HomeDiariesLe Tour de France 2009, Stage 4: Montpellier > Montpellier, 39km TTT
The team time trial here in Montpellier, it’s beautiful; speed, strength, skill, trust, unity, honour — everything that makes pro bike racing special.
As my tele kindled up, there was big Den Menchov picking himself up off the tar — it was Rome all over again.
But this time he wasn’t picking himself up to finish in triumph just around the corner — it was only to continue the nightmare that is his 2009 Tour.
Rabobank aren’t having the best of Tours so far.
Tour 09 Stage 4 Map.
Tour 09 Stage 4 Profile.
Just minutes later, BBox raised a dust cloud as they put four men in the scenery — it was a dangerous course.
Thomas Voeckler and a few teammates got caught out on one tricky corner.
And a tough one, as I watched Katyusha spat men out the back.
Katyusha, 6th at 1’23”.
AG2R got round in one piece in respectable fashion but Silence’s day wasn’t the best; Charly Wegelius’s face told a story about how tough it was.
Cadel drove the Silence team hard.
Liquigas were classy, Pellizotti, Kreuziger, Nibali — all good riders and don’t forget that it was the men in green who nabbed the TTT in the Giro last year.
Garmin are rampant; Tyler Farrar ‘blows’ — I was supposed to be talking to him tonight; maybe leave my questions ‘til tomorrow, that man is hurting.
Pate has gone too, so has Maaskant and Dean — they’re down to five already; it’s death or glory with Brad looking hugely impressive.
The Garmin strongmen went so fast from the start they lost four riders early dors.
Lance nods and waves to the crowds at the start, practising for those gubernatorial walkabouts, no doubt.
He’s a magnet for cameras, a sponsor’s dream — but maybe not Spanish products.
Time check two and Garmin go top, just five of them but they’re on fire.
Cancellara and his Saxo Bank train.
Cancellara is leading from the front, he really is a bear of a man; but despite his huge spells at the front, Saxo are only third fastest, 15 down — could Lance be heading for yellow?
No, please, I can hear Viktor already!
Wiggins puts in a huge spell with Hesjedal unable to come through — the big Canadian is under presh, he simply cannot get dropped.
Sean Kelly reminds us that the big problem for the Garmin guys is recovery time; the Astana men have so much more of it with the longer string.
Columbia rode well for 5th at 59 seconds, tired by yesterday’s echelon efforts no doubt.
Check 3 and Garmin are 31 seconds up on Liquigas, Columbia are fifth, that’s the price of yesterday’s echelon.
Saxo; ten to go, they look like a TGV.
Garmin go top, 46:47 — great ride.
But Astana are 38 up at check 2.
Cancellara drags Saxo in, like some yellow clad medieval torturer — to judge by the faces.
Contador looks like a stranger in his own team in that Spanish champion’s jersey.
Astana, winners on the day. LaNce and Bert wanted to put the race beyond as many others as possible today.
A rear shot of Astana, and there are rows of hard ribs poking through every rider’s skin suit; maybe they’re titanium, maybe Lance has replaced the team with Terminator replicas?
Cervelo, 8th at 1’38”.
Check 3 and Lance is maillot jaune virtuelle — this is bad!
Columbia finish, Cav leads them home — fourth.
George is wearing a Camelbak; let’s hope Vik didn’t spot it.
Astana, and Popo explodes; job done as Leipheimer, Kloden, Lance and Bert try to kill each other up the finish straight.
They go top.
Garmin are second at 18 seconds and it’s a tie for the maillot jaune — Lance and Fabian.
This is tense, I couldn’t handle Lance in yellow;: “I see that Armstrong boy is leading the Tour de France!”: – but Fabian’s smiling face reassures us.
Swiss Precision.
“Swiss precision timing!” beams the big man from Bern.
I’ll drink to that, Fabian.
* * *
Al Hamilton
“Armstrong no se corta!” He’s not finished yet!
What a stage yesterday! And after everything that was said: about the end of the “war” in the Astana camp.
He’s not finished yet.
In today’s AS, Astana are playing down what happened in the stage to La Grande Motte, “Contador es el jeffe de filas” insiste Bruyneel. So the boss still thinks Contador is the boss, maybe he should tell the man from Texas!
