Stage 3, “Fourth of July” 201l
National Day for my Mother Country. Happy Birthday. Tyler won “for his country”, maybe.
Major bummer today. There was a strike with the distributors and there is NO l'Equipe today. It is just not a normal day. There might even be some rain here, so no ride.
Went to the market this morning, as all Monday mornings. Had a chat with a guy who is a “real cyclist”. He rides into the market, about 18k return trip, although I think his wife drives in, as they can't carry serious shopping on a bike, like a tray of peaches. They are NOT young. He is active in the campaign to get a cycle path in the area. He takes cycling holidays with others. A real cyclist. He hates the Tour. Just another example of “competition”, which he deplores. The Tour is totally penetrated by drugs, commercialism, consumerism and competition. He has no time for it. Watches almost no sports on TV. Yet there is no denying the guy will be a cyclist even if the Tour disappears tomorrow. Do does sports often. I admit I mostly listened, partly since I totally agree with him. And yet I love the Tour, every year. Even though I know all the stuff he knows and even say so publicly. We never got around to the next bit of the conversation, the part where I admit I mostly agree with him, AND also love both cycling and the Tour. I look forward to that conversation.
I also had a chat with my pal Joseph. We cycled together in the club a lot for six years or so. Both of us were always in Group Three, the older, slower riders. He was much stronger on the flat and the descents, but on the climbs I could almost keep up with him. He does not ride much now (76) as he had a heart problem and operations. He was probably the best competitive cyclist in the club, winning seven races in seven days across the South of France in his prime. Almost rode for Tom Simpson's Peugeot team. He has gone off the Tour too. He is not so keen to watch the finish of the flat stages. He was gardening outside when Gilbert won stage one. Joseph thinks there is too much money, drugs, razzle dazzle in the Tour today. He doesn't trust what he sees as being the real competitive cycling, which he knew very well. Too many deals, too much influence of sponsors. Every flat stage has a break, a long ride in flattish countryside, then they catch the break and have a sprint. The scenario for today? I think he will get more excited once we hit the mountains.
Maybe I can get a short ride in today if I take an early nap. I only need to watch the last hour. Didn't manage the ride in the end.
Can you imagine if, at the foot of “The Mur” tomorrow, not only Gilbert, but Contador and Sanchez launch an attack. Everyone tries to follow, including Thor, Goss, Tyler and whatnot. Now how about that for a little dream race lasting 3-4 kilometres. And then we should have a bit of argy bargy strategy in the ten k leading up to the final climb. Yes, that's what I would like for my Tour tomorrow, please. If Contador or Sanchez attacked, do we think anyone could follow? I'd like to see. Alberto won't. By now he has figured out that the lost time is not a disaster. He just has to attack near the top of all the big mountains.
It's kind of nice to see old customs respected, Anthony Charteau rode ahead a little so he could stop in his hometown to say hello to the family. He rejoined the peloton with no problem, as they came past. Almost got a shot of another traditional custom, pissing from the side of the bike as you keep riding. But they cut away.
Excellent little graphic for watching what is happening and having an up to date map to hand, so you don't need an atlas. And cool data for the geeky ones. Got this from my justcycling forum. http://data.srmlive.de/TDF/
HTC. Martin to last kilometre, Eisel, then Goss, then Renshaw. Not a bad train really. But they blew it.
At 9k the catch was made. Now riding at 70kph, I can't go that fast even downhill. No sight of HTC yet, 6k. 5K, HTC in front. Tony Martin left in front too soon. Marcato attacks. No one worried. Cav lost the wheel of HTC. Got it back. Garmin and Tyler. Fourth of July! His first Tour victory ever. Rojas and Feillu, nice one for the less famous guys. Thor, yellow jersey, World Champion, Tyler's own leadout man. Goodness where were the BIG guys? Cav fourth. No doubt we should study the tapes.
Today the event that distracts me from this writing is the first monthly meeting of the local Attac group (Google it), of which I was once president. I faded out for a bit, but only because they have meetings on Market Day, when I hang with friends. The meetings were also terrible, but now seem to be under improvement. Tonight they are starting the bigger monthly meetings after a two year break, and I want to check things out. So you get far less analysis time than you might. However, there is not much to say. HTC made a mess of things, Garmin did not. And a couple of lone sprinters did clever things and beat the rest of the big names. I still like Thor in yellow, leading out Tyler I expect Tyler will lead out Thor tomorrow. As he would love to beat gilbert, although I really have no reason to think ANYONE can beat him.
