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Four-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong was the man of the hour in Paris on Thursday when he gave his annual pre-Tour press conference. Just minutes after his pre-race health checkup, Armstrong walked before 200 members of the world’s press. Flanked by body guards and members of his entourage, photographers were snapping pictures of the arrival of cycling’s king. Armstrong looked and sounded confident. “I can’t think of a better way to spend July,” he quipped. Despite coming in as the undisputed king of cycling, the 31-year-old said it’s wrong to call the Tour a one-man race. He

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 FlashVersion of Tour coverage to supplement our exsisting coverage of the Tour de France. Rest assured, that the graphics and 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 John Wilcockson, Andrew Hood and Rupert Guinness. As soon as

test

Rogers at the Tour of Germany

Hall inductees pose in front of Tony's.

Don Cook at the grand re-opening.

Don Cook scaled a pine tree to snap the group-ride shot.

Wildflowers everywhere.

Ready to rumble, Armstrong on his way to meet the press

Armstrong gets in a quiet training ride on Thursday

Rodriguez says he is starting this Tour healthier than his last two.

Tanned...

rested...

...and ready.

Clean car, fresh stickers

“I can’t think of a better way to spend July,” quips Armstrong.

Rodriguez wants to win a stage.

Jan Ullrich is leaving for Paris Wednesday after being on hand for the birth of his new daughter on Tuesday in Freiburg, Germany. The daughter of the 29-year-old Bianchi team leader and his girlfriend Gaby Weis had been due on July 14, right in the middle of the Tour de France. But Weis went into labor early Monday morning. More than 24 hours later, doctors opted to deliver Sarah Maria Ullrich via caesarian. "I'm the most fortunate man in the world!” the 1997 Tour winner announced on his website. “I am so happy that I could be there for her birth… I am dancing on clouds right now. This is

Dr. Richardson;I just finished reading your latest article about road rash and I hadone remaining question. I recently went down and had road rash on my wristand from my knee to my ankle. I rinsed it off using my water bottle rightaway and cut my ride short. When I got home, I ran water over it, clenched my jaw, held (and probablybroke in several places) my fellow rider's hand and prepared to wash itwith a washcloth and antibacterial soap, which I finally did. There, allclean. But it got infected anyway (where is that Duoderm-making god?).A trip to urgent care and an antibiotic (which I

Monique;I am a 46 year old Masters (Cat 3) and weigh 153 pounds Following a periodization program, every three to four weeks I plan on a “recovery” week, dropping my training hours by 50 to 60 percent. In order to maintain my weight, do I need to decrease my caloric intake during the recovery week? For example, if I decrease the training by five hours, nominally at 700-800 calories burned per hour, should I decrease my caloric intake that week by 4000 calories? Or will my body’s “weight memory” keep my weight relatively static? Thank you, -- MK Dear MK;That’s a very good question as many

Dear VeloNews;If the Olympic Games hadn't developed at the beginning of the 20th century - during the heyday of bicycle racing - track events probably wouldn't have been included at their current level, ayway. At this point in history, outside of Europe, track cycling remains a marginal sport, at best. What gets cut isn't too tough to call. The IOC defers to the UCI, and we all know Hein Verbruggen's devotion to the almighty TV audience. Events have to be short, exciting and easily comprehensible to the non-cyclist. The five women's events (match sprint, 500-meter time trial, Keirin,

Well, it’s officially July, and I think we all know what that means. Yep, that’s right, in a matter of weeks I’ll be moving into a stylin’ new loft in downtown Boulder, Colorado, courtesy of the county’s affordable housing program. Okay, I admit it. July probably means something else to most of you. By now most of you have probably figured out which TV you’ll be spending your July mornings in front of. Me, I’ll be watching right here in the conference room of VeloNews global headquarters. Come to think of it, in the spirit of the upcoming Tour de Lance maybe I should have Comcast drop by

Four days after suffering one of the worst crashes you’ll see in a downhill race, ITS-Santa Cruz rider John Waddell remains unconscious in a Quebec City hospital. But according to Waddell’s team director Derin Stockton, the 22-year-old Aussie rider is getting a little better each day and a full recovery is very likely. “After the crash they did a CAT scan right away and all the signs were good,” said Stockton, who stayed behind to look after his rider while the rest of the pro gravity circuit moved on from Mont-Ste-Anne to Grouse Mountain in preparation for the next stop of the World Cup

