More reports in the news today about Stinkoff: they are parting company with their sponsor, Mr Tinkov, owner of Tinkoff Bank.
I mentioned the other day that they were having difficulties with their negotiations, and I commented on the strange similarity between Mr Tinkov and Mr Becca: both rich, both wanting to sponsor cycling because "they like it" rather than as a business deal: both failing to understand some of the basic elements of cycling, both failing to understand the difference between sponsorship and investment, and both assuming that they can stick their big noses into the way the team is run, not realising that sponsorship is different from ownership.
So, Uncle Bjarne has proved himself to be a man by calling a halt to the negotiations - go, Bjarne! Do you know, I am starting to like him again.
The report today throws up some interesting angles to the affair - I didn't realise that Mr Tinkov has had his fingers in several other, lower level, cycling teams, all of which have come to sticky ends.
Lovely quote from the article:
"Tyler
Hamilton also rode on the team [Mr Tinkov's 2007/8 conti team] and said last year that he was told
doping was allowed; Tinkov denied this as being the case."
Well, he would, wouldn't he? But this does shed an interesting light on Uncle Bjarne's comment:
“Most importantly, we disagree on how the team should be run.”
Without doping, possibly?
There was also an unbelievable reference to Mr Tinkov and his tweets: I rarely go on Twitter so I haven't read any of them myself, but the report states:
"Tinkov’s Twitter account gathered a lot of attention during the Tour, and not only because of his tweets about the team. The Russian got into abrasive exchanges with several people, using sexist, misogynistic and homophobic language, and also said that he considered that the team’s leader Alberto Contador was overpaid and undertrained."
OK, now I'm feeling sorry for Contador. Talk about "wash your dirty linen in public", blimey, this rates up there with Mr Becca and RadioShambles with their approach to motivating the team.
I know that pro cycling is desperate for more sponsors, but I think the line has to be drawn at rich individuals, don't you? They just don't understand how cycling works - it is different from every other sport, not least in being one that cannot be funded by ticket sales in any way whatsoever, unfortunately. Well, fortunately, for us, as it's one of the very few sports where you can just go along and watch it for free, anywhere you like, and where you can (if you wish) get really close to the participants at starts and finishes.
So good luck to Uncle Bjarne, yar boo sucks to Mr Tinkov, and a clear warning to all of the peloton - don't go to his new, alleged 5-year-commitment team (if he ever gets it off the ground) or you will find yourself in the same position as our Leopards: failure to produce big wins immediately will mean he pulls out after a year or two, fails to pay you, flogs you off to some other team, then continues to interfere for as long as he possible can, undermining the confidence of his riders and quite possibly ruining their futures as well - and by that I am referring to the Mr-Becca-driven stance of RadioShambles, to sack Frankie 10 days before the end of his ban, thus making it look as though they suddenly believe him guilty of doping.
Friday 26 July 2013
Tuesday 23 July 2013
*singing* "We're Trekking, we're at the Tour de France!"
OK, we're not at the Tour de France any more, but we - or rather, Our Glorious Leader - came 20th, which means UCI points, yay! - and we are definitely going to be Trekking next year.
Hooray for Trek, it's been confirmed today that both Andy and Frankie have signed for the new Trek set-up, along with Fabian.
Andy confirmed that it will mean new jerseys - so yes, we can speculate about those for the rest of the year, and we can beam thought-waves to the Trek design team: all together now *face of concentration* b-l-a-c-k---s-h-o-r-t-s....
This is excellent news, and I am already looking forward to the new season, even though this one still has the Tour de Inflatabubbles (also known as the Tour of Poland) and the Zombie Town Tour (Vuelta) to go, along with a few shitsmall races and the Tour of Britain (which is, I have to say, with due respect to the country in which I live, a shitsmall race).
The only sad part about the whole shebang is that we will be losing the Leopard True Racing logo, the underlined O, meaning that my work shirts (back views, right) are all going to be out of date.
Mind you, LLB says that wearing "old" kit shows that you are long term fan, not just a fly-by-night newbie. Wonder if he's trying to cheer me up by saying that, though?
Presumably the new kit will have a prominent Trek logo on it: do we all know what that looks like? (left)
And their house colours appear to be, err, red silver and black. Umm, that's a bit close to RadioShambles colours... but let's hope they go to a decent design team, eh?
Other news: well, Britain won the Tour AGAIN!!!! for the second year running, and with a much nicer bloke. I will admit to shedding a couple of tears at the podium ceremony - well, Froome was crying, why couldn't I? The person I felt most sorry for was Michelle, his fiancee: there she was, watching him on the podium, with a damned camera up her nose: a most unflattering angle, and she clearly wanted to burst into happy tears, but was trying very, very hard not to do so.
Man of the Night award has to go to Contador - yes, I know this might be a bit of a surprise, but he had been thoroughly defeated, every journalist is making snide remarks about his day being "over", all he got was the crummy Team award - come on, get real, no-one cares about the Team award! - but he stood on the podium with the rest of Stinkoff and he smiled rather sweetly. I was impressed.
Stinkoff are going to be tricky next year, apparently the Russian banker Mr Tinkov, owner of the bank, wants to be the main sponsor so it will be Tinkoff Saxo Bank, which does not roll off the tongue as Stinkoff did. It also has rather scary echoes of Leopard - rich banker as sponsor, wants to take more of an interest in it, wants to boss everyone around by changing the name and sacking a few people: yes, we know where this will end. (Uncle Bjarne being sacked while under investigation and trying to reclaim an unpaid loan: let's hope not, eh?)
Oh, a word of condolence for poor old Cadel Evans, dying like a dog every day, and again, journalists all around writing him off. He did come second in the Giro, remember? Apparently although his contract has another year and a half to go, he's being called in by management to "discuss terms" ie a pay cut. Not good news.
Yesterday we had the shock announcement that Stuey is retiring a year earlier than planned - he wants to go out on a high, and who can blame him? Perhaps he's going to Trek as a DS or a coach? That would be fun.
Talking of coaches, and Orica - or O'Reeka, as Sean Kelly kept calling them - did anyone else laugh as much as I did when their coach got stuck under the finish gantry?
And did anyone else cheer loudly when Jakob came in 7th in the GC? Good boy, Jakob!
So there it is, the Tour is over for another year: perhaps we'll have Andy and Frankie both on the podium, but on even higher steps than last time? Yay!
Hooray for Trek, it's been confirmed today that both Andy and Frankie have signed for the new Trek set-up, along with Fabian.
Andy confirmed that it will mean new jerseys - so yes, we can speculate about those for the rest of the year, and we can beam thought-waves to the Trek design team: all together now *face of concentration* b-l-a-c-k---s-h-o-r-t-s....
This is excellent news, and I am already looking forward to the new season, even though this one still has the Tour de Inflatabubbles (also known as the Tour of Poland) and the Zombie Town Tour (Vuelta) to go, along with a few shitsmall races and the Tour of Britain (which is, I have to say, with due respect to the country in which I live, a shitsmall race).
Mind you, LLB says that wearing "old" kit shows that you are long term fan, not just a fly-by-night newbie. Wonder if he's trying to cheer me up by saying that, though?
Presumably the new kit will have a prominent Trek logo on it: do we all know what that looks like? (left)
And their house colours appear to be, err, red silver and black. Umm, that's a bit close to RadioShambles colours... but let's hope they go to a decent design team, eh?
Other news: well, Britain won the Tour AGAIN!!!! for the second year running, and with a much nicer bloke. I will admit to shedding a couple of tears at the podium ceremony - well, Froome was crying, why couldn't I? The person I felt most sorry for was Michelle, his fiancee: there she was, watching him on the podium, with a damned camera up her nose: a most unflattering angle, and she clearly wanted to burst into happy tears, but was trying very, very hard not to do so.
Man of the Night award has to go to Contador - yes, I know this might be a bit of a surprise, but he had been thoroughly defeated, every journalist is making snide remarks about his day being "over", all he got was the crummy Team award - come on, get real, no-one cares about the Team award! - but he stood on the podium with the rest of Stinkoff and he smiled rather sweetly. I was impressed.
Stinkoff are going to be tricky next year, apparently the Russian banker Mr Tinkov, owner of the bank, wants to be the main sponsor so it will be Tinkoff Saxo Bank, which does not roll off the tongue as Stinkoff did. It also has rather scary echoes of Leopard - rich banker as sponsor, wants to take more of an interest in it, wants to boss everyone around by changing the name and sacking a few people: yes, we know where this will end. (Uncle Bjarne being sacked while under investigation and trying to reclaim an unpaid loan: let's hope not, eh?)
