Two successive stages of the Tour de France this week put the same rider – Phonak’s Oscar Pereiro – on to both sides of the same question, namely when is a rider obligated to pull through in a breakaway? In stage 16 George Hincapie found himself in a breakaway group on what had to be the toughest stage of this Tour de France. As you know, Hincapie is a teammate and real workhorse for Lance Armstrong, the overall leader of the Tour. As a result, it’s well understood that Hincapie had absolutely no obligation to pull through as the break moved away from the peloton. Even though it was

Whither Vinokourov?The official announcement that Alexandre Vinokourov is leaving T-Mobile at the end of this season has set the tongues wagging at the Tour de France. Rumor had it that Vinokourov was headed to Discovery Channel even before Wednesday’s news, but team officials say the blond Kazakh isn’t necessarily on their wish list. “Vino’ is one o the top riders in the peloton, but I never thought of Vino’ as a candidate of winning the Tour,” said Discovery Channel boss Johan Bruyneel. “He’s an interesting rider, but he’s interesting for everybody.” Instead, Discovery Channel was hoping

Less than 48 hours after taking second to George Hincapie atop the hardest mountaintop finish of the 92nd Tour de France, Spanish rider Oscar Pereiro replaced the bitterness of that loss with the biggest victory of his career by winning a four-up sprint into Pau at the end of Tuesday's 180.5km stage 16. "It's a spine that I've taken out of my back," Pereiro said after edging Xabier Zandio (Illes Balears) to claim Phonak's first stage win of the Tour after two second places. "I'm happy with the big win today. It makes me forget the disappointment of Sunday." Tuesday's

With the second rest day behind them, the 158 riders still racing the 92nd Tour de France face Tuesday’s third Pyrenean stage with diverse ambitions: Michael Rasmussen is hoping he can keep his third place on GC all the way to Paris. Cadel Evans is still seeking a place in the top 10. And Americans Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis and Chris Horner would all dearly love to win a stage. Then there are this Tour’s “failed” climbers, Can men like Santiago Botero, Roberto Heras and Iban Mayo find redemption on this last day in the high mountains? Stage 16 is not an easy one. It features four

Leipheimer says this Tour the hardest…Levi Leipheimer says this is the hardest Tour de France of the four in which he has competed. The American leader of the Gerolsteiner team says the aggressive racing has been great for spectators, but hard on the riders. “The speed has obviously been higher, the competition is thicker, and I think the transfers have made it really hard,” said Leipheimer at the start of Stage 15 in Mourenx. “We haven’t had all that many mountaintop finishes, but it seems like there’s been a lot of climbing, and the races have opened up farther from the finish than

Rest day and I need it. Actually I could use another, if it were possible. I mentioned the other day that I’d been sick on the stage to Ax-3-Domaines. Finishing with the grupetto had been hard, just because I’d been throwing up for the first 100k. Yesterday, on the stage to Pla d'Adet, it was worse. My stomach had settled, but I’m still sick with something and it took everything I had just to beat the time cut. I was dropped early in the day, spending probably the last 100 or so kilometers riding on my own… well, I had another guy (Rafael Nuritdinov of, Domina Vacanze), but he was

Three Consecutive records close out a spectacular Alpenrose Velodrome Blazing sunny skies and blustery winds greeted the riders on Sunday for the final day of the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge in Portland, Oregon. The women’s competition kicked off with 200-meter time trials to begin the sprint tournament. U.S. Olympian Jennie Reed (Gregg’s-Trek-VW) was the top qualifier in 12.84, followed by Becky Quinn (Southbay Wheelmen) in 13.24 and Alpenrose local Heather VanValkenberg in 13.38. The men, meanwhile, began what would prove to be arguably the most spectacular event of the weekend, the

Lance Armstrong didn’t take the stage win in the final summit finish of his celebrated Tour de France career, as many had predicted, but on Sunday in the Pyrénées of southern France he did get the next-best thing — a stage win for his close friend and Discovery Channel teammate George Hincapie. Hincapie, the only man to ride with Armstrong in all seven of his post-cancer Tours, took the win atop the Pla d’Adet ski resort out of a 14-man breakaway group that shattered on the Col de Peyresourde, the fourth of six categorized climbs, while Armstrong crossed the line five minutes later with

With dark clouds, cool temperatures, and the threat of rain looming, the men’s sprint qualifiers kicked off Saturday’s racing at the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge in Portland, Oregon. Josiah Ng (Bike Central), the Malaysian Olympian and recent graduate of a Japanese keirin school, posted the fastest 200-meter time (11.44), just 0.1 second off Jeff LaBauve’s 2001 track record. Close behind was the ageless Stephen Alfred (Family Cycling Center), the AVC defending champion in the match sprint, with 11.46. Gideon Massie, the 2004 U.S. Olympian, was just behind in 11.57, and with nine more

Keeping ten-speed chains intactAll of the teams contesting the Tour de France this year are, of course,are using 10-speed chains on their 10-speed Shimano or Campagnolo groups. While you rarely see a broken chain in the professional peloton, youcertainly do see it among everyday enthusiasts nowadays with 10-speed chainsfar more frequently than you used to with 9-speed chains, and especiallymore so than in the old days when riders used 5-, 6-, 7-, and 8-speed chains.Back then breakage on a road bike was practically unheard of. You knowthat if there is any time you would not want to break a

