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Only 3016km to go! This is supposed to be encouraging?!??!

SRM founder Ulrich Schoberer with Saeco's Gerrit Glomser.

Not for spare tubes. This is an SRM telemetry unit

The T-Mobile boys got these first

No flex: Petacchi won't be getting too much wobble in sprints

Punched the time clock and ready for work

COURSE: The first half of the course loops south on mostly valleyroads, with a handful of short hills, not the steep climbs of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The second half between Huy and Charleroi is on straight, rolling roads where the wind could be a factor. FAVORITES: The straight finish favors Alessandro Petacchi and Mario Cipollini, rather than Zabel, Baden Cooke, Robbie McEwen and Oscar Freire, but watch for Belgian Tom Boonen to make a splash on his Tour debut. HISTORY: The last time the race came to Charleroi, in 1995, Erik Zabel took the first Tour stage win of his career. Unlike that

The Tour de France peloton did its best to impersonate crash test dummies in today's first stage won by AG2R’s Jaan Kirsipuu, while Fabian Cancellara of Fassa Bortolo just retained the yellow jersey. The 202.5km stage from Liege to Charleroi lived up to apparent Tour tradition that the first day of racing be marred by numerous crashes -- and, often, costly injuries. Little wonder then that American Tour champion Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal) admitted to being more than a little nervous in a bunch that had to race in cool, wet and often slippery conditions. “I was very nervous because of

Euskaltel, whose team leader Iban Mayo is a contender for the Tour de France yellow jersey, have suspended their doctor Jesus Losa following a recent admission by Britain's David Millar that he used EPO. Millar admitted to using the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO) last week after police searched his house and found syringes with traces of the drug. The 27-year-old Scot told police he had been given advice by the Euskaltel team doctor Losa. Euskaltel confirmed Sunday that he had been suspended from the Tour while they carry out their own investigation. Euskaltel have already been

Individual Results - Stage 11. Jaan Kirsipuu (Est), Ag2R Prevoyance, 4:40:292. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Lotto-Domo, 00:003. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Crédit Agricole, 00:004. Danilo Hondo (G), Gerolsteiner, 00:005. Nazon Jean-Patrick (F), Ag2R Prevoyance, 00:006. Baden Cooke (Aus), FDJeux.com, 00:007. Arvesen Kurt-Asle (Nor), CSC, 00:008. Alessandro Petacchi (I), Fassa Bortolo, 00:009. Erik Zabel (G), T-Mobile, 00:0010. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty-Seguras, 00:00 11. Jimmy Engoulvent (F), Cofidis, 00:0012. Jimmy Casper (F), Cofidis, 00:0013. Pineau Jérôme (F), Brioches La Boulangere, 00:0014. Sergio

Tour de France organizers might not be regretting their decision to give the cycling-mad Belgians the chance to see some close-range drama on the race's first stage proper on Sunday. However, some of the 188 riders in this year's 91st edition would probably see things very differently after a nearly calamitous first day over 202.5km of undulating terrain from Liege to Charleroi near the Ardennes. Belgium is the home of cycling's greatest champion, Eddy Merckx, and a number of the world's best-known one-day races are held here. Thus, as an homage to the country, and especially the region

It was a nervous day for the racers, with flats, crashes and rain, and an even busier day for photographer Graham Watson, who sent us these shots from today's action.

So what’s up with tubeless tires these days? A fair amount, actually. There are now three teams riding tubeless road tires at the Tour de France. As in the past, teams that have both Mavic and Hutchinson as sponsors are in a position to use them, but now, teams that have both Shimano as a wheel sponsor and Hutchinson tires could ride them as well. Shimano, it seems has joined the group of companies sharing the technology and working together on the project. That group is now Shimano, Mavic, Hutchinson and Michelin, but no Michelin-sponsored teams are racing on them. Mavic’s Chris Zigmont

