STAGE SEVEN

Why, oh why do we pick on poor Erik Dekker? Well, because it's fun. Let's also say that he really is a terrific rider. He's the Dutch champion and he specializes in short sprints. It's just that road racing is quite his thing, but he consistently gets on the bike and rides the Tour. And then terrible things just seem to happen to him. He has won four stages in his career, three in one year (2000). In all honesty, we both really like the guy. He competes, and that's really all I can ask for.

But, really, the jokes really are irresistable. Only Dekker could lead a breakway for most of the day and lose 13:49, finishing dead last. Unlike Petacchi, Dekker will find a way to finish.

I also feel bad I didn't mention Boonen yesterday. After all, the guy did win the stage. So, in order to avoid the same mistake: Filippo Pozzato! It was a very opportunistic breakaway, one that was set up entriely by the furious pace set by CSC. And once again, it was Piil managing to get in on a breakaway. I have no idea how they score combativity, but if Piil isn't #1, the system is simply wrong. It doesn't look like he'll ever be rewarded for his hard-charging style in this year's Tour, so he'll have to settle for the thanks from two cycling fans with too much free time.

Nazon and Kirsipuu's failure to get any points is huge. That's now two straight days of nothing for Nazon, and Hushovd is back into the top five. The top four are seperated by a mere 9 points, so Hushovd sitting back of O'Grady by 25 is that line between contention and non-contention. Once again, bad luck finds Hushovd. He wins the sprint from the peleton, but the breakaway group cost him the large point bonuses. Without that group of seven up front, Hushovd not only wins the stage, but the final chart looks like this (what they actually got in parenthesis):

Hushovd 35 (18)
Sunderland 30 (17)
O'Grady 26 (16)
Zabel 24 (15)
Boonen 22 (14)
McEwen 20 (13)
Hondo 19 (12)


With those results, Hushovd would be within 18 points of O'Grady and only 7 points behind Hondo (instead of 17). He'd be back in the thick of things. Here's those adjusted standings without a breakway group:

O'Grady 131+10=141
McEwen 130+7=137
Hondo 123+7=130
Zabel 122+9=131
Hushovd 106+17=123


Sometimes, life isn't fair. And why was Hinault, a Credit Agrciole rider, in that breakaway at the end? To punish his teammate, desperate for points? Why a break that close to the line when it would only hurt the sprinters? If Hushovd loses the Green by less 7 points, he should have the right to punch Hinault in the face.

Stage 7

For one of the “boring” stages before the mountains, this one had some interesting stories. First, there was Erik Dekker leading a breakaway (with Thierry Marichel) for most of the race. Lots of breakaways fail, but it takes Erik Dekker to get caught with 20 km to go and lose by 14 minutes in the final standings.

In catching the breakaway CSC set a pace that cut the field in half. Stuart O’Grady, Christophe Moreau, and just about the whole AG2r team were dropped by a minute, but their teams managed to bridge the gap and catch the peloton. Euskaltel riders should watch the tape to see how a team is supposed to bridge a gap.

After Dekker was caught there was an unsuccessful attack from Jacob Piil. That didn’t work, but the attack of Francisco Mancebo, Iker Flores, and Filippo Pozzato did work. Pozzatto won the stage, which must make Alessandro Petacchi feel really good. He quits the Tour and a 22 year old teammate gets the stage win for Fassa Bortolo Flores was the most amazing one in the group. I presume Flores was lost and confused because there is just no other reason for an Euskaltel rider to attack and contend for a stage win outside of the mountains. Mancebo was the opportunist. He finished third in the stage, 10 seconds ahead of the peloton. He also picked up an 8 second time bonus, so he gained 18 seconds on Armstrong, Hamilton, Ullrich, etc. Mancebo moved from 25th to 18th, passing Ullrich by a few seconds.

Pozzato gets the stage win for Fassa

photo from velonews.com


Points…
O’Grady and McEwen challenged for the intermediate points, and predictably, McEwen beat O’Grady. At the finish line McEwen couldn’t get into position, though, and finished behind Hushovd, O’Grady, Zabel, and Boonen. McEwen actually overtook O’Grady on points during the stage, but because O’Grady beat him on the finish line, O’Grady retains the green jersey by one point. O’Grady has 131 points and there are only 5 men within 30 points of him (McEwen -1; Hondo -8; Zabel-9; Hushovd -25; Nazon -30). Kirsipuu is on life support, 40 points behind O’Grady.

