News

Robbie Ventura holding the mike for Versus network.

The village departe in one of it's most beautiful settings ever.

COURSE: Following a rest day at Tignes, the favorites will prepare for what should be one of the Tour’s major climbing days. This stage features the Tour’s highest mountain pass, the Col de l’Iseran (9085 feet) right from the start, which is followed by 70km of downhill and flats before the very long ascent via the Col du Télégraphe to the rugged Col du Galibier (8678 feet). After 35km of descending from the Galibier, the 2km climb to the finish in Briançon averages almost 7 percent. HISTORY: No less than 32 Tour stages have finished in Briançon, the most recent in 2005 and 2000. Two years

Gerdemann rode well and remains in second on GC

Stapleton talks about life... before disaster hit T-Mobile on Stage 8.

Stage 8 results1. Michael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, 4:49:402. Iban Mayo (Sp), Saunier Duval-Prodir, at 02:473. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Caisse d’Epargne, at 03:124. Christophe Moreau (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, at 03:135. Frank Schleck (Lux), CSC, at 03:136. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, at 03:137. Andrey Kashechkin (Kz), Astana, at 03:138. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery Channel, at 03:319. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, at 03:3510. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, at 03:3511. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 03:59 12. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, at 03:59 13. Cobo Acebo

O'Grady suffered three broken vertabra, five cracked ribs and a broken scapula.

Stage winner Rasmussen is a picture of concentration.

Just behind the fireworks of the stage-7 breakaway, Discovery Channel quietly placed four riders in the selective, 35-man front group. Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych, Alberto Contador and Vladimir Gusev all cruised in with the Tour’s top climbers. All looked quite comfortable. Leipheimer only needed a few seconds after crossing the line to catch his breath. “It went as planned,” the Californian said. “It was about as many riders over the last climb as I thought. I was thinking maybe a few less. It was a hot day. It was important to eat a lot and drink a lot. The first day of the

Gerdemann hopes to become one of the German greats

"Mountains, finally!" exclaimed ace shooter Casey Gibson as the Tour de France headed for the high country on Saturday. Take a peek.

Leipheimer says the legs are good

Weather: Sunny, warmer, highs in mid 80s, moderate head-crosswinds Stage winner: Tour rookie Linus Gerdemann (T-Mobile) joined a 15-man breakaway and bridged out to the attacking Dmitriy Fofonov (Crédit Agricole) on the day’s final climb on the Colombière. He counterattacked with 7km to go and soloed in 40 seconds ahead of the chasing Iñigo Landaluze (Euskaltel). Race leader: Gerdemann moved from 20th into the maillot jaune, the 12th German to wear the leader’s jersey. Gerdemann is now 1:24 ahead of Landaluze as five riders from the day’s breakaway moved atop the leaderboard. Fabian

Michael Rogers and a very close Ivan Parro on the descent at 40-plus mph

Stage 8 - Le Grand Bornand to Tignes - (165km)

Stapleton took a risk bringing the young German to this Tour — and it paid off

Stage 8 - Le Grand Bornand to Tignes - (165km)

The Alps loom over the road to Le Grand Bornand

Gerdemann wins the first Alpine stage and claims the yellow jersey

The most incredible bike sculpture ever — at least 100 bikes, strung from cranes 200 feet in the air

Your new race leader

The village of Copponex went all out, and had a huge festival on the third climb for Bastille Day

Cardenas: Back in the bigs

Cadel Evans interviewed at the start

Cavendish is headed home, but he'll be back

Fairies on stilts and the Arc de Triomph in Copponex

The UCI weighs in for the first alpine stage

Stage winner young Mr Gerdemann on the descent off the Colombiere

Race leader Cancellara traded his yellow collar for a blue one today

Chris Horner has a chat with our own Neal Rogers

COURSE: This second alpine stage has an unusual, and tough, ending with three long climbs: one 20km (the two-part Cormet de Roselend, one 15km (up to Hauteville on the Petit St. Bernard pass),and a final one for 18km (the first part of the ascent to Val d’Isère followedby 10km of climbing out of the valley to Tignes). The last 2km are flat before the finish line. The final two climbs aren’t particularly steep, but that was the case with the 2006 Tour’s summit finish at Pla de Beret, and it proved very decisive. HISTORY: This is the first time a stage has finished at the alpine ski resort

