Sunday, July 25, 2010

Malori is 2010 Tour de France Lanterne Rouge

Congratulations to Adriano Malori, Italian rider on Lampre, for finishing the 2010 Tour de France - an accomplishment that 27 of the starters this year failed to achieve. He rode a total of 2263 miles in 3 weeks at an average speed of 23.4 mph - and half the time he was riding faster than that! His pace over the course, finishing as Lanterne Rouge, was a mere 1.1 mph slower than the Tour winner. Bravo to Malori!

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Saturday, July 24, 2010

999 scooches

From my calculations, that's how many times Alberto Contador scooched back in his saddle during the individual time trial today.

Bert Grabsch, former world champion, rode an incredible time trial today for 3rd place on the stage, pulling himself out of the Lanterne Rouge slot.

Adriano Malori of Lampre regained the Lanterne Rouge of the 2010 Tour de France on the penultimate stage and will have the honor of carrying it into Paris.

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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Bicycling.com challenges Lance

Could Lance Armstrong rise to the challenge of becoming the first American Lanterne Rouge of the Tour de France?

I have my doubts, personally. I don't think he's built that way.

I also figured out that he would need to lose an average of 22 minutes per remaining stage, more or less, to make it to Paris as Lanterne Rouge. Not very likely.

In other news, here's a blog post about launching the Lanterne Rouge on the Col de Madeleine.

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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Think it's easy?

Those who jest about coming in as Lanterne Rouge at the Tour de France should read David Millar's account of just how "easy" it is to finish last in a stage.

Or read about Kenny Van Hummel's incredible ride in 2009.

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Sunday, July 11, 2010

Volatile

Things keep changing every day in this Tour! Stage 8 and we have 6 different Lanternes Rouges already. Stage 8 brings us the second time for Dimitriy Murayev of Team Radio Shack to take the Lanterne Rouge out of 186 remaining riders (including Lance Armstrong who was humbled on this stage). I haven't found any interviews of Murayev from this Tour, but it's a familiar role for him, having finished the 2008 Vuelta a Espana as Lanterne Rouge. (I believe I erroneously posted that it was the '09 Giro before, which was Evgeny Sokolov).

I've been remiss in not posting about each rider - I've been spending the stages twittering as TdFLanterne rather than typing in my blog entries, sadly.

There is, however, an excellent profile of Jesús Hernández here, a good friend of Alberto Contador and holder of the Lanterne Rouge for Astana for two days so far in this Tour.

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Monday, July 05, 2010

Stage 2: Synchronized Skating to Spa

Today's stage was a crashfest on slick descents. When Lance Armstrong says "There was NO WAY to stay on your bike" that means there were probably fairly unfavorable conditions.

Andreas Klier of Cervelo finished in the autobus at 19:03 after the stage winner and an unusual rider-neutralized finish to become the new Lanterne Rouge.

The translated injury report for the day is impressive:

Lance Armstrong: bruising and bruising to his elbow and thigh.
Alberto Contador: abrasions and bruises on the right flank.
Andy Schleck: hit to leg and arm after tough tumble.
Frank Schleck: injuries to the arm and leg.
Roman Kreuziger: cases, injuries unknown.
Robert Gesink: folded back on smooth pavement, ulna fracture
Jurgen Van den Broeck: pain in finger and wrist. No fractures.
Kevin Seeldraeyers: complained about everything and anything.Further participation is not compromised.
Bradley Wiggins: abrasions on legs and arms.
Tyler Farrar: bulged to 19 minutes of Winner Chavanel inside. Grabbed the back, immediately transferred to hospital for further investigations, where an elbow fracture was found.
Christian Vande Velde: hapless leader Garmin. Also to hospital.
Mickaël Delage: problem after zygomatic fractures, wrist and collarbone.
Julian Dean: also to hospital
Alessandro Petacchi: hit on the wrist
Paolo Tiralongo:
knee pain
Vasyl Kiryienka: heavy bruising
Egoi Martinez: many bruises
Niki Terpstra injuries to right arm.
Robbie McEwen: gaping wound in the elbow should be attached.
Vladimir Karpets: to hospital
David Zabriskie: knee pain after fall
Remy Di Gregorio: knee pain after fall

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Sunday, July 04, 2010

2010 Tour begins!

In the Prologue in Rotterdam, the final finisher was Manuel Cardoso, a Portuguese rider for Footon-Servetto. He finished in 197th place after crashing and coming in nearly 3 minutes after other riders 6:20 back from the race leader, covered with blood and reportedly having incurred a broken jaw.

Cardoso did not start Stage 1.

At the end of stage 1 crashfest, the Lanterne Rouge of 195 riders was Dmitriy Muravyav, the Kazakh on Team Radio Shack. The slot is a familiar one to Murayev, who was the overall Lanterne Rouge of the 2009 Giro d'Italia.

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