Stage 8

The Team Columbia train just keeps on rolling. Cavendish has now taken his second stage, Lovqvist is still in white, and Kirchen is still in Yellow. About the only thing that didn't go perfectly is that Kirchen is now tied for the Green Jersey lead and has relinquished the honors to Oscar Freire.

So, today was the last sprinting stage for awhile and we head to the torture of the mountains. And the race is about to sort itself out.

Not really much to say about today as it was just a holding pattern until we enter hell.

Things get tricky for Triki

Manuel Beltran has been removed from the Tour for failing a drug test (EPO) after Stage 1. Beltran is on the Liquigas team, but was on USPS/Discovery a few years ago when Lance Armstrong was busy writing the record books.

1) It took a week for the Tour to pull the plug on him. Was that because they were careful to get the testing accurate?

2) Now that he's been caught, will he say that Lance Armstrong took dope too?

Stage 7

We get excited when a breakaway succeeds because the peloton usually reels them in. Today Luis-Leon Sanchez did something even more impressive. He was in a breakaway that got caught around 5 km from the finish, but he attacked a few minutes later and held off the chase. And while I criticized Banesto for bringing a talented team that had not won a stage since 2005, they've won two of the first 7 this year.

Most of the yellow jersey contenders finishing together, 6 seconds behind Sanchez, whose premature celebration came close to costing him the win. The exceptions were Cunego and Zubledia, who seem to like riding in the middle of the peloton so they can get lost when the field splits because of a hill or crash. They finished in a bunch 33 seconds behind Sanchez.

All of the sprinters were in that group too (or further back). So, they didn't win any points on the finish line. Kim Kirchen, however, finished 4th, which is good for 18 points. He also won points in the second intermediate sprint. In the first sprint, Robbie Hunter and THOR! scored 6 and 2 respectively, so Kirchen attacked on the second sprint, taking 4 points while Freire got 6. So, it's clear that the sprinters have a big problem. Kirchen isn't just keeping the green jersey warm for the sprinters, he's taking this very seriously, and now has 119 points. Freire and THOR! trail with 91 and 90 points.

The KoM changed hands again today. David de la Fuente picked up 24 points today to overtake Chavanel. See, this is why we mock the poseurs who keep the KoM jersey warm before the big mountains...they aren't strong enough climbers to contest the little category 2 & 3 climbs on consecutive days. Chavanel and Voeckler didn't contend for squat today.

Telekom Revisited

We used to get a lot of mileage making fun of Team Telekom. Mainly because they answered the question of "Is it possible for a team to be too talented?" with a resounding yes. It was a beautiful demonstration of total dysfunction. The question wasn't if Telekom was going to dissolve into bickering factions, but when.

So, now the Ullrich is retired, Zabel is on Milram, and Kloden and Vino are on Astana and not even at the Tour, Telekom gets a makeover. And I'm not even talking about the new name in Team Columbia - High Road.

Lovqvist is in White. And he's not a fluke, he really can win it. Cavendish won a stage. And Kirchen is technically in both Yellow and Green. This is a team that looks like it can do anything right now. They lost all of their stars, but they look like a better team. Heck, even Hincapie looks good right now. They look, dare I say it, harmonious.

I kind of miss the old days.

Columbia doesn't wear Dots

It would be nice if someone from the Columbia team led the King of the Mountains race, because they would have a compete set. They'll have to settle for holding the yellow jersey, the green jersey, the white jersey, and the team time lead all on the same day.

Two category 2 climbs made for a good stage. Naturally, the long breakaway failed, but not before Sylvain Chavanel racked up enough points to take the KoM jersey from Voeckler. They're tied in points, but since Chavanel won a cat. 2 climb, he gets to wear the dots. This was an odd mountain stage because the climb was only cat. 2, so there was a large bunch of riders together at the front for the final climb--41 finished within 1 minute of the stage winner. Yet, neither Chavanel nor Voeckler was among them. Yeah, they're not the best climbers, are they?

Back to Columbia, though. Kirchen leads the whole race in time and in points because he's finished in the top 11 in 5 of the 6 stages. Thomas Lovkvist has worn the white jersey since the time trial. George Hincapie has been finishing strong too to give them 3 high places every day. You can argue that the yellow jersey just fell into Kirchen's lap today. It looked like Schumacher would hang on, but he clipped Kirchen's wheel in the last km and fell, causing him to finish 28 seconds behind Kirchen.

Oh, by the way, Riccardo Ricco Suave won the stage by sprinting past the lead group in the finishing strait. If he didn't suck at the time trial, he might lead the whole race. Banesto took control of the pace on the last climb for Valverde. They didn't get anything for it, other than tired. This sets a precedent, though. The other teams will see them as the de facto leaders and they're obliged to set tempo even if they don't have the jersey.

Correction: I was wrong about the team time. Garmin-Chipotle retains the lead, ever so slightly. CSC is in second at +0:19, and Columbia is third at +0:20.

