Saxo Bank’s Andy and Frank Schleck climbed their way up in the general classification on stage 17, with only race leader Alberto Contador (Astana) able to follow the Luxembourg riders over the day’s final climb and down to the finish. But Astana continued to show its might, with Lance Armstrong and Andreas Klöden riding strongly to finish fifth and sixth on the day and shedding the other GC contenders. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream) rode with the select Armstrong group towards the end, but lost the wheel on the final climb up the Col de la Colombiere to finish 3:10 down.

Under a blazing high desert sun in Central Oregon, the 30th Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic opened Tuesday with the 71-mile Smith Rock Road Race. This season's breakout woman, 26-year-old amateur Evelyn Stevens (Webcor Builders), took the bunch sprint ahead of Tina Pic (Colavita-Sutter Home) and Chrissy Ruiter (ValueAct Capital). In the men's race, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) soloed away from a break to cross the line 10 seconds before Jeff Louder (BMC) and Francisco Mancebo (Rock Racing) in second and third.

For the men, eventually, a successful break

Editor's Note: Michael Barry is a member of the Columbia-HTC team. Pedaling up the climb without a car in sight, the sun beating down, my open jersey fluttering in the breeze and my legs turning fluidly, my mind started wandering. The road was one I had ridden countless times, alone, with teammates, rivals and friends. I know every meter of road after nearly 10 years of riding in Girona — it now feels like home. Daily, we meet for rides, forming a group that contains many of the best professional cyclists in the world.

With two alpine stages done and the most difficult one coming up on Wednesday, the 96th Tour de France is fast revealing its harshest features. The double St. Bernard stage Tuesday saw longtime race leader Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R-La Mondiale) and former white jersey Tony Martin (Columbia-HTC) fall out of the top 10, while Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) had his worst day ever at the Tour and dropped to 17th overall, 7:23 behind yellow jersey Alberto Contador.

Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi) used a daring last-minute break to win the 16th stage of the 2009 Tour de France, a short, tough ride from Martigny in Switzerland, to Bourg-Saint-Maurice in France. The Spaniard claimed his first Tour stage victory by attacking a four-man break in the final 2km, just as it was about to be joined by a second four-man group, and held his advantage to win by just six seconds ahead of Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux) with Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) third.

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Less Badger!

“Contador was the strongest today,” Saxo Bank’s Fränk Schleck said shortly after Sunday’s intense stage 15 to Verbier. “And now it will be very difficult for us to win the Tour de France. But we will try again.” Saxo Bank surprised many on Sunday by being the team that took charge of the race on the initial slopes of the 8km climb to the finish. “We launched the attack like we planned,” said team boss Bjarne Riis. “And we are very pleased with … the results of our efforts to create the race.”

Astana’s Alberto Contador won the day and the maillot jaune on Sunday, riding away from a small group of favorites on the final climb in stage 15 of the Tour de France. Contador used the Category 1 climb to Verbier to settle accounts with teammate Lance Armstrong and the rest of his rivals for the overall victory, rocketing away to win by more than 40 seconds over Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck, who collected the white jersey for the best young rider in the process. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) finished third.

Belgian rider Tom Boonen has withdrawn from the Tour de France ahead of the 15th stage because of sickness,his Quick Step team said on Sunday. The Paris-Roubaix champion vomited during the night and had a fever, according to the team. The 28-year-old Belgian sprint specialist was controversially re-admitted to the Tour at the last minute after being initially sidelined by organizers because of a second positive test for cocaine. After Saturday's 14th stage, he was sitting in 148th place in the overall standings, 1:38:42 behind yellow jersey holder Rinaldo Nocentini.

Five seconds separated George Hincapie (Columbia-HTC) from the yellow jersey in Saturday’s hilly stage across eastern France. How those five seconds are dissected will be the source for debate throughout the remainder of the 2009 Tour de France. At the finish line Besancon, Hincapie seemed poised to move into the maillot jauneafter riding into the day’s winning 12-man breakaway on the hilly 199km 14th stage from Colmar to Besancon. The American started the stage 28th at 5:25 back and was the best-placed rider in the move.

