Category: Tour de France

Although it appeared that Stage 2 of the Tour de France might belong to the French, Norway's Thor Hushovd won the drive to the finish in Saint Brieuc on Sunday.

The 30-year-old cyclist for Credit Agricole beat two Team Columbia riders at the finish, after the peloton finally swept up the last of a four-man French breakaway with about 1 kilometer to go.

Alejandro Valverde held onto the leader's yellow jersey. The Spanish cyclist on Caisse d'Epargne stayed at the front of the peloton with his team the entire day, and actually entered the sprint at the finish to protect his jersey. ….

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Memo to World Anti-Doping Agency: Don't bother to check Alejandro Valverde for performance enhancing drugs. Check his bicycle for hidden rockets.

The 28-year-old team leader for Caisse d'Epargne blasted up the final climb into Plumelec to grab the Stage 1 win and yellow jersery in the 2008 Tour de France on Saturday.

Valverde, with eight wins this season before today, had been one of the race favorites. Now he and his team are saddled with protecting the lead. Another favorite on everyone's list, Cadel Evans of Silence-Lotto, stayed at the front of the peloton and finished comfortably in 6th place at the end of the day.

For the briefest moment, it looked like US-based Team Columbia might score the Stage 1 win with Kim Kirchen of Luxembourg. …

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I'm just sitting here struck slack-jawed dumb after reading in CyclingNews that Bjarne Riis, who admitted that doping helped him win the 1996 Tour de France, has been reinstated as the official winner.

“We cannot rewrite history. Therefore we recognise Bjarne Riis as the winner of the 1996 Tour de France. But with an asterisk,” said Philippe Sudres, media director for the Tour de France to Danish magazine Politiken.

“Now he appears again in his earlier spot, but not exactly the same as the other winners. Immediately under his name we have written that he has admitted to doping during the Tour in 1996, but that the admission came so late, that according to the rules it cannot influence the result. Thus, on these grounds we have reinstated him as winner.”

Being a lowly blogger, I don't have access to the official media guide. So I did the next best thing and checked the official online history at the official Le Tour website …

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Can it just be two years ago that everyone was camping on Lance Armstrong's doorstep asking who he liked in the 2006 Tour de France?

That was his first year in retirement, and I think he started out saying that Jan Ullrich looked good. Then he said Jan was looking a little out of shape — too many dumplings? — but Ivan Basso was the one to beat. Then they both got the heave-ho before the Tour de France started.

As the Tour de France starts this morning, Armstrong is saying he likes Cadel Evans, an Aussie on the Silence-Lotto team. Evans finished second last year, right between Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer. As members of Astana, they can't race this year …

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The two US-based cycling teams at the 2008 Tour de France both have new sponsors that are taking over as the three-week race begins Saturday.

New sponsors means new team kits, and those were unveiled recently.

At left is Christian Vande Velde wearing the Garmin-Chipotle jersey. It keeps the argyle motif from Slipstream, so I don't see much of a change. More pictures at the team's website.

That's George Hincapie at right modeling the new Team Columbia jersey. The original team colors were basically white with High Road in red block letters. This keep the solid look, but the color is different. Credit TDWsport.com …

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George Hincapie will lead the US-based Team Columbia (formerly Team High Road) at the 2008 Tour de France, which rolls out July 5-27.

Hincapie, whose wife gave birth to a son last week, is a veteran of 12 Tours. He's the only American racing on the 9-man Team Columbia squad, and one of only four to be announced so far (the other three are on Team Garmin-Chipotle).

The team's hopes for winning the Tour lie with Kim Kirchen of Luxembourg. UK sprinter Mark Cavendish, racing  his second Tour, will be on hand for stage victories …

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The Garmin-Chipotle team announced its 9-man 2008 Tour de France squad on Tuesday that includes three Americans — Christian Vande Velde, left, Danny Pate and Will Frischkorn.

Missing from the action will be Tom Danielson, David Zabriskie and Washington state's Tyler Farrar of Wenatchee and Tom Peterson of North Bend.

Individual time trial specialist Zabriskie is recovering from an injured vertabrae he suffered during the Giro d'Italia. Don't know about Farrar, Peterson or Danielson; it would have been the first TdF for each…

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Is upwards of 15 hours of Tour de France coverage a day too much?

If you think it is, then you probably won't care to check out the Versus cable network's 2008 Tour de France TV schedule.

Running Saturday July 5 through Sunday July 27, the schedule features live coverage in the morning, followed by three replays throughout the afternoon, then three hours of primetime coverage in the evenings, followed by another replay in the wee morning hours.

That's followed by a couple of hours of cage-fighting, bull-riding or bass fishing, then it's back to the Tour …

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The only cable TV channel you'll need to watch the Tour de France in the US and Canada for the next five years is Versus.

The cable broadcast network won the contract to continue televising the race after this year; they're either very lucky or no one else wanted it.

Ratings have dropped since the days of Lance Armstrong, but apparently Versus programmers see enough interest out there to continue scheduling 14 hours of coverage a day beginning July 5 and running through July 27 (last year was 16 hours). …

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