Road Racing

On a day of crashes, wet roads and rolling climbs, Cervélo’s Thor Hushovd powered his way to a sprint win ahead of three-time world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank). Garmin-Slipstream’s David Millar survived from an early breakaway until the final kilometer, where the lanky time trialist was reeled in as the course kicked sharply upwards. Although not a categorized climb, the pitch hit 6.6 percent before easing off near the finish, and was enough to shake points leader Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) from his position near the front.

Columbia-HTC's Judith Arndt won stage 6 of the GiroDonne (the women's Giro d'Italia) on Thursday, the team's third stage win so far. Cervelo TestTeam's Claudia Hausler took the overall lead, but the win for Arndt moved her into second and teammate Mara Abbot is now in third.

So, for the last few days I have been blabbing on and on about how much fun the Breck Epic is and how great the courses are, right? Well, today was a different story. Today’s loop was long and hard. There were no smiles while winding through smooth, twisty singletrack like days prior. Instead I was grinding my teeth and begging for mercy.

Australian Michael Rogers will head into the sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday fully expecting the battle for the yellow jersey to soon move up a gear. But while Columbia's second-in-command has for now played down his own chances of challenging for the yellow jersey, he does not expect Lance Armstrong's Astana team to try and distance their main rivals just yet. "Of course they're in an ideal position right now. They have cards to play but I don't think they'll play them until the later half of the second week," Rogers told AFP on Wednesday.

Mark Cavendish's domination of the Tour de France bunch sprints is likely set to come to an end, temporarily at least, on the race's sixth stage which ends at Barcelona's Olympic stadium on Thursday. A day before the first summit finish of the race at Arcalis in Andorra, the Tour heads over more challenging undulating terrain, with an uphill finish likely tempting the peloton's 'punchers.'

Reigning Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre has put a positive spin on Cervelo's chances of defending his yellow jersey, claiming they would now employ a "happy, relaxed" approach. Sastre was one of several Tour contenders who on Tuesday's team time trial lost time to the Astana team of Lance Armstrong, who is now second overall just 0.22secs behind race leader Fabian Cancellara. Sastre's team finished a respectable eighth in the fourth stage race against the clock and, compared to fellow challengers Cadel Evans and Denis Menchov, Sastre's Cervelo team managed to limit their losses.

Cadel Evans admitted Wednesday he is still getting used to being so far behind in the race for the Tour de France yellow jersey before the race's crucia mountains stages have even started. Australia's two-time runner-up stayed out of trouble on Wednesday's tricky and wind-hit stage from Cap d'Agde to Perpignan, in which Silence teammate Matthew Lloyd escaped, unhurt, from a spill mid-race. Evans now goes into Thursday's sixth stage from Gerona to Barecelona in Spain 2:59 down on race leader Fabian Cancellara and second-placed Lance Armstrong.

Fabian Cancellara’s yellow jersey might be hanging by a thread, but it’s going to take more than a snip of scissors to take it away from him. Despite leading Lance Armstrong by just 0.22 seconds, Cancellara says that margin will be plenty to fend off the seven-time champion on the hilltop finish atop Montjuic overlooking Barcelona in Thursday’s stage 6.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Sharp eyes might have noticed unfamiliar helmets on the heads of certain riders in Tuesday’s team time trial. At the start line, we spotted riders from the Astana and Garmin teams with new Giro-branded helmets. The Saxo Bank team, which is sponsored by Bell, also had new helmets, including a yellow one for Fabian Cancellara to match his leader’s jersey. Reportedly, other teams sponsored by Giro (including Rabobank and Caisse d’Epargne) are also wearing this new helmet in time trials.

Julian Dean says it’s only a matter of time before Tyler Farrar wins a stage at the Tour de France. The New Zealand veteran sprinter said Farrar might just be the man who gets past dominant sprinter Mark Cavendish. “I think he can win a stage at the Tour,” Dean said after Wednesday’s stage. “It won’t be easy. We just started working together at the Giro, but if we get our timing right, we can win.”

Covering a 200km stage across the wind-blown reaches of southern France means that some days you have to get lucky to get the right shot. Photographer Casey Gibson seemed to have a good day today.

Columba-HTC's Mark Cavendish tightened his grip on the Tour de France green jersey on Wednesday despite losing out on the chance to claim a third stage victory on this year's race. Cavendish, who stylishly won stages 2 and 3 from bunch sprints to take his tally on the race to six in three participations, was among those who fell victim to a vicious headwind as the peloton chased down an earlier breakaway.

