Le Tour - incl spoilers

uberwolf

I've deliberately not included mention of Armstrong in teh thread title, it'd be easy to describe this tour as his swansong and nothing else. perhaps he deserves that though after his performances of the last 6 years where he has rewritten the history books. Great piece in todays indo by phil ligget on that topic which I'll tag on here.

But what of the race itself and the other pretenders? Basso looking good, will a contender emerge from within Discovery channel for subsequent years? - I've a gut this could be the case 1-2 for discovery.

full start list

Ullrich seems destined never to stamp his authority on this race that his talent suggested he once may have done. Cycling history is littered with such names, in truth the halycon days of cycling are the ones in which two greats have faced up to each other with no one dominating the other - unfortunately this was not a role Ullrich could fill convincingly.

Basso is up and coming and has made Armstrong look vunerable on the climbs already - he'll be marked this year and no other team seems in position to compete man for man across all nine riders.

Speaking of teams CSC have been very combatative in stage races for the last season and a half - expect some big performaces there, especially with a former tour winner as Director Sportif.

By Alasdair Fotheringham
Published: 02 July 2005

In athletics or Formula One a victory lap rarely lasts more than five minutes - but if recent history is anything to go by, the equivalent for Lance Armstrong could well end up starting today when he begins the Tour de France and taking three weeks to complete.

The Texan has won the Tour a record six times, and this year's race is always likely to be remembered for having been his last. Armstrong has admitted that in his 10th and last crack at the race, his objective is to "go out at the top of my game".

He will, he added during his pre-race press conference on Thursday, be taking part "to win, but also to have enjoyed my final Tour. I'm not chasing a legacy". That, after all, is already in the bag.

Part of his motivation, he said, is "a way of paying tribute to our team's new sponsor, Discovery Channel, who came into this business when I was on the point of quitting and knowing I was only around for one more Tour. Then I also want to win for my children, who will be on the race throughout for the first time this year, even if they don't really know what colour each jersey [for each of the separate competitions within the Tour] represents."

Should Armstrong be beaten in his final pursuit of the yellow jersey, the winner will be irrevocably linked to the 33-year-old as the man who foiled the American in his attempt to round off his career in perfect fashion.

But regardless of the outcome, six years of winning Tours is ample time for the Texan's achievements to have had a huge knock-on effect in areas hitherto untouched by cycling.

Armstrong got off to a remarkable start by making a comeback after suffering from testicular cancer - particularly because his explosion on to the Tour scene followed on the heels of the scandal-ridden 1998 race.

He formed the Lance Armstrong Foundation in 1997 to work with cancer sufferers, its most impressive success being the sale of yellow wristbands printed with Armstrong's motto - Livestrong. Priced at a dollar a throw, 50 million have been sold and they began an international fad for bracelets in all colours for a host of different causes. His popularity has soared to such an extent in the United States he is now rated 15th on Forbes magazine's list of the 100 most powerful celebrities.

But there is a darker side to the Armstrong story: the number of pending legal battles he faces when he retires, many of them connected with allegations of doping, runs into two figures, although with nothing but circumstantial evidence, they have boiled down to a question of opinion.

And although his fan ratings may be high in the States, he remains an unloved figure in France - at the end of last year's Tour, a poll placed him as the third most unpopular sports figure in the country.

"After he's gone, the Tour will recover interest it maybe has lost with Armstrong," Laurent Jalabert, the most prominent French cyclist of recent years, said.

"I'm not going to walk on water, I'm not a politician," was all Armstrong would say when asked if he wanted to be admired by 100 per cent of all cycling fans in France during this year's Tour. "I have had more support [in France] recently, and it's appreciated."

But the cynics might ask if the increase in cheering is because the public know that when he rides by it will be the last time they see him.

And what of the sport itself? Armstrong has concentrated so exclusively on the Tour, even bypassing last year's Olympic Games, that other events, such as the World Championships, have become almost completely eclipsed. How long will they take to recover their original status cannot be resolved until he takes his leave.

"Will I miss him?" Jan Ullrich, the rider who has come closest to beating Armstrong over the years, was asked on Thursday. "Of course - like many fans of the sport will, too.

"He's been the big star of the Tour for many years, and I hope that if he wins and has a party afterwards, I'll be invited."

For Armstrong, the 2005 Tour is already his farewell celebration. Quite how interesting it will be for the rest of us depends largely on how many of his rivals get to gatecrash it.

If all of them have had their fair share of injuries and illnesses in the past, not even Armstrong's meticulous build-up could prevent him from taking a tumble early last week.

Stung by a wasp while out training, he fell so hard on his head he broke his helmet, but he brushed aside his injuries, saying: "I'm ready, in form and maybe feeling stronger than usual."

