Tour de France stuff and a whine
Jul. 10th, 2005 05:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayDiscovery crew reports for duty
I really must be cycling addicted, because my thought when I saw this headline was "hey, the BBC is really getting into the cycling thing, aren't they?" rather than "oh, look, shuttle crew".
So, no Tour squee for four days. Thursday, I was just too numb and knackered to squee. And I haven't been near the computer since Friday afternoon. Therefore, round-up of four days ahead.
As a hint for anyone attempting to read this, on a flat stage you can guarantee that a break won't stay away to the line if they have less than four minutes on the main group (or peloton, to give the technical term) at fifty kilometres to go. In fact, to have any hope they really need closer to ten minutes. But you can successfully predict that the break will be caught by the 5km to go banner if they have less than the aformentioned four minutes. It's a tactic: the teams of the sprinters want that break to stay out until then because other riders probably won't make an attempt. There are less chases to make and the sprinters teams can band together in those last fifty kilometres to chase down the break, leaving them all equally tired. After that, the sprinters teams are all about getting their rider to the finish first and it all becomes rather fast and dangerous.
Thursday's stage looked to be following the rules. Except the catch didn't really happen. And Vino attacked in the final couple of kilometres. It was all very exciting and tense. A Fassa Bortello rider went with Vino and eventually took the stage. The last man from the break, Christophe Mengin, crashed on the final corner, forcing Vino to slow and go around him. Otherwise I'm fairly sure it would have been Vinikourov's stage.
The stage was very wet and that final corner, which would have been fine on a dry day, was lethal. The Mengin wasn't the only one to hit the deck: half the peloton seemed to skid into the barriers. Vino showed just how skilled he is at bike handling to miss it and make up nineteen seconds on Armstrong. His attack also showed how good he is tactically, something that a certain German teammate is sadly lacking.
Friday's stage had another long break away caught a few kiometres from the line. The big bunch sprint was thoroughly exciting - yay Robbie McEwan! - and almost as dangerous as Thursday's ice-rink. The crash disrupted the sprint a little and, looking at the helicopter footage afterwards, I'm surprised that there wasn't a penalisation for the rider who didn't hold his line and helped to cause the crash. *shrug* I guess there were no broken bones so nobody is too worried.
Yesterday's stage had Mengin dropping out due to his injuries from Thursday, Lance looking in trouble and possibly the closest finish I've ever seen. Peiter Weening went out with a break early in the day and managed to stay away. It was the first stage with some big hills (can't really call them hills - the worst was a category 2) and was always going to be a break away day. The sprinters are going to be riding at the back of the race until the road flattens out, so it's time for the lone break guys and the climbers to take centre stage.
The surprise of the day was the Discovery Team, and for all the wrong reasons. Where were they? On the final climb, Lance was the only member of his team left in the main group. That meant there was nobody left to mark the attacks and T-Mobile took advantage of it. Ullrich really should have attacked, but he didn't. Instead it was Vino who kept trying and Lance marked him every time. Andreas Kloden, another T-Mobile rider, took advantage and made a successful attack. Lance later said that he saw Vino as the danger guy and knew he could let Kloden go this time. To be honest, I think he made the right call here. He didn't have the men around him to mark everything and Vino is probably the most dangerous guy out there.
Kloden got away and managed to catch Weening. This was when the motivations of the two guys clashed: Kloden was riding for maximum time gains while Weening just wanted the stage win. They couldn't play cat and mouse with the pack (including Armstrong) bearing down on them, so Kloden had to keep peddling and Weening was able to come around him at the very last second and take the stage win. It was so close, nobody could call it. In the end, the race officials gave it to Weening...by 1/1000th of the a second i.e. 9mm. The photo finish was almost impossible to make out.
Today's stage was exciting for completely different reasons. It's rare to see a break last for almost the entire race (well, except for those pesky two kilometers at the beginning when he was warming up), but today Mickael Rasmussen managed it and got in with three minutes to spare. He was first over every climb (four category threes, a category two and a category one) so he's also made some significant gains in the King of the Mountains jersey. The other climbers will have to start collecting points quickly if they're going to take that from him.
