American Taylor Phinney in the overall lead, flanked by not-your-usual podium girls. (Photo: AP)
As the XXII Olympic Winter Games get underway, while Jay Leno bids farewell (again) to “The Tonight Show”, a uniquely different event has been taking place this week that’s truly a first: The inaugural Tour of Dubai is underway for a whopping total of… well, four days. Sixteen professional cycling teams are braving the region’s flat, sandy terrain for a cumulative distance of 417 kilometers, not even 65 miles per day! Hmmm, I wonder is they’ll even break a sweat? Maybe best they don’t; the cycling season is young yet, after all. Next up after Saturday: The six-stage Tour of Qatar.
“About how many kilometers did you ride last year?”, I asked him just after our photo was taken. His answer comes out to about three times my amount– that is, what equates to around 310 miles per week to my 110, roughly 1350 miles per month to my 475, and more than 16,000 miles for the year to my less than 6,000. Altogether, it looks like my own dust settles at about 35 percent of his answer to my question: “about 26 thousand kilometers.” Naturally he’s the pro and he’s getting paid; I’m not and I’m not, as reality likes to remind me. Still, it feels good to be more than a third of the way there!
A privilege and a pleasure it was to meet cycling great Peter Sagan at Cannondale’s 2014 team launch party on January 7 at the Canyon Club in Agoura, California. For as exhausted as he and his teammates surely must have been by the end of the evening, together they put on one excellent show for all of us. You won’t find them spinning through the streets of Thousand Oaks for long however, as races are fast underway. We’ll see Peter back here in no time of course, ready to defend his green jersey in the Tour of California come May. For now– one week in– let the cycling year begin, for the pros and all of us somewhere behind them!
The 2014 Amgen Tour of California is already taking shape, with the official route revealed this week. The peloton will once again be rolling through our familiar streets– and we can’t say we didn’t know it!
As we’ve already known for a while now, it will begin in the United Kingdom. While not a first, it’s all the more fitting this time around, given a defending champion of the same nation of course.
Behold, the route for the 2014 Tour de France has hereby been unveiled, avec distinctly British spin.
Talk about defying sporting convention. One week ago– Sunday, September 15– marked an unforgettable moment in cycling history (fingers crossed). And then we waited, more or less along these lines:
The protocol looks something like this: Win a race, get kisses from the podium girls, shake hands with the Badger, and then wait for journalists to question the legitimacy of your performance. (VeloNews, 9/16/13).
Cycling’s 41-year-old Grand Tour champion!
Fortunately, aside from the “drug testing mix-up” that was quickly deemed no fault of his own, there’s been very little if any rumbling throughout the week about “legitimacy” in this case. As such it looks like we really can commend a remarkable accomplishment for what it is, even in a sport that at this point in time cannot be trusted, sadly yet understandably enough.
Those who see an age limit on athletic victory will probably want to reconsider their outlook. One week on, the headline can now be repeated with all the more confidence: 41-year-old American Chris Horner— close to 42 no less– has won the 2013 Vuelta a Espana. Not only is he the first American in history to capture Spain’s annual three-week cycling race, but the Oregon resident has also become by far the oldest rider ever to win one of cycling’s three Grand Tours– the other two of course Le Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.
Along with victory comes the defense, as expected. Assuming no doping in today’s supposedly “cleaner” era of cycling, which even after a week we must still believe on faith without proof, this unlikely victory a month shy of the winner’s 42nd birthday is just plain awesome! Chris Homer stands a true inspiration to all competitive cyclists who, both mentally and physically, are never too old! Thank you “Grandpa.”
Happily recalling my “big” cycling streak of 2008, that summer I proudly pedaled 50 consecutive days. Now in the summer of 2013 I’ve surprisingly yet gladly surpassed that number, marking a grand total of 65 straight days in the saddle. From June 29 through September 1, my never-complaining legs propelled me 1625 miles altogether, for a modest yet perfect average of 25 miles per day. With this “average” accomplishment I now rest for a day– or two, or three– before resuming in pursuit of my yet-to-be-set distance goal of the year.
