Looking back...and Looking Ahead...

Hi All,

As much as I want to celebrate the amazing performance tonight by Annamay Pierce (yay...world record #2 in 2009) and the great results by the Canadian ITU teams in Hamburg last week, but we should recap the not-really-ultimately-competitive but fairly entertaining Tour de France.


The 2009 Tour will be remembered as much for the Astana squabbling as much as it will be for Lance's return or Alberto Contador's fairly convincing win. And it kept going thru the final weekend, with Lance skipping the celebratory Astana team dinner on Saturday night (after the epic climb up Ventoux) to spend time with his new RadioShack team organizers and sponsors. And after a brief issue about Lance not really acknowledging Contador on the podium, the fireworks really began on Monday. Contador admitted that his relationship with Lance was "zero", and that he has no "admiration for Lance on a personal level". Wow. Anyhow, it doesn't really matter, Astana won the Tour as expected, and with Contador and Armstrong sure to be on different teams in 2010, it only makes for some great drama for next year.

Speaking of winning the Tour, the financial totals for the 2009 Tour are in. The Tour is interesting in that small amounts of money are accumulated throughout the various stages, with small amounts won on categorized climbs and sprint points, and larger amounts for stage wins and leading the various jersey classifications and team categories. Even in a peloton finish, the top 100 finishers add small amounts to each team's financial coffers. Obviously, Astana, with 3 finishers in the overall top 6 and 4 stage wins, was the big winner with €697,050 in prize money (almost a million US dollars). Here are the totals for all 20 teams, courtesy of cyclingnews.com.

1 Astana € 697,050
2 Team Saxo Bank 362,850
3 Liquigas 156,360
4 Garmin-Slipstream 151,870
5 Team Columbia-HTC 102,300
6 Cervélo TestTeam 86,710
7 BBox Bouygues Tele 63,470
8 AG2R La Mondiale 54,730
9 Euskaltel-Euskadi 49,820
10 Cofidis Le Credit 40,690
11 Team Katusha 36,820
12 Française des Jeux 35,660
13 Team Milram 32,830
14 Caisse d'Epargne 31,540
15 Rabobank 31,310
16 Agritubel 27,690
17 Silence-Lotto 22,570
18 Skil-Shimano 22,530
19 Quick Step 17,760
20 Lampre-NGC 17,040

This actually leads me to my next topic, who had a good Tour and who didn't. Here's my Top 5 Winners and Top 5 Losers from the 2009 Tour.

Winners
1. Johan Bruyneel and Team Astana - despite the internal squabbling, Johan Bruyneel has now presided over 9 Tour de France wins, and is expected to go for #10 with Team RadioShack and Lance in 2010. He's the undisputed master tactictian (let other teams defend the yellow jersey for as long as possible). Sure, he has a strong team (could have easily had 4 riders in the overall Top 5 if Levi didn't get injured and if Contador hadn't dropped his teammate Kloden during an ill-fated attack), but he goes into every Grand Tour with the singular goal of winning the overall title. Not stage wins, not polka-dot jerseys, not trying to get into breakaways or competing in sprint finishes...it's all about the podium on the last day!

2. The Schlecks - although they ultimately failed to move Frank Schleck into a podium position or move Andy into the overall lead, the Schleck brothers showed unbelievable determination by attacking, re-attacking, and re-re-attacking during the most important mountain stages. Contador and Armstrong were able to hold their position on the podium by marking the frequent Schleck attacks, but you have to be amazed and impressed by the attempts. Good work Andy and Frank, and if Contador ever slips, Andy Schleck will most likely become the next winner of the Tour.

3. Team Columbia and Mark Cavendish - It's unbelievable that I've made it this far without mentioning Team Columbia and the unbeatable Cav. 6 stage wins for Cavendish, including a unreal performance on Stage 21 that resulted in Cav's lead-out man Mark Renshaw finishing second overall. I can't remember when the lead-out man beats all the rest of the sprinters. Anyhow, all the discussion about other sprinters like Tyler Farrar, Oscar Friere, etc turned moot as Mark Cavendish dusted them all. He's the best. And while he didn't win the Green Jersey (due mainly to Thor Hushovd's impressive stage win and even more impressive mountain breakaway), he did finish a Grand Tour for the first time, and his 10 career Tour wins already at age 25 show that Cavendish could become an all-time great.

