Road Racing

RICCO A LA PANTANI?
Will Riccardo Riccò pull a page from the playbook of his childhood hero, Marco Pantani, and surprise everyone at this Tour de France? Riccò insists he’s here only for stage victories, but his impressive pop in Thursday’s stage could betray his public declarations.

Stage 6, Aigurande to Super-Besse, 195.5km

Sponsoring a bike team makes good business sense, especially if you’re Garmin and one of the largest companies in the fast-growing, highly competitive GPS market. Garmin unveiled its high-profile deal with Slipstream sports at the start of the 2008 Tour de France as the first step of a title sponsorship contract that continues through the 2010 season. VeloNews spoke with Jon Cassat, vice president of communications with Garmin, about the details of how the sponsorship deal came about and why the company decided to bet on cycling. Here are excerpts from the interview:

Today was the first stage in this year's race where we hit some hills. After traversing Brittany we're now down into the heart of France and the mountains of the Massif Centrale.

Christian Meier (Symmetrics) made one of a professional cyclist's key transitions this week, swapping his U23 national title for the Elite men's road title. However, despite the support of the powerful Symmetrics squad, it was not an easy victory, with Bruno Langlois (VW-Specialized) surging back on the final climb to finish less than a bike length behind Meier. Meier's teammate Jacob Erker took the bronze medal, while David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast) finished seventh to win the U23 title on Sunday.

With 10km to go in stage 5 of the Tour de France, Mark Cavendish’s Team Columbia teammates drilled it at the front of the chaotic peloton, burying themselves to set up their British sprint star. With 150 meters to go — and early breakaway rider Nicolas Vogondy of Agritubel still barely clear of the chase — Cavendish lit it up and repaid his teammates with a dominant win ahead of Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and Erik Zabel (Milram). Race leader Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) finished in the bunch to retain the yellow jersey.

CSC is not a Shimano-sponsored team. Instead, it buys the Shimano components it uses. You might be surprised that a team like CSC pays for its drivetrain components, but there are multiple reasons why it pays. The primary reason is because of other sponsor obligations, namely to FSA. But it has always been the team’s practice to pick and choose the parts its director Bjarne Riis feels are the best. A byproduct of not being tied to a certain manufacturer’s parts is the ability to experiment.

There’s no arguing that this year’s Cascade Cycling Classic is filled with world-class talent. Two world champion time trialists took the men’s and women’s wins in Wednesday’s stage 1 Prineville Road Race in Bend, Oregon: Colombian Santiago Botero (Rock Racing) and Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo Lifeforce). Both part of large breaks in their respective races – Botero in a group of 12 and Armstrong in a group of 7 – they each left their competition behind on the final climb to the finish on Pilot Butte.

The French fans finally saw a real sprint finish Wednesday — resulting in a superbly confident first Tour stage win for Team Columbia’s young Manxman Mark Cavendish — but his well-placed GC teammates, along with the other race favorites, are already looking ahead to the next three stages through the low mountains of the Massif Central. Besides heading into the hills Thursday, the riders will be racing into summer temperatures as the Tour now heads south before arriving in the Pyrenees on Sunday.

Sun and a screaming tailwind made for what was one of the easiest days on a bike this year. We'd all prepared mentally for a hour-plus head smashing today before the break would go clear, especially after the relatively quick launches the past few, but people once again seemed content to relax. Twenty minutes of flying down wide open roads and when a few guys got a small gap the field was quick to sit up, yells to chill all around. A few minutes slow, a huge "nature break" as they call it on the radio here, and we settled in for a long one.

Wednesday’s 232km stage from Cholet to Chatearoux might have been the fifth stage of this 2008 Tour de France, but in many respects it was a day of firsts. It was the first hot, sunny day of a Tour that began in the rain and cold winds of Brittany — weather that seemed to follow the peloton wherever it traveled. Stage 5 was the first day spent in the malliot jaune for Gerolsteiner’s Stefan Schumacher, an unlikely hero who seems as surprised as everyone else to find himself leading the world’s biggest bike race.

Stage 5, Cholet to Châteauroux, 232km Weather: Partly cloudy in the morning, warm and sunny in afternoon, moderate westerly breeze with 20kph, highs in the low 80s

Valverde scare: It looked innocuous on the medical report, just cuts and scrapes, but Alejandro Valverde’s Tour de France was nearly short-circuited Wednesday in a pileup. Valverde, 28, flipped over his handlebars and landed on the same collarbone he broke in the 2006 Tour when his front tire slipped on a small, cat-eye road reflector. It was too close for comfort for the stage-1 winner.

