Digression: bit of a disappointment for us Schlecklanders, there won't be a Schleck in sight. Leelu will probably enjoy it, though, as Mr Orange Head is in it: but he doesn't have Lucky Number 6, that's gone to Davide Vigano, with Brice Feillu taking number one.
Interestingly - well, to me at any rate - Team Leopard have very nearly gone in alphabetical order:
| 101 | FEILLU Brice | FRA |
| 102 | KLEMME Dominic | GER |
| 103 | ROHREGGER Thomas | AUT |
| 104 | STAMSNIJDER Tom | NED |
| 105 | PIRES Bruno | POR |
| 106 | VIGANO Davide | ITA |
| 107 | WEGMANN Fabian | GER |
| 108 | WEYLANDT Wouter | BEL |
| 109 | ZAUGG Oliver | SUI |
If they'd just put Bruno at 103, it would have been perfect.... of course, poor Daniele Bennati was supposed to be in it, but he's out of action for a while longer yet.
Anyway, back to Turkey: with no Leopard, and no Sky, I decided to support SPIDERTECH!! for the race, yay for Svein Tuft.
In case you haven't seen them, this is Team Spidertech in their kit: quite nice, raglan shoulders in THAT shade of blue, white fronts and backs, fading into grey at waist level: black "nappy" style shorts with white legs.
Fairly easy to spot in the peloton, but from the back you can't see the blue shoulders, so in my opinion, they should have put a band of blue across their backsides.
Honestly, what amateurs design these kits? Not just Spidertech's, I mean all of them: I'm getting tired of hearing the commentators grizzling on about how hard it is to tell the teams apart. You'd think that whoever designs the kits would, at the very least, have SEEN a race, and been aware of the common angles from which they are viewed. At least Garmin had the sense to change their hat colour from blue and white to plain blue on top, so that from the front, we can pick them out....
Right, end of moan.
Hilariously, and this never stopped being funny, in this race, the peloton is called the "Bunch". Every time the graphic came up, there was some sniggering from my side of the sofa. I mean, bunch? When there is a perfectly good word for it? Peloton, guys, peloton! But no, Turkey insist that it is the Bunch. Well, they can call it what they like, it's a peloton to me.
Day 1: with 17kms to go SaxoBlank decide to have a go, and one of their guys peels off the front. Oh no! An old boy with a flat cap decides, at exactly that moment, to stroll across the road in front of them. Luckily they all avoid him.
Is Guardini really Cav, in disguise? Surely not.
Suddenly, cries of "Oh no, an accident on the finish line?" There's a sudden cluster of high-vis bibs, is it the paramedics? Oh, it's ok, it's just Farnese gathering for a team photo.
Day 2: coverage was due to start at one o'clock, so at 12.30 we turned on the TV. It was already running! Grrrrr.
Much confusion today, the leader's jersey in this race is blue: yes, THAT shade of blue. This made the leader pretty much indistinguishable from NetApp, Liquigas, Spidertech ("Yay!") Astana and Colgano.
Honestly, the Pro-Continental teams have just the same problem as the Pro-Teams. I really think the UCI should consider making someone responsible for being an Information Point for team kit. Not any sort of ruling, just a central place where teams can log a picture of their kit, updating it as soon as it's changed, so that teams thinking of changing kits can see what's already out there and maybe can slightly amend their designs before they go to print, as it were. Just a thought.
The commentators were talking about yesterday, and a bit of a scandal when Petacchi of Lampre hit a Francais de Jour rider just as they approached the finish line. Do they have footage? Yup. OK, let's have a look then. Ouch! That was a full-on closed fist thump, swinging the arm downwards with some speed. Yes, we all know cyclists have spindly arms compared to, say, boxers, but still, that was quite a thump. "He's been sent to the Naughty Step" said Carlton Kirby. Is he reading the blog as well? "And was given a one minute penalty." Quite right, too.
Once again we admired Garmin's blue hats, makes them so much easier to spot - oh dear, what's happened to that one? Garmin 5 (Travis Meyer) hits the deck, very hard. Ouch. He now has his backside hanging out, and a big rip in his chest. But he gets back on his bike, and spends the rest of the race being very, very safe, right at the back. And who could blame him.
Oh! Someone said "Andy Schleck"! Ah, the commentators are talking about the time that OGL took a turn carrying water bottles during the TdF. Huh, we thought that was a good thing, showing that OGL is not a prima donna, but the commentators think that he was wasting his energy. Well, I guess they are entitled to their opinions.
