Tour de France 2023

It's Rest Day No. 2 at the 2008 Tour de France. Photographer Casey Gibson started his day by sorting through his files and then sent us some interesting shots from Sunday's stage to Prato Nevoso. He then went over to the Garmin-Chipotle camp, just as the team was ready to roll out on an easy Rest Day training ride. Editor's note: Our links to Casey's homepage have been inconsistent during the Tour. We apologize for the confusion. For the record, the proper link to his site is www.cbgphoto.com

Stage 15, Embrun to Prato Nevoso, Italy, 182km WeatherRain at start, partly cloudy in middle part of stage, rain at finish, highs in upper 60s, moderate westerly winds Stage winnerSimon Gerrans (Credit Agricole) won out of a four-man breakaway that included American Danny Pate (Garmin-Chipotle). Gerrans was nearly dropped several times midway up the climb, but grabbed the wheel of Pate and Egoi Martínez (Euskaltel) with 3km to go. Pate went first at 200 meters, but Gerrans came around to grab his first Tour stage victory.

Team CSC-Saxo Bank once again executed near-perfect tactics in Sunday’s 15th stage and this time they got the big prize: the yellow jersey. CSC did just about everything right in the three-climb stage to Prato Nevoso and turned a one-second deficit into a seven-second lead to Bernhard Kohl. With a four-man breakaway staying clear to take the day’s flowers, CSC had its plan ready to fire up.

Stage 15 of the 2008 Tour de France proved a mixed bag for the Garmin-Chipotle team. First, the good news: Danny Pate got into the day’s four-man breakaway, finishing third on the stage after a valiant ride fell just short in the final kilometer. And GC leader Christian Vande Velde stayed with the GC favorites on the category 1 climb up Plato Nevoso, crossing the line two seconds behind newly crowned race leader Frank Schleck (CSC).

Australian Simon Gerrans caused a minor sensation on Sunday by winning the tough 15th stage of the Tour de France on the race's third mountain finish in the Italian Alps. The 28-year-old from Melbourne, however, was quick to give a nod to Australian great Phil Anderson, without whom he might never have got on a bike. Gerrans, who rides for Credit Agricole, bagged a prestigious first win in the race after attacking breakaway companions Egoi Martinez of Euskaltel and Garmin's Danny Pate in the final 150 meters of the rain-lashed 183km stage.

Into the Alps we went today and it was an epic. It was pouring rain at the start, coming down in sheets. This was when the long bomb break with our man Pate in it took off. Then as we started up Angel pass, a nearly 25k beast that took us up to 2700 meters, the sun poked through and with the humidity so thick it was like a sauna. Then the wind kicked up, absolutely battering us up the open slopes of the climb and cooling things back off.

Spain's 2006 Tour de France champion Oscar Pereiro has suffered shoulder injuries following a spectacular fall during the 15th stage of the Tour de France on Sunday. According to a first official diagnosis Pereiro has a sprained shoulder but has not injured his leg or his back, as previously believed. "He is not complaining of pain in his legs or his back," said a doctor accompanying Pereiro to hospital.

Quadruple stage winner Mark Cavendish has pulled out of the Tour de France prior to the 15th stage, the first of three days in the Alps here Sunday, according to his Columbia team. Cavendish has been one of the stars of the July 5-27 race so far, winning four bunch sprints to set a new British record for stage wins in a single edition. He was victorious on stages 5, 8, 12 and 13. But the 23-year-old from the Isle of Man admitted he was suffering fatigue following two tough weeks of racing. "I've done enough here with four stages," said Cavendish.

There are seven major mountain climbs to tackle in the next three stages of the 95th Tour de France: the Col Agnel, Prato Nevoso, Col de la Lombarde, Cime de la Bonette, Col du Galibier, Col de la Croix de Fer and L’Alpe d’Huez. Race leader Cadel Evans has ridden them all in training, and he is ready to defend his yellow jersey, starting with Sunday’s stage 15 that heads into Italy with a mountaintop finish at the ski station of Prato Nevoso.

Kenyan-born Briton Chris Froome hit out at Barloworld teammate Moises Duenas here on Saturday after the Spaniard's positive doping control at the Tour de France. Duenas's positive test for the banned blood booster EPO (erythrpoietin) on stage 4 has been one of three on the race, but is the first to force a drastic decision on the part of a team sponsor. On Saturday Barloworld, which made its debut on the Tour last year when Robbie Hunter won his first stage and Colombian Mauricio Soler won the King of the Mountains jersey, said it was quitting the sport.

