HomeDiariesLe Tour de France 2009 - Stage 10: Limoges > Issoudun, 194.5km
I didn’t think that Cav could win the Primavera now, after today’s display in Limoges, I think that he can do pretty much anything he puts his mind to within the scope of his physical characteristics. He can win the green jersey on the Champs Elysees in Le Tour de France, Paris – Tours and the Worlds too-when the parcours suits him.
Paris – Tours and the Worlds too — when the parcours suits him.
Cav wins Stage 10, before saluting his sunglasses, or something.
That said, stage win number three was no surprise I didn’t see it myself and had to rely on Vik updates… don’t worry, I’ll spare you.
Suffice to say that Samuel Dumoulin may be creeping up to challenge Davide Moncoutie’s status as ‘Vik’s least fave coureur.’
This one’s for Viktor – Samuel Dumoulin.
It’s 9:30 pm and I haven’t done my Pez interview for the day, yet. Tonight is Scott McGrory — ex-Olympic champ and six day star, who now works for the Australian Fox TV sports channel.
Dave and I bumped into him at the Giro and I thought his would be a good view to get as le Tour approaches half way.
Scott McGrory interviews the great Eddy Merckx for Fox TV.
The trouble is, on the Tour normal time frames don’t exist —you do what has to be done, when you need to do it and often end up scraping about for restaurants at ‘dark o’clock.’
It was like that for Scott tonight he had just sat down to dinner at 10:00 CET I have to phone at 11:00 CET — being an 05:30 alarm man, that’s getting late for me.
There was more colour in the Guardian again today, and gossip that Lance will ride next year’s Tour before coming back with team Nike/Livestrong/Trek/SRAM to win in 2011 as DS if he’s not too busy with running Texas by then, that is.
Meanwhile, the gossip from the other side of the Astana Gorge is that Bert is headed for a new outfit in 2010 — Banco Santander (so, that’s where all our dosh went!).
This is surprising news I thought Contador would be with Johan and Lance until it was time to ride his farewell criterium circus around Spain, in about eight years time.
And Nocentini rolls on, serenely, in yellow — respect, Rinaldo.
Nocentini just keeps his head down and lets Astana do the talking.
But Big Brad missed a split and dropped 15 seconds to go seventh, I’m intrigued to see how the big chap will do in the Alps.
Brad must be hoping to stay in touch with the capo’s in the Alps and do something in the Time Trial on?
OK, gotta bell that man en France, au demain!
Tour 09 Stage 10 Map.
Tour 09 Stage 10 Profile.
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Al Hamilton
“Calma tensa” are the headlines above a nice picture of Tour leader Rinaldo Nocentini enjoying his day off with a “capuccino” outside a traditional café in Limoges.
On the same page is a photo of Contador and Armstrong out riding – and again Lance wears his own kit, mmm so I wonder what that tells you of team solidarity?
AS reports that Bert and La are okay with each other.
The talk is of Hollywood and the films that could come out of the Tour. Matt Damon would be the star to play the life of Armstrong and Contador would be Tobey McGuire, well, whatever!
Alberto Contador held a press conference yesterday and said (again) that he has no problem with Armstrong, they all travel in the bus together etc.
Alberto said “I can’t win the Tour solo, I need a team”. Where will the race be decided? Contador – “in the Alps and on Friday to Colmar, also Sunday in Verbier and the day of the Grand Bornard and La Colombiére. The time trial to Annécy and the Mont Ventoux are the keys”. Who are your rivals? “Andy Schleck and Evans, and Sastre has great experience”.
Alonso and Contador hooking up?
On the Formula 1 page there was a photo of Fernando Alonso out on his Colnago with Carlos Sastre and speculation that his present sponsor Banco Santander would be having a ProTour team built around Alberto Contador.
No-one is confirming or denying the rumour, but it is not just a plan but a project in motion, said manager Luis Garcia-Abad. The boss of the bank, Emilio Botin is said to have a good relationship with the bike champion.
Friday’s stage to Colmar seems to be everyone favourite for action. “Va a ser un dia peligroso” confirmed Evans that it will be a dangerous day. Andy Schleck says “nothing has been decided” so he will be looking for action as will Sastre, who has not given up, but said it will be difficult for him to win this Tour.
So a stage without radios has not gone down very well, riders’ president Jens Voigt has suggested a day without helmets or brake cables! The organisers of La Vuelta a Esapña have said there will not be any experiment on their race…
Ed and Martin, our top team! They try to do the local Time Trials, the Grand Tours and the Classics together to get the great stories written, the quality photos taken, the driving done and the wifi wrestled with.
Maybe it was all those minds thinking; 'I hate split sessions' that made the access panel in the track jam? In fact, it was an electrical fault, caused by someone who didn't understand the procedure for shutting the big sliding panel in the track's back straight that meant the Saturday afternoon session was cancelled.
'Time trials are boring!' say the road men. But run it through the middle of one of Europe's great cities, with the best 'chrono men' on the planet jousting for a rainbow jersey through dense crowds and it's far from boring - spectacular! We got to the World Road Championships 2011 course early to see what we could see.
I forgot to say last night, for the first time in this Tour, I got a prediction right. I chose Casar out of the four man break, you could see it in his eyes, he wanted it more than any of the others. There's a great picture of him on the front cover of L'Equipe today - it's all there in his face, determination and pride; "maybe the other French guys can't win a stage, but I sure as hell can!" Cafè au lait (have you noticed that Mertin has shown me how to get accents above the letters now?) and a Cognac, nine euros!?! "Eef you cannot steeff les touristes, then oo' can you steeff, hien?" Still, it was a good coffee, a grande measure of cognac and the toilets were free of Lasa Fever.
When we spoke to Cav's personal soigneur, Aldis half way through the stage we knew it wasn't to be; 'And Mark, today ?' Aldis screwed up his face; 'he's a little sick...' So 4:1 to Greipel - and the rumours about Cav having to learn to understand Brian Smith's accent at MTN get ever stronger. We changed our system and didn't drive race route for the last stage; instead we drove straight to the digs, got organised, had a shower and headed off across a wet Paris to the finish circuit.
We have to start betting ‘each way’ – yesterday we said; ‘Michael Matthews’ and he was third, today we said; ‘Nacer Bouhanni’ and he was second. And much as we admire the wiry Frenchman, John Degenkolb was 100% correct when he said of Bouhanni’s complaint about the German shutting the door on him; ‘on the right side there was only the barriers.’
He's a part of triathlon history and has contributed back to the sport he loves in many ways. Frank Day is the inventor of PowerCranks, one of the most effective ways to improve your cycling efficiency, with dividends paid off in the form of faster cycling and running times.
