From race-report@cyclofiend.com Fri Jul 1 06:44:33 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (tour-junkie) Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 22:44:33 -0700 Subject: [Tour 2005]Countdown to the Tour Message-ID: As a wise man once said, it's time to piss on the fire and call out the dogs. Tour Time rises again and for the final time, Lance Armstrong will be rolling to the line. The war of gargantuans will be replayed this year, with the big men sluggin= g it out street style. As should be taking place in the year of the unprecedented 7th potential victory, everyone is fit, trained, rested and ready to rumble. In the past months, the key riders have prepared in the best way they can, and will begin to hang it out on the roadways beginning this weekend. Will it a stunning "Seven" before bowing out, or will Lance use this Tour to introduce us to a new heir to the roads of France? A lot of people figure it will be Armstrong and then a couple other riders, but the Tour has more variables than you can imagine. If it was a pre-ordained conclusion, it wouldn't be a race. The pre-Tour drama has been slightly heightened with the report of Lance getting a decent bounce off the pavement during a training ride on his TT bike. With a black eye, a cut over his right eyebrow and abrasions on his hands and knees, he looked a bit like he's joined the local Fight Club. Up until then, the prep was officially "slightly behind schedule", with naysayers pointing to his early season abandonment of the Paris-Nice and a substantial time trial deficit to former teammate Floyd Landis in the Tour of Georgia. However, his efforts at Dauphine Libere had that air of serious power being appropriately peaked, which will be one of the Lance legacys to be mulled over in the years to come. I can think of no other rider who is better able to focus and drive himself into shape with such incredible results. His assistants read like a true "dream team" of cycling - including the fastest descender in the peleton - Paolo Savoldelli, as well one of my favorite younger riders Yaraslav Popovych, whose racing heritage comes from both Italy and Belgium. Of course, George Hincapie will be on hand - the only rider who has been with Lance in each victory. The sad thing for me is that Vlatchislav Ekimov will not be on the squad this year, unable to recover in time from a back injury which occurred in April. =20 Discovery Channel for the Tour De France Lance Armstrong (USA) Jose Azevedo (P)=20 Manuel Beltran (Sp) George Hincapie (USA) Benjamin Noval (Sp) Pavel Padrnos (Cz)=20 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Jose Luis Rubiera (Sp) Paolo Savoldelli (I) Jan Ullrich in contrast, trained the way he needs to - using hard races to beat his form in temper. He's ridden well at the Tour of Switzerland seemingly without overcooking himself. While last year he fought out a narrow victory, this year he pushed himself reasonably hard without seeming to focus on the win. Unlike previous years, the German did not seem to let his form go south with the winter. The unprecedented "SIX" that Ullrich ha= s hanging above him is for second place on the podium. In an interesting twist, T-Mobile has elected to leave the hardest working man in the peleton at home this year. Erik Zabel will not be duking it in the final meters for a chance at the green jersey. Instead the team seems more focused on producing a victory for Ullrich. Or for Alexander Vinokurov. Or for Andreas Kloden. The multiplicity of talent gives them more team strength this year, with the added danger of diluting their efforts. Still Vinokurov will ride himself into shards when called upon, and Kloden cannot be underestimated. Both men could be team leaders in their own right, and if the team can remain focused on the goal of a yellow jersey in Paris, they will act powerfully. But, that's always the twist, isn't it? When you get signed to Discovery, as with USPS, you know what the task at hand becomes in July. Further, you have the confidence that can only come with a lead rider who has won the race 6 FREAKIN' TIMES! There has to be that little niggling doubt when you think about your leader who cracked and failed in previous years. You can't help but hold that slight glimmer of chance and hope that you may get the chance if he falters. Plus the machinery of T-Mobile seems better at findin= g the weakness of riders than their strengths. T-Mobile for the Tour de France Jan Ullrich (G) Giuseppe Guerini (I) Matthias Kessler (G) Andreas Kl=F6den (G) Danielle Nardello (I) Stefan Schreck (G) Oscar Sevilla (Sp) Tobias Steinhauser (G), Alexandre Vinokourov (Kz) The antithesis of this curiously enough, inhabits the team led by a former T-Mobile rider, Bjarne Riis. Team CSC has repeatedly found, then nurtured or restored riders who had been tossed aside or been stuck foundering. The exciting and well-drilled squad has been animating races all season. Ivan Basso has remained on everyone's short list. The classy Italian rider has = a few years ahead of him, but clearly has begun to elminate his previous weak spot - the time trial. Though this season was to be focused upon winning the Giro d'Italia, illness drove him to retire before the finish. Now he's returning to form for another Tour. As anyone who watched last year will attest, he was the only rider capable of hanging onto Armstrong in the mountains. =20 Team CSC for Tour de France Ivan Basso Carlos Sastre Kurt-Asle Arvesen Nicki Sorensen Dave Zabriskie Bobby Julich Jens Voigt Luke Roberts Giovanni Lombardi Levi Leipheimer is due to break through this year. Despite my pulling for him because he's a NorCal (Santa Rosa) homeboy, he's put in the hard hours and specific work which can put him on the podium. I'm certainly biased toward wanting to see an all-US podium, with Levi at 2nd and Floyd Landis a= t third. =20 Gerolsteiner for the Tour Levi Leipheimer (USA) Georg Totschnig (AUT) Michael Rich (ALL) Sebastian Lang (ALL) Fabian Wegmann (ALL) Robert F=F6rster (ALL) Ronny Scholz (ALL) Beat Zberg (SUI) Peter Wrolich (AUT) The problem which Landis may experience will be of the T-Mobile type - too many good riders on form and no clear leader. Santiago Botero seems to hav= e plucked himself up (curiously after a lackluster stint with T-Mobile) and regained form which had others considering him a serious threat in the Tour= . Nevertheles, the official position of Team Phonak is that they "have no tea= m leader." Their strongman combo: Landis/Botero/Pereiro. Phonak for the Tour Santiago Botero (COL) Bert Grabsch (GER) Jose Enrique Gutierrez (SPA) Robert Hunter (RSA) Nicolas Jalabert (FRA) Floyd Landis (USA) Alexandre Moos (SWI) Oscar Pereiro Sio (SPA) Tadej Valjavec (SLO) Roberto Heras has been monsterously invisible this spring. Although (to mak= e a sweeping generalization) the Spanish and Basque riders seem to like to appear from nowhere in the fashion of Aitor Gonzalez or Iban Mayo, I don't think this bodes well for the former USPS rider. The man is a stunning climber to be sure, but seems to have a fundamental inability to time trial= . On this year's course, that is an issue. Unless he can disappear up the road on one of the mountaintop finishes and gain enough of a cushion to protect himself on the final TT, Heras will be an animator, but not a competitor this year. Liberty Seguros for the Tour de France Joseba Beloki (Sp) Alberto Contador (Sp) Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Sp) Roberto Heras (Sp) Luis Leon Sanchez (Sp) Marcos Serrano (Sp) Angel Vicioso (Sp) Allan Davis (Aus) Jorg Jaksche (G) Iban Mayo has been kept out of the limelight so far, but if they've been feeding him the same grits as Aitor Gonzalez, it could get interesting. Gonzalez ended up winning the Tour of Switzerland by 22 seconds over Michae= l Rogers, after attacking hard on a climbing stage. The orangemen of the Basque country have elected to keep a very low profile, and may have learne= d form their mistake in peaking too early last year. Curiously, Fundacion Ciclista Euskadi seems to be leaving the talented rider off the squad, but = I haven't seen the official roster. Likely Tour Squad - Iker Camano (ESP) Unai Etxebarria (VEN) Iker Flores (ESP) Inigo Landaluze (ESP) Egoi Martinez (ESP) Iban Mayo (ESP) Haimar Zubeldia (ESP) David Herrero (ESP) Mikel Artetxe (ESP) The Course: 21 Stages - 3607.5 kilometers - 112,595 vertical feet of Climbing Time Trials -=20 Don't let anyone call the first stage a "Prologue". The hammer will come down at the first of 21 stages, an individual time trial of 19 km. A near-straight course, more than likely into a headwind, which will make thi= s a longer than normal ride. It could either set the tone or reveal gaps in training. Another "No-Fault" TTT runs on the 4th stage, with a maximum los= s of only 3 minutes to the slowest team. After that it's just bike racing until the 20th stage, where a 55.5km Individual Time Trial will squeeze the last of the juice from everyone's legs. The Mountains -=20 While no individual stage really stands out as a cruncher, it is the densit= y of the climbs within the middle 10 days which will be the true test. The rider who can attack and recover, ride smart and efficiently through the Alps and then directly into the Pyrenees will mor than likely ride into Paris as the winner. Despite folks who are saying this is not a mountainous Tour, there will be 6300 more feet of climbing than last year's Tour. Thoug= h Stage 11 will climb the Col de la Madeleine and the Col du Galibier (both HC) the finish will be at Briancon, 40 km's downhill from the second peak. Stage 14 will finish the ski resort of AX-3 Domaines after dealing with the reclassified (now HC) climb of Port de Pailheres. Mountains continue through Stage 16, followed by some crunchy days through the Massif Central. It really remains rocky until the aforementioned final Time Trial. Again, we get to watch history unfold - it looks like it shall be a classic Tour. Thanks for reading! -- Jim --=20 Take a minute or two to visit the new photo gallerys on the site: Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cross Bike Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Garage Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Gallery Submission Guidelines - http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines From race-report@cyclofiend.com Sat Jul 2 19:18:22 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 13:18:22 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 1 - It Begins Today Message-ID: <200507021818.j62IIMn20007@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 1 - Individual Time Trial Fromentine - Noirmoutier 19 km 189 riders wake up today with fresh legs for the last time in July. About 2200 miles later, we'll see who had the most in the tank. Some final odds and ends before riders begin to roll down the start ramp. Discovery with probably the strongest team they've every fielded. They are greeted in France with a "random" drug test for their team leader. It would seem that the French Ministry felt that the testing which every rider went through on Thursday might have missed something. Yeah, he passed. Ullrich decided that Armstrong was getting too many headlines with his pre-Tour crash, and put himself through the rear window of his team car. The hardware wreckage was pretty impressive - back window shattered - but the damage to Jan seemed pretty minimal, though he is sporting a pretty decent sized bandage on his neck. The winds this morning seem to favor the riders, at least as the final countdown to the first competitor's start time. Overcast and maybe a touch chilly, coastal weather of the finest kind greets us for this 92nd edition of the Tour de France. An American rider who we have not focused on as yet, Chris Horner has made the Saunier Duval Tour squad. Horner was poised for this early this year, breaking his hip made his chances extremely iffy. His form has come on well, winning a stage in the Tour of Switzerland. Got up early to watch the race, and by about the second hour of "Pre-Race" fol-du-rol, figured out that in fact the coverage wouldn't start for a while. Oh well, it was a beautiful sunrise... Live coverage begins finally, and we find that while we enjoying jovial anecdotes David Zabriske of CSC has notched himself into the hot seat with a time of 20:51, an average speed of 54.6 kph. Behind him Lazlo Bodrogi of Credit Agricole turned in his typically good time, but a good minute behind. Illes Balears' Vladimir Karpets holds and early 3rd at 21:56. Joseba Beloki begins the race a reported 5 kilos overweight. He's announced that his focus will be the Vuelta a Espana. But, that's quite an anchor to drag around France. Alexander Vinokourov has set a good early pace, trying to find flat land power in his hips. Jens Voigt finds himself in 3rd for the moment, a few seconds ahead of Karpets's effort Despite Vino's effort, he rolls through at 21:44, nearly a minute behind Zabriske's time. Makes you want to double check the timing accuracy, as Vinokourov had posted an interim time only 7 seconds behind the young American. Beloki waddles up to the finish just under 23 minutes, which won't position him anywhere near competiveness. As we watch the riders on the road, Lance and George Hincapie warm up outside the Discovery bus, surrounded by photographers but distracted by their well-practiced ritual and iPods. Paolo Savoldelli rolls away from the start house. The Italian winner of this year's Giro d'Italia will be a column of support for Armstrong in the mountains. The winds seem to be dropping a bit, which may be part of the reason for Zabriske's decisive time. The early reports had anticipated a head wind for this stage, so the tailing direction may have been a more than hoped for bonus. Lance's TT bike is new this year, with honeycomb replacing some of the standard (if you can call it that) tubes. That alone drops the weight by 200 grams. The Trek TTX model also has a tapered hourglass profile top tube, internallly routed cables and looks slick and invisible just sitting there. Julich is using an eliptical chainwheel, giving his chain a frightening dance as the CSC rider punches his way along under grey skies. Phonak's Floyd Landis tucks himself unto the nose of his saddle and rolls out onto the roadway. Despite his $4 porn star glasses, his serious effort for this year's Tour begins. Julich finishes through at 21:57, putting another CSC rider into the top ten. Levi Leipheimer comes in at 22:04, catching at least one rider who had started in front of him. Sergei Gontchar stresses his drivetrain out on the roadway - again taking the jersey for the most ungainly style which manages to move teh bike the fastest. This year the time trial specialist rides for Domina Vacanze, a team which has given up on their veldt-inspired zebra stripes in favor of a reverse tequila sunrise and palm tree motif. Iban Mayo rolls along a flat bit looking like he's pedaling slow crunchy squares. Not a noted rider against the clock, Euskatel-Euskadi has kept him out of the limelight so far this season, fearing the mistake of his "flying in June, dying in July" form last year. His 9.6 km time is sixth from the back (with 120 or so riders ahead of him). Floyd Landis brings his tip of the saddle style across the line in 21:53 nudging into 4th Ivan Basso kicks it out onto the roadway, followed a minute later by Jan Ullrich. Basso's TT skills clearly much improved, adopting a faster cadence and more polished position. Ullrich still uses his huge diesel motor - understroking as we used to call it in rowing. An ever increasing number of photographers flock onto the start ramp to see Lance take his final start of the Tour. Armstrong immediately pops his right foot out of the pedal, perhaps a little nervous twist accompanying his powerful pedal stroke. Hincapie finishes up ahead of Landis, across the line at 21:49. Gontchar's street fighting style only puts him into 32nd place. Mayo looks like he's using bmx flat pedals - no upwards pull at all in his stroke - his 24:06 time attests to just how much improvement he can make in his time trialing. Though his team can only lose him a maximum of 3 minutes in the upcoming team time trial, he may have lost that much today as well. Roberto Heras crosses the finish at 23:09. Ullrich's powerful pedaling style seems to make pressure waves in the air around him. At the first time check, he is 42 seconds behind Zabriske's time. Perhaps he's feeling the impact of his collision with the team car, but he's definitely looked more comfortable on the bike. Armstrong pushes through 3 seconds behind ---- Zabriske's time! Let's just say one thing before anyone else does. "Yellow - end to end." Now, that would be a good way to ride your final Tour. Especially since no one has done it since 1934. Armstrong has Ullrich in his sights on the roadway - they were started only a minute apart. He's gaining steadily. Maybe 5 or 6 seconds behind now. A flotilla of vehicles follow Armstrong. The lead cameras show them easily in the same frame. The gaps continues to close. He passes Ullrich just before the 15km time check, and is now 3 seconds ahead of Zabriske's time. As he squeezes down to the finish ahead of the German, a slight slowing occurs and he crosses the line a few couple behind 26 year old Dave Zabriske - who joins the elite group of Americans who have pulled on the yellow jersey. Armstrong has put at least a minute on everyone who matters - we lost track of Basso in all the excitement, but the Italian has not cracked the top 10. He's ended up 1:26 behind. Stage 1 Results 1 - David Zabriske - CSC 2 - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - +:02 3 - Alexander Vinokourov - T-Mobile +:53 4 - George Hincapie - Discovery - +:57 5 - Lazlo Bodrogi - Credit Agricole - +:59 6 - Floyd Landis - Phonak - +1:02 Four Americans in the top 6 - at the risk of sounding jingoistic, that's pretty danged impressive! Here we go - this will be quite a ride! Tomorrow's Stage - Challans - Les Essarts 181km Straight to the coast and then heading south along the sea. Though the last 75 km bring the riders back inland, a lot of goofiness can ensue when combining early stage enthusiasm with crosswinds off the ocean. ---------------------------------------------- Please visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2004-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 3 16:45:29 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2005 10:45:29 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 2 - Challan to Les Essarts Message-ID: <200507031545.j63FjTn29927@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 2 - Challan - Les Essarts - 181 km A fairly flat stage with the slight stress of coastal crosswinds before heading inland to a what should be a sprinter's finish. Slightly tricky finish, with a slight uphill pitch and narrow streets of the town. Some loose parts left on the road yesterday, as the time accountants give us a bit of perspective on just what transpired with yesterday's time trial. Arguably, Dave Zabriske benefitted from a bit of weather, but that is the sport. It's interesting to consider how others who started under the same conditions fared - Alexander Vinkourov (T-Mobile) - :53 Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) (passed for the first time in his career in a time trial) - 1:03 Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner)- 1:13 Santiago Botero (Phonak) - 1:30 Ivan Basso (CSC)- 1:34 Lance's heartrate was at an average of 184 for the time trial. He spiked a bit to zip past Ullrich, which may have taken the edge off of his finish. None of this should take the focus off of CSC's David Zabriske, who is only the third American in the history of the Tour to wear the yellow jersey. On the road today - 2 Sprint Points have passed under the riders' wheels already - Robbie Hunter of Phonak took the first at 17km. Quickly thereafter, a breakaway formed and put the big bunch about 4 minutes behind them. That let Lazlo Bodrogi of Credit Agricole nab first at the second point, with none other than last year's yellow jersey wearer Thomas Voeckler of Bouygues Telecom just behind him. Voeckler finds himself Thomas Voeckler - Bouygues Telecom Sylvain Calzati - AG2R Prevoyance Laszlo Bodrogi - Credit Agricole David Canada - Saunier Duval-Prodir The group holds about a 4 minute lead on a hot and sunny day which greets the peleton today, and there's just under 90 kilomters to catch them. No one seems particularly concerned. Team CSC has massed at the front, protecting Utah-boy David Zabriske. It's hard to guess how interested they will be at holding onto the yellow jersey right now, but they appropriately honor it on this beautifully sunny day. Everyone calms a bit as the riders slide through the feed zone, nabbing musettes and trying not to become one with the multitude of soigneurs. Lance Armstrong wears the green points jersey today, as Zabriske, who actually holds all four (yellow for overall, green for points, polka-dot for mountains and white for best young rider) can only wear one at a time. Despite a bit more animation in the group, the break holds a 4:15 lead. It may be that the big bunch lost a little time going through the feed zone. Miles continue to roll by as Quick Step, FDJ.com and Lotto-Davitimon team members pull through a little more frequently, perhaps sensing that their fast men can pull out the plum of a stage victory. The gap has dropped under 3 minute with just about 50km to go on the stage. The peleton has begun to stretch out and the stragglers have sucked up tight to the back end of the bunch. For those of you who rely upon the fashion sense of the six time Tour winner, Lance has selected black socks today, with a thin yellow stripe. I imagine you might be able to buy them at a nike outlet near you. As long as we're talking about commercial tie-ins, it looks like Bob Roll has signed up for Kinetic trainers, and - DAMN MY EYES! - has agreed to pose in the buff while using said trainer. I'm not sure I was ready for that this early in the day. A little stumble drops a few riders, but no lycra is shredded. Janek Tombak and Frederic Bessy from Cofidis make their way back through the team cars after someone caused more of a back-end pause than an actual crash. The peleton waits for no one, as they say, and have closed down the gap to 1:55 with about 22 miles to go. They stretch out for real now, some of the Tour newcomers begin to learn just how fast riders can go at the end of 140-odd miles when they set their minds to it. The quartet up the road are closing in on the third sprint point of the day. Voeckler leads them up through a slight climb into town. But, Bodrogi eases past him and then leads the bunch through the sprint point, nesting himself solidly into 2nd place overall on the roadway. The roads begin to twist and narrow in this Vendee region of France. But the time gap drops down around a minute now. The photographers take their final snaps of French favorite Thomas Voeckler in the breakaway. The quartet zips under the 20 km to go banner, followed extremely closely by the big bunch. The referee car gets pulled out, and only the neutral service car and a couple motorcycles remain in what is now a 35 second gap. But the breakaway group has not raised the white flag as of yet - they have made their way into a twistier section of open roads, and close in on the only climb on the day - whoever crests this first will gain a polka-dot climbers jersey. Canada slyly drops back on the slope and then fires away to gain a gap. But, as they say, local knowledge is always key, and local home boy Voeckler shows that his awareness of where and when serves him well. He hikes out of the saddle, dropping the others and nabs Canada's wheel. Canada looks back to relish his gap, but finds a Frenchman first on his wheel, and then efficiently gapping him to the "mountain" crest. Bodrogi eases up and floats back to the bunch. At the head of the chase Cofidis begins showing their colors, hoping to deliver Stuart O'Grady to the line first. With the gap of 23 seconds, the last of the veicles get pulled out of the way, this time nearly taking out Voeckler. Behind the threesome, Erik Dekker punches away from the bunch, shadowed by Carlos DeCruz. Dekker realizes that the big FDJ.com rider has no intention of doing anything but holding his wheel. The Rabobank rider shrugs and lets the snarling sprint leadout men swarm back over him. The last breath goes out of the breakaway group, shake hands and they get absorbed into the pack. 5 km to go and the Bourgeus Telecom send another rider up the road. Walter Beneteau who hails from the finishing town of Les Essarts. FDJ.com create the train for Baden Cook as Beneteau runs out of torque. 3 km to go and the peleton gets jumped by Saunier Duval rider Constantino Zaballa who gains a slight gap while FDJ.com looks around for help from anyone who can supply it - Bad move - the FDJ bunch get swarmed by the Liquigas leadout train, then by the blue and white jerseys of Quick Step. Lotto push up underneath them as well as the 1 km to go flies overhead. Magnus Backsted finds himself on the front too early for his own victory, while too far ahead of his teammates to bring anyone to the line. Ag2R's Jan Kiripuu sits in there ready to push and pounce. Baden Cooke keeps finding himself boxed in. They scream around the left-hand turn and Lotto's fastman Robbie Mcewen fires up the rails. He accellerates away from almost everyone, but there seems to be a little too much roadway left on the day. Belgian Tom Boonen had been quietly stalking McEwen and seizes the moment, punching it and jumping up through the slipstream to move ahead by at least a bike length. McEwen claws and sputters to keep his wheel, but he's nipped at the line by big Thor Hushovd from Credit Agricole. McEwen ends up with third, after perhaps misjudging his timing just a speck. Still, it's hard to find fault with the turn of speed managed by the broadly smiling Belgian Tom Boonen. Stage 2 - 1 - Tom Boonen - Quick Step 2 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole 3 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto 4 - Stuart O'Grady - Cofidis 5 - Luciano Pagliarini - Liquigas Jan Ullrich finishes in the bunch at 19th - actually an odd finish for him. He may get a minor time bonus form that finish. Bodrogi moves up a couple slots by virtue of his two time bonuses. Overall Standings - End of Stage 2 MJ - David Zabriske - CSC - 4:12:31 2 - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - :02 3 - Lazlo Bodrogi - Credit Agricole - :47 4 - Alexandre Vinokourov - :53 5 - George Hincapie - Discovery - :57 6 - Jan Ullrich - :59 7 - Floyd Landis - 1:02 Tomorrow's Stage - La Chataigneraie - Tours 212km Another flatter stage, but a touch of topography in the form of three Category 4 climbs to keep things interesting. One of those odd little days which could cause some trouble if underestimated. ---------------------------------------------- Please visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 4 17:16:05 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 11:16:05 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 3 - La Chataigneraie - Tours Message-ID: <200507041616.j64GG5n21511@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 3 - La Chataigneraie - Tours 212km Another flatter stage, but a touch of topography in the form of three Category 4 climbs to keep things interesting. One of those odd little days which could cause some trouble if underestimated. The winds are up today as well, after a thunderstorm blew through and cooled things down a bit. Overcast skies hang above the riders and a tailwind pushes them along at an average speed near 27 mph. One of the points which shouldn't be dismissed without some sort of notice is where Jan Ullrich finished yesterday. For some reason, the big German kicked it up to duke with the sprinters, finishing in the top 20. The implicit danger of doing this cannot be understated, but between potential time bonuses and the possibility of gaining time through a gap in the finishing times, Ullrich must feel that this was warranted. Do not count this man out yet. Reading through the past month's race reports yesterday afternoon, two previously innoculous points caught my eye - Lance Armstrong was reported to have pulled his foot out of the pedal during a time trial at the Dauphine Libere, and David Zabriske commented that it would be "fun" to ride Tour, if he impressed the team management with his efforts in the Giro d'Italia. Three sprint points out on the roadway today to keep things hopping for the Green Jersey - currently on the back of smilin' Tom Boonen. Fabian Wegman pushes away from the bunch at the first early KoM, but France's favorite Thomas Voeckler still wears polka-dots, both actually and virtually, after snapping ahold of Wegman's wheel and dogging him to the line. A breakaway formed and moved up the roadway, led by Rabobank's Erik Dekker who led the break trio through the first Sprint Point. Nicolas Portal of Ag2R takes the second one. Rubens Battagliati of Saunier Duval rounds out the break, which currently have stretched their lead out to about 5 and a half minutes out in front of the bunch with 110 km to go Quick Step and Lotto drive the pace, more than worried about leaving Dekker dangling out in front of them. It's great to see Dekker back on form and animating the race. This crafty Dutch racer has the innate sense to find the move that can provide victory. The winds are favorable today, with 88 km covered in the first two hours of racing. Not even the members of the break seem to be breathing through their mouths at this pace. But the iincrease of the bunch is clearly having an effect, as the gap has dropped by a bit - now down to 4:46 Fields of sunflowers seem to watch the riders go past. Though not the classic sunny day scene, it definitely showns we'er in France. Cameras find the bandaged elbows of Samuel Dumoulin, who after jostling his way to a stage victory at the Duphine Libere put himself down onto the roadways yesterday right near the end of the stage. Another minute out of the break with about 60 miles to go. Despite the normally gaudy finishes of Colnago bicycles, Dekker's machine is a quiet gloss black. It also seems that he has forsworn the goofy chainstays of their production carbon frame. Between the horizontal top tube, simple graphics and traditional styling, the bicycle seems almost quaint in its look. Not that there's anything wrong with that... The Bouygues Telecom team has decided to protect the KoM jersey of Voeckler - appearing at the front strongly driving the pace. With two classified climbs between them and finish, if they can close down the gap to the break, the Frenchman should maintain his grip upon it. With 42 miles left to compete, the gap is down to 2 minutes. But, with strong pulls by all three, but what seems to be strong animation by Dekker, the break bunch stays clear and the Rabobank rider gaps his breakaway companions at the crest to take the climber's points. It is the dichotomy of bicycle racing that one can be in contention for the King of the Mountains Jersey, yet come from a country that is mostly below sea level. Of course, this is also the country in which the Amstel Gold Race is run - a race featuring an innumerable number of leg-breaking climbs. Plus, we are by no stretch of the imagination in the serious mountains, and shorter, sharper climbs play to the strength of a powerful rider like Dekker. Under 40 km to go and still slightly more than a minute and a half in the break's pocket. Still one climb before the finish, and it's hard to tell if they have enough padding to make it all the way home. If Dekker snags another "mountain" today, he'll be wearing something other than the team colors during the team time trial tomorrow. The bunch seems not to be sure what they want to do - the sprinters teams aren't quite ready to push things out and Bouygues Telecom can't get anyone else excited to accellerate. Up at the head of the race, in what looks more like a points sprint if you go by topography, Dekker jumps away from the other two and seals a new jersey for his collection. With around 30 km to go, plenty of time remains to snag this threesome. But, I'd watch for something tricky from an obviously on-form Dekker. Back in the bunch, none other than Roberto Heras bobs along in the slipstream of the Discovery-led Lance Armstrong. He's riding smarter this year, to be sure. The big question for him is whether there will be enough climbing in this Tour to unlimber his strength. Dekker keeps driving the pace as they run through the 25 km to go banner. Through the narrow streets of a smaller town outside of Tours, it's amazing to see the 186 trailing riders snake through the town, squeezing around traffic islands and narrowly missing walls which have stood for hundreds of years. The road suddenly squeezes down, narrowed by haybales to prevent the riders from hitting some sort of a protruding sidewalk. No one goes down, but feet are unclipped, and many riders head onto the cross-country route as riders run out of room. The roads continue to narrow and swerve severly, but the speed keeps coming up and the peleton keeps stringing out. The gap at 51 seconds with 18 km to go. Dekker keeps his his companions in order, taking hard pulls and moving his elbow sharply to call them through. Battagliati seems to be having trouble handing on, and stretches off the back a few times. Unfortunately, the big bunch has continued to turn up the heat, cutting the gap down to 33 seconds now. Battagliati decides he needs to lick his wounds and retire, sitting up and easing back to the awakening giant. Portal and Dekker continue to work well together as they fly under the 10 km to go banner. Only a 15 second gap, though a little infighting between the sprint teams plus a bit of traffic furniture seems to slow the chase. Finally the peleton strings out in earnest, only one or two riders wide as they begin to howl like banshees. Dekker has to snap a bit at Portal to take a pull, the yonger rider finding new boundries of pain at the direction of the wily Dutch rider. They sit only 5 seconds out, but will not give up, swinging at high speed along the main motorway on what seems to be a sight downhill. 