[Tour 2005]Stage 1 - It Begins Today
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race-report@cyclofiend.com
Sat, 2 Jul 2005 13:18:22 -0500
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.
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