Tour De France

[zippyjuan]

The race finally got underway today. The opening stage in what Lance Armstrong has said will be his final Tour and hopefully record seventh victory begins with a traditional time trial. The course today is pretty flat and at 19km (about 12 miles) fairly short. It begins at Fromentine and ends at Noirmoutier- en- Ile- passing through salt marshes along the way. It is a major producer of sea salt for gourmet cooking. Overcast but a nice 78 degrees, the wind is slight at 6 mph at the start, but expected to pick up as the day goes on and make it harder for the later riders. As defending champion, Armstrong has the luxury of going last and knowing how those ahead of him are doing. In earlier interviews this year, Lance has said that he is not as sharp at time trialing as he once was, and Ulrich has been able to use the time trials to make up time on Armstrong. Yesterday, Ulrich was out checking out one of the courses with the team when their vas suddenly stopped and Jan did not notice in time and plowed into the back of it. He said he has bruises and scrapes, but is otherwise fine. He will start one minute in front of Armstrong.

The first rider to go off was Ludovic Turpin of AG2R, but the rider to set the early time was American David Zabriske of team CSC. He is an impressive young rider and a very good time trialist. He blistered the course in 20:51:84 at an average speed of 33.9 mph. This is the fastest speed ever for a stage- breaking the record by Greg Lemond of 33.8 mph in 1989. But the top riders are still to come and will not be done for about three more hours. He will have to wait and see if it holds up. One by one the riders go. George Hincappe is still looking strong after a good start in the Spring races. Floyd Landis is also looking steady. Alexandre Vininokourov, Jan Ulrich's teammate on T-Mobile and a very agressive rider, is pushing his big gear on the course and had the third best time so far on the intermediate split. Expect him to make some noise in the later stages of the race. Jan Ulrich has left the gate and Armstrong is waiting for his turn. As he heads down the starting ramp, hid foot slips off the pedel, costing precious time, but he is focused and quickly recovers. Armstrong settles into his high cadence pace and looks up the road. He has a job to do. After the intermediate checkpoint, he is three seconds behind Zabriskie, but is gaining on Ulrich. Even though the distance is relatively short, Armstrong catches Ulrich at the 15 km point! That means he has made up a full minute on him! The theme for Armstrong this year is "No Gifts" and it looks like he means it! Climbing out of his saddle, he pushes as hard as he can the last couple of kilometers to the finish. Even though he ends up two seconds behind fellow American David Zabriskie, he has served notice that he is ready- with almost a minute or more on everybody else. Zabriske gets to wear the Yellow Jersey that marks the race leader. Lance wants it, but is willing to wait. It only matters who has it at the end, not the beginning and there is a lot of riding to be done.

The next several days are fairly flat, but the riders will be nervous and try to stay out of trouble. Riders with little chance at the overall title may try to get away and pick up a stage win. The first challenge in the hills comes on Stage 9. For today, there were four Americans in the Top Six- a good omen for the future of US Cycling even after Lance does retire.

Stage 1 Results

1. Dave Zabriskie (USA/CSC) 20min 51sec
2. Lance Armstrong (USA/DSC) at 0:02
3. Alexander Vinokourov (KAZ/MOB) 0:53
4. George Hincapie (USA/DSC) 0:57
5. Laszlo Bodrogi (HUN/C.A) 0:59
6. Floyd Landis (USA/PHO) 1:02
7. Fabian Cancellara (SWI/FAS) 1:02
8. Jens Voigt (GER/CSC) 1:04
9. Vladimir Karpets (RUS/BAL) 1:05
10. Igor Gonzalez Galdeano (SPA/LIB) 1:06
11. Bobby Julich (USA/CSC) 1:07
12. Jan Ullrich (GER/MOB) 1:08
13. Jos項nrique Gutierrez (SPA/PHO) 1:12
14. Levi Leipheimer (USA/GRL) 1:13
15. Michael Rich (GER/GRL) 1:13

[cheapie]

if lance hadn't accidently clipped out of his pedals he would have won. but i'm glad he didn't. it's nice to see another american in yellow.

btw, according to a lot of sources, jan's injuries are worse than the team is letting on.

[zippyjuan]

Today the road racing starts and the riders will be nervous, but ready to get going. There is only one small hill and the rest is flat, so the chances of someone in contention getting much time is fairly small today. The leaders will just want to stay out of trouble which means keeping towards the front so if there are any crashes, you don't get caught either in them or behind them and lose time. The course features 112 miles of rolling, narrow roads that takes the riders towards the coast of France where they will have some cross winds and then it cuts back inland as the tour route heads pretty much straight towards Germany from here. There will be a stage in Germany later on.

Amrstrong is starting the day in the Green Jersey- something unusual for him since it is awarded to the leader of points collected during sprints. He is not the actual leader of this category- that is David Zabriske who gets to wear the Yellow Jersey of the race leader so the Green Jersey is passed to the next person. Breakaways are expected today as riders who might not be in contention for the race title look for a little glory for themselves and their sponsors while they still have a chance and hopefully for a stage win. Generally a stage like today will go to the sprinters.

At a few kilometers into the race, a group does attempt a getaway- it includes fourteen riders, but some cannot keep up so it dwindles down to four. The rest rejoin the main pack. In this group is one rider currently fairly high in the standings- Lazlo Bodrogi of Credit Agricole- he is presently in fifth place, 59 seconds behind David Zabriskie. Once this is realised, Zabriskie's CSC team moves to the front of the peloton to pick up the pace and keep him from getting too far ahead. Tucked in behind them are Lance Armstrong and some teammates and Jan Ulrich and his team. The breakaway gets up to 4:20 seconds ahead- effectively giving Bodrogi the race leadership on the road, but the pack is starting to get a little closer.

There are two intermediate sprints on the course today and they include time bonuses- the first person across gets six seconds at each. This is a race where seconds can matter so Bodrogi makes sure he gets the first one. This will move him past George Hincapie into fourth place. The second comes at Chateau Guilbert and the peloton is bearing down on the escaped riders. Can they hold on? They do- but only by 34 seconds now. Another six second bonus for Bodrogi- now he has moved past Alexandre Vinikourov into third place if he finishes with the field.

Once the riders are caught, the teams with good sprinters try to get their riders into position to win the stage. One by one riders try to get off. These are the lesser sprinters who know they have to get away or they will not be able to beat the real sprinters. One kilometer to go. Quickstep, Lotto, and Credit Agricole are leading out their sprinters. One rider will go as fast as he can with their sprinter right behind them in their slipstream. As the leadout rider tires, the sprinter (who was doing 30% less work by drafting behind another rider) pops out behind him and grinds his gears to the finish line. Tom Boonen of Quickstep is the first one to cross the line with Thor Hushovd of Credit Agricole and Australlian master Robbie McEwen of Lotto just behind. The mad scramble of the main field has resulted in a crash, but no word yet on who is involved. The judges award the same finishing time to the entire group. So with his time bonuses, Lazlo Bodrogi of Credit Agricole has moved himself up to third place and will take the Green Jersey off Lance Armstrong for tomorrow. There was a small climb today and the first climber's points awarded. Othrewise, there was no change in the standings. That went to Frenchman Thomas Voeckler who grew up in this area and is a crowd favorite. He will wear the polka dot jersey. Tomorrow is another flat stage and on Tuesday they will have the Team Timetrial. There will not be another individual time trial until the day before the ride into Paris.

One question from yesterday- did Armstrong deliberately finish second so that Discovery would not have to defend the Yellow jersey so early? Or were the winds enough to slow him? Remember- "No Gifts" - but then again, Armstrong and his team are shrewd tacticians!

Provisional GC after the 2nd Stage of the 2005 Tour de France
1. David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC in 4:12'22", 2. Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel @ 0.02, 3. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun) Credit Agricole @ 0.47, 4. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team @ 0.53, 5. George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel @ 0.57, 6. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems @ 1.02, 7 . Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Fassa Bortolo @ st , 8. Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC@ 1.04, 9. Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne @ 1.05, 10. Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Spa) Liberty Seguros-Wurth @1.06,
5:00 pm

[cheapie]

interesting article about the american zabriskie and how long he might wear yellow


Continental Drift, with Andrew Hood: Dave Z's yellow run could last a while
By Andrew Hood
VeloNews European Correspondent
This report filed July 3, 2005

Dave Zabriskie didn't quite know what to make of all the fuss.

Sure, he became just the third American to wear the yellow jersey in Tour de France history and he beat six-time Tour champ Lance Armstrong to do it, but after all, it's just a bike race.

"I got a massage, had dinner, read a little, then went to sleep," was how Zabriskie described his first evening in yellow. "Yeah, we had a little champagne."

Sunday morning, Zabriskie got the full yellow-jersey treatment, with dozens of photographers and reporters waiting outside the team bus.

Team CSC riders huddled inside the bus for nearly an hour as Bjarne Riis spelled out the team's strategy in the coming days. When asked what he wants to do with the yellow jersey, Riis simply replied, "Keep it."

How long will Zabriskie will stay in yellow? It's an interesting question.

Of course, anything can happen in the Tour - a crash or an illness - but Zabriskie could keep the yellow jersey several days, perhaps all the way into the Alps. Here's how:

With Saturday's 19km time trial torpedoing the sprinters' chances for the yellow jersey, Zabriskie's only threat in the GC is second-place Armstrong at two seconds back.

Armstrong's ultimate fantasy of carrying the yellow jersey from start-to-finish was foiled by two ticks of the clock, but don't expect to see him chase time bonuses to grab the jersey. Having Bjarne Riis's red army expending valuable energy to protect the maillot jaune early on plays perfectly into Armstrong's plans to win a seventh Tour.

Zabriskie is relatively safe from the threat of losing the jersey to time bonuses.

The nearest pure sprinter is Tom Boonen in 40th place at 1:49 back. Even if he won Sunday's and Monday's stages and all six intermediate sprints, he'd only earn back 1:06 going into Tuesday's team trial. Other riders such as Fabian Cancellara (Fassa Bortolo), seventh at 1:02 back, will have a hard time fending off the likes of Boonen and McEwen for bonus sprints.

Zabriskie's biggest threat will be a long breakaway that makes it all the way to the finish. Laszlo Bodrogi - the Hungarian on Credit Agricole who started Sunday's second stage in fifth at 59 seconds back - is just the kind of threat Riis's big red machine will have to watch.

Team CSC will likely find some allies in the sprinters' teams, which will be keen to take advantage of the relatively gentle profiles offered up in Sunday's second stage and Monday's third stage to catapult their captains toward the line.

Barring a big escape, Zabriskie should at least be able to enjoy the yellow jersey into Tuesday's 67.5km team time trial.

Three days in yellow - so far, so good - but it could last even longer.

Rules introduced last year that limit time losses in the team time trial (20 seconds from first to second and 10-second intervals for each subsequent placement) means that if Team CSC finishes ahead of Discovery Channel and rides among the best teams, Zabriskie will retain the yellow jersey.

Of course, that's easier said than done, especially considering that Armstrong's team has won the past two Tour team time trials in dominating fashion. Still, an inspired ride by Team CSC could keep Zabriskie in the lead.

From there, things get more complicated.

Stages 5-7 serve up more ideal hunting ground for the sprinters' teams, but it will become increasingly difficult to control the race as more teams will be anxious to win a stage in a breakaway ahead of the looming climbing stages.

And without the presence of a large, dominant team - for example, a Fassa Bortolo working for Alessandro Petacchi - there's no one squad strong enough to single-handedly chase down every move.

The peloton will see the first serious climbs in Stage 8-9 across the Vosges, but a motivated Zabriskie could surprise many with his under-appreciated climbing skills if he gets the green light to protect his yellow jersey.

Throw in a dash of luck, Zabriskie could hold the jersey all the way through the Tour's first rest day and into the Alps for the climbing stage to Courchevel on July 12.

Of course, Riis could call off the troops well before then, letting the responsibility of the jersey slip away and electing to save his riders' strength for the more important battles looming in the Alps and the Pyrénées.

Don't expect Riis to surrender the yellow tunic too easily, however.

His management company is currently in negotiations with computer software giant CSC to extend the team's sponsorship for three more years, so an extended run in the yellow jersey would be the ideal way to seal the deal.

And don't forget those cold, dark nights wallowing around in a Danish swamp during Riis's legendary team-building exercises that forge a close, tightly-bonded team. Team CSC will do what Riis's special forces instructors train them to do: stick together and fight.

There's no better fight than protecting the yellow jersey.

And what about the even more tantalizing option - why not take the scenario to its absolute maximum - and pass the jersey from Zabriskie to Ivan Basso in the Alps?

That's assuming a lot, but for much of his short, but prolific career, people have been underestimating Dave Zabriskie.

[cheapie]

this seriously sucks. i'm watching the 8-11 coverage and since it's not live, i have to listen to that hack Al Trautwig do a bunch of the coverage. while i'm sure he's a decent guy, he doesn't know jack about cycling. give me 100% phil and paul all the time.


btw, i know that no one here knows what i'm talking about but....lol.

also, watching the very poor signal that OLN sends out on my sammy is pretty harsh. i'm wondering if i should just use half the screen or something to help.

[zippyjuan]

I don't even have OLN- still using Poor Man's cable- just the first dozen or so channels for about $13 a month. I spend the rest on cable modem. I always love Phil Legget. I get my information from the online minute- by minute reports. Is ABC or somebody still doing weekly highlights? I bought the DVD (four hour one) for last year's race.

[zippyjuan]

This 131 mile stage move into the heart of France. It includes three sprints and three Class 4 climbs- the lowest category. Thomas Voeckler would like to add to his points for the Polka Dot climber's jersey. The sprinters will be active too. The big guns will be resting in the field ahead of tomorrow's Team Time Trial. A couple of riders attack early, as expected, but not much really happens until the first sprint. Erik Dekker of Rabobank, Nicholas Purtal of AG2R and Rubens Bertogliati (SDV) go for the sprint and keep going. The peloton does not chase at this time, but David Zabriskie's team, CSC is at the front to make sure they don't get too far ahead. The other teams such as US Postal would like CSC to work hard today so they do not have as much energy tomorrow while they conserve their own efforts and rest up. By the feed zone, the escaped riders have built up their lead to 5:30.

Feed Zone: Riders are allowed to get things like water bottles and repairs from team vehicles during the race. Usually one or two members of a team will drop to the back of the field and to the trailing vehicles to load up on supplies for everybody. They then have to catch back up to the field and their team to deliver them. It is hard work. During designated areas, they can pass up bags containing food items. These will vary depending on the individual rider and what he prefers. They can be picked up in the same manner as the water, or can be handed up by support crew who run along next to the slowed riders and pass up musette bags containing the food. They do it in select areas only since it slows down the riders and could pose a hazard otherwise.

Once nourished, the other sprint teams decide to reel things in a bit so that their sprinters will have a chance at the finish- especially yesterday's stage winner Tom Boonen's Quickstep and Lotto for Robbie McEwen. They quickly drop the advantage down to three minutes, but do not want to get too close yet or others may attack so they just keep the gap here for now. As they get close to Tours, the roads narrow and start to wind on their way into town. The lead is down to 40 seconds for the group of three, but now they are no longer in sight of their persuers so they try to pick it up. You have to be careful going through the tight turns. As the main pack reached the narrows, some riders were squeezed out and were forced to ride on the grass along the side of the road, but there were no crashes and they all eventually got back on the road. Upon entering town, the pace has gotten very fast. Fabian Cancellera takes off, tryong to bridge the gap to the leaders, but the pace is too quick and he is reabsorbed. When the riders hit the famous French roundabouts in town, the field tends to split and the reform on the other side. About three kilometers to go. The leaders are caught and everyone is trying to set themselves or their teammates for the final sprint. Jan Kirsipuu (Credit Agricole) leads it out. The pace is furious and there are riders all across the road trying to get in front. On his wheel is Tom Boonen who at the last moment, blasts around Jan and takes his second straight victoy by about 50 meters!

Provisional GC after the 3rd Stage of the 2005 Tour de France
1. David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC in 8:48'31" 2. Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel @ 0.02 3. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun) Credit Agricole @ 0.47 4. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team @ 0.53 5. George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel @ 0.57 6. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems @ 1.02 7. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Fassa Bortolo, @ st 8. Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC @ 1.04, 9. Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne @ 1.05, 10. Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Spa) Liberty Seguros-Wurth @ 1.06
5:12 pm

Provisional results of the 3rd Stage of the 2005 Tour de France
1. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step, in 4:36'09", 2. Peter Wrolich (Aut) Gerolsteiner @ st, 3. Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto, 4. Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis, Le Credit Par Telephone, 5. Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Fran?se Des Jeux, 6. Allan Davis (Aus) Liberty Seguros-W?rth, 7. Robert F?rster (Ger) Gerolsteiner, 8. Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Liquigas-Bianchi, 9. Anthony Geslin (Fra) Bouygues Telecom, 10. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole
5:05 pm

Tomorrow is an important day. Can CSC keep Zabriskie in yellow? He is a very good rider, but it is a team race and Discover probably has the better team. Last year, they demolished the field in the Team Time Trial, winning by over one minute, but because of the rules, were only given 20 seconds time over the second place team. Lance only needs two seconds for the Yellow Jersey to be his. Day Nine will be the first test in the mountains.

[cheapie]

wOOt! lance is in yellow! team discovery won the TTT today over csc and poor Zabriskie wrecked and didn't finish w/his team. while he likely wouldn't have held on to the jersey anyhow, he's not in 15th place or so and lance has the yellow jersey.

also, lance put 20 seconds on ullrich and vino, and more on some of his other competitors. the guy i feel will be his biggest competitor, ivan basso, only lost 2 seconds to lance.

[speedracer120]

Just wanted to say way to go Lance.
















But more importantly, I wanted to breakup the monotony of only you two posting.

[mcs328]

I heard the other guy has had a history of crashing. Someone made a comment on the radio I heard during lunch.

[zippyjuan]

Darn it! I just wrote a nice long report and when I went to another webpage to check something, I came back here and the whole thing was gone!

[zippyjuan]

A team time trial is an elegant event. Nine riders, with their aerodynamic helmets, matching body suits, and custom bikes depart at five minute intervals. They form a chain with the first rider moving aside the air while the riders tuck into the slipstream of the person in front of them. This allows the trailing riders to do about 35% less work. After a certain time, a new rider will take the front and the previous leader will move to the back and "rest up" a bit until it is his turn again. It is all very rhythmic. Even their pedal cadence usually matches. Stronger riders will take longer pulls than the weaker ones. In this race, you are as fast as your slowest rider. It is the fifth rider across the line that determines the time for the team. If a rider has a flat or mechanical difficulty, the team may leave him behind so as not to slow the rest. He will have to finish on his own.

Conditions are perfect for a fast stage today. In fact, the record for fastest team time trial could easly fall. That was set in 1995 when the Gwiss- Bellan team rode an average of 34.0 mph. The wind today is slight and at the backs of the riders and the roads are newly paved. It is overcast with a slight chance of rain. Although the teams go off one at a time, there are three checkpoints along the way where there progress and standing relative to others can be checked. The prefered postion is to go last- that way you know where the competition is and how much effort you need to succeed. Usually that is Discovery, but today that honor goes to CSC since they lead the team standings.

As expected, the speed record was broken today and it happened fairly early. Team Lotto was the first to do it- achieving an average speed of 34.3 mph over the 42 mile course. Now Team Liberty Segura is setting a blistering pace on the course. At the first time check at Amboise, they are about half a minute ahead of the next best team so far. T-Mobile is about to come in- let's see how this time trial powerhouse is doing. They are nine seconds back. Five minutes later, Discovery goes by in the same time as T-Mobile. Segura is fast indeed! Can SCS best them? Here they come! Wow! Twelve and a half seconds faster than Segura! Discovery is going to have to do better if they want to get the Yellow Jersey. And T-Mobile is right there with them! Armstrong starts to take longer pulls at the front. Maybe they are missing Viatischlav Eckimov who is not with them due to injuries suffered in a crash earlier this year.

Across the Onzain, the second time check. I don't see a time for Liberty Seguros, but Discovery has gained 1.5 seconds on T-Mobile. They are still very close. Can CSC keep their lead? They know the times of all the other teams. Six seconds at the check point. Their lead is down. Can they hold on? The final portion of the time trial gets harder. There are six rolling hills that will sap the remaining leg strength of the riders who have been pushing the edge of their aerobic threashhold already and then some winding, curving roads into town that will require good bike handling skills at these speeds- and these riders are flying! Just inches from the wheel of the rider in front of them.

Liberty Seguro has finished- an amazing time of 1:11:32. T-Mobile is on their way in now- pushing those high gears they like, trying to squeeze out every possible second. Best time so far- 1:11:15, but Discovery and CSC are still to come. Discovery is pumping in now. They like a higher cadence than T-Mobile. Their well-oiled machine punches across the line at 1:10:39! But is it enough? Here comes CSC. But wait! The Yellow Jersey is down! Apparently David Zabriskie bumped the wheel of the rider in front of him and has gone down! CSC still has seven riders and five are needed to finish, so they do not wait for their leader. It is only 1.5 km to the line anyways and time is critical. He will have to finish by himself. Here it is... NO! They did not do it! Discovery has beaten them by a mere two seconds! Incredibly close after racing for 42 miles! Zabriske comes in about a minute behind his team- his suit shreaded on the left side and his left leg bleeding. The bad news for him is that his crash occured outside the 1km mark- otherwise he would have been awarded the same time as his team. Now he gets his actual finishing time instead and finds himself 1:26 down and in ninth place. For T-Mobile, it was good news- bad news. Good is that they did not lose much more time today, but bad that despite an outstanding effort, they were not able to make any up. Ulrich and Vinicourov are still within about two minutes. The next several stages are flat and the teams will have time to recover before the beginning of the mountain stages. Discover will have to work a little harder and be more vigillant against attacks in that time now that Lance is in the Yellow Jersey. Now that he has it, he will not want to give it up.

[zippyjuan]

A relatively easy day today at 113.7 miles with three sprint points and one small Category 4 climb towards the end. A day for the time trialists to rest up from yesterday and let the sprinters fight it out. There is a chance for rain again in the forecast. David Zabriskie had stitches put in his left elbow from his crash and has a lot of road rash. No serious injuries reported, but riding could still be painful. Out of respect for Zabriskie, Armstrong does not wear the Yellow Jersey during the roll out of town. This part of the race is more a photographic opportunity and the actual race starts at a line outside town. The race stops there while Lance changes into the yellow.

After a couple of early attacks, which started almost immediately, four riders finally establish a breakaway. They are our friend from Day 2 Lazlo Bodrogi from Credit Agricole, Juan Antonio Flecha of FA, Kjell Carlstrom (LIQ) and, Salvatore Commeso (LAM). The sprinter teams of Quickstep and Lotto move to the front of the peloton and do not allow the escapees to get more than 2 1/2 minutes ahead. CSC is still dogged by bad luck today. Ivan Basso goes down and requires a new bike. Five teammates wait for him and help him catch back up to the rest of the field. One rider on the team drops back to the team van to pick up supplies and drops one of the musette bags into his back wheel which almost causes him to crash. He eventually catches up and delivers his supplies.

