From race-report@cyclofiend.com Sun Jul 6 09:01:26 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2003 01:01:26 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Tour Prognostications - 2003 Message-ID: <3F07D756.3020500@cyclofiend.com> Le Tour - 2003 This July finds us celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Tour de France. Of course, the sharp-eyed among you will notice that this is not the 100th running of the race, courtesy of a couple world wars. Nevertheless, 100 years of anything is worth celebrating, and the Tour will go past the place where it all began - regrettably not saved in its original form as Revell Matin Inn, having become something like a Tex-Mex restaurant - and will pass through the six cities which hosted stages in the 1903 edition; Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes and Paris. Other stages will feature bits that have become legend - the switchbacks of L'Alpe d'Huez come immediately to mind - while Paris will receive a double dip at the trough, hosting both the Prologue Individual Time Trial and the de rigeur finish at Champs Elysees. In all the hoopla and historical ressurections, some have argued that the course may not be as difficult. There are afterall only three mountaintop finishes in the 2003 Tour - Stage 8 at L'Alpe d'Huez, Stage 13 at Ax-3 Domaines, and Stage 15 at Luz-Ardiden. But, the race still rolls around an entire country, and some very serious climbs lurk in the miles that lie before the riders. For example, Stage 14 has six categorized climbs on a stage that runs 191 kilometers - each of which are over 2,000 feet. By the time Paris hovers back into view, there will be some serious attrition among the ranks. 53 individual winners of the Tour de France, and my hope is that there will be no change in that statistic at the end of this month. Heck, let me get one think out of the way - I hope Lance Armstrong will be the winner. Having said that, I also think that this will be his thinnest margin of victory, and it will have to be the race in which he uses all of the tactical savvy and strategic planning at his disposal. Just who will threaten? One could argue that the start list reads like a "Where's He?" of men's professional cycling: Paolo Salvodelli, Cadel Evans, Marco Pantani, Raimondas Rumsas, Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano are all sitting on the sideline this weekend for one reason or another. However, some of the most serious competition may come from a former teammate. Tyler Hamilton has had his best season ever, by any test you want to put to it - the first US winner of Liege-Bastogne-Liege - and his confidence has been on an upswing since his breakthrough performance in last year's Giro D'Italia. Don't forget, his team CSC-Tiscali was leading in the team time trial before things crumbled following a mechanical in the ranks. Team Director Bjarne Riis is smart enough to not make the same mistake twice, and has bolstered his squad for support in the Tour. Tyler was often used as a "rabbit" for Lance in the individual time trials, and has demonstrated strong ability in the race against the clock. Obviously, his climbing prowess is well-documented, and this year's spring classic victory may have been the spark which will ignite his full fury. I'd say he has a strong shot for the top three, with a personal hope of second. The most talented man in cycling is of course Jan Ullrich, who has had more than his share of troubles - both from within and outside. Having seemed to knit his private affairs back into shape, he has stayed focused while Team Coast crumbled into dust around him. Bianchi stepped up to maintain the team, so the now celeste-wearing German has a squad around him. It seems that he lacks the dedicated team support which would help him control the race, if he was able to challenge seriously. He seems to be fit and excited about racing, and I would look for him to continue to challenge strongly as the race continues. Ultimately, I feel he will not be able to challenge in the mountains, though his flatter stage power will still remain awesome. I would hope to see him on the podium, looking up at Lance and Tyler. Other riders who will be seriously challenging for top 5 positions will be Ivan Basso from Fasso Bortolo - last year's White Jersey winner. He has all the star qualities - climbing, power for time trials. But, he's also likely to be a marked man whenever he rolls off the front. Another rider to watch is Alexandre Vinokourov, the Khazakstan rider for Team Telekom. He's had a tremendous spring as well, with a clever escape to victory in the Dutch Amstel Gold race. Ex-Nor-Cal boy Levi Leipheimer could also find himself in the mix, although he doesn't seem to have been as evident in races this spring. His modus operandi has been to gain form steadily as the race continues, and he's still chaffing a bit from last year's performance in the Individual Time Trial. Saeco's Danilo Diluca has the strength to challenge - he just needs a bit of luck to go with his obvious talent. There are two big question marks in the bunch - Aitor Gonzalez from Fassa Bortolo and Santiago Botero with Telekom. Both switched teams this past year, which big visions following some strong efforts. However, neither has shown too much this season - whether very cagey preperations or some type of "sophomore slump" remains to be seen. Gonzalez' results at the Giro this year even had his team manager telling him to focus more, while Botero...well, I'd be hard pressed to tell you any race he was a factor in this year so far. They are both clearly talented bike riders, Gonzalez with a team-crushing but personal victory in the Vuelta Espana and Botero hammering some headline gathering efforts in last years' Tour - one of the few men to beat Lance in a time trial. Of course, simply winning a stage does not guarantee Tour victory. In a more "open" race such as this year's edition, the risk is being required to react to one rider's excessive lead - like the tour of two years ago and the 30 minute deficit created on the road to Morzine. The other thing to be aware of this year is the strong climbers who could force Armstrong's hand - specifically Stefano Garzelli from Vini Caldirola, Euskatel-Euskadi's Iban Mayo, who was particularly tenacious at the recent Dauphine-Libere, Saeco's Gilberto Simoni, and Gerolsteiner's Georg Totschnig. As these boys feel the road pitch upwards, they will be tempted to stretch the elastic a bit, and the continuing vigilence of the USPostal Team will be demanded at all times. They had beefed up their roster a bit with Manuel Beltran, snatched away from the crumbling Team Coast, and it looks like Floyd Landis has brought himself into proper form after breaking his hip in the off season. Of course, when the man you get to follow on the climbs is Roberto Heras, things may go a tad easier for you. Clearly one of the best climbers in the pro peleton, he has been a steady and devoted teammate for Lance and has helped to ensure victory in past Tours. Nevertheless, they will need to stay calm when the climbers start swarming like bees on the steeper bits. And as much as I'd love to see Heras on the podium - either on time or while wearing the Polka-dot climber's jersey, his first directive will be to make sure that Lance maintains the top slot. On the subject of jerseys - Polka-Dot / King of the Mountain: I'd hope for Heras, as stated, but realistically, I'd look to Simoni, if he can hold his form for another grand tour. He did simply ride away from everyone in the mountains of Italy. Iban Mayo might be in the mix, particularly after his performance in the climbs in the Dauphine-Libere, unless he fancies a chance for the overall, which might spring teammate David Extebarria. I doubt that Quick Step-Davitamon's Richard Virenque will be able to muster his bony body out to more than a specific stage win. Green / Points Leader: Robbie McEwen has been eyeing this since winning it last year, but didn't seem to quite have the snap at the Giro. He also lacks the team of dedicated draft horses who can dominate the goings-on for the last 3 or 4 kilometers like Where's Mario Cipollini's zebra-striped Domina-Vacanze squad. So, he has to "draft and dash or clash", choosing the right wheel before zipping around. He clearly has the speed to do it, but there's a lot of variables in that equation. Alessandro Petacchi got the free pass to France with his Fassa Bortolo squad after winning SIX stages of this year's Giro. After suffering a hellacious crash in the time trial (and then winning the next day's stage), he finished outside the time limit. But, if he can keep with the "autobus" on the big climbs, he's got the speed to drop McEwen. An on form Oscar Freire (Rabobank) is frighteningly fast, but again, lacks the leadout men dedicated to him. Personally, I'd love to see Telekom get psyched up around Erik Zabel's effort for a seventh green jersey - he's been racing a bit less this spring, for once maybe focusing his speed and efforts back to the jersey that was snatched from him by the at-times-trash-talking-talent from down under. White Jersey / Best Young Rider: Michael Rodgers from QuickStep-Davitamon. Hands down. All he has to do is not crash and get through the mountains in his first tour. -- Well, the hype and wait are almost over, and throughout Paris, young men are not sleeping as well as they could, thinking about their date with the 90th running of this Centenary Edition of the Tour de France - the largest sporting event in the world. This will be a fun trip, and the Tour is always amazing. -- Jim -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Sun Jul 6 09:01:52 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2003 01:01:52 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Prologue - The Streets of Paris Message-ID: <3F07D770.9090700@cyclofiend.com> Prologue - Individual Time Trial - Paris 6.5 km At the base of the Eiffel Tour, narrow machines are firing out of a start house and cover the cobbled and paved roads of Paris. Crowds jam the barriers on this rare opportunity to see the riders before they head out for the first road stage. Haimar Zubeldia from Euskatel-Euskadi has hammered through the finish straight at 7:28 and some change, which has him nearly 9 seconds ahead of the nearest rider - a rather large gap considering the short distance of the circuit. Victor Hugo Pena rolls through at 7:32 - not enough to shake up the leader, but placing himself nicely near the front. The top three riders' positions from each team are used to determine the team standings, which will be extremely important in the upcoming Team Time Trial. Certainly, the importance of starting last and getting necessary split times cannot be overestimated. Despite plans to win, Michael Roders from QuckStep-Davitamon has turned in a rather lackluster time. Whether unsure in his first Tour or just a bad ride, he is still the strongest looking youngest rider. Aitor Gonzalez from Fasso Bortolo rolls over the line at about 7:50, not stressing things too terribly much. He has made a strong effort, but his engine looks to be tuned more toward longer stages. Vlatchislav Ekimov drives smoothly through the line and notches into third within five seconds of the leader - another fine finish for the USPostal Service. New poppa and celeste wearing Jan Ullrich rolls out of the start house. He looks decidedly lean and mean. Meanwhile, the first of the important stuff hits the airways - the first Bob Roll "Tour DAY France" commercial.... Ullrich has gone through the mid-course time check one second ahead of the top time. Looks like he's riding lean and mean as well. He is running extremely strong down the final straight - and he punches ahead into the lead with by one fifth of a second. Slow motion replay shows frightening amounts of muscles contracting in his thighs. Bradley McGee from FDJ.com has pushed through the time check with a "good time" as the cameras stick with David Millar from Cofidis and Tyler Hamilton from CSC-Tiscali. The big dogs are starting to run, as the reigning world time trial champ Santiago Botero moves a bit tentatively away from the start. On course, Millar has torched the best time - going through the midcourse time check a full five seconds ahead of Ullrich. 7:26 for Mcgee - that puts him into the lead, but Millar his torching up the course. 7:32 for Tyler - We come back from a commercial break to find David Millar reaching down to put his chain back onto the front chainring and try to make the line in time - no! He finishes at 7:26.95 - dropping into second place. 7:35.09 for Botero. 7:35.32 for Beloki. Armstrong had passed through the time check at 9 seconds behind Millar's time. Now, he hammers for the line to finish at 7:34. That puts Bradley McGee into the first yellow jersey for the 2003 Tour de France - an Australian rider on a French team. Pena and Ekimov efforts combine with Armstrong to put three men in the top 10. Prologue - 1 - Brad McGee - 7:26 2 - David Millar - s.t. 3 - Hamair Zubeldia - @ :02 4 - Jan Ullrich - @ :02 5 - Victor Hugo Pena - @ :06 6 - Tyler Hamilton - @ :06 7 - Lance Armstrong - @ :07 8 - Joseba Beloki - @ :09 9 - Santiago Botero - @ :09 10 - Vlatchislav Ekimov - @:11 Tomorrow: Stage 1 - Saint-Denis/Motgeron - Meaux - 168 km -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Sun Jul 6 16:57:29 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2003 08:57:29 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 1 - Leaving Paris Message-ID: <3F0846E9.8060204@cyclofiend.com> Stage 1 - Saint-Denis/Montegeron - Meaux - 168 km The first road stage begins with nearly 20 km of neutralized racing, first out of Paris and then away from the Cafe Revel Matin with all the inherent hoopla that the French can muster. Lotto's Robbie Mcewan nabs some sprint points at the first spot. It seems as though he's not interested in repeatint the final day nailbiter of last year in his quest for the green Points Leader Jersey. Siezing the momentum, a breakaway moved clear and continues away from the bunch, edging their gap up to a maximum of 8:45. Sprinters teams begin unlimbering their legs, brains and racing behavior, now takig about a minute back with 83 km to go. The three riders are 97 - Christophe Mengin from FDJeux.com, 155 - Andy Flickinger from Ag2R-Prevoyance and 182 - Walter Beneteau from Brioches La Boulangere. If you've noticed that all of those teams are French-based squads, you get extra points. Fairly narrow roads under the overcast skies and threatening sunshine. The gap to the leaders slips under the 7 minute mark as the breakaway trio crests the single hill on the day. Four other Cofidis riders had drivetrain woes yesterday, as it seems that they decided to run single chainrings in the Prologue Time Trial, removing the front derailleur. Those four riders all had trouble keeping the chain on as they bumped over the cobbles on the roads of Paris. Up front, Credit Agrcole, Lotto and Fassa Bortolo trade pulls as the lead continues to reduce. Muted colors and lowering haze sit on the near horizon to the peleton while the breakaway riders find themselves suddenly in full sun. With about 60-odd km to go, the lead has been squeezed down to 5 minutes. The cameras find the USPostal squad neatly positioned near the front of the pack, paced by the oldest man in the race, Vlatchislav Ekimov, who is riding his 13th Tour this year. Current race leader Bradley McGee is only the third Australian to wear the yellow jersey, folling in the footsteps of Phil Anderson and Stuart O'Grady. An OLN spot has two pro bass fishermen rolling along a bike path, compaining vaguely how their shows have been preempted. They wobble uneasily as they attempt to hit their lines and keep their machines pointed straight. I wonder how many takes that took.... The Lotto/Fassa Bortolo/Credit Agricole combine leads the group over widening and straightening roadways. The gap continues to drop, now under 4 minutes with over 50 km to go. 195 riders grind up the miles, and within a few minutes, their gap has been nearly halved. It holds and hovers a bit, as the riders have determined that they will be able to snag the break when they need to. They let the ONCE squad push up to the point of the bunch and take over a bit of pacemaking. Up at the front, Flickinger punches it at the final sprint point, easily gapping his breakawy companions, which gains him a six second time bonus. If for some reason they manage to stay away, it could mean a yellow jersey on his shoulders. I'm not sure I'd bet on that, of course. The bunch is griding up the streets of the town of Mauperthuis - a much steeper climb than is generally the case in a sprint point - and seem to have decided that enough is enough with just over 20 miles to go. Under the 20 km to go banner, Magnin and Beneteau finally fold up their tents as Flickinger guns the throttle and moves away. He has less than a minute over the bunch. Flickinger presses on valiantly as he heads under the 15 km to go. The peleton rumbles through the checkpoint and continue to reduce the gap. At the back of the group, Erik Zabel finds himself awaiting the team car with a mechanical of some sort. He has three teammates immediately dropping back, and he pushes himself back up through the team cars. Not the sort of bother you need with under 10 km to go - particulary if you are the team sprinter. Teammate Daniele Nardello takes up the bit and drives the pace, quickly regaining the back end of the bunch. At the other end of events, Fassa Bortolo drives things along into the narrowing streets of town, Credit Agricole's Christophe Moreau drives the pace with under 6 km to go - Paolo Bettini - currently the number 1 ranked professional cyclist on points - pushes into the mix, while the Vini Caldirola squad has placed themselves firmly near the front as well. It's a United Nations of national colors, as Zabel in the German national championship jersey, Stuart O'grady moves up in the Australian colors, and Bettini waves the Italian flag. Hellish repitions of traffic "furniture" divide the squads again and again as they hit the outskirts of town. They head slightly downhill and speed edges up again. Moreau fades and Cofidis moves their way up. They cannot keep control, while Telekom's Mathias Kessler guides the efforts of Zabel. But with a bit of shuffling as they head around a corner, Zabel loses the wheel and drops back a bit. They now head into a hard right turn and a straight stretch along the waterway. Vini Caldirola strongman Eddie Mazzoleni drives the pace with a number of FDJeux.com riders. They pass under the 2 km to go banner. O'Grady moves up unprotected on the right of the peleton, trying desperately to tuck in behind a wheel. McEwen sits in the top ten, but deep in the bunch. It's a chaos of crazed riders, all of whom want to be at the front. The first road stage of the the Tour de France is a frightening place right now. Petacchi's Fassa Bortolo team regains control and leads under the red kite which marks the 1 km to go banner - they come up a slight rise with three riders on the front as the speed continues to increase. A bit of a dogleg finish lies before them - first a right and then a left. Others begin to move up - CRASH in the squad - Just about 15 or 20 riders back. Guiterrez from Kelme pops a foot out of the pedal and has immediately gone down, bike bouncing away. This all occurs just after the turn, and riders begin to pile in, tumbling over one another in a spreading wave of chaos and carnage. A select group of serious sprinters are still clear off the front, South African Rabobank rider Robbie Hunter moves hard, with McEwen and Zabel tucked in Petacchi's slipstream. Petacchi sees the line and kicks it into high gear. Hunter and the others drop away, while McEwen moves out hard and claws his way up. On Petacchi's other shoulder, the wiley Zabel moves out and lights the afterburner. Around him Paolo Bettini brings the Italian National Champions jersey toward the line - but it's all too little horsepower as Petacchi will not be passed - he takes the stage victory, arms aloft! Back down the roadway, the entire pelton is at a standstill - riders went down damned hard - replays showing at least two absolutely unprotected endos - lots of USPostal riders bunch together, but, it's unclear if any were caught in the actual bloodletting. It's tough to see how much damage has been done, but the cameras pick up FDJeux.com rider Jimmy Caspar flat on his back, already in a neck brace. Hopefully it's more precautionary than anything. Riders riders filter in as warriors returning from a horrific battle, one or two paired up - Yellow Jersey wearing Bradley McGee is pushed by a teammate. Another rider walks his bike down the last few hundred meters - back wheel mangled and unrideable. It happens so damned fast - suddenly the speed and color of the group reduced to nothing more than a bunch of solitary riders coasting toward the finish. As this crash occurred in the final kilometer, all riders will receive the same time for today's stage, and there will be no change in the overall standings, other then the sprint jersey falling upon the shoulders of a very fast Aussie. Well, there was finish, and it looked like Petacchi, McEwen, Zabel, Bettini within a wheel of each other, in that order. The chaos of the finish seems to be preventing French television from posting official results, so I'll have to dig around for a minute or two to find out if they are available. The podium awards proceed, with McGee getting another yellow jersey, while McEwen pulls on his first green jersey in his quest for the overall points jersey. The best provisional results I've found so far: 1 - Alessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo, 3:44:33 2 - Robbie Mc Ewen - Lotto-Domo, at 00:00 3 - Erik Zabel - Telekom, at 00:00 4 - Paolo Bettini - Quick Step-Davitamon, at 00:00 5 - Baden Cooke - FDJeux.com, at 00:00 6 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole, at 00:00 7 - Oscar Freire - Rabobank, at 00:00 8 - Luca Paolini - Quick Step-Davitamon, at 00:00 9 - Romans Vainsteins - Vini-Caldirola, at 00:00 10 - Jaan Kirsipuu - Ag2R Prevoyance, at 00:00 Tomorrows Stage: Stage 2 - La Ferte-sous-Jouarre - Sedan - 204 km Basically a rolling stage with a couple of nipping hills - the final 30 km follow a category 4 climb (one of two on the day), and ease down on a descent to the finish. -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Mon Jul 7 16:54:47 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Mon, 07 Jul 2003 08:54:47 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 2 - Reaction to the Wreckage Message-ID: <3F0997C7.5040608@cyclofiend.com> Stage 2 - La Ferte-sous-Jouarre - Sedan - 204 km It seems like the majority of the peleton is still nursing the physical and mental impact of the high speed pileup at the end of yesterday's stage. Despite the incredible severity of the crash and the sheer number of riders to hit the pavement, only Rabobank's Levi Leipheimer & Marc Lotz did not start today. Leipheimer has fractured his hip and unfortunately now watches the Tour from a hospital room. Jimmy Caspar (FDJeux.com), who the cameras found stretched out flat on his back with dotors attending to his neck, rides today with a cervical collar - not something you generally see in the peleton. Doctors are having him wear it for the next two days, and he seems about as uncomfortable as one could be while riding a bike. Tyler Hamilton (CSC) received a double fracture of his collarbone, yet amazingly, he is still in the race. Yes, he is still in the race. Yes, he does have a double fracture of his collarbone. At a press conference last night, Tyler said, "(I was) praying it wasn't going to be broken. This was my 7th Tour, but felt that this was _my_ tour. The legs are strong. I've dedicated my life to it this past year..." He seemed very focused still, but it will be difficult for him to hold onto his goal of a podium finish. Many other riders are bandaged up today, but it's stunning how few riders were able to avoid damage. Of note is Vlatchislav Ekimov from the USPostal Service, who went down in the bunch drop. He's scratched himself up pretty well, but is tucked quietly into the peleton and knows how to recover. USPS will need his efforts in the Team Time Trial. Lilian Jegou (126) from Credit Agricole and Frederic Fino (215) for Jean Dela Tour have the unenviable task of being the day's rabbits. They wandered off tweh Under 11 minutes with about 96 km to go. Took a book out of the Giro d'Italia and looped a camera cable around Jegou's handlebars, sending him sprawling and having the comissar's car nearly crush him. The replay shows his helmeted head just inches from the swerving auto tire. It's been rather still, humid and overcast, with muted colors and seemsingly, a muted mood among the riders. The sun has begun to break through, finally casting shadows on the roadway. The camera finds Tyler, who seems to be holding a steady, slight wince as he vibrates over the roadways of northern France. The leading duo hold a 8:18 gap with 83 km, but a few minutes later, the peleton has chopped another minute in the last 5 km. The phrase "doomed breakaway" comes to mind. Levi Leipheimer interviewed at the hospital barely is able to hold the obvious anger down in his voice, "I'm just thinking, trying to see if i made a mistake. I was just staying at the front. Just bad luck." Crash in the field - looks like a quick touch of wheels as the roads narrowed. Most riders move around it, but the cameras find Gerolsteiner's Uwe Peschel and Fabio Baldato of Alessio pulling themselves up off of the pavement. For Baldato, that must be hell, as he was involved in yesterday's pileup and has heavily bandanged knees. He also had to have tendon stitched back into his hand last night. Fassa Bortolo and Lotto hammer out the pace, with Robbie McEwen holding a one point lead in the green points jersey competition. Theycontinued to reduce the gap, with just over 6 and a half minutes gap and 70 odd kilometers to go to the finish. The camera keeps finding neck-brace wearing Caspar, and both times, Saeco's Danilo DiLuca has been riding very close by at the back end of the peleton. There's no obvious problem, but he doesn't look entirely smooth. The sprint for third place opens up in the Ardenns town of Avancon. Badly boxed in by a group of six riders, McEwen suddenly finds a gap and shoots away, to freewheeel over the sprint point and nab a couple points. As they rehash the specifics of yesterday's crash, a bit of the blame has shifted toward Mederic Clain of Cofidis, who was the rider just in front of Kelme's Guiterrez. He may have faded out slightly as the group rocketed around the corner, causing a quick touch of wheels from which the Spanish rider could not recover. Of course, as anyone who has riden in a pack will tell you, it's rather important not to put yourself half a wheel up on anyone in any bunch. 5 minutes time gap with about 60 km left to go. A slight shift has happened in the leading pair, as with 43.3 km to go, the leading pair has been holding on at 5:25. As their team directors have probably told them, there's a strong chance that one of these riders could be wearing the yellow jersey at the end of the day. Attacking suddenly on a comparatively slight incline, Frederic Finot, has gone alone - he sits only 15 seconds off the yellow jersey with the day's time sprint bonuses. With a 20 second stage winner's bonus, he can let the gap get down to 1 seconds and still manage to pull on the yellow jersey. He's left his old breakaway companion pedaling squares. Finot has gained a quick gap of over 1 minute, and continues moving strongly. Another delay on the roadway - ONCE's Jose Azevedo seems to be the only rider impacted, but the whole bunch stands and shuffle around him. Finot thumps out a strong cadence as he heads uphill. He's on the proper climb of the Cote de Longwe, which is an uncategorized climb about 35 km from the finish. Off the back, Danilo Diluca gets paced up between the team cars, he looks like he's still uncomfortable - reports of "cystisis" - eeeeewww... Jegou has dropped back to about 2:30 behind the time-trialing Finot, but he seems to have made the crest of the climb, and both of the soloists are benfitting from a definite tailwind. Finot thrums along in the sunlight with constant crowds cheering him on - the gap has remained steady with 26 km to go. His silver chromed Scott frame glitters in the sunlight as he pushes his forehead down to the stem. Behind him, Jegou soft-pedals as the peleton swarms up and around him. Lotto drives the pace, but they have quite a bit of ground to make up - well, exactly 4:33 to be accurate. Finot hammers under the 20 km to go banner, with every cameraman in the French press trying to get a shot of him. Diluca is again off the back, paced by big man Paolo Fornaciari. Up front, Telekom has joined into the chase, but the bunch remains a bit broad on the roadway. A quick recalculation shows that Finot can finish in the same time as the peleton, and as long as he finishes first, will pull on the yellow jersey. If he manages to do this, he will have managed to stay away for just under 200 km. FDJeux.com has joined the rotation with Fassa Bortolo, Lotto and Telekom, but they pass under the 20 km to go banner with the gap at a flat 4 minutes. Telekom has 5 riders in the rotation, but the other teams have only one or two - Crash in the peleton - Looks like it happened close to the back, with 20 or so riders held up by the tumble. A Vini Caldorola rider looks pretty stunned, still sitting on the side of the road with a good chunk out of his right knee - 166 Marco Milesi - who is quickly attended to by the doctors and regains his feet with some help. A Gerolsteiner rider will need a new team kit at the end of the day - shorts shredded and jersey scraped up. My roster list has it as Olaf Pollack, but the Phil/Paul combine name another rider. Now the QuickStep-Davitamon squad punish the pedals at the head of events while the Jean Delatour team director urges his rider on from the car. The gap is down to 1:50 as he struggles on the rolling roadway. Finot's head is slowly pulling down between his shoulders as the strain spreads throughout his body and everything continues to tighten and squeal. Whether the crash or the sudden realization that Finot has slowed slightly, the pack now have lit the touchpaper and stretch to no more than one rider width, and with 5 km to go, the peleton has stretched out and split, with a number of riders getting spat out the back. The bruised and battered gather and ride tempo to the finish, while soem like Alessandro Petacchi bend their bars to reattach. Finot hits 4 km to go, and the slobbering bunch are no more than 10 seconds behind. they stretch out and a long thin line of riders claw their way across the roadways. Slight dinking around in the group gives Finot the glimmer of hope, as no one wants to be on the front as the catch is made. But, just before the 2 km to go banner, but they can smell the lube on his drivetrain. The last 20 meters of lead are dissolving into nothing... He is caught after nearly 200 km of effort. The tone of the race shifts dramatically, as sprinters leadout men take over. Brad McGee shows the yellow jersey next to Suart O'Grady near the front and Erik Zabel slots in right nearby. Today's finish is broad and wide, with Boulangerie riders driving the leadout for their sprinter, Damian Nazon. The French teams clearly are stinging under the repeated statements of their inadequacy. The bunch scream aound a left turn and race under the 1 km banner. They can see the finish - dead straight ahead with a kilometer to go. At about 700 meters, McGee has left early, thinking he can use his ex-track-pursuiter explosiveness to snatch the win. He dodges right and left, but, others have moved hard to his attack. Zabel is on him, along with O'Grady and Nazon. McEwen is not in contact, but struggles furiously to get back up. Up the other side of the roadway, the other Nazon - Jean-Patrick of Jean Delatour begins a hard move. Zabel instinctively jumps over and Jan Kirsipuu of Ag2R moves up into second - perfect position as they streak towards the line. Kirsipuu moves hard and gains ground. From the other side of Nazon, FDJeux.com rider Baden Cooke fires up from behind the two of them and moves hard at the line. Kirsipuu throws his bike but is a good half wheel behind as Baden Cooke takes the stage! Erik Zabel drives to the line with good speed - he may have just nicked enough of a finish bonus to jump into green at the end of the day. Stage 2 - 1 - Baden Cooke - FDJeux.com - 5:06:33 2 - Jan Kirsipuu - Ag2R 3 - Jean-Patrick Nazon - Jean Delatour 4 - Erik Zabel - Telekom 5 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole 6 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto 7 - Paolo Bettini - QuickStep-Davitimon 8 - Stuart O'Grady - Credit Agricole 9 - Fred Rodriguez - Vini Caldirola 10 - Mikel Artetxe - Euskatel-Euskadi All riders - Same Time Tomorrow's Stage Charleville-Mezieres - Saint-Dizier - 167 km No point of the course will climb above 311 km as they head due south from the Belgian border. Another day for the sprinters, it would seem, as the teams scratch off the scabs and prepare for Wednesday's Team Time Trial. -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Tue Jul 8 16:21:35 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 08:21:35 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 3 - Heading South Message-ID: <3F0AE17F.5060003@cyclofiend.com> Stage 3 - Charleville-Mezieres - Saint Dizier - 167 km A blistering pace for the first couple hours on this shortest road stage of the race - covering over 50 km in the first hour - has the race near the stage speed record set by Mario Cipollini. The man who has benefitted most has been Jean-Patrick Nazon from Jean Delatour, who is now the yellow jersey on the roadway. He snuck his nose out on the first sprint point to nail four seconds with a second place (Jan Kirsipuu of Ag2R taking first), and then gathered 6 seconds with a first place at the second sprint point at Ville-sur-Tourbe. Lotto's Robbie McEwen has been just behind him both times, perhaps trying to maximize his chances of wearing yellow as well. A bit of a trick to the finish, with the organizers sneaking in a little "S" bend at about 500 meters to go. But, in the meantime, they need to worry about reducing the more than two minute gap to Antony Geslin of Brioches La Boulangere - the third youngest rider in the race. The riders continue almost due south today, and the weather seems to be steadily improving and warming with full sun, little wind and high humidity all around. The smooth roads must be benefitting CSC's Tyler Hamilton, again in the race and staying in touch while other riders are finding themselves adrift at times under the relentless pressure at the front. Joseba Beloki gets dragged by the team car for a bit, and the soigneur trims something on his now-bare foot. It would be stunning to think that he forgot to trim his toenails. More likely is that he's developed a blister or needs a hotspot dealt with. The time gap eases up toward 3 minutes. That strikes a nerve in the group, and they stretch out the bunch a bit as they turn up the speed a bit under the pacemaking of the Jean Delatour squad. Baden Cooken of FDJeux.com wears the white jersey of the best placed young rider today, after his victory yesterday which also edged him up a bit in the standings. The peleton slows as they roll between a pinch point of 50 or so demonstrators, who chant and wave signs as they edge out into the roadway. The squeeze gets the riders down to walking pace, as even those with fluent French have no real idea what is going on. Team Saeco's Danilo Diluca fights to hold onto some errant wheels and a team car after being dropped for the third or fourth time today. He's said to be fighting an infection, as well as the comfort problems inherent with some saddle-area cysts. This talented rider had been having a strong spring until he ws knocked a bit off his game by a broken collarbone. A screw still hold his bones together as he continues gamely. The bunch moves along at 3:18 in arrears, still driven by Jean Delatour riders. They have just over 48 km to go, and the J-D team has visions of holding the yellow jersey on the back of Nazon. That would be quite a coup for them, as they were the last team chosen for this year's event. They tweak the time gap down to about 2:48 as they roll through the trees. Geslin rolls along over flat roads past cheering spectators. He enters Mogneville and the last sprint point of the day - taking the maximum time bonus as the Ag2R and Fassa Bortolo riders ratchet up the effort in the group. Jean-Patrick Nazon comes clear, helped by a trio of Jean Delatour teamates who provide an impenetrable sprint leadout. Jan Kirsipuu flicks around trying to figure out which is the right wheel to follow until realizing he'd guessed wrong, and Nazon opens a gap on him and the other riders, gaining another 4 seconds time bonus. The increase in speed brings the gap down to 1:05 by the time all is said and done in this French town. With under 20 km to go, the time gap has dropped to around 40 seconds. The team director loads up Geslin with water bottles just before being directed to pull over as the gap goes under 30 seconds. They know the catch is imminent, and are wise enough to know that the rest of the team will appreciate the liquids once they rejoin him. Fassa Bortolo unceremoniously roll past him and continue to increase their pace, attempted to