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The trouble with mountain-bike racing is that it often takes place in the mountains, where the weather can be, shall we say, less than hospitable. Just ask the 800 or so racers at the NORBA NCS race at Idaho’s Schweitzer Mountain resort, who awakened Saturday to face mucky courses and a start-finish area that was in a complete shambles, thanks to a late-night hailstorm driven by 60-mph winds. Still, the show must go on, and after a Le Mans-style running start, Super-D racers were plummeting from the Schweitzer ski village to the town of Sandpoint, nine miles below. Jennifer Whalen (WTB)

Stage 14 - Agde to Ax-3-Domaines -- 220.5km

Stage 14 - Agde to Ax-3-Domaines -- 220.5km

Totschnig wins his first Tour stage

Whuttup with Bobby and those rings?

Cañada takes a similar approach

Garzelli forces himself to work on his stroke when training.

Ullrich, Basso and Armstrong test each other

Is the battle boiling down to Armstrong versus Basso?

Evans on the ascent Saturday

Stage 15 - Lézat-sur-Lèze to St-Lary Soulan (Pla d’Adet) >205.5km

Stage 15 - Lézat-sur-Lèze to St-Lary Soulan (Pla d’Adet) >205.5km

Um ... think we're in trouble?

Hincapie guts it out toward the finish

Armstrong and Basso take the final corner together

Leipheimer on the climb

Totschnig en route to his first Tour stage win

Vinokourov paid the price today

It's time to either fight or run away

Totschnig is glad he didn't go home

Basso's feeling better than he did in the Alps

Basso felt better in the Pyrenees than in the Alps - but not Ullrich

It's showtime

Armstrong, Basso and Landis marking one another

Rasmussen had a 'semi-bad day'

T-Mobile's attack early on the Port de Pailhères got rid of the entire Discovery team... well, except for that one guy.

A look ahead to Stage 15: Is Armstrong ready for a stage win?

A tough day in the saddle

Armstrong shows his strength, and once again his rivals must look forward to another day

Moreau got his doors blown off

The break

Garzelli and Beneteau

Evans and Kasheschkin

Leipheimer: In good position for the podium?

Craig lights it up early

Killeen on the fire-road climb

The women hit the rock garden

Course: There is only an early cat. 4 climb on this transitionalstage across the Midi between the Alps and Pyrénées, so it’sa rare chance for the sprinters to come to the fore. A choppy 20km finishingcircuit awaits the peloton in the streets of Montpellier, where there’sa short, 200-meter-long finish straight. History: No less than 24 stages have finished in Montpellier.The latest was in 1994, when Dane Rolf Sørensen took the honorsin a two-man break with Aussie Neil Stephens. Favorites: The tight finish should see attacks by the likes ofFlecha and Erik Dekker in a bid to trump the Aussie

Following the expulsion of one rider and the arrest of another, talk of doping at the Tour de France has re-emerged as the doctor of one of France's top teams said the race is still being “contested on two levels.” For Gerard Guillaume, the doctor of the Francaise des Jeux team of Bradley McGee and Baden Cooke, his riders simply can't keep up with a peloton whose speeds have amazed everyone in the first 12 days of the race. The Tour, which American Lance Armstrong is bidding to win for a seventh consecutive time, has so far been raced at a punishing pace, leaving some complaining

If American Chris Horner had hoped to leave an impression on his first Tour de France, he can consider his mission accomplished. The 33-year-old California native, who joined the Spanish squad Saunier Duval-Prodir at the end of the 2004 season after three seasons spent dominating the domestic calendar, came painfully close to winning stage 13 in Montpellier on Friday. But he was caught before the line by a hard-charging peloton. Instead of an amazing victory, Horner could only watch as Aussie Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) took his third sprint win of this Tour by edging out Stuart O’Grady

