Road Racing

Just when it looked like the Vuelta a España was stuck on the repeat button, all hell broke loose in Friday´s 176km 13th stage. Take away the wild battles in the Pyrenees, and it seemed the Vuelta had stolen the script from the movie “Groundhog Day.” Day after day, the same plot unfolded: an early break, lots of TV for Spain´s second-division no-hopers, the peloton on siesta, the sprint teams revving up the chase, the breakaway caught with 8km to go, a sprinter sweeping across the line in the fight to see who gets kisses from the podium girls.

Luciano Pagliarini took a convincing sprint win at the conclusion of stage 4 of the Tour of Missouri on Friday, moving into a tie atop the points jersey standings in the process. [nid:40511]The Brazilian Prodir-Saunier Duval rider blasted straight up the gut of the finishing straight of Columbia’s East Walnut Street, lunging his bike across the line ahead of Canadian Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics) and Cuban Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United), who were a distant second and third respectively.

If there was any doubt that Alessandro Petacchi was back at his best, he erased them with an emphatic finishing surge Thursday to claim his second straight sprint victory at the Vuelta a España. On a day when another breakaway attempt fell short, Milram did the heavy lifting to reel in the attackers to put Ale-Jet in position to win the 173km 12th stage from Algemesí to Hellín.

The rollercoaster ride that is George Hincapie's cycling career took a decidedly upward turn on Thursday, as the American posted a solid sixth-place effort in the Tour of Missouri's stage 3 time trial. Hincapie was more than two minutes back of teammate and stage winner Levi Leipheimer, but he put time into all the other members of Wednesday's decisive 12-man breakaway, and now has a commanding lead in the overall standings of this six-day, 600-mile race that ends Sunday in St. Louis.

Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) made yet another comeback after sprinting to victory in Wednesday’s otherwise routine 11th stage at the Vuelta a España. It was his first major victory since the Italian ace tested non-negative for Salbutamol at the Giro d’Italia and his career teetered on the edge of disaster. The Italian cycling federation eventually cleared Petacchi of what could have been a two-year racing ban, but the proud Petacchi was forced to sit on the sidelines during the Tour de France.

Barring a repeat of the bad luck that has periodically plagued George Hincapie the last couple years, the American is in solid position to win the overall title at the inaugural Tour of Missouri. On Wednesday, the Discovery Channel rider was part of a 12-rider break that rolled off the front of the field early in the rolling 125.6-mile stage 2 run from Clinton to Springfield and never looked back. At the finish, when Hincapie darted out of the small pack to take the stage win, the trailing field was more than 14 minutes behind.

When the Dura-Ace 7800 group was introduced for the 2004 season, it didn’t feature a hint of carbon fiber despite the fact that Campagnolo was offering ample amounts of the material throughout its flagship Record group. At the time Shimano relied on its ability to forge high quality aluminum at its Osaka factories. Four years later, carbon fiber is quite evident in Shimano's 2008 line. Four of Dura-Ace’s five wheel models feature carbon fiber rims, while a fifth uses scandium. The just released XTR Shadow rear derailleur sports a true carbon fiber pulley cage. And to put the icing on

Photo Gallery Below On a day when I pause every year to reflect on what the future may holdfor all of us, I think about the things that give me a little hope forthat future. One of those things is seeing kids on bikes. The future seems a lotbrighter to me if lots of kids are riding bikes, ensuring a healthier nextgeneration of adults treading more lightly on the earth with another toolto combat global warming and oil dependence. There are a number of great programs around the country that are successfulin creating passionate young bike riders, and I think all of them shouldbe encouraged. I

Cuban speedster Ivan Dominguez earned the first yellow jersey of the inaugural Tour of Missouri, blasting across the line at the end of stage 1 on a sun-splashed Tuesday in Kansas City. The Toyota United rider’s triumph came at the expense of Canadian Zach Bell (Symmetrics) and American Kyle Wamsley (Navigators) who were second and third respectively on the opening day of this six-stage, 600-mile race that will head west to east across the Show Me State before finishing on Sunday in St. Louis.

How much is Denis Menchov dominating the 2007 Vuelta a España? If the amount of lipstick on his cheeks from receiving kisses from the podium girls is any indication, a lot. The 29-year-old Rabobank captain won the longest and hardest stage of this year’s Vuelta on a sunny and windy Monday high in Andorra to carry a solid lead of more than two minutes to compatriot Vladimir Efimkin (Caisse d’Epargne) into Tuesday’s rest day. Just add up the quality podium time Menchov enjoyed: stage winner, race leader, mountain jersey and the combined jersey. That’s a lot of kisses.

