News

It was a nervous day for the racers, with flats, crashes and rain, and an even busier day for photographer Graham Watson, who sent us these shots from today's action.

By about that much...

Danilo Di Luca has won the Trofeo Matteotti race in central Italy on Sunday, beating Oskar Camenzind and Paolo Bossoni. It was personal revenge for Di Luca ­back in Italy after his undeserved exclusion from the Tour de France and after just missing out in the Italian national championships. The successful day for Team Saeco was completed with the return to racing of Eddy Mazzoleni. He was brought back into the team yesterday after the end of his temporary suspension that followed the start of investigations that also include Danilo Di Luca. “It’s a huge satisfaction for me and for the

Piil and Wauters worked well together... just not well enough.

If there’s one thing you can count on when racing in Belgium, it’s that you’re likely to get rained on. While the roads were dry for a little while this afternoon, it wasn’t long until the peloton was soaked to the skin in cool July rain. Besides staying upright, keeping warm was the most important thing riders needed to remember during Stage 1. Lance and his teammates didn’t pull out the rain jackets because they were afraid of getting a little wet; they wore them to prevent their core temperatures from falling. In a three-week stage race, you never want to burn any more energy than you

Cipo' was in no position to contest the sprint

STAGE 1 July 04 Liège - Charleroi (121.173mi/195km)

Voigt leads the break

STAGE 1 July 04 Liège - Charleroi (121.173mi/195km)

Lunch time

In 1952, Luxemburger Jean Diederich soloed for 120km over the Belgian pavé to win the Roubaix-Namur stage.

Kirsipuu takes a narrow victory

1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), Fassa Bortolo, 06:502. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 00:023. Gutierrez José Ivan (Sp), Illes Balears-Banesto, 00:084. Bradley Mc Gee (Aus), FDJeux.com, 00:095. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Crédit Agricole, 00:106. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Phonak, 00:117. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, 00:118. Christophe Moreau (F), Crédit Agricole, 00:129. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, 00:1210. George Hincapie (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 00:12 11. Gutierrez José Enrique (Sp), Phonak, 00:1412. Angel Vicioso (Sp), Liberty-Seguras, 00:1513. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Rabobank, 00:1514. Carlos

... while Hushovd was next in line, crossing fifth

Photographer Graham Watson's Tour de France got under way today, too. Here's a sampling of what he saw as the 2004 edition took to the streets in Liége, Belgium.

Armstrong's nemesis, Ullrich, conceded 18 seconds to the Texan ...

Not too bad. I did a pretty normal prologue time trial today. I wasn’t all that lucky with the wind and the weather. If you look at the results, it looks like the guys who went off early turned in better times than even some of the big specialists at the end. The guys going off early had a pretty nice tailwind going out, at least to the turnaround, and then we got off after things shifted a bit and it felt like it was either a headwind or a crosswind. I doubt I got 200 meters of tailwind throughout. Still, I have no complaints. It was a reasonable ride and six kilometers doesn’t exactly

... as did former lieutenant Hamilton

LIÉGE - It feels good to have officially startedthe race. The days leading up to the Tour always seem like such chaos.You never stop moving. There is always somewhere to be and some who needsto speak with you. It’s a hectic pace to be keeping when all you reallywant to do is rest. Three long weeks are ahead, so it’s important to maintaina balance.Our camp gathered a little early on Tuesday morning to do some lastminute previewing of the team time trial course together. It’s always abit of a challenge to figure out the order the guys are going to ride in.So it was good to have the chance to

Strong performances by Hincapie and other Posties brought the squad today's team prize

I don’t know that you could have scripted a better scenario for the opening day of the Tour de France. Lance Armstrong had a very good day, put a little daylight between himself and his main rivals, but was beaten by a young man from Switzerland riding his first Tour de France. He delivered the message that he’s prepared for a hard three weeks, but he and the Postal Service don’t have to work to defend the yellow jersey tomorrow. One good day down, 22 to go. A strong prologue performance by a team leader is important in a long stage race. It has a significant psychological effect on the

PROLOGUE July 03 Liège TT (3.728mi/6km)

PROLOGUE July 03 Liège TT (3.728mi/6km)

Cancellara was confident once McGee fell short

It's a Good bike ... it says so, right on the down tube

Keep on truckin'

It ain't pretty, but it works ... or so Gilberto Simoni hopes

Cancellara takes Tour prologue

COURSE: This completely flat course is more technical than lastyear’s prologue in Paris, featuring two virtual dead-stop turns, a trickysection over cobblestones, and a long curving section that is ridden inboth directions. The whole course is on city streets, except for a shortsection on a highway that runs parallel to the Meuse River. FAVORITES: Expect last year’s prologue winner Brad McGee to befavored, especially with the absence of David Millar, while homeboy RikVerbrugghe will also be vying for the honors. Of the GC contenders, LanceArmstrong will want to make a statement with his

