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The victories Lance Armstrong values the most are the ones he worked the hardest for, and the 2003 Tour de France yellow jersey is going to have to rank near the top of that list. Out of his five wins, this one was the most difficult. The field was stronger than it was in any of the previous four years, the heat was unbearable, and there were several incidents and near misses. Races almost never go exactly as you plan them. It is extremely rare for an athlete to be completely ready for competition and have the race unfold precisely the way he wants it to. The mark of a true champion is the

On a day many called the most exciting day of short-track racingyet, overall series points leader Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (RLX-Ralph Lauren)crossed the finish line alone after breakaway companion Seamus McGrath’sfront tire washed out with two laps remaining at Idaho's Schweitzer Mountain NORBA event on Sunday. In the women’s race, three-time world cross-country champion Alison Sydor (Trek-VW) beat Subaru-Gary Fisher’s Chrissy Redden in a two-up sprint after spending much of the event off the front. The course — a flat, dusty, one-mile loop with a tricky bottleneckedS-turn section thrown in by

For one rider, the Schweitzer NORBA downhill win was a breakthrough victory;for another, simply par for the course.French 25-year-old gravity sensation Cedric Gracia (Siemens-Cannondale)won a close race at the Schweitzer Mountain NORBA downhill Sunday, justedging out Sam Hill, 18, of Australia by 1.4 seconds over the long 2.5-milecourse. In the women’s event it was American Kathy Pruitt with a breakthroughwin, beating out Sabrina Jonnier (Intense-Fox).For Pruitt, the win comes as confirmation after placing qualifying firstbut placing third at the Grouse Mountain World Cup in Vancouver two

Army Captain (and Tour fan) Rick Trimble

Saddam or Nebuchadnezzar? Captain Trimble at the presidential palace

Armstrong clearly enjoying the ride to his fifth consecutive Tour triumph

Ho-hum

Ohhhhhhkayyyyyyyy

You don't see this too often...

... or this

Are the any good French wines that one can serve with Crow?

Raise a glass to Vino'

Maybe Mario De Clercq should worry

Properly clad or not, these postmen delivered

The last break of the Tour

And they thought the race for the yellow jersey was close

Cooke's sigh of relief

It doesn't get much better

The 1903 Tour had its actual finish in Ville d’Avray, just outside Paris, whose mayor didn’t allow bike racing within the city limits. This year, Ville d’Avray, not far from the magnificent imperial palace of Versailles, sees the start of the final stage and an intermediate sprint after an initial loop of 31km in the western suburbs. The race then heads into the city with another loop via the Place de la Bastille before the final nine laps around the traditional circuit on the Champs-Elysées. 7/27/2003 Start Time: 1:38:00pm7/27/2003 Estimated Finish Time: 5:38:00pm HISTORYExcept for 1903,

The anticipated Tour de France clash between Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich came to a soggy conclusion in Saturday’s 49-kilometer 19th stage from Pornic to Nantes. Armstrong all but sewed up his fifth overall title while Ullrich will settle for second a fifth time. Armstrong widened his margin to Ullrich to 1 minute, 16 seconds in the Tour’s penultimate stage and only has to avoid disaster Sunday before becoming the fifth man to win the Tour five times. Armstrong admitted this was the hardest Tour victory since his courageous cancer comeback in 1999. The 31-year-old Texan had to endure

He has yet to fully capture the Kazakh public's imagination but few doubtthat Alexander Vinokurov's dogged pursuit of Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrichin this year's Tour de France has given cycling a boost in his native ex-Sovietrepublic.Kazakhstan's news media have paid only limited attention to the DeutscheTelekom rider's rise to world class status, even after his victory in theTour of Switzerland earlier this year, his Olympic silver in 2000 and hislikely clinching of third place in the biggest race of all, the Tour deFrance.Exemplifying the lukewarm reaction is the weekly Vremya

Stage 9 provided the rare opportunity for me to spend a bit of one-on-one time with CSC's “team behind the team” – the mechanics, coaches and soigneurs. My morning started with an introduction to the leader of the team, Bjarne Riis. After exchanging pleasantries, Riis was off on his morning jog, which he says helps him "get his mind off the Tour, even if it's only for 45 minutes." From there, I met up with New Zealander Craig Geater, one of CSC’s five mechanics, who gave me a tour of his world - the Team CSC support truck. Geater has spent most of his life working in a bicycle shop,

Individual Results for Stage 191. David Millar (GB), Cofidis, 54:052. Tyler Hamilton (USA), CSC, 00:093. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 00:144. Jan Ullrich (G), Bianchi, 00:255. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun), Quick Step-Davitamon, 00:266. Vjatceslav Ekimov (Rus), U.S. Postal Service, 00:567. Pena Victor Hugo (Col), U.S. Postal Service, 01:008. George Hincapie (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 01:089. Sylvain Chavanel (F), Brioches La Boulangere, 01:1210. Marzio Bruseghin (I), Fassa Bortolo, 01:2611. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), Credit Agricole, 01:3812. Michael Rogers (Aus), Quick Step-Davitamon,

To see how Stage 19 of the Tour unfolded live, just go to our Live Update window and follow the action all the way to the finish.

