CrueTrue wrote:
How does it feel knowing that your sister is a better cyclist than you?

2009 Vuelta to tackle La Redoute

Next year's Vuelta a España will start in the Netherlands, and cross over to southern Belgium on stage three to use the roads of famous Spring Classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège. As Grand Tour director Victor Cordero said to Sportwereld on Wednesday, the race organiser plans to make the riders take on the legendary La Redoute climb.

"We want to ride the last 110 kilometres of the old Liège-Bastogne-Liège route, the one on which Eddy Merckx distinguished himself," Cordero said. "With the finish on the mythical Boulevard de la Sauvinière."

The 2009 Vuelta will start with a prologue on the time trial course of Assen, Netherlands. The first stage will take the riders from Assen to Emmen, with the second stage starting in Zutphen and finishing in Venlo. Stage three will depart from Venlo, and cross the Belgian border into the Ardennes region to finish in Liège.

t's that time of year again for speculation on the next Tour de France course. The Grand Tour organiser Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) will reveal the race details only on October 22 in Paris, but the media are already on the hunt for first leaks.

In this way, Spanish news agency Efe claims that one of the 2009 Tour stages will visit the principality of Andorra, located in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. The tourism minister of Andorra, Juli Minoves, reportedly affirmed this on Tuesday this week after talks with Tour director Christian Prudhomme and is now waiting for an official confirmation.

Sources inside the government of Andorra said that the stage finishing in the country's capital of Andorra la Vella may start in Spanish Barcelona, another city which is said to host a Tour de France stage finish on Saturday, July 11, 2009.

Belgian Sportwereld today ventured that one day prior to the stage finishing in Barcelona, the Tour will see another Spanish stage start in Girona, finishing this time in Perpignan, France.

Small Catalunyan newspaper Sport claimed to know all of the stage finishes of the first week of racing, namely Pinerolo on the outskirts of Torino, Italy, then Sisteron, Aubenas, Montpellier and Sète, where the first time trial is rumoured to take place.

One thing is for sure: The 2009 Tour de France will start in Monaco on July 4. Everything else is speculation.

One thing is for sure: The 2009 Tour de France will start in Monaco on July 4. Everything else is speculation.

doddy13 wrote:

The prologue consist of a 250m, drag race style sprint toward the Portes St-Jean fortifications where two riders will face each other to set the fastest time and wear the leader jerseys.

The Tour was scheduled to open with a 6-kilometer Prologue. To comply with UCI rules, it was shortened to a "Prelude" that was run according to some rather odd rules. The teams rode a team time trial and let a single rider go with a flying start to ride the final kilometer, the only part that counted toward the General Classification. Guido Bontempi won with a time of 1 minute, 14 seconds. Bontempi's hold on the Yellow Jersey was almost as short as his Prelude. Canadian Steve Bauer managed to beat the pack home on the first stage by 8 seconds. It was enough to put him in Yellow.

Carlos Sastre is expected soon to bring to an end the speculation about which team he will join for the 2009 season. He has called a press conference to be held on Friday morning, during the Vuelta a España's first rest day. Sastre currently rides for Bjarne Riis' Team CSC-Saxo Bank.

On Wednesday, the 33 year-old Sastre was first linked to the Katusha team - something he later denied. The same day, he was also rumored to have signed with the Canadian Cervélo TestTeam.

"At the time I make a decision on my future, I will communicate it personally to the media," he said recently.