Thor Hushovd (Cervélo) might seem like a polite gentleman off the bike, but they don’t call him the “Bear from Grimstad” for nothing. For the second day in a row, Hushovd’s emotions got the most of him at the finish line and he was screaming just moments after coming across the line in the intense battle for the green jersey. Yesterday, after battling through the cold and snow to Colmar to regain the green jersey, Hushovd roared at Peter Velits (Milram) for pipping him at the line.

Katusha's Sergei Ivanov won Saturday's stage 14, a mostly flat transition stage from Friday's day in the mountainous Verges region and Sunday's first day in the Alps. Ivanov attacked his 11 breakaway companions in the final 11 kilometers and used his time trial skills to roll away to an impressive win. His breakaway companion George Hincapie almost snagged the yellow jersey from Rinaldo Nocentini, finishing just five seconds too late to take the lead.[nid:95377]

Cav' in early break?

American Tyler Farrar is targeting the Tour de France 14th stage as he bids to beat British sprint king Mark Cavendish in a 'fair and square' speed battle. Cavendish has been the undisputed speed king with four wins so far but Farrar is one of the few riders to have beaten him this year when he won the third stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico in March. With the Tour de France moving into the Alps on Sunday, Saturday's rolling route from Colmar to Besancon could, if the sprinters' teams decide to chase down anticipated breakaways, end in a bunch finish.

Colin Cares and Amy Dombroski required fresh, clean stars-and-stripes jerseys Friday after taking the U23 crowns at the 2009 USA Cycling national mountain bike championships, held at SolVista resort in Granby, Colorado. Both riders crossed the line coated in layers of dirt and trail grime after suffering mid-race crashes. Cares even had a sizable rock wedged between the vents of his helmet. “I went down on the last lap — I just washed out on a loose corner,” said Cares, who hails from Boulder, Colorado. “The adrenaline kicked in. I got right back on my bike.”

All week long, people watching the Tour de France on TV have been saying, “This Tour looks too easy. When are they gonna start racing?” Memories are short, and appearances are deceptive. A week ago, everyone was saying that the opening stages of this 96th Tour de France were the hardest in recent memory, and that the excitement level had been ratcheted up several notches by the return of Lance Armstrong. And speculation was high on how the upcoming fight for control of the Astana team between the Texan and his Spanish teammate Alberto Contador would pan out.

Katie Compton has the legs. Heather Irmiger has the lungs. Mary McConneloug owns the technical skills and Georgia Gould has the speed.   Each of these four racers brings a unique set of skills into this weekend’s USA Cycling national cross-country championships, held at Sol Vista resort in Granby, Colorado. The four sit atop the list of favorites to win Saturday’s cross-country race, which awards one year of bragging rights to the victor.  So who is the absolute favorite to win? 

The overall classification for the top 10 in the Tour de France has not changed since last weekend’s stages in the Pyrenees. Monday was a rest day and stage 10 and 11 have been won in field sprints by Team Columbia-HTC’s Mark Cavendish. Team Saxo Bank’s Chris Anker Sorensen continues to ride well within his first Tour de France. He is recovering quickly and has been well within his comfort zone the last two stages. However, many others have been, as well, so we should expect some real fireworks as the Tour enters the Alpes in a few days.

Stage 10

Mark Cavendish’s victory in the uphill finish Wednesday at Saint-Fargeaux proved that the British sprinter’s isn’t a one-trick pony limited to the flats. Just like his surprise victory at Milan-San Remo revealed this spring, a leaner and stronger Cavendish revealed he can get over the hills and win when the stage goes uphill.

Levi Leipheimer is banged up after a late-stage crash in Thursday’s wild ride to Vittel, but he’s thankful that he wasn’t seriously injured ahead of the potentially explosive stage across the Vosges on Friday. The Astana rider – poised for the Tour podium in fourth place at 39 seconds back – crashed on a left-hander as the main pack swept into the finish line sprint nearly six minutes behind solo winner Nicki Sorensen (Saxo Bank).

