Monday, July 06, 2009

Stage 3: Marseille to La Grande-Motte

There is a time cutoff for every stage of the Tour de France which determines which riders are disqualified for arriving at the finish line too late. However, I seem to be unable to calculate what the cutoffs are for each stage (the specific stage information may be in handbooks given to the team members, but it doesn't seem to be online), so I have to find out after-the-fact with everyone else.

Today Alan Perez Lezaun of Euskaltel-Euskadi and Dimitry Muravyev of Astana (Lanterne Rouge of the 2008 Giro d'Italia) finished together fully 13:49 after the stage winner. This put Alan Perez Lazaun into the Lanterne Rouge slot in the overall standings at 16:24 aggregate time behind the current maillot jaune wearer.

The team time trial is tomorrow, and I'll go out on a limb and predict that Muravyev will not be one of the riders who crosses the finish line with the team. His job will be to blow himself up well before the finish line pulling the team for all he's worth.

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This item posted by Nancy Toby @ 5:19 PM  5 comments

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Stage 1 Monaco individual time trial

Yauheni Hutarovich, riding for Francaise de Jeux, became the Stage 1 Lanterne Rouge of the 2009 Tour de France today. He finished in 180th position in the 15.5-km individual time trial in Monaco with a time of 23:23. If my calculations are correct, that gives him an average speed over that super-hilly course of 24.71 mph.

This is his first Tour de France for the sprinting specialist. Hutarovich is currently the road race champion of the nation of Belarus and therefore has the right to wear their national colors.

Placements today of previous Lanternes Rouges:

Geoffroy Lequatre (Stage 5, 2007): 99th
Filippo Pozzato (Stage 3, 2006): 101st
Bernard Eisel (Stage 19, 2008): 103th
Dimitry Muravyev (2008 Vuelta a Espana Lanterne Rouge): 122nd
Sébastien Joly (multiple stages, 2006): 129th
Aleksandr Kuschynski (Stage 1, 2007 and 2008): 165th
Mark Cavendish (Stage 7, 2007): 177th

Looking at Mark Cavendish's finishing position, the rider who may be the world's best sprinter at this time ranking 4th-to-last overall, I am reminded to make the point that the position in the General Classification says nothing about the inherent athletic ability of the cyclist, and everything about the important job they each play on their own team.

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This item posted by Nancy Toby @ 2:01 PM  3 comments

Sunday, June 28, 2009

2009 Tour: Former TdF Lanternes Rouges

Here is the substantial roster of former Lanternes Rouges (last place for at least one day in the General Classification in the Tour de France, 2005 and later; or last overall in another recent Grand Tour) who may be riding in the 2009 Tour:

Cut from roster:
Française des Jeux: Remy di Gregorio, Stage 4, 2007
BBox Bouygues Telecom: Evgeny Sokolov, 2009 Giro d'Italia Lanterne Rouge

Confirmed:
Agritubel: Geoffroy Lequatre, Stage 5, 2007
Astana: Dimitry Muravyev, 2008 Vuelta a Espana Lanterne Rouge
Columbia-Highroad: Mark Cavendish, Stage 7, 2007
Columbia-Highroad: Bernard Eisel, Stage 19, 2008
Française des Jeux: Sébastien Joly, multiple stages, 2006
Katusha: Filippo Pozzato, Stage 3, 2006
Liquigas: Aleksandr Kuschynski, Stage 1, 2007 and 2008

The fun starts this coming Saturday! Don't forget, I will be posting daily short updates on Twitter this year as TdFLanterne, and may not be doing extensive blog posts as in the past. Please be sure to subscribe to our Tour de France Lanterne Rouge feed there!

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This item posted by Nancy Toby @ 8:44 AM  0 comments

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