Cadel Evans has been poring over cycling's history books as he prepares to put his yellow jersey on the line during three crucial days of climbing at the Tour de France. But the 31-year-old Aussie has not ruled out trying to forge alliances, if needed, in a bid to counter some of his big rivals for the race's main prize. Evans finished the 14th stage here Saturday suffering, like most of the peloton, from the searing temperatures as the race headed slowly upwards to the foot of the Alps. "I'm kind of surprised to hold the jersey this far, to be honest," said Evans.

Spaniard Oscar Freire should now have a better idea of whether he can keep the Tour de France green jersey, after some in-race consultation with sprint rival Mark Cavendish. Cavendish, the winner of four sprint stages so far, was conspicuous by his absence on Saturday as Freire claimed his first win of this year's race from yet another bunch sprint at the end of the 194km 14th stage.

Stage 14, Nimes to Digne-Les-Baines, 194.5km WeatherHot and sunny, strong westerly winds (tailwinds for the peloton) up to 45kph. Air temperature at the start was 86 degrees, while the road temperature during the stage reached 107. Stage winnerSpaniard Oscar Freire (Rabobank) took his fourth career Tour stage win and the first of this Tour, ahead of Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) and Erik Zabel (Milram). With 10km remaining Jose Gutierrez (Caisse d’Epargne) was the last man reeled in out of a four-man breakaway that spent 143km off the front

CAV EXIT LIKELY: Mark Cavendish’s dream Tour de France is likely over as it’s expected that the British sprinter won’t take the start for Sunday’s opening salvo into the Alps. Cavendish won four sprint stages, but struggled to maintain the pace over a fourth-category climb with 9.5km to go to the line in Dignes-les-Bains. He popped off the back of the peloton and rolled across the line 108th at 3:27 back.

Garmin-Chipotle sport director Matt White has had a front-row seat to the team’s surprisingly good opening two weeks of the Tour de France. Team captain Christian Vande Velde enters Saturday’s opening shot of the showdown in the Alps poised in third place overall. The team has been flying under the radar, but that’s bound to change if Vande Velde’s consistency continues through the Alps. We caught up with Matt White ahead of Friday’s start to talk tactics looking ahead to the decisive climbing stages in the Alps. Here are excerpts from the interview:

A HOT one here in France-land today, and fast from start to finish. A flurry of attacks in the first few minutes eventually created a group of 21. With a slight wind at our backs the first hour rolled 53Ks under the tires. The group was just a bit too big however and eventually a concerted chase from behind brought us back. Four took off out of the group for the long haul, the rest of us got to go back, fetch some bottles and settle in for the day.

The sponsor of Cadel Evans' team on the Tour de France is known for products that allow noisy snorers to doze off and enjoy a good night's sleep. But if there was ever a time the Australian needed his Silence teammates to wake up, it will be on the three upcoming alpine stages that are likely to decide whether he keeps the yellow jersey. After battling through the Pyrenees with injuries sustained in a crash, Evans managed to get through this last week relatively unscathed, rebuilding strength in an injured shoulder which has left him lop-sided on the bike.

Spanish rider Moises Duenas, kicked out of the Tour de France, has blamed a Spanish doctor for his positive test for the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), the daily El Pais reported on Saturday. Duenas, who was charged with "use and possession of poisonous substances" before a court at Tarbes, southwestern France on Thursday, had claimed that the products were sold to him by Spanish doctor Jesus Losa.

Until Mark Cavendish came on the pro scene just over a year ago, the most successful British Tour sprinter was Barry Hoban, who won eight stages between 1967 and 1975. Hoban was not a natural sprinter, but he could sustain a long finishing effort and he won stages with smart positioning. He rarely had any support from his French team, Mercier, which was devoted to protecting its team leader Raymond Poulidor. The only other British Tour rider to win field sprints was Michael Wright, who took three stages between 1965 and 1973.

