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Begian fans

French fans

Pavel on Ventoux

'I'm sorry, sir, the rulebook clearly says both wheels must be the same size.'

The Tom Simpson memorial

The Prize

Giuseppe Guerini and Chechu Rubiera in the final kilometer

5:23 p.m. PRELIMINARY STAGE RESULTS1. Richard Virenque (Fra), DFF, 221 km in 5:43:26. 38.610 kph) 2. Alexandre Botcharov (Rus), A2R, at ˆ 01:58. 3. Lance Armstrong (USA), USP, at 02:20. 4. Marco Serpellini (Ita), LAM, at 02:54. 5. Raimondas Rumsas (Lit), LAM, at 03:36. 6. Ivan Basso (Ita), FAS, at 03:39. 7. Francisco Mancebo (Esp), BAN, at 03:51. 8. Joseba Beloki (Esp), ONE, at 04:05. 9. Dariusz Baranowski (Pol), BAN, at 04:10. 10. Ivan Gotti (Ita), ALS, at 04:16. 11. Levi Leipheimer (USA), RAB, at 04:25. 12. Jose Azevedo (Por), ONE, at 04:45. 13. Stephane Goubert (Fra), DEL, at

Tour de France race leader Lance Armstrong took a swipe at French fans who he said insulted him regularly as he blasted his way up the Mont Ventoux during the 14th stage on Sunday. The 30-year-old three-time winner of the world's biggest bike race finished third on a stage won by Frenchman Richard Virenque, who managed to hold on to his early lead despite Armstrong chasing him down in the final few kilometers. Armstrong's failure to catch Virenque, who finished 2:20 ahead of the American and 1:58 ahead of Russian Alexandre Botcharov, had good consequences however for his overall position in

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson is at the Tour de France and is taking time to shoot not just the race, but also the scenes along the road and the activity just outside of the peloton.

Richard Virenque’s return to the Tour de France had gone relatively quietly until Stage 14. Up to this point he had ridden well and was consistently near the front of the race, but he had not shown his aggressive racing style of years past. He changed all that today by attacking the peloton 19 kilometers into a 221-kilometer stage. Fortunately the group with Virenque was committed to the breakaway and was big enough to afford everyone some rest time between pulls. The gap to the peloton grew to over 12 minutes, and was down to about 8 at the base of the Mont Ventoux. Virenque conjured up

Armstrong has solidified his lead as heads to the Alps.

Virenque was on the attack for more than 200km

The main escape started at km 19

It was soon down to a familiar list of major players - Rubiera, Armstrong and Beloki.

After trying an attack, Beloki (second from left) found himself struggling and slipped back to his teammate Padera.

Virenque and Armstrong big winners atop Ventoux

Welcome to Provence

Lance Fans

From West Virginia to Ventoux

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson is at the Tour de France and is taking time to shoot not just the race, but also the scenes along the road and the activity just outside of the peloton.

Alfred contemplates his next move

When Lance Armstrong says that Mont Ventoux is “the hardest climb we’lldo this year,” you know he means it. He clarified that statement by sayingSunday’s 221km stage from Lodève to the 6273-foot Ventoux summitmay not be the most difficult stage, because there are no other climbs.But when you have already been riding on rough, rolling roads in 90-degreeheat for more than five hours, the sudden effort of scaling a 21.5km climbhas an added bite. The severity of the climb cannot be exaggerated. As the French cyclistRaphaël Geminiani said on a stage of the 1955 Tour: “Easy Ferdi, theVentoux is

Saturday action hot at Alpenrose Velodrome

How about that Laurent Jalabert? The guy's been riding like an animal for three days. I honestly don't know how he does it. Attacking off the front takes a lot out of you, especially going up hill. He's incredible. We're happy to see him wearing the polka-dot climber’s jersey. Doing so was a big personal goal for him and for our team. And you could say the entire country of France is happy for him, too. It seems like the entire population has come out to wish him well in his last Tour de France. The frenzy surrounding this guy is nothing short of a circus. It's great to see. Yesterday

Nothstein

It’s been a long nine years for Jonathan Vaughters and the Crédit Agricole rider says he’s now ready to come home and put an early end to his career as a member of the European peloton. Vaughters, who withdrew from the the Tour de France last week after a Stage 11 crash on the descent of the Col d’ Aubisque, said that the mishap simply accelerated his decision to seek an early end to his existing contract with his team. “It’s been on my mind for a while now,” the 29-year-old Vaughters told VeloNews. “I don’t enjoy being away from my wife and son and even when they’re here (in Spain), I’m

