Sunday, July 15, 2007

Carnage in the Alps

I haven't been able to watch the stage yet, so I actually gasped when I saw the list of today's 8 withdrawals:

146 PARRA Ivan Ramiro (COL) COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE withdrawls
136 HERVE Cédric (FRA) AGRITUBEL outside time limit
134 FEILLU Romain (FRA) AGRITUBEL withdrawls
86 NAPOLITANO Danilo (ITA) LAMPRE-FONDITAL outside time limit
46 MC EWEN Robbie (AUS) PREDICTOR - LOTTO outside time limit
35 O’GRADY Stuart (AUS) TEAM CSC withdrawls
23 CAVENDISH Mark (GBR) T-MOBILE TEAM withdrawls
21 ROGERS Michael (AUS) T-MOBILE TEAM withdrawls

O'Grady crashed and his injuries sound serious: "punctured one lung, broke his collarbone, shoulder blade, five ribs as well as some bones in his spine".

Personally, I hope this day - with O'Grady and McEwen out - improves old Erik Zabel's chances of wearing the green jersey a few more times, particularly on the last day in Paris. I think the decision to strip his green jersey win from 11 years ago is nasty, particularly when other living Tour winners have admitted to taking anabolic steroids while competing. Like, for example, Floyd Landis is accused of doing. But they're French. (Right now Zabel is in 2nd place with 134 points to Tom Boonen's 147 points, and Boonen couldn't finish the Tour in 2005 and 2006).

Our old friend Wim Vansevenant (Lanterne Rouge for the 2006 Tour, Belgian rider for Predictor-Lotto) is our new Lanterne Rouge from this stage. This is his 4th Tour de France. He's already shown that he's capable of surviving the entire 3 weeks of the Tour, and he's made it to the rest day now - maybe he'll make it to the bitter end.

Vansevenant is the seventh man to hold the Lanterne Rouge title in this up-for-grabs Tour, and we're only at the end of Stage 8. However, he's far ahead of five of the previous holders of the title - he's still in the Tour, and they're not. Vansevenant has been earning his paycheck riding in support of his teammate, sprinter Robbie McEwen, although obviously now that tactic will change since McEwen is out of the Tour.

66 riders arrived at the finish line and their well-earned rest day in the huge autobus, all assigned a time of 39:07 after the stage winner. That results in our final five riders in the General Classification as:

168. CHARTEAU Anthony 104 CREDIT AGRICOLE 16:51:19 + 01:13:37
169. HOSTE Leif 45 PREDICTOR - LOTTO 16:51:28 + 01:13:46
170. KUSCHYNSKI Aleksandr 156 LIQUIGAS 16:51:56 + 01:14:14
171. ZABRISKIE David 39 TEAM CSC 16:52:22 + 01:14:40
172. VANSEVENANT Wim 49 PREDICTOR - LOTTO 16:54:56 + 01:17:14

Well, if the Big Z loses a couple more minutes to Vansevenant, we may be able to talk about him as Lanterne Rouge after all. I have a feeling he would just laugh and bide his time until the 54-km individual time trial next Saturday, July 21st. Right now he's doing the job he is paid to do out there.

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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Stage 3: Waregem - Compiègne

Stéphane Vervalle captured Tomas Vaitkus's pain after the crash in Stage 2. He had surgery that evening for multiple breaks of his thumb.

Despite the incredible size of the pileup in yesterday's stage, and an endless 236.5-km stage to ride today, Vaitkus was the only rider involved to leave the Tour. 187 riders remain.

Fully 14 riders lost small amounts of time in today's stage as they straggled in after a long, long ride:

174. ARVESEN Kurt-Asle 32 TEAM CSC 06:36:52 + 00:00:37
175. ANTON Igor 72 EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 06:36:58 + 00:00:43
176. TOSATTO Matteo 178 QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC 06:36:58 + 00:00:43
177. HINAULT Sébastien 108 CREDIT AGRICOLE 06:37:04 + 00:00:49
178. ZANDIO Xabier 19 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 06:37:07 + 00:00:52
179. CUESTA Inigo 34 TEAM CSC 06:37:07 + 00:00:52
180. BENNATI Daniele 82 LAMPRE-FONDITAL 06:37:07 + 00:00:52
181. DE GROOT Bram 53 RABOBANK 06:37:07 + 00:00:52
182. NUYENS Nick 145 COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 06:37:07 + 00:00:52
183. CHARTEAU Anthony 104 CREDIT AGRICOLE 06:37:07 + 00:00:52
184. ONGARATO Alberto 187 TEAM MILRAM 06:37:12 + 00:00:57
185. VANSEVENANT Wim 49 PREDICTOR - LOTTO 06:37:12 + 00:00:57
186. O’GRADY Stuart 35 TEAM CSC 06:37:12 + 00:00:57
187. ZABRISKIE David 39 TEAM CSC 06:37:20 + 00:01:05

