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Lance Armstrong warned the rest of the Tour de France Saturday that he was gearing up to win cycling's biggest race for a record-equaling fifth time. The American allowed Frenchman Richard Virenque to take Saturday's first mountain stage at Morzine, along with the yellow jersey, but then said he was setting out to win the race, starting with Sunday's eighth stage climb up L'Alpe d'Huez. "For me, the Tour started today," the U.S. Postal Service leader told reporters. "In the first week of the race you're not riding to win, you're just trying to stay out of trouble and not lose it. Now it's

The yellow-and-red of the Saturn Cycling dynasty remains atop the general classification at the Cascade Cycling Classic, with Tom Danielson and Lyne Bessette all but assured victories heading into Sunday’s final criterium stage after a Friday night criterium and Saturday’s hilly circuit race. The Twilight ZoneA volatile twilight criterium held Friday night in downtown Bend, Oregon, yielded no change in the overall, with Heather Albert (Team Basis) and Chris Horner (Saturn) taking the stage wins. Bessette powered off the front halfway through the women’s 45-minute race, followed by Albert

Winning the Tour de France requires a balance of patience and aggression, and on the first mountain stage today, Lance and U.S. Postal Service chose to remain patient. Armstrong wasn’t the only man waiting to show his true strength. His main rivals, Jan Ullrich and Joseba Beloki rode quietly today as well, but tomorrow each man will be forced to lay his cards on the table. Quickstep’s Richard Virenque was Stage Seven’s main aggressor, attacking early and gaining enough time and mountain points to take both the yellow and polka dot jerseys. Virenque wore the yellow jersey briefly eleven years

Virenque claims the first mountain stage of the '03 Tour

Through the streets of Lyon

U.S. Postal

Jan Ullrich

With the yellow jersey on Pena, chasing duties fell to Postal

Pena spent his last day in yellow

Bettini labors on Virenque's behalf

Peña and Armstrong ride in the group

Far from attacking, Simoni was going backwards

Virenque takes the yellow ... and the polka-dot jersey

Virenque celebrates

Virenque and sons

Protest carries less weight when you're off the back

With the temp. in the 90's riders take all the bottles they can carry

Andrea Marchant waits for an autograph...

and Hincapie finally rewards her

Simoni's new bike

all decked out...

with weights

A little card playing and wine drinking waiting for the stage

Some true Aussie fans

The biggest polka dot jersey ever

American Sandwich? Try the Al Capone or the Jazz Fish

Who?

Houseman earned an unlikely win.

Steve Peat battles the elements.

The crowds were thick in B.C.

Griffiths made it two straight.

Moseley maintained a slim lead in the overall.

There's just no stopping Alessandro Petacchi. Not even a suicidal two-man breakaway in Friday's hot, sweaty stage into Lyon could derail the Petacchi express. Crédit Agricole's Stuart O'Grady and La Boulangére's Anthony Geslin peeled away from the pack, a few kilometers away from the day's first points sprint at 36.5km. They lasted out there for nearly 200km, only to be brought back in the final kilometer of Friday's stage, the second-longest of this Tour. Petacchi said he told his Fassa Bortolo teammates that he was cooked after coming over two categorized climbs in the final 70km and

Stage 6 Individual Results1. Alessandro Petacchi (I), Fassa Bortolo, 5:08:352. Baden Cooke (Aus), FDJeux.com, 00:003. Fabrizio Guidi (I), Bianchi, 00:004. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:005. Romans Vainsteins (Lat), Caldirola, 00:006. Damien Nazon (F), Brioches La Boulangere, 00:007. Hinault Sébastien (F), Credit Agricole, 00:008. Gerrit Glomser (A), Saeco, 00:009. Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr), Jean Delatour, 00:0010. Luca Paolini (I), Quick Step-Davitamon, 00:0011. Salvatore Commesso (I), Saeco, 00:0012. Pablo Lastras (Sp), iBanesto.com, 00:0013. Mikel Pradera (Sp), ONCE - Eroski, 00:0014.

