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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

A few hours before the Tour de France peloton left Briançon on Thursday, one man, who had just days earlier been leading the race, grabbed a ride to the airport. CSC’s Jens Voigt had little choice but to fly home to Berlin after missing the time cut by a mere 41 seconds on Wednesday’s stage, one that featured the feared Col du Galibier. Before his flight, Voigt took time to speak with a small group of German reporters about the events leading up to his unfortunate exit from the Tour. Voigt said his performance on Wednesday had been hampered by illness, something he’d felt come on in Grenoble

Tour de France Comes to the Big Screen in Live HD Simulcast in 53 MovieTheatres Across the United States on July 16“Live. Loud. Large: Tour De France Stage 14 on the Big Screen”Presented by The Tyler Hamilton Foundation, National CineMedia andOutdoor Life® NetworkA portion of the proceeds to benefit the Tyler Hamilton Foundationand the Davis Phinney FoundationFans won’t want to miss the chance to watch the top cyclists battlelive and uninterrupted in high-definition on the Big Screen as The TylerHamilton Foundation hosts a live simulcast of Stage 14 of the 92nd Tourde France in 51 Regal

It was a scorcher on the Tour on Wednesday - meteorologically speaking, anyway, and results-wise, too if you happened to be French. So it's no surprise that ace shooter Casey Gibson's attention was drawn to the cool, blue waters of a lake the Tour passed en route to Digne-les-Bains. "We were thinking we should join all of those vacationers rather than work 16-hour days," notes Casey. "Looks lovely, eh?" That it does. And us too fat for a Speedo . . . .

Each Tour team has a bus and a slew of station wagons. But otherwise, teams vary widely in the other vehicles they bring along, and this has changed even further with the advent of the Pro Tour. And of critical interest to all of the teams is security of all of those bikes and expensive wheels and parts they carry along. Most teams have a bus and a big truck. The buses for the riders are roomy inside and have comfortable seats, tables and other amenities, such as espresso machines. Teams use them as conference rooms for entertaining guests or negotiating team sponsorships, as well as for

Today was one of those days that you just put your head down, ride and wait for the finish. It’s not that this stage was so hard, it’s that I suffered so much yesterday that I am still trying to recover. To start, I came down on the descent of the Col de la Madeleine and then spent the rest of the day hurting. I was on my own, just trying to get back on to the grupetto and I locked up my front wheel in a corner and landed on my back. You may remember last year that, after the highlight of winning at Roubaix, a lot of my problems later in the season revolved around my back. As it turned

Stage 12 - Briançon to Digne-les-Bains >187km

Stage 12 - Briançon to Digne-les-Bains >187km

Moncoutie gives the French something else to celebrate on Bastille Day

Casar makes it one-two for the home crowd

Armstrong is enjoying the change in weather

The CSC duo of Julich and Basso stick close to Armstrong

Beltran crashed out of the Tour

The day's big break

With Boonen out, Hushovd is in green

Moncoutié wins one for the home crowd

Was your ride today this pretty?

Armstrong and Hincapie will find themselves a man short in the Pyrenees

Another scenic

The peloton rolls past a lovely lake in the midday heat. We wish we were in it

Beltran consults with the race doctor before withdrawing

The peloton climbs through another camper city

Nothing like fighting your way through a crowd after a sweaty day in the saddle

Lance fans took over the finish-line stands today

Ullrich looks for the exit

Padrnos pushes through

Say, where the heck's the bike race, anyway?

