[Tour 2004]Stage 1 - Leige to Charleroi

[tour-junkie]

Pre-Stage Thoughts:

It's interesting to see how a roughly 7 minute effort can set the stage so
quickly. I've never been one to put a great deal of credibility to the
Prologue results - there are simply too many miles to go.

Still, it does set an interesting , Ivan Basso of CSC lost more than 30
seconds. Ex-USPS rider Roberto Heras nearly 40.

Jens Voight of CSC did manage to stay within 11 seconds, and even Iban Mayo
of Euskatel kept within striking distance at 20 seconds. Of course, unless
they've done some special training

Though I didn't go into it yesterday, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis and
Vlatchislav Ekiimov (who at 38 is the oldest rider in the race)all finished
in the top 20. Clearly, the preparations have been team-wide. This bodes
well for protection on the roadways and the upcoming (thought  gutted by the
time loss limit rule) Team Time Trial.

Tech Note:
According to Chris Carmichael, Lance's testing shows him to be in the best
shape of his career. His HRM showed that he averaged 188 bpm during the
Prologue Time Trial.

Stage 1 - Leige to Charleroi - 202 kilometers

Today could be a stinky shock to some riders. No riding in the Belgian
countryside will ever be easy, between the roads, weather and winds. This
stage is no spring classic, but the profile on this stage looking noticeably
"toothy" in the first three-quarters of the course. There are actually five
categorized climbs today, though nothing is over a "3" or "4" rating.  Once
they make it through that, there are three sprint points in the final 50km,
so we'll get to see men who are eyeing the Green Jersey come to the front
(or scramble to get reattached if the Belgian crosswinds blow and echelons
form). If the group can come back together, the sprinters will come out to
play, with the teams of Allessandro Petacchi, Robbie McEwen, Mario Cipollini
ready to take control to the finish.

======================

We begin the day with rain on the camera lens, Mario Cipollini trying to
reattach after a slippery crash, Fassa Bortolo leading the peleton over the
toughest of today's climb while the USPS boys hold tight formation right
behind them.   

They follow a small group who have a gap of 2:20

102 - Paulo Bettini - Quick-Step
69 - Jens Voight - CSC
98 - Janek Tombak - Cofidis
165 - Bernhard Eisel - FDJeux.com
127 - Frank Renier - La Boulangere

The slippery roads find Tyler Hamilton sliding down the roadway as well.
His team ferries him back up front, and there seems to be no time lost

As the lead group speeds along, the FDJeux.com team car comes alongside and
while talking, Eisel touches wheels with the rider in front and goes down at
full speed - it's an absolute yard sale as the bike narrowly misses being
crushed by the wheels of the team car and every bit of food and drinks get
spread across the roadway.  Thankfully the slick roadway provides enough
lube to keep his skin reasonably intact. It was an absolute error of
attention - dare I say  Cat 4 mistake? - but, he does regain the lead group.

At the other end of the peleton, Cipo and some teammates have found other
stragglers and victims of the slick roadway, and work to close the  30-40
gap to the bunch. Brad McGee is in the group as well, having either come off
or gotten stuck behind a crash.

88 km to go and the gap has fallen to 1:41. Eisel makes a stab at keeping
the gap, but Fassa Bortolo's pacemaking continues to reduce the time - now
1:15.

A lot of orange nipping around the front of the bunch, with black-rain-caped
USPS riders tending to Lance.  They begin the rain-soaked descent with
reports of another crash - no specifics yet - and Fassa Bortolo's pacemaking
having reduced the gap to just over 40 seconds.  The gap has caused a split
off the front of the pack - true Belgian racing conditions.

Cancellara and his Fassa Bortolo teammates find themselves with a 10 second
gap, which gets shut down fairly quickly by the Euskatel orangemen. The
roadways seem to be drier now, and there is not a lot of spray coming up any
longer.  The efforts bring them within 10 seconds of the lead bunch.  For
those with a quick calculator, you might notice that if Jens Voight wins
another Intermediate Sprint, he will move into second place due to the time
bonuses. Unfortunately, the scattered race cameras miss the sprint results.

The field has them well within sight, moving quickly up from behind like a
grey mass.  Bettini drifts back and finally the tough German eases up on the
pedals and accepts the inevitable.

Despite the slobber and bluster of the first parts of the race, things have
come more or less together - gruppo compatto if this were the Giro - The
crowds are thickening up along the roadside and the bunch has widened across
the roadway.  Thought the sun is still hidden, the bunch tap out a calmer
tempo on dry roads. There are now about 35 miles to, with one more bonus
sprint on the roadway.  As with the rest of the sprint points today, it is
worth a 6, 4 and 2 second time bonus to the first, second and third place
riders.  Since it applies to the overall time, it does tend to determine the
early wearer of the Yellow Jersey.

The big German himself - Telekom's Jan Ullrich - appears near the front of
the bunch - that would be a curious sprint this early on if Lance were to
take a serious stab at those sprint bonuses.

Brad McGee continues to suffer today, slipping back to the team cars and
race doctor.  He had a strong Giro this season, suffering his way through
the mountains. He may have overestimated his ability to recove this year.

