The "good" old days of Tour sponsorship

Back in the day, local sponsors would do something for the riders, or the lead rider, or a local rider in order to get a little press. The Tour has largely moved on from that era.

I'll concede that such a tradition can seem a little low-budget and possibly bush-league, but I like the intimacy it confers. You can still see the tradition in some places, like the winner of Clasica San Sebastian wearing a Basque beret, or when I was at Driedagse De Panne when the winner of the stage got a huge chocolate cake/brownie/treat.

So I was happy to see Alberto Contador posing on the podium with a St. Bernard dog at Verbiers, and then again at the start of Stage 16. I wonder if they gave him the dog. In years gone by, riders have been awarded horses, watches, wheels of cheese.

May be no gifts in cycling, but did Lance get grief from his mom?

Since no Lance connection can go un-mentioned during the media juggernaut's Tour, here's a snippet from an interview with his mother.

"George Hincapie is my all time favorite! I have known him since he was a young up and coming rider. He has such a kind way about him and is to this day, a good friend to Lance. As Lance’s teammate, he was one heck of a good domestique (support rider to Lance). And might I add, he has one of the prettiest smiles I have ever seen. Great kid…."

The Elliott Wave Principle and the Tour de France

In Crude Oil: Tour de Forecast :

"According to mainstream economic thought -- fundamentals are to financial markets what tire pressure is to a Tour de France bicycle racer. To wit: Inflated (i.e. positive) news makes it easier for a market to soar up those steep mountain hills (i.e. price charts). AND, deflated (i.e. negative) news makes prices fall behind and struggle to climb.

In reality, however, this is NOT true. Take the Crude Oil market, for example. Over the past week, the amount of air in certain "fundamental tires" hasn't changed a bit. YET, the performance of oil prices has been all over the map."

Too bad the writer didn't fully explain the metaphor. Over inflated tires give a rough, bumpy ride, offer poor traction, and are slower than tires at the proper inflation. Under-inflated tires give a smoother ride, but are slower and risk flats.

I'm sure there's no tie to markets here.

Tour Sponsorship a Bargain

Says BusinessWeek. "The absence of marquee brands is an opportunity for midsize companies to gain international exposure for a relatively low price." I don't know how much attention the writers are paying. Credit Lyonnais, sponsor of the yellow jersey, is a pretty huge banking conglomerate. Columbia sportswear, sponsor of Columbia-HTC, doesn't seem like a midsize company to me. Rabobank is neither small, nor did it flee the sport after the doping scandals.

They also have a slide show so you can find out who all the team sponsors are.

VDV worker to star to super-domestique

For years, Christian Vande Velde toiled in relative anonymity for team leaders Lance Armstrong, Roberto Heras, Ivan Basso, and Carlos Sastre. In 2008, he put it all together and rode to fourth at the Tour. This year, after a nasty crash at the Giro nearly ruined his Tour prep, he was looking good, until the climb to Verbiers.

Now that his teammate Brad Wiggins is in third, Vande Velde seems ready to switch gears back to a worker. He gave the perfect sound byte to his hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune.

"Knowing Brad is doing so well makes it easier for me to deal with this," Vande Velde said via telephone. "It would have been harder to take if the whole team was relying on me, and I couldn't pull through. Now we shift gears, and I have a supportive role."

PVRs will lose sight of the Yellow Jersey

Sad but true: "As Cadel Evans pushes up into the mountains, many Personal Video Records will lose sight of the yellow jersey."

That's because most Personal Video Records are not up to the task, says a blogger on Australia's The Age. They can't create a true "Season Pass," because they don't have the technology.

"almost every mainstream digital recorder that you'd find on the shelf in your in local electrical bulk discount store doesn't let you create a proper Season Pass. Most devices from the likes of Sony, Panasonic and LG rely on the Electronic Program Guide embedded in the broadcast signal and can't search the guide for your favourite shows. Instead of creating a true Season Pass they create recurring recordings, which just blindly record the same timeslot each day or week rather than checking the EPG for schedule changes. Sport presents the greatest challenge because it is unpredictable and often goes into overtime."

