Tag: Le Tour

Jul 11 2011

Le Tour- Rest Day 1

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

What did I say about the wicked?  Oh… yeah.

Yesterday was hit and run day as a chase car plowed into 2 riders but neither one of them were forced to retire.  Yet.  It might have been bigger, new GC leader Voeckler was close enough to get whacked in the leg by Flecha as Flecha spun into a barbed wire fence.

The actual big crash happened earlier on a rain slick descent and took out Vinokourov who was a legitimate contender for Yellow in Paris.  In all 8 riders retired, nearly doubling the list to 18.

On the Stage Sanchez (Louis-Leon) had the victory with Voeckler and Casar close behind.  Almost 4 minutes back was a group including Gilbert, Evans, the 2 Schlecks, Sanchez (Samuel), and Contador.  Hushovd finished tied for 79th on the day, 6:47 behind.

In the General Classification the 2 Medium Mountain days have bubbled up some of the usual suspects-

Rank Name Team ET delta
1 Thomas Voeckler Europcar 38h 35′ 11″
2 Luis-Leon Sanchez Rabo Bank 38h 37′ 00″ + 01′ 49″
3 Cadel Evans BMC 38h 37′ 37″ + 02′ 26″
4 Frank Schleck Leopard Trek 38h 37′ 40″ + 02′ 29″
5 Andy Schleck Leopard Trek 38h 37′ 48″ + 02′ 37″
6 Tony Martin HTC 38h 37′ 49″ + 02′ 38″
7 Peter Velits HTC 38h 37′ 49″ + 02′ 38″
8 Andréas Kloden Radio Shack 38h 37′ 54″ + 02′ 43″
9 Philippe Gilbert Omega Pharma 38h 38′ 06″ + 02′ 55″
10 Jakob Fuglsang Leopard Trek 38h 38′ 19″ + 03′ 08″
…
16 Alberto Contador Saxo Bank 38h 39′ 18″ + 04′ 07″
…
24 Thor Hushovd Garmin 38h 40′ 24″ + 05′ 13″
…
36 Levi Leipheimer Radio Shack 38h 42′ 27″ + 07′ 16″

We have raced 989 miles of 2132 or 46%.

BruceMcF’s assessment–

When the front of the peleton crashes overcooking a corner going 50mph+ downhill, that defines “a mess”. The yellow and green jersey wearers made the decision to neutralize the race until those involved still riding rejoined the peleton ~ despite the fact that it assured the yellow jersey wearer that he would surrender the maillot jeune, though the fact that he had not expected to still be wearing it today may have made the decision easier.

In the race for the Yellow, Voeckler is not considered to be a serious GC threat, so it serves the interests of the main GC contenders for him to be in yellow into the Pyrenees. The three fancied race winners all finished same time, but several podium threats crashed out, while Lulu Sanchez vaulted into second place, so he will have to be taken seriously as long as he holds the time.

In the race for Green, Phillipe Gilbert gained “best of the rest” sprint points at the only part of today’s stage close enough to flat to put a sprint point, and “best of the rest” points at the finish, to add 30 points to his Green Jersey talley ~ one more than the difference between winning a flat stage and finishing 8th. Cadel Evans finished “third best of the rest” to add 15 points to his 5th place in the Green Jersey, and Thor Hushovd picked up 7 points at the intermediate sprint just being near the front of the peleton as his team was still driving in an ultimately futile effort to hold the yellow. Thor goes into the rest day without having to worry about defending yellow, so can start thinking about staging an attack to move up in the Green Jersey competition.

Vs. Rest Day coverage starts at 8 am.

Jul 10 2011

Le Tour 2011- Stage 9

Issoire to Saint-Flour 130 miles

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Well first of all Saint Flour is not for baking.  Yes I need more sleep, coffee or both.

Teams were pretty cautious the first day in the Medium Mountains (only one more to go after today) but given Friday’s crash fest that’s not so surprising.  However time is running out for the ‘punchers’, the not quite climbers, not quite sprinters like Hushovd and Gilbert to make their mark otherwise you’ll have to start rooting on the Schleck brothers and Evans if you’re not a Contador fan.

He’ll be starting his same old 1:42 back from Hushovd who expressed his surprise at being able to hold on as long as he has to the maillot jaune.  It’s a measure of how the field has thinned though that Contador has moved from 82nd to 20th in rank with no change at all in that margin.  On the other hand nobody has been able to put a move on him since Stage 3.

