Fabian Cancellara ticked along like a fine Swiss timepiece during the prologue of the 2007 Tour de France in London on Sunday, and our man Casey Gibson was on hand to watch. (Yeah, yeah... We know, it's a horrible gag, we know, but the pictures he sent back more than make up for it.)
Hincapie rounded out the podium in third, but he wasn't happy about it
Zabriskie flying through the turn in front of Buckingham palace.
There were few teams more emotional - and rightly so - after the Tour de France prologue on Saturday than CSC. Indirectly forced to leave their emblematic manager Bjarne Riis at home because of his recent admission to doping in the 1990s, the determined Danish outfit was given a quick scare when top rider Stuart O'Grady came crashing down during his promising prologue performance. O'Grady got back up and finished on a spare bike, and after some medical care was given the all clear to keep on racing — albeit with a scraped back and a sore thigh muscle, which he should feel for the
And the big Swiss time machine dons the first yellow jersey of this year's Tour
Cancellara on a Friday shake-down ride.
TourTech: A matter of timing - Those little transponders
Wiggins said he left it all out there on the road
The cockpit of Cancellara’s backup bike.
Millar’s custom prologue-specific Scott Plasma.
Millar said he was happy with his performance, considering his condition
FSA’s new Neo Pro MegaExo time-trial crank.
No doubt about who owns this one.
Zabriskie just missed the top 10, finishing 11th at 9:22
Selle Italia’s custom time-trial saddle.
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
George can still make the ladies smile.
Leipheimer’s bike on Thursday — illegal.
One of the charming local residences the race will pass by.
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
This guy on the rooftop was not photographing cyclists, a reminder of what else is in the news in London this week.
Pre-prologue rule 'clarification' sends mechanics scrambling
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
A young fan waves a flag in support of
Gusev’s bike had yet to be changed and was still illegal, as Discovery mechanics interpreted the rule.
Prologue - London, 7.9km
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
Cadel Evans rolls onto the stage to big cheers. Aussies very popular here.
The UCI’s bike schematics that supposedly help clarify the TT position problems.
No yellow jersey, no No.1, but Pereiro will be the last out of the start house on Saturday
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
Prudhomme and Mayor Livingstone in front of the London banner.
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
Discovery Channel team on stage.
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
The Sherlock Holmes pub just outside Trafalgar Square is rocking, just a half block from the opening ceremonies.
COURSE: The prologue starts in theheart of London, goes past Downing Street (residence of Britain’s PrimeMinister), the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey to BuckinghamPalace (residence of Queen Elizabeth II). The course then climbs Constitution Hill, passes through Wellington Arch and loops around The Serpentine, a lake in Hyde Park, before heading back downhill to the Victoria Memorial and to the finish on The Mall, London’s grandest avenue, with Buckingham Palace as the backdrop. HISTORY: This is the first timethat the Tour has started in London, although the race has visited
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
The sun is finally out on the River Thames, and it looks great!
Enrico Degano – an Italian on the Barloworld wild-card team – will be the first rider out of the gate in Saturday’s prologue start to the 94th Tour de France. Degano will role down the start ramp at 3 p.m. London time in the 7.9km course through the heart of downtown London past such landmarks as Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. The 189-rider start list was released Friday ahead of the traditional prologue, with last year’s runner-up, Oscar Pereiro, starting last at 6:08 p.m. Pereiro snagged the No. 11 start bib after Tour officials decided to not award the traditional No.
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
The smiles quickly faded as reporters continued to ask doping questions.
