All Content

A HOT one here in France-land today, and fast from start to finish. A flurry of attacks in the first few minutes eventually created a group of 21. With a slight wind at our backs the first hour rolled 53Ks under the tires. The group was just a bit too big however and eventually a concerted chase from behind brought us back. Four took off out of the group for the long haul, the rest of us got to go back, fetch some bottles and settle in for the day.

Last year the bikes Lampre riders showed up to the Tour with were well used, all looked battle worn with chipped paint and rusted bolts from the harsh weather and frequent washing by the mechanics.

Points competition leader Oscar Freire won Saturday's 14th stage of the 2008 Tour de France, a mostly flat 195km route from Nimes to Digne les Bains. Overall race leader Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) finished in the lead group on the stage to retain his 1-second advantage over Frank Schleck as the race approaches several difficult mountain stages.

Rock Racing’s Tyler Hamilton on Saturday defended his overall lead in China's Tour of Qinghai Lake, holding a ten-second lead going into Sunday's final stage. Hamilton won Friday's stage 8 — his first race win in four years — by outsprinting Poland's Mark Rutkiewicz. The pair finished more than a minute ahead of the field including former race leader Hossein Askari (Tabriz Petrochemical Team). The win moved him from fourth to first place.

The sponsor of Cadel Evans' team on the Tour de France is known for products that allow noisy snorers to doze off and enjoy a good night's sleep. But if there was ever a time the Australian needed his Silence teammates to wake up, it will be on the three upcoming alpine stages that are likely to decide whether he keeps the yellow jersey. After battling through the Pyrenees with injuries sustained in a crash, Evans managed to get through this last week relatively unscathed, rebuilding strength in an injured shoulder which has left him lop-sided on the bike.

Mountain biker Chris Jongewaard failed in his attempt to join Australia's team for next month's Beijing Olympics when he was turned down for selection by the Australian Olympic Committee here Saturday. Jongewaard is facing hit and run and drink-driving offenses relating to a road accident last year which left fellow cyclist Matthew Rex with severe head injuries. He has pleaded not guilty and is due to face court again later this year.

Spanish rider Moises Duenas, kicked out of the Tour de France, has blamed a Spanish doctor for his positive test for the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), the daily El Pais reported on Saturday. Duenas, who was charged with "use and possession of poisonous substances" before a court at Tarbes, southwestern France on Thursday, had claimed that the products were sold to him by Spanish doctor Jesus Losa.

Until Mark Cavendish came on the pro scene just over a year ago, the most successful British Tour sprinter was Barry Hoban, who won eight stages between 1967 and 1975. Hoban was not a natural sprinter, but he could sustain a long finishing effort and he won stages with smart positioning. He rarely had any support from his French team, Mercier, which was devoted to protecting its team leader Raymond Poulidor. The only other British Tour rider to win field sprints was Michael Wright, who took three stages between 1965 and 1973.

He's known for being a joker among a cosmopolitan team that came to the Tour de France proclaiming their "clean" approach to racing would help smooth their way to success. But when it gets serious in the hectic bunch sprints, curly-haired Briton Mark Cavendish doesn't have time for practical jokes. Cavendish reinforced his status as arguably the fastest sprinter in the world on Friday when he claimed his fourth stage win of this year's edition.

The 2008 USA Cycling national mountain bike championships opened on Thursday, July 17, with a host of youngsters battling for much-coveted cross-country titles. First to grab a stars and stripes jersey was Tad Elliott, who took his first national title in the men’s U23 race. “I’ve never been a national champion in anything before, so this is huge for me,” said Elliott, an accomplished nordic ski racer from Durango, Colorado. “I was really nervous, so I was just trying to keep it smooth.”

Today marks one week in South Africa for Taylor and I. It's been a good week so far, but there have been the ups and downs. When I left off last time we still didn't have Taylor's bike and the weather had been not so nice.

The first radio communication, not one minute after we rolled through K0 was from Millar: “We’ve got a CBF’d Friday boys, it’s bloody wonderful!” The neutral was stressful with a strong crosswind threatening to make the race a crazy one, but I didn’t even get above 200 watts before the field had shut down the road and all you could here were screams, yells and whistles of “pisseee, piano, grupetto.” The first attack was off, and we CREPT for a lovely 30k through the countryside of southern France, truly enjoying a lazy start to the day.

Canadians Andrew Pinfold and Gina Grain did their countrymen proud at the BC Cancer Foundation’s Tour de Gastown in Vancouver, this week, the sixth stop in the 2008 USA CRITS Series. Pinfold, an Ontario native, is a former elite Canadian Criterium Champion, while Grain was the 2007 Canadian National Road Race Champion. Both victories took place in front of tens of thousands of cycling fans, who lined the barriers three to four rows deep on a perfect summer day.

The Tour of Missouri, a seven day professional cycling event featuring elite international men’s teams, is pleased to announce the addition of an invitational pro-am women’s race taking place on Monday, September 8th in Kansas City, Missouri. Top professional women’s teams and riders from across the US will compete in this inaugural event for a $7500 cash purse.

Cavendish in good company:

Stage 13, Narbonne to Nimes, 182km

Retail: 5.75 euro (about $9) Web site: www.tacx.com The Tacx Tool Tube lets riders carry tools and spare tubes in their water bottle cages. The screw-top bottle has room for a tube, tire levers, a multi-tool and a CO2 inflator. The lid is watertight and tools are not included.

Taylor Phinney wrapped up the his world junior world championship run Friday with a third-place finish in the individual time trial, 8 seconds off the winning pace of Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski. Phinney won gold in the 3,000-meter individual pursuit on the track last Saturday. Entering the race as the defending world champion, Phinney recorded a time of 36 minutes, 29.15 seconds over the 26.8-kilometer course.

Italian racer Riccardo Riccò, kicked off the Tour de France for doping, has been remanded in custody for "using a poisonous substance," the public prosecutor at Foix said on Friday. Prosecutor Antoine Leroy said Riccò had been remanded for "using a substance classed poisonous under the terms of the public health code." "Riccò is placed under arrest and is banned from contacting other members of the team,” he added. Leroy said Riccò had told the examining magistrate what he had earlier told police - namely, that he is innocent.

Team Columbia's Mark Cavendish won his fourth stage of this year's Tour de France, sprinting into Nimes ahead of Silence Lotto's Robbie McEwen. McEwen took a brief respite from protecting team leader Cadel Evans' overall lead to contest the sprint, but was little match for Cavendish's finishing kick. Evans, meanwhile, finished with the leaders to preserve his one-second overall lead over CSC's Frank Schleck. Cavendish said his velodrome-honed kick saved the day.

Editor's Note: It's official: Team Giant's Adam Craig is one of two men picked for the U.S. Olympic cross-country team. He continues to share his journals with VeloNews readers as he races around the world. This week he report on some East Coast racing: Windham, New York, last week and the national mountain bike championships at Mount Snow, Vermont, this weekend. Enjoy.

Disgraced Italian cycling star Ivan Basso deserves a second chance of resurrecting his career, the Italian's future manager at the Liquigas team said Friday. Basso is nearing the end of a ban handed down after he admitted, without having tested positive for banned substances, to being involved in the Spanish doping affair 'Operation Puerto'. The Italian, a former rival of Lance Armstrong on the Tour de France while racing for the Danish CSC team, is due to return to racing at the end of the summer.