Independent Sources is proud to bring you our special coverage of the 2005 Tour de France via our own Luke the Drifter:

THE SAD FRENCH FANS DON’T EVEN HAVE A ‘CLOWN’ TO CHEER ON

The Frenchies are desperate for something to cheer for. After tomorrow’s big mountain day it is unlikely that any French rider will be able to grab yellow for a few days by lucking into an un-chased breakaway. As of today there is only one French rider in the GC Top 50! (there are six American riders in the Top 50.)

For a few days it looked like the most ‘ambitious’ French riders were chasing after the Clown Jersey (aka Polka Dot Jersey aka King of the Mountains aka le Maillot Pitre), nailing KOM points on the meager cat 4 ‘mountains’ that popped up here and there on the first week’s flat stages. However, after today’s cat 2 climb the highest ranked Frenchie in the KOM derby is Stéphane Augé back in 9^th. In recent years all the French could point to was a rider in the clown jersey; they won’t even have that this year.

WHERE WERE THE DISCO BOYS TODAY?

Team Discovery looked awesomely strong in the TTT, gaining time on CSC thru every time check and blowing the rest of the field away. Had Zabriskie not fallen he might have been in a dead heat with Armstrong for the yellow jersey. It was heart-breaking to see Z. crash. From my perspective, Team Discovery was built this year more than ever for the monster climbs and not power, so their success in the TTT should be freaking out any team with GC aspirations (CSC, T-Mobile, Phonak). All nine Discoveries finished the TTT together, unlike most of the other teams who were shedding riders left and right over the last KMs.

So how did a team that looked to be from another planet a few days ago get dropped on a tame cat 2 climb today leaving their leader to fend for himself against a pack of snarling T-Mobs? My theory: Armstrong is playing possum (again). The T-Mobs will be all fired up on tomorrow’s mountain stage thinking they’ve figured out, after 6 frustrating years, how to beat Lance — rotating attacks after his team has been burnt off by the grade and the pace. This seems to be the consensus in the cycling blogosphere.

The problem with this thinking is that there is no way that Team D is fried after a relatively easy first week — they rarely, if ever, pushed the pace — and today’s modest cat 2 climb. Johan and Lance always have a plan. I think Discovery deliberately took it steady today to save their legs for tomorrow and also to let the T-Mob’s confidence inflate. The bigger the balloon the bigger the pop. I predict T-Mob’s attacks will be answered tomorrow by the blue train in full hammer mode on the road to Mulhouse. Get ready for ‘The Look Part Deux.’ Stage 9 is not an epic stage, but unlike today’s stage it is hard enough to start separating the pretenders from the contenders.

OLN’s ADS

Thankfully no Viagra, Cialis and only a few Enzyte ads (so far). It creeps me out that cycling fans are targeted by TV spot time buyers flogging ‘E.D.’ pills. On the other hand, ‘fitness celebrity’ (WTF?) John Basedow is getting on my nerves in a big way. At least Enzyte ads look they cost more than $500 to shoot.

WATCH OUT FOR

Chris Horner, a not-so-young-anymore American losing his grand tour cherry. Horner appeared to be riding easy today to finish with ‘groupe Armstrong.’ He could surprise tomorrow on the big climbs and end up with a Top Ten GC placing in Paris. This would be doubly impressive as his team Saunier Duval-Prodir is one of the weaker teams in the tour (2^nd-to-last in the TTT).

Luke

Additional posts: here and the TdFBlog

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 9th, 2005 at 12:51 pm by Luke the Drifter and is filed under Cycling, France, We Taunt You. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.