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11 July 2006

12 July News ...

Rest Day: Lorient to Bordeaux

It is rest day in Bordeaux and what a Tour de France it has been so far: Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, along with the whole Astaná-Würth team, was given the boot prior to the start; three of the stage sprints dominated by Robbie McEwen; Boonen traded his rainbow jersey for the Maillot Jaune; and there have been two wins in nine days by the French.

The big GC shake-up day was Sunday's time trial to Rennes; T-Mobile showed their cards by placing most all of their men on the top of the leader board, with Serhiy Honchar leading the way by winning the crono and taking the Maillot Jaune. No one expects Honchar to go all the way to Paris in yellow and eyes are floating down the GC list for other favorites.

The big name is Floyd Landis, who is perfectly placed before the start of the mountains, 2nd at 1'00". No-Fuss put in a flying crono ride that could only be topped by Honchar and he has a Phonak team that still has all of their riders. Phonak looks ready to defend an overall bid by Landis, in comparison to Discovery Channel, who still doesn't have a clear leader.

Il Falco Bergamasco, Savoldelli, surprised many when he rode the crono parcours thirty seconds faster than teammate, George Hincapie. Hincapie really should have done better and we now think that the team leadership will shift to Savoldelli. But be aware, with Yaroslav Popovych, Savoldelli and Hincapie all are wanting to do well in the GC. The team looks set for back-stabbing.

Another rider BiciRace.com is watching is Cadel Evans. The Davitamon-Lotto put down a great crono ride and should be able to launch offensives in the mountains. Make no mistake, Evans can win this wide open Tour but exactly how much energy has the team spent on achieving McEwen's three wins?

But who cares about cycling? The World Cup football match was held last night in Germany between Italia and France and there was no better place to watch the match than the Tour de France pressroom. Every cycling journalist turned into a football nut for a few hours when the organizers switched the large TV, normally devoted to cycling footage, over to the final.

The World Cup went into a kick-off, where the Italians prevailed which was followed by every Italia-loving journalist running mad. It was a long night considering the 500 kilometer drive that most of us had to do on the following rest day. Now, with the World Cup over, we can begin with some serious Tour de France action... Viva il Tour!

Honchar Relaxes in Yellow

Serhiy Honchar (T-Mobile) relaxed over the rest day knowing that he is the leader of the world's biggest bike race: The Tour de France. The Ukrainian took the yellow jersey from Belgian Tom Boonen last Saturday over the 52K time trial and he is likely to take the jersey into the first mountains of the Tour.

"I am not thinking of how many days. I am content just to be in the jersey," said Honchar when asked how long he thought he would maintain the Maillot Jaune. "I will go forward and see how it goes. It is just so special to have the jersey on my back."

How do you feel, like the leader of the Tour de France? "It is quite a dream," Honchar continued. "It is a dream for any rider to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour. I don't know if I feel like the Tour's leader and I would be happy even with one day in the leader's jersey.

"The Tour is completely different than the Giro, there is so much more pressure here in France. It is the larger race and important to have the leader's jersey. My teammate Guerini knows the mountains well; they are not like in the Giro, not as steep."

The 36 year-old Ukrainian is enjoying being in yellow... "I have received a bunch of yellow jerseys from the organization. I received a lot of complements from my old friends and family, all of whom have supported me through the years, they will be gifted some of these jerseys. But the first one will go to my girl who has a collection of all my jerseys. [Laughs.]"

T-Mobile is only one week past the big Ullrich/Sevilla scandal and they seem as strong as ever. Six of their seven riders are in the top 20 of the classification, not bad for a team that is without their big general classification leader. Over the first two Pyreneen stages it will be determined which T-Mobile man will take the team leadership, likely to go to Aussie Michael Rogers.

"I still feel bad about the Ullrich situation. I am really in shock to be here without a leader," said Honchar on losing Jan Ullrich. "I will ride on in this Tour, trying to have a good race. After the Tour we will see what happens with Jan and the team. I don't know you have to ask them [looking towards the T-Mobile press officer and team manager, Olaf Ludwig.]

