Tour de France - Stage 4 TTT Start Times

Here are the Start Times for tomorrow's Stage 4 Team Time Trial:

14:30 (8:30am U.S. Eastern): Caisse d'Epargne

14:37 (8:37am U.S.): Team Katusha

14:44 (8:44am U.S.): Rabobank

14:51 (8:51am U.S.): Lampre

14:58 (8:58am U.S.): Bbox Bouygues Telecom

15:05 (9:05am U.S.): AG2R-La Mondiale

15:12 (9:12am U.S.): Skil-Shimano

15:19 (9:19am U.S.): Française des Jeux

15:26 (9:26am U.S.): Agritubel

15:33 (9:33am U.S.): Silence-Lotto

15:40 (9:40am U.S.): Quick Step

15:47 (9:47am U.S.): Cervélo Test Team

15:54 (9:54am U.S.): Team Milram

16:01 (10:01am U.S.): Liquigas

16:08 (10:08am U.S.): Euskaltel-Euskadi

16:15 (10:15am U.S.): Cofidis

16:22 (10:22am U.S.): Garmin-Slipstream

16:29 (10:29am U.S.): Team Saxo Bank

16:36 (10:36am U.S.): Team Columbia-HTC

16:43 (10:43am U.S.): Astana

Tour de France - Stage 3 Wrap-up

Let the conspiracy theories begin!

When the peloton split with about 30km left in Stage 3, Lance Armstrong made his statement: This team is mine.

With Haimar Zubeldia and Yaroslav Popovych working with Columbia to pull the 27-rider lead group further and further up the road, Lance could probably see the yellow jersey beckoning him following tomorrow’s Team Time Trial in Montpellier.

He finished the stage in 19th place, and ironically now sits 19 seconds ahead of his teammate—the team “leader”, according to DS Johan Bruyneel—Alberto Contador on GC. Yes, the Tour is a 3-week race; and yes, many things can happen from one day to the next. 19 seconds may seem like only a bit of time, but the statement speaks much louder than the standings.

Lance Armstrong will not concede leadership of his team—to anyone.

Tomorrow will certainly be interesting. How will the team react? How cohesive will they ride? Will Contador or someone else actually sprint against Lance to be the first rider over the line? If there’s a flat or mechanical, will the entire team wait?

Other questions remain to be answered, especially: who made the decision to work with Columbia? Lance? Johan? Maybe the post-race comments will make things clearer.

And speaking of Johan, he’s now fully enmeshed in the toughest Tour of his career—and it’s only the 3rd day. He’ll need to be at his best tonight if he hopes to keep this team together.

I’d love to be a fly on the massage table at the Astana hotel tonight.

Monday Musings - While the Tour Rides Along

While the break rides along in today’s Stage 3, here are some things for you to take a look at:

1. If you haven’t seen it yet, head to the new Red Kite Prayer. BKW’s Padraig has upped the ante with a site you need to bookmark and/or add to your RSS reader. Expect the same great content you enjoyed at BKW, plus product reviews, guest commentary, and some other surprises. Thanks, Padraig!

2. The other day I stumbled upon some photos from The Retro Ronde (link's in Flemish), a sportive ride organized by the RVV Museum in Oudenaarde. Not sure how I missed this one in the past, but it’s certainly been added to my “To Ride” list.

3. And speaking of the Ronde, here’s the newest installment of the Cervelo TestTeam's Beyond the Peloton documentary. Roubaix’s next. Great stuff!

4. If you happen to be in Austin, Texas this weekend, head over to Kealing Middle School at 6:30pm for a re-enactment of the final race scene from the cycling classic, Breaking Away. It's a Rapha event commemorating the film's 30th anniversary. After the race, you and your cutter friends can head to a shop owned by a famous Austin cyclist for an awards party and film viewing.

5. This past week The Service Course posted a two-part interview with one of the former DS's from the ill-fated Mercury-Viatel team of 2001. Given the drama that's been surrounding Astana lately, it provides a very candid inside view of one of the sport's more recent team collapses.