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, I was right up there, ready to fight out the sprint – admittedly, I wasn’t in the top three, but you get the point. I didn’t seem to have the legs to finish the job the boys did for me with the leadout, but I was still feeling pretty good. Today, on the stage from Agde to Ax-3-Domaines, I can only say it was… well, a bit rough. It was a really, really rough day on the bike today. I threw up four times in the first 100 kilometers. I couldn’t eat a thing all day and it was two or two-and-a-half hours before I could even drink a little bit. I don’t

In Pla d’Adet, France … Hincapie, team leader?Could George Hincapie lead Discovery Channel next year after Lance Armstrong retires at the end of the 2005 Tour de France? That might have seemed a crazy notion three weeks ago, but it’s gaining credibility as Hincapie continues to progress into a solid, all-round rider. Even Armstrong said it’s not such a far-fetched idea. “We always have these dreamers who say they’re going to win the Tour, so why couldn’t George Hincapie be in that position?” Armstrong said. “He’s a complete rider.” Armstrong said he’s already discussed the possibility

George Hincapie has been a loyal, selfless and dedicated teammate during Lance Armstrong's six Tour de France titles. On Sunday, he picked the Tour's toughest stretch to make a statement of his own. Hincapie broke away early and held on to win the 15th stage through the Pyrenees, beating Phonak's Oscar Pereiro in a sprint to the line for his first stage win at cycling's premier event. “This ride is so hard. In training I almost didn't arrive at the top because I was so tired,” the 32-year-old Hincapie said. “It took us seven hours in training. I just can't

Under a glaring sun and searing summer heat the 92nd Tour de France entered the Pyrénées of southern France Saturday, and though the general classification didn’t quite blow apart, a handful of the race’s central characters certainly melted from the pressure. After the hors-catégorie ascent of the Port de Pailhères, the 220.5km stage ended atop the Cat. 1 climb to the ski resort at Ax-3 Domaines with six-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong (Discovery Channel) holding an even firmer grip on the race leader’s jersey. He’s now 1:41 ahead of Dane Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank),while CSC’s Italian

Here’s what the main players had to say at Ax-3 Domaines, France, following Saturday’s fireworks in the Pyrenees. Lance Armstrong (Discovery Channel), yellow jersey (second at 52 seconds back, first overall) On comparing to his troubles two years ago: “Yeah, for sure, I kept trying to remember my training day here six weeks ago versus the 2003 Tour, because I felt better then. It’s a similar situation, again with Ivan and Jan, same as 2003. Similar also with the heat, it was incredibly hot.” On the difficulty of Sunday’s stage: “We’re going to have a hard time to recover from today’s

After out-climbing his main rivals on Saturday to finish second on the first of two mighty stages in the Pyrénées, Lance Armstrong said it was “incredibly, incredibly hot.” Then he predicted that Sunday’s stage 15 will be “the hardest stage of the Tour.” He then talked to journalists at the Ax-3 Domaines ski resort Saturday night about his preparations for the upcoming stage. “It’s just a question of getting out of here as fast as possible, starting to hydrate, starting to eat, starting to rest and recover,” he said. “We had a very early start to the day once again, an hour-and-a-half in the

Under sunny skies, 80-degree temperatures, and a rising breeze, the seventh annual Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge kicked off Friday in Portland, Oregon. One of the richest track races in North America, the three-day meet is held on one of the continent’s quirkiest velodromes, a 268-meter concrete oval with 42-degree banks situated on the grounds of the Alpenrose Dairy. Friday was for the time trialists with riders competing in the 500 meter time trial, the kilometer time trial, and the pursuit, as well as a points-race qualifier. One of the track’s oldest records, the women’s 3000-meter

If American Chris Horner had hoped to leave an impression on his first Tour de France, he can consider his mission accomplished. The 33-year-old California native, who joined the Spanish squad Saunier Duval-Prodir at the end of the 2004 season after three seasons spent dominating the domestic calendar, came painfully close to winning stage 13 in Montpellier on Friday. But he was caught before the line by a hard-charging peloton. Instead of an amazing victory, Horner could only watch as Aussie Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) took his third sprint win of this Tour by edging out Stuart O’Grady

Levi ready for uphill challengeOn the fight for the podium I feel good. I feel better than I have in the Tour before. I think the GC will continue to sort out a little bit. I’ve been trying to save as much energy as possible because I know what’s coming up. It’s definitely going to be decisive. It’s hot now, tomorrow and the next day are going to be very decisive. The day after tomorrow (Sunday) when we get to the bottom of Pla-d’Adet, it’s going to explode, it’s going to be every man on his own. It’s going to be very painful. On Saturday’s stage to Ax-3 Domaines Follow the best, but there’s

My hats off to the Americans in this year’s Tour de France. In today’s 173.5 kilometer stage from Miramas to Montpellier, one American in particular rode remarkably for the whole stage but lost the race in the last kilometer. Another American lead out the winner of the stage in the last kilometer and still finished third for the stage. All this while three other American’s hold places in the top 10 on General Classification. We sure have come a long way! 150 kilometers in the lead but 150 meters short at the lineJust 17 kilometers into the race American Chris Horner found himself with

David Moncoutié gave the French something to cheer about on Bastille Day while Lance Armstrong kept a low profile on the Tour de France’s hilly 187km stage on Thursday. Moncoutié tore away from a 13-strong break late on the day’s second to last climb to score the first French win of the 2005 Tour while Armstrong coasted and roasted through a hot day as the Tour rolled south from the Alps into sunny Provence. “It was a stage for a bold man, not for the best man in the Tour,” said Moncoutié, who also won a stage last year. “I was not the best rider in the Tour, but the strongest in the break.

