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Disgraced French cyclist Richard Virenque has inked a deal to ride for the Belgian Domo team when his doping ban ends next month, his agent told the French wire service AFP on Thursday. The Swiss Cycling Federation (FSC) suspended the five-time Tour de France King of the Mountains for nine months last December after he had admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs. The former Festina rider, who is currently without a team and has not competed for 10 months, will be free to race again in mid-August, in time to compete in the Tour of Spain and finish out the season with Domo. "The

A champion needs more than strength

With the countdown to the Tour de France officially on, we are all thinking about one thing: a three-peat. It suddenly feels as though the spring season has flown by and the big show is about to start. This is usually the time of year when I ask myself, "Man, weren’t we just in Paris?" As I write this, Tiger Woods is battling to capture the U.S. Open and his fifth consecutive major. Seeing a champion like Tiger nine strokes behind heading into the final round reminds us all that there are no sure things in sport. Even unprecedented favorites sometimes face challenges. When it comes down to

Best laid plans

Oscar Freire (Mapei-Quick Step) The former world champion has had a tough time with back and knee problems over the past two years. He looked to be back on form after a stage win at the Tour of Germany in May, but a viral infection had him in the hospital by mid-June, and his team announced that he would be a no-show at the Tour. Floyd Landis, Chris Horner and Chris Wherry (Mercury-Viatel) Along with depriving contenders like Pavel Tonkov and Chann McRae and potential stage winners Gord Fraser, Jans Koerts and Fabrizio Guidi of a spot in the Tour, the non-selection of Mercury also deprived

Final Countdown

Only four men in the 98-year history of the Tour de France have managed to win the race three times in succession: Frenchmen Louison Bobet and Jacques Anquetil, Belgian Eddy Merckx and Spaniard Miguel Induráin. American Lance Armstrong is now attempting to join those four greats of the past. Of the four, you would have thought that the insatiable Merckx would have had the easiest passage to his three in a row. He had won the Tour in 1969 and 1970 by margins of 17:54 and 12:41. Yet, his 1971 ride was the least glorious of his eventual five Tour victories. After wearing the yellow jersey for

A Tour de France contender can do everything right in training, but unless he balances that schedule with the right amount of racing, his chances of success take a nose-dive. In his first two Tour victory seasons, Lance Armstrong got it just right. In 1999, his last event before the Tour was the low-key Route du Sud, where he won the last stage, a summit finish at Plateau de Beilles. Then, last year he won the time trial stage of his last pre-Tour race, the Dauphiné Libéré, in which he helped teammate Tyler Hamilton take the overall. Both these performances boosted Armstrong’s morale

For Colorado native Jonathan Vaughters, the plan was simple enough leading into this year’s Tour de France: Hang on for the first week and a half of the three-week race, and then see how the legs feel. The first indications would likely come on the 10th stage, from Aix-les-Bains to L’Alpe d’Huez, but the stage that really stuck out in Vaughters’s mind would come the following day. "[The Tour] has an uphill time trial for the first time in five or six years, and I’m just keeping my fingers crossed," he said two-and-a-half weeks before the start of the Tour, from his summer home in Spain. "The

Only four men in the 98-year history of the Tour de France have managed to win the race three times in succession: Frenchmen Louison Bobet and Jacques Anquetil, Belgian Eddy Merckx and Spaniard Miguel Induráin. American Lance Armstrong is now attempting to join those four greats of the past. Of the four, you would have thought that the insatiable Merckx would have had the easiest passage to his three in a row. He had won the Tour in 1969 and 1970 by margins of 17:54 and 12:41. Yet, his 1971 ride was the least glorious of his eventual five Tour victories. After wearing the yellow jersey for

Select Company: A third Tour win would put Armstrong among cycling’s greats.

Lance’s perfect race prep

Best laid plans

Bust a Move: Vaughters plans to stay cool until stage 11, then shoot for the podium with a stage win or two.

In pursuit of the threepeat

In pursuit of the threepeat

She started the year not entirely certain if she wanted to be a mountain-bike racer, a road racer or a research immunologist. By early July, the decision turned out to be an easy one. Amber Neben said that even at the beginning of the 2001 season, she suspected that her "strength may be on the road." It's a good bet, however, that the 26-year-old SoBe-HeadShok rider probably surprised even herself when she jumped into the winning break at the U.S. national road race and finished second to Saturn's Kimberly Bruckner. Add to that her sixth place in the time trial and a stellar

Cat 3 in 2000. Pro contract in 2001. Not a bad year.

VeloNews launches 2001 Tour site

There were no major surprises as the U.S. Postal Service team announced its line-up for the upcoming Tour de France. Joining two-time defending champion Lance Armstrong will be three Americans — Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie and Christian Vande Velde; Spaniards Roberto Heras and Jose Luis Rubiera; Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov; Norwegian Steffen Kjaergaard; and Colombian Victor Hugo Pena. The full text of the team’s announcement follows: U.S. POSTAL SERVICE PRO CYCLING TEAM TOUR DE FRANCE TEAM ANNOUNCED Choosing from what he called were 10 valid candidates, the United States Postal Service

Telekom (Germany)

Fassa Bortolo (Italy)

ONCE - Eroski (Spain)

Rabobank (Netherlands)

Vande Velde's back after missing last year.

