With the overall standings at the Tour de France finally breaking up a bit, the St. Grégoire to Rennes time trial proved to be as decisive as it was surprising. Our guy Casey Gibson was there and here are a few of the images he captured on Saturday.
WeatherCloudy in morning, partly cloudy skies and increasing winds in afternoon,highs in upper 70s, low 80sStage winnerSergei Gontchar (T-Mobile), 1h01:43, 50.554kph – The 36-year-oldUkraine pulled a surprise win on a day when the pundits were predictingan American sweep. The 2000 world time trial champion was fastest at allthe splits to win his first career Tour stage. Floyd Landis (Phonak) wassecond at 1:01 despite a bike change at 13km after his aero-bars broke. Race leaderGontchar, 1,309.6km in 30h23:20, 43.095kph – Gontchar becomesUkraine’s first rider to wear the yellow jersey, taking
Calm under fire is always a good quality in pressure packed races like the Tour de France. And judging by the way Floyd Landis sloughed off a bevy of stage 7 bike problems Saturday, the American is as cool as they come. Despite having to change the level of his aero’ bars just an hour and a half before the race, and then having those bars break during the 52-kilometer individual time trial, Landis still managed a strong second place finish, making him leader in the clubhouse after the 2006 Tour’s first truly decisive stage. “It was a little mechanical, no problem,” said Landis, who’s now
If you ask the UCI commissaries at the Tour de France, Floyd Landis’s “praying mantis” time trial position is illegal. The race jury put the kibosh on Landis’s distinctive time trial position on Saturday little more than one hour before the start of the 52km time trial, the Tour’s first decisive day since rolling out of Strasbourg on July 1. Landis’s preferred angle – with his elbows together and his hands pressed together high – challenged UCI technical regulations that say a time trial bike’s handlebars and seat must be on the same horizontal plane. (see “Tour Tech - Landis readies for
Stage 7: St. Grégoire to Rennes - 52km (ITT)
Stage 7: St. Grégoire to Rennes - 52km (ITT)
Gontchar roars to the win and the overall lead
Landis switched bikes and still managed a runner-up finish
The new man in yellow
GC says it all: 62. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Gerolsteiner, 06:17
Despite the bike switch, the Phonak leader kept his cool
Julich was the day's only non-finisher
The Big Question of the Day: What happened to Levi?
Zabriskie rode to a respectable 13th place
Of the big GC contenders, Landis was the big winner of the day
When the Tour hits the mountains next week, Landis will have to be considered a favorite.
Yaroslav Popovych is now 3:27 down on GC
Paolo Savoldelli (at 2:10) could mount a strong challenge in the mountains
Cunego - now more than seven minutes back - may have a tough time
114th on day, Mickael Rasmussen would probably prefer a tour without Time Trials
Hincapie will have to climb better than he ever has...
... if he hopes to make the podium in Paris.
Eki' finishes 22nd on the day. Not bad for his 15th Tour
Mixed bag for the world TT champ. He didn't win, but his teammate did.
Saunier Duval's David Canada
Hincapie was hoping for better.
Big day for T-Mobile, but Rogers wanted a win.
13th was not what most expected from Zabriskie
Gontchar powered through time checks, smashing previous best times.
Stage Stats: Stage 7 by the numbers
Stage Stats: Stage 7 by the numbers
Stage Stats: Stage 7 by the numbers
The stem/bar juncture offers adjustablility
Making final adjustments to comply with the rules
The new waterbottle
The drivetrain
Is that comfy?
The new ride
These are old?
Another old item.