CSC Confronts Tour Unified

"We have about 45 minutes. I was hoping to have Bjarne here but he is having difficulties coming out of Berlin on his flight." These were the words of Brian Nygaard, Team CSC Press Manager, before the start of the team's rest day press conference. Team Manager, Bjarne Riis, could not make the conference, he was away with his two sons on a trip to see the World Cup football final in Germany but all seven of the team's riders and Team DS, Kim Andersen were present.

What impressed BiciRace.com was the unified front the team presented in the conference. It is only one week after Ivan Basso was not allowed to start the Tour under a cloud of the Doctor Fuentes controversy and the team could not seem any more normal. During the course of the conference each rider jumped in to answer questions even when they were not called upon, eager to express their feelings before the Tour restarts.

"It has been a tough first week," explained Kim Andersen, Team DS. "We still have 7 guys in the team who are motivated to go on... The real Tour is starting now. ... We had a good crono and Carlos [Sastre] showed what a good ride he is capable of. We are ready to do something and fight for it."

The team has tried to conserve energy in the first week, only sending Voigt and Zabriskie up the road when they really thought there was a chance of an escape staying clear. "We did not want to put a rider in the break just to be there, if we were going to go in an escape then we were going for the win."

Talkative Jens Voigt added, "There were only two days that we saw that would suit a break, the day to Valkenburg and yesterday [stage 8], the other days were quite simply a flat, sprinter's day. All we can do is save energy and go for the better days. There is no use for us to be in the escapes just to make a show."

The team seems torn between riding fully behind Carlos Sastre for the classification and for going for stage wins. Anderson explained, "For some stages we will look for a stage win, we have a rider for that. We also have a leader and we will try to protect him as much as we can. We don't have too much pressure on Carlos but we will do the best we can."

Carlos Sastre may never again have a chance to race for the Tour de France classification with such a strong team. The CSC machine was designed to help Ivan Basso achieve Tour success, after conquering the Giro d'Italia, and now it is there to support Sastre, who showed his abilities with third overall in last year's Vuelta a España.

"I feel like I did at the start of the Tour, I still feel calm and relaxed after the seven days. I feel ready," said Sastre in near perfect English. "We will now see what we can do in the next week. We are still a team and we will do our best. The team is motivated and that is important. In the Alps if I have one opportunity then I will take that opportunity."

Can you make it on the podium? "I don't know. We still lack two hard weeks. Nothing is finished in this Tour de France. We have a lot of goals, stages and GC."

The Danish squadra could not escape without questions about their former Tour leader, Ivan Basso. A week has passed and Ivan Basso is home in Italy preparing his legal case for the impending court battle. The riders are trying their best to focus on the Tour for the sake of their personal goals and the sponsors of the team.

"The day before the Tour the news broke and it caused big chaos," said Voigt. "No one knew what to do, we were still here but we had to go on."

Anderson added, "Sure we can think of Basso but now we need to concentrate on our Tour for the next two weeks."

"I am the same person," added Sastre regarding the loss of Basso. "My goal was to be ready for this race. So this is a thing that happened from the outside I am not responsible. I will do my best and focus on myself, which is all I can do."

Giovanni Lombardi, perhaps the quietest CSC member during the conference responded when asked, "I have spoken with him [Basso] on everything that has happened but he is my friend... Ivan is training every day and wants to come back. He is still happy... He wants to race." You are a close friend of Basso. Do you know the name of his dog? "I am a friend of Ivan. I don't know what the name of his dog is and this is not my business."

On the list of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes' patients each rider was referred to by a code name. Jan Ullrich was referred to as "Hijo Rudicio" (or Son of Rudy) and supposedly the name of Ivan Basso's dog, "Birillo", was the link to the Giro d'Italia winner.

"Genie is the name of my dog, and I have two guinea pigs, they are named Emma and Lilly," injected Voigt jokingly. We really love the liveliness of the German. Jens, thanks for keeping a serious situation funny.

