updated: Tue Feb 07 2012 04:40:00
Tour de France winner 2011, Cadel Evans, reacts to Alberto Contador's ban from cycling for two years.
Defending champion Alberto Contador is refusing to write off his victory chances in this year's Tour de France despite trailing surprise leader Thomas Voeckler by four minutes.
Samuel Sanchez finally won his first stage at the Tour de France on Thursday, but the title hopes of his fellow Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador suffered a surprise blow as the race headed into the mountains.
Australian Cadel Evans edged out defending champion Alberto Contador in a thrilling finish to Tuesday's 172.5km fourth stage of the Tour de France from Lorient to Mur-de-Bretagne.
Belgium's Philippe Gilbert won a dramatic first stage of the Tour de France Saturday as defending champion Alberto Contador lost valuable time after being held up by a late mass crash.
With the Tour de France nearly upon us, here's a shout-out to Wordsworth's wingman, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who coined the phrase "willing suspension of disbelief" -- which comes in particularly handy when you're watching a pro bike race.
Alberto Contador wrapped up his second Giro d'Italia victory -- and sixth grand tour success -- after the 21st and final stage time-trial in Milan, won by Briton David Millar.
Spaniard Igor Anton claimed the most prestigious win of his cycling career as he took the 14th stage of the Giro d'Italia Saturday which finished on the feared Monte Zoncolan climb.
Three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador claimed the leader's pink jersey at the Giro d'Italia after winning the ninth stage on Sunday.
updated: Sun May 15 2011 13:10:00
A cycling journalist discusses safety concerns and tribute rides for Wouter Weylandt, who died on the Giro d'Italia.
Cycling's world governing body is to appeal to sport's highest court against the Spanish federation's decision to acquit three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador of a doping charge.
When is a suspension not a suspension? When it is issued in Spain, against a high-profile cyclist. On Tuesday, members of the discipline committee of the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) declared Alberto Contador innocent of doping charges. The defending Tour de France champion had been suspended three weeks earlier for a positive drug test during last year's Tour. Contador's urine showed traces of clenbuterol, a result he attributed to a contaminated steak eaten during the race. It was ruled, at the time, that even though he may not have knowingly ingested the substance, Contador was responsible for its presence in his body.
Three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has been cleared of a doping charge by Spain's cycling federation, the federation president and Contador's press office said Tuesday.
Alberto Contador has been banned for one-year by the Spanish cycling federation (RFEC) after testing positive for the banned anabolic agent clenbuterol on his way to winning last year's Tour de France.
Three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador faces a disciplinary hearing into alleged doping after cycling's ruling body asked his Spanish federation to open a case against him.
updated: Fri Oct 01 2010 11:00:00
Three-time Tour de France champ Alberto Contador talks about testing positive for a banned steroid.
Reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador has rejected the findings of a positive dope test taken while the cyclist was competing in this year's race, blaming it on bad meat.
Until he lost his appeals and changed his tune, Floyd Landis pioneered the Jack Daniels defense. Another athlete, a former American track and field sprinter, insisted that his elevated levels of testosterone were the result of repeated intercourse, and copious amounts of beer, on the eve of the test.
Three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador will race for the former team of this year's main rival Andy Schleck for the next two seasons.
Alberto Contador will ride for a new team when he seeks his fourth Tour de France title next year, after deciding not to renew his contract with Astana.
Alberto Contador was crowned Tour de France champion for the third time on Sunday as Mark Cavendish won the final stage of cycling's premier event, which was delayed after seven-time winner Lance Armstrong's team were ordered to change their jerseys.
Alberto Contador will take a 39-second lead into the final stage of the Tour de France after fighting off a determined challenge from Andy Schleck in Saturday's deciding time trial stage.
Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador crossed the line together at the end of the arduous 17th stage of the Tour de France, which finished at the top of the giant Col de Tourmalet, meaning defending champion Contador retains his slender eight-second advantage over his rival.
Andy Schleck drew a line under his row with leader Alberto Contador after France's Pierrick Fedrigo fought off a challenge from Lance Armstrong to win stage 16 of the Tour de France.
Defending champion Alberto Contador has issued an apology after he took advantage of his rival Andy Schleck's mechanical failure to seize the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.
France's Christophe Riblon won the 14th stage of the Tour de France as Andy Schleck maintained his 31-second advantage over Alberto Contador in the battle for the race leader's yellow jersey.
Alberto Contador finished second on the 12th stage of the Tour de France to trim 10 seconds off the lead of yellow jersey leader Andy Schleck of Luxembourg.
Lance Armstrong's bid for an eighth win in the Tour de France came to a sorry end on a dramatic eighth stage of the Tour de France won by Andy Schleck of Luxembourg.
Tour de France champion Alberto Contador secured overall victory in the Paris-Nice stage race on Sunday, as Spanish riders filled the top three places.
Cervelo's Xavier Tondo won the toughest stage of this year's Paris-Nice cycling classic as Alejandro Valverde finished second to ratchet up the pressure on race leader and their fellow Spaniard Alberto Contador.
