wannabe bike girl's tour de france diary

July 24, Stage 21: Créteil - Paris Champs-Élysées 160 km

2011-07-24T12:51:00.000-04:00

My initial reaction to this stage finishing was thank god this shit's over. And, well, that still stands, but after an hour or so, I think I'm better equipped to talk about it now.

So, where to begin. I guess the stage first. I don't like the ceremonial start up to the final stage. I really want the final stage to be an actual race and I'd really prefer that the TDF folks would bring back the ITT as the final stage. I want to see a real race, but I know that'll never happy. I should just suck it up and deal, but I find it hard.

My biggest complaint about the race was the fact that it's been ridiculously predictable and this stage was no different. The worst part, though, was that the racing seemed to start too late and no one attacked hard enough to make a dent. Ben Swift tried, but in the end it was the HTC train that ruled the day. Like I said on twitter, I'd like to see Cavendish consistently win some stages without the train helping him out. None of the other sprinters have the luxury of bring cyclists to the tour for the sole purpose of being a lead out train. I know that people really like, but I'm totally over it. Maybe if HTC disappears, we'll find out just how good Cavendish is when his team gets split apart.

Moving on. Predictable stage was predictable with Cavendish winning the final sprint without having to put forth any effort. It was definitely an anti-climatic finish to a rather crappy race. Perhaps if I liked the GC folks, my feelings would be different. Or maybe if Sylvain (or other riders I actually liked) won stages, I wouldn't be so bitter, but that's not the case. I muted all of the formalities at the finish (including interviews, because I just don't care what Cadel or the Schlecks have to say). I did unmute for Jeremy Roy's presentation of the most combative rider. I like him and FDJ, for the most part, and it was nice to see them finally rewarded.

As for the race as a whole? Not very impressive. I'm not talking about individual performances or stage results (though those weren't too interesting, depending on the stage). I'm talking about the race as a whole. I was really excited for this tour, which surprised me, but I should've realized what it meant -- that this tour would suck for me. I know people are happy (especially Australian fans) but it's hard when the people you're cheering for never seem to win and everyone you don't like wins.

I don't know if I can do this again next year. It takes a lot out of me to care so much only to have everything I like/support destroyed right in front of me (twitter, I'm looking at you). It used to be easier to ignore the GC, but now because of twitter, everyone's crazy and nasty about all sorts of crap and it sucks. Hopefully all of this BS will die down now that the race is over. And, honestly, maybe next year will be better. Perhaps Cadel, the Schlecks and Contador won't be there and then we can have an actual race.

Until next year (maybe), I suppose. I hope you enjoyed the TDF better than I did.

July 23, Stage 20: Grenoble (ITT) 41 km

2011-07-23T23:53:00.001-04:00

OH HEY. I finally got what I wanted, but it almost didn't happen. And, to be frank, I was ready to root for something bad (not crashing, but you know what I mean) to happen to Evans. Because, to be honest, the only thing that could salvage this Tour for me was Tony Martin winning (and even then, that's not enough). But at least I got a stage win for someone I liked before this TDF. Tony's the best at time trials, I don't care what other people say, no one rides like he does. He's solid, he's strong and he's so fucking good that you'd have to move Earth to stop him.

And lord, how Evans tried. If you've been following me on twitter, you probably know that I don't like Cadel Evans. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but I never wanted him to win the Tour. I don't care if he's always coming in second or whatever, that doesn't mean anything. He annoys me, I don't like him and I don't want him to win. But I was especially against him because he was trying to win this fucking time trial and I just wasn't having any of it. It's not that I think Evans wouldn't have earned the win or that I thought Tony deserved to win, it's that sports are extremely personal to me and if you fuck with an athlete I love, then I'm not going to forgive you ever (or mostly ever, exceptions exist).

Luckily I can just be annoyed that Evans' in yellow instead of hating him for beating Tony. But let's talk about Evans. He was a man who knew what he needed to do and he knew (don't tell me he didn't) that he was going to win this whole damn thing today. He knew, because he's not stupid, that the Schlecks -- neither them -- were a match for him. I know that there were some who thought that Evans was too confident, but I think that in this case he was the right amount of confident. It doesn't work on everyone, but there was no way he wasn't going to ride into Paris in yellow. As much as I dislike him, I do like the fact that the yellow jersey switched hands three times in the last four days of the TDF. I just wish it'd changed hands a lot more frequently throughout the whole TDF. As much as people want to tell me that this was a race or the best Tour in ages, I just don't buy it. You give me a TDF where the jersey changes hands 15 times, or even 10, then I will grant you that the Tour's something special. We just haven't seen it yet (if ever).

Voeckler lost a shit load of time and finished fourth overall, which was totally not unexpected. Contador did his best, but it wasn't his year (too much pressure), which was sad (for me). Basso, Cunego and Sanchez were never any sort of threats. And then we have the Schlecks. Again, this too was inevitable. I don't care if they train constantly for time trials, there wasn't anyway they were going to walk away with one of them on the top of the podium. If Andy Schleck was going to win the TDF, it was going to be this year -- and he was never going to do it. Chalk it up to his inability to handle the pressure, the fact that he can't time trial, the fact that he can't do much without his brother, the fact that Leopard Trek's tactics are weird (at best), or to the fact that he's just not good enough -- he's never going to win a TDF unless the conditions are right. And unless (until) he's up against someone who time trials as badly as he does -- he doesn't stand a chance (unless he gets a TDF suited to him).

Tomorrow is the final stage of the TDF and I cannot wait until it's over. I always find the last stage a pain in the ass. I don't care about the celebration, the champagne, or the photographs. What I wish is that the final stage was a race. Sure, once they hit the Champs-Élysées it becomes fun, but up until that point it's a waste of time. I really wish that the final stage was a true race -- that the yellow jersey was fought over until the very last second of the race. But we don't live in a perfect world and tomorrow will be just like every other year in recent memory (or at least since I've been watching).

Since both Hushovd and Boasson Hagen raced today (and Edvald came so close to being amazing), I want one of them to win the stage tomorrow. If not them, then Sylvain. If not Sylvain, then there are few others. I don't want the Green jersey to matter, I don't want that to be battled out. And I really, really don't want Cav to win the final stage. Of course, he will and I will have wasted July, but such is the risk one runs being a fan of cycling. I may sound bitter, and maybe I am, but this was not a good tour for me as a fan. I've been lucky, in the past few years, it had to end at some point and I guess 2011 was that time.

One more post, tomorrow, and then it's over for another year. I can't wait.

July 22, Stage 19: Modane - Alpe-d’Huez 109 km

2011-07-22T16:57:00.047-04:00

I don't really want to write about this stage and I'm not sure I know how. It was a stage, just like lots of others. Stuff happened, much of it didn't go the way I hoped, but that's the way sporting events go. You win some, you lose some. But at the time I would've been thinking about writing this stage, I found out about the bombings in Oslo and all thoughts of writing about the stage vanished. And then I had to watch the stage (which screwed up taping and so I watched half on Versus and half on a Eurosport d/l), which didn't grab me, no matter how hard I tried. And I was fighting with my internet (thanks for nothing, Comcast) and so I just didn't care that Pierre Rolland won the stage. I didn't care that Andy Schleck was in yellow. I just didn't care.

And the more I thought about it, the more I knew what would happen on Stage 20. Even though I hadn't finished watching the stage, I knew who would win this Tour and as happy as Leopard Trek/the Schlecks were, I knew it wasn't going to last. When things are predictable (and they have been, on this Tour, just like all the previous ones), there's just no excitement left. Perhaps I'm missing something, maybe I've stopped liking cycling the way I used to (but not the way I should -- because there's no wrong way). But Alpe-d’Huez did what it was supposed to do and gave us a winner.

About the stage itself, not my hindsight, let's just say that Pierre Rolland's win was, er. It was a win, I guess? Good for him and good for Europcar getting something at the end of this Tour (barring a disaster for Rolland). I mean, Thomas Voeckler again loses everything and rides into Paris empty handed. I'm glad that I don't care about him/his team anymore. That's a lot of heartbreak that I just don't need in my fandom life. That's not to say that Voeckler and Rolland didn't bust their asses, because they did (they just had help, clearly). And it's not to say that they didn't earn the jerseys and the win, but there was never any way that Voeckler was going to wear the yellow jersey into Paris.

As for Andy Schleck? The only person he had to beat was Voeckler and he just had to gain 15 seconds. In the scheme of the TDF, that's not hard nor a lot. In the stage itself, it was both. Funny how that works. Schleck did it and he ended the day in yellow, which was inevitable. I know, I suggested that it would Cadel in yellow (and hindsight makes me wish he had), because that's what he wanted, but it didn't really work out that way (which seemed to be the best for Evans in the end). A little bit of me was amused to see Andy Schleck in yellow -- but with the ITT on Saturday, there was absolutely no way that he was going to win the whole thing. No matter how much his time trialling had improved, Evans wasn't going to let this get away from. 57 seconds separate Cadel (in 3rd) and Andy ( in yellow) at the end of the day. It was nothing

The thing that bugged me, though, that made me kind of annoyed, was that I actually cared about Contador. I mean, yes, he's a doper and probably shouldn't be racing (but they're all dopers, so maybe that's less important than it could be), but at the same time, the amount of anti-Contador I've seen totally outweighs all the other anti-Evans (does that exist?) and anti-Schlecks (it comes and goes). And because I'm who I am and I hate winners (winning is for losers) and the underdog (even when he shouldn't be), I couldn't help but want Contador to do well. And he tried. Fuck, he tried so hard and he just couldn't do it and it broke my heart just a little bit. Which is weird, but there you go.

Unrelated to the GC: Sylvain finished 39th on this stage, which was fuck yeah awesome. I'm so proud of him for making it the whole way with his shoulder issues. I love that dude, he is my favorite and the rest of them can suck it (or not, but you know what I mean). And, okay, so the time cut thing. I'm sorry, but people have got to grow up. As hilarious as it would be to see 87 (or whatever) riders kicked out of the tour for failing to ~~keep up~~ make it to the finish in time, it was never going to happen. It's not like the rule didn't exist, it's not like it wasn't there for a reason. And as for the points punishment? You cannot play favorites. Mark Cavendish deserved all the points deducted just as much as the last dude in the gruppetto. And for all the bitching and whining, they knew how hard it was going to be. Yesterday and today's stage were hard and perhaps the Tour ended up being harder than expected with all the crashes -- but the route never changed and it's not the race's fault that the gruppetto was too slow. The TDF folks did what they had to do -- not because the Green jersey was in there or because of the French RR jersey (fuck you for saying so) or because of who else was in the autobus. They did it because the rules allowed them to and there are consequences to actions and if you can't make it in fast enough, you either get cut or you lose points.

The time trial will decide the TDF, just as everyone expected. Because this Tour is nothing if not predictable (I know people don't agree, but when you can only pick from three or four dudes as to who is going to win it -- that's predictable). I want Tony Martin to win the stage and that's that.

July 21, Stage 18: Pinerolo - Galibier Serre-Chevalier 189 km

2011-07-21T19:19:00.001-04:00

Maybe I'm getting tired of the Tour, but I have to admit that I don't understand where all the excitement about today's stage came from. Sure, maybe we've finally got a race, but it's certainly not interesting and entirely predictable. I know what you're thinking, but what about Thomas Voeckler? He did it before, you know. He struggled up a mountain and kept the yellow jersey by a matter of seconds back in 2004. So, honestly, while it was a surprise that he kept up, it wasn't like this was the first time he'd done something like this.

What's more interesting/bizarre to me is the fact that he and his teammate(s) are even up there at all. He's never been a strong climber or descender -- decent at best -- and yet here he is, keeping up with Cadel Evans' attack. I swear he almost considered going off after Andy Schleck, but wisely decided not to waste his energy. The back of the yellow jersey group was shedding riders like, well, something that sheds a lot and yet Voeckler was clinging on to Evans' back wheel for most of the climb. I'm hesitate to call him a wheel sucker, because if he'd had the energy, I'm sure he would've pulled, it's what you do. I'm a bit annoyed that Evans didn't ask anyone to help, but at the same time, he may have known it was frivolous and a waste of energy to ask when no one was going to be able to. But that's not the point.

The point is that I'm supposed to be impressed with Voeckler and I suppose I am, in the same way I'm impressed with Cavendish that day he finished only a few places behind Andy Schleck. Which is to say I'm impressed, but there's a little asterisk next to it signifying that, well, I'm not convinced. And, speaking of Andy Schleck. Yesterday he was dropped and day he zooms ahead like it's nothing and we all remember the last time someone attack like Andy did today. Not that I'm saying he'll test positive or anything, but at the same time it's kind of amusing.

That's not to say that the only reason I didn't enjoy this stage was because, oh noes, these dudes might be doping. In fact, that's only secondary to the fact that, to be honest, nothing happened. A good friend of mine and cycling fan mentioned to me in an email that perhaps the cyclists are riding scared. Not, like, terrified kind of scared, but with all the crashes this TDF and Wouter's death, they're not taking risks. That makes a lot of sense, more than most other theories people are throwing around. It's not that I think we're seeing a new era of cycling, mostly that it's an unconscious thing and that, in the end, results in more crashes, not fewer ones.

What did I want out of this stage? Not a Schleck win, but that, too, was predictable. I wanted a breakaway winner. I want the days of people attacking for KOM points. I want cyclists who aren't afraid to leave it all on the road. Sure, that's kind of what we have in Voeckler, but as someone on twitter (I think) said, he's riding completely beyond himself. I suppose that's something to be admired and I hope it doesn't backfire, as it's wont to do -- I mean, some good things are too good to be true. But at the same time, I want the real folks who are going after the GC to at least attempt to attack. I guess Schleck was a start, but I don't see it. I can't figure out if he wants to win or not. He tries, but not hard enough and there's nothing about him that shouts I'm a winner. Say all the crap about Armstrong that you want (and I do), but he wanted it and he wanted it bad. The current crop of GC contenders don't seem to have that fire. Sure, Armstrong basically had his tours handed to him near the end of his career, but occasionally he still had a little fire in him. I don't see that, not in any of these guys.

Who does have that fire? People like Sylvain Chavanel (I'm biased), some of these Wiggins-free Sky riders. Boys from FDJ and even a few of the carrots. Hell, even Cavendish has more fire than most GC contenders! Perhaps I'm too cynical (I don't think so), but if there is a new era of cycling, it's full of apathetic boys who want us to think they care, but can't be bothered to show it. It's not the gruppetto guys, they seem to care. It's just the GC. Maybe they'll prove me wrong tomorrow and will have attack after attack, but I'm not holding out hope. At this point I just want the Tour to be over so I can stop caring about these guys.

Tomorrow isn't the queen stage, that was today (and what a joke it was). Tomorrow is a huge stage, it's got Alpe d'Huez waiting for the boys and if that can't motivate them, then nothing will. My prediction is that Cadel Evans will take the yellow jersey from Voeckler and wear it into Paris. I don't want that, but at this point it's the least annoying option and it's really, really annoying. Voeckler has hung on with the big boys far long than he should, but tomorrow's stage will be one stage too far. My hope is for a breakaway that smashes everyone and we have a winner, preferably French and from a team without a win. I don't hold out much hope, but you never know. This tour has been made for disappointment as much as for excitement.

July 20, Stage 17: Gap - Pinerolo 179 km

2011-07-20T22:40:00.000-04:00

I did not get to see most of the this stage for various reasons, but I eventually watched my tape of the end of the stage. I thought, maybe because I couldn't watch, that because Sylvain was in the stage, this was going to be his day. Unfortunately it was not to be. Before I started watching my tape, I already knew the result (I looked/cheated/whatever) and so I knew that Edvald and not Sylvain had won. What I didn't know, until I saw some quotes and then the stage, was that Sylvain gave it a really good go. It seems he really wanted to win the stage and maybe thought that he could, but damn you, Team Sky.

This is from the QS website:

Chavanel came in 5th at 50 seconds of the Norwegian winner. "Today I really thought I could give the team the first victory in the Tour. In the break we collaborated really well. When De Weert attacked behind me I stopped collaborating as actively, hoping he could get back in. During the break I saw that Boasson Hagen was checking me out; I knew he was the strongest rider. Personally I gave it all I had. It was nice to spend a stage in the lead. This was probably my last chance in this Tour. After a few really hard days in the last stages I’ve really improved. I’m going to try to be useful to De Weert in the next stages."

Sylvain saying that this was probably his "last chance in this Tour" makes me super sad. I mean, this is right, the rest of the mountains are not the kind he likes (yikes, really). But a girl can dream, right? It's like he's finally feeling well enough to attack more and it's too late. I mean, if he hadn't crashed, he'd probably have one a stage or two, but the RR champion jersey seemed to be more of a curse than anything else, at least for Sylvain. But there's still a whole half a season left for him to race, so you never know what'll happen. His Tour might be over, but there will be other races, just not the TDF.

As for the stage winner? It's totally impossible to hate him. I mean, this was clearly a revenge sort of thing after what happened with Thor on yesterday's stage. And even though I'm totally annoyed that it wasn't Sylvain winning, it's hard to be too pissed when you see how happy Edvald was to win and how much it clearly meant to him. You can't compare a French win with a Norwegian, but it doesn't matter because they're both wins no matter what. Maybe next year, Sylvain. And hopefully we'll see loads more of Edvald.

The GC was kind of hilarious amusing. There were a few crashes by a non-GC rider and Voeckler also ended up the car pack, but he didn't let that stop him. He just kept on riding. There were a few attacks and for a bit it seemed like Contador had gotten away. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you ask), the attacks failed to accomplish anything on the "big boys" as P&P call them. The group, as a whole, gained 25 seconds on Voeckler, but it wasn't nearly enough to take the yellow jersey. At this point, I can see one of two things happening -- the first that Voeckler manages to hold onto the jersey through the mountains because the attacks fail or GC riders can't hack the mountains and then loses it on the ITT on Saturday. The second is that Voeckler loses the jersey early in either tomorrow or Friday's stage -- either one is as likely as the other. I think the latter is the more likely scenario, but you never know with Voeckler -- or this Tour.

Tomorrow is the scary as hell Galibier stage and means that there are only four (!) stages left. Where has this Tour gone, seriously. I can't believe it's almost over. During that first week it felt like we'd been following the Tour for months. At least the crashes seemed to have stopped -- the worst ones, that is. Anyway, hopefully we'll see a proper battle on our hands and someone, not Voeckler, will end the day in yellow. But as I've seen before, in this and previous posts, with this Tour one never knows. If we're lucky, though, tomorrow will give us a chance to see what these guys are really made of -- if they have anything left.

July 19, Stage 16: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - Gap 163 km

2011-07-19T22:41:00.001-04:00

I was hoping this would be a good stage and in a lot of ways it was. The result wasn't quite what I wanted, but it's nice to see a breakaway managing to stick it out. I'd hoped, futility it seems, that one of the guys I was rooting for would win, alas, it was not to be. As soon as people saw that Thor was in the break, it seemed like there wasn't a chance that anyone else could win. And, well, apparently it's inevitable because Thor did, in fact, win.

Briefly, I thought made it was Norway against Canada, until the very end when I realized that it was Garmin-Cervelo and not Norway that was binding people together. It meant that Ryder Hesjedal and Thor were working together to, well, totally screw over Edvald Boasson Hagen. To be honest, it was kind of fun to see, even if it wasn't the result that I wanted.

The break had a couple of people I liked, including the Quick Step rider, Dries Devenyns as well as the rider I really wanted to win, Tony Martin. According to someone I follow on twitter (he's German), Tony's been nursing a cold, which meant he's not at his best. It also means that his fourth place was well earned, especially in the shitty weather. I was happy to see him finish so close to the winners because we hadn't heard anything once the break split apart.

One thing that made me sad about this stage was that ideally, with the mountains and weather, it could've been a stage that Sylvain might've won. But this isn't his year. I really hope that next year'll be better for him. Hell, the rest of the season, too. He's due to get back into form around the time of the world championships. Though of Thor's still in form, we might see him in the rainbow jersey yet again. But enough digression.

Thor's win wasn't the only thing going on. Unlike Sunday, we actually had some real action. It seems everyone was expecting a move by Contador and he didn't disappoint, which was actually quite nice. What I didn't expect was that a small group couldn't keep up with him. Voeckler wasn't going to, but Frank Schleck? Basso? Totally couldn't keep up. And Andy Schleck? Well, he's really missed his chance to win the TDF. And his excuses for getting dropped were ridiculous. But such is the way with the Schlecks. Who did stay with Contador? Sanchez (of the carrots) and Cadel Evans.

And, in the end, it was Evans who really made the effort. Which is kind of a shocker because attacks aren't his thing, he's known, at least to cycling fans, as a wheel sucker. A lot of people are saying, in various places, that Evans can't win it or he doesn't have the strength to win. But I don't know. He's only hampered by the strength of his opponents. Of course, much will depend on what happens on tomorrow's stage, along with that ITT. We know the Schlecks are bad at time trials, or at least not that great. But the same can't be said for Contador, he's not the best in the world, but if things work out right, it could be Contador versus Evans.

The next two stages are the real deal, followed by Alpe-d’Huez on Friday. I think that a lot can happen in these stages. Depending on how the GC folks are feeling, Voeckler could be spit out the back and finally lose the yellow jersey -- or nothing will happen and he rides into Saturday's ITT with the yellow on his back, only to lose it. I think the latter is unlikely, but as all things have gone this tour -- we never know. While I believe that Andy Schleck has ridden himself out of the yellow jersey competition, you never know. If he has a good day and those in front of him have bad ones, you never know. We almost have a real race on our hands. Let's hope this keeps up.

July 18, Rest Day 2

2011-07-18T22:15:00.001-04:00

The Good:

1) Sylvain Chavanel:

He never gives up. I don't know if it's good for him, but he keeps going. I keep expecting him to DNF at some point, or even DNS. But he doesn't. Instead, he just keeps going, attacking when he can. I love this about him, even as I worry. I hope he makes it to Paris.

2) Geraint Thomas:

I'm still annoyed at the whole Brad Wiggins debacle that lost Geraint the white jersey, but I'm happy to see him attacking and attacking. I also appreciate his attempts at a lead out for Ben and/or Edvald. It doesn't usually work, but the one time it did was nice. I just hope that he (and Sky) keep attacking, especially now that the white jersey's back on their shoulders.

3) Andre Greipel:

The day after the first rest day ended up being awesome because of this dude. With all the Lotto drama (which I find amusing) and the leftover Cav vs. Greipel war of words, it was nice to see Cav put in his place. What I didn't like were Cav's excuses. What I did like was Andre's win. I just wish he could do it again.

4) Breaks:

They've been good this year, even when they haven't lasted. I like to see guys attacking even when they haven't got a chance. I know that often drives people crazy, but I don't care. Effort is sometimes more important/interesting than a win.

5) FDJ:

Gotta give this team credit, they work their asses off in the breaks. They might not have any GC folks, they might not be as strong as they used to be, but they never give up, either. It was good to see two of their riders in jerseys, even if it was only briefly. Hopefully they'll get a few stage wins before the week is out.

The Bad:

6) Crashes:

There haven't been as many, but they don't seem to be stopping. The aftermath of the ones from the previous weeks have been what's really impacted the peloton. I can't believe that Hoogerland is still racing (and attacking). We've also seen some DNFs from guys who just couldn't keep going, like Kloden. It's always sad when a rider has to leave, even if they're on a team I don't like.

7) The Schlecks:

I don't know what's going through their minds and I don't want to know. It doesn't seem to make any sense. I don't know why they don't attack. I don't know why Frank can't just leave Andy behind, if he's stronger or the reverse. If the Schlecks never win a TDF it's because they can't grow up and leave the other behind. If they do win, it's not because of something they did.

8) Mark Cavendish/HTC:

I know people love him/them. And yes, I'll grant you that I like a few of their riders. But I am so over the HTC train. It's boring (stop me if you've heard this one before), boring, and more boring. It destroys whatever fun/interest a sprint finish might hold. I get it, he's faster and he wants the green jersey. Great. Now shut up and go away. It's much more interesting when there's an actual race at the end, instead of Cavendish walks to the finish.

9) The Mountains:

I expected better. A lot better. And, like last year, it was just a disappointment. It's really kind of embarrassing that this is supposed to showcase the best riders in the world and, er, it's not. Sitting around staring at each other isn't racing. It's being unable to attack. It's fine if you can't get away, but one or two attack doesn't constitute a competition. And if you're going to be jackassery about this not attack BS, then stop ruining the breaks. You could at least just quit racing properly altogether and then someone who's actually putting in some effort might win a stage or two.

10) The GC/Yellow Jersey:

See above. It's great that Thomas Voeckler (if I hear one more person call him Little Thomas Voeckler, I will punch someone) has the jersey through the rest day. It's ridiculous that he's able to stay (for whatever reason) with the real GC contenders. Aside from anything else, this means that no one's trying. I mean, for pete's sake, it's like no one wants to win the race and they're just content to let Voeckler take it to the ITT and then see how that plays out. Obviously Voeckler's not going to win the TDF, because these dudes are supposed to be better than him (in the mountains, the time trials, etc), but if the GC contenders can't be bothered to try, then why are we even having this race?

Supposedly we're supposed to have some proper racing over the next few days, because it's mountains and more mountains, but I'll be honest with you, I don't expect it. I hope to be surprised, but I don't really except anything exciting to happen. I guess we'll find out tomorrow, though.

July 17, Stage 15: Limoux - Montpellier 187 km

2011-07-17T22:50:00.000-04:00

I'm using this picture of Jelle Vandendert in the KOM jersey for no other reason than I like it. There were no mountains on today's stage. To be honest, there wasn't much of anything going on stage 15, which is never a good thing.

There was a breakaway, that did some work, but it wasn't overly interesting, which was kind of a bummer. Mostly I like flat stages and breaks, but today was one of those exception days. I don't know that anyone liked today's stage, except maybe HTC (bah).

I know some people had talked about the break staying away today, even though it was a flatish stage because everyone was so tired and ready for the rest day tomorrow. Unfortunately for everyone, the sprinter's teams were in the mood to go after the break and so they did. There was some weirdness involving Gilbert, apparently Phil loves his suicide attacks enough to throw them in wherever he sees fit. Sadly, it didn't work and once again he's no closer to the green jersey.

It was the HTC train that dominated this stage. I've staid this before and I'll say it again, I am sick and tired of the train. Either the rest of the sprinters need to get their own trains or ... I don't know. The only thing I can hope is that HTC folds and the riders are spread out onto different teams. It's just not really fun to watch the HTC train leading out Cav every since time. I know, there are Cav fans who like it, but it just doesn't make for good racing at all.

Tomorrow's a rest day, which I'm pretty sure all the cyclists are looking forward to. Tuesday's an uphill stage before everything goes really up up and then up some more. Hopefully we'll have a fun break on Tuesday. It can't be worse than today's stage.

July 16, Stage 14: Saint-Gaudens - Plateau de Beille 168 km

2011-07-16T21:54:00.002-04:00

Arnold Jeannesson and Jeremy Roy

Today's stage was supposed to change things up. I mean, I totally expected that the yellow jersey would finally change hands. I expected one of the contenders, as they're often called, to finally do something and put their stamp on this race. It seems, from what I can tell, this is what everyone else expected, too. This was a mountain stage, a true one, quite nearly badass (but not fully) and hard enough to make something happen. Um, apparently no one but the fans seemed to get that message.

The day started promisingly enough with a large breakaway (I can't remember the last time I saw a 20-man breakaway, so that was nice). They had a good six or seven minutes on the peloton when I turned stuff on around 6:30 am ET. In that group were a few boys I like, including Sylvain and Jerome, but also Linus Gerdemann. Also in the break were David Millar and everyone's favorite German, Jens Voigt. I secretly hoped that maybe, just maybe, the breakaway would last. I was totally mistaken, but not surprisingly so. It's hard to get a good breakaway to both work together and stay away on mountain stages, especially when you have so many riders who may or may not want to pull for whatever reason. And so, of course the breakaway was doomed to failure.

It was nice, though, to see Sylvain attacking. It was also pretty great to see so many FDJ riders giving it their all. Now if only one of them (Jeremy Roy) could win a stage, I'd like that. I'd also like Sylvain to win a stage, but let's be realistic. The conditions, including his shoulder, would have to be perfect and the chances of that happening are pretty remote -- even though we have a week of racing left to go (god, where has the month gone?). But enough of that.

Can we talk about the main GC guys for a second? There's something weird going on with them. I don't mean the Voeckler crap, I'll touch on that later. What I mean is that apparently everyone's completely forgotten how to race. This isn't new, it went on last year and in previous tours, thought not so maddeningly as this (and, of course, it happened in the 80s, I believe, before I started watching). There's been some discussion that this is what happens with a clean tour, but that's bullshit. There's no clean tour -- there won't be and hasn't been, but again, I'll talk about that in the next paragraph or so. Andy Schleck. Frank Schleck. Cadel Evans. Ivan Basso. Alberto Contador. These are your GC contenders, with maybe a few others, but these are your dudes. And, um. Maybe I should be impressed, but for god's sake, ATTACK. I mean, come on. Don't sit on your asses. Don't spend all your time looking at your brother, Andy and Frank. I don't understand what goes on in their minds. I mean, just go for it. You have nothing to lose, but if you don't go, you run the risk of losing everything.

And then we have Voeckler. We've already established why I don't like him and that's fine. This isn't about my liking him or not. What it is about is the fact that people think he's clean. I'm sorry, but what? Are you all blind? You didn't see Voeckler doing this last year. Or the year before. Or even in '04 when he had the jersey the first time. Why? Because he didn't have the power/stamina/etc. Yes, talent and skill, along with experience, has helped him. But seriously, how do you think his team is able to cope? If you think it's something other than doping, you're very, very wrong. But please, seriously, stop acting like you can't believe a clean rider could do what Voeckler's doing, because they can't. I suppose this means that maybe the peloton is evening out and maybe that's a good thing, in spite of doping. But pull your heads out of the sand. You can enjoy his ride, but stop pretending he's clean -- it's okay to be suspicious and still like him, I promise.

Before I talk about tomorrow's stage, a brief shout out for our stage winner, Jelle Vanendert. He made my mom happy by being Belgian and winning. I don't mind, it was cute to see Omega Pharma Lotto's adorable tweet this morning. Also, I hope that Laurens Ten Dam will be able to start tomorrow, because damn, that's badass to keep riding after his accident (luckily he doesn't seem to have done any real major damage -- otherwise I'd be pissed if he'd been allowed to keep riding, but he didn't seem to have a concussion).

Tomorrow's stage will be mostly flat-like, giving the riders a chance to chill out before the rest day on Monday and then the start of the harder mountains on Tuesday. CN says that it won't be a sprinter's day, because everyone's tired from today's stage, but considering the state of the green jersey competition, I wouldn't put anything past them.

July 15, Stage 13: Pau - Lourdes 156 km

2011-07-15T19:47:00.005-04:00

I saw most of the stage live before work and I'm currently watching the end of this stage while I write this. I already knew what happened, as my mother filled me in while I was walking to Starbucks, but I have to say it was still kind of a shocker to see it happen. Thor, who is best known as a sprinter and a good classics rider basically lived up to his kit/title as World Champion. He road everyone else off their bikes.

Normally I like rides like this, and to be honest, I enjoyed watching it happen. Except for the fact that I really would've like to see Jeremy Roy win today's stage. But such as cycling goes, this wasn't going to happen. I was bummed, as was Jeremy, clearly. He said in a post-race interview that he'd rather have won the stage than the KOM jersey and, honestly, who can blame him? The jersey is great, but there's nothing (as far as I can tell) like winning a stage of the Tour (unless you want to win the whole thing, of course). Maybe Jeremy'll find another stage that suits him and blow our minds with a win.

Thor was pretty damn impressive. He just buckled down and decided enough was enough was enough and he wanted the stage. It was pretty cool to watch him powering along. He swooped past Moncoutie and just kept going, dragging the Cofidis rider along behind him. They caught and passed poor Roy (though I can't recall if they did it together or separate) and the boy never had a chance. Moncoutie came in second, 10 seconds behind Thor and he was followed by Roy, 26 seconds later. Then things got a bit confusing as the rest of the breakaway straggled in. I'd secretly harbored a bit of hope that Edvald would do something, but that was clearly not going to happen. But it was nice, nonetheless, to see him up there in a breakaway.

It's weird seeing Philippe Gilbert fighting for the green jersey, but he never gives up hope. He got a bit outsmarted during the intermediate sprint, but I imagine as the stages wear on and the true sprinters start falling into the gruppetto, that'll change. Unless, of course, Gilbert can't keep up either, and then who know what'll happen. Especially considering there are only 24 points separating Gilbert and Cavendish (with Rojas in the middle, 13 points behind Cavendish). I hope this race heats up a bit more, but at the moment it's a three way contest with Cavendish potentially running away with it if his luck holds out (ugh).

