Bonjour! The start starts today in Montereau-Fault-Yonne, but we’re not there. Usually I start the VeloVeritas diary for Le Tour de France 2009 in the morning but then have to switch to ‘other work’ mode for most of the day – going back to poor old VV late in the day, as Martin and I fight off le vieux homme Morpheus.
But today, you got me all to yourselves – at least until this afternoon, when le Tour hurtles into Paris; with Astana as winner’s (and winning) equipe at it’s head – as tradition dictates, because right now Martin is driving us from Lyons to Paris, a small matter of 350 miles.
Talking of L’Equipe, some good (or sad, depending on your viewpoint) stuff today:
oldest podium place was Raymond Poulidor at 40 years and 3 months – [hey! isn’t that amazing, we could have Lance for three more years!]
“Contador wins and puts an end to the politics – a good strategy” says Philippe Brunel, damn right, Phil!
Garate 10/10; Brad 4/10 “the Ventoux is just a little too high for him.” Kloden 1/10.
Team classement on national teams [3 riders] 1) Spain. 2) USA. 3) France. 4)Germany. 5) Italy. 6) Luxembourg. 7) Russia.
Fastest up the Ventoux, yesterday was Andy (or Awndee as Daniel Mangeas calls him) Schleck in 58:40 for the 21 kilometres. The record? Iban Mayo in the Dauphine 2004 with 55:51.
Garate: this was his third Grand Tour stage win – Giro 2006 & Vuelta 2001 plus a stage in the Tour de Suisse 2002 and the Spanish champs in 2005.
Martin was reading me out Armstrong’s ‘tweets’ tonight, he was in Avignon with “McConaughey, and others.“
One has to respect the man’s ability, single mindedness and drive but I think that the “McConaughey” reference sums up what I dislike most about the whole Lance-Mania carry-on.
Bicycle road racing is the people’s sport, you don’t have to pay through the nose to watch it; the parcours go past your front door or over that big hill, just down the road.
Eddy Merckx was the greatest ever – I don’t recall bodyguards.
I’ve seen babies thrust into Johan Museeuw’s arms for a photo opportunity and Johan responding with a laugh and the perfect pose.
The sport isn’t about excluding people, minders and Hollywood – it’s about Brittany, Flanders, old ladies cuddling Tom Boonen, Christophe Moreau stopping by the roadside to meet his family, Nico Mattan heading straight for his supporter’s club cafe after he wins Gent-Wevelgem – it’s about real people, real life.
Meanwhile, Contador keeps it low key, no tweets, no celebrity pals and even though he must hate the sight of the kit he wears, he’s never seen sporting anything else – except yellow, that is.
Ah well, Cav again!
Number six for Mark. And Renshaw second – stunning.
Tour 09 Stage 21 Map.
Tour 09 Stage 21 Profile.
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Al Hamilton’s Le Tour de France 2009
As you might guess the Spanish media is full of Juan Gárate and Alberto Contador.
Front page headline “Gárate se corona en el Mont Ventoux” Gárate is crowned on the Mont Ventoux and lets face it he has saved the Tour for the Rabobank team who after a great Giro d’Italia have done nothing here until now!
Garate took the “queen stage” to Mont Ventoux.
Juanma Gárate is no stranger to victory as he was Spanish National Pro Champ and yesterdays Tour stage win goes with his Giro and Vuelta stage successes.
And winning on the Mont Ventoux? “It gave me goose flesh…I can’t explain it in words! It’s the gold badge of my career”.
Alberto Contador: “Corri dos Tours, uno en la bici y otro en el hotel” – I rode two Tours, one on the bike and another in the hotel. This refers to his problems within his Astana team, Armstrong/Bruyneel and their working relationship past and future.
And next year? “After tomorrow I will be talking about my future. Armstrong and I are working on different projects”.
What about the insinuations of Greg Lemond? “I have no problems over doping. I am available 365 days a year and have taken all the necessary controls. I think there has been a change in the mentality of cyclists. A Tour without doping is also a victory”.
Bert fought ‘two Tours’ – one on the bike and one with his teammates.
A big “Fiesta” is planned in Alberto’s home town of Pinto. After the finish in Paris where the Mayor of the Madrid Community and the Spanish minister of Sport will be in attendance, Contador will be having a private party in Paris with his girlfriend; Macarena and all the team of Astana, then at 12:30 he is off to Madrid airport and Pinto for a “Grand Fiesta”.
