Early in the stage, the day's breakaway was established, with Garmin's Dave Zabriskie, Sky's Geraint Thomas, FDJ's Benoit Vaugrenard, Katusha's Pavel Brutt, QuickStep's Jurgen Van de Walle, AG2R's Christophe Riblon, Bbox Bouygues Telecom's Pierre Rolland, and Stephane Auge and Amael Moinard from Cofidis. The group was allowed about 10 minutes head, then Rabobank and Astana sent enough riders to the front to keep the gap within a few seconds of 10:00. With around 90k to ride, Astana decided it was time to shut down the break, and the gap fell steadily. The break captured the day's second sprint, at Campagne-sur-Aude:...
The first big mountain stage at the Tour is always revelatory. The early time trials and lower climbs allow classics and TT men to sit at the Tour's grown-up table for a week or more, but those names begin to fall off the leaderboard when the race moves to the mountains. Sunday's Stage 8 ran true to form, and then some. Sky, Saxo Bank, and Astana spent miles at the front, keeping the pace high enough to shed rider after rider, until on the day's final climb, only a dozen riders still had a chance for the stage win, including...
With some major attacks expected, the peloton rolled out nervous this morning, likely contributing to a crash with just 5 kilometers ridden. VS predictions: Hummer - Contador; Roll - A. Schleck; Sherwen - Armstrong; Liggett - Evans. Caught in the crash were a couple of notable jerseys, the polka-dot King of the Mountains jersey of Jerome Pineau from QuickStep and the world champion's rainbow jersey of Cadel Evans. Pineau rode on, but clearly suffering at the back and off the back of the main field. The race doctor has taken a look at Evans' left elbow. Côte de Petite Joux:...
Today's a guaranteed barn-burner, with two 1st-Category climbs, including the mountaintop finish on the Morzine. With Sastre and Basso, two of the best pure climbing GC contenders, more than 4 minutes back on the GC, we should get a look at the team leaders' climbing fitness that could give us a major shakeup in the race standings. Storylines to watch: Can Chavanel hold yellow to the rest day on Monday? Can Ryder Hesjedal hang with the GC group on a hard Alpine stage? Can Armstrong and Wiggins ride even with the best climbers, or are they limiting their losses on...
It must have seemed like a great idea to organizers. Run a stage of the Tour over some of cycling's hallowed ground, using parts of Liege-Bastogne-Liege for today's Stage 2, and 7 cobbled sectors that feature in Paris-Roubaix tomorrow. Throw in rain, and the generally squirrely nature of a first-week Tour peloton, though, and you've got the recipe for a demolition derby. One of the riders who might reasonably have feared the day's profile was Sylvain Chavanel, who fractured his skull on this course a little more than 2 months ago. Instead, Chavanel rode away from the field with only...
The Tour de France is all about control. Riders pre-ride key stages. Teams bring multiple spares for their protected riders, who have spent months tracking every calorie to make sure they're at their best race weight. So it's always revealing when the uncontrollable rears its head. For Saturday's Prologue, it was the weather that shook things up. Many riders with overall hopes opted for early starts to try to beat expected afternoon rains, but the rain started earlier than expected, and cleared before the last riders started, so the strategy seemingly backfired for some of the early starters. Not so...
There are a lot of cycling fans who still believe in black and white. Some rider or another, they'll say, has never tested positive, or is the most tested athlete in the world. Team X, they'll say, has the strictest anti-doping program in the peloton. Sure, there used to be a lot of doping in the sport, they'll say, but no sport has such extensive athlete testing, and the sport today is clean. I've been following the sport for 25 years, through the mysterious deaths while riders slept, the 60 hematocrits, and now the biological passport, and I'm convinced the...
Each year, I take a look at where the Tour's riders are from, with special attention to the traditionally English-speaking countries. Here's this year's rundown: Australia Cadel Evans, BMC Simon Gerrans, Sky Adam Hansen, HTC-Columbia Brett Lancaster, Cervelo Matthew Lloyd, Omega Pharma-Lotto Robbie McEwen, Katusha Stuart O'Grady, Saxo Bank Mark Renshaw, HTC-Columbia Luke Roberts, Milram Michael Rogers, HTC-Columbia Wesley Sulzberger, Française des Jeux Eleven! Up from 6 last year, and it's largely a return of the “Lone Australian” phenomenon -- only HTC-Columbia, with Hansen, Renshaw, and Rogers has more than one Aussie on the squad. Every 2009 Aussie returns, and...
Once again, it's time to clip in and ride. If you're a longtime reader of the site, thanks for coming back. I love the Tour, and I love chronicling the Tour every year here on TdFblog. If you're new to the site, welcome. I've been yammering about the Tour de France here since 2003, and following the race since the late '80s. In addition to long-form summaries and commentary here, I also do a multitude of race updates on Twitter, at @TdFblog. This year, I'm going to extend the empire even a little farther, with a Tumblr site for that...
Elizabeth Kreutz is having some Fall: on Thursday, she had her first baby, a boy named Charlie (photo here, with Dad here). Meanwhile, early copies of her latest book project, Comeback 2.0: Up Close and Personal , are shipping, a little in advance of next week's official release date. The book pairs Lance Armstrong diary entries with a healthy and delicious serving of Kreutz's photos of Armstrong's comeback. At right, Liz at the finish of the 2006 Tour de Georgia, champagne-testing the Canon 1D. The photographers' pen is probably the second-favorite target for race winners, after the podium girls, and...