Cycling: Feed Your Head
American sports fans, do you know what you're missing right now? The magical, the legendary, the completely captivating Tour de France. Yup. In fact, the Tour has already reached its first rest day after eight straight days of racing.
Let's face it: for cycling fans, the Tour is the pure Nirvana. Thanks to the Versus (formerly OLN) network, US fans (all 12 of them) of skinny tires, incredible bike handling, and human suffering can watch cycling every day for three straight weeks. It just doesn't get any better than this. It's like the NCAA tournament, the US Open, the NFL playoffs, the NBA Finals, and the World Series all rolled in to one. Every night -- every goddamn night -- cycling fans can kick back in their recliners (or on their stationary trainers), drink in the international flavor, and let the joy of cycling wash over them. Every night! For three straight weeks!
Le Tour de France: beautiful as a wake-and-bake Sunday morning on Percocet with a shot of anabolic steroids and an HGH chaser. Oh that's right, it's drug free this year. Photo of peloton climbing in Stage 8 from nytimes.com.
The major force shaping this year's Tour: drugs!
It is actually the lack of the drug use that is forming the character of this year's Tour. Though not a single rider has tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, nor is likely to, this Tour is being defined by drugs, or the lack thereof. Before the Tour began, the UCI, international cycling's governing body, forced every rider in this year's Tour to sign an anti-doping charter. All 189 riders signed the document (how could they not? If they didn't sign, they couldn't race and of course, they would look guilty as all hell) and they appear to be keeping their word.
In cycling, especially in the longer stage races, recovery is the name of the game. Those riders who can recover quickly from day to day and retain the snap and power in their legs for hundreds of miles, day after day, for weeks, are the ones who find glory in long breakaways, stage wins, and leaders' jerseys. Recovery capability is one of the primary reasons for performance-enhancing drug use.
This year, the subdued, relatively human pace and activity of the peloton are the best indicators that cycling has finally started to make some inroads against performance-enhancing drug use. In the long, flat stages that characterize the first week of the Tour, the crazy breakaways and ungodly pacing so typical of the last decade or so have been conspicuously absent. Similarly, with the exception of mountain climbing automaton Mickael Rasmussen, riders have been uncharacteristically conservative in the Tour's first two mountain stages. It's as if nobody is quite sure how their bodies will hold up to the daily grind of the Tour without things like HGH, EPO, and other forms of blood doping to help them. It's the first grand tour without the overwhelming presence of performance-enhancing drugs in many, many years, and the teams look a bit unsure of their capabilities.
That's not to say that this year's Tour hasn't been every bit as exciting and satisfying as the drug years, just different. With more nasty wipeouts than a drunken NASCAR race (is that redundant?), daily sprint finishes, intriguing team strategies and tactics, and a new crop of exciting young riders, the Prologue and first eight stages of the Tour have been totally satisfying -- and entertaining.
And then there's the mountains. They say that the NBA playoffs don't really begin for a team until they win on the road. Well, in cycling, the Tour de France doesn't really start until the first mountain stage. The mountains are the Tour. It's where riders can no longer hide in the warm, gentle, wind-protected embrace of the peloton, but must carry their own weight up and over the grandiose Alps and the terrifying Pyrenees. It's about pain and determination, skill and guts, strategy and strength. It's cycling in a nutshell.
Some of the Tour's highlights thus far include the following:
- Prologue -- With Lance, Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, and Floyd Landis absent from the field, this year's Prologue time trial was wide open. So who better to step up and take the win than the reigning time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara of team CSC. Cancellara crushed the rest of the field on the streets of London; runner-up Andreas Kloden finished more than 13 seconds back. The Prologue marked the first time the grand tour has started in England.
- Stage 1 -- Another day on British soil saw Aussie Robbie McEwen of team Predictor-Lotto go down in a crash just 22 kilometers from the finish line, but come back to nip the field at the line.
- Stage 2 -- Quick Step sprinter Tom Boonen showed ultimate class by letting his leadout man, Gert Steegmans, take the stage as a token of gratitude and respect for Steegmans' support efforts.
- Stage 3 -- Overall race leader Cancellara of team CSC capitalized on a hesitation from the peloton in the closing sprint to steal the stage.
- Stage 4 -- Norwegian strongman Thor Hushovd rode the leadout of Credit Agricole teammate Julian Dean for an impressive sprint win.
