All Content

The fifth man. In any Tour de France car he is welcome. So long as he pays his bills and in doing so makes our share a little less. So long as he offers to buys the first drinks at night when we reach our hotel. So long as he is grateful for our company. And grateful too for being rather useful. At times. But he is definitely not welcome when he can't find a car to go with the next day. When he leaves everyone else cramped with knees up to their chins and elbows tucked to their sides like not-so-little chickens in a coop. Not every car has a fifth man, though. Wise choice. I reckon on days

With half of his first Tour de France in the rearview mirror, Rabobank team leader Levi Leipheimer says bring on the mountain stages. After an uneventful Stage 10 ride on Wednesday that saw him finish with the main group, 3:57 behind solo winner Patrice Halgand (Jean Delatour), Leipheimer talked about the first real mountain test on Thursday — as well as what he thinks might be an even more interesting day in the Pyrénées on Friday. “I think of all the mountain stages, it’s probably the least critical,” Leipheimer said of Thursday’s stage 11, which finishes with a Category 1 climb atop La

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson is at the Tour de France and is taking time to shoot not just the race, but also the scenes along the road and the activity just outside of the peloton.

Okay, I made my original predictions about the Tour de France way back in the beginning of May. Some of them are coming true and some aren't. Which is about the same thing my broker is telling me right now. Anyhow… I figured that midway into the Tour would be a good time to let the world know of my revised thoughts on the 2002 Tour. First off, Lance Armstrong is still going to win the Tour de France. Yeah, yeah, I know, he lost the first time trial, and honestly I think he is getting a little slower in TT's. I think he feels that way too. I know because when I spoke to him in the

Today’s blistering pace (52 kph for the first two hours of racing) is going to affect everyone’s preparedness for tomorrow’s mountain stage. Much of Stage 10 was ridden faster than the team time trial, and even in the draft, 50+ kph is a hard pace to maintain. ONCE spent a long time sitting on the front of the peloton this afternoon, which is beneficial to Lance and the Postal Service. Regardless of how much work ONCE did today, the team will be aggressive tomorrow on the Col d’Aubisque and La Mongie. Several men will be anxious to fire the first shot in the battle for climbing supremacy.

According to a press release issued Wednesday by Threshold Sports, Italian cycling great Mario Cipollini will not compete in the inaugural New York City Cycling Championship after all. Despite receiving a signed engagement contract from Cipollini’s team manager on July 9, 2002, organizers of the New York event were notified on Wednesday that Cipollini’s sudden retirement announcement meant that his New York appearance would be canceled. "While we can try to enforce his contract, we can’t make him ride his bike if he doesn’t want to," said David Chauner, president of Threshold Sports, the

Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano

ONCE put in most of the chase effort.

McEwen

Armstrong looking forward to the moutains.

'The Russian Concussion'

Hilton Clarke

Andy Crater

Leipheimer: “It’s a long race”

We don't understand the significance of the whale, but they're around at the Tour this year.

The starting village in Bazas

The Global Market- German hat, French kids and American mouse.

His brother may be leading, but Aitor Gonzalez de Galdeano has had enough.

Two reasons why McEwen has the points jersey

If you were left scratching your head after Monday’s stage of the Tourde France, bewildered by the closeness of the 52km time trial, you weren’talone. After extensive research, VeloNews has ascertained that this was the closest result in a “long” time trial since the individual raceagainst the clock was introduced to the Tour in 1934. Never before havesix riders finished within a minute of the stage winner — and it mighthave been seven if Tyler Hamilton hadn’t flatted with about 12km to go. The closest that any previous Tour time trial of more than 50km hascome was in 1988, when four men

If there is one day on the Tour de France when you wish you were a rider, it’s a day like this Tuesday. Officially it is a rest day. In reality, it is anything but, unless you are a rider who is whisked from one region to another in the luxury of a jet plane — or a reporter who manages to talk their way on to one of the two Tour charter flights. Tuesday's transfer was from Brittany to Bordeaux. The riders? They flew out from Lorient during the morning in, one plane leaving at 9.50 a.m., the other at 10 a.m. Our transfer began some 10 hours earlier, the night before, as we left Lorient for