I'm a Moron

About the only thing I've learned during this first week of the Tour is that I am a total moron.

I make fun of Agributel, they win a stage. I pooh pooh Gerolsteiner, they win a stage and have Schumacher in yellow. I write off Cavendish, he wins a stage. I marvel of Kirchen, he decides to not contend a sprint. I say the crash isn't that bad, it turns out Soler broke his wrist and he's out of the Tour

Seriously, I got nothing. I've been about as wrong as someone can be in the first week. So it was nice that things reverted back to form in Stage 5. It was the kind of stage that made perfect sense. Even if, once again, it made me look stupid.

This has already been an exiciting Tour and we're only five stages in. We aren't even in the mountains yet. How great is this?

Stage 5: A Return to Normalcy

Checklist for a normal flat stage...
Three Frenchmen from lesser teams go on a 200+ km breakaway. Check.

The peloton catches the breakaway in the last few kilometers. Check. Check plus for reeling in Nick Vogondy with about 100 meters remaining.

A bunch sprint finish dominated by the guys who ought to be winning sprints. Check.
1. Cavendish
2. Freire
3. Zabel
4. THOR!
5. Cooke
6. Hunter
8. McEwen

A sprinter takes the green jersey from Kim Kirchen. Check.
1. THOR! (88)
2. Freire (85)
3. Kirchen (81)
4. Zabel (71...points, not years)

How abnormal that things went the way they normally do!

The profile for stage 6 suggests it might not be normal. Two category 2 climbs should break up the peloton, but since they are only cat. 2, they probably won't separate the elite climbers from everyone else like, say, an Alp would. It may give Kirchen a chance to get points at the expense of the sprinters again.











image from letour.com

What's Old Is New

There are two riders right now who are riding like a throwback. One is good and one is, well, maybe not bad, but it isn't something I like.

That would be Cadel Evans. I know we're supposed to rally around the English-speaker, and I do tend to like the Aussies on the Tour, but I just can't bring myself to root for Evans. In fact, I desperately want him to lose. Nothing personal, but I just don't want to see someone rewarded for dusting off the old Inudrain strategy of "win the time trial and just hang on in the mountains".

It can be effective, just ask Indurain. But it is also excruciatingly boring. It's just not good for the sport for the contenders to not attack each other in the mountains. Now, if it's just one or two guys, like Evans and Menchov, I guess it's not a big deal. It's just one strategy and different styles are always welcome. But winning tends to breed imitators, and I'd hate to see Evans' strategy to be emulated. So I'm nipping it in the bud. I want him to lose, just so we see more attacking cycling.

And in just under 30 km, he put in at least a minute into every contender save Menchov and our other throwback, Kim Kirchen.

In fact, Evans didn't put any time into Kirchen. Kirchen took nine seconds from Evans, which means almost nothing. But Kirchen is doing something we just never see in this era of specialization: he's looking like a contender in two separate classifications.

Kirchen's probably not going to win the Tour, but he is a legit contender. And he's in 2nd place overall right now and can actually climb. He did finish 7th in last year's Tour and he's got a great team behind him. I think we need to take him seriously in the GC.

But he's also contesting the Green Jersey. He's not just in the Green as some fluke. He now holds a 17 point lead over Hushovd, and look at his finishes in each stage:

1st Stage - 4
2nd Stage - 2
3rd Stage - 11
4th Stage - 4

He was one of the strongest rider in the "classics" style stage. He was one of the first guys across the line in both bunch sprints we've seen. And unlike the other Green Jersey contenders, he can actually win points in the mountains. He doesn't have to win these sprints, just keep finishing top five and then pick up some more points in the mountains.

When was the last time we've seen a guy be a viable threat in both the Yellow and Green Jersey competitions? Hopefully, he can keep this up. He doesn't need to win, but it would just be great to see a guy legitimately contest in both classifications.

The Little Race of Truth

The Stage 4 Individual Time Trial was less than 30 km, but it still produced impressive time gaps. Just ask Alejandro Valverde or Yaroslav Popovych.

The hero of the day was Stephan Schumacher of Gerolsteiner, so for two consecutive days, teams we ripped in the preview come up with a nice result. Schumacher was so good today, he beat the world champion time trialist by 33 seconds. For his trouble, he also gets to wear the yellow jersey with a 12 second lead over Kim Kirchen & David Millar.

Other winners:

Kim Kirchen was second on the stage and is now second in the overall standings. I think I will start taking him seriously. Yeah, we’re not through the first week yet, and anyone can crack in the mountains, but so far Kim Kirchen has been awesome. He still wears the green jersey and he’s got the lead on all the yellow jersey contenders.

Cadel Evans finished 4^th, only 9 seconds behind Kirchen. He’s in great position too.

Denis Menchov finished 6^th, so he reclaimed much of the time he lost due to the crash in stage 3. He’s now a minute behind Kirchen, but ahead of Valverde.