3 km to go and just the tiniest bit of indecision plays to keep the the break pair alive, somehow dangling out in front still. Riders shift around and a strong solo move hops off the front of the bunch. Fabian Cancellara of the Alessandro Petacchi-less Fassa Bortolo squad jumps and holds an incredible pace. He's the quick side of the traffic island, with the bunch having to take the long way around. But, the sprinters teams smell blood and they swarm him quickly. Under the 1 km kite - a wide, straight finish seemingly lined up by lazer from the banner to the line. Nowhere to hide from here to the winner's circle. A bit of pausing and indecision by everyone as no team quite wants to take the bit in their teeth. But things happen fast in the last 1000 meters, and Jan Kirsipuu gets grumpy on the pedals and moves to the head of events. The Estonian sprinter from Credit Agricole spends too much time checking to see that teammate Thor Hushovd remains behind him, and can't quite delivery the needed clean leadout. Magnus Backstedt follows the lead of one of his Liquigas teammates and accellerates on the other side of the roadway. But countless riders have the same idea as the speeds become insane. Backstedt ends up out in the wind way too early and fades. Kirsipuu pulls off and Hushovd tries his hand, again with too much roadway left to go. Robbie McEwen has been biding his time, holding the wheel of his Lotto leadout man. But right behind, big Tom Boonen follows McEwens wheel. McEwen times his move and turns on the afterburners, but Boonen has a whole 'nother gear in his bag and runs past the Aussie like he's got sand in his tires and lead in his pockets. The power in Boonen's jump makes it a fight for second as he continues to accelerate for the line - gapping the chasers. In the fight for second, Stuart O'Grady nearly gets a head butt from McEwen as the two Australians come to a slight disagreement as to who was where first. Despite the show of barroom brawling prowess, McEwen remains neatly boxed, letting Peter Wrolich from Gerolsteiner zip into second while Boonen honors the Green Jersey with a second victory in as many days. "Bad on you, mate!" Well, the judges did not care for McEwen's finish line antics, and have relegated him to last in the sprint - moving Stuart O'Grady up a place. Stage 3 - 1 - Tom Boonen - Quick Step 2 - Peter Wrolich - Gerolsteiner 3 - Stuart O'Grady - Cofidis 4 - Bernhard Eisel - FDJ.com 5 - Allan Davis - Liberty Seguros GC - No changes David Zabriske remains in the Yellow Jersey Erik Dekker takes over the Climber's Jersey Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 4 - Team Time Trial Tours to Blois - 67.5 km A classic Time Trial course revisited this year, flat and mostly straight for the first 40 km, then a series of short climbs before a descent to the finish. Though the weather is unsettled, this has a good chance of being the year that the 1995 TTT record speed of 54.930 kph will be beaten. After all, the fastest ever road stage (won by Mario Cipollini in 1999) finished in this town. Despite the time "safety net" which has gutted some of the importance of this discipline, there is still time to be lost. Look for the well-drilled squads of CSC, Illes Balears, T-Mobile and of course, Discovery to duke it out in this high speed ballet. Less efficient teams can lose as much as three minutes tomorrow. -------------------------------------------- Please visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 5 17:16:02 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:16:02 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 4 - Team Time Trial - Tours to Blois Message-ID: <200507051616.j65GG2n03973@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 4 - Team Time Trial Tours to Blois - 67.5 km A classic Time Trial course revisited this year, flat and mostly straight for the first 40 km, then a series of short climbs before a descent to the finish. Though the weather is unsettled, this has a good chance of being the year that the 1995 TTT record speed of 54.930 kph will be beaten. After all, the fastest ever road stage (won by Mario Cipollini in 1999) finished in this town. Despite the time "safety net" which has gutted some of the importance of this discipline, there is still time to be lost. Maximum gaps are 20 for the 2nd place team, then 10 seconds more until the 15th place gap. The maximum time loss for the slowest team can be only 3 minutes. As an example, the slowest team last year finished 7:33 behind the US Postal Service but got docked only 3 minutes to their time. Bit of a strong wind today, and the early squads form mild echelons which flare slightly from the force. A high overcast sheilds the riders from direct sun, but a bit of blue has begun to peak through here and there. Team Discovery will be starting second from last, while CSC gets to know everyone's time by beginning in the final position, thanks to David Zabriske's hold on the Yellow Jersey. 26:47 for Euskatel-Euskadi at the first time check stands as the best time so far. FDJ.com pulls away and forms quickly into their position, behind Brad McGee's lead. The ballet begins as they take reasonably short pulls, dropping riders off quickly enough that two riders are dropping back at any one time. A steady swaying seems to continually ripple through the French team. With a slight tailing cross wind, and many of the riders perch on the bullhorns rather than the aero extensions. Not spotless execution as of this moment. Into the second time check, Euskatel drives to the second time check and goes through at 49:26. In other race news, it looks like I haven't properly paid tribute to the holder of the best young rider jersey Illes Balears pulls away from the line - last year's 3rd place squad doesn't seem to be on anyone's short list, but the Spanish squad does understand how to run tier squad in the TTT. On the roasdway, Ag2R looks like they have tried to set up their own bunch sprint to get to the second time check - they pass through at 50:47 - more than a minute 20 behind the fast orangemen of the Basque country. Liquigas has pushed ahead at the first time check. Rabobank rides rear disk wheels like everyone else, but seem to have comparatively low-tech time trial bicycles. If I were to bet, I'd say that they simply have put handlebar extensionson their regular road bikes. It will be interesting to see how the teams finish out the course today, after hammering flat roads for more than three quarters of the course,they hit the ripply bits. Lance Armstrong said in an interview yesterday that finishing with all the riders is not a priority, but winning the stage is. As with prior years, the clock stops on the bunch when the fifth rider crosses the line. Lotto flows neatly through the 2nd time checkat 48:41, three-quarters of a minute ahead of Euskatel. They seem to realize that a high GC finish for Cadel Evans requires a decent result today. Euskatel brings 6 riders over the line in 1:14:38 The Big Pink skinsuit of Jan Ullrich rolls away from the ride. FDJ.com go through the second time check well down the standings, continuing their . Discovery glides down the start ramp and then immediately falls into position. Cofidis comes through with 5 riders, perhaps choosing to leave behind the more gravitationally challenged members. But, their finishing time leaves nothing to be envied. T-Mobile goes through 9 seconds slower than Liberty Seguros, notching into the 2nd place at the first time check. This may also indicate that Liberty Seguros has remembered some of the playbook techniques from their ONCE days. Discovery scream over the flat roadways. 62 kph according to the speedometer of the accompanying motorcycle. Gerolsteiner passes through in 8th place at the first time check. This could hamper Levi Leipheimer's effort, as others have posited. Liberty Seguros rumble through the 2nd time check showing that their early pace was no fluke - their time of 47:28 have them best so far. Discovery comes up 9 seconds behind Liberty Seguros at the first time check, putting them dead even with T-Mobile at this point on the course. T-Mobile have increased their pace, and pass through the second time check at 47:15 - 12 seconds ahead of Liberty Seguros' time, but they have blown Tobias Steinhauser out the back with a good 20 km to go. Steinhauser looks like all he wants to do is stop pedaling and curl up for a nap. First time check for the Yellow Jersey squad - 25:36 for Team CSC, 15 seconds faster than Discovery at that point. Liberty Seguros drops away Marcos Serrano, who also could not stay stuck last year. They continue forward with 8 riders. Illes Balears has been whittled down to 5 riders, but 1:12:44 means they have jumped into first on the road. They may have left wreckage behind them, but have the best time. ...well, not anymore. Credit Agricole nips them by a bit - 1:12:20. Phonak sets their mark at 47:57 speeding up as they move along the course. Landis' chances depend upon a good effort here today. Liberty Seguros channels the spirit of ONCE, crossing the line with 8 riders at 1:11:32, well ahead of Credit Agricole and guaranteeing that whichevery squad wins today will set a Team Time Trial record for the Tour. 47:14 for Discovery at the second check - one second ahed of T-Mobile. 14 seconds ahead of Liberty Seguros. Team CSC now pulls for the left hand turn which marks the second time check - the well-drilled squad stops the interim watch at 47:08 - 6 seconds ahead. But, if you are paying attention, you'll note that their lead ahead of Discovery and T-Mobile has been halved since the first check. 1:11:14 for T-mobile. Ullrich leads the squad over the line, throwing off the foul taste of the first day's effort against the clock. Phonak have sawn off a second rider - Nicolas Jalabert pedals squares and blows a head gasket just a few moments after Bert Grabsch filled up his dance card. Now Alexandre Moos gets all crunchy and falls away. Now rider #6 Stephen Zampieri can't even manage to take his pulls, letting the teammates slip in front of him. Levi Leipheimer brings his Gerolsteiner boys over the line in provisional fifth place, with a time of 1:12:44 CSC rider Giovanni Lombardi finds his phenomenal sprinting and leadout skills are not searving him well on the inclines, and he drifts backward from the remaining eight riders who thump towards the finish. Phonak pushes Leipheimer's squad down a spot, finishing in 1:12:10, though seeming to make a slightly larger meal of the final meters. They are led to the finish by Floyd Landis. Armstrong has been saying all along that the final 15 kilometers are the most important on this course. He's been taking progressively longer pulls at the front of the line, letting his other teammates rest just that touch longer as they continue to move well in unison. They are just crushing along into the last meters on the course, and at 1:10:38, Armstrong emphatically punches his front wheel across the line Exactly 4:58 seconds behind, team CSC holds on to a diminishing time cushion. They were ahead by only 2 seconds at the semi-official check at 61.5km, and as they pass under the 4 km to go banner, they need to click four sub-one-minute kilos. Through the town streets proper, with narrowing in the roadway from the barriers and twists through intersections and traffic islands. Dicey business, and they are now in danger of sacrificing the lead on the stage and the Yellow Jersey. Another banner overhead - with an eye on the time, it's clear they need to cover 2 km in 2 minutes EXACTLY! Zabriske is down! Following a tight right turn, the Yellow Jersey is on the ground, sliding around and coming to a stop against the barriers, while a gendarme jumps out of the way. The rest of the team do not slow down - CSC are onto the home stretch driving on without the yellow jersey - it will be extremely close... 1:10:41! Discovery will take the stage! Zabriske must take the actual time on the roadway - He pedals slowly along with a phalanx of photographers. Torn and bleeding - missing most of his shorts on his left thigh, and with a tarmac tattoo up his entire left upper body, shoulder and arm, Zabriske pedals gamely on. He reaches the line, unclips his scored shoe, lets his battered leg drop straight and stops the clock. They've shown us several repeats of the accident, but the moto cameras can't give us a decent angle on the cause. It looks like there must have been a touch of wheels. In excrutiating detail, there's an actual skidmark behind Zabriske. Sweat or tissue is unclear, but it just makes you cringe. Discovery's final time (and Lance's final Team Time Trial result) create a new record - 57.31 kph - somewhere in the neighborhood of 38 miles per hour. Stage 4 - Results - 1 - Discovery - 1:10:38 2 - Team CSC - +:02 3 - T-Mobile - +:34 4 - Liberty Seguros - +:52 5 - Phonak - +1:31 After the entire Discovery team takes the podium for the stage honors, Lance Armstrong puts on his 67th Yellow Jersey. GC - MJ - Lance Armstrong - Discovery Channel - 9:59:12 2 - George Hincapie - Discovery - +:55 3 - Jens Voigt - CSC - +1:04 4 - Bobby Julich - CSC - +1:07 5 - Jose Luis Rubiera - Discovery - +1:14 6 - Yaroslav Popovych - Discovery - +1:16 7 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +1:21 8 - Benjamin Noval - Discovery - +1:26 9 - David Zabriske - CSC - +1:26 10 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +1:26 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 5 - Chambord - Montargis 183 km While a few ripples in the roadway at midway may give a chance for a breakaway, this flat stage will give the sprinters a chance to shine again. -- Please visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 6 16:55:05 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (tour-junkie) Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 08:55:05 -0700 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 5 - Chambord - Montargris Message-ID: Stage 5 - Chambord - Montargis - 183 km Flat stage today. Despite a rise near the middle which gives the profile a near symmetrical look, the vertical change will probably be more of an interesting distraction than anything earth-shattering. Commentators argue a little about whether CSC should have left the Yellow Jersey behind in the last kilo and a half. A good pub argument, perhaps, but it's hard to fault the specificity of Bjarne Riis' intentions in this race. It's also easy to second guess how easy it would have been to tell a couple riders to hang back to accompany Zabriske to the line. They'd already lost Giovanni Lombardi on the final climbs, and without Zabriske, CSC had 7 active riders still moving. Since the clock stops on the fifth rider, there's no reason to chance the ultimate goal of putting Ivan Basso on the podium by losing time for any reason. A chance puncture or another bit of bike weirdness could easily drop a rider or two. Then Riis would've been faulted for some sort of sentimentality. Stitches, road rash, hematoma and a general soreness hang all around David Zabriske this morning. He's lined up today despite a pretty good run through the wringer. NO clear cause of the crash - Zabriske doesn't remember. Only working theory that he might have hit his elbow with his knee. Lance has been saying he might not wear the jersey, as he feels it was won in a crash - though it doesn't seem too reasonable, given that In other jersey news, Yaroslav Popovych of Discovery has pulled on the White Jersey for the bes young (under 26) rider. The be Wednesday turns out to be cold and windy as the riders move eastward across France. Constantino Zaballa pulled over and retired from the Tour today. No reason stated, but he had been languishing as the last rider in the standings. With today's stage, a breakaway has been started by Juan Antonio Flecha of Fassa Bortolo. He's chisled out a gap of about 5 or 6 minutes. Kiell Carlstrom of Liquigas-Bianchi, Salvatore Commesso of Lampre-Caffita and Lazlo Bbodrogi both chasing him out in front of the Discovery led main bunch. They trail Flecha by under a couple minutes, and are closing down that gap. The team car pulls alongside the stage leader, probably encouraging him to wait for assistance. The three riders chasing Flecha pull him into view in front of thickening and darkening skies, though the sun seems to have broken through at the finish area. The non-wearing of the Yellow Jersey is a little odd, as Armstrong decided not to wear it at the roll out for the stage, but then pulled it on over his Discovery jersey as the teams moved out of the neutralized section of the racecourse. Asked by the race organizers to put it on? Another question for the day. 80 km under the wheels, the average speed of the _race_ is 48 km per hour, assisted today by another tailwind. A jazz quartet has now formed up at the front of the race, and while they figured out how to coalesce, the gap has dropped down to three and and half minutes. The peleton has shown some sparks of life, with the sprinters' teams pushing into the rotation to take the load off of Discovery. Word is coming through that the wearing of the Yellow Jersey was pretty much enforced by the Tour organizers - with the suggestion that they pretty much had to threaten potential expulsion to get Armstrong to pull on the unnumbered jersey. Crash in the field! Just as everyone begin to reach the feed zone - cameras find Team CSC surrounding Ivan Basso with what seems to be a minor problem with his rear wheel. A slight discoloration on his left leg suggests that he skipped along the pavement a bit. It looks like T-Mobile's After Kurt-Asle Arvesen gets a feed bag wedged in his rear wheel and chainstay, further adding to the mystique of the CSC curse today. Sylvain Calzati gets his right legged scrubbed up - by tomorrow, it will possibly bandaged up to match his left leg by tomorrow. Officially, he's suffering a bit of tendonitis, perhaps overenthused during his breakaway of a a couple days ago. For some reason Flecha has dropped away from Bodrogi and Carlstrom, and for some odd reason Commesso stays attached to the Fassa Bortolo rider. 72km to go - gap at 3:15 A brace of umbrellas coming out at the finish area, which features a bit of a nasty little bend before the line. Back in the leaders bunch, Commesso decides that the gap has dropped enough to warrant some individual heroics, and he drops back for the gap, then fires ahead to gain points at the sprint point in the city of Gien - roughly 46 kilometers to go. The main bunch pushes along only about a minute and half behind now. Flecks of rain begin to hit camera lenses as the break folks grab waterbottles and nibble some food, mentally clicking how long it will take the bunch to close down the time. Not raining properly yet, and maybe the riders won't have to negotiate the finish under leaking skies. Armstrong's 67th Yellow Jersey (even if forced to be on his shoulders today) does not put him on the top of the heap - Eddy Merckx wore the jersey for 115 days during his career, while Bernard Hinault had 85. While he should draw closer to Hinault's tally, Armstrong is third in this instance. Wet roads under the wheels of the peleton, though it looks like the storm has passed through in advance of the riders. A Lotto/Quick-Step/Ag2R combine keeps slicing seconds out of leading group. Today's finish has made Paul a little nervous for the finish. As we get some detailed images of the narrow ninety degree right hand turn with 500 meters to go, the phrase which comes to mind is Lurch's famous utterance, "..unnnhhhhhhhhhhhh." A 43 second gap remains as the main bunch just hasn't taken the bait. Maybe they decided to wait until the roads narrowed a bit more. The peleton stretches out for real now, and the bulk of the vehicles have been pulled from the gap. The devil scoots by at the edge of the camera with 12 km to go. Just as the 10 km banner slips past, the gap dissolves to nothing, and the four are reabsorbed. Commesso waves "buh-bye" and they become a complete group again. Both Roberto Heras and Jan Ullrich position themselves near the front of events - having had the 7 meter width of the upcoing town roads related to them by their team directors. Armstrong sits in the hip pocket of Popovych with the rest of his team surrounding him. A quick left/right chicane puts 5 or six riders into the left side hay bales as they cannot make the second part of the turn. Doesn't seem to be any damage other than a dumped chain for Cofidis' Janek Tombak, but the race has moved well up the roadway in the time it took to bounce off the mule food. The lead bunch howls under the 3 km to go banner, with Quick-Step on the front and a host of FDJ.com riders trying to get Baden Cooke to the finish line. Robbie McEwen cannot be seen, but must be hidden in there somewhere, while Tom Boonen sits back about a dozen riders in his Green Jersey. Cofidis rider Matt White strings things out, but he's leading four FDJ.com riders rather than Stuart O'Grady. White pulls off as the riders sweep under the 1km to go banner, putting a phalanx of riders in front of FDJ.com's Brad McGee. Suddenly, everyone moves easily through the nasty turn at 500 meters to go. The road rises slightly toward the finish line, and Boonen begins to shriek up to speed. Cooke and his leadout man get sloppy and then just as quickly become an afterthought as the big Belgian puts them in his widening wake. But McEwen sits right behind Boonen, biding his time, looking like he's velcroed to the Quick-Step rider's shorts. Behind him looms the big frame of Credit Agricole's Thor Hushovd. But Hushovd has timed it just a touch late, and runs out of roadway as McEwen moves up the left side of Boonen. At the line, Robbie holds a wheel on Boonen and wins! Stage 5 Results - 1 - Robbie McEwen - Davitamon-Lotto - 3:46:00 2 - Tom Boonen - Quick-Step 3 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole 4 - Stuart O'Grady - Cofidis 5 - Angelo Furlan - Domina Vacanze All riders same time GC - MJ - Lance Armstrong - Discovery Channel - 13:45:12 2 - George Hincapie - Discovery - +:55 3 - Jens Voigt - CSC - +1:04 4 - Bobby Julich - CSC - +1:07 5 - Jose Luis Rubiera - Discovery - +1:14 6 - Yaroslav Popovych - Discovery - +1:16 7 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +1:21 8 - Benjamin Noval - Discovery - +1:26 9 - David Zabriske - CSC - +1:26 10 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +1:26 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 6 - Troyes - Nancy - 199 km Nothing flat today. No huge climbs, but a continually changing topography could let a determined break get out of view and out of mind. There's actually four Cat4 climbs on the day as well, so an energetic rider with a well-timed attack could propel themselves to the finish alone. -- Please visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 7 16:05:18 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 10:05:18 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 6 - Troyes - Nancy Message-ID: <200507071505.j67F5Ig24298@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 6 - Troyes - Nancy - 220 km Nothing flat today. No huge climbs, but a continually changing topography could let a determined break get out of view and out of mind. There's actually four Cat4 climbs on the day as well, so an energetic rider with a well-timed attack could propel themselves to the finish alone. The town of Nancy sits at the end of a climb, so a rider with a bit of craftiness might find themselves riding triumphantly into town. Moving away from the Loire valley today, and the patient spectators at the finish may be slightly happy that they packed the umbrella. A little suggestion of rain begins in Nancy, while the riders have been listening to that repeated suggestion for most of the day, covering wet roads under thick grey skies. Today is Bob Roll's birthday. Hope my card got there in time. A break of 5 moved out and away today - 122 - Stephane Auge - Cofidis 178 - Christophe Mengin - FDJ.com 054 - Karsten Kroon - Rabobank 109 - Jan Kirispuu - Credit Agricole 116 - Mauro Gerosa - Liquigas-Bianchi The break partners have gained some decent time clear after a small flurry of crashes rippled through the bunch early on. Seemingly little damage to any riders, but for some reason the bunch seemed to have the dropsies and tangle-ups. Damp roads couldn't help of course, but with the increase of speed toward the break the riders seem to be back on the ball under less desireable weather conditions. After letting the break push out toward 9 minute gap, the Lotto and Quick-Step riders get the direction to close things down. A slight tailwind favors the riders, but the wet roads do not. The riders squeeze another minute out of the break, now under 7 minutes on this dreary day. They seem a bit cranky today, wanting to get the day over and head back to the team busses, and as such have stretched things out over the wet black tarmac. The riders deal with today's sloppy conditions at just over 30 mph average speed. Kroon has managed to take the sprint points so far, though no one seems too interested in Another half a minute disappears with 86 km to go. Fassa Bortolo's Tour neophyte Claudio Corioni has opted for a dry ride in the team car, retiring from the stage and the race. He is only the second rider to drop out this year. The average speed of this year's Tour is now up to 48.2 km per hour. Today's efforts are helping that along, with the day's speed half a km per hour faster, as they reduce the break's gap down to 5 minutes. With 58 km to go, the rains seem to have increased while the gap has decreased to 4:30. Karsten Kroon follows the strategic team directives as Cofidis' Auge nips away to try to get a KoM points sprint. The Rabobank rider matches his efforts and then accerates past his wet wheels to take first. With Auge taking 2nd place points, he ties Kroon. However, since Kroon has won the most recent challenge, he wears the virtual Polka-Dot jersey, taking over for his teammate Erik Dekker. Always better to pass a jersey to a teammate's shoulders. 40 km to go and a gap of 3:57 - almost a perfect gap to close if you use the standard "1 minute per 10 kilometers"... But, this isn't a flat finish, and if the sprinters' teams continue to get their chamoises in a bunch, that extra buffer could disappear fairly quickly. My dog, who had awakened excitedly with me at 5:15 then slumped into comfortable snoring slumber, has begun agitating for breakfast. A quick jaunt outside and a bowl of fine food keeps her happy and she sprawls back out on her bed. The breakaway picks its way through the slippery and treacherous streets of Dommartin-les-Toul, the last sprint point on the day. A few poorly-marked traffic islands will threaten the big bunch, especially if they go through with some degree of speed. Hopefully, they can awaken whichever gendarmes are supposed to be posted there and get them waving the yellow safety flags... Credit Agricole's Sebastian Joly seems to be adrift among the team cars, dropping back through them in a way which says that maybe calories in were a bit less than efforts exerted. The moto camera zips up to find his teammate Laszlo Bodrogi between a few bumpers as well. Bad pasta for the Credit Agricolians this morning? 25km to go with a 1:48 gap to the break. The weather doesn't look as bad right now, though no one would argue that it's a beautiful day. The five riders still seem commited to the break. Credit Agricole's sprinter Thor Hushovd picks a bad time to get a front flat, as the Lotto and Quick-Step boys have cranked up the speed a bit. But, his mechanic hops out of the car well before it stops and has him changed almost before the big rider's bike comes to rest. Sylvain Chavanel of Cofids finds the same set of three penny nails and takes a fast wheel change. The chase is on in earnest, and he will seriously struggle to regain the tail of the peleton now. The break gap dwindles as the peleton begins to unlimber their climbing legs. Auge and Kroon dink around a bit and fall away from the other three - although a sprinter, Jan Kirsipuu leads the charge up to the summit. As his sprinter's ballast begins to take its toll, Christophe Mengin attacks on what are familiar roads for him. The local rider may have timed this well, as the break disintegrates and spreads out on the incline. Kroon and Auge get swallowed by the hard-charging bunch. The rain must have seeped into the legs of Thomas Voeckler as he drifts away from the bunch. Now team CSC heads up to the front, joined by the members of the Discovery squad. These two powerhouse teams take over the pacemaking, putting a big smack into the strung out riders. Several gaps have crept into the bunch, though it's tough to see whether any serious competitors have been sawn off Mengin remains fully commited as Kirsipuu and Gerosa finally admit defeat. Under the 10 km banner with a fair amount of rolling topography, the FDJ rider began the break today and he may be the last one caught. Dario Cioni from Liquigas fires away from the bunch. The former elite mountain biker has moved hard and gained a gap. Aided by the slight downhill, Cioni moves at over 72 km/hr. However, Cioni gets a bit dainty through a hard left hand corner and loses significant momentum, putting him directly iin the sights ofthe peleton. Up ahead, Mengin relies upon his national champion cyclocross skills to howl through very sketchy cornering conditions. 4 kilometers to go and the aerial view makes the 15 second gap look like a possibility. The urban turns favor this lone rider, though the Vinokourov fires away from the bunch, which causes a serious reaction. He's gapped the bunch and closes in on Mengin. Another rider has found the Khazakstani's wheel - it's a Fassa Bortolo rider, but things are happening too fast to see who. A Massive pileup on a left hand turn! Mengin skids out and rings the metal barriers like chimes. Vinokourov somehow avoids him, but loses most of his momentum. But, everyone else seems to pile into the prone rider and bikes and bodies clatter and scatter. Vino keeps hammering to chase down the Fassa Bortolo rider who scooted past the falling Mengin, but runs out of roadway, letting Lorenzo Bernucci of Fassa Bortolo win the stage. The remainder of the bunch limps over the line, all the sprinters except for Thor Hushovd getting caught behind the melee. Stage 6 - Lorenzo Bernucci - Fassa Bortolo Robert Forster - Gerolsteiner - +:06 Angelo Furlan - Domino Vacanze - +:06 Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole - +:06 Stage 7 - Luneville - Karlsruhe - 228 km A very non-French sounding city name as the destination on this day. After encountering the Cat3 Col du Hantz, the riders string together all the flat roads in the Rhine Valley of Germany. This is probably the final day for the sprinters' teams to show off for a bit. Saturday's stage will throw in a Cat2 climb as the riders move back into France and finish by headed up into the Vosges mountains. Sunday's topography gets downright sharp. Though the final 50 km are mostly downhill, riders will be climbing fairly seriously, after encontering 3 quick Cat3 climbs, the course heads up Le Grand Ballon (Cat2 - 21km at 3.6%)and then Le Ballon d'Alsace (Cat1 - 9.1km at 6.8%). Legs will scream with the change of demand. Updates Update - The reports for the next few days may be lacking in timliness. I've got some commitments for the next few days and may not have a reliable connection to upload the reports. Things should be back to normal by Monday. -- Please visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 10 03:00:58 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 21:00:58 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 7 - Luneville - Karlsruhe Message-ID: <200507100200.j6A20wg03798@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 7 - Luneville - Karlsruhe - 228 km A very non-French sounding city name as the destination on this day. After encountering the Cat3 Col du Hantz, the riders string together all the flat roads in the Rhine Valley of Germany. This is probably the final day for the sprinters' teams to show off for a bit. Zu Deutschland wir gehen! High clouds and little bit of breeze on the day. Temperatures have remained below average so far this year on the Tour. Not sure if that will make too much of a differnce, but historically, the first rider who comes to mind as having bonked gloriously in the wet and cold was T-Mobile rider Jan Ullrich - in the Tour he lost to the late Marco Pantani. Of course, the _other_ German team has told someone to get busy today. Gerolsteiner, the team who may lead Santa Rosa homeboy Levi Leipheimer to his homefully good finish in Paris has sent Fabian Wegmann up the raodway. He takes the both themountain point sprints today while Erik Dekker of Rabobank gets shut down by Gerolsteiners Ronny Scholz and Beat Zberg. With those points, Wegmann snatches the Polka-Dot jersey. Another cold morning has done no good for Steve Zampieri of Phonak, who has retired. So, today's stage finds 186 riders on the roadway. Wet roads roll under the wheels of the Discovery-led peleton. They are taking easy pulls at the front of events, monitoring but not particularlly worried about the riders who have gone up the roadway. Jackets begin to come out and armwarmers are unlimbered. 96 km to go, but Wegmann still remains at about 8 minutes. T-Mobile has begun to populate the slots behind the Discovery, but they don't seem quite worried enough to take over any of the pacemaking. The lone man in light blue continues to head for his homeland. He's so intent on getting there ahead of the bunch that he street-style curb hops a traffic island on his Specialized. Average speed of the stage is 28.2 mph after the three hours that has transpired so far. Wegman adds a few Green jersey points to his tally for the day, scooting unmolested through the sprint line at Brumath. Discovery must have spread the word that they desired some assistance, as Credit Agricole's Christophe Moreau pushes out into the wind and rain. With the weather worsening for the big bunch, they must have decreed that the sprinters' teams should do some work for their fast men. They may have decided that that the gap should be shortened, and chop a quick minute off of the gap. The Credit Agricolians seem to have in mind a few Green jersey points for their big Dane, Thor Hushovd. But there is a second head on the serpent as Quick-Step form a leadout to get Tom Boonen to the Brumath sprint first. It looks like a slightly sloppier leadout train heralding from the days of Cipollini's zebras, but they quickly gain distance on Credit Agricole. This point is not lost on Hushovd who immediately jumps over to snag Boonen's wheel. The last leadout man pulls off and Boonen bleeds from his ears to fly toward the line. Hushovd kicks it up a few notches, but gets wiggly behind the slowing last Quick-Step leadout man, and cannot match the big Belgian's speed. Boonen crosses the line with easy air behind his wheel. Gap now under 6 minutes. The pace continues to hammer and time continues to get shaved off of Wegman's lead. Now only 5:07. The peleton has remained stretched in a long thin line since the sprint point, and either they are trying to get warm, or they just want to get in out of the rain...break now down near 4 minutes. Which brings to mind two issues from yesterday's stage - the first, in what was probably the most understated response ever quoted from him, Robbie McEwen summed up yesterday's stage finish, which ended up with him being intertwined with numerous riders and bikes, as "the waste of a good day." The second, and perhaps more serious issue was that cheeky little move by Vinokourov. His timing was nearly perfect to catch the sagging Christophe Mengin, although it would've been a good finish line fight. But, given the finish conditions, it just as easily could have ended in disaster. As it was, the Khazakstani rider had to unclip and skid to narrowly miss wrapping himself around Mengin. As it was Mengin began the day with a sparkly new shiner on his left eye, but Vinokourov could've hurt himself in a pretty needless manner. That would suggest strongly that he either doesn't give a hoot about helping the official team leader, or he is in fact trying to get every possible second and finish line time bonus for himself. Of course, that will reveal itself more completely with tomorrow's stage - which seems taylor made for the dynamic attacking style of Vinokourov. Meanwhile, in today's stage, Wegman continues to see his lead turn to piffle. 