News

A violent high-speed crash at Fitchburg may have cost Aussie Henk Vogelshis season, but he was miraculously spared something for more preciousto him and to his family — his life.Early on in stage 3, Vogels and Navigators teammate Jeff Louder brokeclear of the field to help drive a small breakaway group. As the groupneared the bottom of the long, fast descent down Wachusett Mountain, theywere nearly caught by the peloton when Vogels apparently glanced behindhim to assess their lead and clipped his wheel with another rider, sendinghim flying head first into the guardrail, shattering his helmet

There is nothing better than racing your bike when you feel good, and nothing worse than racing your bike when you feel bad. Finally I felt good after a month of feeling terrible on the bike. One of my friends wrote me to say that I need to talk more about suffering and so forth. I guess when I am suffering the most, it is most convenient to ignore it and think about something cool. When you are riding good, suffering is easy to do, easy to talk about. When suffering is a daily affair, getting out of bed knowing the day will be a struggle, glamorizing it seems a little excessive. Most of

Liége-Bastogne-Liége was a big boost

We've compiled a list of all the teams and the equipment they are riding in the 2003 Tour de France. It's all top of the line and it's all the latest. Some of the teams are even riding never before seen equipment. AG2RFRAME: DécathlonFORK: TimeDRIVETRAIN: Campagnolo Record 10-speedCRANKSET: Campagnolo RecordWHEELSET: Décathlon PentaPEDALS: TimeHANDLEBAR: ITMSTEM: ITM AlessioFRAME: DeRosaFORK: MizunoDRIVETRAIN: Campagnolo Record 10-speedCRANKSET: CampagnoloWHEELSET: CampagnoloPEDALS: LookHANDLEBAR: Deda Newton 31STEM: Deda Newton 31 BianchiFRAME: BianchiFORK: Bianchi carbonDRIVETRAIN:

Raimondas Rumsas looks set for a two year ban from cycling after it was revealed Monday his "B-sample" had confirmed the presence of the banned drug EPO during the Giro d'Italia. The 31-year-old had demanded it be tested earlier this month so he could prove his innocence but Rima Berloviene, senior doping control specialist at the Lithuanian Sports department, announced it had confirmed he had taken EPO. Valentinas Rutkauskas, secretary general of the Lithuanian Cycling Federation, told the Baltic News Service that Rumsas could face a two year ban from the sport and a fine, adding that

Could race founder Henri Desgrange have known when he decided to distinguish the Tour de France leader with a yellow-colored racing jersey that he was creating such an icon? The idea came to Desgrange during the 1919 Tour on the rest day in Luchon. It was the first Tour after the five-year hiatus caused by World War I, and on stage 7 of that race, July 10, Desgrange announced his decision in the sports paper that he owned and edited, L’Auto. It wasn’t until a week later, however, before the start of stage 11, in Grenoble, that the first maillot jaune was given at 2 a.m. to Frenchman Eugène

Finishing third, Perras gets Canada's jersey

presented by A lot can happen over the course of 23 days in July, especially if you're talking about France and the world's biggest bike race. If you want to stay informed about the events surrounding the centenary edition of the Tour de France, check in with VeloNews.com and be sure to sign up to have our Tour Daily e-mailed to you every day from the evening before the prologue all the way to that final sprint down the Champs-Elysées. As always, we'll keep your name and address private and send you only the newsletter you're requesting.

Once a Tour de France racer himself, and then a journalist, Jean-Marie Leblanc has been the director of the Tour de France since 1989. In this interview, the distant heir to Tour founder Henri Desgrange’s legacy discusses the Tour and its future as it celebrates its centennial year. Q What significance does the centennial of the Tour de France have for you? A In the year of its 100th birthday, the Tour acts as a timely and ceremoniousevent. With the exception of the Olympic Games, there are no other large,100-year-old sporting events. The Tour de France is strongly rooted inthe culture of

When he sits down after dinner on a cool mid-May evening in Gerona, Spain, a relaxed Lance Armstrong is ready to answer questions from two journalists on a conference call. Behind him is another day in a meticulous training program that’s aimed at netting him a fifth Tour de France trophy in July. It begins with a hearty breakfast, to stock up for a multi-hour ride in the Catalan hills. Later, he watches live coverage of the Giro d’Italia, where some of his likely opponents are competing. “They go so slow there,” he says, “I think yesterday they finished almost at 6. So it works perfect. I’m

There’s only one favorite for the Tour de France, and everyone else isfighting for the podium. Or so goes conventional wisdom. We went aroundthe pro peloton this spring and asked people what they thought about Armstrong’schances.David Millar, Cofidis“Five he’ll get, but six is pretty difficult. There’s always somethingphysically or psychologically that seems to happen. That’s how it usuallyworks. We’ll wait to see. I think he’d be a big man if he walked away atfive, quit on top. I think it would almost be disrespectful if he tookthe sixth. Merckx, Anquetil, all those guys could have gotten

YELLOW JERSEY DOWN Luis Ocaña crashed out of the 1971 Tour while wearing the jersey

NEAR THE END Hinault abandoned while wearing yellow in 1980

THE FIRST Maurice Garin, the first winner, poses with his bicycle.