He's known for being a joker among a cosmopolitan team that came to the Tour de France proclaiming their "clean" approach to racing would help smooth their way to success. But when it gets serious in the hectic bunch sprints, curly-haired Briton Mark Cavendish doesn't have time for practical jokes. Cavendish reinforced his status as arguably the fastest sprinter in the world on Friday when he claimed his fourth stage win of this year's edition.

The first radio communication, not one minute after we rolled through K0 was from Millar: “We’ve got a CBF’d Friday boys, it’s bloody wonderful!” The neutral was stressful with a strong crosswind threatening to make the race a crazy one, but I didn’t even get above 200 watts before the field had shut down the road and all you could here were screams, yells and whistles of “pisseee, piano, grupetto.” The first attack was off, and we CREPT for a lovely 30k through the countryside of southern France, truly enjoying a lazy start to the day.

Cavendish in good company: With his fourth sprint victory in this year’s Tour de France, Mark Cavendish moved into some pretty heady company. After out-kicking three-time green jersey winner Robbie McEwen on the road into Nimes in Friday’s 13th stage, the 23-year-old Cavendish becomes just the eighth rider in Tour history to win four bunch sprint stages in a single Tour. Only two riders — Andre Darrigade and Freddy Maertens — have won five bunch sprints in one Tour.

Stage 13, Narbonne to Nimes, 182km WeatherSunny, brisk northwesterly winds up to 40kph, temperatures in low 90s Stage winnerMark Cavendish (Team Columbia) used his team early to help shut down some late breakaways and position him in the final kilometers. He opened up his sprint with 150 meters to go to distance Robbie McEwen (Silence-Lotto) by two bike lengths for Cavendish’s fourth sprint in this year’s Tour.

Italian racer Riccardo Riccò, kicked off the Tour de France for doping, has been remanded in custody for "using a poisonous substance," the public prosecutor at Foix said on Friday. Prosecutor Antoine Leroy said Riccò had been remanded for "using a substance classed poisonous under the terms of the public health code." "Riccò is placed under arrest and is banned from contacting other members of the team,” he added. Leroy said Riccò had told the examining magistrate what he had earlier told police - namely, that he is innocent.

12:55 PM: Good day and welcometo VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 13th stage of the 95th edition of the Tour de France, a 182-kilometer race from Narbonne to Nimes.

Disgraced Italian cycling star Ivan Basso deserves a second chance of resurrecting his career, the Italian's future manager at the Liquigas team said Friday. Basso is nearing the end of a ban handed down after he admitted, without having tested positive for banned substances, to being involved in the Spanish doping affair 'Operation Puerto'. The Italian, a former rival of Lance Armstrong on the Tour de France while racing for the Danish CSC team, is due to return to racing at the end of the summer.

Saunier Duval has sacked Riccardo Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli for infringing the Spanish team’s code of ethics, it was announced on Friday. Riccò was dismissed following his positive doping control for EPO (erythropoietin) at the Tour de France. Piepoli also was sacked, though he had not tested positive; team manager Mauro Gianetti said he, too, had infringed the team's code of ethics. The entire Saunier Duval team voluntarily left the Tour before Thursday's 12th stage.

“I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”— Captain Renault in “Casablanca,” shortly before a coupier presents him with his winnings.

While the news media were massed around the pale yellow Saunier Duval team bus in Lavelanet Thursday just as stage 12 was setting out farther down the street, Philippe Brunel stood back from the crowd watching the spectacle. I felt sorry for him. As an award-winning French sportswriter — he’s the principal cycling reporter for L’Équipe, the major French sports newspaper — Brunel looked to be in a quandary.

Riccardo Riccò's departure from the Tour de France produced a stack of emails and letters to the editor. Here is a sampling: Zero Tolerance Editor, This little gem was in your one of your Ricardo "Vegetable" Ricco articles: "While teams like CSC, Columbia, Garmin-Chipotle and Astana have financed independent blood-monitoring programs, some question whether that “new cycling” will ever occur until doping in sport is criminalized internationally, as it is in France, and the risks outweigh the incentives."

Riccardo Riccò always wanted to be like his hero, Marco Pantani. The self-styled "Cobra" got his wish Thursday and made a Pantani-esque implosion as two French gendarmes hauled him away after he failed a doping control from stage four at the Tour de France. In a scene that was an eerie replay of Pantani’s exclusion from the 1999 Giro d’Italia for testing for high hematocrit levels, Riccò made his own forced exit Thursday that could have equally grim consequences.