- Stage 5 -- Italian sprinter Filippo Pozzato of team Liquigas captured a weird, slow-speed stage (recovery issues for the field?). Prerace favorite Alexandre Vinokourov and Astana teammate Kloden both crashed on this stage, with Vino losing time and teammates and having to pace himself across the finish line. It was Pozzato's second career Tour stage win.
- Stage 6 -- Cofidis beanpole Bradley Wiggins broke away from the field just 1.6 kilometers into the race and held the race lead for 192 kilometers before being swept up by the peloton less than 10 kilometers from the finish. Belgian Tom Boonen had the bit between his teeth in a free-for-all sprint finish and took his first Tour stage victory in two years.
- Stage 7 -- The first mountain stage of this year's Tour saw a very modest two-man breakaway with 24-year-old Linus Gerdemann taking the stage. Riders in the peloton looked sluggish and reluctant to attack, appearing to be more concerned with how their legs would hold up on Stage 8 than in attacking Stage 7. It was a great win for Gerdemann, who picked up enough time to claim the coveted yellow race leader's jersey from Fabian Cancellara.
- Stage 8 -- Two words: Mickael Rasmussen. Two-time defending King of the Mountains (KOM) champion and the consensus best pure climber in professional cycling, "the chicken" again showed the kind of climbing chops that made him a legend after last year's Stage 16 performance. While the rest of the field once again seemed more concerned about conserving energy than winning the stage, Rasmussen broke away from the field early and won the six-climb stage by almost three minutes. Summiting the last of three consecutive category 1 climbs to the finish line in Tignes, Rasmussen not only captured the KOM jersey and the stage win, but also picked up the maillot jaune, which he promptly gave to injured teammate Kai Reus. It is the first time Rasmussen has ever worn the overall leader's jersey in the Tour. More massive wipeouts, including ones that left Stuart O'Grady being carted off in a neck immobilizer and T-Mobile GC man Mick Rogers abandoning the tour after crashing on the Cormet de Roselend descent. Bad stage for the Aussies. In addition to medical abandons by mates O'Grady and Rogers, Stage 1 winner Robbie McEwen was forced out of the tournament after failing to finish within the prescribed time limit.
Yesterday was a rest day for the field. The Tour picks up again today with Stage 9. It will be the last day in the Alps for the peloton and a chance for TV viewers to get up close and personal with killer Alpine giants like the Iseran and the Col du Galibier. Look for general classification (GC) riders (those hoping to win the overall championship) like Levi Leipheimer, Denis Menchov, Cadel Evans, Alejandro Valverde, Kloden, and Vino to make some kind of move ahead of the showdown stages in the Pyrenees next week (which, by all accounts will be absolutely brutal. Yes!).
Santa Rosa resident Leipheimer, who dominated this year's Tour of California, has looked like Claude Rains so far, content to hide in the peloton and fly below the radar -- almost. Levi will need to grow a sack and make some noise in the remaining mountain stages and/or the Stage 19 individual time trial or it's going to be another non-podium finish for the leader of team Discovery Channel.
Vino looks like Bela Lugosi after two different crashes have left him stitched and bandaged and is hemorrhaging minutes in the mountains, but commentators Phil Leggett and Paul Sherwin think he's getting stronger every day, so look for Vino to minimize his losses again today with an eye toward making his move in the Pyrenees. He may be down right now, but he still has the attention of the field.
Rasmussen has been slashing the field to bits like Robert Englund the last couple of mountain stages, but his chances to win it all will most likely fade in the time trial. He's a stone-cold lock to win the KOM jersey though.
Others to watch include Valverde, Frenchman Christophe Moreau, and Basque rider Iban Mayo, who looks poised to make some GC noise after a couple of weak Tours in recent years.
Underlying all the excitement this year is the d-word: drugs. With Landis still waiting for final word on his erstwhile 2006 Tour championship and former and current cycling stars like Basso, Erik Zabel (winner of six green jerseys), and Bjarne Riis (winner of the 1996 Tour and current director sportif of team CSC) admitting to doping or attempting to dope, drugs are the unspoken word on everybody's lips. Stage 7 winner Gerdemann, an outspoken advocate for drug-free cycling, rode strong for most of Stage 8, but completely cracked midway up the last climb, along with most of the field. It appeared to offer a striking contradiction to the seemingly limitless strength and recovery ability the riders have shown in past years. Coincidence or . . . ?
While the new, drug-free look of cycling may not be attracting much favorable attention in the United States, French fans have definitely taken notice. French television ratings for the Tour's first weekend were the highest they've been since 2003.