Road Racing

Saturday dawned cool and cloudy in Cérilly, central France, where the podium of the 95th Tour de France is being decided in a 53km time trial. Favorite to come out on top is Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), who rode the course a few months ago. He says the hills on the zigzagging course are power climbs suited to a strong time trialist like himself rather than the more lightly built Carlos Sastre, the race leader, who starts the day with a 1:34 advantage on the Australian.

On the eve of this race’s final test, the 53-kilometer time trial from Cérilly to Saint-Amand-Montrond, CSC-Saxo Bank’s Carlos Sastre leads Frank Schleck by 1:24, with another 9 seconds to Bernard Kohl and — perhaps most ominously — 1:34 to Cadel Evans, who sits fourth. In this Tour's first time trial, a super-flat 29.5-kilometer race circumventing Cholet, Sastre finished 1:16 behind Evans and four seconds in front of Kohl.

Australian Scott Sunderland has spent three weeks trying to make sure compatriot Cadel Evans loses the Tour de France. Now Sunderland, a co-team manager with CSC-Saxo Bank, is preparing for the distinct possibility that Evans will upset his race leader, Carlos Sastre, in Saturday's penultimate stage time trial. Sastre goes into the 53km race against the clock with a lead of one minute and 34 seconds on Silence-Lotto’s Evans, and with the yellow jersey on his back.

Cofidis' Sylvain Chavanel, one of the most aggressive riders in this year's Tour, got the stage win he's been looking for on Friday, outsprinting Jeremy Roy (Francaise des Jeux), his breakaway companion of nearly 85 kilometers to take the win in Montluçon. Race leader Carlos Sastre (CSC) finished in the lead pack to retain his overall lead heading into Saturday's critical final time trial.

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“You got a choice, Dishwasher. Either you get out of town, or tonight you be out on that street alone.”—Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”

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The upcoming time-trial battle between Carlos Sastre and Cadel Evans that will decide this 95th Tour de France is the talk of the race — much more than Thursday’s excellent stage victory for Columbia’s Marcus Burghardt in St. Étienne or Friday’s likely bunch finish in Montluçon. Obviously, there’s much speculation whether Evans can overcome his 94-second deficit on the race leader in the 53km time trial from Cérilly to St. Amand-Montrond on Saturday. But the media are also looking at any angle they can to predict the protagonists’ performances.

It looked like Columbia's Marcus Burghardt put in a huge ride on stage 18, and his SRM power meter data confirms it. Burghardt was super aggressive and obviously wanted the win bad. He was in the initial breakaway, and when that was caught he escaped again wth Feillu. He dropped Feillu on the Col De Parmenie, and caught Barredo on the descent.

A car driven by the father of Tour de France stars Andy and Frank Schleck (CSC-Saxo Bank) was searched by French customs during the 18th stage, which began in Bourg d'Oisans on Thursday. An official source in Grenoble later said that "no doping products or banned substances" were found during the long search, which took place at Vizille in the Isere region of the Alps. Andy Schleck suggested "jealousy" may have been behind the search.

The past week has been quite a busy one. First, Taylor finished up with the UCI junior track world championships by racing in the points race last Monday. There were two qualifying heats in the afternoon that were used to field the final later on that evening. Taylor went extremely well in the qualifying heat and won a couple of the sprints and also took a lap on the field, winning convincingly. He felt good about the qualifying race and was excited about the final.

Stage 18, Bourg-d’Oisans to Saint-Etienne, 196.5km

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After battling his way through the 18th stage of the Tour de France Thursday, despite sustaining potentially serious injuries in a crash, Lampre's Damiano Cunego has pulled out of the race, according to team sources. "It's a miracle I finished this stage," said the Lampre rider, who came over the finish line with blood dripping from a wound under his chin and injuries to his chest and thorax.

After yesterday’s insanity on the climb, today’s came at the start area. As we drove down the Alpe, thankfully in cars with the bus waiting at the bottom, there were still hundreds of people camped out roadside.

