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On paper, this final mountain stage doesn’t appear to be as challenging as the other three days in the Pyrénées. There are two Cat. 1 climbs, but the last is 87km from the finish in Bayonne. On the other hand, from where the Col du Soudet begins climbing after 51km until the end of the descent of the Col de Burdincurutcheta 80km later, the riders will be on narrow, tortuous back roads with constant ups and downs. The climbs are steep: The Soudet has 15-percent pitches and an average of 7.5 percent for 14km; the Côte de Larrau averages 10.5 percent for 2.4km; and the Col de Bagargui, 9.2

Jan Ullrich may have received a punishing blow from Lance Armstrong on Monday but the Bianchi team leader took it in stride, saying the Tour de France's 15th stage had not been "too negative." "In the past, when Armstrong did his thing in the mountains, I would lose two minutes,” Ullrich said. “I only lost one minute this time. So that's not too negative." Ullrich, who had upset the four-time Tour winner in the Gaillac to Cap'decouverte time trial last Friday, finished third in Monday’s stage to Luz-Ardiden , 40 seconds behind the American and now trails him by 1:07 overall. "I'm a little

Cofidis team leader David Millar has vowed to continue riding the Tour de France - at least until Bayonne - despite a serious chest cough which has virtually halted his progress in the race. After Tuesday's rest day in Pau, the Tour continues with the 16th stage on Wednesday - a 197.5km ride from Pau to Bayonne over six Pyrénéan climbs, two of which are rated Category 1. Millar had been going well up until stage 13 when he lost over nine minutes on the first Pyrénéan stage from Toulouse to Ax Trois Domaines. However it was on the 14th stage from St Girons to Loudenvielle over six difficult

George and Frankie talk before the stage

The anticipated carnage began as soon as the stage 15 rolled out from Bagnères-de-Bigorre, just as the race rose up steeply for 1.5km to the aptly named Haute de la Côte. Virtually the first thing we heard in our car on Radio Tour — besides “top, départ donné,” to signal the official start — were the numbers of three riders “en difficulté” and that the speeding peloton was in one long line, indicating a very fast start to the day. The stage was barely a little over an hour old — 1:13 p.m. to be precise — when the first abandon was announced. That was number 52, Italian Leonardo Bertagnolli

... Armstrong and Mayo recover...

Roadside Pyrenees climb

...Mayo goes down, Ullrich avoids...

Village food

Sure, we've all looked at every square millimeter of Lance Armstrong's Trek by now, but what is his main rival riding at this Tour? Jan Ullrich's Bianchi EV3 is based on the production model EV3 that is available in shops, but as you might guess, it differs slightly from its commercial counterpart. Jan Ullrich’s EV3 features an oversized downtube and somewhat more-swaging on the toptube and seattube for improved aerodynamics. Custom built, Ullrich’s EV3 sports a 56.5cm seattube with a 58cm toptube. A CNC-machined headtube houses an FSA integrated headset, while the forged bottom bracket

John Lieswyn celebrates after winning at Bensonville

What every gas station in France stocks, oil and wine

My apologies for the lag in getting an update out. I've been a little tapped the last few nights. This feels like the fifth week of the Tour de France for me, not the third. Most GC riders spend the first week of the race laying low, conserving energy. But I feel like I've been on the rivet since the get-go. Adrenaline and disbelief probably got me through the first ten stages of the race. But all the effort to keep going has taken its toll. And as a result the Pyrénées have been a bigger challenge than I would have liked. Today's stage started out with a two-kilometer climb from the gun.

... and back to the front.

Freddy heads home

Armstrong matched Ullrich on the Tourmalet

Vinokourov was left to chase on his own.

A stray musette bag triggers Bedlam...

Vino' after arriving at Luz-Ardiden

Botero and Chavanel survived the early move

Aspin, Tourmalet, Luz-Ardiden: This is probably as tough a trio of finishing climbs as the Télégraphe, Galibier, L’Alpe d’Huez combo in the Alps. In the final 78km, there’s almost 43km of climbing totaling 10,000 feet. Luz-Ardiden is not as famous as L’Alpe d’Huez, but it’s almost identical in stats: 13.4km at 7.6 percent compared with the Alpe’s 13.8km at 7.9 percent. 7/21/2003 Start Time: 12:25:00pm7/21/2003 Estimated Finish Time: 5:34:00pm HISTORYLuz-Ardiden has been included only six times in Tour history, but it’s already left its mark, starting in 1985. Bernard Hinault had been in the

Chavanel spent most of the two biggest climbs on his own

The closest race in Tour de France history is close no more. Lance Armstrong shook off a dramatic crash less than 10km from the finish at Luz-Ardiden when his handlebar hooked a fan's bag to win his first stage of the 2003 Tour and widen his grip on the yellow jersey to a more comfortable 1:07 over second-placed Jan Ullrich (Bianchi). The 159.5km stage 15 started with three riders within 18 seconds of each other, the closest-ever margin at this stage of the Tour, but it ended with Armstrong padding his lead. Ullrich took third on the stage, while Alex Vinokourov (Telekom) faltered after

