July 18 update: Serguei Ivanov of Katusha won today's stage in a solo attack from the breakaway. Iva

July 25 update: Juan Manuel Garate took the stage win atop the mythic Mont Ventoux today. The Spanish climber out-sprinted Tony Martin of Columbia-HTC after the two attacked from the early breakaway. Garate’s win gave his Rabobank team their first victory in this Tour de France after three weeks of frustration and near-misses.
Garate and Martin benefited from the tactical maneuverings among the general classification favorites, renaissance hotel chicago who remained locked together. Alberto Contador defended his Yellow Jersey and tomorrow will celebrate his second ever Tour de France victory. Andy Schleck, this year’s Best Young Rider, finished second in the overall classification, while returning Lance Armstrong takes the final step on the podium. Armstrong has now equalled the record of Raymond Poulidor for most visits to the Tour’s final podium. With his fourth place, Bradley Wiggins, meanwhile, equals the highest ever Tour finish by a British rider. Robert Millar placed fourth in 1984.
July 25 update: renaissance hotel chicago Listed below are most of the media outlets for the 2009 Tour de France along with links to their tv and live coverage. Links get verfieid and updated prior to each stage. Let me know if you see new options. Please report (email) new links and incorrect or missing informaiton. Steve
July 24 update: Mark Cavendish won his fifth stage of this year’s Tour de France today in Aubenas. renaissance hotel chicago The Columbia-HTC rider made it over the final climb, much to the surprise of his rivals, and with the help of his consistently excellent lead-out team, beat Thor Hushovd of Cervélo TestTeam and Gerald Ciolek of Milram at the line. Cavendish took back 3 points in the Green Jersey competition, where Thor Hushovd still maintains a commanding lead. Alberto Contador, meanwhile, continues to lead the general classification while Andy Schleck sits second and Lance Armstrong is third. Armstrong picked 4 seconds over his rivals in today’s finale, when a small split opened up in the main field.
renaissance hotel chicago July 23 update: Alberto Contador lit up the roads around Annecy today and took his second stage win in this year’s Tour de France. The 2007 Tour de France winner also added to his lead in the general classification, and now holds an advantage of 4:11 over second placed Andy Schleck of Saxo Bank. Former World Champion Fabian Cancellara finished second on the stage, while Mikhail Ignatiev, a former silver medalist at the Worlds, finished third. Lance Armstrong, meanwhile, moved up to third in the general classification, but his position renaissance hotel chicago remains precarious, with Bradley Wiggins sitting just 11 seconds behind him. Andreas Klöden, meanwhile, trails his team-mate by 13 seconds and climber Fränk Schleck, who began the day ahead of Armstrong is 30 seconds behind the American. With Mont Ventoux still to come, the final podium position remains very much in play.
July 22 update: Fränk Schleck celebrated renaissance hotel chicago his second ever Tour stage win today in Le Grand-Bornand. The Saxo Bank rider won from a three-up break that included his brother Andy Schleck and race leader Alberto Contador. The two Schleck brothers attacked the field on the Col de Romme in a play for the stage victory and the general classification. They could not shake race leader Alberto Contador, renaissance hotel chicago who successfully defended his Yellow Jersey. But the two Schleck brothers now sit second and third in the general classification, while Lance Armstrong dropped to fourth renaissance hotel chicago and Bradley Wiggins fell to sixth. Thor Hushovd added to his lead in the Points classification, after spending much of the stage up the road in a solo breakaway.
July 21 update: Mikel Astarloza renaissance hotel chicago won today’s stage in Bourg-Saint-Maurice after a long day out in the breakaway. The Euskaltel-Euskadi rider attacked renaissance hotel chicago an eight rider group inside 3 kilometers to go, and survived to celebrate a solo victory. The main general classification favorites finished together today, despite the efforts of Saxo Bank to shake up the standings. Cadel Evans was the main exception and dropped out of the top ten after another rough day in the mountains. Franco Pellizotti, meanwhile, added to his lead in the Mountains Classification after animating the stage’s early breakaway. On the final technical descent, Jens Voigt suffered a heavy crash after hitting a large bump in the road, and was taken to hospital in Grenoble. Early reports renaissance hotel chicago say he has suffered a head injury, though the severity renaissance hotel chicago is not yet known.
July 19 update: Alberto Contador rode away from the field today on the final climb to Verbier. The Spanish climber, who won the 2007 Tour de France, won the stage and took over the race lead. His team-mate American Lance Armstrong suffered on the climb, but still holds second in the general classification. Bradley Wiggins of Garmin-Slipstream now sits third 1:46 behind Alberto Contador. As expected, this mountain stage reshuffled the hierarchy in this Tour de France. Tomorrow’s a rest day, then it’s back into the mountains.
