Don't know if anyone's out there watching the Tour de France, but I'll give you the quick recap in case you get stuck talking to a cycling fan at a cocktail party this weekend. And what a party that must be where cycling fans are invited. You know those parties where the illegal stuff is going on behind a closed bedroom door? Invite a cycling fan inside and you get some serious chemicals going on.
After 12 stages, the pre-race favorite, Cadel Evans of Australia and Silence Lotto is wearing yellow. He survived a Stage 9 crash to ride well in the Pyrenees, overtaking leader Kim Kirchen (Luxembourg, Team Columbia) on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet and Hautacam in Stage 10. He's been in yellow for two days and is expected to keep the lead until the Tour moves to the Alps for Stages 14 through 17 on Saturday. He could keep the maillot jaune through the Alps, but there will be a lot of attacks and several HC (hors category) climbs, including l'Alpe D'Huez. That's like the most revered climb in the sport, though it's not quite the toughest. Still, it will be the third climb on a long day. The last major hurdle will be an individual time trial next week. These are stages where the most time can be made up.
If you haven't been watching the Tour on Versus, they've been pimping American cycling since Stage 1 in Brest. There are two teams based in the States, and they have some good riders, but the overkill is ridiculous. Even the announcers, the wonderful Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin, have to hype Team Columbia and Garmin Chipotle. Phil and Paul are fun to listen to. It helps that they have British accents. They're very earnest and knowledgeable about the sport and it shows. They each have favorite phrases and trot them out endlessly to describe the action, which doesn't change for hours. You'd repeat yourself, too, if you had to commentate.
Chirstian Valdevelde of Garmin Chipotle is the highest-ranking American in third place, 38 seconds behind Evans and 37 seconds behind Frank Schlek of Luxembourg and Team CSC Saxo Bank.
It was another day for the sprinters on Friday. These are the flat stages that typically end with the fastest guys on wheels in an all out sprint to the finish line. There have been four pure flat stages so far and all have been won by Brit Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia. He's become the pre-eminent sprinter in the sport today, overtaking Robbie McEwan of Australia (Silence Lott) and Thor Hushovd of Norway (Credit Agricole). Sprinters are only good on these flat stages. Put them in the mountains and they melt. They all fall back into a group and just try to survive a mountain stage. As a matter of fact, there's a name for the group that goes into cruise control and just survives a stage. The French call it the "l'autobus."
Oh yeah, for those of you counting: three riders have been disqualified for the illegal blood-booster EPO. The most recent was Wednesday when Ricardo Ricco of Italy and Saunier Duval was booted. The team immediately withdrew from the race after its leader was arrested. This guy won two stages, was the leader of the polka-dot jersey (for best climber) and the white jersey (best young rider under 25). Yup, it was another black day on the Tour.
But I'll continue to watch. I'm just naive enough to think some of these accomplishments are untainted.