Danilo Di Luca has won the Trofeo Matteotti race in central Italy on Sunday, beating Oskar Camenzind and Paolo Bossoni. It was personal revenge for Di Luca ­back in Italy after his undeserved exclusion from the Tour de France and after just missing out in the Italian national championships. The successful day for Team Saeco was completed with the return to racing of Eddy Mazzoleni. He was brought back into the team yesterday after the end of his temporary suspension that followed the start of investigations that also include Danilo Di Luca. “It’s a huge satisfaction for me and for the

If there’s one thing you can count on when racing in Belgium, it’s that you’re likely to get rained on. While the roads were dry for a little while this afternoon, it wasn’t long until the peloton was soaked to the skin in cool July rain. Besides staying upright, keeping warm was the most important thing riders needed to remember during Stage 1. Lance and his teammates didn’t pull out the rain jackets because they were afraid of getting a little wet; they wore them to prevent their core temperatures from falling. In a three-week stage race, you never want to burn any more energy than you

On a rainy afternoon when pedaling prowess was just as important as downhilling skills, Frenchwoman Celine Gros and Spain’s David Vazquez Lopez scored World Cup wins at the final day of racing in Calgary, Alberta. The combination of a short, relatively flat course, along with extremely muddy conditions, made for a tough test on a track that paralleled the bobsled circuit used in the 1988 Olympics. “You were pretty much pedaling top to bottom,” said American Marla Streb (Luna), who spent some time in the hot seat before being knocked off by teammate Kathy Pruitt. Streb wound up sixth, while

STAGE 1 July 04 Liège - Charleroi (121.173mi/195km)

STAGE 1 July 04 Liège - Charleroi (121.173mi/195km)

In 1952, Luxemburger Jean Diederich soloed for 120km over the Belgian pavé to win the Roubaix-Namur stage.

Kirsipuu takes a narrow victory

It looked like anyone's race in the final dash to the line

Cancellara rode safely to retain the yellow jersey

Hincapie told the press that today's goals were protecting Lance and staying out of trouble

Just getting to the start is trouble enough for the defending champ

The scene at the start

And we're off

Tour de Tech: Going Tubeless at the Tour

Tour de Tech: Going Tubeless at the Tour

It's merely a flesh wound: Hamilton had a brief tumble

By about that much...

Piil and Wauters worked well together... just not well enough.

Cipo' was in no position to contest the sprint

Voigt leads the break

Lunch time

COURSE: This completely flat course is more technical than lastyear’s prologue in Paris, featuring two virtual dead-stop turns, a trickysection over cobblestones, and a long curving section that is ridden inboth directions. The whole course is on city streets, except for a shortsection on a highway that runs parallel to the Meuse River. FAVORITES: Expect last year’s prologue winner Brad McGee to befavored, especially with the absence of David Millar, while homeboy RikVerbrugghe will also be vying for the honors. Of the GC contenders, LanceArmstrong will want to make a statement with his

Lance Armstrong was just two seconds shy of winning the Tour de France prologue and taking the yellow jersey on Saturday. But by finishing second to Swiss Tour debutant Fabian Cancellara (Fassa Bortolo) in the 6.1km time trial in Liège, he still dealt a first blow to his main rivals for a sixth overall victory. On a flat, windswept course, Armstrong took 15 seconds and more out of German Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile), American Tyler Hamilton (Phonak) and Spaniard Iban Mayo (Euskaltel-Euskadi). Ullrich surprised everyone by placing only 16th, while Hamilton was 18th, conceding 16 seconds to the

Australian rider Matthew White will not take part in this year's Tour de France after breaking his collarbone in a training accident in Liège on Saturday, his Cofidis team confirmed here Saturday. White, who was previewing the 6.1km prologue course ahead of the start, is believed to have crashed into a rail which was covering some cables. The 30-year-old team support rider, from Sydney, joined Cofidis with the hope of riding the big Tours, and especially the Tour de France after spending two years with Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal team and getting passed over for the Tour squad. White's

Hi from the Tour de France! I have been in Liège for a few days, visiting the teams and taking lots of photos of bikes and equipment, sometimes even of people. There is always lots of new equipment at the Tour, since every team and sponsor focuses more on this event than any other. When team technical sponsors start developing new products for racing, they always point to the Tour start as the date for completion. There is no better place to premiere a new product, and the riders and teams place so much emphasis on Tour results that they create pressure which helps the development process

