The head of the French Cycling Federation says he will go to court — and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy if necessary — if the international cycling federation UCI punishes pro cyclists taking part in next week's Paris-Nice race. Meanwhile the head of the U.S. cycling federation is urging all sides to negotiate and a group representing the teams has asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to intercede.
Philippe Gilbert (Francaise des Jeux) is back on the top spot of the podium just days after blowing the doors off everyone in Het Volk. The 25-year-old Belgian out-kicked the main pack to win the 39th GP Samyn in a sprint to snag his fifth win of the year. Gilbert finally got it right in the Belgian race from Frameries to Dour after finishing second the past two years in a row. This time, he relegated Kevin Ista (Agritubel) to runner-up position with Aleksejs Saramontins (Rietumu Bank) coming through third.
American cross-country mountain bike racer Adam Craig has his sights set on the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. That means for the next few months he will be battling it out on the World Cup and National Mountain Bike Series with his fellow Americans for a slot on the U.S. team. In between races, Craig skis, kayaks and is the rally car co-driver for his Giant teammate Carl Decker. VeloNews.com is along for the ride. —Editor
A closed tunnel will force route changes for the 99th edition of Milan-San Remo on March 22 and make the season’s longest classic four kilometers longer than usual. Race officials announced Tuesday that the additional climb, called Mànie, comes about 100km from the finish just before the arrival of three headlands at Capo Mele, Capo Cervo and Capo Berta as the route dips down to the Mediterranean Sea. The climb will have a technical descent and could play a factor in the decisive part of the race when the peloton typically begins in earnest to reel in dangerous breakaways.
Danilo Di Luca faces a two-year ban and the possible loss of his 2007 Giro d’Italia title in a hearing scheduled for April 1 in Rome. The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has scheduled a hearing to review the results of medical tests conducted on May 30, which showed “very strange” hormone levels and offered indirect evidence of doping.
Last April's inaugural U.S. Open road race was held in epic snowy conditions — and with nearly unprecedented network television coverage — in Virginia. This year's event is likely to be quite different. The 112-mile professional event has been moved to Providence, Rhode Island, on May 31. And while promoters are still negotiating a title sponsor and TV deal, they say the date and location change will soon make it a fixture on the domestic calendar.
Bart Gillespie (Monavie-Cannondale) and Kelli Emmett (Giant) won the opening round of Utah’s 2008 Intermountain Cup, the Red Rock Desert Rampage, held in St. George on March 1. Gillespie, overall winner of the 2007 series and the seventh-place finisher at the 2007 USA Cycling national cross-country championships in Mount Snow, Vermont, dominated the men’s race, beating second-place finisher Cale Redpath (3D Racing) by nearly seven minutes.
Graeme Brown (Rabobank) got revenge for losing Sunday’s Clásica de Almería by sprinting to victory Tuesday in the opening stage of the five-day Vuelta a Murcia in Spain. Brown and Rabobank teammate Oscar Freire were upstaged by Juan José Haedo (CSC) on Sunday, but the Aussie sprinter got it right in 197.3km stage from San Pedro del Pinatar to Lorca to snag his second win on the 2008 season.
Cyclists who race in the Paris-Nice stage race next week risk stiff suspensions, fines and bans from the Olympics and the World Championships, the UCI said on Tuesday. The riders themselves have asked for written assurances from team bosses that any fines and their salaries if they are suspended would be picked up by the teams. However, the UCI made plain in an email sent to the 17 ProTour teams set to take part that the riders risked serious punishments aside from the bans, suspensions of up to six months and fines of up to 10,000 Swiss francs.
Will orthotics help my foot pain?
Racers and teams face an uncomfortable choice ahead of this weekend’s Paris-Nice as the war between cycling governing body and the powerful race organizer, Amaury Sport Organisation, reaches a breaking point. To start Sunday’s Paris-Nice prologue means riders could be slapped with a six-month racing ban by an angry and frustrated UCI, but to skip Paris-Nice would torpedo teams’ chances of competing in ASO’s long list of marquee races that includes the Tour de France. The danger of bans, however, is already prompting some riders to balk at the season’s first major stage race.
A recurring pain
Dear Lennard,
I'm writing because I just read the shoe review in the VeloNews Buyer's Guide, and you mention in there that you use a custom orthotic.
