Le Tour Sans Lance

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The 93rd Annual Tour de France began last Saturday in Strasbourg and ends on July 23 in Paris on the familiar cobblestones of the Champs-Élysées. This year, the course is run counter-clockwise, or anti-clockwise if you're Phil Liggett, and measures an excruciating 3639 km (2261 miles) divided into 20 stages.

The notable absence of hometown favorite Lance Armstrong and the major blood doping scandal that eliminated 13 riders has left the field wide open for competition. As part of our extensive sports coverage [sic] here at the Austinist we will be posting daily updates on the major developments of the tour and accompanying those standings each week with some more in depth coverage on the general makeup and strategy involved in professional cycling. This week we dispel the confusion surrounding the wardrobe of choice for the race's leaders.

The Classifications

In true French tradition, there are really 5 winners in each and every Tour de France. The fastest rider in the field as determined by the accumulated time over the all of the stages is said to be the leader of the general classification and is awarded a yellow jersey (maillot jaune) for each stage he maintains this lead. The green jersey (maillot vert) is awarded for sprinting points that are won by being the first rider to cross the finish line at the end of a stage or located sporadically throughout the race. If your skin tone doesn't compliment bright yellow or neon green there is always the "King of the Mountains" polka dotted jersey. This white jersey with red dots (maillot à pois rouges) is awarded to the rider who collects the most points for being the first rider over the top of each climbing section. The remaining 3 awards are much less contested and represent the best young rider (under 25) with a white jersey, the most combative rider with white-on-red identification number, and fastest team with black-on-yellow identification numbers.

It might sound confusing at first but after watching for a few days we promise it'll be as easy as predicting the day Easter will land on 5 years from now. Please engage the Expandotron below for the summary of the tour standings and major events through today.

Stages Prologue-5

The first five stages have been primarily sprinter stages with two consisting of rolling hills sandwiched in between (Stage 2 & 3). As a result, the sprinters have fared very well and the usual suspects have surfaced in the early lead. Major events in the first 6 stages:

Prologue:Thor Hushovd captured a third stage win and second yellow jersey in his career in the opening time trial of the 2006 Tour de France. American Floyd Landis was nowhere to be seen at his starting time and suffered a short delay in getting off the line (8 seconds) as a result. This is bigger deal than it seems when the winner of the stage finishes only 9" in front of him.

1st Stage: Lance's right hand man and our personal favorite rider George Hincapie won the general classification in this stage but not the stage itself. That honor went to Jimmy Casper of the French Cofidis team who was followed closely by Thor sporting the yellow jersey from the previous days performance. After the finish line Thor Hushovd became intimately involved with a cardboard sign of a spectator and, as a result, spewed more blood than the first 15 minutes of a Quentin Tarntino film. After an overnight patch job he is back in the field.

2nd Stage: This second longest stage of the tour extended from Obernai to Luxembourg and was primarily dominated by a two-man breakaway almost at the start by David De La Fuente and Aitor Hernandez. They were caught in the late climbs, and De La Fuente took over the polka dot jersey as a result of his efforts. A crash in the last 2km threatened to divide the peloton but everyone was credited with the same time as the leaders (per race rules and tradition). Australian sprinter Robbie McEwan took the stage and Thor won back the maillot jaune as a result of picking up a few time bonuses along the way. Guess that extra blood was just slowing him down.

3rd Stage: Similar to the previous day this stage of the tour featured 5 categorized climbs though none greater than a category 3. Jérôme Pineau's efforts these climbs earned him the polka-dotted jersey and and a few other riders attempted to break away with little success. This stage was also fraught with unfortunate accidents that resulted in Erik Dekker, Fred Rodriguez, and Alejandro Valverde having to withdraw from the race. Valverde is the leader in the ProTour and widely recognized as one of the most talented riders of his generation. Matthias Kessler took the stage and Tom Boonen (remember that name) captured the yellow and green jerseys.

4th Stage: Is another sprinter stage that travels 207.0 km (128.6 miles) from Huy, Belgium and ended in Saint-Quentin in the northern part of France. Robbie McEwen won his second stage in a quick sprint. Just before the finish line, Julian Dean crashed in the middle of the peloton but did not take anyone else down. Thor Hushovd, who finished fourth, was disqualified for irregularities during sprinting and set back to last position of the group he finished in, which was position 148. This cost him 26 points for the green jersey which could prove vital in the end.

5th Stage: Starting in Beauvais, and ending in Caen in northern France (225 km), this stage saw an early breakaway of 8 riders get worn down to 2 who held a maximum advantage of 12'50" on the peloton. Their lead and hope of stealing the stage were dashed with less than 2km remaining. The frantic peloton delivered all of the usual sprinters to the front with little time to spare and the victory was captured by Oscar Freire, a Rabobank rider known for positioning himself well without the aid of his team.

