Biking Bis - Tour de France

A blog reporting on bicycle tours and a wide variety of other bike issues, with particular focus on the Pacific Northwest, news on Lance Armstrong and other cycling personalities, updates on fitness and advocacy. Also find lists of state bicycle tours and

Total news: 14
Last news: November 3, 2009 15:06:00

This has to be one of the most difficult one-day organized bike tours for weekend warrior bicyclists in 2010.

The l’Étape du Tour departs from Pau, France, on July 18 and follows the same route the pros will take later in the week over two mountain passes with a finish atop the Col du Tourmalet.

Presesented for the 18th year by Tour de France organizers, the ride allows the rest of the bicycling population to endure the gut-wrenching climbs and dizzying heights that the pros experience.

This years ride is the same as Stage 17, a 108-mile jaunt the pro cyclists will tackle on July 22; one of six mountain stages of the 2010 Tour de France... - [Read more]

The 2010 Tour de France bike race that rolls out July 3-25 will be a 2,232-mile counterclockwise loop around France that sees four mountain stages in the Pyrenees and an individual time trial in the final week.

In fact, the organizers found the climb up the Col du Tourmalet so nice that theyve scheduled it twice, once on the way to Pau in Stage 16 and then as the finish on Stage 17.

The grand tour begins with a 5-mile prologue in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The remaining 20 stages are comprised of six mountain stages (three finish on summits), four medium mountain stages, nine flat stages and one individual time trial, a 36.6-mile race against the clock on the next to last day.

Announced in Paris on Wednesday, the immediate reaction was a mixed bag. Defending champion Alberto Contador liked it better than the 2009 route, but was worried about the cobblestones in Belgium. Green jersey winner Thor Hushovd ..... - [Read more]

When Lance Armstrong announced last September that he was coming out of retirement to race once again at the Tour de France, I only hoped that he wouldnt embarrass himself.

He dropped out of pro cycing for 3 1/2 years and had turned 38 years old. He might have been a little beyond his prime.

But Armstrong has proven the past three weeks that he still has the stamina and guts to compete at the elite level. Remarkably, he never fell out of the Top 10 and spent most of the race in either 2nd or 3rd place.

A podium finish in Paris is damn good. We can only wonder at the result if he had a team working for him instead of sharing loyalties with the eventual champion, Alberto Contador.

Unless something happens on the way to Paris on the final stage on Sunday, heres how he reached the podium:

Stage 1: 10th place, 40 seconds behind -- Armstrong holds the best time in the individual time trial for much of the day in Monaco. Fabian Cancellara won the stage. ... - [Read more]

A last-lap threat by the Garmin cycling team couldnt derail the lead-out train of Team Columbia as their star sprinter Mark Cavendish won the last stage of the 2009 Tour de France in Paris.

While Cavendish celebrated his sixth stage win at this years Tour -- the 10th in two years --  Astanas Alberto Contador was celebrating his second Tour de France championship.

Lance Armstrong also finished in the peloton, cementing a third-place finish at the Tour behind Saxo Banks Andy Schleck. Armstrong plans to return next year for one more Tour at the head of his own team, sponsored by Radio Shack.

The only two US-based teams in this years race battled at the head of the peloton in the closing lap.... - [Read more]

Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong protected their first and third places in the Tour de France on Saturday by repelling attacks by Andy and Frank Schleck on the barren slopes of Mont Ventoux.

Juan Garate (Rabobank) won Stage 20 when he attacked Tony Martin (Columbia) about 40 seconds ahead of the yellow jersey group. They were the last two survivors of a 16-man breakaway that at one point had 10 minutes on the peloton.

After the race, Armstrong told Versus that he was pleased with his efforts:

"I cant complain... For an old fart coming in here and getting on the podium with these young guys [thats] not so bad .... - [Read more]

Mark Cavendish notched his fifth victory this year at the Tour de France as a group of sprinters hung onto the pelotons leaders over the final climb of Stage 19.

The win makes 24-year-old the winningest Brit in Tour de France history with nine stage victories.