While PVRs are not on my needs pyramid, I can see where recording fiends could get upset over this. I guess.

Christians Find Lessons in the Tour

Brad Wiggins bored the world by refusing to look past his stage 15 performance to Verbiers. "It's a day-by-day thing." No red meat to the journos, no brags, seemingly little self-congratulatory statements. It's as if he took lessons from Crash Davis personally, or watched Bull Durham on the team bus.

A Christian blogger picked up on it and used Wiggins statment to tie to "Give us each day our daily bread" in A Strategy for the Tour de France and Life - Day by Day

The Tour teaches Christians.

The Hincapie Near Miss Two Days Later

I was wrong in expecting Hincapie to concede at least five minutes on the road to Verbier. He conceded four and change.

Since there's still lots of buzz about George's near miss, here are a few extra thoughts. While Astana certainly kept the race close enough so that AG2R could pull Nocentini back into yellow, and Armstrong has basically admitted as much, it appears that Astana thought they gave George enough time, and even AG2R thought Nocentini was going to lose the jersey. With Astana, they talk about how they couldn't give someone 12 minutes at the Tour and Armstrong talked about the year they mistakenly gave 35 minutes to a breakaway in 2002. And then look at the actions of Nicholas Roche from AG2R. That team could have told Roche to drop out of the break and return to the field, but they didn't. And Roche was attacking in the final kilometers of the race, which helped speed up the breakaway. If the team thought Roche was pulling George into yellow, they would have told him to sit on.

Yesterday's radio silence

Sunday, I wanted to get in my own big ride. So I hit the hills with a friend for four hours. Since the ride coincided with the live Tour coverage, I snagged an invite to a friend's place with HD TV and a DVR. I enforced a Tour blackout on myself all day until 6pm, where I took in magnificient views of the Hudson River as well as pizza and Tour.

I think my friend called the moment when Armstrong mostly-likely conceded the Tour. It was moments after Andy Schleck attacked from the lead group to chase Contador. You can see from the helicopter that Armstrong started to wind up for two or three seconds and then didn't go.

Nothing wrong with Lance not having it after three years away from racing. It's amazing he's gotten himself back to the lead group. And kudos to Lance for quickly owning up, in front of the world, that he didn't have what it took to ride away from everyone else.

Verbier Welcomes the Tour on the web

Don't know if this is a first or not, but it's impressive all the same.

Verbier has created a website that is just about the intersection of Verbier and the Tour. Lots of details on both the town and the race. Possibly most important for Tour fans, they've posted time tables of when the tour arrives and leaves and when it passes various points.

A few things were lost in translation. Take a look at the following:

"Tour de France Competitors’ Schedule

12 :55 Fictitious start of competitors from Martigny

13:00 Start of competitors from Martigny"

The ficticious start is probably when the riders roll from the start line. the start is when they arrive at kilometer zero.

The Hincapie Near Miss Blame Game

After Stage 14, the world is embroiled over who is to blame for George Hincapie not riding into the Yellow Jersey. Much of the discussion, I can't believe. From what I saw, I think there's plenty of blame all around.

First, George should take some blame here. Five seconds is nothing. There were so many places to get it. To me, it didn't look like Hincapie was riding smart enough to take yellow, but maybe he had bad legs.

Second, his team should take some blame. There was a director in George's ear. What was the guy saying? It sure didn't look like Hincapie was digging deep. Next, Columbia shouldn't have led out the bunch sprint. Like most people/entities, they wanted it all ways. They probably figured they had the jersey and could get Cavendish some points in the green jersey competition. Now, not only do they not have yellow, but they might be out of the green for good, thanks to Cavendish's relegation.

