All Content

The first rest day of this year’s Tour found the three strong men of T-Mobile in utterly different states of mind. Jan Ullrich, still the designated leader of the team, was happy to have the day off to nurse his wounds from his crash on Sunday. Andreas Klöden was vacillating between relief that his form is improving after a difficult spring and frustration about the narrow loss to Peter Weening at the end of Saturday’s stage. Alexandre Vinokourov on the other hand could just as soon have skipped the day: “I guess a rest day is okay,” he said eagerly, “but I want to go to the Alps. I am

Spare a thought for... Andre Kivilev, the deceased best friend of Tour de France hope Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile) who was killed in a race crash during Paris-Nice in 2003. “Kivi,” says the Kazakhstan national champion, will be with him throughout the Tour as the race enters the Alps and then the Pyrénées over the next two weeks. “It remains a turning point in my life,” said Vinokourov of Kivilev's death in an interview with the French sports daily L`Equipe. “I have understood since that day what are my real priorities. My outlook on my job has also changed a lot. I have especially

All around Grenoble on Monday’s rest day at the Tour de France, team directors, riders and race followers were speculating what will happen in the crucial stage 10 through the Savoy Alps on Tuesday. There are two schools of thought: Either Lance Armstrong’s team will take control and deliver the Texan to the mountaintop finish at Courchevel in perfect shape; or there will be so many attacks, especially by Jan Ullrich’s T-Mobile squad, that they will stretch Armstrong’s Discovery Channel team to its limit and completely open up the race. “Somebody has to attack,” said Bjarne Riis, the

One reason why Bjarne Riis is so fond of Jens Voigt, is that the man from East Germany is very clear in his analysis and very firm in his decisions. Voigt possesses what one would call leadership qualities, the sort that only few people in cycling have. It’s a characteristic that Riis had in his day and Lance Armstrong shows so well today. Just as Riis and Armstrong made the assessment one day that they can win the Tour and did everything necessary to accomplish this goal, Jens Voigt has made a clear decision about his career. “I am a mediocre sprinter, a bad climber and an okay time

Organizers of cycling's three grand tours, of France, Italy, and Spain appear to be standing firm against a perceived "ultimatum" delivered by the sport's governing body over their adhesion to the UCI's ProTour calendar. The ProTour, the brainchild of UCI president Hein Verbruggen, was introduced in the autumn of 2004 to help modernize and better organize the often-hectic professional cycling calendar - and its global image. The UCI has throughout the reforms met with resistance from the respective organizers of the Tour de France, Giro d’ Italia and Vuelta a España, who felt

Georg Totschnig was slouching through the lobby of the Hotel Mercure in Grenoble on Monday morning, not looking all too happy. The Austrian Gerolsteiner rider, from the picturesque mountain village of Zillertal, was not feeling great, just a day before the Tour enters the Alps. “I have no idea why, but I can’t keep up even with a medium speed in the climbs this year,” the 34-year-old Totschnig said. “I am realistic enough to know that this is not gonna change overnight.” Last year Totschnig made a splash when he came in third in the big Pyrénées stage to Plateau de Beille, dropping

First, a question: Dear Lennard,What does Jens Voigt carry in his seat bag? Do any of the other TdF riders carry a seat bag?Steve C. Dear Steve,That is the transmitter that sends telemetric data live from Voigt's SRM. And yes, some of the other Tour riders are doing the same thing. Voig, Matthias Kessler (T-Mobile), Gerrit Glomser (Lampre) and Sebastian Lang (Gerolsteiner) all have been wired for live SRM data on various stages. This is one of the (few) benefits of the UCI weight limit on bikes; since the riders can have bikes below the limit, they can add components of their choosing

Ullrich emerges from a Grenoble-area hospital after a rest day check-up

Armstrong takes a look at what's ahead during a training ride in Grenoble on Monday.

Stage 10: Up, up and away!

