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The sprint finishes of this year’s Tour have been exciting, but no team seems able to control the front of the peloton the way the old Saeco train could. As a result, the final three kilometers are chaotic and dangerous, and I’m surprised we haven’t seen more crashes in the final kilometer. The lack of a dominant lead-out team could be due to more evenly matched sprinters’ teams than we have seen in past years. Whatever the reason, this year has seen cooperative efforts from Lotto, Telekom, and now Crédit Agricole to keep the pace high enough to dissuade attacks in the final 20 kilometers.

The 'exclusive' interview.

The world's number one outsprinted the world champion in Alençon

Coordinated effort - coordinated equipment

Gonzalez de Galdeano still safe in the yellow jersey.

Dunlap on her way to the win.

“Some idiot in front of me fell,' Millar recalled.

The women head out with the beautiful San Sophia mountain range as a backdrop.

The 47km mark of Friday's sixth stage will mean a lot more to six membersof the Tour entourage. Possibly more than what it will for those riderswho will race across it to contest the first of the day's three intermediatesprints.Sure, the mark may see German Erik Zabel's narrow lead in the sprinters'green jersey competition come under siege. Or it may be where the day'swinning break will escape.But when the Tour races towards the PMU banner in the town of Les Andelysin Normandy, the hearts of six among the media will be racing - hopefullynot at tachycardiac levels!One of the most picturesque

Just cuz it looks cool

Normandy, the region of France the Tour de France entered Thursday andexits on Saturday, has probably seen more bike racing than anywhere elsein the world. The very first cycling road race took place between Parisand Rouen in 1869 when the roads were dusty and rocky, and the bikes werecrude, chainless velocipedes — pedal cranks were attached directly to thefront wheel hub. The winner of that inaugural Paris-Rouen race was an Englishmanliving in Paris, Dr. James Moore, who customized his hubs with ball bearings,made for him by prisoners in a Paris jail.Paris-Rouen gave birth to a series of

Ya almost don't recognize the guy without the Stars-and-Stripes.

The bike on which Jaan Kirsipuu wonn stage five is a Decathlon aluminum bike, the brand of the largest sports retailer in Europe, the huge FrenchDecathlon chain. Decathlon has its own brand of much of what it sells. For instance,the wheels are “dPr,” or “Decathlon Penta” wheels, built up onto deep-section rims and hubs with the dPr logo on it. The headsets are integrated on the road bikes and external on the time trial bikes, also with the Decathlon brand on them. Otherwise, the bikes have Time pedals and carbon forks, CampagnoloRecord 10-speed groups, ITM stems and bars, Michelintires and

Another day in yellow

Final overall: Men: 1. Brent Dawson, Jelly Belly 2. Graeme Miller, Mercury 3. Andrew Crater, OFOTO-Lombardi 4. Dan Schmatz, 7UP-Nutra Fig

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson is at the Tour de France and is taking time to shoot not just the race, but also the scenes along the road and the activity just outside of the peloton.

The road to Rouen.

Maybe the peloton took its cue from yesterday’s team time trial; today’s stage was just plain fast. Five men put in an impressive ride to hold off the charging sprinters, but these are the days when riders start falling apart. Tom Steels was the first rider to abandon the 2002 Tour de France. He hasn’t been feeling well during any stage and he had been coming off the back every time the road tilted even slightly. When the speed increases toward the end of the first week, struggling riders start cracking. It is a normal process. Some riders get stronger with a few days of racing in their

What would the Tour be without our man Didi?

Robbie’s Ride

Kirsipuu makes it to Rouen.

Five men on a mission

They stayed away with 33 seconds to spare.

AG2R's Decathlon TT bikes-

The team truck still shows last year's bike.

Go Packers! .... uhhhh okay...