Oh, a word of condolence for poor old Cadel Evans, dying like a dog every day, and again, journalists all around writing him off. He did come second in the Giro, remember? Apparently although his contract has another year and a half to go, he's being called in by management to "discuss terms" ie a pay cut. Not good news.
Yesterday we had the shock announcement that Stuey is retiring a year earlier than planned - he wants to go out on a high, and who can blame him? Perhaps he's going to Trek as a DS or a coach? That would be fun.
Talking of coaches, and Orica - or O'Reeka, as Sean Kelly kept calling them - did anyone else laugh as much as I did when their coach got stuck under the finish gantry?
And did anyone else cheer loudly when Jakob came in 7th in the GC? Good boy, Jakob!
So there it is, the Tour is over for another year: perhaps we'll have Andy and Frankie both on the podium, but on even higher steps than last time? Yay!
Sunday 21 July 2013
le Tour is nearly over - and Andy is doing all right!
Phew, what an exciting few days in the Alpes: Andy hasn't done anything spectacular, but he's been "there or thereabouts", as they say, every day.
LLB and I have just caught up with Friday and Saturday's footage, and I've been pleased to see a few Lux Ensign flags out there again, as they have been sadly missing in the earlier part of the race - but I've been waving my miniature one like a mad thing, to show support.
Incidentally, as an aside, I was quite disgusted to see a youngish woman spectator at the road side along one of the final hills, wearing cycling kit so she was clearly a cycle fan, failing to applaud as the leader sweated up past her.
Call yourself a cycling fan, woman? How can you not applaud the leader? Even if they are not a particular favourite of yours, I do think that whoever is brave and strong enough to get out at the front up a huge hill, well, they deserve to be cheered on. At the Tour of Britain, LLB and I applauded everyone from the first, to the last, so there!
End of aside...
So, back to Andy: he's still in the top 20, at 42mins down, but still top 20, which is pretty damned impressive for someone that is not yet back on form, don't you think? If he hangs on to that for the final day, he will get some UCI points at the end of the race, and therefore more value for next year - talking of which, there was a report from Andy confirming that he is going to the new Trek team ("there will be new jerseys" he said - ooh! ooh! we can speculate about new kit!) and although he didn't mention Frankie, he has said many times in the past that they will only race on the same team.
Fingers crossed that it all works out.
Jensie had a great day yesterday as well, being the lone break leader for so many miles, up so many hills, so well done Jensie, and let's hope that he doesn't retire next year, but sticks around for another year or more - he has said that he won't do another Tour, but with luck he won't retire.
Jakob has also done all right - he's been hanging around close to Frome on every climb (as Andy has been doing, good plan) and is currently sitting at 7th in the GC, which is fabulous, well done Jakob!
Now we only have to wait another 25mins or so for the start of the final day - it's going to be a bit odd, watching a stage at night, as they only other night race I have seen was the TTT prologue at la Vuelta the other year, when it was jolly hot, and they were probably all grateful for a bit of cool night air.
Not sure if it's going to be quite so cool and nice tonight - here in the UK we are being threatened with thunderstorms and lightning, as our heatwave is almost over. The last two days, we've had cloud! Cloud! Grey skies! And nowhere near as hot, despite the news people telling us that it's going to "peak" tomorrow. I assume by that, that they mean peak in temperature, which seems a bit unlikely as it's perceptibly cooler than it's been.
However, this might not necessarily apply to France.... we shall see...in about 15 mins!
LLB and I have just caught up with Friday and Saturday's footage, and I've been pleased to see a few Lux Ensign flags out there again, as they have been sadly missing in the earlier part of the race - but I've been waving my miniature one like a mad thing, to show support.
Incidentally, as an aside, I was quite disgusted to see a youngish woman spectator at the road side along one of the final hills, wearing cycling kit so she was clearly a cycle fan, failing to applaud as the leader sweated up past her.
Call yourself a cycling fan, woman? How can you not applaud the leader? Even if they are not a particular favourite of yours, I do think that whoever is brave and strong enough to get out at the front up a huge hill, well, they deserve to be cheered on. At the Tour of Britain, LLB and I applauded everyone from the first, to the last, so there!
End of aside...
So, back to Andy: he's still in the top 20, at 42mins down, but still top 20, which is pretty damned impressive for someone that is not yet back on form, don't you think? If he hangs on to that for the final day, he will get some UCI points at the end of the race, and therefore more value for next year - talking of which, there was a report from Andy confirming that he is going to the new Trek team ("there will be new jerseys" he said - ooh! ooh! we can speculate about new kit!) and although he didn't mention Frankie, he has said many times in the past that they will only race on the same team.
Fingers crossed that it all works out.
Jensie had a great day yesterday as well, being the lone break leader for so many miles, up so many hills, so well done Jensie, and let's hope that he doesn't retire next year, but sticks around for another year or more - he has said that he won't do another Tour, but with luck he won't retire.
Jakob has also done all right - he's been hanging around close to Frome on every climb (as Andy has been doing, good plan) and is currently sitting at 7th in the GC, which is fabulous, well done Jakob!
Now we only have to wait another 25mins or so for the start of the final day - it's going to be a bit odd, watching a stage at night, as they only other night race I have seen was the TTT prologue at la Vuelta the other year, when it was jolly hot, and they were probably all grateful for a bit of cool night air.
Not sure if it's going to be quite so cool and nice tonight - here in the UK we are being threatened with thunderstorms and lightning, as our heatwave is almost over. The last two days, we've had cloud! Cloud! Grey skies! And nowhere near as hot, despite the news people telling us that it's going to "peak" tomorrow. I assume by that, that they mean peak in temperature, which seems a bit unlikely as it's perceptibly cooler than it's been.
However, this might not necessarily apply to France.... we shall see...in about 15 mins!
Monday 15 July 2013
Mont Ventoux - not as bad as you might think!
Phew, what a scorcher!
We watched this stage in our own personal heatwave - the UK is experiencing "summer" for a couple of days, and we are not used to it! - and golly, it was exciting.
All the expected things occurred - Sky, in yellow, set a good tempo, no-one else did very much, some early breaks went away and were brought back until the "right" combination of breakaway riders assembled, ie no-one within several minutes of Froome. All went well until Pierre Roland, now sporting Polka Dot jersey, shorts, socks, gloves AND hat, tried to join them in order to stand a chance of getting the 50-odd points for the win. He struggled for nearly an hour to catch them, but they kept speeding up, so in the end Europcar came to the front and started pulling them back, in retaliation.
However, this worked in Sky's favour, as they then sat there having a nice easy ride while Europcar did all the work.
Andy, meanwhile, continued to play his clever game of staying close to Froome, ie near the front of the bunch, out of trouble, and able to see what was going on.
The last two days, incidentally, have been Schleck-free days as far as the commentators were concerned - they did not mention him ONCE! Not once! They even failed to mention that Jakob was in the front bunch and came in the top 10 yesterday! huh! *flounces indignantly*
Today, alas, was not to be Andy's great come-back day, as he was soon seen, partway up the Ventoux, going backwards and wobbling into the gutter.
On our coverage, we keep getting really annoying interruptions from some bloke with a microphone, talking over our commentators. Today, he apparently tried to talk to Andy, while he was failing to climb the Ventoux. Huh, not the best time to attempt an interview!
However, although this looked pretty dire, and despite coming in 10 minutes down on the leader, Andy is still in the top 20 in GC, which is pretty impressive.
He may have lost 10 mins or so, but a lot of people lost a lot more - the grupetto came in more than 32 mins down, and one poor soul, Jonathan Hivert of Sojasun, came in a whopping 50 minutes down - more than 20 mins later than the rest! Poor, poor, man - can you imagine the stress of toiling in more than 20 minutes after the bus, all alone, everyone packing up and going home around you, knowing that the podium presentations are long finished, and that some riders might even be back in their hotel rooms, while he is still struggling upwards. Brave, brave, man. And another week of it to go. Mind you, he's not last in the GC - no, that's our dear pet Schlecklander, Svein Tuft!
After the race, Andy tweets: "OK that was not good but its not the end of the world and not the end of the Tour." Good man, Andy! Yes, we would all have liked to see you zooming up the hill, but if it's not to be, well, blimey, you are still in the top 20, after all!
Having just checked the RadioShambles website, they never cease to annoy me: they have a little report on the day, as you would expect, and they have a series of 7 photos: number 3 is "Tony and Lauren at the top" and number 4 is "Andy near the finish line". Andy came in 39th, Gallopin and Didier came in 56th and 57th, very nearly 17 mins down. So why do Shambles put the photos in such an order that they suggest that Andy came in after the other two?