This stage ended in what would have been an exciting sprint finish except that hardly anyone had race numbers visible, which led to some confusion. Someone from Astana won.
Day 3: With 2km to go, the commentator said "Svein Tuft is leading them on!" Yay, go Svein!
Day 4: (yes, that's all that happened in Day 3) our coverage came in with 45kms to go, and a 31 minute gap! How on earth did that happen? There was a leading group of 8 or so, then 45 seconds to the chasing group, and everyone else half an hour behind. No point looking at them, then. Let's see what the chasing group are up to. Someone's gone off the front! It's SVEIN TUFT again, haah hahh hahhah, go Svein! He bridges to the leading group, but by the time he gets there, someone has gone off the front, so he's still in a chasing group, but well done Svein!
At this point Carlton Kirby says "Welcome to the plentiful viewers tuning in from Oz" so there is a chorus of "Hi, Leelu!" from the sofa. And some strange noises from the koala bear and the KangERoos, presumably they are also saying Hi Leelu.
We're now at 26km to go, the rain has stopped, and Svein Tuft has peeled off the chasing group and is alone in pursuit of Fouchard, who is leading. Svein catches Fouchard! What a great day for Spidertech. Svein hasn't shaved today, but this doesn't seem to be slowing him down. He and Fouchard are working together now, and have just over a minute on the chasing group. Probably not enough to win the stage, but plenty enough to make their sponsors very happy.
Fouchard takes a sticky jacket from his team car. Svein pedals on. Fouchard takes a sticky bottle from the team car. Svein pedals on. The camera bike is watching every move. Fouchard throws away his old (non-sticky) bottle, which rebounds off a wall and hits the camera bike - splat! Water everywhere! Much laughter from the sofa, but the commentators don't seem to have seen it.
8kms and although Fouchard and Svein are still leading, they are definitely going to be caught. Just as the chasing group approaches them, the coverage suddenly changes to a replay of the water bottle hitting the wall incident. This time the commentators see it, much laughter.
Fouchard kicks! Svein goes too! NetApps shoots past, but Petacchi gets it on the line. Never mind, Svein, good try, excellent TV break, and it shows what Tuftage - and getting a mention on this blog - can do for a rider.
Day 5: As always, the coverage starts with a lovely travelogue of the most beautiful shots of Turkey: romantic couples, mountains, elegant dining, sunsets: then we cut to the footage - oh look, they're going through an industrial estate. Bit of a contrast.
Today we were treated to a very arty shot of a tortoise thinking about crossing the road, just as the peloton swept past. Don't do it, little fella!
Spidertech were in the breakaway, yay! which at 16km had an 8 minute gap, and the peloton were cruising along in a leisurely manner, as though it were a Sunday club outing. At 4km to go, and a gap of 12 minutes, they were still admiring the scenery (of the industrial estates, no doubt) and chatting amongst themselves, oblivious of the exciting sprint finish we had up front. And Farnese did it again!
Day 6: our coverage started with just 17km to go. Was it worth it? Actually, no, as nothing whatsoever happened.
Day 7: with 46km to go, Garmin have split the bunch using the "wind" technique that Sky seem to have invented earlier this year. You know, wait for a bit with a good sidewind, then stretch them out until the peloton breaks. There was quite a lot of elbowing and naughty temper in the back bunch, but I suppose at this stage of a Tour, people are tired and tempers are getting short.
I took a close look at Garmin, pulling on the front, and look! One of them has his sleeves tucked up! It's not Johan Van Summeren, he's not in this race - who could it be? Is it a trend? A fashion statement? Does he read this blog and is he now hoping to win his next race? Well, duh, I'm sure that he IS hoping to win his next race, you know what I mean. Will the Magic of Schleckland find a new winner? I'm pretty sure it was Van Marek, so look out for him in the near future and remember, you read it here first!
Lovely camera bike shot of the Caja Rural car, with the mechanic sitting in the back seat mending a puncture while they were driving. I have always wondered about that! I mean, there are only so many wheels that you can get onto a car, and what if they used them all up? Also, what do they do with the punctured wheels, does the back of the car end up a tangled mess of greasy, dirty wheels? Now I know: in the smaller teams, at least, they sit there and fix them. Or maybe Caja Rural, being a small team, only had one spare wheel?
Anyway, it was another sprint finish, and Farnese pinged out from nowhere again and won the stage, which they deserved.
So, that was the end of the Tour of Turkey - not the most fascinating of races, lots of very samey stages, and of course none of our favourites were in it, but still enjoyable.
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