Stage 19
22 July 2011
I admit I missed the first fifteen minutes, but to my mind this was a superb stage. As good as anyone could want. I was on the edge of my seat for what must have been three hours. I admit that I had trouble finding a break to pee, although the bit in the valley before the Alpe was a little bit less riveting, but way more interesting than I thought. Climbing and descending are the best. I doubt if I would want there to be a third stage like this without a bit of a rest. In fact, the suspenseful bit of the Tour is pretty much over. I have never got wildly excited about a Time Trial, even if this one will decide the winner, although the podium should be sorted now. Two Schlecks and Evans. Absolutely fabulous start and a totally superb ending. Creation or consecration of heroes at every level. Great racing. One of the best Tours I have ever seen.
I guess most of you know what happened. Contador animated the entire day with his attacks, which in some sense were ultimately unsuccessful. That does not mean they were not brilliant racing. He is obviously not that well. No idea if it is the crashes, the very hard Giro, the tension of waiting for the drugs axe to fall or something else. Maybe all of it. Can you imagine what might have happened if he had been in good shape and without worries. I am sorry about that, but getting to the Tour is good shape is part of the game. He is clearly a magnificent champion, a great racer, even he ends up busted for not watching what he eats. Or shoots up.
The jerseys changed. And it is likely even now, they might not be resting on the final winners' shoulders. What more can we want for suspense? Usually all the jerseys are long decided and the final day is for third or seventh place. Andy Schleck, with his superb ride yesterday, set up the inevitable. He beat Voeckler to the top of the Alpe by many more than 15 seconds and got the yellow jersey at last. The Schlecks were outridden on the Alpe by Contador, but his 34 second lead at the end of the day was not enough to make a big difference. Good for the spectators though. Evans stuck with Andy all the way, and finished in the same time as them, which means that tomorrow he has to gain 4 seconds on Frank to finish second and 57 on Andy to win the Tour. Both of those are possible. Andy is a better time triallist than people think, so he too, if he rides out of skin, could win the Tour. Either of them deserve to win. They have both exhibited huge abilities and big hunger during the Tour.
Cavendish finished with the grupetto nine seconds over the time limit, but all the latecomers were allowed to remain in the race. There was only Leukemans who was way behind, he was eliminated. So Cav will win the jersey, unless he makes big mistakes in the intermediate sprint on Sunday and in the finish on the Champs. Otherwise that jersey should be in safe hands. I am glad for the lad, although I have to say, you find many people who just do not like him. They think he is a great sprinter, but has a deeply flawed character, overly laddish behaviour and a big mouth. I can see their point, but I don't dislike him. He should win one green jersey in his career.
The stage winner, at last, was a young French guy. Pierre Rolland, the faithful companion of Voeckler, was released today (by Voeckler) so he could ride his own stage. Winning a race up Alpe d'Huez is a lifetime experience, you can get free drinks on that til you die. Pierre was so happy he radiated joy, mixed with a bit of pain. He did keep up with and out-sprint Samuel Sanchez and Contador for the victory, so he was very deserving. Such a nice lad on TV. For two years at least, he has been a “promising rider”, and now he has no doubt become “a winner”. He also managed to ride well enough to take the white jersey of the best young rider off the shoulders of Rein Taaramae. I can't say whether he is good enough to keep it after the ITT, but I am sure he will do his best. He needs to finish less than 1.33 behind Taaramae and he will be the victor, assuming nothing serious happens on the ride to Paris. I should think that the entire Europcar team will be riding with him and protecting him. What a day for the lad. He was asked if he knew who the last French rider to win at the Alpe was, and he said no. When told it was Hinault, he was a little taken aback. Then a few minutes later they shook hands. Those young guys did well. In the top twenty there are still four of them.
Voeckler will still be the bet French rider on GC, which no else cares about except the French. This first French rider is often mentioned in the cycling press.