I know it's a small thing, but it just seems to me that Shamble fail to praise, and seek to undermine, at every opportunity. The sooner Trek take over, the better.
Anyway, that's one climbing day done, today we have a rest day, and then a few more climbing days to go, and there is still time for Andy to win a stage, and some UCI points, which might be useful to increase his value and salary for next year.
Yay!
We watched this stage in our own personal heatwave - the UK is experiencing "summer" for a couple of days, and we are not used to it! - and golly, it was exciting.
All the expected things occurred - Sky, in yellow, set a good tempo, no-one else did very much, some early breaks went away and were brought back until the "right" combination of breakaway riders assembled, ie no-one within several minutes of Froome. All went well until Pierre Roland, now sporting Polka Dot jersey, shorts, socks, gloves AND hat, tried to join them in order to stand a chance of getting the 50-odd points for the win. He struggled for nearly an hour to catch them, but they kept speeding up, so in the end Europcar came to the front and started pulling them back, in retaliation.
However, this worked in Sky's favour, as they then sat there having a nice easy ride while Europcar did all the work.
Andy, meanwhile, continued to play his clever game of staying close to Froome, ie near the front of the bunch, out of trouble, and able to see what was going on.
The last two days, incidentally, have been Schleck-free days as far as the commentators were concerned - they did not mention him ONCE! Not once! They even failed to mention that Jakob was in the front bunch and came in the top 10 yesterday! huh! *flounces indignantly*
Today, alas, was not to be Andy's great come-back day, as he was soon seen, partway up the Ventoux, going backwards and wobbling into the gutter.
On our coverage, we keep getting really annoying interruptions from some bloke with a microphone, talking over our commentators. Today, he apparently tried to talk to Andy, while he was failing to climb the Ventoux. Huh, not the best time to attempt an interview!
However, although this looked pretty dire, and despite coming in 10 minutes down on the leader, Andy is still in the top 20 in GC, which is pretty impressive.
He may have lost 10 mins or so, but a lot of people lost a lot more - the grupetto came in more than 32 mins down, and one poor soul, Jonathan Hivert of Sojasun, came in a whopping 50 minutes down - more than 20 mins later than the rest! Poor, poor, man - can you imagine the stress of toiling in more than 20 minutes after the bus, all alone, everyone packing up and going home around you, knowing that the podium presentations are long finished, and that some riders might even be back in their hotel rooms, while he is still struggling upwards. Brave, brave, man. And another week of it to go. Mind you, he's not last in the GC - no, that's our dear pet Schlecklander, Svein Tuft!
After the race, Andy tweets: "OK that was not good but its not the end of the world and not the end of the Tour." Good man, Andy! Yes, we would all have liked to see you zooming up the hill, but if it's not to be, well, blimey, you are still in the top 20, after all!
Having just checked the RadioShambles website, they never cease to annoy me: they have a little report on the day, as you would expect, and they have a series of 7 photos: number 3 is "Tony and Lauren at the top" and number 4 is "Andy near the finish line". Andy came in 39th, Gallopin and Didier came in 56th and 57th, very nearly 17 mins down. So why do Shambles put the photos in such an order that they suggest that Andy came in after the other two?
I know it's a small thing, but it just seems to me that Shamble fail to praise, and seek to undermine, at every opportunity. The sooner Trek take over, the better.
Anyway, that's one climbing day done, today we have a rest day, and then a few more climbing days to go, and there is still time for Andy to win a stage, and some UCI points, which might be useful to increase his value and salary for next year.
Yay!
Thursday 11 July 2013
Blood, Sweat and Urine: ITT
Well, that was a shocker!
Blood: Tony Martin, who deserves some sort of international cycling award, possibly a permanent Combativity jersey - streaked in red would be appropriate - finished the ITT with what turned out to be the winning time, and as he was sat on the ground recovering, you could see the blood seeping through his skinsuit.
Eeeuw!
Sweat: oh, they all did that. Pierre Rolland in polka dots deserves a special mention for struggling valiantly round the course, weighed down by all the red dots on his jersey, socks, handlebar tape etc. He did a fairly bad time, but then by definition the polka-dot jersey is for climbers, not for time trial specialists. Andy, as we know, sweated his way round, and although he came in 123rd, out of 182, at least he rode steadily, didn't fall off, and finished. Yay, Andy!
And Urine? Mark Cavendish was booed all the way, apparently - we didn't see this, as our coverage started later in the day - and had urine thrown over him. Lovely. I don't quite understand what any true cycling fan would think to gain by doing this. Like the tacks-on-the-ground episode, you really can't be a cycling fan if you do things that spoil the sport. In fact, anyone who does such things should go back to football.
Andy did alright in the end: he is still in the top 20, he's sitting at 17th, and is just 8mins 32secs down, which is not bad after what detractors insist on calling a poor TT performance. Personally I think it wasn't that bad: he's done better - in previous Tours, he and Frankie have both been in the top 20 for the ITT, and I don't really see how anyone can call that a poor performance - but he is still coming back from this serious injury.
As discussed on Twitter yesterday afternoon, Andy's conformation is against him, he will never be a top-rank TTist, no matter how often he practises. Fabian can not only touch his toes, he can get his hands flat on the ground. Frankie and Andy cannot quite touch their toes. They have gone as far as "practising stretching" can take them, their bodies just can't make that extra stretch. So they will never achieve the perfect TT position.
I get quite impatient when people outside the sport say "Oh, he really must get out there and practise" as though that's all it took. After how many years in the same team as Fabian, I kinda think they've already had as much coaching and tips and hints as they can make use of, don't you?
Personally, I can't do the splits, and no matter how much I practised, I never could, and never will. I'm just not built that way. Same with horse riding: I could never achieve the perfect "seat" as they call it, because I have a sway back and I cannot get my spine straight and upright, no matter how hard I try. When I lie flat on the ground on my back, I can still get a hand underneath the arch of my back. It's the way I'm built, and there's nothing I can do about it. In the same way (in case you wondered how we had moved from Andy Schleck to my back) Andy and Frankie cannot fold themselves flat in the way that a TT specialist can.
So give them a break!
*waves fists in rage at commentators and people on forums*
They are climbers, and GC specialists, which means they have extraordinary stamina to not just last out three weeks, but to be strongest at the end of the time, rather than shattered and just about making it through the day.
So now what? Andy says that he's looking for a stage win, so fingers crossed everyone!
Blood: Tony Martin, who deserves some sort of international cycling award, possibly a permanent Combativity jersey - streaked in red would be appropriate - finished the ITT with what turned out to be the winning time, and as he was sat on the ground recovering, you could see the blood seeping through his skinsuit.
Eeeuw!
Sweat: oh, they all did that. Pierre Rolland in polka dots deserves a special mention for struggling valiantly round the course, weighed down by all the red dots on his jersey, socks, handlebar tape etc. He did a fairly bad time, but then by definition the polka-dot jersey is for climbers, not for time trial specialists. Andy, as we know, sweated his way round, and although he came in 123rd, out of 182, at least he rode steadily, didn't fall off, and finished. Yay, Andy!
And Urine? Mark Cavendish was booed all the way, apparently - we didn't see this, as our coverage started later in the day - and had urine thrown over him. Lovely. I don't quite understand what any true cycling fan would think to gain by doing this. Like the tacks-on-the-ground episode, you really can't be a cycling fan if you do things that spoil the sport. In fact, anyone who does such things should go back to football.
Andy did alright in the end: he is still in the top 20, he's sitting at 17th, and is just 8mins 32secs down, which is not bad after what detractors insist on calling a poor TT performance. Personally I think it wasn't that bad: he's done better - in previous Tours, he and Frankie have both been in the top 20 for the ITT, and I don't really see how anyone can call that a poor performance - but he is still coming back from this serious injury.
As discussed on Twitter yesterday afternoon, Andy's conformation is against him, he will never be a top-rank TTist, no matter how often he practises. Fabian can not only touch his toes, he can get his hands flat on the ground. Frankie and Andy cannot quite touch their toes. They have gone as far as "practising stretching" can take them, their bodies just can't make that extra stretch. So they will never achieve the perfect TT position.
I get quite impatient when people outside the sport say "Oh, he really must get out there and practise" as though that's all it took. After how many years in the same team as Fabian, I kinda think they've already had as much coaching and tips and hints as they can make use of, don't you?
