Fireworks - late post about Stage 2

Stage 2 came and went and I was engrossed in the fireworks going on south of Boston, MA.

Our annual town display was last night and after I sped through the Versus telecast of stage 2 I promised myself that I'd blog when I returned from watching the explosions in the sky.

Didn't happen.

Here it is Monday night - after Stage 3 - and I'm writing about Cavendish's effort to win stage 2.

That's right. Cavendish powered to the line after being launched by George Hincapie and others.

Here's my take...

Aside from some early race jitters and a handful of crashes, this year's Tour de France is shaping up to be pretty sedate. It mirrors some of the former tours where Mario Cipollini would win sprint after sprint until the teams got into the mountains.

Knowing now what happens in Stage 3, I can't honestly hang onto my 'sedate' talk. But I will say that nothing has changed in my predictions. Go back and look at those if you want to know who I'm still picking to win.

What has surprised you the most or the least in this year's tour?

That was slightly unexpected - Stage 1 Comments

SPOILERS IN THIS POST. SPOILERS ABOUT STAGE 1 OF THE 2009 TOUR DE FRANCE.

I tried to avoid Twitter all day today and realized I'm staring down the barrel of a social-media tool that could provide me with spoilers for the next 22 days.

You see, everyone who's got an ounce of interest in the 96th edition of the Tour de France was tweeting regularly during today's time trial. These fans were revealing info about Lance's position and the time split at the top of the ascent in Monaco.

That just won't do. Unless I'm more diligent. My plan for now on is to watch or follow the tour before I start delving into Twitter each day. There will be a delay, and I'll likely not get my #followfriday notes out before 1PM, but this will help me remain sane.

It will also keep the results pristine. Speaking of results, here's what I thought of today's fiasco.

That's right...fiasco. Who in their right mind thought Contador would finish second, Cancellara would win and Lance would be mired in 10th spot 40 seconds back after a 15KM time trial?

Not me. This makes my concerns for Lance's leadership of Astanà (HEY Roll and Hummer, pronounce it correctly or get off the camera. You're embarrassing yourselves and the United States) very real.

Will I be adjusting my top 5 in the Tour? Not a chance. But with so many good names up in the running, it's going to be a race like no other. I'm so excited for the mountains that come around day 7.

How did today's results make you feel?

The TDF Blog

What this blog is about...

It will give you commentary and insight into the Tour de France.

What this blog is not...

It is not a news site. Why? Because there are 2 gazillion other sites covering the Tour and I have the Twitter Ticker in the sidebar.

If you need to know what has happened in the Tour, you'll be able to find it online somewhere in real time. If you want smart comments about the events of the day, keep coming back here.

What do you want to see most this year in the Tour? Share in the comments!

Versus locked and loaded

I don't know about you, but since I can't get Eurosport here in the United States I have set Versus TV to record all the episodes of this year's Tour de France.

I've also taken the smart move (I think) of recording with extra buffer time. This is likely necessary because Versus seldom gets the timing right during road races.

This makes it annoying to watch because just as the final sprint is beginning or the peloton reaches the 1KM to go mark, Versus cuts away to some stupid rodeo show.

I can only hope they've fixed their master control priorities and will stay with the race no matter how long it runs.

What do you think? Are there better ways to catch the Tour in the United States?

And yes, I know, the Tour is better appreciated from Europe. Next year!

Boonen Might be at the Start of TDF

Tom Boonen had be removed as a participant from this year's Tour de France because of allegations of cheating.

Now, an international site claims that Boonen's Quick-Step team will push to have him at the start of this year's race.

Here's the text of that story...

After the information received today from the Tribunal de Grande Istance in Nanterre that has declared that the Tribunal doesn’t have jurisdiction on Tom Boonen’s case Team Quick Step has informed us of the fact that

Today’s press conference has been cancelled and that Tom Boonen and Team Quick Step together have decided to lodge an arbitration request with the Chambre Arbitrale Francaise du Sport (CAS) to permit Tom Boonen to be at the start of the Tour de France 2009.

