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How we'll cover the race The past two years, we brought you just bits & pieces of the Tour de France, primarily those bits & pieces that took place while I was in France. Each year I came home about a week prior to the finish, but was in the right place at the right time to see the action that determined the final outcome. Then I'd come back home, jet-lagged out of my mind (six days total time from leaving home to coming back does a number on you!), only to find a bunch of emails from people wondering why my "Tour Reports" stopped! Seemed they expected me to do a running commentary all the way to the end. Well, this year they get their wish. I leave for France on July 18th, and will be there from Ventoux to the finish in Paris. The plan is to file daily reports (including, as usual, lots of photos) to our website, and try, as much as possible, to convey that "you are there" type of feeling.
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DAILY TOUR DE FRANCE INFO/DIARY ENTRY |
Tour de France resources on the 'web-
Official Tour de France site
Bicycling
Magazine's TDF info (actually not bad!) Tyler Hamilton, from the US, former US Postal rider, now with CSC. TEAM WEBSITES US Postal (Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie and a bunch of other heroes) CSC/Tiscali (Tyler Hamilton & Laurent Jalabert's team) Team Telekom (Erik Zabel, sprint specialist, and two Americans, Kevin Livingston & Bobby Julich. Team website in German only. Domo-Farmfrites (Richard Virenque, Axel Merckx and American Fred Rodriquez). Team website in Dutch & French only. AG2R Prevoyance (Jaan Kisipuu, sprint specialist). Team website in French only. La Francaise Des Jeux (Jacky Durand, suicidal breakaway specialist, and Brad McGee, sprinter). Team website in French only. Jean Delatour (Laurent Brochard, GC?) Team website in French only. Credit Agricole (Christophe Moreau and American Jonathan Vaughters for GC, Stuart O'Grady sprinter and Jens Voigt for breakaways) Cofidis (David Millar & Andrei Kivilev GC) Team website in French only. Bonjour (Didier Rous GC, Francois Simon ??) Website in French only, but can't find any mention of the team. Fassa Bortolo (Wladimir Belli for GC, but no Cassagrande or Bartoli, darn!) Lampre-Daikin (Jan Svorada & Rubens Bertogliati, sprinters) Lotto-Adecco (Robbie McEwen, sprinter) Team website in French only. Mapei-Quick Step (Tom Steels & Oscar Freire, sprinters; Paolo Bettini, road stages) Alessio (Laurent Dufaux & Ivan Gotti, GC) Team part of website only in Italian. Tacconi-Emmegi (Dario Frigo, GC) Team part of website only in Italian. Rabobank (Michael Boogerd & American Levi Leipheimer for GC, Erik Dekker & Marc Wauters sprinters) ONCE-Eroski (Joseba Beloki & Igor Galdeano GC) Website in Spanish only. IBANESTO.COM (Santiago Blanco, stage wins) Kelme (Oscar Sevilla & Santiago Botero, GC) Website is a bit confusing; click on "english" and then the little cycling logo on the left-hand side. Euskaltel-Euskadi (Iban Mayo, GC; Roberto Laiseka & David Etxebarria, stage wins) After laboriously collecting all the info above, I came across the page on the official website with everything in one place! Something to remember for next year... |
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07/28/02- LANCE, LANCE, LANCE, LANCE. Four time winner of the Tour de France, with nobody but Raimondas Rumsas looking to be a potential threat to record-tying win #5. What would it take to dethrone Lance? My guess would be a very well financed team with a single key rider they'd support. There are a number of "confused" teams out there, teams with multiple strong riders and an attitude that they'll support whoever's riding best. US Postal has shown there's a better way. Establish a single key rider and support that rider to your death.
