Stage 20 - Time Trial

Rasmussen has crashed!! The rider Ullrich needs to surpass for a podium finish is on the ground! Ullrich needs to make up two minutes twelve seconds on Rasmussen. He finished the Tour's first time trial 2 minutes and 6 seconds faster than Rasmussen, so this crash may be the end of hope of a GC finish for the current "King of the Mountains".

17km Time check
1) Ivan Basso 25' 40"
2) Armstrong 25' 47"
3) Ullrich 25" 57"

Rasmussen has had to stop again to fix his back tire. They're swapping tires...No, they're swapping bikes...They're swapping bikes again!! Rasmussen is not happy, he is now risking a 4th place finish!

I can't believe it, Rasmussen changes bikes again! This is his third or fourth bike!

Rasmussen crashes again! He's done a header over the handlebars off the side of the road. He's obviously lost all concentration. Basso passed him a little while ago and it won't be long now before Lance passes him too.

35km Time check
1) Armstrong 46' 37"
2) Ullrich 46' 56"
3) Basso 47' 30"

Lance wins his first Stage of the 2005 Tour de France! There was no question in his mind as he raced down Ullrich's not withstanding winning time.
1) Armstrong
2) Ullrich 23"
5) Basso 1' 54"
77) Rasmussen 7' 44" (Not too bad though, he crashed twice, switch bikes 4 times and still finished ahead of 78 other riders!)

GC Standings:
1) Armstrong
2) Basso 4' 40"
3) Ullrich 6' 21"
4) Mancebo 9' 59"
5) Leipheimer 11' 25"

Let's stir up some excitement for tomorrow!

The Tour may have been decided in Stage 20 but it's far from over. The final race into Paris on the Champs-Elysees is where the action is at, especially when the GC's Yellow Jersey has already been decided. So if the race is "over" who cares about the final Stage and why does it seem like everyone is racing full speed for the finish? The answer is the race within the race. The Tour de France has several lesser known races that are all going on within each Stage of the Tour. The obvious race is for the best time overall and the win of the Tour de France. That's the General Classification (GC) and it's leader wears the Yellow Jersey each day.

We also have a White Jersey. The White Jersey, like the Yellow, is based on the least amount of time throughout the entire Tour but goes to the rider 25 years of age or under. It's basically a means of recognizing the Tour's rookie athletes and in order to qualify for the White in this year's Tour, you must've been born after January 1, 1980!!!! The current rider in White and most likely to win it overall is Discovery Team's Yaroslav Popovich. The riders in White are definitely the ones to watch in future Tours.

There's also the Polka-Dot Jersey, which goes to the rider with the most climbing points throughout the Tour. Climb points are awarded throughout each Stage as riders pass over designated high points in the course. The current leader in climb points is Michael Rasmussen, whose goal it was from the beginning to walk away with the "King of the Mountains" win. With only one climb left in the Tour Rasumessen's goal is a virtual lock.

There's also the individual winner of each Stage. This guy ends up with a trophy, gets to stand on the podium at the end of each Stage and kiss two pretty girls, but that's it no Jersey's for him. It is possible to win the GC and not win a single Stage, but who would want to go out like that.

And finally, the Green Jersey, the overall leader in the sprint designation. Like the Polka-dot race, the sprint race contains designated sprint areas throughout each Stage, and a big sprint bonus for the Stage win. Sprint points are awarded throughout the stage; 6, 4 and 2 for first through third respectively to cross each sprint line. But the winner of the Stage takes a full 35 points, then 30 for second, 26 for third and so on with a gradual decline. In the relatively flat Stages where the mountains don't allow for the big breakaways, the peloton remains mostly intact throughout the race. This is what sets up the mad dash for the big finish points among the sprinters. The sprinters themselves are a different breed. They have the explosive power necessary for sprint speeds but usually do not contain the steady power necessary to excel in the mountains and the time trials. These guys have absolutely no chance at a GC win, but can compete in their own right for a podium finish in the Green at the end of the Tour. They truly are the race within the race, and make for some outstanding Stage finishes!

