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On Friday, the Tour de France riders had a small taste of the climbing that faces them Saturday on the 162.5km (101-mile) stage 7 between Strasbourg and Colmar. The foretaste was the 2,385-foot Col du Donon, a 4 km-long climb in the Vosges mountains that was enough to split the peloton, and leave many of the sprinters behind. All the five climbs that await them Saturday are longer than the Donon, and the riders having trouble will be not only the sprinters but probably men like current yellow jersey Stuart O'Grady of Australia - who has trouble on long climbs. From Strasbourg, stage 7 goes

The Champion two-piece band, which unfortunately opens each stage with the one and only song they know.

5:53p.m. (local time) We just finished speaking with John Vande Velde, the father of U.S. Postal Sevice rider Christian Vande Velde. He says that his son has apparently suffered a fractured left arm, contusions on his neck and a possible concussion. Vande Velde was wearing a helmet when he struck a post after missing a turn earlier in the stage. He recovered enough to get back on his bike, but realized his injuries were serious enough to warrant medical attention and then withdrew from the Tour. We'll try to update you as soon as we know more. The senior Vande Velde, just back from the

Les Cadets, junior racers that are having the thrill of their lives at the Tour.

Four people were taken to hospital in Colmar, France Saturday, with one reported to be in a serious condition, after a spectator drove his car into security barriers at the finish line of the Tour de France seventh stage. One woman bystander is in a serious condition after being thrown into the air when struck by the car and is receiving treatment for severe head and leg injuries. Three others - two policemen and a Tour official - were also hospitalised with minor injuries, according to Patrice Clerc, president of the Tour's parent company AOS. "We'll tell you what we know, which is

French flags, and road painting, encouraged all of the French riders to win on Bastille Day.

The bands that play, the fans that come, and the riders at the center of it all.

One of hundreds of German caravans, or small campers, that have joined the Tour and can be found along the course all through the Alps and Pyrennes.

U.S. Postal rider Christian Vande Velde and Fassa Bortolo’s Ivan Basso have been forced out of the Tour de France due to injuries the two young riders suffered in separate accidents during the seventh stage of France’s national tour on Saturday. Vande Velde, a 25-year-old Boulder, Colorado resident suffered a broken left arm, bruises on his neck and shoulder and a possible concussion after missing a turn on the descent of the Category 2. Col d’ Adelspach and striking a metal post. Vande Velde lay on the ground until his team car came to his aid. He then got up and rode for about

Jalabert made all of France cheer

Going into Saturday's stage to Colmar, I didn’t know how I was feeling after all of the hard stages. I stayed at the front not because I was trying to attack, but as a tactic for survival. Again, guys were just attacking from the gun. Finally, on the first climb, it was at full speed, we were flying up that. After a while, though, I was feeling pretty comfortable at the front. When I saw the 1km to go, I kind of shut it down and let a lot of guys go by and rolled down the descent back to the front. I did pretty much the same on all of the climbs. Romans (Vainsteins) tried letting the guys

The day's big winner has to be Voigt - now six minutes up on Armstrong and Ullrich.

Kelme: A force in the peloton, a curiosity in the caravan It has had an incredible 20-year run as a cycling team sponsor, but Kelme’s entry in the Tour publicity caravan doesn’t quite live up to the same standards as the team, yet. While most sponsors in the caravan sport a whole fleet of elaborately decorated and rigged-up vehicles, Kelme really is an army of one. The green pick-up truck with the giant soccer shoe on top is kind of a lonely sight each day, looking like someone who sort of got swept away by a parade barreling down Main St. But is it effective? Well, hey, they got their

The five who defined the stage.

When Bonjour does a team chase to set up its sprinter, Damien Nazon, the yellow ovals on a long line of these Spinergys looks spectacular.

Rabobank uses gray pads on the front brakes with its Fir Santara carbon braking surfaces.

Lance Armstrong blitzed a 165-man field in the 11th stage individual time trial up to the ski resort of Chamrousse Wednesday to win his second successive stage on this year's Tour de France. Check VeloNews's Tour de France page for the complete story by VeloNews's Bryan Jew, a post-race analysis from John Wilcockson, stunning race images by Graham Watson, a Tour photo gallery by Casey Gibson and more tech news from Lennard Zinn.

Mapei uses Ambrosio XCarbo deep-section rims on road stages, and, like Telekom, uses Corima orange brake pads to stop them.

While many of us watch the Tour on TV, photographer Casey B. Gibson is at the Tour, looking for things you'll rarely see on the tube.

Telekom, like Mapei, uses Corima orange (cork) brake pads with two-piece bolt-together brake shoes for the carbon braking surfaces on the team's road wheels (and on Ullrich's time trial bike as well).

