July 27, 2007
Stage 18 - Live Blog
9:59AM - Well, that's it for the live blog today - no change to the overall, so it's all down to tomorrow's time trial. I'll be back for the live blog in the morning and, even though you'll probably be watching on TV instead of working, I encourage you to hop on again and we'll BS through the stage. Gotta hop off now and go do a radio interview with Colorado Public Radio. For those in the state, it'll be included in a local segment on "All Things Considered" this afternoon on KCFR. Ciao for niao.
9:57AM - So, quick top ten
1 Casar
2 Merckx @ :01
3 Lefevre
4 Boogerd both same time
5 Boonen @ 8:34
6 Hunter
7 Zabel
8 Sebastien Chavanel
9 Bernhard Eisel
10 Thor Hushovd
Since the gap at the finish was 8:34, Boogerd will move up to 13th, bumping Iban Mayo down a spot. But no stage win and no top ten for him. Full points, however, for effort.
9:55AM - Julian Dean is leading Hushovd up. QS is down to Steegmans for the leadout with 400 to go. It's an uphill drag to the finish and as Steegmans pulls off Boonen punches it. Hunter swings out but can't find the gas pedal and Zabel doesn't even get out of Boonen's slipstream as the big Belgian crosses the line. That should pad Tom's lead another two points to Hunter and firm up his grip on the green.
9:53AM - Right now, though, looks like Zabel is clamped on to Tom like a French lab on a carbon wheel.
9:52AM - Quick Step is on the front now and driving it. Milram behind. You can bet that Zabel and Hunter are trading elbows trying to get on Boonen's wheel. So far, Robbie's been more successful at that than Zabel.
9:50AM - Quick comment cleanup - Paul, yes I did replace the 'cross bike I t-boned into the garage on the car. I bought a Specialized S-Works - the older aluminum one - at VeloSwap. Beautiful shape - one of those "little old lady drove on Sundays never past third gear" kind of deals. $750 for the whole bike. VeloSwap rocks.
Sorry about the auto-refresh. I know it's maddening, and we'll turn it off after the Tour. But we felt it was best for the live blog. Maybe next year we'll do it different.
9:47AM - Now we await the sprint for fifth. Behind Casar it was Merckx in second and then Lefevre, with Boogerd fourth.
9:46AM - Wow, what a great win by Casar. Another piece of really savvy riding from him. First was the attack on the other side of the median, which meant no one could get on his wheel. Then, into the finish, it was clear the other three didn't consider him a threat as Boogerd was a bike length back and looking behind him. Casar saw it, jumped again and had a clear run to the finish line - maybe four, five bike lengths clear of Merckx in second. A great win for Casar and FDJ's first of the Tour.
9:46AM - Casar leads it out. They're not right on the wheel, and Casar kicks again! Boogerd was watching behind and Casar goes from the front and surprises them. He's hammering now and as they hit the line it's Casar!
9:44AM - They got him. That has to hurt Casar and now he has to lead it out.
9:43AM - Boogerd is chasing hard, Lefevre and Merckx are in trouble. But Casar has about 25 meters to Boogerd. 1k to go.
9:42AM - Attack by Casar! Awesome move - he went ont he other side of the median. Wow - that was smart. Boogerd is hammering but it's a good gap 75 meters or so.
9:42AM - Merckx goes. Lefevre is chasing AGAIN. Lefevre is using a lot of energy now.
9:41AM - And Boogerd goes! But everyone knows that was coming and Lefevre is on him like a used car salesman.
9:41AM - Super-nervous. 3k to go.
9:40AM - Nervous now, looking around for attacks. 4k to go.
9:39AM - All together again but wow, that was hard. These boys are stretched to breakpoint.
9:38AM - And Lefevre has gone! Lefevre first the first shot at 6k to go. Boogerd is chasing hard with Merckx and Casar on the wheel. Merckx takes the lead and they're sloooowly clawing back.
9:36AM - So, 7k to go and these boys have been out front literally all day - like 200km of it. So, do they attack? I think they wait a few K - they have 10:21 to the pack, but if they start popping off attacks now my guess is that they'll all blow up soon. Not enough to get caught, but my guess is each of these boys has about one, maybe two bullets left in the gun at this point.
9:35AM - JJP, do you think that the dogs are point-shaving?
9:33AM - 17k to go, gap is still around 11 minutes. Before we get into the final few Ks and the attendant attacks and all that, I'd like to take a moment to whore myself out a bit: Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner posed a provocative question on the Freakonomics blog the other day - should we just let Tour de France racers dope? Dubner graciously agreed to publish my response to that question. It's not up yet, but should post sometime today - check it out.
9:30AM - "Do you think that the Lab can take us through the range of emotions it felt as it was being hit by the cyclists?" JohnL, +1.
9:27AM - The gap now is just under 11:30, with 16km to go. Euskaltel still leads. So it's coming down and pretty fast, but my guess is the break still has a good 5-8 minutes by the finish. There, I'd watch out for Boogerd, of course, but also Casar. He nearly won the sprint on Stage 10 - had the finish been 20 meters further up the road, he'd have gotten Vasseur on the line.
9:19AM - What is it with labs? I have one (a lab/Ridgeback mix, actually, with God only knows what other breeds too) and they are the happiest dogs in the world, but they're also the dumbest in some ways. My dog is beautiful, fun, and smart in her own way, but sometimes I wonder whether she's really all there.
