[Tour 2004]Stage 16 - L'Alpe d'Huez Individual Time Trial

[tour-junkie]

Stage 16 - L'Alp d'Huez Individual Time Trial - 15.5km

The road rises to 1850 meters of elevation, there are 21 switchbacks on this
climb.  Each corner is numbered, and they count down as you go up. 158
riders will toe the line today, and close to a million fans have come to see
them duke it out on the 15 km. It is a beautiful clear and hot day for the
first ever Individual Time Trial on Alp d'Huez.

Ludovic Martin of the heretofore invisible RAGT squad posts an early best
time - 43:52 - which stands at least 3 minutes under the previous best time.
He had also set the best time at the 9.5 km mark of 26:15.

Anticipate theat the winning time will be hovering around 40 minutes.
Still, it's an excellent time for th

Now here's my question - since there's a following team car behind each
rider, and there's only one way off of the climb, where do they get the
extra cars?


I remember first looking at this year's Tour route, and thinking that the
organizers had done everything they could to keep Lance on the defensive -
between the endless flat stages at the beginning which would keep the
sprinters busy, the


Robbie McEwen brings the Green Jersey over the finishing line - finishing in
a decent time in the 47 minute neighborhood - and pops a wheelie just on the
finish line and rides it out to the cheers of the crowd - enthused to have
the clib behind him.

Andrea Peron of CSC gets going off the line, followed by some mini-van
they've talked a some local out of.  My guess is they've been scouring the
neighborhoods to find cars with keys left in.  It sees like a number of the
cars do not even have extra bikes in them.

A while later, after Roberto Heras, Bobby Julich and Paolo Bettini have all
moved out onto the course, another CSC rider toes the line.  Jens Voight has
officially put on the Ludo Dierckxsen jersey of aggressive riding.  OK, so
it's not an official jersey, but it's nice to see that this likeable rider
has maintained the sheer attacking tenacity of the big bald Belgian.

Ag2R's Mikel Astarloza goes through the time check at 26:04 - settting a new
split time.

Davide Etxebarria slips in just behind the best time - drool running off his
chin to no avail as he runs out of time and finishes in 43:57 - which
certainly idicates just how good Martin's time is.

Down the course, Juan Mecado begins to show the serious what the serious
contenders and clibers will do, as he clips some a bit off the 9.5 km time,
notching under 26 minutes (25:46) and looks like he could keep his brisk
cadence going all the way to the top of the climb.

Astarloza crackles over the line at 43:06 - notching himself into the lead.
The current "unofficial" record time for L'Alpe d'Huez means that the riders
will move up through the climb at 22 km per hour.

Mercado pushes all the way to the line, but comes up 5 100ths of a second
short - he will notch into 2nd place on the roadway.

The faces on the start house get more serious, the riders now staggered by 2
minutes as thye begin to get up to the big boys.

Liberty's Marcus Serrano doesn't mess with any little time gaps, and rolls
over the finish line at 42:50 - kicking every other ride down one notch in
the standings.

Cofidis Davide Moncoutie puts himself over the line at 42:04 - a great
result for this stage-winner.

On the other end of the spectrum, Roberto Heras confirms that he is not
firing on all cylinders, finishing somewhere past 45 minutes. Not his year,
unfortunately.

Guerini is close to a new best time, swinging around the last turn and
sprinting for the line - he misses by half a second.

Santos Gonzalez is in 41:52- a new leader for now.

Ullrich leaves the start house with the heaviest bike of any of the leaders.
The beefed-up frame features 177 mm cranks and he wrenches the frame to get
underway. Kloeden and then Basso whirl away, everyone for the time being
separated by 2 minute intervals.

The final beeps begin - Armstrong is away now - yellow jersey and a blue
cap.  Legs churning in his trademark high cadence.

Ullrich hit the first check at 2:02 - before any of the climbing begins.
This time check does not matter, but it serves as a welcome distraction from
the tension of this stage.  Basso is through at 2:06 - Then Armstrong goes
through at 2:05

Up top, Vladimir Karpets comes out of the last corner with enough time to
go, but becomes just another rider who hits the line outside the leading
time.  He had the leading 9.5 km time of 24:56, but couldn't hold on to the
fnish

Idiots begin to pepper the course, running up the middle of the roadway and
leaning out screaming into the ear of Armstrong.  Lots of Germans on the
course, lots of carbo-loading folks whose tenuous grasp on reasonable
behavior disappearred several six-packs ago.

