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Gracia got by Carter in the men's consolation race.

Green was forced to stop for air three times.

Dekker had time for a shower and maybe a massage before the peloton arrived.

The scene at the finish line was reminiscent of last week.

Aussie colors: Credit Agricole green and Tour de France yellow

Evans looked to be on his way to victory before the flat-tire bug bit.

It all started innocent enough

Roberto Heras's climbing bike. Note the Selcof seatpost and the Mavic Ksyrium SSC SL wheels.

...and in back, it was just cold and wet.

Heras's climbing bike. Note the oversized 1-3/8' lower headset bearing, with the 1-1/8' upper head cup. The upper cup has wrench flats (Shimano doesn't make threadless headsets), but the threads have been bored out for the threadless steering tube.

While Voight lost the jersey, it's not so bad giving it up to your teammate.

The team requested a 120mm magnesium Deda stem for Heras's bike. It takes oversized (31.7mm) handlebars. On the night before L'Alpe d'Huez, the stem was still not installed. Postal riders have been riding standard 25.8mm (usually called 26.0) bars.

There are no fair weather cycling fans in France. Just a few of the thousands of people who stood in steady rain for hours to glimpse just a few moments of their heroes.

Victor Hugo Peña's Superlight climbing bike. The only equipment difference on his bike from the other Postal climbing bikes is the TTP (Tandem Titanium Project) seatpost, rather than the usual Dura-Ace post.

These two Telekom fans are part of the thousands that line the start, begging for autographs.

Just a few of the 16 photo motors that carry photographers through and around the race. Today the Reuters motobike crashed on the wet road, breaking the leg of the driver.

Rain gear was in evidence everywhere today.

The unseen and forgotten American, Kevin Livingston, looking very fit at the start of today's stage.

On Friday, the Tour de France riders had a small taste of the climbing that faces them Saturday on the 162.5km (101-mile) stage 7 between Strasbourg and Colmar. The foretaste was the 2,385-foot Col du Donon, a 4 km-long climb in the Vosges mountains that was enough to split the peloton, and leave many of the sprinters behind. All the five climbs that await them Saturday are longer than the Donon, and the riders having trouble will be not only the sprinters but probably men like current yellow jersey Stuart O'Grady of Australia - who has trouble on long climbs. From Strasbourg, stage 7 goes

The Champion two-piece band, which unfortunately opens each stage with the one and only song they know.

5:53p.m. (local time) We just finished speaking with John Vande Velde, the father of U.S. Postal Sevice rider Christian Vande Velde. He says that his son has apparently suffered a fractured left arm, contusions on his neck and a possible concussion. Vande Velde was wearing a helmet when he struck a post after missing a turn earlier in the stage. He recovered enough to get back on his bike, but realized his injuries were serious enough to warrant medical attention and then withdrew from the Tour. We'll try to update you as soon as we know more. The senior Vande Velde, just back from the

Les Cadets, junior racers that are having the thrill of their lives at the Tour.

Four people were taken to hospital in Colmar, France Saturday, with one reported to be in a serious condition, after a spectator drove his car into security barriers at the finish line of the Tour de France seventh stage. One woman bystander is in a serious condition after being thrown into the air when struck by the car and is receiving treatment for severe head and leg injuries. Three others - two policemen and a Tour official - were also hospitalised with minor injuries, according to Patrice Clerc, president of the Tour's parent company AOS. "We'll tell you what we know, which is

French flags, and road painting, encouraged all of the French riders to win on Bastille Day.

The bands that play, the fans that come, and the riders at the center of it all.

One of hundreds of German caravans, or small campers, that have joined the Tour and can be found along the course all through the Alps and Pyrennes.

U.S. Postal rider Christian Vande Velde and Fassa Bortolo’s Ivan Basso have been forced out of the Tour de France due to injuries the two young riders suffered in separate accidents during the seventh stage of France’s national tour on Saturday. Vande Velde, a 25-year-old Boulder, Colorado resident suffered a broken left arm, bruises on his neck and shoulder and a possible concussion after missing a turn on the descent of the Category 2. Col d’ Adelspach and striking a metal post. Vande Velde lay on the ground until his team car came to his aid. He then got up and rode for about

Jalabert made all of France cheer

Going into Saturday's stage to Colmar, I didn’t know how I was feeling after all of the hard stages. I stayed at the front not because I was trying to attack, but as a tactic for survival. Again, guys were just attacking from the gun. Finally, on the first climb, it was at full speed, we were flying up that. After a while, though, I was feeling pretty comfortable at the front. When I saw the 1km to go, I kind of shut it down and let a lot of guys go by and rolled down the descent back to the front. I did pretty much the same on all of the climbs. Romans (Vainsteins) tried letting the guys

The day's big winner has to be Voigt - now six minutes up on Armstrong and Ullrich.

Kelme: A force in the peloton, a curiosity in the caravan It has had an incredible 20-year run as a cycling team sponsor, but Kelme’s entry in the Tour publicity caravan doesn’t quite live up to the same standards as the team, yet. While most sponsors in the caravan sport a whole fleet of elaborately decorated and rigged-up vehicles, Kelme really is an army of one. The green pick-up truck with the giant soccer shoe on top is kind of a lonely sight each day, looking like someone who sort of got swept away by a parade barreling down Main St. But is it effective? Well, hey, they got their

The five who defined the stage.

The time trail included a trip through a local brew pub.

Postal worked to limited the gap -- and the damage.

Lopes stood atop the podium in Durango.

Pascal stayed dry on his way to World Cup win No. 1.

The women's podium: (l to r) Grigson, Redden, Haywood, Florit and Brutsaert.

