Tour De France Update w/standings

For some news and updates regarding the worlds biggest bike race, click the "continue reading" link. Note that race results are included so don't be dissappointed if your T.V. viewing is spoiled.

STAGE 5:

What I learned watching today's stage was much like every other stage. I need to buy a Saab to carry my motorized wheelchair/scooter around as I go out to pick up my Enzyte. As another wrote today (Taac Hammer), What's next, Ben Gay, All Bran cereal, and Geritol? Is this the advertisers' view of cyclists? Oh, I did see an amazing come back by Vinokourov after he sat down to contemplate whether to go for the big prize or to settle into competition for the yellow shirt of shame (in the end, he went for the yellow rag). Of course to get back into the yellow competition, Astana sacrificed many of it's riders to the several following groupettos and is now mid-pack in the team competition.

One other bit of news, our leader after yesterday, Rémy di Grégorio, was a non-starter this morning. Apparently the pressure of defending the French honor was to much for him so he went home. Or was it some excuse about breaking his elbow?

But just a few kilometers earlier - well actually, quite a few kilometers - Geoffroy Lequatre did something similar. Except he got no team help and put in a massive solo attack to grab the top spot in the overall standings. All of France must now be rejoicing as one of the home boys took a huge chunk of time from even the slowest climbing sprinters. Lequatre took almost 21 minutes out of the second placed rider on the day, Enrico Degano, and over 25 minutes from the slowest climbing sprinters, Mark Cavendish and Danilo Napolitano. Of course we all remember Cavendish for his late crash on the way to Canterbury so perhaps he's decided that his best course of action now is to fight for the one remaining big prize? For now Cavendish will have to be satisfied with having the best placing among the young riders.

Anyway, the standings have all been completely jumbled by this as our favorites completely missed the moves. So here you go, the standings after stage 5:

1)    Geoffroy Lequatre    FRA-COF  24h16'34"
2)    Enrico Degano          ITA-BAR     @ 20'19"
3)    Mark Cavendish       GBR-TMO   @ 23'09"
4)    Danilo Napolitano      ITA-LAM    @ 25'05"
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184)  Fabian Cancellara    SWI-CSC   @  45'38"

STAGE 4:

In today's stage, there was a lot of action in the "car" end of the peleton as riders took rest breaks. Unfortunately for Xabier Zandio, his rest break included a broken collar bone thus reducing our field to 186. At the same time, Rémy Di Grégorio took a break but returned to the peleton. He was seen riding at the back all day (when he wasn't at the doctor's car). That should have warned the boys what was up. However, as things "hotted" up at the end, Rémy went on the attack. Our defending champion was caught out as he was at the other end of the peleton working for his team's green jersey contender. But as soon as his work at the wrong end was done, Wim went straight after Grégorio while being chased by day long break away Matthieu Sprick. Vansevenant was able to hold his deficit on the day to 4'49".

But that wasn't the only chase group. Oh no, a group of six soon joined the chase including three CSC riders. The best placed among the six was David Zabriskie who came in at 5'13" to Grégorio while the peleton was at 7'58". Nearly on terms with Zabriskie was Daniele Righi who we remember as a well placed rider last year.

So all this action changes our leader board as Grégorio takes over the top spot while Vansevenant moves up to third. Zabriskie jumps to fourth and Bram de Groot moves into fifth as the only other rider within 2 1/2 minutes of the leader. But now we have a French leader on French soil. Will it last? Or will the young Frenchman riding his first tour succumb to the pressure? Only time will tell.

Standings after Stage 4:
1)    Rémy Di Grégorio          FRA-FDJ 19h59'26"
2)    Aleksandr Kuchynski     BLR-LIQ    @    30"
3)    Wim Vansevenant          BEL-LOT   @  2'01"
4)    David Zabriskie             USA-CSC  @  2'22"
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186)  Fabian Cancellara        SWI-CSC   @  9'31

STAGE 3:

As usual, the stage started off with a day long break. Those guys gained many minutes while the remaining 185 man peleton sat back fighting for the Lantern Rouge. How hare were they fighting for the prize? I could have kept up with them -  In fact, I could have taken some pulls!!! Now that's some hard fighting going on for the big prize.

But in the end, things did heat up and the big guns came out to play. While the cameras were watching Fabian Cancellara pick up a 20 second time penalty, Dave Zabriskie tried to save team honor by launching out the back. Wim Vansevenant (marked by Stuart O'Grady and Alberto Ongarato) went after the big "Z" but came up 8 seconds short. They were beaten to the line by a few other chase groups one of which included favorite Sébastian Hinault. But the big "Z" put 16 seconds into Hinault and 1'05" into the main bunch (1'21" on his yellow shirt of shame clad teammate Cancellara when the time penalty was included).

Notable in the main bunch was Johan Van Summeren who was the last rider given the same time as the peleton. With a little more self control and a slight touch of the brakes, Van Summeren could have been credited with the same time as Kurt-Asle Arvesen and thus limited his time loss to only 28".

One good move came late in the race when Stéphane Augé and Fredrik Willems bridged to the trailing group. For Augé it was a chance to get points for the jersey of the peas. But he timed his attack to perfection as he started after the third intermediate time penalty point, grabbed KOM points and returned to the peleton prior to the finish line so as to not take any further time penalties. What a move that was!!!