Back from the meeting, had dinner, ready to polish this off. The last few minutes of every finish are always on You Tube, so you can watch. Looks like in another Tour either or both of Cav and Thor might have been relegated or worse. Sprinting is a bit of a contact sport, so I reckon its no big deal. The GC is the same, the 'Mountains” jersey is the same, the young jersey is the same. The only real interest at the moment is the points jersey, the green one. Not a whole lot to say about it yet, we have to wait for a couple more days before making speculations. It does appear that a number of riders are keen to contest the sprints and the intermediate sprints. Until we see who is really going well, who keeps trying, we won't know for sure. Farrar has GOT to be going for the jersey. Hushovd maybe. Gilbert, maybe. Cav, probably. Gil seems to showing some enthusiasm. That is already enough for a good contest. We should just wait and see. One day when I don't have something better to do, I will take a You Tube clip of sprint finish and give a detailed commentary. Some of you will have noticed everything I say, but some will see something new. But not tonight. You can watch the finish again on the videos http://www.cyclingfans.com/node/2282
I originally picked Gilbert for tomorrow. Besides it being his birthday, he seems to ride up that kind of hill faster than anyone by along shot. However, due to heavy betting on Gilbert in my forum, I am going to try and figure who else might either win or finish second. AND be picked by no one else. So far I think Hushovd is way oversubscribed too. So maybe Thomas, EBH (everyone figures he is unwell, but I don't know), or Goss. Maybe Cav will lead him out. On the other hand, I had a quick vision of Contador sprinting like blazes up the hill, neck and neck with Gilbert taking thirty seconds on the rest, and putting Gilbert in yellow again. But it won't happen. I changed to Goss.
Are you getting warmed up? I feel like I am getting into the Tour, although having no l'Equipe was a bit annoying.
Until tomorrow.
Monday, 4 July 2011
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Stage 2 - 3 July 2011 TTT
Stage 2 – 3 July 2011
I am trying to write some of this before the stage, so if the tenses get confused, read deeply.
Let me take a moment to help you understand the weird finish yesterday. It might not concern you much, so skip this paragraph (actually two paras in the end). If you look at the stage finish results for stage one (now, http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-france/stage-1/results) and notice that the first 31 placings seemed quite normal and then suddenly someone fished at 1'20”. You might think, ah, there was a gap between riders due to the crashes. OK. Then suddenly the 37th rider finished only six seconds back, even though he crossed the line at the same moment as the 36th and 38th rider. And throughout the rest of the results there is an alternation of six seconds gap and 1.20 (or more). Keep looking through and it will be obvious that on numerous occasions, a rider got a time only six seconds after the winner, even though they finished WAY behind riders who lost more than a minute. In fact, if you look at Matthew Goss (the extreme case), finishing 183rd, the guy in front of him lost 4.56, the guy behind him lost 5.33, and he only lost six seconds. How can this be?
The rules are fairly clear. The second big crash, the one that happened 2k+ from the finish involved all the people who got a six second gap in the final GC. You can see exactly how many there were. If you have a crash in the last 3k (or a mechanical problem or a puncture), everyone in the group who crashed (or those with bike problems) gets the same time as the first guy who finishes, from that group (not Gilbert's time since he sprinted away from the group at the end). The judges have a device which reads the transponders of every rider at 3k, so they know exactly who was in the group at that moment. But the “classification” of each rider, the order they crossed the finish line, is strictly when they cross the line. Hence the 183rd guy to cross the line really did cross very late, but only lost 6 seconds because he was with the first group at 3k.
This rule was constructed to prevent a Tour being lost solely by the speed, jostling and pushing and danger that comes with every sprint finish. This rule means that in the last 3k, very dangerous, the NON-sprinters can hang back a bit and let the sprinters and their lead-out men duke it out. The guys who hang back don't lose time, and the sprinters have space to do their stuff. Sprinters are happy and GC riders are happy. So for some reason I don't know yet, Goss and Gesink took ever such a long time to get over the line. Although you have to search long and hard for their names on the finish list, they were clearly in that first group, the group that got entirely missed the first crash (because they were in the front), nine k from the finish. Alberto took some time to extricate himself from that first massive pileup, but not THAT much. Check out the videos which must be appearing by now. When there is a big crash, especially one spread out across the road (it had ditches on both sides too), some riders have to check or be checked if they are injured. Others have to wait for a new wheel or even a new bike. Others have to wait for an actual way to be clear for them to walk with their bike on a clear road to get back on. Of course some, the ones in the front, are not injured, have a bike that works, and are off. Over the distance between the first crash and the finish, riders caught up with others and finally, it appears from the times, that a rather large group got in 1.20 after the winner. They got their actual time of arrival since their crash was outside the protected zone. Gesink and Goss knew the rules, as did many others who were in the second crash, and many of them just took their time getting to the finish. Why rush up the steepish hill, they had nothing to gain? Had Contador, the 2 Sanchez and Hesjedal, for example, been WELL in front at the nine k mark, like the other 80 odd riders were, they would have avoided the crash and only lost six seconds, like the Schlecks, Wiggins and Evans. Bad riding, bad luck.