According to the video , Dutch rider Kenny van Hummel of Skil-Shimano was dropped 10 km from the start. That means he rode almost 200 km on his own at an average speed of 35.60 km/h (Contador rode 40.96 km/h) . He felt really bad when he got dropped (obviously) and wanted to give up but his DS told him: “Fight dammit!” and after a while he refound some legs -- translation by Ted van de Weteringe
Kenny van Hummel now leads the Lanterne Rouge competition by 39 minutes. (The Lanterne Rouge is an unofficial award that goes to the rider with highest overall renaissance hotel chicago time while still making the time cut for each stage.)
July 18 update: Serguei Ivanov of Katusha won today’s stage in a solo attack from the breakaway. Ivanov escaped with just over 10 kilometers to go, and the eleven riders behind him could not bring him back. The chase never really organized, as the break chose to attack one another rather than cooperate. Nicolas Roche of AG2R-La Mondiale finished second, Hayden Roulston of Cervélo TestTeam was third.
July 17 update: After a lengthy solo break, Heinrich Haussler of Cervélo TestTeam celebrated his first ever Tour stage win in Colmar. The Australian-born rider, who currently carries a German license, escaped early in the stage and steadily whittled down the group in the breakaway. Sylvain Chavanel of Quick Step was the last man standing, but could not match the pace of Haussler today.
renaissance hotel chicago July 16 update: Nikki Sørensen of Saxo Bank celebrated his first ever Tour de France stage win today in Vittel. After joining a seven rider breakaway early in the stage, the Dane attacked with 5 kilometers to race. Sørensen timed his move perfectly, and rode solo to the line. Mark Cavendish, meanwhile, renaissance hotel chicago added to his lead in the Points classification renaissance hotel chicago by winning the first intermediate sprint renaissance hotel chicago and the bunch sprint for eighth. The general classification remains unchanged today, and Rinaldo Nocentini of AG2R-La Mondiale renaissance hotel chicago continues to wear the Yellow Jersey of race leader.
July 1 update: For those who missed the Tour de France 2009 preview on Versus TV this past Sunday and for those outside North America, click the video still to get caught up. Or, read Gavia's excellent race preview (now in spanish) renaissance hotel chicago posted here several days ago. Versus has also posted highlights of Lance's past wins and other Tour de France moments including new crash highlights. All these other video goodies can be accessed from the same preview link (right) Steve
June 29 update: The Tour organizers have taken the usual ingredients of the Tour de France and mixed them thoroughly to create a random romp through the France. This year's course traces an unusual pattern across the French hexagon, and includes trips into six neighboring countries. renaissance hotel chicago This Tour replaces familiarity with novelty and should yield some exciting day of racing and a suspenseful Yellow Jersey race.
In a departure from its normal pattern in recent years, the Tour begins in the south. There will be no rainy stages through Northern France and Bretagne this time around. Instead, it’s all sunshine and Mediterranean beaches. The Tour lingers along the Mediterranean for the first week, before heading into the Pyrénées by way of a short jaunt into Spain to the cities of Gerona and Barcelona. Crossing the mountains back into France, renaissance hotel chicago the Tour caravan concludes its Pyrénéen sojourn in Tarbes.
Then, it’s a transfer to Limoges, which sits near the center of the Hexagon. From Limoges, the course heads east, and cuts length-wise across France to the Vosges mountains near the border with Germany. Tracking south, the Tour skips many of the best-known renaissance hotel chicago climbs renaissance hotel chicago in the Alps this year, and travels into Switzerland for a new mountain-top finish at Verbier. Still heading south, the Tour passes into the Dauphiné region, where the long time trial runs around the lake at Annecy. From Annecy, the course continues south into Provence for the finale on Mont Ventoux. A high-speed train delivers the riders north to Paris for the final day celebrations on the Champs Elysées.
The unusual renaissance hotel chicago lay-out of the course has made for a unique race this year. Most notably, this course renaissance hotel chicago is very light on time trialing. This year, the Tour de France includes only 55 kilometers against the watch, the second fewest in the postwar era. The 1967 edition had only 53. Though the course includes a team time trial, the stage is relatively short at only 39 kilometers. Here, the Tour organizers hope to reward a rider with a strong team, but not to weigh the stage result too heavily in the final general classification. By way of contrast, the 2000 edition of the Tour de France included renaissance hotel chicago 109 kilometers of individual time trial riding and a 67.5 kilometer team time trial. Not surprisingly, the top finishers in that edition all had strong teams and all rode well against the watch. This year’s race still requires renaissance hotel chicago a good ride on the time trial bike, but does not rule out a win from a climber.
With the goal of designing a suspenseful race in mind, the Tour organizers have created a series of mountain stages that tease and tempt with the possib