For Voigt the risk of an early attack paid off

Ullrich had a longer-than-expected wait at the airport

CSC's FSA-SRM crank

CSC's nifty new Cervélo Soloist Carbons

Course: With four Cat. 3s, a Cat. 2 and this Tour’s first Cat.1 climb (the 9km, 7-percent Ballon d’Alsace) through the Vosges, the climberswill finally get some terrain to their liking. But on completing the lastdownhill from the Ballon, there are still 43km to ride in the valley beforereaching the finish in Mulhouse. History: This is the 100th anniversary of the Ballon d’Alsacebecoming the first major climb included in the Tour. The last time a climbingstage through the Vosges ended in Mulhouse was in 1992, when a soon-to-retireLaurent Fignon broke clear on the Grand Ballon climb to score a

The 92nd Tour de France was given an inspiring display Sunday of the panache, courage and desire needed to challenge Lance Armstrong in his bid to win the race for a seventh year in succession. First, brave Dane Michael Rasmussen, a one-time world mountain bike champion who launched many an attack in the mountains last year, grabbed his first elusive win on stage 9 from Gérardmer to Mulhouse after a 167km-long breakaway. His victory not only extended his lead in the King of the Mountains competition he took on Saturday, but also gave his Dutch team, Rabobank, its second stage victory in a

Stage 9 Results1. Mickael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, 4:08:202. Christophe Moreau (F), Credit Agricole, 03:043. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, 03:044. Stuart O’Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 06:045. Philippe Gilbert (B), Francaise des Jeux, 06:046. Anthony Geslin (F), Bouygues Telecom, 06:047. Sebastian Lang (G), Gerolsteiner, 06:048. Laurent Brochard (F), Bouygues Telecom, 06:049. Jérôme Pineau (F), Bouygues Telecom, 06:0410. Gerrit Glomser (A), Lampre, 06:04 11. Stefano Garzelli (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 06:0412. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Phonak, 06:0413. Christopher Horner (USA), Saunier Duval, 06:0414.

Quotes, quotes and more quotes. Here’s what the big guns had to say before and after Sunday’s stage: Jens Voigt (CSC), in the yellow jersey:On finally getting the green light to attack: "We had a team meeting before the race. Riis said everyone with Basso today, but Jens you're free to attack. I've been asking Bjarne every day, but he said no. Finally he let me free today and I was able to do what I wanted to do and it worked out great." On flatting and Moreau waiting for him: "I want to thank so much Moreau that he waited for me. It would have been very difficult to try to maintain

Michael Rasmussen's stunning victory in the Tour de France's ninth stage following a 169km breakaway was impressive enough in itself, but even more so for the fact he only took up professional road racing three years ago. Rasmussen's relative lack of victories in the discipline is apparent - before Sunday's win he only had three wins to his name spread over his three years as a professional road rider. However, his decision to switch from mountain biking in 2001 was justified tenfold Sunday when he claimed the biggest prize a rider of his caliber could hope for. The

The lead changed hands at the Tour de France on Sunday, and Casey Gibson was on hand to capture the action. Here's what he saw from his vantage point on the final climb.

A train of light-green jerseys swept through Bend's Old Mill District on Sunday, as Scott Moninger of Health Net-Maxxis cruised behind his teammates to secure his fourth overall victory in the Cascade Cycling Classic. Moninger, who had an 11-second lead on Navigators' Cesar Grajales coming into Sunday's Old Mill District Criterium, stayed with his team in the front of the main pack on the tight, 1.2km loop. "That's two days in a row they've just absolutely ridden amazing," Moninger said of his five teammates. "They were going so fast the last four or five laps, I

After talking with her teammate Ina Yoko Teutenberg the other night, Kristin Armstrong of T-Mobile knew it was coming. She knew Teutenberg would put on a display of raw power en route to winning the Old Mill District Criterium in Bend on Sunday, lapping the field with teammate Katie Mactier. Teutenberg's second victory of the Cascade Cycling Classic – she also won Friday's Twilight Criterium - also helped secure the overall victory for Armstrong in the women's portion of the Cascade Cycling Classic. "We were all talking and Ina goes: 'You know what? I haven't lapped the

Dry, dusty winds and a rocky, technical cross-country course, coupled with the formidable altitude of New Mexico's Angel Fire Resort couldn’t derail the efforts of Swiss Christoph Sauser (Siemens-Cannondale) and Norway’s Gunn-Rita Dahle (Multivan-Merida) to repeat their titles as overall World Cup cross-country champions as they won the first World Cup cross-country race on American soil in three years on Sunday. “It was a very hard race, I had a hard time breathing at some points. Lots of suffering,” said Dahle. “I was still very tired from the Brazil race.” Despite her fatigue, Dahle

Stage 9 - Gérardmer to Mulhouse >171km

Stage 9 - Gérardmer to Mulhouse >171km

CSC gets the jersey back

Armstrong doesn't need that jersey - not right now

Moreau and Voigt work together

Chicken Run: Rasmussen on his own

Rasmussen has dreamed of this day

Armstrong's teammates were back on the job Sunday

Wake me when they get here . . .

