Le Tour 2012

[Tim Kelley]

@txgoonie 24707 wrote:

I have to put in a shameless plug for a film my friend made called Chasing Legends. It follows the HTC Columbia team during the 2009 Tour. There’s really interesting stuff about race strategy in it that I had never really known before. That team did not have a contender for the GC, but they did have Mark Cavendish and one of the strongest lead out trains, so you do see how a sprint finish develops. I can loan anyone my copy (or you can always get your own for inspiration during those horrible workouts on the trainer http://www.chasinglegends.com/).

FYI–this movie will be screened at the next Two Wheel Tuesday movie night at the Central Library on July 31st!

Get excited.

[PotomacCyclist]

The Tongue rises again!

[PotomacCyclist]

@PotomacCyclist 24967 wrote:

The Tongue rises again!

From yesterday’s stage:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/48135583/ns/sports-cycling/

In case you’re not familiar with Thomas Voeckler, he’s a French rider on the Europcar, which has been described as sort of a junior or secondary level cycling team. He amazed nearly everyone last year by getting the yellow jersey and holding on for 10 days total. He finished 4th overall in the GC category.

Coming into this year’s race, many wondered if he would even enter the race because of a lingering knee injury. As recently as a couple days ago, many expected him to drop out of this year’s Tour because of the knee problems. And then he went ahead and pulled off another astonishing feat. Check out the video clips in the NBC Sports link above. Simply amazing.

While he is not going to challenge for the yellow jersey this year, he has taken over the King of the Mountains competition (polka dot jersey). He has a decent chance of staying in the hunt in that category. I like seeing the underdogs be successful.

As for “The Tongue”, I mentioned that because he has a habit of sticking his tongue out during tough climbs. I think he tried to stop doing that when people started talking about it last year. But the tongue was back out in some of the pictures from yesterday’s stage.

Besides Voeckler’s win, the back-and-forth attacks and strategies among the lead group and in the main peloton was great to watch. I find the mountain stages to be far more dramatic and awe-inspiring than many of the flat stages, where not too much happens until the final sprint. Jens Voigt made an incredible attack, moving from the peloton to the lead group, by himself. In the final kilometers, Voigt, Luis Leon Sanchez and Voeckler sprinted ahead over and over again, trying to get away from the other riders.

[KLizotte]

I have some novice questions concerning Tour rules.

Why don’t bikers get penalized when their mechanics push them off after a fix even though they can get penalized for a “sticky bottle” (holding on to a drink from support crew in the car too long)?

A couple of nights ago I was watching the breakaway sprint for the last few miles. Why was the lead guy zigzagging instead of going straight? This seems counterintuitive since he was adding miles (he wasn’t going up a hill).

Why do the chasers follow the zigzag even when they are too far behind to get the benefits of drafting? This looked so odd.

Why do the front guys keep obsessively looking behind them to see who is chasing them? That seems like it would slow them down by milliseconds. For any other sport the coach tells you to keep looking straight ahead with tunnel vision for the rush to the finish.

If there is a biker pile-up, what happens to the points if the cyclist can’t continue that day but can the next? How do they handle the points if the cyclist is hurt but manages to make it to the end of the stage?

If the GC contendor is being protected by his team all the time, that is, is he really the best cyclist of the group? Seems like he doesn’t have to work as hard as the others.

Thanks for any insights!

[PotomacCyclist]

@KLizotte 25295 wrote:

I have some novice questions concerning Tour rules.

Why don’t bikers get penalized when their mechanics push them off after a fix even though they can get penalized for a “sticky bottle” (holding on to a drink from support crew in the car too long)?

A couple of nights ago I was watching the breakaway sprint for the last few miles. Why was the lead guy zigzagging instead of going straight? This seems counterintuitive since he was adding miles (he wasn’t going up a hill).

Why do the chasers follow the zigzag even when they are too far behind to get the benefits of drafting? This looked so odd.