Photographer Casey Gibson has been given full access to shoot behind the scenes with the Garmin-Chipotle team at the Tour. He will share some of his best shots from the first four days.

Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) rode to a dominant — if surprising — victory in stage 4 of the Tour de France on Tuesday, taking the yellow jersey from overnight leader Romain Feillu (Agritubel). The German posted the fastest time by far in the 29.5km individual time trial, 35:44, some 18 seconds faster than green-jersey Kim Kirchen (Team Columbia) and David Millar (Garmin-Chipotle), and a further nine seconds quicker than overall contender Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto).

This Tour de France couldn’t be going any better for Cadel Evans. In four days of racing he and his Silence-Lotto team have ridden conservatively, largely out of the spotlight — just like the modest Aussie wants it. He showed his form was coming along nicely on opening day, losing by just one second to the explosive Alejandro Valverde on the uphill finish at Plumelec. On stages 2 and 3, his team kept him near the front of the peloton all day, well away from the crashes that were all too common.

Retail Price: $21.95 Web site: www.velogear.com The Tour Is Won on the Alpe: Alpe d'Huez and the Classic Battles of the Tour de France is a new book by cycling historian Jean-Paul Vespini. Each chapter covers one Alpe d'Huez stage, starting with Fausto Coppi’s victory in 1952. Vespini tells the story of the celebrated climb that so often determines the winner cycling’s biggest prize.

Garmin party: Garmin-Chipotle was in a good mood today. The riders raced with a yellow dossard because they stood atop the team GC while Will Frischkorn raced with a red background on his number after winning Monday’s most aggressive rider’s prize. Frischkorn said he felt Monday’s effort in his legs, but admitted he didn’t go too hard in Tuesday’s TT.

Stage 4, Cholet-Cholet, 29.5km (individual time trial) Weather:
Mostly sunny, with building clouds in afternoon, no rain. Strong SW winds up to 35kph, highs in upper 60s Stage winner:

While Gerolsteiner’s Stefan Schumacher scored an impressive ? and surprising ? win in Tuesday’s 29.5km individual time trial in Cholet, he’s still not ranked among the favorites to wear the yellow jersey in Paris on July 27.

Germany's Stefan Schumacher pulled on the Tour de France yellow jersey here Tuesday, and was then forced to defend himself quickly over a positive test for amphetamines last year and explain why he was invited to race the Tour, while Tom Boonen was not. Schumacher, who denies taking the stimulant, tested positive after a police stop while returning from a disco. The incident reminds some of Boonen's out-of-competition positive test for cocaine this spring, which resulted in Boonen being denied a Tour start.

Shimano’s electric time-trial shifters made their racing debut on Tuesday during the stage-4 individual time trial in Cholet. Ever since the “E-Dura-Ace” group showed up three years ago there was speculation that it might become a powerful time-trial tool. The system can be routed internally through a radically shaped time trial bike without hampering shifting performance. And the time-trial version sports shift buttons in both bar-ends and brake levers, which means a rider can shift regardless of whether he’s on the aero bars or the bullhorns.

You’ve already seen the new Bell Volt helmet, even if you didn’t recognize it as new. Thor Hushovd put the Volt in the spotlight of victory at the end of Sunday’s stage two. The new model will slot in as the top road and cross-country race helmet from Bell.

Oh so close. Garmin Chipotle’s Will Frischkorn, out ahead of the peloton in a four-man breakaway from the first 10 kilometers of the Tour’s third stage from Saint-Malo to Nantes, came within a wheel’s length of winning a stage in his first grand tour. Not a bad ride for a rider who only learned he was heading to the Tour de France a week before the start, on a team that earned a wildcard invitation to the world’s biggest bike race.

When I was an amateur racer in Brittany a few decades ago, one event I did was the local classic, Nantes-St. Nazaire. We raced on some of the same flat roads that the Tour de France peloton covered Monday; and the weather was similar: heavy rain showers and a strong southwest wind. Although I usually enjoyed racing in the rain, that classic was the first time I encountered fast-moving echelons, angled into the wind. It was all I could do to grovel in the gutter, trying to hang on to the thin line of riders stuck at the back. It’s not a pleasant memory.

Aging tires
Dear Lennard,
I have known people that have road bicycle spare tires in their garage for more than two years. Also, I have a nine-year-old Nokian studded tire on the front of my mountain bike for snowy/icy conditions. I have a pair of Michelin Pro Race tires that have been in my garage for four or five years, and have only been pulled out of their boxes a few times. Although they have not been exposed to sunlight, I am concerned about the pressurizing these tires to 115-120 psi considering that they may have dried out.

