I'll do my best to post live threads for each stage, but I'll most likely post them the night before.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my Tour de France 2006 list.
8:30am - 11:30am ET - LIVE Tour de France Special
11:30am to 1:30pm ET - LIVE Coverage
I'll do my best to post live threads for each stage, but I'll most likely post them the night before.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my Tour de France 2006 list.
184 km? Is there no prologue this year?
I hear they need riders. I'm available. (I might finish the first stage...)
Lance could still beat this field.
Quote from the man who owns it, "Enough Already". Wow, did that po the French. Gotta love it.
Man, I thought Hincapie had it for a minute there. Nonetheless, Team DSC and the Americans looked good today.
The TDF is going to seem like the year that the players went on strike in the NFL. A major housecleaning was overdue, but man this is going to hurt.
One side-effect might be that we'll see Levi or Floyd win this thing. THAT will really tick-off the French.
Don't click on this thread if you don't want to learn the winner...
Guess we might as well use this same live thread... I'll try to change the date at the top of the thread via the Admin Mods.
Thank you.
STRASBOURG, France (AFP) - American George Hincapie's bid to hand his Discovery Channel team back the yellow jersey last worn by Lance Armstrong was upstaged by Norwegian powerhouse Thor Hushovd.
On the day the race awoke with fresh hope after a doping controversy led to the expulsion of 13 riders, it was all systems go as the 7.1km prologue sought to get the Tour back on track.
After the reduced field of 176 riders had finished, Hincapie missed claiming his first yellow jersey by the equivalent of just 0.73sec, or 10.42 metres.
That was the distance Norway's three-time time trial champion Hushovd, who won the race's green jersey for the points competition last year, would have beaten the New Yorker by had they been racing side by side.
It was a largely unexpected win for the big 28-year-old from Grimstad, who rides for the French team Credit Agricole and who is generally considered a sprinter.
On paper, the likes of Britain's David Millar - making his return to competition after a two-year doping ban - and American David Zabriskie should have been in yellow.
In the end, Hushovd's time of 8min 17sec pushed Germany's early pacesetter Sebastian Lang off top spot and that was enough to end Hincapie's dream.
Hincapie was distraught, throwing his bike and helmet around before admitting that he had perhaps misjudged his own race tactics.
"It was very disappointing. I was really gunning for this prologue," said the big New Yorker. "I was maybe in too big a gear in the last 500 metres. But Thor did an amazing race, he deserved to win."
In the absence of seven-time winner Armstrong, and a few of the riders who should be succeeding him, Hincapie - who won a monumental stage in the Pyrenees mountains last year - suggested he could be a contender.
"I don't know what my chances are, but I'm in the best shape of my career. I'm just going to do my best," he added.
Hushovd, a three-time Norwegian time trial champion, achieved his long held goal of winning the coveted green jersey last year when he held off the threat of Australian Robbie McEwen.
But ahead of defending it against McEwen and Belgium's world champion Tom Boonen, it seemed the thought of a second spell in yellow awakened past memories.
"I knew I had a chance to do something good after I came fifth (in the prologue) in 2004. And this year I've worked a bit on my time trial bike, so I think that's why I did a good prologue," said Hushovd, who now has 15 points in his green jersey account.
"We're going to defend the yellow jersey as long as we can, and there won't be a lot of riders capable of taking it off me tomorrow (Sunday).
"I'm sure we'll be given a hand by Quick Step and Davitamon who'll want the stage to finish in a sprint." For yellow jersey contender Floyd Landis meanwhile it was a day to forget.
The American, who rides for Phonak, lost between four and six seconds after he began his race late having decided that a small but apparently innocuous slit on his tire meant he had to change his wheel next to the race ramp.
Millar meanwhile could only finish in 17th place at 14sec behind.
But after recently returning from a drugs ban, the 29-year-old Scot was delighted with his performance.
"I'm ecstatic, although it was strange riding on closed roads!" said Millar, a prologue winner in 2000 and runner-up in 2003 but who was riding his first competitive race here since his ban nearly two years ago.
"I'm just so happy to be here. This is great. I'm not even disappointed. I had a great ride, but perhaps I underestimated the difficulty of it. But I've got to be happy."
Interesting route this year, w/ excursions into Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain. Not very often they hit that many countries in 1 Tour.
Thanks for changing the date in the title. :o)
photo: Graham Watson
Hushovd's injury not serious -- Tour will ban giant PMU hands near finish
Hushovd will make it to Monday's start.
photo: Graham Watson
I'll do my best to put up the Stage 2 live thread tonight (I'll be offline most of tomorrow).