Seattle

I was on the verge of grumbling to myself about how overcast it was as I pulled the windows closed. Then I acknowledged that I was closing the windows on the first day of August not because the air-conditioner was on (we don't own one) but because it was 1 in the afternoon and I was a bit chilly. I'll take that over a central valley august any day.

in the chaos, etiquette is lost

One of the exciting moments I missed while I was hiking happened during the sprint finish in stage 11. HTC-Columbia rider Mark Renshaw was leading their sprinter Mark Cavendish to the line, while Garmin-Transitions rider Julian Dean was leading out sprinter Tyler Farrar. It looks as if Dean may be coming over into Renshaw's line, and he responds by headbutting him several times. Cavendish takes the opportunity to sprint, and Farrar had to swing around behind Renshaw and try to launch around him. Renshaw looks back at him and then swings directly in front of him.

Cavendish won the stage, but lost his lead out man who was disqualified and kicked out of the race. He defended his actions as fighting off Dean, but really had no sufficient explanation for cutting in front of Farrar.

Perhaps the punishment was a bit too severe, given that earlier in the race two riders went at it after crossing the line, one going so far as to pull the front wheel off his bike and hit the other rider with it. Those riders were disciplined, but not disqualified. The commentators have said they think it was unfair, but I think the officials must have been looking at the possibility of Renshaw's actions causing a massive high speed crash that could have taken out several riders. Had they simply put him down in the standings, he still would have been up at the front leading Cav to the line every stage after the mountains. It really wouldn't be much punishment at all.

Judge for yourself by watching what happens between the 30 and 50 second marks in the video above, and listen to the riders responses below

Peleton Etiquette

For those following, there was a bit of controversy in stage 15 when Andy Shleck, in the Yellow Jersey, had a technical problem with his bike.Just as he was launching an attack his chain slipped off. Alberto Contador used the opportunity to leave him behind and win the Yellow Jersey at the end of the stage.

The question is, why is it an issue? It's a race, yes? Why should anyone wait for anyone?

The peleton has it's own etiquette, part of which is that you do not attack the tour leader when he has a technical issue like a puncture, or when he crashes. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but while the tour organizers won't punish offenders, the heads of state certainly will. One famous example is Bernard Hinualt chasing down and then chewing out Joel Pelier for attacking without permission.

A few other unwritten rules:

·Never attack near the feeding stations

·Never attack when a large number are having a toilet stop.

·Share cans of coke and bottles of mineral water.

·Never attack when the race leader crashes or punctures.

·Always contribute to an escape, then win the sprint.

·Slow up and let the race leader go where he wants if appropriate.

·Never poke your nose between a sprinter and a lead-out man.

·Never get mixed up in the sprint unless you are fully committed.

·If two of you escape, and you have the yellow jersey, let your fellow escapee win the stage.

·Never attack in a tunnel.

(From guardian.co.uk)

So should Contador have attacked? He says he didn't see what happened, but he issued an apology on YouTube. As Armstrong said in an interview, it's a race, and Shleck had launched the attack, so maybe it's time to stop talking about who should wait and who should attack. But Contador shouldn't pretend that he didn't know what happened...he was at least 50 meters behind Shleck when it happened. He also pointed out that Contador was only 30 seconds behind Shleck, and most people think that he will easily gain about 1.5 minutes in the time trial, so he didn't need to attack.

Personally, I don't think he should have. It confirms my dislike of Contador.

Tour

One of the great things about the Tour is that you can miss a few days, but there is still plenty of tour.
One of the bad things about the Tour is that if you go away for the weekend, its really hard to catch up on 4 days of racing.

Head Butts? Abandonment? And of course Jersey Swaps!

Thanks for the comments, I'll try to catch up on the posts. The Tour is in the Pyrenees for the hundredth year, and Thursday should be an exciting day at the Col de Tourmalet

Olympic Penninsula

Lake Ozete-South Sand Point-Yellow Banks-Cape Alava-Ahlstroms Praiare

But why do they bother sprinting?

One question that has come up several times is why riders are trying for the various competitions, stage wins, etc. if they don't have a chance of winning the General Classification. Of course there is the pride of winning a stage, sprint, climb, etc... but I'm sure the prize money doesn't hurt.

The winner of each days stage wins E8000 (I don't know how to make the Euro symbol)

The winner of each intermediate sprint gets E800, while the holder of the Green jersey at the end of each day gets E300 in addition. Whoever wins the Green jersey at the end of the tour gets E25,000.

The polka-dot is a bit more complicated because it had to do with the difficulty of the climb, anywhere from E200-800, with an additional E300 for the daily holder each day. The final winner gets E25,000.

The white jersey (best young rider) gets E500 each day, and E20,000 for winning the jersey at the end of the Tour.

There is also an award each day for the most aggressive rider, generally a rider that leads a breakaway or in other ways makes the race exciting. The award is E2000 each day. Apparently there is a super combative award, but I'm not sure if that is a cumulative thing, or if they vote at the end of the race. The award is E20,000.

This year there are two special prizes at the top of the Tourmalet (we'll talk more about that next week) in honor of the original race organizers. The prizes combine to E10,000 for teh first to summit the Tourmalet.

Finally the overall winner of the Tour, the overall yellow jersey, walks away with E450,000. Not a bad haul.

Keep in mind that cycling is a team sport. I'm sure the specifics differ with each team, but my understanding is that some percentage of prize money is shared with the team. And of course it isn't all about the money. The final individual prize money drops off pretty quickly past the top 3, and the majority of the riders will walk away with E500 as a reward for a grueling 3 weeks of pain and suffering. Not the sort of thing you do for the money.

