Tour de France 2011

Landaluze cleared for LNDD error; hope for Landis?

Eurosport | Landis optimistic after Landaluze case

The Court of Arbitration of Sport yesterday rejected a final appeal by the UCI to sanction Inigo Landaluze for a postive testosterone case, citing malfeasance by the same lab that in July tested Tour de France winner Floyd Landis.

Inigo Landaluze, who won the 2005 Dauphiné Libéré for Euskaltel-Euskadi, was suspended for tests performed during that race. In May 2006, the Spanish cycling federation overturned the suspension (saying it was "not in accordance with all applicable legal requirements"), and the UCI appealed to the CAS.

Here's the CAS press release, but the nut graf is:

It has been indeed established that the person who conducted the analysis of the B sample was also involved in analysis of the A sample, thus in violation of the international standard applicable to the accredited laboratories. The Panel considered that the violation of this technical direction was likely to affect the results of the analyses. The Panel has considered that the non-compliance with this standard constituted a procedural flaw serious enough to cause the invalidation of the anti-doping test.

That's at the same Labaratoire National de Dopistage du Dopage (LNDD) at Chatenay-Malabry that committed a boatload of procedural errors in the Landis case.

I'll give Floyd himself the last word:

Going through what I am now, I feel personally for Landaluze and hope that everyone recognizes that it has taken him 18 difficult months to clear his name from what was revealed to be a grievous error by the LNDD ... The track record of scientific misconduct at Chatenay-Malabry seems to grow by the day.

Dauphiné wrap-up photo gallery

Grenoble Cycling Pages - Home Page

Russell Standring has been shooting pictures at every stage of the Dauphiné, and has a nice mix of rider portraits and racing shots. He hasn't posted a page for today yet, but he's named his pages predictably, so I'm adding a link to the gallery he's likely to post sometime today. I've got direct links to some of my favorites, but there must be 150 or more total photos.

Prologue

Stage 1 (great portrait of Hincapie)

Stage 2 (Armstrong portrait, breakaway games)

Stage 3 (Rik Verbrugghe during the TT, Leipheimer in yellow

Stage 4 (Vinokourov drops Gomez)

Stage 5 (Landaluze on the Grimone)

Stage 6 (Klöden at the start, Botero takes the stage)

Stage 7 (coming soon)

Hink the alpha and omega at Dauphiné; Landaluze holds on GC

VeloNews.com | Hincapie wins final stage at Dauphiné; Landaluze takes overall Discovery Channel waved the flag high on Sunday, finishing 1-2-3 at Stage 7 of the Dauphiné Libéré, and giving George Hincapie an unusual double, taking the race's prologue and the last stage. Euskaltel's Inigo Landaluze was thoroughly tested, but hung on to take his biggest professional win. Hincapie and teammate Yaroslav Popovych broke away less than an hour into the stage, which included seven laps of a finishing circuit including a 2.5 km climb, where Bernard Hinault won the 1980 world championship. The two class-A all-rounders worked smoothly together and finished with 22 seconds in hand. Finally, on the last circuit, 2nd-placed Santiago Botero launched an attack, covered by Armstrong, Vinokourov, and Leipheimer, but gained only 38 seconds on Landaluze, leaving Landaluze an 11-second margin of victory. Armstrong, presumably helped by not having to pull with two teammates up the road, took the sprint, giving Discovery the top 3 spots on the day. Armstrong wound up with the Dauphiné overall points jersey, with Discovery Channel taking the team prize. Top 10: 1) George Hincapie, Discovery Channel, 3:07:10 2) Yaroslav Popovych, Discovery Channel, same time 3) Lance Armstrong, Discovery Channel, at :22 4) Alexandre Vinokourov, T-Mobile, same time 5) Santiago Botero, Phonak, same time 6) Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, same time, 7) David Moncoutie, Cofidis, at :24 8) Wim Van Huffel, Davitamon-Lotto, same time 9) Jose Gomez Marchante, Saunier Duval-Prodir, at :45 10) Francisco Mancebo, Illes Balears, at :59 General classification: 1) Inigo Landaluze, Euskaltel-Euskadi, 28:24:46 2) Santiago Botero, Phonak, at :11 3) Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, at :38 4) Lance Armstrong, Discovery Channel, at :59 5) Alexandre Vinokourov, T-Mobile, at 1:02 6) David Moncoutie, Cofidis, at 1:56 7) Jose Gomez Marchante, Saunier Duval-Prodir, at 3:54 8) Marzio Bruseghin, Fassa Bortolo, at 3:58 9) Andrey Kashechkin, Credit Agricole, at 5:04 10) Francisco Mancebo, Illes Balears, at 6:20 Also: cyclingnews.com | Stage and overall results | Stage 7 recap