squash any other breaks with 15 km to go. Yellow jersey wearing Bradley McGee edges up towards the head of events, perhaps with the idea of springing Baden Cooke once more. If they can do so, they could simply pass the jersey to a teammate rather than lose it to another team. Fassa Bortolo leads the bunch under the the 10 km to go banner, trading pulls with Credit Agricole and FDJeux.com riders. Neck-brace-wearing Jimmy Caspar is not among them, however, as he gets nicked off the back and concentrates on just getting to the line. He has company with CSC's Jakob Piil and the man who wears the sufferin-B jersey; Danilo Diluca. Small groups begin to assemble as the screaming pace continues to drop riders. Fassa Bortolo's Alessandro Petacchi got chopped off on the final rise of yesterday's course, coming across the line more than a minute back. Today he seems to have shaken that off, and is positioned strongly in the business end of the bunch. Paolo Bettini takes a turn at the front as they pass under the 4 km to go banner. Everyone begins to dink around as they spread across the two lane roadway, which a huge amount of movement as no one wants to take up the pacemaking. Vini Caldirola moves themselves up a bit, perhaps wantinig to place Fred Rodriguez, and Rabobank move up with them, perhaps ready to spring Oscar Freire. Under the 1 km to go banner - no organization and wildly shifting riders. Vini-Caldirola have three riders near the front, and Fassa Bortolo and Lotto push into their slipstream. Everyone gets safely around the "S" at 500 meters, and once they come out of it, the blood is on the water and the frenzy begins. Zabel has positioned himself well, while Petacchi leans against Romans Vainsteins and others spread across the road, Baden Cooke begins to get squeezed out as McEwen tries to move up - there is a sudden crash behind them! - it looks like only one rider has gone down against the barriers. Up front Petacchi gets disentangled and guns it for the line. Oscar Freire puts on an amazing burst of speed to move up strongly, but runs out of roadway and must watch as Petacchi wins it, arms aloft! Back down the course, the crashed rider sits backwards, stunned as help rushes up to him. Others on the course still work to avoid his bicycle. The crashed rider is Rene Haselbacher from the Gerolsteiner squad. A replay of the crash from above shows that McEwen and Baden Cooke did a fine bit of bike riding to stay upright, as Haselbacher was actually closer to the center of the roadway than either of them. He was even with thesm and made what seems to have been an ill-advised move to his right, got squeezed out and had to push up against McEwen to his left. McEwen was already pushing against Cooke, whose left pedal was already nicking the curb. Cooke didn't move an inch, and the pressure ricchocheted back to Haselbacher, who found himself briefly airborne and then smashing against the curb and metal barriers. After a few minutes surrounded by paramedics, he regains a bicycle and rolls over the line. The cameras thankfully focus upon his face, as the quick shots of the crash show his shorts vaporized by the pavement. Stage 3 - Results 1 - Alessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo - 6:33:00 2 - Romans Vainsteins - Vini Caldirolo 3 - Oscar Freire - Rabobank 4 - Erik Zabel - Telekom 5 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto-Domo 6 - Luca Paolini - Quick Step 7 - Olaf Pollock - Gerolsteiner 8 - Angelo Furlan - Alessio 9 - Salvatore Commesso - Saeco - 10 - Stuart O'Grady - Credit Agricole Overall - Mailiot Juane - Jean-Patrick Nazon - Jean Delatour - 12:59:29 First frenchman to wear the yellow since 2001 Tomorrow's Stage - Team Time Trial USPS has the lead in the team standings, due to their strong finishes in the prologue, which should let them know all the other's time splits. Historically, ONCE has had the strongest showing in this event, but it seems clear that this stage has been one of the focus points for this year's Tour effort for USPostal. Team Bianchi is second overall, and it will be interesting to see how they fare in this team effort. -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Wed Jul 9 17:16:28 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2003 09:16:28 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 4 - Team Time Trial Message-ID: <3F0C3FDC.2010604@cyclofiend.com> Stage 4 - Team Time Trial - Joinville - Saint Dizier - 69 km Despite what can happen on a regular road stage, it can easily be eclipsed by a difficult day in the Team Time Trial. The speed of the riders on machines which are at best difficult to control, the proximity to the other riders, the impact of winds on a rear disk wheel, all of these can lead to disasterous outcomes in this race against the clock. The course starts with a 3 km climb, levels and then heads gradually downhill to the finish over open roads. The timing clock stops on the 5th rider to cross the line, so it's important to keep everyone together. From what little we've heard so far, the Team Time Trial is a strong component of the USPS Strategic Plan - with the lack of mountaintop finishes, Armstrong will need the time gained for an overall victory. It's one of my pesonal favorites - the precision required combined with the effort necessary captures the essence of competitive cycling. The main time check points come at 18.5 km and 44.5 km. Telekom crosses the first check with the best first split by 3 or 4 seconds. About 23 minutes of pain ahead, iBanesto.com comes out of a 7 second deficit to put the best time at the 2nd check, 14 seconds ahead of earlier teams. Credit Agricole comes in a bit far down at the 2nd check - 51:32, 22 seconds slower than iBanesto - after being only 1 second behind at the first time check. Back at the start, Bianchi preps and checks their machines. look frighteningly prepared. They measure Ullrich's bike, making sure that the nose of saddle is properly positioned behind the bottom bracket and the bars are no more than 80 cm in front of the saddle as required by UCI regulations. Their elongated aero helmets and jerseys have the classic celeste, which glisten in the dazzling sunlight as they roll onto the course - the next to last team to start. Which of course leaves the boys in blue - USPS fire out from the line, Vlatchislav Ekimov immediately moving to the front to set the pace and tone for the first kilometer. You couldn't find a smoother rider. David Millar's Cofidis looks as ragged as anyone on the course, hitting the 44 km time check in what could be described as the "rugby scrum" formation. They cross in 52 minutes, with only the suprisingly poor showing of Saeco, Lotto and Jean Delatour to keep them out of the caboose. ONCE notches the first sub 51 minute time at the 2nd checkpoint, coming in just a spoke width ahead of the time at 50:59. Bianchi has trailed USPS at the first time check - they are about 2 seconds in arrears. Bianchi looks a little ragged in the narrow streets of the old french town - not slow - but they are managing to saw off a couple guys who repeatedly claw their way back to the tail end. Ullrich certainly has the power, but ultimately, his team suffers through a lack of consistency and practice in this event. Cameras follow USPS along a straight bit of the open roadway - Ekimov just reattaches to the end of the chain as he recovers from his pull. Up front they echelon slightly as the road hurtles underneath. Armstrong has been taking his pull and the entire team follows smartly behind. They look cool and collected, efficiently generating huge amounts of power. Dead into a headwind on the mid part of the course, Bianchi's Ullrich seems to be suffering a bit more than Armstrong. A closeup shows the detail of his dry lips, and although he is not laboring, he's clearly working very hard. USPS seems exceptionarlly well drilled, with tight positions and barely a tire-width gap between the riders. Bianchi seems to have passed through the 2nd time check in about 2nd or third best time - 3rd best at 51:18. ONCE blazes through the streets of Saint Dizier and looks extremely fast - appearances are correct as they notch in the first time under 1:19:00 - 1:18:57! Bianchi rumble along in their dynamic celeste skinsuits - the following moto actually has a sweat-covered lens as they follow the riders through the strong afternoon heat. Euskatel-Euskadi roll over the line with 6 riders. Their team leaders will lose at least 3 minutes today. Too bad for Iban Mayo's chances of overall victory. The last bits are decidedly against the wind, and the smart and strong teams had definitely held back a bit to compensate for the efforts needed. USPS hits the 44 km point at 51:06 - now the 2nd best time for the day. At another checkpoint at the 59 km mark, they roll through at 1:07:27 - 17 seconds ahead of ONCE's time! A few minutes up the roadway, another Bianchi rider smacks against the virtual wall and drifts back to the 2nd team car as the squad moves ahead. USPS screams past a solo Euskatel-Euskadi rider - yes, that's a team that started 15 minutes ahead of them. They'll be timing him with a sundial... Bianchi goes under the 1 km to go banner - the remaining riders look strong, but they will not beat ONCE's time - they finish in 1:19:10. A fine effort in an important stage. Joined together by an invisible tether, the USPS roars toward the line in a stunningly textbook example of the modern Team Time Trial. They look to be under the time of ONCE, as Ekimov, Armstrong, Hincapie pull and peel off, with Pavel Padrnos leading them in the final meters. 1:18:27 - winners by 30 seconds! Crossing the line, despite the effort, slow-motion replay shows them actually smiling. Ekimov punches the air, knowing what kind of an effort they just completed. In addition to putting Lance 30 seconds up on ONCE's Joseba Beloki and 43 seconds up on Bianchi's Jan Ullrich, they have placed the first Colombian cyclist ever into the yellow jersey - Victor Hugo Pena. An excellent result from an extremely strong squad. They have taken over the top _EIGHT_ positions on the leader board. They nab Lance for a quick interview, and his satisfaction is clearly evident - quickly praising the pacemaking efforts of Ekimov and George Hincapie. A very happy Victor Hugo Pena takes the podium and pulls on the yellow jersey. Stage Results - 1 - US Postal Service - 1:18:27 2 - ONCE-Eroski - @ :30 3 - Team Bianchi - @ :43 4 - iBanesto.com - @ 1:05 5 - QuickStep-Davitimon - @ 1:23 6 - Team Telekom - @ 1:30 7 - Vini-Caldirola Sidermec - @ 1:32 7 - Credit Agricole - @ 1:32 9 - Ag2R-Prevoyance - @ 1:38 10 - CSC-Tiscali - @ 1:45 Overall Standings - M.J. - Victor Hugo Pena - USPS - 13:44:44 2 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - @ :01 3 - Vlatchislav Ekimov - USPS - @ :05 4 - George Hincapie - USPS - @ :05 5 - Jose Rubiera - USPS - @ :23 6 - Roberto Heras - USPS - @ :27 7 - Pavel Padrnos - USPS - @ :27 8 - Floyd Landis - USPS - @ :33 9 - Joseba Beloki - ONCE - @ :33 10 - Jorge Jaksche - ONCE - @ :38 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 5 - Troyes - Nevers - 196 km A rolling stage with three sprint points, the finish heads downhill to what could be a sprint finish. The riders will certainly be a bit tired after the TTT efforts, and if the right combination gets off the front, it may be simpler to let the breakaway stay away. Besides, the big guns are beginning to think about the serious climbing, which begins this year on stage 7 as the Tour heads into the Alps. -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Thu Jul 10 16:51:43 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 08:51:43 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 5 - Sprint-fest Message-ID: <3F0D8B8F.7080206@cyclofiend.com> Stage 5 - Troyes - Nevers - 196 km Victor Hugo Pena wears the yellow jersey on his 29th birthday. A beautiful and stunningly warm day as the stage continues to move inexorably toward the mountains. After a stunningly strong and smooth team time trial, the US Postal Service have executed the second step of their march to the finish. ONCE seems a bit stunned by the result, but they may have been paying more attention to the history of the TTT than yesterday's task at hand. On the roadway, aching Tyler Hamilton from CSC rolls along in tow of the doctor's vehicle. He seems to be suffering a bit more today, and the hard effort in the different position of the time trial bike couldn't have assisted. A break continues slicing through the 85 degree heat a bit more than 2 minutes ahead of the bunch. The importance of the team time trial cannot be overstated in this year's tour - with the lack of mountaintop finishes, the time gaps will be harder to come by. Saeco's effort has put Simoni more than 3 minutes back before any of the serious climbs, while Telekom's time moved Santiago Botero adrift by 1:30. As mentioned before, Team Bianchi's Jan Ullrich sits 38 seconds back, while ONCE's Joseba Beloki has only lost 30 seconds. Breakaway member Laszlo Bodogri from QuickStep-Davitamon snagged the sprint points at the first spot but continues to work well with CSC's Nicholas Jalabert, Credit Agricole's Jens Voigt, Jean Delatour's Frederic Fino who has managed to place himself into his second serious break of this year's race, and Ag2R's Ludovic Turpin. They edge up to a gap at 2:15. 14 riders had edged away early in the race, and these five escaped just as the peleton moved to capture them. They are edging up a bit, FDJuex.com has been raising the pace soas not to lose the spotted climbers jersey, and bring things under 2 minutes. They are on the climbing a slight rise which have a slight amount of climbers' points on it. Bodrogi begins to dose his efforts as they move toward the second sprint point at Baily - He does so with little fanfare. The peleton rolls through 1:40 behind. ---------------------- Daily Trivia Question: What two riders won both the Leader's yellow jersey and the green Points jersey in the same year? ---------------------- FDJeux.com continue to work with Fassa Bortolo and the odd Rabobank rider. They have lost out on the Climber's points on the day, as Finot moved through at the top of the rise to snag the 5 points (and take over the jersey from their man Christophe Mengin), but feel as though the finish favors their fast man Baden Cooke. With 58 km to go, they maintain the gap of 1:40 to the break. With about 40 km to go, the slow-cooking breakaway has lost about a minute of their lead. The peleton eases slightly, secure in the knowledge that they can grasp them at will. The slightly widening group let the bunch back out to 53 seconds as Fassa Bortolo seems to have lost most of their help. Another kilometer gets them back out to over a minute. Finot whisks past the devel as the catch occurs - They pull the riders Jens Voigt slides back into the fold while Finot hopes that everyone has forgotten about him. Not bloody likely. Particularly when surrounded by a couple dozen press motorcycles. Nevertheless, a French rider on a French team who will pull on the spotted jersey at the end of the day - 20 km to go. Of course, if you have watched any racing, you know that the catch of a breakaway will be followed by a counterattack. A quick move and muscle contraction brings about that event - but the members are a bit surprising - none other than Italian National Champion and UCI Points Leader Paolo Bettini of QuickStep-Davitamon and the ever-dangerous Alexandre Vinokourov of Telekom. Sebastien Hinault tacks himself onto their tires and the gap quickly grows out to 16 seconds. However, the quality of these riders gets US Postal's attention, and they assist to raise the pace and begin cutting down the gap. Other teams take over and Axel Merkcx hammers the pedals to get Lotto teammate Robbie McEwen into sprint position. The course continues undulating and Bettini continues to hammer as they have about 11 km to go. A quick catch of the trio occurs suddenly at the top of a rise, followed by attack from Jerome Pineau from Brioches La Boulangerie - he screams under the 10 km to go banner dangling 8 or 9 seconds ahead - thankfully under the shade of some trees as the temperature continues to hover in the high 80's. The sprinters' teams make some mental calculations and begin to assemble themselves. 6.5 km to go, Pineau with a 12 second lead. FDJeux.com push tehmselves along at the front, while Credit Agricole and Vini-Caldorola muscle themselves up in their immediate slipstream. It's a relatively straight finish, though a sweeping turn sits to suprise the unwary at about 750 meters. FDJeux.com melt the gap and make the catch as they begin to head down a bit of a rise Fassa Bortolo push past them, then Ag2R takes up the efforts to ensure the appearance of their Estonian sprinter, Jan Kirsipuu. Under 2 km to go. Fassa Bortolians take up the charge. Behind their efforts, Stuart O'Grady and Erik Zabel are marking one another closely and maintaining their postitions. - Crash at the back - The cameras find a disoriented ONCE rider sitting on the roadside. It looks like the ONCE sprinter Angel Vicioso touched wheels and was frisbeed onto the sidelines. Although he doesn't seem to particularly want help yet, he is brough upright by a Gendarme and the very plump french woman who was kind enough to fetch his lost water bottle. The howling hounds of Sprinterville approach the last km - Lotto asserts their dominance and Mcewen shows himself briefly in their wake. They roar safely around the left hand turn and set sights on the finish line. As they straighten, FJJeux.com's Bradley McGee moves to the front, leading out Baden Cooke. Behind him sits Stuart O'Grady followed by Zabel. Petacchi and McEwen are both further back. McGee's pursuit background lets him set an extremely fast pace, and it appears as though the others will be caught out. Mcgee punishes himself to keep the pace high for his sprint man Baden Cooke. Cooke senses that McGee has cooked himself out and begins to accellerate. Mcewen seems to be boxed slightly behind the shuffling bunch. Suddenly, they are all passed by a supersonic Alessandro Petacchi! Moving out and around to the left, he flies past riders as though they are running on airless tires. He gains an open gap on everyone and crosses the finish arms aloft to signal "3" at the cameras - Petacchi wins his third stage of this year's Tour. Kirsipuu follows him across the line, while 4 or 5 riders fan out to challenge for third place - it looks like a well-timed bike throw from Zabel just nips McEwen at the line. What an incredible turn of speed for this supremely talented Italian spinter! Replays show him in 6th or 7th position in the single file line until the last 200 yards, when he just stomps it to rocket past everyone for the victory. Exceptional effort and tremendous speed. On the other end of the spectrum, a battered Angel Vicioso rolls in about 2:50 down, holding his left arm close to his body, happy to finish. Stage 5 - Results 1 - Alessandro Petachhi - Fassa Bortolo - 4:09:47 2 - Jan Kirsipuu - Ag2R-Prevoyance 3 - Baden Cooke - FDJeux.com 4 - Erik Zabel - Team Telekom 5 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto 6 - Luca Paolini - QuickStep-Davitamon 7 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole 8 - Stuart O'Grady - Credit Agricole 9 - Fred Rodriguez - Vini Caldirola 10 - Jean Patrick Nazon - Jean Delatour All riders s.t. Overall Standings - no changes M.J. - Victor Hugo Pena - USPS - 13:44:44 2 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - @ :01 3 - Vlatchislav Ekimov - USPS - @ :05 4 - George Hincapie - USPS - @ :05 5 - Jose Rubiera - USPS - @ :23 6 - Roberto Heras - USPS - @ :27 7 - Pavel Padrnos - USPS - @ :27 8 - Floyd Landis - USPS - @ :33 9 - Joseba Beloki - ONCE - @ :33 10 - Jorge Jaksche - ONCE - @ :38 Tomorrow's Stage - Nevers - Lyon - 230 km The longest stage so far will begin to see who has some cracks in the armor. After the third of three sprint points on the flatter part of the course, the roadway kicks upwards on the first Category 3 climb on this year's course. A long descent should bring things back together, but another sharp climb looms just outside the finishing town of Lyon - while the actual finish is flat, the topography could favor a well-timed breakaway. -------------- Trivia Answer: Eddy Merkcx 1969 (and won the Climber's jersey), 1971 & 1972 and Bernard Hinault who won in 1979. -------------- -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Fri Jul 11 17:13:39 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 09:13:39 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 6 - Breakaway Again Message-ID: <3F0EE233.70407@cyclofiend.com> Stage 6 - Nevers to Lyon - 230 Today will be one of the longest stages of the race. Correcting my forcast of yesterday, the final climb today will actually be a Category 4 climb rather than a cat3 - a bit shorter but still pretty steep looking on the profile. Someone has definitely been messing with the termostat again, and it is another screamer of a cloudless, sunny and hot day with temperatures up to 88 degrees. The humidity has lessened a bit, down to 27%. For those of us in California, this means nothing as we don't really understand what humidity is. The "reflected" heat at road level will aprroach 120 degrees - hope those mechanics glued those tires on well. Report is that Tyler Hamilton is feeling a bit beter today. Although he spent a bit of time in the tow of the race doctor yesterday, the bone continues to heal as he gamely assists the efforts of teammate Carlos Sastre. A two man breakaway has been extending a lead over the bunch since the 30 km mark, with Credit Agricole's Stuart O'Grady leading Brioches la Boulangerie's Anthony Geslin over the first sprint point, an act which he repeats at the second sprint point as well. That gives O'Grady a bit of sprint and time bonuses. Fassa Bortolo's Alessandro Petacchi roared out took third at the 1st sprint point, putting him one point in front of Robbie McEwen in the battle for the green Points jersey. The break had moved out to a 18 minute gap, but the bunch have now clawed it back to 12 with 84 km to go. Ogrady rolls through the third sprint point in the lead, but way back behind him, Lotto's McEwen wisely pips out to take the third points at the last sprint point today, putting him back into the green jersey, which is good, because he's already got it on his shoulders. Road begins to edge up, and the lead begins to drop a bit, now down to 11:47 with 77 km to go. Euskatel-Euskadi's Iban Mayo, who caused some headaches to Lance at the Dauphine Libere, drifts back to the team cars with a couple of teammates. They've been having more than their share of flats, but this time, he sidles up to the rear door of the car and has the mechanic working on the tension of his pedals. He probably could have found a worse stretch of road to have this done, as the twisting tarmac have him first almost under the wheels of the his car and then getting squished between his car and a passing team car. Somehow they manage the first pedal, then he switches over to the other side - maybe he's hoping to get pushed over the edge ofthe roadway. The lead pair sit 10:15 ahead as O'Grady lets Geslin take the climbing points. They take on water and roll the big ring as they begin downhill. In the peleton, Christophe Mengin zips out and around on the final run in to the points. FDJeux.com teammate Sandy Casar follows a Boulangerie rider in the immediate chase - the man who has the KoM jersey - Jean Delatour's Frederic Finot - cracking slightly when push came to shove and will gain no points. He will lose the polka-dot climber's jersey over to Mengin at the end of the day unless something happens on the day's final climb. FDJeux.com's other story, Jimmy Casper, got rid of his neck brace in time for the Team Time Trial, but continues to roll stiffly along, hovering near the back of the group and just looking fairly miserable as he hopes for recovery or at least a good chiropractor. The gap falls down to 9 minutes at the crest of the climb, but it edges back up by 10 or 15 seconds as the bulk of the riders descend. In a bit of a trivia tidbit, Alessandro Petcchi has indicated that he will attend the Veulta Espana in September, and thus could be the third rider to win stages in the three major tours in a single year. Carlos Sastre gets paced back through the team cars by a couple of CSC teammates - looking smart on their semi-compact Cervelo framesets. Manuel Beltran from USPS find himself on the side of the roadway with a rear flat. Team manager Johan Bruynel is the person who pushes him back up to a proper momentum. Gap: 7:20/40 km to go The last climb gives Stuart O'Grady the idea of putting in a couple of surges to test the young Frenchman who has been his breakaway partner. Still around 4 minutes ahead with just over 20 km to go. Geslin holds on gamely, wise enough to pace his efforts. O'Grady attacks twice more as the gap edges down to 3:40. Geslin reattaches both times and then nips over the crest to take the climbing points, but he looks a bit wobbly after the effort. At the head of events, Fassa Bortolo has decided that they don't like the odds of a decent gap combined with a descending final 20 kilometers and begin cranking up the efforts on the final climb. Riders begin dribbling out the back of the bunch as the torrid pace of the past few days catches up with them. Jean Delatour's Frederic Finot is among the riders who cannot maintain contact. As they roll over the crest, Fassa Bortolo turns over the pacemaking to a combine of sprinter's teams, and nearly every team who has a thick-legged fearless man pushes things up to the front. After opting out for a bit Geslin begins helping O'Grady again as the gap sits at 2:20 with 15 km to go - should I jinx their lead by saying they have a chance? A ten-speed riding fan tries to match speed with the riders from a parrallel roadway. He can hold on for a hundred meters or so - and these two guys have been hold this kind of pace for nearly 4 hours. Back at the snarling peleton Lotto dip into the rotation with a Telekom rider - none other than Guiseppe Guerini, who's claim to fame is being the rider who got knocked off his bicycle by a camera-wielding fan a few years back as he rode to victory on L'Alp d'Huez. Into the increasingly complex roads on the outskirts of town, the lead at 10 km to go is 1:30 and everyone is urged along by a massive crowd who stand deep along the roadeside. Gap: 1:26 at 9 km The leading pair negotiate sudden traffic dividers and twisting turns - one of which Geslin almost misjudges as he leads the way. Behind them, Andy Flickinger continues hammering the pace. Gap: 1:22 with maybe 7 km from the line. As the peleton arc around a tight right there is a crash in the field - Lotto's Robbie McEwen and Telekom's Erik Zabel are among those tangled up as a rider inside and in front of them slides out. McEwen is up and away fairly quickly, though he is far from in touch with the leaders. Zabel extricates himself and regains his bike, but it has not fared well and he must await the team car. He will only be idling in today. The riders fly along the banks of the Rouen river in the town of Lyon. Gap: 1:09 with 5 km to go - but they no longer have the assistance of Telekom and Lotto who have throttled down with no one to take to the finish. Now it falls to Rabobank, who have managed to stretch things out, trading with Ag2R riders. Gap: 45 seconds at 5 km Now the race directors cars pull forward - getting themselves out of a gap that has been in place for more than 200 km. Nevertheless, there is a slight slowing and disorganization - as the group rolls under the 5 km a FB rider has pipped off all by himself, but it seems less by design than confusion. Today's final straight is 2.1 km of dead straight wide roadd. Crikey. Nowhere to hide as this stage winds down. Vini Caldirola riders mass at the front of the bunch and take up the reigns. Behind the, the clever old pros are weighing their chances, and the Italian-flag-wearing Paolo Bettini shows his face first on one and then the other side of the pacemakers - he does, afterall have the nickname "El Grillo" (the cricket). Ullrich slots into Bettini's pocket as everyone begins to sense blood in the water. Gap: 3 km to go with a 25 second lead - about 600 meters separate the breakaway pair of O'Grady and Geslin from the thundering herd. - Another CRASH in the field - the final left hand bend causes two riders to slide out and go down - doesn't seem bad and no contenders are involved - but clearly the efforts of regaining this breakaway have taken its toll. The breakaway pair hammer under the 2 km banner - nothing other than pain in front and nowhere to hide from their pursuers. Gap: 12 seconds - 120 meters ahead of the bunch, closing fast Brad McGee peels off after a massive pull in front of the peleton. The peloton now must be able to feel the spray of their sweat as it drifts back on the wind. A shuffling occurs as riders refuse to be caught out - splitting into two points on the roadway. There's actually a slight moment of dinking around as they try to find teammates and figure out the sprint. Gap: Under 1 km with 5 seconds lead. They need a miracle to stay away. Bettini now takes up the lead on the left hand side of the roadway, while true hardman O'Grady tries to raise the pace, switches over from the right and attempts to make a go of it. The legs say "no" and another Credit Agricole rider, the massive Thor Hushovd, chugs up the barriers on the inside. The two FDJeux.com riders who thought they'd timed things right bobble the leadout and split around Hushovd, losing organization and momentum... But here comes Petacchi! He screams up the barriers inside of Hushovd, pops away while jumping hard to the right and gains immediate and considerable daylight - he simply rides everyone off his wheel, having time to stop pedaling and take an almost lazy look behind him - win number 4 for Petacchi! A phenomenal example of supreme speed! Stage 6 Results - 1 - Alessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo - 5:08:35 2 - Baden Cooke - FDJeux.com 3 - Fabrizio Guidi - Bianchi 4 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole 5 - Marco Milesi - Vini Caldirola 6 - Damien Nazon - La Boulangere 7 - Sebastian Hinault - Credit Agricole 8 - Gerrit Glomser - Saeco 9 - Yuriy Krivtsov - Jean Delatour 10 - Luca Paolini - Quick Step All riders - s.t. Jersey Results - Petacchi gains the green Points jersey with his 4th vitory and the points gained out on the course. O'Grady's efforts move him up to 8th. Of course, in order to win the jersey, you have to finish the race - and some of the big men will crumble before the massive climbs of the Alps and Pyrenees are done. 1 - Petacchi - 144 pts 2 - Baden Cooke - 118 3 - Robbie McEwen - 110 4 - Hushovd - 100 5 - Zabel - 98 6 - JP Nazon - 88 7 - Lazlo Paolini - 87 8 - O'Grady - 85 9 - Jan Kirsipuu - 84 10 - Oscar Freire - 83 KoM - Christophe Mengin regains the polka-dot jersey, but the real climbs await. White Jersey - Vladimir Karpets of Ag2R, who may be trying to take over the "best Mullet" jersey as well. Tomorrow's Stage: Stage 7 - Lyon - Morzine - 230.5 km Put on the 27 tooth cog and get ready to climb. Though everyone seems aware that Sunday's stage will finish at L'Alpe d'Huez, the transitions and shifting to serious climbing is always difficult. More significantly, this stage includes 4 climbs which have never been included in the Tour. Lance Armstrong has openly identified the 1600-plus-meter Category 1 Col de Ramaz (14.3 km at average 6.9 percent) as a difficult climb he is concerned with - it crests only 21 km from the finish, with a sudden drop and another climb (Cote des Gets - 4.2 km at 4.6 percent - Category 3) and descent before the finish. Cracks will begin to show, and strong men will cry out in pain before the bunch reach the finish. -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Sat Jul 12 17:47:15 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 09:47:15 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 7 - Hitting the Bigger Hills Message-ID: <3F103B93.7020109@cyclofiend.com> Stage 7 - Lyon - Morzine - 230 km ------------- Rider updates: I neglected to mention that ONCE's sprinter Angel Vicioso did not start yesterday's stage, suffering a broken bone in his elbow as a result of his crash. During the race, Alessio's Fabio Baldato abandoned at the feed zone. He had been involved in a few crashes so far. Multiple stage winner Alessandro Petacchi seemed more surprised than anyone that he won yesterday - he had gone so far as to tell his team that he would not contest the sprint - complaining of knackered legs after the climbs. Taking a page out of Mario Cipolini's handbook, he's claiming to not be sure whether he'll take on the Alps, or elect to head homeward. He also went on to say that he had done virtually not training since the Giro. Given the speeds he has been attaining, I have a little trouble taking that comment at face value. --------------- Stage Features: There are two sprint points on today's stage, one at the base of the Category 2 Mont des Princes climb and the other at the base of the thumper - the Category 1 Col de la Ramaz. Col de la Ramaz - 1619 meters (5311 feet) - 14 kms of climbing at almost 7 percent average. This is an "unknown" climb, having not featured in any stage of the Tour. Lance has opening said that some people will find it "surprising". The temperature continues to soar today in the valleys - mid 80's with about 38% humidity. ----------------- We begin the racing today with a recap of wreckage so far: Kelme has started the day with fairly bad luck, with Antonio Talleur of touching someone's wheel the wrong way and tumbling down onto the hot and dusty roadside - although he has regained a new bike, he looks a bit stunned - not a good way to start a hot, hard and long stage. Teammate Jesus Manzano passed out due to heat stroke, and at first the doctors weren't sure if he was unconcious due to injuries suffered in the resulting crash. He was taken to the hospital and has withdrawn. Suprisingly, Alessandro Petacchi picked a slightly shady spot on the first incline packs it in on the Cole de Porte. That should shift the green Points jersey over to the shoulders of Baden Cooke of FDJuex.com Other big men have turned it in as well, Estonian sprinter Jan Kirsipuu of Ag2R & Olaf Pollack of Gerolsteiner bring the rider count down to 190 of the starting 198. At the first major climb of the day, a breakaway had managed to get clear - containing some resonably recognizable names - Richard Virenque - QuickStep Paolo Bettini - QuickStep Rolf Aldag - Telekom Benoit Poilvet - Credit Agricole and at 115 km - their gap is up to 7:09 Cote du mont Des Princes - Virenque takes the KoM points, with teammate Bettini following in second. Bettini had been in the break with Aldag and Poilvet when Virenque escaped the peleton and bridged. Bettini held back until his teammate could join up. A Cofidis rider, Mederic Clain, had been with them, but fell off the pace and is slowly drifting back towards the bunch. At the head of events behind these four and one, we find the US Postal Service - with Floyd Landis being the only member who has not unzipped his jersey in the frantic heat of the day. On the flats now, the peleton continues to string out as the continue to drive the pace. But, they aren't even limiting their losses, and the breakaway edges out to 8:10 with 98.9 km to go. How often do you see the wearer of the Yellow Jersey drifting back to the team cars, collecting bottles. They've caught a little guff in the French press for this, but as usual, don't seem to really appreciate the complete situation. Even Victor Hugo Pena knew the jersey was on loan, and his job remains the same. Luis Perez of Cofidis closes up his shop and peels away his numbers - succumbing to the heat - this leaves 15 of the 22 teams remain intact. Up front the gang of four work their way up a very bare climb - the heat of the open roads never lessening. Virenque punches out a strong clilmbing tempo getting help only from Bettini. Nowhere to hide from the sun on this open stretch - the UCI may require them to wear helmets, but the riders have unbuckled the straps as they climb. Virenque leads over the Cote de Cruseilles to strengthen his hold on the KoM jersey - Bettini again takes the second points. At the side of the roadway, some twisted french farmer has dressed his cows in the jerseys of the leaders, and the yellow jersey cow seeems to have a slight bit of unease at the proximity of the KoM spotted jersey cow. The green jersey cow appears content. The peleton seems to have pulled back a few seconds as they work their way up the climb. They spread out a bit as the roads widen, with a couple of the Alessio riders working up next to the Postal riders. Euskatel-Euskadi and Kelme begin to make themselves evident as well. The gap hovers at 7:55 with about 80 km to go - 50 km until the day's big climb on Col de Ramaz. My question this morning is, "why do they always show folks shifting gears on auto commercials, when they are driving automatics?" 