5:08 p.m. -- Estonian national champion Jaan Kirsipuu (AG2R) won the fifth stage of the Tour de France Thursday after he and the other members of a five-man break managed to hold off a hard charging peloton at the end of a 195km stage from Soissons to Rouen. ONCE’s Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano retained the race leader's yellow jersey. Former Danish champion Michael Sandstod of the CSC team came second in the stage with Belgian Ludo Dierckxsens, who rides for Lampre, third following 199.5 km of racing from Soissons to here. The main peloton arrived around 20secs later. Preliminary stage

Tail gate party... maybe the Packer fan knew something we didn't.

Lotto’s powerful sprinter, Robbie McEwen, surprises with his choice of bikes. He rides – and sprints very fast – on the superlight compact-geometry climbing frame of Litespeed, the Ghisallo. It does help that he is short, and the flex in the thin tubes is reduced by virtue of being on such a tight little frame, in addition to having the compact geometry to further reduce weight and flex. McEwen wears white shorts and the white jersey of the Australian national champion, and he also chooses a white saddle and white handlebar tape while the rest of his team uses black saddles and tape. The

Grand Mere...coffee for Everyone!

1. KIRSIPUU Jaan (Est), A2R en 4h 13:332. SANDSTOD Michael (Dk), CST, at 00:003. DIERCKXSENS Ludo (B), LAM, at 00:004. CASAGRANDA Stefano (I), ALS, at 00:035. EDALEINE Christophe (F), DEL, at 00:086. MC EWEN Robbie (Aus), LOT, at 00:337. COOKE Baden (Aus), FDJ, at 00:338. O'GRADY Stuart (Aus), C.A, at 00:339. ZABEL Erik (G), TEL, at 00:3310. HAUPTMAN Andrej (Slo), TAC, at 00:3311. PIZIKS Arvis (Lit), CST, at 00:3312. SVORADA Jan (Slo), LAM, at 00:3313. MATTAN Nico (B), COF, at 00:3314. HUNTER Robert (SA), MAP, at 00:3315. PAGLIARINI Luciano (Brz), LAM, at 00:3316. MAGNIEN Emmanuel (F), BJR,

Ya gotta do something while waiting for the peloton.

Teamwork

Postal kept it all together

Should we stay or should we go now?

Ready to roll

Mitered tubes ready for the bottom bracket shell

The Ti bottom bracket sleeve

After declaring on his Web site on Tuesday that he was through with cycling, Italian star Mario Cipollini told Gazzetta dello Sport that he was tired of "being treated like a mediocre cyclist," and again cited the non-selection of his Acqua & Sapone team to the Tour de France as one of the primary reasons for his decision to retire. "I am fed up with being treated as a mediocre cyclist and being snubbed. By who? By everyone, even by the media," said Cipollini. "No one came to my defense in the dispute with [Jean-Marie] Leblanc, (the chief of the Tour de France), who decided not to invite my

Every day and every second counts during the Tour de France, and riders like Oscar Sevilla and Levi Leipheimer are bleeding. Following the team time trial, and with four stages remaining before the first individual time trial, both men have lost over 2 minutes to Lance. The time gap is by no means insurmountable, but I don’t remember the last time either man beat Lance by that much in an individual time trial. Tour contenders can not afford to lose minutes (to each other) during the first week of the Tour. Losing time is easy and can happen anytime during any stage. Gaining time, on the

Mapei in the vineyards

It seems that everyone except the race organizers is regretting theabsence of Mario Cipollini from this year’s Tour de France. So the LionKing’s decision Tuesday night to announce his retirement from cycling comesat an appropriate moment — although we all regret that his flamboyancewill no longer grace our sport’s biggest stage.Cipollini brought excitement to the Tour, whether it was with his fourconsecutive stage wins in 1999 or his four days in the yellow jersey in1997. And, on a day when this Tour focused its attention on a team timetrial, many have forgotten that it was in a team time

