News

Hincapie doing a job of work

There's an old Marx Brothers routine about viaducts and a chicken, but we're not gonna do it here

Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen has been axed from the Danish national team following a disagreement over drug testing, it was announced on Thursday. The director of the Danish Cycling Union (DCU) Jesper Worre told DR1 television station that Rasmussen had received a number of warnings over failing to inform doping authorities over his training whereabouts. "We consider this case with great seriousness and the executive of the DCU decided that Michael will no longer be part of the national team and he was informed of this on June 26," said Worre. The decision means that Rasmussen

Another day in yellow for Rasmussen

Waiting to feed the Discos

Stage 12 - Montpellier - Castres (178.5km)

Hunter hopes his win will spark an uptick in South African cycling

Cadel Evans is already licking his lips over lunch

Stage 12 - Montpellier - Castres (178.5km)

Hunter’s new Super Six

Nah, this isn't the team bus, its the flippin Carlos Sastre Fan Bus!

Hunter takes the win for South Africa and Barloworld

Barloworld relies on an aluminum FSA cockpit; Hunter uses an OS-115 stem and RD-200 bar.

George says hello at the sign in

COURSE: This stage is similar to the one from Narbonne to Toulouse in 2003 that went to the Spanish racer Juan AntonioFlecha, who made a late attack from a breakaway group. Look for a repeat on this similar course that heads through the hills on the southern edge of the Massif Central. The Cat. 2 Montée de la Jeante climbs to over 3000 feet and is followed by 40km of winding back roads before the fast 8km run-in to Castres. HISTORY: Just one Tour stage has finished at Castres, in 1991, when Italian Bruno Cenghialta won stage 14 from St. Gaudens out of a seven-man break that fi nished a

Despite the rain, large crowds were a constant throughout the 208km route.

The front Mavic R-SYS is built with 4mm tubular carbon spokes.

Levi has a feed

Welcome To VeloNews.com's coverage of the 2007 Tour de France. Sit back and enjoy the most spectacular bike race in the world with the most comprehensive online coverage presented by VeloNews: The Journal of Competitive Cycling.All Tour de France content is FREE and accessible via the special VeloNews.com Tour de France Web site.Visit the Tour 2007 site now Programming Schedule: ItemDescriptionFrequencySchedule

Well, if you call another 80km not far, then...

The rear uses Zicral spokes on the drive side and carbon on the non-drive side.

VeloNews editorial director John Wilcockson interviews Bradley Wiggins this morning

Results-Stage 111. Robert Hunter (Rsa), Barloworld, 3:47:502. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), CSC, s.t.3. Murilo Fischer (Brz), Liquigas, s.t.4. Filippo Pozzato (I), Liquigas, s.t.5. Alessandro Ballan (I), Lampre-Fondital, s.t.6. Paolo Bossoni (I), Lampre-Fondital, s.t.7. Claudio Corioni (I), Lampre-Fondital, s.t.8. Philippe Gilbert (B), Francaise Des Jeux, s.t.9. William Bonnet (F), Credit Agricole, s.t.10. Kim Kirchen (Lux), T-Mobile, s.t. 11. Markus Fothen (G), Gerolsteiner, s.t.12. Enrico Poitschke (G), Milram, s.t.13. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner, s.t.14. Andrey Kashechkin (Kz), Astana,

All too easy for Discovery's Allan Davis.

Cannondale was the first major manufacturer to take system integration seriously.

Comeback kid Saul Raisin has the green light to return to competition. Raisin received medical clearance this week after undergoing a battery of tests at a hospital in Bordeaux to resume racing some 15 months after he nearly died in a crash at the Circuit de la Sarthe in April, 2007. His comeback race will be the U.S. national time trial championships in September. “I have clearance to race the time trial championships, and depending on how that goes, I might be able to race the road race, too,” Raisin told VeloNews ahead of the start of Thursday’s 11th stage at the Tour de

Don't get the girl! New race leader Gabriele Massaglia (Selle Italia) lets loose with the champers.

Vittoria provides the team with some special tires.

CSC's Jens Voigt was among several German riders who blasted a decision by their country’s two major television channels to stop live coverage of the Tour de France because of news of a positive doping test. ARD and ZDF, two of Germany's leading channels, stopped their live broadcast of the 10th stage from Tallard to Marseille after hearing that T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz had tested positive for testosterone. According to the German cycling federation (BDR), Sinkewitz, who is home recovering after colliding with a spectator on Sunday's stage, had abnormal levels of the male

Astana caught Moreau off guard and he paid dearly for it

Liquigas rider, Pozzato’s Lightweight wheel equipped Super Six.

Although the trio of alpine stages did not determine who will win the Tour de France, the combination did decide who most likely will not. CSC’s Fränk Schleck came to the race to ride support for team captain Carlos Sastre, but also to test his own fate in the high mountains. Schleck see-sawed in high climbing performances, but remains confident in his abilities going into the Pyrenees. After finishing ahead of Sastre on stage 8 in Tignes and moved into fifth overall, the Luxembourger crossed the line on stage 9 in Briançon minutes behind Sastre for a general classification placement of

Schleck is ready to work for Sastre, but doesn't wanted to be counted out as GC player.

Mavic’s Cosmic Carbone Ultimate.

