Stage 8
9 July 2011
This is the first stage in what we call “medium mountains”. What have we learned about the Tour?
Still keeps me interested, usually something happening, weather, crashes, some good racing with the sprints and the hill finishes. Enough uncertainty that it is still not obvious who is going to fill out the top ten and win the jerseys. Plenty of Tour Tragedies, which I can only like if I distance myself from them. Boonen, Wiggins, Brajkovic, Horner, Kiriyenka, Christophe Kern, Remi Pauriol and others, no longer on the Tour. Strategic choices of the excellent or not so categories. Some new names coming to the fore. Feats of fortitude and desire.
It must be said that other than elimination of three top ten contenders, even podium contenders, it is still not clear what is going to happen on a hill when Schleck cannot follow Contador. Or when Evans might drop one of them. If you look a little at the very end today, they were doing dress rehearsals, but nothing happened. Substitute other names of attackers. We haven't a clue who is going to be strongest over the three weeks. But it must be said that in the Tour we NEVER know for sure after eight days, especially if there is not an ITT during the flattish bit before we get to the real mountains.
Thor has been a superb wearer of the yellow jersey. Basically this big sprinter (1.83m and 83 kilos, about as tall as me and 14 kilos heavier), can now climb some pretty hard shortish hills. By keeping up with the guys who are supposed to climb well, he has saved his jersey. For example, he rode mostly on his own today, his team trusted him to stay calmly within spitting distance of Evans. I am totally impressed with Hushovd. After the yellow stint, he has to revert to the World Champion Jersey. Good year, good Tour for Thor, no matter what happens next. Do you think he can keep up with the leading group of GC riders, all the way across the medium mountains to St. Flour? I have driven on a few of those roads, and while the cols are not mighty, they are heavy roads, and lots of BIG rolling hills. Big rolling hills forever.
We now know that there are at least three guys seriously interested in the green jersey. Cav, Rojas and Gilbert seem to be acting as if they care a lot. Others show signs of being keen, but can't quite get enough points to match those three, they don't make it a priority or they are not as good this year. Hushovd is still well in touch. But the others, including Farrar, do not seem to have the application to get the points at any cost. Today, for example, Gilbert worked a bit harder than necessary at the end, to get the points. He seems way serious. We already know Cav is serious. I knew about Rojas, who I thought was a kind of second rate sprinter. He was never mentioned as a possible green jersey, even an outsider, by La France Cyclist, for example. Maybe someone thought of him outside his family and Spain, but I missed it. Rojas is serious.
No more information on the spotted maillot, although I think it is nice that one of the Next Great American Tour hopes can wear it for a day or so. Seems a very nice young man. Anyway, keeping it until Paris is unlikely. Nice he can wear it at the age of 22. I thought he rode all day like very young, trusting, hard working rider of immense talent. A bit inexperienced maybe. I am looking forward to seeing what he does in the mountains. If he finishes in the top ten this year he is a certainty to win the Tour one day. He can time trial brilliantly.
Gesink is back in the young riders jersey, but it has to be said he could not keep up with the front group and lost time on nearly everyone. So I guess even if he has a bad day, Gesink still looks like the (young) man. Quite a few people in my forums think Gesink is overrated. Did he just “get dropped”? Is a minute or so a big deal?
We can see that Sky wants to keep visible, we saw Flecha and Xandia today, being quite serious. Thomas and EBH finished in the first group. I do hope they get through the loss of Bradley and make some cool moves.
So we don't know very much yet, nothing is clear. A lot of nice fit young men have worn the various jerseys and we are glad. So far it seems a pretty good Tour. I often get bored with the sprint stages, but this year I didn't. OK, admittedly I am really looking forward to the real mountains. But to keep me interested they have stages which have a bit of racing, and go through gorgeous countryside. I can still feel a little bit like I still have to make it through some stages which are not going to increase the uncertainty and not going to affect the result. Maybe something untoward will happen. But its not until next Thursday that they hit the Pyrenees. Still we can always hope for uncertainty.