Monday’s exciting stage at the Vuelta a España saw the return of polemica, a tried and true European journalistic tradition of a battle of words fought out in headlines. The “he said-she said” tug-of-wars used to fill the pages of European sports dailies until the dirty business of doping scandals took all the fun out of being a cycling journalist. Those glory days returned briefly Monday as exhausted and frustrated riders started to point fingers at one another at the finish of the frenetic 214km “queen stage” across the Spanish Pyrenees. The first salvo came from Team CSC’s Carlos

[nid:40410]Two years ago, Denis Menchov was declared victor of the Vuelta a España months after Roberto Heras tested positive for EPO and was eventually dethroned. The Rabobank rider never enjoyed his moment on the winner’s podium and remains bitter about the whole business. Flash forward to Sunday’s first of two decisive climbing stages across the Spanish Pyrénées, when the soft-spoken Russian followed the attacking Leonardo Piepoli to climb solidly into the leader’s jersey .

Stijn Devolder (Discovery Channel) became stronger as the 52.2km individual time trial into Zaragoza unfolded to surge into the overall leader’s jersey Saturday at the Vuelta a España. His rivals are hoping that trend doesn’t continue going into a pair of decisive climbing stages in the Pyrénées, or this Vuelta might well be over.

Perhaps Oscar Freire has a sixth sense. After winning three out of the first six stages at the Vuelta a España, the Rabobank sprinter had his crash radar up and decided to take himself out of Friday’s sprint into Zaragoza. Sure enough. There was a nasty spill with about 30km to go that took down American Christian Vande Velde (CSC) when the peloton was roaring at 65kph to erase the day’s main breakaway.

Oscar Freire (Rabobank) is slipperier than a fish in the fast-moving waters of the bunch sprints at the Vuelta a España. For the better part of Thursday’s 184.3km sixth stage across Spain’s Rioja wine country, Freire was jabbering with friends at the back of the peloton, flitting around as if killing time before getting down to the business end of the stage.

With a few short weeks before the 2007 world championship road race, Oscar Freire (Rabobank) looks almost unbeatable in the sprint as he aims for his fourth rainbow jersey in Stuttgart on September 30. [nid:40358]The three-time world champ scored his second win in five days in Wednesday’s 157.4km fifth stage at the Vuelta a España with an explosive sprint that left the rest in the peloton shaking their heads in disbelief.

[nid:40341]Good thing Vladimir Efimkin's twin brother, Alexander, isn't at the Vuelta a España. Just moments after surprising the favorites on the Vuelta's hardest climb to surge into the overall leader's jersey, the 25-year-old Caisse d'Epargne rider was beating the drum of Alexander, who rides on rival Barloworld. "My brother is the one who you will be hearing about in the coming years," said Efimkin, who soloed to victory in Tuesday's epic climb to Lagos de Covadonga. "He trains harder than me, he's a better climber than me.

Reigning world champion Paolo Bettini says he’s not superstitious, but he was probably having his doubts after what’s been a long season for the usually prolific Tuscan tiger. Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic) came into the Vuelta a España with just one victory on the 2007 season and was relieved with his sprint victory Monday ahead of Óscar Freire Gómez (Rabobank) and Allan Davis (Discovery Channel) to end a winless streak dating back to February’s Tour of California.

Unlike Interbike in the United States, Eurobike’s final day is open to the public. Anyone with 20 extra euros can show up at the Messe Friedrichshafen and see the bicycle industry’s best. Because of this, most of the show's business is done by Saturday afternoon, freeing exhibitors from spec’ and sales meetings, plus the press, just in time to be thrown to an inquisitive public. We saw a lot on Saturday, some of which can be quickly explained and some that will require more attention. Over the next few weeks, in a lead-up to Interbike, we will try to explore in detail some of those

Discovery Channel went one-two on Sunday at the Greenville Hospital System USA Cycling Professional Road Race Championships in Greenville, South Carolina, with Levi Leipheimer soloing to victory by more than a minute over defending champion George Hincapie with Neil Shirley (Jittery Joe’s) third.