Spanish cyclist Moises Duenas, who was kicked out of the Tour de France after failing a drugs test, on Thursday denied knowingly taking any banned substance during the race. Duenas was charged last week in France with "use and possession of plants and poisonous substances,” and dropped by his British-registered team Barloworld. He risks a two-year jail term and a 3750-euro fine.

Stuart O'Grady finally came through one of his "toughest" Tour de France campaigns as the peloton headed out of the Alps and steadily towards Paris on Thursday. However, the Australian admitted he almost never made it as far as the second mountain range of this year's race after finding out he was carrying a virus three days into the race, "I didn't know it at the time but I was a bit crook. It turned out it was pretty serious," O'Grady told AFP. "When the results came through it was actually a relief."

Swiss pharmaceutical giant F. Hoffman-La Roche issued a statement Thursday disputing a recent claim by World Anti-Doping Agency chief John Fahey that it had inserted a “marker” in its new anti-anemia drug Micera. The drug has been the focus of recent attention after Ricardo Riccò, Saunier Duval’s top GC hope at the Tour de France, tested positive for the drug following the stage 4 time trial at Cholet.

After spending almost all of the day on the attack, Team Columbia’s Marcus Burghardt won the 18th stage of the Tour de France, beating Quick Step’s Carlos Barredo in a final kilometer chess match that bore more resemblance to a match-sprint on the velodrome than the end of a 196.5 mile road race. The two joined forces early in the day and cooperated until the final ten kilometers. At that point the two could afford to risk the benefits of cooperation as they enjoyed a healthy 4:50 lead over a group of three chasers and nearly 10 minutes on the peloton.

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From virtually every aspect, Carlos Sastre has ridden a perfect Tour de France. As soon as the route for this year’s Tour was announced last October, he said that the race would be decided in the final week, and probably at L’Alpe d’Huez. That’s why he focused his whole season on being at his very best right now, using races as training all season long, and trying to remain anonymous through the first two weeks of the race itself.

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CSC-Saxo Bank’s Carlos Sastre took both the stage win atop L’Alpe d’Huez and the race lead following Wednesday’s massive 210km queen stage of this year’s Tour — but who was the day’s biggest winner? Following this Tour’s final mountain stage, one minute and 34 seconds separate stage 17 winner Carlos Sastre and pre-race favorite Cadel Evans of Silence-Lotto with just four stages remaining. Of greatest interest, of course, is Saturday’s rolling 53km time trial, where the final classification will certainly be determined.

Bike manufacturer Scott, the second sponsor of the Saunier Duval team, announced on Wednesday that it would step in and rescue the Spanish outfit. Saunier Duval announced earlier on Wednesday that it had pulled out of cycling immediately in the wake of the drug scandal that engulfed its team at the Tour de France. Italian rider Riccardo Riccò tested positive for a new version of the banned blood booster EPO after the fourth-stage time trial, prompting the team to pull out of the race last week.

That was a day; long, hard and completely covered by some amazing fans. The Alpe was what it is built up to be: crazy. As far as the climb itself goes, it's hard, but was the easiest of the day by far. The fans however ... well, that's a whole other story. The drunk Dutch corner; the unruly Basque section; the crazy Germans; the Frenchies that always yell "ce n'est pas loin" no matter how long you have to go, and seemingly always cheer for the French rider who happens to be the most annoying at the time.

CSC's Carlos Sastre rolled away from the favorites on L'Alpe d'Huez on Wednesday, winning the classic Tour de France stage and taking the yellow jersey from teammate Frank Schleck.

Fighting for the yellow jersey puts as much pressure on the head as on the legs, as Cadel Evans is learning at the Tour de France. After the second of two days in the Alps on Tuesday, the Silence-Lotto rider boosted his bid to win the final yellow jersey by surviving the CSC-Saxo Bank team's efforts to shake him off on the difficult Cime de la Bonette-Restefond climb.

I’m writing these words on the road to L’Alpe d’Huez where, at the end of this glorious Wednesday in the French Alps, the 95th Tour de France could be decided. The infamous 21-turn mountain climb concludes a gigantic stage 17 after the riders have already crossed the mighty Col du Galibier and Col de la Croix de Fer climbs.

