The weather was beautiful, the scenery magnificent and the ambiance as we’ve come to expect from le Tour fans – warm, friendly, fun.
It has to be said though, that it’s warmer, friendlier and more fun, after the caravan has off loaded the goodies.
With the benefit of hindsight, if I was doing it again, I’d have missed yesterday’s stage – which was never going to be decisive – and gone to the Ventoux.
It was simply impossible to stop on the lower 60% of the climb, the crowd was perhaps the biggest I’ve ever seen at a bike race; apart from Alpe D’Huez in the early 90’s, when it was still, “Dutch mountain.”
We got lots of shots of “crazies,” but had no opportunity to stop and chat to folks, take pictures of the countryside – and it would have been nice to wander round Bedoin, again.
Dave, Viktor and I were on the Ventoux in 1987, when “Jeff” Bernard won the time trial up the climb.
We took tents down but had to bail out of them and into the mini bus in the middle of the night because it was so cold.
The water bottles froze solid – by noon the next day, the heat was extreme.
We had to be on the mountain the previous night due to the road being closed at around 2:00 am.
I remember Bedoin being relaxed and friendly; there was an old gypsy caravan in the town square which had a wood burning oven that produced the best pizza we had ever tasted – and back then, prices in France were reasonable.
Bedoin was just a blur today, crowds, noise, heat and just glimpses of the town – ah, well!
The climb was wild, about the craziest I’ve ever seen.
Garate won the stage today, sprinting past Tony Martin on the last bend, where we were stood!
It’s getting close to midnight now, so bon nuit.
Talk to you from Gay Paris, tomorrow.
Tour 09 Stage 20 Map.
Tour 09 Stage 20 Profile.
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Al Hamilton
Hinault: “Contador puede ganar cinco Tours” that’s today’s front page headline in AS. Bernard Hinault thinks Alberto Contador could equal his five Tour wins.
The big question is for which team would he be riding for? The F1 driver; Fernando Alonso is serious about his project of having a Protour team by 2011 with Contador as the leader.
But what about 2010? If he stays with Astana for the second year of his contract, which will be with Vinokourov, he might not be able to ride the Tour.
Contador has behaved with dignity and total professionalism.
Bad news was the loss of two Euskaltel riders; Amets Txurruka and Alan Pérez finished 30:58 after Mark Cavendish won the sprint and they were out of the time limit.
Their team leader, Astarloza, is battling for 9th place overall as he is only 1 second behind Le Mével.
“De Cavendish al Ventoux.” The British sprinter won his 5th stage yesterday. Today the last battle”. The Mont Ventoux looms large on all the riders on the Tour and this could change the podium and the top ten overall.
The mythic mountain of death, not just Tom Simpson, but the many riders who have had problems on its slopes. The battles between Kubler and Mallejac, Gimondi and Poulidor.
De Cavendish al Ventoux.
Then in 1958 between Gaul and Bahamontes who went on to be the first Spanish Tour winner the next year. The deception of Delgado in 1987 by Hinault and Herrera, more recently the triumph of Pantani over Armstrong and the arguments that caused! We can only hope there will be action today!
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.
Saturday morning early, in the cabin at the Rotterdam Six Day 2022 – the cleaning ladies liked my choice of music and were giving me a little dance around their mops; I was going to go out and get some beers in but they said they had the rest of the stadium to clean...
Compared to the wide open 210 metre pastures of Grenoble, at 166 metres, the Gent track does look tiny; the bankings aren't really steep enough and you can't ride the top 400 mm of the track, because the crash barriers overlap the boards by that much.
"It's not a real Six," says our pal Viktor - coincidentally, riders like Marc Hester (Denmark) and Danny Stam (Holland) used to say the same. But that was before the Munich Six disappeared - now they're more than happy to head south to Grenoble at the end of October. As have we, for the Grenoble Six Day 2010...
‘Rivers of Babylon’ by the Melodians, now there’s a tune to fold jerseys by — until the guy in the cabin next door hops on his rollers, that is. And there was me looking for some peace on a Saturday morning — a split day today with afternoon and evening sessions at the Copenhagen Six Day.
Gilbert Gilbert. That's Gilbert repeating. Geddit?? haha! Dad Joke if ever I saw one! Today, stage 4, is another one for the punchy power climbers, with Phillipe Gilbert being the red-hot favourite. The finale is a 2km 6.6% kicker which is still probably not hard enough to let skinny blokes like Contador and Schleck do their thing, and will be more up Evans or Gilbert's alley.
Those Venga Boys, they ‘Like to Party,’ the ‘speaker’ is getting excited; ‘ho, ho, ho !’ the bone-hard Contis rumble on the boards, the 1/8” pitch chains rattle – it’s good to be back, there’s nothing like a Six Day. A couple of weeks ago I was spectating at the Gent Six Day, right now I'm on the other side of the boards working in the track centre at the Rotterdam Six Day.
Friday's gig was to do a course recce for Paris - Roubaix 2007. There are 28 sectors and you can't skek them all, so we decided to do the track at Roubaix, the final four sectors, a new sector which has just been added and the two legendary sectors - Carrefour de L'Arbre & Arenberg.
Ben Swift - top guy, affable, always happy to chat, looks the business and has a great career ahead of him. But-I don't like what's happening with this Sky business. I might be wrong - and am probably writing my own obituary here, as far as Sky interviews goes - but it smacks to me of; 'we can't get Brad, so we have to get some one else who can win a bit and who's English!'