It is hard to believe that it’s been ten years since consummate professional Sally Zack suddenly left cycling at the zenith of her career to take on a a completely new challenge by becoming a cross-country ski racer. Of course, when one becomes acquainted with all of her achievements in so many cycling disciplines and reads of her passion to continue to “live, love and learn” from the back of her 1992 Shaklee cycling card you begin to understand the restless nature of this woman. You may also understand why it took us a few weeks of serious looking to track her down. We found her and the

Jan gets a boost before the Tour

Does she live near Boulder??????

Waddell

Zack of the North

Telekom’s Giuseppe Guerini earned his team’s first stage win at this year’sTour de France as he soloed to victory in the final kilometers of the famousclimb to L'Alpe d'Huez. But the 29-year-old Italian’s moment in the sunwas almost … almost ended when an enthusiastic fan stepped into the roadwith hopes of recording the moment for posterity. Happily, Guerini emerged only shaken from his close encounter of the weirdest kind, to win the Tour’s most famous alpine stage. Finishing in fifth place, just 25 seconds behind the day’s winner, the U.S. Postal Service’s Lance Armstrong not only

Team CSC’s Tyler Hamilton says he’s more than ready for his first Tour de France as a team leader and says he’s put everything into being prepared for Saturday’s start. “I’m confident, but certainly not cocky. The Tour is stacked with talented riders. I know my work is cut out with me, but I will ride with the best of my ability to have a good race,” Hamilton told VeloNews on Monday. “I feel like I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be.” Hamilton is being hyped as a possible usurper to Lance Armstrong’s Tour throne, but the 32-year-old New Englander is trying to take a more realistic approach

It started as kids’ alternative to moto cross and, 40 years later, it stands on the threshold of becoming an Olympic sport. According to an announcement released by the International Olympic Committee on Monday, BMX is now slated to join the Olympic program in 2008 in Beijing, replacing two yet-to-be-named track events that will be pulled. According to IOC president, Jacques Rogge, one women's and one men's BMX race will be added. Rogge called BMX a ``new, spectacular event.'' ``We believe that this introduction will definitely enhance the Olympic program,'' he said. The two new races

Dear Lennard Zinn,I currently suffer from iliotibial band syndrome, which tends to affecthigher-mileage runners and cyclists. It causes a pain on the outside ofthe knee due to the repetitive motion of bending the knee. There is quitea bit of info on the problem with regard to runners but very little concerningcycling. I have gone to physical therapy and received a cortisone injectionfrom a knee specialist. Not much has helped. Have you heard of this affectingother riders? If so, do you know of any potential treatment options thatI have not tried? I can give up running but not cycling.

A violent high-speed crash at Fitchburg may have cost Aussie Henk Vogelshis season, but he was miraculously spared something for more preciousto him and to his family — his life.Early on in stage 3, Vogels and Navigators teammate Jeff Louder brokeclear of the field to help drive a small breakaway group. As the groupneared the bottom of the long, fast descent down Wachusett Mountain, theywere nearly caught by the peloton when Vogels apparently glanced behindhim to assess their lead and clipped his wheel with another rider, sendinghim flying head first into the guardrail, shattering his helmet

There is nothing better than racing your bike when you feel good, and nothing worse than racing your bike when you feel bad. Finally I felt good after a month of feeling terrible on the bike. One of my friends wrote me to say that I need to talk more about suffering and so forth. I guess when I am suffering the most, it is most convenient to ignore it and think about something cool. When you are riding good, suffering is easy to do, easy to talk about. When suffering is a daily affair, getting out of bed knowing the day will be a struggle, glamorizing it seems a little excessive. Most of