9:17AM - Under the chase from Euskaltel, the gap is now 12:53 with 21k to go. So Astarloza's 10th place is safe for now. Euskaltel is leading a pretty good chase - it's lined out hard behind them. But soon Boonen and Hunter will begin thinking about those fifth-place points. And don't count out Zabel.
9:16AM - Brett, you raise a good point. If Vinokourov is guilty, then this is not something he could pull off on his own. For too long, doping has been condemned as a rider's problem, without acknowledging that these guys don't live in a vacuum. To transfuse blood, you need serious medical expertise. This is why Vinokourov's protestations of innocence disappoint me a bit. If he's guilty, then own up to it. Help authorities find and shut down the dirty doctors who prey on the racers' vulnerabilities. Jesus Manzano, whose allegations about doping at Kelme started the entire Puerto investigation, said earlier this year that Fuentes "shop" was not the only one. There are rumors of other blood doping rings out there. And Puerto exposed some 200 athletes. Only 50-odd have been named, and those were all cyclists, even though soccer and tennis players were said to be clients of Fuentes as well. A rider deserves our condemnation if he dopes, but he doesn't do so alone.
9:09AM - I doubt there was collusion to let Rabobank get such a lead in the break. That would be almost impossible to make work logistically and, of course, Euskaltel might object. They're now leading the chase to protect Astarloza's 10th place. But Boogerd is a respected senior member of the pack. When he jumped out, my guess is that the pack did let them go out of respect and to give Boogerd the opportunity to have a chance at it. I think if that's the case, it's a nice gesture. It's not a solo move, so Boogerd will still have to fight for the stage win and it's not as if the pack gifted it to him, but it was classy to give him the chance to redeem Rabobank's name with some positive press.
9:07AM - They just showed a replay of the dog crash again from much earlier in the stage - nasty. Those boys were going fast. Casar is up quick from it and that's how he was able to rejoin, but I have no news on Willems. Much nastier than Marcus Burghardt's slow-speed endo over the lab back in the pre-Alps stage. The only casualty there was a carbon wheel.
9:05AM - Yeah, Ronin is a good movie - I like it because it doesn't try to be something more than it is. There's no big moral about whether mercenaries are good or bad; no larger geopolitical MacGuffin plot device. Just a good old action movie with some kick-ass car chases. Some of the best filmed since The French Connection, in my opinion.
9:04AM - Michael, I'm not sure. My guess would be that any prize money other Astana riders won is theirs, since they were pulled through no fault of their own. It would seem kind of harsh to pull their prizes too. Brad Wiggins was pretty pissed at Cristian Moreni for Moreni's positive, which pulled Cofidis from the race. Incidentally, that whole "pull the team" thing is a new development - it's not ever been done to my knowledge. But I kinda like it - it reinforces to the rider that if he cheats and is caught, he's going to cost his entire team their chance to continue. Part of stopping doping is making the consequences for it so high that no one takes the risk. The bigger part is encouraging an atmosphere that condemns doping rather than tolerates it. I think in the end, these two are intertwined.
8:58AM - The gap is coming down a bit now - 16:40 - as the chase behind has picked up a little. I don't really know why. There's 32k to go. They need 30 seconds a kilometer now, which means they'd essentially have to ride Kilometer time trial pace from now until the end of the race to catch them on the line. Just trying to make it look good, I guess.
8:56AM - Versus has this strange "workload" function that shows how much work each rider in the break is doing. I can only assume it's calculated based on time at the front, but it's a little strange - voodoo workonomics. But for all that, the work is pretty even - they say Casar has done 29 percent. Boogerd and Merckx are the laggards, pulling only 23 percent of the time each. At the end of the day, that and $11.50 gets you a hamburger in the High Life ad.
8:55AM - Michael, if a rider drops out, his points disappear, but prize money won to that point is his (or, really, the team's, since pretty much all prizes won on Tour are, by tradition, put into a team kitty that is divided up between riders and team staff at the end of the race). But if a rider tests positive, yes, they forfeit their results and prize monies up to that point and it all shifts to the next riders down the line - the second place finisher is now the winner, third is now second and all that.
8:50AM - And Rude, I don't typically walk into any place where I have to pay a bounty to make sure I walk out. Favorite movie moment: the opening scene in Ronin, where Robert De Niro cases the cafe and puts a handgun by the milkcrates near the back entrance. After he walks in the front and makes the connection on the job, they leave through the back door and he retrieves the gun. Jean Reno, as another mercenary, shoots him a questioning look. De Niro replies, "My friend, I never walk into a place I don't know at least two ways out of."
8:49AM - OK, now that we've figured all that out, next question on the McLindsey Group: Peak Oil, real or myth. Discuss! Jack Germond!
8:47AM - Jeff, exactly. This is where a sponsor does need to trust a manager. They can't know all the possible nefarious undertones of a rider deciding he needs to go off and be a riding hermit 10 months out of the year. And Rabobank should be credited with making the right call in the end. I think that their decision was probably based more out of a desire to limit damage than to consciously encourage fairness, but there's nothing wrong with that. The best outcome for the sport will happen when the ideals of good sports - fairness, clean racing, etc. - dovetail with the interests of the sponsor to have a good public image. That, to me, is the benefit of having been hard on Rasmussen and not letting him weasel away from tough questions. This is where the press' responsibility comes in. And, finally, it appears that the press isn't shirking that. When Alberto Contador went to his press conference yesterday, one of the first questions asked of him was "are you clean?" Two years ago, this question would have been considered incredibly offensive - the equivalent not of farting in church, but in taking a crap on the dais. In a way, it's sad that this has to be a litmus-test question of leaders in the race but, at least the press isn't dodging the question entirely like we used to.