Alasdair Fotheringham writes for 'Cycling Weekly'

uberwolf

well blow me anyway.

Ullrich destroyed, Basso 1 1/2 down. Only vino within the minute - who here expected that?

CrowdedHouse

Hammer blow to Ulrich only minutes into the Tour,wonder did his accident on Friday make any odds.Shows what a super run it was by Zabriske to win the TT

Boonen going well

da_deadman

Boonen going very well indeed. Yesterday was the perfect sprint by Boonen. It was reminiscent (sp?) of cipollini back in the day... I hope boonen goes on to win the green jersey now.

I, too, was surprised by the deficit that Ullrich and Basso have already lost. But, I think, it doesn't really change anything. To win this Tour they (and everyone else) have to attack Armstrong and attack hard. Team CSC, T-Mobile and Liberty Seguros all have strong teams and they must set a hard pace to try to get rid of Armstrongs team mates. If Discovery Channel are allowed to set the pace as usual then Armstrong will win as easily as he did last year.

I'm really hoping for fireworks from Mayo in the mountains. And a glimpse of the talent of valverde...

CrowdedHouse

da_deadman wrote:

To win this Tour they (and everyone else) have to attack Armstrong and attack hard. Team CSC, T-Mobile and Liberty Seguros all have strong teams and they must set a hard pace to try to get rid of Armstrongs team mates. If Discovery Channel are allowed to set the pace as usual then Armstrong will win as easily as he did last year.
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agreed deadman - it seemed to me last year that the other contenders were trying to join US Postal !........i.e sit on with Armstrong and hope to take him on in the final,but there was only going to be one winner in that situation. They have to exert some physological pressure on him,even just some token attacks instead of him having an armchair ride

happygoose

Poor Zabriskie, had he fallen inside the final kilometre, he would have been even on overall time with Lance. Thats cycling. Race starts proper on Sunday, nobody's going to beat Armstrong bar he falls

uberwolf

25 km checkpoint

1. Team CSC 25'36"

2. Liberty Seguros at 6"

3. Discovery Channel at 15"

3. T-Mobile Team at 15"

5. Credit Agricole at 33"

46 km checkpoint

1. Team CSC 47'08"

2. Discovery Channel at 6"

3. T-Mobile Team at 7"

3. Liberty Seguros at 20"

5. Phonak at 49"

67 km - Arrival

1. Discovery Channel 1h05'10"

2. Team CSC at 2"

3. T-Mobile Team at 36"

3. Liberty Seguros at 53"

5. Phonak at 1'31"



apparently he fell just metres outside the 1k mark???

wowy

Yeah it wasn't too far from it, only a couple of hundred metres. Apparently he was covered in blood when he crossed the line. I saw the fall on sky. Looked quite painful. He was lucky not to have smacked his head off the barrier.

righthand

happygoose wrote:

Poor Zabriskie, had he fallen inside the final kilometre, he would have been even on overall time with Lance. That's cycling. Race starts proper on Sunday, nobody's going to beat Armstrong bar he falls

My first post to Board.ie. Armstrong dons the 'Yellow Jersey', so what's new. Could the circumstances be more dramatic? I agree that nobody's going to beat him "bar he falls" but is that tempting fate. Zabriskie may have believed that he'd done enough to hold onto 'yellow'.

da_deadman wrote:

To win this Tour they (and everyone else) have to attack Armstrong and attack hard. Team CSC, T-Mobile and Liberty Seguros all have strong teams and they must set a hard pace to try to get rid of Armstrong's team mates. If Discovery Channel are allowed to set the pace as usual then Armstrong will win as easily as he did last year.

But they would need to combine as if one to achieve this. I don't see this happening. They would need to agree a combined team leader. No chance, too many egos. I'm not at all sure if it would be within the rules if it was apparent. It might be interesting, but my sentimental side says Armstrong deserves it. As against that my desire for drama and excitement says, bring it on.
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da_deadman

AFAIK, in the team time trial there is no 1km rule. so even if DaveZ had fallen inside 1km to go he still would not have got the same time as teh rest of his team. But with him for the final 1.5km I think they could have won it.

First of all righthand, welcome to boards.
Secondly, I dont think those teams need to collude as if they are just one team but they should all attempt to set a tough pace. If Ullrich, Basso and/or Heras decide they want their teams to set a tough pace at the front they all have the necessary domestiques at their disposal.
Ever since 1999 the US Postal / Discovery Channel tactics have been exactly the same. They control the pace in the mountains and ride very hard to get rid of the teammates of Lance's rivals. Then on the final climb to the summit Lance takes flight to win the stage. After 6 years of losing to this strategy it's about time that T-Mobile, CSC, Liberty Seguros, Illes Balears and anyone who wants to win change their tactics and become aggressive.

