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Photograph: Bas Czerwinski/AP
Well we have reached another rest day. It has been an exciting two weeks of cycling! We have seen Australian rider Cadel Evans ride into yellow and then fade away with a broken elbow. We have seen the once untouchable Lance Armstrong struggle and struggle to stay with the top riders in his final tour. We have seen Australian Mark Renshaw kicked out of the race for head butting a fellow cyclist as they raced towards the line; and of course we have seen a cyclist remove his front wheel and whack another cyclist over the head with it! We have seen Contador spit in the face of chivalry and honour and we have seen Andy Schleck’s eyes glow red as anger is now pumping through his veins!
But while the riders have a rest day today, it is fitting for us too to have a rest day. Thus let us take this opportunity to look at one of the most important aspects of the Tour. It is something that most people have wondered about but not dared to ask questions. It is something that if done wrong can ruin a cyclist’s tour, reputation… and possibly even life!
The 'gentleman' method. The nicer of the two methods, but not always possible! (Photo: I couldn'tf find the copyright details, but who would take claim for taking this photo?)
I am talking of course about this important question:
How do the riders pee?
Good question! I mean, they’re in the saddle for 5-6 hours a day everyday, even if they did use the loo before the stage started they would have to go some time during the day. No person can hold their pee forever! Science has proven many times that urination is a very important act for a human beings to do regularly. This was clearly highlighted when a radio station in the US recently held a competition promising to give away a Nintendo Wii to the person who could hold their wee the longest! A very clever and funny idea, that had a disastrous result. One of the contenders held his urine for so long that he ended up poisoning himself and dying.
How many people have to die before the world understands that people need to pee!
See, if you thought I was using hyperbole when I wrote: “It is something that if done wrong can ruin a cyclist’s tour, reputation… and possibly even life!” You were wrong! This is serious stuff!
So, how do the riders pee?
Essentially there are two main ways of urinating while riding in the Tour:
1) The “gentleman” method. The first method for ‘doing a number 1′ is to organise to stop with a small group of people (like in the picture above). This allows you to pee in a more civilised fashion and gives you team mates to help you cycle back to the peloton. In some stages of the Tour the whole peloton will agree to certain ‘pee zones’ where the whole group can pee en masse.
2) The “in-saddle” method. The other method that cyclists use to relieve themselves while riding in the Tour is to literally do it as they are cycling! Now without going into too much detail, the way this works is that cyclists turn their bodies to the side, aim for the side of the road (somewhere where there aren’t any spectators cheering) and fire! Often another cyclist will ride behind you and hold your bike to stabilise you as you ‘do your business’. It is also best to do this on a slight descent, you don’t want to be going too fast; but you also don’t want to slow down to the point that you need to start pedaling! This method has obvious downsides but it does mean that you don’t have to stop cycling while the others continue, thus not falling too far behind.
The 'in-saddle' method.
Now it is important to state that these cyclists are professions – Please don’t try this at home kids… it will only end in tears and an awkward explanation to your mum about how it happened!
It is important to stop here and state that there are certain unwritten rules that govern ‘wizzing’ in the Tour de France. The main one being that you shouldn’t attack if some of the leaders are taking a ‘nature break’. This is considered to be unfair and other riders will criticise them harshly and team up against them on the next stage of the Tour, it is the same principal if someone has a crash: you do not exploit other people’s bad luck!
You hear that Alberto?
The two other rules are a bit more self explanatory:
Wait till you really need to go! I cannot stress this enough
Make sure you really need to go, wait till you absolutely have to or otherwise you just look like that strange guy who doesn’t know that private areas are meant to be kept private! I mean it would just get awkward and the other cyclist would start to avoid you in the peloton! But you do need to be careful with this and remember the moral of the Nintendo Wii story – don’t wait too long!
Finally, don’t stop halfway through! I don’t care what happens, it is always, always best to let nature run it’s course! You don’t mess with what your body wants to do, it is just not natural.