Tomorrow: Stage 8. It’s only 168 km, so the riders might think it’s a day off compared to the last few stages. It’s got three category 4 climbs and 1 category 3 climb. Small stuff, but perhaps enough for someone to take the polka dot jersey from Paolo Bettini. There are also three intermediate sprints, so we can expect O’Grady to go for them and McEwen to follow (and beat him).

STAGE SIX

Petacchi and Cipo dropped out? Say it isn't so! I didn't think Petacchi would drop out until the mountains, but this is really overacheiving on his part, dropping out at the first hill. I'm sick of this. Riders with no intention of finishing the Tour shouldn't be invited. I don't care that Petacchi is probably the best sprinter in the world, his blatant disrepect of this race makes it a mockery. Let someone who gives a damn ride in his place.

These first stages are what we like to call the sprinter's stages. By Stage 10, there just won't be a whole lot of opportunity for anyone to earn any points in the Green Jersey classification. So it may only be stage six, but the race for green is almost over. You better be within at worst 20 points of the leader by the time we hit the mountains or you can play the better luck next year game. Right now, all five riders in the top five are within striking distance, and there are two darkhorses just outside that still can make a move. So we're down to seven riders who have any chance whatsoever. Gioia's already told you about their move, so let's break 'em down a little bit more.

Stuart O'Grady His whole Tour has changed in just 48 hours. Two days ago, O'Grady has 32 points, over 60 points off the lead. He had crashed three seperate times, and had finished in the double digits in stage rankings three times. Since then, he's won a stage, finished second in the other, earned 82 points in the sprinters classification, and taken the Green Jersey. He's got a decent team and he's ridiculously agressive.

Robbie McEwen Yesterday, he had a 12 point lead on Nazon, and 25 points on Kirsipuu and Hushovd. We like to call that insurmountable, especially for the guy we concede is the best sprinter in the race. Today's crash cost him his entire cushion, and though he's out of green right now, he won the jersey with authority, he's got to be the favorite to get it back.

Danilo Hondo He's still in this by virtue of staying upright. O'Grady and Hushovd have crashed twice on stages they could have earned points, McEwen and Nazon once. Yet he's still losing? Yeah, it's by four points, but everything possible has gone his way, and he's still not in Green. He hasn't finished better than fourth in a single stage. He's in the hunt, but I don't think he has a real chance.

Erik Zabel The old master is 8 points down and he's in the same boat as Hondo. congratualtions for managing to stay on your bike. However, he's at least shown flashes that he can win a stage, finishing third today, and 2nd in Stage Three. You can never write off perhaps the greatest sprinter in cycling history, but he needs the favorites to keep making mistakes. Because Zabel won't make them.

Jean-Patrick Nazon Down by 14, he's about the only man who did not benefit from McEwen's fall, since he was caught in the same accident. The fall, while bad for McEwen, was even worse for Nazon. A day ago, this was a two-man race with the chance of someone else making a run. Now, it's a free-for-all.

Jaan Kirsipuu I like Kirsipuu, but since that Stage One victory, he's finished 6th, 7th, 12th, and now 25th. See a trend? How does he avoid the crash and manage only one measley point at the final line? I hate to say he's done, but... he's done.

Thor Hushovd Whenever Gioia dishes out criticism of someone, they do great the next day. Whenever I give praise, they repsond with a miserbale day. I'm just happy Piil didn't get struck by lightning today. Hushovd's had the exact opposite Tour as O'Grady. When things go wrong for one, they go right for the other. hushovd was the first to lose serious time due to a crash, and today he had a chance to make up lost points when McEwen went down. Only Hushovd went down as well. He's 27 points behind O'Grady, not insurmountable for a guy who looks like one of the best two or three sprinters out there. But he's got to do something fanatastic over the next three days.