If your the boss at T-Mobile then why not send Vinokourov and Kessler attacking up the road in the Vosges on Sunday with Ullrich and Kloeden sitting on Lance's wheel. Then in the Alps on Tuesday get Ullrich to attack. At least then they are racing to win and not just finish second.
Likewise CSC have Basso, Sastre, Julich and Voight....
Liberty Seguros have Heras, Beloki, Jaksche, Gonzales de Galdeano, and Serrano...
Illes Balears have Mancebo, Karpets and the explosive Valverde.

They all have the potential to attack but if they sit on Lance's wheel hoping to contain him in the mountains then they will have already lost...

happygoose

1 km rule applies alright.

BTW any of you who are into a bit of a flutter and know a bit about cycling, paddy power have ridiculously good in running prices. check it out during the stages.

dearg_doom

I was watching the TG4 highlights last night and that was one of the strangest time-trials I've ever seen.

TeamDiscovery and TeamCSC were so evenly matched, I wonder how it would have ended if Bjarne Risse had the same budget as Discovery.

The stage(67km) was fairly straight and flat until the last 10 or so whe it crests a mountain and the finish is downhill and very twisty.

At the last time check CSC were 2seconds faster.

How it finished...

TeamDiscovery finished powerfully, they were getting faster as the stage went on, while every other team was slowing down.

Through the twisty finish they were on the ball and committed to every turn.

When CSC came up to the twisty part, Zabriskie was in the middle of the line, but the front runner seemed to be going very slowly, probably concerned about not going into the corner too fast. Zabriskie was obviously uncomfortable about going so slowly though and he took a strange line compared with his squad, trying to get them to hurry up I guess.

Then as they turned the corner to come up to the 1km banner, he fell!

The only coverage was from behind the squad and he was the only one who fell.

The comentators didn't pick up on it but there was a policeman, talking to someone in the crowd, I think, standing right were he fell. They presumed he hit the barrier, but I think he hit the policeman. Regardless it was a stupid position for the cop to be standing.

Whatever happened it was terrible luck for him.

da_deadman

When watching the highlights on tg4, I'm sure Paul Sherwen said the 1km rule doesn't apply for the ttt, and last year Gibo Simoni fell in the last km of the ttt and rolled in to the finish thinking he would have the same time as his team but he ended up losing 2 minutes on them.

Anyway, today's stage seems to have finished up with some excitement. The wet conditions and the climb near the finish (even if it was only a small one...) seem to have really livened things up. The Tour should take a look at this years Giro with the climbs near the finishes in the first week so that the overall GC contenders are active for the entire 3 weeks. I'll definitely have to watch the highlights of todays stage.

da_deadman

What a great weekend of racing. The Vosges and Jura climbs are tougher than the riders seem to expect. I was so happy to see T-Mobile and Illes Ballears actually taking the race by the scruff on Saturday and making for some exciting racing. I was practically screaming at big Jan to go for it.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's stage now. I hope that Ullrich's crash yesterday won't have any affect on him for the Alps.

Although it would be better if Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwen were commentating and not those Irish guys. Was anyone watching it yesterday when they kept calling Christophe Moreau 'Francis Moreau' (who is a great track cyclist of course). :rolleyes: although I think my Irish is getting a bit better, I could nearly understand some of the things they were saying, maybe I could have done better in my Irish aural exam if it was about cycling...

uberwolf

I'm sickened, I haven't seen a minute of this yet.

The write up in teh papers suggested that Discovery did far better yesterday than saturday.

dearg_doom

It would have been hard for them to do any worse lol:) from the highlights, they were shocking on Saturday; it looked cool though to see all the attacks!

Today will be interesting.

I am getting sick of seeing Crow's mug every time Lance farts though >_>


@da_deadman: maybe the TG4 guys were talking about Francis Moreau?

da_deadman

Yes, on Sunday the Discovery train were setting the tempo on the front, although I was surprised that they let Rasmussen and Moreau gain so much time. Both of those guys are strong climbers and Moreau is also a capable time triallist.

There have been stories that the Discoveries were simply bluffing on Saturday to let the other teams think they are not so strong, but that would be a very dangerous game to play.

