Road Racing

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.

The 2009 Tour de France begins Saturday, but by Thursday the giant show had already overwhelmed the small streets surrounding Monaco’s Port Hercule. Spectacular yachts and sailboats pack the docks in the port, and now, a row of trucks and buses belonging to the 20 teams contesting the Tour can be counted in the mix.

The term “handmade” is a rarity in today’s age of automated production. Fewer brands are holding onto their heritage, and are increasingly seeking cheaper, quicker and less labor-intensive production options.

Tom Boonen will find out on Friday whether he has been granted a last minute reprieve to compete in the Tour de France which starts in Monaco on Saturday. The former world road race champion, and current Belgian national champion, was barred from the Tour following a positive test for cocaine in April. Boonen's fate is being decided by the French Olympic Committee's arbitration panel. The Quick Step rider missed last year's Tour for the same reason.

We recently bumped into Jim Felt, head bike designer of his namesake company Felt Bicycles, in the Cote d’Azur airport. He is in the middle of a three-week trip that first took him to Aigle, Switzerland, to visit the UCI, where he met with Jean Wauthier, the organization’s technical director and Phillippe Chevallier, the road coordinator. Felt was on his way to the start of the Tour de France in Monaco where he’ll be embedded with the Garmin team for the first 10 days of the race. Felt was happy to talk about his meeting with the UCI while waiting for his traveling companions.

Saxo Bank manager Bjarne Riis expressed confidence that his team will be tough to beat in the race for the maillot jaune in this year’s Tour de France. Riis, the 1996 Tour winner who two years ago admitted to having used the banned blood booster EPO as a rider, won the race for the first time as manager last year when Spaniard Carlos Sastre triumphed for CSC.

The mechanics at the ’10 Canndonale product release in Park City, Utah certainly had their work cut out for them. It was their job to assemble and disassemble 250, ride-ready road, mountain, and commuter bikes for 500 visiting Cannondale dealers during a two-week period. At the tail end of the Cannondale international sales meeting, VeloNews was given the opportunity to preview and ride the bikes of next year.

The Garmin-Slipstream team announced on Thursday that Martijn Maaskant will replace injured Irish rider Dan Martin on its Tour de France roster. Martin, who has been suffering from tendinitis in his knee, concluded that he would be unable to ride the upcoming three-week race, leaving a gap on the team's roster, which will now be filled with Maaskant. The team said that Martin had been working closely with Garmin's medical staff to resolve the issue but finally concluded that competing in the Tour posed too great a threat to his long-term prospects.

Alexander Vinokourov said Wednesday he intends to ride for Astana later this year or there will be serious consequences for those who keep him from riding on the Kazakh-financed team. In a press conference held in Monaco in advance of Saturday’s Tour de France start, Vinokourov, whose suspension for homologous blood doping ends on July 24, said there’s no possibility that he would ride for any team other than the one he helped establish in 2006.

Yellow jersey contender Cadel Evans remains upbeat despite the unwelcome news that his Silence-Lotto teammate Thomas Dekker has been ruled out of the Tour de France due to a positive doping control. Dekker, a two-time Dutch champion, was set to help Evans in this year's July 4-26 race but found out Wednesday that a sample from December 2007, kept for later re-testing, had tested positive for the banned blood-booster EPO.

Long before he was winning Tour de France stages, Mark Cavendish was formed into a professional cyclist by British Cycling’s Rod Ellingworth. As research for the current cover story on Cavendish, VeloNews interviewed Ellingworth.

Silence-Lotto's Thomas Dekker will miss the Tour de France after testing positive for the banned blood-booster EPO, his team announced on Wednesday. The sample was originally taken on December 24, of 2007, when Dekker was a member of the Rabobank team. The sample was re-tested using new techniques, which resulted in a positive test for EPO. "He found out on Wednesday morning that fresh analysis, carried out in May at the behest of WADA, on urine samples from a random doping control had turned up positive for EPO," the team said in a statement.

