Free Republic

Lance Armstrong's black eye was mostly healed by Thursday's pre-Tour de France press conference, but he still sported a few small cuts, legacy of a training crash last week that put him over the handlebars and cracked the six-times Tour winner's helmet in two. Not to be outdone, Jan Ullrich crashed into the back of his T-Mobile team car while out training. Ullrich was motorpacing behind directeur sportif Mario Kummer when Kummer braked hard on a stretch of wet pavement. Ullrich hit the back window, shattering it, but sustained little more than a few cuts and claimed to be fine....

Tuesday's EuroFile: Armstrong, Simeoni flap enters new phase; Ullrich not happy with boss By Agence France Presse This report filed July 27, 2004 Filippo Simeoni was questioned by investigators from the Italian drug squad on Tuesday over an incident between him and six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong during the race last Friday. by Graham Watson The investigators grilled Simeoni for three hours about what happened when Armstrong chased down an early attack by the Italian on the 18th stage of the Tour last week. In an unusual move for a race leader confronted with a rider who is...

Today an individual time trial up the infamous l'Alpe d'Huez.

Great story, the man riding with the broken collarbone right now has cut his overall deficit from the main riders in more than half from 9 minutes to 4.What an epic 100th tour this has been!

It was more than we could have hoped for. Lance looked bad in the starting house. His eyes were going all over the place, he almost seemed frightened to me. It was a good Lance, still second in the TT, but the overwhelming imperial Lance of the past four years is not present at this year's Tour de France. A true dog-fight has begun and it will take place in the Pyrenees, which have served as the stage for so much incredible drama over the 100 years of the Tour. Ullrich is back like never before - his overwhelming victory...