4. Team Liquigas - 3rd in total dollars won. Won the polka dot jersey (Franco Pellizotti). Had 2 riders in the top 9 overall (Nibali and Kreuziger), who also finished second and third in the white jersey. Nice job by a team that might be best known as Ivan Basso's team. Basso skipped the Tour (he competed in the Giro and will compete in the Vuelta) as he rides back into shape following his two-year sit in the doping penalty box. But Liquigas had a great Tour, and could become a team to beat in the next couple of years as Nibali and Kreuziger get stronger and have Pellizotti and Basso as other Grand Tour options.

5. Team AG2R and Bbox Bouygues Telecom - these two French teams represented themself well. Bbox won two stages (Thomas Voeckler and Pierrick Fedrigo) and was in a bunch of breakaways, while AG2R somehow managed to hold the yellow jersey for 8 days after one good stage by Rinaldo Nocentini. They defended it well (with some help from Astana) but had a great Tour for a smaller French team. The goal of most French teams is stage wins since they don't normally have big mountain contenders or top sprinters. For these two teams, mission accomplished in 2009!

Losers

1. Carlos Sastre - last year's winner spent the whole pre-Tour leadup complaining about how little respect he was getting, despite being the 2008 champion. Ultimately, he finished 17th overall (26 minutes behind Contador), and probably made only one decent mountain attack. True, Sastre was on a new team (without the Schlecks by his side like in 2008) and was competing in his 4th straight Grand Tour. But he was never a factor in this year's Tour. As an aside, his team Cervelo did have a great Tour, with two stage wins (Thor Hushovd and Heinrich Haussler) and the Green Jersey win. But Sastre really didn't have a great 2009 Tour.

2. Cadel Evans - the 2007 and 2008 second place finisher fell into a pre-Tour hole when his teammate Thomas Dekker was excluded from the Tour for doping. Then his team and his overall position took another hit during the team time trial. Evans actually tried a few times during the second week of the Tour to move back into podium contention before completely folding in the third week. He finished in 30th place (45 minutes back). Not a memorable Tour for Cadel.

3. Denis Menchov and Team Rabobank - after a great Giro win where Menchov time trialed to the lead and then climbed alongside his rivals with ease, much was expected of Menchov in this year's Tour. But perhaps the difficulty of two Grand Tours back-to-back caught up with him. Menchov struggled on every mountain stage, and finished 51st overall. Still, that was the best overall position for a Rabobank rider, and there only saving grace was the great stage win by Juan Manuel Garate during Stage 20's ride up Mt Ventoux.

4. Team Lampre - you might not have even known that Lampre participated in this year's Tour. Despite having the reigning World Champion Allesandro Ballan participating for them, Lampre, and their ugly pink jerseys, were almost invisible in the Tour. No riders in Top 50 . No Top 5 finishes. No great showings in memorable breakaways. They also won less than 1/40th as much prize money as Team Astana. Thanks for coming guys...

5. Quick Step - for a big-name team with Tom Boonen and Sylvain Chavanel, this year's Tour was a disaster. They fought in the courts until the day before the Tour started to try and get Tom Boonen included in the race (the Tour wanted to exclude him due to his ongoing problem with cocaine) and ultimately succeeded, resulting in the team letting their top sprinter Allan Davis go home to make room for Boonen. Boonen showed that he wasn't in Tour shape, not bothering to compete in sprints and made the highlights only for his frequent crashes before dropping out before Stage 15. Chavanel, despite his big salary and high expectations, was also a non-factor in the race.

It Was The Best of Times, It Was The Worst of Times Award

Team Garmin gets this one all to themselves. They did some good days: Tyler Farrar finishing second a few times, David Millar almost winning an epic breakaway, Bradley Wiggins might have been the biggest surprise of the Tour in finishing 4th overall, and Christian Vande Velde also had a good Tour, finishing 8th overall after last year's 4th place finish. But despite all the good stories, their inability to win a stage has to leave Garmin feeling a bit disappointed heading home. Until they start winning some stages, their Tour won't be considered an outright success.

Ok, thats enough about the 2009 Tour. The 2009 Vuelta is only 4 weeks away (YAY!) and Universal Sports will be showing all the stages live online. And with a solid field in place that includes Andy Schleck, Alejandro Valverde (perhaps), Ivan Basso, Samuel Sanchez, and Cadel Evans, it should provide some good early morning entertainment for 3 weeks in September. Looking forward to it already!