Gerdemann and Fofonov grinding away off the front

Those darn sunflowers — they're everywhere

Stage 7 results1. Linus Gerdemann (G), T-Mobile, 4:53:132. Inigo Landaluze (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 0:403. David de la Fuente (Sp), Saunier Duval-Prodir, at 1:394. Juan Mauricio Soler Hernandez (Col), Barloworld, at 2:145. Laurent Lefevre (F), Bouygues Telecom, at 2:216. Fabian Wegmann (G), Gerolsteiner, at 3:327. Manuel Juan Manuel (Sp), Quick Step-Innergetic, at 3:388. Xavier Florencio (Sp), Bouygues Telecom, same time9. Christophe Moreau (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, s.t.10. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Caisse D’Epargne, s.t. 11. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Caisse D’Epargne, s.t.12. Tadej Valjavec

Gerdemann goes it alone

A banged-up Noval heads for the barn

Felix Cardenas is back at the Tour de France after nearly disappearing off the peloton map. The 34-year-old Colombian climber is back in cycling’s bigs after bouncing around Spanish teams before joining Barloworld in 2005. The team finally got a Tour berth this season and he’s ready to make the most of it. “It’s good to be back to the Tour,” Cardenas told VeloNews before the start of Saturday’s stage. “I’ve only been to one Tour and I won a stage, so I hope to keep the streak alive this year.” After Cardenas won a Tour stage while with Kelme in 2001 at Plateau de Bonascre, he bounced

Hincapie was gapped on the big hill

The peloton cruises through the trees

German cycling has been on the ropes for the past year. First it was Jan Ullrich and his links to notorious Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and Operación Puerto, revealed a day before the start of the 2006 Tour. Then there was the avalanche of doping confessions earlier this summer from a generation of current and former pros such as Erik Zabel, Udo Bölts, Rolf Aldag, Christian Henn and Jörg Jaksche. Linus Gerdemann and his Boy Scout image is just what crippled German cycling needs. Gerdemann presents a modern, yet cleaner image, and he’s not shy about talking about cycling’s doping past

Rabobank chases

After the first day in the mountains, T-Mobile riders sit at the very top and the very bottom of the 2007 Tour de France general classification. In between 24-year-old stage winner Linus Gerdemann and 22-year-old lanterne rouge Mark Cavendish sits team captain Michael Rogers, who at 27 is aiming to climb on the podium in Paris. Rogers and teammate Kim Kirchen finished stage 7 in the selective main front group of 35, which came in 3:38 behind Gerdemann. Immediately after Gerdemann’s win — which also saw the team overtake CSC for the lead in the team competition — the T-Mobile camp hadn’t yet

Likewise Caisse d'Epargne

Yellow-jersey contender Alexandre Vinokourov will continue the Tour de France despite enduring a painful day in the saddle, his team manager said Friday. However, Astana team manager Marc Biver admitted that Vino’ and his injured co-leader Andreas Klöden will suffer in the Alps this weekend. Both riders were injured in separate spills on Thursday's crash-marred fifth stage, Klöden sustaining a hairline fracture to his tailbone and Vinokourov receiving 30 stitches to cuts on his knees. The pair finished Friday's sixth stage, although Klöden hobbled into the team bus afterwards

Cancellara finished with the bunch to keep his jersey, but it's almost certainly a goner tomorrow as the race hits the Alps

Once Wiggins is reeled in, the sprinters' teams take over.