8:39AM - Andrew, good point - and to be clear, I'm not advocating that sponsors need to become involved in day-to-day operations of a team. But they should have a say in long-term strategy and personnel issues. Ivan Basso looked like a great coup for Discovery, but they received more negative publicity for it - even before he was re-involved in Puerto - than it could have possibly gotten them in positive exposure. They trusted Bill Stapleton (no relation to T-Mobile's Bob) and Bruyneel that there was nothing to the Puerto stuff, and they got burned. I think sponsors need to demand a little more accountability. These kind of sponsorships are tough to quantify in terms of response - how many phone cards does Cofidis sell because of the Tour? How many new accounts are opened at Credit Agricole after Thor Hushovd wins a stage? You can't say - there's no direct correlation. But as you mentioned, you're trying to associate positive attributes of a sport with your brand, and therefore you need to make sure those attributes exist within your team. I'd be a mean mofo of a marketing VP, I'll say that. (And I don't necessarily mean good, I mean tough).
8:32AM - Gotta say, I actually like the High Life ads - they're pretty funny. Being a journalist (aka a cheap bastard) I can't remember the last time I paid $20 just to walk into a bar.
8:28AM - At any rate, Boogerd is riding himself into a top 10 placing. He'll need to preserve about 14 minutes of this advantage to bump Mikel Astarloza out of the 10th spot. My guess is, he's thinking less about that and more about a stage win. that, incidentally, is looking increasingly likely. The gap is 17:25 with 52k to go, and still no real chase from the pack. Discovery is on the front - no sign of the sprinters' teams. My guess is that they're happy to fight it out for fifth. Almost all the sprinters left - Boonen, Hushovd and Hunter - have stage wins already, so it's just Zabel and Sebastien Chavanel who've been shut out thus far, and neither of their teams is strong enough to pull the chase back on their own, I don't think. Certainly not at this late stage where they'd need about 20 seconds a kilometer. That would mean a full-gas chase from now to the finish, with the catch coming inside the final few kilometers. They're not gonna do that now.
8:21AM - Strike that - I was reading across the wrong line on Boogerd's time. Yes, he is 27 minutes down. So that explains the lack of urgency - he's at 10 minutes, not four. After two and a half weeks of doing this, I'm going cross-eyed. My apologies.
8:19AM - The gap is now 17:16, meaning Boogerd is at 4:58 down to Contador now. Still no urgency in the chase behind. I don't think it'll be an Oscar Pereiro situation, but stranger things have happened. the pace in the pack is decidedly lazy.
8:18AM - Did Rabobank, the corporation, know Rasmussen was off the radar and missing tests? Probably not. But that's part of the problem. In an interview earlier this year with Bob Stapleton of T-Mobile, he made the point that a lot of sponsors are really disengaged from the sport. They write the checks, the general manager - a Theo de Rooy, for example - says "Thanks," and that's it. Other than guaranteeing some publicity, there's not a whole lot of accountability there in how the operation runs. Cycling, which is an insular sport, encourages that - it's "Don't worry. I'm the expert; I know how this works. Just write the check and we'll make it worth your while." This is rarely challenged. I spoke to the director of marketing for CSC earlier this year as well and he said that the company pretty much stays out of Bjarne Riis' hair. Even after the Puerto-Basso blowup, they didn't pressure the team to create its anti-doping program. It was all Riis' idea. They "trusted him completely." A month later, Riis admitted to doping to win the 1996 Tour. I applaud that Riis came up with this on his own, but if it were my $10 million, I think I'd want to be a bit closer to my investment, no? I think the way of the future is outsiders like Stapleton or Slipstream owner Doug Ellis, who build a closer relationship between the sponsor and the team. Like any business, cycling needs some independent oversight, and the sponsors, who cut the checks, are in a position to provide that.
8:13AM - Andrew, good question. Yesterday, someone - and apologies for not remembering which of you - made the point that Rasmussen was pulled from the race only after it became apparent that he'd almost certainly win it. In short, the point was that the various authorities - race organizers, UCI, the sponsor - hoped to ride out the storm, which would subside when Rasmussen lost the lead. When it became clear that wasn't going to happen, they were forced to act. The other side is that Rabobank was principled and made a hard decision to pull him. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Rabobank did make a principled decision, but it is one that they'd had many chances to make, including prior to the race's start, when the UCI asked them not to include Rasmussen. I don't want to be too hard on the sponsor, but neither do I want to give them too much credit. More on that in a moment.
8:05AM - "Who Let The Dogs Out will not, however, be heard at ant Atlanta Falcons games this year." Matthew, +1.
I think the Predictor lawsuit is only so much bluster. Where do you sue? Belgium, France, Kazakhstan? How do you quantify damages? It's a fair question - how much publicity did Vinokourov's win cost them? But Discovery has not said it will sue for denying them pub for Leipheimer's stage win on 15 (and yes, Leipheimer is now a stage winner). In the end, my attitude is that the teams can bitch about publicity all they want - my sympathies lie with Cadel and Levi, who were robbed of their rightful moment of success and a chance to stand on the podium as stage winners. Cadel might get his shot outright tomorrow, but for Levi, it's the quietest "win" of the year from the quietest rider in racing.
7:58AM - Brraaap! Brraaap! Alert. This is not a drill. Boogerd now has 16:40 on the chasing field. He is now in fourth place overall, less than two minutes behind Leipheimer for third overall. This is not a drill. This concludes this edition of the Michael Boogerd GC Alert System.