The World Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday Italian rider Riccardo Riccò tested positive at the Tour de France after a secret molecule was planted in the blood booster EPO during its manufacture. Riccò, 24, upset the big names of the sport to win two stages of this year's Tour before he was kicked off after testing positive for EPO (erythropoietin). Revealing the now high-tech nature of the fight against drugs in sport, WADA chief John Fahey said his organization worked with drugs giant Roche on the newest version of EPO (erythropoietin).

Drew Geer and Mark Gouge are racing the Jeantex Bike Transalp 2008 powered by Nissan, an eight-stage epic mountain bike stage race, from Füssen, Germany, to Riva del Garda, Italy, passing through Austria and Switzerland. The two are racing for the Chipotle-Titus-VeloNews team and are providing daily journals and photos. The following report from Geer is about stage 4, from Scuol, Switzerland, to Livigno, Italy: 77 km with an elevation gain of 2621m (8600 feet) "I will just never be able to pronounce 'Chipotle' it is just too hard," the finish announcer at Tranalps said.

The Tour de France yellow jersey is set to be decided on the final alpine stage of the race on Wednesday after a dramatic 16th stage which left CSC still in control of the race. Luxembourg's Frank Schleck finished the 157km stage from Cueno in Italy to here with his 7-second lead on Austrian Bernhard Kohl intact, with Australian Cadel Evans in third at 08. Spaniard Carlos Sastre, Schleck's teammate at the CSC team, is fourth at 49 while Denis Menchov, one of the day's biggest losers, is now at 1:13behind Schleck after losing time on the day's final descent.

Hilton Clarke brought the Toyota-United Pro squad its second victory in the 2008 USA CRITS Series on Saturday at the Wells Fargo Twilight Criterium in Boise, Idaho. Daniel Ramsey (Time Pro Cycling) led the the race for 11 laps until Clark bridged up with teammate Dominique Rollin and the trio lapped the field. Toyota took no chances, dominating the final 30 minutes of racing and setting up a successful lead-out train for their Australian sprinter, who collected his 12th win of the season.

The Saunier Duval cycling team look set to be excluded from the Tour of Germany because of doping, race organisers revealed on Tuesday. The elite team withdrew from the Tour de France last week after Italian rider Riccardo Ricco failed a dope test - they subsequently sacked both him and compatriot Leonardo Piepoli, who had won the prestigious stage on July 14. However that move has failed to placate the Tour of Germany chiefs, whose race runs from August 29 to September 6.

According to their father, CSC duo Frank and Andy Schleck rarely talk of the sport that has put them into the global spotlight. But when they do get round to talking of their profession in the Schleck household, it usually centers on the Tour de France yellow jersey. On Sunday, Frank realized one of his boyhood dreams when he pulled on the yellow jersey with a seven second lead on Austrian Bernhard Kohl of the Gerolsteiner team, with former leader and last year's runner-up Cadel Evans just one second further off the pace.

Bernhard Kohl sat in the sunlit conference room of the mountain resort hotel Navize Te in the Italian Alps on the rest day of the Tour de France for more than hour, patiently answering questions from nearly 100 international reporters. It was a new experience for both sides. Never before in his career had the 26-year-old Austrian been the focus of so much attention and before last Sunday, when he rode his way to within seven seconds of the maillot jaune, no one, except for the most avid Austrian cycling fans, had ever even heard of … Bernhard who?

Stage 16, Cuneo, Italy, to Jausiers (157km)

The Bonette bust
Most Tours are decided on the climbs, but the 23.5km descent off the 2802-meter Col de Bonette made for some decisive moments in what’s been a wild 95th edition. There were several crashes, including a spectacular fall by John Lee Augustyne (Barloworld), who toppled over the edge near the summit, and another by Christian Vande Velde; the falls undercut their respective runs for glory.

