Tom Boonen won in a sprint finish to take today's second stage ahead of Thor Hushovd and Robbie McEwen. Boonen picked up 35 points for the victory and will wear the green jersey tomorrow. Zabriskie and Armstrong remain atop the GC, but Hungarian Laszlo Bodrogi picked up some sprint time bonuses while in a long breakaway and moved ahead of Hincapie and Vinokourov into 3rd place, 47 seconds behind Zabriskie. Thomas Voeckler, also in the breakaway, won the cat 4 climb and will wear the polka dots tomorrow, to the delight of the French fans. Another French rider in the break, AG2R's Sylvain Calzati, will wear the red number for most aggressive rider in today's stage. I thought there was a points system for determining the "most aggressive", but apparently, it's just voted on each day by a panel of judges.
Great stage 1, I was happy for DZ that he hung on. He is, possibly, the most nervous in front of a camera of any athlete ever, but still. It will be interesting to see his progress over the next few weeks. I feel better about Lance after that stage 1. I wondered in the other cycling thread if he was sandbagging a bit in May, continuously talking about how out of shape he was to catch us all off guard. I guess he was. That was a world class throwdown, and the sight of him blowing past Ullrich was both shocking and humiliating. I almost feel bad for the guy. I don't know if Lance will win, but he certainly appears fit. With a minute on the field 2 stages in, it would be an epic collapse in his terms if he didn't. I like that the French government gave him an extra drug test. Just gives him more ammo to win, and, if he does, I wouldn't begrudge him a celebratory finger in their direction as he takes his final circle around the Champs.
Stage 3 La Châtaigneraie - Tours 212.5 km = 132 miles. Mountain passes & Hills Km 190.5 - Côte de Pouzauges - 1.2 km climb to 4.8 % - 4 Category Km 51 - Côte de Chinon - 0.9 km climb to 6.6 % - 4 Category Km 33 - Côte de la Taconnière - 1.0 km climb to 3.2 % - 4 Category Jersey Holders Yellow- General Classification- David ZABRISKIE Green- Sprint Points- Tom BOONEN Polka Dots- Mountain Points/King of the Mountain- Thomas VOECKLER White- Young Rider- Fabian CANCELLARA Overall Standings 1 D Zabriskie US Team CSC 4: 12.27 2 L Armstrong US Discovery @ 00.02 3 L Bodrogi Hun C Agricole @ 00.47 4 A Vinok'ov Kaz T-Mobile @ 00.53 5 G Hincapie US Discovery @ 00.57 6 F Landis US Phonak @ 1.02 7 F Canc'lara Swi F Bortolo @ 1.02 8 J Ullrich Ger T-Mobile @ 1.03 9 J Voigt Ger Team CSC @ 1.04 10 V Karpets Rus I Balears @ 1.05 Team Standings 1 Team CSC 1:04.44 2 Discovery Channel @ 0.04 3 Phonak @ 1.33 4 Gerolsteiner @ 1.42 5 T-Mobile @ 1.51
I imagine you'll see Voeckler in the breakaway again tomorrow, he'll be desperate to get a yellow before the mountains. I don't think he'll do it, but i think he'll give it his all trying. That way he'll at least hold onto his polka dots a bit longer even if his quest for yellow fails.
That was a great sprint finish except for McEwen trying to nudge O'Grady out of position near the finish. Good thing McEwen was relegated to the back of the field by the tour officials.
I think I'll change my pick for the green jersey to Tom Boonen. What a beast. Don't know quite what McEwen was doing there. Good day for Erik Dekker on the long breakaway - he took over the polka dot jersey and will also wear the red number for most aggressive rider for the next couple of days. No change in the team standings or the GC of course. Team CSC will start last in tomorrow's TTT, with Team Discovery going out just ahead of them - whichever team goes faster will almost certainly hold the yellow jersey - Lance or Zabriskie. My money's on Lance. Ought to make for fun viewing.
Erik Dekker is just a crazy man. I love him out there - king of breakaways now. Boonen - WOW. Beast. Lance - Yellow Who's going to be king of the mountains?
Boonen is a stud. McEwen misbehaving again. I was really hoping that Dekker and Portal would stay away to the finish. Really gusty performance. Team time trial tomorrow, I'm pumped. Looks like a battle between CSC and Discovery, with Phonak, Gerolsteiner and T-Mobile in the mix.
Wow, Boonen is certainly quite good. I'm not a huge fan of the team time trial. Admittedly, I'd hate it a good deal more if I were, say, German. It should be interesting between CSC and Discovery in the TTT. BTW, why were Stage 2 and the French Grand Prix scheduled at roughly the same time and not exceptionally far apart?
As much as I've enjoyed the Postal(discovery) time trial streak, I don't think it would be wise for Lance to take over the yellow this early in the race. Defending it for 16 stages is a monumental task even for Discovery.