6. And finally, I need to give a great thank you to Chris from LockringNotIncluded for coming down for a ride and a cup of coffee last week. If you haven't been to his blog before, I think you'll quickly find it to be one of the most poetic you've ever visited. There's just something about his photography and text that cuts right to the core of why we ride. Give him a visit and share in his joy.

And now back to today's stage!

Tour de France - Stage 2 Wrap-up

Mark Renshaw deserves a large share of the credit for Cavendish's stage win. His teammates laid the groundwork with terrific placement coming into the red kite, but he literally rode Garmin's Tyler Farrar off of Cavendish’s wheel. Cavendish was lucky to hang-on himself! One can’t help but wonder if one day Renshaw will get a chance to take a win. With a few more days like Stage 2, it will be hard to deny him the opportunity.

That said, it was great to see Garmin's organization for the sprint. Farrar was perfectly placed for the win; he seemed to have a good complement of riders working on his behalf. Columbia was just too strong though.

Tom Boonen popped-in with a few km left to go, but was conspicuously absent from the final romp to the line. It seems like the time off has affected the cohesion of his lead-out, otherwise he might have been better placed to avoid a crash before the line. Could Stage 3 be his day?

Frank Schleck can’t be feeling too confident right now. He hit the deck again and then was almost hit by his team car while trying to get back to the group. While this doesn't bode well for Frank, it does perhaps play into Andy's favor by taking him one step closer to "undisputed leader" status within Saxo Bank. Andy rode a respectable TT and must be still be considered with the rest of the GC favorites.

And finally, did you notice that an Euskaltel rider was involved in just about every crash? They're beginning to remind us of Kelme.

Stage 3 is even flatter than Stage 2. Expect another long, hot day for the riders ending in a sprint. Will Cavendish add to his total? Will Boonen win one for Belgium? And what about Thor and HH from Cervelo?

Share your comments with the rest of us.

Tour de France - Stage 1 Haiku Wrap-up

Haiku reporting.
Small efforts can speak loudest.
Mirrors Stage 1 rides.

Cancellara
Dominating ride.
Could hold yellow for long time.
If team supports him.

Contador
Second is a win.
Team should be his for good now.
Trade dots for yellow?

Evans
Where he wants to be:
Lurking, but can still shadow.
Waiting for mountains.

Kreuziger and Nibali
Have they earned respect?
Maybe they're still dark horses?
Do not ignore them.

Armstrong
Contador beat him.
Kloden and Leipheimer too.
Is 4th worse than 10th?

Menchov
No one’s afraid now.
Lackluster effort at best.
Shooting for stage wins?

Garmin
Four in top twenty.
TTT is theirs to win.
But for Astana.

Stage 2
Bumpy ride today.
But will anyone get dropped?
Hushovd gets the stage.

Please share your comments.

Haikus would be fun to read,
But all thoughts welcome.

Tour de France Preview - 5 "Indefensible" Claims

Sorry Mark, it's not your year...

What would the Tour be without the surprising and unexpected?

Here are Pavé's 5 "Indefensible" Claims for this year's Tour:

1. This year’s Tour will be free of any doping controversy.

Okay, Thomas Dekker and the latest rumors of several more positives might have already debunked this claim, but we’re sticking to our guns: from the Prologue to Paris we’ll have a clean race.

Naive? Perhaps. But while we think the sport is still years away from teams not signing riders they suspect are doped, we have entered a phase (maybe?) where teams at least leave suspected dopes off their rosters for the sport’s biggest races. Teams just don't seem willing to take the risk of having a rider test positive at events on a world stage anymore. The UCI's Biological Passport makes it easier for them to make educated guesses, and this year could be the first where the results—or lack thereof—speak for themselves.

2. Mark Cavendish will win one individual stage and one stage only.

This year, Mark Cavendish won’t find it as easy as it was last year to win sprint stages. The reason?

