Month: July 2010 (Page 3 of 7)

Today was an unfortunate day in the Tour de France.  Regardless of whether you favor Andy Schleck or Alberto Contador, it is unfortunate that a mechanical problem was the deciding factor in which rider now wears the yellow jersey.

If you love the race more than you favor any one rider, which I do, then you want the riders alone to decide the outcome.  Just as lovers of the Tour do not want unfair advantage gained by riders through drugs – a rider should not take the yellow jersey through unfair means or misfortune of a rival.

It is also unfortunate that we were deprived of seeing the race tactics of Schleck and Contador play out.  Those tactics had just started when Schleck launched an attack against Contador and then the mechanical occurred.

Moreover, there is an unwritten code of honor – basic tenets – that professional cyclists compete by.  The most basic of which are:

• You don’t take advantage of someone’s bad luck
• It is bad form to win because of another rider’s misfortune.

There are plenty of examples in Tour de France history where this basic code was followed.  One of the most memorable was in the 2003 Tour:

When Lance Armstrong was caught in the handle of a fan’s bag, his closest rival, Germany’s Jan Ullrich, who had trailed Armstrong by only 15 seconds at the day’s start, slowed to wait for Armstrong to pick himself up and get back in the race.

To many U.S. sports fans, casual watchers of this extraordinary bike race, what happened (also Stage 15) caused a collective “huh?” But to Ullrich, who as a result fell to 1 minute 7 seconds behind Armstrong, speeding off while Armstrong was on the ground would have been wrong.

Ullrich said, “Of course, I would wait.  If I would have won this race by taking advantage of someone’s bad luck, then the race was not worth winning.”

Two years before, Armstrong waited on Ullrich when the German crashed on a mountain descent. “There’s always been a predictable code of honor,” said Bob Roll, four-time rider in the Tour and Tour commentator for Versus.

“When you ride with the same people for three weeks of a Tour or a whole season, it is a matter of respect. You don’t take advantage of someone’s bad luck.”

Contador says that he did not know that Schleck had suffered a mechanical problem, we will never know whether that is true.  It is hard to believe that he did not know that Schleck had incurred some type of problem when Schleck did not follow.  Most importantly perhaps, Contador took the yellow jersey under very bad circumstances.  If he goes on to win the Tour de France this year, Contador’s victory will be suspect and will be tainted with bad feelings.

That is unfortunate for him, Andy Schleck and the Tour de France.

Update:  Pictures that show the Schleck Attack Sequence, frame by frame.

Stage 14 brought a few punches between the top two riders in the GC, Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador – but no knockout punch. Or if you prefer football - it was a defensive battle with very little offense.

With that said, there was a lot of offense by riders that are not trying to win it all.

The breakaway du jour occurred at about the 25km mark of the stage. In the breakaway were riders; Dave Zabriskie (Garmin-Transitions), Stephane Auge (Cofidis), Amael Moinard (Cofidis), Geraint Thomas (Sky), Benoit Vaugrenard (FDJ), Pavel Brutt (Team Katusha), Jurgen Van De Walle (Quick Step), Pierre Rolland (Bbox) and eventual Stage winner, Christophe Riblon (AG2R). Since none of the riders was a threat to the GC, they were allowed to go, eventually building a lead of around ten minutes.

Astana drilled the peloton today in what was an unexpectedly fast tempo. Typically, the yellow jersey leader’s team assumes this role. It is likely Contador sees himself as the leader-in-waiting – as evidenced by this move. Astana set the high-speed tempo long before the HC climb, Port de Pailheres, which affected the peloton significantly. Most riders assumed the real work would not begin until the climb of Pailheres. The peloton, instead of approaching the first climb in the characteristic mass, stretched into a long thin chain. A testament to just how fast the pace was. It was a clear and strong signal to all riders, but most especially Schleck and the Saxo Bank team, that Contador and Astana planned to attack.

By the time the breakaway was on the climb, Astana had cut the gap to four minutes. The breakaway started to shed riders, until just Van De Wall, Moinard and Riblon remained. Meanwhile, previous Tour winner, Carlos Sastre (Cervelo) took off from the main group, like the others not a threat to the GC so Astana did not attempt to chase him down.

Near the summit of Port de Pailheres, Riblon was able to break from Moinard. He crested the summit alone, descended, Moinard chased him, but was never able to catch.

Meanwhile back at the main group several riders jumped to try to catch the leaders. Rafael Valls (Footon), Damiano Cunego (Lampre), Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse d’Epargne), plus Sastre and the remaining riders from initial breakaway were between the leader Riblon and the main group with Schleck, Contador and other GC hopefuls.

Astana, with Stage 13 winner Alexandre Vinokourov on the front, continued to hammer the pace, dropping riders off the back and picking up breakaway riders on the front. Contador and Schleck were content to dance. Contador attacked at 5km from the finish, Schleck countered. They watched each other and waited – both content to play defense.