I was happy to see that the Shimano SH R300's I just purchased got high marks, but I am still having issues with my right foot even with the new shoes. I got the new shoes because I was having the problem with my four-year-old Northwave Evolutions.
Belgian Roel Paulissen (Cannondale-Vredestein) and Czech Tereza Hurikova took overall victories at the Afxentia Stage Race, a three-day cross-country race held on the island of Cyprus. The competition included two cross-country races — each counting as rounds of Cyprus’ Sunshine Cup series — as well as an individual time trial sandwiched between.
One of the legends of American bike racing is planning a 6-day-style track race for this fall in Las Vegas, to coincide with the Interbike trade show there. Jack Simes III, a member of the U.S. Olympic team in 1960, '64 and '68, and coach of the 1976 Olympic team, has booked the arena at Mandalay Bay resort on the Vegas strip, and plans to hold the events on a new 166-meter plywood track. The races would be held September 23-25, with events from about 7 p.m. until 1 a.m. each night. Planned events include Madison races, sprints, one-lap record attempts and motor-paced Derny races.
Some big-name riders are confirmed at the 28th Vuelta a Murcia, starting Tuesday and ending Saturday in southern Spain. The race will give them a chance to stretch their legs ahead of the season’s first major races. Some 12 teams, including the beleaguered Astana squad, will tackle a bumpy, five-day course that also includes a 23km climbing time trial that’s sure to decide the overall classification.
Last month, Travis Ott, Gary Fisher’s brand manager and Subaru-Gary Fisher team director, personally delivered a new cross-country racing version of the brand’s HiFi full suspension frame to team riders Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Heather Irmiger. During our meeting in their hometown of Boulder, Colorado, at one of the coffee shops preferred by the pros, Horgan-Kobelski and Irmiger, who are married, gave the bikes a good look over while Ott ran through the basics of the new design.
Juan José Haedo (CSC) is riding high into this week’s Vuelta a Murcia following an impressive victory Sunday against three-time world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank) in the Clásica de Almería. The Argentine ace edged Freire by inches in a photo finish to score only his second win on European soil at the end of what was his first day of racing on the continent this year. The newly confident Haedo looks even stronger this year as he roars into his second season with Team CSC.
March is here and your first race may be just around the corner, if you haven’t already toed the line. This is the time of year when intensity must inevitably increase as part of your preparation for the demands of racing. Hard, yet focused, training sessions characterize the build phase of training and mark the end of the base phase.
CSC's Juan Jose Haedo won the 23rd Clasica de Almeria in Spain on Sunday, beating out Rabobank's Oscar Freire and Graeme Brown in a sprint to take the 187km race.
Quick Step's Steven De Jongh outkicked fellow Dutchman Sebastian Langeveld to win Sunday’s 61st Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in an attacked-riddled race that saw two-time defending world champion Paolo Bettini crash for the second day in a row. The mighty Quick Step train righted itself Sunday with De Jongh’s winning ride a day after missing out on the spoils against an unstoppable Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux) in Het Volk.
Just nine American track racers will journey to the 2008 UCI track world championships, held March 26-30 in Manchester, Great Britain. USA Cycling will send sprinters Jennie Reed, Michael Blatchford and Adam Duvendeck as well as endurance riders Sarah Hammer, Michael Friedman, Bobby Lea, Colby Pearce and Taylor Phinney. Reed races endurance and sprint events.
As the most profitable race promoter in pro cycling, Amaury Sport Organisation wants to dictate how the sport is run. That’s why for the past three years ASO and its surrogates have resisted substantive changes in cycling, particularly those changes involving the elite-level ProTour, which all other parties have embraced. ASO’s insurgency has now come to a head in its bid to independently promote next week’s Paris-Nice. And it appears that this time it has made one step too many.
Rubén Plaza (SL Benfica) wrapped up the overall in the 66th Volta a Valenciana after finishing safely in the pack behind sprinter Alessandro Petacchi (Milram), who bolted to victory in Saturday’s final stage. Runner-up Manuel Vázquez (Contentpolis-Murcia) was left without any option to make up the five-second difference to Plaza in the mostly flat stage around Valencia while Xavier Florencio (Bouygues Telecom) settled for third overall at 21 seconds back.
