Category: Lance Armstrong Watch

France's Sylvain Chavanel regained the yellow jersey at the Tour de France on Saturday while former leader Fabian Cancellara cracked as the peloton entered the foothills of the Alps.

Chavanel won the 102-mile stage from Tournus to Station des Rousses and took the lead, jumping from 5th place overall to 1:25 ahead of the nearest challenger, Australia's Cadel Evans.

Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador and the other major contenders for this year's championship finished in a select group 1-minute 47 seconds behind Chavanel. Although Armstrong dropped from 2:30 to 3:16 behind the first place rider, he remained 50 seconds behind his rival, Contador.

The peloton faces its first major mountain stage on Sunday …

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While house sellers tout “Location, location, location” as the three most important attributes of real estate, bike race sprinters must credit “Position. Position. Position.”

For instance, Britain's Mark Cavendish had an ideal position in Friday's finish of Stage 6 of the 2010 Tour de France in Gueugnon behind teammate Mark Renshaw. The HTC-Columbia riders were following three cyclists for Garmin-Transitions, including Tyler Farrar.

As the finish line approached, Cavendish was delivered alongside the Garmin cyclists by Renshaw. Then Cav handlily beat Farrar across the line by more than a bike's length …

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The strategy for a textbook lead-out for Team HTC-Columbia flew right out the window on Stage 5 of the Tour de France on Thursday, but Mark Cavendish took the sprint anyway.

It was the first sprint win for the Brit at this year's Tour. The cycling press had begun to wonder if Cavendish's reign as sprint champion had ended as previous sprints had been taken by Alessandro Petacchi (2) and Thor Hushovd (1). In 2009, Cavendish had won 6 stages of the Tour.

As the peloton neared the finish in Montargis, it looked like the drought might continue for Cavendish.

Bernard Eisel was leading the pack toward the finish, but he was followed by four cyclists from Garmin-Transitions ….

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Three bike changes for Sylvain Chavanel cost him the yellow jersey on Tuesday as Fabian Cancellara regained the overall lead of the Tour de France.

Cancellara powered himself back into first place at the front of a peloton split into smaller groups by seven sections of cobblestones in the 132-mile stage in the Paris-Roubaix's “Hell of the North” locale.

Lance Armstrong fell out of the top 10 and lost time to other top contenders, such as Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador. The RadioShack cyclist limited his losses by bridging across to the fourth group to cross the finish line.

One of the biggest winners of the day was Canadian Ryder Hesjedal ….

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Year in and year out, the name of French cyclist Sylvain Chavanel has become familiar for failed attempts at long-distance attacks on the peloton at the Tour de France.

Monday's Stage 2 marked only the second time in his career that he's survived to win a Tour stage, and the first time he's ever pulled on the yellow jersey.

While Chavanel was riding into the yellow jersey out front, many members of the peloton, including Lance Armstrong, were licking their wounds after a mass pile-up on a descent about 25 miles from the finish. With many teammates trailing behind, the main peloton finished en mass as a form of protest. …

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Three crashes in Brussels, including a road-choking pileup, cleared the way for a victory by Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi in Stage 1 of the Tour de France on Sunday.

The finish of the 138-mile stage that started in Rotterdam was more like an episode of Survivor than a competitive bike race. Most of the sprint contenders had been on the ground by the time Petacchi crossed the line for his 164th career victory — his first at the Tour de France since 2003.

The crashes didn't affect the overall standings from Saturday's prologue as they occurred in the protected zone in final kilometers; everyone in the peloton will receive the same time ….

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Australia's Tony Martin led the 2010 Tour de France prologue for most of Saturday until Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, left, scorched the 5.5-mile course through Rotterdam.

Lance Armstrong, riding in his last Tour de France, finished in 4th place overall, beating rival Alberto Contador by 5 seconds, who now sits in 6th place.

Garmin-Transitions's Tyler Farrar of Wenatchee, Washington, finished in 7th place, a surprisingly high finish for a sprint specialist. Another US cyclist, Levi Leipheimer on Santa Rosa, California, finished in 8th place.

While the prologue does little more than present the cyclists to the fans ….

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Biking Bis blog readers are favoring Lance Armstrong to win his 8th Tour de France victory this year.

Respondents to the poll “Who will win the 2010 Tour de France” gave Armstrong 36% of the vote. Last year's winner, Alberto Contador, received 31% of the vote.

While cycling pundits are saying this Tour de France is going to be a showdown between Armstrong and Contador, most are touting the Spaniard as the eventual winner. The 97th Tour de France starts this morning with a prologue in Rotterdam and ends in Paris on July 25.

Andy Schleck, the second-place finisher in last year Tour …

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It's deja vu all over again for Lance Armstrong fans who read the following Tweet on Monday:

“And yes, this will be final Tour de France. It's been a great ride. Looking forward to 3 great weeks…… Doh, sorry, meant “my” final Tour.”

Last time he announced his retirement, he was a 33-year-old with an unprecedented six Tour de France championships to his credit. He made that announcement to a roomful of reporters before the start of the Tour de Georgia in 2005.

He went on to win the Tour de France that year — number 7, and made good on his pledge to retire — for 3 1/2 years ….

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