At last the spotted jersey has found its proper home. Since there are no more mountains, the final winner, assuming he makes it to Paris is Samuel Sanchez. He won it rather easily, simply by trying to do well in the Tour, and finishing with a first, and two seconds on the mountaintop finishes. That, to me, is the way it should be won. He is totally worthy and deserves it utterly. He had to beat A. Schleck to the finish to win, so he did. Andy was riding with his brother anyway, having done enough to win the yellow jersey by a long margin. He clearly preferred to ride with his brother than win the spotted jersey. Still, once again, over and over, no one ever cares about that jersey. It just comes by accident.
What I particularly liked about the stage was the uncertainty of the finish, who would get dropped, who would win what jersey. In addition, there were several races going on throughout the day, which I always enjoy. The one we never saw and never will see, is the way the gruppetto of 80 riders or more finds its speed, gathers the lads together, times the last ascent, so they all make it through. In a world of individualist behaviour, its is refreshing to see the lads gang together and co-operate so that none of them get eliminated, even though several of them could no doubt go faster and make sure that the slowest get dropped. They don't do that in the autobus. No idea why Leukemans got dropped so badly. But also we had Contador's first attack and what it brought, and his second attack up the Alpe. Both of those were quite separate in some racing sense, and fascinating to watch unfold. Then there were the minor races for this or that jersey, slowly working their way out during the fight for the stage. And although I have hardly mentioned it much there has been the battle for 'best team', now pretty much won by Garmin, although even that is not totally certain. Really complicated and hard to predict, my favourite kind of racing.
I still don't like the Alps, but they were gorgeous from the helicopter. It is a total bonus to be able to see all that natural and human made stuff flowing past during each stage. Takes one's breath away.
I even enjoyed watching Thomas lose the jersey. I don't know if he would have kept it had he not tried to follow Contador and just knackered himself completely. Had he stayed with the peloton of leaders, he would still have arrived at the foot of the Alpe with everyone, and would have been way fresher. I would say he made a mistake and paid for it. Still, he radiated pleasure and astounded all of the French for days. Without his riding “the French”, and perhaps all of us, would have had a lesser Tour.
So tomorrow we have the time trial, and Sunday the parade to Paris, before we race around the Champs and have the final sprint finish. I am keen to see how the TT goes of course, whether Cadel wins the whole Tour. The nice thing is that tomorrow I can take a nap for sure. I am usually happy to watch 30-40 riders do the TT. I shall try to see Fabian and Tony Martin and a few others, but really I can't be patient enough to watch all of the riders do the same route, one after the other. Live it is much better, you pick a corner or a downhill or whatever, you have a picnic and you can see how each rider does it, and gauge their relative speed, keep track of who is coming next, whether they are late or not. But it is feeling like the Tour is nearly over. Best one in ages. I am glad I was able to spend the time on it.
Later.
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Schleck, A. makes his move
Stage 18
21 July 2011
Well then, what did you think of that one? I fail to see a missing facet in that little jewel. Not one. I should think that this stage will go down in the history of the Tour as one of the very best. The highest (elevation) finish ever in the Tour, and they raced all day really, in bits and pieces, here and there. Supposed to be 3 degrees and windy at the top of Galibier. My goodness, what a great stage. Exactly what the Tour organisers and corse designers had hoped. They must be glowing. AND we have two more days of suspense ahead of us.
I must write this quickly, as I had NO NAP today. I just could not figure out what to miss, and so I was there all afternoon. Glad I stayed. I have to say I find the Alps a little bit inhuman, too pointy and rocky. But awesome on the big HD screen, from a distance. I suspect tomorrow might be like that, nothing to miss. So I need to get this done fast and get to bed early. I should be ready for another day without a nap. The stage is so short there should be action all day, with a repeat climb of Galibier, by another road. My cold is almost gone, by the way.