Stage Results1. Robbie McEwen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 3:43:142. Stuart O’Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 00:003. Fred Rodriguez (USA), Davitamon-Lotto, 00:004. Guido Trenti (USA), Quickstep, 00:005. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:006. Anthony Geslin (F), Bouygues Telecom, 00:007. Forster Robert (G), Gerolsteiner, 00:008. Magnus Backstedt (Swe), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:009. Gianluca Bortolami (I), Lampre, 00:0010. Christopher Horner (USA), Saunier Duval, 00:00 11. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros, 00:0012. Baden Cooke (Aus), Francaise des Jeux, 00:0013. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner,

Many people have been asking what those wheels with red hubs like old Mavic Heliums were on David Moncoutie’s bike. The Cofidis rider won stage 12 on the new Mavic Ksyrium ES Dixieme Anniversaire wheels, which indeed are supposed to honor and carry on the tradition of those Heliums, which premiered 10 years ago in the Tour as special climbing wheels, ridden by luminaries like Laurent Jalabert and Richard Virenque, among many others. The front and rear rims of the 10th Anniversary Ksyrium ES are different, with the front being lighter. Mavic says the tubular version weighs 625 grams () and

Levi ready for uphill challengeOn the fight for the podium I feel good. I feel better than I have in the Tour before. I think the GC will continue to sort out a little bit. I’ve been trying to save as much energy as possible because I know what’s coming up. It’s definitely going to be decisive. It’s hot now, tomorrow and the next day are going to be very decisive. The day after tomorrow (Sunday) when we get to the bottom of Pla-d’Adet, it’s going to explode, it’s going to be every man on his own. It’s going to be very painful. On Saturday’s stage to Ax-3 Domaines Follow the best, but there’s

Friday's relatively flat transitional stage almost lived up to that tradition that would have had the day's breakaway succeed. Almost. Our man Casey Gibson captured scenes of the day's stage before, during and after the heart-breaking finish into Montpellier, where Saunier Duval's Chris Horner was caught just meters from the line after being on the attack for more than 160km.

On Sunday, Lance Armstrong will pay tribute to his former teammate at Motorola, Fabio Casartelli, who died in a crash on the descent of Porte d'Aspet a decade ago. Casartelli was the reigning Olympic road race champion in 1992, and joined Armstrong's team soon afterwards for what was supposed to be a promising future - until his fatal crash on the Pyrenean descent. On what should prove an emotional weekend for the American six-time winner of the Tour, remembering Casartelli will be one of the foremost things on the American's mind. "It's going to mean a lot, because it is

The Discovery Channel team will probably try to stop Lance Armstrong’s main rivals from attacking him on Saturday’s stage 14 into the Pyrénées. But that won’t be a simple task on what looks like being a very long, hot day under a blazing sun. In the four to five hours of racing before stage 14 even reaches the two forbidding climbs at the end, there are sure to be many attacks. And should those breaks include some of those riders between five and 10 minutes back on GC — such as Kazakhstan’s Alex Vinokourov (T-Mobile) and Andrey Kashechkin (Crédit Agricole) or Australians Cadel Evans

As the Tour de France soars high into the Pyrénées this weekend, an equally exciting high-country battle will be fought in northern Idaho as the NORBA National mountain-bike series returns to the Schweitzer Mountain resort. The Schweitzer stop is the first this season to feature all six NORBA disciplines: marathon, cross-country, short track, downhill, super-descent and mountain cross. It’s the NORBA series’ third consecutive visit to the resort, and race organizers have spent the past two weeks cutting new single-track, roping off the marathon course and building the four-cross track. They

My hats off to the Americans in this year’s Tour de France. In today’s 173.5 kilometer stage from Miramas to Montpellier, one American in particular rode remarkably for the whole stage but lost the race in the last kilometer. Another American lead out the winner of the stage in the last kilometer and still finished third for the stage. All this while three other American’s hold places in the top 10 on General Classification. We sure have come a long way! 150 kilometers in the lead but 150 meters short at the lineJust 17 kilometers into the race American Chris Horner found himself with

Stage 13 - Miramas to Montpellier >173.5km

Stage 13 - Miramas to Montpellier >173.5km

McEwen rockets out to another stage win

Mavic's Ksyrium ES Dixieme Anniversaire wheels

Yeah, but what's its weight in Belgian ale?