I guess we will know more today. I am very encouraged by Bjarne Riis comments yesterday that to beat Lance they will have to attack and not just follow. Hopefully that's not just empty words....

da_deadman

maybe the TG4 guys were talking about Francis Moreau?

maybe they were, but they never mentioned poor Christophe and he was in the excellent break with Jens

CrowdedHouse

Could be very interesting on the final climb to Courchevel today.T Mobile and CSC will surely try to test the Discos again.Hope Basso has a go,I've nearly given up on Ulrich

(Am tempted to try to sneak offf to get a look at it)

Downtime

Ullrich at '55 - Discovery on fire.BASSO CRACKS!!! SO DOES MANCEBO!!! THEY HAVE BEEN DISTANCED BY THE LEADERS!!!
Armstrong is killing everyone.

PH01

Downtime wrote:

Ullrich at '55 - Discovery on fire.BASSO CRACKS!!! SO DOES MANCEBO!!! THEY HAVE BEEN DISTANCED BY THE LEADERS!!!
Armstrong is killing everyone.

Yip looks like it alright. Barring mishaps, Armstrong should have the yellow jersey with 4 minutes to spare by this evening.

Could this be the day that the Tour is won?
I think so.

Downtime

Should only have ti by 1 minute or so as Moreau is only 2 minutes behind on the mountain and 40 seconds or so ahead on GC

Downtime

Oh Moreau has cracked - I take it back

CrowdedHouse

PH01 wrote:

Could this be the day that the Tour is won?
I think so.

All over bar accidents
I suppose in theory LA could have a bad day in the mountains and lose several mins.,but I dont think it going to happen.

Yawn !

da_deadman

Wow! What a day... Again, the Discovery Channel / US Postal boys just ripped the peloton to pieces. Armstrong is only 38 seconds in front of Rasmussen but I don't think that the Dane will threaten him. Lance knows he has a few minutes over Rasmussen for the final time trial.

Perhaps the real dangerman could be Valverde. Some people were unsure if he could last on the 20km climbs of the Alps but he looked very comfortable today. If he comes through tomorrow ok, then he could try and do something in the Pyrenees or the Massif Central. I hope so because he is such an exciting rider.

Mancebo is one of the most unsung riders out there, in the last 2 years he has been top ten in both the Tour and Vuelta, with a deserved podium in last years Vuelta. He rode a very determined race today, when he looked the most uncomfortable guy in the lead group.

What a pity for Ullrich to finally train and prepare properly but then crash on the day before the opening time trial and then again before the first mountain stage. But I'm sure he will do his best to get up on to the final podium.

As for Heras, Mayo, Vinokourov, Zubeldia, Menchov, etc. Where were ye? and what happened? dissapointing to say the least...

p.s. well done to Joseba Beloki. he rode a gritty race after getting dropped on the final climb. he is now 21st overall but it's great to see him back in the Tour after that crash in 2003.

uberwolf

Vino did some good today, but to be fair I'm sure Discovery could have reined him back at will...

netwhizkid

Once again drugs taints the tournament, I think Lance Armstrong will again this year, but isn't this supposed to be his last year ? I would be amazing if he won again this year and decided to go for 10 in a row, it'd take 3years but i'd say he's capable !

uberwolf

eurosport commentary suggesting this is the best stage a tour has seen for years...


anyone watching this?!?

PH01

uberwolf wrote:

eurosport commentary suggesting this is the best stage a tour has seen for years...


anyone watching this?!?

Saw some highlights on TG4. It'll be remember for a while alright.

It was kinda like Stephen Roche's second place on stage 19 of his victorous 1987 Tour. That was the one where he needed oxygen afterwards. Remember it well.

da_deadman

uberwolf wrote:

eurosport commentary suggesting this is the best stage a tour has seen for years...


anyone watching this?!?

yeah, it was a fantastic stage. I'm glad I was able to see it.

I was delighted for Totschnig. I was hoping he would be top ten this year again but I think he will be happy with the stage win.
The T-Mobile attack when Guerini set a huge pace with Vino and Jan on his wheel and only Armstrong hanging on behind them was brilliant. It was such an exciting day where the strong men came out and showed their strength.

righthand

Team Mobile won the team event. Armstrong is out - for now anyway. Which team decides who wears No.1. I'm reasonable sure it's Discovery. Anyone know for sure.

.

da_deadman

Yeah, I'm sure it'll be one of the Discovery riders wearing no.1 next year, that's definitely what happened in the same circumstance before.

Well, I think that was a great Tour, much better than in 2004. There was not so much of a battle for the yellow jersey like in 2003 but the main protagonists had to battle it out on some fairly flat stages, medium mountains and high mountains and that was unusual.

Congratulations to Armstrong, and he deserved it. He always looked comfortable and like he was having a good time.
But well done, also, to Basso, Ullrich (and all at T-Mobile), Mancebo and a few others for attacking and trying to race for the win.

I'm quite looking forward to next year...