Rain begins as the road narrows and get rougher and winds through a forested area. A prime condition for crashes. Discover keeps near the front and has Armstrong literally surrounded by teammates to protect him. An Euskatel rider trying to put on his rain jacket gets it caught in his wheel and goes down. He seems to bo OK. They will not worry about chasing down the group of four out in front at this time. But eventually the rain does quit and the sun comes back out and the persuit continues.

With 20 km to go, the persuers pick up the pace and the escaped riders are soon swallowed up by the field. Now they will try to set up for the final sprint. The leaders like Discovery and CSC and T-Mobile do not want to risk anything happening to their top riders, so they fall back a little bit from the sprinter teams. There are two big winding turns as the race approaches Montargis and in the first one, a group of riders has gone too wide. Five are down. Up at the front, Baden Cooke has taken the first lead out. There goes Tom Boonen- winner of two stages already. But there is also Robbie McEwen right behind him! McEwen was just able to get by at the line!

Nice win for McEwen. On the finish of Stage 3 he was boxed in behind Boonen and next to Stewart OGrady- who was not getting out of the way (he did not have to) so McEwen was head butting OGrady trying to get him to move over so he could get through. A complaint was filed and since officials also saw what happened, McEwen was given the last place finish in the stage (188th). You can watch the video of the finish and the head butting here: http://www.olntv.com/tdf/article/category/87/?tf=articlecat_video2.tpl&sm=4&CatLimit=1&cc=1&ArtLimit=100&ac=1&cat=&Offset=2&mt=&CatUserDef=true&ss=video

Tomorrow is another flat day.

Provisional GC after the 5th Stage of the 2005 Tour de France
1. Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel in 13:45'12" , 2. George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel @ 0.55, 3. Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC @ 1.04, 4. Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC @ 1.07, 5. Jose Luis Rubiera (Spa) Discovery Channel @ 1.14, 6. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel @ 1.16, 7. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team @1.21, 8. Benjamin Noval (Spa) Discovery Channel @ 1.26, 9. David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC @st , 10. Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC @ st
5:07 pm

Provisional results of the 5th Stage of the 2005 Tour de France
1. Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto in 3:46'00" 2. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step, 3. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole, 4. Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis, 5. Angelo Furlan (Ita) Domina Vacanze, 6. Allan Davis (Aus) Liberty Seguros, 7. Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Francaise des Jeux, 8. Baden Cooke (Aus) Francaise des Jeux, 9. Jens Voigt (Ger) CSC, 10. Robert Forster (Ger) Gerolsteiner
5:05 pm

[Kevster]

Give 'em hell Lance!

Thank you for all the updates Zippyjuan! :cheers:

[tupacboy]

"lets go lance" clap clap clap clap ... i wonder if the other discovery guy catches up to lance... if he would just let lance win... i know they do that sometimes in racing...

[cheapie]

george hincape will not be able to keep up w/lance in the mountains. his job is to protect lance on the flat stages and small climbs. he will lead lance in the mountains until he blows and then let chechu or the other little climbers take over.

although, i think the coolest thing in the world would be for hincape to be in second at the end and for lance to let him win the tour. it will never happen but lance would be more of a legend than he already it. a close second would be george winning a stage.

[zippyjuan]

Armstrong in Tour jersey threat (from the BBC)

More photos from Le Tour
Lance Armstrong was threatened with expulsion from the Tour de France if he did not don the leader's yellow jersey.
Armstrong wanted to make a "sporting gesture" on Wednesday after David Zabriskie lost the lead in a crash.

But director Jean-Marie Leblanc stopped the race at the start of the 113.7-mile ride from Chambord to Montargis.

"It didn't feel right to take the jersey on somebody else's misfortune, but Jean-Marie had other ideas," said Armstrong after retaining the lead.

I wanted to try and do the right thing and make some sort of a sporting gesture

Lance Armstrong

The Texan backed down, slipped into yellow, and cruised safely to 45th place in a stage won by Robbie McEwen.

Fellow American Zabriskie fell in the final moments of Tuesday's team time trial and slipped to ninth overall.

"I realised that David was really unlucky - without that crash in my opinion he would keep the jersey. So it didn't feel correct to start with the jersey," said Armstrong.

"I wanted to try and do the right thing and make some sort of a sporting gesture.

"In light of the tradition of the last 30 or 40 years, no one really takes [the yellow jersey] if there is a crash."

In 1971, Eddy Merckx took the race lead after a fall by Luis Ocana, but opted not to wear yellow the next day.

And in 1998, after Britain's Chris Boardman crashed on stage two, German sprinter Erik Zabel opted not to wear yellow the next day.

"They obviously have obligations to the sponsors and also to the race, and also to the people," Armstrong said.

"Maybe they drove three hours to stand on the side of the road and see a yellow jersey pass by."

[zippyjuan]

There has been one other time that there were two Americans on the podium in Paris. It was one of Greg Lemond's victories. Third place went to fellow American Andy Hampsten who was riding I think for 7Eleven. George Hincape has certainly been riding much better this year- especially in the time trials which used to be a weakness for him.

Edit- just checked- Hampsten was 4th in both 1986 and 1992. He was also eighth twice. Lemond got his first victory in 1986. So if George can keep up (and I think he can), they could become the first US duo on the podium. But a lot can happen as David Zabriskie has seen. He isn't out of it yet either.

[zippyjuan]

This is sort of a transition stage. It makes its way across the plains of France, but starts into the rolling hills of the east. Tomorrow's stage will cross into Germany. But any real climbing won't start until Stage 9. There are four Category Four climbs today along with three sprint points. Since opportunities for the non-climbers are dwindling, look for more agressive attacks today- perhaps by riders we haven't seen much of yet as they try to get a little personal glory and also attention for their sponsors. A professional cycling team costs a lot of money and you want to keep the sponsors happy and the money coming in. Discovery is like the New York Yankees- they have probably the most money and attract many of the best riders. So far, only one rider has abandoned the Tour- at this time last year, seven had dropped out. It is cold and overcast today with more chances of rain during the stage. That could make the roads more trecherous.

The race starts out at a fast pace, but the attacks still start almost immediately. By twos or threes riders try to get away. With the rolling terrain, if you could get a half minute or so ahead, the pack could not see you and hopefully forget about you. Discovery is staying near the front, but has not had to chase down anyone and is content to let others lead the peloton while their riders rest. Right now it is Cofidis at the front. But the escapes are not lasting so far. The pack is too fast. A group of four riders goes- Bernucci (FAS), Nazon (A2R), Joly (CA) and Wegmann (GST) get a decent gap going. Erik Dekker of Rabobank and Nicholas Jalabert of Phonac try to join them. Discovery decides to keep an eye on this bunch so they move to the front of the peloton and pick up the pace. The group is reeled in. Another group tries to go. This time it is Jan Kirsipuu, Karsten Koon, Rounen, Christophe Mergin, and Charleroi. Three of these riders have won stages before and they are working well together to try and increase their gap on the field- each taking a turn pulling the others. So far, there has not been a strong reaction by the field. Their lead gets up to about seven minutes before the rain starts. This will help the group and slow the peloton somewhat. The pace has been very fast so far. Over the first climb, the lead is over eight minutes. Mauro Gerosa who is in the group has become the virtual leader of the Tour on the road as the gap over the Yellow Jersey grows past 8:30. It is his first Tour de France.

Discover still does not seem to concerned about these riders, but the sprinter teams are and they have moved to the front. Quickstep and Lotto want to get Boonen and McEwen another victory so they are leading the chase. The lead is beginning to come down. Off the front, Jan Kirsipuu has had a flat and is waiting for a wheel change. The others will not wait for him so he will have to work his way back on his own. The persuit has cut the lead down to 6:05 and is closing. Claudio Corioni of Fassa Bortolo has become the second rider to abandon the tour. He was having difficulties over the second climb. Kirsipuu has rejoined the leaders, but the lead is below six minutes. The pace has slowed somewhat now that we are into the rolling hill plus the rain, but they are still averaging 27.9 mph. On the flats it was 29.5 mph. A fast stage. By the 93 mile mark, the persuing riders have cut their defecit to under four minutes. Lotto and Quickstep still lead the charge.

With 25km top go, the leaders start to attack each other- trying to get ahead before the finish. These are not great sprinters and if they can get enough of a gap, they may be able to hold on until the finish. Stephane Auge is the first to go. The main group is less than two minutes behind them and there is still one more climb to go. The leaders regroup ahead of the climb, but that will probably not last long. In the pack, Thor Hushvold has punctured and seeks a replacement wheel. He is second in the points (sprint) category and would like to get some more points today. He quickly rejoins the pack. There have been a lot of flat tires today. At the front, teh attacks are starting again as they near the top of the climb. Kirsipuu is the first to go, but he is quickly matched by Gerossa and Mengin. Mengin used to live in Nancy where the stage ends so he knows this area. He will want to get a win for the home crowd. As the riders crest the climb, the field is closing fast. Mengin is off and the others cannot keep up. They are absorbed by the field. Can Mengin keep away? With seven km to go, he has a 23 second gap. It will help that he knows the area and will not have to worry about any other riders arround him as he makes his way along the winding roads to the finish line. It is still raining and the roads slick. He will be able to pick his own line through the corners. Dario Cioni of Liquigas has attacked from the field.

Two km to go. Cioni has been caught and Mengin's lead is down to ten seconds. Three of his teammates from FDJ are in front of the field trying to slow them, but not having much luck. Alexandre Vinokourov of T-Mobile is bearing down on him. It is unusual for him to be so agressive on a flat stage, but Vinokourov is a very agressive rider. As he is about to catch the stage leader, Mengin has crashed in the final turn! The mass of persuing riders is too tightly bunched for many to avoid him and there is a large and growing pile of riders in the road! Robbie McEwen is among them. This is why Discovery stays back at the end of flat stages. Armstrong is able to avoid the melee. In all the chaos, Lorenzo Bernucci of Fausto Bartolo was able to get past Vinokourov and take the stage while Vinokourov lost footing on his pedal trying to avoid the crash. Lance finished 32nd today. There were no real changes in the overall standings.

Stage 6 Results
1. Lorenzo Bernucci (ITA/FAS) 4hr 12min 5sec
2. Alexandre Vinokourov (KZK/MOB) 0:00.
3. Robert F?er (GER/GRL) 0:07.
4. Angelo Furlan (ITA/DVE) 0:07.
5. Thor Hushovd (NOR/C.A) 0:07.
6. Kim Kirchen (LUX/FAS) 0:07.
7. Gianluca Bortolami (ITA/LAM) 0:07.
8. Egoi Martinez (ESP/EUS) 0:07.
9. Gerrit Glomser (AUT/LAM) 0:07.
10. Kurt Asle Arvesen (NOR/CSC) 0:07.

[zippyjuan]

In an effort to expand interest in the race, the Tour de France has been conducting stages in other countries over the past several years and this year takes it into Germany. The finish of today's stage and the start of tomorrow's stage will be there. Another flat to rolling stage, this is one of the longest ones the riders will encounter this year at 148 miles. We get our first Caterory 3 hill, but that is fairly early on and there is only one Category 4 climb. The pace should be fairly quick, but since it is a longer stage, probably not as fast as yesterday. Climbers will still be conserving energy for Stage 9 when we finally get to some real hills.

I was incorrect when I said there was little change in the overall standings yesterday. Alexandre Vinikourov's second place finish time bonus along with the seven second time gap he had over the field moved him up from seventh place to third- now 1:02 behind Armstrong. So far, that is the only time any contenders have gained on Lance.

Another cool, cloudy day. The action will probably take place at the three sprint points on the course. Tom Boonen and Thor Hushvold are seven points apart in the competition for the sprinter's Green Jersey. Again the attacks begin earyl, but nothing serious develops yet. I wouldn't expect anything serious until the climb. The roads are slick from rain last night and about 15 miles into the race, somebody goes down in the peloton taking quite a few other riders with them. Tom Boonen is one. But everybody is up and riding again so it looks like nothing was serious. Mengin, who crashed at the finish yesterday has dropped to the back of the pack. Perhaps hurting from it. As we near the first sprint, one rider has take off. It is Robbie McEwen. He wants the sprinter's points and Boonen has not made his way back to the front yet after his crash. Once past the sprint line, McEwen waits for the others to catch up. Sorry. looks like McEwen was trying to go prior to the sprint line and is waiting since noone went with him. It is hard for a solo rider to get away from the pack. A group of four, including Thor Hushovd, make a move before the sprint line and Thor is able to get third place for two sprint points. I guess McEwen was not ready when they went.

Thomas Voeckler is looking for some climbing points and leads a small group on an attack on the first (Cat 4) climb. He gets second and two points for his effort. At the top, two other riders try to get away. It is Robbie McEwen again- this time with German rider Fabian Wegman. At the back of the race, Steve Zampieri becomes the third rider to abandon and his Phonac team is down to eight riders. The escaped duo have their lead up to 1:20 when McEwen realizes that the Cat 3 climb still awaits so he decides to drop back to the main peloton for now. Wegman presses on alone and starts to increase his lead over the pack behind him. As he hits the bottom of the second climb, he is up to almost seven minutes ahead -and now the virtual leader on the road for the Tour. As the pack nears the climb, Discovery moves to the front and starts to pick up the pace. Poor Mengin is 1:50 behind everybody. Will he even finish today? Wegman was the first rider over the first climb and now with the first place points from the second as well, he will get to wear the Polka Dot Jersey that identifies the top climber. His lead is up to 7:45. The Discovery led peloton crests the climb 7:05 behind Wegman, but he is flying down the other side now and is back up to 7:30. But we are only about a third of the way into today's race and he is alone with over 100 miles to go. It will be difficult to stay ahead until the finish line. The course is pretty flat the rest of the way. By the 55 mile point, he is less than seven minutes out and the rains lightly begin.

The lead continues to move up and down as the race reaches the feed zone at around the 65 mile point. If Wegman can hold his position, he will lead three categories- Best Young Rider (he started the day 9th in that category- the White Jersey), Best Climber (he will definately have the Polka Dot Jersey tomorrow) and the Yellow Jersey (he was 53rd place, 3:43 behind Armstrong). But Discovery will do their best not to let that happen. Surprisingly there hasn't been any action from the sprinters so far. They seem content to let Discovery do the work and wait for a field sprint at the end. Wegman has had a maximum advantage of 8:35 so far.

Finally. As we get nearer to the third sprint, the sprinter's teams have moved to the front, so the pace should pick up and the lead shrink. Although Discovery has been at the front, they have not been pushing the pace very hard. The off and on rain is starting again. Roberto Herras has had a flat, but is back up with everyone. Credit Agricole is working for Thor Hushovd and Quickstep wants more points for Tom Boonen. Lotto is up there too. Coming to the line for second and third at the intermediate sprint went to Boonen with Hushovd third. The lead is down to 6:00. After the sprint, the Davitamon team has moved to the front and their pace has quickly spread out the field. They apparently want to catch the German. Quickstep is near the front also. The gap is closing quickly now. By the time the race reaches the German border, it is down to 2:45 and he is no longer the virtual leader. He has been riding alone for a long ways. Back in the field, Jens Voigt has moved to the front. He wants to be the second person to reach his country as they ride across the Rhine River.

Shortly across the border, they encounter a railroad crossing and someone has difficulties with it and goes down, taking a large group of riders with him. David Zabridkie among them. Everyone is up and riding again. Wegman has reached the third intermediate sprint 1:45 ahead of everyone else. He has been riding out of his saddle more and must be getting tired. Again, it is Boonen second and Hushovd third for the points. Wegman looks back and knows his time in the lead is about over. He slows up and waits for the peloton to absorb him. He was out there for 93 miles- a valliant effort! It is time to get ready for the finish. At the front is Discovery, Davitamon, and Quickstep. With about ten miles to go, they split to opposite sides of the road. Those on the right want to get ready for the sprint and those on the left want to finish safely- including the Yellow Jersey. The pace quickens. They pass through a brief shower, but today the finish area is dry. The lead in is long and straight, not winding like the past few days so it should be faster and safer. Riders take turns going full speed at the front. Quickstep is there trying to set it up for Boonen and Credit Agricole wants Stewart OGrady in the best position. Credit Agricole for Hushovd. Don't forget about McEwen. It is way to fast for anyone to try and sneak ahead early. The bunch of riders is very tight and they are bobbing as they hammer on their pedals looking for that last bit of speed and try to pick their line to the finish. At the line....it is Robbie McEwen who has thrown his hands in the air, but Magnus Backstedt was right there too- we'll need to see the photo to know for sure. yes, it is Robbie! His second win so far this year. Armstrong played it safe and cam across in 54th. The field (and Lance) was awarded the same time as the winners so nobody gained anything.

Pos. No. Name Nat. Team Time Gap
1 001 ARMSTRONG, Lance USA DSC 23:01:56.000 00:00:00.000
2 004 HINCAPIE, George USA DSC 23:02:51.000 00:00:55.000
3 019 VINOKOUROV, Alexandre KAZ TMO 23:02:58.000 00:01:02.000
4 028 VOIGT, Jens GER CSC 23:03:00.000 00:01:04.000
5 023 JULICH, Bobby USA CSC 23:03:03.000 00:01:07.000
6 008 RUBIERA, José Luis ESP DSC 23:03:10.000 00:01:14.000
7 007 POPOVYCH, Yaroslav UKR DSC 23:03:12.000 00:01:16.000
8 005 NOVAL GONZALEZ, Benjamin ESP DSC 23:03:22.000 00:01:26.000
9 021 BASSO, Ivan ITA CSC 23:03:22.000 00:01:26.000
10 022 ARVESEN, Kurt-Asle NOR CSC 23:03:28.000 00:01:32.000
11 006 PADRNOS, Pavel CZE DSC 23:03:28.000 00:01:32.000
12 009 SAVOLDELLI, Paolo ITA DSC 23:03:29.000 00:01:33.000
13 011 ULLRICH, Jan GER TMO 23:03:32.000 00:01:36.000
14 026 SASTRE, Carlos ESP CSC 23:03:32.000 00:01:36.000
15 002 AZEVEDO, José POR DSC 23:03:33.000 00:01:37.00

[guiseppewv]

ZJ: Thanks for the daily updates.....they have been great and much better than most if not all the crap that is available at cnn, espn, usatoday, etc.... :thumb: :)

[zippyjuan]

Another long day. As we leave Germany, we are starting to see more hills. Today the riders will face four quick Category 3 climbs and then it will flatten out for a while, but the first Category 2 climb awaits them on the Col de la Schultz. It will be our first chance to see how well people are climbing. With more mountains to come over the next few days, the sprinters will probably be heavily contesting the three intermediate sprints since it will be their best chance for a while. Should be an exciting day! Mengin, the star of Stage 6, struggled but did finally finish yesterday, but decided to retire before the start of today's stage due to the injuries he recieved in his crash near the finish line.

Attacks begin on the first climb which comes very early in the stage. The first three climbs come one after the other so people seeking mountain points will want to get started early. The German Jens Voigt is again at the front as he was towards the end of yesterday's stage- enjoying the very large German crowds lining the road and chearing him on. Rasmussen of Rabobank, Credit Agricole's Kashechkin, and Casar of FDJ have joined him. Discovery has sent George Hincape to keep an eye on them. This is the sort of day that Laurant Jalabert would have loved to take off on, but he is now retired. Rasmussen takes off by himself and gets twenty seconds ahead- he wants the points for the first climb on Cote de Dobel and gets them. Kashechken was second, Voigt third and Hincape fourth. The pace up the first climb has been fast and though it is not a difficult time, riders are already dropping off the back of the main field, including David Zabriskie, who is obviously freeling the effects of his two crashes, and Jan Kirsipuu. Over the second climb at Cote de Bad Herrenalb, Rasmussen is ahead of the small group by 23 seconds. This time it is Kasheckin second, Hincape third and Voigt fourth. The main group is 1:20 behind them. Hincape' group catches Rasmussen on the third climb and T-Mobile has moved to the front of the peloton. Over the top of the Cote de Nachtigal, it is once again Rasmussen. He is collecting a lot of climbing points today and could take over the Polka Dot Jersey. Voigt was second with Hincape third and Andrey Kasheckin fourth. Casar is having troubles staying up with this group. One more small climb before the race flattens out for a while. Rasmussen does have enough points to be leading the Mountain Climbing category now. The man presently wearing that jersey, Fabian Wegmann, has been dropped by the main pack along with sprinter Tom Boonen. T-Mobile is still leading the main bunch, but hasn't gained any time on the escaped riders so they aren't pushing it yet. They have all nine of their riders at the front. None of their riders are in the escaped group so they would have no reason to try and slow the field. They do want to make sure that George Hincape, who is now the virtual leader on the road, does not get away. Discover is content to sit in behind them and keep an eye on them.

Now passing through Baden Baden and aproaching the top of the last climb for now. It once again Rasumssen! Kascheckin, Voigt, and Hincape follow in the placings. First place gets four points and fourth one point on the climb. Just past the bottom of the hill is the first intermediate sprint and there are no sprinters up here to contest it so George Hincape gets the maximum points here. The leading sprinter, Boonen, is in a group of 30 riders behind the main pack which is still about forty seconds behind this group. Phonac is starting to make a move now that the course has flattened and joins T-Mobile at the front. They want to get their rider in a position for some sprint points. Rasmussen has decided to rest a bit from his efforts and lets the maim pack absorb him. Sandy Caser, who seemed to struggle a bit on the climbs, has now taken off while the other members of the group also join the main pack. Two other riders have joined him- Sorensen and Cancellera. The attacks are starting again. Casar is five minutes behind Armstrong in the general classification so nobody is worried about him, but the sprinters want to get up now. Erik Dekker tries to get away, but gives up as nobody joins him. The man second in the Points category goes next. Thor Hushovd is not willing to abandon his own effort and establishes a 30 second gap. He successfully joins the other three in front.

Now that Hincape is not in front and Thor is away, the other teams let Discovery take over the front of the peloton. There is nobody here Discovery is worried about so they are not pushing the pace. The lead grows to about two minutes before Lotto decides to try and get their man a shot at some points in the second intermediate sprint so them have picked up the lead and pace of the field. Even the trailing group has picked up the pace and is about 1:30 behind Armstrong's group. Hushovd pulls away from his group to get six points at the sprint. The others are about to be caught by the main pack. Thor is caught too. As the riders regroup, others attack. As we near the border with France again, a group of seven has gotten away. Nicki Sorensen of CSC, Juan Antonio Flecha (Fausto Bartolo), Salvatore Comesso (LAM), Ronny Sholts (Goerolsteiner), Cedric Vasseur (Cofidis), Nichololas (not Lauraunt) Jalabert of Phonac, and Pieter Weening of Rabobank have established a lead of two minutes. The trailing group has now rejoined the main one too. At the third sprint, they are over six minutes ahead, but there is a big climb waiting. David Zabriskie is just barely holding on so far- he is with Luciano Pagliarini a full 28 minutes behind the field.

