News

The power control unit.

A Frenchman on the podium: Cedric Vasseur

Today’s 230k went by as fast as it possibly could, given the conditions. Out on the road it was more than 100 degrees all day and the pavement was rough. Some of us were still a bit tired after the mountain day yesterday that took us over the famed Galibier. It was a great mountain stage that started at the bottom of the Col de l'Iseran in the ski town of Val-d'Isère. The Iseran goes straight up to 2770 meters (9088 ft.) and there ain’t so much air up there. I went with a few attacks and every extra effort was rewarded with a straight-up bout of dizziness. Then we raced down to

ChristianVande Velde’s SRM with FSA manufactured carbon arms.

... and Daniel Lloyd gets the jersey.

Stage 11 - Marseille to Montpellier - (182.5km)

Discovery Channel’s new Madone wired and ready.

A big bump in the road for Stapleton and efforts to save T-Mobile.

Buried deep in Sunday’s UCI commissaires’ report was a penalty against Levi Leipheimer for illegal mechanical assistance and bidon pulls. The top American contender was fined 50 CHF and penalized 5 points and 10 seconds for the bidon pull and fined an additional 50 CHF for illegal mechanical assistance. Leipheimer couldn’t care less about the money or the points, but those 10 seconds could be vital in the battle for the overall crown when every second counts.

The break

The under side of the crown.

Hincapie on the Galibier

Discovery Channel team leader Levi Leipheimer admitted on the Tour’s first rest day that he’s not yet riding to his top ability, but believes he will be by the time the race reaches the Pyrénées in its pivotal third week.

Astarloza cracked the break

Evans was the only rider to bridge to Contador.

Gibson offers many thanks to Volkswagon, for making posi-traction to allow him to park like this on the Galibier.

Results - Stage 91. Mauricio Soler (Col), Barloworld 4:14:24 (38.92kph)2. Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne, at 0:383. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, at 0:384. Alberto Contador Velasco (Sp), Discovery, at 0:405. Iban Mayo Diez (Sp), Saunier Duval, at 0:426. Michael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, at 0:427. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery, at 0:428. Kim Kirchen (Lx), T-Mobile, at 0:469. Andreas Klöden (G), Astana, at 0:4610. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, at 0:46 11. Christophe Moreau (F), Ag2r, at 0:5412. Mikel Astarloza (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 0:5413. Yaroslav Popovych

Contador has a go

Nicolas Portal with the Havik.

It takes work to look good on the podium

Hardly anyone knew a thing about Juan Mauricio Soler Hernández before he ran away with Tuesday’s climbing stage across the Galibier. Journalists were scrambling to find out more about the soft-spoken son of farmers from central Colombia who bolted away from the world’s best climbers to win Barloworld’s first stage of the 2007 Tour de France.

Contador and Popovych

Portal had a crowd waiting for him at his team bus.

French TV has to set up a studio in the most obscure places, every day.

Weather: Highs in 80s, partly cloudy, brisk cross-headwinds Stage winner: Colombia's Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) took the biggest win in both his career and the history of his team by breaking clear of the peloton 10km from the top of the Col du Télégraphe. The 24-year-old from Ramiriqui, Colombia, then rode through the remnants of the day’s breakaway to finish 38 seconds ahead of Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans. Race leader: Rabobank’s Michael Rasmussen defended his yellow jersey by sticking with the race’s top GC contenders.

Contador and Evans

Alberto Contador with his green glasses.

Ludewig gets the stage . . .

After the recent withdrawalsof three high-profile Australians, cycling fans from down under found somethingto cheer about Tuesday in the form of Predictor-Lotto’s Cadel Evans. Theslim Aussie rode aggressively on the race’s first two hors categorieclimbs in stage 9 to finish third on the stage and move into fourthoverall.

Going up: The 9085-foot, hors categorie Col de l'Iseran

A closer look at the Havik

. . . Massaglia gets the lead

The Tour de France offered up another beautiful in the Alps and our man Casey Gibson was there to record it.

Rasmussen knows who the boss is at Rabobank now — it's him

Sponsored athletes will have a special branded model.

Stage 10 - Tallard to Marseille (229.5km)

Soler attacked 'like a crazy man'

Bruyneel was happy before the stage. We're bet he's even happier now.

Stage 10 - Tallard to Marseille (229.5km)

RockShox’s new BlackBox cross-country fork.

A busy start village

Soler takes the stage for Barloworld

A side view revealing the Power Bulge.

The start village at the Tour offers a variety of entertainment

Rasmussen crosses with Leipheimer on his wheel

The damper assembly.

Stage 9 - A Casey Gibson Gallery

Rabobank setting tempo

The upper air chamber.

Meanwhile, the fans gather on the climbs...

T-Mobile's evil luck continued as a stray dog wandered onto the route . . .

The lower air chamber.

Some - those on catered tours - get to watch the Tour on TV and then from the side of the road

COURSE: With a start from just south of Gap, and heading through Provence to the Mediterranean coast, this long stage looks ripe for a successful breakaway. Two Cat. 3 climbs in the final 30km will split up the break and also disrupt the chasing efforts of the sprinters’ teams. The Col de la Gineste, out of the small wine town of Cassis, summits 10km from the finish, which is on a wide boulevard on the eastern edge of Marseille. HISTORY: There have been 32 stage finishes in the port city of Marseille, the most recent in 2003 and 1993. Four years ago, Denmark’s Jakob Piil out-sprinted

. . . and took down Marcus Burghardt

The brake cutout on the lower left leg.

Some fans make a long trip to show their colors.

French champion Christophe Moreau, one of the stars of Sunday’s grueling stage to Tignes, says he is hoping to do well in the Pyrénées in the Tour’s final week and finish on the podium in Paris. His best Tour finish to date was fourth in 2000. After eight stages of this Tour he’s sitting in seventh overall, 3:06 down on race leader Michel Rasmussen, but on a par with other contenders like Alejandro Valverde, Cadel Evans, Fränk Schleck and Denis Menchov.

The normally stoic Vino' weeps after conceding more time on Tuesday

A rebound adjuster on the lower right leg.

Stage winner Juan Soler Hernandez looks quite composed.

Spaniard Alejandro Valverde has refused to rule out Alexander Vinokourov’s chances for the yellow jersey this year. His co-captain Oscar Pereiro, however, believes otherwise, saying that Astana’s other star - Andreas Klöden – may pose a bigger threat over the final two weeks of the Tour de France. Valverde played a key role in Sunday's eighth stage when a series of attacks by Frenchman Christophe Moreau led to the Astana pair losing more time on their rivals.

Valverde leads

The three-piece crown.

Leipheimer and Evans were in good company.

.. and the race leader's bottle.

Rasmussen’s ride

Another view, the team trains on 32-spoke alloy tubular wheels.

Rasmussen’s one-piece PRO Stealth Evo handlebar and stem combination

There’s not even a place for a second waterbottle cage.

Rasmussen’s wheels are kept separate from the rest of the team.

The majority of the team uses the new prototype carbon wheels from Shimano we’ve seen under many other teams at the Tour.

Many of the bikes had Kool-Stop brake pads.

Leipheimer hopes the 10-second penalty won't make a difference in Paris.

Vande Velde and Zabriskie meet the press

No charity... just sage advice

Leipheimer expects a lot from the Pyrénées.

Moreau animated the chase on stage 8.

Leipheimer meets the press.

Moreau hopes to keep attacking through the mountains.