Other than that it is simply practice makes perfect, but again, please remember that these guys are pros, don’t attempt to do this at home if you don’t know what you are doing!
So there you have it! Another one of life’s great questions solved!
This is an edited version of a post in the “beginners guide to the tour de France” series that was originally published in September 2009
Contador taking jersey while many in the crowd shouted their boos
Alberto Contador is a big fat jerk!
Yeah, that’s right, I said it!
You may be asking why?
Fair enough, let me tell you.
Cycling is a gentleman’s sport. It is about finding out who is the best cyclist. Who deserves to win, not who gets lucky on the day! It is about winning outright because you are the strongest, smartest and most skilful.
It is not about winning because of another rider’s bad luck. That is just poor form. And that is exactly what Alberto Contador did in tonight’s stage to win the yellow jersey.
This year’s tour is really all about two cyclists: Contador and Schleck. They are inseparable as they race each other with their legs and their minds. The two greatest cyclists in the world battling it out in the high mountains of the Pyrenees. The whole world watching, cheering loudly for the best man to win.
But then Contador had to go and break the cardinal rule of cycling:
“If you want to win the tour than you want to beat everyone outright, not take advantage of situations.”
Essentially the principal is saying that winning by exploiting another rider’s bad luck is hollow and shallow. Think about it, you are riding with the same group of people for a whole month, in extreme heat and torrential rain, up steep mountains and then down extremely dangerous descents, through 4 or 5 different countries! If you win because your competitor’s chain comes off his bike then you’re not really a better cyclist, just luckier!
Andy Schleck looks down at his chain. Contador (2nd from Left) exploits his bad fortune to secure the yellow jersey (Photo: AFP)
That is what happened tonight. Schleck attacked Contador and caught him by surprise, he opened up a few seconds, but then lady luck fly kicked him in the face. His chain fell off, grinding him to a holt.
What did Contador do? Did he slow down to allow Schleck to get back on his bike? No! He saw Schleck’s bad luck and he attacked! Speeding away while Schleck was left to deal with his mechanical issues.
I think Paul Sherwen has it right when he said that the move shows how nervous Contador is about Schleck, how worried he is about his form and strength!
And he is right to be worried; as soon as Schleck got his bike sorted he rode like lighting after Contador, fuelled by anger and frustration, blood and adrenaline surging through his body. He made Armstrong, Leipheimer, Vinokourov and a range of other top cyclists look like kids on BMX bikes as he flew straight past them with Contador in his sights. He closed the gap to 12 seconds at the top of the climb but then lost time on the descent as some other strong cyclists aided Contador.
At the end of the stage he had lost over 30 seconds to Contador, losing the yellow jersey and the much-needed time buffer for the penultimate time trial stage.
You may be saying: “so what, I’m sure all Tour winners do this, you got to be a bit dirty to win!” Well, you would be wrong! This is not the way that Lance Armstrong won his seven consecutive tour de France titles.
Jan Ullrich after his crash. Armstrong waited for him.
During Lance Armstrong’s peak only one man, Jan Ullrich, threatened him in a very similar way to Contador and Schleck. During the race Jan Ullrich had a crash (he literally flew off the side of the road and fell down a hill), up to that point him and Armstrong were incredibly close, if Armstrong wanted to seal up a race victory he could have done it there and then – just kept cycling and claim a good few minutes on Ullrich. But he didn’t, he slowed down and waited, allowing Ullrich to join him. Armstrong went on to win the Tour, but it wasn’t because he exploited Ullrich’s bad luck. Well two years later Armstrong had a nasty fall during one of the mountain stages. Ullrich was just 15 seconds behind him in the race for the overall leader, Ullrich could have taken advantage of the situation, but he didn’t. Later on he told the French press:
“If I would have won this race by taking advantage of someone’s bad luck, then the race was not worth winning.”
Or as another cyclist put it:
“There’s always been a predictable code of honor, when you ride with the same people for three weeks of a Tour or a whole season, it is a matter of respect. You don’t take advantage of someone’s bad luck.”