7:57AM - Patty, thanks for the Spiegel link. The Mirror has done some excellent reporting on the subject of doping. Chalk it up to Germany's long experience with sporting scandals dating back to the former GDR's state-sponsored "medical programs." One thing about this that surprises me: Cassani says he made his comments to support Rasmussen. I know Davide's a former pro and a commentator, not a journalist, but that he wasn't aware enough of the claims Rasmussen was making to know this would be a huge issue suggests that he's not really paying attention, no? Hey Davide! Have another cappucino and wake up, pal! (In fairness, Davide's not the only one asleep at the switch - at David Stern's NBA press conference to address the point-shaving ref scandal, ESPN's Rachel Nichols, who has some fairly serious journalist chops aside from being Diane Sawyer's daughter-in-law, asked Stern, "Can you take me through the range of emotions you were feeling when you heard about the news." As the sports blog Deadspin put it archly, if Nichols had written Game of Shadows, it would have been about how Victor Conte felt while rubbing The Clear on Barry Bonds' chest.
7:50AM - So, is Frankie Andreu working for Specialized now? This is about the fifth tech segment he's done this Tour on the company's bikes. This from a guy who rode Treks most of his career, although the way he's been treated by Postal/Disco and Armstrong personally might make one a bit less loyal to the brand. Anyone notice, also, that Specialized and Cervelo are running ads on Versus, even SRAM, but no Trek. No Giant either.
7:47AM - OK, Michael gets an honorary "Tour Expert" designation for all the good points he's bringing up. Boogerd is only 22 minutes down, courtesy of him riding pace at the front for weeks on end for Rasmussen. So at some point Disco will turn on the jets. But not too hard - they'll want to save Contador for tomorrow. My guess is that they are content to keep the gap around 15 minutes at this point, then turn it over to the sprinters' teams for the chase. However, with 80k to go, they better start that march pretty damn soon.
7:44AM - Michael, again, good point. Even if the break survives, Hunter and Boonen won't care too much because there are lots of points on offer - 22 for fifth place, 20 for sixth and so on down to one point for 25th place. So there's still something to fight over - if Boonen is caught in the scrum while Hunter breaks free, Robbie could make up some serious points. Let's not consider a crash, shall we? One wild card - if Cadel Evans comes within 20 seconds of Contador for the overall after tomorrow's time trial, it could mean actual racing on Sunday into Paris. I've never seen a situation like this happen because we've never gone to the final stage with such a narrow gap, so I can't say that it WILL. But it might. If so, that dramatically reduces the chances of Boonen losing the green.
7:37AM - 15 and a half minutes now for the break, 86k to go. Speaking of horses, the break DOES have the power. Consider the experience: Boogerd: 11 Tours, Lefevre: 7 Tours, Merckx 8 participations. Casar is the rookie here - it's "only" his fifth Tour. However, the only one to have won a stage is Boogerd, who has won in 1996 and 2002. Finally, consider that for Merckx and Boogerd, this is their last Tour - they're both retiring at the end of this season. Considering the race that both teams have had, I think they'll be just a little motivated to give their teams something to celebrate after their respective scandals. (Although T-Mobile can still claim Gerdemann's stage and yellow as legit.)
7:29AM - Nic, I think you're right - Barloworld has the fighting spirit, but I just don't think they've got the horses. Hey Elle and Rude, do you guys need a private chat room?
7:26AM - Michael, you're right. It's a shame that all this doping crap has overshadowed what is a significant and, in my view, very positive event for the Tour: the emergence of young champions. Not only is it refreshing from a standpoint of hearing riders like Gerdemann firmly proclaim there is no place in the sport for doping, but it also provides us with the knowledge that we'll have great racing to watch in the years to come. Riders like Gerdemann and Soler and Contador race hard and I like their style on the bike - it reminds me of Jens Voigt, who is not afraid to take chances. It's the gambling that makes for exciting racing. And, the more the young generation takes control on the road, the more power they'll have off it too - to help change the attitudes and culture within the sport so that doping is firmly rejected.
7:24AM - The break now has a lead of nearly 15 minutes. Discovery is uninterested in hauling them back. There's still 92k to go, but my feeling is that this may be another successful escape.
7:23AM - Sorry to keep belaboring the Cow and Chicken point, but there was also an interesting quote today from his team director, Erik Breukink. "It's not the case that there's no evidence (to suggest Rasmussen may have doped)," he told CyclingNews, pointing out that it's only the rules and testing that prevent every rider from being under suspicion. One thing I don't buy, though, is this image of Rabobank as somehow deceived. In 2004, Chicken asked and received permission to be able to focus his season solely on the Tour and train alone. The team gave him the opportunity, and he abused it. But the warnings about him have been there for a long time - at least for people who should have been as close to him as his own team.
7:16AM - As far as the race goes, if any team is motivated to bring back the break, it should be Barloworld. They need 22 points for Robbie Hunter to jump over Tom Boonen (Quick Step) in the points standings, and those points have to come today and Sunday. But for all of the great individual performances by that team from Hunter and Mauricio Soler, they are not a very strong TEAM. You rarely see them on the front, and I'd be hard-pressed to name another rider. Soler is the only one who's gone in any breakaways. Not capping on the team - just pointing out that, whatever they wish for today, my guess is that it's out of their hands.
7:13AM - The dog's owner tearfully claimed that the dog was in fact leashed, and that Casar and Willems were "mad" in accusing the dog of causing their crash. Maybe somewhere Chicken is plotting to release a large pack of hounds into the Tour's midst. Michael Boogerd probably had the best comment on the whole sorry RasMOOsen situation when he revealed that after Chicken got fired, he crossed the road without talking to his teammates. He just left. "I guess he was a chicken after all," said Boogerd.