But Lance will have plenty of chance to give up the yellow jersey between now and the mountains if he wants to some enterprising attacker like Voeckler last year. The TTT has always been a point of pride for him and this being his last one, I don't think they'll sandbag. But it's a real advantage for CSC to go last. We'll see. BTW, here's the profile: Some nastiness at the end. Could be a few raindrops over those hills as well. I can't seem to find the start times for today's race, but this should be the order of the teams as it's the reverse of the current team standings: Eusklatel-Euskadi Lampre-Caffita AG2R Prevoyance Saunier Duval-Prodir Cofidis Credit Par Telephone Davitamon-Lotto Liquigas-Bianchi Bouygues Telecom Francaise des Jeux Domina Vacanze Quick Step-Innergetic Rabobank Illes Balears-Caisse D'Epargne Credit Agricole Liberty Seguros-Wurth Team Fassa Bortolo T-Mobile Team Gerolsteiner Phonak Hearing Systems Discovery Channel Team Team CSC I think the first team heads out at 14:20 local time (8:20 eastern) with 5 minute gaps between teams, so by my reckoning that would put Discovery and CSC heading out about 10 am with each team being on the road for over an hour.
I always kind of liked the TTT. I thought it was a good way to showcase the teamwork and remind us that there is more to a team than just a Lance or an Ullrich. It's also a good chance to see some of the domestiques (sp) getting spotlight for good riding, which can be inconsistent in the general race coverage.
Wow. I'll tag this result: [result]Team Discovery won the TTT by 2 seconds ahead of CSC, which would've resulted in a TIE for the yellow jersey. I guess Lance would've taken yellow in that case anyway, but as it happened, Dave Zabriskie fell heavily in the final kilometer and straggled across the line a minute or more behind the rest of the team, so sadly, he'll drop way down the GC. He might even be hurt, or it may just have been disappointment.[/result]
You cant actually get much more unlucky, since even with the time loss due to the crash, Zabriskie would still be in yellow if he had not been the one being left behind ... .
Does anyone know of any sites offering free SMS or email updates during the stages? Google wasn't much help. I know of the various live update web sites, but I tend to be in meetings and away from my computer in mornings and would like to be able to get updates. Thanks for any help.
I'm not so sure about that. He was at the very end of their line when he fell, so nobody had to avoid him. In 1.5K he probably wouldn't have had another turn at the front anyway, since Basso was basically pulling them along at that point.
??? ther were 3 CSC team-mates right behind him when he fell, so it surely had an impact, also the immediate "shock" with the team-mates upfront trying to find out what had happned, surely slowed them down... .
Zabriskie was in the 5th slot and had been doing the long pulls all day long. I'm sure had they stayed in tack they would have kept Z-man in yellow for another few days. --- Side note: I like the Liquigas lime green shirts. 2nd note: I do not like the Discovery uniforms. I liked USPS look so much better. 3rd note: CSC is a cool team.
The spelling is good. In Tour de France lingo, however, they're called "les porteurs d'eau" (ie, the guys who are carrying the water bottles for the boss). And teamwork is incredibly important. I've heard the "discovery" manager say he wanted the whole team, the 9 riders, cross together the finish line. And they did, and they won : no man left behind. This team is trained like a commando squad, very impressive. It is so well trained that the climbers, during the today TTT, took the lead in the small slopes at the end. They timed the relays in order to have the right man at the right moment of race (even Lance at the end for the finish line pic ). This Armstrong is not human. Must be made of clockworks inside. PS: and "discovery" average speed today was 57 kph, one of the best ever (that's slightly more than 35mph). They could be arrested for speeding.
The GC after today's TTT: 1.Armstrong 2.Hincapie 55" 3.Voigt 1'04" 4.Julich 1'07" 5.Rubiera 1'14" 6.Popovych 1'16" 7.Vinokourov 1'21" 8.Noval 1'26" 9.Zabriskie 1'26" 10.Basso 1'26" ... 14.Ullrich 1'36" ... 20.Landis 1'50" ... 30.Leipheimer 2'31" That Zabriskie lost a minute and a half on the stage and is still in the top 10 shows just how great his performance was in Stage 1. T-Mobile finished a respectable 3rd to keep Vino and Ullrich within reach of, well, the podium if not Lance. A disappointing day for Landis and Leipheimer whose Phonak and Gerolsteiner teams could only come home 5th and 8th, respectively. Discovery's Yaroslav Popovych takes over the lead in the white jersey competition for young riders. He leads Vladimir Karpets by 57 seconds. Wonder if the team will make any effort at all to keep that, or if they just don't care. He's pegged to be the new team leader after Lance retires, so I suppose they might just tell him "your time will come next year". OTOH, he might just win it anyway.
I think they said 38 MPH. They had a show "The Science of Lance Armstrong", he's not human. His heart is larger than normal and he doesn't build up lactic acid as fast as normal, and he takes in a third more oxygen than normal humans. Freak.