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Aitor Gonzalez's win in the 14th stage of the Tour de France may have given him cause to celebrate, but it has to count as one of the most expensive returns on investment for any sponsor in the sport of cycling. For sure, Fassa Bortolo's Gonzalez was smiling after he time-trialed away from a 10-man break to finish 27 seconds ahead of Frenchmen Nicolas Jalabert (Phonak) and Christophe Mengin (Fdjeux.com). But considering the promise that came with his $750,000 salary, one Tour stage win and a time-trial success at the 2003 Giro d'Italia in his two years with Fassa is hardly great value for

Drizzly Oregon weather didn’t keep Trexlertown regular Cassandra Osorio-McKenna (Hot Tubes) from winning the miss-and-out and points race Saturday at the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge, though a couple of events had to be shortened to accommodate the damp conditions, including the men’s scratch race and Madison, won by Milton Wynants and Agustin Margaleff (Uruguay National Team). Saturday’s racing at Portland’s Alpenrose Velodrome began with the 200-meter qualifiers for the sprint tournament. Dean Tracy (Team Rubicon) posted a 12.01, with Stephen McLaughry (Bike Central) upping the ante in

STAGE RESULTS1. Aitor Gonzalez (Sp), Fassa Bortolo, 4:18:322. Nicolas Jalabert (F), Phonak, 00:253. Christophe Mengin (F), FDJeux.com, 00:254. Pierrick Fedrigo (F), Crédit Agricole, 00:295. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner, 00:316. Marc Lotz (Nl), Rabobank, 00:317. Igor Gonzalez Galdeano (Sp), Liberty-Seguras, 00:318. Santiago Botero (Col), T-Mobile, 00:379. Inigo Landaluze (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:4110. Egoi Martinez (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:43 11. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Lotto-Domo, 14:1212. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Crédit Agricole, 14:1213. Danilo Hondo (G), Gerolsteiner, 14:1214. Stuart

Ullrich won’t quit, but may work for KlödenFormer Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) has handed rival Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor) further room to breathe after announcing he may in fact become a support rider for teammate Andreas Klöden. The 1997 winner and five-time runner-up came into the Tour de France as the main threat to Armstrong, but could now finish the race further down than second place for the first time in his career. In the Pyrénées, Armstrong has all but ended the German's yellow-jersey hopes. Ullrich began the 14th stage already seven minutes

The Mail Bag is a Monday-Wednesday-Friday feature on VeloNews.com, but will appear daily during the Tour. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your FULL NAME, HOMETOWN and STATE, or NATION if you live outside the United States. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Less gossip, more racing discussion, pleaseEditor:With cycling enjoying a rare renaissance in America, an American team doing well, exceptional racing and coverage (and VeloNews

Everyone knew what the script was. Everyone knew what they were supposed to do. Lance Armstrong is here going for a record six Tour de France victories. Then there is the small army of riders who are waiting to spoil it for him: Jan Ullrich is supposed to shake that second-place monkey from his back and score his second Tour win. Iban Mayo, the Spanish climbing master had already proven he can out-climb the Texan, so the mountain challenge is there. Of course, Armstrong’s former teammate and fellow American Tyler Hamilton is ready to show the world that the defending champ and his Postal

Although the organizers of the Tour de France stacked all the mountain stages into the end of the race, their decision to put a relatively easy transitional stage right before the race’s second rest day gives the overall contenders a reasonably long time to recover between the Pyrénées and the Alps. Either wind or tactics could have made stage 14 pretty tough, but after two hard days in the mountains, the majority of the peloton wasn’t eager to ride hard on Sunday. Still, the first two hours of the race were fast and difficult, while riders repeatedly attacked off the front to establish the

Dear Lennard,After watching the prologue and the TTT in this year's Tour, I have noticed T-Mobile is not riding rear discs. Why is that? Everyone knows that a rear disc is faster than a non-disc. What gives?John Dear John,First, all of the T-Mobile riders I saw in the prologue used a reardisc. Here is one on the start ramp, on the new Giant time trial frame. As for the team time trial, Dirk Spiers of Giant Europe said that T-Mobile chose to not use rear discs out of concerns raised by that day's strong crosswinds on the course. He is not at all sure that it was the right choice in