Although the top 8 overall remained in order behind yellow jersey Alberto Contador, Lance Armstrong gained 4 seconds in his overall third position by staying with the lead group as a split developed further back to the others in the peloton.

While the 110-mile stage from Bourgoin-Jallieu to Aubenas was considered to be an intermediate stage that might see a breakaway group finish first, that breakaway was reeled in early. ... - [Read more]

There is no drafting, team tactics or breaking away at the Tour de France individual time trial. The bicycle racers win or lose on their own.

Here are the big winners from the 25-mile Stage 18 time trial at Annecy:

Alberto Contador -- The Astana cyclist solidified his position in the yellow jersey by winning the stage and earning more respect for his efforts. His 48:30 was 3 seconds faster than Fabian Cancellara, whose time was the one to shoot for most of the day.

Lance Armstrong -- Finished 16th on the stage but moved up to 3rd overall in the General Classification. He finished 1:30 behind Contador, but ahead of a whole host of other rivals for a podium position in Paris. ... - [Read more]

Andy and Frank Schleck catapulted themselves into second and third places behind Alberto Contador on Stage 17 of the Tour de France on Wednesday as Lance Armstrong dropped from second to fourth place.

On the eve of announcing a new team that hell lead, Armstrong was put in the unusual position of working to protect an Astana teammates position at the Tour as his own standing slipped.

But the most unusual sight along much of the 106-mile stage from Bourg Saint Maurice to Le Grand Bornand had to be Thor Hushovd, the sprinter, who took a solo breakaway over two mountain climbs to ensure hed get the intermediate sprint points in his bid for the green jersey ... - [Read more]

The Schleck brothers tried a one-two punch to knock Alberto Contador out of the yellow jersey on Tuesday as Stage 16 of the Tour de France continued through the Alps.

The effort didnt phase the Spanish cyclist on Team Astana, but it briefly put Lance Armstrong on the mat. He valiantly battled back, however, and regained the yellow jersey group to hold onto second place in the overall standings.

Spains Mikel Astarloza, above, survived in an ever-dwindling breakaway over the two cols -- Grand Saint Bernard and Petit Saint Bernard -- to win his first-ever Tour de France stage and propel himself into 11th place overall .... - [Read more]

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Reading through Lance Armstrongs quotes from a press release regarding the upcoming Tour de France route, Id have to say hes looking forward to the upcoming bike race.

Armstrong was busy preparing for the Lance Armstrong Foundations Ride for the Roses bicycling event in Austin this weekend, so he couldnt appear at the route unveiling in Paris. Who knows. He might not have shown up anyway.

The 7-time Tour winner has had a turbulent relationship with organizers in France and might have cold feet about racing the Tour again if he doesnt feel welcome ... - [Read more]

The 2009 Tour de France sounds a lot like one of those old-fashioned Cooks tours of Europe -- 6 countries in 21 days.

Of course, the racing bicyclists will spend most of their time in France, where peloton will battle on the legendary Mont Ventoux on the next to last day.

The bike race runs from July 4 - 26, and starts in starts in the Principality of Monaco, before it takes detours into Spain, Andorra, Switzerland, and Italy along its 2,170-mile course through France ... - [Read more]

Austrias Bernard Kohl is the latest pro cyclist to be accused of doping at the Tour de France after a French lab retested his urine samples taken during the race in July.

Kohl finished in 3rd place overall, wearing the King of the Mountains jersey at the time.

Hes the fourth Tour cyclist accused of using CERA, a new form of EPO, and the second one from the Gerolsteiner team to flunk the test ... - [Read more]

For those of you keeping score at home, this years doping dragnet of the Tour de France has netted a total of 6 cyclists. Book em, Danno.

Two suspects -- Germanys Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) and Italys Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) -- were disclosed Monday after French laboratory technicians retested some urine samples that had originally tested negative.

If the accusations hold true, some rewriting of the record books will be in order. Schumacher won both individual time trials from Fabian Cancellara and spent a few days in the yellow jersey. Piepoli won a mountain stage in the Pyrenees.

Both were alleged to have used a new form of EPO called Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator, or CERA.... - [Read more]