Belgian legend Eddy Merckx has added his voice to the debate about Lance Armstrong's bid for an unprecedented sixth yellow jersey in this year's Tour de France, suggesting that no great champions are complete without attempting the world hour record. Throughout cycling history, many of the greats, from Merckx to Francesco Moser, have capped glittering careers by attempting the hour record. Armstrong, who is favored to win an unprecedented sixth Tour and overtake the four other five-time winners - Jacques Anquetil, Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain - has said that he would one day

1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), Fassa Bortolo, 06:502. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 00:023. Gutierrez José Ivan (Sp), Illes Balears-Banesto, 00:084. Bradley Mc Gee (Aus), FDJeux.com, 00:095. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Crédit Agricole, 00:106. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Phonak, 00:117. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, 00:118. Christophe Moreau (F), Crédit Agricole, 00:129. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, 00:1210. George Hincapie (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 00:12 11. Gutierrez José Enrique (Sp), Phonak, 00:1412. Angel Vicioso (Sp), Liberty-Seguras, 00:1513. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Rabobank, 00:1514. Carlos

On a day with more story lines than a Tom Clancy novel, Filip Meirhaeghe and Gunn-Rita Dahle reaffirmed their status as Olympic favorites, after each took impressive cross-county wins at World Cup No. 6 at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. As for the litany of North American Olympic spot battles, it was Americans Mary McConneloug, Todd Wells and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski closing in on start spots in Athens, while Canadians Marie-Helene Premont, Kiara Bisaro and Seamus McGrath also looked to be a step closer to their Olympic dreams. Following the women’s race, which was yet another dominating

Photographer Graham Watson's Tour de France got under way today, too. Here's a sampling of what he saw as the 2004 edition took to the streets in Liége, Belgium.

Not too bad. I did a pretty normal prologue time trial today. I wasn’t all that lucky with the wind and the weather. If you look at the results, it looks like the guys who went off early turned in better times than even some of the big specialists at the end. The guys going off early had a pretty nice tailwind going out, at least to the turnaround, and then we got off after things shifted a bit and it felt like it was either a headwind or a crosswind. I doubt I got 200 meters of tailwind throughout. Still, I have no complaints. It was a reasonable ride and six kilometers doesn’t exactly

LIÉGE - It feels good to have officially startedthe race. The days leading up to the Tour always seem like such chaos.You never stop moving. There is always somewhere to be and some who needsto speak with you. It’s a hectic pace to be keeping when all you reallywant to do is rest. Three long weeks are ahead, so it’s important to maintaina balance.Our camp gathered a little early on Tuesday morning to do some lastminute previewing of the team time trial course together. It’s always abit of a challenge to figure out the order the guys are going to ride in.So it was good to have the chance to

I don’t know that you could have scripted a better scenario for the opening day of the Tour de France. Lance Armstrong had a very good day, put a little daylight between himself and his main rivals, but was beaten by a young man from Switzerland riding his first Tour de France. He delivered the message that he’s prepared for a hard three weeks, but he and the Postal Service don’t have to work to defend the yellow jersey tomorrow. One good day down, 22 to go. A strong prologue performance by a team leader is important in a long stage race. It has a significant psychological effect on the

PROLOGUE July 03 Liège TT (3.728mi/6km)

PROLOGUE July 03 Liège TT (3.728mi/6km)

Cancellara was confident once McGee fell short

It's a Good bike ... it says so, right on the down tube

Keep on truckin'

It ain't pretty, but it works ... or so Gilberto Simoni hopes

Cancellara takes Tour prologue

Armstrong blazed the course, taking early time from his rivals

Cancellara was the fastest man in the Tour today

Gutierrez was good enough for third

Everyone's early fave, McGee, finished one spot behind Gutierrez ...

... while Hushovd was next in line, crossing fifth

Armstrong's nemesis, Ullrich, conceded 18 seconds to the Texan ...

