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One talented, highly motivated, and thoroughly tough SOB

Team CSC's Jakob Piil won Tuesday's hot and steamy stage 10 from Gap to Marseille as the Tour de France left the Alps behind and headed toward the Mediterranean Sea. Once more, Lance Armstrong retained his hold on the yellow jersey, this time staying on dry pavement a day after his already famous "short-cut" on Monday's stage to Gap. It was stinking hot again Tuesday in what's been one of the hottest Tours in recent memory. It was too hot for a sick Stefano Garzelli (Vini Caldirola), the 2003 Giro d'Italia runner-up, who didn't take the start, leaving 171 riders in the 90th Tour as the race

To see how Stage 10 of the Tour unfolded live, just go to our Live Update window and follow the action all the way to the finish.

1. Jakob Piil (Dk), CSC, 219.5km in 5:09:332. Fabio Sacchi (I), Saeco, at 00:003. Bram De Groot (Nl), Rabobank, at 00:494. Damien Nazon (F), Brioches La Boulangere, at 02:075. Rene Haselbacher (A), Gerolsteiner, at 02:076. Philippe Gaumont (F), Cofidis, at 02:077. Serge Baguet (B), Lotto-Domo, at 02:078. Vicente Garcia Acosta (Sp), iBanesto.com, at 02:079. Gutierrez José Enrique (Sp), Kelme-Costa Blanca, at 05:0610. Baden Cooke (Aus), FDJeux.com, at 21:2311. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Lotto-Domo, at 21:2312. Erik Zabel (G), Telekom, at 21:2313. Fred Rodriguez (USA), Caldirola, at 21:2314. Fabrizio

A gasp of horror reverberated through the Tour de France entourage Monday when second-placed Joseba Beloki crashed at top speed on the descent to the finish of stage 9. It was immediately obvious that it was a serious fall, one from which the 29-year-old Spaniard would not get up. Beloki was transported Tuesday by air ambulance to his hometown of Vittoria for surgery at a private hospital, but long months will pass before he is rehabilitated from the broken femur in his right thigh, the complex fracture of his right elbow and his snapped right wrist. For Beloki though, the bitterest pill to

Despite the near total desertion of the Fassa Bortolo squad from the Tour de France, the Italian team still leads the overall list of prize money awarded at the half-way point of the race. Largely on the strength of four stage wins by Alessandro Petacchi, Fassa Bortolo has earned a total of 39,681 Euros thus far in the 2003 Tour.Prize money awarded, as of Stage 101. Fassa Bortolo 39,681 euros2. Quick Step 39,1493. Crédit Agricole 30,8234. fdjeux.com 29,4255. Telekom 27,8086. U.S. Postal - 26,0027. Euskaltel - 21,7368. AG2R - 19,4819. Jean Delatour - 17,24810. ONCE - 13,56511. La Boulangere -

After three long and hot days in the Alps, the peloton was more than happy to let a nine-man breakaway build a massive lead and contest the tenth stage of the 2003 Tour de France. Behind them, the U.S. Postal Service and Euskaltel teams set a controlled tempo on the front of the main field. Even when the pace is not blistering, riding tempo at the front of the Tour de France takes a lot of energy. Staying aerobic is the key to riding tempo on the front of the peloton, and riders who know the task falls in their job descriptions train specifically to handle the demands. The goal is to

If I've learned one thing these past couple of days here at my first visit to the Tour de France is that the race slows for no one. The riders, the Tour support staff and even the attending press are pushed to near-redline limits for three weeks straight. As one day blurs into the next with set-up, competition and subsequent tear-down, the Tour waits for no one–number plate or not. So with four hours of sleep under my belt, I hit the road with John Wilcockson (who's covered the Tour more than 30 times) in our trusty Passat. We were off to the team hotel of CSC so that I could spend the

This is the story about a fella nicknamed “Tracker John.” It’s also a about luck and how the two went hand-in-hand today before the 10th stage of the centennial Tour de France. Tracker John may be getting on, but with 35 Tours under his belt he is as wily as the most cunning of foxes. When he gets one sniff of a scent, he’ll follow the trail to its end. He did this morning, after we stopped on the way to the stage start at the point of yesterday’s stage 9 descent where Joseba Beloki crashed out of the Tour and Armstrong ran off course. Beloki, who sustained a fractured right femur, elbow