Tour de France winner Alberto Contador suffered a heavy crash in the opening stage of the Paris-Nice race in France -- the first major European contest of the 2010 cycling season.
Alberto Contador's immediate future has finally been sorted out after his Astana team were finally granted their ProTour licence on Thursday.
Tour de France champion Alberto Contador looks set to stay with Astana next year after reaching a preliminary agreement with the Kazakh-based squad.
Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador will renew their fierce rivalry on a 2010 Tour de France route that features a fearsome stretch in the Pyrenees which is likely to decide the outcome of the 97th edition of cycling's most famous race.
Tour de France champion Alberto Contador will stay with Astana for the 2010 season, the Kazakh-funded team announced on Saturday night.
Lance Armstrong has hit back at Tour de France winner Alberto Contador by describing the Spaniard's latest criticism of him as "drivel" on his Twitter feed.
updated: Tue Jul 28 2009 22:58:00
Cycling great Lance Armstrong is in a war of words with Tour de France winner Alberto Contador. CNN's Josh Levs reports.
Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has launched a stinging attack on Astana teammate Lance Armstrong after returning as a hero to his native town of Pinto near Madrid.
What we learned from the 96th Tour de France:
Alberto Contador has been crowned Tour de France champion for the second time in three years, as Mark Cavendish won his sixth stage of this year's race with victory in the 21st and final stage, finishing in the center of Paris.
Alberto Contador is on the verge of winning his second Tour de France in three years after finishing fourth to fellow-Spaniard Juan Manuel Garate in the arduous 20th and penultimate 167km stage to the top of Mont Ventoux.
Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong has announced that he will race for a new U.S.-based team next year.
LE GRAND BORNAND, France -- Worst kept secret at this Tour de France: Astana general manager Johan Bruyneel will announce tomorrow that he intends to start a new team next year, backed by American sponsorship and led by Lance Armstrong.
Alberto Contador has moved closer to his second Tour de France victory in three years after finishing second to Luxembourg's Frank Schleck in the gruelling 169.5km 17th stage of the race from Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Le Grand-Bornand.
SAINT MAURICE, France -- Okay, people, you've had a couple days to come to terms with the cycling's New World Order. How's the grieving process going? Coping okay? Did we have a bit of a sulk on Sunday? For a lot of yellow-braceleted faithful, that day marked the death of illusions and wishful thinking; the moment Alberto Contador ("Contador le Matador" as L'Equipe dubbed him) rode into yellow. And he did in a voracious, merciless, effortless style that: 1) evoked a young Lance Armstrong; and 2) suggested very strongly that he'll be sporting the maillot jaune all the way to Paris.
Alberto Contador maintained his 97-second lead over Astana teammate Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France as Mikel Astarloza claimed his first stage victory on Tuesday.
Alberto Contador is confident he has the backing of Astana teammate Lance Armstrong in his quest to retain the yellow jersey until the end of the Tour de France.
Alberto Contador destroyed his rivals in the first Alpine stage of the Tour de France, taking over the yellow jersey with an impressive victory in the 207.5km 15th stage from Pontarlier to Verbier.
updated: Sun Jul 19 2009 12:19:00
Astana cyclist Levi Leipheimer talks to CNN about his chances of winning Tour de France before he crashes out.
Well, that was a trifle anticlimactic, no?
Defending Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre has exclusively told CNN that he does not care what happens in the alleged dispute between rivals Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador at Astana -- and is only concentrating on retaining his title.
Recall, if you will, Bernard Hinault's terse message to Lance Armstrong five years ago, after the Texan drained much of the suspense from the 2004 Tour de France by winning his third straight alpine stage. "No gifts," declaimed the Badger. Implicit in those words: a pro bike race is a knife fight, not a bridal shower. There is no place in it for charity or sentimentality or mercy. No gifts. Lance-o-philes loved it so much they put it on a T-shirt.
Seven-time champion Lance Armstrong was denied the yellow jersey again as unknown home rider Brice Feillu won a dramatic seventh stage of the Tour de France.
Alberto Contador is a 26-year-old professional bike racer from Spain who in two seasons has won the Tours of France, Italy and his homeland. It's a feat matched by only four other riders in history, and by last fall Contador's performances had depleted the European press of its supply of superlatives. Then, in March, wearing the yellow leader's jersey one week into the Paris-Nice stage race, he did what even the finest racers are occasionally known to do, but Contador since his rise to prominence had not yet done. During a mountain stage, he cracked.
The most-eagerly anticipated Tour de France in recent history begins with a testing individual time-trial in Monaco on July 4 and fittingly, on U.S. Independence Day, an American will take center stage in cycling's greatest race.
Alberto Contador scored an emphatic victory in the final 24 kilometer time trial to wrap up overall honors in the Tour of Basque Country on Saturday.
Swiss Michael Albasini continued Team Columbia's impressive start to the cycling season with victory in stage four of the Tour of the Basque Country on Thursday.
American Levi Leipheimer continues to lead the Tour of Castilla and Leon from Astana team-mate Alberto Contador following the mountainous 157km third stage to the San Isidro ski station.
