Because I can, I will comment on drugs, doping and what have you. It’s just my opinion but I personally realised something was truly happening – as against being told by press or dodgy friends what “was” happening – when I spent time in an eastern suburbs gym in Sydney, building up for bike racing (more of a psychological boost than a physical one). This was the mid 1980′s. These big, shiny, oily pimply guys were always there lifting massive weights (and gazing into mirrors) and they could sell you “stuff”. It reminded me of ‘under the stairs‘ deal at high school, actually, but different stuff. That other stuff you got at the pub and was detrimental to sports performance, or general sanity for that matter. (Not that I did, but some people did do that other stuff, anyway!)
So you could buy any sort of body-building drug at that particular gym, in my experience. Presumably other gyms as well. I also “knew” about the occasional cyclist’s drink bottle (“bidon”) that (it was suggested) contained alcohol, to give some sort of kick up hills or before a sprint. Don’t know how effective it was, but a few people seemed to like it and claimed to “know”. Bikes of course are build to carry bidons as well as riders and musette bags, but what about other sports?
‘No-Doze’ was also big in the ’80s for that caffeine kick, and coffee itself gained notoriety in sports where being “aware” and awake was important. Again in cycling there were “special” bananas to be eaten just before a race finish. Now these were reputedly spiked with amphetamines, but who knows the truth? No-one did a laboratory analysis on this sort of stuff at the time and it may have been riders just bragging. But very, very few people were drug tested pre or post race, even at elite State level back then, so anything could have happened. (And I have yet to see a club-level drug test, even now. Tell me if you’ve seen one!)
So I can imagine, and it is just imagination fueled by innuendo and availability (particularly via the Internet), that some bike racers are using performance enhancing agents to “get noticed”; firstly at club level (basically weekly racing thoughout the year) and probably at State level. They would effectively get away with it. Testing remains something done at higher levels of the sport, not below. Not often, anyway, in my experience, would they get caught. On the other hand I have never myself seen a culture of drug use in cycling at first hand, beyond caffeine and stories of what other riders did. I heard about but didn’t see the evidence.
Nevertheless we quite possibly get riders started on this stuff early and then they either chicken out, or get smarter. Or dumber? If there’s money involved there’s temptation. Of course cycling is not as “wealthy” as some other sports.
So what happens in other sports?
Because I can, I will comment on drugs, doping and what have you. It’s just my opinion but I personally realised something was truly happening – as against being told by press or dodgy friends what “was” happening – when I spent time in an eastern suburbs gym in Sydney, building up for bike racing (more of a psychological boost than a physical one). This was the mid 1980′s. These big, shiny, oily pimply guys were always there lifting massive weights (and gazing into mirrors) and they could sell you “stuff”. It reminded me of ‘under the stairs‘ deal at high school, actually, but different stuff. That other stuff you got at the pub and was detrimental to sports performance, or general sanity for that matter. (Not that I did, but some people did do that other stuff, anyway!)
So you could buy any sort of body-building drug at that particular gym, in my experience. Presumably other gyms as well. I also “knew” about the occasional cyclist’s drink bottle (“bidon”) that (it was suggested) contained alcohol, to give some sort of kick up hills or before a sprint. Don’t know how effective it was, but a few people seemed to like it and claimed to “know”. Bikes of course are build to carry bidons as well as riders and musette bags, but what about other sports?
‘No-Doze’ was also big in the ’80s for that caffeine kick, and coffee itself gained notoriety in sports where being “aware” and awake was important. Again in cycling there were “special” bananas to be eaten just before a race finish. Now these were reputedly spiked with amphetamines, but who knows the truth? No-one did a laboratory analysis on this sort of stuff at the time and it may have been riders just bragging. But very, very few people were drug tested pre or post race, even at elite State level back then, so anything could have happened. (And I have yet to see a club-level drug test, even now. Tell me if you’ve seen one!)
So I can imagine, and it is just imagination fueled by innuendo and availability (particularly via the Internet), that some bike racers are using performance enhancing agents to “get noticed”; firstly at club level (basically weekly racing thoughout the year) and probably at State level. They would effectively get away with it. Testing remains something done at higher levels of the sport, not below. Not often, anyway, in my experience, would they get caught. On the other hand I have never myself seen a culture of drug use in cycling at first hand, beyond caffeine and stories of what other riders did. I heard about but didn’t see the evidence.
Nevertheless we quite possibly get riders started on this stuff early and then they either chicken out, or get smarter. Or dumber? If there’s money involved there’s temptation. Of course cycling is not as “wealthy” as some other sports.
So what happens in other sports?
An interesting take on the UK road and TT scene is to be found at RoadcyclingUK. Worth checking out. Here’s a snippet on starting road racing in the UK:
Road Racing from scratch By RCUK “I could do that!” Almost invariably it’s around the time of the three great tours that many occasional cyclists get so carried away by the unfolding drama, passion and competitive spirit of the Giro d’Italia,Tour de France and Spanish Vuelta that they picture themselves flying along in the midst of an illustrious bunch or riding with relative ease up steep mountain climbs with cheering crowds lining the road. At least that’s what appears to be the case, even though you know that the apparent ease at which the riders are “flying” along at an average speed of 45k per hour is deceptive and the whole idea, in fact, may seem totally mad and completely and utterly out of my league – even more so as the prerequisite is incredibly hard training, unbelievable talent and a super-human physique. But cycling is all about sticking at it.