36 miles to go, 3:32 of a gap. Sprinter's teams continue getting serious. He'll probably be the German leading the bunch into Germany, as they are only about 10km from the border. A group of four or five horses shake thier ears and chew their grass as the peleton and attendant vehicles zip past. Average speed has dropped to 41.3 kph for the stage - still a healthy 25 mph for 4 hours or so. Smackdown in the peleton! As the aerial photo zooms in on Jan Ullrich from above, a sudden shuffle and squeeze puts about 40 riders down on the road - a rain-slicked 45 degree railroad crossing drops the cyclists before they know what hit them. Ullrich escapes unscathed, but at least two riders are sprawled and not moving well. Slow-motion replays show front wheels pitched out in a sickening manner and riders landing hands first, head first and tangled in their bike frames. Just moments before, Lance had moved off to the front on the right side of the roadway, we can glean that he was aware of the impending danger. At the front of events, Boonen takes another ride on the Quick-Step express and shuts off a move by Hushovd, nabbing more points that the Dane who sits just behind him in the Green Jersey standings. Wegman unfortunately will end up with the short end of the stick, as the increase in peleton momentum chops more time away from the easing Wegmann. The cars are out of the way, and his lead is under 20 seconds now. He soft pedals now, blows a kiss to the moto camera and ends his breakaway which started at the 50 km mark - quite a day's work. Germany brings the riders back into a drizzly storm, in the canyon between massive crowds of people in this now cycling crazy country. Spectators stand easily 10 deep on either side of the roadway with the riders still a healthy 8 miles from the finish. Vinokourov has put himself directly onto Armstrong's wheel. The speed continues to increase, with the phalanx of Discovery riders ferrying Lance along right behind the gasping leadout men from Cofidis, Quick Step and Lotto. T-Mobile seems to become a bit interested in the efforts at the front as well, perhaps wanting put the right rider across the line to become the first German to win a Tour stage in Germany. Liquigas rider Magnus Backsted slots himself up near the front with 5 km to go - Cofidis' Stuart O'Grady has teammate Matt White up beneath the lead of two from the Lotto squad. Boonen doesn't have a proper wheel to follow, but remains in touch with the front. Fassa Bortolo now takes over, with a quartet of FDJ.com riders formed up behind them. Roadways are dry on what will be a straight and wide finish. Under the 3 km to go banner. Bit of the argy-bargy as FDJ.com hip checks their way to the front trying to deliver probably Baden Cooke to the line. They seem quite intent on not losing track of things this time. Boonen appears boxed in and unable to move up. FDJ seem to lack focus in their task and suddenly the peleton is four or five wide. Two strings of riders head to the front, the one with Liquigas leadout men gains a bit more steam, and they become one again. The Green Jersey of Boonen still in the middle, but 10 or so riders back and seemingly without a teammate nearby. A wide bunch heads under the 1 km to go banner. Jan Kirsipu pulls out trying to lead Boonen up. But, everyone has the same idea and the front of the race fractures into a melee for the line. Then, swooping up from behind, Robbie McEwen screams up the right hand barriers fromon left out of absolutely nowhere to just keep ahead of a hard charging Magnus Backsted. Not a waste of Robbie's day today! Stage Results - Stage 8 1 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto - 5:03:05 2 - Magnus Backsted - Liquigas 3 - Bernard Eisel - FDJ.com 4 - Gerrit Glomser - Lampre 5 - Baden Cooke - FDJ.com All riders same time Tomrrow's Stage 9 - Pforzheim - Gerardmer - 231 Out of Germany on a long and tough stage. The day starts right off with four sharp Category 3 climbs, then pretends it's a sprinter's stage for 125 km, then climbs strongly to the 1139 meter Col de la Schlucht, before dropping steeply to the finish in Gerardmer. Not an actual climbing stage, but steep enough to have the more vertically inclined sharpening their talons. -- Please visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 12 05:30:07 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 23:30:07 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 8 - Pforzheim - Gerardmer Message-ID: <200507120430.j6C4U7g12000@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 8 - Pforzheim - Gerardmer - 231 km (Hope I didn't confuse anyone with either my typo for the upcoming stage or my sketchy recollection of 8th grade German. Big thanks to subscriber Kurt who corrected my syntax! - "Nach Deutschland gehen wir!") Out of Germany on a long and tough stage. The day starts right off with four sharp Category 3 climbs, then pretends it's a sprinter's stage for 125 km, then climbs strongly to the 1139 meter Col de la Schlucht, before dropping steeply to the finish in Gerardmer. Not an actual climbing stage, but steep enough to have the more vertically inclined sharpening their talons. In all the excitement of yesterday's sprint finish, I neglected to mention that a couple of Domina Vacanze boys got tangled up together in the final meters. They both smacked to the ground and got spun around pretty good, and it was touch and go as to whether they would start throwing punches at one another. Of course, nothing is as forlorn as a couple of cyclists duking it out... No such schoolyard shenanigans today. Rain pounding down with lightning & thunder at the finish and on the final climb of the course. As any high school coach would say, "A GREAT DAY to work!" But, it is argued by some that high school coaches can be a trifle sadistic. In a similar manner, the climbs exert their sadistic effect upon the flatland fast boys. Already, we get word that Quick-Step rider Tom Boonen has slid off of the back and found a few teamates to guard him. He'd been complaining of a sore back today, presumably from the tangle at the finish line in stage 6. 183 riders start the day - FDJ.com's Christophe Mengin will have to wait for cyclocross season, while Sergei Gontchar may have been one of the two Domina Vacanze riders I mentioned earlier. Regardless, he kept hitting the snooze button and has not signed in. Action started fast and furious into the initial climbs. Taking advantage of the early sunshine, Rabobank's Michael Rasmussen decided he wanted to take over the climber's jersey and hopped away, shadowed by CSC's Jens Voigt, big George Hincapie from Discovery and a couple other riders. The members kept shifting, but Rasmussen kept hitting the climbing points first, and after the first 4 climbs of the day, task completed, he peeled off and soft-pedaled back to the bunch. That left George to snag the first sprint point, then they decided it wasn't fun to make T-Mobile do all the work to catch them. Credit Agricole's massive sprinter Thor Hushovd thumps out front to joint the bunch just long enough to streak out and get the middle sprint points. Perhaps he senses the weakness of Boonen, as with about 50 miles and a Cat 2 climb to the finish, their gap is 3:15 to the front of the field and 5 minutes away from Tom Boonen and his helpers. Other riders have dropped out - Illes Balears' Isaac Galvaz pulled over snuck into the team car and Ag2R's Sylvain Calzati finally succumbwed to the tendonitis he has suffered with all Tour. With all the juggling of riders in and out of the break, it has finally settled down to the following: Salvatore Commesso - Lampre Nicki Sorenson - CSC Juan Antonia Flecha - Fassa Bortolo Ronny Scholz - Gerolsteiner Cedric Vasseur - Cofidis Nicholas Jalabert - Phonak Peter Weening - Rabobank They've pushed up the gap to nearly 5 minutes, and Commesso scoops up the final sprint point on the day. The break keeps edging out, now to nearly 6 minutes with 60 odd kilometers to go. At the head of the chase, Liquigas riders lead the bunch, with the Discovery boys egging them on. Maybe the Liquigas riders thing that the climb will suit Stefano Garzelli. Though the rain was pounding at the finish, the sun seems to be following the riders - they continue to go over dry roads, despite my earlier dire weather prognostications. The riders continue to stretch the bunch out as they gain a tailwind. CSC rider David Zabriske has been stretching off the back of the bunch to as much as 30 seconds. Hopefully, he will be able to maintain contact through until Monday's rest day. Despite the pending climb, this route will also tend to favor someone who can actually descend - once the riders peak out at 1139 meter crest of the 17 km climb, there's an almost equal amount of downhill. While the bunch plugs onward, the camera finds a flock of white storks strewn about a small field near the Black Forest, who have migrated from the African continent to focus on family pursuits. The gap has continued to fall, with Illes Balears squad tucking in to position Alejandro Valverde for the upswing. 4:37 with 46 km to go. The peleton zips along some 14 kph faster than the break. Up at the front Flecha is trying to keep the pace high, hoping to make the climb before the catch. It will be interesting to see who makes the moves on the incline. But the break does not look too coordinated in their rotation. 4 minutes even. Though Phil and Paul have not mentioned it, the lead bunch does seem to be gaining altitude. Riders have begun hiking up out of the saddle, though no one has tripped their front derailleur over to the small chainring yet - and frankly on this climb, they may not. Well, I guess I was getting all antsy - the lead group still has about 3 km to go before they are on the climb proper. They've been going for about 4 hours, 15 minutes today, and have finally made their way to the official climb, about three minutes ahead of the rest of the riders. The peleton streaks through the narrow and enourmously crowded strets of Munster. Meanwhile, the sunlight has officially reached the finish line, meaning that the roadways should be dry for descent to the line. As soon as the roadway headed up, Weening from Rabobank punches out to a lead, cleanly gapping Jalabert, Vasseur and Scholz, while in between Commesso, Flecha and Sorensen work to close down the distance. Wreckage immediately appears at the end of the bunch, the expected group of sprinters start to drop back, but it also Liberty Seguros' Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano and Fabian Cancellara from Fasso Bortolo. Illes Balears continues to punish the weak, guilty and innocent as they set a hard pace at the front of the chase. The fast tempo climbing has winnowed down the bunch. Levi Leipheimer has had to chase back on for some reason - probably mechanical as he seems to be riding well within himself among the team cars. Up front the lanky Weening grits his way along at the head of events. Commesso and Flecha trade pulls as Sorensen focuses on one or the other's rear wheel. They are not gaining time on the Rabobank rider. Vasseur gets scooped up by the hard climbing main group. Suddenly Vinokourov appears at the front of the bunch and accellerates, gaining a 5 yard gap. Vino's accelleration gets answered by immediately by Paolo Salvadelli, tailed by Lance Armstrong. Directly behind him big Jan Ullrich marks him solidly. Christophe Moreau from Credit Agricole slides off the front, with little attention paid to him Now Alejandro Valverde kicks out in front to a gap, but Armstrong won't go until Vinokourov moves again. Which the Khazakstani rider immediately does. Everyone comes together. Armstrong is riding cooly with no apparent help from any teammates. But a quick flash of pink and a T-Mobile rider has moved up the roadway - this time none other than the up-until-now-discounted Andreas Kloden. He moves cleanly away from the bunch, not chased by Armstrong. Kloden is more than 2 and half minutes behind on GC. Others are not so calm, with CSC's Ivan Basso following him up the roadway. Others swarm around Armstrong, who tucks in on Jan's hip and moves only when the big German moves up. The Armstrong bunch has swelled to about 30 riders, as everyone uses their new found climbing legs to reconvene. Kloden breezes up the roadway, jersey open to the waist and spinning his long legs to close the gap to Weening. The first time Tour rider finds new edges of pain as he tries to make the summit. Suddenly Kloden is there, ousprints him to the KoM point. Kloden takes the big points on the day, and may have snatched the climber's jersey right off the virtual back of Rassmussen. The chasing group hammer over the crest only 15 seconds behind. Rassmussen nabs 8 points at the summit which lets him hold onto the Polka Dot Jersey Now going downhill, CSC riders Bobby Julich and Cadel Evans work together to try and close the gap. But after almost clipping tires, they calm down a touch and are reabsorbed by the bunch. Up front Kloden and Weening are actually taking pulls and moving across every inch of the roadway, spinning gears bigger than any you and I will ever turn over. Behind them, Illes Balears regains the front of the chase with only 5 km to go, bringing the gap down to 8 seconds. Kloden and Weening take sharp pulls and work well together as the bigger group just can't convince themselves who ought to chase the duo. CSC rider Jens Voigt tests the waters, but immediately gets chased down by the others. Now only 2 km to go. There's open roadway behind them, and gap has suddenly opened out to 22 seconds. The duo have moved under the red kite at 1 kilometer to go - Weening sits right on Kloden's wheel like a seasoned pursuit rider. It's a slightly uphill finish. Kloden opens up from the front. Weening kicks up on his right hand side. edges up even and they cross the line in a dead heat. A true photo finish! The Armstrong group spreads out and a multitude of efforts unfold. Though Vinokourov would love to nab the time bonus for third place, his effort gets swamped by 10 other riders. Among the expected challengers to the podium, Chris Horner of Saunier Duval, who shows his form to be quite solid. Other broken bunches of riders roll over the line, aghast at how fast the serious contenders have moved away on such an early climb. George Hincapie moved into one of the following groups, and will slide down the standings slightly. The results finally come down from the judges - 24 year old Pieter Weening of Rabobank takes the stage by what can only be described as a tread-of-the-tire length! Stage 8 - 1 - Pieter Weening - Rabobank - 5:03:54 2 - Andreas Kloden - T-Mobile - s.t. 3 - Alejandro Valverde - Illes Balears - +:27 4 - Kim Kirchen - Fasso Bortolo - s.t. 5 - Jens Voigt - CSC - s.t. GC - MJ - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - 26:06:17 2 - Jens Voigt - CSC - +1:00 3 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +1:02 4 - Bobby Julich - CSC - +1:07 5 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +1:26 Stage 9 - Gerardmer - Mulhouse - 171km This would be a tough one day stage, even if there weren't another dozen stages to go. Mountain. Mountain. Mountain. Steep Descent. Long climb to a steeper mountain followed by a serious descent. Mountain. Now, a real climb - the Cat 1 Le Ballon d'Alsace at an average of nearly 7%. After the sharp descent, it's a steady descent to the finish. If we don't see blood in the gutters, we'll at least see welts on a lot of riders' shins. On Monday, they will get to lick their wounds with the first rest day. -- Please visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 12 07:47:01 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 01:47:01 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 9 - Gerardmer - Mulhouse Message-ID: <200507120647.j6C6l1g16801@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 9 - Gerardmer - Mulhouse - 171km Climbs leading to a real climb - the Cat 1 Le Ballon d'Alsace at an average of nearly 7%. After the sharp descent, it's a steady descent to the finish. There's no rest for the weary today, and it will be interesting to see how things continue to shake out. First off, Lance Armstrong said after yesterday's stage that neither he or the team felt very good, and they had "some talking to do" last night. You can read more into these things than necessary, and Armstrong is nothing if not a master of deception and poker tactics. Nevertheless, he was isolated on that last climb of the day, and had to watch attacks from three T-Mobile riders in addition to other serious contenders. Certainly, Armstrong played it cool and correct, reacting but not overreacting. But what might have happened is that other riders may be sensing a touch of weakness to exploit. On the other side of the coin, this is exactly what T-Mobile said they would do. It should not have come as a suprise to the Discovery squad. On the roadways, wreckage has occurred over the first couple hours of racing, and we find damage at the front as well, as Liquigas rider Dario Cioni slips away from Polka-Dot wearin' Michael Rassmussen. Rasmussen has been racking KoM points all morning. The peleton some 8 minutes behind the Rabobank rider. In the middle is a small group with Christophe Moreau from Credit Agricole, Angel Viscioo of Liberty Seguros, Xabier Zandio of Illes Balears, Inigo Landaluze from Euskatel-Euskadi, Phonak's Alexandre Moos and CSC's Jens Voigt, who was the animator of the original attacks on the day. They drift along about 5 minutes ahead of the peleton. Rassmussen crests his fifth climb of the day, again taking maximum points for hmself. The 1999 World Mountain Biking Champion continues to tick easily up the incline. One should not discount the ability of a successful offroad rider to push himself along alone at a high rate of speed. Today the Discovery team has shaken off the cobwebs and Lance is clearly riding his own race. Riding a less happy race is big Thor Hushovd, who has become unstuck and gone adrift. But there's more bad news about in the Daily Pelton today - A silly little crash at the 4 km point took down several riders, but put the big kabosh on Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano's chances this year - the clearly on-form Liberty Seguros rider had a serious problem with his tailbone or hip and could not even raise his leg over his bike to rejoin the race. The big German Jan Ullrich caused a panic by crashing on an early descent. Never touted as an above average descender, he was able to get himself back on the bike and rejoin his team to be escorted back up to the bunch. As every news camera in cycledom focused in on his bloody left thigh, Jan tucked himself back into the Discovery-led peleton. CSC rider Dave Zabriske peeled his numbers off and slipped into the team car, succumbing finally to the injuries he received after skipping along the pavement during the Team Time Trial. Saunier Duval rider Jose Gomez tangled with Salvatore Commesso in the feed zone, dumping both riders, but ending Gomez' chances with a probable broken collarbone. Thus hopefully ends the day's series of unfortunate events.... Credit Agricole slides back a couple riders to keep Hushovd in touch with the events of the day, because if the climbers don't try to blow things apart on the steep climb still to come, there is a steady downhill to the finish. This could be a sprint finish if the cards are played cautiously today. The Category 1 Ballon d'Alsace is the first mountain every climbed in the Tour, first attempted in the race of 1905. Rassmussen continues to ascend, all knees and bird-bones. The Discovery-led peleton clinks along now 9:28 behind Rassmussen. Pavel Padrnos punches his dance card and eases back to find the grupetto, having thumped out Armstrong's climbing rythmn for much longer than one would expect from such a big rider. Discovery's next line ease to the front of events - George Hincapie and Chechu Rubiera lead Lance while Yaraslav Popovych and Paolo Salvodelli sit right behind him. Now that the climb has begun to bite, Moreau, Voigt and Vicioso have clipped off the others in the bunch, though Vicioso staggers slightly and then turns his ears inside out to find his own cadence, suddenly off the back behind the other pair. Moreau continues to set a strong pace upwards, and they hone in and catch the almost forgotten Dario Cioni. He moves behind them almost as fast as the spectators alongside the course. Up front, Rassmussen floats out of the saddle with the posture of the classic climbers. Suddenly, the barriers appear before Rassmussen and he takes his final KoM points for the day. The Discovery tempo is squeezing off rider after rider. Armstrong and his teammates look calm and in control. Small groups band together to find a common pace that will get them over the crest. Now Moreau and Voigt crest the hill 4:20 behind Rassmussen. The Armstrong-led peleton hit the mountain top 9:35 behind Rassmussen. Rassmussen streaks down the descent at hair-raising speeds. Pedaling hard in the biggest gear he can find, his textbook perfect line of descent seems to be considerably faster than the chasing duo. The roads begin level slightly and Voigt begins to show his stuff, taking serious pulls with his massively powerful style. Voigt nips ahead and rolls through the sprint point with 40 km to go. If they can maintain even a minute over the chasing Armstrong group, the CSC rider will take over the Yellow Jersey. Strategically, this is a nice move for the Discovery squad, as Voigt will not be able to continue to hang on in the big mountains which lie ahead, but CSC will have to put their noses into the wind a bit more frequently in defense of it. The Moreau/Voigt combine has chipped into the Rassmussen lead slightly, but the gap still sits around 4 minutes. It's interesting to see a "climber" continue to hold his gap on the flattening roads over such powerful riders. But, Voigt's goal must be to put on a Yellow Jersey this afternoon, and that requires him to only maintain less than 60 ticks of the clock over the big bunch. As the bunch skims through town, Didier Rous clips a haybaled center divider and punches all the air out of his lungs and leaves a bit of his dermal layer as a gift to the town. Up the roadway, Voigt skips over to the right hand side of hte roadway and tears his rear wheel out of the drops. He's quickly met by the mechanic who has him back on the road before you realize he'd stopped. Rassmussen continues to increase his speed and thrums out a still-strong cadence in what is beginning to look like a 167 kilometer breakaway. The team car sneaks up next to him just to make sure he's got the fuel left in the tank as they course under the 10 km to go banner. He rides alone into the streets of Mulhouse, crowds increasing as he ticks under the 4 km to go banner. He's passing through the kilometers at time of one minute, 15 seconds. Try that on your next club ride. Oh, don't forget to ride 168 kilometers first... The long-awaited red kite flies tantalizingly ahead, now above, now behind the hard-charging Danish rider. Michael Rassmussen pulls through a chicane, checks one last time under his arm that no one has snuck up behind. He rides against an unending wave of noise and spreads his arms wide as he crosses the line - no photo finish for Rabobank today! Off his bike afefter the finish, he holds his head in disbelief. Back on the race coruse, Voigt and Moreau work as hard as they can to get the maximum time gap to the peleton - Voigt trails Moreau and they both bend every ounce of oomph out of their bodies. Moreau rolls over in second place at 3:02, Voigt on his wheel. The countdown for Yellow begins. The big bunch heads home with Cofidis sprinter Stuart O'Grady smartly nabbing 4th place to. But when the clock stops exactly 3 minutes later, it is too late to for Armstrong to hang onto the Jersey, and it moves onto the shoulders of CSC rider Jens Voigt. Stage 9 - Gerardmer - Mulhouse 1 - Michael Rassmussen - Rabobank - 4:08:20 2 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - +3:04 3 - Jens Voigt - CSC - s.t. 4 - Stuart O'Grady - Cofidis - +6:04 5 - Philippe Gilbert - FDJ.com - s.t. GC - End of Stage 9 MJ - Jens Voigt - CSC - 32:18:23 2 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - +1:50 3 - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - +2:18 4 - Michael Rassmussen - Rabobank - +2:43 5 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +3:20 Tomorrow - First Rest Day Tuesday - Stage 10 Grenoble - Courchevel - 192 km One of the three true mountaintop finishes on this year's Tour. There are a couple of sprint points tossed in there to mock the sprinters, but there's a climb at around 118 kilometers - the Cat 1 Cormet de Roselend which reaches 1967 meters, the climb to the tape at Courchevel, a 22 km climb which averages a bit over 6% to the height of 2,000 meters. It's not a steep climb, and might not be the best place for Armstrong to lay down the gauntlet, but it will shake the shaken to the core. And you think your Mondays are tough... -- Please visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 12 17:01:08 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 11:01:08 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 10 - Grenoble - Courchevel Message-ID: <200507121601.j6CG18g19986@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 10 Grenoble - Courchevel - 192 km One of the three true mountaintop finishes on this year's Tour. There are a couple of sprint points tossed in there to mock the sprinters, but there's a climb at around 118 kilometers - the Cat 1 Cormet de Roselend which reaches 1967 meters, the climb to the tape at Courchevel, a 22 km climb which averages a bit over 6% to the height of 2,000 meters. The big variable as always will be how each rider reacts to the Rest Day. Sometimes, the day off will effect them negatively as the body bucks like a scared colt given time to consider the damage already done. Jan Ullrich spent some of the day off at the hospital getting x-rayed. Everything came back negative, but the report comes that he spun several times on the roadway, and the doctors were concerned about his ribs. Nothing like a little pain in every breath to welcome you to the Alps. 174 riders out on the roadway, as with a random control test Lampre's Evgeni Petrov has been given a mandatory rest when they find his hematocrit a bit too high to let him continue. The bunch rolls up the incline of the Cormet de Roseland, chasing a break of 7 who are 6:21 ahead. Joost Posthuma- Rabobank Luis Sanchez - Liberty Sequros Mauro Facci - Fasso Basso Laurent Brochard - Bouygues Telecom Gianluca Bortolami - Lampre Inaki Isasi - Euskatel-Euskadi Yuri Krivtsov - Ag2R As we speak, Bortolami and Isasi can no longer hold the pace, and fracturing begins to occur both within the small break group and back at the pack. While the bulk of the main bunch rides a sublty increasing tempo, various single riders test their climbing gear and move tentatively away. The solid pace of the bunch reels them in, but more riders drip off the back under the increase of pressure. Iban Mayo of Euskatel-Euskadi lags among the cars, suffering from a bit of tendonitis it is reported. The larger gears of the flatter stages have not been kind to this dynamic Basque climber. Discovery's Manual Beltran sets pace and noshes some sort of special foodstuff. The peleton still remains about 5 minutes behind Posthuma, Facci, Sanchez, Brochard and Krivtsov, who have found their climbing styles to be compatible and keep together on the long climb. Brochard nips the mountain points as things stretch out slightly in anticipation of the screaming descent. Meanwhile back behind on the slope, Phonak's Oscar Pereiro hums away and leads the now select group of 35 or 40 riders. He is quickly joined by Jorg Jaksche from Liberty Seguros and the two of them ease out into the gap toward the break members. On the horizon, dark clouds press in on the mountains up ahead. Jaksche and Pereiro howl down the non-guardrailed rowadways at 62 mph, according to the speedometer of the motorcycle. Now well out on his own, Brochard takes his former World Champion's mullet along at a brisk clip. The gap hovers at 3:50 as riders in the Armstrong group spread across the roadway and refuel for the larger climb. Posthuma and Krivtsov move down the mountain about 20 seconds behind Brochard. Discovery's Yaroslav Popovych picks himself off the roadway, having gone down following what seems to have been a puncture or blowout - It's hard to tell if there's a big puddle of blood on the roadway below him as they swap rear wheels. But, there doesn't seem to be a corresponding hole in the rider, so hopefully it's just a matter of reattaching himself to the bunch. Reports come through that he actually contacted a team car. Hopefully not his own. Brochard scoots through the town of Bourg-St-Marie at 54 km to go. He rolls through the sprint point there and begins calculating Posthuma, Facci, Bortolami and Krivtsov have found one another just this side of the same sprint point, and let the recently returned but not a threat for the last climb Bortolami take the points for the Green Jersey. Sanchez hums up out of nowhere and joins Brochard, and they begin working together Popovych rolls along beside the race doctor and gets a bit of roadway cleaned out of his left elbow. Despite a scuffed up jersey, he smiles easily at the cameras, so hopefully things are fairly topical. Mayo has found his way back up to the bunch, while Discovery snaps into pace control formation. They lead an ever-swelling bunch as riders clip back on after a hard descent and relatively forgiving roadway. Brochard makes a sour face as Sanchez ceases taking pulls. A quick pan of the camera shows that Periero and Jaksche's animation has brought all of the original break back up to the leading duo. Now 9 strong, they work together. Discovery begins ticking off a faster cadence, making sure that they remain in touch with Periero, who could potentially threaten the strategic goal of Armstrong's Yellow Jersey hopes. Perhaps they just don't want to let everyone rest up too much before they hit the final slopes. Lance has an odd, almost overdone grimace on his face. Maybe he has some designs on this day's stage. Regardless, they snip the gap quickly down to 3:30. The lead group moves onto the climb and things begin their inexorable slide toward entropy and pain. Brochard wavers in the vicinity of Periero and Jaksche, who have left all the other pretenders behind now that the slope begins to bite. Among the Discovery-led chasers, Voigt begins to crumble a bit while the gap gets squeezed down to about 2 and a half minutes. Mayo has already found the small chainring, and his knees move in the ungainly style of a sprinter caught on a steep climb. He's clearly not enjoying what should be his terrain. Groups of other riders begin to litter the roadway, while up front Discovery seems to move with the ease of a training ride. Of coure, other serious competitors hover directly behind him, waiting perhaps to see what treachery Armstrong will unleash. Now up front Pereiro gets neatly clipped off by a big ring accelleration of Jaksche. He has a 10 mile climb to go but attacks the early switchbacks and has found his own rhythm. The chasing group have a team photo opportunity as they lead up the climb. Denis Menchov of Rabobank slides back, accompanied by Haimar Zubeldia from Euskatel and -- well, well, well -- a diminutive climber named Roberto Heras. His teammate Joseba Beloki falls away as well. CSC's Carlos Sastre decides he's not in enough pain and clicks up the roadway. He gets a bit of a gap, but the Discovery machine smothly keep him in their sights. They reclaim Brochard, who finds a similar pace with American's Chris Horner and Bobby Julich. Up front, Vinokourov, Ullrich and Levi Leipheimer sit directly behind the impassive Armstrong. Ivan Basso and Floyd Landis sit among what is now a select group of 14 riders. Well behind them on the roadway, a group of challengers to the throne collects itself, with Voigt and the Yellow Jesey trying to stay in touch. Vinokourov slides to the back of the bunch. Either he has plans to fire away or he has found marshmellows in his thighs. Hincapie pulls off and starts the soft-pedal part of his climb. Popovych now remains at the head of events. A number of pure climbers sit in the bunch. But, one who doesn't is Vinokourov. He keeps looking down at his gears, opens his jersey and finds he has not got the gumption to stay stuck. Armstrong has pushed the pbtton. Popovych hammers up the roadway and aplinters the group. He buries hiimself for a couple hundred meters and now Armstrong begins his crunch. Basso hangs onto the accelleration, as does Rasmussen, but Ullrich and Floyd Landis have fallen away. Francisco Mancebo takes upu the pace, Armstrong content to follow the new pacemaker, while Rassmussen, Basso follow. Mancebo now falls away to an increase of pace by Armstrong. They find Jaksche drifting back and now the chase group is the lead group. Kloden has found himself all alone, still more than 10km to go. Armstong nudges Rassmussen ahead of him as the Devil runs alongside the bunch. Leipheimer now claws his way back as Cadel Evans can no longer stay attached. Mancebo looks to be struggling, though his teammate Alejandro Valverde looks reasonably assured. The road slackens somewhat, Armstrong drifts back through the group of five, asn after a quick assessment moves stongly back into the lead. The accellerations have left Leipheimer again, and it is a group of five once more. Basso looks to be working hard to stay attached to the lead bunch, and he and Mancebo suddenly find themselves adrift. Mancebo hikes up his chamois and regains the bunch, but Basso has begun to pedal chunky squares. The band plays the songs dictated by the Armstrong quartet. Basso has now fallen back by 15 seconds. Ullrich has found the wheel of Andreas Kloden, and with the roadway slightly relaxing, they take aim at those who are in front of him. The Yellow Jersey pedals in ragged stumpy movements, drinking water and trying to limit his loses, which are in the neighborhood of 13 minutes and counting. Armstrong has gapped Ullrich by 1:13, but there are steeper bits to come bfore the finish. Some yum-yum wearing a set of longhorns and carrying a massive Texas flag runs alongside the lead quartet. The two Illes Balears riders lead the charge through the 5 km to go mark, Mancebo turning himself inside out to keep the pace high. Now Armstrong pushes to the front as they move through the final town. Landis goes through the 5 km banner 1:15 behind the lead quartet. They slalom a few ninnys who populate the climb and Armstrong retakes the front. He calmly zips up his jersey for maximum sponsor representation. They now are safely inside the 2 km to go banner, and steel barriers hold back the serious drinkers. A few more switchbacks go past and the riders jostle for positon. Now Rassmussen takes the front. Armstrongs faster cadence lets him move easily within the bunch, and he places himself in the middle of everyone, a bit towards the back. Armstrong rises out of the saddle, seemingly more for a change of angle than for an actual attack. The foursome slides into darkness in a short tunnel and pop out under the 1 km to go banner. They hover around Armstrong as if he is the sun. Rasmussen decides to make hay and whisks out and fires up, Valverde nabbing his wheel, Armstrong in third. The thin Danish rider has probably misjudged the finish, but is managing to put time on all his competitors. Armstrong looks at everyone in front while Rassmussen may have lost the impetus to continue leading. Now Armstrong fires away and Valverde screams his way onto his wheel. They quickly gap the other pair and Armstrong leads Valverde at 250 to go - not the best place to be if you want to take a sprint. Valverde now goes and times his effort to perfection - he sneaks ahead as Lance takes second. They have both gapped Rassmusen and Mancebo. Ivan Basso slides along at around 1:00 Levi Leipheimer finishes near 1:15 Jaksche paces a gang of hopefuls, which includes Ullrich - 2:15 back. Vinokourov makes his way over the line a bit over 5 minutes back. Julich accompanies him, but some serious damage has occurred to the T-Mobile rider's hope of challenging. Roberto Heras finishes over 10 minutes behind. Reports are that Voigt has seriously self-destructed on the final climb, paying high interest on the efforts he made on Sunday's stage. Stage 10 - 1 - Alejandro Valverde - Illes Balears - 4:50:35 2 - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - s.t. 3 - Michael Rassmussen - Rabobank - +:09 4 - Francisco Mancebo - s.t. 5 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +1:02 6 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +1:15 7 - Eddy Mazzoleni - Lampre - +2:14 8 - Andreas Kloden - T-Mobile - s.t. 9 - Andrey Kashechkin - Credit Agricole - s.t. 10 - Floyd Landis - Phonak - s.t. 11 - Leonardo Piepoli - Saunier Duval - s.t. 12 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - s.t. 13 - Jorge Jaksche - Liberty Seguros - s.t. GC - After 10 Stages - MJ - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - 37:11:04 2- Michael Rassmussen - Rabobank - +:38 3 - Ivan Bass - CSC - +2:40 4 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - +2:42 5 - Alejandro Valverde - Illes Balears - +3:16 Jan Ullrich sits in 8th spot, 4:02 behind Armstrong. Floyd Landis sits 4:10 in arrears. Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 11 - Courchevel - Briancon - 173 km Another day of potential damage and probable pain in high altitude. Armstrong will wear his 72nd Yellow Jersey as the day begins deceptively easily, heading downhill from the city of Courchevel to climb the first Haute Categorie climb of the Tour - the Col de la Madeleine, then a one-two pummeling of the Cat 1 Col du Telegraphe and the HC Col du Galibier. Though the potential for more wreckage is great, the finish sits another 40 km beyond in Briacon, at the end of a potentially rider-collecting downhill. -- Please visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 13 13:44:47 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (tour-junkie) Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 05:44:47 -0700 Subject: [Tour 2005]Thoughts after Stage 10 Message-ID: The images from the bloodletting at Courchevel still hover on the edge of my thoughts tonight, and a few thoughts have been teasing at me all day. I'm not sure any of these are ultimately correct, or obviously proveable as wrong. The "truth" may lie within all or none of these: ----- "The Unseen Punch" Saturday's stage was the result of a master plan from a supreme gifted tactician. It makes the rope-a-dope from a few years ago seem like a grade school play. Here's the possible scenario; let an obviously on-form Armstrong (who already has a minute in hand to play with) fend for himself in the final hill. Since Vinokourov tends to attack aggressively, he may do so - especially if there are three T-Mobile riders in the bunch.* Vino attacked exactly as the widely announced T-Mobile plan said they would - sending their "wild card" up and away. But Armstrong reacted in a tactically perfect manner. He calmly paced back up to the hard-charging attacks, smoothly bringing them into check without undue exertion. The lasting image though, was one of Armstrong being pummeled by the attacks, although he never got seriously gapped by any of them. Despite seeming like he could be in trouble, he wasn't. When interviewed after the race, he cagely said that he "didn't feel all that good himself". Giving strong hopes to those who might want the top step on the podium. The day after the Rest Day, the entire Discovery team just keeps notching up the pace and simply crushes the best riders in pro cycling. Vinokourov blows spectacularly, and the quiet schism that seems to have nested in the T-Mobile squad is picked at a bit - he'll clearly have to answer for his two early attacks in this year's Tour. There have been grumblings that he's more interested in riding to increase next year's contract offers than for this year's Tour. A seemingly more-on-form-than-Jan Andreas Kloden has got to be chaffing a bit, having been asked to tow the team leader up the final slope today. Granted, there must have been some residual pains from Sunday's crash, but look who else got tossed out by the day's scorching climb. Even if he was entirely on form and unhurt, can you imagine Ullrich climbing with Ivan Basso? So, you end up with a strategic plan for T-Mobile which required three riders to be equally invested in it - and the Courchevel stage drove wide wedges between the riders. As the pace increased on the run up to the climb, and then increased again on the slope, it's clear that no one beleived it was happening, or had prepared for the possibility that such an effort would be made. They had the lasting image of Sunday's "isolated" Armstrong and "invisible" Discovery squad. *Let's just think about that for a second - do we really believe that all 8 of the Discovery riders just went piffle at the same moment? That still strikes me as more than a little suspect. ----- How did such a climb become so decisive? At some point in his training, either Lance or Chris Carmichael said, "y'know, if we've got a serious climb that follows a rest day, maybe there's a way to prepare the body for that..." knowing that the day _after_ a Rest Day is when most riders' bodies seem to react strangely. The fact that there was no transition into the high Alps would not have been lost on Armstrong or Johan Bruyneel. Added to that was the nature of the climb - in one sense, it was not a leg-breaker - certainly no pitches of 20%, for example. It was a long, hard climb that Armstrong knew well. With 22 km of climbing, it would favor the high cadence and phenomenal cardiovascular reserves of Armstrong, rather than the sharp vertical accellerations of a bird-boned climber. And we (all) already know that climbs are never a big man's friend, dragging like an anchor behind a rider such as Ullrich. This particular climb negated the strengths of both types of rider. That point surely would not have been lost on Lance. Finally, the team played a tremendous role in creating the heat which destroyed the temper of the other riders. For a long way on the climb, it looked like a Discovery team photo - everyone knew without question what their task was and how to work together. When 5 other rides on the same squad are at the head of events, and the lead riders of most of the other teams have begun to seeing smoke come up from under their cowlings it should be clear the quality on the Discovery team - both of the individual riders and their clear minded preparations for this Tour. ----- It's said you don't get any free pedal strokes in a race like this - you pay for every effort made. You won't get two more clear examples of this than from the finishes of Jens Voigt and Alexandre Vinokourov. Vino's result was discussed above, but it was difficult watching (and then only hearing, as the cameras had moved on) Voigt's slow implosion. As one of the most aggressive and powerful riders in the peleton, he'll certainly recover. But, it was instructive to see how fast the boiler lost steam at the end. ----- The landscape of challengers has shifted demonstrably. Michael Rasmussen cannot be described as a "revelation" of the Tour, but it is quite gratifying to see this accomplished athlete have things begin to fall in place for him. He's frighteningly thin on the bike - almost frail-seeming, but he can move along at frightening speeds, even on the flats. If he can keep alongside the attacking Armstrong, he may find himself showing off his Polka-Dot Jersey as he stands on the podium for a high finish. He does seem to lack a strong time-trialing ability, managing only to scratch out a 174th place finish in Stage 1 this year, just ahead of Iban Mayo and 3:14 behind the now-retired David Zabriske. Perhaps a bit more concerning is Alejandro Valverde. He's alternately described as a sprinter who can climb and a climber who can sprint. Definitely not a Boonen/Hushovd/Backsted/McEwen level fast-boy, he nonetheless can put on a good turn of speed when required. He also managed a respectible 82nd in Stage 1, so he's not abysmal in the Time Trial discipline. He won two stages in his first Vuelta A Espana in 2003, finished 8th overall. In last year's Vuelta, he dropped down to finish 14th overall, after a reasonably poor Time Trial on the final stage. But for a young rider to push with as much confidence as he showed today, he's got form and fire... It was also encouraging to see Leipheimer rise from the flames to finish well today. Harder climbs suit him well, and it seemed that once he shook the dust off, he improved as the climb continued. Ivan Basso may be suffering from a few too many days in this year's Giro. But, as with Ullrich, I wouldn't count him out just yet - there's plenty of climbing and racing to come over the next weeks. It's a long, long race and everything will happen. Thanks for reading! -- Jim ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 13 16:56:27 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 10:56:27 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 11 - Courchevel - Briancon Message-ID: <200507131556.j6DFuRg29672@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 11 - Courchevel - Briancon - 173 km Another day of potential damage and probable pain in high altitude. Armstrong will wear his 72nd Yellow Jersey as the day begins deceptively easily, heading downhill from the city of Courchevel to climb the first Haute Categorie climb of the Tour - the Col de la Madeleine, then a one-two pummeling of the Cat 1 Col du Telegraphe and the HC Col du Galibier. Though the potential for more wreckage is great, the finish sits another 40 km beyond in Briacon, at the end of a potentially rider-collecting downhill. Again in the mountains. What the legs must feel like today for these riders. But, nature does what what it can to assist, providing a beautiful sunny day and a downhill start. Two riders decided that all sounds good enough to try to leverage a bit of time and rsults, so Credit Agricole's Thor Hushovd and Ag2R's Sammy Dumoulin - truly a Mutt and Jeff pair - have moved out to a 5 minute lead. The Tour continues to test Tom Boonen, as the Quick-Step rider whapped the roadway on the downhill which began right at the start. Though a bit shaken, the Green Jersey holder regained the field after a bit of hard descending. Dario Frigo has not started the day. Though there's been no official announcement or confirmation about this by the Tour Organizers, reports have said that his wife was arrested at the border with illegal substances in her. Frigo has been taken into custody by the French police. Discovery appears at the head of events, showing their strong presence as they enjoy the last of the level ground. Phonak rider Oscar Pereiro pops away with Credit Agricole's Pietro Caucchioli trying to chase. They move off from the bunch a bit. At the head of the race, now firmly on the climb of the Col du Madelaine, Hushovd has left his break partner cleanly in his wake. At the base of the first climb, the sprinter's pair had edged out to a nearly 7 minute lead. More Phonak jerseys appear to the front of the peleton and a second breakaway moves away to join the move started by Periero. This time Phonak's Santiago Botero pulls out with Liberty Seguros' Roberto Heras, a continually strengthening Chris Horner from Saunier Duval and none other than T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokourov. Other riders swell this second bunch a bit as some of larger or more sore riders drift back among the team cars. They stretch out a lead of at least a minute. Another dangerous rider in this break is Illes Baleares' Francesco Mancebo. Egoi Martinez from Euskatel-Euskadi rounds out the escapees. Ag2R's Jean-Patrick Nazon has abandoned on the road today. Unlike most the image of most mountain stages, the now-lone breakaway rider Hushovd towers over those who have massed on the roadway of the climb. This massive rider is in the hunt for the 6 sprint points which lie after this first climb, and if he gets them, he'll pull on Green Points Jersey at the end of the day. The break which chases him has the potential to be dangerous, containing both challengers and quality climbers. With Mancebo in the breakaway, Armstrong cannot afford to allow them to get too far out of sight. The Discovery-led peleton remains reasonably large. For some reason Alejandro Valverde drifts back to the doctor's car. Though his pedalling style remains easy, he spends a bit of time speaking with the doctor, who digs into his bag, finds a pill and a bottle of something or another. Maybe a headache or a slightly upset stomach, but the Illes Baleares rider who took over the White Best Young Rider Jersey with his phenomenal efforts yesterday seems to be reasonably content again. Up ahead, Roberto Heras finds himself adrift from the break bunch. Though he'd been setting the pace earlier, he's switched off the power now and pedals lumpily. The steady attrition continues to follow behind Armstrong and the boys in (light) blue. One or two riders always seem to be drifting back as the Discovery team keeps the climbers' group within a minute and a half. At the head of events Hushovd is now caught and smartly passed by the thinned group. The devil appears next to Hushovd - oddly wearing green today. No explanation has been provided for the change in chromatic expression. Liquigas rider Stephano Garzelli finds mold and dry rot has crept into his legs. After spending much of the climb right behind Armstrong, he's made the long hiss of a deflating balloon and gone backwards. Hushovd siezes on a slightly less brutal pitch to claw back to the climbers' lead group. Vinokourov continues to animate the pace, shifting back up to the large chainring as their number swells back to eight. The former eighth rider - Heras - has continued his tumble through the peleton and now is adrift among the team cars. Not enough of the right kind of miles or some kind of caloric bonk for this climbing specialist. Either that or he's realized that the impending closure by Discovery means that any effort will go to naught. As we speak, the break gap has been reduced to under 40 seconds on this 25 km climb. We're up near the 2000 meter crest of this climb, and the Armstrong-led "peleton" has been diminished to about 30 riders. Mancebo and Horner pedal a bit less confidently and drift back as Discovery roll up. Again Discovery have 5 teammates positioned at the front. With about 2 km's to the summit, Periero and Vinokourov have paired to leave the other break members behind, although Botero scrapes up some Columbian courage and reattaches. It seems like the Armstrong group has a three T-Mobile riders along with them; Jan Ullrich, Andreas Kloden and possibly Guiseppe Guerini. The cartoon colors of Phonak surf in the wake of Vinokourov until Botero takes it to his head to snag the KoM points. About 45 seconds behind, Michael Rasmussen marks Credit Agricole's Christophe Moreau, but then lets him surge ahead to take a few more points int he cimbing competition. Everyone that matters begins to head downhill, jerseys zipped back up and a healthy 20 km descent before them. Periero decides to take the scenic route and drifts a bit wide on a turn. Then he drifts wider. Wider. Poof! He heads onto the soft looking grasses and then disappears from sight down an embankment. No bad outcome from this as the Phonak rider exits the meadow and tries to shake that experience form his thoughts. Orangeman Martinez has made his way across the gap and now sets the pace down the mountian. Periero too has put himself back up front. Vinokourov remains just off the set of three, seeming to prefer a bit of air before him as they streak downward. Other riders have thrown out any caution they may have possesed and have used gravity to put them in touch with the swelling peleton. They have remained reasonably conservative on the descent, and the gap has edged back out 1:15. The quartet has hit the feed zone now and they slalom to find their soigneurs and haphazardly stuff their pockets before the next climbing begins. Hushovd has tucked himself back into the peleton, perhaps with designs on the sprint point that sits in the valley of the Morien. Well, it's roughly the time at which I normally begin watching the coverage. Light begins creeping more fully into the sky and more Peets coffee finds its way into my cup. The 5:30 EDT start to the coverage means a 3:30 nudge on the west coast. A closeup of Lance's bike shows that he uses the wieght-saving setup of a downtube shifter for the front deraileur. Another glimpse of the peleton shows that T-Mobile rider Matthias Kessler wears his number - 13 - upside down. Wonder if that has to do with a superstition to reverse the "bad luck" of the number. Armstrong drifts back shifting and resetting his left shoe. The Armstrong group has not grown all that much since they came off the mountain. It still seems to consist of 35 - 40 riders. Vinokourov gets six seconds the easy way as he floats first through the Sprint point for the day. The Col du Telegraph and the high point of the Tour in the form of the Col du Galibier lie immediately ahead. Discovery riders form for another team photo at the front of the bunch, stretched and ready for the next big push. With the roadway now pitching upward again, Martinez immediately becomes unhooked and falls away from the Phonak-Vino-Phonak sandwich. Quickly, they decide on an open-face sandwich, as some accellerations by Periero neatly slice off Botero. The climb essentially stair-steps up to the 2645 meter high point of the Galibier. Six Discovery teammates set steady pace on the beginning of the climbing. Botero bungees back up to the front again to create the climbing troika. Paolo Salvodelli dips back in the bunch to ferry bottles up to the Discovery boys. It could be said that if you are able to use the winner of the Giro D'Italia as a domestique, you might have a fairly strong team. Fasso Bortolo climber Kim Kirchen drops the flag for Luxembourg and abandons today. Quick-Step's Stephano Zanini also pulls over and says "good night". The threesome out front continues to eke out a lead, stretching things out to nearly 3 minutes on this easier climb of the Telegraph. They move hard up to the summit, Botero again moving ahead to take KoM points. Ninnies with national flags run in front of the Armstrong bunch before Rasmussen and Moreau again cross swords for the 4th place points. Rasmussen turns around to make sure they've gapped the bunch, and then turns off the gas to let Moreau nip it again. A quick descent and back onto the climb for the leading three - this time 18 km at just under 7% to reach the Henri Desgrange Memorial - the floating point of honor in each year's race which marks the high point reached each year. The first rider to reach this point pockets somewhere around $6000US in extra cash. They start the climb 3:30 in front of the Armstrong group. Suprisingly, Periero pops quickly off the back as Botero finds his rythmn to match Vinokourov's efforts. Basque rider Iban Mayo bobbles off the back of the Discovery-led chase group. Six teammates still pulse along at the front of events, tightening the gap down to 3:09. Manuel Beltran has reached the end of his extension cord and the motor clicks off. Vinokourov has decided to go it alone, leaving Botero behind as the climb continues. Smartly turning over a low gear, he looks well within himself and seems to accellerate in his Khazakstan National Jersey. Periero now has fallen away by 15 seconds or so, while Botero is more than a minute and a half behind. This seems to catch Armstrong's attention, and there is a subtle increase in pace. Ullrich rises up out of the saddle briefly, but he's still holding onto the wheel of the Yellow Jersey. Kloden and Guerini have drifted back within the group. Vinokourov still punches along in his stocky style rising out of the saddle when he feels he needsd a little extra push, while behind him the chase has stretched to a long thin line. This stage recalls the ill-fated stage to Gap, when Vinokourov managed to gain a lead and streaked through the dangerous downhill finish for a stage win. Of course, that ended badly for Joseba Beloki... Periero is alone no longer as he is swept up by the Discovery pacemakers on a switchback. He then continues dropping back. With 5 km to go, Chris Horner has become unhooked from the bunch. Gerolsteiner co-leaders Georg Totschnig turns his ears inside out to stay attached, mentally glued to the rear wheel of Andreas Kloden. Within a few minutes, the positions are reversed and the T-Mobile rider searches for a gear that may no longer be there. Vino holds 39 seconds over Botero, who continues to seem as if he's locked into a wrestling match with his handlebars. 2:50 behind, big George Hincapie sets the chase pace. Again this versatile and talented rider has succesfully made the shift from Spring Classics rider to climb pacemaker in July. Still the switchbacks continue to unfold in front of the riders. Some clever fellah has decided to mark the arrival of the race by setting off fireworks - probably because there's so much extra oxygen near the summit of this 8,000 foot plus summit. Rabbit costume sighting among the spectators. It does look better than the profusion of Yellow umbrella hats. Now a lion and a leopard costume. The thick crowds push in on Vinokourov as he heads up to teh summit. Thankfully, the barriers finally appear followed quickly by the line at the KoM banner, winning the Desgrange special prize. Down the mountain, Rasmussen has hit the gass and accellerated away from the Armstrong bunch. They do not seem too concerned - the Rabobank rider must have cleared it with Armstrong. Botero kicks over the top of the climb a solid 45 seconds back Rasmussen moves well up the roadway, eyeing maximum climbing points. The points factor higher on more difficult climbs, so he will take more on this HC summit. I wonder if Armstrong will use the descending skills of Salvoldelli to put the lackluster descender Ullrich under pressure. Although once down from the summit, it's more of a simple no-brakes runout to town. Rasmussen over in third place 2:24 behind. Moreau leads through as the best of the rest (including Armstrong) trail the leader by 2:42. The congealed first survivor group which includes Kloden scoots over at 3:18 The first part of the descent is fairly tricky, and riders stretch out on the guard-railless descent. Botero drops like a stone as Vino takes a bit more conservative approach. (Though as you get a sense of the speed from the moto cameras, conservative for these riders is an extremely relative term.) But the Columbian rider evaporates the 45 second gap and joins Vinokourov. T-Mobile invisible man Oscar Sevilla and suffering Roberto Heras finally make their way over the summit, well back off the pace. Botero screams downhill with Vino matching him from a polite gap. They howl under the 20 km to go banner. Cameras a continent away pan across a brace of enthusiasts watching the race a continent away via the jumbotron in Time Square in New York City. I would assume that they can look up and see themselves on the big screen, watching images beamed to France and back to New York. There seems to be a significant amount of reciprocity in this event... Interestingly enough, the last time we finished in Briancon, the stage was taken by none other than Santiago Botero. Hincapie puts the hammer down in what looks like a 30 rider team trial. Four Discovery riders lead Armstrong, who is in turn followed by the Polka-Dotted Rasmussen. Technology slightly conspires against Vinokourov, as his race transponder has come loose and vibrated backwards against his left rear dropout. The little yellow box dangles from two zip-ties and keeps tapping the spokes on the non-drive side of the bicycle. It looks as though there's enough slack to let it catch in the spokes. When we look again, the T-Mobile mechanic earns his pay by leaning out the window of the team car, grabbing the offending bit and clipping the zip ties. All this as the road passes under their wheels at about 40 mph. Just make sure you count your fingers before you put your hands back in your pockets. 8 km to go and the gap has been reduced to 1:52. A ragged echelon forms in what is clearly a healthy crosswind. 5 km to go. Vino keeps shaking his legs to keep them supple for the finish. All this goes on as they continue going faster than you can imagine driving these roads. Botero keeps his head down and perches on the very tip of the saddle, using his time trialing skills to keep things moving. And moving they are - notching 1:04's each for the last two kilometers, roughly 60 kph. Under 1 km to go banner, Botero finds himself at the head of events as they head into the dead straight finish. He eases slightly and hugs the right hand barrier, forcing Vino to come out toward the middle of the road. eh two of them are side by side. Finally Vino punches it and Botero throws a rod int he engine and cannot answer. Vinokourov takes the stage, showing that his form has returned. That also gives him a 20 second time bonus for first place. Discovery leads in the bunch, pace high enough that no one can easily come around them. Hincapie swings off and Armstrong starts a minor move from underneath at the barriers. But, it seems that he feels too many riders around him and eases slightly, allowing Christophe Moreau to get an uncontested third on the day. Meanwhile, riders in the "autobus" are just now cresting the Galibier. They have a good 45 minutes before they can punch their time cards and head to the break rooms. Stage 11 - Results - 1 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - 4:46:38 2 - Santiago Botero - Phonak - s.t. 3 - Chistophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - +1:15 4 - Bobby Julich - CSC - s.t. 5 - Eddie Mazzoleni - Lampre - s.t. 6 - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - s.t. 7 - Cadel Evans - Lotto - s.t. 8 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - s.t. 9 - Michael Rasmussen - Rabobank - s.t. 10 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner - w.t. GC Standings - after 11 Stages MJ - Lance Armstrong - 41:59:57 2 - Michael Rasmussen - +:38 3 - Christophe Moreau - +2:34 4 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +2:40 5 - Alejandro Valverde - Illes Baleares - +:3:16 6 - Santiago Botero - Phonak - +3:47 7 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolstiener - +3:58 8 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Baleares - +4:00 9 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +4:02 10 - Andreas Kloden - T-Mobile - +4:16 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 12 Briancon - Digne-les-Bains 187 km Bastille Day Stages are often the playground of French riders and teams. Such could be the case on this "ripply" stage which does include five ategorized climbs. The topography will tend to prompt an aggressive stage, with short sharp climbs interspersed with a couple early sprint points. The day after will be a fairly flat, and as such this may be the prime moment to gain television time or an escape from the peleton. -- Add your bicycle to the Cyclofiend Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 14 16:36:39 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 10:36:39 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 12 - Briancon - Digne-les-Bains Message-ID: <200507141536.j6EFadg02041@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 12 Briancon - Digne-les-Bains 187 km Bastille Day Stages are often the playground of French riders and teams. Such could be the case on this "ripply" stage which does include five ategorized climbs. The topography will tend to prompt an aggressive stage, with short sharp climbs interspersed with a couple early sprint points. The day after will be a fairly flat, and as such this may be the prime moment to gain television time or an escape from the peleton. Bands play the Marseilles and Phonak finds out exactly how difficult it is to get their hands on a French mechanic on this Most National French Holiday when one of their team cars fails. Team members end up hoisting down their bikes from the roof rack and riding them to the start. I'm not sure that it got mentioned, but Illes Balears rider Alejandro Valverde pulled on the White Jersey of the best placed young rider white jersey after his mountaintop efforts of the other day. Another rider in a new jersey is Thor Hushovd from Credit Agricole. Actually, he is not yet wearing it, but the he is the new owner of the Green Sprint Points Jersey, which slid over to his shoulders when Quick-Step's Tom Boonen did not sign in for the day's stage. In a reasonably startling development, Discovery rider Manuel Beltran abandoned after a hard solo crash. This is the first time that Discovery has lost a rider since Christian Vandevelde, who got banged up during a crash in the rainy Team Time Trial during the 2000 Tour. One of the keys to Discovery/USPS's success has been the ability to keep all of their team members healthy and intact. On the race course today, 13 riders have formed into a break at around the 65 km mark and have stretched their advantage to 3 minutes. Breakaway - Stuart O'Grady - Cofidis Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole Giovanni Lombardi - CSC Sandy Casar - FDJ.com Angel Vicioso - Liberty Seguros Massimo Giunti - Fassa Bortolo Franco Pellizotti - Liquigas Axel Merckx - Lotto Juan Garate - Saunier Duval Jose Luis Arrieta - Illes Balears David Moncoutie - Cofidis Stephan Schreck - T-Mobile Patrice Halgand - Credit Agricole The average speed of the Tour has dropped down to 43.9 kph after the first couple hours of racing today. As there are no riders who are in the hunt for the overall, no strong efforts to chase the group occur. Nicolas Fritsch from Saunier Duval has found the undulations of today's stage not to his liking, pulled up and relinquished his numbers. It was reported last evening had CSC's Jens Voigt finished outside the time limit yesterday, along with Kevin Hulsmans of Quick-Step. Certainly, the popular German rider has paid dearly for the efforts to gain the Yellow Jersey. Enough French teams are represented up the roadway that this could remain a serious breakaway. Almost as soon that sentance gets written, Lotto riders mass at the front, despite the presence of his teammate Merckx in the breakaway. It would seem that Robbie McEwen thinks he feels good enough to be in the mix at the finish, especially since the two sprinters who lie ahead of him in the Green Jersey competition have gone up the roadway. They get little help from the sun-lethargic bunch, and even shoot a few looks at one another as they tap out a higher cadence. Still the break edges out to 4:43 on the climb of the Col du Labouret Robbie Hunter from Phonak has retired from the race today. Despite high hopes, the South African rider never seemed to find his rhythm in this year's Tour. Sandy Casar has decided to kick up his heels a bit, not happy with the dynamics of the breakaway. He decides that if he can get away from O'Grady and Hushovd and they get caught, there won't be an impetus for the big bunch to chase him down. With a solid 50 miles left to go, he'd be best served if another rider could jump up to assist, but no one seems too interested in bridging the gap. Casar continues up the roadway and tucks into position for a long haul....or not, as he shows up back in the break group a few minutes later. Lotto continues to push the chase, Discovery positioned behind them and the Rabobank team masses just behind their blue jerseys, shielded their rider Michael Rasmussen. The gap seems to be holding at 4:15, despite the Lotto efforts. Word comes through that Angelo Furlan of Domina Vacanze has abandoned. The breakaway has slipped into the streets of Digne-les-Bains. They will then head out on a large hilly loop that will bring them back to the finish about 35 miles later. David