Tour de France News for June 5, 2003 Edited by John Stevenson & Jeff Jones Armstrong faces last challenge before Tour The 55th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (June 8-15) will mark Lance Armstrong's final race before the Tour de France this year, where he is going for a record equalling five straight wins. Should he ride into Paris in yellow on July 27, he will join the likes of Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Miguel Indurain as the only rider to have won the race five times. Armstrong has raced a lighter schedule this season, and has spent time in May training over the Tour's key stages. The Dauphiné Libéré will provide him with eight days of tough racing in and around the French Alps, including a 33.4 km individual time trial on Stage 3 and a difficult sixth stage between Challes les Eaux and Briançon that includes the notorious Col du Telegraph/Col du Galibier combination. Armstrong won the Dauphiné last year and went on to dominate the Tour de France, his prowess in the mountains clearly a level above that of his rivals. In this year's Dauphiné he will face competition in the form of Christophe Moreau (Credit Agricole), winner in 2001 and also winner of the Four Days of Dunkirk this year. Another rival for Armstrong will be Tyler Hamilton (CSC), who had a very good spring, winning Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour of Romandy, among other good placings. Another Tour of Romandy performer Laurent Dufaux (Alessio) will line up in the Dauphiné on Sunday. The remainder of the field is quite strong, including David Millar and David Moncoutié (Cofidis), Sylvain Chavanel (Brioches la Boulangère), Richard Virenque (Quick.Step-Davitamon), Francisco Mancebo (iBanesto), Baden Cooke, Brad McGee and Nicolas Vogondy (FDJeux.com), Michael Boogerd and Levi Leipheimer (Rabobank), Laurent Brochard (Ag2r), Iban Mayo (Euskaltel), Miguel Martinez (Phonak), and Patrice Halgand (Jean Delatour). The stages Prologue - June 8; Villard-de-Lans ITT, 5.1 km Stage 1 - June 9: Méaudre - Vaison-la-Romaine, 198 km Stage 2 - June 10: Bollène - Vienne, 195 km Stage 3 - June 11: Saint-Paul-en-Jarèz ITT, 33.4 km Stage 4 - June 12: Vienne - Morzine, 237 km Stage 5 - June 13: Morzine - Chambéry, 192 km Stage 6 - June 14: Challes-les-Eaux - Briançon, 153 km Stage 7 - June 15: Briançon - Grenoble, 174 km Cyclingnews Dauphiné Libéré coverage Preview and course description Map Stages & profiles Start list Pantani & Vini Caldirola: "Anything can happen" The Vini Caldirola-Sidermec team is not ruling out adding Marco Pantani to its roster for the Tour de France. "It may be tricky having two leaders in the team, but we're ruling nothing out," Andrea Agostini, a spokesman for Vini Caldirola-Sidermec told Darren Tullet of Bloomberg News. "Anything can happen." Romani Cenni, president of Pantani's Mercatone Uno team, said yesterday that he would do "everything in my power" to get Pantani a ride in the centenary Tour de France, and the move is legal under UCI rules as long as terms are agreed by both teams. Pantani sees a move to the team, led by Giro runner-up Stefano Garzelli, a team-mate of Pantani on Mercatone Uno from 1998 to 2000, as a chance to topple Lance Armstrong from his dominant position in the Tour. "I want to see if Armstrong is really that much better than me, as people say," Pantani said. "I'm convinced that if several of us worked together, we could get him panicking." The Tour de France organisation also has no problem with Pantani getting about the centenary Grand Boucle train by switching teams, a move that would bring the possible number of previous Grand Tour winners in this year's Tour to nine (Lance Armstrong, Marco Pantani, Stefano Garzelli, Jan Ullrich, Paolo Savoldelli, Gilberto Simoni, Roberto Heras, Aitor Gonzalez, Angel Casero), up from five last year (Armstrong, Heras, Ivan Gotti, Laurent Jalabert and Abraham Olano). "We select the teams, and the teams select the riders," said Jean-Michel Monin, a 1996 Olympic gold medal winner who works for the Tour de France. "If the UCI says all is in order, that's fine by us." Pantani, who was close to quitting cycling last year, said he worked and trained hard last winter in a final bid to get back to the top. "I'm ready to reap the fruits of my labor, which is why I want to race at the Tour de France," he said. "I won't be there just to make up the numbers." Tour wins top Spanish award Spain's top sporting honour, the Principe de Asturias award, has this year gone to the Tour de France. Announcing the award in Oviedo on Wednesday, the prize foundation issued a statement saying, "From its very inception, the Tour de France ... has symbolised sport's most vaunted values: individual endeavour, team work and the will to excel." France's embassy in Spain issued a statement congratulating the Tour on the award and saying, "This Prize constitutes a tribute to all the riders who, from 1903, have demonstrated so much talent and have shared with us so many moments of grace and magic." The embassy's statement recognized the contribution Spanish cyclists had made to the Tour, adding that Spanish riders had "written some of the most beautiful pages of the Tour's history: Bahamontes (the Eagle of Toledo), Ocaña, Delgado, Induráin and many others." The chairman of the award jury was one of those Spanish greats, Miguel 'Big Mig' Indurain, who knows a bit about the Tour de France having won it five years in succession from 1991 to 1995. One previous recipient of the Principe de Asturias, Lance Armstrong, is of course aiming to match Indurain's achievement this year and other previous winners include Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Carl Lewis and Sebastian Coe. Utrecht candidate for 2007 Tour de France start The Dutch city of Utrecht has submitted itself as a candidate to host the start of the 2007 Tour de France, according to De Telegraaf. The city is working with the "Le Tour sous Le Dom" foundation to try and make the campaign succeed. The foundation has made a feasibility study, which it will present to the city council and members of Utrecht's business, sporting, cultural and tourism communities. (All rights reserved/Copyright Knapp Communications Pty Limited 2003)

Recently on Cyclingnews.com Mt Hood Classic Photo ©: Swift

Cyclingnews' live coverage of the 90th Tour de France is powered by