Katie Compton has the legs. Heather Irmiger has the lungs. Mary McConneloug owns the technical skills and Georgia Gould has the speed.

Saxo Bank's Nicki Sorensen emerged from a seven-man break to take a classic solo win on a perfect summer day in France Thursday. Sorensen was part of the group that formed about 70km into the 212km 12th stage from Tonnerre to Vittel, the last relatively flat day before the Tour returns to the mountains Friday. Sorensen attacked the breakaway with Agritubel's Sylvain Calzati with about 20k to go, and then attacked Calzati with 5k to go to cross the line with a 37-second gap over the rest of the break. [nid:95239]

Close calls Well, two more sprint stages in the books and two more near misses. One second- and a third-place are certainly nice, but not quite the win we have been looking for. We're definitely getting our timing dialed for the bunch kicks, though. Julian has been amazing the last couple of days! It's going to click one of these days. The only bummer today was that both Christian and Ryder crashed. This was the third time Ryder has hit the deck! They say bad things come in threes though, so I guess he's gotten them all out of the way now.

While Mark Cavendish is getting all the glory of stage win after stage win at this 96th Tour de France, he always compliments his Columbia-HTC teammates, notably his lead-out man Mark Renshaw. But the Manxman, who looks like he’s on his way to at least six stage victories this year, also knows that he would never get the opportunity to use his explosive sprint if it weren’t for his less-heralded colleagues Bernhard Eisel of Austria and Bert Grabsch of Germany.

With Columbia-HTC’s Mark Cavendish having won four of this year’s nine road stages, it would be easy to assume his sprint victories have come as easily as he makes it appear. However looks can be deceiving. On Wednesday the 24-year-old from the Isle of Man equaled his tally of Tour stage wins from last year’s Tour, and in doing so matched the record number of stage wins by a British rider; he also took back the green jersey from Cervélo’s Thor Hushovd.

They said stage 11’s uphill finish would certainly shed Mark Cavendish, opening the door for someone else to win. They were wrong. With his trusty leadout Columbia-HTC train of George Hincapie and then Mark Renshaw setting him up at the front of the peloton, Cavendish jumped on the uphill sprint finish of stage 11 to take the win ahead of Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) and Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam). The bunch finish came at the end of Wednesday’s flat 192km stage from Vatan to Saint-Fargeau, following an all-day two-man breakaway that was caught with 5km to go.

Behind every great sprinter — or perhaps in front of — is a great lead-out man. Mario Cipollini had Giovanni Lombardi, Alessandro Petacchi had Marco Velo. Mark Cavendish, who is quickly establishing himself as the man to beat in the high-speed sprints, has found his man. Mark Renshaw, a 27-year-old Australian who joined the Columbia-HTC team this season, is the rider who delivers Cavendish to the line. Cavendish is quick to point out that the success is thanks to a team effort, but singled out Renshaw as the best in the business.

Editor's note: The Tour de France recently honored John Wilcockson for his remarkable 40 years of reporting. VeloNews.tv took the opportunity to salute him.

The chance of a stage win is likely to tempt more than one of the peloton's more agile sprinters in the 11th stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday. However, the likes of Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and Thor Hushovd Cervélo TestTeam) would do well to study the profile of the undulating 192km ride from Vatan to Saint Fargeau, which gets tricky inside the last 50km before ending on a slight incline. With only two Category 4 climbs the stage should, in theory, finish in a bunch sprint — although only those who can finish fast on a slight incline, including Hushovd and Freire, need apply.

Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) won a leisurely, radio-free 10th stage of Tour de France on Tuesday. It was Bastille Day, and a breakaway full of Frenchmen declared independence early on, but the home crowd would have no reason to celebrate the finale — with a little help from George Hincapie and Mark Renshaw, Cavendish won yet another drag race to the line ahead of green jersey Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream).

On July 5, 2009, Evelyn Stevens won the four-day, Fitchburg Longsjo Classic in Massachusetts, winning the NRC event ahead of seasoned vets like Jeannie Longo, who placed third, and Tina Pic, who won two stages. An amateur riding as a guest with the Lip Smacker pro team, Stevens, 26, moved into first on the second day’s hilly circuit race, gained more time with a second place in the tough stage 3 road race, and cinched the win after fending off crushing attacks in the final stage criterium.