Personally, I can't do the splits, and no matter how much I practised, I never could, and never will. I'm just not built that way. Same with horse riding: I could never achieve the perfect "seat" as they call it, because I have a sway back and I cannot get my spine straight and upright, no matter how hard I try. When I lie flat on the ground on my back, I can still get a hand underneath the arch of my back. It's the way I'm built, and there's nothing I can do about it. In the same way (in case you wondered how we had moved from Andy Schleck to my back) Andy and Frankie cannot fold themselves flat in the way that a TT specialist can.
So give them a break!
*waves fists in rage at commentators and people on forums*
They are climbers, and GC specialists, which means they have extraordinary stamina to not just last out three weeks, but to be strongest at the end of the time, rather than shattered and just about making it through the day.
So now what? Andy says that he's looking for a stage win, so fingers crossed everyone!
Monday 8 July 2013
Tour Stage 8 and 9 - Sat/Sun
Having been away for the weekend, LLB and I rushed back to unpack quickly and watch the race coverage for the weekend.
Exciting stuff!
The pre-race interviews were interesting, although it was slightly hard to listen to what Chris Frome was saying when he was wearing what appeared to be sexy see-through lingerie. And it wasn't just him, it was all the team!
Even Carlton Kirby, commentating, referred to the Sky kit: "Lots of bare chests on display today," he said, "Sky have gone all high tech, or maybe just Dodgy Disco, with a string vest effect."
Also good to see Sean Yates in the Eurosport studio: he used to be the lead DS for Sky until forced to retire last year due to ill health - he has a long-standing heart condition, and I can well imagine that what with winning the Tour with Wiggins, he was finding it all a bit hard to manage! He was looking much better, although he still sounds, as he always has done, as though he is either slightly drunk or has had a stroke. I'm pretty sure that neither is the case, and if you overlook his slight problems with pronunciation, he is always very interesting to listen to.
So what caught my eye about this stage? Well, at 43k to go - a long flat stage with a big hill towards the end and an uphill finish - as they were working their way up the big hill, sweating, open vests all around (except for Sky, who were presumably cool and airy in their Dodgy Disco outfits) and suddenly there was a huge puddle in the road. And white stuff on the verges. "Is that snow?" asked LLB, just as Carlton confirmed that the snow was melting and running onto the road.. good thing they were going up, not down!
35k to go, Daryl Impey, in yellow, starts to drop back through the pack. Ah, I knew he'd eventually suffer for the lack of his musette. Is it too late for me to give it back to him?
34k, we see Jan Bakelandts dropping back, but no sign of Andy.. or of Conti... so we assume he's safely up there in the main bunch. With 2k to the summit, Sky up the pace, people drop off the back, and there he is! Andy is safe in the main bunch. He makes it to the summit with everyone else, and safely down the other side.
Now we are coming in to the final ascent: with 6k to go, Andy is off the back of the front group, but he's not alone, Cadel Evans is there as well. It's not all bad news, Jakob is way up there with the leaders, yay!
5k to go, Sky have stepped up the pace, slaughtered the group, and are catching up with Quintano: Conti drops back! Frome jumps! He goes alone! He take Quintano! Meanwhile Conti is having to be lead up the hill, he's chugging!
The camera bike works up from the back of the lead group - there's Cadel, chugging badly: Roulland in his polka dot jersey, shorts, saddle, gloves and (probably) socks, chugging: then Zubeldia - aha, he didn't break his wrist then? - wobbling from side to side, and look! There's Andy! Not looking too bad, actually.
Meanwhile Richie Porte of Sky, having done his duty as domestique, gets his second wind and starts making headway again, and is now in second place.
We see the group again, and Conti is clearly struggling: even LLB says "what we need now is for Andy to go past Contador" which makes me laugh. Alas, all the coverage is on the front of the race (!) and Frome wins it in style: Porte comes galloping up behind him and gets second, in style. Conti limps in, 1'46 down, and I wait anxiously for pictures of Andy coming in, but we don't get any more coverage. Checking later, he comes in 21st, 3mins or so down, which is not bad at all. He later said that he was pleased with his performance, as did Kim Andersen, so I'm pleased as well.
Sunday's racing was even more exciting: a day of mountains, with 5 climbs, spread out through the day.
It started with early breaks - Jensie, of course, then Bumfluff (Tejay Van Garderen) has a go, despite being covered in bandages, and despite having had a really bad day yesterday. Carlton tells us that it was 28 degrees yesterday (no wonder the snow was melting) and LLB and I exchange looks - we were standing outside, painting, yesterday, in 28 degrees (yes folks! It's officially summer in the UK, expect a hosepipe ban within days) then driving home for 2 hours with no air conditioning, and we were absolutely drained by the end of the day. We cannot imagine how these guys have the strength and fortitude to cycle up great big hills in that sort of temperature, even if they are wearing Dodgy Disco net-wear.
146k to go, all quiet and peaceful, then suddenly whap! Sky's Kennaugh fell off the road and down a ravine into the hawthorn bushes. Shades of Vino! Luckily he managed to scramble back up the bank, retrieve his bike, and eventually he got going again.
130k and an odd situation has developed - no break has been allowed to get away, so the pace is really high, and every non-climber is falling off the back - which is better than falling down a ravine - and suddenly Frome, in yellow, is staying safely at the front of the group, as he should: but he has not one single team mate with him. How odd, Sky have been riding as a bloc all year, and suddenly there is Frome, in yellow, and all alone. Obviously Kennaugh is recovering from ravine-diving, and G has a cracked pelvis (there's a lot of it about) and is therefore just hanging on, but where are the others?
As Contador starts chumming up with Spanish riders from Movistar, LLB comments on how annoying it is for us that there isn't another UK team for Sky to make deals with. I have to say, if teams based on the continent, where cycling is a BIG sport, can't get sponsors, then there is not much hope for the UK getting another team.
Unless possibly Wiggins leaves Sky (we keep hearing about the friction between him and Frome) and, using his fame as Tour winner, Olympic winner, Track winner etc, gets a completely new UK sponsor to build a team around him? *sighs*
102k to go and the race is in total shambles, riders are all over the road in bits - apparently there is a string of riders over 6k long, strung out over the mountainside! Frome is unfazed, and makes a really good move by leaping off the front when taunted by Movistar, so they have to drag him up the main front group, and then off the front of that, leaving behind Cadel, Conti - and Our Andy, and Jakob, who hopefully have found time to have a quick chat.
Jakob: "So, Frankie getting the shove, huh?"
Andy: "Pfff!" (angry noise)
Jakob: "We have money, just say it right and you can both come to Ass-t'na"
Andy: "What, and have Coug call me a Pyjama Boy?"
Jakob: "It's a term of affection."
Andy: *gives him a Look* "Just say it right?"
Jakob: "Yup. Come on, ASS-t'na. ASS-t'na. You can do it."
Andy: "Achs-star-nar."
93k to go and the Conti/Cadel/Andy group make it up to the Frome/Movistar group, as the four guys out in front (who we have barely seen, such is the interest in Frome) go through the intermediate Sprint Point.
LLB comments that normally nothing happens before the sprint point! Not today...
Carlton and Sean Kelly are continually expressing surprise at all the fireworks we are getting today, the high pace, and the fact that the Sky team have disappeared -they speculate that they over-tired themselves yesterday.
84k and finally the camera moves away from the Frome group, and we see a few tattered remnants of Sky, pulling back the whole of the grupetto. Boassen-Hagen is on the front, despite looking like a sick dog, but not for long, then he drifts to the back along with Richie Porte, who really looks as though he is suffering: next we see G, with his fractured pelvis, pulling at the front, followed by a mummified Kennaugh, while Carlton and Sean talk about the time cut-off, which is 13% of race time, which they calculate to be about 36 or 37 minutes today. The organisers, ASO, have apparently said that they are going to continue to be really strict about this (having cruelly and meanly disqualified Ted King for being 7 seconds beyond the time limit at the ITT, despite him having had a really bad fall on an early day, boo) so there is a real risk that a large chunk of the sprinters will not make it to the finish in time.
Movistar have realised that they must keep the pace up, to prevent any of the Sky boys getting back to help Frome, but they are killing the sprinters.The best hope at the moment is that the grupetto exceeds 20% of the riders, in which case the organisers put it to a judge, who may - or may not - allow special dispensation for them to be allowed to continue, although I think they get fines, and lose points. Still, better that that than being thrown off the Tour, eh?