Just plain-vanilla aluminum posts

Horner makes it into a break

Davitamon-Lotto clocks in for McEwen

Horner workin' it

May I have your attention, please?

McEwen praised his team in general and Fast Freddie in particular

Armstrong's next big test comes this weekend

A descent into what is the mosh pit in front of the Discovery bus...

...where grown men and women crush small children up against the barriers to get an autograph or a look at Lance ...or his friend.

Geez, who is she looking for?

Armstrong has a specific rig for the flat stages, too.

Close-up

Horner gets a day out front...

... he's in there somewhere.

Super German photog Giro works out of his office in the back of a van, and transmits photos from the finish line.

Waiting to award the best young rider jersey

Rasmussen is looking a little gaunt on the podium today. Rumor has it that he will simply dry up and blow away after the Pyrenees.

A look ahead to Stage 14: This could be tricky

A look ahead to Stage 14: This could be tricky

Voeckler makes it, too

Da Cruz and Horner proved less than simpatico in the break

The beauty of tactics: How to blow it with 150 meters to go

Course: This third alpine stage bypasses the area’s big climbs— Izoard, Vars and Allos — and instead sticks to the valleys and foothills.The (mild) sting in the tail comes when the race reaches Digne-les-Bains,where the riders do a 40km loop, the first half up and over the narrowCat. 2 Col du Corobin, the last half on a rolling main road back into town. History: Digne was a regular stage town in the 1930s and ’40s,but the Tour hasn’t returned here since 1969 when Merckx outsprinted breakcompanion Felice Gimondi over a course that included Vars and Allos. Favorites: With the GC hierarchy

With 11 stages down and 10 to go, the French have yet to win a stage of this 92nd Tour de France. The home fans have had to be satisfied by some aggressive-riding awards by the likes of Laurent Brochard, Christophe Mengin and Thomas Voeckler, and the overall challenge of Christophe Moreau (who moved up to third overall on Wednesday). But what they really want is a stage win. With almost 100 riders now more than an hour behind race leader Lance Armstrong, there is a good chance for riders out of the overall picture to make successful bids for a stage victory. And the French will be trying

David Moncoutié gave the French something to cheer about on Bastille Day while Lance Armstrong kept a low profile on the Tour de France’s hilly 187km stage on Thursday. Moncoutié tore away from a 13-strong break late on the day’s second to last climb to score the first French win of the 2005 Tour while Armstrong coasted and roasted through a hot day as the Tour rolled south from the Alps into sunny Provence. “It was a stage for a bold man, not for the best man in the Tour,” said Moncoutié, who also won a stage last year. “I was not the best rider in the Tour, but the strongest in the break.

Stage 12 Results1. David Moncoutie (F), Cofidis, 4:20:062. Sandy Casar (F), Francaise des Jeux, 00:573. Angel Vicioso (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 00:574. Patrice Halgand (F), Credit Agricole, 00:575. Jose Luis Arrieta (Sp), Illes Balears, 00:576. Franco Pellizotti (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:577. Axel Merckx (B), Davitamon-Lotto, 00:578. Juan Manuel Garate (Sp), Saunier Duval, 00:579. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 03:1510. Stuart O’Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 03:15 11. Massimo Giunti (I), Fassa Bortolo, 03:1512. Stephan Schreck (G), T-Mobile, 03:1813. Giovanni Lombardi (I), CSC, 03:2114. Robbie

Joseba Beloki - Facing his demons two years onIt was two years ago today that Joseba Beloki suffered that horrible high-speed crash on the descent of the Col de la Rochette, just as the 2003 Tour de France exited the Alps. Images of that fall, on the day’s last switchback, as he and Lance Armstrong were chasing Alexandre Vinokourov into Gap, sit in the minds of everyone who witnessed it. Beloki, who is back racing the Tour for the first time since then, says the scars of what was his most frightening moment on the bike are still very fresh in his mind. In an interview with the French sports