Joseba Beloki - Facing his demons two years onIt was two years ago today that Joseba Beloki suffered that horrible high-speed crash on the descent of the Col de la Rochette, just as the 2003 Tour de France exited the Alps. Images of that fall, on the day’s last switchback, as he and Lance Armstrong were chasing Alexandre Vinokourov into Gap, sit in the minds of everyone who witnessed it. Beloki, who is back racing the Tour for the first time since then, says the scars of what was his most frightening moment on the bike are still very fresh in his mind. In an interview with the French sports

At 8677 feet in elevation, the Col du Galibier is the ceiling of the 2005 Tour de France. This formidable mountain pass, which has been climbed more often than any other in Tour history, gives the race some grandiose Alpine scenery, and at times it takes a merciless toll. The Galibier is often the Tour’s summit — only the rare climb up the Col de l’Iseran (9087 feet) and the three trips up the Col de la Bonette-Restefond (9193 feet) have taken Tour competitors higher. The fabled Galibier’s indisputable reign was heightened in 1979 — quite literally — when the climb grew an impressive 292

You just knew Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile) would attack on a Tour de France stage like Wednesday's Alpine monster from Courchevel to Briançon. And if he went on the attack, Wednesday’s was just the type of stage Vino’ was destined to win. “We can't say that we were surprised,” said race leader Lance Armstrong after he kept his 38-second margin over Dane Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank). “Whenever somebody is in a breakaway all day long, it's always impressive. Like the other day, with Rasmussen, an all-day effort is never easy.” Still, to see how the ever-popular Kazakh national

Here’s what the main players said after Wednesday’s 173km 11th stage. Lance Armstrong, Discovery Channel(sixth at 1:15, first overall) On Vinokourov’s breakaway Whenever somebody is in a breakaway all day long, it’s always impressive. Like the other day, with Rasmussen, an all day effort is never easy. Vino wasn’t the main concern today. We can’t chase down everybody with five, six minutes. We have to prioritize, and he’s not on our list of priorities, so we let him out there, kept the team together, and controlled the tempo. We knew [Vinokourov] would attack today. We can’t say that we

Lance Armstrong might be getting older, but he’s still strong enough to put some serious hurt on the world’s best climbers when the Tour de France is on the line. The 33-year-old Texan surged back into the yellow jersey on Tuesday’s decisive climbing stage across the French Alps to Courchevel. And while he couldn’t drop everyone — Michael Rasmussen, Alejandro Valverde and Francisco Mancebo rode his vapors — he opened up important time gaps on just about everyone else. “I tried to get rid of those guys, but maybe it’s not like the old days when you make one attack and you ride them off to

Spare a thought for... Andre Kivilev, the deceased best friend of Tour de France hope Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile) who was killed in a race crash during Paris-Nice in 2003. “Kivi,” says the Kazakhstan national champion, will be with him throughout the Tour as the race enters the Alps and then the Pyrénées over the next two weeks. “It remains a turning point in my life,” said Vinokourov of Kivilev's death in an interview with the French sports daily L`Equipe. “I have understood since that day what are my real priorities. My outlook on my job has also changed a lot. I have especially

Michael Rasmussen's stunning victory in the Tour de France's ninth stage following a 169km breakaway was impressive enough in itself, but even more so for the fact he only took up professional road racing three years ago. Rasmussen's relative lack of victories in the discipline is apparent - before Sunday's win he only had three wins to his name spread over his three years as a professional road rider. However, his decision to switch from mountain biking in 2001 was justified tenfold Sunday when he claimed the biggest prize a rider of his caliber could hope for. The

Dry, dusty winds and a rocky, technical cross-country course, coupled with the formidable altitude of New Mexico's Angel Fire Resort couldn’t derail the efforts of Swiss Christoph Sauser (Siemens-Cannondale) and Norway’s Gunn-Rita Dahle (Multivan-Merida) to repeat their titles as overall World Cup cross-country champions as they won the first World Cup cross-country race on American soil in three years on Sunday. “It was a very hard race, I had a hard time breathing at some points. Lots of suffering,” said Dahle. “I was still very tired from the Brazil race.” Despite her fatigue, Dahle

Lance Armstrong looked around near the summit of the rather anonymous Cat. 2 Col de la Schlucht in the chilly Vosges Mountains and couldn’t find many friendly faces. In the big front group he was with, there were no other Discovery Channel riders. No Chechu, no Triki, no Popo. Not even his 2005 favorite mountain goat, José Azevedo. What the six-time Tour champion did see were lots of riders licking their chops. For the first time in years at the Tour de France, Armstrong was isolated. “It was not a great day. I didn’t feel very good and the other teams did feel good,” said Armstrong, who