As for the KOM, we haven't even gotten started on that competition yet. If Roy doesn't have the legs tomorrow, I imagine he won't keep the KOM jersey. Nor do I expect Voeckler to be in the yellow jersey for another day. Of course, I could be wrong and the GC folks might decide to do something tomorrow, but I'm not overly optimistic.

Lastly, Sylvain was present, but ended up going backwards. According to some interviews, he seems to be feeling better, but not really sure he's going to be able to do anything but survive for the rest of this tour. If that's the case, then so be it. There are plenty of races left for him this season and a whole half a season of him in the French RR jersey. And, well, he might even win it again next year. I'll keep my eye on him, though. You never know.

July 14, Stage 12: Cugnaux - Luz-Ardiden 209 km

2011-07-14T18:36:00.003-04:00

I love a good mountain stage and I love a good mountain stage on Bastille Day. I woke up super early to watch this stage, and that was pretty cool. I wish we could've seen it from the very start, but such is the way of sports. We saw it close enough to the beginning to satisfy all but the greedy in us (me).

It was, not surprisingly, a day of attacks. There was a bigger group, at the start, which lasted for a long while. Included in that group was Geraint Thomas. He was, amusingly, the virtual yellow jersey on the road. I know, some people don't understand the point of that (what are you, new?), but it's fun. Even though we know it won't last (or maybe because it won't), we love talking about it. And hey, if it's someone you like, all the better. It has, of course, on occasion, lasted. Thomas Voeckler's gotten the yellow twice this way, Sylvain as well. And it's happened to others, I'm sure. So, then Harmon got excited about Thomas being virtual yellow, how could you not be a little excited, too?

It was never going to last, of course. But the ride was fun (for the fans, no so much for the boys themselves). After the bigger group, Johnny Hoogerland attacked in predictable fashion. He wanted to keep that KOM jersey, but it wasn't to be. But attacking with him, and sharing in his pain, was my boy Sylvain. I didn't expect him to attack, and every time he got up out of the saddle, all I could think about was how much pain he said he was in when he rode like that. Which, of course, is why he didn't do that so often. They attacked and they attacked hard, but then an Astana rider (Roman Kreuziger) joined them and eventually poor Hoogerland just couldn't hold on. Kreuziger and Sylvain tried hard to catch up to the front group and came very close, but then Kreuziger gave it more gas and Sylvain just couldn't keep up.

I was sad to see him slow and then go backward, but it wasn't a surprise. His attack was, of course, because of his injuries. But I suppose there was never a chance he wouldn't attack, after all there's nothing France likes more than a French winner on Bastille Day. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be Sylvain's day. He did say, in a post race interview, that he would survive to try another day, but I don't know. I hope he's feeling better, but I don't expect that he really is. My worry is he's making himself worse, but it's up to him, of course (like he'd listen to me, anyway).

France's hope wasn't lost, because Jeremy Roy was also in that breakaway with Geraint Thomas. The two of them road away from the rest of the break, producing the fantastic picture you saw at the start of this post. Alas, it wasn't their day, either. The peloton slowly but surely dragged them back and spit them out the back end. And then the collective world of cycling held their breath -- would anyone attack? Oddly enough the answer was yes. Unlike last year (or was it the year before, these non-attack stages really run together after awhile), both Andy and Frank Schleck attacked! Who knew they had it in them? They weren't particularly effective, in that they didn't drop many people. But at the same time, they did drop their "main" rival, Contador. It looks like he wasn't kidding when he said he wasn't feeling that well.

We should get more attacks tomorrow, but probably the breakaway kind as the Col d'Aubisque isn't supposed to be that bad (ha ha). Would I like Sylvain to try again tomorrow? Of course. Do I expect him to? No. Of course I didn't think he'd attack today, either, but I'm more pessimistic due to his health. I do think that unless Voeckler pulls out another ride (and can his team even do it again, two days in a row?) like he did today, he won't be in yellow. The question is, of course, who will it be. A Schleck? Maybe someone from a break that survives? It all depends on Voeckler and his team.

July 13, Stage 11: Blaye-les-Mines - Lavaur 168 km

2011-07-13T21:12:00.000-04:00

The lack of crashes seemed to be the most important thing about this stage. Luckily the finish, while wet and messy, wasn't ever going to cause a significant problem for the sprint finish, unless someone lost control of his bike. Since that didn't happen, we were treated to an exciting, though ultimately disappointing, finish.

I've talked before about my like and dislike for sprint lead out trains. Sometimes, I like them. Perhaps it's only when cyclists I like win using them that I can tolerate them, but I'm getting tired of the HTC train. The thing is, no one likes a dominate winner -- except I've begun to discover that's not true. Most people like it when the same guy wins everything. I don't understand this at all. When the same guy wins everything (or most races, or a lot of them in a short period of time) my first reaction isn't "WOO AWESOME!" Instead it's disappointment. It's a feeling of being let down.

Maybe that doesn't make sense to most of you, but I suppose lots of people like Cavendish, so why should you care? The thing is, I used to like him. When he was a pouty little brat who was trying to prove himself. And then he turned into this monster of an asshole. Now, thought, it seems he's matured. You know what? I don't care. I really, really don't. Technically it's not cheating, but it feels like it to me. Because he has a strong lead out train, it means that he has an unfair advantage. I know, HTC fans and Cav fans will be calling for my throat or whatever, but I still don't care. I'm not saying what he's doing is wrong or against any rules, I'm staying it feels like it is. You look at that train and you think, well the rest of them haven't got a chance. Not because Cavendish is better or faster, or even strong, but because he has being like Mark Renshaw who do all the work for him.

But, you know, cycling, like life and all other sports, isn't fair. It's a race, not a spin around the block. It's a competition and one where people use whatever they can to get ahead. And, in Cavendish's case, it seems to work much of the time. It's disappointing, especially when he ends up being in the green jersey (insufferable, god damn it). But it's a race and he has the most points, so into the green jersey he goes. It'll be a test to see if he can keep it to Paris. Not that I don't think he's a good enough sprinter, but because I don't think he's a good enough rider to keep it throughout the mountains. If Philippe Gilbert has a good day or two and can take a few intermediate points, I can believe he'll get that jersey back. I can also see that not working at all.

That's the thing about cycling, it shouldn't be predictable. Sure, you'll get the winner sometimes, but if the same guy keeps winning, that's lame (see: those seven TDF wins). But whatever. I enjoyed the stage, the rain and the break away. I know, people don't like these and I'm sorry the cyclists hate the rain and are stuck with it. But I like the rain, not because of the accidents and crashes, but because I love the way the race looks in the rain. It makes them seem tougher and stronger than most other athletes. It also used to mean that it was a day for a Sylvain attack, he loves that kind of racing, but he's just not doing it this year, understandably.

Nothing else important, aside from the green jersey, changed due to today's stage. But then again, it never was going to. Tomorrow is a mountain stage, the true kind, and maybe we'll see some true competition for the yellow jersey. The green won't be contested, I'm sure. According so some, the real tour begins tomorrow, but that's bullshit. It's a three week tour, not a few days in the mountains, and whoever's telling you that really needs to figure out if they really like cycling or now. I know, I have opinions, but whatever. There's something to like about every stage of every Tour (even though sometimes you have to search hard).

Tomorrow is also Bastille Day, which means that France'll hope for a French winner. I've been told that it could be Sylvain's day, but unless he's feeling better (and it's hard to say), don't expect him in a breakaway. Though you never know and QS has just given him a brand new tricolor bike. I desperately want him to win and cannot wait for tomorrow's stage.

July 12, Stage 10: Aurillac - Carmaux 161 km

2011-07-12T23:16:00.001-04:00

Unfortunately, due to a variety of things, I wasn't able to see this whole stage, so this is going to be a slightly shorter stage report than maybe you're used to. Or maybe you don't care. Regardless, I saw the only part that mattered -- the end.

I will comment to say that I'm really, really tired of crashes. Maybe you expect me to cheer because Cancellara (aka a Leppard) finally crashed. But, guess what? I might dislike the guy, but I don't want any cyclist to crash, ever. It doesn't matter what my personal feelings are, I don't like to see anyone suffering.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I want to say that everyone loves a good sprint. Some people may bitch about boring stage races, but if I'm able to, I love watching them. The scenery, the views of the peloton in motion, the thrill of hoping the breakaway lasts while knowing it won't, the straw animals that look like kangaroos on bikes -- they all make the flat stages awesome (but I like the sheep best). There's something comforting, in a way, to watching flat stages. They aren't boring, they're soothing (unless they're crash filled). They show how a well working peloton should, well, flow. So you can understand why I'm always bummed when I can't watch flat stages (or stages in general). But I was luckily enough to be able to see the last few k of the stage.

First off, the front of the peloton sure improved their bike handling skills after the break was caught. The end of the stage was all corners and they handled it without much difficulty, as far as I could tell. But the best part was the sprint finish. I really thought Cavendish had it in the back. His leadout was looking really strong, as per usual, but something happened. I don't know if he briefly got boxed in or what, but out of nowhere came Greipel. Everyone knows about the mess that is Cav vs Andre and, well, I love that kind of thing. And, you know, it was great to be able to yell "suck it, Cav" at the computer screen (well, on twitter), because of all the shit that's gone down between them.

The takeaway is that Greipel won, finally. But not only did he won, but he beat Cavendish, at the Tour de France. And that, my friends, is definitely not a shit small race. Whatever Cav thinks (and I haven't sought any interviews or anything, because I honestly don't care), Greipel can definitely hold his own and damn, I was happy to watch him win.

Tomorrow is another sprinter's day, at least in theory. I wonder if Greipel can make it a double or if someone else I like can win. Fingers crossed that there won't be any crashes, or at least bad ones.

July 11, Rest Day 1

2011-07-11T23:13:00.001-04:00

The Good:

1) Yellow Jersey

This has a lot of things going for it, finally. I don't think it'll last. But it was nice to see Philippe Gilbert grabbing the jersey on the first day. And even though it didn't last/wasn't meant to be, I like it. I didn't mind Thor having the jersey, either. I don't like Thomas Voeckler having it, but that's because I'm totally biased against him. I mean, the dude made Sylvain bust ass for no result, but I'm not bitter. Really. Anyway, I'm just glad that Contador/Schlecks/Evans doesn't have it.

2) Non-prologue first stage

EVERY YEAR WE NEED THIS. Because if it means no more Cancellara in yellow THERE CAN BE NO WRONG. I loved having a proper stage, even if I didn't get to see all of it live. But, seriously. The lack of prologue was amazing and I got to see Sylvain in his RR kit before all hell broke loose.

3) TTT

I love these things. I know they have issues, I know it fucks over smaller teams (or does it? I'm thinking not so) or teams that aren't as strong. But you know what? I don't care. The only thing I wish is that BMC wasn't in the top three, but since that meant Leopard Trek wasn't there, then I can't complain too much. I don't want either team to win the GC, but there are people I like even less, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Of course, that's never stopped me before. Anyway, I love TTT, especially when you have teams flow properly. That's the way a TTT is meant to be and it's fucking glorious.

4) Sylvain (kind of)/Team Sky Kind of

Look, okay. I know he's crashed (more about that later), but the dude's a badass biker. He never gives up, even when he wants to. I hope that he's not making himself worse, but he understand the importance of the jersey he's wearing. I just hope that if he keeps racing, he won't crash. Again. As for Team Sky, they were on the way to converting me into a fan. Geraint Thomas in white, Edvald's win. Their total adorableness. Bonus points for trying.

5) Team Drama

I probably shouldn't like this, but all the drama revolving around the teams (and not the crashes) i awesome. I liked the whole Evans through water at Cav, the drama (unspoken) between Cav and Greipel. I like Andre vs Lotto. I don't know why it's so much fun, but it is. I hope there's more. If there isn't drama between teams, then what fun is racing if everyone gets along? Hopefully this stuff'll make headlines and not more crashes, but I'm not holding my breath

The Bad:

6) Crashes

I have a long post I haven't written yet about the crashes. They have been horrible. There haven't been more of them, just bigger names being involved and the injuries seemingly worse than in previous years. I have theories, of which I will eventually share, but not here. But I just want to say that crashes, regardless of their causes (weather, other riders, motos or cars) are bad things. This tour has had far too many in this first week and will probably have many more before the tour's over. Let's just hope the injuries won't be as bad or end up with a dude tangled up in barbed wire (if I never see those pictures of Hoogerland again, it'll be too soon).

7) Cars/motos

Look, something has to be done. I don't know what, I have no answers, but seriously. A moto and a car IN THE SAME FUCKING RACE. Something's wrong. I don't know if it's the drivers or maybe people are just getting too careless, but the TDF needs to make a change before, god forbid, a cyclist dies. We've had more than enough of that this year.

8) The peloton's attitude

I get that you guys are worried about the dudes at the back, but come the fuck on. I'd like to blame this on Leopard, but I have no idea if it was them or Thor, but whoever decided to wait was wrong. I get it, big names are down, but they clearly aren't getting back up and it's not your responsibility to slow the peloton down. It's better, at least in my opinion, not to slow down, not to get caught up in trying to be safe, because when that happens, y'all just get in the way of each other and that's when the crashes start to pile up. You can't change the crashes, but you can look after yourselves and waiting is just asking for trouble. Not to mention that this is a race.

9) Team Sky

I wanted to like you guys, I really did. I do still like your riders, but your tactics are for shit. I'm sorry, dudes, but making Geraint Thomas wait (or letting him wait, I don't really know which it was) was the wrong move. It was clear to everyone watching that Wiggins wasn't going to continue on. You could've sent Geraint along with a teammate, letting the rest of the team wait. But instead you destroyed any chance you might've had for prizes at the end of the tour. I know that you meant well, I know that Wiggins' crash was a shock, but you should be prepared for that kind of stuff. It's a three week race and shit happens all the time. So, sorry Team Sky. You're back to me not liking you (mostly).

10) Did I mention crashes?

It was really hard for me to watch after Sylvain crashed. I kept on, and so did it, but it was touch and go for both of us. If he'd dropped out, which I wouldn't have held against him ever, it would've made it harder for me to keep watching. I know, his team Cofidis was kicked out a few years ago, but that's different. This was something worse, something horrible. I can only hope that his injuries are getting better and that QS hasn't endangered his career by keeping him in the race. RR kit be damned, the rider's health should be most important (and that's another issue for another time).

What do I hope from the rest of this year's tour? Fewer crashes, Sylvain to make it to the end and a miracle that Geraint back in white. I also want more Tony Martin. Possibly an Andre Grepel stage win (he's on my fantasy team) and maybe CVV to do something special. Because my fantasy team is all still there, just dragging themselves along.

July 10, Stage 9: Issoire - Saint-Flour 208 km

2011-07-10T21:54:00.001-04:00

If you know a cyclist (professional, commuter or whatever), please give them a hug and tell them how much you love them.

Today we had yet another stage that reminded us of how fragile we humans are and what kind of horrors the athletes we adore are forced to put up with. It's a complicated issue, one that I'm not going to talk about here because this is not the place. But I will say that this Tour de France is possibly the least fun I've had during any Tour. Even the one where Cofidis (with Sylvain riding for them) withdrew from the race. Even with all the other different doping dramas. I haven't seen anything like this, except perhaps at the Giro, but even then the big names were usually spared a lot of the grief. The only big names (so to speak) who've been spared have been on Leopard Trek, so make of that what you will.

Stage 9 was nothing short of a mess. People will blame the crashes on a lot of things -- and there were a lot of causes. From careless riding to careless driving to the weather. I won't speculate, at least not here, but I will say that today's crashes were some of the worst. It's almost as if nothing's been learned since Wouter Weylandt's death. Perhaps that's to be expected or perhaps there was nothing truly to be learned. But I must say that when the rider who is most loathed (in and outside of the peloton) has to be carried from the slopes of a small hill and out from some trees, something's not right. I don't know anyone who likes Vino, hell, I was going to have a good laugh as his expense yesterday (and perhaps did), but it doesn't matter how much you deny doping, no one deserves to crash like that.

But it wasn't just Vino. It was Dave Zabriske. It was Jurgen van den Brock. It was pure carnage, as people like to say. I dislike that word, just like I dislike people who take great pleasure out of horrific crashes. It's one thing for a crash to happen and people to get up and keep going. It's another for three bodies to be laying on the ground and two ambulances to pull up. No crashes are fun, but these are some of the worst. But it wasn't just the peloton causing crashes. The break wasn't spared and broke our hearts in totally different ways. While crashes within the peloton are expected, rarely do crashes in a breakaway happen and if they do, it's usually from rider error.

Today's breakaway was full of break favorites. Two of those were supremely unlucky in the worst way possible. In a scene that could only come from a course on how not to drive next to cyclists, a car (a tv one?) tried to avoid hitting a tree and instead of slowing down (like a logical person) and waiting for the cyclists to pass, it instead surged forward and sideswiped Juan Antonio Flecha, causing him to hit the deck very hard and careen into Johnny Hoogerland. Flecha suffered, but it was Hoogerland who ended up a mess. The boy dude was flung into a field, but he never got there because the field was lined with barbed wire. There are pictures floating out there in cyberspace of his injuries, which I won't be linking to because they are horrible. The damage that was done to him was outrageous and part of me hopes that both Sky and Rabobank will be taking legal action against the car. Both men finished the stage, but I don't know that either will continue and the pictures of Hoogerland on the podium, bandaged up and in tears, are heartbreaking.

No cyclist should have to suffer being hit by a car and none should have suffer it during a race. This is the second time a race vehicle has been involved in a crash with a rider and as much as I love the coverage, something must be done about this. Sadly, I don't have enough experience to suggest what, but hopefully something will be done.

As for the race itself, it's hard to talk about it because the crashes overshadow everything else. Luckily Sylvain was not involved in any incidents and made it home with the autobus, of which I am grateful. I saw him in the aftermath of that crash, and it was almost as if he wanted to stop and help the Astana rider (who turned out to be Vino), but there was nothing he could've done. And in Vino's, he's another GC rider who's crashed out of the race. There was a brief bit of drama in the peloton, it seems someone was either attempting to attack and another group wanting to slow the peloton down. Everyone knows my thoughts on this, you never wait. NOT EVER. It's a race, not a charity ride. That being said, attacking serves no purpose either, until it's clear that the cyclists aren't joining back up, then attack all you want.

In the end, the breakaway won day, if winning is the right word. Luis Leon Sanchez took the stage win and Thomas Voeckler the yellow jersey. I got one thing right, which was that Thor wouldn't be in yellow, but that's about it. Tomorrow is a rest day and for that I'm grateful, because I'd like a day off from Tour and I'm pretty sure all of the cyclists do, too. May Tuesday's stage be better.

July 9, Stage 8: Aigurande - Super-Besse Sancy 190 km

2011-07-09T23:40:00.001-04:00

Today's stage was not quite as dramatic as previous stages, which, to be honest, was a relief. I wasn't looking forward to crashes and it was nice that there weren't any massive pile ups. What did happen was pretty interesting and kind of exciting. I do like a good mountain stage, like everyone else. I don't have the same animosity toward flat stages as other people do (or those who wish crashes to make things exciting), but you can't deny the excitement of the mountains, even when they're not the massive ones we don't get until later in the tour.

Yesterday I totally predicted that Thor would lose the yellow, especially if Garmin wasn't really up to the task. Turns out that I was totally wrong. Garmin was strong (ish) and at the end of the stage, Thor was in yellow. I did not expect that at all. In fact, when Vino attacked (lulz) I totally expected him to ride home with yellow. I know that people, including myself, have a lot of opinions about Vino. I mean, it's hard to like the guy after he totally refused to admit that he doped. And, of course, he comes back and he's almost as strong as before his ban, so of course people are going to hate him (we won't talk about why I think that's hilarious when people like other folks who do similar things, but that's not a topic for here). I really did think he'd be able to take it and was prepared for the onslaught of anger (which requires me to bring popcorn for amusement). But, in the end, he just wasn't strong enough or everyone else was stronger (or both).

I was really happy to see Movistar win. As much as I wanted the amusement of Vino in yellow, it was totally worth it to see Rui Costa's win and celebration. I don't know if it was in memory of Xavier Tondo or not, but I like to think it was. I also like that the breakaway rider was the last man standing at the end. What kind of shocked me was how quickly Vino disappeared from the race and how easily he was swallowed up by the peloton. But then came the action -- the real action. I suppose Vino was never going to get yellow because Thor was just so freaking strong. I really didn't expect that, but there he was. And then there was Philippe Gilbert! I mean, that man is on fire. I guess he's taking the Sylvain roll this Tour. He's just storming and fighting and battling.

Speaking of Gilbert, though. That man and his team are totally at odds with Andre Greipel. I can't say that I'm very surprised, to be honest. That was always going to happen when you have teams that are too top heavy. and that's totally what's going on with Lotto. Which is why Phil seems to be going after the green jersey with a vengeance, leaving everyone else, including his teammate, in his wake. Not really something I like, but I don't know how much is up to Gilbert and how much is up to Lotto. It's hard to tell and we'll probably never know.

As for Sylvain? He's suffering. Apparently he felt okay at the beginning of the stage and then not so much toward the end, which is totally understandable. I was also glad to see that Chris Horner was not allowed to race again this Tour. I hope his head heals up and he has no lasting damage.

Tomorrow consists of more mountains. I'm really excited about this stage, hopefully it'll be good and we'll have more excitement on the mountains. I don't know who'll win, just that it probably won't be Sylvain. Again I'm going to predict that Thor won't have the yellow when the stage finishes because, at the end of the day, he's a sprinter and not a climber. It's also the last day before the rest day, so we might see some people just pushing it to see how the cards fall. I really hope it'll be awesome.

As an aside, if this doesn't make much sense, it's because I've been writing this while watching this Giant Bomb video.

July 8, Stage 7: Le Mans - Châteauroux 215 km

2011-07-08T23:33:00.005-04:00

I should be in bed, but I'm writing this instead, if only because it needs to be done. I actually have a lot to say about this stage that I won't say here (about head injuries, etc), but I will say that I'm disappointed in the behavior of certain teams. I'm also kind of disgusted with the behavior of people on twitter, but again, that's another issue.

I'm kind of surprise that these stages have created so many crashes. A lot of people have said it's because of the Tour route, but I'm going to go out on a limb and call bullshit on that one. Like with the Giro, if you haven't prepared, you only have yourself to blame. If you have prepared and you're still falling, which seems to be the case (most of the time), then that means there are some issues with teams in the peloton. The crashes today were spectacular, and not in a good way because plenty of people ended up in hospital. It's hard to believe that it's only the seventh stage of the tour, what with all the carnage we've left on the road. It's almost unbelievable, if I hadn't watch it happen.

Tom Boonen finally retired, something he probably should've done on Wednesday (but that's another issue), poor guy was suffering needlessly. And then the crash happened. I'm a pseudo Sky fan or something, but I am totally unimpressed with their team tactics. Natalie and I had a long conversation about the fact that most of Sky waited for Wiggins, even though it was clear to us (the fans) that he wasn't going to keep racing. He was doing broken collarbone arm hold, poor guy. What they should have done, because they had some guys near the top of the GC, was send Geraint Thomas back up to the front with another rider, maybe Edvald (though I did hear he fell as well, but I haven't confirmed that). But they all waited and I'm sorry, but that's a really poor decision on Sky's part. Natalie believes, and I have to agree with her to some extent, that this was such a shock to them that they didn't know how to react. But, honestly, that's no excuse. Even if Brad wasn't going to abandon, you don't need the whole damn team there, especially when you have some guys who have stuff to defend. I get that Wiggins is your leader, but seriously. Ugh. Sky haven't shown great foresight with tactics in the past and it fails them yet again. Hopefully they can salvage some more stage wins out of this Tour, though.

I was really glad that Sylvain survived and escaped the crash. He had to chase back, but seem to be all right, all things considered. I do hope he's made the right decision to stay in the race. I don't know anymore, though (again, I'm planning a big blog post about this later). There were other issues and the Chris Horner thing is something I'm only going to gloss over, because it makes me so angry. RadioShack made a wrong decision and luckily Horner didn't pay for it.

The sprint was exactly what I'd predicted on twitter, a win for Cavendish. I must say that I don't much care for that, especially since I kind of wanted Greipel to win, just to spite Cav. But of course that wouldn't be the case because of course HTC was far from the crashes, that's what you get for riding up front. How the Schlecks didn't fall is beyond me, luck of the GC, I suppose. At least Cav and his teammates seem to be getting on well, which you can't say for Lotto (no matter what they say in the press, I'm not buying it). It was a decent sprint, not as much fun as his previous win this tour, but I suppose a girl can't have everything. What I did think was hilarious, if horrible and mean spirited (but still funny), was Cadel Evans acting like a petulant child (what an idiot). It seems he accidentally (ha ha) threw water at Cav, I'm not sure what their deal is, but it's almost as good as the tire throwing at last year's Tour, maybe? Proper, crash-free drama, I loves it.

Tomorrow is a more mountainy stage. CN says medium mountains, I say that if the riders keep behaving they have been so far, no mountains will be just medium. I wonder, though, if the peloton will just let the break have at it and not deal with all this crap. The only thing is if Thor's feeling pretty good, Garmin might give chase to keep him in it. But, we won't know until tomorrow. I just hope that, you know, we don't lose any more boys. This race is really taking a toll.

July 7, Stage 6: Dinan - Lisieux 226 km

2011-07-07T16:55:00.000-04:00

No picture today, I can't really seem to find a good one that sums up the stage. What was today's stage? A pain in the fucking ass. There were some crashes, though nothing like what happened yesterday. But, seriously, the rains just wouldn't let up and normally this would be a day for someone like Sylvain, but that was not meant to be at all and, in fact, might not happen for the rest of the tour. I promise to talk about the finish and all of that crap, but first let me say that this tour is really hard for me as a fan.

I was really excited right before it started, especially because Sylvain was going to be racing in the French national colors and he had had a pretty decent start to the season with a long layoff and preparation. And then the stuff with the QS team bus (which was probably something, but ended up being nothing) happened and made me think that shit, he might not be racing this year. But that was overcome. And then, on stage one!, he caught caught up in a mess of crashes, but didn't seem to get hurt. And then not much else happened until yesterday. When he crashed and he crashed hard. He obviously thought it wasn't bad, though the report on cyclingnews (linked in yesterday's post) wasn't as optimistic.

And then stage six happened and it was a MESS. It looked yesterday like Boonen was the one who was hurt worse and maybe yesterday he was. But today, well, reports had it that he almost abandoned and this quote from the QS site basically says as much:

"It's been a day I will remember for a long time. I'm still in the race thanks only to my sports directors. I even stopped during the stage, but they spurred me on by reminding me that this is the TOUR and that I'm carrying the symbol of my country on my shoulders. I stuck it out even though the mobility in my shoulder is really limited. I can't relaunch and every time I try to stand on my pedals I'm shot through with pain. To suffer like this while riding is no walk in the park, but I also wan't to stay tough for all the fans who have supported me, even today along the sides of the roads", said Chavanel after the stage.

Seriously, my heart is like so hurting here. Which is ridiculous, because it's just a race and he's just an athlete but it's my favorite sport and he's my favorite cyclist/athlete and so of course it hurts. So, maybe being excited for the TDF was my first sign that something was wrong. Unfortunately, I don't know what will happen to him and of course, it's clear he doesn't know either. I suppose, as a fan, my only care is for that of his health. I would like him to finish the tour in one piece (if that's even possible now), but if he's suffering to much, as much as it sucks for me as a fan, he should stop. I wouldn't want him to get hurt further. But at the same time, it must be killing him to being in the French RR jersey and be suffering so much on only stage six of the tour. Gah.

Enough of that. Today's stage was awesome at the end. I know yesterday I said I don't like trains and I think I can stand by that. Today's sprint was not won by Cavendish (woo!) but it was orchestrated by two lead our riders. How is this different? Well for one, they had to do this through a lot of traffic and two, they didn't outpace everyone. Ben Swift worked his ass off and the Geraint Thomas took for and, well, was fucking amazing. They both gave practically everything to push Edvald Boasson Hagen across the line. This wasn't a traditional lead out and I liked that (either that or I like Team Sky (or maybe both) but I'm not saying). The sprint was super exciting and the result made me really happy, instead of pissed off, which was a nice, if not surprising, change.

But mostly I'm spending all my time worrying about Sylvain. I know, that makes me a lame fan, but I can't help it. I've been spoiled a lot in recent years. Hopefully Sylvain can pull himself together and keep going, but I'm not convinced.

Tomorrow's stage is flat, or as much as one can be, and we'll probably have a traditional sprint at the end. I imagine there'll be a breakaway, but that the GC'll stay the same. And then, of course, it'll probably be Cavendish who wins by a massive amount and I'll be back to disliking him strongly. I hold out hope for something different, but not much. I won't be able to watch much of this one, I don't think, so it'll probably be a tape delayed stage for me.

July 6, Stage 5: Carhaix - Cap Fréhel 158 km

2011-07-06T16:40:00.000-04:00

This picture has pretty much nothing to do with anything, but I liked it and I'm having fun editing these. They're mostly from Yahoo, in case anyone wanted to know. I just make them smaller and play with colors. Because I can, y'all. It's a little things, you know? But, onto today's stage because, well, it was quite a stage.

Hey, guess what? Today's stagey also sucked, but this time in a totally different way. Unlike yesterday, I did get to see most of this stage, though not all of it. I watched the beginning as I was getting ready for work and the rest later, but I thought, when I left for work, that it was going to be just another flat stage without too much excitement. But, um, can I just say that I was really, really wrong. I mean, I couldn't've have been more wrong then if I'd say, oh, it's going to snow during the tour stage today!

In a way, it was kind of weird because the weather was, if hot. But on the other hand, the roads were narrow and once the first crash happened, everything seemed to slip out of control. The peloton, for some reason, couldn't hold onto themselves for long enough to avoid crashing and the stage was just one big mess after another. One thing that's struck me so far this tour is that everyone seems to crash. Usually the big crashes seem to keep away from the GC riders and even some of the more well known guys, but almost everyone's crashed at least once so far. I know that's not quite true, but that's how it feels, in a way. Today was no exception as Contador crashed and it seems Chris Horner may have, too (but don't quote me on it, my days and RadioShack riders are running together). I was sad to see that some riders crashed quite hard, especially Brajkovič (I feel extra bad about that because I'd just talked about him on tumblr, sorry dude).

But, of course, what really made me bummed was the news that Sylvain had crashed. I haven't see any video (I can't get any to play and I'm not rewinding my tape to watch it). But I do know that he hurt himself, but not bad enough to leave the tour. But he was taken to hospital and according to cyclingnews he "dislocated the acromion-clavicular joint in his right shoulder." Which, I don't even know. I mean, I like drama as much as the next person and I totally understand that cycling is a dangerous sport and crashes happen, but damn. I kind of wonder if there's something going on with the make up of the peloton, because there were a lot of crashes at the Giro and even at last year's tour. I don't know that there are more of them (I feel like I've had this discussion before), but there are a lot. And I'm pissed that one of them involved Sylvain. Of course, I wans't happy that Boonen crashed either and his was far worse. I'm totally impressed that he kept on riding, what a stud.

As for the result of the race? Well, for those of you who don't follow me on twitter, you'll be surprised to learn that I wasn't overly upset about the win. Seriously. I don't really want Cavendish to win shit, especially when he's got a train (I am so over them. I mean, honestly, enough is enough. HTC, Fassa Bortolo called and they want you to stop using their tactics). I get so tired of other people doing the work because that means sprints aren't a fair fight to those sprinters without strong teams. I know the green jersey's been won without sprint lead outs (Erik Zabel), but not every one is amazing like that. So even though Cav had a train (that kind of failed) and he sucked onto Geraint Thomas' wheel (sigh), he didn't really have a proper lead out. Tony Martin got way ahead (and teased me, because I desperately want him to win a stage) of Cavendish, totally fucking that up. But then! Out of absolutely no where, Cavendish pulled out a win. I mean, seriously, that is what a good stage finish should be about. None of that crap from Stage 4.

And while Cav's post race remarks pissed me off (stop being so passive aggressive, dude) and I don't like his general attitude, his skill on the bike is hard to challenge when I actually get to see it. Lead out trains destroy what could be amazing races when Cav wins bike six bike lengths or something. But today's sprint finish was almost perfect (it would've been perfect if someone else had one, but whatever, details).

I hope tomorrow is exciting, though I doubt I'll be able to see the end of the stage (unless they really up the pace). It's another hilly (though a bit more than previously) stage that could give us some mini fireworks. I'd like to predict a nice breakaway lasting, but I'm not so sure. It seems that the peloton is hungry for stage wins, so it'll probably be more like stage four than anything else. Which, if there are different riders at the front, I could totally be a fan of. At this rate, though, I'm just hoping that Sylvain'll be starting.