Well, its initials are TB, it now wears a tri-color jersey, and it likes rocks…er…stones…um…cobbles.

Tom Boonen’s back, ladies and gentlemen, and he’s ready to show the world that he’s still one of the fastest men in the world—on a bike. But it’s too simple to say just one rider’s presence is enough to thwart Cavendish’s bid for sprint dominance. And it isn’t.

Last year, Cavendish came to the race with everyone thinking he would win a stage, but not certain as to how many. This year he arrives with the pressure of repeating and perhaps surpassing his indomitable performance.

The parcours also does him no favors. The mountains come a bit earlier than in years past, and Cavendish could struggle to make it over them while maintaining his sprint speed. He'll also miss the presence of Marcus Burghardt, one of his most trusted lead-out men.

Plus, there’s the chance factor. Crashes, mechanicals, and blown lead-outs all factor into even the best sprinters’ plans from time to time. Cavendish might not get away so easily this time around.

3. French riders or riders from French teams will win more stages than any other country, making it a banner year for the “home équipe”.

It’s become apparent that we could have used Mad Libs to preview the 5 French teams in this year’s Tour. Here’s what they have in common: few serious GC candidates; no top-tier field sprinters capable of seriously threatening Boonen, Cavendish, Hushovd, and the like; and no climbers able to stay with the GC favorites in the mountains on a consistent basis.

We wish no disrespect for these teams; it’s just the reality of the situation right now. But it does mean—as we’ve been saying all week—that these teams come to the Tour with rosters full of men eager to attack, animate, and make the race aggressive as possible—particularly on days when the GC teams would be more content to just ride doucement.

This year, riders like Roman Feillu, Vladimir Efimkin, Thomas Voeckler, David Moncoutié, Yauheni Hutarovich, and the like will launch themselves off the front of every stage, gunning for victory. The odds will be in their favor on several stages.

Thus, with so many talented opportunists and so much to gain, we predict a banner year for French riders and French teams. If the 2009 Tour goes down as one of the most exciting in history, it won't only be due to the over-abundance of GC favorites (those battles are always exciting, regardless of the year), it will be due to the efforts of men like these.

And we'll all be saying, merci!

4. Lance Armstrong Won’t Finish the Race.

This claim has more to do with luck and less to do with fitness. Throughout his 7 Tour de France wins, Lance’s ability to avoid mishaps has been surprisingly underrated. While it’s certainly not as important as his other race-winning attributes, it must warrant consideration.

However, this year, Lance’s string of good luck seems to be coming to an end. He’s crashed. He’s broken a collarbone. He almost fell afoul of the UCI/WADA on an out of competition drug-testing technicality. His team almost lost its sponsorship a month before the race and comes to the the Tour with two leaders. And now, there's rumors he might leave all together when the race ends.

One will never know just how much this weigh’s on Lance; he’s a master at keeping his emotions veiled. But it can certainly be specualted--maybe even assumed--that this has not been the ideal build-up for the 37-year old's comeback bid.

The constellations don’t appear to be aligning in the way they used to for Big Tex. Sometime during the second week, he’ll make his exit. Then he’ll announce the creation of his new Bruyneel-led team and tell Vino to go BLEEP-himself.

And a whole new era begins.

5. Roman Kreuzinger will win the 2009 Tour de France.

A year too soon? Perhaps.

Too many other favorites? Maybe.

But while those are two compelling arguments against the claim, the list ends there. Kreuzinger’s won some pretty big races against some top competition in his young career. He’s finished well in the Tour and comes to the race this year with a better idea of what to expect. He also has a solid team behind him of capable riders able to support him in the race’s difficult moments.

But the biggest thing going for him might just be the two things working against him. The fact that no one seems to consider him a serious contender for the win—this year—could enable him to pull a surprise. Maybe he has a stellar Prologue, losing only seconds to the bigger GC favorites. Maybe he rides away from the lead group and gains some time in the Pyrenees because the “bigger” favorites are too busy looking at one another’s poker faces. Maybe he attacks and takes yellow in the Alps, defends it in the ITT, and then lets it all hang-out on Ventoux to take the jersey to Paris.

