If you are a fan of Garmin-Cervelo, or just a fan of cycling or even someone who pulls for the underdog, you were happy with today’s stage finish.

Yesterday, Garmin-Cervelo won their first ever stage in the Tour de France and today their sprinter, Tyler Farrar, claimed his first ever victory in his 3rd year of racing in the Tour. Mark Cavendish was expected to win (as he frequently does – 15 TDF stage wins at present) but it was Farrar who managed to snag the victory. He has come so close numerous times, but today things worked to perfection and with the yellow jersey wearer and teammate Thor Hushovd leading him out (has a yellow jersey wearer ever led out a teammate? …NO), followed by Julian Dean’s lead out, Farrar edged out two quickly approaching riders to cross the finish line first.

Excited screaming ensued – mine.

I was elated he won. The team has worked hard and as I said in yesterday’s post, they are a team that prides themselves on racing clean and in doing so, doing their part to create a new environment for clean competition. And as a huge fan of cycling and professional bike racing, I wholly support that.

Hushovd deservedly kept the yellow jersey – another great day for the Argyle Armada!

Tour de France Fantasy Challenge team 4loveofbikes  took one on the chin after the director sportif somehow forgot to push the button “Save Position Changes” after changing up the stage 3 roster last night and the sprinters were left sitting on the bench – namely Romain Feillu – costing the team 91 points.

Today’s points: 25

Today the good guys won.

Garmin-Cervelo was victorious today in the Team Time-Trial. 

Their first Tour victory ever and their first yellow jersey. 

I hoped they would win, but worried about HTC-Highroad and the Sky teams.  Both of them were close (finishing 3rd and 4th respectively), but it was Cadel Evans’ BMC team that took second place,  finishing just 4 seconds back from Garmin-Cervelo.

I was surprised that Evans apparently wanted the yellow jersey this early.  Last time he took it early he lost it the next day.  When you have the yellow jersey you have to defend it – that means racing in the front and burning a few of your limited matches.

Garmin-Cervelo isn’t competing to win the overall Tour, they are after stage wins and have two of the top sprinters. They can defend and most likely keep the yellow jersey for the next several stages since they are sprint stages. It didn’t make sense for Evans to take it so early and fortunately for him (in my humble opinion) he didn’t get it.

Garmin-Cervelo is known for being the “clean team”.  Although many teams profess to be clean, it is widely believed that Garmin-Cervelo actually is.

Jonathon Vaughters, Team Director, told Andrew Hood of VeloNews  that he believes more teams are riding clean:

“I am confident that clean riders can win big races,” Vaughters said. “The proof is in the pudding. I believe a broad majority of the peloton is riding clean. There’s no way we could achieve what we’ve done if that were not the case.”

I hope he’s right.  I’m not naïve enough to think all riders are racing clean but if the majority is that would mean that professional cycling has turned a corner. That would be a great victory for the sport and fans.

*pictures are from Sky Sports

For the Love of Bikes Tour de France Fantasy Challenge team, “4loveofbikes” scored 100 points for stage 2.  The points came from Garmin-Cervelo’s Ryder Hesjedal. 

Although we are still in the “practice round” meaning team rosters are not locked and you can change at will, however I stayed with my original guys.

Stage 3 is a pure sprint stage so all my sprinters are moved up to the starting roster. Had to bench the climbers, have 15 riders but just like a real team we can only have 9 guys race.

Kind of liking this team director stuff…

I was as excited as a kid at Christmas about the Tour starting today.  We got up early and rode then settled down in front of the TV with a plate full of migas and watched our first dose of the Tour. 

Stage 1 did not disappoint.  As is normal for the opening stages, there were crashes.  Less typical was the fact that the defending champion, Alberto Contador, was caught in one that blocked the entire road and cost him 1:20 over the leader, Phillippe Gilbert, in and of itself not serious.  Most serious is It also cost him 1:14 against his number one rival, Andy “chain-gate” Schleck.

As I pointed out in my very own TDF Primer, a rider isn’t apt to win the Tour in the first week, but they can most definitely lose it.

It’s too early to tell if Contador can recover that kind of time loss to Schleck and his other main rivals – Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer and my own favorite – Chris Horner. 

The outcome of tomorrow’s team time trial will certainly have a bearing.

First stage, but lots of excitement.  Viva le Tour!

It’s hard to believe but the 2011 Tour de France starts tomorrow!

I’ve picked the For the Love of Bikes team, but will still be able to make changes to the roster through the practice period, which ends July 5th. 

I managed to spend $497 of the $500 allotted for riders on the team.  For the first time I didn’t spend the big bucks on a very top contender – the problem with doing that is you have no money left for the rest of the team.  New strategy, hopefully better results.

Our Team:

1. Thomas Voeckler                   Europcar

2. David Moncoutie                    Cofidis

3. Alexander Vinokourav            Astana

4. Romain Feillu                        Vacansoleil-DCM

5. Phillippe Gilbert                     Omega-Pharma-Lotto

6. Sammy Sanchez                   Euskaltel-Euskadi

7. Ryder Hesjedal                      Garmin-Cervelo

8. Nicholas Roche                     AG2R

9. Ben Swift                              Sky

10. Chris Horner                       Radio Shack

11. Juan Manuel Garate             Rabobank

12. Remy Di Gregorio                Astana

13. Thomas DeGent                   Vacansoleil-DCM

14. Robert Gesink                     Rabobank

15. Vladamir Karpets                 Katusha