Cuesta, O'Grady, and Zabriskie probably wore themselves out working hard to protect the yellow jersey on their teammate Cancellara - which paid off enormously, saving Cancellara enough energy on the long route to allow him to dramatically won another stage today.

However, with a 9-minute deficit, our current Lanterne Rouge Aleksandr Kuschynski may not be dislodged until the mountain stages. Here are our final five riders in the General Classification after Stage 3:

183. AUGE Stéphane 142 COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 15:16:22 + 00:04:14
184. VANSEVENANT Wim 49 PREDICTOR - LOTTO 15:16:29 + 00:04:21
185. HERVE Cédric 136 AGRITUBEL 15:16:29 + 00:04:21
186. ZABRISKIE David 39 TEAM CSC 15:16:32 + 00:04:24
187. KUSCHYNSKI Aleksandr 156 LIQUIGAS 15:21:09 + 00:09:01

Auge joined the breakaway today at about 58 km before the finish, and tonight will sleep in the polka-dot jersey.

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Saturday, July 07, 2007

He did it again!!

Here are the final five finishers of the 2007 Tour de France Prologue in London:

185. HERVE Cédric 136 AGRITUBEL 00:10:20 + 00:01:30
186. DEGANO Enrico 214 BARLOWORLD 00:10:20 + 00:01:30
187. VANSEVENANT Wim 49 PREDICTOR - LOTTO 00:10:22 + 00:01:32
188. NAPOLITANO Danilo 86 LAMPRE-FONDITAL 00:10:23 + 00:01:33
189. LOBATO Ruben 206 SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR 00:10:41 + 00:01:51

Wim Vansevenant was the overall Lanterne Rouge of the 2006 Tour de France, but amazingly, Ruben Lobato is in the exact same position he was in after last year's prologue in the Lanterne Rouge spot. In comparison, Stuart O'Grady of CSC who crashed on the course finished 28 seconds faster than Lobato, coming to the line in 00:10:13 in the 179th slot.

What an exciting start to a fascinating Tour!

Oh, and just in case anyone scoffs at Robato's performance - he completed the course at an average of 27.5 mph. Just try maintaining that on a bike for 4.9 miles on a loop course and report back before you declare that is anything but amazing speed.

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Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Stage 5: Estonian Lanterne

TombakIker Flores has relinquished his position as Lanterne Rouge today to rider #127 Janeck (or Janek) Tombak, the blonde Estonian rider on the Cofidis team - due to that little crash not far from the finish line, which caused him to have to replace his bike's chain on international television and pedal in alone. It must have been outside the 3-km mark, since his final stage time was longer than the peleton. He holds Lanterne Rouge position by a 43-second margin.

The Daily Peleton said of him earlier, "Former Estonian champion Janek Tombak will also be helping “Stuey” [sprinter Stuart O'Grady] while still concentrating on his own race. A competent sprinter, the Tour de Picardie winner had several sprint top tens last year, and will be looking for the same kind of finishes this time round, though he is still capable of infiltrating a breakaway. However, with his speed, he is a good leadout man and will have no qualms about helping his Australian captain in the final kilometre."

Unfortunately today also saw the first rider abandon the 2005 Tour, Constantino Zaballa, a Spaniard riding for Saunier Duval, a teammate of our first Lanterne Rouge Leonardo Piepoli. We previously mentioned that Zaballa lost time in Stage 3. Cyclingpost.com says Zaballa "attempted a final attack in the second kilometers of Wednesday's stage, but was soon caught by the pack, after which he called it a day. The abandonment comes as a surprise, as Zaballa was one of Saunier Duval's most influential riders this season, with a third place in the final classification of Paris-Nice as most notable result."

Later update: Cyclingnews.com reports that Zaballa had a knee injury in the team time trial, and was suffering throughout the previous night.

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