Huge Stage Tomorrow...Team Time Trial!

[chattanoogamocs]

Except for the mountain stages, this is my absolute favorite...probably even more than the individual time trials because this is about TEAM!

For those who don't watch much cycling, think Nascar at a superspeedways...with team tatics, bump drafting, and not getting out of line.

For nearly 40 miles, each team will (try) to ride only inches apart from each other...in a perfect line...with the front rider dropping off the front and moving to the end about every 10-15 seconds...when done well (like Postal/Discovery) it looks more than just a well oiled machine...it is nearer to an art.

Many of the team leaders, to save themselves, will sit mainly at the back in the draft, letting the other 8 riders do the work and break the wind...but not Armstrong...team manager Johann Brunyeel usually has to chirp in Lance's ear piece to back off because he is all wanting to drive the "Big Blue Train" (I guess Discovery has enough blue in the uniform to call it that).

If you only watch a couple of days, watch this tomorrow, it is poetry in motion...and like Nascar...one wrong move can also cause "the big one". (In 2001, in the wet, one Postal rider went down at the front and took down most of the team, including Armstrong...ultimately, two Postal riders had to abandon the Tour because of injury)

CSC will put up a good fight, but barring disasters, look for Lance to be in Yellow at the end of the stage.

Some interesting facts:
Total value of Team Discovery's 9 time trial bikes?
About $75,000.

Number of U.S. riders to wear the overall leader's yellow jersey?
only three, LeMond, Armstrong and now Zibriskie (is that some company or what)

Here are some Graham Watson pics from last two Team Time Trials (both Postal wins)
2004
http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.nsf/images/04tourSt4/$file/10.jpg

2003
http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.nsf/images/03tdfSt4/$file/10.jpg

[TexasTerror]

They are a machine! Go Disco! Big stage today with the TTT as said before. Would love if the Discos can put a good minute plus on some of the big competition as they did last year. Too bad you can only gain three minutes at most, but I'm sure Disco could do that on some teams...

[chattanoogamocs]

I used to have a "great" photo of the bad crash Postal had in the "01 Tour, but I couldn't come up with it, the closest I could find was a Graham Watson photo (Christian VanderVelde at front). You can see the tears to his jersey and the blood down his left leg.

http://www.grahamwatson.com/2001/tdf/tdf3/tdf3/image18.jpg

[Eagle22]

What channel covers this ? I've got DishNetwork... What time is it on, and I'll Tivo it. Sounds interesting ... I'm in need of a sports fix now that the All-Star 7/8 team I coach was knocked out of the regional tourney.

[chattanoogamocs]

OLN (Outdoor Life Network)

The Live Coverage of the stage started about 20 minutes ago (though Disco wont even start for another couple of hours). Currently, only 3 of the 21 teams are even on the road (Lance and the boys go 2nd to last).

They will also show and edited version at 8pm(?) tonight (and they show another replay of the live show in the afternoon.

So, basically, if you tune in to OLN...ANYTIME...in the next 20 days...day or night, you will get to see Tour de France cycling. :p ;)

[chattanoogamocs]

SPOILERS BELOW (LIVE REALTIME CHECKPOINT RESULTS)




















At the first checkpoint (25km, 15.5 miles)

1- TEAM CSC 00:25:36
2- LIBERTY SEGUROS - WÜRTH TEAM 00:25:42 at 06"
3- DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 00:25:51 at 15"
3- T-MOBILE TEAM 00:25:51 at 15"
5- CREDIT AGRICOLE 00:26:09 at 33"

(in typical fashion, Disco hold some in reserve in the early going...usually they get the big engine rolling the further they get along the course)

For those who are new...
Team CSC has current leader (former Postal) Zabriskie,
Liberty has (former Postal mtn climber) Roberto Heras,
and right behind Disco is T-Mobile with Jan Ullrich and Alexandre Vinokourov



...at the next checkpoint (45.8 km, 28.4 miles)

1- TEAM CSC 00:47:08
2- DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 00:47:14 at 06"
3- T-MOBILE TEAM 00:47:15 at 07"
4- LIBERTY SEGUROS - WÜRTH TEAM 00:47:28 at 20"
5- PHONAK HEARING SYSTEMS 00:47:57 at 49"

(Disco is appear to be ramping up...cutting a 15 second deficit to 6. T-Mobile is hanging tough...just like you would expect...and Liberty is slipping just like they did last year...they go out too hard. Phonak with (former Postal) Floyd Landis pulls up into top 5)

SIDE NOTE: Isn't it amazing how many times you say "formal Postal"...the American team has help foster a lot of great team leaders.

OUCH: they just showed the fall from 2001 in the replay.


MAN IS THIS TIGHT....

3rd checkpoint (61.5km 38 miles)

1- TEAM CSC 01:05:10
2- DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 01:05:12 at 02"
3- T-MOBILE TEAM 01:05:36 at 26"
4- LIBERTY SEGUROS - WÜRTH TEAM 01:05:56 at 46"
5- PHONAK HEARING SYSTEMS 01:06:27 at 01' 17"


AND DAVID ZABRISKIE FALLS WITH LESS THAN 2K TO GO....AND HE FALLS HARD...TAKING A TIGHT TURN. Man, that is not they way you want to see that happen. He can't finish with his team....so he will lose a lot more time. If he could have finished with the team, he would have TIED Lance for the lead as Disco wins the Team Time Trial by 2 seconds in the....

FASTEST TIME TRIAL IN THE HISTORY OF THE EVENT! (over 35 miles per hour!)

