It's shaping up to be a two-way battle for the championship of the Giro Donne.

Dutch champion Marianne Vos wins her second straight stage of the women's Giro d'Italia, with Judith Arndt of HTC-Columbia in second at the finish today in  Arcisate. The top American is USA team rider Mara Abbott, in ninth.

Vos leads the overall standings, with Arndt 25 seconds back. No one else is within a minute of the race lead.

Tomrorow, stage seven of the ten day the race starts along the shores of Italy's Lake Como, and ends 110km later in Albese.

How bad was it out on the cobblestones that punctuated the Tour de France route today?

The expression, and the dirt, on Lance Armstrong's face, in this photo by John Pierce, sums up the day.

It was hard...it was ugly...and it was a helluva race.

Our hat's off to race winner Thor Hushovd, and overall leader Fabian Cancellara. And hats off to John Pierce for another memorable moment from today at the Tour.

The road turned upward for the first time this week, and there's a new leader at Italy's Giro Donne.

Dutch racer Marianne Vos takes the win in on the uphill finish at Pettenasco, with runner-up Tatiana Guderzo just one second back. Vos takes the overall lead too, 21 seconds ahead of HTC-Columbia's Judith Arndt.

Two Americans finish in the top ten. Mara Abbott, riding for the US national team, is fourth today, with HTC-Columbia's Evelyn Stevens in ninth. Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, the winner of the first four stages of the Giro Donne, is not a factor today, falling out of the top ten overall.

Stage seven of the Giro Donne will cover 116km on Wednesday, from Gallarate to Arcisate, near the Italian town of Varese.

Is there anyone one there who can beat Ina? Four races down, and four stages wins for Ina-Yoko Teutenberg at the Giro Donne, the women's Giro d'Italia.

Simply amazing. 

Today, Teutenberg wins the 90km stage from Ficarolo to Lendinara, Italy. Kirsten Wild of the Cervelo Test Team, is second again, with American Shelley Evans moving up to third today in the finishing sprint. Teutenberg leads Wild by 40 seconds in the overall standings, with four stages down, and six to go.

And the question remains...can anybody beat Ina-Yoko Teutenberg? Her rivals will get another shot at the HTC-Columbia star on Wednesday, when they race 122km fron Orta S. Giulio to Pettenasco.

She did it again today.

HTC-Columbia cycling star Ina-Yoko Teutenberg has now won three stages in three days of the women's Giro d'Italia, taking the 16.9km time trial today in Biadene.

Teutenberg finished 21 seconds ahead of Carvelo's Kirsten Wild, with two HTC-Columbia riders...Judith Arndt and Linda Villumsen...in third and fourth.

Four Americans finished in the top 11 today. Shelley Evans was sixth, 43 seconds back. Amber Neben, the 2008 world champion in the TT, was 52 seconds back in eighth, Alison Starnes claimed ninth, 54 seconds behind Teutenberg, with Evelyn Stevens of HTC-Columbia in 11th, 55 seconds behind her teammate.

Ina still leads the overall standings, with Wild in second. Tomorrow, the Giro Donne will race 90km, from Ficarolo to Lendinara.

Let's be honest...if you really want to follow the Tour de France this year, there are all kinds of options. You can watch the races live, on TV or the web. You can get all the results from CyclingNews and VeloNews. And there are countless of web sites re-publishing 'photos and video content that they're basically stealing from other sites.

So, we want to bring you something that you probably haven't seen before. And we're going to do this every day during the Tour.

We have an agreement with John Pierce of PhotoSport International. Pierce is one of the top photojournalists in the world, and every day during the three weeks of racing in France, he'll send us one really outstanding photo...one shot you probably haven't seen before...one memorable image from that day's racing. It could be the stage winner...it could be a totally random guy...it could even be a scenic shot from somewhere out on the race course in France. But it will be memorable.

Our first John Pierce image is this incredibly cool shot of time trial winner Fabian Cancellara. The really cool thing about this photo? Click on the image, and check out what's written on his TT helmet. Yep...it says Olympic Champion and World Champion. 

As they say, it ain't braggin' if you can back it up. And "Sparticus" backed it up today, big time, winning the opening prologue of the Tour and the race leader's yellow jersey.

What will happen tomorrow, and what will John Pierce send us? Come back and look after Stage 1. We promise not to disappoint.

Teutenberg wins her 18th race of the year, beating Giorgina Bronzini to the line. The best news for US cycling fans...American champ Shelley Evans moved up to fourth on the stage today, after a seventh place finish in Friday's race opener.

Sunday the women of hte Giro will attack the 16.9km time trial course, from Caerano S. Marco to Biadene.

While most of the world is gearing up for the start of the Tour de France tomorrow in Rotterdam, the best female racers in the world are in Italy this week for the Giro Donne, the women's Giro d'Italia.

With one day down, the race is already going according to form. HTC-Columbia leader Ina-Yoko Teutenberg was first in the field sprint today in Trieste, winning Stage 1 of the Giro Donne and claiming the leader's pink jersey. It's Ina's 17th win this season...more than any other male or female pro.

American Shelley Evans, the newly-crownd US champion, was a solid seventh in the sprint to the line. Tomorrow, the women will race 130km, from Sacile to Riese Pio X.

Bike racing is hard...damn hard...but there are moments of majesty in the sport, moments when you just want to sit back and take it all in as the race goes by.

Case in point...just before the riders in the Giro d'Italia crested the climb of the dreaded Passo del Mortirolo, they had to negotiate a nasty, nearly 180 degree hairpin turn at the top of the hill.

The leaders had long since passed this point, but as the big bunch of multi-colored riders in the grupetto came through, it was was one those, "Damn, this is so cool!" moments.

We wanted to give you a chance to experience it for yourself, in the following CycleTo video.