2005 Tour De France (2 Viewers)

[Nils Luehrmann]

The real surprise for me was the shockingly bad performance of Roberto Heras:

[c] [/c]

Just before the start of the DL, Heras said this to reporters:In addition he made it a point to do extra training in the mountains and yet in almost every climb during the Dauphine he struggled while losing double digit minutes to his rivals. Before the start of stage seven he was already over 30 minutes behind the leaders and would end his race with a DNF failing to enter the final laps of stage 7 within the maximum allowed time gap.

Both Liberty Seguros team manger Manolo Saiz and Roberto Heras said afterward that while they are disappointed they still feel very optimistic about their chances in the TdF. I suppose we will find out soon enough.

 

[Michael Harris]

Last night I watched "The Science of Lance Armstrong" or some such title on the Discovery Channel. The show itself was not that bad considering it was pretty much fluff. What did upset me was the horrible editing. The transitions to the commercial breaks were very abrupt. You would think that Discovery would know how to assemble a program about their marquee spokesman.

 

[Mario Bartel]

Two more sleeps!

And don't forget, this year's first stage is an actual stage, a 19 km ITT instead of the usual super-short prologue. Here is what Lance had to say about that at today's press conference:

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Yes indeed! This year's tour is definitely going to start with a bang and may keep the winner in yellow for the entire tour, although I doubt it that will happen.


Did anyone by chance see pictures of Lance after his training crash in Nice last week? While he said the crash was not a big deal, judging by his face it sure looked bad!

Apparently last Tuesday he was trying out his new TT bike and got distracted by a wasp. He lost control of his bike and went over the handlebars. He landed head first on the road cracking his helmet in two leaving him a severe black eye, a cut over his right eyebrow and abrasions on his hands and knees.


BTW: Here is a picture of Lance on Trek's new TT bike, the 2006 TTX:

[c] [/c]

In addition, here is a pic of his new road bike:

[c]

2006 Trek Madone SSLX OCLV Boron[/c]

TTX is not all that different from last year's TT bike, but the new Madone is especially noteworthy for its use of boron.

(click here for a detailed report on the new bikes)

 

[Jay H]

Cyclingnews always has pretty good tech reviews...

I haven't seen a picture of lance post-crash but heard about it on the AP newswire and on some cycling news sites.

Good thing he was wearing his helmet, on a lot of training rides, I see pictures of the pros going helmetless.

Should be an interesting tour. I'm going to have to miss a lot of it as I leave for Alaska on the 13th.. I'm going kayaking this weekend on the hudson so I'm going to be already behind come the end of this weekend...

Jay

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Only a few hours to the start of the world's greatest race!


[c]Good Luck Team Discovery!



(Armstrong, Azevedo, Rubiera, Noval, Hincapie, Beltran, Padrnos, Salvodelli, Popovych)[/c]


I sort of miss calling them the Posties...

 

[Michael Harris]

So do I, but at least they are still the Blue Train.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I just heard that Jan Ullrich had a very serious crash on his last warm-up session today!

Apparently, he crashed headfirst through his team car’s rear window while time-trial training on the course for tomorrow's prologue.

Lothar Heinrich, the team doctor for T-Mobile said Jan's injuries were not that bad and that it is less serious than it looked at the time. He received cuts on the left side of his neck that were immediately disinfected by support staff and that there was no need for him to go to the hospital.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Here is some not so surprising news on the eve of the Tour:

Tim Maloney, European Editor for Cycling News

 

[Mario Bartel]

WOW!!!!! So much for the questions about Lance's form. Ullrich's "glance over" will surely rank up there with Lance's "look back" as a great Tour moment, and another knife through Jan's aspirations! What a thrilling start to this year's Tour!

 

[Peter Kim]

Is Lance getting more dominant as he ticks off the years and the wins?

I wasn't sure he could maintain the dominance of last year, but after today's time trial,...wow!

 

[Rob FM]

.

 

[Mario Bartel]

That's what sets Lance apart from the mere mortals, his courage and determination to smack down every challenge that's thrown his way. It's how he beat cancer, it's how he won the '03 Tour after crashing on Luz Ardiden, it's how he dominated last year's Tour when many doubted anyone could ever win six. He may have caused Ullrich to glance over when he passed him this morning, but he essentially "looked back" to the rest of the pro peloton, his detractors and doubters who questioned his form earlier in the season (and I'll admit to counting myself amongst them), his rock & roll relationship with Sheryl Crow, his decision to go for a seventh Tour victory instead of expanding his palmares.