Weather is often the unnamed enemy at the Tour de France. Heat, wind, rain and cold can turn what would otherwise be a routine stage or climb into pure hell. A quick look at short- to mid-range weather forecasts calls for seasonable but unsettled conditions the first week or so of racing in the 2009 Tour. Forecasters are predicting moderately warm temperatures into the upper-80s for Saturday’s opening time trial in Monaco, but with a 20 percent chance of afternoon showers.

Seven Americans and one Canadian are among the 189 starters from 21 teams lining up for the individual time trial Saturday in Monaco to click the 2009 Tour de France into gear. U.S.-registered Garmin-Slipstream boasts the strongest North American representation, with Christian Vande Velde, Dave Zabriskie, Danny Pate and Tyler Farrar starting from the United States and Ryder Hesjedal as Canada’s lone representative.

In 2008, sunglass and apparel manufacturer, Oakley passed the $1 billion mark in terms of annual sales. That figure had been the goal of the company for the better part of a decade. That marked a milestone for an iconic brand whose futuristic building is perched atop a hill at the end of Icon road in Foothill Ranch, California. VeloNews visited Oakley’s Interplanetary headquarters this spring. You’ll have to pick up a copy of our August issue, on newsstands now, for the whole story, but as a supplement, we’re more than happy to take you on a photo tour, right here.

There’s a tight battle brewing at the front of the 2009 BC Bike Race between the Kona’s defending champions Kris Sneddon and Barry Wicks, and Canadian strongmen Chris Sheppard and Seamus McGrath (Santa Cruz/Jamis). After three stages the Canadian duo holds a slim 1:15 advantage in the overall ahead of the defending champions. Sheppard and McGrath won the first and third stages, both by small margins, and Kona grabbed stage 2 by a handful of seconds. And both teams know that in the topsy-turvy world of multi-day endurance stage racing, the fat lady is nowhere close to singing.

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At its “Backstage” media camp in Vicenza, Italy, recently, fi’zi:k displayed its first foray out of the saddle market: an alloy seatpost with a unique clamping mechanism that’s actually easier to use. The company has been investing considerable time and money into their braided-carbon rail technology lately, and since few component manufacturers have a clamp compatible with 7x9mm rails, fi’zi:k opted to make Cyrano Seatpost.

Cyrano seatpost

BH Bikes USA president and CEO Chris Cocalis stopped by the VeloNews office this week to show the new BH G5 frame and fork, which will be debuted at the Tour de France by Team AG2R-LaMondial this weekend. If the G5 bike is any predictor of the team’s pending performance, expect AG2R riders to be climbing and sprinting to victories left and right.

BH Bikes – Big in Spain, still growing in the USA

The Cervélo TestTeam has received UCI permission to reverse the colors on its nearly all-black kit in time to use a largely white version at this year’s Tour de France. The team has proposed changing its colors so that the black and white portions of the jersey are reversed.

Tom Boonen's bid to overturn a bar him from competing in the Tour de France has hit another snag with the decision by a French court not to hear his case. The former world road race champion from Belgium was barred from the Tour by its organizers Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) following his positive test for cocaine in April, even though the test was taken outside the sporting calendar.

The 2009 Tour de France hasn’t even started yet, but it’s already clear what the main story line will be. Come the grand tour’s crucial stages, who will be Astana’s team leader? Will it be pre-race favorite, 2007 Tour champion, and the widely regarded best stage racer in the world right now, Alberto Contador? Or will seven-time Tour winner and worldwide sports icon Lance Armstrong get the nod? VeloNews.com doesn’t have the answer just yet, but we do have an exclusive interview with Armstrong where he addresses this weighty topic.

Fabian Cancellara’s time trial bike time trial bike that he raced in the Tour de Romandie, the Giro d’Italia, and the Tour de Suisse now has a name: The Shiv. Unlike shivs used in prison riots, this is hardly an improvised weapon slapped together out of found items. Engineers have thought out every detail on this bike and tested and simulated it for its contribution to the bike’s overall aerodynamic efficiency, stiffness, and strength. And the materials and the processes required to make it are extremely expensive.