Just a day after publicly apologizing for comments he made about the 2008 Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong told Carlos Sastre face-to-face he was sorry. On Wednesday, as Sastre rolled through the peloton during the neutral start congratulating members of the Astana team on their team time trial victory, Armstrong saddled up alongside. According to Sastre, the seven-time Tour champ told him he was sorry that he said the 2008 Tour was “a joke.”

The teams of Tour de France contenders Cadel Evans and Denis Menchov suffered further setbacks during the race's fifth stage on Wednesday. On the descent of the Cote de Treilles as the peloton upped the pace in chase of a six-man breakaway, 23-year-old Dutchman Robert Gesink crashed and picked up injuries to his wrist and left leg. He was later diagnosed with a fractured wrist and pulled out of the race by his Rabobank team, who have been left reeling with the relative demise of their yellow jersey contender Menchov.

Frenchman Thomas Voeckler scored a popular stage victory Wednesday in the fifth stage of the 96th Tour de France, a 196.5-kilometer (122-mile) race from Le Cap d’Agde to Perpignan. Voeckler (BBox Bouygues Telecom) was away in a six-man break for more than 180 kilometers, attacking the other five with about five kilometers to go and riding into Perpignan alone, with the chasing peloton in sight behind him at the finish line.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Wow, what an exciting day of racing. There are simply no easy days in the Tour de France. On paper, Monday's stage 3 appeared to be a fairly routine flat stage for the sprinters, but it ended up being a detrimental day for some of the Tour’s overall favorites.

Lance Armstrong has an eighth Tour de France crown within his sights thanks to Astana’s domination in Tuesday’s team time trial, but he admitted that it won’t be easy. After barnstorming to seven straight Tour victories before retiring in 2005, Armstrong acknowledged Tuesday that trying to win for an unprecedented eighth time is more difficult than he expected.

Until the very final meter of Tuesday’s 39km team time trial in Montpellier it looked as though Lance Armstrong was going to grab the yellow jersey from Fabian Cancellara. That he didn’t take it may have disappointed those Armstrong fans looking for a Hollywood ending to a day that had already delivered so much. But those who support the Texan should be thrilled that his Astana team won the stage — four years after Armstrong last led a Tour team to a TTT victory — before even thinking about his not taking the jersey.

Fabian Cancellara held on to the yellow jersey by the slimmest of margins on Tuesday. Photographer Casey B. Gibson was there to capture the moment ... and a few more.

Alberto Contador was all smiles at the finish line in Montpellier after Astana’s dramatic team time trial win. And why not? The 2007 Tour champ had plenty of reason to be happy. The team not only won the stage, but Contador profits from the major time gaps opened up to rivals even before the race turns into the Pyrénées. “I have every reason to be happy. We took some time on our rivals, riders like Evans, Sastre, Menchov and the Schleck brothers,” Contador said. “Things are looking pretty good for us on the GC.”

Team Astana blazed through the team time trial to win stage 4. Astana came across the line 40 seconds ahead of the Saxo Bank squad of race leader Fabian Cancellara — the exact margin by which Cancellara led Lance Armstrong on general classification. After some careful math by race officials, Cancellara now holds the yellow jersey by a fraction of a second over Armstrong. Garmin-Slipstream finished second on the day, 18 seconds down.

When Specialized began making the bikes for Tom Boonen, he was not exactly complimentary about their stiffness. The company’s engineers worked hard to get him what he wanted, and when they delivered the S-Works Tarmac SL2 to the Quick Step team, the riders gave it a thumbs-up. Nonetheless, they decided for 2010 to again re-engineer the Tarmac from the ground up. Knowing that the SL2 was already a home run made the goals for the Tarmac SL3 different.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Bissell's Tom Zirbel, one of the very best domestic time trialists, is showing he is well-rounded enough to lead the National Racing Calendar, thanks to recent top performances in stage races.

For a working journalist, the Tour de France isn't exactly a day at the beach, even when it finishes at one. But when race security supplies a few extra obstacles, our man Casey B. Gibson manages to clear them with ease, two-ton camera bag and all. Here's what he shot.

Bob Stapleton was already in a good mood Monday morning before the start of the third stage of the 2009 Tour de France at Marseille’s old harbor. The president of Columbia-HTC was enjoying the warm afterglow of Mark Cavendish’s explosive victory in stage 2 and Andre Greipel’s win at the Tour of Austria.