It's Friday the 13th at the Tour de France. Kind of a scary thought actually. This is after all, the race where grown men curse bad luck and pray that good karma is on their side. I don't know if the date was on most rider's minds today. Historically, I've always been kind of fond of the number 13. It's never frightened me too much. In fact, after finishing 13th in the Tour in '99 it kind of became a lucky number of sorts. Well, as of today, I'm going to have to scrap all this 13 worship and join the ranks of the leery. I officially dislike Friday the 13th - because today, as they

Laced to Campy straight-pull hubs to look like Campy Bora wheels, but they have carbon braking surfaces and look different from Boras in other ways as well. They appear to be Ambrosio XCarbo rims without decals.

While Zabel was caught in traffic, Kirsipuu had a clear shot

AG2R uses Trek-made Bontrager paired-spoke wheels. These are the same design as Rolfs, but now with Bontrager hubs and different different name, after Rolf left the company.

O'Grady spends another day in yellow.

This thing really drives with that giant wheel--it is churning around the rider!

With Merckx, Verbrugghe, Bartoli and Brochard, the break had horsepower. Bessy was there to keep guard.

Axel Merckx as you see him on TV, in the break on Col du Donon...

Bonjour's Simon retains the jersey...but Armstrong is now third overall.

Casey B. Gibson

Photographing the Tour is long hours of waiting, then frenzied bursts of energy, and very long days. Taylor Johnson, photographe

This poor girl has to dance her way across France as a croissant in the publicity caravan, all 2100 miles of it.

George Hincapie confers with Freddie Viaene at the finish line.

The peloton rolls through a scenic village near Commercy, early in the stage.

Paris may not have gotten the Olympics, but France leads the world in haystack art at Tour time.

Moreau's new Mavic Ksyrium SSC SL wheels. Winning a stage doesn't hurt your swag status.

Moreau is still in the mix on the strength of a great TTT

US Postal got concerned about the wind and exchanged its HED3 front wheels for Mavic Cosmics.

Credit Agricole's goal was to only lose a minute on the day. Surprise.

Freddy's new ride

O'Grady hangs on to the jersey one more day

Cofidis

Ready for the pre-race warm-up

Bobke doing a stand-up for OLN's U.S. broadcast

Verdun -- Jan Ullrich’s Deutsche Telekom squad has played things very smart so far in this year’s Tour de France. With the minimum of effort, it has kept Ullrich nicely placed in the top 10 on GC and has taken two of the first four stages with Erik Zabel. And on Wednesday’s stressful stage from Huy to Verdun, Telekom placed Alex Vinokourov in two early breaks, and then Udo Bölts in the day’s main nine-man move that blew the race apart. So while Lance Armstrong ’s Postal troops and Joseba Beloki’s ONCE riders were leading a long 50-kph chase, Telekom was able to follow wheels until it was in

Sentinals marked each kilometer along the Voie Sacree today -- the supply route in WWI to the Verdun front

5:37 p.m. local timeSo a few of you have asked that we not reveal the winner in the headline or first paragraph, so if you don't want be surprised as you work your way through our now-not-so-live updates click HERE to work up from the bottom and follow the race from the start. For the rest of you today's winner was ... 5:37 p.m.(local time) Here are the preliminary results of the top five teams. 1. CREDIT AGRICOLE 67km in 1:21;32; (49.3kph)2. ONCE, at 31 seconds;3. FESTINA, at 54 seconds;4. U.S. POSTAL, at 1:26;5. KELME, at 1:38; And we have some major changes in the overall

Ah, a steaming cup to start the day

Thursday’s team time trial stage at the Tour de France ended with a very happy American who moved up into third place. But it wasn’t two-time defending champion Lance Armstrong. No, instead it was a rider who has known nothing but difficulties at the Tour during Armstrong’s two-year reign. On Thursday, though, Crédit Agricole’s Bobby Julich could finally break into a broad smile again at the Tour de France. His Crédit Agricole team posted the best time of the day on a wet, windy day that was filled with tension and danger. The ride not only kept Australian Stuart O’Grady in the yellow jersey,

The monocoque Pinarellos of iBanesto, Fassa Bortolo and Telekom always look cool -- though Ullrich may have wanted a motor

The rain. The pain of a team time trial. And men and women simply doing their jobs at the Tour.

Thor Hushovd's Look KG396 CLM matched the rest of the team's.

