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.
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.
posted by TexasDan at
9:06 AM
