; As impossible as it might seem, forget for a moment the astonishing spectacle of the finest endurance athletes in the world racing up the Alps and Pyrenees and across France to the Champs Elysees and a 100th birthday party fireworks gala. No, let’s talk about dinner. After two trips to the Tour de France, [...]
Christmas is May 31st as far as Team Sky’s Chris Froome is concerned. Sky team management announced today that his arch rival for the captain role at the Tour de France has now been decided once and for all. Reigning Tour champion Bradley Wiggins won’t even make the trip to Corsica for the Grand Depart. [...]
; It’s that time of year again, about a month before Le Tour de France, when Thomas Voeckler of Europcar starts his sand-bagging routine. The Frenchman is a master of lowering expectations and lulling his adversaries into thinking he has zero form and a Tour stage win is categorically beyond hope. He does the woe-is-me [...]
Ladies and gents, mesdames et messieurs, we are in final countdown mode for Le Grand Shindig that begins on the 29th day next month in Corsica. Ohh-la-la-la-la. Every day from here on out we’re going full Tour and full gas with some photos and reminiscences our first two Tours. I don’t even want to see [...]
Lance Armstrong angrily told Travis Tygart, the head of the US Anti-doping Agency, that he alone was in charge of his redemption. That point is highly debatable but in the case of Armstrong’s athletic endeavors, Tygart remains firmly in charge. The ex-winner of seven Tours de France can’t get around his lifetime ban [...]
For a sprinter, Fast Freddy is a pretty good nickname. Maybe we should amend Fred Rodriguez’s tag to Fast Freddy Forever. Today in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the guy who was retired from the sport two years ago, then was without a team at the beginning of this season, knocks off his fourth US National Road Race [...]
All quiet on the Wiggins watch, the Brit keeping silent after the story that his close friend and coach Shane Sutton said Wiggins should support Froome in Le Tour. Perhaps Wiggins is back home recovering from his Giro d’Italia illness and planning his next cryptic “I’m the Tour Captain” statement. Meanwhile the other Giro invalid, [...]
So much for the Giro di Fioccare, which we think means, the Giro di Snow. The Italian grand tour was thrilling but the weather conditions were nearly apocalyptic. Unless you’re winner Vincenzo Nibali, most riders probably wish they’d voted for riding Le Tour or the Vuelta. The penultimate stage up to the summit of Tre [...]
In the cynical and dishonest world of doping personalities, Danilo di Luca is the anti-Lance Armstrong. While the United States Anti-Doping Agency stated that Armstrong was part of the “most sophisticated and professional doping program in sports,” no one would ever characterize Di Luca’s doping in those terms. Di Luca ran his own program [...]