Dutchman Pieter Weening (Rabobank) gave a glimpse of his potential and ended a frustrating streak of runner-up places with a well-taken win on the eighth stage of the Tour de France Saturday in Gerardmer. Weening had to wait an agonizing few minutes before finding out for sure if he had really won a two-man sprint with Germany's Andreas Klöden (T-Mobile) - and when the result came he could still not quite believe it. "In a two-man sprint nothing's decided until it's over so I just tried to hold on for as long as possible," said Weening, who is the first Dutchman to win a stage

The Tour never lies. So when Lance Armstrong’s teammates all reported absent during the critical stages of the Col de la Schlucht climb on Saturday, the six-time defending champion had to be concerned. “It was a shitty day,” Armstrong told French television Saturday evening. “Perhaps the team and the boys on the team were too confident … after we did well at the prologue, and won the team time trial. Everyone shows up at the Tour and wants to win, but there are no guarantees.” The one certainty on Saturday was that Jan Ullrich’s T-Mobile team did show up to win. Armstrong himself had to

The strongest team in United States women's cycling is poised to make a clean sweep of the podium in Central Oregon's Cascade Cycling Classic. Kimberly Baldwin of T-Mobile won the 58-mile Awbrey Butte Circuit Race on Saturday in 2 hours, 23 minutes, 10 seconds, and her teammate Kristin Armstrong finished second to retain the overall lead. T-Mobile now has the top three spots in the general classification, and six riders in the top 10. T-Mobile riders have won all four stages thus far. Armstrong's overall time is 7:04:58, and Baldwin is in second, 42 seconds back. Kori Seehafer of

Course: The two early climbs may encourage some attacks, but the flat final half of this stage through the Rhine Valley virtually guarantees a bunch finish in Karlsruhe. History: The only time the Tour has visited this part of Germany was in 1987, when the race started in Berlin two years before the Wall fell. The third stage was in two parts: The short morning leg was won in a solo break by Belgian Herman Frison in nearby Pforzheim (where stage 8 begins), while the afternoon leg began in Karlsruhe. Favorites: The expected huge crowds lining the long (1.2km),wide finishing straight in the

Australian Robbie McEwen stole the show again at the Tour de France on Friday, both on and off the bike, as the great race headed into Germany. McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) won't be seen in the fray of battle in the mountains coming up this weekend, but he did more than enough to leave a lasting impression on the 2005 Tour as it completed its first week. The two-time green jersey champion claimed his second stage win of the first week by outsprinting Swede Magnus Bäckstedt (Liquigas-Bianchi) and Austrian Bernhard Eisel (Française des Jeux) in a bunch sprint marred by another nasty crash in

After a week in the saddle, and four days in the yellow jersey, Lance Armstrong says the Tour de France is only now getting set to start. After wrapping up stage 7 in Karlsruhe, Germany, won by Robbie McEwen (Davitamon), the six-time Tour champion said he feels none of the pressure he did last year when he was bidding to secure a record-breaking sixth victory. "In terms of pressure it's nothing compared to last year, so I'm a little relieved I don't have the pressure of winning the sixth Tour that people said couldn't be done,” said Armstrong. “It feels different this year.

VeloNews: How have things been going since we last spoke? You sound as though you’re in pretty good spirits. Chris Horner: The racing has been going pretty well. The finish today was incredible. All the spectators that were there … you cannot imagine! All of Germany must have been out for it. VN: Even though it was wet, everyone came out? CH: Yeah, it was wet from the start to about 70km to go. It was pretty good after that. VN: It’s funny because when we spoke a few days ago, you said that with everyone fighting for position, you couldn’t imagine how the peloton could continue to ride

In the three days since Discovery Channel won the team time trial at Blois, its riders have had a relatively easy time defending Lance Armstrong’s yellow jersey. After another stage that ended in a field sprint Friday, Armstrong talked about “riding a medium tempo” and “getting a lot of help” from the sprinters’ teams. That’s not going to be the case in any of the next five stages, starting with this weekend’s two days in the climbs of the Black Forest and Vosges mountains. Armstrong admitted Friday: “I don’t know these stages.” That’s unusual for the master of knowing all there is to know

The Boss would like a sprint-free finish on Saturday

Wet roads, tight corners and a nervous peloton are always a recipe for disaster. Add a gang of hard-charging sprinters anxious to reel in a breakaway, and you’ll come up with the crash-derby finish to Thursday’s 199km Tour de France stage 6 from Troyes to Nancy. It was a veritable otter slide on the rain-soaked final right-hander 700 meters from the finish line as a score of riders slipped, skidded and piled into the metal barriers. “It was like ice on that corner, there was nothing you could do,” said Fred Rodriguez (Davitamon-Lotto) who ended the day with a nasty scrape on his right knee.

