TdF Stage 11

No results here, I am assuming as we all have internet access we can find the results at cycling news or velo news. The anticipation is building. I am waiting for the race to blow wide open. Lance stated today that he is better suited for Saturday than tomorrow. He thinks tomorrow will favor a more explosive rider, maybe Mayo will try to have his tour moment tomorrow.

Props to the Frenchies for having the maillot jaune for a week and two consecutive stage wins. Hopefully the main action will hold off until Saturday so I can watch it live.

Off topic, but sort of TdF related, I was on a group ride the other night and got into a wicked fast pace line with todays second place finisher Flecha's fellow Fassa Bortolo teammate Tom Danielson, the ride had split and we were chasing down the first group between 30-35 mph, also present in the paceline was the great Ned Overend, it slowly began to disintegrate, I was eventually shed, but gave a decent effort.

Danielson is in town for a month, I believe he is going to try and give the Mt Evans record a go before he heads back to Italy to begin getting ready for the Vuelta.

off topic in a related way:
Last year I was riding Mill Creek Canyon when I stopped to dunk my helmet into the stream. Seconds later I heard a crash and a scream. Turns out Dave Zabriskie, a postal rider, had crashed into a car. It was Memorial Day so I believe that he should have known better than to descend the canyon at anything over 15 mph and should have been able to avoid the crash. Anyway he had some broken bones but recovered and won the National TT championship this year. Supposedly, he's a promising young rider.

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Originally posted by Artie Fufkin
Lance stated today that he is better suited for Saturday than tomorrow. He thinks tomorrow will favor a more explosive rider, maybe Mayo will try to have his tour moment tomorrow.

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I think he's just trying to psyche out his opponents.

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Originally posted by Plakespear
I think he's just trying to psyche out his opponents.

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You're probably right, Lance is the last person to give up his game plan. There should be some good drama the next few days. The main contenders have been quiet, so who is going to throw down the first attack. Heras, Levi, Tyler, Jan are all in there, some people have been saying Basso has a chance, I don't know too much about him.

I think Lance will let the others make the first move as he has the advantage in the GC. Jan looks fit and has been quiet, so we'll see if he finally can get over on Lance. Either way there should be some good racing.

Basso is a pure climber. The fact that there won't be a non uphill TT until the final days of the race helps him out. He may be able to build up a lead in the mountains Lance, Ullrich, or Tyler can't overcome in the final stages.

But I actually think what will happen is Lance will attack in the next few days, and Basso and Mayo will go with him. Tyler and Ullrich will try to hang. If they get caught with their bibshorts down however, they're toast.

Lance will put the hurt on Ullrich on the Alpe, hopefully enough to keep Ulrich out of Maiilot Jaune contention on the final TT.

Not having a long TT last week, as well as the restricted time loss rule in the TTT has really hurt Armstrong. He probably would be significantly further ahead of the other contenders on GC by now.

I used to race Tom Danielson as a junior. We lived in the same town in the summer and occasionaly rode togethor. He was a year older than me and dominated the series.

I had heard a rumor that he landed a good road contract after breaking the mt washington hill climb record...this true? sounds like the contract part is at least true. good for him.

I thought Mayo didn't start Le Tour this year due to a crash.

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Originally posted by hev
I used to race Tom Danielson as a junior. We lived in the same town in the summer and occasionaly rode togethor. He was a year older than me and dominated the series.

I had heard a rumor that he landed a good road contract after breaking the mt washington hill climb record...this true? sounds like the contract part is at least true. good for him.

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I don't know him personally, but Durango is a small community with a variety of professional cyclist and they are usually out riding. Essentially Saturn shut down their team last year and Fassa Bortolo a top Italian team, home to Alessandro Pettachi, picked him up. I imagine he is doing alright financially. His fiance is also a professional road racer. From his diary on Cycling News.com he could have rode in the tour but did not feel ready. He has already gotten a top twenty in a euro stage race and has climbed with the likes of Iban Mayo. It is possible that he will lead his team at the Vuelta. He is probably not the next Armstrong, but it appears Fassa is taking the time to develop him, so he could be a possible Tour contender down the road.