After the Tour the two Astana riders (Contador and Armstrong) have very different schedules. Contador will be going to his celebrations in Pinto and then riding a post-Tour criterium in Holland. Lance Armstrong, on the other hand, is off on his holidays to the Bahamas.
Last word goes to Carlos Sastre: “I just didn’t have any strength in my legs!” the ex-Tour Champion dropped to 17th overall at 26 minutes and 21 seconds behind Alberto Contador.
Ed and Martin, our top team! They try to do the local Time Trials, the Grand Tours and the Classics together to get the great stories written, the quality photos taken, the driving done and the wifi wrestled with.
I braved the tourists and human statues up on Edinburgh’s High Street to see if I could get Monday’s L’Equipe in the International Newsagents – it’s the one for all the good Tour stats. But alas, no dice – I had to settle for Sunday’s Observer and Monday’s Guardian where it’s wall to wall Christopher and Sky.
I walked in to the press room this morning and one of the guys from French radio told me that Ulrich and Sevilla were gone - sent home by T-Mobile due to their involvement in Operacion Puerto, the Spanish drugs bust. Le Tour de France 2006.
At Le Tour de France 2006 I was involved with TV - no, no, not like that, cycling dot TV - the Internet TV guys. I met their guy, Steve Masters in the press room yesterday and he scrounged a lift off me to the start at Obernai with his camera man, James.
The Next Level. Today, TdF2010 Stage 17, was the showdown. As all who watch cycling know, any stage with a mountaintop finish is where many of the overall selections happen, and when the mountain is the Tourmalet, which is enormous both in terms of the difficulty of the climb, as well as its history, it’s all the more definitive.
Book out the window. There was a quote one of our boys gave on a day he crashed twice in 200m: “I thought I was pretty good at riding my bike.” Upon watching the final sprints and the way our boys have set up the lead-out train in the past two days, I think I could be forgiven for thinking something similar about what I do for a job.
Chris Froome will go down in the record books as Great Britain’s second Tour de France winner.
But whilst the slim man who now lives in Monaco may have GB next to his name in the record book – he’s originally from Kenya by way of South Africa and his win is a huge shot in the arm for cycle sport in the Dark Continent.
But Froome was beaten to the punch as the first African in yellow by a man whose passport still declares ‘Republic of South Africa.’
Truth be told it wasn't him but his double, Paul Tabak, manager of Dutch outfit BRC Kememesland-burgundy blazer, black gingham shirt, grey flannels and shades-dapper guy! Dead ringer for Nicholas. A tad incongruous among the club jerseys, tee-shirts and fleeces at the managers' meet though. The UCI guys were really nicely turned out in blue, logo-ed shirts and body-warmers, so now you know where all that money goes.
It's no surprise that Endura Racing's 'man of the year' Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has today signed for Team Sky. Anyone who thought that Englishman’s top six GC placing and King of the Mountains win back in the 2011 Tour of Britain was a freak result had their eyes opened this spring when the 27 year-old from Plymouth won the first stage, fourth stage and GC in this season’s Tour of the Mediterranean – a race dating back to 1974 and which boasts Eddy Merckx as one of its winners.
Dave Dungworth was just a little before my time but when I got into the sport back in 1970 his name was spoken in hushed tones as a twice holder of the ‘Holy Grail’ record in time trialling - the ’25.’ He was also twice a 30 mile record holder and twice a double champion, winning both the ‘25’ and ’50’ titles for two consecutive years.
Well, the women's omnium is in full swing at the London Olympics Day Six. Laura Trott has won the flying lap, a great ride, I'm not entirely sure where she was for the points race, I think team GB put someone up in her place, maybe she was getting her hair done or something, all I know is she didn't show up!
SRAM brought out the new Force and Rival groupsets a while back [read our Review of the Force groupset here], and the Saunier Duval ProTour team used it on their Scott bikes to great effect last season. Now SRAM have released the SRAM Red group set and as well as Saunier Duval, the new Astana team will be using the Red group on their Trek Madone frames for the 2008 season as well. We managed to get a sneak preview and a short ride on an Astana team bike recently when they were in Spain for their first training camp.
When I think about the Elite World Championship Time Trial, I always ponder how many of these titles Anquetil, Merckx and Indurain would have won between them, had this event existed, ‘back in the day?’
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