Doping suspensions seem to inevitably lead to comebacks, and with this week being the 2 year anniversary of the il-fated 2007 Tour, two big names are on their way back. Alexander Vinokourov has already stated that he wants to compete on Team Astana (whatever remains of it after Team RadioShack hires most of the current team) the rest of 2009 and into 2010, while The Chicken, Michael Rasmussen, has already started his comeback, finishing second in a Danish race without having being signed by a team yet. He is hopeful to find a team for 2010 and will perhaps return to the Tour next year as well.

The other big cycling story won't really break until September, when teams are allowed to officially sign and announce their riders for 2010. With Alberto Contador probably the biggest free agent out there, it remains to be seen where he will end up. My best bet is Caisse D'Epargne as of now, but Katusha, Garmin, Rabobank, and even staying on Team Astana are still possibilities. I'll keep you posted on who gets him, plus who Team RadioShack signs to help Lance out in 2010.

Okay, while we wait for the cycling world to return to the headlines in a month or so, there are plenty of other things to keep us interested. The World Swimming Championships are currently going on in Rome, and there are plenty of stories to cover. Michael Phelps has actually been beaten (it took a world record in the 200m butterfly by German Paul Biedermann) but has won two golds and a silver in the 3 events he has competed in so far. The swimsuit controversy is still raging (more below) but the biggest news so far happened from my biased Canadian point of view was tonight's World Record by Annamay Pierce, from Vancouver by way of Edmonton. She set the record in the semifinals of the 200m breaststroke, and will hopefully bring home a shiny gold medal during the final this weekend. This is Pierce's second World Record set this year (to go with her record in the 200m breast in the 25m shortcourse distance), and while swimming world records are very suspect (keep reading) the fact that a Canadian is the fastest ever over that distance is pretty remarkable.

You may remember that Canada won only one medal at the Olympics in the swimming pool (a bronze by Ryan Cochrane in the 1500m free) and so far this week, Canada has one medal (a bronze by Ryan Cochrane in the 800m free) . We do have some close calls (including a 4th place finish in the 100m free by Brent Hayden, who missed a medal by 0.02s) but ultimately only the one medal. Cochrane does compete in his better event (the 1500m) this weekend, so we do have a good chance at eclipsing the one medal total. Good luck all...

Ok, the World Records and the Swimsuit Controversy deserve a mention. Before the 2009 Worlds started, the governing body of swimming (FINA) announced that it will be banning all high-tech swimsuits. But not until a TBA date in 2010. So sometime next year, all swimmers will have to swim in textile-only suits (no polyurethane like all the suits they wear now) and will only be allowed to be waist-to-knee length for men and shoulder-to-knee for women. No more bodysuits will be allowed. But they permitted the space-age suits for this week's World Championships. So the World Records keep falling...because of these suits.

It's not even the Speedo LZR's fault. Well, not exactly. The suit that ushered in the polyurethane revolution in 2008 is only about 50% polyurethane, whereas new suits are 100% polyurethane, and the added muscle compression, buoyancy, and propulsion are obliterating World Records at a ludicrous pace. 29 World Records so far during the World Championships!! The geniuses at SportScientists.com said it best...

Being a follower of athletics, I'm accustomed to a sport where world records are special, seen by only a few lucky people, achieved by the true greats of the sport. Anyone who has ever witnessed a running world record, for example, can be assured that they were seeing a human being run faster than anyone in history, and that this performance was special.

For swimming, it is not the case. The records are broken with an extra-ordinary regularity.

They go on to evaluate every swimming World Record and determine that the average swimming World Record has been held for less than 12 months, while the average track and field record has been held for almost 10 years! It's 100% about the suits, and swimming now has a huge problem on their hands. Do they banish all the records set with these suits? Do they add asterisks to the record book? Do they do nothing, and let these 2009 records live forever? Or will they simply restart the record book in 2010 with new times and let the 2009 records stand as memories to the good old days when it was all about the swimsuit and less about the swimmer?

More to come...

July flying by...

Hi All,

With the Tour de France all but wrapped up for Alberto Contador, I'm going to spend most of this post talking about things not related to the Tour. But a couple of things need to be said before going on to Track & Field and Triathlon news...

1. Alberto Contador is really, really good. He accelerates uphill like no one else, is by far the best time trialer among the GC riders, and has a huge lead going into Mt Ventoux on Saturday. Yes, he is a terrible teammate (costing his teammate Andreas Kloden vital time the other time after squabbling with Lance the previous week) and of course, there are doping rumours, but in what has been a pretty tight Tour, Contador has blown away the field. He has the talent to win 5 Tours in a row, but it will be interesting to see if he can find a team to protect him during Grand Tours.