So Zabriskie's big move vaults him up the standings. Meanwhile Augé stays hot on the heels of Vansevenant and Hervé holds down the only French spot on the podium. So the standings after Stage 3:

1)    Aleksandr Kuchynski       BLR-LIQ 15h21'09"
2)    David Zabriskie               USA-CSC @  4'37"
3)    Cédric Hervé                   FRA-AGR @  4'40"
4)    Wim Vansevenant            BEL-LOT @  4'40"
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187)  Fabian Cancellara         SWI-CSC @  9'01"

STAGE 2:

Apparently Cédric Hervé doesn't understand how this works. First he joins the all day "trio off the back". Then he earns himself several seconds of time penalties at the intermediate sprint points. Fortunately for his overall place, he returned to the peleton before the finish so as not to get the big time penalty on the line and thus he kept his second place. But his gap over third place rider Stephane Augé has shrunk to just 7 seconds.

Meanwhile, a large group of riders decided to take a rest break at the stage end. The rest break included the yellow shirt of shame wearer as he attempted to recoup some of his deficit. Riders can often grab a few precious seconds by dropping off the back of the peleton during the final run in to the finish. Unfortunately for these riders, the rules clearly state that those taking a rest break during the last 3km of the stage will be penalized by being given the same time as the group they were with when they stopped. Thus the riders should clearly have stayed on their bikes and simply ridden in slowly. So the rest break did not help any riders in the standings and the overall remained the same (with the time adjustment for Hervé's penalties).

Standings after Stage 2:
1)    Aleksandr Kuchynski          BLR-LIQ  8h44'54""
2)    Cédric Hervé                      FRA-AGR   @ 4'40"
3)    Stephane Augé                   FRA-COF  @ 4'47"
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188)  Fabian Cancellara            SWI-CSC    @ 8:41

STAGE 1:

Early stages are hard to predict as one doesn't know who's on form and who's not, who's going to have good luck and who's not, who's going to get an early seat on the autobus and who's not. And today was no exception as the racing picked up early. In fact the pressure was so hot that Eduardo Gonzalo decided to take a seat in the Caisse d'Epargne team car at kilometer 79. Unfortunately Senor Gonzalo doesn't ride for Caisse d'Epargne, he rides for Agritubel which lead to his disqualification under little known a rule in section 23.b/2 subsection 4.a. which states that a rider who breaks his collar bone while entering a team car other than his own shall be summarily dismissed from the race and forfeit all winnings from said stage. And thus our field of contenders was reduced to 188.

Meanwhile up the road, several riders found themselves with a multi-minute disadvantage on the peleton. To add insult to injury, they picked up time penalties at the intermediate sprints along the route. Some in the group such as David Millar quietly rode themselves back into the peleton. However, Aleksandr Kuchynski not only took back the more than five minutes that he was behind the peleton, but he immediately went on the attack to grab a large advantage. His erstwhile chase companion Stephane Auge realized that he was missing out on a major opportunity to get the early lead and he to went on the attack only to be joined by Mark Cavendish (who is reported to have stopped twice to adjust his brakes) and Cédric Hervé. However the chasing trio could not catch Kuchynski and lost 5:03 on the day while a late charging David Zabriskie came in at 5:21. The peleton lost 7:48.

So there you have it, a new leader and a complete shake up of the early standings. Of course there's a long way to go to Paris so there will be plenty more action to come.

Standings after Stage 1:
1)    Aleksandr Kuchynski       BLR-LIQ   4h56'32"
2)    Cédric Hervé                  FRA-AGR  @ 4'26"
3)    Stephane Augé                FRA-COF   @ 4'47"
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188)  Fabian Cancellara          SWI-CSC   @ 8:41

PROLOGUE: 

Yes, it's that time again - time for your nearly daily blathering about the big race. As we all recall from last year, Wim Vansevenant was our victor defeating 2-time winner and perennial favorite Jimmy Casper by almost two minutes (and over 4 hours better than the yellow shirt of shame wearer). This year with Wim returning to defend his title, Jimmy Casper has thrown in the towel (a yellow towel???) and is not on the start list. Certainly this helps Vansevenant's chances but he's certainly not a shoe-in for a repeat as several young, talented contenders are were on the start line today.

The day started with Enrico Degano being the first out of the starting house and posting an amazing opening time of 10:20. But his dreams of early glory ended when the next starter, Ruben Lobato, took 21 seconds from Degano. The 18th starter, Wim Vansevenant, took a mere 2 seconds from Degano thus coming up far short of Lobato's time. Rider after rider fell short of Lobato's time until starter #161, Danilo Napolitano, took a run at the podium. Unfortunately all Napolitano could do was to take a single second from Vansevenant to secure the second step on the day's podium. And thus ended the drama on the day leaving our standings as:

Standings after the Prologue:
1)    Ruben Lobato             ESP-SDP        10'41"
2)    Danilo Napolitano       ITA-LAM        @ 18"
3)    Wim Vansevenant       BEL-LOT        @ 19"
4)    Enrico Degano            ITA-BAR        @ 21"
5)    Cédric Hervé              FRA-AGR       @ 21"
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189)  Fabian Cancellara    SWI-CSC       @ 1'51"