Australia's Cadel Evans has called on cycling's detractors to take a long hard look at what is being done in the sport to clean up its image. For the second consecutive day the Tour de France was rocked by controversy following the news that Italian climber Riccardo Ricco had become the third rider to test positive for the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin). Ricco won two climbing stages last week, becoming one of the most followed riders in the Pyrenees where he left many established climbers — including Evans — in his wake with his lightning fast accelerations.

Tour de France organizers ASO may be regretting the choice of music played after the peloton rolled out of Lavelanet at the start of stage 12 Thursday. Only 45 minutes after the news of Ricardo Riccò’s positive test for red-blood cell booster CERA rocked the start village, the public address system blared Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” — fitting perhaps as the swansong for a defiant young rider who rocketed into the spotlight while simultaneously thumbing his nose at the sport’s establishment.

Stage 12, Lavelanet to Narbonne, 168.5km Weather: Cloudy at start, sunny at finish, strong westerly winds up to 45kph, highs in 80s Stage winner: Mark Cavendish (Team Columbia) had enough spring in his legs after making it over the Pyrénées last weekend to win his third stage of this year’s Tour, becoming the first British rider to win three stages in the Tour. Sébastian Chavanel (FDJeux) made a late charge that fell short while Gert Steegmans (Quick Step) made a long sprint to hang on to third. A three-man breakaway was caught with nine kilometers to go.

French anti-doping authorities and Saunier Duval team officials confirmed Thursday that Italian climbing sensation Ricardo Riccò (Saunier Duval) has tested positive for a new form of the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO). Informed of the positive just an hour before the start of Thursday’s 12th stage of the Tour de France, Riccò was taken by gendarmes to a local police station for questioning. Within minutes of Riccò’s departure, his entire team voluntarily withdrew from the Tour.

With the Pyrénées in the rearview mirror, the riders in the 95th Tour de France can now look forward to three less nervous stages across the South of France, where the main obstacle to overcome will be the heat. Temperatures will be in the upper-80s by the end of Thursday’s stage 12 in Narbonne, and somewhat warmer the following two days.

Stage 11, Lannemezan to Foix, 167.5km Weather Warmer, with moderate northerly winds, highs in the upper 80s Stage winner Kurt-Asle Arvesen (CSC-Saxo Bank) shot away with under 3km to go and stabbed his bike across the line to win in a photo-finish ahead of Martin Elmiger (Ag2r-La Mondiale) in a four-up sprint. After winning two Giro stages, it’s the first Tour victory for the Norwegian national champion.

After a quality day of rest in Pau, complete with Chipotle burritos, it was straight back into racing today from the second the gun went off. With big time gaps now in place there are a lot of guys no longer a threat on GC and the chances of breakaways making it to the finish are far higher than in the first week. Garmin's strategy has now shifted a bit, moving from being aggressive wild cards to now sitting in the position of protecting an overall contender.

World cycling chief Pat McQuaid has called on the Spanish authorities to increase their efforts in the fight against doping after the latest doping affair at the Tour de France. Moises Duenas of the Barloworld team became the second Spaniard to leave the race under a cloud Wednesday after being told he had tested positive for the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO). Fellow Spaniard Manuel Beltran, of Liquigas, was suspended by his team last week after he also tested positive for EPO.

Don’t Touch His Shoulder: Cadel Evans might be a charming bloke away from the TV cameras, but it’s quickly becoming obvious that he doesn’t particularly enjoy the media duties that come along with the maillot jaune. The Australian is finding time for the media. He patiently answered nearly an hour’s worth of questions on a rest-day press conference Tuesday and worked the line in post-stage comments from TV and radio behind the podium. It seems, however, that Evans is losing his patience with the growing horde.

Christian Vande Velde stepped out of the Garmin-Chipotle team bus Wednesday morning in Lannemazen to find a good-sized media scrum waiting to speak with him. The fact that a dozen scribes and a few TV camera crews wanted to learn more about the American sitting third place overall revealed just how far Vande Velde’s stock has risen midway through the 2008 Tour de France. “I surprised myself a little bit on Hautacam the other day,” Vande Velde said. “But it’s everything I’ve worked for, so every day it’s becoming less and less of a surprise.”