It’s been a long nine years for Jonathan Vaughters and the Crédit Agricole rider says he’s ready to come home and put an early end to his career as a member of the European peloton. Vaughters, who withdrew from the the Tour de France last week after a Stage 11 crash on the descent of the Col d’ Aubisque, said that the mishap simply accelerated his decision to seek an early end to his existing contract with his team. “It’s been on my mind for a while now,” the 29-year-old Vaughters told VeloNews. “I don’t enjoy being away from my wife and son and even when they’re here (in Spain), I’m off

The 2002 Tour de France is going to end up being a great teaching tool for cycling coaches. All you have to do is go back and watch the way the tactics have unfolded each day. The final 20 kilometers of Stage 8 and Stage 13 should be used to teach racers how to win races from a breakaway. Today David Millar pulled off a perfect counterattack to reduce the leading group from 11 to five men; thereby increasing his chances of getting the stage win. Millar’s attack was critical to the end result of the stage because he was in a breakaway with two iBanesto teammates and two Rabobank teammates.

Talk about having rules to match the occasion. The Tour de France (dis)organization race jury have excelled themselves this time. A look at the green points jersey classification after stage 13 fromLavelanet to Beziers was a case in point. First glance shows Australian Robbie McEwen (Lotto) having taken the green jersey back from Erik Zabel (Telekom) after outsprinting the German for second place in the bunch sprint. McEwen's 13th place on the stage (offering 13 points) against Zabel's 14th (offering 12) now leaves them tied on 229 points and with the battle destined to go down to the

A parade float along today's route

Allez Jaja

Allez Levi

Today's podium girls are bound to generate a letter or two!

There's really only one climb on Stage 14.

Artwork by Odessa

Put the rulebook downRoop!

5:24 p.m. With the sprint starting with a lead-out from Credit Agricole's Thor Hushovd for O'Grady. Telekom comes to the front. The traffic is heavy and it's a mess at the front. The two main points contenders do not win the field sprint, but McEwen nis Zabel at the line, giving him a one-point advantage for the day and putting the two men in a tie on the points standings. 5:23 p.m. We are in the final kilometer. 5:22 p.m. The peloton is heading in to town. The gap is still large. McEwen is active and antsy near the front. Zabel is close by. 5:28 p.m. Now the next big contest will be

Walrod and Carney reall were a 'Prime Alliance'

Dufaux, Jalabert and Nozal on the Col de la Core

Rubiera sets the pace on the road to Plateau de Beille

Jalabert is caught in the final kilometers again.

Armstrong was suddenly on his own.

Tour fans are everywhere.

5:00 p.m. Heras attacks and takes second, 1:03 behind Armstrong. Beloki takes third at 1:05. 4:58 p.m. Armstrong wins it. 4:57 p.m. With kilometer to go, Armstrong has about 1:00 on Beloki and Heras. 4:56 p.m. Any questions? Armstrong has a lock on the stage, his 14th stage win at the Tour. 4:55 p.m. With 2km to go, Armstrong continues to power through to the finish. He has 32 seconds on Beloki and Heras. 4:51 p.m. With 3km to go, Heras has given up the chase and will shadow Beloki to the finish. Heras just could not close the gap to Armstrong, so the Postal leader will power into the

Who says the French resent an American winning their Tour?

They are a fickle lot, the French, when it comes to choosing their favorite rider in the Tour de France. They tried with Richard Virenque. But he was busted. For his involvement in the Festina drugs affair, that is. They placed faith in Christophe Moreau. But he broke it. Along with his self-confidence in a crash-filled first and second week. Thank God, they must be saying, there is still Laurent Jalabert. Always has, they'll say. Too bad though, always will, they can't say. For Jaja will retire at the end of the year. Of all the French stars who have raised and ripped apart French hearts

The peloton on the Col de Mente

I'm no longer a rider in the Tour de France, and so I suppose this is no longer a race diary. I'm sitting in a hotel, waiting to go back to my lonely apartment in Spain – maybe not at my happiest, but ready to reflect on what just happened and what is to be. I decided before the Tour this year that whether I finished or not, it would be the last time I rode the race. So, now is the moment to share that with all of you. Indeed, it is the greatest cycling event in the world, and to have been at the top level, but still unable to finish, is disappointing. But it is what it is, and some things

Rabobank fan

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson is at the Tour de France and is taking time to shoot not just the race, but also the scenes along the road and the activity just outside of the peloton.

It's just a short trip back down the hill to the team hotel.