Frenchman Cyril Dessel of AG2R finally drew a line under his nightmare 2007 season with a prestigious maiden win on the Tour de France 16th stage on Tuesday. Dessel came to the wider cycling world's attention when he wore the race's yellow jersey for a day in 2006 — when he finally had to hand it over to disgraced American Floyd Landis. A year later Dessel disappeared almost entirely from the peloton after succumbing to toxoplasmosis.

Three weeks ago, Garmin-Chipotle’s Christian Vande Velde left his European home in Girona, Spain, for the Tour de France with the goal of his first-ever top 10 finish. However as the Tour’s second rest day came to a close Monday, the 32-year-old American sits fifth overall, just 39 seconds behind race leader Frank Schleck, and is poised to capitalize on his strengths during stage 20’s time trial to fight for the Tour podium.

South African John-Lee Augustyn said he was lucky to escape with his life after a spectacular crash during the 16th stage of the Tour de France Tuesday left him halfway down a mountainside. The Barloworld rider crossed the summit of the day's second unclassified climb on his own after attacking his leading group half a kilometer from the summit. But moments later, after being rejoined by his group, he misjudged a right-hand bend and shot over the edge, leaving him 50 meters below on the gravel mountainside.

Christian Vande Velde’s miracle Tour de France ride took a dive in Tuesday’s hard-fought 157km, two-climb 16th stage when he crashed coming down the beyond-category descent off the Col de la Bonette. Vande Velde, who started the day fifth overall at 39 seconds back, lost contact with the yellow jersey group about midway up the long, exposed 25.5km climb as CSC-Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck set a menacing pace.

A list of the past 25 riders to win a Tour de France stage atop the legendary Alpe d'Huez climb, the climax of this year's mountain stages: Winners: 1952: Fausto Coppi (ITA) 1976: Joop Zoetemelk (NED) 1977: Hennie Kuiper (NED) 1978: Hennie Kuiper (NED) 1979: Joachim Agostinho (POR) 1980: Joop Zoetemelk (NED) 1981: Peter Winnen (NED) 1982: Beat Breu (SUI) 1983: Peter Winnen (NED) 1984: Luis Herrera (COL) 1986: Bernard Hinault (FRA) 1987: Federico Echave (ESP) 1988: Steven Rooks (NED) 1989: Gert-Jan Theunisse (NED)

The threat of being caught cheating at this year's Tour de France has proved a major deterrent, according to the chief of France's national anti-doping agency (AFLD) on Tuesday. AFLD chief Pierre Bordry said prior to the race's 16th stage that he had no further positive cases to report in the wake of three positive tests for EPO. His claims come in the wake of a newspaper report in which disgraced Italian climber Riccardo Riccò re-affirms that he did not use banned substances.

Spain's 2006 Tour de France champion Oscar Pereiro admitted Tuesday that he thought he was going to die after a spectacular fall during the 15th stage at the weekend. The Caisse d'Epargne rider toppled over a guard rail on his way down Col Agnel in the Alps between France and Italy, falling several meters onto the road below. "I was going much faster than those on the left. I think that (Damiano) Cunego (Lampre team) got a slight fright. He made an abrupt maneuver and I couldn't avoid him," Pereiro told the Spanish press.

Cyril Dessel (Ag2r) won stage 16 of the Tour de France on Tuesday as Frank Schleck, backed by an indomitable CSC-Saxo Bank team, kept his grip on the maillot jaune. Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), meanwhile, gained time on Rabobank's Denis Menchov while American Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle) slid to sixth overall, more than three minutes back of the race leader.

Those long stems
Dear Lennard,
I read that several riders at this year's Tour de France have opted for a small frame and very long stem (140-150mm) combination. I'm curious whether this is to get a lighter frame (seems unlikely since pro's don't have to take unusual steps to reach the UCI legal weight), or to get less responsive/twitchy steering for high-speed descents etc. I have run a similar setup for a couple of years due to the safer feel of the steering but people always tell me that a 140mm stem is ridiculous.
Dan

There has never been a Tour de France as closely poised as this 2008 edition, less than a week before the finish. The most similar state of the race came in 2003, when prior to the final mountain stage, just 18 seconds separated race leader Lance Armstrong from his two remaining challengers, Jan Ullrich and Alexander Vinokourov. But Armstrong went on to win on the mountaintop finish at Luz-Ardiden (after famously being brought down by the handle of a spectator’s plastic bag), and clinched his fifth consecutive title in the final time trial at Nantes.

