Guess who’s coming back to the Tour (kind of)?

Call it Comeback 3.0. Could Lance Armstrong be returning to the Tour de France? Well, sort of.
 
According to a story in The Daily Mail, the banned-for-life Armstrong has agreed to join portions of a charity ride that will trace the route of the 2015 Tour one day ahead of the pro peloton.
 
The Mail reported that Armstrong will join former footballer and cancer survivor Geoff Thomas for few days of a fundraising ride for a cancer charity.

Thomas said Armstrong’s own tale of surviving cancer inspired him more than a decade ago, and now he wants to link up with the Texan in a charity ride ahead of the Tour route.

The Moment The Race Was Won: Paris-Nice.

Richie Porte rides up the Col d’Eze. If he’d distanced his rivals on the Col de la Croix du Chaubouret midweek, his margin of victory was much greater in Sunday’s Col d’Eze time trial.

With the fantastic four and more heading to Italy this was the chance for a new name to emerge, for a young starlet to shine on the Côte d’Azur. Only we ended up with a repeat winner aged over 30.

The race started with a prologue that had all the ingredients of an ordinary time trial and Michał Kwiatkowski pipped Rohan Dennis by a fraction of a second. Lars Boom was fifth despite having raced the Strade Bianche the day before.

Richie Porte takes Paris Nice overall victory.

Richie Porte stormed to stage and overall victory atop the Col d’Eze on the final day of Paris Nice. The Australian national time trial champion was streets ahead of second placed Simon Spilak with his time of 20:23. Rui Costa took third while Tony Martin.

Yellow jersey Tony Gallopin put in a valiant effort in defending his lead but saw his advantage swept away in the rain of southern France, finishing 1:39 behind Porte in the end.

Kirsten Wild wins crash-marred sprint finale at Novilon Eurocup.

Kirsten Wild won a crash-marred sprint at the Novilon Eurocup ahead of Chloe Hosking and Christine Majerus. The Dutchwomen proved quickest from a group of around 30 riders that formed in the final hour of the race.

Novilon Eurocup, the final of the three Drenthe races, was the most aggressive.

The peloton split from kilometer zero, with a group of 14 immediately gaining an advantage over a fractured peloton. They would stretch the gap out to nearly a minute in the first hour of the race.

Queen Stage Sunday: Porte Takes Paris Nice; Quintana Storms Tirreno Summit.

Nairo Quintana of Movistar seized control of Tirreno Adriatico in a wintry finish atop the Terminillo, giving him the queen stage victory and a significant lead in the overall.

Richie Porte of Team Sky won the race-ending Col 'Eze time trial in dominant fashion, vaulting him to the overall victory in Paris Nice.

2014-15 Races & Results.

Tirreno-Adriatico - Mar 11-17 (Stages & Results),

Giro d'Italia 2015 - May 9-31 (Stages),

Tour de France 2015 - July 4-26 (Stages),

Vuelta a España 2015 - Aug 22-Sept 13 (Stages),

UCI Road World Championship 2015 - Sept 20-27 (Stages),

Paris Nice - Mar 8-15 (Results),

Le Tour de Langkawi - Mar 8-15 (Results),

Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen - Mar 6-8 (Results),

Strade Bianche - Mar 7 (Results),

Strade Bianche Women - Mar 7 (Results),

UCI Track World Championships - Feb 18-22 (Results),

UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships - Jan 31-Feb 1 (Results).

More ...

Kreuziger hopes for CAS court date next month.

Roman Kreuziger hopes that he appear next month at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), so he can ride the Giro in may if he is found not guilty of doping. 

The UCI lodged the appeal with CAS last October, and Kreuziger spent many months unable to ride due to a provisional suspension. The Czech says that many proposed court dates have been thrown out since October and he is still unaware of when the court date will be. 

The case began in May 2014 when he was notified that there were anomalies in his biological passport from his 2011 season, which he rode with Astana.

The Czech Olympic Committee cleared him of any wrongdoing and this prompted the UCI to lodge an appeal with CAS. 

2015 Milan-San Remo LIVE.

2015 Milan-San Remo LIVE Sunday, March 22, Italy.

Race starts at 10:10am CET (5:10am U.S. Eastern)

Finish at around 5:09pm CET (12:09pm U.S. Eastern)

Live video from *1:40pm CET (*8:40am U.S. Eastern).

Paris-Nice: Gallopin wins stage 6 in Nice.

Tony Gallopin soloed to victory Saturday during stage 6 of Paris-Nice and took over the race lead heading into Sunday's final time trial.

The Lotto Soudal rider slipped away from the yellow jersey group of Michal Kwiatkowski with about 30km remaining and forged his way through the rain to the finish line in Nice. Simon Spilak finished second, followed by Rui Costa in third.

Cold conditions take van Garderen out of contention.

Tejay van Garderen said Saturday's cold and wet conditions at Paris-Nice led to his slide down the general classification. The BMC Racing Team's leader conceded nearly five minutes in the 187.5-kilometer race and fell out of the top 10 on the penultimate day of the race.