Armstrong blazed the course, taking early time from his rivals

Lance Armstrong was just two seconds shy of winning the Tour de France prologue and taking the yellow jersey on Saturday. But by finishing second to Swiss Tour debutant Fabian Cancellara (Fassa Bortolo) in the 6.1km time trial in Liège, he still dealt a first blow to his main rivals for a sixth overall victory. On a flat, windswept course, Armstrong took 15 seconds and more out of German Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile), American Tyler Hamilton (Phonak) and Spaniard Iban Mayo (Euskaltel-Euskadi). Ullrich surprised everyone by placing only 16th, while Hamilton was 18th, conceding 16 seconds to the

Cancellara was the fastest man in the Tour today

Australian rider Matthew White will not take part in this year's Tour de France after breaking his collarbone in a training accident in Liège on Saturday, his Cofidis team confirmed here Saturday. White, who was previewing the 6.1km prologue course ahead of the start, is believed to have crashed into a rail which was covering some cables. The 30-year-old team support rider, from Sydney, joined Cofidis with the hope of riding the big Tours, and especially the Tour de France after spending two years with Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal team and getting passed over for the Tour squad. White's

Gutierrez was good enough for third

Belgian legend Eddy Merckx has added his voice to the debate about Lance Armstrong's bid for an unprecedented sixth yellow jersey in this year's Tour de France, suggesting that no great champions are complete without attempting the world hour record. Throughout cycling history, many of the greats, from Merckx to Francesco Moser, have capped glittering careers by attempting the hour record. Armstrong, who is favored to win an unprecedented sixth Tour and overtake the four other five-time winners - Jacques Anquetil, Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain - has said that he would one day

Everyone's early fave, McGee, finished one spot behind Gutierrez ...

The Mail Bag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.The frivolity continuesEditor:If a court — even a French one — sanctions a litigant for frivolously abusing the legal process, isn't the abuse compounded by continuing to pursue the matter? Just wondering. Deborah KleinSan Antonio,

Calling Lance Armstrong “an authentic champion” but a selfish one, Liberty Seguros team manager Manolo Saiz has declared that he doesn't want to see the 32-year-old American win an unprecedented sixth Tour de France. Saiz, who managed the Spanish ONCE team until the company pulled out of the sport last year after 11 years' involvement, feels that former race greats such as five-time winners Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault were cut from very different cloth than Armstrong. "Thanks to his experience, his mental strength and his nose for racing, I would say that Armstrong has an 80 percent

Italian Danilo Di Luca (Saeco) intends to sue Tour de France organizers for barring him because he is under investigation in Italy for doping offences. Di Luca was among 14 riders charged by Italian police earlier this year. "I'm going to sue the Tour de France and ask for considerable damages," Di Luca told Reuters after returning to Italy from Liège, where the Tour will start on Saturday. "I decided to take legal action after the meeting with race director Jean Marie Leblanc. Not being able to ride the Tour de France has caused huge damage to my image. I've been working hard for two

The cycling world should see the real Roberto Heras in this year's Tour de France, Liberty-Seguros directeur sportif Manolo Saiz said Friday. And if all things go according to Saiz's plan, the new model will not look anything like the Heras who helped Armstrong win three of his five Tours. Saiz says he will look more like the rider Heras planned to be before switching from Kelme to U.S. Postal after 2000, when he recorded a best overall Tour placing of fifth. Saiz said Heras has prepared differently for this year's Tour than in the past. Asked for specifics, Saiz declined to elaborate,

For those of you keeping track of the Tour de France at work, we're giving you another window to hide when the boss walks in. Beginning with Saturday's prologue time trial in Paris, VeloNews.com, in cooperation with AFP and Art Movies Inc., will be offering an INTERACTIVE FLASH MAP of Tour coverage to supplement our exsisting coverage of the Tour de France. Rest assured, the graphics, bells and whistles are in addition to VeloNews.com's already strong coverage. We'll begin every day with live reports from the road by by our onsite editors. As soon as each stage is complete, we'll have

I went out to the kitchen to make coffee — yards of coffee. Rich, strong, bitter, boiling hot, ruthless, depraved. The lifeblood of tired men. Raymond ChandlerThe Long Goodbye It was the day before the start of the Tour de France, and the pre-race coverage on VeloNews.com read more like a Miami Herald police blotter. I was chasing the sour doping news with bitter black coffee, trying to work myself up to something like a rant, when an authoritative knock rattled the door. “UCI — open up!” boomed a voice that sounded as though it would have been right at home in a burning bush. Opening the