So, we'll see what transpires. Only a couple days until the start. Yikes!

Who to watch

Unless someone has gone down during last-minute training (not jinxing Lance and his altitude training in Colorado), these are the guys to watch in the 2009 Tour de France.

Andy Schleck, Team Saxo Bank
Alberto Contador, Team Astana
Mark Cavendish, Team Columbia-High Road
Cadel Evans, Team Silence-Lotto
Lance Armstrong, Team Astana
Levi Leipheimer, Team Astana
Denis Menchov, Team Rabobank
George Hincapie, Team Columbia-High Road

Here are my top four...

George Hincapie - Fourth
Cadel Evans - Third
Denis Menchov - Second
Lance Armstrong - First

Contador will likely crash out in the fifth stage and Levi Leipheimer will support Lance.

What do you think?

The Tour in a nutshell

According to Le Tour, here is the breakdown of the 2009 Tour de France...

The route

Running from Saturday July 4th to Sunday July 26th 2009, the 96th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,500 kilometres.

These 21 stages have the following profiles:

* 10 flat stages,
* 7 mountain stages,
* 1 medium mountain stage,
* 2 individual time-trial stages,
* 1 team time-trial stage.


Distinctive aspects of the race

* 3 mountain finishes,
* 2 rest days,
* 55 kilometres of individual time-trials,
* 20 Category 1, Category 2 and highest level passes will be climbed.


8 new stop-over towns

Brignoles, Gérone (Espagne), Issoudun, Martigny (Suisse), Saint-Fargeau, Tonnerre, vatan, Verbier (Suisse).

20 Teams, not 21

The 189 riders I referenced in yesterday's post are actually going to be just 180. There are 20 teams in the Tour this year - while in past years there have been 21 teams.

The snafu between Astana and Alberto Contador seems to have been smoothed over and it looks like Lance and Alberto will be riding on the same team after all. *Yes, there was a danger that Alberto was going to jump ship and ride for another team. Which would have made Lance's chance of winning Tour title number eight more likely.

This year, Lance will be in a supporting role unless by some happenstance a contending teammate drops out. Another scenario where Lance would be the team leader might happen if Armstrong takes the yellow jersey early in the Tour and keeps it for a couple days.

Coming up, racers to watch and my predictions for the race.

I'll also be hosting at least one Boston-area Tour Tweet-up. Follow me on Twitter for details.

2009 Tour de France begins July 4

I was puttering around Boston recently and for some reason I thought the Tour was beginning on July 7 this year. Not wanting to leave readers in the lurch, I decided to take a closer look and realized the race begins a week from yesterday.

The first stage is an individual Time Trial of 15KM. According to Bicycling.com, here's the stage description...

The Tour hasn't visited Monaco in 45 years--partly because the principality is so small that wrapping 15km of racing into its 2 square kilometers is a trick. But what Monaco lacks in size it makes up for in star power--something the race also possesses for its 96th edition. Three former Tour winners will line up at the start. Look for the GC favorites to come out hard; Armstrong in particular has to send a message about his form. With no time bonuses on offer again this year, breakaway artists like Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank) will be motivated to turn in good times to position themselves for an early yellow jersey via a breakaway in the coming stages. *Only stages 8km or shorter are considered prologues, which is why this year's race begins with Stage 1.

That whole prologue thing is interesting to me, but aside from meaning the Tour has one fewer stage this year (meaning a real 21 instead of 21 and a prologue) there are still thousands of KMs to ride for the 189 riders in the tour.

Next post we'll examine some of the teams and favorites. Share your predictions for the race right here in the comments.

Lance will race

Bicycling Magazine reported in an email newsletter yesterday (mirrored on their site) that Lance Armstrong will race the 2009 Tour de France.

Now the work begins on my end. Finding funding to get over to France is going to be tough in these troubled times, but we'll see what happens.

Also, I need readers' comments so I know where I should focus my energy in my 2009 coverage. If you want to share your thoughts or even guest post here at tdf09.com, please leave me a comment. I'd love to have your help.

Thanks!