7:09AM - Your Chicken update for the morning is that he can't shut up. Most recently, he's again claimed he was in Mexico and that "an entire village" will confirm that. As Neal Rogers said in his VeloNews editorial, there's no need for that - just show us your passport stamps for entry and departure. This concludes today's Chicken update.
7:04AM - Casar has a big raspberry on his right hip, courtesy of a run-in with a dog. He was riding in the break when it took down himself and Frederik Willems, as Axel Merxck was chasing behind to catch on. Willems didn't make it back to the lead, but Boogerd and Lefevre were utter gentlemen and waited for Casar to catch back up. He brought Merckx, so the total number of riders in the break didn't change even if its makeup did.
6:58AM - Good morning. A careful scan of the headlines reveals no new doping scandals yet but, hey, it's only seven in the morning Colorado time. The racers in the Tour de France are "enjoying" a 211-km ride from Cahors to Angouleme, and as expected there is a break off the front:
Michael Boogerd (Rabobank), Axel Merckx (T-Mobile), Sandy Casar (Francaise des Jeux) and Laurent Lefevre are up the road. Way up the road - 14 minutes up on the pack, although there's still 109km to ride. Discovery leads the "chase" behind.
July 26, 2007
Live Blog - Stage 17
9:30AM - Comment Cleanup! Michael, yes there is prize money - for stage wins, intermediate sprints, the rider who takes the most stylish pee off the bike, all kinds of stuff. Well, maybe not the last bit. But a stage winner gets 8,000 Euro, with 4,000 for second and so on. Prize money, though, is usually put into a team kitty and divided up between riders and staff at the end of the race. That helps encourage some teamwork.
Cadel is certainly not very Koala-sedate today, is he? Feisty little bugger. Maybe he is Mad Max, although I hope that means he doesn't go quite as far out of his tree as Mel has.
That's all for the live blog today - thanks again for your comments, questions and discussion. We'll be back tomorrow for the last road stage before the Big Time Trial on Saturday.
9:28AM - Top Ten on the stage:
1 Bennati
2 Fothen
3 Voigt
4 Elmiger - all same time
5 Millar @ 2:42
6 Tosatto @ same time
7 Quinziato @ 3:20
8 Daniele Righi same time
9 Boonen @ 9:37
10 Chavanel @ same time
No crashes and the pack finished pretty much together, so it was a nice clean finish. For overall, there won't be any real changes today. Contador leads Evans by 1:53, with Leipheimer at 2:49.
9:24AM - Quick Step gives the big leadout, but Sebastien Chavanel (FDJ) jumps them and forces Boonen to start early. Hunter was on Boonen's wheel but I think it caught him by surprise and Boonen overhauls Chavanel for ninth. So Tommy will pad his lead in the points competition.
9:23 - 1k to go - Quick Step is on the front and it's lined out hard behind - bit of a technical finish here.
9:22AM - Quick Step is set up just behind Disco. As soon as DSC pulls off, QS will take over. The points competition is tight. And there are 15 points for ninth place 14 for tenth and so on on offer. So it might come down to the last day. Don't count out Erik Zabel - he's one point behind Hunter.
9:20AM - Discovery still leads the pack - no sign of the sprinters' teams. Predictor rides Evans up and Rabobank - those left - are riding at the rear. Kind of sad, really.
9:17AM - That's Bennati's first-ever stage win on Tour. Bit of odd tactics there in the finish as I would have thought Elmiger and the others would make Benna lead it out as the break's best sprinter. Nice move by Fothen, but it was too far from the line, I guess. Looked like Voigt got verrrry slightly blocked coming around Elmiger and that is part of why he couldn't get on the wheel.
9:15AM - So Lampre gets a much-needed stage win, and Voigt will probably get the red start number given to the race's most aggressive rider. Now we wait for the pack sprint, about six minutes.
9:14AM - Elmiger leads it out on the left side. Fothen goes, but bennati is on the wheel. Voigt can't hold the gap and Bennati easily takes Fothen on the line. Voigt is third with Elmiger fourth - Lampre gets its win.
9:13Am - 1k to go, benna gets them all back together and it's cat and mouse - it'll be a sprint.
9:12Am - Fothen goes and has a small gap!
9:12AM - Voigt is last wheel, very cagey. Elmiger goes but Benna gets him back. benna wants a sprint.
9:12AM - Elmiger pulls it all back together, but with 2.5 k to go it'll get chippy now.
9:10AM - Voigt goes a second time and bennati is on again, but Elmiger hesitates and he and Fothen are caught out now!
9:10AM - And Voigt goes again, and Bennati is on him!
9:08AM - Disco is leading the bunch at nearly 9 minutes back, but there will be a sprint. There will be points for ninth place down on offer and Robbie Hunter is just 20 points down to Tom Boonen in the points standings.
9:06AM - We're coming into the finishing town of Castelsarrasin now, which means watch for a Voigt attack. As the race comes in on any technical corners, he may jump into the corner and try to get a gap.
9:04AM - Every time I see Contador, he's got a bottle to his mouth. Very smart. I would bet that he's using today and tomorrow to recover as much as possible - he's staying hydrated, staying in the draft, the whole deal. Performances in the final TT of a three-week Tour often come down less to who's the best against the clock as much as who recovers really well from the previous 19 days of racing.
9:02AM - Well, I don't think Millar and Tosatto will catch back on - just saw a graphic that their gap is 1:30 now. 9k to go.
