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Le Over
// 30th July
This years Le Tour de France was tops. There was a heap of drug-related embarrassments along the way, and although I’d rather they didn’t happen, it kept things interesting in what can sometimes be a boring event.
I didn’t really keep full tabs on the race but a few riders and teams were impressive and kept me interested.
The Tour kicked off on a 7.9 kilometre time trial in Londres. Fabian Cancellara (Team CSC) blitzed it. I was a little bit sad that Stuart O’Grady (Team CSC) - never a contender for anything except the time trial and the odd sprint - crashed.
Stage two will be remembered for the crash that involved every man and his dog. Actually it was one of the few crashes that didn’t involve a dog. Certainly every man and his bike. Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto) was left behind but managed to not only chase down the peloton, but also beat Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) and Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) who were set up by their respective teams pretty well in the sprint.
In stage four Hushovd crossed the line first in Joigny after one of the best lead-outs I have ever witnessed, by team mate Julian Dean. It was awesome to watch.
Stage five brought the first climbs of The Tour between Chablis and Autun. Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) attacked early, and was the mainstay in a breakaway that kept ahead of the peloton for around 150 kilometres. Chavanel crossed all the climbs firstto take the polka-dot jersey. Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and team mate Andreas Andreas Klöden both crashed, which caused a stir as they were favourites for the overall win, however the crash turned out to be the least of their dramas.
From Semur-en-Auxois to Bourg-en-Bresse it was pretty much all Bradley Wiggins (Cofidis). 2 kilometres in to the race, with 197 kilometres still to go, Wiggins broke away solo. He gave team sponsor Cofidis some serious air-time, took every bonus of stage six, and was caught with 7 kilometres to go. Nonethless, it was great to watch him.
After watching Wiggins make a name for himself the day before, Linus Gerdemann (T-Mobile) went one step better on stage seven. He escaped the breakaway on the hardest climb of the day and never got caught. He ended the day with the stage win, the yellow jersey, and the white jersey.
In stage eight Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) took the yellow jersey. A few riders crashed one the main descent, including O’Grady, who was taken to hospital with ‘back pain’ which turned out to be three broken vertebrae, five broken ribs, a broken scapula, both clavicles broken, and to top it off, a collapsed lung. He retired from the race. McEwen finished outside the time limit and was eliminated, and Michael Rogers (T-Mobile) dislocated his shoulder, leaving Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) the only serious Australian contender - pretty much the best thing that could happen really, I could concentrate on Evans and not have to worry about the other Australians winning the minor prizes.
The mountain stages are cool. Especially the descents.The speeds are crazy. I want tot ride in a race where it’s all downhill.
In stage nine Juan Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) really hit his straps in the mountains. I like Soler. He took the polka-dot jersey because Rasmussen who was leading the mountains classification was wearing the yellow, and didn’t let go of it for the rest of the race.
By stage fourteen Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) and Evans had come to the fore. Contador took the stage ahead of Rasmussen, while Evans slipped slightly from second to third place overall. Vinokourov lost eight minutes and any hope of a win, and the Rabobank machine was awesome to watch as they displayed some serious power in the uphill chase, led by Thomas Dekker.
Between stage fifteen and sixteen team Astana were asked to withdraw themselves from the race after Vinokourov tested positive for an illegal blood transfusion. Twenty-four hours later, between stage sixteen and seventeen, Team Confidis had also withdrawn after Cristian Moreni tested positive to unacceptably high levels of testosterone. Then overall race leader Rasmussen followed suit, sacked from Rabobank for violating team rules. Contador took the lead, but no yellow jersey was worn until the riders got to Castelsarrasin.
Some of the roads in the mountains look like they were built be bored, or high engineers. There are quite a lot of bends and loops that serve no purpose whatsoever but to make the road more interesting to travel on.
On the ride in to Angoulême the third dog of The Tour made its appearance, causing Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux) to crash and take a large patch of suit and skin off his right butt-cheek. Because he was in the breakaway he didn’t stop to change, instead opting to have the team doctor hang out the window attending to his buttocks while he rode on. He won the stage.
The time trial that started at Cognac was the stage I (and every Australian) got into the most. Evans had two minutes to make up on Contador to take the yellow, while Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) had a minute to make up on Evans. Leif Hoste (Predictor-Lotto) went out hard so he could report back on the course to team mate Evans. He set a fast time early, eventually beaten by George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) and Vladimir Karpets (Caisse d’Epargne). The three leaders really gave everything though, as they had to, being so close. Leipheimer took the stage win, but couldn’t make up enough time to beat Evans. Likewise Evans finished twenty-five seconds down on Contador.
The final stage was just a formality, but it was very entertaining watching the riders messing around a bit on the way down the Champs-Élysées.
Also very entertaining were the spectators, especially on the mountains. The lack of constraints and rules is just bizarre. Apart from a few dogs causing crashes, there were also horses in fenceless paddocks being inadvertently herded towards the road by the helicopters. At times spectators had parked their cars in the road. A few times I saw spectators standing on very thin concrete barriers with cyclists inches from them on one side and vertical drops of many metres on the other side. At one stage I also saw about twenty bikes strung up on a wire ten or so metres above the road. Who does that?
Overall it was pretty fun, apart from it being televised so late. If they started the races earlier in the morning (French time) it’d make it a lot easier…
7 Comments on “Le Over”
L’excursion était grande. Sérieusement cependant, pourquoi n’importe qui considérerait tricher de nos jours. La chance est elles va se faire attraper. Ce n’est pas l’excursion ou le défaut d’ASO, c’est les cavaliers. Les interdire tous pendant la vie, je dis. N’importe qui qui les tricheurs mérite d’être outed pendant la vie.
Translation:
The tour was great. Seriously though, why would anyone consider cheating these days. Odds are they are going to get caught. It’s not the tour’s or ASO’s fault, it’s the riders. Ban them all for life, I say. Anyone who cheats deserves to be outed for life.
July 30th
You deprive yourself of sleep to watch people ride bikes up and down hills, you write a 1000+ word blog entry about it, and I’m a loser for reading Harry Potter?
July 30th
hahaha, sylv…good point. nice :)
July 30th
Le tour has better magic than harry potter
July 30th
le tour was great.
how cool was the bike made out of farm machines and tractors.
and le taste of le tour.
crazy europeans
July 31st
Do I have to read all this? I think its quicker to re-watch the whole entire race :*)
August 2nd
I’ll never understand le tour. :/
August 3rd