HomeDiariesLe Tour de France 2009 - One Day To Go...
Dave Chapman sent me a text, this morning, roughly translated and censored, it read; “56 years-old and I still get excited about Le Tour de France 2009!” That’s why I love him!
As our editor Martin said yesterday, we’re very lucky to have a couple of guest writers — Al Hamilton and Gord Cameron – contributing from Day One of Le Tour; in fact from ‘D minus two,’ as the military men say.
Gord is right there, schmoozing with the stars, soaking up the luxuriously ‘kit-scandal-free’ vibe (fingers crossed!) in Monaco.
Thank you again gentlemen, your first posts have been excellent.
Bert is Ed’s favourite for Stage 1.
Realistically, there are a maximum of three riders who can win this Tour; two from Astana, Armstrong and Contador plus Sastre for Cervelo.
Evans can take the Lotto jersey on to the podium again, but he can’t win; Menchov can do the same for Rabobank.
Schleck can be a stage winner for Saxo Bank, but not the GC.
Don’t doubt that Lance can win; he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t think he could — I hate the expression, but Lance doesn’t “do” second places.
He’ll have the numbers on the test rigs and inside his angular skull there won’t be one iota of self doubt — he’s won the damn race seven times, remember!
But Contador is, for my money, the best stage race rider on the planet at the moment.
In a recent interview for the Guardian Sports Monthly magazine, David Millar said that ‘Bert’ is the most impressive rider he’s ever seen and destined to be an all time great.
Personally I don’t relish the in-fighting which must come when two highly motivated, driven, proud men want the same thing at the same time and are on the same team.
For me, one of the beauties of our sport is watching the domestiques and lead out men going about their selfless business.
Having Lance and Bert on the same team must end in tears — unless the Spaniard’s legs can convince Lance’s brain that it’s a lost cause and playing the loyal lieutenant is more media friendly than playing Judas.
But if Lance thinks he can win — he’ll make a grab for those pieces of silver.
But, I must say that I was hugely impressed by Sastre in the Giro; I’d be happy to see Carlos derail the Astana Railways Express.
The prologue; sorry, stage one – it’s more than 10 K – is tough and technical. If you can win just one stage — win this one.
Viktor is correct in his assertion that there’s a pattern to the media interest; and the feeding gets no more frenzied than day one.
Cancellara is he specialist, former World and current Olympic champion against the clock, he won his first Tour de France prologue back in 2004, repeating the trick in London a couple of years ago, despite the best efforts of David Millar and Bradley Wiggins.
Talking of the tall pursuiter leads me onto the man who I think will win tomorrow; Wiggins was given carte blanche by Garmin to prepare all winter for just one goal — the prologue of Paris — Nice.
Only one man could beat the double Olympic champion, back in the spring on the opening day of the ‘Race to the Sun’ – Alberto Contador.
He’s my bet for tomorrow.
Whoever wins; thank you for reading, tell your friends about our humble site and we’ll all do our best to give you insights into the race that perhaps the ‘big gun’ sites over look.
“Vive le Tour!” and “goan yursel, Bert!”
We’re in Monaco, and there’s only one day to go!
Gordan Cameron
Day two in Monaco, and the excitement is starting to grow, even if some of the residents are trying too hard not to let on that they’re thrilled to have the Tour de France kicking off here.
Mind you, when they have the F1 Grand Prix, a big tennis tournament, the IAAF athletics Grand Prix finals, a major clay court tennis tournament … they can probably afford to be a little blasé about Le Grande Boucle.
Today, the pre-race Friday is about press conferences and riders checking out the TT course for tomorrow. There was a constant stream of motorcycle outriders leading the pros along the manic roads.
Plenty of riders even taking advantage of the anonymity that privilege in such a wealthy city brings them.
Giro d’ Italia champion Denis Menchov rolling past in full kit, on tricked-out Giant TT rig, and nobody batted an eyelid.
Zabel, half in team kit at least.
Erik Zabel was still looking in good shape, and not nearly as chunky as Richard Virenque, who seems to be enjoying a more relaxed dietary regime than he did when he was breaking French housewives’ hearts on the climbs.
You’ll recognise this from the F1 on the telly.
One of the problems for the press is that in Monaco, it’s really hard to get your car around.
We’d left our vehicle in Nice and were relying on public transport … not, unfortunately, on the million Euros and the rest yachts that are lying around the harbour in Port Hercule, like Christmas toys the kids have got bored with already.
Talking of bored, I have to admit that the Astana press conference wasn’t exactly a barrel of laughs.
Bruyneel talked the talk, impressively in three languages, about the importance of team, how Contador is their total number one, and how Lance and Bertie don’t have a communication problem.
Bruyneel, fighting on several fronts, with Vinokourov insisting that he gets back into Astana.