80k to go, and I realise that I have not seen a single natural break. They have been pedalling at high speed all day, they barely slowed down for the feed zone, so what are they doing about peeing? At that moment, de Ghent is shown tipping water over his feet - we wonder if it's the heat, or has he just peed down his leg?
Movistar are still steaming along, and pulling terrible faces - probably thinking "How on earth do Sky do this, day after day?!"
60k to go, and Sean Kelly is reminiscing (if that's how you spell it) about his days as a rider, when on very hot days, if they passed a suitable waterfall or river, the riders would hop off their bikes, cool down in the water, then carry on.
I don't think they'll have time for that today.
40k to go, the pace continues, Movistar continue to pull, Frome continues to stay with them, and there is Andy! He's about 6 riders behind Frome, and looking very comfortable, yay!
Our commentators are repeatedly stressing that Frome is all alone - but Cadel Evans won races, all alone, for years. I guess they mean that it's unusual for Frome to be unsupported... but he doesn't seem to be too bothered by it, I have to say.
35k to go and Movistar have eaten up nearly all of the break, they've ruined Porte's day, losing him his GC 2nd position by about 11 minutes, they are seriously stressing the sprinters and domestiques who are floundering at the back, but they are also giving Frome a perfect free ride to the top of the mountain. Again.
Dan Martin (him with the teeth) pings off the front. No-one chases. Jakob pings off the front. No-one chases. LLB is hoping that Frome will attack, and I am hoping that Andy will attack. Go on, Andy! You're not a threat, they'll let you go! But he doesn't, not today.
Meanwhile Jakob and Dan Martin (and his teeth) are out leading the race with 32k to go - they crest the final hill, and Jakob leads the pair of them downhill and in towards the finish.
I have noticed a big shortage of Lux ensign flags during the Tour so far (oh Andy-fans, where are you!!) so I wave mine.
17k to go and Andy is staying very close behind Frome, and totally ignoring Conti, who is a little further back. I'm particularly pleased to see this, as I would rather Andy concentrated on the race ahead, rather than always looking to see what Conti is doing. Just my opinion. It's clear that Conti is not on form himself, otherwise he would have attacked by now...
I'm thrilled to see that Jakob is storming along with Dan Martin: he's looking really strong, which is a good thing as he is rapidly losing his team (only 6 of them left) and he's probably Ass-t'na's only hope of winning UCI points.
We go back to the main group, and although Conti does not seem to be on form enough to attack, his team mate Kreuziger does - and Andy goes with him! Lots of waving of Lux ensign flag from my corner of the sofa. I don't care what the outcome is, or how long they go for, I'm really happy to see Andy riding confidently again.
5k to go and Conti is looking uncomfortable, whereas Our Andy is looking quite relaxed.
And the result? Well, you must have seen it, Dan Martin (and his teeth) just pipped Jakob to the line, and Andy came in with his group 20seconds later, 12th position, which puts him now 15th in the GC at just 4mins down.
Not bad at all, eh?
Sky later said, of their non-appearance, "no excuses, the peloton kicked our arses" (That was Richie Porte) they just didn't have the legs, and Kiryenka, my pet robot, didn't make the time cut and is now out, which is a bit of a blow to the team.
I haven't been able to find a list of who didn't make the time cut, but I am assuming that if it were a huge list, it would have made the news!
So, Andy now sitting in the top 20 GC - isn't that great?
Exciting stuff!
The pre-race interviews were interesting, although it was slightly hard to listen to what Chris Frome was saying when he was wearing what appeared to be sexy see-through lingerie. And it wasn't just him, it was all the team!
Even Carlton Kirby, commentating, referred to the Sky kit: "Lots of bare chests on display today," he said, "Sky have gone all high tech, or maybe just Dodgy Disco, with a string vest effect."
Also good to see Sean Yates in the Eurosport studio: he used to be the lead DS for Sky until forced to retire last year due to ill health - he has a long-standing heart condition, and I can well imagine that what with winning the Tour with Wiggins, he was finding it all a bit hard to manage! He was looking much better, although he still sounds, as he always has done, as though he is either slightly drunk or has had a stroke. I'm pretty sure that neither is the case, and if you overlook his slight problems with pronunciation, he is always very interesting to listen to.
So what caught my eye about this stage? Well, at 43k to go - a long flat stage with a big hill towards the end and an uphill finish - as they were working their way up the big hill, sweating, open vests all around (except for Sky, who were presumably cool and airy in their Dodgy Disco outfits) and suddenly there was a huge puddle in the road. And white stuff on the verges. "Is that snow?" asked LLB, just as Carlton confirmed that the snow was melting and running onto the road.. good thing they were going up, not down!
35k to go, Daryl Impey, in yellow, starts to drop back through the pack. Ah, I knew he'd eventually suffer for the lack of his musette. Is it too late for me to give it back to him?
34k, we see Jan Bakelandts dropping back, but no sign of Andy.. or of Conti... so we assume he's safely up there in the main bunch. With 2k to the summit, Sky up the pace, people drop off the back, and there he is! Andy is safe in the main bunch. He makes it to the summit with everyone else, and safely down the other side.
Now we are coming in to the final ascent: with 6k to go, Andy is off the back of the front group, but he's not alone, Cadel Evans is there as well. It's not all bad news, Jakob is way up there with the leaders, yay!
5k to go, Sky have stepped up the pace, slaughtered the group, and are catching up with Quintano: Conti drops back! Frome jumps! He goes alone! He take Quintano! Meanwhile Conti is having to be lead up the hill, he's chugging!
The camera bike works up from the back of the lead group - there's Cadel, chugging badly: Roulland in his polka dot jersey, shorts, saddle, gloves and (probably) socks, chugging: then Zubeldia - aha, he didn't break his wrist then? - wobbling from side to side, and look! There's Andy! Not looking too bad, actually.
Meanwhile Richie Porte of Sky, having done his duty as domestique, gets his second wind and starts making headway again, and is now in second place.
We see the group again, and Conti is clearly struggling: even LLB says "what we need now is for Andy to go past Contador" which makes me laugh. Alas, all the coverage is on the front of the race (!) and Frome wins it in style: Porte comes galloping up behind him and gets second, in style. Conti limps in, 1'46 down, and I wait anxiously for pictures of Andy coming in, but we don't get any more coverage. Checking later, he comes in 21st, 3mins or so down, which is not bad at all. He later said that he was pleased with his performance, as did Kim Andersen, so I'm pleased as well.
Sunday's racing was even more exciting: a day of mountains, with 5 climbs, spread out through the day.
It started with early breaks - Jensie, of course, then Bumfluff (Tejay Van Garderen) has a go, despite being covered in bandages, and despite having had a really bad day yesterday. Carlton tells us that it was 28 degrees yesterday (no wonder the snow was melting) and LLB and I exchange looks - we were standing outside, painting, yesterday, in 28 degrees (yes folks! It's officially summer in the UK, expect a hosepipe ban within days) then driving home for 2 hours with no air conditioning, and we were absolutely drained by the end of the day. We cannot imagine how these guys have the strength and fortitude to cycle up great big hills in that sort of temperature, even if they are wearing Dodgy Disco net-wear.
146k to go, all quiet and peaceful, then suddenly whap! Sky's Kennaugh fell off the road and down a ravine into the hawthorn bushes. Shades of Vino! Luckily he managed to scramble back up the bank, retrieve his bike, and eventually he got going again.
130k and an odd situation has developed - no break has been allowed to get away, so the pace is really high, and every non-climber is falling off the back - which is better than falling down a ravine - and suddenly Frome, in yellow, is staying safely at the front of the group, as he should: but he has not one single team mate with him. How odd, Sky have been riding as a bloc all year, and suddenly there is Frome, in yellow, and all alone. Obviously Kennaugh is recovering from ravine-diving, and G has a cracked pelvis (there's a lot of it about) and is therefore just hanging on, but where are the others?
As Contador starts chumming up with Spanish riders from Movistar, LLB comments on how annoying it is for us that there isn't another UK team for Sky to make deals with. I have to say, if teams based on the continent, where cycling is a BIG sport, can't get sponsors, then there is not much hope for the UK getting another team.
Unless possibly Wiggins leaves Sky (we keep hearing about the friction between him and Frome) and, using his fame as Tour winner, Olympic winner, Track winner etc, gets a completely new UK sponsor to build a team around him? *sighs*
102k to go and the race is in total shambles, riders are all over the road in bits - apparently there is a string of riders over 6k long, strung out over the mountainside! Frome is unfazed, and makes a really good move by leaping off the front when taunted by Movistar, so they have to drag him up the main front group, and then off the front of that, leaving behind Cadel, Conti - and Our Andy, and Jakob, who hopefully have found time to have a quick chat.
