Monday, April 25, 2005

Quick note:

Video of yesterday's Giro dell'Appennino race is being broadcast on the web today by RAI TV at 4:30pm CET (10:30am U.S. EST).  This race was won by one of the stars of cycling.

That race will be followed 30 minutes later by coverage of G. Premio di Liberazione.

Try this direct link (requires something like Windows Media Player or QuickTime player) to the 24-hour RAI Sport feed or follow the directions below for Beeline TV:

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Sunday, April 24, 2005

2004 winner Lance Armstrong Notes:  Discovery Channel executed their plan to perfection yesterday, setting up Tom Danielson for the final on Brasstown Bald and Tom did the rest, taking not only the stage win but the race lead as well.  Wow, what a stage.  That had to be one of the most dramatic days ever in cycling in the U.S.:  the climbs, the attacks, the weather, 6-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong helping to launch Danielson up the mountain, Danielson and Leipheimer battling up the final climb with the race lead at stake and race leader Floyd Landis trying to hold on to save the jersey and failing to do so, by just 9 seconds. Unfortunately nobody was showing it live on TV.   Discovery and Danielson have a mere 4-second lead overall to Levi Leipheimer of Gerolsteiner, with Floyd Landis now 9 seconds back in third.  Anything can happen but if you are going to be leading a race by only 4 seconds, having Johan Bruyneel, Lance Armstrong, and the Discovery Channel team on your side gives you the best possible chance.  The team, after being on the offensive yesterday, obviously will now look to protect Danielson's small lead. Jason McCartney played a huge role in helping to set up Tom Danielson's win in yesterday's stage photos © 2005 Pete Geyer

Tour de Georgia 2005, United States, April 19-24 Stage 6: April 24 Blairsville/Union County-Alpharetta, 201.5km Live video coverage: (unavailable) Live audio coverage: (unavailable) Live tickers: Cyclingnews Velonews   Official site

View from the top of the final climb in Ans looking back toward Liège Notes:  Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) goes for three in a row after his wins at Amstel Gold Race and Fleche Wallonne.  But Davide Rebellin of Gerolsteiner, who accomplished the rare triple last year, will be looking to stop Di Luca, as will Rabobank's Michael Boogerd who teams with Erik Dekker and Oscar Freire.  Other riders to look for include Cadel Evans and Axel Merckx of Davitamon-Lotto, Kim Kirchen of Fassa Bortolo, Ivan Basso and the ever-active Jens Voigt of Team CSC, Paolo Bettini of Quick Step, David Etxebarria of Liberty Seguros, Alejandro Valverde of Iles Balears, and Mirko Celestino of Domina Vacanze. T-Mobile looks good on paper with Guerini, Kessler, Sevilla, Vinokourov and Wesemann and is very much in need of a win. La Francaise des Jeux looks to Philippe Gilbert and Thomas Lövkvist to make something happen. Discovery Channel will do what it can with Devolder, Hesjedal, Joachim, McCarty, Noval, Padrnos and Van Den Broeck. Fans of French riders will be looking for something from David Moncoutie, Patrice Halgand, Sylvain Chavanel, Cedric Vasseur, Laurent Brochard, Jérôme Pineau, or Thomas Voeckler. Lots of names but this race likely comes down to the riders who have already shown they were strong in the past week: Di Luca, Rebellin, Boogerd, Dekker, Freire, Kirchen, Etxebarria, Valverde, Celestino, Evans. Danilo Di Luca French cycling great Bernard Hinault was critical last week of riders for not attacking Di Luca before the final climbs.   photos © 2004, 2005 Pete Geyer

Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2005, Belgium, April 24, ProTour Live video coverage: (unavailable) Live audio coverage: Eurosport (24-hour audio feed) (4:25pm CET (10:25am U.S. EST)) Check schedule Live tickers: Eurosport Official site ticker Velonews Cyclingnews Official site

