By Paul Andrews, BI editor on July 18, 2009
No one wanted to see a nice guy like Levi Leipheimer leave the Tour on a stroke of bad luck. But Lance Armstrong probably rued the accident more than the average Levi fan. Levi, a good soldier, was not going to win the Tour. But he could have aided Lance’s chances immeasurably by helping to [...]
Posted in Racing | Tagged alberto contador, lance armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Tour de France
By Paul Andrews, BI editor on July 18, 2009
Bicycle.net: Lance lashes back over report that his team (he’s the leader, right? are we all clear on this?) Astana may be beneficiary of “laxity” in drug testing. “I think it’s ridiculous,” Lance says. Well then, case closed, right? BikePure.org: Two Spanish riders, not in this year’s Tour de France, are suspended for using the [...]
Posted in Racing, This Day in Doping | Tagged cera, doping, lance armstrong, Tour de France, uci
By Paul Andrews, BI editor on July 17, 2009
Funny to read now: Bicycle.net’s pre-stage analysis, where Stage 13 “may reveal just how far some riders are willing to go to fight for the Tour de France yellow jersey.” Um…let’s just say, not very far at all. Cyclelicio.us: “Nocentini’s last day wearing yellow.” And I agreed when you posted, Richard. Based on everything we [...]
Posted in Racing | Tagged Bernard HInault, Cadel Evans, Eddy Merckx, lance armstrong, Team Astana, Tour de France
By Paul Andrews, BI editor on July 17, 2009
Cycling News has a piece about irregularities in testing the Astana team, led by Lance Armstrong, er Alberto Contador. Whatever. The French anti-doping agency has warned the UCI “to treat all teams the same” after testing of Astana was delayed last Saturday. Interesting side note: The French don’t really trust the UCI to conduct doping [...]
Posted in Racing, This Day in Doping | Tagged AFLD, doping, lance armstrong, Tour de France, uci
By Paul Andrews, BI editor on July 16, 2009
It was another listless day in the peloton today, but in one respect that may be a good thing. So far this Tour has been remarkable in one instance (and one only): No doping violations have been announced. There may be a lag factor here: Samples have to be collected, transported, tested and re-tested. That [...]
Posted in Racing, This Day in Doping | Tagged cycling doping, greg lemond, lance armstrong, Tour de France
By Paul Andrews, BI editor on July 16, 2009
Followup to yesterday’s note on James Raia’s excellent coverage of Wenatchee’s Tyler Farrar in the Tour for the Wenatchee World. Today Washington State’s largest newspaper, The Seattle Times, ran a Raia story on yesterday’s stage as its lead Sports section story. That’s quite an acknowledgment of Raia’s insightful reporting, and Tyler Farrar’s growing prominence in [...]
Posted in Racing | Tagged James Raia, seattle times, Tour de France, tyler farrar
By Paul Andrews, BI editor on July 15, 2009
Tyler Farrar is giving us all in the Northwest a real champion to root for. In the world’s biggest bike race, the lad from Wenatchee keeps coming up big, challenging the unbeatable Mark Cavendish time and again, only to fall inches short. Today a heartbeat separated Farrar from Cavendish, who benefits from having a stronger [...]
Posted in Racing | Tagged Mark Cavendish, Tour de France, tyler farrar
By Paul Andrews, BI editor on July 13, 2009
On this the first rest day of the Tour de France 2009 edition, we pause to pay tribute to the one cyclist who has managed to once again galvanize worldwide attention on himself while suffocating any competitive fire in this year’s peloton. We speak, of course, of Lance Armstrong, author of the celebrated biography, “It’s [...]
Posted in Racing | Tagged lance armstrong, Tour de France
By Paul Andrews, BI editor on July 12, 2009
With Lance out of the picture after 2005, I’d almost forgotten how boring the Tour de France can be. Year after year in his historic run-up of wins, Lance assembled the strongest team and then “controlled” the race, to yawningly predictable outcomes. The past few Lanceless Tours got back to real racing, with no single [...]
Posted in Racing | Tagged Cadel Evans, lance armstrong, Team Astana, Tour de France
By Paul Andrews, BI editor on July 9, 2009
Update: A bit of a letdown that Schleck never made a move…or anyone else for that matter. If the pack continues to let Astana dictate the race it will be another boring Lance ride to Paris (conceding that Alberto will take Yellow). The Tour hits the mountains tomorrow, and Lance is serving notice that Contador [...]
Posted in Culture, Racing | Tagged alberto contador, Andy Schleck, lance armstrong, Tour de France