Jakob: "So, Frankie getting the shove, huh?"
Andy: "Pfff!" (angry noise)
Jakob: "We have money, just say it right and you can both come to Ass-t'na"
Andy: "What, and have Coug call me a Pyjama Boy?"
Jakob: "It's a term of affection."
Andy: *gives him a Look* "Just say it right?"
Jakob: "Yup. Come on, ASS-t'na. ASS-t'na. You can do it."
Andy: "Achs-star-nar."
93k to go and the Conti/Cadel/Andy group make it up to the Frome/Movistar group, as the four guys out in front (who we have barely seen, such is the interest in Frome) go through the intermediate Sprint Point.
LLB comments that normally nothing happens before the sprint point! Not today...
Carlton and Sean Kelly are continually expressing surprise at all the fireworks we are getting today, the high pace, and the fact that the Sky team have disappeared -they speculate that they over-tired themselves yesterday.
84k and finally the camera moves away from the Frome group, and we see a few tattered remnants of Sky, pulling back the whole of the grupetto. Boassen-Hagen is on the front, despite looking like a sick dog, but not for long, then he drifts to the back along with Richie Porte, who really looks as though he is suffering: next we see G, with his fractured pelvis, pulling at the front, followed by a mummified Kennaugh, while Carlton and Sean talk about the time cut-off, which is 13% of race time, which they calculate to be about 36 or 37 minutes today. The organisers, ASO, have apparently said that they are going to continue to be really strict about this (having cruelly and meanly disqualified Ted King for being 7 seconds beyond the time limit at the ITT, despite him having had a really bad fall on an early day, boo) so there is a real risk that a large chunk of the sprinters will not make it to the finish in time.
Movistar have realised that they must keep the pace up, to prevent any of the Sky boys getting back to help Frome, but they are killing the sprinters.The best hope at the moment is that the grupetto exceeds 20% of the riders, in which case the organisers put it to a judge, who may - or may not - allow special dispensation for them to be allowed to continue, although I think they get fines, and lose points. Still, better that that than being thrown off the Tour, eh?
80k to go, and I realise that I have not seen a single natural break. They have been pedalling at high speed all day, they barely slowed down for the feed zone, so what are they doing about peeing? At that moment, de Ghent is shown tipping water over his feet - we wonder if it's the heat, or has he just peed down his leg?
Movistar are still steaming along, and pulling terrible faces - probably thinking "How on earth do Sky do this, day after day?!"
60k to go, and Sean Kelly is reminiscing (if that's how you spell it) about his days as a rider, when on very hot days, if they passed a suitable waterfall or river, the riders would hop off their bikes, cool down in the water, then carry on.
I don't think they'll have time for that today.
40k to go, the pace continues, Movistar continue to pull, Frome continues to stay with them, and there is Andy! He's about 6 riders behind Frome, and looking very comfortable, yay!
Our commentators are repeatedly stressing that Frome is all alone - but Cadel Evans won races, all alone, for years. I guess they mean that it's unusual for Frome to be unsupported... but he doesn't seem to be too bothered by it, I have to say.
35k to go and Movistar have eaten up nearly all of the break, they've ruined Porte's day, losing him his GC 2nd position by about 11 minutes, they are seriously stressing the sprinters and domestiques who are floundering at the back, but they are also giving Frome a perfect free ride to the top of the mountain. Again.
Dan Martin (him with the teeth) pings off the front. No-one chases. Jakob pings off the front. No-one chases. LLB is hoping that Frome will attack, and I am hoping that Andy will attack. Go on, Andy! You're not a threat, they'll let you go! But he doesn't, not today.
Meanwhile Jakob and Dan Martin (and his teeth) are out leading the race with 32k to go - they crest the final hill, and Jakob leads the pair of them downhill and in towards the finish.
I have noticed a big shortage of Lux ensign flags during the Tour so far (oh Andy-fans, where are you!!) so I wave mine.
17k to go and Andy is staying very close behind Frome, and totally ignoring Conti, who is a little further back. I'm particularly pleased to see this, as I would rather Andy concentrated on the race ahead, rather than always looking to see what Conti is doing. Just my opinion. It's clear that Conti is not on form himself, otherwise he would have attacked by now...
I'm thrilled to see that Jakob is storming along with Dan Martin: he's looking really strong, which is a good thing as he is rapidly losing his team (only 6 of them left) and he's probably Ass-t'na's only hope of winning UCI points.
We go back to the main group, and although Conti does not seem to be on form enough to attack, his team mate Kreuziger does - and Andy goes with him! Lots of waving of Lux ensign flag from my corner of the sofa. I don't care what the outcome is, or how long they go for, I'm really happy to see Andy riding confidently again.
5k to go and Conti is looking uncomfortable, whereas Our Andy is looking quite relaxed.
And the result? Well, you must have seen it, Dan Martin (and his teeth) just pipped Jakob to the line, and Andy came in with his group 20seconds later, 12th position, which puts him now 15th in the GC at just 4mins down.
Not bad at all, eh?
Sky later said, of their non-appearance, "no excuses, the peloton kicked our arses" (That was Richie Porte) they just didn't have the legs, and Kiryenka, my pet robot, didn't make the time cut and is now out, which is a bit of a blow to the team.
I haven't been able to find a list of who didn't make the time cut, but I am assuming that if it were a huge list, it would have made the news!
So, Andy now sitting in the top 20 GC - isn't that great?
Shleck special offer: Buy One, Get One Free
More news reports today about Frankie being sacked by RadioShambles: now the bosses are saying that the issue has been thoroughly discussed with Frankie, and that he was fully informed months ago that this was going to happen.
Again, I have to say, what a load of crap!
What team management would sit down in a meeting with their rider and his agent, and explain carefully that in a few months' time, but just before the ban expired, he would be sacked?
Frankie wasn't taking a salary, so they would surely have sacked him there and then. Or if it were true, and somehow both Frankie and his agent (who we assume to be a professional business-man and therefore able to listen and comprehend what was said) missed it, then they would announce it on the last day of the ban. Not 11 days before the expiry.
Frankie could have spent the last several months negotiating for a new team and getting used to their training methods - ah, I think I see the point of Shambles' behaviour. How very petty of them.
Mind you, there is another aspect to this - Andy is reported as saying:
Andy Schleck said he believed the decision was not related to Frank Schleck’s suspension. “It wasn’t even anything to do with doping, even the UCI (International Cycling Union) agreed on that,” he added. “But there are other things behind this decision. I don’t think it is anything to do with the suspension.” He added: “To kick him out of the team after 11 months of giving him their support, I just don’t understand it.”
I don't know what he's referring to, specifically - there was that trouble with the Giro last year, when Frankie pulled out against the wishes of the team.. would they hold a grudge about that, for so long?
Whatever it was, now we have Frankie looking for a new team, and quite possibly whoever gets him will also get Andy.
In the UK we have a strange marketing phenomenon in grocery shopping, known as BOGOF - lovely abbreviation, don't you think? - which is short for Buy One, Get One Free. It's a cunning way to make us all waste food, as we think the second one is free so it doesn't matter if we don't eat all of it, not realising that the prices have been inflated to cover the cost of the second, "free" item.
But in cycling terms, this could be the start of a whole new marketing strategy! We saw the beginnings of it two years ago, when Uncle Bjarne bought Contador, and got a couple of lieutenants thrown in for free.
Then Sky bought Cav, and got Bernie Eisel as part of the deal. (This has worked out very well indeed for Sky, as they passed Cav on to Omega Pharma, but kept hold of Bernie, who is an excellent rider.)
Now, whoever buys Frankie stands a very good chance of getting Andy! *sounds of Schlecklanders breaking open piggy banks and counting coins in all directions*
As a completely useless, waste-of-time piece of speculation, who do we think might buy them?
The teams with money are Astana, Katusha, Garmin, BMC, Belkin, Orica....
Astana would be great, back with Jakob again, yay! However, if Our Andy joins the pyjama boys, we will have to get used to seeing him in a onesie...hmm, not good, but possibly worth it to have him reunited with Jakob.
Andy as a Dark Lord? Not entirely sure I can see that.
Garmin - well, they have a very enlightened policy towards ex-dopers, so they of all people will not be able to hold their noses and make snooty remarks about Frankie's ban.
BMC - again, I can't really see that, but LLB thinks it's a possibility.