Forgot about one other competition. Check out the bottle toss from this guy! Arm extension perfect, trajectory for maximum distance, great velocity. Unfortunately I can't identify the rider, but he definitely wins the prize. 07/27/02- SORRY FOR THE LACK OF ENTRIES the last couple of days, but there was no internet connection available in Macon, and today, the day of the big time trial, was a rather full one. Wow. What can we say? Lance truly is the best cyclist in the world, even considering that he's so totally focused on the one event. Nobody can touch him. He was almost a full minute faster than the next person today, and, barring a crash or some other cataclysm, looks ready to win the race tomorrow in Paris... which is exactly where I happen to be right now. From what people tell me, it's not too likely I'll get great photos, with the huge crowds hugging every inch of the barricaded course. But I'll try! I'll also get up some photos of today's time trial tomorrow as well. In the meantime, you can check out the "diary" entries to see a photo of a woman truly equipped to kick Lance's butt! 07/25/02- WHO
WOULD HAVE THOUGHT that Darrio Frigo, who left the 2000
Giro d'Italia race in disgrace after a drug scandal, would be a major
force again in cycling? And yet there he was, winning the final
mountain stage of the 2002 Tour de France. Lance and company were a
few minutes behind, riding easily within the main pack. Significant news yesterday came with Fred Rodriguez's failure to make the time cut, kicking him out of the remainder of the Tour de France. Rodriguez is a sprint specialist, whose goal is to win relatively flat stages, and try to hang on enough in the mountain stages that he avoids the dreaded cut. In an earlier interview, he was clearly looking forward to contesting the sprint in Paris, something that will have to wait another year. Something else has become obvious as the Tour de France winds to a close. The Americans signed to other teams have accomplished very little, with the possible exception of Levi Leipheimer, whose 8th place wasn't as impressive as his 3rd place podium finish in the Vuelta, but not bad at all for his first TDF. My guess is that it won't be so easy for a new American pro rider to get a contract in Europe next year. Tomorrow is a road stage from Cluses to Bourg-en-Bresse, a relatively easy stage with no significant climbs. Don't know if I'll get an update to the website, as it will be my first travel day in France entirely on my own, so things might get a bit pressed for time. Plans call for me to see the end of that stage and then immediately drive on to Macon for the time trial stage the next day. At its conclusion, I'm on the TGV to Paris for the finale! 07/24/02- LANCE
ALMOST WINS AGAIN. 07/24/02- A DAY
TO FRUSTRATE MANY AMERICAN SPORTS FANS.
I type this well before the race is over, from my vantage
point near the top of the Col de Madeleine, about 3/4 of the way through
the race. I say this because people just aren't going to
07/23/02- ON THE COL D'ORNAN things didn't quite turn out the way I expected. Instead of seeing Lance and US Postal in control, a lead break got quite a bit of headway, which surprised me, since it included Botero, a potential contender. Actually, Botero was already quite a ways down, almost 20 minutes, so conceding him a bit of time wasn't a huge issue, and chasing him down would have meant wearing down the USPS team... which might be needed to work very hard in tomorrow's possibly-toughest stage of the Tour de France.
My group was at the King of the Mountains line on Col d Ornan, and have to say it wasn't the most exciting place in the world, although I did get this photo of Virenque beating Jalabert for a couple of mountain points. Virenque had tried earlier to drop Jalabert, but couldn't shake him. Some others had gone down the back side of the hill a bit, and got to see the riders flying into corners at unbelievable speeds. But getting back to the race, Botero went on to win, over six minutes ahead of Lance. Lance later said that it just wasn't the type of course to mount one of his famous attacks, as it wasn't steep enough. 07/22/02- CHAIN
REACTION EXCLUSIVE! Found out there was a really good
reason for Lance deciding that he must win the first big mountain stage on
the 18th. Seems that, on that
Gambling at the Tour de France? It's not like you heard it here first. but check out the photographic evidence! That's Dick Moran, TREK's director of marketing, appearing to take money & names from several people. More damning evidence is unlikely to ever be found. Well, except that, if you interview the participants, they all claim it was to collect money for Pizza on a group ride that finished at the top of Alpe d'Huez. But the gambling story is so much more interesting! Also, be sure to reach Cyclingnews.com for the info on Lance's press comments following the Ventoux stage. Seems a lot of French cycling fans were booing him on the way up the hill, which Lance didn't find very professional. 07/21/02- LANCE STILL HASN'T WON VENTOUX,
but today he was definitely the fastest.