Today's race was good in the end, the last few K that is. I only caught the last 50k, but it seemed a proper road race with loads of interest, for an hour or so. I liked to see Vino having a dig, felt like a proper Tour de France. I liked the young lads battling it out for the stage. Finally, part of a break stays away. Bravo Rui Costa. Another young (24) with a pretty good record so far. I wanted Tejay to win, since I didn't remember much about Rui Costa, except a vague connection with doping (he got off). In the end the Portuguese lad deserved to win. Tejay worked a bit too hard, but showed us that either of them could do this again. No team or rider really wanted to chase hard enough to catch them. Gilbert seems to be doing quite well. He is going for green without a doubt. Still can't figure Thor. He says he rides around Monaco with Gilbert, and Gilbert makes him work hard on the hills. He thanked Gilbert for the help. So I guess if you lived around Monaco you would have seen Thor and Gilbert out training in the hills, now and again. Thor is amazing. Look at the stage results and see where the next “sprinter” is, after Gilbert of course.
One thing I like to do when I am not in a hurry to cook my dinner (unless I get lucky), finish this off and get to bed in time to read a bit, is to look at the stage results in detail, and notice all the small gaps or big gaps. Then I guess why they exist and what they mean. I noticed that EBH lost eleven seconds on the first group. Sometimes when there is a climb and there is a group strung out for twenty or thirty metres, they all get the same time. But then the commissars decide there is a gap between the last rider in one group and the first rider in “a new group”, also strung out for a few metres (before the “third” group). There is supposed to be a gap of one bike length before a ”new group” begins, but often you can't figure out exactly what criteria they use for the 'end' of one group. So if you look down the stage results, you see tiny handful of seconds separating a number of riders. I think, unless I study the video carefully, this small time difference is simply a slightly larger gap between two riders, one that the authorities see as a BIG ENOUGH gap, rather than a small one. In that same way I guess Leipheimer lost 29 seconds. But LL Sanchez and Gesink losing 1.23 meant they were not as strong or determined as the guys in front of them. Meaning? NO idea, but the questions arises as to whether Gesink is in good shape. I noticed Tejay and Cyril Gautier passed the line a couple minutes after the winner, which is normal for a break that gets caught. They might have been chatting or might become lifetime friends because they road 150k together in theTour. And of course Contador was followed everywhere, even over the line, by both of the Schlecks.
Contador seemed to be accelerating a bit mainly to see who would follow, not really to win the stage. Then he stopped. I guess just warming up for …. next THURSDAY. They won't hit the high mountains until the 14th of July. Maybe we will have a French guy who escapes for a mighty victory and slightly behind we have a hot battle. But that really is DAYS away. The hope I have is that either Contador or others attack a lot, even if we have to wait until Thursday. Still, never give up hope that something exceptional and interesting will happen in the medium mountains to come, the hilly bits.
Jalabert and B. Hinault agreed that it was not obvious why BMC were working so hard, for so long, at the front. They both thought it was unwise. Its a long Tour, why use up your energy to do what? Win a stage? Grab yellow for a few days? Waste of energy, the two French cycling personalities said. This story should run for a day or two as a sub-story. I thought they were riding for the stage or for the jersey, both of which were possible. But the Badger and Jalabert ask a good question. If you want to win the jersey, you have to wear it in Paris. Wearing before the high mountains just means your team has to ride in front a lot more. The experts said they should have made Contador get his team out and work. They did not say how exactly, but BMC should definitely NOT ride in front for long distances.