July 5, Stage 4 Lorient - Mûr-de-Bretagne 172 km

2011-07-05T16:32:00.000-04:00

Today's stage was just another part of a really crappy day. I don't really know what to say about it. It should've been fun to watch. I like weather mussed stages, especially in the rain. Cyclists I like tend to do well/attack in these stages. But I neglected to realize, yesterday, that Sylvain's far too close to the yellow jersey to be able to attack safely, and therefore he didn't. I was kind of right about the breakaway, which put a lot of effort into their attack. But, sadly, didn't work out. I was kind of hoping that Movistar would get a stage win, but that'll just have to wait. Instead, we got what most people think was a fantastic finish. And, I suppose, if I was in a better mood and more forgiving, I'd agree. But I'm not.

I'd hoped, during the stage, that Gilbert would win. Obviously Sylvain wasn't going to win, but my hopes were resting high on Gilbert and I was sorely disappointed. Granted, it wasn't really his fault that he didn't win. Nor do I think that it was an issue with his team. While they're obviously not the strongest, they do their best. Sadly, today seemed to destined to give me disappointment. Which I suppose I should be familiar with, after all I am constantly disappointed by the Tour de France. I wonder why (rhetorically speaking) the biggest race in pro cycling is the one that always pisses me off the most. Anyway, back to stage four.

Prior to today's stage, I really thought I'd be okay with Cadel Evans as a winner, but it turns out that I'm not. I suppose it helps that I'm consistent. But, honestly, I have no idea what I want as a GT winner. I used to like them, but mostly they just tick me off. I remember rooting for Hamilton, for Armstrong (ugh), for Ullrich at least once. Hell, I cheered for Vino and Landis. But now, I don't know. There's nothing at all appealing about any of the GC folks (save CVV and he probably won't win, ever) to me. They all come off far too brash or their fans put me off before they even get started. I know, it's totally judgmental of me, but I never said I was fair. I'm an emotional fan and a poor loser who holds grudges. It's part for the course, as they say.

My mom said she didn't care who won, as long as it wasn't Contador. I'm tempted to agree, if only to save us from his stupid finger guns celebration. But I don't know, I wanted Gilbert to win and that pretty much colored the result of the race for me. Maybe I need to change the way I watch and cheer for the Tour, but I don't want to. I don't want to like these guys who think they're better than everyone else. Maybe it makes me a bad fan, but whatever. It's not fun when the same people are always winning or in contention. That's what made the first two stages of this year's tour so good. It wasn't predictable. It was different, it was fun, it was the way the Tour's meant to be. And then we had today's stage it was everything you'd expect and that was a disappointment.

Maybe the rest of this tour'll be different, but I don't think so. Call me cynical, call me negative, but I don't care. I just call it like I see and how I see it isn't fun. That's why there are far more interesting things going on, like the intermediate sprints (no crashes!) that seem to be strange (PhilGil attacking, but no Cav), but not drama-filled as I thought. Maybe that'll change, but we'l have to see. Or looking forward to the KOM. I'm hoping we'll have some superb breakaways that'll rack up KOM points. And, of course, the young rider competition is the only one that hasn't disappointed me yet (but there's still time ;).

The good thing about today's stage was that the leaderboard didn't change. Otherwise, I'm just looking forward to tomorrow's stage. Maybe it'll give me something fun, at least I'm hoping for something better than today.

July 4, Stage 3: Olonne-sur-Mer - Redon 198 km

2011-07-04T16:30:00.000-04:00

It was a sprinter's day and to cut to the chase, a sprinter won. Not just any sprinter and definitely no the sprinter most people wanted to win. It was a true pleasure to see Tyler Farrar take this stage win for a number of reasons:

a) it was his first TDF stage win
b) it proved to his critics that he is good enough to win on the big stage
c) he won the stage for his best friend, Wouter Weylandt and we all remember what happened to Wouter
d) Garmin worked extraordinarily well as a team

And in reference to that last point, I was both delighted and surprised to see Thor Hushovd taking his turn in the lead out for Tyler. I would imagine there's been some animosity between Thor and Tyler, and why wouldn't there be? Obviously having two sprinters on your TDF team is never a good idea, but it seems, at least for this stage (and probably because Thor's in yellow), to be working. Top heavy teams are usually doomed to failure, so it's a nice change to see it working out. Now the question remains, will it last?

We also had the first real intermediate sprint contested today and it was ... Well, it was a mess. Not just because Cavendish and Thor were DQ'd for god knows what. But also because these are going to end in disaster before this tour's over. It was weird, I mean I knew there were sprint points coming up, but I didn't expect the fight for them to be, well, like a race finish. I know people love the excitement of stuff like that and don't get me wrong, I like it too. But come on. Sprint finishes are terrifying at best and dangerous at worst. And when you have something like a sprint finish in the middle of a stage? Recipe for disaster. There's no team organization, no lead outs, just a mass of riders battling with each other. It's no wonder that Thor and Cav were DQ'd, regardless of the real reason.

I like the idea of intermediate sprints, but I'm pretty sure they're not going to work. I hope that I'm proved wrong, but I'm not actually expecting to be. Bruised and batter sprinters do not a fun TDF make, not even when I dislike them. We'll see, though.

Thor's still in yellow, amusingly. And the top five haven't changed too much, which is fine with me. I'd kind of like to see Millar in yellow, honestly. Though I'm secretly annoyed as to the Schlecks being 7th and 8th. Easy rides, ugh. But, hey, it's only stage three so that means a lot can (and hopefully will) change. I'm glad, so far at least, that there was a TTT on the second stage and no prologue.

Stage four, which I won't get to see live, at least with sound for most of it, it a hilly stage, as they're called at the Tour. I hope to see someone like Sylvain do some attacking, but it might be too early for that. Probably some French riders on the French teams will head out soon after the race starts. I'm not sure it'll be a group finish, but you never know.

July 3, Stage 2: Les Essarts (TTT) 23 km

2011-07-03T16:19:00.000-04:00

I love Team Time Trials. There's nothing like them in any sport and, hell, there's nothing else really like them in cycling either. Sure, you have teams that are supposed to work together, but we all know that isn't always the case. But in team time trials, you have to work together and if someone fails or falls/crashes or can't keep up -- especially early on -- then you're screwed. What I also like is a well-oiled TTT. I like the rhythm that some teams establish, where they it's almost like watching a machine as each rider does a turn on the front. Mostly it doesn't work that way, but when it does, it's a thing of beauty.

What about this TTT? Well, for me there was a lot at stake because of the results from the first stage. I like that we had a non traditional yellow jersey leader and I was kind of hoping we'd get more of that, if not Phil (because OPL isn't a strong time trialling team), then someone else. What I didn't want was someone like the Schlecks, Contador or Cancellara getting in yellow. Or, god forbid, one of their teams or Radioshack winning the stage. Luckily things worked out for the best, though for a while it didn't seem like that'd be the case. Saxo Bank was first out of the gate and they did a really fast pace, but as happens with the first team (and rider) of a time trial, they're doomed to lose since everyone's trying to beat the time of the first person.

The results weren't exactly what I wanted, but they would suffice.

1 Team Garmin - Cervelo 0:24:48
2 BMC Racing Team 0:00:04
3 Sky Procycling
4 Team Leopard-Trek
5 HTC - Highroad 0:00:05
6 Team Radioshack 0:00:10
7 Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:12
8 Saxo Bank Sungard 0:00:28
9 Pro Team Astana 0:00:32
10 Omega Pharma - Lotto 0:00:39

I wanted Sky first (I can hear you judging me, I know) because I wanted Geraint Thomas in yellow, but that wasn't to be. Then I'd kind of hoped for HTC to win, just because maybe Tony would've been in yellow? I'm not entirely sure. But Garmin definitely was an okay first, even though I'm not over pleased with Thor, I neither dislike or like him (though my mother loves him, so she was happy). What I didn't want was Leopard Trek even close to the top and for a while that's what looked like would happen. Which meant that I cheered BMC on extra super hard, even though I'm not the biggest Cadel fan and, thankfully, I got a suitable, if not ideal, result.

Geraint Thomas got to keep his white jersey and in the end, that's the only thing I cared about. That and Sylvain/his team finished well. They were 14th, which wasn't too shabby. Not great, but again they're not a good TTT team. Apparently, according to an interview with Gerald Ciolek, they started out strong but communication broke down. I'm not surprised, to be honest. Every team excels at different things and TTT isn't always one of them. I'm just glad that Sylvain's still only 56 seconds back (at 44th) so there's still a chance that he can win a stage or two, and maybe even get the yellow jersey for a day.

I did enjoy the stage, including Contador's team not being able to hang onto any sort of lead. I liked to see Cadel Evans (sigh) gaining time on the leaders. What I didn't like to see was how Cadel busted his ass and Andy Schleck barely did anything as Cancellara towed him to the line. I know, he had to ride the same stage, too, but come on. Sometimes TTTs aren't fair, but I suppose neither is life. I also didn't like to see Bernhard Eisel crashing, that looked pretty awful. I will also say that I was totally surprised how the TTT made me root for teams (HTC, Sky and Garmin, as well as BMC) who I never really thought to root for before. I'm not sure I like all their riders, but hey, sometimes the team is more important (SIGH).

Tomorrow will hopefully be a big breakaway, ending in a sprint finish. At least a girl can dream. Right?

July 2, Stage 1: Passage du Gois La Barre-de-Monts - Mont des Alouettes Les Herbiers 191 km

2011-07-02T16:18:00.001-04:00

The 2011 Tour de France is upon us and ... I don't know. I'm excited, or at least I was, and then I was subjected to shitty Versus coverage, both on tape (my own) and live. I was hanging out with my parents during the first part of the race (it was fine) and we made it home for the exciting part -- aka the last 28k or so. It was nice to see the three French boys up front, I was slightly disappointed they couldn't stay away the whole time, but it was nice nonetheless. I hadn't looked over the stage, but my mom said at one point that she'd read the ending was something a bit special and boy was she right. Of course, neither of us expected the crashes and it seems no one else did, either.

I was kind of sad to see that Andre Greipel had crashed early on, but since I'm pissed at Lotto ... Which kind of fails, because I have two of them on my fantasy team (Greipel and Gilbert). Anyway, I'm mad at Lotto because they didn't bring Adam Hansen with them (I wish I knew why), but I still upset about Greipel being injured (and later having to work for Gilbert, even though it ended up working out well). I didn't see the earlier crash, but the two that happened close to the finish were certainly interesting crashes. I'm really not impressed with fans who get in the way of cyclists -- this happens a lot, but usually nothing this shitty happens. I know that it's rare, but that fan caused a huge (as in massive) pile up and no one (NO ONE) likes that. And, really, I hope we don't lose any riders.

That being said ... I'm kind of pleased with the results of this stage:

1 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 4:41:31
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:03
3 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:00:06
4 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team
5 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto
6 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Procycling
7 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack
8 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne
9 Christopher Horner (USA) Team RadioShack
10 Tony Martin (Ger) HTC-Highroad

Before I talk about how the stage finished, I want to get a couple things cleared up. I do not want Contador to win. Not because of the doping stuff (though the fact that he's racing is both BS and hilarious), but because I just don't like the kind of cyclist he's become. And I don't want Andy Schleck to win because he's Andy Schleck. And I don't like Wiggins or Evans (because I don't and they're not on my fantasy team, so there). BUT ... If I had to pick, I would choose Wiggins (ugh) and Evans (also ugh), over any of the "favorites." So, now that that's out of the way, let's talk about this stage.

I was totally excited that the Contador group got split from the front group. That really made me happy and even thought I don't like Evans, I'm not really sure I mind him being close to yellow. I don't like crashes, but as someone said (maybe it was my friend Sarah), it's really, really, nice to have someone different in the mix this time. I was extremely surprised to see all the sprinters up at the front (before and after the crashes), but a lot of them are also good at classics, and this was a pseudo-classics finish. I was pretty ticked when Cancellara attacked, the guy just can't get enough (or was he trying to get the peloton to slow down and wait ??? kidding ... mostly). But it made me really pleased when Phil attacked and then totally took the win.

My question is, did Cancellara just decide he didn't have the, ahem, juice, to battle it out with Gilbert or did he quit for some other reason (was he told not to attack when his teammates were so far back?). I don't know and I haven't read anything about today's stage (and I probably won't) so I'm not sure if they asked what happened, but regardless, I was happy to have a first yellow of the tour on a dude who totally isn't a favorite. And it's so fantastic to see Phil winning a stage of the Tour. I liked him since he was a wee thing on FDJ and it's great to watch him come good, even if his hair is ridiculous. And, um, even though I hate Sky, I'm kind of disgustingly pleased that Geraint Thomas is in white.

Tomorrow is the ITT and I'll be keeping an eye on it and on the Wimbledon final. I'll be, um, rooting for ... someone tomorrow, maybe Sky so that Geraint can be in yellow. But you cannot at all quote me on that. Ever. I will deny it.

July 25, Stage 20: Longjumeau - Paris 102.5km

2010-07-25T22:26:00.001-04:00

I've had more than enough time to think about this stage, about the Tour. The stage itself was uneventful, the result a disappointment. Perhaps, had this been 2009 instead of 2010 and I still liked Cavendish, I wouldn't have been so annoyed. But it's not last year. It's 2010 and as much as I enjoy watching cycling, I'm really quite happy that the Tour de France is over for another year. Granted, it's been over for 11 days, but I haven't wanted to talk about it at all. So this is me, pulling my own teeth to get this post written before it ends up being December or something.

The KOM was disappointing, but at least he was French. The younger rider was Andy Schleck, who shouldn't even have been on contention, but was, thanks to all that bullshit his teammate Cancellara pulled in the second stage. Contador was the winner, worthy or not is not really important. Chaingate, as it's called, was utterly stupid and these pro cyclists need to stop trying to be nice. It's a race, not a lesiure ride, get over yourselves and embrace the fact that you're RACING. But apparently that's too much to ask (of the cyclists and apparently the fans).

The best thing about this whole tour was Sylvain Chavanel, followed closely by Quick Step and French riders winning. Obviously, I clearly want more from the tour. But two stages, two yellow jerseys, a KOM and, in the end, the most aggressive rider were even more than I could hope for. I think, perhaps next year, I need to work harder at not caring. There were many times when I just wanted to throw my hands up in frustration because it was obvious to me that I wasn't enjoying the racing.

Hopefully with team shake ups upcoming, with doping allegations going on and no Armstrong next year, things will be better. I know this is a short entry, but I'm tired of the Tour. I'm tired of all of this bullshit that comes with being a fan who actually cares about, you know, a race. For a moment, before Contador chicken the fuck out, I thought maybe we were in for something special. Sadly, this Tour didn't have that. And anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is wrong.

How I became a bitter cycling fan is a story for another day.

July 24, Stage 19: Bordeaux - Pauillac 52km

2010-07-24T17:00:00.000-04:00

Time trails are tricky things. Obviously they are for the cyclists themselves, but also for fans. It's one thing to watch a mountain stage where it's one rider against another, or a sprint, where the bunch finishes together and it's rarely one on one (but sometimes it is, and those can be fun). And it's also fun to watch a solo ride to the finish of a stage. But a time trial, especially the individual time trial, is something completely different. In a prologue, it's you against the clock and also against the other cyclists. In a time trial, especially one so close to the end of a stage race, it's you against the clock against the other riders against yourself. Andy Schleck was a perfect example of how it can all go completely wrong, whereas his teammate, Fabian Cancellara had been the perfect example, in the prologue, of how it can go perfectly.

Ideally, the boy in the picture, Tony Martin, would've won the stage. It would have been absolutely wonderful, but just like the opening prologue, it was not to be. Much to my annoyance and chagrin. But that's not the point. There's no way anyone other than Cancellara was going to win the stage -- if only because he's the best in the world at time trials. He's fastest and strongest and it would have taken a miracle (and maybe a few years) before Martin can overtake him (though I have faith that he will). But that wasn't the interesting part of the stage. For all my complaining about Stage 17 and the Col du Tourmalet, I secretly hoped that maybe Schleck could find those 8 seconds. It's not that I like Schleck better than Contador. It's not even that I want him on the podium instead, it's just that I like it when things get flipped around and turned inside.

Unfortunately, that wasn't to be. For a few minutes toward the middle of Schleck's time trial, it looked like maybe he had a chance. Of course it didn't happen and Contador gained time instead of losing any. The real problem wasn't that Contador was doing a super awesome ITT, because he wasn't. Instead it was that no amount of practice could make Andy Schleck into a world class time trialist. He isn't terrible, he didn't fall off his bike, but watching him as the stage was wrapping up, it was clear that he was just holding on. I don't think Schleck did himself any favors, but I don't think he shamed himself either. He should be proud of what he did, second place is pretty awesome. And the fact that both he and Contador are so far ahead of everyone else is pretty awesome.

There's one thing I haven't touched on yet, and that's the fact that people will continue to think that Contador's victory will be tainted by the so called 'chaingate' (stupid name). I think that's ridiculous. If Schleck had won, his would be tainted by the fact that on Stage 2, Cancellara made the whole fucking peloton wait for Schleck & co. I don't think that anyone should wait unless the race officials say so. Just like in footie, I don't think teams should be kicking the ball out of play until the ref blows the whistle. Of course there are always exceptions to the rules, but come on. Attacking should be what you do, not waiting. Maybe cycling is too stuck on the ideas of fair play, tradition and being a gentleman's sport. They shouldn't be. It's a bike race, not a leisurely stroll up a mountain in the summertime.

Tomorrow is the final stage of the Tour. Probably Cavendish will win, hopefully Petacchi will still be in green. My only goals for the stage would be for Sylvain to win (unlikely) and for both all the riders I like to make it home safely. I will be looking forward to the ceremony, if only because Sylvain's been chosen as the most aggressive/combative cyclist in the tour. It makes me really, really happy and proud. I can't wait until tomorrow, even though I hate the 'party on the bike' that happens for the first part of the stage.

July 23, Stage 18: Salies-de-Bearn - Bordeaux 198km

2010-07-23T22:25:00.001-04:00

Oh look, a sprinter's stage. I used to love these stages, but I think that was because I had a lot more free time to watch them. Now I work and that's okay, because money is more important than most things these days. So what I saw of today's stage was the end (on mute) and then the very last 10k or so (on Versus). It was fun to watch it with sound, because I didn't know that the Liquigas rider, Daniel Oss, was trying desperately hard to win the stage. It was sad, in a way, to watch him fighting so hard for something he clearly wasn't going to get it. That's the downside to flat (ha) stages. People in breaks and late attackers tend to get screwed over, unless they have a really long (10-15 minutes) gap ahead of the peloton.

Obviously we know before going into this stage that there wasn't any way a break was going to last. It was nice to have one, though I didn't get to see much of it. But I didn't mind too much, because I like a good sprint. Um, but that wasn't what we got. Instead it was Mark Cavendish versus everyone else. I don't know how this happened, but it's pretty much like everyone sees Cav coming and gives up. I don't approve of this at all. I know there have been sprint crashes recently, but seriously. Seriously. Whatever happened to drag racing to the line? What happened to a little argy-bargy (and not the crack that Renshaw pulled)? What happened to a flat out sprint where two guys cross the line so closely that it takes 10 minutes to figure out who won the stage? I guess I'm no longer easy to please, which is disappointing.

Not all was lost, of course. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz were at the stage! Okay, so that's not what I meant, but it cracked me up none the less. They were apparently there to promote their movie, Night and Day, which I saw and absolutely loved (it's hilarious) . So that was funny -- and apparently they were in the commentary booth during the final sprint, but weren't allowed to say anything (lol). Anyway, what I was going to say is that something awesome did happen: Petacchi took back the green jersey. And, holy crap, it looks like, barring incident tonight or on tomorrow's ITT, he's going to make it to the finish of the Tour. I can't remember the last time he did that, if ever. Pretty fucking awesome if you ask me. The other super great thing was that Robbie McEwen was fourth and we know I like it when he's up there.

Everything else stayed the same, which is depressing, but nothing was going to change. Tomorrow is the ITT, which should be fun and hopefully I'll be able to watch most of it live (while cleaning my apartment). I really hope that fun things happen, though I don't mean in the Rasmussen kind of way (crash, crash and then more crashes). Just in the oh, hey, the yellow is in danger. Or something fun like that. Chances are that's not going to happen. But as long as someone I like wins the ITT, I think it'll be okay. I hope.

Two days left. Let's see if I can muster up some excitement!

July 22, Stage 17: Pau - Col du Tourmalet 174km

2010-07-22T22:26:00.001-04:00

In the end, this stage was a huge disappointment. I mean, I know it was exciting and the break had people I liked it in. But seriously. It was the fucking Col du Tourmalet and basically nothing happened. I think my expectations are consistently too high. I can't even say I was spoiled by past Tours, because I've been victim of the damn Tour de Lance for so long. I mean, I know he was there and not winning, but come on. I wanted drama, I wanted fireworks, I wanted ... well, basically I didn't want what happened. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the climb up the Col du Tourmalet -- including the break and then the attacks, but the finish was just ... It was seriously a let down.

I don't quite know how to explain what I want. Well, okay no. That's a lie. I know exactly what I want. I want an old school type Tour where the winner isn't determined until the last day. I want time bonuses back. I want a KOM jersey that's won by someone who goes out day after day and pushes until he's got nothing left. I want Robbie McEwen in the green jersey. I want Cav to stop winning stages (that's another topic for another day). I want something that I don't think exists any more, if it existed at all. I get that people are excited that Contador and Andy Schleck are going to be a rivalry for a long time, but I don't want that. I want a wide open Tour, I want the promise of what things could've (should've) been like without Armstrong. I want so much more than the TDF is ever going to give me.

And now you see why I find the GC to be the worst part of the whole Tour. I talk about it because I have to and I get a bit pulled into the hype. But, like, it's always a disappointment. I know we say it's the Tour and anything can happen -- but it never does, not really. I really did expect too much. I thought, maybe Schleck can pull this off. Maybe, just maybe we're gong to get something spectacular. And then that happened. Which was ... not really awesome. I mean, them eying each other all the way up the mountain, the first attack by Schleck, the second by Contador. The fact that they couldn't shake the other, that was pretty cool. But the race for the line wasn't really a race. I know people keep trying to say it was a sprint type thing, but come on. Who in their right might thinks that's what happened. It was fucking ridiculous. Contador all but let Andy win. As if he deserved it. Whatever. We all know how I feel about it.

I don't know what else I'm supposed to say about this stage, you know? I was really excited for it. And a lot of it was pretty awesome. I was even awake at 6:30, so I saw stuff close to the start. I also don't think Carlos Sastre should have been punished for, you know, attacking. This is the Tour, not a leisure. But what do I know, right? I'm just a fan. I don't ride up the mountains, I barely get on my bike. I just get annoyed when these grown men who do what they love for a living bitch about things. I mean, come on. Suck it up and deal. If Robbie McEwen can do it, so can you.

July 21, Rest day two: Pau

2010-07-21T11:39:00.001-04:00

Hey, it's another rest day -- the second and final of the 2010 TDF. I'll if I can come up with some good and bad things. It's hard, considering how weird this Tour has been. But, let's give it a go.

The Good:
1. Mountains!
Seriously. They are so awesome. I know that I didn't get everything I wanted out of them (compared to what happened before the first rest day). I didn't even get that much crazy attacking (though we have that giant ass stage still to come, so here's hoping). But it doesn't matter, because even when nothing happens, something happens. And it's so awesome watching the guys climbing up the mountains. It makes me tired, especially when I think about the fact that I can't do any of this shit at all. I admire them (doping and all) because it's really, really fucking hard.

2. French cyclists
Sandy Casar won stage nine, Christophe Riblon won stage fourteen, Thomas Voeckler stage fifteen and Pierrick Fedrigo won stage sixteen. Four French cyclists in one week. Four. I have a soft spot for French cyclists, only partly because of my favorite being French. But, seriously. How amazingly awesome. Maybe we'll get another French win or two before the Tour's over. It's hard not to love these guys. The only sad thing is that a French rider didn't win on Bastille Day. Oh well, there's always next year.

3. Quick Step
Just a mention for the team that's somehow wormed it's way into my heart. They're doing pretty well -- with stage wins, the polka dot jersey, the yellow jersey and lots of publicity in breaks. It's pretty great to see a team that lost the person it'd normally work for (Tom Boonen) still managing to be, well, awesome. And that's exactly what they're doing. Thanks, guys. I love it.

4. Green Jersey
My green jersey boy isn't going to win it, he's not even close. I'll just pray that he crosses the line in one piece. But it's not who has the jersey that's important, it's the fact that it just keeps going back and forth. Is this the first time Petacchi will finish the Tour? Will those doping allegations get in the way of him doing anything about the jersey? Will Cav win the sprints on the last two days? Will that put him in Green? Will Thor manage to hold on? How awesome, really. More of this, please (only with dudes I like next time).

5. Drama
Oh. My. God. And y'all thought last week was bad. Apparently the 2010 wants to be the most drama filled Tour ever. And, I gotta be honest, I love it. There have been moments when I've been a bit angry (everyone flipping out about Contador taking the yellow jersey), but mostly it's been painfully fun. The Mark Renshaw incident for one -- I mean, seriously. If you can't take the heat, don't headbutt people! And, of course, the Contador and Schleck thing. They've apologized and made up. They've MADE UP. I don't even. It's so hilarious that I don't have words for it. I hope next year has just as much drama (without the headaches).

The Bad:
6. Commentators
This goes for both Eurosport and Versus, though I haven't heard too much Versus drama this year because I've been mostly listening to Eurosport. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather listen to them every day. But I get tired of hearing the same crap both on Versus and Eurosport. I get that everyone loves Armstrong, but maybe could you be a little bit less biased? I mean, it's okay to root for the Brits, you're British. But you guys don't go insane that often about them like you do about Armstrong. I just don't get it. Just as an upside, the Eurosport dudes are GREAT about answering questions (so it's not all bad).

7. Armstrong
Everywhere I turn, it's like an Armstrong love-in. Except for those awesome news articles that are slowly tearing him apart, those I love. But, seriously. It's like everyone involved in cycling loves him and wants him to do well. The word swansong was uttered far, far too many times on Tuesday. It made me a little sick after awhile and I was super glad he didn't win the stage. He's a distraction and takes away from the cycling. I can't wait until he's gone.

8. Twitter
A lot of times, this is good. But holy shit, y'all. When things go wrong or people disagree with someone, twitter fucking explodes. It's almost hilarious if it wasn't so aggravating. I'm totally guilty of this -- don't get me wrong (and that's why it's down in the bad area). Ideally, I'd like to hang out on twitter during the stage and then disappear as soon as it's over -- because even though I have my own cycling twitter, I find that I disagree with almost everyone. It's depressing, especially when I end up being pissy all day because of people on twitter being stupid. Ugh.

9. Vinokourov
I have a lot to say about him, but mostly I'm disappointed that he's back and winning. But at the same time, I've had some pretty interesting conversations with a dude who remains a Vino fan. And while I've really had a lot to think about, I still don't like Vino. I will, however, admit that even though he's gone back to doing exactly what he did before he tested positive, he's still quite an impressive rider. I just wish he wasn't such a jackass about the whole doping thing. Just man up, dude (and not just you, Vino, I mean all of the peloton -- but that's an issue for another blog on another day).

10. Cadel Evans
This is only bad because I feel so sorry for him. I'm not really a fan, but I was kind of secretly hoping he'd win, if only because everyone else is even more annoying. But it's not going to happen, because he just couldn't hack it. Kudos to him for not giving up, but ugh. It's really painful to watch him these. Go home, Cadel. You deserve a break.

July 20, Stage 16: Bagneres-de-Luchon - Pau 199.5km

2010-07-20T11:39:00.006-04:00

I will be upfront and honest with y'all. I really expected a lot more out of this stage. I suppose, as it was (somehow) billed as Armstrong's swansong (ha. hahahaha), there probably weren't going to be any real attacks on the yellow jersey. Sadly, this was, in fact, the cast -- the no attacks things. I guess that's the way these things go. Maybe they're saving themselves for Stage 17, which is Pau - Col du Tourmalet. That's probably the last stage where true yellow jersey attacks can take place, aside from the time trial (which might be where Alberto Contador seals his win, barring any unforeseen incidents). But, still, I was hoping for something exciting. And, well, I suppose in a way I got that.

Which is not to say that I enjoyed Armstrong in the breakaway. It actually took all of my cycling fan-ness to care about the breakaway. It was only the presence of Carlos Barredo that made me even pay attention. Armstrong is such a worthless figure and I couldn't bare to see him win. So it was basically who do I want to win that's not Armstrong. I guess it was more of an anybody but Radio Shack thing, since I also cannot stand Chris Horner (bitter, bitter). But, honestly, aside from Barredo, there wasn't anyone in the break I cared about. And I was doing a million things so it was kind of hard for me to care much about the stage (work gets in the way of fun times). But I did manage to see the whole stage. I meant to write about it earlier, but couldn't be bothered. I blame my apathy on blogging on both the weather (ugh, heat) and work.

Anyway, so the break did it's thing and nearly fell apart, but managed to hold on until the end. Luckily they made it exciting for us because Carlos Barredo attacked with about 35k (give or take) left. I wish he'd waited a bit longer because his timing was just a tiny bit off and we all know what that means. Which is that he didn't win the stage and that's just super annoying. If he'd waited maybe 5k or so, he probably would have won the stage. Though who knows with the way this tour is going. But, yeah, Barredo left too early and ended up getting caught almost within sight of the line. It was terrible and annoying because you felt like Barredo was so close and he just had to do it. But, sadly, it was not to be (damn it).

So what did happen? More ridiculous cat and mouse bullshit with the breakaway. But the worst part wasn't the BS, instead it was all the commentators who said that the break should allow Armstrong to win. I mean, come on. We've been through this many, many times. No one deserves to win, there are no gifts in cycling. Armstrong's even said as much and yet everyone seemed to think that the break was going to sit up and let him win. I cannot even begin to tell you how angry that made me. I don't understand the world's love of Armstrong. Maybe it's hero worship, maybe it's blinded by love, maybe it's stupidity. Or maybe it's fear. The man'll sue you if you talk shit about him (well, and if you're important, because I talk shit about him all the time -- but I'm not anyone, luckily). Regardless of why the cycling world seems to grovel at his feet, there's no reason to expect that they should gift him a win.

And, thankfully, that didn't happen. What did was pretty awesome. It was a weird sort of sprint (which made twitter go wtf a lot because two teams in the break had two dudes from each team and they did nothing -- one of them being Radio Shack, I love it when team tactics fail -- even at the expense of someone I like). And somehow Sandy Casar out lasted almost everyone -- except for Thomas Voeckler's teammate (Voeckler won Stage 15), Pierrick Fedrigo won the stage. I'm not a fan, but I don't dislike him, either. It was just so fucking awesome that Armstrong didn't win the stage that I was like OMG YAY! Maybe it's petty of me, but I was really hoping instead of a swansong, he'd have a swandive and ... he kind of did. Thank you, cycling.

There was also some sprint weirdness, with the jersey changing hands again -- back to Thor. We'll see what happens on Friday (sprinter's stage) and then on the final stage on Sunday. I don't know what I way any more, except maybe Sylvain to win another stage, the Tour to finish and Armstrong to go away. At least two of those will happen eventually. I hope. Wednesday's a rest day (woo!) and then Thursday is a wicked stage. If we don't see any fireworks on Col du Tourmalet, then I don't know why we even bother with the Tour. Fingers crossed for excitement.

July 19, Stage 15: Pamiers - Bagneres-de-Luchon 187.5km

2010-07-20T10:19:00.002-04:00

Everyone's talking about the yellow jersey drama and I will too, because like everyone else I have opinions. But first I want to say that it was one hell of a stage. It was exciting, had all sorts of fun elements (drama! drama! drama!) and mountains and descents that took your breath away and and and. But, the best thing (seriously) was that a French dude won the stage. I go through periods of like Voeckler and then times where I can't stand him because I'm still bitter about all the work he made Sylvain do when they were on BLB. Voeckler had the yellow and made Sylvain work his ass off for him and then lost everything (yellow and young rider) and I was like, Sylvain could have been winning stages, but no. Anyway, mostly I dislike him, but on stage 15, I couldn't bring myself to hate on him. It was great to see him win and even better to see just how happy he was about winning.

The shitty part is that he won and no one cared because of the stupid yellow jersey drama. This, my friends, is why it's way more fun to care about stage wins. You don't get caught up in all the bullshit that surrounds the race lead. I get that what happened (which, yes, I will talk about later) was dramatic, but come on. When you spend all your time talking about the yellow jersey and ignore the French winner? Fuck you. I know, drama makes headlines and I had a huge debate about this on twitter, but seriously. Praise the stage winner, don't let the other crap (no matter how crazy wild it was) overshadow the fact that a dude from the break managed to win the day. I know the race reports will talk a lot about him, as they should. But watching the stage coverage itself (both Versus and Eurosport) were more interested in the yellow jersey. I know that I'm just spouting shit and no one really cares, but I do.