Amen! Here is a video of the incident:
Contador climbed the podium and was greeted by a wall of boos from the crowd, understandably so. You could see that it was hard for him to smile.
Schleck receiving the white jersey as the best young rider. the crowd were cheering for him! (photo: AFP)
After him, Schleck climbed the podium to claim the white ‘youth classification’ jersey. It was also hard for him to smile – he is full of anger.
I for one am eager to see where that anger takes him as they go deeper into the Pyrenees and climb the dreaded Tourmalet… twice! If you want to see some great cycling then make sure you tune in for the next two stages! No one knows how his race will pan out, but one thing is for sure, Contador has made a powerful enemy today in Andy Schleck!
The Hurt Locker. It's as exciting as the Tour!
How are you going?
The late nights, the early morning starts, the crashes, attacks, breakaways, battles and bruises? Nail biting stuff, it is like watching the hurt locker, but on bikes and in France instead of Baghdad… and just cycling and not bomb diffusing… and crashes not explosions…
But still similar.
I firmly believe that faithfully watching the Tour is almost as difficult as riding it.
Well not really, but it is still an impressive mental and physical feat! We spectators appreciate a rest day as much as the riders, giving a chance to go to bed the day before we have to wake up for work!
The tiredness has really started to catch up on me. I feel it in my bones and in the soreness of my eyes. The pain of waking up day after day with a mere 4 hours sleep is intolerable.
But it is so worth it!
Tonight we will again see some spectacular cycling as the peloton climb two very difficult mountains, the Port de Pailhères (with the highest difficulty rating possible) and just after it the Ax-3 Domaines (with the second highest rating possible). My prediction is that these two mountain climbs will blow the peloton apart and create an elite group of cyclists led by Contador and Schleck.
More importantly however, tonight will give us a taste of what to expect over the next week as the Tour heads into the Pyrenees!
The Pyrenees is a range of high mountains that border Spain and France. This year’s tour is very much a celebration of the Pyrenees, and when Tour organisers say something like “This year’s tour is very much a celebration of the Pyrenees”, they mean that the majority of the pain is going to be dealt out in the Pyrenees. Cyclists are weird like that.
In the olden days, climbing the Tourmalet was a punishment reserved for the worst of criminal offenders!
But, what has everyone fluttering is the fact that the tour will climb the dreaded Tourmalet… twice! From two different directions: the really hard route, and the harder, really hard route! These two stages are where we are likely to see fireworks as Contador and Schleck go man-to-man, mano-a-mano in a contest of mind and muscles, grit and guts, strategy and strength and ultimately pain vs perseverance. When the Tour route was revealed in October last year Contador showed that he was more than happy to head up the Tourmalet, when asked about the Tour route Contador replied:
“This Tour is better for me than last year, especially with a stage finish atop a climb so difficult as the Tourmalet. If I have good legs, I can take out a lot of time in the mountains going into the final time trial.”
Well, that remains to be seen. There is no question that Contador will gain time over the other main contenders, but there is one important question that has yet to be answered: can Contador break Andy Schleck?
Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador. The best of the best. Photo: AFP
With 30 seconds between them neither cyclist will be comfortable going into the final individual time trial in the penultimate stage. Contador is easily the better time trial cyclist, but can he make up 3o seconds on a rider like Schleck? Schleck is a great cyclist, but is 30 seconds enough to secure the yellow jersey in Paris?
There is no clear answer to these questions. Thus we are in for a treat over the next week as both cyclists try and outwit, outride and outlast the other to be the ultimate Survivor! (Man that was a great show, if anyone knows how to get seasons of that show on DVD can you let me know in the comments? ta)
Anyway, tonight’s stage should be a great entree for us as we get ready to feast on the main course in the Pyrenees!
Definitely worth the sleep depravity!
To win in cycling you need more than strongs legs! You need to have a good head on you and you need to use it well.
