TdF Wrap, Dumb Stuff, and OMG TAYLOR PHINNEY

TdF Wrap
After all the apologies, after the concessions, after the praise I laid on Marcel Kittel after his previous stage victory... I still didn't give him a chance in Paris.  So what did he do?  Won the thing, clearly out in front of Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel.  Sagan was nowhere to be seen.  So, in the words of my lovely wife, "Poor Cav, all he got was 2 stage wins and some piss in the face".

Anyways, congrats again to Kittel.  The time-honored tradition of sports writership is terrible pun headlines, so here are some I didn't get to use:
Cav You Believe It?
Mark Up Another Win
'Dish Network
Greip for the Taking
Count Andre (it's a stretch)
Going, Going, Sa-gone

Dumb Stuff
Just had to comment on 2 things I've seen on SportCenter this week.  1) Of course I don't want to make light of a homicide, but scrolling the quote from Patriots head man Bill Belichick in regards to the Hernandez case saying "This doesn't represent the ideals of the Patriots organization" is just... I mean, really?  That was an important quote to keep showing?  Did anyone really think... oh nevermind. 2) Johnny Manziel's father saying he drinks to handle the stress.  If so, surely let's take it seriously, but also consider the fact he drinks because he's a college student.  It happens... I've heard.
Ok, that's all on that, I feel better.  Now last, but most importantly...

Taylor Phinney!
The Boulderite got his first stage win (non-TT) at the Tour de Pologne today.  With 7km to go, he attacked, and never building more than a 15 second lead help on for victory.  Yay Colorado!  Yay Boulder!  Yay Taylor!

Not saying it's a good look, but winning looks good

Parting Thoughts: And if you close your eyes, it almost feels like nothing's changed at all (go find Bastille Pompeii and give it a listen!)

TdF Stage 20: Flawless Victory

Oh boy, Stage 20 went down so perfectly.  The eventual top 3 were the last 3 standing, a head above the rest.  Nairo Quintana (a much more difficult name to make a pun of), Jaoquin Rodriguez and Chris Froome proved themselves the worth podium by finishing 1-2-3 on the punishing uphill finish.

The first time we saw anything but cool and calm on his face

Quintana, the rising star of Colombia and climbing aficionado, countered Froome's last attack and then leapt ahead.  Rodriguez and Froome couldn't keep up with the kid.  For his efforts, Quintana takes home the Polka Dot and technically the White, but American Andrew Talansky will get to wear that in to Paris.

Final Wrapup
For those who don't know, the Paris finish is traditionally formalities, plus the last time for the sprinters to show off.  The pack will finish together, they'll go slow (until they hit Paris), they'll drink champagne while riding.  Technically, the Green jersey could do something on the final day, but this year Sagan's bus would need to crash on the way to the start line for him not to take that home.  So, really, it's just for the stage win and the prestige.  For everyone but those top sprinters, they get to take it all in.  So congrats to Talansky for coming in 2nd(ish) in the young rider category, congrats to Tejay for showing he's still got legs in the last week, congrats to Tommy D and Brent Bookwalter for representing the US and completing another Tour.  Congrats to Sagan for successful defense of his Green jersey, congrats to Nairo for showing up on the world scene in style, and congrats to Froome for kicking everyone's butt and probably not saying "I'm Chris Froome, b*ches" along the way.  What a Tour!

Parting Thoughts: Nooo, mista Superman no here

TdF2013 Stage 19: Costa-ing to Victory

Yeah, I just made that pun.  And I'm sticking by it.  The back-to-back TdSuisse champion, Rui Costa, got his 2nd win in the Alps today in the fairly grueling stage 19.  After Pierre Roland went out to win himself the Polka Dot jersey by hitting most of the climbs first, Costa caught him on the final climb and cruised to the win.  The peleton was 8:40 back.  No major shakeups in the overall, though Daniel Navarro jumped himself in to the top 10.

He may have Rui-ned Pierre Roland's day.  Boom, 2 for 2 on puns.

One more big day in the mountains, with a nice uphill finish, and then they can all coast in to Paris on Sunday evening.  With a 100-point lead, and 3 sprint spots left in the race, Sagan has pretty much wrapped up that Green jersey for a 2nd consecutive year.  The Polka Dot is still very up for grabs with 6 categorized climbs tomorrow.  Nairo Quintana looks pretty solid in the White, with a 10 minute lead and only more climbs, his specialty.