Tyler Farrar will be something of an oddity when he lines up Saturday for his Tour de France debut – an American sprinter. For the first time in several years, since Fred Rodriguez lined up at Mapei and later at Silence-Lotto, an American will have a legitimate shot at winning a bunch sprint in the Tour. And unlike Rodriguez, who rode his last Tours in support of Robbie McEwen, Farrar will see strong support from his Garmin-Slipstream teammates. Veteran lead-out man Julian Dean will be Farrar’s guide through the high-speed duel of nerves and speed.

Journalists and cycling-industry representatives descended upon the quiet resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho, last week for Press Camp, a three-day event that included rapid-fire, one-on-one meetings each morning, followed by afternoon test rides and demos. It was a lot of information to absorb in just three days — but we’re finally catching up and passing the word along to you.

Clif Bar: New drink, new flavors for bars, Bloks

Team sport directors are rallying their opposition to plans to ban race radio during two stages during the upcoming Tour de France. Representatives from some of the top teams Monday criticized efforts by Tour officials to ban the use of earpieces and radio links between sport directors and racers during two stages at this year’s race, calling the measure “outdated and inappropriate.”

With the addition of a mobile phone company co-sponsor, Team Columbia is now Columbia-HTC. Team owner Bob Stapleton announced the new sponsor and his squad’s Tour de France lineup Monday. Mark Cavendish, who won four stages in the 2008 Tour, will be joined by Michael Rogers, Kim Kirchen, George Hincapie, Tony Martin, Maxime Monfort, Mark Renshaw, Bernie Eisel and Bert Grabsch at the start of the 2009 Tour in Monaco on Saturday. Rogers, Kirchen and Monfort are the team’s GC hopes, with world time trial champion Grabsch a clear favorite for the individual events.

Rock Racing’s Rahsaan Bahati won his third consecutive Manhattan Beach Grand Prix on Sunday. Colavita Sutter-Home p/b Cooking Light rider Lucas Sebastian Haedo took second in the seaside Southern California NRC criterium while Ken Hanson of Team Type 1 placed third. In the women's race, 16-year old Proman Hit Squad rider Coryn Rivera took the win after riding a smart race and outkicking the competition out of the final turn.

Quick Step has eight of its nine riders ready for the Tour de France, but the Belgian team is waiting to learn the fate of Tom Boonen. Boonen’s immediate future lies in the hands of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which is expected to decide Tuesday if the recently crowned Belgian national champion can start the Tour.

With Damiano Cunego giving the Tour de France a skip to prepare for the world championships, Lampre-NGC will instead focus on trying to win stages and leave the fight for the GC to the other teams. The Italian team brings a nine-man squad full of stage-hunters, with the lone exception of veteran Marzio Bruseghin, who will do what he can to try to finish among the top 10 overall. The improving condition of reigning world champion Alessandro Ballan, who missed the spring classics with poor health, gives Lampre a shot to fight for a stage in the breakaways and transition stages.

French veteran Christophe Moreau will headline Agritubel in what’s expected to be his final Tour de France. The 38-year-old Moreau will anchor an Agritubel team that brings a mix of youth and experience that will be on the hunt for stage victories and perhaps a spell in one of the jersey for Moreau’s exit.

Tom Boonen (Quick Step), whose participation in the next Tour de France may depend on a court order, won the Belgian road cycling championships on Sunday. The 28-year-old outsprinted Philippe Gilbert and Kristof Goddart to claim his first national title as an elite on an undulating 234km course that some felt would not favor the big rider’s strengths. "Philippe was the strongest today,” said Boonen. “I had no legs but I raced with my head. I am especially happy for my team, which did a great job.”

The Cannondale people know a good thing when they see it, and hosting their international sales meeting and product release in Park City, Utah, is one of them. Setting up shop in the small ski town and mountain bike mecca gives Cannondale dealers and the press a chance to try out some of the company's latest products. This year we've gotten a look at Cannondale’s 2010 line, including top-end models of the cross country Scalpel, the 7900-equipped CAAD9 road bike and the race-ready CAAD9 cyclocross bike, complete with tubulars.

