Lance’s new opponent is more dangerous than Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso.

As the 2012 Tour de France moves into the rest day, 7-time champion Lance Armstrong is facing his biggest battle to date – excluding his fight to survive life-threatening cancer.  After years of defending himself against doping allegations from a variety of sources and winning every lawsuit those accusations generated, Armstrong must finally answer to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).  Formally charged with doping during at least some of his grand tour wins, Armstrong has fired back with a lawsuit against the federally-funded agency, claiming that the agency’s process violates his civil rights.

First, a few basics:

1.  I have no idea if Lance Armstrong has ever taken performance-enhancing drugs.

2.  In the USA, individuals are innocent until proven guilty in criminal cases.  In civil cases, however, this is not always the case.

3.  Lance Armstrong has never tested positive for doping.  And as he often claims, he is the most tested athlete in the world.  Even now, when he is competing in Ironman triathlons and marathons to raise cancer awareness, he is still held to those standards. » Continue reading “Lance Armstrong Wages War Again”

Leadout man Greg Henderson celebrates teammate Griepel’s stage win.

Things were fairly quiet for the first 211.5 km today.  A trio escaped for a breakaway and lasted almost the entire stage.  RadioShack-Nissan’s tireless warriors, Jens Voight and Yaroslav Popovych, made tempo at the front of the peloton, assuring that the breakaway didn’t get too big a lead.  At the back, the wounded riders, among them Tom Danielson, Luis Leon Sanchez, and Tony Martin, were happy just to keep up with a mellow peloton.

With 8.5 km to go and the sprinters teams driving the pace of the main field, the breakaway was finally caught.  Soon after, Sylvain Chavanel and two other riders made a counter-attack.  Trailing Cancellara by a mere 7 seconds is clearly making Chavanel a madman.  This was the third stage in which Chavanel has tried to jump ahead to a solo victory.  He knows his chances to grab the yellow jersey are fading, and it must be killing him.  He failed again today; he and his companions were absorbed into the peloton with 3.5 km to go. » Continue reading “Stage 4: Griepel gets stage win, Cancellara stays in yellow”

A screen shot of one crash during EuroSport coverage.

Once again, the nerves of the first week of the Tour de France struck the peloton, doing little to change the leaderboard but ending the chances for several GC hopefuls.  Crashes are common, and it’s incredible what the riders endure.  Unless they’re getting loaded into an ambulance, most cyclists drag themselves to the finish line, grimacing in pain, sometimes only able to hold the handlebar with one hand.  It doesn’t end there, either.  Assuming they can sleep through the pain of the bed linens against their road rash, they have to climb stiffly back on the bike the next morning and crank out another 200 km or so.

Not only will a crash result in injury, but a pile-up causes delays.  It’s pretty remarkable to see: a huge stream of color moving smoothly down the road suddenly cleaved in half.  The front half nevers breaks pace, and the cyclists have to pick themselves and their bikes out of the wreckage.  Unless the “maillot jaune”, the race leader, is involved in the crash, race etiquette allows any riders ahead of the crash to continue down the road, gaining a valuable advantage.  Sometimes, they’ll even whip up the pace to build the lead.  The riders involved in or behind the crash must then spend extra energy to rejoin the leaders, but first they must wait for the debris to clear, sometimes changing tires or even bikes, before racing to catch those lucky (or crafty) enough to be in front of the crash.  In today’s stage, many riders picked up their bikes and ran through the grass on the side of the road to get past the fallen cyclists and resume racing. » Continue reading “Crashes and Chaos in Stage 3 of le Tour”

Manxman Mark Cavendish sprints to a Stage 2 win (www.cyclingcafe.com.au/Sirotti)

Stages 1 and 2 of the 2012 Tour de France are in the books, and the race has started with few surprises but one strong statement.  As expected, there were breakaways, crashes, and sprints…and the team with the maillot jaune has clearly decided they would like to keep it in their ranks for a bit longer.   For detailed coverage of the stages, see www.cyclingnews.com.