The dust was still settling a day after Lance Armstrong’s narrow defeatin Monday’s 52km individual time trial. The 182 riders remaining in the2002 Tour de France flew down to Bordeaux on two chartered airplanes whileeveryone else – mechanics, journalists and hangers-on – made the 500kmdrive by autoroute from Lorient. Most teams went on an afternoon training ride after the trip down. Armstrong’sU.S. Postal Service team went on a two-hour ride for about 80 kilometers.Riders idled away the afternoon, taking naps and relaxing as much as possible. Following Wednesday’s transition stage to Pau,

I feel like we've kind of earned our first rest day here at le Tour 2002. No matter how many times you start this race, the first week is always a shock to the system. First, there's the stress of entering the world's most talked about bike race. Then there's that second nagging element that lingers in the back of every rider's mind. Bad luck can curse you at any moment during the first week. Folks always say the Tour doesn't start until the roads rise up toward the heavens. But it's also true that your Tour can surely end in the first week if you are in the wrong place at the wrong

The first rest day of the Tour de France is a good time to reflect on the first week of the race, and look ahead to the challenges ahead. Lance Armstrong emerged from the first week relatively unscathed. He was involved in one minor crash, his first since coming back to the Tour in 1999. The Stage 9 time trial didn’t go as well as planned, but everything is looking good as the race heads into the mountains later this week. Lance’s average heart rate during Stage 9 was not as high as it usually is for a long sustained effort of that type. He usually maintains an average of 186-188 bpm during

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson is at the Tour de France and is taking time to shoot not just the race, but also the scenes along the road and the activity just outside of the peloton. Today, Gibson proved that you can't always tell the quality of the team by the size of its bus.

Fans of America’s first three-time Tour de France winner, Greg LeMond, will be able to see him on television and hear him on radio for the next couple of days as he begins a media swing through New York to discuss bike racing, the Tour de France and the upcoming Saturn Cycling Classic in Colorado. Starting Wednesday morning, LeMond will appear on NBC’s Today show to generate interest in American cycling, including the Colorado race, where he has signed on to be the official starter at the August 10 event. The Saturn Cycling Classic is, with some justification, being touted as the toughest

Any way you look at it, Stage 9 was a close one.

Gonzalez de Galdeano - How long in yellow?

The caravan has company -- for a stretch.

CSC-Tiscali

Domo-Farm Frites

Kelme

Lotto

Telekom

Just when everyone was ready to ordain Lance Armstrong as winner of Monday’s52km individual time trial, the Tour de France delivered another surprise. In blustery conditions, Armstrong was out-motored by Colombian SantiagoBotero, the same racer who beat the Texan at the Dauphiné Libérétime trial in June. The result stunned many, who expected Armstrong to blaze to yet anotherdominant victory. Instead, the U.S. Postal team leader finished second,11 seconds slower than Botero, and didn’t eat up enough time to grab themaillot jaune from Spanish rider Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano. It was a double

5:25 p.m. Colombian Santiago Botero won the 52km time-trial between Lanester and Lorient. Defending Tour champion Lance Armstrong came in 10 seconds behind Botero. Spain's Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano retained the overal leader's yellow jersey. Sergei Gontchar of the Ukraine was third in a time-trial that saw six riders separated by just 30 seconds. 1. Santiago Botero (Col), KEL, at , 52 km in 1hr 02min 18sec (average: 50.080 kph, at 2. Lance Armstrong (USA), USP, at at 00:11. 3. Serhiy Honchar (Ukr), FAS, at 00:18. 4. Igor Gonzalez Galdeano (Spa), ONE, at 00:19. 5. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun), MAP,

