The first stage started out quite easy — just a few attacks but nothing serious went of until the third category moutain where a group of escaped escaped with Timmy Duggan in it. The break lasted until the bottom of the descent and was caught.

Then with 50 km in to the race Svein attacked with a Milram rider and got off to a lead of 9 minutes before the sprinters’ teams started to chase. They where caught with 7 km to go.

The sprint was won by Andre Greipel but our own Chris Sutton was 11th . And because of the sprint bonus on the road Svein is placed fourth on GC! Tomorrow’s stage is a brutal mountain top finish so it will be exciting!

Team Garmin-Slipstream, stage 1 results 1. Andre Greipel 3h15.03 12. Chris Sutton 36. Will Frischkorn 49. Timmy Duggan 63. Tom Peterson 82. Huub Duyn 105. Killian Patour +1.23 124. Svein Tuft

Team Garmin-Slipstream, GC results 1. Andre Greipel 3h14.52 4. Svein Tuft +0.05 16. Chris Sutton +0.11 40. Will Frischkorn 53. Timmy Duggan 65. Tom Peterson 84. Huub Duyn 106. Killian Patour

---

From the Argyle store:

“Well, tomorrow should be another opportunity to take a crack at a bunch sprint,” said Farrar. “We’ll be looking to repeat today’s efforts, only one place better!”

Farrar does not only have field sprints on his mind. The prologue time trial and eventual overall winner of the Tour of Zeeland last month will be putting his efforts towards the goal of the team time trial.

“After that is the TTT, where we have to be considered one of the favorites. We’ll all be full gas for that one!”

Team Garmin-Slipstream, stage 2 results
1. Mark Cavendish 4h30.02
2. Tyler Farrar
36. Ryder Hesjedal
44. Christian Vande Velde
73. Martijn Maaskant
114. Bradley Wiggins
122. Julian Dean
153. Danny Pate
164. David Zabriskie
172. David Millar

Team Garmin-Slipstream, GC results
1. Fabian Cancellara 4h49.34
3. Bradley Wiggins +0.19
13. David Zabriskie +0.47
14. David Millar +0.48
17. Christian Vande Velde +0.57
37. Danny Pate +1.20
44. Ryder Hesjedal +1.27
77. Tyler Farrar +1.42
106. Martijn Maaskant +1.55
131. Julian Dean +2.11

---

From the Argyle store:

**Note that the charts include his two warm-ups sessions as well as his race.

Location: Monaco

Time: 19:51 Avg Speed: 18.2 mph Max Speed: 51.5 mph Ave Power: 213 W Max Power: 989 W

Distance: 9.6 mi Elevation Gain: 804 ft Elevation Loss: 855 ft Min Elevation: -22 ft Max Elevation: 673 ft

See more details on Garmin Connect

Download Ride Data: TCX file

---

From the Argyle store:

Team Garmin-Slipstream, stage 1 results
1. Fabian Cancellara 19.32
3. Bradley Wiggins +0.19
13. David Zabriskie +0.47
14. David Millar +0.48
17. Christian Vande Velde +0.57
37. Danny Pate +1.20
44. Ryder Hesjedal +1.27
77. Tyler Farrar +1.42
106. Martijn Maaskant +1.55
131. Julian Dean +2.11

Team Garmin-Slipstream, GC results
1. Fabian Cancellara 19.32
3. Bradley Wiggins +0.19
13. David Zabriskie +0.47
14. David Millar +0.48
17. Christian Vande Velde +0.57
37. Danny Pate +1.20
44. Ryder Hesjedal +1.27
77. Tyler Farrar +1.42
106. Martijn Maaskant +1.55
131. Julian Dean +2.11

---

From the Argyle store:

The overall winner of this year’s Tour de France, which begins Saturday, will be the rider with the best set of lungs over 21 days of racing. That’s likely to be a contest between the spindly Spaniards Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre, along with a cast of dark horses that could, at least in theory, include seven-time winner Lance Armstrong.

