Tour de France 2009

Cadel Evans attacks to world road title

Evans Races Home,
originally uploaded by Dot Cycling.

Maybe Australia's Cadel Evans was just waiting for the right moment.

Evans, who has earned a reputation as a GC rider who is content to ride within himself and wait for others to fail, launched a brilliant attack from about 4 kilometers out, then fought off a counter by Alexander Kolobnev and Joaquin Rodriguez to take the biggest win of his road career.

Fabian Cancellara, a fatally marked man racing on Swiss soil, laid waste to a quality escape group including Tom Boonen, defending world champion Alessandro Ballan, Michael Rogers and others with about 2 laps to ride. Cancellara brought Evans, Alejandro Valverde, and a number of other strong riders along and may have dulled his amazing afterburners before the decisive move came on the final lap.

With no one in his group (including Basso, Pozzato, Valverde, Sanchez) willing to chase, Cancellara finally went after the 3 men up the road with only a little more than a kilometer to race, and by then the race was over. Adding insult to injury, Sammy Sanchez outsprinted the newly minted world TT champion to the line to take 4th overall at :30.

Australia has never had a world road race champion, despite world titles in most other cycling disciplines, and the win by Evans is the perfect prelude to the 2010 World Championships, to be held in his hometown of Geelong, Australia.

Also:

grahamwatson.com | 2009 World Road Championships photo gallery

cyclingnews.com | Evans becomes road World Champion in Mendrisio

Hincapie takes US title

Hincapie takes US title,
originally uploaded by Frank Steele.

George Hincapie took his 3rd overall US pro title on Sunday, his 2nd since the race moved to his hometown of Greenville.

Garmin-Slipstream's Dave Zabriskie launched the race with a blistering attack that's become almost as much a Greenville tradition as his metronomic victories in the Saturday time trial. Dave Z's pace shed a lot of riders, but he was recaptured at around the halfway point and the pace settled down a bit.

On the final climb of Paris Mountain, an 8-man group rode away from the field, featuring Hincapie, Andrew Bajadali and Matthew Busche of Kelly Benefits, Jeff Louder and Brent Bookwalter of BMC (rumored to be Hincapie's 2010 team), Patrick McCarty of Ouch, Phil Zajicek of Fly V Australia, and Chris Jones of Team Type 1, who had already spent a lot of time off the front.

Missing that break were all of Garmin-Slipstream and Bissell's riders, and a group of 9 chased less than a minute behind Hincapie, but could never close the gap. On the final short circuit of around 4 miles, Jeff Louder launched a solo move, but Hincapie and Bajadali matched it in the last kilometer. Bajadali tried to launch the sprint from a long way out, and Hincapie came around him on the downhill finishing straight for the title.

Hincapie was mobbed about 50 meters beyond the finish, even before the course was neutralized, by around 100 fans. He spoke fondly of his adopted hometown and what it means to him to win on his home roads, before Steve Johnson of USA Cycling and Greenville Mayor Knox White announced that the race weekend will return in 2010.

I've posted a few pictures to a Flickr photoset, with more to come.

Also:

cyclingnews.com | Hincapie wins championship at home

VeloNews | Hincapie wins U.S. pro road race

Zabriskie takes 4th consecutive US TT title

Garmin-Slipstream's Dave Zabriskie continued his domination of the US time trial pro championship with a blistering 39:37 on the 20.7 mile course.

Bissell's Tom Zirbel was 2nd, in 40:21, which was 10 seconds faster than Zabriskie's 2008 time on the same course. Unfortunately for Zirbel, Zabriskie went nearly a minute faster than 2008 Dave Z.

Rounding out the podium was another Z, Kelly Benefit's Scott Zwizanski, with a 41:18.

Floyd Landis' first showing at the Greenville championships was unimpressive, in 21st of 23 with a 46:30. Landis was reportedly coasting on a number of the course downhills, and may have been saving his energy for the tough road race on Sunday.

I've posted a few of my TT pictures -- there are definitely more to come.

US Pro Time Trial Championship today

The pros are contesting the US time trial title later today in Greenville. I'm on the scene, snapping photos like crazy, and am looking forward to the Tweetup at 3:30 at Barley's Taproom in downtown Greenville.