Day two of the Whistler Gravity Festival saw France’s Cédric Gracia grab his second victory in as many days, while Great Britain’s Tracy Moseley was the women’s downhill victor. The stage Tuesday was Whistler’s famed A-Line trail, where riders contested a jump littered 4-minute-plus run down from the midway point of the Whistler Village Gondola. After qualifying second behind Aussie Nathan Rennie (Iron Horse-MadCatz), Gracia (Siemens-Cannondale) blasted down the hill in the final to unseat Be One’s Bas De Bever. Gracia and De Bever were the only two riders to go below the 4:11 mark, with

Beloki: Painfully reminiscent...

... of Ocaña in 1971

Lance Armstrong and Baden Cooke await the start

Demonstrators stop the tour mid stage

Demonstrators stop the tour mid stage

Stage 10 Gallery from Reuters

Piil wins

The course winds along the Marseille Harbor

IMAX camera mounted on helicopter

Young fans on the course today

Cultural dancers in horse outfits

The longest finish straight, just under 2 kilometers

TV and a photo bike covering the break

Soigniers tell stories while waiting 20 minutes for the field to finish

Landis cooling off at finish

Postal at the helm

Stage 10 Tech Talk: The Tour never stops

Stage 10 Tech Talk: The Tour never stops

Stage 10 Tech Talk: The Tour never stops

Gracia heads to the win.

Mountain biking has made it to billboard status in Whistler.

To see how Stage 9 of the Tour unfolded live, just go to our Live Update window and follow the action all the way to the finish.

If this year's Tour de France hasn't been exciting enough already, Monday's 184.5km stage 9 through the scorched French Alps proved yet again that there's never a dull day at the Tour. Tragically, last year's runner-up Joseba Beloki crashed out of the race in a high-speed spill with just 4km to go, while four-time defending champion Lance Armstrong had to test his cyclo-cross skills when he bounced through a hay field to avoid the fallen Beloki. When he crashed, Beloki was leading Armstrong in hot pursuit of Telekom's Alexandre Vinokourov, who was heading toward a famous stage win in Gap.

Stage 9 Individual Results1. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), Telekom, 5:02:002. Paolo Bettini (I), Quick Step-Davitamon, 00:363. Iban Mayo (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:364. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 00:365. Jan Ullrich (G), Bianchi, 00:366. Ivan Basso (I), Fassa Bortolo, 00:367. Georg Totschnig (A), Gerolsteiner, 00:368. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), iBanesto.com, 00:369. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:3610. Tyler Hamilton (USA), CSC, 00:3611. Roberto Laiseka (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:3612. Didier Rous (F), Brioches La Boulangere, 00:5213. Denis Menchov (Rus),

After three races of the International Cycling Classic-Superweek, Saturn’s Viktor Rapinski holds the overall series lead over former Superweek champion Harm Jansen. The 17-day event kicked off in Chicago on Friday evening with Prime Alliance’s Jonas Carney taking the win over Rapinski. The following evening Jansen took a solo win in Menasha, Wisconsin, and on Sunday, West Virginia’s Patrick O’Donnell scored a surprise win in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, winning out of a six-man break ahead of Belgian Karel Vereecke (Soenens-Germond) and Jansen. Check back to VeloNews.com over the next two weeks for

Four-time champion Lance Armstrong avoided being fined or punished for his dramatic detour through a field to avoid crashing into fallen rival Joseba Beloki near the end of the Tour de France ninth stage Monday. A race jury determined that Armstrong was deemed not to have benefited from his impromptu change of direction. "Beloki's fall led Armstrong to take evasive action, leading him into a field which he left without gaining any advantage on the group of riders he had been with," said an organizers' statement. Meanwhile, the jury fined several other riders for infractions that occurred

