Bike World News

Here some old and new news from the weekend. We’ll be back later in the day with more news.

We’re back with the weekend race action, new additions to the disabled list, the latest on Mikel Astarloza, post-Tour crit results and more.

Rabobank’s Juan Manuel Garate rode to his team’s first victory of the Tour de France on the penultimate day of the race – Stage 20, and its mountaintop finish on Mont Ventoux. The top riders, including yellow jersey owner Alberto Contador (Astana), all finished together 1′48″ down from Garate, so the podium appears to be set for tomorrow

The Tour de France rosters are getting more and more stable, but that’s not to say that they are done.

The big question mark on this one is Tom Boonen. Will he be there? I think so. Given other riders and teams that have been included, the ASO doesn’t have aleg to stand on.

Ten days before the start of the Tour de France, seven of the 20 participating teams have completed their rosters for the race. There will be a couple more iterations of this list until we can call this Version 1.0

Johan Bruyneel, the UCI and the Kazakh Cycling Federation are in agreement that all financial guarantees have been paid and that there are no licensing issues that would prevent the Lance Armstrong and the Astana team from lining up for the Tour de France.

Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouyges Telecom) dropped Jurgen Van de Walle (Quick Step) in the final corner to take victory in the 6th stage of the Criterium du Dauphine Libere. Overnight leader Alejandro Valverde crossed the line a little over four minutes later with second-place holder Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) and third-place Alberto Contador (Astana) to stay in the yellow jersey.

The Dauphine is shaping up to be a good preview for the Tour de France, with a large number of riders (Alberto Contador, Fabian Wegmann, etc.) heading there to test their fitness, or work out some kinks in advance of the next Grand Tour.

The Tour du Haut Var is this weekend in France. The teams and riders for the race have been announced. A total of 18 teams will start the race, including 10 from the Pro Tour.
As we noted in the daily news, Alejandro Valverde has been added to the roster for Caisse d’Epargne, but we don’t know who he is replacing.
The race is one for the mountain specialists and there will be little or no opportunity for the sprinters to make their mark. Saturday’s stage is 171km and includes 3 Category …

Today’s stage travels south towards Madrid, encompassing 186.4 kilometres from Ponferrada to Zamora. Alberto Contador (Astana) started the day comfortably in the lead, with teammate Levi Leipheimer 1′17 behind.
It’s a hot day in Spain, and temperatures on the road are said to be upwards of 28 C (that’s 82F for those of you in the states). There is only one significant climb on today’s route, the category one Alto del Acebo, which comes just 1.6 km into the stage and heads up for the next 14 km. 
France’s David Moncoutié (Cofidis) was first …