Bradley Wiggins wins 2012 Tour de France

Bradley Wiggins became the first British rider to win the Tour de France as compatriot Mark Cavendish claimed a fourth consecutive final-stage victory.

Wiggins, 32, finished in the chasing peloton in Sunday's final stage around the streets of Paris with a winning margin of three minutes and 21 seconds.

Fellow Brit and Team Sky team-mate Chris Froome consolidated second place with Italy's Vincenzo Nibali third.

Source: BBC Sports

Astana fined for late sign-in before stage 3

Lance Armstrong's Astana team was fined on Monday after failing to sign on within the specified time at the start of the third stage of the Tour de France.

Heavy traffic in Marseille city centre meant Astana broke the organizers' rule that teams must register for the stage at least 20 minutes before the start of the race.

The Kazakhstan-backed cycling team have been fined 65 euros for the infringement.

"How typical that this team were late. It is disrespectful to the public who came here just to see Armstrong," said race director Jean-Francois Pescheux.

"The money makes no difference to them.

"We will ask the UCI to make the fines harder."

Before the start, Armstrong was seen sharing a cup of coffee with actor Ben Stiller, who was visiting the Tour's VIP area on Monday morning.

Armstrong had a cameo role in the 2004 movie Dodgeball in which Stiller starred. It wasn't clear whether the coffee stop contributed to the delay in signing in.

Source: Velo News/ photo from supertouchart.com

Jan Ullrich confirms no comeback to pro cycling

German Jan Ullrich re-stated that he won't make a comeback to racing despite the recent comeback of Lance Armstrong. The 1997 Tour de France champion, 35 years old today, is focused on family life.

"When I say I stop, then that's the way it is." However, Lance Armstrong "probably didn't think in the last few years that he would start again," Ullrich said to Eurosport.

Ullrich won the Tour de France for Team Telekom a year after finishing second behind his captain Bjarne Riis in 1996. He finished second in the race, behind Armstrong, three times, and also finished third and fourth. Team T-Mobile suspended him before the start of the 2006 Tour for his connection to Operación Puerto. He announced his retirement in February 2007.

"So far I have not missed pro cycling. I left the sport after a disappointment, but since then my broken heart has been repaired."

Ullrich followed the recent developments of his former Tour rival, Armstrong. He believes that the returning rider didn't find "fulfilment" in his life.

"He runs marathons, changes women and still can't find what he is looking for. I can imagine that he needs cycling again, to find his fulfilment. He certainly won't return to finish second."

Ullrich focuses on family life. "I want to continue my family life as perfect as it is at the moment. I hope that we will have more children." He and wife Sara have a son, Max, 1 year old, and he has a five-year-old daughter Sarah from a previous relationship.

Source: Topix-Cycling News / picture from welt.de

Ride, Sleep and Repeat

A look at Team Columbia’s schedule on Friday, the day of the 99-mile seventh stage at the Tour de France. Riders were given the schedule before going to bed. Often, before breakfast, medical teams show up unannounced to test the riders’ blood or urine for drugs or anomalies.

• 8:55 A.M. Wake up.

• 9 Breakfast is coffee, bread, croissants, eggs and cereal.

• 10 A carbohydrate-rich meal of pasta is served about three hours before the start.

• 10:45 Riders pack their bags, which are loaded onto a truck and sent to the next hotel.

• 11:15 The team bus leaves so that it arrives at the start an hour before the stage begins. On the bus, the team directors meet with the riders to plan tactics.

• 1:10 P.M. The stage starts.

AFTER THE RACE Riders return to the bus, where they clean up, change, eat and relax on the way to their hotel.

• 6 P.M. Each rider has an hour of therapeutic massage. It is also time to chat with friends and family on the phone.

• 8 Dinner.

• 10-11 Bedtime. Some riders watch TV, others read or go online. This is a time to forget about the race.

Source: The New York Times - Other Sport - by Michael Barry

What's Armstrong's Return About?

The seven-time winner isn’t coming back just to prove he’s racing clean, or solely to raise awareness about cancer. What else is at stake?

Don’t take it from me. The entire cycling world is a bit confused about why Lance Armstrong would risk his unblemished run of seven straight Tour de France wins by returning, at age 37, to try for an eighth.

“Why is he really doing this?” wondered Marc Sergeant, director of the Silence-Lotto team of Tour hopeful Cadel Evans.

“Personally the story so far doesn't do it for me,” said Columbia manager Bob Stapleton. “But maybe it is about something bigger. He is passionate about cancer.”

But perhaps Carlos Sastre, the man whose title Armstrong will try to regain as his own, put it best. “If he wants to return, it’s because he believes he has an opportunity,” said the 2008 winner to VeloNews.

An opportunity, yes, but for what? Read more..

Source : Bicycling Magazine - By Joe Lindsey

The African Cyclist

Check out this site at http://www.theafricancyclist.com/home.html about 2 guys from Kenya who dream to become the 1st pro cyclist in the Tour de France.