Coverage of the 2003 Tour de France

When Nico Vouilloz and Anne-Caroline Chausson bowed out of the mainstream gravity scene, the possibilities opened back up for riders who carried something other than a French passport. But, at the inaugural Jeep King of the Mountains event, which paired male and female racers into “national” teams, Cedric Gracia (Siemens-Cannondale) and Sabrina Jonnier (Intense) recaptured the glory of yesteryear for France, taking both the men’s and women’s titles and a commanding lead in the country standings. The made-for-TV event, held in Wintergreen, Virginia on June 29, was the first of a three race

Liége-Bastogne-Liége was a big boost

We've compiled a list of all the teams and the equipment they are riding in the 2003 Tour de France. It's all top of the line and it's all the latest. Some of the teams are even riding never before seen equipment. AG2RFRAME: DécathlonFORK: TimeDRIVETRAIN: Campagnolo Record 10-speedCRANKSET: Campagnolo RecordWHEELSET: Décathlon PentaPEDALS: TimeHANDLEBAR: ITMSTEM: ITM AlessioFRAME: DeRosaFORK: MizunoDRIVETRAIN: Campagnolo Record 10-speedCRANKSET: CampagnoloWHEELSET: CampagnoloPEDALS: LookHANDLEBAR: Deda Newton 31STEM: Deda Newton 31 BianchiFRAME: BianchiFORK: Bianchi carbonDRIVETRAIN:

Raimondas Rumsas looks set for a two year ban from cycling after it was revealed Monday his "B-sample" had confirmed the presence of the banned drug EPO during the Giro d'Italia. The 31-year-old had demanded it be tested earlier this month so he could prove his innocence but Rima Berloviene, senior doping control specialist at the Lithuanian Sports department, announced it had confirmed he had taken EPO. Valentinas Rutkauskas, secretary general of the Lithuanian Cycling Federation, told the Baltic News Service that Rumsas could face a two year ban from the sport and a fine, adding that

Tour de France boss Jean-Marie Leblanc has committed himself to the world's biggest bicycle race by vowing to remain in charge beyond 2004 when his current contract runs out. Leblanc, who has guided the tour's fortunes since 1988, was invited to stay on by Patrice Clerc, the president of the organizing body of the competition (ASO) and he says he has agreed. Turning to the tour's future, Leblanc said that he was always on the look out for new ideas, but that he saw little that could be changed. "We are competing against other events on the one hand and against ourselves on the other.

When Lance Armstrong begins his bid for a record-tying fifth consecutive Tour de France title this Saturday, cycling fans around the world will be able to follow the race in more detail than ever before, right here on VeloNews.com, the online news source presented by VeloNews, the world's largest competitive cycling magazine. Beginning today, Monday, June 30, our 2003 Tour deFrance site is up and running and already filled with full details on every one of the Tour's 21 daily stages, team rosters, technical news and great features and photo galleries on the 100-year history of the world’s

U.S. Postal's George Hincapie is back and says he feels "better than ever" in time for Saturday's start of the 2003 Tour de France. Sidelined with health problems that derailed his spring classics campaign, Hincapie turned to non-traditional medicine to help find a cure for sinus problems and parasites that impaired his breathing and recovery. Now he's back in time to help Lance Armstrong make a run for a possible record-tying fifth Tour. "I feel great, I feel really fresh and have a lot of enthusiasm to be on the bike," Hincapie told VeloNews from his home base in Girona, Spain. "Every

American Floyd Landis has overcome a fractured hip to be named as the ninth and final rider to round out the Tour de France lineup for Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service team. Landis was on the bubble to make the Postal selection after falling on his hip in a training accident in January, but rode strong enough during June's Dauphiné Libéré to edge out Luxembourg rider Benoit Joachim to nab the ninth spot. Earlier this month, U.S. Postal's sport director Johan Bruyneel announced eight of the riders. Seven of the eight riders from Armstrong's winning team last year are back, including

While American pros have Philly in earlier in the month, the bulk of the professional peloton holds its national championships on the last Sunday of June. The UCI holds this weekend open for national championship races and those were held throughout Europe on Sunday. (The American race is granted the dual status of an invitational, allowing foreign riders the chance to participate and promoters to shift the date to accommodate that.) France: Rous wins ahead of VirenqueVeteran Didier Rous (Brioches) won ahead of Richard Virenque (Quick Step) in the hotly contested French national road race.