1. Santiago Botero (Col), Kelme, at, 52 km in 1hr 02min 18sec(average: 50.080 kph, at2. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal, at 00:11.3. Serhiy Honchar (Ukr), Fassa Bortolo, at 00:18.4. Igor Gonzalez Galdeano (Spa), ONCE, at 00:19.5. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun), Mapei, at 00:25.6. Raimondas Rumsas (Lit), Lampre, at 00:25.7. David Millar (Gbr), Cofidis, at 00:50.8. Dario Frigo (Ita), Tacconi Sport, at 01:34.9. Andrea Peron (Ita), CSC-Tiscali, at 01:34.10. Joseba Beloki (Spa), ONCE, at 01:38.11. Viatcheslav Ekimov (Rus), U.S. Postal, at 01:41.12. Tyler Hamilton (USA), CSC-Tiscali, at 01:56.13. Marc

Russian Svetlana Boubnenkova of the Aliverti Kookai team won the 13th Giro d’Italia Femminile, a race that ended Sunday in Gorla Minore and was dominated by women from eastern Europe. Boubnenkova took over the race lead of the 10-day race on stage 3, when she won the 110.5km stage from Lari to Cascina, 18 seconds ahead of 2000 world champion Zinaida Stahurskaia (Chirio Forno d’Asolo) of Belarus. Boubnenkova cemented her overall win three days later, with a win in the 19.7km stage 6 time trial in Suno, near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, where she beat Lithuanian Rasa Polikeviciute (Acca due

The Belgian flooring manufacturer Quick Step plans to maintain its cycling sponsorship despite co-backer Mapei's decision to pull out at the end of the season. Mapei announced the end of a decade's sponsorship in cycling last month, the building company blaming lack of progress in cleaning up the sport's tarnished image. Quick Step spokesman Philiep Caryn told the Belgian news agency Belga they were seeking to continue their involvement with an as yet unnamed Belgian company. Caryn reported: "We've already got a number of riders under contract -- the main ones being Tom

It's confirmed, the world will end soon, as Lance finished second. Look at the evidence folks: The stock market is crashing, wildfires are burning everywhere, nuclear tensions, terrorists’ threats and now Lance Armstrong has finished second in an individual time trial at the Tour de France. The world is clearly coming to a premature close, so make sure you're wearing clean underwear. Never mind that finishing second in a Tour TT is a miracle in itself, for a guy who had ten pounds of tumors in his body just a little while ago. Even so, I have to say I was surprised to see Lance get beaten.

After Sunday's final stage at Cascade-- a short criterium course won by Saturn's Chris Fisher and Hutch's Sandy Espeseth-- there was no change in the overall standings, sealing victory for Chris Wherry (Mercury) and Kimberly Bruckner (Saturn). Entering the criterium, Bruckner had the overall sealed up, leading by over six minutes as a result of her dominant performance in the opening stage's road race. Still, she came out swinging Sunday, attacking the field with eight laps to go, with only Espeseth joining her. At the line, Espeseth benefitted from Bruckner's final efforts for the stage

A travesty is occurring at the Tour de France. And it needs fixing quick. Every day, Tour riders are introduced by race speaker Daniel Mangeas as they step up to sign on for the stage. And on time trials like Monday's 52km ninth stage from Lanester to Lorient in Brittany, the commentary is taken up again as they approach and cross the finish line. Every time, Mangeas announces the riders' names to the waiting crowd along with their palmarès - or achievements - to much loud applause and cheers. It is meant to be a fitting gesture, aimed to arouse the crowd and boost the Tour's atmosphere and

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson is at the Tour de France and is taking time to shoot not just the race, but also the scenes along the road and the activity just outside of the peloton.