As the son of one of cycling's greats, Nicolas Roche knows he has plenty to live up to. And after a tough first nine stages of racing on his Tour de France debut, the France-born Irish national road race champion is not expecting the race to get any easier. Roche, the son of former Tour de France and Giro d'Italia champion Stephen, has spent the past few days in the unexpected position of battling to keep teammate Rinaldo Nocentini in the race's yellow jersey.

I love rest days! Nothing feels quite as luxurious as spending an entire day lying around doing nothing after nine days of racing. I have been trying to make the most (or maybe I should say the least) of my day off. A little spin in the morning to loosen up the legs and then a lot of time getting acquainted with my bed. I'm sure it's going to be game on from kilometer zero again tomorrow, so I need all the recovery I can get!

As the Tour de France wraps up its first week of racing on the lower slopes of the Pyrénées, it seems the racing action among the general classification favorites has been put on hold for a while. Stages 8 and 9 had similar scripts — allow a lead break of non-GC contenders to escape, race the major Category 1 climbs at a cautious pace, and limit all losses.

Columbia-HTC sport director Ralf Aldag is content with the opening week of the 2009 Tour de France. Two stage victories by Mark Cavendish and runs in the green and white jerseys bode well for the U.S.-registered team heading into the last two weeks of the race. The team took stock on Monday’s rest day as it prepares to head toward the Alps with all options on the table. While the team’s GC hopes have taken a blow, the team is quietly optimistic Kim Kirchen will find his best form in the decisive final week.

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When the first phase of the 96th Tour de France ended on Sunday with a near 80-man field sprint (on a mountain stage!), we knew that the race leaders were already looking ahead to the final week. They all know that the stages in the Alps, followed by a time trial at Annecy and the penultimate day’s finish on Mont Ventoux, are going to decide this Tour’s outcome — and that the middle week between Monday’s rest day in Limoges and next Sunday’s stage 15 finish in Verbier, Switzerland, is just a period in which to tick things over.

Veteran sprinter Laura Van Gilder (Mellow Mushrooms) lit up the night at the fifth annual Iron Hill Twilight Criterium Saturday, taking the win and the lead in the USA Crits series. In the men's race at the Westchester, Pennsylvania, event, Luca Damiani (Colavita-Sutter Home) took a hard-fought victory from a field of hardcore sprinters. Tom Soladay (Team Mountain Khakis) took the lead in the men's USA CRITS overall standings.

Early break in the women's race

Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) countered a late attack by fellow breakaway Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) to win stage 9 of the 2009 Tour de France on Sunday. The two were the survivors of a 13-rider break that went clear early on in the 160.5km race from Saint Gaudens to Tarbes, which took in two of the most storied climbs of this part of France, the Category 1 Col d’Aspin and the hors categorie Col du Tourmalet.

Repeating the top of the leader sheet from the previous year, 30-year-old Anthony Colby and 46-year-old Marti Shea won Newton’s Revenge, a 7.6-mile bike race to the summit of Mt. Washington, the highest mountain in the northeastern United States.

Caisse d'Epargne's Luis Leon Sanchez won Saturday's second day in the Pyrenees, a 176-km romp from Andora back into France for the start of the race's second week. Sanchez was part of a nearly day-long break that shook down to just four men rolling into Saint Girons. He smartly monitored a late attack by Ag2r's Vladimir Efimkin and benefited from Sandy Casar's too-early jump to take a solid win less than two minutes ahead of the main field.

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It usually takes a highly-publicized doping scandal to bring Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme to the brink of tears. But on Friday it was 24-year-old debutant Brice Feillu, giving the hosts their second stage victory of the race, who brought the emotions flooding out after an impressive ride to victory on the first day in the mountains. Feillu, a specialist climber who rides for Agritubel with his brother Romain, took his chance by attacking his small group of breakaway companions inside the final 6km of the 10.1km climb to Arcalis.