Maybe you’re like me and you treated yourself to a hot dog to celebrate the Fourth of July. Heck, maybe you even downed two or three and chased them down with a cold beverage. Chances are, though, you did not wolf down three dozen wieners, and chase them down with another eight-and-a-half. In 12 minutes. That was the final tally for Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobyashi at the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, July 4 in Coney Island. The Japanese three-time champion’s 44-and-a-half dogs easily outdistanced second-place Ed “Cookie” Jarvis, who set an American record with 30-and-a-half hot dogs

While Alessandro Petacchi celebrated a tremendous week of sprinting with his fourth stage win of this year's Tour de France on Friday, race favorite Lance Armstrong will be quietly delighted to have reached the foot of the Alps perfectly poised to launch his challenge for a fifth successive victory. Whereas the American is usually lagging behind the other leading contenders before the first mountain stage, he will this time tackle the first big climb with a comfortable lead over his rivals. The Texan took it easy in today’s 143-mile ride from Nevers, finishing a comfortable 39th to remain

Each year, more and more first-timers join the Tour de France press corps. The American invasion began after Greg LeMond started winning the Tour in 1986, and it has accelerated since Lance Armstrong’s first win in 1999. From an Australian viewpoint, the media trickle from down under has become a downpour (or should that be an up-pour?) since riders like Stuart O’Grady, Robbie McEwen, Brad McGee and Baden Cooke began winning stages. One of the most interesting aspects of a Tour is to hear the first impressions of those covering the world’s biggest and most prestigious bike race for the first

Ya know, it’s important to be noticed. Sure, it’s great for everyone, fans included, for riders at the Tour de France to have good equipment. The riders go faster with a higher margin of safety with properly designed equipment. But it doesn’t do the equipment sponsor any good if no one knows whose equipment they are using. And sometimes, it takes someone unfamiliar with the intricacies of the sport to point out the very obvious. A case in point involves the winningest rider in both the Tour and the Giro this year, Fassa Bortolo’s Alessandro Petacchi. Everyone knows that Petacchi won six

We've made it six stages… which is just about five more than I thought I would see last Sunday. We're still taking things day-by-day here at Camp Collar Bone. I had a second set of x-rays taken last night. The good news was there was no further displacement, or injury. The bad news was there was no evidence of any healing. We've chosen to focus on the good news, so I started today's stage from Nevers with the same mindset I've had all week, which has basically been - lets see what we can do. I'm completely amazed with all the attention my situation is getting. I've been riding my bike for a

Lance Armstrong is happy with the way the first week of the Tour de France has gone: A victory in the team time trial and Victor Hugo Peña’s days in the yellow jersey. He is also excited to reach the mountains, as he knows the 2003 Tour de France will be decided on the slopes of the Alps and Pyrénées. Stage 7 will be the first opportunity to see how well the main contenders for the yellow jersey are climbing this year. Lance’s performance in the Dauphine Libéré provided confidence in his climbing form, and he is stronger now than he was then. Jan Ullrich’s abilities in the high mountains

Stage 3 of the Cascade Classic was held Friday morning in Tumalo, Oregon. Just outside of Bend, the 7-mile time trial loop began and ended with a gradual climb, forcing riders out of the saddle immediately. The masters Cat. 3 racers raced first, followed by the pro/1-2 women, who rolled out in 30-second increments. As expected, race leader Lyne Bessette (Saturn), the Canadian national time trial champion, posted the fastest time of the day — 15:31 — a time that would have beat all but three of the masters men. Teammate Jessica Phillips was second in 16:26, followed by Team Basis rider

Mike King said that it only took a few practice runs to figure out his strategy for the World Cup four-cross at Grouse Mountain. With a short, fast course providing the stage for the event on British Columbia's famed North Shore, King knew qualifying would be key. “That was my focus the whole way,” said King of the Friday night event, “and that was the race.” Indeed, after posting the top preliminary time of 23.44, the Haro-Lee Dungarees rider/manager surged through the finals bracket, riding his No. 1 seed all the way to a World Cup win. It was the 34-year-old’s first Cup win of 2003, and

