News

Gerolsteiner takes a broad stance in the TTT

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission,in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recallof the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalledproducts immediately unless otherwise instructed.Name of product: 2003 Rolf Prima Vigor and Elan Bicycle Wheels(rear wheel only)Units: About 870Manufacturer: Rolf Prima Inc., of Eugene, Ore.Hazard: The rear wheel freehub mechanism can malfunction causingno resistance when pedaling. The bicycle rider could lose balance, falland suffer injuries.Incidents/Injuries: No injuries

Stage 6 - Troy to Nancy > 199km

This could be the start of something ... no, let's not make that joke, please

Former cycling great Rudi Altig has added to the pressure on Jan Ullrich by saying the German is uncommitted in his bid to win back the Tour de France yellow jersey. Ullrich, 31, has come runner-up five times in the Tour de France - which he won in 1997 - and three of those have come behind American Lance Armstrong. Armstrong currently leads the race with more than a minute's advantage over Ullrich ahead of two crucial medium mountain stages this weekend, where the German could - if he's ambitious - try to attack the 33-year-old Texan and upset his plans for a seventh consecutive

Stage 6 - Troy to Nancy > 199km

PRO wheels

Course: Still heading east, this 199km stage finally has someterrain conducive to long breakaways. The day’s four Cat. 4 climbs areevenly spaced, but there are plenty of undulations in between, particularlyin the 40km before the final, and longest, hill — the Côte de Maron— which comes just before the finish. History: There have been 13 stage finishes at Nancy in the past100 years, including wins for Tour champs Fausto Coppi, Louison Bobet,Joop Zoetemelk and Bernard Hinault. The last visit was in 1988, when abreak on the climb before Nancy produced a stage win for German Rolf Gölz(now a

Lance gets weighed in with champagne at the start.

Okay, who slipped the Lawrence Welk into my iPod's playlist?

Our man Casey Gibson, ever the master of understatement, noted after Thursday's soggy stage to Nancy: "Rain makes things a little exciting at the end, eh?" No kidding – especially if you're Christophe Mengin (Française des Jeux), who was lookin' good until that final corner. Happily, Casey kept upright, and here's the upshot.

Boonen and McEwen roll in together after Mengin laid it down

London bombings won’t change Tour securityNews of the terrorist bomb attacks in London shocked the Tour de France entourage - as it did the world. In memory of those killed and injured, the peloton will observe a minute's silence before the start of Friday's seventh stage, the 228.5km leg from Lunéville to Karlsruhe in Germany. While the terrorist alert level in France was escalated to the red on Thursday, it appears that security at the Tour de France is already quite high and there is little the Tour can do to make it tighter. While representatives of the Garde Republicaine

Lance on the front of the peloton early in the race, just outside Troyes

“Die Tour Kommt!” (The Tour is coming!) is the message that has been plastered across billboards in the German city of Karlsruhe for the past several months. Expect most of the city’s 300,000 people to be at the roadside Friday afternoon, along with perhaps three times that number from neighboring cities in the heavily populated valley of the Rhine. The last two times that a Tour de France stage finished in Germany (Saarbrücken in 2003 and Freiburg in 2000), crowd numbers were astronomical. They will be just as big on Friday when the final 40km of the stage are run on German roads, with the

Lance attacks and Vinokorov follows

That a bicycle race can bring out millions of fans to line rural roads and jam up the boulevards of a finishing town is actually a relatively recent phenomenon in Germany. Cycling enthusiasm did spike – albeit briefly – in Germany when Didi Thurau, the "angel face" from Frankfurt, wore the maillot jaune for 15 days in the 1977 Tour de France. But German interest faded as Thurau’s career derailed through doping scandals and fans saw a remarkable talent wasted on too much racing for quick money. Instead, in the 1980s and ‘90s, Germans returned to what they knew best: soccer. But the passion –