2. Lance Armstrong is still great. His climbing skills are still there, and although he is still bit rusty when it comes to quick accelerations and steady time trial efforts. And with Lance planning to return to the 2010 Tour as part of a new American team called Team RadioShack. It is widely expected that Johan Bruyneel will join Lance to run this new team but it will be interesting who else will join Lance. Levi Leipheimer? George Hincapie? Dave Zabriskie? Are there going to be some new Canadians on this team?

Also interesting is that this Team RadioShack is going to support Lance as he competes in "as a cyclist, runner and triathlete in events around the world". Will Lance do Kona? I think he will in 2010, despite some people thinking 2009 might be a possibility. I think Lance will train this winter for next year's Tour, and then become a triathlete a year from now.

3. This year's Tour has been memorable for the controversies as much as for the actual riding. From the Lance vs Alberto headlines from the first week, to the Mark Cavendish vs Thor Hushovd verbal war after Cavendish's relegation, then the Team Garmin keeping rival Team Columbia's George Hincapie out of the Yellow Jersey by 5 seconds, and now Fabian Cancellara is blaming the race motorcycles for helping Alberto Contador beat Cancellara by 3 seconds in the time trial. At least no riders have been sent home for doping...yet...

This weekend has two decently important triathlons. The ITU guys and gals are in Hamburg for race #5 in the 8 race ITU World Championship Series. On the men's side, the race is being skipped by Series leaders Alistair Brownlee and Javier Gomez. Brownlee, who has won all 3 of the Series events he has raced, is taking a little summer break before returning in time for the next Series race in London. Gomez, who has twice finished 2nd and once 3rd in his 3 starts, is also taking a summer siesta. This blows the men's field wide open, and hopefully Simon Whitfield, who is sitting in 30th place in the Men's Series Ranking, will take advantage and win this race. His main competition might come from the hometown Germans Daniel Unger and Jan Frodeno. Whitfield will be joined by fellow Canadians Kyle Jones, Brent McMahon, and Paul Tichelaar. Tichelaar had a great return in the Kitzbuhel race, where he lead the race off the bike before falling back during the run. Here's hoping for a couple of Top Tens for the Canucks!

The women's race is a "Who Can Beat Emma Moffatt" story. Moffatt has won the last two Series races to go with a 2nd place and a win in the Hy-Vee World Cup race. She's been absolutely dominant. The Canadian women have had a great year, with Kathy Tremblay in 6th and Lauren Groves in 1oth in the Series rankings. Paula Findlay from Edmonton, who finished 16th in Kitzbuhel, will also aim for a top result in Hamburg. Good luck Canada!

Speaking of top Canadian women triathletes, Sam McGlone is racing Ironman Lake Placid this weekend. This is her first Ironman since Kona 2007, and it will be interesting to see if McGlone has regained the form that had her beat everyone but Chrissie Wellington in Kona. The rest of the women's field is not real deep, but Caitlin Snow and Hilary Biscay could defeat McGlone if she's not in top form. The men's race does not include any really big names but I'll let you know who wins on Sunday.

Track news...Usain Bolt is running the 100m tonight in London where he might make a serious statement. The undefeated Bolt has recently seen American rival Tyson Gay run a world-leading time of 9.77s in the Golden League race in Rome two weeks ago, beating Asafa Powell handily. Check out the video below.


So now Bolt needs to regain the headlines and the frontrunner status among the 100m group. We will see what happens tonight but I'm guessing Bolt will throw down a great time...9.75?

The Tour de France distracted me from paying too much attention from the IAAF Golden League races in Rome and Paris the last two weekends. With two events to go, only 4 athletes still have a chance to win a share of the 1 million dollar grand prize who win their event in all 6 Golden League races. Here's the current list:

MEN -
3000m/5000m - Kenenisa Bekele (ETH)

WOMEN -
100m - Kerron Stewart (JAM)
400m - Sanya Richards (USA)
Pole Vault - Yelena Isinbayeva (RUS)

Lots more track news in August when the World Championships start in Berlin. I'll keep you posted!

Pretty decent size Dopey Monday coming Monday! Check back...

Friday's Tour Update...and Lance in 2010

Hi All,

I'm writing this post early Friday morning, so I haven't seen the results from Friday's Tour stage, but I do have some thoughts about the Tour before I get into the rest of the goings-on in the world of running and biking!