London bombings won’t change Tour securityNews of the terrorist bomb attacks in London shocked the Tour de France entourage - as it did the world. In memory of those killed and injured, the peloton will observe a minute's silence before the start of Friday's seventh stage, the 228.5km leg from Lunéville to Karlsruhe in Germany. While the terrorist alert level in France was escalated to the red on Thursday, it appears that security at the Tour de France is already quite high and there is little the Tour can do to make it tighter. While representatives of the Garde Republicaine

“Die Tour Kommt!” (The Tour is coming!) is the message that has been plastered across billboards in the German city of Karlsruhe for the past several months. Expect most of the city’s 300,000 people to be at the roadside Friday afternoon, along with perhaps three times that number from neighboring cities in the heavily populated valley of the Rhine. The last two times that a Tour de France stage finished in Germany (Saarbrücken in 2003 and Freiburg in 2000), crowd numbers were astronomical. They will be just as big on Friday when the final 40km of the stage are run on German roads, with the

Well that was quite a finish in Nancy, eh? Thankfully, I missed the mess at the last turn… mostly because I got dropped on the last climb, got back on the descent and decided I didn’t have the legs to contest the sprint anyway, so I stayed back a little, think it was smarter to stay out of that last turn on wet roads. Looking at the book this morning, you could just see that thing would be trouble in wet weather… especially with that crosswalk and all that white paint right on the turn. That stuff always makes things touch-and-go. As soon as it’s raining, it doesn’t really matter if you’re

Course: This stage has one of the event’s most beautiful stagingareas. Chambord is the largest of the Loire châteaux and one of world’sfinest Renaissance buildings. The stage is on rolling roads that generallyhead eastward, with crosswinds likely on a 40km stretch next to the LoireRiver before a final with-the-wind swoop into Montargis. History: The Tour has only once ended a stage in Montargis, in1969, when it was the terminus of a giant 10-hour, 330km slog from Clermont-Ferrand on the penultimate day. The winner was Belgium’s Herman Van Springel, who also won that year’s stage over the

Emotion fuelled the windswept, rain-spattered 183km stage 5 of the Tour de France from Chambord to Montargis on Wednesday - and for a full spectrum of reasons. At the start, we had an almost reluctant overall race leader in American Lance Armstrong (Discovery Channel) not wanting to wear the yellow jersey he felt that, morally, still belonged to Dave Zabriskie of CSC. But it was a gesture the Tour organizers would not allow. Then at the finish, we had an elated stage winner, Australian Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto), championing his vengeance against a race jury that relegated him to last

Hello,Well, finally we had a day that gave us all a renewed sense of hope! Yesterday’s team trial was exactly what we needed to restore confidence on this team. No, we didn’t win, but finishing 30 seconds off the pace set by Discovery and CSC was better than we had hoped to do. The morning started early for us, as the UCI medical crew came in for the usual checks. We also had a little birthday party for Valerio Piva, our director, before heading off to do a little bit of last-minute training. We got a pleasant surprise, too, when we came across a big organized fan club, with big banners

After dominating domestic racing for the past three years, Chris Horner earned himself a last-minute spot on the Saunier Duval-Prodir Tour de France team with a solo stage win at the Tour of Switzerland in June. It’s the first time riding the Tour for the 33-year-old from Bend, Oregon, who has missed out on several opportunities in the past due to injury, family obligations and race officials’ questionable team selection criteria. Over the three weeks of the race, VeloNews will check in with Horner when possible to get a first-person perspective from the always-outspoken rider. VeloNews:

As if taunting them, Pilot Butte loomed in the distance as Gord Fraser and Phil Zajicek raced toward the finishing climb with the peloton closing fast behind them. But the two riders stayed ahead of the pack, and they raced neck and neck for the mile-long climb up the steep road on the cinder cone in east Bend. Fraser then held off Zajicek by half a bike length to claim the 118-mile stage 1 of Central Oregon's Cascade Cycling Classic on Wednesday. The winning time was 4 hours, 38 minutes, 19 seconds. The two top finishers had broken away from a lead pack of eight cyclists at the

Tuesday’s stage was a showdown between the powerhouse time-trial teams, as well as a battle between old and new philosophies about racing against the clock. At the beginning of Lance Armstrong’s Tour victory run, the time-trial powerhouses were Telekom (now T-Mobile), ONCE (now Liberty Seguros) and U.S. Postal (now Discovery). But Liberty Seguros has become only a shadow of its former time-trialing self, and T-Mobile has also slipped a number of notches. The new guard still contains Discovery, but CSC, Phonak and Gerolsteiner are the new young bucks trying to kick the door in. All these

With more than 80 riders now at least five minutes behind new race leader Lance Armstrong, there’s a good chance that a breakaway will succeed Wednesday on stage 5 of the Tour de France. That’s the theory, but in a year when the opportunities for field sprints are limited the fast men should again prevail. Going into this 183km stage, QuickStep’s Tom Boonen is two for two in the field sprints, partly thanks to his main rival, Robbie McEwen of Davitamon-Lotto, making a hash of his sprint on stages 2 and 3. McEwen is unlikely to make a mistake a third time running, so expect a much tighter

Jan Ullrich concedes that retirement is not too far away. But the T-Mobile star has discounted suggestions that it will come sooner than later by reaffirming his desire to race the Tour de France next year in Lance Armstrong's absence. In an interview Tuesday with the French sports daily L'Equipe, the 1997 Tour champion said he still wants to win, but doesn’t feel the same pressure he did eight years ago. “This period of my life when the pressure is always there is in the past. I want to live out my life in cycling quietly and in peace,” he said. “Him (Armstrong) leaving will not

