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Stage 9 Individual Results1. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), Telekom, 5:02:002. Paolo Bettini (I), Quick Step-Davitamon, 00:363. Iban Mayo (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:364. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 00:365. Jan Ullrich (G), Bianchi, 00:366. Ivan Basso (I), Fassa Bortolo, 00:367. Georg Totschnig (A), Gerolsteiner, 00:368. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), iBanesto.com, 00:369. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:3610. Tyler Hamilton (USA), CSC, 00:3611. Roberto Laiseka (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:3612. Didier Rous (F), Brioches La Boulangere, 00:5213. Denis Menchov (Rus),

Virenque celebrates the climber's jersey with Laurent Jalabert

Stage 9 Tech Talk: Hot tar, sticky brakes and Lance's daily driver

After three races of the International Cycling Classic-Superweek, Saturn’s Viktor Rapinski holds the overall series lead over former Superweek champion Harm Jansen. The 17-day event kicked off in Chicago on Friday evening with Prime Alliance’s Jonas Carney taking the win over Rapinski. The following evening Jansen took a solo win in Menasha, Wisconsin, and on Sunday, West Virginia’s Patrick O’Donnell scored a surprise win in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, winning out of a six-man break ahead of Belgian Karel Vereecke (Soenens-Germond) and Jansen. Check back to VeloNews.com over the next two weeks for

Millar was on the attack before Vino charged

Four-time champion Lance Armstrong avoided being fined or punished for his dramatic detour through a field to avoid crashing into fallen rival Joseba Beloki near the end of the Tour de France ninth stage Monday. A race jury determined that Armstrong was deemed not to have benefited from his impromptu change of direction. "Beloki's fall led Armstrong to take evasive action, leading him into a field which he left without gaining any advantage on the group of riders he had been with," said an organizers' statement. Meanwhile, the jury fined several other riders for infractions that occurred

Armstrong's pedal sports the new 2004 Dura-Ace anodization...

It's my second day here at the Tour and the team product news keeps streaming in, but first, something of a personal look at today's big event. By now, you've all seen (or read about) Joseba Beloki's nasty spill, just four kilometers from today's finish. As the VeloNews crew made its way to the arrive in Gap, two hours in front of the peloton, we noticed the hot road (37 degree centigrade air temp) had begun to "weep" oil in sections where recent road repairs had been made. The highly heated road was so slick that it made even the handling of our Volkswagen Passat a bit tenuous in

...but not the larger contact platform of the final production version.

Today's photo gallery is a little different, due to a slight misunderstanding between the race committee and me. As a result of said misunderstanding, today’s photos are all from the perspective of the fan, outside the race itself… which is precisely where I found myself for today's stage. Let me explainYou see, the Tour de France has very strict rules about the movement of journalists and photographers during the race, designed to protect the safety and integrity of the riders and the race. Unfortunately, I found myself violating the primary rule for those of us not in the race; Don't get

L'Alpe d'Huez is just as steep going down as it is going up

The Alps … what an experience they were. And the people. I have never ever ridden through so many crowds. Whatever happens, it is an experience I will never forget. With them behind us now, I’ll have a bit of time to reflect back on the experience; well, that is until the Pyrénées come under our wheel and the road goes painfully up again. Today’s stage was hard, hot and hurt as the result sheet shows (I was 78th at 15:38, along with 13 others). This time I couldn’t finish with the leaders, as I did on stage seven where I was fourth, or even as I did in stage eight where I hit the last climb

Stage 9 Tech Talk: Hot tar, sticky brakes and Lance's daily driver

On the Col d'Izoard

Bumped into 1987 Tour de France winner Stephen Roche the other day. Literally. But as anyone who has followed the Tour will tell you, as the race gets bigger and bigger and more congested along the way, bumping into people is what you do. Forget meeting them. Doing so with Roche was a good thing. Our subsequent chat brought back a lot of fond memories. We spoke of his great races and tigerísh spirit to racing. We spoke of 1987, the year of his triple crown — victory in the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and the world professional road championship (at Villach, Austria). We spoke and spoke

Stage 9 Tech Talk: Hot tar, sticky brakes and Lance's daily driver

Jaksche was a big factor all day.

More than anything, I wish the biggest story of the day was AlexanderVinokorouv’s victorious attack in the closing kilometers of Stage 9. Instead,our attention was once again drawn to the dangers of racing bicycles, thistime illustrated by Joseba Beloki’s brutal crash on the final descent ofthe day.No one really knows what happened first, whether his rear tire blewor slipped in melted asphalt, but the result was quick and painful. Belokifought to stay upright, his wheels dug into the soft pavement, and he wasthrown violently to the ground. Early reports indicate the impact brokethe upper

Up the Côte de la Rochette - moments before Beloki's crash

Armstrong is forced off the road as Beloki crashed

Armstrong knows better than anyone that this race is far from over

No stage win, but Armstrong got a bigger prize

Stage 8 Tour Tech: Gear for the toughest of days

Green digging out a tool (yes he had his own) to fix his cleat.