This Stage has 2 category 4 bumps at the end and 3 category 3s and 2s so there are a fair number of ‘King of the Mountain’ climber points available.  The sprint checkpoint is only 19 miles from the end so your guess is as good as mine if the Green Jersey competitors will have caught up by then or been left in the dust.

Whatever happens it will surely be more enlightening than the Sunday Stupid Factory.

Tomorrow is a Rest Day but Vs. will be filling all the regular time slots (8 am, 11:30 am, 3 pm, and 8 pm) with a summary of the action so far.  I’ll be covering today’s results.

Today’s coverage starts at 8 am.

Jul 09 2011

Le Tour- Stage 8

Aigurande to Super-Besse Sancy 118 miles

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Flaming chunks of twisted metal.

Bradley Wiggins is entirely out and Team Sky is in bad shape after his crash.  Geraint Thomas forfeited the White (Young Rider) Jersey to fall back and assist Wiggins.  Sportsmanship.

It split the Peloton and left only 80 riders in the zero delta (got the same time as the Stage winner, Mad Manx Cavendish) group including Hushovd, Gilbert, Frank and Andy, Evans, and Contador.  Everyone else added about 3 minutes or more.  Liepheimer of Radio Shack suffered additional indignity with a puncture and Horner finished dead last and barely at that.  Broken nose and concussion, unlikely to start after overnight observation and a morning examination by the team physician.

After the carnage BruceMcF evaluates the GC this way–

Contador, the Schleck brothers, Cadel Evans, Kloden, David Millar, Vinokourov are all in a position where what matters is what will happen when they hit the high mountains, with Sammy Sanchez still looking to make up 2:35 on the highest placed GC contender

This Stage is rated Medium Mountain and the first place where we can expect race changing deltas.

They say you can’t win Le Tour in the first week, but you can sure lose it.  We shall see what we shall see.

Vs. coverage starts at 8 am with your half hour of hype.  I’ll be concentrating on Silverstone and later- napping.

Jul 08 2011

Le Tour 2011- Stage 7

Le Mans to Châteauroux 136 miles

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Well, it rained a lot, and hard.  Teams were extremely cautious after all the crashes on Wednesday and most of the top riders’ positions are unchanged with the exception of Liepheimer who lost a full minute in, what else, a crash.

We had 2 more withdrawals, Ivan Velasco of Euskaltel who did not start and Vasil Kiryienka of Movistar who was outside the time limit.

There were 62 riders in the top group with the same time as the Stage winner, Edvald Boasson Hagen.  Matthew Harley Goss was second and Thor Hushovd third.  Rojas, Gilbert, Evans, both Schlecks, and Contador also had 0 deltas.

Everyone knows the home of the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency and while tomorrow finishes with a climb into the Massif Central today’s Stage is the flatest in this year’s Tour.  BruceMcF, who understands the points competition for sprinters (Green Jersey) much better than I do, expects two classic bunch sprints– one at the midway checkpoint and again at Châteauroux.

We race through the weekend in medium mountains with a rest day on Monday (no rest for the wicked, I’ll be reviewing Sunday’s results).  After that it’s two flat Stages and then 3 days in the Pyrenees where Contador will be looking to put it away if he can.

This weekend is also Silverstone so you can expect your regular Qualifying and race coverage.  This will be somewhat distracting for me tomorrow as the live Speed coverage of Qualifying conflicts, today all I’ll have to do is drag my ass out of bed at 2 am (did I mention no rest?) to catch up with Valencia on Debrief and the lastest developments with a repeat of today’s P2 session.  The race itself will be on Fox Sunday which means tape delayed until noon.

Vs. coverage of Le Tour starts at 8 am for your half hour of hype before we join the race already in progress.

Jul 07 2011

Le Tour 2011- Stage 6

Dinan to Lisieux 141 miles

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Flaming chunks of twisted metal!

So the day started out with flats and evolved into crashes of which Contador had 2.  Withdrawals doubled, Janez Brajkovic of Radio Shack and Christophe Kern of Europcar got added to Jurgen Van de Walle of Omega Pharma (Stage 4).  Brajkovic was involved in Contador’s second crash.

The announcing team was pretty close in their predictions with Cavendish barely edging Gilbert and Rojas.  Cavendish complains that the new rules make it “harder to have a proper bunch sprint.”  What I’ve noticed is that there are fewer break aways.

When there were multiple sprint checkpoints you’d have a leadout group of sprinters form for each one and then swiftly collapse back into the Peloton.  Now we’re getting 4 or 5 riders out there all day long.