Other Notes
Up to 28 withdrawals, including several today and I'm sure a few tomorrow.  How heart-wrenching it must be to make it through this much TdF and not see the finale in Paris.

Parting Thoughts: I missed Parting Thoughts yesterday, in my very very brief summary.  So to the anonymous commenter I give you this gift of one of the finest pieces of music ever composed:

Parting Thoughts 2: Just be glad I didn't Rick Roll you...

TdF Catch-up Through Stage 18

While I was off having my own little bike adventure (I may sum that up at a later date), the Tour de France went on.  And I was pretty much able to catch all the details.  Here, in no particular order, are my thoughts, revelations, and summaries of the last few stages.
1) Chris Froome is still a badass
   Amendment 1: Team Sky is a bunch of cheaters.  They have twice gotten food for Froome within the no-feed zone from the finish.  I appreciate their ahead-of-its-time, no-tolerance policy regarding performance enhancing drugs, but that doesn't give them carte blanche to abuse the other rules.  The sad part is, it doesn't even matter to him because he has such a lead.  Le sigh.
  Amendment 2: When Richie Porte dropped back and got illegal food for Froome, it was Porte that served the punishment.  Lame.
2) Tejay found some legs.  Sadly he didn't last all the way to the top of D'Huez, but his top-10 TT and 2nd place on the Alpe showed some form.  Good for him.
3) Contador is impressing me just in that he hasn't conceded.  He keeps trying to find a chink in Froome's armor.  Sadly, there is none.
4) I hate that I enjoy watching one of these guys blow up.  It's so amazing that when these fine-tuned cycling machines hit the wall, all of sudden they can barely move the pedals.  They ride such a fine line.
5) Time to catch up on True Blood.  2 more stages!

TdF 2013 Week 3 preview

Stage 14 Wrap
Yay, a Jensie breakaway!  Sadly he got dropped, but the 18 man break still make it to the finish line (down to 14) and made 7+ minutes on the GC leaders.  Included in that break was Tejay, finally getting some camera time, and Andrew Talansky.  His 7 minutes pulled him up to 12th overall, which is nothing to sneeze at.  It was pretty clear that no one up front was a big threat, and the bug guns were saving their legs for tomorrow.  Speaking of tomorrow...

Week 3 Preview

Ahh, the final week.  The coup de grace.  The last act.  The final episode of Lost, except without all the disappointment.  The Alps!

Stage 15
Well, let's not waste any time acquainting the riders with the serious mountains of week 3.

In the words of ET, "ouch"

This 222 km stage, which undulates but it relatively flat, ends with the climb to Mont Ventoux.  A 20 km climb, with average gradient of 7.5%.  And take a look along the bottom of the chart above... plenty of sections of 10%+, and the final 2km at 9.5%.  I can see the peleton getting to the bottom of this climb still relatively together, but Mont Ventoux will be the liquid nitrogen and the hammer.  With the rest day following, the climbers will be going all out, and there will be a lot of attacks.  Can anyone pull away from Froome though?  I'm saying with a relatively comfortable lead and week still to go, he won't execute the death blow to the field just yet, and we'll see another fine climb by the likes of Nairo Quintana or Pierre Roland.  Then again, if a team puts the hurt on Sky again (less likely here), you'll see attack from the top GC contenders to test Froome.

Rest day!

Stage 16

A bit more medium mountains, Stage 16 will be the lead in to the stages the TdF organizers and fans have been drooling about.  Certainly some hard climbs, but maybe not big enough to drop Sagan.

Stage 16

I picture a fairly large group finish, but with most of the sprinters dropped.  The best of the rest to win, no time change in the GC top 10.

Stage 17

A 32km TT, last of the Tour, but much different from the first one.  This TT actually has 2 fairly significant climbs, and will be much less favorable to the classic TT style of Tony Martin.  It's no Vail TT, in my opinion, but will suit Froome well (what doesn't suit him?).  It could also be a chance for Alejandro Valverde, who lost 2 minutes in the first TT, to compete with Froome.  There will definitely be some big time gaps here, but probably of the duration one could make up on the next 2.