Australian cyclist Mark Renshaw took that to a whole new level last night when he head butted New Zealand cyclist Julian Dean in the final sprint of the stage. The two cyclist locked horns, they put their heads together, there was a meeting of minds!
And consequently, there was a disqualification!
Mark Renshaw has been kicked out of the Tour and his team has been fined for his actions in last night’s controversial stage finish. No butts about it! Renshaw’s Tour is over!
the stage winner, Mark Cavendish, is the world’s fastest sprinter (in my opinion) and he has alerady won 3 stages in this year’s tour. But he doesn’t do this by himself. Rather he has a pilot, or a lead out man who cycles in front of him as fast as he can until 50 – 200 metres from the line. The pilot then peels away and slingshots Cavendish to a stage win and glory. The pilot for Cavendish is (the now infamous) Mark renshaw.
Renshaw was doing his job, Cavendish was locked on his wheel and it looked like it would be another Cavendish win. Suddenly Julian Dean came close to Renshaw and Renshaw retaliated by using his head! This caused Dean to swerve off and impede the way of two other sprinters, Petacchi and Farrar.
Renshaw teeted this after the race:
“I think today’s punishment was very harsh. I never imagined that i would ever be dq’d from the tdf. Very disappointed.”
Lance Armstrong didn’t hide his shock at the extreme punishment!
“lancearmstrong Whoa, @markrenshaw1 DQ’d from the #tdf?? Wow, I gotta see the replay. Would have had to be bad to be fully dq’d and not relegated/fined.”
My favourite tweet was from another Australian, Michael Rogers who said:
“mickrogers Folks, not saying what @markrenshaw1 did was 100% correct! But is taking out your front wheel and hitting another in the head with it ok?”
He is of course referring to this little incident.
The relationship between Australia and New Zealand has sunk to a new low. At least the good news is that Cycling doesn’t need a drug scandal to make the front pages. Good old bicycle-part fights and head butts will keep the sport interesting and the general public engaged!
From here we look ahead to the Pyrenees, where there will definitely be some great battles between Contador and Schleck. Team Saxo bank gave Contador a work out last night and more will come as they climb into the mountains. One thing is for sure, good cycling is ahead!
Who knows… we may even get a fist fight out of them… Though Contador should be careful, Shcleck can take out a bear with a single punch!
Cadel Evans, heartbroken after a passionate day of cycling Photo: AFP
What a great day of racing! I don’t know about you but I was riding a roller coaster of emotion. Cadel Evans falling away, Andy Schleck dancing on those pedals, Armstrong’s big improvement, Contador’s cat and mouse with Andy. Excellent stuff for late night watching!
Tonight we saw wheat being seperated from chaff.
We saw men being seperated from boys.
You can't touch this!
We saw Andy Shleck and Alberto Contador seperate themselves from the rest. Schleck and Contador declared with their cycling that they are as untouchable as MC Hammer.
It is no secret that Tours are won and lost in the high mountain stages. Today, the Tour was lost for all of the main contenders but two.
Basso, Wiggins, Armstrong, Evans, Rogers, Sastre, Sanchez, Vinokourov. All gone! Dropped like flys as the world’s two best climbers accelerated, leaving the rest in their dust.
Schleck has claimed the yellow jersey off Evans who cracked on the ride tonight. Today was just not Cadel’s day. Sigh. Cadel, will you forever be the bridesmaid? Cadel has to move on from today, put it behind him and try and reclaim some lost time in the later mountain stages. He needs to think of Armstrong who had a shocking day two days ago, but rode brilliantly tonight, keeping the wheel of all but the two leaders.
Get back into it Cadel, you can still get a podium finish. Who knows, maybe Contador and Schleck will get scurvey or irritable bowel syndrome or ADHD and have to withdraw from the race? Think positive!
Cadel crossed the line tonight and collapsed into the arms of a BMC teammate as his emotions got the better of him and a stream of tears flowed out in a private moment shared by 10 or 20 photographers and thousands of spectators. Evans has won and then lost the leaders jersey in the Vuelta, Giro and the Tour in this past year. He once apoogised to the Australian public for coming second in the Tour. He said sorry!