T-Mobile fans are prevalent

Christophe Moreau and Voight on the final climb

Popovych leads Discovery in the chase

Lance working hard near the summit of Le Ballon d'Alsace

Riders flash by on the descent from Col de Grosse Pierre

Mickael Rasmussen attacks all alone and is putting time on the peloton

Chicken becomes the Energizer Bunny with this win

Voigt and Moreau cooperated all the way to the finish

Rasmussen takes a gamble

Does France have renewed hope?

Rasmussen gets company, but only for a while

Moreau breaks up the chase group

Ullrich takes a tumble

Course: The opening 60km of this longest stage so far (231.5km)passes through the beautiful Black Forest — Ullrich’s longtime traininggrounds. Any damage done on the four Cat. 3 climbs will be rectified bythe following 120km down and across the Rhine Valley. All the action shouldtake place on this Tour’s first Cat. 2 climb, the 16.8km-long Col de laSchlucht, which tops out at an elevation of 3736 feet just 15km from thefinish.History: A Tour stage has never started or finished in Gérardmer,a tourist town of fewer than 10,000 people set on a scenic lake deep inthe pine forests of the Vosges

Lance Armstrong looked around near the summit of the rather anonymous Cat. 2 Col de la Schlucht in the chilly Vosges Mountains and couldn’t find many friendly faces. In the big front group he was with, there were no other Discovery Channel riders. No Chechu, no Triki, no Popo. Not even his 2005 favorite mountain goat, José Azevedo. What the six-time Tour champion did see were lots of riders licking their chops. For the first time in years at the Tour de France, Armstrong was isolated. “It was not a great day. I didn’t feel very good and the other teams did feel good,” said Armstrong, who

Stage 8 -Pforzheim to Gérardmer >231.5km1. Pieter Weening (Nl), Rabobank, 231.5km in 5:03:54(45.705kph)2. Andréas Klöden (G),T-Mobile, same time3. Alejandro Valverde (Sp),Illes Balears, at 00:274. Kim Kirchen (Lux),Fassa Bortolo, at 00:275. Jens Voigt (G),CSC, at 00:276. Jan Ullrich (G),T-Mobile, at 00:277. Cadel Evans (Aus),Davitamon-Lotto, at 00:278. Christophe Moreau (F),Credit Agricole, at 00:279. Christopher Horner (USA),Saunier Duval, at 00:2710. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz),T-Mobile, at 00:27 11. Stefano Garzelli (I),Liquigas-Bianchi, at 00:2712. Franco Pellizotti (I),Liquigas-Bianchi,

Dutchman Pieter Weening (Rabobank) gave a glimpse of his potential and ended a frustrating streak of runner-up places with a well-taken win on the eighth stage of the Tour de France Saturday in Gerardmer. Weening had to wait an agonizing few minutes before finding out for sure if he had really won a two-man sprint with Germany's Andreas Klöden (T-Mobile) - and when the result came he could still not quite believe it. "In a two-man sprint nothing's decided until it's over so I just tried to hold on for as long as possible," said Weening, who is the first Dutchman to win a stage

Salvo's salvationThe disappearance of Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel team in today's eighth stage from Pforzheim to Gérardmer was main topic of discussion of the Tour this evening. One of his key teammates, two-time Giro d'Italia winner Paolo Savoldelli, finished the day in 68th place at 2:57. Not exactly what might have been expected. An interview with Savoldelli, who was recruited to be one of Armstrong's principal support men in the mountains of the Vosges, Alps and Pyrénées, was published in Saturday's edition of the French sports daily L`Equipe. Of

Any real cycling fan knows there's more to the Tour de France than the race itself - the sideshows are often as interesting (if not more so) than the main event. Plus a guy can only look at so many pictures of bike racers before he goes all cross-eyed. So we appreciate it when our man Casey Gibson takes a slightly different approach to Le Tour - and for you overly-focused out there, we even included a couple of race pics. Check 'em out.