Tomorrow I go out to a picnic in the late morning-early afternoon, which does not give me a lot of time to read the paper and compose thoughts. So maybe tomorrow's blog will be a little thin. I do hope to get home early enough to have a quick nap and then watch the countryside for a couple of hours. Should be absolutely gorgeous, even if the race is just a break of 4 French and 3 other riders, kept at four minutes for a long time. I guess if any stage had the possibility of a break succeeding it could be this one. Why would any big GC guy want to work hard tomorrow, we have not even reached the mountains. So a big break tomorrow with lesser mortals from seven teams, including some of the biggest teams.
I talked about the fat, detailed Race Book, although I called it the Road Book, that everyone who is anyone gets. You can get a glimpse of the Road Book or Race Book on one of Thomas' videos. On the first page, you can see the short route they mark out for non-Tour route followers. The video is entitled “G and Eddy – TDF”. http://www.geraintthomas.com/videos/
Why do they not force the Team Directors to drive with a normal telephonist, call centre type microphone and headphone. One ear. They drive for ages hanging onto their totally archaic hand held microphone, which means they drive a lot with one hand. Narrow roads, team cars passing and stopping, spectators, bikes in front and behind, etc. Bad idea to do it one handed. Can't figure that out. There exist speaker phones, and so forth.
They said it was 14 degrees and it was raining on the top of the highest climb. Hope they get good weather tomorrow, up and down all day.
In fact, it is so likely to be a break that gets away that I won't even bother to predict. No idea. Jeremy Roy maybe (that is a joke). It is lovely to see the peloton floating through that countryside. I doubt if the big fellows want to race yet. I notice the that each forum buddy has picked a different rider for tomorrow. No one knows.
Our picnic is at a nice lake near here, called Lake Salagou. We have never been to this exact spot, although our pals say it is quite good. Water should be warm enough. When we went to the sea, it really was not comfy to swim, quite bracing. If I were 100% Northern English, I would have gone in.
Back tomorrow at the same time, touch wood.
Saturday, 9 July 2011
Friday, 8 July 2011
Cav Two, Bradley Zero
Stage 7
8 July 2011
I am late starting this. I went for a ride today and am a bit tired. None of you serious cyclists will be deeply impressed, but I rode 67k today and climbed over 700 metres. I have not done that, which means a particular circuit I know, for at least two years. I have not been fit enough. But today I thought I might be. I am beginning to sense “being fit enough” (maybe in a month or so), that I can go anywhere and survive the ride. Around here that is.
Championne of France lives two villages up the valley
Chateau at Lunas
Have to admit to feeling sorry for French people in general and Brits/English people in general. At least those who watch the Tour. The French have STILL not won a stage. It could be they are saving it up for the fourteenth. But the fourteenth is up the Tourmalet then Luz Ardiden. For them, I fantasise a huge pack of every French climber who has lost at least fifteen minutes on the yellow jersey taking off and just outlasting the finest climbers when they try to catch them on the last climb. Could be a great scenario, and maybe with a one two three it would make history and we could get back to the real Tour. Gadret, Gautier, Dupont, Charteau, Coppel, Vichot ... It could be one glorious day. Anyway I do feel sorry for them. They put on a show and none of their guys are getting the big daily prize. In case you are not aware, an entire career is guaranteed to any French rider who wins a stage, and more. I will say something about Feillu in a moment. Maybe even a French guy might win who is NOT entirely vanilla French. Yessss.
Before I mention the other thing, Bradley's crash, I would like to say that in some ways, nothing much changed although it might look like it. For example three Brits in the top ten and three Sky guys in top ten for young, today they are almost gone. And Millar soon will be. Boonen left the Tour today. Pauriol (young French lad with possibilities) as well. But overall, even though some of the jerseys changed hands, that was partly due to Wiggins' crash. My wife was actually quite upset about it. I could pretend I wasn't, that it was all part of the game, that things happen, that the Tour is not about 'justice', but I was really disappointed. I have read two of his books. I liked the guy that I met in the books. I like hearing him talk. I like how he tried really hard to do well last year and failed. Then tried another way this year and was looking like he might succeed. Lost even more weight so he could climb better, and demonstrated it a few weeks ago in the Dauphine. But also seems to have lost nothing in his time trialling. He had a lovely team of such talented young lads, mixed with a couple of old geezers. I have been enjoying 'getting to know' Thomas, Swift (my least favourite) and EBH, for example. Bradley was pretty quiet up to now, staying out of trouble. But ready to try something. Damn. We will never know.