"there is a saying that goes you can't bullshit your way up a mountain"

Source: theafricancyclist

Discovery Channel Professional Cycling Team to Fold at End of Season

The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, which counted 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador along with Levi Leipheimer and Yaroslav Popovych (third and eighth place respectively overall in the TdF) on its roster, has announced it will fold at the end of the year.

Though disappointing to many, the news comes as no surprise. Tailwind Sports, the team's owner, has been aggressively seeking sponsors since February, when Discovery Channel announced it was ending the corporate partnership with Tailwind Sports.

"We were in talks with a number of companies about the opportunity and were confident a new sponsor was imminent. We have chosen, however, to end those discussions," said General Manager Bill Stapleton, in a Tailwind press release announcing the decision.

The inability of Tailwind Sports to find a new sponsor for the Discovery Channel team -- a group which has had unparalled success in professional sports, with eight Tour de France victories in nine years -- says a lot about the climate in professional cycling today. Sources say Tailwind was looking for $45 million for three years, and there are very few companies ready to shell out those kind of heavy bucks just to risk a PR debacle when some rider tests hot on a drug test.

Source: About.com: Bicycling- David Fiedler

Le Mond vs Fignon 1989

One of the most interesting duel in the Tour is between the American Greg Le Mond and the homeboy favourite Laurent Fignon in the 1989 Tour de France. Le Mond managed to beat Fignon by 58 sec to take the Yellow Jersey in the last Time Trial stage before they went to Paris. He eventually won the Tour by 8 sec.

I guess it was the first time that we ever seen the aerobars, aero helmet and of course, oakley specs being used and worn in the Tour de France. Technology has actually helped Le Mond to win the stage and the Tour!! Same thing that Nike, Giro & Trek did for Lance in the last few years, . Ah....those Americans!!

I just love the 80's Tour with the 7-11, Super-U, PDM, Carrera, Cafe de Columbia, Fagor team etc. competing for the Tour. And these LeMond-Fignon & Roche-Delgado duel were the most memorable 'dog fights' that I ever seen on the Tour! Its the stuff of legends!

Source: YouTube

Roche vs Delgado 1987

I remember watching this on TV back in 1987! One of the greatest duel in the history of Tour de France between the great Irish Stephen Roche (2nd best after Sean Kelly , of course) and the Spaniard Pedro Delgado on to La Plagne stage. Back then, Tour de France was not covered on daily basis but only shown on ABC Wide World of Sport every week. The 1987 Tour was eventually won by Roche because he is a better time trialist than Delgado who failed to gain more time during this stage. Delgado later won the tour in 1988.

I was inspired to take up cycling after watching this!

Source: YouTube

777 miles in 77 days by 7th July

Four friends will end up in London at the start of the Tour de France after cycling between seven former prologue cities. And it's to raise money for World Bicycle Relief and Jole Rider

The friends call their cycling group ‘allsevens’ and aim to put 200 bicycles into Zambia via World Bicycle Relief this year.

“The outpouring of support has been tremendous,” said Nigel Taylor, one of the four team riders. “When we started we thought 100 bikes would be a challenge; now we think we can achieve double that.”

Taylor, of St. Louis, and three friends – Chris Davey of Bath, England, and Bert Berla and Mark Neuman of St. Louis – plan to ride 777 miles across 7 countries in 7 days, visiting 7 Tour de France Prologue cities on their way to London, where this year’s Tour kicks off on July 7: 07/07/07.

Taylor and Davey conceived the ride as a challenge, and very quickly saw its potential.

“We wanted this to be more than just another ride,” Taylor said.

“We immediately began to research possible fundraising and awareness opportunities.” In the US, the group is raising contributions for World Bicycle Relief; in England, for Jole Rider, a charity which refurbishes used donated bikes and then gives them to secondary schools in Gambia.

World Bicycle Relief provides culturally appropriate bicycles to those who need them, including establishing assembly and maintenance training in the countries in which it serves, and working with manufacturers to improve indigenous bicycle technology. The current programme provides bicycles to volunteer, community-based HIV/AIDS caregivers in Zambia at a cost of $109 per bicycle.

Source: Bike For All

Well..who doesn't???

ONE of the top cyclists of the past 15 years, Erik Zabel of Germany, admitted that he had taken the banned blood-boosting drug EPO while competing for German team Telekom in 1996.

"I took EPO in 1996 but I stopped taking it after a week because of secondary effects," a visibly emotional Zabel told a press conference.

Another top cyclist admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs...Hmmmm. After Patani, Virenque, Hamilton, Ullrich, Basso, Landis, Riis....God knows who else has been cheating to win a bicycle race!!

What do you expect when the going gets tough...the race has become longer. ..faster...tougher. It seems that everyone is trying to outperform each other even they are team mates. It's their bread & butter. For some of us, we take Powergels in order to have that 'extra' energy to push us going....but for the pros, it just not enough. They need that extra O2 in their blood...!!!

So, quit racing and let's do ..BIKE TOURING! You don't have to cheat by taking EPO..steroids or some kind of hormones...not even Powerbars. Just have your favourite breakfast...fill up your water bottles...& you are good to go! ...But bring some cash for the refill when you do your pit stop along the way.

ENJOY CYCLING!!!