Tour Stage 3: Viva la France

Stage three is a great example of what it means to be a pro cyclist. If you haven’t watched it, it’s a must-see stage. As I’ve said before, the first week is generally a week for sprinters to come out and beat up on everybody else. But not this year.

I’ll admit, I’m a franco-phile. I love France. I never bought into that whole freedom fries nonsense. I’m also a big fan of the underdogs. I love the breakaways that nobody expects to do anything except get some publicity. So stage 3 will go down as one of my favorites. It’s so awesome for a French rider, on a French team, who is in on a wildcard entry, to get into a breakaway that shouldn’t have lasted and make it all the way into yellow. It’s also great to see Confidis, who had bad luck on the first day with the first abandon, who also worked so hard in the breakaways the first two stages, take the stage win.

My favorite part of the stage may have been the interview with Friskhorn (which in the US was on Versus, probably not on any other coverage). He is a rider in his first Tour, and he will probably never be a GC man. He will probably never be a stage contender either. His ambition is to be there and support the team. But on stage three, he was allowed to go out on a break, only 500 meters into the stage. 207.5 kilometers later, he places second. This was probably the closest he would get to a stage win. And he knew it. Most people (myself included) would *kill* for the opportunity to race in the Tour de France, let alone get 2nd in a stage, but he was disappointed. Beating himself up. I loved it.

I sure hope the french riders can continue to do well. I want to see Voeckler win the polka dots (although Soler, if he wasn’t injured, is also one of my favorites). This Tour is shaping up to be an interesting one. I can’t want to see the results of the TT, I’m sure it will mix things up.

TdF Stage 1: I miss the Prologue

I’m all for mixing things up a bit to keep them fresh, but I sure do miss the prologue. For many reasons really. First, I absolutely love time trialing. The mindnumbing solidarity, the leg searing pain, knowing that if you have a good day, it’s entirely because of you, and if you have a bad day, it’s entirely because of you… pushing to your limit and then holding it for as long as you can. Let’s face it, they don’t call it the “race of truth” for just any old reason.

In the Tour, I think the prologue does a lot for the fans who come out. It’s a mixed bag really though. Time trial bikes tend to be the flashiest, highest tech things out on the road with two wheels, and that helps to capture the imagination of the fans. Most importantly, it let’s you go put out a chair and watch 180 riders go by at 40-50mph in pure agony. For the little kid who is seeing the race for the first time, the full day exposure and specticle that is the opening day can serve as a memory, and a hook, for life. Unfortunately, prologues may rather boring TV, which is how most of the world gets its Tour de France exposure. It also happens to be how the ASO, teams, and their sponsors make the most money. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, but it makes it easier to understand the changes.

Having said all that, and also having, in general, very little excitement for this year’s Tour, I loved stage one. I mean really loved it. As much as I feel for Duclos-Lassalle, crashing out of the Tour 50 miles into the race is all part of what makes this race to beautiful (ironically, Chris Boardman crashed in the prologue in the mid 90’s going into Plumlec, the same town, and had to abandon). It’s amazing how the first 2 percent of a sporting event can determine the remaining 98 percent like the Tour can. Unfortunately, the first stage claimed another victim – Juan Mauricio Soler went down hard and injured his wrist. I remember so vividly when he won the mountain stage last year, attacking hard and just flying around all the top contenders of the Tour to go on for the win. Nobody knew who he was, nobody remembered he was up the road, and he stole the day. It’s unfortunate he may not be able to stick around for this year.

Of course, the finish was brilliant. The raw power and speed of Valverde to overcome Kirchen in the last 200m is just unimaginable. I may not have been very excited before the start of the Tour, but stage 1 has given me pretty high hopes for the rest of the month.

Temporary home until DNS behaves

Fitting into the sterotypical student image of Georgia Tech, I’m trying to host this website on my own computer in my own apartment. And sure enough, it isn’t working. So until I can get my act together and figure out that bloody pesky DNS server (also hosted on my computer) and why it isn’t behaving properly, this will be home.

So I’m reaching out to you, o’ forever wise Internet Community: if you know how to write a DNS zone file and wouldn’t mind helping me, please drop me a line. Once I get it all setup, I may be able to help you out by giving you a <yourbloghere>.releasedundergrad.net subdomain, and the freedom to write all you want.

Le Tour de France, 2008

The Tour de France started on Saturday and I have to say, I wasn’t all that thrilled before it started. Something about the sport seems off, not quite right.

I’m not talking about all the doping, or the ASO vs. UCI nonsense, or any of the other scandals surrounding it. There’s a bigger problem: it’s losing its charm, its magic. I guess I can’t say that is happening globally, maybe it’s just for me. I used to love cycling, spend day and night reading about it and thinking about it, replaying the races I had done time and time again, feeling the same adrenaline rush as if I were doing it all over again.

But not anymore.

I’ll watch the Tour every day, and I will try to write about each stage (stage one and two commentary to follow), and maybe, *hopefully*, it will respark what I really miss.