United States federal prosecutors dropped their investigation of Lance Armstrong last night, ending a two-year effort aimed at determining whether the seven-time Tour de France winner and his team-mates participated in a doping program.

Winning is what Mark Cavendish does best and the Manxman is determined to keep the habit going in 2012.

Tom Peck samples the latest in high-intensity training equipment

In households throughout the land, families will wake up this morning with a mixture of near-hysterical excitement and a certain resigned trepidation. Yes, it’s the first day of the school holidays.

After the crashes of the first week, some exceptional racing has helped the Tour to recover its soul

One of the collateral damage victims of Bradley Wiggins' exit yesterday was a brilliantly executed 17th Tour stage win for Mark Cavendish, on the same finishing straight where he had taken his first-ever victory in the Tour back in 2008.

Tour de France

Wiggins won not by crushing his rivals but in chasing down the most dangerous attacks

Lance Armstrong, sporting hero or drug-taking cheat? As the allegations fly, Simon Usborne says that there is an empire built on empathy at stake, not just a few yellow jerseys

Stop me if you've heard this one before. Somebody accuses Lance Armstrong of doping. He trots out the "most-tested athlete in history" response. Armstrong's detractors accuse him of being the cancer that afflicts cycling. His defenders say he has inspired the real cancer community everywhere. The rest of us yawn slightly, write up the umpteenth piece about cycling's and Armstrong's battered credibility and then get on with the rest of life again.

Another of Lance Armstrong's former team-mates, the 2004 Olympic gold medallist Tyler Hamilton, has accused the seven-times Tour de France winner of using performance-enhancing drugs.

Tyler Hamilton, who was allowed to keep his Athens Olympics gold medal despite failing a doping test, has finally confessed to cheating and accused other top cyclists including Lance Armstrong of doing the same.

Eleven years after winning Paris-Nice, the German Andreas Klöden proved yesterday he was still a force to be reckoned with when he won the hilly 193-kilometre fifth stage in the same race.