It's the same course as last year, won by David Zabriskie for his third consecutive title. It's an up-and-down course, very well-suited to spectators, and Zabriskie has to be the favorite to repeat. Here's the start list and a course map. The TT at the Tour of Utah last week threw a bit of a monkey wrench into the works, as Tom Zirbel, 2nd in Greenville last year, beat Captain America by 25 seconds on a flatter course. Other guys to watch are Stephen Cozza, Ben Jacques-Maynes and Scott Zwizanski. Floyd Landis races the Greenville circuit for the first time.

Here are my photos from last year's TT, and here's 2007.

Also:

VeloNews: American pros head to Greenville

US “second season” ready to kick off

The UCI-level US race calendar is dominated by races in the spring (the Tour of California and formerly the Tour de Georgia) and the fall. With Labor Day approaching, it's time for some racing.

The second season flag drops on Tuesday with the 6-stage Tour of Utah. Billing itself as “America's Toughest Stage Race,” Utah's tour will have mostly UCI Continental teams, including Floyd Landis and the OUCH Pro Cycling Team, Freddie Rodriguez, Ivan Dominguez, and Oscar Sevilla for Rock Racing, Phil Zajicek and Ben Day for Fly V, and Ben Jacques-Maynes and Tom Zirbel for Bissell Pro.

BMC Racing is the lone UCI Pro Continental squad in the race, featuring Jeff Louder, Brent Bookwalter, Jackson Stewart, and Ian McKissick. Also racing, in a solo effort, will be Utah's own Dave Zabriskie of Team Garmin-Slipstream.

In two weeks, most of the top American riders will gather in Greenville, SC, for the USA Cycling Pro Championships weekend. If you're in the southeast and you love bike racing, this is a fantastic event. There's an extremely fan-friendly time trial course raced on Saturday, and a challenging road course on Sunday that shows off both Greenville's downtown and the local geography, with Paris Mountain traditionally winnowing the field dramatically on each of the race's laps.

As far as I know, there are no rider confirmations for Greenville yet, but I would be surprised if Zabriskie doesn't defend his 3 consecutive TT titles, and if his Garmin-Slipstream doesn't bring a formidable squad after being denied the title by Tyler Hamilton (above) last year. Also, we're planning a Tweetup for Saturday afternoon in Greenville, details to come via Twitter.

Finally, kicking off on September 7, with the most star-studded field, is the Tour of Missouri. Two of the 2009 Tour de France's overall jersey winners, Mark Cavendish and Franco Pellizotti, will take the start, alongside ProTour rosters from Saxo Bank, Liquigas, Astana, Quick Step, Cervelo Test Team, Team Columbia-HTC, and Garmin-Slipstream. Astana's Levi Leipheimer is expected to return from his Tour wrist injury for the Tour of Missouri, and Saxo Bank's Jens Voigt suggested on the team website he may also make his return in Missouri.

If you're within driving distance of any of these races, you should check them out.

Stage 19: Cavendish takes five on day for breakaway

Columbia-HTC's Mark Cavendish got schooled on Thursday, with Thor Hushovd launching a long solo attack that netted 12 points in the green jersey competition. Hushovd looked to be reacting to comments from Cavendish that a Hushovd green jersey would be stained after Cavendish was relegated back in Stage 14.

Saturday, Cavendish responded, as his squad shepherded their sprint ace over the day's biggest climb, the 2nd Category Col de l'Escrinet, despite losing Michael Rogers and Mark Renshaw to the fast finishing pace. Cavendish launched his sprint from a long way out, but held off Hushovd and Gerald Ciolek all the way to the line, to take his 5th stage of the 2009 Tour. No sprinter has won 5 Tour stages since Freddy Maertens in 1981, and Cavendish still has a chance in Sunday's Stage 21 to the Champs-Elysees in Paris. Cavendish also becomes the all-time British leader in stage wins, surpassing Barry Hoban with his 9th career stage win in just two Tour starts.

The day started like a typical transitional stage, with a large group of strong riders away, including Yaroslav Popovych, David Millar, Cadel Evans, José Gutierrez, Leonardo Duque, and 15 others. Rabobank did most of the chasing, since they were one of the teams absent in the break, and first 5 riders, then just Leonardo Duque, would escape the break in an attempt to stay clear of the peloton, riding way ahead of the projected arrival times along the route.

On the day's final climb, the Col de l'Escrinet, Laurent Lefevre launched from very low on the climb, and was matched by world champion Alessandro Ballan, who would survive until the final 2 kilometers, before being reeled in by the surviving 3 Columbia-HTC riders, trying to set up Cavendish, who survived the climb, shadowed by Hushovd.

