News

Stage 4 - Tours to Blois (TTT) - 67.5km

The guys from Gerolsteiner did better than last year, but...

Discovery charges to the stage win and another yellow jersey for Armstrong

CSC battling to win the stage and keep the jersey . . .

Is Lance doing Bogey or the Duke?

Discovery riding hard to take both away

A heart-breaking end to a great run in yellow.

Zabriskie gave it his all before crashing in the final 2km

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

Another religious experience entirely

Rolling along

'War of the Worlds' extras? Nah, just French TV

Dekker, going up

Julich, too

Dekker rode himself into the climber's jersey

Course: Most of this fairly long stage (212.5km) takes the back roads of the Vendée region before heading northeast to the Loire Valley. The race passes some of the region’s famed châteaux, including the 11th century Chinon and 16th century Azay-le-Rideau. The final 30km are full of twists and turns until reaching the 3km-long Avenue de Grammont, which hosts the finish of theParis-Tours classic every fall. History: Despite its permanent place in classics history, the town of Tours has seen only six Tour stage finishes. The last was in 2000, when Dutchman Leon Van Bon brought home a small

The day's escape formed up at 27km

It was Tom Boonen's day at the 2005 Tour de France -again. Still, even after the Belgian sprinter blasted away his rivals to win the 212.5km third stage from La Chataignerie to Tours in the Loire Valley, his back-to-back victory was not the talk of the Tour. Instead, it was the fireworks that erupted between two of the tightly packed speeding bunch he left in his wake - Australians Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Davitamon) and Stuart O'Grady (Cofidis), who were third and fourth across the line behind Boonen and Austrian Peter Wrölich (Gerolsteiner). While Boonen had space to rent behind him

CSC did what it had to to protect their jersey

STAGE 3 RESULTS1. Tom Boonen (B), Quickstep, 4:36:092. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner, 00:003. Stuart O’Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 00:004. Bernhard Eisel (A), Francaise des Jeux, 00:005. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros, 00:006. Robert FÖrster (G), Gerolsteiner, 00:007. Magnus Backstedt (Swe), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:008. Anthony Geslin (F), Bouygues Telecom, 00:009. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:0010. Angelo Furlan (I), Domina Vacanze, 00:00 11. Isaac Galvez (Sp), Illes Balears, 00:0012. Guido Trenti (USA), Quickstep, 00:0013. Gianluca Bortolami (I), Lampre, 00:0014. Luciano Pagliarini

Lotto in pursuit

Floyd Landis was one of Lance Armstrong’s strongest teammates last year, but now he’s on the Texan’s enemies list as he lines up as one of the team leaders with Phonak. Landis, 29, had an acrimonious split with Armstrong after leaving Discovery Channel last fall to take his own chances as a team leader with Phonak. “The most critical reason for my decision to leave Postal was for my own opportunities,” Landis told reporters before the start. “If I was here for Discovery, I would be working for Lance and that would be it. So I decided it was now or never.” Once close teammates during

Boonen wins again

Our guy Casey Gibson found himself celebrating the Fourth of July by getting caught in traffic on Monday, but he still managed to send a few photos rocketing back to the land of the free.

... but no ten-day run for Voeckler this year.

Quite a day, today… I’ve finished in Tours before – Paris-Tours a few times, for example – and I really like this finish: Wide open streets and lots of room to fight out the sprint. It’s just things didn’t quite work out like we had planned. My job today was supposed to be lead-out man for (Luciano) Pagliarini, but coming into to Tours, we didn’t actually find each other in the peloton. That’s not all that unusual, especially when things are as chaotic as they are in this Tour. There really is no single team keeping things under control in the sprints. Without Petacchi here, Fassa Bortolo

Fedrigo and the rest of the Bouyges Telecom crew did what they could...

Boonen wins his second consecutive stage

McEwen gets a little too physical with O'Grady

Zabriskie in yellow, anticipating Tuesday's team time trial

Anyone else seeing spots before their eyes?

Whether your preference is for Tom Boonen's legs or a podium girl's smile, our man Casey Gibson was on the job in France on Sunday, collecting images of the 2005 Tour. Here's what he sent home.

Armstrong had the points jersey on Sunday.

Tom Boonen may have won this Tour’s first ferocious sprint on Sunday, but don’t expect the tall Belgian to continue winning stages this week in the manner perfected by Mario Cipollini in the 1990s and Alessandro Petacchi in more recent years. That’s because Boonen won the stage into Les Essarts despite not having an organized lead-out train. The team that did its best to set up a strong paceline on the run-in was Baden Cooke’s Française des Jeux squad; but the French team’s efforts fell far short of guiding Cooke into a winning position. The twisting run-in and a sharp left turn into a

LivingStrong in the Vendée

Good things take a long time comingSix years after Matt White was first denied his chance to ride in the Tour de France, the Australian finally made it to the start line of the world's biggest bike race - and he’s done so in one piece. For once White didn't crash. Neither was he left off the team. Nor was his team excluded from the three-week race. In fact, White finished stage one - a 19km time trial from Fromentine to Noirmoutier in 101st place at 2:32 behind American winner, David Zabriskie (CSC). He finished Sunday by placing 153rd in the Tour’s second stage, the 181km leg

The chase was steady, but not frantic

So, here we are again. The Tour kicked off yesterday with what would normally be a perfect time-trial course for a guy like me: a pan-flat, straight shot to the finish line. But it takes me a few days to “find my legs” in a big tour, and I had what you could only call a day that wasn’t all that bad, but wasn’t all that great either. It’s difficult for me, usually, the first few days. You spend so much time getting ready, training like mad, and then you have a couple of days that throw you off a bit, with travel, medical controls, the presentation and all. It’s tough to get back into the

Zabriskie had plenty of support around him

Boonen celebrates

Boonen blows 'em away . . .

