Stage 15 Recap

Stage 15 recap video.

Stage 14 Recap

Stage 14 highlights.

Disco is back in fashion

Well we probably won't see the return of platform shoes, Bee Gees and Disco ball but "Disco"; The Discovery Channel Cycling team, took it to their rivals in the Tour de France today. Alberto Contador won the stage in a mtn top sprint over Yellow Jersey wearing Michael Rasmussen and then we saw Levi Leipheimer come in 4th just 40 seconds behind.

What impressed me today was the poise and maturity with which Levi rode today. It was obvious to me that following the first 2 big attacks that Levi wasn't intereted in chasing them down IMMEDIATELY but rather just accelerated a bit and then rode back to the group. The desparate chasing of any attack by Cadel Evans eventually spelled his doom as he couldn't hold the pace by Rasmussen or Contador and not only drifted off their wheels but slip backwards past the chase group of Levi, Sastre and Soler. I believe that if Evans had held a more controlled and possibly smarter sense of riding he would have been in with Levi and quite possibly been contending the stage win after helping Sastre bridge back to Rasmussen and Contador.

Levi's tactics were even more savy as he forced Sastre to Chase as Levi wasn't going to chase down his own teamate. There is still about 400 km to race in the giant mountains and yet today we saw riders reacting like it was the last mtn stage of the tour. This will only play into the hands of Levi who appeared to do the least amount of work today of all the favorites, only lose 40 seconds and moved into 4th place overall. Well, he still has to catch Rasmussen.

Alpes Recep: Stage 9

Video update of Stage 9

2007 Tour de France - First 3rd Review

The first 1/3 of the 2007 Tour de France is now complete and I feel a bit lame for not posting a thing about it. Of course, my hundreds of readers (Mike, Rob and Matt) probably don't really care. Okay, but I like posting big flashy pictures of cycling and making predictions for all to read, so I'll try to get this up to speed for the following 2 weeks.

As expected the peloton this year is suffering from what Discovery Director Johan Bruyneel calls the "Postal virus." What he means is that for the past 7 yrs (not counting last year) postal took control of the race when it hit the mountains and only allowed attacks that it deemed as non-threatening. The evidence of this control was probably the great escape of Floyd in stage 17 of the 2006 tour where it's been documented that the big teams only put on a concerted chase for under 20km allowing Floyd to appear God-like and give credence to his positive test. But I digress. Another factor in making this race so wide open EVEN as we now leave the Alps is that besides the prologue TT, we haven't undergone the proverbial individual TT that shifts around the top 10 in the first week. We still have about 110 km of TT racing still to come along with the monstrous Pyrenees mountains.

Revelations of this Tour:
Alexandre Vinokourov - Vino had a nasty fall that required stitches in both knees and has been suffering ever since to hang on. It looks like the Astana captain might be conceeding his leadership to Andres Kloden who sits in 8th place just 3:50 off the lead

Denis Menchov - Although Menchov was considered for a top 5 in my opinion, I wasn't looking towards the Russian to win this years tour. But I didn't expect him to crack so quickly in this years tour. Much like Astana, the leadership is shifting at Rabobank also from Menchov to Michael Rasmussen. But unlike Astana, I don't think Rasmussen has the TT ability to actually win the tour like Kloden does.

Alberto Contador - The young Discovery rider has the most amazing kick when he attacks up-hill and so far he looks deadly and all others should be worried. But this is only his 2nd tour (finished around 35th in 2005) and he is not sure how his body will react in the 3rd week.

General classification after stage 10
1 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 49.23.48
2 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 2.35
3 Iban Mayo Diez (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir 2.39
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto 2.41
5 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.08
6 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 3.18
7 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC 3.39
8 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 3.50
9 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.53
10 Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile Team 5.06

The Oscar Pereiro pick

Oscar Pereiro sits on the precipice of being awarded the 2006 Tour de France and yet I find myself begrudgingly adding him as a top 10 07' Tour contender. It's not out of spite from the Floyd Landis affair and the fact that Oscar has made some comments that weren't that sporting but more to do with what I see as the biggest gift ever in professional cycling.