An interesting take on the UK road and TT scene is to be found at RoadcyclingUK. Worth checking out. Here’s a snippet on starting road racing in the UK:
Road Racing from scratch By RCUK “I could do that!” Almost invariably it’s around the time of the three great tours that many occasional cyclists get so carried away by the unfolding drama, passion and competitive spirit of the Giro d’Italia,Tour de France and Spanish Vuelta that they picture themselves flying along in the midst of an illustrious bunch or riding with relative ease up steep mountain climbs with cheering crowds lining the road. At least that’s what appears to be the case, even though you know that the apparent ease at which the riders are “flying” along at an average speed of 45k per hour is deceptive and the whole idea, in fact, may seem totally mad and completely and utterly out of my league – even more so as the prerequisite is incredibly hard training, unbelievable talent and a super-human physique. But cycling is all about sticking at it.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Landis stands accused of doping
Landis stands accused of doping – steroid abuse, or a higher than normal ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone if you prefer – following a failed test after the lone, brave attacking stage – and win – into Morzine. I hasten to add that it’s all based on an A-sample at this stage and nothing is proven. Now, given that he has a serious hip condition I don’t blame the guy for taking cortisol - an approved substance under the situation – or any reasonable dose of anything that gets him through the day; but at this level of performance and success you can’t take any chances. Whether or not he did it deliberately we may never know – and the B-sample may yet prove negative – but even as an accidental side effect of medication, or drinking beer, or whatever – it’s unacceptable. To try and clear it up post hoc and ‘prove’ that the steroid levels are ‘natural’ seems dubious at best. We will all be left asking ‘why didn’t this ‘natural’ level show up in other stages or at other times?’. What about those other stages, other races? Why this stage? Why testosterone? There are things here that just don’t add up. There’s an account (or 2 or 3) here: www.cyclingnews.com news and analysisposted by gtveloce at 7/28/2006 03:28:00 AM
Landis stands accused of doping – steroid abuse – following a failed test after the lone, brave attacking stage – and win – into Morzine. I hasten to add that it’s all based on an A-sample at this stage and nothing is proven. Now, given that he has a serious hip condition I don’t blame the guy for taking cortisol – an approved substance under the situation – or any reasonable dose of anything that gets him through the day; but at this level of performance and success you can’t take any chances. Whether or not he did it deliberately we may never know – and the B-sample may yet prove negative – but even as an accidental side effect of medication, or drinking beer, or whatever – it’s unacceptable. To try and clear it up post hoc and ‘prove’ that the steroid levels are ‘natural’ seems dubious at best. We will all be left asking ‘why didn’t this ‘natural’ level show up in other stages or at other times?’
There’s an account (or 2 or 3) here: www.cyclingnews.com news and analysis
Landis stands accused of doping – steroid abuse – following a failed test after the lone, brave attacking stage – and win – into Morzine. I hasten to add that it’s all based on an A-sample at this stage and nothing is proven. Now, given that he has a serious hip condition I don’t blame the guy for taking cortisol – an approved substance under the situation – or any reasonable dose of anything that gets him through the day; but at this level of performance and success you can’t take any chances. Whether or not he did it deliberately we may never know – and the B-sample may yet prove negative – but even as an accidental side effect of medication, or drinking beer, or whatever – it’s unacceptable. To try and clear it up post hoc and ‘prove’ that the steroid levels are ‘natural’ seems dubious at best. We will all be left asking ‘why didn’t this ‘natural’ level show up in other stages or at other times?’
There’s an account (or 2 or 3) here: www.cyclingnews.com news and analysis
This has to be useful. Diigo has some cool tools for social annotation – including sharing tags and bookmarks – plus some sharp tools for bloggers. Check it out.
To quote their home page: “The Diigo team is dedicated to provide innovative and useful web services for our users. The name “Diigo” is an abbreviation for “Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff. “Diigo (dee’go) is about “Social Annotation“. By combining social bookmarking, clippings, in situ annotation, tagging, full-text search, easy sharing and interactions, Diigo offers a powerful personal tool and a rich social platform for knowledge users, and in the process, turns the entire web into a writable, participatory and interactive media.The social annotation service introduced by Diigo allows users to add highlights and sticky notes, in situ, on any web page they read. Imagine a giant transparency overlaying on top of all the web pages. Users can write on the transparency as they wish, as private notes or public comments. And they can read public comments on the transparency left by other readers of the same page, and hear their “two cents” and interact with them.”
Cool.
Filed under Links by Rob.
My 2006 Tour de France Wrap up, all wrapped up
My 2006 Tour de France Wrap up, all wrapped up
My 2006 Tour de France Wrap up, all wrapped up
My 2006 Tour de France Wrap up, all wrapped up
It’s all over and I can sleep again, but I am craving racing. When’s the Vuelta?
This is an interesting quote: Lemond has certainly not hidden his feelings on Armstrong, and when asked who would win today between Landis, him and Armstrong, Lemond at first chuckled, “I am biased! I can’t answer that, [laughs.]“ But then Lemond got a little more serious. “Every race is different. The race changed dramatically this year. For me I am a strong anti-doping advocate. I think we are seeing a true Tour de France winner, someone who might have otherwise been cheated out of a win.” From ESPN reported via Cyclingnews.