Oh, and because I know you're curious, Erik Dekker was involved in the crash. He also was assessed a minute and half penalty, so while everyone else kept the same time, Dekker managed to drop to 17:09 back overall. The law of the Tour is still in effect, when there is disaster, there is Erik Dekker.

What a difference two days makes!

American sports media doesn't understand cycling. They think the Tour is only "The Lance Armstrong Show" and nothing else. The guys at ESPN probably don't know what the Green jeresy is, and they probably think Levi Leipheimer is a Dutch jeans designer. So, I'm going to focus on the Green jersey in the aftermath of stage 6. As for the yellow--everyone got the same time and it seems as though none of the contenders were hurt in the crashes, so no change until tomorrow (maybe).

There was huge news today as Stuart O'Grady took the Green jeresy from Robbie McEwen. Prior to stage 5, O'Grady had 32 points, 10th overall and far behind McEwen's 93. In the last two days O'Grady has scored 83 points, 53 of which came in his stage 5 victory. He now is two points ahead of McEwen.

How'd this happen? Well, first their was O'Grady's big ride in stage 5. Amazingly, he had the legs to be second in the stage 6 sprint. And because of the crash at the end of stage 6, McEwen, Hushovd, and Nazon all failed to finish at the front, so no points for them. This has allowed a lot of sprinters to gain ground--O'Grady, Hondo, and Zabel did best. Check out this list of the top 10 after 6 stages.

place. Name, points (points in last two days)

1. Stuart O'Grady, 115 (+83)
2. Robbie McEwen, 113 (+20)
3. Danilo Hondo, 111 (+37)
4. Erik Zabel 107 (+41)
5. Jean-Patrick Nazon 101 (+16)
6. Jaan Kirsipuu 89 (+15)
7. Thor Hushovd 88 (+18)
8. Tom Boonen 75 (+35)
9. Baden Cooke 53 (+22)
10. Magnus Backstedt 50 (+40)

Cooke and Backstedt really have no chance of catching up. Boonen, Hushovd, and Kirsipuu are long shots, but still clinging to their chances. But ahead of them we have 5 men separated by 14 points. This could be a very tight finish, and remember, there aren't many sprinting points available once we hit the mountains. So these guys are going to be at each others throats for the next 5 stages.

McEwen is still the odds-on favorite to win--he's the best and he's high in the rankings. O'Grady has a ton of momentum and we know he'll nickel & dime his way through the intermediate sprints to keep pace. Zabel and Hondo lack the speed to win stages, but they have been consistent enough to put themselves in the thick of things. Nazon, Kirsipuu, and Boonen have all won a stage, and Hushovd was close. Another stage win by these guys would go a long way for their chances. But by no means should we expect someone to get an obscene number of points (like 80) in a two day period. On the other hand, anyone picking up less than 20 points in a bunch sprint may be kissing his chances goodbye.

The great tragedy of stage6

A moment of silence, please, for a totally unexpected disaster. Alessandro Petacchi and Mario Cipollini have abandoned the Tour. Neither one pulled up to the start of stage 6.

I don't know if the Tour could or should go on without them. It's as though the Tour has lost a part of its soul...

the part that quits at the first sign of difficulty.

STAGE FIVE

Can we get some love for Jakob Piil? This is the third time in four road stages that Piil has been involved in a breakaway. It's nice that this one fianlly stuck, and I always like to see the lesser riders in the Tour have their day in the sun. All in all, cycling is a pretty thankless sport, so we try and bend over backwards to recognize some of the anonymous members of the peleton. CSC's not going to have someone win the race, but they have been all over the place in the early goings.

Armstrong's out by 10 minutes, but none of the riders ahead of him are a threat, and everybody knows the big guns will quickly erase the gap come the mountains. It was agood decision by Postal to just hang back today. The weather was terrible, not just the rain which played a role in some more big crashes, but the wind. Postal and the other GC contenders frankly decided O'Grady and Casar weren't worth the effort. And, really, they aren't.

Thomas Voeckler is the French cycling champ. He's wearing yellow, and upon losing that, he'll probably still be in white. Things are going well right now for him and for French cycling. Hey, we're the French! We don't suck!