An analysis of the time splits at Thursday’s team time trial show that the U.S. Postal Service squad was on target to place second before Christian Vande Velde skidded on the slick, white-painted center line and fell, bringing down the team’s No. 2 rider Roberto Heras. The crash happened just inside 15km to go. If the other seven Postal riders hadn’t have waited, not only would Heras have lost a couple of minutes but he would also have felt abandoned. And that’s not how a team wants to go into the mountains, where the Spanish climber needs to be at his best to help Lance Armstrong win the

Axel Merckx and the rest of his team rode Daddy's time trial frames to a 14th-place finish.

Whew, today was tough. After yesterday's fiasco, I was really hurting. It was not very sportsmanlike what ONCE and U.S. Postal did yesterday. ONCE attacked as a full team at the feed zone on a windy day. Feed zones are already dangerous enough, and it's just an unwritten not to attack in them. Sometimes it might happen that a single guy might try to get away in one. But not for an entire world class team to do it. It's like attacking when the yellow jersey gets a flat. It caught our team and other teams by surprise, and the fact that Postal and Telekom followed suit, well, we weren't happy

Laurent Jalabert and the CSC team downed packs of High5 gel on the start line and stuffed more up sleeves and shorts legs for la

Remembering Verdun's 600,000 war dead along the La Voie Sacrée (the Sacred Way)

Kelme's cool hinged Catlike helmets let air in at the head where the hinge opens. But not all Kelme riders get the cool frames.

SHINY, HAPPY PEOPLE Crédit Agricole now has the top three spots on GC

Look KG 396 CLM fork detail on a CSC team bike.

But for a single mishap, the Posties had a near perfect ride.

Maybe spiked hair tests out better in a wind tunnel than an aero' helmet?

The ONCE team did a stellar job keeping Beloki in the race for GC

Zipp wheels and GT frames brought American technology to Lotto.

Nardello after a spill

O'Grady

The Tour barbers are part of the traveling village that moves each day

Heras (with his soigneur)

Postie bikes ready to roll

There aren't too many flat roads on Wednesday's 215km stage 4 from Huy to Verdun that traverses the Ardennes range from north to south. And the stage won't be made any easier by a predicted three-quarter head wind gusting up to 25 mph and possible rain showers. The good news is that most of the day's climbing is in the first half of the stage, when the unfavorable wind should keep the peloton together.Despite that likelihood, there are bound to be early attacks. Half the field is now more than five minutes off the pace, and 40 of them are more than 10 minutes behind race leader Stuart

5:30 p.m. local timeSo a few of you have asked that we not reveal the winner in the headline or first paragraph, so if you don't want be surprised as you work your way through our now-not-so-live updates click HERE to work up from the bottom and follow the race from the start. For the rest of you today's winner was ... 5:12 p.m. (local time) Jalabert earns his fourth Tour de France stage win, but he will not make it into the yellow jersey. Stuart O'Grady managed to finish close enough to keep the overall lead. Dierckxsens earned second and Nazon edged out Fast Freddie Rodriguez for

Defending Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong of the U.S. Postal team remained tight-lipped as he arrived in Verdun, France after the fourth stage of the Tour de France, a 215km haul from Huy in Belgium on Wednesday. However the 29-year-old Texan, who has refused requests for interviews ever since he told an Italian newspaper of his links to Italian doping guru Michele Ferrari, had a few words for French television. Armstrong, who came in with a 75-man bunch seven seconds behind stage winner Laurent Jalabert of France, told TV reporters that this was the first time he'd been tested on

The pursuit of the Yellow is the hot topic of the month, but today's stage rolled past reminders of bigger matters and sadder times. On the approach to Verdun, there were numerous memorials and thousands of crosses in honor of the hundreds of thousands soldiers who died in this region of northern France in World War 1. The first photo on this page is of a memorial along today's route, and contains the remains of 150,000 unknown soldiers killed in the Battle of Verdun in WWI.

First Steve Peat went down with a shoulder injury. Now Chris Kovarik is out with … visa problems. Word out of the Intense camp is that the American INS boys up in Vancouver wouldn’t let the young Aussie downhiller back into the States after he’d finished up competing at the World Cup race at Grouse Mountain because he had the wrong kind of visa. "He’s got a five-year visitation visa, but what he needs is a work visa or an athlete’s visa," said Intense owner Jeff Steber, Kovarik’s primary sponsor. "We’ve got all the right paper work going now, but at minimum it’s going to take two

The television coverage of today's 210km stage from Huy to Verdun probably didn't do justice to the level of racing going on. It doesn't get much more difficult than a day like we had. Any way you slice it, working at the front all day at full speed is a hard day at the office. An attack went at the 15 kilometer mark that included Vinokourov from Telekom so we made a point of chasing it down. If we let him get some time on the field he would have become one more rider we'd be forced to keep track of. And we don't want to have to worry about him when the roads start slanting up. When the

After 215km, this was a pleasant sight