 In past years, when the team run by Director Sportif Johan Bruyneel and led by Lance Armstrong (US Postal, Astana, Radioshack) held the yellow jersey early in the race, they often chose an opportunity in the first stages to let another cyclist –  one with no real chance of winning the overall race — claim the jersey.  In this way, the team didn’t need to spend the energy to defend it in the first week of the race.  Not so this year.  RadioShack-Nissan’s powerhouse Fabian Cancellara earned the yellow jersey the first day in the prologue, and the team has shown that they intend to keep it as long as possible.  Cancellara won’t win the Tour de France, of course.  Once the race enters the brutal ascents of the Alps and Pyrenees, he will lose time to the lighter climbers.  What this approachs tells us is that the team doesn’t feel strongly about any of their general classification (overall) contenders, and they’re taking whatever wins they can.  Without their team leader, Andy Schleck, who pulled out of the tour after sustaining an injury in the Tour de Suisse in June, their hopes rest on Andreas Kloden and Frank Schleck.  Kloden prefers to be the second in command and shuns the spotlight; he has stood on the podium in Paris, but never on the top spot.  Frank was planning to help his brother Andy to that top step on the Champs Elysee and hasn’t trained to be the winner.

As far as the other general classification (GC) contenders, there hasn’t been much to say.  Most of them have stayed safely in the peloton, the main field of riders, finishing with the same time.  Cadel Evans, defending his 2011 Tour de France title, seems comfortable 17 seconds off the lead and is well looked after by teammate George Hincapie, who just broke a record with his 17th consecutive Tour de France start.  Most of the favorites finished in the same time and maintained the small deficits from the prologue.  American Levi Leipheimer, who suffered a fractured tibia when hit by a car earlier this season, stuggled in the middle of the stage but hung tough and minimized his losses.  Chris Horner blocked the wind for teammate Frank Schleck and made sure he didn’t drop back.

There are always crashes, particularly in the first week when the racers are nervous and the hierarchy of the race hasn’t yet been established.  In Stage 1, four riders went down early but only Rabobank’s Luis Leon Sanchez was slow to get back on his bike and lost about 4 minutes.  A larger crash occurred when the peloton encountered a fan taking a photo from the middle of the road.  No major injuries sustained in this one.  Fans, dogs, and their gear are one of the many dangers of the race.  It’s the beauty and the torture of the tour — barricades are only in place at the stage finish, which gives fans access to the race that is unprecedented in any other sport.  It also puts the cyclists at increased risk, but it’s unlikely that the race organizers will ever change this policy.

A breakaway of 6 riders stayed away from the peloton for most of the day, but RadioShack-Nissan’s strong men, Jens Voight (looking ageless at 40!) and Yaroslav Popovych, did most of the work at the front of the peloton and never let the gap grow insurmountable.  Near the end of the stage, other teams finally gave help, and the break was caught with 9km to go.  This would not be a day for the sprinters, however.  The stage finished with a technical climb.  Many had predicted that it suited Slovakian Peter Sagan, but no one guessed that Cancellara would make a move with 2 km to go.  As he accelerated away from the peloton, Sagan jumped with him and rode his back wheel, never sharing the work.  With 500 m to go, he pulled out of Cancellara’s slipstream and stole the stage win.  Cancellara was disappointed to lose the stage but accomplished his goal of keeping the yellow jersey another day.

Stage 2 was truly business as usual.  A breakaway formed, and the peloton caught them.  Why bother with a breakaway and spend all the energy?  Because the riders in the breakaway get a lot of camera time and therefore good advertising for their sponsors.  And sometimes, the breakaway succeeds, giving each rider in the break a higher percentage chance at a stage win.  In the case of Stage 1, one of the riders in the break collected King of the Mountains points and now wears the polka dot jersey.  Whether he’ll keep it in the real mountains remains to be seen.

This time, the sprinters teams did the work of reeling in the breakaway.  The flat finish was perfect for Team Sky’s Mark Cavendish, who blasted past his competitors without the benefit of his own leadout train, proving that he has speed and savvy.  The reigning World Road Race champion is lighter than in previous years in preparation for the upcoming Olympics.  He now rides for a team built to help Bradly Wiggins win the whole thing, not lead the Isle of Man native in his sprints.  Regardless, he sped to his 21st Tour de France stage win.   He reminds me of Aussie Robbie McEwen more every year. 

Fabian Cancellara and the GC favorites finished in the same time, with no major changes in the standings.  Tony Martin (who suffered a scaphoid fracture) and Luis Leon Sanchez, who both started the day banged up and sporting bandages from the chaos of Stage 1, rolled across the finish line 4 minutes later.

Stage 3 brings the riders into France.  There are 5 small climbs near the end.  Not a good day for the sprinters, but you may see some of the GC contenders make some moves and test the field.  If the peloton separates, the riders in front could use those time gaps to pad their lead.  Stay tuned!

Melanie Friedlander is a contributor to Steel City Blitz and spends the NFL offseason following professional cycling.  You can follow her on Twitter www.twitter.com/girlsurgeon.