It's really only a matter of time before Petacchi drops out seeing as he crashed today and has less chance of winning the Green than I do. And while most of the peleton came in a little over 10 back, I'd like to mention another rider who managed to lose closer to twelve: Erik Dekker. Where there is disaster, there is Dekker.

Stage 5

Finally, a successful breakaway. And what were the odds Stuart O'Grady would be involved? Stewart is one of our favorite riders because he fights for every little thing out on the flat roads--stage wins, bonus points, you name it. Now that's two days in a row a team I've slammed has responded--first Euskaltel in the time trial, now Cofidis with O'Grady's stage win. From now on, I'm going to as for payment before I put teams down.

I usually have plenty of reasons to put down French cycling, but they've done very well this first week. Nazon won stage two and is looking good in the race for the green jersey. Now Thomas Voeckler, who is French despite the German name, wears yellow. He could keep the lead for a few days, as he's got a three minute lead over O'Grady in second and almost 10 minutes on Lance Armstrong.

The contenders will make up that time on the first day in the mountians, so they aren't worried. They should be worried about the weather. This Tour has seen more rain than Wimbledon, and there will probably be more in the next few days. Today there were several crashes. Roberto Heras, Manuel Beltran, and Robbie McEwen were all involved, but all managed to finish without major problems. But still, it stands to reason that if we keep having so many crashes, eventually, one of them is going to knock a big name out of the Tour.

STAGE FOUR

OK, the new rules suck. The limit on the amount a team can lose on a time trial cost Armstrong about forty seconds to Hamilton, Ullrich, and Mancebo (who is 1:01 out, not 30 seconds). Still, the psychological blow is pretty important. There just wasn't anybody even competitive with the Posties. It's doubtful this Tour will come down to 40 seconds, so riding hard to drop the hammer like this is pretty important.

I liked the Phonak strategy. It's not a particularly deep team, so instead of letting the slower riders bog them down, they dropped them like a bad habit. They needed five riders to cross, and sure enough, exactly five crossed together. It was a strategy which hid the team's weakness of an extremely thin lineup.

Some of the dark horses are holding strong. Leipheimer's 1:08 out due to Rabobank's 6th place finish. The Dutch team had a miserable Tour last year, but they seem to have bounced back and will be a threat for both the team title and maybe, just maybe, to get their guy on the podium.

Mancebo, Jason already talked about. Banesto isn't riding like a B-team.

And has anyone else noticed how well Team CSC is riding right now? Even a crash today didn't cost them that much time. They simply regrouped and got their big gun, Basso, back in the group. He's 1:17 out, and Sastre is only 2:02 down. They have two other riders in the top 20, including the former Next Big Thing, Bobby Julich. They should have lost 1:46 to Lance, but the change in rules kept their loss down to 50 seconds. They have three guys who are legit podium threats right now.

Of course, we haven't hit the mountains yet. So all of this is sort of academic, but it this is where riders position themselves for the big climbs. We don't really have climbs until stage 9 or 10. So Armstrong will probably lose the yellow sometime by the weekend, only to regain it by the following weekend.

Team time trial: USPS delivers in the rain

The rain provided bad conditions for the team time trial, but in the end the major contenders all finished near the top. USPS really blew the field away, beating the next team by over a minute. Because of the stupid rule changes limiting the time lost, they only put 20 seconds on the second team, Phonak. Anyway, here's a review...

1) USPS: Totally dominant. They crushed the field even more than they did last year, even though they dropped a rider early on the course. Lance gets the yellow jersey, which they will not defend. USPS gets robbed because of the rule changes regarding time. But now everyone knows who has the best team in the race.

2) Phonak (+0:20). They were actually 1:07 behind USPS. Phonak was awesome on this course. They took a gamble by dropping a few guys in order to ride only their strongest 5 men to the finish. The gamble paid off. I thought Tyler Hamilton went to a weaker team when he left CSC for Phonak, but they were on task today. Hamilton now sits in 8th position overall, 36 seconds behind Armstrong, 19 seconds ahead of Ullrich.

3) Banesto (+:30). Right behind Phonak. A really strong ride. No one ever notices Francisco Mancebo, but he sits only 30 seconds behind Armstrong.

