Text by Christian Camerota Take a tumble on a pair of K2 skis and you might twist an ankle. Fall on K2 skiing and it will likely spell disaster. A solemn reminder of the inherent danger on the mountain's stolid slopes, Italian adventurer Michele Fait slid down an ice sheet to his death while skiing the SSE spur from atop an acclimitization camp on June 23. Fait and Frederick Ericsson had planned on scaling K2 and becoming the first people to ever make a complete ski descent of it before the tragic accident occurred. Ericsson had been chronicling the pair's trip on Powder Magazine's website and, a few days before, even went so far as to report that the harrowing car ride through a waterfall to arrive at the mountain "was probably more scary than anything we will face on K2." Their first days on the slopes held great promise,...
Text by Christian Camerota Surprise, surprise. It looks as if Lance Armstrong's charity ride has turned into something more: like, say, a legitimate run at his 8th Tour De France victory. Armstrong's Team Astana, favored to win today's 39-kilometer time trial in Montpellier, lived up to the hype, finishing the 4th stage in 46 minutes and 29 seconds. Their 40-second margin of victory over Team Saxo Bank means Lance Armstrong is now essentially tied for the race's lead, just milliseconds behind official leader Fabian Cancellara. Tomorrow's 196.5-kilometer stage 5 stretches from Le Cap d'Agde to Perpignan and is dedicated to surrealist painter Salvador Dali, who penned the 1959 Tour's official postcard. Read previous Tour De France posts >>
Text by Christian Camerota Far from the fanfare of years past, Lance Armstrong is not even considered the leader of his Astana team in this Tour De France. But the leaderboard would tell you otherwise. Though he has contended his motivation for riding this time around is largely charitable in nature, there's no avoiding that if Lance Armstrong is riding in a race, he's always going to be a favorite. Today's results appear to show Armstrong arriving at that conclusion, as well, just as he arrived at La Grande-Motte. About 30 kilometers from the third stage finish, Team Columbia took advantage of strong crosswinds and split the peloton with a late surge. Armstrong was paying attention and managed to stay with the lead pack, ultimately resulting in a rise into third place in the overall standings, just 40 seconds behind Swiss leader Fabian Cancellara of the Saxo Bank team. Armstrong's...
