The overall winner of this year’s Tour de France, which begins Saturday, will be the rider with the best set of lungs over 21 days of racing. That’s likely to be a contest between the spindly Spaniards Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre, along with a cast of dark horses that could, at least in theory, include seven-time winner Lance Armstrong.
But behind the leaders, the future growth and maturation of American cycling may rest on the gigantic quads of a kid you’ve never heard of.
Tyler Farrar, a 25-year-old who races for the American Garmin-Slipstream team, is a mellow sort who wears a Tibetan tattoo on his wrist with the Buddhist mantra “inner peace.†But don’t let his placid exterior fool you. Cycling experts say he may be the fastest American ever to enter the race … Details
As the teams gathered here for Saturday’s start of the 2009 Tour de France, two prominent riders and one team director today expressed disapproval of the organizer’s intention to ban the use of radio communication during two stages in the middle week of the race, claiming that it threatens their safety.
“Next they’ll be asking us to ride for two days without helmets, or without cables in our brakes,” said the veteran German rider Jens Voigt, twice a wearer of the Tour’s yellow jersey, during a press conference given by his Saxo Bank team.
Since the mid-1990s, team directors have used radios to keep in contact with their riders, providing them with a stream of tactical instructions and information concerning the state of the race. By banning the devices during a flat run from Limoges to Issoudun on 14 July and a much hillier affair including two first‑category climbs between Vittel and Colmar three days later, the organisers are clearly hoping to reintroduce an element of old-fashioned spontaneity and uncertainty… DetailsÂ
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