Finish Line (67.5km 41.85 miles)

1- DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 01:10:39:000
2- TEAM CSC 01:10:41:000 at 02"
3- T-MOBILE TEAM 01:11:14:000 at 35"
4- LIBERTY SEGUROS - WÜRTH TEAM 01:11:32:000 at 53"
5- PHONAK HEARING SYSTEMS 01:12:10:000


LANCE IS IN THE MAILLOT JAUNE ONCE AGAIN!

...and more importantly, Lance now leads...
Alexandre Vinokourov by 1:28,
Jan Ullrich 1:43,
Ivan Basso by 2:01.

It looks like Lance's loyal lieutenant George Hincapie (he has been by Lance's side for every win) will be in 2nd place overall.

[ISUMatt]

Looked like Zambriskie hit the tire of his teammate in front of him... he has heavy damage to his right arm, thigh, leg and foot! Lance has a 55 second lead over teammate George Hincapie. Zabriskie falls to 9th place 1:24 behind. And Im tired of seeing Sheryl Corw already and its only Stage 4

[chattanoogamocs]

I hate to say it...just like Nascar...you follow close the whole race, flying along, ...your on the "last lap" and BAM you just barely bump and your out of the race.

That is part of it though, David is in his first Tour, holding that yellow jersey, you know the pressure was on. One thing he can always say (until someone else comes along) ...he was only the 3rd American to wear the Maillot Jaune!

I have had many a good scrape in my years of riding...Briskie is going to be sore as hell tomorrow.

4 Americans in the top 10!

[TexasTerror]

Lance Takes Yellow!
Well, Lance and Team Disco won the TTT and in the process set the fastest average speed for a team time trial in the Tour de France. The nine riders finished the 67.5km course in one hour, 10 minutes and 39 seconds. The average speed is 57.31km/h - eclipsing the previous best (that of Gewiss-Ballan from 1995 - 54.930km/h). Congrats to Team Disco!

I'm not sure how long Lance will hold this as we'll see some sprinters possibly take it for awhile depending on the attacks we see, but there's a chance Lance can hold it all the way to the finish.

Overall Standings

Top 10
1 001 ARMSTRONG Lance DSC USA
2 004 HINCAPIE George DSC USA 00' 55"
3 028 VOIGT Jens CSC GER 01' 04"
4 023 JULICH Bobby CSC USA 01' 07"
5 008 RUBIERA José Luis DSC ESP 01' 14"
6 007 POPOVYCH Yaroslav DSC UKR 01' 16"
7 019 VINOKOUROV Alexandre TMO KAZ 01' 21"
8 005 NOVAL GONZALEZ Benjamin DSC ESP 01' 26"
9 029 ZABRISKIE David CSC USA 01' 26"
10 021 BASSO Ivan CSC ITA 01' 26"

Notables
12 006 PADRNOS Pavel DSC CZE 01' 32"
13 009 SAVOLDELLI Paolo DSC ITA 01' 33"
14 011 ULLRICH Jan TMO GER 01' 36"
20 066 LANDIS Floyd PHO USA 01' 50"
27 061 BOTERO Santiago PHO COL 02' 18"
28 164 LEIPHEIMER Levi GST USA 02' 21"
30 014 KLÖDEN Andréas TMO GER 02' 29"
37 091 HERAS Roberto LSW ESP 02' 58"
116 149 VOECKLER Thomas BTL FRA 05' 12"
147 191 MAYO Iban EUS ESP 05' 48"
164 065 JALABERT Nicolas PHO FRA 07' 00"

[chattanoogamocs]

I think he might just be able to hold it (since it is over minute).

Disco wont push the pace, but hopefully enough sprint teams will want to chase down breaks so they can set up their own riders.

Stages 5, 6, 7, are sprinter stages...most of 8 is...until the end when they have a Cat 2 to climb (that will take most of the sprinters out of it)...then you have at least one Cat 1 in stages 9 and 10...then the "real" Tour starts start! (the Madeleine, Telegrape, and Galibier in stage 11)

The only thing I dislike about this years Tour...very few mountain top finishes...making it hard for the leaders to make time...and on the downhill, everyone catches back up (well, except for Jan...who is not a strong descender)

(the last time he tried to keep up with Lance on the back side of a mountain...)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1450000/images/_1450353_jan150.jpg

[ISUMatt]

Personally I think LA will give up the Yellow to the Sprinters to keep the pressure off, then regain it when he hits the mountains!!!

[chattanoogamocs]

I agree that they definitely won't defend it...why should they? (they'll just get it back this weekend :))

I was trying to look and see which sprinters are close to the lead...there aren't a whole lot of them...unless someone goes through and really picks up all the intermediate time bonuses over the next couple of days. Boonen is 3 1/2 back...he'll be fighting for a lot of them.

Of course, if there is a long breakway...you know Disco won't chase it.

BTW, congrats to Disco's Yaroslav Popovych who now has almost a minute lead for the White Jersey.

http://www.letour.fr/PHOTOS/TDF/2005/RIDERS/7.jpg

[TexasTerror]

I agree. Lance may hold on to the jersey due to a large lead on the teams/individuals who are part of the sprinters group that always lead the peleton in these early stages and stage the attacks.

[chattanoogamocs]

my fave photog, Graham Watson...

after the fall...
http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.nsf/images/05tdfSt4/$file/11.jpg

the champions...
http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.nsf/images/05tdfSt4/$file/12.jpg

maillot jaune
http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.nsf/images/05tdfSt4/$file/13.jpg