Of course, a lot can still happen over the next three weeks, but to put more than a minute into most of his expected rivals on the first day sends a heck of a message.

And how about a hand for young David Zabriskie; what a thrill for him to earn the yellow jersey in his first stage of his first Tour. Between him and Chris Horner and whatever Leipheimer, Hincapie and Landis may have in the tank as their careers wind down, the future of American cycling (and OLN's continued wall-to-wall live coverage of the Tour) looks bright, even after Lance is gone.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Tom Boonen wins his second straight stage and David Zabriskie will retain the yellow jersey for one more day.

The big controversy was of course Robbie McEwen leaning into fellow Aussie (but far from best mate, even before today) Stuart O'Grady at the finish. McEwen had a bit of a rep as a jerk, albeit a talented one, back when I lived in Adelaide. But then, that may have been due to O'Grady being a native of South Australia.

I watched the coverage in Spanish and could not quite follow the commentary at the end. What did Phil and Paul have to say about the incident? It looked pretty over-the-top to me.

And add my thanks to Nils for his pics and comments.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Very tough luck for David Zabriskie and team CSC today when he crashed less than one K from the finish. CSC had come through the fourth (and last) checkpoint 2 seconds ahead of Discovery, but finished 2 seconds behind, probably all due to the crash.

David Zabriskie struggled in behind his team and dropped to tenth in the GC.

No doubt Zabriskie would have lost the yellow as the tour wore on, but a heartbreaking way to finish today.

 

[Michael Caicedo]

Yeah, not a pretty sight. I hope the kid can come back from this. I am not so sure CSC lost the TT because of the crash, as they just kept going for the remaining 1.5k. Seemed like they were losing time steadily to Disc. for the last part of the race. We'll never know.
Always a sad day to see the maillot jeune go down.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Sorry all, I've been happily AFK over the long holiday weekend, but I'll try and make up for it later tonight with some posts about the last four stages - which as you already know were absolutely thrilling and dramatic.

In the meantime, I thought some of you might be curious who were the Tour de France Favorites before the start of the Tour:

[c]Yellow Jersey - GC Podium Finish

ARMSTRONG*Lance_________DSCUSA
BASSO*Ivan______________CSCITA
VINOKOUROV*Alexandre____TMOKAZ
ULLRICH*Jan_____________TMOGER
BOTERO*Santiago_________PHOCOL
KLÖDEN*Andréas__________TMOGER
MAYO*Iban_______________EUSESP
POPOVYCH*Yaroslav_______DSCUKR
LANDIS*Floyd____________PHOUSA
LEIPHEIMER*Levi_________GSTUSA
ROGERS*Michael__________QSTAUS
VALVERDE*Alejandro______IBAESP
HERAS*Roberto___________LSWESP
MANCEBO*Francisco_______IBAESP
PEREIRO SIO*Oscar_______PHOESP
BELOKI*Joseba___________LSWESP
SAVOLDELLI*Paolo________DSCITA
CANCELLARA*Fabian_______FASSUI
GARATE*Juan Manuel______SDVESP
GARZELLI*Stefano________LIQITA
MENCHOV*Denis___________RABRUS
AZEVEDO*José____________DSCPOR
CONTADOR*Alberto________LSWESP
EVANS*Cadel_____________DVLAUS
HERRERO*David___________EUSESP
JAKSCHE*Jorg____________LSWGER
KARPETS*Vladimir________IBARUS
MC GEE*Bradley__________FDJAUS
MOREAU*Christophe_______C.AFRA
TOTSCHNIG*Georg_________GSTAUT
ZUBELDIA*Haimar_________EUSESP
GONZALEZ GALDEANO*Igor__LSWESP
GUTIERREZ*José Enrique__PHOESP
HINCAPIE*George_________DSCUSA
JULICH*Bobby____________CSCUSA
LANDALUZE*Inigo_________EUSESP
CAUCCHIOLI*Pietro_______C.AITA
GOMEZ*Jose Angel________SDVESP
PELLIZOTTI*Franco_______LIQITA
SASTRE*Carlos___________CSCESP
VOIGT*Jens______________CSCGER
MONCOUTIE*David_________COFFRA
HALGAND*Patrice_________C.AFRA
ZABALLA*Constantino_____SDVESP
CASAR*Sandy_____________FDJFRA
CHAVANEL*Sylvain________COFFRA
HORNER*Christopher______SDVUSA
MERCKX*Axel_____________DVLBEL
VOECKLER*Thomas_________BTLFRA
BROCHARD*Laurent________BTLFRA
FEDRIGO*Pierrick________BTLFRA
FRITSCH*Nicolas_________SDVFRA
GILBERT*Philippe________FDJBEL