The Tour thru the first 13 stages is still all about two main stories: the unbeatable Mark Cavendish and the Lance vs Alberto Astana team controversy.

Mark Cavendish won two more sprint stages this week, and has eliminated any doubt that he is the best sprinter in the world. He has now won 4 stages in the first 12 of this year's Tour (to go with his 4 from last year) without being beat in a sprint. True, he does have Columbia's unreal leadout train - with George Hincapie, Tony Martin, and Mark Renshaw leading out Cavendish until the last 400m or so. This is a huge advantage to be sure, but the other sprinters (especially Oscar Friere, Tyler Farrar, and Thor Hushovd) still have had chances to beat Cavendish but Cavendish's unreal late acceleration has so far held off all challengers. There are two more flatish stages (Saturday and then next weekend in Paris) that Cavendish could win. That might be enough to keep him in the Green Jersey, which would be very impressive since Cavendish has never even finished a Grand Tour race before.

Actually, this week the second story kinda disappeared since the 3 stages contained no real hills and thus no real chances for the main riders to attack each other. Alberto did hold a press conference on Monday and say that if Lance attacked on his own that Alberto would hold back and mark the rest of the contenders rather than chase down his own teammate. The friction between the two teammates has mellowed a bit this week, and with today's news that Levi Leipheimer has withdrawn with a broken wrist, Team Astana will have to work a bit tighter together to keep their two main guys out of trouble as the other contenders try to steal a bit of time as the Tour hits the Alps starting on Sunday.

A few nuggets about 2010 as we still sort out 2009. It appears that regardless of the outcome of Lance vs Alberto, there will be a rematch. There was a story yesterday that Alberto Contador will be joining a new Spanish team in 2010. This team is being developed by Contador's buddy Fernando Alonso, the F1 Racing Champion. Much more exciting, it appears that Lance will be back in 2010 as well, as there is lots of noise about him creating his own team, tentatively called Livestrong-Nike, in 2010. The financial difficulties of Team Astana, as well as the return of Alexander Vinokourov later this fall, will probably mean that most of the current Team Astana will move on in 2010. Interestingly, Johan Bruyneel will probably join Lance on the new squad. Guess we know where his loyalties lie...

I will actually try to start doing some daily recaps with all of next week's big stages. Hopefully the fireworks will start soon, since this year's Tour has been rather lackluster, despite Lance's return and the Astana soap opera.

The rest of Bikey comes later on!

Chrissie 8:31:59!

Hi All,

I posted last week that Chrissie Wellington was racing Challenge Roth in Germany this weekend, but I had no idea that Chrissie would do what she did today. Her 50 minute swim, 4:40 bike, and 2:57 run got her to the finish in 8:31:59. This is simply ridiculous when you realize that until last year the best ever Iron-distance time by a female was Paula Newby-Fraser's 8:50:53 in 1994. Then last year, on this same Challenge Roth course, Yvonne Van Vlerken smashed that record by 5 minutes. Today, though, that record was annhilated by Wellington, who lowered it by 14 minutes!!

Congrats also go out to Rebekah Keat from Australia, who also broke the old record by going 8:39 today. Keat is best known for rescuing Chrissie last year at Kona by handing her a CO2 cartridge when Chrissie was stranded with a flat tire.

More on the Challenge Roth later this week..

101 Things to Catch Up On...

Hi All,

I promise to post after Friday's 1st Mountain Stage at the Tour, where Lance and Alberto and the rest of the peloton finally will hit some big hills. But this post will be all about triathlon, running, swimming, and non-Tour de France stories...and I'll try to keep all the points to 3 sentences or less!

Okay, first off, a young Canadian is becoming the new face of Canadian swimming. Amanda Reason, only 15 years old, broke the 50m breaststroke world record by .08 seconds this week, becoming the first Canadian swimmer in 21 years to break a long-course (50m pool) world record. In doing so, she joins her fellow breaststroker Annamay Pierce (who earlier this year set the world record in the 100m short course) as the new stars of Canadian swimming! Great job Amanda! Did i mention she's only 15?

In other swimming news, Michael Phelps is proving that his little break from swimming this past winter is not really affecting his 2009 season. On Wednesday he won both the 200m freestyle and 200m butterfly at the US Swimming Nationals but was disappointed to not better his world records in either event (although he did swim the best time in the world for both events). On Thursday, he finally did break a world record, lowering the world record in the 100m freestyle to 50.22 seconds. Unreal.