Third, I do think Astana played a part, despite what Armstrong and Bruyneel say. I think Astana has some kind of deal with AG2R. Don't know why they need it, but they certainly could have refused to help at all until Nocentini himself was doing some of the chasing. It's not like the AG2R guys were totally flogged; most made it to the line with the pack. They could have called back team rider Nicholas Roche from the break to help with the chase (side-matter; what was Roche doing attacking near the end? Did his team think they had already lost the jersey). Astana could have waited several more minutes before riding tempo. Considering that Astana probably wants to keep the leaders together until the final climb tomorrow, I don't think Columbia would have hurt Astana tactically. I think they could have given George another five minutes and he'd still lose the jersey tomorrow--the finishing climb is 8.8k at 7.1%, with a climbing lead-in. I don't see him climbing with the leaders in most situations, and especially after being in a break all day.

Third, Garmin-Slipstream. I'm pretty sure that Hincapie, or a partner of his, is a sponsor of the team. Howalesko Partners is a sponsor this year, and was H3O on last year's jersey. Hincapie is one of the H's. I don't think Garmin was riding to deny George. I do think they were either hoping to get Farrar some points or keep their GC riders safe or both.

Fourth, we're discussing a conspiracy at the most important bike race in the world. No one should expect gifts. Would the pack have sat up for Stephane Goubert or Inigo Cuesta, two riders older than Hincapie and with far fewer palmares?

Finally, credit should be given to Johan Bruyneel who takes issue with Garmin coming to the front for a few seconds, when his team spent all day at or near the front. A great, if disingenuous commentary from the Astana DS.

Swiss tourism industry bullish on Tour Visit

the Tour visits Switzerland Sunday, stays Monday for the rest day, then rolls off to Italy Tuesday. This means BIG PROFIT for the Swiss--they collected all the underpants.

At least that's what Swiss Info has found out.

"'The impact will be substantial, because there will be some 4,000 people who are directly linked to the Tour de France staying in our region for two nights,' said Patrick Messeiller, director of the Verbier-Bagnes tourism office.

"But officials expect the see effects in the longer term as well. The Tour de France will offer a tremendous showcase for the region. As a sporting event, only the Olympics and the World Cup attract more media coverage than the Tour de France.

"More than 1,900 journalists from 630 media outlets will be there to cover the race, which will be broadcast in 186 countries - figures which Barben has not failed to notice."

An American First at the 2009 Tour

An American working as chef to a pro team in the Tour?

"Sean Fowler, an American chef who runs a restaurant, El Racó d’Urús, in the Pyrenees. The team had eaten there during training sessions and hired him on the spot.

"Fowler, 43, and a native of Wondervu, Colo., has a lofty résumé. A graduate of theCulinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., he is thought to be the first American chef at the Tour de France.

"'To have Sean cooking and all the fresh stuff makes a big difference,' the rider David Zabriskie said. He’s even making me beets, which I like a lot. Helps move things along.'”

The Times might be right. One of the first chefs hired by an American team, Seven-11 in this case, was, I believe, Willy Balmat, a Swiss

What do do when the Tour Visits Your Town

Act like sophisticates?

"So what did we do? We lost it. Joyfully. We acted as yokels and loved it. We got Tour fever just as everyone else has done in every other quarter of the country the past 100 years or so.

"Even the visiting Parisians entered into the spirit, in their aloof way, which meant shouting things in English to Mark Cavendish, the 24-year-old sprint phenom from the Isle of Man, as he passed.

"We crowded the roadside for hours, picnicked with strangers, wore dumb hats, danced to disco from car stereos and looked with desperation for places to "pipi." I still wonder at the reactions around the Joël Richard sawmill company when all those soaked logs were found the next day."

Hinault picks Contador for the win

Never one to mince words, The Badger sees Alberto as the man of the tour.