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Saturday, April 23, 2005

2004 winner Lance Armstrong Notes:  Quite a ride yesterday by "Chechu" Rubiera of Discovery Channel.  The plan with Rubiera's attack was to force race leader Floyd Landis's Phonak team to work hard in pursuit and it worked.  The move resulted in isolating Landis (all of his teammates were dropped) but Landis was able to benefit from the work of other teams to limit the damage and Landis finished with the main group of contenders to hold on to the leader's jersey. Landis's teammates certainly won't be fresh today and today is a day you want to be as fresh as possible with a lot of climbing, especially the final climb to the top of Brasstown Bald Mountain.  Landis appears to be the strongest rider in the race but he surely will find himself isolated again.  Discovery Channel will attack again for sure, hoping to set up Lance Armstrong and/or Tom Danielson for the finish with enough time gained on their main rivals to steal overall victory, with or without the stage win.  But it won't be easy.  Aside from Landis who Ullrich-like may be able to limit his losses (Danielson starts the day in 6th place 1:00 behind Landis, Armstrong in 9th at 1:42), Team CSC with Dave Zabriskie (currently in second place at just 19 seconds back) and especially Bobby Julich (3rd at 28 seconds) sit well positioned to benefit from Phonak's response to Discovery Channel's attacks and also have their own cards to play. If Danielson is stronger than Armstrong at the moment, then there can be no doubt, Discovery Channel's best bet would be to set Danielson up for Brasstown Bald.  With Armstrong retiring in July, Danielson is gaining valuable experience in Georgia ahead of May's Giro d'Italia.  For the future of American cycling and Discovery Channel, ideally Danielson would get a spot on Discovery's Tour team and get a chance to learn from the best in the biggest race.  But it's not easy to get into that Tour champion 9-man lineup, especially after riding a 3-week race in May.  Thus far this season, however, Discovery has indeed had Danielson by Armstrong's side, first at Paris-Nice, then Paris-Camembert, and now the Tour de Georgia. Lance Armstrong on Tom Danielson's wheel at Paris-Camembert Tom Danielson photos © 2005 Pete Geyer

Tour de Georgia 2005, United States, April 19-24 Stage 5: April 23 Gainesville-Brasstown Bald/Towns County, 182.4km Live video coverage: (unavailable) Live audio coverage: (unavailable) Live tickers: Cyclingnews Velonews   Official site

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Friday, April 22, 2005

2004 winner Lance Armstrong Notes:  Americans as expected dominated yesterday's time trial with 7 places in the top 10, but obviously it was not a good day for Lance Armstrong who finished 9th at 1:46 back.  Stage winner Floyd Landis of Phonak is the new overall leader but can his team withstand the numerous inevitable attacks in today's and tomorrow's difficult climbing stages? Team CSC is well positioned with Americans David Zabriskie and Bobby Julich in second and fourth place, respectively. Discovery Channel has no choice but to attack if it wants any chance at grabbing victory.  This could be good practice for the team should Lance find himself in difficulty in the Tour de France in July. photo © 2005 Pete Geyer

Tour de Georgia 2005, United States, April 19-24 Stage 4: April 22 Dalton-Dahlonega, 214.7km Live video coverage: (unavailable) Live audio coverage: (unavailable) Live tickers: Cyclingnews Velonews   Official site

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Thursday, April 21, 2005

2004 winner Lance Armstrong Notes:  They don't call time trials "races of truth" for nothing.  There is nowhere to hide, it's just rider against the clock.  Today we'll get an idea of what kind of form Lance Armstrong is in.  It may not be GP des Nations TT distance but 29.9km is still a decent distance (it is 10.9km longer than the 2005 Tour de France stage 1 TT), particularly considering the Mt. Alto climb in the middle. The competition at the top should be good with Americans such as Armstrong, Danielson, Julich, Leipheimer, Landis and Zabriskie, not to mention specialists such as Michael Rich of Germany.  There is a reason we included Tom Danielson in our lineup Tuesday of Americans to watch, despite his announced role of support for team leader Armstrong; this stage as well as the climbing stages to come should suit Danielson who is targeting May's Tour of Italy. Michael Rich (Gerolsteiner) winning the 70km GP des Nations in 2003 photos © 2003, 2005 Pete Geyer

Tour de Georgia 2005, United States, April 19-24 Stage 3: April 21 Rome-Rome ITT, 29.9km Live video coverage: (unavailable) Live audio coverage: (unavailable) Live tickers: Cyclingnews Velonews   Official site

There is another internet re-broadcast of yesterday's Fleche Wallonne race on RIGHT NOW.  (14:20 CET, 8:20am U.S. EST)  It was quite a finish yesterday with Di Luca and Rebellin and other favorites all battling it out on The Wall.