I’ve collected a few other Cyclingnews race reports that may interest you:
- Health Net’s Karl Menzies won the Tour De Toona’s technical prologue four seconds ahead Navigator’s Shawn Milne and his Health Net-Maxxis teammate Jeff Louder. (Greg Henderson 5th, Nathan O’Neill 9th)
- 16 Kate Nichols (Aus) Australian national team 10.35
- Stage 14 – July 20 : PCW Cycling Heritage Square Criterium, Sheboygan, WI, 100 km Results 1 Greg Henderson (Health Net/Maxxis)
- Stage 12 – July 18 : WDSC Cedarburg Cycling Classic, Cedarburg, WI, 100 km Results Pro & Cat 1/2 Men 1 Karl Menzies (Health Net-Maxxis)
- Results 1 Danilo Hondo (Ger) Team Lamonta 5.42.58 2 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Credit Agricole 3 Wesley Van der Linden (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen 4 Daniele Nardello (Ita) T-Mobile Team 5 Frank Hoj (Den) Gerolsteiner
- Clarke attacked just prior to the penultimate lap, opening up a gap that he was able to maintain to the finish line… Second place Fairall said, “I’ve had silver at the national championships before, but this is special, this is Gastown.”
That gives you a bit of reading, eh?
It’s all over and I can sleep again, but I am craving racing. When’s the Vuelta?
This is an interesting quote: Lemond has certainly not hidden his feelings on Armstrong, and when asked who would win today between Landis, him and Armstrong, Lemond at first chuckled, “I am biased! I can’t answer that, [laughs.]“ But then Lemond got a little more serious. “Every race is different. The race changed dramatically this year. For me I am a strong anti-doping advocate. I think we are seeing a true Tour de France winner, someone who might have otherwise been cheated out of a win.” From ESPN reported via Cyclingnews.
I’ve collected a few other Cyclingnews race reports that may interest you:
- Health Net’s Karl Menzies won the Tour De Toona’s technical prologue four seconds ahead Navigator’s Shawn Milne and his Health Net-Maxxis teammate Jeff Louder. (Greg Henderson 5th, Nathan O’Neill 9th)
- 16 Kate Nichols (Aus) Australian national team 10.35
- Stage 14 – July 20 : PCW Cycling Heritage Square Criterium, Sheboygan, WI, 100 km Results 1 Greg Henderson (Health Net/Maxxis)
- Stage 12 – July 18 : WDSC Cedarburg Cycling Classic, Cedarburg, WI, 100 km Results Pro & Cat 1/2 Men 1 Karl Menzies (Health Net-Maxxis)
- Results 1 Danilo Hondo (Ger) Team Lamonta 5.42.58 2 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Credit Agricole 3 Wesley Van der Linden (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen 4 Daniele Nardello (Ita) T-Mobile Team 5 Frank Hoj (Den) Gerolsteiner
- Clarke attacked just prior to the penultimate lap, opening up a gap that he was able to maintain to the finish line… Second place Fairall said, “I’ve had silver at the national championships before, but this is special, this is Gastown.”
That gives you a bit of reading, eh?
The dust has settled and it’s a little bit of new and a little bit of old. An American has – again! – won overall and – again, again! – it’s an Aussie in Green. The Polka dot has again gone to last year’s top climber. And the final stage was won by last year’s Green jersey winner. It all seems strangely familiar after 3 weeks of tumult!
Meanwhile the white was taken by Cunego – a newcomer with a bright future. And Pereiro kept his 2nd place intact whilst Kloden took 3rd. Floyd Landis may not return next year and question marks will surround Ullrich and Basso for sometime. It’s been a strange tour without the dominant players – and losing Vinokourov as well meant even more instability. When Valverde was injured we all wondered if anyone would survive this tour. But they did and the excitement along the way was palpable.
Roll on the 2006 Vuelta!
The dust has settled and it’s a little bit of new and a little bit of old. An American has – again! – won overall and – again, again! – it’s an Aussie in Green. The Polka dot has again gone to last year’s top climber. And the final stage was won by last year’s Green jersey winner. It all seems strangely familiar after 3 weeks of tumult!
Meanwhile the white was taken by Cunego – a newcomer with a bright future. And Pereiro kept his 2nd place intact whilst Kloden took 3rd. Floyd Landis may not return next year and question marks will surround Ullrich and Basso for sometime. It’s been a strange tour without the dominant players – and losing Vinokourov as well meant even more instability. When Valverde was injured we all wondered if anyone would survive this tour. But they did and the excitement along the way was palpable.
Roll on the 2006 Vuelta!
Gonchar wins the TT from Kloden but Landis lands the big prize.
Floyd Landis (Phonak) is poised to take his first ever Tour de France win overall, after finishing third in the time trial between Le Creusot and Montceau-les-Mines. Serguei Gonchar (T-Mobile) was first and it was 41 seconds back to Andreas Kloden (T-Mobile). Maillot jaune Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d’Epargne) fought on but couldn’t hold back the charging Landis, ultimately finishing a disappointing but otherwise unexpectedly great fourth on the day, 2m40s behind Gonchar and 1m29s behind Landis.