Former Italian sprint king Mario Cipollini will be one of the big names expected to get into the sprint action when the first stage of the Tour de France (July 3-25) gets under way here on Sunday. However, the 37-year-old admits that his long-anticipated roar back to the front line could be kept in check by a number of heirs apparent. Following Saturday's 6.1km prologue around Liege, the peloton faces a testing 202.5km ride across mainly flat terrain from Liège to Charleroi that will give the sprinters their first chance to start bumping elbows. Flamboyant veteran Cipollini, the “Lion

Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen is getting just about fed up with all this talk of Italian "super sprinter" Alessandro Petacchi - and the Lotto rider intends to do something about it. McEwen, the winner of the Tour de France green jersey for the highest-placed daily finisher in 2002, has lived in Belgium for most of his professional career and is valued as one of their own. But with that familiarity comes some pressure — for his own success, and for his appraisal of his main rivals. Petacchi, who in this year’s Giro D’Italia set a postwar record of nine stage wins in a single edition of

Tyler's clock-stopping BMC

You need a cup of my java

Prokop

A confident Tyler Hamilton says he believes he can win the Tour de France. "No question, I'm here to win. I'm here with a strong team, we're motivated and they expect me to do well. There's more pressure, but I like that," he said. " When asked if he could be the ride to topple Lance Armstrong, Hamilton said he would give it a try. "Lance will be stronger than last year, so we have to be stronger than last year," said the Man from Marblehead. "Lance and I are friends off the bike, but on the bike we're competitors." Hamilton said Armstrong's troubles in 2003 give him and other rivals

US Postal (team manager: Johan Bruyneel) 1. Lance Armstrong (USA)2. Jose Azevedo (POR)3. Manuel Beltran (Sp)4. Viatcheslav Ekimov (Rus)5. George Hincapie (USA)6. Floyd Landis (USA)7. Benjamin Noval (Sp)8. Pavel Padrnos (CZE)9. Jose Luis Rubiera (Sp) T-Mobile (team manager: Mario Kummer) 11. Jan Ullrich (G)12. Rolf Aldag (G)13. Santiago Botero (COL)14. Giuseppe Guerini (I)15. Serguei Ivanov (Rus)16. Matthias Kessler (G)17. Andreas Kloden (G)18. Daniele Nardello (I)19. Erik Zabel (G) Phonak (team manager: Alvaro Pino) 21. Tyler Hamilton (USA)22. Martin Elmiger (Swi)23. Santos Gonzalez (Sp)24.

Hi Bob-I have had some bad luck with a new bicycle purchase and was wonderingif there is a type of Lemon Law with bicycles similar to those concerningthe purchase of motor vehicles?Thanks,M.B. Dear M.B.,So, you got a lemon, huh? It is hard to contemplate this question (orfor that matter, life) without mentioning that hackneyed, homespun advicethat if life gives you... no, no, I will refrain. Lemon laws were designed to protect consumers who may not be able toassess possible defects in an automobile prior to the purchase. The inabilityof consumers to obtain fair and prompt redress for

Euskaltel’s Gorka Gonzalez has been barred from riding the Tour de France, which starts in Liège on Saturday, after a pre-race blood screening test on Thursday. Gonzalez was the only rider among the 189 riders from 21 teams registered for the July 3-25 race to raise suspicion. The rest were declared fit to race. Pre-race screening controls test the volume of red blood cells. If the hematocrit level is above the permitted threshold of 50, a rider is barred from racing for two weeks and will undergo further tests. The hematocrit test is merely an indicator of doping, though offers no

Roll call of past Tour de France winners: 1903 Maurice Garin (F) 1904 Henri Cornet (F) 1905 Louis Trousselier (F) 1906 Rene Pottier (F) 1907 Lucien Petit-Breton (F) 1908 Lucien Petit-Breton (F) 1909 Francois Faber (LUX) 1910 Octave Lapize (F) 1911 Gustave Garrigou (F) 1912 Odile Defraye (B) 1913 Philippe Thys (B) 1914 Philippe Thys (B) Stopped because of WWI 1919 Firmin Lambot (B) 1920 Philippe Thys (B) 1921 Leon Scieur (B) 1922 Firmin Lambot (B) 1923 Henri Pelissier (F) 1924 Ottavio Bottechia (I) 1925 Ottavio Bottechia (I) 1926 Lucien Buysse (B) 1927 Nicolas Frantz (LUX) 1928 Nicolas

Five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong fended off questions Thursday about doping allegations two days ahead of the race’s prologue time trial. The 32-year-old American, who will saddle up for Saturday’s 6.1km time trial without the yellow jersey in a bid to win a record sixth crown, said he had little comment to make about the book, “LA Confidentiel - les secrets des Lance Armstrong”, which cites several former colleagues who allege that he has taken the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO). One of the book’s co-authors, David Walsh, was present ,and Armstrong reiterated