It’s a name that’s synonymous with the Tour de France: L’Alpe d’Huez. The numbers are well known — 13.8km long, 21 switchbacks, 7.9 percent average grade — but they can’t begin to tell the story of the fabled climb. It has become to cycling what Kitzbühel is to ski racing, or Monaco to Formula 1. So when planning the course of this centennial Tour, it was clear that L’Alpe d’Huez had to be one of the “must” stage finishes. The Alpe wasn’t included in the Tour’s itinerary until 1952, so it has been featured only 21 times (this year will make it 22) in the event’s 89 editions. Although that

Ullrich lost 1:24 to Armstrong on the climb

American fans on Alpe d' Huez, from Seattle and Atlanta

Jakshe's Giant

Hermida powers to a second-place finish.

This is the third straight 200km-plus stage, and the most challenging yet. All the action will be in the final 100km. That’s when the race reaches the foot of the Col du Télégraphe, which is the start of 30km of uphill work (other than one brief downhill) to the 2645-meter (8697-foot) summit of the Col du Galibier, the high point of the 2003 Tour. This northern approach is unrelenting, and usually sees the peloton reduced to a handful of riders, especially if the weather is cold or wet. There will surely be some sort of regrouping on the 40km-long descent, but then comes the infamous 13.8km

Fast company

Courage, climbing Alpe d'Huez with one leg

The 'Lance is human' t-shirts go on sale tomorrow

Horgan-Kobelski looks for his line.

This is an unusual mountain stage, with the longer climbs at the start, and two shorter uphills near the end. The Col d’Izoard is one of the Tour’s mythical climbs, but much of the peloton will regroup in the 64km before the next hill. The long, steep Izoard descent, followed by a snaking road down a canyon, gives an opportunity for a breakaway to establish itself. A beautifulroad alongside (and across) the Serre-Ponçon lake — the largest reservoir in Europe — precedes the last two uphills: St. Appolinaire (28.5km from the finish) and La Rochette (8km from the line). They are long enough

French fans in turn 3 entertained all of us for hours

Stage 8 Tour Tech: Gear for the toughest of days

Haywood was at her best.

Since the 2003 Tour route was released in December, Sunday's stage 8 over the Télégraphe and Galibier climbs and up the 21 famed switchbacks of Alpe d'Huez had all the makings of a classic. Well, it certainly lived up to expectations. More than 400,000 fans lined the twisting, 14km final climb to Alpe d'Huez and enjoyed one of the most spectacular and exciting Tour stages in years. Iban Mayo (Euskaltel) delivered on his promise to win a Tour stage and shot away from a lead group of favorites with just over 7km to go and held on for the biggest win of his career. Lance Armstrong surged

The great HD left a mark on the Tour, but does he deserve all of the credit?

Stage 8 Individual Results1. Iban Mayo (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 5:57:302. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), Telekom, 01:453. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 02:124. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), iBanesto.com, 02:125. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 02:126. Joseba Beloki (Sp), ONCE - Eroski, 02:127. Tyler Hamilton (USA), CSC, 02:128. Ivan Basso (I), Fassa Bortolo, 02:129. Roberto Laiseka (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 02:1210. Pietro Caucchioli (I), Alessio, 03:3611. Christophe Moreau (F), Credit Agricole, 03:3612. Roberto Heras (Sp), U.S. Postal Service, 03:3613. Jan Ullrich (G), Bianchi,

views of the north side of Galibier

Merckx went on the attack on the way to the Télégraphe, but faded fast

Well, my pre-race top-five predictions aren't all doing so hot, so I fear that I may not be the wise sage I claim to be. However, one thing that I predicted that is definitely coming true is that Lance Armstrong is really having to fight for dominance this year. As I've said before, I think Armstrong will win this Tour de France, but I think it's going to be his toughest win ever. Today was an obvious example of that, since in the Alpe d’Huez stage in 2001, Lance just killed everyone, and buried the race on the first mountain day. Today, many men still have realistic hope of taking a

Biggest Lance fan on Alpe d'Huez, a Brit!

Postal took command up the Galibier

Member of the cycling monastary

Rous and Astarloza led the way on to l'Alpe

When the Tour de France visited L’Alpe d’Huez two years ago, Lance Armstrong destroyed his opposition by a two–minute margin and virtually put his third Tour win on ice. That’s far from the case this year. In Sunday’s spectacular alpine stage, the defending champion was attacked from all quarters and it was the Texan who conceded the two minutes to an explosive Iban Mayo — the 25-year-old Euskaltel-Euskadi rider who already pushed Armstrong to the limit in taking second place at last month’s Dauphiné Libéré. You could say that Armstrong and his U.S. Postal-Berry Floor team were

Road painting for Lance in Turn 1

Mayo gives it everything

views of the north side of Galibier

Vinokourov held on to take second

Virenque Fan Club on Galibier

Virenque had Rogers' company up the final climb

Lance Armstrong loves to win, but he knows it is better to concede some battles in the effort to win the war. When he has a great day, Lance can leave everyone behind with one hard attack, but today wasn’t great and it became clear to him early on in the Alp d’Huez climb that the best strategy was to ride defensively. Lance went into Stage 8 intending to attack on Alp d’Huez and put as much time as possible into his main rivals for the yellow jersey. The US Postal Service set him up perfectly to do just that, setting a blistering pace up the initial slopes of the mountain. Their efforts