Riis won’t play games
Team CSC-Saxo Bank boss Bjarne Riis is widely viewed as one of the best tacticians in the game. So far through this year’s Tour de France, he’s confirmed that reputation. With two well-oiled attacks, first in the stage to Hautacam and a second up Prato Nevoso, Riis has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that CSC-Saxo Bank is the strongest team in the pack. But now he’s faced with an interesting quandary. Frank Schleck is wearing the yellow jersey but it looks like Carlos Sastre could be the strongest climber on the team.

Cadel Evans might have lost the yellow jersey battle up Prato Nevoso, but he’s still confident he can win the war to Paris. The Silence-Lotto captain expressed confidence Monday that he’s still on track to win what he called a “very tight” 95th Tour de France despite losing time to all of his major rivals and slipping to third overall in the uphill drag race on the Cat. 1 Prato Nevoso summit.

Chris Horner wrapped up his first trip to BC Superweek by powering away from Matt Shriver and Andrew Pinfold up the final hill to win the Peace Arch News Road Race at the Tour de White Rock on Sunday. Horner led the three-man breakaway with an attack coming out of a hairpin and up a steep climb on the last of 11 laps around a 10-kilometer circuit. Driven by Horner, the trio stayed away for all six laps of the shorter 3.8-kilometer route before he finally created a gap his last trip up the big backside hill.

It's Rest Day No. 2 at the 2008 Tour de France. Photographer Casey Gibson started his day by sorting through his files and then sent us some interesting shots from Sunday's stage to Prato Nevoso. He then went over to the Garmin-Chipotle camp, just as the team was ready to roll out on an easy Rest Day training ride. Editor's note: Our links to Casey's homepage have been inconsistent during the Tour. We apologize for the confusion. For the record, the proper link to his site is www.cbgphoto.com

Stage 15, Embrun to Prato Nevoso, Italy, 182km

Team CSC-Saxo Bank once again executed near-perfect tactics in Sunday’s 15th stage and this time they got the big prize: the yellow jersey. CSC did just about everything right in the three-climb stage to Prato Nevoso and turned a one-second deficit into a seven-second lead to Bernhard Kohl. With a four-man breakaway staying clear to take the day’s flowers, CSC had its plan ready to fire up.

Katie Compton (Spike Shooter-Primus Mootry) and Jeremiah Bishop (Trek-Volkswagen) took solo victories on Sunday in the short-track cross-country race at the 2008 USA Cycling national mountain bike championships at Mount Snow, Vermont. Compton, the four-time national cyclocross champ, attacked from the gun to take her first career elite mountain bike title ahead of Mary McConneloug (Seven-Kenda). McConneloug crossed the line 34 seconds in arrears with Lea Davison (Trek-Volkswagen) charging her way into third and Kelli Emmett (Giant) outsprinting Willow Koerber for fourth.

Stage 15 of the 2008 Tour de France proved a mixed bag for the Garmin-Chipotle team. First, the good news: Danny Pate got into the day’s four-man breakaway, finishing third on the stage after a valiant ride fell just short in the final kilometer. And GC leader Christian Vande Velde stayed with the GC favorites on the category 1 climb up Plato Nevoso, crossing the line two seconds behind newly crowned race leader Frank Schleck (CSC).

For 2009, Trek’s Gary Fisher brand built a new trail bike, the Roscoe, and refined its HiFi line. Gary Fisher (the man) described the Roscoe as “a go-anywhere, confidence-inspiring bike.” The 5-inch travel bike features suspension technology co-designed by Fox and Gary Fisher. The new Dual Rate Control Valve (DRCV) rear shock is an evolution of Fox’s successful RP23. While it still has three external adjustment settings and the on/off Propedal lever, the similarities end there.

