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.
Labels: Boonen, Cavendish, Charteau, Herve Feillu, Hoste, Kuschynski, McEwen, Napolitano, O'Grady, Parra, Rogers, Vansevenant, Zabel, Zabriskie
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Stage 5: Chablis to Autun, the first sorting
There were 184 finishers of today's stage, and 110 of them lost time today by finishing behind the first large bunch of riders.As expected, Rémy Di Gregorio was unable to begin the stage.
The biggest time gap of the day was for our new Lanterne Rouge and final rider across the line, Geoffroy LeQuatre, rider for Cofidis. (He was photographed at left by Ed Tarwinski at the Tour of Spain.) LeQuatre had a fairly serious crash at the feed zone at 66 km into the stage when another rider's musette became entangled in his wheel. He struggled to reach the finish 21 minutes after any other rider. (Note: Some reports are saying LeQuatre withdrew; but he has an official finish time for the stage, and he's not on the official list of withdrawals. I wonder if some lazy journalists just wrote him off as a goner and filed their reports before he finished).
Brett Lancaster, an Australian rider on the Milram team (affectionately known as the Lactose Lads) abandoned today at about 80 km. According to Cycling News, he had started the Tour with stomach issues, crashed, and was also suffering from a saddle sore. Fortunately that loss didn't impede teammate Erik "I'm too old for this sh!t" Zabel from pulling on the sprinter's green jersey for the first time in this Tour after crossing the line fifth for the stage.
And I nearly forgot to mention that the STAGE WINNER Filippo Pozzato is a former Lanterne Rouge - Stage 3 of the 2006 Tour! Chapeau, Filippo!
In other news, former Tour de France Lanterne Rouge (2006, stage 1) and Giro d'Italia winner Danilo DiLuca has just passed his first hurdle in being exonerated when an Italian judge cleared him of doping charges.
Labels: Di Gregorio, DiLuca, Lancaster, LeQuatre, Zabel
Thursday, May 24, 2007
The whole truth
Some notable professional cyclists are confessing to doping these days, but the picture that they paint just strains my credulity.
"Aldag said he carried out blood transfusions to increase his red blood cell count and bought EPO on the Internet. "In 1997, for the first time I began to have a guilty conscience," Aldag, 38, said.
* He bought EPO on the Internet . . . in 1995? From whom? Drug-trafficking internationally? What, over a BBS? The Internet wasn't like it is today - eBay was only started in late 1997, amazon.com was only first launched in 1995.***
"Zabel said he only took EPO for one week in 1996 before abandoning it because of the side-effects."
* Even though there are few side-effects discernible to the user, and Aldag said he could feel no side-effects. I'd venture a guess that Zabel's side-effects of winning two stages and the sprinter's jersey at the 1996 Tour de France might have been considered worth it.
* Even though an EPO test was only introduced to professional cycling in 2000, 3 to 4 years after the allegedly final doping incident. And Aldag says he used it up until 1999.
How about the whole truth, guys?
I didn't think it was possible, but the Bjarne Riis non-admission doping admission sheds even LESS light on the subject. That may take the record for the longest press release which says precisely nothing.
He was only slightly more explicit in the live press conference.
What's the French statute of limitations on such things? Would it be cynical to guess that everything these guys are confessing to happened well prior to the statute of limitations?
***Ah, Aldag's purchase of EPO on the Internet took place in 2002, which makes much more sense. Which he said he didn't use. Which doesn't.
"Aldag said he carried out blood transfusions to increase his red blood cell count and bought EPO on the Internet. "In 1997, for the first time I began to have a guilty conscience," Aldag, 38, said.
* He bought EPO on the Internet . . . in 1995? From whom? Drug-trafficking internationally? What, over a BBS? The Internet wasn't like it is today - eBay was only started in late 1997, amazon.com was only first launched in 1995.***
"Zabel said he only took EPO for one week in 1996 before abandoning it because of the side-effects."
* Even though there are few side-effects discernible to the user, and Aldag said he could feel no side-effects. I'd venture a guess that Zabel's side-effects of winning two stages and the sprinter's jersey at the 1996 Tour de France might have been considered worth it.
* Even though an EPO test was only introduced to professional cycling in 2000, 3 to 4 years after the allegedly final doping incident. And Aldag says he used it up until 1999.
How about the whole truth, guys?
I didn't think it was possible, but the Bjarne Riis non-admission doping admission sheds even LESS light on the subject. That may take the record for the longest press release which says precisely nothing.
He was only slightly more explicit in the live press conference.
What's the French statute of limitations on such things? Would it be cynical to guess that everything these guys are confessing to happened well prior to the statute of limitations?
***Ah, Aldag's purchase of EPO on the Internet took place in 2002, which makes much more sense. Which he said he didn't use. Which doesn't.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Hell on Wheels
However did I miss this film for so long? It's FANTASTIC.Required viewing for any fan of professional cycling - it gives the whole backstage saga from the inside of the T-mobile bus in the '03 Tour, the year Jan Ullrich took his sabbatical with Bianchi. The year Tyler broke his collarbone. The year Lance rode across that field.
Here's their lineup that year:
21 - BOTERO Santiago COL
22 - AERTS Mario BEL
23 - ALDAG Rolf GER
24 - GUERINI Giuseppe ITA
25 - KESSLER Matthias GER
26 - KLÖDEN Andréas GER
27 - NARDELLO Daniele ITA
28 - VINOKOUROV Alexandre KAZ
29 - ZABEL Erik GER
I can't get enough Zabel. He's amazing.
Available for rental from Netflix, if you're a member.
Labels: films, Hell on Wheels, Zabel
