HomeDiariesLe Tour de France 2009 - Second Rest Day
“Armstrong redescend sur terre,” says the headline in L’Equipe – ‘Armstrong brought back to earth at the Le Tour de France 2009.’ Bert dominates the front page, smiling with his “smoking gun” finger held high – VeloVeritas says; “Chapeau, Bert!”
It was a late start for Martin and I today, but it let us get loose ends tied up and plans made.
“Rest day” is a bit of a misnomer, if you’re committed to what you do.
It would be easy to do a few phone interviews, or amble along to the nearest press conference, take some notes of the same quotes as everyone else is taking, then have a nice early dinner.
But if you want to do your best, that’s different.
We’re en route the Skil-Shimano press conference; we want to talk to their manager, Rudi Kemna about being the little fish in the big pool.
We’re also meeting Orlando Van Den Bosche there; he’s the Schleck’s manager and has promised us a ‘two on two’ interview with the two stars – a nice coup, if we can wangle it.
But the Schleck interview has gone from rock solid to a mirage.
We were meant to meet our Schleck contact at the Skil ‘do’ but that fell through and it ended up that we had to present ourselves at the Saxo hotel at 10:00 pm – one can imagine the thrill that les Freres Schleck would experience at two eejitz from Scotland arriving to interview them at 10:00 pm.
Stuck without our second piece of the day, we dived into the Silence-Lotto hotel, about 30 K down the road.
“Manda Contador” Contador in charge is the headline this morning on the inside pages, but on the front cover we have “Contador, colosal en Verbier” a colossal, splendid or excellent Contador and as you might guess Alberto made all the TV news stations in Spain.
Contador is now the leader for sure.
Alberto Contador;
“There is now no doubt who is the leader at Astana, it’s me…”
Have you won the Tour?
“Surely no. There is still the third week and many adversaries who have the strength to change things. The brothers Schleck have demonstrated they have it”.
What was it like to attack your idol?
“Nothing special. Armstrong is my idol, but it meant nothing at that moment, only the ride towards the line. Lance on paper is important for Astana.”
Armstrong;: “Alberto is the best in the Tour”. He also commented;
“I’m happy to be in second position overall to my “compañero” Contador.”
Andy Schleck: “Contador es un cohete” – Contador is a rocket and made a monstrous attack.
Cadel Evans: “Mi peor dia en el Tour”. My worst day in the Tour!
Bradley Wiggins is “El rey del velódromo que dejó la cerveza”. The king of the cycle track without beer. He was well known in The Duke of York pub in London for having a drink. With a diet and no beer he lost 7 kilos and now he is more agile in the mountains. AS thinks he will be the star of the new Sky team with Millar, Cavendish and Flecha.
A lighter, sober Wiggins is doing wonders.
Carlos Sastre wants to win a stage in the Alps, he is 3 minutes and 52 seconds behind Contador and said: “Sunday has started a really hard last week”. He wasted a lot of energy chasing back to the leaders after the frenetic action from the Saxo Bank team earlier on the climb to Verbiers.
So that’s all the news from Spain on the last rest day, except for the photo of the podium girl at the Vuelta a Madrid on the back page of AS, just to remind you that the Tour isn’t the only race at the moment, also today I bumped into Neil Stephens and some riders of the Caisse d’Epargne checking out the big stage to the summit of the Aitana for this years Vuelta a España, so there is life after the Tour.
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.
After years of trying, James McCallum (Rapha Condor Sharp) finally took his win in theScottish National Road Race in Balfron today, edging out good friend Evan Oliphant (Raleigh) in the uphill sprint after a hard-fought race, with Vanilla Bikes' Alistair Rutherford a lone third a handful of seconds behind.
Sunday, Stage 15 and VeloVeritas’s last shift on Tour - so we headed for the biggest hill we could find to remind ourselves how special and beautiful France and this race really are. Today we’re in the heartland, perhaps not deepest agricultural ‘France Profonde;’ the rural, simple, beautiful heart of the nation, not with the gorges and cols - but it’s quiet, lovely and some of the simple, striking images surprise as you drive the parcours.
It’s my first time at the Amsterdam Six Day – Kris (the soigneur I'm working with) said I needed to attend so I can say I’ve been at every one of the current winter races - and initial impressions aren’t bad; it’s a nice wee track in a good location, the old village of Sloten, a suburb of Amsterdam.
We're roadside at Het Nieuwsblad 2020; since the race went World Tour the start just isn’t the same; the buses used to line up in the street, you could look at the bikes right until start time and brush shoulders with the riders as they pedalled to the sign-on. Not now, whilst some of the buses park up outside, the majority park in the huge 30’s exhibition hall adjacent to the Kuipke Velodrome in Ghent...
One of the names missing from Gila (one of the big US early season races) is that of Bissell’s, 21 year-old Paddy Bevin. The New Zealander preferring to keep closer to sea level as he starts his build up for the Tour of California.
It was with great sadness that we learnt this week about the passing of Craig Hardie, a living legend in Scottish cycling and beyond as a successful rider, true character, and popular bike shop owner, but so much more than that too. Originally from Dalgety Bay in Fife, Craig was a long-time member and stalwart of the Dunfermline Cycling Club and enjoyed a stellar cycling career.
The Lance Armstrong Downfall: King Pyrrhus of Epirus gained a victory over the Romans in 279 BC at the battle of Asculum in Apulia. The Epiriotic forces, although they won the battle, suffered severe losses to the elite of their army. A Pyrrhic victory has come to be known as one which comes with a devastating cost.
There was the chance that the break would stick; but with John Degenkolb’s Giant boys working themselves into the tar for him – and having done their homework by riding the stage finale on the rest day – and the likes of Ferrari and Matthews fancying their chances now that Bouhanni is back in France, not to mention Sky piling it on to keep Froome out of trouble, it was odds on to be a sprint finish.
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.
