Saturday, July 01, 2006

wake up Floyd!

Floyd has a reputation for being nonchalant and easy going, but this is taking it just a little too far. He failed to show up on time at the start ramp today. Must have been waiting for a ZZ Top song to finish on his ipod. In a time trial, the clock starts at regular intervals whether a rider is at the gate or not. So by the time he actually started, 8 seconds had ticked off the clock. This really sucks, becuase he missed winning the stage by 9 seconds. The good news is that he rode a great race. He's clearly on good form, and now sits in 9th place. Right there with the rest of the contenders for the GC. Thor Hushovd--likely the coolest name in the peloton--takes the win. Hincapie was 2nd, less than a second back. And the winner of last year's opening stage, Zabriskie, took 3rd. Valverde was right there too at 5th. Definitely a threat to win it all.

So we're off. The next several stages favor the sprinters. Look for some long breakaway attempts and plenty of finish-line crashes. Coverage starts tomorrow at 7:30 am.

1 comment:

The Dark Lord said...

Apparently he had a flat tire. Bummer. The Tdf runs a tighter ship than the FGBC. Hal and Jon were kind enough to wait for me to change my flat before we raced on Thursday. Hal even supplied the tube and pump. I'd left all my stuff at home in an attempt to shed weight for the climbs.