Le Tour starts today in Monaco with a 15.5km individual time trial. Each rider is on his own and basically goes pretty much all out for about 10 miles with the fastest times being just under 20 minutes. Roughly 30mph. The riders wear more streamlined aerodynamic clothes and use a special time-trial bike that is also more aerodynamic. These bikes aren’t allowed to be used in the regular stages. They handle much too flakey to be riding in a large pack of other riders. See Pictures below.
Since Lance seems to be the rider that most people care about, he did very well for an old guy who has been off for 3 years. Plus ‘his’ team (team Astana) had 3 other riders in the top 10 and leads the team competition. Astana may have the old problem of two many chiefs and not enough Indians. Look for the who’s the leader question to be answered later this coming week when the riders hit some of the harder mountain stages. If Lance can hang with the leaders when they get to the big hills then it will be his team, otherwise it will be up for grabs with Contador and Leipheimer the mostly likely to come out on top.
Results
1 Fabian Cancellara
2 Alberto Contador
3 Bradley Wiggins
4 Andreas Kloden
5 Cadel Evans
10 Lance Armstrong (40 seconds off the lead)
The Jerseys:
Yellow – Fabian Cancellara in first place by 18 seconds
Green – Bradley Wiggins
Polka Dot – Alberto Contador
White – Roman Kreuziger
Fun Tour Fact –
What is a peloton?
It’s a French word meaning “platoon” that’s used to describe the largest group of riders. The peloton is also referred to as the pack or the bunch.
Time Trial Bike - Used only for time trials and triathlons
Road Bike
No comments:
Post a Comment