Michelle Dumaresq (Santa Cruz) won her second consecutive national downhill title in the women's category at the Canadian National Mountain Bike Championships on Sunday at Mont Ste Anne, while Mathieu Laurin (Ironhorse) took the men's title. Rain through the week leading up to the Championships turned the 1.7 kilometer course into a muddy mess, causing almost every rider to crash. Some sections in the woods were under nearly a foot of water. Dumaresq, who took seventh two weeks earlier in the World Cup race on the same course, was the fastest woman in qualifying and in the final run, with

STAGE 14 July 18 Carcassonne - Nîmes (124.280mi/200km)

STAGE 14 July 18 Carcassonne - Nîmes (124.280mi/200km)

STAGE 14 July 18 Carcassonne - Nîmes (124.280mi/200km)

Gonzales outkicks the break

Hot Tubes' Osorio-McKenna overpowered Team Rubicon's Hanson and Godfrey in the miss-and-out

Team Uruguay proved strongest in the Madison

Carney takes the miss-and-out

Armstrong - seen here with Bobby Julich - was none too concerned by seeing Gonzalez go.

The break had the right ingredients for success...

... while earlier attempts did not.

Another day in yellow for the man.

A serious chase might have been tough in the heat and wind.

Waiting for the day to start.

Passing through Beziers

The peloton actually had time to take in the scenery today

T-Mobile at the prologue

T-Mobile at the TTT

Tour de Tech: Four spokes and secret bikes

Ignore the label

Tour de Tech: Four spokes and secret bikes

Dumaresq

Laurin says international competition has helped hom

Dumaresq tops the women's podium

COURSE: This is a classic 217km Pyrenean stage with half-a-dozenbig climbs before the destructive summit finish on the Plateau de Beille.The 10km, 8.4-percent climb of the Col d’Agnes at 154km is the steepest,and is followed by a short downhill and climb before descending a narrowtwisty back road, which could be treacherous in the rain. A short valley section then precedes the 18.5km, 6.4-percent haul to the finish. FAVORITES: This has every sign of being the key stage of the Tour, a day when Armstrong will discover his true rivals. KILOMETERS CLIMBING66.3KILOMETERS

It was a stage that was heavily billed to be defininitive in the final outcome of this year's Tour de France. But after Lance Armstrong won the 205.5km 13th leg through the Pyrénées, everyone was left saying it was more like the decisive stage. In a stage that began in Lannemezan and had seven categorized climbs, Armstrong (U.S. Postal-Berry Floor) turned around his second-place finish to Ivan Basso (CSC) in the previous day's stage by outsprinting the impressive young Italian to the summit finish of Plateau de Beille at 5870 feet. In third place behind the pair was Austrian George

Annette Hanson (Team Rubicon) and Kenny Williams (First Rate Mortgage) kicked off the sixth annual Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge on Friday in Portland, Oregon, with wins in the men’s and women’s pursuit. Hanson, a multiple national and world masters pursuit champ from Kirkland, Washington, won the 3000-meter race in 4:09:87 on the 268-meter, cigar-shaped concrete track ahead of teammate Brie Gudsell of New Zealand and Hot Tubes’ Cassandra Osorio of Florence, South Carolina. In the men’s 4000-meter contest, it was Williams turning a 5:01:64 for 4000 meters to outpace a pair of Kiwis racing

STAGE RESULTS1. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 6:04:382. Ivan Basso (I), CSC, 00:003. Georg Totschnig (A), Gerolsteiner, 01:054. Andréas KlÖden (G), T-Mobile, 01:275. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), Illes Balears-Banesto, 01:276. Jan Ullrich (G), T-Mobile, 02:427. Azevedo José (P), U.S. Postal Service, 02:508. Christophe Moreau (F), Crédit Agricole, 02:519. Pietro Caucchioli (I), Alessio-Bianchi, 02:5110. Gilberto Simoni (I), Saeco, 03:43 11. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Phonak, 04:2912. Stephane Goubert (F), Ag2R Prevoyance, 04:2913. Thomas Voeckler (F), Brioches La Boulangere, 04:4214.