Obviously this is neither the first nor the last time the yellow jersey has overshadowed the stage winner. Granted, it usually happens on the last day and it's totally justified, but come on. First day of the last week of the Tour. Give Voeckler a little respect. If you can muster up the energy to talk about Vino all the time, why not Voeckler? That being said, I didn't agree with Voeckler when he himself said he deserved to win, because we all know that I feel no one deserves to win. Regardless of that fact, it was super awesome that he won the stage. I'm glad that a lot of the French guys have won this year (especially because two of those wins were by Sylvain). I'd like to see a few more, but I'm not overly concerned. They've been pretty good stage wins and Voeckler just to them. It was cute as he rdoe up to the line he wasn't sure he was all alone and he looked back and was like !!! and that made the rest of us go !! and smile. It was lovely.

So, now that I've gotten three paragraphs worth of stuff from the stage winner, it's time to talk about the drama that unfolded toward the end of the stage. I don't know exactly what happened to Andy Schleck, except that it was a mechanical -- either the bike screwed up or he did. To be honest, though, I don't care. Schleck, in yellow, attacked. Vino countered, soon followed by Contador, his teammate. Then BAM, somehow in there Schleck's bike stopped and Contador kept attacking and that's when everyone lost their shit. Seriously, people on twitter (and the commentators) went insane. It was ridiculous, hilarious and utterly maddening. There are two extremes: a) Contador is a dick, he should have waited for the yellow jersey and b) It's a bike race, you attack to win, you don't sit on your ass and wait for your opponent. There are people who fall between these two extremes. I will put a disclaimer on this before I give you my opinions (for those of you not following me on twitter): I do not like Contador or A. Schleck. Yes, I don't like either of them and ideally, neither will win the GC.

And now, my thoughts. I am firmly in camp b. Which means that I definitely think Contador shouldn't wait. In the past I may have felt differently, until I realized that I was watching a race, not a popularity contest. The Tour de France is not a bunch of buddies riding together and wait for someone when they have a flat or whatever. Just like I felt Cancellara shouldn't have made the peloton wait for the Schleck brothers and just like I felt even though my boy had the yellow, the peloton shouldn't wait for him either. I keep saying this over and over, there are no gifts in cycling. Why should you be forced to wait for your opponent? I thought the TDF was a race, not a tea party (as someone said). I mean, honestly. If Contador can't take advantage of a (possible) fuck up by the dude he's racing against, what's the point. I know, tradition and all that bullshit, but guess what - there are more cases of people taking advantage than there are of people being nice. It's a sporting event! You're not supposed to be nice!

Pez Cycling, who annoys me a lot of time, actually has a really good article about these two opinions that people have. I recommend reading it. But yeah, my views are pretty straight forward. Either you attack or you don't. If you can't handle the fact that it's a race, then maybe you want to reconsider your career. This is just like how I hate that no one attacks on the final stage. I don't want to tune in to watch you celebrating and drinking champagne, I want you to fucking race. And while I might not like Schleck and Contador, I'm watching to see (among other things) A BIKE RACE. Of course, you say, they're not racing for you (which I know I've said) and you're right. They're racing to win the goddamn race. And instead, they bitch and whine like little babies when something goes wrong. Come on. Even with drugs, y'all are tougher than soccer (football) players. So get off your high horses and suck it up and deal.

I hope stage 16's better (though I already know the result as I'm writing this, I'm going to pretend I don't) because I cannot stand this crap. Thank god the race is over. I may have to reconsider blogging next year -- though we're supposedly going to be without Armstrong, at last (again), so that's something to consider. And as long as Sylvain's racing at the Tour, I'll keep watching. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Time start thinking about the next TDF blog.

July 18, Stage 14: Revel - Ax-3 Domaines 184.5km

2010-07-19T08:16:00.003-04:00

Hey, another French winner. Pretty awesome, I think. It was good (tough) stage, interesting and definitely exciting. I expected a bit more drama between Contador and Schleck, and in a way we got that, but not exactly how I (or anyone else) expected. The mountains were killer, as they always are in the Tour (which is what we fans love) and so we had a pretty decent break. I didn't expect it to last, especially when the break started to shed riders and that almost happened. The peloton started breaking up on that final climb before the finish. The real drama started on the climb to the finish, which is almost too predictable.

I was cheering hard for Christophe Riblon because I'm that kind of person. I really wanted him to stay away and win, because I like the breaks, as we've already established. And so I was pretty pleased when he did. It was fun to watch and really fun to see him so pleased about winning. I know that maybe I'm silly for caring more about stage winners than about the GC, but sometimes that's the way it works out. I used to think it was because I kept getting burned by winners, but I think that, for me, the GC isn't important. I'm not usually a fan of anyone in the top 5, much less the top 3. I think it's bitterness from being an Armstrong fan. So it turned out that, mostly, I can enjoy the Tour more when I just don't care who wins the whole damn race.

Of course, when blogging about the Tour, I just can't pretend nothing else happened. Other things did happen. Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador nearly (well, not that close) raced themselves out of the TDF lead (though I don't know that Andy would have minded). They were so busy watching each other that a few of the other contenders got away from them. They didn't gain much (any?) time, but it was fascinating -- and fun -- to watch. It was that you go, no you go, no you go kind of thing. It was pretty cool and not something we often see in the TDF in recent years. While that doesn't make me care more about the GC, it does provide entertainment. And that's what we all like about the sport (well, most of us).

Other things -- amusing comments about Anthony Charteau being in the KOM jersey when he was shitty last year (we all know why, that's how things go in cycling). The changing of the Green jersey (Thor to Petacchi to Thor to Petacchi over and over ...). The fact that Robbie McEwen is still racing and that makes him a stud and I love it. Also, the fact that Sylvain still feels he can give it a go occasionally, which we all know I like.

I guess I don't have all that much else to talk about so I'm going to end it here. I've been watching Stage 15 and I'm going to have a lot to talk about. Anyway, stage 14 was good and exciting and now we're onto another day.

July 17, Stage 13: Rodez - Revel 196km

2010-07-17T11:23:00.004-04:00

I should put a disclaimer on this post, explaining how I'm in a terrible mood and I am only going on what I saw of the stage while at work (and without sound), but I don't care. The only thing good about this stage was that Sylvain was in the break, and I got to see almost none of it and then he didn't win. So, if you think you can tell that I'm bitter, you're probably right. Because I really am. I know I talk about how unfair cycling is and today was a huge demonstration of that fact. I've said previously that no cyclist deserves to win -- but there are cyclists who deserve not to win. And today's stage was one of those days.

Vinokourov did not deserve to win. In fact, he shouldn't even been racing. He never confessed to doping, just served his fine and came back and did exactly what he did before he was banned. If you try to tell me I should respect him, I'm sorry, it's just not going to work. Vinokourov is a disgrace to the sport and every time I see him, I cannot help but wish him ill will. I know that makes me a bad person and a bad fan, but I just can't be bothered to care about it. I used to like him, you know. He was close to being a favorite, without being one. He was a good cyclist and I was a very, very naive fan. He destroyed my faith in clean cycling -- and I should probably thank him for that. Because without him, I'd probably still be one of those silly fans who thinks that there are clean cyclists out there (lies).

But that doesn't mean I should like him anymore and I don't. Every time he wins a stage, it makes me sick. And this is the worst. He never should've been allowed to race again, much less in the Tour. Though I suppose he fits right in, because it's as though he never quit racing for two years (hmm, I wonder why -- oh wait, no I don't). It's a huge fucking disgrace to see him win, to see him on the podium. There was a time in my life when I would've loved to see it, but that time has long since passed. Instead, I will sit here and be disgusted that not a damn thing has changed in this sport and I will accept the idea that it never will.

What else can I say about the stage? I won't know, I only saw the last 45k and I cannot bring myself to care about it. Perhaps I could talk about the beautiful scenery that Sylvain road by in the few moments that I got to see him in the break. I could talk about how shitty it is to have lead out trains and how I hate them. I could discuss the fact that Mark Cavendish getting second in the stage is also a disgrace to the Tour. Or I could be ridiculously upset about Robbie McEwen had a terrible day and came in seven minutes back (thought I see now that at least he wasn't 12 minutes back, thank god).

I said on Twitter that today was the worst stage ever and I stand by that. I wish I would have been able to watch it with sound, perhaps my hatred of Vino would've been tempered by commentators (but probably not). But as it was, I had to deal with folks on twitter vomiting their admiration for Vino. It's disgusting, to be honest. Almost as much as the blind faith that people have in Armstrong (believing all the lies he spews forth). I wish this stage had been different, I wish the result would've been better. I wish people could accept that cyclists dope and lie and that no punishment seems to work. I wish dopers would apologize, even if they come back and dope again (which they do). But instead, I'm treated to stages like Stage 13, where cheating wins. I really wish I could have appreciated this stage, but I didn't.

After leaving this for several hours, I have skimmed the post and I pretty much agree with everything I said earlier. I'm not as hostile as I was, but this stage was terrible and I can't write 12 million super long paragraphs ever stage, so this is what you get. I hope to god tomorrow's better.

July 16, Stage 12: Bourg-de-Peage - Mende 210.5km

2010-07-16T10:47:00.004-04:00

Crazy awesome 18 man breakaway. I love it, I'm just sad I couldn't watch a lot of the middle of the race (errands and an inability to watch the stage tonight, due to the awesomeness of having a social life). But, hey, the end is the most important part, right? Okay, it's not. Especially when we get to the bigger mountains again. So, anyway, 18-man break, not really anyone in it I care a great deal for, save Carlos Barredo (because no matter what I say about not cheering for teams, i apparently have a soft spot for QS, I blame Traice). So I was cheering for Carlos and maybe Ryder Hesjedal. But, as I'm watching this (yes, I'm writing this while I'm watching the end of the stage, 4k to go seems like a good time to start writing) the break is all but gone -- save for a couple of riders: Vino (ugh ugh) and Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne). I'm really hoping that the peloton steps it up on this super steep climb. They're making me tired just watching it.

Anyway, the other parts of the stage. Big breakaway groups are fun, especially when they work like a well-oiled machine. It's fun to see them working together, even if (when) they're doomed. It would have been nice if they'd survived, but I didn't really expect it to happen, especially considering the way today's stage finished. Though I'll be honest, I didn't realize until I was listening to the Eurosport commentary just how steep the final climb was. And now as I'm watching the stage, I'm totally blown away by the steepness, it's ridiculous and I have no idea how the cyclists who are already struggling are going to make it up (though most of them will, they somehow always do). I'm also waiting for the fireworks, as it were, and just as I typed that, they just happened. Unfortunately, Vino and Kiryienka (I think?) are still in the front (though as I'm editing this, they didn't last that long, thankfully!). At this point, I'd take a Contador win over Vino, to be honest (anybody but Vino! Can y'all believe I ever liked that dude?).

So the break was sort of caught, but it was more like they were broken apart, which is a little bit better than being taken nearly at the line. It is painful to watch, because these guys busted their asses as they worked together and then to watch it fall apart, through their own infighting as well as the pressure of the peloton, is kind of disappointing, but not unexpected. But what the destruction of the break meant is that the the big names, aka Contador and Schleck, could use the final climb attack each other. Their goal , as it of is, was to see if they can take out more time out of each other. Well, one of them will try, there's always a loser and as this Tour has shown, the loser can be anyone and usually they're in yellow. And that's almost exactly what happened. Contador attacked, he was joined by Rodriguez from Katusha. They caught and passed the rest of the break (Vino and Kiryienka), but what was really really interesting was the fact that Schleck couldn't follow as in the yellow jersey. The time gaps were unclear and as I was watching the finish, I wasn't sure if Andy Schleck. But by far the best part of the stage was Vino not winning, thank god.

Randomly, Sylvain totally cam in 1:19 minutes after Rodriguez won the stage . But anyway, Schleck didn't lose the jersey, but I'm sure he won't be too happy with this result. Basically, Contador out road Andy up to the finish, though was outmaneuvered by Rodriguez, who took the win. And looking at a replay of Schleck crossing the line, it's clear that he suffered. He still has yellow, but Contador is 31 seconds back, gaining 10 seconds on Schleck. He's followed by Sanchez and Menchov, both over two minutes back and Jurgen Van Den Broeck, who is 3 minutes back in 5th. What a crazy looking top five, two of those names are not surprises, the other three definitely are. I don't know what that says about the Tour, except that the so-called contenders haven't lived up to their expectations. And, to be honest, neither have Schleck and Contador, they've both had days where they don't look at their best. It's weird. I guess we're used to one rider just blowing us away constantly, so this is very different. But it's also a pretty nice change.

Things that didn't change: yellow jersey and young rider. Things that did change: green jersey and kind of the mountains. I'm displeased with both of these. Thor took back the green jersey (meh) and Jérôme lost his KOM to Anthony Charteau. Granted, it's nice that it's a battle between two French cyclists, but Jérôme Pineau > Anthony Charteau. Other than that, the jerseys stay the same. I will confess to being annoyed when the winner of the young rider competition is also the yellow jersey winner. That just seems rude, but I need to remember that cycling isn't fair (damn it).

That steep mountain at the end was also something I liked and these attacks really make the Tour fun, if hard on the cyclists. They make me tired just watching -- even when I'm not doing a thing. Tomorrow is a hilly stage and cyclingnews says it's a good day for breaks. Hopefully it'll be fun and exciting, though I'll again be watching it at work and then watching a tape delay version in the evening. Maybe a rider I like will do something exciting tomorrow.

July 15, Stage 11: Sisteron - Bourg-les-Valence 184.5km

2010-07-15T21:57:00.004-04:00

Disclaimer: I saw this stage on mute while at work and the final sprint (with sound) on Versus, while flipping to the Weather Channel to keep track of a thunderstorm.

Of course, that means I got to see the most important part with sound, and that's mostly what I want to talk about. But first, let's talk about other things on the stage. It was a sprinter's stage, of course, no surprise there. And we had a break that didn't survive. They gave it a really great effort and I like to see that. I especially liked how the two remaining riders, Stephane Augé (Cofidis) and Jose-Alberto Benitez (Footon-Servetto), shook hands right before they were caught. That's a good kind of sportsmanship and I totally approve of that. I think that, perhaps, the peloton needs a bit more respect for each other. Of course, that takes the fun out of it and I guess if you're a sprinter, you can't quite muster up that much respect, since you have to beat ass all the time.

The stage was like most sprint stages. Breakaway, break caught, attacks and sprint to finish. The best part of the stage, for me, was Sylvain's ill fated attack. I don't even know if it was ill-timed or just doomed, but I didn't expect it to last and it didn't. But it sure was fun while it was happening. And then came the drama. Oh, the drama on the stage was out of this world in all the best ways. You see, I love drama in all it's forms. Even when it makes me angry and livid and upset and miserable. Because without drama, this sport wouldn't be half as much fun as it is now. And this year's tour has something like 10 times as much drama and it is so great that sometimes I don't know what to do with myself.

So, the basics: Cavendish won the sprint. I booed and turned off my coverage and did work (at work) so I missed the drama the first time around, but boy did I hear about it (and upset people!). See, the thing is that I'm a firm believer that sports aren't fair, at all, including cycling. And once I accepted that (and the fact that all cyclists dope), I could completely enjoy the sport again, it was very refreshing -- even though I still get angry. And in addition, I don't like Cav so anything that slows him down (even if it's just in theory) can only be a good thing. That being said, what the judges did was ridiculous. For those of you who want a recap, basically Mark Renshaw was an idiot. He headbutted Julian Dean three times (yes, three) and then decided it'd be fun to look back, see Tyler Farrar and then totally veer off his (Mark's) line and block Tyler from doing anything.

Taken separately, each infraction is just that. But the problem is that twofold: you can't take the two events separately because they were perpetrated by the same cyclist and Mark Renshaw is not the sprinter. Sure, he's good at sprinter, but it's clear that his goal was not, in fact, to win the race. I've seen a few discussions about the incident and most of them don't seem to address the fact that Renshaw wasn't trying to win the stage. It's clear from past practices that cycling authorities let a lot of crap go, we've seen that already in this tour. As someone on a community I run said, there's a lot of inconsistency. But I have to say, I don't really care. Why? Because I'm also a football (soccer) fan and this shit happens all the time. Take two of the teams I was supporting at the World Cup (the biggest sporting event in the history of sports), the United States had several bad calls and Australia and two players sent off for ridiculous reasons. It happens and it's not fair, that's life.

My thoughts are that the referees made a bad call. It happens, everyone needs to get over it at move on. Mark Renshaw and Columbia need to accept what happened and deal with the consequences. If they -- if Mark -- can't handle it, then maybe he needs to try not do headbutt and block other cyclists. Of course it was going to be an overreaction, but that's the way sports goes. The best way to deal with it is to just move on, or, you know, enjoy it. Which is what I'm doing. Perhaps that makes me a bad person and a crazy fan, but I've never claimed to be anything else.

Once you accept that sports aren't fair, your life as a fan gets a lot easier.

Tomorrow ends on Montée Laurent Jalabert, if a Frenchman wins that would be brilliant. My hope is Sylvain or JP, but I don't know. I just want more awesome. Oh, and speaking of awesome. I totally forgot that Pettachi got the green jersey back. Not bad for an old man. Love it.

July 14, Stage 10: Chambery - Gap 179km

2010-07-14T12:11:00.005-04:00

Sadly, a French win on Bastille day was not to be. The first attacks, which I happened to be awake to see, didn't even involve French riders. Eventually two French riders, one from BBox and the other from AG2R, attacked. They caught up with the four non-French riders to make up a 6 man breakaway. It was my kind of stage, but sadly I did miss parts of it and had to watch the final 10k without sound because of work (and my recording stopped at noon and the race didn't finish until 12:30, annoying). It was just as well, because the results of the stage really annoyed me because I was rooting for one of the two French riders to win. Sadly, it was not to be. Instead, it was Radio Shack rider Sergio Paulinho who took the stage.

It was only Paulinho and Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne) who seemed able to fight to the end. The remaining four riders drifted back, unable to keep up. Two came in almost a minute and a half back, the other two took longer. The only real change, aside from Nicholas Roche moving from 17th to 13th, was the KOM jersey changed hands. Again. And it went back to Jerome Pineau and you guys have no idea how happy that makes me. I didn't even know how much I cared until he lost the jersey. What else happened on this stage? Apparently there was a decently bad crash with a few injuries, but nothing really serious after that. Aside from the KOM and Roche going up four places, nothing else changed. Schleck is still in yellow (and white), Hushovd is still in green (though there were a few points taken) and I'm hoping for a miracle, because Robbie McEwen is still racing. This makes me happy (probably for all the wrong reasons, but too bad).

So, what is it about these stages that I like? Mostly it's the scenery and the idea that the breakaway might stay away. And why do I like the latter? Mostly because I come a family who almost always roots for the underdogs (I'm a fan of teams from Cleveland, what do you expect?). I especially like it when there's someone I like in the break (and I'm not just talking about Sylvain). Sandy Casar, for example. Sadly, none of the riders I was cheering for (the French) won the stage and of course I found it annoying that a Radio Shack rider won the stage, but that's why you have to be able to take a step back. Especially if you're me, because you end up getting hung up on all the stuff you don't like and forgetting why you're a fan in the first place. It's hard to do, I know. And I tend to find it harder than others because I'm exceptionally good at holding grudges (and I don't forgive easily, it took me seven years to forgive Robbie McEwen for ... basically doing what sprinters do) and I tend to dislike way, way more than I like. It's ridiculous, I know, but it's the way I am.

And that's why I like these stages, because you can hold out hope. Breaks in the mountains are far more fun, like today's stage. Because the chances of the peloton going after them (especially if there's no threat to the yellow jersey) tend to be low and this gives little known riders (and breakaway specialists) a chance for glory. Sometimes it works out, like today, and sometimes it doesn't. But by the far the worst is when the break almost makes it and the peloton catches them at the least second. We'll probably have a few more of those, though I hope not. The other reason, which I mentioned but didn't talk about was the scenery. It's the one reason my dad doesn't always mind watching the Tour. France (and the other countries the race travels through) is beautiful and the TdF gives us some of the best views of France. Especially for those of us who can't get there (at least not yet), it's fun to see it from afar. Today's stage was quite good for that kind of thing.

Tomorrow's stage starts with a cat 3 mountain and then is mostly flat until the finish. I imagine we'll have a break, but it won't last because the sprinters will want to get some points. My hope is that Robbie McEwen shocks us all and wins the stage. Chances are high that won't happen, but a girl can dream, right?

July 13, Stage 9: Morzine-Avoriaz - Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne 204.5km

2010-07-13T23:09:00.007-04:00

Today's stage was crazy-awesome. I really don't know how else to put it. It was also a little heart breaking. But first, let's start with the totally awesome stuff. There was a breakaway that lasted, which is pretty awesome. It didn't last in the traditional sense, because in the end it was a few riders who were caught by Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador (more about that later). The best part was that Sandy Casar won the stage. I know, he's French and he won it a day early (whatever, maybe the French will surprise us and win it on the 14th). But I don't care, because I've always been a fan of Sandy's riding style. He's not on the best team, probably not even the best French team, but he always does his best. Plus, he's fun to root for in a breakaway. It's also really good because it means that FDJ has won a stage of the Tour, and that makes me happy (sometimes I really am that easy).

It was pretty cool that the breakaway lasted, because the mountains, especially the last one, were pretty vicious. And that's where the real action took place. It was kind of weird to remember that it was only stage 9. I say only because these stages keep making me think we're almost done with the TDF. I'm not even sure if this is the first time the lead has been up and down so early in the race, but it certainly feels like it to me. Usually somewhere around the middle/end of the second week things heat up. Though occasionally it's not until the last week (and when effing Armstrong used to race, he just carried the lead for the whole damn Tour, thank god that's not happening). Anyway, so while the break was off doing it's thing, the front of the peloton was really stepping things up.

Though Sandy Casar won the stage (woo!), Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador stole the day. Starting the stage, Cadel Evans was in yellow. At the end of the stage, it was Andy Schleck. I'm not a fan of either of those riders, or of Contador, but you'd have to be made of stone not to feel just absolutely gutted for Cadel Evans. He hit the metaphorical wall and just couldn't do anything. It was painful -- far more painful then watching Sylvain lose the jersey (if only because he has no real aspirations of being a TDF winner) . At times it even looked like Evans wasn't moving, though obviously he was. To see the yellow jersey suffering so much was heartbreaking. And then when he crossed the line, it was so sad. I feel so much for him, he lost so much time. It really put a slight damper on the exciting end of the stage, watching him being held by a teammate while being overcome with emotion. Hopefully he'll live to fight another day, though.

What caused Evans to crack was the battle between Contador and Schleck. They flew off the front, most of the effort by Andy Schleck himself. They battled each other, briefly Jens Voigt, who was in the break, did a bit to help Andy, but even he couldn't keep up. It was exciting to watch, totally the cat and mouse game that the commentators like to talk about it. Contador wouldn't go and made Schleck do all the work, before they eventually started working together. Out of nowhere, they caught up with the break away as they were approaching the line. It was totally crazy, in a good way, because everyone seemed certain that Andy Schleck was going to zoom right past them for the win. But it wasn't to be, probably because they caught the break just a little bit too far back. What was amusing is that clearly the break didn't realize Schleck and Contador were so close, and so when they showed up, the break was like, wtf. I think they probably shouldn't have been surprised because, um, they were doing the whole 'you work, no you work' thing that never ends well. Except, of course, this time it did. Sandy Casar out-thought everyone and took the stage win, much to my delight.

Andy Schleck took the yellow, most because Evans imploded. I'm not sure he wants it, though probably Contador doesn't want it either. But they've really limited their competition to basically just the two of them (though, seeing as how this tour's gone so far, nothing's for certain). It was fun to watch, even though I don't like any of them. Also, there were a lot of big names who just couldn't keep up. But if they can recover, we have plenty of mountains ahead, so it almost anything might happen.

Other things about the stage. Somehow everyone, even poor David Millar, finished within the time cut. Which made me really happy because it meant that Robbie McEwen (among a few others I like, such as Gerald Ciolek and Marcus Burghardt) finished and will hopefully start tomorrow. One other sad note, Jerome Pineau lost his KOM jersey, much to my dismay.

Tomorrow's stage is considered medium mountains and though it's Bastille Day, I do not expect Sylvain to attack. Maybe another day, but that's probably too much pressure right now. Hopefully there will be a French winner, though!

July 12, Rest day one: Morzine-Avoriaz

2010-07-13T08:45:00.002-04:00

Every year I blog about the tour, on the rest days I write about my 5 good and 5 bad things about the Tour so far. Here's the latest addition, though it's a day later than I'd have liked. Some of these are predicted and some are not, but none of them should be that surprising. Enjoy!

Good:
1. Sylvain Chavanel
It was never a question of what was going to be the best thing about the Tour so far. We've only completed the first week and he's won two stages and had the yellow jersey twice. To most people, it's impressive. To me it's amazing and wonderful. It's been the best Tour I've had in a long time and I know it's been the most fun he's had. I'm proud to be a fan of his and I feel like to have been a fan for so long. I thought his win while he was still at Cofidis was amazing, but I'll be honest, it's even better now. I truly hope that Sylvain stays at QS. I think the team is a perfect fit for him and he can avoid the pressure of being on a French team. I suppose he'd probably like to race for a French team, but I think it would be a mistake, at least while he has so much riding left in him. I hope he wins at least one more stage this Tour. But even if he doesn't, he'll still have made me extremely proud.

2: Jerome Pineau
Not only has he been a stellar teammate for Sylvain, he's been strong in his own right. And as I'm writing this (and watching stage 9), he's in another breakaway. I'm proud of him as well -- not just for taking care of Sylvain (which he and Carlos Barredo have done a good job with), but also for his taking and then defense of the King of the Mountain jersey. I hope he keeps it for a lot longer. I also hope that he stays at QS. Like with Sylvain, it's a very good fit for him. And they work well together.

3. Robbie McEwen
There's always someone on both sides of my good and bad, and today it's McEwen. His good is brief, he's basically a stud. Stage 9 might be his last of this Tour (but hopefully not his last of all Tours). His body has basically been abused and he's still plugging along. I don't want him out, but it's amazing he's still here. He tough and even though I used to hate him, I've since changed my tune. I'm rooting for you, Robbie.

4. Drama
This year's Tour has had more than it's share of drama, but the best had to be the fisticuffs between Costa and Barredo. It was possibly the funniest fight I've ever seen. I know I probably shouldn't put this on the good side of my life, but come on. I'm a fan of this because it never happens, because neither of them got hurt. I'm not necessarily a fan of their punishment, but I'm glad they weren't kicked out of the tour and I'm glad they were made to apologize. But it was sensational and when was the last time something happened at the Tour that was so crazy -- but wasn't related to doping or crashes? And, really, watching Barredo go after him with his front tire was brilliant. Maybe I just love drama for drama's sake, but whatever. It was fun and hilarious.

5. Mountains
Technically we've only had two real mountain stages. But I'll be honest, the stage Sylvain won felt like a mountain stage. It was awesome to watch him win, but it was even more interesting watching the rest of the cyclists who were totally unprepared for the stage. But even more interesting were the events of the next stage, stage 8. I'll talk about the crashes later, but it was so cool to see the race suddenly heat up out of the blue. Sure, the Alps bring that out in the race, but to be honest, who would've thought it could happen quite so early in the Tour. It was just the first week and we've already eliminated a bunch of so-called contenders. This really sets the stage for a lot more excitement this tour. Hopefully it'll be stuff I can enjoy as well.

Bad:
6. Complaints/Whining
I'll talk a bit more about this with my Cancellara paragraph, but it needs to be addressed. One of the things that drives me crazy about football (soccer) is the fact that so many of the top athletes (especially on my teams, particularly Arsenal) complain. They whine about conditions, about being subbed off, about bad calls, about missed calls, about calls that didn't even exist. They whine and whine and they aren't good leaders and yet people love them anyway. Usually whining in cycling has been limited to doping related issues. But apparently not this year. It seems to have started with the (amusing) spat between Greipel and Cavendish, but we all know sprinters love to bitch. But it all came to a head (for me) with the stages two and three. I'll leave the Cancellara thing for the moment, but the complaints about the cobbles were bullshit. I'm sorry, but if you complain about the stage the day you race it and it's not related to a) the weather and b) stuff that you didn't expect on the course, then I have no sympathy for you. And even the weather is iffy. But these guys had months to sort out the stages, to train on them once or twice, or even just look at them on a map. But instead they bitched and moaned the day of the stage and expect me to feel sorry for them. I'm sorry, but no. Do your homework, maybe that'll help. And if you don't like the stage, complain when the route is introduced. Seriously.

7. Robbie McEwen
This isn't really related to him specifically, well it is, but not completely. First off, it pisses me off that he keeps falling. But what makes me the most angry is what happened to him after stage ... 6, maybe? After he finished the stage, he was riding with the rest of the sprinters, going pretty fast as they'd just finished the stage. Then, out of no where, a man stepped out in front of Robbie's bike, knocking him off hard. It's totally fucked with his Tour and his ability to do, well, anything. It's ridiculous and what makes me even more angry is that the man who stepped in front of him barely got punished. It's not right and it's not fair to Robbie. The Tour is supposed to protect their riders to the best of their ability and ... yeah, that failed.

8. Versus Coverage
In previous years I've watched most of the Tour on Versus. I couldn't do it this year. Paul and Phil are too much. The only time I watch them is when I have to record part of the stage because I'm at work. Their coverage is terrible and even more American centric that in previous years. I understand why they do this and I know that most countries do it. But their obvious bias is a huge turn off. Usually you can ignore that type of thing, but instead of showing the race, they do all this other bullshit with talking about Americans and/or the other contenders all the time. They cut away from the race, they go to commercial breaks all the time and seem to enjoy showing themselves more than the racing. I don't know what people do who don't know about watching the Tour online. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't watch it on the computer. Probably my commentary would be mostly complaining about Versus and less about cycling, so consider yourselves lucky.

9. Crashes
There have been so many and I know we say this every year, but it always feels like more this year. I know it's probably not true, though maybe it's that there are more within each stage than previously. They've been really bad and sometimes ridiculous. But there were some riders who crashed in almost all of them. Some who crashed in none and some who crashed in one one day and then three the next. Armstrong's was probably the most embarrassing -- 3 in one day and that put him out of Tour contention, much to my delight. I do feel bad for people who crash, even when I don't like them. Except for Mark Cavendish, because he caused that first crash on Stage 2. At least he admitted that one. I hope that we have fewer crashes, but I can't deny that they bring excitement to the race. But at the same time, we don't need more incidents like what happened to Frank Schleck. I might not like him, but that was horrible. We won't be free of crashes, the Tour never is. But hopefully it won't be as bad.

10. Cancellara
If you've been following me on Twitter, here or my blog, you've noticed by now that I've added another cyclist to my 'hate list.' There's just something about Cancellara I just don't like. I didn't feel one way or the other about him previously, but my dislike has been growing over the past few months and came to a head during stage two. Before you ask, no, it's not because Sylvain lost the jersey to Cancellara on stage 3. It's because of what he did on stage 2. It's how he tried to underhandedly make sure that the stage was neutralized in hopes that he could keep the yellow jersey. I don't care what other people say, I think Cancellara was basically cheating. There have been way worse stages out there and most cyclists don't complain. It was on Cancellara being an idiot and the peloton's inability to stand up to their fair leader. Which is bullshit. Because had it been, say, Chavanel in yellow, no one would have given a shit. As we saw on stage 3 and that's fine. No free gifts, remember? My other problem with Cancellara is that he took his selfishness out on the peloton. He made them wait for his teammates. He made them wait. In what world is cycling fair? In what fucking universe is it right to make the rest of the peloton wait for your team? There is no place where that's right or fair. Cycling's not fair. That's the point. And while some people think he did the right thing, I'm not one of them. I think he cheated.

---

Now that we're done with my ridiculous wrap of the first week, what do we have to look forward to? Mountains. Lots and lots of mountains. There are a couple that might work well for Sylvain. But it'll make for an interesting Tour. There is one stage that looks possibly flattish, compared to the other stages, but I doubt that it is. I expect Sylvain to try for breakaways on a few of these stages, though I'm not sure if he's going to win any more stages. If Pineau can find a decent stage, he might try for a stage win, which we know he was as well. Hopefully QS will continue to a great tour. I also would like to see a few more riders I like doing well, like, Gerald Ciolek or Linus Gerdemann. I'd say Marcus Burghardt, but he's going to be killing himself for Evans, should he keep the yellow.

I'm excited, though I expect that Robbie McEwen won't be there. Hopefully the mountains that are left will be just as amazing as the three stages we've had so far.