Belkin is quite possible: they are based not far from Lux (they are, as we all remember, what Rabobank turned into) although their kit has no Lux blue in it whatsoever.
Then there's Orica - well, they already have an ally there, Stuey: so there are possibilities there.
And one good thing, if you can call it that - normally riders don't start putting out feelers for new teams until after the Tour, so Frankie is at least well ahead of the game there.
Any thoughts, anyone?
Again, I have to say, what a load of crap!
What team management would sit down in a meeting with their rider and his agent, and explain carefully that in a few months' time, but just before the ban expired, he would be sacked?
Frankie wasn't taking a salary, so they would surely have sacked him there and then. Or if it were true, and somehow both Frankie and his agent (who we assume to be a professional business-man and therefore able to listen and comprehend what was said) missed it, then they would announce it on the last day of the ban. Not 11 days before the expiry.
Frankie could have spent the last several months negotiating for a new team and getting used to their training methods - ah, I think I see the point of Shambles' behaviour. How very petty of them.
Mind you, there is another aspect to this - Andy is reported as saying:
Andy Schleck said he believed the decision was not related to Frank Schleck’s suspension. “It wasn’t even anything to do with doping, even the UCI (International Cycling Union) agreed on that,” he added. “But there are other things behind this decision. I don’t think it is anything to do with the suspension.” He added: “To kick him out of the team after 11 months of giving him their support, I just don’t understand it.”
I don't know what he's referring to, specifically - there was that trouble with the Giro last year, when Frankie pulled out against the wishes of the team.. would they hold a grudge about that, for so long?
Whatever it was, now we have Frankie looking for a new team, and quite possibly whoever gets him will also get Andy.
In the UK we have a strange marketing phenomenon in grocery shopping, known as BOGOF - lovely abbreviation, don't you think? - which is short for Buy One, Get One Free. It's a cunning way to make us all waste food, as we think the second one is free so it doesn't matter if we don't eat all of it, not realising that the prices have been inflated to cover the cost of the second, "free" item.
But in cycling terms, this could be the start of a whole new marketing strategy! We saw the beginnings of it two years ago, when Uncle Bjarne bought Contador, and got a couple of lieutenants thrown in for free.
Then Sky bought Cav, and got Bernie Eisel as part of the deal. (This has worked out very well indeed for Sky, as they passed Cav on to Omega Pharma, but kept hold of Bernie, who is an excellent rider.)
Now, whoever buys Frankie stands a very good chance of getting Andy! *sounds of Schlecklanders breaking open piggy banks and counting coins in all directions*
As a completely useless, waste-of-time piece of speculation, who do we think might buy them?
The teams with money are Astana, Katusha, Garmin, BMC, Belkin, Orica....
Astana would be great, back with Jakob again, yay! However, if Our Andy joins the pyjama boys, we will have to get used to seeing him in a onesie...hmm, not good, but possibly worth it to have him reunited with Jakob.
Andy as a Dark Lord? Not entirely sure I can see that.
Garmin - well, they have a very enlightened policy towards ex-dopers, so they of all people will not be able to hold their noses and make snooty remarks about Frankie's ban.
BMC - again, I can't really see that, but LLB thinks it's a possibility.
Belkin is quite possible: they are based not far from Lux (they are, as we all remember, what Rabobank turned into) although their kit has no Lux blue in it whatsoever.
Then there's Orica - well, they already have an ally there, Stuey: so there are possibilities there.
And one good thing, if you can call it that - normally riders don't start putting out feelers for new teams until after the Tour, so Frankie is at least well ahead of the game there.
Any thoughts, anyone?
Monday 1 July 2013
Day 3: RadioShack are in yellow!
After the amazing day yesterday, Jan Bakelandts turned out in yellow today, and must have been just about bursting with pride. They even gave him a yellow helmet as well!
Something I forgot to mention yesterday was his hilarious post-race, pre-podium interview: he was bubbling and fizzing, as you would expect, and said something like "this is more than the team hoped for, now we don't have to do anything more, our Tour is made".
Good thing Mr Becca is already on the way out (and don't let the door swing back and catch you on the backside on the way out, Mr B) otherwise Jan Bakelandts might have been sacked for suggesting that Shack's expectations were so low.
I've just got in and read the reports of today's race, and Jan B is still in yellow, and still one second ahead. Lovely! Of course, tomorrow is the TTT, and Shack don't stand a chance of keeping the jersey any longer, but two stages in yellow isn't bad going, for a team with no sprinter, no GC contender, and a climber - Andy - who is still recovering from a very bad crash.
I wish I'd been able to watch this stage, as with a guy in yellow, Shack were on the front for most of the day, so there would have been lots of opportunities to wave my Lux Ensign flag. Ah well, there will be more chances.
In the news today, Trek have confirmed that they have arranged a 3-year contract with Fabian, and although there are rumours that the Schlecks have had to have a significant pay cut in their new contracts (and frankly, who is surprised at that? You only get huge salaries when you are winning, and neither of them have done any winning for a while) the sub-text is that the Schlecks both have a new contract with Trek! So they are staying with Fabian, which is great, and I still hope that one day we'll get Jakob back in the fold.
Andy came in with the bunch today, same time as the winners: he came in 56th, and in the GC he now sits in 45th position.
So tomorrow is TTT, not going to be terribly exciting for us Leopard fans, as we know they are not going to excel: but I will be happy if they get five over the line with no problems, at a reasonable time, and I will be particularly happy if Andy gets round safely. Best result would be if Andy came in with the team, of course, but I'm not too worried about that.
Wonder if Frankie's watching? Or did he drop Leea off with Mum, and sweep Martine away for a holiday?
Something I forgot to mention yesterday was his hilarious post-race, pre-podium interview: he was bubbling and fizzing, as you would expect, and said something like "this is more than the team hoped for, now we don't have to do anything more, our Tour is made".
Good thing Mr Becca is already on the way out (and don't let the door swing back and catch you on the backside on the way out, Mr B) otherwise Jan Bakelandts might have been sacked for suggesting that Shack's expectations were so low.
I've just got in and read the reports of today's race, and Jan B is still in yellow, and still one second ahead. Lovely! Of course, tomorrow is the TTT, and Shack don't stand a chance of keeping the jersey any longer, but two stages in yellow isn't bad going, for a team with no sprinter, no GC contender, and a climber - Andy - who is still recovering from a very bad crash.
I wish I'd been able to watch this stage, as with a guy in yellow, Shack were on the front for most of the day, so there would have been lots of opportunities to wave my Lux Ensign flag. Ah well, there will be more chances.
In the news today, Trek have confirmed that they have arranged a 3-year contract with Fabian, and although there are rumours that the Schlecks have had to have a significant pay cut in their new contracts (and frankly, who is surprised at that? You only get huge salaries when you are winning, and neither of them have done any winning for a while) the sub-text is that the Schlecks both have a new contract with Trek! So they are staying with Fabian, which is great, and I still hope that one day we'll get Jakob back in the fold.
Andy came in with the bunch today, same time as the winners: he came in 56th, and in the GC he now sits in 45th position.
So tomorrow is TTT, not going to be terribly exciting for us Leopard fans, as we know they are not going to excel: but I will be happy if they get five over the line with no problems, at a reasonable time, and I will be particularly happy if Andy gets round safely. Best result would be if Andy came in with the team, of course, but I'm not too worried about that.
Wonder if Frankie's watching? Or did he drop Leea off with Mum, and sweep Martine away for a holiday?
The Tour starts! And Ends in Fiasco!
Wow, what a first day.
LLB and I returned from a weekend away on Sunday (ok, it was a short weekend away, we got back just after lunch) and sat down to catch up with Le Tour - six hours of coverage from the first day!! Having trimmed off the waffle at the beginning, and being able to skip through the adverts, it didn't take us that long to get through it, but - very much as predicted - it was a fairly standard flat first-week day, with not much going on but a very large peloton chugging round the coast of Corsica (forever entwined in my mind with Asterix) and being described by our commentators as "nervous".
I waved my new Lux ensign flag every time I saw Andy (calling out "Hi, Andy!" at the same time, and getting A Look from LLB each time), and pulled faces at their Bianchi-coloured Trek bikes. Trek, what are you thinking? They look like Bianchi bikes! And they are - as we discussed on Twitter last week - almost exactly the same colour as Ass-t'na pyjama blue.
The ending of the race was a complete farce, though: with less than 20k to go, we started hearing that the Orica Greenedge bus had got itself jammed under the Finish line overhead gantry - you know, the one that carries the sensitive hundredth-of-a-second electronic timing clocks and the special photo-finish cameras... so the organisers had to make a split-second decision, that took them five minutes to make, to end the race at the 3k to go line.