Graham Watson on US civil war at Dauphiné

ThePaceline.com (free reg. req.) | Graham Watson: Dauphine Stage 6

Graham Watson confirms what I thought about yesterday's stage -- he calls it the “best day's racing of the year.”

There was certainly a lot to like, with the re-emergence of Santiago Botero, the strong showing by traditional Tour strengths like Francisco Mancebo, David Moncoutie, and Christophe Moreau, and the gutty performance by Inigo Landaluze to narrowly protect his overall race lead.

Watson, however, is focused on what was going on with Armstrong, Leipheimer, and Floyd Landis. Watson believes Armstrong was riding partly to demoralize the World's Fastest Mennonite:

If there was ever any doubts still, it was when Lance eased off the Vino-Gomez attack to allow Leipheimer to catch up again that we knew they were working together against Landis.

If you are as puzzled as you should be, don’t worry. This is Lance’s way of showing Landis what life is like ‘after US Postal’ – and there will be more to come in the Tour de France, be sure of that. To make Landis’s day even worse, he overshot a bend with two-kilometres to go and skidded into the dirt, making it back to the race with only his pride hurting.

Shades of Brasstown Bald in there.

One story I saw had Armstrong catching Vinokourov and Gomez, then dropping back to tow Leipheimer onto their tails. Armstrong's not going to get a tremendous result out of the Dauphiné, but he definitely got a chance to test himself under fire, and he's looking both strong and sassy for next month's Tour.

GrahamWatson.com Dauphiné Stage 6 photo gallery

Botero's big break; Levi, Landis, Lance; Landaluze limits losses from GrahamWatson.com