7:40 a couple of km later, led by the fully-zipped-up Landis and Vlatchislav Ekimov, who mimics his clothing style. Pena and Rubiera from USPS roam at the end of the bunch, each laden with about 8 or 9 bottles. With the temps hitting the 90's today, you wonder how the riders can drink enough to stay ahead. =========================== A Trivia Question: What five riders have won both the overall title and the king of the mountains in the same year? =========================== Michael Rich of Gerolsteiner has joined those who have abandoned today. Saeco is "protesting" today's stage by wearing black and white jerseys rather than the regular red kits, more than likely incurring a fine from the race organizers - What are they protesting? Well, in a decided marketing coup, they are venting their displeasure that their prototype Cannondales are under the UCI mandated lower weight limit. The carbon bike with aluminum lugs seems to need cables to hold it to the ground - it is said that their jerseys loudly proclaim "Legalize my Cannondale", but so far, the French television cameras will not dignify it by showing them. Well, it seems that train engineers has not taken this month off. The peleton had to spend about a minute behind a closed level crossing to watch the train roll past. This pushes the gap out another minute to about 8:51. Virenque may benefit from that extra gift to his time gap. It may be just what he needs to hold out to the finish. 8:18 with 37.5 km to go - the lead gang of four has just begun to hit the lower slopes of the climb. They still need to hit the final sprint point of the day before the road pitches up in earnest. Paolo Bettini snags the 6 second time bonus, which could put him into the yellow jersey if they can stay away from the bunch and finish together. They begin the climb in earnest, now out of the saddle and into the small chainring. Virenque notches back onto his saddle and trades pacemaking with Bettini. Eight or so minutes behind, the peleton seems to mass a little, probably distributing waterbottles and taking a last look at rivals and teammates before the climb begins in earnest. Virenque and Bettini have accelerated away from their breakaway compatriots, the break has come down to 7:10 as the peleton runs under the sprint banner. Victor Hugo Pena hammers on the front of the peleton, wearing the yellow jersey, already chopping off a quarter of the peleton, who assemble in the "autobus" or "grupetto" to work together to limit their time losses. Up front, Aldag rolls back up to the lead pair as he recovers from the initial attack of Bettini and Virenque. Virenque does a spit-take as the Telekom rider reattaches. A few minutes later, Bettini suddenly detaches from the Virenque and Aldag - race radio says he's complaining of hunger knock - whatever the cause, he looks to be pedaling downhill... Aldag makes a hard move to move away from Virenque! He gains a solid 20 meter lead while Virenque digs very deep to reattach. He does so and slots back into the lead of the stage. Pena has finished his pacemaking and is now just managing to stick onto a group which has fallen back a bit. He will be hard pressed to hang onto the yellow jersey at the end of this day. Up front George Hincapie has taken over the pacemaking, with at least 3 other teammates ferrying Lance Armstrong up this part of the clmb. Ullrich sits about 5 or 6 riders behind him, matching the strong tempo. 5:30 gap as the Devil runs alongside Virenque and Aldag - hooting and gesticulating towards fellow countryman Aldag. This is not to say all Germans are devils, rather that the Devil is a German. His trident has a gold "100" on the top. Art. Ullrich has slotted up into Armstrong's hip pocket, right next to Roberto Heras. Both men ride with impassive expression. Telekom's Alexandre Vinokourov hurls himself up and away, jumping out to a quick gap. Up front, Aldag has hit the wall. Virenque senses this and rips away again. He has just under 5 km to the summit as Aldag wobbles a bit. Gilberto Simoni appears on camera for the first time today as he slips backwards from the Armstrong group, or possibly even a group behind that. He has what looks like a crusty white caterpiller of sweat and icky stuff on his lower lip and does not look well at all. Another stated challenger, Telekom's Sanatiago Botero labors badly as the hill begins to bite and riders move past him. Vinokourov now has only about 30 meters of lead, and has started pedaling squares. Up at the front, Virenque zips up his jersey as the climb flattens slightly and the temperatures drop in the altitude of 4-5,000 feet. Bettini has drifted back to the leading chase group of 40 or so riders, which includes a strong looking Jan Ullrich and the remarkable Tyler Hamilton. Also in the bunch: David Millar of Cofidis, Iban Mayo of Euskatel-Euskadi, Joseba Beloki of ONCE and Stefano Garzelli sits quietly in the mix as well. Armstrong throws a little twitch as he sits in behind three teammates, but seems content to sit in and make the others atack him. Bettini drifts out the back, looking for more food and some respite from his obvious pain. As Virenque rolls toward the top of the climb, still passing thousands of spectators - all of whom seem to have found KoM polka-dot climbing jersey styled T-shirts. He hits the crest of the climb with the roar of all France in his ears and calls upon all of his descending skills to hold onto his roughly 4 minute lead in anticipation of the short climb which remains.. Aldag lost about a minute and a half on the climb, cresting alone in second place. 3:20 to the third rider - Credit Agricole's Poilvet, who now feels the breath of the peleton behind him. 3:50 to the Armstrong group, still led by three USPS teammates with Armstrong sitting in behind. Hurtling down the descent, Virenque uses every inch of the roadway as he screams through a series of 180 degree switchbacks. He drops quickly, and seems to have bottomed out on the descent, begining the shorter Cat3 climb of Cole des Gets. At this point, he's staying on the big ring and continuing to knock out a good cadence. The 33 rider strong Armstrong group has eased up a bit, and the gap increases to 4:30. Garzelli still sits quietly in the bunch, along with most of the serious competitors. The only rider we can't seem to find right now is Simoni. Shell-shocked riders are continuing to crest the climb of the Col de Ramaz, focused only upon finishing within the time limit, which should be about 16% of the finishing time of the winner. Back up front, the French crowds urge him onward to the crest of the final climb. They sense victory for this most favored of homeboy riders, and if the gap doesn't get closed down, he will take over the yellow jersey. It won't come entirely without pain, of course, as he wrinkles his face and hammers out the biggest gear he can find. Behind, some animation occurs at the crest of the Cotes des Gets, with iBanesto.com's Francisco Mancebo trying to get a gap or at least a few seconds time bonus. Armstrong immediately latches onto his rear wheel and follows without perceptible effort. Virenque has less than 2 and a half km to the finish, and just squeezes everything out of his legs to get up the final climb to the finish. But no one will catch him today, as he crosses the finish sitting upright and giving his signature one-arm-up salute. Sylva Chavanel from Boulangerie skips away trying to grasp some glory - it seems as though the peleton has caught Poilvet, so he is streaking away for a potential third on the stage. Rolf Aldag finishes 2:33 behind, enjoying the results of his massive effort. Chavanel cruises around the final cuve to finish 3:45 behind the leader. Michael Rodgers comes out of nowhere to nip fourth with a bit of a gap over the bunch. This young rider has had an incredible day to stick with this group of powerful riders. He's certainly benefitted from his anonymity in the group. Three seconds behind, Garzelli leads the charge for the group which contains all the serious contenders and Armstrong - the only missing person still seems to be Simoni. As they post the provisional results, he doesn't seem to have finished closer than 7:30 or so behind Virenque, which adds at least another 3 and a half minutes to his deficent behind Armstrong. All told, this seems to have played well to the USPS - no rider of overall importance seems to have gotten away, setting up what will be a mano-a-mano showdown tomorrow on L'Alp d'Huez. Which of course, will not be shown live - since it's Sunday or some such blather... Stage 7 Results - 1 - Richard Virenque - QuickStep - 6:06:03 2 - Rolf Aldag - Telekom - @ 2:29 3 - Sylvan Chavanel - Brioches la Boulangerie - @ 3:45 4 - Michael Rogers - QuickStep - @ 4:03 5 - Stefano Garzelli - Vini Caldirola @ 4:06 6 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - s.t. 7 - Laurent Dufaux - Alessio - s.t. 8 - David Millar - Cofidis - s.t. 9 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner - s.t. 10 - Alexandre Vinokourov - Telekom - s.t. General Classification - Malliot Juane - Richard Virenque - 29:10:39 2 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - @ 2:37 3 - Rolf Aldag - @ 2:48 4 - Jose Luis Rubiera - USPS - @ 2:59 5 - Roberto Heras - USPS - @ 3:03 6 - Joseba Beloki - ONCE - @ 3:09 7 - Jorg Jaksche - ONCE - @ 3:14 8 - Manuel Beltran - USPS - @ 3:15 9 - Jan Ullrich - Bianchi - @ 3:15 10 - Jose Azevedo - ONCE - @ 3:37 Jersey Results - KoM (Polka Dot) - Richard Virenque Points (Green) - Baden Cooke (not yet official) Young Rider (White) - Michael Rogers (not yet official) Tomorrow's Stage - Sallanches - L'Alpe d'Huez - 219 km Starting right off with the Cote du Megeve (Cat3 - 9.9 km @ 5.1%), hitting the Col du Telegraph (Cat2 - 12.1 km @6.8%)at 125 km, enjoying viturally no descent before attacking the beastly Col du Galibier (HC - 18.5% @ 6.7%) and finally reaching L'Alpe d'Huez (HC - 14.1 km @ 8%). Everyone expects the obvious tomorrow. Lance. Attacking. Be there. =========================== Trivia Answer: Eddy Merckx (three times)1969, 1971, 1972 Fredrico Bahamontes - 1959 Fausto Coppi - 1949, 1952 Gino Bartali - 1938, 1948 Sylvere Maes - 1939 ============================ -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Sat Jul 12 21:49:40 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (tour-junkie) Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 13:49:40 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Updates on Jersey Standings/Some Time Gaps Message-ID: Hot off the Wires - Here's the Updated Jersey Standings, some of which I'd erroneously reported earlier: Climbers - Polka Dot (Top 10 riders) 1 119 VIRENQUE Richard FRA QSD 78 pts 2 023 ALDAG Rolf GER TEL 61 pts 3 128 POILVET Benoit FRA C.A 51 pts 4 111 BETTINI Paolo ITA QSD 47 pts 5 037 MERCADO Juan Miguel ESP BAN 23 pts 6 182 BENETEAU Walter FRA BLB 21 pts 7 097 MENGIN Christophe FRA FDJ 20 pts 8 062 CLAIN M=E9d=E9ric FRA COF 19 pts 9 215 FINOT Fr=E9d=E9ric FRA DEL 18 pts 10 184 GESLIN Anthony FRA BLB 15 p Points - Green Jersey (Top 10 riders) 1 093 COOKE Baden AUS FDJ 118 pts 2 141 MC EWEN Robbie AUS LOT 110 pts 3 125 HUSHOVD Thor NOR C.A 100 pts 4 029 ZABEL Erik GER TEL 98 pts 5 127 O'GRADY Stuart AUS C.A 91 pts 6 219 NAZON Jean-Patrick FRA DEL 88 pts 7 116 PAOLINI Luca ITA QSD 87 pts 8 044 FREIRE Oscar ESP RAB 83 pts 9 168 VAINSTEINS Romans LAT CAL 81 pts 10 111 BETTINI Paolo ITA QSD 55 pts Best Young Rider - White Jersey (Top 5 riders) 1 036 MENCHOV Denis RUS BAN in 29h 14' 34" 2 038 PETROV Evgeni RUS BAN at 00' 02" 3 117 ROGERS Michael AUS QSD at 00' 08" 4 152 ASTARLOZA Mikel ESP A2R at 00' 25" 5 183 CHAVANEL Sylvain FRA BLB at 01' 08" Team Standings (Complete Listing) 1 QUICK STEP - DAVITAMON QSD in 85h 00' 33" 2 US POSTAL - BERRY FLOOR USP at 02' 24" 3 ONCE - EROSKI ONE at 03' 13" 4 TEAM BIANCHI TBI at 03' 15" 5 IBANESTO.COM BAN at 03' 59" 6 TEAM CSC CSC at 04' 31" 7 COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE COF at 04' 52" 8 EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI EUS at 06' 04" 9 BRIOCHES LA BOULANGERE BLB at 07' 14" 10 TEAM TELEKOM TEL at 07' 23" 11 AG2R PREVOYANCE A2R at 08' 53" 12 FASSA BORTOLO FAS at 09' 41" 13 ALESSIO ALS at 10' 06" 14 KELME - COSTA BLANCA KEL at 11' 10" 15 GEROLSTEINER GST at 16' 39" 16 JEAN DELATOUR DEL at 17' 30" 17 RABOBANK RAB at 17' 31" 18 CALDIROLA - SO.DI CAL at 19' 38" 19 FDJEUX.COM FDJ at 19' 54" 20 CREDIT AGRICOLE C.A at 25' 29" 21 SAECO - MACCHINE PER CAFFE SAE at 29' 13" 22 LOTTO - DOMO LOT at 38' 41" ...and some of the pertinant GC folks who weren't on the initial reports: (some of whom may begin to figure prominently in the next week or so...remember, Lance Armstrong is at 2:37 in the GC) =20 My pick for this year's "Best Young Rider": 15 117 ROGERS Michael AUS QSD at 04' 03" Sufferin hard-man: 20 071 HAMILTON Tyler USA CSC at 04' 21" Potential Animators: 21 028 VINOKOUROV Alexandre KAZ TEL at 04' 25" 23 061 MILLAR David GBR COF at 04' 36" 24 121 MOREAU Christophe FRA C.A at 04' 39" 25 161 GARZELLI Stefano ITA CAL at 04' 39" 26 078 SASTRE Carlos ESP CSC at 04' 44" Two strong riders who are anxiously awaiting the climbs 29 198 TOTSCHNIG Georg AUT GST at 04' 53" 30 081 BASSO Ivan ITA FAS at 04' 54" 40 171 MAYO Iban ESP EUS at 06' 11" 68 021 BOTERO Santiago COL TEL at 10' 24" "...I will crush Armstrong in the Mountains..." Hmmmmmmmm: 74 051 SIMONI Gilberto ITA SAE at 12' 00" The workhorses of the USPS: 76 005 HINCAPIE George USA USP at 13' 07" 103 008 PENA Victor Hugo COL USP at 23' 26" 104 004 EKIMOV Vjatceslav RUS USP at 23' 31" 110 007 PADRNOS Pavel CZE USP at 23' 53" 111 006 LANDIS Floyd USA USP at 23' 54" Nor-Cal boy: 119 167 RODRIGUEZ Fred USA CAL at 25' 17" ... another sufferin' fellow: 180 054 DI LUCA Danilo ITA SAE at 45' 01" ... Because someone has to be last: 187 092 CASPER Jimmy FRA FDJ at 1h 10' 34" From race-report@cyclofiend.com Mon Jul 14 06:33:22 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 22:33:22 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 8 - Nowhere to Hide Message-ID: <3F1240A2.7060401@cyclofiend.com> Stage 8 - Sallances - L'Alpe d'Huez - 219 km If it were just L'Alpe d'Huez, this stage would be a punisher - long, hot roads which lead to the dramatic finishing location on one of classic Tour climbs. But, before the riders even get to the 21 switchbacks of history and legend, they cross 4 categorized climbs - beginning with a couple of category 3 climbs in the first 30 kilometers, then followed by the one-two punch of the Col du Telegraphe (Category 2 - 1566 meters - 12.1 km of climbing at an average of 6.8%), and then with barely enough time to exhale, the monsterous Col du Galibier (Hors Categorie - 2645 meters - 18.5 km of climbing at a 6.7% average). So, who will have the horsepower today? This early stage in serious mountains will further distill those who can handle the efforts to the fellow-travelers. Certainly, the US Postal Service rode a wise race yesterday - there was no question that if Lance had attacked over the top of the Col de Ramaz, there was a strong possibility that a suicide descent could bring him back before the finish. Two riders of note made semi-serious moves yesterday. The first attack came from Alexandre Vinokourov of Telekom, but the climbers of the USPS simply increased pressure and slowly let him cook, reeling him steadily back without apparant damage to themselves. The second jump came from iBanesto.com's Francisco Mancebo, who made a bit of a cheeky move on the last climb of the day. Regardless of whether Mancebo just wanted some cheap mountain points or had visions of escape, Lance immediately accellerated from a few riders back to match his speed. Some rumours abound that he will not attack today - certainly, it is very early in a very long race, and it might make things easier to not have to defend the yellow jersey for the upcoming two weeks - not to mention the need to be very focused with his exertions. If Lance waits until stage 12 and the first time trial before truly dominating, he have two Pyrenean climbs on the next stage which finish the stage at Ax-Domaines in stage 13, and the multiple category 1 climbs of stage 14 finishing with a descent into Loudenvielle, and stage 15 ending at the hors categorie climb to Luz Ardiden. However, there are a lot of climbers who have focused on attacking him in those mountains. No longer challenging him are a few more riders - Not rolling away from the start today at Sallanches is Fassa Bortolo's Aitor Gonzalez, who has shown no spark in this year's race. Teammate Sven Montgomery joined him in the bus back to Italy and Marco Velo is said to have dropped out yesterday as well - in fact they say there are only three riders left who can call themselves Fassa Bortolian. Main man Ivan Basso - the talented Italian rider - has signed in and toed the start today. On the road today are 183 riders of the starting 195, leaving 14 of 22 intact. Over the two initial climbs, Virenque nicked the KoM points, solidifying his hold on the poka-dot jersey on the even of Bastille Day. As we pick up the unfolding coverage, Quick Step's Italian National Champion Paolo Bettini sets tempo with 87 km to go as we near the crest of the Telegraphe. Saeco's Gerrit Glomser has scooted away from a semi-select group which includes pretty much everyone you'd expect (except for a once-again-suffering Santiago Botero). Simoni remains attached at the back end of the group. Glomser chases Pierrick Fredrigo from Credit Agricole who has set his sails tight and rolls upwards on what is now a solo move - he'd had a few riders in a breakaway that assembled before the 2nd sprint point, but they drifted back as the road turned upwards. Fredrigo hangs onto his lead, with Glomser rolling over about a minute back. Virenque accellerates away from the bunch to take third place KoM points, 2:20 behind Fredrigo. Almost immediately the road pitches up again on the Col du Galibier, and 5 riders from USPS set up shop at the front of the group of 45 or so riders - including the amazing George Hincapie, a big man who has clearly learned to climb powerfully. Rolling ever upwards, they gather in Fredrigo and while Simoni is again drifting away from the competitors in this year's race. Glomser remains away out of eyesight around some of the bends of the naggingly unending climb to the highest point of this year's Tour. It's difficult to judge for sure, but the presence of Jan Ullrich and a Team Bianchi teammate indicates that he has prepared well for the inclines. CSC's Tyler Hamilton, who must've had his nerve endings removed at some point in his existence, rolls along as well. Lead now down to 5 seconds, Glomser feels the hot breath of the USPS on his shoulders. David Millar has lost touch with the Armstrong group, giving up the tempo as the group strings out slightly. Michael Rogers has hung in, riding with the big boys as Simoni keeps allowing daylight to appear between him and the leading bunch. He feels the jello forming in his legs as he rolls it back up to the group one more time, assisted by a teammate. 67 km to go on this stage as we near the 8,600 foot top of the Galibier, well above the treeline in the magnificent French Alps. Hincapie leads nearly a team picture of USPS on the upward charge as Ullrich sits impassively behind their pacemaking. Simoni is chopped off the back of the group with 3 km to go to the summit, as he pulls around a corner and sees the switchbacks which still remain. For a minute or two, I thought he might be putting on the "Rope-A-Dope" show that Lance pulled a couple years ago, but he seems to really be taking things to excess. His only hope to get reattached before the stunningly steep starting pitches of L'Alpe d'Huez lies with his admittedly strong descending skills. Still ticking over the gears smoothly in the slipstream of the USPS are Vini-Caldirola's Stefano Garzelli and Christophe Moreau from Credit Agricole. An Alessio climber sits up close, but I can't tell if it's Pellizotti or Caucchioli. Well, I'm corrected by the announcers - it's Swiss climber Laurent Dufaux. Hincapie has shut it down and begins the slow roll backwards. Chechu Rubiera takes over the pacemaking as they are now within 1 km of the crest and the blessed relief of descending. The so-far-quiet man of the Tour, Stefano Garzelli skips it up a gear or two and punches out from the bunch. Postal does not respond to the effort, but those riders who have their eye on the KoM jersey swarm out like angry honets. Virenque responds slowly and manages to get himself boxed in behind some slower riders, so he cannot respond and wobbles a bit trying to find daylight. Francisco Mancebo gives him much more of a battle, flaring out to the very edge of the narrow road and bumping elbows with a spectator or two ahead. But Garzelli moves back ahead to take the first place points. Cresting the Galibier with a teammate, Simoni has lost 1:01, just a bit in front of some of the slightly relaxing and recovering USPS riders who were pacemaking on the lower parts of the climb. French National Champion Didier Rous from La Boulangere (which I guess I'm beginning to spell correctly...)has skipped himself out away with Mikel Astarloza from Ag2R-Prevoyance on the descent. They work themselves out to a minute and a half, alternating highly aerodynamic positions with attempts to stretch out their screaming leg muscles. Riders are regaining on the descent as the roads continue downward toward the rendevous with the final climb of the day - CRASH in the first group. Roberto Heras of the USPS has gone down on the descent - it seems that he touched wheels on the descent with another rider as the cameras pick things up from way too high for good detail. But Heras bounces up extremely quickly and gets right back up and rides away before the team car can even reach him. The other rider involved may have been Lance Armstrong, as evidenced by him not waiting by any stretch of the imagination for even the briefest of moments. Race Radio reports also seem to indicate Armstrong involved. Rous and Astarloza are now on the start of the final climb - 13.8 km to go, 21 switchbacks of pain - helmets are off now as is allowed when there is finishing climb. At the head of the now-swelled chase group, the USPS hammers out a strong pace - they are suddenly flying up the steep start to the climb as though leading out a sprint on a flat road. Virenque immediately pops off the back and falling back as the USPS rips up the roadway, leaving sparks and smoke in their wake. Manuel Beltran, Heras and Chechu Rubiera continue setting a blistering pace as dropped riders litter the road and seem to want to hide among massive crowd who press in around them. It's simpler to tell who isn't getting spit out the back - Alexandre Vinokourov from Telekom, Christophe Moreau from Credit Agricole, and Tyler Hamilton somehow hold on as the extreme hurt gets ladeled out with a big spoon. Armstrong takes a quick look back and sees wreckage behind him -- Beloki has fallen back, Ullrich is not near any camera. Suddenly it is only Heras and Armstrong, but Moreau and Hamilton find some accelleration left, enabling them to stay in touch. No sign of Ullrich. Riders are recovering and beginning to regain some sense of equillibrium. Euskatel-Euskadi's strong young rider Iban Mayo - who strongly challenged Armstrong at the Dauphine-Libere - has moved back up to the back of the group. Hamilton remains right in the slipstream. Up front, Astorloza fires away up the roadway trying to lose Rous. Garzelli and Ullrich ride together on the road, although it is unclearn - they look to have at least dropped back a bit, but it's hard to tell how far. 10 km to go - all of it upwards. Beloki has reattached and follows that up with an attack - the cheeky bugger. He gets a gap and Armstrong calmly sits in behind Heras and watches. Beloki has now gained the lead as he catches the breakaway pair. Almost immediately, the Armstrong group catches Astorloza/Rous pair and they show now intention of matching their torrid pace. Heras continues setting the pace - Virenque has already lost over two minutes. Beloki has edged out by 12 seconds as Armstrong takes over the pacemaking, Hamilton tucked into his slipstream. Mayo has held on the back of this group, as Beloki is within 8 km of the finish. Armstrong has now steadily and methodically brought himself back up to Beloki - who looks back and wobbles slightly, out of the saddle. The Gang of Four rolls along at the head of events - Armstrong - Beloki - Hamilton - Mayo Now Mayo attacks fiercely and moves away from the group - Beloki looks to be laboring slightly and does not respond. Mayo is more than 6 minutes back on the overall, but he is a serious climbing threat. Beloki surges again and Armstrong follows him quickly. It is now 2:22 to Virenque who shows no sign of being able make up ground. Hamilton has moved hard! Armstrong carefully brings the pace back up and they all recover a bit and look at one another - David Exteberria manages to throw himself up the mountain and attach himself - but, somehow the broken-boned Hamilton surges again and gets out to another gap. Of course, they decide it's time to go to a commercial.... Out and away, Mayo continues flying up the roadway. He has phenomonal speed - it looks like he is on the flat roads. He has now increased his gap to 30 seconds ahead. Armstrong follows another Beloki attack, matches the effort and they all sit for a second or so - still going faster on the incline than most of us could on the flats. Mayo is now 44 seconds up on the Armstrong group. Roberto Heras and Vinokourov have reattached as the pace seems to yo-yo a bit each time one of the riders surges. Heras now takes over the pacemaking, and Lance moves in behind him. iBanesto's Mancebo claws his way back up to the leaders, back twisted horribly, looking as though he's being beaten within an inch of conciousness, but nevertheless regaining the group. A shot from in front of the swelled Armstrong group finds Lance actually looking very calm, despite the extreme efforts of matching such a variety of attacks. Euskatel-Euskadi's Roberto Laiseko has climbed up to the lead group. Vinokourov winds up an accelleration from the back of the bunch and moves away, continuing the combine of riders who seem to have focused their attacks upon Armstrong. They seem to sense some weakness - blood on the water, so to speak - although the strategic goal of Armstrong and the USPS is to win the race, not every stage. He is managing to put time into Ullrich on this climb, which he would be hard pressed to do on the dead flat Individual Time Trial. Stunning to watch the repeated attacks and surges - they seem not to stop. They seem focused more on attacking Armstrong than regaining the flying Mayo - now with a gap at 1:05. Basso has attached himself - he had disappeared during the insane accellerations at the bottom of the hill, but mustered the poise necessary to get into a climbing rhythm of his own. Now, he's in the fire, though. Mayo rolls under the 5 km to go banner. Hamilton winds it up and takes advantage of a lull in the pace to move away again. Beloki, Basso and Armstrong again catch his surge, with back up to him with Haimar Zubeldia - who may have been the one we thought was Etxebarria earlier. Beloki punches it again, and Armstrong somehow continues to find the power to match him pedal for pedal. Vinokourov hits the 4 km banner with the panache he's shown all season, rocking and rolling, trying to find every ounce of power in his weakening hips and legs. Virenque is in a world of hurt, jersey matted against him with the sweat of his effort, but conintuing to plug out a decent enough cadence. Young rider Michael Rogers climbs alongside, focused at little more that his hands on his bars. Yet, he too is hanging on. Mayo hammers inside of 3 km, while a quick shift down to Vinokourov shows him suffering and losing time to the continually surging group of Zabeldia, Basso, Beloki, Hamilton and Armstrong. They trade glances, marking one another and Hamilton moves again - again they claw him back. Mayo now has a 1:45 gap over Vinokourov. Beloki moves again, this time Hamilton could not hold on to the group on that last attack and has drifted back. 2 km to go for Mayo. He shows no sign of slowing. The cameras pick up Ullrich on a switchback or two -- his skin looks like it's lit by electic lights and he's pouring sweat with the effort of climbing. He has latched onto Pietro Caucchioli of Alessio and the two of them will themselves onward. Now the once-dropped but recovering Christophe Moreau fights his way up to the tail of Ullrich and focuses on the big German's rear wheel. Mayo under the 1 km banner - jersey split open and flapping in the wind. As expected (or maybe required by contract), he zips up the jersey and begins blowing kisses to the crowd. (I mean he's required to zip up his jersey, not blow kisses...) Smiling broadly and making the big turns toward the finish, he takes a final look back - but there's nothing but team cars and officials within eyesight. He benefits greatly from his dynamic attack and strong efforts - he has won the stage at L'Alpe d'Huez! Vinokourov somehow finds the energy to keep the pedals ticking over towards the finish. Hammering aroudn the last couple turns in the drops, he moves hard to the line, crossing in 1:44 About 30 secondsd later, Armstrong lines his sprint in second place behind Beloki and fires out as they hit the final straight - he moves decidedly past Beloki to lead the bunch across the line at around 2:11 Heras rolls toward the line, tailed by a scrambling Moreau/Ullrich/Caucchioli trio - they are somewhere in the vicinity of 3:40 behind the leader - which would be about a minute and half behind Armstrong's time. Virenque and Rogers come in about 9:30 back with a couple other riders who had latched onto them. I finally relax my jaw. It's been a stunning stage, with more attacks on Armstrong than have been seen in the past years combined. It has seemed that the last 30-odd minutes have been filled with constant attacks and surges - all of which had to be covered by one man. Lance did not attack, but responded relentlessly to others. It's been the first time he has not been the obvious aggressor, which causes a fairly large wave of uneasiness. In post-stage interviews, he allowed as how he did not feel strong on the Galibier, and was having trouble following the pace. Whether it's the pressure of the drive for Tour number 5 or just a bit of residual weakness from a pre-Tour intestinal virus is certainly beyond my ability to speculate. With all of that, it's important to remember who is trying on the Yellow Jersey - and that would be none other than Lance Armstrong of the USPS. If nothing else, he is aware that there are more miles to cover before it's all said and done. He also did manage to increase his gap over Ullrich, exactly in the place he needed to - on the climbs. Stage 8 - Results 1 - Iban Mayo - Euskatel-Euskadi - 5:57:30 2 - Alexandre Vinokourov - Telekom - @ 1:45 3 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - @ 2:12 4 - Francisco Mancebo - iBanesto.com - @ 2:12 5 - Haimar Zubeldia - Euskatel-Euskadi - @ 2:12 6 - Joseba Beloki - ONCE-Eroski - @ 2:12 7 - Tyler Hamilton - CSC - @ 2:12 8 - Ivan Basso - Fassa Bortolo - Fassa Bortolo - @ 2:12 9 - Roberto Laiseka - Euskatel-Euskadi - @ 2:12 10 - Petro Caucchioli - Alessio - @ 3:36 Overall Standings - Malliot Juane - Lance Armstrong - USPS - 35:12:50 2 - Joseba Beloki - @ :40 3 - Iban Mayo - @ 1:10 4 - Alexandre Vinokourov - @ 1:17 5 - Francisco Mancebo - @ 1:37 6 - Tyler Hamilton - @ 1:52 7 - Roberto Heras - @ 1:58 8 - Jan Ullrich - Team Bianchi - @ 2:10 9 - Ivan Basso - Fasso Bortolo - @ 2:25 10 - Jorg Jaksche - ONCE-Eroski - @ 3:19 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 9 - Bourg D'Oisans - Gap - 184 km This almost looks backwards, as it begins with a couple of thumpers - Cat 1 Col du Lautaret (25.5 km of climbing although at a more manageable average gradient of 4 percent) followed by the infamous Col d'Izoard (19.4 km at 5.9%) - then the climbs get progressively smaller with the short and sharp Cat 2 Cote de Saint Apollinaire (6.7 km @ 7.4%) and the Cat 3 Cote de la Rochette (3.9 km @ 6.7%). There is about a 10 descent into Gap. After the fireworks of today's stage, it will be interesting to see who has the legs to jump away. If a rider could jump away on the Col d'Izoard, it would be a long, long way to the finish. But, if the right rider were to get away, it could put the pressure on the QuickStep team of KoM jersey wearing Richard Virenque. Of course, that sort of stage will appeal his to teammate Paolo Bettini, as well as one of the animators of L'Alp d'Huez, Vinokourov. But, with his proximity to the race lead, he probably will kept on a rather short tether. -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Mon Jul 14 17:18:11 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 09:18:11 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 9 - More Drama in the Alps Message-ID: <3F12D7C3.7080500@cyclofiend.com> Stage 9 - Borug D'Oisans - Gap 184 km Today the riders hike themselves up over the 2nd highest point of the race - the 2360 meter tall Col D'Izoard. The riders have now covered just over half the distance in distance, although they have not reached the mid-stage of the race yet. Attacks began right from the start today, as the riders immediately began climbing on the way to the Category 1 Col du Lautaret. 16 riders moved up and away - and Saeco's Danilo Diluca rolls over the first climb in first - he must be feeling a bit better now. On the climb up the Hors Categorie Col d'Izoard, riders begin to get nipped off. The breakaway gets whittled down a bit, and with 106 km to go, there is about 4 and a half minutes up to the now seven member breakaway: 15 - Jorge Jaksche - ONCE 54 - DAnilo DiLuca - Saeco 107 - Ivan Parra - Kelme 133 - Angel Casero - Team Bianchi 135 - Aitor Garamendia - Team Bianchi 177 - Alberto Lopez de Munain - Euskatel-Euskadi 209 - Franco Pellizotti - Alessio The cameras find Lance Armstrong thrumming along in the small ring, very little expression upon his face. He and the rest of the gang are working their way up the Col D'Izoard. We don't get a specific update on who has withdrawn, but only 179 riders start today. In the main group, iBanesto.com 's Juan Mercado moves strongly away past someone who has brought their inflatable killer whale pool toy. They decided to bring that to the race. Go figure. We spend some time rolling up through the stragglers on the climb The gap to the breakaway down to 2:30 - the climbers are suffering on this day of overcast skies and dry roads. Fassa Bortolo's team manager, Giancarlo Feretti actually went over to Jean Marie LeBlanc last evening to apologize for the nearly wholesale abandonment of his team members. Lance has 6 riders around him who are tapping out a brisk climbing tempo, while polka-dotted Richard Virenque out of the saddle next to Ullrich who sits back and methodically rolls his big gear. Diluca continues to show his spunkiness, pushing the pace with Munian and forcing the others to scramble back up to them. Now Garamendia makes a move and streaks clear with 1 km to the top of the climb. Behind him, teammate Angel Casero remains in the tail of the group - the celeste jersey and bike giving a classic feel to this historic climb - Now Jaksche moves clear and Ivan Parra marks him, trying hard to close the gap. Garamendia rolls over the top of the Col d'Izoard first with about a half minute ahead of Jaksche and then Parra. Glimmers of sunlight hit the barren expanses of the sheer dropoffs. There are no guardrails - this is not where you want to skip over the edge. Floyd Landis of the USPS sits up front in the main group, knocking over the pedals and keeping the pace appropriate. iBanesto's Francisco Mancebo moves away suddenly, but Virenque will not lose the points on this big climb. Virenque pushes ahead and is the 13th rider over the summit, the other spots being nabbed by the remnants of the original breakaway. Garamendia continues his descent alone, his gap now 5:16 over the Armstrong group. He as almost 1:45 over the 6 chasers whom he left behind. USPS brings in the Mancebo/Virenque pair and leads the long snake of the peleton through the constant switchbacks of the descent. Vlatchislav Ekimov leads the USPS team and Lance through the sinuous twists of the roadway. Official split puts them at 6:03 behind, which does put Jaksche into the yellow jersey on the road today. But, they do not seem to be panicking - they know that 80-odd kilometers is a long way to go. Again looking stragegically, it wouldn't be an extremely bad thing for Jaksche to take over the yellow jersey - it might force ONCE into a bit more of an aggressive defense. The riders continue descending on the twisting roads alongside of the cascading river in this rocky gorge. Garamendia does win the day's "Wha-Tha-Fa?" award for continuing to press his attack. With a teammate in the immediate chase group, they could be biding their time and moderating their energy expenditure a bit more by having a strongly workiing 7 man break. Instead, he continues to press on alone. Another day of scorching temperatures, as the temperatures push into the mid-90's. About 68 km still to go. 6:23 from the leader to the big bunch. Garamendia finally wised up and let the rest of the breakaway ===================== Today's Trivia Teaser: Which country leads the way with victories on the L'Alpe d'Huez? --------------------- Now onto an uncategorized but noticeable climb, the lead group splinters slightly as the Euskatel-Euskadi rider Munian moves away. But, they realize they still have some real climbs to go yet, and collect themselves before expending too much sweat and energy. The group of seven roll over the sprint point in the town of Embrun without changing their pace, with the luck of the rotation putting Casero over the line first, followed by DiLuca. 