Lance is now in the lead after Stage 4. Congrats to his team!
I don't understand the scoring of the tour. All the events seem to be targeted towards the team, yet there are individual winners. Makes no sense to me.
Pro Cycling is alot like F1 Racing. It is an individual sport with a team backing you up. No single rider could ever win the tour without a team helping him. The riding an a stage race like the TDF is nothing more that a very physical game of chess. Each team member has a job to do. There will usually be a sprinter, which will earn points for himself and the team by winning stages at the finish as well as the mid stage sptrints. The points leader wears the (Green jersey) This is the part of the race we are at now. It is very unsusall for some one to keep the Maillot Jaune (yellow jersey) for more that a day or two. Once the tour reaches the climbing stages the climber will take over. This is when the big leads develope. There is a points race for King of the mountains (polka dot jersey) just like the sprinters. There is usually a time trail specialis as well, but since there are only 2-3 tt in the tour they are usually a well rounded rider. The rest of the team is made up of domestiques which are the real gut and no cglory positions. These are the guys that will protect the team leader in the front of the peleton (pack) the will ride all around him and keep him out of trouble. When one of the team stars gets dropped it is their job to drop back and pull his but back into the peleton. If you watch the way teams ride against eachother you will begin to see how much of a team sport cycling is. Someone will launch an breakaway and if they are lucky and have help they can get well ahead of the pack. The lead team or teams will launch a chase group and bring try to bring the breakaway back to the peleton. All of this is just head games. Once the chase group reached the breakaway they can only do so much to slow the pace of the break, but it lets the other riders know they have been caught and takes some wind from there sails. I hope I haven't confused you more.
Armstrong does well because he is a excellent time trialist and climber. He will get to the front of the pack in the proluge and just ride in the front of the peleton of the majority of the sprinters' stages. Then he gets his lead in the second time trial and hangs onto it throught the climbs some times padding his lead by a few seconds in each stage.
Yes, Lance is so good because he has the all around skills. Not that he's just average in any one area, but he can be one of the best time trialist and climbers at any given time. He's also an average sprinter (won Tour of Georgia stage), but sprinting doesn't help at all towards winning the overall tour. The main reason Lance has won 5 tours in a row is his team. All Lance trains for is the tour and the entire team is built around putting him on top of the podium. Today in the team time trial I don't think Lance was ever exposed to the wind once in the 70 minute race. His team is sacrificing themselves by pulling him along so that those few mountain top finishes and two solo time trials Lance will be rested when he is out there alone.
I consider Lance the greatest athelete alive, he just has the greatest determination, skill, and above all he has the biggest heart (IMO). I dont know if any one saw Dodgeball, but he has a cameo in that where is talking to Vince Vaughn and he says something like "When i was diagnosed with Prostate, testicular, and lung cancer i wanted to give up but i just kept riding and riding and eventually won 5 Tour de Frances. So whats bugging you." Its something along those lines but it was really funny and it was perfect for the situation.
US Postal has the best discipline in team time trial, TT was the only thing I was ever good at. When we were kids, Lance sucked eggs at TT, now that he got his male hormone through a needle during recovery, I am sure it helped get him to the shape he needed to retune himself. George is the best on Postal, he will never progress if he keeps guarding Lance, he could honestly take Lance if he was allowed to, but team orders (see Tour Dupont 1996). Floyd and Eki are way underrated. Eki is a TT god (see Sydney Olympics) Other US riders in the Tour De France: George HINCAPIE Levi Leipheimer Bobby Julich Part billygoat Tyler Hamilton A real amazing rider. Christian Vandevelde Floyd Landis Paris-Roubaix, now there is a race, cobblestones, rain, mud, hell. Here is my 'rainbike'
Just borrowed Lance's book "It's not about the Bike - My journey back to life" from the library. Had a quick look, looks like a good read. anyone else has read this book ???
I read it last year. I think I finished it in 2 days, and I'm not a particularly quick reader. I recommend it.
Hope he stays in yellow!!! He's got to make it 6 wins, i would love to see him do it!! Good luck Lance from the other side of the pond...
George is more of a one day rider, he has shown that in the classics. I don't think he has the great time trial and mountain ability to be a GC contender. As I expected, USPS isn't trying to protect the yellow this early in the race. That would just be dumb to wear themselves out before getting to the mountains when all of these flat stage breakaway riders will loose all their time anyway. With 30k left in todays race it looks like the 5 man break will finish up about 10 minutes and take the yellow from Lance. This is perfect as it will take the pressure off for a few days before the mountains.
What do they win in the end? Does lance just take home the top prize or is it split between the teamates?
Hmm, good question. There is an overall top team prize, but usually the team of the GC winner doesn't finish well, because they sacrifice themselves just for the leader. You'll see in the mountain stages that Postal will line up and one by one they'll drop off until Lance goes solo at the end. Once the team works hard and drop off, they drop WAY off. Sometimes finishing 30 minutes back. I think the tour win is only 400k Euros, which is nothing for Lance and his endorsement deals. I'm sure the USPS or Lance pay back the team one way or another.
That's not a problem! They let them go out, those are breakaway flat cyclists and sprinters, they won't be able to hold that lead in the mountains. Like I said in my post below, it was best for USPS to not defend the Yellow today. All the GC contenders finished with Lance 15 minutes back. General classification after stage 5 1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 2 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis - Le Crédit Par Téléphone 3 Sandy Casar (Fra) Fdjeux.com 4 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Alessio-Bianchi 5 Jakob Piil (Den) Team CSC 6 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal p/b Berry Floor
I hope so. The way they were talking about it on the radio though...the USPS team let them get too far ahead. If anyone has the heart to come back it's Lance! DL
The main group and all the GC contenders just finished at 12 minutes down. This is not a big deal for Lance, watch and see. Results- Unofficial 1 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis - Le Crédit Par Téléphone 5.05.58 2 Jakob Piil (Den) Team CSC 3 Sandy Casar (Fra) Fdjeux.com 4 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 5 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Alessio-Bianchi 6 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Lotto-Domo 12.38 7 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 8 Janek Tombak (Est) Cofidis - Le Crédit Par Téléphone
How does the point system work? I hear cyclist being referred to as winning "points." Does this translate to time somehow? Also, what's the time bonus they talk about? Lastly, is there such a thing as a green jersey? Is that the stage winner? Thanks... trying to understand the sport better. Also... what's the best web site to keep track of the Tour?
The big thing Lance is going for is the General Classification (the Yellow Jersey). There's also "points" competitions for Sprints (Green jersey) and Mountains (Poka-Dot jersey). Also awards for best young riders in general classification and each day a "most competitive" award is given. In the early stages there are time bonuses for the sprints and finish that amount to a few seconds. Otherwise the peleton always finishes with the same time. I've been using www.cyclingnews.com because it's simple and gives live updates.