Fabian Cancellara saved his yellow jersey Monday by slipping into the stage-breaking attack powered by the entire Columbia-HTC team. The Saxo Bank rider was the only one from his favored team to be in the decisive, 28-man breakaway featuring Lance Armstrong (Astana) but not second-place rider Alberto Contador. Cancellara came across the line sixth and actually widened his lead, from 19 seconds over Contador to 33 seconds over Tony Martin (Columbia-HTC), with Armstrong climbing to third at 40 seconds back.

George Hincapie should know. He called Monday’s amazing collective performance by his Columbia-HTC team as the greatest he’d been associated with. And that’s saying something when you consider that the American veteran was on all seven of Lance Armstrong’s winning Tour de France campaigns.

Naysayers will be quick to point out that Lance Armstrong’s presence in and Alberto Contador’s absence from Monday’s decisive 28-man breakaway is all the proof they need that the Texan is riding against the Spaniard in the 2009 Tour de France. Calmer heads might suggest that experience ruled the day when Armstrong followed Columbia-HTC into the biting crosswinds across France’s Camargue and bounced from 10th to third overall, now 40 seconds behind overnight leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank). Armstrong insists he was just riding smart.

Lance Armstrong's Astana team was fined on Monday after failing to sign on within the specified time at the start of the third stage of the Tour de France. Heavy traffic in Marseille city centre meant Astana broke the organizers' rule that teams must register for the stage at least 20 minutes before the start of the race. The Kazakhstan-backed cycling team have been fined 65 euros for the infringement. "How typical that this team were late. It is disrespectful to the public who came here just to see Armstrong," said race director Jean-Francois Pescheux.

Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) won his second consecutive stage of the Tour de France on Monday as a late break of two dozen riders — Astana’s Lance Armstrong among them — stole a march on the dozing peloton in a crosswind through the Camargue. Armstrong, race leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) and the entire Columbia team made a split with some two-dozen kilometers to race that left defending champion Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam), Alberto Contador (Astana), Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) and the rest of the contenders fruitlessly chasing through ever-changing crosswinds.

Zach Bell (Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Evelyn Stevens (Team Lip Smacker) won the men’s and women’s final general classification at the 50th Annual Fitchburg Longsjo Classic NRC stage race on Sunday. Stevens, a 26-year old New York City rider who only started racing bikes last July, finished 20 seconds ahead of second-place Alison Powers (Team Type 1) and 23 second in advance of third place Jeannie Longo (Vitall Plus).

Katusha's Danilo Napolitano hit back Monday at allegations that his race tactics prevented team Cervelo from pulling off a sprint coup on the second stage of the Tour de France. Cervelo's Brett Lancaster, the main lead-out man for the team's Norwegian sprinter Thor Hushovd, was left frustrated and angry Sunday with what he called the "amateur' racing of Katusha sprinter Napolitano. "We got Thor right up there and then typical Napolitano just smashing people like he's in an amateur bloody under-19 race. It's just disgraceful," Lancaster told AFP. "The guy needs to pull his head in."

Quick Step rider Jurgen van de Walle on Monday became the first cyclist to withdraw from the 2009 Tour de France after suffering a broken collarbone on the second stage. The 32-year-old was involved in a crash just under two kilometers from the finish of Sunday's second, 187km-long stage between Monaco and Brignoles which left him with the broken collarbone and a damaged lung. The Belgian finished the stage, but was taken straight to hospital in Marseille where he was being kept under observation.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

Belgium's Tom Boonen said Sunday he was more concerned about staying on his bike than sprinting for victory after a crash just before the finish of the second stage of the Tour de France. A right-hand bend just under 2km before the end of the 187km stage between Monaco and Brignoles caused confusion in the peloton, causing some riders to crash and forcing the Quick Step sprinter to ride around the pileup.

Tyler Farrar stuck another feather in his sprint cap on Sunday by finishing an impressive second on his first real Tour de France debut. The Tour de France clicked into action on Saturday when Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara grabbed the race's yellow jersey when he won the opening stage time trial in Monaco. But for sprinters like Farrar, who as an American is a rare breed in his craft, Sunday's hot and sweaty 187 km ride from Monaco to here was the real start of the three-week epic.

The road back to his second Tour de France was different for Ryder Hesjedal this year. While most of his Tour-bound teammates followed the successful blueprint from 2008 and raced the Giro d’Italia in May, Garmin-Slipstream brass put the brakes on the tall Canadian and told him to rest instead of race.

