Bike World News

Lance Armstrong headed to the mountains around Aspen to do some final high altitude training before heading to France to recon some key stages of the Tour, plus more road racing news…

Well, the off season is well along. Training camps have already started for Astana and Garmin Chipotle, and will start soon for a number of other teams. The Tour Down Under starts in 6 weeks. The UCI is finalizng teams for 2009 and there is no shortage of news:

The future of the Teltek-H20 team is uncertain as they failed to provide the UCI with the necessary deposit to register the team. This article says that the filing deadline has passed but it seems that the UCI is saying that they …

Never one to spout a cliche when he could drop a joke or an inside remark, Dave Zabriskie always keeps it interesting in interviews.
“I didn’t do any cyclocross training, I just did some bumping and grinding.”
“It’s amazing I beat so many feeling as crappy as I felt.”
In this article from the New York Times, a senior ESPN consultant thinks that locker room cliches may be the result of bad reporting.

Tags: dave zabriskie, garmin chipotle, The New York Times, The New York Times Co

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The man who made Lance Armstrong cry …

Here’s the latest news:

Frank Schleck has confirmed that he made a 7,000 euro payment to a bank account belonging to Operación Puerto doctor Eufemiano Fuentes in 2006, but denies that he was doping. CSC Saxo Bank has suspended him from racing so that he may concentrate on the case before the Luxembourg Anti Doping Agency (ALAD). Schleck has offered to provide a DNA sample to be compared against the blood that was …

I just realized that I’ve been focusing on the close of the Vuelta and all of the new product announcements that have been coming through and haven’t covered the racing world for a while. Here are some of the latest headlines.

World Championships News:

Levi Leipheimer will lead the US contingent of Steven Cozza, Lucas Euser, Tyler Farrar and Craig Lewis at the World Championships. George Hincapie, Jason McCartney and Christian Vande Velde, as well as USA Cycling Professional Road Race Champion Tyler Hamilton all declined automatic invitations, citing a long and hard season. …

The Vuelta is on a rest day today, so I actually have time for some other news:

Equipment changes continue:

Roadcycling.com reports that Silence Lotto will be riding Canyon bikes next year
Felt will continue to supply bikes to Garmin Chipotle through 2011
Milram will be riding bikes from the small UK company Focus. Their bikes are made in Germany and have previously only been available through the web.

As reported earlier today, Carlos Sastre will ride for the new Cervelo Test Team
Lance Armstrong is on the cover of the October Men’s Journal and says …

It’s all but over for the Tour de France, as Stefan Schumacher puts in the best time trial of the day, but Carlos Sastre rode fast enough to maintain his advantage over Cadel Evans. Evans is a strong time-trialer and was expected to make up the 1’34 gap in today’s penultimate stage, but ended up beating Sastre by only 29 seconds.
Sastre credited his team for helping him get to the final podium, especially the aid of the Schleck brothers, who protected him and allowed him recovery time throughout the course …

Cycling News Coverage
VeloNews Coverage
BBC Sport Coverage
Today’s stage was 168km from Lannemezan to Foix. Despite being in the Pyrenees, the only significant climb of the day was the Category 1 Col de Portel.
The first hour of the race was fairly calm. The peloton stayed together through the first intermediate sprint at km 19.5, with Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) taking the points ahead of Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank).
Thomas Voelker took advantage of the post-sprint chaos to sneak off of the front. A large group pursued and he and the …

The riders at the Tour are taking a well deserved rest day, so we have time to get out some other news:

Here’s the big bombshell: 17 of the 18 UCI Pro Tour teams and the organizers of the 3 major races (The Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta d’Espana) will not renew their licenses for next year. The organizers of the big races have had their difficulties with the UCI, most notably the Tour de France’s Amaury Sports Organization, so this was somewhat expected. That said, no one really knows …

Today is Bastille Day in France, so the roads will likely be packed with rowdy French fans today.
It’s a fairly short stage going in to tomorrow’s rest day, but it’s anything but easy with the Hors Category 2115m Col de Tourmalet coming at km 106 and a finish at HC Hautacam (156km).
I just read that each time that there has been a stage completing in Hautacam, that the yellow jersey holder after the stage has worn it all the way to Paris. Hmm. 13 long days until the race hits Champs-Elysees.
There was …