A day after finishing second, Spanish ace Oscar Freire (Rabobank) got it right in Sunday’s crash-marred second stage to win and move into the overall lead at the Vuelta a España. And a day after American climber Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) was KO’d with a broken shoulder, it was Christian Vande Velde’s turn. The Team CSC rider crashed twice but was able to finish the hilly stage despite some nasty road rash.

[nid:40251]Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) picked up where he left off, putting a nice bookend victory in Saturday’s 154.4km opener at the Vuelta a España to go along with his triumph in the final stage on the Champs Elysées at the Tour de France. The brawny Italian hitched a ride on Milram’s setup train and out-kicked a superstar field to win for the eighth time this season ahead of three-time world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and Alessandro Petacchi (Milram), who came through third.

This year hasn’t been stellar, results-wise, for Team CSC’s David Zabriskie. But his second consecutive time-trial win at the 2007 USA Cycling Professional Championships on Saturday may have brightened things up a bit.

If the scale of parking problems are an indication of interest, then Eurobike qualifies as a success. The line just to park at the Messe Friedrichshafen on the second day of the trade show was an hour long. Bumper-to-bumper traffic, all of it bound for Eurobike. The show, held on Germany’s southern border, attracts exhibitors from more than 36 countries — and that includes everyone, from the biggest players to the most obscure little guys. Here’s what caught our attention on Friday. LightweightThe famous German Lightweight wheels have a new look these days. The new black all-carbon spokes

Once home to the early 20th century’s famous Graf Zeppelin factory, the southern German town of Friedrichshafen now plays host to retirees and tourists visiting Lake Constance and – once a year – to what is becoming one of the world’s biggest bicycle industry trade shows. Thursday marked the opening of the 16th Eurobike show, with more than 850 exhibitors from 36 countries showing their wares in an astounding 13 exhibition halls. Despite the ample space, navigating the aisles was already tough Thursday — and that’s before the show opens to the general public on its final day on

SRAM finally unveiled its top-of-the-line component group last month. The company outlined details of the "Red" group during the Tour de France, where the group - still in prototype - saw action. Now, on the eve of the industry tradeshow season’s start, at Eurobike in Friedrichschafen, Germany, SRAM introduced a round of ready-to-ride pre-production parts, manufactured on the line's final tooling. Red’s specifications were finalized in conjunction with SRAM’s entry into the ProTour, by means of its sponsorship of Saunier Duval-Prodir. The relationship proved challenging to say the

Spanish rider Jose Ivan Gutierrez beat Britain's David Millar to claim the Tour of Benelux title on Wednesday. The Caisse d'Epargne rider claimed victory after finishing seconds behind Belgian Sebastien Rosseler in the seventh and final stage, a 29.6km time-trial. It was the first professional success for 26-year-old Rosseler who timed 36:50 with Gutierrez two seconds behind. Millar crossed in fourth to finish 11 seconds behind the Spaniard with Sweden's Gustav-Erik Larsson completing the podium. Overnight leader Thomas Dekker (Rabobank) paid the price of his fall on Tuesday,

Predictor-Lotto star Cadel Evans came within a scant 23 seconds of winning this year’s Tour de France and narrowly held on to second place, a mere eight seconds ahead of third-place Levi Leipheimer. It’s fair to say that Evans’ podium performance is thanks in part to his two breakthrough time trial rides. Evans placed second in both long time trials, behind Alexandre Vinokourov in stage 13 and behind Leipheimer in stage 19. With final time differences that slim, it is interesting to look at small time contributions among the top three riders overall, especially in long time trials, where

Dutch rider Thomas Dekker grabbed the overall lead in the Eneco Tour as Spaniard Pablo Lastras of the Caisse d’Epargne team won a crash-marred sixth stage from Beek to Landgraaf on Tuesday. Rabobank rider Dekker took the red leader’s jersey from Belgian Nick Nuyens (Cofidis), who was forced to abandon after a fall 40km into the penultimate stage of the race through the so-called Benelux countries. The Spaniard went it alone about 10km from the line after attacking an earlier breakaway and held off a push by Dutch rider Maarten Tjallingii to finish ahead of Belgian Steven Caethoven and

Danny Pate rode all but four kilometers of Saturday’s epic 232.5km fourth stage over the foggy mountains of Galway on the attack, but it was Norwegian hope Edvald Boasson Hagen (Maxbo-Bianchi) who took the cake at the Tour of Ireland. The Slipstream captain attacked 2km into the spectacular route across Ireland’s rugged Connamara country and was reeled in with about 2km to go as the heralded Boasson Hagen surprised the veterans with an early sprint to snag the win. “It was a lot of work for not a lot of reward,” said Pate, who was part of a five-man breakaway that dominated the Irish tour’s

