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But once again, there's a new sheriff in town -- the guy who's held the job for six straight years

And this is what he rode to get there

Course: Most of this fairly long stage (212.5km) takes the back roads of the Vendée region before heading northeast to the Loire Valley. The race passes some of the region’s famed châteaux, including the 11th century Chinon and 16th century Azay-le-Rideau. The final 30km are full of twists and turns until reaching the 3km-long Avenue de Grammont, which hosts the finish of theParis-Tours classic every fall. History: Despite its permanent place in classics history, the town of Tours has seen only six Tour stage finishes. The last was in 2000, when Dutchman Leon Van Bon brought home a small

It was Tom Boonen's day at the 2005 Tour de France -again. Still, even after the Belgian sprinter blasted away his rivals to win the 212.5km third stage from La Chataignerie to Tours in the Loire Valley, his back-to-back victory was not the talk of the Tour. Instead, it was the fireworks that erupted between two of the tightly packed speeding bunch he left in his wake - Australians Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Davitamon) and Stuart O'Grady (Cofidis), who were third and fourth across the line behind Boonen and Austrian Peter Wrölich (Gerolsteiner). While Boonen had space to rent behind him

STAGE 3 RESULTS1. Tom Boonen (B), Quickstep, 4:36:092. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner, 00:003. Stuart O’Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 00:004. Bernhard Eisel (A), Francaise des Jeux, 00:005. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros, 00:006. Robert FÖrster (G), Gerolsteiner, 00:007. Magnus Backstedt (Swe), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:008. Anthony Geslin (F), Bouygues Telecom, 00:009. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:0010. Angelo Furlan (I), Domina Vacanze, 00:00 11. Isaac Galvez (Sp), Illes Balears, 00:0012. Guido Trenti (USA), Quickstep, 00:0013. Gianluca Bortolami (I), Lampre, 00:0014. Luciano Pagliarini

Floyd Landis was one of Lance Armstrong’s strongest teammates last year, but now he’s on the Texan’s enemies list as he lines up as one of the team leaders with Phonak. Landis, 29, had an acrimonious split with Armstrong after leaving Discovery Channel last fall to take his own chances as a team leader with Phonak. “The most critical reason for my decision to leave Postal was for my own opportunities,” Landis told reporters before the start. “If I was here for Discovery, I would be working for Lance and that would be it. So I decided it was now or never.” Once close teammates during

Our guy Casey Gibson found himself celebrating the Fourth of July by getting caught in traffic on Monday, but he still managed to send a few photos rocketing back to the land of the free.

Quite a day, today… I’ve finished in Tours before – Paris-Tours a few times, for example – and I really like this finish: Wide open streets and lots of room to fight out the sprint. It’s just things didn’t quite work out like we had planned. My job today was supposed to be lead-out man for (Luciano) Pagliarini, but coming into to Tours, we didn’t actually find each other in the peloton. That’s not all that unusual, especially when things are as chaotic as they are in this Tour. There really is no single team keeping things under control in the sprints. Without Petacchi here, Fassa Bortolo

Boonen wins his second consecutive stage

McEwen gets a little too physical with O'Grady

Zabriskie in yellow, anticipating Tuesday's team time trial

Anyone else seeing spots before their eyes?

Another religious experience entirely

Rolling along

'War of the Worlds' extras? Nah, just French TV

Dekker, going up

Julich, too

Dekker rode himself into the climber's jersey

The day's escape formed up at 27km

CSC did what it had to to protect their jersey

Lotto in pursuit

Boonen wins again

... but no ten-day run for Voeckler this year.

Fedrigo and the rest of the Bouyges Telecom crew did what they could...

Course: After heading out for 12km to the Atlantic coast, the course parallels the seashore for the next 93km, passing through yachting towns like Les Sables-d’Olonne. On leaving Aiguillon-sur- Mer, the final 75km returns inland, often on narrow, twisting back roads, dipping in and out of low valleys. Crashes are a high risk on the run-in to the town of Les Essarts (population: 5100), where there is a short finishing straight. History: A stage has never finished at Les Essarts. When the Vendée region last hosted the opening stages six years ago, a similar stage finished in Challans, where

The Dave Zabriskie Show came to the Tour de France on Sunday, momentarily diverting the cameras away from Lance Armstrong and the other big stars in the Tour’s stage 2. And the European media, getting their first taste of Dave Z’s quirky sense of humor, didn’t know quite what to make of it — especially when he dead-panned to French television on how his first day went in the yellow jersey. “How did I spend it? Racing bikes,” said the 26-year-old CSC rider said with a sardonic smile. Zabriskie enjoyed the view from the front of the peloton during most of Sunday’s 181.5km stage across

