For the Love of Bikes

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2013 Tour de France-Stage 1

June 29, 2013 /

Chaos and crashes.

The first stage of the 100th Tour de France, the greatest race in pro cycling, was much like the current state of professional cycling: chaotic.

For starters there was the Orica-GreenEdge team bus getting stuck at the finish line. First time the Tour has been disrupted by a bus, I believe.

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Because of the busted bus/finish line the Tour decided to quickly move the finish. Team cars and riders were informed of the change on the fly – and at this point the peloton was flying. They were only about 15 kilometers from the finish, about the time the sprinters teams were coming to the front to crank things up and position their sprinter.

At the last minute though the bus was moved and Tour officials decided to go back to the original finish. Again the riders were told through their ear pieces  while going around 40 mph. Not good. It was a bad decision in my mind. Once the finish was changed they should have stuck with it, although I can understand why they made the decision they did.

Not only was it the first stage of the 100th Tour, but also one of the very few times a sprinter gets the yellow jersey in addition to the stage victory.

Mark Cavendish (Quick Step), Andre Greipel (Lotto), Peter Sagan (Cannondale) all were imagining themselves in yellow. Although all had a chance to win and capture the leader’s jersey, Cavendish was definitely the favorite. Cavendish has worn green, but never yellow, and he’s possibly the best sprinter ever.

Instead of watching the fastest maneuver and sprint for the win and the yellow jersey, we watched them get taken out by a crash. All of the commotion with finish line changes surely played a part. Regardless of the cause, it was awful. What a horrible start to the 100th edition of the Tour de France. Cavendish was caught out in the crash, Sagan went down and was banged up, Greipel had a mechanical. Instead of having one of the most memorable starts to the Tour we had a chaotic scramble to the line and carnage behind.

Carnage is becoming a theme for the Tour de France.

Trying to minimize the damage, Tour officials awarded all finishers the same finishing time. In addition to the sprinters involved in the crash, Tour favorite and previous winner, Alberto Contador went down and injured his shoulder as did others.

A disappointing finish to what we all expected to be a spectacular one. A disappointing beginning to the Tour.

Tour Time

June 28, 2013 /

Don’t know about my fellow race fans, but my excitement level for the Tour de France, and racing in general, is not what it has been in the past.

Last year was an opportunity to make a serious effort to cleanup the sport of professional cycling, but instead things are pretty much the way they have been in the past. It amazes me that every time there is a doping scandal and subsequent cleanup, we are all supposed to believe, and many do, that the sport is now largely free of doping.

As the tests improve the drugs improve and until we take the watchdog function away from the UCI there will not be much impetus to get serious about anti-doping efforts.

But, the Tour is the Tour. Doping or not it is the most thrilling and spectacular sporting event there is. So like you possibly, I will be there watching and cheering the riders most apt to be clean: Garmin-Sharp’s Tejay Van Garderen and ?

I will not be cheering for Chris Froome and Sky, the latest version of the dominant Postal team of the 1990’s.

It probably goes without saying I will be cheering for Thomas Voeckler and hoping he lights up the race like he has in the past.

Enough of what I think, here is a preview of the 2013 Tour de France -Vive le Tour!

6/16/13 Ride

June 16, 2013 /

No storms today, just heat and humidity. Oh how I have missed you. Not.

Today’s ride was 32 miles with a good average speed, 15.5. I seem to be recovering.

Fingers crossed.

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Weather

June 15, 2013 /

In spite of the cloudy sky and high chance of rain, we checked radar just after 8am and determined we could get a 10 mile ride in if we hurried. We quickly got ready to go and then off we went heading east. It was muggy and warm, but cloudy as I said so not too bad.

Better than the weather was the traffic, very few cars/trucks but several cyclists. Just the way we like it. Once it was time to turnaround we decided to ride a little further since the sky didn’t look threatening, then a little bit further again before we decided we should turn around and head home.

As luck would have it, I heard the first roll of thunder about a mile from home. We just got our bikes in the garage and ourselves in the house before the heavy rain started, quickly followed by lightening and thunder with only 1-2 seconds between.

Close call, but a good ride. Hoped to get at least 10 miles and ended up getting 21 miles.

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With coffee in hand, snug in the kitchen we quickly recounted all the times we have avoided thunderstorms while out riding. Rain we have biked in, particularly on the Katy Trail, but thunderstorms we have always been able to avoid. Twice on the Katy Trail we managed to out maneuver storms. Our first time we rode in rain, but got to the bed and breakfast moments before all hell broke loose. Another time we rode as hard as we could do to beat a severe thunderstorm headed our way and did. There is nowhere to hide on the trail if you are in between towns, which you are most of the time.

In all the years I have been riding I have actually only been caught in lightening/thunderstorms once. Even then I was able to find a deserted barn to wait it out in.

Now that I have said all this, I’m sure next time there is a thunderstorm and I am riding I will be pelted by hail, blown over by wind and struck by lightening. :-/

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