Stage 18

The winner of this stage will be telling their grandchildren about it.  "Hm, how should we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Le Tour," I imagine someone asking in the planning meeting (use your worst French accent).  "I know!  Let's take one of the most famous, most evil ascents in the world... and do it TWICE.  Oui!"

Alpe D'Huez x 2?

If you are not familiar with the Alpe D'Huez, check out the wiki entry.  Honestly, on paper it doesn't look as bad as Mont Ventoux, but it's the way it does it.  The 21 hairpins.  The 10% right off the bat.  The 11.5% before the false flat at the top.  I've also heard that the Cat 2 right after the first summit is steeper, but shorter (hence the cat 2), and that the descent is super sketchy.  And the fans will be so in the rider's grills

Sometimes you have to make room...

I'm actually curious, given the harshness of the stage and the relative shortness, how firmly they'll enforce the time limit.  After kicking out Ted King, seems like they have to stick by the books, but what if Cav came in outside?  I don't think they'd let the Paris finish go off without him.

Stage 19

Really no rest for the wicked here.  Pretty tired after d'Huez?  Why don't you start the stage with 2 more back-to-back HC climbs.  The nature of this course should allow for a small regrouping after the early big climbs, but with two more Cat 1's to conclude, it could be a breakaway day.

Who will stay away?

The descent is short enough that a group over the top of the final Col de la Croix Fry could stay on for the win, even with as little as 30 seconds lead.  Also, French names are fun.  This is the stage I pick for Tommy Voeckler, but I'm sad that there's no Jensie stage in the works.  I think the mountains are bigger than he'd be looking for for a breakaway, but he did do it over Independence Pass last year so who knows.

Stage 20

The last time any changes can be made in the GC, but I suspect it'll be too late.  Then again, they're all (mostly) human, so they can blow up at any time.  This stage is very short, and ends up the HC Annecy-Semnoz.  It's 10.7km average 8.5%.  Someone will blow themselves up on this climb for a final shot at glory in 2013.

Short and sweet

I'm just shooting from the hip here, and going with my new hero, Andrew Talansky.  The thing that will really make this stage is if the King of the Mountains is still up for grab.

Stage 21

They have champage while riding their bikes, which is not officially recommended, but they deserve it for surviving the previous 3 weeks.  They'll spin in like a big happy family, but then it actually gets pretty serious in Paris.  Some people will attack while riding around the laps (last chance to get on TV), then they'll get caught.  Then Cavendish will win.  Unless, of course, he's been eliminated...

I've seen nothing to far to change my overall predictions, namely Froome in Yellow and Sagan in Green, but that one will be mostly set before week 3 hits.  The battle in the mountains will decide White between Quintana and Kwiatkowski.  And the KOM is too up in the air for me right now, but I think Pierre Roland is planning on protecting his Polka Dots.

So, that's about that.  So it's time to sit back and watch people with enormous quads put themselves through immense pain for some cash and glory.  I, for one, can't wait!

Parting Thought: The Tour of Austria happened.  It was won by Riccardo Zoidl, a guy I've never heard of from a team I've never heard of.  My boy Joe Dombrowski had a decent ride, however, wearing the White jersey there for 1 stage.  Poor Austria, I'm sure they deserve better than to take place during the TdF.

Stage 12: BEWARE THE ECHELON

Stage 12, nice flat stage before the big mountains.  Easy day, right?  Sprinter stage, right?  No, today's stage turned in to an opportunity for several major riders to gain time on Froome because ECHELON.  A nasty side wind allows for opportunistic attacks, and as Jens Voigt spurned the attack in the Tour of California earlier this year, Contador and SaxoBank timed it just right to drop Froome by forming the allmighty echelon.  Making the cut of the small lead group were Sagan and Cavendish, and Cav made up for his miss yesterday, taking the stage and pushing Sagan to another 2nd place.

I don't even see another rider in the shot

Also making the cut were Bauke Mollema and Laurens Tem Dam, both making up just over a minute on Froome.  Missing the move, and even further back after some poor timing with a flat, was Valverde.  He dropped WAY out of 2nd place.  And my prediction which I was oh so proud of a few days ago is toast.
Not to beat a dead horse here, but one of the reasons Froome missed the move and couldn't catch back up was that he only had 2 Sky riders along side.  Contador was riding with 4 or 5 teammates for the last 30km.

Week 3 preview coming tomorrow, stay tuned!