Dave Zabriskie didn’t quite know what to make of all the fuss. Sure, he became just the third American to wear the yellow jersey in Tour de France history and he beat six-time Tour champ Lance Armstrong to do it, but after all, it’s just a bike race. “I got a massage, had dinner, read a little, then went to sleep,” was how Zabriskie described his first evening in yellow. “Yeah, we had a little champagne.” Sunday morning, Zabriskie got the full yellow-jersey treatment, with dozens of photographers and reporters waiting outside the team bus. Team CSC riders huddled inside the bus for

Stage 2 Results1. Tom Boonen (B), Quickstep, 3:51:312. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:003. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 00:004. Stuart O’Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 00:005. Luciano Pagliarini (BRA), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:006. Juan Antonio Flecha (Sp), Fassa Bortolo, 00:007. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner, 00:008. Pineau Jérôme (F), Bouygues Telecom, 00:009. Baden Cooke (Aus), Francaise des Jeux, 00:0010. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros, 00:00 11. Manuel Quinziato (I), Saunier Duval, 00:0012. Robert Hunter (RSA), Phonak, 00:0013. Inaki Isasi (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:0014.

Whether your preference is for Tom Boonen's legs or a podium girl's smile, our man Casey Gibson was on the job in France on Sunday, collecting images of the 2005 Tour. Here's what he sent home.

Tom Boonen may have won this Tour’s first ferocious sprint on Sunday, but don’t expect the tall Belgian to continue winning stages this week in the manner perfected by Mario Cipollini in the 1990s and Alessandro Petacchi in more recent years. That’s because Boonen won the stage into Les Essarts despite not having an organized lead-out train. The team that did its best to set up a strong paceline on the run-in was Baden Cooke’s Française des Jeux squad; but the French team’s efforts fell far short of guiding Cooke into a winning position. The twisting run-in and a sharp left turn into a

Good things take a long time comingSix years after Matt White was first denied his chance to ride in the Tour de France, the Australian finally made it to the start line of the world's biggest bike race - and he’s done so in one piece. For once White didn't crash. Neither was he left off the team. Nor was his team excluded from the three-week race. In fact, White finished stage one - a 19km time trial from Fromentine to Noirmoutier in 101st place at 2:32 behind American winner, David Zabriskie (CSC). He finished Sunday by placing 153rd in the Tour’s second stage, the 181km leg

After David Zabriskie’s first day in the yellow jersey, I ran into Allen Lim, Floyd Landis’s personal coach, who described some of Zabriskie’s mental preparation leading up to the Tour. According to Lim, Landis repeatedly told Zabriskie that the yellow jersey was his for the taking. “Floyd lives with Zabriskie in Girona, and ever since the Giro, Floyd’s been telling David, ‘Dude, you’ve gotta aim for winning that prologue at the Tour.’ David was nervous about doing the Giro and the Tour back to back, but that helped ease his concerns. Floyd told him that if he won the prologue and got the

So, here we are again. The Tour kicked off yesterday with what would normally be a perfect time-trial course for a guy like me: a pan-flat, straight shot to the finish line. But it takes me a few days to “find my legs” in a big tour, and I had what you could only call a day that wasn’t all that bad, but wasn’t all that great either. It’s difficult for me, usually, the first few days. You spend so much time getting ready, training like mad, and then you have a couple of days that throw you off a bit, with travel, medical controls, the presentation and all. It’s tough to get back into the

Boonen celebrates

Boonen blows 'em away . . .

. . . and here's what he did the job with

Why is Voeckler smiling? The polka-dot jersey may have something to do with it . . .

. . . or maybe it was something (or someone) else

Lance has a colorful jersey of his own, though it's not his favorite color

That one still belongs to Zabriskie

Four minutes, but little more. Nonetheless, the break lasted for nearly 150km.

Another day in yellow

Boonen wants the points jersey this year.

Zabriskie fields questions from the press.

CSC tooks its leadership duties seriously

Armstrong had the points jersey on Sunday.

LivingStrong in the Vendée

The chase was steady, but not frantic

Zabriskie had plenty of support around him

Crunching the numbers

Course: Starting from the ferry port at Fromentine, this opening time trial has a few twists and turns in the first 2km, then heads up a curving concrete bridge to the course high point 114 feet above the narrow strait between the mainland and the island of Noirmoutier. The next 11km is on a flat divided highway before a few final curves and turns into Noirmoutier town. History: The last time there was a comparable start to the Tour was at Futuroscope in 2000, when the traditional 8km-or-shorter prologue was replaced by a rolling 16.5km TT. That time, a youthful David Millar surprised Lance

Back in 1965, the renowned French film director Louis Malle made a superb documentary on the Tour de France, titled “Pour un Maillot Jaune” (“For a Yellow Jersey”). There was no commentary to the film. Malle used the sounds and sights of the Tour, and inserted a dramatic soundtrack that switched between total silence and haunting, throbbing techno music. It was not a story of the race. The race told its own story, and produced a totally unexpected winner, an Italian who was a last-minute replacement and riding his first Tour. His name: Felice Gimondi. Forty years later, there could again be

