Tag: Le Tour 2011

Jul 04 2011

Le Tour 2011- Stage 3

Olonne-sur-Mer to Redon (123 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

More exciting than you thought eh?  Especially if you are rooting for or against Contador who’s team did much better than expected, finishing 8th after starting in last (22nd) position, but still didn’t advance his standing materially.

At the end of yesterday’s Team Time Trials, Contador advanced from 82nd to 75th by rank but added 22 Seconds to his time deficit.  Among the contenders ahead of him are Thor Hushovd (1st), Cadel Evans (3rd) and Andy Schleck (10th).

All the riders that got dropped managed to struggle across the finish under the +30% cutoff time so we will start all 198 of them today with no withdrawals so far.  This is actually not so bad as there’s usually a lot of early carnage.

Today’s stage is considered a sprinter’s course so you’ll see several attempted break aways most of which will be easily reeled in by the Peloton if they look likely to succeed.  There’s just the one sprint checkpoint this year so it’s barely possible that some team managers will be complacent and let things get out of hand.  The expected result is that teams will cut their best sprinters loose to finish as high in the points as they can and use the second stringers to drag their General Classification hopefuls across the line in a bunch.

Bottom line is that barring accidents you’ll see movements of 10s of Seconds or so, not earth shattering changes.  Saxo Bank might be lured into attempting something (which would be a mistake in my opinion) since they looked pretty desperate yesterday.

I’m extraordinarily pleased we’ve been joined by BruceMcF as a commenter since he seems to understand cycle racing much better than I do.  Here’s his explanation of double jerseys for the competition outside the maillot jaune General Classification/Overall lowest time-

Phillipe Gilbert wears the Green Jersey tomorrow ~ it was his today, but if you hold two or three, you wear the highest ranking, so Evans, second in the GC (Yellow) and Points (Green) competition wore the Green Jersey.

That mostly happens in the first week ~ by the time they hit the mountains, the Green Jersey contenders will be half an hour behind on the GC (Yellow) competition, and the serious King of the Mountain (polka dot) contenders will deliberately dump time so they will be allowed to get away on a breakaway through a big mountain stage.

The main “double jersey” situation in the second and third weeks is if a Young Rider (White) holds yellow, since white jersey is counted on time just like the yellow jersey.

Coverage starts at 8 am on Vs.  

Jul 03 2011

Le Tour 2011- Stage 2

Les Essarts to Les Essarts (14 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Some exciting eh?

Actually I missed the significant part live, but it is clear that people have a hard time keeping their wheels underneath them on the slippery cobbles of that sunken road even when parading and not racing.

Other than that not much of note until the crash at 5.8 miles out which had the effect of spliting the Peloton with Contador caught in the wrong part of it.  The second crash a mere 1.5 miles before the finish under Le Tour’s Turn Left Racing rules was of no consequence since all the riders in that group get the same time as the first finisher under the 3 km exception.

Still there’s no denying that Contador is now 82nd in the General Classification behind by about twice last year’s margin of victory and real competitors like Evans, Hushovd, and Schleck.

Today are Team Time Trials which are like Team Pursuit on a road course instead of a Velodrome.  These are the events Armstrong used to dominate to the extent that they eliminated them just to reduce his margin of victory and were it U.S. Postal and not Saxo Bank what you could expect would be a soul crushing display that didn’t just erase the time deficit, but put the championship effectively out of reach.

Can Contador do that?  I suppose we shall see.

Since the course is only slightly longer than 14 miles and elevation changes minimal most teams will be turning in sub 17 minute times so today’s action will be quick.  Because of the Armstrong induced rule changes which include the reduction of the duration of this event it’s highly unlikely tonight’s holder of the maillot jaune will not come from yesterday’s first finishing group, there’s just not enough racing to change things much.

There will be 22 teams contending today.  Saxo Bank is ranked right at the bottom, 4:58 in arrears.  Coverage starts at 8 am on Vs., 3 pm on NBC.

Jul 02 2011

Le Tour 2011- Stage 1

Passage du Gois La Barre-de-Monts to Mont des Alouettes Les Herbiers (119 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

As I mentioned  during last year’s Tour, the departure of Lance Armstrong, the United States holder of a record 7 maillot jaune will separate the jingoist fanboy wannabes from true aficionados of professional bicycle racing at its highest level.

I have to admit that I’m probably closer to a fanboy and what I don’t know about the sport is an ocean in which my drop is hardly noticeable.  It is on my list of weird sports that are wildly popular in the rest of the world and virtually ignored in the States as are Football (as opposed to Throwball), Formula One Racing, America’s Cup, Rugby, Cricket, and Curling.

Ok, so maybe Curling is not so wildly popular but it looks like it would be a hoot to play.

Equally my hands are not clean on the jingoist front though I can at least plead historic interest in the career of Greg LeMond who wore the maillot jaune on an (at the time) record 5 occasions.  Unfortunately Greg has shown himself recently the pettiest kind of jealous record holder by lending his vastly diminished credibility to the witchhunting of Lance Armstrong.

I expect that personally Lance is the arrogant jock type that it’s painful to hang around with for more than 5 seconds at a time, what I know for a fact is this- he was the most aggressively drug tested athlete in his sport, perhaps in all sports.  He never, ever tested positive.

As opposed to Alberto Contador, three time champion, twice consecutive.  On July 20th the day before the final rest day of the 2010 Tour they detected traces of blood doping in his urine and on the 21st he tested positive for clenbuterol which he blames on tainted meat.

For once I agree with Armando’s prediction (kiss of death, I know) that the likely outcome this year is another Contador victory, followed by an August hearing that strips him of his 2010 title.  Other outcomes are possible, it’s important to remember Contador only won by 39 seconds over Schleck (who lost his brother who was also his primary leadout guy to an accident in the second or third stage) and a mere 3:40 covered the top 4.

This year they’ve made some adjustments to the points.  They’ll start with a fairly long flat stage today, part of it over a bridge that is underwater at high tide.  This is intended to be a stately grand entrance, like Monster Trucks parading the Stadium before qualifying.  No racing is expected, that will happen tomorrow in the Team Time Trials.

On the other hand one of Lance’s keys to success was his Tiger Woods work ethic.  He always came to play so there could be some surprises.  Race organizers want it to be more exciting than a Prologue which are quite exciting indeed.

My Dad had the experience of visiting along the route of a race in the U.S. that featured Contador last year after Le Tour and the Peloton passed by twice.  He said it was a notable event, sucked the air right out of the street.

Coverage starts at 7 am on Vs.  Mostly nothing notable happens but there are constant repeats so I’ll try and keep track of events you might want to look for.  

Jun 01 2011

Le Tour Update

Hi-Wheel GreyEvidently it’s ok for professional bike racers to dope as long as their name isn’t Lance Armstrong who has never, ever tested positive for a banned substance despite the testimony of embittered rivals and former team mates.

You see there is no doubt at all that Alberto Contador tested positive for clenbuterol, a steroid given to cattle to promote faster weight (muscle) gain and used in humans to treat asthma by increasing aerobic capacity and improving the flow of oxygen in the bloodstream.

And this was not just some random off season test.  He actually tested positive during the Tour.

But because he’s not Lance Armstrong the Court of Arbitration for Sport has decided to delay his hearing until safely after this year’s Tour (July 2nd to 24th) so he can defend the title he should be stripped of.

Bad beef my ass.

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