Stage 3, Saint Malo to Nantes, 208km

Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) outsprinted three breakaway mates to win stage 3 of the Tour de France on Monday, while Romain Feillu (Agritubel) took the yellow jersey from Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne). "It was phenomenal to win the stage today. It was something you dream about,” said Dumoulin. “The priority was to make the breakaway stay clear. We had some common interests in the breakaway and we worked well together. I knew the yellow jersey wasn't possible so I started to think about winning the stage.”[nid:79536] Feillu was elated, too.

Yellow jersey hopeful Alejandro Valverde willingly gave up the Tour de France lead on Tuesday, but admitted he had raced the hectic third stage with more of an eye on the crucial fourth stage.

Rabobank’s Denis Menchov became the of the Tour de France's top yellow jersey contenders to lose a significant amount of time Monday when he got caught napping in a hectic run to the finish of a 208km stage. Menchov, a two-time Vuelta a España winner, found himself in a group that had been left trailing by some furious accelerations at the front of the peloton and a mid-field crash as sprinters’ teams ramped up an ultimately futile pursuit of a four-man break.

BADGER STILL BITES: Don’t say the Bernard Hinault has lost any of his punch with old age. Just as Samuel Dumoulin was stepping atop the podium to accept his prize as the day’s winner, a protester dressed in a neon yellow vest jumped in front of the pint-sized Dumoulin and raised his arms in defiance. Hinault — who works with the Tour organization and appears daily on the podium to present the day’s awards — quickly sprung into action and shoved the hapless protester off the front of the stage. Tour goons swarmed and shuttled him out of the way.

There is what’s best theoretically, and then what’s best in practical application. As applies to time trial aerodynamics, riders and engineers are always struggling to balance the very best position and design with what’s realistic out on the road. This year, Specialized tweaked the design of its TT3 helmet to better match how its sponsored riders like Cadel Evans actually ride.[nid:79530]

Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Chipotle) is the first Canadian riding the Tour de France since Gord Fraser rode in 1997 with the small French team, La Mutuelle de Seine et Marne. The former mountain biker is the fourth Canadian to start the Tour. Along with Fraser, Alex Stieda and Steve Bauer have participated.

National criterium champion Tina Pic (Colavita-Sutter Home) won Sunday's Workers’ Credit Union Criterium, the final stage of the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic stage race in Massachusetts. Pic outsprinted Cheerwine's Laura Van Gilder and ProMan's Megan Guarnier to take the win. [nid:79501] In the men's race, John Murphy (Health Net- Maxxis) outsprinted Emile Abraham and Alejandro Borrajo (Colavita). After four days of racing, the overall winners were Cheerwine's Catherine Cheatley and Colavita's Kyle Wamsley.

Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) shot out of a chaotic bunch dash to win stage 2 of the 2008 Tour de France on Sunday. Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) finished safely near the front of the peloton to retain the overall lead. “Yesterday was not a great finish for me,” said Hushovd. “I felt stronger today in the final today. I like Brittany; it's a bit like Norway, always windy and rainy. Maybe I'm not a pure sprinter like Mark Cavendish, but after some hard climbs like today, I usually have some strength left, so maybe that's why I was able to win today."

Anyone who follows American politics knows that in the build-up to the 1992 presidential elections, Arkansas governor Bill Clinton had the message “It’s the economy, stupid!” pinned to a wall in his campaign headquarters. By keeping that mantra in mind, Clinton came from behind to win the Democratic nomination, and then the Presidency. In these opening days of the 2008 Tour de France, the message to would-be winners is: “It’s the wind, stupid!”

A SECOND IS A MILE: Alejandro Valverde’s one-second grip on the yellow jersey might seem slim, but it should keep him in the maillot jaune going into Tuesday’s first time trial. Because the Tour eliminated time bonuses in this year’s race, Valverde simply had to follow the wheels in Sunday’s rush to the line into Saint-Brieuc. Monday’s easier profile should assure another bunch sprint and another day in yellow for Valverde.

When Caisse D’Epargne superstar Alejandro Valverde stormed past Columbia’s Kim Kircken in the last 200 meters of the opening stage of the 2008 Tour de France he did it on a brand new bike. The winning bike wasn’t new in the sense of a new design — it is the same bike as his teammates ride, a Pinarello Prince — but it was new to Valverde. In fact, it was his first ride on the new bike.

