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The team time trial always causes a major reshuffling of the overall standings at the Tour de France. This year the U.S. Postal Service was the strongest team on the stage and we now have a better look at who the real contenders for the yellow jersey are going to be. Lance Armstrong likes the team time trial and sees it as an effective way to show everyone the USPS team’s collective strength. George Hincapie is a very happy man tonight because he has wanted to win the Tour team time trial ever since it was reintroduced to the race in 2000. He is well suited to the event and was a member of

Following the World Cup at Mont-Ste-Anne, VeloNews decided to take a look at the current trend in downhill-course design. The track in Québec was far shorter than in years past and had a massive jump near the finish line, which is where John Waddell and Fabien Barel, among others, suffered grisly crashes (Waddell is still in the hospital). After conducting an informal survey of past and present riders, and some team representatives, it seems that the general consensus is that shorter courses are okay, but only in small doses. As for big jumps, they’re part of the game – just make sure

Preparation, motivation, execution. Those were the three qualities that set apart the U.S. Postal-Berry Floor team at Wednesday’s team time trial. By beating the ONCE-Eroski team of Joseba Beloki by 30 seconds, and the Bianchi squad of Jan Ullrich by 43 seconds, Postal put Victor Hugo Peña in the yellow jersey and Lance Armstrong in the driving seat of this centennial Tour only two stages away from the Alps. The preparation for the stage was something begun by the team’s Belgian directeurs sportifs Johan Bruyneel and Dirk Demol, who first came to look at the Joinville-St. Dizier course two

Sorry for the delay in getting this update out. The last 72 hours have been quite a roller coaster ride. Not surprisingly, there have been some mixed reports about my health and status in this year's Tour de France, so with a couple of minutes of down time, I'll try to get my version of all that's transpired typed out. I've probably talked a thousand times about how hard it is to get ready for a Tour de France. It's not something you do in a week, or add to your annual list of objectives at the last minute. It really takes the better part of a year to get yourself to the point where you can

Last year, former Tour de France stage winner Sean Yates was trimming hedges while the world's greatest cycling race took place. This year, though, Yates, who was Lance Armstrong's team captain back when the four-time Tour winner was still learning the ropes in European cycling, is back on his favorite turf after coming through some hard times. Life after cycling is not as easy as in other, wealthier sports, and Yates, winner of an individual time trial on the Tour in 1988, was forced to return to his first job as a gardener after finding himself jobless and broke "After I stopped my

Work place environments for reporters vary from extreme to extreme on the Tour de France: and so many times you are left amazed that the task is actually done properly. A case in point was last night in the town of St. Dizier after stage 3. We were in search of a place to eat at 11pm – and, in my case, a land line telephone to be interviewed for the “Today” television show back home in Australia. We found a pizzeria still open, but as often happens at late hours, we were told once again that the kitchen was closed. We were successful in convincing the patron to make us three pizzas, then I

Prime Alliance rider David Clinger took Wednesday’s opening stage ofthe Cascade Classic in Bend, Oregon, beating out a seven-man bunch sprintthat included Saturn’s Tom Danielson and returning champion Chris Wherryof the Navigators. While women’s racing begins Thursday on the decisive McKenzie Pass roadraces stage, the men began a day earlier and many of the major domesticteams showed, including Health Net, Webcor, Sierra Nevada-Clif Bar, SchroederIron and the Trek-VW All Stars. One name that seems to be synonymous with this race belongs to Saturnrider Chris Horner, who lives in Bend.

Dear VeloNews;I noticed that the positions for most of the USPS riders in the teamtime trial were rather "upright" (shoulders high, sitting on the back ofthe saddle) as compared to the other teams. In particular, the position that Bianchi used seemed to be the exact opposite of USPS, being more along the lines of the traditional time trial position (flat back, sitting on the nose of the saddle, shoulders down) - even the aero bars seems to be pointed downward.  Was this my imagination or does USPS indeed have a different approach to the TT position?Bob Answer from USPS aero' advisor John

Colombia's first yellow jersey

Team Victory: All nine Posties finished together

ONCE bettered all but one

Chateau Jardin (where the Nike - Trek press conference was)

The Postal compound

The new fizik saddle

Simoni's bike, head tube

and handlebars

Lance's road bike, front wheel...