My favorite sprinter is little Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) from Australia, who won last year's Green Jersey. He grew up a BMX racer and his antics have carried over to road racing. He's know for expertly weaving his way through the pack for the unexpected Stage win, and on occasion riding high speed wheelies over the finish line. You might recall Stage 3 where he leaned his head over to slow down rival and friend Stuart O'Grady. That little stunt cost him the 26 points he should have won for the third place finish. Instead, the judges gave him a 186 place finish which earns zero sprint points. Upset about the ruling, McEwen came back with a vengence and won Stage 5 after Stage 4's Team Time Trial.

As it stands now, McEwen is in third place. He needs the combination of a Stage win tomorrow and a poor showing from Hushovd and O'Grady to win the Green.

Green Jersey
1) Thor Hushovd (CA) - 175
2) Stuart O'Grady (COF) - 160
3) Robbie McEwen (DVL) - 154

What will happen in the final seconds of the 2005 Tour de France???

Stage 17 - 19

The past 3 days of racing have been pretty much the same day in and day out. Team Discovery is content to let breakaways leave the peloton as long as it only contains riders that won't affect Lance's standing in the GC. Then as other teams start to realize that the breakaways will affect one of their riders in the GC, they come to the front of the peloton to set the necessary pace to reel the breakaways back in. So all in all, Lance has had a very comfortable three days of the tour. In addition to that he has also taken over second place for the most days in Yellow of all time! On Wednesday he surpassed Bernard Hinault who had worn the yellow for 78 days in total. Now that Lance holds second place in this category there is only one rider who's done it more times. Eddy Merckx, arguably the best Tour rider ever, wore the yellow in 96 stages of the Tour de France. If all goes according to plan, Lance will retire with a total of 83 days in yellow. It's funny that Lance has no qualms with being the most winningest Tour rider of all time but when asked if he'd ever go for the record of the most days in yellow, "That's Merckx title" was all Lance answered.

With two Stages left in the Tour de France the big question has become, "Will Lance win a Stage"? We won't have to wait long to get our answer. Tomorrow's Stage 20 is the individual time trial, and this is where Lance excels. Wait, don't we say that about every stage of the Tour??? Alright, speed is just another one of the things that makes Armstrong such an indomitable Tour rider. But Stage 20 is pretty much the last stage for riders to make up time on their rivals. If you want to stand in one of the three available positions on the podium in Paris Sunday, then the time trial is the day to make it happen. So tomorrow decides the winner of the 2005 Tour de France and determines whether Lance Armstong will be the only rider to ever have won 7 times. It's almost like Christmas, I don't think I'll be able to sleep!

General Category:
1) Armstorng
2) Ivan Basso 2' 46"
3) Michael Rasmussen 3' 46"
4) Jan Ullrich 5' 58"
5) Francisco Mancebo 7' 08"

Stage 16

Tuesday’s Stage 16 out of the Pyrenees was pretty uneventful for the most part. Good’ole TMobile rider Alexander Vinokourov launched several attacks against Lance throughout the stage but Lance was able to answer them with no problems. Lance commented after the race that he feels really good, better than when the tour started! Maybe it was the day off, but it must be demoralizing to the rest of the field to hear comments like those, 2/3 of the way through the Tour, when everyone else is beat.

CONTROVERSY. After Hincapie’s win over Oscar Periero (Phonak) at the end of Stage 15, Phonak and Periero launched a verbal attack against Team Discovery. Team Phonak was livid about the fact that Hincapie rode the coat tails of Periero the entire race and then didn’t let Periero win at the end. Earth to Team Phonak, the Tour de France is a bike race not Shriners in the Macy’s Day Parade. Just because your rider was in front the whole way doesn’t mean he deserves to cross the line first. No one mandated that Periero try so hard, if he didn’t want second place he should have slowed down.

So then comes Stage 16, Periero attacks again and rides with a group of 4 to the finish. Except this time Periero doesn’t lead the group to the line, he rides in 3rd position behind Cadel Evans who has been busting his hump all day. At the very last second, Periero sprints around Evans to win the stage. Any apologies from Team Phonak to Discovery or Cadel Evans (Davitamon-Lotto)…cricket…cricket…

Cadel Evans rode Stage 16 like a man possessed. Over the Tour rest day, some of Evans close friends and fellow racing team members from Australia, were hit by a car in a freak accident while training in Europe. One girl was killed and two are still in critical condition. Evans dedicated Stage 16 to them and raced for a win in their honor. He rode with the strength of 5 racers and then at the very end some prick from team Phonak passed him for the win. Oh, congratulations on your win Periero……

The Pyrenees

The past two days of racing in the Pyrenees have been the most exciting of the tour so far. To really understand what happened we have to start with Saturday’s Stage 14. It started with a relatively easy incline which gradually worked into some of the easier Category 4 and 3 climbs, then on to a beyond category (15km stretch with and average incline of 8%) and finally finishing with a tough Category 1 climb to the finish (9km stretch with 7.3%).