Watching Mark Cavendish totally dominate the other sprinters at Sunday’s stage 2 of the 96th Tour de France set me thinking about the first time I saw him race. It was in early 2005 at the world track championships in Los Angeles, when he was only 19.

U.S.-based photographer Casey B. Gibson has an eye for more than just bike race action. He specializes in capturing the roadside characters and scenes that make the Tour de France special. He will be covering every day of the 2009 Tour de France. Today we present a gallery of his best stage 2 shots. Click here to see his stage 1 gallery.

As has become almost customary for those riders fortunate enough to earn the Tour de France’s yellow jersey, Fabian Cancellara also earned a yellow bicycle from his sponsors. Specialized surprised him with the new Tarmac SL3 about two hours before Sunday's stage. In addition to the yellow frameset, freshly assembled with a custom, yellow-highlighted SRAM Red gruppo and yellow-decaled Zipp 404 Zed Tech wheels, Cancellara sported a yellow Bell helmet to complete the ensemble.

Prepared in advance

Temperatures surged into the high 90s on Sunday as searing summer heat took a grip on the peloton at the Tour de France. Riders sprinted for the line into Brignole with extra intensity Sunday because it seemed like they just wanted a cold drink and some shade. “It was brutal heat out there. I couldn’t get enough drinks down,” said Cervélo’s Heinrich Haussler. “I was getting goose bumps with so much heat. I was almost feeling cold.”

Astana’s Lance Armstrong stayed out of trouble on Sunday’s sweltering Stage 2, finishing in 80th place in the same time as stage winner Mark Cavendish. "Days like today are incredibly hot and hard for everyone," said Armstrong. "I just wanted to avoid trouble and get into the rhythm of the race, because yesterday's time trial wasn't really a normal stage. "We had an important day here and then we are on our way to the Pyrenees."

Among all the fantastic time trial bikes on hand in Monaco before stage 1, the team workspace with the broadest range of individuality in terms of TT bike setup was the Garmin-Slipstream pit.

Britain's Mark Cavendish is likely to find out the real strength in depth of his rivals on the Tour de France in the race's third stage from Marseille to La Grande Motte on Monday. The key to Cavendish's four stage wins from the bunch sprints last year, apart from his unstoppable top end speed, was the disciplined riding of his Columbia team who helped crank up the speed before unleasing him a few hundred meters from the line. On Monday Cavendish will find out if sprint rivals Thor Hushovd, Tom Boonen and Tyler Farrar, among others, have learned anything from those performances

Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) sped to victory on Sunday in stage 2 of the 2009 Tour de France, a 187km race from the principality of Monaco to Brignoles. Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) took second behind the Manxman with Romain Feillu (Agritubel) third. Race leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) finished safely in the field to retain the maillot jaune.

Lance Armstrong is keeping his Astana team's yellow jersey rivals guessing by refusing to officially endorse Spanish ace Alberto Contador as their definitive team leader. "We're trying to keep it open a little bit," said Armstrong when asked if the results of Saturday's opening stage time trial had helped decide whether he or Contador was now the team's definitive leader. Contador, the 2007 champion, stamped his yellow jersey credentials on the race by finishing second in the opening stage time trial at 18secs behind Fabian Cancellara.

Check out CyclingTips's author page.

The first three Tours de France in the post-Armstrong era have been all won by riders from Spain, but only one hit the jackpot Saturday in the Monaco time trial sweepstakes that opened the 2009 edition.

Contador: on a mission

Australian Cadel Evans was given cause for both optimism and alarm after the opening stage of the Tour de France Saturday that left some of his potential yellow jersey rivals in the race's driving seat. Evans finished fifth in a technically-demanding time trial won by Swiss Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara, who rides with Stuart O'Grady at the Saxo Bank team. But arguably the most notable result was enjoyed by the Astana team of 2007 champion Alberto Contador and seven-time winner Lance Armstrong. The Kazakh-backed outfit placed four riders in the top ten.

It was a non-American Fourth of July Saturday at the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic, as Canadian Charles Dionne (Fly V Australia) won the tough 110-mile third stage road race with a dramatic uphill attack half a kilometer from the finish. Australian Rory Sutherland (OUCH-Maxxis) finished second and 19-year old Canadian David Boily (Probikepool/Kuota) capitalized upon his low profile — he is a first-year senior rider, has no teammates at Fitchburg, and lives in Quebec City — to latch onto Sutherland’s wheel and finish third.