Before I break down Oscars previous tour results I will state that we saw two Oscars in the 2006 Tour. The first Oscar found himself in 46th place at 28:50 behind the Yellow-clad Floyd Landis after 12 stages and one brutal day in the Pyrenees. The 2nd Oscar held onto the yellow jersey (after being allowed to gain 29:57 on stage 13) and did a valiant job of staying with the leaders of the tour until that fateful stage 17 where no one could stay with Floyd.

Oscar has only done 3 tours: 2004, 2005 and 2006 finishing 10th, 10th and 2nd. Hey, that is pretty good and it shows the progression in ability, maturation and fitness you'd expect from an upcoming tour contender. Or does it?

The 2004 Tour Oscar finished 10th over 23 minutes behind the then six-time winner Lance Armstrong. When you look deep into the stages you will see that Oscar had some good results in the flat stages as well as a few very good results in the mountains including a 6th place on stage 12 and a 14th on the ITT up Alpe d'Huez. But oddly Oscar couldn't take this result and build on it for 2005. He drifted to 30th after the Alpes and was allowed to drift off the front with a big group, eventually getting 2nd place to George Hincapie but gaining over 5 minutes. In the next few days Oscar would win a stage while being allowed once again a big leash in gaining 3 minutes and then another day of gaining 4 minutes. By the end of the 2005 tour Oscar secured another 10th place at 16 minutes behind Lance Armstrong. If he was a true contender he wouldn't have been allowed 12 minutes leeway from the Tour Patron, Lance Armstong.

The 2006 Tour was heading the same direction as his previous tours until the in fighting and decision by Oscars former team (Phonak) to let him take the jersey and the pressure off of Floyd.

In the end this whole experience may have created a new Oscar and another Claudio Chiappucci type rider, or maybe we are just seeing the biggest gift in cycling since Maurizio Fondriest lucked into the 1988 World Championship title? This I am sure of, Oscars days of gaining big minutes in the Tour while others watch is over.

Cycling Update

Floyd Landis Arbitration Trial
Sorry I didn't post anything concerning Floyd's arbitration trial. It was quite interesting, enlightening and depressing all at the same time. The best coverage of the trial can be found at the Trust but Verify blog.

Giro
The Giro brought out more TV viewers in Italy than what they have had in quite a few years. I found the Giro enjoying, but not overly exciting. Danilo Di Luca was a worthy winner and I think I would enjoy seeing the climbs on DVD. Andy Schleck, just turning 22, was the true surprise of the tour finishing 2nd and under 2 mins behind the eventual Pink Jersey wearer Di Luca. It reminds me of a young tour 2nd place finisher in 1996 who went on to win the next year and take a ton of 2nd places during his career - Jan Ulrich. Maybe I'm jumping the gun on that one, we shall see.

Drugs
Speaking of the 1996 Tour, winner Bjarne Riis has now admitted to being doped with all sorts of stuff and especially EPO during that time and that tour specifically. The UCI is clamoring that Riis give back his title (they can't do it however as the statute of limitations has run out - 8yrs). But let's review the podium for the 1996 Tour:

1. Bjarne Riis
2. Jan Ulrich
3. Richard Virenque

Jan Ulrich was part of the 1996 Deutsche Telekom team that is all but admitting to mass doping and Jan retired in disgrace with possible ties to Operation Puerto. Virenque was implicated in the 1998 Festina doping scandal and admitted later on that he doped. So who gets the title? I guess you could hand it to Frankie Andreu - oh wait, he admitted to doping in prep for the 1999 tour

Tour de France
The upcoming tour is probably more open this year than last year and here are my preliminary favorites, in no particular order

Alexandre Vinokurov
Levi Leipheimer
Andreas Kloden
Tom Danielson
Denis Menchov
Carlos Sastre
Alejandro Valverda (pending Operation Puerto investigation)
Frank Schleck (Andy's older brother)
Oscar Pereiro

I think Oscar doesn't have a legitimate chance at making the top 5 and I would think a top 10 is about the best he can do. But since he got 2nd last year (thanks to a 30 min gift) I must put him on the list.