Barring the utterly amazing (who could deny the possibility though!) Landis is unbeatable at 59 seconds up on Pereiro and 1m29s on Kloden. CSC’s Carlos Sastre is now in fourth, 3m13s behind Landis. If the cruise to Paris is as cruisy as usual Floyd will win. It is unlikely that the usual last day true will be broken, and intermediate and stage-winning points are insufficient to change the order. We’ve swapped one US winner for another!
Gonchar wins the TT from Kloden but Landis lands the big prize.
Floyd Landis (Phonak) is poised to take his first ever Tour de France win overall, after finishing third in the time trial between Le Creusot and Montceau-les-Mines. Serguei Gonchar (T-Mobile) was first and it was 41 seconds back to Andreas Kloden (T-Mobile). Maillot jaune Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d’Epargne) fought on but couldn’t hold back the charging Landis, ultimately finishing a disappointing but otherwise unexpectedly great fourth on the day, 2m40s behind Gonchar and 1m29s behind Landis.
Barring the utterly amazing (who could deny the possibility though!) Landis is unbeatable at 59 seconds up on Pereiro and 1m29s on Kloden. CSC’s Carlos Sastre is now in fourth, 3m13s behind Landis. If the cruise to Paris is as cruisy as usual Floyd will win. It is unlikely that the usual last day true will be broken, and intermediate and stage-winning points are insufficient to change the order. We’ve swapped one US winner for another!
Matteo Tosatto won, but behind only Levi Leipheimer profited significantly to lift himself up to 13th overall. Otherwise status quo.
Looking at what could happen tomorrow in the TT is more interesting.
Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears leads Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC by 12secs and Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak by 30s. Only if Floyd has a truly bad day, falls once and and punctures twice could he not expect to beat Pereiro and Sastre. Pereiro and Sastre instead will do their best – probably better than they have ever done, and limit losses. Since Landis was about 1m 40s quicker than Pereiro in the shorter TT in stage 7, let’s assume at least that sort of result again, even though the longer distance probably favours Landis. Which would put Floyd in yellow, Pereiro 2nd.
Sastre, however, was 30seconds faster than Pereiro. So now we have Landis first, Sastre 2nd and Pereiro 3rd. However we must factor in Andreas Kloden (Ger) T-Mobile at 2m29s and Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto at 3m08s on GC. Using our previous ‘same time gap as for stage 7‘ assumption, Kloden would make up just 25 secs on Sastre and 54 secs on Pereiro. As the gap to Kloden is minutes, 2nd and 3rd is safe. Cadel was just 5secs behind Kloden in that TT so pretty much nothing changes their either. We thus have Landis 1st, Sastre 2nd, Pereiro 3rd, Kloden 4th and Evans 5th after tomorrow’s (or today’s now!) TT, if our assumption is correct.
The remainder of the top 10 are not a threat to the podium, but possibly threaten 4th and 5th place. Menchov is best placed to do that, but at 4m 14s back our assumption would rule out his success. He’ll take 6th.
Of course it’s the last roll of the dice, so all of this theory will come to nought. We have tired legs and a longer distance. We have a tougher course that may suit Evans over Kloden, for example. And may suit Kloden, Evans and Menchov over Sastre and Pereiro. Whilst it’s unlikely, it’s conceivable that 2nd and 3rd may be up for grabs to the freshest, fastest, hungriest TTer. And we could have punctures and crashes to contend with as well.
We shall soon find out.
Matteo Tosatto won, but behind only Levi Leipheimer profited significantly to lift himself up to 13th overall. Otherwise status quo.
Looking at what could happen tomorrow in the TT is more interesting.
Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears leads Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC by 12secs and Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak by 30s. Only if Floyd has a truly bad day, falls once and and punctures twice could he not expect to beat Pereiro and Sastre. Pereiro and Sastre instead will do their best – probably better than they have ever done, and limit losses. Since Landis was about 1m 40s quicker than Pereiro in the shorter TT in stage 7, let’s assume at least that sort of result again, even though the longer distance probably favours Landis. Which would put Floyd in yellow, Pereiro 2nd.
Sastre, however, was 30seconds faster than Pereiro. So now we have Landis first, Sastre 2nd and Pereiro 3rd. However we must factor in Andreas Kloden (Ger) T-Mobile at 2m29s and Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto at 3m08s on GC. Using our previous ‘same time gap as for stage 7‘ assumption, Kloden would make up just 25 secs on Sastre and 54 secs on Pereiro. As the gap to Kloden is minutes, 2nd and 3rd is safe. Cadel was just 5secs behind Kloden in that TT so pretty much nothing changes their either. We thus have Landis 1st, Sastre 2nd, Pereiro 3rd, Kloden 4th and Evans 5th after tomorrow’s (or today’s now!) TT, if our assumption is correct.
The remainder of the top 10 are not a threat to the podium, but possibly threaten 4th and 5th place. Menchov is best placed to do that, but at 4m 14s back our assumption would rule out his success. He’ll take 6th.
Of course it’s the last roll of the dice, so all of this theory will come to nought. We have tired legs and a longer distance. We have a tougher course that may suit Evans over Kloden, for example. And may suit Kloden, Evans and Menchov over Sastre and Pereiro. Whilst it’s unlikely, it’s conceivable that 2nd and 3rd may be up for grabs to the freshest, fastest, hungriest TTer. And we could have punctures and crashes to contend with as well.
We shall soon find out.