It's my second day here at the Tour and the team product news keeps streaming in, but first, something of a personal look at today's big event. By now, you've all seen (or read about) Joseba Beloki's nasty spill, just four kilometers from today's finish. As the VeloNews crew made its way to the arrive in Gap, two hours in front of the peloton, we noticed the hot road (37 degree centigrade air temp) had begun to "weep" oil in sections where recent road repairs had been made. The highly heated road was so slick that it made even the handling of our Volkswagen Passat a bit tenuous in

Today's photo gallery is a little different, due to a slight misunderstanding between the race committee and me. As a result of said misunderstanding, today’s photos are all from the perspective of the fan, outside the race itself… which is precisely where I found myself for today's stage. Let me explainYou see, the Tour de France has very strict rules about the movement of journalists and photographers during the race, designed to protect the safety and integrity of the riders and the race. Unfortunately, I found myself violating the primary rule for those of us not in the race; Don't get

Stage 1 of Superweek was held in the South Chicago suburb of Beverly. The race was scheduled for 5:35 p.m. on Friday evening. All the athletes enjoyed an authentic taste of Chicago, being treated to several fun-filled hours of bumper to bumper traffic. Everything got off to a late start though, and nobody seemed to miss the start. It was the first year for the stage in Beverly, but surprisingly the crowd was great. Prior to our race, they had a Big Wheel race for the kids, which is always cool. There was also live music and food adjacent to the racecourse. All the fans seemed super excited

The Alps … what an experience they were. And the people. I have never ever ridden through so many crowds. Whatever happens, it is an experience I will never forget. With them behind us now, I’ll have a bit of time to reflect back on the experience; well, that is until the Pyrénées come under our wheel and the road goes painfully up again. Today’s stage was hard, hot and hurt as the result sheet shows (I was 78th at 15:38, along with 13 others). This time I couldn’t finish with the leaders, as I did on stage seven where I was fourth, or even as I did in stage eight where I hit the last climb

Bumped into 1987 Tour de France winner Stephen Roche the other day. Literally. But as anyone who has followed the Tour will tell you, as the race gets bigger and bigger and more congested along the way, bumping into people is what you do. Forget meeting them. Doing so with Roche was a good thing. Our subsequent chat brought back a lot of fond memories. We spoke of his great races and tigerísh spirit to racing. We spoke of 1987, the year of his triple crown — victory in the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and the world professional road championship (at Villach, Austria). We spoke and spoke

More than anything, I wish the biggest story of the day was AlexanderVinokorouv’s victorious attack in the closing kilometers of Stage 9. Instead,our attention was once again drawn to the dangers of racing bicycles, thistime illustrated by Joseba Beloki’s brutal crash on the final descent ofthe day.No one really knows what happened first, whether his rear tire blewor slipped in melted asphalt, but the result was quick and painful. Belokifought to stay upright, his wheels dug into the soft pavement, and he wasthrown violently to the ground. Early reports indicate the impact brokethe upper

Two days removed from the World Cup downhill at Grouse Mountain, just outside Vancouver, British Columbia, a handful of the circuit’s best gravity riders made the two-hour trip north up Highway 99 to Whistler to contest a pair of races at the famous ski resort. First up was Monday’s Joyride BikerCross (same concept as mountain cross and/or four-cross), where Frenchman Cédric Gracia and American Jill Kintner earned wins on the track that snaked its way towards the main village underneath the Fitzsimmons chairlift. In the men’s final, Gracia (Siemens-Cannondale) grabbed the lead early, then

Armstrong is forced off the road as Beloki crashed

Vino' now in second overall

Armstrong puts on 'cross demo' for a startled spectator

Prince Albert of Monaco talks with five time Tour winner Bernard Hinault

Beloki before the start

Millar was on the attack before Vino charged

Armstrong's pedal sports the new 2004 Dura-Ace anodization...

...but not the larger contact platform of the final production version.

L'Alpe d'Huez is just as steep going down as it is going up

Stage 9 Tech Talk: Hot tar, sticky brakes and Lance's daily driver

Stage 9 Tech Talk: Hot tar, sticky brakes and Lance's daily driver