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Originally posted by Viva
I thought Mayo didn't start Le Tour this year due to a crash.

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You might be thinking of Joseba Beloki(formerly of Team Once), one of Lance's chief rivals last year. He crashed hard at last years tour and took a long time to recover. He was not riding well this year and left his French team last month. It's too bad he isn't there this year, he was pushing Lance last year.

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Originally posted by Plakespear
Lance will put the hurt on Ullrich on the Alpe, hopefully enough to keep Ulrich out of Maiilot Jaune contention on the final TT.

Not having a long TT last week, as well as the restricted time loss rule in the TTT has really hurt Armstrong. He probably would be significantly further ahead of the other contenders on GC by now. [/B]

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The L'Alpe d'Huez time trial should be pretty amazing, especially in light of Lance's not so dominant display at the Dauphne(sp) Mt Ventoux TT in June. But that was a month ago and he is hitting his peak now. It will be interesting to see what the GC is on Saturday afternoon.

it's gonna be sweet! this is what i've been waiting all year to watch. I really hope Tyler does well, he's the shit.

On another side note...Greg Lemond is an f-ing loser. I can't undertstand why he'd be bad mouthing Lance at this time. Bike sales must be down.

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Originally posted by mushmouth
On another side note...Greg Lemond is an f-ing loser. I can't undertstand why he'd be bad mouthing Lance at this time. Bike sales must be down.

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Agree, his comments today really bummed me out. Greg Lemond was part of the reason that I began racing as a junior, I still have SI covers from when he won the tour in 89 and when he was named sportman of the year. Lance even said today that Lemond was one of his cycling inspirations. Greg Lemond is one of the greatest American cyclist.

I don't know why is so bitter and so bent on proving that Lance is doping. He stated that in 91 he could not keep up with the riders in the Tour, so his rationale is that they were all doping. The guy almost died a few years back and he was getting older. He's looking like a real jackass, and that's too bad because there are alot of people that admire what he has accomplished.

Edit: Here is a translation of the interview, I could not find an english link:

The interview:
Q: Your wife, Kathy, said in L.A. Confidentiel that in July 2001, Lance Armstrong called you, and accused you of having used EPO in the course of your career

A: His telephone call was a shock to me, as it had a violent and menacing tone. Lance said that I could never have won the Tour without EPO...This is completely false, because they didn't have EPO at that time. One week prior to the phone call, I was interviewed by the Sunday Times, in which I expressed my opinion of Michele Ferrari. Lance thought that I was trying to implicate him, when I was really trying to dissuade him fom associating with his type. I was convinced that Lance's association with him was a catastrophe. At this time, Ferrari was at the centre of a Judicial Inquiry in Italy - he was accused
of Sporting Fraud since September 2001.

Q: What complaints do you have about Michele Ferrari?

A: I happened to meet him in a bike store in San Diego, in 1994. I was getting information about a machine that let me measure power, and track it. He asked me what it was, and of what use it was. He had no knowledge or expertise on training methods or matierials. His specialty, was the 'blood sciences.' For me, he changed cycling.

Q: How did this change manifest?

In 1990, I won my third Tour, and my Z team won the Team Classification. The following year, none of us could follow the peloton's pace. There had been a radical change. Guys who had never placed well were the next day beating everybody. In 1991, I was better prepared than the previous year: I beat Indurain by a couple of seconds in the prologue. After two weeks of racing however, neither myself nor my teammates could keep up with the pace. In my team, everyone knew that there was a problem with EPO, and other substances.

Q: How do you see Cycling today, and in particular, the Tour de France?

