Super bowl of Cycling!

I know this post isn’t going to excite a lot of people because it is about le Tour de France, but this blog is about things that interest me and I love watching the tour. I have been enjoying the tour since before Lance won his first one in 99. It just amazes me to watch these guys ride the different stages of the race. To see the strategy, teamwork and true athleticism of the riders in incredible. This year there isn’t a clear-cut favorite and that makes the stages more exciting and you can’t predict who is going to take a stage or where the Yellow Jersey is going to be at the end of the day. The Yellow Jersey has been worn by 7 different riders this year already and I expect it will change hands another 2 or 3 times before they get to Paris on the last day.

All of the stages are pretty grueling even on the flat stages. I mean come on; they are riding up to 200KM a day for three weeks straight! That is hard when the roads are flat, but throw in some hills and mountains and the race starts to get interesting. They had to go through some mountain stages while they went through the Pyrenees but the major mountains came this week when they hit the Alps. The stage yesterday was the 3rd longest stage of the tour, but by far the hardest due to the drastic elevation changes and the mountain top finish. This is the Queen stage of the race and it separated the top riders from the wannabes! This stage is considered the Super bowl of the Cycling world and it didn’t disappoint. For cycling fans, this was as exciting as this past Super Bowl was for football fans! There were 3 beyond category climbs and 2 very hairy descents, which were extremely dangerous to even the best descenders on the tour, and the finial 15km going straight up L’Alpe-D’Huez. This climb is the nastiest climb in France and totally inflicts pain on the riders. There are 21 cutbacks on the road to the top, which I am sure play with the riders mentally as well as physically.

The actual racing was great! There were breakaways that were eventually caught and most of the peloton, or at least the General Classification (GC) riders, all started the finial climb at the same time. But that soon changed and attacks started coming fast and furiously. It was truly great racing! Finally one of the GC riders made a break and was able to separate him from the rest of the pack. Carlos Sastre from team CSC Saxo Bank rode an amazing final 15K. Even though some of the other GC riders tried to bridge the gap, they were never able to and Sastre went on to win the toughest stage in the toughest bike race on the planet. Team CSC is riding a great tour and it is clear they are the strongest team. But that doesn’t mean one of their guys will win it all. Their riders are great climbers, but not so strong in the Time Trail which is coming up on Saturday. That is where the winner of the 2008 Tour de France will be determined.

Here is the profile of the 17th stage

There is one American that still has a shot to win it all or at least get a spot on the podium in Paris. Christian Vandevelde who rides for Team Garmin Chipotle is sitting in 6th place 4:41 behind the leader. Christian has ridden a great race so far and is in pretty good shape to get a podium spot. He is a very strong time trailer and could easily make up 3-4 minutes on Carlos Sastre who is not that strong as a time trailer. So it is going to be interesting to see how things unfold between now and when they arrive in Paris on Sunday. Who knows who is going to win it all, but my prediction is Cadel Evans. He has had a strong overall race and is very strong in the time trail. I can’t wait to see how it plays out on the Champs-Elysees!