One thing I noticed when I tuned in was that it took a moment (without using computer displays), to figure out who was where. It was a lovely, confusing and uncertain stage they gave us. Even the gruppetto, the slower guys, made the commissars break the rules, or bend them anyway. Over half the riders were outside the official and objective time limit for the stage. They should have been eliminated. But they weren't and they knew it. What stupid rule applier would eliminate half the field. No way. Some other rule or exception will be cited, like the wind or whatever, and they will all be back racing tomorrow. Or rather struggling with another very hard stage and its even more severe time limit. I would attempt to explain the time limit, but it consists of a predetermined calculation, based on the time of the winner. On hard stages they give the riders more of a break. But there is a precise limit, known when the stage winner crosses the line. http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/COURSE/docs/reglement.pdf (Article 22) Sad bit is that Cav, while staying in the race, loses points on the green jersey for being so slow. Rojas, no dummy and a bit of climber, was in the previous group who made it within the limit, so he gets closer to Cav. Suits me really, if Cav wins on the Champs, he wins. Fair enough.
Its was great fun to ask ourselves for a long time, did Andy do this 60k lone ride for himself, for the yellow jersey, for a stage, for Frank, or was it a big mistake. Views varied. He had gained two minutes after the climb where he rode away from everyone, not one rider followed, except for Rolland, who realised he should stay with Voeckler. Nearly everyone thought he would lose the lead on the descent or in the valley against the headwind. The yellow jersey peloton was full of guys who had a reason to ride hard and cut the gap. Maybe seven or eight. But sadly, they could not come to any agreement, and never made a serious chase. Here we found our second hero of the day. Cadel Evans, who clearly wants to win the Tour, had to work for many kilometres, up a bloody great hill, nearly always in front. In fact he took two minutes out of Andy on the last climb. His team mates were out of it, seemed like no one could or would help him, and he managed to save Voeckler's jersey and his own chances. Mostly by himself. I sure hope Thomas thanks him a bit. Another other hero who emerged was Voeckler, although he has been an unexpected bonus for the Tour for several days now. The wilder French think he might still win.
But the total hero was Andy Schleck. Many people wondered if either of the brothers would ever attack. I reckon they had this plan long in advance. Andy just went away from the entire group on the second last climb, 60k or so from the end. No one does that these days. Usually they wait until the last few ks of the last hill and then someone attacks. As it turned out, Schleck gained time on the first climb, on the valley (huge effort by Monfort) and then finished it off on the last climb. A legendary escape without a shadow of a doubt. Totally worthy of a winner of the Tour. Although it is not over yet. The thing I liked about Andy's attack was that we could sit and discuss why he was doing it? We now know it was obvious, take minutes out of everyone, win the stage and win the yellow jersey, plus the Tour. In one glorious day. The first race he has won since the last Tour. What a brilliant way to do it.
Those are my guys for the day, Cadel, Thomas, Andy. But also Pierre Rolland, who has climbed alongside his leader throughout the Tour, helping, just being there. This guy has now emerged from being a new French hopeful to being a strong candidate for “revelation of the Tour”. Maybe EBH, but he already is an established rider. I noticed that Tom Danielson (older, but riding his first Tour) and his assistant Christian Vande Velde managed to stay with the group, crossing the line sooner than Contador or Sanchez. That Danielson is steady. They all just seemed to have ridden out of their socks. Great racing.
The commentators were funny (sad funny) when Alberto and Samuel Sanchez were chatting at the back of the peloton, trying to figure out what they could do about this move of Andy's. Turns out that whatever they wanted to do they couldn't, both of them lost time, too much time. But the commentators said “They are talking in Spanish”, like they should be talking in French or something! Those commentator guys betray themselves after hours in front of the microphone.
One question that needs a bit of answering, and I might not have time tonight to speculate. Why is it that nearly all the time the group of GC riders was chasing, did almost no one whatever help out Cadel. Sure, they had a few riders help for a bit, but basically for the last 45 minutes, I saw Cadel riding on his own. Were they all whacked? All? Did they not care about preserving time and their jerseys? Could they not speak to each other and make deals? How could a peloton of leaders of the Tour not manage to bring back a smaller and smaller group in front of them? Cadel was a hero, but the rest were something or other. Lazy, shiftless, calculating riders.
Prudhomme had a stern word to say about the boys/men who run alongside the riders, many with their TV time costumes. Prudhomme was well pissed off. My wife says they should have tasers for those guys. I say their falling bodies might cause damage to a cyclist. They just scare me. In fact, because there is so little damage, contact, injury in spite of these stupid lads, this shows me that the Tour is privileged and special event. That all of French history and world justice watches over it. Otherwise there would be injured people spread throughout the route. That behaviour alone is a severe, but incomplete, critique of modern society. Individualism run rampant. Still, “boys will be boys”.
