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DH winner Dumaresq.

Jones celebrates his national title.

Off the box.

Dropping in.

Berrecloth shows his skills.

3-2-1 lift off.

Safe!

Find that landing.

Off the wall.

It was a packed house at Whistler on Saturday.

This is the type of stage you could call a “sleeper.” It comes the day after the first long time trial, and the day before a classic Pyrenean stage across six mountain passes. But this stage could be more destructive because it has a summit finish that is immediately preceded by what should prove one of the toughest, if not the toughest climb in the Pyrénées. It’s hard to figure why the organizers gave it only a Cat. 1 ranking and not hors-categorie — the Port de Pailhères is longer and steeper than the renowned Col du Tourmalet. It climbs for 25km, with the final 15km on an extremely

None of the six climbs on this classic 191.5km mountain stage is particularly long or high, but six hours of racing in potentially adverse weather will be a challenge. The three climbs in the last 70km, all Cat. 1, are the most difficult, particularly the narrow, winding Col de Menté, which averages 8.2 percent for 7km. This will soften up the field for the 8.3km Portillon (that comes during a brief foray into Spain) and the 13km Peyresourde, from which the race plunges to the finish in Loudenvielle. 7/20/2003 Start Time: 11:15:00am7/20/2003 Estimated Finish Time: 5:26:00pm HISTORY All

Friday's stage of the 2003 Tour de France delivered yet more shocks in what has been a Tour of full of drama. The shock of the day was Jan Ullrich turning 47 kilometers of French asphalt into a personal road to redemption, by scoring his first Tour stage victory since 1998 and pushing his longtime rival Lance Armstrong to an unfamiliar second place in a Tour time trial. Armstrong said he ran out of water and suffered with the heat, which again shot into the humid-90s. Armstrong was dealt his worst Tour time trial defeat since his 1999 comeback to the race after overcoming cancer. Indeed,

Things have certainly changed for the Italian Fassa Bortolo team on the Tour de France - and its experienced manager Giancarlo Ferretti admits he’s feeling rather short-handed. Ferretti, who was on cloud nine in the first week of the Tour as 29-year-old sprinter Alessandro Petacchi added four impressive stage wins to the six he won in the Tour of Italy, has fallen back to earth after a virus decimated his team. Fassa Bortolo have been operating with only three of their nine riders for the past six days - a peculiar but worrying situation which has left plenty of room on the team bus but

1. Jan Ullrich (G), Bianchi, at 58:322. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, at 01:363. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), Telekom, at 02:064. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 02:405. Tyler Hamilton (USA), CSC, at 02:436. Uwe Peschel (G), Gerolsteiner, at 03:267. David Millar (GB), Cofidis, at 03:558. Inigo Chaurreau (Sp), Ag2R Prevoyance, at 04:019. David Plaza (Sp), Bianchi, at 04:3710. Santiago Botero (Col), Telekom, at 05:0011. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), iBanesto.com, at 05:0012. Iban Mayo (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 05:0313. Georg Totschnig (A), Gerolsteiner, at 05:0614. Denis

In a recent Sports Illustrated column, Rick Reilly says to his daughter that besides spending two hours writing his weekly column, what he does the rest of the time is “worry about those two hours.” Well, here at bike-geek central, none of us has the luxury of being a full-time, once-a-week columnist, seeing as how our staff is about the size of the Fassa Bortolo squad after a week at the Tour. That being the case, we generally leave it a little late when it comes to our weekly Web columns, which can make for some, um, interesting topics. This week, for example, Neal Rogers found it in

Lance Armstrong said blistering temperatures and not drinking enough fluids gave him a challenging day in the saddle during the Tour de France’s 12th-stage time trial, won by German rival Jan Ullrich here on Friday. Ullrich ended a five-year famine to win his first Tour stage since 1998, another time trial, after posting the winning time of 58:32 over the 47km race against the clock between Gaillac and here. Armstrong, who admitted that at one point he felt he was going backwards, finished second at a massive 1:36 behind the 29-year-old German to see his lead in the race

Four more stages have been completed here at Superweak 2003. The first few road races are out of the way, and there weren't any huge surprises. This year the road races have double points, and so they should dictate who is going to contest the overall. The Alpine Valley Road Race is probably the hardest race of the series. It is also where Stevie Ray Vaughn lost his life in a helicopter crash. Every year I choose not to race there for one of those two reasons. The course has several very steep hills that repeatedly beat you down like a red-headed stepchild. There is also very little shelter

