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Bike manufacturer Scott, the second sponsor of the Saunier Duval team, announced on Wednesday that it would step in and rescue the Spanish outfit. Saunier Duval announced earlier on Wednesday that it had pulled out of cycling immediately in the wake of the drug scandal that engulfed its team at the Tour de France. Italian rider Riccardo Riccò tested positive for a new version of the banned blood booster EPO after the fourth-stage time trial, prompting the team to pull out of the race last week.

That was a day; long, hard and completely covered by some amazing fans. The Alpe was what it is built up to be: crazy. As far as the climb itself goes, it's hard, but was the easiest of the day by far. The fans however ... well, that's a whole other story. The drunk Dutch corner; the unruly Basque section; the crazy Germans; the Frenchies that always yell "ce n'est pas loin" no matter how long you have to go, and seemingly always cheer for the French rider who happens to be the most annoying at the time.

CSC's Carlos Sastre rolled away from the favorites on L'Alpe d'Huez on Wednesday, winning the classic Tour de France stage and taking the yellow jersey from teammate Frank Schleck.

Fighting for the yellow jersey puts as much pressure on the head as on the legs, as Cadel Evans is learning at the Tour de France. After the second of two days in the Alps on Tuesday, the Silence-Lotto rider boosted his bid to win the final yellow jersey by surviving the CSC-Saxo Bank team's efforts to shake him off on the difficult Cime de la Bonette-Restefond climb.

I’m writing these words on the road to L’Alpe d’Huez where, at the end of this glorious Wednesday in the French Alps, the 95th Tour de France could be decided. The infamous 21-turn mountain climb concludes a gigantic stage 17 after the riders have already crossed the mighty Col du Galibier and Col de la Croix de Fer climbs.

The World Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday Italian rider Riccardo Riccò tested positive at the Tour de France after a secret molecule was planted in the blood booster EPO during its manufacture. Riccò, 24, upset the big names of the sport to win two stages of this year's Tour before he was kicked off after testing positive for EPO (erythropoietin). Revealing the now high-tech nature of the fight against drugs in sport, WADA chief John Fahey said his organization worked with drugs giant Roche on the newest version of EPO (erythropoietin).

Drew Geer and Mark Gouge are racing the Jeantex Bike Transalp 2008 powered by Nissan, an eight-stage epic mountain bike stage race, from Füssen, Germany, to Riva del Garda, Italy, passing through Austria and Switzerland. The two are racing for the Chipotle-Titus-VeloNews team and are providing daily journals and photos. The following report from Geer is about stage 4, from Scuol, Switzerland, to Livigno, Italy: 77 km with an elevation gain of 2621m (8600 feet) "I will just never be able to pronounce 'Chipotle' it is just too hard," the finish announcer at Tranalps said.

The valley point-to-point course is one of the local’s favorites in the Winter Park Mountain Bike Series, but no one liked it as much as Dellys Starr (Dales Pale Ale/Spot Brand) who blasted the competition with a winning time of 1:25:19 on the 19-mile track in the third race of the series. Her time was just two seconds off the fastest time set by a female rider on the course, but she had the fastest pace as organizers had to re-route the course.

The Tour de France yellow jersey is set to be decided on the final alpine stage of the race on Wednesday after a dramatic 16th stage which left CSC still in control of the race. Luxembourg's Frank Schleck finished the 157km stage from Cueno in Italy to here with his 7-second lead on Austrian Bernhard Kohl intact, with Australian Cadel Evans in third at 08. Spaniard Carlos Sastre, Schleck's teammate at the CSC team, is fourth at 49 while Denis Menchov, one of the day's biggest losers, is now at 1:13behind Schleck after losing time on the day's final descent.

Hilton Clarke brought the Toyota-United Pro squad its second victory in the 2008 USA CRITS Series on Saturday at the Wells Fargo Twilight Criterium in Boise, Idaho. Daniel Ramsey (Time Pro Cycling) led the the race for 11 laps until Clark bridged up with teammate Dominique Rollin and the trio lapped the field. Toyota took no chances, dominating the final 30 minutes of racing and setting up a successful lead-out train for their Australian sprinter, who collected his 12th win of the season.

The Saunier Duval cycling team look set to be excluded from the Tour of Germany because of doping, race organisers revealed on Tuesday. The elite team withdrew from the Tour de France last week after Italian rider Riccardo Ricco failed a dope test - they subsequently sacked both him and compatriot Leonardo Piepoli, who had won the prestigious stage on July 14. However that move has failed to placate the Tour of Germany chiefs, whose race runs from August 29 to September 6.