So the jerseys. Vanendert is still wearing the mountains jersey, but new competition has arisen, almost by accident. He will keep it if he wins the stage tomorrow, beating both Schlecks, Evans and Sanchez. I fear he has no real chance, unless he is first over Galibier in a break tomorrow. The other guys just win points for the jersey because they climb faster up the last hill than anyone else. And they will win points tomorrow too. The GC guys all care about the yellow jersey, and the spotted one comes along as a side effect. I am talking about Evans, Sanchez, and both Schlecks who could wear the spotted jersey tomorrow and keep it to Paris.
Voeckler saved his yellow jersey by 15 seconds, thereby becoming an French icon forever. I bet at the end of the year he will beat Yannick Noah and Zinedine Zidane as the most beloved French sports figure. No doubt he will lose it tomorrow, but then we have said that before. Hard to figure Andy can't climb the Alpe fifteen seconds faster than Thomas. Or have we said that before.
The best young rider is no longer Rigoberto Uran, who got dropped big time, but a young French rider replaced him. OK, an Estonian rider on a French team, Rein Taaramae. Uran lost only three minutes on his competitors, but lost the jersey as the race was so close. He maybe able to recover the time. He can still climb, and also TT very well. This is the first time I can remember when the white jersey as been up for grabs for so long. This is a good race in many respects. Three of the top five young riders are French, and four of the top five ride for French teams. Excellent for the French. Not one stage win, but some hope. And then there is Thomas.
The top ten is much the same, even though there was exciting action all day. In that respect it is a bit like a brilliant 0-0 draw in football. Uran dropped out and was replaced by J-C Peraud. Realistically speaking there are only four guys left with a chance for yellow in Paris, the two Schlecks, Evans and Voeckler. However, if another attack of anthology happens tomorrow or someone rides the TT of their lives, we could have a fifth who just creeps in. Viva the unexpected. Green jersey is much the same, but Cav loses 20 points on account of being outside the time limit. So he has to win on the Champs. But he still leads Rojas by 15 points. He really does have to win in the Champs and maybe pick up some points on the intermediate sprint on Sunday.
If there is anyone who shows up as the worst person to interview, saying nothing and barely saying anything either, it has to be Bjorn Riis. Doesn't matter his rider had a bad day, he is always like that. Says nothing, acts like it is a big favour to allow himself to grace a mike for us fans. Someone should talk to the guy.
For tomorrow I have invented a Schleck scenario. They both go up the Alpe fastest, Andy leads Frank much of the time. Then Frank moves out from behind Andy and wins the stage, gaining 40 points, giving him 96. Cadel has been following them and gets 32 for second and totals 82, andy gets third, giving him 94, which is two points less than Frank, who endosses yellow. Nothing else happens on the ITT or the last flat stage and Frank wears spots and Andy wears yellow in Paris. On the podium. Could happen. But first, they have to do well against Evans in the ITT, which will be nearly impossible, so Evans could win. I would not even try to predict the winner tomorrow, no idea at all. Although I will reveal I picked Coppel for today. You can see he did pretty well, but no win.
That is enough for today. There was plenty to write about, a wonderful stage. Must get to bed early.
21 July 2011
Well then, what did you think of that one? I fail to see a missing facet in that little jewel. Not one. I should think that this stage will go down in the history of the Tour as one of the very best. The highest (elevation) finish ever in the Tour, and they raced all day really, in bits and pieces, here and there. Supposed to be 3 degrees and windy at the top of Galibier. My goodness, what a great stage. Exactly what the Tour organisers and corse designers had hoped. They must be glowing. AND we have two more days of suspense ahead of us.
I must write this quickly, as I had NO NAP today. I just could not figure out what to miss, and so I was there all afternoon. Glad I stayed. I have to say I find the Alps a little bit inhuman, too pointy and rocky. But awesome on the big HD screen, from a distance. I suspect tomorrow might be like that, nothing to miss. So I need to get this done fast and get to bed early. I should be ready for another day without a nap. The stage is so short there should be action all day, with a repeat climb of Galibier, by another road. My cold is almost gone, by the way.