Here we go again. Superweek 2003 is upon us. I recently moved back to Milwaukee (which is Algonquin for "the great land," according to Alice Cooper in one of the “Wayne's World” movies) for the summer, and I'll be covering the event again this year. Superweek, in its 34th year, is the longest running multi-day cycling series in America. This year, it features 17 stages in 17 days for the pros. Here's the 2003 schedule: Friday, July 11: Chicago criterium (Pro/1/2 only), Chicago, IllinoisSaturday, July 12: Otto Grunski Menasha Classic Criterium, Menasha, WisconsinSunday, July 13: Manitowoc

Chris Horner (Saturn) won stage four of the Cascade Cycling Classic, a 60-minute-plus-five-laps criterium held Friday evening on a six-turn course in downtown Bend, Oregon. Horner outsped the bunch to finish in 1:05:31, dogged by Alex Candelario (Prime Alliance) and Jackson Stewart (Ofoto.com-Lombardi), who were awarded the same time – as were the first 81 riders to cross the line. Horner’s teammate Tom Danielson retained the overall lead, 49 seconds up on Jonathan Vaughters (Prime Alliance) and nearly a minute ahead of Chris Wherry (Navigators). In the women’s stage-three crit, Heather

Petacchi didn't think he had it in him ... but he did

Pena grabbing a bite to eat

Stuart O'Grady and Anthony Geslin on a break that came oh so close to making it.

The Posties

Pena leads

O'Grady and Geslin

Stuart O'Grady and Anthony Geslin took off early and nearly made it work

Lotto was among the chasers that took back an 18-minute deficit

At these speeds, le Tour is le blur

Tyler Hamilton will be the subject of an upcoming IMAX film. And they don't use those nice portable mini-cams for that.

Armstrong's new fork

Armstrong's new seat tube

Caldirola FSA carbon crank

Fan signage along the route

Tour helicopter flies low enough to kick up hay out of the fields

George Hincapie checks out a new Mercedes at the start

An Hors Categorie leader overlooks a Cat. 3 climb

Here come the Hurdy-gurdy men.

Simoni's bars and head tube

Petacchi made a mark at the Giro... did Briko?

Petacchi is at the Tour... and so is Briko

Petacchi takes over the green jersey, too

Peña in yellow. How much longer?

Wherry warms up for the time trial

Bajadali blasts out onto the course.

It took Danielson a while to find out that he didn't win

King wins at Grouse.

Carter captured the overall.

Miller was untouchable.

Alessandro Petacchi didn't really want to come to this year's Tour de France. After winning six stages and holding the maglia rosa at the Giro d'Italia, the big Italian sprinter thought his season was pretty much a wrap. But Fassa Bortolo team brass convinced him to change his mind. Now he's glad they did, because on Thursday Petacchi won his third stage in five days after sprinting into Nevers ahead of Jaan Kirsipuu (Ag2r) to win a steamy fifth stage as the Tour plunged south across the rolling hills of Burgundy and Nièvre. "I came here with the aim of winning a stage," Petacchi said. "I

Stage 5 Individual Results1. Alessandro Petacchi (I), Fassa Bortolo, 4:09:472. Jaan Kirsipuu (Est), Ag2R Prevoyance, 00:003. Baden Cooke (Aus), FDJeux.com, 00:004. Erik Zabel (G), Telekom, 00:005. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Lotto-Domo, 00:006. Luca Paolini (I), Quick Step-Davitamon, 00:007. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:008. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), Credit Agricole, 00:009. Fred Rodriguez (USA), Caldirola, 00:0010. Jean-Patrick Nazon (F), Jean Delatour, 00:0011. Olaf Pollack (G), Gerolsteiner, 00:0012. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, 00:0013. Damien Nazon (F), Brioches La Boulangere, 00:0014.

Lance Armstrong might be poised to become a Tour de France legend - but the 31-year-old American's personal style has been given a vote of no confidence by a former team member. According to Cedric Vasseur, who wore the Tour de France yellow jersey for five days in 1997 before joining up with Armstrong in 2000 for a brief spell, Armstrong's successful campaign to dominate the world's biggest bike race is simply no fun for those who help him. Now a member of France's top team Cofidis, 32-year-old Vasseur admits he retains some good memories from his time with the tough-talking