Unfortunately, Richard Virinque had gotten away much earlier and built up enough of a lead to hold him off. Please note something in the photo... Beloki, the rider in the pink ONCE jersey. His expression is always the same! Lance eventually ditched Beloki and took 3rd place, and is now over four minutes ahead of him. Things look good. I'd have a much more detailed report, but it took so long leaving Ventoux we didn't arrive back at our hotel until 11:30pm! 07/20/02- IT'S MILLAR TIME! David Millar, that is, the Scotsman who first won the prologue stage of the Tour de France two years ago and just barely got into this year's race after a nasty bout of mononucleosis. But in the relatively easy "transition" page between the Pyrenees and the dreaded Mont Ventoux, Millar got away in a break with Jalabert (he's everywhere these days) and several others, but none of them contenders for the Yellow Jersey, and won the sprint. Tomorrow's the big day, my first day on site at the Tour de France, stationed, where else, at Mont Ventoux! I'll be watching out for guys in big floppy hats that want to move in front of my camera just as Lance goes by. You can check out the diary page to see what else I've been up to while here in France! 07/19/02 (I think)-
OK, I'm in Geneva
Switzerland, and haven't slept for, what, well, whenever yesterday
Regarding coverage of the TDF on TV, yes, it's great the EuroSport shows the race from start to finish, but listening to David Duffield (an English bloke, or should I say another English bloke) just isn't the same as Paul Sherwin and Phil Ligget. Of course, as you all know by now, Lance won another stage, in almost repeat fashion to yesterday. Lance, Heras, Beloki. 07/18/02- LANCE! HERAS! HINCAPIE! Wow! What an incredible stage. The first big mountain stage, with all the makings of a mini-epic in itself. Jalabert, my favorite French rider, takes off fairly early in the stage and has a three minute lead at the base of the final climb, but is beginning to slow down just as US Postal is picking up the tempo, in an effort to shell riders off the back and make room for the Yellow Jersey on Lance's shoulders. All manner of riders falter, including some great climbers (Levi Leipheimer, Tyler Hamilton, etc.). And, for the first half of the climb, it was Mr. Big, George Hincapie, leading the charge up the hill! George is a sprinter, not a climber, but here he was, right at the front. Eventually he blew a gasket and Heras, whom US Postal picked up a while back for just this sort of thing, takes over. With Lance right on his wheel, Heras flies up the hill, even more riders falling off the back. The group of twenty is now down to three... Heras, Lance and Beloki. Eventually they pass the faltering Jalabert, and Lance sprints ahead and wins both the stage and the Yellow Jersey. Wow. 07/16/02- Rest day for the Tour de France cyclists. But an uneasy rest, as they prepare for the Pyrenees later this week! 07/15/02- I'm not the only one who can't wait for the mountain stages to start! Lance Armstrong, favored to win the 52km time trial today, came in 2nd place behind Santiago Botero. As a result, Lance is now 2nd place overall (still quite a move up from 8th!) and there are a number of riders who think that maybe, just maybe, Lance is human after all (and thus can be beat). But so far everything's been flat or nearly so, and Lance clearly does best in the mountains. Come Thursday, watch out. It's going to be an especially exciting day for me, as I head for France that afternoon. Somehow I'm going to have to watch the tape of that stage before I get on the plane! 07/14/02- Erik Dekker has got to be the most fun guy to watch after a successful sprint finish! The guy's so animated, so excited, so kid-like in his reactions that you just hope he comes through. In today's 8th stage, after a long breakaway, Dekker worked very hard to tire out the other riders in the break so his team mate, Karsten Kroon, could get the win. And win he did! But check out Dekker's typical reaction and you'll see what I mean about his enthusiasm-beyond-belief. Those who thought this tour would be lacking because of those not in it (notably Cippolini, whose team didn't make the cut) have been proven very wrong. This is a very exciting race! 07/13/02- Brad McGee, an Austrailian, won today's stage as riders prepare for the 52km individual time trial on Monday (Sunday's stage looks to be yet another one for the sprinters). Lance did end up dropping back to 8th place, 34 seconds off the lead. Normally there would be an expectation that Lance would come out strong on Sunday, winning the time trial and claiming the Yellow Jersey, but US Postal's team director, Johan Bruyneel, says otherwise. The plan is to be patient and nail the tour in the gnarly mountain stages that start with Ventoux and continue almost to the end. The crashes towards the end were pretty spectacular, with the second one taking out pretty much the entire US Postal team (but Lance didn't actually crash, just got his bars twisted a bit and had to put his foot down). So when do we finally get a gnarly mountain stage? Thursday, July 18th! Stage 11 from Pau to La Mongie includes the Col d'Aubisque in the middle, and the final climb to La Mongie. Can't wait! 07/12/02- Zabel get his win! Jacky Duran tried yet again to get away in a long break with several other riders, but, as is usually the case, got caught about 12km from the finish. Once caught, his only hope is to try again, as he's not a sprinter and has no chance finishing well with the pack. Oscar Friere and Robbie McEwen finished 2nd and 3rd behind the determined Zabel. But what about Lance? If you listen to the news, they make it sound like a serious situation that Lance isn't in the lead! Nothing could be further from the truth. If Lance were to try to lead the race at this point, it would require a massive effort from his team to keep him there, and the fact that Lance is only 7 seconds out of first place, without yet hitting a mountain (his strong point), is perfect. 