Tag: Le Tour

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Just over the half way point today, one more day to the Pyrenees.  Cavendish the Manx Maniac has another controversial stage victory which moves him up in the Sprinter’s standings and does nothing at all to change the overall picture.  Head butts are an interesting innovation, but I can understand the steward’s actions and HTC-Columbia is now less the services of Mark Renshaw.

Umm… what makes them controversial is that they’re dangerous.  This is not Roller Derby or Hockey where contact is allowed and encouraged, it’s more like NASCAR where it’s merely expected.

Otherwise there’s nothing to watch.

Yawn.  3 Threes and 2 Twos, one of them at the finish in this 131 mile jaunt between Bourg-de-Péage and Mende.  Neither Contador nor Schleck are predicting any change in their 41 second gap and they seem well positioned to fend off interlopers.

Tomorrow’s stage is even less interesting if that’s possible so if there is a move before the mountains it should be today.

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Well, Team Radio Shack has a stage victory from Sergio Paulinho.  While I congratulate the team and rider, Stage 10 didn’t change much though it is interesting that Samuel Sanchez continues to hang with Schleck and Contador.

Your US commentators keep hanging their hats on Leipheimer, but it’s not happening.  Lance lost time.

Most analysts don’t expect anything exciting before Sunday when the Tour hits the Pyrenees for 3 days of climbing, a recovery day, and then a 4th day in the mountains.

And then the moving finger will have writ, and having written moves on; but that’s the beauty part of sports, it has at least novelty.

Today’s stage is 115 miles from Sisteron to Bourg-lès-Valence and has only one climb, a category 3.

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

And then there were 2.

The reason these elbow and collarbone injuries are such a big deal is that you actually spend a lot of time with your weight on the handlebars.

Today’s 112 mile stage from Chambery to Gap has the one category 1 climb that might change things but is unlikely to since everyone seems to be writing their Champs Elysees scripts and excuses.

Unless Schleck uses it to drop Contador which he keeps threatening to do.

As I mentioned way back a week ago the problem with unlimited racing formulas is that small time gaps tend to magnify and there are not a lot of what NASCAR types call ‘passing opportunities’.  Now sometimes there are flaming chunks of twisted metal and the prospect of seeing that live may suit your Madam Defarge sensibilities and will certainly cement your revolutionary credentials on sport.

If it were popular like the World Cup everyone would be watching.

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

The uptempo singing and dancing is supposed to distract you from the fact that there are only 3 names you need to care about for the next 12 days rest of the Tour-

Evans, Schleck, and Contador.

Oh the announcers will try to get you hooked on Levi Leipheimer, but he’s almost as old as Lance and farther away from his dreams of glory.

Or, you know, busses.

127 Miles from Morzine-Avoriaz to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne including 2 category 1s, a category 2, and a category ‘K’ that I suspect does not stand for ‘Kute Kuddly Kitty Kat’.

Especially if you’re stiff as a board.

Say what you like about Lance, he’s been more right and honest about his Tour than many.  His first ‘crash’ didn’t amount to much, more an off course.  Losing a wheel at the bottom of the Col de la Ramaz is the kind of thing that sets you back 11:45, 13:26 from the lead.

Within 2 minutes of each other are Evans and Schleck and Contador and they’d all have to get hit by a bus which hardly ever happens.

So now’s the time to think about your loyalty to the Islanders and this sport we call Hockey with it’s cups of Stanley.  I contend Le Tour is at least as compelling as curling or golf with the additional benefit of lasting 3 weeks covering the All-Star break.

It has it’s hypnotoad charms, because it’s practically on auto-loop and only the last half hour or so matters (you get plently of repeats of the NASCAR crashes) and you can really loose track of which day you are watching if you don’t pay close attention.

Plus there is that Deadhead vibe from the crowd.

In an ideal world you’d now root for the team of you fallen hero, but because the sponsorship changes are harder to follow than those in Formula 1 it’s hard to develop the kind of UPC driven Ferrari red loyalty that even so hardly makes a dent on the collective conciousness of the US.

Hear about that “football” game?  The score was 1 to nothing.

Relative to the sport, this is a Jordan moment, a sacrifice to the volcano.  I suppose we’ll get used to entropy, we always do.

So, everyone is a lot more sanguine about this than I am.

I look at numbers like 3:16 after 2:30 and think- that’s 45 seconds I’ll never get back, but all is good say the analysts.  It was a great ride by Chavanel and he has nearly 2 minutes on everyone else too.

If he keeps this lead through the Alps he could hang on to it for a while (defined as up to 6 days by one commentator) which is quite possible if we get a string of Sprints, but most don’t think it will last.  Armstrong predicts a ‘Selection’ today with the road literally melting under the heat and that things could break up as early as the first 9 mile climb up the Col de la Ramaz and it’s 10% gradients.

The names you’ll get used to hearing after today in addition to Contador will be Cadel Evans (last year’s runner up) and Andy Schleck.

Today’s 118 mile ride between Station des Rousses and Morzine-Avoriaz has climbs of 4, 4, 1, 3, and 1 severity with an overall downhill run through the first 2/3rds of the course.  Tomorrow will be a recovery day so everyone can stiffen up and then another day of Alps on Tuesday.

