Amgen Tour of California
Independent Sources could fill a posting with steroid innuendo-laced jokes about Amgen’s becoming the title sponsor of the new multi-stage race in California. After all, Amgen makes erythropoietin (EPO) the blood doping drug that almost destroyed professional cycling. Watchdog groups have already jumped on this and criticized the announcement. We think the […]

Tour De France officials managed to make a highlight film of this summer’s race while barely showing the winner, American Lance Armstrong.
The Los Angeles Times’ Diane Pucin reports that at a press event where the 2006 route was revealed …
a 10-minute highlight video of the 2005 race was shown. Barely shown was 34-year-old Armstrong, who […]

Tour of Hope
25 cyclists are teamed up riding roughly 100 miles a day in a 9 day tour from San Diego to Washington DC. The riders, who include cancer survivors, physicians, researchers, nurses and relatives of cancer patients and victims, will alternate cycling and shuttling as the tour moves across the U.S.
Lance Armstrong, […]

According to the Associated Press (via Yahoo), Lance Armstrong is so upset with French allegations about drug use that he is considering returning to the sport because he knows how much it would rankle the French.
To steal a regular thread from news/humor website Fark.com, the French responded by immediately surrendering.
“I’m thinking it’s the best way,” […]

Independent Sources contributor Luke the Drifter should take a bow for his June 27th Tour de France prediction:
1 Armstrong
2 Basso
3 Ullrich
4 Leipheimer
5 Vinokourov
Luke got the top three exactly right. Francisco Mancebo was a spoiler, finishing fourth. As Luke predicted, Vinokourov finished fifth. Levi Leipheimer, Luke’s pick for fourth, finished 0:20 behind Vinokourov in sixth.
Maybe he […]

[Note: as part of Independent Sources desire to give its readers maximum value, we have put bonus material at the end of this posting including the alternate headlines generated for this piece.]
Kerry nearly stops OLN’s TdF coverage with Filibuster-like Answer to Simple Question
John Kerry dropped in on the OLN coverage of Stage 20 of the […]

I’m writing this early Saturday morning just before the Stage 20 individual time trial.  Lance locked the top podium spot long ago and the real competitive action has been the battle for top ten placings in the GC (overall cumulative time).  Here’s how I handicap the final top ten (eleven, actually), all the position changes […]

From the Independent Sources “Better Late Than Never” department, Luke the Drifter reminds those who can’t get OLN that they can listen to the Eurosport coverage by cutting and pasting the following link into Windows Media Player.
mms://vipeurosport.yacast.net/eus_streamlive3
Click here for more of our TdF coverage or go here for a lot more.

After watching this morning’s stage (Stage 14, Saturday, July 16) I think the final podium in Paris will shake out like this:
1. Armstrong: riding a masterful race in complete control.  Lance is the only person trying to win this thing, the other contenders are racing for 2nd (except for perhaps Vino, whose kamikaze tactics […]

Why do riders continue to cheat via illegal drugs in this day and age of drug tests, police raids, and tell-all books? Perhaps it is a naive question as it was only the mid-90s that many cycling professionals quietly stated that drug-taking was the rule not the exception. Regardless, it’s now 2005 and they should […]

Stage 10 was epic and this time around we are going to leave it to TdFBlog and others to fill you in on the race details.
What I was struck with is how, in some ways, the TdF riders are just like us mortals that ride a couple of time during the week and then do big rides on […]

We continue with our special coverage of the 2005 Tour de France. Click here to see all of Independent Sources’ TdF posts. Other subjects are covered in the categories on the right grouped by topic.
THE BOYS IN ORANGE KEPT US ENTERTAINED THIS WEEKEND WHILE THE REAL CLIMBERS BID THEIR TIME WAITING FOR THE REAL MOUNTAINS TO […]

Independent Sources is proud to bring you our special coverage of the 2005 Tour de France via our own Luke the Drifter:
THE SAD FRENCH FANS DON’T EVEN HAVE A ‘CLOWN’ TO CHEER ON
The Frenchies are desperate for something to cheer for. After tomorrow’s big mountain day it is unlikely that any French rider will be […]

Here’s a look at Tour de France performance through stage five by country of origin, for countries with over five riders:

I put this forth not to emphasize how well the U.S. is doing so far, but to ask about France. What is up with the host nation performing the worst of all the major contingents?
My […]

Independent Sources is proud to bring you our special coverage of the 2005 Tour de France. Luke will be weighing in with a more race specific posting but having watched twenty or so hours of race broadcasts I thought it was time for some observations on how OLN is doing.
First off, we’re not even a quarter of the […]