But behind the leaders, the future growth and maturation of American cycling may rest on the gigantic quads of a kid you’ve never heard of.

Tyler Farrar, a 25-year-old who races for the American Garmin-Slipstream team, is a mellow sort who wears a Tibetan tattoo on his wrist with the Buddhist mantra “inner peace.” But don’t let his placid exterior fool you. Cycling experts say he may be the fastest American ever to enter the race. And if all goes to plan, he’ll be the first American in 20 years to conquer one of the Tour’s most daunting challenges: beating the top European riders in a field sprint.

“It would be huge,” says Jim Miller, head of athletics for USA Cycling.”

Read the full article.

Now he is The Man, on The Team (Boulder’s Garmin-Slipstream), preparing to win The Race (the Tour de France). Today’s ride through the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, not far from Venice, is part of the Giro, the second most important bike race in the world, but it is little more than a prelude to what could be—dare he think, should be: That at last, at this month’s Tour de France, the most important bike race in the world, he will escape from the pack, and then all he will hear is his own breathing, his heartbeat, his chain, his tires on the road—and the rabid fans will call out his name: “Christian!” “Vande Velde!” He will leave the peloton, and everything in it, behind.

Then, in an instant, this day in Italy turns. The sound that punctuates the hum is sickening—metal on metal. Something bumps against his front wheel; spokes shred, and, with nothing to support the rim, his front wheel collapses upon itself. It’s almost silent now; time slows and at once stretches. This crash, The Crash, the one that will make international headlines, sends him over his handlebars, again, and hard onto the pavement, which is where he lies, propped on his elbows. The view from the helicopter above shows Vande Velde on the white line in the center of the road, squirming in anguish, watching the peloton indifferently make its way around him. Christian Vande Velde is now 10 or 15 yards away from his bike, a mangled heap down the road, and a seemingly immeasurable distance from where, just moments earlier, everyone—including himself—thought he would be.

For me the dieting bit has been quite easy. The main reason being that I was able to significantly notice the difference being lighter made to my performance at the Dauphine therefore not see it as being a sacrifice not eating much. Now one may ask, if this is the case then why hadn’t I done this before, the answer is I HAVE! But although I have dieted enthusiastically the last couple of years each time I would bottom out at weight above my optimum race weight, so although I would have very low fat percentages I’d be carrying too much muscle (which is embarrassing to say as I’m not exactly Arnie, but it’s all relative…) that I couldn’t lose.

Eventually I put this down to my body simply changing after my two years away and that I was a slightly different rider, matured not only as a person, but as a man! It would appear I’ve just become more efficient and haven’t needed to eat as much, and in particular need less protein than I thought. So now I’ve lost that extra muscle and am running 3kg lighter, what may not seem like much but is enormous at the highest level of cycling. Carrying 3kg extra around for 5 hours up-and -own mountains is most definitely not a performance advantage. So that’s the dieting bit taken care of. If you’re curious to what the diet involves, it’s incredibly simple: BALANCED diet of which I only eat when I’m hungry and only to the point at which I feel I’ve had enough, I never feel full, and ride my bike lots.

The training part is more complicated; Adrie and JV have me doing no intensity whatsoever. We have come to the conclusion after the last year that my body adapts so fast to training that I need to essentially use my time away from races simply ticking over, in the words of Steve McQueen, “Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.” I have been doing a lot of hours on the bike, surprisingly so, my week post Dauphine was big regarding the hours spent in the saddle, but there was no specific work or TT bike.

The only reason I can do this is because after 17 years of riding a bike I have finally learnt how to ride slow, one of the most wonderful discoveries I’ve made as a cyclist. It allows me to arrive at the races fresh and itching to go fast. In fact it was how I based much of my early career, although then I would just come out of races and barely touch my bike till the next one — that was possible then as it was orientated more towards my survival than my performance. I remember before the 2001 Tour de France I’d already done 58 days racing, which these days would be considered TOTAL Insanity. To be fair at the time I thought it was TOTAL insanity, but I didn’t have much say in it…

That leads me to now, Allen Lim has led the ‘Dans and Daves’ training camp in the Pyrenees near Girona. Pate, Martin and I rode up here from Girona on Monday, a lovely six hour jaunt, Dave Z drove up here after and then we all rode the final 120km of the first mountain stage of the Tour de France yesterday. A stunning stage, the landscape is quite breathtaking at times, we pass the summit of a tricky Cat.1 with approx 100km to go on a road that I will not be able to enjoy nearly as much in two and a half weeks. The view will simply not matter that day as only the bodies around me and the mountain ahead will exist.