Stage 5 of the Tour de France was another seaside route along the French coast with brutal crosswinds. However, unlike stage 3, Team Saxo Bank and Chris Anker Sorensen were prepared and present at the front of the race when it counted. The final 50 miles of the stage were raced at full throttle and Chris set new personal-best Tour de France power records to prove it. 

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It should come as a surprise to no one that Garmin-Slipstream’s David Millar went out on the attack on Thursday’s stage from Girona to Barcelona.

Thor Hushovd’s sprint victory up Montjuic gave a huge boost to the start-up Cervélo TestTeam just as the continental squad prepares to lead defending champion Carlos Sastre into the Pyrénées starting with Friday’s stage to Arcalis. The sprinting Viking out-kicked three-time world champion Oscar Freire to claim his seventh career Tour stage win and deliver the Canadian-sponsored continental team a prestigious victory in its first-ever Tour de France.

Australian Michael Rogers was among the big name riders who crashed on the rain-hit sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday. Rogers, riding for the Columbia team, appeared to take down Cervelo sprinter Heinrich Haussler and American David Zabriskie of Garmin as the peloton negotiated a roundabout. The Australian, who finished ninth overall in 2006 but had to abandon after a serious crash on the eighth stage in 2007, was later taken to hospital for X-rays complaining of a sore elbow.

On a day of crashes, wet roads and rolling climbs, Cervélo’s Thor Hushovd powered his way to a sprint win ahead of three-time world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank). Garmin-Slipstream’s David Millar survived from an early breakaway until the final kilometer, where the lanky time trialist was reeled in as the course kicked sharply upwards. Although not a categorized climb, the pitch hit 6.6 percent before easing off near the finish, and was enough to shake points leader Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) from his position near the front.

Columbia-HTC's Judith Arndt won stage 6 of the GiroDonne (the women's Giro d'Italia) on Thursday, the team's third stage win so far. Cervelo TestTeam's Claudia Hausler took the overall lead, but the win for Arndt moved her into second and teammate Mara Abbot is now in third.

Top professional and amateur men’s and women’s teams will take to the streets of West Chester, PA for the 5th Annual Iron Hill Twilight Criterium on July 11, 2009, the second event on the USA CRITS National Series calendar. In attendance will be last year's winner, Mark Hekman, riding for Team Mountain Khakis. The 2009 season for this professional bassoonist turned pro cyclists has been spectacular, with top 5 finishes at Tulsa Tough and the Kelly Cup, as well as a 2nd place finish at the Athens Twilight Criterium. The illusive win, however, has escaped him thus far.

Mark Cavendish's domination of the Tour de France bunch sprints is likely set to come to an end, temporarily at least, on the race's sixth stage which ends at Barcelona's Olympic stadium on Thursday. A day before the first summit finish of the race at Arcalis in Andorra, the Tour heads over more challenging undulating terrain, with an uphill finish likely tempting the peloton's 'punchers.'

Fabian Cancellara’s yellow jersey might be hanging by a thread, but it’s going to take more than a snip of scissors to take it away from him. Despite leading Lance Armstrong by just 0.22 seconds, Cancellara says that margin will be plenty to fend off the seven-time champion on the hilltop finish atop Montjuic overlooking Barcelona in Thursday’s stage 6.

Julian Dean says it’s only a matter of time before Tyler Farrar wins a stage at the Tour de France. The New Zealand veteran sprinter said Farrar might just be the man who gets past dominant sprinter Mark Cavendish. “I think he can win a stage at the Tour,” Dean said after Wednesday’s stage. “It won’t be easy. We just started working together at the Giro, but if we get our timing right, we can win.”

Columba-HTC's Mark Cavendish tightened his grip on the Tour de France green jersey on Wednesday despite losing out on the chance to claim a third stage victory on this year's race. Cavendish, who stylishly won stages 2 and 3 from bunch sprints to take his tally on the race to six in three participations, was among those who fell victim to a vicious headwind as the peloton chased down an earlier breakaway.

The teams of Tour de France contenders Cadel Evans and Denis Menchov suffered further setbacks during the race's fifth stage on Wednesday. On the descent of the Cote de Treilles as the peloton upped the pace in chase of a six-man breakaway, 23-year-old Dutchman Robert Gesink crashed and picked up injuries to his wrist and left leg. He was later diagnosed with a fractured wrist and pulled out of the race by his Rabobank team, who have been left reeling with the relative demise of their yellow jersey contender Menchov.

Frenchman Thomas Voeckler scored a popular stage victory Wednesday in the fifth stage of the 96th Tour de France, a 196.5-kilometer (122-mile) race from Le Cap d’Agde to Perpignan. Voeckler (BBox Bouygues Telecom) was away in a six-man break for more than 180 kilometers, attacking the other five with about five kilometers to go and riding into Perpignan alone, with the chasing peloton in sight behind him at the finish line.

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When Specialized began making the bikes for Tom Boonen, he was not exactly complimentary about their stiffness. The company’s engineers worked hard to get him what he wanted, and when they delivered the S-Works Tarmac SL2 to the Quick Step team, the riders gave it a thumbs-up. Nonetheless, they decided for 2010 to again re-engineer the Tarmac from the ground up. Knowing that the SL2 was already a home run made the goals for the Tarmac SL3 different.

Bob Stapleton was already in a good mood Monday morning before the start of the third stage of the 2009 Tour de France at Marseille’s old harbor. The president of Columbia-HTC was enjoying the warm afterglow of Mark Cavendish’s explosive victory in stage 2 and Andre Greipel’s win at the Tour of Austria.

Zach Bell (Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Evelyn Stevens (Team Lip Smacker) won the men’s and women’s final general classification at the 50th Annual Fitchburg Longsjo Classic NRC stage race on Sunday. Stevens, a 26-year old New York City rider who only started racing bikes last July, finished 20 seconds ahead of second-place Alison Powers (Team Type 1) and 23 second in advance of third place Jeannie Longo (Vitall Plus).

Katusha's Danilo Napolitano hit back Monday at allegations that his race tactics prevented team Cervelo from pulling off a sprint coup on the second stage of the Tour de France. Cervelo's Brett Lancaster, the main lead-out man for the team's Norwegian sprinter Thor Hushovd, was left frustrated and angry Sunday with what he called the "amateur' racing of Katusha sprinter Napolitano. "We got Thor right up there and then typical Napolitano just smashing people like he's in an amateur bloody under-19 race. It's just disgraceful," Lancaster told AFP. "The guy needs to pull his head in."

Belgium's Tom Boonen said Sunday he was more concerned about staying on his bike than sprinting for victory after a crash just before the finish of the second stage of the Tour de France. A right-hand bend just under 2km before the end of the 187km stage between Monaco and Brignoles caused confusion in the peloton, causing some riders to crash and forcing the Quick Step sprinter to ride around the pileup.

Tyler Farrar stuck another feather in his sprint cap on Sunday by finishing an impressive second on his first real Tour de France debut. The Tour de France clicked into action on Saturday when Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara grabbed the race's yellow jersey when he won the opening stage time trial in Monaco. But for sprinters like Farrar, who as an American is a rare breed in his craft, Sunday's hot and sweaty 187 km ride from Monaco to here was the real start of the three-week epic.

The road back to his second Tour de France was different for Ryder Hesjedal this year. While most of his Tour-bound teammates followed the successful blueprint from 2008 and raced the Giro d’Italia in May, Garmin-Slipstream brass put the brakes on the tall Canadian and told him to rest instead of race.

Watching Mark Cavendish totally dominate the other sprinters at Sunday’s stage 2 of the 96th Tour de France set me thinking about the first time I saw him race. It was in early 2005 at the world track championships in Los Angeles, when he was only 19.

Temperatures surged into the high 90s on Sunday as searing summer heat took a grip on the peloton at the Tour de France. Riders sprinted for the line into Brignole with extra intensity Sunday because it seemed like they just wanted a cold drink and some shade. “It was brutal heat out there. I couldn’t get enough drinks down,” said Cervélo’s Heinrich Haussler. “I was getting goose bumps with so much heat. I was almost feeling cold.”