and whole bike

Team CSC

the new nike time trial skin suit

Wherry and Danielson lead the winning break

Clinger takes first stage at Cascade, but Danielson could be man to beat

Saturn in pursuit

Pate, O'Neil and Stierwalt

Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) has taken his second stage win of the Tour de France, taking a field sprint at the end of the 168km third stage from Charleville-Mézières to St. Dizier. On the strength of bonus time earned from the day's three intermediate sprints, Jean Delatour's Jean-Patrick Nazon has taken the yellow jersey from prologue winner Bradley McGee (fdjeux.com). Nazon becomes the first French rider to hold the yellow jersey in two years. To see how today's stage unfolded, just Click Here to pull up our Live Update window. Then check back soon for complete results, a full

Tuesday’s 167.5km third stage of the 2003 Tour de France was hot out of the gate and the fireworks continued all the way to the final sprint. Jean-Patrick Nazon (Jean Delatour) gobbled up time bonuses on the day’s three intermediate sprints to grab the yellow jersey from prologue winner Bradley McGee (Fdjeux.com) while Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) again avoided a finish line crash to sprint to his second stage in three days. It was another messy ending, with Austrian Rene Haselbacher (Gerolsteiner) slamming into the barriers along the finish stretch after bumping shoulders with

1. Alessandro Petacchi (I) Fassa Bortolo, at 3:27:392. Romans Vainsteins (Lat) Caldirola, at 00:003. Oscar Freire (Sp) Rabobank, at 00:004. Erik Zabel (G) Telekom, at 00:005. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus) Lotto-Domo, at 00:006. Luca Paolini (I) Quick Step-Davitamon, at 00:007. Olaf Pollack (G) Gerolsteiner, at 00:008. Angelo Furlan (I) Alessio, at 00:009. Salvatore Commesso (I) Saeco, at 00:0010. Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole, at 00:0011. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole, at 00:0012. Robert Hunter (RSA) Rabobank, at 00:0013. Bradley Mc Gee (Aus) FDJeux.com, at 00:0014. Nazon Jean-patrick (F)

Ten days after a horrific crash near the end of the World Cup downhill at Mont-Ste-Anne, Australian downhiller John Waddell remained unconscious in a Québec City hospital. According to a report sent out by Waddell’s ITS-Santa Cruz team director, Derin Stockton, Waddell still needs no outside assistance for his breathing and is in stable condition. “He has been checked out by a few different neurosurgeons, and there are a few different opinions,” wrote Stockton in an e-mail. “One doctor thinks now that it could be up to a month until he wakes up. He could still wake up in the next few days,

Less than three weeks after teammate Tara Llanes broke her foot in a car accident, Giant-Pearl Izumi downhiller Dustin Adams has seen his season put on hold after he was hit by a car during a training ride in Kamloops, British Columbia over the weekend. Adams suffered a broken right wrist and says that the best-case scenario would have him back racing in time for September’s world championships in Switzerland. According to Adams the accident happened when a car ran a stop sign and came into the intersection Adams was riding through. With little time to react, Adams ran into the passenger

Jean-Patrick Nazon (Jean Delatour) and Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) each used their sprinting skills to grab a share of Tour de France glory in Stage 3. Nazon focused on the intermediate sprints to win valuable bonus seconds that put him in yellow, while Petacchi confirmed he is the new dominant sprinter in the peloton after winning his second stage in three days. Winning sprints takes a great deal of power, but it also requires skill and experience. There are other riders with the physiological numbers (power) to match or surpass today’s great sprinters: Mario Cipollini, Erik Zabel,

For everything you learn in a single day of racing in the Tour de France, one of the biggest lessons for a rookie like me has had nothing to do with performance on the bike. It is to do with how you spend your time off it and, most importantly, trying to recover for another day in the saddle in between each stage. Like every other team in the Tour, mine - Quickstep-Davitamon – is equipped with an army of personnel who do their best to make sure your recovery is as swift as possible. But as my roommate Davide Bramati has taught me, there is only so much that others can do for you. In the

It is 8.52 p.m. It is now more than three hours after stage 3 of the Tour de France has been raced, fought out and finally won by Italian Alessandro Petacchi. The pressroom at Saint Dizier – a cavernous sports hall - still has 27 members of the 1000-strong print media furiously typing away. Our pledge to try and not be the last to finish (and, inevitably, be the ones who are later told at the nearest restaurant that “zee keetchun is closed”) is reaching a crisis point. With officials holding to their promise to close the pressroom at 10 p.m., the media around me are either working slower