... as did former lieutenant Hamilton

Strong performances by Hincapie and other Posties brought the squad today's team prize

On paper the upcoming weekend’s worth of racing in Calgary is just another mountain bike World Cup. But if you happen to be one of a dozen North Americans still immersed in Olympic cross-country spot battles, stop No. 6 of the 2004 series could well be the most important race of the year. If things go well then that lifelong Olympic dream lives on. But blow up on the (ironically) Canada Olympic Park course and Beijing in 2008 becomes your best hope. On the men’s side there’s plenty of intrigue for both the Americans and Canadians, who each have two start spots in Athens. In the case of the

Lance Armstrong on Friday lost his appeal against a ruling denying him the right to insert a denial against accusations of doping published in a book released last week. The five-time Tour de France winner's lawyer, Christian Charriere-Bournazel, took action over the book "L.A. Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong" by award-winning Sunday Times of London journalist David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, a cycling specialist formerly with French sports daily L'Equipe. The book, which alleges Armstrong used banned drugs, focuses on statements attributed to Emma O'Reilly, a soigneur who

A confident Tyler Hamilton says he believes he can win the Tour de France. "No question, I'm here to win. I'm here with a strong team, we're motivated and they expect me to do well. There's more pressure, but I like that," he said. " When asked if he could be the ride to topple Lance Armstrong, Hamilton said he would give it a try. "Lance will be stronger than last year, so we have to be stronger than last year," said the Man from Marblehead. "Lance and I are friends off the bike, but on the bike we're competitors." Hamilton said Armstrong's troubles in 2003 give him and other rivals

Let’s start things off with a first-look at Tyler Hamilton’s freshly unveiled BMC time-trial bike, which he will ride at this year’s Tour de France (from a BMC press release): The core structure of the bike is a 100% carbon-fiber monocoque frame — and when we say carbon-fiber, we really mean it: Even the smallest details, such as our fork drop-outs and derailleur cage, are made of carbon-fiber. The revolutionary new fork-stem design (patent pending) sets the standard in cycling technology. In addition to perfect aerodynamics, we also achieve maximum rigidity from the minimum possible

US Postal (team manager: Johan Bruyneel) 1. Lance Armstrong (USA)2. Jose Azevedo (POR)3. Manuel Beltran (Sp)4. Viatcheslav Ekimov (Rus)5. George Hincapie (USA)6. Floyd Landis (USA)7. Benjamin Noval (Sp)8. Pavel Padrnos (CZE)9. Jose Luis Rubiera (Sp) T-Mobile (team manager: Mario Kummer) 11. Jan Ullrich (G)12. Rolf Aldag (G)13. Santiago Botero (COL)14. Giuseppe Guerini (I)15. Serguei Ivanov (Rus)16. Matthias Kessler (G)17. Andreas Kloden (G)18. Daniele Nardello (I)19. Erik Zabel (G) Phonak (team manager: Alvaro Pino) 21. Tyler Hamilton (USA)22. Martin Elmiger (Swi)23. Santos Gonzalez (Sp)24.

The Mail Bag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 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 frivolity continuesEditor:If a court — even a French one — sanctions a litigant for frivolously abusing the legal process, isn't the abuse compounded by continuing to pursue the matter? Just wondering. Deborah KleinSan Antonio,

Calling Lance Armstrong “an authentic champion” but a selfish one, Liberty Seguros team manager Manolo Saiz has declared that he doesn't want to see the 32-year-old American win an unprecedented sixth Tour de France. Saiz, who managed the Spanish ONCE team until the company pulled out of the sport last year after 11 years' involvement, feels that former race greats such as five-time winners Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault were cut from very different cloth than Armstrong. "Thanks to his experience, his mental strength and his nose for racing, I would say that Armstrong has an 80 percent