Australian Simon Gerrans caused a minor sensation on Sunday by winning the tough 15th stage of the Tour de France on the race's third mountain finish in the Italian Alps. The 28-year-old from Melbourne, however, was quick to give a nod to Australian great Phil Anderson, without whom he might never have got on a bike. Gerrans, who rides for Credit Agricole, bagged a prestigious first win in the race after attacking breakaway companions Egoi Martinez of Euskaltel and Garmin's Danny Pate in the final 150 meters of the rain-lashed 183km stage.

Into the Alps we went today and it was an epic. It was pouring rain at the start, coming down in sheets. This was when the long bomb break with our man Pate in it took off. Then as we started up Angel pass, a nearly 25k beast that took us up to 2700 meters, the sun poked through and with the humidity so thick it was like a sauna. Then the wind kicked up, absolutely battering us up the open slopes of the climb and cooling things back off.

Spain's 2006 Tour de France champion Oscar Pereiro has suffered shoulder injuries following a spectacular fall during the 15th stage of the Tour de France on Sunday. According to a first official diagnosis Pereiro has a sprained shoulder but has not injured his leg or his back, as previously believed. "He is not complaining of pain in his legs or his back," said a doctor accompanying Pereiro to hospital.

Team CSC-Saxo Bank battered and isolated race leader Cadel Evans in the first Alpine stage Sunday, coming away with the yellow jersey on the shoulders of Frank Schleck as the GC race tightened.[nid:80475] Evans fell to third, one second behind Gerolsteiner's Bernard Kohl and eight seconds behind Schleck. American Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle) is in fifth at 38 seconds, still very much in the hunt.

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Kelly Benjamin of Cheerwine Pro Cycling and Andrew Pinfold of the hometown Symmetrics Pro Cycling won Saturday's Bosa Properties Criterium; the fourth win for each of them at Canada's seven-event BC Superweek. Benjamin threw her bike across the finish line just ahead of Australian Ruth Corsets for the win. The Kansas City cyclist immediately raised her arms in victory, although it took officials a few minutes to examine the photo-finish before they declared her the winner.

Quadruple stage winner Mark Cavendish has pulled out of the Tour de France prior to the 15th stage, the first of three days in the Alps here Sunday, according to his Columbia team. Cavendish has been one of the stars of the July 5-27 race so far, winning four bunch sprints to set a new British record for stage wins in a single edition. He was victorious on stages 5, 8, 12 and 13. But the 23-year-old from the Isle of Man admitted he was suffering fatigue following two tough weeks of racing. "I've done enough here with four stages," said Cavendish.

There are seven major mountain climbs to tackle in the next three stages of the 95th Tour de France: the Col Agnel, Prato Nevoso, Col de la Lombarde, Cime de la Bonette, Col du Galibier, Col de la Croix de Fer and L’Alpe d’Huez. Race leader Cadel Evans has ridden them all in training, and he is ready to defend his yellow jersey, starting with Sunday’s stage 15 that heads into Italy with a mountaintop finish at the ski station of Prato Nevoso.

Kenyan-born Briton Chris Froome hit out at Barloworld teammate Moises Duenas here on Saturday after the Spaniard's positive doping control at the Tour de France. Duenas's positive test for the banned blood booster EPO (erythrpoietin) on stage 4 has been one of three on the race, but is the first to force a drastic decision on the part of a team sponsor. On Saturday Barloworld, which made its debut on the Tour last year when Robbie Hunter won his first stage and Colombian Mauricio Soler won the King of the Mountains jersey, said it was quitting the sport.

Last year Adam Craig came to Mount Snow for the USA Cycling national mountain bike championships with a pretty good idea he’d win. And he did, by a whopping three minutes. That wasn’t the case in 2008. While Craig did emerge victorous from the race, finishing ahead of Kona’s Ryan Trebon by just over two minutes, the Giant rider didn’t expect to cross the line first. Drained by a season spent chasing Olympic selection and facing a fast, less-technical course, altered by race officials for erosion reasons, Craig simply hoped for the best.