Floyd rolls into the start, looking relaxed and cool

Well that was quite a finish in Nancy, eh? Thankfully, I missed the mess at the last turn… mostly because I got dropped on the last climb, got back on the descent and decided I didn’t have the legs to contest the sprint anyway, so I stayed back a little, think it was smarter to stay out of that last turn on wet roads. Looking at the book this morning, you could just see that thing would be trouble in wet weather… especially with that crosswalk and all that white paint right on the turn. That stuff always makes things touch-and-go. As soon as it’s raining, it doesn’t really matter if you’re

Mengin on a descent in the rain

Stage 6 - Troy to Nancy > 199km

Peloton in fields near Troyes

Survivor: Bernucci celebrates his luck... and his first win as a professional

Bernucci charges through the final corner with the first win of his career

Oh the heartbreak

Vinokourov in the final corner, driving for the line and precious seconds on Armstrong

Armstrong adds another jersey to his collection

Despite the aches of Tuesday's crash (and the loss of the yellow jersey) Zabriskie manages a smile

Levi, Gerolsteiner and that darn clock thing

A beautiful start for a fast finish

Course: This stage has one of the event’s most beautiful stagingareas. Chambord is the largest of the Loire châteaux and one of world’sfinest Renaissance buildings. The stage is on rolling roads that generallyhead eastward, with crosswinds likely on a 40km stretch next to the LoireRiver before a final with-the-wind swoop into Montargis. History: The Tour has only once ended a stage in Montargis, in1969, when it was the terminus of a giant 10-hour, 330km slog from Clermont-Ferrand on the penultimate day. The winner was Belgium’s Herman Van Springel, who also won that year’s stage over the

Flecha has a go at 20km...

Emotion fuelled the windswept, rain-spattered 183km stage 5 of the Tour de France from Chambord to Montargis on Wednesday - and for a full spectrum of reasons. At the start, we had an almost reluctant overall race leader in American Lance Armstrong (Discovery Channel) not wanting to wear the yellow jersey he felt that, morally, still belonged to Dave Zabriskie of CSC. But it was a gesture the Tour organizers would not allow. Then at the finish, we had an elated stage winner, Australian Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto), championing his vengeance against a race jury that relegated him to last

Ullrich is looking forward to riding into Germany

Stage 5 Results1. Robbie McEwen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 183km in 3:46:00 (48.584kph)2. Tom Boonen (B), Quickstep3. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole4. O’grady Stuart (Aus), Cofidis5. Angelo Furlan (I), Domina Vacanze6. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros7. Bernhard Eisel (A), Francaise des Jeux8. Baden Cooke (Aus), Francaise des Jeux9. Jens Voigt (G), CSC10. Robert Forster (G), Gerolsteiner 11. Nazon Jean-Patrick (F), Ag2r Prevoyance12. Daniele Righi (I), Lampre13. Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz), Domina Vacanze14. Laurent Brochard (F), Bouygues Telecom15. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner16. Daniel

... and soon gets some company...

Suggestions that Lance Armstrong could be showing the first signs of weakness as he bids for a seventh consecutive yellow jersey have been knocked on the head by Tour de France great Raymond Poulidor. Former French cycling ace Laurent Jalabert suggested that Armstrong's facial expression in Tuesday's hard-fought team time trial victory, which handed the American the yellow jersey, appeared to show a chink in his armor. "In the final section of the team time trial there was one thing which struck me," Jalabert wrote in L'Equipe the day after Discovery beat the CSC team by only

... and then there were four.

Dave Zabriskie stepped out of the Team CSC bus to find reporters waiting for him yet again, but this time he wasn’t sporting the yellow jersey. The morning after his painful crash in the closing kilometers of Tuesday’s dramatic team time trial, Zabriskie thankfully was able to push on. “It’s stiff. It’s a little hard to breathe, my knee is painful,” Zabriskie said before the start. “That’s what happens when you fall off.” Much to the relief of his teammates, the smile was back on Zabriskie’s face. He was devastated after costing Team CSC the jersey with his unlucky crash. The team is

... and tells the jury who the winner is today.