Italian Danilo Di Luca (Saeco) intends to sue Tour de France organizers for barring him because he is under investigation in Italy for doping offences. Di Luca was among 14 riders charged by Italian police earlier this year. "I'm going to sue the Tour de France and ask for considerable damages," Di Luca told Reuters after returning to Italy from Liège, where the Tour will start on Saturday. "I decided to take legal action after the meeting with race director Jean Marie Leblanc. Not being able to ride the Tour de France has caused huge damage to my image. I've been working hard for two

The cycling world should see the real Roberto Heras in this year's Tour de France, Liberty-Seguros directeur sportif Manolo Saiz said Friday. And if all things go according to Saiz's plan, the new model will not look anything like the Heras who helped Armstrong win three of his five Tours. Saiz says he will look more like the rider Heras planned to be before switching from Kelme to U.S. Postal after 2000, when he recorded a best overall Tour placing of fifth. Saiz said Heras has prepared differently for this year's Tour than in the past. Asked for specifics, Saiz declined to elaborate,

For those of you keeping track of the Tour de France at work, we're giving you another window to hide when the boss walks in. Beginning with Saturday's prologue time trial in Paris, VeloNews.com, in cooperation with AFP and Art Movies Inc., will be offering an INTERACTIVE FLASH MAP of Tour coverage to supplement our exsisting coverage of the Tour de France. Rest assured, the graphics, bells and whistles are in addition to VeloNews.com's already strong coverage. We'll begin every day with live reports from the road by by our onsite editors. As soon as each stage is complete, we'll have

I went out to the kitchen to make coffee — yards of coffee. Rich, strong, bitter, boiling hot, ruthless, depraved. The lifeblood of tired men. Raymond ChandlerThe Long Goodbye It was the day before the start of the Tour de France, and the pre-race coverage on VeloNews.com read more like a Miami Herald police blotter. I was chasing the sour doping news with bitter black coffee, trying to work myself up to something like a rant, when an authoritative knock rattled the door. “UCI — open up!” boomed a voice that sounded as though it would have been right at home in a burning bush. Opening the

Former Italian sprint king Mario Cipollini will be one of the big names expected to get into the sprint action when the first stage of the Tour de France (July 3-25) gets under way here on Sunday. However, the 37-year-old admits that his long-anticipated roar back to the front line could be kept in check by a number of heirs apparent. Following Saturday's 6.1km prologue around Liege, the peloton faces a testing 202.5km ride across mainly flat terrain from Liège to Charleroi that will give the sprinters their first chance to start bumping elbows. Flamboyant veteran Cipollini, the “Lion

Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen is getting just about fed up with all this talk of Italian "super sprinter" Alessandro Petacchi - and the Lotto rider intends to do something about it. McEwen, the winner of the Tour de France green jersey for the highest-placed daily finisher in 2002, has lived in Belgium for most of his professional career and is valued as one of their own. But with that familiarity comes some pressure — for his own success, and for his appraisal of his main rivals. Petacchi, who in this year’s Giro D’Italia set a postwar record of nine stage wins in a single edition of

With the 90-meter Nordic ski jump used at the 1988 Winter Olympics serving as a backdrop, Czech rider Michal Prokop and Frenchwoman Sabrina Jonnier cruised to convincing four-cross wins at round No. 5 of the UCI World Cup series at Calgary's Canada Olympic Park on Friday. It was the second straight World Cup win for Prokop and third straight for Jonnier, pushing both riders over the top in the race for the series crown. Both now have insurmountable leads with one race to go. Despite qualifying third behind Eric Carter and Roger Rinderknecht, Prokop (Author) had little trouble in his run to

Tyler's clock-stopping BMC

You need a cup of my java

Prokop

Hi Bob-I have had some bad luck with a new bicycle purchase and was wonderingif there is a type of Lemon Law with bicycles similar to those concerningthe purchase of motor vehicles?Thanks,M.B. Dear M.B.,So, you got a lemon, huh? It is hard to contemplate this question (orfor that matter, life) without mentioning that hackneyed, homespun advicethat if life gives you... no, no, I will refrain. Lemon laws were designed to protect consumers who may not be able toassess possible defects in an automobile prior to the purchase. The inabilityof consumers to obtain fair and prompt redress for