Adobe has moved strategically from desktop publishing to cornering the market in secured formatted documents (with the .pdf file format). It has subsequently leveraged Acrobat’s proliferation by buying up Macromedia, a graphics-oriented company that had done something very similar with its Flash player. The synergy was obvious and it seems that Adobe plans to leverage the Flash player further to provide not just a web-based graphics and video environment but a development environment for other web-based but stand-alone applications. Adobe’s Kevin Lynch speaks here with Wharton. In summary, it’s a logical expansion based on widespread adoption of both Acrobat and Flash. Whilst it competes to some extend with the open AJAX developments (Web 2.0 et al) it also poses some threat to Microsoft’s product line.
Lynch takes a diplomatic tack on the question of carving out marketshare. It’s worth a read from a business management point of view.
Landis! One bad day, and now he’s all fired up to correct his mistake. This is how it should be, big brave attacks by key players. Cadel tried too but couldn’t stay there. Oh well. Sastre dug in. Pereiro too. All out war tomorrow, or a truce? A decisive TT? A real race to Paris?
Landis! One bad day, and now he’s all fired up to correct his mistake. This is how it should be, big brave attacks by key players. Cadel tried too but couldn’t stay there. Oh well. Sastre dug in. Pereiro too. All out war tomorrow, or a truce? A decisive TT? A real race to Paris?
Floyd faltered, then cracked. You could see him try to take the initiative and then fall back. You could see him drifting to the back on the climbs. You could sense weakness but how could you be sure? Sastre put him to the sword, although Rasmussen had already flown. T-Mobile had sensed it too and stretched the lead pack out on the final climb, but it was the committed attack from Sastre – first man to take a serious gamble – that forced Floyd Landis to drift off the back and lose an incredible 10 minutes. Menchov fumbled as well.
Cadel Evans and Oscar Pereiro hitched a ride with Kloden as he chased Sastre. Desssel kept his head and rode beyond expectations. It was another boilover on the GC. Pereiro takes yellow back and is looking strong. Kloden and Evans hauled themselves up the GC ladder. Spectacular. Wonderful. A stage of surprises, courage and sadly, a few casualties.
Floyd faltered, then cracked. You could see him try to take the initiative and then fall back. You could see him drifting to the back on the climbs. You could sense weakness but how could you be sure? Sastre put him to the sword, although Rasmussen had already flown. T-Mobile had sensed it too and stretched the lead pack out on the final climb, but it was the committed attack from Sastre – first man to take a serious gamble – that forced Floyd Landis to drift off the back and lose an incredible 10 minutes. Menchov fumbled as well.
Cadel Evans and Oscar Pereiro hitched a ride with Kloden as he chased Sastre. Desssel kept his head and rode beyond expectations. It was another boilover on the GC. Pereiro takes yellow back and is looking strong. Kloden and Evans hauled themselves up the GC ladder. Spectacular. Wonderful. A stage of surprises, courage and sadly, a few casualties.
What a stage. Magnificent scenery, an 145km attack, a long chase and as always a spectacular launch up Alpe d’Huez with reputations made and lost. Cunego almost fulfilled his destiny but Schleck emphatically did. Landis and Kloden proved their form is top shelf and the others close but not close enough. Riders like Jens Voight, Dave Zabriskie and Axel Merckx played their team roles to perfection and ensured that the cream would rise to the top. And it did. And tomorrow’s at least as hard!
So let’s look at the top 18 or so on GC. Axel Merckx is 18th at 10min 25secs. He’s a support rider doing his job for Floyd and Phonak. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak is of course the leader overall and with his TT ability only has to match attacks from here to win the race. Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears has dropped one place to 10secs back and Cyril Dessel (Fra) AG2R-Prevoyance has hung on gamely to take 3rd on GC at 2.02 back. Pereiro is the better climber so he may put up a fight from here, hoping to stay on the podium or top 5 at worst. However Dessel whilst motivated and fighting hard will surely sink out of the top 10 over the next 2 or 3 days.
Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank is close behind Dessel and remains a true contender. He is close enough to attack but Landis probably has him covered. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC at 2.17 has proven he is close to his best in the climbs and has a good chance of top 5. Andreas Klöden (Ger) T-Mobile is at 2.29 and has finally demonstrated that he is a real contender – if only Stage 11 hadn’t cost him such time! At 7th Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto is 2m56s back and looking to reverse his fortunes over the next 2 stages and cement a Top 5 with a great TT. He is a real chance if he loses no more time and – hopefully – goes on the attack.
Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile is way back at 5.01 and will ride support for Kloden. Still good for top 10 and may live up to expectations in the TT. The unfortunate Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner remains too far back at 6.18 – again, earlier losses continue to haunt him. All the usual comments apply… he should be in 3rd or 4th place, but isn’t.
Thereafter we have Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi , Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2R-Prevoyance, today’s winner Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC , Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel, Juan Miguel Mercado (Spa) Agritubel , Marcus Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner, Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank and Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis at 9.56 to round out the ‘sub-10-minute’ riders. Many of these are support riders, others are hoping to rise further up the GC. Any of these riders have a show of making the action or getting a slice of it.
The next 2 mountain stages will tell the tale. And the 57km TT will be the final roll of the dice.
What a stage. Magnificent scenery, an 145km attack, a long chase and as always a spectacular launch up Alpe d’Huez with reputations made and lost. Cunego almost fulfilled his destiny but Schleck emphatically did. Landis and Kloden proved their form is top shelf and the others close but not close enough. Riders like Jens Voight, Dave Zabriskie and Axel Merckx played their team roles to perfection and ensured that the cream would rise to the top. And it did. And tomorrow’s at least as hard!
