VeloResults

The Finale: Stage 20 (bunchie) Very Tardy! (0)

The strangest stage of the whole race from the point of view of the staff is the finale into Paris. Our team base is in northern Spain, and so all non-essential equipment went from Bordeaux back to Spain (rather than go to Spain from Bordeaux via Paris – a 1200km detour). Thus we were truckless (or untrucked?) for the only time in the race.

Le Tour de France, Stage 20; Paris: Cav, of Course (1)

This morning at 07:00 we had Serge Gainsbourg with ‘sea, sex and sun,’ it’s noon now and we’ve got Jane Birkin, ’69, annee erotique.’

Do these people never give it a rest ?

We’re nearly at the stage start, Dave has done the biz all the way up from Bordeaux.

Redundancy and Happy Surprises: Stage 19 (time trial) (0)

Time trials are always difficult days at races.

Firstly, the riders line up knowing their final position in the race depends on their forthcoming hour of solo work, and secondly, the logistics for the staff are super complex…

Le Tour de France, Stage 19: Bordeaux – Pauillac 52km ITT; Schleck Surprises, But It’s Bert (0)

“Sea, sex and sun,” sings Serge Gainsbourg on Radio Nostalgi – all very well, but the boys have 640 K to drive, this Sunday morning.

But that’s today, let’s get back to Saturday . . .

Today’s chrono is 52 kilometres, but Saturday’s L’Equipe glossy magazine takes us back 30 years to a much shorter effort against the watch – the Olympic one kilometre championship in ‘Moscou.’

The Final Efforts: Stage 18 (bunchie) (0)

We’re on the downhill slope for this race now, and the fatigue is starting to show. It’s getting tougher and tougher to chisel our heads off the pillow each morning, and the coffees are having smaller and smaller effects.

Sunglasses stay on when inside as they’re keeping our eyeballs from falling out.

I guess the riders are tired too.

Le Tour de France, Stage 18: Salies-de-Bearn – Bordeaux; Cav’s Fourth (0)

Cav: he really is impressive – we were at five K to go when Oss passed on his death or glory bid out of the break; he was flying.

The bunch? Like some high speed linear motored Japanese train – whhoooooooossssshhhhh! Those carbon rims slice the air.

We dashed back in to the chipper to watch the finale on the tele, respect to Sky, they were in the race – but Cav really is a cut above.

The Next Level: Stage 17 (mountaintop) (0)

Today was the showdown. As all who watch cycling know, any stage with a mountaintop finish is where many of the overall selections happen, and when the mountain is the Tourmalet, which is enormous both in terms of the difficulty of the climb, as well as its history, it’s all the more definitive.

Thus we all held the hope that Ryder would be able to continue his brilliant run of form, but knew that as it was such a hard climb, anything could happen.

Le Tour de France, Stage 17: Pau – Col du Tourmalet; Top Two Ahead, Big Gaps Behind (0)

‘Andy talks tough !’ say the headlines, he did try his best yesterday, his men used whatever was left to drive up the lower part of the Tourmalet – then he went for it.

However, not for one moment did it look like Alberto Contador was under pressure.

Le Tour de France, Second Rest Day (0)

‘How’s it goin’ Shane?’ we ask Skyman Shane Sutton as we cross the car park in search of Michael Barry for a rest day interview.

‘Been better, mate!’ he fires back between hard draws on his fag – it’s difficult for a man who wears his heart on his sleeve to ‘spin.’

Inside, Michael Barry, who’s an eloquent, polite, sound guy tells us that morale is good – he best get out and tell Shane that, then.

Le Tour de France, Stage 16: Bagneres-de-Luchon – Pau; Bbox 2 In A Row (0)

Today was a good day, we took in all five cols of the stage – it only adds to your respect for the pros when you see what they have to deal with.

The gruppo was travelling at funereal speed, 30 minutes down when it passed us near the top of the Aubisque.

Cav was surrounded by ‘minders’ near the back whilst Ale Jet was just off the back, but he looked OK, probably just back at the car.

How far to go? Stage 16 (mountain) (0)

Stage 16 was the biggest climbing stage of the Tour, but the last climb was some 60km from the finish, which made for a weird looking profile for the day. The boys scaled four enormous mountains, the first beginning from km 0. Tough gig.

After fireworks from big name riders lit the early miles up the climb, a pseudo break settled down about 25sec ahead of the peloton, and it held some very big names.

Le Tour de France, Stage 15: Pamiers – Bagneres-de-Luchon; Tommy Gun (1)

Voeckler, you have to admire him, he’s a racer.