Moncoutie has made a strong move on the Category 2 Col du Corobin climb. This clips off Hushovd, and even puts O'Grady in a spot of bother. He pairs up with the other sprinter, Giovanni Lombardi and they try to chew up the climb together. Merckx hammers out the pace for the immediate chase group, shadowed by Halgand. Moncoutie sets a nice pace past the 5 km to the summit marker. At the false flat on the climb, he's managed to sneak away by 30 seconds or so. My dog also tests the waters this morning, trying to see if she can talk me into a slightly early feeding. However a good ear skritch and a soft pillow on the couch put her back into snoring mode. The peleton has fallen away to a 6 minute deficit. Cofidis has a nice combination of riders in this move, despite O'Grady's slinking off the back on the climb. If the gang reforms and remains intact at the finish, it will play to the Australian sprinter's strengths. But, Moncoutie's move on this twisting and undulating roadway does have the momentum to perhaps stay away. He hammers through the rising switchbacks and howling French crowds, inspired to gain as much time as possible. Schreck leaves behind his climbing partner Hushovd and accellerates up to the O'Grady/Lombardi pair. Up ahead, Merckx has strongly driven the pace uphill to remain in touch with the move, putting the hurt on all the other riders who still hope to win the stage. Moncoutie begins to negotiate the narrow and in places uneven roadway of the descent. Hushovd hurtles down toward O'Grady's little combo, using all that gravity will give him. He rejoins them to form a sprinter's section, but they are still a half minute behind the screamingly fast descent led by Merckx. A few riders begin drifting off the tail of the peleton as they follow upwards. The main bunch have fallen back to 7 minutes after Lotto shut down their efforts. Discovery keeps things in hand, but seem more to be enjoying the warmer weather that has greeted them today. It could not be confused with a serious chase. Moncoutie has maintained a serious effort however, as he zips under the 20 km to go banner. He holds a gap of 25 seconds on what has suddenly become a long, straight main highway. The chasers rotate quickly through a 7 man paceline. Off the back of the bunch, Liberty Seguros' Roberto Heras finds another way to lose some time, refitting a rear wheel which seems to be misbehaving for one reason or another. After a bit of mechanical dinking around, he remounts while a pacing teammate idles slightly ahead of him to drag him back up. Moncoutie keeps finding new inspiration while the chasers fall away to 30 seconds. The group keeps mucking around, with unhelpful attacks and poor rotations - egos and tactics getting in the way. The only rider who still wants to catch the fleeing Frenchman is Merckx, who takes strong pulls on the wide descent but cannot animate the rest of the bunch. They have not reduced the gap of 28 seconds with 4 km to go. Now 2 km to go, and Moncoutie's lips move in some silent prayer of inspiration. The riders in the chase group must be using much louder words at one another as they spread across the roadway with yards of room between one another. Moncoutie finally takes a final look over his shoulder to make sure no one has snuck in under the radar. He rolls up near the barrier and it finally strikes home that he has made the apprpriate move - he smiles broadly and punctuates his Bastille Day victory with a double two-fisted pump, and holds his belly as though this win has warmed his soul. The sprinters gang heads for the line, Schreck moving way out long to see if he can sneak away, then pulls up hard when he reaizes that 1 kilometer is a long sprint. Then it becomes Lombardi at the front, O'grady right behind him and Hushovd marking the Aussie. Lombardi pulls up and off - perhaps too many years of running the leadout - and O'Grady drives hard for the line, but the big Norwegian smoothly accellerates out of his slipstream and naps it at the line. He will be the first rider from Norway ever to hold the Green Points Jersey. The other riders are still out on the course. Near the 5 km to go banner, Thierry Marachal from Cofidis makes a mild move which reminds everone that there is a race on. With another kilometer under their wheels, the big bunch is a good six and a half minutes in arrears. Robbie McEwen again calls his Lotto boys to the front, this time with a clear goal. Without Boonen in the race, the sprint points which remain coiuld make a difference by the time everyone reaches Paris. They circumnavigate a large roundabout, and pipe into the final kilometer. McEwen has notched into fifth place, paying extreme attention to other riders nudging elbows. His teammate, former US Champion Freddy Rodriguez ramps it up to hyperdrive suddenly and the only rider who can accellerate beyond his speed is McEwen, who handly takes the bunch sprint for 14th place. The three French riders in the breakaway ended up in the top four places on the stage. The tactical dueling at the end let Moncoutie edge out to almost a full minute. Despite the early reports that Beltran retired with a sore knee, Johan Bruyneel explains that he had actually landed hard on his noggin. Sitting dazed on the roadway for a while, Beltran had no power and after a few minutes riding little recollection of the fact he had crashed. Concerned for the rider's well-being, the Race Doctor conferred with Bruyneel and they pulled his numbers and sent him to the hospital in Gap. Reportedly, he is OK, but will remain under observation overnight. Both Armstrong and Bryuneel are concerned with the loss of the gifted climber, and the load will shift to the other members of the Discovery squad. Stage 12 Results - 1 - David Moncoutie - Cofidis - 4:20:06 2 - Sandy Casar - FDJ.com - +:57 3 - Angel Vicioso - Liberty Seguros - s.t. 4 - Patrice Halgand - Credit Agricole - s.t. 5 - Manuel Arrietta - Illes Balears - s.t. 6 - Franco Pellizotti - Liquigas - s.t. 7 - Axel Merckx - Lotto - s.t. 8 - Juan Garate - Saunier Duval - s.t. 9 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole - +3:15 10 - Stuart O'Grady - Cofidis - s.t. GC - After 12 Stages Armstrong puts on his 74th Yellow Jersey of his career. If he can hold the jersey for 5 days, he will move ahead of Bernard Hinaut's mark. MJ - Lance Armstrong - 46:30:36 2 - Michael Rasmussen - +:38 3 - Christophe Moreau - +2:34 4 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +2:40 5 - Alejandro Valverde - Illes Baleares - +:3:16 6 - Santiago Botero - Phonak - +3:47 7 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolstiener - +3:58 8 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Baleares - +4:00 9 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +4:02 10 - Andreas Kloden - T-Mobile - +4:16 Thor Hushovd goes into the record book with his fancy Green Points Jersey. The big Norwegian rider beams with confidence in this hard- fought jersey. Richard Virenque, who holds the Tour Record of 7 KoM Jerseys presents Michael Rasmussen his daily dots. Virenque, now retired from racing, look like he's allowed himself a dessert or two since hanging up his cleats. Alejandro Valverde maintains his White Best Young Rider Jersey again today. A strong climber, look for him to animate things this weekend. Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 13 - Miramas - Montpellier 173 km After a short little climb at the 26 km mark, wind and traffic islands will be the only imepediments. Flat, flat and more flat should play to the teams of the sprinters. -- Please visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 15 16:44:50 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 10:44:50 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 13 - Miramas - Montpellier Message-ID: <200507151544.j6FFiog10173@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 13 - Miramas - Montpellier 173 km After a short little climb at the 26 km mark, wind and traffic islands will be the only imepediments. Flat, flat and more flat should play to the teams of the sprinters. The day unfolds hot and a bit windy. The race is beginning to take its toll on the announcing team as well. They start the day with a series of giddy tangents. An odd animation which ends up with a plastic Bob Roll covered in mayonnaise as part of a sandwich should give you an idea of how bizarre things have gotten. 35 Sprint points are on the line today, the maximum amount available. A win could push Lotto's Robbie McEwen into Green, if Thor Hushovd gets separated before the the finish. Not a likely scenario, and as always, there are points for 2nd place on down. Easy and sunny exodus from the Miramas. 162 riders start the day. 6 of 21 teams are intact. Lotto At 22 km, a breakaway forms and accellerates away: Thomas Voeckler - Bouygues Telecom Chris Horner - Saunier Duval Carlos Da Cruz - FDJ.com Ludovic Turpin - Ag2R Juan Antonio Flecha - Fassa Bortolo Within a short order, they've squeezed out a 9 minute gap. This amount of time wakes up the Lotto squad who start getting after things. Their pacemaking cuts the time down to under 7 minutes. The Lampre squad has also dug in to assist with the pull-back. As the riders go through the feed zone, Alejandro Valverde of Illes Balears slow-pedals all alone. The word has come over race radio that he will be abandoning. His continuing tendonitits from his knee has finally caught up with him. Cleverly, he pulls a 180 degree turn and escapes the bulk of the press corps. They catch up with him at the team car, where his numbers are removed as he keeps his glasses on to hide rapidly moistening eyes. His White Jersey moves virtually to the shoulders of Discovery's Yaraslav Popovych As long as we're talking about knee issues, word has also come through that Quick-Step's Tom Boonen, who had already abandoned with a badly swollen knee, should be back to training after only a few days rest. He's now set his sights on the World Championships later this year in Spain, which will tend to favor a sprinter. The strung-out peleton has been brought back to about 4:34, Lotto still hammering things along with the the assistance of Lampre. American Chris Horner sits in 28th overall today, and has remained no more than 15:22 behind Armstrong. After breaking his leg in an early season race this year, he has brought his form back on well, winning a stage in the Tour of Switzerland. The pace has remained quite high today - steadily in the neighborhood of 32 mph. The break members have all continued digging in, taking short, sharp pulls to try to hold their lead. But, the hard-charging bunch has pulled within 3:45. It will be interesting to see what happens if they do snag the 5 escapees, as there is bound to be a series of jumps which will be hard to control with only 4 Lotto riders. Lotto of course does still have 7 members, but won't sacrifice Cadel Evans, who is positioned well going into the climbs of the Pyrenees, Freddy Rodriguez, the former US National Champ who is the leadout man of Robbie McEwen, who they expect to take the stage. 54 km to go and the gap still remains above 2 minutes. The speed in the peleton has remained above 50 kph for the past miles. They encounter a bit more of a crosswind and have echeloned across the roadway - the lead rider on the hard left gutter of the roadway as his accomplices string along slightly to his right and back. 47 km and a gap of exactly 2 minutes. 36 km with the gap now down to 1:15 Quickly the bunch lags by only a minute. The dreadful countdown continues, with the chasers drawing a bead on the helicopter which hovers above the lead bunch. More frequently now, the chasers can see them up the wide roadway. At least a few riders among the peleton are now calculating their attack effort once the bunch has been absorbed. Voeckler stretches a bit at the back of the break group. He's opted out of a couple pulls, but it's hard to believe that he's planning a break. It looks more like he's wrapping his mind around the inevitable. Wisely, the Lotto squad let them dangle in the breeze now that they've closed to under a minute. If they can delay the actual catch, it will simplify their control of the impending attacks. 25 km to go banner and the gap is :45. Servais Knaven pips away from the bunch and gains some ground. The Quick-Step rider uses the speed that won him Paris-Roubaix in 2001 and the canny tactical sense of a Dutch rider that tells him to go. He's a strong enough rider to make move like this work, as the lead five pass under the 20 km to go banner. However, Knaven cannot hold the screamingly fast pace necesary to outdistance the pack, and he throttles back and gets caught. Discovery now finds themselves leading the chase with about 13 km to go. More than likely, they have taken over the pacemaking to keep the speed fast enough to discourage attacks. Sylvan Chavanel takes his try, almost touching wheels with the photo moto on a hard left hand turn. Chavanel reaches the breakawy bunch and then howls immediately past them. His efforts pump the escapes lead back out to 16 seconds as they immediately animate to chase him down. Once back together, they hesitate and begin the unhelpful dinking around. Voeckler tries a move, but finds marshmellow muscles. Chavanel takes a quick couple breaths and goes again, this time instantly snapping the elastic and going clear. Horner animates and fires away to nab the Frenchman's rear wheel. They work together and trade pulls to move away. Somehow Horner keeps finding more energy, showing new chapters of pain as they hit an incline into town. The main field has gotten a little puffy, with the gap from them to the escape pair reaching toward 25 seconds. Comesso now realizes things are not working well and he moves hard, chased by a Domina Vacanze rider. But, the peleton follows his efforts and finally closes down the other remnants of the break. More little attacks and pulses get things daffy in the big bunch as the gap closes to 18 seconds. 5 km to go now, Horner takes a glance backwards as Discovery regains the head of events. The pair remains just out of sight of the Hincapie-led bunch. 15 second gap. Chavanel now glances back as they swing around a turn with the 3 km to go banner. Now only 12 seconds. The pair pass under the 1 km to go banner, but they have no time to play any games as the entire bunch keeps increasing their speed. The pelton howls after them. Horner trails Chavanel in a good position for tactical moves, but it may not matter - Liquigas hammers to position their big sprinter Magnus Backsted and every other team with a fast boy has the same idea. There are enough turns that they may not be able to keep their speed up. But they are closing extremely fast! Now Horner goes and its' too late - he comes around Chavanel and breaks for the line, he would be in great shape if not for the streaking speed of Freddy Rodriguez, who rockets past him and launches McEwen for the line. More riders move past and Rodriguez keeps his speed high to eclipse finish points for Thor Hushovd, who is moving hard but has to negotiate the slower breakaway pair. McEwen easily outdistances all chasers, and although he edges slightly in front of Stuart O'Grady. Rodriquez hangs on for third and Hushovd hangs on for fifth place. Horner's momentum puts him across the line in 10th. Other than a bit of a shift with the departure of Valverde, no changes with the overall. Levi Leipheimer moves up into 6th while Floyd Landis finds himself in the top ten now. Stage 13 - Results 1 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto - 3:43:14 2 - Stuart O'Grady - Cofidis 3 - Fred Rodriguez - Lotto 4 - Guido Trenti - Quick-Step 5 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole - 6 - Anthony Geslin - Bouygues Telecom 7 - Robert Forster - Gerolsteiner 8 - Magnus Backsted - Liquigas 9 - Gianluca Bortolami - Lampre 10 - Chris Horner - Saunier Duval All riders s.t. GC Standings after 13 Stages: MJ - Lance Armstrong - 50:13:50 2 - Michael Rasmussen - +:38 3 - Christophe Moreau - +2:34 4 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +2:40 5 - Santiago Botero - Phonak - +3:48 6 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolstiener - +3:58 7 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Baleares - +4:00 8 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +4:02 9 - Andreas Kloden - T-Mobile - +4:16 10 - Floyd Landis - Phonak - +4:16 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 14 Agde - AX-3 Domaines 220 km A long, hard day in the Pyrenees. Obviously a longer stage, but this will be toughened by the heat and hilly roads of the region. After that preamble (hilly meaning four categorized climbs in addition to the undulations), the riders take on the serious climbs - steeper and nastier than anything they've dealt with so far this Tour. They will negotiate the 2000 meter tall Port de Pailheres (15.2 km at 8% average) and then head up to the finish at AX-3 Domaines (9.1 km at 7.3%)The final 30 km of this stage will be a cooker. -- Visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 16 17:14:48 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:14:48 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 14 - Agde - Ax-3 Domaines Message-ID: <200507161614.j6GGEmg21863@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 14 Agde - AX-3 Domaines 220 km A long, hard day in the Pyrenees. Obviously a longer stage, but this will be toughened by the heat and hilly roads of the region. After that preamble (hilly meaning four categorized climbs in addition to the undulations), the riders take on the serious climbs - steeper and nastier than anything they've dealt with so far this Tour. They will negotiate the 2000 meter tall Port de Pailheres (15.2 km at 8% average) and then head up to the finish at AX-3 Domaines (9.1 km at 7.3%)The final 30 km of this stage will be a cooker. Very, very hot today. A bit too warm for Gerben Lowik of Rabobank, who's DNS drops the rider count to 160 at the start line. The climbing stage begins with sprints, and Carlos Da Cruz of FDJ.com leads teammate Phillipe Gilbert and Domina Vacanze's Andriy Grivko through the first one. He repeats at the second sprint point, but before he can celebrate too much a breakaway moves out in anticipation of the smaller climbs on the day. Before you can say "Bobs your uncle", Yuri Krivstov of Ag2R nicks the first mountain points, followed by Liquigas' Stephano Garzelli and Bouygues Telecom's Walter Beneteau. But the Pyrenees bring out the Spanish pride, and Juan Garate sorts out his timing in the breakaway bunch and flies his Spanish National Champion Jersey colors first over all the rest of the early climbs These efforts lead to an early average speed of 44 kph, or 27.6 mph in old money. The break has 10 riders who have distanced themselves from the bunch, and hold somewhere around 9 minutes lead in front of the peleton. Euskatel-Euskadi works to remind folks that they are still in the race, appearing in their orange jerseys to try closing down the break as they ride nearer their home country. The peleton courses up the tightly forested valley which begins the climb up to the Hors Categorie Port de Pailheres. They look forward to 15 km of 8% in the oppressive heat. It's interesting to note that this climb had been categorized as a Category 1 (less than HC) climb when it was first used in 2003, but has been bumped up in the rankings. The roads at the summit are so narrow that they've actualy diverted the race caravan - the parade which includes European equivilents of the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile tossing tchotchkes out to the crowds - so they do not have to potentially skid and stall on the climb. The break includes: Danielle Nardello - T-Mobile Alexandre Moos - Phonak Juan Garate - Saunier Duval Walter Beneteau - Bouygues Telecom Georg Totschnig - Gerolstiener Carlos Da Cruz - FDJ.com Philippe Gilbert - FDJ.com Yuri Krivtsov - Ag2R Andriy Grivko - Domina Vacanze Stephano Garzelli - Liquigas, who is enjoying his birthday today. and they still hold a 9:22 lead. Bradley McGee suffering on the first pitches of the climb of the Pailhere, back among the team cars and asking for a large helium baloon to tie to his bike. Garate leads on the initial inclines forcing the pace a bit and then he sits contentedly with the rest. Alexander Moos moves off the front to attack the climb, perhaps to become a carrot for a later attack by teammate Floyd Landis. This causes a bit of a selection, as those who were born with the hollow bones slide away from those with more normal physiology. Now Nardello, Garate, Totschnig and Garzelli move along together, wondering if they can stay away form any serious fights which might develop behind them. Speaking of fights in the bunch, T-Mobile has appeared at the front of the peleton, driving the pace hard to try to put the pressure onto Armstrong. They string things out as if it were a sprint stage, riders peeling off as they tap out their tank. They clearly go hard enough to put the hurt on. Large quantities of riders find themselves off the back and painfully reassessing their choice of employment. Ullrich's boys Guiseppe Guerini and Alexandre Vinokourov drive the pace. Clear gaps occur behind and Ullrich remains attached to his pace makers. The T-Mobile threesome are clear of the rest of the bunch. Armstrong watches for a bit, looks around to see if anyone else wants to cover it, then decides this is a serious attack and begins grinding out a stong cadence. He now leads what is now the chase as Vinokourov eases back. They had moved extremely hard to gain ground on Armstrong. But, he moves swiftly up and joints them. A little less smoothly and a bit slower, a group of awakened climbers now slink up to join them. Serious spoonfuls of pain are being ladeled out already. Ullrich is at the head of a group of 9 riders. They have isolated Armstrong in this bunch, but the severed Discovery riders steadily work to rejoin. Popovych is evident in his White Best Young Rider jersey, but there does seem to be a dearth of Disco-boys about... Vinokourov goes again,followed by Basso. Vino drops away from an increase in pace by the CSC rider. Ullrich moves up to Basso and Andrey Kashechkin of Credit Agricole joins them to create an escaping group of four who edge out to 8 or 9 seconds. Lance lags, but does not appear to be in trouble. Metering his efforts? Tomorrow's stage will be a ripper, so perhaps he's being a bit careful. Rassmussen takes a look back and decides he should be up the roadway and pumps away. Now Armstrong animates his efforts and they reach to Rassmussen. Mancebo now accellerates. Armstrong moves up and then makes a serious effort, closing the gap in short order. Vinokourov has drifted back into the gap as Rassmussen and Mancebo move up. Vino may be paying a bit for his early accelleations. Cadel Evans of Lotto has remained involved, following in a group with Rasmussen, Landis and a struggling Vinokourov. At the lead of the "heads of state", Ivan Basso ticks along with a comfortable cadence, Ullrich following him with Armstrong following along. Riders keep pulsing and then dropping back when the 8% or steeper grades stab them in the thighs. Now Vinokourov drifts away for real as Floyd Landis reattaches to the group. Gerolsteiner/Santa Rosa homeboy Levi Leipheimer struggles to come back on terms. Stragglers litter the roadway of the climb, and because of the switchbacks, the steepness and the ultimately limited number of cameras, disappear from sight. Beleive it or not, there are still a different set of riders leading the race - Garzelli and Totschng still move along 4 or 5 minutes ahead of all these crazy attacks. Basso sets the pace for Ullrich, Landis and Armstrong. Evans and Kashechkin could not stay attached and twiddle back a bit, wondering who put the butter in their legs.Strategic plans of T-Mobile aside, one occurence has been to put Rasmussen into trouble. He's drifted behind the Armstrong by about a half a minute. Strategically, this is doing exactly what Lance wants. At the head of the race, Totschnig pops the caps off his teeth and puts a gap on Garzelli, who pours water over his head and tries to fight back onto his wheel. Garzelli dangles behind the accellerating German. The chasing quartet swells a bit as Leipheimer attaches to the group. >From the other direction Alexandre Moos and Danielle Nardello manage to hold on as they drop back from the original breakaway. Nardello immediately takes to the front and paces Ullrich on the climb. The chasing groups negoiate the narrowing roads - almost not enough room for team cars to slip past. Vino and Kashechkin continue struggling to stick with the Rasmussen group. Ok, I'm confused...That's a whole bunch of racing, chasing and blowing up...To clarify who is where right now: Totschnig remains off the front Garzelli chases solo about 30 seconds back Beneteau hovers behind him. Maybe a minute or two in arrears Armstrong, Ullrich, Basso, Landis and Leipiheimer (although Garate has drifted back to join them, but doesn't look like he's going to hold on) roughly 4:15 behind. Rassmussen, and slightly lumpy-looking Kloden hover almost exactly a minute behind Armstrong. Totschnig moves between hordes of flag-waving and "allez!" or "Venga!"-ing spectators. Orange t-shirts begin showing in bigger numbers as the Basque fans begin to populate the side of the roadways. He's into the barriers that straddle the KoM stripe on the roadway, and then blessed relief of downhill awaits. Armstrong seems well within himself as he marks the others in his five person group. Some insane fan in a puffy white jump suit runs alongside the bunch with dumber cousins waving flags on either side. Moos tumbles backwards through the second climbing group, 52 seconds behind right now. Rasmussen, Zubeldia and Kloden move along, having left Vinokourov to his own devices. The Armstrong bunch hits the top of the climb and begin the steep downhill. As they go down the switchbacks, Armstrong drifts easily back to the team car and takes on water and food from the hand of Team Sportif Johan Bruyneel. No reason to do something stupid today. Rasmussen does manage to net some Polka-Dot Jersey points as he pushes through the high point of the day's stage. Totschnig forgets that he has brakes as he tries to carry every possible second to the final climb. He must wonder whether he can stay away if the attacks begin again behind him. Downhill we continue, riders pulling their shorts inside out to regain the Armstrong bunch. The group continues to addd riders back on, but has fallen to 4:18 behind the hard-charging Totschnig, who is followed still by the inspired Garzelli and the all-but-invisible-to-the-cameras Walter Beneteau. Vinokourov has been testing the adhesion of his tires all the way down the mountain, but he has to work harder to close that last little bit to the Armstrong bunch. He finally rejoins the group as they all lean their bikes hard over into repetitive switchbacks. Armstrong sits at the back of the 11 strong group. As the roads flatten for a few seconds at the base of the climb, Vinokourov again hits the bunch, gapping them as he heads out of the town and onto the first parts of the climb. Strangley, Kloden ramps up the pace and immediately closes the gap to .... his teammate?.... now _that's_ some bizarre planning. Vino dumps out the back inbshort order and a selection occurs again, with Kloden leading the bunch, Ullrich glued to his rear wheel, followed by Landis, Basso, Armstrong and Leipheimer. They aren't quite separating the others, but they don't quite to be straining as much as those who now populate the back to the group. Haimar Zubeldia of Euskatel-Euskadi and Polka-boy Rassmussen are throwing their elbows out a bit to stay stuck. Zubeldia drifts back, looking like a salty toothless man as he can no longer hold the pace. Basso hikes up his chamois and accellerates a bit. Ullrich & Armstrong follow immediately, while the other two Americans founder for a second and a small gap appears, hovers, then is closed. Kloden, Mancebo and Rasmussen cannot stay attached any longer and they form a slightly less speedy climbing bunch. The lead bunch sweep up to Beneteau who is all teeth,cheekbones and punishment as he tries to suck in more air. He fails and falls away. Leipheimer now realizes he doesn't quite have the gumption. Landis now gets the wobbly knees and fades back. Basso and Armstrong spur one another while Ullrich waves back and forth between their wheels. 5 km to go for Totschnig, who holds somewhere around three and a half minutes over the Armstrong group. Armstrong kicks up on the inside of the switchback, accellerates slightly and smoothly while they pass under the 5 km to go banner. Armstrong takes a hard look as Ullrich and drifts to the back of the trio for more assessment. I wonder if they've analyzed the images of Jan to see if he has a "tell" - a vein that stands out on his calf or a slight dropping of his left heel on the top of the pedal stroke - that indicates he may be pushing just that much too much... Garzelli finds himself a member of the Armstrong group, but quickly finds that the dues in this club are fairly steep. Klenden struggles and begins to taste his morning muffins, but can not match the smoother tempo of the two climbers, Rasmussen and Mancebo. 4 km to go on the stage, with Totschnig only 2:10 in front. He's in a world of pain as the road monkeys run alongside with their unintelligible chatter and yammering. Armstrong fires along with the beautiful high cadence that has become his trademark, with Ullrich a noticeable few beats below him in his big kachunga gears. The 3 km to go banner flies overhead of them, only 1:50 behind the sole remaining leader. But, Totschnig runs under the 2 km banner at almost the same moment, and though I hesitate to say it, things begin to look good for him. The KoM point is actaully a kilometer to go, so he should be able to stay away as things flatten slightly over the final bits of this stage. Ullrich again drives hard, or at least looks like he's driving hard. Armstrong rises out of the saddle as they negotiate the continuing ninnified crowds. Armstrong picks up the pace as they finally gain the protection of the barriers. Ullrich looks to be struggling slightly and he suddenly falls away as Armstrong lights the afterburners. Basso marks him, seated and spinning, but clearly able to only follow. Armstrong swings slightly wide on the outside of a switchback and looks back to observe the effects of his smooth accelleration. Open water and Ullrich is not on the same bit of roadway. Up ahead, Totschnig strangles the drops and finds hiselv out and away, crossing the line howling with happiness. He'll probably get dinged for forgetting to zip up his jersey, but as he weeps and whoops with emotion and has to be held upright on his now-failing legs, it just doesn't matter. Now Armstrong sprints away from Basso, driving to the line. He neatly gaps Basso and takes the 12 second bonus for second place, driving Rasmussen a few more seconds behind him and stamping his authority on the stage. Ullrich rolls through about 15 seconds back, while another 15 seconds comes the American pair of Landis/Leipheimer, which forgive me, sounds like a law firm... Rasmussen finds himself about 45 seconds worse off than when he began the day, Mancebo leading him to the line. The parade of riders will easily continue for another half an hour. One question which does come to mind is of course, "where were the Discovery boys?" Hopefully, they were focused on maintaining energy for what will be an incredibly hard stage tomorrow. We shall see. An emotional Totschnig has propped himself up off of the road and accepts the trophy and bouquet. He seems reluctant to come down off the top step, looks at it one more time to fix it forever in his mind, and steps over to shake hands with Bernard Hinault and the dignitaries who populate stage right of the inflatable clamshell which serves as the backdrop to the proceedings. Stage 14 - Results - 1 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolstiener - 5:43:43 2 - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - +:56 3 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +:58 4 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +1:16 5 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +1:31 6 - Floyd Landis - Phonak - s.t. 7 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Baleares - +1:47 8 - Michael Rasmussen - Raboank - s.t. 9 - Andreas Kloden - T-Mobile - +2:06 10 - Haimar Zubeldia - Euskatel-Euskadi - +2:20 GC - After 14 Stages MJ - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - 55:58:17 2 - Michael Rasmussen - Rabobank - +1:41 3 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +2:46 4 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +4:34 5 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +4:53 6 - Floyd Landis Phonak - +5:03 7 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Baleares - s.t. 8 - Andreas Kloden - T-Mobile - +5:38 9 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +7:08 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 15 "The Queen Stage" or La Taperena - Lezat-sur-Leze - St. Lary Soulan - 205 km The riders will find exactly how much they left in the tank on this most difficult stage of the Tour. This one is the thumper, and it falls on the 10th Anniversary of the death of Lance's former teammate, Fabio Casartelli, who died as a result of injuries in a crash during the Tour. Between the toughness of this stage - over 16,000 feet of vertical including a Cat2 climb, then four Cat 1 climbs and the Hors Categorie Pl-d'Adet finishing climb - and the inspiration that Armstrong normally finds from the memory of his friend, look for the fireworks to fly. Wreckage and failed dreams will litter the roadways tomorrow. -- Cyclofiend.com has Galleries for your "Current Classic", Singlespeed or Cyclocross Bicycle - send your photos in or check out others! Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 17 17:49:08 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 11:49:08 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 15 - Lezat-sur-Leze - St. Lary Soulan Message-ID: <200507171649.j6HGn8g04526@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 15 "The Queen Stage" or La Taperena - Lezat-sur-Leze - St. Lary Soulan - 205 km The riders will find exactly how much they left in the tank on this most difficult stage of the Tour. This one is the thumper, and it falls on the 10th Anniversary of the death of Lance's former teammate, Fabio Casartelli, who died as a result of injuries in a crash during the Tour. Between the toughness of this stage - over 16,000 feet of vertical including a Cat2 climb, then four Cat 1 climbs and the Hors Categorie Pl-d'Adet finishing climb. 