But tonight was all about Schleck and Contador. They were dancing on their pedals as they dug deeply into the suitcase of courage. Playing cat and mouse with each other. Schleck would attack but Contador would lock onto his wheel.
Photo: Bettini
Schleck would attack again but Contado would be right with him! It was as if they were tied together with an invisible rope. The invisible rope of determination, strength and courage!
Schleck has 41 seconds on Contador, but he will need more to ensure that he wears the yellow in Paris. The penultimate stage is a time trial and Contador is by far the greater time trialist. Schleck will need to attack hard in the mountains and try to dislodge Contador to gain some time before the time trial stage to win this race.
But Schleck has shown that he wants to he can attack in the mountains and leave all but Contador in his wake. I think Levipheimer said it best when he tweeted after the race:
“LeviLeipheimer Someone threw a grenade in the peloton today. Oh yeah it was @Andy_Schleck“
But my favourite tweet came from Andy’s brother Frank Schleck who crashed out in the third stage of this years race when he said:
“schleckfrank @andy_schleck Proud of you bro.I m so happy n G up.we would be both on podium that hurts,bro.my goal is to beat @andy_schleck next year
“
So will Schleck win in Paris? I guess only time will tell! But if the Tour keeps going like tonight it will be a very exciting race into Paris! I for one am excited!
Well, after a tumultuous week of cycling we have entered our first – well earned – rest day. Crashes, crashes and more crashes have been the staple of this weeks late night watching. Cyclists bearing flesh and blood through torn holes in their jerseys have been a common sight.
Frustration and anger have been boiling away with some harsh words being directed at the race organisers after the cobble stone chaos of stage 3, which saw the departure of Christian Vande Velde and Frank Schleck with injuries.
Photo: Fotoreporter Sirotti.
(Though on a side note, a SMH.com poll I found today has 2% of readers thinking that Frank Schleck will win the Tour!) Robbie McEwen got slapped in the face by lady luck when he crashed into a race official after the race had finished and last night saw Armstrong kicked in the groin by Ms Luck as his chances of winning the Tour slip away after a run of nasty crashes. Armstrong’s race director Johan Bruyneel tweeted this after the stage:
“johanbruyneel Bad day 4 us 2day. More bad luck 4 @lancearmstrong in 1 week than in the other 7 years all together… But we’ll stand up again and be back.”
And Armstrong, more upbeat that one would expect after a stage like that, tweeted this:
“lancearmstrong When it rains it pours I guess.. Today was not my day needless to say. Quite banged but gonna hang in here and enjoy my last 2 weeks.”
as well as this:
“lancearmstrong Congrats to @andy_schleck and @CadelOfficial. Great rides by both from what I hear!”
Crashes are just a part of professional road cycling and especially the Tour de France. But that doesn’t mean it is fun, in fact it’s not even fun for us at home watching from the cheap seats!
So I thought I would take it upon myself to cheer everyone up –cyclists and spectators alike – by sharing some good fun cycling humour! So kick back, have a laugh and enjoy this wonderful rest day.
This is an ad that has been showing on SBS during the coverage. The two cyclists are Contador and Schleck, the two favourites to win this year’s Tour.
Here is a great sed of ads for a bike on ebay. Thanks to a friend of mine at work for sending them to me! NOTE: You will probably have to click on it to see the full description, it is worth it!
Armstrong: battered and bruised (Photo: Getty)
It was a surreal experience watching the Tour slowly slip out of the Boss’ hands. After a horrific run of bad luck including crashes and bike failures, he just couldn’t match the strength and speed of the other race leaders including Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck, Ivan Basso and of course Australian Cadel Evans. His jersey was ripped and torn, blood was coming out of his elbows and knees as he rode across the line 12 minutes behind the other leaders.