44 km to go on the day, this group is drawing a bead on the short but sharp climb up the Cote de St. Apollinaire. They are currently moving through with short and crisp pulls, working very well together. The gap has been squeezed down to about 4 and half minutes. Before too many kilometers roll under the wheels, the gap edges down to 3:15. Floyd Landis continues to hammer out the pace for the USPS, who have effectively brought the yellow jersey back onto the shoulders of Lance Armstrong. Even before we go to another commercial break, the time slips under three minutes. Garamendia slides away as Jaksche hammers up the climb of Cote de St. Apollinaire, with Casero and Ivan. DiLuca, Pellizotti and Munian lose touch with the accelleration. Back in the bunch, David Millar decides to move off the front, deciding that the topography of the final 40 kilometers suits his style - if he can get clear, his time-trialing skill could keep him away. Parra dances out of the saddle as he follows Casero and Jaksche upwards. 31.9 km to go, the gap at 2:17 Garamendia wiggles back to the bunch, and as a true domestique, has the prescense of mind to supply teammate Jan Ullrich a fresh bottle of water he'd nabbed. DiLuca gets lassoed back in short order. Continuing smoothly up the climb, Millar continues to cut down the gap to the trio who remain 1:41 ahead. On the othe end of the bunch, Garamendia cracks and falters - literally falling out the back of the Armstrong group. The peak begins to seriously bite, kicking strongly up and narrowing dramatically as it hits the final 1 km. Jaksche and Parra continue together up the steep bit. Armstrong hits the steep bit with Ullrich, Beloki, Moreau and Basso sitting right behind him. Here comes the move! Beloki makes a hard move, which immediately gets a response from Armstrong. It looks like Iban Mayo has bridged up as well, as they distance themselves from the rest of the bunch. Beloki has continued to show such tenacity! Jacksche nips over the top of this nasty little climb, Parra just behind. DiLuca, Casero and Garamendia have dropped away. Ullrich has rolled back up to the bunch, aloing with Hamilton, Basso another Euskatel-Euskadi rider who looks to be Etxebarria and a Telekom rider tacked onto the end who is more than likely Alexandre Vinokourov. Credit Agricole's Christophe Moreau is in a bit of difficulty, clawing back as they crest the climb - riders have split into a variety of groups under the pitch of this short but difficult climb. Millar has been hammering up to the breakaway, who feel the need to dink around with less than 15 km to go. The Armstrong group is at 1:04 as they his the 15 km to go banner, and seem to be closing down the gap on to Millar, who looks to be driving into a headwind. Euskatel-Euskadi assists the USPS in the capture, while up front in the break, Parra counters on a move by Pelizzotti hammering up but unable to break one another. The chase forms an echelon against a crosswind - Millar probably couldn't have chosen a tougher place to bridge. The four up front have collected themselves back togther but no longer even pretend to work with one another. Millar can be no more than 20 seconds behind, but others chase him... Suddenly Parra squeezes up the gutter before the start of the final climb, almost knocked off by Casero who had swerved off after taking a short pull at the front. Parra has gained an immediate gap and flies up the roadway. The remaining trio visibly deflate, although first Casero and then Jaksche again try to move one last time - if they could hold... Parra has vehicles flying past him as the gap continues to drop - Millar is caught suddenly as he can no longer hold the pace on the incline. David Etxebarria hammers away from the Armstrong group, but the huge effort he is making is clearly evident - the USPS methodically close the gap, coming back up on him like the Borg... Millar has continued sliding back and lost contact with the Armstrong group, falling back behind the first set of team cars. Etxebarria is pulled back in, and Vinokourov seizes the lull to roar immediately past Angel Casero. Jaksche has clawed himself back to Parra, but both are in a world of hurt on this final climb. Vinokourov has crossed the gap and fires past the two now ex-leaders. The narrow, twisty roads have him out of sight of the bunch. Jaksche somehow hurls himself up and attaches to his wheel, but Parra can no longer make the pace and wonders who poured the cement into his shoes. Heras paces Armstrong, with Beloki sitting in his pocket. Vinoukourov is 20 seconds up and has now cracked Jaksche, who seemingly turns himself inside out to stay in touch. Parra finds himself in the sights of the Armstrong group and disappears behind them. Armstrong on the move - driving harder now, Heras has fallen away, followed immediately by Beloki and Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso and Iban Mayo. They pickup Jaksche without a second glance, and the pace continues to increase to reduce the gap to the streaking Vinokourov. Vino crests the summit while only 15 seconds behind, Arstrong moves easily out of the saddle. He and the select group in his wake crest the climb. Now comes the drop into the city of Gap. While the gap remain? They are pushing extremely hard down the kilometers which remain - trying to get Vinokourov back in control - Beloki sudedenly swerves and goes down! - he must have hit a heat-softened patch of the terrible French tarmac, putting him briefly sideways which causes him to roll his rear tire and smack the pavement hard with his right side - hitting hip, dragging elbow and whip-cracking his shoulder and head against the roadway. It is a serious fall! Armstrong rides directly behind him, watching it all at a high rate of speed - Beloki continues to slide and tumble toward the outside of the sharp right hand horseshoe Armstrong has nowhere to go! But he rumbles cross-country, carefully arcing through the steeply pitched fields and finding his way back to the paved course. He actually has to dismount to leap across a wide ditch and regains his bike with a true cyclocross remount. As he gets back, the others who had been behind, negotiating the double horseshoe curve, roll back up to him. They clearly are not taking advantage of either the crash or Armstrong's cross-country romp. But, behind them all, the damage has clearly been inflicted upon Beloki. A teammate crouches nearby. Beloki wails in anger, pain and frustration, crumpled in a twisted heap and beyond words. His ONCE-Eroski teammates look at one antoher uneasily, rising from his side and sadly knowing that they need to press on without him. The race continues, Vinokourov benefitting from the confusion of the crash. He hammers under the 1 km to go banner, riding up the edge of the French Tricolor, the painting of which covers the entire last kilometer. He the takes the stage with a broad wave. Now back up to serious speed, the select group containing the unflappable Armstrong eyes each other and the finish line. Paolo Bettini is in the bunch, having somehow snuck into this select bunch. Bettini moves sharply away and will not be caught, while Armstrong follows Mayo's surge, not willing to allow a gap in Gap. The unstoppable Vinokourov has now added a stage victory in the Tour de France to his 2003 palmares of wins in Paris-Nice, the Tour of Switzerland and the Amstel Gold race. Stage 9 Results - 1 - Alexandre Vinokourov - Telekom - 5:02:00 2 - Paolo Bettini - Quick Step - @ :36 3 - Iban Mayo - Euskatel-Euskadi - s.t. 4 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - s.t. 5 - Jan Ullrich - Team Bianchi - s.t. 6 - Ivan Basso - Fasso Bortolo - s.t. 7 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner - s.t. 8 - Francisco Mancebo - iBanesto.com - s.t. 9 - Haimar Zubeldia - Euskatel-Euskadi - s.t. 10 - Tyler Hamilton - CSC - s.t. General Classification - Mailliot Juane - Lance Armstrong - 40:15:26 2 - Alexandre Vinokourov - @ :21 3 - Iban Mayo - @ 1:02 4 - Fracisco Mancebo - @ 1:37 5 - Tyler Hamilton - @ 1:52 6 - Jan Ullrich - @ 2:10 7 - Ivan Basso - @ 2:25 8 - Roberto Heras - @ 2:28 9 - Haimar Zubeldia - @ 3:25 10 - Denis Menchov - @ 3:45 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 10 - Gap - Marseille - 219 km A long stage again, but this time steadily dropping to the Mediterranean Sea with only a couple of Cat 4 climbs in the way. They will drop from the 624 meter altitude of Gap to near sea level. With the sudden departure of Beloki, maybe the riders will choose to recover a bit tomorrow. But, that has not been the tone so far. If the right combination moves away, the USPS may be content to let them romp and frolic on this stage before the rest day. ===================== Today's Trivia Answer Holland and Italy are tied with 7 wins each on L'Alpe d'Heuz --------------------- -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Tue Jul 15 16:48:58 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:48:58 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 10 - Rolling down to the Sea Message-ID: <3F14226A.3050202@cyclofiend.com> Stage 10 - Gap - Marseille - 219 km Today's stage begins with a video test pattern and tone, so it looks like there may be some time to kill... Before the stage begins, some grisly details. Beloki has reportedly broken his femur, wrist and finger. It was a stunning and sad moment as he lay crumpled on the roadside. The USPS had all scouted the Cat 2 Cote de St. Apollinaire which was decisive yesterday, they knew it had pitches which reached 15% - which explains why it looked steep even on TV. Lance's reaction and cross-country jaunt on the downhill side came instantly - You can never train for something like that. Only 172 riders remained at the end of yesterday's stage - obviously Beloki did not continue, but also turning in their numbers was Telekom's Andreas kloden, Alessio's Angelo Furlan, Saeco's Stefano Zanini, FDJ.com's Jimmy Caspar (whose neck must not have felt any better as the Alps took their toll), Credit Agricole's Lilian Jegou and Vini Caldirola's Eddy Mazzoleni, who rode an extremely strong Giro D'Italia this spring. For those of your playing along at home, the previous stage's hit list is as follows: Samuel Sanchesz - Euskatel-Euskadi - finished outside the time cut, Stage 8 Pierre Bourquenoud - Jean Delatour - Abandoned, Stage 8 Antonio Tauler - Kelme - Abandoned, Stage 8 Ignacio Gutierrez - Kelme - Abandoned, Stage 8 Nicola Loda - Fassa Bortolo - Abandoned, Stage 8 Sven Montgomery - Fassa Bortolo - did not start, Stage 8 Volodymir Gustov - Fassa Bortolo - did not start, Stage 8 Aitor Gonzalez - Fassa Bortolo - did not start, Stage 8 Others who have hit the bus: Jaan Kirsipuu - Ag2R - Abandoned, Stage 7 Jesus Manzano - Kelme - Abandoned, Stage 7 Marco Velo - Fassa Bortolo - Abandoned, Stage 7 Alessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo - Abandoned, Stage 7 Luis Perez - Cofidis - Abandoned, Stage 7 Michael Rich - Gerolsteiner - Abandoned, Stage 7 Olaf Pollack - Gerolsteiner - Abandoned, Stage 7 =============== But things finally start, with the riders begining the day out of the Alps to the town of Marsailles on the coast of the Mediteranean. The hazy but bright day begins in the 90's, with very high humidity. It'll be a scorcher once again. The first sprint points found Robbie Mcewen of Lotto-Domo just nicking Baden Cooke of FDJeux.com and Jean Delatour's Jean-Patrick Nazon. That puts him within two points of Cooke and the Green jersey. By the time the riders had rolled down to the 2nd Sprint Point - snagged by Damien Nazon - a breakaway has clearly established themselves. 7 teams are still intact 171 - Stefano Garzelli of Vini Caldirola did not start today. Other sufferin' riders include Santaiago Botero at 48:13 behind the leader, while Gilberto Simoni is 59 and some change in arrears. A massive gap of 21:30 to the break, which contains: 43 - Bram de Groot - Rabobank 33 - Jose Vicente Garcia Acosta - iBanesto.com 58 - Fabio Sacchi - Saeco 64 - Philippe Gaumont - Cofidis 77 - Jacob Piil - CSC 102 - Jose Gutierrez - Kelme 142 - Serge Baguet - Lotto-Domo 186 - Damien Nazon - Brioches La Boulangere 193 - Rene Hasselbacher - Gerolsteiner Another interrace competition they have created for the centenary tour is the best time into all of the "original" cities of the 1903 tour. With the deaparture of Alessandro Petacchi, Baden Cooke has moved into the lead of this. The gap moves out to 22:02. The USPS must be loving it on this day of almost constant descending before tomorrow's rest day. In fact, to say that the USPS is easing along would be a drastic understatement - they lead the bunch, but are actually passing out waterbottles which were just brought up from the car by Roberto Heras. They look as though they are just getting ready to start a short training ride. There's still about 67 km to go, and the peleton have just brought the time gap under 22 minutes. ==================== Today's Trivia Question: In the history of the Tour, two riders won the best young rider and overall title in the same year, who were they? -------------------- The last 25 km of today's race actually roll through the city of Marseille in a very twisting pattern that gets out to a very windy coast. The breakaway rider continue working well together, rotating smoothly on the hot roads. In the main group, Euskatel-Euskadi has jointed in the pacemaking, which seems to increase slightly as they hit slightly twistier roads. One of their riders - Alberto de Munain - had a bit of an altercation about an hour ago, striking a young spectator who had dashed out on the course. Both hit the pavement, without lasting injuries to either. The peleton finds a protest on the roadway, as the "temporary artists" conduct a mass lie down on the roadway. The peleton is stopped as the gendarmes and what looks to be French para-military forces lift the chanting protesters and attempt to disperse them back into the trees which line this stretch of roadway. They are not dainty in this act. Riders come to a complete stop behind the official cars and motorcycles. Gradually, the black-shirted, club-wielding squad establishes a line of defense and roll the protesters toward the gutter. The name "Renee Jose Bovee" appears on a banner streched above the route. Dunno if this has anything to do with the actual protest. The riders now slip through on the left hand side and have moved up the roads, whether grateful for a slight distraction in the heat and humidity of a pokey day or simply annoyed that something is obstructing them from the stage-end shower and massage is unclear. Nevertheless, they are again underway. The delay has added to the gap - now 23:47 - as a note, the longest successful breakaway in the Tour was 35:54. Garcia Acosta rips up the roadway on the final cateorized climb of the day, drawing the attention of everyone else. He keeps his head down after the KoM crest and moves away fromt he bunch with over 50 km to go in the stage. He moved strongly and has established a 30 second gap over the breakaway ex-compatriots and it may be dropping slightly - but the big bunch is 22 plus minutes behind. Into the outskirts of Marseille, sensing his gap slipping as he pushes hard under the 25 km to go banner. Gilberto Simoni hugs his teammates' wheels on the absolute back of the bunch. He's rumored to be contemplating withdrawing after this stage. The route begins to twist and the roads cut back on themselves, and Garcia Acosta is out of the sightline of his immediate chasers, which might be enough to get him across the line uncaught... ...and almost as soon as I type that, he's out on the highway, a wide straightening road where there's not a spot to hide. The Euskatel-Euskadi led peleton has pushed the gap down to 16:41 - though there seems to be some problems with the timing system and that may not be accurate. In the breakaway, the chasers dink around and attack one another, spinning off in pairs which eventually allow Fabio Sacchi to move away on a solo accelleration. He's almost immediately snagged Acosta, but the other riders are a bit too wise to let him get away and hustle back up to him. The sprinters want to keep things together... oops! Jacob Piil has moved away from the bunch - no attack; the lanky Danish rider from CSC simply rode away from everyone. Sacchi takes another fast move off the front, knowing the danger of letting this wiley rider to get away. They are still on the highway, elevated above the port where all of the Mediterranean ferrys sound their klaxons to greet the tour. Sacchi has moved most of the way across the gap, and there is 15 km to go. He moves into Piil's slipstream and immediately crosses himself. The breakaway remnants again show a reluctance to attack, and the Piil/Sacchi pair increase their gap. Now back down to water level, Sacchi and Piil trade off pulls with 12 km to go. They have pulled out a 45 second gap. Bram de Groot decides there's no point in sprinting for third and fires away. 10 km to go for the leaders, with the glorious blue sea just off their right shoulder. de Groot is moving in his solo attack, up by 20 seconds from the steadily deflating breakaway and steadily stalking the leaders. Crash in the Main field - Padrnos seems to be involved. No footage from the race moto cameras, as all seem to have moved up to enjoy the coastline. He is reported to be back on his machine and rejoining the peleton. 5 km to go, and the lead pair still work well together. They are smart enough to keep the effort high in anticipation of tactical maneuvering and resultant slowing. Under the 3 km to go banner. Through a couple sharp turns in relatively narrow roads. Now the two riders onlto the dead long straight and wide finish. The two riders shake hands on an effort well done, clearly a "may the best rider win" offering after nearly 200 km out on the attack together. But, it is an actual race, no? Under 1 km to go Piil takes over the the front, Sacchi has pushed him in front. They begin soft-pedaling a bit and Piil takes a second to evaluate Sacchi's condition. He actually has a moment to take up his communications microphone and either ask a question or comment to the team director, Bjanrne Riis. He may just be checking that de Groot is still safely in arrears, as there's no way he could see through the traffic which follows them. Piil wisely rides up against the left hand barriers to force an attack to the windy side of the road. Sacchi prowls and Piil keeps looking back and listening for any hint of the first move as if they are riding a match sprint. Suddenly Sacchi goes, moving out and around, driving hard for the line. Piil reacts strongly, gaining his slipstream. You can see him gather himself, then Piil fires out to Sacchi's right, moving up smartly alongside. They strain side by side, but Sacchi begins to run out of fuel and drops back as Piil surges. Piil takes it! de Groot rolls through by himself, having just waiting a few seconds too long before starting his move to bridge. In the last bunch of the breakaway, the riders switch and swarm, moving side by side to see who can gain the advantage. Nazon starts from the front and none of the exhausted riders can come around him. There are some other riders in this race. Or, there is another race which rolls along a bit slower. The size of the time gap allows the helicoptor cameras to concentrate on the beauty of the region, showing the incredible blue of the Mediterranean against the whitewashed foundations of ancient forts. We hear a post-race interview with Piil, who may have time to get his massage before the bunch arrives. The big bunch - containing Padrnos, whose jersey side an back is roughed up quite a bit - moves into the broad, wide straightway to the finish. At the head of the bunch is Cofidis' David Millar, who must think someone other than FDJeux.com's Brad McGee is on his wheel. Vini-Caldirola/Nor-Cal boy Fred Rodriguez has positioned himself well, as has Erik Zabel. Millar finally peels off and McGee accellerates to warp speed, dragging teammate Baden Cooke in a textbook leadout. Zabel nabs Cooke's wheel while McEwen moves up on the inside. Rodriguez is boxed a bit between Zabel and McEwen. Zabel begins his move, but can come no further up than midway on Cooke. McEwen now threatens strongly on the inside, screamming up within a whisper of the barriers. He draws up even with the supersonic Cooke. They both lunge for the line - Cooke just nicks him! Stage 9 - Results 1 - Jacob Piil - CSC - 5:09:33 2 - Fabio Sacchi - Saeco - s.t. 3 - Bram de Groot - Rabobank - @ :49 4 - Damien Nazon - Brioches La Boulangere - @ 2:07 5 - Rene Hasselbacher - Gerolsteiner - s.t. 6 - Philippe Gaumont - Cofidis - s.t. 7 - Serge Baguet - Lotto-Domo - s.t. 8 - Jose Vicente Garcia Acosta - iBanesto.com - s.t. 9 - Jose Gutierrez - Kelme - @ 5:06 10 - Baden Cooke - FDJeux - @ 21:23 Overall - No Change Tomorrow's Stage - None. Rest and Transfer to Narbonne, where the rides will start a relatively short 153 km stage on Thursday, to be followed on Friday by the first Individual Time Trial. ==================== Today's Trivia Answer: Laurent Fignon - 1983 Jan Ullrich - 1997 -------------------- -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Thu Jul 17 07:09:32 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 23:09:32 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Blessed Rest Day - Updates & Standings Message-ID: <3F163D9C.4000404@cyclofiend.com> Rest Day - The common phrase being bandied about since the roads turned upwards was that Lance Armstrong was "vulnerable" this year. Lance did not zap everyone with a raygun on the first incline, everyone managed to keep from turning to a pile of dust under the first attacks, and people actually have had the gall to attack him during climbing stages, therefore, journalists and some announcers have theorized, Armstrong has not been able to dominate this year's Tour. Despite this crowing, it's important to remember a couple of points - first, it is and always has been a three week bike race and second, Lance is holding onto the Yellow Jersey. Like hundreds of thousands of others who watched, I wanted to see Lance just roll away from everyone as the going got tough. Certainly, it started that way, as the USPS put an accelleration in at the base of L'Alpe d'Huez the likes of which have never been seen before. It had all the outward appearances of "the move" which would split the Tour wide open. It makes wonderful sense that since Lance made an epic, race-winning attack here once, he would do it again. When Lance didn't drop everyone, and when others moved against him, it was a little staggering to see. It's a quick jump from seeing Lance _not_ dropping everyone to saying that he is in trouble. Although numerous people seem to have made that jump, here's the context of why I don't think that's a valid leap. It's important to remember that the Tour isn't the same race every year. Adversaries are different, the timing of the stages is different, and the specific considerations of the course are different. It should be expected that his approach will be different. Last year, in a course with much more serious climbing, and without Ullrich to worry about in the time trials, Lance focused on increasing his climbing ability - and he suffered in power on the flatter stages. In fact, he was beaten by Santiago Botero in the flat individual time trial - and there were those who crowed that he'd lost it. This season's Tour has brought several different variables: the presence of a fit and focused Jan Ullrich, whom Lance probably fears and respects more than any other rider; the reduced number of mountaintop finishes; the early appearance of serious climbing stages, where he's usually established his winning margins; the possibility of multiple attacks in the mountains riders from a variety of other teams who are not going to be competitive in the overall; and his ultimate goal - winning the 5th Tour. To reach that goal, it's my opinion that he's focused his training taking all those things (and probably many more) into account. Having said that, it will be interesting to see what transpires this Friday on the Individual Time Trial Stage. If he founders there, there are chinks in the armor, but quite possibly everything is going as nearly to plan as possible. The stronger Time Trialists are Ullrich, Hamilton and Basso. I'm not aware of how well Vinokourov generally doesn on the flat-out race against the clock, but he's clearly got strength and speed this season. Iban Mayo and Francisco Mancebo certainly are not known for their time trialing skills. Long-suffering David Millar may be able to move himself up a few notches, maybe bringing Jorg Jaksche up in his wake as well as some of the other climbers drift backwards. Lance has had the benefit of winning this race four times already, which gives him a perspective that few have. As I wrote earlier, this is the most "open" Tour that he's faced, and in his effort this year, he has to be ready to adapt to a wide variety of potential scenarios, and that's what continues to make bicycle racing in general, the Tour de France in particular such a stunning and remarkable event. The other lesson that the Centenary Tour again teaches us is that you can never plan for everything - Levi Leipheimer, out on the first road stage after a crash; Tyler Hamilton, who must be grinding the new tops off of his post-Giro-capped teeth as he rides through oceans of pain with a double fracture in his clavicle; Joseba Beloki, who clearly had prepared himself as well as he ever had, out of the race in a flash. It's hard to believe that only half the race is over - it seems like months ago that the riders were lining up under the Eiffel Tower. So, we'll see how it continues to unfold, heading out onto the roadway agianst the clock, then into the Pyrenees - Iban Mayo's home turf - for more epic climbing. Then everyone continues working their way up towards Paris. There's still a lot of miles to go, and the fire is still being stoked. Even if it's just chum, blood is in the water, and the sharks sense it. ------ The Formal Jersey Competitons are listed below, but here are a couple to add: "WWF/Believe-You-Me" Jersey, in honor of the rider who has come closest to reaching the prognostications of the average pro wrestler: Gilberto "I will chop away Armstrong's foundations in the mountains" Simoni "Natural Novo/Xylo" Jersey, for the rider who lacks nerve endings: Tyler "Well, the bone's not sticking through" Hamilton "Flats" Jersey, which is red with white polka dots, or the antithesis of the climbers jersey, for the rider who will never, ever see the top of any major climb in the Tour (previously known as the "Cipo" Jersey): Alessandro "allergies...allergies...it's my allergies" Petacchi "Mechanic for Hire" Jersey: David "You really think I should ride the prologue without a front derailleur" Millar/Cofidis "Telekom is Hexed" Jersey, created after Ullrich returned from his post-Tour winter looking like the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow man: Santiago "Yeah, I've been training, why?" Botero "Titanium Bones" Jersey, for the biggest rider who climbs the fastest: George Hincapie, for leading the charge over the biggest mountains that the Tour has to offer And finally, the "Still Tougher than we'll EVER be" Jersey for the Lantern Rouge: 171 Hans De Clercq (Bel) Lotto Domo 2.18.12 ---------------- General classification after stage 10 1 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 45.46.22 2 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Telekom 0.21 3 Iban Mayo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 1.02 4 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) iBanesto.com 1.37 5 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC 1.52 6 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi 2.10 7 Ivan Basso (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 2.25 8 Roberto Heras (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 2.28 9 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 3.25 10 Denis Menchov (Rus) iBanesto.com 3.45 11 Roberto Laiseka (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 4.03 12 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 4.04 13 Manuel Beltran (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 4.31 14 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Gerolsteiner 4.58 15 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Alessio 5.17 16 Richard Virenque (Fra) Quick.Step-Davitamon 5.59 17 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 18 Jorg Jaksche (Ger) ONCE-Eroski 7.05 19 David Millar (GBr) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 7.15 20 Peter Lüttenberger (Aut) Team CSC 8.20 21 David Plaza (Spa) Team Bianchi 8.29 22 Didier Rous (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 8.45 23 Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank 8.53 24 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 9.44 25 Ivan Parra (Col) Kelme-Costa Blanca 9.46 26 Laurent Dufaux (Swi) Alessio 10.28 27 Félix Garcia Casas (Spa) Team Bianchi 10.52 28 José Luis Rubiera (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 12.08 29 José Azevedo (Por) ONCE-Eroski 12.15 30 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) iBanesto.com 13.26 31 Grischa Niermann (Ger) Rabobank 13.34 32 Massimiliano Lelli (Ita) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 14.45 33 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Ag2R Prevoyance 15.15 34 Juan Miguel Mercado (Spa) iBanesto.com 15.31 35 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Ag2R Prevoyance 16.14 36 David Etxebarria (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 17.16 37 Laurent Lefevre (Fra) Jean Delatour 18.03 38 Marcos Serrano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 20.27 39 Javier Pascual Llorente (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 20.59 40 Daniele Nardello (Ita) Team Telekom 23.08 41 Michael Rogers (Aus) Quick.Step-Davitamon 23.53 42 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 26.06 43 Giuseppe Guerini (Ita) Team Telekom 26.23 44 Stephane Goubert (Fra) Jean Delatour 28.12 45 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Saeco 28.40 46 Guido Trentin (Ita) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 30.03 47 Laurent Brochard (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 30.41 48 José Enrique Gutierrez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 30.47 49 Inigo Chaurreau (Spa) Ag2R Prevoyance 32.52 50 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 34.36 51 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 37.06 52 Angel Casero (Spa) Team Bianchi 37.48 53 George Hincapie (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 42.31 54 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 42.40 55 Udo Bölts (Ger) Gerolsteiner 43.38 56 Jorg Ludewig (Ger) Saeco 43.42 57 Matthias Kessler (Ger) Team Telekom 44.47 58 Isidro Nozal (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 45.49 59 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) iBanesto.com 46.16 60 Kurt Van De Wouwer (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon 46.23 61 Xabier Zandio (Spa) iBanesto.com 47.02 62 Michaël Blaudzun (Den) Team CSC 48.11 63 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Alessio 48.18 64 Santiago Botero (Col) Team Telekom 49.13 65 Gerrit Glomser (Aut) Saeco 50.44 66 Andrea Noe (Ita) Alessio 51.54 67 Mikel Pradera (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 51.57 68 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saeco 52.08 69 Luca Paolini (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 52.35 70 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) FDJeux.com 53.49 71 Leonardo Bertagnolli (Ita) Saeco 54.22 72 Aitor Garmendia (Spa) Team Bianchi 54.23 73 Nicki Sorensen (Den) Team CSC 54.51 74 Vladimir Miholjevic (Cro) Alessio 75 Tobias Steinhauser (Ger) Team Bianchi 76 Rolf Aldag (Ger) Team Telekom 55.28 77 Andy Flickinger (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 56.09 78 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Jean Delatour 56.25 79 Serge Baguet (Bel) Lotto Domo 56.57 80 David Latasa (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 57.11 81 Pablo Lastras (Spa) iBanesto.com 58.24 82 Benoit Poilvet (Fra) Credit Agricole 59.36 83 René Andrle (Cze) ONCE-Eroski 1.01.14 84 Floyd Landis (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 1.01.25 85 Alberto Lopez Munain (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 1.02.00 86 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 1.02.19 87 Axel Merckx (Bel) Lotto Domo 1.02.31 88 Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) Jean Delatour 1.02.45 89 Mikel Artetxe (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 1.02.47 90 Salvatore Commesso (Ita) Saeco 1.03.07 91 David Canada (Spa) Quick.Step-Davitamon 1.03.20 92 Rik Verbrugghe (Bel) Lotto Domo 1.03.50 93 Inigo Landaluze (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 1.04.13 94 Marcus Zberg (Swi) Gerolsteiner 95 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) FDJeux.com 1.04.23 96 Steve Zampieri (Swi) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 1.06.04 97 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 1.07.45 98 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team CSC 1.08.11 99 Vjatceslav Ekimov (Rus) US Postal-Berry Floor 1.09.13 100 Pavel Padrnos (Cze) US Postal-Berry Floor 1.09.35 101 Mario Aerts (Bel) Team Telekom 1.11.19 102 Bekim Christensen (Den) Team CSC 1.11.31 103 Jakob Piil (Den) Team CSC 1.12.21 104 Unai Etxebarria (Ven) Euskaltel-Euskadi 1.12.28 105 Nicolas Portal (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 1.12.54 106 Cédric Vasseur (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 1.13.01 107 Victor Hugo Pena (Col) US Postal-Berry Floor 1.13.35 108 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank 1.14.54 109 Bram De Groot (Ned) Rabobank 1.15.29 110 Jens Voigt (Ger) Credit Agricole 1.15.54 111 Carlos Da Cruz (Fra) FDJeux.com 1.16.06 112 Philippe Gaumont (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 1.16.13 113 Franck Renier (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.17.19 114 Christophe Brandt (Bel) Lotto Domo 1.17.36 115 Damien Nazon (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.17.57 116 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 1.19.38 117 Walter Beneteau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.19.47 118 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) iBanesto.com 1.21.19 119 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 1.21.21 120 Vicente Garcia Acosta (Spa) iBanesto.com 1.21.23 121 Stuart O'grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 1.21.24 122 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 1.21.37 123 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Team CSC 1.22.40 124 Christophe Oriol (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 1.22.44 125 Maryan Hary (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.22.51 126 Servais Knaven (Ned) Quick.Step-Davitamon 1.23.21 127 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) Jean Delatour 1.23.47 128 Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun) Quick.Step-Davitamon 1.23.59 129 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.25.49 130 Médéric Clain (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 1.25.50 131 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Lotto Domo 1.25.51 132 Rene Haselbacher (Aut) Gerolsteiner 1.26.31 133 Romans Vainsteins (Lat) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 1.27.41 134 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Telekom 1.28.44 135 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.28.53 136 Bradley McGee (Aus) FDJeux.com 1.30.32 137 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Credit Agricole 1.31.03 138 Paolo Bossoni (Ita) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 1.35.14 139 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Lotto Domo 1.35.31 140 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) Credit Agricole 1.35.53 141 Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 1.36.08 142 Marc Wauters (Bel) Rabobank 1.36.22 143 Davide Bramati (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 1.36.24 144 Robert Hunter (RSA) Rabobank 1.36.53 145 Dario Cioni (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 1.37.09 146 Frédéric Finot (Fra) Jean Delatour 1.37.26 147 Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) Jean Delatour 1.37.28 148 David Munoz (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 1.37.34 149 Christophe Mengin (Fra) FDJeux.com 1.37.36 150 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Saeco 1.37.37 151 Inigo Cuesta (Spa) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 1.38.57 152 Julian Usano (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 1.39.00 153 Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) Team Bianchi 1.39.05 154 Alvaro Gonzalez Galdeano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 1.39.55 155 Uwe Peschel (Ger) Gerolsteiner 1.40.58 156 Stéphane Auge (Fra) Credit Agricole 1.40.59 157 Thomas Liese (Ger) Team Bianchi 1.41.18 158 Andrej Hauptman (Slo) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 1.41.23 159 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Jean Delatour 1.41.50 160 Daniel Becke (Ger) Team Bianchi 1.43.47 161 Remmert Wielinga (Ned) Rabobank 1.44.11 162 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Lotto Domo 1.49.05 163 Dario Andriotto (Ita) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 1.49.44 164 Marco Milesi (Ita) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 1.51.02 165 Torsten Schmidt (Ger) Gerolsteiner 1.51.17 166 Paolo Fornaciari (Ita) Saeco 1.52.06 167 Matthew Wilson (Aus) FDJeux.com 1.56.23 168 Alessandro