The International Herald Tribune talks to David Millar about the “…rift between cycling’s leadership and race organizers (that) is leaving riders isolated and vulnerable in a sport already burdened by doping scandals.”

“Cycling is an easy target in that it is there is very little solidarity across the board. The prime example is the UCI-ASO farce,” Millar told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “That is cycling in a nutshell. At the moment we are easy targets because we are unable to defend ourselves as a whole.”

It was actually quite a crazy day for Denmark. For the first time ever in Denmark’s history, the flags were not even moving. It was calmer than two bricks laying in a grass field. Because of this, the race got off to a slow start — that is until a group of seven went with my French teamate Kiki (Kilian Patour) in it. Team CSC actually missed the move. Surprising really given they have won this race for the past five years and one of their major sponsors is Danish. But they kept the break close, and after chasing at nearly 60 kph, the break was shut down.

Immediately three riders from non-threatening teams jumped away and the peloton was more then happy to take a pee stop. As the race unfolded from there, we knew it was going to come to a field sprint. So our plan was to try and lead both CJ (Chris Sutton, pictured above) and Tyler Farrar out. Both were feeling good, so it was a go. Our plan was to take them to the front with 1 lap of 4 km to go. But that didn’t happen.

The finishing circuit was way too crazy dangerous and the only way it would have worked was if we had been at the front going into it as a team setting the pace. So it was pretty much every man for himself. We didn’t come out with the win on this stage, but hopefully in the next five we can take something home. With a good game plan and great teamwork, I’m confident we can do it.

With today’s stage out of the way, the cobwebs are dusted off. It sure feels great to be racing back over here in Europe again. I can’t wait till tomorrow’s longest stage of the race at 220 km.

Thanks and more to come, Steven

Race report from DS Johnny Weltz

From the start we had Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O in the mix. Kilian Patour was in the first break of the day with seven riders. Unfortunately, a fast, organized hard chase brought them back one hour into the race. Then three smaller teams each got a rider off the front and the field let them hang out there all the way to 4 km to go. Ultimately, it all ended in a field sprint with Tyler finishing 11th.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O stage 1 results
1. Guillermo Ruben Bongiorno 4h07′39″

11. Tyler Farrar +00″
22. Chris Sutton +00″
72. Steven Cozza +00″
74. Kilian Patour +09″
78. Pat McCarty +09″
79. Dan Martin +09″
80. Lucas Euser +09″
81. Christophe Laurent +09″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1. Guillermo Ruben Bongiorno 4h07′29″

14. Tyler Farrar +10″
25. Chris Sutton +10″
73. Steven Cozza +10″
74. Kilian Patour +19″
78. Pat McCarty +19″
79. Dan Martin +19″
80. Lucas Euser +19″
81. Christophe Laurent +19″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O’s Tour debut was one few will forget. There was of course Christian Vande Velde’s mid-race transition from super domestique to team leader. From mountain highs to perfectly executed time trial efforts, over and over Christian proved himself a leader. His solid 4th place finish in Saturday’s high intensity 50 km individual time trial earned him, once and for all, 5th place overall in the 2008 Tour de France.

The team as a whole put in a solid performance. Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O took over the team GC - sporting precious yellow numbers - on stage 3 and held on to it through stage 6. David Millar’s third place place finish in the stage 4 Cholet time trial helped increase the team’s GC lead. In the final time trial, Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O had an impressive day with four top 15 performances from Christian Vande Velde, David Millar, Ryder Hesjedal and Danny Pate.

Julian Dean animated several stages of the race with his sprint efforts, finishing 4th on stage 24, 6th on stage 21, and 9th on stages 12 and 13. He finished 9th on the overall sprint classification.

Canadian Ryder Hesjedal continued to grow stronger during the race, providing Christian support on the final climb on stage 16. The two youngest members of the team - Trent Lowe and Martijn Maaskant - worked to keep their mentors watered, fed and in good position. Magnus Backstedt, who had to leave the race early due to illness, managed to get in a few solid lead-outs for Julian Dean before having to leave the Tour.

From Will Frischkorn’s exciting stage 3 breakaway effort and 2nd place finish to Danny Pate’s heroic stage 15 battle in the Alps, the Argyle Armada did more than just compete in the Tour. They brought raw passion and determination to the nearly 100-year-old event. And this in only their debut!

After a good day of travel from our homes in Spain, we have arrived in Denmark. Most of my teammates and I have never been to Denmark, so it’s pretty exciting to be racing in a new country. By now we have seen so much of France and Belgium this will be a great change of pace. It’s also really cool to be able to see the land where our Director Johnny Weltz is from.

As we landed, I could see from my airplane window that it’s going to be a flat, windy race. The wind will make the racing as hard as if you’re climbing a mountain, especially when there is a crosswind section. Drafting a rider from behind does not help at all when there are crosswinds, so you need to ride to the side of the wheel in front of you - this is an echelon. This is also where the peloton splits to pieces, like a bomb went off, and the race can be won or lost based on your positioning.

The Tour of Denmark is 5 days long with 6 stages. The longest stage is 220 km on stage 2 and stage 4 and 5 are on the same day making it a double day. The double day has a fast 115 km race in the morning and a ripping 14 km time trial in the evening. If the wind settles down, I think the time trial is going to play a huge part in the overall GC and who wins this race.

Next up a report from first 175 km stage from Holstebro to Holstebro.

Thanks for reading - Steven

ESPN.com’s Bonnie Ford provides an in-depth profile of Christian Vande Velde and how he has converted himself from support rider to leader during the Tour de France.

From the article: “Likewise, it won’t be of any use to pore over his blood test results, laid bare for all to see in Bicycling Magazine this week and declared honest by one of the world’s top anti-doping researchers. Anything else would have been a shock, since Vande Velde is the leader of a team that long ago dedicated itself to proving it was possible to compete clean.”

“It’s not about the numbers. To explain this transformation, you’d need to track the inner workings of Vande Velde’s heart with a monitor a lot more sensitive than the thin black strap he wears around his chest. You’d have to see a longitudinal chart of his confidence, which has spiked recently after years of meandering in a valley as his early promise took detour after detour.”

Sports Interviewer of the Year and former Tour de France cyclist Paul Kimmage writes for The Sunday Times about how Team Garmin-Chipotle has restored his faith in the future of the Tour de France.

From the article: “Did I believe in Christian Vande Velde? Was I prepared to make the ultimate act of faith? Yes, absolutely…I believed in him because we sat down for two hours one night and he told me about his life. I believed in him because of Vaughters; I believed in him because of Lim; I believed him because of Reichlin and Steffen and Frischkorn and Pate. I believed in him because of Millar. And as an extension of that belief, I was forced to engage with the race.”

“Vande Velde was my new barometer. Could a clean rider compete with the rocket-fuelled exploits of cheats such as Riccardo Ricco and his pals at Saunier Duval? No, we had witnessed the difference on the Col D’Aspin. But as soon as the Italian was snared the waters were clearer…”

The Montreal Gazette talks to Canadian Ryder Hesjedal shortly after he completed the final stage 21 of the 2008 Tour de France.

From the article: “After 3,558 grinding kilometres and an accumulated 89 hours, 26 minutes and 14 seconds, Victoria’s Ryder Hesjedal rode down the Ave. des Champs-Elysées yesterday toward the Arc de Triomphe to close out the Tour de France. He became the first Canadian cyclist in over a decade to do so and only the fourth ever to finish the Tour. ‘It was just spectacular coming down des Champs … it’s hard to describe the emotion and the energy … it’s what every cyclist dreams of doing,’ Hesjedal said in a telephone interview after the completion of his first Tour.