"I don't think so. He's of a certain age, and Contador is able to build a big lead in the mountains...In the time trial in Monaco, Armstrong lost 20 seconds in the first five kilometers, the uphill part. Believe me, it's a sign."

I've learned lots of stuff on my summer vacation

Jerry Davich has learned alot about the Tour de France. A Lot.

"I've learned that the annual race is broken down into day-long "stages," and the rider with the fastest time is allowed to then sport a famed yellow jersey and stuffed lion mascot. Similarly, the rider who places second in points wears a green jersey, and the daily "King of the Mountains" rider wears a white jersey with red dots.

"I've learned that since 1903, more than 10,000 riders have attempted the race - with only 6,000 completing it - collectively pedaling the distance between the Earth and the moon. And every district in France has hosted the race, as well as each bordering country.

"And I've learned that this year, competitors in the 96^th Tour will use high-tech equipment and old-fashioned determination to earn the same bragging rights of a century ago.

"Simply put, the only way I'll probably ever tour France is through the Tour de France."

Jerry is a metro columnist for the Post-Tribune newspaper.

So tough, when shot, they remove the bullets themselves

Two cyclists were shot during the 13th stage of the Tour. the shooting appears to have been from an air gun (people don't kill people, guns do). One of the two victims, Rabobank's Oscar Freire, removed the bullet himself during the stage.

They Shoot Cyclists, don't they?

Not too many places in the US would it be news if someone decided to ride 21 days in a row, even if htose 21 days share calendar dates with the Tour de France.

But Corpus Christi, TX is not just any place. And Wes Cheslak has his Tour de Corpus. It's news to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

"Cheslak said the idea came to him at the start of last year’s tour.

'It was the first ride, the first stage of the Tour and I was like, ‘You know what?’, I’m going to ride 21 days this month,' he said. 'So I did it.'

Editorial Board of Concord Monitor Endorses Lance

You don't see too many editorials rooting for an athlete, especially one who isn't a local. The Concord Monitor of New Hampshire leaves no question of their feelings with the editorial, "Rooting for Lance to make it eight."

The board has bought the company line.

"Armstrong, who nearly died in 1996 from testicular cancer that metastasized to his brain and lungs, has long been the subject of speculation about illegal drug use. He vehemently denies allegations that he ever used performance enhancing drugs. His medical history and his seven consecutive tour wins have made him perhaps the most heavily tested athlete in history.

'I tell you, Armstrong will be particularly, particularly, particularly monitored,' France's sports minister, Roselyne Bachelot, told reporters.

Armstrong's performance this year gives lie to the accusations. Despite breaking his collarbone in a fall in March, he went on to place 12th in the 2,147-mile Giro d'Italia in May. Today, after 11 stages of the Tour de France, Armstrong remains in third place."

The Talking Laptop Gives Armstrong Sound Bytes

This should be news. Lance Armstrong doesn't talk to the press these days. He talks to somebody, presumably the Team Astana Press Secretary, who records comments onto a laptop and then said press secretary takes the laptop to the newsroom. He plays the laptop to the assembled press and they write down the comments.

Follow the link. The Times Online's Owen Slot has some worthwhile reading. "Armstrong is trying his damndest to a) start a fight and b) clamber his way up to the moral high ground. But the only suggestion that Contador has taken in any of Armstrong’s mindgames was his electric breakaway on the Arcalís climb on Friday. That was a considerable riposte, fulfilling to the letter the old cliché about letting his legs do the talking."

Yes, taking out 21 seconds in two uphill headwind kilometers was possibly the most impressive feat of any rider all Tour. He had the best riders in the world alongside him. he had a headwind, which effectively flattens a climb, and he still killed everybody.

Here's another thing to know, "Armstrong will not give an interview to The Times, and that is despite swearing that he no longer has a black list of the newspapers and journalists to whom he will and won’t speak. There are many to whom Armstrong will not speak. And so we make do with the soundbites and bombs from Philippe Maertens’ laptop."