9:00AM - I dunno how Lance will be received. It certainly is an emotionally tense moment for him to go, but as part owner of Discovery, it's understandable he'd go. I wonder if he still plans to race the Leadville 100 against Floyd? As much as race director Ken Chlouber is shamelessly flogging for Floyd's presence (he even cut ties with USA Cycling and got his own insurance so Floyd could race) I hope he's making a big fucking belt buckle for whichever Colorado hardman beats both of them. My money for the win is Jay Henry. But, on this here Tour day France, I'm liking Voigt.
8:58AM - Bennati is probably the best sprinter, although Elmiger is no slouch. Fothen, I don't know much about; he's young and hasn't been in this situation much. But you can bet that all eyes are on Voigt today, as he's the old master of the breakaway.
8:57AM - 15k to go and Millar/Tosatto are at about 20 seconds. They've got just one shot: if they keep hammering and the four riders ahead slow down for some strategy, they MIGHT get back on. But I kind of doubt it. Once that selection was made the four are doing a very smooth little team time trial practice and driving on. For the win, you've got to like Voigt or Bennati, but Fothen is a powerful young rider and Elmiger is a cagey old pro. So whoever wins, it should be a good bit of racing to watch. Which, thank God, don't we all really need right about now?
8:54AM - Tosatto and Millar are done, it looks like. Voigt got across the gap, but Dave couldn't. So it's Voigt, Bennati, Elmiger and Fothen up front now. They're working smoothly together and the winner will come from this quartet.
8:53AM - Sorry to cut it off like that, but we're racing again. Voigt attacked over the one last tiny little climb about 20k from the finish. So far, six of the original eight made the move - with Millar, Tossato, Bennati and three others. But then Benna attacks! Fothen is on the wheel as is Elmiger. Voigt bridges up and Millar and Tossato are trying hard to get back on. Quinziato and Righi are blown.
8:50AM - Amber, you're absolutely right. I am concerned when I see things like ESPN Original Entertainment producing the "Bonds on Bonds" series while ESPN reporters are trying to cover him. It's a conflict of interest. I'd say more, but Jens Voigt just attacked, so back to the racing.
8:47AM - Hincapie comes up to the front looking like a hunchback - his jersey's stuffed full of water bottles. Interesting feed - there's only 24k left today, but I guess the boys needed a new round.
8:45AM - Michelle, if a rider drops out, the points he scored just disappear. So, for example, in the KOM, Rasmussen's points are just gone, not reassigned to another rider, and so Soler is now ridiculously out front, with 206 points to second-placed Contador's 128.
8:40AM - Deni - how healthy is WWE? How healthy is a sport where the marketing department fakes the death of the founder, and then has to back up because the whole thing confused everyone and was seen to be in extremely poor taste? I don't think GNC cares about that kind of stuff, but, you know, T-Mobile USA might. Cycling is a pretty cheap sport, in terms of exposure for sponsor dollars. You can sponsor a ProTour team for an amount of money that wouldn't get you a shoulder patch on an F1 driver's firesuit. But that's true only as long as there are eyeballs on it. I think it's a little early to be looking for a big dollar impact on WWE from the Benoit thing. For the rather insular fan base that sport attracts it may not be a big deal, but for a lot of other people, it's just one more reason underlining why they never want to watch it.
8:39AM - Amber, solid points. But that's the dilemma: we're TOLD this is all above board. If you want a gladiator class, where guys can do whatever they want, then fine. But that's not sports anymore. It's just entertainment - it's the Colisseum. As much as the long ball, or the 80-yard broken field run, or the great time trial performance may entertain us, it does so because there's an implicit contract that this is all done honestly - with sweat and work and talent. Doping in sports isn't inherently wrong; it's wrong by the value system we choose to judge sports with - that there are rules that should be followed and that if you break the rules, you get penalized. If you want to change the rules, fine, but that's not a sport anymore. Let's not pretend that these guys are great athletes at that point, not with the kind of artificial enhancement that's on offer. It's just entertainment.
8:34AM - Michael, I'm not sure that I completely agree about the Basso thing. For starters, Basso wasn't fired, he asked to be released from his contract. And Discovery was very aggressive about signing him when there were clearly still a LOT of questions about him. Disco tried to say it had done a thorough investigation and found nothing to connect him, but that was not the case. Discovery isn't limited in its investigations like law enforcement or anti-doping authorities are. They don't have standards of evidence and legal burden of proof to worry about, nor do they have to get people to talk openly. They're connected enough that they SHOULD have been able to find out that Basso was not 100 percent Ivan Basso. Only when the shit hit the fan did they backtrack. And yes, Contador was wrapped up in OP last year. But as I wrote in the Q and A, I can point to a dozen riders riding in the Tour that have a shady rep. How many of them do you have to purge, and how much benefit of the doubt do you give them that the last 18 months has caused them to straighten up and fly right, as my dad used to say? I don't know - I'm not saying you have to just let it all slide, but neither do I want a witch hunt here.
8:25AM - Race update, with 37k to go, the break still has eight minutes. I think this one's gonna stick.
8:22AM - Disco announced in February that they would end sponsorship at the end of the season. No real surprise - they were always there to get one last ride on Armstrong's coattails and they got it. As well, the sponsorship deal was primarily driven by Billy Campbell, their VP of Marketing. Campbell got fired last fall and, without him, support for a multi-million dollar sponsorship that primarily got media attention in a market they don't have lots of exposure in quickly eroded.
