It’s Tour time! Celebrate the 4th of July with red, white and argyle at the opening of the new Slipstream store.

Team Garmin-Slipstream’s speedster for the field sprints at Le Tour, Tyler Farrar, has been getting a lot of attention this year. From field sprint wins to the prologue and eventual overall at the Delta Tour of Zeeland, the man from Wenatchee, Washington is turning a lot of heads — in a role not often occupied by an American. Velonews’ Andrew Hood spoke with Farrar about his Tour de France aspirations.

Tyler Farrar will be something of an oddity when he lines up Saturday for his Tour de France debut – an American sprinter

For the first time in several years, since Fred Rodriguez lined up at Mapei and later at Silence-Lotto, an American will have a legitimate shot at winning a bunch sprint in the Tour.

And unlike Rodriguez, who rode his last Tours in support of Robbie McEwen, Farrar will see strong support from his Garmin-Slipstream teammates. Veteran lead-out man Julian Dean will be Farrar’s guide through the high-speed duel of nerves and speed.

A prologue victory and overall at the Delta Tour in June only bolstered Farrar’s confidence ahead of the Tour, where he will lock heads with new sprint king, Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad).

The 25-year-old has spent the past week in Girona, Spain, undergoing some intense workouts with his Garmin teammates and putting the finishing touches on his form.

“Blood, Sweat + Gears,” the Sundance Channel documentary, airs again tonight at 5:45 ET. http://tinyurl.com/BlogBSG.

The award-winning food web site Epicurious recently wrote an article about healthy energy food, speaking with Timmy Duggan and Allen Lim in order to get an insight into the team’s much-talked about dietary plan.

With the Tour de France kicking off next week and several other big road races, such as the Giro d’Italia, recently completed, I’ve been following pro cycling closely lately. I have also been thinking about what to eat before, during, and after my own long recreational bike rides (including how to fuel for my first triathlons this summer).

For Epicurious’s recent story about healthy energy food, I talked to pro athletes Dara Torres and Shawn Johnson, as well as Garmin-Slipstream Pro Cycling Team member Timmy Duggan and the team’s physiologist, Allen Lim, PhD. They let me in on how the team stays in shape for training, sprints, and grueling all-day races. Here are a few key points, below:

Carbo-Loading: “The human body is like a house,” says Lim. “You’ve got to build a foundation and the basic foundation is carbohydrates, primarily in the form of rice, potatoes, and oats. Carbohydrates in this form give athletes energy and lean vitamins. Fresh fruits and vegetables are also important, and the more colors the better.” Bananas, honey, and oatmeal are good real food choices for quick energy. For short, intense events, the team downs simple sugars such as electrolyte drinks, energy gels, and energy chews (they use Clif Bar products).

Read more of the article.

The Men’s Journal series continues with a hometown favorite of Jonathan Vaugthers, the Peak to Peak Highway ride outside of Boulder.

3. The Peak to Peak Highway
Boulder, Colorado (93 miles)

Almost half of the nation’s pro cyclists live in Boulder, and after you’ve ridden in Colorado and experienced its combination of well-built roads, demanding climbs, and surprisingly good weather, you’ll know why. The state’s best ride starts in the foothills of the Rockies and shoots up dramatically along the front range, up past the Stanley Hotel (of The Shining fame), and then across the high-altitude Peak to Peak Highway (in spots, it’s higher than 9,000 feet in elevation). If you’re feeling the burn early on, don’t get down: This ride has honed the skills of many Tour de France riders.

Read more on Men’s Journal.

See the preview of the Sundance Channel documentary Blood, Sweat +Gears: Racing Clean to the Tour de France and catch the premier on June 29 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Check out http://www.sundancechannel.com/films/500336483 for more information.

Read more »

Read Geoff Van Dyke’s profile of Team Garmin-Slipstream’s Tour de France captain Christian Vande Velde

Now he is The Man, on The Team (Boulder’s Garmin-Slipstream), preparing to win The Race (the Tour de France). Today’s ride through the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, not far from Venice, is part of the Giro, the second most important bike race in the world, but it is little more than a prelude to what could be—dare he think, should be: That at last, at this month’s Tour de France, the most important bike race in the world, he will escape from the pack, and then all he will hear is his own breathing, his heartbeat, his chain, his tires on the road—and the rabid fans will call out his name: “Christian!” “Vande Velde!” He will leave the peloton, and everything in it, behind.

Then, in an instant, this day in Italy turns. The sound that punctuates the hum is sickening—metal on metal. Something bumps against his front wheel; spokes shred, and, with nothing to support the rim, his front wheel collapses upon itself. It’s almost silent now; time slows and at once stretches. This crash, The Crash, the one that will make international headlines, sends him over his handlebars, again, and hard onto the pavement, which is where he lies, propped on his elbows. The view from the helicopter above shows Vande Velde on the white line in the center of the road, squirming in anguish, watching the peloton indifferently make its way around him. Christian Vande Velde is now 10 or 15 yards away from his bike, a mangled heap down the road, and a seemingly immeasurable distance from where, just moments earlier, everyone—including himself—thought he would be.

