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Discovery Channel’s stage 14 winner Alberto Contador was standing on thepodium atop Plateau de Beille before the gruppetto had crossed the finishline. Cadel Evans had already broken down into tears as he explained whyhe had exploded in the final kilometers of the climb, and race leader MichaelRasmussen was denying that adeal had been made between he and Contador to trade the stage win foradded time on stronger time-trialist GC contenders such as Evans and AndreasKlöden.Sunday’s stage 14, from French hero Laurent Jalabert’s home villageof Mazamet to the hors-catégorie summit finish at Plateau

Ryan Trebon (Kona-Les Gets) and Mary McConneloug (Seven-Kenda) each emerged victorious in Sunday’s short-track cross-country race, the final event of the 2007 USA Cycling national mountain-bike championships held at Mount Snow resort in Vermont. For McConneloug, the win was the second victory of the 2007 championship event — the Fairfax, California, native won Friday’s cross-country race ahead of Georgia Gould (Luna) and Willow Koerber (Subaru-Gary Fisher). The short-track victory came as a surprise for the Californian, who spends most of her season living and racing in Europe and rarely

Stage 15- Foix to Loudenvielle (196km)

Stage 15- Foix to Loudenvielle (196km)

Contador outsprints the race leader

Davis gets the stage

Massaglia gets the overall

Vino's Tour is over

But Contador's is just beginning

Gorge-ous, no?

The break

Millar driving the chase

Popo' popped, but got back on and drove

Soler has a dig

Colom on his own

Rasmussen and Contador dueling on the steeps

Did the two strike a deal or not?

Astraloza tries to catch the leaders on the final climb

A young U.S. photog with some very friendly Basques

Nice house; the garage is a mess, though

Sylvain Chavanel leads Hincapie

Antonio Colom tows Klöden and Evans back up to the leaders

Contador comes to the front with a pair of chickens in his wake

Fans applaud the laughing group on the final climb

Helicopters signal the arrival of the leaders

Vladimir Karpets leads Voigt

Levi bears down and holds Sastre's wheel, with Solon behind

Forty-one years' worth of musettes make a fine car cover

Sastre leads Levi

Wegmann heads through a tunnel of fans

This morning's guests were very excited to meet the riders

McConneloug: Work little, attack perfectly

High five, dude!

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.

COURSE: Following right after the time trial, this is the first of three demanding stages in the Pyrénées. It opens with an immediate 9km climb over the Black Mountains, but the first real obstacle is three hours down the road: the hors-catégorie Port de Pailhères climb (17km at 7.2 percent). Then, following a tumbling descent to Ax-les-Thermes, the riders race 16km down the Ariège valley before reaching the fi nishing climb to Plateau de Beille (16km at almost 8 percent). HISTORY: The only men to win Tour stages atop the Plateau de Beille have been Lance Armstrong (in 2002 and 2004) and

The Tour is one big moving circus. The smallest portion of the whole thing is the peloton; 180-or-so guys on bikes. Even when you add all of the staff and gear from the teams themselves that still only makes up only 10 percent of the Tour caravan. Add in journalists, police, publicity caravan, the dudes who put up the barriers... and you easily bump that to more than 5000 people who cover the Tour from start to finish. Some are more visible than others and some are taken for granted. Like the guys who put up the signs for race? When do they do that? Or the guy who paints the finish line

The yellow jersey should take on a significantly more sporting hue on Sunday when the Tour de France peloton tackles the first of three stages in the feared Pyrénées mountains. Denmark's Michael Rasmussen has worn the race's fabled yellow jersey since his stage victory at Tignes in the French Alps last Sunday, but in recent days the Rabobank climber has been subject of doping suspicions. Following three days in the Alps, the race's 14th stage will herald the second segment of climbing in this year's race, and Sunday's 197km race from Mazamet to Plateau de Beille

Results - Stage 13 (Albi - Albi)1. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kz), ASTANA, 1:06:342. Cadel Evans (Aus), PREDICTOR - LOTTO, 1:143. Andréas KlÖden (G), ASTANA, 1:394. Andrey Kashechkin (Kz), ASTANA, 1:445. Bradley Wiggins (GB), COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE, 2:146. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM, 2:167. Alberto Contador (Sp), DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM, 2:188. Sylvain Chavanel (F), COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE, 2:389. Levi Leipheimer (USA), DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM, 2:3910. Mikel Astarloza (Sp), EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI, 2:42 11. Michael Rasmussen (Dk), RABOBANK, 2:5512. Vladimir Gusev (Rus),

Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme said Saturday that organizers could have refused to allow Michael Rasmussen to compete in this year's race if they had known that he had missed several random doping tests in the past two years. The Danish Rabobank rider is leading the world's most prestigious cycling race. But it emerged this week that the Danish Cycling Union (DCU) decided in June not to select Rasmussen for September's world cycling championships and the Olympic Games in 2008 because he missed out-of-competition tests. Rasmussen has had several warnings from the UCI

Maintaining his two-second advantage over DFL Cyclingnews' Daniel Lloyd, overall victory in China’s Tour of Qinghai Lake is all but assured for Italian climbing veteran Gabriele Massaglia. For the second day in succession, a breakaway before the day's main climb worked in his favor, and once on the mountain, the 36-year-old was strong enough to fend off his adversaries. "I wasn't the strongest - that was Relax - but I worked with my head, because I knew the others did not want to risk everything," said Massaglia of the events on Daban mountain, who was shivering so badly at the

Weather: Rainy and cool in morning, early afternoon, highs in 60s; rain easing off in afternoon, 10kph northerly winds. Stage winner: Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) - who nearly abandoned after crashing hard on both knees in stage 5 - won in a remarkable display at 1:14 ahead of an equally impressive Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto). The victory was Vino’s fourth career Tour stage victory and his first Tour time trial. “For me, the Tour begins today,” he said. Race leader: Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) retained the yellow jersey after what he described as the best time trial of his life. The

Astana’s Alexander Vinokourov continued an impressive comeback from injury, winning the 13th stage of the Tour de France to re-launch his yellow jersey hopes Saturday. Vinokourov, still nursing injured knees from his fall in the fifth stage, moved up to ninth overall at 5:10 behind leader Michael Rasmussen after claiming his fourth stage win and first ever time trial win on the Tour. Given his relative weakness in the race against the clock, Rabobank team leader Rasmussen was expected to relinquish the yellow jersey which he has worn since winning the second Alpine stage to Tignes last

The first long individual time trial of the 2007 Tour de France, as always, provided a few surprises — not least of which was Michael Rasmussen's strong defense of his yellow jersey. Casey Gibson was on hand to capture all the action.

The veneer of invincibility returned to Astana on a soggy Saturday in Albi a week after their armor suffered near-fatal chinks when Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreas Klöden both saw their Tour hopes take a dive in a pair of crashes in stage 5. Just four days after collapsing in tears at the finish line in Briançon, his morale as shredded as both of his knees, Vinokourov proved he has more Tour lives than a cat with a stunning victory in Albi. The Kazakh attacker powered over the undulating course along a foggy Tarn Valley and clawed his way to ninth at 5:10 behind race leader Michael

Cadel Evans, a rider from Astana and a rider from Discovery Channel. That’s how the Paris podium could look in a week’s time. At least, that’s what a selection of team directors and riders is thinking after Saturday’s highly anticipated stage 13 time trial in Albi. However, whom the Discovery Channel and Astana riders might be, and the order each might finish, is far from certain. With the Tour’s first long TT in the books, the battle for the general classification became clearer as the riders brace themselves for three difficult stages in the Pyrénées, beginning with Sunday’s

Maine native Adam Craig (Giant) used his impressive technical skills to score a decisive victory in Saturday’s 2007 USA Cycling national cross-country championships race, held at Vermont’s Mount Snow resort. The 25-year-old Craig wheelied his bike across the finishing line a whopping four and a half minutes ahead of a cramping Jeremiah Bishop (Trek-Volkswagen), who finished second.

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

Stage 14- Mazamet to Plateau de Beille (197km)

Stage 14- Mazamet to Plateau de Beille (197km)

The gendarmerie is the peloton's own biker gang.

Vino' cranks out the winning ride

Spectators perched high above Daban mountain.

Rubiera and Ludewig lead the race.

Chechu Rubiera takes out Stage 8.

China's Haijun Ma became the new best Asian rider.

Victory a virtual certainty for Gabriele Massaglia.

Evans giving it the gas for second

Klöden takes third

Rasmussen tries to catch his breath after riding the ITT of his life

Cancellara gets a close going over by TV shortly before crashing

Contador blazing back to Albi

Prepping the road for CSC early in the morning

Evans throws down en route to second on the day and overall

Fans head for their favorite places two hours before the start

Hincapie rolling along

Does this man ever frown?

Kloden put in a stellar ride today

Leipheimer wasn't quite up to snuff

What do moto drivers do in the rain? Catch up on their sleep

Bet these guys have seen a few Tours

Rain, schmain: Vive le Tour! Allez, allez, allez!

Is this a long race or what? I'm pooped

Vino' ripping it up

Graham Watson checks to see if the rain has buggered his camera

Vino' roars back to life

Rasmussen turns in a strong defense of his yellow jersey

Wiggins set the early mark to beat

Leipheimer said he didn't quite have that spark

Kashechkin did — he finished fourth

Contador rode strongly, finishing seventh on the day