Belgian rider Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux) won Het Volk for the second time in three years in the best style possible: with a dramatic solo victory. Gilbert, winner of the Belgian season opener in 2006, attacked a lead group of favorites on the Eikenberg climb with about 60km to go in the 199km course across the Belgian heartland of Flanders. [nid:72951]He then reeled in the day’s main breakaway that included Mike Friedman (Slipstream-Chipotle) and before attacking again with a punishing acceleration with 22km to go to solo home to victory.
Another stage at the Volta a Valenciana and another breakaway by a rider from Slipstream-Chipotle. For the fourth stage in a row, the American squad put a man into the main move in the five-day Valencia tour in Spain. This time it was Lucas Euser showing off the argyle with Antonio Piedra (Contentpolis-Murcia) in more than 100km at the front.
Major changes are in store for the unofficial kick off of the classics season with Saturday’s running of the 63rd Omloop Het Volk in Belgium. Narrower roads, more cobblestones and tougher climbs are on tap for the 199km Belgian season opener in what’s always one of the most anticipated races of the year among that rare breed of racer who loves to bash the pavé.
There’s more good news for BMC after the team secured its second major European race invitation of the week. Just days after scoring a bid to race Criterium International (March 29-30), the second-year American squad earned its first ProTour invitation from the Tour de Romandie (April 29-May 4).
The Union Cycliste Internationale has warned teams aiming to take part in races run by the powerful race organizer ASO that “unjust” conditions in the company's contract completely eliminate fundamental rights. ASO runs a number of top events including the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Nice, the week-long stage race which has become the latest bone of contention in the ongoing feud between the UCI and powerful race organizers.
The third stage of the Volta a Valenciana ended on a controversial note Thursday as a misdirected peloton split between a highway and a frontage road in the decisive final 5km of the 166.5km climbing course around Ibi. Ruben Plaza (Benfica) stole away the leader’s jersey from José Iván Gutiérrez (Caisse d’Epargne) in one of the most bizarre mishaps in recent cycling history.
UCI President Pat McQuaid sent the following letter to professional cycling teams that have chosen to participate in Paris-Nice on Wednesday. The letter was distributed to media on Thursday - Editor
Aigle, 27 February 2008
Ref: Presidence / fb
Dear Sirs,
After three solid off-season training camps, the entire High Road team is now racing, having initiated the season on four fronts: in California, in Portugal, in Italy and France. After being away from the races for the longest period since I was thirteen - seven months - I was happy to get the first race under my belt in Laigueglia, Italy.
Skil-Shimano, the Dutch-based continental team, seems to be one of the new darlings of ASO after receiving recent invitations to both Paris-Nice and Criterium International. The fourth-year team is a blend of aging and aspiring Europeans mixed in with Japan’s most promising talent, including Fumy Beppu, who joined in 2008 after a three-year stint with Discovery Channel. Maarten Den Bakker, one of the oldest riders in the peloton at 39, said the race invitations are welcome news.
Enrique Franco, the man who saved the Vuelta a España in the late 1970s, died Wednesday in Spain after a long illness. He was 74 years old. Franco was the former director Unipublic, the sports organizing company who bought the troubled Vuelta in 1979 and helped turn the struggling three-week stage race into a world force. The Vuelta was floundering from a lack of cycling stars and threats from the Basque terrorist group ETA when Franco’s Unipublic agreed to take over Spain’s top stage race.
Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in this country, a contributor to heart attacks, high blood pressure, and strokes. Of course, regular exercise and training is good for your heart and raises the helpful HDL cholesterol, but you still need to pay attention to the foods that you consume for optimal heart health.
Three American teams will be among 19 squads fighting for the honors in the Criterium International in late March. High Road, Slipstream-Chipotle and BMC all earned invitations to compete in the three-stage, two-day race held in the French Ardennes. The race is dubbed the “mini Tour de France,” in part because it’s organized by the Tour owners, ASO, and because it features the three classic elements of a stage race, with a time trial, a climbing stage and a road course well-suited for sprinters.
Cycling's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, suffered a serious blow to its authority on Wednesday as the sport’s top teams voted to enter the first major stage race of the season, Paris-Nice. UCI president Pat McQuaid had called on teams to boycott the race as part of his body's ongoing dispute with the race's parent company Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) - also the organizers of the Tour de France. ASO aims to run the race under the auspices of the French Cycling Federation
Erik Zabel isn’t washed up yet. The 37-year-old Milram ace out-sprinted younger rivals to snag his first win of what will likely be his final season in the 178km second stage of the Volta a Valenciana in Spain. Zabel — who saw his reputation sullied last year after admitting he used the banned blood booster EPO during the 1996 season — finished off an exciting stage that saw Slipstream-Chipotle’s Timmy Duggan feature in the day’s main breakaway.