It almost seemed unfair when the world No. 1 team ganged up on an untested youngster in Thursday’s hilly second stage at the Tour of Ireland. But Stijn Vandenbergh, Unibet.com’s unheralded neo-pro, proved he’s savvier than his 23 years when he fended off a collective effort by Team CSC to keep his yellow jersey dreams alive in the 166km run from Clonakilty to Killarney along Ireland’s stunning southwest coast. That’s not to say there weren’t some dicey moments for Vandenbergh, who surprised the favorites in Wednesday’s opener into Cork and take a huge 13-minute head start on all but nine

Dear Lennard,Was there any official report as to why David Millar's rear wheel fellapart during the stage 19 time trial at the Tour de France. I have neverseen anything like that. He seemed to have multiple wheels with the sameproblem right up to his mechanic riding a new bike out to him. How weirdwas that?Christopher Dear Christopher,Yes, I saw that, too. We tried to find out that day what happened,but didn't get any official word as the team handed off the wheel to themanufacturer for analysis. Fortunately, we contacted Mavic to see whatthey had learned.LennardAnswer from Mavic:As

Jens Voigt of CSC surprised several time trial specialists by winning the Tour of Germany's eighth stage Friday and all but ensuring a repeat of last year’s overall victory. Voigt, the defending champion, dominated the penultimate stage, a 33.1km time trial, in a time of 39:42 to hold off Laszlo Bodrogi of Hungary and American Levi Leipheimer. Bodrogi finished second at 14 seconds while Leipheimer, who finished third overall in the Tour de France thanks mainly to his efforts in the race's second time trial, was third at 25. Leipheimer, who is on the lookout for a new team following

T-Mobile speedster Gerald Ciolek won the sixth stage of the Tour of Germany after a sprint finish through the foothills of the Austrian Alps into Kufstein on Wednesday. The 20-year-old German was the first home after covering the largely flat route from 175km from Laegenfeld in three hours, 57mins and 40 seconds as CSC's Jens Voigt retained the yellow jersey. Ciolek had to work hard to hold off a challenge from the chasing pack including strong finishers such as Italians Danilo Napolitano, Paolo Bettini and German Erik Zabel which pushed him hard to the line. "I waited until the last

What say we give tire rolling resistance a rest this week?First, I wanted to tell you a little about the party we threw on August5 for the 25th anniversary of Zinn Cycles. Such a milestone does not comealong too often, and it was very interesting putting together the memorabiliacollected over a quarter of a century for the party. While it became brutally clear that the people who tell me and my wifethat we look the same as we did in college are stretching the truth, afar more interesting thing was to see how bikes have changed since 1982.I hope this doesn’t bore you (if so, skip to the

Caisse d'Epargne’s David Lopez Garcia won the fifth stage of the Tour of Germany between Sonthofen and the 2671-meter hors categorie mountain-top finish on top of Austria’s Rettenbachferner climb. Lopez Garcia took the win, but CSC’s Jens Voigt rode impressively to retain his grip on the overall race lead. The Spaniard moved out of a strong lead group some three kilometers from the finish and resisted a strong effort by defending champion Voigt to cross the line at 2670 meters altitude alone after 157.6km of racing. Voigt, wearing the yellow jersey since Saturday, finished just 12

Lampre’s Damiano Cunego enjoyed his first stage win at the Tour of Germany Monday, grabbing victory on the fourth stage as the tour entered the foothills of the Alps. The 25-year-old Cunego claimed victory on the 183.8km route between Singen and Sonthofen, which featured two rated climbs – the Category 3 Linden berg and the Cat. 2 climb up the 1420-meter-tall Riedbergpass. had two climbs, winning in a time of 4:28:06. Cunego, who moved ahead of the main field on the day’s final climb, stayed away with an elite group. The Lampre rider finished in a time of 4:28:06, narrowly edging out

Dear readers,
Most of today's column is devoted to a selection of the many, many interesting letters I got in response to my June 26 column, addressing the many factors that add to - or reduce – rolling resistance.
Lennard

Roundness
Lennard,

In Saturday’s battle of the NRC titans at the Presbyterian Invitational Criterium in Charlotte, North Carolina, Health Net-Maxxis rider Frank Pipp followed a late move by Jesse Anthony (Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada) and grabbed the win four and a half laps later. It was an intense effort that unexpectedly delivered another key win over the team’s close competitors, Toyota-United.