Feed Stations

About halfway through the race (sometimes twice depending on the length) the riders go through a feeding station. As they ride through they look for a support member of their team (soigneurs) who are holding out bags of drink and food called musettes. As they ride by they snatch at the bag, sometimes less successfully than others. Often there will be another team member a bit further down the road for another attempt.

Once they have the bag, they throw the drawstring around their neck and start pulling everything out to stuff into their pockets, water bottle cages, and in some cases just down the front of their jersey. When it's empty they chuck it and any empty bottles to the side of the road. they have to be careful to throw it clear of other riders, and are not allowed to just drop it straight onto the road where it may cause a crash.

There are a variety of other rules regarding when you can and cannot get food from the support cars, etc. One of the more interesting is that you are allowed to take food and drink from spectators on the sidelines, but you do so at your own risk. If a rider took a drink from someone on the side and later tested for a controlled substance, its their own fault.

A bit of history:

In 1959 Fedrico Bahmontes had outpaced the rest of the peleton on the climb up Pu-de-Dome, but broke a spoke half-way up. The support cars were stuck behind the peleton, so Bahmontes stopped at the top for some ice cream while he waited for the repairs to come to him.

Pave

Pave is the French term for the cobblestone that jarred the crap out of the Tour yesterday and played havoc with the the standings.

The cobblestones don't always feature so heavily in the Tour, and many riders never race on them. The big cobblestone races are Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. They are known for crazy crashes, and favor big dudes that can power through and have the weight to keep the bike from bouncing around.

This years winner of the Tour of Flanders was Fabian Cancellara, and I'd like to think that stage 2's sacrifice gave him a little karma to shoot back into the yellow jersey on the cobblestones. It was sad to see Ryder Hejadal get swept up at the end, he was so close to winning the stage.

Teamwork

Can you think of another sport where the athletes compete as a team, but only one person wins? Last year had a demonstration of how you can sacrifice team mates for your own glory (why i don't like Contador.) This year Fabian Cancellara showed what happens when a rider sacrifices his own glory for the sake of the Team.

SaxoBank saw a couple riders go down, including their favorite for the GC, Andy Shleck. Cancellara was at the front of the pack, riding in Yellow, and could have used the chaos of all the crashes (dogs in the road, etc) to extend his lead. Instead he neutralized the pack, allowing not only his team but many others to catch up so that they would not be disqualified. In the process he lost the yellow jersey by several minutes to a breakaway rider.

He did his job and helped his team.

Tour Trivia

This years tour is

3,642 kilometers / 2,263 miles.

Over 500,000 pedal rotations.

Riders will burn around 130,000 calories / 37 lbs over the course of the tour.

Moomin in the garden

I didn't grow up reading Tove Jansson's Moomin books, but I fell in love with them when I visited Scandinavia.

Snork Maiden frolicking in the lettuce

And Moomintroll in the arugala.
(Actually Snork Maiden without the flower, bracelet, and some of the hair)

Thanks Liz!

Happy 4th

I started celebrating with a proper British fry-up while watching the Tour de France.

Prologue explained

I didn't really know that much about the prologue, since it hasn't been a part of the last couple tours. When wikipedia failed me, I turned to that great wealth of information for the uninformed, the ""Whatever" for Dummies" series.

"As a ceremonial prerace, Prologues provide a quick, exciting Tour start. Individual time trials less than 8 kilometers (5 miles) in length, Prologues comprise a few minutes of individual, high-speed pedaling for every cyclist in the field. the race's winner wears the leader's yellow jersey for the first official stage held the following day... Prologues also provide the first look at the condition of lack of condition of overall title favorites..."

So that explains a bit about the prologue. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if the times from the prologue carry over, or if its just a psychological thing of coming out strong the first day and showing the competition what you brought to the party.

As for what was brought to the party this year... my Tour for Dummies book published in 2005 makes note of the fact that in 2004 "young Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara surprised the favorites, including Lance Armstrong...Cancellara claimed the Prologue in 6 minutes and 51 seconds- an average speed of 32.22 mph." This year Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) tore it up once again, completing an 8.9 kilometer course through Rotterdam on wet streets in 10 minutes even, beating out poor Tony Martin by 10 seconds. There is a good chance he will hold on to the Maillot Jaune for the next couple days, particularly since he is the current champ on Pave (cobblestones) which will feature heavily in stage 3.

Tour Prologue

I'm starting to feel a bit lazy sitting on my butt watching these cyclists push themselves around Rotterdam.
I was trying to figure out the purpose of the prologue, and made the mistake of doing a little internet searching...so although I have about 30 minutes left to watch, I now know who won. I'll need to be more careful over the next couple weeks.

Of course there is plenty of time left in the day, and its supposed to be partly sunny, so I'll get out on the bike this afternoon. First I need to do a little repair. Shortly after leaving work yesterday I heard that distinctive twang that meant I broke a spoke. Unfortunately it is behind the rear cassette, which means I need to take the wheel apart to fix it. I just replaced one around the same place last week! I think maybe I'm doing something wrong, maybe tightening them too much?

It's Tour Time!!!

I'm not an ass-backwards soccer hater like Glenn Beck, but I have to admit that I'm not a fanatic. I've endured the blog posts, news reports, and tweets... now its my turn. Of course if last year is any indication, I'll get pretty distracted and not really post much. For a quick recap, see last years post here and a brief bicycle history here.

Expect me to cheer for Garmin Transistions, HTC, and the Shleck brothers (SaxoBank). Although Contandor will no doubt tear it up, and is possibly the top pick for the overall, expect nothing but boos from this corner of the blogosphere. I'll even root for Cavendish before Contador.