In other sports the 2010 World Cup Final between Spain and the Netherlands @ 2:30 pm on ABC and Formula 1 @ noon on Fox (Silverstone, should be a Red Bull romp).  Coverage of Le Tour starts at 7:30 am on Vs.

What did I tell you about these ‘Sprint’ finishes?

After what are basically 5 of 7 no results, Armstrong and Team Radio Shack are 2:30 out of the race lead and :50 behind his main rival, Alberto Contador of Team Astana (Schleck and Cancellara the race leader of Saxo are also considered contenders to watch).

Justin Davis of AFP thinks Armstrong is looking at week 3 to make his move but I don’t know, age and guile may suggest otherwise.

It’s not that today’s stage is particularly hard climbing, but tomorrow is and then there is a day off Monday and more mountains Tuesday.

And goodbye Alps.

That recovery day sure looks tempting and if I were a team boss I’d have a plan for it I’d have to reveal today- am I going to bring it or keep up and hope for the best?

Today’s special extended coverage (wtf?) is 103 miles of Tournus to Station des Rousses with 6 climbing sections, most of them 2s and 3s.

Armstrong- “I think there’ll be some guys attacking on Sunday, and Tuesday could be a complicated day, difficult and right after a rest day which is sometimes deceiving for guys.

But this race is so weighted towards the last week that my impression and my opinion would be to wait (to attack)”

I wouldn’t wait too long.  It’s not that Tiger is such a good player, but he’s bringing his A game on Thursday not playing for the cut.

The official commentary–

An initial cull

This medium-altitude mountain terrain will be more difficult than Liège-Bastogne-Liège, because the climbs last for between 6 and 12 kilometres, starting at the 40 km mark. Thereafter, there is not even a single centimetre of flat road; it will be up, down, up, down and so on and so forth. At the finishing line, there may still be around thirty riders together. The slopes are not massively difficult, so it is not necessarily a stage for a major climber, more so for a rider like Cadel Evans or David Moncoutié. However, an initial cull will take place and those who are not on form, who will not reach the front of the race, may already be looking at a Tour that is lost.

Last day before the fireworks begin.

I’m not actually convinced Lance can pull this one out.  I’ve done comeback tours and inertia and entropy are not to be despised.  That said he goes out on top as a contender because nobody since Ullrich has put in the scare that he has.

He broke his collar bone last year you know.

The big picture hasn’t changed- another Sprinter’s finish signifying nothing yesterday and the same to look forward to today.  Tomorrow we begin climbing which should tell us a lot.

We will definitely have to start learning other cyclists’ names to prove that we’re real fans and not merely moved by the Islanders’ remarkable streak in the ’70s (better than rooting for the Rangers).

Today’s 142 mile stage between Montargis and Gueugnon has 4 four rated climbs and climbs from start to finish.  It might be possible to make a team time trial break away statement going into the Alps but it’s unlikely any one is going to take a gamble like that given how beat up they were on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Whether yesterday could be called a good day depends I guess on if you are rooting for Lance and how hard.

It is easy, as Lance himself suggests, to look at the 17 riders ahead of him in the GC (General Classification or overall standings) and say- that’s a lot of people to get past, but it’s not really as bad as all that.

First he’s only 2:30 behind the race leader, Cancellara, at all; which makes up about 30 seconds of yesterday’s 3:+ deficit.  Secondly, not all of those 17 are contenders in the overall race.  A majority of them are sprinters who have been helped out by the fact that 2 of the 4 stages so far (including yesterday) have had dead classic ‘Sprinter’ finishes where the Peloton has caught up any break aways and teams have used drafting and team tactics to position their sprinters for a mile or less dash to the line.

The winners of these stages rarely gain more than :30 to :45 over the main body which all get the same time because of the ‘neighborhood of second base’ NASCAR scoring.

Today’s 116.5 mile ride from Epernay to Montargis is fairly flat with 2 climbs rated at 4.  It is one of the last 2 Stages before the Alps, where Tours are won and lost.

In related subjects, accusations of doping continue to dog Armstrong (who has never, ever tested positive).  He was heckled by a protester at the finish, evidently for the second day in a a row, and the Landis accusations have been taken up by the World Anti Doping Agency.

As with Formula One, small time margins at the begining can magnify throughout the race into insurmountable advantages.  Lance Armstrong is hoping that is not the final story of yesterday’s Cobblestone Carnage.

It’s not that he fell, there were a lot on equipment failures among the leaders.  It’s that he was involved in a fall that split the lead pack at the end of the stage and gave his major competitors a significant opening.

The fall was Frank Schleck’s (the less famous one, not the one in 6th place) and took him out of the Tour with a broken collar bone.  Matter of time really, he was badly beat up in Stage 2 the day before.

From Armstrong’s standpoint what happened is that he was all of a sudden a minute and a half behind about 6 contenders including Contador.  He drove real hard over the finish to cut that to about 50 seconds, but this is definitely a result after 2 scoreless draws.

Today’s stage is an unremarkable 96 miles from Cambrai to Reims.