Lelangue and Landis confirm compliance
Course: There’s some initial fun with a visit to Camembert cheese country and a Cat. 3 hill at Vimoutiers that has a 13-percent pitch, but then the shorter (189km) stage settles into a series of long, straight, sometimes hilly highways across the open farmland of Normandy. Rolling hills precede the entry into Vitré, where the course loops around and through town to reach a slightly uphill finishing straight almost 2km long. History: There have been three stage finishes at Vitré, all won by sprinters: Belgian Rudy Matthijs in 1985, Italian Mario Cipollini in 1995 and German Marcel Wüst in
After claiming a stunning third Tour de France stage win in five days, Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen warned his shattered rivals that there is plenty of speed left in his legs. And the real bad news for Belgian Tom Boonen, Italian Daniele Bennati, Norwegian Thor Hushovd and Spaniard Oscar Freire is that he plans to use that speed again as soon as possible. But wait, there’s more from the Queenslander whose three-length victory over a frustrated Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) and Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) was clocked in an average stage speed of 45.309 kph for the 189km ride from Lisieux
1. Robbie McEwen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 189km in 4:10:17 (45.308kph)2. Daniele Bennati (I), Lampre, 00:003. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, 00:004. Bernhard Eisel (A), Francaise des Jeux, 00:005. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:006. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, 00:007. Erik Zabel (G), Milram, 00:008. Luca Paolini (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:009. Gert Steegmans (B), Davitamon-Lotto, 00:0010. Inaki Isasi (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:00 11. David Kopp (G), Gerolsteiner, 00:0012. Jimmy Casper (F), Cofidis, 00:0013. Steven De Jongh (Nl), Quick Step-Innergetic, 00:0014. Arnaud Coyot
The first stars-and-stripes jerseys were handed out Thursday as time trial champions were crowned at the 2006 USA Cycling National Festival at Seven Springs. Kristin Armstrong (Team Lipton) defended her national title on the rolling, 30-kilometer course through Laurel Hill State Park by posting a time of 46 minutes and 46.07 seconds. Last year Armstrong placed third at the world championships, but the veteran time trialist called this year’s course "the hardest in my career." "I was like ‘Whoa, this is hard!’" Armstrong said of the unusually steep climbs and headwind on the return side of
Andréas Klöden is not exactly your average big mouth. When the slender T-Mobile pro speaks, his dark brown eyes are fixed on an imaginary spot in the carpet and one has to move really close to him, to understand his almost whispering voice. He offers up sentences like, "Yes, I have the GC in the back of my mind." It's a statement that clearly falls way short of an announcement that Klöden would like to win the Tour de France. Klöden does not seem to quite grasp that after the demise of Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and Alexandre Vinokourov he is one of the big favorites of this year's
Earlier this week, Eddy Merckx said he picked Floyd Landis as the favorite to win this year’s Tour de France. Like father, like son. Axel Merckx agrees with his father that Landis is sitting in the pole position going into Saturday’s decisive time trial to win the stage and grab the maillot jaune. VeloNews European correspondent Andrew Hood grabbed a quick interview with the Belgian ahead of Friday’s start. Here are excerpts from that interview. VeloNews.com: What is your role in the team this year? Do you have a little bit of freedom or are you going to be helping Landis? Axel Merckx:
From the morning sign-in at the start to the podium at the finish, Casey Gibson covers it all. "Stop me if you have seen this before, guys," Gibson writes us today. "McEwen wins; Boonen pounds his fist in frustration. Its not even close, boys. Three or four bike lengths every day." But our man Casey spent the day on the road, as well, and there was much more than that increasingly predictable finish.