The Liberty Seguros fleet

. . . and the Discovery armada

A barricade of Subarus

At 8677 feet in elevation, the Col du Galibier is the ceiling of the 2005 Tour de France. This formidable mountain pass, which has been climbed more often than any other in Tour history, gives the race some grandiose Alpine scenery, and at times it takes a merciless toll. The Galibier is often the Tour’s summit — only the rare climb up the Col de l’Iseran (9087 feet) and the three trips up the Col de la Bonette-Restefond (9193 feet) have taken Tour competitors higher. The fabled Galibier’s indisputable reign was heightened in 1979 — quite literally — when the climb grew an impressive 292

Course: Mountain stages don't get much tougher than this one, with 12,600 feet of climbing in 173km. Pitching out of a deep, wooded valley to a high alpine meadows, the Madeleine softens up the field with 25.4km of uphill work. The 12km Télégraphe rears up the steep side of a ravine in tight switchbacks. And the 17.5km Galibier reserves its toughest stretch for the 5km preceding its bleak peak. The closing 40km descent is too fast to allow for much regrouping. History: The last time a Tour stage crossed the Galibier from its tougher northern approach and ended in Briançon or a nearby

You just knew Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile) would attack on a Tour de France stage like Wednesday's Alpine monster from Courchevel to Briançon. And if he went on the attack, Wednesday’s was just the type of stage Vino’ was destined to win. “We can't say that we were surprised,” said race leader Lance Armstrong after he kept his 38-second margin over Dane Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank). “Whenever somebody is in a breakaway all day long, it's always impressive. Like the other day, with Rasmussen, an all-day effort is never easy.” Still, to see how the ever-popular Kazakh national

Italian Tour de France rider Dario Frigo was charged on Wednesday after customs officers found banned drugs in his wife's car. His wife, who was stopped on the motorway on Tuesday with what was understood to be about 10 doses of the endurance-boosting drug EPO (erythropoietin), was also facing a charge in connection with a customs offense. Later Wednesday, the couple were charged with "helping and assisting in the use of doping products, contraband and importing" by a judge in Albertville. They were released on bail. Frigo, 31, is banned from taking part in the sport while the inquiry

1. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), T-Mobile2. Santiago Botero (Col), Phonak, 00:003. Christophe Moreau (F), Credit Agricole, 01:154. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, 01:155. Eddy Mazzoleni (I), Lampre, 01:156. Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, 01:157. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 01:158. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Gerolsteiner, 01:159. Mickael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, 01:1510. Georg Totschnig (A), Gerolsteiner, 01:15 11. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Illes Balears, 01:1512. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery Channel, 01:1513. Ivan Basso (I), CSC, 01:1514. Michael Rogers (Aus), Quickstep, 01:1515.

Just a day after he lost the yellow jersey to Lance Armstrong, CSC’s Jens Voigt will not get the chance to continue on the Tour de France after he arrived outside the permitted time limit following the 11th stage in to Briançon on Wednesday. Voigt, who wore the yellow jersey on Tuesday after taking the race lead on Sunday, suffered badly in his first day in the race lead on Tuesday which coincided with the first of three days in the Alps. Voigt could hardly walk after Tuesday's 10th stage from Grenoble to Courchevel. And the big German suffered again on the 11th stage, held over 173km

Here’s what the main players said after Wednesday’s 173km 11th stage. Lance Armstrong, Discovery Channel(sixth at 1:15, first overall) On Vinokourov’s breakaway Whenever somebody is in a breakaway all day long, it’s always impressive. Like the other day, with Rasmussen, an all day effort is never easy. Vino wasn’t the main concern today. We can’t chase down everybody with five, six minutes. We have to prioritize, and he’s not on our list of priorities, so we let him out there, kept the team together, and controlled the tempo. We knew [Vinokourov] would attack today. We can’t say that we

Taking on a monster like Wednesday's killer Alpine stage from Courchevel to Briançon takes commitment from rider and fan alike. Our man Casey Gibson was out today, capturing images of both.

Former mountain biker Michael Rasmussen is continuing to light up the Tour de France summits with his determined defense of the polka-dot jersey he pulled on a few days ago. Rasmussen, who rides for the Dutch Rabobank team - which is based in one of the flattest countries in the world - only took up road racing a few years ago, having had his fill with mountain biking. His spectacular stage win on Sunday, when he went off on a 169km breakaway to win the stage, already fulfilled one of the ambitions of the 31-year-old from Copenhagen. And after two tough days in the Alps, which saw Lance

Hello,Sorry for the delay. It's been a busy few days here. By now, you know that Tuesday did change things in this Tour, but Wednesday showed that we haven't given up, though. Tuesday morning started out pretty well. The team was motivated and ready to go. As a team we were motivated and ready to attack the yellow jersey. I was not feeling any serious effects from that crash last Sunday. As expected, I had a tiny bit of pain when breathing deeply, but I didn't feel particularly weakened by it, either. I really felt I was holding my own on the climb to Courchevel when Lance went

In his first Tour (1969), Merckx controlled the climbing tempo on the Galibier…

… just as Induráin did in 1993.