Parting Thought: ech·e·lon  (sh-ln)

n.

1.

a. A formation of troops in which each unit is positioned successively to the left or right of the rear unit to form an oblique or steplike line.

b. A flight formation or arrangement of craft in this manner.

c. A similar formation of groups, units, or individuals.

Stage 12: Kittel the World

What the what?  It's not like Marcel Kittel was an unknown sprinter or anything, but I think there would be few people outside of Ma and Pa Kittel who would have bet on him winning 3 stages in this year's tour.  Matching the wins by Cav, Greip, and Sag combined (I thought they all needed 1 syllable nicknames).  I'm done making excuses for him, too.  Sure, it was another finish that wasn't clean, but you know what?  He's the constant survivor.  He's the one that's gotten through the mess and put himself in position to win.  3 times.  And today over the Manxman himself, Mark Cavendish.
Congrats Marcel.  And congrats Ma and Pa Kittel for going with the name "Marcel".  It's cool.

Another photo finish (letour.fr)

Rider update:
I am usually writing this in a hurry, because for some reason I don't get paid for this, so I forgot a couple notes from yesterday:
1) Why is Andy Schleck SO BAD at time trials?  Even when he was in top form, he lost the TdF on a TT to Cadel.  I don't get it.  And with the latest breed of top cyclists excelling at the TT, that's just minutes to lose.
2) Where did Tejay go?  I thought he was back in it again (he keeps teasing me) when he came through the first TT time check in 2nd.  And then he slipped down, down, down.  I really hope he's back in form for the Pro Challenge later this summer in CO...

Parting Thought: Here's some things I think are awesome to go check out: Chance's End music, and Rumblin Buffalo's CU sports blog

Stage 10/11: Brawlin

Stage 10: WW(td)F
OK, that title's double meaning may be a bit of a stretch, I was attempting to reference ye old World Wrestling Federation (sorry World Wildlife Fund).  Stage 10 played out mostly to expectations, with the early break getting caught (quite late, actually) and setting up for a sprint of the world's fastest men on a bike.  But then things got weird.  It seemed to start with the medians on the road, that kept splitting the peleton, and causing ripples back through the group and people tried to rejoin a slip-stream.  And as fascinating as I always find it to watch the dynamic nature of the peleton at high speeds, this just seemed chaotic before it got to the final sprint.  The teams weren't able to set up as efficiently as they're used to... and then it got downright fighty.
I've been looking for solid video to post here, but it seems there is little to find.  If you find some, pay attention to Peter Sagan and a Movistar guy I haven't been able to identify.  They repeatedly are biking in to each other.  There's always bumping, but this just looked like a little battle between the two.  Someone must have been talking smack.  Ahead of them, shortly before the finish, as Cavendish attempts to get involved in the sprint that's leaving him behind, he clearly (imho) shoulders in to Tom Veelers at high speed and knocks him to the ground.  He was not penalized, and the race official even said that if anyone were at fault it was Veelers.  Go check it out, there's no way.

Kittle edged out the Gorilla

This left Stage 1 winner (thanks to the cluster that was Stage 1) Kittel to battle with what appeared to be an exhausted Greipel, and Kittel was the first man to take 2 stage wins this year.
There was essentially no change in standings, as everyone finished at the same time.  A couple more sprint days ahead before the Alps for them to deal with their emotions and try again.  Deep breaths, guys, use your ears not your elbows.
Another Sky note: Froome's teammates fell off again.  He's clearly shown he doesn't need them, but he was not surrounded by his Team Sky guards as is typical of the Yellow Jersey wearer.  This will probably not matter, but I imagine it keeps him up for a little bit at night.

Stage 11: No Pain No Gain
World TT champion Tony Martin, who I've mentioned a couple times sustained some pretty serious injury on Stage 1, stayed in this race for this stage.  And his suffering over the last week and a half paid dividends today, as he went very early in the day and his time held up all the way through to Chris Froome, and he gets to tack on a TdF stage win to the resume.  Froome's second place increases his lead on the GC, and Kwiatkowski's strong 5th place showing increased his lead for the White.

Parting Thought: 2 minutes in heaven is better than 1 minute in heaven.

