The Roadie Blog

* Ibin Mayo tested positive for EPO during the final rest day of the Tour. He has been suspended by Saunier Duval pending the results of his b-sample. * Michael Rasmussen continues to plead his innocence , though he has yet to provide any evidence that he was actually in Mexico when he said he was. * Dates and rosters for the post-Tour criteriums have been announced . These were very popular and well-attended in years past. It will be interesting to see if this year's scandals have any effect on attendance.

Sunday's parade into Paris has come and gone and it's all over but the crying, shouting and finger pointing. Italian Daniele Bennati of the Lampre-Fondrital team crossed the finish line first on Sunday, but the overall race and the glory went to Alberto Contador and the Discovery Channel team. Disco ended up with two spots on the podium (Levi Leipheimer took third) and won the overall team competition. Cadel Evans, the Australian rider from the Predictor-Lotto team took second place. Contador gets to take home 2 jerseys, as he also won the white jersey for best young rider. He is the youngest winner in quite some time. The Discovery Channel team (or its' successor) would have been smart to renew his contract earlier this week. Stage 20 Results: Daniele Bennati Thor Hushovd Eric Zabel General Classification (final): Alberto Contador Cadel Evans Levi Leipheimer As previously mentioned, Contador also wins the young rider classification. Mauricio Soler received the mountains je

The day started with rumors of yet another positive doping test, but the 11 a.m. conference at which the offending rider was to be announced passed without any mention of it. American Levi Leipheimer put in a blazing performance in today's individual time trial to come within 31 seconds of the yellow jersey. Still, he remains in 3rd, behind teammate Alberto Contador and Australian Cadel Evans. Today's Results: 1. Leipheimer 2. Evans 3. Karpets 4. Popovych 5. Contador General Classification 1. Contador 2. Evans (:23) 3. Leipheimer (:31) 4. Sastre (7:08) Sunday's race is traditionally a parade into Paris, but with talks of a rider protest against doping tomorrow, whether the riders hold to tradition is anyone's guess.

No big changes today as the race leaders try to save their legs for tomorrow's individual time trial. Today's race was won by Sandy Casar. He launched an attack late in the race despite an earlier crash into an unleashed dog, and managed to hang on to it to the end, despite a dogged pursuit by Alex Merckx, Laurent Lefevre and Michael Boogerd. Alberto Contador had his first official day in the yellow jersey. He missed a small break in the peloton at the end of today's race that caused him to lose a few seconds over Cadel Evans, but he maintains a lead of 1:50. Today's Results: Casar Merckx Lefevere Boogerd Boonen General Classification: Contador Evans Leipheimer Sastre Zubeldia Mountains: Soler Points: Boonen Team: Discovery Channel

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Today's stage started with no one wearing the yellow jersey. Michael Rasmussen was dismissed from the Rabobank team when it was discovered that he lied about his whereabouts when he was supposed to be available for an out of competition test in June. To read more about it, see my entry from earlier today . Today's results: Daniele Bennati Marcus Fothen Martin Elmiger Jens Voigt David Millar General Classification: Alberto Contador Cadel Evans Levi Leiphiemer Carlos Sastre Haimar Zubeldia American Chris Horner hangs tough in 14th place, with Christian Vandevelde and George Hincapie at 24th and 26th place respectively. Points: Boonen Mountains: Soler Young Rider: Contador Team: Discovery Channel

There has been yet another dismissal at the Tour today. Danish rider Michael Rasmussen of the Rabobank team was kicked off his team for lying about his whereabouts in June when his country's cycling federation was trying to find him for an out-of-competition test. He had previously said that he was in Mexico from June 4 to 26, but former professional racer Davide Cassini stated that he had seen Rasmussen training in the Dolomites on June 13th & 14th. Rabobank team management confronted Rasmussen with the information and he confessed. Just be be clear, he has never been caught doping. The dismissal was for lying about where he was and avoiding testing. Today's stage of the Tour starts with no one wearing the yellow jersey. As I stated in the title of this entry, the system to catch dopers seems to be working, but the fact remains that high-profile racers that know that they are going to be under intense scrutiny continue to dope and to try and evade controls. It makes one wo

It's the last day in the mountains and Michael Rasmussen was able to hold off the attacks of Discovery Channel's Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer, adding 47 seconds to his overall lead. Rasmussen continues to be shadowed by doping suspicions; some fans booed him as he crossed the finish line in Gourette. Also today, we learned the identity of the rider who had a positive test result for exogenous testosterone on Stage 11 - Cristian Moreni of the Cofidis team. Moreni was part of a protest against doping at the beginning of today's stage. Oops. Meanwhile, Alexandre Vinokourov claims that he never doped, theorizing that a large amount of blood in his thighs from his crash earlier in the race may have thrown off the test. Four stages to go! Things are going to be interesting. Today's results: Rasmussen Leipheimer Contador Evans Soler General Classification: Rasmussen Contador Evans Leipheimer Sastre Points - Tom Boonen Mountains - Soler Team - Discovery Channel

