Category: Racing

No hat trick for Discovery at Paris-Nice

Going into the last of nine climbs of the stage, the Discovery Channel pro cycling team — they'd already taken stages on Thursday and Friday — had Levi Leipheimer and Tom Danielson in a lead breakaway at the Paris-Nice bicycle race.
But they were unable to muster a stage victory or help teammate Alberto Contador make up 6 seconds to take the overall lead in the week-long race that ends Sunday.
A hard charging Spaniard, Luis León Sánchez of Caisse d'Epargne won the 120-mile stage in Cannes and Italian Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) finished in a trailing group with Contador to maintain his General Classification lead ….

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/03/17/no-hat-trick-for-discovery-at-paris-nice/

Back-to-back Paris-Nice wins for Discovery

Discovery Channel cyclist Yaroslav Popovych won Friday's stage of the Paris-Nice bicycle race by attacking the survivors of a breakaway on the final climb of the day.

The 27-year-old Urkainian, once named the best young rider at the Tour de France, scored the second victory in as many days for Discovery. However, he gained only 14 seconds in the overall standings, which remained pretty much unchanged.

Only two hilly stages remain in the week-long Race to the Sun, which ends Sunday, and Discovery must be considering the chances of two cyclists — Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer — who sit near the top of the standings …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/03/16/back-to-back-paris-nice-wins-for-discovery/

Paris-Nice: Discovery's Contador wins stage

Discovery Channel cyclist Alberto Contador won a mad-scramble uphill finish for Stage 4 of Paris-Nice bike race in Mende on Thursday, as second-place finisher Davide Rebellin of Italy took the overall leader's jersey.

The 104-mile stage from Maurs to Mende — the first hilly stage of the tour — shook up the general classification, which doesn't include Tour of California winner Levi Leipheimer or any other Americans in the top 10.

The Discovery team's efforts to chase down a three-man breakaway put Spanish teammate Contador in a position to attack on the 10% gradient in the final 2 miles, bettering his overall standing from 33rd at the beginning of the day to 2nd place overall after the finish ….

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/03/15/paris-nice-discoverys-contador-wins-stage/

Tour de Georgia bike race ready for April despite lack of major sponsor

This won't be the year that the lights go out on the Tour de Georgia, although the seven-day bicycle race is still short of cash and without a marquee corporate sponsor.

Organizers of the April 16-22 bike race, entering its fifth year, announced Wednesday that the 667-mile race will go ahead as planned and will depend on funding from several smaller entities to help make ends meet.

As the Georgia Ford Dealers Association dropped out as the title sponsor after last year's race, race chairman Craig Lesser said last month that the race was $800,000 short and may be cancelled or scaled down if the money weren't raised …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/03/15/tour-de-georgia-bike-race-ready-for-april-despite-lack-of-major-sponsor/

Millar leading Paris-Nice; Leipheimer close behind

The attention of pro cycling fans returns to France this week for the 8-day Paris-Nice bicycle race.

Great Britain's David Millar took the short prologue on Sunday on the outskirts of Paris and retains his overall slim lead at the end of Monday's Stage 1.

Sitting back in 6th place, but only 3 seconds behind, is Discovery Channel cyclist Levi Leipheimer, the American who won last month's Tour of California …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/03/12/millar-leading-paris-nice-leipheimer-close-behind/

More than bike racing on Hincapie's plate; there's Pla d'Adet

It's likely that the broken wrist that George Hincapie suffered at the Amgen Tour of California will keep him sidelined during the Paris-Roubaix — a bike race he's always wanted to win.

At his website, the Discovery Channel pro cycling team rider said he had surgery to repair the radius (a bone in his arm), but was unable to make predictions about how quickly it will heal. Team manager Johan Brunyeel told Eurosport that he'll probably miss the April 15 Paris-Roubaix, because of the miles of jarring cobblestones the cyclists cross.

Meanwhile, Hincapie says that, like many of his fans, “I'll be logging some hours on a Computrainer while I heal.”

He'll also probably be checking on the progress of his Pla d'Adet residential development …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/03/02/more-than-bike-racing-on-hincapies-plate-theres-pla-dadet/

Jan Ullrich says goodbye to bicycle racing

I guess we won't have Jan Ullrich to kick around anymore. He announced his retirement as a professional cyclist on Monday.

The German cyclist won the Tour de France in 1997 at the young age of 23, but forever seemed destined to ride in the shadow of Lance Armstrong after that.

There was always something — a sore knee, a bad day in the rain, drunk driving arrests, partying on ecstacy, and generally being blamed for falling too far out of shape in the winter …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/02/26/jan-ullrich-says-goodbye-to-bicycle-racing/

Sunday cycling programming returns to Versus in 2007

Good news! The Versus network's TV broadcast of the Amgen Tour of California is just the beginning of its Cyclysm Sundays bicycle racing package in 2007.

With Lance Armstrong becoming more of a distant memory, Versus's (still OLN in Canada) commitment to cycling still appears strong as many spring classics are on the Sunday schedule, as is daily live coverage of the Tour de France.

Missing, however, is the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/02/20/sunday-cycling-programming-returns-to-versus-in-2007/

Hell on Wheels; a refreshing perspective on Tour de France

Nothing against the cadre of American cyclists who compete in the Tour de France, but it's refreshing to see the bicycle race from another perspective in Hell on Wheels.

I finally got around to renting this documentary by German filmmaker Pepe Danquart the other day and was immediately smitten by its non-American feel. This is what the Tour de France is to the rest of the world.

Granted, there had to be the obligatory scenes of Lance Armstrong that year (2003) — coasting off-road through a field, going down after snagging a fan's musette, and a nut-crunching slip out of the pedals. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/02/14/hell-on-wheels-a-refreshing-perspective-on-tour-de-france/

That Floyd Landis book

Cyclist Floyd Landis' hometown paper got the inside scoop about the beleaugered Tour de France winner's new book from a close source, Floyd's mother Arlene.

Entitled “Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won The Tour de France,” the book is being written with Bicycling magazine associate executive editor Loren Mooney and is scheduled for a June 26 release, just before the Tour de France and after the results of his hearing on doping accusations are known.

I'm thinking they should have borrowed the title from Lance Armstrong's first book, and called it, “It's Not About the Drugs.”

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2007/02/13/that-floyd-landis-book/