8:19AM - Jeff, I'm not sure Discovery can do anything to give Contador any more breathing room. Predictor and Evans will be all over him to make sure there's no splits, and the terrain today and tomorrow - mostly flat, with a light tailwind - isn't helpful for any major strategy moves. I think going into Saturday, it's status quo. Nic, hadn't heard the shadowy doctor thing. But those guys apparently grow on trees. On top of Ferrari, Cecchini and Fuentes, there's a guy named Carlo Santuccione who's being investigated now - that's what Eddy Mazzoleni is supposed to be all wrapped up in. And Dave, yes, I think RasMoosen should chew his cud and shut up at this point.
8:14AM - So, assuming Contador holds off Evans in the final time trial, do you think that his win and the two podium placings by Discovery help Johan Bruyneel find a new sponsor? Or does the way the Tour played out this year all but rule out a new sponsor for them, results aside?
8:10AM - Tim, I think that's an entirely fair analogy. The Giants have had chances to trade Bonds or simply not re-sign him, but they did, and partly it's because they need to fill up that new ballpark. It's a situation that a lot of people in well-paid jobs that they don't like face every day - I think the phrase is "golden handcuffs."
But yes, we have a new way forward now and we don't have to deal with the conflict of seeing a guy like Rasmussen win the Tour.
8:08AM - In the "Still Doesn't Freaking Get It" department, Rasmussen apparently told at least one media outlet that he wasn't in Italy and that Davide Cassani only saw a rider who looked like him. But last night, Rabobank team spokesman Jacob Bergsma and manager Theo de Rooy both said that Rasmussen admitted to being in Italy and that he'd lied to the team about his whereabouts. So it looks like Cow and Chicken is trying some spin.
8:04AM - I agree - much different race. Evans said one point that he was basically caught in an Astana-Disco sandwich and had to ride conservatively because he didn't have the support they did (although Horner did as well as you could expect; Mario Aerts and Dario Cioni weren't quite as helpful in the final kilometers). But I think Contador's accelerations were unmatcheable by anyone in the race other than Rasmussen. The question then becomes if Discovery would have given him free rein to attack or if Contador would have been forced to work for Levi.
8:02AM - The gap is now 7:27. Discovery has the pack strung out a bit, but the riders on the front aren't hardly pedaling right now. The break got all of 1:30 advantage in the first two hours when Caisse d'Epargne was leading the chase, and now in the last 45 minutes they've added on six minutes to their lead. CDE was chasing because they missed the move - like Lampre, they're another team that has had a disappointing Tour so far. But with guys like Voigt and Bennati and Millar up front, they just weren't going to bring them all the way back by themselves, and none of the other teams cared enough to help chase.
7:57AM - JRoth, the way I'm reading it, Disco is just patrolling the front, as is kind of its duty as the new de-facto leading team. But the way the gap has gone out, they're not really chasing. They'll ride hard enough to keep the gap to 5-10 minutes, but eventually, they'll turn to the sprinters' teams and say, "We're done. If you want a sprint finish, YOU bring 'em back."
7:52AM - Tim, I hadn't seen those comments by Horner. But that was exactly what I was talking about in my column about wrestling back and forth with shutting down the Tour. I guess I'm caught between the two messages you could take out of it. On the one hand, you could take continuing to mean that now the clean riders get a chance. Or, you could take it as a sign that, no matter what happens, good or bad, the big business that is the Tour is going to keep rolling and everyone gets a paycheck. Maybe, I wondered, shutting off the paychecks for a bit - as much as it would unfairly hurt guys like Horner - is the only way to get the message across that you just can't frickin' dope anymore. But I have to say, Horner has a really good point and if I'm the director of the Tour, I don't think I can take away his opportunity just because someone else didn't follow the rules. But didn't you ever have to stay after class or run laps in practice just because some jackass classmate of yours did something stupid? Even though you weren't involved? I guess the question is: how can you get the message through the thick skulls of these shitheads who dope?
7:46AM - Interesting, incidentally, to see Tosatto in there. He's a key leadout man for Boonen, and with him working out in the break all day he may not have much left to offer should it all come together. As far as the others go, I'm watching Lampre. I like Voigt and Millar because I love their riding styles - Voigt especially rides with a nice attacking style - he'd rather try and lose spectacularly than ride conservatively. But Lampre hasn't won a stage on Tour yet and they would really like to. Bennati is a very talented rider and, whether the break sprints for the finish or a lone attacker gets away late in the race, he's one to watch. And, with a teammate to help cover the others' moves, they've got the numbers.
7:45AM - I think we will see some good racing over these final days. And yeah, I'm rooting for Millar too. But after the Vinokourov experience, I'm steering clear of neat moral packages. As I wrote in the Q and A, maybe racing's just...racing.
Situation on the road: 70k to go, lead of eight riders is at 5:56 on the chasing pack. I realized I never printed the complete break list. Here you go:
David Millar (Saunier Duval), Jens Voigt (CSC), Markus Fothen (Gerolsteiner), Daniele Bennati and Daniele Righi (Lampre), Matteo Tosatto (Quick Step), Manuel Quinziato (Liquigas) and Martin Elmiger (Ag2r)
7:40AM - And Michael, I think in the modern era, since we boosted to 189 or more starters, the 1998 Tour had the fewest finishers. It's not uncommon for the race to finish with 130 or so - having lost 60 or more. But in 1998 whole teams quit the race in protest. To show you how different it is now, the teams that quit in protest then were protesting the strong anti-doping approach by French authorities. Now, they're fairly clamoring for a stricter stance.
