L eTour 2010 - blogs and other sites worth a look

A mixed bag (or musette?) today...

The Smith Report: Tour de France

--Today's stage passes through Meise, the hometown of Eddy Merckx. In most sports, describing an athlete as the greatest of all time can create a spirited argument. Not in cycling. You'll find few who don't consider The Cannibal, so called because he devoured competitors, the greatest of all time, including his protege Lance Armstrong. When Armstrong was recovering from cancer, he was asked to be an honorary starter for a charity ride in Austin, TX. He told the organizers fine and that he would ride as well. But could he bring a friend? He showed up with Merckx.

Carmichael Training Systems: PezCycling News Prologue Update

What we do know is that Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong are in great shape because they raced in identical conditions, both finished within the top 5 on the stage, and they were only separated by 5 seconds. Lance scored a nice psychological victory by finishing ahead of Contador, and it’s always better to be ahead rather than behind, but in the bigger picture all it means is that they are both fit and ready to ride compete for the next three weeks. However, I’d hesitate to say today’s result means they – or Cadel Evans, who also scored a very good ride - are head-and-shoulders above any other pre-Tour favorites. They will benefit from times that were about 25-45 seconds faster than some rivals today, but it would be premature to draw conclusions about the form or fitness of Andy Schleck, Ivan Basso, Bradley Wiggins, or Christian Vande Velde.

Cadel's Diary | Cadel Evans 2009-2010 - The Official Site of Cadel Evans - World Champion 2009, Tour de France runner-up in 2007,2008.

Onto the road stages here at Le Tour, and the Tour's first week nerves lived up to their name. A few big crashes, particularly in the last 2km. It was only a small group that was left to contest the sprint. Most others were lying on the ground...Petacchi won the opening road stage ahead of my countryman Mark Renshaw. It's nice to see Mark back at the interesting end of the results sheet after all the problems he has had to overcome this year.

PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling

"I'm extremely disappointed. I was really looking forward to this tour and I'm upset now that they have to continue with only eight riders. It was one of those freak crashes. I briefly saw something on the road before I hit it and my bike skid across the field. Most riders managed to avoid me but at the last second I hit the back wheel of another rider and went down."