Tour de France 2011

Armstrong's "separated at birth" partners

TMZ.com | Lance's Ladies Look Alike

Most of us have noticed the physical similarities between Lance Armstrong's ex-wife, Kristin, and his ex-fiancee, Sheryl Crow.

TMZ.com notes that the pattern continues with Armstrong's latest girlfriend, designer Tory Burch.

TMZ doesn't mention the, um, more Freudian aspect of the story -- Armstrong's mother, Linda Armstrong Kelly.

Armstrong and Crow: We're not back together

contactmusic.com | CROW AND ARMSTRONG SLAM REPORTS THEY'VE REUNITED

Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong have gone to some lengths to deny the pair are back together, after Crow stayed in the same hotel in Solvang during a visit with the Discovery Channel squad last week.

Rumor mill was right: Armstrong, Crow split

Statesman.com | Lance and Sheryl are no more

The Austin American-Statesman reports that “a spokesman for Armstrong's agent” confirmed that the pop-singer and the retired 7-time Tour winner have called it quits.

“After much thought and consideration we have made a very tough decision to split up,” the couple said in a joint statement. “We both have a deep love and respect for each other, and we ask that everyone respect our privacy during this very difficult time.”

Also:

ESPN.com | Armstrong, Crow announce they're breaking up

Crow says wedding plans underway; meanwhile, rumors of a split

People.com | Sheryl Crow Dismisses Fertility Stories

Sheryl Crow told People magazine that she and Lance Armstrong still are planning to get married "next spring", and that the family-only ceremony won't be in Missouri or Texas.

Crow gives a little credence to stories that she and Armstrong are undergoing fertility treatments, saying "there's always a little bit of truth" in tabloid stories.

If I were going to a fertility clinic, I'm sure that I wouldn't be talking with you guys about it.

At the same time, Ted Casablanca's The Awful Truth reports that Armstrong and Crow are splitsville:

"He was a cad," remarked one of Lance's relatives, regarding the seven-time Tour de France winner's reported dumping of glitzy rocker-babe Crow. "And Lance's family is trying to get him to change his mind; that's why [the news] hasn't gotten out yet."

Update 1/10/06 8:30 p.m.:

At Daily Blabber, the blogger reports hearing from Crow's publicist in advance of a scheduled interview:

"Also, I am under very strict direction from management that there can be no questions regarding Lance whatsoever. This must be about her and her music."

Huh? Isn't this album about him? How can I not ask any questions about him? In this case, he is the music. So I said thanks, but no thanks.

There's something about the timing of all of this. For the last two years she's been going on and on about Lance. Yesterday, Ted Casablanca says they're secretly done. Today, she suddenly won't talk about him.

Update 1/10/06 9:50 p.m.:

And, over at the Austin American-Statesman, Suzanne Halliburton says Armstrong has Blackberry'ed the paper a denial of the split:

In an e-mail to the American-Statesman on Tuesday, Armstrong said: "No truth to it at all. Sorry to ruin the story."

Sheryl Crow, Tour groupie

IHT.com | For Crow, the other side of celebrity: Life as a Tour 'groupie'

I generally can either leave or leave Sheryl Crow stories, but I couldn't resist this one, where she talks about what she's learned about the sport, and how she likes it now:

"I'm not sure I've ever met such great young men, with their interesting stories, each and every one of them," she said. "Great people. And there's great healthy competition. To me, it's just a beautiful sport. It's the greatest sport.

"I think the dedication that these guys show on a daily basis, the way they exercise mind over body, drive themselves past the point of pain and experience that kind of anguish - to be part of a successful team is for me a beautiful ballet."

Sing it, sister.

Sheryl Crow ditches Live 8

KBAC-FM | Sheryl Crow Pulls Out of Paris Live 8

Sheryl Crow won't be performing at Live 8 on Saturday in Paris, as originally planned.

She's citing "substantial logistical and personal challenges" for dropping out of the concert at the Palais Versailles.

Crow was expected to perform in France before joining boyfriend Lance Armstrong, who is competing in the Tour De France for the final time.

There's a short statement at SherylCrow.com.

Armstrong looking to settle down with Crow after retirement

Yahoo! Sports | AP Interview: Armstrong considering marriage, more kids after retirement

Looks like there may be more little Armstrongs in the offing, depending on Sheryl Crow's health:

“Yeah. Sheryl and I are very happy. To me, when you have a relationship, you're happy and in love, children are a natural part of the equation,” Armstrong told The Associated Press on Saturday after completing a stage of the Dauphine Libere race. “I'm traditional in that sense.

“I had a marriage that didn't work, but I still believe absolutely in the institution of marriage. I think it's good,” said the 33-year-old Armstrong, who had three kids with his first wife.

Armstrong also reiterated his plan to follow Crow on her tour bus as payback for her involvement in his training and racing.