That's all for now - TJ

Intervals?

This week I embarked on a set of intervals up a small and very steep hill about 40 mins ride from my house. Since I'm not in that great of shape, this little hill repeat is quite brutal and I've been using my 39x26 (yes, 26) gearing to get thru it. I'm just getting myself into the groove of doing these and therefore I only did 4 this week. Profile shown below:

Back to Cycling

I've been back to cycling a bit more and possibly I'll be racing this year some more. Thanks to my friend Rob Zabrecky for the tip to this really cool website, Bikely, that I can track my routes and see the elevation profile, all my routes will be available to view soon. Here are two rides I did this past week.

This ride is one through Rocklin, a ride I used to do with the Spin City group every Sunday:

And here is a fun ride to the foothills in Penryn, near Auburn.

Tour of California

I took my daughter to the 2nd stage of the Tour of California's finish in downtown Sacramento. It was a cool finish and it was nice to see and talk to Chris Wherry and Chris Baldwin of Toyota United Pro.

Is that a spin-move?

This clip is one of my all time favorites and I first saw it on ESPN with Craig Kilborn commenting "is that a spin move? This is the best fight since Tyson and McNeilly." It can't be easy fighting in those dang cycling shoes, and with no upper body. Circa 1994...

French "Gall"

The President of the French anti-doping agency, Pierre Bordry, had some comments to make about the Floyd Landis case. However, he made one glaring comment pertaining to the newly admitted to "administration error" made by the lad. (The lab incorrectly indexed Floyd's B sample with the wrong ID number and then corrected it later - which supports the Landis team's claims of slopping work at the lab).

Mr. Bordry remarked:

"For his defense, M. Landis uses all the legal means that he wants. If he reveals that the laboratory made errors - formal, or substantial - it would be good if we were officially informed so that we could respond, on the form or on the substance (of the accusations). However, I note that, at the moment, Mr. Landis prefers to organise press conferences to give his arguments: we're moving out of normal procedure here."

Part of Floyd's defense is that the lab in correctly (and illegally) leaked the information of his positive "A" sample test when the results aren't usually even made public until after the result of the "B" sample. Now the French are upset that Floyd is disclosing the errors made by the lab to the public and that his entire defense is being made public. The French seem to be expecting behavior accounted to them that they certainly are not giving towards Floyd and other riders (This same lad was found legally at fault for similar actions with Lance Armstrong). This would be like during the court case of a wrongful death suit with a hospital where the hospital doesn't want the facts known public and if they are found that they need to be informed about them first so that the Hospital can react to the public first.

I think it's all about the fact that the French (and this lab specifically) believe there is NO way they can do any wrong and therefore the ends justify the means.

Whiners and image

Jens Voigt (former teammate of Ivan Basso) is now complaining that the signing of Ivan by Discovery is bad for the image of cycling. So.....Ivan has been cleared to race and so have numerous others that were wrongly implicated in Operation Puerto that rocked the cycling world just at the start of the 2006 Tour de France. I'm at a loss as to what Ivan and the others are supposed to do in this case. Are they to NOT try to get a team and race just so that Jens can feel better about his sport? If there is NOTHING on Ivan, then it would appear that the image being damaged here is that of the authorities that wrongly accused the cyclist and attempted to ruin their careers.

I think it's the Euro mentality that puts forth the "feelings" and image over "innocent until proven guilty" that is what drives the US.

Discovery Channel picks up another Superstar

Lance Armstrong is confirming that the Discovery Channel Cycling team has signed Ivan Basso, the 2006 Giro di Italia winner and 3rd in the '04 Tour and '05 Tour de France runner up. Of course Ivan has some possible legal issues with the Operation Puerto stuff, but he's been cleared for racing. Also, I suspect that the Discovery Channel management would not take on Basso if they were worried that he might guilty of cheating. The US based cycling squad now has another big-time winner for this years Tour and Ivan should be a possible winner for several years to come (Depending on the legal issues he might face and how others such as Floyd Landis fair in their own battles).

