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'Harder than I anticipated'

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,

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

Adam Craig getting ready to (free) ride.

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

Ullrich flew

Men's XC favorite Hesjedal sporting a new look.

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

Who is that mysterous mullet-man?

Saint derailleur.

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

Euskatel rider Zubeldia rides to take the fourth place

Vinokourov slips to third

Saint cranks.

With nine riders still within four minutes of race leader Lance Armstrong, the Texan has never had such a strong challenge to win the Tour. Of these nine, Jan Ullrich, Tyler Hamilton, Alex Vinokourov, Iban Mayo and Haimar Zubeldia all have a chance Friday to stay in close touch, even though stage 12 is Armstrong’s favorite event: the individual time trial. “It’s the most important time trial in the past five years because the GC is so close,” Armstrong said Thursday in Toulouse. “[The time trial] is not easy, nor very hard, with the wind and the heat. It’s a good course.” Armstrong’s

The biggest letdown of the Tour de France so far was today’s first public sighting of the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, at Narbonne before the start of stage 11. If you’re thinking about backing big Arnie for the governorship of California, here’s some advice I’ll offer for free: Don’t base your vote on what you see on film. Hey, don’t say you wouldn’t think of voting for him. After all, Ronald Reagan didn’t do too badly in public office for all the B-grade acting in his career, did he? First myth to blow about big Arnie though is that he isn’t. Big, that is. Certainly not as big as

The Posties and Arnold

Dear VeloNews crew;It seems as if Joseba Beloki's crash was caused in part by the tubular rolling off the rim. Would he have suffered the same kind of crash if he'd been riding a clincher?Jay Dear Jay;You know that question has come up over the past few days and we’ve even had some folks write in and suggest that tubulars should be banned. We weren’t right there on the spot (though that AFP photographer sure was!), but we have watched the film like everyone else and have to conclude from seeing it over and over again that Beloki’s crash probably would have happened, no matter what sort

Tomorrow's TT is going to be the turning point in this year’s Tour de France, folks. We will get to see if the race will continue to be a tight, well-fought battle all through the Pyrénées, or if Lance Armstrong will dominate. The rolling TT on small roads and a typically pesky wind should favor the truly strong riders as opposed to TT riders. Also, this type of parcours will cause time gaps larger than normal, so look for that. Lance doesn't have to win the TT in order to show that he'll blow everyone out of the water in the Pyrénées, but he will have to take big time out of Mayo and the

Another break succeeds

Lance at the finish line

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

The Arnold meets Lance

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

Narbonne

Flecha's well-timed move

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

2 generations watch the start of the Tour in Narbonne

An easy day protecting the jersey

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),

TV bike and transmitter gets some pre race work

July in France: Heat, bikes and sunflowers

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.

IMAX camera films sign in

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

Tour merchandise

Hamilton at the start

Lance drops the TV crews that dog his every moment at the start

The Tour de France is buzzing with excitement and anticipation for what may be the most crucial 47 kilometers of the entire race. Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong haven’t faced each other in a long time trial since 2001, but the German’s abilities against the clock are proven and formidable. The most exciting Tour de France in recent memory is about to get downright ferocious. There is a lot riding on the Stage 12 individual time trial. Lance’s lead in the Tour is smaller than usual and he wants to enter the Pyrénées with a more comfortable advantage over his rivals. Ullrich, on the other

Juan Flecha shows the emotion of winning a stage

When it comes to negative racing, the performances of two French riders alongside me in the winning eight man break really takes the cake. All Carlos Da Cruz (fdjeux.com) and Nicolas Portal (Ag2R) were worried about was marking me. I couldn’t scratch my arse without them bloody getting on my wheel. When you have two guys like them, who ride as if their lives depend on chasing you back, it’s not easy to get away. How they raced today was a disgrace. And what did they gain from it? Fifth and seventh place! I tried to make something of it, right up until the end when Spaniard Juan Antonio

Lance takes up arm wrestling with Arnold

Just back from Bend, Oregon, land of breweries, brushfires and bicycle racing, and after my first outing I’d have to say that the Cascade Classic is a fantastic event. Race promoter Brad Ross ran a race with stunning courses and full community support, and the consensus from racers I spoke with was that Cascade is one of the more under-rated stage races in the U.S. “I’m going to tell all the girls from other teams to come next year,” said women’s overall winner Lyne Bessette (Saturn), who raced at Cascade for the first time, easily beating the 50-rider field. And while Bessette did trounce

Rest Day at the Tour: Bruyneel confident; Hamilton still day-to-day

Jan Ullrich thinks four-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is in a weaker position at the halfway stage than in previous years and may be vulnerable to attack in the Pyrenees. The German, winner of the Tour in 1997, said there was a chance he could win his first stage of cycling's premier race in five years in the mountains of southwest France. "If I'm on good form and I'm feeling good on the day, then it might be possible," he told reporters at his team's hotel in Lignan-sur-Orb during the first rest day of the Tour on Wednesday. "The Pyrenees this year are tougher than the