20082013
Consecutive Days: 50 65
Total Mileage: 1480 1625
Daily Average: 29.6 25.0
Longest Day: 71.0 70.1
Five years older, apparently I’ve fallen into shorter rides overall, reflected in the lower daily average without any longer single days. Altogether, now with some extra pounds on me, plus an aging machine, a few mechanical setbacks, and those ever-present daily time limitations, I’m thankful to be keeping myself in relatively decent cycling shape while a return to competition remains my goal, other factors permitting.
Meanwhile, when I refer to my stats “matching up perfectly with the months,” this is to say my end-of-month distances have been hitting milestone numbers, while my average has increased proportionately. Neatly enough, on May 31 I totaled 2000 miles for the year, at a 400 mile-per-month average. Then on August 31 my year-to-date total hit 4000 miles– notably sooner than last year— for an overall monthly average of 500.
In any event, I’m getting there– wherever “there” is! It’s all relative– that is, what seems like a lot to a novice is nothing to a pro, while I remain somewhere in between. And as I’ve said I say once more: It’s now time for a short rest. I’ll catch you back out there very soon, unless you more likely catch me first!
If cycling were like the World Series, Peter Sagan would be the overall winner! After all, the ever-impressive national champion of Slovakia has just taken four of seven stages this past week in Colorado. Naturally he remains victorious in his usual color of green, having once again proven his sprinting dominance.
The man in green scores his fourth win of the week.
After two years ago finishing third, then last year second, now– fittingly enough– Colorado’s native son takes first, just as he did at this year’s Tour of California. Tejay Van Garderen has won the 2013 USA Pro Challenge. Along with this we say goodbye on American soil to 2012 PC champion Christian Vande Velde, who’s heading into retirement after a few more races in Europe, hopefully competing alongside 2013 Tour de France champion Chris Froome who surprisingly abandoned the Pro Challenge on stage 7. Meanwhile, his long-range attack this week may not be the last one we see, as 41-year-old Jens Voigt is not retiring this season.
Tejay takes his number one spot on the Denver podium.
So comes and goes another remarkable chapter of professional bicycle racing, this one all the more special for taking place here in the U.S. Pedaling on now to the next, already underway in Spain!
With the reigning Tour de France champion having crossed the Atlantic to “challenge” this week’s defending titleholder, among all others, the USA Pro Challenge is off and hammering once again throughout Colorado. Just over a week now since the Tour of Utah closed shop, “America’s Race” wrapped day one with a stage win by Mr. Wheelie himself— sans green goatee and atypical (for him) altitude notwithstanding. However the next six days unfold, Phil Liggett will of course keep us in the know. Meanwhile, kudos to our favorite Peter!
Peter Sagan wins Stage 1 of the 2013 USA Pro Challenge.
83 percent it was to be exact, 1403 kilometers out of the challenge of 1680 in 33 days. Oh well– I gave it a shot, amid a few other activities vying for my time, such as work of course.
And then, away they went. The absence was present this morning. I missed waking up to Le Tour, though I must say I did NOT miss some of those commercials I’ve now seen more times than I care to count! Still, my favorite official teaser that could now use some fresh additional clips, for today gets a parting reblog.
I’m just glad the new Royal baby waited until the day after Le Tour was over to make his debut, so as not to divert British celebratory energies of course. Great Britain has much to celebrate this week– a second Tour win yesterday, a new heir to the throne today— what’s next? In any event, until 101– Vive Le Tour!
From a chaotic beginning to a first-time evening end, along with everything good, bad, high and low spanning three weeks time, the 100th Tour de France has reached its always much-celebrated final destination. With the major standings in place, one big question of course remained to be answered at the last moment of stage 21: Would the Missile get his beyond record-breaking fifth consecutive win on Le Champs-Elysees?
The peloton arrives in Paris on a perfectly picturesque evening.
Yes, his goatee is green too!
Peter has his green, Nairo has his white AND his polka dots, the U.S. got a top-ten overall win even without any stage victories, and as we knew for a while would be the grand result, Chris Froome keeps yellow as the winner of the Tour de France. On the other end, fun-themed Orica GreenEDGE— seeing all nine teammates to the finish– includes 36-year-old rookie Svein Tuft in last place overall– a distinction Phil Liggett quickly reminded us today that for the feat of completing this 3404-kilometer journey, carries no disgrace whatsoever.