Whew! Slightly whittled down to 172 riders, the tour rambles on. Please join us for future coverage and don't hesitate to voice any questions or counterpoints in the comments section.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By michaelfavia in Other on July 6, 2006 3:30 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Prateek Panchal

I am looking forward to it!!!!

Atenas costa rica

anon

I love it when people can't formulate actual rebuttals. I also love it when people can't read and understand that I'm siding with thier views. I support the tour and I support soccer. I was merely pointing out that great sports like this are underappreciated in this country and that the overwhelming interest for any sport in this country comes from the dominance by a US athlete or team. Plus, it's my opinion, or are you one of those who believes that opinions should be regulated if it doesn't fit your views? Better yet, why did you come back to check to see what I responded with this time? Get out and get some exercise!

Uniball

If you're so in love with cycling and soccer, why in the hell are you still sitting in front of a computer checking your comments on the Austinist? For Christ's sake, shut up and go get some exercise and stop worrying about the general public’s TV and sports habits.

And just because you follow “cult” athletic events like the Tour de France or the World Cup doesn’t make you to be some sort of connoisseur of all things unappreciated. You sound like a damn poser.

The Lone Nut

Ami

Maybe so, but the general public sux.

anon

Look - all I'm saying is that only 14 newspapers in the US applied for credentials and only 2 US reporters are actually in France for the entire tour (this according to one of the newspapers reporting). Populatiry polls in France are even down (much to be expected with the WC final on the horizon)and even though OLN is showing everything they are still expecting a drop in ratings and attendence. You can't tell me its as popular as it was 12 months ago and that next year it won't be less popular in the eyes of the general public.

Ami

My money's on George. He so deserves it and he's kicking ass early on but not wasting energy by gunning it too early. Go George! I've been watching Velonews highlights every day. Would watch more, but don't have OLN. And, for what it's worth, I don't think cycling is a fad at all. Obviously you won't see as much fanfare in Austin come Tour time sans Lance, but that doesn't make the sport of cycling obsolete by any means. Ye of little faith. Jeez.

anon

Wow - calm down now. I for one watch the tour (yet I can say I haven't watched any yet) mostly because I've been watching every WC match this year. Seeing I'm at those pubs you speak of, I have yet to see a majority American crown during the work week, most are from Ireland, Spain, Germany, Costa Rica and other countries who not only care, but understand the game.

You do have to realize though that hardly any of the public watches the WC in the US and that most of the average public doesn't even own a bike. Its fun to think that you're involved in something that is large and popular, but in reality, when you get outside of the group in which you have those things in common, most people have no idea what you are talking about.

My point is that this time last year and for years before, there was yellow everywhere, people talking about how awesome Lance was etc... - now you'd be lucky to have a regular joe tell you three names that are in the tour right now. Like I said; its sad really and I'd be willing to bet the amount of nice road bikes on Craigslist and eBay start to grow in numbers over the next few years and I'll bet the model years of those bikes coincide with the last few years that Lance rode.

I'm not putting down cycling, just pointing out that the "fad" portion of it has ended, now it will go back into obscurity like it had been 8 years ago. Think boxing, think cricket, think ultimate and you'll see what I'm talking about. How many people have you seen taking off work to watch the World Domino Championships?

michaelfavia

You might want to tell that to the people taking off work to watch the world cup at local pubs or the OLN network that is covering every day of the tour as it has for years now.

Additionally, i predict a US cyclist WILL be crushing the competition in Paris and his name will either be George or Floyd but only time will tell. But, now you can save yourself the additional 1:30 recap and return to your enthralling baseball season.

Cycling is a decent participitory sport and i think we would to well to embrace a few of those before diabetes overtakes heart disease as the number 1 killer in america.

anon

Its sad that the cycling fad will now go away, especially in Austin. Lance did so much for his sport, but like other sports (i.e. soccer) - it will fail to retain a viewing audience in this country unless a US citizen is simply crushing the competition. Has any of the tour even been shown on TV this year? Hell, most of the public, including cyclists have told me that they forgot that it had even begun.

I feel bad for the cycle shops here in town; it was hard enough to stay in business while the fad was at its peak, but now that there won't be any fat middle aged men and women buying $5000 bikes and treking out to 360 in all spandex gear I fear that the interest in this city is dead.

You had a good run cycling; people were even starting to entertain the idea of giving you overzealous cyclists the rights you asked for even with your total disregard for the laws you are supposed to follow yourselves. Best of luck to all the shops - I do hope you stay open so that people like myself continue to have options. I'll just check Sports Center in a month when they show the 1:30 min recap of the tour.