Stage 11 - Courchevel to Briançon >173km

Stage 11 - Courchevel to Briançon >173km

Vino' scores one for T-Mobile

Vino' got into an early break

That break boiled down to a two-man tussle with Botero

Discovery protected Armstrong's lead

Armstrong on the Galibier

Please, someone - preferably a gendarme - start messin' with Texas

The Madeline

The littlest Lance fan...

... gets real team support on the way up the Galibier.

This guy hauled this all the way up the Galibier. Maybe his helmet will give you a clue as to his mental state.

Is that the peloton down there?

Discovery leads the chase

The hard road ahead.

Beat the clock: Voigt charges to beat the time cut. He didn't make it.

Horner gets into the early break

Vino' proves the worth of a valiant attack

Vino' on his own

Armstrong dons yet another of those pretty yellow shirts

Valverde paid a visit to the race doc early on

Course: After a long transfer and rest day in Grenoble, therace heads into the Alps with the usual excitement and expectation swirlingthrough the peloton. With almost 100km of flat roads preceding the firstof two Cat. 1 climbs (the picturesque Cormetde-Roselend), there will beplenty of time to contemplate the task ahead, particularly the long (22km)haul to the 6561-foot summit finish at Courchevel. History: Only two Tour stages have finished at Courchevel. In1997, Richard Virenque was “gifted” the win by race leader Ullrich at theend of a difficult day that saw Virenque’s Festina team attack

Lance Armstrong might be getting older, but he’s still strong enough to put some serious hurt on the world’s best climbers when the Tour de France is on the line. The 33-year-old Texan surged back into the yellow jersey on Tuesday’s decisive climbing stage across the French Alps to Courchevel. And while he couldn’t drop everyone — Michael Rasmussen, Alejandro Valverde and Francisco Mancebo rode his vapors — he opened up important time gaps on just about everyone else. “I tried to get rid of those guys, but maybe it’s not like the old days when you make one attack and you ride them off to

Australian cyclist Mark French has had a two-year ban for doping overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the international body said Tuesday. Australian Olympic Committee officials said the ruling also meant a lifetime ban on competing at the Olympics had been lifted and that French would be eligible for a place at the 2008 Beijing Games. A three-man CAS panel found there was no evidence that drug vials found in a bucket in French's room at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Adelaide contained the banned substance glucocorticosteroid. While there was equine

1. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Illes Balears 192.5km in 4:50:35 (36.65kph)2. Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, s.t.3. Mickael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, 00:094. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), Illes Balears, 00:095. Ivan Basso (I), CSC, 01:026. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Gerolsteiner, 01:157. Eddy Mazzoleni (I), Lampre, 02:148. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 02:149. Andréas Klöden (G), T-Mobile, 02:1410. Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz), Credit Agricole, 02:1411. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, 02:1412. Leonardo Piepoli (I), Saunier Duval, 02:1413. Jan Ullrich (G), T-Mobile, 02:1414. Jorg Jaksche (G),

Cadel`s secret inspirationBesides the comic book character TinTin being Australian climber Cadel Evans' biggest inspiration, top-10 Tour de France contender has another force pushing him. It is a blue wristband from his Italian girlfriend Chiara who is a classical pianist. “She gave it to me to make my more aggressive on the bike,” Evans(Davitamon-Lotto) told VeloNews. “She said I needed to be more aggressive and every time I see it to think about that.” The band, which he received on the rest day at Grenoble, seems to be working. Evans, riding his first Tour de France, was eighth at