The unexpected thing was that Armstrong allowed two dangerous men into a second break and didn't chase them down. Jens Voigt and Christophe Moreau were, by the end of the stage, all that remained of that break and they finished three minutes ahead of Lance and the rest of the peloton. Voigt had been in second this morning: he now wears the yellow with Moreau in second. Lance is 2'18" behind Voigt in the overall. Now, Voigt will probably lose the jersey in the Alps. He's just not that good a climber. Moreau, though, usually manages to stay with Lance during the mountain stages so he's a danger guy. Lance will need to attack and drop him on at least a couple of stages to make up that time because Moreau is also a fairly useful time trialler.
I can't decide whether it was a mistake or a plan, allowing that to happen. Discovery were back today, controlling the peloton tempo, but I wonder whether they'd planned to allow that break to stay away with that kind of time gap. Hmm.
There was a bit of attrition today. David Zabrisky finally climbed into the team car, obviously still suffering from his fall in the team time trial. He did well, though. It was his first Tour and the pace is like no other race he'll have competed in before. He also took a very hard fall and did well to carry on. The final climb, the Ballon D'Alsace, seemed to surprise a few riders and there were a number of riders (including most of the sprinters) working together at the back to make it in within the elimination time.
The other big surprise of the day was Stuart O'Grady. A sprinter coming in fourth on a stage like this? Hmm. He did very well and he's obviously trying to make up some points. My guess is that he feels Boonen and Hushovd might drop out further in the mountains, which would put him and McEwan as the main contenders for the points jersey. Boonen and Hushovd both looked in difficulty today, so we'll see how it goes.
Tomorrow is a rest day and then Tuesday begins the mountains proper. Yup, I'll be trying to make it home from work as fast as possible so I can watch the final couple of hours of the stage live. I love mountain stages, particularly mountain-top finishes, so Tuesday should be a goodie :-)
The whine: I wanted the weather to dry up a little so that I'd stop aching so much. But did it have to go to the other extreme? Really, 29C is far too warm. Ick.
I really must be cycling addicted, because my thought when I saw this headline was "hey, the BBC is really getting into the cycling thing, aren't they?" rather than "oh, look, shuttle crew".
So, no Tour squee for four days. Thursday, I was just too numb and knackered to squee. And I haven't been near the computer since Friday afternoon. Therefore, round-up of four days ahead.
As a hint for anyone attempting to read this, on a flat stage you can guarantee that a break won't stay away to the line if they have less than four minutes on the main group (or peloton, to give the technical term) at fifty kilometres to go. In fact, to have any hope they really need closer to ten minutes. But you can successfully predict that the break will be caught by the 5km to go banner if they have less than the aformentioned four minutes. It's a tactic: the teams of the sprinters want that break to stay out until then because other riders probably won't make an attempt. There are less chases to make and the sprinters teams can band together in those last fifty kilometres to chase down the break, leaving them all equally tired. After that, the sprinters teams are all about getting their rider to the finish first and it all becomes rather fast and dangerous.
Thursday's stage looked to be following the rules. Except the catch didn't really happen. And Vino attacked in the final couple of kilometres. It was all very exciting and tense. A Fassa Bortello rider went with Vino and eventually took the stage. The last man from the break, Christophe Mengin, crashed on the final corner, forcing Vino to slow and go around him. Otherwise I'm fairly sure it would have been Vinikourov's stage.
The stage was very wet and that final corner, which would have been fine on a dry day, was lethal. The Mengin wasn't the only one to hit the deck: half the peloton seemed to skid into the barriers. Vino showed just how skilled he is at bike handling to miss it and make up nineteen seconds on Armstrong. His attack also showed how good he is tactically, something that a certain German teammate is sadly lacking.
Friday's stage had another long break away caught a few kiometres from the line. The big bunch sprint was thoroughly exciting - yay Robbie McEwan! - and almost as dangerous as Thursday's ice-rink. The crash disrupted the sprint a little and, looking at the helicopter footage afterwards, I'm surprised that there wasn't a penalisation for the rider who didn't hold his line and helped to cause the crash. *shrug* I guess there were no broken bones so nobody is too worried.