Botero's back -- takes Stage 6, Landaluze holds lead at Dauphiné

Eurosport | Botero steals stage, Landaluze still leads After a tremendous Tour de France in 2002 (he was 4th overall, beat Lance Armstrong in the long time trial, and took a mountain stage win), Santiago Botero signed with T-Mobile and promptly disappeared. Since joining Phonak at the beginning of this season, Botero has won the Tour of Romandy and the individual time trial at the Dauphiné Libéré Wednesday, edging Levi Leipheimer by a second. During Thursday's stage to Mont Ventoux, Botero wasn't a factor, and finished 16th on the day, 2:59 behind former teammate Alexandre Vinokourov. Today, on the hardest stage of the race, Botero showed he's rediscovered his form. On the hors categorie Col de Joux Plane, Botero broke from the leaders, and only David Moncoutie of Cofidis could hold his wheel. Lance Armstrong was content to sit in the field early, leaving chase duties to the guys with more to lose: Alexandre Vinokourov, who needed to gap the other GC riders to have a shot at a 2nd Dauphiné title; Levi Leipheimer, who could retake the race lead if he could gap Euskaltel's Inigo Landaluze, and Landaluze himself, who risked losing the race lead to Botero if the Colombian got far enough up the road. The first select group was 8 leaders, who gapped Landaluze, and included Armstrong, Landis, Leipheimer, and Vinokourov. Then Vinokourov broke away, getting about 20 seconds, and forcing Armstrong to reel him in about 1 km short of the top of Jeux Plane. At the summit, Armstrong, Leipheimer, Vinokourov, and Saunier-Duval's Jose Gomez-Marchante were the last remnants of the select group, and on the 9 km descent to Morzine, they were joined by David Arroyo of Illes Balears. Leipheimer and Vinokourov were riding hard to gain time on Landaluze, who spent much of the climb alone, about 30 seconds behind the Armstrong group. The leaders never were able to close down Botero, who finally shed Moncoutie on the descent. Landaluze battled all day, and in the end, saved his race lead, now leading Botero by :49, Leipheimer by 1:16, Armstrong by 1:37, and Vinokourov by 1:40. Top 13: 1) Santiago Botero, Phonak, 4:30:54 2) David Moncoutie, Cofidis, at :23 3) Francisco Mancebo, Illes Balears, at :53 4) Christophe Moreau, Credit Agricole, at :58 5) Marzio Bruseghin, Fassa Bortolo, at 2:27 6) Alexandre Vinokourov, T-Mobile, at 2:50 7) Lance Armstrong, Discovery Channel, at 2:52 8) David Arroyo, Illes Balears, same time 9) Jose Gomez Marchante, Saunier Duval-Prodir, same time                    10) Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, same time, 11) Andrey Kashechkin, Credit Agricole, at 3:43 12) Floyd Landis, Phonak, at 4:02 13) Inigo Landaluze, Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 4:17 Thor Hushovd and Christian Vande Velde were among the riders who didn't finish the stage. Also: BBC Sport | Botero fires warning to Armstrong Botero certainly bears watching, but I'm not sure that's a fair headline: Botero had somewhat fresher legs than the guys who fought it out on Ventoux Thursday. In the Tour, the overall leader typically can't finish 3 minutes down on any stage (except, of course, the early suicide breaks by riders with no GC chance). Yahoo! Sports | I didn't feel comfortable in mountains, says Armstrong VeloNews.com | Botero wins mountain stage as Landaluze clings to lead in Dauphiné cyclingnews.com | Dauphiné Libéré Stage 6 Results

Dauphiné Libéré Stage 5 photo galleries

Race leader in a break?, “Hear who made the break?”, Axel Cannibalson from GrahamWatson.com

Levi & wife (the lovely Odessa Gunn), Flecha, Landaluze @ cyclingnews.com

Graham Watson: Armstrong "had a hand" in Stage 5 break

ThePaceline.com (free reg. req.) | Graham Watson: Dauphine Stage 5

Graham Watson is doing a column for ThePaceline.com, and in today's edition he speculates (and admits to speculating) that today's breakaway that upset the Dauphiné applecart smells like an Armstrong operation.

It is fun and slightly mischievous to consider that in the big escape of the day, at least half of them are known to be chummy with Lance. Juan Antonio Flecha and Axel Merckx are two of his closest buddies, and add the fact that his own teamate Benjamin Noval was in the break as well, you can then hypothesize that Lance and his team had quite a hand in letting that escape get away – and then sat back and watched the others struggle to comprehend what was going on. Once the chase started – with Landaluze at least ten minutes ahead of the peloton, Lance and his teamates were able to watch as T-Mobile, then Phonak, then Gerolsteiner took it in turns to chase.

I also wonder about Levi Leipheimer's early break: Apparently, he and two teammates managed to gap the field among more than 30 other riders just 25 kms into the race today, forcing T-Mobile to the head of the field to ride tempo and bring them back.

There are a couple of pictures accompanying the article of Armstrong in an unusual jersey: the Dauphiné's "combined classification" jersey, whose color reminds me of Armstrong's first pro jersey, with Motorola.

Merckx takes Stage 5, Landaluze the lead at Dauphiné

Eurosport Cycling | Dauphine Libere

Axel Merckx spent most of the day alone, riding away from an early break that gave him the day and Euskaltel's Inigo Landaluze the overall race lead at the Dauphiné Libéré.