Lance lives for the Pyrenees, an example of this is a famous quote from his son a couple of years ago. When asked at a very young age “What does daddy do?”, his son responded with “Daddy makes’em suffer.”. Eloquent and true, when Lance is in the Pyrenees he is at his best. For the second time in this year’s tour, team Discovery disintegrated fairly early in the race. Their main responsibility is to lead Lance, at a fast enough pace to eliminate most of the competition, to the last couple of km of the race and then Lance can take over from there. The man who rides in front of the Peloton or other group does 30% more work than all of the riders behind him. This is due to aerodynamics and works exactly the same as ducks that fly in a V pattern. If you watch the lead of the peloton, you’ll see that riders take a very short turn on the front and then switch back and forth with other riders for periods of strenuous work and then rest. Team Discovery, like most other teams, have a superhero bike rider who the rest of the team will be doing all the work for. Ivan Basso is that rider for Team CSC and Jan Ullrich is that rider for TMobile. These are the two main individuals that Lance has to watch at all points of the race. If they “attack” the peloton (accelerate away from the group), Lance and Team Discovery have to respond. Team Discovery must also respond to any other rider in contention for the General Category lead (the Yellow Jersey). For the GC, places 2 – 10 (Lance is currently in First) all riders are less than 9 minutes away from Lance’s time. Any one of these riders who attack, must be countered by Team Discovery. And thanks to a great rider from TMobile, Alexander Vinokourov (currently in 9th place 7 minutes out of first), Stage 14 saw an onslaught of attacks that Team Discovery had to counter. With the recent loss of Manuel Beltran, one of Discovery’s best climbers, Vinokourov’s attacks quickly diminished Team Discovery down to one rider, Lance. Lance didn’t mind though, as he was left in a small group with one rider from each team Basso(CSC), Ullrich(TMobile), Levi Liepheimer(Gerolsteiner), Floyd Landis(Phonak) and Michael Rasmussen(RaboBank). One rider from each team makes the playing field level, everyone must share in the break away work and no one has a teammate to hide behind or strategize with.

The final climb to the summit was impressive; Jan Ullrich finally proved to the field that he is still a contender. Ivan Basso, proved to the field that he wants a GC win in place of Lance. In fact it was his aggressive riding that left Ullrich unable to counter as the race entered the final km’s. Lance waited to see what Ullrich would do, saw that he had nothing left, and sprinted around him in the manner that has made Lance such an awe inspiring rider to catch back up with Basso. In stage 14, there was only one break away rider able to hang on to the lead the entire race. As Lance and Basso approached the finish line, they were racing for second place. There is a time bonus of ten seconds or so for second place and nothing for third and Lance needs to distance himself as much as possible from the then second place rider Rasmussen. In this circumstance Lance had to beat Basso to the finish and he did so with ease. If you were wondering why he let Basso finish first in stage 15, there’s your answer. First and second place had already been taken so there was no time bonus available. Lance was content to finish with the same time as Basso by riding his tail across the finish. So Lance’s goal for stage 14 was accomplished, put more time in between himself and Rasmussen. Rasmussen started the day 38 seconds behind Lance and finished the day a minute and 41 seconds behind Lance. Nice work!

So on to Stage 15, likely the most difficult day of the Tour de France. Stage 15 contained at the easiest, a difficult category 2 climb, 4 category 1 climbs and then a final HC (beyond category) to the finish. And after the quick destruction of Team Discovery in stage 14, Lance shifted the strategy just a bit. You always have to watch what Lance is saying. He never gives away anything. Prior to the start of stage 15, Lance public said that he would win the stage in honor of fallen teammate Fabio Casartelli, who died in the 1995 Tour de France. Let me restate this, Lance who never gives away anything, publicly states that he will win the stage. Strategy my friends, look at this shiny apple while I steal your wallet. Everyone had their eye on Lance. Watch Lance, when he breaks for it, its go time. Only problem is that Lance didn’t go for it. Not only did he not go for it, he orchestrated a Team win for fellow teammate George Hincapie who has in the past 10 years never won a stage victory. It was brilliant!