A: I'm glad not to be involved in cycling racing today, because riders really don't have a choice (not to take drugs). I'm equally disappointed that people aren't asking questions. With all that's been going on in the last couple of years, I'm less excited about the Tour: I'm sceptical. There have always doping problems in our sport, however in the last 10 years, the products have become so effective, that they can change an athlete hysiologically. You can transform a mule into a thoroughbred!

Q: So you don't believe in Armstrong's miraculous comeback after his cancer?

A; There's no miracle in bike racing. There is always an explanation - and of course, natural talent. Hinault and Merckx won the Tour on their first try. Me, I finished third in my first Tour in 1984, and second in 1985. My physiology didn't change like this (like Lance's). After my hunting accident in 1987, I invested two years to try and come back, but was never able to return to my previous level.
The only way to go faster in cycling is to increase aerobic capacity. When I raced, my VO2 max was the best in the peloton (93 ml). Today (my levels) wouldn't even be in the top 50. I have studied physiology a lot, and can say that no amount of training can transform someone without a good VO2 max into a champion. And, training methods have not changed fundamentally.

Q: And if Lance Armstrong becomes the first person to win six tours?

A: People will say that I'm jealous, because I was the first American to win the Tour, but even with six victories, there is no comparison to the past. Because of what has happened in the last 10 years, this (six Tour wins) does not have the same value as Hinault's five Tour wins, for example. Lance said that I was the only Tour winner not to support him. I was a big supporter of Lance in the first year that he won the Tour. With all of the stories that have come out however, it is difficult to remain a fan.

Q: Lance responds to the doubters that he has never tested positive:

A: Everyone says this. Millar never tested positive, but he admitted to taking EPO. Every year, new allegations spring up, police in France and Italy find illegal products, and racers like Jesus Manzano speak the truth - that is that they've doped. The problem with Lance is that you can't discuss these things with him. For him, you're either a liar like Christophe Bassons, or Jesus Manzano, or you're out to destroy cycling. For me, I'm only saying that I want to watch a clean Tour de France. Lance will stop at nothing to hide his secret. I don't know how long he can continue to convince people of his innocence.

what ferrari says...from cyclingnews.com....

A LeMond encounter
I still clearly remember my very brief encounter with Greg LeMond in the January of 1994 in Encinitas, close to San Diego, CA.

We were visiting a popular and well furnished cycling shop called Nytro, and Greg was there too, big and fat as so often happened in the last years of his career.

We introduced ourselves and he did show me an SRM power meter mounted on his bike. I objected that I still preferred to rely on heart rate for the training programs of my athletes, essentially because the latter allowed the evaluation of the so-called 'carico interno' (internal loading) of work that they were subjected to.

In fact, watt measuring gives a rather absolute evaluation, not considering the fluctuations in condition of the athlete: the same load of 400 watts may change 'meaning' from day to day, according to status of fatigue in the rider.

Today, more than 10 years later, I still tend to evaluate with much prudence all the numbers we get from computers, always integrating them with the feelings and the instinct of the athlete.

And this still continues to make the difference.

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Originally posted by ulty_guy

We were visiting a popular and well furnished cycling shop called Nytro, and Greg was there too, big and fat as so often happened in the last years of his career.

Today, more than 10 years later, I still tend to evaluate with much prudence all the numbers we get from computers, always integrating them with the feelings and the instinct of the athlete.

And this still continues to make the difference. [/B]

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Greg, big and fat, nice!

I train with a HRM, but I am seeing more and more people using the SRM. The book that I have loosely followed this year, Joe Friel's Training Bible, he seems to have that opinion as well. Which is your training can get muddled in all the computers and numbers, he emphasizes training many times based on perceived effort.

It seems that Armstrong charged up the argument with a call to LeMond in 2001 accusing LeMond of doping. LeMond had done nothing more than say that Armstrong's choices in coaches was poor.

If someone called me up and insinuated that I was a cheater and that my Tour wins were unjustified, I would call BS on that person also.

Lance doesn't come off smelling like a rose in this debate either.