Fabian Cancellara rips through the prologue to take the yellow jersey (www.roadcycling.com/Sirotti)

As the 2012 Tour de France opened with a prologue in Liege, Belgium, RadioShack-Nissan’s Fabian Cancellara proved that he is still the best in the world on an individual time trial course. His Spring Classics campaign ended early in disaster with a fractured collarbone on April 1 durign the Tour of Flanders in Belgium. Since then, he has been working hard to return to racing form. Clearly, he’s there.

Coming off his 7th Swiss national time trial championship and wearing the jersey that comes with that honor, Cancellara blitzed through the 6.4 km course in 7:13, beating current world time trial champion Tony Martin, who suffered a puncture on the course and required a bike change. Cancellara earned the yellow leader’s jersey for the 5th time since 2004, a feat only accomplished by one other cyclist, Bernard Hinault, a 5-time winner of the overall Tour de France. Back in 2004, which also took place in Liege, Cancellara beat Lance Armstrong by 1.6 seconds. Armstrong would eventually go on to win the race that year; now he is a part owner of Cancellara’s team.

Most of the overall favorites for the general classification finished within 45 seconds of the yellow jersey (as mentioned by race reporter Brian Holcombe):

1. Bradley Wiggins in 7:20
2. Denis Menchov 7:26
3. Cadel Evans 7:30
4. Vincenzo Nibali 7:31
5. Ryder Hesjedal 7:31
6. Levi Leipheimer 7:41
7. Chris Horner 7:47
8. Alejandro Valverde 7:48
9. Fränk Schleck 7:51
10. Samuel Sánchez 7:53
11. Juanjo Cobo 7:57

Cancellara gives the RadioShack-Nissan team a boost after a disappointing season. They lost their race leader, Andy Schleck, to injury, and Director Sportif Johann Bruyneel chose to be absent to avoid creating a media distraction due to allegations of doping conspiracy (unproven as of this time) by the USADA directed at him and Lance Armstrong. A professional cyclist since 2001, Cancellara brings a veteran leadership to the team, a strong presence that Andy and Frank Schleck have enjoyed for several years as teammates on Saxo Bank and Leopard Trek before moving to RadioShack-Nissan together. By the way, I met Fabian at the 2005 Tour de France when he was riding for Fasso Bartolo — he’s a rock star and a really cool guy.

You can see the full prologue results on www.cyclingnews.com here.  Stage 1 will take the race from Liege to Seraing. The riders will not cross into France until Tuesday, July 3.

Melanie Friedlander is a contributor to Steel City Blitz and spends the NFL offseason following professional cycling.  You can follow her on Twitter www.twitter.com/girlsurgeon.

Here we go again…

The USADA has once again brought charges against seven-time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong. He has been revoked from competing in any triathlons due to the new charges, a sport he took up when retiring from cycling.

The letter received from the USADA states that blood samples taken from Armstrong in 2009-2010 were “fully consistent with blood ma­nipu­la­tion including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.” From the article by the Washington Post:

USADA’s letter, dated June 12, alleges that Armstrong and five former cycling team associates — three doctors including Italian physician Michele Ferrari, one trainer and team manager Johan Bruyneel— engaged in a massive doping conspiracy from 1998 to 2011, and that “the witnesses to the conduct described in this letter include more than ten (10) cyclists. . .”

All of the six, including trainer Jose Pepi Marti of Switzerland and doctors Pedro Celaya of Luxembourg and Luis Garcia del Moral of Spain, face competition bans. USADA put all of the alleged violations in one letter, it stated, because it considers the six defendents part of a “long running doping conspiracy.”

The letter specifically alleges that “multiple riders with firsthand knowledge” will testify that Armstrong used EPO, blood transfusions, testosterone and masking agents, and that he distributed and administered drugs to other cyclists from 1998 to 2005. The letter alleges that numerous witnesses will testify that Armstrong also used human growth hormone before 1996.

Ouch.

In a statement that Armstrong released on Tuesday, he is still claiming that he has never used performance enhancing drugs. He was scheduled to compete in an Iron Man Triathlon in France in a couple weeks.

If it was the first time Armstrong has been accused of “riding dirty”, he may have a shot of clearing his name. His name has come up repeatedly and this time, I don’t think he is going to find a way out of this one. It’s sad that one of the best in the sport and not to mention a role-model to many, tarnishes his own legacy.

After a long two years, Lance Armstrong’s Federal investigation of whether or not he was using performance enhancing drugs, has been dropped by prosecutors.

The case was originally brought up against the Rock Racing cycling team and Armstrong’s name was dropped by teammates during the investigation.

