for the ride of your life

Contador back in yellow following Schleck mechanical

He soloed into Perpignan during stage five of last year's Tour de France and on a day that changed the direction of the 2010 Tour, Thomas Voeckler celebrated another glorious win alone in Bagnères-de-Luchon, a victory that adds more lustre to French performances at this season's edition of la grande boucle.

Contador claws back time

Joaquin Rodriguez (Team Katusha) out-sprinted Alberto Contador (Astana) to take a thrilling victory in Mende at the end of stage 12 of the Tour de France. The Spanish duo escaped on the steep slopes of the Montée Laurent Jalabert in the finale to an enthralling day’s racing that saw minor but potentially telling chinks exposed in the armour of yellow jersey Andy Schleck and his Saxo Bank team. The Luxembourg rider lost ten seconds to Contador, who laid down an important psychological marker ahead of the duo’s expected showdown in the Pyrenees.

Renshaw kicked out of race

For most people, 13 is an unlucky number. Fabian Cancellara famously wears the dossard bearing that numeral upside down to avoid its potential misfortune. This afternoon in Bourg-lès-Valence however, it was a lucky number for Mark Cavendish as he took his 13th win and went into the history books - he has now won the most Tour de France stages of any current sprinter. The stage was overshadowed when Cavendish's teammate, Mark Renshaw, was thrown out of the race for head-butting Julian Dean (Garmin-Transitions)

Kiryienka denied in two-man sprint

Two French riders in a day-long break, Bastille Day and the Tour de France... it would have been an irresistible mix, except that Sergio Paulinho hadn't read the script. Team RadioShack's Portuguese domestique salvaged something from this year's Tour with victory in Gap this afternoon, dashing the dreams of the locals.

Schleck in yellow after Evans cracks

This year's Tour de France has been a good vintage for French riders; two stage wins and the maillot jaune for Sylvain Chavanel have made it memorable for the local fans, who were treated to more home grown success with a stage win for Française des Jeux's Sandy Casar in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne after another interesting day in the Alps.

Evans in yellow as crash ends Armstrong's hopes

There were two defining images of the eighth stage of the Tour de France. One saw a battered, bruised and decidedly ragged Lance Armstrong, shepherded by his RadioShack teammate Jani Brajkovic, struggling across the line at Morzine-Avoriaz, almost 12 minutes down.

Frenchman recaptures yellow

Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) won his second stage of this year's Tour de France at Station des Rousses on Saturday, and completed another double, taking over the yellow jersey, just as he also did in Spa at the end of stage 2.

Unlike in Spa, however, the history books will show no asterisk against Chavanel's name after this victory - which, again, he achieved alone.

Cancellara retains his yellow jersey

Untouchable. Just 24 hours after taking his first win of this year's Tour de France, Mark Cavendish equalled the record of his sprinting mentor, Erik Zabel, and with a superb sprint in Gueugnon indicated that yesterday was no fluke for the Isle of Man's greatest cycling export, who now has 12 Tour de France stage victories to his name.

Manx missile is back in action!!

Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) sprints to his first stage win at the 2010 Tour de France

The riders at HTC-Columbia often say that each victory they take belongs to the team and no better was this demonstrated than on Thursday's stage to Montargis. After the disappointment of Wednesday's sprint into Reims, Mark Cavendish took advantage of the perfect work done by his teammates to open his stage win account in this year's Tour.

Cancellara remains in yellow jersey

Much has been said of the many 'veterans' riding this year's Tour de France and this afternoon in Reims the 'Aged Brigade' demonstrated they've got the legs to go with their years of experience at the season's biggest race. Fastest of them was Alessandro Petacchi, who turned back the clock and made the 'Youth Brigade' look slow with a sprint reminiscent of his prime.