The mountain we finish on is Arcalis in Andorra, one I know quite well from previous visits in the Vuelta Espana and the Volta Catalunya. I think I’m correct in saying it’s where Jan Ulrich sealed his Tour win in 1997. I was asking Dan if he remembered watching that; it was my first year pro, Dan was eleven. Needless to say it didn’t have quite the same effect on him as it did me!

Now we’re preparing to ride back down to Girona. First we have breakfast at the restaurant of our chef for the Tour de France, a guy called Sean who lives and owns a restaurant in the Catalan Pyrenees, yet hails from Colorado; you couldn’t make it up. He is an amazing chef who is a cyclist himself, and is going to make a big difference for us at the Tour. Tommy D discovered him as he lives just a few kilometres away from the restaurant and was told of another American living in the valley by the locals. It’s odd how these things happen sometimes.

Ten days to go till the Tour, but first I’m flying back to the UK to meet up with Bradley to race our national championships. It’s going to be fun in what will no doubt be our best nationals in years. I’ve got to ride back down from these mountain first, as slowly as I possibly can, hopefully the Dans won’t mind me sitting on the back for five hours…

Julian Dean
Tyler Farrar
Ryder Hesjedal
Dan Martin
David Millar
Danny Pate
Christian Vande Velde
Bradley Wiggins
David Zabriskie

“We are bringing a diverse and versatile squad to the 2009 Tour de France,” said Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of Slipstream Sports, LLC and Director Sportif, Team Garmin-Slipstream. “We had an incredible first Tour as a team last year and this year we hope for GC contention, possible stage wins and even the yellow jersey at some point.”

The squad features four Americans, including Christian Vande Velde who was fourth in last year’s Tour and is returning from a crash in May that left him with five broken vertebrae and other fractures. Also on the list are current Irish national champion Dan Martin, Ryder Hesjedal of Canada, Julian Dean of New Zealand, and the UK’s David Millar and Bradley Wiggins. Dutchman Martijn Maaskant is the first reserve.

“As the title sponsor, we couldn’t be more excited about the roster of champions that we’re sending to the Tour to represent Garmin,” said Jon Cassat, Garmin’s vice president of communications. “With our Edge 705 on their handlebars guiding their way, we all look forward to cheering Garmin-Slipstream as they push the pace of the peloton.”

About Slipstream Sports
Founded in 2005, Slipstream Sports LLC is a highly progressive sports management company dedicated solely to promoting the ethical growth of American cycling.

About Team Garmin-Slipstream
Owned and managed by Slipstream Sports, Team Garmin-Slipstream is dedicated to promoting ethical sporting and developing the next generation of cycling champions. In 2007, Slipstream created the most progressive anti-doping system in the professional sports world and now works with Anti-Doping Research, Inc. (ADR) and ADSI (the Anti-Doping Sciences Institute) to continue its anti-doping mission. Team Garmin-Slipstream competes in a full schedule of professional cycling races in the U.S. and Europe. Additional information is available at www.slipstreamsports.com.

About Garmin International Inc.
Garmin International Inc. is a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation. Since 1989, this group of companies has designed, manufactured, marketed and sold navigation, communication and information devices and applications - most of which are enabled by GPS technology. Garmin’s products serve automotive, mobile, wireless, outdoor recreation, marine, aviation, and OEM applications. Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit Garmin’s virtual pressroom at www.garmin.com/pressroom or contact the Media Relations department at 913-397-8200. Garmin and Edge are registered trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries.