Ingolf--Tuesday

Any takers? I have a friend who will be in town from Oregon and we might head out there tomorrow for a lap. Have to be back by 3pm, so will have to leave early. Given the forecast, that's probably for the better anyway.

Let me know if you're interested.

Done

No fireworks from Cadel on the Champs Elyses today, so everything remains pretty much as it was yesterday. But we did get a nice bunch sprint that finally unfolded the way I'd been hoping for before we got started--a Bennati win with Hunter up there as well. Throw in an 8th place finish for David Millar (!) and it's 264 points for the dr. over against 257 for the bookworm. I was beginning to think it wasn't possible to beat Matt on a straight up sprint.

All the math is done, revisionist and otherwise.

Clean Pool:

1) Chris - 3307
2) Matt - 2929
3) Rachel - 2699
4) Jonny B - 2215
5) David L - 2070
6) Charlene - 1977
7) Jonny G - 1720
8) Hal - 1583
9) James - 1526
10) Vic - 1468
11) Cheryl - 1379
12) Johnny S - 1233
13) David S - 426

Dirty Pool:

1) Matt - 3573
2) Chris - 3205
3) Jonny B - 2611
4) Rachel - 2582
5) David L - 2461
6) Jonny G - 2193
7) Charlene - 1869
8) Johnny S - 1682
9) Hal - 1579
10) James - 1414
11) Vic - 1398
12) Cheryl - 1331
13) David S - 742

Two pools. Two different winners. Which one goes into the official archives? Discuss.

All those points awarded for the final standings, as expected, made a big difference. The big winners here were Rachel, with two of her guys on the podium, and Jonny B, who had three riders in the top 10 and shot way up in the standings as a result. Full results are as follows:

1) Jonny B - 1225
2) Rachel - 1125
3) Chris - 980
4) Charlene - 680
5) Dave L - 680
6) Matt - 575
7) Jonny S - 460
8) Vic - 415
9) Hal - 320
10) Jonny G - 265
11) Cheryl - 250
12) James - 215
13) David S - 0

Finally, once the points for the final classifications were awarded, it is interesting to note how things played out. On first glance, it seems that the most deserving riders rose to the top of the heap, points-wise. I was worried that this wouldn't happen when the sprinters were piling up all those points early on. It still seems to be weighted pretty heavily in favour of the sprinters, if you look at the top-10. This might need some attention for next year. But not bad for a first kick at the can. Best bargain of the bunch: Robbie Hunter, 898 pts for 1.50. I had a good feeling about him. Then again, I had a good feeling about Moreau and Valjavec too.

Alberto Contador - 1258
Cadel Evans - 1209
Tom Boonen - 1033
Levi Leipheimer - 958
Robert Hunter - 898
Erik Zabel - 864
Thor Hushovd - 711
Daniele Bennati - 673
Carlos Sastre Candil - 642
Alejandro Valverde - 641
Yaroslav Popovych - 594
Haimar Zubeldia - 592
Sébastien Chavanel - 519
Oscar Freire - 394
Robert Förster - 373
Andreas Klöden - 355
Filippo Pozzato - 320
Iban Mayo - 306
Sandy Casar - 281
Oscar Pereiro - 273
Gert Steegmans - 366
Robbie McEwen - 363
Michael Boogerd - 221
Andrey Kashechkin - 218
George Hincapie - 210
David Arroyo - 178
Jens Voigt - 160
Markus Fothen - 158
David Millar - 145
Christophe Moreau - 144
Murilo Antonio Fisher - 131
Íñigo Landaluze Intxaurraga - 126
Axel Merckx - 115
Manuel Quinziato - 110
Philippe Gilbert - 82
Christopher Horner - 74
Antonio Colom - 58
Heinrich Haussler - 58
Xavier Florencio Cabré - 56
Christian Vandevelde - 49
Mark Cavendish - 45
Juan A.Flecha Giannoni - 44
Denis Menchov - 40
Leif Hoste - 40
Ludovic Turpin - 35
Benoît Vaugrenard - 32
Tadej Valjavec - 31
David Zabriskie - 20
Pierrick Fedrigo - 20
Iñaki Isasi Flores - 19
Sebastien Hinault - 19
Kantstantsin Siutsou - 15
Thomas Voeckler - 9
Cristian Moreni - 8
Frederik Willems - 8
Nick Nuyens - 8
Stéphane Goubert - 6
Dmitry Fofanov - 5
Stuart O'Grady - 4
David Canada - 3
Sebastien Rosseler- 3
John Gadret - 2
Alexandre Vinokourov - 0
Björn Leukemans - 0
Christopher Horner - 0
Felix Rafael Cardenas - 0
Francisco Vila - 0
Igor Anton Hernandez - 0
Ivan Parra - 0
Jean-Patrick Nazon - 0
Johan Van Summeren - 0
Juan Miguel Mercado Martin - 0
Lilian Jegou - 0
Maxime Iglinski - 0
Michael Rasmussen - 0
Paolo Savoldelli - 0
Pietro Caucchioli - 0
Thomas Lövkvist - 0

Thanks for playing, boys and girls. Hope you had fun. I know I did.

OTT: Minus Story, To the Ones You Haunted

Contador makes it count

It wasn't a question of whether Alberto Contador would get beat by Cadel Evans. That was pretty much a given going in, as Evans is a superior time triallist. But it wasn't clear how much time Contador would concede. He ended up losing time at every intermediate check, but managed to hold on to yellow by 23 seconds. Unless Evans can win both intermediate sprints and takes it at the line on the Champs Elyses, that clinches it. Alberto Contador wins the 2007 Tour de France. Wonder what the odds on that were three weeks ago?

It was Levi Leipheimer, however, who won the stage today. Sitting 59 seconds behind Evans before the start, he came within 8 seconds of 2nd place and even looked for a while like he might ride himself into the yellow jersey. But instead he has to settle for a stage win and the third step on the podium. He rode the 55.5 km course in 1.02.44, at an average speed of 53.068 km/h! Not bad.

The three podium spots of Contador, Evans, and Leipheimer are separated by only 31 seconds. The closest ever. Sweet. But of course the Tour is dead, so that doesn't matter.

Team Disco finished with 4 riders among the top 7. I hate it that I'm even thinking it, but I can't help be recall what happened just under a week ago after another team dominated the time trial like that.

With Leipheimer and Contador on her team, Rachel wins the stage. Now that the Chicken is gone, Matt has no time trial specialists left. Zero points for him. But he still holds on to yellow by the slimmest of margins heading into the final stage.

Stage 19 results:

1) Rachel - 212
2) Chris - 117
3) Charlene - 115
4) Jonny B - 84
5) Johnny S - 76
6) David L - 76
7) Vic - 50
8) Jonny G - 46
9) James - 41
10) Hal - 30
11) Cheryl - 2
12) Matt - 0
13) David S - 0

General Classification after stage 19:

1) Matt - 2097
2) Chris - 2063
3) Rachel - 1567
4) Jonny G - 1365
5) Charlene - 1277
6) David L - 1271
7) James - 1270
8) Hal - 1201
9) Vic - 1053
10) Cheryl - 1046
11) Jonny B - 948
12) Johnny S - 769
13) David S - 426

The 2007 Tour de France may be all but over, but in the FGBC TdF Pool we still have ourselves a race. Just so you know what's at stake:

There's still one stage to go. It almost always ends with a bunch sprint. So Matt looks to gain a bunch more points yet. But there are also final points to be awarded--lots of them for the overall standings for the yellow, green, and polka-dot jerseys.

The battle for polka-dot jersey is sewn up and the race for yellow is unlikely to change. The green jersey has been pretty much clinched by Boonen. But the top 15 could be reshuffled yet, depending on how it plays out at the finish tomorrow. Still, if things were to end today and those points were added on the basis of the current standings, this is how it would look:

1) Chris - 3053
2) Matt - 2697
3) Rachel - 2692
4) Jonny B - 2173
5) Charlene - 1987
6) David L - 1926
7) Jonny G - 1630
8) Hal - 1511
9) James - 1485
10) Vic - 1468
11) Cheryl - 1321
12) Johnny S - 1239
13) David S - 426

So there you have it. Except that this is not how the final numbers will look. There are still points for stage 20 to be awarded. And the top 15 in the green jersey race will change, so those points will likely be distributed differently. Whether that will be enough for Matt to hold onto the jersey he's worn for almost three weeks now will be determined tomorrow.

Over in the dirty pool, the standings look like this:

1) Matt - 2741
2) Chris - 1961
3) Jonny G - 1838
4) David L - 1662
5) Rachel - 1450
6) Jonny B - 1344
7) Johnny S - 1218
8) Hal - 1197
9) Charlene - 1169
10) James - 1158
11) Cheryl - 998
12) Vic - 983
13) David S - 742

OTT: The Flaming Lips, Drug Machine

Axel rose . . .

. . . to the challenge today, getting himself into the winning break. But unlike his papa, he wasn't able to finish it off. Still, not bad at all for the honorary captain's former teammate. In the end, he had to settle for 2nd place behind Sandy Casar, who survived another nasty crash with a dog earlier in the stage. What's up with the dogs? Are there no leashes in France?

It was more breakaway bingo today. In addition to the six lucky people with Merckx on their team, it was Johnny S whose numbers came golden today. With Casar and Boogerd, he takes 255 points and finishes just ahead of Matt's charging sprinters. Matt's 252 points was more than enough for him to reclaim the yellow jersey. He currently has a 151 point cushion over 2nd place and 742 over 3rd. Given the points still to be awarded, it seems the final podium is still up in the air.

Stage 18 results:

1) Johnny S - 255
2) Matt - 252
3) Hal - 184
4) Jonny G - 161
5) David L - 143
6) Jonny B - 123
7) Rachel - 121
8) Chris - 60
9) Cheryl - 47
10) Charlene - 14
11) James - 10
12) Vic - 7
13) David S - 0

General Classification after stage 18:

1) Matt - 2097
2) Chris - 1946
3) Rachel - 1355
4) Jonny G - 1319
5) James - 1229
6) David L - 1195
7) Hal - 1171
8) Charlene - 1162
9) Cheryl - 1044
10) Vic - 1003
11) Jonny B - 864
12) Johnny S - 693
13) David S - 426

Matt still sits atop the dirty pool too:

1) Matt - 2741
2) Chris - 1844
3) Jonny G - 1792
4) David L - 1586
5) Jonny B - 1260
6) Rachel - 1238
7) Hal - 1167
8) Johnny S - 1142
9) James - 1117
10) Charlene - 1054
11) Cheryl - 996
12) Vic - 933
13) David S - 742

Tomorrow's 55.5 km ITT should settle it. The magic numbers to bear in mind are 1.50 (Contador's lead over Evans) and .59 (Evan's lead over Leipheimer). Both Evans and Leipheimer can fly against the clock, so the top three spots could still change yet. But it's pretty certain that those three guys will stand on the podium in some order.

OTT: Dolorean, What One Bottle Can Do

9 Mile

Alberto is going on a little scouting mission this weekend. Checking out 24 Hours of 9 Mile as a possible future FGBC event. While there, he'll also be checking out what it feels like to do a 24 solo race. Paddy and Dallas are racing too--rockin' FGBC colours, I hope. And Shona's racing the 12 hour version. Good luck guys.

Breakaway Bingo

Every once in a while the breakaway survives. And at this point in the Tour, it's pretty much dumb luck that determines who's going to be in it. So long as you're out of overall contention, you've pretty much got a chance if you're willing to work. Of course, it helps if the guys behind aren't interested in riding hard. And whether it's because they were tired from the hard days in the Pyrenees or because they'd lost interest in the race after all the garbage with Vino and the Chicken, the peloton was not up to chasing today. So the breakaway stayed away. It wasn't ever really in question once things got established. And it turns out my boys were the ones whose numbers came up lucky in a big way today: Bennati and Fothen took first and second. Millar hung on for fifth, Hunter was there in the sprint, finishing 11th, and even Cadel picked up a few points by finding his way into the back end of the top-20. Those five guys collected a whopping 387 points today, and wrested the yellow jersey out of Matt's firm grasp for the first time in a long, long time. Wow. I was expecting Matt's sprinters to increase his lead. Maybe tomorrow.

At least that's how things played out in the clean version of the FGBC TdF Pool.

Stage 17 results:

1) Chris - 387
2) Matt - 108
3) Jonny G - 92
4) David L - 87
5) David S - 84
6) Jonny B - 70
7) Charlene - 52
8) Hal - 37
9) Cheryl - 29
10) James - 5
11) Rachel - 3
12) Johnny S - 0
13) Vic - 0

General Classification after stage 17:

1) Chris - 1886
2) Matt - 1845
3) Rachel - 1234
4) James - 1219
5) Jonny G - 1158
6) Charlene - 1148
7) David L - 1052
8) Cheryl - 997
9) Vic - 996
10) Hal - 987
11) Jonny B - 741
12) Johnny S - 438
13) David S - 426

I still think Rachel's team is the one to beat. And Matt stands to gain some big points yet if we get the bunch sprints that are expected tomorrow and Sunday. Something tells me the yellow jersey is going to jump around a bit in these final three days of the Tour. Finally.

Over in the dirty pool, here's how things look:

1) Matt - 2489
2) Chris - 1784
3) Jonny G - 1631
4) David L - 1443
5) Jonny B - 1137
6) Rachel - 1117
7) James - 1107
8) Charlene - 1040
9) Hal - 983
10) Cheryl - 949
11) Vic - 926
12) Johnny S - 887
13) David S - 742

Crazy. Three more days to go.

OTT: Anton Barbeau, It Won't Be Long Till the Banjo Patrol Comes Along

Do-over

Well, let's try that again. Didn't have the right line there. Or something. Sometimes things just don't work out the first time around.

Presenting the new and improved FGBC TdF Pool:

The slate has been wiped clean of Vinokourov, Rasmussen, and Moreni. Nothing but a bad dream. And so we wake up to face a brand new day. Matt still has the lead, of course, demonstrating just what a powerhouse team he had. But it's much, much closer. And bearing in mind the points awarded for the final GC, it now looks like it just might not hold up. Depends what his sprinters do in the days that remain. The big winner coming out of all this is Rachel, who now holds on to two of three podium spots. Recall that the final podium gets 500, 450, and 400. Points for green and polka-dot too, but not as much. See below. Just like all those failed breakways we root for, Matt might end up getting caught within sight of the finish. But he does have Zabel and Hunter, not to mention Chavanel, so will be getting some points for himself from the green jersey competition. It's going to be close.

Please, please let this be the end of it. Realistically, of course, it's highly unlikely that this is it. But it seems as though the end might just be in sight. Cadel is legit. He has to be. Just look at his chin. Contador and Leipheimer? That's a little more difficult. But maybe, just maybe.

General Classification after stage 16:

1) Matt - 1737
2) Chris - 1499
3) Rachel - 1231
4) James - 1214
5) Charlene - 1096
6) Jonny G - 1066
7) Vic - 996
8) Cheryl - 968
9) David L - 965
10) Hal - 950
11) Jonny B - 671
12) Johnny S - 438
13) David S - 342

Stage winners so far:

Prologue - Charlene
Stage 1 - Matt
Stage 2 - Hal
Stage 3 - Matt
Stage 4 - Matt
Stage 5 - Vic
Stage 6 - Matt
Stage 7 - Matt
Stage 8 - James
Stage 9 - Charlene/Rachel
Stage 10 - Johnny S
Stage 11 - Chris
Stage 12 - Matt
Stage 13 - Charlene
Stage 14 - Rachel
Stage 15 - Jonny B
Stage 16 - Rachel

55 km to go in today's stage. Three of my boys in the breakaway: Millar, Fothen, and Bennati. Giddy up guys. You can hold off Matt's gaggle of sprinters. Go! Hurry hard!

Points for Final General Classification:

1) Yellow

1st = 500 pts
2 = 450
3 = 400
4 = 375
5 = 350
6 = 325
7 = 300
8 = 250
9 = 200
10 = 150
11 = 100
12 = 90
13 = 80
14 = 70
15 = 60
16 = 50
17 = 40
18 = 30
19 = 20
20 = 10

2) Green

1st = 250
2 = 225
3 = 200
4 = 175
5 = 150
6 = 125
7 = 100
8 = 80
9 = 70
10 = 60
11 = 50
12 = 40
13 = 30
14 = 20
15 = 10

3) Polka dot

1st = 150
2 = 125
3 = 100
4 = 90
5 = 80
6 = 70
7 = 60
8 = 50
9 = 40
10 = 30
11 = 25
12 = 20
13 = 25
14 = 10
15 = 5

Tour de Carnage

So Vino and Astana are gone. So too Moreni and Cofidis. And now the biggest one of all. The one we've been waiting for all along. The Chicken has finally been grounded. By is own team, as it turns out. After standing by him for over a week, they withdrew him from the Tour after today's stage for lying allegedly to them about his whereabouts during the time he missed those out of competition tests. His story had been that he was in Mexico hanging with his wife's family. But apparently that was a lie. Just one of many, it seems. Holy Crap.

More from CN and VN.

I wonder if Rabo sensed it was coming and decided to make the first move in an attempt to save their own hide?

Rember that ethics code that all the riders signed? Sheesh.

Maybe I'll do some revisionist math after all. Go Cadel!!

Unbeatable?

It’s certainly starting to look that way for the Chicken. It was Contador who cracked today. But at least the Disco boys gave it a go, with Leipheimer and Contador throwing everything they had at Rasmussen on the lower slopes of the Aubisque. They couldn’t drop him today, and by the end he rode away from both of them to take the stage win and put more time between himself and the rest of the field. Leipheimer finished second, 25 seconds back and Contador was third, followed by Evans and Soler. Sastre, who also gave it a valiant effort with an early attack, came in 8th. Bummer. So that’s it for the mountains. And it’s probably pretty much it for the Tour too, unless Rasmussen implodes in Saturday’s ITT. But it just doesn't look like anybody's going to beat him. At least on the road. If he's going down, it'll most likely take place in the lab. And as much as I don't want him to win, that would suck too. At any rate, it seems like eveyone's as resigned to a Chicken win as we have been to Matt's victory for some time now.

Jonny B takes the stage win. Too bad he doesn't care any more.

Stage 16 results:

1) Jonny B - 277
2) Rachel - 212
3) David L - 186
4) Johnny S - 177
5) Jonny G - 167
6) Matt - 160
7) Charlene - 72
8) Chris - 71
9) James - 37
10) Vic - 27
11) David S - 0
12) Cheryl - 0
13) Hal - 0

General Classification after stage 16:

1) Matt - 2381
2) Jonny G - 1539
3) Chris - 1397
4) David L - 1356
5) Rachel - 1114
6) James - 1102
7) Jonny B - 1067
8) Charlene - 988
9) Hal - 946
10) Vic - 926
11) Cheryl - 920
12) Johnny S - 887
13) David S - 658

I haven't done the math in light of Vinokourov's booting yet. Don't know if I will. But if his B sample comes back positive (which is surely will--his test from stage 15 showed the same thing), his record would officially be erased and everyone behind him will move up. This applies for each stage and for time bonuses as well, which could become a significant factor for Evans' fight with Leipheimer for a podium spot. Hope the B test comes in before the ITT.

It was Christian Moreni whose positive test was announced today. This only confirms what we've been suspecting all along: Johnny S is a cheater.

OTT: White Whale, Matchbook

Daily Dope

Yep, I'm still watching. Can't help it.

And oh, what drama. A few more bombshells to rock the Tour as the increasingly secondary drama of a bike race plays itself out on stage 16.

As the race took a slight detour through the Basque part of Spain, a roadside bomb apparently went off. ETA?

And, of course, there's news of another positive dope test. This time from stage 11. No word on who it was yet. But Hunter, Rasmussen, Kirchen, Villa, Moreni, Jegou, and Zabel were the riders tested.

Persona non grata #1 has responded to his own encounter with the dope police:

I heard that I made a transfusion with my father's blood. That's absurd, I can tell you that with his blood, I would have tested positive for vodka.

Good one. He also offered the following explanation for yesterday's events:

I think it's a mistake in part due to my crash. I have spoken to the team doctors who had a hypothesis that there was an enormous amount of blood in my thighs, which could have led to my positive test.

The setting up of our team made a lot of people jealous and now we're paying the price. It's a shame to leave the Tour this way, but I don't want to waste time in proving my innocence.

That should clear things up.

Nice to see that there's at least one person who believes that there are some clean riders up at the front of the race. Cyclingnews.com reports:

Speaking to Cyclingnews' Brecht Decaluwé this morning, Belgian Tom Boonen heralded Cadel Evans as 'the first clean rider.' He was expressing his doubts over Rasmussen and, it would seem, Contador also.

Evans was pleased to hear that. "There are not many prices and accolades for doing your job correctely, the prices and accolades are for the winner. I'm proud of the fact that someone like Tom said that about me. I am very happy to hear that."

Nice to see that my guy for the GC seems to be legit. That has to count for some bonus points of some sort. Will have to make a rules ammendment. Then again, maybe we should offer bonus points for whomever can predict the next rider to flunk a drug test.

Meanwhile, there's a bike race going on. Carlos Sastre is trying to pull a Floyd. He attacked on the first climb of the day and is still up front. Sastre was the only guy to chase Floyd last year. Hope he can pull it off. And hope he does so without getting caught up in the incresingly tight net cast by the testers.

Rest day revelation

Of the worst possible kind. Vino may not be using cow's blood. But he's been borrowing some from somebody else. Busted. The whole team has packed up and left. I guess his two stage wins weren't so courageous after all. Who's next? Cluck. Cluck. Cluck.

Dead man riding

His Tour hopes having been poured down the drain like the Chicken's "shoes," it seems like Alexandre Vinokourov is involved in some sort of experiment to see how many times he can be pronounced dead before coming back to life again. He's suffered so many deaths and had so many resurrections over the last two weeks that I can no longer keep track. Now he's won two of the last three stages--emphatically. Only problem is he lost half an our on the stage in between. So my guess is he'll suck on Wednesday and then come out and be the hero one last time in the final ITT. I'm sure Andreas Kloden is impressed.

The big excitement today, however, was Contador's repeated attacks on the Chicken. He very nearly dropped the skinny-legged one a few times, but just couldn't shake him for good. But at least he's trying--unlike Evans, Leipheimer, Sastre and co. And for the first time in over a week, the Chicken looked like he was suffering. One more chance on Wednesday, before the roads go flat again.

Tomorrow's a rest day. So there will undoubtedly be no shortage of talk about Rasmussen. Great.

So Swatty wins another stage. It's shaping up to be quite a battle for last place between him Jonnys B & S. Matt has been out of reach for a while now. But the last two steps on the podium are still up for grabs.

Stage 15 results:

1) David S - 185
2) Jonny B - 146
3) Vic - 65
4) David L - 63
5) Chris - 63
6) Cheryl - 39
7) Rachel - 20
8) Jonny G - 19
9) Johnny S - 16
10) Charlene - 12
11) Matt - 10
12) James - 4
13) Hal - 0

General Classification after stage 15:

1) Matt - 2221
2) Jonny G - 1372
3) Chris - 1326
4) David L - 1170
5) James - 1065
6) Hal - 946
7) Cheryl - 920
8) Charlene - 916
9) Rachel - 902
10) Vic - 899
11) Johnny B - 790
12) Jonny S - 710
13) David S - 658

OTT: The Old Ceremony, Poison Pen

Chicken running away?

Nobody can run with the Chicken right now when the road turns up. Nobody except Alberto Contador, who's turning out to be the revelation of this year's TdF. Contador moves into 2nd overall, ahead of Evans, who lost almost 2 minutes to the stage winners, and falls to 3rd place. Leipheimer has moved into 4th, giving Discovery a very interesting 1-2 punch, which they played to perfection yesterday. It's been a long time since the Tour was won by a pure climber. But it looks like that's what may be happening this year. As much as I'm rooting against Rasmussen, it's actually pretty exciting as far as the race itself is concerned.

More from CN, VN, and Pez.

Rachel has both members of Disco's two-pronged attack, and so takes the stage win. This gives us 9 different stage winners so far. Cheryl, James, Jonny B, Jonny G still have yet to get in on the glory.

I'd already resigned myself to Matt's crushing victory in the pool. Now I'm working at coming to grips with losing our side bet as well--that nobody on his team would crack the top 10. Rasmussen doesn't look to be fading away any time doon, despite almost everyone's expectations. Also not going away is the cloud of questions arising from the story of his box of bovine blood. Sounds like the UCI may still be working to boot him from the race, on grounds of the "ethical code." But they seem to be waiting for Whitney Richards to provide some further evidence, or at least a witness, to corroborate his story. We do not have a rule about what to do if a rider gets kicked out of the race. Should his points count? Hopefully that's a question we won't have to adress at this point. But this whole scenario kind of sucks. David Millar, for one, isn't impressed.

Stage 14 results:

1) Rachel - 240
2) Jonny B - 217
3) Johnny S - 199
4) David L - 148
5) Matt - 125
6) Jonny G - 125
7) Charlene - 103
8) James - 65
9) Cheryl - 57
10) Chris - 46
11) David S - 31
12) Vic - 11
13) Hal - 0

General Classification after stage 14:

1) Matt - 2211
2) Jonny G - 1353
3) Chris - 1263
4) David L - 1107
5) James 0 1061
6) Hal - 946
7) Charlene - 904
8) Rachel - 882
9) Cheryl - 881
10) Vic - 834
11) Johnny S - 694
12) Jonny B - 644
13) David S - 473

Haiku Race Report: BAFE

Infernally hot
X-rays negative on thumb
First lap DNF

More from Matt.

OTT: Fionn Regan, Snowy Atlas Mountains

Kiss My Astana!

Alexandre Vinokourov and the boys in baby blue came out to deliver a message to the rest of the field today. Not only are they not going to throw in the towel, they very nearly took 1-2-3 on the stage today. Only Cadel Evans was able to prevent a clean sweep for Astana. He finished 2nd, 1:14 behind Vino, and now looks like he might be best poised to win it all. Valverde and Mayo, sitting 2nd and 3rd going in, had monumentally bad days and rode themselves out of the race, unless they can get back into it on the mountains. No real shocker with Mayo. But for Valverde, this sort of implosion was not expected. Valverde even got caught and passed by the chicken, who must have had another shoebox full of cow's blood (or Oxyglobin, or whatever it is he uses) show up at the hotel overnight. He finished 11th, giving an angry finger to his historical record against the clock, not to mention the UCI, and was able to hold onto his yellow jersey by one minute over Evans. Contador beat Leipheimer, and now clearly has to be rockoned the team leader at Disco. The young Spanish climber jumps into 3rd on the overall GC, just ahead of Kloden. Can't wait to watch him and the Chicken duke it out in the Pyrenees. I hope Cadel can hold on until the next ITT. With his monster ride today, Vino sneaks into the top 10. He now sits just over 5 minutes back. Still a long way back, but close enough to give him cause to attack like a man possessed over the next 3 stages. Kashechkin also moved up, making it 3 Astanas in the top 9. Good for the overall team rankings. Perhaps less good for figuring out the strategy from here on out.

the top 10 after today looks like this:

1 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor-Lotto at 1.00
3 Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery Channel - 2.31
4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana - 2.34
5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel - 3.37
6 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Astana - 4.23
7 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC - 4.45
8 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi - 5.02
9 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana - 5.10
10 Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile - 5.29

More from CN, VN, and Pez.

Killer stage tomorrow. 2 HCs, and finishing atop the 2nd one. Will have to catch that one on the evening replay, since I'll be racing out at Birch with my friend Johnny S.

Swatty's team of Kazakh strongmen wins the day, more than doubles his point total so far and creeps out of last place. But Charlene, riding the backs of Evans and Kloden, was just 11 points back. With Valverde's bad day, Vic's string of zeros continues. That's four in a row and falling fast. Watch your back Jonny G. I'm coming after you.

Stage 13 results:

1) David S - 226
2) Charlene - 215
3) Chris - 125
4) James - 92
5) Rachel - 91
6) Cheryl - 90
7) Jonny B - 64
8) Johnny S - 18
9) Matt - 11
10) Jonny G - 10
11) David L - 10
12) Hal - 8
13) Vic - 0

General Classification after stage 13:

1) Matt - 1971
2) Jonny G - 1228
3) Chris - 1217
4) James - 996
5) David L - 959
6) Hal - 946
7) Cheryl - 824
8) Vic -823
9) Charlene - 801
10) Rachel - 642
11) Johnny S - 495
12) David S - 443
13) Jonny B - 427

OTT: Goose, Girl

Johnny S is my friend

At least for now. I've signed him up in the "End a Friendship - 6 lap" category. That and the 37 deg. temps could make for an interesting afternoon.