Barloworld’s Moises Duenas has been pulled from the Tour de France after a urine sample provided after stage 4 showed signs of the blood booster erythropoietin. Police later found banned substances in Duenas' hotel room, according to a statement on the Barloworld Web site. The Spaniard was in 19th place in the overall standings, 6:43 behind overall leader Cadel Evans, following Monday’s stage to Hautacam. The team was informed of the positive test by the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) on Wednesday morning and Duenas was immediately suspended from the team.

If Mavic sold the pro-only version of the R-SYS, which popped up at this year’s Tour, it would have been a winner from the beginning.

There’s a “down home” quality to Cadel Evans that was emphasized by his rest-day get-together with the media on Tuesday. It was certainly not a rest-day event in the style of a Lance Armstrong, whose Tour de France press conferences were all business, much in the style of Armstrong himself.

Burning KohlBernhard Kohl is a man on the rise. The 26-year-old Austrian climber surged away at the base of Hautacam and rode straight into contention for the Tour de France. Kohl entered Monday’s stage quietly poised in 13th overall at 2:03 back. Many weren’t paying attention to him, but all that changed on the twisting climb when he bolted away from the Cadel Evans-Denis Menchov group. He crossed the line fourth in the stage at 1:06 back and bounced into fourth overall at 46 seconds behind Evans.

Seventeen of the world's top cycling teams said on Tuesday they would not be seeking ProTour licenses for 2009, according to a statement released at Pau during the first rest day of the Tour de France. The UCI launched the ProTour in 2004 in a bid to revamp the cycling calendar and have the best teams riding in the best races. However, since then the series has met with resistance on several fronts.

Unpredictable. That’s just what the Tour de France wanted when it designed a wild route this year without time bonuses, shorter time trials and no prologue. Ten days into the race, Tour officials must be very happy. The first half of the 2008 Tour has delivered just the kind of sparks and wide-open racing they were hoping for. Five riders have already worn the yellow jersey. Following the first individual time trial and two mountain stages across the Pyrénées, the top 5 is separated by less than one minute, a number almost unconceivable so deep into the race.

Editor’s note:We’ve been doing Live Updates of Tour de France stages for 14 years now, and for many of those years the same cranky old character – Live Update Guy – has kept you abreast of events on the road. When the action hits a lull, the Live Update Guy – or “LUG,” as we like to call him – kills time with limerick and haiku contests, “where are you from" contests and answering readers' questions. Today's a rest day, but we thought we would wake the old LUG up to answer a few of the most common questions we get.

CSC has promised a repeat of the collective power that virtually eliminated Caisse d’Epargne’s Alejandro Valverde from contention once the Tour de France hits the Alps this weekend. But this time, it is Australian Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) and Denis Menchov (Rabobank) who will be in their sights. Evans took the race lead by a second over CSC's Frank Schleck after Monday's thrilling day of racing in the high mountains of the Pyrenees.

Australian rider Cadel Evans' tenuous grip on the yellow jersey is likely to be undone because of the "weakness" of his Silence-Lotto team, according to Spaniard Alejandro Valverde. The Caisse d’Epargne rider virtually dropped out of the running for the overall victory in the Tour de France on the 10th stage from Pau to Hautacam on Monday, when Evans took the race lead by a second from Luxembourg's Frank Schleck of Team CSC.

When Phil Anderson became the first rider from the Southern Hemisphere to wear the yellow jersey at the Tour de France back in 1981, the French called him “Le Kangourou” simply because he’s Australian. Almost three decades later, this Tour’s new maillot jaune, Cadel Evans, might well be named the “Boxing Kangaroo” after the courageous way he picked himself off the canvas Sunday and came back Monday to fend off his closest opponents and take the overall lead.

Stage 10, Pau to Hautacam, 156km Weather Partly cloudy, moderate northerly winds, highs in 60s Stage winner Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval-Scott) surged away with 7km to go up the Hautacam along with teammate Juan Cobo and Frank Schleck (CSC-Saxo Bank). Schleck faded with about 2km to go and Piepoli slipped in ahead of Cobo to win his first career Tour stage to complete his grand tour sweep to go along with Vuelta and Giro stages. It’s the third stage win for Saunier Duval in a week.

01:01 PM: Happy Bastille day and welcometo VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 10th stage of the Tour de France, a 156-kilometer race from Pau to the summit finish at Hautacam.