Before your heart sinks too far, let me tell you something: Lance is fine. No, he didn’t win the time trial; and no, he isn’t wearing yellow yet. On the other hand, he is closer to the lead than he was yesterday and the hardest portion of the Tour is yet to come. So what happened today? Santiago Botero and Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano rode brilliantly, and Lance rode reasonably well. I don’t think anyone should look at today’s result as a failure on Lance’s part, nor as a chink in his armor. He will be a formidable and aggressive force on the hardest mountain stages coming later this week and

Lance Armstrong rode a good time trial – downright great for anyone but him – and put himself in a perfect position for the upcoming mountain stages. The question is, was he doing some aerodynamic sandbagging or just not having a great day? And what’s with the guy on the road bike with no helmet beating him? On this pivotal stage, Armstrong eschewed his super-fast time trial suit with long sleeves and integrated gloves in favor of a short-sleeved suit. He once again used his new one-off flat Deda aluminum integrated stem/aero’ bar. His rear disc appeared not to be a Mavic, although it was

Botero

Baldwin (Navigators), Lieswyn (7UP/NutraFig), Fisher (Saturn), and Peters (Prime Alliance) gaining time on the rest of the field.

The power of yellow - Gonzalez Galdeano rose to the occasion

Leipheimer

Hamilton's flat cost him time.

Should Mangeas stop singing Richard's praises?

Armstrong: '...not a super day, but it was not a terrible day'

Grabbing prime real estate is important in any stage.

Young fans line up early, too.

The view from the course.

Go Floyd Go!

Botero!

Miss Bretagne presented Millar with the best young rider jersey today.

Tour Tech - Stage 9 - The importance of being aero' II

Tour Tech - Stage 9 - The importance of being aero' II

He was on the juice. Should he be in our hearts?

Sunday’s eighth stage of the Tour de France was a long, hot day in thesaddle across France’s Brittany region and the peloton wanted to get itover with quickly. It was a stage that spelled the end for Mapei’s OscarFreire and Lotto’s Aart Vierhouten, both victims of Saturday’slate-race crashes did not start on Sunday. The group roared past huge crowds of fans celebrating France’s BastilleDay and covered nearly 100 kilometers in the first two hours. A seven–manbreakaway slipped away midway through the stage and became the second successfulbreak of the 89th Tour. Rabobank’s Karsten Kroon ruined

PRELIMINARY RESULTS 1. Karsten Kroon (Nl), RAB, 217.5 km in 4:36:52. (47.135 kpm) 2. Servais Knaven (Nl), DFF, at ˆ 00:00. 3. Erik Dekker (Nl), RAB, at 00:00. 4. Franck Renier (Fra), BJR, at 00:00. 5. Sebastien Hinault (Fra), C.A, at 00:00. 6. Stephane Auge (Fra), DEL, at 00:00. 7. Raivis Belohvosciks (Let), LAM, at 00:00. 8. Robbie McEwen (Aus), LOT, at 01:55. 9. Erik Zabel (G), TEL, at 01:55. 10. Baden Cooke (Aus), FDJ, at 01:55. 11. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), C.A, at 01:55. 12. Jan Svorada (Cz), LAM, at 01:55. 13. Fred Rodriguez (USA), DFF, at 01:55. 14. Robert Hunter (SA), MAP, at 01:55. 15.

1. Karsten Kroon (Nl), Rabobank, at , 217.5 km in 4hr 36 min 52sec (47.135kph)2. Servais Knaven (Nl), Domo-Farm Frites, at at 00:00.3. Erik Dekker (Nl), Rabobank, at 00:00.4. Franck Renier (F), Bonjour, at 00:00.5. Sebastien Hinault (F), Credit Agricole, at 00:00.6. Stephane Auge (F), Jean Delatour, at 00:00.7. Raivis Belohvosciks (Lat), Lampre, at 00:00.8. Robbie McEwen (Aus), Lotto, at 01:55.9. Erik Zabel (G), Telekom, at 01:55.10. Baden Cooke (Aus), FDJeux.com, at 01:55.11. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), Credit Agricole, at 01:55.12. Jan Svorada ((Cz), Lampre, at 01:55.13. Fred Rodriguez (USA),

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson is at the Tour de France and is taking time to shoot not just the race, but also the scenes along the road and the activity just outside of the peloton.