BMC, the leading, high-end Swiss brand, has developed a new time-trial cycle for Tyler Hamilton to use during the Tour de France. Because seconds can often mean the difference between victory and defeat in the Tour de France, BMC has spared no expense in making the best materials available to Hamilton & Co. Together with leading Swiss aerodynamics and ergonomics technicians and engineers, we have developed a radical riding machine, blazing new paths at the same time. The aim was not only to set new records in terms of aerodynamics. We also wanted to use revolutionary technologies in the

A confident Tyler Hamilton says he believes he can win the Tour de France. “No question, I’m here to win. I’m here with a strong team, we’re motivated and they expect me to do well. There’s more pressure, but I like that,” he said. “ When asked if he could be the ride to topple Lance Armstrong, Hamilton said he would give it a try. “Lance will be stronger than last year, so we have to be stronger than last year,” said the Man from Marblehead. “Lance and I are friends off the bike, but on the bike we’re competitors.” Hamilton said Armstrong’s troubles in 2003 give him and other rivals

sdfasdfasdfasdf

Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: Velo citron

PRESS RELEASE - BMC has a new secret weapon for Tyler Hamilton and Team Phonak

PRESS RELEASE - BMC has a new secret weapon for Tyler Hamilton and Team Phonak

PRESS RELEASE - BMC has a new secret weapon for Tyler Hamilton and Team Phonak

PRESS RELEASE - BMC has a new secret weapon for Tyler Hamilton and Team Phonak

BOULDER, CO, --Tim Blumenthal, executive director of theInternational Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), has been picked froma pool of more than 500 applicants to lead The Bikes Belong Coalition.Bikes Belong is the industry trade group dedicated to putting more peopleon bikes more often. Blumenthal will begin work as the organization's executivedirector in September.Blumenthal has served as IMBA's chief staffer since 1993, followingfive years as a board member. When he began as IMBA's first fulltime employee,the organization had a $70,000 annual budget and fewer than 1,000

Gilberto approaching Tour de France. He reveals his favorite for theoverall classification, his ambitions, and his “secret weapon”: “I’ve muchmore energy than last year”Q- Gilberto, this year’s Tour is different for you compared tolast year. Then you’d triumphed at the Giro and had clear ambitions todo well in the overall. This year?A- ”I’m still convinced I’ve got the right characteristics tobe a contender at the Tour. Naturally the experience of last year taughtme a lot and I’m trying to use it all this year”.Q- What are your objectives?A- ”I’m going to start the race quietly and prudently.

The Mail Bag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Drugs driving this fan away from sportEditor:I'm a long-time Canadian athlete who competed in triathlons for over 10 years before switching to cycling. It's the most exciting sport I've ever done, and I've turned into a huge fan. Over the past

Tour de France chief Jean-Marie Leblanc said Tuesday that he doubted claims in a recently-published book which alleges that five-time winner Lance Armstrong has been involved in doping. "I'm skeptical," Leblanc told AFP of the book "La Confidential - The Secrets of Lance Armstrong" which alleges the 32-year-old American has used the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin) since his recovery from cancer in 1998. The allegations caused such a storm that Armstrong's U.S. Postal team launched a futile attempt to have a note inserted on the book cover instructing readers of its supposed

CSC and Phonak have both announced their teams for the Tour De France. And, Boy, Oh, Boy are we happy to be apart of helping both teams perform at their best! ZIPP Speed Weaponry is proud to be a part of the biggest bike event ever. We can see it all now, like a window on the world, the stage wins and the glory of combat as the winners of each team step up into the light. And we can see them trying out the best wheels ever: ZIPP 202, 303 and 404's for the every day rigors of the road and the ZIPP 909's for the rough Time Trial stages. We are proud to be the supplier of these wheels and

Tuesday's EuroFile: Leblanc voices support for Armstrong

PRESS RELEASE - Phonak and CSC set up teams for the Tour De France

Zipp 303s

Zipp 404s

Zipp 909s

June has been a little hectic. We started out the month in the Alps previewing the Tour de France climbs. Our training camp finished just in time for the challenging one day Classique des Alps race, which I decided to sit out, since I had done so much riding in the days proceeding. But it was a successful race for our team, with four Phonak guys in the top 10. My teammate Oscar Pereiro won, which was a big victory for the entire organization. So we headed to the Dauphine Libere on a high note, which started a day later. My personal goal was to try and test myself as well as some new

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.A Millar’s tale: It just doesn’t fitEditor:I hope it's not true, just more silly gossip. We love David Millar here. The archetypal “whingeing pom,” who tells it like it is and moans when it hurts. The great British hope, who we all expect to

Tyler Tunes: Getting ready to ride

Voeckler tops in France

Leipheimer - He loves a tough race