Nearing the base of the climb, the lead is down to about 3:00 and the climbers have made their way to the front of the peloton. Weening of Rabobank attacks out of the lead group. The climb is breaking up the field which is now 2:00 back. With five kilometers to go, the field finally begins to attack. The lead group here has dwindled down to five- Lance Armstrong, Christoph Moreau, Alexandre Vinokourov, Jan Ulrich, and Valverde. Moreau takes off with Vinokourov right behind him. Armstrong follows. Then Valverde. Again it is Vino who responds. Only when Vinokourov went, did Armstrong respond. Now Kolden goes. Armstrong does not take the bait and follow. He seems to be marking Ulrich today. Weening is still out in front, about 24 seconds ahead of Kloden and now 40 seconds up on Armstrong. Kloden catches Weening just before the summit of the Col de la Schultz and as they go over the top, they are just 17 seconds ahead of the Yellow Jersey. The second group has grown a little. Bobby Julich and Ivan Basso hav joined. With five kilometers to go to the finish line, the lead is down to ten seconds, but the persuit has eased up for some reason. Now they are back up to 22 seconds and Kloden is thinking about getting his first stage win. He charges for the line with Weening right on his wheel. At the last moment, he pops around Kloden and trys to throw his bike forward in an effort to beat Kloden. Wow! That was close! I can't tell who it was. Even the photo finish camera is not definative. Technology to the rescue! The bikes are fitted with an electronic sensor and according to that, this is the closest finish ever.. Weening was declared the winner by .0002 seconds! (yes, that many decimal places!) Armstrong keeps the lead heading into more serious climbing tomorrow. Today, none of the climbers got left behind. Zabriskie came crawling in over 51 minutes later and within about a minute of the cutoff time. You have to finish a stage within a certain percentage of the winning time or you can be eleminated.

16:54 The Top 10 In Stage Eight
Only a fraction of a centimeter has separated the first and second placed riders. The top 10 in the 231.5km eighth stage is: 1. Pieter Weening (Ned) RAB 2. Andreas Kloden (Ger) TMO at same time 3. Alejandro Valverde (Sp) IBA at 27" 4. Kim Kirchen (Lux) FAS at st 5. Jens Voigt (Ger) CSC at st 6. Jan Ullrich (Ger) TMO at st 7. Cadel Evans (Aus) DVL at st 8. Christophe Moreau (Fr) C.A at st 9. Chris Horner (USA) SDV at st 10. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) TMO at st.

16:57 Voigt Moves Up To 2nd Overall
Lance Armstrong maintains his lead in the general classification after stage eight. The new top 10 overall is listed below: 1. Lance Armstrong (US) DSC 2. Jens Voigt (Ger) CSC at 1'00" 3. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) TMO at 1'02" 4. Bobby Julich (USA) CSC at 1'07" 5. Ivan Basso (It) CSC at 1'26" 6. Jan Ullrich (Ger) TMO at 1'36" 7. Carlos Sastre (Sp) CSC at 1'36" 8. George Hincapie (USA) DSC at 1'47" 9. Andreas Kloden (Ger) TMO at 1'50" 10. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO at 1'50"

[zippyjuan]

Yesterday's stage gave us a little glimpse of what could be to come. On the first Category 2 climb, the people in front were the ones we expected to be there. Armstrong, Ulrich, Vinokourov, and Kloden. The question is where were Armstrong's teammates? He was surrounded by the pink jerseys of T-Mobile but not another blue and white jersey to be seen. If Lance had experienced mechanical difficulties, he would have lost precious time while he waited for the team vehicle to reach him and would have had no help trying to catch back up. A teammate could have traded bikes (they are set up the same with a quick release on the seatpost for quick adjustment of that for just this reason) or helped him fend off attacks. Since he was alone, Armstrong had to decide which attacks to go after and which to let go. He settled on Ulrich and allowed the others to go on. Armstrong said in his post race interview that some things would be discussed in the team meeting that night.

Today the climbing starts to get a little more serious. The ones yesterday weren't that steep or long. The riders encounter a quick series of three Category 3 climbs and then a hardere Category 2 up the Le Grand Ballon. The long decent down the other side is followed by another Cat 3 which is a warmup for the first Category 1 climb- the Ballon d'Alsace. This was the first mountain ridden in the Tour de France- way back in 1905 when riders had heavier bikes, carried all their own spare parts including wheels and tools and had to perform all their repair work. Once a rider broke his frame and had to find a blacksmith's shop where he could make his own repairs (the rules required that noone else give assistance). It will be a hard day for many riders. The first few days in the mountains the legs are stiff and used to the faster, easier pace of the flat roads. It is also a time of dread for the sprinters. But it is also a day where someone who is feeling good could get out to a large lead and keep it. Laurent Jalabert used to thrive on such a stage while he persued the Polka Dot Jersey points for best climber. Rasmussen is the present leader of that category and said that this is his goal too. Tomorrow is a rest day. At least the weather is more favorable today.

The riders seem nervous and there is a small crash within about a kilometer of the start. Igor Gonzales de Galdeano seems to be the worst of it and is slow getting up. The others are already on their way. In the confusion, Jens Voigt (who moved up to second place overall yesterday), Mickael Rasmussen, Christophe Moreau and about fifteen others are off the front. At the back of the pack is David Zabriskie again. I don't know how much longer he can hold on. He used to be a member of Lance Armstrong's team, but they let him go in part because he was injured a lot. He was having a very good year this year- winning stages in the Vuelta of Spain (their equal to the Tour de France) and the Dauphene du Liebre, the big warm up to the Tour as well as his victory earlier in the Tour. He is young and if he can learn to avoid trouble, could be a top rider one day. de Galdeano is holding his hip and looks in great pain. Across the first climb, Rasmussen has what he wants- first place points. He swept up almost all of them yesterday and would like to do so again today. He has now pulled away from the group he was with and is joined by Dario Cioni.

It looks like David Zabriskie has abandoned the tour. He has removed his number and is climbing into the team car about six miles into today's race. What? A report is coming in that Jan Ulrich has crashed! Initial reports are that he went down on the first climb and possible hurt his knee. He was involved in a crash with a team vehicle the day before the Tour started. Three teammates have waited for him and now have guided him back to the main group of riders. Meanwhile, Cioni and Rassmussen are starting to build a lead- about a minute and a half so far. The contenders will not be worried about this pair- Rasmussen is over seven minutes down on the Yellow Jersey and Cioni even further. This may allow them to get a big lead. As they near the bottom of the second climb, the second group that was with Rasmussen is caught by the pack. Igor Gonzales de Galdeano has now abandoned the Tour and another rider involved in the same crash, Alberto Contrador, is with the race doctor himself. As the two leaders near the top of the second climb, Jens Voigt attacks the field again. He is again joined by Christophe Moreau and a few other riders. Rasmussen is again the first over the line for points at the top of the climb and they are now 3:10 up on the main field. Moreau attacks his group as it nears the summit. The third one is not far away and things look the same again- Rasumssen with about two minutes on the chase group which has about a minute on the field. Things are about to get steeper as we aproach the Category 2 Le Grand Ballon.

Both Cioni and Rasmussen are former mountain bike champions and are working it on the climb. As they get started, they are 2:37 ahead of the Group of Six and now 5:50 over the Discovery- led peloton. Nearing the 30 mile mark, we have a new virtual leader on the road in Jens Voigt. He was only about a minute behind Armstrong in the standings yesterday and is now 3:50 ahead of the group containing the Yellow Jersey. The duo in front are working extremely well together and now have their gap over the main field over seven minutes. If this holds, Rasmussen will move up considerably in the standings. As has been his tradition, Jan Kirsipuu has abandoned the race. He always does when the road turns uphill. This is not unusual for a sprinter. He is there to help with the early stages and to try and get some wins in the flat stages. Over the top of the Grand Ballon, the results are 1) Rasmussen 2)Cioni 3)Moreau 4) Landaluze 5)Voigt and 6)Moos. The field is eight minutes behind the two leaders.

A long winding decent and a gorgeous view is the reward for making it to the top, but the riders have little time to enjoy it. They have to concentrate on handling their bikes as they zoom down the mountainside and grind through the turns. A good, agressive decender can gain time over a more cautious rider, althought the costs of any mistake will be high. At the bottom, the pace will slow as they enter the feed zone and the riders pick up needed food supplies. They are burning a lot of calories and proper nutrition is as important as proper training. Lance will have troubles once in while because he will sometimes not eat enough when caught up in the excitement of a race. Handing up the feed bags can be challenging and risky as a support person runs alongside the riders to hand them up. Two riders in the field go down- Angel Gomez of Saunier Duval and Commesso, who looks hurt. Shortly after the feedzone is the first sprint of the day- but like yesterday there are no sprinters here. Rasumssen lets Cioni take the points here- he only cares about the climbing ones. Voigt leads the chase group across. Commesso has just left the race in an ambulance- it looks like he has a broken collar bone- a common cycling injury. I broke mine once on a bicycle tour.

Now onto the last Cat 3 climb of the day and the warmup for Cat 1. Rasmussen is again pushing the pace up front. But Cioni cannot keep up with him now. Atop the Col de Bussang he again collects the maximum points and is 1:05 ahead of Cioni, 3:00 on Voigt's group, and nine minutes on the peloton- who we haven't heard much from today. Discovery is still at the front, but not seeming interested in the stage leaders, even though Lance is no longer the leader on the road. The Ballon d'Alsace looms in the distance, but it is getting very close now. The peak rises for about six miles at average gradient of 6.8 percent. By comparison, the Category 3 hills yesterday had an average gradient of about 4.2 percent. The pack is 9:35 behind Rasmussen. As the pack nears the bottom of the climb. Armstrong puts his team to work. Even if they cannot win the stage, it is important for them to show they can control the major climbs- especially after their absence from the climb yesterday. Rubiera and Beltran lead it out. The pace and the steepness of the climb quickly stretches out and fractures the field. Up the road, Rasmussen is out of the saddle and hammering his way to the top. He has been on a couple of amazing rides this week! This latest effort started about three miles into the race on the first climb and now he is alone headed for the top of the sixth. He will have collected all of the first place climbing points available today. The second group is also starting to break up. Moreau, Voigt, and Vicioso have attacked, but they are still 4:12 behind Rasmussen. All Voigt needs is over a minute on Armstrong and the Yellow Jersey will be his. There are some sixty riders (out of 180) in the main group with Lance, but they are getting strung out and he has six team members in front with him setting the pace. They want to find out who can keep up with them and who cannot. They come over the top still about nine minutes behind Rasmussen. It is pretty much downhill for the next 35 miles to the finish and Discovery continues to hold the pace at the front. As they reach the fifteen miles to go, Didier Rous has crashed into a traffic island. Although in pain, he is back on his bike. Voigt has punctured! He will lose contact with Moreau while he waits for help. This is why Armstrong was concened about not having help yesterday. His team still leads the peloton, but hasn't made up much time. They seem content to let the race stay where it is- even though they could lose the Yellow Jersey. Cofidis has now moved to the front of the field. Voigt did get fixed quckly and is back with Moreau- they are 4:05 behind the leader. The field has picked up some speed now- as they pass the 15km to go banner, they have cut their defecit to 7:50, but Rasmussen has less than 10 km to go. He has his victory sewn up now and can relax. A very happy Rasmussen crosses the finish line! He has been in front for almost the entire race and rode the last 45 miles alone. What an effort! He also won every climbing prize today. It is his first ever stage win in the Tour and a well deserved one. Moreau and Voigt continue to work together to gain the maximum time as they near the finish. Voigt knows the Yellow Jersey is his, so he is content to let Moreay get the second place finish. They have been working very hard the last few days too.

The field has regrouped since the climb and has been charging hard to the finish. The sprint teams are trying to set up their riders for the spring for fourth place. That goes to Stewart OGrady.

The standings got shaken up today. Jens Voigt will be in the Yellow Jersey for at least two days (tomorrow is a rest day) and Christophe Moreau has moved into second, 1:50 behind him. Armstrong is now third at 2:18 down and Mickael Rasmussen of Rabobank has moved all the way up to fourth. The people Discovery said they are worried about did not gain time today, but they may need to add a couple of names to their watch list now.

16:34 The Top 10 After Nine Stages
The yellow jersey has returned to the CSC team after the ninth stage of the 2005 Tour. The new top 10 is: 1. Jens Voigt (GER) CSC 1,493.5km in 32h18'23" (46.22km/h) 2. Christophe Moreau (FRA) C.A at 1'50" 3. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC at 2'18" 4. Mickael Rasmussen (DEN) RAB at 2'43" 5. Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ) TMO at 3'20" 6. Bobby Julich (USA) CSC at 3'25" 7. Ivan Basso (ITA) CSC at 3'44" 8. Jan Ullrich (GER) TMO at 3'54" 9. Carlos Sastre (ESP) CSC 3'54" 10. George Hincapie (USA) DSC 4'05"

[zippyjuan]

Rest Day is a bit of a misnomer because the teams will not be relaxing and enjoying the sights. They have to pack everything up and board an airplane for a flight to the South of France and Grenoble, the site of Tuesday's stage. Once there, they will find their hotels and get any injuries treated while the mechanics make sure their bikes are in top shape. They will still want to spend a few hours riding today too- or they will stiffen up for tomorrrow's very demanding day. Discovery likes to go and scout out the most important courses that are coming up so they know what to expect and when to make their moves. Their manager, Johann Bunel is a brilliant tactician and like Armstrong prefers to leave as little as possible to chance. The next few days could decide the entire tour with some of the most difficult mountains in the next two days. They showed today that they can still control the field after Friday's questions and Lance showed that he is still the one to beat on the climbs. I do not think they are too disappointed at losing the Yellow Jersey to Jens Voigt- he is not a strong climber and will like give back more time in the Alps. The same for Christoph Moreau. They can no longer ignore Rasmussen. True, his main interest, according to him, is to win the climber's prize, the Polka Dot Jersey. He certainly has established a large lead in that category. But he is a fantastic climber and if he continues to dominate there, he could get other ideas about going for the Yellow Jersey as well. The other good news about not having the Yellow Jersey for now means that they do not have to work as hard to keep it, allowing them to choose what to do and when. Certainly if someone who is a threat to win the race tries to get away, Discovery will respond, but they will not have to chase down everybody. This will also let them conserve energy for when they need it. And Lance will need help in the mountains. T-Mobile has shown their strength. Tuesday will be the most important day this week. It features two famous Hors Categori (HC) climbs- the Col du Madeleine and the Col du Galibier, a 6.1% grade and 6.9% average grade respectively. Climbs are rated on a scale from one to four, based on the steepness, elevation, length of climb, and also where in the stage it takes place. One after already riding 100 miles will be harder than the same climb in the first ten miles when the legs are fresher. HC is reserved for the nastiest. They also attract the largest crowds. While the cities and finishing areas may have fences and barriers, the mountains do not have anything to hold back people, and there are usually thousands at such stages. They spill out into the roads, screaming for their favorites and curshig those they do not like. The legendary Edde Mercks was knocked out by an angry fan on a mountainous stage and it cost him the victory- not just in the stage but also the Tour. Bernard Hinault, nicknamed the Badger for his ferrosity on and off the bike, got into a fist fight with a fan. Usually they just part to the side barly enough for the riders to get through. Sometimes they will try to help and give a push to a rider. Names and words of encouragement are painted on the roads and llike football fans, many will be wearing their favorite team colors and get there even days early to secure a spot to see the riders go by in just a few seconds. It is quite a sight! This week will be lots of fun!

[cheapie]

http://photos1.blogger.com/img/48/1498/640/itsover.jpg


h.o.l.y. c.r.a.p.


team discovery blew the race apart today. astounding!

lance came in second on the climb to Valverde, a non-GC contender.

the "contenders" came in as follows:

Ivan Basso - 1'02"

Leipheimer - 1'28"

Ullrich, Klöden, Landis, Evans - 2'15"

Alexandre Vinokourov & Bobby Julich - 5'18

Beloki - 5'36

Jens Voight....still climbing.

[Crazedrider]

C'mon seriously. You can't seriously say that Mickael Rasmussen is a serious threat to win the Tour de France. It takes more than being able to climb to win the Tour de France. You need to have a good team that can shepard you up the mountains. You also need to be to excel in the time trials. Rasmussen will wear himself out trying to win the mountain stages by himself and Lance and every other threat such as Ullrich and Basso will eat him up in the individual time trials. To give you an idea, Rasmussen finished 3:14 behind Lance Armtrong in the first individual time trial. He finished in a whopping 174th place. Although I give Rasmussen credit for hanging in there up to this point. He's second only :38 behind, but it won't last. Rasmussen is no threat.

[tupacboy]

C'mon seriously. You can't seriously say that Mickael Rasmussen is a serious threat to win the Tour de France. It takes more than being able to climb to win the Tour de France. You need to have a good team that can shepard you up the mountains. You also need to be to excel in the time trials. Rasmussen will wear himself out trying to win the mountain stages by himself and Lance and every other threat such as Ullrich and Basso will eat him up in the individual time trials. To give you an idea, Rasmussen finished 3:14 behind Lance Armtrong in the first individual time trial. He finished in a whopping 174th place. Although I give Rasmussen credit for hanging in there up to this point. He's second only :38 behind, but it won't last. Rasmussen is no threat.


who are u talking to?

[Crazedrider]

zippyjuan and his rest day post. Are you even reading these?

[zippyjuan]

A time trial is called "the race of truth" because each rider goes one at a time, against the clock. without the help of any teammates. Today's stage will also be a race of truth as we begin the first serious climbing. Although you may have other riders with you, including teammates, they cannot help you very much as you struggle against the mountain. The pace is too slow for drafting to be much help- other than offering moral support in your shared misery. It is about enduring pain and how hard you can push yourself. While it may not decide the Tour today, it will certainly show who the real contenders are. Tomorrow will weed out even more of the pretenders. Most will be just trying to survive the stage and finish.

Prior to the stage, several riders are told to report to doping control and asked to give both blood and urine to check for signs of banned substances. This usually includes the previous stage winner and the leaders of the various classifications as well as other randomly selected riders. Today 33 were selected and all but one, Evgeny Petrov (LAM) passed. He is the first person caught this year and will not be permitted to start the race today. Protests in France are not uncommon in the summertime and the Tour is a nice place to gain some publicity. One such event was announced for near the start of today's race in Brignoud, so the officials extended the official start to just beyond there. After a slight delay, the race gets underway. Starting elevation is just about 700 feet above sea level, but by the 73 mile mark, we will be at 6,451 feet on the Cormenet de Roseland, with the average grade of 6% on this Category 1 climb. The riders will then decend down to 1600 feet before the final climb up the Category 1 Courchevel and finish at the top there at 7,281 feet. With most of the climbing in the second half, it will be a very hard stage. Weather is warm, but it will be quite a bit cooler at the summits and rain was seen at the finish area yesterday. There is a chance for more today.

174 riders make their way out of Grenoble and shortly after they pass the end of the rolling start and after the protset delay, six riders establish an early breakaway. Brochard of Lotto started it in the first mile and is accompanied by Postuma (Rabobank), Sanchez (LSW), Bortolami (LAM), Krivtsov (AG2R) and Facci of Fausto Bartoli. Isasi of Euskatel bridges the gap to join them. The main field is not worried about any of these riders since they are not good climbers. The highest placed is Brouchard who is nearly eight minutes behind Voigt and his Yellow Jersey. They build their lead up to a maximum of 9:40 which is the largest gap in the race this year and puts Bouchard in the Yellow Jersey for now, but they have not begun to climb yet. It grows to 1:40 before Credit Agricole decides to pick up the pace of the peloton. The escapees do not think they can win the stage, they know they will lose time on the climbs and prefer to lose it from the front rather than losing it from the back and finishing up further behind everyone.

The escapees are still about eight minutes ahead as the main group reaches the base of the first climb. The Cormet de Roseland will require them to climb for about twenty miles at an average grade of 6%, but at times it will be over 8%. As they begin the assent, the field stretches out and the weaker riders gradually drop off the back. Sprinters usually fare the worst and Boonen, McEwen, and OGrady are soon dropped. Rabobank and Phonak are presently leading the main field, but so far nobody has attacked on the first climb. The Yellow Jersey is near the front now too and Rasmussen has been spotted there as well. He is literally spotted today- he has somehow found a pair of polka dotted shorts to go with the Polka Dot climber's jersey he wears. Iban Mayo has just gone off the back. Kloden of T-Mobile has moved to the front of the peolton and Discovery has sent Jose Luis Rubiera up to keep an eye on him. Discovery has been near the front, but not taken control yet, content to let others do the work for now. Yens Voigt is starting to drop back. He came to the front so he would not get dropped as quickly if he stayed in the middle. He is beginning to struggle with the climb.

Nearing the top, the lead group has dropped to five- Posthuma, Brochard, Krivtsov, Facci and Sanchez. Their lead is down to 4:55. Bortolami and Isasi are forty seconds behind them. Discovery has started to make a move to close the gap even more as the main group is down to 45 riders. George Hincapie, Noval, Rubiera, and Beltran lead the way. Voigt is struggling to maintain contact with the group. At the top of the Cormet de Roseland, Brochard takes the first place climbing prize. The first person from the peloton over is Jorg Jaksche (LSW) who is 3:40 behind him. Once over the top, Bochard takes off. The decent will be fast and dangerous so the riders prefer a bit of a gap between each other for safety. A truck passing through yesterday splilled some diesel on the road and it has been covered in sand at one point, making it dangerous there, but the riders were informed of this before the start of the race. Yaroslav Popovych has crashed- reportedly hitting the CSC team vehicle, but he is back up and riding. Jaksche attacked the main field at the top of the climb and accompanied by Pereiro, have gained 3:00. They eventually catch the group behind Brochard and Sanchez with the other riders 4:38 behind them. Sanchez is not helping Brochard- it looks like he is waiting for the others to catch up, since Hakscke is his teammate on Liberty Wurth. Once united, they move to the front and start to work. Discovery has again moved to the front of the peloton and has trimmed the gap to 3:30. The big climb for the day draws near. Discovery has all nine riders at the front. In the lead group, Jaksche takes a breather while Sanchez pumps away. Facci is dropped from the lead group. Sanchez peels off the front after a long pull as they reach the base of the climb up Courchevel. The last time the race was here was "The Pirate" Marco Pantani's last stage victory in 2000. Beltran and Padrnos lead Discovery in the approach to the climb, just 2:55 back now.