Friday the 13th at the Tour de France showered a mixed bag of fate on the 183 riders who began the sixth stage. Some crashed, others suffered through the heat with injuries, but most had uneventful rides. One declared the supposedly ill-omened day downright lucky. Before and after the 200km stage, riders expressed a similarly wide range of beliefs on the date. Steven De Jongh (Quick Step-Innergetic) was among those in the mildly superstitious camp. “With number 13 I have had some very bad crashes,” the Belgian said at the start. “So I will be very careful today.” Whenever De Jongh receives

Vino' is somewhat the worse for wear

Boonen moves back into the green jersey

Germany’s veteran sprinter Erik Zabel (Milram) had not one but two Tour de France green jerseys taken from him Friday before stage 6 even finished. He lost the first — his overall best sprinter title from 1996 — when Tour de France authorities announced they were revoking it because of Zabel’s admission this May to use of the banned blood-booster EPO that year. He lost the second — the current green jersey of the 2007 Tour de France sprint competition — on the road today after Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) scored points at two intermediate sprints and the final to overtake him in the

Wiggins rides that long, lonely road

And everyone is happy

Weather: Sunny, warmer, highs in mid 80s, moderate head-crosswinds. Stage winner: Tom Boonen (QuickStep-Innergetic) ended a two-year Tour dry spell dating back to stage three of the 2005 Tour to win his fifth career stage in a wild sprint. With a brisk headwind and a slow average speed (37.291kph), everyone thought they had a chance. Boonen had to restart his sprint with about 150m to go and held off Oscar Freire (Rabobank), second for the second day in a row. Race leader: Fabian Cancellara (CSC) enjoyed his sixth day and what will likely be his final day in the race leader’s jersey. The

T-Mobile on the hunt

Boonen’s new Specialized Tarmac SL2, just got its first .

Cofidis rider Bradley Wiggins made no secret that he was disappointed after finishing fourth in the Tour de France’s opening prologue in London. The reigning world and Olympic track pursuit champion — and an outspoken critic of doping in cycling — had set his season around winning in London, on streets he rode as a teenager. Earlier this year, Wiggins even set out to test out the course at 3 a.m., to get the feel of the route with the fewest numbers of cars on the course. He showed he was on form by winning the prologue of the Dauphiné Libéré in June. But when Wiggins crossed the finish

CSC chips in

We’re not going to argue with the name on the top tube.

Benjamin Noval vows to fight on despite a horrible crash in Thursday’s stage when he smashed into a car window that Discovery Channel officials say was the fault of an inattentive Bouygues Telecom sport director. The 28-year-old Spanish rider barreled into the back of a Bouygues Telecom team car Thursday after coming off the day’s final climb in the harrowing, eight-climb stage and suffered horrible cuts to his right arm and chin. Noval gutted it through Friday’s 199.5km sixth stage with his arms, hand, chin and leg wrapped in gauze and bandages. “It was a really hard stage. The first

The peloton

The new fork and front triangle promise to be much stiffer.

A long, hot day punctuated by a 190-kilometer solo effort by Cofids's Bradley Wiggins and our man Casey Gibson was there to capture it for history.

The obligatory arty shot

And the rear promises more compliance.

Stage 7 - Bourg-en-Bresse to Le Grand Bornand - (197.5km)

A long, long, long day

Tom’s favorite shape, Rolls; this one is on his TT bike.

Stage 7 - Bourg-en-Bresse to Le Grand Bornand - (197.5km)

Noval: All wrapped up and ready to roll

That’s a long stem.

Boonen gets it

In his own little universe. The TDF brings out all kinds of unusual media types. I think this guy is filming himself, or maybe has video feedback of what he is seeing... maybe he's watching an old Al Franken schtick on Saturday Night Live.

The white dot ensures proper positioning.

British champ Tom Simpson

Big crowds at the start

Someone else’s bar is under there.

The monument in his memory, erected on the spot where he died

Peloton makes a nice scenic as they cross a canal early in the race.

Don't look back, Bradley old boy — something may be gaining on you