The final finish in Paris ends the 100th Tour.
As for Cavendish, certainly no disgrace for him either. It was close– very close— as his four consecutive Paris stage wins stand as a record not about to be broken, yet not to be added to today. He lost his would-be fifth by a bike length to none other than “new sheriff” Marcel Kittel.
Chris Froome takes the first-place podium on this Paris night.
The leading color of the evening’s celebration!
Altogether, another spectacular French summer display of professional cycling prowess has now come and gone, all the more colorfully concluded with Paris’ well-planned Centennial year celebration. Personally, I’m happy to have been able to stay in the cycling spirit with my own rides on every day of this Tour. More than ever I look forward to my own miles to come in the saddle– as well as those of the awesome pros!
A 41-year-old Tour de France competitor leading a stage is quite a reassuring sight for those of us cyclists nearing that age! Jens Voigt— the oldest rider of this year’s Tour– shed the breakaway and set the pace for more than 30 miles heading into the finish of stage 20. This impressive moment not to be overlooked, youth ultimately prevailed however. The very steady and poker-faced Nairo Quintana finally earned himself not only a stage win in his first Tour, not just the polka dot jersey in addition to the white jersey he was already wearing, but perhaps the biggest accomplishment for the 23-year-old Columbian, a bump up to second place overall. Maybe now this newest rising star of cycling will relax and show us some more personality, perhaps after a lesson or two from the master show-off himself, Peter Sagan.
Speaking of the colorful Slovak, green remains his main one as it has throughout this Tour, aside from his Cannondale kit of course. The green jersey that became Sagan’s after stage 3 and stayed on his back ever since, is sure to be his for keeps in Paris tomorrow, again! This champion sprinter– also 23 by the way– has the right to show off!
Last year’s second is becoming this year’s first. In other words, yellow today did not change shoulders. And on that note, this Centennial Tour is set for its grand finale, as 170 surviving riders– far more than last year’s number– get set to pedal their last 83 miles in this 2,115-mile journey, ending on Le Champs-Elysees as usual, while unusually– at night! I can’t wait to see this, while for other obvious reasons surely the 170 can’t either!
France might just have done it again, as another victory du jour looked promising for a long stretch of the day with Pierre Rolland in the lead. As it happened though, Rui Costa stole his own encore performance— all alone to cross the finish line once more– in a water-logged stage 19 finish.
Le Tour seems always beset by interestingly timed natural challenges. Today it was torrential rain in the stage’s final miles, just enough to create a soaked and all-the-more dangerous last descent to the line. With no wet-road wipeouts fortunately, and the main breakaway group kept huddled together, the general classification remains mostly unchanged at the end of this penultimate day in the Alps. Just one more, Chris!
Not once, but twice it was on this most difficult day of Le Tour– an arduous climb up the famed Alpe d’Huez, followed by the obvious descent, and then to reach the finish of stage 18, encore! The much-anticipated second zigzagging ascent of the same mountain clearly put the D in difficulty.
Overtake on the final stretch.
Capping off unpredictability aplenty, this iconic Tour leg finally earned France its first stage victory of the year, following the near miss in Lyon. For a good stretch it looked like it might have been this Tour’s first American winning day with Tejay Van Garderen in the lead up that wall-hitting final climb. At just two kilometers to the line however, the result made itself clear, and a French win could not have come on a more celebrated day than this. Christophe Riblon is France’s well-deserved hero du jour.
France’s very own stage 18 winner!
What was I just saying earlier this week about spectators? Today’s extremely crowded finish has to exemplify cycling fans at their craziest, so much so that in sections without barricades, thousands of overly amped onlookers consume nearly the entire road! While this is not new of course, it leaves me pondering the detriment to riders such as Van Garderen in this case, who might have better maintained his line and his concentration if not for getting chased, slapped and screamed at in the face by such “spirited” fans. Their passion and energy notwithstanding, should not a bit more control in such crucial moments be imposed?
A hard day in yellow.
In any case, now second-place Contador still can’t catch the leader, even with Froome’s 20-second penalty today. Le maillot jaune remains on the same shoulders with a now more than five-minute gap and two remaining climbing days before the ride into Paris. As always, anything could happen yet– even France shouting “encore” for another stage victory!