It’s almost July and you know what that means – it’s time to bet on the Tour de France. Bookies across Europe ? where betting on the Tour and other cycling events is quite popular ? have anointed their favorite. Alberto Contador leads the odds across all the major European betting houses, outstripping seven-time Tour champ Lance Armstrong and defending champion Carlos Sastre. In fact, Contador is so heavily favored by the bookies, that it would be hard to make much money on the Spanish climber.

Note: This interview was conducted several days before Cervélo TestTeam announced its 2009 Tour de France roster, which did not include Simon Gerrans. The Aussie was very surprised, writing on Twitter, “I’m still digesting the news. I’m pretty disappointed.”

Riccardo Riccò – Italy’s bad boy of racing – already has a team for next season when his 20-month ban for doping ends in 2010. Italian second division team Ceramica Flaminia has confirmed it has signed Riccò to a two-year contract and is expected to officially announce the news in a press conference this weekend.

Australian Cadel Evans has been given scope for a more promising tilt at the Tour de France yellow jersey with a reinforced team for the July 4-26 event. Silence-Lotto on Friday named the two-time runner-up as team leader, with his compatriot Matthew Lloyd joining Belgian Jurgen Van den Broeck and Dutchman Thomas Dekker on duties of helping Evans in the mountain stages. Germany's Sebastian Lang, who has recovered from a crash at the Dauphine Libere stage race last week, is also included.

“Press Camp” is a new event for the cycling industry. Positioned somewhere between Interbike and the elaborate, expensive, private media launches by the biggest brands in cycling, it’s an intimate affair designed to give the small- to medium-sized players in the industry some one-on-one time with reporters. Almost twenty brands have convened in Sun Valley, Idaho, and gathered about the same number of editors for two days of focused meetings, product introductions, and demos. Look for reports to trickle out over the next week or so as we gather the stories and bring them to you.

Liguigas is betting on youth for the Tour de France overall, with improving youngsters Roman Kreuziger and Vicenzo Nibali selected to head the Italian team’s hopes. With star rider Ivan Basso skipping the Tour to focus on the Vuelta a España later on this season, Kreuziger and Nibali will be aiming to slot into the top 10 overall.

Chris Horner won’t be starting the Tour de France after he was overlooked as part of the nine-man squad revealed Wednesday by Astana. The veteran Horner crashed out of the Giro d’Italia in May and was hoping to be back in top shape to earn a Tour slot, but he was not awarded one of the nine spots on the loaded Astana team. Another surprise name missing from roster was reliable Spanish workhorse Benjamin Noval, a veteran of Tour-winning campaigns of Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador.

At 50, Jeannie Longo is showing no sign of slowing down as she won her 56th national champion’s jersey, successfully defending her French national time trial title in Saint-Brieuc on Thursday. The Grenoble native easily defeated a strong field of challengers, covering a 23.5-kilometer course in 33:42, some 33 seconds faster than second-placed Edwige Pitel. Marina Jaunatre took third, with a time more 59 seconds off of Longo’s.

Gert Steegmans ? the Belgian sprinter who’s refused to sign an anti-doping charter that includes hefty penalties for violations ? has been left off Katusha’s nine-man Tour de France team. Steegmans was put on “non-active” status and not included in the Russian team’s nine-man roster. “All I can say is it’s too bad, I can’t say much more on the topic,” Steegmans told the Belgian daily La Derniere Heure. “I cannot answer anymore questions. I am not even sure I am going to be able to race the Belgian championships (Sunday).”

The Cervélo TestTeam named an experienced team on Wednesday to support Spanish reigning champion Carlos Sastre in this year's Tour de France, which begins in Monaco on July 4. Sastre, 34, will be notably supported by his 40-year-old compatriot Inigo Cuesta. Norway's Thor Hushovd, 31, will be the other leader in the team, along with Germany's 25-year-old Heinrich Haussler, who finished second in Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders this year. Australia's Simon Gerrans, who won one stage in last year's Tour and another at the Giro d'Italia in May, was not selected.

