TdF - Talkin’ Tour and TT’s
First of all, check out the podcast interview I was fortunate enough to do with Tour de France rider Will Frischkorn of the Garmin-Chipotle team after the Stage 4 Time Trial on MissingSaddle.com. It’s fairly entertaining if you’re interested in hearing some Tour talk from one guy who is not used to doing such things and another one who is. I am not Larry King yet but Will is a good guy and played along nicely. Even got a question about the kits in at the end.
Actually, I’ve only listened to it once but I’m concerned that my style is a little more like the ladies from the “Delicious Dish” sketch on SNL. Good times. I’m glad it was Will and not Alec Baldwin (aka Pete Schweddy) on the other end of the line.
Hopefully we’ll be able to get some additional updates from France as the race progresses.
Okay, so now for the TT and yet another close call for both Columbia and Garmin-Chipotle:
Say what you want about Stefan Schumacher (such as…reputed amphetamine user and doper, self-proclaimed blood-value altering diarrhea sufferer, confirmed drunk driver and George Hincapie crasher for example), the guy rode one fast time trial in Cholet. So fast that he got himself a somewhat shocking yellow jersey over Kim Kirchen of Columbia and David Millar of Garmin-Chipotle.
Without getting into any of the things one could say about Valverde and Schumacher wearing yellow (cough), I have to say that it would have been exceedingly good for professional cycling to have either Captain Kirchen or Miller Time to get the jersey. Nothing against Gerolsteiner or Caisse d’Epargne, but it would have been nice to see a leader from an American team with a cutting-edge internal testing system. I’m just saying.
With that said, it was great to see Danny The Pate on top of the leaderboard for a while, even though dang Sylvia Chavanel knocked him off. Thankfully Jens Voigt beat the crap out of his bike like he was Chuck Norris (oh yeah) and took the lead for a while until Menchov lowered the bar. Christian Vandevelde put in a really solid performance and slotted in at 8th, one spot ahead of George Hincapie.
Ultimately, Cadel Evans gained time on everyone he needed to (Liggett: “He pulled out a big one and struck a psychological blow to his rivals” - ok), Valverde lost time to everyone he didn’t want to, Cancellara proved that he is mortal and Schumacher almost seemed not to be.
Anyway…we will see what happens later this week. The race is wide open and I have a feeling that Shoe Maker and the Water Boys will be under an incredible amount of pressure over the next few days. I can’t wait.