Stranger things have happened.

No matter what happens though, this year's race is a sure bet to be one of the most exciting in years. We hope you'll come back often for reports, opinions (no matter how outrageous), and more.

And please, share your thoughts with the rest of us below.

And for 5 more bold predictions, check-out our friends at Euro Peloton.

Tour de France Preview - Les Équipes du Tour - Part Quatre

Here's the fourth and final installment in Pavé's "Les Équipes du Tour" Preview. If you missed them, you can read Part Une here, Part Deux here, and Part Trois here.

Keep coming back for more coverage, predictions, and reactions to events as they unfold at le Grand Boucle. We promise daily coverage of all that happens.

Tomorrow, we'll be making 5 Indefensible Claims about this year's race--be sure to check it out!

Now back to the Preview:

Saxo Bank
It would be a serious mistake not to consider Andy Schleck a top favorite for this year’s Tour de France. Thanks to Carlos Sastre’s departure and his brother Frank's injury in the Amstel Gold Race, Andy should go into this year’s Tour with the full team at his disposal. Whether he will or not remains a big question as the Tour begins.

Saxo takes the start in Monaco with one of the most well-rounded teams in the race. Lacking only a field sprinter, the team is built for controlling things for whomever it deems its GC leader. Fabian Cancellara, Jens Voigt, Stuart O’Grady, and Kurt-Asle Arvesen are rouleurs who will help Saxo finish near the top of TTT and control things on flatter roads. And speaking of Spartacus, he’s showed tremendous form as of late, winning the Tour de Suisse and the Swiss National Championship--in the road race. Clearly anything but yellow in the Prologue will be a disappointment for Cancellara, and the team will quickly need to decide how long it wishes to defend his maillot jaune. The other three will also have their chances for breakaway stage wins once the GC scene gets a bit more settled; they’ve all had Tour stage success in the past.

The best thing about Saxo’s rouleurs is their ability to set the pace in the mountains. It's not strange to see riders like Cancellara and Voigt riding men off the back of the GC group when things get steep. And if they can’t, Saxo has talent like Gustav Larsson, Chris Anker Sørensen and Nicki Sørensen to help in the mountains. Anker Sørensen’s riding his first Tour, and is a rider to watch for the future.

The wild card is Frank Schleck. His status needs to be assessed quickly so as not to compromise the team’s chances for GC success. If he’s injured, he should be used as a decoy early, attacking when he can to tire the legs of other teams. If healthy and his brother can play off one another in the Alps to try and crack the competition (and hopefully not each other).

All in all, it should be another banner year for Bjarne Rijs and his team. With a talented roster, stage wins should be plentiful. But for the GC it will all come down to the two men with the same last name—and no, we don’t mean the Sørensen’s.

Silence-Lotto
Cadel Evans comes to the Tour a bit more relaxed this year as at least some of the weight of being "Top Favorite" has passed from him to other riders. For Evans, a rider with a penchant for cracking under pressure, this is a very good thing. At least in the early stages, Cadel and his team should ride free of the burden of controlling race, content to sit back and let others set the pace when things matter most. Evans is not as talented as Contador, Armstrong, and maybe even Andy Schleck; he’ll need to be consistent and look to capitalize on his competitors' bad moments--if they have them. That said, he can win this race. Some good TT’s and a well-timed attack or two could put him in yellow. Then the pressure's on to keep it.

More importantly, this year Evans seems to have a team behind him more committed than ever to getting him to Paris on the top step of the podium. Gone are the days of splitting the team between Evans’ GC hopes and Robbie McEwen’s stage and Green Jersey aspirations. Yes, Greg Van Avermaet is there, but he’s a rouleur able to help the team when asked, while still mixing it up for a stage here and there (but not enough to warrant a full complement of riders to form a lead-out train).