Stage 2, Auray to Saint-Brieuc, 164.5km

The first four stages of this year’s Tour take place on the windy, often rain-soaked roads of [nid:79435]northwestern France. The riders don’t truly escape it until the first time trial in Cholet. Because of the conditions, many teams, or individual riders, take special measures to ensure their safety and ability to perform in the less than perfect weather on less than perfect roads. [nid:79433]

American legend Greg LeMond believes there have been enough positive changes in cycling that he can believe in the winner of the Tour de France. LeMond, 47, returned to the Tour this week for the first since the late 1990s, when he become so disillusioned with cycling’s doping problems that he refused to even attend the race that he won three times.

Alex Wrubleski (Webcor) won the second Canadian national road title of her career on Saturday when she outsprinted Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine) and Felicia Gomez (Aaron's) after 114km of racing. Julie Beveridge (Aaron's) took the under-23 title after finishing seventh in the lead group. A nontechnical 28.5km course with no major climbs meant that the only way to reduce the number of contenders was through attacks, and time trial champion Anne Samplonius (Quebec) did just that on the second of four laps with a strong move along a crosswind section.

It’s not a coincidence that the front-page photo chosen for Saturday’s edition of L’Équipe, the top-selling French sports newspaper, was a shot from the rear of the Tour de France peloton climbing the Mur de Bretagne, a 10-percent-grade, wall-like climb that marks the midpoint of stage 2. The shot is from the 2004 Tour de France, the last time the race came this way, but it will look much the same on Sunday.

Gear combinations: 53/39; 52/39 [nid:79403] Lengths: 170, 172.5, 175 Weight: 715g including bottom bracket Available: December 2008 Web site: www.shimano.com Originally shown at Eurobike 2007, Shimano's carbon Dura-Ace crank, model FC-7800-C, is being revised before its release at the end of this year. The new crank will feature improved chainrings to offer better shifting without the need to trim the shifter. The rings also will be available for aftermarket purchase.

Cheerwine's Robin Farina outsprinted her breakaway companion to take a win Saturday in the third stage of the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic stage race in Massachusetts. Her teammate Catherine Cheatley maintains her overall lead in the race. In the men's race, Colavita's Kyle Wamsley won the stage and widened his overall lead. KBS/Medifast's Justin Spinelli sits second and Bissell's Ted King is third. The men rode 75 miles around a 3.1 mile loop through the hilly streets of Fitchburg. The women rode 34 miles.

With his Pinarello painted bright yellow and red, Spain’s new national champion Alejandro Valverde clawed his way up to and past an attacking Kim Kirchen (Columbia) on the steeps of the Côte de Cadoudal to take the first stage and yellow jersey of the 95th Tour de France.

BANG-BAM-BOOM: Tour brass will surely preen with pride at the huge crowds lining the route across the heart of Brittany, but not everyone was happy that the opening prologue was ditched in favor of a hectic, nervous road stage. Since 1967, the Tour started with some form of a time trial. This year, Christian Prudhomme wanted to shake things up and simply decided to let them sprint for the yellow jersey.

The 2008 Canadian National Road Cycling Championships began on Friday with the individual time trial events for Elite and Under-23 men and women in Saint-Georges, Quebec. Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) took his fourth title in the men's 40 kilometer event, while Anne Samplonius (Équipe du Québec) won her second title in the women's 20 kilometer race. David Veilleux of (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast) won the Under-23 men's category and Julie Beveridge (Aaron's) the women's Under-23 race.

Team Columbia manager Bob Stapleton is looking to Britain's Mark Cavendish for a Tour de France stage victory after his team missed out on an historic first stage win here Saturday. Stapleton's team have come to the Tour looking to fight on several fronts, but at the start of the 2008 race - being held without a prologue for the first time in 41 years — he was reminded that they'll get nothing for free.

Stage 1, Brest to Plumelec, 197.5km

Robbie McEwen’s bike was lined up unassumingly, mid-pack, among his teammates' rigs in front of a roped off and guarded Silence-Lotto bus. All of the extra protection was meant to protect the race favorite — McEwen's teammate Cadel Evans — but McEwen’s bike benefited. He was suppose to start the race on Campagnolo’s new 11-speed group, but instead he unassumingly rode away from the team bus on a 10-speed bike. [nid:79347]

On the eve of his fourth Tour de France, Silence-Lotto’s Cadel Evans told a crowded hotel lobby that though he might be the pre-race favorite heading into the race, due to his second-place finish last year, given this year’s list of contenders, actually winning the race is something else entirely.