Yesterday's stage had Mengin dropping out due to his injuries from Thursday, Lance looking in trouble and possibly the closest finish I've ever seen. Peiter Weening went out with a break early in the day and managed to stay away. It was the first stage with some big hills (can't really call them hills - the worst was a category 2) and was always going to be a break away day. The sprinters are going to be riding at the back of the race until the road flattens out, so it's time for the lone break guys and the climbers to take centre stage.
The surprise of the day was the Discovery Team, and for all the wrong reasons. Where were they? On the final climb, Lance was the only member of his team left in the main group. That meant there was nobody left to mark the attacks and T-Mobile took advantage of it. Ullrich really should have attacked, but he didn't. Instead it was Vino who kept trying and Lance marked him every time. Andreas Kloden, another T-Mobile rider, took advantage and made a successful attack. Lance later said that he saw Vino as the danger guy and knew he could let Kloden go this time. To be honest, I think he made the right call here. He didn't have the men around him to mark everything and Vino is probably the most dangerous guy out there.
Kloden got away and managed to catch Weening. This was when the motivations of the two guys clashed: Kloden was riding for maximum time gains while Weening just wanted the stage win. They couldn't play cat and mouse with the pack (including Armstrong) bearing down on them, so Kloden had to keep peddling and Weening was able to come around him at the very last second and take the stage win. It was so close, nobody could call it. In the end, the race officials gave it to Weening...by 1/1000th of the a second i.e. 9mm. The photo finish was almost impossible to make out.
Today's stage was exciting for completely different reasons. It's rare to see a break last for almost the entire race (well, except for those pesky two kilometers at the beginning when he was warming up), but today Mickael Rasmussen managed it and got in with three minutes to spare. He was first over every climb (four category threes, a category two and a category one) so he's also made some significant gains in the King of the Mountains jersey. The other climbers will have to start collecting points quickly if they're going to take that from him.
The unexpected thing was that Armstrong allowed two dangerous men into a second break and didn't chase them down. Jens Voigt and Christophe Moreau were, by the end of the stage, all that remained of that break and they finished three minutes ahead of Lance and the rest of the peloton. Voigt had been in second this morning: he now wears the yellow with Moreau in second. Lance is 2'18" behind Voigt in the overall. Now, Voigt will probably lose the jersey in the Alps. He's just not that good a climber. Moreau, though, usually manages to stay with Lance during the mountain stages so he's a danger guy. Lance will need to attack and drop him on at least a couple of stages to make up that time because Moreau is also a fairly useful time trialler.
I can't decide whether it was a mistake or a plan, allowing that to happen. Discovery were back today, controlling the peloton tempo, but I wonder whether they'd planned to allow that break to stay away with that kind of time gap. Hmm.
There was a bit of attrition today. David Zabrisky finally climbed into the team car, obviously still suffering from his fall in the team time trial. He did well, though. It was his first Tour and the pace is like no other race he'll have competed in before. He also took a very hard fall and did well to carry on. The final climb, the Ballon D'Alsace, seemed to surprise a few riders and there were a number of riders (including most of the sprinters) working together at the back to make it in within the elimination time.
The other big surprise of the day was Stuart O'Grady. A sprinter coming in fourth on a stage like this? Hmm. He did very well and he's obviously trying to make up some points. My guess is that he feels Boonen and Hushovd might drop out further in the mountains, which would put him and McEwan as the main contenders for the points jersey. Boonen and Hushovd both looked in difficulty today, so we'll see how it goes.
Tomorrow is a rest day and then Tuesday begins the mountains proper. Yup, I'll be trying to make it home from work as fast as possible so I can watch the final couple of hours of the stage live. I love mountain stages, particularly mountain-top finishes, so Tuesday should be a goodie :-)
The whine: I wanted the weather to dry up a little so that I'd stop aching so much. But did it have to go to the other extreme? Really, 29C is far too warm. Ick.
