Category: Tour de France

Veteran cyclist Carlos Sastre turned the Tour de France inside out on the slopes of l'Alpe d'Huez on Wednesday, gaining enough time on the other leaders to win the stage and possibly the Tour.

The Spaniard on Team CSC attacked at the bottom of the final climb and achieved a solo effort through the crowds to the finish, winning the stage by 2:03. We won't know until Saturday whether it is a big enough margin to offset Cadel Evans' expected strong showing at the individual time trial on the penultimate stage.

Team CSC worked at the front of the peloton all day Wednesday, seeming to protect the yellow jersey for teammate Frank Schleck. Yet the strategy may have been to keep all eyes on Schleck as Sastre secretly stole the show. …

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It wasn't the final climb to the highest paved road in the Alps that decided Stage 16 and perhaps the Tour de France, it was the descent.

Christian Vande Velde, for instance, lost 35 seconds to the yellow jersey group going over the Cime de la Bonnette-Restefond, but a crash on the way down put him out of contention as he dropped to 6th place, 3:15 behind the yellow jersey.

Frenchman Cyril Dessel of AG2R won the four-man sprint going into Jausiers, after the eight men summiting the Cime de la Bonnette-Restefond split apart on the way down. The first one over, John-Lee Augustyn of Barloworld, actually tumbled off the road and his bike slid down the slope out of reach.

In the trailing yellow jersey group, 3rd overall Cadel Evans led the downhill charge that caused Denis Menchov — considered Evans biggest rival — to lose ground. …

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After sitting in second place by 1-second for the better part of a week, Frank Schleck (left) gained the margin he needed on the final climb to wrest the yellow jersey away from Cadel Evans at the Tour de France on Sunday.

Schleck had the help of two other CSC teammates — Carlos Sastre and Frank's brother Andy Schleck — on Stage 15's final climb. Team CSC helped drop all but the leaders before the final climb, then they kept up the pressure to the summit.

Meanwhile, a four-man breakaway that included American Danny Pate of Garmin-Chipotle was trudging up Prato Nevoso, a 7-mile climb at 6.9%. Simon Gerrans of Credit Agricole won that, with Pate finishing third.

American Christian Vande Velde finished in 10th place on the day, falling to 5th place overall but gaining 7 seconds on Evans …

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Spain's Oscar Freire has consistently been one of the top finisher in the sprints at the 2008 Tour de France. On Saturday he won the final sprint in Digne de Bains, which marked his fourth career Tour de France victory.

Mark Cavendish, the Team Columbia phenom who was looking for his fifth Tour win in Stage 14, lost contact with the peloton on the Col de l'Orme, a category 3 climb about 6 miles from the finish line.

That climb is the first indicator of the looming Alps, where Cadel Evans will be challenged to keep the yellow jersey as the Tour enters its final week. He's just one second ahead of Frank Schleck and 38 seconds ahead of Christian Vande Velde …

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There's quite a bit of interest in US cyclist Christian Vande Velde since he climbed up to 3rd place in the Tour de France on Sunday. Until this year, you could say the 32-year-old cyclist has been pedaling under the radar as primarily a domestique since turning pro in 1998.

Those who knew him growing up in northern Illinois expected great things from him, but the rest of us have to do some digging to learn about his star of the Garmin-Chipotle cycling team.

For instance, I had noticed that he made his major mark in this year's Tour by finishing in 8th place at the Stage 4 time trial. That put him in 6th place overall, and he improved on that in the Massif Central last week and Pyrennes over the weekend.

How did he become such a good climber?

“I’m proof that you don’t have to ride hills to do well on hills …

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Leonardo Piepoli joined Riccardo Ricco as Saunier Duval cyclists ejected for being on the doping hot seat.

Ricco was fingered by the anti-doping authorities on Wednesday. The Saunier Duval team then pulled out of the 2008 Tour de France so it could make its own investigation of team members.

That probe led to Piepoli being fired, as well as Ricco. Piepoli won the mountaintop finish at Hautacam earlier this week …

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Mark Cavendish, the British cyclist from the Isle of “You Da” Man, is stealing the thunder from the all the other sprinters at the 2008 Tour de France.

The 23-year-old on US-based Team Columbia beat the field again on Friday in a mass sprint in Nimes. Marking his fourth win, his performance this year is being compared to the likes of Italy's Mario Cipollini.

Meanwhile, the leaders all finished in the peloton and Cadel Evans, Frank Schleck, and Christian Vande Velde holding at 1, 2, and 3. …

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Mark Cavendish is rewriting the record books during this year's Tour de France. On Thursday he became the first British cyclist to ever win three stages in one Tour.

Riding behind a lead-out by his US-based Team Columbia as the peloton entered Narbonne, Cavendish accelerated from the front of the pack and easily won.

The overall battle of the yellow jersey remained unchanged, as Cadel Evans maintained his 1-second lead and his rivals all finished in the same time in the peloton.

The 23-year-old sprinter from the Isle of Man, which sits off England's coast, previously won stages 5 and 8 …

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Italian Riccardo Ricco is out of the Tour de France after being accused of using the performance-enhancing drug — EPO.

The 24-year-old cyclist sat in ninth place overall and had won two stages at this year's Tour. His entire team, Saunier-Duval, opted to pull out of the race.

Ricco is the third cyclist to be accused of using EPO during this …

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The rivals for the overall lead of the Tour de France took a back seat to the breakaway in the last stage in the Pyrennes on Wednesday.

With a margin of more than 15 minutes over the main field, Norwegian cyclist Kurt Alse Arvesen, left, won a three-man sprint to the finish in Foix. It was the first stage victory at this year's Tour for Team CSC.

The results of the 12-man breakaway didn't affect the battle for the yellow jersey, however, as Cadel Evans remained in first, followed by Frank Schleck, then Christian Vande Velde of the US …

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