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Stage 17, and closing.
Jul. 21st, 2005 12:36 amFor a grueling, punishing race, today was pretty calm. And gorgeous. Field after field of ruddy golden sunflowers, ripening hay ricks, avenues of old trees lining the road and spangling the raceway with sunlight. It’s the longest stage, and almost completely flat, from Pau to Revel. I didn’t race to catch the beginning of the expanded coverage this evening, and by the time I tuned in, an 17-man breakaway was a whopping 20 minutes ahead of the peloton, and moving out. It's the biggest time gap yet in the Tour. No one in the breakaway is any kind of serious threat in the GC, so no one pursues.
Now, here we are, 3K from the end, and four men have broken away, and are grinding against each other like rocks in a stream. Paolo Savodelli of Team Discovery is there: he was the winner of the Giro d’Italia just a few weeks ago, and many thought preparing for the cycling world’s biggest race by winning the second biggest might not be the smartest thing for his legs. Yet here he comes, with three other racers, all breaking into a mad sprint for the stage win. Sebastien Hinault cracks at the end, as does Simons Gerrans, and Kurt-Asle Arvesen of CSC is the only one left with Savodelli. They barrel for the end, and it looks like Savodelli is too spent to come around Arvesen—but no! here he comes, and tips him on the line!
Ah, but wait! There's more! Remember, the group containing the big names is still coming on. And surprise, surprise, Vinokourov is attacking. Lance is there with teammates Popovych and Hincapie to help him, but there’s a lot of jostling for position. Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich are in there as well. This is the group where the top standings are in play. These are the big boys.
As they pass under the 1k marker, Lance now leads out the down-to-ten group of top riders. If they all cross the line together, they'll all get the same time. If anyone attacks and opens a gap, they’ll put time on Lance. However, though Ullrich makes a show of powering up, they all cross together. They’ve left a bunch of other riders behind, and they straggle in, drained after over six hours in the saddle.
You’d think Lance might be a bit chagrined that his teammates have won stages, but he himself has not. Actually, he's not at all. This is a team he's helped to build, and in which he has a huge emotional investment. These are his best mates, after all. When interviewed after the stage, he said, “We heard it on the race radio, and we said: ‘Did he just say Paolo won the stage?’" He grinned broadly. "It just keeps getting better and better.”
And as there’s a time trial coming up on Saturday—- which is Lance’s best kind of event, and perhaps his best chance for a stage win-- he may be exactly right.
Today’s oddly fascinating moment: while the entire country stops for this race, train schedules can't be held forever. And with this stage running particularly slowly (slow being a relative term), and being split into two widely-separated groups, I suppose a bit of flummoxed timing was inevitable. Not far from the end of the stage, the riders just barely made it through a railroad crossing before a train approached. One rider had to duck the lowering gates. All the field crossed, but all the team cars—- even the neutral bright yellow Mavic car and the officials—- were stuck behind for several minutes until the slowly-moving passenger train passed. Now, had this split the field, the race officials would most likely have had the forward section of racers pause until the way was clear. Had the peloton been stopped entirely, they may or may not have stopped or slowed the main breakaway. It’s a play-it-by-ear sort of thing. In this case, the two groups were over 20 minutes apart, and no one in the former group was very high in the GC standings, so it would have had little effect on the race. The problem, however, was that for those few minutes, the racers in the group—- and remember, this means Lance, Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, etc—- would have been utterly screwed had they gotten a flat tire or had some other mechanical breakdown. If they’d had to stop, and fallen just a few minutes behind, it could have had dire consequences. While it’s possible the others may have done the sporting thing—- as happens so many times in this race—- and slowed, they’d’ve been under no obligation to do so.
Just another reason for me to love this event.
Now, here we are, 3K from the end, and four men have broken away, and are grinding against each other like rocks in a stream. Paolo Savodelli of Team Discovery is there: he was the winner of the Giro d’Italia just a few weeks ago, and many thought preparing for the cycling world’s biggest race by winning the second biggest might not be the smartest thing for his legs. Yet here he comes, with three other racers, all breaking into a mad sprint for the stage win. Sebastien Hinault cracks at the end, as does Simons Gerrans, and Kurt-Asle Arvesen of CSC is the only one left with Savodelli. They barrel for the end, and it looks like Savodelli is too spent to come around Arvesen—but no! here he comes, and tips him on the line!
Ah, but wait! There's more! Remember, the group containing the big names is still coming on. And surprise, surprise, Vinokourov is attacking. Lance is there with teammates Popovych and Hincapie to help him, but there’s a lot of jostling for position. Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich are in there as well. This is the group where the top standings are in play. These are the big boys.
As they pass under the 1k marker, Lance now leads out the down-to-ten group of top riders. If they all cross the line together, they'll all get the same time. If anyone attacks and opens a gap, they’ll put time on Lance. However, though Ullrich makes a show of powering up, they all cross together. They’ve left a bunch of other riders behind, and they straggle in, drained after over six hours in the saddle.
You’d think Lance might be a bit chagrined that his teammates have won stages, but he himself has not. Actually, he's not at all. This is a team he's helped to build, and in which he has a huge emotional investment. These are his best mates, after all. When interviewed after the stage, he said, “We heard it on the race radio, and we said: ‘Did he just say Paolo won the stage?’" He grinned broadly. "It just keeps getting better and better.”
And as there’s a time trial coming up on Saturday—- which is Lance’s best kind of event, and perhaps his best chance for a stage win-- he may be exactly right.
Today’s oddly fascinating moment: while the entire country stops for this race, train schedules can't be held forever. And with this stage running particularly slowly (slow being a relative term), and being split into two widely-separated groups, I suppose a bit of flummoxed timing was inevitable. Not far from the end of the stage, the riders just barely made it through a railroad crossing before a train approached. One rider had to duck the lowering gates. All the field crossed, but all the team cars—- even the neutral bright yellow Mavic car and the officials—- were stuck behind for several minutes until the slowly-moving passenger train passed. Now, had this split the field, the race officials would most likely have had the forward section of racers pause until the way was clear. Had the peloton been stopped entirely, they may or may not have stopped or slowed the main breakaway. It’s a play-it-by-ear sort of thing. In this case, the two groups were over 20 minutes apart, and no one in the former group was very high in the GC standings, so it would have had little effect on the race. The problem, however, was that for those few minutes, the racers in the group—- and remember, this means Lance, Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, etc—- would have been utterly screwed had they gotten a flat tire or had some other mechanical breakdown. If they’d had to stop, and fallen just a few minutes behind, it could have had dire consequences. While it’s possible the others may have done the sporting thing—- as happens so many times in this race—- and slowed, they’d’ve been under no obligation to do so.
Just another reason for me to love this event.