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Preparation, motivation, execution. Those were the three qualities that set apart the U.S. Postal-Berry Floor team at Wednesday’s team time trial. By beating the ONCE-Eroski team of Joseba Beloki by 30 seconds, and the Bianchi squad of Jan Ullrich by 43 seconds, Postal put Victor Hugo Peña in the yellow jersey and Lance Armstrong in the driving seat of this centennial Tour only two stages away from the Alps. The preparation for the stage was something begun by the team’s Belgian directeurs sportifs Johan Bruyneel and Dirk Demol, who first came to look at the Joinville-St. Dizier course two

Wherry and Danielson lead the winning break

Clinger takes first stage at Cascade, but Danielson could be man to beat

Sorry for the delay in getting this update out. The last 72 hours have been quite a roller coaster ride. Not surprisingly, there have been some mixed reports about my health and status in this year's Tour de France, so with a couple of minutes of down time, I'll try to get my version of all that's transpired typed out. I've probably talked a thousand times about how hard it is to get ready for a Tour de France. It's not something you do in a week, or add to your annual list of objectives at the last minute. It really takes the better part of a year to get yourself to the point where you can

Saturn in pursuit

Last year, former Tour de France stage winner Sean Yates was trimming hedges while the world's greatest cycling race took place. This year, though, Yates, who was Lance Armstrong's team captain back when the four-time Tour winner was still learning the ropes in European cycling, is back on his favorite turf after coming through some hard times. Life after cycling is not as easy as in other, wealthier sports, and Yates, winner of an individual time trial on the Tour in 1988, was forced to return to his first job as a gardener after finding himself jobless and broke "After I stopped my

Pate, O'Neil and Stierwalt

Work place environments for reporters vary from extreme to extreme on the Tour de France: and so many times you are left amazed that the task is actually done properly. A case in point was last night in the town of St. Dizier after stage 3. We were in search of a place to eat at 11pm – and, in my case, a land line telephone to be interviewed for the “Today” television show back home in Australia. We found a pizzeria still open, but as often happens at late hours, we were told once again that the kitchen was closed. We were successful in convincing the patron to make us three pizzas, then I

Dear VeloNews;I noticed that the positions for most of the USPS riders in the teamtime trial were rather "upright" (shoulders high, sitting on the back ofthe saddle) as compared to the other teams. In particular, the position that Bianchi used seemed to be the exact opposite of USPS, being more along the lines of the traditional time trial position (flat back, sitting on the nose of the saddle, shoulders down) - even the aero bars seems to be pointed downward.  Was this my imagination or does USPS indeed have a different approach to the TT position?Bob Answer from USPS aero' advisor John

Chateau Jardin (where the Nike - Trek press conference was)

The Postal compound

Colombia's first yellow jersey

The new fizik saddle

Team Victory: All nine Posties finished together

Simoni's bike, head tube

Postal Team presentation by Credit Lyonnais

Armstrong of USA passes through a demonstration of performing arts professionals

Lots and lots of Al, but where's the Ti?

Tuesday’s 167.5km third stage of the 2003 Tour de France was hot out of the gate and the fireworks continued all the way to the final sprint. Jean-Patrick Nazon (Jean Delatour) gobbled up time bonuses on the day’s three intermediate sprints to grab the yellow jersey from prologue winner Bradley McGee (Fdjeux.com) while Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) again avoided a finish line crash to sprint to his second stage in three days. It was another messy ending, with Austrian Rene Haselbacher (Gerolsteiner) slamming into the barriers along the finish stretch after bumping shoulders with

1. Alessandro Petacchi (I) Fassa Bortolo, at 3:27:392. Romans Vainsteins (Lat) Caldirola, at 00:003. Oscar Freire (Sp) Rabobank, at 00:004. Erik Zabel (G) Telekom, at 00:005. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus) Lotto-Domo, at 00:006. Luca Paolini (I) Quick Step-Davitamon, at 00:007. Olaf Pollack (G) Gerolsteiner, at 00:008. Angelo Furlan (I) Alessio, at 00:009. Salvatore Commesso (I) Saeco, at 00:0010. Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole, at 00:0011. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole, at 00:0012. Robert Hunter (RSA) Rabobank, at 00:0013. Bradley Mc Gee (Aus) FDJeux.com, at 00:0014. Nazon Jean-patrick (F)

Quick Step rider Richard Virenque leading the pack

Gerolsteiner rider Haselbacher of Austria rides to the finish line holding his torn shorts after he crashed

Jean-Patrick Nazon (Jean Delatour) and Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) each used their sprinting skills to grab a share of Tour de France glory in Stage 3. Nazon focused on the intermediate sprints to win valuable bonus seconds that put him in yellow, while Petacchi confirmed he is the new dominant sprinter in the peloton after winning his second stage in three days. Winning sprints takes a great deal of power, but it also requires skill and experience. There are other riders with the physiological numbers (power) to match or surpass today’s great sprinters: Mario Cipollini, Erik Zabel,

Petacchi of Italy wins....

For everything you learn in a single day of racing in the Tour de France, one of the biggest lessons for a rookie like me has had nothing to do with performance on the bike. It is to do with how you spend your time off it and, most importantly, trying to recover for another day in the saddle in between each stage. Like every other team in the Tour, mine - Quickstep-Davitamon – is equipped with an army of personnel who do their best to make sure your recovery is as swift as possible. But as my roommate Davide Bramati has taught me, there is only so much that others can do for you. In the

Another stage

It is 8.52 p.m. It is now more than three hours after stage 3 of the Tour de France has been raced, fought out and finally won by Italian Alessandro Petacchi. The pressroom at Saint Dizier – a cavernous sports hall - still has 27 members of the 1000-strong print media furiously typing away. Our pledge to try and not be the last to finish (and, inevitably, be the ones who are later told at the nearest restaurant that “zee keetchun is closed”) is reaching a crisis point. With officials holding to their promise to close the pressroom at 10 p.m., the media around me are either working slower

From the Chaos...