I felt a bit sorry for Pauriol too and Boonen, but not the way I did for Bradley. I note that Radio Shack has had some serious bad luck. Their young leader Brajkovic is out of the entire Tour in one of those stupid crashes, collar-bone maybe. Today Leipheimer and Horner lost so many minutes they are nearly out of the GC themselves, Leipheimer anyway. All they can do is win a stage and help Klöden. I still bet they are the 'best team' at the end of the Tour. Bradley was the only Sky guy injured, not like Shack. The rest of the Sky team is still impressive. Tyler Farrar, as a result of that crash, is now probably an outsider in the green jersey race. Although I am sure he will keep trying every sprint.
So results-wise Thomas hung around Bradley so long that he lost over a minute and with it the white jersey. I doubt he will see it again, but would be dead chuffed if he did. The new “young rider” is Gesink, who nearly everyone thought would win it anyway. Thor kept his jersey, but most likely will lose it tomorrow. There is a semi-serious climb at the end, not just an uphill finish, too much for Thor. By taking the points n the intermediate sprint and at the finish, Rojas grabbed the jersey from Gilbert, for a day anyway. So some small changes, but the outlines of the after mountain GC are still unknown. EBH, Bradley and Thomas, all in the top ten yesterday are out of it. Bang. Over.
What I like about the Sky disaster is that they might give us a good substory. Team has big plans. Leader is fit and ready. Suddenly Plan A is shattered. The leader is gone. But there are all these pretty good young lads, and a couple of competent vets. What can they do to make headlines? Nice challenge for their management. No one can doubt they have some fairly good raw material. I still think Thomas and EBH can do interesting stuff on the Tour.
I am fully enjoying those heli shots of houses and landscapes and am going to LOVE them in the mountains. It is such quality coverage. I have seen other coverage by other TV teams in various cycling races. I think the French produce a superbly varied and mostly pretty well edited picture/story. Did you know that in the studio it is Ronan Pensec who actually choosing exactly what camera to put on live? True! How else cold anyone, except the filthy rich, ever see shots like this? And the slo-mos of the sprints help me to actually understand what went on, since I have never actually, and never will actually be in such a sprint. End of tribute to the lads and lasses that bring us the picture. And to French history which brings us the landscape.
THE Intermediate Sprint was totally classic again. Do search out the video and check out both sprints. Soon the action will develop at a more leisurely and sustained pace, in the mountains. We won't need slo-mo to sort it out. Looks like Cav and his team ARE targeting the Green. Hope he gets it. Although I picked Hushovd. We shall see what he does when he loses the yellow jersey.
A word on Feillu. I am utterly certain that if he were not French, he would be relegated or tossed off the Tour. He is a “suddenly” competitive fast sprinter after many years of being pretty good, without being a star. He IS fast. I have been trying to watch him, and realised that he is a very dangerous sprinter. He has no train, just another competitor on his team, Bozic. Often they do NOT work together. If you are a sprinter, when you are in the last few hundred metres, you are mostly meant to go in a straight line toward the finish. You are not meant to suddenly lunge to the left, or drift over and block other riders, or make any really sudden moves. You are not really supposed to cut off someone by suddenly swinging over into their way. Now there is always a bit of physicality, but you are not meant to to do sudden dangerous moves. I maintain that Romain Feillu makes sudden dangerous moves every time he sprints. He is fast though. He is the guy with the VacanSolieil dark blue jersey with bits of yellow on it. Identify him in any of the sprints and then follow him, and you will see what I mean. If I get around to it, I will insert the URLs for the YouTube link. But there have only been six stages you have to check. Less really.
