Enfin: Carlos Sastre Wins 2008 Tour de France

Carlos Sastre is this year’s Tour de France Champion after today’s grand finale into Paris. The Spaniard sipped champagne and exchanged back pats in the 89-mile stage that started as a parading fraternity party– a fitting end to a hard-fought Tour. When the peloton arrived to cheering crowds on the Champs-Élysées, riders put on race [...]

Tour de France Stage 20: Sastre Assured Yellow Jersey

Carlos Sastre finished today’s 32-mile time trial fast enough to keep the yellow jersey. Barring an accident or surprise in tomorrow’s final stage in Paris, Sastre is the new Tour de France Champion. He is 65 seconds ahead of Cadel Evans, who pundits incorrectly predicted would overtake the yellow jersey today. But Evans didn’t have [...]

Tour de France Stage 19: Vive la Chavanel!

Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel broke down in tears after winning his first stage ever in the Tour de France today. Chavanel has been around a long time– this is his eighth Tour. He won the climber’s polka dot jersey in stage six and was in breakaways with unsuccessful effect. This is the best day of his [...]

Tour de France Time Trial Preview

I was at the 2003 Tour de France when U.S. Postal Service won the team time trial into Saint Dizier– close enough to hear the riders breathe as they passed by. Tré bon.
There’s no team time trial in this year’s Tour, but on Saturday, the individual time trial will decide our Tour champion. Thirty cyclists [...]

Tour de France Stage 18: Boring but for Burghardt

Team Columbia’s Marcus Burghardt won today’s unenthusiastic 122-mile stage into Saint-Étienne. In a year from now, we won’t remember this day, but we won’t forget Burghardt’s canine collision in last year’s Tour:

Stage 18 was a bummer day for Italy’s little prince Damiano Cunego. He fell early in the race and [...]

Tour de France’s Mates at the Finish

If you’ve watched the Tour de France on television in the past 34 years, you know British cycling commentator Phil Liggett. He’s been reporting on the Tour since 1973, and the race wouldn’t be the same without him. He has a unique way of calling events, such as when a rider loses energy, Liggett yells, [...]

Tour de France Stage 17: C-S-C’est Magnifique!

CSC’s Carlos Sastre won today’s 130-mile stage ending in L’Alpe d’Huez, finishing more than two minutes ahead of his main rivals and taking over the yellow jersey from teammate Frank Schleck. It was the Spaniard’s first stage win in this year’s Tour, but a significant victory because of the race length and difficulty.
CSC proved again [...]

High at the Tour

The Tour de France reached a peak today as riders struggled over Europe’s highest road on the Cime de la Bonette. The most notable moment of stage 16 was when the Tour’s youngest rider, South Africa’s John Lee Augustyn, reached the summit first. It looked as if he might win the race. But on the [...]

Tour of The Times

Kudos to The New York Times‘ Robert Mackey and his sidebar stories on the Tour de France. Check out his climb up the Col du Tourmalet here.

Le Tour by a Hair

This year, the Tour de France is an extremely close race. As we enter the last week of competition, the top six contenders are only seconds apart– an unusual occurrence, according to veteran race commentator Phil Liggett. Why the tight time gaps? Race organizers took away time bonuses for the overall stage winners. It used [...]