day

Casar makes it one-two for the home crowd

Armstrong is enjoying the change in weather

The CSC duo of Julich and Basso stick close to Armstrong

Beltran crashed out of the Tour

The day's big break

With Boonen out, Hushovd is in green

Moncoutié wins one for the home crowd

Was your ride today this pretty?

Armstrong and Hincapie will find themselves a man short in the Pyrenees

Another scenic

The peloton rolls past a lovely lake in the midday heat. We wish we were in it

Beltran consults with the race doctor before withdrawing

The peloton climbs through another camper city

Nothing like fighting your way through a crowd after a sweaty day in the saddle

Lance fans took over the finish-line stands today

Ullrich looks for the exit

Padrnos pushes through

Say, where the heck's the bike race, anyway?

The Liberty Seguros fleet

. . . and the Discovery armada

A barricade of Subarus

At 8677 feet in elevation, the Col du Galibier is the ceiling of the 2005 Tour de France. This formidable mountain pass, which has been climbed more often than any other in Tour history, gives the race some grandiose Alpine scenery, and at times it takes a merciless toll. The Galibier is often the Tour’s summit — only the rare climb up the Col de l’Iseran (9087 feet) and the three trips up the Col de la Bonette-Restefond (9193 feet) have taken Tour competitors higher. The fabled Galibier’s indisputable reign was heightened in 1979 — quite literally — when the climb grew an impressive 292

Course: Mountain stages don't get much tougher than this one, with 12,600 feet of climbing in 173km. Pitching out of a deep, wooded valley to a high alpine meadows, the Madeleine softens up the field with 25.4km of uphill work. The 12km Télégraphe rears up the steep side of a ravine in tight switchbacks. And the 17.5km Galibier reserves its toughest stretch for the 5km preceding its bleak peak. The closing 40km descent is too fast to allow for much regrouping. History: The last time a Tour stage crossed the Galibier from its tougher northern approach and ended in Briançon or a nearby

You just knew Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile) would attack on a Tour de France stage like Wednesday's Alpine monster from Courchevel to Briançon. And if he went on the attack, Wednesday’s was just the type of stage Vino’ was destined to win. “We can't say that we were surprised,” said race leader Lance Armstrong after he kept his 38-second margin over Dane Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank). “Whenever somebody is in a breakaway all day long, it's always impressive. Like the other day, with Rasmussen, an all-day effort is never easy.” Still, to see how the ever-popular Kazakh national

Italian Tour de France rider Dario Frigo was charged on Wednesday after customs officers found banned drugs in his wife's car. His wife, who was stopped on the motorway on Tuesday with what was understood to be about 10 doses of the endurance-boosting drug EPO (erythropoietin), was also facing a charge in connection with a customs offense. Later Wednesday, the couple were charged with "helping and assisting in the use of doping products, contraband and importing" by a judge in Albertville. They were released on bail. Frigo, 31, is banned from taking part in the sport while the inquiry