Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Le Tour de France 2006 – Day 4: Stage 1, Strasbourg – Strasbourg

-

HomeDiariesLe Tour de France 2006 - Day 4: Stage 1, Strasbourg -...

Sunday, stage one — a day for the sprinters. It was quite late when I got to sleep, I had a coffee in the hotel after I came in from my pizza place, it was too strong for a wimp like me late at night and my efforts to nod-off were also seriously hampered by demented French men driving around Strasbourg blowing their car horns all night.

Apparently there’s some football tournament or other on the go?

I did my washing before bed last night and it was practically dry by morning. It’s no big deal washing stuff in the bath and it means you can carry a lot less clothing.

Breakfast up at the Ibis isn’t bad and I got to pour my own coffee this morning, plenty of hot milk, I can’t handle that strong, bitter stuff. I decide to go down to the Tour village first-up, I wanted ‘race colour’ shots.

I also had the notion to do a piece with Brad Wiggins and David Millar about their respective prologues.

It was the back of 8.00 when I got down to the village; it was set-up in the normally tranquil Park de l’Orangerie in central Strasbourg. The disco music was already pumping — Positive Force were letting everybody know that; ‘Bernaard’s [no, it’s not a typo, you can’t have cool black guys called Bernard, it’s Bernaard] got the Funk, he’s got the funk, yeah!’

Little old ladies walking tiny dogs and new-age-girls practicing their yoga did their best to ignore this intrusion to their Sunday morning.

Bob Sinclar, Barry White, Al Green, Gloria Gaynor all had their turn over the PA — I shut my eyes and for a minute I was in my 2.8 Capri — anyway! I got plenty of ‘colour’ shots — publicity girls, fan’s banners, girls on stilts, – yawn!

Thor Hushovd's Look TT bike.
Thor Hushovd’s Look TT bike.

A minor coup was finding Thor Hushovd’s new 595 carbon Look on the roof of the CA team car, which arrived really early.

A fellow anorak was agonising over Hushovd’s stem length, he was a Dutch guy from a technical magazine; ‘It’s not a 12, but I need to know if it’s a 13 or 14.’ When I plucked the tape measure from my bag, he just beamed — there WAS another man in Strasbourg as sad as he was; and it’s 14 cm if you are interested.

The new 595 is different from last year’s 585 in that it has a really nice fly-thru seat tube arrangement, an integral front mechanism hanger, new forks, new gear cable routings and a hiddenset with two sizes of bearings — the bigger ones at the bottom to take the loading.

He rides 53 x 39 on 11 — 21, Dura Ace, with a Sella Italia saddle, PRO bars and stem on Conti tyres.

My Dutch chum also told me that Hushovd is running ceramic hub bearings; at a cost of six or seven hundred euros.

Soon it was caravan time — bears and kangaroos are popular this year, but I did get a free Skoda hat of a rather nice lady; no sunstroke today. I waited patiently at the Cofidis bus for Bradley, snapping passing stars. I have an idea for a ‘raves from the grave’ Tour feature…

Hennie Kuiper.
Hennie Kuiper.

Anyway, today I bagged, Jaja, Hennie Kuiper, Johan Museeuw, Dirk Demol and Sean Kelly.

Bradley was an easy man to talk to. He said he was just glad to get the prologue over and done with and get into his first Tour. He’d found the first half very technical and had only been 45 th at the first check, but pulled it back to 16 th at the line.

I then high-tailed it up to the Saunier Duval bus to see if I could nab David Millar. Fortunately we have a mutual friend so that eased the intro, I didn’t get as much time with him as I would have liked, but he was OK with me and said that he’ll give me his time if I catch-up with him.

It’s just a hunch, but I think he’ll go OK in the Rennes time trial next week. He certainly looks in good nick.

The chaos at a stage start has to be seen to be believed, and that’s with hordes of stewards and police. I got away quickly after the start and drove the car back to the press room car park, set-up my laptop in the permanence so my place was safe then got the bike out and pedalled down to ride the last five kilometres of the stage.

It was flat, fast and windy with some scary bends including a cracker just before the red kite. If the Ormiston APR had the same finish, the Western General would have to open a new wing.

I took a sequence of photos and wrote notes so we could talk readers through the finale. It was baking-hot and I felt dehydrated after 15 k. never mind 184.

The finish line was the last pic, and then it was time to pedal back to the press room and start tapping. I wrote-up the stage finish piece first, emailed it off, sorted-out the pics to go with it then sent off a whole load of general pictures — maybe 60.