Bertolini (Ita) Alessio 1.56.45 169 Nick Gates (Aus) Lotto Domo 1.57.49 170 Raffaele Ferrara (Ita) Alessio 2.01.27 171 Hans De Clercq (Bel) Lotto Domo 2.18.12 Points classification 1 Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 140 pts 2 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Lotto Domo 131 3 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Telekom 112 4 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 107 5 Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) Jean Delatour 100 6 Stuart O'grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 94 7 Luca Paolini (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 94 8 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank 83 9 Romans Vainsteins (Lat) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 81 10 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 72 11 Damien Nazon (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 72 12 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 60 13 Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) Team Bianchi 57 14 Gerrit Glomser (Aut) Saeco 55 15 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Telekom 51 16 Bradley McGee (Aus) FDJeux.com 46 17 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi 43 18 Salvatore Commesso (Ita) Saeco 43 19 Rene Haselbacher (Aut) Gerolsteiner 37 20 Iban Mayo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 35 21 Jakob Piil (Den) Team CSC 35 22 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 33 23 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Saeco 32 24 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) Credit Agricole 32 25 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 30 26 Bram De Groot (Ned) Rabobank 30 27 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Ag2R Prevoyance 28 28 Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) Jean Delatour 25 29 Richard Virenque (Fra) Quick.Step-Davitamon 22 30 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 22 31 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Gerolsteiner 22 32 Philippe Gaumont (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 22 33 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) iBanesto.com 21 34 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 21 35 Laurent Brochard (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 21 36 Rolf Aldag (Ger) Team Telekom 21 37 Serge Baguet (Bel) Lotto Domo 21 38 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC 20 39 David Millar (GBr) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 20 40 Jens Voigt (Ger) Credit Agricole 20 41 Michael Rogers (Aus) Quick.Step-Davitamon 19 42 Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun) Quick.Step-Davitamon 18 43 Frédéric Finot (Fra) Jean Delatour 18 44 Ivan Basso (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 18 45 Vicente Garcia Acosta (Spa) iBanesto.com 18 46 Robert Hunter (RSA) Rabobank 18 47 Mikel Artetxe (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 16 48 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 15 49 José Enrique Gutierrez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 15 50 Pablo Lastras (Spa) iBanesto.com 14 51 Andy Flickinger (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 13 52 Mikel Pradera (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 13 53 Angel Casero (Spa) Team Bianchi 12 54 Roberto Laiseka (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 12 55 Franck Renier (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 12 56 Paolo Bossoni (Ita) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 12 57 Walter Beneteau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 11 58 Laurent Dufaux (Swi) Alessio 9 59 Unai Etxebarria (Ven) Euskaltel-Euskadi 9 60 Carlos Da Cruz (Fra) FDJeux.com 9 61 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) Jean Delatour 9 62 Christophe Mengin (Fra) FDJeux.com 8 63 Denis Menchov (Rus) iBanesto.com 7 64 Médéric Clain (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 7 65 Axel Merckx (Bel) Lotto Domo 6 66 Nicolas Portal (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 6 67 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Alessio 6 68 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 6 69 Victor Hugo Pena (Col) US Postal-Berry Floor 6 70 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Team CSC 6 71 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Jean Delatour 6 72 Roberto Heras (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 5 73 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Ag2R Prevoyance 5 74 Jorg Jaksche (Ger) ONCE-Eroski 4 75 Didier Rous (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 4 76 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Credit Agricole 4 77 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Lotto Domo 4 78 Tobias Steinhauser (Ger) Team Bianchi 3 79 Santiago Botero (Col) Team Telekom 2 80 Benoit Poilvet (Fra) Credit Agricole 2 81 Alberto Lopez Munain (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 2 82 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 2 83 Inigo Landaluze (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 2 84 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team CSC 1 85 Vjatceslav Ekimov (Rus) US Postal-Berry Floor 1 Mountains 1 Richard Virenque (Fra) Quick.Step-Davitamon 135 pts 2 Jorg Jaksche (Ger) ONCE-Eroski 75 3 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 74 4 Ivan Parra (Col) Kelme-Costa Blanca 71 5 Aitor Garmendia (Spa) Team Bianchi 62 6 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) iBanesto.com 61 7 Rolf Aldag (Ger) Team Telekom 61 8 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Saeco 56 9 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 54 10 Iban Mayo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 53 11 Benoit Poilvet (Fra) Credit Agricole 51 12 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 50 13 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 49 14 Angel Casero (Spa) Team Bianchi 47 15 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Telekom 47 16 Juan Miguel Mercado (Spa) iBanesto.com 37 17 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Alessio 36 18 Alberto Lopez Munain (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 33 19 Roberto Heras (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 24 20 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi 21 21 Walter Beneteau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 21 22 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC 20 23 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Credit Agricole 20 24 Christophe Mengin (Fra) FDJeux.com 20 25 Médéric Clain (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 19 26 Laurent Dufaux (Swi) Alessio 18 27 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 18 28 Frédéric Finot (Fra) Jean Delatour 18 29 Gerrit Glomser (Aut) Saeco 15 30 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Jean Delatour 15 31 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 15 32 Ivan Basso (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 14 33 Manuel Beltran (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 14 34 Steve Zampieri (Swi) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 14 35 Roberto Laiseka (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 12 36 José Luis Rubiera (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 12 37 Franck Renier (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 12 38 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) iBanesto.com 12 39 Bradley McGee (Aus) FDJeux.com 12 40 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Alessio 10 41 Stuart O'grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 10 42 David Millar (GBr) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 8 43 George Hincapie (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 7 44 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team CSC 7 45 Andy Flickinger (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 5 46 Serge Baguet (Bel) Lotto Domo 5 47 Philippe Gaumont (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 5 48 Inigo Chaurreau (Spa) Ag2R Prevoyance 4 49 Floyd Landis (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 4 50 Pavel Padrnos (Cze) US Postal-Berry Floor 4 51 Bram De Groot (Ned) Rabobank 4 52 Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun) Quick.Step-Davitamon 4 53 Davide Bramati (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 4 54 Mikel Pradera (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 3 55 Vjatceslav Ekimov (Rus) US Postal-Berry Floor 3 56 Unai Etxebarria (Ven) Euskaltel-Euskadi 3 57 Jens Voigt (Ger) Credit Agricole 3 58 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 3 59 Vicente Garcia Acosta (Spa) iBanesto.com 3 60 Denis Menchov (Rus) iBanesto.com 2 61 Pablo Lastras (Spa) iBanesto.com 2 62 Giuseppe Guerini (Ita) Team Telekom 1 63 Stephane Goubert (Fra) Jean Delatour 1 64 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 1 65 Damien Nazon (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1 66 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Team CSC 1 Young rider classification 1 Denis Menchov (Rus) iBanesto.com 45.50.07 2 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 5.59 3 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) iBanesto.com 9.41 4 Juan Miguel Mercado (Spa) iBanesto.com 11.46 5 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Ag2R Prevoyance 12.29 6 Michael Rogers (Aus) Quick.Step-Davitamon 20.08 7 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 38.55 8 Matthias Kessler (Ger) Team Telekom 41.02 9 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) iBanesto.com 42.31 10 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Alessio 44.32 11 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) FDJeux.com 50.04 12 Leonardo Bertagnolli (Ita) Saeco 50.37 13 Andy Flickinger (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 52.24 14 Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) Jean Delatour 59.00 15 Nicolas Portal (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 1.09.09 16 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 1.15.53 17 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 1.17.36 18 Maryan Hary (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.19.06 19 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) Jean Delatour 1.20.02 20 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.22.04 21 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.25.08 22 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) Credit Agricole 1.27.18 23 Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 1.32.23 24 David Munoz (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 1.33.49 25 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Jean Delatour 1.38.05 26 Daniel Becke (Ger) Team Bianchi 1.40.02 27 Remmert Wielinga (Ned) Rabobank 1.40.26 Centenaire classification 1 Damien Nazon (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 10 pts 2 Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 12 3 Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) Team Bianchi 17 4 Gerrit Glomser (Aut) Saeco 23 5 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 27 6 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 29 7 Luca Paolini (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 29 8 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) Credit Agricole 31 9 José Enrique Gutierrez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 32 10 Stuart O'grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 38 11 Bradley McGee (Aus) FDJeux.com 48 12 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Lotto Domo 50 13 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi 53 14 Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) Jean Delatour 60 15 Pablo Lastras (Spa) iBanesto.com 67 16 Iban Mayo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 69 17 Romans Vainsteins (Lat) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 69 18 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Telekom 71 19 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Ag2R Prevoyance 71 20 José Luis Rubiera (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 72 Teams classification 1 Team CSC 134.32.58 2 iBanesto.com 0.27 3 Euskaltel - Euskadi 11.09 4 US Postal - Berry Floor 15.20 5 Cofidis Credit Par Telephone 21.16 6 Team Bianchi 27.35 7 Team Telekom 31.20 8 ONCE - Eroski 38.58 9 Brioches La Boulangere 42.25 10 Kelme - Costa Blanca 44.52 11 Quick Step - Davitamon 53.42 12 Ag2R Prevoyance 56.43 13 Gerolsteiner 1.01.27 14 Alessio 1.02.36 15 Saeco - Macchine Per Caffe 1.08.49 16 Rabobank 1.20.10 17 Jean Delatour 1.30.20 18 Fassa Bortolo 1.59.27 19 Credit Agricole 2.14.57 20 Lotto - Domo 2.22.33 21 Vini Caldirola - So.Di 2.41.28 22 FDJeux.com 2.45.26 -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this 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Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Thu Jul 17 16:41:31 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 08:41:31 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 11 - Back on the Bike Message-ID: <3F16C3AB.3090708@cyclofiend.com> Stage 11 - Narbonne - Toulouse - 153 km 1895 km completed and 1531 to go.... piece of cake. The riders stretch out their legs by covering 47 km in the first hour. Today greets the day with 91 degrees at 31% humidity with increasing winds from the Northwest, which will be into the faces of the riders on today's stage. Carlos Dacruz of FDJeux.com scoots away from Credit Agricole's Stuart O'Grady at the first sprint point, keeping him from nabbing the maximum sprint points. Dacruz' teammate Baden Cooke holds the Green Jersey by 9 points, so every bit counts. The sprint-point-duking-pair continue their effort, and some others come out to play. They establish an 8 man breakaway, edging out to 1:57 with 85 km to go today: 16 - Isidro Nozal - ONCE 32 - Juan Antonio Flecha - iBanseto.com 43 - Bram de Groot - Rabobank 63 - Inigo Cuesta - Cofidis 94 - Carlos Dacruz - FDJeux.com 118 - Michael Rogers - QuickStep 127 - Stuart O'Grady - Credit Agricole 158 - Nicolas Portal - Ag2R They continue working well, rotating themselves out to a lead of 2:21. Credit Agricole's lanky Australian-raised-German Jens Voigt has trouble staying in contact with the main bunch. His suffering easily shows across the cameras, as he wrenches at the bars as they climb the day's only hill - the Cat 3 Cote de Saissac. The leaders are rolling along at 2:46 behind. USPS gets a little lazy help from Lotto and Brioches La Boulangere riders, but after a bit, they drift away from their pacemaking turns. ======================================== Today's Trivia Question - The Tour has had stages annulled four times. Which was the last time this occurred - 1998, 1995 or 1982? ======================================== Voight continues going slower, gradually looking worse and trying to continue ticking over his gear, but with the speed of the peleton and the remaining miles into a headwind, he will have difficulty finishing within the day's time limit - probably about 7 percent of the finishing time, as this is a flat stage. The USPS continues to ratchet down the lead, although not necessarily because they want to do so. As far as the overall lead is concerned, this is a "good break". 61 km remain as the leaders have moved back to about a 2:46 as the leaders roll through the day's feed zone. With the pack spread across the roadway, it's not surprising to hear that the gap has edged out to 3:35. Even the large cows at the roadside watch the parade of riders. Both Damien Nazon of Boulangere and Robbie McEwen of Lotto were both in trouble on the climb. That expains why their teammates slid away from the pacemaking duties. A low moto-camera gives closeup footage of Voight's current gearing choice - a 39 x 25, and he'd clearly like at least a 27. The broom wagon begins fluffing up its pillows, and I would bet that one of the Credit Agricole team cars is moving some gear off the back seat. His slow cadence continues. One of the riders who I'm surprised to see still with us is none other than Gilberto Simoni, who had been wheezing his way up the climbs of the Alps like a half-wrecked accordian. The break have edged things out to 4:12 as the moto cameras get all impressionistic as they blow through the town of Revel. With camera angles reminiscent of film school excesses, they loop around a roundabout and you get a sense of the speed with which the riders attack the course. Armstrong has called tomorrow's stage, "the most important time trial of my career." Despite the elevation map which shows it as fairly flat, it has been described as undulating and a bit tricky, with a short climb beginning about 10 km from the finish. He's clearly keying on it, and must have the speed to create time gaps within the relatively short 47 km length of the course. Voight has already fallen behind the time limit on the roadway, and the broom wagon trails him like a hungry shark. 40 km to go, and the riders begin to string out underneath the tree-lined roadways on a beautiful sunny day. Telekom has slipped into the rotation along with the Boulangere riders and a few from Vini-Caldirola. Clearly the sprinters would like to prevent O'Grady from using his "local knowledge". O'Grady actually is based in the Toulouse, as are a number of othe Australian riders. Word gets up to the break that the main group is winding up their effort, and they seem to notch it up a bit to maintain their lead. Jens finally packs it in at the feed zone, and quietly slips into the team car and relinquishes his number - he looks totally wan as he slumps into the back seat. 3:32 gap with just under 35 km to go. Pretty much dead flat roads to the finish. Even Saeco dips into the rotation along with some Lotto riders - the big figure of Axel Merckx dwarfs a couple of the Boulangere boys. Up front, the breakaway approaches the sprint point in the town of Caraman. Dacruz kicks out hard to again prevent O'Grady's effort to gain maximum points. O'Grady pushes a bit harder as they continue to move forward, causing a bit of disorganization in the breakaway as they recognize that they do not want to let the Aussie get away. They seem to be able to hold their gap at around 2 and a half minutes. The break stretches under the 20 km to go banner with the hint of a cross to tail wind. iBanesto's Flecha had skipped off the front while no one was watching, but gets reeled back in without breaking rhythm. 15 km to go with a 1:54 gap. ONCE's Nozal pushes off the front, gets reabsorbed and Flecha immediately rides off the front with a sharp turn of speed. He tucks into the drops while the rest of the breakaway look at one another and dink around. O'Grady accellerates, but draws every other rider up with his effort. Flecha has managed to gain 15 seconds over the break, while they must have lost a bit to the main group as they foul their consistency and drop their speed accordingly - yep, now down to nearly a minute and a half. Flecha skims up the gutters under the 10 km to go banner. Rogers blows through the same banner after fading back to the rear of the bunch to launch his accelleration. He gains a gap and Dacruz moves strongly up the roadway to snag his wheel. Rogers gives him a flick of the elbow to pull through, but the FDJeux.com rider modulates his effort - he moves up, but without the necessary vigor. Clearly, he wouldn't mind seeing the main bunch catch everyone, giving more points to teammate Cooke. Flecha holds an 18 second gap, while the breakaway remnants reabsorb Dacruz and Rogers. De Groot immediately attacks - it's definitely a brain-stem function for Dutch riders. But, O'Grady and Rogers work together to grab him. 4 km to go for Flecha, holding 20 seconds while the peleton is 1:25. Nozal blows past O'Grady, who can find no one to work with him - all fear his sprint. 2 km to go as the lone Spaniard rider tries to find a hole iin the wind. Nozal continues alone, finally with O'Grady just getting ornery enough to chase him alone. Cuesta pushes his nose out in chase of O'Grady. Now Flecha has ony 1,000 meters to go, finishing at the Toulouse airport. There's no hiding on the wide roads as he pushes into a headwind, scraping up everything from his legs as the banner seems not to move an inch toward him - staying tantalizingly far away despite his massive effort. Behind him, riders continue to hammer and close the gap, but they will not make it, and he crosses the finish line miming a bow & arrow shot through the finish banner. Straight as an arrow? Cupid? His last name (Flecha = Fleche = Arrow?) Sometimes the dance is slightly cryptic. Nonetheless, this talented Spanish rider has won the stage. Now only 4 seconds behind, De Groot and Nozal duke it out with Nozal taking it and De Groot again finding himself third. In the chasing break group DaCruz once again nicks O'Grady to the line - three for three on the day. Ripping up the roadway, the main bunch comes in and McEwen just pushes his bike ahead of Cooke as they scream up the barriers. Stage 11 - Results 1 - Juan Antnio Flecha - iBanesto.com - 3:29:33 2 - Bram de Groot - Rabobank - @ :04 3 - Isidro Nozal - ONCE - s.t. 4 - Inigo Cuesta - Cofidis - @ :15 5 - Carlos Dacruz - FDJeux.com - @ :23 6 - Stuart O'Grady - Credit Agricole - s.t. 7 - Nicolas Portal - Ag2R - s.t. 8 - Michael Rogers - Quick Step - s.t. 9 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto - @ :42 10 - Baden Cooke - FDJeux.com - s.t. Overall - No changes Lance in yellow again, but we are shown the perverse image of Arnold Schwarzenegger on the podium with Lance, as he seems to be the "star of the day" winner. Schwarzenegger wrenches Armstrong skyward as he salutes the crowd - hopefully doing no lasting damage... Abandoned - Jens Voigt - Credit Agricole Tomorrow's Stage - The Race of Truth - Individual Time Trial - 47 km from Gaillac to Cap'Decouverte. "and more will be revealed..." ======================================== Trivia Answer: That'd be 1998, after the sit-down protests of the riders following the Festina Affair. Stages were annulled during all three years listed, in '95 following the death of Fabio Casartelli, and in '82 for delays due to a demonstration. ======================================== -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Fri Jul 18 17:27:43 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 09:27:43 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 12 - Individual Time Trial Message-ID: <3F181FFF.3070006@cyclofiend.com> Stage 12 - Gaillac - Cap'Decouverte - 47 km Individual Time Trial Four riders from yesterday will not take to the start house, as in addition to the abandonment of Credit Agricole's Jens Voigt, teammate Stephane Auge did not make the time cutoff. Bianchi also lost a man in the form of Tobias Steinhauser, while FDJeux.com's Matthew Wilson also was unable to make the time cut. What a day they will miss, 97 degrees w/ 30% humidity, on an almost entirely exposed course that twists and turns, undulates and finally thwacks the riders with a climb with 8 km to go. Out on the roadway, riders have been rolling away at two minute intervals, trying to pace their efforts through the sweltering weather. Gerrit Glomser from Saeco seems to think it's a team time trial as he continues following other riders. He spent a considerable amount of time behind Santiago as he went past, and tried to cling to Andrea Noe of Alessio as he went past. That may get him the judges' "special prize" which unfortunately means a negative time bonus for drafting. The rules are quite straight forward in this respect - you may not ride behind the person in front of you, and unless you passing, may not ride within 25 feet of the rider ahead. Telekom's Santiago Botero - the current world time trial champion - rumbles throuh the heat, moving strongly but not quite catching current leader Uwe Peschel of Gerolsteiner - who has been leading for a considerable time with a time of 1:01:58. David Millar of Cofidis, who has fitted a front derailleur to his bicycle for today's stage, posts the best time so far at the 13 km mark - 7 seconds ahead of Peschel's time. =========================== Today's Trivia Question Of the riders who have won five Tours de France, who has the best record? =========================== Only the French press would accuse Tyler Hamilton of not having a broken collarbone - it seems they think he's just doing too well. Tyler has offered to help them learn to read XRays, but will let his legs do the talking today as he tries to regain some of the momentum lost in the first 11 stages. Iban Mayo of Euskatel-Euskadi moves out on the roadway - he has won a short time trial this season, beating Tyler by 11 seconds, but it was in the rain and had a treacherous descent on which he made all of his time as Hamilton wisely shut it down to make sure he did not suffer an injury. In the Dauphine Libere, Mayo finished over a minute and a half behind Lance Armstrong in a 30 km time trial. Vinokourov looks a little restrained as he rolls down the start ramp. A strong rider, he has been steadily improving his time trialing - one of the benefits of having Santiago Botero on the same team. The young and strong Ivan Basso from Fassa Bortolo sits a bit high on the bike, but then again, so did Indurain. Although he has virtually no teammates left in the race, he continues to push on. Lance looks as drawn and foucsed as he's ever looked on a start line. He's out the chute and on the course, having lost one long TT in the past five years. Miller drops off his pace a bit, losing the 7 seconds he had at the first time check, running through at 33 km just under a second behind. Riders are definitely falling off their pace in the final 10 km, as they negotiate the final climb which juts up before the finish. Word is that Laurent Jalabert was consulted for the development of this time trial course. It definitely seems to test the "all-around" qualities of each rider. Ullrich moves through the first time check a good 15 seconds ahead of Millar's best time. At that speed, he probably is showing up on weather radar. Ullrich looks low and strong, just pummeling the pedals in a huge gear - he must have a 55T chainring. He rips along under cloudless skies, not seeming to be affected by the heat. Ullrich has already caught Basso and blows past him on a straight stretch of road like he's doing a trackstand. Armstrong goes through the first check - he is on roughly the same time as Ullrich, but a few tenths of a second slot him into 2nd place at that point. Vinokourov has managed a decent time at the first check, only 19 seconds behind Ullrich/Armstrong. Ullrich now picks up his four minute man and moves past him in a sweaty celeste blur - it's none other than USPS's Roberto Heras, not known as the world's best time trialist. Zubeldia shows that his prologue effort was not a fluke, sliding into the new best time at the 2nd check - 42:20. However, Ullrich's effort eclipses this time, comeing through at 40:28! Vinokourov nabs Iban Mayo just before the 2nd time check, clearly raising his game as he fights to retain his podium position - he passes through with a very good time of 41:30. The road will pitch up, as I've said, and it becomes apparant that Armstrong may need that edge, as he comes through the 33 km check 40 seconds behind Ullrich's time. Zubeldia finally unseats Pechov, notching into the first place at 1:01:12.31. Menchov continues holding his white jersey lead with a 1:03:47 finish. Ullrich suddenly appears near the finish! He has been screaming along, unleashing his massive power with an authoritative effort - he will definitely finish under an hour! He emphatically crosses the line with an unbeleivable time of 58:32.92! Gott im Himmel! The big German is back... As the top riders hit the final climb, word is coming from an unofficial time check that Ullrich has continued to extend his margin in front of Armstrong to over a minute at around 41.5 km. Vinokourov heads uphill with his slightly labored climbing style. Lance has raised himself out of the saddle and continues to increase his cadence. Iban Mayo wobbles noticeably on the roadway and looks to be slowing. Hamilton finishes with an excellent time, finishing in 1:01:15, just off the time of Haimar Zubeldia. Vinokourov has definitely ridden the Time Trial of his career, limiting his losses with a time of 1:00:39. Mayo finishes almost a full three minutes behind - sprinting gamely but conceding much too much time. However, don't count that man out - they head into the Basque region of the Pyrenees where thousands of flag-waving and screaming fans will urge him onward. Finally Armstrong comes into view, but he's already slipped past Ullrich's finishing time and has a few turns left to negotiate. He rolls strongly through the final meters, finishing with the second best time of the day - still nearly a minute and half behind Ullrich at 1:00:08. As always, he has an impassive look on his face - neither looking destroyed and upset or jubilent at having limited Ullrich's gains. So, what does all of this mean? The cream is certainly rising to the top, as Vinokourov continues to have the best season of his career, while an on-form Ullrich is absolutely the dangerous competitor which Armstrong has always said he would be. Although Mayo has fallen back, it would be stupid to count him out as the Tour heads onto his home turf for the next four days. With all the excitement, it's easy to forget that Armstrong does still wear the yellow jersey. Further, as I said before, the specificity of his training has to take into account both the race course and the competition - he could not afford only to stress climbing or Ullrich would be in the lead now, and he could not just emphasize flatland power or the climbers would have had more of a gap. His goal has always been to win a three week bike race. As the Pyrenees loom, we shall see how that plays out. Stage Results - Stage 12 Individual Time Trial 1 - Jan Ullrich - Bianchi - 58:32 2 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - @ 1:36 3 - Alexandre Vinokourov - Team Telekom - @ 2:06 4 - Haimar Zubeldia - Euskatel-Euskadi - @ 2:40 5 - Tyler Hamilton - CSC - @ 2:43 6 - Uwe Peschel - - @ 3:25 7 - David Millar - Cofidis - @ 3:55 8 - I Chaurreu - - @ 4:01 9 - David Plaza - Kelme? - @ 4:37 10 - Santiago Botero - Telekom - @ 5:00 Overall Standings - Stage 12 MJ - Lance Armstrong - 50:16:45 2 - Jan Ullrich - @ :34 3 - Alexandre Vinokourov - @ :51 4 - Tyler Hamilton - @ 2:59 5 - Haimar Zubeldia - @ 4:29 6 - Iban Mayo - Euskatel-Euskadi - @ 4:29 7 - Francisco Mancebo - iBanesto.com - @ 5:01 8 - Ivan Bass - Fassa Bortolo - @ 6:49 9 - Denis Menchov - iBanesto.com - @ 7:24 10 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - @ 7:55 Stage 13 - Tomorrow Toulouse - Ax 3 Domaines 197 km Flat, flat, flat, flat, flat until about 120 km. Then it's time to put on your climbing shoes once more, as the road rockets upward - first onto the 2001 meter Port de Pailheres (Category 1, averaging 7.8% with extended bits at 10%)before dropping to nearly the start elevation and attacking the Ax-3 Domaines climb - another Category 1 climb with 9.11 km of ascending. For you mountain trivia buffs out there, the Port de Pailheres is actually longer and steeper than the Hors Categorie Col du Tourmalet, but for some reason the race organizers have kept a Cat1 label on it. Of course, all of this comes the day before a Pryrenes stage with 6 peaks on Sunday, followed by two crunchers on Monday and Wednesday. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Today's Trivia Answer: Eddy Merckx - won 5 Tours in 7 starts Hinault and Anquetil won 5 out of 8 Indurain won 5 in a row, but rode the Tour 12 times. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Sat Jul 19 21:24:54 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 13:24:54 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 13 - Another Brand of Mountains Message-ID: <3F19A916.4010504@cyclofiend.com> Stage 13 - Toulouse - Ax-3 Domaines - 197 km The riders rest one day, blaze at top speed for an hour the next, and now today rumble up the valleys in the Pyrenees before attacking two monster climbs. The first is Port de Pailheres (2001 meters), which only begins in the final 50 km of today's stage, followed by a steep drop almost down to the starting altitude and a mountaintop finish at the 1372 meter tall Ax-3 Domaines above the town of Ax les Thermes. As they say, the Pyrenees on the border of Spain are different than the Alps. Frankly, I find that to be a fine distinction that is lost on me - granted, there are less covering trees at the lower elevations - they all rise steeper and nastier than anything around these parts. Another hot day today, in the 90's as the riders head almost due south from Toulouse over flat roads towards their date with ascending. At the first two sprint points, a breakaway which had moved away leads the charge, as much as 8 minutes in front of the bunch. Credit Agricole's intimidator, Thor Hushovd, nabs the first two sprint points, so no changes have occurred in the very tight push for the Green Jersey. The bonus of the day is taht Chechu Rubiera from USPS has managed to sneak himself into the breakaway, totally taking pressure off of them to lead the charge. With 94 km to go the gaps has been squished down to 6 and half minutes as Saeco drives the pace after these riders: 9 - Jose Luis Rubiera - USPS 14 - Jan Hruska - ONCE 44 - Oscar Freire - Rabobank 94 - Carlos Dacruz - FDJeux.com 125 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole 149 - Rik Verbrugghe - Lotto 151 - Laurent Brochard - Ag2R 159 - Ludovic Turpin - Ag2R 199 - Markus Zberg - Gerolsteiner 203 - Alessandro Bertolini - Alessio You seldom hear about riders being eliminated on time during a time trial stage, but neither Unai and Davide Extebarria (same team, same last names, different countries...)of Euskatel-Euskadi are not at the start, both were eliminated on time. They had finished just within the time limited, but both received a number of penalties for drafting behind other riders, which pushed their finishing times beyond the limit. Also heavily penalized, but not on the slow bus home was Seaeco's Gerrit Glomser, whom even the cameras found dawdling in the slipstream of other riders. Pietro Caucchioli from Alessio did not toe the start today, so a least three climbers will not contest the Pyrenean stages. Out on the road and fully struggling is Sanday Casar, who finished in the top 15 in this year's Giro D'Italia, then went on to contest the Tour of Switzerland. Maybe a few too many hours ridden in anger this year... ================== Today's Trivia Question - By how much did Maurice Garin win the inaugural Tour deFrance 100 years ago? ================== On the front remain the bike riders from Saeco, some of whom share their vexations with the cameras. Perhaps the slumbering Simoni will reawaken today as the climbing begins again. They are keeping the break in check, not drastically regaining time and steadily gaining back seconds, now down to 6:14. 164 riders left, 6 of 22 teams complete Saeco's Danilo Diluca sat up at the feed zone, and has withdrawn. Slightly ironic that his teammates are the ones who have set the pace that has chopped him off the back. Another rider with some discomfort today is none other than Jan Ullrich, who has been reported to have intestinal difficulties, perhaps caused by the copious amounts of water that all of the riders have been forced to ingest in the pervasive heat of the past few days. The cameras have caught him coming back onto the tail of the group at least once, paced by a couple teammates. It is Lance's 52nd day in yellow, which will move him past Jaques Anquetil if he retains it at the end of the day. Rubiera keeps sitting quietly at the tail end of breakaway, his presence taking the pressure off of the USPS team. He's actually the best-placed rider in the bunch, a bit more than 17 minutes behind Armstrong. 70 km to, 6:10 to the breakaway. Unlike the summits of the Alps, the heat has made its way up to the top of the Pryenees, as the temperature has crept up to 85 at the finish - there will be no blessed thermatic relief as they climb today. Robbie McEwen of Lotto nearly trades a moment's inattention for a lifetime of regret, sliding off the left hand side of the road and tumbling into the gutter, rolling back onto the roadway in a cloud of dust and weeds. He looks to be ok, almost immediately back on the bike, but he's left a little skin on the tarmac. He rejoins the group with little fanfare. Nearing the base of the big climb, the gap has edged down to 5:15. The road has been rising steadily toward the "measured" distance of the Port de Pailheres, which kicks up at an average 7.8%, but has extended pitches up at 10% in quite a few spots, growing steeper in the final 3 kms. The gap slides under the 5 minute mark for the first time since about kilometer 30 or so. The climb begins to bite, even if it's not "official", and Pierrick Fredrigo of Credit Agricole drifts back into the team cars. He will be joined by others quite soon. Markus Zberg hits the pedals hard as they hit the "defined" bit of the climb. Not known as a climber, nonetheless he manages to split the break into shards. The big boys and helpers begin to drift back while the bird-boned men accellerate up to the Swiss rider. Near the fron The back of the main group boast such names as Telekom's Santiago Botero and Brioches la Boulangere's Sylvan Chavanal. They will try to limit their losses for the next kilometers. Ullrich and a teammate hit the front of the peleton, which suddenly wakes things up. Armstrong is dancing lightly on the pedals while Ullrich just sits and brings his big diesel engine up to speed. A number of USPS riders are slippingn away, and Armstrong seems fairly isolated behind the two celeste riders. Vinokourov sits immediately in the shadows of Armstrong's yellow jersey. Ullrich has throttled back a bit, after damaging the entire Kelme squad and a number of other pretenders, who now limp up the climb in scattered groups, knowing only that pain lies in the future. A group has formed around Armstrong of about 20 or so riders. 