Tag: TDF 2010 (Page 5 of 7)

Watching Saxo Bank today was like watching the old U.S. Postal and Discovery teams.  Those teams always took control of the race.  They controlled the pace regardless of the stage because if you control the pace you control the race.

To keep your rider in the lead or in contention for the lead you have to keep the pace high enough that it keeps other teams from attacking.  If you noticed today Saxo Bank took control of the group over the cobblestones, drove the pace hard and by doing so they kept all the other contenders from attacking, keeping them in the reacting and chasing mode.

Fans of the sport of cycling, fans of the Tour de France, will be talking about today’s stage for many years to come. Stage 3 was just thrilling to watch – certainly not for the riders to race, but for the viewers, it was pure thrill!

In America, we don’t often have an opportunity to watch races that go over the cobblestones of Northern France. This year I did catch part of Paris-Roubaix, but still I have never witnessed what I saw today.

First off, what I liked about Tour officials including the cobblestones or pave’ as they did this year, is we got to see the GC contenders struggle like other bike racers in the Tour do every single year. The GC elite are all good climbers, most are good time trialers too, and they have to be for them to compete for the Tour victory each year. Only the best of the best can win the Tour.  It is extremely rare to see the GC contenders like Contador, Evans, Armstrong, Schleck struggle to be in the lead pack – and falter. I have never witnessed, in a stage of the Tour or any bike race for that matter, so many of the GC favorites struggle.

Stage 3 showed us a different side of these men as bike racers, a more complete view of their abilities and limitations. I for one was amazed at Contador’s ability to handle the cobblestones. I promise you many in the GC were amazed too. Few if any expected him to ride the way he did. My respect for Contador grew today as a result.

I understand the bike racers complaining and I think their complaints have merit, but for what the Tour is, the showcase event for professional bike racers, I think it is fair and even beneficial to include stages like today.

As far as the other riders, Cadel Evans also impressed me with his bike handling skills; as did Andy Schleck. The ride Ryder Hesjdal put in was phenomenal, he seemed like a natural for the cobblestones.  I expected Lance Armstrong to do better. Today’s stage was Armstrong’s best chance to gain time on Schleck and Contador and he wasn’t able to. Much of that has to do with Schleck’s and Contador’s performance obviously, plus I haven’t had a chance to read any post-race analysis so my guess is he had a mechanical problem of some kind. When Lance was bridging the gap to the 2nd group he looked strong and appeared to still have enough left in the tank to cut his time deficit further.
 
I was also impressed with Vinokourov, who rode strong for Contador today, and although I initially thought he had acted like Vino of old and had taken off on his own forgetting his leader Contador, after seeing it again it looked like Vinokourov just wasn’t aware that Contador was in trouble.

It was a shame about Frank Schleck, last I heard it was “just” a broken collarbone, I had feared something more serious based on how immobile he was on the side of the road.

Thor Hushovd’s victory was not a surprise; he had enough anger/adrenalin from yesterday to carry him forward today. The fabulous Fabian Cancellara devoured the cobbles, as did the other Saxo Bank soldiers – Jens Voight for one – just incredible effort. I am overjoyed that Cancellara took back the yellow especially considering how he lost it.

Suffice it to say, we saw something very special today. I have watched the Tour consistently for 10+ years and there are few stages where the effort and skill of the riders has equaled what we witnessed today.

At the beginning of Stage 2 there were 18 teams intact, 194 riders. Rider Adam Hansen of HTC-Columbia was forced to abandon because of a broken collarbone sustained in one of several crashes in Stage 1.

Stage 1 may have had a greater number of crashes, but the crashes of Stage 2 had a greater impact on the outcome of the stage as well as an impact on the general classification or GC. The rain, climbs and narrowness of the roads all added to the precariousness of the route.

There are always crashes in the Tour, but never have I seen so many in the peloton go down as they did today.

As is standard in every Tour de France stage there was a breakaway. Sylvan Chavanel, a French rider on the Belgium team Quick Step, initiated the breakaway at about the 10k mark. Seven other riders joined him and opened up a gap on the peloton of several minutes.

Once the climbs started the peloton started to reel the breakaway back in. This is standard practice. The peloton doesn’t concern itself with breakaways when there is no GC contender in the group. A GC contender goes, the breakaway is reined in immediately, but no GC and the breakaway is allowed a certain distance from peloton. The peloton will bring the group in as the stage proceeds – 90% of the time if not more. Sometimes climbs slow the breakaway down, or fighting amongst the breakaway can factor in, but the peloton as a mass can more easily close in on the breakaway.

Sometimes you wonder while watching this cat and mouse game play out repeatedly in race after race, why the riders even bother to get in a breakaway – they rarely succeed. Today was why. Usually, the most the breakaway is rewarded is with one rider getting a stage win and other riders getting points and 2nd, 3rd place finishes but rarely is that the fortunate, winning rider rewarded with the yellow jersey.

Rare, but it happened today. Sylvan Chavanel ended up with not only the stage win, but also the yellow jersey. The French must be beside themselves with joy. It has been a long while since a Frenchman wore the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.

There were a number of riders that had to go to the hospital for treatment whose status for tomorrow is unknown. I have read that Armstrong and Contador who also crashed (easier to probably name just the riders that didn’t crash) are okay and will race tomorrow, but nothing yet on Andy Schleck and Christian Vande Velde.

If you are new to watching the Tour de France, you have seen an incredible bike race thus far. Today in addition to all the crashes, you also witnessed one of the things I love the most about the Tour de France and bike racing in general. The code of conduct that exists among bike riders which basically is this:

You don’t take advantage of another rider’s misfortune, be it an accident or mechanical failure. The peloton will hold up and wait as they did today.

The peloton today, under the direction of Fabian Cancellara, the leader of the race in the yellow jersey, decided to wait on the GC contenders (and yes, two of them are on Cancellara’s team) but they also waited on Armstrong, Contador, Evans – all GC contenders. Fabian Cancellara gave up his yellow jersey because of that move but as he said after the race, “fairness before selfishness”.  It’s also fair to say that Fabian would lose the yellow jersey in a day or two anyway.

As I said I admire the unwritten code of conduct that bike racers follow, but I also believe in fair competition and I have mixed feelings about how the remainder of the stage played out.

On the one hand I understand given the magnitude of the crash and how many GC level riders were involved, holding up the peloton until riders can regroup.  That has happened before, Lance Armstrong was the beneficiary of a similar act, but there is a limit to what is fair when it becomes unfair to the competition as a whole. 

That limit was passed I believe with the decision to not allow the riders to sprint at the end.  Yes, there could have been more carnage but crashes during sprints is part of bike racing.  Bike racing is dangerous and if you try to negate or equalize all risk, then it is no longer true bike racing. 

Stage3:

Tomorrow will bring us the most difficult stage thus far.  Stage 3 was the stage where everyone predicted crashes and carnage because of the cobblestones the riders will race on.  The Tour does not usually include them, one day classic races such as the Paris-Roubaix are over the cobbles.

Based on what we’ve seen thus far it’s hard to imagine what shape the peloton will be in after Stage 3.  Pray for no rain, cobblestones are murderous when wet.