Schleck and Contador seemed oblivious to what the other riders were doing. Unchallenged by either Schleck or Contador, the two riders vying for third place, Sammy Sanchez (Euskaltel) and Denis Menchov (Rabobank) rode aggressively fighting to gain time.

Stage winner Christophe Riblon put in the most impressive ride of the day. Menchov finished a strong 2nd, Sanchez 3rd, Schleck 4th and Contador 7th (same time as Schleck).

Although Schleck did not lose time to Contador, he also did not gain any. Schleck has to gain at least another minute, (preferably more), on Contador before the time-trial (TT) to have any chance at winning the Tour. Last year in the final TT Schleck lost 1:45 to Contador who won the TT and the Tour.

When interviewed Schleck said today’s stage did not suit his climbing style as well as tomorrow’s. For his sake I hope it is true and that he can come out, attack Contador and gain time on him.

Contador holds almost all the cards it seems. He has the stronger team for the mountains, he is arguably the better climber of the two and without a doubt, Contador is much better at time-trials. Schleck could really use his brother, Frank Schleck, (out with a broken clavicle) who is a good climber but also is good tactically.

Andy seemed kind of lost today, unsure of what he should do. If Frank was with him as he was last year, he could also attack Contador and wear him down. It is not hopeless for Andy Schleck to win, but it is going to take him at his best – at his best physically and mentally.

There are three more stages in the Pyrenees, a rest day Wednesday, and the final mountain stage Thursday. Saxo Bank should have been able to gain a little rest today as they did yesterday. Maybe they can stay with Schleck longer and help him gain that much needed time on Contador.
 *pictures are from Getty Images

Stage 15

Stage 15 looks a lot like Stage 14, but with one important exception.  There is no mountain top finish.  Mountain top finishes produce bigger time gaps than do steep descents such as this one.  Time lost on the mountain can be regained on the descent – for those not faint of heart.

Stage 13 covered some of the prettiest countryside of this year’s Tour. As far as the racing, it was sort of boring until the last climb when it was redeemed with an exciting and hard fought win by Tour veteran, Alexander Vinokourov (Astana).

Teams HTC-Colombia and Lampre did the work up front, keeping a fast tempo all day chasing back the 3-man breakaway – to give their sprinters, Mark Cavendish and Alessandro Petacchi respectively, a chance for a win in a bunch sprint.

The plan seemed to be working to perfection when at 10km the charging peloton caught the 3-man breakaway. However, on the last climb, a 1.9km category 3, Alessandro Ballan (BMC) attacked, riders Nicolas Roche (AG2R) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre) followed him but all 3 failed in their attack. Near the summit, Vinokourov attacked hard, Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) and Tommy Voeckler (Bbox) pursued.

Sanchez cracked first, but Voeckler eventually cracked too under the vicious pace by Vinokourov as he continued to widen the gap on the chasing peloton. No team in the peloton took control to chase Vino down. Likely, by that time the sprinters teams having chased and caught the original breakaway, had nothing more to give.

Lance Armstrong always seemed to race better, when he was angry, and anger no doubt helped to fuel Vinokourov on his gutsy ride to the finish. Vinokourov narrowly lost the stage yesterday when his team leader, Alberto Contador and Joaquim Rodriguez, overtook him near the finish on the steepest climb of the Tour. To make matters worse for Vino, Rodriguez took the win. Vinokourov slammed his fist on his handlebar unable to contain his disappointment and anger.

After today’s impressive win, Contador congratulated Vino and the two men hugged. There seemed to be no hard feelings over yesterday’s loss – all forgiven with the sweet win today.

Vinokourov has always been a strong rider and a rider that takes chances to go for wins – always fun to watch. Today was an impressive stage win for him.

As I stated earlier, Stage 13 was a boring stage, but don’t mistake that for easy – it wasn’t. With three strong riders in the breakaway – all previous Tour stage winners – HTC and Lampre had to drive the pace hard to chase them down. Fortunately, for Tour leader Andy Schleck, his Saxo Bank squad did not have to take the lead so got to “rest” a bit in the peloton.

There were no changes in the top of the GC because the main contenders all crossed the line together.  Andy Schleck is still in Yellow and Contador is still just :31 back.

Mark Cavendish answered the question of whether he could still sprint without his ace lead-out man, Mark Renshaw. The answer is an emphatic yes! He seemed to have no trouble beating out the other sprinters to take 2nd place in the stage. Petacchi came in ahead of Green jersey wearer, Thor Hushovd, so Petacchi will be in green tomorrow. The Green jersey point’s competition will likely last until the final sprint on the Champs Elysees.
*pictures are from Getty Images

Stage 14

Tomorrow starts out flat and easy.  As you can see by looking at the race profile – it doesn’t end that way.