Course: Most of this fairly long stage (212.5km) takes the back roads of the Vendée region before heading northeast to the Loire Valley. The race passes some of the region’s famed châteaux, including the 11th century Chinon and 16th century Azay-le-Rideau. The final 30km are full of twists and turns until reaching the 3km-long Avenue de Grammont, which hosts the finish of theParis-Tours classic every fall. History: Despite its permanent place in classics history, the town of Tours has seen only six Tour stage finishes. The last was in 2000, when Dutchman Leon Van Bon brought home a small

It was Tom Boonen's day at the 2005 Tour de France -again. Still, even after the Belgian sprinter blasted away his rivals to win the 212.5km third stage from La Chataignerie to Tours in the Loire Valley, his back-to-back victory was not the talk of the Tour. Instead, it was the fireworks that erupted between two of the tightly packed speeding bunch he left in his wake - Australians Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Davitamon) and Stuart O'Grady (Cofidis), who were third and fourth across the line behind Boonen and Austrian Peter Wrölich (Gerolsteiner). While Boonen had space to rent behind him

Quite a day, today… I’ve finished in Tours before – Paris-Tours a few times, for example – and I really like this finish: Wide open streets and lots of room to fight out the sprint. It’s just things didn’t quite work out like we had planned. My job today was supposed to be lead-out man for (Luciano) Pagliarini, but coming into to Tours, we didn’t actually find each other in the peloton. That’s not all that unusual, especially when things are as chaotic as they are in this Tour. There really is no single team keeping things under control in the sprints. Without Petacchi here, Fassa Bortolo

The Dave Zabriskie Show came to the Tour de France on Sunday, momentarily diverting the cameras away from Lance Armstrong and the other big stars in the Tour’s stage 2. And the European media, getting their first taste of Dave Z’s quirky sense of humor, didn’t know quite what to make of it — especially when he dead-panned to French television on how his first day went in the yellow jersey. “How did I spend it? Racing bikes,” said the 26-year-old CSC rider said with a sardonic smile. Zabriskie enjoyed the view from the front of the peloton during most of Sunday’s 181.5km stage across

Dave Zabriskie didn’t quite know what to make of all the fuss. Sure, he became just the third American to wear the yellow jersey in Tour de France history and he beat six-time Tour champ Lance Armstrong to do it, but after all, it’s just a bike race. “I got a massage, had dinner, read a little, then went to sleep,” was how Zabriskie described his first evening in yellow. “Yeah, we had a little champagne.” Sunday morning, Zabriskie got the full yellow-jersey treatment, with dozens of photographers and reporters waiting outside the team bus. Team CSC riders huddled inside the bus for

Tom Boonen may have won this Tour’s first ferocious sprint on Sunday, but don’t expect the tall Belgian to continue winning stages this week in the manner perfected by Mario Cipollini in the 1990s and Alessandro Petacchi in more recent years. That’s because Boonen won the stage into Les Essarts despite not having an organized lead-out train. The team that did its best to set up a strong paceline on the run-in was Baden Cooke’s Française des Jeux squad; but the French team’s efforts fell far short of guiding Cooke into a winning position. The twisting run-in and a sharp left turn into a

So, here we are again. The Tour kicked off yesterday with what would normally be a perfect time-trial course for a guy like me: a pan-flat, straight shot to the finish line. But it takes me a few days to “find my legs” in a big tour, and I had what you could only call a day that wasn’t all that bad, but wasn’t all that great either. It’s difficult for me, usually, the first few days. You spend so much time getting ready, training like mad, and then you have a couple of days that throw you off a bit, with travel, medical controls, the presentation and all. It’s tough to get back into the

Noirmoutier, France, July 2 (AFP) - Bradley McGee might be engaged in his own battle to boost his overall performance on the Tour de France but that has not stopped him tipping Michael Rogers to become the first Australian winner of the yellow jersey in Paris. McGee, who won the prologue at the 2003 Tour for his Francaise des Jeux team, has spent the last few campaigns in July helping teammate Baden Cooke in the bunch sprints. But after a long, hard 10 months year of climbing in the mountains in a bid to better prepare himself for this year's race, the 29-year-old New South Wales rider

Fred Rodriguez will be Robbie McEwen’s top lead-out man in the hunt for stage wins in the mass sprints, and that’s just fine by him. “Fast Freddy” believes his chances will come in what’s his fifth Tour de France start. “I’ll be mostly working for Robbie,” Rodriguez told VeloNews. “I think in the second half of the Tour there will be some chances for me, on the courses that are a little more selective, when maybe some of the bigger guys will have some trouble getting through.” The Californian said working for other sprinters is something he’s used to. In his 2000 Tour debut with Mapei, he

Keepers of statistics will love this one. In trouncing his main GC opponents at the opening 19km time trial of the Tour on Saturday, Lance Armstrong raced at precisely 54.545 kph. Sound familiar? Well, yes. When Greg LeMond rode his famous 24.5km time trial between Versailles and Paris at the 1989 Tour, to overcome a 50-second deficit on Laurent Fignon, he raced at precisely 54.545 kph. What’s even more important for Armstrong is that, while conceding the stage win to former teammate Dave Zabriskie by two seconds, he defeated third-place Alexandre Vinokourov by 51 seconds, Floyd Landis by