Whatever happens, it’s been a good Tour for Bbox, Charteau in polka dots for a good stretch and now Tommy takes a big one.

Going down to Pro Continental doesn’t seem to have affected them one bit – and it’s saved them a fortune.

It was a tad mad up on the Port de Bales today but great to be there – Monday afternoon, high in the Pyrenees under a clear blue sky with the world’s best cyclists just inches away.

Le Tour de France, Stage 14: Revel – Ax3 Domaines; Playing Poker (0)

Lourdes is a strange place, like a religiously themed Blackpool; only it’s not little replicas of the tower they’re selling, rather all manner of tat plastered with religious images.

The last time I was there was with Martin, we sat, stunned in a late night pizza place – yellow jerseyed Rasmussen had just been sent home from le Tour by Rabobank.

I’m hoping for no scandals this time.

Le Tour de France, Stage 13: Rodez – Revel; Vino’s Day (0)

Bonjour! Vino – he’s a boy.

Born 16:09:1973 in Petropavlosk, he was a stagiere with Casino in 1997; he won the Dunkirk Four Day in his first full season and finished that year with six wins – an impressive debut.

He left Casino at the end of ’99 with another seven wins under his belt to go to Telekom where he stayed until 2005 after notching wins that year in Liege-Bastogne-Liege and two Tour stages. He went south in 2006 to Liberty Seguros and a win in the Vuelta.

R&R For Some: Stage 13 (mountaintop) (0)

After a single day of respite from the searing heat of the majority of this race, we were back into a bright sunny day with high temperatures. This meant the support crew were back up the road helping our boys as best we were able on the big climbs.

When standing and helping (and watching) on the mountains there are two groups we tend to pay closest attention to: the leaders and the grupetto.

Curtain Raiser: Stage 13 (break or bunchie?) (0)

The big question of the day: will it be a sprint or a break?

The Tour has now fallen deep into the second half of the race and the real show to sort out who will finish where in the general classification starts today as we hit the high mountains of the Pyrenees. Thus yesterday was the end of the “pre-race” part of the Tour for some. Considering how tough it’s been, that’s a facetious line to say the least.

Bad Morning Good Day: Stage 12 (3km wall finale) (0)

Sadly, Tyler abandoned yesterday as his body finally said “enough”. We were all disappointed for him. It was very saddening to see his face, which showed the acute disappointment he felt.

The race itself did go on, however, and typically, Garmin-Transitions were flying the flag despite the setbacks. Ryder repeatedly attacked the peloton and chased every other cyclists’s attack until he finally found himself in the break of the day.

New to VR: Tobe’s Blog (0)

We’re very pleased to announce that Garmin Transitions physiotherapist Toby Watson will be contributing articles to his new VeloResults blog.

Right now Toby is with the team on the Tour de France, and you can read about what it’s like to be working with a top team on the biggest race in the world, and the sense of drama and fun that are essential parts of the experience, on Toby’s regular updates.

Le Tour de France, Stage 12: Bourg-de-Peage – Mende; Bert’s Back! (0)

Bert’s back!

And we were there to see it, a privilege.

L’Equipe today says ‘Fin de la Trêve’ – that’s ‘end of the truce, (or respite)’. That’s how it looked to us, Contador letting Schleck know that he’s just fine.

Bert had his ‘pedalling back from the paper shop’ look on his face – but many riders didn’t.

Hump Day & Humdrum: Stage 11 (bunchie) (0)

As the physio on team Garmin-Transitions, all I can say is this is a dangerous sport.

All things considered, 3rd place for Tyler yesterday was a fantastic effort by the whole team, with Dave Zabriskie helping to control the break for most of the day, Johan Van Summeren bringing our boys to the front of the peloton with 4km to go, Martijn taking a big turn to maintain our position at the front, Julian doing the perfect job to put Ty where he needed to be to contest the sprint and then Tyler eking the absolute maximum possible out of his body to gain third place. It was a brilliant team performance.

Le Tour de France, Stage 11: Sisteron – Bourg-les-Valence; Reinstate Renshaw? (0)

Big Macs may pig you out towards an early grave, but damn, the wi-fi is good in there!

Thursday was hectic, finished off with a train journey via Carstairs – I was a bit worried they might grab me – to Penrith, where I was meeting Dave to head to Stansted and La Belle France.

Dave’s working at Sellafield just now so I gave him a quick once over with the Geiger counter as he scoffed his chicken sandwich – all clear.

We fired up the Toshiba to see what all the fuss was about and much as I admire Mark Renshaw, he did rather ‘radge oot’ in that finale.