Andy Schleck. Roar of victory (Source Action Images)
He is all but out of contention. But the great thing about Armstrong is that he never says die. He will continue to fight this with every fibre of his being until they reach Paris!
What is really strange is that Armstrong never crashed in the 7 years he dominated the Tour, but this year he has repeatedly crashed in numerous stages! Bad luck + old age.
The stand out performer tonight was from the stage winner Andy Schleck, who attacked in the last kilometre and left the other riders eating his dust. Schleck is in the white jersey for the best placed rider under 25 years of age and has the yellow clearly in his sights.
Which brings us to the good news.
Nay, the great news! Australian Cadel Evans has rode his way into the coveted yellow jersey. He started the stage as the best placed climber and all he needed to do was stay in the winners group. A feat he accomplished with apparent ease. His face betrayed no pain as he rode, while around him cyclists were grimacing from the anguish. He is now well placed with 20 seconds in front of Schleck and 1:01 in front of Contador.
Cadel Evans, the man in yellow (Source: Sunday Telegraph)
But will Evans be able to hold onto the jersey till Paris? He certainly is strong and experienced enough, but during the climb he was the only BMC cyclist in sight. Contador, Schleck and Basso all had at least one team mate who was able to help them out, Evans however, was all alone. Cadel Evans knows all too well from last year that no man is strong enough to win the tour by himself.
But for now Evans gets to enjoy the rest day in the knowledge that he is currently winning the world’s greatest race. And thousands of us get to go to bed before 2:30am and have a good night sleep!
Speaking of which, it is 2am and I have work in the morning! Good night
Mark Cavendish (foreground) wins the stage, but it is also a win for Mark Renshaw (background) in the complicated world of cycling!
So I bumped into a colleague today at my work who asked me why Mark Renshaw peels off at the last minute to allow Cavendish to slingshot past and claim all the glory? Surely his competitive sporting muscles would be screaming out in protest! “Why punish us so much for someone else’s glory?!”
Why does he peel off at the last minute and not go for the line himself. Why does Fabian Cancellara sacrifice the yellow jersey so that his teammate Andy Schleck can get back into the peloton after a crash as he did the other night? Why does Andreas Kloden, a champion in his own right lay aside his ambition for the elusive Maillot Jaune to help Lance Armstrong win? Why does a rider make repeated trips back to the cars and then back to the peloton to fetch water for the rest of his team when this tires him out and causes him to lose time?
Why?
Well, it is complicated, and to be honest I don’t fully understand it!
See, I think most of us would think of the Tour as a sport of individuals, but it’s really all about teamwork!
In a race, some team members sacrifice their chance for a win – wearing themselves out– so a designated leader on their team can be victorious. These cyclists are called domestiques (the French word for ‘servant’) and have been a part of the Tour since 1907!
A domestique will ride in front of another cyclist, pushing aside the air in front of him and creating a slipstream for the other cyclist to shelter in and conserve their energy. They will faithfully do this for as long as they can, then when they can do it no longer another domestique will come in until they get close enough to the finish line for the main rider to pull out from behind and win the stage!
A domestique will also be the cyclist to go back to the team car and get food and drink to take to the other cyclists, wasting their energy going back and forth so that the other riders don’t have to. Furthermore domestiques will often wait behind if their leader has had a crash or punctured a tyre. They will then cycle in front of the leader to help him get back to the peloton. A domestique may also be required to sacrifice his tyre or wheel for the leader if the need arises.
A domestique may also attack and be a part of a breakaway group, causing other teams to chase them down and expend their energy in doing so, or alternatively they can do the lion’s share of chasing a breakaway to minimise the time that their leader will lose. Or a domestique can be a part of a breakaway and slow them down by not contributing to the effort; they will do this if it is in the interest of their team to catch the breakaway.
Of the 200 odd riders in the Tour, only about 20 are cycling to win it. The rest are domestiques, riding for the leader of their team!
All for one and one for all?