Cadel Evans has been poring over cycling's history books as he prepares to put his yellow jersey on the line during three crucial days of climbing at the Tour de France. But the 31-year-old Aussie has not ruled out trying to forge alliances, if needed, in a bid to counter some of his big rivals for the race's main prize. Evans finished the 14th stage here Saturday suffering, like most of the peloton, from the searing temperatures as the race headed slowly upwards to the foot of the Alps. "I'm kind of surprised to hold the jersey this far, to be honest," said Evans.

Spaniard Oscar Freire should now have a better idea of whether he can keep the Tour de France green jersey, after some in-race consultation with sprint rival Mark Cavendish. Cavendish, the winner of four sprint stages so far, was conspicuous by his absence on Saturday as Freire claimed his first win of this year's race from yet another bunch sprint at the end of the 194km 14th stage.

Stage 14, Nimes to Digne-Les-Baines, 194.5km

CAV EXIT LIKELY: Mark Cavendish’s dream Tour de France is likely over as it’s expected that the British sprinter won’t take the start for Sunday’s opening salvo into the Alps. Cavendish won four sprint stages, but struggled to maintain the pace over a fourth-category climb with 9.5km to go to the line in Dignes-les-Bains. He popped off the back of the peloton and rolled across the line 108th at 3:27 back.

Garmin-Chipotle sport director Matt White has had a front-row seat to the team’s surprisingly good opening two weeks of the Tour de France. Team captain Christian Vande Velde enters Saturday’s opening shot of the showdown in the Alps poised in third place overall. The team has been flying under the radar, but that’s bound to change if Vande Velde’s consistency continues through the Alps. We caught up with Matt White ahead of Friday’s start to talk tactics looking ahead to the decisive climbing stages in the Alps. Here are excerpts from the interview:

A HOT one here in France-land today, and fast from start to finish. A flurry of attacks in the first few minutes eventually created a group of 21. With a slight wind at our backs the first hour rolled 53Ks under the tires. The group was just a bit too big however and eventually a concerted chase from behind brought us back. Four took off out of the group for the long haul, the rest of us got to go back, fetch some bottles and settle in for the day.

Last year the bikes Lampre riders showed up to the Tour with were well used, all looked battle worn with chipped paint and rusted bolts from the harsh weather and frequent washing by the mechanics.

Points competition leader Oscar Freire won Saturday's 14th stage of the 2008 Tour de France, a mostly flat 195km route from Nimes to Digne les Bains. Overall race leader Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) finished in the lead group on the stage to retain his 1-second advantage over Frank Schleck as the race approaches several difficult mountain stages.

The sponsor of Cadel Evans' team on the Tour de France is known for products that allow noisy snorers to doze off and enjoy a good night's sleep. But if there was ever a time the Australian needed his Silence teammates to wake up, it will be on the three upcoming alpine stages that are likely to decide whether he keeps the yellow jersey. After battling through the Pyrenees with injuries sustained in a crash, Evans managed to get through this last week relatively unscathed, rebuilding strength in an injured shoulder which has left him lop-sided on the bike.

Spanish rider Moises Duenas, kicked out of the Tour de France, has blamed a Spanish doctor for his positive test for the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), the daily El Pais reported on Saturday. Duenas, who was charged with "use and possession of poisonous substances" before a court at Tarbes, southwestern France on Thursday, had claimed that the products were sold to him by Spanish doctor Jesus Losa.

Until Mark Cavendish came on the pro scene just over a year ago, the most successful British Tour sprinter was Barry Hoban, who won eight stages between 1967 and 1975. Hoban was not a natural sprinter, but he could sustain a long finishing effort and he won stages with smart positioning. He rarely had any support from his French team, Mercier, which was devoted to protecting its team leader Raymond Poulidor. The only other British Tour rider to win field sprints was Michael Wright, who took three stages between 1965 and 1973.