Ullrich rolls under the 10 km to go banner - running a tri-spoke front wheel
and clip-on bars to give himself every edge he can conceive of.

Basso steps up out of the saddle briefly, then sits.  He's moving more on
the bike than before, clearly trying to find every bit of muscle.  An
unofficial time gap has Armstrong nipping 15 seconds from Basso's lead so
far. 

Drunken Germans waving flags run up the roadway directly ahead of Ullrich.
Beacuse he's saved up his box tops and gotten the full sized version, he
manages to obscure the race course as Ullrich heads into the turn.  You can
see a micro-pause in Ullrich's cadence.  Not helpful, Helmut.

Up the course, USPS rider Jose Azevedo hits a new 9.5 km split time of 24:40
- new best time on the course.

Fixed cameras show exactly how lost in the sea of the crowd Ullrich is.  I
think there's a car in there somewhere, and there must be a cyclist.
Suddenly, Ullrich comes into the protection of the barricaded turns of the
time checkpoint, knees smoking as he cranks over a huge gear - but the big
German diesel gets results - clipping the 9.5 km check to 24:07!

Francisco Mancebo is curled uncomfortably over his machine - he's losing
time on Ullrich and Kloeden, and clearly suffering more than other riders
we've seen at the 9.5 km point.

Kloeden notches the second best time at the point of 24:35 - riding well and
looking clean as he continues to suprise everyone with his condition and
preparation for this year.

Basso now pushes toward the time check - he's riding just slower than
Kloeden and Azevedo - he stops the clock at 24:43.

Armstrong appears just around the corner from the time check - he's flying!
He hits the 9.5 km check at 23:28 - 40 seconds faster than Ullrich and more
than a minute ahead of Basso.

Ullrich is between the barriers that hold the crowds back on the last 5 km
of the course.  He continues to deliver enough wattage to run your home for
a few days.

Armstrong is now in the protected area - scorching up the roadway and
thankfully away from the hoi polloi.

Somewhere up ahead, Levi Leipheimer finishes in 43:47.

Ullrich rumbles through at the 12.5 km check point and posts another "best
time" of 34:37.

Basso looks troubled and struggling, rocking his upper body and wiggling the
bike on the roadway.  He calls for power which he cannot find today.

Ullrich under the 2 km to go banner, clicks the gear up and sees how much
more pain he can put himself under. There seems to be blood coming from
under his eyes from his effort. The poise he is showing to generate this
effort shows just what a competitor the big German is.

Behind, Armstrong has drawn within 100 meters of Basso - is just nipping up
at his heels and clearly targeting

USPS teammate Azevedo flies around the last corners, on track to nip the
best time on the day - he crosses in 41:26 to hold the lead.

Thomas Voeckler wears his white jersey and crosses the line to probably the
loudest cheers of the day so far.  He's about midway down the results for
the day, which may leave him open to a counterattack by Michael Rogers and
Vladimir Karpets, both of whom are in the hunt for the best young rider's
jersey.

Ullrich drives hard for the finish and actually throws his bike like a track
rider - new best time with 40:42!

Arstrong moves foward, snatching the carrot and puts himself immediately
onto Bassos wheels - then alongside him.  Basso looks over slightly and then
tries to lift his pace to stay near him.  But with a quick out-of-the-saddle
accelleration into the corner, Arstrong gains a gap and finds a slightly
taller gear to begin moving away.  Armstrong becomes suddenly smaller in the
distance.  Moving hard and breathing deeply, he's continually accellerating
as he goes under the 2 km to go banner.

Kloeden has Francisco Mancebo in his sights as they hit the less steep bits
at the chalets near the top of the climb.  Kloeden all but drafts off of him
to cross at 41:23 - about 40 seconds slower than his teammate Ullrich.

Lance is out of the saddle - then sits and finds even a bigger gear, cadence
dropping noticeably. He's now down in the drops sprinting for every second
and crosses in 39:41 - averaging more than 15 mph!  He's beaten Ullrich by
61 seconds - excactly the gap from last year's Tour vicotry

Basso crosses the line, managing to hold onto 8th on the stage, somewhere in
the high 42 minutes.

Understatement of the day:
"The crowds were.....um.......animated,"  Lance Armstrong.

