Briton Mark Cavendish won the Tour de France third stage while seven-times champion Lance Armstrong climbed up to third overall in the standings on Monday.
Cavendish, who also won the stage on Sunday, outsprinted Norway’s Thor Hushovd after 196.5 kms from Marseille to La Grande Motte, with France’s Cyril Lemoine coming home third.
Swiss Fabian Cancellara of the Saxo Bank team retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey and now leads German Tony Martin and American Armstrong by 33 and 40 seconds respectively.
Hot favourite Alberto Contador, who was trapped behind after a sharp acceleration by Cavendish’s Team Columbia by the end of the stage, dropped to … Details
Lance Armstrong’s comeback has boosted media coverage of cycling and it would be great if he would stay around for another year, the president of the International Cycling Union said on Monday.
“He brings more media interest, regardless of people’s opinion on what he has done or not done—which was not proven,†Pat McQuaid told Reuters by telephone as the Tour peloton was riding the third stage from Marseille to La Grande Motte.
The seven-times Tour de France champion, back on the saddle after 3-1/2 years in retirement, has received a warm welcome from French crowds, with whom he had a difficult relationship during his prime.
McQuaid, who was in Monaco until the start of the world’s greatest cycling race, said Armstrong’s presence on an event he dominated from 1999 to 2005 was … Details
Six-times Tour de France green jersey winner Erik Zabel believes Briton Mark Cavendish, winner of the second stage on Sunday, can become the greatest sprinter of all time.
“I rank him up there in the top three of all time, with (Italian Mario) Cipollini and (Frenchman Andre) Darrigade,†Zabel, an adviser to Cavendish’s Team Columbia, said at the start of the third stage in Marseille on Monday.
The German, who retired last season with 135 victories behind him, knows exactly what he is talking about. On the Tour he won 12 stages, like Cipollini, and only one fewer than Darrigade, the star sprinter of the 1950s. Cavendish won four stages in last year’s race.
“He’s only 24, but if he goes on like this, he can become the greatest sprinter of all time,†he said.
Team Columbia manager Bob Stapleton explained Zabel’s role within his squad… Details
The port of Marseilles knows all about the perils of making the wrong choice of leader.
Go back a couple of millennia and the fledgling trading post lost out on future prosperity by throwing its support behind Pompey the Great instead of the ultimately triumphant Julius Caesar.
As the Tour de France prepares to leave what is now France’s third largest city on Monday and head into the gutsy marshlands of the Camargue, cycling’s premier event shows that some ancient dilemmas still resonate.
The uneasy truce that exists within the Astana team, where seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong has given his tacit agreement to play second fiddle to chosen leader Alberto Contador, has held through the first two days of this exhausting slog toward Paris…Â Details