12 km to go on this climb. Ag2R's Laurent Brochard is representin' the mullet well in the front group. Carlos Sastre from CSC and Juan Mercado of iBanesto have moved off the front. They begin to nick back the memers of the brakaway, as the big man Thor Hushovd slides backwards. Gonzalez de Galdeano surges to maintain the wheel of Rubiera at the very front. He's been easily riding along as they hit the continually steepening bits. In the Armstrong group, Manuel Beltran sets the pace as Zberg pays for his early efforts. Behind him Zubeldia, Basso, Tyler are all within the select bunch. Heras sits at the back of the group. Rubiera has left Gonzalez de Galdeano on the climb. He doesn't seem to be surging, but the ONCE rider has been unable to stay in touch. Sastre continues upping the pace with Mercado A closeup of Armstrong's face shows deep-set eyes. Anyone who has the gall to say that he doesn't have to make an effort to win this race needs to be corrected. The sun moves back out of some clouds and continue to add heat to the riders. The Armstrong group seems to grow a bit, thinned by the loss of both of the Bianchi riders other than Ullrich and the addition of a couple of climbers who regain their valley-roads-deadened legs. The Sastre/Mercado combo blitz past Brochard, and continue up the roadway towards the theory of Rubiera and Gonzalez de Galdeano, who are a couple of switchbacks above. DaCruz is picked up by the Armstrong bunch. Euskatel-Euskadi also has Iban Mayo tucked into the group and a slightly suffering Roberto Laisecka who may want a slightly larger cog on his rear wheel. The roads continue to narrow - now no more than a single lane wide - and the crowds continue to thicken. Armstrong has Heras and Beltran leading the way, while Ullrich continues rolling over his larger gear, rising out of the saddle to lessen pressure for a few minutes. Mercado and Sastre trade pulls in their effort to grasp the cimbing Rubiera. Heras finds himself on the back of the group with Mayo as the riders continue to drive upwards. The hellish switchbacks continue, with the riders pulling a steep 180 about every 20-30 seconds or so as mountain goats complain about the pitch. Laurent Dufaux moves strongly away. The Alessio rider a bit back on the overall, so the Armstrong group lets him go, worrying only about overall victory. Now Iban Mayo moves hard, full zip jersey flapping behind him. Armstrong immediately accellerates, drawing the gap closed instantly but bringing Ullrich, Vinokourov and a few other riders up with him. Heras drifts away out the back of this group under the sharp change of effort. Mayo goes again, Armstrong moves up the roadway with Ullrich matching his accelleration. Ullrich, Vinokourov, Zubeldia and possibly Basso stay on his wheel as they retrieve the dynamic Basque climber. Armstrong looks to be using the accellerations to his advantage, not needing to instigate the atttacks himself, but still causing selections in the group. Beltran has managed to stay in touch, though he has drifted a bit off the edge of the Armstrong bunch. The pace has visibly slowed and Ullrich leads around a switchback. Beltran makes a huge effort to move back up through the group and again takes over the pacemaking. Polka-Boy Richard Virenque has appearred at the end of the bunch, knowing the need to continually nip KoM points if he expects to keep the jersey. Credit Agricole's Christophe Moreau seems to be in the bunch as well and the quietly-in-pain Tyler Hamilton still in touch. Best young rider Denis Menchov of iBanesto has maintained contact. Up at the front of the bike race, Sstre leads Mercado and the two have caught Rubiera. Dufaux has seriously cut down the gap to the bunch. The trio is together and begins worrying about whethr their jerseys are zipped for the harrowing descent. They roll under the KoM banner and begin their way toward teh tecnical descent. The Armstrong group of 14 riders is probably 40 or so seconds behind Dufaux, who crosses the KoM point about 50 seconds behind the leading trio. Everyone seems to be negotiating the descent with a combination of control and care - except Dufaux, that is. The leading trio course under the 15 km banner in aero tucks. Dufaux skims along the edge of stone retaining walls on the high side and low walls on the downhill side. I cannot understand how they can even get two cars to pass one another on the roads the riders are descending, and the use every centimeter of road width to set up for and recover from the continuing switchbacks and bends. In the town at the base of the climb, Dufaux is about 30 seconds behind the lead trio, while four or five riders immediately pop out the back. Heras has gone to the front with a vicious turn of effort. Beltran has pitched his tent and now has just got to get up the final 9 km's or so. Helmets fly as they hit the final climb - since it's less than 10 km, they can doff their caps. Sastre has mvoed sharply away at thte 7 km to go mark, Mercado trying to bridge the gap while Rubiera just continues to steadily spin upwards, waiting for the arrival of his team leader. Patric Halgand moves hard to get away, but his sharp accelleration fades as the Armstrong bunch - led by the incredible Roberto heras - rolls upward to grab him. Dufaux has veins sticking out of veins, trying to cotinue his efforts, but still about 40 seconds or so off the front of the Armstrong group. He can see nothing but open road to the next switchback. Rubiera has drited back to the Armstrong bunch, so Lance has two helpers leading him uphill. They set an incredibly hard pace as they shake off the pretenders in the bunch. Heras has suddenly cramped and literally stops on the roadway. Virenque limps around him as he drifts backward. Now Mancebo drifts backward, having put all of his efforts onto the climbs - an incredible level of work out of this talented climber. Hamilton is just hanging onto the back of the Armstrong group, as he and Moreau strain to stay in touch. A gap has formed as they hit the 5 km to go banner. Now Mayo has paid for his early efforts, drifting away from the Armstrong group - only Armstrong, Heras, Ullrich, Zubeldia, Basso and Vinokourov left in the bunch. Dufaux is now caught by the this group of the climbing elite. His backwards movements box Ullrich for a minute or so as they continue to move up the hill. The screaming inebiriated Basques are running alongside with increasing fervo, screaming into the ear of Zubeldia. Up front, Sastre continues to draw clear, nowhere to hide, but everything to gain. Rubiera sets pace past the 4 km banner, while the idiot viking in the football helmet runs alongside with the largest US flag this side of the Macy's parade. Off the back of the leader group, Mercado is pedaling squares. Zubeldia attacks the Armstrong group! A sharp accelleration puts an immediate gap on the other five riders - now just four as Rubiera immiately falls away under the increased pace. Armstrong and Ullrich eye one another to see who is most worried about this revelation from the Basque team. Now Armstrong moves hard to close a gap which had appearred. Mayo is out the back with this accelleration, having just reattached a few seconds earlier. Zubeldia struggles a bit, and the big celeste figure of Ullrich appears to be at the controls at the front of this bunch. 20 or 30 meters behind, Mayo almost gets taken out by the veering photo moto bike - have I mentioned that there are always a large number of variables in this race? Ullrich bangs out a high tempo, and looks around to see who is around. The first answer is Zubeldia! Zubeldia! Zubeldia! The Basque rider blasts away again! This time Vinokourov moves first, realizing he has the most to lose to the rising Basque star. Ullrich moves hard onto the Khazakhstanian riders wheel - they have gapped Armstrong! It's unclear if he was boxed or just not able to respond, but Rubiera pulls wide to the left to get out of his way - he has punched his ticket for the day - and Armstrong looks at empty roadway between him and the fast accellerating trio. He shuts down the gap with a strong effort and moves right back into the mix. Now Vinokourov blasts away with the speed he showed on L'Alp d'Huez. He gains a bigger gap than anyone has managed and may be cracking the big boys behind him.... But Ullrich is driving upwards with extreme power and now gaps Armstrong! Ullrich has closed the gap to Vinokourov and moves ahead of him. Ullrich in the lead and Armstrong is in trouble. No, that is not a typo. Armstrong is in trouble. He barely hangs on to Basso's wheel, and the young Italian is not in contact with anyone... Ullrich has dropped Vinokourov and continues rolling up the roadway, probably under the 2 km to go range, as they are now protected from the zealots on the roadway by strong metal barriers. On the wide roadway, Lance can see Ullrich away in the distance. The pitch of this climb lessens as they near the finish, which favors the big meat power of the German. Armstrong is out of the saddle and reaching deeper than can be imagined. Oh yeah - there's another aspect to the stage today - Sastre hammers into the final 1 km as the roadway flattens somewhat. Behind him 2nd place Mercado gets passed by a flying Ullrich - he stands to gain 12 seconds if he can get the 2nd place bonus time. Sastre hammers into the final 200 meters - he will not get caught! Reaching into his rear jersey pocket, he pulls out... uummmmm, a pacifier? Yep! Maybe he's trying to outdo Vinokourov's "rocking the baby" move. But, if you're winning a stage in the Tour, it's better than spiking your bike... Ullrich moving up the roadway with knee-busting pressures on the pedals. Recovering somehow behind him, Zubeldia flies up the roadway to try to pace him for the 2nd place time bonuses - but he will not catch the flying German who takes second at 1:01. Immediately behind him appears the yellow jersey of Lance Armstrong, who seems only to be 7 or 8 seconds behind. He must have had an amazingly deep scare which lit fires he did not know could be burned. Vinokourov now appears, also losing time as he rolls through the finish. When the big dogs howled, his speed did not appear to be enough. Again with a decent interlude to reflect, Moreau leads Tyler to the line over at about 2 and a half minutes. Zubeldia may have moved past him in the overall. Dufaux gamely pushes over the pedals and comes in at around three minutes. I don't know, but I think stages like this are bad for my heart...and there are still three more Pryenean stages to go. Results - Stage 13 1 - Carlos Sastre - CSC - 5:16:08 2 - Jan Ullrich - Bianchi - @ 1:01 3 - Haimar Zubeldia - Euskatel-Euskadi - @ 1:02 4 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - @ 1:08 5 - Alexandre Vinokourov - Telekom - @ 1:18 6 - Ivan Basso - Fassa Bortolo - @ 1:18 7 - Juan Mercado - iBanesto.com - @ 1:24 8 - Iban Mayo - Euskatel-Euskadi - @ 1:59 9 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - @ 2:32 10 - Tyler Hamilton - CSC - @ 2:32 Overall Standings - MJ - Lance Armstrong - 55:34:01 2 - Jan Ullrich - @ :15 3 - Alexandre Vinokourov - @ 1:01 4 - Haimar Zubeldia - @ 4:14 5 - Tyler Hamilton - @ 4:23 6 - Iban Mayo - @ 5:20 7 - Ivan Basso - @ 6:59 8 - Francisco Mancebo - @ 6:59 9 - Carlos Sastre - @ 8:47 10 - Christophe Moreau - @ 9:19 ================== Today's Trivia Answer - 2 hours, 49 miniutes ================== Tomorrow's Stage - St. Girons - Loudenville - 191 km Six categorized climbs, including the Col eu Portet d'Aspet where in 1995 Fabio Casartelli was killed on the descent. Tactically, the repeated climbs should favor the strength of USPS, who's riders obviously had shut it down once they did their jobs today. But, all bets are off as the wily German begins to demonstrate his phenomenal strength. As another footnote, Armstrong is said to have lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 pounds during yesterday's time trial due to dehydration. He clearly suffered on the base of the first climb (and admitted as much). But, he feels he will continue to get better in days ahead. -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Mon Jul 21 06:17:33 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 22:17:33 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 14 - Pyrenees: Chapter 2 Message-ID: <3F1B776D.5030508@cyclofiend.com> Stage 14 - St. Girons - Loudenville - 191 km Today's stage has the profile of a saw blade. With the exception of the final climb of the Col de Peyresourde, which drops only 400 meters to the finishing town of Loudenville, each of the categorized climbs in today's stage drop all the way down to the starting altitude or beyond. Somehow, they've also stuck in two sprint points - once hilariously enough in the short speck of flat roads between the 2nd to last and final climbs. My guess is that won't matter a damn by the time the big dogs howl and mothers whisk their children from the streets. In the dark corner of a shady bar, the assassins sharpen their knives and prepare themselves. Blood will run in the gutters of southwestern France either today or on tomorrow's Col d'Aspin/Col du Tourmalet/Luz Ardiden trifecta. The only question which remains is "Whose?" and "How Much?" In yesterday's post-race interviews, Lance Armstrong spoke about losing some 12 pounds of water weight during the Individual Time Trial. If that is an accurate statement, it would go a long way to explaining (A) why he continued to drift off the pace of Ullrich during the TT and (B) why he was in trouble on the climbs of yesterday's stage. He's also said that he's feeling better, and getting better, and expects to ride better in the days to come. It will be intresting to see if those prognostications come true. Seeing Lance actually get dropped near the top of yesterday's final climb boggled the mind. It has happened, of course during a Tour in which he won - when he stumbled on the climbs on a long stage in which he had hunger knock and had to pull in his horns and work to limit his losses. But after the past few years' dominance, he has taken on the air of one who does not make mistakes and does not have bad days. I've heard people say that he makes it look easy. Well, easy it may look, but the Tour has way too many variables to be taken for granted. Lance has always raced smart, and his reflexes and technical riding skill have generally kept him out of trouble. This year, he began the Tour with a well-concealed intestinal problem, got thwacked in the back during the nasty everyone-hits-the-pavement crash in the dogleg of the first stage finish, and has suffered through the staggering heatwave of summer 2003. Yet, he has avoided horrific accidents like that which claimed Beloki and answered all the attacks but one so far. Halfway through today's stage, the riders will pass the monument to Fabio Casartelli, Lance's teammate who was killed in the 1995 Tour. That monument has inspired Lance before, and it will be interesting to see what result it has today. Climbing on today's stage is somewhere in the neighorhood of 15,600 feet. Richard Virenque got all crackly early on today, nabbing points on all three of the starting climbs of the day, while inspiring a breakaway of 17 riders to stay away. He eyes the points for the Col de Monte as he animates the attack on the Category 1 climb. Euskatel-Eukadi has taken up the reins to bring things together, as they feel the need to get a stage victory in front of the throngs of fans who wear orange, wave the Basque flag and shriek like banshees whenever one of their sons rides anywhere near them. Manuel Beltran quietly hides in the breakaway, for the second day USPS relies upon the extreme depth of their squad to give them a tactical advantage. Others have lost all advantage: Today's Hit List includes Rene Hasselbacher and Davide Rebellin from Gerolsteiner, Rik Verbrugghe of Lotto, Robbie Hunter of Rabobank, and Andrej Hauptman of Vini Caldirola, all of whom have dropped out during today's stage. Yesterday, ONCE's Jan Hruska slipped quietly into the team car. Still out on the roadway, the sprinters are already in a world of hurt, as Lotto's Robbie McEwen in trouble, sliding back into the team cars along with with Fredy Rodriguez of Vini Caldirola, who bleeds sweat like he's got a bucket pouring above his head. 11 or 12 riders - depending upon who has drifted out the back on the steeper pitches - have coalesced from the bunch that went out at around the 12 km point, drifting somewhere inside of 10 minutes in the lead of the big boys. 3 - Manual Beltran - USPS 17 - Mikel Pradera - ONCE 27 - Daniele Nardello - Telekom 51 - Gilberto Simoni - Saeco 76 - Andrea Peron - CSC 111 - Richard Virenque - Quckstep 112 - Paolo Bettini - Quickstep 118 - Michael Rogers - Quickstep 153 - Alexandre Botcherov - Ag2R 169 - Steve Zampieri - Vini Caldirola 182 - Walter Beneteau - Brioches La Boulengere 201 - Laurent Dufaux - Alessio Virenque follows the leadout of teammate Michael Rogers and takes maximum points and begins the descent down the Col de Mente to the town of Saint-Beat. It is a highly technical descent under increasing cloud cover on a blessedly cooler day. There are 5 or 6 riders stretched out between the lead bunch and the still-climbing bunch which contains Lance Armstrong and those who would wear his jersey. Bianchi team riders are tapping out the tempo, just behind an Euskatel Rider, who crest the climb a bit over 9 minutes behind the leaders. Virenque has nearly twice the Mountain Points of the next rider, and if he continues to the finish in Paris, it will be only the third time that a rider will win the KoM jersey for six times. Simoni has the freedom of a rider who is almost an hour an a half behind, and aggressively helps set the rotation of the bunch while they move through the valley which will give them the only flat bits they will encounter since the first climb of the stage began. The breakaway has about 8 minutes on the group of the Yellow Jersey. Phil finds significance in the fact that Lance has gathered his troops further back in the group - finding worry in that fact. Michael Rogers takes a hard pull for teammate Virenque, pulls off and simply cracks on the climb of the Col de du Portillon as Laurent Dufaux throws it up a gear and rockets out. A savage selection occurs as only Virenque and Simoni can hold his wheel on this climb. Rogers falls immediately away, follows by Pradera. Trying to hold their own on the roadway Beltran, Peron, Zampieri, Nardello and Botcherov find that they enjoy one another's company and climbing pace, and huddle together with a bit over 5 km of climbing to go. Back in the leader's group, the expanding list of riders suddenly begins to contract as they hit the bottom of the climb. Everyone seeks their largest sprocket as they deal with the frustration of having just latched back on after taking chances on the descent. Virenque sucks to the KoM line like a limpet, moving away from his breakaway companions to take more maximum points. They have gained 1:21 over the first serious chase group. Bianchi leads the important bunch, keeping a high steady tempo while others find it a bit much for their quads. Ullrich has no visible expression, while Lance sits a bit back and watches from inside a phalanx of teammates. Wouldn't want to sit in a round of poker with that man either. You can't read a thing from his expression, though his thoughts seem to be turned deeply inward. If he can gap Ullrich on the final climb, I'd certainly bet on his descending ability against that of the big German. Of course, Moreau and Vinokourov sit near the front as well. Didier Rous shows the tricolor in the middle of the bunch. They tap along 7:41 behind. Lot's of Euskatel-Euskadi ornage, with Haimar Zubeldia and Iban Mayo, plus probably Roberto Laiseka as well. Let's remember that the descent of the Col de Peyresourde is where Ullrich went ass-over-teakettle after not making a turn a couple years ago. In that stage, there was another climb afterwards, and Lance waited for the German to regain his group before making any further efforts. I'm not sure that would be replayed if the same situation occurred again today. Beneteau closes down the gap to the leading trio, shakes out the legs a bit and hails for the team car for whatever version of caffeine GU they pour in France. He had totally blown a turn on a descent a Col ago, but luckily had a roadway that ran straight as well, so he had only to hammer the breaks, laugh a bit and then turn around to rejoin the course. So, he clearly posseses some descending chops -- as does Simoni. They may just have enough of a gap to hold the chasers at bay. The quartet rolls under the 25 km to go banner - just the slight matter of the Category 1 climb of the Col de Peyresourde ahead of them. The peleton zips into the town of Luchon, led still by Bianchi just a hiccup under 8 minutes behind the leaders. They have not pulled back much time on the breakaway riders. Simoni wrenches at his Cannondale and moves away for a few pedal strokes - but only Beneteau cannot close down the gap. The sun has pushed back out to begin heating up the riders on this 13 km climb which averages 8%. Bianchi pushes past Rogers and Bettini, who sheparded Virenque over the early climbs today. Davide Moncoutie from Cofidis hikes up his bib shorts and blows around the Bianchi riders at the lead of the bunch. Heras, Landis and another USPS rider soft-pedal at the end of the leaders group, hovering around the team car and beginning their recovery for tomorrow's epic stage. Their packets of chocolate Clif Shot recieve optimum coverage courtesy of the French tv cameras. Armstrong sits in fourth behind Vinokourov, with Ullrich in second behind a teammate and three Euskatel-Euskadi riders - Mayo, Laiseka and Zubeldia - in the bunch with 10 or so select riders. USPS rider Chechu Rubiera sits right in front of Armstrong, and they continue to mark the German's efforts. Moncoutie withers like a sun-cooked orchid and shrinks back to the group, then to the back, then ... well, maybe he just misread the race profile. We suddenly scream up the roadway courtesy of a espresso sucking photo-moto driver, to catch the leading troika roll under the 20 km to go banner - still unchanged in composition, but now a good 20 seconds ahead of Beneteau. Moreau leads the bunch, but seems to be wondering who put the bricks on his rear rack as he keeps looking behind. But, he actually guts it out and bends the cranks to move away up the roadway. Ullrich responds to the Frenchman's acclleration, trailed immediately by Armstrong, and the orange Euskatel-Euskadi riders, who come up with Vinokourov in tow. Moreau keeps looking back to see how much damage he's managed. He moves again and strings out to about 20 meters, when Mayo moves up and blows past him - just a whole 'nother level of uphill speed in that bird-boned boy. But, Ullrich and Armstrong sit back watching the events. Now the spindly figure of Roberto Laiseka moves up the roadway with Vinokourov moving up behind him. The group stretches as they increase pressure - Ullrich is still knocking out the same low cadence with the big gears he favors and Armstrong spinning easily behind him. Vinokourov has continued the attack, moving up to Mayo with Moreau as they move away from the bunch. He's now leading this group of three who zip past Beltran, now sitting up and waiting for his USPS leader. Others grow more nervous now, as Basso sits in the front in the group with in with Hamilton, Ullrich and Armstrong. Watching. Still everyone watching. Moreau looks like pieces of lungs may be getting dislodged as he claws to stay onto the wheel of the other two. Lance has not reacted, still waiting to see what Ullrich will do. The Bianchi rider just thrums along strongly uphill. Way up front, Simoni continues setting the pace out of the saddle, pumping out a brisk cadence with more than 5 km to climb, but only 25 seconds back to Beneteau. Moreau can no longer match the cadence of Vino and Mayo and begins to falter. The select chase group which contained Ullrich, Armstrong and the rest of the thunder-monkeys has scattered into groups of 3 to 5 riders. Others wobble and try to find other wheels, but Ullrich, Armstrong, Basso and Zubeldia move upwards as though attached. Tyler Hamilton has slipped back a bit now matching pace with best young rider Denis Menchov from iBanesto, about 5 seconds behdind. Lance dances out of the saddle for a few pedal revs and then sits directly behind Ullrich, who have let Vinokourov slip about 30 seconds up the roadway. Will Ullrich allow Vinokourov to move past him in the overall? Ullrich seems to be reaching deeper perhaps burning up some of the wick he might need tomorrow, while Armstrong marks him, looking very composed. 5 km to go for Mayo and Vino - they are up 40 seconds ahead of the Ullrich/Armstrong group. Mayo knocks out a brisk cadence, trailing behind Vinokourov and just not giving a speck of help - Vinokourov tries to take a look back and he looks just slightly haggard. He looks like he's trying to determine how solid a 40 second lead will be when there's still a good three miles of climbing left, not to mention the twisting descent which follows. Haggard though he may be, he's added to his gap by another 10 seconds. With another 11, he'll be the leader on the roadway. Still Lance forces Ullrich to make the chase. Up ahead Botcherov gets scooped up by the Mayo/Vinokourov pair who just continue to defy gravity as they move upwards. Vino now picks up a teammate with Nardello, who seem to have taken a page out of the USPS group with an early position in the first break. The entire population of the Basque region seems to have found their way to the crest of the final mountain pass. They crush in on the roadway, completetly obscuring it, more than 20 deep on either side. Utter pandemonium reigns as push into the middle of the road as Simoni follows Virenque and Dufaux. Vinokourov is given a time gap on 55 seconds in front of the Ullrich/Armstrong group - he's 6 seconds out of yellow. You can barely see the riders through the forest of screaming fans. Even the referee's cars are dwarfed by the throngs who have taken over the mountaintop. Down the roadway, Vino and Mayo have picked up Zampieri from the original break. He tries to stay attached, probably more afraid of what will happen to him if the crowd is able to close back in around him. Now Beneteau comes up to the summit less than a minute behind. Andrea Peron from CSC has almost regained Beneteau and will have a fast-dropping carrot to follow on the treacherous descent. Here comes Vinokourov - 1:41 behind the leaders with Mayo and Zampieri who has managed to stay attached. The leaders group approaches the summit, Armstrong looking strong, accellerates over the front at 2:38, still in the tour lead by the barest of margins. There are no finish line bonuses today unless they can close to the lead group of the stage, so the magic gap between Vinokourov and the Yellow Jersey remains 61 seconds. Crikey - who needs intervals when you can raise your heartrate like this? It's all about the downhill, baby.... Beautiful clear sunshine for the sinuous descent. Beneteau is said to have already halved the distance to the leading three. Armstrong leads the descent of the gang of four. He keeps pushing the descent as Zubeldia sags a bit off the back - whether he doesn't want to help the riders catch Mayo or just can't quite deal with the G-force of yet another 180 degree hairpin is not quite clear. Mayo has actually gapped Vino as they streak downhill - remember, Mayo is a fear-free descender - not necessarily a good thing..... Armstrong group has passed through the 5 km to go banner. Up ahead, the leaders three man group have reached the flats, and they take stock of their situation, scanning behind to see who might be gaining, and judging one another's strength for the final push home. They now are under the 2 km to go banner, but have to negotiate a final little leg-cracker before the finish. Not a classified climb, but still an uphill push that may catch a man or two surprised. Now the Vino bunch is under the 2 km banner. The leading trio takes a long look back down the roadway unclear if they know how far the trailing riders are. Armstrong quartet crosses under the 2 km to go banner about 40 seconds in back of Vinokourov. Andrea Peron appears from nowhere to nab the bunch and he streaks immediately to the front as they go under the 1 km to go banner. Virenque immediately moves himself right in the back of Peron, who continues to hammer like he's got a gap. He does not and is passed by Virenque, who leads them into a hard right at 250 meters to go. Simoni sees the line and guns it. They scream forward neck and neck with Simoni edging ahead within the final hundred meters. Dufaux makes his bid for the line and pushes up to the other side of Simoni, he may have pressed a bit past Virenque. But, the Giro champion will not be passed, and finds a bit of speed where the other two can't - he wins the three up sprint after the arduous series of climbs. Screaming and arms aloft, today, he is a man reborn. Now Vino screams into the final bits at he crosses 39 seconds back. Mayo makes a bluff at nicking him at the line. Youngster. Zampieri remained attached to the trio. Now Lance heels over into the last right and pummels the pedals. The gap at the line: 1:23 - he will retain the jersey...he comes in quartet intact - Basso, Zubeldia, Ullrich and some guy wearin' yellow. Moreau finds his way to the finish. Positioning hiimself as the highest placed Frenchman in the race. Rain begins to hit the roof of the television booth as the coverage wraps up - quite a while after the riders have left. The afternoon showers so typical of this region begin to show. Will the weather play a factor on tomorrow's massive climbs? Stage 14 - Results 1 - Gilberto Simoni - Saeco - 5:31:52 2 - Laurent Dufaux - Alessio - s.t. 3 - Richard Virenque - QuickStep - s.t. 4 - Andrea Peron - CSC - @ :03 5 - Walter Beneteau - Brioches la Boulangere - @ :10 6 - Alexandre Vinokourov - Telekom - @ :41 7 - Iban Mayo - Euskatel-Euskadi - s.t. 8 - Steve Zampieri - Vini Caldirola - s.t. 9 - Haimar Zubeldia - Euskatel-Euskadi - 1:24 10 - Ivan Basso - Fassa Bortolo - s.t. 11 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - s.t. 12 - Jan Ullrich - Bianchi - s.t. General Classification - MJ - Lance Armstrong - 61:07:17 2 - Jan Ullrich - @ :15 3 - Alexandre Vinokourov - @ :18 4 - Haimar Zubeldia - @ 4:16 5 - Iban Mayo - @ 4:37 6 - Ivan Basso - @ 7:10 7 - Tyler Hamilton - CSC - @ 7:32 8 - Francisco Mancebo - iBanesto.com - @ 10:09 9 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - @ 10:09 10 - Carlos Sastre - CSC - @ 12:40 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 15 - Bagneres de Bigorre - Luz Ardiden More rough stuff. Probably rougher than stage 14, as when the riders cover the final 80 km of the stage, they will climb for 43 kilometers over three catgorized summits -- over 10,000 feet in three brutal climbs! This will be the last mountain top finish in this year's Tour, as the riders hit first the Col d'Aspin, followed by the Hor Categorie Col du Tourmalet and finally the HC Luz Ardiden. Just to keep everyone honest, there are three cat 4 climbs in the first 50 km, plus a couple of sprint points. Today, Lance sat and watched. He finally looked "good" on the bike - with no ability to quantify that statement other than watching him the past four tours and the beginning of this one. But, he looked easier in effort, and had a bit more of his characteristic "dance" on the pedals when he rose from the saddle. Afterward, he said he was worried about only one man - Jan Ullrich - and stated he wasn't comfortable going into the upcoming time trial with only a 15 second lead. There's a rest day on Tuesday. But all those factors together, and you are lead to the impression that big things will be afoot on the mountains of southwestern France. -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Mon Jul 21 16:59:51 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 08:59:51 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 15 - Tangling on the Mountain Message-ID: <3F1C0DF7.6070106@cyclofiend.com> Stage 15 - Bagneres de Bigorre - Luz Ardiden - 159 km Running out of roadway and stages, three men have a date with the mountains today. Armstrong cannot afford to wait any longer, and both Ullrich and Vinokourov know that. What the day's climbs lack in number, they make up for in history and pain. There will be nowhere to hide when the roads point upward. 