Officials at the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) requested Wednesday that Giro d’Italia champion Danilo Di Luca be banned for two years for an abnormal hormone test. The abnormal result — not a direct doping positive — was returned after the 17th stage of the Giro from Lienz in Austria to Monte Zoncolan on May 30. "Anti-doping prosecutors have requested that the cyclist Danilo Di Luca be brought before a judge to answer accusations of doping, with reference to an abnormal result," said a CONI statement.
A cancer scare a year ago is fueling newfound ambitions for Belgian attacker Philippe Gilbert (Française des Jeux) heading into this year’s classics campaign. At the beginning of the 2007 season, the 25-year-old was alarmed by the sudden appearance of any ugly black mole on his left leg and immediately went to the doctor. Before he knew it, he was hustled into surgery not knowing whether or not he’d ever race again.
A banged up Magnus Bäckstedt (Slipstream-Chipotle) will return to competition in next month’s Tirreno-Adriatico stage race in Italy, a move that puts him on track to shine in the spring classics. Bäckstedt, 33, snapped his collarbone in a finish line crash during stage 5 at the Tour of Qatar last month. Following surgery, the 2004 Paris-Roubaix champion says his recovery is going better than expected.
Stung by the exclusion of three of its top riders from last week’s Amgen Tour of California, the Rock Racing team announced plans to launch an aggressive internal team anti-doping program on Tuesday. “This internal anti-doping initiative underscores Rock Racing's, and Team Owner Michael Ball's, willingness to take every measure to ensure that its members race clean and fair,” a team press release noted.
Craig Calfee hopes to prove that one person with one idea can make a difference in some of the poorest corners of the planet. The maker of some of the most exclusive and sought after carbon-fiber bikes on the market, Calfee plans to use his knowledge to teach Africans how to build themselves bamboo cargo bikes.
The sprinters were sharpening their knives before Tuesday’s opening stage of the five-day Volta a Valenciana in Spain, but a late-race attack featuring 24 riders stayed away to foil their chances. Spanish rider José Iván Gutiérrez (Caisse d’Epargne) out-kicked compatriot Ruben Plaza (SL Benfica) and Xavier Florencio (Bouygues Telecom) to snag the win and take the overall leader’s jersey in the 157km stage from Sagunto to Port de Sagunto.
The original Blur LT was introduced three years ago and the all-mountain rig has become the brand’s bestseller. But the company is releasing a remodeled design intended to keep it at the top of its heap. The most visible new feature is the use of a carbon fiber upper VPP link. Less visible but more important is a careful re-tooling of the linkage’s shock rate. Santa Cruz engineers mellowed the rate out to offer a supple beginning stroke and and a linear feel all the way through to bottom out.
Professional teams caught up in a dispute between the Union Cycliste Internationale and major race organizers are poised to make a decision which could force an end to the dispute between the two warring parties. The UCI on Monday effectively warned teams they could be sanctioned if they turned up to race at Paris-Nice, the first major European stage race of the season, on March 9-16.
Victory in Portugal’s five-day Tour of the Algarve bodes well for both the immediate and long-term prospects of rising Belgian talent Stijn Devolder. The former Discovery Channel rider is taking on an ambitious 2008 calendar that includes a detour through the cobblestones of northern France and Belgium before a run at the top-10 at the Tour de France.
This past weekend’s trip to the Wisconsin north woods for the 35th American Birkebeiner, which for many cyclists is a festival of extreme winter cross-training, got me thinking about traditions. Being able to count on the recurrence of a tradition is comforting. Yet underneath, traditions can be fragile, no matter how long they have survived.
The war between the UCI and major race organizers took a significant new twist on Monday as world cycling’s governing body warned that it might have nothing to do with Paris-Nice, the European calendar's first major race of the season.
Tour de France champion Alberto Contador will look to continue venting his frustration on the bike when he saddles up for the five-day Tour of the Valencia Community on Tuesday. The Spaniard and his Astana team are still digesting the bitter pill of being left out of the Tour de France, and the Giro d'Italia due to controversial decisions by the respective race organizers.