The so-called “sunshine tour” came to an end today. After more than two weeks of dry weather throughout France, the rain arrived on stage 17, just in time to make the mountain time trial a bit more interesting.
As it happened, the Tour leader held off his main rival both today and overall, winning this second and final individual trial by a sizable nine seconds while increasing his yellow jersey lead by a significant 20 seconds. What was looking good for Froome is now looking even better!
Train stops riders in their tracks. (Click for video)
Rarely does the peloton come to a standstill, but today it did so momentarily for a passing train!
Stage 16 victory
In a single-man breakaway from the breakaway, Team Movistar’s Rui Costa scored a solo stage 16 win, 42 seconds ahead of his closest threats and more than 11 minutes ahead of the yellow jersey group. This does nothing however to change Chris Froome’s overall standing– his more than four-minute hold on le maillot jaune– despite apparently increasing efforts by his biggest rival, two-time Tour winner Alberto Contador. Even with the Alps to come, it’s obvious the leading riders are beginning to see Le Tour’s end.
On this second rest day of the 100th Tour de France, here’s a look at a special yet sometimes vexing thread of the race’s overall fabric: The spectators. Year after year, thousands upon thousands of colorful fans decorate the roadsides of France, at times problematically so but typically in good form and often laughingly creative.
I hope in years to come we see this many spectators along race routes here in the U.S., ideally less of a danger to riders of course, but definitely just as “spirited.” Surely some of them need the rest today as well!
On this Bastille Day, some 300 thousand die-hard spectators lined the path of what’s considered cycling’s most difficult climb. The fact it came at the end of Le Tour’s longest stage didn’t make the feat any easier.
Froome takes Mont Ventoux on Bastille Day.
As it happened, overall leader Chris Froome ascented to a first-for-Britain win atop the feared Mont Ventoux, not only retaining le maillot jaune which he snagged a week ago, but also earning the polka dot jersey while re-stretching his lead time to more than four minutes. Paris is clearly looking good for him, though of course an entire week remains. In any case, after the collective exhaustion of reaching this stage 15 summit finish, tomorrow’s second rest day must for everyone look as good as Froome did today.
France has yet to win a Tour stage this year, and today it came close to happening– screamingly close. Crowds lining the streets of Lyon cheered for their countryman to bring home the victory on this eve of Bastille Day, and Sojasun’s Julien Simon appeared determined to deliver here in stage 14. Unfortunately for him, the gap that kept getting smaller in those last stretches finally closed at just one kilometer to the finish line.
So goes the final attack in just about any flat stage finish. Ironically enough, seeing as there’s been no American stage win either this year, we came even closer to one in today’s last seconds with Garmin-Sharp’s Andrew Talansky finishing a strong third. The early 18-man breakaway stayed away– sans our usual sprint favorites– handing le triomphe du jour to the Missile’s roommate and first Italian stage winner since 2010, Omega-Pharma’s Matteo Trentin.
As usual, anything can change at any moment, as one more kilometer– let alone one more meter– makes all the difference.
For those who think revenge was served yesterday, the Missile sure solved them today!
There he is, at the back left of the lead group.
In the latest trek du jour across flat central farmland that was meant to be an “easy” one, strong crosswinds dictated otherwise, breaking up the peloton into unexpected yet long-hammering groups that ultimately delivered the winner of stage 13. Triumphantly reversing his bout of bad PR, Mark Cavendish powered across today’s finish line in an unquestioned first place, earning his 25th career Tour de France stage win!
Sagan was nowhere near him– relatively speaking of course.
Now more than halfway to Paris, Phil Liggett stands corrected. You CAN catch the Manx Missile at the line, and the man now with three Tour stage wins for the year was just the one to do it today in stage 12. As if Cavendish hasn’t already endured a difficult past couple days– being sprayed with urine and then uninvited to a post-Tour race event following his disputed role in that stage 10 near-finish-line wipeout– this chateau-dotted sprinter’s stage ended with what his critics surely consider the perfect revenge, even by a matter of inches.
Stage 12: A “New Sheriff in Town” as Bobke puts it!
