Archive | July, 2010

“This Is Not A Mickey Mouse Race”

7 Jul

There’s been a lot of criticism about this year’s Tour de France being “Le Tour Feminine” coming into today’s anticipated “regular” flat stage. Riders have have expressed frustration and even anger over the atypical courses used early on in this year’s race.



[if you're having trouble viewing this, maybe try right-click/save file as... - if it still doesn't work, direct you complaints to Eurosport, who filmed the interview, didn't put it online, and then decided to pull it from YouTube]

Yo Dawg, Heard You Like Neutral Finishes

6 Jul

(click through for something resembling an explanation)

A Veteran Win On A Nervous Day

4 Jul

Garmin-Transitions pulls the fieldWhen the early stretches of today’s Stage 1 passed without incident—save the practically obligatory errant canine—some commentators seemed to settle into the notion that the long-anticipated crashes on the always thrilling (and extremely crowded) Dutch and Belgian roadways would not materialize.

But beyond the calm facade were warning signs of the carnage to come. A three-man breakaway gained and lost times in wild clumps as various sprinters’ teams rolled to the front of the peloton and fell back suddenly as the gap became too small. Domestiques’ ears featured heavily in the live photos as heads swiveled to keep nervous eyes on the competition alongside them.

A Prologue Of Couldnts

4 Jul

Tour de France 2010 - Rotterdam (Prologue) by Flickr user einnidThat’s what today’s stage—at least from the recaps, reports and clips through which I experienced it—seemed like to me.

In the rain, many contenders couldn’t take risks. With no time bonuses in the coming days, sprinters couldn’t really justify a run for yellow. Over a pancake-flat parcours, climbers couldn’t make any statements. And with all the variables in the equation, a suddenly fourth-placed Lance Armstrong couldn’t make any assessments of the day’s implications for the rest of the Tour.

How The Race Was Won – Rules of the Group Sprint

1 Jul

A little TdF preview for you, since the action in the early going is driven largely by the sprinters, and we be especially tightly scrutinized after the tremendous crash at the Tour de Suisse.

The UCI’s rules on what it is and isn’t ok to do in a sprint are both poorly-written, and enforced in a less-than-literal fashion. Drawing on some notable sprint rulings of the past decade, this How The Race Was Won examines exactly what you can and can’t get away with in the final rush to the line.



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