Hushovd's 2nd place finish limits the damage to his green jersey lead, where he leads Cavendish now 260-235, with 35 points to the winner in Paris on Sunday. Even if Cavendish wins there, Hushovd will be safe in green if he can finish in the first 10 or 15 riders at the finish.

Lance Armstrong was attentive at the finish, and picked up 4 seconds when a gap formed in the field, with Klöden, Wiggins, both Schlecks, and Contador on the wrong side. It's unlikely that 4 seconds will make a difference, but it points up how Armstrong rides this race, always aware of every chance to make or lose time.

Team Radio Shack apparently new Armstrong, Bruyneel team

Ever since the Giro d'Italia in May, there have been rumors about a new U.S. based team, apparently to feature and be owned by Lance Armstrong and to be run by Johann Bruyneel.

In June, Joe Lindsey ran a story on Bicycling.com detailing contingency plans he said were in place for an Astana financial meltdown, which was narrowly avoided when Kazakh and US sponsors came up with $6 million to guarantee support through the end of this season. Lindsey said the team would have been called the “Livestrong-Nike” team.

Just before the Tour, Alexandre Vinokourov had a press conference, where he reminded everyone that Astana was a team built around him, and that he intended to return to the team when his suspension ended July 24th (tomorrow).

Tuesday, Bruyneel announced he would not return to Astana after this season, and Armstrong tweeted about an upcoming announcement of a new sponsor “for 2010 and beyond.”

Speculation immediately returned to “Livestrong-Nike,” but reporters who had talked to Armstrong's management team said that wouldn't be it, apparently with the knowledge that the new sponsor is to be a Ft. Worth, TX-based company.

This morning, Bonnie D. Ford of ESPN tweeted that someone in Capital Sports and Entertainment registered “teamradioshack.com" this week. CSE is Armstrong's management team, overseen by Bill Stapleton and Bart Knaggs, and ran the Discovery Channel team. I've verified the domain registration to CSE Cycling, LLC, and that it was set up on Monday. Currently, www.teamradioshack.com brings up only a default Apache web server page.

The official announcement is reportedly set for noon Eastern.

Update
The team website, Twitter ID (@teamradioshack), and Facebook page are up.

Livestrong.com has a video by Armstrong announcing the team, while Radio Shack offers a standard press release.

Note that no other riders have been officially announced for the team, nor has Bruyneel been officially named the DS.

Schlecks climb onto podium with Stage 17 win

Stage 17 is one that will be remembered for three things: The Schleck brothers finishing together with race leader Alberto Contador more than 2 minutes clear of the field, Thor Hushovd going out on an audacious solo Alpine attack to grab the green jersey by the throat, and a probing attack by Contador late on the stage that triggered an absolute Twit-storm.

Mark Cavendish has criticized Hushovd, who protested the Stage 14 finish, leading to a Cavendish relegation for irregular sprinting. This is nothing unusual -- Hushovd lost the jersey in 2006 partially as a result of a relegation in Stage 4, and won the jersey in 2005 partially due to Robbie McEwen's relegation in Stage X. Cavendish, who features in a Nike campaign that declares “green is my yellow,” said the green jersey would be stained if Hushovd won it through Cav's relegation.

So Hushovd set off on a little jersey-cleaning mission, attacking with Thomas Voeckler over the top of the Col de Roselend to join an early break, then setting off solo over the Col des Saisies and the Côte d'Araches, more than 70k alone, while Cavendish was getting unhitched from the back of the field. With the 12 points collected, Hushovd moves 30 points clear in the green jersey competition, with 35 available in Paris on Sunday. I wouldn't be surprised to see Hushovd off the front again on Friday.

The end of Hushovd, early on the Col de Romme, was the end of the break as well, with Saxo Bank stringing out the field for the inevitable attack by Frank and Andy Schleck. Carlos Sastre was the first to attack, but was soon reeled in, with Andy Schleck still sitting near the back of the GC group.

When Frank Schleck attacked, he was quickly joined by Armstrong, Wiggins, Contador, and Andy Schleck, who attacked again, gapping Wiggins, Vande Velde, Armstrong and Frank Schleck. When Schleck launched a bridge move, Armstrong and Wiggins followed. Andy Schleck pushed the pace again, and Wiggins was gapped, with Armstrong alongside. Once again, Frank Schleck jumped the gap, this time alone. The lead group on the road was Contador and Klöden for Astana, and the Schleck brothers for Saxo Bank.

