Friday, May 12, 2006
UCI president Pat McQuaid says the results of the independent
investigation into allegations, made by French sports daily L'Equipe,
that Lance Armstrong used EPO in 1999 will be announced in the next two
weeks. (source: Yahoo/Reuters):
|
Guide to live race coverage on the internet/web
|
Notes: Team CSC finally got a
win in the Team Time Trial in a Grand Tour.
T-Mobile Team finally lived up to its paper potential, only to
also live up to its reputation for finding a way not to win. In
the final few hundred meters. Unbelievable. What counts is
the time of the 5th team rider across the line. With T-Mobile's Matthias
Kessler unable to hold on to the wheel in front of him and trying in vain
to catch back up in the closing meters, T-Mobile's stunningly strong finish
resulted in a second place by just 1 second instead of the win. But
the performance nabbed the race leader's pink jersey for Serguei Gonchar.
Gonchar, a world-class time trialist who has finished 8 times in
the top-10 of the Giro, leads Jens Voigt of CSC by 6 seconds in the general
classification.
As for Discovery Channel, losing to CSC isn't surprising but losing
by 39 seconds is. The result wipes out Paolo Savoldelli's gains
of the first week. Savoldelli is now in 6th place at 20 seconds,
9 seconds behind Ivan Basso.
Not surprisingly, Damiano Cunego, Gilberto Simoni and especially
Jose Rujano all lost more time.
This race is far from over. We don't even know how controllable
a race it will prove to be.
Related content:
photos
Copyright © 2005, 2006 Pete Geyer
|
Giro d'Italia
2006, Italy
May 6-28
Stage 6: May 12
Busseto to Forli, 227km
(Tour of Italy)
(Tour d'Italie)
Live video coverage:
(Stream usually available after 15:00 CET (9am
U.S. EST))
realPlayer
DSL
-
56k
Windows Media
DSL
-
56k
(Final 15 minutes only of Italy's live television
coverage)
Live audio coverage:
Real-time graphics:
(go to site, select language)
Live tickers:
|
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Below is a guide to live
internet coverage of the 2006 Tour of Italy
Giro Team Time Trial today
July 9, 2003, Tour de France 69km Team Time Trial
Lance Armstrong (right) has pulled off the front as USPS reaches
the final intermediate time check in Eclaron at 59km. USPS
now
has the best time after being only 7th best after 18km and 2nd
after
44.5km. 10km later at the finish in Saint-Dizier, USPS has
earned
its (and Armstrong's) first-ever win in a team time trial.
(Photo Copyright © 2003 Pete Geyer)
Discovery Channel and Team CSC are expected to battle it out for
the win in today's team time trial. The TTT is one of the most
spectacular events in all of sports.
Discovery won't have Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie, although
Armstrong will be in the team car providing encouragement.
This is tough to call because though USPS/Discovery Channel have
won the Tour team time trial the past three years, the absence of Armstrong
and Hincapie would seem to tip the balance in favor of CSC which has a
very strong team as well, even without Dave Zabriskie. Still, Discovery
has been a bit sharper in this first week than CSC which may have sought
to peak for the tough final week of the race. Discovery Channel
with Savoldelli has looked to pick up time at every opportunity and will
look to do so today.
T-Mobile Team looks good on paper but they always seem to fall
short in this discipline which is as much about coordinated team effort
as capabilities of individual time trialists.
At only
38km 35km*, the time differences shouldn't
be great among the top teams but riders such as Rujano and Simoni will
see their deficits increase today.
* The organizers had to shorten the TTT course at the last minute...
(source: Eurosport)
|
Guide to live race coverage on the internet/web
|
Notes: Second stage win on Tuesday
for Robbie McEwen who outsprinted Paolo Bettini and Alberto Loddo.
Stefan Schumacher remains race leader heading into today's Team Time
Trial.
Team Time Trial start times:
14:45: Selle Italia
14:50: Bouygues Telecom
14:55: Euskaltel-Euskadi
15:00: Panaria
15:05: AG2R
15:10: Cofidis
15:15: Milram
15:20: Davitamon-Lotto
15:25: Liberty Seguros
15:30: Saunier Duval
15:35: Rabobank
15:40: Crédit Agricole
15:45: Phonak
15:50: Quick Step
15:55: Française des Jeux
16:00: Liquigas
16:05: Lampre
16:10: Team CSC
16:15: T-Mobile Team
16:20: Caisse d'Epargne
16:25: Discovery Channel
16:30: Gerolsteiner
Related content:
photos
Copyright © 2005, 2006 Pete Geyer
|
Giro d'Italia
2006, Italy
May 6-28
Stage 5: May 11
Piacenza to Cremona, 38km 35km Team Time Trial
(Tour of Italy)
(Tour d'Italie)
Live video coverage:
(Stream usually available after 15:00 CET (9am
U.S. EST))
realPlayer
DSL
-
56k
Windows Media
DSL
-
56k
(Final 15 minutes only of Italy's live television
coverage)
Live audio coverage:
Real-time graphics:
(go to site, select language)
Live tickers:
|
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Giro d'Italia: First rest day today
Tour de Picardie
Tour de Picardie 2003
Time trial finish at Creil velodrome (north of Paris)
The Tour de Picardie gets underway Friday, May 12 in Creil, France.
