Alejandro Valverde wasted no time in taking the Yellow Jersey during the Tour de France’s first stage today. The Tour started with a road stage for the first time since 1967. The very open Giro like Tour featured a tough final kilometer that brought all of the main contenders to the front and left the sprinters behind. The first road stage without a Yellow Jersey was not as nervous or crash filled as usual. Mauricio Soler was the only major victim of the carnage as he lost about two minutes to Valverde after a crash. Most of the peloton finished with the same time.
Riccardo Ricco was in fifth place today showing he has some good form to at least contend the numerous middle difficulty stages that dot the Tour route this year. Cadel Evans was up near the front more than likely shadowing Valverde so as not to give up too much time.
The final kilometer was as action packed as a finish of Amstel Gold race with the tough finish. Kim Kirchen took advantage of a Team Columbia leadup that featured Adam Hansen pushing 800 watts at the front of the peloton to get his teammate into position. Kirchen’s move had a glimmer of hope until Valverde rocketed up to Kirchen’s back wheel. Valverde took a moment and then sligshot his way to the front leaving a sizable gap to second place Phillipe Gilbert.
Now that Valverde has the Yellow, the question is will the team defend it, and if so for how long. Valverde may be riding a peak form right now, but the final week features some brutal climbing, can Valverde keep it up to the end?
The new Team Garmin-Chipotle Kit goes for the white shorts.
(AP Photo/Laurent Rebours)
The white look is cool, but better make sure the shorts are made of extra thick material. The rainy weather in the Brittany region may not be a good mix.
PASCAL PAVANI/AFP/Getty Images
Meanwhile the new Team Columbia kit is out with a blue jersey and black shorts. The jersey color is close to Milram’s blue which may make the Cavendish/Zabel battles interesting to view from a distance.
Damiano Cunego is probably the first of the second tier favorites for the Tour. Cadel Evans and Alejandro Valverde are probably the top favorites. Judging from Cunego’s new hair color, perhaps he has some pretty elaborate intentions? Riders since the late 90s started wearing matching shorts, gloves, helmets and bikes colored yellow when they donned the jersey. Marco Pantani decided to give his goatee a bleaching to match the new piece of wardrobe. Now Cunego gets his hair ready just in case he dons the Yellow somewhere around mid-July. Is this motivation or overconfidence or is he simply getting into the festive Tour mood. We’ll see in about three weeks if his darker roots are showing or if he decides to keep the look at that time.
Wired has a feature on concept bikes which includes a square wheeled bike and this cool bike from a company called pilen concept bicycle by eric therner
The bike looks like a modern retro racer. You would have to wear leather goggles when riding this with a skater helmet since anything else would look out of place.
The only issues with the bike seem to be a lack of front brake and no adjustable seat. The concept is interesting though.
This one makes it into the list because it looks so cool. Based on 1930s Le Mans racing bikes, the Pilen Concept is designed by Eric Therner for Swedish company Pilen Bikes. Is might look retro, but hidden behind the styling is a lot of high-tech gear. LED lights are built in to the frame and the saddle is in two parts for independent shock absorption.
Well, the Crimanimalz have some competition on the 405 with an Etnies skateboarder guy. Pretty soon with all of the bikes and skateboards riding on the Los Angeles highways you may start seeing moms with baby joggers and senior citizens with matching track suits and giant headphone radios walking down the fast lane of the 405 during rush hour.
Seems that the two un-sponsored American teams now have major sponsors. This is great news after last years folding of Discovery Channel due to the lack of new sponsors. Team CSC also found a new sponsor with Saxo Bank and Quick-Step has their sponsorship extended for three more years. Most of the top teams seem to be reporting good news on the sponsor front despite the constant drubbing of doping scandals for the past few years.
Columbia Sportswear will take over the main sponsorship of Team High Road. The sponsor seems like a perfect fit for cycling and slides into the lead sponsor role of one of the most successful teams of the year so far.
Garmin has been a smaller sponsor for several teams such as Milram. Now they step into the main sponsor role taking over the Slipstream team. Garmin is perfect for cycling especially with the 705 model which includes a map. Previously the Slipstream team was using Powertap computers to monitor their training. With Garmin coming in will they drop the Powetaps in favor of the Garmin 705/ SRM combo or will they have a very crowded set of handlebars with both Powertaps and Garmin GPS devices on the handlebars?
Here is my somewhat crowded cockpit with an iBike and Garmin 305.
Campagnolo decided to take cassettes to the next level and unveiled that all Campagnolo gruppos including the new (old name) Super Record will have 11 speeds. Pretty cool news, but just imagine how ultra narrow those chains will be now. When asked why the move to 11 speeds, Campy reps could only respond with “Why Not?”
Obviously, the key point is the extra sprocket on the cassette and plenty of hardened roadies will be asking ‘Why?’ We put the same question to Campagnolo and the quick answer came back “Why not?”
The new Campy 2009 gruppos feature a distinctly new shift/brake lever with an extra curve near the hood. It is said that the extra curve up top provides better aero positioning but it is not as pretty as the older models.
They rode around Paris with an anti drug (droggi.com) message posted on their rears. The Droggi girls will help you get in the mood for the Tour de France while advertising women’s underwear.
The video has been everywhere. This is a crazy crash and fortunately Frank Schleck made it out alright. Seems the racers who careen off of mountain roads usually make it OK. Oscar Pereiro crashed on the Col D’aubisque in the Tour in 2005 while busy with his musette and made it out OK. Jan Ulrich crashed on the Col de Peyresourde in 2001 in a very dramatic fashion, bike and all, but seemed to recover OK too.
bicycletutor.com is a nice new site that contains several tutorials on how to fix and maintain your bike. Even though I’ve been riding for ages there are some things that escape me and I go over to the local shop for help. This site help to demystify fixing your bike.
/>