Today was Stage 1, a flat stage. Flat stages are more like warm up stages for the riders and everyone is only interested in the final sprint at the end of the race to determine the stage winner. Along the course of this lovely breathtaking towns and cities are visited. Today's route took the riders through cities like Antwerp and Brussels. Yes, Netherlands to Belgium, all in a days time!
The excitement of flat stages lies in the hope that there is a breakaway, a bunch of riders who get together ahead of the main bunch known as the peloton. There was a breakaway today, which kept the peloton on its toes, but it wasn't a phenomenal gap that they opened up.. so it was but expected that they would be caught before the line and there would be a bunch sprint.
However, once the breakaway was caught, disaster struck at the finish where there were multiple crashes. The favorite to win the bunch sprint and the race Mark Cavendish of team HTC-Columbia crashed and so did Tyler Farrar. Alessandro Petacchi of Italy eventually won after showing opportunism while the major sprinters were nursing themselves back into the race.
In the race, one could also spot Alexander Vinokourov. Vinokourov could take on anyone in his prime and no one of my favorite riders until he blood doped. Blood doping is the practice of boosting the number of red blood cells (RBCs) in the bloodstream in order to enhance athletic performance, so says Wikipedia. In lay mans terms, he stored his blood, artificially improved its quality and injected it back into his own body! wow. Now why would a talented rider like Vinokourov do this?. The other reason one could think of is that he wanted it so bad that he would put his life, his career, everything on the line just to win the TDF. He did it, and suffered the consequences and is now living a life of ignominy. Sitting in 19th place, 16 seconds behind Armstrong, would be esoterically interesting to keep a watch on him.
Huge crowds of people were observed all along the way which made Armstrong tweet/facebook "Can someone do the math? How many people are there if it's 225km and 3 deep? Thanks Holland and Belgium for coming out!!" to which he got replies like "James Daniels I'm having a nerd moment: 139.5 miles, 736,560 feet, if each person takes up 2.5 feet wide then 294,624 people wide times 3 deep soooooo....883,872 people WOW !!! that's alot . Godspeed". Hmm.. interesting.
Tomorrow is another flat stage. Stage 2 - Bruxelles to Spa - 201 km. The terrain is more exciting and there are a whole bunch of very minor hills on the end. Who will bet on Cavendish winning the sprint here?, he may not like the slightly steep finish ;) .There could be other sprinters who might relish this finish though, like Thor Hushovd. We all will have to wait and see!
Tour de France Race details
Stage one, Rotterdam (Hol)-Brussels (Bel); 223.5-km:
1. Alessandro Petacchi (Italy - Lampre) 5 hours 9 minutes 38 seconds,
2. Mark Renshaw (Aus - HTC-Columbia) at same time,
3. Thor Hushovd (Nor - Cervelo) at s.t.,
4. Robbie McEwen (Aus - Katusha) s.t.,
Overall general classification:
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi - Saxo Bank) 5 hrs 19mins 38secs,
2. Tony Martin (Ger - HTC-Columbia) 10secs,
3. David Millar ( - Garmin-Transitions) 20secs,
4. Lance Armstrong (US - RadioShack) 22secs,
5. Geraint Thomas (GB - Team Sky) 23secs,
6. Alberto Contador (Spa - Astana) 27secs,
7. Tyler Farrar (US - Garmin-Transitions) 28secs, 8. Levi Leipheimer (US - RadioShack),
9. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor - Team Sky) 32secs,
10. Linus Gerdemann (Ger - Milram) 35secs.
Team Radio Shack bottle anyone?
LiveStrong Cup Cakes.. yum!
Awww, so cute!
The excitement of flat stages lies in the hope that there is a breakaway, a bunch of riders who get together ahead of the main bunch known as the peloton. There was a breakaway today, which kept the peloton on its toes, but it wasn't a phenomenal gap that they opened up.. so it was but expected that they would be caught before the line and there would be a bunch sprint.
However, once the breakaway was caught, disaster struck at the finish where there were multiple crashes. The favorite to win the bunch sprint and the race Mark Cavendish of team HTC-Columbia crashed and so did Tyler Farrar. Alessandro Petacchi of Italy eventually won after showing opportunism while the major sprinters were nursing themselves back into the race.
In the race, one could also spot Alexander Vinokourov. Vinokourov could take on anyone in his prime and no one of my favorite riders until he blood doped. Blood doping is the practice of boosting the number of red blood cells (RBCs) in the bloodstream in order to enhance athletic performance, so says Wikipedia. In lay mans terms, he stored his blood, artificially improved its quality and injected it back into his own body! wow. Now why would a talented rider like Vinokourov do this?. The other reason one could think of is that he wanted it so bad that he would put his life, his career, everything on the line just to win the TDF. He did it, and suffered the consequences and is now living a life of ignominy. Sitting in 19th place, 16 seconds behind Armstrong, would be esoterically interesting to keep a watch on him.
Huge crowds of people were observed all along the way which made Armstrong tweet/facebook "Can someone do the math? How many people are there if it's 225km and 3 deep? Thanks Holland and Belgium for coming out!!" to which he got replies like "James Daniels I'm having a nerd moment: 139.5 miles, 736,560 feet, if each person takes up 2.5 feet wide then 294,624 people wide times 3 deep soooooo....883,872 people WOW !!! that's alot . Godspeed". Hmm.. interesting.
Tomorrow is another flat stage. Stage 2 - Bruxelles to Spa - 201 km. The terrain is more exciting and there are a whole bunch of very minor hills on the end. Who will bet on Cavendish winning the sprint here?, he may not like the slightly steep finish ;) .There could be other sprinters who might relish this finish though, like Thor Hushovd. We all will have to wait and see!
Tour de France Race details
Stage one, Rotterdam (Hol)-Brussels (Bel); 223.5-km:
1. Alessandro Petacchi (Italy - Lampre) 5 hours 9 minutes 38 seconds,
2. Mark Renshaw (Aus - HTC-Columbia) at same time,
3. Thor Hushovd (Nor - Cervelo) at s.t.,
4. Robbie McEwen (Aus - Katusha) s.t.,
Overall general classification:
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi - Saxo Bank) 5 hrs 19mins 38secs,
2. Tony Martin (Ger - HTC-Columbia) 10secs,
3. David Millar ( - Garmin-Transitions) 20secs,
4. Lance Armstrong (US - RadioShack) 22secs,
5. Geraint Thomas (GB - Team Sky) 23secs,
6. Alberto Contador (Spa - Astana) 27secs,
7. Tyler Farrar (US - Garmin-Transitions) 28secs, 8. Levi Leipheimer (US - RadioShack),
9. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor - Team Sky) 32secs,
10. Linus Gerdemann (Ger - Milram) 35secs.
Team Radio Shack bottle anyone?
LiveStrong Cup Cakes.. yum!
Awww, so cute!