Hello,Well, finally we had a day that gave us all a renewed sense of hope! Yesterday’s team trial was exactly what we needed to restore confidence on this team. No, we didn’t win, but finishing 30 seconds off the pace set by Discovery and CSC was better than we had hoped to do. The morning started early for us, as the UCI medical crew came in for the usual checks. We also had a little birthday party for Valerio Piva, our director, before heading off to do a little bit of last-minute training. We got a pleasant surprise, too, when we came across a big organized fan club, with big banners

Discovery had little reason to put in a big effort Wednesday.

It was another busy day for the men of the Tour de France, and for the men of VeloNews, too – while Rupert Guinness and Andrew Hood were scrambling for words, Casey Gibson was scrambling after pictures. Here's a sampler.

Properly dressed, Armstrong gets underway.

After dominating domestic racing for the past three years, Chris Horner earned himself a last-minute spot on the Saunier Duval-Prodir Tour de France team with a solo stage win at the Tour of Switzerland in June. It’s the first time riding the Tour for the 33-year-old from Bend, Oregon, who has missed out on several opportunities in the past due to injury, family obligations and race officials’ questionable team selection criteria. Over the three weeks of the race, VeloNews will check in with Horner when possible to get a first-person perspective from the always-outspoken rider. VeloNews:

The French air defense network? Nah, just a bunch of shooters with some really big lenses

Stage 5 - Chambord to Montargis > 183km

With The Boss in yellow, Discovery clocks in and goes to work

Stage 5 - Chambord to Montargis > 183km

Armstrong and Virenque: 'Hey, Lance, remember me?'

McEwen finally nails one

Boonen tackles a short climb

Armstrong donned the yellow jersey after a squabble with Leblanc

Sprinters to the front, please . . . sprinters to the front, please . . .

McEwen pips a fading Boonen at the line...

Three amigos: Hincapie, Armstrong and Basso

CSC loses its first-ever yellow jersey

Teammate Julich was supportive, saying he'd been superb as race leader

Course: The opening 42km of this team time trial will be flat and fast as the course hugs the left bank of the Loire River. A true test of each team’s homogeneity comes in the final 20km, when half a dozen short climbs will challenge each rider’s stamina before a rapid drop into the city of Blois. History: In a 64km individual time trial from Tours to Blois in 1992, race winner Miguel Induráin averaged 52.349 kph, while the only other time Blois hosted a stage finish (in 1999) Mario Cipollini set the fastest-ever road stage average of 50.355 kph. Maybe in this third-ever Blois stage the TTT

T-Mobile takes third

But once again, there's a new sheriff in town -- the guy who's held the job for six straight years

Bjarne Riis is convinced that his CSC team is going to win Tuesday’s 67.5km team time trial. “I will be upset if we lose,” Riis said on the eve of what is one of the most important tests in this Tour de France. Should CSC win the TTT, it would not only retain the yellow jersey of Dave Zabriskie but also allow team leader Ivan Basso to regain some of the 84 seconds he conceded to defending champion Lance Armstrong in the opening individual time trial. Although Armstrong’s team, now sponsored by Discovery Channel, has won the past two years, there are some question marks against its lineup for

And this is what he rode to get there

The fourth day of the 92nd Tour de France was one of exultation for Lance Armstrong and one of heartbreak for fellow American Dave Zabriskie. The 67.5km team time trial provided another trademark Armstrong moment as he surged into the maillot jaune with panache after his Discovery Channel team won the stage from Tours to Blois in record speed. “It’s always good to have the jersey,” said Armstrong, who led his team across the line with an emphatic bike stab. “It feels nice to win.” For Zabriskie, his dream run in yellow ended in nightmarish fashion. The 26-year-old crashed just 1.5km short