As they move up the mountain, both chasers and persuers begin to drop off. In the front, is is Posthuma, Bortloani, and Isasi, leaving a group of four. Seven Discovery riders still lead the pack and are increasing the pace and the pressure on other riders to keep up. Jens Voigt can no longe keep up with the group. Krivtsov punctures in the lead group and Jaksche and Periero attack Brochard. Iban Mayo is off the back of the field now as it continues to splinter under the Discovery pace. There do not seem to be any questions today about their strength and desire. With 20 km to go, the leaders are 2:00 ahead. Now Jaksche is off the front by himself. It is Savodelli's turn to lead the Discovery charge. He won the Tour of Italy this year and is having a great season so far. Lead down to 1:45. Roberto Herras has been dropped along with Moreau and Garzelli. Few can keep up with this pace. Carlos Sastre is trying to get away from the peloton. Hincapie chases him down. They are not going to allow anyone to escape now if possible. Bobby Julich and Santiago Botero can no longer maintain the pace and have dropped back. Still here are Ulrich and Vinokourov along with Floyd Landis and Levi Leipheimer and Azevedo, but he was just dropped. The lead is down to 1:09. The spotted man, Mickael Rasumssen is here too. He has really demonstrated some great climbing abilities. Valverde's impressive ride in his first Tour moved him up to fifth and makes him a rider to watch too- not just for this Tour but the future as well!

Popovych is now taking his turn at the front of the shrinking group, trying to burn out a few more legs. Vinokourov is the next to go. This is the way it is suppsed to go on a climbing stage for a strong team. Go fast and hard to seperate out the weak and break the strong. Now Ulrich is dropped! Jaksche has been caught too! Discovery is doing an amazing job out here today! Mancebo now sets the pace. Evans drops back. Ulrich is now :32 back and Armstrong finally takes a turn at the front. He has been sitting behind the other riders, biding his time. With him now are Mancebo, Valverde, Rasmussen, and Basso. Now it is Basso who has cracked. This is really shattering the field and contenders. Seven kilometers remain. Vallverde takes the front and Armstrong drifts to the back of the other three- to keep an eye on them and catch a bit of a rest before the final plunge. Mancebo is now setting the pace. Ulrich and Vinolourov have slid to 1"13 back. So far, Rasmussen has not been helping in he lead group. Armstrong take anothe turn at the front followed by Valverde. Two kilometers to go. The crowds are growing and getting noisier as we near the finish area. Armstrong attacks! Only Valverde can stay with him. Coming to the line now... Valverde wins! While you could not say that Lance let him win, he will certainly not be disappointed with the result. He got what he wanted- the Yellow Jersey back and he also let his oppoinents know that he is stronger than they are and that despite what happened on Friday, Discovery is a very strong team. They controlled the race today and shattered the others in doing so. They will still have to keep an eye on Rasmussen. He is about 38 seconds back and has shown he can keep up on the climbs. Tomorrow will be another doozy with the Col du Madeline and Col du Galibert, two HO (out of category) climbs to tackle. Another chance for Armstrong and Discovery to put more hurt and time into their rivals. Ulrich and Vinokourov lost over two minutes today.

17:41 The New Top 10 Overall...
Even before Jens Voigt reaches the end of stage 10, we can report that Armstrong is back in the yellow jersey. The new top 10 is: 1. Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel - 1,6866.0km in 37h11'04" (44.92km/h) 2. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) Rabobank at 38" 3. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC at 2'40" 4. Christophe Moreau (France) Credit Agricole at 2'42" 5. Alejandro Valverde (Spain) Illes Balears at 3'16" 6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner at 3'58" 7. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) Illes Balears at 4'00" 8. Jan Ullrich (Germany) T-Mobile at 4'02" 9. Andreas Kloden (Germany) T-Mobile at 4'16" 10. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak at 4'16" The new leader of the best young rider classification is the winner of stage 10, Alejandro Valverde.
17:27 The Top 10 In Stage 10
The top 10 in the 10th stage of the 2005 Tour de France is: 1. Alejandro Valverde (Spain) IBA 2. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - at same time 3. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB at 9" 4. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA at 9" 5. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC at 1'02" 6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST at 1'15" 7. Eddy Mazzoleni (Italy) LAM at 2'14" 8. Cadel Evans (Australia) DVL at 2'14" 9. Andreas Kloden (Germany) TMO at 2'14" 10. Andrey Kashechkin (Kazakstahn) C.A at 2'14"

[Kevster]

Good Lord Lance and Discovery bitchslapped the whole field today! Way to go Lance!

[zippyjuan]

C'mon seriously. You can't seriously say that Mickael Rasmussen is a serious threat to win the Tour de France. It takes more than being able to climb to win the Tour de France. You need to have a good team that can shepard you up the mountains. You also need to be to excel in the time trials. Rasmussen will wear himself out trying to win the mountain stages by himself and Lance and every other threat such as Ullrich and Basso will eat him up in the individual time trials. To give you an idea, Rasmussen finished 3:14 behind Lance Armtrong in the first individual time trial. He finished in a whopping 174th place. Although I give Rasmussen credit for hanging in there up to this point. He's second only :38 behind, but it won't last. Rasmussen is no threat.

Nice to see people are reading these. Since there have been few other posts (thanks Cheapie!) I sometimes wonder how many people are reading them. It takes me an hour or so to put them together. I do not actually get to watch the race, but rather I read through a minute by minute report which I synthesize down and add some of my own knowledge of the sport to try and give it more flavor.

There is only one time trial remaining and that is not until the day before the Ride to Paris. It is about 35 miles long and depending on the standings at that time, it may have no effect on the overall final standings. Rasmussen has shown that he can keep up with Armstrong and since he is only 38 seconds behind him, if he tries to go off on another long climbing stage, Discovery cannot afford to allow him to. He gained about seven minutes in one day alone this past week. Even some of the others cannot be written off yet (although Discovery did send a very strong message today) if Lance has any bad luck. He has in the past had at least one bad day in the mountains (although they did not usually cost him much). In his post-race news conference today, Rasmussen said he has accomplished what he set out to do- win a stage and the Polka Dot Jersey and now that he has those he wants to concentrate on the General Classification.

[cheapie]

C'mon seriously. You can't seriously say that Mickael Rasmussen is a serious threat to win the Tour de France. It takes more than being able to climb to win the Tour de France. You need to have a good team that can shepard you up the mountains. You also need to be to excel in the time trials. Rasmussen will wear himself out trying to win the mountain stages by himself and Lance and every other threat such as Ullrich and Basso will eat him up in the individual time trials. To give you an idea, Rasmussen finished 3:14 behind Lance Armtrong in the first individual time trial. He finished in a whopping 174th place. Although I give Rasmussen credit for hanging in there up to this point. He's second only :38 behind, but it won't last. Rasmussen is no threat.


:neartears i thnk i'm going to cry. there's another apexer that knows who rasmussen is?

you're right. rassi will not likely contend for the GC. however, he's about the only one that didn't get his a$$ kicked today.

[guiseppewv]

Nice to see people are reading these. Since there have been few other posts (thanks Cheapie!) I sometimes wonder how many people are reading them. It takes me an hour or so to put them together. I do not actually get to watch the race, but rather I read through a minute by minute report which I synthesize down and add some of my own knowledge of the sport to try and give it more flavor.


Hey, I read this thread every day and it is great. I really appreciate the time and effort that you spend putting this together!!!!! :thumb:

Thanks Zippy!!!!! :)

[IrishSS]

:neartears i thnk i'm going to cry. there's another apexer that knows who rasmussen is?

you're right. rassi will not likely contend for the GC. however, he's about the only one that didn't get his a$$ kicked today.

While I dont think Rassi will contend, you have to look at it this way. Even during some of his most dominent performances, there was always one person who stayed on Armstrong's wheel all the way up even the biggest climbs. Basso, Kloden, Mayo (a couple of years ago, si?), even Heras when he was a Postie. Basso was close enough for a while to make it interesting last year, but it has played out the same way for 6 straight years. One guy will keep it interesting until Lance says screw it, you're toast and shifts into another gear on a climb where nobody expects it. Add in a good time trial at the end and you have the same end result... another win for Lance!

P.S. - While I might not read the write up every day (as I watch it faithfully when I get home from work), I do enjoy the ones I have read and appreciate the work.

[zippyjuan]

Thanks guys! IrishSS is right. Usually after only a couple of days in the real mountains, everyone else decides that they are fighting it out for second place.

"Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting chapter of the Armstrong Chronicles"

[yippiekiyeh]

It was amazing, kind of makes you think what was said behind closed doors after that Team Discovery meltdown on stage 9 (chair throwing, table turning, some yelling). On stage 10 Team Discovery really dropped the hammer on the other teams that were just content to sit in the back and let TDC dictate the pace and crack the other teams/GC challengers!

[cheapie]

ahahahaha!


Asked by the media after the stage about his views on Lance Armstrong, an
exhausted Vino replied: "He looked strong when I last saw him. Now let me go..."

[zippyjuan]

An intermediate update. Over the Col du Galibier, the last of the two monstrous climbs today, Vinokourov is about 45 seconds ahead of Santiago Botero and three minutes ahead of the Discovery led peloton. He has had this lead all the way up. He was with Botero, but dropped him about halfway up. Rasmussen has attacked the main field as they near the summit. But the race does not end here today. They still have over 30 miles of mostly downhill riding to go. I worked all night and am going to take a nap. I will check in later and give you the full report. Vino was six and a half minutes behind before today and Botero over five minutes. Rasmussen is only 38 seconds behind Armstrong. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

[zippyjuan]

Vinokourov wins the stage, gaining about a minute and a half. Now I am going to bed. Will write it up later.

From Outdoor Life:

17:14:21 - The Top 10 In Stage 11
Alexandre Vinokourov has won his second Tour de France stage. The first was in Gap in 2003. The top 10 in the stage to Briancon today is:
1. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) TMO -
2. Santiago Botero (Col) PHO - at same time
3. Christophe Moreau (Fra) C.A - at 1'15"
4. Bobby Julich (USA) CSC - at same time
5. Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) LAM - at same time
6. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - at same time
7. Cadel Evans (Aus) DVL - at same time
8. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at same time
9. Mickael Rasmussen (Den) RAB - at same time
10. Georg Totschnig (Aut) GSt - at same time



17:10:04 - Armstrong Being Led Out For Sprint For Third...
The Discovery Channel team is setting up a sprint for Armstrong. The yellow jersey had to take on Christophe Moreau in the final 100m and decided it wasn't worth the bother. Moreau has claimed 3rd place.



17:08:59 - Vinokourov Wins The Stage!
Alexandre Vinokourov has won the 11th stage of the 2005 Tour de France. He easily beat Botero in the sprint in Briancon.



17:08:16 - Vino Is Being Patient...
Vinokourov is content to follow Botero in the final kilometer. No one has started the sprint yet but Vino is primed to start his sprint with 300m to go.

[zippyjuan]

Although this is one of the shorter stages and only has three categorized climbs, they are big ones. The first one, Col du Madeline climbs for sixteen miles at an average incline of 6.1 % but some sections will see slopes of 9.5 %. The summit is at over 6500 feet above sea level. It has earned the Hors Category designation for its difficulty. Then we get a chance to recover before the easier climb, the Category 1 Col du Telegraphe, a minor section compared to the final one, Col du Galibier, the highest climb in this year's tour, topping out at 8600 feet in elevation and also a Hors Category climb. Besides fatigue and potential dehydration, the riders will also have to be careful about altitude sickness. Prior to yesterday, they have been spending most of their time close to sea level. Survival will again be the theme of the day for most of the riders hoping to make it to Paris. Thirty four miles of today's stage will be dedicated to climbing.

The riders will be tired from yesterday's effort and the hurt imposed on the field by Discovery's efforts. They will be tired too, but cannot afford to let up today. Tomorrow is a flatter stage and they can relax somewhat then. If any of the contenders want to put a dent into Lance Armstrong, they need to at least make a good showing today. Time lost today will get harder to make up later. It is a beautiful day and the scenery promises to be spectacular as the race winds through the mountains with just a few clouds possible near the tops. Crowds will be large also. This is a big day for the race.

The Tour began with 189 riders from 28 countries. 172 will make the start today as the road deceptively begins with twelve miles of decending. There will be fewer riders tomorrow. There is nervousness on the decent and anxiety of what it to come. A couple of riders go off the front early, but do not stay there. Armstrong and Rasumssen are by the front. There goes Thor Hushovd now. Dumoulin of Ag2R is with him. Nobody is chasing, so maybe he will stay out for now. Back in the pack, Tom Boonen has crashed and is seeking medical attention for his right knee. He looks like he is really hurting. Dumolin and Hushovd are tucked into their aerodynamic position with their noses just above their handlebars trying to go as fast down the hill as they can. When you are out in front like this on a decent, you do not have to worry about other riders next to you and can use the whole road, enabling you go go faster. Boonen is being led back to the peloton by a team mate while the lead grown to over two minutes. Dumoulin is the shortest rider in the Tour at 5' 2". As they near the Col du Madeline, their gap is up to 6:48. These are not climbers so the pack is not worried about them. Why is a rider like Thor up here anyways? Perhaps just to get an early start on the climb. He is five points behind Boonen in the Green Jersey competition and there are two sprints today- but the first is not until after the end of the Col du Madeline. Pereiro Sio of Phonak has attacked from the pack and Caucchioli of Credit Agricole has gone after him. About thirteen miles from the top of the Col du Madeline, Hushovd has dropped Dumoulin.

Now that we are on the climb, we are starting to see more attacks. A group of eight has now gone off and joined with Periero and Caucchioli. In that bunch is Alexandre Viniokourov, Santiago Botero, Roberto Heras, Mancebo and Horner among others. T-Mobile may be trying to get Discovery to chase, but they do not take the bait. They do move to the front to monitor things, but Vino is six and a half minutes behind Armstrong and the best placed rider in this group, Botero, is over five minutes back. It looks like Rasmussen is staying right with Armstrong today. He has been right next to him all day so far. In the back, Jean Patrick Nazon, who was the leader of the Ag2R team and was last in the standings ( a position known as the "Lantern Rouge" for the light on the last car of a train) has withdrawn. Joseba Beloki has dropped behind the peloton. Yesterday's stage winner, Valverde has dropped back to visit the medical vehicle. No idea what may be the problem. He is given some sort of tablet and rejoins the main group. Roberto Heras is dropped from the group chasing Hushovd, who is just 55 seconds ahead of them. The field is very spread out now with six miles to the summit. Discovery is driving the thinning peloton and is forty seconds back as the chase group (now down to six riders) catches Hushovd. For a sprinter climbing on his own, he has really been doing an excellent job on the climb so far! Herras has been dropped by the Armstrong group now as well. Horner and Mancebo can no longer keep with the lead group which is down to four- Vinokourov, Martinez, Pereiro, and Botero. They are near the top. Botero briefly drops back, but is able to catch back up but Martinez is now gone. Botero is the first rider to crest the top of the Col du Madeline. Vino is second. Botero's team mate on Phonac, Periero Sio is third. Now comes a long and fast decent. Looks like Periero wasn't paying attention and has gone off the side of the road on a turn! He is OK and back in persuit of the other two leaders. The main pack comes over the top 55 seconds later. Moreau and Rasmussen grab some climbing points just ahead of the Discovery riders who still set the pace.

Martinez and Periero have rejoined the leaders now on the decent and they are snaking their way down the mountain in a single file line, crouched low over their handlebars. Support vehicles screech their tires around the corners as they try to keep up at a safe distance. By the time they reach the feed zone at the bottom, the quartet has built their lead to 1:20. Lance relaxes and does some back stretching in the feed zone as he grabs something to eat. It gets tight from hunch over your bars for so long. They are not stopped here, but litterally grabbing on the run.

Col du Telegraph is the "easier" climb today, but that is relative. It is "only" Category 1 and goes up at an average 6.7 % slope for seven and a half miles. Then a very short decent and we move onto the Col du Galibier. There are about 40 riders in the Yellow Jersey group as they start the climb, 2:00 behind the leading group of four. The first rider dropped from the 40 is Thor Hushovd. It looks like he spent himself on the first climb and will have to try and hold on to finish the stage. Vinolourov has picked up the pace on the climb again- trying to see if he can get more time on Discovery and Armstrong or at least get them to chase and tire themselves so Ulrich can get away later. Botero was caught by the move, but Periero keeps up and Martinez is dropped again. Botero was able to recover and rejoin the other two, despite falling as much as 20 seconds back. Discovery has also picked it up again- both to try and reduce Vino's margin and to sap the legs of other riders in the Armstrong group. They have cut it to 1:40. They have seven riders at the front. At the back, another rider has abandoned. This time it is Kim Kirchen of Fassa Bartolo who are down to six riders. 170 still remain. Stefano Zanini has joined the list of retired riders. Martinez has just been absorbed by the chase group. Over the top of Col du Telegraphe, it is Botero leading Vinokourov again- their lead is now back to almost three minutes. They have been working very hard on the climbs with the biggest one to come. In the field, it is again Moreau and Rassmussen in front of Discovery for the climbing points.

As they begin to make their way up the Col du Galibier, Periero is dropped from the leaders. He looks like he has hit the wall and cannot even catch onto the chase group which quickly spits him out the back. Perhaps he will be able to join Boonen in the hangers- on group that is twenty minutes behind the Armstrong group. Iban Mayo tried to hang on a little longer, but is also off the back again. Vinokourov has left Botero behind again early on the climb and is off on his own. Discovery is starting to lose a couple of riders as they give it all they can to pull the others up the mountain before dropping aside. Beltran has fulfilled his duties and will have to find his own way to the finish. Other riders are beginning to fall behind as well, including Garzelli, Joly and Boogerd. There are still six Discovery riders at the front, making sure that Vino does not get too far ahead and that nobody else joins him. Vino is still several minutes behind Armstrong, even with his lead on the road, and he is doing a lot of work out there by himself so he will be more tired in coming days and of less help to himself and his team. If he was virtual leader, they would reel him in. Rubiera finishes his stint at the front and pulls aside. This is a strong team doing what it is supposed to do.

At the top of Col du Galibier, Vinokourov has an advantage of 42 seconds over Botero and 2:25 on the next group. Rasmussen has attacked as they near the summit! But it looks like he was just going for the climbing points available at the top. Vino gets a bonus prize of 5,000 Euros for being the first rider over, a prize named for Henri Desgrange, one of the race founders. The decent is steep and winding. Valverde drops behind the peolton to give himself some more room for the corners. Botero has been able to rejoin Vinokourov and now they are screaming down the backside together. In the past, this stage has sometimes ended at the top, but today they still have 40 km (25 miles) to go, mostly all downhill. If it finished at the top, I think Armstrong would have pushed his team harder and tried to win. Now he just wants to be safe and make it to the finish without crashing and losing time on the way into Briancon. Botero won a stage finish here before- in 2000. It was a long stage (150 miles) from Draguignan, coming in the other direction.

There are sensors on the bike for close finishes (remember the .0006 second victory earlier?) and the one on Vino's bike has come loose and is dangling dangerously close to getting caught in his wheel. The team mechanic drives up and, hanging out the window of the car as it races along, snips it off. His lead has been slowly coming down to less than two minutes as the remaining five Discovery riders try to cut any time advantage he may get. It is Vinokourov and Botero in the final sprint. Vino is the stronger rider today and takes it! Discovery tries to get Armstrong into position for third place, but they decide to allow Moreau the honor. Rasmussen is still right behind Armstrong- where he has been all day, and finishes ninth. Way behind everyone is again Jens Voigt. The man who wore the Yellow Jersey just a few days ago, came in 38 minutes behind the field yesterday, dropping from first to 72nd, and today he was unable to finish within the cut off time (which is calculated as a percentage of the winning time) and even though he did finish, has been eliminated from the Tour. Vinokourov improved to 12th place, 4:47 behind Armstrong and Botero is now 3:48 back in sixth. Vino had a great ride today, but did not gain a lot for it. Botero did move closer. Tomorrow is much flatter- a link day on our way from the Alps to the Pyrinees. An escape by lower riders is certainly possible, but the big boys will probably try to rest up a bit from their efforts over the past couple days. There is more to come, but again Discovery has kept control of the race. The standings after today's stage:

Pos. No. Name Nat. Team Time Gap
1 001 ARMSTRONG, Lance USA DSC 41:59:57.000 00:00:00.000
2 057 RASMUSSEN, Mickael DEN RAB 42:00:35.000 00:00:38.000
3 101 MOREAU, Christophe FRA C.A 42:02:31.000 00:02:34.000
4 021 BASSO, Ivan ITA CSC 42:02:37.000 00:02:40.000
5 038 VALVERDE, Alejandro ESP IBA 42:03:13.000 00:03:16.000
6 061 BOTERO, Santiago COL PHO 42:03:45.000 00:03:48.000
7 164 LEIPHEIMER, Levi USA GST 42:03:55.000 00:03:58.000
8 031 MANCEBO, Francisco ESP IBA 42:03:57.000 00:04:00.000
9 011 ULLRICH, Jan GER TMO 42:03:59.000 00:04:02.000
10 014 KLÖDEN, Andréas GER TMO 42:04:13.000 00:04:16.000
11 066 LANDIS, Floyd USA PHO 42:04:13.000 00:04:16.000
12 019 VINOKOUROV, Alexandre KAZ TMO 42:04:44.000 00:04:47.000

[cheapie]

the answer to the question you know you want to ask.

http://www.eurosport.com/home/pages/v4/l0/s18/e6912/sport_lng0_spo18_evt6912_sto614357.shtml

[cheapie]

you know what would go nicely with this thread?


a...umm....champs elysees jersey (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7169782681)

[zippyjuan]

With a couple of day's break from the mountains, the top teams and riders will be taking a break to rest up for the next challenges. This could allow some lower classed riders looking for a moment of glory to get a large lead. If any of the sprinters have anything left from the climbs. this is their chance too. There are two sprints fairly early on so perhaps they will make an early effort, collect some points, and then hang out with the pack the rest of the way in. Tomorrow is even flatter. There are five climbs, two of which are Cat 2, so compared to the last two days, much easier. It is also Bastille Day- so look for French riders to be particilarly active.

Tom Boonen, the wearer of the Green Jersey awarded the top sprinter, decided not to start today. He was injured in a crash yesterday. There was not time to get it to the new category leader, Thor Hushovd, so nobody will be wearing it today. As the stage gets underway, the sprinters do attack early, trying to get a shot at the points available today. Deckker is the first to go, followed by MacGee, who is able to get a lead. McEwen and Hushovd give chase. At the first sprint, it is McGee by about 20 seconds followed by Mcewen and Hushovd. With his two points here, Thor now has 130. The next closest behind him is O'Grady with 109 and McEwen with 100. Seems like a lot of sprinters have Irish sounding names! On the way to the second sprint, a group of nine has pulled away from the main group. It does not include any of the sprinters nor anybody a threat to the Yellow Jersey. The sprint goes to Chavanel of Cofidis. They lead the pack by 25 seconds. Of the nine riders in this group, four are French.