Tuft and Meier go first, second in Canadian TT champs. In honor, get your Canadian Champs posters at a discount! http://bit.ly/ArgyleCanada.

Check out Jonathan Vaughters’ second entry for Men’s Journal about his top rides in the United States — the Gila Monster!

2. The Gila Monster
Silver City, New Mexico (108 miles)

Team Garmin-Slipstream holds its pre-season camp in Silver City every year, and the team members have a love/hate relationship with this one. It’s an incredibly lumpy ride with steep climbs, all at high altitude — about 6,000 feet (be prepared with a low bottom gear and high motivation). Despite that, there’s almost no traffic and you get breathtaking views of both the Gila Hot Springs and the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. But don’t dawdle: The most stamina-testing leg of the trip comes after the 180-degree turn at the cliff dwellings.

Read more!

So what do we do in the final build up to the Tour de France? Well first thing is first; we diet. Then we make an assessment of where our physical condition is, if it is where we want it to be we maintain it; if not, then we train it. The complicated bit is that if we need to train then we have to do it in a way that still allows the body to be fresh and good-to-go come the first day of the Tour — not be suffering residual fatigue as this is the worst way to start a Grand Tour. That would mean that the second half of the race will be nothing less than hell as you will enter deep fatigue and very rarely see light out of day from the depths of your own personal ‘Pain Cave.’ Super-trained and fresh is the ticket to success, and not nearly as easy it may sound to achieve.

For me the dieting bit has been quite easy. The main reason being that I was able to significantly notice the difference being lighter made to my performance at the Dauphine therefore not see it as being a sacrifice not eating much. Now one may ask, if this is the case then why hadn’t I done this before, the answer is I HAVE! But although I have dieted enthusiastically the last couple of years each time I would bottom out at weight above my optimum race weight, so although I would have very low fat percentages I’d be carrying too much muscle (which is embarrassing to say as I’m not exactly Arnie, but it’s all relative…) that I couldn’t lose.

Read more »

Team Garmin-Slipstream today announced its much-anticipated Tour de France roster. The riders that will represent the American team in tackling the world’s toughest sporting event are:

Julian Dean
Tyler Farrar
Ryder Hesjedal
Dan Martin
David Millar
Danny Pate
Christian Vande Velde
Bradley Wiggins
David Zabriskie

“We are bringing a diverse and versatile squad to the 2009 Tour de France,” said Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of Slipstream Sports, LLC and Director Sportif, Team Garmin-Slipstream. “We had an incredible first Tour as a team last year and this year we hope for GC contention, possible stage wins and even the yellow jersey at some point.”

Read more »

Team Garmin-Slipstream announces Tour de France roster! http://www.slipstreamsports.com.

‘Tis the season to race for a new jersey design! This week comprises most of the European and other national championship races, with a number of Team Garmin-Slipstream riders returning to race for the honor of wearing their country’s colors.

UPDATE: Canadians confirmed to defend their maple leaf jerseys!

Canada
Svein Tuft (defending TT champion)
Christian Meier (defending RR champion)

United Kingdom
David Millar (2007 champion)
Bradley Wiggins

France
Kilian Patour

Holland
Hans Dekkers
Huub Duyn
Martijn Maaskant
Ricardo Van der Velde

Read more »

All JV, all the time! Check out Jonathan Vaughters’ new Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/Vaughters.

Director’s Report from Johnny Weltz:

Last stage of the Tour de Suisse , and it was created for world champ Fabian Cancellara. And he didn’t disappoint. He took an overwhelmingly clear win. But our own Cameron Meyer did a similarly solid performance, especially at his young age and just new on the scene this year. He finished sixth on the stage but was only a few fractions of a second from the podium of the stage!

Ryder Hesjedal was a another good performer on the stage and finished around fifteenth. Tom Danielson and Christian Vande Velde did an ok TT as well. All in all compared with our first TT in the race there was a considerable improvement. It has been a hard ten days of racing, but a good ten days with Christian and Ryder improving their condition.

Two of Team Garmin-Slipstream’s top riders, both of whom were affected by mid-season injuries, are preparing for their Tour de France start in two weeks.

David Millar recently posted a big result at the Dauphiné Libére, finishing in ninth place overall. “I’m pleasantly surprised by how things went in the Dauphiné,” Millar told Cyclingnews’ Shane Stokes.

Christian Vande Velde is currently racing in the Tour de Suisse, his first race back since he crashed out of the Giro d’Italia. After starting the race conservatively, he was involved in a multi-rider crash on stage 3. Luckily he was not injured and finished the stage. Since then he has tackled the tough mountain stages with good form, finishing near the leaders on the tough stage 7 to Vallorbe Juraparc. He told Velonews’ Brian Holcombe that he is ‘happy’ in Switzerland.