Nae Tour thread? - The peleton got underway today, with stage 1 done and dusted. (I’ve put spoilers in the title just to suggest we don’t arse around with spoiler boxes. If you like to watch the highlights later on in the day best not to check the tread till afterwards).
Usual suspects will be lining up - I’m not on top of the team compositions so hopefully someone can fill in any of the more important changes. Alberto Contador’s got the green light to race, so will be the strong man to beat. A troubled year did not prevent him swanning the Giro by 6 minutes, but the Tour / Giro double is a seriously tall order for anyone.
No prologue this year, and Philippe Gilbert took yellow in an open stage, with Cadel Evans in second. Several crashes in the peleton, with Contador suffering in one and actually losing 80 seconds.
It’s the team time-trial tomorrow, with Sky fancied to put in a good performance. Geraint Thomas, a Welsh rider for Sky, is just 6 seconds back - can he wear the crys melen?
Tyler Farrar gets the job done today for the stars and stripes on 4th July. Cav makes a bollox of things and can’t get involved - he was also docked points along with Hushold in an intermediate sprint, just to fuel the weight of martyrdom which he seems to thrive on. So watch out! But the day belonged to Farrar - brilliantly timed riding.
In a similar vein, Contador is getting the pish taken left right and centre - blokes running along the road with steaks like this guy from the giro:
A wrathful Alberto in the mountains will be some sight, so all bubbling under nicely in these early stages.
I don’t know what to make of Contador. Very few people have been able to do the Giro/Tour double but I suppose very few riders have the talent of Contador so who knows? 145 to guys such as Andy and Cadel is a fair amount of time, however. Cadel can lose that on one tough stage if Contador goes for broke, but Andy? When he gets dropped, he always seems to stay within 20 seconds or so. He CAN get dropped with relative ease, however, unless he magically improved his acceleration since last tour.
The cool thing about this situation is that anything that ends up a hill will likely result in a Contador attack. It’s tough to bet against the guy, too, seeing as he hasn’t lost a grand tour (at the very least since he won his first, can’t recall whether or not he was entered in one before that).
That Cancellara performance was pretty great yesterday (Sunday). He basically time trialed the damn thing. I love that guy. I sure hope andy and frank realize who they’ve got.
I think this is going to be a great tour! The best thing possible (for a neutral) is having Contador on the backfoot, so he’ll have to attack in the mountains. Usually he can just follow and then make the difference in the time trial, but not this time. It was also good to see how close the teams were in the TTT on sunday. 7 teams within 12 seconds and 5 within 5 secs! This is going to be great, the Schlecks need to put time on Cadel and Wiggins before the ITT, Contador needs to gain time on everyone and then we still have some of the outsiders like Vandenbroeck and Gesink (with the inevitable surprise packages I can’t even contemplate now).
I like to watch the images of the cyclists going though the French countryside and imagine it’s me … only going at a much more comfortable pace … with plenty of wine and cheese breaks along the way …
I imagine myself in the helicopter or at least one of the team cars, with the wine and cheese. Apparently the Tour is some kind of bicycling competition but I watch it mostly for the scenery.
Well earned win by Cadel today. Contador looked to me like he lacked the kick of previous years (less beef perhaps?).
I would suspect Contador was planning on creating a gap, gaining a few seconds and a morale boosting win today. The result was a close second to a rival for GC and a big use of his reserves of energy on what is only day four.
Smart ride by Andy Schleck who might have lost a few seconds but stayed out of trouble and kept his powder dry for the big mountains.
It’s looking like building up to a very exiting tour.
I think so as well, but give Evans his due. He rode a very smart race. And he has always been a stronger kicker at the line than Contador, if he could follow Contador up the hill (which, admittedly, Evans mostly hasn’t in the past.)
Contador, being down, is going to have to be more assertive. We shall see whether he cut back on the “beef” and still has the power to do it.
Alberto buried himself there, but he’ll be fresh as a daisy tomorrow tbh - 2k climb won’t do any damage. It’s true he looked in more pain there than the entire climb up the Tourmalet last year - maybe he’s playing?
Anyone catch Thor’s interview after the ride were he said he was digging deep on the final climb, was starting to lose it a bit so just stuck it in the big ring Made of win, and already blogged on big ring riding.
Don’t know whose commentary people are picking up, but Phil Liggett is getting beyond a joke. He’s a nice voice of the Tour and very knowledgeable, but just cannot call a bike race as it’s happening any more. He’s progressed through ‘bit past it’ to ‘doesn’t really know what’s happening’ to ‘shit’ until he’s now at ‘national treasure’ and so an immovable fixture of the Tour. Very reminiscent of Murray Walker (UK formula 1 commentator) with the persistent gaffes.
Is the Tour de France popular in America? For some reason I can’t see it being that widely watched in the states, it doesn’t seem like ‘your kind of sport’ for some reason. The coverage starts at 10pm here in Aus so I record it and watch it the next day (programme lasts around 4 hours). Much of the early show is taken up with helicopter shots of churches and interviews with local food producers and then we get Liggett for the commentary, I don’t know enough about the sport to pick up on any mistakes he makes so I quite like him, he has been doing the coverage for so long it’s hard to see it being done any other way.
Apparently the Tour gets quite respectable TV ratings here in the States. Here is a discussion of ratings from last year. Naturally without Armstrong in the field this year viewership might be down, but Google tells me no one has written any articles about the ratings so far this year. Versus may be a shadow of the main cable sports channel here (ESPN), but they devote a lot of air time to coverage of the Tour and other cycling events, though the two other Grand Tours are only on Universal Sports (Versus had nice coverage of the 1 week Tour of California instead of the Giro), which is not nearly as widely available as Versus. NBC/Kabletown (oops, Comcast) are probably going to rebrand Versus in the near future, but cycling is so strongly associated with the channel, I wouldn’t expect we’ll see any less of Phil, Paul, and Bob Roll in the future.
Here in Canada OLN would pick up the VS coverage. I was checking it out last week only to discover that OLN was not carrying the Tour this year. Panic! Some searching led me to TSN2, which, not being an avid sports fan, I feared I did not subscribe to. It is in a section of sports channels I have never had occasion to select. I was quite pleased to discover that TSN2 is included in my cable package so that I can watch the Tour this year.
I would have been perfectly willing to shell out the $2.49 to subscribe for the month in order to watch my beloved Tour. Ever since I saw it in person in 1995, I have never missed it on tv at home. It is the best three weeks in sports.
Cavendish has looked fine so far, in my opinion. He has struggled due to his team trying to lead him out from too far back and getting blocked out of the mid-stage sprint today but my money will always be on him in a fair fight, hopefully the other teams won’t rely on HTC so heavily to chase down breakaways in future so he will get better preparation.
Made of win, and already blogged on