One thing I noticed when I tuned in was that it took a moment (without using computer displays), to figure out who was where. It was a lovely, confusing and uncertain stage they gave us. Even the gruppetto, the slower guys, made the commissars break the rules, or bend them anyway. Over half the riders were outside the official and objective time limit for the stage. They should have been eliminated. But they weren't and they knew it. What stupid rule applier would eliminate half the field. No way. Some other rule or exception will be cited, like the wind or whatever, and they will all be back racing tomorrow. Or rather struggling with another very hard stage and its even more severe time limit. I would attempt to explain the time limit, but it consists of a predetermined calculation, based on the time of the winner. On hard stages they give the riders more of a break. But there is a precise limit, known when the stage winner crosses the line. http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/COURSE/docs/reglement.pdf (Article 22) Sad bit is that Cav, while staying in the race, loses points on the green jersey for being so slow. Rojas, no dummy and a bit of climber, was in the previous group who made it within the limit, so he gets closer to Cav. Suits me really, if Cav wins on the Champs, he wins. Fair enough.
Its was great fun to ask ourselves for a long time, did Andy do this 60k lone ride for himself, for the yellow jersey, for a stage, for Frank, or was it a big mistake. Views varied. He had gained two minutes after the climb where he rode away from everyone, not one rider followed, except for Rolland, who realised he should stay with Voeckler. Nearly everyone thought he would lose the lead on the descent or in the valley against the headwind. The yellow jersey peloton was full of guys who had a reason to ride hard and cut the gap. Maybe seven or eight. But sadly, they could not come to any agreement, and never made a serious chase. Here we found our second hero of the day. Cadel Evans, who clearly wants to win the Tour, had to work for many kilometres, up a bloody great hill, nearly always in front. In fact he took two minutes out of Andy on the last climb. His team mates were out of it, seemed like no one could or would help him, and he managed to save Voeckler's jersey and his own chances. Mostly by himself. I sure hope Thomas thanks him a bit. Another other hero who emerged was Voeckler, although he has been an unexpected bonus for the Tour for several days now. The wilder French think he might still win.
But the total hero was Andy Schleck. Many people wondered if either of the brothers would ever attack. I reckon they had this plan long in advance. Andy just went away from the entire group on the second last climb, 60k or so from the end. No one does that these days. Usually they wait until the last few ks of the last hill and then someone attacks. As it turned out, Schleck gained time on the first climb, on the valley (huge effort by Monfort) and then finished it off on the last climb. A legendary escape without a shadow of a doubt. Totally worthy of a winner of the Tour. Although it is not over yet. The thing I liked about Andy's attack was that we could sit and discuss why he was doing it? We now know it was obvious, take minutes out of everyone, win the stage and win the yellow jersey, plus the Tour. In one glorious day. The first race he has won since the last Tour. What a brilliant way to do it.
Those are my guys for the day, Cadel, Thomas, Andy. But also Pierre Rolland, who has climbed alongside his leader throughout the Tour, helping, just being there. This guy has now emerged from being a new French hopeful to being a strong candidate for “revelation of the Tour”. Maybe EBH, but he already is an established rider. I noticed that Tom Danielson (older, but riding his first Tour) and his assistant Christian Vande Velde managed to stay with the group, crossing the line sooner than Contador or Sanchez. That Danielson is steady. They all just seemed to have ridden out of their socks. Great racing.
The commentators were funny (sad funny) when Alberto and Samuel Sanchez were chatting at the back of the peloton, trying to figure out what they could do about this move of Andy's. Turns out that whatever they wanted to do they couldn't, both of them lost time, too much time. But the commentators said “They are talking in Spanish”, like they should be talking in French or something! Those commentator guys betray themselves after hours in front of the microphone.