Still time for other FGBC'ers to get reg'd on Sunday morning. This could be the best FGBC showing ever. But it's only just beginning.

BAF breakfast

for those going to the birch shake and bake this weekend - who's interested in meeting at the falafel place for breakfast?

The Un-Tour

Yesterday's stage was tailor made for a massive bunch sprint. But it didn't turn out that way. Alexandre Vinokourov was supposed to dominate the Tour this year. But that hasn't exactly happened. The chicken was supposed to run wild for a day, secure the polka-dot jersey, then fade away. But he hasn't. It seems as if the riders have torn up the script and tossed it by the roadside. Nothing is going the way it was supposed to. Which means that today's stage played out exactly as one might expect in this un-Tour in that it unfolded exactly like it wasn't expected to. With a 10 km Cat 2 climb less than 50km before the finish, it looked like a day for a breakaway to stay clear to the finish. Maybe another chance for Pozzato to win a stage. Or perhaps someone like Flecha, Hincapie, or Ballan. Pierrik Fedrigo and Amets Txurruka (with a name like that, how did he not get picked for the FGBC TdF Pool by someone?) gave it a solid effort. But instead, we got the bunch sprint we were supposed to have yesterday and the breakaway stage hunters were left wondering what might have been. Tornado Tom Boonen won it to cement his lead in the points competition. Zabel and Hunter were right there as well, keeping it a three-way race for green, or at least a hard-fought battle for 2nd.

More from CN, VN, and Pez.

With 3 of the top 7 finishers, Matt takes another stage win and increases his stranglehold on the FGBC TdF Pool yellow jersey. And that's without Robbie McEwen. Daniele Bennati, who was supposed to be my dark horse sprinting ace--before he went down in one of the early pileups, was 4th to help me take 2nd place. And Hal rounds out the podium for the day on the strength of Boonen.

According to the script, tomorrow's 54 km ITT should finally provide us with a good sense of how it will all pan out in the end, sorting out who's for real and who's merely been getting lucky so far. That's why they call it the race of truth. Conventional wisdom says Kloden should move up and the Chicken will begin his freefall. But the way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if the final outcome remains as murky as ever. Who knows? Vino might all of a sudden insert himself into the race again.

Stage 12 results:

1) Matt - 255
2) Chris - 170
3) Hal - 154
4) Jonny G - 115
5) Cheryl - 76
6) David L - 70
7) David S - 20
8) Johnny S - 18
9) Rachel - 17
10) Jonny B - 12
11) James - 4
12) Charlene - 0
13) Vic - 0

General Classification after stage 12:

1) Matt - 1960
2) Jonny G - 1218
3) Chris - 1092
4) David L - 950
5) Hal - 938
6) James - 904
7) Vic - 823
8) Cheryl - 734
9) Charlene - 586
10) Rachel - 551
11) Johnny S - 477
12) Jonny B - 364
13) David S - 217

Sadly, one thing that does seem to be going according to script is that we have a big-time doping controversy in the works. All kinds of fingers being pointed at the current wearer of the yellow jersey. One finger that isn't pointing his way, however, is that of Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour, who hasn't had very many nice words about the honorary captain as of late. But that could change in a hurry. Funny business, this Tour de France.

OTT: Of Montreal, Suffer for Fashion

Positively False

Apologies for the delay in submitting my report of my hearing of the honorary captain. I was waiting for pictures to be developed, which were as you can see - not really worth waiting for. Nonetheless - there were at least 500 crazed fans at this Q&A session (there was no reading from the book).

When he waltzed in there was an energetic standing ovation, and the energy from the crowd continued throughout the evening. Floyd joked that people in Seattle must love books, or bikes. After a short preamble in which he encouraged people not to have their passion for biking diminished by controversy and scandal - he simply opened the floor for questions.

A few comments that prompted the most reaction...Floyd mentioned that he had been tested 25 times last year, with one positive result. The assumption of the lab was that the one positive result was the correct result, and the clean test results are not. "This is not an anti-French statement, but in America we don't stand for that kind of shit."

When asked if he likes Shimano or Campy? He said that since he is not sponsored by either company, he can actually answer...and he likes Shimano.

When asked how his faith sustained him during the past year? He talked about believing in himself and knowing who he is, as having sustained him when his character was being maligned.

All in all...a good night, and a very excited crowd. Floyd promised to stay until every person who wanted an autograph had received one...which from the looks of the line was almost every person there. I wasn't one of them...although I had had earlier hopes of sticking around...but my six-year old who I had dragged along, was cooked and ready for bed.

Check out this link for another report from the night.

http://www.bikingbis.com/blog/_archives/2007/7/13/3089547.html

Am very much missing riding with you all. Have been riding solo here, but am thinking about checking out these folks...http://www.point83.com/ I have discovered a nice burger joint which is open until 2 AM, which is a nice finish to an evening ride. It ain't VJ's, but it works.