Italian cyclist Marco Fertonani will serve a two-year ban for doping after a last-ditch appeal to the Italian Olympic Commitee (CONI) failed on Monday. Fertonani, formerly of the Caisse d'Epargne team, failed a test for testosterone following his fourth-place finish in the Tour Mediterraneen in February 2007. The 31-year-old appealed to CONI's appeals judge, claiming that the French laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry, which dealt with his samples, had made an error.
With more rain and another long breakaway, Casey Gibson was not deterred. He spent another long day with the peloton capturing the action. The 2008 Tour of California didn't present much fun in the sun, so Casey managed to shoot a few painful grimaces during the stage as well as some very relieved smiles on the podium.
Belgian Stijn Devolder (QuickStep) won the 34th edition of Portugal's Tour of the Algarve Sunday, on a day when Team High Road's Bernhard Eisel won his fourth career Algarve stage, this time by solo'ing away from a breakaway in the final kilometers. The Austrian was followed at 3 seconds by Benfica's Rui Costa and Celestino Pinho of Barbot-Siper in the 194-kilometer stage finishing in Portimão. Devolder was joined on the GC podium by Cofidis's Sylvain Chavanel and Astana's Tomas Vaitkus of Lithuania.
A former team soigneur says Rock Racing’s Kayle Leogrande told her last July that he used performance-enhancing drugs at Wisconsin's International Cycling Classic, also known as Superweek.
Adding a ray of sunshine to an otherwise cloudy week of racing for Team High Road, American George Hincapie won the final stage of the 2008 Amgen Tour of California on Sunday, the 93.4-mile journey from Santa Clarita to Pasadena. The American took the victory in downtown Pasadena ahead of breakaway companions Michael Creed, Jason McCartney, Rory Sutherland and Tom Zirbel. [nid:72801]
Levi Leipheimer has proven immune to all the pressures, dangers, fatigue and sickness of the 2008 Amgen Tour of California. With one final stage left, it seems all but certain that Astana will defend Leipheimer’s overall lead into Pasadena and the record books. Only 91 of the original starting 132 riders made it to the finish line in Santa Clarita. A stomach virus has taken out more than a dozen riders, while crashes, fatigue, hypothermia and other factors have removed players from what has been the toughest-ever Tour of California.
American Katheryn Mattis (Webcor Builders) outsprinted Australia's Emma Rickards (Cervelo Lifeforce) to claim victory in the opening round of the UCI Women's Road Cycling World Cup series Sunday in Geelong, Australia. The pace was high from the gun with 12 riders breaking away early. But Team High Road powered the chase on the front of the peloton and the break were reeled in on the fourth lap. Cervelo Lifeforce riders then launched a series of attacks with Rickards finally breaking clear followed close behind by Mattis.
The tears in Mark Cavendish's eyes at the podium presentation for stage 6 of the Amgen Tour of California on Saturday were not from joy, but frustration. While the 22-year old High Road rider won the bunch kick in downtown Santa Clarita after the 105.4-mile journey from Santa Barbara, shortly before the ceremony race officials told the Brit he had been relegated to last place. His foul? Hanging onto a team car a few miles from the finish, while his bike was being fixed after a crash. [nid:72746]
German cyclist Patrik Sinkewitz, suspended for a year after a positive drugs test last June, could face a prison sentence if he persists in concealing the names of others guilty of doping offenses. A report in Monday's edition of Der Spiegel, quoting sources close to the case, say German criminal investigators looking into the allegations of improper doping practices at the private University Clinic Freiburg are starting to "lose patience with Sinkewitz.”
Barring disaster, Astana's Levi Leipheimer appears to have a lock on the overall 2008 Amgen Tour of California's winner's jersey.
After a long day in the rain on Thursday, the sun smiled on riders and on photographer Casey Gibson who spent his Friday capturing images of the 15-mile time trial in Solvang.
Astana’s Levi Leipheimer took a substantial leap forward in his quest to defend his Amgen Tour of California victory, winning the stage 5 individual time trial in Solvang. The American, who was the final rider to leave the starting gate, finished the rolling 15-mile course in 30:47, 29 seconds up on British time trial champ David Millar (Slipstream-Chipotle), with American Christian Vande Velde in third at 45 seconds back.
