Absent the shackles of an office and desk, I opted to grab the laptop and camera, hit the road and make a visit to France to catch the start of the Tour de France, with the debut, a road stage instead of a prologue, taking place Saturday in the Brittany coast town of Brest. My mission while here: cruise the team trucks, take a look for prototypes, debuts and other soon-to-hit-the-market goods.

We don’t have Brett Favre and Tiki Barber to play on our fantasy football teams anymore. But we do have Christophe Moreau and George Hincapie. Announcing the first, or at least the best, and certainly the biggest, fantasy TdF pool.

Aquaman’s new Cell Gold wetsuit mixes classic Aquaman features with a new rubber from Yamamoto. We put the suit to the test, trying to discover if the folks at Aquaman were able to put the midas touch on what Aquaman USA’s Emmanuel Millet’s calls their “cadillac” suit.

Rumors have been flying around the internet for several days now and today Scott USA confirmed that they signed the 2 x Ironman World Champion Normann Stadler to race on their bikes and ride and run in their shoes.

Rebekah Keat’s win at Ironman Australia in 2007 was a bittersweet redemption for the Aussie triathlete who is currently still entangled in a lawsuit with a supplement manufacturer. We had a few words with her as she is getting ready for the Quelle Challenge Roth.

Leon Griffin won the 2008 Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs event but had to run down long leading US ITU pro Tim O’Donnell. The women’s race was won by Mirinda Carfrae who had her hands full with Joanna Zeiger and Joanna Lawn.

A follow up to Dan Empfield’s primer on the rubber used in triathlon wetsuits. A useful guide as we embark on tests of several of the newest wetsuits to hit the market.

Welcome to a new series: Why you’re not comfortable. If you’re not comfortable speaking in front of crowds, sorry, we’re not addressing that here. But if you’re not comfortable on your bike, read on. That’s our topic. We’re starting with “contact points.”

As the first half of this year draws to a close, is this a good or bad year for tri-specific retailers? We took the temp of some of America’s best, asking them this question, and parsing their answers for a good look inside.

Patrick Vernay has 5 Ironman titles to his name and has cracked the top 10 in Hawaii twice now. That is a pretty impressive achievement for someone who has to juggle pro racing, a family and a part time teaching job.

In 2001, German triathlete Andreas Niedrig finished second at Ironman Roth and seventh at Ironman Hawaii among many other results. Very few people though know that he was a serious heroin junkie before finding life and triathlon.

Nat King Cole didn’t sing about this kind of Summer. You know you’ve got an air quality problem in your state when you can’t find blue sky two miles above the sea.

Terenzo Bozzone beat an impressive field at Ironman 70.3 Kansas and has looked very strong so far this year. Fueled perhaps by his disappointment of not making the Kiwi Olympic Team, he now seems tough to beat.

The F.I.S.T. tri bike geometry calculator is open for beta testing. Your fitter plunks numbers into our online engine and, poof, your custom bike geometry!

In part four of our series, ITU swim-bike specialist Colin Jenkins punches his ticket to Beijing!

Rasmus Henning (DEN) repeated his victory at the Hy-Vee ITU World Cup and earned himself another big paycheck. Emma Snowsill (AUS) convincingly won the women’s race. Hunter Kemper and Sarah Haskins grabbed the final US Olympic spots with their 6th place finishes.

Luke McKenzie (AUS) was victorious at the 2008 Ironman Japan in a course record time of 8:29:11 and can now add an Ironman title to his rapidly growing resume. Naomi Imaizumi (JAP) repeated in her home country as the winner in the women’s race.

Marcel Zamora Perez (ESP) won the 2008 Ironman France thanks in part to a fantastic 2:45:21 run split. Martina Dogana (ITA) set a new course record as she took the women’s title.

Tom Evans (CAN) won the 2008 Ironman Coeur D’Alene with a solid performance throughout the day. The women’s race was easily won by Heather Wurtele (CAN) who outdistanced her closest competitor by over 10 minutes.

Fraser Cartmell has now repeated his victory at Ironman 70.3 UK and appears eager to add a few other podium finishes to his growing resume. Slowtwitch sat down with the Scottish talent to find out more about his thoughts on training, racing, nutrition and more.

ITU star Jill Savege loans her racing expertise to Slowtwitch for a review some women’s specific race swimsuits.

Contrary to speculations, the ITU Des Moines World Cup will be a swim-bike-run event and should thus remain the final qualifier for the U.S. Olympic Team, race organizers announced earlier today.

Sable offers premium quality optics at a premium price, but their goggles are worth every penny for open water racing.

We had an invite to Zoot’s apparel debut, and came away with an inadvertent sneek peak at the new ’09 footwear line.