07/11/02- Still pretty flat, but not quite so boring! A group of five riders got away about halfway through the stage, and finished just barely ahead of the pack. The race was won by Jaan Kirsipuu of AG2R (realistically the only member of that team likely to be seen in the headlines). A serious crash 16km from the end took out Marco Pinotti and Rik Verbrugghe, and added insult to the already-existing injuries of Tyler Hamilton. Excellent coverage of the stage can be found at Cyclingnews.com 07/10/02- First boring stage as the Team Time Trial took place. CSC, the team of Frenchman Laurent Jalabert and American Tyler Hamilton, probably would have won the stage if not for a screw-up when one of their team members flatted and they couldn't seem to decide whether to wait for the guy or leave him behind. ONCE ended up winning the stage, with US Postal coming in 2nd place. Considerably smoother race than the 2001 Team Time Trial, in which US Postal had quite a crash during the middle of it. Where's Lance? Sitting nicely in 3rd place, just 7 seconds off the lead. More relatively-flat stages in the next few days. 07/09/02- Jacky Durand, suicide breakaway specialist, tries yet again! Taking a flyer off the front of the pack just 4 miles into the race, Jacky and Frank Renier stayed off the front of the pack until about 8 miles to the finish. Pretty typical move for Jacky Durand; usually his moves fail and he gets swallowed up by the pack, typically finishing at the back of the field. Sometimes they do work though, as his stage wins prove. But the real excitement, yet again, came in an absolutely thrilling finish with Robbie McEwen taking the sprint from Erik Zabel. Some people think the flat stages are boring, but if you watch what goes on in the final couple of miles, there's very little that can compare for thrills and excitement. 07/08/02- The Sprinters show how it's done. If you get the chance to see the end of today's finish, it's definitely worthwhile. Erik Zabel was favored to win, as the relatively flat stage concluded on his home turf (Germany). Watch the finish closely and you'll see a cyclist throw his elbow out towards Oscar Freire during the final moments of the sprint, hoping to distract him just a bit... but not enough, as Friere rushed past to win the stage. Zabel ended up third, behind Robbie McEwen, an Austrailian sprinter we'll also see much more of. What about the US Postal guys? They all came through in the middle of the bunch, surrounding Lance. At this point in the race, their only job is to protect Lance. If the race opens up enough, team directory Johan Bruyneel may allow George Hincapie to go for a stage win, but for now, the strategy is to minimize risk and keep the team intact for the hard work ahead. Tomorrow's stage will be another flat one, so look for Zabel to go for the intermediate sprints (which give both time bonuses as well as points towards the sprinter's jersey competition) and perhaps the stage win as well. He is not one to be denied for long! 07/07/02- Who's this Bertogliati guy? This young (23 years old) Swiss-Italian rider bolted out of the pack with about a kilometer to go and won the first stage of this year's Tour de France. Yes, this is the "first" stage, even though it started with yesterday's "prologue" time-trial. Not sure why the prologue doesn't count as a stage, since it does count in terms of the final GC (general classification/overall time, which determines the winner of the race at the finish in Paris). As is common on the earliest stages, there were a number of crashes, with Christophe Moreau, considered the most likely Frenchman to stand on the podium in Paris, crashing multiple times and finishing 3:20 back of the main group of riders. That's quite a setback even for a great rider like Moreau! Another casualty was Jonathan Vaughters who, along with Tom Steels and Erik Dekker, came in over 11 minutes down after hitting the pavement. Actual stage time isn't terribly important to either Steels or Dekker, as they're sprint specialists and have no chance at a high final standing in the GC. Vaughters, however, is considered by some to be a potential podium contender if he could just break his string of bad luck. No news is good news for the US Postal Team, with everyone except Victor Hugo Pena finishing in the main (front) pack. Haven't heard what happened to him (although it's safe to assume a crash was involved), but it's not catastrophic, as Pena was brought to the team as a climbing specialist, to help keep things under control in the mountains for Lance. In other words, he doesn't ride for overall time, but is yet another worker for Lance. Tomorrow's stage isn't terribly challenging, with no major climbs and only 111 miles long. Still, it could be an opportunity for a long flyer off the front by relatively unknown riders. If that happens and the leaders don't see them as a threat to the overall GC, such an attempt could succeed. However, Team Telekom would try to keep that from happening, as they maneuver to give their team's leading sprinter, Erik Zabel, as many opportunities to win stages as possible. 