Britain's Mark Cavendish is likely to find out the real strength in depth of his rivals on the Tour de France in the race's third stage from Marseille to La Grande Motte on Monday. The key to Cavendish's four stage wins from the bunch sprints last year, apart from his unstoppable top end speed, was the disciplined riding of his Columbia team who helped crank up the speed before unleasing him a few hundred meters from the line. On Monday Cavendish will find out if sprint rivals Thor Hushovd, Tom Boonen and Tyler Farrar, among others, have learned anything from those performances

Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) sped to victory on Sunday in stage 2 of the 2009 Tour de France, a 187km race from the principality of Monaco to Brignoles. Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) took second behind the Manxman with Romain Feillu (Agritubel) third. Race leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) finished safely in the field to retain the maillot jaune.

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It was a non-American Fourth of July Saturday at the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic, as Canadian Charles Dionne (Fly V Australia) won the tough 110-mile third stage road race with a dramatic uphill attack half a kilometer from the finish. Australian Rory Sutherland (OUCH-Maxxis) finished second and 19-year old Canadian David Boily (Probikepool/Kuota) capitalized upon his low profile — he is a first-year senior rider, has no teammates at Fitchburg, and lives in Quebec City — to latch onto Sutherland’s wheel and finish third.

Editor's Note: Garmin-Slipstream's sprinter Tyler Farrar will be contributing daily journal entries to VeloNews.com throughout the Tour. Well, here we go! The Tour kicked off today with a spectacular time trial through Monaco. Cancellara won with an impressive ride, which I don't think

Fabian Cancellara knew if he could stay close to the climbers on the first half of the course in Saturday’s individual time trial to open the 2009 Tour de France, the yellow jersey was his. Cancellara’s plan worked like a charm, staying within six seconds of 2007 Tour champion Alberto Contador (Astana) at the Cat. 4 Cote de Beausoleil with 8km to go before turning on the afterburners in the final half to claim the double prize of stage win and yellow jersey by 18 seconds.

If there was any doubt about Fabian Cancellara’s time trial superiority, the big Swiss rider erased it by stomping his way to a commanding win in the 15.5km opening stage of the Tour de France in Monaco. His finishing time of 19:32 put him well ahead of second-place Alberto Contador. "I was one of the favorites to win here before the race and I knew if I got things right it would be very difficult for my rivals to beat me," Cancellara said. "That was special motivation. To be back in the yellow jersey again is a great achievement both for me and my team, I am proud of it."

British sprinter Mark Cavendish said Friday his Tour de France objective is solely to reach Paris with any thoughts of winning the green jersey far from his mind when the race begins here on Saturday. The 24-year-old exploded onto the scene last year by winning a remarkable four stages on only his second Tour but pulled out early to race at the Beijing Olympics. That ended any hopes he might have had of battling for the green jersey, which usually rewards the most consistent rider in the points competition.

Averaging 29 mph over a 75-mile circuit, Bissell Pro Cycling’s Kirk O’Bee won stage two of the Fitchburg Longsjo circuit race on Friday, sprinting away from a seven-man breakaway that stayed away for the final 50 miles.

Chris Sheppard and Seamus McGrath stamped their authority on this year’s BC Bike Race, winning the sixth stage and putting nearly seven minutes into their chief rivals, the Kona duo of Barry Wicks and Kris Sneddon. The two Canadians attacked from the gun in the 65km stage, which strung together a loop around the town of Squamish, and never looked back. The course included sections of the Gear Jammer and Test of Metal cross-country races.

Back before Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France he lived in Nice, France. In 1998, he, like many pros in the area, started using the Col de la Madone to test his fitness. At 10 kilometers, the climb has been described by Armstrong as not easy, but not too hard, a perfect road to gauge fitness. Armstrong’s most magical moment on the Madone came in 1999. He went there by himself, on a normal training ride, and did the climb on his own. He recalls the time as 30:45, “with a lot of watts,” adding that he’s never gone any faster.