Here’s what happened. There was an early attack on the peloton with several riders not in GC contention. This obviously means that Lance doesn’t need to chase them down. They could win by 20 minutes and it would have no bearing on the Tour overall. But this time, Lance sends Hincapie one of Team Discovery’s best all around riders who no one else really needs to worry about in the GC, to follow the attack. The hope is that Hincapie can get far enough ahead, that when the big riders finally catch the breakaway, and Lance is by himself against Ullrich, Basso and whoever, Hincapie will be there to drive Lance to the finish and a stage victory. Like I said before two riders are always stronger than one, so having a teammate at the end is a huge advantage. But because Lance never attacks, and everyone is watching Lance, the breakaway gets far enough ahead (20 minutes or so) that they can’t be caught. As the teams start to realize what’s happening, TMobile finally sends Vinokourov to the front of the peloton for the first major attack of the day. Vinokourov, being a threat in the GC, then drives Lance to counter attack. As Lance counters so do all of the big names in this years tour. The peloton is instantly shredded apart as the weaker riders simply can’t hang with the big boys. The big race quickly diminishes once again down to Ullrich, Basso and Armstrong. And again, Ullrich doesn’t have the gas to hang with Basso and Lance at the end. Basso and Lance finish in 6th and 7th respectively and Ullrich finishes it up in 9th.

But the big story is George Hincapie, who received a free ride through the entire stage. Because team Discovery is “defending” the Yellow, there is no need for Hincapie to help the breakaway in any form or manner. He simply rode the back tire of the breakaway the entire race. In most circumstances, the breakaway riders need to help each other to stay ahead of the peloton. This help means taking turns riding lead doing the extra 30% work. The other riders know that Hincapie doesn’t need the breakaway to succeed so its pointless for them to try and force him to do any work. They know their only chance to win is to get rid of the 6’3” Team Discovery rider so there were many attacks within this small breakaway group. However, since Hincapie wasn’t doing any of the work, it was very easy for him to counter each attack and end up on the back wheel of the lead rider each time. The many attacks took their toll on the breakaway riders and it came down to just two at the end, Hincapie and Pereiro. Hincapie who is one of the best sprinters had the advantage the whole way. Pereiro’s only chance to win would be to lose Hincapie and he couldn’t do it. Two hundred meters from the end, Hincapie made his move and easily sprinted past Pereiro for his first ever stage victory!

Hincapie is famous for coining the term “No Chain”. Once on a practice ride with Lance, Hincapie reported that he had a technical problem. He asked Lance to look down at the back of his bike to see if he had chain? What he meant by this was that his ride was so easy, it felt like there wasn’t a chain on the bike. It’s a big joke between the two and yesterday Hincapie rode like there was “no chain”! So in a fitting tribute Hincapie, who was also a good friend and teammate of Casartelli, was able to capture the win in his honor.

On a side note, did anyone see the camera motorcycle run over the fan that was chasing down one of the riders! It was great, they showed it in slow motion from the vantage point of the helicopter above. Man that must’ve hurt!

GC Standings after Stage 15:
1) Armstrong
2) Basso (CSC) – 2’ 46”
3) Rasmussen(RAB) – 3’ 09”
4) Ullrich(TMO) – 5’ 58”
5) Mancebo(IBA) – 6’ 31”
6) Levi Leipheimer(GST) – 7’ 35” American
7) Floyd Landis(PHO) – 9’ 33” American
8) Alexander Vinokourov(TMO) – 9’ 38”
9) Christophe Moreau (CA) – 11’ 47” French (and yes, I love the French!)
10) Andreas Kloden (TMO) – 12’ 01”
18) Hincapie(DSC) – 19’ 35” American

Today is a rest day and the Tour continues with Stage 16 out of 21 tomorrow.