Successfully staying away from the field, 7UP-Nutra Fig's John Lieswyn and Hutch's Nicole Demars tasted victory Saturday at stage 5 of the Cascade Classic in Bend, Oregon. In the women's 56-mile race over rolling hills and a tough climb after the start/finish, several attacks were reabsorbed before a breakaway finally stuck with Demars and Saturn's Jessica Phillips. The two rode nearly half the 56-mile race together off the front, creating a comfortable gap of 2:30 by the last seven-mile lap. Demars had the better punch at the finish, with Phillips taking second place. The consistent

The eighth stage of the 2002 Tour de France was the sort of race a healthy Fred Rodriguez loves. The 217.5km trek from the Normandy region of France toward the southern coast of Brittany suited the talents of the American Domo-Farm Frites rider perfectly. “Today might be one of those days where one of our guys gets to go out there and try to go for a stage win,” said Rodriguez before the start of the long stage that finished on the road circuit of the 2000 world championships in Plouay. Just as he had hoped, Domo did get one of its men in position for a win when Servais Knaven made the final

If there is hell on the Tour de France, we came close to it on 217.5km of mostly long, flat, bumpy and dead roads from St. Martin de Landelles to Plouay in Brittany on Sunday. For followers of the Tour - les suiveurs - anything longer than 200km and without a mountain in sight (let alone under our wheels) is pure and painful purgatory. Today's eighth stage to the site of the 2000 world road championships was a case in point. Okay ... the riders in the peloton behind us attacked, attacked and then some until the final break of seven finally got away. Okay, the last 10km battle between

I realize I have no power over how the peloton races each day, but at least for now, my wishes from yesterday were granted. I hoped riders would stop crashing and, as far as I know, there were no serious falls or injuries today. So, if I write on Velonews.com that I want Lance to win tomorrow’s time trial, you think that might come true, too? Stage 8 was fast, the breakaway arrived ahead of the expected finish time for the stage, but Bastille Day didn’t go well for the French this year. There were three Frenchmen in the winning seven-man breakaway, but every man on today’s podium was Dutch.

We spent our longest day in the saddle to date today. Stage 8 proved to be a little less dramatic than Stage 7, thankfully. The amount of crashing and full on craziness yesterday was enough to frazzle the strongest of nerves. Everyone always says -- stay up front and out of trouble. But yesterday, the trouble was up at the front. Both crashes occurring in the final ten kilometers were in large part, a domino effect from the front of the peloton, which just goes to show you that anything can happen in bike racing. Just when you think you are doing the right thing - you could wind up in a

Britain's Steve Peat and Frenchwoman Anne-Caroline Chausson turned in a pair of heroic performances Sunday, each taking wins at World Cup downhill No. 4 in Telluride, Colorado. Chausson's victory was one of the most memorable of her illustrious career, as she beat out Sabrina Jonnier on the short, dry and dusty Telluride track. When day broke in southwest Colorado the Volvo-Cannondale rider could barely walk, still feeling the effects of a bad crash suffered in Saturday's four-cross. Following the mishap she was taken off the course on an inflatable backboard, then had to make the two-hour

There are lots of bicycles and components made in Taiwan that are usedin the Tour de France. But most have European or American brands on them.However, there are three Taiwanese companies that do put their names ontheir equipment in the Tour (read: they have paid for the right to havetheir names on the bikes). Giant was the first and is the longest-running Taiwanese sponsorin the Tour. This year, its all-carbon 6.8-kilogram (15-pound) road bikesfor ONCE are very cool. Not only is the black-and-gold styling classy andunique, the rest of the components on the bike match. Campagnolo

Small village, long walk.

Layers of fans.

Daniel Mangeas - The voice of the Tour de France

My friends the Langlois.

Postal at the helm.

The Dutchman who stole Bastille Day from the French