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
Whatever you think about him, he is the biggest story in sport this summer. OSM talks to Armstrong’s friends, enemies and rivals about his controversial comeback
Virtually everyone I run into is asking me, “Can he do it again?” People want to know whether Lance Armstrong, after an almost four-year absence, can win the world’s greatest bike race an eighth time. I tell them that everything is stacked against him.
At 37 years and 10 months, he is 18 months older than the oldest previous winner, the 1922 champion, Firmin Lambot of Belgium. And Armstrong has not won a single race this year in his return to cycling that began at January’s Tour Down Under. Yet I am confident that he will be a leading contender at the 2009 Tour starting in Monaco on 4 July. I even think he could win…Â Details