Electronic shifting is not necessarily a new idea. Mavic, for example, twice tried to roll out the concept in the 1990s. Remember Zap and Mektronic? While those early efforts never really gained traction, they did represent a first step away from reliance on the old tried-and-true woven steel cable. These days, there are several systems at various stages of development. A couple even showed up at the Tour de France this year. Hands down, we were most impressed by the effort Campagnolo engineers have put into the project in recent months. Campagnolo insists that all of its parts are still

Team Discovery, currently America's lone ProTour team, capped its best-ever Tour de France on Sunday, locking down the yellow jersey, the white jersey, two places on the final podium and the overall team classification. Discovery Channel's impressive quartet of achievements - highlighted by Alberto Contador's GC victory - exceeded any of the Lance Armstrong years, and gave the team formerly known as U.S. Postal Service eight Tour wins in nine years.

Throw in the two rest days, and Alberto Contador's winning margin at the 2007 Tour de France is destined to equal one tick of the watch per day. Those 23 seconds will represent the second smallest final time difference in the race's 94 renditions, trailing only Greg LeMond's eight-second triumph over Laurent Fignon in 1989. This year's near-record breaker came to pass during a breathtaking stage-19 time trial that left the outcome in doubt until the final kilometer, when Contador narrowly held off stiff challenges from Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer to maintain his slim overall lead.

In a battle among two Frenchmen and a pair of soon-to-be retirees, Française des Jeux's Sandy Casar was fastest of the four, taking victory in stage 18 of the 2007 Tour de France. Casar, who crashed into an unleashed dog early in the day, launched a cunning attack late in the 211km ride from Cahors to Angoulême, then held off the chasing trio of Axel Merckx (T-Mobile), Laurent Lefevre (Bouygues Telecom) and Michael Boogerd (Rabobank). It was the 29-year-old Frenchman's first career Tour stage victory, and the second for the host country at this year's race.

Iban Mayo and Cadel Evans, among others, demonstrated some important aerodynamic concepts for us in the stage 13 time trial in Albi. Specifically, they showed us about what to do - and what not to do - with the knees and elbows. We learned a few more subtle lessons from Levi Leipheimer and from the Astana team, and we saw once again that a wet road does not slow a fast rider… well, except on corners. Two distinct styles: Evans vs. MayoLong TV shots from the front allowed us to see how Evans maintained a compact, narrow position throughout his body, and how Mayo did not. Evans has wide,

At 12:40 p.m. local time Thursday, organizers of the Tour de France officially accepted the withdrawal of Michael Rasmussen, thus closing the book on one of the most controversial yellow-jersey runs in race history. In the wake of the Rasmussen affair came stage 17, a mostly flat run from Pau to Castelsarrasin. No one wore the maillot jaune.

In 1986, Greg LeMond became the first American to win the Tour de France; he did it wearing a pair of Oakley Eyeshades. That victory propelled the company into the spotlight and prompted Oakley to dedicate Dana “The Duke” Duke to its athletes full time as the company’s first sports marketing representative. He knew how to take care of his athletes and they repaid him grandly. Its partnership with a Tour de France winner showed Oakley that it could rely on high-profile athlete endorsements, rather than advertising, especially when marketing its products’ performance or technological

Despite tepid support from fans, race organizers, fellow riders and even his own team, Michael Rasmussen is just one steady time trial away from winning the 2007 Tour de France. The beleaguered Dane, who's been dogged by doping allegations since taking the yellow jersey on stage 8, strengthened his grip on the race lead Wednesday after his convincing win of stage 16's 218.5km ride from Gourette to the top of the hors categorie Col d'Aubisque.

Barring catastrophe on the bike or unforeseen events off it, the 2007 Tour de France has become a two-man race with five stages to go. The combatants are yellow-jersey holder Michael Rasmussen and rising star Alberto Contador, who for the second day in a row waged an epic battle on the steep slopes of the Pyrénées.

The sorting out continued at the Tour de France on Sunday as Alberto Contador and Michael Rasmussen emerged as the race’s most serious contenders, finishing one-two atop the Plateau de Beille at the end of a dramatic 197km stage from Mazamet. On the Tour’s first foray into the Pyrénées, it was Discovery’s Contador, the leader in the best young rider competition, who proved the only man capable of staying with race leader Rasmussen of Rabobank.