July 11, Stage 8: Station des Rousses - Morzine-Avoriaz 189km

2010-07-12T12:12:00.003-04:00

This is late, but yesterday was full of sports and other things and I just couldn't be bothered. I'll do the rest day piece at some point later today. Anyway, stage eight was the first 'real' mountain and it was pretty good. I really enjoy mountain stage when things are blown apart (good job, TDF '10). It seems that not everyone recovered well from stage seven, which was okay. We know that would happened. I guess some people were surprised and disappointed that Sylvain lost his jersey, but I wasn't (and I said as much on twitter and on my blog). Not the least because I expected this to happen. I didn't want it to, I hoped it would, but I wasn't kidding myself either. Sylvain's a TDF stage winner, and he could winner smaller stage races -- but he is good at the smaller mountains (aka middle mountains) and that's what he proved on Saturday. So losing the yellow jersey on Sunday wasn't unexpected.

A lot of people said it was the pressure of being French and wearing the jersey and I can't disagree, especially regarding what happened on stage three. But there's also bad luck, hard mountains, people attacking. I've said it a million times, there are no free gifts at the tour. If I didn't remember that maybe I'd be depressed about him losing the jersey, but I'm not stupid. The fact that he's had the jersey twice and won two stages is more than enough for me as a fan. I can't say that I'm not disappointed, because I am. I'm just realistic. One thing that seems unrealistic, but keeps happening, is that Robbie McEwen just doesn't give up (hey, just like Sylvain) and even though the world seems to be against him, he manages to stick around. I hope this keeps up because I really like him, asshole or not (take that, old me. People do change.).

Okay, so the stage happened and it was drama. Lots of drama. The best part of the stage was seeing Lance Armstrong fail. Don't get me wrong, three crashes sucks and I felt a bit embarrassed for him. But come on, a little schadenfreude never hurt anyone and I'm going to enjoy this for a long time. He never should have come back from retirement and even if he's doping (which I assume he is, because I believe they all are), he's really just not that good enough anymore. It's just painful to watch him. I think people keep talking about he should retired from the Tour and I can't imagine that happening. Though if it does, it'll prove just how much of a coward he really is. But I can't see it, he's not big on quitting (and staying quit, meh). But now he's not a contender at all (and oh my GOD it is amazing).

The real question is who is? I thought I'd be happy to see Cadel Evan in the jersey, but in the ed it just made me dislike him again. There's just something super irritating about ... well, everything about him. It's not even because he 'took' the jersey from Sylvain. It's because he just irritates me. Which really limits my options as far as who to support in the GC. But ignoring that, it was fun to watch the race for the top of the mountain (have I told you that I love mountain top finishes, because I do, a lot). What's ironic about Evans getting the yellow jersey is that he was going backward when Andy Schleck took off for the win. So he got it just by the fact that Sylvain could keep up. I'm trying not to enjoy that too much, either, because I feel sort of bad about thinking that.

The final sprint (ha) as it were, was kind of crazy-wild. It's hard to believe we're only starting the second week of the tour. It was like a massive finish near the last few stages of the race. I can't even begin to imagine what it's going to be like in two weeks! One thing I do hope is that the names at the top all stay close together, time wise, at the top. I've said it before, dominating is never fun. My big question is if BMC is going to protect the yellow (or if they're even able to, because Astana looks like they might be strong in the mountains, if they can work together) or if they're even going to try. Someone 30 minutes back might end up in a break that doesn't get caught,which was similar to what happened with Voeckler. I can see BMC allowing that to happen, though probably not on Tuesday, if only because the jersey is so much (too much) pressure.

Anyway, Monday's a rest day and Andy Schleck and his stupid celebration will get to enjoy a day off. I hope that the rest day doesn't mess too much with the cyclists I like and that Sylvain can save himself up for another few attacks. I'll post a rest day thing, as I said before, later tonight.

July 10, Stage 7: Tournus - Station des Rousses 165.5km

2010-07-10T21:58:00.005-04:00

I'll be perfectly honest, I never thought this would happen. I mean, intellectually I knew it could because Sylvain's problems on Stage 3 were not of his own making. He punctured twice and got stuck behind the Schleck. And as I said after Stage 3, I would be happy if he just won another stage. And even if he did, I'd still be a happy fan because he'd won a stage and worn the yellow jersey. And then. Oh my god and then this happened. I have to be honest (again) and say that I'm not really sure how to deal with this kind of joy. As a fan, this kind of thing doesn't really happen to me. I am used to fleeting glory, to coming in second all the time or not even coming close at all. And then Sylvain just fucks with my whole world and it is so amazingly glorious.

I watched the early part of the stage before having to go out and then to work. All told, I missed about an hour of the race and came back just after Sylvain made his attack. I didn't know what was going on and I thought maybe I'd missed most of the stage. But when I turned on Eurosport, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Luckily I was the only one in the office because I was jumping around and flailing and shouting at him. My stomach was all in knots and I just kept staring and hoping. And then he won and I just couldn't believe it. It was (still is) so amazing and wonderful. I'm lucky to like such an amazing cyclist. And the things the commentators were saying about him (both Versus and Eurosport) just made me so proud. Especially when they kept calling him a class act and how he rode with panache. But my favorite was one one of them Eurosport commentators said that Sylvain rode and old school race, filled with grit. Because that's the kind of stuff he's good at. He never gives up.

It's funny, when he won the TDF stage in 2008, people were surprised, but I knew he had it in him. And then when he had the great 2009 season, without the TDF win, people talked about how he should have ridden more classics (and it's true, he should, he's so amazing at them). He should have excelled in the cobbles, but it wasn't his day. But stage 2 was, because it was his kind of weather, his kind of hard, gritty racing. And I don't care what people say about that win, it was brilliant. But today's win, stage 7's win was even more exciting. He beat out the entire field. He blew them away and they never really knew what hit him. As soon as I saw he was in the lead, I thought about what he'd said in a post-stage 3 interview, which was that he was just going to save himself for the middle-mountains. Today was that day, only I didn't realize it would come so soon -- and it seems either did he. I'm so proud of him.

Okay, so there were other things that happened in this stage. Things that led up to Sylvain's win. Jerome Pineau was amazing getting points for his KOM jersey. I hope he keeps a hold of it, just as I hope Sylvain stays in yellow. He did his best and watching him cheer for Sylvain when he crossed the line was wonderful, as was their hug after the race. Other things: people kept blowing up on the road, I was surprised. But watching Andy Schleck's post-race interview on Versus really clued me in. He said he didn't expect it to be so hard, it's kind of crazy that he, and seemingly a lot of the peloton, weren't really expecting it to be hard. And yet the stage was (and once again QS knew what they were doing and did it perfectly). Another thing I want to add is that Sylvain taking the yellow jersey from Cancellara was justice being done. I don't really know how to explain that, but it's the only thing I could think of, aside from my joy. It was nice to see him suffering a lot and not being able to do a damn thing about it. It was sad to watch poor Geraint Thomas going backward instead of forward. I really liked seeing him in white.

Robbie McEwen seems on a mission to make me love him. I don't know how it started, except that he was the sprinter I used to hate and now I dislike most of them and somehow ... I don't know, he's a fighter, we knew this, but he's a fighter in so many ways. Sure, he's got ego like Cav and he's got attitude like Thor, but the qualities I used to hate about him are the ones I like now. The fact that he fights for everything, that he can win without a lead out train, that he doesn't take shit from anyone. And that he, like Sylvain, never seems to give up. I don't think anyone would think less of him if he didn't start today's stage after what happened after stage 6 and yet he did! Not only did he, but he finished within the time cut (unlike his poor teammate). Seriously, he's one big bruise and he keeps racing. Hard not to like that.

As for tomorrow's stage? I can't wait. It's the real mountains, unlike the medium ones today (that caught people off guard). I'm curious how things are going to go -- not just because I want Sylvain to stay in yellow and JP to keep the green. I'm also excited to see how the 'big names' have recovered from the hard word they had to pull in stage 7. It should be really exciting. I just read on CN that Richard Virenque (who I adore, in spite of all the doping business) won a similar stage to this one and I cannot wait to see how the rest do -- because Virenque's stage was in 2003 and that was my first Tour. I also love uphill finishes, so the end of the stage should be exciting (if tiring for everyone involved). Is it tomorrow yet?

July 9, Stage 6: Montargis - Gueugnon 227.5km

2010-07-09T22:32:00.002-04:00

We all know how this stage ended. It was a breakaway (I was totally disappointed that they didn't stay away) and then there was a sprint finish. It was possibly exciting if you aren't me. I cannot believe I ever loved lead out trains. Seriously, they make things so dull (and sometimes dangerous, but that's okay) and when they work it just frustrates me. I think this is probably because I am tired of Mark Cavendish (already, you say? and I reply that yes, already, but really it's been coming). I know yesterday I complained about the Tour rewarding the whiners and while I still believe that, I don't see the point on complaining about it. I know that my friends who like Columbia (and Cav) are happy they won again. And I suppose it's probably a good thing for Columbia that Cav didn't let them down. But I just don't have the energy to spare caring that he won because it would just make me annoyed.

It was fun to see Sylvain and Marcus as I was watching the stage while doing work (at work). I'll be honest, I didn't pay that close attention, except for the sprint finish (which I've seen three times now). I cannot wait for the mountains, I can't wait for the KOM competition to heat up. It's weird because I used to love flat stages, and had I been at home for today's, instead of at work, I probably would have felt differently. Well, that and the winner of the stage. It was just nice to see different teams out and about. The one thing I did miss today was the great Eurosport commentary. Sadly I probably won't get much of that tomorrow either, even though I don't have to work until later (the curse of the Farmer's Market).

Anyway, the best (and worst) part of the stage happened after it was over. The first was the huge fight that happened. I have to confess, as I did on tumblr, that I kind of loved it. I've watched this video a bunch of times and it never gets old. Yes, I know, they're fighting, but they're pro athletes. They're being idiots and they're not sprinters, how rare is it that that happens? I mean, people talk shit in the press all the time and the sprinters are total assholes, but come on. Fisticuffs? How awesome is that? It's totally awesome. I will admit to being totally disappointed that they didn't get fined that much. On the Versus coverage, Phil was talking about how they should be kicked out of the Tour. I'm almost inclined to agree, even though the fighting was ridiculously awesome.

The other thing I want to talk about was what happened to Robbie McEwen. I didn't use to like him and now I do, end of story. What happened today really pissed me off. Robbie was riding with the rest of the cyclists after the stage when out of nowhere, a man stepped in front of his bike, sending him flying. Of all the cyclists to get injured, Robbie was the last one who needed it. He'd been crashing a lot and was already in a lot of pain. The dude who ran into him was apparently a tv journalist. According to Robbie's twitter, he's only been banned (suspended?) for one stage. One. Stage. Though I suppose if FIFA can refuse to ban refs who make blatantly bad calls, then the TDF folks can do whatever they want. I guess we don't know what kind of pull the TDF folks have over the TV journalists, but still.

As for tomorrow's stage? Aside from not being able to see most of it, I'm excited! It's a real mountain stage and hopefully things will, as they say on Versus, explode. I'm really looking forward to some action in the Tour. I feel bad, because like I said before, I used to enjoy the flat stages, but not so much this year. Hopefully tomorrow's result will be something I like.

July 8, Stage 5: Epernay - Montargis 187.5km

2010-07-08T13:54:00.003-04:00

I will admit to not paying that much attention to the actual cycling bits of this stage, before the end. I was doing about a million other things and the commentary on Eurosport was far more interesting than the race itself. That, of course, isn't a surprise because it was a moderately flat stage. Apparently before the race coverage was on tv, Brad Wiggins fell ... in the first few kms of the stage. That sound you hear is my laughing, if only because he's mostly okay. And, you know, I don't like him. But anyway, onto the stage itself. The scenery was nice, there were sunflowers and it was the first time I properly followed the stage on my new cycling twitter. It was pretty fun, and until the end, pretty low stress.

The sprint was almost awesome. I will say that I've really grown to dislike lead out trains. I used to adore them. They were exciting and usually they were working hard for a rider I liked. I believe it was Petacchi who had one of the best lead outs, ages ago. Except ... now I hate them. Not in the way I hate a lot of other things in sports, but enough that they drive me nuts. I like it when the lead out trains get all fucked up or run out of gas or a cyclist from another team gets in their way. Something similar to that happened yesterday and I was hoping that it would happen again today. Unfortunately, Columbia did everything right, much to my chagrin.

You see, I have a grudge against Mark Cavendish. I'm tired of his petulant behavior on the bike and his ego and bad attitude off the bike. I know, he's a sprinter and they're like that. But I have to say that Cav takes it about three steps too far. And so yesterday when he got screwed in the sprint, it was a joy to watch (and extremely amusing to hear about his tantrum). Today I was hoping for something similar, or at least just as interesting. Instead the Columbia train sorted themselves out, boxed all the other sprinters out and then led Cav to the win. Much to my irritation, but the joy of, like, everyone else in the world. This always seems to happen to me, damn it.

The other reason it really bugs me is because it proves, to me at least, that the sport itself, and this race (and peloton) in particular, rewards people who whine and complain. There's no punishment for Cav for throwing his bike like a little child. There's no punishment for Thor for talking shit about his fellow sprinters (though that's the least of my issues with sprinters) and there's absolutely no punishment for Cancellara's behavior on stage two. In other words, if you bitch and whine and moan, everything goes your way -- just like in football (soccer) and I hate it there, just as much. Of course it's not like anyone could do anything about it (except for, hello, fining people and so on), because I seem to be the only one who cares.

Anyway, moving on. Cav won the stage, but he probably won't the green jersey, thank god. Thor has 102 and Petacchi is next closed with 88. In other words, it's not contest which is pretty depressing. Hopefully the yellow jersey will start to heat up and people will start to fuck with each and we can all have a good time again (until someone I hate is in yellow).

Tomorrow's stage looks a bit like today's. Flattish, with a few tiny hills toward the end. Maybe it'll be the day another breakaway survives. It was pretty sad to watch today's vanish, but that's the way this sport goes. Hopefully I'll have more to say tomorrow! And I really hope someone else wins tomorrow's stage.

July 7, Stage 4: Cambrai - Reims 153.5km

2010-07-07T12:18:00.003-04:00

That's more like it. I was able to get a lot done this morning (before I left for work and then once I was at work) and those are the kind of stages I like. They don't stress me out or upset me and at the end, they provide the best kind of excitement. Like I said yesterday, I figured there'd be a breakaway and I was right. Alas, it was a doomed one, but I wasn't too sad because it mean we might finally have a sprint finish. And, to be perfectly honest, the Tour really needed one of those. I know, it's only stage four, but we've all been itching for it since the crashes on stage one. And, finally, here it came.

Though first the break had to be caught and the roundabouts had to be negotiated. I'll be honest, we have a couple here in the Detroit metro area and they are horrible. I know they're supposed to slow traffic, but people don't know how to drive around them and therefore they're super dangerous and annoying. And, well, kind of scary! I cannot imagine how these cyclists, going at such high speeds, negotiate them with ease. Probably it's a combination of recon of tour stages and the fact that Europe is full of roundabouts, and thus everyone knows (in theory) how to handle them. Anyway, they did a lot of stringing out of the peloton, which is always entertaining and then they hit the home stretch -- without any crashes. The Eurosport commentators were totally amused (and surprised) by the lack of crashes leading up to the finish, but I think we were all relieved, too.

Up until the last 10k or so, the whole stage was pretty laid back, even the break. They hovered around 2-3 minutes and when time came to catch them, it wasn't hard. I think everyone was ready for a break after the drama of the first two stages. I know I've talked about all the bitching the cyclists have done, but it was a relief for us fans, too. It was nice to go through the day without hating everyone, like I did yesterday (though starting a cycling-only twitter also helped). I watched an interview with Sylvain that happened after yesterday's stage (god, I adore him) and he talked about how he was hoping to take it easy today, and the rest of the sprint stages. So on a personal level, I was pretty happy with the way the stage went -- it wasn't too hard, we saw him a few times, chatting up some of his compatriots.

As for the sprint itself? My motto this year seems to be anybody but Cavendish and yet again, that's what happened. Much to my surprise (and amusement) it was Alessandro Petacchi who pulled of the win. It was like watching the Ale-Jet of old. It was also nice because the two previous times I've seen him win this year, it was because he made it out of the carnage unscathed and ended up the last man standing. Today, though, he kicked major ass and it was totally awesome. I know, I want Robbie McEwen to win, but whatever. Seeing that Petacchi still has it was way more fun. Also, because it meant that Petacchi out sprinted both Thor and Cav, and while I like Thor -- there are plenty of other cyclists I'd rather see in green.

So, it was a good stage. Happy with the winner, not so happy about the yellow jersey but it's easier to just ignore that. Tomorrow looks like another sprinter's stage, maybe we'll have a lucky breakaway that sticks, but I doubt it. I'll just hope that Petacchi can get a few more points and take the Green jersey away -- or that Robbie McEwen can overcome his injures and win a stage. And that Sylvain gets all the rest he needs before the mountains.

July 6, Stage 3: Wanze - Arenberg Porte du Hainaut 213km

2010-07-06T21:53:00.004-04:00

I've thought long and hard about how I want to write about today's stage. I've already dealt with a lot of my issues elsewhere, so I suppose I can be moderately objective (keyword being moderately). I suppose I should start at the beginning, but I don't think I will. Instead, I'll just get the worst part over with. Today's stage sucked. It was far, far worse (for me) than yesterdays and included just as much whining. I won't comment anymore on whining, because I'm just constantly repeating myself and I'm as tired of it as I am of the whining.

Today's stage was all about the cobbles and, for me, if Sylvain could defend his yellow. Sadly, he couldn't. Through a comedy of errors and bike changes, he ended up coming in over four minutes behind the new leader of the peloton. It was pretty fucking depressing, but that's the way the Tour goes. I knew it was likely he wouldn't have the yellow jersey for very long, I just didn't expect it to disappear the same day. My parents were amazing for putting up with my anger and boy was I angry. Not because Sylvain lost the jersey, but because of who won it. As I said yesterday, my respect for Cancellara is non-existent and that continues today. I will say that he did everything he should have done yesterday.

It was my understanding that the point of the Tour de France is to get the yellow jersey (or whatever jersey you're chasing), no matter the cost. Yesterday (aka Monday), that seemed to have been forgotten at the expense of a lot of riders. It was unprofessional and selfish, but no punishment was handed out (much to my chagrin), except to the cyclists who crossed the line after Sylvain. And then today, when there were loads of crashes and Cancellara's teammate crashed out of the Tour -- he didn't give a shit about it. Which, to be honest, is the way cycling should be. It's not about playing fair and today show that's not the case. So I can't be angry that Sylvain lost the jersey, instead I can be angry about who took it because he is the complete opposite of what I like about cycling.

Moving on. I really wish I hadn't been so upset about yesterday's events (minus the Sylvain business), because I really should have been able to appreciate this stage. It was high drama, it was crashes, it was ridiculousness to the extreme. It was exactly what I look for in a stage of the Tour. Unfortunately, I let twitter destroy my love for the sport and it was really hard for me to recover, and I'm not even sure I have. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Anyway, back to the race. It was like a mashup of Paris-Roubaix and traditional TDF stages and it was pretty fucking awesome. People bitched about it afterward (and before), but come one. Let's learn to complain when the route is announced, not the day of the tour. Grow some balls, kids.

There was a break that almost stayed away, it would've been really nice if it had. But Cancellara did what he should have done yesterday (and something I would have hated him for, but understood) and that was attack. He's awfully good at the classics, and especially good at cobbles, so it was a great day for him. He just took off, along with a few others (including his teammate Andy Schleck, who must be magic, because he certainly recovered well). And along the way, Cancellara took out loads of his rivals. He goal was, as they say on Eurosport and Versus, carnage. I know all he wanted (cares about) was getting the yellow jersey back (but come the fuck on, it's not like you deserve it more than anyone else, Cancellara, you're not special and nor is anyone else). And that's exactly what happened, at least this time he did it without being a bastard and cheating (yes, I call what he did yesterday cheating, don't like it? Too bad).

His closest real rival (aka contender) is Cadel Evans, who I don't really like, but he's pretty much the lesser of all other evils. He's 39 seconds back and could probably take the jersey if he has a really good day. Sylvain's a sad 1:01 back, close behind him is Andy 'it looked like I broke my collarbone, but I didn't' Schleck at 1:09. Last year's winner is 1:40 back from Cancellara. While Lance 'I should have stayed retired' Armstrong is over two minutes back and so on. And yes, I am awfully bitter and I'm quite good at holding grudges -- remember that. So, yeah, it's not so tight at the top, but we're only onto stage four tomorrow, so anything can happen. We haven't even gotten into the mountains yet -- I cannot imagine how anyone, save the riders, isn't enjoying this Tour (to at least some degree). It has everything we could ask for, except a doping scandal (when? when!).

I forgot to mention, the stage ended with Thor winning (thank god) and Cancellara in yellow. We know how I feel about the latter, but the former made me surprisingly happy, even though I'm rooting for the old man, Robbie McEwen (and I do need to write up a post about him). I guess I was at anybody but Cancellara at that point. Ahh, well. I'm nothing if not predictable.

Tomorrow could be interesting, but I expect a breakaway (without Sylvain) that doesn't last and a mighty sprint finish (at last). We need a good sprint, even if it's crash marred. Hopefully I won't hate everyone after tomorrow's stage. Fingers crossed and all of that.

July 5, Stage 2: Brussels - Spa 201km

2010-07-05T10:17:00.003-04:00

There are a million and one things I could say about this stage, so I will get the bad things out of the way first. First off, I think Fabian Cancellara is an idiot and any respect I had for him is gone. I know that I'm supposed to support the idea of the patron and all that bullshit that Armstrong was so well known for, but after my first couple years as a fan, I got over it. It disgusts me, in a way, that one man can have such control over a stage race consisting of 100+ men. What has he done to deserve that respect? Nothing. I know I'm also supposed to think that the yellow jersey commands power and respect, but I only believe in the respect part. Being race leader doesn't mean you get to choose who gets points and who doesn't. It's not really fair to the rest of the peloton.

Maybe I'm being overly hard, but part of cycling is being able to race in all conditions. And if the big names hit the deck, then so be it. Crashes are a huge part of cycling and I know cyclists are upset and I know I'm not one, but I think that perhaps they are overreacting. I'm really sorry they didn't think the conditions were safe, but I've got to be honest. They've known about this stage, about this whole race, for a long time. If there were complaints to me made, they should have happened as soon as the teams did some scouting. Or, hell, when they saw the route when it was first revealed. It happened with the Giro, so why not complain then? I do know that a stage got thrown out in the Giro because of unsafe road conditions. Which, fine. It's a circuit stage and in those, things don't change. The weather might change, but what's on the road doesn't. But when you're on a normal stage, from point A to point B, conditions change all the time. Just because the rains came and some cyclists could quite handle it, doesn't mean you need to fuck everyone over. But that's what happened.

I could be wrong, but I don't think so. And that's the end of the serious talk. Let's get to the best part of the stage. The only part that really matters. And that's the fact that Sylvain Chavanel got into a breakaway, kicked that breakaway's ass and won the stage.

It started out simple enough, boy goes in breakaway and then it got fun. Boy keeps going and going. And then goes some more. Then, magically (aka via hard work) suddenly he's on his own and the kms are dropping. My stomach's in my throat, I can't sit still and every time there's a commercial break, it feels like it's the end of the world. Every time they show a rider in blue going down, I gasp in fear that it's my boy. But it isn't, it never is and then suddenly there's 10 k to go. Then it's down to 5 and then suddenly, 2.5k and he's so fucking close that I can't stand it. And then it happens. It happens and he wins everything there is to win (except KOM, which goes to his teammate). And I can't believe it. I've watched my two favorites win stages (in '08 and '09), but it was never quite like this. Granted, the first time I watched it at work, the second time I wanted Sylvain desperately to win, but HH (second favorite, hello) won and it was amazing, almost as good as if it was Sylvain, and then there was today.

Nothing else matters to me, really. I wrote the stuff in the first two paragraphs because I had to, because I needed to talk about it. But honestly, as long as they don't take anything away from Sylvain, I don't care. The only thing I care about is that Sylvain won the stage and he's in yellow (and green). He's leading the Tour de France. My favorite rider, my favorite. The cyclist I adore and love more than the rest. The one I always want to win. This doesn't happen and yet it did. It's amazing and wonderful and it's too bad people had to go shit on the stage. But nothing can take away from the fact that my favorite cyclist of all time won a stage of the Tour de France and he's leading whole god damn thing. I love it and I'm so fucking proud of him.

In a way, I don't know if I care about the rest of the Tour. I do, because I want Sylvain to hold onto the yellow as long as possible. But at the same time, the one thing I wanted to happen. The thing that I wanted more than anything else in cycling, happened. I don't know how a girl could ask for anything more.

July 4, Stage 1: Rotterdam - Brussels 223.5km

2010-07-05T08:55:00.003-04:00

Too much fun with my parents yesterday means I completely forgot to write up a stage report. I suppose it's a blessing in disguise, because, in theory, I can look at the race from a more detached perspective. Well, I could, but I won't. I'm a firm believer that drama makes cycling popular, without doping scandals and crashes, people wouldn't watch as much. Thus, while dangerous, the multiple crashes were pretty damn exciting. There was one that I missed, because it wasn't shown on tv, was the worst because it ended up causing Adam Hansen (who I adore) to hurt himself. But he's a badass and completed the stage with a broken collarbone (and shoulder, I think). Sadly, he did not start today.

As for the rest of the stage, it was weird. It was basically a normal sprinter's stage. Three riders in the break, waiting to get caught. They fooled around, as breakaways tend to do and that was their downfall. But it was except. What wasn't except were the crashes after the peloton came together. It started with a crash caused by Mark Cavendish. Though from what I can tell (and what the cyclists involved have said) it was just one of those accidents. He appeared to just take the corner to hard and that's what everyone else has said, so though I enjoy blaming Cav, that's what I'm going to go with. But that was the first, it took out a few riders and I had a bit of joy because it meant that Cav wouldn't win the stage. Which is good for me, because I still blame him for both HH and Boonen not being at the Tour.

We thought we were free of crashes, but it was not to be (of course not). Because as the sprinters powered their way up to the finish, apparently everyone else decided it was a good idea to do the same. And as Jens Voigt said at the beginning to the second stage (which I'm watching as I write this), when everyone tries to be up front at the same time, it just doesn't work. And what happened was a gigantic crash. I haven't been watching cycling as long as some people, but in my seven years, I've never seen a crash like that. It literally brought the peloton to a halt, with only a few sprinters (and others) in front of the crash. It was ridiculously weird. It was like a line of cyclists all fell at once. I never did see a replay of that crash and perhaps that's a good thing, because I don't know that it was really anyone's fault. What it did mean is that the sprint was basically uncontested by the majority of the sprinters.

Which mean that survivorman (my nickname for him) Alessandro Petacchi won the stage. This is the second time it's happened this season, at least as far as I can tell. He managed to avoid the crash and then just powered his way to the win. It was kind of hilariously awesome. I loved it. Score one for the old me. It was great to see him win. As I said on twitter, I know he's a doper but I just don't care. And my pick for who I want to win the green jersey this year is Robbie McEwen (yeah, I know, shut up) and he was fourth, which made me happy. Thor was third and, maybe a little surprisingly, Mark Renshaw was second, probably because he had no one to work for after Cav crashed.

But, of course, there weren't just two crashes at the end. Of course not. There was a third where one of the AG2r riders crashed and Tyler Farrar apparently went down, too. That was the third crash before the finish. It was scary, exciting and dangerous. In the post-race interviews, cyclists basically said the crashes were a result of nervousness of the first real day of racing on the Tour. You know, you'd think that these dudes would know better, but this happens all the time. At least no more serious injures happened (that I heard about), aside from poor Adam Hansen, though his crash was earlier in the stage. It was a strange way to end the stage. Hopefully Stage 3 will have fewer serious crashes.

I would like to see Mark Cavendish not win again. If we have a sprint finished, I'd like McEwen to win. But we all know what I really want. Fingers crossed that it happens.

July 3, Prologue: Rotterdam 8.9km

2010-07-03T19:42:00.004-04:00

In the past I linked to the cyclingnews race results, but I'm done doing that because all my old links are broken. Anyway, so, the prologue happened today and my start to watching the TDF was to get really, really angry. Surprise, right? Well, maybe to those of you who are new to me following the Tour. Otherwise, the rest of you will already know that my feelings about Versus are not positive. And today, they are even worse. Instead of running the pre-race show at 9 am and showing the race at 9:30, they had the race at 9:30 and showed live cycling at 10. It was especially upsetting to me because my favorite, Sylvain, was racing and should have been on tv. But I couldn't find a live stream at all and by the time I did (before Versus even started showing live coverage), Sylvain had already finished. I was livid (you can ask my parents, they were here watching with me) and I'm still pretty pissed off.

The race itself, a five mile prologue (give or take), shouldn't have been exciting and as I missed most of the race due to bad coverage, it wasn't. There were a few incidents, I of course missed all of them. I didn't see the stage live and that's fine, I wasn't upset about that. What I was angry about was what I did see live was not on my TV. At this point it time, I have no idea if you get more coverage paying for Versus (if only Universal Sports was covering this race, their commentators may suck, but at least I'd be able to watch it). When we left for the day, Tony Martin was winning and it made me really happy. I kind of knew what was going to happen, but I was pretending Tony was going to win the stage. Wishful thinking, of course.

I knew who won because I looked it up when we got home from the store (for the first time) and I was really annoyed (as those of you who follow me on twitter know). It's not really that I have anything against Cancellara, it's more ... well, okay, it's more that it's not personal. Except that he's too good and for some reason that drives me crazy. I can't quite explain it, but that's the way I get sometimes. But it especially drives me crazy when he wins and dudes I like don't. In this case, the wonderful (and adorable) Tony Martin. I'm glad we didn't get to see Tony's reaction when Cancellara beat him. It would have broken my heart and I was already annoyed at the first stage.

I like that Tony gets the white jersey and I'm okay with Millar being third. I suppose the best thing about Cancellara winning the stage is that Armstrong didn't end up in third. Yes, I hate Armstrong, yes he drives me crazy, yes I want him to retire (again). But he hasn't and I'm stuck watching him. And oh, god, Versus is in love with him. Hopefully tomorrow I will find a decent non-Versus stream that won't put a little arrow next to Armstrong (because do you really need one when he's the only one on the road at the moment??? NO. You do not.). But this evening, when I was doing my rewatch, the stupid little arrow was right there on the screen. Even though you know which dude was Armstrong. Even though they didn't use it for anyone else. Their Lance coverage is ridiculous and not fair to those of us who want to watch cycling, not just those who hate Armstrong. But when you have a half hour of live coverage available and you refuse to show it? Whatever, dudes. There has got to be something else out there.

I do have to say that normally I like short prologue stages, because they tend to be really exciting and fun to watch. Today, not so much. I do have high hopes for tomorrow's stage, especially the scenery. But most likely I'll be watching my computer, because I do want to see some cycling. If I'm lucky. I hope this TDF won't be full of me complaining, I hope Sylvain wins at least one stage. I don't know who I want to win the over all, or even any of the other jerseys. I just know there are things I don't want to happen. It's my fear that they will happen, because that's just my luck.

Stage 21: Montereau-Fault-Yonne - Paris Champs-Élysées 164km

2009-07-26T22:30:00.004-04:00

The final stage is upon us. Actually, it's over. The whole damn thing's over and I get to have my life back. This is good, but at the same time it's horrible. Not because I'll miss 24/7 cycling (because god, I will), but instead because it means that the main cycling event is over. We'll all go through post-Tour withdrawal and depression. But, at least we had this last stage (a replay of which I am watching on Versus as I'm typing this up). And like so many other years it was a mesh of boring crap and an exciting finish.

I know there are plenty of people who like the boring crap. They like celebrating on bikes. They like the goofing off. And sure, it's cute. But I wish I'd been watching cycling when the last day mattered for more than just a sprint. I remember cheering people on, knowing full well that there'd be no way in hell that they'd get the time they needed, but desperately wanting them to anyway. Hell, I'll be honest, I definitely wished Armstrong would crash so that Wiggins could end up getting third. I'm not proud of wishing a crash on someone, but, damn it, I don't like Armstrong.

Speaking of Armstrong, though (and I know, for someone who hates him, I sure talk about him a lot – that's because the whole fucking cycling world seems to be in love with him, or at least most of them), I was not impressed with his use of stage 21 to conduct business. Now, I'm not 100% certain that's what he was doing, but he was certainly chatty as they rode toward Paris. Does he really think people are stupid enough to join his team? Probably. Do I think they are? Fuck yes. Just hopefully not the Schleck brothers. I'm not their biggest fans, but they'd have to be idiots to join Team Radio Shack (and the next person who says Shack Attack is going to get punched in the face). But, yeah, I was not impressed with Armstrong chatting everyone up. He's not the TDF winner and yet he gets 90% of the attention, it's bullshit.