Carter, with Tomac looking on, saw 17 riders miss his mark while he sat in the hot seat.

Kelme is racing the road stages on Shimano wheels with carbon rims that have carbon braking surfaces as well

Chausson easily won the women's race.

The spoke heads are in the wall of Shimano carbon rims, while the nipples are at the hub, same as with Shimano aluminum wheels.

Giove came up short in front of her hometown crowd.

At the finish in Colmar, after negotiating five steep and winding descents, some of the material of the Shimano cork brake pads on the front of this Rabobank bike seems to have been melted and pushed to the leading edge by the Fir Santara carbon rims

Olympic champion Miguel Martinez enjoys the sunny part of the day.

Tour Tech: A bit more on wheel selection

Bobby Julich at the start.

Axel Merckx as you see him on TV, in the break on Col du Donon...

Bonjour's Simon retains the jersey...but Armstrong is now third overall.

Casey B. Gibson

Photographing the Tour is long hours of waiting, then frenzied bursts of energy, and very long days. Taylor Johnson, photographe

This poor girl has to dance her way across France as a croissant in the publicity caravan, all 2100 miles of it.

George Hincapie confers with Freddie Viaene at the finish line.

The peloton rolls through a scenic village near Commercy, early in the stage.

Paris may not have gotten the Olympics, but France leads the world in haystack art at Tour time.

Moreau's new Mavic Ksyrium SSC SL wheels. Winning a stage doesn't hurt your swag status.

When Bonjour does a team chase to set up its sprinter, Damien Nazon, the yellow ovals on a long line of these Spinergys looks spectacular.

Rabobank uses gray pads on the front brakes with its Fir Santara carbon braking surfaces.

Lance Armstrong blitzed a 165-man field in the 11th stage individual time trial up to the ski resort of Chamrousse Wednesday to win his second successive stage on this year's Tour de France. Check VeloNews's Tour de France page for the complete story by VeloNews's Bryan Jew, a post-race analysis from John Wilcockson, stunning race images by Graham Watson, a Tour photo gallery by Casey Gibson and more tech news from Lennard Zinn.

Mapei uses Ambrosio XCarbo deep-section rims on road stages, and, like Telekom, uses Corima orange brake pads to stop them.

While many of us watch the Tour on TV, photographer Casey B. Gibson is at the Tour, looking for things you'll rarely see on the tube.

Telekom, like Mapei, uses Corima orange (cork) brake pads with two-piece bolt-together brake shoes for the carbon braking surfaces on the team's road wheels (and on Ullrich's time trial bike as well).

It's Friday the 13th at the Tour de France. Kind of a scary thought actually. This is after all, the race where grown men curse bad luck and pray that good karma is on their side. I don't know if the date was on most rider's minds today. Historically, I've always been kind of fond of the number 13. It's never frightened me too much. In fact, after finishing 13th in the Tour in '99 it kind of became a lucky number of sorts. Well, as of today, I'm going to have to scrap all this 13 worship and join the ranks of the leery. I officially dislike Friday the 13th - because today, as they

Laced to Campy straight-pull hubs to look like Campy Bora wheels, but they have carbon braking surfaces and look different from Boras in other ways as well. They appear to be Ambrosio XCarbo rims without decals.

While Zabel was caught in traffic, Kirsipuu had a clear shot

AG2R uses Trek-made Bontrager paired-spoke wheels. These are the same design as Rolfs, but now with Bontrager hubs and different different name, after Rolf left the company.

O'Grady spends another day in yellow.

This thing really drives with that giant wheel--it is churning around the rider!

With Merckx, Verbrugghe, Bartoli and Brochard, the break had horsepower. Bessy was there to keep guard.

Thursday’s team time trial stage at the Tour de France ended with a very happy American who moved up into third place. But it wasn’t two-time defending champion Lance Armstrong. No, instead it was a rider who has known nothing but difficulties at the Tour during Armstrong’s two-year reign. On Thursday, though, Crédit Agricole’s Bobby Julich could finally break into a broad smile again at the Tour de France. His Crédit Agricole team posted the best time of the day on a wet, windy day that was filled with tension and danger. The ride not only kept Australian Stuart O’Grady in the yellow jersey,

The monocoque Pinarellos of iBanesto, Fassa Bortolo and Telekom always look cool -- though Ullrich may have wanted a motor

The rain. The pain of a team time trial. And men and women simply doing their jobs at the Tour.

Thor Hushovd's Look KG396 CLM matched the rest of the team's.

An analysis of the time splits at Thursday’s team time trial show that the U.S. Postal Service squad was on target to place second before Christian Vande Velde skidded on the slick, white-painted center line and fell, bringing down the team’s No. 2 rider Roberto Heras. The crash happened just inside 15km to go. If the other seven Postal riders hadn’t have waited, not only would Heras have lost a couple of minutes but he would also have felt abandoned. And that’s not how a team wants to go into the mountains, where the Spanish climber needs to be at his best to help Lance Armstrong win the

Axel Merckx and the rest of his team rode Daddy's time trial frames to a 14th-place finish.

Whew, today was tough. After yesterday's fiasco, I was really hurting. It was not very sportsmanlike what ONCE and U.S. Postal did yesterday. ONCE attacked as a full team at the feed zone on a windy day. Feed zones are already dangerous enough, and it's just an unwritten not to attack in them. Sometimes it might happen that a single guy might try to get away in one. But not for an entire world class team to do it. It's like attacking when the yellow jersey gets a flat. It caught our team and other teams by surprise, and the fact that Postal and Telekom followed suit, well, we weren't happy

Laurent Jalabert and the CSC team downed packs of High5 gel on the start line and stuffed more up sleeves and shorts legs for la