Brian Nygaard gave the facts, "Basso is training and talking to a lawyer who is preparing for his case. The last we heard from the UCI is that they will split the files of the riders separately and then send them out simultaneously. It will be up to the national federations to deal with their riders as they wish."

But back to Voigt, the German lost his close friend and teammate, Bobby Julich, when the American crashed in Saturday's time trial. Who are you now rooming with? "I am now with young Frankie here," said Voigt while leaning towards Fränk Schleck. The Luxembourg rider is in his first Tour de France and learning the ropes from one of the most experienced professionals in the game.

"I am trying to show him how to use 'the force.'", Voigt continued. "I have been talking to Bobby and he is in lots of pain. The first night I was alone staring at the wall and that was no fun. Now I have Franky and we are having fun. We roomed together at the Classics and we get along well."

So the team that has Apocalypse Now style boot camps in the cold of the winter is holding together despite the loss of Basso under negative circumstances.

"The whole mission is that you have what you have been given and you have to make it to the finish line as fast as possible," said American Christian Vande Velde. "We have Carlos and he is a good possibility of the Tour. But comparing the Tour to the survival camps... I don't know... There are no boats or tents, yet..."

Landis Considers Hip Replacement

American Floyd Landis announced during the Tour de France rest day that he will undergo hip replacement surgery in the near future.

"I don't know how long I can go in my career with this problem" said Landis of Phonak who sits second overall, just a minute behind Honchar. "I don't want to leave the sport now because I am enjoying it so much."

"I have not fixed a date for surgery." Landis, who injured his hip in late 2002 while training near his home in California, indicated that surgery could be this year end or perhaps at the end of 2007.

"I take pride in staying on my bike but that time I went down. I knew something was wrong but I did not want to admit it," said the American of the accident.

Three surgeries later, the American is still not perfect. Doctors said they will need to ensure proper blood flow to the damaged area to prevent further deterioration, and that it will be likely Landis will need to have a hip replacement surgery.

Landis' personal doctor was present at the press conference and indicated that a successful return to cycling after such surgery would be possible, pointing to amateur cyclists that have had the same operation.

"This is why I have my special time trial setup," pointed out Landis. "The pain is the worst when I am out of the saddle, leaning forward on steep climbs. ... Right now I am riding at 100% of what I am capable of doing."

For now Landis will continue as normal, with the same hip that brought him wins this year in the Tour of California, the Tour of Georgia and the Paris-Nice. Even with the bad hip, Landis is our pick for yellow in Paris.

Zabriskie Comments on Landis

"I have been sending him information on hip problems anytime I find something on the internet," said David Zabriskie (Team CSC) regarding the hip problems of Floyd Landis.

Zabriskie, close friend of Landis, thinks that the pain might be more than is being revealed. "For him to say this it must be really hurting, he is so tough. ... He was brought up with such a hard work ethic and I think that this helps him a lot."

Last year, Zabriskie had heard Landis complain of his pains, "I know that last year he had troubles sleeping, and as tough as the Tour is that is not a good thing."

Vande Velde Comments on Leipheimer

"Levi has really helped me turn my riding around for this good season," said Christian Vande Velde (Team CSC) during the rest day in Bordeaux. The American was concerned when he caught and passed his friend, Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner), in Saturday's time trial.

"I saw him after the stage and he said his electrolytes were out of whack," continued Vande Velde. "I did not even want to look over at him when I passed... Maybe he was pushing too big of a gear."

The boys both live and train in the same Spanish city of Girona, where they have been preparing for this Tour. "They say it is always better to train with someone stronger than you. I have been chasing a little blue speck in the mountains for the past months."

93rd Tour de France - presented by , 1 - 23 July
Main, Startlist, Classifications, Tour Favorites, Team CSC versus T-Mobile
Stages and Maps, Key Stages, Overall Map
Photos, The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
Simoni and Saunier Duval-Prodir Updates
2005 Results

10 July News ...