Dauphiné Stage 2 photo galleries

Armstrong, Bessy, Dumoulin; more @ GrahamWatson.com

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

Sheryl Crow a Page 3 girl?

News Of the World | She's got no Crows on!

The long-lens paparazzi scored a coup last week, catching Sheryl Crow topless during a photo shoot in Malibu.

She's in great shape at 43, as everyone could see when she stripped during a photoshoot on a hillside over Malibu on Wednesday.

Seen at ohnotheydidnt.

Sally Jenkins online chat

washingtonpost.com | Tour de France: Future of Lance Armstrong

Sally Jenkins was Lance Armstrong's co-author on both books. She's also covered the Tour de France for the Washington Post, where she did an online chat yesterday concerning Armstrong, doping, the future of US Postal, Sheryl Crow, Armstrong's kids, and what he'll do next year; all topics that have come up right here over the last few weeks. Jenkins (unsurprisingly, I guess) has no kind words for Greg LeMond.

Here's an excerpt on doping:

Crofton, Md.: Don't you think that Lance Armstrong's run in the Tour de France is more about his impact upon the sport because he really believes that "every second"  does count. It is one heck of a motivator to be told you have the big "C" and your chances to become immortal are really tied to a defining memorable event as opposed to anything else. That is precisely why I do not believe that he uses any drugs - he is afraid of that image being tarnished. Do you agree? - CSP

Sally Jenkins: He once told me, two years out from chemotherapy, how poisoned the cancer and the chemo made him feel, and that he was just starting to feel "clean again." I've never forgotten that, and how seriously he said it. For that reason it's very hard for me to believe he'd put anything dangerous in his body. I've said it before and I'll say it again:
I believe in Lance Armstrong as a man and as an athlete. He beat cancer straight up, fair and square, and I believe he has won six Tours exactly the same way.
Also, I love him as a friend.

More photo galleries

FOXSports.com - PHOTOS | Best of the Tour de France

FOXSports.com - PHOTOS | Tour de France, final stage

FOXSports.com | PHOTOS: Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow

FOXSports has more than 100 photos, in galleries on Stage 20, the overall Tour (the source for the photo above - click through for more), and Lance Armstrong with Sheryl Crow.

Alpe d'Huez time trial underway

Robbie McEwen came in at 47:22, which is unlikely to get him disqualified. He popped a wheelie over the finish line.

Lance Armstrong's bike failed the weigh-in by 180 grams. The team had to add some ballast before he took off. Coming soon, I'm sure, to a Trek commercial near you.

Mikel Astarloza of AG2R was the early leader in 43:06, but now David Moncoutié drops the time to a 42:04. Santos Gonzalez of Phonak drops the time to 41:52, matched by Giuseppe Guerini of T-Mobile, about a half-second slower. Now José Azevedo sets a new mark with a 41:26! But then, here comes Ullrich in 40:42! Look above for more on Armstrong, who wins the day with a 39:41!

Armstrong has caught Basso, his 2-minute man, and ridden by him! His last time check is 56 seconds faster than Ullrich. Looks like Armstrong will take his 3rd individual stage win of the 2004 Tour today.

Andreas Klöden: 41:23
Vladimir Karpets: 41:56
Carlos Sastre: 42:08
Michael Rogers: 42:15
Georg Totschnig: 42:56
Christophe Moreau: 43:06
Richard Virenque: 44:11
Bobby Julich:  44:23
Stuart O'Grady: 45:12
Roberto Heras: 45:19 (!!!)
Viatcheslav Ekimov: 45:56
Christian Vande Velde: 46:12

Thomas Voeckler finished with a 46:something. Vladimir Karpets will take a big chunk out of the white jersey.

Azevedo has set the top time at the 2nd time check with a 24:40, but now Jan Ullrich comes through even faster, a 24:07; Basso rode a 24:43 to the checkpoint, and Armstrong demolishes all their times with a 23:28 to the checkpoint!

Sheryl Crow is in the US Postal pace car. Take that, Robin Williams!

The rider and the rocker

(Click through to Yahoo! Sports photo gallery)

Robin Williams joins the caravan

National Post | Film star Robin Williams joins legion of fans heading to L'Alpe d'Huez

Robin Williams has joined the Tour caravan, riding today in the US Postal team car, while Sheryl Crow hitched a ride with the race doctor on the course.

Williams will join 1 million cycling fans expected to line the road up to L'Alpe d'Huez, 200,000 more than last year. Crowds are already thick enough that officials have closed the roads almost a day early, according to Maroussia Perez-Perrot, press officer at the local town hall.

Fans are camping out "in tents, in fields, on rocks," Perez-Perrot said. "It's very unusual."