Note that all this rule does NOT apply on Wednesday for the finish on the Mur de Bretagne, which is treated like a mountaintop finish, not a flat, sprinty one. Games are complicated, sometimes you have to dig to figure out why the rules are there. Sometimes they are just stupid. Enough of that.
If I keep my promise I only have a few hundred words left for the TTT. Usually there is a bit less “event” in the TTT than in a proper road stage. The results will shake up the GC briefly. I predicted Contador would lose more time, as he has a poor TT team. My pick, Sky, almost won. Wiggins is even better placed. And Thomas is knocking on the door of Yellow, wearing white. But Garmin won, and Thor wears yellow. Fantastic. I like when the yellow is worn by many different riders during the Tour. I like immensely when rider who “deserves it” actually wears yellow for a day or more. Remember Sean Yates and Jens Voigt.
Basically the real joy is WATCHING a TTT, not writing about in a daily blog. Poetic writing maybe. For me anyway, there is an aesthetic pleasure watching the different teams try to ride a perfect TT. It actually is very hard, all things considered, to ride a bike at 60kph or whatever they do, about five centimetres from another back wheel. For a LONG time. Around corners. After the messy stuff on the first stage, we can settle down to watch how the guys ride in a “pure team” way. Watching the TTT is relaxing.
The unusual nature of the first two days' stages does mean we should have some more attacking later in the Tour as the big fellows try to make up the gaps. A few riders who might want to attack for the stage win are also more likely to be let loose, since they have lost so many minutes already, no one cares what they do. So any of the last 40 riders, the ones who have ALREADY lost more than three minutes, will be likely to make a break.
We get another look at how “peloton” will deal with the intermediate sprints. Should be a good strategic story as the Tour unfolds.
Loved seeing Thor Hushovd in the mountains jersey! Very pleased for Thor. No idea why, but I reckon he is clean, nice and Norwegian. [later] And now yellow. The beauty of the Tour.
Getting annoyed with the stupid spectators booing Saxo and Alberto. Not cool. They should be booing the UCI and the Spanish Federation.
Big turns by Fabian. Nice to see. Sky looked lovely too and you could tell that BMC had done plenty of practice. Frank S. not taking any relays at all. Andy not taking relays either, at the end. Saving them? They can't time trial? Feeling poorly? Sorry, my attempt at gossip.
Wiggins says he weighs 13 kilos less than Beijing, he now weighs 69k. Usually that draws a breath from serious racing guys. He clearly wants to climb better. Jalabert immediately was worried about reserves for three weeks.
Saxo, good morale, very good result. They are not a strong team, but managed to be quite respectable. On the other hand Alberto is now behind Schleck by a very significant time. When Andy lost 42 seconds to Contador on the prologue last year, he never got the time back, and lost the whole Tour by 39 seconds. Contador has lost way more. I can only think this will make the Tour more interesting. Contador simply has to get the time back. So he has to attack, both Schlecks, Evans, Wiggins, Basso and any other chancer. If he attacks, some won't be able to follow, some will. That is what makes a good race. Mind you, there still might be plenty of “events”. We have many stages to come.
Evans quite impressive. Long relays. Big winner. Took more time on all rivals.
Gilbert will never get the yellow jersey back at the end of the stage up Mur. Must have been a mental treat for him to think he had all three jerseys today. Can't have happened more than a few times, must check. He is probably a cycling legend already. Should he win the fourth stage there will be no question. “Remember the 2011 Tour when Gilbert just rode away from every rider in the Tour, twice!” Maybe he might even carry on to the end of the Tour and try to get the green jersey. THAT would be fun.
Jean-Paul Olivier is a very knowledgable commentator. He is part of the French TV team. They showed clips of him answering questions on a quiz show, like “who was fourth in the second stage of the Tour 1970”, for example. He described the six guys in the break, remembered who got dropped and who won the four man sprint. And several other questions like that. He was good!