Registration for the Master’s, Amateur 2/3 Invitational 4 and Industry Cup is now open at www.usacrits.com for the USA CRITS Finals held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino (3950 Las Vegas Blvd.), on Thursday, September 25, 2008. The nationally televised race, held during the Interbike International Trade Expo, is the culmination of an 11-event race series that determines the best female and male criterium racers in the world.

According to their father, CSC duo Frank and Andy Schleck rarely talk of the sport that has put them into the global spotlight. But when they do get round to talking of their profession in the Schleck household, it usually centers on the Tour de France yellow jersey. On Sunday, Frank realized one of his boyhood dreams when he pulled on the yellow jersey with a seven second lead on Austrian Bernhard Kohl of the Gerolsteiner team, with former leader and last year's runner-up Cadel Evans just one second further off the pace.

Bernhard Kohl sat in the sunlit conference room of the mountain resort hotel Navize Te in the Italian Alps on the rest day of the Tour de France for more than hour, patiently answering questions from nearly 100 international reporters. It was a new experience for both sides. Never before in his career had the 26-year-old Austrian been the focus of so much attention and before last Sunday, when he rode his way to within seven seconds of the maillot jaune, no one, except for the most avid Austrian cycling fans, had ever even heard of … Bernhard who?

Stage 16, Cuneo, Italy, to Jausiers (157km)

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The Bonette bust
Most Tours are decided on the climbs, but the 23.5km descent off the 2802-meter Col de Bonette made for some decisive moments in what’s been a wild 95th edition. There were several crashes, including a spectacular fall by John Lee Augustyne (Barloworld), who toppled over the edge near the summit, and another by Christian Vande Velde; the falls undercut their respective runs for glory.

Frenchman Cyril Dessel of AG2R finally drew a line under his nightmare 2007 season with a prestigious maiden win on the Tour de France 16th stage on Tuesday. Dessel came to the wider cycling world's attention when he wore the race's yellow jersey for a day in 2006 — when he finally had to hand it over to disgraced American Floyd Landis. A year later Dessel disappeared almost entirely from the peloton after succumbing to toxoplasmosis.

First up, rest days rock. After two weeks of racing, a day to relax a bit and kick back is like Christmas when you still believe in the big man. A morning to sleep late, eat a ridiculous amount of food, tool around on the bike for a while (preferably on some beautiful country Italian roads), grub down a bit more, sleep, then sleep a bit more, get a massage, eat another stupid amount of food, and then sleep again, ideally at least 10 hours.

Three weeks ago, Garmin-Chipotle’s Christian Vande Velde left his European home in Girona, Spain, for the Tour de France with the goal of his first-ever top 10 finish. However as the Tour’s second rest day came to a close Monday, the 32-year-old American sits fifth overall, just 39 seconds behind race leader Frank Schleck, and is poised to capitalize on his strengths during stage 20’s time trial to fight for the Tour podium.

South African John-Lee Augustyn said he was lucky to escape with his life after a spectacular crash during the 16th stage of the Tour de France Tuesday left him halfway down a mountainside. The Barloworld rider crossed the summit of the day's second unclassified climb on his own after attacking his leading group half a kilometer from the summit. But moments later, after being rejoined by his group, he misjudged a right-hand bend and shot over the edge, leaving him 50 meters below on the gravel mountainside.

Christian Vande Velde’s miracle Tour de France ride took a dive in Tuesday’s hard-fought 157km, two-climb 16th stage when he crashed coming down the beyond-category descent off the Col de la Bonette. Vande Velde, who started the day fifth overall at 39 seconds back, lost contact with the yellow jersey group about midway up the long, exposed 25.5km climb as CSC-Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck set a menacing pace.

A list of the past 25 riders to win a Tour de France stage atop the legendary Alpe d'Huez climb, the climax of this year's mountain stages: Winners: 1952: Fausto Coppi (ITA) 1976: Joop Zoetemelk (NED) 1977: Hennie Kuiper (NED) 1978: Hennie Kuiper (NED) 1979: Joachim Agostinho (POR) 1980: Joop Zoetemelk (NED) 1981: Peter Winnen (NED) 1982: Beat Breu (SUI) 1983: Peter Winnen (NED) 1984: Luis Herrera (COL) 1986: Bernard Hinault (FRA) 1987: Federico Echave (ESP) 1988: Steven Rooks (NED) 1989: Gert-Jan Theunisse (NED)

The threat of being caught cheating at this year's Tour de France has proved a major deterrent, according to the chief of France's national anti-doping agency (AFLD) on Tuesday. AFLD chief Pierre Bordry said prior to the race's 16th stage that he had no further positive cases to report in the wake of three positive tests for EPO. His claims come in the wake of a newspaper report in which disgraced Italian climber Riccardo Riccò re-affirms that he did not use banned substances.