1500 meter Col d'Aspin - 12.3 km at 6.4% - Category 1 2112 meter Col du Tourmalet - 17.1 @ 7.4% - HC 1715 meter Luz Ardiden - 13.4 km of climbing at 7.8% - HC Santiago Botero of Telekom pushed himself out with Sylvain Chavanel from Brioches la Boulangere for the cat 4 climbs, with Chavanel nabbing all of the KoM points in the early part of the course. Botero has forced himself out clearly to assist Vinokourov in the latter part of the race, although he hasn't shown the most aptitude as the roadways pointed upwards. Retirements of the day (so far...): Marco Milesi - Vini Caldirola Freddy Rodriguez - Vini Caldirola Leonardo Bertagnolli - Team Saeco Inigo Chaurreau of Ag2R is about 3:10 behind the leading pair, trying in vain to close the distance and followed by the peleton. The entire USPS rolls along at 6:10 behind, ferrying Lance and the following riders. Team Telekom has moved most of their team to the front as well, with even Erik Zabel poised to take a pull as he rides his 10th Tour de France. FDJeux.com's Baden Cooke has drifted back in full green jersey and kit, summoning his team car and not looking like he's enjoying himself. Gravity is a constant foe of those who carry the muscles of the sprinters. Temps have slid down to the mid-70's, with little humidity. There seems to be no direct sun as the hides beind a bit of a misty haze. The gaps sit at 4:24 to the trailing Chaurreau and 7:24 to the USPS led team as the peleton hits the Col d'Aspin. The upward pitch seems to awaken the sun, which peeks out now that the riders climb. No one is climbing in anger yet, and as Paul points out, this was a Category 2 climb in years past. Everyone seems content to wait for the two hors categorie climbs which complete the stage. Ullrich is dinking around at the side of the road for what seems to be a horrificly long time - pointing and pulling at his machine with his team car parked right next to him. He calmly regains his bike and begins moving up with a couple teammates. Axel Merckx from Lotto begins to drift off the back, having been suffering for most of the day already. On the forward end of events, Botero begins to labor a bit more noticeably as Chavanel knocks out a comfortable pace on the climb. They still hold a 9:10 gap over the bunch, which continues tapping out a steady pace on the climb. More Lotto riders begin to lose touch with the pack. Hans de Clerq, Nick Gates and Leon Van Bon move backwards, perhaps losing a bit of mental momentum with the retirement of Rik Verbrugghe in yesterday's stage. Another rider who is dawdling at the back is yesterday's stage winner, Gilberto Simoni. He doesn't seem to be in trouble, but seems content to hover near the caboose. Chavanel rolls over the summit for a perfect record of KoM and Sprint point victories on the day's stage. Botero does seem a strange companion on the day as an assistant to Vinokourov, perhaps now he begins having visions of a stage win, despite the strategic needs of his team. Euskatel-Euskadi takes up the pacemaking, with a pair of Bianchi riders immediately behind. Charreau has lost time to the lead pair, crossing the summit mark at 5:46. I'm corrected in my impression that Botero can't climb - he's actually said to have won the polka-dot climber's jersey in the past, though I cannot recall the year. He has definitely won both a climbing stage and an individual time trial. The general opinion this season however is that he didn't put his training emphasis right. The bunch rolls over the top at 9:14, led by the swift move of Richard Virenque who nabs the fourth place climbing points. He had amassed 300 points so far, with two big escapes on climbing stages, reminiscent of Laurent Jalabert's efforts in recent Tours. Everyone rolls down through the transition of the valley into the village of Saint Marie de Campan, where the riders find the soigneurs bearing full feedbags and musettes. Chavanel has scooted away up the roadway, easily dropping Botero and leaving him quickly a growing 20 seconds behind as he hits the lower portions of the Col du Tourmalet. Euskatel-Eukadi has placed a couple of riders on the tip of the bunch, with a few more in the front end interspersed with USPS riders. A slight thinning of the pack members begins as the Basque team continues to increase their effort on the lower portions of the climb. Cofidis David Millar drifts away with a couple teammates - said to be suffering from bronchitis. Botero taps away with his choppy climbing style, stuck in no man's land, now over a minute behind Chavanel. A surprising rider to see drifting back is USPS's Roberto Heras, who is said also to have a respiratory ailment. He sits in a group which includes big man Pavel Padrnos. A continual drift of riders seeps away from the bunch, including the major mullet of the peleton, Laurent Brochard. Floyd Landis and Vlatchislav Ekimov set an easier pace now, their jobs possibly done for the day. The first accellerations begin with CSC's - with Moreau and Mancebo beoing joined by Iban Mayo. Serious gaps begin to split the peleton as they move themselves back up front. Moreau has edged up the roadway alone, enjoying superior form to his previous efforts. Ullrich suddenly surges has moved strongly up to and past Moreau. Armstrong has matched his accelleration, but begins to fall awy slightly as Ullrich pushes the pace. Vinokourov does not move out of the peleton, as everyone raises their pace but cannot nail back the German, who has unleased the power of huge flywheel. Punishing the pedals, Ullrich has moved to a gap of 40 or 50 meters, while Armstrong ticks out his high cadence while th gap remains. Armstrong eyes steadily up the roadway, ticks out of the saddle and works to close down the gap. Ullrich has pulled up to Charreau and sets him in his slipstream without notice. Vinokourov cannot close down the gap to Armstrong, riding in a troika with Zubeldia an Basso. Now Armstrong accellerates up to a slightly slowing Ullrich, who surges again to keep his gap. Ullrich is one hell of a long way to the finish - a good 25 miles, which of course finishes with a clibming bit. A solo EE rider seems to be hovering in the back. They have managed to push Vino ot the back. Lance looks calm, finding himsel reattached to Ullrich's high profile carbon wheelset. Mayo has joined the pair, surges a bit, but Ullrich will not be left behind. He takes a look or two to see what is going on. Ullrich has settled in behind Armstrong, who has let Mayo lead them through the riotous Basque crowds. Rubiera and Beltran move strongly in a group that trails immediately behind the Vinokourov group. Zubeldia has left behind Vinokourov behind and has moved up to the Armstrong group. Vinokourov holds ont the tail of a small group, now said to be 15 or so seconds behind looking like he's in a bit of trouble. He's losing contact with the trailign group, not panicking but sclearly suffering and losing ground. Ullrich takes over the pacemaking again, they have moved above the clouds now. They still trail Chavanel by five and half minutes. Vinokourov weaves all over his machine as he slowly reduces the gap to the trailing group. Chavanel heads over the epic arc of the Tourmalet summit. Ullrich and Armstrong trade pacemaking, shooting an odd, nasty look back at the Basque pair, who so far have not bothered to take a turn at the front. They cross the summit 4:04 behind. Hamilton Basso and Moreau hit the summit at 4:35. Botero has actually stopped his efforts to await his teammate Totschnig Rubiera and Beltran group with others go through at 5:00. Finally Vino nabs himelf soem stacks and a teammate just off the back of the group - that's 1:18 behind the Armstrong group. Virenque leads a group over at 6:46. Looks like Mayo has not been able to attend the descending master class being given by Armstrong, as he drifts away on the steep and exposed switchbacks. Ullrich's choice once more of deep-dish carbon rims will be tested as they heat up and get a little ornery with the braking to come. All seem to make it down safely despite my negative statements, and by the flats, Hamilton, Moreau and Basso have joined up with Ullrich, Armstrong, Mayo and Zubeldia to create a supergroup for this final decisive climb up to Luz Ardiden. The five eye one another as they get ready to hit the final climb. Back down the roadway an unstated time, Telekom's Giuseppe Guerini notches over a painful cadence and tries to pace Vinokourov back up. He is immediatley followed by Rubiera and Beltran, quietly allowing the Tlekom effort to continue unabated. Basso has moved hard, and Mayo has followed, but it's quickly neutralized Helmets are flying as they hit the uphill that remains. Vinikourov has reattached finally, putting David Plaza back in the mix in the favor of Bianchi, but two riders for Lance. Plaza sets a hard climbing pace, out of the saddle directly in front of Ellrich, who is followed by Armstrong - just in case you forgot, Sylvain Chavanel is still out the front by Mayo moves hard, but Armstrong is on him and attacks hard! This is the MOVE! He slides easily in front of Mayo, and Ullrich cannot immediatly respond. Ullrich tries to roll back up and close the gap, as Armstrong begins to take flight. Mayo moves back up and follows him as they begin to move well... Armstrong is down!!! Armstrong has gone down!! It looked like his front wheel just slipped out on something, and he's gone down hard. Mayo runs into his back tire and joins him on the roadway. A hard-charging Ullrich somehow avoids the pileup. What the hell is happening? Mayo pops up quickly and sprints up the roadway. Lance is pushed up and away on his lightweight climbing machine and rejoins the Basque rider - he moves in front and begins to move out of the saddle - ARRGGHH! He pops out of the pedal and cracks himself hard on the top tube. It seems like he's got a tech problem now. But in the lead group, they have spread across the roadway. Ullrich is not attacking and it appears they are waiting for Lance to regain contact. Hamilton rolls up through the bunch and gestures and says to cool it. Mayo is on the front, biding his time. Rubiera has drifted back, and greets Armstrong's adrenaline-fueled surge. He motions at him to calm down - letting him know they have waited for him to come back up. All are back together as my fingers tremble. Clearly, Lance has planned to attack on this climb. Now Mayo goes again, and in a near-perfect replication, Armstrong moves out and past him with 9 km to go to the summit. Ullrich again cannot hold his wheel, and everyone screams up the final climb. Ullrich finds himself clearly on the defensive back down the climb, yet he's not cracking. Pain begins to etch itself into his sweaty face. Armstrong is in his cadence now, blood already dripping from the swelling scrpe on his elbow - he went down very hard! Sitting and driving the big gear at a pace that no one else can better, Ullrich fights to stay in touch- Basso right behind him and the Mayo/Zubeldia pair working with Hamlton and Moreau. A slow motion replay shows that a spectator definitely came in contact with Armsrong - as they cheered his ascent, they hooked a musette bag strap out from underneath, snatching Lance's handlebars and flinging his front wheel sideways. Ullrich demonstrates that he is a true champion by not taking advantage of the mishap. It may have cost him the race - it seems it will certainly cost him a stage victory. Armstrong out and away moving in his beautiful out of the saddle climbing style - no time gap given yet - Ullrich gritting and spitting, deep pain and effort. Armstrong's jersey shows broad road smudging and his elbow is scraped and already swollen. But, with just under 6 km to go, he has cut down the gap to just under 2 minutes from Chavanel. An update shows the gap just 1:10 back to Armstrong, 1:45 to the Ullrich group. He's gained 35 seconds on the Bianchi rider. He's moving hard up the moutain with a blistering cadence on his climbing bike with the downtube shifter for the front derailleur. Armstrong has it absolutely pegged now, continueing to go - he knows that this is the day, and this is his move. He's 37 seconds behind Chavanel with 5 km to go for the leader. He now sees Chavanel ahead of him. 20 seconds to the leader, he's amassed 1:05 over the Ullrich group. Chavanel takes a sad look back, receives a pat on the back from the flying Armstrong, who then raises himself again and moves towward the finish. Armstrong now has the lead on this road stage - under the 4 km to go banner. The chase group moves under the same banner less than a minute later. Steep switchbacks remain as Ullrich reduces the gap a bit while the roads steepen. Ullrich continues to build his tempo - 3 km to go and he's pulled a bit back - gap at 50 secondds., Armstrong loses a few more seconds as the gap slips to 45 seconds Hamilton has drifted back slightly and Moreau finally clips off the back of the bunch. Into the barriers, thankfully, as Lance hammers to the finish. Out of the saddle and trying to find a bit more speed. Ullrich lives in a world of pain - slipping back to 50 seconds. Vinokourov needs to stay within 4 minutes within the Ullrich group, he's about 2 minutes back from the orange-clad climbers who threaten his position in the overall Lance is under the 1 km to go banner and again ties to squeeze everything into the pedals. Still he holds a 50 second gap, he's reaching for every bit of time and doesn't pause until he's 5 meters past the finish line. Lance Armstrong takes the stage, but more importantly, the big clock is ticking, and he gets a 20 second time bonus for 1st place. In a show of shabby sportsmanship, both of the Euskatel-Euskadi riders move away from Ullrich as they head up to the finish. Time bonuses are 12 and 8 seconds for second and third respectively. Ullrich cannot Mayo's accelleration, but surges to nip Zubeldia in a photo-finish - the bunch finishes exactly 40 seconds behind, with a reattached Moreau getting the same time. Hamilton crosses alone at 1:10 - this man has simply used up all of my superlatives. Vinokourov now wonders how he can check out of the hotel of pain, writhing in agony above his machine, crossing the 2:07 behind. France's hope for the future, the 24 year old Sylvain Chavanel finishes at 2:47. I'd like to take the opportunity to apologize to my wife, dog and neighbors for the loud shout I emitted when Lance first went down - where would he have finished without that bounce off of the pavement. Will the time be enough? This race certainly has not grown boring. Stage 15 - Results 1 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - 4:29:26 2 - Iban Mayo - Euskatel-Euskadi - @ :40 3 - Jan Ullrich - Bianchi - @ :40 4 - Haimar Zubeldia - Euskatel-Euskadi - @ :40 5 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - @ :40 6 - Ivan Basso - Fassa Bortolo - @ :47 7 - Tyler Hamilton - CSC - @ 1:10 8 - Alexandre Vinokourov - Telekom - @ 2:07 9 - Jose Luis Rubiera - USPS @ 2:45 10 - Sylvain Chavanel - Brioches La Boulangerie - @ 2:47 General Classification - MJ - Lance Armstrong - 65:36:23 2 - Jan Ullrich - @ 1:07 3 - Alexandre Vinokourov - @ 2:45 4 - Haimar Zubeldia - @ 5:16 5 - Iban Mayo - @ 5:25 6 - Ivan Basso - @ 8:08 7 - Tyler Hamilton - @ 9:02 8 - Christophe Moreau - @ 11:09 9 - Francisco Mancebo - @ 16:05 10 - Carlos Sastre - @ 16:12 Tomorrow - Rest Day. Thank goodness. Wednesday - The final Pyrenean stage - Pau - Bayonne - 197 Although there are two nasty climbs and some other smaller ones, the final 80 kilometers or so are a run to the coast, and the port city of Bayonne. The climbs may cause some headaches for riders, as the Col du Soudet has pitches of 15% as it averages 7.5% for 14 km. The climbs are not over, nor is the Tour. Ullridch has mvoed up and away -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Wed Jul 23 06:46:50 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 22:46:50 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]2nd Race Day - You pay for the whole seat... Message-ID: <3F1E214A.5000301@cyclofiend.com> ... But You'll Only Use THE EDGE!!! Tour de France - 2nd Rest Day How do you even begin to put words around the drama and tension that still hangs like dripping moss over this year's Centenary Tour de France? Ullrich said after yesterday's stage that he had expected to lose as much as 2 minutes to Lance in the uphill finish. Of course, one has to wonder how much time he would have indeed lost if Lance had not suffered the most dramatic and untimely Texas-style lassoing at the hands of a musette-wielding fan. That cuts both ways, of course. Looking back at the footage, Armstrong had clearly wanted to go right then: fairly low on the climb. Euskatel-Euskadi's Iban Mayo had made a strong move, which Lance countered. He had moved up into his "hydrofoil" position - dancing on the pedals and looking like he had reserves on reserves to burn for the effort of getting time over everyone. Ullrich had increased his pace and moved a bit away from the rest of the bunch. But he was trying to cut down an increasing gap. This was the Tour, and Lance was ready to go. He clearly was ready to make the effort which would reap the most benefit. When he went down, and suffered through a bobble before returning to the pack, he lost the ability to make the most effective use of the distance -- he simply had less roadway to burn up, and now has a least some level of concern about how much time he had gained. It was at least 3 minutes and 45 seconds from the time Lance crashed until he made his second accelleration - how much further ahead would he have been? We can only know what actually happened. The end result is on the marquees throughout France - Lance holds only 1:07 over Ullrich. That's simply not enough of a time gap for anyone to say that this Tour de France is wrapped up. Clearly, Armstrong has had some of his most difficult challanges, at the same time as he was having some of his worst days. Any day that you lose somewhere past 13 pounds of water weight in about an hour, as he did on the first Individual Time Trial stage, it cannot rank well up there in the scheme of things. The next day on the climbs of the Pyrenees, Ullrich sensed Lance's weakness and moved hard on terrain that seemed to favor him - an incline without steep pitches, where Ullrich could bring his huge dynamo of power to bear. Even so, Lance cut down a gap that had reached more than 30 seconds on the roadway to less than 7 by the time he crossed the line. Even while having an off day, Armstrong found something. But by Stage 14, Lance began to look like... well, Lance. He rode confidentally while Vinokourov tried to stake his claim for the Yellow Jersey. After watching Ullrich and responding instantly to any pertinant accellerations, he stated that he "was feeling better" and would go better in the coming days. That would be yesterday. QED. Some other odd little tidbits and newsbits - Another of Lance's quotes was something to the effect that there were a number of strange things which have been happening this year - some of which he hadn't spoken about. Hopefully, we'll hear what those things were once all is said and done. Armstrong's climbing bike - an OCLV Trek with superlight tubing and even the weight-savings of a downtube front shifter - proved to have a cracked right chainstay after the full-force smack it received on the roadway of Luz Ardiden. The marketeers from Trek should be able to spin it as "the bike that was strong enough to carry Lance to a stage victory - even though it was broken..." You heard it here first. Raimondas Rumsas, who was third in last year's Tour, has been given a one-year suspension due to a positive drug test for EPO earlier this season. The original recommendation had been for a four year ban - perhaps influenced by the end-of-Tour arrest of his wife, who had been carrying a whole bunch of - um - stuff for her mother, back in Lithuania. Axel Merckx turned in his numbers in Stage 15, in addition to the riders mentioned in yesterday's post. By far, the best technical innovation of this year's Tour is without question the use of light colored helmet straps so as not to show the crust of dried salt. --- Looking Ahead - With the upcoming time trial the day before everyone finishes in Paris, it will be interesting to see if Lance and the USPS gang can use their superior team to chisel some more time out of Ullrich. If they could spring a couple riders before the steep climbs and narrow descents, and Lance could use his descending skills to lengthen an attack on the climb, it might deliver a bit more padding to the time. Of course, that's a bit of risky move - the stage is 197 km long and the first Category 1 summit - Col du Soudet, 1540 meters - is at 67 km. The second - Col Bagarguy, 1327 meters - is sandwiched between two Cat 3 climbs at around 110 kkm. After that, the riders head out to the coast city of Bayonne for at least 60 km. On paper it's a steady drop, but there may be enough topography for a bunch to keep away. But, Thursday and Friday are dead flat, sprinter-favoring jaunts (which _would_ give Lance plenty of time to recover from a maximum effort on tomorrow's stage...). The Saturday Time Trial is just shy of 50 km, and may be the point at which Greg Lemond's Tour time trial speed record of 54.545 kph (33.892 mph). The course heads almost dead east, and could pick up a west wind to push everyone along. It's hard to bet who it will favor, but it's going to come down to power. In the meantime, there's plenty of racing to go. Enjoy the edge of your seat. -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Wed Jul 23 16:14:20 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:14:20 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 16 - Leaving the Pyrenees with Panache Message-ID: <3F1EA64C.1040001@cyclofiend.com> Stage 16 - Pau - Bayonne - 197 km Less than 500 miles to go in this Centenary Edition of the Tour. First off, let me apologize for the title of yesterday's post - it was supposed to be "2nd _REST_ Day" Oh well, I'm sure even the Rest Days feel like Race Days. But we are racing again today, and a 15 rider breakaway got frisky early on, originally animated by iBanesto's Juan Mercado. They'd gathered up more than a minute before beginning the first Cat 1 cliimb. As they do so, CSC's Tyler Hamilton ignored the pain in his broken clavicle and moved away, bridging to the bunch after being initially struggling and behing dropped by the bunch in the opening kilometers from the peleton. We're about 93 km from the end - on the second of the day's biggest climbs. The break still holds a 2 minute gap on what is proving to be a very difficult stage. Under the pressures of the second cliimb, the less fortunate breakaway members begin to suffer, and the once 15 man group now splinters badly. Reduced to sawdust already, Remmert Wielinga of Rabobank filled his dance card and left the ball via the back of the bunch today. On this Col de Bagarguy - 8 km at an average of 9% - riders are suffereing and popping off the back of the group. But not Tyler - he has continued to press ahead up the roadway and has dropped the members of the break. Bjaren Riis leans out the window of his car, urging on Hamilton who is wincing in pain - not just with every pedal stroke but at all times. He clearly has decided to go alone and has left breakaway companions - perhaps he feels he can move himself up from his 7th place position as he's only a minute out of 6th, and 4 minutes from the top five. The remaining riders of the original break, a small group struggles to keep Hamilton's gap within reason - 37 - Juan Mercado - iBanesto 79 - Nicki Sorensen, the Danish National champion, Tyler's CSC teammate 119 - Kurt Van de Wouwer - Quick Step 159 - Ludovic Turpic - Ag2R Dangling off the back, but not yet cutting his life line is Alessio's Vladimir Miholjevic. Others are littered on the slopes of this nasty climb and beginning to get scooped up by the main bunch - led members of USPS who tap out a brutal rhythm. They begin hitting the misty cloud line on this cool day - 72 degrees with high humidity. Tyler rushes upwards through the summit crowds dodging Basque flags of all sizes, and crests the hill - one more sharp summit to cover before the descent toward Bayonne. He's gained a strong gap. Mercado ditched his break companions and fights through the Basques to cut down the gap - He's still 2:38 behind and seems unable to match Hamilton's climbing pace. Dufaux, Moreau and Virenque move away from the bunch to snag some stray climbing points about 4 minutes in back of the stage leader. Miholjevic has rejoined the small bunch and with Van de Wouwer animates the chasers, who string along behind Hamilton by 2:44 Out of the mist comes the KoM pont, and Tyler moves beyond and down into the fogbank again. A long descent lies in front of him, and a long stretch of roadway beyond that. Hamilton has notched his lead over the chase group out to 3:17, with a healthy 4:32 to the peleton Kelme riders mass at the back fo the bunch, never confused with being the strongest decenders of the bunch. Hamilton seems ready to press on, notching into steady, strong cadence as the road begins to level and roll through small villages and ancient low stone walls. Michael Boogerd of Rabobank had edged out from the front of the pack before the short Category 3 climb, and has retained the gap on the descent. He's about 45 seconds in front, but still a ways behind the group of 5 who chase Hamilton. Boogerd rolls up to the tail of the chase group. They are at 3:30, with the big bunch behind by slightly more than another minute. Tyler rolls alone under the Intermediate Sprint point, gaining a free 6 second time bonus for his troubles. There's another sprint point out in front of him, so he could scrape together a cheap 12 seconds today, even if he is caught. The main field has begun the big squeeze, cutting the gap to the chase group to 51 seconds. The small group drop back for fuel and advice among their team cars and try to decide how firmly they will press this effort. Turpin of Ag2R scoots away fromthe break bunch as they negotiate a Cat4 climb, while the other four seem to be turning off the supercharger and begin drifting back to what they have decided is the inevitable catch. Cofidis' Massimo Lelli jumps across the gap and streaks straight past the chase group, hoping that everyone will forget about him once they gather back the other riders. He proabably fancies his chances with the nervous-looking Turpin, who continues to check back over his shoulder, convinced that the jig is up for his effort. Hamilton has edged out past 5 minutes and takes the second Intermediate Sprint Time bonus. He's now threatening the third place position of Vinokourov, whose Telekom teammate Santiago Botero puts himself into pacemaking rotation. Lelli has hooked up with Turpin, with whom he struggles to hold a 20 second gap. Back in the bunch, the USPS has assembled for a team picture behind Botero and a couple of Euskatel-Euskadi riders. They spend quite a bit of time simply coasting in their slipstream. With 42 km to go, they do not seem dedicated to gathering Hamilton. Telekom has found a few more riders, and three more men move into the pace setting rotation. They've reabsorbed the Lelli/Turpin pair, but on the undulating roadway, they are having trouble to reduce the gap - which still sits at more than 5 minutes with 33 km to go. Botero has again drifted to the back of events, shoulders up around his ears and not looking like he can continue to hold the pace of the bunch. The tides of pain again begin to rise as Tyler taps out a beautiful TT cadence on udulating and twisting roads - He holds a 4:50 lead with 27 km to go. Under the 25 km to go banner on this do or die effort - a brave move to regain the podium spot. Nothing left to do but put your head down and drive the pedals. Hurting and wincing, but still holding a 4:12 gap. 12 km to go. QuickStep and Telekom joining forces as they move under the 15 km banner. Riis again appears on camera at the wheel of the CSC team car - he's got an excited look on his face as he urges Tyler to press his efforts. Now at 8 km to go, motorpacing without benefit of a motor... Laboring now as they begin to come down to the river which leads to Bayonne. Gap at 3:45. The pain must seem endless. 3:30 at 6 km to go. He's rolling alongside the river, but he's got a bit of a coastal breeze pushing into his face. Telekom and Bianchi set the pace. Hamilton seems to have enough friends in the peleton that they've spread out a bit. 3:09 at 3 km to go. If he can hold out, he will be the 6th US rider to win a stage in the Tour. 2 km to go. Rocking back and forth over the top of his machine. Mouth wide open, trying to draw as much air as possible. Around a long right turn, under the 1 km to go banner - A brilliant effort from this amazingly classy rier. He drives to the line, trying to raise the pace and takes a moment to point back at Bjarne who follows him int he car - The smile cracks through the pain as he wobbles a bit and slaps Bjarne's outstretched hand. Tyle pounds on his handlebars two times, clasps his hands before him and then raises them to the sky. He's done it. Tyler has done it. The bunch has closed down a bit of the gap, continually raising their pace into the headwind along the river. Vinokourov leads the bunch and then pulls off with 400 m to go. Zabel moves hard and crosses the line 1:59 behind, with a mass of riders spread across the roadway in his wake. Tyler is greeted by his wife and seems close to tears with the emotion of today's supreme winning effort. The crowds cheer lustily as this courageous rider takes the podium for his winner's bouquet. Richard Virenque pulls on another spotted jersey -- he has amassed a massive lead in this competition and needs only to reach Paris to join climbing legends Lucien Van Impe and Fredrico Bahamontes as the only riders who have won 6 Polka-Dot KoM jersies. Even as the presentations take place, there is reportedly no sign of the Green Points Jersey - now more than 19 minutes behind the victor. A quick calculation shows that Erik Zabel has edged up into 2nd place in the hunt for the Green Jersey, after his second place today. It's important to note that even though Tyler only moved up one spot int he General Classification, he's cut the gap to the 4th and 5th place riders from Euskatel-Euskadi. Zubeldia can certainly time trial, but it seems to be a weak spot for Iban Mayo, who now only holds a 1:10 lead over Hamilton. Further down the list, Denis Menchov, who wears the White Best Young Rider Jersey, clearly eyes a top 10 with a decent TT on Saturday. Stage 16 Results - 1 - Tyler Hamilton - CSC - 4:59:41 2 - Erik Zabel - Telekom - @ 1:55 3 - Yuri Krivtsov - Jean Delatour - s.t. 4 - Luca Paolini - QuickStep - s.t. 5 - Gerrit Glomser - Saeco - s.t. 6 - Bram de Groot - Rabobank - s.t. 7 - Marcus Zberg - Gerolsteiner - s.t. 8 - Sandy Casar - FDJeux.com - s.t. 9 - Fabrizio Guidi - Team Bianchi - s.t. 10 - Stuart O'Grady - Credit Agricole - s.t. General Classification - MJ - Lance Armstrong - 70:37:59 2 - Jan Ullrich - @ 1:07 3 - Alexandre Vinokourov - @ 2:45 4 - Haimar Zubeldia - @ 5:16 5 - Iban Mayo - @ 5:25 6 - Tyler Hamilton - @ 6:35 7 - Ivan Basso - @ 8:08 8 - Christophe Moreau - @ 11:12 9 - Francisco Mancebo - @ 16:05 10 - Carlos Sastre - @ 16:12 11 - Denis Menchov - @ 17:09 (Best Young Rider) 14 - Richard Virenque - @ 22:00 (KoM Leader) Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 17 - Dax - Bordeaux - 181 km Flat. Dead Flat. Speed bumps appear on the race profile. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but the race begins at Dax, with an elevation of 23 meters, and ends in Bordeaux, with an elevation of 5 meters. -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Thu Jul 24 16:37:17 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 08:37:17 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 17 - Fast and Early Moves Message-ID: <3F1FFD2D.4070501@cyclofiend.com> Stage 17 - Dax - Bordeaux - 181 km Everyone in the group of remaining riders heaves a great sigh of relief as the profile of today's stage resembles nothing that they've seen for many, many days - dead flat, start to finish. One man not remaining on board is Nick Gates from Lotto, who abandoned during yesterday's stage, bringing the total number of riders remaining to 149. Attacks began right at the gun today, and 10 riders moved out to 16+ minutes. They zip through the first sprint with Bram de Groot of Rabobank leading Paolo Bassoni of Vini Caldiorola and Servais Knaven of Quick Step. It's a gutsy move to leave the bunch at the 0 km mark, but with 70 km to go they still hold 12 minutes over the bunch. The breakaway - 33 - Jose Vicente Acosta - iBanesto.com 43 - Bram de Groot - Rabobank 53 - Salvatore Comesso - Saeco 62 - Mederic Clain - Cofidis 75 - Peter Luttenberger - CSC 97 - Christophe Mengin - FDJeux.com 106 - Ivan Parra - Kelme 115 - Servais Knaven - QuickStep 148 - Leon Van Bon - Lotto 163 - Paolo Bassoni - Vini Caldirola Peter Luttenberger is the best placed rider in the overall, which is the reason that the teams are beginning to take notice. Credit Agricole reaches into their bag of tricks along with Euskatel-Euskadi and Gerolsteiner as they continue cutting down the gap. Following a nasty series of storms which hit the region while we were enjoying the spotless skies and obscene heat in the Alps and Pryenees, the temperature has stayed cool at 68 degrees, but with 88% humidity as rain threatens but so far seems not quite serious enough to fall. With 65 km to go, the gap has come down to 11:10. The break and the chase drove the speed up to 50 km/hr for the first hour, and pace remains high - This Tour is on pace for a record average speed. =============================== Some Trivia Again - Who was the firstrider to win the points competition in 1953? =============================== As the breakaway rotates nicely towards the day's second sprint point, there are some signs of dissension in the break. Acosta of iBanesto has stopped taking regular pulls, as his team director has done the math that lets him know that teammate Francisco Mancebo is being pushed back by the position of Luttenbuerger on the road. Van Bon lets him know that sort of behavior won't be particularly appreciated, and politely suggests that he rejoin the efforts. The hardest working man in show business, Erik Zabel of Telekom, has amassed 143 points in the Green Jersey Sprint competition with the 2nd place finish in yesterday's stage. That has moved him into third place in that competition, behind Robbie McEwen at 148 points and the Green Jersey wearing Baden Cooke at 156 points. No matter who takes points today, this competition will go down to the final day of the Tour. Now down under 10 minutes with under 60 km to go. Or to be more precise, 51 km to go/ 9:15 gap. Former winners in the often-used finishing city of Bordeaux include Erik Zabel, who has won twice, and Davis Phinney, who won here in 1987. Today seems to finally have returned to a stage of "normalcy" - the biggest question is whether the peleton has reacted quickly enough to eliminate the gap to the lead group. Ten will get you twenty that if Luttenberger had not been in this group, it would be out and away unmolested. But, at the time the break had a sixteen minute gap, he'd climbed into the top ten, making more than a few teams too nervous to allow it. Or, at least allow it _too_ much distance, as with a gap of around 8 and a half minutes the serious impetus has subsided a bit. There's just under 40 km to go, and things are just not as strung out in the big bunch. In fact, they've edged things back up to around 9 minutes as everyone rolls past field after field of vineyards and trees. The roads under the breakaway seem to be rolling along over slightly damp roads. Some strong and wiley riders in the break begin thinking about tactics as they realize they are only 33 km from the finish. Van Bon seems to be taking shorte pulls, and has even opted out of a turn or two. They are actually shooting an IMAX movie of the tour this year, and had decided before the race to feature Tyler Hamilton, in a study of how the brain reacts to pain. They couldn't have chosen a better subject, obviously. And in more weather weirdness, it's actually raining here in Northern California in the latter half of July.... There will be 15 points for the 11th rider on the day, so the men who fancy their chances for the Green Jersey in the main bunch will be sharpening their knives. With the break now under 20 km to go, attacks begin to now come in the breakaway group - they feel that they will not be caught, even with a fair amount of tactical maneuverings. 