Sheryl Crow at Alpe d'Huez

Someone posted a picture of Sheryl Crow on Alpe d'Huez to rec.bicycles.racing recently. Initially, I didn't think it was for real, but I noticed it's hosted on her record company's web server, so I guess it is.

Sheryl looks fit:

Clearly, this is before, not after.

All I wanna do, is drive some traffic...

procycling | Crow sings Armstrong's praises

It's really gratifying to start seeing referrers from big sites like BoingBoing and anil dash's daily links, but up until the start of the Tour, the site got by on traffic from Google, and about 75 percent of it was looking for tidbits about Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow.

Even with the race underway, it's about 5-10 percent of search engine traffic, I would estimate.

I liked to imagine I was keeping the site pure by not creating a Sheryl Crow category, but I can't swim upstream, so here you go.

The story: Sheryl thinks the Tour is dreamy:

“Whatever I thought before the race, you can multiply it by a thousand — that’s pretty much what I am experiencing here,” the singer told journalists.

“It’s a helpless feeling,” she said of following her new partner on nervous opening stages of the Tour. “You know, you can either stay in front of a TV to watch the race, where you see all of it, or run around the route where you only see a second of it. But Lance knows what he’s doing.”

Sheryl Crow in France promoting film and foundation

Reuters | Crow does Porter at Cannes do

Update on Sheryl Crow, who performed in Cannes Saturday, to support an MGM movie, "De-Lovely", about Cole Porter, in which she stars with Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd and Jonathan Pryce.

She laughed off rumours that she's moving to Europe and building a villa with boyfriend Lance Armstrong.

"That's just one of many, many things that I've heard about Lance and me," she said. "He's here training and I'm here with him and then when he finishes the Tour de France -- wait, when he finishes winning the Tour de France -- we'll be going back to America."

Crow also was promoting the Live Strong Yellow armbands that are symbols of a campaign by the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Nike.

Also, LanceArmstrong.com has now split most of its riding and racing news out to a new site at thePaceline.com, which is also the home page for Armstrong's fan club.

Grajales outgoats Tour de Georgia field for Stage 6 win

Grajales scores mountain triumph in Georgia; Armstrong takes third and cements lead

Colombia's Cesar Grajales took a huge win on Saturday, almost certainly the biggest win in the history of his Athens, GA-based Jittery Joe's team.

Grajales rode away from Lance Armstrong, Jens Voigt, Chris Horner, and everybody else on the hors categorie final climb to Georgia's highest point, Brasstown Bald.

After starting in the hometown of Jittery Joe's, the stage ended with a climb of close to 12 miles, including the approach to the mountain and more than 3 miles up the mountain itself. Grajales, who lives about 2 hours away, had been riding the course twice a week in preparation for Saturday's stage.

It is huge for our team because we are the local team," an emotional Grajales said. "We are maybe the smallest team in the group, so this is just amazing for us. Everybody knows that Lance [Armstrong] has different goals. His goal is for the Tour de France. This is the biggest race in the United States, the Tour de Georgia, and I was training for this day three months ago. I'm just happy because all this work, all this training...I'm just really happy."

Jens Voigt was second on the day, finishing alongside race leader Lance Armstrong. The two put time into everyone but Grajales, who jumped into 6th overall. Going into Sunday's final stage from Dawsonville to Alpharetta, it's:

1) Armstrong, US Postal, 22:19:05
2) Voigt, CSC, at 24 secs
3) Chris Horner, Webcor, at 1:01
4) Bobby Julich, CSC, at 1:57
5) Viatcheslav Ekimov, US Postal, at 2:59
6) Cesar Grajales, Jittery Joe's, at 3:07

Sunday's final stage is a much flatter (nothing in North Georgia is flat) road stage, with a circuit finish in Alpharetta, the horse country suburb of Atlanta. Armstrong's overall lead certainly looks secure.

Also:

cyclingnews.com | Grajales delivers in deliverance country: Colombian climber beats the best on Brasstown Bald

VeloNews | Georgia, Stage 6: A photo gallery

Daily Peloton | Dodge Tour de Georgia: Stage 6 Seen and Heard is a photo gallery with comments from a few riders about the long transfers (each day starts in a different city than the previous finish) on the Tour de Georgia, and pictures of riders, of Bob Roll and this shot of Sheryl Crow (click through to see them all):

Sheryl Crow-watch

DallasNews.com | Entertainment Columnist Alan Peppard

The Dallas News (registration required) quotes Sheryl Crow from Us Weekly magazine (which, incredibly, has almost no web presence):

"I'm afraid the next album will be entirely about Lance," she says. "It's going to be the sappiest thing ever written."

Peppard also uses the gossip columnist's best friend, "as rumors circulate in the tabloids", to mention the possibility that Lance Armstrong and Crow are trying to get pregnant.

How I hate April Fool's Day...