Okay, enough swimming talk. Let's move on to some quick Athletics highlights. Watch this video...

Ok, Usain Bolt ran the 4th fastest 200m ever. In the rain. And simply destroyed the field that included 3 Olympic medalists. He is the Chrissie Wellington of sprinting. Can anyone ever push him?

More Athletics news...and it's all bad. First it was Tyler Christopher pulling up lame during the 400m event at Canadian Nationals. Then it was his coach quitting to take a new job with UK Athletics (his first coach also left for UK Athletics last year). That makes at least 4 top-notch Canadian coaches to have left Canada for Great Britain in the past year. Brutal. Tyler Christopher was the 2008 World Indoor Champion in the 400m and is now in tough to even get to the 2009 Worlds.

Oh yeah, congrats to Perdita Felicien for winning the 100m Hurdles title at the Canadian champs in Toronto in June. She finally beat her new rival Priscilla Lopes-Schliep in the final and appears back to the shape that made her world champion way back in 2003. And hopefully Perdita and Priscilla can share the podium in Berlin next month at Worlds.

Some breaking month-and-a-half-old news that I forgot to post. Deriba Merga, who won Boston Marathon in April, came to Ottawa in May to try and challenge the World 10K Record. He missed the record (27:01 for anyone who wants to try it) by 23 seconds. However, he did set a world record for the 8K distance, as he covered it in 21 minutes and 48 seconds (which makes his average km go by in 2 minutes and 43 seconds). I thought it warranted a mention!

Triathlon season is flying by, and so many races to report on. But first, we have one less guy wearing gloves and white tights to cheer on at Kona. Torbjorn Sindballe, the uber-biking Dane, has been forced to retire due to a heart condition. He has a moderate leak of his aortic valve, and the risk of serious injury was too high to continue his racing career. So we say goodbye to "Thunder Bear" and wish him well.

Okay, Ironman races have been happening around the world. The biggest mid-season races occur in Germany every summer, with Ironman Germany having happened last weekend and Challenge Roth coming up this weekend. Ironman Germany had a showdown between Chris McCormack and Eneka Llanos upstaged by Timo Bracht, who broke the course record to beat Llanos by a 50 seconds. On the women's side, it was Sandra Wallenhorst who broke 9 hours and defeated Yvonne Van Vlerken by 4 minutes. Very impressive wins by both Germans! This weekend in Roth we see Chrissie Wellington try to keep her undefeated streak alive (she's at 6 Ironman wins in a row) in Roth against a women's field that includes Belinda Granger and Erika Csomor, while Normann Stadler leads the men's field in his first Iron-distance race since Kona.

The other mid-year Ironman races in Japan, France, and Austria didn't really have super-competitive fields.

This weekend in triathlon features two huge races, on opposite sides of the Atlantic. On Saturday, most of the top North American athletes will be racing at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon in Minneapolis. With $20,000 to the winner, the men's field is pretty deep, with Greg Bennett, Andy Potts, Matt Reed, and Craig Alexander all competing in the non-drafting race. Unfortunately, I think Canada is sitting out this race.

The other big race (actually it's much bigger) this weekend takes place in Kitzbuhel, Austria. It's race #4 in the ITU World Championship Series, and most of the global stars are taking part. The men's race goes on Saturday and includes Alistair Brownlee (going for win #3 in a row in the WC Series), Javier Gomez, Jan Frodeno, Brad Kahlefeldt, Bevan Docherty, etc. The start list also includes Canadian men Brent McMahon and Paul Tichelaar, who might be making his 2009 ITU debut.

The women's race takes place on Sunday in Kitzbuhel includes Vanessa Fernandes, Hollie Avil, Lauren Groves of Canada, and Emma Moffatt. Vanessa Fernandes started her 2009 season last week at the European Championships, where she finished third. It was the first time in 6 years that she didn't win! The other Emma, Emma Snowsill, has a bit of an injury and is sitting out. Too bad, we have yet to see Snowsill and Fernandes in the same race yet this year. Also notable in the women's race is Edmonton's Paula Findlay racing her first ITU World Championship Event. Good luck to all!

Okay, that's it for today! Enjoy the races!

Lance Turning Back the Clock...

Hi All,

I know that some people might have interests outside of the ongoing Tour de France, but you people are out of luck. Actually, this Friday's Bikey might have something for you. So check back then. But for the rest of you...

