Tag: TDF 2010 (Page 6 of 7)

If tomorrow is anything like today the Tour de France will resemble roller derby more than cycling.

Today was an anomaly in the number and severity of crashes but the first week of the Tour is always crash prone.

The crashes overshadowed a gutsy performance by Belgian rider Maarten Wynants with team Quick Step.  He and two other riders went out at the start in a breakaway (see the Primer below for cycling glossary), the other riders were caught eventually but Wynants managed to stay out until 8.5 kilometers from the finish.  He was rewarded for his gutty performance by being awarded the combative (aggressive) rider recognition for Stage 1.

No doubt the hoards of Belgium (and Dutch) fans crowded along the route helped to spur him on.  The fans had a different effect on the peloton, making an already nervous and twitchy group, more nervous and twitchy.  It was estimated there were over 1 million fans along the route today.

Cavendish is getting a reputation for being reckless on the bike – he already had a reputation for being reckless at times with his mouth boasting that he can ride at 80 % and not get beat.  He is a huge talent but is young and cocky, he needs to learn to settle down and let his sprinting abilities do his talking.

There were more crashes today at the Tour de France than at a Nascar race.  It’s probably naive to expect there will be no crashes tomorrow but I hope there are fewer.

Riders are always twitchy in the first week of the Tour, everyone is a little nervous/excited and first-time Tour riders are even more so.  The Tour has a lot of rookies in it this year, but I’m not so sure they caused the crashes.  It’s always hard to tell, but the one at the last right bend appeared to be caused by Cavendish.  There were four riders that went down, the video shows three of them, the fourth (Cavendish?) was able to get back on his bike and ride away.

Today’s crashes though took first week jitters to a whole new level.  Check it out:

Two things.  One, Mark Cavendish, two, watch out for the crosswinds. 

The early part of the Stage tomorrow will follow the coast along the North Sea – and most likely very strong crosswinds.  Last year crosswinds caused the peloton to split up and allowed Lance Armstrong to get into the lead group and away from *teammate* Alberto Contador.

Look for Team Radio Shack to try and take advantage of the crosswinds and if there is a break in the peloton to make sure Lance is in it.  Contador’s team will no doubt have the same plan for him.  Regardless though, crosswinds can wreak havoc on the peloton and consequently, the General Classification.

Mark Cavendish and his HTC-Columbia train will most likely pick up their first stage victory tomorrow.

Should be an exciting bunch sprint finish.

Swiss rider, Fabian Cancellara, Spartacus on a bike, won the Prologue today in the 2010 Tour de France with a time of 10:00:48 beating Tony Martin, HTC-Columbia rider by 10 seconds. 

Finishing out the top 5, British rider David Millar third with a time of 10:20, Lance Armstrong finished an impressive 4th at 10:22 and Geraint Thomas with Team Sky, finished 5th.

No surprise really with Cancellara winning the Prologue (see below where I picked him to win), the weather caused Bradley Wiggins to opt to ride early, thinking the weather would be better – it wasn’t.  If he had stayed with his original time to ride, the roads would have been drier as the rain let up as the race went on.  No way to know though, so he made what seemed like at least a reasonable choice at the time.  Wiggins ended up finishing 41st, bad luck for him.  Both Wiggins and Tour favorite Andy Schleck rode tentatively.  You don’t get second chances in the Tour very often to gain time on your competition.

As far as the Americans go, Tyler Farrar, Garmin-Transitions, put in a very good ride finishing 7th/00:28 back, Levi Leipheimer, teammate to Lance, finished 8th/00:32 back, Dave Zabriske, Garmin-Transitions, 25th/00:40, George Hincapie, BMC, 68th/00:54, and Christian Vandevelde, Garmin-Transitions finished in 92nd place, 1:00 back.