The break made the most of a lazy pace by the main field, and most of its members finished 7 minutes plus on the peloton. Merckx moves into second overall.

It's Merckx's first win since 2003; he took the bronze in the road race at the 2005 Athens Olympics.

It kind of looks like Armstrong might have taken the presence of Noval up the road as a chance to make Gerolsteiner defend Leipheimer's jersey, and, for whatever reason, the G-men declined. We'll see when the stage photos go up.

Top 10:
1) Axel Merckx, Davitamon-Lotto, 5:15:01
2) Inigo Landaluze, Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 2:15
3) Benjamin Noval, Discovery Channel, at 5:45
4) Eddy Mazzoleni, Lampre-Caffita, same time
5) Paolo Bossoni, Fassa Bortolo, at 6:15
6) Sylvain Chavanel, Cofidis, same time
7) Rafael Casero, Saunier Duval-Prodir, same time
8) Mario Aerts, Davitamon-Lotto, at 6:17
9) Francis Mourey, Française Des Jeux, at 6:18
10) Thor Hushovd, Credit Agricole, at 7:32

The peloton came in at 9:36, with all the previous GC leaders included.

The new top 6 on GC:
1) Inigo Landaluze, Euskaltel-Euskadi, 20:41:15
2) Axel Merckx, Davitamon-Lotto, at 2:32
3) Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, at 2:51
4) Lance Armstrong, Discovery Channel, at 3:12
5) Alexandre Vinokourov, T-Mobile, at 3:17
6) Floyd Landis, Phonak, at 3:38

Levi Leipheimer fell late in the stage, but was only slightly injured.

Also:

cyclingnews.com | Stage results

CyclingNews interview with Lance Armstrong

cyclingnews.com | Suddenly Seven

Tim Maloney got a chance to talk to Lance Armstrong yesterday after Stage 4 at the Dauphiné Libéré yesterday, and covers a range of topics, from both the new Trek frames Armstrong is testing this week (the TTX for time trials, and the lighter SSLx he's riding on other stages) to Paolo Savoldelli's Giro win to what he's looking forward to after the Tour.

One interesting nugget: Armstrong is still considering riding the ProTour team time trial in Eindhoven June 19th. There had been reports in March that he was a lock for the TTT.

Dauphiné Mont Ventoux photo galleries up

Armstrong suffering, Levi+Vino, Vino king of the hill from GrahamWatson.com

Armstrong chasing, Gomez the goat @ cyclingnews.com

Vinokourov tops Ventoux, Leipheimer holds lead

T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokourov was the strongest man on the baldest mountain today, tearing up the field on the climb to Mont Ventoux. Discovery Channel's Lance Armstrong was put into difficulty a number of times on the legendary climb, but rode his own race and limited the damage to Vinokourov, who confirmed his status as a legitimate Tour podium pick, depending on T-Mobile team politics. Vinokourov put more than 30 seconds into all the other Dauphiné GC contenders, but it was not enough for the race lead. Gerolsteiner's Levi Leipheimer, who rode with Vinokourov after his key break, eventually fell back to, then behind, Discovery Channel's Lance Armstrong to lose 46 seconds, finishing 7th on the day. It wasn't enough to push Leipheimer out of the race lead. Armstrong himself lost 37 seconds to T-Mobile's Kazakh, finishing 4th on the day, and improved to just 21 seconds behind Leipheimer's race lead. Vinokourov improved to 3rd overall, at 26 seconds. Phonak's Floyd Landis, 5th on the day, sandwiched between Armstrong and Leipheimer, is the only other rider inside of 2 minutes behind Leipheimer on GC. It's another strong day for the Americans. Top 10: 1) Alexandre Vinokourov, T-Mobile, 4:07:23 2) Jose Gomez Marchante, Saunier Duval-Prodir, at :06 3) Wim Van Huffel, Davitamon-Lotto, at :16 4) Lance Armstrong, Discovery Channel, at :37 5) Floyd Landis, Phonak, at :41 6) Andrey Kashechkin, Credit Agricole, at :43 7) Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, at :46 8) Inigo Landaluze, Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 1:31 9) Nicolas Fritsch, Saunier Duval-Prodir, at 1:36 10) David Moncoutie, Cofidis, 1:45 Landaluze at 8th on the day, 11th overall, is currently the ranking Euskaltel-Euskadi, one year after they won the Dauphiné with Iban Mayo. Also: Yahoo! Sport | Armstrong back in contention as Vinokourov tames Ventoux Points out that Botero had a very bad day today, finishing 16th, about 3 minutes back of Vinokourov. Bad news for the big guys: Magnus Backstedt didn't take the start today, preferring to go back to Wales to try to recover in advance of the Tour next month. Backstedt lost more than 8 minutes on yesterday's time trial, and says he's producing "lactic acid extremely quickly." PezCyclingNews.com | Dauphine Libere St. 4 - Vino On The Ventoux cyclingnews.com | Full results