Could race founder Henri Desgrange have known when he decided to distinguish the Tour de France leader with a yellow-colored racing jersey that he was creating such an icon? The idea came to Desgrange during the 1919 Tour on the rest day in Luchon. It was the first Tour after the five-year hiatus caused by World War I, and on stage 7 of that race, July 10, Desgrange announced his decision in the sports paper that he owned and edited, L’Auto. It wasn’t until a week later, however, before the start of stage 11, in Grenoble, that the first maillot jaune was given at 2 a.m. to Frenchman Eugène

presented by A lot can happen over the course of 23 days in July, especially if you're talking about France and the world's biggest bike race. If you want to stay informed about the events surrounding the centenary edition of the Tour de France, check in with VeloNews.com and be sure to sign up to have our Tour Daily e-mailed to you every day from the evening before the prologue all the way to that final sprint down the Champs-Elysées. As always, we'll keep your name and address private and send you only the newsletter you're requesting.

Once a Tour de France racer himself, and then a journalist, Jean-Marie Leblanc has been the director of the Tour de France since 1989. In this interview, the distant heir to Tour founder Henri Desgrange’s legacy discusses the Tour and its future as it celebrates its centennial year. Q What significance does the centennial of the Tour de France have for you? A In the year of its 100th birthday, the Tour acts as a timely and ceremoniousevent. With the exception of the Olympic Games, there are no other large,100-year-old sporting events. The Tour de France is strongly rooted inthe culture of

When he sits down after dinner on a cool mid-May evening in Gerona, Spain, a relaxed Lance Armstrong is ready to answer questions from two journalists on a conference call. Behind him is another day in a meticulous training program that’s aimed at netting him a fifth Tour de France trophy in July. It begins with a hearty breakfast, to stock up for a multi-hour ride in the Catalan hills. Later, he watches live coverage of the Giro d’Italia, where some of his likely opponents are competing. “They go so slow there,” he says, “I think yesterday they finished almost at 6. So it works perfect. I’m

There’s only one favorite for the Tour de France, and everyone else isfighting for the podium. Or so goes conventional wisdom. We went aroundthe pro peloton this spring and asked people what they thought about Armstrong’schances.David Millar, Cofidis“Five he’ll get, but six is pretty difficult. There’s always somethingphysically or psychologically that seems to happen. That’s how it usuallyworks. We’ll wait to see. I think he’d be a big man if he walked away atfive, quit on top. I think it would almost be disrespectful if he tookthe sixth. Merckx, Anquetil, all those guys could have gotten

Theonly thing that came close to ending Gunn-Rita Dahle's World Cup winningstreak was one of the Mont-Sainte-Anne course's many tight, technical singletracksections. But Dahle (Merida) overcame a second-lap endo to crush the 87-riderfield, just like she'd done in the first two World Cup stops. The30-year-old Dahle led from the gun, gapping the field on the first of fivelaps, her closest pursuers were her own teammates Sabine Spitz and IrinaKalentieva. On the second lap, however, Dahle went over the bars and landedon her side in the dusty singletrack."Iwasn't worried about me," said Dahle, "I

The Hamiltonroad World's course has been tested, and passed with flying colors at theCanadian Road Nationals, grinding down a field of 121 men to just 17 finishers.Genevieve Jeanson (Rona-Esker) finally won the senior national road titlethat has eluded her, while Dominique Perras (Equipe Quebec) scooped themen's title despite Saturn and Navigator's sending up foreign riders tohelp their Canadian pros.Asexpected, the women's race came down to two riders - Genevieve Jeanson(Rona-Esker) and Lyne Bessette (Saturn). What wasn't expected was sprintfinish after nine laps and 18 trips up the Niagara

When Nico Vouilloz and Anne-Caroline Chausson bowed out of the mainstream gravity scene, the possibilities opened back up for riders who carried something other than a French passport. But, at Sunday's inaugural Jeep King of the Mountains event, which paired male and female racers into “national” teams, Cedric Gracia (Siemens-Cannondale) and Sabrina Jonnier (Intense) recaptured the glory of yesteryear for France, taking both the men’s and women’s titles and a commanding lead in the country standings. The made-for-TV event, held in Wintergreen, Virginia on June 29, was the first of a three

YELLOW JERSEY DOWN Luis Ocaña crashed out of the 1971 Tour while wearing the jersey

NEAR THE END Hinault abandoned while wearing yellow in 1980

THE FIRST Maurice Garin, the first winner, poses with his bicycle.