Of course, this was the Tour de Armstrong, right? Wait, what? You mean Armstrong didn't win anything? You mean he only finished third? You're kidding, right? Oh, I forgot. There are 198 OTHER cyclists racing the tour (well, there were when it started) and all we can talk about is Armstrong? I was watching the final stage and there were cyclists racing that I forgot were even at the Tour. Why? Because all people ever talk about is Armstrong this, Astana that, blah blah blah. It gets really old really fast and we're back to the pre-retirement days when it was like no one else existed except a chosen few cyclists who were deemed worthy, and everyone else they talked about just "happened" to win stages.

Now, I know what you're thinking, Versus talked about Columbia and Garmin. They interviewed loads of other cyclists, like people from Lotto, SaxoBank, and Cervelo. Which is fine. I mean, who doesn't like Fabian ~~Enchilada~~* Cancellara? But the rest of the time they just fall over talking about how much they love Armstrong. There were some stages when I actually turned my music up so I didn't have to listen to their fanboy love. The worst, of course, was the evening programming on Versus. There's nothing worse than listening to Bob and the other guy whose name I can NEVER remember (figured it out: Craig Hummer) try to call a race. Bob can be funny sometimes, but ugh. I'd like some non-biased reporting. I don't mean anti-American (because I love listening to Dave Harmon and Sean Kelly get all giddy about British cyclists doing well), I just mean not as much pro-Armstrong.

Apparently I have a lot of rant built up in me, so I think it's time to go back to talking about the stage. Despite all my bitching, the end of the stage was really fucking brilliant. I started out rooting for anyone but Cav, but that didn't last because there were plenty of people I didn't want to win. I ended up picking Haussler, because you know me. Of course, it wasn't to be. What happened was amazing. Garmin decided to try something different and they were giving Tyler Farrar a great lead out and the other teams had mostly boxed Cavendish's Columbia lead out in and then ... BAM. George Hincapie shifts the line of the Columbia train and suddenly they're leading. And then there's Mark Renshaw. There is not bigger stud in today's stage.

Mark roared ahead of everyone else, leading out Cav and it was amazing. He took a corner ahead of Garmin and the rest of the peloton and that was what gave him that extra kick. Mark was going so hard that I wasn't sure if he'd be able to get out of the way in time. But he did and Cav took off. The best part, even better than the win was the fact that he looked back, so just exactly how big Cav's lead was and he looked back and just knew that Cav was going to win and he was like 'FUCK YEAH' and celebrated before Cav had even crossed the line. It was so hot that I completely forgot I wasn't supposed to be rooting for Cav. I'm watching it again and it's just as beautiful this time. Seriously, Cav is fucking amazing. He's a cocky bastard, but I'll be honest. I love him and against my better judgment, I loved this win.

So, the final stage was exciting. It surpassed my expectations, thank god. Then we had the presentations. Cav got a hilarious gold bird thing for winning the stage. Andy Schleck is kind of adorable in his white jersey. Pellizotti's children kitted out in polka dots were adorable. Thor was lovely and there was a sweet moment when Cav and Thor showed that they didn't really hate each other. And then there was the yellow jersey. I was on the phone with my mom during the stage this morning and when they showed Contador, she was like 'we don't care about him!' and she's so right. I mean, she's not an Armstrong fan, but she doesn't like Contador either.

I can't really care about the GC, except that Andy's hopefully not a doper and I wanted Wiggins on the podium. But none of it matters now because the Tour's over. We'll hear about the positives in the weeks to come, but for now, let's just enjoy the fact that Cavendish is the world's fastest sprinter and that Heinrich Haussler won the stage of the fucking TDF. If only Sylvain had won, then I'd be extra happy.

Well, thanks for joining me as I got my rant on throughout the 2009 Tour. See you all over at my regular cycling blog ... Or if not, see you all next year! Same time, same place.

*for those of you who don't get that, it's a Eurosport joke. Sorry about that. Kind of. Okay, I'm not sorry about it at all. Now go back and finish reading the post.

Stage 20: Montélimar - Mont Ventoux 167km

2009-07-26T09:22:00.002-04:00

So, Mont Ventoux. This stage was stuck in there to make sure that the yellow jersey wouldn't be a guarantee on the last couple of days of the tour. At least that was my impression. Of course, it didn't work. Now I know what you're thinking, Contador could have had a bad day. The Schlecks could have been on fire. Armstrong could have worked miracles. You know what, though? You're dead wrong.

As soon as Contador slipped on that yellow jersey, the race was never going to end any other way. I'll be honest, there have been times when I've felt like this was the only way this race was going to end. Maybe I wouldn't find it so irritating if Armstrong had decided to stay retired (the bastard). But come on. For a moment, let's forget my hate and talk about the stage.

It was one hell of a stage, ignoring all the GC bullshit (and that's what it was), it was fun. Mont Ventoux for the sake of being a mountain is utterly brilliant. It's up up up up and then BAM the stage is over. I loved it. What made it almost perfect (as it were) was the fact that the lovely and always (always) adorable former leader of the young rider competition, Ton Martin, was riding extremely hard and it was fucking awesome. I haven't yelled that hard since Haussler and Sylvain were riding their stage together. I desperately wanted Tony to win, but Garate, the Rabobank rider, dropped him and Tony practically killed himself trying and succeeding at getting back. So when they finally got up to the line, he was too spent to even try attacking. Which was so heartbreaking because I really wanted him to win.

Behind the stage winner and second, we were hoping that drama would explode. Turns out that didn't happen. Andy and Alberto decided to try and battle it out and it was ridiculous. Alberto didn't attack for whatever reason and Andy didn't attack and spent half his time waiting for Frank. I'm sorry, I know people like them on the same team together, but what the hell. Frank was holding Andy back. I don't know what would have happened -- maybe the breakaway of two wouldn't have lasted. Maybe the stage would have had a different winner. Though probably Alberto would have still been in yellow. But sadly, we'll never know because Andy Schleck was a stubborn bastard and slightly idiotic.

There's one other thing I want to mention and that's Bradley Fucking Wiggins. Seriously, that guy is amazing. And if it wasn't for Armstrong, he'd be in third (fuck you, Armstrong). Seriously, he's so god damn close to being in third place that it's ridiculous. I had more of a rant yesterday, but I wanted to try to be a bit calmer, since there's no way I'll be unbiased. Like with Gerald on Friday and Tony today, I was desperately trying to will Wiggins to catch up with Armstrong and pass it. It wasn't to be, but thank god he didn't lose his fourth place. It's not as good as third and he should be on the podium. Maybe next year.

Over all, the stage was good fun, even while being seriously aggravating. I'm sad that the tour ends tomorrow, but I'm happy to get my life back. Hopefully the final stage won't be as anticlimactic as in the past.

Stage 19: Bourgoin-Jallieu - Aubenas 178km

2009-07-24T19:26:00.002-04:00

I watched this stage on mute at work and I thought about watching it with commentary, but I've gotten be honest, I'm not going to. The result pissed me off, and not just because Armstrong magically gained more time. See, okay, I like Cavendish. I really do, but oh my god. I am so sick of all the Cav vs. Thor bit and I was literally sitting at the desk trying to will Gerald Ciolek to a win. Of course it didn't work. Who was I kidding? It was always going to be Cav in a sprint.

Try as I might, though, I just couldn't bring myself to get excited about the stage. I had a brief thrill when I saw Sylvain was in the break, but I knew in my heart (ha) it wasn't to be. Short of a miracle break tomorrow or perhaps something special on Sunday, I've resigned myself to the fact that Sylvain's not going to win a stage this year. I imagine Quick Step must be extremely disappointed with this year's Tour. I also think they probably made a wrong choice, taking Boonen, but that's a topic for a different time.

I wish I had more to say about this stage, but I don't. Though I do have a bit to add. For example, whoever thought that road split right before the 3k to go banner was a good idea was completely wrong. It was ridiculous and dangerous and I cannot believe there wasn't a single crash (that I know of) . Usually this feeling of apathy is reserved for the Friday before the tour ends, and today was no exception. Though instead of an ITT to look forward to, tomorrow we have that mountain that shall not be named (shut up, I saw HP recently) but first we had to get through today.

Once the break was whittled down to nothing and people were attacking off the front, I had to decide what I was going to root for. Eventually I decided that I wanted the peloton to step up the pace and reel in all the attackers. I like sprints. I wanted a sprint, but I didn't want Cav to win. I don't think he, any more than Thor deserves any more glory. I know that it's not going to happen and I know they'll never behave like grown ups, but I'm allowed to be pissy at them and I am.

Hopefully tomorrow will be high on another sort of drama. I will be waking up at 7 am to find out! Sorry for the crappy post, but I gotta say, the stage wasn't much better.

Stage 18: Annecy - Annecy (ITT) 40.5km

2009-07-23T19:19:00.000-04:00

I know that I said I wanted Wiggins to win the time trial, but by the end of the stage, I just wanted the damn thing to be over. Basically, I spent much of the stage hoping to get to see Sylvain (I was in luck, the live Versus stream and then the tv itself, showed him for me). Otherwise, what the hell was that stage. Like I said on Twitter: fuck you, Armstrong, GO BACK TO TEXAS. I’m sorry, but I’m so over his bullshit. There was an interview on Versus yesterday that basically implied that because he saw that Mont Ventoux was back on the route for this year’s tour, even if he hadn’t already come back, that would have been enough to bring him back. So, whatever with your cancer awareness bullshit. Yeah, I think Livestrong is really good for cancer research, but stop pretending that you’re back for reason other than just to see if you’re still good enough.

I suppose, in a way, he’s proved that he is. But I’m so tired of him. If he’s still on the podium in Paris, I don’t even know what I’d do. Like my friend Sarah, my “ideal” (since we know Sylvain won’t ever win the whole thing) podium would probably involve Wiggins, Contador and Andy Schleck. But if I really had to choose from the top ten, instead of the top five, it’d be Wiggins, CVV and maybe Schleck or Contador. But, honestly, ignoring CVV and Wiggins, I cannot honestly say I care about the rest of the top 10. They do nothing for me (well, if Le Mevel were to suddenly be totally awesome, that’d be nice! But I’m not stupid, he is French after all).

Sylvain rounds out the top 20 on GC, which makes me so happy for him. I’d like it if he was higher, but I don’t need to lie to myself. I am happy when he finishes the tour (so, Sylvain, plz to be finishing it!). He also finished 14th on the stage, which is so fucking awesome I don’t even have the words. I am SO proud of him (and he did better than LA, SO TAKE THAT, BUDDY). As for the stage itself. Whatever.

My I’m a bad person, but Contador winning the stage just irked me. The tour is no longer a contest for the yellow jersey. He’s all but wrapped it up which, whatever. I know people are looking forward to Mont Ventoux, but I think they‘re wrong. Anything short of Armstrong sabotaging Contador (I don’t know that he’d do that, but …) and he wins the tour. I just hope that Armstrong’s not on the podium come Sunday. I also feel terrible for Fabian Cancellara. This should have been his stage. But, yet again, a Saxo Bank rider falls just short of the mark. Though this wasn’t as bad as all the crap that’s happened to Columbia. My pick for the stage was David Millar, who came in a very respectable 4th, following by Wiggins in 5th. But, you know, Wiggins is 4th on the tour. FOURTH. He is 11 seconds behind Armstrong. This is not fair and, well, ridiculous. I really, really hope that over the next to days that changes and it’s Wiggins third and Armstrong fourth (or lower).

I know there are lots of people who like Armstrong, but I don’t. I’m not going to pretend not to be biased because I am. I don’t like him and I’d like nothing better than for him to fail completely on Mont Ventoux. I might be a horrible person, but that’s fine. I feel what I feel and I miss the days without Armstrong in the peloton.

Tomorrow will probably suck, unless someone in the break is someone I like. Otherwise everyone will conserve energy for the big mountain on Saturday. Such is the tour.

Stage 17: Bourg-Saint-Maurice - Le Grand-Bornand 169.5km

2009-07-22T19:18:00.000-04:00

It’s called the Queen Stage for a reason. It was fucking brilliant. Yeah, the yellow jersey still belongs to Contador, but it was almost worth it to watch Contador and the Schleck brothers work their way up that mountain. Who knew that it would be so dramatic? Who knew that there would be so many time differences between everyone on the course? Probably some people will claim they saw it all coming, but I’m going to tell you that they’re wrong. Sure, they might have said ‘oh, that Fränk Schleck, he’s totally going to win a stage’ but they didn’t know which one. And I’ll be honest, I definitely figured it’d be Andy who won, not Fränk.

But anyway, the stage itself. There was a breakaway that included, among others, KOM leader Pellizotti and my boy, Sylvain Chavanel. Of course, neither of them was ever going to win the stage. Hell, it was only going to be one of the top 10 who would take the win. The Col de Romme and the Col de la Colombière were always going to be the center of any attack and it was no different. What was odd, well not odd but different, was that there were only three riders strong enough to do anything. Others tried, and Contador said in his post-race interview that he desperately wanted Andreas Klöden to get the stage win (which is a whole different story related back to when Armstrong was trying to give Landis the stage win on the same mountain and Klöden attacked and almost took the win, but Armstrong was having none of it and beat Klöden to the finish). It should have been payback, but that was not to be because Klöden, for whatever reason, just couldn’t keep up.

So, in the end, everyone else was dropped except for the two Schleck boys and Contador. Which was especially sad for me, because Wiggins just couldn’t get going. I suppose that’s less fuel for his detractors, because obviously he’s no perfect. But he’ll kick ass tomorrow on the ITT. So the rest of y’all can suck it. The GC did change, though not the yellow. Instead of Armstrong (who lost a bit of time, but did attack as well – there’s apparently some drama here, but I don’t give a fuck about it, so whatever) in second, it’s Contador, Andy Schleck and then Fränk. Not my ideal podium, but not bad either.

I know I should have more to say about the stage. Because it was pretty fun to watch, because it was kind of awesome. But like the previous stages that have ended with Contador in yellow, it felt a bit like déjà vu. It was like this was supposed to happen this way – not that the race was fixed (because, come on, really?), but just that I felt that I’d been there, done that already. But whatever. What’s done is done and tomorrow on the ITT we’ll see just how good people are.

With luck, Wiggins’ll win. But it’s the Tour de France and almost anything can happen (and usually does).

Stage 16: Martigny - Bourg-Saint-Maurice 159km

2009-07-21T19:17:00.000-04:00

This was one of those mountain stages that ended up being a breakaway stage instead of a moment of truth stage. I kind of like those, because unexpected things tend to happen. But, to be honest, this stage was mostly unremarkable. I think this was partly because of all the pre-rest day drama. We’ve been so burnt out on yellow jerseys and George Hincapie and Cavendish vs. Hushovd that anything else would just be a disappointment. That’s not to say that this stage was disappointing, far from it. But there was no high drama, as it were.

We did find out a couple of things: Astana, in spite of so-called in fighting, is pretty fucking strong (sigh). They did well to keep Contador safe and show the rest of the competitors which team was in charge. Also, we learned that neither of the Schleck brothers is scared to attack. The other thing we learned is that Contador is going to win the Tour, barring a bad day on any of the next couple of stages.

The important bit, at least to me, was that breakaway. It was really in two parts, the KOM boy, Pellizotti with his two-man breakaway partner, Karpets and then the 16 man breakaway full of chasers. Gomez Marchante (Cervelo Test Team), Van Den Broeck (Silence-Lotto), Voigt (Saxo Bank), Ten Dam (Rabobank), Verdugo, Astarloza, Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Casar (Française des Jeux), Fedrigo, Laurent Lefeve (Bouygues Telecom), Velits (Milram), Moinard (Cofidis), Nicolas Vogondy (Agritubel), Yury Trofimov (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), and Roche and Stephane Goubert (AG2R). These guys were gunning for the win, or in the case of Saxo Bank and Cervelo, they were up there in case their team leaders needed help. What happened was something out of the ordinary.

The break was descending hard and by the time the drama (yes, drama, but not that kind of drama) started, we know they’d probably stick it out. But then came the crash. It was one hell of a crash and poor Jens Voigt had the road (yes, the road) take him out of the Tour. It was possibly one of the worst crashes I have ever seen. See, the thing about Jens is that no matter what, everyone seems to like him. He’s funny, entertaining and he’s so passionate that he’ll just do whatever it takes. But sometimes you just can’t go on and he couldn’t. It was horrible, it was heartbreaking and for several hours, none of us really knew what was going on with him.

Luckily, he’ll be okay eventually. But at the time it was horrible. The stage win felt unimportant, not unlike the stage when the woman was killed. Sometimes there are things that are just more important than a stage win. But there was a stage to be won, and much to my chagrin, none of the riders I picked won. What happened was that Euskaltel-Euskadi’s Astarloza finally got his coveted stage win. It was good tactics and he took the stage in a fantastic victory.

Though the GC didn’t change, I was disappointed because the lovely Tony Martin had a crap day and lost out on the white jersey for good. Tomorrow should be interested because it’s time for some really big mountains. Maybe the GC’ll mix it up a bit. One thing I would like to add is that I’m so proud of Bradley Wiggins and hope he ends up on the podium in Paris.

Rest day: Verbier

2009-07-20T09:10:00.000-04:00

The Good:
1. Heinrich Haussler
This one is obvious. I mean, who else would it be? His stage win was brilliant. It was so much fun to watch, even while the tension was killing me. I'm still so very proud of him and so happy that he won. It's great to read interviews with him where he talks about how he lives, in Germany, near where the stage took place and how he was familiar with the roads. I also like how he mentions that he didn't really think he'd win a stage, but the chance was there and so he took it. I also liked that he raced with Sylvain, that he respects him and that he waited, twice, before he realized that Sylvain really wasn't doing that well. That's the sign of a good rider, a smart rider. And like, I said, I love it.

2. Mountains
They haven't given us the best kind of excitement, not that we're really used to, except a bit on Saturday and Sunday. But they have been beautiful, and sometimes that's the kind of thing we really look for on the Tour. The racing can't be 100% exciting all the time and there have to be things that fill up the other space. Sure there are interviews and whatever, but it's the scenery that really makes the Tour so good. I know that both sets of commentators I listen to feel the same way, unfortunately, we don't get all the best pictures most of the time, if only because there are so many commercials.

3. Drama drama
It can't be a Tour without some sort of drama and the 96th tdf is no exception. In this case it's infighting, between members of Astana, between Astana and Columbia, and between Columbia and Garmin. Cervelo sprinters vs Columbia sprinters. Who knew that the TDF would be like high school? While I put this in the good side of the list, it's also in the bad, but more specfiic. What drama does is make things on the road even more interesting. We're lucky that it hasn't, at least not yet, causes any real damage. Mostly it's all a result of things that happened which is just fine with me. It's way more fun this way.

4. Jersey competitions
When did these things get so exciting? First it was KOM switching every day or two. Then it suddenly Cav and Thor were fighting over Green. Now Tony's trying to get back into white, which Andy Schleck took from him. And then there's the yellow jersey. While it hasn't changed that much, it's come awfully close. I forgot what this kind of TDF could be like -- and to be honest, I can't really remember a TDF I've seen that's been so wild when it came to all the jerseys. I mean, there've been green jersey fights (Baden Cooke vs the rest of the sprinters) and KOM (Rasmussen vs other climbers) and white jersey (Thomas Voeckler losing everything). But all there in one TDF? Awesome. I know it could be better, closer, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun, BECAUSE IT IS.

5. Bradley Wiggins
I was going to talk about how awesome the breakaways are, but fuck that, man. I want to talk about how much I love Bradley Wiggins (and how much I would LOVE HIS BOOK, argh, maybe I'll go have B&N order it for me). Moving on. I think Brad is so awesome. I am really, really happy for him. I know people have been talking shit about him and possibly doping, but I cannot believe that. I know he's worked really, really hard and lost a lot of weight and he's trained himself to ride in the mountains. There've been a couple of interviews with him where he talked about how lazy he's been in the past and how he's finally applying himself. I really, really hope he ends up on the podium. I know he's not going to win, but wouldn't that be just fucking brilliant? Yeah, it would.

The Bad:
6. Security
I don't know what else to say. Two riders got shot during the race. SHOT. How the hell does this happen? Of course, this is such a public event, how do you stop people from doing shit like this? How do you keep people from tripping up cyclists on the road. But at the same time, there have been fans who have helped cyclists as well. But we never remember that, because the bad tends out outweigh the good. It's all ridiculous, but two riders being shot NEVER should have happened.

7. A death at the tour
I don't have much to say about this because basically it's the worst possible thing to happen. There are two lessons to be learned. First is that everyone at the tour, regardless of if they are fans or police or cyclists, HAS to be care. Second, something has to be done about the fans getting in the way. This was the worst thing that could have happened at the tour, even worse that doping positives, but at the same time, she crossed the road at the wrong time. So, something not right if they're not educating people on how to behave at such big stage races. I truly hope this will never happen again.

8. Hincapie drama
Out of control, out of line. I've basically said all I want to say on this in an earlier post. But come on. No favors at the Tour. No one's going to be nice to you just because you're a nice guy or you think you deserve it. Also, holding grudges doesn't do ANYONE any good. Get over it, George. I like you a lot, but grow up. This is a bike race, not high school romance.

9. Cav/Thor feud
Again, let's grow up. Here's my take on things: Thor is bitter because Cav is basically faster than he is. Cav lets himself get drawn into ridiculous feuds. Cav does something that's possibly, but not 100%, questionable. Thro completely overreacts and throws a hissy fit. Cav says stuff in the press. Thor says stuff in the press. Now they hate each other because all sprinters are divas. Boys, either kiss and make up or do something. This name calling shit has GOT to stop.

10. Sylvain Chavanel
My baby broke my heart, but I'm okay with it. I know what happened, I know he didn't have the power. I know I desperately wanted him to win. I know that I adore him no matter what. I also know that if anyone other than Haussi had won the stage, I'd be so angry. I liked that he never gave up, that he gave everything he had. This is why I love cycling. This is why I adore Sylvain. Never give up, bb. NEVER. But even so, it's really fucking depressing to watch your second favorite cyclists hit a wall and crumple under it. Maybe he'll try something this last week, but maybe not. Oh, SYLVAIN.

Stage 15: Pontarlier - Verbier 207.5km

2009-07-19T15:50:00.000-04:00

So, then that happened.

As I said to several people, the stage was exciting but at the same time it was predictable. It was almost as if I was experience deja vu. I wanted to be like 'didn't this already happen?' only have I no idea where or when. There was a breakaway with some promise, but as mountain stages go, you knew it wasn't going to last. There were bright spots, Simon Spilak, Ryder Hesjedal, and Fabian Cancellara in the breakaway. But, no matter how much effort they put in, they were doomed. And that's exactly what happened.

The final climb of the, all 8.8k of the Verbier, was not long, but it was always going to create problems for the riders. Maybe, though not me, expected it to be Armstrong who surged ahead. I was with those who imagined that Contador would be the one to step it up for Astana. I was hoping, especially when wee adorable Simon Spilak attacked (and he was justly rewarded with most aggressive rider), that something magical would happen. Of course I was wrong. And that's about when Contador attacked.

I know that in previous tours with Armstrong, they'd talk about how easy it looked. Well, I've to tell you that they're so fucking wrong. Watching Contador climb makes it look like anyone could do it. He flows up the hill and it's like he's not even breaking a sweat. He almost reminds me of watching Roger Federer play tennis. You know he's putting shit loads of effort into it, but you cannot for the life of you see that on his face. It's simply amazing and while I might not like him, his effort is one of a kind. If he's not doping, he really is fucking amazing.

Once he attacked, no one else was ever going to win the stage. Try as he might, the adorable Andy Schleck went after him, but never managed to catch up with him. In the end, he had to ride by himself, caught in no man's land behind Contador, but in front of his brother and two others. It was a valiant effort that landed him in fifth place, 2:26 behind Contador – the new yellow jersey. But what was even more important to me was the group with Andy's brother, Fränk. That group, who were trying to catch up with Andy, but never managed to, was composed of three riders: Fränk Schleck, Vincenzo Nibali and ... Bradley Wiggins! Of all the cyclists to ever ride the tour, it was Bradley fucking Wiggins who was riding his ass off. God, he was awesome.

Oddly enough, there were several more attacks after Fränk, Nibali and Wiggo went. Sastre had ridden himself out of trouble ended up coming in sixth (Nibali was 3rd, Fränk 4th and Wiggins 5th) after nearly dropping out of contention completely. Behind him was Cadel Evans (surprise!) who I totally thought had been dropped repeatedly, then Andreas 'I'm the only rider on Astana Sarah even pretends to care about' Klöden in eight and then ... Lance Armstrong. Yes, Armstrong was dropped by everyone, even his own teammate(s)! Bloody fucking brilliant, if you ask me. Also, I totally believe that, until he finished today's stage, he completely overestimated his fitness and the other riders in the peloton, including Contador. It was, well, great to see. I'm a bitter, grudge-holding fan, what can I say? A little schadenfreude never hurt anyone.

So, wow does the current GC look? It'll blow your mind, I promise. Here they are:

1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 63:17:56
2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:01:37
3 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:46
4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:02:17
5 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:02:26
6 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:30
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0:02:51
8 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC 0:03:07
9 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux 0:03:09
10 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:03:25
11 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo TestTeam 0:03:52
12 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 0:03:59
13 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia - HTC 0:04:05
14 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 0:04:27
15 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Team Columbia - HTC 0:04:38

Yeah, I wasn't kidding. I know you see Armstrong there in second and think, OMG HE MIGHT DO IT. But you know what? You're wrong. Absolutely wrong. Plus the best thing about the top 3? BRADLEY FUCKING WIGGINS. I know there were other things to talk about, like Nibali pushing into second in the young riders and Andy Schleck ousting Tony Martin (SADFACE) into third for the lead in the same competition. Or the fact that Astana is back in full force, but in the race lead and the team competition. But, whatever. Bradley Wiggins is in third place and if he stays there and Armstrong doesn't win the tour? I might even be happy about the results.

Stage 14: Colmar - Besançon 199km

2009-07-18T15:49:00.000-04:00

This was the weirdest, most fucked up stage ever and most of it didn't even happen until after the stage. It started out simply enough with a breakaway that was decent sized, though not large. What was pretty awesome was that George Hincapie was in the break and the virtual yellow jersey on the road. If he managed to keep the jersey at the end of the day, it would have been awesome. Except there was this little thing called hardcore drama going on. There were three bizarre events that happened.

1) A 60 year old woman was killed when she crossed the road on the Tour route. Apparently she crossed after the breakaway, but before the peloton, came through. First of all, let me say this was absolutely horrible and the last thing anyone would want to happen. Especially since after the police motor bike hit her, it slid into two other people, injuring them both. But let me just add that the only thing worst than crossing the road in front of cyclists is to cross between the peloton and the break. I really, really wish that that didn't happen. I also don't like the fact that the cyclists were forced to ride by her body by the side of the road (not only do I know that this happened because some cyclists were twittering about it, but also because there were pictures of her body – which is completely horrible – being passed by cyclists). It's a horrible accident that overshadows the rest of what I'm going to write about this stage.

2) The sprint finish that my friends and I are calling The Mark Cavendish Incident. Basically, the sprint for points after the rest of the breakaway crossed the line or was caught was dramatic on every single level. Columbia did a little train for Mark (which I will talk about later, but not how it relates to the Green jersey) and things got weird and basically it looked like Mark was boxing it and then interfering (?) with Thor's chances at the sprint. I don't know if anyone complained (though I think Cervelo must have) or if the race officials decided to look at it again, but it's seriously hard to tell what happens. At full speed and from the front (aka, looking to the sprint from the finish) it's almost impossible to see what made the official DQ Cav (docking him points and giving Thor the Green). When you look at it from above, it kind of looks like Cav glances back, sees Thor (in Green) and then moves over in front of him. They have a brief argument, but again, it's hard to know if it was Cav, Columbia, a Cervelo (not Thor), the barriers, or some combination of all of those that forced Thor ... toward the barriers, since he didn't crash. I think it was unfair to DQ Cav, but what's done is done and I'm not the Tour expert.

3) Five seconds from glory. Seriously, all he needed was five more seconds and then George Hincapie would have raced Stage 15 in yellow. Except, of course, he lost five seconds. As I mentioned earlier, George was in the breakaway that stuck together up until the very end. He crossed the line 16 seconds behind the Russian stage winner and then played the dreaded waiting game. It's what happened after that's strange. First off, let me just say that George's tactics in break weren't the best (and I think he's admitted that). He didn't attack either at the right time or hard enough, I'm not quite sure. Which meant that instead of winning the stage, he came in fifth or whatever and lost those 16 precious seconds. But then what happened next was odd. Astana had been doing tempo for most of the stage, but once it seemed like George might end up in yellow, AG2R took over the work. As happens in stage races, when one team goes, the rest have no choice but to follow. It looked like Columbia, George's team, was doing it's part to slow things down, but it wasn't working. From what I can piece together, Garmin started working with AG2R and so did Astana and eventually Columbia. Armstrong himself blames AG2R and Garmin, and Columbia a little, for making George not get the yellow. I call bullshit, though.

Here's the thing. No one, not anyone deserves to be in yellow. Yes, when someone gets the jersey, pulls it on in the podium, we can say 'oh, he did all the work today, he definitely should be and deserves to be in yellow.' But first and foremost, this is a RACE. As in, team against team and rider against rider. I don't care what anyone says, there was no reason for Astana and Garmin not to race. There was no reason for AG2R not to race (George did not complain about them, because he's not entirely stupid), after all, it's their boy in yellow. But for people to point fingers and blame Garmin or Astana or whatever for not racing to put a cyclist NOT ON THEIR TEAM in yellow is completely ridiculous. I'm sorry, but you don't win races by being nice. Garmin's tactics were to make sure they didn't lose time. Astana's were to make sure they didn't lose time. AG2R's was to make sure that the yellow jersey stayed on their team. All of those things happened because that's what happens in a stage race. You don't look out for the other guys in the peloton. Sure, you might do nice things for them occasionally (see: Fabian Cancellara and David Millar), but that doesn't mean that your teams work together, nor does it mean that you try to get someone else in the yellow jersey – someone not on your team.

I don't care what Armstrong or Matt White or Johan Bruyneel might have said, because they are wrong. Sure, you might want George in yellow after the stage. Sure, you might be able to claim that you didn't do anything to stop him from getting yellow, but during the stage that's not the case. You react because that's what you do. The whole point of the Tour de France is to RACE THE GOD DAMN RACE. I don't care what kind of history you have with George, there are no favors in cycling. And as much as I adore George, and as much as I think he has a right to be angry about those five seconds, it's no one's fault but his own and maybe Columbia's.

As for Columbia? I have no idea what's going on with them. They had a terrible day. George didn't win the stage, missed out on yellow, while Cav was busy getting DQ'd and all but losing the green jersey.

All in all it was a wild stage. Perhaps stage 15 will be just as wild, but who knows.

Stage 13: Vittel - Colmar 200km

2009-07-17T15:45:00.003-04:00

I almost didn't make it up in time for coverage to start. I didn't oversleep, but I definitely contemplated staying in bed a bit longer. For some reason I did and I was compelled to check the cyclingnews live ticker, because I was curious to know about the break. I don't know that I had a feeling that something good was going on, but I certainly felt the overwhelming need to check it. So I did.

And then I promptly flipped out. Anyone following me on Twitter immediately noticed this because I totally lost my shit. My two favorite riders, in a break together? What more (at that point) could a girl ask for!? I knew that chances were that if the break stayed away, one of them was going to win. The question became different of course, Sylvain being my favorite, did I want him to win? Or, because Sylvain already won a stage of the Tour, did I want my second favorite, Heinrich, to win a stage? Turns out I wanted Sylvain to win, but if for whatever reason he couldn't/wasn't going to, then I wanted it to be Heinrich. Little did I know what the stage held in store for me.

I know there were other things going on, like a battle for the King of the Mountains and struggles with the weather (plus two riders being shot with air guns), but at the time, none of that mattered. And, save the shooting incident, all that other crap doesn't matter to me in the least. The things that matter are Sylvain and Heinrich, they are the only things that matter to me. Anyway.
As much as I loved the fact that for a good bit of the stage the two boys were riding together, this stage was hell on my emotions. I'm one of those live and die by my teams/favorite athletes and both Heinrich and Sylvain ran me ragged (drove me?). Before we knew that Sylvain just didn't have the power in his legs (I kind of thought Paul & Phil might be right, but upon further reflection, Sylvain's not stupid enough not to eat enough), I was kind of freaked out because Heinrich was taking all the risks and Sylvain was taking none.

It turned out that Sylvain hit the wall. I knew he didn't really like the rainy/cold weather (even though previously he'd said as much and has won several races/stages of other races in shit weather), at least not as much as in the past, so that probably contributed to his mediocre (though not poor) performance. But no matter what he did, eating/drinking/etc, he just couldn't catch up once Heinrich dropped him. It broke my heart to watch him struggling so much. But he finished the stage (he later gave credit to the DS in the care, saying that without him, he didn't know how he'd've finished the stage).