Stage 12 - Leaving the Alps

Think it's easy to take the yellow away from Lance? Just ask Jens Voigt (CSC), the man who wore yellow after Stage 9 is now on his way home. His big push to grab the yellow for one day has cost him a tour finish. He expended so much energy on his break away win that he was never able to fully recover. Four hundred yards from the finish of Stage 11, Jens Voigt ran out of time.

There's actually a time limit for each Stage that is determined by the winner of the race. From the time the first rider crosses the finish, a big digital clock starts ticking off time. When time runs out, the clock goes blank. Any rider not across the finish when the clock goes blank is eliminated. The amount of time on that clock varies depending upon the overall length and difficulty of that day's Stage. As Jens approached the finish of Stage 11, he saw the big digital clock go blank, "Game Over".

Thus far, everyone who has wore the Yellow, aside from Lance, is out of the tour. On the upside, it's said that if you ever wear the Yellow in the Tour de France, you'll never have to pay for a drink while in France. So here's to Dave Zabriskie and Jens Voigt!

Today's Stage 12 out of the Alps was pretty uneventful. Like yesterday, there were no position changes as everyone pretty much finished at the same time. Everyone that is except for the 2 Frenchmen David Moncoutie (Cofidis) and Sandy Casar(FDJ) who took today's Stage for first and second respectively. One of my favorite things, though, about the Tour de France is the fact that you don't have to like the French to like the Tour, in fact it's even better if you don't. Why? Because its just so much darn fun to watch the French perform miserably at their own sport. It almost makes up for the US Basketball Team's performance in last years Olympics. Almost... So if the French are so bad how did they place first and second today? Because it's Bastille Day and overall, it's considered "Good Form" to let a Frenchman win on Bastille Day as long as it won't affect the General Classification (the Yellow Jersey). The last Frenchmen to win on Bastille Day was Laurent Jalabert in the 2001 Tour followed by Richard Virenque in last years Tour.

On a bad note, Manuel Beltran from Team Discovery, crashed early in today's Stage and was forced to abandon the race. He's OK, but was a key member of Lance's high powered climbing team. Luckily we're through the Alps but the Pyrenees in the days to come have some seriously steep climbs and Michael Rasmussen(Rabobank) has yet to show any weakness in the mountains. Let's hope Team Discovery can keep up the blistering pace without him.

Stage 10

Incredible racing! Lance looked over the competition and punched’em in the mouth! Talk about Mellow Johnny, “it’s the way he rides, Ice cold, he waits for you to make a mistake and then he attacks.” Michael Rasmussen (the winner of Stage 9) learned this valuable lesson at the end of yesterday’s Stage 10 to Courchevel. He thought he was doing something special by hanging with Big Lance during the final Category 1 climb, but his tour inexperience proved to be his undoing as he attacked Lance with only 700 meters to go. A half mile in a 120 mile bike race may not seem that far, but when it is almost straight up into the sky it has to be miserable. The world champion mountain bike racer turned road racer, Rasmussen, misjudged how far 700 meters really was. Lance chuckled behind cold steel eyes and then counterattacked as Rasmussen had drained his engine. Lance left Rasmussen like he was riding down hill, it was brilliant and the young Rasmussen whimpered from the sting.

I misspoke in my last email about the climb categories. Category 1 is almost the hardest, not the easiest. The only thing worse than a Category 1 climb is a Beyond Category [HC – Hors Categorie] which we have two of in today’s Stage 11.

GC Results:

1) Lance – Maillot Jaune (Mellow Johnny)
2) Michael Rasmussen – 38 seconds behind
3) Ivan Basso – 2’ 40”
4) Christophe Moreau – 2’ 42”
5) Alejandro Valverde – 3’ 16”

8) Jan Ullrich – 4’ 02”

Team Discovery rode a very cool and calculated race yesterday proving to the pack that they are for real and the poor results from Stage 8 were a fluke. And then in the final kilometers after each member of Discovery had done their work, Lance attacked at an astonishing rate which completely blew the main peloton to pieces. By far, it has been the most exciting stage of the tour and in honor of that NASA has scheduled a launch of the Team Discovery Space Shuttle a little later on today.

