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Just when German cycling looked to be cooked along comes a new sensation to light up the sport for the Bavarians. With Jorge Jascke hogging German TV, talking about how he made his small fortune by doping while lots of great actions goes by unnoticed. The German government wants to remove funding for the World Championship in Stuttgart. All of the German’s want to kick cycling while it is down except of course the fans. German TV watchers complained about Jascke’s presence in the commentary box and are still tuning in, as well they should now that Linus Gerdemann had his coming out party today.
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The Tour de France is about battles large and small. The biggest battle is for the Yellow Jersey. Then there are stage wins, then battles for other jerseys. Each of these plays out in front of the TV everyday and provides for some drama in it s own way. Today Bradley Wiggins the Londoner who “hasn’t shown much in road racing” put in a day long break that looked utterly painful. Ashame about the race radios and split times. The peloton was simply toying with Wiggins allowing him to cook in the sun as long as they absolutely needed to. The peloton was in a restful mood. This is what you get when there is no more doping, or at least not much more doping in the world of pro cycling. Speeds are slower, finishes drag out to around the noontime (6pm French time) and not a great deal of action in these transitional stages.
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Wiggins was just hoping some team would simply get on with it and catch him already. After many kilometers out front the peloton finally got down to business and dueled out a nice sprint for the fans sitting at home. The action was worth the wait with Boonen going all over the road to get a clear position and winning. Boonen looked possessed as he sprinted home. He wanted his Green Jersey back and a stage win for this Tour de France before the mountain stage on Saturday.
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The Astana team took a really big blow on Stage 5 to Autun. It is a day they will want to forget and quickly. Andreas Kloden the highest placed GC man looks to have broken his coccyx along with contusion to his hip and knee. In 2003 Kloden had a similar injury and had to abandon the race. Having a fracture on the tailbone has to be extremely painful to say the least much less tending to an injury like this when you are racing 120 miles a day and the tough stages are yet to come. Astana team manager Marc Biver adds:
“It’s impossible for Kloeden to sit up in the saddle,” Biver said. “It will be very hard for him (to continue).”
The prognosis did get better this morning as cyclingnews reports:
Andreas Klöden had slightly more luck following his crash. He was initially feared to have a tailbone fracture, the same injury that forced him out of the Tour in 2003. After some more X-rays and additional tests, however, the German is cleared to ride with ‘just’ a hairline fracture. According to sid Astana’s directeur sportif Mario Kummer reported that “it’s not as bad as initially feared.” Everybody is aware, though, that the injury is quite painful for a cyclist and it remains to be seen if Klöden will be able to finish the Tour, in which he is currently ranked second.
Either way, Kloden did injure his tailbone. Whether the pain is bearable enough to continue will be the big question.
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Filippo Pozzato took a very fast sprint finish into Autun on Stage 5 of the Tour de France. The final slightly uphill finish was so fast that speeds reached up to 50mph. That is some fast turning of the pedals.
The stage was being billed as a hilly challenge that would disrupt the sprinteres and possibly change the Yellow Jersey. The long break that included new Polka Dot wearer Sylvain Chavanel helped to keep things together for most of the race. With sprinteres getting shelled in the final climbs to the finish a select group of the peloton roared in for the finish. Pozzato and other “climbing” sprinters were gunning for the finish including Oscar Friere and Alessandro Ballan. This is the second stage win for the Italian who moved out of the shadow of Tom Boonen at Quick Step.
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(pic from http://www.gazzetta.it
Andreas Kloden won Tirreno-Adriatico on the penultimate stage, but the big story is the performance by several young riders. Ricardo Ricco, Vincenzo Nibali, Enrico Gasparotto, Giovanni Visconti and Matteo Bono are just a few riders who differentiated themselves in the “Race of the two seas”.
Bono won a tough stage to San Giacomo which features some brutal 10% climbs. Ricco won two stages.
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(pic from Flickr user das jan)
The T-Mobile overhaul continued this week with Mattais Kessler and Andreas Kloden joining old buddies Walter Goodefroot and Alexandre Vinokourov at Astana. It seems like a mini T-Mobile reunion at the Kazak based team.
Kloden’s move to Astana must mean that he does not have many hopes for a high overall placing at the Tour since the team is pretty much Vinokourov’s. Kloden is used to playing support, but has shown flashes of brilliance this year and in 2004. If Vinokourov truly thought that this year was his last chance at an overall win, then getting Kloden on the team gives Astana a strong option in case Vino is genuinely done with the chase for the Yellow Jersey.
Andreas Kloden blasted Olaf Luwig for poor team management during the Tour de France. T-Mobile has never been know team tactics a point which was highlighted last year when Kloden and Ullrich reeled in an attacking Vinokourov. This year the blunders continued as T-Mobile seemed to have one of the strongest teams but would still execute the occasional blunder of chasing down a teammate. Overall T-Mobile probably executed better than in the in the past, but Kloden blames T-Mobile and Phonak for allowing Oscar Periero so much time, a move which could eventually give him the overall Tour title over Kloden if/when Landis is stripped of his title.
Kloden and Kessler’s move may not have been too much of a surprise to T-Mobile management since they did not reward the team’s performance in the Tour with better contracts. Some riders were even offered paycuts according to Kloden.
T-Mobiles shakeup must be long overdue since the team was notoriously known for paying huge contracts but not getting many results. Ironically this is all happening after a better than usual team performance at the Tour de France.
