I suppose in some way, in fact a very little way, he should be praised for admitting it and not dragging it through the courts, but then you think of the other boys in the team who were removed from the Tour because of his actions and you feel no praise for him.  Yes today Riccardo Riccò confessed to taking EPO to the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI). MORE »

the ever impressive Sean Downey of Banbridge CC won the Ards 3 Day having been in each of the crucial breaks in stages 1 and 2 and having won the Windmill Hill time trial. On stage 4 for a time Kirk Sloan was leader on the road but his 3 man break behind the race winning 4 man break was reeled in leaving Downey safe in his defense of the yellow jersey.

Photos of stage 4

Three Tour titles in a row and for the record, three major sporting victories in a row. Carlos Sastre joins the Spanish football team and Rafael Nadal as champions of major sporting events this summer. It has been quiet a year for Spain and the last few days have been the icing on the cake in the career of Sastre. A worthy winner of this years Tour de France, he was the man who made the attack that counted, the one that broke his rivals and the one that none of the others could make stick. While everyone else jumped in twenty yard bursts only too look around at their rivals chasing them and sit up, Sastrejust kept going and rode off to get the big minutes he needed in order to win the Tour. MORE »

Well there is still a stage to go but with that kind of a ride against the clock, Carlos Sastre has comfortably done enough to ensure his place as the Tour de France 2008 Champion. I honestly didn’t believe the Tour would come down to a time-trial to decide things this year — there just wasn’t many TT kilometres in the Tour compared to other years — but that is exactly what happened as Evans looked to overturn a minute and a half deficit to win his and Australia’s first tour. MORE »

Today’s stage was a rolling one, it wasn’t the big mountains but the sprinters were not going to have a chance either. This was the moment for a a guy hours down on GC to head up the road with a peloton behind that paid him no interest and he won by big minutes but didn’t threaten the overall at all. In the end that is generally what happened. It was two men, and then a few more in behind them, and the stage was taken by Marcus Burghardt ahead of his longterm partner for the day Carlos Barredo. A group of three lead by Romain Feillu, who wore the yellow jersey earlier in the tour, came in 3′33 down and the peloton including all the big names at 6′50. MORE »

Yesterday, for a big mountain stage was very tame, the big names didn’t attack each other but today, being the final mountain stage of the ‘08 Tour, was the last chance for the big climbers to make their mark before Saturday’s time-trial. Get enough time on the TT specialists today and you could well be in with a shout of winning the Tour. Today, however only Carlos Sastre had it in him to properly attack and get the job done. The only question that remains now, is did he get enough time on a time trialing expert like Cadel Evans before Saturday? MORE »

Robin Seymour, pictured with the winning line in sight, won a remarkable and probably unrepeatable 15th straight MTB title at Killruddery Estate near Bray. He was able to take it easy on the last lap allowing both Connor McConvey and Nial Davis to finish within a minute of his time over the 7 laps.

Full report to be stolen shortly.

Here is a load of pictures 

Well what about that? On today’s first of the Alpine mountain stages we had two races on the go. One involving the four men at the head of the race, so far up the road that long before the final climb we knew they would hang on for the win. None of them were overall threats and so were allowed to fight it out between themselves. Remember this was a stage the sprinters teams were never going to even attempt to close down. But while that was going on, minutes down the road and onto the final climb the Tour de France was taking shape, or in many ways, losing shape. MORE »

Yesterday the sprinters had their last shot at glory before the final stage in Paris as we head into the vital stages of the 2008 Tour de France. Yesterday Oscar Friere, the Green Jersey man, finally had his day when Cavendish was dropped on a category 4 climb 10k from the finish. Today however he and Friere will have it hard as the Tour hits the Alps and the big names come to the fore. Following today there is some major mountains that will dictate who wins this thing. MORE »

It has been quite the year for 23-year old Mark Cavendish. First he becomes a World Champion on the track towards the early part of 2008, then he shows up at the Giro d’Italia and wins two stages, he then proclaims himself as the fastest man in the world and backs that up with not one, not two, not even three until yesterday, but FOUR stage wins in the Worlds biggest bike race, the Tour de France. In August his bandwagon will roll in to Beijing as he looks for Olympic Gold. Should he come home with that on top of the current honors, he most certainly will be the deserving forerunner for Britain’s Sports personality of the Year 2008. MORE »

Above is Riccardo Ricco pointing to himself, the cheating scumbag, who is another rider giving a clear disregard to his sport, his team-mates, and the fans who come to watch it. Yes, Ricco, a greedy, self-centred man, in it for the money, has won two-stages in this years tour and although he becomes the third rider to be disqualified for drug cheating, he is the most high profiled. Remember stage 9 how he burst away from everyone on the final climb? Remember Phil Liggett on ITV4 telling us that he rode like Marco Pantani? Remember how pre-race we had been told that he had a ’shady past’ that he defended as being natural? Yes. Remember all that suspicion . . . It was correct.

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Today’s stage didn’t really make much different to the overall standings, though when Oscar Periero attacked midway through the stage it looked for a moment he was going to do a 2006 all over again and claw back the minutes he was down on GC. It wasn’t to be though and a break of 12 men stayed away with Kurt-Alse Arvesen taking the victory.

The last few days however have seen things shake up in dramatic fashion. MORE »

Young Riccardo Riccò timed his move on the final category 1 climb perfectly. He sprung clear of all the big favourites, caught and left behind the men further up the mountain and rode down the other side into the finish for an excellent victory. He only took a minute or so out of what was left of the peloton containing all the big contenders, but for the young Italian who said he was here to learn the Tour and pick up a stage win, things are going very much to plan. MORE »

TdF Stage 8: Figeac - Toulouse (172.5km)

It was one of the easier sprint finishes you will ever see on the Tour de France, it was wet, probably not overly warm, and nobody else for some reason seemd to interested. Either that or they just knew they stood no chance agaisnt the self proclaimed fastest man in the world. A claim which he is backing up in fine fashion. Yes, 23 year old British rider, Mark Cavendish won his second stage today, the only man to have won two stages at the Tour this year, and his fame continues to grow.

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This is Manuel Beltran, the face of the first man to be kicked out of the Tour for testing positive for drugs. EPO being the drug in particular but to be honest, who cares what it was, he is positive, he is out and he is a cheat who for some reason continues to feel it is worth the risk of dragging the sport through the dirt if he is caught and in the new age of dope testing, you will get caught. MORE »