There has been a fair bit of news and new product releases from Oakley over the past month. First and foremost, Oakley has been acquired by Luxottica. I hope that this has no effect on their quality and offerings. Luxottica does own several other high end sunglass brands, including Ray-Ban. Earlier this month, Oakley rolled out a dedicated line of polarized sunglasses under the Nanowire name . Colin Baden, Oakley President states, "This Oakley original combines innovations like our Hydrophobic(tm) lens technology with a unique frame architecture that takes advantage of flexible titanium alloy. The ultra-lightweight metal allows for fluid, sculptural forms that maintain the comfort of an adaptable fit and the added benefit of being able to take a great deal of abuse while maintaining its shape." I can personally attest to the durability of the Oakley wire sunglasses. I have two pairs. One pair that I use while riding is from the original wires line and while bent up a little b

Yesterday, I posted about Alexandre Vinokourov's amazing wins in Saturday's time trial and on Monday's stage from Foix to Loudenvielle.  Today, the news comes that Vino has tested positive for homologous  blood transfusion after Saturday's time trial . He was immediately dismissed by his team and his entire team has dropped out of the Tour.  At this point, I can't help but think that this is going to ultimately affect many of the other teams' sponsorship, media coverage of the race and many other things. I had hoped that we could make it through this year without any huge scandals. One man is not going to bring down the entire tour, but he did just make life far more difficult for the entire professional cycling community. I can see the effects of this rippling down to the developmental teams, making it more difficult for talented riders to progress.  

Doping stories dominate the news coverage during the second rest day of the Tour de France: The T-Mobile racing team has taken strong steps this year to be on the forefront of the anti-doping movement, but recent events have made their sponsors question whether they want to continue their support of the team. First, there was Jan Ullrich's entanglement with the  OperaciÃn Puerto  doping investigation. Then, former Deutsche Telekom (precursor to T-Mobile) racer, and current CSC team manager Bjarne Riis admitted to doping during the 1996 Tour. Finally, team rider Patrick Sinkewitz was found to have abnormal levels of testerterone in a test taken on June 8th. Co-sponsor Adidas could withdraw support as well. See the full story here at VeloNews. Michael Rasmussen will meet with the press today to address concerns about his missing four mandatory drug tests over the past two years. Some are calling for him to withdraw from the Tour, but he is saying that it was administrative error. M

H ere are the results from Stage 15 of the TdF (Foix Loudenvielle - Le Louron) Alexandre Vinokourov is looking more and more like the man who cannot die. They knock him down and he keeps coming back. After yesterday's crash, and another fall on his injured knee, many thought he was finally written off. He proved them all wrong today by breaking away from the peleton to win this difficult mountain stage. With 28 minutes to make up on Rasmussen, however, it would take several miracles at this point to end up in the yellow jersey in Paris.   Today's Results: 1. Vinokourov (Kz), ASTANA, 5:34:28 2. Kirchen (Lux), T-MOBILE TEAM, 0:51 3. Zubeldia (Sp), EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI, 0:51 4. Acebo (Sp), SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR, 0:58 5. Manuel (Sp), QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC, 2:14 8. Vandevelde (USA), TEAM CSC, 4:25 10. Contador (Sp), DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM, 5:31 General Classification: 1. Rasmussen 2. Contador 3. Evans 4. Leipheimer (U.S.) 5. Kloden Other U.S. racers: 17. Horner 31. Hincapie 34. Va

Not a huge change in standings today on the race from Marseille to Montpellier. Tom Boonen continues to claw his way back to the top, but for now, Rasmussen holds the yellow jersey. There is a little controversy surrounding Rasmussen right now as his national cycling federation has dropped him from their team , citing 2 missed drug tests. Today: Boonen Zabel Hunter Bennati Hushovd General Classification: Rasmussen Valverde Mayo Evans Contader American Levi Leipheimer of the Discovery Channel team is in 9th place, and fellow countryman Chris Horner (Predictor-Lotto) is in 23rd. For full results, click here

I just love looking at the bikes that the pros ride in the big races like the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia. To me, they are equivalent to F1 cars.   They would be way more bike than I would ever need, but I can dream. View the photo album here . Of course, if you are so inclined to buy one of these bikes, product and dealer information can be found at the following sites: Specialized Fuji Bikes  Cervelo Cannondale Giant Ridley BMC Pinarello Colnago Trek DeRosa Orbea

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