This year's Tour is shaping up to be the dogfight that we expected it to be. But rather than the Contador vs Lance vs Cadel vs Schleck vs Sastre Tour that we all thought we might be seeing in the high mountains that start on Friday's Stage 7, the Tour so far has revolved around the question "Who is leading Team Astana?"

Let's recap quickly - rather predictably, Fabian Cancellara won the Stage 1 Time Trial to jump into yellow. Team Astana put four guys into the top 10 (including Contador in second and Lance in 10th) and the Tour settled into its predictable rhythm with a first week full of flat stages where the sprinters make headlines and the race faves settle into the background until the road goes up. Except after Stage 2 where Mark Cavendish easily took the sprint win, Stage 3 turned the race upside down. A freak crosswind broke the peloton apart with 25 km to go, and Lance Armstrong took full advantage. He tucked into the lead group that was driven by Team Columbia (ultimately resulting in another stage win for Cavendish), and gained 40 seconds on the trailing peloton that contained all the top GC riders, including Lance's teammate and Astana's supposed team leader Alberto Contador. This vaulted Lance from 10th into 3rd in the overall , ahead of Contador and the rest of the of the top riders after Stage 3.





This put Astana in the enviable position of having their two top riders near the top of the standings (Contador is 4th overall, 19 seconds back of Lance) but the unenviable position of having to decide which rider might be their true leader. This has been the question since Lance came back from retirement - who is the alpha male for Astana - but finally it appears that it is close to the time where we all find out the answer. This is more than a simple decision - Contador has won 3 straight Grand Tours while Lance won 7 straight Tour de Frances before retiring in 2005. And despite Lance, Alberto, and Johan Bruyneel (the team director for Astana) all trying to say the politically correct things, the fact remains that neither Lance nor Alberto seem to be 100% sold on the idea of sharing the top billing. This story from mid-June shows that Contador was in active talks with at least two teams (Garmin and Caisse d'Epargne) to join them if Astana folded before the Tour started (it was in financial turmoil until days before the Tour started). So obviously Contador is not 100% happy being Lance's teammate, there is bound to be friction. But friction is still a long way from jeopardizing the team's goal of a Yellow Jersey in Paris in two-and-a-half-weeks...


With a time lead over Contador heading into Tuesday's team time trial, Astana was in great position to try and take the Yellow Jersey from Cancellara if they could win the stage by 40 seconds. In a performance reminiscent of the Blue Train that Lance's USPS team of the early 2000's was famous for, Team Astana won the stage by exactly those 40 seconds, and tonight Lance sits in a virtual tie for the race lead. He is not the official leader (Cancellara still leads by less than half a second) but is in the driver's seat to seize the race lead once the mountains begin on Friday. All Lance needs to do is to finish alongside Contador and he will probably go to bed on Friday evening as the race leader. Of course, another twist could switch this up, but right now, Lance might be chuckling to himself at how well this is playing out for him.


What will happen in the days to come? Lance needs a couple more good breaks like the one that happened yesterday to stay ahead of the younger (and potentially stronger) cyclists who are out to dethrone the 7-time champ. I'd still wager that Contador will win the race. But cheering for Lance these last four days is like cheering for a back-from-retirement Michael Jordan in 1996 or watching Jack Nicklaus climb up the leaderboard at the Masters in 1986. It's great to see Lance back being relevant at the Tour. Let's keep hoping...

The Tour is Finally Here...an Official Bikey Preview!

Hi All,

With the Tour now less than 24 hours away, I wanted to preview what is shaping up as an epic 3-week bike ride around France. It actually starts tomorrow (Saturday) with a fairly technical individual time trial in Monaco. Although only 15.5 km, it is tough enough for the general classification contenders (i'll get to them in a second) to put some time on each other.

So a little background on this year's event. It starts in Monaco, winds its way thru the south of France into Spain, then goes back thru the Alps into Switzerland before finishing (as always) in Paris. The first week includes four fairly flat stages (perfect for sprint finishes), a team time trial (Stage 4) and only on Friday we will see the big mountains become a factor. So week 1 is all about the sprint finishes, although the big names will want to be somewhat competitive on the first individual time trial and the team time trial.

Okay, so who's going to win? Well, if I had to bet my house, I would probably bet on Astana's Alberto Contador. He has had a great year so far, rides for the strongest team, and has won his last 3 Grand Tours. Is he a sure shot? He is also the overwhelming betting favorite, at pretty close to even odds (you would have to bet a dollar to win a dollar), whereas Lance and the rest of the peloton is at least 5 to 1 odds (bet a dollar to win 5).

