Independent Sources is proud to bring you our special coverage of the 2005 Tour de France via our own Luke the Drifter who is to Le Tour coverage what Steve Lopez is to the Los Angeles Times.

Stage One:

(1) The U.S. is now the world’s #1 pro cycling country. Four of us in the top six. Six of us ahead of the first Frenchie (Walter Bénéteau, back in 24th). I would like to hear the Independent Sources crew speculate on how this happened? Aren’t all American kids supposed to grow up dreaming of baseball, basketball and football? Aren’t we handicapped by an absence of cycling tradition (or do we benefit from same?) I propose that the American “can do” optimism trumps the European “can’t do” malaise in sports same as it does in economics. It only took Lance to make us Yanks aware that cycling was a real man’s sport, now get out of our way.

(2) The time has come for an American Grand Tour on the Pro Tour calendar. I suggest canning the Tour of Spain, the dullest—by far—of the current big three Grand Tours (Italy, France, Spain). Three weeks in the U.S. starting on Labor Day weekend. Change the route every year but cover all regions with regular stages in NYC, Washington DC and other famous and photogenic locales. Start in the north and move south over the 3 weeks to get the best weather. Occasional stages in neighboring countries in the hemisphere. Wall-to-wall OLN coverage. A Pro Tour event so all the major teams will be obligated to participate. Who will sign my petition?

(3) Armstrong passing his “minute man” Ullrich at around 15-km will join the pantheon of great Armstrong moments alongside “The Look.”

(4) Hincapie has improved steadily year-by-year to be one of the world’s great cyclists. 4th in the opening TdF TT after a great spring campaign. Bravo George! Solid efforts by several other Discovery Channel riders—clearly the best trained and best-coached team in cycling.

(5) If T-Mobile management cares about the GC (=overall, the yellow jersey) they should deem Vino their team leader and have Ullrich ride in support. Or just go for stage wins. However this is unlikely as T-Mobile routinely employs appallingly bad race tactics every July. Watch them trot out a new race strategy every day while Discovery sticks with their script. Ullrich will no doubt get stronger over the three weeks, he usually does, but Armstrong is going to put this race away for good on the first mountain stage. Remember I said that. It will be an interesting race for 2nd and 3rd.

(6) Solid efforts by Landis and Julich. Julich will be performing domestique duties for Basso, but he might opportunistically nab a stage win as his directeur sportif, a wily Dane, is willing to put resources behind stage wins as well as chase the GC. Landis seems on track for a top five overall finish in his first Grand Tour as a team leader

(7) I’m disappointed in Leipheimer, Basso and Botero. Leipheimer is a plucky little guy and will probably move up in the GC over the course of the race, nevertheless this has to be a disappointment as he is an ace TTer and I wonder if he overdid his race prep. Basso was solid but not spectacular, he’s better than last year against the clock, but Armstrong and Discovery Channel will be able to mark him in the mountains and kill him in remaining TTs. Botero is a consistently inconsistent rider, red hot two weeks ago and now back in the pack.

(8) I expected more from Chris Horner, a colorful and hard-working Yank making his Grand Tour debut at age 34 (or thereabouts) who can TT and climb at a world-class level but hasn’t had the opportunity in recent years to prove it against the best. I would like to see Chris get a stage win in the mountains like he did in Switzerland recently but I don’t expect to seem him contest the GC.

(9) The Spanish Armada? Already sunk. Beloki 2’05” back. Roberto Heras 2’20” back. Iban Mayo 3’15” back. Saving it for the Tour of Spain, a race no one outside of Spain cares about? Who’s the genius who made Heras a team leader for Le Tour? I’d be pissed if I was the team sponsor and it was my money that they were using to finance a windmill-tilting trip around France, eight guys in support of someone who will never, ever win the TdF.

(10) I always dread seeing the ads which run during the first TdF broadcast as I know I’m going to see them hundreds of times again before the race finishes in Paris.

(11) Lance’s competition will now come from the tourists lining the routes. He’ll run a gauntlet of spitting and screaming “fans” on every mountain stage. It’s amazing there aren’t far more fan-induced accidents than there are.

(12) David Zabriskie was on fire, like he was at the Giro TT, but I wonder if Lance eased up so he wouldn’t have “the weight of the yellow jersey” on his shoulders for the first week?

(13) Zabriskie broke the TdF TT (time trial) speed record today, clocking 54.68-kph. If you don’t think that sounds that fast when converted to mph (a little over 30-mph), get on a stationary bike with calibrated resistance like a CompuTrainer and try to hold that speed for 1 minute. Air resistance increases 8-fold with a doubling in speed, or something like that. The previous record was held by Greg LeMond, 54.545-kph, which shows how superhuman Greg was in his day. LeMond rode in a less-aerodynamic era (although he was an aerodynamic pioneer, his gear was nothing like what the boys ride today). Speaking of LeMond, could he have a less distinguished post-racing career? Who’s managing him? Athletes can make more money after they retire than when they’re competing. If I managed LeMond today I’d get him on the South Beach Diet as he got chunky after he stopped riding (I should talk), get him to apologize publicly and sincerely to Armstrong (who he hinted was doping) and get him back in the public eye as his story–coming back from near-death (sound familiar?) to win the Tour de France–is an incredible, inspirational story that a generation of American cyclists and sports fans haven’t heard.

Luke

Additional reading: Independent Sources Tour de France; Independent Sources: France, We Taunt You; or for a blog dedicated to Le Tour try TDFBlog

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 2nd, 2005 at 5:11 pm by Luke the Drifter and is filed under Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.