HomeDiariesLe Tour de France 2009 - Stage 17: Bourg-Saint-Maurice > Le Grand-Bornand,...
It had to be an early start, today for Le Grand-Bornand. To get down to the Bourg-Saint-Maurice start, we had to drive against a section of race route and decided to get away early to beat the closures.
By the back of 08:00 we were clear of the worrisome section; we grabbed a coffee then made our way down to the start.
Bright sunshine, pretty girls, a free breakfast and a meet with a yeti – what more could you want?
In the village we had a chat with ex-British pro road race champion, Tim Harris who drives the VIP’s on the Tour; **** hotels, a helicopter trip over the race, champagne picnics – a snip at 3,000 per head.
Schleck senior wins, a present from Bert. That’s one you him, Frankie.
And that’s gone midnight, again.
Bon nuit.
Tour 09 Stage 17 Map.
Tour 09 Stage 17 Profile.
* * *
Al Hamilton
Mikel Astarloza’s win yesterday put him on the front and the back page of today’s AS. “El gran Astarloza” is his headline and “Victory for the Euskaltel leader. Andy Schleck attacks Contador”. Not that it did the young Schleck much good!
Astarloza can be proud with himself after today.
The Basque, Mikel Astarloza is a bit hard on himself in his interview as his self description is of a “pathetic team leader”. He isn’t big headed or charismatic, but he can win races. At the moment he is in 11th position at 4 minutes and 38 seconds, good, but not great!
Contador: “Ya hablo en carrera con Lance”. The relations between the leaders of the Astana team seem to be improving as Alberto admits to speaking with Lance during the race. Also in the Astana news is that team manager Johan Bruyneel will be leaving at the end of the year; “I’m turning a page in my career”.
Lance had a pop at Bert today for attacking and putting Kloden out the back – since when did LA care about a teammate on the podium? Anything to have a go at AC.
All this along with the announcement of a new team by “The Boss” Lance Armstrong on Twitter the other day, all looks too pre-ordained. Where does this leave Alberto Contador? He still has 1 year left of his contract with Astana.
The crash of Saxo Banks, Jens Voigt gets good coverage with five photos, the retransmission of the Tour on Spanish TV last night showed the crash in all its bloody details. So far we know he has a broken cheek and collar bone and will be in hospital for a while. Marchante also crashed into his Cervelo team car yesterday, but he did finish.
Spanish TV will be showing today’s (Wednesday) stage live on the normal channel (La 2) and on the sports channel (Teledeporte). Co-presenters; de Andrés and Delgado will be doing more than 5 hours transmission again.
They are very happy with their work and receive many e-mails on facebook. “Many chicas [women] are very interested in cycling” they say, and at the stage finishes Pedro still gets shouted at by the fans “:¡Perico, Perico!”
That’s it for today; let’s hope there is more action to talk about before the finish?
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.
Cav: he really is impressive - we were at five K to go when Oss passed on his death or glory bid out of the break; he was flying. The bunch Like some high speed linear motored Japanese train - whhoooooooossssshhhhh! Those carbon rims slice the air.
Dernys, you love them or you hate them, they’re a big part of the Sixes; and always with a capital ‘D’ — Roger Derny et Fils first manufactured them in Paris, in: 1938. There’s some real Derny history on the boards here at the Rotterdam Six Day — the tall, slim, grey haired man who chases the riders up to their events here at the is Bruno Walrave.
Our Rest Day Review of the first week of La Vuelta 2019. Remember all those jokes about getting sent to the salt mines for misdemeanours? Those World Tour riders must have been real bad to get this gig; a 13.4 kilometre team time trial around the salt lagoons of Torrevieja.
Today's stage leaves from Rotterdam... but first; I didn't used to be a fan - but I guess that was just because he was one of the few who could beat my idol, Super Mario - but now I'm a confirmed Ale Jet admirer. Depending on which reference site you chose he's had 156 - or is it 169 wins?
Young Sky star, Alex Dowsett's early season was compromised by a bad crash in the Three Days of West Flanders - but he's come back strongly. He took eighth in the World Elite TT champs, rode strongly in the Tour of Beijing, aiding team mate Boasson Hagen on to the podium and closed his season with second place with Luke Rowe in the Duo Normand two-up time trial.
Season 2013 wasn't great for Timmy - his contract with the Canadian Spidertech team came to naught when the team collapsed, and his year ended almost before it started with a bad crash in the Tour Down Under and a season spent trying to find his real form with Saxo-Tinkoff. Despite a verbal agreement with Cannondale for 2014 the man from Colorado decided to call ‘time’ on his career. Duggan took time chat to VeloVeritas as the races he used to ride started without him...
We recently ran Pip Taylor’s fine obituary to Mr. Ron Webb, former professional bike rider, track builder, father of the modern Six Day format, team manager and mentor to many. Below, we’ve drawn together some of the tributes we received from Ron’s friends and former charges:
Ciao! It was gone midnight when we hit the hay, last night.
There was no thought of food, just sleep, it seemed to take an age to get off the mountain at Pratto and get to our digs at Racconigi - maybe it was just because we were so tired.
Breakfast was chronic, stale bread, no cheese, no ham and everything else in polythene wrappers.
First mission of the day was to meet Stuey O'Grady at the CSC press conference. He's a buddy of Martin's pal, Pete Jacques.
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.