17 km to go, and Servais Knaven - a strong Dutch rider who has won Paris-Roubaix - has nicked away while the other rides dink around. Acosta fires away to chase, but gets nailed back pretty quickly. Van Bon won't make the chase, but works to trail anyone else who is getting nervous. The canny Belgian is calmly biding his time, but they continue to let Knaven build steam. Ivan Parra has been sliced off the back fo the bunch as they trail Knaven by 17 seconds. Knaven begins to get lumpy as he strains under the 10 km to go banner. The chase is trying to work out how to gather in this rider, but it's not wise to bet against a man who has won a spring classic -- although it's hard to believe Van Bon and Comesso will let things get away from them. Acosta now goes and he's immediately chased by Van Bon and de Groot. A series of accellerations begin to chop second off of his time, but the end result is that they have regrouped again and Knaven rolls under the 5 km to go banner with a 30 second gap. Now the trio of Van Bon, De Groot and Mengin combine to slide off the front of the breakawy. Acosta is having trouble staying attached as they regroup again. He gets chopped off by 20 or 30 meters, and claws his way back up. The struggling Knaven holds a lead of 23 seconds as he goes under the 3 km banner. No one can get unstuck form the group, who keep accellerating and then regrouping. Van Bon has gone again, and just can't get free as the group slides back up to his rear wheel. Under 2 km to go, 24 seconds gap. Knaven can now see the 1 km to go banner, the flame rouge goes overhead as he sneaks a quick look under his arm to make sure that no one has snuck up on him. After attacking from the gun, Knaven has now decided that he will not get caught, and waves at the crowd - savoring the moment, he rolls over the line with no one behind him except for the howling driver of his team car. In the race for second place, the young Mederic Clain of Cofidis strongly started the leadout at around 200 meters, but others swarm around him as his speed fades - Bossoni comes up fast near the barriers while Mengin slides up his side and both lunge for the line - too close to call! A short coffee break later, the bunch begins to fly through the inner streets of Bordeux, led by the USPS who want to ferry Lance Armstrong to a point reasonably clear of trouble before turning the reins over to the sprinters' teams. FDJ has a train of three riders at 500 meters, leading out their man in the Green Jersey, Baden Cooke. Cooke follows the leadout and winds it up a bit early - Lotto's Robbie Mcewen has been stuck on the real wheel of Cooke. Telekom's Erik Zabel follows, but he's a bit boxed behind McEwen. Cooke seems to be fading slightly against the barriers, as McEwen moves up to his left. Zabel moves up strongly on McEwen's left shoulder. Mcewen, in the center between Cooke and Zabel, finds a burst of speed the others lack, and Zabel continues his accelleration, just nicking Cooke at the line. Stage 17 - 1 - Servais Knaven - Quickstep - 2 - Paolo Bassoni - Vini Caldirola - @ :17 3 - Christophe Mengin - FDJeux.com - s.t. 4 - Leon Van Bon - Lotto - s.t. 5 - Salvatore Commesso - Saeco - s.t. 6 - Vicente Garci Acosta - iBanesto.com - s.t. 7 - Peter Luttenberger - CSC - s.t. 8 - Mederic Clain - Cofidis - s.t. 9 - Bram de Greeot - Rabobank - s.t. 10 - Ivan Parra - Kelme - @ 1:55 General Classification - MJ - Lance Armstrong - 74:40:20 2 - Jan Ullrich - @ 1:07 3 - Alexandre Vinokourov - @ 2:45 4 - Haimar Zubeldia - @ 5:16 5 - Iban Mayo - @ 5:25 6 - Tyler Hamilton - @ 6:35 7 - Ivan Basso - @ 8:08 8 - Christophe Moreau - @ 11:12 9 - Francisco Mancebo - @ 16:05 10 - Carlos Sastre - @ 16:12 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 18 - Bordeaux - Saint Maixent l'Ecole - 203 km Heading north over flat, flat roads again. At least two men have already begun to focus upon Saturday's day of truth - the final Individual Time Trial of this year's Tour. Lance says he's sleeping better with a 1:07 rather than 15 second lead, while Jan says he expected to lose 2 minutes in the Pyrenees and feels good about the time he has to make up. This will be a nail biter. ================================ Trivia Answer - Fritz Schaer of Switzerland ================================ -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Fri Jul 25 16:18:54 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 08:18:54 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 18 - Big Break and Subtle Seconds Message-ID: <3F214A5E.7020804@cyclofiend.com> Stage 18 - Bordeaux - St. Maixent L'Ecole - 203 km A slight tailwind helps the bunch plow along at a leg-breaking 52 km / hr for the first 3 hours - a stunningly painful excercise for everone at this late stage of the tour. Well, not everyone - Telekom's Colombian ex-phenom Santiago Botero did not start today, so only 148 riders are making the northward journey toward the smallest city on this year's Tour host list. Attack after attack certainly helped to drive up the pace for the first kilometers, but the biggest news was played out at the first sprint point. McEwen fires out from the bunch, but is suddenly followed towards the sprint point by a couple names we've heard before: Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong. Ullrich seems to have caught Armstrong just a little flat, and he goes over the sprint in second, Lance in third. Time bonuses are gained at the sprint, and Ullrich gains two seconds by his finish - a cagey and astute move by this strong rider. All chances of a big dog run for the finish end as 16 riders move clear and expand their lead to an excess of 19 minutes with 54 km to go on the course. Today again stays blessedly cool at 66 degrees, with the slight dampening of the odd shower and 88% humidity. The breakaway - 16 riders - 15 teams represented 17 - Mikel Pradera - ONCE 27 - Danielle Nardello - Telekom 35 - Pablo Lastras - iBanesto 55 - Paolo Fornaciari - Saeco 65 - Massimilliano Lelli - Cofidis 76 - Andrea Peron - CSC 83 - Dario Cioni - Fassa Bortolo 94 - Carlos DaCruz - FDJeux.com 101 - Javier Pascaul Lorente - Kelme 114 - Davide Bramati - Quick Step 115 - David Canada - Quick Step 136 - Frabrizio Guidi - Bianchi 143 - Christophe Brandt - Lotto 155 - Andy Flickinger - Ag2R 189 - Thomas Voekler - Brioches Le Boulangerie 207 - Vladimir Miholjevic - Alessio USPS most experience rider Vlatchislav Ekimov rolls next to the doctor's car, lower lip badly swollen from what looks to be a bee sting. Luckily, it does not seem that he'll need to be at the front, since with 50 km to go the gap has pushed out 20:30 Average speed for this year's Tour remains in the high 40.7 kph's, up ahead of the fastest which is about 40.2 kph. Today's screaming pace certainly contributes to that effort. The gap continues to edge up slightly, pushing into the coffee-break range of 22 minutes - specifically 22:11 with 30 km to go. Somewhere under 15 km to go, Voekler instigates a break, and seven other riders snip the cord from the others and join him up the roadway. Flickinger, Lastras, Nardello, Fornaciari, Canada plus a couple others who seem a bit camera shy. 50.355 is record for a stage, set some years ago by a screaming fast Mario Cipollini in 1999. They are definitely within striking distance of that effort. David Canada has moved sharply away from the remnants of the break, clearly having noticed that Servais Knaven was the toast of the team dinner last night. With little fanfare, Canada put his head down and just went away - working hard to get a gap of 25 seconds with 12 km to go. But he's suffering a bit, and a group with Dacruz, Nardello and Lastras move away from the last serious bunch and work together to bridge the hundred meter gap. They've crept up a bit closer Canada (Can-YA-da) as he moves up out of the saddle as they hit some undulations in the roadway. Dacruz has been taking a majority of the pulls, while Lastras takes micro pulls before pulling off quickly - either pretty cagey or just a sufferin-B. Everyone's very tired, and Dacruz nearly touches wheels as he overcorrects after looking back to see their progress in front of their former break compatriots. Again Lastras opts out of the pull, trying to waste the strength of sprinter Dacruz' legs. Canada suffers to hold every meter he's gained, and the gap just edges down to about 5 seconds. He takes a quick look back as the road takes a hard left and begins down a low spot before the rise to the finish. His lead is under 100 meters. Trying to juice it a bit, he's rolling over the biggest gear he can buy, sreaking up the barriers at the right hand side of the wide straight roadway. But as the road edges slightly upward, he's pedaliing squares, and the chasing trio zig across the roadway trying to gain his slipstream. They can see him and their glasses begin to foul slightly with the spray of lube and gristle coming back from Canada. They move strongly, and Dacruz gaps his partners by a few meters. Dacruz screams up and blows past a suddenly flailing Canada, who cannot take any more effort as the road tips up just slightly enough to crack his legs! With 100 meters, it looks like Dacruz has it - but now he begins to pedal squares and both Nardello and Lastras unleash their been-racing-for-the-last-two-and-a-half-weeks sprint. Nardello starts to move between them, but there's no room, and Lastras accellerates away from both riders to win by a bike length! Way back in another county, the USPS riders mark the Bianchi team as they both follow the pacemakeing of the remaining Gerolsteiner riders. They pass under the 15 km banner. Results have been tabulated for the leaders, who averaged 50.25 kph over 203 kilometers - just under the record from 1999, but notching this stage into the books as the 2nd fastest Tour stage ever. Ullrich at second wheel as they move to the front - 1 km to go. There are no time bonuses this far down the finishing bunch, but the strong crosswinds which have been buffeting the riders and the slight uphill could cause a split. Armstrong sits right behind his team, ready to mobilize if need be. Everyone begins to fade back into the bunch as the sprinters' teams begin to take over. Erik Zabel moves up near the front Ullrich's Bianchites slide down into the bunch. A Lotto rider - Van Bon? - cranks the pace up as they begin the rise to the finish. But, he's leading Stuart O'Grady on his wheel. O'Grady begins to pull, and neither Baden Cooke nor Robbie McEwen seems particularly well positioned - at least seven or eight riders back. O'Grady's teammate Thor Hushovd moves strongly from his leadout - but Zabel moves hard and eclipses his effort. But McEwen make his move from several spots back and has an entirely different level of speed. He moves up strongly to Zabel. Cooke tries to follow, but he cannot move up on McEwen who wins the sprint - for 17th place, but a position which generously provides him with the Green Points Jersey. The photo finish shows that Zabel just nicked Cooke, pushing him 2 points behind the howling-fast Australian. Stage 18 - 1 - Pablo Lastras - iBanesto.com - 4:03:18 2 - Carlos Dacruz - FDJeux.com - s.t. 3 - Daniele Nardello - Telkom - s.t. 4 - David Canada - QuickStep - @ :04 5 - Massimaliano Lelli - Cofidis - @ :19 6 - Andy Flickinger - Ag2R - s.t. 7 - Thomas Voeckler - Brioches La Boulangere - s.t. 8 - Paolo Fornaciari - Saeco - s.t. 9 - Fabrizio Guidi - Bianchi - @ :35 10 - Vladimir Miholjevic - Alessio - s.t. Strange to say it, but there has been a shift on the GC - Ullrich drawing 2 seconds closer to yellow, while Lance's effort dropped everyone else in the top ten down two seconds. General Classification MJ - Lance Armstrong - 79:07:49 2 - Jan Ullrich - @ 1:05 3 - Alexandre Vinokourov - @ 2:47 4 - Haimar Zubeldia - @ 5:18 5 - Iban Mayo - @ 5:27 6 - Tyler Hamilton - @ 6:37 7 - Ivan Basso - @ 8:10 8 - Christophe Moreau - @ 11:14 9 - Francisco Mancebo - @ 16:07 10 - Carlos Sastre - @ 16:14 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 19 - Pornic - Nantes 49 km. Due east. Probably a tailwind on this near dead flat course Everything has been said, and it's time for the big dogs to howl. Fires will burn outside the camps of those who will challenge, sentries will remain awake all night, and as the morning sun rises blood red in the east, all will be decided. -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Mon Jul 28 07:02:47 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 23:02:47 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 19 - Showdown Message-ID: <3F24BC87.6050509@cyclofiend.com> Stage 19 - Individual Time Trial Two numbers matter for today's stage - 54.545 km/hr and 1:05. The first is the speed of the fastest ever time trial stage in the Tour - set by none other than Greg Lemond in his win over Laurent Fignon when he won by the smallest margin on the final day 24 km Time Trial in Paris. The second is the gap which remains between Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich. There's nowhere to hide today, and before it's all over, much will be decided. There no longer is any margin for error. With all the talk of how close this race is and what a difficult time Lance Armstrong is having, it's a bit staggering to see the gaps back to the top level pros. With a couple quick scans down the standings on the General Classification, you get a chance to realize how far above everyone else Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich actually are. For example, one of my heros for this year's Tour: In 20th position: José Luis Rubiera (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor @27.31 while a mere 40 riders back in the overall: Patrice Halgand (Fra) Jean Delatour 1.25.35 It becomes pretty obvious that these two men have clearly brought out the best in one another. This has been an epic race for the Centenary Edition. No matter how it ends, these will be the events we recall to the young whippersnappers when we're all old farts. The rains have hit France today. Heavy rains have hammered down upon the roadways of today's Individual Time Trial, laying in an added treacherous variable in this most amazing race. Yesterday there were dire predictions of heavy storms and hellish tailwinds, but it seems that the just the rain is coming down and the winds may have lessened from their gusty peaks for now, but they continue to run mostly as a tailwind as the riders head away from the sea. Last evening, the report was that Ullrich would be spinning a 56T x 11 - a monster gear that would splinter the knees of anyone else. Armstrong was a bit less specific, but he's likely to run a 54T. He's also thinking of running a 19 mm front tire set up. Ye-aiy! How the mechanics slept last night with the threat of storms and rain is not known - but I'd guess it was a night of staring at the ceiling and pacing to the bathroom and back. Tremendous pressure is on these men as well, to make sure that all of the mechanical variables are under control. It's pretty clear that they cannot be. The unfortunate side-effect of the seriousness with the battle for the lead in this year's Tour is that all of the coverage is focused on Ullrich and Armstrong. The other stories are being a bit eclipsed today as everyone frets about the effects of the rain upon the leading positions. Nevertheless, other positions are seriously up for grabs today, as Tyler Hamilton executes what may or may not have been the perfect two-step plan to the podium. With the stunning move on stage 16, when he left everyone behind to learn new levels of excruiciating pain and gain 2 minutes, Hamilton has put himself within striking distance of Euskatel-Euskadi riders Iban Mayo and Haimar Zubeldia. With some strong time-trialing chops, Tyler could move past them, and could even threaten third place rider Alexandre Vinokourov if he runs into trouble on the rain-slickened roadways today. Luckily, our coverage suddenly remembers this, and we see Tyler run out of the slippery start house to begin his run. Also watching him are the two Euskatel-Euskadi riders, who are, quite oddly, shown sitting under umbrellas somewhere behind the starthouse. On this rainy, cold afternoon, it is deeply curious to see these two men who should be worrying about keeping warm until the final minute just sort of hanging out. Mayo has three minutes to go before he is sent off, while Zubeldia will be out there for almost 6 minutes. The winds are edging up to 35 kph now, as the riders leave the starthouse 3 minutes apart. Both the Basque team's riders move out with similar levels of trepidation. Three minutes later, Alexandre Vinokourov rolls down the start ramp. Two minutes later, we catch sight of Jan Ullrich, looking as jittery as a schoolgirl on a triple espresso. He is saying siomething that the cameras can't pick up, but then suddenly rolls up the ramp to place himself into the start house. While he's there, someone hands him a set of glasses. He takes a drink with obviously shaking hands and then settles himself upon his jet black Bianchi time trial machine. Almost as soon, he's off on the course, immediately hammering out a fast rhythmn. Lance appears "backstage", looking stoic and almost a bit calm. He rolls up the ramp and into the covered start area. The countdown commences and he slips away, smoothly gaining speed. Word is that Lance had covered the course that morning, though they refer both to him riding the course, and covering it in the team car. He definitely did the latter, seeing where the water was pooling up and getting himself mentally ready to reride the course that he'd been over a few months earlier. Ullrich on the other hand had watched a video taken by his team of the course. Not clear whether that was today, under the influence of the incliment weather or from a happy sunny flowers are blooming day... Whatever the prep, Ullrich has gained almost 6 seconds in the first kilometer. He is clearly pulling out all the stops. Lance buckles himself in for the long haul, and begins immediately pull seconds back - within another three or four, he's moved back to almsot dead even. Robert Millar, of Cofidis, has actually passed a note to the announcers box that concerning the danger of the final 8 or 9 kilometers of today's course. He feels that the stage should be annulled - even though he sits atop the leader board. Uwe Peschel of Gerolsteiner had fallen hard after posting the fastest split times - they believe he actually cracked a rib after the second fall. Ullrich pounds out an amazing cadence with a massive gear - but he does seem to be dancing a bit back and forth on the roadway - he's not taking a diret line at all times. Armstrong on the other hand is screaming along die-straight, never staying on the numerous patches of road striping or obvious low spots filled with water. After the initial surge, Ullrich cannot seem to pull back any time, and Armstrong efforts have negated all his early gains. In fact, Armstrong's time has crept up a second or two. Suddenly, sparks fly in the rain as the metal of Ullrich's bike hits pavement - he was negotiating a traffic roundabout and as he leaned into the right hand bit of the chicane, his bike shimmied and his front wheel came unstuck - he's slid a looooooong way across the greased roadways into the hay bales on the far side of the roadway. There is no joy in the German's camp. He immediately regains his feet and points the bike forward - a mechanic appears and begins to push him forward. He hasn't lost much time, but what will that do to his concentration? The answer comes quickly as he totally misjudges the next hard right and has to ease his bike around, even though he's hardly moving to begin with. But, before him appears some straight bits of roadway, and he begins to wind it back up. The relief is obvious by Lance's body position - he knew going into this stage that he chances needed to be taken by the German. It would be difficult under ideal conditions to take the kind of time Ullrich needed, and clearly, these were not the best of times... Lance nurses it cautiously around the next sharp turns, but still turns it on decisively in the straightaways - he had also been in phone contact with teammates George Hincapie and Vlatchislav Ekimov, who literally dried out the course with their fast efforts. They spoke with Lance as soon as they had dried their faces. It all adds up, and when you factor in Lance's superlative bike-handling skills against the very good to excellent talents of Ullrich, this is the result... Taking a moment from the tshock and horror of watching Ullrich slide - Hamilton crosses the line at 54:14 - two minutes ahead of Mayo and just a hiccup under two minutes ahead of Zubeldia - he will move at least up into 4th place today! Vinokourov comes in with a finishing time of 56:01 - faster than the Basques. He does manage to hold onto his podium spot - having built up a 3:50 lead over Tyler in the stages to date. But, the big German dog is licking his wounds - still straining the hardware to bring his rig over the line at 54:40. A smiling Lance comes aroudn the final corner to finish 10 seconds faster - plenty of horsepower to spare, he punches the air at the line - clearly a happy, happy man. Stage 19 - Results 1 David Millar (GBr) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 54.05 (54.36 km/h) 2 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC 0.09 3 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 0.14 4 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi 0.25 5 Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun) Quick.Step-Davitamon 0.26 6 Vjatceslav Ekimov (Rus) US Postal-Berry Floor 0.56 7 Victor Hugo Pena (Col) US Postal-Berry Floor 1.00 8 George Hincapie (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 1.08 9 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.12 10 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 1.26 11 Stuart O'grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 1.38 Overall Standings - MJ Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 80.02.08 2 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi 1.16 3 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Telekom 4.29 4 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC 6.32 5 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 7.06 6 Iban Mayo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 7.21 7 Ivan Basso (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 10.12 8 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 12.43 9 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 18.49 10 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) iBanesto.com 19.30 11 Denis Menchov (Rus) iBanesto.com 19.44 12 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Gerolsteiner 21.47 13 Peter Luttenberger (Aut) Team CSC 22.31 14 Manuel Beltran (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 23.03 15 Massimiliano Lelli (Ita) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 24.15 16 Richard Virenque (Fra) Quick.Step-Davitamon 25.46 17 Jorg Jaksche (Ger) ONCE-Eroski 27.22 18 Roberto Laiseka (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 29.15 19 José Luis Rubiera (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 29.37 20 Didier Rous (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 30.14 Tomorrow - Parade into Paris and the final Green Jersey duke-out. -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please visit the "Race-Report" info page: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2003 Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its entirety and no fees are charged. Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to editor@cyclofiend.com From race-report@cyclofiend.com Mon Jul 28 07:11:53 2003 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (Tour Reporter) Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 23:11:53 -0700 Subject: [Le Tour 2003]Stage 20 - Return to Paris Message-ID: <3F24BEA9.7010209@cyclofiend.com> Stage 20 - Ville D'Avray - Paris 152 km With a preamble lap on the Champs Elysees, this year's course takes two lazy laps around Paris before returning to the second time to the world's most famous boulevard in front of the Arch D'Triomphe. The riders will fire up and down the closed-off cobbles 10 times, before it is all finished today. Without question, this race will be analyzed and deconstructed, argued and hypothesized about for months and probably years to come. But, the facts are on the on the paper, even if the ink isn't quite dry: Lance Armstrong will not be denied in his efforts to be the fifth man to win five Tours de France. Again, the US Postal Service squad will bring all nine men into Paris, wearing a grey uniform today for some reason that was briefly mentioned but didn't make sense. They seem to say "US MAIL" rather than USPS...it _might_ be the 100th anniversary of the USPS, but that doesn't sound accurate. Also pretty well decided is the competition for the King of the MOuntains Jersey - back-from-the-dead Richard Virenque; the White jersey for the best young rider going to Russian Denis Menchov who rides for iBanesto.com. Bjarne Riis' CSC team should win the overall team title. But, the push for the Points Leader's Green Jersey is wide open - a three way battle between Robbie McEwen, Baden Cooke and Erik Zabel. Less than thirty points separate them, with two separate sprint points giving the winner six points for each, and the finish awarding 30 points. It should go down to the final lap of today's stage. On the Champs Elysees for the first time, FDJeux.com's Baden Cooke takes the first sprint point after a wonderful leadout by his teammates. Riding side by side, the wearer of the Green jersey McEwen cannot push past the flying Aussie (heck, they are _both_ Australian!), which is a change from days' past. Zabel gets caught up in the peel off of the leadout riders and can only manage third. Cooke's hellacious tenacity moves him back into the lead for the Green Points Jersey - but they will not stop this stage so he can put it back on. Second time for the sprint point, FDJeux.com again does their best imitation of Mario Cipollini's Dominia-Vacanze Zebra-Men to again set up their man Baden Cooke. But, McEwen has not read the script, and fires out early to immediatly distance himself from Cooke and Zabel to take the second sprint point, putting the Lotto rider (as I mentioned, also an Australian) back into the green jersey that he is luckily already wearing. As James Brown has said, "Hup! Good God Y'all!" After a bit of shifting around, man-of-the-mullet Laurent Brochard from Ag2R pips away and gains a gap over the bunch - he's joined by a couple of riders, but then unforunately Christophe Moreau from Credit Agricole whose high place in the overall causes an immediate response by the chasing peleton. A break of 8 riders clip off the front, again with Brochard included, but this time including no one who can affect any of the top standings, and they move out to about a 35 second leaders with 31 km to go. 33 - Jose Garci Acosta - iBanesto.com 43 - Bram de Groot - Rabobank 72 - Michael Blaudzun - CSC 103 - David Latasa - Kelme 112 - Laszlo Bodrogi - QuickStep 124 - Sebastian Hinault - Credit Agricole 152 - Mikel Astarloza - Ag2R 185 - Maryan Hary - Brioches La Boulangerie They continue to let them dangle a bit, but then begin eating away at the gap - nicking away maybe five or seconds a lap. As they get close, there is a general slowing, as no one wants to be on the front when the contact is made. Finally, just as the riders steel themselves for the bell lap, the chase is over and the big birds come home to roost. Everyone eyes one another as they continue pressing the pace. Alexandre Vinokourov bends his cranks to keep the pace high for Zabel. Around the fountain the final time, everyone is clawing their way to a leadout man - O'Grady has picked Zabel, Cooke has been following teammate Bradley McGee. McEwen is hidden, but you get a glimpse of green. Suddenly, nothing is in front of them but the line, and Credit Agricole's Thor Hushoved has smoke coming from his chain as he tries to keep up with Brad McGee. Cooke begins his move and McEwen swings out from nowhere to begin his assault. They both veer slightly to their left as others fall back - but what's this? Jean-Patrick Nazon of Jean Delatour zips up in the gap and moves ahead of both riders! A Frenchman on a French team wins on the Champs Elysees in Paris! Behind him, Cooke and McEwen bump elbows hips and shoulders and they hurl their bikes at the line - a total photo finish! The film shows Cooke in the lead at the line, and he wins the Green Jersey! Final Stage Results - Stage 20 1 Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) Jean Delatour 3.38.49 (41.678 km/h) 2 Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 3 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Lotto Domo 4 Luca Paolini (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 5 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 6 Stuart O'grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 7 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Telekom 8 Romans Vainsteins (Lat) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 9 Gerrit Glomser (Aut) Saeco 10 Damien Nazon (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere Final general classification (Complete) 1 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 83.41.12 (40.94 km/h) 2 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi 1.01 3 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Telekom 4.14 4 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC 6.17 5 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 6.51 6 Iban Mayo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 7.06 7 Ivan Basso (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 10.12 8 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 12.28 9 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 18.49 10 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) iBanesto.com 19.15 11 Denis Menchov (Rus) iBanesto.com 19.44 12 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Gerolsteiner 21.32 13 Peter Luttenberger (Aut) Team CSC 22.16 14 Manuel Beltran (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 23.03 15 Massimiliano Lelli (Ita) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 24.00 16 Richard Virenque (Fra) Quick.Step-Davitamon 25.31 17 Jorg Jaksche (Ger) ONCE-Eroski 27.22 18 Roberto Laiseka (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 29.15 19 José Luis Rubiera (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 29.37 20 Didier Rous (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 30.14 21 Laurent Dufaux (Swi) Alessio 33.17 22 David Plaza (Spa) Team Bianchi 45.55 23 Félix Garcia Casas (Spa) Team Bianchi 47.07 24 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Ag2R Prevoyance 49.47 25 Daniele Nardello (Ita) Team Telekom 53.14 26 José Azevedo (Por) ONCE-Eroski 54.31 27 Javier Pascual Llorente (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 57.00 28 Grischa Niermann (Ger) Rabobank 1.00.32 29 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Ag2R Prevoyance 1.02.13 30 Inigo Chaurreau (Spa) Ag2R Prevoyance 1.03.35 31 Stephane Goubert (Fra) Jean Delatour 1.05.38 32 Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank 1.07.55 33 Laurent Brochard (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 1.09.35 34 Roberto Heras (Spa) US Postal-Berry Floor 1.14.17 35 Giuseppe Guerini (Ita) Team Telekom 1.16.43 36 Juan Miguel Mercado (Spa) iBanesto.com 1.22.32 37 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.25.01 38 Jorg Ludewig (Ger) Saeco 1.25.13 39 Andy Flickinger (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 1.28.53 40 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Jean Delatour 1.30.42 41 José Enrique Gutierrez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 1.35.51 42 Michael Rogers (Aus) Quick.Step-Davitamon 1.37.28 43 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 1.38.49 44 Nicki Sorensen (Den) Team CSC 1.39.54 45 Michaël Blaudzun (Den) Team CSC 1.41.09 46 Ivan Parra (Col) Kelme-Costa Blanca 1.44.01 47 George Hincapie (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 1.44.11 48 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 1.45.09 49 Matthias Kessler (Ger) Team Telekom 1.45.17 50 Vladimir Miholjevic (Cro) Alessio 1.45.59 51 Xabier Zandio (Spa) iBanesto.com 1.48.53 52 Christophe Brandt (Bel) Lotto Domo 1.50.33 53 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) iBanesto.com 1.52.03 54 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team CSC 1.53.45 55 David Millar (GBr) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 1.54.38 56 David Canada (Spa) Quick.Step-Davitamon 1.58.01 57 Angel Casero (Spa) Team Bianchi 1.58.32 58 Mikel Pradera (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 1.59.37 59 Walter Beneteau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 2.00.09 60 Fabio Sacchi (Ita) Saeco 2.00.56 61 Udo Bölts (Ger) Gerolsteiner 2.01.38 62 Kurt Van De Wouwer (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon 2.02.01 63 Guido Trentin (Ita) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 2.02.02 64 Gerrit Glomser (Aut) Saeco 2.02.11 65 Laurent Lefevre (Fra) Jean Delatour 2.03.39 66 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 2.06.00 67 Pablo Lastras (Spa) iBanesto.com 2.06.30 68 Marcos Serrano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 2.07.26 69 Luca Paolini (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 2.10.30 70 Aitor Garmendia (Spa) Team Bianchi 2.10.41 71 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 2.11.33 72 Isidro Nozal (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 2.12.14 73 David Latasa (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 2.12.58 74 Andrea Noe (Ita) Alessio 2.17.58 75 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Alessio 2.20.52 76 Vjatceslav Ekimov (Rus) US Postal-Berry Floor 2.21.53 77 Floyd Landis (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 2.25.19 78 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) FDJeux.com 2.26.58 79 Dario Cioni (Ita) Fasso Bortolo 2.31.37 80 Mikel Artetxe (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 2.34.10 81 Salvatore Commesso (Ita) Saeco 2.34.47 82 Nicolas Portal (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 2.35.04 83 René Andrle (Cze) ONCE-Eroski 2.35.17 84 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saeco 2.35.47 85 Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) Jean Delatour 2.36.01 86 Serge Baguet (Bel) Lotto Domo 2.37.20 87 Steve Zampieri (Swi) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 2.40.28 88 Victor Hugo Pena (Col) US Postal-Berry Floor 2.40.49 89 Mario Aerts (Bel) Team Telekom 2.40.50 90 Stuart O'grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 2.41.24 91 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 2.43.44 92 Marcus Zberg (Swi) Gerolsteiner 2.47.07 93 Carlos Da Cruz (Fra) FDJeux.com 2.47.54 94 Rolf Aldag (Ger) Team Telekom 2.48.34 95 Franck Renier (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 2.48.54 96 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank 2.51.18 97 Cédric Vasseur (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 2.51.58 98 Alberto Lopez Munain (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 2.52.45 99 Bram De Groot (Ned) Rabobank 2.56.35 100 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) iBanesto.com 2.57.09 101 Inigo Landaluze (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 3.02.37 102 Pavel Padrnos (Cze) US Postal-Berry Floor 3.05.34 103 Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) Team Bianchi 3.06.23 104 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) iBanesto.com 3.09.07 105 Médéric Clain (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 3.09.22 106 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Team CSC 3.11.36 107 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Telekom 3.11.39 108 Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun) Quick.Step-Davitamon 3.12.20 109 Benoit Poilvet (Fra) Credit Agricole 3.14.11 110 Christophe Mengin (Fra) FDJeux.com 3.14.47 111 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 3.19.43 112 Paolo Fornaciari (Ita) Saeco 3.20.14 113 Jakob Piil (Den) Team CSC 3.20.57 114 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 3.21.01 115 Marc Wauters (Bel) Rabobank 3.21.43 116 Romans Vainsteins (Lat) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 3.23.43 117 Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) FDJeux.com 3.25.22 118 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 3.25.33 119 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 3.28.18 120 Bekim Christensen (Den) Team CSC 3.28.23 121 Christophe Oriol (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 3.29.35 122 Alvaro Gonzalez Galdeano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 3.32.37 123 Servais Knaven (Ned) Quick.Step-Davitamon 3.33.45 124 Philippe Gaumont (Fra) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 3.34.57 125 Vicente Garcia Acosta (Spa) iBanesto.com 3.35.10 126 Davide Bramati (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 3.36.10 127 Inigo Cuesta (Spa) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone 3.37.12 128 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Lotto Domo 3.38.38 129 Damien Nazon (Fra) Bricohes La Boulangere 3.39.58 130 Maryan Hary (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 3.40.55 131 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) Jean Delatour 3.45.18 132 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Lotto Domo 3.51.56 133 Bradley McGee (Aus) FDJeux.com 3.52.49 134 Paolo Bossoni (Ita) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 3.54.39 135 Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) Jean Delatour 3.56.38 136 Thomas Liese (Ger) Team Bianchi 3.56.49 137 Frédéric Finot (Fra) Jean Delatour 3.57.53 138 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) Credit Agricole 4.00.26 139 David Munoz (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 4.03.40 140 Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 4.04.10 141 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Jean Delatour 4.04.59 142 Julian Usano (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 4.05.46 143 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Lotto Domo 4.13.28 144 Dario Andriotto (Ita) Vini Caldirola-So.Di 4.14.48 145 Daniel Becke (Ger) Team Bianchi 4.26.08 146 Alessandro Bertolini (Ita) Alessio 4.27.59 147 Hans De Clercq (Bel) Lotto Domo 4.48.35 Points classification - Green Jersey 1 Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 216 pts 2 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Lotto Domo 214 3 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Telekom 188 4 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 173 5 Luca Paolini (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 156 6 Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) Jean Delatour 154 7 Stuart O'grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 153 8 Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) Team Bianchi 122 9 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi 112 10 Damien Nazon (Fra) Bricohes La Boulangere 107 King of the Mountains - Polka Dot Jersey 1 Richard Virenque (Fra) Quick.Step-Davitamon 324 pts 2 Laurent Dufaux (Swi) Alessio 187 3 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 168 4 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 137 5 Juan Miguel Mercado (Spa) iBanesto.com 136 6 Iban Mayo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 130 7 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 125 8 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi 124 9 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC 116 10 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 100 Young rider - White Jersey 1 Denis Menchov (Rus) iBanesto.com 84.00.56 2 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Ag2R Prevoyance 42.29 3 Juan Miguel Mercado (Spa) iBanesto.com 1.02.48 4 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.05.17 5 Andy Flickinger (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 1.09.09 6 Michael Rogers (Aus) Quick.Step-Davitamon 1.17.44 7 Matthias Kessler (Ger) Team Telekom 1.25.33 8 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) iBanesto.com 1.32.19 9 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 1.51.49 10 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Alessio 2.01.08 11 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) FDJeux.com 2.07.14 12 Nicolas Portal (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 2.15.20 13 Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) Jean Delatour 2.16.17 14 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) iBanesto.com 2.37.25 15 Sandy Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 2.59.59 16 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 3.01.17 17 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 3.05.49 18 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 3.08.34 19 Maryan Hary (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 3.21.11 20 Christophe Edaleine (Fra) Jean Delatour 3.25.34 21 David Munoz (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 3.43.56 22 Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 3.44.26 23 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Jean Delatour 3.45.15 24 Daniel Becke (Ger) Team Bianchi 4.06.24 Combativity classification - Special Award 1 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Telekom Centenaire classification (special award for results into the 6 cities which originally hosted the Tour de France) 1 Stuart O'grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 82 pts 2 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 86 3 Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) Team Bianchi 103 4 Luca Paolini (Ita) Quick.Step-Davitamon 118 5 Gerrit Glomser (Aut) Saeco 123 6 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi 165 7 Damien Nazon (Fra) Bricohes La Boulangere 169 8 Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 184 9 Bradley McGee (Aus) FDJeux.com 188 10 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 210 11 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC 210 Teams classification 1 Team CSC 248.18.18 2 iBanesto.com 21.46 3 Euskaltel - Euskadi 44.59 4 US Postal - Berry Floor 45.53 5 Team Bianchi 1.12.40 6 Team Telekom 1.38.45 7 Quick Step - Davitamon 2.02.17 8 Brioches La Boulangere 2.02.36 9 Ag2R Prevoyance 2.08.06 10 Cofidis Credit Par Telephone 2.08.56 11 ONCE - Eroski 2.13.30 12 Alessio 3.12.37 13 Saeco - Macchine Per Caffe 3.15.42 14 Kelme - Costa Blanca 3.23.31 15 Jean Delatour 3.52.26 16 Gerolsteiner 3.53.35 17 Fassa Bortolo 3.59.07 18 Rabobank 4.03.59 19 Credit Agricole 5.40.11 20 Lotto - Domo 6.01.44 21 FDJeux.com 6.51.17 22 Vini Caldirola - So.Di 8.20.01 ---- Thanks for Reading! -- Jim -- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. 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