Dave Zabriskie was gobbling down French sweets at an alarming rate Friday afternoon as journalists gathered around the tall, slender Utahan to learn more about this American making his Tour de France debut. “I feel stupendously happy. There’s a lot of free candy in the press room,” Zabriskie said with a wry smile. “Who doesn’t like free candy?” The world’s press is about to get the “Zabriskie treatment,” a mixture of humor, sarcasm and insight that keeps the hacks in stitches. How’s the motivation for the team? “Super motivated – the Prozac is being passed around nightly.” Are you

This is the last chance for Jan Ullrich and his lonely quest to beat Lance Armstrong. With just a few days to go before the pair’s final Tour de France showdown, Ullrich’s optimism proves yet again that hope springs eternal. “I’d love to beat him,” Ullrich, 31, told Welt am Sonntag newspaper. “He’s dominated the race for the last six years and broken the records of the century. That's my motivation -- this is the last chance.” The red-headed German has consistently been Armstrong’s top rival in the Texan’s six-year Tour reign. Ullrich nearly derailed Armstrong in the exciting 2003

T-Mobile rolls into this week’s Tour de France with a stronger focus than ever. The German team will leave sprinter ace Erik Zabel at home to fortify its Tour objective of beating Lance Armstrong in his final run at the maillot jaune. Alexandre Vinokourov said the team is more motivated than ever, with Jan Ullrich, Andreas Klöden and Vino’ sharing the load on the road to Paris. “I don’t have individual objectives. The whole team is geared up for one objective: winning the Tour de France. I won’t be there to ride my own race, but to ride for the team,” Vinokourov said on the team’s web page.

YELLOW JERSEYThe yellow jersey — or maillot jaune — is worn by the overall raceleader, the rider who has covered the overall distance in the least amountof cumulative time. Time bonuses (20 seconds for winning a road stage,six seconds for winning an intermediate sprint) are deducted, and timepenalties (for infractions like dangerous riding or accepting pushes fromspectators on the climbs) are added to riders’ stage times before calculatingtheir GC (general classification) times.2004 WINNER: Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service POINTS LEADERThe green points-leader’s jersey is awarded to

First-year senior Gerald Ciolek ended T-Mobiles long running dominanceof the German national road championships on Sunday, beating such Germansprinting stalwarts like Gerolsteiner's Robert Forster and especially T-Mobile's Erik Zabel in the final charge to the line at the end of a 204-kilometer road race in Manheim. The German event comes on the same day as all European national championship races.With 75 meters to go, it appeared that Zabel had the national titlein the bag. But suddenly Ciolek, who has still contested junior events thisseason, charged out of the field to catch and

The crew from Kona dominated the downhill at Mont-Sainte-Anne Sunday, with Tracy Moseley winning the fourth round of the World Cup for the women and Fabien Barel the men's for the Kona Les Gets Team. Competitors were nearly universal in their praise for the course. The reason for their positive comments was simple – it was a long course. "Real mountain biking" was often mentioned. The return of the start at the top of the mountain after three years was clearly a crowd-pleaser. WomenThe favorite going into this round of the World Cup was the series points leader Sabrina Jonnier of

AERTS Mario - BAge 30 Turned Pro 1996 BRANDT Christophe - BAge 28Turned Pro 2000 EVANS Cadel - AUSAge 28 Turned Pro 2001 McEWEN Robbie - AUSAge 33 Turned Pro 1996 MERCKX Axel - BAge 32Turned Pro 1994 RODRIGUEZ Fred - USAAge 31 Turned Pro 1996 VAN BONAND Leon - NCAge 33 Turned Pro 1993 VAN SUMMEREN Johan - BAge 24Turned Pro 2003 VANSEVENANT Wim - BAge 33Turned Pro 1995 Sponsors: Pharmaceutical company, national lotteryWeb site: www.davitamon-lotto.be2005 budget: $7.8 millionDirecteur sportif: Marc SergeantTeam created (under current name): 2005Past tours: 15th year participating

McGEE Bradley - AUSAge 29Turned Pro 1998 COOKE Baden - AUSAge 26Turned Pro 2000 EISEL Bernhard - AAge 24Turned Pro 2001 GILBERT Philippe - BAge 23Turned Pro 2003 LÖVKVIST Thomas - SAge 21Turned Pro 2003 CASAR Sandy - FAge 26Turned Pro 2000 DA CRUZ Carlos - FAge 30Turned Pro 1997 MENGIN Christophe - FAge 36Turned Pro 1995 MOUREY Francis - FAge 24Turned Pro 2004 Sponsor: National LotteryWeb site: cyclisme.fdjeux.com2005 budget: $8.4 millionDirecteur sportif: Marc MadiotTeam created: 1997Past tours: 9th year participating, 4 stage wins, 1 sprint classification(Baden Cooke,

Erik Zabel’s ongoing hunt for the green points jersey has often been a distraction from his team’s real mission at the Tour de France, T-Mobile manager Mario Kummer said Wednesday as the team announced its line-up for the race. As expected, the 34-year-old Zabel was left off of the roster for next month's Tour de France and replaced by 26-year-old all-rounder Stephan Schreck, who is riding in his first Tour. The move is intended to strengthen Jan Ullrich's bid to dethrone six-time winner Lance Armstrong. Zabel, a six-time winner of the Tour's green jersey, has raced in 11

