Category: Racing
Team Astana's Alberto Contador holds the lead by 8 seconds over Olympic gold medalist Samuel Sanchez going into Friday's penultimate stage of the Tour of the Basque Country.
Meanwhile, US cyclist Christian Vande Velde of Team Garmin-Slipstream nearly won the 4th stage on Thursday.
He joined a three-man breakaway that stayed out front for most of the mountainous 100-mile stage, but breakaway companion Michael Albasini of Columbia-High Road won the final sprint in Güeñes.
Contador, the defending champion on the six-stage Vuelta al País Vasco …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/04/10/contador-leads-basque-bike-tour-with-2-days-remaining/
Tour de France contenders Alberto Contador, Carlos Sastre, Cadel Evans and the Schleck brothers will be among the cyclists competing at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco (Tour of Basque Country) next week.
The six stage race courses through the mostly mountainous Basque countryside of Spain. The ProTour race runs Monday through Saturday and features a summit finish at the Sanctuary of Arrate on Wednesday and an individual time trial finale on Saturday.
Universal Sports is offering live online coverage of the race all six days. Check its Tour of Basque Country dashboard for details. Highlights, photos and breaking news from the race will also be available there. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/04/04/live-coverage-of-tour-of-basque-country-begins-monday/
Levi Leipheimer won his second cycling championship of the year on Friday by winning Spain's five-day Vuelta a Castilla y Leon bicycle race.
The win follows on the heels of his third straight Tour of California championship in February.
The Montana-born member of Team Astana was joined on the podium by teammate Alberto Contador in 2nd place and Garmin-Slipstream's David Zabriskie in 3rd place (Zabriskie placed 2nd to Leipheimer in the Tour of California.) …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/03/27/leipheimer-contador-zabriskie-1-2-3-in-spain/
Three-time Tour of California winner Levi Leipheimer is leading the 5-stage Vuelta a Castilla y León bike race in Spain after the third stage on Wednesday.
The US rider took the leader's jersey on Tuesday after winning the 17.5-mile individual time trial around Palencia.
Trailing Leipheimer by 16 seconds is his Astana teammate and team captain Alberto Contador …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/03/25/leipheimer-leading-bike-race-that-armstrong-abandoned/
Alberto Contador took the yellow jersey in Stage 1 of Paris-Nice, lost it, won it back, lost it again, and tried valiantly to win it back on the final day but couldn't.
Finishing in first overall of the eight-stage French bicycle race was Luis Leon Sanchez, a rider for Caisse d'Epargne who dug deeply to take the overall lead on Saturday with a 10-mile solo attack.
Although this has to be a disappointment for the Contador, I wouldn't make too much of it. I'm sure he's still the odds-on favorite to lead the Astana…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/03/15/sanchez-wins-paris-nice-contador-4th/
Tyler Farrar, Garmin-Slipstream's star sprinter from Wenatchee, Washington, won Stage 3 of Italy's Tirreno-Adriatico bike race on Friday.
Listen to the Italian announcers call the finish on this video from www.wielerflits.nl. You'll hear the names of Thor Hushovd, Robbie McEwen, Mark Cavendish, Alessandro Petacchi, and Tom Boonen.
Not until after the finish do you hear the announcer shout: “Tyler Ferrrrrara!”
Interviewed afterwards, Farrar told …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/03/13/tyler-farrar-beats-worlds-best-sprinters-at-italian-bike-race/
Ending his quiet spring, American Christian Vande Velde of the Garmin-Slipstream pro cycling team won Stage 4 of the Paris-Nice bicycle race on Wednesday.
The Illinois cyclist joined a breakaway early in the 107-mile race from Vichy to St. Etienne and attacked on the sixth, and final climb of the day to ride away to a solo victory.
It was just what he needed, after crashing in the opening time trial and losing more than two minutes in Tuesday's rainy stage…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/03/11/solo-stage-win-for-christian-vande-velde-at-paris-nice/
If there's any question about who is the boss of the Astana pro cycling team, consider Alberto Contador's performance on Sunday.
The Spaniard beat his nearest competitor by 7 seconds in the 5.7-mile Stage 1 individual time trial around Amilly to launch the 8-stage 2009 Paris-Nice bike race.
Contador has something to prove; it's that he's still the top dog on this team that includes the likes or Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer (who are not competing at Paris-Nice).
Plus, Contador won this race — and the Tour de France — in 2007 for Discovery Channel pro cycling team, but was banned by organizers along with the rest of the Astana team in 2008 …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/03/09/alberto-contador-back-to-his-winning-ways/
While Dave Zabriskie was earning a second-place finish at the Amgen Tour of California last week, person or persons unknown were helping themselves to belongings in Zabriskie's Salt Lake City home.
The report comes a little more than a week after Lance Armstrong announced to world via Twitter that his time trial bicycle had been stolen after the prologue in Sacramento.
That one-of-a-kind bicycle was eventually recovered. Zabriskie announced his much-greater loss to Twitter as well:
“My house was broken into while at TOC. They took everything …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/02/24/latest-peloton-theft-victim-dave-zabriskie/
Congratulations to Taylor Phinney on winning gold in the 4km individual pursuit and the 1km in cycling's Track World Cup in Copenhagen.
On Friday, Phinney set a 4:15.223-minute mark in the qualifying round that broke by 4 seconds a 13-year-old US track cycling record; his winning time in the gold medal round was 4:19.119 to beat Ireland's David O'Loughlin.
On Saturday, he won the 1km track event, setting another US record in a qualifying rounds.
The 18-year-old from Colorado is the son of two cycling gold medal winners …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2009/02/14/taylor-phinney-wins-2-golds-in-world-cup-track-updated/
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