Breaking news. Levi Leipheimer is out of the Tour due to a broken wrist. The break occurred during yesterday's stage within 2 km of the finish. Levi didn't realize it was broken until after the stage. It hurt throughout the night and he abandoned the Tour this morning.
Will Levi's departure leave Lance without an ally when it comes to the internal power struggle between him and Contador? Time will tell.
He hasn't been able to beat Cavendish yet, but this Tour rookie gets closer each time. With the first Tour rest day out of the way, everyone was excited about getting back to racing. Well, almost everyone...The riders decided that they would take another day off so that's pretty much what they did.
Stage 10 turned out to be more of a bicycle parade versus race as the riders protested the Tour de France organization's decision to ban race radios for this stage of the Tour. Prior to the beginning of the Tour, the Tour de France organization thought it would be fun to try racing without race radios like they used to do in days of yore. I guess they thought that the radios give the riders too much advantage, so banning them for Stage 10 and 13 would bring some excitement back to the race.
Many of the teams felt that racing without the use of radios would be much too dangerous so they signed petitions, threatened to boycott, and voiced their concerns to the media all in hopes of getting the Tour organizers to change their minds.
The Tour organization wouldn't budge so the racers protested by taking a leisurely stroll through the French country side. People lining the streets expecting to see the peloton rush by were greeted with a much longer look as the peloton crept by in slow motion.
At one point, I think I saw a couple of the teams playing this:
I wonder if this will be enough to convince the Tour organization to allow the radios back in for Stage 13?
Stage 9, the final day in the Pyrenees, turned out to be an uneventful stage. It contained a long and difficult HC climb but ended with a 70 km downhill ride to the finish. Such a long ride to the finish is a pretty big deterrent to attacks because it's so easy for the peloton to make up the time lost on the downhill run. The only big attack occurred at the very beginning of the race when a large group of riders made the break. Lance didn't like the numbers of riders allowed to leave and AG2R, the team defending the GC, didn't seem to be doing anything about it. So Lance took matters into his own hands and went after the breakaway single handedly. With Lance's attack, the peloton was instantly put in motion to stay on his tail, and they quickly brought the breakaway back into the pack.
This is where Lance shows his true leadership. Contador would have never thought about the size of the breakaway and how that might cause a bigger time gap than could be accomplished by a smaller group of riders. The more racers in a group, the more people there are to share the work load and the faster the breakaway can go. Lance's Tour experience has taught him that this can be a real danger and he wasn't going to allow it to happen. I think Contador still has a lot to learn about the Tour if he wants to become one of the all time repeat winners, and Lance is the one he should be learning it from. Respect the Tour, Contador!
No GC changes on the stage and tomorrow is the first Tour rest day.
1 - NOCENTINI Rinaldo - TEAM AG2R
2 - Alberto Contador - TEAM ASTANA - 06" seconds behind
3 - Lance Armstrong - TEAM ASTANA - 08"
4 - Levi Leipheimer - TEAM ASTANA - 39"
5 - Bradley Wiggins - TEAM GARMIN - 46"
6 - Andreas Kloden - TEAM ASTANA - 54"
18 - Cadel Evans - TEAM SILENCE-LOTTO - 3' 07"
36 - Big George Hincapie - TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC - 5' 25"
39 - Fabian Cancellara - TEAM SAXO BANK - 5' 37"
Another day in the Pyrenees, but no successful attacks or leader board changes to speak of. There was one moment of excitement as Cadel Evans launched an attack along with Cancellara and several others. Since Cadel is a GC threat, Astana quickly come to the front of the peloton and set a healthy pace to run them down. At some point during the breakaway, Cancellara started yelling and gesturing at Cadel because his presence was sabotaging the breakaway. Cancellara knew that if Cadel would drop off the back and let the peloton swallow him up, the remainder of the breakaway would be "allowed" to continue. Since Cadel wouldn't leave, Cancellara and a couple of the others attacked the small group and were able to get away from Cadel. Shortly after that, the peloton caught Cadel and then slowed to their normal easy going pace. Cancellara's group was eventually caught as well but the lead breakaway group was able to hold the peloton off and Luis "dirty" Sanchez from the Spanish TEAM CAISSE D'EPARGNE won the stage.
On a side note, there's been quite a bit of media hype about Contador's attack in Stage 7 but still no clear team leader. When asked about it, Lance commented with a "no comment". Johan Bruyneel said that the event was discussed at this mornings' team meeting but said nothing more. We're still in the dark.
Stage 7 was the first day into the Pyrenees mountains with two massive climbs, a category 1 and an HC (above category). The mountain climbs are categorized from 1 to 4, with 4 being the easiest and 1 the hardest, and then there is the "Hors Categorie" (HC). I always think Hors d'oeuvres when I see HC, serve that junk up!
The finish line of Stage 7 was at the top of the HC ascent and this is where the action took place. The peloton had been splintered by the uphill pace and all the big names were present. All but Cancellara, the yellow jersey, who was dropped and ended up losing quite a bit of time on the stage overall. There was a small breakaway up head of the big guys but it didn't appear as if they were trying too hard to reel them back. And then Cadel Evans attacked! Cadel is the Australian riding for team Silence-Lotto who finished 2nd place in both the 2007 and 2008 Tour. He badly wants a Tour win, but didn't count on Lance coming back to bike racing. Cadel is already close to 3 minutes behind Lance which is a monumental time gap, so Cadel will have to do something special to get back into contention. This attack was his first attempt at doing so, but was quickly stymied by Lance and Team Astana. Cadel tried again, but to no avail. Lance, Contador and Leipheimer were just too strong and didn't look even close to breaking. And then the surprise of the day, Contador attacked and no one answered. He just flew away. The interesting part was that neither Lance nor Leipheimer made even the slightest attempt to hop on their teammates back wheel.