Alberto is not sure about the team tactics and said “I’m not sure of the value of the team tactics, but you will all come to your own conclusions”.
He was impressed by the team work of Columbia; “El Columbia se organiza muy bien”.
Cavendish maybe the fastest sprinter at the moment, but he doesn’t seem to be endearing himself to the others in the peloton, he referred to them after the stage as “juniors!” “If they race like juniors what do they expect?”
The other day he was fighting with a Skil rider, who he incorrectly named, and I’ve heard there is a rider from Wick who tangled with the man from the Isle of Man in the past.
Looking forward to today’s TTT.
A visitor on the Tour yesterday was Ben Stiller. Lance blamed him for his being late for the sign on and all the Astana riders receiving a 100 Swiss Franc fine.
I’ve not heard Eurosport in English for ten years, so I can only remember “Duffers” and his reminisces of riding tricycles and what he had for dinner the previous evening.
Here on Teledeporte we have Perico Delgado, who knows his stuff, but on every occasion of an attack he has to make trumpet noises like the charge of the Light Brigade.
Yesterday he had great difficulty explaining what was going on, but when Lance directed his men to work; we got another blast!
Bruyneel still maintains that Bert is the Boss.
On the national TV channel, TVE, there was a very nice interview with Carlos Sastre at his house and out training, he talked about the lost years away from his wife and children and the time spent training etc.
He comes over as a very nice person, of yesterday he said “Cometi un error”, but it makes you think of how many more races he would have won if he was a bit of a bastard!
No back page today as Cristiano Ronaldo took over most pages.
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.
It took six days but we got there in the end – the Giro has finally started; no gimmick locations, horrible transfers or rider protests. Simply hard racing in the beautiful Italian countryside and sunshine at the finish – that’s more like it. But before we look at Stage Five we have last words on the Stage Four debacle from our resident sage and prophet, Vik. He couldn’t be contacted after the stage, retreating to his cave high in the Pentland Hills to ponder the ‘semi-neutralisation’ of the Stage Four due to rain.
Danny Clark; in a world where the word ‘legend’ is used too often, it’s wholly appropriate in the case of the Australian. He holds the record for the number of six day starts at 236 and he’s second in the all time winner ranks with 74 — unsurprisingly he’s ‘double Recordman’ here at the Copenhagen Six Day with eight wins off 21 starts.
Le Tour de France 2011 and We couldn't get out of Andorra quickly enough. Before 08:00 we got the lift down from the 5th floor of the hotel, to be greeted by great plumes of cigarette smoke belching out of the breakfast area. Last night's determination to "make a fuss about the lack of advertised weefee" evaporated, as we just wanted to put distance between us and this horrid place as fast as possible.
Another criminally boring stage saved by a beautiful finale with Cav making it 30 stage wins – there are few superlatives left for the Manxman. Good to see Kristoff in second spot; the remarkable Sagan was right there in third spot and very nice to see John Degenkolb up there in fourth spot. Kittel got it wrong today and Greipel was again off the pace. And, erm that’s about it...
Yesterday we alluded to the fact that a ‘break might stick’ and ‘Froome in yellow?’ We got the first one wrong but even we didn’t realise how spectacularly right we’d be on the second one finishing into Ax3 Domaines.
‘With the current system we’re shafted’ says BC coach Rod Ellingworth regarding the fact that the world’s best roadman sprinter will have a whole two team mates in Melbourne. The GB and Sky ‘spin machine’ continually tell us how strong British Cycling is; but when it comes down to it, we’re actually joint 22nd in terms of numbers of riders we’re eligible to send to the Elite Worlds. we should 'Stop Messing with Nature'.
Evan was out of the team car and just off the massage table when we caught-up with him after the second stage of the Tour of Britain 2006, into Liverpool, won by GB man Roger Hammond.
The good news is that Scotland is eligible to field a team in the UCI Track Nations Cup events and encouragingly, we have around a dozen riders vying for a ride. One of those on the squad is 19 year-old Matti Dobbins from Bridge of Weir, who as a junior was a Scottish track champion across multi-disciplines and has been trialling with the GB squad at Manchester, focusing on making the GB and Scottish Team Pursuit squads.
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.