So let’s look at the top 18 or so on GC. Axel Merckx is 18th at 10min 25secs. He’s a support rider doing his job for Floyd and Phonak. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak is of course the leader overall and with his TT ability only has to match attacks from here to win the race. Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears has dropped one place to 10secs back and Cyril Dessel (Fra) AG2R-Prevoyance has hung on gamely to take 3rd on GC at 2.02 back. Pereiro is the better climber so he may put up a fight from here, hoping to stay on the podium or top 5 at worst. However Dessel whilst motivated and fighting hard will surely sink out of the top 10 over the next 2 or 3 days.
Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank is close behind Dessel and remains a true contender. He is close enough to attack but Landis probably has him covered. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC at 2.17 has proven he is close to his best in the climbs and has a good chance of top 5. Andreas Klöden (Ger) T-Mobile is at 2.29 and has finally demonstrated that he is a real contender – if only Stage 11 hadn’t cost him such time! At 7th Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto is 2m56s back and looking to reverse his fortunes over the next 2 stages and cement a Top 5 with a great TT. He is a real chance if he loses no more time and – hopefully – goes on the attack.
Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile is way back at 5.01 and will ride support for Kloden. Still good for top 10 and may live up to expectations in the TT. The unfortunate Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner remains too far back at 6.18 – again, earlier losses continue to haunt him. All the usual comments apply… he should be in 3rd or 4th place, but isn’t.
Thereafter we have Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi , Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2R-Prevoyance, today’s winner Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC , Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel, Juan Miguel Mercado (Spa) Agritubel , Marcus Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner, Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank and Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis at 9.56 to round out the ‘sub-10-minute’ riders. Many of these are support riders, others are hoping to rise further up the GC. Any of these riders have a show of making the action or getting a slice of it.
The next 2 mountain stages will tell the tale. And the 57km TT will be the final roll of the dice.
It’s nice to take a rest occasionally, isn’t it? I do miss the action, though.
A have been asked to reflect upon the T-Mobile tactical ‘blunder’, and why the Italians always seem to falter at Le Tour, so I will!
Firstly, with regard to T-Mobile, they were probably too confident. They had multiple options to play, with so many guys up high in GC, so they attacked earlier rather than later thinking they could launch at least twice. Whereas Phonak only had one shot at it – Floyd – and couldn’t attack early without risking losing everything. Same for Cadel. He has to be conservative and keep his powder dry until the last moment as he risks everything with any attack. I don’t think we’ve yet seen the best of Cadel, or Sastre either. They missed the key final Leipheimer attack and couldn’t – or perhaps decided not to – bury themselves and bridge the gap. Cadel knew he had time up his sleeve over all of these guys bar Landis, after all, so why waste the effort when a win was unlikely?
In hindsight it’d have been better for T-Mobile to wait – maybe – but then Menchov would’ve just saved his guys the trouble and hitched a ride on T-Mobile instead. Maybe Rasmussen, Menchov and company would’ve then won the stage with an attack in the last 2 kilometres, dropping a depleted T-Mobile in any case. At least T-Mobile took action and shed a few riders, making it clearer who was really in with a show. If they had waited maybe Mick Rogers wouldn’t have lost so much time. But If Kloden hadn’t cramped maybe he would’ve been up there anyway and we wouldn’t be criticising their tactics at all?
I would’ve said the Giro was usually a better race with more attacking riding, but this Tour is shaping up as an exception. I don’t really know why the Italians falter so spectactularly at Le Tour but have some ideas. (It seems hotter in July, for starters!) Pantani was an exception but so many of the Italians seem to have a problem that it’s almost a national disease come July. In defence one could say that the Italians have already raced the Giro in May – it is their national tour after all - so they are probably depleted and less motivated, certainly less so than the French riders and les Anglos. Only the truly great riders back up and win both races, like Roche and Hinault. Armstrong didn’t even try, which gives you a hint of the difficulty. Basso almost pulled it off last year, but few Italians take the tour as seriously as the Giro, especially when they are in Italian teams (which of course CSC isn’t). Some riders who do well in Le Tour say that the Giro isn’t as hard, that the competition in July is fiercer, but you rarely see ‘em actually winning in May, either!
As well, this year’s Tour has started on some seriously flat roads and has favoured the TT specialists especially, so the Italian mountain goats have had a tough time just getting to the mountain stages intact. Look how much time non-Italian Rasmussen has lost. It’s rare to find a climber who can survive the flat sprinters stages and do well at TTs. Hincapie has trained for the climbs and made the same fall from grace. This year’s race is made for the TTer who can climb as well – a rare breed. And once you’ve lost that much time in these long hot stages your motivation to get it back in the Alps may depend on how your team is feeling as well as how likely it is that you’ll get enough time back to make up for what you’ve already lost. The Giro is more of a climbers race in that respect, with even the flat stages having significant hills. We may see the Italians having a crack at the Alps but it’ll be for pride and a stage win. Most of ‘em are now so far back that that’s about the best we can hope for!
That’s it from me!
It’s nice to take a rest occasionally, isn’t it? I do miss the action, though.