Wednesday's NewsFile: Armstrong, Crow try new collaboration; Mavic breakthrough

From VeloNews:

Five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and his new companion, nine-time Grammy Award winning Sheryl Crow, have recorded a duet at Armstrong's home in Girona, Spain, and will release the single in conjunction with this year's Tour.

The song, titled "Love and Life," features both lead and backing vocals from U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor rider.

"I'll probably catch a little flak about this from the guys on the team," Armstrong said, "but it won't be the first time. Besides, you only live once, right?"

'Nuff said?

Armstrong: 'not planning a farewell tour, but it could be'

IHT: Lance Armstrong weighs the pros and cons of retirement

Don't miss Samuel Abt's interview with Lance Armstrong in the International Herald Tribune today. He asks Armstrong everything you would ask, about retirement, the state of US Postal's sponsorship, Sheryl Crow, his leading rivals for this year's Tour: it's all there.

NYPost.com: Crow wants Armstrong's baby

New York Post Online Edition: gossip

The New York Post's Page Six column claims Sheryl Crow is considering fertility treatments to have a child with Lance Armstrong.

Crow is 42, Armstrong 32. Armstrong had some of his sperm frozen before undergoing treatment for cancer, and "a baby would have to be conceived via in vitro fertilization." Reps for both refused comment, but this certainly explains all the strange Google searches of late, including "Lance Armstrong pregnant", which seems, well, unlikely.

Spotted at JeffCross.net.

Armstrong battling distractions?

HoustonChronicle.com | Subplots enliven Lance’s Tour bid

Dale Robertson details all the changes Lance Armstrong will have to work through to win Tour Number Six: New high-profile girlfriend in Sheryl Crow, new race calendar, new Iberian lieutenant, another year closer to death ... Robertson doesn’t give José Azevedo much credibility, and actually writes that Armstrong “failed to win the Tour of the Algarve,” when it was perfectly clear that Armstrong wasn’t contesting the overall title.

He quotes Armstrong questioning whether the all-star team at T-Mobile (with Jan Ullrich, Alexandre Vinoukourov, and Santiago Botero) can hang together through the tour:

"In order to win the Tour," Armstrong said, "you need every guy riding for you. And you have to have people who can do it all. Jan is good, the best one out there. (But) will the other guys work for him? That's the question. Part of me says it's good he's back there, because that system never worked for him before."

Seen at JeffCross.net.

Armstrong leads in Algarve after 1-2-3 Postal finish in TT

         
(Click through to Graham Watson photo gallery)

VeloNews | Armstrong leads Postal sweep at Algarve TT

Lance Armstrong won the time trial stage of the Tour of the Algarve on Saturday, ahead of teammates Floyd Landis and Victor Hugo Peña. With the sprint finishes so far, the standings in the TT are the overall standings. Team director Johan Bruyneel said Postal will ride for the overall win, but didn't say which rider the team would support. Armstrong suggested it would be the young American Floyd Landis:

Armstrong said Landis will be the man for the team.

"Floyd is mad at me," Armstrong joked. "But I think Floyd is probably the leader for tomorrow because he's in much better condition for the climbs. I don't know the climb, but he's climbing much better than I am and I suspect we'll work for him."

Armstrong added the race to his schedule after organizers added Saturday's stage to the route. Armstrong and Postal's coaches are working on his time-trialing, and today was the first competitive ride on a new time trial frame, that has Armstrong lower than before. Also in attendance at the race was Armtrong's current girlfriend, singer Sheryl Crow.

Also:

GrahamWatson.com | Tour of the Algarve TT photo gallery

Roadcycling.com |  Armstrong takes Algarve TT in Postal sweep

dailypeleton.com | 30th Volta ao Algarve - Stage 4 ITT Updated (with full results)

LanceArmstrong.com | Photo gallery of Armstrong's new time trial bike

Armstrong on Crow relationship: "I've never been happier"

USATODAY.com | Armstrong, Crow happy together

USA Today's Sal Ruibal talked to Armstrong about his high-profile relationship with singer Sheryl Crow:

"I'm in a good, happy place," he says. "I've never been happier."

He's not kidding. The 32-year-old Armstrong's contentment comes from a new relationship with 41-year-old rock singer Sheryl Crow.

"Yeah, I wasn't single very long," he says, recovering from a solo training ride in winding roads near Santa Barbara. "I wasn't planning this, but then you meet somebody."

Armstrong says Crow and his mother Linda have bonded:

"They're inseparable," he says. "She almost talks more with my mom than I do."

Armstrong, Sheryl Crow go public

(click through to Hollywood.com photo gallery)

Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow, who have been rumored to be dating for some time, appeared in public at the premiere of the new Jennifer Aniston-Ben Stiller movie, "Along Came Polly".

Armstrong separated from his wife Kristin last year.