I do apologise for not saying much about the race, but the TTT is not really a race, more like an aesthetic exercise. It is over. The results will not distort the overall race very much, which is good. Interesting gaps emerging quickly, but it is still very early, no mountains. I cannot imagine anything but good coming from this for the quality of our Tour. Uncertainty is always the key to a good race. I think so far, the route planners did a good job.
So tomorrow is almost certain to be a sprint. Maybe one or two of the usual sprinters teams will be too tired to chase. I doubt it, but it could be a victory for a breakaway. Plenty of riders want a spot of glory before the serious stuff starts. On the other hand, the total odds have been on Cav for this stage since it was revealed. I pick him too. But I would like to see Thor win in the yellow jersey. Such a cool ending. So tune in for the last 45 minutes maybe or half an hour.
That's it for tonight. I am quite tired from staying up to finish after the Country Fete. I didn't even get out for a ride today, just felt tired. Voila.
Later.
I am trying to write some of this before the stage, so if the tenses get confused, read deeply.
Let me take a moment to help you understand the weird finish yesterday. It might not concern you much, so skip this paragraph (actually two paras in the end). If you look at the stage finish results for stage one (now, http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-france/stage-1/results) and notice that the first 31 placings seemed quite normal and then suddenly someone fished at 1'20”. You might think, ah, there was a gap between riders due to the crashes. OK. Then suddenly the 37th rider finished only six seconds back, even though he crossed the line at the same moment as the 36th and 38th rider. And throughout the rest of the results there is an alternation of six seconds gap and 1.20 (or more). Keep looking through and it will be obvious that on numerous occasions, a rider got a time only six seconds after the winner, even though they finished WAY behind riders who lost more than a minute. In fact, if you look at Matthew Goss (the extreme case), finishing 183rd, the guy in front of him lost 4.56, the guy behind him lost 5.33, and he only lost six seconds. How can this be?
The rules are fairly clear. The second big crash, the one that happened 2k+ from the finish involved all the people who got a six second gap in the final GC. You can see exactly how many there were. If you have a crash in the last 3k (or a mechanical problem or a puncture), everyone in the group who crashed (or those with bike problems) gets the same time as the first guy who finishes, from that group (not Gilbert's time since he sprinted away from the group at the end). The judges have a device which reads the transponders of every rider at 3k, so they know exactly who was in the group at that moment. But the “classification” of each rider, the order they crossed the finish line, is strictly when they cross the line. Hence the 183rd guy to cross the line really did cross very late, but only lost 6 seconds because he was with the first group at 3k.
This rule was constructed to prevent a Tour being lost solely by the speed, jostling and pushing and danger that comes with every sprint finish. This rule means that in the last 3k, very dangerous, the NON-sprinters can hang back a bit and let the sprinters and their lead-out men duke it out. The guys who hang back don't lose time, and the sprinters have space to do their stuff. Sprinters are happy and GC riders are happy. So for some reason I don't know yet, Goss and Gesink took ever such a long time to get over the line. Although you have to search long and hard for their names on the finish list, they were clearly in that first group, the group that got entirely missed the first crash (because they were in the front), nine k from the finish. Alberto took some time to extricate himself from that first massive pileup, but not THAT much. Check out the videos which must be appearing by now. When there is a big crash, especially one spread out across the road (it had ditches on both sides too), some riders have to check or be checked if they are injured. Others have to wait for a new wheel or even a new bike. Others have to wait for an actual way to be clear for them to walk with their bike on a clear road to get back on. Of course some, the ones in the front, are not injured, have a bike that works, and are off. Over the distance between the first crash and the finish, riders caught up with others and finally, it appears from the times, that a rather large group got in 1.20 after the winner. They got their actual time of arrival since their crash was outside the protected zone. Gesink and Goss knew the rules, as did many others who were in the second crash, and many of them just took their time getting to the finish. Why rush up the steepish hill, they had nothing to gain? Had Contador, the 2 Sanchez and Hesjedal, for example, been WELL in front at the nine k mark, like the other 80 odd riders were, they would have avoided the crash and only lost six seconds, like the Schlecks, Wiggins and Evans. Bad riding, bad luck.
Note that all this rule does NOT apply on Wednesday for the finish on the Mur de Bretagne, which is treated like a mountaintop finish, not a flat, sprinty one. Games are complicated, sometimes you have to dig to figure out why the rules are there. Sometimes they are just stupid. Enough of that.