Behind, Christian Vande Velde fought back up to Wiggins, Nibali, and Armstrong, setting pace for several kilometers, but slowly losing ground to the fearsome foursome up front, before Vande Velde fell away. With the gap to Wiggins, Armstrong, and Nibali over 2:00, and 2k to climb on the day's final climb, Contador launched an attack. Klöden, who had been sitting on the back of the group for several kilometers, didn't have the legs to match, and was suddenly 20 seconds back. Contador came off the attack, and spent the rest of the climb looking back for Klöden.

It was a testing attack, one that we would usually see 100 times in a normal Tour, but the Twitterverse exploded. Suddenly, Andreas Klöden was the most popular rider in the peloton and Contador was screwing a beloved teammate. Bruyneel would say after the stage he didn't want Contador to attack, and Armstrong would immediately question Contador's move on Twitter, as well, but it seems like the math is pretty simple: “I've got gas in the tank, most of my rivals are losing time, and if I can drop these two guys, I might take a stage in the yellow jersey and put time in everybody.”

The Schlecks covered and pushed the pace enough to guarantee Klöden wasn't coming back. Meanwhile, Armstrong was on full boil, 5th on the road, riding hard toward Klöden, and towing Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas. They would catch Klöden near the finish, with Nibali taking 4th on the stage.

Armstrong attack highlight of Stage 16

Lance Armstrong looked exhausted at the end of Sunday's Stage 15. After his teammate Alberto Contador launched what would be a winning attack, Armstrong couldn't follow attacks through the gap by Wiggins, Nibali, Sastre, or Evans, and finished 9th at 1:35, hanging onto 2nd place, but by a bare 9 seconds.

What a difference a (rest) day makes! On today's Stage 16, when Andy Schleck went off the front, Armstrong was again dropped, this time by teammates Contador and Andreas Klöden, the Schleck brothers, Bradley Wiggins of Garmin-Slipstream, and Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas.

Armstrong rode within himself, and found shelter briefly in a group of GC hopes, including Vande Velde, Sastre, Evans, and Kreuziger. With a little less than 5k to ride, Armstrong launched a very 2003-era Armstrong attack. Kim Kirchen and Christian Vande Velde briefly tried to follow, but couldn't. When he flew by Frank Schleck, Schleck gave it just about one second's thought before he thought better of it.

With Armstrong back alongside Contador, Astana had 3 riders in a 6-man group, and once again, they were content to conserve energy and wait for Schleck or Nibali (or Wiggins, but he doesn't really need the time) to attack, but neither wanted to take on Contador, Armstrong, and Klöden. At the lower pace, all the GC candidates but Cadel Evans rejoined, and then coordinated to put serious time into Evans.

Astana continues to ride a very smart race, running out the clock for the climbing specialists, with just two big Alpine climbing stages left.

Stage 16 on the road

Attacks went straight off the gun, and Astana was happy to let most of them go. King of the Mountains apirants Franco Pellizotti and Egoi Martinez, Jens Voigt, Fabian Cancellara, José Ivan Gutierrez, Vladimir Karpets, and about a dozen others all went clear.

On the climb to the Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard, the breakaway group was 16 strong until Franco Pellizotti attacked. He was matched by Vladimir Karpets, and briefly by Egoi Martinez, who didn't look ready to concede the polka-dot jersey to Pellizotti. At least, at first. With a few k to the summit, Martinez was dropped, and rejoined the big chase group.

Nearing the day's first summit, the highest point of the Tour, a number of riders tried to get another chase group established, but it never really achieved critical mass, and was absorbed on the day's first descent, as were a number of the early breakaway riders (including Martinez). A few of these escapees would join the leaders as the day progressed, including Euskaltel-Euskadi's Mikel Astarloza

Two surprises at the back of the pack early in the day were Columbia-HTC's Tony Martin and current white jersey Andy Schleck of Saxo Bank.

HC Col du Grand-St-Bernard
1) Pellizotti, Liquigas, +20 pts
2) Karpets, Katusha, +18 pts
3) Pierrick Fedrigo, Bbox Bouygues Telecom, +16 pts
4) Sandy Casar, Française des Jeux, +14 pts
5) Igor Anton, Euskaltel-Euskadi, +12 pts
6) Jens Voigt, Saxo Bank, +10 pts
7) Miguel Astarloza, Euskaltel-Euskadi, +8 pts
8) Peter Velits, Team Milram, +7 pts
9) Laurens Ten Dam, Rabobank, +6 pts
10) Stephane Goubert, AG2R-La Mondiale, +5 pts

Fedrigo has declared his intention to ride for the KoM jersey.