Regina Scheleicher (Chirio Forno D’asolo) outkicked breakaway companions Tina Mayolo-Pic (Team Sats) and Andrea Bosman (Ondernemers Van Nature-Powerplate/Bik) in the fourth stage of the women’s Giro d’Italia on Tuesday. The three escaped in the final kilometers of the 141.1km stage on the climb from the Via Adriatica gate to the old town of San Vito Chietino. Schleicher launched her sprint in the last 200 meters, neatly passing her rivals. The 141.1km stage, from Frosolone to San Vito Chietino was animated from the start – indeed, the first hour was spent racing at over 40kph. Overall

Editor's note: During our live coverage of Stage2 of the Tour de France, our line editor made the brilliant decisionto include a link asking folks to pass on their good wishes to Tyler Hamiltonof CSC, who was starting that day's stage after breaking his collarbonein the finish-line crash onStage 1. Well a short time and 500 e-mails later, we had to pull thelink out. There are a lot of Tyler fans out there. We've been put all ofthem together and sent them on to Hamilton and his wife and included arandom selection below.Tyler’s Truly ToughEditors,Tyler Hamilton just became my favorite American

Dear VeloNews;After watching a few stages of the Tour de France, I see the teamsriding lots of carbon frames, aluminum/carbon frames and even magnesiumbut it seems like relatively few teams ride Ti frames. Yet, it seems likeas "Joe Consumer" these are being touted as the ultimate frames. So whyaren't the pros riding more Ti?-Andy PasternakReno, NVDear Andy,The short answer is that there are no titanium bikes in the Tour thisyear for sponsorship reasons, i.e., there is no manufacturer providingtitanium bikes to a team. But there is more to it than that. The Lotto riders using titanium

This week’s “What exactly does this have to do with cycling?” column comesto you from 35,000 feet, via the airspace between Denver and Portland Internationalas I travel to Bend, Oregon, to cover the five-day Cascade Classic stagerace.I should have arrived in Portland about now, but instead the Boeing737 that carries me just reached maximum altitude; our flight crew justgave us the green light to enable our electronic devices, the result ofa mechanical problem somewhere along Frontier Airlines’ daily flight schedulethat ended in a two-and-a-half hour delay.Not that I’m complaining.No, I’m

Alessandro Petacchi on his way to his second stage win of the Tour

Armstrong of USA passes through a demonstration of performing arts professionals

Quick Step rider Richard Virenque leading the pack

Gerolsteiner rider Haselbacher of Austria rides to the finish line holding his torn shorts after he crashed

Petacchi of Italy wins....

Another stage

From the Chaos...

Da Cruz (L), Etxebarria (C), Hary (R)

Nazon grabs yellow, Petacchi scores another win

The fans at sign in applaud another of their heroes

Freddie Rodriguez at the start, looking for another sprint finish

Raymond Poulidor, or Poo Poo, as they shout, gets his own car in the caravan

The wheel of choice?

Lance and Simoni smile for the press

Postal Team presentation by Credit Lyonnais

Lots and lots of Al, but where's the Ti?

Sunday’s “avoidable” crash at the end of stage 1 that eliminated Tyler Hamilton and Levi Leipheimer from the Tour de France has once again called into question the competence of race organizers who frequently include highly dangerous finishes at big races. And looking ahead to the stage finales for the rest of this week, it seems certain that there is more trouble in store. One of the most vociferous critics of Tour race director Jean-Marie Leblanc after the high-speed pileup at Meaux was American sprinter Fred Rodriguez of Caldirola-So.Di, who was leading the peloton as it headed into the

There really is no such thing as a “routine” stage of the Tour de France. Following the fireworks of Sunday's first stage, when Levi Leipheimer and Tyler Hamilton were the primary victims of a dangerous high-speed crash, everyone was hoping just for that. As far as Tour standards are concerned, Monday's 204.5km second stage from La Ferté-sous-Jouarre to Sedan in the French Ardennes region was relatively calm. Long, but surprising hilly in places, the day more or less followed the script of what's expected from a Tour stage in the first week: early attack by French riders that falls just

“Thanks for riding.” – the subject line of an e-mail sent to Tyler Hamilton, who closes his VeloNews diaries with “Thanks for reading,” after the CSC rider started stage 2 of the 2003 Tour with a broken collarbone Athletes are not always sportsmen, a term Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines as “a person who can take loss or defeat without complaint, or victory without gloating, and who treats his opponents with fairness, generosity, courtesy, etc.” Indeed, the sports page is starting to look less like a chronicle of inspirational achievement and more like a police blotter. Los