Let's try this again, shall we? PROLOGUE
Jul. 9th, 2007 03:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobellePrologue
10am EST. Enrico Degano of Barloworld, an Italian on a South African team, rolls down the time trial ramp in London—and thus begins the 2007 Tour de France.
There’s no Tour champion riding this year. Floyd Landis, still fighting for his name, will hopefully be back next year. Jan Ullrich, after the train wreck and insinuations of Operacion Puerto, didn’t ride in ’06 and has since retired. Ivan Basso, under his own cloud of suspicion, has been pulled. In a vaguely familiar way, of course, this is exciting: last year, with Lance Armstrong retired, the field was wide open for a new champion. And now, here we are again. There are a lot of big names to look to this year, and many of them are American: David Zabriskie, ‘05’s Prologue winner and current US National Champion, who later crashed out so spectacularly in the team time trial. George Hincapie, Lance’s former lieutenant and the King of the one-day Classic races. Levi Leipheimer, who’s been burning up races worldwide, and is now on Team Discovery after leaving Gerolsteiner. Internationally, there’s CSC’s Australian rider Stuart O’Grady, who has—OW!—just taken a spectacular fall, falling from best time to last. Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland, current World Time Trial Champion. David Millar of England, returning to form after a two-year doping ban. Alejandro Valverde, from whom we might have heard great things last year had an horrific fall not shattered his collarbone. “Big” Tom Boonen, a very strong sprinter, of Belgium. Thor Hushovd of Norway, whose most spectacular Stage finish last year involved him flat on his back, he and his Maillot Jaune covered in rivers of blood when a fan’s sign sliced open his arm at the finish line. Alexandre Vinokourov, a favourite who couldn’t even ride last year once Operation Puerto forced most of his team to withdraw.
It’s absolutely glorious watching this morning’s time trial. Each rider starts individually, speeding past the Houses of Parliament, Big ben (yes, I know it’s the bell and not the tower), Westminster Cathedral, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, through Hyde Park, twice past Buckingham Palace…. It’s like chocolate and peanut butter, I swear: two of my favourite things together. Dave Zabriskie is on the course now, riding like a madman, hopping the median, cutting corners, and…so far, bringing the best time. (Ooops—Vladimir Karpets, finishing right after him, beat him by 6 seconds. Sorry, Dave.)
Every one of the 189 starting riders this year has been forced to sign an agreement that they will not blood dope, and they’ll submit DNA to Operacion Puerto. While yes, it sounds good on paper, the riders aren’t happy about being forced into something that makes little material difference, and gains them nothing. Apparently, they’d have been more approving if the associated fines were guaranteed to go towards improving testing methods and thus improving the race. But in this, they’ve once again been assumed guilty til proven innocent, and they’re not happy. Yes, of all sports, cycling probably has the worst reputation at the moment. I’m just not sure the ICU is improving the situation.
Whimper. An aerial shot of The Globe—there’s obviously something on; it’s packed. Whimper. Picadilly—the Boots, the Burger King, the animated billboards…. It’s so weird to see all these English landmarks juxtaposed with French Tour sponsor banners, the Festina starting gate, the inflatable Aquarel km arches, the Skoda finish lines. The live finish-line announcer is speaking French, but all the street signs are in English. After all these years, part of my brain identifies Phil Ligget more with France than his homeland of England—accent be damned. Yet he laughed this morning that for the first time ever in his coverage, he spent the night before the Tour in his own bed.
And at last, just after 1.10pm EST, it’s all done—and it’s Fabian Cancellara of CSC, winning over Astana’s Andreas Kloden by a very commanding thirteen seconds! George Hincapie has taken third place, ten seconds behind Kloden. Cancellara takes the podium not once, but twice, as stage winner and tour leader, exchanging his white-and-rainbow Time Trial World Champion jersey for the legendary Maillot Jaune.
Without a doubt, CSC is a team to watch this year. With Cancellara, Zabriskie, O’Grady, and a slew of other top-notch riders, I wouldn’t die of shock to see a CSC rider take the Tour this year. (Ironically, it would be without the presence of their manager, Bjarne Riis, who admitted last month to doping the year he won the Tour in 1996, and has elected not to attend this year.) Of course, Discovery is still my sentimental and somewhat educated pick: I don’t think George Hincapie has truly shown his best in the Tour yet, and Levi Leipheimer has shown that his best is very, very good indeed.
Tomorrow, we follow the Tour from London to Canterbury, then to leave the UK for the Continent and nineteen more stages of speed, strategy, pain, and photo ops. It’ll be a day for the sprinters. Can’t wait.