The first climb is a Cat 3 up the Cote des Demoiselles Coiffees. At the present time, two riders from Liquigas Bianchi are leading the peloton as it closes back in on the lead group. They are caught early on the climb and others start to attack. Beltran has gone down! He was the only rider to go down and is being checked on. Now he is back up and trying to regain the group. The French Champion Pierick Fedrigo is the first rider over the top, followed by Boogerd. Martinez is with them. Correction- Boogerd was first. Beltran is back again talking with the race doctor. The hill has split the peloton in two, with Discovery leading the first bunch. They join back up on the decent, but now another group of eleven riders gets away. O"Grady and Hushovd try to chase down and join them. In this bunch are Axel Merckx (his father the legendary Eddie Merckx won a stage in today's finishing town way back in 1969), Caser, Hagland, and Moncoutie. If the other two can join up, then two teams will have two riders each- Moncoutie and O'Grady for Cofidis and Hagland and Hushovd for Credit Agricole. By the second climb they are together and have a two minute gap. Discovery is not worried about any of these riders, but they are still at the front of the main pack. It is a safe place to be- you are less like to get caught in any crashes and you can watch for any attacks by challengers. They are not working it hard, just keeping a good, steady pace. Beltran has sadly decided to abandon the Tour. He has been a big help to Armstrong and Discovery in the race so far and they will be sad to see him depart. Usually they are one of the few teams to finish with all their riders. Now there are just six teams at full strength and 164 riders. T-Mobile, Rabobank, Cofidis, Bouyges, Telecom, Gerolsteiner, and Euskattel have all their riders.

By the time we get to the feed zone, the break away group has extended their lead to over four minutes. Casar tries to attack the leaders, but cannot get away. The only remaining sprint is at the finish line, but Robbie McEwen wants to be there and with both Hushovd and O'Grady ahead of him in the sprint category and on the road, he has his team Lotto at the front of the pack now to try to reel in the leaders, who are up by 4:15 over the Col du Labouret. O"Grady tries to attack, but like Casar, is quickly caught by the others. Coming to the fourth climb, up the Col du Corobin, they are back to 4:45 and then Moncoutie attacks. Then Mecckx who is caught by Garate and Hagland. Hushovd and O'Grady have fallen behind. Mancoutie goes again. There is a group of seven chasing him. Discovery has now taken back the lead of the peloton. This is a Cat 2 climb with an average inclination of 4.5%. Things are starting to spread out and splinter- in both the lead group and the pack. At the summit, Moncoutie is the first one up and leads Arrieta, Merckx, Garate, Viciosso, Hagland, and Casar by :30, Pellizotti trails by :50, Guinti by 1:35, and Shreck, Lombardi, Hushovd, and O'Grady are 2:10 behind. The peloton rolls by 7:40 behind.

The final climb is an easy Cat 4. Moncoutie leads the group of seven by 32 seconds over it. If he can hold for just four miles to the finish, the French will have one of their own winning on Bastille Day. There he is! Yes, they do get to celebrate this year! Robbie McEwen leads the peolton over the line 10:32 later. Nobody in the front was anywhere close to the top of the standings, so there were no major changes today.

16:30 The Top 10 In Stage 12
David Moncoutie raced the final 38km of the 12th stage on his own. The Cofidis rider has given France its first victory in the 2005 Tour. The top 10 is: 1. David Moncoutie (France) COF - 187km in 4h20'06" (43.137km/h) 2. Sandy Casar (France) FDJ at 57" 3. Angel Vicioso (Spain) LSW at 57" 4. Patrice Halgand (France) C.A at 57" 5. Jose Luis Arrieta (Spain) IBA at 57" 6. Franco Pellizotti (Italy) LIQ at 57" 7. Axel Merckx (Belgium) DVL at 57" 8. Juan Manuel Garate (Spain) SDV at 57" 9. Thor Hushovd (Norway) C.A at 3'15" 10. Stuart O'Grady (Australia) COF at 3'15"

Tomorrow is a slightly shorter, very flat stage with two intermediate sprints. We are just off the coast of the Mediteranian- far enough inland that the breezes won't help cool things down much. Look for a fast ride, led by the sprinters again. The next day the difficulties return.

[DJjeff1080]

For those of you Lance/Discovery Team supporters I was about 3km from the end of the race on 7-12 cheering him on. It was such a great expereince. If you are into the sport and have the ability to go, I would strongly suggest it. Just make sure that you watch when they are going up the hills or at the finish line. On the hills you get to see more cause they are going slow and the finish line has tons of energy.

Go Discovery!!

[zippyjuan]

What a great day to catch them! It must have been exciting! That was the day they crushed the field! I grew up in Colorado and the biggest stage race in the US used to be held there- the Red Zinger Bicycle Classic which later became the Coors International Bicycle Classic. I got to see many great riders. Greg Lemond when he was 18 and just won the World Junior Championships and later he rode with Bernard Hinault there. I used to have an autographed cap. Eddie Merckx was there once (not to ride though). I met most of the 7 Eleven guys who were the first American team to compete in the Tour de France. David Phinney, who rode for them and was the first American to win a road stage in the Tour went to the same high school I did. He was two years older. I ran across them on a ride the day before they left. A friend of mine rode for Subaru and had a teammate named Lance Armstrong from Texas (before his cancer). I also worked on the race a few years and had some photographs in the race office. In Aspen one year I got to ride on one of the press motorcycles near the end of a criterium when the crowd was getting pumped. To be going through that wall of people was very exciting!

[zippyjuan]

One word for today's stage. Flat. There is one tiny Cat 4 climb, but that is it. I would expect the sprinters to be active today as there are fewer chances for them in the race. Tomorrow we get back to climbing- down in the Pyranees now. We won't go as high as we did in the Alps, but some of the climbs will be steeper and there will be more of them. Another word for today's stage is hot. It is so hot, that around mile 50 the tar is starting to melt on the road and water trucks have been brought it to try and cool it down to make it safer to ride across. There is a tailwind in the first section today so speeds will probably be fast. Two intermediate sprints and one finishing sprint are on tap for those seeking more points in that category, presently led by Thor Hushovd.

The usual couple of early attacks at the start again. Just barely over ten miles into the stage, a group of five riders are able to get away. With the first sprint coming up, I guess the sprinters were watching each other and allowed this group to get ahead. Thomas Voeckler is probably the best sprinter in this bunch and he is joined by Juan Antonio Flecha of Fausto Bartolo, American Chris Horner, Carlos da Cruz (FDJ), and Lodovic Turpin of Ag2R. Across the first intermediate sprint it is Voeckler followed by Da Cruz and Turpin. They are ahead by 1:15 at this point. The "climb" is at sixteen miles and this time it is Horner, da Cruz, and Turpin. The field is showing no interest in this group and they could get a sizeable lead if this keeps up. Looks like Robbie McEwen is stopping by the medical vehicle- no reason given. He hasn't crashed.

After one hour of racing, at an average pace of 31.6 mph with the wind behind them, they have boosted the gap to 8:50 and the sprinter's teams of Lotto and Lampre- Caffita have decided that is big enough and are trying to move the field closer. Near the melted tar at 50 miles they have reduced the lead to 6:00. Valverde has been at the back of the stage most of the day. He has been sick and the heat is not helping. Digestive distress is not uncommon. It could be due to the altitude in the Alps or just the stress of racing or something he ate or drank, but he is not well. In fact he has just climbed into the Illes Balears team car at the feed station and called it quits. He had been wearing the White Jersey of the Best Young Rider (I believe that is best rider 23 years old or younger). That will now pass to Popovych of Discovery, giving them two of the four coveted jerseys. The Ukranian leads a Kazakstahn, Andrey Kashechkin by seven seconds in that category.

The second intermediate sprint is at the town of Moussac. First place points go to Juan Antonio Flecha with Da Cruz and Horner grabbing the others. Now that the wind is no longer behind the riders, the pace has slowed somewhat. The average pace for the second hour was 28 mph. The field is still getting closer to the escaped riders. Thirty miles from Montpellier, they are only two minutes behind. Thor Hushovd has moved to the front and is helping lead the charging pack. After three hours riding, it is less that one minute. The average speed for hour three was 28.8 mph, so they have picked it up a bit. We are about 20 miles from the finish and as the gap narrows, things start to heat up. Da Cruz attacks at the front and a couple others attack from the peloton. None get away for now. The lead bunch has just been swallowed up as we are entering Montpelier. The two lanes the riders have been using will be squeezed down to one and the path will twist and turn its way to the finish. A group of five riders goes. Discovery is now at the front of the peloton and Sylvian Chavannel attacks. He has caught and passed the small escape group. Thomas Voeckler tries his luck, but cannot get away. Horner has joined Chavanel and they are ahead of four riders by :08 and the main group by :18 with six miles remaining. Lance Armstrong and two teammates are leading the main field. I am surprised to see him up here on what could be a mass field sprint. Those are dangerous and crashes are certainly possible. He is usually trying to avoid possibly dangerous situations like this that could put the Yellow Jersey in jeopardy. Maybe he feels it is safer in front. They have caught the small group and are closing in on Horner and Chavanel. Everyone has all come together with only 400m to go and out of the field, it is Robbie McEwen who has taken the stage! I guess whatever he need to see the doctor about earlier want't serious. Fellow Australlian Stewart O'Grady came in second. Armstrong came across in 33rd position. There was no change in the overall standings, but with his third stage win this year, McEwen moves closer to Hushovd in the Green Jersey comptetition. The man who presently has it, Thor Hushovd of Norway was fifth.

The top 10 in the stage from Miramas to Montpellier is: 1. Robbie McEwen (Australia) DVL 2. Stuart O'Grady (Australia) COF 3. Fred Rodriguez (USA) DVL 4. Guido Trentin (USA) QST 5. Thor Hushovd (Norway) C.A 6. Anthony Geslin (France) BTL 7. Robert Forster (Germany) GST 8. Magnus Backstedt (Sweden) LIQ 9. Gianluca Bortolami (Italy) LAM 10. Chris Horner (USA) SDV

Tomorrow the big boys will get busy again. It starts easy enough, but has six climbs and finishes hard with a HC climb and an uphill finish Cat 1 climb waiting at the end. Lance Armstrong loves the uphill finishes and would like to finish off some more competitors then.

[zippyjuan]

With the start of the Pyranees, time is starting to run out on the challlengers if they hope to get any time on the Yellow Jersey of Lance Armstrong. If they do not today or tomorrow, it will be all over. Today begins flat and hot. Although there are six climbs today, the two that matter come in the last third of the stage. The first three are only Cat 4 and the fourth is Cat 3. Then you have to deal with the Hors Category Port du Paiheres and its nine miles of climbing at an average slope of 8.1 % and then the uphill finish on Ax 3 Domaines, a five mile stretch at 8.32 percent. Armstrong is usually very good at the uphill finishing stages.

The action again starts early and within the first five miles, we have a breakaway group of ten riders formed. It is Stefano Garzelli's' birthday and he is in that bunch along with Nardelo (TMO), Garate (SDV), Beneteau (BTL), Totching (Gerolsteiner), Da Cruz (FDJ), Gilbert (FDJ), and Krivtsov (Ag2R). Popovych was with them, but Discovery wanted him to stay with the team. None of these riders is a threat, so they are allowed to go up the road. Rabobank is presently leading the peloton. After the first hour of racing, they are out to a 4:50 seconds lead, traveling quickly at over 30 mph. They maintain their lead and by the time they get to the base of Port du Paiheres, it is up to 9:50. Discovery and Eusaktel had been leading the peolton, with occasional turns by Raboban, but on the climb instead of Discovery leading them, it is T-Mobile. They want to show their strength as well as to try and make up some time on Armstrong for Ulrich and Vinokourov. The climb is already spreading out both groups of riders. In the lead bunch, Da Cruz (who was also in an escape group yesterday for a long time) and Gilbert are the first dropped. An attack by Moos is joined by Beneteau and Totschnig while Grivko and Krivitsov are the next to drop. Now it is Garzelli, Beneteau and Totschnig in front.

Vinokourov has attacked the peloton but Armstrong counters. The other top riders have been watching each other and quickly react too. We have Basso, Ulrich, Mancebo, Evans, Rasmussen (still keeping next to Armstrong), Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, and Kasesckin moving ahead of the rest of the field. Another T-Mobile rider, Kloden, has joined them and brought Piepoli with him. Jan Ulrich has attacked- trying to see how Armstrong will react without any team mates to support him. Jan has two very strong teammates with him. As Armstrong said on Friday in a similar situation, you cannot go after every attack, you have to choose your moment. Apparently this is not it. But Basso has also gone so Lance now gives chase. Landis and Vinokourov keep pace. Rasmussen and Mancebo are having difficulties keeping up. Vinokourov has dropped bach with them. Basso and Ulrich attack again. They want to tire Armstrong so he is not as strong at the finish. Landis responds as well and Armstrong gives him an elbow on a turn. Perhaps he got too close. The seven riders again regroup. Leipheimer, Evans and Kasheckin are dropped so it is now four. The escaped riders in front of them are 4:50 ahead, with Garzelli and Totschnig leading the others by at least thirty seconds. Ivan Basso has been doing most of the work up here with along with Ulrich. Armstrong takes his turn too, but is not working as hard- trying to keep up while conserving his energy for later.

Armstrong is raising his hand. That is a signal that he needs help from his team vehicle. This is the type of moment you fear when you are alone and surrounded by your enemies. They will certainly not wait for him. With teammates, one of them could have gone back for him or gone with him and helped him get back to the others. He will have to do it on his own. Whatever it was did not take very long and he is soon back. Totschnig has now finished the climb, a minute ahead of Garzelli and about four minutes ahead of the Yellow Jersey. The Rasumssen group is another thirty seconds back. This group catches back up on the decent. With Vinokourov rejoining, Armstrong is outnumbered by T-Mobile three to one and they mean to challenge him. Vinokourov is the first attacker. But the other T-Mobile riders chase him down. Did he go too soon? Is he supposed to work for Ulrich? Is there again tensions over who is in charge of T-Mobile? They had such issues last year as Kloden had a chance to take the Yellow Jersey in a stage and was ordered to wait for the struggling Ulrich. Now Kloden is setting the pace.

Basso is attacking now and Kloden and Mancebo are dropped by the group. Zubeldia too. With five km to go, Totschnig is ahead by 2:10 over Garzelli with Armstrong, Ulrich, Basso, Leipheimer, and Landis a 3:15 defecit, the Rasmussen group is ten seconds behind them, and Vinokourov is 4"10 down. The Yellow Jersey group is driving their chase and has caught Garzelli. Will they be able to get Totschnig as well? Armstrong grabs the front and is setting the tempo. Ulrich attacks, but Lance says "Oh no you don't!" and rises out of his saddle and starte pumping. Ulrich cannot get ahead. In fact, Lance is moving ahead of him! You can see the effort on Ulrich, but he simply cannot keep up with Armstrong. Even Basso has caught Ulrich. Looks like he didn't have enough left at the finish. Totschnig had enough and has captured the stage- after leading it nearly from the start. A fantastic race for him! He is only the second Austrian to ever win a stage at the Tour de France and the first for his Gerolsteiner team. Armstrong comes across second and Basso third, leaving Ulrich limping over in fourth. It looks like the Tour has become the Race for Second since nobody has been able to keep up with Lance- even without his team with him on the climbs today and outnumbered himself.

The Top Ten for Stage 14:
Georg Totschnig and his Gerolsteiner team have won for the first time at the Tour de France. The top 10 in stage 14 is: 1. Georg Totschnig (Austria) GST 220.5km in 5h43'43" (38.491km/h) 2. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - at 56" 3. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 58" 4. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO - at 1'16" 5. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at 1'31" 6. Floyd Landis (USA) GST - at 1'31" 7. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA - at 1'47" 8. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB- at 1'47" 9. Andreas Kloden (Germany) TMO - at 2'06" 10. Haimar Zubeldia (Spain) EUS - at 2'20"

There have been some changes in the Overall Standings after today. Here is how they look:

After 14 stages in the 2005 Tour de France, the top 10 overall is as follows: 1. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - 2,440km in 55h58'17" (43.32km/h) 2. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB - at 1'41" 3. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 2'46" 4. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO - at 4'34" 5. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at 4'45" 6. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO - at 5'03" 7. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA - at 5'03" 8. Andreas Kloden (Germany) TMO - at 5'38" 9. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) TMO - at 7'09" 10. Christophe Moreau (France) C.A - at 8'37"

Tomorrow will be another hard day, and one of the last chances (barring bad luck) for anyone to show that they are better than Armstrong. So far, nobody has and he increased his lead over everyone again today.

[zippyjuan]

Ask any rider in this year's Tour what is the toughest stage and they will all agree that this is it. Yesterday was very hard, but this is more difficult. They will be faced with six climbs- each higher than the one before it. There are four consecutive Category 1 climbs before they get finished off by the uphill finish Hors Category Pla d'Adet near St Lary Soulan. We will also pay a brief visit to Spain today as the course includes a small section which crosses the border before returning to France. The little bit of good news is that it is a bit cloudy near the start which will keep it a little bit cooler, but like the gradual inclining road that starts the day, that will go away and the heat of yesterday will return. Consuming enough liquids today will be very important. There is also an additional emotional element to the stage on the first climb, the Cat 2 Col du Portet. Ten years ago, Lance Armstrong's teammate, Fabio Casartelli- who was the Olympic Gold Medal winner in the road race for 1992- died from injuries he recieved during the decent on this mountain. There is a memorial at the spot and the race will pause when they get there. This event led to the requirement that riders wear helmets on climbs that include a decent- it it does not go back down, they do not have to wear one. 160 riders will make the start and by the end, they will be all over the road. Survival will be the key word today. Tomorrow is mercifully a rest day. If nobody can put enough time into Lance today, the race for the Yellow Jersey will be basically over. There is an easier hilly stage on Tuesday and then the only other real chance will be in the time trial on the next to last day.

There are still some riders feeling bold enough and strong enough to start attacking today. The first group to get a real gap on the field went off at the 17 mile mark, led by Dutchman Michael Boogerd of Rabobank. George Hincappe has tagged along. There are fourteen riders in the group. Discovery is leading the peloton, but they are not setting a fast pace, instead conserving their energy for what lies ahead. Ulrich has gotten a new wheel to replace his rear one that has just punctured. There is nobody in this group who is a threat to the Yellow Jersey so they are starting to get a good lead. The closest is Periero who is almost 25 minutes behind Armstrong. As they make their way to the top of the first climb, the Portet d'Aspet, they have stretched the gap to over sixteen minutes- the largest such gap in the Tour so far. Erik Dekker leads them over the top where they pause briefly in honor of Casartelli. The other riders will too when they arrive. It is Padrnos of Discovery taking his turn at the front of the main field. Col de Mente, the first Cat 1 today is next. The slope averages 8.6 percent with even steeper sections as it rises for four and a half miles. By the top, the lead is up to 18 minutes. These riders are going pretty hard early on for such a hard stage. There is a little break and a feed zone ahead before you reach the final four climbs, but it won't last for long. The main pack is starting to get stretched out as riders struggle to keep up. Dekker is again leading the charge over the top. He is actually trying to help his teammate Rasmussen, who has the climber's Polka Dot Jersey by picking up the climbing points to deny they to the others. Rasumssen is keeping his familiar position with Armstrong. It seems his idea is to stay with Lance as long an he can. He was dropped on the climbs yesterday. Beloki and Voeckler were dropped by the peloton on the climb and has Voeckler has now also punctured on the decent. By the feedzone, the main bunch is at 18:45 in arrears, but it is not growing as quickly as it did.

After the feed zone, CSC riders have moved to the front. Next up is the Col du Portillon, five miles of 7.3% incline. Basso has flatted and two teammates have gone back to help him out. Dekker has been dropped by the lead group- he won't get any points on this one. Othere riders are starting to fall back from both groups. The lead group is now down to ten. The CSC riders keep trading off at the front of the main field and have been cutting into the lead- it is now 16:45 as Boogart's temamate Kroon leads the race over the summit. His job was to try and burn out other riders in the group and he has succeeded in dropping three more riders. He pulls aside himself after his job is finished at the top. By the time the field reaches the top of Col du Portillon, they are 16:15 behind. Discovery is resting just behind the CSC riders. Col du Peyresourde rises for eight miles at seven percent. The Pyrenees are not as long of climbs as the Alps were, but are steeper and there are more of them which takes more energy out of you. Discovery is happy to see CSC extending so much efforts on leading the pack so they can conserve their energy. In the lead group, Hincappe has also been conserving his. More riders cannot maintain the pace and are dropping back. They now include yesterday's winner, Totschnig, Santiago Botero, Iban Mayo, Roberto Heras, Zubeldia, and Chavanel. The key to successful climbing is finding a pace you can maintain all the way up. It is hard to change that pace and accelerate because you go past the threshold of what you can maintain and your muscles go into an energy defecit. Armstrong likes to maintain a higher cadence on his pedaling which gives him a bit more upper room in what his body can maintain- effictively giving him an extra gear that many riders do not have. Bobby Julich has been dropped. He was having a good Tour until yesterday when he dropped out of the Top Ten. More continue to get dropped. Discovery has now taken over lead of the peloton as the lead is down to 12:30. Looks like they may want to see who else is going to crack. It is Azevedo leading them for now with Rubiera, Armstrong, and Popovych behind him. Also in this group are T-Mobile Ulrich, Kloden and Vinokourov along with Ivan Basso, Mancebo, Jaksche, Evans, Rasmussen, Landis, Piepoli, Horner, Moreau (who caught back up), Kasechkin, Manzoleni, and Leipenheimer. At the summit of this climb, they trail the lead bunch by 11:30. Two more to go.

The Col de Val-Louren Azet takes them four and a half miles at 8.3 percent. The summit of each climb has been higher than the one before it and the air gets a little thinner- meaning less oxygen to feed their demanding muscles. It gets harder to maintain your pace and more riders drop by the wayside- with only the strong keeping up. The rest will be happy just to make the finish line, get a massage and a shower and go to bed after dinner and a team meeting. The field is so stretched out that the cutoff time (you have to get in within a certain percent of the winning time or be eliminated) could be a factor for some. In the front, Brochard has attacked, but is countered. Behind him, Sevilla of T-Mobile and Hincappe have not been working, but the gap is starting to grow a little again. Salvodelli is leading the peloton which is shaking off some more riders and T-Mobile is starting to take turns at the front as well. Kloden and Julich have slipped back as have Moreau, Zubeldia, Goubert, Contador, and Jaksche. Armstrong still has his three Discovery mates with him.

