Posted on 07/07/2006 9:52:43 PM PDT by nutmeg
Course: With a week of racing in their legs, the GC contenders finally get their day in the sun with this critical 52km time trial. The counterclockwise circuit has two distinct halves: narrow, hilly back roads at first and long, straight flat highways at the end. The final 15km are likely to be very fast with a tail wind.
History: A total of 13 Tour stages have finished in Rennes, the unofficial capital of the Brittany region, the most recent in 1994 when a massive 270km stage from Cherbourg was taken by Italian Gianluca Bortolami from a seven-man break that contained Motorola's Sean Yates - who took over the yellow jersey. That same day, Greg LeMond ended his career when he pulled out halfway through the long day. This was in sharp contrast to his victory in the 1989 time trial that finished in Rennes: LeMond used clip-on aerobars for the first time, winning the 73km TT from Dinard by 24 seconds over defending champion Pedro Delgado and 56 seconds on main rival Laurent Fignon.
Favorites: Dave Zabriskie will be the clear favorite on a course with long straightaways that could enable him to gain the maximum time in a bid to take over the yellow jersey. With Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso not starting the Tour, the Americans Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie and Australian Cadel Evans will all be close to the stage win; but perhaps the most interesting statistic will be the amount of time lost by the "climber" favorites, Valverde, Damiano Cunego and José Rujano.
Graphics by CyclingNews.com
Can the Americans repeat their time-trial dominance from last month's Dauphiné Libéré - when they swept the top four places - in Saturday's 52km stage that will kick-start the battle for the overall victory in the 93rd Tour de France?
At the Dauphiné, Dave Zabriskie won by an impressive 53 seconds ahead of Floyd Landis on a mostly flat, but windy 43km course. Third at 1:16 was Levi Leipheimer and fourth was George Hincapie at 1:34. .....
Levi is obviously having trouble, he's been passed by Christian Vande Velde who started 2' behind him! Two Americans having a very bad ITT, w/ Julich out after his crash...
Hincapie is 52" off the pace at the 1st chrono, expect to see him pick up the pace considerably on the flats.
Hincapie has caught his 2' man, Thor Hushovd! Day-ham, go George!! 8-)
And now Honchar has bested the chrono 2 time by 1' 03".
:-)
Honchar comes from 10th to wearing the yellow... the ITT really showed the various skill sets of the riders, with the sprinters being pummeled by the GC TT guys. It's not often you see a 6 min man caught and passed, tho it is more common in the 1st time trial as the sprinters fade. You'll rarely see it in the 2nd ITT much later in the Tour - the pretenders are gone from the GC at that point.
I wonder what happened to Leipheimer...
Anybody else find this ITT depressing today? Bobby J. out, Levi tanked. Floyd, George, and everybody else pretty lackluster. "Discovery" looking like they couldn't find their own front door, let alone discover anything. Today is the first day I have really missed, in a palpable way, having Lance out on that course. God, I can't wait til we get to the mountains.
Honchar is no slouch, having been the World TT champ some 6 years ago! Kinda cool, too, that he's now the first EVER from Ukraine to wear the maillot jaune.
I do know what you mean about missing LA on the TT course, it was so fun watching him in his element! But that was then, and this is now... methinks we'll all end up w/ a better appreciation for a large number of riders who were overshadowed during the Lance days. Again - I really am disappointed that few if any of the Americans (according to all reports I've seen) didn't bother to check out the course prior to today. That was probably the 1 thing that Lance did better than anyone else - preparation.
Yes, very much so. I'm extremely disappointed in George's time. I expected him (and Dave Zabriskie) to finish in the top 5 at least - according to all the hype. And who knows what happened to Team Discovery. T-Mobile is pretty hot after this ITT... Would be pretty interesting if Jan Ullrich and Oscar Sevilla were still part of the team.
And yes, very sad about Bobby Julich's injury...
Have a great day, Baynative. Hope you can catch one of the reruns of today's ITT.
You're welcome! :o)
Exactly. He busted his butt pre-race to get the job done,knew every bump in the road by heart, and it was just such a joy to watch somebody with so much drive and obsessive dedication reap the benefits of that intensive preparation. I just don't see any passion in any of these other guys. Yet. I have to keep reminding myself it's still so early. I don't know. I guess I'm also really bummed out having read via the TdFBlog that the spanish doctor says that "The List" that knocked out Ivan & Jan & half the procycling world is totally out of whack. He says that he's never treated some of the people who were named by Operation Puerto and that some of his patients are still riding in the race. The whole tour this year seems almost irredeemably tainted and I'm wondering if the final results, no matter who wins, will be haunted by so many what-ifs. Sigh.
Mine were the usual three: Tour de France, TDF, cycling.
Well, at least he finishes the race. Did Cipollini ever? Of any Grand Tour?
I've been pulling for Floyd. He's looked good climbing this spring, but his competition wasn't quite TdF quality... Tho' not that much different, given the state of the TdF.
All it's going to take is one implicated rider to bring down the whole house 'o cards.... I suspect we'll start seeing the evidence soon enough, like race & training schedules of top riders, along w/ their doping schedule / regimen. I fully believe that the doping is widespread, and so stealthy that many who 'haven't ever had a positive' are EPO'ing & blood transfusing to the max.
And yes, I think this includes(ed) Lance Armstrong - I think he had the best doping doctor $$$ could buy, why else would he be hanging around w/ the Italian doctor who, besides doing real jail time in Italy now, is considered to have been a cut above the Spanish methods.
Not that I think that LA deserves an asterisk - I think the playing field was level in that all the top dogs were doping...
...the spanish doctor says that "The List" that knocked out Ivan & Jan & half the procycling world is totally out of whack
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