Johnny N

Oh No, Moreau!

On paper it looked like a day for a massive bunch sprint. 182.5 kms with nary a ripple of elevation over the last 100 km. But one thing that doesn’t show up on paper is the wind. And what a nasty cross-wind it was today. An attentive Alexandre Vinokourov took full advantage of these circumstances as he sent up his whole team to rock the peloton when the wind changed direction at a key moment. This effort split the peloton into several echelons. And when it finally came back together, there were two rather large groups separated by a few minutes. This was bad news for some of the big sprinters (Zabel, Hushovd and Bennati) who got caught in the back group. But it was absolutely devastating for Christophe Moreau, who conceded over 3 minutes today and plunged from 6th all the way to 14th place on the overall GC. So what looked like a relatively minor stage as far as the GC is concerned turned out to be fairly significant in the end. Not good for my hope of cashing in Moreau for some big GC points at the end of the race. Nigel Tufnel says time is a harsh mistress. So true. 3 minutes and 20 seconds is probably a whole lot less than Nigel had in mind, and yet it must have felt like a whallop of a kick in the groin for Moreau today. Merde! Pay attention, Christophe! You can still make it back in the top 10. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Dave Z. He missed the time cut today and is done.

As if that wasn’t enough excitement, Vino attacked again with 4km to go, causing some temporary chaos for a peloton that was getting itself set up for the sprint. It didn't work, but it was enough to show that he’s not going to lie down. And it certainly left everything in a bit of a mess for the run-up to the finish. Then, just as they were were about to get things reorganized, they came around a sweeping right hand turn was a little tighter than expected and claimed a few more riders who got themselves tangled up in the barriers. Boonen didn’t end up going down, but he got caught behind as the group of sprinters was blown to bits, missing out on the sprint. The beneficiary of all the mayhem was the honorary captain’s former teammate Robbie Hunter, who took the stage win with a long sprint and jumps up into 2nd place in the race for the green jersey, behind Boonen and ahead of Zabel. Hunter’s one of my guys, which eases the sting of Moreau’s munson today. But unfortunately he’s on Matt’s team as well. I finally got some points from Fothen and Vandevelde, though, as they both squeaked into the top 20 today after being 0-fer the Tour so far, taking 10 and 4 points, respectively. Good enough for my first stage win. Whew. I was beginning to think it wasn’t going to happen.

Nice to see Vino's back to being his old aggressive little bulldog self. And yet a little odd, at the same time. Kloden is clearly the leader of Astana at this point, sitting in 6th at 3.50. He’s easily the best time triallist of the top 10, so long as his fractured coccyx isn’t a problem. He could well move into the top three on Saturday. Will Vino be able to suck it up and work for him in the Pyrenees or will he go crazy with attacks and leave Kloden to his own devices in his chase after yellow? The latter would be more exciting for us, of course, but tactically-speaking it would be pretty stupid for Astana.

More from CN, VN, and Pez.

Stage 11 results:

1) Chris - 164
2) Matt - 150
3) Charlene - 93
4) James - 76
5) Hal - 50
6) Rachel - 25
7) David S - 7
8) Jonny B - 5
9) David L - 4
10) Cheryl - 4
11) Johnny S - 1
12) Jonny G - 0
13) Vic - 0

General Classification after stage 11:

1) Matt - 1705
2) Jonny G - 1103
3) Chris - 922
4) James - 900
5) David L - 872
6) Vic - 823
7) Hal - 784
8) Cheryl - 658
9) Charlene - 586
10) Rachel - 534
11) Johnny S - 459
12) Jonny B - 352
13) David S - 197

The daily Tour Communique reports that Hal and Swatty have both received penalties for whining. One stir stick each.

Speaking of 0-fers, here's a list of riders haven’t scored a single point so far, from most expensive to least.

Paolo Savoldelli - 7.00
Leif Hoste - 6.00
Cristian Moreni - 5.76
Francisco Vila - 5.45
Igor Anton Hernandez - 4.50
Thomas Lövkvist - 3.64
Johan Van Summeren - 3.00
Felix Cardenas - 2.50
Jean-Patrick Nazon - 2.00
Juan Mercado - 2.00
Pietro Caucchioli - 2.00
Sebastien Rosseler - 1.92
Axel Merckx - 1.50
Björn Leukemans - 1.50
Ivan Parra - 1.50
John Gadret - 1.50
Lilian Jegou - 1.50
Ludovic Turpin - 1.50
Maxime Iglinski - 1.50

Finally, though Swatty’s Kazakh-themed team may not be doing so well in the FGBC TdF Pool, Kazakh pride is alive and well on the roads of France, as evidenced by today’s hard effort from the Astana boys as well as this incident from a few days earlier:



OTT: The Twang, Either Way