The Tour never lies. So when Lance Armstrong’s teammates all reported absent during the critical stages of the Col de la Schlucht climb on Saturday, the six-time defending champion had to be concerned. “It was a shitty day,” Armstrong told French television Saturday evening. “Perhaps the team and the boys on the team were too confident … after we did well at the prologue, and won the team time trial. Everyone shows up at the Tour and wants to win, but there are no guarantees.” The one certainty on Saturday was that Jan Ullrich’s T-Mobile team did show up to win. Armstrong himself had to

It’s a cliché, I admit, but there’s a reason things become clichés and the wisdom behind that old line “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over,” has certainly been proven more than a few times over the first few days of this year’s Tour de France. If anyone thinks this year’s Tour is going to be just another cakewalk for defending champion Lance Armstrong – or anyone else for that matter - they have another thing coming. If anything, Armstrong’s six previous Tours are conspiring against him. Given a remarkable string of good luck over the past six years, the odds have to be catching up with him. It

The scene during the men’s World Cup downhill finals at Angel Fire, New Mexico, was vaguely reminiscent of the men’s finals at the Deer Valley NORBA on June 19. Having set the early fastest split, Aussie strongman Chris Kovarik (Intense) sat in the hot seat with only two riders left on course – 2003 world champion Greg Minnaar (G-Cross Honda) and 2005 downhill revelation Jared Graves (Yeti). Before Minaar and Graves finished, Kovarik was not optimistic about his chances. “Obviously I hope I can win it, but Greg is so fast right now,” he said. At Deer Valley, Minnaar dethroned Kovarik and

As Jeff Louder of Navigators and four other cyclists broke away from the pack, Scott Moninger and his Health Net-Maxxis teammates sat at the front of the peloton and waited. And waited. Finally, during the final climb to the finish of Saturday's Awbrey Butte Circuit Race in the Cascade Cycling Classic, Health Net made its move. Moninger, the race leader coming in, was propelled to the front by his teammates and finished second in the stage to hang onto the overall lead. "It's a lesson in patience," Moninger said. "My teammates just rotated through. We've been in this position a

The strongest team in United States women's cycling is poised to make a clean sweep of the podium in Central Oregon's Cascade Cycling Classic. Kimberly Baldwin of T-Mobile won the 58-mile Awbrey Butte Circuit Race on Saturday in 2 hours, 23 minutes, 10 seconds, and her teammate Kristin Armstrong finished second to retain the overall lead. T-Mobile now has the top three spots in the general classification, and six riders in the top 10. T-Mobile riders have won all four stages thus far. Armstrong's overall time is 7:04:58, and Baldwin is in second, 42 seconds back. Kori Seehafer of

July 9 - Stage 8 - Pforzheim to Gérardmer >231.5kmIt was a long day. To start out, we had four third category climbs right at the beginning and things went flat out right away. Almost as soon as the peloton hit the first climb we had 40 or 50 guys who got dropped straight away more or less and we spent the next 150ks trying to get back on to the peloton. Once we got back on – seriously only about three or four kilometers after we got back on – the boss calls up and tells us to go to the front. There was a break away and he wanted us to cut the gap down before the last climb - the second

Stage 8 - Pforzheim to Gérardmer >231.5km

Judges said it came down to a 2mm margin at the line and gave Weening the win over Klöden

Isolated and under attack: There weren't a lot of Discovery jerseys with Armstrong on the Col de la Schlucht

Weening would like to try for the yellow jersey one day - but not this year

The lead sax player on what Casey calls the worst rendition of ' I Did It My Way' that he's ever heard

No, he's not a walking, talking Capitol One ad - just another German fan

The peloton races through the lovely borough of Herbolsheim

Hincapie leading the descent in the early break

Baron von Münchhausen turns out for the Tour

Fans check out the race on the Col de la Schlucht

A lovely bike hidden away, with wooden fenders and woven spoke guard

Casey's competition gets younger every year

Armstrong had company alright... but the wrong kind of company..

Moreau gives it a go...

T-Mobile came into the climb with guns blazing...

Casar leads the break, as Hincapie keeps an eye on things.

,,, as does Valverde.

Sorenson and Co. join Casar to form a new break

Armstrong readies for the coming battle.

Landis is ready.

After a series of attacks, it's Klöden's that sticks... bringing much needed relief to the fading Weening