Britain's David Millar has a reputation for being laid-back, but the Garmin team rider is hoping his new, relaxed attitude on the bike transforms to big results on this year's Tour de France. Millar, 32, has had a tumultuous career which kicked off nearly a decade ago with a famous prologue win ahead of Lance Armstrong in 2000 - and which has really only got back on the rails following a two-year ban for doping.

Husband-and-wife Jeremy Horgan-Kolbelski and Heather Irmiger become the new mountain bike marathon national champions at the Firecracker 50 in Breckenridge, Colorado, on Saturday. The two, who each ride for the Subaru/Gary Fisher team, rode away from the competition early in their respective races. Last year's winner, Jeremiah Bishop (Cannondale-Monavie), was second, 12-and-a-half minutes down on JHK’s new course record. Pua Sawicki (Ellsworth) was second to Irmiger, 16 minutes down.

Fabian Cancellara knew if he could stay close to the climbers on the first half of the course in Saturday’s individual time trial to open the 2009 Tour de France, the yellow jersey was his. Cancellara’s plan worked like a charm, staying within six seconds of 2007 Tour champion Alberto Contador (Astana) at the Cat. 4 Cote de Beausoleil with 8km to go before turning on the afterburners in the final half to claim the double prize of stage win and yellow jersey by 18 seconds.

No one really knew what to expect when Lance Armstrong sped down the starting ramp alongside the harbor in Monte Carlo Saturday afternoon to begin his first Tour de France in four years. He wasn’t expecting to win Saturday’s 15.5km time trial, and that attitude was reflected in his steady start and solid finish to end the day in 10th place.

Defending champion Carlos Sastre wanted to wear the yellow jersey to start the 2009 Tour de France in Saturday’s time trial, but race officials told him he couldn’t. Officials from Cervélo TestTeam approached Tour officials Friday evening about allowing Sastre to wear the maillot jaune, but race officials said the tradition of the previous year’s winner starting the next year’s race was one for the history books.

Astana manager Johan Bruyneel returned to the world's biggest bike race in fine form after seeing his team dominate the top-ten on the opening stage of the Tour de France on Saturday. While Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara claimed the stage and the first yellow jersey of the race Astana were left well within sight of the race lead after placing four riders among the top ten after the 15.5km time trial. Alberto Contador, the 2007 champion and this year's overall favorite, finished second, 18 seconds adrift of Saxo Bank's reigning Olympic champion.

The opening shots in the battle for the 2009 Tour de France yellow jersey were fired in Monaco Saturday and Casey Gibson was there to record the action.

Everyone, including riders, spectators, the media, and the industry, knows that all eyes are on the Tour de France come July. If ever there’s a time to do something special, be it a new product or a new paint job, now is the time.

If there was any doubt about Fabian Cancellara’s time trial superiority, the big Swiss rider erased it by stomping his way to a commanding win in the 15.5km opening stage of the Tour de France in Monaco. His finishing time of 19:32 put him well ahead of second-place Alberto Contador. "I was one of the favorites to win here before the race and I knew if I got things right it would be very difficult for my rivals to beat me," Cancellara said. "That was special motivation. To be back in the yellow jersey again is a great achievement both for me and my team, I am proud of it."

Predicting the outcome of the Tour de France is a hazardous undertaking, but it’s one that the editors of L’Équipe — the French sports newspaper that invented the Tour and is still part of its organizational team — always take a stab at. They generally get it right, but not always. After Jan Ullrich won the Tour in 1997, L’Équipe predicted that he would become the first man to win the race six times. He didn’t win it again.

In recent years many time trial bikes have sprouted nose cones and structural fairings to improve aerodynamic, but more recently the UCI has signaled that it intends to crack down on designs that infringe on its '3:1' rule, which says frame and components can't be more than three times wider than they are tall; a 1-centimeter-tall handlebar, for example, can't be more than 3 centimeters wide from front to back. The enforcement doesn't necessarily limit innovation. Trek Bicycle, for example, was already looking beyond nose cones and fairings.

British sprinter Mark Cavendish said Friday his Tour de France objective is solely to reach Paris with any thoughts of winning the green jersey far from his mind when the race begins here on Saturday. The 24-year-old exploded onto the scene last year by winning a remarkable four stages on only his second Tour but pulled out early to race at the Beijing Olympics. That ended any hopes he might have had of battling for the green jersey, which usually rewards the most consistent rider in the points competition.