Crunching the numbers

. . . and here's what he did the job with

Why is Voeckler smiling? The polka-dot jersey may have something to do with it . . .

. . . or maybe it was something (or someone) else

Lance has a colorful jersey of his own, though it's not his favorite color

That one still belongs to Zabriskie

Four minutes, but little more. Nonetheless, the break lasted for nearly 150km.

Course: After heading out for 12km to the Atlantic coast, the course parallels the seashore for the next 93km, passing through yachting towns like Les Sables-d’Olonne. On leaving Aiguillon-sur- Mer, the final 75km returns inland, often on narrow, twisting back roads, dipping in and out of low valleys. Crashes are a high risk on the run-in to the town of Les Essarts (population: 5100), where there is a short finishing straight. History: A stage has never finished at Les Essarts. When the Vendée region last hosted the opening stages six years ago, a similar stage finished in Challans, where

Another day in yellow

The Dave Zabriskie Show came to the Tour de France on Sunday, momentarily diverting the cameras away from Lance Armstrong and the other big stars in the Tour’s stage 2. And the European media, getting their first taste of Dave Z’s quirky sense of humor, didn’t know quite what to make of it — especially when he dead-panned to French television on how his first day went in the yellow jersey. “How did I spend it? Racing bikes,” said the 26-year-old CSC rider said with a sardonic smile. Zabriskie enjoyed the view from the front of the peloton during most of Sunday’s 181.5km stage across

Boonen wants the points jersey this year.

Dave Zabriskie didn’t quite know what to make of all the fuss. Sure, he became just the third American to wear the yellow jersey in Tour de France history and he beat six-time Tour champ Lance Armstrong to do it, but after all, it’s just a bike race. “I got a massage, had dinner, read a little, then went to sleep,” was how Zabriskie described his first evening in yellow. “Yeah, we had a little champagne.” Sunday morning, Zabriskie got the full yellow-jersey treatment, with dozens of photographers and reporters waiting outside the team bus. Team CSC riders huddled inside the bus for

Zabriskie fields questions from the press.

Stage 2 Results1. Tom Boonen (B), Quickstep, 3:51:312. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:003. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 00:004. Stuart O’Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 00:005. Luciano Pagliarini (BRA), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:006. Juan Antonio Flecha (Sp), Fassa Bortolo, 00:007. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner, 00:008. Pineau Jérôme (F), Bouygues Telecom, 00:009. Baden Cooke (Aus), Francaise des Jeux, 00:0010. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros, 00:00 11. Manuel Quinziato (I), Saunier Duval, 00:0012. Robert Hunter (RSA), Phonak, 00:0013. Inaki Isasi (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:0014.

CSC tooks its leadership duties seriously

Fred Rodriguez will be Robbie McEwen’s top lead-out man in the hunt for stage wins in the mass sprints, and that’s just fine by him. “Fast Freddy” believes his chances will come in what’s his fifth Tour de France start. “I’ll be mostly working for Robbie,” Rodriguez told VeloNews. “I think in the second half of the Tour there will be some chances for me, on the courses that are a little more selective, when maybe some of the bigger guys will have some trouble getting through.” The Californian said working for other sprinters is something he’s used to. In his 2000 Tour debut with Mapei, he

T-Mobile has another serious threat in Vinokourov

Stage 1 - results1. David Zabriskie (USA), CSC, 19km in 20:51 (54.676kph)2. Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, at 00:023. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), T-Mobile, at 00:534. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, at 00:575. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun), Credit Agricole, at 00:596. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, at 1:027. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), Fassa Bortolo, at 1:028. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, at 1:049. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Illes Balears, at 1:0510. Igor Gonzalez Galdeano (Sp), Liberty Seguros, at 1:06 11. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, at 1:0712. Jan Ullrich (G), T-Mobile, at 1:0813. Jose Enrique

The Lampre-Caffita bikes sport a third brake lever, like Zabriskie's

In his interview with L’Equipe at the end of last year, Walter Godefroot acknowleged that he “had been forced to think commercially” in holding onto Jan Ullrich as a captain, even though Andreas Klöden was clearly the stronger man. Ullrich is the marketing front of the T-Mobile corporation, the most popular German cyclist ever. So despite the fact that Klöden was second in last year’s Tour and that Alexandre Vinokourov was having a superb spring campaign, Ullrich has been relentlessly sold to the German public as Lance Armstrong’s main challenger and the undisputed number one at T-Mobile. It

Um, now, about that wheel fairing . . .

Keepers of statistics will love this one. In trouncing his main GC opponents at the opening 19km time trial of the Tour on Saturday, Lance Armstrong raced at precisely 54.545 kph. Sound familiar? Well, yes. When Greg LeMond rode his famous 24.5km time trial between Versailles and Paris at the 1989 Tour, to overcome a 50-second deficit on Laurent Fignon, he raced at precisely 54.545 kph. What’s even more important for Armstrong is that, while conceding the stage win to former teammate Dave Zabriskie by two seconds, he defeated third-place Alexandre Vinokourov by 51 seconds, Floyd Landis by

A little detail on that brake lever.

Hello,Well, I had planned to start this Tour with a good result early on, and frankly, as I rode the time trial today, I felt pretty good … until I was caught and passed by Lance. That is not a particularly good feeling, especially on the first stage. I really can’t explain it. Maybe it did have something to do with the crash I had the other day. I did lose some blood, but really, I don’t believe that is the cause. I didn’t feel too bad at all this morning and I felt pretty optimistic about the stage and the Tour in general. Then Lance came flying past me, finishing just two seconds off of

PROF6

Zabriskie en route to victory

Prof7

Photo Files - TDF05

Didi by