Today’s stage was initially billed as a stage for the sprinters – not hardly – except for one that is.

Yellow jersey wearer, Thor Hushovd, managed to stay with the likes of Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, Alexander Vinokourav and other great climbers, up a short but steep climb at the finish to defend and keep the maillot jaune.

Hushovd rides with such grit and determination!  He is a good climber in his own right, especially for the type of climb at the conclusion of Stage 4.  And, as is often noted, when you wear the yellow jersey you’re able to dig just a little deeper to keep it. Hushovd certainly proved that today. What a ride!

Congratulations to Evans, narrowly beating Contador at the line and taking his first ever stage win (his other stage win was a result of a disqualification of a rider).

It’s also good he didn’t take the yellow jersey (he is still just 1 second away).  It’s too soon, too much pressure (and he doesn’t do well under pressure) and would require too many team resources being used to defend it.

With Hushovd of Garmin-Cervelo keeping the yellow jersey, it actually is a good thing for the contenders for overall top standing in the GC. Hushovd isn’t a contender for the Tour championship, no one else on Garmin-Cervelo is in position to contend so the yellow jersey is safe with them. It reminds me a little of 2004 when Thomas Voeckler, known then as “little Tommy Voeckler” kept the yellow jersey for 10 days, while Lance Armstrong waited until the time was right to take it and keep it. 

Getting the yellow jersey is hard, but keeping it is harder.

With a team like Garmin-Cervelo having the yellow jersey, it allows the true contenders to bide their time until after week one when we start to get in to the serious mountain stages.  That’s when the real hunt for the yellow will begin in earnest.

No shortage of action or excitement in these early stages though, that’s for sure.

Tour de France Fantasy Challenge 

I am one lousy team director, or sportif, as they are called in France. Today the 4loveofbikes team picked up 66 points (from Phillippe Gilbert, thought he would get me 200 as the stage winner) but left (she said with profound embarrassment) 82 (Vino) and 30 (Bradley Wiggins) points on the bench. Didn’t realize the stage would finish with a Category 3 climb (read the Primer if you don’t know what that means) since it was billed as a sprinter’s stage I had my sprinters on the start team and my GC guys on the bench. Fail.

I need a primer for the Fantasy Challenge evidently.

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!