On an interesting side note before I get back to slaving away on the CAD, those Livestrong bikes Lance rode this past year were up for grabs at a Sotheby's auction recently, and some of them fetched some serious dough... Of course, Damien Hirst's ridiculous pink madone topped the list at $500,000.00
The final stage is more of an exhibition stage where the riders are all smiles and camaraderie, in stark contrasts to the days before when the rivalries reared their ugly heads. Take, for example Contador and team Astana having a toast of champagne as they rode into town:
I'm not sure if that's actually champagne or if its apple juice. Drinking alcohol while racing a bicycle (even on a not so 'important' stage like this) seems like a bad idea to me. however, apple juice and a slice of toast with some nice marmalade would be lovely in my opinion. I think they should have a toaster in the team cars that plugs into the cigarette lighter so that team coaches can keep their racers fed with warm and crispy snacks. And maybe some cheese too; Brie maybe?
Speaking of Brie, while the peloton zipped toward the center of Paris, they passed through a region called Île-de-France, a place fairly reeking of the eponymous spread. The announcers oddly chose this moment to comment on the first two Japanese riders to complete the tour (apparently there were a few other guys who rode it long ago, but didn't finish); Fumiyuki Beppu and Yukiya Arashiro.
Perhaps it was an veiled jab at asian people's prevalent lactose intolerance, though we can't let this distract us from the real issue here: Why is it that the tour de france is hugely dominated by riders from the USA, Australia, and European countries?
Lets take a look at the podiums after stage 21 for reference shall we? First we have the first second and third placed riders (Contador 1st, Schleck 2nd, and Armstrong 3rd):
From left to right we've got a Luxembourger, a Spaniard, and an American. Seems fairly white-washed doesn't it? Lets see who else got up there:
...ah, yes; Franco Pellizotti, an Italian (obviously), won the King of the Mountains. The leader for sprint points was Thor Hushovd, A Norwegian...
...and lastly we have none other than the 'Mark Cavendish, winner of the day's stage:
Of course the 'Dish is from Britain, another stronghold of white-ness.
Because I don't know of any theories generally accepted by race scholars to this effect; I can only surmise that the elite of competitive cycling are selected from the ranks of each nation's top cyclists, and as such confuses me how there are virtually no (for instance) black cyclists in the grand tours.
Using my semi-regular trips to do laps in Prospect and Central Parks as a litmus, I would gather that cycling is quite the multi-ethnic sport, considering the number of roadies one encounters of all shapes and colors.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this... I just thought it odd that, for instance, the great majority of the world's greatest foot racers are black guys and gals, though that experience with stamina and power output wouldn't segue into a sport such as cycling, where such talents are essential. The fact that the race announcers spent a good fifteen minutes marveling at the foreign-ness of Beppu and Arashiro both baffles and worries me. I'm a firm believer that in order to combat racism, one must simultaneously accept it and ignore it where appropriate (the opposite of what the announcers were doing).
Anyway the conclusion of the tour, as I noted earlier, was pretty uneventful. Cavendish's victory on the Champs-Élysées was not only forseen by everyone, but anticlimactic as he and his lead-out man, Mark Renshaw, obliterated the peloton in the last turn and flew across the line a full three bike lengths ahead of the next riders.
This enormous gap and preemtive victory salute reminds me of another recent display of masterful sprinting ability. Though 'Dish's salute wasn't perhaps as creative as his previously noted SSS, It was one of sheer happiness, which is always nice to see, no matter the color or accent of the grin.
This is the 'Dish's sixth win at the 96th tour, and the most tour victories of any briton ever... Brilliant riding by the man x missle. To win in Paris is the pinnacle of acheivement for sprinters the world over.
Today the tour got considerably more interesting... After much to-do within the Astana squad (Lance and Alberto's team) in the past few days, this mountainous stage through the French Alps was destined to shake up the top ten standings.
Apparently Armstrong and Contador are 'two stallions in the same barn', so to speak, causing Astana's teamwork to falter somewhat, though it seems as though the official declaration of intent from Astana is that Armstrong is prohibited from making any moves to jeopardize Contador's lead, which essentially forces Lance into a domestique's role (which IMO is total fucking bullshit).
Understandably, Lance can do much better than dealing with whiny little brats who want their turn in the sun, so word is that he's, a. going to race the tour next year as well, and b. he's taking the Astana team manager, Johan Buyneel, with him to create a new team that will probably rob Astana of other strong riders like Levi Leipheimer (who, like Bruyneel, is a good buddy of Lance's).
He's going to announce the sponsors of this new team tomorrow, velonews reports, and I can safely surmise that Livestrong and Trek will be among them.
Today's stage saw Armstrong diligently holding back a chase group from catching up to the lead group which consisted of Andreas Kloden, Alberto Contador, and the Schleck brothers. The Schleck brothers had hinted that they would make some moves in the Alps today, and boy did they ever. After repeated attacks by the Schlecks, Contador thought he might try the same, and attacked...
...but of course, the Schlecks weren't going to let him get away with that and quickly caught him.
But what Contador failed to realize is that in attacking the Schlecks, he forced his teammate off the back of the group, leaving himself with a 2-1 disadvantage on the descent to the finish. Oops!
The finish saw Andy Schleck give his older brother the stage victory to position themselves squarely on the podium behind Contador and ahead of Armstrong who is now in fourth place overall.