Dauphiné Stage 4 underway

Eurosport | Dauphine Libere

Eurosport is the only one of the usual bunch doing live updates. Below is, well, commentary on their commentary.

The strong men are reeling in an early break that stayed away well onto Mont Ventoux, the legendary climb that finishes today's stage. In the chase, a few familiar names, including former US Postal lieutenant Roberto Heras and 2004 Tour de France runner-up Andreas Klöden, have fallen off the select group.

Jorg Jaksche of Liberty Seguros and Davitamon-Lotto's Wim Van Huffel are the two surviving breakaway riders, but the leaders, including Levi Leipheimer and David Moncoutie, are closing fast.

Lance Armstrong has been dropped and recovered the select group -- he looks to be having difficulty holding Leipheimer's pace. Floyd Landis is still in the leader's group, as well.

With about 5kms to ride, Saunier-Duval's José Gomez-Marchante attacks from the select group, taking T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokourov and overall leader Levi Leipheimer with him. No word on Jaksche, but Van Huffel is getting rolled up by these three. Armstrong, Landis, Moncoutie, Kashechkin (bless you), are falling off the lead.

Now Vinokourov and Gomez-Marchante have dropped Leipheimer. They've caught Van Huffel to take the stage lead, and Leipheimer is falling back into the Armstrong group, maybe 30 seconds back.

With 2 kms to go, it's going to be Vinokourov or Gomez-Marchante for the stage win (and I'm betting on the Kazakh...).

With 1 km to go, Armstrong, Leipheimer, Landis, and Kaschechkin have pulled back some time, trailing by 17 seconds.

With about .5 k, it's go go Vino, and Vinokourov is riding away from his break companion Gomez-Marchante.

Vinokourov takes the stage! It's all down to the time gaps now.

At the finish, Leipheimer holds his leader's jersey!

Armstrong: “Leipheimer is the favorite”

Yahoo! Sport | On-form Armstrong challenges Leipheimer to win Dauphine

Two-time Dauphiné Libéré winner Lance Armstrong says he's not likely to make it three.

"No, Leipheimer is the favourite to win," Armstrong when asked if his bid to win a third Dauphine was now launched.

Armstrong is third in the general classification at 30secs behind Leipheimer and 18 behind Botero, and warned: "He (Leipheimer) doesn't have the team to win. I shouldn't say that, but with the stages to come he'll need some strong climbers to support him.

As for Leipheimer, he says he's taking it day by day, prepping for a Tour de France where he wants "to finish in the top five. With a little bit of luck I can finish on the podium."

Leipheimer said he's eyeing the Tour's last time trial, in Saint-Etienne on Stage 19 July 23rd, as a stage he can win.

So is Armstrong just downplaying his condition? There's still a ton of miles, many of them uphill, on this Dauphiné, and 30 seconds either way is not that much right up through the last big climb of the Dauphiné, Saturday on the Col de Jeux-Plane.

