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Tour de France

Andrew Hood’s Tour de France Notebook, stage 20

Stage winner Stefan Schumacher was more surprised than anyone to be back on the Tour de France podium after claiming victory in Saturday’s time trial. Schumacher’s win in the first time trial at a distance of 29.5km wasn’t a complete surprise because he’s done well in shorter distances, but his 21-second victory ahead of Olympic favorite and two-time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara wasn’t expected by many.

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Tour de France

Schumacher’s time-trial win caps strong Tour for Gerolsteiner

Gerolsteiner’s Stefan Schumacher surprised a few observers when he won the stage-four time trial in this year’s Tour de France. Then, he stunned them on Saturday by winning the Tour’s second race against the clock, beating two-time world champion Fabian Cancellara (CSc-Saxo Bank) by 21 seconds on the 53km course. "I did a perfect race,” said the 27-year-old German. “The course was a little bit rolling, which is perfectly suited to me. I got into a good rhythm straight away. There was a tailwind at the start, and afterwards I just kept my head down and focused on the job."

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Tour de France

Sastre honors late brother-in-law, teammates, after securing the yellow jersey

Carlos Sastre is poised to become the seventh Spanish rider in history to win the Tour de France. Barring catastrophe, the Team CSC-Saxo Bank rider will ride into Paris on Sunday as the third consecutive Spanish Tour winner. The 33-year-old surprised many after he fended off the time trial threats of Cadel Evans and Denis Menchov to retain the leader’s jersey. Sastre spoke with reporters after Saturday’s stage. Here’s a sampling of what he had to say. Question: What are you feeling now with the yellow jersey?

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Tour de France

Will Frischkorn’s Tour de France diary, stage 20

It’s been three weeks since we left Brest for the start of this thing and after today’s TT stage we find ourselves back in a Campanile, a hotel that takes the cookie-cutter room model to the max. The feeling of déjà vu is out of control, at least until you step outside. It’s strangely fitting however, in an odd sort of way. Tomorrow we head to Paris for one of the grandest sporting spectacles in the world, a slick hotel, huge dinner and evening out to follow, but tonight we’re off in the middle of nowhere, relaxed as can be, and feeling like it’s any another day.

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Road Racing

Sastre withstands a challenge from Evans to hold the overall lead

CSC-Saxo Bank's Carlos Sastre withstood the challenge from Silence-Lotto's Cadel Evans on Saturday, defending his yellow jersey going into the final stage of the 2008 Tour de France. A surprising Sastre ceded just 29 seconds to Evans over Saturday's 53km time trial and will enter the Tour's finale Sunday with a 1:05 lead over the Aussie, who is on track for his second consecutive runner-up finish in the Tour.

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Tour de France

Inside the Tour, with John Wilcockson – It all comes down to this

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

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News

Six inducted into Mountain Bike Hall of Fame

The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame sits just off main street in Crested Butte, Colorado. It’s tucked into the back corner of the Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum and packed with a broad cross-section of mountain biking history.

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Road Racing

How Carlos Sastre’s Cervélo P3C is tuned to help him win Saturday’s time trial and the Tour

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

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Road

Astana sacks Gusev over ‘abnormal values’ found during internal checks

Astana has sacked Russian rider Vladimir Gusev for reportedly showing “abnormal values” during the team’s internal doping checks. "Vladimir Gusev has been officially informed that he is no longer part of the team Astana," said general manager Johan Bruyneel in a news release. The three-time Russian time-trial champion showed "abnormal values" during an internal doping check, according to the release.

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Road

American Beef signs on as co-sponsor of Scott squad

The former Saunier Duval-Scott team will continue as Scott-American Beef after the squad’s title sponsor announced Wednesday that it would leave professional cycling in the wake of a drug scandal at the Tour de France. Italian rider Riccardo Riccò tested positive for a new version of the banned blood booster EPO after the stage-four time trial, prompting the team to pull out of the race last week. Both Riccò and his compatriot Leonardo Piepoli, who had won the prestigious Bastille Day stage but had not failed a dope test, were sacked last Friday.

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Road Culture

Will Frischkorn’s Tour de France diary, stage 19

When I said yesterday that you could tell which directors weren't pleased with their teams' races, today you could tell who was f-ing pissed. If it weren't for the fact that they made the day one of the most painful I've ever raced I'd actually feel bad for the guys on Liquigas, and a couple of others to a lesser degree. As is the only sympathy is the fact that there were a lot of really, really hurting guys out there today and we all shared in it together. [nid:80807]

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