Christian Vande Velde had reason to smile following Monday’s summit finish up Hautacam. The Garmin-Chipotle captain remains within striking distance of the yellow jersey in third at just 38 seconds back. Vande Velde, however, believes his day could have turned out even better and quietly cursed a missed opportunity to make more of his great form. The 31-year-old Vande Velde rode impressively up the day’s hors categorie steeps to finish 10th at 2:17 in the five-man group that included new leader Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) and arch-rival Denis Menchov (Rabobank).

The paint job on Erik Zabel’s Colnago was originally used 25 years ago, but even that classic look can not hide the new form beneath it. Zabel debuted Colnago’s new EPS (Extreme Power Special) frame at this year’s and is the only rider using in the peloton.

On a day when race leader Kim Kirchen of Team Columbia admitted he was suffering, and third-placed Stefan Schumacher of Gerolsteiner was dropped on the final climb, Garmin-Chipotle’s Christian Vande Velde rode as strongly as he has ever since the start of this 95th Tour de France — and he moved up to third place on GC. It’s already been a remarkable performance by the Chicago native, whose best previous Tour rides were 25th last year and 24th in 2006 when he was riding as a team player for CSC.

Not to minimize Stefan Schumacher’s surprising stage 4 time trial win, but the 2008 Tour de France saw its first truly amazing performance Sunday as Saunier Duval-Scott’s Ricardo Riccò rode away from the best riders in the world to take his second stage win in four days.

Schleck moving up Andy Schleck quietly slipped into the best young rider’s white jersey in Sunday’s preview in the Pyrénées. So far, the 22-year-old Luxembourger has been riding quietly under the radar. That could change in dramatic fashion in Monday’s summit finish to Hautacam. “I’ve never ridden up Hautacam but all these French climbs are new for me. I saw it on TV when Bjarne (Riis) won it in 1996,” Schleck said. “There’s been a lot of talk going on how strong the Schleck brothers are, but we’ll see in the next days how good we can be.”

Stage 9, Toulouse to Bagneres-de-Bigorre, 224km WeatherMostly cloudy, moderate westerly, northwesterly winds up to 15kph, temperatures in the 60s

After yesterday's stressful stage in the rain I woke up this morning feeling a bit groggy for the first time so far. Looking around at breakfast I wasn't the only one; I think there really is something about a day in the rain that wears on the body. As I walked upstairs from breakfast I got a call from a friend, quickly plural, still going strong on the town in Boulder. There was nothing better than some seriously entertaining drunken jibberish to lighten the mood and put a smile on my face — just in time to get kitted up and head down to the bus.

Sprinters who are capable of winning stages of the Tour de France rarely keep winning for long. They either burn themselves out (either mentally or physically) or soon lose the leg-speed that’s so essential for winning a highly charged field sprint at 40 mph. In view of the astounding finishing speed and dominant margins of victory shown by Team Columbia’s Mark Cavendish in his stage wins at Toulouse on Saturday (and in Châteauroux on Wednesday), I thought it was worth seeing where the 22-year-old Brit stacks up again great sprinters in recent Tour history.

Stage 8, Figeac to Toulouse, 172.5km Weather: Light rain in morning, turning to heavier showers in afternoon, temperatures in the 60s Stage winner: Mark Cavendish (Columbia) won his second stage of this Tour with a brilliant finishing kick to fend off such experienced sprinters as Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and Jimmy Casper (Agritubel). The “Cannonball” finished off great work by Columbia, with teammate Gerard Ciolek coming across the line second ahead of third-place Casper.

WHAT MAKES CAV SO FAST? It looks like Mark Cavendish was born to win. Despite losing the wheel of his lead-out man Gerard Ciolek after riding cautiously through the final bend with just over one kilometer to go to avoid crashing on wet roads, Great Britain’s “Cannonball” was still able to blast across the line with apparent ease to win for the second time in a week. At 23, Cavendish is using his raw finishing speed and tenacious personality to make up for any lack of experience he might have in what is his third grand tour start.