Graham Watson TT galleries up, now offering more prints

Floyd “Obree” Landis, Botero, Leipheimer in yellow from GrahamWatson.com

I love Graham Watson's work, and have a variety of books, calendars, etc., in which it's featured. I had always wondered why, with the technology seemingly available for it, his website didn't offer on-demand prints.

He has always sold prints of insanely popular pictures, like the flag cowboy at last year's Tour. If, on the other hand, you're Fabian Cancellara's mom, and you want a picture of him in the yellow jersey after last year's prologue, you've been out of luck.

But no more. Now, the great one is offering custom prints of most (all?) the images in his daily race update. Prices range from $82 for an 8 x 12" print to $120 for 12 x 18".

Leipheimer in Dauphiné yellow as Botero wins ITT

BBC SPORT | Botero leaves Armstrong gasping

Phonak's Santiago Botero took the individual time trial at the Dauphiné Libéré today, with Levi Leipheimer's 2nd place catapulting him into the race lead.

Botero beat Leipheimer by just 1 second, with Discovery's Lance Armstrong 26 seconds back, and Phonak's Floyd Landis at 39 seconds. T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokourov rounded out the top 5, at 1:00 back of Botero.

As expected, the time trial totally reshuffles the GC, with Leipheimer moving in to the overall race lead, Botero at 12 seconds, Armstrong at 30 seconds, and Landis at 42 seconds.

Tomorrow's stage to the top of Mont Ventoux is the next obstacle for whomever is going to win this thing; it's hard not to think back to Brasstown Bald at the Tour de Georgia in April, where Tom Danielson (not at the Dauphiné) took the stage, followed closely by Leipheimer, then Armstrong just gapping Landis at the top of the mountain a minute behind.

Leipheimer is clearly in tremendous shape this year. Armstrong is clearly in very good shape, as well, but whether it's Tour-winning shape is still to be seen.

Top 10:

1) Santiago Botero, Phonak, 1:00:06
2) Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, at :01
3) Lance Armstrong, Discovery Channel, at :26
4) Floyd Landis, Phonak, at :39
5) Alexandre Vinokourov, T-Mobile, at 1:00
6) Oscar Pereiro, Phonak, at 1:09
7) George Hincapie, Discovery Channel, at 1:11
8) Marzio Bruseghin, Fassa Bortolo, at 1:14
9) Ivan Gutierrez, Illes Balears, at 1:16
10) Sebastian Lang, Gerolsteiner, at 1:19

Also:

Yahoo! Sport | Armstrong stunned as Botero wins Dauphine TT

Armstrong:

"I'm not overwhelmingly pleased but not too disappointed. I'm on schedule (for the Tour)," he added.

"I'm better than I was at the Tour of Georgia. I'm more comfortable on the bike. My position is better and my cadence is better.

"Today wasn't perfect but the overall sensation is good."

Still unaware of Botero's time, Armstrong added: "I was six seconds behind Botero at the second checkpoint but if I was 30 seconds behind him at the finish line then that would be a little disappointing."

cyclingnews.com | Full results

Dauphiné Stage 2 photo galleries

Armstrong, Bessy, Dumoulin; more @ GrahamWatson.com

Armstrong with Crow, there goes the break from cyclingnews.com

Dumoulin wins Dauphiné Stage 2 in hometown

BBC SPORT | Dumoulin takes lead in Dauphine

Samuel Dumoulin was best of a very French breakaway at the Dauphiné Libéré today. With the win, Dumoulin captures the race's yellow leader's jersey in his hometown.

Dumoulin, Anthony Charteau, Frederic Finot, and Frederic Bessy joined up in a 180-kilometer break that had more than 17 minutes on the field at one point. At the end, the 3:16 gap was enough to drop Discovery's George Hincapie from the race lead.

Phonak's Robbie Hunter won the field sprint in front of Credit Agricole's Thor Hushovd and Stuart O'Grady of Cofidis.