07/06/02- Today is the first day of the 2002 Tour de France, which begins with a prologue, a short individual race (just 7 km, or about 4 miles) that serves to introduce the 21 teams of 9 riders each (121 total) to the world. The winner of the prologue achieves his 15 minutes of fame, but rarely goes on to win the race. One man, Chris Boardman, made a career out of training for, and winning, the prologue stage of the Tour de France! Live TV coverage on OLNTV (channel 151 on Dishnet/Echostar) from 8:30am-10:30am (PDT), with a couple of repeats at 5 & 11pm. First stage recap- Lance wins the prologue time trial, a short-but-nasty ride of just 9 minutes. Everyone knew Lance would do well in this stage, but it wasn't assumed that he'd win it. In fact, a very strong ride by the Frenchman Jalabert (affectionately known as JaJa, not to be confused with JarJar Binks!) almost took the stage. In the grand scheme of things, winning the prologue has very little to do with winning the Tour de France. After all, he's just two seconds ahead of second place, in a race that encompasses around 100 hours of riding! But the OLN coverage showed a man who's extremely confident, strong and even well-spoken (he gave the obligatory post-ride interview in near-flawless French). But what to do now? Why not try to keep the Yellow (race leader) Jersey all the way to Paris? Something that hasn't been done since 1935? Politically, that may not be the best strategy. Lance's team may very well be strong enough to defend the Yellow Jersey, but such a show of domination would nearly border on arrogance, and serve to shut down the dreams of many other riders whose teams might harbor ill-will towards Lance and US Postal, resulting in painful payback sometime down the road. Total domination isn't always the best leadership strategy! Tomorrow's stage is a 192k road race that starts and finishes in Luxembourg. No monster climbs, but plenty of smaller ones that may allow some of the lesser riders a chance to get away for a few fleeting moments of fame before the TV cameras... until the pack swallows them up just prior to the finish. However, if a small group gets away that contains nobody of consequence (nobody considered a threat to the over-all race), it's entirely possible they might escape to the finish. Just don't expect to see anyone get a huge 20+ minute lead like happened in an early stage last year! That took Lance & Company quite a few days to recover from.
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They
put on quite a show for the TDF Finale, with the publicity caravan making
several rounds of the circuit, but not actually tossing anything to the
crowd, because they're pushed well back by barriers. It's actually
quite a large loop on the Champs Elysees, with the riders coming around
about once every six minutes. Serious racing got underway on the
second of the ten laps before the final sprint, but nobody got more than
19 seconds ahead of the main pack. And with huge consequences
for two riders, Erik Zabel and Robbie McEwen in a virtually tie for the
highly-prized green (sprinters) jersey, there was no way any break would
be allowed to last to the end.
Besides Lance winning the Tour de France,
we also witnessed the passing of the sprinter's torch from Zabel to
McEwen, who won the final stage. And the end of Laurent Jalabert's
epic Tour de France rides, as he retires this year after the World
Championships.
In the photo, Lance is visible in the upper-right. surrounded by,
surprise, a whole lot of ONCE riders. ONCE seems to have adopted a
tactic of being all over Lance, but not actually doing anything to stop
him. At the front is George Hincapie, strong man of the team.
Not sure who the guy is behind George, or what it is he's holding in his
teeth!
There's almost a nonchalance about it, and Lance
himself pointed out after today's stage that he doesn't have to win every
time. Nevertheless, he put in a very impressive show at the very end
of the race, almost catching Boogard, shown at the left climbing the Col
de Madeleine. Clearly, if he'd attacked on the final climb just a
bit earlier, Lance would have won another stage, but the timing was a bit
off, and he even allowed Sastre, who'd left a bit earlier in a failed
effort to chase down Boogard, second place.
understand
why Lance isn't out there attacking and trying to win the stage, instead
of sitting comfortably in the main pack, with two groups ahead of him (the
leader of this stage, Michael Boogard, a chasing group about three minutes
back, and Lance's group about 5 minutes behind those chasing). The
US Postal Team's only goal is to win the Yellow Jersey, which means not
taking too many risks along the way. If a group goes off the front
and has nobody in it that's considered a threat to win the race, they're
ignored. Doesn't make sense to a lot of people, but makes perfect
sense if you want to be the final winner in Paris!
particular
stage, there's only one road down from the mountain finish, so the racers
end up having to wait for a very long time to get back to their hotels.
Except the person who wins. That person gets a helicopter ride back,
shortly after the race finishes. Lance was that person.
morning
7am was. If you've traveled to Europe, you'll know what I mean.
But at the Amsterdam airport, I came across quite a few TVs all set to the
Tour de France! Of course, there weren't all that many people
actually watching them; more seem to be watching CNN than anything else.
But before my connecting flight departed I managed to get the hang of what
was going on, with Jalabert doing an almost carbon-copy of yesterday's
ride. Dang, would have nice to see him pull it off. But such
was not to be, as Lance and US Postal had greater things to be concerned
about, namely Beloki.