Gerolsteiner's Robert Förster won a mass sprint Friday in the third stage of Portugal's Volta ao Algarve, winning the stage while retaining his overall lead. Förster took the 208km stage from Vila Real S.Antontio to Loule after his team and Quick Step pulled back an early breakaway, catching its lone survivor, Belgian Gianni Meersman (Française des Jeux), in the final 600 meters. Belgian Jurgen Roelandts (Silence-Lotto) and the Frenchman Lilian Jegou (Française des Jeux) finished second and third in the sprint.
Fabian Cancellara was clearly not a happy man. At the end of Wednesday’s decisive stage 3 ride into San Jose, the CSC star threw a water bottle to the ground and climbed into his team car for a ride to his hotel. He wasn’t in the mood for a post-race talk with reporters.
Toyota-United’s Dominique Rollin may be celebrating Thursday’s 7 1/2-hour march as his best-ever day as a professional cyclist, but he’s likely the only rider in the Amgen Tour of California peloton to feel that way.
With a show of raw power reminiscent of Tom Boonen’s victories in the spring classics, Canadian Dominique Rollin muscled his way to a solo victory in the Amgen Tour of California’s rain-soaked fourth stage. The 25-year-old shattered a dwindling seven-man breakaway with 15 miles remaining in the brutal 135.3-mile slog from Seaside to San Luis Obispo, and then held off breakaway companions George Hincapie (High Road) and Iker Camano (Saunier Duval-Scott) by 18 seconds to take the biggest win of his young career.
Brooke Miller won the 2008 Amgen Women's Criterium, an event held during the first stage of the Amgen Tour of California and the first event of this year's National Racing Calendar. Miller, a Cleveland resident who won ten races in Europe last year in her first season racing abroad, edged Cheerwine’s Laura Van Gilder and Team High Road’s Emila Fahlin
Tomas Vaitkus delivered a dose of revenge for his beleaguered Astana team by taking the team’s first win of the 2008 season in the 189.5km second stage at the Volta ao Algarve, a day after his teammate Levi Leipheimer took the lead at the Tour of California. Overnight leader Robert Förster (Gerolsteiner) came through second in the mass gallop to retain his place atop the GC, with Vaitkus slotting in at second at just one second back.
Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) made it three in a row while Pablo Lastras (Caisse d’Epargne) wrapped up the overall title at the 54th Vuelta a Andalucía-Ruta de Sol. The 154.6km fifth and final stage from Antequera to Córdoba ended just as both protagonists could have hoped. The 34-year-old “AleJet” made easy work of Denis Flahaut (Saunier Duval) and Sebastian Siedler (Skil Shimano) while Lastras finished safely in the pack to secure the top spot on the podium.
As predicted, stage 3 proved itself pivotal to the overall of the Amgen Tour of California. While we don’t yet know who will take the overall title, we can probably rule out 115 of the 120 men left in the race. Those still with a realistic chance include defending champion Levi Leipheimer (Astana), world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (CSC) and three Slipstream-Chipotle riders: Dave Zabriskie, David Millar and Christian Vande Velde.
Rabobank’s 21-year-old Robert Gesink climbed his way to the biggest win of his young career Wednesday in stage 3 of the Amgen Tour of California. Levi Leipheimer, who went clear with Gesink from a select bunch of chasers over Sierra Road, finished second on the day to take the leader’s jersey. Slipstream-Chipotle’s Tyler Farrar started the day in the jersey — but with a stomach bug. He dropped out midway through the stage. However, it was inevitable that the American sprinter would have relinquished the lead on the race's most difficult climbing stage.
Tyler Farrar, the young Slipstream-Chipotle rider who took the yellow jersey following Tuesday’s stage, only got to show it off for about 50 miles on Wednesday, as he dropped out with stomach bug that is spreading through the peloton. “I had a bit of a rough night last night,” Farrar said before the start Wednesday. He said then that he thought he was feeling better, but he was dropped by the pack on the first hill. He caught on on the descent, only to be dropped again. He climbed into a team car before the day’s major climbs began.
VeloNews publisher, Andy Pemberton, was on the scene in Modesto this morning capturing the action at the start of stage 3. After a wet stage 2, the sunshine was a welcome change for racers and spectators alike.