4) Telekom (+:40) Had the rules been based upon time lost, not finishing position, they would have lost only 12 seconds to Phonak, not 20. I just mention that as yet another illustration that the Tour directors suck eggs. Ullrich has always had trouble with team time trials. This was a good result for them. He's only 55 seconds behind Lance.

Others...
CSC, Rabobank, and Liberty finished 5th, 6th, and 7th. So Basso, Leipheimer, and Heras did well to avoid losing a lot of time. Currently Basso and Leipheimer are within 80 seconds of the lead; Heras is down 1:45. It could have been a lot worse.

The boys in orange must have read the hatchet job I did on them yesterday. They responded with a really good time trial. Euskaltel finished 7th, putting them +1:20 behind USPS in the final tally. I expected them to be close to 17th, not 7th. This is as good as they could have hoped for. Mayo and Zubeldia are placed #92 and #95, about 5:30 behind Armstrong. They'll rise up a lot once we hit the mountains. If either manages to finish in the top 10, it'll be in part because of a good effort in the team time trial.

Cofidis and FDJeux were totally horrible, finishing 17th and 19th. FDJeux was totally blown apart and staggered home 7:33 behind USPS. Last year they were doing everything right. This year nothing is going right for them. As for Cofidis, their tour was gutted before it started when David Millar was suspended for doping. They have no motivation and it shows.

Why it sucks to be Iban Mayo.

Mayo didn't have to have his hopes die in stage 3. For sure, that was a bad crash at a bad time, and for sure, the guys at the head of the peloton made it hard to catch up. But this was a classic case of why a contender needs a good team. Mayo's Euskaltel-Euskadi team is a low budget team of all Basque climbers. They are one dimentional and lack experience in controlling a grand tour. So, when Roberto Heras and Ivan Basso had help from their Liberty and CSC teams, Mayo had crummy help from Euskaltel. CSC and Liberty worked together to bridge a gap, and the gap was smaller than Mayo's, but Mayo had about 30 miles to bridge the gap, which was only about 90 seconds for a long time. But he only had three teammates, none of which are good flat-landers. They were undermanned--Euskaltel only started with 8 riders because one was not allowed to start after a positive drug test. They were also poorly organized in setting up the chase. Contrast that to the way USPS controlled the tempo before, during, and after the cobblestones.

Mayo is a really good, talented, young rider. If he wants to be a Tour champion he needs to do two things...1) learn how to do a flat time trial, and 2) get a team that can support him. He can still work magic in the mountains and have a good finish in this Tour, but a podium finish would need a miracle.


Stage 4 is the team time trial. Euskaltel is in last place, so they are first out the gate. They are still undermanned, and now extra tired after stage 3's events. They are a weak time trialing team, and we can expect them to lose big in stage 4. Mayo will be 6-7 minutes behind Armstrong, Ullrich, Hamilton after only 4 stages.

Meanwhile, USPS gets the advantage of going last. They'll know exactly what time they need to win the time trial.

STAGE THREE

We have a saying here at Tour de France headquarters: you can’t win the Tour in the first week, but you can lose it. While the sprinters compete for all of those precious points in the green jersey classification, the goal of the top GC contenders is to stay out of danger. The story right now is not that Lance is in fifth, but that he has lost no time to any contenders.

Enter a massive crash today, splitting the peleton in half.

Mayo just lost the Tour. He’s not the most gifted time trialist, and his strategy was obvious to everyone, build a lead over Armstrong big enough that he couldn’t eat it all up in the last time trial. Mayo essentially needed to beat Lance by about three minutes over the course of the race. Now, make it seven. While Mayo had a shot of beating Lance by three minutes on the course, there’s no way in hell he’ll beat him by seven. I hate to say this so early, but it’s over for Mayo.

Another guy who just saw his Tour hopes flushed down the toilet is Thor Hushovd. Apparently, I jinxed him by saying he was having such a great Tour. Well, getting caught in that crash puts him 23 points behind McEwen, the kind of gap that takes an entire race to close. Hushovd has to beat McEwen in almost every sprint from now until Paris to have a real chance of winning. He should pick up Kirsipuu and Hondo in short order, but Nazon has now positioned himself as the closest contender to McEwen.