By this time the peloton were less than 10k away, and starting to steam up to sprint-finish speed.
LLB and I watched with mouths open, wondering what on earth the teams would do when told that the race was going to end 3k early, in an unexpected place, with no white line and no accurate timing.
We thought there would be visibly startled or cross faces, and lots of panicky conversation, but there was very little external sign of the change. Later, we found out that many of the riders didn't hear about it - a lot of them take out their earpieces towards the end, in order to concentrate on the sprint.
They certainly picked up speed, trains were formed, at the 5k banner - ie 2k to go to the amended finish - there was an almighty crash, and the news that the bus had been removed and the race was, indeed, going to end at the usual place.
I can barely imagine what this decision, so late, must have done to the team plans. Mind you, half the peloton were on the deck and bleeding: Johnny Hoogerland had been taken out by some flimsy barriers and all we could see were his feet waving in the air (he needed yet more stitches to add to his collection); Tony Martin was apparently knocked out completely, came to and was helped up, then "fainted". Side issue: don't you think it's unfair to use the word "fainted" in these cases? I mean, girls faint - men "pass out" or "lose consciousness". Tony Martin's butchness quotient has just lost five points, I am afraid.
So we had a slightly unexpected winner, well done to Kittel for not knowing anything at all about the problems, and for just going for it. In his post-race interview, he was asked "did you know that the race was going to finish at the 3k line?" and he actually pulled that face where the eyes and mouth all go completely round, like a bowling ball with a race cap on it. Clearly he had not been listening to race radio.
The organisers made the obvious choice to give everyone the same time, which on the one hand is the only thing they could possibly have done, but on the other hand must be really maddening for those who put in huge efforts to get ahead of the others. Mind you, they have their reward because the riders were "placed" according to the order in which they rode/limped/were carried across the line, so at least we have some sort of GC order now.
Having ploughed through that, we went straight on to Sunday's footage, more occasional waving of my Lux flag, one heart-stopping moment when a stupid little white dog ran out across in front of the thundering sprinting bunch... and an amazing, heart-warming finish when some anonymous RadioShambles rider (the graphic said Izigar, but it wasn't him, I didn't actually recognise the bloke but it turned out to be Jan Bakelandts) who had been in the 6-man break, had the courage and fortitude to keep on riding away, even though his break had given up and were about to be absorbed. He just started pedalling again, the others were looking at each other, the peloton were also looking at each other, he kept on pedalling, he got to the 1k to go banner, the peloton stopped looking at each other and started looking at him, our commentator was screaming "AND IZIGAR JUST KEEPS ON PEDALLING IS HE GOING TO MAKE IT? HE MIGHT MAKE IT! HE CAN'T POSSIBLY MAKE IT!" and so on.
Izigar himself, if he was hearing this on race radio, must have wondered if he was in some sort of alternative reality, or was having an out-of-body experience where his Other Self was winning the race...
Astonishingly, Bakelandts made it to the line with about half an inch to spare - the first win of his career, and he wins a stage in the 100th Tour, amazing. I was nearly in tears, and I don't even know the bloke!
I must also mention that the lovely Jakob was in that 6-man break, having failed to fall in the water at the presentation (sorry Michelle, he didn't need your mouth-to-mouth, but I'm sure he was reassured to know that you were there, just in case), and he looked strong and capable.
So, the Tour has started, yay! I'll probably be lurking on Twitter in the afternoons after work, if I get in before it ends, so I might see some of you there. And yes, I promise I will try to keep the blog up to date with progress!
Oh, where are we so far? Andy came in 74th today (stage 2), just one second back, which puts him in 55th place in the GC: Jakob is 20th, Jensie 101st.
Yay!
LLB and I returned from a weekend away on Sunday (ok, it was a short weekend away, we got back just after lunch) and sat down to catch up with Le Tour - six hours of coverage from the first day!! Having trimmed off the waffle at the beginning, and being able to skip through the adverts, it didn't take us that long to get through it, but - very much as predicted - it was a fairly standard flat first-week day, with not much going on but a very large peloton chugging round the coast of Corsica (forever entwined in my mind with Asterix) and being described by our commentators as "nervous".
I waved my new Lux ensign flag every time I saw Andy (calling out "Hi, Andy!" at the same time, and getting A Look from LLB each time), and pulled faces at their Bianchi-coloured Trek bikes. Trek, what are you thinking? They look like Bianchi bikes! And they are - as we discussed on Twitter last week - almost exactly the same colour as Ass-t'na pyjama blue.
The ending of the race was a complete farce, though: with less than 20k to go, we started hearing that the Orica Greenedge bus had got itself jammed under the Finish line overhead gantry - you know, the one that carries the sensitive hundredth-of-a-second electronic timing clocks and the special photo-finish cameras... so the organisers had to make a split-second decision, that took them five minutes to make, to end the race at the 3k to go line.
By this time the peloton were less than 10k away, and starting to steam up to sprint-finish speed.
LLB and I watched with mouths open, wondering what on earth the teams would do when told that the race was going to end 3k early, in an unexpected place, with no white line and no accurate timing.
We thought there would be visibly startled or cross faces, and lots of panicky conversation, but there was very little external sign of the change. Later, we found out that many of the riders didn't hear about it - a lot of them take out their earpieces towards the end, in order to concentrate on the sprint.
They certainly picked up speed, trains were formed, at the 5k banner - ie 2k to go to the amended finish - there was an almighty crash, and the news that the bus had been removed and the race was, indeed, going to end at the usual place.
I can barely imagine what this decision, so late, must have done to the team plans. Mind you, half the peloton were on the deck and bleeding: Johnny Hoogerland had been taken out by some flimsy barriers and all we could see were his feet waving in the air (he needed yet more stitches to add to his collection); Tony Martin was apparently knocked out completely, came to and was helped up, then "fainted". Side issue: don't you think it's unfair to use the word "fainted" in these cases? I mean, girls faint - men "pass out" or "lose consciousness". Tony Martin's butchness quotient has just lost five points, I am afraid.
So we had a slightly unexpected winner, well done to Kittel for not knowing anything at all about the problems, and for just going for it. In his post-race interview, he was asked "did you know that the race was going to finish at the 3k line?" and he actually pulled that face where the eyes and mouth all go completely round, like a bowling ball with a race cap on it. Clearly he had not been listening to race radio.
The organisers made the obvious choice to give everyone the same time, which on the one hand is the only thing they could possibly have done, but on the other hand must be really maddening for those who put in huge efforts to get ahead of the others. Mind you, they have their reward because the riders were "placed" according to the order in which they rode/limped/were carried across the line, so at least we have some sort of GC order now.
Having ploughed through that, we went straight on to Sunday's footage, more occasional waving of my Lux flag, one heart-stopping moment when a stupid little white dog ran out across in front of the thundering sprinting bunch... and an amazing, heart-warming finish when some anonymous RadioShambles rider (the graphic said Izigar, but it wasn't him, I didn't actually recognise the bloke but it turned out to be Jan Bakelandts) who had been in the 6-man break, had the courage and fortitude to keep on riding away, even though his break had given up and were about to be absorbed. He just started pedalling again, the others were looking at each other, the peloton were also looking at each other, he kept on pedalling, he got to the 1k to go banner, the peloton stopped looking at each other and started looking at him, our commentator was screaming "AND IZIGAR JUST KEEPS ON PEDALLING IS HE GOING TO MAKE IT? HE MIGHT MAKE IT! HE CAN'T POSSIBLY MAKE IT!" and so on.
Izigar himself, if he was hearing this on race radio, must have wondered if he was in some sort of alternative reality, or was having an out-of-body experience where his Other Self was winning the race...
Astonishingly, Bakelandts made it to the line with about half an inch to spare - the first win of his career, and he wins a stage in the 100th Tour, amazing. I was nearly in tears, and I don't even know the bloke!
I must also mention that the lovely Jakob was in that 6-man break, having failed to fall in the water at the presentation (sorry Michelle, he didn't need your mouth-to-mouth, but I'm sure he was reassured to know that you were there, just in case), and he looked strong and capable.
So, the Tour has started, yay! I'll probably be lurking on Twitter in the afternoons after work, if I get in before it ends, so I might see some of you there. And yes, I promise I will try to keep the blog up to date with progress!
Oh, where are we so far? Andy came in 74th today (stage 2), just one second back, which puts him in 55th place in the GC: Jakob is 20th, Jensie 101st.
Yay!
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