"On the descent off the Côte de Châteauneuf, I got really cold and I was just shivering," van Garderen said to the BMC website. "I just felt completely blocked. I tried to stay calm and tried to kind of regroup myself in hopes I would come around on the final climb. But once we started it, my legs were not really working.”

Moser inducted into Giro hall of fame, Démare abandons Paris-Nice.

A spate of riders has decided to put an early end to their Paris-Nice, ahead of the final weekend. Arnaud Démare, Dries Devenyns, Moreno Hofland and Maarten Wynants, Ruben Plaza and Michael Schär all chose not to start the penultimate stage to Nice.

Mollema and Uran set to fight for Tirreno-Adriatico podium spots.

Bauke Mollema and Rigoberto Uran are set to fight for the podium places at Tirreno-Adriatico after impressing for yet another day on the Terminillo snow-covered finish on Sunday.

Neither were able to match Nairo Quintana, who barring disaster will win Tirreno-Adriatico after Tuesday’s final time trial.

However Mollema and Uran are separated by just nine seconds in the general classification. Mollema is second overall at 39 seconds, with Uran at third at 48 seconds, making every second vital in the final time trial.

The pair will also have to watch their backs, with Thibaut Pinot fourth overall, at 57 seconds.

Tirreno Adriatico: Quintana wins stage 5 in Terminillo.

Nairo Quintana took a snow capped victory on the Queen Stage of Tirreno Adriatico ahead of Bauke Mollema.

Quintana launched a stinging attack with five kilometers remaining to take the win as the snow fell heavily on the riders. Joaquim Rodríguez finished third.

Blue jersey Wout Poels lost over one and a half minutes on the winner, and was forced to hand over the lead of the general classification.

With poor form and a troubled team, Vincenzo Nibali is neither saying nor doing much .

Team Astana has had better days. Its star rider is struggling to match his direct rivals, losing more than two minutes on Sunday in Italy’s Tirreno-Adriatico stage race, and its future is up in the air.
 
Nibali immediately ran for shelter from the snow and freezing temperatures when he reached the finish line atop Monte Terminillo.

He stayed in the Astana bus and, for the second consecutive day, refused to speak to waiting press.
 
From outside, the closed-door policy did not look good.

Belletti back on track with win in Dwars door Drenthe.

Manuel Belletti confirmed that he back on track after a few disappointing seasons when he took a hugely dominant sprint win in today’s Dwars door Drenthe.

Having made it into a 20-rider group on a windy day in the Netherlands, he beat Barry Markus and Michael Carbel in the final dash to the line to take the second win of his 2015 season.

The Southeast team has been known for its ability to pick up riders who have had a hard time, and put them back on track. In the past they have done so with Mauro Finetto and last year it was Simone Ponzi who seemed to shine after a few difficult years.

Lance Armstrong to return to Tour de France - for charity.

Lance Armstrong could be back riding stages of the Tour de France this summer after former England footballer Geoff Thomas persuaded the cyclist to join him for part of his charity ride this summer which aims to raise £1 million for the charity Cure Leukaemia.

Thomas, like Armstrong a cancer survivor, credits the Texan with providing him with the inspiration to overcome the disease, and after he went into remission a decade ago rode the entire route of the 2005 Tour one day before the race tackled it.

Vos to miss next two World Cup rounds.

Marianne Vos has already been forced to sit on the side-lines for the last month and her persisting hamstring injury is likely to keep her from competing at next two rounds of the World Cup.

Her Rabo Liv directeur sportif Koos Moerenhout has told Dutch broadcaster NOS that the 27-year-old would not be taking place at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda and the Tour of Flanders.

"Marianne is always very eager. But she has to make a pass on the race. In terms of recovery it has been pretty good, but she will only return to competition when she is completely over it,” said Moerenhout.

BMW-Happy Tooth train in California.

Under the guidance of director Jono Coulter, the team is looking forward to the new season, and with 11 riders from four different countries, preseason training and bonding is hugely important. The team benefits from the combined experience of veteran racers Robin Farina and Liza Rachetto, who played a mentor role at team camp for the younger riders.

“My personal goals for this year will always be to provide positive leadership and mentorship for the team while giving 110 percent at each race,” Farina said. “Being opportunistic always leads to either team results and my goal will be to be on the top step of the podium for our team and sponsors.

Canyon Endurace CF 9.0 Pro.

BikeRadar verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars. "Value and performance make this one of 2015’s star debuts."

2015 Tirreno Adriatico LIVE.

Monday's Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 6 departs Rieti at 10:35am CET (5:35am U.S. Eastern) and is expected to finish at Porto Sant’Elpidio at around 4:13pm CET (11:13am U.S. Eastern). 

Tirreno-Adriatico live streaming video should get underway at around *2:00pm CET (9:00am U.S. Eastern).

Daily Distractions.

Video: Sagan on Oleg Tinkov and winning a Classic.

Guardini takes fourth victory at Tour de Langkawi.