I’m not going to give you everybody that ended up losing time to the leaders, but let’s hit the highlights, other than Hushovd and Mayo:
Mario Cipollini He’s having a lousy Tour so far, and we never thought he’d be a threat, but it’s still a bummer to see a former great go down.
Denis Menchov Banesto’s captain is now down by almost five minutes.
Jose Ivan Gutierrez He wasn’t going to win, but Banesto lost a rider currently in the top ten.
Santiago Botero This actually helps Ullrich, as there is even less temptation for the team to ride for someone else.
Christophe Moreau Every year, the French think he has a chance of winning the yellow and every year, he lets them down.
Stuart O’Grady and Baden Cooke Two Aussie sprinters go down. They have no shot of winning the green now.
Michael Rogers An even bigger loss for the land Down Under. He could still win the white jersey, but this is a huge setback.
David Moncoutie I’ve been charting him as Cofidis’ best GC hopes. Farazijn is now the highest placed Cofidis rider, in 85th over one minute out.
Sandy Casar Not a real contender, but he was FDJ’s best hope. Do they now ride for Mengin?
Erik Dekker Wherever there is lost time, there is Erik Dekker.

In all, 93 riders of 184 finished at least 3:53 back. This was a huge day on the Tour. So tonight on SportsCenter, they’ll mention the winner of stage (Nazon), who’s now in yellow (McEwen), and where Lance is in the GC (5th). They will not grasp this was as big of a day as we’ll see in the first week.

STAGE TWO

For the first time ever, the maillot jaune belongs to a Norwegian. Thor Hushovd, so far, is having the best Tour of any rider (yeah, I know it's only Stage Two). He was the only sprinter to earn points on the Prologue, and his Stage One ride earned him the Green Jersey. Today he traded up for Yellow.

The most interesting thing is that Hushovd didn't have a good day. He was involved in a crash about 20km from the finish and had to ride with a cracked frame. After sorting through various mechanical difficulties, he had to catch the Peleton, work his way back to the front, and then sprint for the line. Let's just say it's safe to assume he used a lot of energy before that final sprint. And though McEwen blew everybody's doors off, Hushovd still finished third despite all of his travails. The race for Green is shaping up as a race between those two.

So now is the time to ask, what the hell is going on here? Fassa Bortolo is riding extremely well, getting Petacchi into perfect position, and he has failed to deliver. This is completely out of character. Zabel looks like an old man, not even a factor in these late sprints. OK, we didn't think much of Cipo's chances, but he's still in a tie for 17th place. Big whoop. So the old legends and the new star have failed almost completely so far, but so have some of the more reliable sprinters.

Cooke and O'Grady have been even more invisible than Petacchi. Aren't there supposed to be several Aussie sprinting threats? Look at the Green Jersey leaderboard. Hushovd's at 68, McEwen 65, and then Kirsipuu at 55. And he's won a stage. Hondo and Nazon round out the top five, and they are already 20 points out. It's Monday for crying out loud.

STAGE ONE

What the hell happened to Petacchi? He's not my favorite rider, and my wife is still working on a sneering nickname for him, but he's supposed to kill in these sprints. Fassa did all of the work today, they dominated the peleton, reeling in a minor breakaway and setting up their man to win the stage.

And then... nothing.

Petacchi never materialized at the front of the sprint. Hushovd dictated the sprint, but probably went out a little too early, losing to Kirsipuu and McEwen. McEwen had some terrible positioning and came out late, but still almost won the sprint. Even watching on replay, I only noticed the first three, as Hondo and Nazon were virtual non-factors in the furious final moments. I have to say, McEwen looks like the strongest sprinter, despite not winning the stage today.

Hushovd picked up another intermediate sprint, coupled with his nice finish yesterday, he gets to wear the Green Jersey. He's only got three points on Kirsipuu, and more importantly, 8 on McEwen. That early time trial may loom large as we continue through these sprinter's stages. Cipo, as expected by us, was a total zero.

Where were Cooke, Petacchi, and Zabel? What's going on?