Results - Stage 4 - Team Time Trial1. Discovery Channel Team 67.5km in 1:10:39 (57.324kph)2. Team CSC, 00:023. T-Mobile Team, 00:354. Liberty Seguros - Wurth Team, 00:535. Phonak Hearing Systems, 01:316. Credit Agricole, 01:417. Illes Balears-Caisse D Epargne, 02:058. Gerolsteiner, 02:059. Fassa Bortolo, 02:1910. Liquigas - Bianchi, 02:26 11. Davitamon - Lotto, 02:3212. Rabobank, 02:4813. Domina Vacanze, 03:0414. Quick Step - Innergetic, 03:0515. Bouygues Telecom, 03:0816. Euskaltel - Euskadi, 03:5917. Lampre - Caffita, 04:0918. Cofidis Credit Par Telephone, 04:2819. Francaise Des Jeux,

Near perfection: All nine Discovery reached the finish together.

“Tour de France. Tour de France. Tour de France.” –Kraftwerk These days it takes little more than the first few notes of a trashy Euro techno beat to stoke the inner cycling fire. That’s right, folks, the best three weeks of the year have begun. Of course, the athletes have been preparing for these three weeks the entire year, but it’s the last-minute preparations that had me asking some questions. First, there is Lance’s pre-race prep, which, judging by this photo, included some movie-star impersonations. Whaddya think - is he doing Bogey or the Duke? Then there is Jan Ullrich’s

T-Mobile happy with TTT effort

Considering the way things came out during the opening time trial of the Tour de France last Saturday, the stage 4 team time trial could could have been much worse for the T-Mobile squad on Tuesday. Not only had Jan Ullrich lost 68 seconds to Lance Armstrong in the Stage 1 time trial in Fromentine; no fewer than six of the nine T-Mobile riders, who had each started immediately before a Discovery man, had been reeled in by their pursuers over the course of the 19-kilometer Tour opener. It was, to say the least, a dismal prospect for an event, in which T-Mobile had hoped to set the stage for

Basso's custom crank

With more than 80 riders now at least five minutes behind new race leader Lance Armstrong, there’s a good chance that a breakaway will succeed Wednesday on stage 5 of the Tour de France. That’s the theory, but in a year when the opportunities for field sprints are limited the fast men should again prevail. Going into this 183km stage, QuickStep’s Tom Boonen is two for two in the field sprints, partly thanks to his main rival, Robbie McEwen of Davitamon-Lotto, making a hash of his sprint on stages 2 and 3. McEwen is unlikely to make a mistake a third time running, so expect a much tighter

Armstrong's bars

Jan Ullrich concedes that retirement is not too far away. But the T-Mobile star has discounted suggestions that it will come sooner than later by reaffirming his desire to race the Tour de France next year in Lance Armstrong's absence. In an interview Tuesday with the French sports daily L'Equipe, the 1997 Tour champion said he still wants to win, but doesn’t feel the same pressure he did eight years ago. “This period of my life when the pressure is always there is in the past. I want to live out my life in cycling quietly and in peace,” he said. “Him (Armstrong) leaving will not

Rich's high-risers

Casey Gibson was on the scene as the yellow jersey changed hands on Tuesday, and here's how he saw it: "Boys, we got us a race now." He's a man of few words, but many pictures; check 'em out below.

Fishing cable without internal routing isn't lots of laughs

It was a good ride today. I really think we got 100 percent out of our guys. I was happy with my ride… it’s just the other teams were faster. We actually had a pretty good run today. As I mentioned, I liked that first part: 40 or more kilometers of dead flat road. The last part went better than I expected. Garzelli said he really wanted to lead on the climbs, so we went absolutely flat out on the hills today. It was a hard adjustment to keep that pace over the climbs with Stefano setting the pace, but once over, it all went well. I think all in all it went quite well. Like I said the other

Liberty rode like the ONCE team of old