To no one's surprise the first individual time trial of the 2007 Tour de France proved a decisive affair. What was unexpected was the ride of yellow-jersey holder Michael Rasmussen. Instead of cracking under the weight of ongoing doping allegations and questionable time-trialing abilities, the beleaguered Rabobank leader had the ride of his life on Saturday, ceding only 2:55 to stage winner Alexander Vinokourov during the 54km race against the clock in and around Albi.

Alexander Vinokourov was clearly feeling better during stage 13’s individual time-trial. He had been suffering through a weeks worth of stages after a brutal crash on stage 5 that left him with dozens of stitches in his knees and elbows. Vino and the rest of the Astana team raced on a brand new time-trial machine from BMC. The new bike seemed to pay off. It allowed the team to place three riders within the top four in the first race of truth in this year’s Tour. While it’s hard to improve upon a custom time-trial bike that’s custom made to complement the unique physique of each Astana

Belgian superstar Tom Boonen grabbed his second stage win of the 2007 Tour de France on Friday, nailing a perfectly executed sprint at the close of stage 12's 178.5km ride form Montpellier to Castres. The victory was the fourth this Tour for Boonen's blue-kitted Quick Step-Innergetic team, and solidified his lead in the chase for the green jersey. Boonen is first with 195 points, with South African Robbie Hunter (Barloworld) second (175), and German Eric Zabel (Milram) third (174).

The 11th stage of the 2007 Tour de France dealt a cruel blow to one GC contender and welcomed a new country into its hall of champions on Thursday. The newcomer was South Africa and top sprinting star Robbie Hunter, who won a mad dash to the line that concluded the pan-flat, 182.5km ride from Marseille to Montpellier.

No one expected Barloworld to be in the Tour de France, let alone win a mountain stage in the Alps and field a contender for the points jersey. Indeed, the continental pro team’s season goal was merely to be invited to cycling’s biggest show. But when it found out it was the last team invited, its goals evolved. Riders and management alike promised to be on the attack everyday, until they won a stage. Now the team has won two. “The goal originally was to get into the Tour,” said Gary Blem, a mechanic with three years tenure at Barloworld and the first South African to spin wrenches for a

A decade after his first Tour de France stage win, 36-year-old Frenchman Cedric Vasseur gave the host country something to cheer about on Wednesday, taking the 10th stage of the 2007 Tour, a 229.5km rolling run from Tallard to Marseille. Vasseur (Quick Step-Innergetic) shot out the right side of a five-man breakaway 200 meters from the finish, narrowly holding off countryman Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux); the difference at the line barely more than a tire width. It was the first victory by a Frenchman at the Tour since Pierrick Fedrigo took stage 14 into Gap a year ago.

You will never see a general classification rider hooked up to SRM’s telemetric data system. By beaming real-time power meter data directly to SRM’s servers television stations and websites can see the exact effort whatever rider on the other end is expending. The transmission provides all of the information a SRM power meter can gather to commentators, but it gives anyone, including other teams a look at the wired rider’s cards. It’s up to the team and the individual rider to decide if they want to participate in the program. This year riders from a handful of teams including, T-Mobile,

The last wild-card team picked for the 2007 Tour de France showed Tuesday that the organizers made the right choice, after Barloworld's Colombian climber Juan Soler earned an impressive solo win in the 159.5km stage 9 haul from Val-d'Isère to Briançon.

Mountain bike racer, Barry Wicks was the first to sign on with Giro for eyewear. But in the week prior to the Tour de France, Giro signed Discovery Channel’s Alberto Contador and Caisse d’Epargne’s Nicolas Portal. At the prologue in London the ink was still wet on both contracts. Nonetheless, Giro produced a special pair of green glasses to go along with Contador’s Discovery Channel team’s newfound eco’ conscience.

It’s tough to tell what Rabobank’s Michael Rasmussen is better known for: His aptitude for winning the Tour’s climbing jersey or his phenomenal meltdown in the 2005 Tour’s final time-trial. [nid:39592]On Sunday’s stage 8, Rasmussen once again established the former, and placed doubts in everyone’s mind that anyone else will be able to take the Tour’s polka-dot jersey in the near future. He also established a solid foundation for his newly proclaimed aspirations to win the overall classification.