The fat lady ain't singin', but she's warming up behind the curtain

Individual Results, Stage 151. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 4:29:262. Iban Mayo (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:403. Jan Ullrich (G), Bianchi, 00:404. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:405. Christophe Moreau (F), Credit Agricole, 00:436. Ivan Basso (I), Fassa Bortolo, 00:477. Tyler Hamilton (USA), CSC, 01:108. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), Telekom, 02:079. Rubiera José Luis (Sp), U.S. Postal Service, 02:4510. Sylvain Chavanel (F), Brioches La Boulangere, 02:4711. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 03:1212. Denis Menchov (Rus), iBanesto.com, 03:1213. Roberto Laiseka (Sp),

100 year cake

To see how Stage 15 of the Tour unfolded live, just go to our Live Update window and follow the action all the way to the finish.

Chris Carmichael pays a rare visit to the start

Alexander Vinokourov saw his Tour de France chances severely dented when he finished more than two minutes behind dfending champion Lance Armstrong in the 15th stage on Monday. The Kazakh lies third overall, 2:45 behind Armstrong, but he has vowed to keep fighting and wished his former Telekom team chief Jan Ullrich good luck. "The last climb was very hard," he said of the 13.5 km ride from the foot of the mountain to Luz-Ardiden. "But it was even worse on the Tourmalet," added Vinokourov, who was dropped on the way to the renowned Pyrénées summit, the penultimate climb of the day.

Fans and bikes on Col d'Aspin

Tour Tech - Jan's bike

The view from the Col d'Aspin

Well, whatever happens between here and the Tour de France finish in Paris on Sunday, I know for sure that I won’t go home empty handed. It has been a successful Tour for the Quickstep-Davitamon team. As of today, we have managed to win the most prize money of any team: 48,597 Euros. That has come from virtually securing the King of the Mountains title for Richard Virenque who has also won one stage in the Alps and hauling Paolo Bettini into third place in the same competition. To top it off, I’ve got a new nickname now, thanks to Richard. He calls me “Scooter” because he reckons I’m like

Reuters Stage 15 Gallery

This guy needed three extension cords and a control for his roadside attraction

Now that’s more like it. Today I saw the Lance Armstrong I’ve been hoping would show up at the Tour de France: the guy with fire in his eyes and the determination of ten men. His teammates, his managers and I had done everything we could over the past few days to fire him up, but it took an actual jolt to the system to stoke the fire in Lance’s belly. When I saw Lance hit the ground on Luz Ardiden, time stood still. It’s been a rough Tour, full of strange incidents and near misses, each of which Lance found a way to compensate for. Crashing while launching an attack on the final summit

One of the cuter cows in the whole race, complete with green dots

Tactics, timing and tenacity should all come into play on Monday at what should be the most gripping stage yet of this astonishing Tour de France. For the past two days in the Pyrénées, Lance Armstrong’s U.S. Postal-Berry Floor team and Jan Ullrich’s Bianchi team have played a delicate tactical battle in addition to the overt one between the two stars. Each day, Postal has sent a rider off in the stage’s long break (José Luis Rubiera Saturday, Manuel Beltran Sunday), which has allowed Armstrong’s team to follow rather than lead the peloton; on Sunday, Bianchi led for much of the last 100km.

Simoni's spider theme

Lauri Aus at Paris-Nice in 2000

It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every 12 minutes one is interrupted by 12 dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper. – Rod Serling Wouldn’t you know, this would be the year I decide to do without TV for the Tour. It seemed like a good idea at the time, when we left Westcliffe for Colorado Springs. We’d had satellite TV on Mount Dog – HBO, OLN, the works – but the signal-to-noise ratio got way out of balance in late 2001, and we thought that we could spend the $50 a month on something that offered a little more return on the

Sacchi gets his own custom job

Hamilton attacks on l'Alpe d'Huez

Simoni edges Dufaux and Virenque for the win

Deda's Alanera - no flashy graphics, but...

Green drops out of the 'Heart of Darkness.'

Simoni gets a win, Virenque adds to his KOM lead

Armstrong still in yellow, but it is close

Premont smooth and in control

Armstrong was not impressed with Simoni's talk earlier in the Tour

Pyrenees Picnic

Green and Hesjedal cross Fitzsimmons Creek.

Simoni joined the right move

Hotel Auberge Catalane

Redden ended up second.

Cioni's 2003 Pinarello Dogma

Fasso car

The men's race was full tilt from the start.

Zabel and the Pinarello crew are just as Dogmatic as the Fassas

Cows and cyclists on backroad

It's good ... but it's just not OLN