Lance Armstrong said manic Basque cycle fans were his biggest worry as he surged to victory on stage 13 of the Tour de France high in the Pyrénées on Saturday. U.S. Postal’s five-time Tour winner and Italian Ivan Basso (CSC) threaded a precarious route through thousands of fans on the way to the summit at the end of the 205-km stage. French police estimated the crowds on the stage at between 150,000 and 200,000, with around 85,000 of them sporting the orange colours of Euskaltel-Euskadi, whose Basque rider Iban Mayo was having a dismal ride and nearly abandoned. "We just passed a

The Mail Bag is a Monday-Wednesday-Friday feature on VeloNews.com, but will appear daily during the Tour. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Numbers don't lie, do they?Dear Editors,I guess I'm in the minority of those who can't quite figure out howUSA Cycling totals its points. (see "Withsingle-point margin, Haywood gets Olympic nod ")I went to the UCI website and as of

Ivan Basso was on Lance Armstrong’s original list of potential threats for the 2004 Tour de France, but he was not near the top of that list. He is now. The former winner of the Tour’s Best Young Rider jersey has been the only man able to match Armstrong pedal stroke for pedal stroke over the past two days. Though the young Italian said he was forced to his limit to keep up on the final climb to Plateau de Beille, Armstrong didn’t have an overabundance of energy left when it came time to sprint either. Sitting just 1:17 behind Armstrong is a man many believe represents the future of the

Athens-bound Marie-Helene Premont (Rocky Mountain-Business Objects) took her second consecutive title at the Canadian National Mountain Bike Championships on Saturday in Mont Sainte-Anne, while Ricky Federau (GearsRacing.com) won his first title in the elite men's category. A total of 64 men and 34 women rode through wet and muddy conditions for the chance to win the maple-leaf jersey of the nationalchampion. Premont took charge immediately in the women's 25km, five-lap race, attacking on the first climb and establishing a 10 second gap on Karen Dewolfe (Cannondale), Chrissy Redden

STAGE 13 July 17 Lannemezan - Plateau de Beille (134.844mi/217km)

STAGE 13 July 17 Lannemezan - Plateau de Beille (134.844mi/217km)

STAGE 13 July 17 Lannemezan - Plateau de Beille (134.844mi/217km)

STAGE 13 July 17 Lannemezan - Plateau de Beille (134.844mi/217km)

STAGE 13 July 17 Lannemezan - Plateau de Beille (134.844mi/217km)

Armstrong outkicks Basso at the end

Armstrong gets his first stage this year

Voeckler was valiant in defense of his jersey

Once again, Postal put the big hammer down

And on the final climb, it was down to Armstrong and Basso

Voeckler in yellow once again

Mayo had a really bad day, nearly abandoning

Chavanel and Voight got things rolling early

A friendly rivalry that looks as though it may last all the way to Paris

Back pain drove Hamilton out of the Tour

Who loves ya, baby? Not this Basque

The Tour picked the wrong time to visit Basque Country, with Mayo having a rough ride

Azevedo was the last Postie driving the train

Leipheimer eventually lost contact on the climb to Plateau de Beille.

Ullrich fights his way up to Plateau de Beille

Not all fans were hostile Saturday

Azevedo was the last Postie driving the train

Leipheimer eventually lost contact on the climb to Plateau de Beille.

Ullrich lost more ground today

Not all fans were hostile Saturday

COURSE: The rolling terrain of the opening 160km takes therace into the heart of the Pyrénées, where the peloton willtackle the two hardest climbs yet. The Col d’Aspin is 12.5km at a 6.3 percent,while the finish comes 5km from the summit of the Col du Tourmalet aftera 15km climb, most of it at 8 percent. FAVORITES: After two weeks on the road, some of the pre-racefavorites will have dropped out of the picture, but those still in goodshape should fight out the stage: Who will be the strongest between Armstrong,Jan Ullrich, Tyler Hamilton, Iban Mayo, Joseba Beloki and Roberto Heras? HISTORY:

Had it not been so true, the outcome of the first mountain stage of the 2004 Tour de France could have been scripted in Hollywood. But the reality of it provided Tour followers with a welcome reminder of how results alone don't always count in a race – sometimes, it’s how those results are achieved, and what they really mean. Friday’s stage-12 win by Ivan Basso (CSC) over defending Tour champion Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor) confirmed the Italian’s status as a true contender, a man who could take command of the Tour de France should the Texan either retire or lose his

STAGE RESULTS1. Ivan Basso (I), CSC, 5:03:582. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 00:003. Andréas Klöden (G), T-Mobile, 00:204. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), Illes Balears-Banesto, 00:245. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 00:336. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Phonak, 00:507. Denis Menchov (Rus), Illes Balears-Banesto, 00:598. Michele Scarponi (I), Domina Vacanze, 01:029. Iban Mayo (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 01:0310. Santos Gonzalez (Sp), Phonak, 01:03 11. Georg Totschnig (A), Gerolsteiner, 01:0312. Gilberto Simoni (I), Saeco, 01:3213. Aitor Gonzalez (Sp), Fassa Bortolo, 01:3914. Christophe Moreau (F),