A have been asked to reflect upon the T-Mobile tactical ‘blunder’, and why the Italians always seem to falter at Le Tour, so I will!
Firstly, with regard to T-Mobile, they were probably too confident. They had multiple options to play, with so many guys up high in GC, so they attacked earlier rather than later thinking they could launch at least twice. Whereas Phonak only had one shot at it – Floyd – and couldn’t attack early without risking losing everything. Same for Cadel. He has to be conservative and keep his powder dry until the last moment as he risks everything with any attack. I don’t think we’ve yet seen the best of Cadel, or Sastre either. They missed the key final Leipheimer attack and couldn’t – or perhaps decided not to – bury themselves and bridge the gap. Cadel knew he had time up his sleeve over all of these guys bar Landis, after all, so why waste the effort when a win was unlikely?
In hindsight it’d have been better for T-Mobile to wait – maybe – but then Menchov would’ve just saved his guys the trouble and hitched a ride on T-Mobile instead. Maybe Rasmussen, Menchov and company would’ve then won the stage with an attack in the last 2 kilometres, dropping a depleted T-Mobile in any case. At least T-Mobile took action and shed a few riders, making it clearer who was really in with a show. If they had waited maybe Mick Rogers wouldn’t have lost so much time. But If Kloden hadn’t cramped maybe he would’ve been up there anyway and we wouldn’t be criticising their tactics at all?
I would’ve said the Giro was usually a better race with more attacking riding, but this Tour is shaping up as an exception. I don’t really know why the Italians falter so spectactularly at Le Tour but have some ideas. (It seems hotter in July, for starters!) Pantani was an exception but so many of the Italians seem to have a problem that it’s almost a national disease come July. In defence one could say that the Italians have already raced the Giro in May – it is their national tour after all - so they are probably depleted and less motivated, certainly less so than the French riders and les Anglos. Only the truly great riders back up and win both races, like Roche and Hinault. Armstrong didn’t even try, which gives you a hint of the difficulty. Basso almost pulled it off last year, but few Italians take the tour as seriously as the Giro, especially when they are in Italian teams (which of course CSC isn’t). Some riders who do well in Le Tour say that the Giro isn’t as hard, that the competition in July is fiercer, but you rarely see ‘em actually winning in May, either!
As well, this year’s Tour has started on some seriously flat roads and has favoured the TT specialists especially, so the Italian mountain goats have had a tough time just getting to the mountain stages intact. Look how much time non-Italian Rasmussen has lost. It’s rare to find a climber who can survive the flat sprinters stages and do well at TTs. Hincapie has trained for the climbs and made the same fall from grace. This year’s race is made for the TTer who can climb as well – a rare breed. And once you’ve lost that much time in these long hot stages your motivation to get it back in the Alps may depend on how your team is feeling as well as how likely it is that you’ll get enough time back to make up for what you’ve already lost. The Giro is more of a climbers race in that respect, with even the flat stages having significant hills. We may see the Italians having a crack at the Alps but it’ll be for pride and a stage win. Most of ‘em are now so far back that that’s about the best we can hope for!
That’s it from me!
What a race! This time we have Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom outsprinting Salvatore Commesso (Ita) Lampre-Fondital, with Christian Vandevelde (USA) Team CSC just 3 seconds behind and the tatters of a big break shortly thereafter. It was another wild ride. Cyclingnews has a good write up here.
What a tour! This may be the best Tour de France for 4 or 5 years…! Perhaps the best since Pantani‘s, or Roche‘s win. Whatever. It’s different every day. Moves get caught, moves get away. The TT was a boilover. The Pyrenees, another boilover. I loved the stage where Menchov won and Floyd took yellow. And I loved the last 3 days – the stages where the break has played cat and mouse in the last few kays, particularly when Popyvych won, and Jens Voigt’s win of course. It’s a combo of breat tactical and physical stuff. But no-one has stamped their authority – although Floyd threatens to – and everyone has shown weakness. It’s a ripper of a Tour if you like variety.
Robbie McEwen seems to have the quickest legs; without his leadout men Boonen just can’t get it going. Freire‘s had 2 stages, Robbie 3. France has won 2 stages, Germany 2; it’s like the World Cup on wheels: even Italy’s had a showing.
And yes, the big guns are saving themselves for the Alps and just watching each other, to see who blinks. Before they’d just watch Lance and wait. The suspense was in guessing when he’d go and seeing how long Basso and Ullrich could stay with him. Or if Vino could get away from everyone, including his own team. Cadel Evans may not have a kick (or didn’t on the day he rode in with Sastre) but he can grind away and grit his teeth up any mountain and do a great TT. Floyd Landis has his bung hip to think about but clearly can match anyone, anywhere.
Menchov has a kick, can climb and is not too bad in the TT. Leipheimer has come good and may fire from here – but 7 minutes is a long way back. Still, it comes down to making your move at the right time, when you feel good and they are vulnerable. It’s luck, skill, tactics and strength. And having the team support for the long haul. Someone may get away and take a few minutes up Alpe d’Huez. It could be Floyd, maybe Leipheimer. Perhaps Menchov. Can Cadel hang on when the inevitable attack goes? And then whip ‘em in the TT? If he stays within a few seconds of the maillot jaune when Floyd has done his best, who knows? Floyd may expend just a bit too much in the Alps and disappoint in the TT. Phonak may fall apart. Or Rabobank may fly. So many options, so many opportunities. I think we can see the final top 3 or 4, maybe 5 places at this stage but it’s not certain in which order. And who knows, maybe someone will take 10 minutes and catapult to the lead? Popyvych?