There are reasons why Contador might not win though. His three Grand Tours victories have all come against lesser fields than this year's Tour. As well, one of his teammates is Lance Armstrong, who may try to make some headlines of his own and possible usurp his own teammate. There are lots of rumblings about Team Astana being split with some riders being pro-Armstrong and some being pro-Contador. Lance has always targeted the Tour de France as his race, and it appears that he is finally in climbing shape to compete with the rest of the GC guys. He has lost weight, has trained at altitude, and appears ready to put his stamp on the 2009 Tour. Lance hasn't not won a Tour de France that he has competed in since 1996, and that was pre-cancer Lance.

So can Lance win? Sure he can. Anyone who counts Lance out right now is a fool, since Lance has made a career out of doing things that people tell him can't be done. Come back from cancer to win the Tour? Impossible. Win it a second time? Win it 5 times in a row? Six? Seven? Check. Lance has always done the impossible in France, and it appears that he will be giving it all he has again this year. Truthfully, a lot of us will be watching his time trial tomorrow to see if "old Lance" makes an appearance....

Ok, if not for the Astana boys (remember, they also have Andreas Kloden and Levi Leipheimer riding with Alberto and Lance too), who else could win? It's a pretty short list in 2009. There are really only 4 other main contenders who have the pedigree to challenge up front...

1. Carlos Sastre - Last year's winner is back. And while he showed amazing climbing fitness during the Giro when he simply left everyone else in his wake, he probably doesn't time trial well enough to stay close to the rest of the contenders. Add in the fact that his team (Cervelo TestTeam) is considerably weaker than his team of 2008 (where he had the Schlecks as helpers), and it's doubtful that Sastre will successfully defend his title. If he can stay close through the first two weeks, he could be a factor in week 3. He does seem to embrace his underdog role in 2009...


2. Andy Schleck - Now that Carlos Sastre has left to Team Cervelo, Andy Schleck is the main guy on Saxo Bank. His brother Frank, who lead the Tour for a few days last year before Carlos Sastre took over on Alpe D'Huez. Frank has not a great year in 2009, but younger brother Andy (who won the white jersey last year as best rider under 26 years old) has had a breakthrough year. He won Liege-Bastogne-Liege this year, and is the winner-in-waiting for La Fleche Wallone this year (where Davide Rebellin won but is now in a doping scandal). Andy proved he could hang with the big boys last year, but now that he is the main man for Saxo Bank, he will be expected to contend and be a key factor in the last week.

3. Cadel Evans - the Aussie who has finished 2nd in 2007 and 2008 is back in 2009 to try and move up to the top spot on the podium. The biggest question with Evans is his team (Silence-Lotto) since they don't have a great rider to stay with Evans near the end of the big mountain stages. Evans might have to do a lot of the work at the front by himself defending against all the rest of the top contenders, which might be tough with all the key helpers from Astana and Saxo Bank that can climb and help out their team leaders. Anyhow, Evans does have the experience, the climbing fitness (he actually beat Contador in the Dauphine Libere) and the time trial consistency to be factor.

Evans and Silence-Lotto also sustained a pretty good body blow this week, when teammate Thomas Dekker was excluded from the Tour after the UCI released the results of his biological passport. A test from December 2007 tested positive for EPO, so he is now suspended (and likely banned for two years). Dekker has been suspected for some time, with his 2008 team Rabobank actually keeping him from the 2008 Tour de France due to some "abnormal blood values". He was never suspended, and joined Rabobank at the end of 2008.

4. Denis Menchov - Just won the Giro by being the fastest time trialist of the real mountain climbers, and stayed near to his closest contenders on every climb to ensure that no one could make up the time gaps. But can he can go back to back? The last man to win both the Giro and the Tour in the same year was Marco Pantani in 1998. Can Menchov do it? I think he could. He's now won three Grand Tours, but he will have to attack way more in the Tour since it's unlikely that he will make up enough time in the time trials. He does have Robert Gesink as his key teammate in this year's Tour, and Menchov himself thinks he can win...

Personally, Contador looks almost unbeatable. But if he slips up once or twice, there will be a large group of contenders ready to take advantage. I'll pick Contador with Menchov and Lance rounding out the podium. Of the big names, I think Sastre might struggle a bit in 2009. I know he can climb, but i think he might lose too much time in the time trials to stay at the top. Here's a preview by VeloNews...

Lots more to come, including a look at possible winners of the Green and Polka-dot jerseys...stay tuned...