Japanese rider Fumiyuki Beppu is aiming to become the first cyclist from the land of the rising sun to reach Paris and finish the race which starts on Saturday. The 26-year-old former national road race champion, who turned professional with Discovery Channel in 2005, will be competing for Skil-Shimano when the first stage begins with a time trial around the tiny Principality. And, along with Bbox Bouygues Telecom's Yukiya Arashiro, Beppu wants to be the first rider from Japan to reach Paris and finish all 21 stages.

Quick Step team officials have said that Tom Boonen, admitted to the Tour de France only a day before its scheduled start in Monaco, may have difficulty even making the time cut in the opening time trial on Saturday. "Tom does not feel very well today,” said general manager Patrick Lefevere. “He is feeling weak, due to abdominal pain and diarrhea. "Frankly, I think it’s his body’s reaction to all of the stress he’s gone through these few weeks."

Averaging 29 mph over a 75-mile circuit, Bissell Pro Cycling’s Kirk O’Bee won stage two of the Fitchburg Longsjo circuit race on Friday, sprinting away from a seven-man breakaway that stayed away for the final 50 miles.

On the last day of the 2010 Cannondale release in Park City, Utah, the research and development team were excited to unveil a new high-end hardtail cross country bike. The age-old weight gap between mountain and road bikes is now becoming smaller. Of course getting weight down is always a major goal for bike manufacturers, but with the strength and specific performance depends of cross-country racing, ideal weight and actual never seem to finish together.

The pressure is on Alberto Contador at the 96th Tour de France. By general consensus, Team Astana’s 26-year-old Spanish star is the clear favorite to wear the yellow jersey into Paris in three weeks’ time — but the 2007 winner could lose the chance of taking the Tour for a second time as early as Sunday’s opening stage: a demanding 15.5km time trial. Contador has developed into a fine time trialist, and the opening climb of the tricky Monaco course plays to his physical strengths. But whether he will have the mental fortitude to win is another story.

It’s not often that the defending Tour de France champion is rated as an underdog. That unlikely position is just where Carlos Sastre finds himself on the eve of the 96th edition of the Tour de France. With all eyes on Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador, not to mention the Schleck brothers, Cadel Evans and Denis Menchov, Sastre seems to be the forgotten Tour winner. Even the odds-makers seem to have written him off, putting his chances at a repeat at 18-to-1.

Johan Bruyneel said if Astana wants to get rid of him as team manager, they should tell him to his face. While a months-long struggle over financial problems apparently resolved for the team ahead of the start of the Tour, the imminent return of Alexander Vinokourov seems to be creating more turbulence. A report in Friday’s edition of L’Equipe said that officials from the Kazakh-backed team plan to jettison the Belgian director and rebuild the team around Vinokourov and Spanish climber Alberto Contador.

Journalists and bloggers might be keen on planting the seeds of discontent within the Astana squad, but the team is refusing to buy into the storyline. Astana team boss Johan Bruyneel and Alberto Contador promised Friday that the team will ride as a unit during the Tour de France with the singular goal of winning. Both shot down notions that Astana will ride as a team divided, with loyalties split between seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and Contador, back to the Tour after missing out on a chance to defend his 2007 title last year.

Back before Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France he lived in Nice, France. In 1998, he, like many pros in the area, started using the Col de la Madone to test his fitness. At 10 kilometers, the climb has been described by Armstrong as not easy, but not too hard, a perfect road to gauge fitness. Armstrong’s most magical moment on the Madone came in 1999. He went there by himself, on a normal training ride, and did the climb on his own. He recalls the time as 30:45, “with a lot of watts,” adding that he’s never gone any faster.

Tom Boonen was granted an eleventh-hour reprieve, allowing him to compete in the Tour de France when it starts on Saturday, Tour organizers confirmed on Friday. The reigning Belgian national champion had been barred from the Tour following a positive test for cocaine in April, but the French Olympic Committee's arbitration panel upheld his appeal against the ban. The Quick Step rider missed last year's Tour after testing positive for cocaine for the first time. Tour organizers acknowledged the decision in a statement issued soon after the ruling was made.

Bissell’s Tom Zirbel and Alison Powers (Team Type 1) won the first stage of the 2009 Fitchburg Longsjo Stage Race in central Massachusetts on Thursday, with each taking a damp and foggy 14.3 kilometer time trial win. The first stage of the four-day NRC race, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, began with a deluge. While the early-morning Category 4 riders and Juniors faced the TT course in pounding rain, the water backed off to a gentle mist by the time the first Pro women started at 12:45 pm.