Hey question regarding the yellow jersey - when it changes hands - does the new leader wear the old stinky one? or does he wear a new one? If a new one, what happens to the old one?
Don Vito Corleone
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Hee hee - no offense but that just sounds funny.
Normally each team brings its own yellow jerseys, with a subtler version of their own team logo, in the sizes of the riders who might conceivably earn the jersey (and the race can take strange turns, so sometimes it will be an otherwise-unlikely rider on any given day). I don't honestly know whether they wear a new one each day (it would make sense, given the huge souvenir value of the jerseys), or whether one rider re-uses the jersey, as long as it doesn't get torn or stained - I imagine that's up to the team.
At the end of the stage, they have a quick ceremony in which a fake version of the jersey is placed on the rider with the help of sexy podium girls. It has a Velcro back, so they can put it on over their existing jersey without struggle. They have this ceremony even if the rider is already wearing the yellow jersey.
I believe the rider ordinarily keeps the jerseys, which again have huge personal significance, as mementos. They are free to donate them to charity or sell them if they wish, AFAIK.
Yep. All the guys that went up the road today will be OTB once they hit the mountains. Very smart to let another team control things for a while.
Newbie Question here:
I just watch the stage 3 via download (no OLN on cable). One thing I can't figure out is how Mayo's 2nd group (peloton) lost one whole minute in the last 4 miles (from +2.52 to +3.52)!? Considering the speed of the peloton on flat, the 4 miles should take just about 6 min to complete; losing one whole minute on a 6 minute trip on flat is quite significant.
Any expert who watched the last moment of stage 3 care to share the wisdom?
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I just watch the stage 3 via download (no OLN on cable). One thing I can't figure out is how Mayo's 2nd group (peloton) lost one whole minute in the last 4 miles (from +2.52 to +3.52)!? Considering the speed of the peloton on flat, the 4 miles should take just about 6 min to complete; losing one whole minute on a 6 minute trip on flat is quite significant.
Any expert who watched the last moment of stage 3 care to share the wisdom?
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Are you sure he lost a minute in 4 miles? I missed the tail end of that day's coverage.
Edit- okay, went back and looked at the live text coverage; he did lose that time in those miles.
All I can figure is that his team (not very strong on the flats) were exhausted and no one was helping them chase (because they had no reason to). Meanwhile, strong teams like USPS were up front in the main group laying down the smack to put Mayo as far back as possible. It's a lot of time to lose, but illustrative of how fast a strong and motivated group can go when they want to.
The 2nd Peloton actually held on to sub 3 minutes for quite a while, in fact at 11.5 miles (18.5km) from the finish line, they were +2.46 min back. They lost only 5, 6 seconds for 7.5 miles, but lost a whole minute in the last 4 miles ... that's what I can't figure.
Losing the steam on flat is quite unusual, esp the way it happened at the end of stage 3.
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Losing the steam on flat is quite unusual, esp the way it happened at the end of stage 3.
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Don Vito Corleone
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Originally posted by: Fausto
This has been a crashfest; I've seen Cat 5 races with fewer pileups.
Yeah, you hate to see that - I'd hoped they would all calm down a bit by now (in all fairness, I didn't see today's stage yet, and don't know whether this crash was caused by a nervous peloton, but since Lance is a tremendous bike handler, not prone to unforced errors, I imagine it was). I always hate to see a serious GC or points contender taken out by a crash, and this race has already seen Iban Mayo and Gilberto Simoni lose major time due to crashes.
Not when you look who he's down on; all those guys are going to be nowhere once the Tour hits the mountains.
It's like Fausto said; once the race hits the mountains, the time gaps start getting serious! Look at last year - by the end of the race, only the top 20 were even within 30 minutes of Armstrong, and the last guy was 4 hours, 48 minutes back!! 9 minutes is nothing, as long as the guy 9 minutes ahead isn't an overall contender. Of course, letting some guys go up the road, and thinking they're no threat, can back-fire, as it nearly did on Greg Lemond in 1990. That year, a relatively unknown (at the time) Italian named Claudio Chiappucci got 10 minutes on Lemond, and it took him most of the race to get it back. So you've got to be careful.
Heh...I saw on OLN the other day that Backstedt weighs 216lbs. :Q I don't think he'll be burning up the mountain stages this year.
Don Vito Corleone
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Wow - just watching Stage 8, and it was raining AGAIN. I don't recall such a wet Tour in several years.
Armstrong is looking strong, so are Jan Ulrich and Tyler Hamilton.... the next two weeks will be exciting.
--GiLtY
--GiLtY
I will be capturing all the stages starting today while I am on vacation.
Anyone willing to host this? The files will be ~2Gb each including the prerace show.
Maybe it is not interesting since I will be back 4 days after the Tour is over. Hopefully my capture software doesn't crap out or I have a power failiure during the next 2 weeks.
PM me if you are interested.
Anyone willing to host this? The files will be ~2Gb each including the prerace show.
Maybe it is not interesting since I will be back 4 days after the Tour is over. Hopefully my capture software doesn't crap out or I have a power failiure during the next 2 weeks.
PM me if you are interested.
in past tours, how far back has armstrong been when entering the mountain stages? 9 1/2 min seems like a huge deficit to make up.
Don Vito Corleone
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Actually it doesn't suck at all. Winning a stage of the Tour is a huge accomplishment, and for the smaller teams, who can't afford to pay a rider capable of winning the Tour, it's a way to get publicity for themselves and their sponsors. I've heard riders say on a number of occasions that they'd rather win one stage of the Tour than the World Championships, also a one-day event.
There is a separate points competition that rewards riders for their overall number of wins and high placements for stages and intermediate sprints (often there are a number of such sprints during a long road stage). The highest-placed competitor in terms of points wears the green jersey, and is typically a heavily-built sprinter.
Eddy Merckx, who was by nearly any standard the greatest cyclist in history, won 34 stages and 5 Tours - he actually won his first Tour while simultaneously earning the green jersey and the polka-dot jersey for the best climber, a stunning accomplishment that will almost certainly never be repeated (largely because the riders tend to be more specialized now). Most of the other riders who've won large numbers of stages were also competitive for overall victory.
I believe the rider with the most stage wins without a victory is Andre Darrigade, who rode in the 50s and 60s, and won 22 stages. I honestly don't know anything about him, and have no idea if he finished his Tours or not.
One interesting example of the specialization I talked about is Mario Cipollini, probably the most famous sprinter in recent years (though he is in the twilight of his career). He has won 12 Tour stages, and a staggering 42 stages in the Tour of Italy, yet I believe he has never finished a Tour de France. The bulk sprinters need to be effective is not helpful in the mountains, so they tend to struggle, and even abandon, when the Tour gets into the high mountains of the Alps and Pyrenees.
Don Vito Corleone
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He will recoup that on the first real mountain stage. Even Thomas Voeckler, the Frenchman currently wearing the yellow jersey, has said he just hopes to keep it until they reach the Pyrnenees. This stage, on Friday, will probably take Voeckler out of yellow, and it's likely to pass to Lance at that point. This is Saturday's stage, also very tricky, and they don't reach the Alps until next week. The only difficulty will be in whether USPS will defend the jersey on the flat stages in between (I imagine they won't).
Don Vito Corleone
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