Ms. Liberty comes home

Here are the final standings from today's team time trial:Stage results1. ONCE - EROSKI 01:19:492. U.S. POSTAL SERVICE 01:20:05, at 00:163. TEAM CSC TISCALI 01:20:35, at 00:464. FASSA BORTOLO 01:21:19, at 01:305. COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 01:21:33, at 01:446. IBANESTO.COM 01:21:45, at 01:567. DOMO - FARM FRITES 01:22:01, at 02:128. RABOBANK 01:22:05, at 02:169. KELME - COSTA BLANCA 01:22:08, at 02:1910. LAMPRE - DAIKIN 01:22:11, at 02:2211. CREDIT AGRICOLE 01:22:17, at 02:2812. TEAM TELEKOM 01:22:36, at 02:4713. BONJOUR 01:23:02, at 03:1314. ALESSIO 01:23:04, at 03:1515. LOTTO - ADECCO

Roadside art work

Luck plays a very important role in bike racing. When it's not on your side, it can wreak havoc on everything. It's my belief that today, bad luck cost CSC-Tiscali the victory in the team time trial and Laurent Jalabert the yellow jersey. We were leading the race through the first two time splits at 20km and40km. Then fate intervened, and Michael Sandstod flatted. Our team's radios weren't working well at that moment, and we didn't know what happened to him right away. So as he slowed to a stop, we powered on. And pulled away. Finally, Bjarne reached us over the radio and told us to slow

Advanced flower arranging for bike fans.

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson is at the Tour de France and is taking time to shoot not just the race, but also the scenes along the road and the activity just outside of the peloton.

Team support by the glass

Invitations come in different forms and shapes on the Tour de France, depending on the region it might be visiting. In the Champagne region where the Tour passed through yesterday and today, they came as empty champagne flutes. “Take this monsieur,” said a smiling hostess at Chateau-Thierry in the department of the Marne where today's 67.5km fourth stage time trial from Epernay finished. Passing me a flute engraved with `Les champagne des Vigneron', she informed explained that from 6pm it will gain entry to a free swill of bubbly. Here we go again, I thought. Another town. Another drink.

A new stage finish, new customs and new rules.

1. Robbie McEwen (Aus), Lotto-Adecco, 174.5km in 4hr 13 min 37sec(average: 41.283 kph) 2. Erik Zabel (G), Telekom 3. Baden Cooke (Aus), FDJeux.com 4. Andrej Hauptman (Slo), Taconi Sport 5. Fabio Baldato (I), Fassa Bortolo 6. Paolo Bossoni (I), Taconi Sport 7. Jaan Kirsipuu (Est), Ag2R Prevoyance 8. Francois Simon (F), Bonjour 9. Jan Svorada (Cz), Lampre-Daikin 10. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), Credit Agricole 11. Jose Enrique Gutierrez (Sp), Kelme-Costa Blanca 12. Oscar Freire (Sp), Mapei 13. Laurent Brochard (F), Jean Delatour 14. Luciano Pagliarini (Brz), Lampre-Daikin 15. Karsten Kroon (Nl),

Gonzalez de Galdeano - First Spaniard since Indurain to wear the yellow jersey.

ONCE - Tops when it counted.

Lance fans in Metz...

Stuart O'Grady was involved in something of a health scare during the third stage of the Tour de France here Tuesday which left the Credit Agricole rider with an accelerated heart rate of 235 beats per minute. The 28-year-old Australian, who has in the past had a history of brief and spontaneous, accelerated heartbeats, was forced to call for help from his team car near the end of the 174.5km stage from Metz to here. Surprisingly O'Grady recovered in time to contest the closing sprint and finished the stage in 10th position, but the fact the heart scare has resurfaced - the last time it

... Lance fans on the road. (It's a 1943 Dodge Command Car, in case you're wondering.)

Okay, Okay, Okay. Enough already. Now, we've had our three bad days, which, for the superstitious among you, should mean that our bad luck streak is over... I hope. For those of you saw it on TV, Stuey is okay. His heart just misfired for about an hour, being stuck at about 235 bpm. He was light-headed and could barely pedal, which is not good during a bike race. We weren't too sure he should be continuing the race, but this is something that's happened to Stuey before, and apparently isn't quite a life-threatening as it sounds. Nonetheless, you have to hand it to him for finishing. Hope

Durand and Rénier - They were never really alone out there.

