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Nazon grabs yellow, Petacchi scores another win

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

The fans at sign in applaud another of their heroes

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

Freddie Rodriguez at the start, looking for another sprint finish

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

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

Armstrong of USA passes through a demonstration of performing arts professionals

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

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)

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

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,

Petacchi of Italy wins....

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

Another stage

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

A mannekin celebrates the Tour from a window

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

The Postal train

The officials have a very nice ride in this fleet of Lancias

“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

Armstrong and the ONCE boys

Podium staff at the Tour.

1. Baden Cooke (Aus), FDJeux.com, at 5:06:332. Jean-Patrick Nazon (F), Jean Delatour, at 00:003. Jaan Kirsipuu (Est), Ag2R Prevoyance, at 00:004. Erik Zabel (G), Telekom, at 00:005. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, at 00:006. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Lotto-Domo, at 00:007. Paolo Bettini (I), Quick Step-Davitamon, at 00:008. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), Credit Agricole, at 00:009. Fred Rodriguez (USA), Caldirola, at 00:0010. Mikel Artetxe (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 00:0011. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, at 00:0012. Gerrit Glomser (A), Saeco, at 00:0013. Luca Paolini (I), Quick Step-Davitamon, at

Rider supplies at the start from Aquarel

"We have met the enemy and he is us.” The quote sounds like something from antiquity, perhaps a comment by a great general. It is actually a line from from Walt Kelly, the cartoonist who created “Pogo,” and first appeared in a poster for Earth Day in 1970. I use it here in reference to Canadian cycling and what I observed during our recent Tim Horton National Road Championships at Hamilton on the world’s course. We seem to be our own worst enemy. Coming from a road-racing background, educated in the sport by French, Belgian and Italian coaches and managers, and having raced with and managed

Jean Delatour's Frederic Finot (L) and Credit Agricole's Lilian Jegou (R) during a nearly 200km breakaway

Riis is mobbed by the press as he explains Hamilton will start

"We have met the enemy and he is us.” The quote sounds like something from antiquity, perhaps a comment by a great general. It is actually a line from from Walt Kelly, the cartoonist who created “Pogo,” and first appeared in a poster for Earth Day in 1970. I use it here in reference to Canadian cycling and what I observed during our recent Tim Horton National Road Championships at Hamilton on the world’s course. We seem to be our own worst enemy. Coming from a road-racing background, educated in the sport by French, Belgian and Italian coaches and managers, and having raced with and managed

All of you want to race here, don't you?

Tyler Hamilton plans to continue in the Tour de France after fighting off the pain of a broken collarbone to finish the second stage of the race Monday. Hamilton, who sustained the injury in a mass crash at the end of Sunday's first stage, finished in 100th place in the same time as winner Baden Cooke (fdjeux). "It hurt all day long, but the most important thing was that I made it to the finish. This morning I didn't think I'd be able to last for 10 kilometers," the CSC rider said. "I felt a dull ache, and it hurt on the bumpier sections. Fortunately the way the race went was perfect

Finot tries his luck alone

Lotto gives chase

Caught 2.5km from the line, Finot is consoled by his family after the finish

Good morning, and... uhhh watch the shoulder, okay?

Once again there was drama on the undulating rural roads of the Tour de France today. And, again, it involved the VeloNews car. It also, once again, involved a policeman (okay, two). And, like yesterday, it again happened with our destination in sight – well almost. After zigzagging through the publicity caravan with the “25km to go” banner 100m behind us, I muttered I was pleased that we would reach the press room two hours ahead of the race – on this particular day a must with all three of us with much copy to write. With VeloNews magazine on deadline, John Wilcockson, Andy Hood and I all

Wilcockson (r) trying to look busy; Guinness (l) thinking of the buffet

Lotto gives chase

Sharp eyes may have spotted Lance and the boys sporting new Giro helmets during these first few days of the Tour. We contacted Giro regarding the new lids and got this response from spokesman Eric Richter: “Lance has been testing this helmet in his lead-up to the Tour, and he has already given us important, positive feedback,” Richter said. “The testing will continue at the Tour, and we'll now look forward to getting feedback from all of our teams as they grind out the miles on the way to Paris," he noted. "It should be interesting! And we'll be happy to keep you posted on the progress.”

Jegou and Finot

I guess the anti-American sentiment of French roads finally came to a head, erasing the top-10-finish dreams of Tyler Hamilton and Levi Leipheimer in the Tour’s infamous and dangerous first week. I, of all people, can feel for Tyler and Levi, although I was never a top-10 contender like they were. Tyler has had some good wins, and should be proud of his season no matter what he does the rest of the year. Levi, however, risked everything to bring his form to a head for the Tour, and had it all taken away in an instant. It's funny, because they probably haven't been in a crash all year; I

Finot goes on his own

It is pretty difficult to look like a tough guy wearing skin-tight Lycra and clicking around in carbon fiber shoes, but Stage 2 of the 2003 Tour de France should prove to anyone that professional cyclists are some of the toughest competitors in the world. And, right now, the winner of cycling’s Tough Guy Contest has to be Tyler Hamilton, for riding a 204.5-kilometer Tour de France stage with a cracked collarbone. Collarbone injuries don’t necessarily inhibit your ability to pedal a bicycle, and many cyclists continue to ride on indoor trainers during their recoveries. Your ability to ride a

A little early morning cafe for fans

Cooke and Nazon react to the sprint finish

The calm before the storm

French road hog

David Millar has blamed his Cofidis team and its manager, Alain Bondue, for the mechanical incident that cost him victory in the Tour de France prologue. Millar, who won the Tour prologue in 2000, looked set to win the Tour's 6.5km opener in Paris on Saturday when his chain came off before the last curve. He reached down and replaced the chain, but the delay cost him - he finished second, just 0.8 second behind Australian Bradley McGee. Team sources said Cofidis riders were using new aerodynamic chain rings that had caused problems in the Tour of Catalunya. Other Cofidis riders, like Luis

Hamilton and concerned Riis leave for hospital

Not the way Hamilton wanted to finish the Tour

Marc Lotz crosses the finish line after the crash

George and Lance out on the road

Riis and Hamilton on their way to the hospital

Lance Armstrong of the USA arrives

Petacchi wins, but was not happy about the finish

Lance and Ekimov

Commemorating the 1903 Tour with a bike that was old even back then.