Last year Oakley revamped its most popular sport sunglass the M-Frame into a new sunglass. Though the M-Frame is still available its predecessor, the Radar, has become as instantly popular as the decade old staple of Oakley’s line. Using the opening stage of the Tour as a springboard, Oakley introduced a complement to the new Radar in the form of a newly styled Racing Jacket. Columbia’s George Hincapie and Credit Agricole’s Thor Hushovd are the two riders charged with introducing the new shade, and the only two riders who currently have it. [nid:79335]

Jeremiah Bishop wore a face of bewilderment and agitation as his Trek-Volkswagen teammates doused him in beer at the finish line of Breckenridge, Colorado’s Firecracker 50 on Friday. Bishop, 32, had no idea he’d just won the race and taken the marathon national championship, his first U.S. title as a pro rider. The look changed to one of joy once the Virginian realized that he’d crossed the line first. [nid:79320]

Editor’s note: Every day during the 95th Tour de France, VeloNews editorial director John Wilcockson will be writing his “Inside the Tour” column. It will have a more personal slant than most of the pieces he writes. There will be comments on each day’s tactics, insights on what to look for the next day, and stories he has witnessed in the 40 years he has been reporting the race. This first column includes thoughts on the opening stage and what to looking for on the wild roads of Brittany over this first weekend. * * *

A day before the start of the Tour de France is almost too late to accomplish anything significant. Nonetheless, it’s a frantic time for mechanics and support staff as clock ticks down to the start of the world’s biggest bicycle race. Teams build bikes up to the last minute, busses are stocked and there are always bikes, kits and cars to be washed and shined in last hours before the race kicks off. Instead of diving right into a single piece of equipment for this year’s race, let’s take a look at the frantic activity on the eve of the Tour.

Cheerwine Cycling has all but dominated the first two stages of the women’s race at the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic. After winning Thursday’s time trial, the team took the top two spots in Friday’s 69-mile road race, with Catherine Cheatley and Kristin McGrath finishing one-two. The last step on the podium was taken by Kathleen Billington (Connecticut Coast).

When Lance Armstrong was winning the Tour every year, the only real question before the race was not “Who will win?” but “Can anyone get close to him?” Now, after two totally unpredictable Tours, both of them ruined by doping controversies, it looks like we’re about to start on another Magical Mystery Tour. All the same, it’s still fun trying to peek into the crystal ball.

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"He's not the Messiah! He's a very naughty boy!—an exchange between Brian's mum and his followers in Monty Python’s “Life of Brian”

For the second consecutive day, an American team kicked off its Tour de France by unveiling a fresh jersey design created for a new title sponsor. Team Columbia, the former T-Mobile team referred to as Team High Road for the first half of the 2008 season, presented its new look and new sponsor in front of a packed press conference at the Penfeld Parc des Expositions in Brest, France, where the Tour will start Saturday morning.

Spain’s Green Bullet isn’t sweating it. Alejandro Valverde says if he doesn’t win the Tour de France this year, he’s got plenty more in his legs. That’s not to say that he’s shying away from a unique opportunity to become the third consecutive Spanish winner, but Spain’s El Imbatido – “the unbeaten one” – is trying to tamp down over-zealous expectations from national media who are hyping his chances in the absence of defending champion Alberto Contador.

There were big crowds at the teams' presentation at the Tour de France Friday afternoon. Photographer Casey Gibson was there, too.

Just looking at the faces of Team CSC-Saxo Bank’s nine-man lineup Tour de France squad and it’s obvious that this team means business. With the lone exception of baby-faced Tour rookie Andy Schleck, CSC consists of hard-nosed, bad-asses who intend to impose their will on the race. And maybe even take the overall to boot.

Pure Singletrack Bliss. Today’s course was something that Max Plaxton and Andreas Hestler (Rocky Mountain) will remember forever. On top of riding some of the best singletrack that North America has to offer, they won today’s stage in style. The incredible 65km course was a combination of two local top-notch cross-country courses: The Test of Metal and The Gear Jammer.

Editor’s Note: After team leader Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for homologous blood doping during last year’s Tour de France, the entire Astana team left the race under a cloud. Vinokourov’s top lieutenant Andrey Kashechkin tried to relax by spending time with his family in Turkey. His time out of the limelight, however, was short-lived as anti-doping testers knocked on his hotel room door and asked for a sample.