Negotiating the trash trail
Predictor-Lotto’s Cadel Evans and T-Mobile's Michael Rogers are leading a two-pronged Aussie bid for top finishes in the race's general classification, with Evans considered the best bet for success. The soft-spoken former mountain biker last year became Australia's highest-ever overall finisher when he came in fifth overall. Rogers placed a respectable 10th - although both he and Evans could be moved up a notch if American champion Floyd Landis is eventually disqualified for doping following his positive test for a skewed testosterone-epitestosterone ratio. In the meantime,
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
Pereiro says it's been hard to concentrate on riding lately
The scenery was gorgeous, if you had time to look
Sympathy is not something Predictor-Lotto’s Robbie McEwen is usually known to offer his rivals. But on Thursday the Australian sprinter admitted he felt sorry for one of his main rivals, Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi. But in almost the same breath McEwen called for glorious sporting achievements at this year’s Tour de France to replace months of lurid headlines about doping in cycling. Petacchi, who faces a one-year ban for an unusually high level of salbutamol during the Giro d'Italia, will not race the Tour this year. He also missed last year’s edition due to a knee
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
The crowd takes in the TDF video on big screens above Trafalgar Square.
The course traveled up the Cheakamus Canyon.
David Millar hopes his tortured past and uncertain present doesn’t spell demise for his immediate future. The Scot is battling ghosts of his doping past and suffering through pangs of doubt over his form at the eve of the most important race of his career. The repentant Saunier Duval-Prodir rider - who served a two-year ban for taking banned performance-enhancing products before returning to competition in 2006 – admitted he’s not at his best ahead of the 7.9km prologue to put the Tour de France into gear Saturday. “I’m riddled with self-doubt. I don’t have the same confidence I normally
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
Tour director Christian Prudhomme and London Mayor Ken Livingstone address the crowd.
A classic day of B.C. riding.
Despite rumors that Americans Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong were to attend this weekend’s start of the Tour de France, neither is expected to show up. Landis is in the U.S. on a tour promoting his new book, “Positively False,” and is refusing interview requests from cycling media. He also is awaiting a ruling on charges that he doped en route to winning last year’s Tour. A decision from the three-member arbitration panel is expected in the coming weeks. Discovery Channel officials confirmed that Armstrong will not be in London this weekend.
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
David Millar is happy to be home, but nervous about performing well.
The final base camp.
Spanish riders Oscar Pereiro and Alejandro Valverde outright refused to answer questions about Operación Puerto in face of heated queries from journalists during a tense press conference Friday. Despite a request from team manager Eusebio Unzue that journalists only ask queries about sport, one German journalist directly challenged Valverde to comment on a document from the Puerto files that allegedly made inferences to “Piti,” a code name that some insist could link Valverde to the Spanish doping scandal. When Valverde stoically refused, journalists yelled out, “Answer the question – it’s
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
Levi models the new kit.
The rule now hinges on the angle of the extension and the rider’s arm. Sastre is okay.
The 2007 world road race championships, scheduled for Stuttgart in September, could be called off due to the wave of doping scandals hitting cycling, a German government minister has warned. "The world championships in Stuttgart are in a critical situation and it's not inconceivable that the organizing committee will have to reconsider everything," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble was quoted as saying in Saturday's edition of Tagesspiegel. "Perhaps we'll have to reach the conclusion that a spectacular cancellation (of the championships) would herald the new start cycling
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
Hincapie is wearing his own kit.
Vande Velde and his “bike shop” bars.
The Tour de France is ready to roll on Saturday afternoon in London, but on Friday night riders and fans celebrated the coming three-week spectacular with a formal opening ceremony in Trafalgar Square. Our man Casey Gibson was on the scene.
Pereiro will start with bib No. 11
After, and ready to go.
Bruyneel would like to get back to winning the Tour.
CSC director Bjarne Riis announced on Thursday he will not be present to follow his riders during this year's Tour. In May the 43-year-old Dane admitted to doping during his career, notably during his 1996 Tour de France victory. He was subsequently stripped of the title last month by Tour officials. Riis took the decision to sit out the Tour following criticism by former German CSC rider Jorg Jaksche during an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel. Jaksche told Der Spiegel he used performance enhancing drugs during his spell with the CSC team in 2004 and that the Danish
Freire is plagued by an old problem.