31 Flavors of Pain today, and the man wearing the paper hat is Lance Armstrong. 160 riders start today, no abandonments as of yet today. Pretty quickly, a reasonably large breakaway of 14 riders has gotten out and away. Discovery's George Hincapie the second best place rider in this bunch while the 24th placed Oscar Periero from Phonak stands to gain the most if success follows this effort. The Rabobank riders in the break nab the early mountain points to protect teammate Michael Rasmussen's Polka Dot Jersey. Erik Decker hits the mark first, while Pietro Caucchioli of Credit Agricole gets sandwiched by Rabobanker Michael Boogerd over the top of Col du Portet Aspet. On the Cat 1 Col de Menta, Rabobank goes 1-2-3 with Decker, Karsten Kroon & Boogerd leading over the next climb, and they find that their efforst have created a gap of 18 minutes. Among the lagging peleton members, former Tour contender Joseba Beloki from Liberty Seguros has been looking at life from the other end of the bunch. He's been skittering back on the climbs so far and then howling down the descents to regain the bunch. Phil rattles off the members of the break, and fingers flying fast on the keyboard, and without benefit of coffee has not cooled enough to sip, here's the bunch: George Hincapie - Discovery Oscar Sevilla - T-Mobile Michael Boogerd - Rabobank Erik Dekker - Rabobank Karsten Kroon - Rabobank Oscar Periero - Phonak Alan Davis - Liberty Seguros Laurent Brochard - Bouygues Telecom Rubens Bertagliati - Saunier Duval Pietro Caucchioli - Credit Agricole Jerome Pineau - Bouygues Telecom Iker Camano - Euskatel-Euskadi Mikel Astarloza - Ag2R Alessandro Bertolini - Domina Vacanze The group of 14 riders roll along with about 100 km to go and the gap at 17:45. That seems kinda of long.... Pressure begins to creep into the group as they head upward again from the feed zone. Col du Portillon 8.4 km at 7.3% Over the top 17:58 after the breakaway bunch. That's not really cutting down the gap, is it? Bouygues Telecom's Thomas Voeckler gets a Mavic rear wheel change while an ex-cheerleader wearing yellow gets some tele-time behind him. Back on, he gets the cheap miles by tweaking himself through the corners to reattach before the next scoop of pain gets slapped into the dish. Armstrong wears a sweatband on his arm which says "Fabio" on it. The camera moto fires a couple of questions at him, which he largely ignores, other than to say, "big day...." Beloki finds more sand in his bearings today, drifting back once again despite no perceptible grade on the roadway right now. Maybe a bit of bad pasta, but he's gradually becoming unstuck from events. When the big bass begins thumping and today's rave really begins, he's likely to be in the queue outside. Well the commercials keep getting pumped through in high volume, hopefully in anticipation of ad-free broadcasts to come. The Col du Portillon begins for the lead bunch. Periero is actually only about 4 minutes away from being the leader on the road. Still the main bunch refuses to animate, though they seem to have sharpened their focus a bit after the feed zone and following climb. Astorloza finds that his hitch failing as they head onto the climb proper, Pineau flails a bit as well with the increased angle of attack. Bertagliati begins focusing on the texture of his handlebar wraps, no longer among the bunch and trying to distract himself from solo pain. CSC riders edge to the front and begin to push the pace a bit, as Ivan Basso realizes he doesn't have much of a time buffer for his third place position if Periero gets away. This causes a number of sprinters to begin forming off the back, but they are joined by Stephano Garzelli, who might have a left a little too much on the roadway yesterday on his birthday effort. The gap has dropped to 17 minutes as the lead bunch is within a kilometer of the summit, about to re-enter France after a quick hop over the Spanish border. The Basque team car from Euskatel-Euskadi trying to get up next to their Basque rider almost runs over a Basque fan running with a Basque flag. At 6 am local time, this suggests a cerain amount of symmetry... Dekker, Astarloza, Pineau and Bertagliati have been snipped cleanly away from the break. Hincapie hides well for a big man, just biding his time in the breakaway. Bertolini scoots right up to the rear of the break, having remained just close enough to seize the gravitational enhancement. Unlike Discovery who is stationed squarely on the head of events behind CSC's pacesetters, T-Mobile has most of their riders littered back through the peleton, looking for all the world like a diagram of molecules dispersed in solution. Certainly, Ullirch is in evidence just behind Lance, but of his teammates, only Kloden sits alongside. Of course, the increased effort takes its toll on Discovery pacemakers - Benjamin Noval and Pavel Padrnos both drift away, their tasks for the day now over. Others begin to fall away as well. With little fanfare, a quick selection has occurred, and maybe 30 or so cyclists remain intact. The Col du Peyresourde looms on the horizon, third climb from the finish. This little rise in the roadway will take the riders up to 1589 meters, hiking up 13 km of roadway at an average grade of 7%. Bertolini yo-yo's a bit as the bunch now hits the climb. Courtesy of camera moto, we get a chance to look into the ear of pace-setting Karsten Kroon. This may be an artistic statement by the camera person. Boogerd hammers along as behind his teammate until Kroon just goes ker-splat and pulls over to the right hand side of the roadway. He's still on his bike, but his cadence has become achingly slow, and he's about to become the poster boy for some Dutch recovery drink. The serious contenders in the break now number six. Sevilla, Hincapie, Boogerd, Periero, Caucchioli and Brochard. They still have nearly 15 minutes lead. CSC has now added two riders to drive the pace, with Bobby Julich putting on his climbing legs in preparation for the Peyresourde. The speed has increased and riders string out. Matthias Kessler from T-Mobile digs into the roatation as well, his appearance makes less sense, although Ullrich has done well on this climb in the past. Armstrong has three teammates in front of him, as they follow the pace of CSC's remaining rider Carlos Sastre. The pace is pretty seriously screaming, whittling the bunch down a bit again. Paolo Salvodelli is also just hanging onto the back of this lead bunch, but if he is within a county's distance of events at the summit, his descending skills will put him back on before the next - but not final - climb. In the Armstrong group, most folks who you would suspect are in attendance. An interesting surprise is Saunier Duval's American rider Chris Horner, who brought proper change today, and has been allowed onto the bus. Three Discovery teammates set the pace for Lance. Basso sits behind, seemingly without teamates as Sastre suddenly gets wobbly and drops like a pinball back through the team cars. Ullrich still has Kloden and Vinokourov, losing Guiseppe Guerini, but having Sevilla still in the break. Michael Rasmussen looks much more comfortable today, well positioned in the middle of the bunch. Bagpipes welcome the breakaway now that they have left the treeline behind. Their gap slips through their fingers and have less than 12 minutes now. Caucchioli drifts back, gets a water bottle, then drifts back again. He's continued chatting with his team car as Brochard takes a tentative flyer through the KoM point. The others huffle back up to him, preventing an opportunistic move. Rubiera, Azevedo and Popovych patiently lead the bunch down to the valley, some 11 and a half minutes behind. Their uphill efforts have snipped the chase group down to about 21 riders. After a short rest, the 6 man break heads back up for the 7.5 km jaunt to the 1580 meter Col de Val Louron Azet, which kicks at 8.3%. Sevilla begins to look a bit spotty on the steep starting pitches, but bucks up and rejoins the select group which remains ahead on the day In the Armstrong bunch, CSC's Sastre again wiggles to the front and hammers up the pace again. This immediately saws off his teammate Bobby Julich who had just rejoined on the descent. His pacemaking also jettisons Salvodelli and Andreas Kloden, and ....Sastre, who's knees seem to bend backwards as he suddenly runs on fumes. It's steep and tremendously difficult as Discovery sets the pace, dropping a few more riders including Haimar Zubeldia from Euskatel and Jorg Jaksche from Liberty Seguros. Now Vinokourov wakes up and grind back up to the head of the bunch, droping teammate Guerini who had rejoined. Discovery's Rubiera drifts back and Christophe Moreau is off now as well. Vinokourov sets the pace, Ullrich on his pocket looking confident. Behind him Basso, Armstrong & Azevedo, plus Rasmussen. Now Basso moves away up the roadway, Ullrich getting slightly gapped, but Armstrong waits patiently until Ullrich can down close the gap. Karsten Kroon is caught with nary a glance from the threesome. Basso surges again out of the saddle, and Armstrong matches the accelleration. Popovych tries to stay close, but he, like everyone else is gone from the back. Armstrong now takes over the pacemaking, Basso matches him and Armstrong evaluates the gap back to Ullrich. The big diesel of Ullrich powers back up to the pair. Basso again hits the throttle to try to drop him off. Back a bit on the roadway, Vinokourov hangs on to a group with Landis, Leipheimer and Rasmussen, no longer in view of the escaping troika. Mancebo hammers to try to shut down the gap, towing the Rasmussen group upwards - lacking a certain Khazakstan rider who has fallen slightly off the pace. Rasmussen now works out of the saddle, Landis and Leipheimer focusing on keeping attached to the bird-boned Dane. Vino rejoins, but Landis now kicks it up a touch, putting the big hurt onto him once again. All this work has tightened the gap to about 9 minutes. In the break, Pereiro leads the gang of six into the last half kilometer of the climb. As this lead group nears the summit, Brochard shows the opportunism which some would say got him the World Championship jersey some years ago, and nails the KoM points again. Ullrich, Basso and Armstrong trade the pacemaking as orange t-shirts begin to mass around like fruit flies on forgotten bananas. They are 7:30 behind but have put a minute on the Rasmussen group. Bertogliati from the initial breakaway gloms onto the Armstrong trio, creating a quartet, they crest the summit and begin the descent. Christophe Moreau and Eddy Mazzoleni rejoin the Rasmussen group still heading uphill, and Vinokourov has come back on as well. They crest the summit 1:05 behind, which pushes Rasmussen down into third position in the GC on the road. When they go through the town of Vignec, they will hit the final climb of Pla-d'Adet, which climbs 10.3 km at 8.3%. If your math isn't quite that quick, it'll be about 2500 feet of up. The 10 km to go banner goes overhead for the lead bunch - can Armstrong really close down a 7 plus minute gap to take this stage? Not if Sevilla has anything to say about it - he hikes himself up and attacks the bunch, unzips his jersey and immediatly draws the ire of Oscare Pereiro, who flies past him as if he's watching the race. Hincapie steadily regains Periero's wheel with Boogerd and the break group is now half size. Boogerd shows us a full upper dental array and Periero looks all hip-wobbly and climberly. Hincapie is playing a strong game of poker, but he looks calm and in control, still ticking out his easy seated cadence. At the side of the road, it looks like an episode of "What Not to Wear - Europe"... Some people just should not try to pull of sleeveless. Basso has smacked it down! - whether just wanting to get away from the multitude of pasty upper arms or not, he moves hard up the roadway. Armstrong waits...waits...watches to see if Ullrich will make the move to close it down. Ullrich is at his limit, and Armstrong then streaks up the roadway to quickly shut down what is now a sizeable gap. Basso rides in a personal room of hurt, eyes fixed on the roadway as Armstrong matches him. Crowds howl louder than the the announcers can holler, and the thousands of fans have packed themselves onto the hard, tight switchbacks of the climbs. There can't be an extra paper's width of room as they hammer uphill. Ullrich still tries to remain attached, the power of his legs sending out low cycle pressure waves. Basso and Armstrong continue upwards, picking up Bertolini who looks like a club rider heading backward. The cameras find Vinokourov who is chased by Mancebo - can't tell where he is in the mix in the midst of the crowds, but he continues to give everything int his Tour. Up front Caucchioli has turned himself inside out and rejoined the lead three. Periero looks pretty shattered, and Boogerd can't be humming a happy tune either. Vino has found Popovych, Mancebo and Mazzoleni. Ullrich continues to draw a bead on the referee's red car, whcih is just behind Armstrong and Basso. Rassmussen bobs up to the Popovych group just as Vinokourov heaves off the front in another pulse of power. Mancebo looks like he's about to chew off his tongue, trying to get upwards momentum. The foursome up front hit the 5 km to go banner, and somehow the crowds continue to thicken, scrambling upwards with the riders, howling and doing everything short of jabbing the riders with sharpened sticks onto which they've lashed their national flags. Ullrich can no longer see the car ahead of him, a combination of terrain and crowds. But, he continues plugging onwards, hoping that the gap is getting closed down. Up front Caucchioli shows the Italian panache and attacks off the front. Periero pops back up and passes him, Hincapie latches onto the Phonak rider immediately. The others can no longer hold the pace, Periero suddenly realizes that he's got a big, strong bike rider with him who knows how to win races. There's 4 km to go and Hincapie has done little extra work on this day, though he's had to ride over the same mountains as everyone else. Motorcycles start to whisk ahead of Ullrich, but the road straightens so he can be teased again by the trailing car. Rasmussen kicks it up a notch, clipping off Vinokourov and focusing on not losing his podium spot - regardless of where he finishes, he'll need every second to stay ahead of Ullrich on the final stage's Individual Time Trial. A particularly clever spectator forgets to move out of the way of a motorcycle. He's promptly run over for his intitiative and I must say, I feel no sympathy for him. Luckily the driver and camera person seem fine, remount and speed back up to Periero and Hincapie. Ullrich has remained within 22 seconds of the leading pair, and tries to increase his speed on the somewhat flatter stretch before the final pitch to the summit. The leading pair have to take it on faith that there's a road in front of them as an orange human curtain all too slowly parts in front of them. Mostly Baque and Spanish flags in evidence, and those who wave them have long ago sailed off the edge of rational thought. George double-checks to makes sure no one has begun to regain them, although there's probably no way he can see anything other than the flaccid buttocks of the fans. It's like riding through a riot. Ullrich now finds his teammate Sevilla and he locks his eyes on the small rider. But it seems that the diminutive climber is having trouble holding a helpful pace. Before all of the riders, the crowd is a sea of open mouths and the sound is deafening. The horizon seems to be getting closer, but that may just be a surreal mirage. Hincapie sits on Periero's wheel as they finally reach the sanctity of the barriers. They both heave a visible sigh of relief and return to bike racing - the tactical dueling begins, they are a full 5 minutes ahead. Barring alien abduction, the winner should come from these two. What will be left in their legs afer all thiese climbs? Hincapie has had the presence to zip up his jersey and he looks ready to pounce, coiled above his saddle. Periero ramps up the pace, and seems to be ready to go, and Hincapie remains coiled and posed, ready to explode when they see the line Around a broad left turn there are 300 meters left. Hincapie moves at 200 meters to go, Periero has nothing sand in thighs and wobbles with a baker's dozen of cramps. George hammers hard to make sure he gains the gap, then sits up, holds his head in disbelief and rolls unaccompanied across the line. You can see the reflection of the finish line in his glasses as he looks down to make sure it's not a dream. He laughs and cannot believe his effort - Off his bike heading he is hugged and slapped by everyone in the finish area. George Hincapie has taken the stage! Remnants of the break roll over the line, scattered by the crowds and efforts. Down the mountain, Armstrong leadds Basso into the barriers, then they trade positions for the last couple kilometers. Further down in the mosh pit where the unlucky have been trapped, there must be an "on" switch on the horns of the chase vehicles and team cars, as they never seem to be off, coaxing the huge and riotous crowds out of the way. There will probably be more than a few bruised hips and forearms courtesy of the side mirrors. Basso grits his teeth as they hone in on the 300 meter to go sign. How long it must seem on this uphill finish. Armstrong almost clips wheels with Basso, and it's clear that Lance will not scoot past, content to follow the hard-charging Italian to the line. Armstrong immediately seeks out George and throws a sweaty arm around his shoulder in congratulation. As Ullrich thrumms along trying to cut his loses, but there's a gangly Dane who has the same idea -- Rasmussen appears just behind him and tows Mancebo to the line mere seconds behind the T-Mobile pair. Vinokourov pedals on emotion and pride, finishing some 7:35 behind Hincapie. George is in shock. He becomes the only other Discovery (USPS) rider ever to win a stage in the Tour other than Lance Armstrong. His presence in the breakawy had been just a quick tactical decision, and he'd done so with complete readiness to drop back to help Lance should the need arise. But, when the gap got out to 18 minutes, he, Johan Bruyneel and the other Discovery race director Dirk Demol realized that his chances were very real. So, George Hincapie, the rider who accompanied Lance Armstrong with every tour victory, who rode his first Tour in 1995 and was a former teammate of Fabio Casartelli has won the hardest stage in this year's Tour de France. Stage 15 - Results 1 - George Hincapie - Discovery - 6:03:37 2 - Oscar Periero - Phonak - +:05 3 - Pietro Caucchioli - Credit Agricole - +:38 4 - Michael Boogerd - Rabobank - +:57 5 - Laurent Brochard - Bouygues Telecom - +2:19 6 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +5:04 7 - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - s.t. 8 - Oscar Sevilla - T-Mobile - +6:32 9 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - s.t. 10 - Michael Rasmussen - Rabobank - +6:32 11 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Baleares - s.t. 12 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +7:33 13 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +7:54 14 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - +8:14 15 - Haimar Zubeldia - Euskatel-Euskadi - s.t. GC - After 15 Stages MJ - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - 62:09:59 2 - Ivan Basso - +2:46 3 - Michael Rasmussen - +3:09 4 - Jan Ullrich - +5:58 5 - Francisco Mancebo - +6:31 6 - Levi Leiphemer - +7:35 7 - Floyd Landis - +9:33 8 - Alexandre Vinokouorov - +9:38 Tomorrow - Rest Day #2 Tuesday's Stage - Stage 16 Mourenx - Pau 180 km Though comparatively easier, that's sort of like saying hitting yourself with a mallet isn't as bad as hitting yourself with a roofing hammer. A couple of short climbs bookend the two beasts of the day - the 9.3 km Category 1 Col de Marie-Blanque which edges upwards at 7.7% average grade and the Hors Categorie Col d'Aubisque, not averaging quite as steep (at 7%), but providing the riders with 16 km of up. After a quick blip up a Cat4 climb with 20 km to go, the riders continue basically a downhill jaunt to finish in Pau. -- Cyclofiend.com highlights - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ...and from the archives, Ibis bicycle catalogs: http://www.cyclofiend.com/ibis (still growing...) ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 19 06:22:03 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (tour-junkie) Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 22:22:03 -0700 Subject: [Tour 2005]2nd Rest Day Odds & Ends Message-ID: Rest Day - As most of the riders lick their wounds and spin around the roads today, here are a few little catch-up items: First off, in the interest of full disclosure, it is necessary to point out just how badly my "fantasy" team is doing -- http://www.performancebike.com/inform/fantasy/showroster.cfm?Event_ID=3D31&Te= a mID=3D100166171 (or use http://tinyurl.com/dzemp if that doesn't work for you...) In my defense as a virtual team director, I wanted to pull together a squad which did not include one of the "big three" favorites. Clearly, this goal has been acheived... ------- This image pretty much sums up why I refer to certain people as road monkey= s - http://www.velonews.com/images/details/8527.12005.f.jpg ...and honestly, most monkeys are smart enough not to do that. Even Perier= o and Hincapie had to look back to beleive their ears. -------- Jan Ullrich has pretty much admitted that he's hoping just to finish on the podium. Between two beefy crashes, the T-Mobile hasn't had a lot go right for him on the course this year. It is really too bad, as he clearly brought excellent form into the Tour. But, one of the overlooked points about this event is that it truly is a race of survival - historically, everything from walking up to the sign-up table to showing up at the start at the right time has factored into a race-losing effort. The level of attention at all times and the need to control what relatively few variables are within each riders' sphere of influence requires the utmost concentration and focus. I'm certainly not saying that Ullrich lacks that. My point is more that th= e level of attention and depth of planning within the Armstrong camp is secon= d to none.=20 -------- One of the repeated threads which has seemed to come up in the media is the "weakness" of the Discovery team. Folks have pointed to episodes in the rac= e where Armstrong was isolated on climbs and during attacks. Maybe on the first attack during Stage 8 they got caught a bit flat-footed, although I have my own opinion about that - l http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/000093.html but, during the climbs when T-Mobile attacked, _everyone_ INCLUDING T-Mobil= e got blown off the back. We were left with the three strongest men at this year's Tour - Armstrong, Basso and Ullrich. Besides, the Discovery squad is holding the Yellow Jersey, the White Best Young Rider Jersey, and had a team member win the most difficult stage of the this year's Tour.... we should all ride on such weak teams. -------- Speaking of sufferin' B's... One squad who has been entirely too absent thi= s year is Euskatel-Euskadi. They seem to be single-handedly trying to put a damper on the excitement which has built in Spanish/Basque cycling over the past years. They currently have only Haimar Zubeldia within an hour of the Yellow Jersey, (at around 15 minutes, which _is_ darned respectable) while "don't worry, he's peaking for the Tour" Iban Mayo dallies 1:40:37 behind. This year, they don't have the pave to blame. (Of course, what would seem to have happened is that the extreme pace of this year's race has left them all with dead legs in the mountains - not a good outcome for a climbing-oriented team) -------- Rest Day Notables: Happy Transfers of Mountain Biking Skills to the Road: Michael Rasmussen, obviously Cadel Evans, in on the big climbs and still pretty danged young "I'm not dead yet!" (Riders who may have been considered terminally off the back who have shown up to play this year) Christophe Moreau - ninth overall at 11:47 and holding down 5th in the Mountains Jerse= y with 89 Pts. Bobby Julich - who has found new life with CSC, seems to reall= y relish the riding and sits in the top 20. Chris Horner - the American ridin= g for Saunier Duval who broke his leg early this year, but now hangs in on th= e climbs and sits in 32nd place. Erik Dekker & the whole Danged Rabobank squa= d - after years of stage wins but no real consistent results, they seem to have struck upon a strategy that has their riders working together and emphasizes the aggressive tactical superiority of Dutch cycling at its best= . For Dekker, it's nice to see him regain his form after serious injuries and a long road back. Jingoism Revisited: MJ Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, 62:09:59 6= . Levi Leipheimer (USA), Gerolsteiner, 07:35 7. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, 09:33 16. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, 19:03 18. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, 19:35 32. Christopher Horner (USA), Saunier Duval, 52:41 126. Fred Rodriguez (USA), Davitamon-Lotto, 2:55:20 Not a bad showing for the US of A.... -------- Oh, since a couple folks asked - the "Unseen Punch" reference was to the "phantom" punch during the Liston-Clay fight, when Muhammed Ali (then Cassius Clay) put Sonny Liston down with a punch that most people never saw= . Though I'm not a big boxing fan, this always intrigued me (and at the time, it was a chapter in a book I grew up reading called "Play It Again, Bud"). The core idea was suckering an opponent in and then just ending it. -------- Finally, I would like to honor Iker Flores from Euskatel-Euskadi, this year's current Flame Rouge. He rides faster than anyone you are likely to know, yet he's hanging on to last place in this year's Tour de France, 3:33:05 behind the Yellow Jersey. May he ride into Paris with the rest of the heros. -------- Overall Standings after 15 Stages: GC Overall Standings (Yellow Jersey) MJ Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, 62:09:59 2. Ivan Basso (I), CSC, 02:46 3. Mickael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, 03:09 4. Jan Ullrich (G), T-Mobile, 05:58 5. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), Illes Balears, 06:31 6. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Gerolsteiner, 07:35 7. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, 09:33 8. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), T-Mobile, 09:38 9. Christophe Moreau (F), Credit Agricole, 11:47 10. Andreas Kloden (G), T-Mobile, 12:01 11. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 12:57 12. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery Channel, 14:27 13. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 15:26 14. Eddy Mazzoleni (I), Lampre, 17:56 15. Jorg Jaksche (G), Liberty Seguros, 18:16 16. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, 19:03 17. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Phonak, 19:30 18. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, 19:35 19. Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz), Credit Agricole, 20:35 20. Leonardo Piepoli (I), Saunier Duval, 25:48 21. Giuseppe Guerini (I), T-Mobile, 27:20 22. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 27:37 23. Michael Boogerd (Nl), Rabobank, 28:47 24. Oscar Sevilla (Sp), T-Mobile, 38:51 25. Mikel Astarloza (Sp), Ag2r Prevoyance, 41:25 26. Georg Totschnig (A), Gerolsteiner, 41:44 27. Xabier Zandio (Sp), Illes Balears, 42:17 28. Azevedo Jose (P), Discovery Channel, 44:49 29. Laurent Brochard (F), Bouygues Telecom, 47:30 30. Sandy Casar (F), Francaise des Jeux, 50:20 31. Alberto Contador (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 51:09 32. Christopher Horner (USA), Saunier Duval, 52:41 33. Paolo Savoldelli (I), Discovery Channel, 52:47 34. Pietro Caucchioli (I), Credit Agricole, 55:03 35. Stefano Garzelli (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 56:18 36. Stephane Goubert (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, 59:05 (riders more than an hour behind) 37. Michael Rogers (Aus), Quickstep, 1:00:56 38. Jorg Ludewig (G), Domina Vacanze, 1:08:04 39. Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz), Domina Vacanze, 1:08:29 40. Santiago Botero (Col), Phonak, 1:11:18 41. Alexandre Moos (Swi), Phonak, 1:14:45 42. Rubiera Jose Luis (Sp), Discovery Channel, 1:17:55 43. Patrice Halgand (F), Credit Agricole, 1:19:35 44. Jerome Pineau (F), Bouygues Telecom, 1:19:39 45. David Arroyo (Sp), Illes Balears, 1:20:11 46. Axel Merckx (B), Davitamon-Lotto, 1:24:20 47. Marcos Serrano (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 1:27:15 48. Roberto Heras (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 1:28:38 49. Gutierrez Jose Enrique (Sp), Phonak, 1:30:49 50. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Illes Balears, 1:32:57 51. Vasseur Cedric (F), Cofidis, 1:35:31 52. Walter Beneteau (F), Bouygues Telecom, 1:40:33 53. Iban Mayo (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 1:40:37 54. Juan Manuel Garate (Sp), Saunier Duval, 1:41:26 55. Egoi Martinez (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 1:43:55 56. Daniele Nardello (I), T-Mobile, 1:44:11 57. Patrik Sinkewitz (G), Quickstep, 1:44:16 58. Matthias Kessler (G), T-Mobile, 1:44:50 59. Pierrick Fedrigo (F), Bouygues Telecom, 1:44:55 60. David Moncoutie (F), Cofidis, 1:46:41 61. Angel Vicioso (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 1:47:09 62. Lorenzo Bernucci (I), Fassa Bortolo, 1:48:55 63. Franco Pellizotti (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 1:49:14 64. Joseba Beloki (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 1:49:31 65. Massimo Giunti (I), Fassa Bortolo, 1:49:51 66. Christophe Brandt (B), Davitamon-Lotto, 1:51:26 67. Jose Luis Arrieta (Sp), Illes Balears, 1:52:06 68. Iker Camano (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 1:52:21 69. Sylvain Chavanel (F), Cofidis, 1:54:14 70. Lovkvist Thomas (Swe), Francaise des Jeux, 1:54:49 71. Sebastian Lang (G), Gerolsteiner, 1:54:58 72. David Canada (Sp), Saunier Duval, 1:55:26 73. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, 1:56:53 74. Stephan Schreck (G), T-Mobile, 1:58:15 (riders more than 2 hours behind) 75. Nicolas Portal (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, 2:01:48 76. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 2:01:49 77. Juan Antonio Flecha (Sp), Fassa Bortolo, 2:02:26 78. Pieter Weening (Nl), Rabobank, 2:03:10 79. Didier Rous (F), Bouygues Telecom, 2:05:00 80. Philippe Gilbert (B), Francaise des Jeux, 2:05:52 81. Nicki Sorensen (Dk), CSC, 2:06:05 82. Dario Cioni (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 2:06:17 83. Gorazd Stangelj (SLO), Lampre, 2:06:29 84. Beat Zberg (Swi), Gerolsteiner, 2:07:24 85. Rubens Bertogliati (Swi), Saunier Duval, 2:09:15 86. Tobias Steinhauser (G), T-Mobile, 2:10:14 87. Joost Posthuma (Nl), Rabobank, 2:10:28 88. Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr), Ag2r Prevoyance, 2:10:38 89. Ronny Scholz (G), Gerolsteiner, 2:10:39 90. Fabian Wegmann (G), Gerolsteiner, 2:13:00 91. Inigo Landaluze (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 2:14:34 92. Pavel Padrnos (Cz), Discovery Channel, 2:15:31 93. Joly Sebastien (F), Credit Agricole, 2:16:18 94. Alessandro Cortinovis (I), Domina Vacanze, 2:16:24 95. Bradley Mc Gee (Aus), Francaise des Jeux, 2:16:45 96. Volodymir Gustov (Ukr), Fassa Bortolo, 2:17:09 97. Andriy Grivko (Ukr), Domina Vacanze, 2:17:23 98. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros, 2:18:26 99. Francis Mourey (F), Francaise des Jeux, 2:22:50 100. David Loosli (Swi), Lampre, 2:23:37 101. Benjamin Noval Gonzalez (Sp), Discovery Channel, 2:24:24 102. Bert Grabsch (G), Phonak, 2:24:56 103. Luis Sanchez (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 2:27:45 104. Mario Aerts (B), Davitamon-Lotto, 2:27:45 105. Carlos Da Cruz (F), Francaise des Jeux, 2:28:25 106. Arvesen Kurt-Asle (Nor), CSC, 2:28:38 107. Alessandro Bertolini (I), Domina Vacanze, 2:30:52 108. Anthony Geslin (F), Bouygues Telecom, 2:31:34 109. Gianluca Bortolami (I), Lampre, 2:31:42 110. Ludovic Turpin (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, 2:32:18 111. Salvatore Commesso (I), Lampre, 2:33:33 112. Giovanni Lombardi (I), CSC, 2:38:49 113. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 2:40:50 114. Luke Roberts (Aus), CSC, 2:41:31 115. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun), Credit Agricole, 2:42:47 116. Inaki Isasi (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 2:43:12 117. Erik Dekker (Nl), Rabobank, 2:46:35 118. Matthieu Sprick (F), Bouygues Telecom, 2:47:02 119. Daniele Righi (I), Lampre, 2:48:49 120. Matthew White (Aus), Cofidis, 2:49:04 121. Marcus Ljungqvist (Swe), Liquigas-Bianchi, 2:50:10 122. Laurent Lefevre (F), Bouygues Telecom, 2:52:49 123. Thierry Marichal (B), Cofidis, 2:53:29 124. Manuel Quinziato (I), Saunier Duval, 2:54:31 125. Bram Tankink (Nl), Quickstep, 2:55:06 126. Fred Rodriguez (USA), Davitamon-Lotto, 2:55:20 127. Mauro Facci (I), Fassa Bortolo, 2:57:35 128. Karsten Kroon (Nl), Rabobank, 2:58:00 129. Alessandro Vanotti (I), Domina Vacanze, 2:58:20 130. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), Fassa Bortolo, 2:58:42 131. Hinault Sebastien (F), Credit Agricole, 2:59:17 132. Samuel Dumoulin (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, 2:59:35 133. Auge Stephane (F), Cofidis, 2:59:36 134. Michael Rich (G), Gerolsteiner, 2:59:46 (Riders more than 3 hours behind) 135. Thomas Voeckler (F), Bouygues Telecom, 3:01:06 136. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 3:04:19 137. Mauro Gerosa (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 3:05:57 138. Bernhard Eisel (A), Francaise des Jeux, 3:06:20 139. Marc Wauters (B), Rabobank, 3:06:29 140. Guido Trenti (USA), Quickstep, 3:07:16 141. Magnus Backstedt (Swe), Liquigas-Bianchi, 3:07:20 142. Baden Cooke (Aus), Francaise des Jeux, 3:07:56 143. Simons Gerrans (Aus), Ag2r Prevoyance, 3:08:16 144. Nicolas Jalabert (F), Phonak, 3:08:40 145. Bessy Frederic (F), Cofidis, 3:09:29 146. Carlstrom Kjell (FIN), Liquigas-Bianchi, 3:09:50 147. Michael Albasini (Swi), Liquigas-Bianchi, 3:11:05 148. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner, 3:11:37 149. Vicente Garcia Acosta (Sp), Illes Balears, 3:11:48 150. Rafael Nuritdinov (UZB), Domina Vacanze, 3:14:52 151. Daniel Becke (G), Illes Balears, 3:16:09 152. Unai Etxebarria (Vz), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 3:17:33 153. Forster Robert (G), Gerolsteiner, 3:18:44 154. Johan Van Summeren (B), Davitamon-Lotto, 3:18:45 155. Servais Knaven (Nl), Quickstep, 3:20:42 156. Janeck Tombak (Est), Cofidis, 3:22:14 157. Wim Vansevenant (B), Davitamon-Lotto, 3:25:39 158. Iker Flores (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 3:33:05 Overall Points - Green Jersey (Top 20 only) 1. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 164 Pts. 2. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 150 Pts. 3. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 142 Pts. 4. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), T-Mobile, 90 Pts. 5. Forster Robert (G), Gerolsteiner, 84 Pts. 6. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros, 81 Pts. 7. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner, 79 Pts. 8. Mickael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, 77 Pts. 9. Laurent Brochard (F), Bouygues Telecom, 75 Pts. 10. Gianluca Bortolami (I), Lampre, 75 Pts. 11. Baden Cooke (Aus), Francaise des Jeux, 73 Pts. 12. Bernhard Eisel (A), Francaise des Jeux, 71 Pts. 13. Magnus Backstedt (Swe), Liquigas-Bianchi, 67 Pts. 14. Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, 66 Pts. 15. Juan Antonio Flecha (Sp), Fassa Bortolo, 61 Pts. 16. Anthony Geslin (F), Bouygues Telecom, 61 Pts. 17. Christophe Moreau (F), Credit Agricole, 56 Pts. 18. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Phonak, 56 Pts. 19. Jan Ullrich (G), T-Mobile, 54 Pts. 20. Jerome Pineau (F), Bouygues Telecom, 53 Pts. Overall Climber - Polka-Dot Jersey (top 20 only) 1. Mickael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, 185 Pts. 2. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Phonak, 114 Pts. 3. Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, 92 Pts. 4. Michael Boogerd (Nl), Rabobank, 90 Pts. 5. Christophe Moreau (F), Credit Agricole, 89 Pts. 6. Santiago Botero (Col), Phonak, 88 Pts. 7. Laurent Brochard (F), Bouygues Telecom, 75 Pts. 8. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, 74 Pts. 9. Pietro Caucchioli (I), Credit Agricole, 73 Pts. 10. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), T-Mobile, 71 Pts. 11. Ivan Basso (I), CSC, 65 Pts. 12. Jan Ullrich (G), T-Mobile, 56 Pts. 13. Georg Totschnig (A), Gerolsteiner, 53 Pts. 14. Oscar Sevilla (Sp), T-Mobile, 44 Pts. 15. Karsten Kroon (Nl), Rabobank, 41 Pts. 16. Juan Manuel Garate (Sp), Saunier Duval, 36 Pts. 17. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), Illes Balears, 36 Pts. 18. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Gerolsteiner, 36 Pts. 19. Dario Cioni (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 34 Pts. 20. Erik Dekker (Nl), Rabobank, 31 Pts. Overall Young Rider - White Jersey 1. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery Channel, 62:24:26 2. Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz), Credit Agricole, 06:08 3. Alberto Contador (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 36:42 4. Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz), Domina Vacanze, 54:02 5. Jerome Pineau (F), Bouygues Telecom, 1:05:12 6. David Arroyo (Sp), Illes Balears, 1:05:44 7. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Illes Balears, 1:18:30 8. Patrik Sinkewitz (G), Quickstep, 1:29:49 9. Lovkvist Thomas (Swe), Francaise des Jeux, 1:40:22 10. Pieter Weening (Nl), Rabobank, 1:48:43 11. Philippe Gilbert (B), Francaise des Jeux, 1:51:25 12. Joost Posthuma (Nl), Rabobank, 1:56:01 13. Fabian Wegmann (G), Gerolsteiner, 1:58:33 14. Andriy Grivko (Ukr), Domina Vacanze, 2:02:56 15. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros, 2:03:59 16. Francis Mourey (F), Francaise des Jeux, 2:08:23 17. David Loosli (Swi), Lampre, 2:09:10 18. Luis Sanchez (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 2:13:18 19. Anthony Geslin (F), Bouygues Telecom, 2:17:07 20. Matthieu Sprick (F), Bouygues Telecom, 2:32:35 21. Mauro Facci (I), Fassa Bortolo, 2:43:08 22. Alessandro Vanotti (I), Domina Vacanze, 2:43:53 23. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), Fassa Bortolo, 2:44:15 24. Samuel Dumoulin (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, 2:45:08 25. Bernhard Eisel (A), Francaise des Jeux, 2:51:53 26. Simons Gerrans (Aus), Ag2r Prevoyance, 2:53:49 27. Michael Albasini (Swi), Liquigas-Bianchi, 2:56:38 28. Johan Van Summeren (B), Davitamon-Lotto, 3:04:18 Overall Team 1. T-Mobile Team, 184:24:01 2. Discovery Channel Team, 19:28 3. Team CSC, 21:58 4. Credit Agricole, 28:11 5. Illes Balears-Caisse D Epargne, 32:09 6. Phonak Hearing Systems, 34:30 7. Liberty Seguros - W=C3=A6rth Team, 1:31:14 8. Rabobank, 1:42:42 9. Saunier Duval - Prodir, 1:47:57 10. Gerolsteiner, 2:15:43 11. Ag2r Prevoyance, 2:34:42 12. Euskaltel - Euskadi, 2:41:11 13. Bouygues Telecom, 2:52:22 14. Davitamon - Lotto, 3:02:50 15. Francaise Des Jeux, 3:23:03 16. Domina Vacanze, 3:24:08 17. Lampre - Caffita, 3:36:51 18. Cofidis Credit Par Telephone, 4:25:49 19. Liquigas - Bianchi, 4:26:45 20. Fassa Bortolo, 4:33:36 21. Quick Step - Innergetic, 5:12:04 ----------- That's it until the next Stage - Thanks for reading! -- Jim From race-report@cyclofiend.com Tue Jul 19 17:27:18 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 11:27:18 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 16 - Mourenx - Pau Message-ID: <200507191627.j6JGRIg22398@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 16 Mourenx - Pau 180 km The last of the moutain stages, with the potential for a sprint finish. A couple of short climbs bookend the two beasts of the day - the 9.3 km Category 1 Col de Marie-Blanque which edges upwards at 7.7% average grade and the Hors Categorie Col d'Aubisque, not averaging quite as steep (at 7%), but providing the riders with 16 km of up. After a quick blip up a Cat4 climb with 20 km to go, the riders continue basically a downhill jaunt to finish in Pau. If a sprinter can bundle himself over the peak, they could be in a position to pull out the stage, but it is also one of the last opportunities for Rasmussen to pad his lead over Ullrich before suffering through the individual time trial. 11 men go out away for the first sprint, with among other riders, Saunier Duval's Chris Horner in attendance. As they move along for the first minor climb, Credit Agricole's Andriy Kaschekin gets whapped right in the nose by one of the tubular "clapping" balloons that the caravan passes out. It hits hiim hard enough to force him over to the doctor's car to stem the bloody nose which results. Phonak rider Oscar Pereiro goes over the Col de Marie-Blanque, perhaps finding inspiration from yesterday's frustrating second place finish. Eddy Mazzoleni works his way in behind him, showing that he's still got some cylinders firing. But it wouldn't be the 2005 Tour de France without a move by T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokourov - who attacks on the base of the climb of the Col d'Aubisque. As stuffing leaks out of the legs of most of the riders, he rolls upwards. 10 riders remain fully 7:15 away from the Armstrong bunch, with a number of chasers littered along the roadway between them. The updates keep conflicting with themselves, and even the announcers have trouble with the reports they are receiving over race radio. 2 riders fewer began the stage, as Credit Agricole's massive sprinter Magnus Backsted and Lampre's Gianluca Bortalami roll over and his the big snooze button. That puts 156 riders on the roadway today. Liberty Seguros rider Roberto Heras has moved away in a solitary effort. But with the time he has lost, there's little effort made to reel him in. On the front of the bunch, Cadel Evans makes a hard move away from the lead bunch, rocketing up the roadway on the steep and crowded climb. The members of the original break attempt to chase him, but the former Australian mountain biker finds a punishing cadence to his liking and distances himself from their squalor. Pereiro, Marcus Serrano of Liberty Seguros and Lampre's Eddy Mazzoleni can at least manage a faster pace than some of the big-boned-boys, and distance themselves as well, though they still fall away from Evans. Heras reamains by himself. Some plulsing occurs at the head of the thinning peleton, with CSC's Carlos Sastre pushing out a bit. A T-Mobile trio suddenly asserts inself at the pace at the head of events, Ullrich nestled in 3rd. This gets a bit old for the Discovery squad, and stage-winner George Hincapie follows up this big pink effort by notching up the speed a touch more, relegating the German squad to observers. Ullrich animates again as they come up on Sastre, who had dangled off the end of the bunch. Basso immediately follows, and Armstrong increases his effort to pull polka-dot jersey wearing Michael Rasmussen up among them. While we don't get a view of the wreckage as most of the cameras are trying to sort out breakaways and chase riders, but assume that a large number of riders are again becoming mountain detritous. Upon closing the gap around the CSC rider, the Armstrong bunch reforms with Sastre still setting the pace. CSC's Ivan Basso, Ullrich, Armstrong, sore-nosed Kashechkin, Illes Balleares Francisco Mancebo, Spotted Michael Rasmussen, Phonak's Floyd Landis, Gerolsteiner Levi Leipheimer and Hincapie round out the group. American Fred Rodriguez watches the Armstrong train motor past him on a swtichback. He had been among members of the early break, his leadout has loosed Evans on the roadway, but he could hang on - or maybe not slide back slowly enough to be entirely accurate. Heras looks good as he finds Vinokourov on the roadway, though they don't seem too far off the front of the Armstrong bunch as the devil thumps uphil behind them in large shoes. Kashechkin just manages to hang on to the wake of break, as the combination of exhaustion from the climb and embarrassment of being damaged by what is essentially a balloon catch up with him. Evans sets his sights on the crest ofthe climb, passing through steep switchbacks within a kilometer of the summit. He's moved about 4 minutes clear of the serious chasers, showing again that mountain bikers are well suited to painful individual efforts of this type. Ullrich decides that he needs to put some padding in his time, and makes an accellerateion which neatly snips Hincapie and Kashechkin Vinokourov looks in his rear view mirror and sees they've almost reached him, and so drops back to help Ullrich set pace. Mancebo can no longer match the pace and drops back. Evans is out of the saddle trying to squeeze every stray second before attempting the 77 odd kilometers of roadway before him and the finish. He moves over the top of the Aubisque clearly showing the pains of his efforts. Pereiro animates into second, then Mazzoleni follows him over. They are maybe half a minute back, with a relatively long descent to come, punctuated by the whoop-de-doo of the Col du Solour. Vinokourov punches away in another surcge FDJ.com's Philippe Gilbert and always fighting Juan Antonio Flecha form Fasso Bortolo hit the top of the climb, just a moment or two after Marcus Serrano of Liberty Sequros. The cameras find Vinokourov again caught by the Armstrong group. Mancebo screws up himselves to try to reattach to the back end of that bunch. At the other end, Rasmussen leads over the KoM point, taking most of the remaining points for his jersey. Hincapie leads a Sastre, Kashechkin and a hovering & reattaching Kloden. Popovych is not far behind, riding solo to the summit. In the crowd, Che Guevara makes an appearance on a large red flag. Evans has set himself up fro a 40 plus mile time trial, now neatly negotiating a bit of a climb before the steep descent begins. He is chased by a spectator wearing an Ibis Bicycles jersey. I do not recieve income from these product placements, but I do like to note odd sightings of Nor Cal bicycle companies. Evans has gapped the Armstrong group by 4:40, rocking the bike to squeeze all possible time before gravity begins to assist the chasers. Rubiera and Popovych have joined the Armstrong bunch as well, giving Lance a goodly number of teammates as they head downhill. Today's Trivia Question - How many Americans have competed in the Tour since their appearance in 1981? 31 - 41 - 51 or 61? Oscar Pereiro zips neatly up to Evans and gaps him slightly. Mazzoleni continues with his quiet appearances, moving up into the slipstream of Evans. Evans lets him push into the gap after the streaking Phonak rider, who has pulled away around a couple of switchbacks. Somewhere in the back of Evans' brain must be the thought of his crash here when recon-ing. Having broken his collarbone about 7 times in the past years, Evans might not be pushing his descent down to the last squeal of adhesion. Pereiro comes up a bit lame, gets a neutral wheel to replace the flat tire and hammers to regain the bunch. He gets back on reasonably quickly, with Illes Baleares' Xabier Zandio attached to his wheel. Domina Vacanze's Jorg Ludewig and Serrano chase along just under 2 minutes in arrears of the Evans group. By the time the foursome has gotten off the serious bits of the descent, another pair of riders has moved within a couple minutes. The lead bunch has edged out to a 6:30 lead. Evans is quietly booting people out of the top 10 of the GC. This point is not lost on Rabobank, Gerolsteiner or T-Mobile, both of which move to the front and hammer the chasers into a seriously stretched line. Someone in the team cars must have pulled out the calculator, and realized that Evans has pushed past Leipheimer and threatens Ullrich and Rasmussen as well. Red-Numbe-Wearing Pereiro starts to swing to his right as his team car swings left, and nearly finding himself up on the roof rack of the vehicle. The driver considers a switch to decaf as team cars negotiate the narrowing roads and liberal use of traffic islands in the region. The peleton dips it under 6 minutes as the chasers get to deplete every last bit of go-juice that pulses in their veins. The bunch has added a number of riders on the descent. The breakaway quartet are all out of the saddle as they negotiate the Cat 4 Cote de Pardies-Pietat, which by comparison to the climbs of the past days, could be described as a slight rise in the road - 2.5 km of climbing at 5.2%. Simple big-ring stuff for these guys. Mazzoleni - one of five remaining Lampre riders in the race - quietly lurks in the break. He's a powerful rider who has worked as pace-setter for a number of qualitly riders, Stephano Garzelli among them, and often manages to show up in the standings. He's currently in the top 20, and a few minutes nabbed on this stage coult jump him up to the top 10. Philippe Gilbert from FDJ.com grabs momentum towards the day's final KoM point and streaks away from the first chase group. He gains a nice gap by the time the roads head downward, and somehow thinks he can get skip across to the Evans group. A doubtful but optimistic move. The now nearly fully reassembled peleton crosses the KoM point about four and half minutes in back of the leaders. But, Evans keeps incrasing his pressure, moving slightly away from his companions and causing Mazzoleni to engage in a big double-whump to shut down a gap which creeps in. Bouygues Telecom rider Jerome Pineau has cut down the gap to Gilbert. However, the chasing bunch behind him move their way back and catch him. The bikes in the lead break are from Ridley, BMC, Orbea and Cannondale - this kind of stuff always appeals to the tech-geek in me. The dimensions of racing bikes have changed so much over the past few years, as bicycle companies follow the lead of Giant's compace frames. It's interesting to note that the Orbea as a horizontal top tube - though it may be because of the large size needed by Zandio. Though the other tubes slope slightly, they seem more normalized than the radical tube angles on the truly compact. Regardless of the hardware, they go under the 10 km banner. The finishing bits have continued to be tricky as they ride into the more urbanized areas which loop around thetown of Pau. Undulations, turns and traffic islands continue to hurtle toward the riders as they press uphill again past the casino. They hold a 1:57 gap over the chase bunch, but the peleton has pulled within 3:30. Evans has continued to hammer the pace as hard as he can, certainly sacrificing his stage victory to gain the maximum amount of time. He has time-trialed straight through for at least 2 kilometers, refusing to let the pace devolve into tactical dinking around. A three minute lead means he will jump up into 8th place in the GC. Behind him, Ludewig, Gilbert and Pineau hit their break partners to see if one of them can take 5th place. They gain a gap on a rise into the city. Into the final kilometer Evans continues to lead - they hit the left hand turn and have about 600 straight meters to the line. The threesome behind him idle at a high rate of speed, waiting for just the right moment. Pereiro goes hard up the left hand side of Evans and finds a huge burst of speed, fueled by adrenaline and the memory of the previous stage's second place. Mazzoleni can't quite find his fast-twitch fibers and though he strains hard, he cannot match the speed. Pereiro leads the other riders to the line, but darned near mis-times his finish line gesture as Zandio looms a mere half-bike length back, streaking up fast. But, the Spanish rider has just enough momentum and erases the loss yesterday with a stage win! Gilbert has remained off the front by himself as Pineau or Ludewig get reclaimed by the chasing break buddies, but finds the roadway extremely long as the rest they continue to close the gap. Somehow, he hangs on though it seems his eyes are looking out through his ear holes as his legs pound with the power of flour. More than 3:15 behind, Laurent Brochard beats out the bunch, bringing his mullet-cum-ponytail across as he stabs his bike across the line. Pereiro enjoys his moments on the podium - his numerous attacks finally coming to fruition. The polka-dot podium girls keep their skirts down against the winds as Rasmussen realizes that there is little chance of losing the KoM jersey. Bernard Hinault zips up the jersey which ties with his record of 78 in the Tour. If Lance holds the jersey tomorrow, he will pass "The Badger" and notch in behind Eddy Merckx who still holds the record for the number of days in the Yellow Jersey. Interviewed after the jersey ceremony, Armstrong says that he feels incredible on the day - the bike riding himself. Of course, he's aware that any distance which remains ahead of him has the potential for pitfalls. But, he continues to look stronger as the race continues, much to the chagrin of those who would challenge him. In the GC, Evans moves up to split the American pair, slotting into 7th place. Only 9 seconds covers 7th through 9th place, and Leipheimer needs to grab a minute to gain his goal of top 5 in the race. The just under 3 minute gap which Rasmussen has looks extremely thin when you consider the 55 km time trial which looms this Saturday. Ullrich clearly has power left in the legs while the Dotted Dane has note shown excellence in this discipline. Stage 16 - Results 1 - Oscar Pereiro - Phonak - 4:38:40 2 - Xabier Zandio - Illes Baleares - s.t. 3 - Eddy Mazzoleni - Lampre - s.t. 4 - Cadel Evans - Lotto - s.t. 5 - Philippe Gilbert - FDJ.com - +2:25 6 - Anthony Geslin - Bouygues Telecom - s.t. 7 - Jorg Ludewig - Domina Vacanze - s.t. 8 - Juan Antonio Flecha - Fassa Bortolo - s.t. 9 - Ludovid Turpin - Ag2R - s.t. 10 - Cedric Vasseur - Cofidis - s.t. General Classification - After 16 Stages MJ - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - 66:52:03 2 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +2:46 3 - Michael Rasmussen - Rabobank - +3:09 4 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +5:58 5 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Baleares - +6:31 6 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +7:35 7 - Cadel Evans - Lotto - +9:29 8 - Floyd Landis - Phonak - +9:33 9 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +9:38 10 - Christoph Moreau - Credit Agricole - +11:47 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 17 Pau - Revel 239 km The longest stage of the Tour thankfully has moved away from the big mountains. Though classified as a "flat" stage, the organizers have managed to sneak in four categorized climbs on a slightly choppy topography. While there's nothing longer than 2 km's, climbwise, it will be a day undulations. Perhaps a rider or two will find a hidden reserve of power to aniimate things. Trivia Answer - 31 Extra Credit - how many can you name? -- Please visit Cyclofiend.com to see what's new - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 20 17:21:29 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 11:21:29 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 17 - Pau - Revel Message-ID: <200507201621.j6KGLTg28732@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 17 Pau - Revel 239 km The longest stage of the Tour thankfully has moved away from the big mountains. Though classified as a "flat" stage, the organizers have managed to sneak in four categorized climbs on a reasonably undulating topography. While there's nothing longer than 2 km's, climbwise, it will be a day of ripply bits. Perhaps a rider or two will find a hidden reserve of power to aniimate things. Folks complained a little about George Hincapie sitting on to take the win the other day. Phil actually takes the position that it was a less than sporting act, while Paul and Bob take the opposite opinion. While you could argue that he sat back and sapped strength from the bunch, big George still had to ride over the same mountains as everyone else. Regardless of how much of a gap they had obtained, his job number one was supporting Lance, and if there had been a reason, he would have done everything short of riding backwards on the road to help. If anyone deserves to climb atop the podium for a stage victory, George's years of selfless attention to the team effort has certainly qualified him. The longest stage on the Tour occurs on a fairly windy day with hot temperatures greet the riders. For the sprinter boys, big points are on the line in the Green Jersey competition - 35, 30, 25 for the first three finishers. That might help keep things animated. 156 riders begin today, but before too long, they are reduced by one - T-Mobile rider Andreas Kloden abandons with a broken scaphoid bone in his wrist. There had been a "silly" crash yesterday which was not announced during the coverage, which put Kloden down onto his wrist. Though he made it to the finish yesterday, the continued vibration was too much today, and he fetched a seat in the team car. Well, more than a rider or two got motivated today, as the peleton drags along about 17:32 behind a break of 17 riders 008 - Chechu Rubiera - Discovery 009 - Paolo Salvodelli - Discovery 017 - Oscar Sevilla - T-Mobile 022 - Kurt-Asle Arvesen - CSC 053 - Erik Dekker - Rabobank 094 - Alan Davis - Liberty Seguros 105 - Sebastian Hinault - Credit Agricole 115 - Dario Cioni - Liquigas 122 - Stephane Auge - Cofidis 137 - Bram Tankink - Quick-Step 144 - Pierrick Fedrigo - Bougues Telecom (French National Champion) 157 - Daniele Righi - Lampre 174 - Carlos Da Cruz - FDJ.com 177 - Thomas Lovkvist - FDJ.com 185 - Andriy Grivko - Domina Vacanze 204 - Sammy Dumoulin - Ag2R 205 - Simons Gerrans -Ag2R It's an iPod kinda day for the chasers, who ease up even more as they roll through the feed zone and lose another minute and a half to the breakaway. The gap more or less settles at the 20 minute mark. This creates two conditions - first is the movement of Oscar Sevilla up to 16th place on the roadway, as his nearly 40 minute deficit to the Yellow Jersey gets chopped in half. Second, with two team members in the break, Discovery will position themselves as leader in the Team Competition. Everyone enjoys the heat and the sun, spinning and dawdling along as they pull the miles under their wheels. Armstrong dispatches the camera moto up to George Hincapie, who blows kisses to his wife and child. The peleton does everything but pull into a cafe to watch the stage on TV. Of the boys in the front bunch, my money would be evenly split between Dekker and Da Cruz. Dekker for his great tactical sense of when to mount a telling attack and Da Cruz as he seems to have a constant hunger for victory, if only at interim sprint points. 61 km to go, there's a 23 minute gap. That's about a 10 mile gap. Yep, it's one of "those" stages. The cameras find Euskatel-Euskatel's Inigo Landaluze, who decided to increase ventilation on his shorts by leaving some of the material on the roadway. Some silly crash put him on the ground out of view of the cameras, but now they swarm on him to share the images of dermal abrasion. Tashi the dog makes a strong breakaway. She moves strongly to the back door moves smoothly through the yard, searching for stray cat food. Satisfied that she has missed none, she agitates for a bowl of food. Thus taken care of, she nestles into the couch looking extremely comfortable. In France about 20 km's later, Grivko, Damoulan, Savoldelli animate suddenly on a slight incline. They assemble into a group of 8 riders and move solidly away from the others. They gain a good 10 seconds. As the difference moves out to 16 seconds, the gap seems too far for Dekker to allow. The Rabobank rider fires away, but curiously may have left things too late. His efforts are quickly marked by the others who have suddenly become morose and vengeful, having missed the selection. The eight press their gap to 20 seconds, assembling into a tightly rotating paceline. 009 - Paolo Savoldelli - Discovery 017 - Oscar Sevilla - T-Mobile 022 - Kurt-Asle Arvesen - CSC 105 - Sebastian Hinault - Credit Agricole 137 - Bram Tankink - Quick-Step 157 - Daniele Righi - Lampre 185 - Andriy Grivko - Domina Vacanze 205 - Simons Gerrans -Ag2R The octet moves away by a solid minute and a half. Before they hit the finish, they will have to deal with a Cat 3 climb just after entering the town of Revel. In the main bunch, some Credit Agricolians move into the rotation at the front, aware that 8 sprint points will remain for the winner of the bunch sprint. Riders in the lead break signal wildly to their team cars, tryiing to get the last bottles on board before they hit the last 20 km's. Feeds from the cars are generally not allowed once they head under that banner. T-Mobile animates suddenly in the bunch, as a bean-counter with a calculator radios ahead to let them know that if the gap is more than 19 minutes, they have given away the lead of the team competition. Sprinter Thor Hushovd almost got caught out by a "level crossing" of a railroad line - the gates coming down nearly on top of him, Janeck Tomback of Cofidis and Jose Enrique Guiterrez from Phonak. They weave and dart under the falling arms. However, the entire team array of team and referee cars get caught behind the dropped gates, and wait drumming their fingers while the train slides slowly past. Landaluze remains well behind even the team cars, and may have a difficult time not getting finishing within the time limit. 10 km to go for the front bunch. They have just hit the beginning of the final climb. Even with T-Mobile's efforts, the gap has stretched to just over 25 minutes. The big pink train sets a hard pace, and riders begin to sweat a bit, but they really don't seem to be shutting down the gap. On the climb, Tankink makes a fast move and gets a solo gap. Before he gets too far out of sight, Grivko punches a counterattack. Hinault follows his slipstream and then moves smartly past Tankink. Salvodelli takes a page out of Armstrong's playbook, first waiting a long, long time to see if anyone else will move across the gap. Just when it seems like he's let it go too late, he moves strongly up the roadway. Shutting down the distance, he swings past everyone and spurs an increase of pace from Hinault, who can do little else but hold his wheel. Which means there's nothing between Salvodelli and the finish line except for a technical descent - not a bet you want to go against. But, they only have abouut 6 seconds on Arveson and Gerrans, who have left everyone else behind on the upper reaches of the climb. Savoldelli spurs Hinault to the front as they hit the 5 km to go banner. The Discovery rider may be worrying a bit too much about the other rider, continually looking back at him when Hinault drops back again. Probably, a good opportunity to learn some collequial terms in Italian. Arveson streaks ahead of Gerrans, gapping him as they go downhill. Gerrans dips a bit deeper into the toolbox, reattaching to the driving CSC rider. 3 km to go, and two pair of riders each try to drive the other member of the duointo doing more work. They will rapidly run out of roadway, and may be missing the big picture of stage victory. As they move between a stand of trees which puts them in the shadows, Savoldelli hammers hard trying to dump Hinault at t 2km to go. A gap appears just as Arveson attaches and follow the Italian rider. They regroup and everyone begins to gesture at aech other. Suddenly, Arvesen hits them and streaks up the roadway. Savoldelli waits for a second or two while Gerrans decides he still wants to win a stage. They may have dawdled just a bit too long as Arvesen gains a gap and streaks up the edge of the road under the 1 km to go banner in a tactically perfect move. Savoldelli ramps it up with Hinault matching him - they squeeze down the gap with as they pull through a hard left turn with 700 meters to go. Hinault visibly seizes and throws a rod, suddenly pedaling in an odd waltz-time St. Vitus dance. Savoldelli has shoots of flame coming out of his nose as he does everything he can to regain the leading rider. He slowly gains on Arvesen as the line gets ever closer. Suddenly, he's clawed himself onto the wheel of the struggling Dane. Salvodelli doesn't slow a wit and comes around him to take the stage! Another Discovery victory! Savoldelli is swarmed at the finish, relishing his first Tour stage win. The rest of the break are littered behind him, limping in as the efforts of the day combine with the exhaustion of the race. Sammy Damoulin brings the middle bits of the break while behind them, the two hapless FDJ.com riders sandwich in a group of four with Dekker and Auge. They will roll over the line at 4:09, not contesting the placings. FDJ.com might reread the big book of tactics, as having two riders in a break should have let them slip at least one into the ensuing moves. It's always easy to couch-coach, but someone wasn't paying attention. Many minutes behind, none other than Jan Ullrich leads the chase, matched easily by Armstrong, while his teammate Popovych moves up around them both to take over pacesetting. Someone's efforts have started this off, forming a gap to the rest of the bunch - no surprise it is reported to be Vinokourov. Polka-dotty Michael Rasmussen follows neatly, and is matched by Basso. George Hincapie hangs quietly at the back of the bunch, with Leipheimer, Mancebo, Vinokourov, Mazzoleni in attendance. They've found a goodly gap on the climb and left behind to their own devices are Floyd Landis and Cadel Evans, which means that if Vinokourov can squeze 9 seconds, he'll get back up to 7th place. The back of the bunch accordians and a crash occurs - a few riders who are down in the classifications untangle themselves and shake their scraped bits before regaining their machines. Up front, Hincapie now takes over driving the pace, swapping pulls with Popovych with 3 km to go. Under the 1 km to go banner, Armstrong notches up the power and drives the pace. Popovych forms a leadout train and they chug along to maximize their gap. The men most affected by the breakup, Christophe Moreau, Evans, Landis drive to the line, bring the bunch at 19 seconds behind the Armstrong bunch. That'll shuffle Vinokourov up a couple notches. On the podium after Paolo Savoldelli enjoys the kisses and champagne, Lance Armstrong pulls on his 79th Yellow Jersey, moving him officially beyond Bernard Hinault, who shakes his hand as he moves to greet the guests of honor on the podium. Stage 17 - 1 - Paolo Savoldelli - Discovery - 5:41:19 2 - Kurt-Asle Arvesen - CSC - s.t. 3 - Simons Gerrans -Ag2R - +:08 4 - Sebastian Hinault - Credit Agricole - +:11 5 - Andriy Grivko - Domina Vacanze - s.t. 6 - Oscar Sevilla - T-Mobile - +:51 7 - Bram Tankink - Quick-Step - s.t. 8 - Daniele Righi - Lampre - s.t. General Classification - After 17 Stages - MJ - Lance Armstrong - 72:55:50 2 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +2:46 3 - Michael Rasmussen - Rabobank - +3:09 4 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +5:58 5 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Baleares - +6:31 6 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +7:35 7 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +9:38 8 - Cadel Evans - Lotto - +9:49 8 - Floyd Landis - Phonak - +9:53 10 - Christoph Moreau - Credit Agricole - +12:07 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 18 - Albi - Mende 189 km A bit of a sting in the tail of this stage. After making the riders a bit grumpy with a steadily uphill start, the course finds a couple of climbs in the Massif Centrale, then punches uphill on the Cat2 climb of Cote de Boyne, a 10 km climb which brings the riders up onto an undulating plateau. But this is where everyone needs to pay attention - within 20 km of the finish comes the Cote de Chabrits, a sharp little climb and then the finishing climb of teh Cote de la Croix-Neuve, a 3 km gut-punch of 10%. If Armstrong want to win a road stage this year, this could be the one. -- You can add your bicycle to the Cyclofiend Photo Galleries - Current Classics - Cyclocross - Singlespeed Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 27 07:10:04 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 01:10:04 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 18 - Albi - Mende Message-ID: <200507270610.j6R6A4g18413@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Preface/Apology - Not that I think you all are hanging on my every word, but I'd like to apologize for missing the past few (and final) stages of the Tour. I was traveling this past weekend, and the promised "OLN for SURE" feed in the lodgings turned out to be ESPN, which would be great if I cared to watch an endless parade of "who's he?'s" debate stick & ball sports that either are out of season or should be out of season. Further, the "fast internet connection" proved to be spotty at best, usually locking up about the time I'd viewed and responded to a couple work and personal emails. If I'd known that things were to be that way, I'd have given a bit more of a warning. Alas....I didn't and thus did not. But, I'm back, and though I may have read ahead in the book, cycling is a process-oriented sport....so, I've rewound the tapes and am about to find how things unfolded. Stage 18 - Albi - Mende 189 km A bit of a sting in the tail of this stage. After making the riders a bit grumpy with a steadily uphill start, the course finds a couple of climbs in the Massif Centrale, then punches uphill on the Cat2 climb of Cote de Boyne, a 10 km climb which brings the riders up onto an undulating plateau. But this is where everyone needs to pay attention - within 20 km of the finish comes the Cote de Chabrits, a sharp little climb and then the finishing climb of the Cote de la Croix-Neuve, a 3 km gut-punch of 10%. That should weed out the big boys a bit. Riders may be dreading that little pitch, but there are a few riders who need to do well. The spots from 3rd to 9th not assured, and 7 minutes covers the spread between those riders. Further, Discovery stands 37 seconds ahead of T-Mobile in the Team Classification. Everyone will have to pay attention and scrap for every second. 