Well, tommorrows stage is an individual time trial where Lance may make up some time, though likely not enough to do any damage to the yellow jersey. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.
Today was a great day for Danes everywhere as former danish national road racing champion (twice, once in 2003 and again in 2008), Nicki Sørensen, destroyed the breakaway with an attack at just over 5km to the finish of stage 12. Though this is the first Tour de France stage victory for Sørensen, he is no stranger to the podium as evidenced by his growing list of wins. Here he is celebrating as he crossed the line more than thirty seconds ahead of the breakaway and six and a half minutes clear of the peloton:
Of course, I can't rob you of the requisite podium shot:
This excellent cycling by Sørensen has moved him from 39th place to 26th place in the GC standings!
In other tour news, today versus' filler shots were not opulent chateaus as they were yesterday but instead they focused on the hay bale art along the route that farmers (I assume) put together to commemorate the race passing by. Most are fairly standard fare, bicycles being the most popular subject matter:
Though I do tip my hat to some other crafty individuals who weren't content with using only bales of hay to show their enthusiasm. This one was crafted with not only hay, but matching threshers and a clever implementation of colored bale bags:
Well, At least there were enough of these that they could show us a different one each time.
No major crashes on my radar today, so stay tuned next week when I'll be sure to have found some stomach-churning gore (your'e fairly warned) for the next KIRT post. Hopefully by that point we'll also have a better idea of who will emerge as the overall winner in the tour, and will finally be able to get some sleep and stop worrying about Lance's time deficit.
I'm posting a little late today because I spent the morning watching the tour online at versus. Though it was uneventful for the most part, I did enjoy watching a breakaway group try and stay ahead of the peloton for the last 60km of the stage. If you're not familiar with road racing, a breakaway is when a (usually small) group of riders takes off from the front of the main group and attempts to stay away as long as possible. Usually breaks that occur before the last quarter of the stage get re-enveloped by the peloton unless the break away riders are extraordinarily strong or the course is mountainous enough to render pacelining useless.
The break earlier today saw six riders, four of whom were rookies at the tour, work together marvelously to stay away for the entire rest of the stage. Eventually the peloton did reel in most of them, but Frenchman Thomas Voeckler managed to stay ahead just long enough to beat the field by a few seconds.
Unfortunately, all of the general classification contenders (Cancellara, Armstrong, Contador, Leipheimer, etc...) all finished with the pack and as such received the same finishing time and no changes were made to the top ten standings.
Upon closer inspection of the General Classification Standings (above) I noticed that Lance is listed as being second with a gap of 00:00:00 to Fabian Cancellara (as is highlighted by hexidecimal BADA55, of course). Needless to say I was sort of confused about how they could be tied, for one, and how they determine who they call the GC leader in the event of said tie...
Researching the rules and regulations of the UCI while the middle of the race sped along in another tab, I heard the announcers explain where the discrepancy arose. Apparently Lance is back from Cancellara, though by a mere 0.22 seconds (that's less than a wheel length at race speeds).
This means that unless something goes horribly wrong for Lance tomorrow, he'll probably have the race locked. He's arguably the worlds foremost climber and time trial specialist, giving him quite the edge in the coming middle portion of the race, where the riders will race over the Pyrenees Mountains after tomorrows flat stage finishing Barcelona. Following that are a smattering of different courses, with the Alpe d'Huez somewhere toward the end of the race.
This in mind, I thought this might be an opportunity to refresh ourselves on some of Lance's accomplishments in the seven times he's won the tour.
First, the most famous 'Lance move' that you may hear cycling fans refer to is "the look". It was given by Lance to his rival in the 2001 tour, Jan Ullrich, while ascending the slopes of the (aforementioned) Alpe d'Huez a 'beyond categorization' climb (aka steep as shit and piled higher). lets watch:
That's what I call bicycle-gangster. Looks him in the eye to give him more than fair warning, and then takes off dropping the rest of the race on a road so steep they don't have a good way of classifying it.
Then in 2003, again battling Ullrich to retain the yellow jersey, he shows his true grit:
To fall like that, have a mechanical malfunction, fix it, stumble again, and then go on to destroy the lead group and win the stage is downright superhuman.
Finally, we can't exclude his famous cyclocross X Road racing collabo after getting forced off the road on a fast descent:
Personally as much as I love the 'Dish's victory salutes, I am rooting for Lance to do it again. An eighth victory at the tour would be a nearly insurmountable record that would reinforce his already cemented claim to cycling immortality. As I said before, the next stages being rather hilly; I expect my fellow Texan to pull ahead of the other GC contenders by Friday, and hold onto the yellow jersey for most if not all of the rest of the race.
Thats right, Lance is a machine... He will win again. Remember, you heard it here first, so place your bets.
Speaking of machines, and lacking much humor in the above writing, I present for your general amusement this recently discovered ad for the Murray Street machine, which according to the ad is faster than a Star Trek transporter. In the words of one Vincent Vega, "...that's a bold statement, my friend..."
Stay tuned to JSYNYC tomorrow for a gripping tale of cyclists' rights being abused and the dislocation of my most-used finger!
I practice architecture, cycling, loafing, and speculating on a daily basis. Writing this blog is, for me, a way to speak with myself and others about strange things I notice each day. While people may not always agree with my views, I hope that perhaps my rants and lame attempts at jokes encourage readers to take note of their surroundings and learn to laugh a little at the circus that is life.
CMWC 2009 in Tokyo by Tak of New York Bike Dreams.