Coming over the top now. The lead group of four is 7:40 ahead of the Yellow Jersey with six riders spread out in between. Rasmussen again finds himself in a group behind them, another minute back. Only about six miles and one big climb to go for the leaders. Sevilla is attacking on the front. He has been taking it easy until now. He seems to have decided to finish off those who have been doing the work. Pereiro chases him down. Sevilla backs off and in fact drops back. Basso has jumped out of his saddle and is trying to get away. Armstrong grabs on, but Ulrich is left behind. Jan likes to push high gears at a lower cadence than Armstrong which means that he cannot accelerate as quickly. He relies more on his power. He is now alone about 15 seconds behind Armstrong and Basso. It looks like Sevilla is going drop back to try and help his team leader. Three miles to go. Davis, who was with the lead group, is caught by the Yellow Jersey, which is now 5:50 behind the leaders who won't be caught today. Ulrich is at 6:05. Caucchioli attacks at the front and is quickly countered by the other two. Hincappe and Periero are having a discussion about something- perhaps planning a move. They have now droppped Caucchioli. Armstrong is out of the saddle pumping- trying to put more time on Ulrich. Basso is right with him. Ulrich now 20 seconds down.

Coming into the final push up the Pla d'Adet, Periero is leading Hincappe towards the line.... and it is Hincappe! He has been having a great year, improving tremendously as a rider. He has shown it as a Time Trialist and now as a mountain stage winner on the hardest course in this year's Tour de France! He is the first teammate of Armstrong to win a stage since 1999 and joins fellow American stage winners Greg Lemond, Davis Phinney, Jeff Pierce, Andy Hampsten, Tyler Hamilton, David Zabriskie, and of course Lance Armstrong.

Caucchioli is in for third, just 36 seconds back. Michael Boogard is next followed by Laurent Brochard. Here comes Armstrong and Basso with Basso leading him to the line. Nobody has been able to gain anything on the six-time Champion and it looks like he has clinched his seventh. All he has to do now is stay out of trouble the rest of the way! The duo was 5:03 behind Hincappe. Now it is Ulrich and fellow T-Mobile rider Sevilla is leading him in. They finish 6:27 back.

The New Top 10 In General Classification

After 15 stages of the 2005 Tour de France, the top 10 in the general classification is as follow: 1. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - 2,645.5km in 62h09'59" (42.309km/h) 2. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 2'46" 3. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB - at 3'09" 4. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO - at 5'58" 5. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA - at 6'31" 6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at 7'35" 7. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO - at 9'33" 8. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) TMO at 9'38" 9. Christophe Moreau (France) C.A - at 11'47" 10. Andreas Kloden (Germany) TMO - at 12'01"

The Top 10 In Stage 15

The top 10 in the stage from Lezat-sur-Leze to Pla-d'Adet is: 1. George Hincapie (USA) DSC - 205.5km in 6h'06'38" (33.63km/h) 2. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spain) PHO - at 06" 3. Pietro Caucchioli (Italy) C.A - at 38" 4. Michael Boogerd (Netherlands) RAB - at 57" 5. Laurent Brochard (France) BTL - at 2'19" 6. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 5'04" 7. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - at 5'04" 8. Oscar Sevilla (Spain) TMO - at 6'28" 9. Jan Ullrich (Ger) TMO - at 6'28" 10. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB - at 6'32"

[cheapie]

you guys don't know what a HUGE deal it is for hincape to win a stage, and mtn stage at that. he is a domestique of domestiques. the ultimate team player. the most loyal supporter a gc contender could ever want. plus....he's a really nice guy.

it was so cool that it could bring tears to your eyes. not mine of course. :shifty:

[zippyjuan]

For those who do not know, a domestique is a rider who sacrifices himself for the team. He does the work. the team leader gets the glory so it is great when one gets the chance to win. When Lance is going up the mountains, unless he is on his own, he is sitting behind one of his teammates who is breaking the wind and doing about 30% more work than the rider behind him. The domestique goes as hard as he can as long as he can and when he is burned out, the next one goes until the captain is all that is left. Since he hasn't done as much work, he gets to take it on in and hopefully win the race. The other riders, their legs burned out from their effort and their tanks on empty, have to get to the finish line by themselves the best they can. They also do all other sorts of support. Going back to the team van getting loaded down with enough water for eight other guys and having to chase down the rest of the race which has not waited for you so you can deliver your load. It is a very hard life.

This is Hincappe's tenth Tour and except for being on a winning Time Trial team, his first victory. He has in the past been stronger on the flat stages so that makes his victory today more impressive. He said he went with the lead group to keep an eye on them and to drop back if Armstrong needed help (like Sevilla did for Ulrich) but when they got so far ahead, the team told him to go for it. He is the only person on Discovery who has been with Armstrong for all his Tour victories. It looks like Basso and Rasumssen could join Lance on the final podium- they are about three minutes behind him and the next place, Ulrich is about six. Basso has been looking very good and could take over the Tour once Armstrong retires.

[Kevster]

It is interesting you mentioned the other americans who have won stages of the Tour de France. Twelve years ago I met Andy Hampsten at Royal Gorge Cross Country skiing resort in California. My cousins (who are also avid MTB'ers as I am) recognized him while I was getting our trail passes. They were too chicken to go up to him, but I did and talked with him for a couple minutes. We ended up skiing (skating) right behind his group for most of the day. :D

[zippyjuan]

Last I heard Andy Hampsten was conducting bicycle tours in Italy. I found it: http://www.cinghiale.com/co_bios.shtml Davis Phinney has a muscular degenerative disease and lives in Colorado with his wife, Connie Carpenter who was a gold medal speed skater and champion bicyclist. Lemond was the first American to win a stage- the prologue time trial and Phinney was the first to win a road stage. He was on a breakaway behind another rider who crashed but he did not know about it until after he finished and they told him he had won. I think Andy and Davis are still good friends. People did not notice how good Andy was since he was in Lemond's shadow, but he was a great rider. He won both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour of Switzerland as well as finishing fourth in the Tour de France twice and was eigth twice too. A very friendly, outgoing guy.

[zippyjuan]

Today is more of a rest day than the last one since they do not have a lot of travel thrown in. The teams will go for a shorter ride (they raced for over six hours yesterday so short is relative), grab a meal and some massage or get treated for injuries, make the team meeting, and maybe catch a movie and a hot shower or something. The Yellow Jersey is now Lance Armstrong's to lose. He will play it safe and try to keep out of trouble. Discovery will probable literraly surround him on the road. Basso and Rasmussen will fight it out for second- they are now both about three minutes behind Armstrong. I would not be surprised if Rasmussen trys to get away on Tuesday's stage. It includes a Cat 1 climb and one Hors Category, but they are in the first part of the stage, so a rider could get a big break away. Rasmussen will not likely beat Basso in the time trial, so he will have to try to get some time on him before then and try to hold on. Basso, who is just seconds ahead of him, will probably be sitting on his rear wheel to prevent it and his CSC team will also be watching out. Jan Ulrich is next in the standings, three more minutes back, could close the time gap on Rasmussen in the time trial and move up to third place and spot on the podium. After tomorrow, the race is flat and the only other good opportunity to make up time is in the Individual Time Trial the day before Paris. Ramussen has shown strength in the mountains, but is not a strong time trialer and Armstrong and Ulrich are. Lance would probably like to win one more stage before he retires and Ulrich would love to deny him for the way he humiliated him in the mountains. Jan gets stronger as the Tour goes on and he has again this year. His problem in the mountains is that he has one gear while climbing and has difficulty accelerating. Lance on the other hand is one of the best in cycling at finding another gear in his legs when he needs it and that allowed him to drop Ulrich. The time trial is about pacing which both riders do well. I look for Lance to give that one everything he has.

As far as the other jerseys, they are also getting closer to being sewn up. The Polka Dot Jersey given to the best climber will almost certainly go to Rasmussen. Periero can theoretically take it, but he would have to gain the maximum points on all the remaing climbs and have Rasmussen not get any for that to happen. Not likely. Discovery rider Yaroslav Popovych increased his lead over Credit Agricole's Andrey Kasechkin to over six minutes and Discovery may try to help him keep it. Another case of the leader in the category will probably shadow his rival. The Green Sprinter' Jersey is still up with opportunities ahead for those who would like to wear it. Thor Hushovd is its present owner with 164 points. Stewart O'Grady has 150 and Robbie McEwen has 142. Last year, this one went down to the last sprint on the last day to decide the winner. In the team category, T-Mobile leads Discovery by almost 20 minutes. This one takes the total time of the top (five I think) riders on each team. The Lantern Rouge, which is given to the last rider to finish (in honor of the light on the caboose of a train) is currently held aloft by Iker Flores of Euskatel. He is presently three hours, thirty three minutes and five seconds behind Armstrong.

The pace for the coming days will be fast, and there will most certainly be some more break aways, but most of the riders are now looking forwards to Paris. They have made it through the worst the Tour can inflict.

[zippyjuan]

The last day to feature real climbing and if anyone wants to make some noise, this is a good day to do it. There is still about half the stage to race after they go over the top of the Hors Category Col du Aubisque, so while it will impact the finish, anybody with difficulties on it will have plenty of time to make that up. There are also two climbs before that, the Cat 3 Col d'Ichiere and the Cat 1 Col de Marie- Blanque. There is also a short Cat 4 before the finish on the Col du Soulor. We will probably see some riders we haven't heard much from trying to get away today. There are two intermediate sprints but the second is nearer the finish and there are not likely to be any sprinters left then so we may also see the sprinters try to go early to collect the first points. Thor Hushovd leads that category.

Prior to the start has come sad news from Gremany. The Austrailian Women's National Road Racing team is there training for an upcoming race and while out on a ride, a vehicle lost control and ran into the bunch head on. Amy Gillett has died and five others are in the hospital. They have numerous injuries and two are still considered critical. It was feared that one would lose her leg, but it is reported that surgery has been able to save it. Some of the riders are wearing black armbands today and fellow Austrailian Cadel Evans wants to dedicate today's stage to them.

Another warm day greets the 156 riders remaining in the race, but there are a few clouds out so that will help. Vladimir Karpets crashes in the neutral roll-out zone and is now hanging at the back of the pack as things get underway. Another crash early on. This one involves Andreas Kloden, the eleventh place rider from Jan Ulrich's T-Mobile team. Vinokourov drops back to help him catch up. He looks fine. A lot of attacks and a fast pace on the early section today. By sixteen miles into the day, the first real gap is established. In this bunch is Cadel Evans. He wants to win in honor of his fellow countrywomen. Cedric Vasseur of Cofidis, Flecha of Fausto Bartolo, Fred Rodriguez of Lotto, Ludovic of Domo, Zandio, Turpin, Pineau, Gilbert, Horner, and Gelsin round out the group. At the first intermediate sprint, it is Gilbert, Ludovic, and Flecha taking the points. It looks like nothing for the sprinters today. They have an initial gap of forty seconds at this point. As we near the first climb, Marcos Serrano has gone off alone ahead of the main field and hopes to maybe join the lead group . At the top of the Col d"Ichere the climbing points are taken by Jerome Pineau, Jorg Ludewig, Chris Horner, and Fred Rodriguez. Serrano arrives 4:15 later and the main field goes by after 5:10 have passed.

As we reach the Col de Marie Blanque, antother crash. This time it is Becke who is down but quickly back up. Discovery is setting the pace on the field now. There is nobody ahead of them they are worried about, it is just safer at the front. Nobody to swerve in front of you and cause you to crash. Riders are tried and not at attentive as they would usually be. Many are starting to drop behind the main pack. Seranno is slowly gaining on the leaders. Vinokourov starts the attacks on the second climb. He also attacked on the first one, but was quickly caught. Sastre, Kacheshkin and Leipenheimer grab on. Sastre cannot stay with them, but Periero has taken his place. The crowds on the mountain are very close and one has accidentally hit Kascheckin, bloodying his nose. He has called off his part in the attack and has dropped back to the medical vechcle. Basso and Mazzoleni are attacking now. Armstrong is watching him and Ulrich and is quickly able to catch Basso. The group of about twenty riders including the Yellow Jersey has just caught Vonokourov as well and is closing on Periero. Hincappe leads this bunch. As they get to Periero, he takes off again. He is serious about wanting to get away. More riders are dropping. Totschnig, Sastre, Mayo and Rubiera are some of the latest. In the lead group, Fred Rodriguez is losing contact. Mazzoleni attacks the Armstrong group. Challenges are coming from everywhere. But Lance isn't worried. He knows who to keep an eye on and who to ignore. At the summit of the Col de Marie- Blanque, the group of 11 still lead the closing Seranno by 1:30. Next comes Periero at 2:50 and just five seconds behind him is Mazzoleni and them the Armstrong group at 3:12. Periero and Mazzoleni join up on the decent and will work together to try and bridge the gap to the leaders.

The persuit bunch has eased off their pace, allowing the lead to grow again. Up front Turpin has flatted and is racing to catch up on the approach to the Hors Category Col d'Aubisque, which rises at an average grade of 7%. Fred Rodriguez is falling behind them again. Kashechkin is back with the doctor again. The Kazak rider is in second place in the White Jersey competition for Best Young Rider, behind Discovery's Popovych. On the climb, Mazzoleni and Periero have caught Seranno. It is harder for him because he was riding alone. He will catch a brief rest behind these two and they will then work together to try and get with the leaders. Another climb, another attack by Vinokourov. T-Mobile is trying to pressure Discovery and the Yellow Jersey today. He is 30 seconds ahead. Kashechkin has rejoined the group and has also attacked along with Arroyo. Rodriguez is caught and dropped by the three chasers, Serrano, Periero, and Mazzoleni. Now it is Roberto Herras on the attack. He joins Kaschechkin and Arroyo. There goes Julich and Kloden. Everybody is getting in on the action! How many have to go before Armstrong responds? Up front, Cadel Evans has made a move too. T-Mobile is now leading the peloton. Do they see weakness in Discovery? It could also be that Evans is threatening to drop Kloden from the top ten. He is in virtual sixth place on the road now- he began the day in 11th, just behind Kloden. Vinokourov has now caught Rodriguez who is really struggling. Ulrich and Basso are now on the attack. Armstrong can no longer wait and is quickly on their tail. Rasmussen has tagged along. Right now there are eight riders with Armstrong. Ulrich, Basso and Sastre from CSC, Mancebo, Rasmussen, Landis, Kaschechkin, and Leipenheimer. Where are the Discovery riders today? Here comes Hincappe catching up. At last a friendly face! Ahead of them, Herras (who dropped Kaschechkin) has joined up with Vinokourov. Ulrich attacks again, but Lance again counters. This group is closing on Vinokourov and Herras.

Evans has reached the top of the Col d'Aubisque, 47 seconds ahead of Periero and 59 seconds up on Mazzoleni and Zando. The other intermediate riders are all spread out. Armstrong and Co. are 4:15 back as they reach the summit. Evans is having an inspired ride today, and the tragedy is helping drive him further. He is slowing on the decent of the Col dAubisque. Maybe that has to do with the fact the when the was riding it in June he crashed and broke his collarbone. It was the fourth time he broke the same one in 20 months. The Yellow Jersey group seems a little cautions too. Their defecit has grown to 5:20 now that the attacks have eased off on the decent. Except for a minor Cat 4, it is pretty much down hill from here to the finish. Some of the dropped riders have regained the Armstrong group now as well. Periero is starting to close in on Evans though. Kloden has now taken the front of the peloton. He wants his top ten place back. He is 200 meters ahead of the group. Mazzoleni has now caught Evans too. Periero has caught up, but not long after joining the leaders, he has punctured! He gets repairs and is back in the chase. He is joined by Zandio and they are able to rejoin Evans and Mazzoleni. Now they are a group of four.

There is still the intermediate sprint. Periero is the first across here with Evans second and Zandio third. It is 6:50 before the peloton comes across. T-Mobile is still in front. There is still a group of eight in between that has also regrouped on the decent. Over the final climb, the Cat 4 Cote de Pardies- Pietat, Periero is still in front of Evans and Zandio. Gilbert has gotten away from the intermediate group and crosses 1:40 down, with Cedric Vasseur's group 15 seconds behind him. With about ten miles to go, T-Mobile has cut their defecit to 4:30. Evans has resumed doing most of the work up front, even though it may make him too tired to contest the stage victory. He is looking at moving up in the standings. Right now he is pulling at the front about three minutes for every one the others put in. Under 1km to go, he is still in front of the other three, but he doesn't have any strenght for a sprint left so it will come down to the other three. The honors go to Periero, his first stage victory! He has been very agressive in the Pyranees and today he was finally rewarded for it! In fact, he was chosed as the Most Agressive Rider for today. Zandio was second, Mazzoleni third and Evans fourth. The peolton came in 3:26 seconds behind the winner-so they closed the gap pretty well, but not enough for Kloden. Evans made up enough time to move all the way to seventh place today. A great job for him and an honor for his fallen countrywomen! Even though he did not get the stage win at Pau.

The Top Ten for Stage 16:
1. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spain) PHO - 180.5km in 4h38'40" (38.863km/h) 2. Xabier Zandio (Spain) IBA - at same time 3. Eddy Mazzoleni (Italy) LAM - at same time 4. Cadel Evans (Australia) DVL - at same time 5. Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) FDJ - at 2'52" 6. Anthony Geslin (France) BTL at 2'25" 7. Jorg Ludewig (Germany) DOM at 2'25 8. Juan Antonio Flecha (Spain) FAS at 2'25" 9. Ludovic Turpin (France) A2R at 2'25" 10. Cedric Vasseur (France) COF at 2'25"


The new Top Ten Overall:
1. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - 2,826km in 66h52'03" (42.034km/h) 2. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 2'46" 3. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB - at 3'09" 4. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO - at 5'08" 5. Franciso Mancebo (Spain) IBA - at 6'31" 6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at 7'35" 7. Cadel Evans (Australia) DVL - at 9'29" 8. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO - at 9'33" 9. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) TMO - at 9'38" 10. Christophe Moreau (France) C.A - at 11'47"

There were lots of attacks today, but Lance was able to counter the ones that could have mattered. His team struggled again, but Geoge Hincappe was there and is an excellent candidate to take over leadership of the team when Lance retires. He has shown himself to be an excellent all-around rider this year and has collected some important victories, both for himself and his team. Just a few flat stages and a time trial await the remaining riders in the Tour. Lance Armstrong will wear #7 in Paris, barring a catastrophe.

[IrishSS]

What about the possibility of Vino joining the team next year? Don't you think he would want to be the leader of the team if he did make the jump? I love George and all, but I think Vino has a much better chance of winning Le Tour than George might...

[zippyjuan]

I have heard such talk and he is a powerful rider, but he is also a big ego and unpredictable individualist. T-Mobile has sometimes had to send guys after him when he attacked and they did not want him to. Johan Buneel, the team director, likes to plan things out carefully and likes riders that will follow what he wants. I don't know if he would be a good fit. He certainly would not be a number two on the team (or perhaps any team). I could understand why he would not want to work for Jan Ulrich anymore. He knows Jan cannot win the Tour. The team (Discovery) will need some more help next year. Now if they could land Ivan Basso....

[IrishSS]

Basso would be an interesting, if not great, addition to the team. Would Johann do such a thing to George though? Maybe he feels as if he owes Hincape at least one or two shots at being the number one guy on the team.

I mentioned Vino because I had heard and read that the only team he would consider changing to would be the Discovery Team. Definitely a great rider... maybe Johann could reel him in a bit and turn him into the next champion?

[zippyjuan]

Could just be a contract ploy too- threatening to go over to your chief rival. We heard the same rumours about Kloden last year and he resigned with T-Mobile. I have neve heard anything about Basso, not sure when his contract might be up, but he looks like the next Tour de France winner after Tour de Lance comes to a close.

Edit: Looks like Basso just this week signed up for another three years with CSC! http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SPORT/07/18/cycling.basso/

As far as Vinokourov, this is from Eurosport Magazine:

According to French newspaper Le Parisien/Aujourd'hui, Vinokourov ranks high on a shortlist of potential successors.

The paper adds that with three weeks to go to Armstrong's bid to win an unprecedented seventh Tour, the team would neither confirm nor deny the news.

"There exists a list of riders, but we can't tell you if Vino is on it or not," Armstrong's agent Bill Stapleton told the paper.

"Ask Johan," quipped a coy Armstrong sending the newspaper's reporter to see team manager Johan Bruyneel who in Sphinx-like fashion replied "every great rider at the end of his contract interests us."

Stapleton, Armstrong, and Bruyneel each control one-third of the team's capital.

VINO: TOO EARLY TO TELL

Vinokourov himself neither confirms nor denies the approach:

"It's hard to say," the recent winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège told Le Parisien. "It's true that I'm at the end of my contract with T-Mobile but for the moment, I'm not committed. Come what may, I'm going to wait to see the results of the Tour to make a decision."

Last year, the two-time Paris-Nice winner missed the Tour through injury and his alliance with Armstrong's eternal nemesis Jan Ullrich is hands-down the biggest threat to Discovery Channel's bid for seven.

Conscious of the stir transfer speculation of this magnitutde could cause so close to the start of the Grande Boucle, the paper wonders aloud why no one has simply issued a flat denial.
_________________________________________________________________

Lance will continue to be involved with Discovery even after he retires from the Tour and apparently has a one-third say in what happens. He may still enter other races in the next couple of years, but has said this is his last Tour de France.

[IrishSS]

Actually, he said the Tour was his last professional race....

[cheapie]

yep. you're right.

[zippyjuan]

You are both right. I remembered that he had earlier talked about riding some of the other Classics like the Giro d'Italia or some of the one day classics this year and do the Tour de France next year. When he said he was going to retire after the Tour de France I thought that he meant just from this race and might do the others next year instead of this year. Here is what he said at his announcement on his retirement: http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/7886.0.html

[zippyjuan]

Yesterday Lance Armstrong said it was a "no chain" day. That is the expression they use to mean that he felt so good that he was not even aware of the bicycle under him. Perhaps it was the day off, perhaps it was the knowledge that he has wrapped up his seventh consecutive Tour de France victory- a record that will be very hard for anyone to beat. Both he and his team seem more relaxed and are starting to enjoy the race. But even now, both he and Discovery will take it one day at a time, looking for ways to improve their position relative to his rivals. That will mean a course of cautious agression- keeping his opponents from mounting any challenge, meeting those that do occur, and staying out of potentially hazardous situations. That will mean keeping at the front.