Andrea Guardini sprinted to victory in Kuala Lumpur on the final stage of the Tour de Langkawi, with Youcef Reguigui finishing safely in the bunch to seal his overall win.

After 96km of racing, including six laps around the Malaysian capital, the Italian latched onto the lead-out train of Southeast before launching his sprint with 200 metres remaining and holding off Caleb Ewan and Michael Kolar to take the win.

He did so with a depleted team as Andrey Zeits, Daniil Fominykh and Maxat Ayazbayev were forced to abandon the race on Saturday after a bout of food poisoning at the teams’ hotel.

The victory caps another dominant display in Malaysia for the Italian, whose four wins in eight stages takes his total tally to 18 in five editions of the race.

Van Garderen not ready to panic after disappointing Paris-Nice.

BMC Racing's Tejay van Garderen had set his sights on a top finish at Paris-Nice, but after slipping from fourth overall to 16th during Saturday's cold, wet stage to Nice, he was only able to manage 20th place during Sunday's final time trial up Col d'Eze.

Van Garderen finished 1:18 behind stage winner and overall Paris-Nice champion Richie Porte on Sunday. He was 5:41 behind Porte in the general classification for 16th place.

Rollercoaster week for MTN-Qhubeka at Tour de Langkawi.

On the face of it, the Tour de Langkawi has been a pretty happy affair for MTN-Qhubeka – they couldn’t have asked for much more from the race than winning the queen stage and the general classification.

Yet those late successes put a gloss on what has otherwise a stressful and frustrating week for the South African team. As the team’s directeur sportif, Michel Cornelisse, noted: “It was a week with ups and downs but in the end it’s up.”

Reijnen: Langkawi mountains classification gives me and the team more confidence.

In the red jersey since the end of stage one, Kiel Reijnen essentially sealed victory in the King of the Mountains classification at the Tour de Langkawi on Saturday’s queen stage of the race.

Although the American still had to safely make it through the final stage in downtown Kuala Lumpur, his broad grin when talking about his situation showed that he considered the job essentially done.

“I am not a pure climber by any stretch of the imagination but there were a lot of climbs here that were short and steep and that certainly suits me."

Poels pragmatic after losing race lead at Tirreno-Adriatico.

Wouter Poels lost 1:37 and the Tirreno-Adriatico blue leader’s jersey to an unstoppable Nairo Quintana in the snow on Terminillo but the Dutchman took defeat well, knowing he'd given his all on the 16km climb.

“It was really hard, I gave everything, but that’s the result,” he said pragmatically. “It’s been a good experience. I’m now tenth overall and I hope to move up. I’ve learned a lot this week with the team, it’s good for the future.”

Bookshelf: Book de Tour.

The Official 2015 Richmond World Championship artist in residence, Greig Leach, recorded last year’s Tour de France as the action unfolded each day. His post-card sized, watercolor and ink drawings are now available in book form worthy of gracing any coffee table.

The capturing of a bicycle race has taken many forms. From the breathless, florid prose of the overwrought correspondents following the Tour de France writing for L’Auto, then to still photography with unwieldy cameras and on to sound with radio (and accordion accompaniment!), then film newsreels and television and now Internet sites, podcasts and fans waving cellphones.

There have been attempts by painters to capture the special moments of a race: Toulouse Lautrec’s 1896 poster of racers using Simpson chains; Lyonel Feininger’s trapezoidal speedsters in 1912; Edward Hopper’s 1937 portrait of a Six Day Racer in his cabin. But they all seem too studied, unable to depict the energy that we know and love when we watch our cycling heroes in action.

But when the Road World Championships come to Richmond, Virginia this fall there is at least one man ready to try.

Fan who brought down Loren Rowney insists it was "accident."

The spectator who brought down Velocio-SRAM rider Loren Rowney as she sprinted for the line at the Drenthe 8 race in the Netherlands on Thursday has been identified, and says the incident was “an accident.”

According to race organizer Femmy van Issum, the male spectator came forward this afternoon, reports Wielerfiets.nl.

“Contrary to many people’s opinion, the man was unaware [of the incident]," she said, adding that his son had tugged his coat immediately prior to the crash.

“That probably led to him sticking out his arm,” van Issum said, adding that photographs showed that he hadn’t been looking at the riders.

Jolien d’Hoore sprints to victory at Ronde van Drenthe.

Jolien d’Hoore sprinted to victory at Ronde van Drenthe, coming off teammate Chloe Hosking’s wheel with the finish line in sight. The Belgian national road champion had a full bike length on Amy Pieters in second place. Ellen van Dijk rounded out the podium in Hoogeveen.

It’s the first World Cup victory for d’Hoore, who notched her biggest result to date on her 25th birthday.

It has been a hugely successful week for Wiggle Honda with d’Hoore’s win at Omloop van het Hageland last Sunday and Giorgia Bronzini’s win at Drentse 8 on Thursday coming ahead of d’Hoore’s victory at the opening round of the ten-race women’s World Cup series.

Youcef Reguigui takes lead at 2015 Tour de Langkawi.