Stage 9: Don't count your chickens

Team Sky is fallible
That's what I took out of today's epicness.  Richie Porte, yesterday looking very much like last year's Chris Froome, got dropped like a hot potato today.  Movistar, I think sensing that Porte overdid himself a bit yesterday protecting Froome, didn't let Sky control the pace for even a second, instead pushing the race hard and dropping all of Froome's teammates.  Froome, for his part, is still a beast and wasn't phased.  But this still served to show that there is a chink in the armor.  If day 2 of mountains caused his vanguard to combust, there's hope deep in the week 3 Alps.  Not to mention, Movistar had 3-4 men up front the whole race.

Movistar putting in the work (letour.fr)

The Winner

Attacking midway up the final cat 1 of the day, Dan Martin launched to a gap and saw no attempt by the lead group to follow him.  He was joined by Jakob Fuglsang, and together they burned the trail to the finish.  They worked very well together, taking turns in the lead, and didn't start to play cat and mouse until inside the final kilometer.  In the end, it was Martin making a move before the last turn and taking the victory.

Martin steals the show (velonews.com)

The Strategy

In addition to burning up Sky riders, Movistar did something else that entertained me a lot on the last climb.  After leading the whole race, they brought their young rockstar from Stage 8, Nairo Quintana, to the front to attack Froome.  At the same time, the rest of their workhorses moved behind Froome.  Quintana was close enough to a threat to overall that Froome had to reel him in, but he was certainly left to do so on  his own while Movistar had a turn just riding his wheel and reacting to him.  They may had let Dan Martin steal the victory, but that wasn't a huge concern of theirs.  Either way, the 4 or 5 attacks by Quintana were entertaining.

Wrapup

Froome stays in Yellow, 1:25 over Valverde and now 1:44 over Bauke Mollema (whom I thought was looking in excellent form at TdSuisse).  Pierre Roland back in the Polka Dots for reals (wore them today, but technically Froome was the leader).  Quintana has 1:23 lead in the White.  No change for Sagan's Green.  And Movistar has established themselved for the time being as the leading team.

Now a rest day!

Parting Thought: As long as I got my suit and tie, Imma leave it all on the floor tonight

Stage 8: And boom goes the dynamite

Well, I got pretty much everything I wanted out of today's gnarly mountain stage.  Shattered peloton, a Columbian climber, and Chris Froome sipping a pina colada and checking his watch while waiting for anybody else to cross the line.  OK, it wasn't quite that bad, but it could have been.  After a truly impressive attack on the HC Col de Pailheres by young Nairo Quintana (new holder of the White jersey), Froome told everyone to just chillax while he shows them what riding is all about.  I give him this, I never thought Bradley Wiggins did work on his own last year, which is one of the reasons I didn't care for him.  Today, Froome truly took it in his own hands on the way up Ax 3 Domaines, and earned the yellow jersey for himself.

Froome is all alone up there.  Also, eat a sandwich, man.

What I was missing from today's stage?  Tejay!  Tejay, where are ya brah?  He finished over 12 minutes back (which wasn't that bad compared to the sprinters... seriously, Froome might've changed and headed to the hotel before Cav finished).  On the other side of the coin... Talansky!  Dude only finished 2:34 back, and now sits in 12th overall.  Get it!

Abandons
Besides Ted King the other day, the Tour now has 11 abandons, sadly including Christian Vande Velde, who couldn't get over some injuries sustained while riding.  Other notables include Janez Brajkovic, Fredrik Kessiakoff, and Jurgen Van Den Broeck.  Geraint Thomas (Sky), however, is still racing with a fractured pelvis, as is Tony Martin who I mentioned after stage 1 (and I saw a quote from the team doctor stating "There was just no skin left on his elbow that we could stitch.”  Mmm).

But can I just say:

Above, current standings.  Below, my initial prediction.

Parting Thought: "GC is over." ~ Cadel Evans

TdF 2013 Week 2 Preview (and week 1 final recap)

Stages 5, 6, 7
7 stages under our belts this year, and we've had just about everything.  A bus crash, a peloton crash, uphill attacks, breakaways (and a short-lived Jensie breakaway), photo finishes!  And now, over the last 3 stages, wins by each of the big men in sprinting.  Cav took stage 5, and wasn't even really challenged.  Greipel took stage 6, perhaps aided by a crash that caught Cav earlier on.  He caught up and was part of the sprint, but he may have been hurting and a little worn from catching up.  And in stage 7, after another second place finish, Peter Sagan finally got his.  Using the hills to drop the sprinters that can't climb as well, his Cannondale team kept up the pace and kept them out of the mix.  He also got ALL the sprint points today, putting him well ahead in the points.
Blel Kadri managed to take enough mountain points, and with an assist by a teammate to keep Pierre Roland from scooping up the remaining points on the second climb, puts on the Polka Dots today.  Hard to say if he'll be able to keep it with big mountain points coming up in the next couple of days.