They were way behind schedule today, so I even had an extra long nap and “didn't miss anything”. They were tired, there was a headwind, weather had been togh, they wanted to take it easy, there are hard stages ahead, those were the reasons given.
One thing I like about some riders, Cavendish, Jens Voigt, Voeckler, Millar, Farrar, Voeckler, Gilbert, Thomas is that they give interesting interviews. Almost as if they know that giving interviews, ones that add something to our understanding and appreciation, is part of the spectacle. Some riders think they are sportsmen only, without realising they work for companies advertising products.
Voila. I had a couple more ideas, but I would not mind getting to bed at a decent hour. No time to even tell you about how my fantasy teams are doing. Actually my favourite fantasy team is doing badly. I decided to pick cheap chancy sprinters, only two. They have not done anything, so I am only going to start scoring points in the next few days. Should do well after that though.
Good night.
8 July 2011
I am late starting this. I went for a ride today and am a bit tired. None of you serious cyclists will be deeply impressed, but I rode 67k today and climbed over 700 metres. I have not done that, which means a particular circuit I know, for at least two years. I have not been fit enough. But today I thought I might be. I am beginning to sense “being fit enough” (maybe in a month or so), that I can go anywhere and survive the ride. Around here that is.
Championne of France lives two villages up the valley
Chateau at Lunas
Have to admit to feeling sorry for French people in general and Brits/English people in general. At least those who watch the Tour. The French have STILL not won a stage. It could be they are saving it up for the fourteenth. But the fourteenth is up the Tourmalet then Luz Ardiden. For them, I fantasise a huge pack of every French climber who has lost at least fifteen minutes on the yellow jersey taking off and just outlasting the finest climbers when they try to catch them on the last climb. Could be a great scenario, and maybe with a one two three it would make history and we could get back to the real Tour. Gadret, Gautier, Dupont, Charteau, Coppel, Vichot ... It could be one glorious day. Anyway I do feel sorry for them. They put on a show and none of their guys are getting the big daily prize. In case you are not aware, an entire career is guaranteed to any French rider who wins a stage, and more. I will say something about Feillu in a moment. Maybe even a French guy might win who is NOT entirely vanilla French. Yessss.
Before I mention the other thing, Bradley's crash, I would like to say that in some ways, nothing much changed although it might look like it. For example three Brits in the top ten and three Sky guys in top ten for young, today they are almost gone. And Millar soon will be. Boonen left the Tour today. Pauriol (young French lad with possibilities) as well. But overall, even though some of the jerseys changed hands, that was partly due to Wiggins' crash. My wife was actually quite upset about it. I could pretend I wasn't, that it was all part of the game, that things happen, that the Tour is not about 'justice', but I was really disappointed. I have read two of his books. I liked the guy that I met in the books. I like hearing him talk. I like how he tried really hard to do well last year and failed. Then tried another way this year and was looking like he might succeed. Lost even more weight so he could climb better, and demonstrated it a few weeks ago in the Dauphine. But also seems to have lost nothing in his time trialling. He had a lovely team of such talented young lads, mixed with a couple of old geezers. I have been enjoying 'getting to know' Thomas, Swift (my least favourite) and EBH, for example. Bradley was pretty quiet up to now, staying out of trouble. But ready to try something. Damn. We will never know.
I felt a bit sorry for Pauriol too and Boonen, but not the way I did for Bradley. I note that Radio Shack has had some serious bad luck. Their young leader Brajkovic is out of the entire Tour in one of those stupid crashes, collar-bone maybe. Today Leipheimer and Horner lost so many minutes they are nearly out of the GC themselves, Leipheimer anyway. All they can do is win a stage and help Klöden. I still bet they are the 'best team' at the end of the Tour. Bradley was the only Sky guy injured, not like Shack. The rest of the Sky team is still impressive. Tyler Farrar, as a result of that crash, is now probably an outsider in the green jersey race. Although I am sure he will keep trying every sprint.