Cunego, Valverde, Sastre, Pereiro, and Frank Schleck sustained moderate damage, less than 2 minutes to Kirchen. That’s substantial time, but not devastating.

Big losers: Zubledia and Popovych lost more than 3 minutes. So, there will be no controversy at Lotto—Popovych works for Evans. Maybe Zubledia should take the hint and realize he should go for a stage win in the mountains.

The other big losers were the TV audience whenever Vs. went to the in-car camera. It was painful. They make such a big deal about the cyclists getting great information from the team managers. Well, based on what we saw, that information consists of “Go! You look good. You can make up the gap. Go!” I thought the guys in the car were having a who-can-be-more-vapid contest.

But how about Columbia. They had 3 men finish in the top 11 in the time trial. They’re now second to Chipotle in the team standings. Kirchen wears green again, and Thomas Lovkvist wears white.

The Breakaway Wins!

Quick show of hands…anybody predict that Roman Feillu of Agritubel would wear the yellow jersey?

Didn’t think so.

Just a couple days ago we practically said the whole team rides bikes with training wheels.

It’s nice to see a breakaway succeed. Feilli, Frischkorn, Borghini, and Dumoulin put in an amazing effort to stay away for 200 km and win by 2 minutes. Those guys were even strong enough for an exciting sprint finish in the final km, won by Dumoulin. Since a Frenchman won the stage and a Frenchman now wears yellow, the Frenchmen who run the Tour, in their magnanimity, awarded the American, Frischkorn, with the bogus title of most aggressive rider, which is normally reserved for the Frenchman who tries hardest yet still loses.

Perhaps more importantly, the crash in the peloton in the last 20 km split the field, and the lagging group couldn’t catch up. At the finish line the back half of the peloton, including Menchov and Ricco, finished 40 seconds behind the yellow jersey. Doh!

Robbie McEwen led the chase group to the finish, and it’s a big deal for him to beat Hushovd, Freiere, et al to the line, but the difference in points is muted a bit by the breakaway gang taking the top 4 spots. Instead of 35 points for a stage win, he got 22 for a 5^th place finish. Zabel, Hushovd, and Freire were 6^th-8^th. Kim Kirchen finished 11^th, close enough to hold the green jersey over Hushovd by 5 points.

Tour Ambiance

For a couple years the other cycling blogs poked fun at Al Trautwig, co-host of Tour coverage on OLN/VS, and not because of his name, either. The guys at tdfblog.com gleefully announced that he was ditched this year. I don't know if VS. didn't want him back or if he decided to work the Olympic Trials & Olympics instead. Whatever the case, I don't join the ongoing Trautwig-bashing party. Yes, he asked a lot of neophyte questions--that was his job. If the network only wanted hardcore cycling fans who do 100 miles a week to watch, they'd never have a large enough audience to pay their bills. He wasn't brilliant, but I didn't find him annoying or pompous. I thought he was actually good at his job--the desk jockey who gets the discussion rolling on the topics at hand. But have you seen what they replaced him with? It's only been two days on the job for Craig Hummer, but jeez...it doesn't take long for me to hit the mute button or change the channel when he's talking.

Trautwig photo lifted from http://bp2.blogger.com.

The other ambiance note has to do with VS. commercials. Poseur already ripped the commercial featuring the dopers. I thought that the visual effect of showing those guys in reverse was clever, but the music is depressing. The commercial is too much art and it misses the mark, plus it's pretty tacky to show Erik Zabel's son in a commercial about cheaters. There is a second commercial that hits the bullseye. We love this sport because these guys are masochists. Voeckler is a great poster boy for this ad. Screw the critics, the dopers, and the doping police. We watch because guys like Voeckler are willing to suffer.

Stage 2: Thunderstruck

Thor is a bad man.

I have an unabiding man crush on Thor Hushovd. I didn't pick him to win the Green Jersey this year mainly because I didn't want to pick the guy I was openly rooting for. It clouds my judgment. But, I should've picked him because he is the God of Thunder. And he is awesome.

It's been tough going for the sprinters. Instead of nice flat stages ending in a bunch sprint, we've had really difficult hilly stages which have favored the roulers instead of the sprinters. So, of course, a sprinter won anyway. But of the major Green Jersey contenders, only a few finished in the top 10: Hushovd (1st), Hunter (4th), Zabel (5th), and Friere (7th). It's hard to say that the other guys won't be contenders, but those are the sprinters who managed to show some all-around ability to be in the final sprint. Another stage out of the points, and Cavendish and McEwen can pack up and go home.

But what is Kim Kirchen doing? He's in green right now and finished second at the line. He even had a lead out. Is he trying to contest the sprinters jersey? Or is he just trying to show he is a contender? Or just trying to grab a stage win? I don't really know. But he's been one of the most interesting riders over the first weekend save Thomas Voeckler.