Tour de France - Team Time Trial Recap; Stage 3 Preview

Clearly the Strategy of Garmin-Cervelo for today's 23km Team Time Trial was to ride really fast for as long as they could and hope it was good enough to beat all of the other top teams. It worked and the team not only won the stage, but will host to the Yellow jersey for the next few days. Saxo Bank-SunGard, the team of defending Tour champion Alberto Contador, never found their rhythm and looked disjointed and unorganized. Eventhough they finished 28 seconds behind the winner, the race favorite lost even more time in his quest for a fourth title. Not exactly the start he was looking for in the first few days on this years Tour.

I was little surprised by Garmin's reaction to their win though. Hoisting their team manager up on the podium was a little over the top, amateurish,  and seemed to indicate that they reached their Tour goal of winning a stage and winning the right to wear the Yellow Jersey for a few days. I hope that we haven't seen their best so early in the race

Although Team Sky clocked an opening speed of almost 60km/hr (37.5mph) at the 9km checkpoint, the team and their white jersey wearer -Geraint Thomas (Best Placed rider under 25 yrs old) could only manage a third place on the day. HTC-Highroad wondered what might have been after an early stage crash by Bernard Eisel disrupted their early rhythm and could have easily accounted of their team's five second deficit on Garmin pushed them to 5th on the day. Radioshack had a respectable, albeit conservative ride, to finish 10 seconds down with four guys on their team threatening to finish on the podium in Paris. The big loser of the day was Samuel Sanchez of Rabobank who is so far down on time that he can only realistically look forward to a stage win now.

The surprise ride of the day was the BMC team of George Hincapie and overall contender Cadel Evans, who is now 1:41 ahead of Contador. They pulled of the ride of the day and eventhough they didn't get to pop the champagne bottle, I'll bet they feel like winners with their second place ride and with Cadel missing the yellow jersey by one second. The consolation prize is that they don't have to lead over the next few days and feel the pressure of defending the jersey and can save their energy for when it counts.

1 Garmin-Cervelo 0:24:48
2 BMC 0:24:52
3 Sky 0:24:52
4 Leopard Trek 0:24:53
5 HTC-Highroad 0:24:53
6 RadioShack 0:24:58
7 Rabobank 0:25:00
8 Saxo Bank-SunGard 0:25:16

Stage 3
Tomorrow's stage is pancake flat and is destined for a sprint finish. Mark Cavendish of HTC-Highroad would be the favorite, but he didn't appear to be particularly interested in the intermediate sprint in stage 1, but then again he is all about the win. Garmin's Tyler Farrar might think that he has a chance, but I haven't seen anything that indicates that he is about to break through...yet. Look for Cav, Hushvod, or Pettachi to take the stage on the slightly uphill finish.

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Tour de France - Stage 1 Recap; Team Time Trial Preview

Photo credit © Roberto Bettini

If today's Stage 1 is any indication, this years tour is going to be one heck of a race. Phillipe Gilbert must have smiled when he saw today's stage profile. The short punchy climb at the finish of the stage was perfectly sutied for this year's king of Ardennes Classics and newly crowned Belgium National Champion. Successfully covering any last minute threats, Gilbert simply pulled away from the front end of the splintered peloton that suffered multiple crashes in the final 5km, including 'Spartacus Fabian Cancellara with 600 meters to go. 

No one was really surprised however, as Gilbert was the favorite from the flag drop shortly after the neutralised traverse over the Passage du Gois. The big surprise was the huge time gaps that some of the overall contenders found themselves suffering on the first day of the 2001 Tour de France. An inattentive spectator looking in the opposite way of the hard charging peloton collided with an Astana rider to cause a massive pileup, with which provided no forward progress. Just a tangled mess of lycra, spokes and tempers. At the end of the day Alberto Contador, the defending champion, found himself holding an 80 second deficit on his main rivals, including Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans, Chris Horner, Levi Leipheimer, Ivan Basso, and Bradley Wiggins. I'm having a hard time remembering a time when a defending champion has had such a terrible start to their defense. Maybe Pedro Delgado in 1989 when he missed his start time for the opening prologue and put over 2 1/2 minutes on himself, eventually finishing third to Greg Lemond's victory. Rough day and a big hole to climb out of.

Tomorrow's Team Time Trial stage is a beautiful event for the casual and die-hard spectator alike. The top teams with the top contenders shouldn't gain or lose too much time on the stage. The relatively short (23km) triangular sharped stage will challenge teams to find a balance between teamwork, leveraging their strongest riders, and not overthinking the intense racing that will require precision, strength, and pain. Adieu

Look for the top teams to finish in this order.