He also went on to say that it was not a good idea to have a time trial on
Alp d'Huez.  The offical count was 900,000 fans who were (and will be stuck
on) the climb today.

Stage 16 Results - 
1 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - 39:41
2 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - 1:01
3 - Andreas Kloeden - T-Mobile - 1:41
4 - Jose Azevedo - USPS - 1:45
5 - Santos Gonzalez - Phonak - 2:11
6 - Guiseppe Guerini - T-Mobile - 2:11
7 - Vladimir Karpets - Illes Baleares - 2:15
8 - Ivan Basso - CSC - 2:23
9 - David Moncoutie - Cofidis - 2:23
10 - Carlos Sastre - CSC - 2:27
11 - Stephane Goubert - Ag2R - 2:33
12 - Michael Rogers - Quick Step - 2:34
13 - Jose Guierrez - Phonak - 3:04
14 - Oscar Pereiro - Phonak - 3:05
15 - Marcos Serrano - Liberty - 3:09
16 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner - 3:15
17 - Sandy Casar - FDJeux.com - 3:19
18 - Mikel Astarloza - Ag2R - 3:25
19 - Juan Mercado - Quick Step - 3:25
20 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - 3:25

General Classification -
MJ - Lance Armstrong - USPS - 67:53:24
2 - Ivan Basso - CSC - 3:48
3 - Andreas Kloden - T-Mobile - 5:03
4 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - 7:55
5 - Jose Azevedo - USPS - 9:19
6 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Balears - 9:20
7 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner - 11:34
8 - Carolos Sastre - CSC - 13:52
9 - Pietro Caucchioli - Alessio - 14:08
10 - Levi Leipheimer - Rabobank - 15:04

Since this will be the last real-time edition of this year's Tour for me, I
thought I might mention the remaining challanges and some hopes for the next
days.  

Tomorrow's Stage - 
Stage 17 - Le Bourg-d'Oisans - Le Grand-Bornand - 204 km
No rest for the wicked - this is the nastiest day in the Tour if you measure
by height.  There will be 16,827 feet of climbing, including the Col du
Glandon (21 kilometers - average 5.2%), Col de la Madeleine (19.5 km  -
7.8%) the highest spot in the Tour, the little known Col de Tamie (8.7 km -
6.6%), the less known Col de la Forciaz (8.2 km - 8%)and the unknown Col de
la Croix Fry (11.5 km - 7.1%).  The final three climbs are virtually unknown
to these riders, and this will be a stunningly hard stage for riders who are
have been tortured significantly up until now.  Certainly, look for Lance's
team to control things, and Ivan Basso, Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloeden
to try to break things up.  It would be great to see Leipheimer move up the
standings with an excellent stage here.

 
Friday's Stage - 
Stage 18 - Annemasse to Lons le Saunier - 166 km
A reasonably shorter stage, with climbs that won't quite cause as much
wreckage.  Starting near the French/Swiss border, the rides will hit a Cat 2
and 3 climb mid course, but the sprinters might even begin to show their
faces again. 

Saturday's Stage - 
Stage 19 - Besancon Individual Time Trial - 55 km
A day of constant change of elevation on the longest ITT in recent memory.
No categorized climbs on the day, but no rest for the wicked or damned.
This is finally a stage that should favor a powerful rider like Ullrich, but
it will remain to see how much he has left after the damage of the previous
stages.  My guess is that he will be on form and won't give up much here.

Sunday - Paris, finally Paris
Stage 20 - Montereau to Paris - 163 km
The parade before the Champs-Elysees criterium...Hopefully champagne will be
poured between the rider wearing number 1 and the USPS Team Car.
Finally, on the streets of Paris, having locked up the Yellow Jersey, it
would be wonderful to see the USPS team push to the front and lead out a
sprint for either Lance (because when was the last time the Yellow Jersey
won in Paris?) or George Hincapie (because of all the big-time engines
behind Lance's Tour victories, he's the one who has been there for each
one.)  Granted, the team riders knew their jobs when they signed on, but it
would be a great thing to see.  Of course, memory fails me regarding the
name of the American to win on the Champs Elysses.

No matter what does happen, this year has provided a textbook example of
teamwork and dedication to an overall goal.  The condition, tenacity and
dominance of the USPS squad in this race has been second to none.

Thanks for reading!

-- Jim  


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