On the Eve of a Cycling Showdown

By Jessica | Permalink |

No Comments | July 27th, 2007 | Trackback

casar Among other things, this year could be the Tour of the Wayward Dogs. Another poor pup was let loose by some stupid owners and trotted out into the breakaway group this morning, bringing Sandy Casar and Frederik Willems crashing to the ground. Casar was able to get up and rejoin the breakaway, but Willems was more beat up and was left to finish the race in the peloton. Heck, at least he finished. I haven’t heard anything about the dog; I hope he’s okay, and I hope his owners get a thrashing.

Today’s stage was slow. Tomorrow is when I’ll be back to biting my lip as I watch the coverage - tomorrow is when everything is on the line. The top three riders are not separated by enough to make anyone’s position on the podium a lock. I think it’s safe to say that the top three right now will be the top three in Paris, but the order they’re in now is what’s not set in stone. Personally, I’d be incredibly pleased with a Cadel Evans win - he’s a stand-up guy who’s ridden an amazing race, and he’s nearing the end of his cycling career. It’d be a great victory for him, for Australia and for the sport of cycling, which badly needs a hero right now. By any standards, Contador’s still a baby - he’s got another 10 years of cycling left, at least - and I see him being a top contender in years to come. For Evans, the need for a win is much more urgent. Of course, it’s not up to me, and we’ll all see what happens tomorrow.

At any rate, today’s relatively boring stage (which is fine by me) even had one Lampre rider (I didn’t see who) clowning around at the back of the peloton as the Discovery team kept things at a slow but steady pace. That yellow jersey must be awfully heavy today, as it was assumed in such a bizarre fashion. And re-watching the podium presentations last night made me reconsider my earlier comments - Alberto Contador didn’t look pleased at all to be pulling on the yellow jersey. He looked depressed. Let’s hope there’s some cause for celebration in a couple days, for whoever’s wearing the damned thing.

And in the end, Casar was able to put his early crash behind him and get a second stage win for France - and the first of his career. It was a ballsy attack, from the front of the group of four, and he managed to hold them all off. Well done, Sandy. Too bad for Axel Merckx and Michael Boogerd, who are riding in their last Tour (especially too bad for Merkcx, who has never won a Tour stage), but they all rode well in the break and they should be very proud of themselves.

As the husband and I watched yesterday’s coverage again last night, we lamented the fact that as Johan Bruyneel’s team closes in on the end of what is probably their finest Tour de France showing ever (two guys on the podium, white jersey, team classification, possible yellow, one stage win), they are also on the brink of no longer existing as a team. They have been on the hunt for a new sponsor since the Discovery Channel decided not to renew, and the doping scandals that have plagued the sport since last year - and especially the new ones that have come up just in the midst of this Tour - have made it incredibly difficult to find anyone who’ll put up the kind of money necessary to fund this team. Sure, someone might be able to get a real bargain basement deal on sponsoring a cycling team right now, but if that means cutting everyone’s salaries I think most of these guys will head for other teams with bigger budgets - and rightly so. It’s a shame, because this team has worked together so brilliantly that it would be fantastic to think they’d be back with this same lineup next year. Like the outcome of tomorrow’s time trial, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens with Discovery, too.

Anybody wanna buy a cycling team?