In the GC we have Hushovd in yellow again hanging on to his single Second lead with Evans and Schleck (Frank) close behind.  Other likelies Schleck (Andy), Horner, and Liepheimer are in 10th, 13th, and 14th a little less than 18 Seconds back.  Contador is still at 1:42 but has advanced to 39th rank.  I can’t help but feel that margin has to increase a lot before the Pyrenees if he’s going down.

Dinan to Lisieux at 141 miles is the longest individual Stage this year and is not exactly Kansas flat with 2 category 3s and a category 4 climb.  An uphill finish is expected to favor the same contenders as yesterday.

It’s already started and will be about 2 hours in when the coverage on Vs. comes on at 8 am.

Jul 06 2011

Le Tour 2011- Stage 5

Carhaix to Cap Fréhel (102 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Getting some exciting now, you betcha.

As I’ve said right along, my understanding of professional cycle racing is based on watching Le Tour (albeit since Greg LeMond), which is kind of like basing your perceptions of Baseball on the World Series or Throwball on the Super Bowl.  I only know what I read in the funny papers.

During the off season it’s been all Lance, all the time, with the merest mention of Contador’s actual positive doping tests and the implicit assumption that he was going to win in a walk.  Since I deal strictly in schadenfreude it’s been an agreeable experience so far.

To the extent that rivals were mentioned before Passage du Gois La Barre-de-Monts it was about 90% Schleck (who only finished 39 Seconds behind) with Leipheimer and Horner thrown in not because they are good but because the sporting press is just as lazy and mendacious as their political counterparts and twice as jingoistic (U.S.A!  U.S.A.!).

In fact I’m pretty sure the only reason Hushovd shows up on the radar at all is that his namesake is a crossdressing wedding crasher (you could look it up).

Anyway this is all by way of explanation why I’ve taken Hushovd’s overall chances more seriously than some even though he is basically a sprinter.  I’m ignorant and easily influenced.

Yesterday actually was some exciting with many of the name contenders including Contador making a big push for position if not a Stage win at the end.  It was really the first chance for climbers to make their mark.

Also in the first group were Evans (the winner by half a wheel), Gilbert (whom I’ll have to take more seriously), and Hushovd (who gets to wear the maillot jaune again today).

They all got the same time.  Slightly behind were Horner and Leipheimer (who says we’re old?) and Andy Schleck who’s making his brother look good.  In terms of the overall General Classification standings nobody moved up except in rank because of Hushovd’s presence in the zero deficit group.  Contador remains 1:42 behind, Cadel Evans is the real deal and remains a slight Second out of first.

Today’s stage includes the category 4 climb at Cote Gurunhuel which will give us an early indicator of how the day will go.  After that it’s a descending series of bumps which does not make it easy by any means.  Three more race days until serious elevation changes and a week to the Pyrenees where Contador is expecting to put it away.

Coverage starts at 7:30 am on Vs.  

Jul 05 2011

Le Tour 2011- Stage 4

Lorient to Mûr-de-Bretagne (107 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Well, that was kind of odd.

I don’t mean Thor Hushovd doing leadout at the finish so that Tyler Farrar could get a Stage win on Independence Day.  That was kind of classy and arguably a team leadership move.

Nope, I mean what the hell was he doing contesting for 6th place sprinter’s points at best (5 riders in the break away) at the mid Stage checkpoint?

Those Green Jersey points don’t count a damn in GC.  Were I his manager he would have gotten an earful about his role on the Garmin squad in the debrief.  Mark Cavendish the Mad Manx took them anyway so what was the benefit?

Today’s course ends on a climb up the ‘Wall of Brittany’, terrain unsuited to sprinting and where the 3 km Turn Left Racing rule does not apply.  Fall off your bike and watch the seconds tick away.

Pre-Stage favorites include Philippe Gilbert (his birthday) and Cadel Evans, either of whom could take the maillot jaune (though Evans is much better positioned to do so).  On Contador watch the best you can say about yesterday is he moved up in rank from 75th to 69th and didn’t lose any more time to the leaders.  Frank and Andy Schleck are grouped in a 10 rider tie for 4th a mere 4 Seconds back, unless Hushovd has a great day overall leadership is poised for a change.

Don’t count him out though, the last time a similar Stage was contested in 2008 the winner was Thor Hushovd.

Coverage starts at 8 am on Vs.  

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.  

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