155 riders begin today. One person who always seems to pay attention is T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokouov, who zips out to snag a four second time bonus at the first Sprint Point of the day, putting him a couple seconds ahead of Levi Leipheimer in the GC before the stage even gets serious. Following that, a few riders kick up their heels and go. Working well together and aided by the fact that none are a GC threat, they work up to an 11:41 lead with 74 km to go. The 10 man breakaway consists of: 13 - Matthias Kessler - T-Mobile 25 - Luke Roberts - Team CSC 39 - Xabier Zandio - Illes Balears 45 - Axel Merckx - Lotto 98 - Marcos Serrano - Liberty Seguros 119 - Franco Pellizotti - Liquigas 128 - Cedric Vasseur - Cofidis 149 - Thomas Voeckler - Bouygues Telecom 174 - Carlos Da Cruz - FDJ.com 198 - Egoi Martinez - Euskatel-Euskadi XXX - Some Rider to be named later The presence of Kessler in the break bumps T-Mobile up and around Discovery in the Team Classification. The continuing gap might lead one to believe that they either don't care diddly-squat or plan on quite an effort on the final climbs of the day. Discovery's Benjamin Noval hammers out the pace at the head of the peleton as the leading group begins to hit the slopes of the Cote du Boyne - punching quickly up for 9.2km. You'd think the climb might slow the riders, but the gap has edged out a bit more to 12:15. Road surface has been slowly softening in the heat today, though not quite turning to the treacherous black puddles which snagged Joseba Beloki a couple years ago. Now they just seem to slow the riders, adding the insult of increased friction to the injury caused by riding their bicycles around France. The Discovery team photo op froms at the head of the chase, as the hill begins to bite. Riders from Gerolsteiner are massed behind them, determined not to lose any foolish seconds as they did to start the day. In the lead group, the riders have been rotating through in what would almost seem to be a paceline. Of course, they are climbing up a mere 6% grade. Perhaps the inverted 13 of Kessler has managed to bring him luck today. Now the pace edges up a bit in the break, with Voeckler snaking above his bike in that characteristic style to rev things up. But, he pays almost immediately for the increased effort - pedals klunky squares and drifts to the back of the bunch. Of course, with Noval-the-big-boned-boy leading the charge uphill, you can pretty much figure that the stops have not yet been pulled out today. Behind the Discovery squad, Michael Rasmussen in everything except for polka-dotted shoes, Levi Leipheimer, Phonak's Floyd Landis and T-Mobile's Jan Ullrich all follow in their immediate wake. And lest all of the couch pilots get cocky, he's running them along at 20 mph. Climbing. Up ahead, the ever-scooting Carlos Da Cruz squirts away for the Sprint points. He's nabbed the mountain points since the breakaway separated themselves. Their accelleration toward the money line pushes the gap into the neighborhood of 13 minutes even. Zandio of Illes Ballears is gaining the most from this time spread, as he started the day in 26th place and now has moved up to about 20th on the roadway. He takes a moment to drop back to his team car for bottles and a strategic caucus before rejoining the quickly rotating paceline which continues adding time to their gap. It will be a tricky finish, as I alluded to earlier - following the undulations of the plateau, two sharp climbs hit the riders in quick succession before a slight downward pitch, which will add to what is now a tailwind to the finish. And they'll have plenty of time for tactical dinking around, as the gap has added another minute. Phil and Paul devolve into odd jokes and theorizing about which space aliens have managed to carve out the bicycle images in the hay fields. All this to cove the face that the gap has stretched another 60 seconds. 15 minutes even. That's roughly a 6 mile lead. 20 km to go. Clearly, the winner will come from the breakaway. 15 km to go. The route now quickly snaps the riders out of town onto the final climbs of the day. Word is that even though the last climb averages 10.1%, the final pitches are more on the order of 15%. It's certainly going to hurt. Da Cruz makes a move. He pushes out a clean gap from the rest of the bunch, who race their pace but don't get all goofy. Unfortunately, he finds a nekkid guy running in front of him. A quarter hour behind them, CSC has suddenly strung out the bunch Zandio moves awyu from the bunch, followed immediately by Merckx. Merckx dumps Zandio in short order, and nearly runs over teh fast failing Da Cruz. Voeckler hammers aw2ay, jersey unzipped and flapping behind him. He shuts down the gap to Merckx and the twosome slips over the climb with about five seconds over Serrano, Zandio and Vasseur. As they scream down the descent, the three riders turn themselves inside out to regain the wheel of Merckx and Voeckler. They've created a gang of six, with Pellizotti nipping up to them as they begin the final climb. Merckx sets the pace on what looks darned steep climb - even on TV. Testing them with some pressure. Everyone is out of the saddle dancing on the pedals. Merckx accellerates again as spectators crouch agains the jptich Zandio now drops back and Pellizotti gets all mushy as the other four continue hurting one another. Voeckler buttons up his coat and leaves - but out the wrong way this time. Serrano tries to cause a selection, which only serves to sever Merckx. Vasseur continues to look strong as Merckx watches them 10 feet ahead o them. The steep bit knifes into the riders legs. Looking strong and riding well are not always the same, as both Merckx and Vasseur can only match pedal strokes and watch Serrano continue to stretch away. Though he looks agonizingly close on the extremely steep climb. Mardi Gras hits France as the inbred wine taster's clubs populate the climb. Thank goodness for metal barriers. Serrano peels away layers of his skin to reduce excess weight and then streaks down a slight downhill. By the time he begins looking behind and zipping up his jersey, there's nothing behind him but chase vehicles. He wins his first Tour stage ever, punctuating the win with a huge smile. Behind him Merckx gets a spoonful of bitter soup as Vasseur shoots around him to take second. He shares a few choice phrases of Flemish-influenced invective at the French ricer. On the steeps, Armstrong, Basso, Ullrich and Cadel Evans have formed a breakaway quartet and few other riders are anywhere to be seen. Noticable in their absence are Rasmussen and Alexandre Vinokourov. Vino tries to stay stuck with Leipheimer and Rasmussen, who have fallen an easy 30 seconds in back. Basso again tries to push Armstrong, and Ullrich once again can no longer hold the pace of the Italian rider. Though a gap appears, Ullrich keeps stressing his hardware, raising a cloud of aluminum shavings and carbon dust, but manages to close it down again. He doesn't want to attack Armstrong, but he is relentlessly slicing down the time which separates them. The foursome keeps the pace high as Armstrong takes over the pacemaking. Armstrong and Basso lead them through the chicanes that lead into the finish line, and a petulant Evans tries a late dive at the line. Rasmussen's group follws 36 seconds behind, and I imagine the Dane is well aware that those seconds would have helped at the upcoming time trial. Landis and Eddy Mazzoleni come in together after another gap appears. No other riders can be seen behind them, as they gasp their way through the heat of southern France. Stage 18 - 1 - Marcos Serrano - Libety Seguros - 4:37:36 2 - Cedric Vasseur - Cofidis - +:27 3 - Axel Merckx - Lotto - s.t. 4 - Xabier Zanio - Illes Balears - +1:08 5 - Franco Pellizotti - Liquigas - s.t. 6 - Thomas Voeckler - Bouygues Telecom - +1:28 7 - Luke Roberts - CSC - s.t. 8 - Matthias Kessler - T-Mobile - +1:44 9 - Egoi Martinez - Euskatel-Euskadi - +2:03 10 - Carlos Da Cruz - FDJ.com - +2:39 GC - MJ - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - 77:44:44 2- Ivan Basso - Team CSC - +2:46 3- Michael Rasmussen - Rabobank - +3:46 4 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +5:58 5 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Balears - +7:08 6 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +8:12 7 - Cadel Evans - Lotto - +9:49 8 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +10:11 9 - Floyd Landis - Phonak - +10:42 10 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - +13:15 If he can finish in Paris, Michael Rasmussen has clinched the Polka-Dot Jersey, as no other rider can move past him by virtue of points. He leads the competition by 50 points, with less than that between him and Paris. Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 19 - Issoire - Le Puy en Velay 153 km The shortest road stage comes the day before the Saturday's individual time trial. Still there is little to chear about, as the ribbon of the roadway negotiate 5 categorized climbs and two more sprint points. Althrough nothing is worse than a Cat2, there seems to be virturally flats to be found. A descent to the finish may give another opportunistic breakaway the chance to shine again. -- The Cyclofiend.com Galleries need your photos! - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 30 05:06:36 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 23:06:36 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 19 - Issoire - Le Puy en Velay Message-ID: <200507300406.j6U46ag19050@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 19 - Issoire - Le Puy en Velay 153 km The shortest road stage comes the day before the Saturday's individual time trial. Still there is little to chear about, as the ribbon of the roadway negotiates 5 categorized climbs and two more sprint points. Althrough nothing is worse than a Cat2, there seems to be virturally flats to be found. A descent to the finish may give another opportunistic breakaway the chance to shine again. Although Rabobank's Michael Rasmussen has clinched the KoM Jersey, the Green Points Jersey is still mathematically up for grabs, with enough points that Thor Hushovd's grip on it can be loosened. The scenario of an early breakaway has once again been played out, but this time, the gaps have not formed. Phonak's Oscar Pereiro, T-Mobile's Guiseppe Guerini and FDJ.com's Sandy Casar head over the second climb of the day in that order, then buck it up and try to hold their advantage. They become a quartet when Franco Pellizotti from Liquigas hammers across the gap to join them. They've set a particularly torrid pace - 41.6 km per hour for the first hour. Behind them by about 50 seconds is a motivated chase group with CSC's Kurt-Asle Arveson, Phonak's Bert Grabsch, Fassa Bortolo's Juan Antonio Flecha, Lampre's Salvatore Commesso, Domina Vacanze's Alessandro Bertolini, Discovery's Jose Azevedo, Rabobank's Pieter Weening, Cofidis' Sylvan Chavanel, FDJ.com's Carlos da Cruz, who really must be a coffee achiever to put himseslf in yet another breakaway. Of course, the chasing bunch contains riders which will tend to favor FDJ.com, although did manage to blow it with two riders in the final break in an earlier stage. Phonak will also end up with two riders if they reform into a larger breakaway. We shall see today how that helps both groups. . Although they seemed interested in keeping them in check, the Discovery team now throttles back a bit at the head of the peleton, allowing the breakaway to push out into the neighborhood of 3 minutes. The Cat 2 climb of Col des Pradeaux begins to sink its teeth into Commesso's thighs, and he decides to celebrate by jumping away from his companions. Bertolini cannot stay attached with the accelleration, while the combined efforts of Da Cruz and Flecha keep everyone else honest on the way up. Arvesen works on his international interpersonal communication skills, trying to convince everyone else that they want to work harder. Although he again goes to the front and sets the pace, it looks like everyone has been told not to work. Either that or the previous few throusand kilometers which everyone has in their legs has begun to take their toll. Gerolsteiner's Peter Wrolich coasts along next to the race doctor, who tries to see just what got into his eyeball. Up front Commesso hammers, lifting his stocky body out of the saddle and muttering in odd colloquial tongue, trying to hack down the gap to the foursome out front. Word comes through that Cofidis' Stuart O'Grady has been suffering with some intenstinal difficulties - not perhaps the best way to recover today. Despite his efforts, Commesso is swept up by the remainder of the chase group - Weening, Da Cruz, Arvesen, Azevedo and Grabsch, who continue to cut down the difference to the leaders. The lead foursome hit the top of the worst climb on the day, with Pereiro taking the unfortunately useless KoM points. 83 or so kilometers to the finish. They have, however, edged their lead out to about 3:35 over the main bunch. Arvesen continues to set the pace in the chase group, but they don't seem to be capable of nicking under the 2 minute mark in their efforts. We get a chance to view the slow daance of the feed zone, as Discovery riders swap sandwiches and see what goodies everybody got. As they slip food into pockets and munch away, they continue to lose time, sliding back to 6 minutes in fairly short order. Discovery seems very interested in being disinterested, and they lollygag at the front as another minute gets added to the gap. Those folks crunching the numbers begin to realize that if Pereiro maintains the gap, Vinokourov, Floyd Landis and Cadel Evans will all get pushed down a spot. That might actually wake some folks up. The case group has swollen once again, with those dropped riders regaining the shelter of the bunch. They'd pretty much have to get off their bikes and dance a pirouette to get caught - the peleton shuffles at 8:41, pushing Oscar Pereiro into 7th place on the roadway. Fifth place Francisco Mancebo kicks the spurs into his teammates, and the colorful jerseys of Illes Baleares begin to lift the pace, to see if they can reduce the 8:53. In the chase group, Commesso again hammers away, but cannot muster escape velocity and the other riders lock in behind him. As the road pitches upwards a bit, some members ot he bunch slide away. His efforts lead the chase bunch to lop off about 20 seconds by the time they hit the summit. Comemesso notches it up again and the other riders seem almost ready to let him go off again. No one really wants to drag this versatile and explosive rider up to the finish line. Chop-chop-chop.... the gap from the leading four to the peleton drops suddenly to 7 minutes. The topography begins to undulate a bit before the screaming and somewhat tricky descent into the finishing town, and the gaps accordian a bit while the leaders hit the hills and the chasers enjoy a bit of the gravity push. Commesso-commesso-commesso... pulses away, gestures at his lackadasical fellow-travelers and tries to spur something, anything, but again it falls to naught. I hope he doesn't take it personally. I don't think I've ever seen a group fracture and reform so many times. In contrast, the four riders off the front give an exhibition of a small-scale team time trial. The foursome plays through the last sprint point of the day - Bellevue (although it _is_ tempting to type Belleville...) which finds Pereiro nicking a quick 6 second bonus. He is line hungry today. 6:50 behind the leaders, the peleton follows behind the efforts of Lotto and Gerolsteiner. Commesso...oh never mind... Another Commesizaton at the 25 km to go banner, and one of the chasers - Chavanel, Da Cruz or Flecha - takes a quick swat at some wine-laden spectators who had wandered out pretty m8uch directly in front of him. He ziggs at the same moment, narrowly avoiding a silly trajedy. This time Commesso stays ahead for a bit longer, gets joined by Chavanel and Arvesen. They rotate a bit, but Grabsch and Portal reconnect without undo effort. Grabsch of course won't work a speck as his man is away up front, which may doom this effort again. But, they are at least close enough to the finish for them to think seriously about maintaining the effort. The leaders begin to sweep down the final bits, coming under the 5 km to go banner. Everyone begins to eye one another a bit as gravity swings them down and riders suck the last gulps from their bottles and toss them aside. Pellizotti looks like the youngster in the group, but he's a pretty savvy rider with some decent speed. Pereiro must be a bit conflicted, as he wants the break to maintain time (as he is in 10th now on the roadway - the peleton about 5:50 back), but he would certainly enjoy taking another stage. In fact, he's almost exactly in the same position as Cadel Evans was when Pereiro swung around him to take the stage. Guerini fires up the road from the last position in the bunch, and the other three just look at each other and say "DOH!". He's got a strong gap and begins metabolizing pieces of his lungs. He takes another look back in the heat waves and sees nothing but cars and crowds. Guerini's effort began a good 1400 meters from the line. An absolute textbook attack to win! In the chase bunch, Commesso - no, I'm not making this up - moves at precisely the same spot as Guerini to take fifth place absolutely uncontested from the lolly-gaggers who accompanied him. Cofidis' Cedric Vasseur and Matthew White make a strong tempo for the bunch, who now are sprinting for 14th place - Robbie McEwen appears suddenly around the last corner and just beats Thor Hushovd to the line snaggin just one pont back from the big Norwegian in the Points competition. I wonder if he thinks back to that early stage where he became entangled with O'Grady as they fought to the line. With those points, he may well have been in the Green... Stage 19 - Results - 1 - Giuseppe Guerini - T-Mobile - 3:33:04 2 - Sandy Casar - FDJ.com - +:10 3 - Franco Pellizotti - Liquigas-Bianchi - s.t. 4 - Oscar Pereiro - Phonak - +:12 5 - Savatore Commesso - Lampre - +2:43 6 - Kurt-Asle Arvesen - CSC - +2:48 7 - Nicolas Portal - Ag2R - s.t. 8 - Bert Grabsch - Phonak - s.t. 9 - Sylvain Chavanel - Cofidis - s.t. 10 - Pieter Weeningportal - Rabobank - 3:50 11 - Jose Azevedo - Discovery - 4:21 12 - Carlos Da Cruz - FDJ.com - s.t. 13 - Juan Antonio Flecha - Fassa Bortolo - s.t. 14 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto - 4:31 15 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole - s.t. General Classification - After Stage 19 MJ - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - 81:22:19 2- Ivan Basso - Team CSC - +2:46 3- Michael Rasmussen - Rabobank - +3:46 4 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +5:58 5 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Balears - +7:08 6 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +8:12 7 - Cadel Evans - Lotto - +9:49 8 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +10:11 9 - Floyd Landis - Phonak - +10:42 10 - Oscar Pereiro - Phonak - +12:39 Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 20 - Individual Time Trial - St. Etienne 55.5 km A technical route with climbs.... hmmmm, whose strengths does that play to? With no win in a road stage, Armstrong will be motivated to show that he is the strongest rider. No better place to throw it down than the twisty tough Time Trial. There can't be much time spent going straight, and I cannot recall a "flat" TT which actually had in it a Cat3 climb. Of course, the other critical time gaps will be from Ullrich to Rasmussen, and you can cover 5th place Francisco Mancebo through 9th place Floyd Landis with about 3 and a half minutes. Over this course, it's all a possibility. For a wealth of riders, this absolutely will be the "race of truth." -- Cyclofiend.com wants to host your bicycle photos - Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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 31 01:45:41 2005 From: race-report@cyclofiend.com (race-report@cyclofiend.com) Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 19:45:41 -0500 Subject: [Tour 2005]Stage 20 - St. Etienne Time Trial Message-ID: <200507310045.j6V0jfg29369@smapp01.siteprotect.com> Stage 20 - Individual Time Trial - St. Etienne 55.5 km As Lance said in his after-stage interview yesterday, it's never flat. Beyond that, it sure isn't straight, and it's one tough technical route with climbs, twists, roundabouts and traffic furniture. It's also the last time trial which Lance Armstrong will race. Motivated? Ya think? But, other riders have a almost everything on the line as well, as the places from 3rd to 10th are all within striking distance. You can be sure that no one stayed up late last night partying... We're watching the top 17 riders getting ready to roll - CSC's Bobby Julich rolls away from the start house. Either he's developed a tension hump or he's one of the few pro riders who uses a Camelback hydration system. He's also still turning that eliptical chainring. Three minutes later, George Hincapie hits the gas out of the start house. The powerful rider gets immediately up to speed in the full sun. Best time on the road has come from Sebastian Lang of Gerolsteiner at 1:15:33. No one particularly believes this will hold up. Spotted Michael Rasmussen has a gagle of press and fans watching him warm up on a trainer. Vladimir Karpets of Illes Balears huffles his ungainly but incredibly effective Time Trial style up to the line, nicking a good three quarters of a minute with a new best time of 1:14:51 The White Jersey of Yaroslav Popovych rolls out into the suburbs of St. Etienne, moves his way onto the first climbs and confusing curves of the route. Jorg Jaksche of Liberty Seguros wobbles over his bike as he heads uphill. He's moving well, but the pain must be deep in his bones at this stage of the race. Chris Horner, the American riding for Saunier Duval, moves thorugh the time check in 5th place, looking great as he catches his four minute man - Pietro Caucchioli. He actually seems to be smiling. Julich zips through 20 odd seconds ahead of the best time at 17 km. Hincapie is just a few seconds behind him, now with the second best time at that point. The cameras find John Kerry in the crowd and wrangle an interview out of him. Despite managing to keep the interveiw going for longer than your average politician, he does heap accolades upon everyone from OLN through Bob Roll. As he continues to expound, a frame within the frame finds Lance Armstrong warming up, his twin daughters and son watching dad get ready for work. Phonak rider Floyd Landis has hit the first climb out on the course. His saddle position is quite cringe-inducing, as he definitely uses the skinny bits as he's punching over a massive gear. The big pink form of Jan Ullrich blots out the sun, as he crosses himself and sits with a cleanly shaved cheek and chin. Not that he had a mountain man look before, but riders will often not shave on the day of a time trial. I dunno, maybe it's a European thing. Chris Horner continues smiling as he heads to the line 1:16:31 - 8th best place. This rider has finished out this Tour in excellent form. Back in the starthouse, Michael Rasmussen ahs a weird and haunted look about him, as he fidgets and dinks around with his shoes. He's one of the few riders not to wear any glasses. He only has about 2:45 of padding on this day, as Big Jan looks frighteningly strong out on the coruse. Sastre hits the climb 58:35, 26 seconds faster than Karpets at that point Rasmussen is down! Swooping around a roundabout, he suddenly unclips his right foot as though he's going to tripod it, but he slides for a second or two and hops back onto his bike. He's lost a patch on his mid right thigh. Slow motion shows that his front wheel slid out just before he felt it go. He's pushed away on his machine and regains his cadence, but that sure isn't the way to start your effort. Julich has moved 45 seconds better than Sastre - the CSC boys are tearing up the course, feeding back a series of "carrots" for Ivan Basso to aim for. Now, Lance Armstrong sits in the starthouse. He looks focused, ready and leaps away strongly. He swings up into his high cadence and Word comes back that Hincapie again holds the second best time behind Julich. Unfortunately, a dearth of cameras makes this a great moment in radio. Landis has slotted in at ht 17k time check only 5 seconds behind Julich. Vinokourov knocks a few seconds off of Julich's 17 km time. The T-Mobile rider has quietly scooted out on the course. Julich at the top at 58:02 at the Col de Gachet time check, another best time on the course. Armstrong's bike literally disappears when the camera swings around behind him. He's riding the Trek TTX carbon bicycle which was developed for his final tour, and unlike Ullrich and Rasmussen, he has decided not to run a full disk rear wheel. Hincapie has slid back a touch, about 40 seconds at the top of the big climb. Cadel Evans seems to be having a good day, as his time checks put him well within the mix. Ullrich has pulled back 1:12 on Rasmussen, well before the midpoint of the course. Sastre shows up at the finish, but, he finds a little too much drag in the system, and fades 5 seconds behind Karpets, losing what was a 30 second lead at 5 km to go. Through the magic of modern technology, we get a time check that shows Ullrich has crept within 52 seconds of Rasmussen. Thank goodness for timing transponders... Leipheimer passes through 17 km into 9th place, perhaps pacing himself a little differently on this tricky course. Basso rides uphill through a parting mass of humanity. He's running full throttle and climbing cleanly. But, Ullrich has clearly thrown down the gauntlet, the new best time at 17 km with 25:57. He's squeezed down the Rasmussen gap to 27 seconds. Ullrich rides like a serious predator, shark-like with his open mouth. He's sending up a rooster tail of pavement and hacking the deficit down to 11 seconds with just under 40 km to go. Julich flies around the final turns on the course and crosses the line in 1:13:19! He's strongly accellerated over the last kilometers, putting himself a minute and a half ahead of Karpets. Basso - 17 seconds faster than Ullrich at 17 km - 25:40. Flames show around his ankles. Now Armstrong heads up toward the 17 km check point, but it looks like Basso's time will hold - Armstrong goes under 7 seconds slower than Basso. Hincapie notches in 1:14:11 which has him in a provisional 2nd place for the stage. Rasmussen now trails Ullrich on the roadway by 2 seconds. No, wait, it gets worse for Rasmussen - he has a wheel change. He has a bike change. He has a problem with the changed bike. Rasmussen hails his team car up and says something to them. Basso flew past him at the first catastrophe of the second act, and has solidly disappeared up the roadway. Rasmussen now looks like he's stuck on a huge gear as he tries to buck up hill. A replay shares Armstrong's chamois-adjusting technique, in slow motion. Rasmussen gets yet another bike change. Sometimes, it's just better to hit the snooze bar and roll over... Landis now nicks the second best time check at the Col de la Gachet. Estimated times are extrapolating from 17 km check, which places Basso in first and Armstrong in second. Of course, if you could do it that way, there's no point in racing... Vinokourov cracks off the best time at 57:33 - 17 seconds fast than Julich. He's riding an exceptional TT today. We see Ullrich on the course negotiating a blind 180 degree turn, and he comes around it like he's riding sketchy singletrack. He seems to have a bit of trouble regaining his cadence, but his low cadence and huge power can be deceptive. Popovych comes through at 1:14:5...we cut away - as Rasmussen has another meltdown, overshoots a turn and goes flying into the roadside underbrush. Not the way you want to seize the attention of the cameras. Basso seems a touch tentative on the narrow descent through the town - he changes - and it shows on the clock, as he's dropped 30 secondsd behind Ullrich at the second time check. Ullrich is beginning to challenge Basso's position on the podium, now sits only 2:43 behind the CSC rider on the roadway. Armstrong has gone 19 seconds faster than Ullrich at the super-secret 35Km time check. Ullrich looks like a big, pink, bike riding machine as he punches through 37 faster than Vinokourov over the big climb checkpoint at 40.5 km. Landis shows every vein in his legs as he hunches over his arms, all nose and chin, but runs through the line at 1:13:48, moving Hincapie down to 3rd. Armstrong has sighted Rasmussen, and ramps up the effort to streak up on him like a club rider. The 6 minute gap at the start now down to zero. Rasmussen visibly deflates for a pedal stroke or two, then regains what remains of his composure and hefts out of the saddle again in his climbing style. One of the cranial-anal inversion suffering fans throws a bottle's worth of water at Armstrong on the climb. It didn't look like he meant it to help. It also gets on the camera lens... Vinokourov struts out a 1:13:02, hanging onto his 17 second lead which all took place on the climb of the Col de la Gachet. An excellent effort which puts him in provisional first place. Basso no longer looks fluid as he works to defeat the climb that Ullrich has put behind him. He's climbing, of course, but he's got to be painfully aware that his lead has lessened to 2:24 over Ullrich. Basso comes into view over the Col - 57:41 - only the third best time. He's all teeth and goo, trying to suck in any air that can be found. Evans rolls through at 1:13:52 - a provisional 4th place before the monsters come home to roost. Armstrong may just want this stage - he's come through the Col de Gachet 32 seconds ahead of Ullrich. The power downhill section remains, and Lance tucks into the swooping turns in what looks like it could be Sonoma County. He slows for nothing, angular or animate object, and we begin to see a color shift in his jersey, just like in the sci-fi films when spaceships go to warp speed. Basso continues to suffer from his ealy efforts, though he seems to have regained a bit of confidence in his descending. Ullrich looks like he's not even sweating - clearly a mirage caused by the resolution on the tape - but he's punishing the hardware and you can hear audible creaks from the frame as carbon and aluminum bits fly into space, compressed beyond recognition. Now the fixed cameras begin to pick him up as he hammers to the finish - 1:12:09 - best time on the course so far! Armstrong continues pulsing out a high cadence, his upper body barely moving. He doesn't seem to be moving all that fast until you get a slight side angle, where you see fans and buildings whisking past him. He pops out to the saddle to accellerate again at the 5 km to go banner, with a full 35 seconds ahead of Ullrich. Basso sees angels dancing on his wrists and he passes under the 3 km to go banner. All he wants is that finish, and it must seem to be forever moving away from him. Rasmussen continues to fall like a pachinko ball, now 7:18 behind the best time, and his day is far from over. Basso gains blessed relief and crosses the line - he's found some extra calories hidden somewhere and comes in at 1:13:40, 1:31 behind Ullrich, leaving him on the podium in second place. The somewhat incomplete parade follows Armstrong to the line - some vehicles must remain back with Rasmussen - and he ticks over that beautiful pedaling style to finish 23 seconds in front of Ullrich on the day - best time on the stage at 1:11:46 - clearly the downhill power sections of the course did favor Jan's big diesel engine, but one has to ride the whole danged course, eh? Someone who wishes he didn't have to - our man Michael Rasmussen - looks like he's been mugged and his dogs have left him. He crosses the line at 1:19:33, 76th position overall, just about 7:47 slower than Armstrong. A quick calculation means that drops him down to 7th place in the GC. That was a bad day at work. Stage 20 - 1 - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - 1:11:46 2 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +:23 3 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +1:16 4 - Bobby Julich - CSC - +1:33 5 - Ivan Baso - CSC - +1:54 6 - Floyd Landis - Phonak - +2:02 7 - Cadel Evans - Lotto - +2:06 8 - George Hincapie - Discovery - +2:25 9 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Balears - +2:51 10 - Vladimir Karpets - Illes Balears - +3:05 GC - MJ - Lance Armstrong - 82:34:05 2 - Ivan Basso - +4:42 3 - Jan Ullrich - +6:21 4 - Francisco Mancebo - +9:59 5 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +11:25 6 - Alexandre Vinokourov - +11:27 7 - Michael Rasmussen - +11:33 8 - Cadel Evans - +11:55 9 - Floyd Landis - +12:44 10 - Oscar Pereiro - +16:04 Tomorrow - Final Stage - Parade into Paris Corbeil - Essonnes - Paris - 144km Champagne will flow and riders will goof around, swapping bikes and mugging for the camera. Sadly, rain is forecast for the day, but even a blizzard would do nothing to reduce the enthusiasm for this most unique of Tour events - barring the obscenely odd, Lance Armstrong will win an unprecedented Tour de France. -- Galleries for your bicycle - at Cyclofiend.com Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Add your bicycle to the Galleries! http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines ---------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend. http://www.cyclofiend.com If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are archived here: http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html 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 2005 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