Alexandre Vinokourov rode away from the peloton in the final 7km to claim victory in stage 13 of the Tour de France, although there were no changes to the overall classification with Andy Schleck retaining the yellow jersey.
Australian Simon Gerrans won the 169km 10th stage of the Vuelta Espana as Alejandro Valverde retained the race leader's gold jersey he took from Cadel Evans on Monday.
Team Columbia's Greg Henderson scored a surprise victory in the third stage of the Tour of Spain on Monday as he won a bunch sprint in Venlo.
German rider Gerald Ciolek won the second stage of the Vuelta Espana on Sunday to move into second place overall behind prologue victor Fabian Cancellara.
Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara claimed the Vuelta Espana golden jersey on Saturday with victory in the opening time-trial in the Dutch city of Assen.
Astana have confirmed that Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan will return to the team for the Tour of Spain, the third of three major cycling tours, which begins on Saturday.
Kazakh cyclist Alexander Vinokourov will be free to launch his competitive comeback before the end of next month following a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling in Switzerland on Tuesday.
French police detained Spanish cyclist Moises Duenas Nevado on Wednesday after he tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO during the Tour de France
Veteran Liquigas rider Manuel Beltran has been arrested and kicked off the Tour de France after testing positive for the blood-booster EPO.
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.
The Astana team enjoyed a good day when Andreas Kloeden strengthened his grip on the Tour de Romandie and they were told that they would be allowed to compete in the Giro d'Italia after all.
German Andreas Kloeden won the third stage of the Tour de Romandie and took the overall lead in Sion.
Tour de France organizers have confirmed their earlier decision to exclude the Astana team of 2007 champion Alberto Contador from the 20-strong line-up for the July cycling classic.
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.
Kazakh cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov is reportedly retiring from the sport after being handed a one-year ban for doping.
Tour de France organizers unveiled the 2008 route on Thursday which contains fewer mountain climbs, less time trialling in tandem with some radical rule changes which they hope will lead to a more exciting battle for the yellow jersey.
The Astana cycling team, battling to overcome a series of doping scandals, applied for a new ProTour license and will retain its sponsor through 2010.
Kazakh cyclist Andrey Kashechkin has been sacked by his Astana team following confirmation of a positive test for blood doping.
The three-week Tour of Spain begins in Vigo this Saturday but last year's first three will be missing because of proven, or suspected doping offenses.
Embattled cycling team Astana, who have been hit by a series of high-profile doping cases in recent months, will resume racing in September at the Plouay Grand Prix in France.
The Tour de France continued on Thursday with a shadow hanging over its future as European newspapers called for the historic race to be stopped in the wake of a string of doping scandals that critics say have undermined its integrity.
Top riders depart the race and a sport struggles with its reputation
The Tour de France continued Wednesday amid a doping scandal that has seen the pre-race favorite sent home in disgrace and doubts over the integrity of the man wearing the coveted yellow jersey.
PAU, France -- No matter who wins this race, it seems destined to go down as the Tour dominated by talk of Alexandre Vinokourov's blood.
Denmark's Michael Rasmussen strengthened his grip on the Tour de France yellow jersey after finishing second in a drama-filled 14th stage, won by Spaniard Alberto Contador on Sunday.
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.
Alexander Vinokourov put his injury woes behind him to revive his Tour de France hopes with an outstanding victory in the individual time trial 13th stage on Saturday.
MONTPELLIER, France -- There is an unwritten rule at athletic contests in the States: no cheering in the press box. The same does not apply, apparently, to the occupants of L'Espace Presse -- basically a holding pen with two TV monitors just beyond the finish, where my ilk and I are herded in the waning moments of each stage.
Dane Michael Rasmussen, of Rabobank, won the eighth stage of the Tour de France on Sunday, a 165km run from Le Grand-Bornand to Tignes, and also took over the yellow jersey.
Germany's Linus Gerdemann of the T-Mobile team won the seventh stage of the Tour de France and claimed the race leader's yellow jersey after a dramatic first day in the Alps on Saturday.
Friday's flat 200-km Stage 6 through wine country came down to another riotous mass sprint taken, surprisingly, by Tom Boonen, a Belgian of Quickstep-Innergetic who much prefers to be escorted toward the finish with a more orderly lead-out than he was provided. But Boonen ham-and-egged it, Robbie McEwen-style, for his 10th win of the season, his first of this Tour. Say goodbye to the sprinters for a while. On Saturday the boys must get over a serrated colossus called the Col de la Colombiere. Boonen, Thor Hushovd and their ilk will be more concerned with making the time cut than winning the stage.
We knew some of the flatlanders would be shed on Thursday's Stage 5, the Tour's first foray into mountainous country. More surprising was the fabric and epidermis shed by pre-race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov, who hit the deck hard 25 km from the finish of the rippling, 184-km run from Chablis to Autun. As a splintered field approached the finish line, there was drama at either end of the race. Out front, the dashing Filippo Pozzato of Team Liquigas shot up the left side of the road, barely managing to hold off Rabobank's Oscar Freire for the win. With that resolved, all eyes turned to the clock, to see how much time (and blood) Vinokourov had lost.