Figure 1

Figure 2

While the concept of a rest day in a three-week stage race is very welcome, it is equally dangerous for riders. The body is more than happy to accept the rest, but breaking the routine of racing can cause trouble. Rest Day RoutinesRacing on the day after a rest day can be like starting a car on a cold winter morning. You might be able to get the engine to turn over, but it takes a while for it to run smoothly. For riders, the danger is that they will feel sluggish or heavy on the first stage following the rest day. In order to prevent this situation, it is important for everyone to spend

Figure 3

Overall Standings after 10 stages1. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 45:46:222. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), Telekom, at 00:213. Iban Mayo (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 01:024. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), iBanesto.com, at 01:375. Tyler Hamilton (USA), CSC, at 01:526. Jan Ullrich (G), Bianchi, at 02:107. Ivan Basso (I), Fassa Bortolo, at 02:258. Roberto Heras (Sp), U.S. Postal Service, at 02:289. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 03:2510. Denis Menchov (Rus), iBanesto.com, at 03:4511. Roberto Laiseka (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 04:0312. Christophe Moreau (F), Credit Agricole, at

Figure 4

Lance Armstrong enters the second half of the 2003 Tour de France witha real fight on his hands. The four-time champion endured attacks in threepunishing days in the Alps but still emerged with the yellow jersey onhis back.Armstrong enjoyed a quiet rest day on Wednesday, riding for about twohours with his U.S. Postal Service teammates late Wednesday morning nearthe team's hotel in Montpellier. He later lunched with his family and enjoyeda relaxing day away from the race and the media.VeloNews caught up with U.S. Postal's director Johan Bruyneelafter the team's training ride. Here are excerpts

One talented, highly motivated, and thoroughly tough SOB

Sitting in the outside terrace of bar called Le Nat, we raised ourglasses of beer and toasted what is a rare feat in Tour de France trip– 36 hours free of relative trouble. Le Nat is in the town of Beziers, in southwest France, just 33km away from the start of Thursday’s stage 12 in Narbonne to Toulouse.As we drank, we shook our heads in disbelief at our good fortune. Thatis, until we realized that Le Nat is not exactly what we thoughtit was. Let’s just say the bar was open, and it was not yet dark, but itwas preparing to provide its clients with other services than just drinks!Our

This is unexpected: Halfway through the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong has yet to put a stranglehold on cycling's showcase race. After 11 days of racing, with 10 to go, the talk among some riders as they headed into Wednesday's well-earned rest day was that the four-time champion is not the dominant force he once was as he goes for a record-equaling fifth successive win. Unusually, the 31-year-old Texan did not shine in the Alps and their monstrous climbs - although he rode well enough to take the overall lead. Another four days loom in the Pyrenees. To win, Armstrong needs to be strong

Jacob's good day

Dinner at the Anderson's

'Princess Emma,' the Low Rider

Antonio and Alexi Cruz

Chris and Erica Horner

Yesterday was a great day for our team. Jacob Piil spent most of the stage in a break away, and then duked it out in a two man sprint for his first Tour de France stage victory. I'm really happy for him. He had a few tough moments during the first week of the race, but fought back hard, and came up with an incredible result. The team celebrated with a little Champagne at dinner last night. Thankfully today is a rest day. Ten stages into this year's Tour de France, and I'm feeling about ten years older. There are days when cycling can make you feel like an old man. And for me, yesterday

French cycling star Richard Virenque will be focusing on only one thing during the next few days on the Tour de France - winning a record-equaling sixth 'King of the Mountains' polka dot jersey. And the 33-year-old Quick Step rider, who has successfully reintegrated into the peloton after his career was in tatters in the wake of the Festina doping scandal, says he could stick around long enough to set his own Tour de France benchmark. "I'm preparing myself mentally for the Pyrénées and hopefully by the time we reach the mountains again my legs will stand up to the test," said Virenque on

The Lithuanian cycling federation has recommended a six-month ban for former Lampre rider Raimondas Rumsas, who tested positive for EPO during the Giro d’Italia in May, the federation said Tuesday. The federation also proposed to fine the 31-year-old Lithuanian year 2000 Swiss francs (1300 Euros). The Lithuanian federation has not taken a final decision on Rumsas, and has instead consulted the International Cycling Federation (UCI) and sent it Rumsas' explanations for the postive test. If the UCI rejects the Lithuanian federation's proposal, Rumsas's domestic federation will be obliged to

Demonstrators stop the tour mid stage