CyclingFever is quite proud to announce a 'joint-venture' during this Tour de France with Dave Shields, writer of 'The Race', 'The Tour' and the story of Saul Raisin, 'Tour de life'.

Quite a few of you already know CyclingFever (and Dave Shields probably) and play your extra VDS-competition there, but for all others: Here's where you'll find Dave Shields' blogs from an American point of view.

http://tour.cyclingfever.com/dave.html

Hope you'll enjoy it, we do!

LAMPRE

Shame that Napolitano is out, seems that the top in Italian sprinting is now out completely, with Petacchi, Bennati and Napolitano missing out on the 2008 edition of Le Tour.

So it's all on Cunego, basically. Let's see how he does. He's got a good support team though, Bruseghin, Marzano, Szmyd and Tiralongo can really help in the mountains. Still fear that his TT will be his achilles.

As we've managed to create our own top 20 after the Solvang time trial, I thought it might be nice for you guys (and gals) to get an update this way.

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So the terror begins!
ASO has put its foot down and refuses Astana to ride in any of their races, starting with Paris - Nice.

See full team line-up: here.

Other stories in l'Equipe this morning suggested that Rabobank (Chicken) and Cofidis (Moreni) were under threat of not being invited in the Tour de France also, but for now they appear on the startlist for P - N.

Probably not the last we'll hear on this subject, but 2008 suddenly looks a lot less attractive without Astana in RCS and ASO races.

The lull till het Volk takes forever, I know.

What better way to have a little extra fun & games until that time is upon us.
Now, this Tour of California should easily motivate you Americans to have a go at taking some European scalps since you know much more about your native teams and riders. Or do you? j/k

Your startlist address has been busy while cycling was asleep and prepared a race-special around the ToC at this address:

http://toc2008.cyclingfever.com/

This silly ProTour year forces us to find alternative races to cover outside 'our usual schedule'. As this is an American race, usually not on our schedule anyway, we thought this might be of special interest to you Podium dwellers and enjoy the race just that little bit more.
Same rules apply at CyclingFever as the Podium Café: No charge to join up. Been there before? Just logon using email address and password you used first time.
Two competitions: One for all stages and the GC, the other for all individual stages, GC doesn't matter.
No restrictions on the riders you choose.

Note: At this time the startlist isn't fully ready yet, so changes can occur. Best to check your line up one day before the start of the ToC. See game rules and deadline on the website. I'll check in regularly if any major news developes concerning starters. Last team added was the Kelly Benefit Strategies team.

Enjoy!

It's really weird for me to be talking about cycling mid-winter.

Yet the Tour Down Under is now a ProTour race and Cyclingfever.com is doing a special on this race.
Since Het Volk is still miles away, I thought this was a nice distraction for anyone from the depressing weather we're having over in Europe.

Mind you, it's a pilot site, but it does offer two competitions to enter, along with a complete database on the Tour's history.

We'd really value your input on this new website

Entering the site is easy, just subscribe to the site and logon. Navigation is pretty basic, so enjoy the Tour Down Under with us.

The link is:

http://tdu2008.cyclingfever.com/

have fun!

Both Tom Stamsnijder and the author allowed me to post and share this exclusive interview for www.cyclingcompetition.com here on Podium Café.

Tom Stamsnijder has been very kind to answer a short Q & A through Email. With the help of some Dutch forum visitors, I posed twelve questions which he answered and elaborated on. You'll find the questions on the flip, directly followed by Tom's answer. Again, I'd like to thank Tom for his cooperation and the forum members for their input on possible questions.
Enjoy!

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Back at the apartment we have a cup of coffee. We check the route once more and get ourselves ready for the ride to Jaén. I won't make the same mistake twice, and put on enough clothing so the cold won't bother me this time. Marc gets an SMS from Wicky that the cyclingsite is 'down', so he needs to do some work on the phone first to make sure that the 3,000 members or so get access to their favorite web-address. A few buns and some drinks set us up for the rest of the afternoon and we're off.

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Thought this was the opportune moment to leave Granada, after today's finish, so here it goes!

Part 3a, Signing in in Granada.

To tell the truth, we can't get enough. This Vuelta a España looks like being decided exactly when we visit these three stages in the race. The decision is unanimous that this day is devided into two parts. First we'll witness the signing in session in the 'parc fermé' in Granada, while we'try to 'storm' the Sierra de la Pandera early in the afternoon. One thing is unclear though: We've got a pretty detailed map of the area, but it shows no road up the Pandera. There's a sense of some doubt to what will happen that afternoon.

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Fascinated by the race starting to unfold, we stick with the big screen and watch what happens next while standing in between a big crowd. The six appear to lead the peloton by over four minutes. Tommy Danielson proves me right soon enough: He's by far the best climber in the group and goes for the solo on the ascend of the Monachil. His lead is shrinking fast however, as Gomez Marchante attacks early on the climb. He's accompanied by Kashechkin, yesterday's big loser. From what I saw on the Calar Alto, Di Luca has it bad and has to forfait in the lead group, just as expected.

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