Thomas Dekker was planning to take the line hoping to prove the glimpses of talent he’s showed in the past weren’t anomalies. He could have been Evans’ greatest ally when the race hit the mountains. Alas, he’s been left-off the squad (and now fired) following a 2007 positive test for a form of EPO. He’s been replaced by Charly Wegelius, an adequate and less temperamental substitute. Wegelius and Matthew Lloyd will be two of Evans' most important assistants in the mountains. And let’s not forget Belgian Super Domestiques Johan Vansummeren and Jurgen Van den Broeck, two riders capable of setting searing paces on the flats and ascents respectively.

In the end though, it will all come down to Evans. If he can exploit the other teams’ weaknesses, particularly the potential rivalries within some of those teams (Astana in particular), he can certainly take home his first win. And if he does, he will have accomplished it when all the greatest riders of his generation were present. That’s quite an achievement.

Skil-Shimano
In many ways, Skil-Shimano is like a French team. The Dutch Wild Card team comes to its first Tour with a diverse roster of men hoping to gain exposure and stage wins. Frenchmen Jonathan Hivert and Cyril Lemoine will try for victory on their home turf, while Fumiyuki Beppu seeks to become the first rider from Japan to win a Tour stage. That said, the team's biggest chance for success comes from Kenny Van Hummel. Van Hummel won the Four Days of Dunkirk this year and finished 2nd in last week’s Dutch Championship. It won’t be a surprise if he leaves France with a stage or two and possibly a fat new contract to ride for a Pro Tour team in 2010.

BBox Bouygues Telecom
We would have previewed BBox’s Tour team on Monday, but its roster wasn’t finalized at the time. Like many of its compatriots, BBox comes to the Tour seeking stage glory. Thomas Voeckler still remembers the year he took yellow in the first week and fought savagely to keep the jersey longer than anyone expected. He’s always capable of a similar exploit.

Pierrick Fedrigo won this year’s Dauphiné stage into Briançon. He’s a rider capable of winning from a mountain breakaway, and could be one to watch on Ventoux if a break is given some latitude by the rest of the GC contenders. Laurent Lefèvre and Yuri Trofimov are riders with similar tendencies, while the youthful Pierre Roland has been tipped as the next French climbing sensation. Finally, it should be noted that BBox is one of 2 teams with a Japanese rider as Yukiya Arashiro joins Skil-Shimano’s Fumiyuki Beppu in his attempt to become the first Tour stage winner from Japan.

Caisse d’Epargne
Like BBox, Caisse d’Epargne’s roster wasn’t finished when we went to post, so we’re covering them now.

Caisse d’Epargne comes to the Tour for the first time in recent memory without Alejandro Valverde. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Not to be harsh, but Valverde has failed to show an ability to succeed in the pressure-cooker of the Tour. He’s much more suited to the hillier classics, shorter stage races, and the Vuelta.

Without him, Caisse d’Epargne will rely on Luis León Sanchez for its GC aspirations; the team might be very pleasantly surprised. León Sanchez has been winning major races for a while now and has only been prevented from full-blown stardom by having to ride for Valverde. Now he has the team fully at his own disposal and could make them forget about Valverde’s absence. He can climb, he can time trial, and he possesses a killer instinct that could see him put a bit of fear in the eyes of the bigger favorites. A Top-10 is a distinct possibility; a Top-5 woul be a surprise to some, but not for us.

León Sanchez has a talented roster of riders behind him including David Arroyo and Ivan Gutiérrez. More importantly, he has the experienced Oscar Pereiro to guide him through the tricky business of leading a team in the biggest race in the world. Overall, it could be a pleasantly surprising July for Caisse d’Epargne—unless your initials are “AV”.


That's it for the first annual Pavé Team-by-Team preview of this year's Tour contenders.

Who did we miss? Where did we over- or under-hype?

Share your comments with the rest of us--and come back tomorrow for more!