Lance Armstrong certainly knows how to stay in the news.  The latest on Armstrong is that he has been cleared by the French anti-doping agency over the questions surrounding his latest drug test, and the incident with the shower.  He passed the test, but was later found under suspicion due to his request to take a shower prior to taking the drug test.  The shower was ok’d by the official requesting the test, so it was a bit strange that there was outrage following the event.
“The [agency] has decided to …

According to the organizers of the Giro d’Italia, Astana’s Lance Armstrong will be participating in the race on May 9th.  Surprisingly, the twittering phenom hasn’t raced the Giro in his career, so this could be an interesting showing.  It’s doubtful he’ll actually go for the win, but it will could help with training for the Tour de France.
The big question is if the organizers of the Tour de France will let Armstrong race.  According to the Agence Française de Lutte contre le Dopage (AFLD), Armstrong took a shower prior to taking a …

Bernhard Kohl has been banned from cycling for 2 years due using CERA, the latest version of EPO, during the Tour de France.  Kohl came in third, but was later found to have tested positive.
Obviously Kohl was not happy about the penalty.

Ricardo Ricco’s former team sure hasn’t had much luck with keeping sponsors lately.  Scott Bicycles has announced that they will no longer sponsor the Spanish ProTour team, Scott-American Beef, formerly named Saunier Duval.
Saunier Duval dropped their sponsorship of the team in July, after Ricco and teammate Leonardo Piepoli were caught using EPO-CERA during the Tour de France.  Scott announced that they would continue to sponsor the Spanish team, but it looks like it wasn’t meant to be.
I suppose they’ll be called the American Beef team now?  It sounds a bit …

After coming out of nowhere and winning two Tour de France stages, Ricco was tested positive for EPO (erythropoietin), and today has actually admitted to taking the drug to the Italian Olympic Committee’s anti-doping prosecutor.
Ricco, and teammate Leonardo Piepoli were fired by Saunier-Duval due to the scandal, and cheating. Piepoli hasn’t tested positive, but the team let him go out of their distrust of him being clean.
Interestingly, Ricco goes after the poor quality of the testing:
“They made 10 tests in about 13 legs, two were positive and in fact in …

Just a quick note:  I ran across the most useful way to keep up to date on the 2008 Tour de France.  KWC.org has put together an amazing rundown of every bit of Tour de France info from around the web.  Just check the page every few hours and get your fill of the absolute latest information.
Click Here to get your Tour de France fix.

ESPN has put together a top ten list of the best American performances in the Tour de France.  The list covers the best moments, from Lance Armstrong’s 2003 cruise through a hay field, to the narrowest winning margin in Tour history by Greg Lemond.
The 8-second win differential still remains the smallest margin of victory in Tour history. LeMond’s average speed of 54.545 kph also remains the fastest time trial pace in the event.
An 8-second difference over the length of the Tour de France is pretty crazy.  If it wasn’t for …