The Caisse d'Epargne cycling team on Wednesday released a short-list of 10 riders from which the team will select nine to start the Tour de France, which runs from July 4-26. Six of them, the Spaniards David Arroyo, Ivan Gutierrez, Luis Pasamontes, Luis Leon Sanchez, Xabier Zandio and 2006 Tour winner Oscar Pereiro are assured of their places on the start line in Monaco. The three final places are being contested by Portugal's Rui Costa, Frenchman Arnaud Coyot, Spain's Jose Joaquin Rojas and the Colombian Rigoberto Uran.

The Versus cable network will broadcast the 2009 Tour de France in high definition for the first time. The network will begin its coverage on July 4 and 8:30 a.m. Eastern with a one-hour feature on Lance Armstrong. The race coverage will start at 9:30. The network says it will broadcast an average of 13 hours of Tour coverage each day. A complete schedule is available at Versus.com.

Garmin-Slipstream brings back some familiar faces with a few new ones for the 2009 Tour de France. The squad released its nine names for next months’ Tour, with Christian Vande Velde as the team captain and Tour debutante Tyler Farrar the man for the sprints. Returning with Vande Velde from last year’s Tour team are David Millar, Ryder Hesjedal, Danny Pate, Dave Zabriskie and Julian Dean. New riders for the team’s Tour hopes this year include Farrar, Irish national champion Dan Martin and Olympic gold medalist Bradley Wiggins.

Rabobank’s Pedro Horrillo, the rider who suffered a disastrous crash in last month’s Giro d’Italia, was released from a Spanish hospital on Wednesday and said that he wants to ride again. The 34-year-old Spaniard fell nearly 150 feet after vaulting over a traffic barrier on a treacherous descent of the Culmine di San Petro in the eighth stage of the Giro on May 16. Horrillo suffered a broken femur and knee, several broken ribs and a punctured lung, plus head and chest trauma.

Don’t tell Alessandro Ballan that there’s some sort of curse that goes with the world champion’s rainbow jersey. Most world champions are highly marked in races, making it even harder to win, but at least they’re racing. Ballan’s world champion season has been short-circuited by illness, but the gangly Lampre-NGC rider is hoping to get things back on track for the Tour de France. “I am about 60-70 percent my condition, nothing more, I must rebuild,” Ballan told L’Equipe.

Do vintage Campy rear derailleurs have non-standard mounting bolt threads?

In 1999, Lance Armstrong came into the Tour de France as a cancer survivor, not a favorite for the overall. In this exclusive video series, VeloNews takes a look back at how he won what was to become his first of seven consecutive Tour de France titles. VeloNews.tv will release segments of this 15-video series daily right up until the eve of the 2009 Tour de France.

PRESS RELEASE

Controversial Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde will not take part in this year's Tour de France, his Caisse d'Epargne team announced on Tuesday. His absence removes a potentially embarrassing stand-off as the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) last month banned Valverde from racing in Italy for two years due to his alleged involvement in the Operation Puerto blood doping scandal. That ostensibly ruled him out of the race in any case, as this year it passes through Italy's Val D'Aosta region on July 21.

Milram, the peloton’s lone German team starting the Tour de France, will place its trust and hopes on a pair of young talented but untested riders. Linus Gerdemann and Gerald Ciolek headline Milram’s nine-man Tour squad that includes six German riders.

France’s Française des Jeux team has narrowed its Tour de France list down to eight. The team will largely forget about challenging for the GC, and instead hope to earn some headlines through attacks, perhaps a spell in some of the jerseys early on or, ideally, win a stage or two. “We want to be in breakaways, add a spark to the race and give something for the fans to cheer about,” said team manager Marc Madiot. “Casar will be our top man, but is it better for him to try to win another stage or finish in the top 15 again?”

Andrew Bajadali (Kelly Benefit Strategies) won Sunday's Tour de Winghaven road race in Missouri, but OUCH-Maxxis's defending National Racing Calendar champ Rory Sutherland remains solidly atop the NRC standings. Bajadali's win was the second NRC victory of the year for the Kelly team, following Zach Bell's win at the Bank of America Wilmington Grand Prix last month.