If I keep my promise I only have a few hundred words left for the TTT. Usually there is a bit less “event” in the TTT than in a proper road stage. The results will shake up the GC briefly. I predicted Contador would lose more time, as he has a poor TT team. My pick, Sky, almost won. Wiggins is even better placed. And Thomas is knocking on the door of Yellow, wearing white. But Garmin won, and Thor wears yellow. Fantastic. I like when the yellow is worn by many different riders during the Tour. I like immensely when rider who “deserves it” actually wears yellow for a day or more. Remember Sean Yates and Jens Voigt.
Basically the real joy is WATCHING a TTT, not writing about in a daily blog. Poetic writing maybe. For me anyway, there is an aesthetic pleasure watching the different teams try to ride a perfect TT. It actually is very hard, all things considered, to ride a bike at 60kph or whatever they do, about five centimetres from another back wheel. For a LONG time. Around corners. After the messy stuff on the first stage, we can settle down to watch how the guys ride in a “pure team” way. Watching the TTT is relaxing.
The unusual nature of the first two days' stages does mean we should have some more attacking later in the Tour as the big fellows try to make up the gaps. A few riders who might want to attack for the stage win are also more likely to be let loose, since they have lost so many minutes already, no one cares what they do. So any of the last 40 riders, the ones who have ALREADY lost more than three minutes, will be likely to make a break.
We get another look at how “peloton” will deal with the intermediate sprints. Should be a good strategic story as the Tour unfolds.
Loved seeing Thor Hushovd in the mountains jersey! Very pleased for Thor. No idea why, but I reckon he is clean, nice and Norwegian. [later] And now yellow. The beauty of the Tour.
Getting annoyed with the stupid spectators booing Saxo and Alberto. Not cool. They should be booing the UCI and the Spanish Federation.
Big turns by Fabian. Nice to see. Sky looked lovely too and you could tell that BMC had done plenty of practice. Frank S. not taking any relays at all. Andy not taking relays either, at the end. Saving them? They can't time trial? Feeling poorly? Sorry, my attempt at gossip.
Wiggins says he weighs 13 kilos less than Beijing, he now weighs 69k. Usually that draws a breath from serious racing guys. He clearly wants to climb better. Jalabert immediately was worried about reserves for three weeks.
Saxo, good morale, very good result. They are not a strong team, but managed to be quite respectable. On the other hand Alberto is now behind Schleck by a very significant time. When Andy lost 42 seconds to Contador on the prologue last year, he never got the time back, and lost the whole Tour by 39 seconds. Contador has lost way more. I can only think this will make the Tour more interesting. Contador simply has to get the time back. So he has to attack, both Schlecks, Evans, Wiggins, Basso and any other chancer. If he attacks, some won't be able to follow, some will. That is what makes a good race. Mind you, there still might be plenty of “events”. We have many stages to come.
Evans quite impressive. Long relays. Big winner. Took more time on all rivals.
Gilbert will never get the yellow jersey back at the end of the stage up Mur. Must have been a mental treat for him to think he had all three jerseys today. Can't have happened more than a few times, must check. He is probably a cycling legend already. Should he win the fourth stage there will be no question. “Remember the 2011 Tour when Gilbert just rode away from every rider in the Tour, twice!” Maybe he might even carry on to the end of the Tour and try to get the green jersey. THAT would be fun.
Jean-Paul Olivier is a very knowledgable commentator. He is part of the French TV team. They showed clips of him answering questions on a quiz show, like “who was fourth in the second stage of the Tour 1970”, for example. He described the six guys in the break, remembered who got dropped and who won the four man sprint. And several other questions like that. He was good!
I do apologise for not saying much about the race, but the TTT is not really a race, more like an aesthetic exercise. It is over. The results will not distort the overall race very much, which is good. Interesting gaps emerging quickly, but it is still very early, no mountains. I cannot imagine anything but good coming from this for the quality of our Tour. Uncertainty is always the key to a good race. I think so far, the route planners did a good job.
So tomorrow is almost certain to be a sprint. Maybe one or two of the usual sprinters teams will be too tired to chase. I doubt it, but it could be a victory for a breakaway. Plenty of riders want a spot of glory before the serious stuff starts. On the other hand, the total odds have been on Cav for this stage since it was revealed. I pick him too. But I would like to see Thor win in the yellow jersey. Such a cool ending. So tune in for the last 45 minutes maybe or half an hour.
That's it for tonight. I am quite tired from staying up to finish after the Country Fete. I didn't even get out for a ride today, just felt tired. Voila.
Later.
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