It’s a solo chase of time, racing against nothing but the clock. And thus emerges one individual among individuals in such a time trial. Definitely a different game it is, seeing as yesterday’s winner now finished near last in stage 11. Today the victorious man– beating Le Tour’s current yellow jersey wearer by a significant 12 seconds– is the defending world time trial champion, Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Tony Martin.
Today’s winner of the first of two Tour de France individual time trials.
The peloton finally catches the day’s early breakaway.
As epic as the climbing stages typically are, they always reshuffle the deck. In other words, I was missing my favorite sprinters until their grand return today in quite a charmingly picturesque stage 10. Throughout this lovely 122-mile day of predominantly flat western countryside terrain– made for the likes of Greipel, Sagan and the famous Missile, among others– the stage winner remained an unpredictable prediction.
A two-man fight to the finish closed the day. After five major climbs, stage 9 is history with yet another first-for-this-Tour winner, just in time for some much-deserved “rest” tomorrow.
One down, two to go– referring to weeks, that is! And some will say the real Tour began today, if of course you equate “real” with the battle for le maillot jaune as intense climbing got underway with stage 8 in the Pyrenees.
A suspenseful, spectator-filled climb it was to the high point of Le Tour 2013, Col de Pailheres. Silly me for turning away from the television for a few minutes this morning to get ready for my own 70-mile ride, because before I knew it the leader of the day’s biggest climb was overtaken on the final climb to the finish.
No sooner did I wish for it yesterday than now it happened. After his series of second-place finishes, and thanks to incredible teamwork, Peter Sagan finally got his win today in stage 7!
By more than a bike length!
Meanwhile, what I hoped against two days ago came today after another crash and without much surprise. That is, Christian Vande Velde is out, his last Tour cut short under less-than-desirable circumstances.
Then of course, the maillot jaune that yesterday went for the first time in Tour history to a South African rider remains with him today, having been passed among teammates from Simon Gerrans to Daryl Impey. And from here we move on to the Pyrenees, where it could quickly change shoulders yet again!
As the sprinters raced to the finish line of today’s primarily flat stage, my own thoughts sped along with them. Would this finally be Peter Sagan’s day, giving him a well-deserved first Tour win of the year? Or rather, would “The Missile” take back-to-back stage victories and up his magic number to 25? As usual, they got to the front of the peloton in those key final moments today, after both having to do some unusual– for them at least– catching-up. Bike trouble delayed Sagan momentarily, while Cavendish picked himself up from a crash. From there– impressive as always– it was all about teamwork and rolling mechanics to put them back in position.
Talk about thinking fast. It turns out my speeding thoughts couldn’t keep up, because I was wrong on both questions. The Missile had to settle for the number four spot today, while the 23-year-old Slovakian saw his THIRD second-place finish of the year thus far. After all these “seconds”, I’m really looking forward to a stage win for Sagan. For now I’m glad he holds onto the sprinter’s green jersey.
In any case, another day in France is done, now with four more rider losses unfortunately. Today’s accolades for stage 6 go to– in addition to the impressive teamwork of Sagan’s Cannondale and the valiant yet unsuccessful effort of Nacer Bouhanni– the big winner du jour of course, the always-powerful Andre Greipel.
Andre Greipel was right there, as was Peter Sagan of course. Today however, I was cheering for a much-anticipated victory by the Manx Missile. And sure enough, he came through! The awesome Mark Cavendish won stage 5 in Marseille, his first stage win of this year’s Tour de France and his 24th overall.
July 3, 2013: The Missile Takes It!
Meanwhile, after a crash about 10 miles from the finish line, let’s hope American veteran Christian Vande Velde is not too banged up to have to end his final Tour this soon. Sadly– and some will say harshly– another American, the already-injured Ted King, is now out by rule of the Tour judges for finishing yesterday’s team time trial seven seconds outside the time limit, despite his best-though-crippled efforts.
Altogether, for a long 142 miles complete with another multiple-rider crash just yards from the end, along with raw emotions spanning victory to elimination, this riveting day– the second longest– has exemplified Le Tour in truest form. From the making of winners to “the shattering of dreams and breaking of hearts” as Bob Roll reminds us, it’s on to tomorrow of course, still far from yet all the closer to Paris.
Ryan R. Sanderson 