CSC-Saxo Bank’s national Luxembourg champion Frank Schleck dismissed statements made by race leader Kim Kirchen Friday that there was no love lost between the compatriots. Following Friday’s difficult stage, which saw the CSC team of brothers Frank and Andy Schleck set a high tempo that nearly shattered Kirchen’s Columbia team, the race leader insinuated that the tactic had, at least in part, intended to shed the first Luxembourgian maillot jaune in 50 years.

One week. That’s all it took before a doping scandal erupted on the 2008 Tour de France. Photos of Spanish veteran Manuel “Triki” Beltrán doing a perp walk as French police hauled him away in handcuffs from the Liquigas team hotel Friday evening pushed the Tour back into the type of headlines the race is trying to avoid. Perhaps it was appropriate that clouds and rain greeted riders in Figeac before the start of the eighth stage as the pall of cycling’s troubled past reared its ugly head after a week of titillating racing seemingly pushed scandals off the headlines.

French police have taken Spaniard Manuel Beltran away for questioning in the wake of the first doping scandal to emerge at this year's Tour de France. Beltran, best known for helping Lance Armstrong to the last three of his seven Tour de France wins, tested positive for the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO) on the Tour's opening stage, according to top anti-doping officials on Friday.

The first skirmishes in the battle for the Tour de France yellow jersey left damage in their wake during the tumultuous seventh stage to here on Friday. But the biggest souvenir from the second day of climbing in the 'medium' mountain stages was the full exposure of the existing rivalry between three of Luxembourg's most talented bike riders. In one corner is Kim Kirchen, the Columbia team leader who has been wearing the yellow jersey since the end of Thursday's sixth stage.

After seven stages, the 2008 Tour de France is one-third over and starting to take shape, even with the Monday’s first high-mountain stage looming in the distance. Four of the first week’s six road stages have seen separation on the day’s final climb, with the race’s GC contenders coming to the fore to show their cards and limit their losses. And in an unusual twist, the race has seen only one field sprint, won by Columbia’s Mark Cavendish, and its first solo breakaway victory, won Friday by Caisse d’Epargne’s Luis-Leon Sanchez.

There are no easy days in this very different Tour de France. This was especially true on Friday when stage 7 was raced more like a one-day classic than a semi-mountain stage of the Tour. One man who knows a thing or two about the classics (and the Tour!), George Hincapie, had this to say about a stage where his Columbia was stretched to the limit in defending the yellow jersey of Kim Kirchen.

Stage 7, Brioude to Aurillac, 159km Weather: Sunny in morning, building clouds on climbs, cooler, late showers, strong cross and headwinds, highs in 60s. Stage winner: Luís León Sánchez (Caisse d’Epargne) worked into a four-man breakaway that was neutralized by a lead pack of GC favorites only to counter-attack to victory six seconds clear. He saluted to the heavens for his fallen brother, who died in a quad accident a few years ago, as he crossed the line winner of a Tour stage for the first time of his career.

Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle) has been one of the revelations so far in the first week of the Tour de France. Through the first opening seven stages, Vande Velde has ridden with consistency and strength to slot into fourth overall at just 44 seconds out of the yellow jersey. After years in the service of others, Vande Velde is finally getting a crack at being a team leader, and he’s making the most of it. VeloNews spoke to Vande Velde ahead of Thursday’s stage to gauge his first week. Here are excerpts from the interview:

MILLAR TIME OVER David Millar officially gave up the chase for the yellow jersey after a give-all raid that ran out of air early in Thursday’s hilly course across Massif Central. Despite struggling up Super-Besse in Wednesday’s stage, the Garmin-Chipotle captain was still dreaming of the yellow jersey in one last, final shot. Milllar started the day fifth overall at 47 seconds arrears and worked into a promising five-man breakaway that also included German marauder Jens Voigt in the opening 50km.

“Phew! That’s not even one of my farts! I told you, I’ve got four farts. My Heineken fart, my broccoli fart, my rice-pudding fart and my dairy-creamer fart. And the fart I’m smellin’ right now is definitely not one of mine.”—the late, great George Carlin, from “Napalm and Silly Putty”

The agency charged with carrying out anti-doping controls at this year's Tour de France has played down a report that 10 riders are about to be issued warnings for "suspect" blood samples. A report in the French newspaper Le Monde on Friday suggested that the riders were being specifically targeted by the AFLD, France's national anti-doping agency, because of suspected doping. However a statement by the AFLD, later in the day, dismissed those claims as speculation.