But yes, Basso and Ullrich going at it would have been icing on this particular cake. Still, if they are dirty – and we haven’t seen their side of this yet, so it’s unproven – then it’s best they clean themselves up. We shall see if this tour turns out to be what we needed to finally clean up the pro peleton or a cruel farce for those who stand accused.
What a race! This time we have Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom outsprinting Salvatore Commesso (Ita) Lampre-Fondital, with Christian Vandevelde (USA) Team CSC just 3 seconds behind and the tatters of a big break shortly thereafter. It was another wild ride. Cyclingnews has a good write up here.
What a tour! This may be the best Tour de France for 4 or 5 years…! Perhaps the best since Pantani‘s, or Roche‘s win. Whatever. It’s different every day. Moves get caught, moves get away. The TT was a boilover. The Pyrenees, another boilover. I loved the stage where Menchov won and Floyd took yellow. And I loved the last 3 days – the stages where the break has played cat and mouse in the last few kays, particularly when Popyvych won, and Jens Voigt’s win of course. It’s a combo of breat tactical and physical stuff. But no-one has stamped their authority – although Floyd threatens to – and everyone has shown weakness. It’s a ripper of a Tour if you like variety.
Robbie McEwen seems to have the quickest legs; without his leadout men Boonen just can’t get it going. Freire‘s had 2 stages, Robbie 3. France has won 2 stages, Germany 2; it’s like the World Cup on wheels: even Italy’s had a showing.
And yes, the big guns are saving themselves for the Alps and just watching each other, to see who blinks. Before they’d just watch Lance and wait. The suspense was in guessing when he’d go and seeing how long Basso and Ullrich could stay with him. Or if Vino could get away from everyone, including his own team. Cadel Evans may not have a kick (or didn’t on the day he rode in with Sastre) but he can grind away and grit his teeth up any mountain and do a great TT. Floyd Landis has his bung hip to think about but clearly can match anyone, anywhere.
Menchov has a kick, can climb and is not too bad in the TT. Leipheimer has come good and may fire from here – but 7 minutes is a long way back. Still, it comes down to making your move at the right time, when you feel good and they are vulnerable. It’s luck, skill, tactics and strength. And having the team support for the long haul. Someone may get away and take a few minutes up Alpe d’Huez. It could be Floyd, maybe Leipheimer. Perhaps Menchov. Can Cadel hang on when the inevitable attack goes? And then whip ‘em in the TT? If he stays within a few seconds of the maillot jaune when Floyd has done his best, who knows? Floyd may expend just a bit too much in the Alps and disappoint in the TT. Phonak may fall apart. Or Rabobank may fly. So many options, so many opportunities. I think we can see the final top 3 or 4, maybe 5 places at this stage but it’s not certain in which order. And who knows, maybe someone will take 10 minutes and catapult to the lead? Popyvych?
But yes, Basso and Ullrich going at it would have been icing on this particular cake. Still, if they are dirty – and we haven’t seen their side of this yet, so it’s unproven – then it’s best they clean themselves up. We shall see if this tour turns out to be what we needed to finally clean up the pro peleton or a cruel farce for those who stand accused.
Jens Voigt thought ‘not me again‘ when the break got away but was far more pleased when the longest, hottest stage of the Tour was over. He won the stage and his companion Pereiro took yellow. It was the biggest break to get away so far, over 30 minutes, and propelled Voigt (Ger) Team CSC, Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears, Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis, Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Liquigas and (now best young rider) Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Milram up the GC tree. Perhaps the peleton was tired and the day too long and hot to be bothered chasing. Indeed McEwen’s Lotto team had no reason to chase these non-sprinters, but for Floyd Landis the yellow was at stake. Perhaps it was a tactical move to shift the onus of defence, or a blunder of embarrasing proportions if Pereiro can capitalise.
Realistically he won’t. Landis will expect to reclaim the maillot jaune either in the Alps or at worst the TT. Still there is some risk. Just 8 riders remain inside of 5 minutes. 22 inside of 10 minutes. Surely we can’t expect another long break to push the unlikely into contention? Surely the Alps will sort sense back into this GC?
Jens Voigt thought ‘not me again‘ when the break got away but was far more pleased when the longest, hottest stage of the Tour was over. He won the stage and his companion Pereiro took yellow. It was the biggest break to get away so far, over 30 minutes, and propelled Voigt (Ger) Team CSC, Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears, Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis, Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Liquigas and (now best young rider) Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Milram up the GC tree. Perhaps the peleton was tired and the day too long and hot to be bothered chasing. Indeed McEwen’s Lotto team had no reason to chase these non-sprinters, but for Floyd Landis the yellow was at stake. Perhaps it was a tactical move to shift the onus of defence, or a blunder of embarrasing proportions if Pereiro can capitalise.
Realistically he won’t. Landis will expect to reclaim the maillot jaune either in the Alps or at worst the TT. Still there is some risk. Just 8 riders remain inside of 5 minutes. 22 inside of 10 minutes. Surely we can’t expect another long break to push the unlikely into contention? Surely the Alps will sort sense back into this GC?
Don’t miss the action… here’s a run down of each stage so far…
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