7:37AM - JRoth, yes, that would be a really nasty ride in the team car for Menchov, huh? And Matthew, I think you pegged it dead-on. From the team to the race organizers to the UCI, they hoped to be able to wait it out until Rasmussen lost the yellow. When it became clear that he very likely wouldn't, it forced their hand. All the more reason to act early rather than late. We'll never know now how the Pyrenees might have played out between the Koala and the Discos had Rasmussen not been so dominant and ruled every stage.
7:35AM - Michael, if Contador takes the race lead tonight as we all expect he will, he will wear yellow and the white would go to the next "best young rider." That's Soler. But Soler will probably wear the maillot pois that he's won fair and square, so the white would go down to Bernhard Kohl, who's the third-best young rider. But in terms of prize money and who really wins it, it's Contador, so that wouldn't factor in Soler's decision.
7:35AM - Some really great comments and questions, guys. T.O., I can't think of an instance in the last 40 years of the Tour where the race was in doubt on the final day except LeMond's 1989 win. If that final time trial had been the day before, and he went onto the Champs-Elysees with just an eight second lead, you might've seen Fignon's team attack. (Note that the Tour has NEVER had a time trial on the final stage since then, huh?) Anyway, the time bonus on the finish line is 20 seconds for first, 12 for second and eight for third. So I think you'd need to have an overall lead of under half a minute to make the final stage a race rather than a promenade. But you're right, we might see that this year and that would be a truly strange bird.
7:28AM - With about 77k to go the gap has just barely started to inch out - it's 4:03 now. You can bet that's because of Voigt and Millar. If those two were trucks, they'd be diesels, as they can just crank out the power for long periods of time.
7:27AM - JJP, I think you're right. But, finally, the attitudes do seem to be changing, and all the way through the peloton. Guys are just fed up now. Tom Boonen said today that Rasmussen was indeed one of the "Men in Black" and that he's fed up with being told not to question other riders' performances. "I'm not blind. You know who hides themselves, who disappears for three months and all of a sudden can fly. I have always been told that you can't question the performances of others. But now I am starting to do that," he said, adding that the only way to stop guys like that is "to test every goddamned one of them."
7:20AM - Merlin, you're right. That was one instance where I felt that Lance was very much right and the Tour organizers very much wrong - he seemed to know their traditions better than they did! The other riders seemed to agree that day, by the way. Credit to Armstrong that he didn't push it, either. I think if he had, the Tour would've backed down, but Lance just put the jersey on and rode off.
7:17AM - Incidentally, the remaining riders on Rabobank did start this morning. Tour officials left it up to them for the decision. The reason they were allowed to continue is that Rasmussen was pulled by his team, not race officials, and never tested positive. Still, it was all a bit much for Denis Menchov, who killed himself for Rasmussen the last three days. He pulled out about halfway through the day's stage.
7:16AM - Michael, yes, these next two stages will be the traditional battle between a breakaway and the sprinters' teams. In the late stages of the Tour, the breaks have a bit more advantage because of attrition. Robbie McEwen is gone, as is Fred Rodriguez, and Predictor will now ride solely for Cadel. So they won't chase. Francisco Ventoso is out, Danilo Napolitano, Filippo Pozzato and so on. So the chase really comes down to teams like Credit Agricole and Quick Step, which will be trying to set up Thor Hushovd and Tom Boonen. And, of course, Barloworld may be feeling frisky and go for a third stage win, as Robbie Hunter is still riding well.
7:14AM - As far as the yellow jersey goes, it's considered tradition not to wear the yellow if it comes to you via another rider's misfortune. I remember in about 1992 or so, Rolf Sorensen crashed and broke his collarbone while wearing yellow and the next day no one wore the jersey because it hadn't been "earned." Here, of course, it's debatable whether or not this really is misfortune. It's a huge disappointment for Rabobank, Rasmussen and of course, the race, but I don't think you'll get much argument that it's better that he's no longer here. Apparently, Tour organizers made the decision - the jersey will be awarded tonight, on merit.
7:10AM - Welcome, commenters. And yeah, I agree that the most disappointing thing is that Rabobank waited until the race was essentially over before pulling him. I can understand how Cassani's comments might have tipped it, but from the sounds of it, the UCI was pretty emphatic prior to the race that it had some serious problems with Rasmussen, and the team ignored that. I read a comment earlier - from Christian Prudhomme or Pat McQuaid, I forget which - that said that Rabobank had done something courageous and lived up to its responsibilities. I'm not sure I agree. I think they simply waited until it was too late - they hoped they could ride it out, and they couldn't.
7:06AM - Pretty hard pacemaking on the front by these eight, and the gap is now going out a bit - it's 2:34 at last check. I'm not sure why CDE is chasing this hard other than that they missed the move. My guess is that, if they stop chasing so hard, the gap will go out quickly - this is a good move with a lot of horsepower.
6:59AM - Morning. I'm not sure it's good morning, but then, I guess anytime you wake up on this side of the dirt, it's a good morning. As you probably know by now, Michael Rasmussen was pulled from the Tour last night by his Rabobank team. So we get the third rider kicked out of the race over doping issues and, in a highly unusual circumstance, there is no yellow jersey to start the 17th stage. But start they did. Situation on the road is a group of eight riders are off the front. It's a good group, with Daniele Bennati (Lampre), Markus Fothen (Gerolsteiner), Jens Voigt (CSC) and David Millar (Saunier Duval) among them, but they only have 1:39 on the chasing pack, which is led by Caisse d'Epargne. There's 110km to go. More in a moment.