Landis puts forth his defense

Floyd Landis and his legal defense team have put forth their case and posted it to Floyd's website for all to see. Also they have requested an open trial as they want to expose the sloppy and botched work of that by the French laboratory and the supposed railroad job by the UCI by convicting Floyd in the press before his case was even under review.

The recent Tour de France champion also just underwent hip replacement surgery and evidently everything went as planned.

Thoughts of the "first" American Winner

I saw the "FEARLESS" episode about Greg LeMond on OLN (soon to change it's name to "VERSUS") last night. He was an amazing cyclist but I came away with a few thoughts. He states that in 1991 he was the strongest he's EVER been going to the tour but the Peloton was "different" as the speeds were amazing and that he blames doping for his losing.

1. He says "training is training and they weren't doing anything different than I had all my life."
- except Greg, maybe they weren't eating Ice cream all winter and came into the season fit...unlike your typical yearly routine.

2. He also says his Mitochondria-whatever disease wouldn't have allowed him to win anyway - Then why blame the doping?

3. Greg says the outrageous speed was the result of doping and therefore by default (since he didn't dope) he was bound to lose
- But the problem with that is that until Dave Z last year, Greg had the FASTEST ever TT average speed in the Tour History. I mean, that was in 1989 and lasted until 2005. That's 16 yrs and shouldn't we be saying that he was doped for posting that speed?

The whole thing just ended with a bad taste in my mouth as Greg leaves with the comments "I could have dominated cycling - But I wasn't given the opportunity". How sad as I think he DID dominate and he made the most of the opportunities he was given.

Landis Wins 2006 Tour

Oddly I didn't blog at all about this years tour and yet there is just so much to write about. Highlights are:

*Floyd Landis declares he will need hip replacement surgery after the tour.
*Levi flops in the TT and winds up 5mins back of Floyd.
*Floyd takes the lead through the Perynees while looking very strong.
*Floyd allows Oscar Pereiro to take the lead after being 30min's on GC.
*Floyd looks super strong up L'Alpe D'Huez and puts more time on Menchov, Evans and Sastre and takes the lead over Oscar.
*Floyd detonates on the climb to La Toussuire and is 8:08 behind Oscar and hiding in 11th place. Floyd doesn't make excuses but says the battle is not over, although winning the tour is most likely not going to happen.
*Floyd writes himself into tour Lore by scorching the field and riding on his own over 5 mountain passes and solo for 130k. Floyd ends up 3rd and 30 secs out of first place.
*Floyd get's 3rd on the final TT and has a lead of 59 sec.
*Floyd wins the tour

I was glad to see Oscar stay in 2nd place. Which means it all worked out for Floyd letting him go up the road and it all went wrong for T-Mobile and CSC for allowing Phonak to dictate the race and for just letting Oscar go up the road. I mean, TMob and CSC could have chased, but we saw in the stage #17 to Morzine that given the role to chase, they don't do so good (but then they were chasing Uber-Floyd).

2006 Tour de France Links

I've been watching the Tour at nights at home (thanks for Tivo) and listening to audio and viewing videos while at work. I thought I'd list out my sources for those of your that might not have found these. Enjoy.

Let's start with a good visual of all things cycling:
Daily Distractions from PEZ Cyclingnews

Audio - LIVE tour coverage from Eurosport
www.eurosport.com

VIDEOS of the Tour and behind the scenes:
Velonews
Cyclingnews diary - Levi Leipheimer
OLN-TV Daily Videos
Eurosport Videos

Cycling sites that give live text updates:
Cyclingnews.com
Eurosport live!
Official site of Le Tour de France 2006
The Daily Peloton TDF site

Look at my cycling sidebar for more good links. A few highlights are:
The Paceline - Discovery teams site
ProCycling Magazine
Graham Watson
Cycling Post
Bici Race - Italian based site with a US bias

Enjoy and I'll be posting on the tour soon.

World Cup is upon us

Boston Herald newsclip - Just for Marc Dunn