Specifically, teammate, Tyler Hamilton. Hamilton stated in a 60 Minutes interview that he saw Armstrong inject the drug while training for the Tour de France in 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Hamilton:

“I saw it in his refrigerator and I saw him inject it more than one time, like we all did many, many times.”

After the interview aired, Armstrong used twitter to defend his reputation:

 20+ year career. 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case.

Armstrong’s case has been dropped, but Federal investigators plan on keeping an eye on cycling doping charges.

In a statement issued on Friday, Armstrong said he was  ”gratified to learn that the U.S. Attorney’s Office is closing its investigation, It is the right decision and I commend them for reaching it.”

He was facing having his name and his accomplishments tarnished for life. Not only that, but his charity foundation, Livestrong would have suffered the consequences.

Good for Armstrong, would have hated to see it end in the opposite outcome.

It’s high time we checked back in with the Tour de France. The more I think about this race, the more I’m amazed that anyone can actually finish this. I’m gearing up for a half marathon in October, and quite honestly those 13.1 miles scare me. Biking for a month straight? Yowza.

Anyway, Stage 16 is complete, Stage 17 is under way, thanks to the time differences. You can keep up with Stage 17 live here.

A Norwegian named Thor Hushovd won Stage 16, and you can get a brief recap here, or check it out minute by minute here.

Though I’m not a biker, I still chuckle every time I talk about it because I start singing Queen in my head.

The Tour de France is currently underway, and strangely enough, right now the focus isn’t so much on the cyclists themselves, but on a motorcyclist who, while carrying a cameraman, sparked a crash beginning with Nicki Sorenson.

With racers getting back in the action, there are plenty of opportunities to stream coverage (try here for up to the minute updates).

Even though the race is on-going, there is still much debate over cyclists and PEDs. There are many things the International Cycling Union is doing to prevent this doping, but the consensus seems to be that as long as athletes can get away with it, doping will continue.

This is nothing new in professional sports.

The race goes until July 24, and the final two days could see an appearance by Lance Armstrong, whose own doping investigation is ongoing.

Its Fourth of July weekend and we’ve reached the unofficial half-way point of Summer. If you’re looking for something to keep you occupied while you’re waiting for your food from the grill or trying to stay cool in the AC, here are some sporting events that will help you do just that.

MLB

It’s America’s birthday, so why not spend it with the National Pastime? We’re entering the last weekend of Interleague play for the season and most of the match-ups feature cross-town and border battles. Tonight the MLB Network is broadcasting Giants at Tigers at 7:05 pm ET and the Yankees at Mets at 7:10pm ET. Tomorrow the MLB on FOX features three games with long standing rivalries. Depending on your location, you’ll see either the Yankees at Mets, the Indians at Reds or the White Sox at Cubs. All games are scheduled to start at 4:10pm ET. If you’re looking for something to watch in the evening, MLB Network will broadcast the Giants at Tigers and the Red Sox at Astros. Both games are scheduled to start at 7:05pm ET. On Sunday, TBS has an afternoon of baseball when the Yankees face the Mets to close out this seasons Subway Series at 1:05pm ET. This week’s ESPN Sunday Night Baseball features Dodgers at Angels in the Freeway Series finale. First pitch is scheduled for 8:05pm ET. It’s a holiday weekend, so a full slate of games are also scheduled for Monday and the MLB Network has you covered. At 1:35pm ET you can watch either the Blue Jays at Red Sox or Astros at Pirates. At 6:10pm ET the Phillies take on the Pirates. To close out the holiday weekend, watch the Yankees take on the Indians at 6:35pm ET.

Wimbledon

No Federer. No Fish. No Williams sisters. So who will you be watching as Wimbledon wraps up? Catch all the action live on NBC this weekend. Today watch the Men’s semifinals from 12:00pm ET to 5:00pm ET. Tomorrow the Women’s final will be broadcast from 9:00am ET to 2:00pm ET. On Sunday the Men’s winner is crowned as the Men’s final is played from 9:00am ET to 3:00pm ET.

Tour de France

The first stage of the Tour de France kicks off tomorrow morning starting in Passage du Gois La Barre-de Monts to Mont des Alouettes Les Herbiers. Coverage will air live on Versus starting at 8:00am ET.

FIFA Women’s World Cup

ESPN has you covered for all of your World Cup needs this weekend. The action kicks off at 12:15pm ET today with New Zealand facing England. At Noon ET tomorrow watch the United States take on Columbia on ESPN. Then on Sunday watch Brazil face Norway at 12:15pm ET.

NASCAR

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to the Daytona International Speedway this weekend. Catch the race tomorrow night at 7:30pm ET on TNT.