The Lithuanian cycling federation has imposed a one-year ban on controversial Lithuanian rider Raimondas Rumsas, who tested positive for the banned drug EPO during the Tour of Italy, the federation said Friday. The federation also fined 31-year-old Rumsas 2,000 Swiss francs (1,300 euros). "The federation offered a six-month suspension for Rumsas, but the international cycling federation (the Union Cycliste Internationale) did not agree with this and recommended a four-year ban," said Valentinas Rutkauskas, the secretary general of the Lithuanian cycling federation. The federation had sent

Britain's David Millar said he was battling with breathing difficulties as he finished a disappointing seventh in the Tour de France time trial on Friday. The Cofidis rider, who had predicted he would finish in the top two in the 47 km sprint from Gaillac to Cap Decouverte, ended up nearly four minutes adrift of Germany's stage winner Jan Ullrich (Bianchi). "I've been sick since the (Wednesday) rest day and just couldn't breathe during the time trial," Millar said. "I set off good, but after 20 kilometers my plans all went up in smoke. It was very hot today, but to be honest it was the

The Pyrénées, with its three stages and two finishes at altitude, will be ideal terrain to settle the rivalry between American Lance Armstrong and German Jan Ullrich in the race for Tour de France victory. Coming after two weeks of riding in intense heat, the stages to Bonascre, Loudenvielle-Le Louron and Luz Ardiden could be punishing. Many believed Armstrong, who leads Ullrich by 34 seconds before the 13th stage to the Plateau de Bonascre on Saturday, had been bluffing in the Alps by simply controlling his rivals instead of demolishing them. But his intriguing defeat by Ullrich in

What an absolute stinking hot hole Cap’Découverte is. I have never seen such a big hole. In fact, you will probably not find a bigger hole in Europe. And that’s a fact. Why? The simple reason is that today’s stage 12 time trial finished on the edge of a 750-foot-deep hole in the ground. In fact, the hole is a converted opencast coalmine and was once the largest of its kind in Europe. And at 35 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit) with a temperature of 61 degrees C (142 degrees) on the road, it was a stinking hot place to be watching the Tour. But in all seriousness, on the centennial of

Dear Bob;I was reading an article about a race in which I participated. In the article a fellow competitor made a few comments about me that are untrue. I am not the litigious by nature and plan to do nothing about his lies, but could I sue him for lying about me?AnonymousDear A;In order to succeed with a defamation claim (the legal term which includes both slander - spoken and libel - written) you must prove the following elements.First, you must prove that someone made, either spoken a written, untrue statement of fact about you. If the statement is true, no matter how horrible, there is no

If you’re thinking that this Tour de France can’t serve up any more drama then just wait for Saturday’s finale in the first of four stages in the Pyrenees. It’s going to be hot again, and a Tour peloton wearied by a heat wave and super-sonic race speeds now has to tackle the most difficult phase of the race. Following Friday’s time trial and the shocking defeat of race leader Lance Armstrong by Jan Ullrich, speculation of the four-time champion riding to defeat is rampant. But there is so much climbing ahead that any speculation is meaningless until at least the end of Saturday’s

Jan Ullrich was downright super today in the Stage 12 individual time trial. We knew coming into the Tour that he was in great shape and anticipated he would be strong in the time trials, and we were right. Today’s results make one thing very clear: Lance Armstrong is going to have to attack in the Pyrenees to win the 2003 Tour de France. Lance Armstrong has an advantage over Jan Ullrich in the mountains, and he needs to exploit that advantage over the next four days to build more of a lead than Ullrich can take back in the final individual time trial on Stage 19. In the mountains,

Today's individual time trial was pretty brutal. The route was difficult with a lot of uphills, false flats and a headwind. I guess you could say today was a warm-up for the four tough days that lay ahead. The heat was also a huge factor this afternoon. It was nearly 100 degrees out there. I finished exhausted and dehydrated. I think I was half delirious on the bus ride back to Toulouse. Jan Ullrich waxed everyone with one incredible ride. Anyone who doubted him before the Tour started probably changed their thinking after today. He definitely came to France ready to ride. I think we're

To see how Stage 12 of the Tour unfolded live, just go to our Live Update window and follow the action all the way to the finish.

