Invited, though, with just one weeks notice, is the Astana team, led by Lance Armstrongs former director, Johan Bruyneel. Astana was thrown out of the 2007 Tour de France after Kazakh team leader Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for a blood transfusion. The team has since been revamped, bringing former Discovery Channel rider and replica watch gift Tour winner Alberto Contador into the fold, with first-class domestique support from American Levi Leipheimer and German Andreas Kloden.Follow results at cyclingnews.com or velonews.com, or watch streaming Italian Rai Tre, through the June 1 individual time trial finish in Milan.--Matthew Fishbane
The Chinese reached the summit and got off. They took the Olympic torch to the top of the worlds highest peak on May 8th and proclaimed, Beijing welcomes you! Soon after, Nepalese soldiers stationed on the south side left Base Camp. While word is the swiss replica watches north side of Everest, like the rest of Tibet, remains closed to foreigners, the south side is open.The big wait is over. The news can shift from politics and pomp back to climbing, and there will be a lot of climbing to cover. This year, the Nepal Ministry of Tourism issued 32 permits for Everest.
In recent years, they issued an average of 25. Witnesses on the mountain claim Base Camp is more packed than it has ever been. Preliminary reports suggest there are 380 to 400 climbers, 250 sherpas, and 60 staffers. All told, roughly a 15 percent replica Audemars Piguet watches increase over last year.Climbers, now free to use satellite phones and wireless internet, report that sherpas have fixed ropes up to the South Col. As noted yesterday, the south col Camp 4 is now fixed and our sherpa staff are now ferrying loads of oxygen up for the summit pushes, said a statement on Peak Freaks.