10am EST. Enrico Degano of Barloworld, an Italian on a South African team, rolls down the time trial ramp in London—and thus begins the 2007 Tour de France.
There’s no Tour champion riding this year. Floyd Landis, still fighting for his name, will hopefully be back next year. Jan Ullrich, after the train wreck and insinuations of Operacion Puerto, didn’t ride in ’06 and has since retired. Ivan Basso, under his own cloud of suspicion, has been pulled. In a vaguely familiar way, of course, this is exciting: last year, with Lance Armstrong retired, the field was wide open for a new champion. And now, here we are again. There are a lot of big names to look to this year, and many of them are American: David Zabriskie, ‘05’s Prologue winner and current US National Champion, who later crashed out so spectacularly in the team time trial. George Hincapie, Lance’s former lieutenant and the King of the one-day Classic races. Levi Leipheimer, who’s been burning up races worldwide, and is now on Team Discovery after leaving Gerolsteiner. Internationally, there’s CSC’s Australian rider Stuart O’Grady, who has—OW!—just taken a spectacular fall, falling from best time to last. Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland, current World Time Trial Champion. David Millar of England, returning to form after a two-year doping ban. Alejandro Valverde, from whom we might have heard great things last year had an horrific fall not shattered his collarbone. “Big” Tom Boonen, a very strong sprinter, of Belgium. Thor Hushovd of Norway, whose most spectacular Stage finish last year involved him flat on his back, he and his Maillot Jaune covered in rivers of blood when a fan’s sign sliced open his arm at the finish line. Alexandre Vinokourov, a favourite who couldn’t even ride last year once Operation Puerto forced most of his team to withdraw.
It’s absolutely glorious watching this morning’s time trial. Each rider starts individually, speeding past the Houses of Parliament, Big ben (yes, I know it’s the bell and not the tower), Westminster Cathedral, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, through Hyde Park, twice past Buckingham Palace…. It’s like chocolate and peanut butter, I swear: two of my favourite things together. Dave Zabriskie is on the course now, riding like a madman, hopping the median, cutting corners, and…so far, bringing the best time. (Ooops—Vladimir Karpets, finishing right after him, beat him by 6 seconds. Sorry, Dave.)
Every one of the 189 starting riders this year has been forced to sign an agreement that they will not blood dope, and they’ll submit DNA to Operacion Puerto. While yes, it sounds good on paper, the riders aren’t happy about being forced into something that makes little material difference, and gains them nothing. Apparently, they’d have been more approving if the associated fines were guaranteed to go towards improving testing methods and thus improving the race. But in this, they’ve once again been assumed guilty til proven innocent, and they’re not happy. Yes, of all sports, cycling probably has the worst reputation at the moment. I’m just not sure the ICU is improving the situation.
Whimper. An aerial shot of The Globe—there’s obviously something on; it’s packed. Whimper. Picadilly—the Boots, the Burger King, the animated billboards…. It’s so weird to see all these English landmarks juxtaposed with French Tour sponsor banners, the Festina starting gate, the inflatable Aquarel km arches, the Skoda finish lines. The live finish-line announcer is speaking French, but all the street signs are in English. After all these years, part of my brain identifies Phil Ligget more with France than his homeland of England—accent be damned. Yet he laughed this morning that for the first time ever in his coverage, he spent the night before the Tour in his own bed.
And at last, just after 1.10pm EST, it’s all done—and it’s Fabian Cancellara of CSC, winning over Astana’s Andreas Kloden by a very commanding thirteen seconds! George Hincapie has taken third place, ten seconds behind Kloden. Cancellara takes the podium not once, but twice, as stage winner and tour leader, exchanging his white-and-rainbow Time Trial World Champion jersey for the legendary Maillot Jaune.
Without a doubt, CSC is a team to watch this year. With Cancellara, Zabriskie, O’Grady, and a slew of other top-notch riders, I wouldn’t die of shock to see a CSC rider take the Tour this year. (Ironically, it would be without the presence of their manager, Bjarne Riis, who admitted last month to doping the year he won the Tour in 1996, and has elected not to attend this year.) Of course, Discovery is still my sentimental and somewhat educated pick: I don’t think George Hincapie has truly shown his best in the Tour yet, and Levi Leipheimer has shown that his best is very, very good indeed.
Tomorrow, we follow the Tour from London to Canterbury, then to leave the UK for the Continent and nineteen more stages of speed, strategy, pain, and photo ops. It’ll be a day for the sprinters. Can’t wait.