All good things come to an end, and my days of Tour tech coverage are now but a pleasant memory. I just got back to VeloNews headquarters this morning and had to follow today's time trial the way everyone else does – via www.velonews.com and OLN. I’ve received a ton of questions regarding the time-trial bikes used this year. While access was tight (but possible) with the "daily driver" bikes of the peloton, team mechanics were downright militant about refusing to show their riders' TT bikes. Perhaps the teams didn't want to lose any last-minute tech advantage to the competition, or maybe

If there is such a thing as mountain biking heaven, it may well be Whistler, British Columbia. Weather you’re a full-on freerider looking to huck the day away, a cross-country specialist in search of endless technical singletrack, a downhiller, a four-crosser or whatever other incarnations exist out there, this place pretty much has you covered. The mountain bike park, with its 30-plus trails and high-speed quad to get you to the top, is by most accounts the best there is. Unlike some resorts back the States — read Beaver Creek and Steamboat Springs — Whistler has embraced the two-wheeled

Ullrich flew

Who is that mysterous mullet-man?

Euskatel rider Zubeldia rides to take the fourth place

Vinokourov rides to take third place

Tyler Hamilton

Ullrich celebrates

Beloki smiles as he is pushed on his wheelchair

Armstrong fought hard

Speechless

'Harder than I anticipated'

Vinokourov slips to third

Uwe Peschel set the day's early standard

One of the most unusual fans to date....

Michael Rogers

Adam Craig getting ready to (free) ride.

Men's XC favorite Hesjedal sporting a new look.

Saint derailleur.

Saint cranks.

The VN Saint testing machine.

After a rest day in Narbonne, the Tour continues with this shortest road stage of the race. Most will be glad of its brevity because it will be followed by the first long time trial and three tough stages in the Pyrénées. The Cat. 3 climb in the middle of the stage is long, but not particularly steep, while the roads are fairly narrow until the final few kilometers into the heart of Toulouse. 7/17/2003 Start Time: 1:34:00pm7/17/2003 Estimated Finish Time: 5:24:00pm HISTORYToulouse was one of the original six stage towns, and there have been 23 finishes here, but only two have ended in the

This 47km time trial probably rates a 5-out-of-10 on the degree of technical difficulty scale. The road surfaces are good. There is an early climb out of Gaillac to a plateau, followed by a sharp downhill and some technical turns through the town of Cordes (24km), and then comes a snaking 12km section up the Cérou valley to Monesties (39km). From here, the main climb rises 364 feet in about a mile, and the finish is into a park converted from an opencast coal mine, once the biggest in Europe. 7/18/2003 Start Time: 10:20:00am7/18/2003 Estimated Finish Time: 5:17:00pm HISTORYThe Tour’s first

Juan Antonio Flecha blazed like an arrow across the finish line on an airport runway to claim victory in Thursday's 153.5km stage 11 from Narbonne to Toulouse. Flecha, which means arrow in Spanish, escaped the clutches of an eight-man breakaway with 15km to go in this relatively easy transition stage that carried the 90th Tour closer to the Pyrénées. Coming across the line four seconds ahead of Rabobank's Bram De Groot, Flecha, 25, reached behind his back to grab an imaginary arrow and shot it toward the heavens. The Spanish ibanesto.com rider was right on target. "I haven't won a race in

Individual Results Stage 111. Flecha Juan Antonio (Sp), iBanesto.com, 3:29:332. Bram De Groot (Nl), Rabobank, 00:043. Isidro Nozal (Sp), ONCE - Eroski, 00:044. Inigo Cuesta (Sp), Cofidis, 00:155. Carlos Da Cruz (F), FDJeux.com, 00:236. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), Credit Agricole, 00:237. Nicolas Portal (F), Ag2R Prevoyance, 00:238. Michael Rogers (Aus), Quick Step-Davitamon, 00:239. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Lotto-Domo, 00:4210. Baden Cooke (Aus), FDJeux.com, 00:4211. Fabrizio Guidi (I), Bianchi, 00:4212. Erik Zabel (G), Telekom, 00:4213. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:4214. Luca Paolini (I),

To see how Stage 11 of the Tour unfolded live, just go to our Live Update window and follow the action all the way to the finish.

Lance Armstrong's bid to win more time over his main rivals for the Tour de France leader's yellow jersey could be undone by the ambitions of some of the race's climbers. The 12th stage of the Tour de France on Saturday is the first of four days in the Pyrenees and depending on how Armstrong has fared in the previous day's time trial will decide whether the American needs to up the pace or not. Armstrong is only 21sec ahead of Telekom rider Alexandre Vinokourov and barely a minute in front of Euskaltel's Iban Mayo - both of whom have shown their climbing abilities on a regular basis this