Robert Hunter said he hopes his history making win at the Tour de France on Thursday will result in greater professional opportunities for young riders from South Africa. Hunter became the first African rider to win a stage at the Tour de France when he launched a long, ambitious drive for the finish line which beat Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara and Brazilian Murilo Fischer on the 11th stage. The win was also his Barloworld team’s second victory of this Tour. It was Hunter's biggest career win and comes less than a week after he had come a close second to Norwegian Thor Hushovd in

Astana puts the hammer down

Linus Gerdemann provided a bright moment for T-Mobile

American Dave Zabriskie crossed the finish line in Montpelier alone, 31:26 behind the field. The CSC rider missed the time cut and abandoned the race. Zabriskie has been struggling with knee pain since the Tour began, attributing it to a team-mandated decision to switch shoes during the Giro d’Italia in May. “The pain is in my left knee, the one that was damaged in a car accident [in May 2003],” Zabriskie said. “The screws in there are just too sensitive to change.” Zabriskie had hoped to recover during the flat stages between the Alps and the Pyrenees, but found the pace too

Ho, hum, just another day at the office

Vino' saw an opportunity and took it, sending Astana on the attack in a stiff crosswind

Weather: Sunny, not so hot with highs in the upper 80s, brisk cross/tailwinds. Stage winner: Robbie Hunter survived a mid-race echelon and late-race crash to bolt to his first career Tour stage victory ahead of Fabian Cancellara (CSC). The win is wild-card Barloworld’s second in three days and the first by a South African. Race leader: Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) retained the yellow jersey after finishing 46th with the front pack. Despite splits among the front pack due to a crash in the final two kilometers, all the leading 80 riders were awarded the same time as the winner. Christophe

Voigt and Bennatti working it

Frankie Andreu doing a standup for Versus

With wounds weeping through the stitches on both knees and an elbow, Astana captain Alexandre Vinokourov walks like an injured penguin. Having lost more than 8 minutes on race-leader Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank), Vinokourov sits in 19th place, well outside what many would consider a chance of a podium finish. But has he given up? Hardly. On a hot and blustery stage 11, Vinokourov gave his troops their marching orders when the peloton entered a strong crosswind section about 105km into the 183km stage from Marseille to Montpellier. About 3km after the peloton rolled through the feed zone,

The Bennatti escape

Marcus Burghardt is swarmed by the media about the German TV boycott

You might think our man Casey Gibson felt a bit peckish today, what with all the pictures from the feed zone. Not so, says the man behind the camera: "They gave us the wrong exit for the bypass, and there were a hundred or so Tour vehicles driving around looking for the race. Maddening at first, but then it got funny as at every intersection, there were three or four cars going every which way. None of us found it, but I did manage to get stuck in the traffic jam leaving." Lucky you — you get to see what Casey saw, but without the traffic jam.

Nice horsie

Xavier Florencio get a double feed, and Dave Zabriske keeps an eye on it

"Hotter than hell today," reports Casey Gibson from Stage 10 of the 2007 Tour de France." How hot was it? The ASO folks said the air temperature was 35 Celsius and the road temp' 49C. "That converts to flippin' hot," notes Casey (actually, that converts to 95 in the air and 120 on the road, but we'd say '"flippin' hot" is a fair approximation. Happily, Casey sent back some equally hot pics, and you can find them below.

The GPRS transmission unit.

. . . and a knight from there as well

Results-Stage 10 (Tallard To Marseille)1. Cédric Vasseur (F) Quick Step-Innergetic, 229.5km in 5:20:242. Sandy Casar (R) Francaise Des Jeux, at S.T.3. Michael Albasini (Swi) Liquigas, at S.T.4. Patrice Halgand (F) Credit Agricole, at S.T.5. Jens Voigt (G) CSC, at S.T.6. Staf Scheirlinckx (B) Cofidis , at 0:367. Paolo Bossoni (I) Lampre-Fondital, at 0:368. Marcus Burghardt (G) T-Mobile, at 1:019. Aleksandr Kuschynski (Blr) Liquigas, at 2:3410. Antonio Juan Antonio (Sp) Rabobank, at 2:34 11. Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Milram, at 3:4212. Sébastien Chavanel (F) Francaise Des Jeux, at 10:3613. Tom

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.

Stage 11 - Marseille to Montpellier - (182.5km)

The GPRS unit.

MTB News and Notes: A conversation with Adam Craig

Vasseur takes it

SRM had to refine the profile of the crank mounted gauge to fit the Trek Madone’s new cup-less bottom bracket shell.

Allan Davis gets the sprint...

This Belgian gent is celebrating his 50th year of attending the Tour

Lloyd takes Qinghai Lake lead, Davis takes a hat-trick

Where do those tight closeups come from? Why, from the guys with the 400mm lenses

Lloyd takes Qinghai Lake lead, Davis takes a hat-trick

At 35 degrees C it was bottle after bottle, all day long

Rasmussen retains the leader's jersey

The break heads past the village of Theze

COURSE: This is one of the flattest courses of the entire Tour, skirting the Camargue marshes of the Rhône delta, just north of the Mediterranean coast. This stage has “sprinters” written all over it, especially if the Mistral winds are blowing. The finish loops to an end on the western edge of Montpellier, an ancient city dating back to the 8th century. HISTORY: There have been 25 Tour stage finishes at Montpellier, the latest in 2005, when Robbie McEwen won a tight field sprint after breakaways Chris Horner and Sylvain Chavanel were caught in the finishing straightaway. FAVORITES: A few

A little scenery — the town of Sisteron

A young French fan at the finish

T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz reacted in amazement on Wednesday after he was informed he had failed a doping test as he prepared for the Tour de France last month. The German Cycling Federation (BDR) announced on Wednesday that the 26-year-old's A sample, taken on June 8, had a raised testosterone level and he must now decide if his B sample will be tested. The up and coming rider has been suspended by his team who say that if the B sample confirms the first test then he will be sacked. That news sent shockwaves through the German media, with national TV networks ARD and ZDF

And a little scenery of another kind altogether (no testosterone jokes, please)

'When I was your age, we walked 20 kilometers to see a Tour stage, uphill both ways, in the snow . . .'