Can the Americans repeat their time-trial dominance from last month’s Dauphiné Libéré – when they swept the top four places – in Saturday’s 52km stage that will kick-start the battle for the overall victory in the 93rd Tour de France? At the Dauphiné, Dave Zabriskie won by an impressive 53 seconds ahead of Floyd Landis on a mostly flat, but windy 43km course. Third at 1:16 was Levi Leipheimer and fourth was George Hincapie at 1:34. The seven-rider American contingent will roll down the start ramp with excellent chances of victory. Also looking for strong rides will be Bobby Julich and
WeatherShowers at start, mostly cloudy and some sprinkles in the afternoon, temperatures in the high 70s, light to moderate head-crosswinds Stage winnerRobbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto), 4h10:17, 45.309kph – McEwen took another dominant victory by three bike lengths to score a Tour hat-trick, winning his third stage in just six tries. Last year, McEwen also won three stages, but it took 13 stages to pull it off. Italian Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) won the battle for second place. Race leaderTom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic), 29h21:00, 42.833kph – The world champion pounded his right
The moment of truth has arrived. After almost a week of following wheels, sheltered in the peloton, all the yellow-jersey favorites are racing “alone and unassisted” on Saturday. That expression was coined in Britain, where road time trials were invented in the late 19th century, to overcome police restrictions on packs of cyclists “riding furiously” and scaring the horses pulling carts and carriages. More than 100 years later — and 71 years after individual time trials were introduced to the Tour — the Brits and their English-speaking brethren are still teaching the Continentals how to race
Rumors that Floyd Landis is set to move to Discovery Channel in 2007 appear to be just that, at least for now. Michael Rutherford, Landis’s agent and lawyer, denied reports that the Phonak rider is poised to return to the American team for which he raced during 2002-04. “There have been no discussions with Discovery Channel at all,” Rutherford told VeloNews. “That is definitely just a rumor.” Rutherford confirmed that Landis’s contract with Phonak is up at the end of this season, but said that no new deal for next year has been cut with any team. With new sponsor iShares taking over for
While most North American cycling enthusiasts have had their radar screens aimed toward southwest France, this weekend mountain-bike fans will focus on Utah’s Wasatch mountain range. That’s because the NORBA National Mountain Bike Series (NMBS) returns this weekend to Deer Valley ski resort in Park City, Utah. It’s the fourth of the six NMBS races held in 2006, and the first of three NMBS races to grace the high-altitude Rocky Mountain region. The weekend features the full schedule of NMBS events: cross-country, short track, marathon, downhill, super d and mountain cross. The cross-country,
Stage 6: Lisieux to Vitré - 189km
Stage 6: Lisieux to Vitré - 189km
That's three for the Aussie pocket rocket
Tellow jersey on the attack. Boonen livened things up early in the stage
Brard, Backstedt and Geslin moved ahead of the break
.. but, as usual, the chase kicked in in earnest...
With Boonen back in the fold, the peloton eased off..
.. with predictable results
Bobby J seems relaxed these days.
Robbie the Rocket seems focused.
Hey, is that Frankie rifling through the back of Bjarne's car?
The beauty of Normandy in the summer...
... and the beauties of Normandy in their summer best.
Boonen will be in yellow for Saturday's time trial...
... and he gets to start behind the man in Green. Will we see a catch?
McEwen, though, specializes in sprints.
Man, does he specialize in sprints.
Julian Dean shows the aftermath of yesterday's crash.
The tools to keep track of Jens Voigt's progress tomorrow
Otherwise I wouldn’t be here. Merckx has confidence in Landis's chances
Stage Stats: Stage 6 by the numbers
Stage Stats: Stage 6 by the numbers
McEwen takes the stage and solidifies his hold on the points jersey
Course: The fourth long stage in a row, this one (225km) starts on the open, windswept roads of Picardy, tackles a series of short climbs across the Seine Valley, and concludes with more undulations across Normandy. It’s likely that only seconds will separate the race leaders on GC going into this stage, and the yellow jersey could change hands with time bonuses at the intermediate sprints, the last of which is at Pont l’Evêque with 50km to go. A fast, tricky run-in to sprawling Caen, population 113,000, will make it hard for a sprinter’s lead-out train to succeed, and perhaps favor a late,
After racing through heat-wave temperatures on the Tour de France’s opening five days, the peloton will be grateful for more temperate conditions in the upcoming week — starting with Thursday’s 225km stage 5 that starts north of Paris and heads southwest into Normandy. Local forecasts call for temperatures in the low 70s, moderate west winds in the riders’ faces and a 40-percent chance of rain. Head winds don’t favor small breakaways, so expect to see another bunch finish at Caen on Thursday. The course has plenty of ups and downs in its middle section through the Seine Valley, but the