One question that needs a bit of answering, and I might not have time tonight to speculate. Why is it that nearly all the time the group of GC riders was chasing, did almost no one whatever help out Cadel. Sure, they had a few riders help for a bit, but basically for the last 45 minutes, I saw Cadel riding on his own. Were they all whacked? All? Did they not care about preserving time and their jerseys? Could they not speak to each other and make deals? How could a peloton of leaders of the Tour not manage to bring back a smaller and smaller group in front of them? Cadel was a hero, but the rest were something or other. Lazy, shiftless, calculating riders.
Prudhomme had a stern word to say about the boys/men who run alongside the riders, many with their TV time costumes. Prudhomme was well pissed off. My wife says they should have tasers for those guys. I say their falling bodies might cause damage to a cyclist. They just scare me. In fact, because there is so little damage, contact, injury in spite of these stupid lads, this shows me that the Tour is privileged and special event. That all of French history and world justice watches over it. Otherwise there would be injured people spread throughout the route. That behaviour alone is a severe, but incomplete, critique of modern society. Individualism run rampant. Still, “boys will be boys”.
So the jerseys. Vanendert is still wearing the mountains jersey, but new competition has arisen, almost by accident. He will keep it if he wins the stage tomorrow, beating both Schlecks, Evans and Sanchez. I fear he has no real chance, unless he is first over Galibier in a break tomorrow. The other guys just win points for the jersey because they climb faster up the last hill than anyone else. And they will win points tomorrow too. The GC guys all care about the yellow jersey, and the spotted one comes along as a side effect. I am talking about Evans, Sanchez, and both Schlecks who could wear the spotted jersey tomorrow and keep it to Paris.
Voeckler saved his yellow jersey by 15 seconds, thereby becoming an French icon forever. I bet at the end of the year he will beat Yannick Noah and Zinedine Zidane as the most beloved French sports figure. No doubt he will lose it tomorrow, but then we have said that before. Hard to figure Andy can't climb the Alpe fifteen seconds faster than Thomas. Or have we said that before.
The best young rider is no longer Rigoberto Uran, who got dropped big time, but a young French rider replaced him. OK, an Estonian rider on a French team, Rein Taaramae. Uran lost only three minutes on his competitors, but lost the jersey as the race was so close. He maybe able to recover the time. He can still climb, and also TT very well. This is the first time I can remember when the white jersey as been up for grabs for so long. This is a good race in many respects. Three of the top five young riders are French, and four of the top five ride for French teams. Excellent for the French. Not one stage win, but some hope. And then there is Thomas.
The top ten is much the same, even though there was exciting action all day. In that respect it is a bit like a brilliant 0-0 draw in football. Uran dropped out and was replaced by J-C Peraud. Realistically speaking there are only four guys left with a chance for yellow in Paris, the two Schlecks, Evans and Voeckler. However, if another attack of anthology happens tomorrow or someone rides the TT of their lives, we could have a fifth who just creeps in. Viva the unexpected. Green jersey is much the same, but Cav loses 20 points on account of being outside the time limit. So he has to win on the Champs. But he still leads Rojas by 15 points. He really does have to win in the Champs and maybe pick up some points on the intermediate sprint on Sunday.
If there is anyone who shows up as the worst person to interview, saying nothing and barely saying anything either, it has to be Bjorn Riis. Doesn't matter his rider had a bad day, he is always like that. Says nothing, acts like it is a big favour to allow himself to grace a mike for us fans. Someone should talk to the guy.
For tomorrow I have invented a Schleck scenario. They both go up the Alpe fastest, Andy leads Frank much of the time. Then Frank moves out from behind Andy and wins the stage, gaining 40 points, giving him 96. Cadel has been following them and gets 32 for second and totals 82, andy gets third, giving him 94, which is two points less than Frank, who endosses yellow. Nothing else happens on the ITT or the last flat stage and Frank wears spots and Andy wears yellow in Paris. On the podium. Could happen. But first, they have to do well against Evans in the ITT, which will be nearly impossible, so Evans could win. I would not even try to predict the winner tomorrow, no idea at all. Although I will reveal I picked Coppel for today. You can see he did pretty well, but no win.
That is enough for today. There was plenty to write about, a wonderful stage. Must get to bed early.
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