Today's stage is long. Very long. In fact, it is the longest stage of the Tour this year, stretching its route almost a third of the way across the country. Like the aproach to the end of a stage, this course is setting up the location of the race for its final push into the finish line in Paris. This is the long straightaway before a few final turns taking us to our final destination. The course is both straight and pretty flat. There are four smaller hills with two Cat 3 climbs and two Cat 4's and there are also two intermdiate sprints. The top riders will be taking it easy today, trying to rest up for the Time Trial three days later. The sprinters missed out on the escape yesterday, so they will try to make it onto one today. Hushovd has 164 points to O'Grady's 150 and McEwen's 142. It is still possible for either of them to catch Thor, but time is getting short. There are early attacks. Today a rider or group of riders could possibly get away on a very large gap since most of the others will not be interested in chasing today- unless one of their rider's position is in jeopardy- like T-Mobile did yesterday in a failed effort to keep Andreas Kloden in the Top Ten. Things are pretty much together as they pass over the first climb at the Col de Baliex. Bobby Julich of CSC leads Alexandre Moos of Phonac ahead of Joseba Beloki and Alexandre Vinokourov. Once over the top, the attacks resume. Two lower ranked riders, Pierrick Fedirgo (BTL) and Kurt- Asle Arvesen get a small gap started and Erik Dekker is trying to join them. Dekker has won on this stage before and realizes the importance of being in any escape groups today. More riders join them- totalling eighteen in the bunch. They include Dekker, two Discovery riders- Rubiera and Salvodeli, Sevilla of T-Mobile, two Ag2R riders- Dumoulin and Gerrans, Avessen of CSC, Davis (LSW), Hinault of Credit Agricole, Cioni of Liquigas, Auge from Cofidis, Tankink (QST), Fedrigo (BTL), Righi (LAM), Da Cruz and Lovkvist of FDJ, and Grivko (DOM). This is now the break that will last. None of the condending sprinters in this bunch.

At the first sprint, Da Cruz picks up six points for being the first rider across with Allan Davis getting four points and Stephane Auge two. We are about an hour into the race and the lead here is 2:40 over the peloton. Average speed so far is very fast at just under 30 mph. Sevilla is the highest placed rider in the group, sitting in 25th place, 38:51 seconds behind Armstrong. They would have to gain a massive advantage for most of the main group to be concerned. Sevilla was the winner of the Best Young Rider jersey in 2001. We have just recieved word that Andreas Kloden has abandoned the race! He was seen climbing into the T-Mobile vehicle back at the eleven mile mark. He was in a crash yesterday and although seemed fine, suffered a broken bone in his wrist and I guess it was just to painful to continue riding. He was in eleventh place. This will make the team classification closer now- I have learned that it is the top three riders who determine the standings in that category and losing Kloden will be a blow to T-Mobile who were looking at winning that category as consolation for not getting the Yellow Jersey. They recieved another blow today when Alexxandre Vinokourov announced that he will definately not return to T-Mobile next year. His contract is expiring at the end of this season and said he does not want to be the Number Two rider for anybody. He wants to go to a team where he is the leader and is allowed to win. He has had chances at victories with T-Mobile only to be ordered back to support Jan Ulich, the present team captain. He has said he wants to go to Discovery and they do not deny that they might be interested, but they added that they would be looking at other top riders whose contracts come up this year as well. Would they bring in a new #1 or let George Hincappe have a shot at it as a reward for his efforts in support of the team for all these years? When given a chance to, he has performed outstanding this year. Ivan Basso- considered one of the favorites for winning the Tour next year, just signed a three extension with CSC this week.

Out on the road here, the escapees have built their lead to more than eight minutes now. Ten years ago, a brash, pre-cancer Lance Armstrong was considered a lower rider and got off in an escape group like this on the same stage. He finished second that day, and this is how the Australians reported it:

"An Italian, a Colombian, a Ukranian and an American attack the peloton in a 245km transitional stage from Mende. Their names aren't anywhere near the top of the list of favorites and so the peloton allows them to continue with their escape. Near the end of the stage, the American looks at his rivals and figures that he's in with a chance of claiming the stage victory. Like a rugby player running the length of the pitch to score, the opportunist sets off at a high tempo. Only the Ukranian is able to respond... and that's when the events of what sounds like a weird joke went awry for the attacking rider.
"In 1995, Lance Armstrong was part of the aforementioned scene. He was considered a potential stage winner at most and his group worked up an advantage on the peloton of over 20 minutes in the stage to Revel. The woeful tactics he employed against Sergei Outschakov in the race to the line allowed the Ukranian to make the future six-time champion look like a hack. Oh, how times have changed. We know what happened to the American, but where the hell is Outschakov now?"

The pace for the second hour is a bit slower than the first as the attacks have ceased for now and all the riders settle into their pace on this long ride. The lead group is still faster than the others, about 23mph. Their lead is over nine minutes and still growing. Erik Dekker was with a group that set the modern record for an escape in 2001 when he finished first, 35:54 seconds over the peloton. They waved the time gap rule or almost all the top riders would have been disqualified that day which would have been bad for the Tour. Discovery has two riders in the front and is also leading the peloton. There could be strategy in this -or they may be just trying to take the best advantage of the situation. They definately have a shot at the stage win with two riders in the lead group and if they finish far enough ahead, Discovery could move ahead of T-Mobile in the team category. This could be interesting on an otherwise unimportant stage. At the start of today, T-Mobile led Discovery by 19:28 and team CSC by 21:58 Coming over the third summit at the Cat 4 Cote de Capens, Grigko leads them to a twenty minute advantage. Even Armstrong is at the front- trying to keep the pace of the main peloton slow to allow the gap to grow. They will probably keep it under 30 minutes though, because then Sevilla will move closer in the General Classification. It builds up to 24 minutes before things change. Christophe Moreau is now in danger of dropping out of the Top Ten and his Ag2R has moved to the front. They are not concerned with catching the lead group (which includes two of their riders giving the a fair shot at a stage win too) , but they do want to reduce the advantage they have.

By the time the race is down to thirty miles to go, it is down to twenty minutes and action is starting at the front Dekker is attacking. His fellow countryman Bram Tankink of Quickstep is the only one keeping up with him so far. They are caught, but Grivko goes. Gerrans catches him and they are joined shortly by Sevilla and Savodelli. Hinault, Righi, Averssen, and Tankink join to make it now eight. Their pace has again boosted their gap over the peloton. Eight miles to go now. The eight are 2:49 ahead of the nine who used to be with them and 24 minutes ahead of the rest. T-Mobile is now leading the pack- finally realizing that their lead in the team category could be in jeopardy. Tankink attacks and Grivko gives chase. Hinault is after them too and passes Tankink. Savodeli has made his way up to Hinault as they reach the final climb of the day. Over the top and now down the other side. Three miles left. On the decent, Arvesen and Gerrans have caught the two leaders. Savodelli looks back to see where they are and takes off- Hinault is caught by surprise, but recovers. The four have regrouped again. One kilometer. The riders go flying by- now with Arvesen in front. Savodelli is in hot persuit with Hinault right on his tail. Coming to the line!!! There it is!! It is Paolo Savodelli! The man who won the Giro d'Italia has now added a Tour de France stage victory to this young rider's already impressive resume. He is the second Discovery rider to win a stage so far this year- joining George Hincappe.

Back in the field still out on the road, a crash has split the field and a push from Vinokourov has splintered it further. Ulrich is attacking, but there is George Hincappe to haul him back in. Vinokourov tries to go, but there is Poppovych on him. Discovery is countering every move again. Armstrong is now in a group of ten and there is another small group 20 seconds behind them, including Landis, Evans, and Moreau. They come in 22:28 behind the stage winner. Although that gap was small, it is enough to move Vinokourov from ninth to seventh place overall.

The new Top Ten are:

1. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - 3,065.5km in 72h55'50" (41.823km/h)
2. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 2'46"
3. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB - at 3'09"
4. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO - at 5'58"
5. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA - at 6'31"
6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at 7'35"
7. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) TMO - at 9'38"
8. Cadel Evans (Australia) DVL - at 9'49"
9. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO - at 9'53"
10. Christophe Moreau (France) C.A) at 12'07"

Discovery did take the lead in the Team classification from T-Mobile today and Lance has things pretty much sewn up for himself. As a reward for their efforts in the Tour, Discovery is allowing his supporting riders to seek out stage victories and two have been claimed so far. The Boss would like to get one more for himself- the Time Trial. Despite not being able to gain anything on Armstrong this year and every move he made countered, and with his team in disarray, Ulrich still claims that he can still win this year, but surely even he is realizing that it would take a miracle for him to do it. I do think he will give an impressive showing in the Time Trial. The next two days should have some interesting rides- there are some harder climbs and another chance for those who have won nothing to get one more shot at victory. Two more days for the leaders to rest and let them go. Maybe Discovery will go for those stages as well.

[zippyjuan]

On the speculation that Vonokourov may join Discovery, here is what Johan Buyneel had to say the other day:
--------------------------------------------------------
"I’ve said it before. I have never considered Vinokourov as a contender to win the Tour,” Bruyneel said, adding that he was “an interesting rider” who could be a useful addition to the team once Armstrong steps down.

Bruyneel wanted to recruit Basso after next year’s Tour, but missed out on the chance. Team CSC announced Monday that the Italian has signed a new contract, tying him to Riis until 2009.


“It’s a shame, he would have been a good leader for our team,” Bruyneel said. “He is one of the best guys, especially what he is showing now. He will probably finish on the podium, that says a lot about him.”

Armstrong didn’t meet with reporters Monday. He warmed up with teammates on a training ride, led by George Hincapie — winner of his first ever individual Tour stage on Sunday in a thrilling solo ride on this year’s toughest mountain stage.

Hincapie has been touted by Armstrong as a possible team leader next season, but Bruyneel said he has yet to decide.

“It all depends what we expect and how high we put our goals,” Bruyneel said. “When Lance is gone, do we focus everything on the Tour and be happy with someone who is top five? If that is the case, then George could do it.”

______________________________________

So Vino wants to be Top Dog on a team, but Discovery sees him in a supporting role if he joins. Will he? Will they sign another top rider to be team captain?

[zippyjuan]

While the serious climbiing is over, there are still some challenging hills left. Today's course leads the riders off the central plains of France and into the Massif Central which features shorter but rugged climbs. The first 25 miles is not classified as a climb, but will be uphill almost the whole way. The first intermediate sprint is about a third of the way up this section. Then the road drops back down for a while, briefly interrupted by a Cat 4 and a Cat 3 climb. On the Cat 2 Cote de Boyne, we regain our elevation and will keep most of it as we wind our way towards the finishline which is prefaced by back to back climbs- the first barely over before the second starts. The Cat 3 Cote de Chabrits and its 7.1% grade a mere warm-up for the finishing stretch up the Cat 2 Cote de la Croix- Neuve and its average 10.1% slope.

Another hot day as we roll out of Albi and through the neutral start area. Frederic Bessy of Cofidis takes the honor of launching the first attack. bit later Christophe Moreau trys his luck and Van Summeren and Albasini go after him. Vinokourov is slightly ahead of Moreau in the standings, so he chases down and joins the group. Johan Van Summeren is the first over the intermdiate sprint followed by Vino and Moreau. Another day with no points for the sprinters. They seem to have given up contesting for the Green Jersey, but will not give up if they should have a chance at a stage win on the Champs d'Elisee. By 12 miles, they are back with the Phonac led peloton and now a large group is trying to get away. There are at least 25 riders in this bunch, including Julich, Casar, Azevedo, and Garzelli. Flecha, White, Fedrigo, and Casar attack out of the group before it is recaptured, but they too are swallowed back up. Da Cruz is going now. Others are trying also. The average speed for the first hour is 28.8 mph. By now a group of ten riders has formed. They are Kessler from T-Mobile, Roberts of CSC, Zandio (IBA), Axel Merckx of Lotto, Serrano (LSW), Pelizotti (liquigas), Cedric Vasseur of Cofidis, Thomas Voeckler (BTL), Da Cruz (FDJ) and Martinez of Euskatel. No Discovery riders, but Ruberia is with three other riders trying to bridge the gap. At the first climb, it is Zandio, Kessler, and Merckx taking the points. The group is about a minute ahead of the field. Through the feed zone and to the second climb. On the Cote de Raujolles, 61 miles into the race, Da Cruz leads out Merckx, Roberts, and Vasseur. The pack comes by ten minutes later.

The race is now passing under the imposing Viaduc de Millau, the massive cable suspension bridge with the tallest bridge towers in the world, rising over 1100 feet, higher than the Eifel Tower. There is enough room on the top of the pillars for a tennis court. It opened earlier this year and cost 310 million Euros. You can see a picture of it here: http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/France/photo128349.htm

As we near the Cote de Boyne, and our return to the higher elevations, Thor Hushovd is back loading up with beverages for his team. Lance Armstrong has been seen near the back of the main group too and is making his way back up towards the front. Maybe Lance is returning the favor to his teammates and is getting supplies, perhaps he just wanted to talk to Johann Bruyneel. They do have headsets for communications, but maybe Lance has a problem with his. Here he comes now. Discovery has two riders at the front of the peloton with T-Mobile cruising behind them. Jan Ulrich would like to make up some time on Basso and Rasmussen before the time trial so he can hopefully finish in the top three and get a spot on the final podium. He is about three minutes behind the pair. A couple of more Discovery riders have now come foreward and Lance is with them. Ahead of them, Carlos Da Cruz has just finished the climb and taken first points at the top. Kessler was second with Zandio, Serrano, Vasseur, and Roberts also getting points. There have been surprisingly no attacks on the main field on this climb, I guess they are waiting for the final duo, known as "Montee Laurent Jalabert" for the rider who was usually the first man up them in the past. They are 12:45 behind the leaders as they crest the summit.

Da Cruz has been very agressive this year. Prior to today, he has been in an escape group or out alone for almost 300 miles so far, but none of his efforts has been rewarded with a victory. Perhaps today is his chance. Asked earlier who he thought might win today, Lance Armstrong gave the nod to Belgian Axel Merckx. Today is "National Day" in Belgium, celebrating the assension of King Leopold in 1831. He too is in a position for the victory as their lead has grown to fifteen minutes. Discovery now has all their riders in front of the peloton, Basso is sitting right behind Armstrong. We are nearing the last climbs and the action should start soon. The Group of Ten is the first to hit the climb and Da Cruz is off. He has built an advantage of 20 seconds. The others are chasing him. They are slowly gaining on him. Oh no! Da Cruz has hit the wall and burned himself out! Not a good move. He is pedaling slowly as the other are now moving quickly past him. Merckx is leading the charge and is the first to the top of the Cote de Chabrits, taking the maximum points available there. Voeckler is behind him. The lead group is fracturing on the climb and Merckx and Voeckler have a small gap ahead of three others. They are moving into the final climb.

CSC is now leading the peloton and they are starting to cut into the lead of the escaped riders. At last check, it was moving under 14 minutes. On the short decent to the Montee Lauraunt Jalabert (Cote de la Croix- Nueve), the lead bunch has regrouped a little and there are now six riding together. Voeckler, Serrano, Zandio, Merckx, Pelizotti, and Vasseur. Voeckler attacks and then Merckx. Now Serrano as Voeckler is dropped on the 10.1% slopes. Serrano is pumping out of his saddle and is starting to slowly pull away from Merckx. Serrano wins!! Liberty Seguros Wurth will get to celebrate their first victory tonight! Merckx beats Vasseur for second, 30 seconds back.

Back in the main pack, things have also been heating up. Several riders have tried to get off the front, but so far, only Kasechkin has had any success. He is 20 seconds up after being seen earlier in the stage visiting the medical vehicle. Whatever that was (perhaps related to the bloody nose he got from a spectator the other day) he is looking fine now. Hincappe and Popovych have reeled in Kashechkin and Armstrong, Ulrich, Basso, Rasumssen, and Evans are there. Sastre is now at the front, but the climb is thining things out. The Discovery riders have done their job of breaking it up and now it is four in front- Lance, Ivan, Jan, and Cadel. Vinokourov is trying to make the group, but is struggling. Basso has gone. Evans is the first to go after him and Jan grabs on. Lance is again in front, but there goes Basso. Rasmussen is falling behind. He is with Leipheimer and Vinokourov now 40 seconds behind the Yellow Jersey. Armstrong and Basso have been able to shake Ulrich, but Evans is holding tight. You can see the effort on the rider's faces as they grind their way up the mountain. Ulrich has regained contact and now Lance is out of the saddle driving the group towards the finish. Armstrong pulls them through the final turn and it is Cadel Evans who leads the group across for eleventh place. Rasmussen has lost about 35 seconds today to both Basso and Ulrich- starting to threaten this third place spot. Will he be able to hold on through tomorrow and Saturday's Time trial? Jan now only needs about 2 1/2 minutes.

Stage 18 results:

1. Marcos Serrano - 189km in 4h37'36" (40.85km/h) 2. Cedric Vasseur at 27" 3. Axel Merckx - at 27" 4. Xabier Zandio at 1'08" 5. Franco Pellizotti at 1'08" 6. Thomas Voeckler - at 1'18" 7. Luke Roberts - at 1'28" 8. Matthias Kessler - at 1'444" 9. Egoi Martinez - at 2'03" 10. Carlos Da Cruz - 2'38" 11. Cadel Evans - at 11'18" 12. Lance Armstrong - at 11'18" 13. Ivan Basso - at 11'18" 14. Jan Ullrich - at 11'18" 15. Alexandre Vinokourov - at 11'55" 16. Mickael Rasmussen - at 11'55" 17. Levi Leipheimer - at 11'55" 18. Francisco Mancebo - at 11'55" 19. Leonardo Piepoli - at 12'01" 20. Floyd Landis - at 12'07"

In the overall standings, Evans had pushed Vinokourov back down to eigth and both Leipheimer and Rasmussen lost time.

After 18 stages of the 2005 Tour de France, the top 10 in the general classification is: 1. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - 3,254.5km in 77h44'44" (41.664km/h) 2. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 2'46" 3. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB - at 3'46" 4. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO - at 5'58" 5. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA - at 7'08" 6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at 8'12" 7. Cadel Evans (Australia) DVL - at 9'49" 8. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) TMO at 10'11" 9. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO - at 10'42" 10. Christophe Moreau (France) C.A - at 13'15"

[gear02]

What about the overall team standings? Do DSC still lead? What are the chances of them winning the team classification?

Also, I was reading ESPN's uniform column and they mention that the previous year's team winner gets to wear rainbow stripes on their uniform. The current year's team leader wears larger rainbow stripes in a manner similar to all the jerseys. However, I haven't seen them. Do you know anything about this Zippy? How about you Cheapie?

Also, the DSC team uniform has a yellow stripe on their left arm. Is this a little homage to the fact that Lance is the defending champion?

[IrishSS]

Also, the DSC team uniform has a yellow stripe on their left arm. Is this a little homage to the fact that Lance is the defending champion?

Id say its a tribute to the LiveStrong Foundation...

[cheapie]

it's cuz he's the defending champion. if you notice, other riders have stripes on their jerseys if they are past national champions. those who are current national champions have special uniforms. like vino.

[yippiekiyeh]

It is quite impressive to win just 1 tour de france. but to win 7? He's a living legend now!

[Butch]

Leaving tomorrow morning for 5 days in Paris. Very much looking forward to trying to catch the TDF on Sunday. However, I have a very strong feeling I'll just be looking at the backs of a bunch of people's heads with the tops of a bunch of riders speeding by . . . but we'll see!

Either way, it should be a ton of fun and a pretty decent party on the Champs!

[zippyjuan]

Today is the Last Chance stage. It is the last road stage. The last chance for anybody looking to get a stage win before the time trial tomorrow. The last chance to try and move up in the standings. Jan Ulrich would not mind making up a little more time on Basso and Rasmussen before tomorrow, but he may be close enough to Rasmussen to move ahead of him and get a podium spot after tomorrow. Today is also the shortest road stage of this year's Tour at less than 100 miles. The main combatants will be resting in anticipation of tomorrow's showdown between Armstrong, Ulrich, and Basso. Somebody else may surprise too. George Hincappe has shown good time trial skills so far this year and Vino is a wild card.

But today should still hold some action on the road as the good but not yet great try for their last chance for some glory and a stage victory. Officially there are five climbs today, but the first two are pretty much an extension of the same one, the first segment labeled Cat 4 and the second Cat 3. The first 25 miiles or so will be mostly uphill. Then the course drops down through a valley and we hit the Cat 2 Col des Pradeaux. A decent down the other side leads to more rollong hills, two classed as Cat 4, and a downhill stretch of about 15 miles to the finish in La Puy en Velay.

Another hot day greets the 155 riders who have survived so far- nearly all of those should make it to Paris now. The attacks begin shortly after we roll though the neutral zone and to the official starting point. Alexzandre Moos of Phonak is starting things off today. Christophe Moreau of Credit Agricole and Ronny Shchlotz of Gerolsteiner attack at the top of the first climb, the Cote des Gergaudias, taking first and second over the top. On the very short devecent, an interesting group of 13 goes ahead. This bunch includes George Hincappe of Discovery, Bobby Julich, Santiago Botero, and Zubeldia. Now five more riders are trying to join them. Jan Ulrich, with another Discovery rider keeping an eye on him- Salvodelli, Aerts, Iban Mayo, , Ludewig, and Garzelli are in persuit. Even with two riders in the group, Discovery does not want Ulrich to gain any time today, so they chase down this group and the whole peloton is once again together. The FDJ team has come to the front of the pack and is chasing down anyone trying to escape.

About halfway up the second climb, Caser and Guerini attack. Periero of Phonak is trying to chase them down and is able to join them. Franco Pelizotti also makes the bridge. As they start to build a gap, a chase group starts to form behind them. By the end of the second climb up the Cote de Sanit de Eloy la Glaciere Periero grabs the top climbing prize. Two riders, Arvesen and Garate are ten seconds behind this quartet, Arrietta trails by 25 seconds and the field is 40 seconds back. Cofidis and Fausto Bartolo are leading the pack on the decent and they catch the persuers, but not the leaders. Now another chase group forms. Seven riders that include Azevedo, Flecha, Chavanel, Comesso, Da Cruz, and Arvesen, and Bertolini are on it. Three more riders hook up with them and now we have a solid group of ten riders chasing the escapees. Discovery has resumed leadership of the pack, but with one of their riders in the persuit and nobody a threat to the Yellow Jersey, they are not chasing.

Entering the third, and hardest climb of the day, Commesso is attacking the chase group, which is 48 seconds behind the leaders, but he cannot get anyone to go with him so he is eventually caught back. The peloton is starting to break up on the climb and thirty riders have been dropped. Flecha and Bertolini are having troubles keeping with the chase group. Over the Col des Pradeaux Periero Sio is once again the first rider across. Peter weening leads the chase group and takes fifth 1:20 later with the main bunch 3:35 behind. We have been seeing a lot of the same names in the escape groups ever since the Pyrenees eased up. By the time we get to the feed zone, the groups have reformed and the lead starts to grow more. Discovery and CSC are sharing duties at the front, but are content to let the riders go. By the top of the fourth climb, they are now 8:40 back. Again it is Perieio grabbing top climbing points. He is in second in the climbing category, but even if he gets all of the remaining ones, he cannot match the total claimed by Rasmussen. He has picked up 17 points so far today. Once again, Commesso is attacking on the climb with the persuit group and again it goes nowhere, but Flecha and Bertolini have been dropped by his effort. The chase group is 2:20 back.