The three day, four stage race will conclude on Sunday in Creil.
Past winners of this race include Cyrille Guimard (1972), Bernard
Hinault (1979), Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle (1982), Steve Bauer (1988), Miguel
Indurain (1994), Alexandre Vinokourov (1998), David Millar (2003) and
Tom Boonen (2004). Janeck Tombak is defending champion.
The Tour de Picardie is obviously overshadowed by the Giro d'Italia
but there are some big names competing this year, a few guys winding
down their careers and others just getting started, hoping to get noticed.
20 year-old American Taylor Tolleson has been
getting some hype as the "next next Armstrong"
and may be on the start line.
Riders expected to join Tombak on the start line include: Bernhard
Eisel, Frederic Guesdon, Dimitri Konyshev, Jean-Patrick Nazon, Samuel
Dumoulin, Maryan Hary (Hary is making his comeback after a horrific
crash in last year's Dauphine Libere), Jimmy Casper, Arnaud Coyot, Herve
Duclos-Lassalle, Bradley Wiggins, Jaan Kirsipuu, Laszlo Bodrogi, Leon
Van Bon, Nico Mattan, Gert Steegmans, Jeremy Hunt, Frank Vandenbroucke
and Igor Astarloa.
Team TIAA-CREF is competing at Picardie and their roster will
be selected from among: Dan Bowman, Mike Creed, Mike Friedman, William
Frischkorn, Brad Huff, Nathan Mitchell, Francois Parisien, Taylor Tolleson,
Rahsaan Bahati, and Craig Lewis. Parisien is Canadian and the
others are American.
The Tour de Picardie is organized by A.S.O.
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
|
Guide to live race coverage on the internet/web
|
Notes: Thrilling stage 3 finish
up to the Citadel in Namur yesterday. Gerolsteiner's Stefan Schumacher
won the stage, taking the overall race lead in the process. Schumacher,
winner of last month's Circuit de la Sarthe in France, easily beat Jose
Luis Rubiera of Discovery Channel to the line.
Previous race leader Paolo Savoldelli was in a small group of riders
finishing 6 seconds back. Race favorites Damiano Cunego and Ivan
Basso were in a much larger group 13 seconds behind Schumacher.
Savoldelli is now in second place overall at 13 seconds, with Gerolsteiner's
Davide Rebellin in third at :23.
Disaster struck for Milram's Alessandro Petacchi who crashed, breaking
his kneecap. His race is over and he looks likely to miss the Tour
de France too.
Related content:
photos
Copyright © 2005, 2006 Pete Geyer
|
Giro
d'Italia
2006, Italy
May 6-28
(stages 1-4 in Belgium)
Stage 4: May 9
Wanze to Hotton, 193km
(Tour of Italy)
(Tour d'Italie)
Live video coverage:
(Stream usually available after 15:00
CET (9am U.S. EST))
realPlayer
DSL
-
56k
Windows Media
DSL
-
56k
(Final 15 minutes only of Italy's live
television coverage)
Live audio coverage:
Real-time graphics:
(go to site, select language)
Live tickers:
|
Monday, May 8, 2006
Below is a guide to
live internet coverage of the 2006 Tour of Italy
The real-time graphics available on the Giro official site
(link below)
offer a level of interactivity rarely seen in cycling coverage.
You can zoom
in on the riders in the breakaway and click on them for
background
information. Nice.
We spoke with Sam Abt of the International
Herald Tribune at the start of the Giro d'Italia on Saturday. Sam,
you may know, has covered bicycle racing for about 30 years. His
stories and books (over 10 to date) have long brought the sport and
its locales to life for readers all over the world. Sam is covering
the first few stages of the Giro for the IHT. His latest story,
about Jan Ullrich, begins: "The good news for fans of Jan Ullrich is
that he is not overweight, as he often is at this time of year..." To
read the full story, click the link in our Giro Live Guide below.
|
Guide to live race coverage on the internet/web
|
Notes: Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto)
won yesterday's stage 2 in a sprint finish, beating Olaf Pollack of T-Mobile
Team and Paolo Bettini of Quick Step-Innergetic. Milram sprint
ace Alessandro Petacchi finished 4th.
Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) retains the overall race lead.
Related content:
photos
Copyright © 2005, 2006 Pete Geyer
|
Giro
d'Italia
2006, Italy
May 6-28
(stages 1-4 in Belgium)
Stage 3: May 8
Perwez to Namur, 202km
(Tour of Italy)
(Tour d'Italie)
Live video coverage:
RAI Sport
(rai.it)
(Stream usually available after 15:00
CET (9am U.S. EST))
RAI 3
realPlayer
DSL
-
56k
Windows Media
DSL
-
56k
(Final 15 minutes only of Italy's live
television coverage)
--More links to come if available--
Live audio coverage:
Eurosport
(English)
(24-hour audio feed streaming)
(15:00 CET (9:00am U.S. EST))
(times
subject to change)
(requires Windows Media Player
or equivalent)
(may not work with Firefox browser)
Check schedule
Real-time graphics:
(go to site, select language)
Live tickers:
Radio
Tour ticker
(concise race radio info)
("Radiocorsa")
Eurosport
(English)
Velonews
Cyclingnews
Daily Peloton
Official
site
|
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Live video flash:
We have found another live video stream for you. The
RAI Sport (rai.it) link is in the Live Guide below.
No guarantees this stream will be available the entire race
but we certainly hope so...
--More Giro links to come
this weekend--
|
Guide to live race coverage on the
internet/web
|
Notes: Defending champion Paolo
Savoldelli of Discovery Channel rode to an impressive win (photo) in
yesterday's stage 1 time trial to take the first pink jersey of the 2006
Giro d'Italia. The 6.2km course was difficult with some climbing
and Savoldelli showed he is in good form by beating prologue specialist
Bradley McGee (Francaise des Jeux) by 11 seconds. In third place
was Jose Gutierrez of Phonak, 13 seconds back.
Ivan Basso of CSC and the favorite of many to win the Giro this year
could do no better than 13th place, 23 seconds behind Savoldelli, quite
a time loss over the short distance.
Related content:
photos
Copyright © 2005, 2006 Pete Geyer
|
Giro d'Italia
2006, Italy
May 6-28
(stages 1-4 in Belgium)
Stage 2: May 7
Mons to Charleroi/Marcinelle, 197km
(Tour of Italy)
(Tour d'Italie)
Live video coverage:
RAI Sport
(rai.it)
RAI 3
realPlayer
DSL
-
56k
Windows Media
DSL
-
56k
(Final 15 minutes only of Italy's live
television coverage)
--More links to come if available--
Live audio coverage:
Eurosport
(English)
(24-hour audio feed streaming)
(15:00 CET (9:00am U.S. EST))
(times
subject to change)
(requires Windows Media Player
or equivalent)
(may not work with Firefox
browser)
Check schedule
Real-time graphics:
(go to site, select language)
Live tickers:
Radio
Tour ticker
(concise race radio info)
("Radiocorsa")
Eurosport
(English)
Velonews
Cyclingnews
Daily Peloton
Official
site
|
Saturday, May 6, 2006
--More Giro links to
come this weekend--
|
Guide to live race coverage on the
internet/web
|
Notes: The 2006 Giro d'Italia
gets underway today with a 6.2km Stage 1 time trial. They
are calling it Stage 1 instead of a prologue despite the fact that
it is under 8km. (per UCI rules, 8km is the maximum for prologues)
Unlike with prologues, if a rider crashes and is unable to finish
this stage 1 time trial, he may not continue with the race tomorrow.
(Riders unable to finish a prologue are given the same time as
the last rider and may start the next day assuming they are able.)
Paolo Savoldelli is defending champion; he should put
in a good time today after his recent prologue win at the Tour de
Romandie. We should expect particularly strong performances
from riders for Discovery Channel and Team CSC ahead of next week's
Team Time Trial.