Why is this interesting?
If you haven't been following the Tour or Team Astana over the past couple of weeks, Team Astana has refused to announce who their team leader is. The part that's unknown is whether this is some kind of strategy or trickery by team director Johan Bruyneel or if there is some real tension within the team of who the leader should be. The leader of each team is the one guy that has the opportunity to win the Tour. No man can win the Tour on his own, it just requires too much work. That's the reason for teams. The teams consist of riders who specialize in the mountains, riders who specialize in time trials and riders who are good at everything. But the guy who will win the Tour has to be great at everything and has to have help from the rest of his team. They help him by protecting him from other riders, by protecting him from the wind, by getting him water bottles from the team car, to holding him steady as he relieves his bladder at 20 mph. Whatever the task, the team is there to help the leader win the Tour.
The problem with Team Astana is that they have too many great riders; Lance Armstrong - 7 time Tour champion, Alberto Contador - 2007 Tour champion, Levi Leipheimer - 3rd place 2007 Tour, Andreas Kloden - 2nd place 2004 and 2006 Tour. The other problem is that Contador was the assumed team leader until Lance announced his return to cycling. Contador was also the presumed leader of Astana for the 2008 Tour in which team Astana was suspended due to doping issues. Because of this, Contador wasn't allowed to enter the 2008 Tour. Contador's career involves the 2007 Tour victory, being denied the opportunity to race the 2008 tour, and the probability that he will be riding for Lance here in the 2009 Tour. Yea, that could cause some animosity.
Astana team director, Johan Bruyneel, is known for his racing prowess and leadership. On more than one occasion he has tricked the other teams with one ruse or another. Is Astana's unannounced leadership a strategy to keep the other teams off guard or do they have an internal power struggle? The ultimate goal is for the team to win the Tour. If the other teams don't know who they are riding against does this give some advantage to Astana? Does Astana really need that advantage? Did Lance come back to the Tour to lose? There are a lot of ways to look at it but it comes down to this, Contador attacked and Lance didn't answer even though he looked completely fit to do so. My personal feeling is that there's some trickery going on in team Astana but only they know for sure.
The net result was that Contador finished 21" seconds ahead of Lance which launched him into second place overall. It would have been first place had it not been for one of the riders in the breakaway who gained enough time to take over first place and the yellow.
The new leader board reads like this...
1 - NOCENTINI Rinaldo - TEAM AG2R
2 - Alberto Contador - TEAM ASTANA - 06" seconds behind
3 - Lance Armstrong - TEAM ASTANA - 08"
4 - Levi Leipheimer - TEAM ASTANA - 39"
5 - Bradley Wiggins - TEAM GARMIN - 46"
6 - Andreas Kloden - TEAM ASTANA - 54"
18 - Cadel Evans - TEAM SILENCE-LOTTO - 3' 07"
36 - Big George Hincapie - TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC - 5' 25"
39 - Fabian Cancellara - TEAM SAXO BANK - 5' 37"
Stage 6 was another relatively flat stage with a couple of climbs mixed in and a steep run up to the finish. Once again a small breakaway was allowed to escape from the peloton and led most of the race. I say "allowed", because that's pretty much how it works. A couple of riders will attack the peloton and as long as no one who is in contention for an overall Tour victory aka the General Classification - GC is in the breakaway, the peloton will usually let them get away.
This behavior accomplishes several things...
It allows riders who have no hope of an overall Tour victory, the opportunity to go for a stage win. Helping their careers and promoting their sponsors.
It adds a little more excitement for people watching the Tour.
But most importantly, it helps temper the pace of the peloton. Even small attacks can make the peloton nervous. They have to pay attention to who is attacking, they have to know what the attackers overall status is (are they a threat?), and then they have to decide what to do about it. Once a rider or group of riders is allowed to successfully attack, there usually aren't too many more attacks after that. i.e. By allowing a small group to get a couple of minutes ahead, it takes some incentive away from other riders who may have considered attacking, thereby allowing the peloton to drop their guard and relax to an extent. Ex. Why would I attack if I knew there was another group of riders that I'd have to get passed a couple of minutes up the road? It just seems like too much work. It's a great psychological deterrent and it usually works.
The peloton will then monitor the advantage of the breakaway and then in uncanny fashion usually overtake the breakaway within sight of the finish line. But every once in a while, something happens and the peloton gets it wrong, and on those days the win goes to the rider who took the risk.
The peloton, while it may seem kind of boring, is an amazing part of bike racing. Understanding what goes on within the peloton actually makes watching bike racing much more entertaining. I recall a stage a couple of Tours ago where a rider who was not a threat to the GC made an early breakaway. Unfortunately for him, he had pissed Lance off and Lance didn't want to give him the opportunity to win a stage, so Lance attacked with him. With Lance by his side, the attack was doomed, because the peloton wouldn't even consider letting Lance (a GC threat) get away. Too funny!
Back to Stage 6, the breakaway wasn't able to maintain the advantage and the peloton caught and passed them within one kilometer of the finish. At least they got to show off their skills and sponsors for a little while.
Once again, there were no changes in the overall GC standings.
1 - Fabian Cancellara - TEAM SAXO BANK (not really a threat once we get into the mountains)
2 - Lance Armstrong - TEAM ASTANA - .22" seconds behind
3 - Alberto Contador - TEAM ASTANA - 19" seconds
4 - Andreas Kloden - TEAM ASTANA - 23"
5 - Levi Leipheimer - TEAM ASTANA - 31"
12 - Big George Hincapie - TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC - 1' 36"
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