Try this direct link (requires something like Windows Media Player or QuickTime player) to the 24-hour RAI Sport feed or follow the directions below for Beeline TV:


Also, note that RAI Sport should be showing Stage 3 of the Giro del Trentino today at 17:55 CET (11:55am U.S. EST) and again at 04:10 CET (10:10pm U.S. EST).

We are testing the reliability of this method of viewing races on the internet, as well as their scheduling, and likely will add this link to our Links at left very soon.  We are exploring a few other things as well and will mention them here as appropriate.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Update to the information below about the Fleche Wallonne re-broadcast over the internet:  The race is indeed on the air RIGHT NOW (00:50 CET, 6:50pm U.S. EST).  If you miss that, you may be able to catch it again late tonight at 05:30 CET, 11:30pm U.S. EST.

Below is a guide to live internet coverage of the Tour de Georgia 2005.

Note:  Wanna see a Flèche Wallonne re-broadcast for free on the internet today?

No guarantees but it looks like the race (or part of it) may be broadcast at 00:05 CET (6:05pm U.S. EST) via a link you will find here:


At Beeline TV, click the "Media" link next to "RAI Sport 24h, Italy" in the section for Italian TV.  Looks like a RAI Sport 24-hour feed.  If you have problems playing the video stream, check out the information along the lefthand side of the Beeline TV home page.

If it turns out that one can view the Giro d'Italia in this manner, we'll include the link in our "Live Guide" for the Giro.  You only have a couple of weeks to work on your Italian though!

2004 winner Lance Armstrong Notes:  The big teams and main contenders are waiting for tomorrow's (Thursday) time trial stage.  That will shake up the general classification ahead of the tougher climbing stages to come, particularly Saturday's stage to Brasstown Bald Mountain. photo © 2005 Pete Geyer

Tour de Georgia 2005, United States, April 19-24 Stage 2: April 20 Fayetteville-Rome, 197.5km Live video coverage: (unavailable) Live audio coverage: (unavailable) Live tickers: Cyclingnews Velonews   Official site

Below is a guide to live internet coverage of Flèche Wallonne

2004 winner Davide Rebellin Notes:     photo © 2005 Pete Geyer

Flèche Wallonne 2005, Belgium, April 20, ProTour The "Race to the Wall"? Live video coverage: (unavailable) Live audio coverage: Eurosport (24-hour audio feed) (4:00pm CET (10:00am U.S. EST)) (note: Eurosport's U.K. Fleche Wallonne coverage is NOT listed as live) Check schedule Live tickers: Eurosport Cyclingnews Official site

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005


Lance Armstrong found a way to motivate himself to contend for another win in the Tour de France:  Announce the 2005 edition as his last bike race ever, win or lose.

Lance Armstrong, scriptwriter.

Lance's most optimistic fans no doubt were hoping that yesterday's press conference would reveal plans for an attempt at a Giro-Tour double.  That was not to be and in just over three months, Lance will retire from pro competition.  He'll then be racing his kids in the driveway.

So one last "Road to Paris" for Lance and then it's "Road to Home".

But first, there is some racing to do.  The Tour de Georgia this week, the Dauphine Libere and new ProTour Team Time Trial (Netherlands) in June and, finally, one last dance in France where today the news of Lance's upcoming retirement hit all the newspapers and has played over and over on the radio and television.

The stage is set.  The rivals, notably Jan Ullrich, are motivated too.  The final "Tour de Lance" should be exciting.

2004 winner Lance Armstrong Notes:  The inaugural Tour de Georgia was won by American Chris Horner (absent this year due to injury) in 2003 and last year's race was won by Lance Armstrong. Other Americans to watch this year: Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) Floyd Landis (Phonak) Bobby Julich (Team CSC) Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner)   2003 winner Chris Horner is absent this year due to injury photos © 2004, 2005 Pete Geyer

Tour de Georgia 2005, United States, April 19-24 Stage 1: April 19 Augusta-Macon, 207.4km Live video coverage: (unavailable) Live audio coverage: (unavailable) Live tickers: Cyclingnews Velonews   Official site

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Monday, April 18, 2005


Interested in what Lance Armstrong's big announcement is all about?  We're going to attempt to provide a live ticker of sorts right here during the press conference, scheduled to begin at 2:30pm U.S. EST (8:30pm or 20:30 CET).  Click on the 'Live' banner below to open our live events ticker in another window.