Tammy Thomas, a national-team track rider and resident at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, could be barred from bicycle racing for life after allegedly testing positive for the anabolic steroid Norbolethone, according to press reports. The 32-year-old track racer released a statement regarding the lifetime ban, proposed by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. She has asked for a hearing; meanwhile, the agency has declined comment, and the U.S. Olympic Committee has yet to make a formal announcement regarding the test. This is not the first doping controversy surrounding Thomas, who

U.S. Postal's Dan Osipow and Armstrong's Lawyer/Agent Bill Stapelton -- already planning the post-race appearance schedule, no doubt.

According to Lance Armstrong, there are actually 187 guys in the Tour de France, and two 800-pound gorillas. George Hincapie and Vjatcheslav Ekimov are accustomed to filling the roles of Lance’s favorite guardians. They’re not malicious in any way, but they are very good at making sure no harm comes Lance. Fortunately they are also very strong, because the U.S. Postal Service needs as much collective strength as possible for tomorrow’s team time trial. The Postal team is strong enough to have a chance at winning the team time trial. More importantly, Lance has the opportunity to gain time on

Because they could find a field of sunflowers....

It all happens at once on the Tour de France.And ain't it great ... at least when you are an Australian reporteron the Tour de France and have covering today's third stage.Not that the outcome made for a easy day, nor for total joy, thanksto four very sound reasons that made a seemingly boring day so dramatic.Reason 1: The third stage from Metz to Reims was won by an Australianin Robbie McEwen (Lotto) who again beat Germany's Erik Zabel (Telekom).Reason 2: Meanwhile, Stuart O'Grady (Credit Agricole) was undergoinga cardiogram after suffering a tachycardia attack saw his heart beat

News Item: Credit Lyonnais plans to continue its sponsorship.

According to a press release issued on Tuesday by Threshold Sports, organizers of the New York City Cycling Championship, Mario Cipollini will take part in the New York race, August 4. The release states that Cipollini and teammates Mario Scirea and Gabriele Colombo are scheduled to ride the 100km criterium in Manhattan, joining Lance Armstrong and Marty Nothstein on the list of scheduled racers. However, also on Tuesday, in a short statement issued on his Web site, Cipollini announced his imminent retirement from the sport. In a statement titled "I stop here," Cipollini said "the bitterness

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson is at the Tour de France and is taking time to shoot not just the race, but also the scenes along the road and the activity just outside of the peloton.

O'Grady went back to check with his doctor.

Das Gelbe Trikot -- Zabel gets the jersey

Headbangers' Ball -- Durand (right) tries another long escape.

The Telekoms led the chase

Caffeinating under the gaze of Eddy.

Coffee for the staff...

...and coffee for the masses.

Every day at the Tour there is a stage prognostics competition for journalistsand other official race followers sponsored by Sodexho, a hotel and cateringconglomerate. For the past two days, nearly every entry has had one nameat the top of the “betting” slip: Erik Zabel. Each day, the German sprinterhas failed his supporters.After the last-kilometer upset by Rubens Bertogliati on Sunday, it wasworld champion Oscar Freire who won against the odds on Monday. This time,it appeared that Zabel’s Telekom squad had done everything right.The whole team led the chase that brought back the remnants of

The letters page: This morning's mail and a flood of responses

Editor's Note: Aside from having a name that conjures up visionsof a nice refreshing pint, Rupert Guinness is a sports writer for the dailynewspaper The Australian. A former European correspondent for Winningand VeloNews, Guinness will be sending in a daily column from theTour.So you reckon cycling's recent doping problems have soured public interest in the sport? Think again. Judging by the crowds for today's second stage from Luxembourg to Saarbrücken in Germany, the sport's popularity is as high as ever. Especially in Germany despite former Tour champion Jan Ullrich's own doping muddle