Caisse d'Epargne rider Luis Leon Sanchez repelled a host of challenges to win Paris-Nice after a thrilling 119km eighth and final stage of the race, ending on the famous Promenade des Anglais on the French Riviera.
Alberto Contador wrested the overall lead in the Paris-Nice cycle race on Friday with a commanding victory on the testing sixth stage.
Christian Vandevelde of the United States claimed Wednesday's fourth stage of the Paris-Nice while Astana's Alberto Contador showed just why he is the race favorite in the early season classic.
Spain's Alberto Contador triumphed in the opening stage of the Paris-Nice cycling race on Sunday as he opened his bid to repeat his 2007 title success.
Alberto Contador will not defend his Giro d'Italia crown and instead focus on winning the Tour de France for the second time, the Spaniard revealed on Tuesday.
Alberto Contador joined an elite group of cycling greats who have claimed all three major tours as he wrapped up victory in the Tour of Spain on Sunday.
Alberto Contador maintained his dominance of the Tour of Spain on Sunday by winning his second successive mountain stage to stretch his overall lead over Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer.
Italian Alessandro Ballan assumed leadership of the Tour of Spain with a brave lone victory on the seventh stage to Andorra on Saturday.
Emanuele Sella recorded his third mountain stage of this year's Giro d'Italia on Saturday, and Alberto Contador held onto his slim overall lead for a sixth day.
Alberto Contador held on to the pink jersey by his fingertips on a dramatic 19th stage of the Giro d'italia as he withstood determined challenges from reigning champion Danilo Di Luca and Riccardo Ricco.
Franco Pellizotti won a gruelling mountain time trial at the Giro d'Italia on Monday as Spain's Alberto Contador tightened his grip on the race leader's pink jersey.
Tour de France champion Alberto Contador and his Astana team are facing a hasty scramble to compete in the Giro d'Italia after receiving a late invitation to take part in a race from which they were originally barred.
Tour de France champion Alberto Contador sealed victory in the Tour of Basque Country by winning the sixth and final stage, an individual time trial.
Kim Kirchen of Luxembourg won the second stage and Alberto Contador kept the overall lead of the Tour of Basque Country race on Tuesday.
Spain's Alberto Contador took the 137-kilometer opening stage of the Tour of the Basque Country around the northern town of Legazpia on Monday.
A Spanish court ordered the reopening of Operation Puerto, a widespread doping probe that has implicated some of cycling's biggest stars.
Reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador will be unable to defend his title after organizers excluded his new Astana team from competing in cycling's most prestigious race.
For three weeks they admired his matador's daring, his dark good looks and his abundant charisma. But as Spain's precocious Alberto Contador stepped onto the podium and the strains of La Marcha Real filled the Champs-��lys�es, cycling fans had one overwhelming thought: Please, God, let this kid be clean.
ANGOULEME, France -- This seamy, sordid Elmore Leonard-type Tour will end, it seems, with a chapter by John LeCarre. Alternately grand and grotesque, this race was partially redeemed Saturday by some heart-stopping drama in the brandy-making capital of the world.
The leaders of the Tour de France were playing chicken in the final climb of stage 14 on Sunday when they were briefly overtaken by ... a chicken. To the Borat impersonator in a lime singlet who ran alongside the cyclists during stage 8, waving the flag of Kazakhstan, and the guy who adorned his bike with gigantic racks of deer antlers in stage 10, add the fellow in the yellow-feathered costume to the list of amusing spectators at this, the most unpredictable Tour in memory.
Loudenvielle -- The Human Phoenix, Alexandre Vinkourov, whose serial resurrections have become a subplot in this Tour, got over the parcours in five hours, 34 minutes and 28 seconds today (almost exactly half as long as it took me to ride this stage one week ago, a misadventure that I will share with you tomorrow). The two guys locked in mortal combat over who will win this three-week beast -- Rabobank's Michael Rasmussen and Discovery Channel's thrilling young talent, Alberto Contador -- powered down the Col de Peyrosourde together, crossing the line 5 � minutes after Vino.
ALBI, France -- I was among the score or so of reporters skulking around the lobby of the Novotel in Montpellier on Friday, hoping extract a quote from embattled race leader Michael Rasmussen of Rabobank. (The crafty Dane gave us the dodge; officials of the Danish Cycling Union, apparently, can relate). Sharing the hotel with the Rabos was Team Astana. While we loitered on the lookout for Rasmussen, Alexandre Vinokourov emerged from the dining room. With a total of 30 stitches in his knees, he made his way across the lobby with the stiff-legged gait of a man with advanced arthritis. It was clear that the podium was beyond his reach.
Spain's Alberto Contador won a grueling eighth stage of the Tour of Switzerland around Ambri on Saturday with compatriot Koldo Gil preserving his overall lead.
Spain's Alejandro Valverde, of the Caisse d'Epargne/Iles Baleares team, won a sprint finish to claim the fourth stage of the Tour of Romandie over 127km around Sion on Saturday.
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