Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Here are some more great Tour de France photos including some very cool tilt shift effects from Boston.com. This is just the solution to your Tour de France withdrawal.

Frank Schleck of Luxemburg, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey, center, Sylvester Szmyd of Poland, rear, and Carlos Sastre of Spain, front, speed down Bonette_Restefond pass [...]

(Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)
Team CSC’s strength could not help Carlos during the finak TT. So Carlos Sastre pulled out the TT of his life to hold off Cadel Evans and win the Tour de France by 58 seconds. Sastre was said to have covered the final 15km in the same time as World Champion [...]

The long breakaway worked and Marcus Burghardt won another stage for Columbia which is having an awesome Tour de France. Burghardt’s fortune is better than last year when he hit a dog.

The crazy descent of the Cole de la Bonnette featured the spectacular looking crash of John lee Augustyn who took the corner a little too fast. Thankfully Augustyn was not injured and was able to get back on with a new bike. The team did recover the bike, so there is no souvenir waiting for [...]

(AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
Ugh, hope this turns out to be nothing. The car of Johnny Schleck the father of Andy and former Yellow Jersey Frank Schleck was searched by customs agents.
So far news reports are simply that the car was searched for 30 minutes. Schleck’s car was then seen following the French customs police vehicle during [...]

Cadel Evans is 1:34 from reclaiming the Yellow Jersey during Saturday’s TT. Right now, Evans can chill for two days without the pressure of the Yellow Jersey. The Aussie rider is finding things tough with the throngs of press always clamoring for interviews. Two videos show just how prickly Evans is at the moment. Can’t [...]

PASCAL PAVANI/AFP/Getty Images
Carlos Sastre benefited from an ungodly strong CSC team that helped him also leap into the Yellow Jersey lead. The strength of CSC is almost unprecedented. Not since the days of La Vie Claire has there been a collection of riders who were generally equally matched and able to all content in the [...]

(AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
Frank Schleck has a bunch of contenders breathing down his neck for the Tour title. Austrian Bernhard Kohl is a surprise revelation that is only seven seconds off pace and could swipe the Yellow Jersey off Schleck’s shoulders by Wednesday night. Team CSC is definitely the strongest team in the race with Jens [...]

Cyclingnews had a quick interview with a doping expert Michel Audran who dropped some interesting tidbits. I was stunned at almost every response. Just when you think that maybe doping is being driven out of cycling, the riders are simply staying one step ahead with drugs that aren’t yet detected.
Ricco used CERA/Micera which is not [...]

Ricco’s bike is put away on the SD Team Truck: PASCAL PAVANI/AFP/Getty Images
Beyond words-or actual words would be only expletives-would describe my reaction to Riccardo Ricco’s positive test for EPO and a newish EPO like drug called CERA.
Like synthetic erythropoietin (rEPO), CERA was developed to as a treatment for the anemia that results from chronic [...]