David Millar's luck finally changed with victory on the penultimate stage of the Tour de France on Saturday. The Briton won a wet 49km time trial from Pornic to Nantes in a time of 54 minutes, five seconds, nine seconds faster than Tyler Hamilton (CSC). Overall race leader Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal) was third 14 seconds behind. Up till Saturday, Millar's luck seemed to have deserted him. The 26-year-old Cofidis rider lost the Tour prologue when his chain came off close to the finish and then went down with bronchitis in the second half of the three-week long race. "As they say in

Today's stage presented riders with a condition they have yet to deal with this Tour – rain. Had this been a regular road stage, riders might have considered using a shorter or more angled stem to give themselves a more upright position and place more weight on the rear wheel. But today, riders needed every advantage they could get, and proper aerodynamic position would be a critical choice, even in the rain. This leaves tire selection as the most factor of today's stage. Since all the riders were racing on tubular wheels today, tire selection was somewhat limited (there are quite a few

On paper, stages 17 and 18 were relatively similar, but they played out a bit differently in real life. On Thursday, the break went from the gun so the peloton rode at a controlled, but steady tempo all day. But yesterday it took about 65 kilometers for a group to get away, so the first hour and a half of the stage was pretty stressful with one attack after another. With guys fighting hard at the front, it made for a lot of work in the back. But things calmed down a lot after the group that finally got away, stayed off. It was a welcomed change by that point. We had a pretty long transfer

At the end of week one in the Tour de France, we introduced you to John Henderson a sportswriter on the Denver Post who has been covering the race for the very first time. As John revealed, covering the Tour is a lot different than reporting on football or baseball in the United States, foremost being the inter-stage transfers and logistical late night searches for hotel. One thing is sure for John, as the race nears it end with the final stage in Paris tomorrow, it has been a real adventure that he will never forget. We told John we would catch up for his final words on the Tour. And we

Preparation can be like a security blanket. When you’ve done everything you can to be prepared, through training, reconnaissance, nutrition, hydration, and warming up, you feel safe and calm. When you’re not prepared, you feel naked and vulnerable. Lance Armstrong rolled into the start house this afternoon secure in his preparation, and ready for the time trial of his life. In the morning, Armstrong reviewed the time trial course one more time in the team car. Since it was raining, he was paying extra attention to things like road paint, manhole covers, rail tracks, and corners. He knew

Rain showers and cool temperatures won’t dampen spirits in Paris Sundaywhen the Tour de France not only sees the conclusion of this year’s racebut also celebrates its 100 years of history with a spectacular show onthe Champs-Élysées.After the final sprint and the annual parade of the 22 participatingteams will come a tightly orchestrated Centennial Parade featuring a castof 1200, including all the living Tour winners (except for 1998 winnerMarco Pantani and three-time winner Greg LeMond, who sent their regretsto the organizers). There will be 12 tableaux retracing a century of theTour and

Chrissy Redden (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and world champion Roland Green (Trek-Volkswagen) emerged as winners from a dry, dusty cross-country course on Northern Idaho’s Schweitzer Mountain, round four of the five-round NORBA National Championship Series. For Redden, the win brought her within 68 points of series leader Jimena Florit (RLX Ralph Lauren), while Green moves up to 15th place in the series, with two wins out of the four events. Although the temperature was ideal on the 10.6-mile course, with its 950 feet of elevation per lap, a long dry spell in the region has left heavy dust

Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc said he could not have hoped for a better race to celebrate the centenary of cycling's biggest event. "It was better than my expectations. What was unexpected was the quality of the race," he said on Saturday, the penultimate day of the Tour. "It was superb, the best race in 20 years or at least since 1989 when I took over as the Tour director.” Lance Armstrong, set to be crowned champion for a record-equaling fifth time in Paris on Sunday, was tested until the very end in the closest Tour for years, while crashes and attacks made it one of the

A pair of Intense-Fox riders — Chris Kovarik of Australia and Sabrina Jonnier of France — took top honors at the round four of the NORBA mountain-cross championship series at Schweitzer Mountain Saturday, albeit in a very different manner. Jonnier, the 22-year-old from Nice, won after cutting inside on Australian Katrina Miller (Jamis), who crashed out of the lead. Kovarik, the event’s fastest qualifier, held his first gate and simply jumped first and rode away from Eric Carter (Mongoose-Hyundai), and teammates Mike King and Greg Minnaar (Haro-Lee Dungarees). “I had my hardtail and flat

The Team CSC mechanic-mobile

Kiwi mechanic Craig Geater

A bus full of bikes

Ullrich was on a record-setting pace before this turn

Ullrich never got back up to speed

Armstrong stayed focused and took no risks

And Hamilton powered into second on the day and fourth overall

Stage winner Millar was delighted after a lackluster Tour

Ride the wrong tire in a wet stage and you might just wind up like this

Bike waterfall along the course

Camp Armstrong; two Brits that say they become Americans for three weeks every year, in July.

Ekimov through the rain and fog

Haybale bike along the course

The start in Pornic

Postal compound deserted before the start

The umbrella crowd along the route, still in the tens of thousands

Village are of all team jerseys

Some very wet Cutters at the start of the race

wet, wet roads

A wet ride in Nantes

The pressure is almost off

Ullrich's Tour went better than he expected; his time trial worse than he had hoped

Armstrong knows he's won