Jul. 24th, 2005

ysobelle: (Default)
So when you see replays of Lance crossing the line at the time trial, you may see the red race officials' car behind him. Look at the man in the passenger seat. Look familiar? It's John Kerry.
ysobelle: (Default)
Well, the Tour ended just as we all thought it would, with Lance on the top tier of the podium getting zipped into his final maillot jaune, looking out at the screaming crowd, raising the stuffed lion and the huge sunflower bouquet. This time, he brought his kids with him, the twins in matching sundresses in, of course, bright yellow.

It was, unexpectedly, a treacherous stage. A light rain after weeks of dry weather made the Champs Elysee, which is, wickedly, paved in cobblestones, oil-slick and utterly suicidal. After a minor crash on the approach briefly took out-- off all teams-- half of Team Discovery, race officials decided to invoke a final-stage rule created for times like these: the final standings are taken as the race leader crosses the finish line for the first time, even though the stage ends with eight circuits of the Champs Elysee. Shortly thereafter, after one final sprint, they also cancelled the remaining time bonuses for the sprinters, leaving the only prize for the day the final stage win. This created a bit of a stir, as Alexandre Vinokourov and Levi Leipheimer were separated by-- get this-- .07 of a second, with Levi just barely hanging on to his 5th place position. Then, as the final sprint to the line for the 2005 Tour began, Vinokourov "turned himself inside out," as commentator Bob Roll is wont to say, and shot forward to carry the stage. Not long after that, Tour officials announced that they would give him the first-over-the-line time bonus as well, which moved him into 5th and dropped Levi to 6th. None of the news outlets other than OLN are making any sort of a deal about this, so perhaps there's more to this than I know now. Perhaps less! Thor Hushovd got his Tour green jersey as points winner, and poor Michael Rasmussen, slightly battered around the edges and with ANOTHER flat tire today, seemed ecstatic to be zipped into his excruciatingly-hard-won, if utterly hideous, polka-dotted King of the Mountain jersey.

In a big break with tradition, and to at least my surprise, the presentation officials handed Lance a microphone on the podium, as he stood there flanked by his greatest competitors: second-place Jan Ullrich and third-place Ivan Basso, holding his own two-year-old child. Graciously, he acknowledged the greatness of Ullrich, and tipped Basso as the next star of the Tour. And then, in a rare moment of-- well, as close as the always-sportsmanlike Lance ever seems to get to snark, he said (forgive my horrendous paraphrasing), "First off, I'm going to have to say this in English; I apologise that my French isn't better. But I just wanted to say that for all the people who don't believe in cycling, I'm sorry for you, and I'm sorry you don't believe in dreams."

His mom cried. Sheryl Crow cried. Hell, I cried. Phil Liggett has been saying that never again in his lifetime will we see anyone to do what Lance Armstrong has done: seven-consecutive-times-winner of the most grueling sporting event in the world. And that's not all: he's also changed the face of cycling. He's revolutionised the way athletes train for this event. He and the many teams working with him have revolutionised the technology of the bikes, the schedules, the process-- just about everything they do. People all over the world, and especially in this country, now know far more abuot a sport they possibly didn't know existed before. He's inspired a whole generation of future Tour stars. And most impressively, he's done all this after coming back from metastasized testicular cancer that spread into his abdomen, lungs, and brain, and that just about everyone thought would kill him. He's used his fame not to buy flashier cars and live the rock star life-- though dating a rock star is a pretty cool fringe benefit-- but to create a cancer foundation that spreads awareness and millions of research dollars. And now, happily, graciously, he's bowing out at the top of his game, off to Texas to spend time raising his kids.

I'm stunned. I'm honoured to have been able to watch this crazy thing. I'm even vaguely impressed with myself fpr learning so much about the sport in these last few weeks. I'm now going to be hard to beat at Trivial Pursuit if the Tour ever comes up.