Didier Rous

Rous dedicated his win to his La Boulangère teammate Fabrice Salanson

Green in pursuit

In the middle of an interview a couple of days before winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tyler Hamilton rolls up his left pant leg and points to a bandage on an infected bug bite. He says it had swollen to the size of a golf ball the previous week, three days after he finished second at the rain-soaked Tour of the Basque Country. Once healed, the injury would join a marbled patchwork of scarlet-colored scars that cover most of his left leg below the knee. “There was so much swelling it was almost hitting the crank,” Hamilton says. “It was disgusting. On the last day in Pays Basque we

Karsten Kroon, Thor Hushovd and Rubens Bertogliatti, all stage winners from the 2002 Tour de France. If you had them on your fantasy cycling roster, maybe you were patting yourself on the back for your shrewd judgement in riders and their potential. More likely, you were cursing them for their wildly uneven performances, and the potential points they cost your team. For a professional cyclist, a Tour de France stage win can make a career. But for the fantasy cycling player, the lure of a stage win can obscure some common-sense calls in filling out your roster. Riders like Kroon, Hushovd or

What’s it like to be at the Tour de France? More importantly, what is it like to be in the peloton and pursuing a shot at making the podium? Find out throughout the 2003 Tour de France, when VeloNews.com readers will hear directly from Tyler Hamilton, the leader of the CSC team and winner of this spring’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Tour de Romandie. Hamilton will be sending in regular diary entries throughout the Tour and giving you, the reader, a look into the workings of a team taking on the world’s greatest bike race.

Miguel Indurain: If Jan Ullrich believes in himself, he can beat Lance Armstrong.

Tyler tunes throughout Le Tour

Steve Peat likes the Mont-Ste-Anne course.

Fionn Griffiths scores her first World Cup win.

EC goes big at Mont-Ste-Anne.

Katrinia Miller's win gives her the lead in the World Cup standings.

Numbers 1 - 10Numbers11 - 20Numbers21 - 30Numbers31 - 40Numbers41 - 50Numbers51 - 53

HENRI CORNET(France)1904

ANDRÉ LEDUCQ (France) 1930, 1932

GASTONE NENCINI (Italy) 1960

BJARNE RIIS (Denmark) 1996

Numbers 1 - 10Numbers11 - 20Numbers21 - 30Numbers31 - 40Numbers41 - 50Numbers51 - 53

L. TROUSSELIER (France) 1905

ANTONIN MAGNE (France) 1931, 1934

FELICE GIMONDI (Italy) 1965

Jan Ullrich (Germany) 1997

Numbers 1 - 10Numbers11 - 20Numbers21 - 30Numbers31 - 40Numbers41 - 50Numbers51 - 53

RENÉ POTTIER (France) 1906

G. SPEICHER (France) 1933

LUCIEN AIMAR (France) 1966

Marco Pantani (Italy) 1998

Numbers 1 - 10Numbers11 - 20Numbers21 - 30Numbers31 - 40Numbers41 - 50Numbers51 - 53

L. PETIT-BRETON (France) 1907, 1908

ROMAIN MAES (Belgium) 1935

ROGER PINGEON (France) 1967

Lance Armstrong (USA) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002

Numbers 1 - 10Numbers11 - 20Numbers21 - 30Numbers31 - 40Numbers41 - 50Numbers 51 - 53

FRANÇOIS FABER (Luxembourg) 1909

SYLVÈRE MAES (Belgium) 1936, 1939

JAN JANSSEN (Netherlands) 1968

OCTAVE LAPIZE (France) 1910

ROGER LAPÉBIE (France) 1937

EDDY MERCKX (Belgium) 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974

G. GARRIGOU (France) 1911

GINO BARTALI (Italy) 1938, 1948

LUIS OCAÑA (Spain) 1973

ODILE DEFRAYE (Belgium) 1912

JEAN ROBIC (France) 1947

B. THÉVENET (France) 1975, 1977

Italy's Federal Court of Appeal on Friday rejected Gianluca Bortolami's appeal against a six-month ban for failing a drug test earlier this year. The Vini Caldirola rider was suspended by the Italian Cycling Federation after anti-doping officials found traces of cortisone in his urine sample. The test was carried out during the Three Days of La Panne stage race in Belgium in which Bortolami won the first stage. The 34-year-old Italian cyclist wore the leader's jersey until the final time-trial when he was pushed into second place by Latvian Raivis Belohvosciks. Bortolami is a very

Cannondale: Custom is customary

PHILIPPE THYS (Belgium) 1913, 1914, 1920

FAUSTO COPPI (Italy) 1949, 1952