So results-wise Thomas hung around Bradley so long that he lost over a minute and with it the white jersey. I doubt he will see it again, but would be dead chuffed if he did. The new “young rider” is Gesink, who nearly everyone thought would win it anyway. Thor kept his jersey, but most likely will lose it tomorrow. There is a semi-serious climb at the end, not just an uphill finish, too much for Thor. By taking the points n the intermediate sprint and at the finish, Rojas grabbed the jersey from Gilbert, for a day anyway. So some small changes, but the outlines of the after mountain GC are still unknown. EBH, Bradley and Thomas, all in the top ten yesterday are out of it. Bang. Over.
What I like about the Sky disaster is that they might give us a good substory. Team has big plans. Leader is fit and ready. Suddenly Plan A is shattered. The leader is gone. But there are all these pretty good young lads, and a couple of competent vets. What can they do to make headlines? Nice challenge for their management. No one can doubt they have some fairly good raw material. I still think Thomas and EBH can do interesting stuff on the Tour.
I am fully enjoying those heli shots of houses and landscapes and am going to LOVE them in the mountains. It is such quality coverage. I have seen other coverage by other TV teams in various cycling races. I think the French produce a superbly varied and mostly pretty well edited picture/story. Did you know that in the studio it is Ronan Pensec who actually choosing exactly what camera to put on live? True! How else cold anyone, except the filthy rich, ever see shots like this? And the slo-mos of the sprints help me to actually understand what went on, since I have never actually, and never will actually be in such a sprint. End of tribute to the lads and lasses that bring us the picture. And to French history which brings us the landscape.
THE Intermediate Sprint was totally classic again. Do search out the video and check out both sprints. Soon the action will develop at a more leisurely and sustained pace, in the mountains. We won't need slo-mo to sort it out. Looks like Cav and his team ARE targeting the Green. Hope he gets it. Although I picked Hushovd. We shall see what he does when he loses the yellow jersey.
A word on Feillu. I am utterly certain that if he were not French, he would be relegated or tossed off the Tour. He is a “suddenly” competitive fast sprinter after many years of being pretty good, without being a star. He IS fast. I have been trying to watch him, and realised that he is a very dangerous sprinter. He has no train, just another competitor on his team, Bozic. Often they do NOT work together. If you are a sprinter, when you are in the last few hundred metres, you are mostly meant to go in a straight line toward the finish. You are not meant to suddenly lunge to the left, or drift over and block other riders, or make any really sudden moves. You are not really supposed to cut off someone by suddenly swinging over into their way. Now there is always a bit of physicality, but you are not meant to to do sudden dangerous moves. I maintain that Romain Feillu makes sudden dangerous moves every time he sprints. He is fast though. He is the guy with the VacanSolieil dark blue jersey with bits of yellow on it. Identify him in any of the sprints and then follow him, and you will see what I mean. If I get around to it, I will insert the URLs for the YouTube link. But there have only been six stages you have to check. Less really.
They were way behind schedule today, so I even had an extra long nap and “didn't miss anything”. They were tired, there was a headwind, weather had been togh, they wanted to take it easy, there are hard stages ahead, those were the reasons given.
One thing I like about some riders, Cavendish, Jens Voigt, Voeckler, Millar, Farrar, Voeckler, Gilbert, Thomas is that they give interesting interviews. Almost as if they know that giving interviews, ones that add something to our understanding and appreciation, is part of the spectacle. Some riders think they are sportsmen only, without realising they work for companies advertising products.
Voila. I had a couple more ideas, but I would not mind getting to bed at a decent hour. No time to even tell you about how my fantasy teams are doing. Actually my favourite fantasy team is doing badly. I decided to pick cheap chancy sprinters, only two. They have not done anything, so I am only going to start scoring points in the next few days. Should do well after that though.
Good night.
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