So why do they do this? Well, when a cyclist wins, it’s the whole team that wins. When you win as an individual, you go up to the podium as an individual, but it’s really the team that won! Even the total prize pool is sometimes shared amongst the riders. See there is no way that you could win the Tour if you were riding by yourself with no one to help you, it is simply too long, too difficult and too many things can happen! You need people looking out for you, taking care of you and sacrificing their chances for you.
But I am sure you will be pleased to know that all riders have to work their way up, even Lance ‘the boss’ Armstrong used to be a domestique as did Contador, Evans and Schleck!
This will probably also explain why there is such animosity between Contador and Armstrong, as Contador dismissed the work of his team mates to help him win last years tour. It’s why Armstrong tweeted:
“Seeing these comments from AC, if I were him I’d drop this drivel and start thanking his team. Without them, he doesn’t win.”
Armstrong then fired off another post.
“Hey pistolero,” (referring to Contador’s trademark victory salute) “a champion is also measured on how much he respects his team-mates and opponents. There is no ‘I’ in team’. What did I say in March? Lots to learn. Restated.”
Hopefully this sheds some light on a difficult and important aspect of the greatest race on Earth!
I am sitting in the lobby of a Hoyts cinema in Wollongong and the lap top has 13% battery left so I have to make this quick sorry!
What a night! I thought the crashes wouldn’t start happening in earnest till tomorrow, but boy was I wrong! A potent mix of bad weather, nerves and dicy sections of road led to heaps of the big name cyclists crashing hard. Schleck, Basso, Vande Velde etc
Indeed Vande Velde is out of the Tour, check out what he said about the crash that lead to his early departure:
“Riders crashed in front of me and I wasn’t able to avoid them so I went down, I felt OK and got back on. Then another rider lost control in front of me and, again, I couldn’t avoid it. I crashed and landed in a ditch. I’m not sure what I hit; I think it might have been a pole.”
“I’m not sure what I hit; I think it might have been a pole.”
(!)
Anyway, I am down to 10% so I will wrap off here, I just want to say that tonight will be something to watch. With cobble stones and the possibility of further bad weather we should see some possibly race changing crashes.
On another note, wasn’t the sacrifice of Cancellara’s yellow jersey admirable? This is one of the main reasons that the Tour is the world’s best sporting event!
I am away down the South coast and have limited internet, but will get to blogging some deeper thoughts on the Tour when I get back to Sydney.
Photo: AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski
What happened in the last few kilometres of tonights stage?!?
It was so chaotic and messy! Shame Cavendish crashed out, it would have been good to see how strong he is, get a taste of what to expect from this years tour. Cavendish is one of the strongest sprinters in the field and will be aiming to beat his impressive 6 stage wins from last years tour.
Crashes are just one of those things that will unfortunately always be part of the Tour, like your drunken auntie Gladys or wacky uncle Jack at Christmas, you don’t want them to be there, but you know it is unavoidable!
ouch!
It is the reason they shave their legs, if you know you will have a crash sooner or later you do NOT want leg hair to catch the gravel as you scrape along the ground. Horrible, just horrible!
In light of that I thought I would share some photos and videos with you of some of the best Tour crashes.
Sure it’s a bit morbid, but strangely engaging!
Enjoy!
Dogs are a very common problem for Tour cyclists, they just don’t think when they run on to the track and often get hit! Levi Leipheimer tweeted this this morning at 2:22am “Hit the deck today after someone brought their dog to the race w/o a leash. Indescribable how many people were out on the course!!”
This is probably the most controversial crash in Tour history. Do you think he was taking a photo?
In other post race tweets Lance Armstrong asked, “Can someone do the math? How many people are there if it’s 225km and 3 deep? Thanks Holland and Belgium for coming out!!”
Then he retweeted “RT @norahkmurphy: @lancearmstrong At .5 metres a person, that’s 1.35 million people.”
Then accounted for both sides of the road: “Wow RT @g_badman: @lancearmstrong 2.7M to cover both sides of the road”
2.7 million people!! Wow!!