Thor’s velo was next-up and the pics to go with that, then finally the Brad/David piece, complete with pics.

Last but no means least, it was time to keep in touch with you dear readers in Bonnie Scotland, but its 8.00 pm now – can I go back to the digs – please?

PS – Hushovd’s in hospital, update you the morn.

Ed Hood
Ed Hood
Ed's been involved in cycling for over 50 years. In that time he's been a successful time triallist, a team manager and a sponsor of several teams and clubs. He's also a respected and successful coach and during the winter months was often working in the cabins at the Six Days for some of the world's top riders. Ed remains a massive fan of the sport and couples his extensive contacts with an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the minutiae and the history of our sport. In February 2023 however, our dear friend and beloved colleague Ed suffered a devastating stroke and faces an uncertain future; Ed has lost his ability to speak, to read, and has lost movement on the right side of his body. He's working with speech and physical therapists on rehabilitation, but all strokes are different and each patient responds differently, so unfortunately recovery is one day at a time. Ed ran his own business installing windows, and will probably not be able to work again. Please consider joining us to make a contribution to Ed's GoFundMe page to help stabilise and secure his future.

Related Articles

Le Tour de France 2010, Stage 17: Pau – Col du Tourmalet; Top Two Ahead, Big Gaps Behind

'Andy talks tough !' say the headlines, he did try his best yesterday, his men used whatever was left to drive up the lower part of the Col du Tourmalet - then he went for it. However, not for one moment did it look like Alberto Contador was under pressure.

Le Tour de France 2006 – Day 6: Stage 3, Esch-sur-Alzette – Valkenburg

I'm on Le Tour de France 2006 heading to Valkenburg. You know you’re in Luxembourg when the sanitary ware in the public toilets is by up-market ceramics company Villeroy & Boch.

Giro d’Italia 2007 – Day 1: Getting there

Giro d'Italia 2007. Sardinia is hot, damn hot, real hot, but our Peugeot 107 has air-con and a CD which plays John Hardie's 70's compilations just fine. It's 09.10 and we're north-bound to catch the ferry from Palau out to the island of Maddalena, where tomorrow's TTT takes place.

VeloVeritas at the Het Nieuwsblad 2011

The issue of weather for Het Nieuwsblad 2011 (or Gent - Gent as the locals still call it) is a dichotomy: if it's wet it's a proper man's race but you get frozen and soaked whilst spectating; but if it's a nice day and you're not near-death when you stumble into your favourite bar to watch the finale then you end up watching 100-plus riders contesting the finish.

At Random

Le Tour de France 2017 – Stage 17: La Mure – Serre-Chevalier, 183km. Primož Roglič ahead of the ‘Royal’ party

A decisive battle? No. A day of attrition? Absolutely. The ‘Royal’ group at the head of affairs behind winning LottoNL ski jumper turned cyclist Slovenian, Primož Roglič speaks for itself; Christopher Froome ((Sky & GB) is back in his usual position, at the front with a hugely strong team to back him and a time trial ‘buffer’ if he needs it.

Billy Warnock Memorial Road Race 2015 – Ben Hetherington Takes the Win

Ben Hetherington of Achieve attacked into the final drag maintaining a slender lead all the way to the line to take a strong victory with Jack Rees also of Achieve winning the bunch sprint.

La Vuelta a España 2014 – Stage 21; Santiago de Compostela (ITT), 10 km. Adriano Malori Home and Dry

Movistar top and tail la Vuelta as Italian Time Trial Champion, Adriano Malori has the weather gods on his side and rides in the dry whilst the GC boys look like they’re pedalling on ice around the technical circuit in beautiful and historic Santiago de Compostella. The last time I stayed in Santiago weeds were sprouting from the cathedral’s lovely facade, so that scaffold was no surprise – a face lift was long overdue.

Alex Rasmussen – Calling Time on Professional Cycling

He's been one of the outstanding track riders of the last decade, world champion four times across three disciplines‎ - scratch (twice), madison with Michael Mørkøv and team pursuit. ‎There's been a raft of national, European and World Cup titles and podiums not to mention an Olympic team pursuit silver‎. On the Six Day scene he's won in Berlin, Bremen, Copenhagen, Ghent and Grenoble. ‎And that's before we mention his road palmarés - two stages in the Dunkirk Four Day, the GP Herning, Philadelphia... But Alex Rasmussen has called 'time' on all of that and will race this season on a low key domestic programme.