And then there was Heinrich. Turns out the boy loves the cold, rainy weather. Someone, Renshaw maybe? Said on twitter that Haussler looked more Germany than Australian, because Aussie's hate the cold weather. I thought that was hilarious, though I've no idea if it's actually true. Not that it matters, really. Anyway, the point is that Haussler put the pedal down and never really looked back. His post-stage remarks were fasicnating. He confessed that he had no idea, until about 1k to go, or maybe a bit more, that he really didn't know he was going to win the stage. He also said he felt great and once he figured out that Sylvain wasn't going to give chase, he just went for it.

It was fucking brilliant to watch. He took risks on the descents and later I learned that he actually had no idea that Sylvain was in a bad way. He said something like he thought Sylvain was playing with him, some sort of cat and mouse game I think. But he wasn't having any of it (even though Sylvain was just really suffering) and that's when he let loose. It was so much fun, especially when he finally figured out he was going to win. Aside from Sylvain winning races, I have never been happier about a cyclist winning a stage. Watching Haussler cross the line in tears was a beautiful thing. I'm so proud of him and I'm not ashamed to say I cried.

Stage 13, not unlike Stage 19 last year, is my favorite of this tour. I just hope there's another one – this time when Sylvain's the winner.

Stage 12: Tonnerre - Vittel 211.5km

2009-07-16T11:57:00.003-04:00

I finally got to see most of a stage! The first time since Sunday, which isn't really saying much because the last time was Sunday. Regardless, it turned out to be a fascinating stage, tactically speaking. What we didn't see live was that Evans and A. Schleck attempted to join a breakaway. I know, I know, they're doing it to try and gain time, but REALLY. I do not support such things because it's not fair to the boys in the break. Yes, I know that they had to true, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. But, moving on now.

The breakaway was eventually seven riders, including the stage winner, Niki Sörensen. The stage wasn't that eventful, except for a crash or two(?) with a dog. I don't know any details, though. When the stage started, the Versus commentators all agreed that it was likely going to be a stage for the sprinters -- in that they all picked sprinters to win. But, amusingly, that's not what happened. This break of seven kept on racing hard, pushing as much as they good to see how the peloton would react and ... it barely did. Eventually it seemed clear that if the peloton didn't step up, the break would survive, and that's exactly what happened.

Which meant that we turned out focus to who, out of those seven riders, was going to win. It turned out to be a joy to watch because Niki Sörensen, who was a bit late joining the break early in the stage, did everything right. He attacked the breakaway near the end of the stage and just took off. He played at tactics and held everyone off. All remaining six breakaway riders finished before the peloton, which eventually came in almost 6 minutes later. What surprised me, and ended up making me really happy, was that Columbia changed their tactics.

Cavendish took eight place, in front of Hushovd and a Lampre rider, which might have been a surprise (attacking without the chance to win the stage, really, Cav?), except for one thing. Early on in the stage, at the 32k mark, Cavendish attacked briefly to win a six sprint points. It was then that it seemed pretty obvious that Columbia and Cavendish had decided to keep the Green jersey by any means necessary (within reason, of course). This pleased me greatly, and so when we got to the finish, I was a bit anxious. Would Cav attack? Would Farrar or Hushovd try to steal the points? In the end, it was Thor who tried to out smart Cav, but as Columbia has proved, time and again, they are definitely the strongest.

Cav gathered another sixteen points head of Thor, giving him a bit more lead on the Green jersey. When the Versus reporter interviewed Cav after the race, he was asked if he was worried more about getting through the mountain stages or about winning on the Champs-Élysées. Cav's answer was hilarious. He basically said he'd have no problems with the mountains and was only worried about winning the final stage. It was so totally a Cavendish response that I completely loved it. Hopefully he's right, because I want to see Cav in green on the final day.

Nothing changed with any of the jerseys, except that there were a few more points added in both the green and kom competitions. It was a fun stage, especially the end. Tomorrow is the start of the Alps and I am so ready for those damn mountains. Hopefully the stage won't run too long, as I've got to leave for work at 11:30 am ET. It should be exciting!

Stage 11: Vatan - Saint-Fargeau 192km

2009-07-15T22:48:00.002-04:00

I didn't see much of this stage live and I've watched the sprint finish twice. Again, it was just a flat stage, but this one had a couple of pretty bad crashes (which I have not seen and I don't care to see, because ugh, really. The pictures make it look like total carnage and I don't need to see that). AG2R was doing a lot of work for their yellow jersey boy, though as Phil said either yesterday or today, perhaps that's not for the best because they should let the sprinter's teams do the work. I don't think that's necessarily the case, if only because they probably know they'd don't stand a chance to keep the jersey once we hit the next set of mountains. At least this way, maybe they'll make some allies and get themselves a lot of TV time. Also, AG2R is currently leading the team standings and that's just awesome.

The race was basically a chance to bring back a breakaway of two riders, then there were the crashes and ... then we got to one hell of a sprint finish. Not only did Cav win, but that Tyler Farrar is edging closer and closer to taking a stage. It almost looked like he'd have a win today. But what was really awesome as that Cav just barrelled through and not only did he win the stage, but he also took the green jersey from Thor. This really makes me happy. I'm really happy that he took the jersey, especially after his hilarious Versus interview before the stage where they tried to ask him all these questions and he was brilliant and playing coy.

The Columbia train was too strong for the break to succeed and Cav, well, is just. Cav broke a bunch of records (broke or tied), something about tying for the most stage wins for a British rider and the quickest number of wins in the shortest amount of time or something. I liked his post-race interview where they were like 'can you be in green in Paris?" and he's all 'I'm totally not thinking about this at all!' which I have to say, is the best answer ever. Who knows if he's thinking about it? I don't care, because I want him in green in Paris, but if he keeps not thinking about it and then winning stages? I'm not complaining.

Nothing else really changed on the stage, which was fine. Tomorrow is a bit more of an up and down stage, but again it could be for sprinters or maybe a breakaway. Let me just add that if this doesn't seem to make sense, it's because I've only had 5 hours of sleep and I'm basically sleep walking through this post. Hopefully tomorrow will be awesome. Sylvain Chavanel, how about another go at a break? That's my hope for tomorrow!

Stage 10: Limoges - Issoudun 194.5km

2009-07-14T22:34:00.000-04:00

I saw the start of the coverage of Stage 10 on Versus and then the end of it. I missed basically everything in the middle. And, from what I can tell, I didn't miss a damn thing. I have to say, that's not really a good endorsement of the Tour. Up until today, it's been pretty fun. But to hear that people are describing this stage is kind of ridiculous. I don't think I would have minded it too much, if only because I don't mind just watching riding. It's fun and soothing and I enjoy that. But I had an appointment I couldn't miss.

I got home just in time for the good stuff, which was the sprint. What I'd missed was the breakaway: Thierry Hupond (Skil-Shimano), Benoit Vaurengard (Francaise des Jeux), Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) and Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha). They wanted to win, three of them especially since it was Bastille Day. It was odd that there wasn't much drama, because the dreaded radios didn't do much except piss off the riders before and after the race. They kept the break within a reasonable distance and when the time came to step up the chase, it worked perfectly. Well, the capture was perfect. The real problem was the sprint finish.

It was a lot steeper than most of the teams realized, except for Columbia. This turned out to be because Columbia decided to do their homework. From what I can tell, Cav is apparently the kind of guy who likes to research his finishes and therefore, Columbia sent Zabel to scout it out. He reported back and said that the finish was more uphill than the race bible (as it's called) stated. Thus, Columbia knew was was coming and was able to propel Cav to the finish, while everyone else struggled. Happily for me, Cav won and he came within two points of Thor's green jersey. It was kind of obvious that Cav wants green again, and I'll be honest, I want him in green again.

The most interesting thing that happened was that there was some sort of 15 difference between two groups of finishers and Bradley Wiggins apparently lost 15 seconds and moved from 5 to something like 7th or 8th. It was odd, because if you watch a replay of the sprint finish, you can barely see the separation and it seems kind of odd that the Tour with indicate that as a 15 second difference (between the time Cav crosses the line and the time the 'leader' of the second group cross the line, not the front of the second group and the back of the first). I thought it was ridiculous and apparently so did the Tour jury, because they overturned the 15 seconds and Wiggins and LL are back where they were when the stage started.

It was kind of a wild stage and I'm glad things were sorted out in the end. Tomorrow is yet another sprinter's stage and hopefully another win by Cavendish -- with him picking up the green jersey, maybe?

Rest day: Limoges

2009-07-13T21:35:00.002-04:00

10 things about the rest day:

Good.
1. Columbia
Okay, so. they have the sexiest, most kick ass train EVER. Seriously, they're the best train since Petacchi's silver bullet or whatever the hell it was called. I could watch Columbia lead about Cav forever. They are tough and awesome, and they seem to work really, really well for each other. I love it and that's what a train should be like. So, other sprinter's teams? Y'all can SUCK IT.

2. Weather (mostly)
It's been hot, but it's been pretty beautiful if you're a fan. There've been a few occasions of shitty weather, but it's been really great for watching. I don't have much to write about, except that no matter how much I like the good weather, bad weather brings drama to the race, which is also fun. Hopefully the weather stays good, but if it doesn't I hope it causes good, non-injury drama.

3. Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, I'm not even sure if I like him and yet I really do like him. I like that Garmin's all about him and trying to help both Wiggo and CVV do well and protect them. I like that they can divide their time between those two and Farrar (who I'd like to be able to win a stage, just one). Anyway, Wiggins is awesome and I hope he ends up higher when the race gets to Paris.

4. Lack of a real contender
This is awesome. I know we're supposed to think that LA and Contador, et al are contenders. But, seriously, no one is really trying to dominate, which means that the races are way more interesting. I know people thing they are totally lame, drama wise. But, for the most part, I love it. It's fun to see different people win.

5. Sprinters
I know, they're in both categories, sort of. I know Cav seems to be dominating, but Thor's won a stage and has the Green jersey, and that's kind of awesome. Not because I don't want Cav to have it, because I do. But just because it's all about spreading the love around, and I adore that. As long as the sprint finishes stop being so dangerous, this is only a good thing.

Bad.
6. All Lance All The Time
Yeah, this basically speaks for itself. Sometimes it feels like all they do is talk about Lance. It's ridiculous. It makes coverage lame and it's seriously irritating. I don't have much else to add, except that he's not in yellow and it'd be nice if people stopped pretending he was. Ugh.

7. Astana
Why won't they implode? Why do they insist that there's no infighting? Why does LA seem to think he'd be okay with Contador winning, when it's pretty fucking obvious Contador doesn't feel the same way. Why does everyone toe the party line? WHERE'S THE DRAMA? Seriously, this team should be overflowing with it, and yet nothing. Also, why are they there? They just piss me off.

8. Crazy Sprint Finishes (could be good, but ...)
Too many crashes, no enough people paying attention. They're dangerous and I doubt they'll get any less dangerous. At the same time, this makes them exciting, but I hate crashes and so this is totally a negative. I don't know if I want to blame the race organizers or the cyclists, so we'll just say the blame belongs to both.

9. Tom Boonen
Yeah, where are you, Boonen? I might not like you, but the worse you are (and god, you're so bad), the more annoyed I am that you took Allan Davis' spot. You're a waste of a Tour rider. You do nothing, you've crashed, your team is non-existent. You're probably ruining Sylvain's chances of doing anything because all you do is have issues. Go back to Belgium.

10. Mountain stages
Yeah, whatever happened to fun time attacking? Why didn't anyone put in any sort of effort? Why is that AG2R boy still in yellow? Does no one have the guts? Do they just not care? Is it really true that no one wants to work for the jersey yet? Way to make a sucky race, guys. Of course, if it keeps the jersey away from Astana, well, that's mostly a good thing.

Your TDF blogger is bitter. I'd apologize, except I'm just not sorry.

Stage 9: Saint-Gaudens - Tarbes 160.5km

2009-07-12T10:50:00.006-04:00

I spent much of this stage wondering what the hell was going on and why no one was attacking. Which meant that as awesome as these mountains were (are), the stage was just like yesterday. No change, no attack, no excitement. Well, there was a few bits of excitement, especially when they got to the Col du Tourmalet and the crowds went crazy and for a bit I was worried that they'd get in the way. Luckily that didn't happen and all the riders made it through all right. The descent was kind of crazy, no guard rails ends up being dangerous. There was only one crash that I know of, Laurens ten Dam (Rabobank) went down, scraped himself up, but made it back to the peloton and finished.

The stage itself didn't get really interesting until about 70k to go (give or take). There were two breaks by the time the riders got to the flat part of the stage. There was a small group of seven or so and then two riders ahead of them. Versus has a camera that spends some days in Columbia's car and some days in Garmin. Today was a Columbia day, and so we had an interesting look into the car when Columbia was told to attack and drive the peloton to capture the break. For a bit, everyone was wondering if Cav was in the main group, but it turned out he wasn't. I'm not really sure what Columbia were going for, but whatever it was (aside from a bunch sprint for ... someone, I don't know who). In the end, it was Caisse d'Epargne who did most of the effort and still couldn't pull the break in.

By the time the cyclists got to about 5 k left, I was rooting really hard for the break to work. The more French riders who win stages, the better it is. And the more the GC doesn't change, the better. Unless it's to put Brad Wiggins in yellow, that I could totally support. But back to the point, I was cheering Pierrick Fedrigo (BBox) on so hard. He's not a favorite of mine or anything, but I really wanted more French rides to win, and more glory for BBox and that's exactly what I got! How awesome. And then we had a decent non-sprinters sprint for the remaining places (oh, right Franco Pellizotti came in second. Take that, Pellizotti, who did NO work and Fedrigo gave him what he deserved).

Oh, and there's great news for the Basque team (one of my mother's favorites). Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Euskaltel - Euskadi) is now the new KOM! How lovely! Otherwise, there was no change in any of the other categories. Including Tony Martin, which on further reflection, might have been the reason why Columbia were attacking. A surprise Tony win? I was hoping Sylvain would come out of nowhere to take the stage, but he finished 13th, which wasn't bad at all.

Monday's a rest day, then Tuesday's the first of the no-radio stages (which I'll not be watching as I have yet another doctor's appointment in the morning). I am curious as to how people will do tomorrow. Anyway, today's stage was a waste of mountains, but gave us a fun finish, so there's not too much to complain about. Hopefully there'll be more excitement this coming week.

Stage 8: Andorre-la-Vieille - Saint-Girons 176.5km

2009-07-11T23:01:00.003-04:00

I'm sure that, aside from the scenery, there were many exciting things that happened on this stage. But, to be honest, I missed some of the stage due to cable problems (which eventually sorted themselves out) and not only that, the winner of the stage was definitely not who I wanted. I'll get to that later, though. On paper (the web, whatever) the stage looked like it could be both awesome and have an impact on the yellow jersey. In the end, it didn't really do any of those things, save the beauty of the scenery, but you'd be hard pressed to find a TDF stage that didn't have amazing mountains or buildings or fields or plants or whatever. But there's something about the Pyrenees that just makes you feel like this stage will be a defining moment.

It ended up being a bit of a letdown. Just a bit, because the GC didn't change and while I don't always like it when people dominate, almost anything's better than Astana in yellow. I don't really know what I was expecting on the stage, maybe more attacks. Especially after what happened during stage seven. I mean, there were three mountains, who wouldn't attack? But I forgot that people tend to attack more when the stage is a mountain top finish instead of what stage eight was all about.

The stage basically consisted of yet another breakaway and yet another breakaway winner, which to be honest, wasn't that bad. There were a few people in the break who I really supported, especially George Hincapie and Sandy Casar. For whatever reason, Hincapie sat up (much to my dismay) and that left me yelling at the TV for Sandy to win (and then my mom called and we were both yelling at him). Sadly, he didn't win the stage and it turned out that Spain would get their stage after all. It's not that I really have anything against Luis Leon Sanchez (I liked him when he was on LS), but I really like Sandy Casar more. I think it's partly because Casar is always in the break, always fighting hard and he never gives up, not even after he's won his stage (which I hope he does this year, though not at the expense of, say Sylvain).

It wasn't a dull stage, it just didn't light up any excitement and the darling Nocentini is still in yellow. One big, and slightly disappointing, change is that Thor Hushovd is now in green instead of Cavendish. Thor was briefly in the break, took two of the three sprints and thus took the green jersey from Cav. Disappointing, but not heart breaking because if Cav can make it through the mountains, I'm almost certain he can take it back.

Tomorrow is the last stage before the first rest day. There are two huge mountains that could prove exciting, but this year, you never know.

Stage 7: Barcelone - Andorre Arcalis 224km

2009-07-10T21:40:00.004-04:00

I had no idea that today's stage would be such a soap opera. Let me first say that I have never fast forwarded through so much crap on a stage as I did today -- and I'm not just talking about the commercials. I don't know why we have to have six million commercials, six million interviews and five million little specials (about Armstrong). Really, I just. Don't. Care. I want to watch cycling, I don't want to hear what people have to say about the stage. I know this is the curse of cycling (shut up, it's not boring, I don't care what you think). I know that they try to give us what we want (we being not me, but a lot of casual cycling fans), but I'll be honest, it's irritating. The other irritating thing is just how much Versus loves Armstrong. I don't mean all the specials, but the way they talk about him, the way they try to justify what he does. I'm sorry, but shut up. I don't want to throw things at my TV, but I came close on several occasions. It's absolutely ridiculous. I get why they love him and why they use him (and he uses them), but I still hate it.

Um. Right, about the stage? So, it was a mountain stage that started in Spain and ended in Andorra (of all places! Awesome). Our coverage started with the breakaway already in full force. It didn't contain anyone I was particularly interested in or bothered about, but as usual with such breaks, it was fun to watch (even though I knew the end result). The boys worked hard and I was pleased to see that they wanted to stay away and that the peloton, at least at first, had no intention of catching them. I didn't have a favorite because I already knew the result, but it wasn't disappointing in the least. What did bother me was how Paul and Phil kept talking about how Spain would be disappointed that it was a French 1-2 and how this was the biggest win for France in ages and I was like, seriously. What. Okay. Because those previous French victories (like the one TWO DAYS AGO) didn't matter at all? Right. NOT THAT I'M BITTER OR ANYTHING. Done shouting, for now.
Anyway, so Brice Feillu (Agritubel) won the stage (and was adorable when he forgot to zip up his jersey), Christophe Kern (Cofidis, aw) was second and the yellow jersey goes to ... (just trying to bring the suspense, much like Paul and Phil did by accident) Rinaldo Nocentini, it Italian from AG2R. While that excitement was going on, there was even more drama behind them. The peloton realized, far too late, that they totally screwed up the capture of the break, so they did what they do best, they attacked each other. Granted, there were some crashes (OF COURSE) that managed to throw chaos into the mix, but really, it was that attack by Cadel Evans that threw everyone into motion. There were more, none successful, until Contador decided he'd had enough. For reasons that I'll never understand and don't actually care about, he attacked and put time on his teammates and the main rivals.

Now, see, I don't care for or about Contador. I don't want him in yellow, if only because he rides for Astana, but better him than Armstrong. What bothered me the most was the fact that the commentators just kept making excuses about what Armstrong did or didn't do, why Contador attacked, etc. As if they needed to defend Armstrong. WHATEVER GUYS. You don't need to suck up to him all the time, it's okay not to. As someone I follow on Twitter said, it's okay to say that you're wrong. You can admit it, it's okay! It's just like when Versus/OLN denied that there was doping in the peloton. It's okay to be wrong, really. I mean, come on, I'm wrong all the time! Okay, not all the time, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, so no one in Astana is in yellow and Armstrong lost time. It was an exciting stage, and maybe those were the first signs of the (hopefully) impending Astana implosion, or maybe they really are being good to each other (ha ha ha). Who knows, but regardless, I am definitely looking forward to tomorrow's stage.

Stage 6: Gérone - Barcelone 181.5km

2009-07-09T22:35:00.007-04:00

With the way the GC is going, today's stage was a nice break from the drama that comes with the yellow jersey. Of course, it wasn't a relaxed stage. Instead, it was weather drama that turned into disaster, though not as bad as it could have been. The stage started out decently enough with a breakaway I could totally support (yeah, who saw that coming? everyone). Sylvain decided it was a day to be in the break, which really exited me. And up until the break was caught, I held out hope that he'd win. Granted, it was a bit of a stretch, but hey, a girl can dream.

The break established itself well, with three, then four riders. David Millar, along with Chavanel the future KOM leader, Auge and Spanish cyclist Amets Txurruka. They worked extremely hard in their break, but as breaks tend to be, they weren't meant to last. But they gave it the best try possible. It was heart breaking, at least for me, to watch Sylvain and Auge get swallowed up by the peloton. But at least I knew Sylvain would finish reasonably well.

The break wasn't the only drama, and I know I'm leaving out Millar, but don't worry, I'll get to him soon enough. There were crashes. Oh boy were their crashes. They weren't life or career ending crashes, but there were enough of them in a short enough period of time that it was rather stressful (more than usual). The ones that really stressed me were the one where Haussler (who y'all know I adore) went down (I found out later he fell twice which, GAH, not what I wanted to hear, poor kid). At first the Eurosport commentators thought it was Thor, and even though I like him, I'd rather it be Thor than Haussler. Sadly, that was not the case. He went down hard twice, but turned out okay in the end. Mick Rogers also went down hard and we spent much of the stage wondering if he'd even finish. Luckily he did, and later posted on twitter that he'd start stage seven and had no broken bones (thank god).

Then, in the huge crash (I think this is the one that took Haussler out for a second time), Tom Boonen went down. Like, who expects that kind of thing? It was high drama and made the stage chaotic. The weather was shit, though it didn't seem like it was pouring, or even raining that hard, but it was doing something just enough to make life extremely hard for the sprinters and they suffered for it. The best and worst part of the was David Millar. If Sylvain wasn't going to win from the break, I desperately wanted Millar to win. I've liked him, both before and after his confession and I want him to do well. I was screaming at the TV, trying to will him to a stage win and was quite unhappy when he just couldn't hold on. In his post-stage interview, Millar did say that he hadn't even expected to be there, so he wasn't disappointed, which is really good for him, but at the same time. Damn, did it suck to watch him almost win.

Of course, the sprint for the finish was quite interested. Cav was no where to be seen, I don't know if that was Columbia's ploy, or if he was suffering through the mountains or they were just making someone else work, but whatever happened, it made the sprint interested. The winner, who came from being boxed it to drive past Oscar Freire for the win was Thor Hushovd, who I also like (though not as much as some). I like him enough to thoroughly enjoy the win, especially the way he powered past everyone else -- from behind!

Tomorrow are the mountains and I won't be watching that stage live, but it should be interesting. I'll miss the sprints, and mountains can be exciting, but today proved that sprint (flat-ish) stages can be pretty damn exciting, too.

Stage 5: Le Cap d'Agde - Perpignan 196.5km

2009-07-08T22:22:00.005-04:00

I'm gonna be honest, I don't really have much to complain about on this stage (well, I do, but I am so over Versus). I missed all of it because I was working, but I did watch my recording of it and it wasn't bad. (Edited to add that as I am writing this, I apparently have a lot to complain about, SORRY!)

It was pretty much billed as a sprinters stage and for the most part, that's what it seemed like. There were attacks off the front and a break caught on and stuck, for longer than expected as the race went on. But for a bit there, it looked like the only excitement was going to be the crashes (poor Robert Gesink) and all the gossipy drama about Columbia vs the other sprinters. Which, actually, I'd like talk about. I was surprise with how diplomatic some of the Versus coverage was of the whole situation. I found the whole thing utterly hilarious, if only because it's almost like they are pitting Columbia against everyone else. While at the same time, that actually seems to be the case. Which, what.

I mean, I think Columbia's argument makes sense. What's the point of racing if no one is going to race with you. But, of course, I think that the other teams have a point too. If Columbia (read: Cav) is winning everything, then why should the other teams work? After all, Sastre said Cervelo's going to "employ a "happy, relaxed" approach" to the Tour (source). Clearly QS isn't doing anything (Boonen, what on Earth are you doing at the tour?) and, frankly, Milram's a joke. I might adore Ciolek, but he's missing as well. So, it's not really like Columbia has much competition. Though I did leave out Garmin, and I guess Tyler Farrar is the only one who has come close to challenging Cav (Thor was second at least once, too). But, of course, this was all a moot point with stage five.

Because the first real surprise of the tour decided to show up today (on a day I couldn't watch live, FAIL). That breakaway? It shrunk down a bit but, somehow, it never disappeared. Which meant that the peloton blew it. There's always one stage where this happens, though often it's on purpose. This time? I don't think so, especially considering the fact that the peloton were closing in fast as the one and only Thomas Voeckler crossed the line. How brilliant was it to see him win? It's been ages and it's about damn time that he won a stage. I'm quite proud of him! He did a good job, both in the break and with his attacks. Plus, it's always brilliant to see a French rider winning a stage of the Tour.

Aside from that, not much else changed. There's still basically no time separating Cancellara from Armstrong (ugh), but Fabian still in yellow and that's the only thing that matters. Tomorrow's stage ends in Barcelona (yay!) and should be interesting, especially if the Spanish riders want to try something special. But, for now, let's all enjoy Thomas Voeckler's win, because it's certainly awesome.Top 10 for stage five, just because:

1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom 4:29:35
2 Mikhail Ignatiev (Rus) Team Katusha 0:00:07
3 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - HTC
4 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Slipstream
5 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram
6 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Team Katusha
7 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
8 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
9 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank
10 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team

Stage 4: Montpellier - Montpellier (TTT) 39km

2009-07-07T19:58:00.002-04:00

Let's get this out of the way first: I have not seen the whole stage. I missed most of the middle (was at the doctor's office), but I saw the beginning (GOD, CRASHES) and the very end. So, before I actually get to my (brief, worthless) commentary, have the complete results:

1 Astana 0:46:29
2 Garmin - Slipstream 0:00:18
3 Team Saxo Bank 0:00:40
4 Liquigas 0:00:58
5 Team Columbia-HTC 0:00:59
6 Team Katusha 0:01:23
7 Caisse d'Epargne 0:01:29
8 Cervelo Test Team 0:01:38
9 AG2R-La Mondiale 0:01:49
10 Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:02:10
11 Rabobank 0:02:21
12 Quick Step 0:02:26
13 Silence - Lotto 0:02:36
14 Francaise Des Jeux 0:02:46
15 Team Milram 0:02:49
16 Cofidis Le Credit en Ligne 0:02:59
17 Lampre - N.G.C 0:03:25
18 Agritubel 0:04:18
19 BBox Bouygues Telecom 0:04:42
20 Skil-Shimano 0:05:23

Okay, so. WHAT THE HELL. Seriously, what the hell. It's like I said on twitter:

callmecayce Back from Doctor's in time to see that Astana has the good drugs and will probably (disgustingly) win the stage. about 8 hours ago.

Seriously. I don't even know. That team should be imploding. Contador's definitely not towing the party line, LL's spitting bullshit and they're being forced to work for Lance fucking Armstrong who hasn't raced a TDF since he quit. HE QUIT. Why in god's name is he still racing? All it does is piss me off. I know that I'm overreacting, since obviously he doesn't care what I (or anyone else) thinks. But it doesn't mean I think he should be out there or support him, because I definitely don't. Nor do I understand why Astana is, well, winning things. They are a top heavy team, they are just waiting to fall apart. I don't know why they thought this was a good idea, but as of stage four, it's working and that's just disgusting.

Obviously, I am also bitter about a) the course. IT WAS DANGEROUS. I mean, seriously, what the fuck. That many riders falling on a dry day on an TTT course is ridiculous. BBox did not, under any circumstances, deserve that. Randomly, for the first time in what feels like forever, FDJ wasn't last in the TTT. Poor Skil-Shimano. Okay, enough of my spewing forth. Even though I only saw them crossing the line, GARMIN. Garmin, Garmin, GARMIN. Seriously boys, if there's another team I could support, Garmin would be it. And just look at that. Second place, awesome, if not ideal. I don't know what kind of drugs Astana is on, but hell.

Columbia didn't have a good day, I don't know what happened and I don't know that I'm even going to go rewatch the stage (though I might) because it was painful enough the first time and I didn't even see it all. So, right. Like I'd want to put myself through that. Plus, this isn't even the real story. See how I did that? Right, I stuck it at the bottom. Because I almost turned off the TV in disgust. On my favorite sport (though not my favorite race, until Sylvain and/or Haussler win a stage or six). Why? Because of Lance fucking Armstrong. I don't want to see him in yellow. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever again. I honestly don't believe he deserves to wear that jersey, not with the way he's been talking shit about the past few years of the race. So, when I saw that Lance might be in yellow, I was about to lose it.

Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but I was still pissed off. I don't know what I would have done, and said as much on Twitter. Because what do you do when the guy you dislike (for legitimate reasons, not because he's a winner, but because he's a jerk) is about to get what is possibly the biggest not-really-a-win this year? Yeah, I was not happy. But, by some miracle, that didn't happen. I'll be honest, I don't know how they picked Cancellara as the winner and hell, I don't even like SaxoBank, but I'm not complaining. Anyway, before I get even more bitter, have the GC after stage ~~fail~~ four.

1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 10:38:07
2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:00:19
4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:00:23
5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 0:00:31
6 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:00:38
7 Haimar Zubeldia Aguirre (Spa) Astana 0:00:51
8 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC 0:00:52
9 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:06
10 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:07

Stage 3: Marseille - La Grande-Motte 196.5km

2009-07-06T18:44:00.004-04:00

It was always going to be a day for sprinters, but we were never sure just what kind of day. It started out easily enough with a breakaway that was determined to show off, if not stay away. The stage fluctuated for those breakaway riders and at one point, if I recall correctly, they were almost 11 minutes ahead of the peloton. But, of course, the end was inevitable, as it almost always is for breakaways in the peloton. But it was the build up and chase of those riders that really brought the excitement.

Somehow, without any of us really noticing, the peloton split. Suddenly, there was a huge gap between almost all of Columbia and a few other riders from Skil-Shimano, Astana, Cofidis, Milram and Euskaltel - Euskadi. How did this happen? It was nothing more than a fluke. The wind changed and the peloton split and BAM everything changed. Luckily for me, my GC team managed to have all but two riders in the top half of the split. It was totally awesome, to be honest. The Columbia train is probably the sexiest looking train out there and I love it. Yeah, sorry, if you were looking for unbiased TDF coverage, you're on the wrong blog.

As much as I want Heinrich Haussler to win, I know he's there to work for Thor and I like Mark Cavendish a lot more than I like Thor (sorry, boys). It's too bad Columbia's kit is so fug and Cervelo's is kick awesome. But whatever, that's not the point. The thing is, I love Columbia and to have them in that smaller peloton was pretty damn awesome. I am not kidding, I was so excited. Then they caught the break and HELLO MARK CAVENDISH. No one's going to be able to stop that kid, not a single person.

I don't care what they say about Boonen or whatever, because there's no train like Columbia's train. And to watch it in action? It's a thing of fucking beauty. I don't care what people say, because they deserve every win they get. Cav just turns it on and goes and I love it. Every time (unless he's beating Haussi). And you know what else I like? The way he loves his teammates. He appreciates them like no one else. He knows who got him there and he lets them know. Cav's wins aren't just Cav's, they're Columbia's. I know we like to talk about how it was Discover/USPS winning when LA won, but I'm gonna say, right here, that they've got nothing on Columbia. That team has the best chemistry and even if they don't win the TDF (which, Kim Kirchen, I love you and want you to win, I just don't think you will).

So, this stage pretty much sorted nothing about, but Kim got a few (40?) seconds back and all Columbia have left to do is kick ass at the TTT. I know what happened already, even if I'm backdating this post (because I can), but I'm not going to talk about it. I shall just say that when I went to bed, I had faith that Columbia could be awesome. Anyway.

Stage 3 top 10:

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - High Road 05:01:24 (39.12km/h)
2 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team +:00:00
3 Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Skil-Shimano +:00:00
4 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne +:00:00
5 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Quick Step +:00:00
6 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank +:00:00
7 Fabian Wegmann (Ger) Team Milram +:00:00
8 Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn) Skil-Shimano +:00:00
9 Maxime Bouet (Fra) Agritubel +:00:00
10 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram +:00:00

And, of course, The GC top 10:

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - High Road 05:01:24 (39.12km/h)
2 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team +:00:00
3 Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Skil-Shimano +:00:00
4 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne +:00:00
5 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Quick Step +:00:00
6 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank +:00:00
7 Fabian Wegmann (Ger) Team Milram +:00:00
8 Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn) Skil-Shimano +:00:00
9 Maxime Bouet (Fra) Agritubel +:00:00
10 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram +:00:00

Stage 2: Monaco - Brignoles 187km

2009-07-05T23:21:00.003-04:00

I didn't get to see as much of this stage as I would have liked because my parents were here and they wanted to watch the Wimbledon final on tv. I ended up going through several different streams with limited Eurosport audio (my audio of choice), so it was interesting. But I did get to see the final sprint, tennis-free (don't get me wrong, I love tennis, but I just love cycling more).