Bruyneel reckoned they hadn’t had the chance to communicate because they only raced together for one day all season ….. true, but maybe there are other reasons for that? Just speculating, just stirring the pot.
Anyway, there’s no doubt that even with no sign of Big Tex, the Astana show was the biggest in town today. You could open a dozen Hollywood studios with the amount of kit stacked at the back of the room.
In total contrast to Astana and LA, the Cervelo guys seemed genuinely relaxed.
We checked out Cervélo Test Team’s press conference, too … and were spiritually refreshed by team owner Gerard Vroomen’s attitude: there’s more to life than the Tour and if we don’t win, it doesn’t matter.
We’re all wondering what shape Carlos is in.
Seems like some sections of the media like this new philosophy as the room was totally packed … way too many people in too small a space. And most of them from Scandinavian press, too, for some reason.
Tomorrow’s the big kick-off, and we’ll get a few answers that eluded us in the press conferences … are Cervélo really that chilled out? Is Alberto really Astana’s number 1?
Ed's been involved in cycling for over 50 years. In that time he's been a successful time triallist, a team manager and a sponsor of several teams and clubs. He's also a respected and successful coach and during the winter months was often working in the cabins at the Six Days for some of the world's top riders. Ed remains a massive fan of the sport and couples his extensive contacts with an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the minutiae and the history of our sport.
In February 2023 however, our dear friend and beloved colleague Ed suffered a devastating stroke and faces an uncertain future; Ed has lost his ability to speak, to read, and has lost movement on the right side of his body. He's working with speech and physical therapists on rehabilitation, but all strokes are different and each patient responds differently, so unfortunately recovery is one day at a time. Ed ran his own business installing windows, and will probably not be able to work again. Please consider joining us to make a contribution to Ed's GoFundMe page to help stabilise and secure his future.
We caught-up with Evan after a wet and wild stage three, won by the immaculately coiffed 2006 Milan-San Remo winner, Filippo Pozzato (Italy & Quick Step); our man had just finished dinner.
It's 23:11 and the 500 metre time trial has just finished here at the Bremen Six Day. We're awaiting the start of the 300 lap chase, and the singer has kicked off. He's currently butchering 'Sailing' - a cool song, not Rod's version, the original Sutherland Brothers version.
Lotto Zesdaagse van Hasselt 2007. Kris picked me up at Dusseldorf Weeze airport at tea time yesterday (Wednesday), it's actually only about two kilometres from Holland so it wasn't long before we found a frites stand. Hasselt is in the Limburg region of Belgium, Flemish speaking and with a population of about 70,000. The local tourist office brochure tries hard to talk the town up but there's not much to say - a nice-enough place though.
It was lucky 13 for Roger Kluge & Theo Reinhardt; that was the number of laps remaining in the final chase in the Berlin Six Day 2019 on Tuesday night when big Lotto Home Boy, Kluge launched the attack which produced the winning lap gain to take the Deutsche Duo clear of Double Danskas Jesper Mørkøv & Marc Hester with their superior scandic points tally.
Recently someone posted some Scottish race results from 1973 on social media; and there I was in some 25 mile time trial on the Kippen Flats course at Stirling. Then it struck me, 1973 – 50 years ago, that’s half a century. How did that happen?
There’s a new kid on the Team Pursuit block, 17 year-old winner of three national championships in 2017, author of a 1:02 kilometre and in the Welsh team which twice recorded 4:01 rides in the recent Commonwealth Games, Mr. Ethan Vernon - another man to benefit from riding with Dan Bigham’s KGF track squadra. Here’s what he had to say to us just the other day...
Demonstrating that the Scottish 'Cross scene is in burgeoning good shape, there were lots of riders in each category at the Scottish Cyclo-Cross Championships, with the Senior riders going off last and enjoying the nicely churned course in drying but ever-colder conditions.
Let me first say this is firstly a review of the Graeme Obree autobiography, the book - not the film - "The Flying Scotsman", and also my version of the events at the world cycling championships in Sicily in 1994. I was the Great Britain team mechanic for those championships, but Mr. Obree didn't remember to mention this fact in his book. You could call this the bitter out-pouring of a man scorned, but rather it's just my memory of what happened.
We humbly ask for your help to support our dear friend and beloved colleague Ed Hood. Ed suffered a devastating stroke in February last year and faces an uncertain future.
As a result of the stroke, Ed has lost his ability to speak, and to read, and has lost movement on the right side of his body. He’s working with speech and physical therapists on rehabilitation but all strokes are different and each patient responds differently, so unfortunately recovery is one day at a time.
Ed ran his own business installing windows but will not be able to work again and his financial future is uncertain, so please consider joining us to make a contribution to the GoFundMe page to help stabilise and secure Ed's future. Thank you.