France's Christophe Moreau won the Dauphine Libere on Sunday after the final stage of this Tour de France warm-up went to Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov.
Germany's Andreas Kloeden won the Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race on Tuesday and said his main target for the year is a Tour de France triumph.
Italy's Riccardo Ricco of the Saunier Duval team is the new leader of the Tirreno-Adriatico race after taking his second consecutive stage victory.
Spain's Astana team will be part of the ProTour peloton next season after being belatedly granted a license by the International Cycling Union (UCI).
Venezuelan cyclist Jose Rujano, whose climbing exploits helped him to third place in the 2005 Tour of Italy, has signed for Unibet, the team have announced.
Paolo Bettini will ride his first race as cycling's road race world champion on Sunday at the Zuri Metzgete ProTour race in Zurich.
Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara has won the elite men's time trial title at the world road race championships.
Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan won the 61st Tour of Spain on Sunday, 72 seconds ahead of Spaniard Alejandro Valverde.
Spaniard Alejandro Valverde took a step towards overall victory in the Tour of Spain when he finished second behind Igor Anton on stage 16.
Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov won a second successive stage at the Tour of Spain on Sunday ahead of Spaniard Alejandro Valverde who moved into the overall race lead.
Kazakhstan's Alexander Vinokourov recovered from his disappointment 24 hours earlier to win stage eight of the Tour of Spain on Saturday.
German Andreas Kloeden, third in this year's Tour de France, has confirmed he will join the Astana team next season from T-Mobile.
Russian Vladimir Gusev won Tuesday's time trial prologue at the Tour of Germany by edging rising home talent Linus Gerdemann in Duesseldorf.
Alexander Vinokourov has said that his Astana-Wuerth team will end its remaining connections with Spanish cycling supremo Manolo Saiz following his implication in the latest doping scandal to hit the sport.
Tour de France favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso are both out of the race after being suspended by their teams because their names appear in a doping investigation in Spain.
Kazakh star Alexandre Vinokourov defied Tour de France chiefs Wednesday by flying into Strasbourg with his Astana team determined to start the race.
The Astana team has been asked to withdraw from the Tour de France in the wake of the doping scandal in Spain -- organisers have said.
The scandal-hit Astana-Wuerth team has been given the go-ahead to ride in the Tour de France by cycling's world govening body, the UCI.
German Fabian Wegmann took the overall lead in the Dauphine Libere race on Monday after winning the first stage.
Andrey Kashechkin broke clear on the last of the eight climbs to win the 179km sixth stage of the Paris-Nice race on Saturday.
Belgium's Tom Boonen unleashed a devastating late sprint to claim cycling's world road race championship in Madrid on Sunday.
Australian Michael Rogers completed a hat-trick of men's elite time-trial triumphs when he powered his way to gold at cycling's world championship in Madrid.
Spaniard Constantino Zaballa of the Saunir Duval team won the one-day San Sebastian Classic, the 20th ProTour race, held over 227km on Saturday.
Giro d'Italia winner Paolo Savoldelli completed a near-perfect Tour de France for Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel team when he won the race's longest stage into Revel.
Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov has dropped a bombshell on his T-Mobile team by announcing that he will leave them at the end of the season.
Lance Armstrong extended his overall Tour de France lead after Saturday's 220.5km 14th stage - the first in the Pyreneean mountains - was won by Georg Totschnig of Austria.
Lance Armstrong held on to the race leader's yellow jersey in the face of repeated attacks by Jan Ullrich's T-Mobile squad as the riders contested the first major climbs of this year's Tour de France.
Colombia's Santiago Botero has emerged as one of Lance Armstrong's main Tour de France rivals with a second stage victory in the Dauphine Libere on Saturday.
Alexandre Vinokourov won Thursday's fourth stage of the Dauphine Libere, beating six-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong into fourth place.
Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin has ruled himself out of the Giro d'Italia just days before the prologue in Reggio Calabria, ANSA news agency reported Tuesday.
An emotional Alexandre Vinokourov claimed his second victory in a one-day classic and gave his T-Mobile team its first big win of a difficult season by triumphing in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday.
Fabian Cancellara seized the lead in the Paris-Nice cycling race on Thursday after a fourth stage marked by the exit of Lance Armstrong with a sore throat.
Australian Robbie McEwen claimed his second stage success of this year's Tour of Switzerland on Tuesday after winning a bunch sprint to the finish.
Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov has pulled out of next month's Tour de France after a fall during the Tour of Switzerland, his German T-Mobile team said Monday.
Former mountain bike world champion Michael Rasmussen has won the sixth stage of the Dauphine Libere after breaking away from the start.
Davide Rebellin of Italy took his second big race inside a week on Wednesday when he triumphed in the Fleche Wallonne spring cycling classic in Belgium.
Spaniard Joseba Beloki, sidelined since his spectacular crash in the Tour de France last year, returns to competition in the Criterium race on Saturday.
Kazahkstan's Alexander Vinokourov, Paris-Nice winner for the last two years, clinched his second win of the 2004 race with a fine solo effort in Saturday's seventh stage.
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