So the race is tight, with the rookie Rasmussen from team Rabobank only 38 seconds behind. His tour goal was to win the King of the Mountains race, the polka-dot jersey, but he’s snipping at the heels of the GC Yellow Jersey. And then we have Ivan Basso from team CSC who has always been great in the mountains. His big quote from before the start of the tour was, “I’m not racing for second place.” No problem because you’re in third! And the surprise Frenchman Christophe Moreau, from team Credit Agricole and France’s only shot a decent bicycle rider this year, holding on to 4th. Moreau was the one who accompanied Jens Voigt (CSC) on the breakaway in stage 9 which launched Voigt into the Yellow. But after Team Discovery’s handywork yesterday, Voigt is now 31 minutes out of first place, ouch! And last but not least the tough German, Jan Ullrich, from TMobil who lost two minutes and 14 seconds yesterday due to the amount of road debris Lance’s back tire was throwing in his face! Hang in there Jan you’re still Lance’s favorite.

Will Team Discovery do it again today? I don’t think they can be stopped.

The Tour up to Stage 9

Wow, drama, finally something worth talking about for the Lance followers of the Tour! Don’t get me wrong, the Tour has been more than exciting thus far, but the excitement is among the sprint racers who’ve put on a real show at the end of each of the flat stages. (more on those guys later)

But Lance, what happened??? He’s no longer in yellow after yesterday’s race! The new GC (General Category) Leader [the guy with the least amount of total race time to date] is Jens Voigt from team CSC with a total Tour time 32 hours, 18 minutes and 23 seconds. And then in second place, a minute and fifty seconds behind, his partner in crime Christophe Moreau from team Credit Agricole. And then finally in 3rd, good ole Lance Armstrong at 2 minutes 18 seconds behind Jens.

So what happened, is this bad? Actually a lot happened and it’s not “all” bad. Team Discovery Channel had an awful day on Saturday as the Tour entered the first steep climbs of the race. The problem was that the climbs weren’t really that steep, only category 2 (category 4 being the easiest) and by the end of the race Team Discovery had disintegrated leaving Lance to fend for himself against many other rivals. Not a good thing for the supposedly “most powerful team” in the Tour. Lance having been isolated from his team chose rival Jan Ullrich to compete against and didn’t attempt to check the attacks of some of the other riders. Luckily, Lance didn’t encounter any technical problems and finished the race only 27 seconds behind the race winner (who really isn’t a threat).

But Lance was pissed. He didn’t show it on camera, but I’m sure he had some pretty strong words for his teammates who abandoned him on Saturday’s race. Sunday’s Stage 9 continued through the mountains with some tough category 3 climbs, and everyone was anxious to see if Team Discovery would fall apart again. They didn’t. They led the peleton the entire race setting a strong pace that forced many other riders to abandon the race. David Zabriskie the young American from team CSC who wore the yellow jersey the first couple of days of the race, including on the 4th of July, was one of the days casualties giving up his goal of completing his first ever Tour de France. More on him later as well, he’ll be someone to watch in future Tours!

So if the Discover Team rode such a good race yesterday, why is Lance out of the yellow? Strategy! Lance doesn’t care about the yellow until the race is over. He’ll loan it out to almost anyone who wants it bad enough, and then after the final individual time trial before the end of the Tour, he’ll take it back. So when 3 racers attacked (broke away from) the peleton early in yesterday’s race, Lance and company let them go. Among them were the Stage winner Michael Rasmussen who completely blew everyone away, winning the stage by more than 6 minutes over the peleton, and Jens Voigt who partnered with Christophe Moreau to beat the peleton by more than 3 minutes which was enough to launch Jens Voigt into the yellow.

Here’s the “strategy”, the goal of each team sponsor is to get some advertising from their dollars invested in the tour. To have one of their riders wear the yellow jersey at the end of each stage race is one of the biggest goals of each teams’ sponsor (except for Discovery who knows they’ll be wearing the yellow at the end of the Tour). Now that team CSC has the yellow, they’ll do whatever it takes to keep it, which includes doing all the leg work of pacing (leading) the peleton. Pacing the peleton requires a huge amount of work from each individual team member and Team Discovery is more than happy to let someone else do it for a change. By not “defending” the yellow, Team Discovery can take it easy the next couple of days and bide their time to the Alps.

Today is a tour rest day so no racing, but look for Team CSC to lead the peleton in tomorrow’s Stage 10 race.