On the eve of the U.S. National championships RockShox has quietly put a new cross-country fork into the hands of its top sponsored athletes. Reports put at least four riders onto the new fork for the upcoming Mount Snow, Vermont event. The championship race will not be the first competitive event the fork has seen, it is currently being raced in the European Transalp race by Karl Platt. Gary Fisher-Subaru’s Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski has had one of the new forks for roughly a week. He was shipped the fork to ride during the week leading up to the national championship race, and had it mounted

On the lead-up to the 2007 Tour de France, Michael Rasmussen proclaimed that a third straight polka-dot jersey was not his No. 1 ambition. The Danish climbing specialist was targeting a place on the final podium in Paris. Sunday Rasmussen took a big step to making that dream come true, winning the brutal stage 8 run between Le Grand Bornand to Tignes, and taking over the race lead in the process.

In the Tour de France's first foray into the mountains, it was race newcomer Linus Gerdemann stealing all the headlines. The baby-faced German wunderkind escaped a 15-rider breakaway late in stage 7, and then rolled solo to the finish in Le Grand Bornand, taking the stage win and possession of the yellow and white jerseys.

All the talk of big Tom Boonen not being able to hang with the pure sprinters was silenced Friday, as the burly Belgian took a commanding win at the finish of Stage 6 of the 2007 Tour de France, a mostly flat, 199.5km run from Semur-en-Auxois to Bourg-en-Bresse. The Quick Step-Innergetic star burst from the right side of a scrambled sprint, took the front, then drifted left and right, keeping second-place finisher Oscar Freire (Rabobank) at bay. German Eric Zabel (Milram) was third on a day when the bunch spent 5:20:59 in the saddle.

After the finish of stage 2 in Ghent, Belgium, the Quickstep-Innergetic team bus was mobbed. At the sight of Tom Boonen leaving the podium pen with the green jersey, a father and his teenaged daughter opened into a full sprint trying to get to their country’s hero for an autograph. One can only imagine what the scene was like yesterday after his stage 6 win in Bourg en Bresse. Tom Boonen will never pay for a beer in Belgium. Tom Boonen has Belgian pop songs written about him. For god sakes, in Belgium he has his own breakfast cereal — the man is a god. And he will probably stay that way for

While Italian heartthrob Filippo Pozzato earned a hard-fought sprint win in stage 5 of the Tour de France, Thursday's big news developed at the back of the pack, where pre-race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov lost 1:20 to his fellow GC contenders after crashing hard with 26km to go in the testing 182.2km run from Chablis to Autun.

The year is barely half over, but it's already been a busy one from a technical perspective. Campagnolo finally dropped the square taper for Ultra Torque, one of the smartest outboard-bearing, two-piece, bottom-bracket-and-crank combinations in the industry. And SRAM has sent its Force group to its first Tour de France while unveiling a premium performance group called Red. What about Shimano, you ask? Well, they’ve been busy, too. The company’s updated carbon wheels blossomed in spring, and an electric group and a prototype carbon crank appeared at the Dauphiné Libéré. All of these

Two days after being caught behind the mass pileup on the run into Ghent, Thor Hushovd had a much better view of the finish line on Wednesday. Bolstered by a blistering leadout from Crédit Agricole teammate Julian Dean, Norway's No. 1 cycling star was first across the line in Joigny on stage 4 of the Tour de France.

After experiencing problems getting service to riders in need within the peloton, Bruno Gormand had an idea — why not devise an means of offering immediate neutral assistance to race leaders and serving as a liaison between the caravan vehicles and racers? And so he created Service Course, Mavic’s neutral race-support system. The first race handled by Mavic Service Course was the 1973 Paris-Nice, and since it has become one of the company’s most revered legacies. This year Mavic has three of its Service Course cars in the Tour de France peloton. VeloNews caught up with Nate Field, four-year

In a stunning display of tactics, courage and pure power, race leader Fabian Cancellara timed his jump to perfection, overtaking a four-man breakaway with 500 meters to go and then holding off the hard charging sprinters to win stage 3 of the Tour de France Tuesday.

By now, it’s pretty clear that T-Mobile is moving in a new direction. Of course, there was little choice after a year of scandal that started with the ejection of Jan Ullrich from last year’s Tour.

If things had gone as scripted, Quick Step’s Tom Boonen would have burst out of a huge, fast-moving peloton into Ghent, in front of thousands of adoring fans, as the Tour de France made its sole foray into Belgian territory on Monday.