Red Polka Dot Jersey - 'King of the Mountains'

RASMUSSEN*Mickael_______RABDEN
MOREAU*Christophe_______C.AFRA
ARMSTRONG*Lance_________DSCUSA
VOECKLER*Thomas_________BTLFRA
BOTERO*Santiago_________PHOCOL
VALVERDE*Alejandro______IBAESP
GARATE*Juan Manuel______SDVESP
MONCOUTIE*David_________COFFRA
MAYO*Iban_______________EUSESP
BASSO*Ivan______________CSCITA
VINOKOUROV*Alexandre____TMOKAZ
HALGAND*Patrice_________C.AFRA
HERAS*Roberto___________LSWESP
MANCEBO*Francisco_______IBAESP
CALZATI*Sylvain_________A2RFRA
CONTADOR*Alberto________LSWESP
GOMEZ*Jose Angel________SDVESP
PIEPOLI*Leonardo________SDVITA
BROCHARD*Laurent________BTLFRA
WEGMANN*Fabian__________GSTGER
CHAVANEL*Sylvain________COFFRA
CAUCCHIOLI*Pietro_______C.AITA
ULLRICH*Jan_____________TMOGER
MENCHOV*Denis___________RABRUS
WEENING*Pieter__________RABNED
BRANDT*Christophe_______DVLBEL
PELLIZOTTI*Franco_______LIQITA
EVANS*Cadel_____________DVLAUS
FEDRIGO*Pierrick________BTLFRA
MERCKX*Axel_____________DVLBEL
HORNER*Christopher______SDVUSA



Green Jersey - Sprinters

MC EWEN*Robbie__________DVLAUS
BOONEN*Tom______________QSTBEL
HUSHOVD*Thor____________C.ANOR
COOKE*Baden_____________FDJAUS
O’GRADY*Stuart__________COFAUS
VALVERDE*Alejandro______IBAESP
EISEL*Bernhard__________FDJAUT
HUNTER*Robert___________PHORSA
NAZON*Jean-Patrick______A2RFRA
DAVIS*Allan_____________LSWAUS
GALVEZ*Isaac____________IBAESP
ARMSTRONG*Lance_________DSCUSA
FÖRSTER*Robert__________GSTGER
KIRSIPUU*Jaan___________C.AEST



White Jersey - Riders Under 25yrs Old

POPOVYCH*Yaroslav_______DSCUKR
KARPETS*Vladimir________IBARUS
GOMEZ*Jose Angel________SDVESP
VALVERDE*Alejandro______IBAESP
CONTADOR*Alberto________LSWESP
KASHECHKIN*Andrey_______C.AKAZ
SINKEWITZ*Patrik________QSTGER[/c]


Sorry about the delay, but I'll try and get up to speed this evening.

 

[Michael Harris]

Nils, given all you've done, you can be forgiven.

I was at work today and received an email from a cycling colleague. She entitled it "Warning - Tour Update" and wrote "Scroll down for result". Nice. Today's stage was one I was saving for later and it did not disappoint. The team time trial is one of my favorite stages because it is poetry in motion. The way a great team can ride together as one is a wonderful sight. Team Discovery seems like a well oiled machine. Maybe this year they will finally get the team win. That would be a great finish before the start of their post-Lance era.

Tomorrow I'll be monitoring the Tour via the Tour's website.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I am hoping this will extend one more day... as I got swamped with work tonight. I'll try and get to it tomorrow.

In the meantime, it looks like we wont see any significant changes in the GC until Sunday's Stage 9.

In addition, the fight for the Green Jersey took a major step backwards when McEwen's foolishly retaliated after getting 'bumped' by O'Grady. It was obvious that he was going to be relegated to last place thus losing out on the 26 or 24 pts he might have gotten had he simply stayed on Boonen's wheel. His actions have most likely cost him any chance at the Green Jersey and he was the only major threat to Boonen.

 

[Michael Caicedo]

Armstrong not wearing yellow today.
Out of respect for the fallen yellow jersey he will forego wearing it.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8483846/