Tour de France officials are getting carried away with their duties when it comes to barring suspect riders from the race, the president of the sport's governing body said Friday. UCI president Hein Verbruggen hit out at organizers who wanted to bar two Tour competitors, including one from Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor team, because they are implicated in a previous doping affair. Italian authorities accuse U.S. Postal's Pavel Padrnos of the Czech Republic and Quick Step’s Stefano Zanini of Italy of possessing or using doping products during the 2001 Giro d’Italia. The

President George W. Bush predicted Friday that he would win the November presidential election and that fellow Texan Lance Armstrong would pedal to a historic sixth victory in the Tour de France. "He's going to win, and I'm going to win. There's no need to worry about either race anymore," Bush told reporters after watching the race aboard Air Force One en route to Tampa, Florida. White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that Bush, who fell out sharply with France in the run-up to the war in Iraq, has been avidly watching the storied bicycling race. "He has been trying to

Tour de France organizers have threatened to pull out of next year's revolutionary new Pro Tour in a doping row with the UCI. The 2005 Tour is set to form a key part of a new grand-prix style cycling calendar running from March to October and comprising 28 races. But a rift has developed after the UCI refused to exclude two more riders from this year's Tour. Tour chief Jean-Marie Leblanc wanted them thrown out as part of a zero-tolerance policy for anyone caught up in doping probes. Leblanc said he had received information from San Remo's prosecutor's office that Czech rider Pavel

Photographer Casey Gibson was one of our eyes in the sky as the Tour de France raced toward its first mountaintop finish. Here's a sampling of what he saw.

We’ve been talking for weeks about the relative strengths of the teams contesting the 2004 Tour de France, but when it comes right down to it, there’s a point when the team leader has to step up and deliver the goods. When that time arrived during Stage 12, some men rose to the occasion and others faded dramatically. Lance Armstrong has been looking forward to the stages to LaMongie and Plateau de Beille for a long time. He has been victorious before on these climbs, he knows them well, and he knows how to exploit their slopes to his advantage. Prior to the stage, the US Postal Service

The surroundings were familiar to Bobby Julich as he entered the Pyrénées Friday during the 12th stage of the 2004 Tour de France: the chaotic sea of orange shirts, the deafening tunnel of Basque fans cheering, and the high peaks above. The first major mountain test of the 2004 Tour de France was a one-two Pyrénées punch of Category 1 climbs — the Col d’Aspin and the mountaintop finish at La Mongie. The last time Julich was here in 2002, the scene looked about the same. But for the 32-year-old American, now riding for the CSC team in support of Italian star Ivan Basso, everything was

The Mail Bag is a Monday-Wednesday-Friday feature on VeloNews.com, but will appear daily during the Tour. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Is the fix on?Velo,Regarding George’sprediction of the race(s) outcome I wonder if is going to have theSupreme Court fix the tour too. Bill WilliamsDavis, California Compare and contrastEditors,We are fortunate indeed to stand

After a week of counting, recounting and recalculating UCI points, USACycling announced the formal nomination of Sue Haywood to the 2004 U.S.Olympic Mountain Bike Team.Haywood’s nomination comes after a dramatic year-long pursuit of UCIpoints resulted in her position as the top-ranked American in the world,but the West Virginian emerged in that position only after the the UnionCycliste Internationale issued its final tally of points standing as ofJuly 12.After counting UCI rankings and including points earned points fromthe July 2003 short track race at the NORBA National in Sandpoint,

Everyone is wondering when something important will happen.Sam Abtwriting in the July 15 edition of The New York Times Not to contradict Sam Abt, who has forgotten more about the Tour de France than I will ever know, but plenty of important stuff has happened during this year’s Tour. True, most of what’s happened has had little to do with who will roll down the Champs-Élysées wearing a stylish yellow jersey and a big white grin come July 25. But then you can’t have everything, not even in the Tour. For starters, it’s moderately important that the stage layout sucks. Front-loading the Tour

Sometimes the riders dictate the tactics on the course; other times, the course decides the tactics. In today’s 197km stage from Castelsarrasin to La Mongie, the peloton headed into the Pyrénées, racing over the Col d’Aspin and finishing with the famous Col du Tourmalet. It was the first real test of fitness, a race of man against man, and man against gravity. The peloton rolled along until it approached the fury of a rainstorm and the looming mountains ahead. Little attacks here and there meant nothing in what everyone knew would be a decisive stage, a day on which the field would shatter,