Congrats on making history, Daryl Impey.  Sorry you'll be losing it again tomorrow.

In a somewhat planned moved by Orica Greenedge, Simon Gerrans passed the Yellow jersey on to the shoulders of Daryl Impey, making him the first African to wear the leader's jersey in the TdF.

Here's looking at the next 7 stages...

(Again, stage profiles from letour.fr)
Stage 8 (7/6)
This is the first stage of this year's tour where the climber's really get to stretch their legs.  Fully in the Pyrenees now, this stage ends with an HC (beyond categorization), and steep drop, and an uphill cat 1 finish at Ax 3 Domaines.

Hope they're ready to climb

The long flat start and spring point at Quillan will make the first half of the race interesting though, and I expect a good battle for those sprint points.
How to call a winner on this stage?  I'm not sure the main GCers necessarily want to ride with the Yellow for 2 whole weeks (it's adds pressure), but this is the opportunity to show the rest of the pack how well they're riding.  I expect a mountain goat from, say, Europcar to win the stage from the dying remnants of a breakaway, but Froome to beat the rest of the pack up and stake his claim (mmm, steak).

Stage 9
No mountain top finish today, but they did manage to pack in 4 cat 1 climbs in a relatively short course.  I see this as less of an opportunity for the big GC contenders to show off, but will definitely splinter the peloton and a breakaway of the right riders could stay off.

It's a pack of camels?

I think the sprint point is early enough that the breakaway will steal the points, but with a rest day the following day, you could see some strong attacks, and maybe even someone like a Sagan getting up in the break to get those.  Guys wanting to get a move on in the Mountains classification will attack on Col de Peyresourde, given the relatively short distance between that and the following ones they might be able to nab 2 or 3 with a gap there.  It seems like the climbs will destroy the peleton, but with 30km descent, I think a regrouping of the top teams will occur before finish, and a "sprint" will occur.  Let's give it to Phillipe Gilbert.

REST DAY!
Which probably means riding more.  Can't let the body think it's recovery time!

Stage 10
Rest day, plane transfer, sprint stage.  GC guys are gonna be feeling real relaxed after stage 10.  A tiny cat 4 in the 197km stage to Saint-Malo won't disrupt the sprinters.  Assuming no more crashes, Cav takes his 2nd stage of this year's tour, but still finds himself 100 points down for Green.

Stage 11
First ITT of the TdF, at 33km this is a much shorter event than last year's 41 and 53 km jaunts.  First half has some bumps, second half is downhill-ish.  This should favor the traditional TTers.  Of course, with multi-time world TT champion Tony Martin nursing injuries from the day 1 crash, it's anybody's guess.  Depending on how stage 8 and 9 placed the GC leaders, this could be prime battleground for Chris Froome and Cadel Evans, both excellent TTers.

Stage 12/13
Stage 12 is perhaps the flattest stage of the tour, Stage 13 has a cat 4, but these are part of the transition from Pyrenees to Alps.  Both very long, both aimed at the sprinters.  There's nothing here calling me to pick someone in particular, so, you know, one of those bigwigs.

Stage 14
Getting back in to some mountains, but still not a climber's stage exactly.  Perhaps another good opportunity for Peter Sagan, the hills might drop the other sprinters.  No single climb is very big, but there's 7 (7!) categorized climbs, which means some points up for grabs for the Polka Dot jersey.

Stage 14.  No clever caption.

The giant time gaps are coming next week still, as we tackle some really crazy stuff in the Alps.  However, after the 2 big Pyrenees stages and the ITT, I think the person wearing the Yellow at the end of this week will be Chris Froome.

Parting Thought: It was I who put bop in the bop-sha-bop-sha-bop.  But I swear I'm not responsible for the ram in the ramalamadingdong.