A pair of surprise winners took top honors at the National Road Race Championships in Park City, Utah, on Wednesday, as Webcor’s Katheryn Curi and mountain biker Carl Decker (Broadmark Capital) outclassed two strong fields of elite riders to earn stars-and-stripes jerseys in their respective events. Worker bee no moreFor the past few years Curi (Webcor Builders) had played second fiddle as a support rider –for Genevieve Jeanson on the Rona squad and more recently for Christine Thorburn at Webcor. But at Wednesday’s national championship race the 31-year old Vermonter proved her abilities

Overall ProTour leader Danilo Di Luca will return to the circuit on July 31 for the HEW-Cyclassics in Hamburg, Germany, his Liquigas team announced on Monday. The 29-year-old Italian has not raced since the Giro d’Italia, which finished earlier this month when he finished fourth. "I returned to training on Sunday because I wanted to rest after the Giro," he said. "If it isn't too hot I will train in the Appennine mountains. "I will return at Hamburg in order to rediscover my rhythm and then I will race in San Sebastian, Spain, and the Tour of Germany so I can pick up more points,"

Alex Candelario (UCICT-Jelly Belly) launched an early attack in the final stage of the 13th Annual Tour de Nez in Reno, Nevada, and still managed to fend off his breakaway companion to take the win, as Health Net’s Scott Moninger finished in the field to keep the overall title. After two days of racing in wet, cold conditions, riders welcomed the sunny skies and moderate winds that greeted them in downtown Reno for the final stage of the Tour de Nez. Such favorable weather drew the largest crowds yet, with hundreds of spectators lining the .8-mile course. With beer gardens, a cycling expo,

Pablo Lastras (Illes Baleares) won the second-to-last stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Saturday after a brutal climb to the high ski town of Verbier. The general classification did not change substantially, as race leader Michael Rogers (Quick Step) and his two closest challengers – Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) and Bradley McGee (Française des Jeux) – finished in a group, 1 minute, 20 seconds behind Lastras Garcia. “I rode 100 percent today,” said a sweaty Ullrich, who trails Rogers by 20 seconds going into the tour’s final stage Sunday. “The last mountain was hard, with lots of attacks. I was

It’s official: Chris Horner will be going to the Tour de France. Horner’s stage-winning ride in Thursday’s climbing stage at the Tour de Suisse assured the popular American rider of a spot on the nine-man Saunier Duval-Prodir team for July’s big dance. “Yes, Chris will be going to the Tour. It was looking good already, but his victory makes the decision final,” Saunier Duval sport director Joxean "Matxin" Fernández told VeloNews. Horner entered the Tour de Suisse with something to prove. After injury kept him out of the Giro d’Italia, the 33-year-old reloaded with ambitions of earning a

The 13th annual Tour de Nez kicked off Thursday with a 5km time trial in Verdi, Nevada, followed by an hourlong criterium in Truckee, California. Now in its third year on the NRC calendar, this year’s three-day, four-race omnium has attracted its strongest field ever with a pro-Category 1-2 field of more than 100 riders, including Scott Moninger, Gord Fraser and Tyler Farrar (Health Net-Maxxis); Alexander Candelario and Dave McCook (Jelly Belly-PoolGel); and Discovery’s Steven Cozza racing with the under-23 national team. Also in attendance are full squads from Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada,

Controversial cyclist Jobie Dajka was suspended Thursday for three years by a Cycling Australia disciplinary tribunal Thursday that determined he had assaulted head track coach Martin Barras. Cycling Australia (CA) said the incident occurred last week at the High Performance Program offices in Adelaide. The suspension would take immediate effect. CA said in a statement that the tribunal took into account medical evidence relating to Dajka's state of mental health. As a result, CA said, the tribunal determined that Dajka, 24, may apply to have the penalty suspended and reapply for his

Liquigas’s Michael Albasini jumped out of a seven-man escape group to win the fifth stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Wednesday. The win was the first in the 24-year-old Albasini’s professional career and one that was especially sweet as it took place on home soil and came by outsprinting his old Phonak teammate, Swiss national champion, Gregory Rast at the front of a small group that finished but 38 seconds ahead of the main field. “I never thought our group could arrive ahead of the peloton,” said Albasini. “But about 10 kilometers from the end, I began to believe we just might do

Italian rider Alessio Galletti died Wednesday after suffering an apparent heart attack during Spain's Subida Naranco cycling race, chief press officer Jose Ramon Rodriguez confirmed to AFP. The 37-year-old Galletti, a rider with the Naturino-Sapore di Mare team, died near the northern town of Oviedo after losing consciousness following a fall 15km from the finish line. Spanish media quoted other riders as saying that the 37-year-old had difficulties breathing at points leading up to the climb. "He was at the back of the peloton about to begin the penultimate climb of the stage. He

Lac Etchemin, Quebec - Quebec riders made it two-for-two in thesecond stage of the Tour de Beauce on Wednesday, with Dominique Rollin(Equipe Quebec) winning the 180 kilometer stage.  Rollin finishedsecond to Martin Gilbert (VW-Trek) in Tuesday's opening stage and, withthe time bonuses awarded for winning the stage, takes over the yellow leader'sjersey.The race took the riders on a long, hilly loop around Lac Etchemin,through the Beauce region south of Quebec City.  The weather playeda major factor in the stage, with cold rain and strong winds forcing theabandonment of many