Foto file

Noirmoutier, France, July 2 (AFP) - Bradley McGee might be engaged in his own battle to boost his overall performance on the Tour de France but that has not stopped him tipping Michael Rogers to become the first Australian winner of the yellow jersey in Paris. McGee, who won the prologue at the 2003 Tour for his Francaise des Jeux team, has spent the last few campaigns in July helping teammate Baden Cooke in the bunch sprints. But after a long, hard 10 months year of climbing in the mountains in a bid to better prepare himself for this year's race, the 29-year-old New South Wales rider

By blasting away his main overall rivals in the stage 1 time trial Saturday, Discovery Channel's Lance Armstrong wiped away any lingering suspicion that he has come to the Tour de France short on form. Now, his goal of taking a seventh consecutive title already looks a lot closer. He may have finished two seconds shy of winning the 19km race against the clock from Fromentine to Noirmoutier-en-I'Ile, but losing the stage to former teammate David Zabriskie of CSC was no disgrace. The 26-year-old from Salt Lake City completed his ride in a blistering 20:51. That's an average speed

Fred Rodriguez will be Robbie McEwen’s top lead-out man in the hunt for stage wins in the mass sprints, and that’s just fine by him. “Fast Freddy” believes his chances will come in what’s his fifth Tour de France start. “I’ll be mostly working for Robbie,” Rodriguez told VeloNews. “I think in the second half of the Tour there will be some chances for me, on the courses that are a little more selective, when maybe some of the bigger guys will have some trouble getting through.” The Californian said working for other sprinters is something he’s used to. In his 2000 Tour debut with Mapei, he

Stage 1 - results1. David Zabriskie (USA), CSC, 19km in 20:51 (54.676kph)2. Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, at 00:023. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), T-Mobile, at 00:534. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, at 00:575. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun), Credit Agricole, at 00:596. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, at 1:027. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), Fassa Bortolo, at 1:028. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, at 1:049. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Illes Balears, at 1:0510. Igor Gonzalez Galdeano (Sp), Liberty Seguros, at 1:06 11. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, at 1:0712. Jan Ullrich (G), T-Mobile, at 1:0813. Jose Enrique

In his interview with L’Equipe at the end of last year, Walter Godefroot acknowleged that he “had been forced to think commercially” in holding onto Jan Ullrich as a captain, even though Andreas Klöden was clearly the stronger man. Ullrich is the marketing front of the T-Mobile corporation, the most popular German cyclist ever. So despite the fact that Klöden was second in last year’s Tour and that Alexandre Vinokourov was having a superb spring campaign, Ullrich has been relentlessly sold to the German public as Lance Armstrong’s main challenger and the undisputed number one at T-Mobile. It

David Zabriskie’s third brake lever probably did not play a role in Saturday’s opening time trial, although his bunny-hopping entire traffic circles instead of riding around them certainly raised a few eyebrows (just kidding). But the extra brake lever on the handlebar extensions has been a source of great interest (see VeloNews, June 27, 2005), and a number of the teams are using them. In a flat individual time trial like the one that opened the 2005 Tour de France, the third lever may not help much beyond taking a little speed off for a corner here or there. It is very useful in courses

Keepers of statistics will love this one. In trouncing his main GC opponents at the opening 19km time trial of the Tour on Saturday, Lance Armstrong raced at precisely 54.545 kph. Sound familiar? Well, yes. When Greg LeMond rode his famous 24.5km time trial between Versailles and Paris at the 1989 Tour, to overcome a 50-second deficit on Laurent Fignon, he raced at precisely 54.545 kph. What’s even more important for Armstrong is that, while conceding the stage win to former teammate Dave Zabriskie by two seconds, he defeated third-place Alexandre Vinokourov by 51 seconds, Floyd Landis by

Hello,Well, I had planned to start this Tour with a good result early on, and frankly, as I rode the time trial today, I felt pretty good … until I was caught and passed by Lance. That is not a particularly good feeling, especially on the first stage. I really can’t explain it. Maybe it did have something to do with the crash I had the other day. I did lose some blood, but really, I don’t believe that is the cause. I didn’t feel too bad at all this morning and I felt pretty optimistic about the stage and the Tour in general. Then Lance came flying past me, finishing just two seconds off of

Zabriskie en route to victory

Photo Files - TDF05

Armstrong overhauls Ullrich

Zabriskie dons the first yellow jersey of the 2005 Tour

Vinokourov may be T-Mobile's leader, after all.

Landis expanded the U.S. presence in the top 10, crossing sixth

Hincapie rides into fourth place

Horner finished more than two minutes off of Zabriskie's pace

Leipheimer

Is Ullrich seeing this Tour ride away from him, too?

T-Mobile has another serious threat in Vinokourov

The Lampre-Caffita bikes sport a third brake lever, like Zabriskie's

Um, now, about that wheel fairing . . .

A little detail on that brake lever.

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