TdF 2013: The Americans

Are you an AmeriCAN or, um, the other 97% of the field.  In honor of the impending 4th of July, I'm dedicating this edition to the Americans in the TdF this year.  Stage 4 TTT summary below...

U.S.A.!
The good ol' US of A has a stable of rising stars in cycling, but this year's field is noticeably short on Stars n Stripes.  Only 6 of the 198 starters this year are American, but there is some fresh, and unexpected, talent in there.

This guys likes the US.  And Italy.  And flashing bikers.

The 6 riders are Ted King of Cannondale, Brent Bookwalter and Tejay VanGarderen of BMC, and Tom Danielson, Andrew Talansky, and Christian VandeVelde of Garmin-Sharp (Team BMC and Garmin-Sharp are US-based teams).  Gone is George Hincapie and his 16 straight finishes in the Tour, and gone is Levi Leipheimer, one of the most consistent American riders over the past decade.

Talansky and King are first-timers in the Tour, having taken slightly different routes to losing their TdF virginity.  Ted King has actually been around cycling for a while (he's 30), but didn't make a high level team until 2011.  He'll be participating as support for Peter Sagan's bid to repeat Green jersey glory.
Talansky, at the tender age of 24, is the breakout surprise of American cycling this year.  A handful of Best Young Rider victories already under his belt, he's taken a Paris-Nice stage victory already this year.  And as I referenced on my rider summary, owns one of my favorite moments of the early cycling season.  Coming up the Risoul among fog and snow, Froome and Porte seemed to be jockeying for 2nd place having dropped everyone else.  Talansky came up out of nowhere, and made Froome sprint to the summit.  It was an epic battle.

Talansky (behind) made my day... so close.

CVV and Tommy D (hey, that rhymes) are the "old" guys.  Christian has started 10 TdFs over the last decade and a half, and won the USAPCC last year.  This is just Tommy D's 3rd, but he's got a top 10 in the Tour and Vuelta.  He also likes to tear up my home state of CO, owning the record on the Mt Evans Hill Climb.  I don't know if they have the ok to go for personal glory, or they're working full time for Canadian Ryder Hesjdal, but both are capable of getting wins.

Bookwalter was at the top of a lot of people's list for this year's US National Road Race (won by Fast Freddie Rodriguez), but ended up 2nd in both the road race and TT.  This is his 3rd Tour, and though he will be working for either Cadel or Tejay, he'll try to make some noise in the 2 TTs.

Tejay likes winning...

Tejay is truly the next great hope of American cycling.  He's got a closet full of White jerseys, and earlier this year nabbed his first GC win at the Tour of California.  A 5th place last year in the TdF proves he can handle the Grand Tours.  When will his time come to be a primary team lead?  I'd say soon, but this year it's still backseat to Cadel.  I still wonder if it might have been different this year if he had won the TdSuisse...

So, let that nationalism flow, now you know who to root for.

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Stage 4 Summary
Where did you come from, Orica-Greenedge??  After winning the sprint yesterday with Simon Gerrans, the OG team (hehe) won the TTT today over the favorites and TTT/TdF royalty (Sky, Garmin-Sharp, BMC,...).  Oh, and by the way, they rode the 25 km course averaging over 36 mph (yes MILES per hour, 58 some-odd kph).  This puts Gerrans in the Yellow jersey (tied with 2 of his teammates), and provides some actual separation in the overall standings.  He's still just 1 second over two riders from Omega Pharma-Quick Step.
And in a rare turn of me calling something, American Andrew Talansky has taken over the White jersey!
Other news: Aforementioned Ted King, riding the TTT mostly alone due to injuries suffered on day 1, finished 7 seconds outside the 25% time limit for the stage, and was promptly cut by race officials.  The protest is in progress, as exceptions are frequently made when it's a close call, but it doesn't look good for him to continue his first tour and try to shake off his injuries.


Parting thought: Come and and support American cycling this year, at the USA Pro Challenge.  It's the chance for the Americans to show off in front of a home crowd.  The 3 above-mentioned teams will be there, so you will likely see all of those guys, in addition to (probably): Taylor Phinney (my hometown hero, and owner of what I assume to be the best shoe collection in professional cycling), Joe Dombrowski (winner of last year's Best Young Rider on the youthful Bontrager team, now big-timing it on Team Sky), and countless others.