The massive Norwegian Thor Hushovd marshals his Credit Agricole teammates to
the front. Now 1 km to go to the sprint.

Tom Boonen has his Quik-Step teammates suddenly ramp up the pace, follows
the leadout and makes his move.  Yellow Jersey wearin' Fabian Cancellara has
been patiently locked right on his wheel, and rolls up a big gear as 4 or 5
riders begin to spread across the roadway.  A Cofidis  rider - Stuart
O'Grady - begins to slip up the inside while Cancellara moves up on Boonen's
shoulder. The Belgian phenom may have slightly misjudged the distance, as he
seems to get caught by one or both riders right before the line - already we
find a need for the finish line camera.

Preliminary Results:
O'Grady
Boonen
Cancellara

Of course, the wiley Belgian Marc Wauters of Rabobank fires away from the
bunch as they catch their breath - joined by the CSC Dane Jakob Piil.  They
quickly move out to a 23 second lead over the main bunch.  Five more riders
edge slightly away from the main group, but they can't establish a lead and
they sit up and leave the pair to suffer alone.  With 26 miles to go, the
sprinters' teams probably feel they can retrieve these men before the stage
finish.

It's curious to see Lance wearing the Green Points Jersey today - but since
Cancellara actually won everything yesterday, they get distributed among the
subsequent places.

The gap eases up to a full minute.

A commercial break over, the gap has pushed to 1:37 - I'm not sure that the
peleton wants to give these two talented riders that much time at this point
on the day.

Another bit of roadway under the wheels findsd the pair out to 1:54.  At the
head of the peleton, Robbie McEwen's Lotto teammates begin to nose out into
the wind. The Fassa Bortolians take on a Borg-like look at the front -
concentrating on bringing the boys back. They begin to form a bit of a wedge
as the speed continues to climb.

Quik-Step riders swing into the rotation.  Suprisingly, the orange jerseys
of Euskatel are highly evident near the front.  No matter what, this
regional team have also focused upon this event.

1:40 with 12.4 miles to go.

1:20 with 10 miles to go.

On the other end of things, Brad McGee has been snipped off the back of the
bunch, and can only watch as the tail of the peleton edges away.

1:05 at 15 km

McGee gets the tow from teammate Matt Wilson, who has dropped back from the
bunch. Ahead of him, the peleton has strectched again, as they try to cut
down the gap. Just the hint of a shadow appears on the roadway.  Things are
thankfully dry for what seems to be shaping up as a fierce sprint.

The Quik-Step/Lotto/Fassa Bortolo troika share the pacemaking, but as the
peleton heads up a slight rise in the outskirts of Charleroi, Alessio rider
Marcus Ljungqvist gains a quick gap.  He is the teammate of the big Swede
Magnus Backstedt, and this may be a savvy way of getting the speed of the
main field to increase.

:18 at just under 3 miles.

Ljungqvist is swallowed back up while Vjatchislav Ekimov leads the bunch.

The pair are rolling in the saddle and praying for the banners to go
overhead - just now they see the 4 km to go banner. But, now they have only
a

-- Crash in the field - Phonak rider - Nicolas Jalabert is down but seems to
be unhurt --

15 second gap...they still try to hammer and hang onto their dwindling gap.

The Yellow Jersey at the head of the field knowing that his job is to now
put Allessandro Petacchi over the line first - a perfect leadout line
forming.  They have made the catch of Wauters and Piil with just under 2 km
to go.  But suprisingly, it is the Ag2R team who have managed to push out to
the front - the Fassa Bortolo train noses them back out of the way at they
go under the 1 km to go banner.  T-Mobile's Erik Zabel moves up strongly and
gets immediately onto Petacchi's wheel.

It's a wide straight road as Gerolsteiner Danilo Hondo pushes the pace and
Hushovd goes hard at the rail.  No one will come around his inside.
Curiously, Petacchi is nowhere to be seen, but the big Hushovd has a shadow
as Estonian Jan Kirsipuu from Ag2R slides around his left shoulder and winds
it up hard.  To his left Robbie McEwen appears and seems to shut down the
effort of Allessandro Petacchi, who cannot find the roadway to unleash his
speed. Kirsipuu timed his effort to perfection and just edges out Hushovd as
McEwen lunges to grab second place.


Stage 1 Results - 

1 - Jan Kisipuu - Ag2R
2 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto
3 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole
4 - Danilo Hondo - Gerolsteiner
5 - Jean Patric Nazon - Ag2R

The finish pushes Thor Hushovd into second place overall, with the time
bonuses putting him 6 seconds ahead of Lance Armstrong, and two behind
Fabian Cancellara.


Tomorrow's Stage - 

Charleroi to Namur - 197 kilometers
Another fairly flat stage, but nothing in Belgium is truly safe and simple.
Aside from the winds and weather, there's a sharp short climb at about 50 km
to go - 1.1 km at averaging nearly 7%.  2 spring points on the day, with the
second coming at 158 km after the climb.  If the sprinters' teams can
prevent a spllit on the climb, it could come back together, with a descent
into town and what seems to be a dead-flat finishing run.


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