And I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with myself from 8 to 11 every night now. I wonder if there'll be a DVD...?
ysobelle: (Default)
First things first: we may never see another athlete like Lance Armstrong again. I'm glad I was here this time. As the niece of one cancer survivor, and daughter of two more, I'll always hold this man in the highest regard. This article says it best-- and, incidentally, explains whence cometh that slight edge of defiance in his farewell speech.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/12213974.htm


Alexandre Vinokourov, who at the moment is nominally with T-Mobile (he's a free agent now, and may switch to another team-- perhaps even Discovery), doesn't wear the pink jersey the rest of the team wears. His is a sort of seafoam green and yellow. I finally learned it's because he's the champion of Khazakstan, his homeland.

Lance wants to take up kite-surfing now he's no longer a competitive cyclist. Before he entered the sport, in his teens, he was a triathlete.

In his Tours, he's ridden 21,112 miles. That's only a few short of the circumference of the earth. One more tour, man, he woulda been home again.

One day, I want to be on the Champs Elysee, screaming my guts out as the peloton whizzes by.

Now I get to find out what OTHER races there are out there. Next year, I want to know who's who going into the race.

Also next year, G-d dammit, I WILL see the Wachovia Classic, either on the Wall in Manayunk or on the finish line on the Parkway. Relatedly, I now know why it's called the Classic: a Classic race is a one-day event. The Tour is, more or less I think, 18 Classics in a row, with a few time trials and two rest days thrown in. Thus winning a stage is considered winning a race.

The peloton used to all learn French, so they could communicate. Now there are just too many languages out there, so they sort of make do with their own kind of sign language.

It's taken ten years-- since the death of Fabio Casartelli-- but the rules for helmets have gradually gotten more and more strict, until this year, when helmets are mandatory at all times. Even up to last year, riders could remove their helmets on some climbs. No more. Wear a helmet or get fined. Personally, after all the horrendous crashes I've seen this year, I'm fine with that. I also like the, "Wear your helmet, dear, like Lance Armstrong does!" angle.

One of my company's associate banks is Rabobank. I was geekishly jazzed when I saw this. I think I looked up Credit Lyonnais one day-- they're there, too. geeeeeekgeekgeek.

I have a TON to learn about cycling aerodynamics.

Nothing about my body will ever be aerodynamic. Having said that, I'm thinking I wouldn't turn down a bike if it fell across me. Doubt I'll ever get that motivated, though.

Bob Roll is a human Chocolate Lab. The dog, not the candy workshop.

Gendarmes in Paris really do still wear those little blue pillbox hats.

I have absolutely GOT to travel more.

After the blistering, red-lined time-trial Lance turned in yesterday, finally winning a stage and "doing honour to the yellow jersey," as he put it, all his little boy Luke cared about when the stage was over was showing his just-returned-covered-in-glory Dad the neat bag of candy he'd gotten from a promo bus.

If Levi Leimpheimer isn't bitter about today, that's okay, I'll be bitter for him. This is if, of course, he didn't know Tour officials were reinstating the one sprint that Vonokourov won, and which bumped Levi out of the top 5.

Learning one new thing, getting into one new topic, should be compulsory at least once every six months.

Team Discovery had new jerseys today. The right sleeve has a big-ass maillot-jaune-yellow streak down it. Rock on, boys.

My new quote? Paul Sherwin, speaking about Michael Rasmussen's plummet from 3rd to 7th: "That's going to be a tough sandwich for him to eat." I also loved his, "They're going to have to reach deep into their suitcase of courage." How the hell do you beat that?

When city planners decided to make Philly's Benjamin Franklin Parkway our version of the Champs Elysee, they weren't joking. I didn't realise our Family Court building and Free Library had almost exact counterparts in Paris. One of them is a famous hotel at which Lance will stay tonight. Must be nice. Just past the Art Museum here is a replica of the statue of Joan d'Arc that the peloton passed eight times.

Americans in general just do NOT get the Tour.

Bob Roll is perfectly capable of properly pronouncing French names. He actually chooses to say "Tour day Fraynce." Has something to do with snotty waiters, I think he said.

I wonder how much I'd have to shell out to get a tiny outline of a corset somewhere on some team's jerseys?

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