Ekimov

Hincapie

Cofidis (France)

BigMat-Auber 93 (France)

Bonjour (France)

Sven Montgomery (Swi)Daniel Schnider (Swi)Bradley McGee (Aus)Jimmy Casper (F)Frédéric Guesdon (F)Christophe Mengin (F)Jacky Durand (F)Nicolas Vogondy (F) Country: FranceIn the peloton since: 1997Sponsor: National lotteryBudget: $3.5 millionManager and directeur sportif: Marc MadiotAssistants: Yvon Madiot, Martial Gayant and Franck Pineau

Jean Delatour (France)

Bobby Julich (USA)Jonathan Vaughters (USA)Stuart O'Grady (Aus)Thor Hushovd (N) Jens Voigt (G)Anthony Morin (F)Sébastien Hinault (F)Frédéric Bessy (F)Christopher Jenner (NZ) Country: FranceIn the peloton since: 1998Sponsor: French bankBudget: $4 millionManager and directeur sportif: Roger LegeayDirecteur sportif: Serge BeucherieAssistant: Michel LaurentTrainer: Denis Roux

AG2R (France)

Santiago Blanco (Sp)Vicente Garcia-Acosta (Sp)Eladio JimZénez (Sp)Francisco Mancebo (Sp)Jon Odriozola (Sp)Javier Pascual Rodriguez (Sp)Leonardo Piepoli (I)Denis Menchov (Rus)Tomasz Brozyna (Pl) Country: SpainIn the peloton since: 1990Sponsor: Spanish banking corporationBudget: $4.5 millionGeneral manager: José Miguel EchavarriDirecteurs sportifs: Eusebio Unzue and José Luis Jaimerena

La Française des Jeux

'That's what I'm talkin' about.' Giove said she likes the harsh downhill courses of the West.

Crédit Agricole (France)

Rock star Steve Peat meets the press.

iBanesto.com (Spain)

U.S. Postal Service (U.S.)

Lampre-Daikin (Italy)

Lotto-Adecco (Belgium)

Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spain)

CSC-Tiscali (Denmark)

Domo -Farm Frites (Belgium)

Mapei-Quick Step (Italy)

Kelme-Costa Blanca (Spain)

'I'm fast as hell, man.' Carter explains his skills.

'I'm fast as hell, man.' Carter explains his skills.

Festina (France)

Christophe Moreau (F)Florent Brard (F)Pascal Chanteur (F)Pascal Lino (F)Angel Casero (Sp)Felix Garcia-Casas (Sp)Luis Perez (Sp)Arnaud Pretot (F)Sven Teutenberg (G) Reserve: Carlos Da Cruz (F) Country: FranceIn the peloton since: 1989Sponsor: Manufacturer of watches and chronometersBudget: $3.5 millionEquipment: Specialized bicycles, Campagnolo componentsManager and team director: Juan FernandezDirecteurs sportifs: Yvon Sanquer and Gérard RuéAssistant: Roberto Torres

Florit lived up to her No. 1 plate with her first short-track win.

Florit's win put her in the driver's seat for a repeat series title.

Alexander wins Deer Valley cross-country

ARMSTRONG

JULICH

MILLAR

BOOGERD

Hesjedal used the big ring where others couldn't.

Hesjedal attacked early and never looked back.

Alexander said she only went 80 percent in her winning effort.

Leave start at 11:50 a.m.; rolling start at approx. 11:55 a.m. on the Chaussée de Dinan

Leave start at 1 p.m.; rolling start at approx. 1:10 p.m. on Boulevard John Kennedy

First team starts: 2:10 p.m., then every 5 minutes.

Despite a night having passed, the tension hasn’t dropped, and the images of yesterday continue to dance in our minds, confirming Antoine Blondin’s beautiful proposition: "Three-quarters of a century of existence have sufficed for the Tour de France to create and exalt its own privileged geography. Among the modifications that, from one year to the next, can affect the itinerary, we find the permanence of certain hallowed places. They lend to the race a fourth dimension, situated in time, and contribute to the foundation of a sort of classicism." Needless to say, the classicism passed

Leave start at 12:10 p.m.; rolling start at approx. 12:14 p.m. on D.964.

Simoni, Armstrong and Belli

Leave start at 12:50 p.m.; rolling start at approx. 1:05 p.m. on the Route de Schirmeck.

Camenzind wins

Leave start at 11:40 a.m.; rolling start at approx. 11:47 a.m. on D.13

Armstrong at the finish

Leave start at 12:40 p.m.; rolling start at approx. 12:44 p.m., on the Avenue de l’Armée de l’Est.

Stage 10Leave start at 10:30 a.m., rolling start at approx. 10:40 on the Avenue de Saint-Simond

Stage 11First rider starts 12 p.m., then every two minutes

Stage 12Leave start at 11:55 a.m.; rolling start on N9 at approx. 12:03 p.m.

Leave start at 10:20 a.m.; rolling start on D.117 at 10:22 a.m.