Why do the front guys keep obsessively looking behind them to see who is chasing them? That seems like it would slow them down by milliseconds. For any other sport the coach tells you to keep looking straight ahead with tunnel vision for the rush to the finish.

If there is a biker pile-up, what happens to the points if the cyclist can’t continue that day but can the next? How do they handle the points if the cyclist is hurt but manages to make it to the end of the stage?

If the GC contendor is being protected by his team all the time, that is, is he really the best cyclist of the group? Seems like he doesn’t have to work as hard as the others.

Thanks for any insights!

The officials probably don’t worry about minor assistance. A push from a mechanic isn’t really going to make a substantive difference to the stage or race results.

In a breakaway sprint, the rider might zigzag to keep the pursuer from latching onto his wheel and getting a draft from him. You sometimes see pro marathoners do the same thing, even though runners go much slower than cyclists.

I don’t know how far behind the chasers were in the stage you saw, but the slipstream extends much farther than might seem obvious. I don’t remember the exact numbers but well-known triathlon/cycling coach Joe Friel has written that the slipstream extends maybe 10 feet or more. Maybe 15 feet, but I don’t recall exactly. 10 feet behind won’t confer the same benefit as a closer draft, but it’s better than no draft.

Not sure about looking behind, but I guess it’s human nature to see if someone is pursuing. In such a long race like the TDF, milliseconds won’t determine the winner, even of a stage. (The rare exception was the photo finish the other day.)

I think if the cyclist abandons a stage, he’s out of the Tour altogether.

The team helps the GC contender but that rider still needs to do the heavy lifting at some point. Wiggins has a clear strength in the individual time trial stages. The team doesn’t help him there. The GC competition is usually decided on the tough mountain stages. While the GC contender might have a couple teammates nearby on the toughest climbs, it’s usually not as many as on the flat stages.

Now there may be a separate issue of whether the team has determined the proper GC contender. At least one observer (former champion Bernard Hinault) has said that Team SKY should be supporting Froome instead of Wiggins, but I think most people think that SKY should be supporting Wiggins.

***
As for today’s stage (now that the primetime broadcast has aired), it’s a shame about the intentional sabotage by a spectator (tacks on the road). But fortunately that didn’t affect the GC race. Wiggins did the honorable thing and helped to convince the other riders and team leaders to hold back, to allow Cadel Evans to make it back to the main peloton. So none of the top GC contenders changed positions on the leaderboard. Nice display of sportsmanship from Wiggins.

[PotomacCyclist]

Another item of note is the stage time cutoffs. Every rider has to finish within a certain percentage of the winning time, depending on the speed of the winning time, the difficulty of the stage and the type of stage (time trial, mountain, flat). If a rider doesn’t make the cutoff percentage, he’s out of the Tour.

http://www.active.com/cycling/tourdefrance/articles/Rules_to_Ride_by_at_the_Tour_de_France.htm

I think this may be a response to past attempts to “win” the Lanterne Rouge. The Lanterne Rouge is the unofficial title for the last finisher in the Tour de France. In previous decades, the Lanterne Rouge title holders received a fair amount of fame (or notoriety). Some people actually held back on purpose, to take this title, because of the fame they would receive.

A stage time cutoff is a good way to provide an incentive for riders to get off their butts and do some pedaling, instead of trying to finish in last place.

However, sometimes circumstances force a rider into last place. That’s the case with Tyler Farrar, one of the best U.S. sprinters. He’s been involved with some crashes in this year’s Tour. As a result, he has a realistic chance of securing the Lanterne Rouge. I don’t know his current standing but a couple days ago, he was in last place among all the remaining cyclists in the Tour.

http://www.bicycling.com/garmin-insider/featured-stories/fight-lanterne-rouge?page=0,0

[Mark Blacknell]

All well explained by Potomac Cyclist. My only addition is to confirm that yes, you *must* finish a stage in order to start the next day. That means crossing the line with your bike (even if you have to carry it). On sprint/flat-finish stages, there’s the 3km rule. That is, if you go down/have a mechanical/etc., you’ll be given the same finish time as the group you were with when the crash/mechanical happened.

[Justin Antos]

So, after watching Sunday morning’s stage, I’m amazed at how quickly those guys swap out wheels. It took all of like 15 seconds for them to pop on a rear wheel, clamp it down, and put the chain around.

Fixing a rear flat usually takes me like 15 minutes roadside. How do they do it??

[vvill]

Seemed like Cadel’s rear wheel change on the summit took a lot longer than it should have!

Interesting to hear Froome’s comments on wanting to maybe lead Sky next year, and how much of a sacrifice it is right now to give him the chance to become the first British TdF winner.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/15/tour-de-france-2012-froome-wiggins

[culimerc]

I find it ironic that Hinault is suggesting that SKY abandon Wiggins for Froome considering Hinault’s actions in the 80’s with LeMond.

[PotomacCyclist]

@Justin Antos 25321 wrote:

So, after watching Sunday morning’s stage, I’m amazed at how quickly those guys swap out wheels. It took all of like 15 seconds for them to pop on a rear wheel, clamp it down, and put the chain around.

Fixing a rear flat usually takes me like 15 minutes roadside. How do they do it??

They have the benefit of pre-inflated spare tires/tubes ready for swapping. And the benefit of having a mechanic (who isn’t fatigued from riding) who can take care of the wheel change. It would be pretty cool to have a support car within half a mile at all times on a ride! Even cooler to have that support car provide you with a backup bike at a moment’s notice.

If the riders had to change tires themselves, it would be a completely different situation. For proof (at least among some top riders), check out the 2009 “Race Across the Sky” movie/DVD. It’s a documentary of the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race in Colorado, which featured Lance Armstrong, six-time defending champion Dave Wiens, and World 24-hr MTB champion Rebecca Rusch. [Minor spoiler follows]

I won’t give too much away, but I will say that the movie reveals that Lance Armstrong apparently does not know how to fix a flat tire! No exaggeration.

[PotomacCyclist]

@vvill 25324 wrote:

Seemed like Cadel’s rear wheel change on the summit took a lot longer than it should have!

Interesting to hear Froome’s comments on wanting to maybe lead Sky next year, and how much of a sacrifice it is right now to give him the chance to become the first British TdF winner.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/15/tour-de-france-2012-froome-wiggins

Froome may want to try to switch teams before next year. He’s definitely one of the top contenders, when allowed to compete by his team.

Perhaps Mark Cavendish would be better served by switching teams too. He said that he’s not focusing on stage wins at this year’s TDF because he wants to remain fresh for the upcoming Olympic Games. But will he be able to get back to his winning ways next year on a team that is focused on trying to win the yellow jersey for Wiggins (or Froome)?

[Arlingtonrider]

I’ve become my own spoiler – am no longer able to resist checking out cyclingnews, podiumcafe, etc. during the day. So please don’t be concerned anymore about spoilers on my account. I’ve actually found that I’m enjoying the primetime showing even more with a little background.

Am adding “Race Across the Sky” to my Netflix queue. (It was fun to meet Rebecca Rusch at TJROW – very nice person.) Any other suggestions?

[PotomacCyclist]

I didn’t want to post any spoilers from the “Race Across the Sky” movie. It’s a great mountain biking documentary. It was shown in theaters nationwide a couple times, one day here, one day there. Even if you’re not a Lance fan, the cinematography was inspiring to watch. There’s also a 2nd movie that covered the 2010 race, featuring Levi Leipheimer and Rebecca Rusch.

[KLizotte]

@PotomacCyclist 25341 wrote:

I didn’t want to post any spoilers from the “Race Across the Sky” movie. It’s a great mountain biking documentary. It was shown in theaters nationwide a couple times, one day here, one day there. Even if you’re not a Lance fan, the cinematography was inspiring to watch. There’s also a 2nd movie that covered the 2010 race, featuring Levi Leipheimer and Rebecca Rusch.

Just downloaded to my Tivo. Thanks for the head’s up.

[Author]

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