Reading through Lance Armstrong's quotes from a press release regarding the upcoming Tour de France route, I'd have to say he's looking forward to the upcoming bike race.

Armstrong was busy preparing for the Lance Armstrong Foundation's Ride for the Roses bicycling event in Austin this weekend, so he couldn't appear at the route unveiling in Paris. Who knows. He might not have shown up anyway.

The 7-time Tour winner has had a turbulent relationship with organizers in France and might have cold feet about racing the Tour again if he doesn't feel welcome ...   more »

The 2009 Tour de France sounds a lot like one of those old-fashioned Cook's tours of Europe -- 6 countries in 21 days.

Of course, the racing bicyclists will spend most of their time in France, where the peloton will battle on the legendary Mont Ventoux on the next to last day.

The bike race runs from July 4 - 26, and starts in the Principality of Monaco, before it takes detours into Spain, Andorra, Switzerland, and Italy along its 2,170-mile course through France ...   more »

Austria's Bernhard Kohl is the latest pro cyclist to be accused of doping at the Tour de France after a French lab retested his urine samples taken during the race in July.

Kohl finished in 3rd place overall, wearing the King of the Mountains jersey at the time.

He's the fourth Tour cyclist accused of using CERA, a new form of EPO, and the second one from the Gerolsteiner team to flunk the test ...   more »

For those of you keeping score at home, this year's doping dragnet of the Tour de France has netted a total of 6 cyclists. Book 'em, Danno.

Two suspects -- Germany's Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) and Italy's Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) -- were disclosed Monday after French laboratory technicians retested some urine samples that had originally tested negative.

If the accusations hold true, some rewriting of the record books will be in order. Schumacher won both individual time trials from Fabian Cancellara and spent a few days in the yellow jersey. Piepoli won a mountain stage in the Pyrenees.

Both were alleged to have used a new form of EPO called Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator, or CERA....   more »