Judging by his incredible acceleration away from the rest of the world’s best sprinters, you would never know that just a few kilometers before, Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto) had been off the back, chasing with an injured wrist after a crash. Nonetheless, the Aussie handily won stage 1 of the 2007 Tour de France from London to Canterbury, collecting his 12th career stage victory in the world’s greatest race. CSC’s Fabian Cancellara finished safely in the bunch to retain the overall lead.

The Cervélo’s P3 Carbon just keeps on winning races, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that this is indeed a fast bike… especially when you put a motor like Fabian Cancellara on top of it. Cancellara also powered the same P3 Carbon to a victory in the world time-trial championship. Indeed, the rest of the team was riding an even newer version of the P3 Carbon emblazoned with the world champion’s rainbow. Funny thing, Cancellera’s was an older bike without the famed arc en ciel, prompting teammate Jens Voigt to ask one obvious question. “Why is it actually that Fabian is the only one

While some team mechanics were scrambling to deal with the UCI’s clarification of equipment regulations, others were still building special bikes for the prologue late Friday afternoon. With dinnertime rapidly approaching Aussie Michael Rogers of T-Mobile was seen in conference with his team’s mechanics. They were speaking in front of a half-built aluminum time-trial bike. Across the parking lot, Saunier-Duval Prodir mechanics were busying themselves with tidying up the team truck. All of the bikes were snugly packed and ready for tomorrow’s ride into the heart of London. The common bond

Many riders finished their 7.9km prologue effort with an all-out sprint;world time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara began his winning ridewith a furious sprint, and maintained that blazing pace throughout thewinding course among London's historic sites to take the first yellow jerseyof the 94th Tour de France. Before the race, Cancellara said he wanted to show the world why he wore theworld-champion skinsuit for the time trial. And indeed he did.

The tires are glued and bikes are prepped, but at 5 p.m. on the eve of the 2007 Tour de France. Many teams still have plenty to do. Earlier in the day, teams were scrambling because of an 11th-hour “clarification” of an equipment regulation that effected time-trial position. The problem is a poorly written rule that governs hand position when using the aero’ extensions on time-trial bikes. As the rule stood, at Dauphiné and the Tour de Suisse, teams were left to interpret what was within the boundaries for positioning when using the aero‘ position that Floyd Landis pioneered last year. At

While the days leading up to Saturday’s prologue and start of the Tour de France is a time for the racers to go for easy spins and top off their stores of energy with nice meals and daily naps, its truly crunch time for their staff — especially those responsible for the bikes. We caught up with Gerolsteiner mechanic Rajen Murugayan, while he was loading one of the team’s sprinter vans with time-trial bikes for a pre-prologue reconnaissance session, and got a special tour of the team’s gear. MORE IMAGES BELOW The Tour de France is cycling’s biggest show so naturally it’s a perfect time to

It’s easy for forget that SRAM’s Force group has never been used in the Tour de France. The company had such a strong entry into the road market, and ProTour competition, it’s easy to assume that it’s old hat for the brand. But come Saturday, even if it’s overlooked, SRAM will achieve the final milestone in its coming-of-age party on the road — starting the sports biggest event, the Tour de France. “SRAM Force is in its first Tour,” said Michael Zellmann, SRAM’s road PR manager. “This is a big deal for the Force [group]. I just want to remind people that Force did well in the Giro and we

Team Fuji-Salamander teammates Shane Kline and Nik Reinert both collected their third national titles of the week Monday as the 2007 USA Cycling Junior Track National Championships continued at the 7-Eleven Velodrome in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Kline won the men's 17-18 sprint and later teamed up with Reinert to win the Madison, adding a second and third stars-and-stripes jersey to the one he won in Sunday's kilometer time trial. For Reinert, the victory in the Madison complemented his earlier wins in the individual pursuit and the points race. Kline posted the fastest time in

Sunday was a big day for Team Fuji-Salamander at the 2007 USA Cycling Junior Track National Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Colleen Hayduk collected her second national title of the weekend at the 7-Eleven Velodrome with a victory in the women’s 17-18 sprint. Nik Reinert also captured a second title, in the men’s 17-18 3km individual pursuit. And Shane Kline won the men’s 17-18 kilometer time trial. After earning the top seed with a 200-meter qualifying time of 12.273 seconds, Hayduk took two straight rides from Dana Feiss (Young Medalist Cycling) in the final to claim another