1. Team Sky
2. HTC-Highroad
3. Radioshack
4. Liquigas
5. Garmin-Cervelo

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Tour de France Preview Stage 1

Tomorrow is the start of 2011 of the Tour de France. Aside from Groundhog Day, Cyclocross season, and the northern classics, it's just about my favorite time of year. Starting Saturday July 2nd and concluding in Paris on July 24th, the 98th Edition of my favorite race has some interesting elements in what I hope is more than a duel between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck. The race this year:

•  Features 21 stages (Daily races that can produce a different winner each day)
• Total distance covered of 3430 kilometers (about 2130 miles) in the span of the three weeks (two rest days are included).
• The return of the beautiful Team Time Trial. 
• The historic le Galibier will be climbed twice, included as the highest finish of a Tour stage as well as a midstage quad buster.
• Twenty-three level 2, 1, or hor de catagorie (beyond classification) climbs and summit finishes
• No time bonuses (good!) will be handed out for intermediate sprints and stage finishes.

This year the Tour also welcomes American George Hincapie for a record tying 16th attempt, arriving in Paris for 14 editions of the race. George was only member to be in all seven of Lance Armstrong's victories. Known for his epic rides in the Northern Classics of the spring, George is a a fantastic lieutenant and will help support Cadel Evans in his victory attempt for the BMC team this year.

 
July 1st Stage 1.

I'm a little disappointed that the Passage du Gois that will mark the start of the Tour will be ceremonial. When the Tour route was announced I immediately anticipated a treacherous and dramatic stage. The road connect two pieces of land and is only accessible during the low tide. Alas, the societe' that runs the Tour, eliminated any possibility that the unique road would offer any fireworks during the American Independence Day holiday weekend. The passage will be neutralized (no racing) and traversed as a ceremonial start.

In 1999 though, the Passage du Gois was arguably the decisive stage (stage 2) of that year's Tour. The stage was timed so that the peloton would cross over after the road is revealed as the water recedes. However, the riders were anxious about the crossing and the speed was high and racing was tight. One of the inevitable first week crashes happened on the wet surface, splintering the peloton and causing many of the top contenders to hit the deck or be caught behind the mass of downed riders. One of those riders was Swiss star, Alex Zulle, who was enjoying his best run-up to the Tour where he had been considered a favorite for that year. The Motorola team, headed by yellow jersey wearer Lance Armstrong (from the Prologue just a day earlier), recognized the split and put the 'hammer down' and went full on gas to separate themselves from the fallen. Lance, the eventual race winner (his first), finished about six minutes ahead of the trailing peloton. As it turns out that was more than enough to secure the overall win in Paris three weeks later, even though there was a lot more racing to be had.

Expect the little bump at the end of this pancake flat stage to benefit riders like Philippe Gilbert or Thor Hushold to win the stage and the first wearer of this years Maillot Jaune. Adieu.

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Two Days Until Barry-Roubaix!!!

Barry-Roubaix is two days away!! But, New Years Day seems like it was just a couple of weeks ago. It was then that I dedicated myself to being in shape by the end of March. I'll take my normal training break after the last cross race of the year and start back up in earnest with some great rides to usher in the new year. I'll do an abbreviated base and start hitting heart rate levels that no self respecting push bike racer should be doing before Groundhog Day. Then, that whole 42" of snow in two days thing happened and I was resigned to the basement aka the motivation sucker-outer.

You can't ride hard in the basement. Maybe I'll start the intervals by Valentines day. The roads will certainly be free of snow and ice by then, so I could least get outside and get some hard rides in. Then the second blizzard hit and another 27" in a 24 hour period. Stupid lake effect snow. I still have six weeks left. Plenty of time.

Fat Tuesday and all of the Pazcki's (a heavy filled donut) slowed me down a bit in the beginning of March. St Patrick's Day was on a Thursday and that certainly put a dent into that weekend's rides. Well, once the time changes I'll have plenty of time to ride with the increased daylight. The time change is when? Crap. Nobody is fast in March are they? Well there was that one guy who passed me in the sandy two track on his road bike and slicks last year. Hopefully he's not racing this year. Even more people are racing this year? Crap.

Where's my bike rack? My go fast tires? My warm, but not too warm hat for a sub-30 degree start? It's going to be how cold? Toe warmers! I'm out of toe warmers! Maybe the ski store will have some. Score! Fortunately, I've had plenty of time to work on my excuses. I'm ready to go.

Barry-Roubaix "The Killer Gravel Road Race", in its third year is already a special race. One to be highlighted on the race calendar. The buzzing of 1500 tires on the rollout, followed by the wind-up of the lead moto's engines signaling that the hammer was going down, has not faded after a year. Electrifying.

So was the vibe of the whole race. Smooth registration, well run operations, great door prizes (even-though they keep forgetting to draw my name), great beer, helpful volunteers (be sure to be nice, say thanks) quick results, and great friends to be made.

Rick and Cathy know how to put on a race. A hard race, with way too much climbing before April than should be allowed. When you're done though, you start making plans, or in my case excuses, before you even get on the highway to head back home. See you there. Do you have any embro I could use? I'm out. Hup!

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