Christian Vande Velde had just finished reconnoitering next week’s team time trial stage of the Tour de France.
The temperature had been above 100 degrees, and the winding, narrow roads of the course in Montpellier, France were tricky and challenging.
As Vande Velde described those unpleasant conditions over the telephone a couple of days ago, he made it sound all good.
Who wouldn’t feel that way in the aftermath of a crash so bad it had left all kinds of thoughts in Vande Velde’s head during the ambulance ride that had taken him to an Italian emergency room? … Details
A new interpretation of the UCI’s opaque technical regulations could cause havoc at the Tour de France if strictly enforced.
Psst, hey buddy! Need some aerobars? Felt’s eponymous founder Jim Felt has a tip for you: check the dumpsters at the Tour de France’s Grand Depart in Monaco.
As part of its bid to reassert bike racing as more a battle of man than machine, the UCI recently released a document clarifying what is and is not allowed in bike racing. The nine-page paper, titled, “A Practical Guide for the Implementation of Technical Rules,†went almost unnoticed in the racing community and media, but has positively reverberated within the small circle of equipment suppliers that outfit the pro teams because of … Details
MONTE CARLO — Four years on, nothing had changed, although, if anything, the backward-staggering scrum of cameramen and photographers making its way out of the seaside Fairmont Monte Carlo Hotel Thursday morning was larger and even more oblivious to civil decorum than ever.
With the Tour de France starting here Saturday, there could have only been one reason for the comically chaotic scene. Lance Armstrong’s comeback is a very big deal, even in this glitzy Mediterranean playground.
The unruly procession lurched to a stop as the seemingly oblivious cyclist leaned against an Astana team car to put on his shoes for a training ride. Those with microphones and tape recorders were curtly informed by an Astana team official that the Texan would answers questions for “one minute and one minute only — if you behave like human beings.  Details
If Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France comeback were a television series, it could be called The New Adventures of Old Lance.
Since he retired in 2005 after winning the world’s biggest bike race seven consecutive times, Armstrong’s world has changed considerably.
The Tour begins Saturday in Monaco with an individual time trial (9:30 a.m. ET, Versus). When the race ends July 26 in Paris, he will be 37 years, 10 months old. Should he win, Armstrong would be the Tour’s oldest champion, an accomplishment exceeded only by his 1999 victory after beating cancer…Â Details