Selected start times for Stage 1 time
trial:
14:34 CET (8:34am U.S. EST):
Frantisek Rabon (first departure)
14:55 CET (8:55am U.S. EST):
Viatcheslav Ekimov
15:17 CET (9:17am U.S. EST):
Manuel Beltran
15:39 CET (9:39am U.S. EST):
Jose Luis Rubiera
15:42 CET (9:42am U.S. EST):
Alexandre Botcharov
16:24 CET (10:24am U.S. EST):
Jan Ullrich
16:43 CET (10:43am U.S. EST):
Bobby Julich
16:53 CET (10:53am U.S. EST):
Rik Verbrugghe
16:54 CET (10:54am U.S. EST):
Michael Rasmussen
( Has "Chicken"
improved? )
17:05 CET (11:05am U.S. EST):
Jens Voigt
17:07 CET (11:07am U.S. EST):
Jason McCartney
17:08 CET (11:08am U.S. EST):
Serhiy Honchar
17:13 CET (11:13am U.S. EST):
Victor Hugo Pena
17:17 CET (11:17am U.S. EST):
Dario Cioni
17:27 CET (11:27am U.S. EST):
Carlos Sastre
17:29 CET (11:29am U.S. EST):
Tom Danielson
17:30 CET (11:30am U.S. EST):
Michael Rogers
17:31 CET (11:31am U.S. EST):
Paolo Bettini
17:33 CET (11:33am U.S. EST):
Davide Rebellin
17:34 CET (11:34am U.S. EST):
Jose Rujano
17:36 CET (11:36am U.S. EST):
Bradley McGee
17:39 CET (11:39am U.S. EST):
Danilo Di Luca
17:44 CET (11:44am U.S. EST):
Gilberto Simoni
17:45 CET (11:45am U.S. EST):
Jose Ivan Gutierrez
17:46 CET (11:46am U.S. EST):
Damiano Cunego
17:47 CET (11:47am U.S. EST):
Alessandro Petacchi
17:49 CET (11:49am U.S. EST):
Ivan Basso
17:51 CET (11:51am U.S. EST):
Paolo Savoldelli
Related content:
photos
Copyright © 2005 Pete Geyer
|
Giro d'Italia
2006, Italy
May 6-28
(stages 1-4 in Belgium)
Stage 1: May 6
Seraing, 6.2km Individual Time Trial
(Tour of Italy)
(Tour d'Italie)
Live video coverage:
RAI 3
realPlayer
DSL
-
56k
Windows Media
DSL
-
56k
(Final 15 minutes only of Italy's
live television coverage)
--More links to come if available--
Live audio coverage:
Eurosport
(English)
(24-hour audio feed streaming)
(17:00 CET (11:00am U.S.
EST))
(times
subject to change)
(requires Windows Media Player
or equivalent)
(may not work with Firefox
browser)
Check schedule
Real-time graphics:
(go to site, select language)
(Starting with
Stage 2)
Live tickers:
Radio
Tour ticker
(concise race radio info)
("Radiocorsa")
Eurosport
(English)
Velonews
Cyclingnews
Official
site
|
Friday, May 5, 2006
2006 Giro d'Italia set for Belgium
start
Place Saint-Lambert, Liege, Belgium
From rider #1, defending champion Paolo Savoldelli
of Discovery Channel, to rider #219, Jan Ullrich of T-Mobile Team,
the 2006 Tour of Italy peloton was presented to the public yesterday
in Liege, Belgium. All riders have passed the medical controls.
And there is even a special pink Giro passenger train criss-crossing
Belgium all month long. (Click
here
(DSL bandwidth) or
here
(28k bandwidth) to view a video of the
special Giro train. Commentary is in French.)
Pink Giro passenger train in Belgium
(Image SNCB/rtc.be)
Hopefully that train won't interrupt the race....
:-)
The 2006 Giro d'Italia is set to get underway with
tomorrow's stage 1 in Seraing, outside Liege.
Live streaming coverage of the 2006 Giro d'Italia
Of the three Grand Tours in 2005, the Giro d'Italia
had the best options for live media streaming. In addition
to Eurosport audio streams, streaming video was available from the
official website and for cycling fans in the U.S., a special weekday
video streaming option (without commentary) was available through
OLN.
This year, viewers in the U.S. once again have the
option of purchasing live video streaming of the Giro but with the
added benefit of race commentary in English courtesy of
Cycling.tv
.
There should also be some limited video streaming
available on the official Giro site, limited in quality as well
as duration.
Eurosport audio streams will of course be available
throughout the race.
RAI Sport (satellite) partial race replays will be
available via streaming as well, usually around late afternoon
U.S. EST time.
cyclingfans.com guides to
live race coverage
Saturday morning we'll have the links to live video,
audio and tickers. Once the Giro is underway and to the extent
that more options become available, we'll add more links. We
will also have links to archived 2006 Giro video clips for those of
you unable to follow along live or if you just want to see replays.
Enjoy the race. It should be a good one!