Da Cruz (L), Etxebarria (C), Hary (R)

Editor's note: During our live coverage of Stage2 of the Tour de France, our line editor made the brilliant decisionto include a link asking folks to pass on their good wishes to Tyler Hamiltonof CSC, who was starting that day's stage after breaking his collarbonein the finish-line crash onStage 1. Well a short time and 500 e-mails later, we had to pull thelink out. There are a lot of Tyler fans out there. We've been put all ofthem together and sent them on to Hamilton and his wife and included arandom selection below.Tyler’s Truly ToughEditors,Tyler Hamilton just became my favorite American

Nazon grabs yellow, Petacchi scores another win

Dear VeloNews;After watching a few stages of the Tour de France, I see the teamsriding lots of carbon frames, aluminum/carbon frames and even magnesiumbut it seems like relatively few teams ride Ti frames. Yet, it seems likeas "Joe Consumer" these are being touted as the ultimate frames. So whyaren't the pros riding more Ti?-Andy PasternakReno, NVDear Andy,The short answer is that there are no titanium bikes in the Tour thisyear for sponsorship reasons, i.e., there is no manufacturer providingtitanium bikes to a team. But there is more to it than that. The Lotto riders using titanium

The fans at sign in applaud another of their heroes

This week’s “What exactly does this have to do with cycling?” column comesto you from 35,000 feet, via the airspace between Denver and Portland Internationalas I travel to Bend, Oregon, to cover the five-day Cascade Classic stagerace.I should have arrived in Portland about now, but instead the Boeing737 that carries me just reached maximum altitude; our flight crew justgave us the green light to enable our electronic devices, the result ofa mechanical problem somewhere along Frontier Airlines’ daily flight schedulethat ended in a two-and-a-half hour delay.Not that I’m complaining.No, I’m

Freddie Rodriguez at the start, looking for another sprint finish

Alessandro Petacchi on his way to his second stage win of the Tour

Raymond Poulidor, or Poo Poo, as they shout, gets his own car in the caravan

The wheel of choice?

Lance and Simoni smile for the press

Once again there was drama on the undulating rural roads of the Tour de France today. And, again, it involved the VeloNews car. It also, once again, involved a policeman (okay, two). And, like yesterday, it again happened with our destination in sight – well almost. After zigzagging through the publicity caravan with the “25km to go” banner 100m behind us, I muttered I was pleased that we would reach the press room two hours ahead of the race – on this particular day a must with all three of us with much copy to write. With VeloNews magazine on deadline, John Wilcockson, Andy Hood and I all

Wilcockson (r) trying to look busy; Guinness (l) thinking of the buffet

Lotto gives chase

Sharp eyes may have spotted Lance and the boys sporting new Giro helmets during these first few days of the Tour. We contacted Giro regarding the new lids and got this response from spokesman Eric Richter: “Lance has been testing this helmet in his lead-up to the Tour, and he has already given us important, positive feedback,” Richter said. “The testing will continue at the Tour, and we'll now look forward to getting feedback from all of our teams as they grind out the miles on the way to Paris," he noted. "It should be interesting! And we'll be happy to keep you posted on the progress.”

Jegou and Finot

I guess the anti-American sentiment of French roads finally came to a head, erasing the top-10-finish dreams of Tyler Hamilton and Levi Leipheimer in the Tour’s infamous and dangerous first week. I, of all people, can feel for Tyler and Levi, although I was never a top-10 contender like they were. Tyler has had some good wins, and should be proud of his season no matter what he does the rest of the year. Levi, however, risked everything to bring his form to a head for the Tour, and had it all taken away in an instant. It's funny, because they probably haven't been in a crash all year; I

Finot goes on his own

It is pretty difficult to look like a tough guy wearing skin-tight Lycra and clicking around in carbon fiber shoes, but Stage 2 of the 2003 Tour de France should prove to anyone that professional cyclists are some of the toughest competitors in the world. And, right now, the winner of cycling’s Tough Guy Contest has to be Tyler Hamilton, for riding a 204.5-kilometer Tour de France stage with a cracked collarbone. Collarbone injuries don’t necessarily inhibit your ability to pedal a bicycle, and many cyclists continue to ride on indoor trainers during their recoveries. Your ability to ride a

A little early morning cafe for fans

Cooke and Nazon react to the sprint finish

The calm before the storm

French road hog

Sunday’s “avoidable” crash at the end of stage 1 that eliminated Tyler Hamilton and Levi Leipheimer from the Tour de France has once again called into question the competence of race organizers who frequently include highly dangerous finishes at big races. And looking ahead to the stage finales for the rest of this week, it seems certain that there is more trouble in store. One of the most vociferous critics of Tour race director Jean-Marie Leblanc after the high-speed pileup at Meaux was American sprinter Fred Rodriguez of Caldirola-So.Di, who was leading the peloton as it headed into the

A mannekin celebrates the Tour from a window

There really is no such thing as a “routine” stage of the Tour de France. Following the fireworks of Sunday's first stage, when Levi Leipheimer and Tyler Hamilton were the primary victims of a dangerous high-speed crash, everyone was hoping just for that. As far as Tour standards are concerned, Monday's 204.5km second stage from La Ferté-sous-Jouarre to Sedan in the French Ardennes region was relatively calm. Long, but surprising hilly in places, the day more or less followed the script of what's expected from a Tour stage in the first week: early attack by French riders that falls just