The leaders gained time on the descent, with Karpets riding to gain GC time. He started Stage 16 5:56 behind Contador and the break was out beyond 4:00 as the pair led the race across the valley floor.

At the day's first intermediate sprint, the leaders didn't even break rhythm, with Pellizotti leading Karpets across.

Sarre Intermediate Sprint:
1) Pellizotti, Liquigas, +6 pts
2) Karpets, Katusha, +4 pts
3) Gorka Verdugo, Euskaltel-Euskadi, +2 pts

After the feed zone, Karpets and Pellizotti eased their efforts, and drifted back into the chase group, which then included Pellizotti, Karpets, Voigt, Roche, Casar, Fedrigo, Ten Dam, Van Den Broeck, Astarloza, Anton, Velits, Vogondy, Trofimov, Goubert, Laurent Lefevre, Verdugo, and Jose Angel Gomez Marchante.

Pre-Saint-Didier Intermediate Sprint
1) Nicolas Roche, AG2R-La Mondiale, +6 pts
2) Nicolas Vogondy, Agritubel, +4 pts
3) Gorka Verdugo, Euskaltel-Euskadi, +2 pts

Back in the field, Andy Schleck moved to the head of the field after a puncture. Soon after the final climb began, the lead group began to splinter, with teammates Trofimov, Lefevre, and Fedrigo setting the pace and Silence-Lotto's Jurgen Van Den Broeck covering every attack.

When Pellizotti finally went for broke, only Van Den Broeck could match his initial acceleration, and Moinard and Gomez Marchante set out in pursuit.

Continue reading "Stage 16 on the road"

Contador takes Stage 15, race lead

Alberto Contador showed why he's the dominant stage racer of the moment on the climb to Verbier Sunday.

On the day's final climb, Saxo Bank and Garmin came to the front and Saxo Bank took charge. Jens Voigt did a withering 1.5 kilometers, forcing a major selection and putting the yellow jersey of Rinaldo Nocentini in jeopardy.

When Voigt was caught, Fränk Schleck came to the front, but soon after, the contenders reached Saxo Bank's Fabian Cancellara, part of the day's breakaway, and Cancellara pulled so strongly that he briefly shattered the GC group, dispatching Nocentini. When he was done, he was really done, and there were only 5 men left standing: The Schleck brothers, Astana's Cane and Abel Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador, and Bradley Wiggins. That's what I said, Bradley Wiggins.

After a couple of quick feints, Contador did his thing, almost instantly putting 10-15 seconds into the chasers. Andy Schleck set out in pursuit, while Armstrong tended Wiggins and Fränk Schleck. As Contador pushed his lead, some of the other GC hopefuls started to come back onto the Armstrong group, including Cadel Evans, Christian Vande Velde, Andreas Klöden, Vincenzo Nibali and Roman Kreuziger. Noticeably absent was Carlos Sastre, who was riding at his own pace well behind the leaders.

Continue reading "Contador takes Stage 15, race lead"

Boonen exits after lackluster Tour

Times Online | Tom Boonen abandons Tour de France as demons take a hold

2007 green jersey Tom Boonen withdrew from the Tour today, with only poor placings in this year's Tour and only one likely sprint stage (Stage 21 next Sunday) remaining.

Boonen, the 2005 world champion, has been seen off the back of the field for mechanicals more this year than he's been seen in the front of the field preparing for the sprint. His best finish was 16th in Stage 11.

The reigning Belgian champion, Boonen announced yesterday that he would ride the Vuelta a España in September.

Leipheimer exits Tour, shares surgery via Twitter

A lot has been said about the use of social media in this year's Tour de France, but today we really saw it in action. I happened to wake up at about 4:30 a.m., and checked in on my Twitter stream on the iPhone.

I saw several tweets about Levi Leipheimer's wrist fracture, including one about 15 minutes old from Lance Armstrong, with a picture of Leipheimer in his cast.

Then, during the stage today, Leipheimer was actually Twittering from the operating room, including photos of the man himself on the operating room table, of the preparation of his wrist, and of the final X-ray, showing his 22mm titanium screw in place.

Here's a screen shot of the whole exchange.

All of this was straight from the riders involved, and within minutes of it actually happening. It's a brave new world, kids.

Also:

CNET News | Twitter takes the Tour de France on new course