Tomorrow and Thursday will likely be the days that decide the overall. Tomorrow is a 46.5 kilometer time trial, and Thursday finishes atop Mont Ventoux. The press is building up the TT as make-or-break for Lance Armstrong as he prepares for his July campaign for a 7th consecutive Tour de France title.

Top 10:
1) Samuel Dumoulin, AG2R, 4:47:06
2) Anthony Charteau, Bouygues Telecom, same time
3) Frederic Finot, Francaise des Jeux, same time
4) Frederic Bessy, Cofidis, same time
5) Robbie Hunter, Phonak, at 3:16
6) Thor Hushovd, Credit Agricole, same time
7) Stuart O'Grady, Cofidis, same time
8) Juan Antonio Flecha, Fassa Bortolo, same time
9) Enrico Franzoi, Lampre, same time
10) Enrico Gasparotto, Liquigas-Bianchi, same time

Also:

Eurosport.com | Dumoulin leads French Musketeers home

cyclingnews.com | Stage Results

Hushovd takes Dauphiné Stage 1

Eurosport | Ice-man Thor takes victory at Givors

Credit Agricole's Thor Hushovd took a sprint finish Monday at the Dauphiné Libéré's first stage, ahead of Phonak's Robby Hunter, and Fassa Bortolo's Juan-Antonio Flecha.

A six-man breakaway including Sylvain Chavanel and José Garcia-Acosta tried to deny the sprinters, but were caught about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the line.

No change in the overall, with George Hincapie maintaining the leader's jersey.

Hushovd says his big goal is the green jersey in the Tour de France:

"A victory on the Dauphine Libere is always good for morale but my main goal this season is to win the Tour de France points classification," said Hushovd, who cited Belgian Tom Boonen, German Erik Zabel and Australians Stuart O'Grady and Robbie McEwen as his main rivals for the green jersey.

Also:

VeloNews.com | Hincapie holds lead as Hushovd takes 1st stage at Dauphiné

Six-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong showed signs of finding his form in helping close down the break:

"Lance showed today he's pretty strong. He closed that 25-second gap practically on his own," said Hincapie, who will be back to his helper role in July.

cyclingnews.com | Dauphiné Libéré Stage 1 full results

Dauphiné prologue photo galleries

Armstrong, Lepheimer, Hincapie; more @ GrahamWatson.com

Backstedt (50th on the day) and Landis from cyclingnews.com

Hink! Discovery's George Hincapie takes Dauphiné prologue

CyclingPost.com | Hincapie wins prologue in Dauphiné Libéré Discovery Channel's George Hincapie will wear the first leader's jersey in this year's Dauphiné Libéré, after topping an American-flavored prologue on Sunday. Hincapie's 9:55 just edged Gerolsteiner's Levi Leipheimer (1 second back). Andrey Kashechkin  (bless you) of Credit Agricole was 3rd, with Floyd Landis of Phonak and Lance Armstrong just behind. Americans took 4 of the top 5 placings in the prologue. Top 10: 1) George Hincapie, Discovery Channel, 9:55 2) Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, at :01 3) Andrey Kashechkin, Credit Agricole, at :03 4) Floyd Landis, Phonak, at :05 5) Lance Armstrong, Discovery Channel, at :06 6) Oscar Pereiro, Phonak, at :07 7) Alberto Contador , Liberty Seguros, at :09 8) Davide Rebellin, Gerolsteiner, at :13 9) José-Ivan Guttierez, Illes Balears, same time 10) Correction: Francisco Lara, T-Mobile, at :14 Also: Yahoo! Sport | Technical slip-up for Armstrong as Hincapie wins Sayeth Big George:

"That's the first time I've beaten Lance in a time trial, it's very special for me," said an exhausted Hincapie. "I gave everything today."

Armstrong reportedly lost a little time when he pulled out of his newfangled clipless pedals (they should make all the other guys wear those too, to balance things out). VeloNews | Hincapie wins Dauphiné prologue cyclingnews.com | Full results