It is time for at least one other rider to become concerned today. Christophe Moreau was in tenth place at the start of this stage and Periero has more than enough time to kick him out of that spot. He was in 13th. It is not yet Moreau's Credit Agricole team at the front, but the Illes Belares team is leading the charge and they are starting to chip away at the time gap to the leaders. Coming up on the end of the final climb now. Periero once more! He adds another three points on the Cote de Malaveille. The chasers are down to seven and are 1:45 behind and there goes Commesso again! He is spending a lot of energy out here. Flecha, Chavanel, Grabach, and Weening chase him down again. He isn't getting away, but is slowly chipping away at the members of his group. Lotto and Gerolsteiner are now helping Illes Belears at the front of the peloton and they have reduced their deficit to 6:30.

Commessso is now repeadly attacking the persuers. As soon as they regroup, he is off again. They still aren't getting any closer to the leaders and he is probably starting to piss of the members of the group. They can make up more time if they work together. There he goes again! The peloton is starting to slip back again by the second intermediate sprint - taken by (guess who) Periero. He has been leading the quartet most of the way- putting in a lot of work, but his chasers have not been able to get closer. Commmesso is off again! Must be about the tenth time. Some of the riders are getting tired of chasing him, including Azevedo and Da Cruz. It is now five riders chasing- Arvesen, Commesso, Chavanal plus Gravasch and Portal who just rejoined them. Christphe Moreau finally has his team at the front of the peloton trying to get back the tenth place he is in serious danger of losing. They should have started earlier. Commesso seems to have settled down for now with about five miles to go and a 2:15 gap which does not seem to close with his other three remaining group members. Periero continues to push at the front- trying to gain maximum time today. It looks like he should be able to maintian his present positon. He, Caser, Guerini, and Pellizotti are getting ready for the final stretch. Periero does not have enough at the end for the victory despite his efforts, the win goes to Guerini of T-Mobile. The others were not able to match his attack at the end. Sandy Cesar took second. Here comes the chase group... and guess what, Commesso has attacked and taken fifth on the day! Robbie McEwen leads the peloton over the line 4:30 behind the winner. It is not enough to save tenth place for Moreau- his spot is now taken by Periero.

The top 10 in the 19th stage is:
1. Giuseppe Guerini (Italy) TMO - 153.5km in 3h33'04" (43.225km/h) 2. Sandy Casar (France) FDJ - at 10" 3. Franco Pellizotti (Italy) LIQ - at 10" 4. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spain) PHO - at 12" 5. Salvatore Commesso (Italy) LAM - at 2'43" 6. Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Norway) CSC - at 2'48" 7. Nicolas Portal (France) CSC - at 2'48" 8. Bert Grabsch (Germany) PHO - at 2'48" 9. Sylvain Chavanel (France) COF - at 2'48" 10. Peeter Weening (Netherlands) RAB - 3'50"

The top 10 after 19 stage is:
1. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - 3,408km in 81h22'19" (41.694km/h) 2. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 2'46" 3. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB - at 3'46" 4. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO - at 5'58" 5. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA - at 7'08" 6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at 8'12" 7. Cadel Evans (Australia) DVL - at 9'49" 8. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) TMO at 10'11" 9. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO - at 10'42" 10. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spain) PHO - at 12'39"

Tomorrow is the day we have been waiting for since Lance secured his position in the mountain stages. He would love to go out with a win in this stage and Ulrich, who has definately been riding stronger, would like to deny him. There could be a wild-card or two try to sneak in too. Will Jan be able to get into third place and find another spot on the podium? It will be exciting to watch!

T-Mobile has regained their lead in the team category:
1. T-Mobile 241h 25min 56sec
2. Discovery Channel at 15:47
3. CSC 25:02
But Discovery wants and will keep the individual title as well as the Best Young Rider- two of the five main categories. The team title would be nice for them, but is not a concern. The theme for everyone tomorrow will be to go as fast as you can. Armstrong will have the benefit of knowing how all the other riders have done before he goes off. As little as possible will be left to chance.

[zippyjuan]

This is it. The final showdown. The ride to Paris tomorrow is usually very informal with no real racing until the final couple of laps on the Champs d'Elesee. Lance Armstrong wants to go out with a stage win to honor the Yellow Jersey as well as to show he deserves it and he does not have a win so far this year. The last winner of the Tour who did not win a stage was Greg Lemond in 1990. Jan Ulrich has some things to prove as well as is trying to move past Mickeal Rasmusssen in the standings so he can finish on the podium. In the last seven years before this he has been on one of the steps every time but one. He won the Tour before some guy from Texas showed up and has been criticized for his inability to win it since. The German media says he rides to lose, not to win and half of them have already gone home from covering the race. Lance has another distraction as well as an inspiration- his kids arrived from Texas yesterday. He has a boy and twin girls who have been living with their mother. They are the main reason he gives for retiring from professional racing this year- to become a better Dad. Racing takes him away from them for much of the year.

It is a difficult course for a time trial. It starts uphill right away and you continue up for the first third. Then you get a winding decent with some tricky turns and head up the Cat 3 Col de Gachet. More winding, rolling hills as you work your way back into town and the finish line. It could be windy today as will. It will require several places of slowing to make the turns and then accelerating again. Choice of equipment could be critical. Typically a time trial is flatter and you would ride a custom bike built for maximum aerodynamics including disc wheels and special handlebars which let you ride in a crouched position, but with the wind will push a disc wheel around and the crouch is not a easy for climbing. Also that type of bicycle is more unstable on this kind of course so most will be using their road bikes. They will still use their aero helmets to help the airflow around them. Discovery spends a lot of time in wind tunnels to work on their riding position for maximum efficiency. The one they used is in San Diego. They have combined all sorts of specialists from bike builders to engineers to nutritionsist in an effort to get the most possible out of every area of the race and their present dominance in the sport shows as a result of the team they have put together.

Time trials are a race against the clock. The riders head out in reverse order of the standings meaning Lance will know how things are going on the course and how his competitors have done. The first 136 riders depart at two minute intervals today and the rest will go at three minutes apart. 155 riders aill participate today. Jan Ulrich won a time trial here in 1997 on the way to his only Tour win and will be motivated today. The first rider off is the "Lanterne Rouge", the rider in last place, Iker Flores of Euslatel- who is over four hours behind Armstrong in the standings. Let's pick it up with the top riders. Vinokourov has chosen not to wear the the blue and yellow jersey of the Kazakh National Champion but is instead wearing T-Mobile pink. He did now win the championship in time trialing. This could be the last time he wears the pink- he has said he will not ride for T-Mobile next year, but so far he has not signed with anyone else. Jan Ulrich has just left the start house and Rasmussen is off three minutes later. Just as Ivan Basso is getting ready to start, Rasmussen has crashed! He cannot afford to give up time today if he hopes for a Top Ten finish- he is about 2:15 ahead of Ulrich who is a fantastic time trialer and could be today's winner. Jan crashed in 2003 in the rain which could have cost him the victory, but it is dry today. You have to hold a fine line between trying to go as fast as you can but not taking unnecessary risks. Right now American Bobby Julich has the best time at the second time check. Hincappe has crossed there 27 seconds behind him, the second best time there so far. Vinokourov has just set a best time at the first check point. Here comes Ulrich- let's see how he is doing. The first segment is critical- it is hard to make up time lost here later on in the race. He is 12 seconds ahead of his teammate!

Armstrong is now on the road and in persuit of the other riders. Basso has now set the time to beat at the first check and Armstrong's time is seven seconds slower! He will have to pick it up! This is where it is a big help to go last. Rasmussen has stopped! He got a new bike after his earlier crash and has been having trouble with it. He is trying to fix the wheel now. This is the third time he has stopped and is losing lots of time! He has had a couple of different bikes already today! Vino has tied Julich at the second time split with the others still to come. Rasmussen is now getting another bike from the team car! Oh my gosh! He has just crashed again! This has to be his worst nightmare! I would not want to be the mechanic for his team- he will have a lot to answer for tonight! Three bikes and two crashes- things are not going well! Lance has definately picked it up! He has gone from seven seconds behind to 19 seconds ahead!

1. ARMSTRONG (USA, DSC) 46'38"
2. ULLRICH (GER, TMO) at 19"
3. BASSO (ITA, CSC) at 53"
4. JULICH (USA, CSC) at 01' 00"
5. VINOKOUROV (KAZ, TMO) at 01' 00

Poor Rasmussen has lost over five minutes and Armstrong is getting close to catching him- even thougn he started six minutes earlier. And he does catch him. Vinokourov has just finished with the best time of the day, but the rest are still coming in. Bobby Julich had a great ride and is presently second. At the third time check, Armstrong is 32 seconds ahead of Ulrich. Basso is not keeping up the pace he set earlier and has the fourth best time here behind Vino. Here comes Ulrich to the finish. He has blazed it over the final section! He has beaten Vinokourov's time by 53 seconds! Armstrong will have to be quick too! Basso is sprinting down the final aproach. 1:31 behind Ulrich. Only Lance and Rasmussen are still out on the road. Armstong is gritting as he aproaches. He does not have much acceleration left as he has given it everything he has out there. The clock is ticking down. Here he comes towards the line... He has held on! Armstrong gets his stage win! Twenty three seconds ahead of Ulrich! What a great finish to the day, to this Tour and to his career! This is how he wanted to do it. Rasmussen is finally coming in. He has crossed in 76th place on the day, 7:47 behind Armstrong's time and has been dropped from the top three- falling to seventh. Although he will be disappointed about today, he has had a great Tour. He wanted a stage win, which he got, and he wanted the Polka Dot climber's jersey and he secured that one early as well.

The Top Ten for today are:
1. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC 55.5km in 1h11'46"
2. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO - at 23"
3. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) TMO - at 1'17"
4. Bobby Julich (USA) CSC - at 1'33"
5. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 1'54"
6. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO - at 2'02"
7. Cadel Evans (Australia) DVL - at 2'06"
8. George Hincapie (USA) DSC - at 2'25"
9. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA - at 2'51"
10. Vladimir Karpets (Russia) IBA - at 3'05"

The new Top Ten going into the final day:
1. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC – 3,463.5km in 82h34’05”
2. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC – at 4’40”
3. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO – at 6’21”
4. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA – at 9’59”
5. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST – at 11’25”
6. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) TMO – at 11’27”
7. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB – at 11’33”
8. Cadel Evans (Australia) DVL – at 11’55”
9. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO – at 12’44”
10. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spain) PHO – at 12’44”

[zippyjuan]

So Lance can celebrate tonight with his kids and the members of his team that helped make his victory possble. There is not likely to be any changes in the standings in any of the categories, so this is how they look:

Yellow Jersey- lowest total time for an individual for the entire tour:
http://bicycling.com/images/tour_jersey_yellow.gif
1. Lance Armstrong (USA/DIS) 82h34min 05sec
2. Ivan Basso (ITA/CSC) at 4:40
3. Jan Ullrich (GER/MOB) 6:21

Polka Dot Jersey- Best Climber
http://bicycling.com/images/tour_jersey_redspots.gif
1. Michael Rasmussen (DEN/RAB) 185
2. Oscar Pereiro (SPA/PHO) 155
3. Lance Armstrong (USA/DIS) 96


Green Jersey- Best Sprinter (also known as the Points Jersey)
http://bicycling.com/images/tour_jersey_green.gif
1. Thor Hushovd (NOR/C.A) 175
2. Stuart O'Grady (AUS/COF) 160
3. Robbie McEwen (AUS/DAV) 154


White Jersey- Best Young Rider
http://bicycling.com/images/tour_jersey_white.gif
1. Yaroslav Popovych (UKR/DIS) 82h 53min 07sec
2. Andre Kashechkin (KAZ/C.A) at 9:02
3. Albert Contador (SPA/LTY) 44:23

And in the Team category, (no jersey awarded) Discovery did get 40 seconds back on T-Mobile, but they still lead the category. Discovery is not worried about this one.

1. T-Mobile 245h 07min 38sec
2. Discovery Channel at 14:57
3. CSC 25:15

[zippyjuan]

At the beginning of every stage, the race passes through a neutral zone before the actually racing starts. Ahead of the riders is a huge parade of sponsors- and it does look like a parade. There are about 100 vehicles, many customized to look like one of the sponsor's products, baloons, floats with pretty women on them tossing out free samples to the crowds along the streets. Today the big party will be with the riders. Traditionally there is no real racing until we actually get to Paris. Until then, it is a fun ride through the French countryside. Riders will be chatting with each other, snapping pictures, playing the occasional joke. Some may be seen drinking champagne on their bikes. It is a celebration of having completed one of the most difficult sporting events in the world. Out of 189 riders who started on this quest 23 days ago, 155 will complete it, having ridden 2,170 miles through the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the heat of the South of France. Some rain is forcast for today, but that will not dampen most spirits. For Lance Armstrong, it is the final day of the last journey he will ever make here. He has left an impressive legacy- an unprecidented seven consecutive wins. Five wins was the previous record. Eddy Merckx still holds the records for most stage wins (115) and days in the Yellow Jersey (96), but he has passed Bernard Hinault, who was the race official who presented the Yellow Jersey thie year. Both he and his team, directed by Johan Buyneel, have helped change the way teams prepare for this race- from training to technology, they sought and used anything that may be an advantage to the riders.

There will be some excitement when we get into Paris. There will still be eight laps around the center of the city before things are all over. There is still a possibility of change in the Sprinter's classification and if Alexandre Vinokourov can gain only two seconds over Levi Leipheimer of the Gerolsteiner team, he will move into fifth place. He has been riding very hard and agressively this past week- auditioning for teams that might be interested in his services for next year. He has announced he wants to leave T-Mobile at the end of this season. He is back to wearing the colors of the Kazakh National Champion instead of the T-Mobile pink today- since he was not the National Timetrial Champion he was not allowed to wear it yesterday. The Discovery team are wearing jersies that have a yellow right sleeve on them and Lance Armstrong is on a custom bike with a red number "7" on the head tube (that is the one the handle bar pass through to the front fork of the bike).

We have two intermediate sprint on the course, which include 6. 4. and 2 points and the first rider across the finish line will get 35 points. Hushovd has 175, 15 ahead of Stewart O'Grady and 21 over Robbie McEwen, so that is theoretically still up for grabbs, but one of these riders would have to win the stage to take the Green Jersey away from Hushovd. By tradition, the team of the Yellow Jersey will lead us out and Iker Flores, the Lanterne Rouge will bring up the rear. Flores also had the prize in 2002. Sometimes a rider having a poor Tour will try for the Lanterne, but you have to be very careful to make the cutoff time for every stage so it is not necessarily easy.

As the ride nears the first intermediate sprint, Gerolsteiner has moved to the front. They want to keep an eye on Vinokourov here. This sprint also carries a time bonus- six seconds for first, four for second, and two for third. Vino needs two extra to tie Gerolsteiner's Leipheimer and he wants it. And there he goes! Four Gerolsteiner riders, including Leipheimer, are in persuit, but they cannot catch him in time- he is the first one across with Leipheimer second. They are now tied, but based on tie-breakers, Levi is still technically in fifth. Ronnie Scholtz of Gerolsteiner is continuing on and attacking the peloton. His actions caused another rider to crash in a roundabout. Lance Armstrong is leading the chase to bring him back. He has decided to stop his break and wait for the others to catch up. It is tradition for the Yellow Jersey to lead the riders into Paris. But I guess Philippe Gilbert of FDJ did not get the message. He is off with Discovery in persuit on the wet roads. There is another crash at the front. This time it is George Hincappe and Popovych. Gilbert calls off his attack, and Armstrong has words with him at the front. The Discovery riders are OK and have returned to Armstrong's side. The race is about to enter Paris.

Because of the rain, the race officials have decided to take the time for the overall standings at the beginning of the first lap on the Champs Elesyee-as is permitted on rainy days. They don't want riders crashing out of the race on the final day. The sprint at the end will be contested eight laps later though. There are many cobblestones on the route and are very slippery when wet. So Lance Armstrong is now the confirmed winner of the Tour de France!. As they head towards the Arc de Triumph the second time, attacks begin. Carlos da Cruz goes first, chased by Jalabert. Other riders are off. But the crashes are also starting on the wet streets. Commesso. Now Da Cruz goes down with two other riders. There is a second intermediate sprint before the finish, but none of the sprint contenders are there. Michael Albasini of Liquigas takes it followed by Cedric Vasseur of Cofidis and Nicholas Jalabert of Phonak. No time bonus here so Vino was not arround either. Seven riders are now in front. With two laps to go, it is whittled down to two- Bram Tankink of Quickstep and Saunier Ducal's Chris Horner, but the peloton is close behind. The sprint teams have closed the gap trying to get their man a shot at the stage win. The sun is coming out and the course is finally drying off- just in time for the final sprint. It could be hotly contested. Vasseur attacks, but can't get away. Brochard is going and Vinokourov has decided to join him. Two kilometers left. McGee has take a turn at the front of the field and he is so fast, he has joined Vino and McGee. He tries to pass them, and Vino catches his tail as they head down the Place du Concord, the main field 100 yards behind them. Vino takes it! The victory gives him a 20 second bonus which will definately move him past Leipheimer into Fifth. He has been showing off all his skills this week- wining today's sprint, taking third in the time trial, strong showings in the Pyrenees. Now he will have to wait and see what happens- who makes him an offer and how much.

McGee of course was second. In the mass sprint from the field, with bikes flying all over the place, Fabio Cacellera of Fausto Bartolo captured third, barely passing Robbie McEwen and Stewart OGrady at the line. No changes in the Green Jersey.

The Top Ten for the stage:
1. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) TMO - 144.5km in 3h40'57" (39.239km/h)
2. Brad McGee (Australia) FDJ
3. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) FAS
4. Robbie McEwen (Australia) DVL
5. Stuart O'Grady (Australia) COF
6. Allan Davis (Australia) LSW
7. Thor Hushovd (Norway) CA
8. Baden Cooke (Australia) FDJ
9. Bernhard Eisel (Austria) FDJ
10. Robert Forster (Germany) GST)

And the Final Overall Standings:
1. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - 3,608.0km in 86h15'02" (41.654km/h)
2. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 4'40"
3. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO - at 6'21"
4. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA - at 9'59"
5. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) TMO at 11'01"
6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at 11'21"
7. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB - at 11'33"
8. Cadel Evans (Australia) DVL - at 11'55"
9. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO - at 12'44"
10. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spain) PHO - 16'14"


Yellow Jersey: Lance Armstrong, Discovery- USA
http://bicycling.com/images/cma/stage21_focus.jpg
Polka Dot (climber) Jersey: Mickeal Rasmussen, Rabobank- Denmark
Green (sprinter) Jersey: Thor Hushovd, Credit Agricole- Norway
White (young rider) Jersey: Yaroslav Popovych, Discovery- Ukraine
Best Team: T-Mobile

So the Discovery team will be celebrating tonight. They won two jerseys and will probably share the 400,000 Euros Lance won for first place. They also won over 500,000 Euros in other prizes during the race. Later they will worry about what they will do without their friend who changed their lives and many others along with the entire sport of cycling. Changes will be made. Lance will celebrate too and later reflect on the experiences he has had as heads off into a Texas sunset to spend time with his children, Luke and the twins, Isabel and Grace- his real trophies. It is hard to picture this man standing still for very long. He will get itchy and decide to get involved again. He has said he will continue his cancer work, but I would also guess that we have not seen the end of his involvement in the sport that helped save and change his life. It was his great love of cycling that helped him through the darkest days of his battle with cancer and is the core of what he is today. He'll be back. Maybe not to race professionally, but he will be back. In the mean time, thank you Lance Armstrong!

http://bicycling.com/images/cma/stage21_podium.jpg

Photos borrowed from Bicycling Magazine

[IrishSS]

Thanks for all the summaries and commentaries Zippy! I enjoyed reading them as footnotes to what I watched throughout the days.

[speedracer120]

:stupid:

They kept me up to date while I was travelling without access to OLN.

[nickel]

"This is a hell of a race. You should believe in these athletes,
and you should believe in these people.
I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live.
And there are no secrets -- this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it. ”
— Lance Armstrong

This was lucky #7 for him.
Continue to Live Strong Lance :)

http://espn.starwave.com/media/oly/2005/0724/photo/g_armstrongs_i.jpg
Lance Armstrong shares the spoils of victory
with his children Luke, 5, and twins Isabella and Grace, 3

[zippyjuan]

I like Nickel's picture! I thought I heard someone say (maybe Phil Leget) this was the first time the winner actually addressed the whole crowd like that. But then again, this moment doesn't happen that often. I guess now I don't have to switch on my computer first thing in the morning and spent the next couple hours checking out the race and writing the story for you. I think I need to read through them myself now. I sometimes wondered how many were reading them, but I could watch the counter rise. I didn't expect too many for the first few days.

Now it will be the man who stays home at the Armstrong household while the woman (Cheryl Crow) is gone (on tour) for months at a time. I enjoyed the inspiration he provided and enjoyed sharing it with you. The first year I wrote these, I only sent them to my brother. They weren't as long then either. After I wrote them for you, I copied them and e-mailled them to some other friends.

[Butch]

Just got back to Frankfurt from Paris . . . holy crap, watching the Tour was incredible! I'm going to make Zippy jealous, but I had a perfect elevated view from les Jardins de Tuileries on Rue de Rivoli right before the head of the Champs. I got there at about 10AM and noticed a guy standing up there alone while the area on the street was starting to fill up. I went up there and staked out the spot next to him . . . turns out he's been waiting 30 years to see the Tour and it was essentially a dream come true for him to be there . . . he did his research and picked himself a great spot . . . and I got very lucky by association . . . unlike pretty much everywhere else on the Tour, where you just see the riders race by once, we caught them 8 times as they made their laps around Paris.

Anyway, I got some great photos (at least in my humble opinion) . . . the new Eos 20d came through very very nicely. Well, actually, I'm not sure yet since I haven't seen them on my computer screen . . . just on the little LCD. I can't wait to see how they turned out. I just hope they're in focus. Those suckers fly by in a hurry and I don't know if the AI Servo could keep up.

I'll try to post a few photos tomorrow.

[zippyjuan]

That would have been awesome! I look forward to seeing the pictures!

[Butch]

OK . . . I've converted 13 of my favorites to jpegs from raw files . . . will post when I get my lemonizer account re-approved . . . :)

[Butch]

Alrighty, well, I ended up just starting a Flickr page . . . been meaning to do something like that at some point anyway, so this gave a little bit more impetus.

Anywho, I stuck every damn photo I took at the Tour up there (At least the ones I didn't immediately delete from the camera on-site) . . . completely unedited . . . so there's definitely some crap . . . there's especially some crap up there if you span outside of the tour shots and expand to some of the other stuff I've shot in the past few months since I got the new camera.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70213531@N00/sets/664061/

[zippyjuan]

You had a great vantage point for this historical event!