Stage 14 is the first of four stages in the Pyrenees.  Generally speaking, the stages in the Pyrenees are more difficult than those in the Alps because the Pyrenees tend to be steeper.  The climbs are steep, the descents are too.  An arduous climb on HC category Port de Pailhères and then what will be a very fast descent before starting the last climb, the category 1 Ax-3-Domaines, where the stage will finish.

In keeping with their theme to make this Tour one of the most difficult in years, Tour organizers have saved the brutal Pyrenees for the last week – hoping to settle things once and for all between the contenders.  Namely, between Schleck and Contador for the win, but also between a host of other’s vying for the 3rd place podium.

Will Lance Armstrong manage to salvage something from his last Tour de France in the Pyrenees?  Only time will tell, I would love to see it.  Tomorrow’s stage should suit Schleck well – and if it’s steep it suits Contador.  No doubt, Schleck and Contador will attack and counter attack all the way through the Pyrenees.

I can hardly believe we only have one week of the Tour left. It should be one hell of a week though with four back to back stages in the Pyrenees!

*Pictures are from Getty Images

As expected Stage 12 was a difficult stage – actually brutal is more like it. Stage 12 had five categorized climbs, hot temperatures, a fast tempo and the steepest, albeit short, climb I recall ever seeing in the Tour.

Stage 12 began with a group of 18 riders getting into a breakaway. In this group were three GC contenders (Vinokourov, Kloden, Hesjedal), plus Green jersey hopeful, Thor Hushovd. The fourth man, Vasil Kiryienka, was a threat to Team Radio Shack in the team competition. With the threat to the GC presented by Vinokourov, Kloden and Hesjedal, the peloton could not allow the breakaway to open up too big a gap. This kept the pressure on Saxo Bank as well as other teams (Rabobank, Cervelo, Liquigas, Omega Pharma-Lotto) to keep the pace up, minimize the time gap, eventually reeling them all back in before the finish. This is what the teams driving the peloton were hoping for anyway.

At about 50km from the finish, Hushovd raced and took the last sprint points of the day putting him back in the Green jersey. At this point, he sat up (quit racing) and waited to rejoin the peloton. About this same time, four riders – Vinokourov, Kloden, Hesjedal and Kiryienka – took off from the breakaway sensing they would need to pick up the pace to avoid being caught by the fast approaching peloton. At this point, the 4-man group had a gap of 3:38 on the peloton.

At the 5km point, the gap was down to under one minute. Vinokourov and Kiryienka dropped Kloden and Hesjedal, who could not maintain the pace. At 3.5km, Vinokourov dropped Kiryienka, now alone heading towards the finish and the final climb.

The final climb came at just under 3k. With an average gradient of 10%, but parts at 14% – it looked like the riders were going straight up. It looked brutal.

There is one guy in the peloton that chews climbs like this up – Alberto Contador. A climb so brief and steep takes an explosive climber to use it to his advantage and that is exactly what Contador did.

Schleck held on to the Yellow jersey, his lead down to 31 seconds over Contador. Hushovd took back the Green jersey from Alessandro Petacchi and Anthony Charteau reclaimed the Polka-dot jersey as best climber.  Team Radio Shack leads Caisse d’Epargne by just 21 seconds in the Team Classification.  Vinokourov was rewarded for his efforts with most aggressive rider for the stage.

Contador was able to gain a little time over Schleck when he timed his move perfectly.  Schleck is wary now, you can be sure the two men will keep each other in close view from now to the end.

On a very sad note, Garmin-Transitions sprinter, Tyler Farrar, abandoned the Tour de France with 50km left in today’s stage. According to G-T management, Farrar was dropped on the first climb; unable to recover he chose to drop out of the race entirely. Since his crash in Stage 2, Farrar battled with toughness and commitment each day despite his broken wrist. Yesterday was especially disappointing and frustrating for him with the Mark Renshaw incident; it is unfortunate he had to drop out. A bad Tour continues for Garmin-Transitions leaving just six of the original nine riders still competing. Robbie Hunter left the Tour prior to Stage 11 because of injury, and Christian Vande Velde, leader of the squad, crashed and had to abandon the first week.

Stage 13
Stage 13 has climbs, but no serious mountain – only rolling terrain.  In other words, nothing steep enough to allow Contador or Schleck to jump and take off alone.  That should make the peloton quite happy after the intensity of today’s finish. If a GC contender attacks tomorrow, the rest are sure to follow – so why waste the effort.

Tomorrow will be another day for breakaways, possibly producing the winner of the stage.  Watch as team tactics come into play for green jersey and polka dot jersey points hunting.  Also, Radio Shack and Caisse d’Epargne will continue to battle for the team classification.

*Pictures are from Getty Images