The second stage was, as far as I could tell, a good breakaway stage, followed up by a chaotic mass sprint. Of course, it's the Tour so chaotic sprints are par for the course. As one of the commentators said, it's not the Tour without a crash. The first one (that I saw) ended up not causing too many problems, but the ones in the build up to the sprint seemed to be a bit worse. Though the first rider to leave the race (Jurgen Van De Walle) wasn't involved in a group crash, but apparently something smaller. I hope he's okay.

Moving on. The breakaway battle hard, but were inevitably caught. Which is, predictably, how these things go. I have to admit that I wasn't paying as close attention as I would have liked. Granted, I watched a lot of the tour, but all the commentary I had was mostly tennis. The best part of the break was, of course, Finnish rider Jussi Veikkanen getting the KOM jersey. I always like it when relatively unknowns end up in top positions. Granted, the likelihood of him keeping it is probably slim, but for now, I think it's great. Plus, it doesn't hurt that he looks absolutely lovely in the red polka dots.

Then there was the sprint. Let me first say that there were several problems with the sprint. The first was that the organizers decided to use a route with far too much road furniture far too close to the sprint. So while the riders were speeding along, the peloton strung out, and the pace quite high, they had to navigate these ridiculous roundabouts and what have you. Which, fine, is totally par for the course, but I have to be honest, it seemed like most of the riders hadn't done their homework and were totally shocked about the stuff in the road. I mean, really guys. You're professionals, you should at least know that the sprint is going to be dangerous.

Lest you think I blame the crashes on the road furniture, I don't. I blame it on lack of awareness that lead to a bit of panic which itself led to the crashes. One touch of wheels and you're down. Because it was the final sprint, we didn't have a good angle on what caused the crash. But in the end, everyone (save the early abandon) crosses the line, more or less in one piece. The best part of the whole sprint was seeing a sprint train in action. I'll be honest, not since the days of Petacchi and Cipo has there been such a fantastic train. Columbia more than held their own and it was dramatic and awesome to see.

As so many others have said about this stage, who the hell is going to be able to stop Mark Cavendish from running away with the sprint jersey? I don't know that there's anyone who can. As much as I adore Cav, I'm a bigger Haussler fan, but I don't think he or Thor has a chance. Speaking of people who weren't sprinting well, where was Boonen? Not that I'm complaining too much, but seriously. It was also nice to see a Garmin rider get second today.

I don't know what's in store for tomorrow, and I haven't got any idea when I'll get to watch it. But it doesn't matter, because it's sure to be awesome. It's the Tour, after all.

Top 10 on Stage 2:

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - HTC 4:30:02

2 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Slipstream

3 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel

4 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team

5 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) BBOX Bouygues Telecom

6 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram

7 William Bonnet (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom

8 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale

9 Koen de Kort (Ned) Skil-Shimano

10 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale

Top 10 on GC:

1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 4:49:34

2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:00:18

3 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:00:19

4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:00:22

5 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 0:00:23

6 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 0:00:30

7 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 0:00:32

8 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC 0:00:33

9 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0:00:37

10 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:00:40

Stage 1: Monaco - Monaco (ITT) 15.5km

2009-07-04T22:44:00.005-04:00

Instead of a traditional prologue, this year's tour started with a surprisingly exciting ITT. Surprising in that I wasn't really sure who would be a favorite, because we all know how well that turned out last year. In the end, it was Cancellara who took the stage, 18 seconds ahead of Alberto Contador. The course was good, just hard enough to make things exciting, but not enough to cause protests like at the Giro. Which, I might add, I hope we don't have any of.

There were some really great things about this stage. But, of course, the highlight for me was the fact that Sylvain Chavanel came in 16th. He finished 11th, but obviously there were others behind him, so it was inevitable that he wouldn't end up there. But that was fine, because he is 16th. No crashes as also good and Bradley Wiggins being in first, even for just a few moments was nice. Also, to see him finish third was pretty great, too.

Of course, there was some crappy stuff about the stage as well. I am not a fan of Astana at all and I was not pleased with their riding. I won't get into the coverage of the stage, because I don't know how much of that is Versus' fault or the world feed's fault, so complaints about not showing Sylvain or the defending TDF champion probably fall on deaf ears. I will complain about the timing of commercials, which was pretty crappy. Luckily the internets provided me with some relief and I got to see Heinrich Haussler start, but never finish. Mostly it's all the Astana crap that gets to me. I don't want them to do well. I know it's petty of me, but I was not happy with the Armstrong hype before the tour and definitely not during the first stage.

Of course, this is par for the course this season, so you'll hear a lot of complaints about it. Especially of Armstrong, god forbid, ends up in yellow. But for now, it's Cancellara in yellow and while I don't like Saxo Bank, I can totally live with that.

Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to write tomorrow. ITT's only do so much and I really prefer short prologues. But this tour is meant to be different, after all, it's bringing back the Team Time Trial. I hope for a great sprint tomorrow. But, for now, here's our official TDF top 10:

1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 0:19:32

2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:00:18

3 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:00:19

4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:00:22

5 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 0:00:23

6 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 0:00:30

7 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 0:00:32

8 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC 0:00:33

9 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0:00:37

10 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:00:40

Stage 21 - Sunday, July 27: Étampes - Paris/Champs Élysées, 143km

2008-07-27T22:05:00.003-04:00

Well, that's it. Three weeks later and Spain rules the world (duh). I don't think anyone expected it, in fact as I said yesterday, most people thought it would be Evans on that top step of the podium. But it wasn't. It was hard working Carlos Sastre and he deserved that win. As an aside, his two kids? Absolutely adorable! I liked how during the presentation with the top three, both children had lions. And his son was just hilarious during the team presentation and the trophy presentation. I love it when they bring their children up and I was sad that Sylvain did, though I don't know if his family was there (thought they really must have been).

Back to the stage. I'm going to do a brief recap of the stage, followed by my thoughts on the tour as a while. So, it was the slowest start to a stage every. I was doing a bunch of different things, so not paying too close attention. There were some hilarious moments, like the two Cofidis riders trading helmets with the motorcyclist and his passenger. All the joking around in the peloton, Cancellara drinking the champagne in one go and more. It was really fun to watch all of that. And then they hit Paris and the race began. It started hard and fast and it never quit, right up to the line.

It was one attack after another, with a couple of small breakaways trying to gain hold. Of course they didn't last, but we never expected them to. What was fun was being on the phone with my mother and talking to my friend Dorte about the stage as it was going on. We were yelling and shouting (well, they weren't and I was) and it was great. And, of course, my two boys did the obligatory attacks. Philippe Gilbert attacked far too early, but went out strong and gave it a great go. I was so proud of him to see that he didn't give up, no matter how many times he crashed. And, of course, it wasn't a stage until Sylvain attacked. And he gave it everything he had left. I think he timed his attacked just a little bit too late, he went at 3k to go instead of 2k, but who knows what would have happened.

It was, ironically, Sylvain's new team next year who eventually caught his break attempt. Quick Step finally got it together and strung out a decent enough train. Without Boonen and Bettini this tour, they looked lost. It showed every time they were in a sprint finish. Except, of course, for today.

1 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Quick Step 3.51.38 (37.04 km/h)
2 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Columbia
3 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank
4 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Silence - Lotto
5 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole

And, somehow, they were strong enough. My guess is taht Steegmans was sick and tired of not winning a stage and he wanted it more. I was extremely happy to see Gerald Ciolek challenging for the win, and was a little disappointed when he didn't win. It was also super nice to see Freire up there. And what can you say about McEwen? It wasn't his tour, nor Hushovd's. And that's how the race ended. It was a fitting end to a crazy and wonderful tour. We didn't know who was going to win on that first day and we didn't know who was going to win today.

That's as good a transition as any, so now I'll move to the tour as a whole.

There have been complaints that this tour has been boring (people writing into Eurosport, mostly). And I have to disagree. It was anything but boring. Over at Podium Cafe, they ranked the past several years of the tour. I mostly agree, 03 is number one and 08 is number two. Which, yes, objectively that is completely true. But to me? Not in the least. This tour, the 2008 edition, is the best. And yes, it is because of Sylvain. I have waited for five years for him to win a stage of the tour, I have defended him repeatedly to people who think he's just not good enough. And in the end, I was right, which I always knew. I had faith in him and I'm glad that he proved me right, though I never doubted him. And see him on the podium in Paris as the most aggressive rider? One of the best things in the world.

But as a whole, this tour has been different than every other tour. Sure, there are some things that are the same. Several of the boys in the breaks were familiar faces, there were stages we'd seen before and dopers were caught. But on a whole, there were new players. One team that has been around for a while finally proved their dominance. No other team was as strong as CSC. They proved that they have the best team in the peloton. With so many national champions (Luxembourg, Denmark and Norway), plus the ITT World Champion, and two of the four jerseys (yellow of course, and the young rider). The only other team who was close to dominating was Columbia, with their five stage wins (four by Cavendish and one by Burghardt).

It was a good tour for American teams. And it was a good tour in general. Even with Evans' flaws, the podium is a strong one. Hopefully next year we'll see Christian Vande Velde on there. And, one last thought, I expect that it'll be Andy Schleck on the podium in yellow, not Frank. While Frank is a good cyclist, I firmly believe his brother is better.

I'll leave you with the top ten and a picture. Until next year!

1 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 87.52.52
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 0.58
3 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner 1.13
4 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 2.10
5 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 3.05
6 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 4.28
7 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 6.25
8 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia 6.55
9 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 7.12
10 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) AG2R La Mondiale 9.05

Stage 20 - Saturday, July 26: Cérilly - Saint Amand Montrond (ITT), 53km

2008-07-26T16:42:00.002-04:00

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: I didn't see the end of this stage. Why? I had to go to work. Carlos and Frank did not race fast enough, so I had to leave with either 2k or 1k to go, I can't remember which. But, that's okay, because by that time I knew a) who was going to win the stage and b) who was going to ride to Paris wearing yellow.

So, on the second to last day of the 2008 Tour de France, we know several things (in no particular order):

Oscar Freire is going to win the green jersey competition
Bernhard Kohl is going to win the KOM jersey competition
Andy Schleck, riding the ITT of his life, is going to win the young rider competition
Sylvain Chavanel (!!!) will win most aggressive rider
Team CSC Saxo Bank will win the the team competition
Spain is the dominate nation in the world

Oh, wait. That last one should read Carlos Sastre will win the 95th Tour de France. I might have gotten a little ahead of myself, but I'm right (just remember: Nadal and Spain being Euro 2008 champions). My mother made this comment on the first day of the tour, except she was referring to Alejandro Valverde and not Sastre. Who knew that three weeks later, she'd be mostly right? I don't think anyone believed that. Hell, no one thought Sastre would hang onto the jersey today.

Everywhere you looked, people were saying Evans was going to win. And, if we're all honest, no one really thought that Evans wouldn't win. Well, okay, some people did, but it seemed almost a given. We all knew that Sastre wasn't that good with time trials and Evans was. Plus, the course suited Evans, but it wasn't to be. And I, for one, am pretty damn grateful. Evans was never the winner that I wanted. I am disappointed that he's even on the podium, but athletes shouldn't be barred from competing just because I think they're jerks. That being said, there are some wonderful things to take away from this ITT, just like there are shitty things.

Bernhard Kohl recovered from what could have been a disastrous start to his ITT. He fell (we think) off of the starting ramp, recovered and for a time, looked like he might just right himself into the yellow jersey. Of course that didn't happen, but he (like Andy Schleck) rode the ITT of his life. It was brilliant and I am so proud of him. Third place and the KOM jersey, what a good job for team Gerolsteiner. And then there's CVV, better known as Christian Vande Velde. He also rode one of the best ITTs of his life, but not only that, he was fourth best on the day. Better than any of those contenders. It's too bad it wasn't enough to put him in the podium. The day belonged to Stefan Schumacher, and let's take nothing away from his brilliant ride. He deserved that stage win just as much as any of the riders in the top ten.

1 Stefan Schumacher (Ger) Gerolsteiner 1.03.50 (49.817 km/h)
2 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 0.21
3 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia 1.01
4 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 1.05
5 David Millar (GBr) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 1.37
6 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 1.55
7 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 2.05
8 Sebastian Lang (Ger) Gerolsteiner 2.19
9 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner 2.21
10 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia 2.28

Just take a minute to look at that top ten. Numbers two and five were expected to place high. After all, Cancellara is the reigning World Champion. CVV was brilliant and Menchov almost did the impossible. And look at that, four riders from American teams in the top ten, two Americans in the top ten. It's great, and good for all the teams, especially Gerolsteiner, with three riders and in search of a sponsor. Let's hope those Red Bull rumors are true, these boys need wings. ;) Sorry, couldn't resist.

There were two bad things that happened on the stage, well, three if you count Kohl. First, Evans lost the Tour de France today. He rode himself out of it, but into second place. Which leads directly into the second part, which is that he rode Kohl out of second place and down to third place. Kohl, in my opinion, deserved second place, but it was not meant to be. And then you have Frank Schleck. His ITT was terrible, probably the worst one of his life. Maybe Frank's not destined to be a TDF winner, maybe it's Andy we should be looking out for. Because he's definitely a lot more consistent than Frank. But either way, it was heartbreaking to watch Sastre riding his ITT and looking up to see Frank in front of him. And the catch and pass was just so sad. It was bad when Armstrong used to do it and it was even worse now, if only because Sastre was passing his own teammate and former yellow jersey wearer.

So, tomorrow is the last day. The boys will ride into Paris and the sprinters will (in theory!) have their day at the line. I refuse to predict a winner and hope from some fireworks, but we all know how the final stage really ends. Let's hope that the disaster that was the 2007 final when they lost video of the finish doesn't repeat itself. I can't wait for tomorrow and at the same time, I don't want it to happen again. I've loved this tour and I do believe it's been one of the best I've seen (which isn't saying a lot, but there you go).

Stage 19 - Friday, July 25: Roanne - Montluçon, 165.5km

2008-07-26T09:49:00.006-04:00

"It's the first time I've managed to take one of my breakaways on this race all the way. It just shows, if you keep at it you can succeed."

"Now, I race for myself, for my own pleasure, and I don't listen to all that anymore. I'm sure that many of my fans today were really happy for me and that I made their day today. That's what counts for me."

(source)

I have spent most of the day yesterday, since the stage finished obviously and some of today thinking about what to write about this stage. Normally I'd talk about how interesting it was that there were two breakaways on the day, the first one being pulled back after 69k. And then, 72k into the race Sylvain attacked and was later joined by Jérémy Roy. And they rode, and rode and rode some more. And I sat at my desk at work and tried to will Sylvain to win.

I never gave up hope, but I thought, this is going to be like every other breakaway he's had. He'll give everything and then, with 1k to go (remember the stage when he went away with Chris Horner, who then sat up and kind of screwed him over? well, I do). Except the peloton couldn't pull them back. Sure, they upped their pace, they were racing hard and yet Sylvain and Roy stayed away. They kept losing time, but not in that 'oh, this break is doomed way' and then I began to think that it might be possible.

Then 1k from the finish, I thought, 'oh my god, he might just do it.' And then we had a similar finish to stage 18. Roy was behind Sylvain, biding his time, or so it looked. I kept thinking, 'oh, god, Sylvain's going to do it all wrong.' And I willed him to just sprint ahead, but what the hell was I thinking? He'd tried that repeatedly this tour and failed. Luckily he was thinking clearly and knew he could take Roy in the sprint, and that's exactly what he did.

I know there are other things to talk about, like how the jerseys didn't change and everyone's excited about the time trial tomorrow. But, I'm sorry, I don't think I can talk about anything else except Sylvain. As I told my mother, I almost posted 'Sylvain won, what more is there to say?' because, to be perfectly honest, that's how I feel about it. He did what I've been waiting for five years for him to do. What he's been waiting eight years (probably more, since he is French) to do. It's a great way for him to leave Cofidis, but an even better way to shove it back in the faces of everyone who said he couldn't do it.

To me, this is better than anything else this tour. Stage 19 was the best stage of the Tour that I have ever seen. Better than Armstrong's seven wins. Better than anything else that's ever happened in the Tour. I know that technically that's not true, but it is to be. Seeing him cross that line was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had as a fan. It doesn't get any better than this. And while I know that it's just one stage, it's one stage of the Tour de France. And it's in France. And it's Sylvain. I couldn't ask for anything more. I would have been happy with him for finishing the tour.

But this? Winning the 19th stage? Is better than anything else. I'm proud of him. Proud to be a fan of his. And damn proud to be a fan of cycling.

Stage 18 - Thursday, July 24: Bourg d'Oisans - Saint Étienne, 196.5km

2008-07-24T19:24:00.003-04:00

Let me get one thing straight, most of the stage was boring. Not bad, mind you, just boring. There were four groups on the road, the main breakaway (two riders, Marcus Burghardt and Carlos Barredo), the chasing group of three (Romain Feillu, Christophe Le Mével and Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau), the peloton, and Team Lampre.

Lampre was spending a hell of a lot of time helping their former team leader. What happened to him? Well, basically a tragedy. About 28k into the race, long before we started watching, there was a crash. Philippe Gilbert (sadface) and Damiano Cunego went down. From what I can tell, and you can see from this picture, it was pretty bad. He hurt his chin pretty badly and scrapped up the front of his chest, ripping up his jersey.

No matter how you feel about Cunego, you have to feel sorry for him. Nothing's gone right for him this tour. It's just been one big mess. He hasn't been able to do anything in the mountains or the flat stages and then bam, he goes down in a pretty terrible crash. There is a real possibility that he won't even start the race tomorrow. And if he doesn't? I won't blame him. There comes a time when you should just call it quits.

Back to the race. Once that crash happened, the rest of the race, until about 5k to go, was pretty mild. The countryside was beautiful, as usual, and at one point the tour passed a flock of ostriches on a farm (in the middle of France, who knew?). Even the live blogging over at Podium Cafe was pretty dead, mostly it was people discussing Cunego being 22 minutes behind the peloton and transfer news (let's not talk about Chavanel, shall we?). There was some thought that Evans or maybe Kohl would attack Sastre's yellow jersey lead on one of the few mountains, but that never happened, which turned out to be a good thing.

Why? Because we wouldn't have had one of the most hilarious 5k rides to the finish I have ever seen. Hilarious in a good way, that is. There weren't any crashes or anything like that, it was just two men, boys really, fighting it out to the finish.

I was going to say that it all started with Barredo attacked, but that's not really true. It started much earlier on. 63k into the race, Barredo attacked and it stuck, eventually Burghardt stepped up his racing and caught up. This is when things really began. You knew something was going to happen when Burghardt were kind of wary with each other. And then, 5k to go, it got worse.

Worse as in awesome. It was Barredo who began attacking first, knowing that Burghardt would be far too strong a sprinter if they came to the line together. What he hadn't bargained for was that Burghardt would just be too strong all around. Every time Barredo attacked, Burghardt was right there. Eventually Burghardt got fed up with Barredo's near-constant attacking and attacked himself. It was almost hard enough to get away, but it didn't work. Again they were back together.

And then came the best part. You can see it in the video above, sorry for the crap quality, it was the best I could find. You see the attacking and then you seem them practically crawling up to the line. Burghardt leading Barredo because neither of them wanted to attack each other. Hilarious stuff! I love it when this kind of thing happens, because it brings such personality to the tour. Barredo was right, and you can see his anguish after they both cross the line. He has every reason to be upset, because he was right, Burghardt was the stronger sprinter. But this is a clear example of what makes cycling so great. You know what you have to do, you do everything you can and you do it just right and you time things perfectly and you can still lost. Why? Because sometimes cycling is a sport of individuals. And, in this case, it was Barredo who lost out.

Not that I mind, because I'm rather fond of Burghardt. He did a great job, gave some great interviews and had no problems being frank about what happened and how the last kilometers played out. I hope tomorrow's stage, which I'll be watching on tape delay, ends up being as fun (let's hope all of it is fun, instead of just the end!).

Both Gilbert and Chavanel finished the race, losing more time, but they crossed the line. I doubt Gilbert will attempt to fight for a stage win, no matter what he wants to do before leaving for Lotto. As for Chavanel? You never know. I keep my fingers crossed.

Stage 17 - Wednesday, July 23: Embrun - L'Alpe d'Huez, 210.5km

2008-07-24T10:16:00.002-04:00

So, let's start by looking at the top 15 riders on GC:

1 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 74.39.03
2 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 1.24
3 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner 1.33
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 1.34
5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 2.39
6 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 4.41
7 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 5.35
8 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 5.52
9 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) AG2R La Mondiale 8.10
10 Vladimir Efimkin (Rus) AG2R La Mondiale 8.24
11 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia 8.35
12 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 10.15
13 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 12.13
14 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre 12.26
15 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 17.08

What about them, you ask? Well, a lot of people think that it'll be Sastre, Evans and Kohl as the top three. I am not down with that. It's okay as it is now, but personally, I'd like to have Schleck, Vande Velde and Kohl as my top. But that is definitely not going to happen. That ship, as they say, has sailed. Now, ignoring that, look at how awesome the top 15 is, ignoring Evans. You've got a Euskaltel rider in the top ten. Three riders from Luxembourg, three from CSC, a French rider and two (yes two) riders from American teams! And one of them is an American, one that no one would have expected to do well. There are other interesting things, like who would have expected Cunego to only be 14th and twelve minutes back.

But that's enough about the results of this stage. Let's talk about the whole thing.

A lot of people believe that this was the defining stage of the Tour and they might well be right, But it certain wasn't to me (though apparently to everyone else) the best stage. I think stage sixteen was the best stage. But back to the point. Today was a reaffirmation of what I talked about on the previous -- team CSC is strong. Really, really strong. In fact, I would not be surprised if they win the yellow and the team competition. The real question is can they keep the yellow jersey, will the smaller mountains on stage eighteen be the bane of the team's existence? Will the riders blow up on the ITT? Obviously we'll find out soon enough. But come Saturday, team won't be enough.

I keep getting off on tangents, I'm trying to stay on point. While I didn't think this was the best stage ever omg!!11!!, I did think it was good. And it did what I asked -- gave the yellow jersey away again. I wasn't pleased, because I kind of like Fränk Schleck and to see him after the stage looking so sad was heartbreaking. I mean, it's hard enough to lose the jersey to a rival, but to lose it to your teammate? That's just depressing. I know people would say it's better, but I disagree.

It was a wild stage and Carlos Sastre, no matter what I think about him, deserved the win and the jersey. It was just too bad that more people couldn't stay with him. I was also annoyed that Fränk Schleck couldn't shake Evans and that Vande Velde couldn't manage to put some time between him and the other riders. Maybe tomorrow, with the smaller climbs. It won't be easy, but maybe if we're lucky (which I know we're not going to be).

As for Sylvain and Philippe? They survive to fight another day, emphasis on survive. They just lose more time, but that's okay. I still have high hopes for them to sneak in a break or a least, make it through to Paris.

Stage 16 - Tuesday, July 22: Cuneo - Jausiers, 157km

2008-07-23T23:14:00.003-04:00

Stage 16 was awesome. And now, I'm not even kidding. I don't know that any stage could live up to 16. It had everything, sadness when Seb Chavanel abandoned, joy at all the breaks and attacks, beauty with the mountains, excitement with all the near misses and, of course, fear with the crashes. The four things you take away from this stage:

1. Mountains are really, really hard.
2. CSC is dominate, they love and they are extremely good at it.
3. Descending is a fine art that will catch even the most experienced rider out, not to mention the youngest.
4. Sometimes it's awesome to be French.

So, first off, those mountains. I know, the big one (so to speak) is tomorrow. But I have to tell you that these were exceptional mountains. Not only that, but the views were beautiful and the descents were amazing. But, back to the mountains. During the Armstrong years, they always talked about how important they were, but I don't think that they were as important as they are in this tour. The riders go out each day and basically sacrifice themselves, regardless of who they are and where they are in the standings. And I think these mountains bring out the best in some of these riders.

Speaking of bringing out the best ... How about that Team CSC? They are completely spectacular. I mean, they've always been if you remember. But this year they're doing it the way US Postal, but I think they're actually better. USPS was all for Lance all the time, but CSC is fighting for a couple of things and they are seemingly doing quite well. We'll know for sure in the next few days (especially the final ITT), but right now, they completely deserve their lead in the team competition.

They, unlike Evans' Lotto team, have exceptionally well trained and reliable domestiques. All of the riders seem to put in the right amount of work and while I don't really like them, I completely admire what they're doing with the team. It also makes it fun to watch, mostly because they control the peloton in the mountains like no other.

So. Descending. What the hell was up with the descents on this stage? They were hellish! Hellish in an awesome way, but only because everyone escaped alive. Everyone will remember what happened with that poor South African, John-Lee Augustyn. I've seen the crash more times that I care to think about and ... I don't know. It's shocking every time and I really don't know how it didn't end up worse him. He really was a lucky boy. As he said himself, it could have been a ravine he went into. Luckily for him, it wasn't. And, well, thank god for that fan who helped him back up.

And, last, but certainly not least, let's talk about the end of the stage. It was fast. And when you try to visualize this, before watching the video below, imagine bicycles going fast down hill and then imagine it faster. Because that's how fast that win was. It was amazing, I cannot remember seeing anything else like it, though there must be finishes like it in the past. It was a miracle that there weren't more accidents -- and there were a few, but nothing like Augustyn's.

Cyril Dessel was absolutely brilliant. He timed everything right, whether on purpose or just with luck. And even though I wasn't especially rooting for him (I have a soft spot for Sandy Casar), his obvious joy was totally infectious. A great, exciting stage. Hopefully tomorrow will live up to these expectations.

CSC Photo (c) sean's jawns at Flickr.

Restday 2 - Monday, July 21: Cuneo

2008-07-22T06:52:00.003-04:00

A little late, but the rest day ten is here.

1. Mountains
This is where it all began. Even on those early mountains, but really, it was Sunday's stage when things really got going. It was attack after attack on the yellow jersey and really, it was just amazing to watch. I really hope that the next two days in the Alps will be just as good.

2. King of the Mountains
See, I should be bitter about Sylvain, but I'm not. Instead, I am totally thrilled about Sebastian Lang being in them for a couple of days after Ricco got sent home. I'm a little sad that Kohl is in them now, but in the end it's not necessarily a big deal. It was really nice to see Lang in the jersey after all the hard work he did, only to have it stolen away by Ricco.

3. Mark Cavendish
There isn't much to say about this kid, except that he is fantastic in every way. He seriously is the fastest guy in the peloton, well was. And to be perfectly honest, I don't care that he didn't finish the race. What he did do is prove that people should take him seriously. And that his team was really dedicated to helping him win. And, well, he might be arrogant, but it's not like McEwen and I like that.

4. CSC
It's been a long time since they were successfully like this. They had three men in the Sunday Yellow jersey group and two of them were competing to win the overall tour. They're strong, powerful, and not offensive (like USPS/Discovery have been).

5. Danny Pate
Just based on the break away on Sunday. It was pretty great to watch him work hard. And to hear him after the stage talking about how bad he was (he wasn't) and you want more riders like him. They give all they have and then more and almost win. I really, really wanted him to win, but he didn't. And he still deserves to be up here.

---

6. Doping
Again I waffled about where to put this, and again it's in the bad side of things. Why? Because it's doping. I don't know how much more clear I can make it. It's bad, cyclists (hell, any athletes) shouldn't do it. And yet they do and people are surprised when people get caught. It drives me crazy because of course people still dope and of course some of them will get caught. They'll never catch anyone, but that doesn't mean we should just give up. Ahem. Climbing off my soap box now.

7. Crashes
Some people have crashed several times (Wegmann), some people have had horrific crashes and come out okay (Sven Krauss), and some people have had terrible crashes that it was a miracle they survived through (Oscar Pereiro). Sunday there was a really nasty looking crash around a roundabout that ended with most of the Garmin riders going down, it was pretty bad. I just hope that the next stages result in fewer crashes.

8. Cadel Evans
Yeah, I don't really have anything here except I dislike him a lot. I was glad he lost the yellow jersey and I hope he doesn't get it again, much less win the whole thing.

9. Sylvain Chavanel
I could have put him in the good half, but I'm kind of disappointed with his attacking. It's been consistent and he's done basically nothing with it. Hopefully he can slip into a break, but for some reason the peloton doesn't like to let him go. I get that he can't wait around to attack later, but sometimes I question his tactics.

10. Fans
Sure, the fans on the road that get in the way of the peloton, that wave flags in the rider's faces, etc. But also fans that seem to think that no cyclists dope ever and throw a fit when one tests positive. Or those who just quit being a fan because someone who was rumored to be doping tests positive. But also, those people who are so easy to dismiss Mark Cavendish and other sprinters for dropping out of the Tour. Sometimes it happens, people. They aren't slackers. If you want to get upset at someone for leaving early, be annoyed at Christophe Moreau -- even now, no one knows why he quit.

Stage 15 - Sunday, July 20: Embrun - Prato Nevoso, 183km

2008-07-21T21:13:00.002-04:00

I might be a slacker, but to my credit I'd been up since 5:45 am Sunday morning and driven 4+ hours in 85 degree weather in a car with no AC. I'm allowed to be a slacker. Moving on.

I didn't get to see the middle of the stage. I saw the beginning and the end live (it was weird, we went out to breakfast and came back and it was still on). And, damn, that race was fantastic. I want to say some of those cliches, like, this is what we've all been waiting for. But I can't, because I keep saying it! And then things get better, so I'm just going to acknowledge that we all believe these clichés and now the stage.

It was fun to see how the stage began, I always like those things. The pouring rain was wild and kind of scary. I did like how Sylvain managed to attack with a couple of other French riders, but obviously it didn't go anywhere (sigh). There were more attacks that didn't last and then we left as they were working their way toward the first climb. Eventually, though, there was a break, several crashes, and by the time we got home, I was rooting hard for Danny Pate.

For a brief moment, it looked like something special was going to happen. Well, okay, Gerrans winning was pretty special (and how adorable was that braces grin?), but Danny winning would have been, well, pretty damn awesome. Of course, it was not to be and that interview after the stage was just heart breaking.

But, see, the exciting part was that the stage win wasn't the end of the race. Instead, the rest of the peloton was just getting started. The question of the day was could Cadel Evans hold onto the jersey. No one knew the answer, not even after the favorites had crossed the line. But it was what happened on that final climb that really blew our minds (you think I'm kidding, but I'm not). The attacks were relentless and no one was immune from them, least of all Evans.

My favorite attack was by Bernhard Kohl, he was not my favorite rider and he would take the KOM jersey from Lang, but he's not Evans. My mom and I were cheering him on, but mostly we were cheering on a lot of people. We both gasped with shock when Menchov went down, I have to say, that man is badass. To come back from that fall (basic bad luck on his part) and power all the way back to the group and then get in that mini break was pretty amazing. Luckily he had a rest day today, so he probably had time to recover. Otherwise, I think he'd probably have lost his chance at the tour.

But it was the Schleck brothers who were the highlight of the stage. Two boys, two similar styles (though markedly different at the same time) and they never gave up. Just when you thought Andy had blown up, he hadn't. He was basically a roller coaster on wheels, lots of ups and downs. And then there was Frank. I had a feeling that Frank would end up in yellow, I wasn't sure how I knew, but I did. Even so, I was rooting hard for Christian Vande Velde. I don't know how it happened, but somehow I'm cheering for Garmin Chipotle (and thanks to Phil, I keep wanting to say Chipotle wrong).

I'm not too upset with Frank Schleck in yellow. It's nice to see CSC doing well and it's better than Evans. Stage 16 should be awesome, at least I hope it is. And, my final disjointed thought. Sylvain and Philippe's results. Before I post them, I would like to say that I saw Phil doing some hard work in one of the chase groups. Good for him and I hope he keeps it up.

73 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 1.14.56
122 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux 2.05.15

1	Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - HTC	4:30:02
2	Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Slipstream
3	Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel
4	Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team
5	Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) BBOX Bouygues Telecom
6	Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram
7	William Bonnet (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom
8	Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
9	Koen de Kort (Ned) Skil-Shimano
10	Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale

1	Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank	4:49:34
2	Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana	0:00:18
3	Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream	0:00:19
4	Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana	0:00:22
5	Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto	0:00:23
6	Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana	0:00:30
7	Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas	0:00:32
8	Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC	0:00:33
9	Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas	0:00:37
10	Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana	0:00:40

1	Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank	0:19:32
2	Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana	0:00:18
3	Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream	0:00:19
4	Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana	0:00:22
5	Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto	0:00:23
6	Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana	0:00:30
7	Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas	0:00:32
8	Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC	0:00:33
9	Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas	0:00:37
10	Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana	0:00:40