For two days straight, Laurent Jalabert almost pulled off fine stagewins, and Lance Armstrong did so. Both men – and much of the competition– were riding on superlight all-carbon and Kevlar wheels. The reason, of course, for riding these wheels in a mountainous stageis that the wheels are very light and stiff. The reason for not riding themis that neither man's primary wheel sponsor actually makes them. For the record, Armstrong’s wheel sponsor is Bontrager, and Jalabert’s is Shimano. But when the course profiles began to indicat things like "Cat. 2." "Cat.I" and "HC," Jalabert opted

Floyd Landis in his first Tour

After finishing their punishing climb to the Plateau de Beille summit Friday evening, most of the 166 survivors in the Tour de France had to turn around and ride back down to their team buses, awaiting them in the valley. The only two who took alternative transport were the two most popular media interviewees Laurent Jalabert (who hitched a ride on a police motorcycle) and Lance Armstrong (who was seen heading for a helicopter). As for the press, we were still filing stories at 10 p.m., and crawled down the 16 kilometers of steep switchbacks in a slow-moving line of traffic. It’s now almost

Look at the wheels in this picture

You know that feeling you get on a hot summer afternoon, when there’s as much heat coming off the road as from the sun? When the only breeze you get is the hot exhaust from cars? When it seems like sweating is a fruitless endeavor because it doesn’t feel like it’s cooling you down at all? That’s what it’s like to climb mountains in the Pyrénées. The only benefit to racing counter-clockwise around France is that you get the Pyrénées over with sooner. These mountains drain the energy out of riders, and today’s stage covered five of them. Recovery is going to be critical tonight for anyone

Lance's Wheel

Patrice Halgand brought national price with the first French stage win of this Tour. He also lent credibility to the decision of race director Jean Marie LeBlanc of allowing his Jean DelaTour team into the race at the expense of Saeco (or COAST). Halgand, rather than riding a Cyfac as his team did last year, rode a polished aluminum Scott USA frame built up with Shimano Dura-Ace 9-seed parts, including Dura-Ace SPD-R pedals. Another USA connection was the use of Ritchey parts on his bike – the stem, bar and seatpost. This marked the first Tour stage win for either Ritchey or Scott USA.

Lance's other wheel

Another heartbreaker -- Jalabert is caught and passed on the climb to Plateau de Beille

The ONCE wheel stock

Armstrong wins his 14th Tour stage

Tour Tech - Stage 10 - Great Scott!

On Thursday afternoon, a U.S. Postal rider charged up the switchbacks toward a stark Pyrenean peak during stage 11 of the Tour de France. The mountain air on the Cat. 1 climb to La Mongie was cooler than it had been in the approaching valley, and the white clouds that closed in on the barren peaks seemed close enough to touch. Down in the trenches, however, on the cracked and painted pavement, it was hot as hell. The rider was George Hincapie, and the setting was a world away from that other place where Hincapie thrives: the cold, dreary and mostly cobbled world of the spring classics. Both

The road to the Aubisque

Economy of energy has been among the main topics of conversation between Lance and me over the past few months. We want to make sure Lance uses his maximum power at times when he has the most to gain from his effort. It is wasteful to expend extreme amounts of energy in situations where he might gain only a few seconds as a result. The final climb of Stage 11 was hard, but not terribly steep. Roberto Heras’s blistering pace shattered the race within seconds of his arrival at the front of the lead group. Nearly ten of the world’s best climbers were dropped in the first 500 meters of his

The climber's jersey changed ... uhhh .. hands today.

Life on the Tour de France was looking pretty grim for the little known French rider Christophe Oriol as he slowly rolled out with the bunch for today's first mountain stage in the Pyrénées. He had every right to feel a little down. Four crashes in the first week. A seriously bashed right hand, bruised and cut legs. And plenty of time off the back. Plenty. “I hurt my hand, legs and coccyx. Then I had a lot of trouble just following the pack. I simply haven't had any force,” explained Oriol with a smile of disbelief. Little wonder. So much time did he lose, that by today's 12th stage from

That last grind to the finish

Beloki couldn't respond when Armstrong went for the line.

On the road to La Mongie. You think these guys were treated to a show today?

Armstrong gets the jersey back.

The coach

Jalabert tried another heroic solo -- and was again caught near the line.

A moment of silence before the start

On the approach to the final climb.

Preliminary Stage Results1. Lance Armstrong (USA), USP, at , 158 km in 4:21:57. (36.190 km)2. Joseba Beloki (Sp), ONE, at ˆ 00:07.3. Roberto Heras (Sp), USP, at 00:13.4. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), BAN, at 01:16.5. Raimondas Rumsas (Lit), LAM, at 01:16.6. Oscar Sevilla (Sp), KEL, at 01:23.7. Ivan Basso (Ita), FAS, at 01:23.8. Andrei Kivilev (Kzk), COF, at 01:34.9. Laurent Jalabert (Fra), CST, at 01:49.10. Jose Azevedo (Por), ONE, at 01:52.11. Igor Gonzalez Galdeano (Sp), ONE, at 01:54.12. Christophe Moreau (Fra), C.A, at 01:57.13. Massimiliano Lelli (Ita), COF, at 01:57.14. David Moncoutie (Fra),