Didier Rous

Rous dedicated his win to his La Boulangère teammate Fabrice Salanson

Green in pursuit

Finishing third, Perras gets Canada's jersey

Spain's Miguel Indurain, the only rider to have won the Tour de France five times in a row (1991-95) believes Germany's Jan Ullrich has it in him to beat four-time winner Lance Armstrong. The 32-year-old Armstrong (U.S. Postal) will equal Indurain's achievement if he wins this year's centenary race, which is being held July 5-27. Ullrich has only recently returned to competition after a difficult year in which he sat out a ban for taking recreational drugs, left his long-time Telekom team, then joined Team Coast only to see the outfit collapse after a suspension because of its financial

In the middle of an interview a couple of days before winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tyler Hamilton rolls up his left pant leg and points to a bandage on an infected bug bite. He says it had swollen to the size of a golf ball the previous week, three days after he finished second at the rain-soaked Tour of the Basque Country. Once healed, the injury would join a marbled patchwork of scarlet-colored scars that cover most of his left leg below the knee. “There was so much swelling it was almost hitting the crank,” Hamilton says. “It was disgusting. On the last day in Pays Basque we

Karsten Kroon, Thor Hushovd and Rubens Bertogliatti, all stage winners from the 2002 Tour de France. If you had them on your fantasy cycling roster, maybe you were patting yourself on the back for your shrewd judgement in riders and their potential. More likely, you were cursing them for their wildly uneven performances, and the potential points they cost your team. For a professional cyclist, a Tour de France stage win can make a career. But for the fantasy cycling player, the lure of a stage win can obscure some common-sense calls in filling out your roster. Riders like Kroon, Hushovd or

What’s it like to be at the Tour de France? More importantly, what is it like to be in the peloton and pursuing a shot at making the podium? Find out throughout the 2003 Tour de France, when VeloNews.com readers will hear directly from Tyler Hamilton, the leader of the CSC team and winner of this spring’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Tour de Romandie. Hamilton will be sending in regular diary entries throughout the Tour and giving you, the reader, a look into the workings of a team taking on the world’s greatest bike race.

For a reasonably flat island, Great Britain produces some fast downhill racers. British riders Steve Peat (Orange) and Fionn Griffiths (Foes) swept to victory in their respective downhill events today at the Mont -Ste-Anne World Cup. The new 1.2km course made for brief races and left little margin for error. Peat, who missed most of the early season with a wrist injury, scored his first win of 2003 with a scintillating final run that evicted South Africa’s Greg Minaar (Haro-Lee Dungarees) from the leader’s hot seat by a scant .06 second. “I’ve won here twice before so I definitely like

Racing on a course that favored the riders who could combine cunning and strength, Eric Carter (Mongoose-Hyundai) and Katrina Miller (Jamis) took Saturday’s World Cup four-cross event in Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec. Despite racing with a broken hand, Carter continued his winning ways, adding to his mountain-cross win from last weekend’s NORBA event in Mount Snow, Vermont, and his win from the World Cup stop in France. “I was really struggling to figure out this course yesterday in practice, but I didn’t take any ibuprofen yesterday, and I did today,” said Carter, “That seemed to make a big

Saturn riders Chris Horner and Katie Mactier won the third and pivotal stage of the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic. Contested over a hilly course culminating at the summit of Mt. Wachussett, the outcome cemented Saturn’s chances of repeating its overall sweep at Nature Valley just two weeks ago, where Mactier and Viktor Rapinski entered the final stage in the race lead. With only a criterium remaining to upset the standings, Mactier and either Horner (second overall, 25 seconds back) or Rapinski (overall GC leader) stand to walk away the race winner. In the women's 78-mile race, Sarah Ulmer of

Miguel Indurain: If Jan Ullrich believes in himself, he can beat Lance Armstrong.