The 96th Tour de France kicked off today with a 15.5-mile time trial through the Principality of Monaco. The first half of the course was all uphill, peaking at a class-4 summit, followed by a very fast, technical descent and a final three-km flat sprint. Most riders climbed well, but had difficulties with the high-speed turns descending. Cancellara went over the summit in fourth place, and actually gained time on the descent, beating 2007 winner Alberto Contador by 19 seconds.
Tour de France: World’s Most Prestigious Bike Race
180 riders departed on the 3,500-km, 21-stage Tour, hoping to capture for themselves and their teams, the most prestigious bicycling victory in the world.
The Tour is the Superbowl of bicycle racing; winning here ensures a rider a place in history. And yet, eight out of every nine riders on each team know that they are there not to win, but to support the team leader.
Some lead the various stages, pushing a hole in the air for the team leader to ride through; some are pure sprinters, who save themselves during the stages for the few that end in bunch sprints.
Some riders are there to lead out the team sprinter, to cut a path through the air, before the sprinter turn on the jets for the final several hundred meters. But of the nine riders on each team, eight of them are there to make sure the team leader gets every opportunity to win the Tour overall.
Lance Armstrong—The Legend Returns
The biggest story of this year’s Tour is undoubtedly the comeback of seven-time winner Lance Armstrong, who ended his three-year retirement to compete with Team Astana this year. Armstrong, one of the most popular riders around the world, and the only man to win the Tour seven times, came out of retirement to raise awareness of the battle against cancer, which disease he has himself overcome. But he also came out of retirement to win: if not for himself, for his team. Armstrong told the press that if, after the first several stages, it didn’t seem as if he could capture the overall win, he would ride as the greatest domestique (support rider) the Tour had ever seen.
Team Astana certainly has a line-up which could eclipse even the great Lance Armstrong: veterans like Andreas Klöden and Levi Leipheimer, and Alberto Contador, who won the Tour in 2007, and has won a number of other major races as well. If Armstrong, at 37, is too old to push himself to the level of suffering and endurance needed to win the Tour, he can still ride faster than most support riders on most other teams. Team Astana has to be a favorite for the overall win.
Neither Armstrong nor Contador has yet established himself as the leader of Team Astana.
Stage One—Time Trial
Armstrong had to ride hard to establish, in the minds of his teammates and the competition, that he was still a serious threat, that his layoff had not dulled his edge. Armstrong didn’t need to win the stage; he needed to win the respect of the field, to gain a psychological edge. He certainly did that.
Tony Martin of American team Columbia-Highroad, was the first rider to beat Armstrong’s time, coming in seven seconds ahead of Armstrong. Armstrong’s teammate Levi Leipheimer, a fellow American who has always come close, but never won the Tour, made a good run, coming in three seconds ahead of Martin. Leipheimer, a veteran himself at 35 years of age, has won the Tour of California three times, but has only captured a single stage in the Tour de France.
Astana rider Andreas Klöden blazed up the course, beating everyone’s time to the summit, and rode well on the descent, briefly taking the lead, giving Astana a brief one-two lead.
Bradley Wiggins, riding for the American Garmin-Slipstream team, turned in an amazing ride, capturing third overall. Wiggins won two gold medals at the 2008 Olympics; apparently he has kept his form.
When Alberto Contador, Spanish Time Trial champions and 2007 Tour winner, left the box, Team Astana was already one-two; Contador was riding for lead of the team, not just lead of the race.
Bot already on the course was Fabian Cancellara, and time trials are Cancellara’s specialty. Cancellara saved his energy over the first half of the course and focused everything on the descent.
The strategy paid off. Cancellara, fourth over the summit, made up almost half a minute on the downhill, bringing iot home well ahead of everyone else.
Contador worked hard, but he couldn’t beat Cancellara at his own game. Contador took second, by only one second, but was never even close to Cancellara’s time.
Team Astana ended up with three riders in the top ten; Lance Armstrong finished in tenth.
The race moves into France tomorrow, with a difficult 196-km stage which will probably feature a sprint finish. Cancellara might not to choose to defend the yellow jersey tomorrow, to save his energy for the rest of the Tour.
| Stage One Top Ten Finishers | |||
| # | Rider | Team | Time |
| 1 | Fabian Cancellara | Saxo Bank | 19:32 |
| 2 | Alberto Contador | Astana | +18 |
| 3 | Bradley Wiggins | Garmin Slipstream | +19 |
| 4 | Andreas Klöden | Asatana | +22 |
| 5 | Cadel Evans | Silence Lotto | +23 |
| 6 | Levi Leipheimer | Astana | +30 |
| 7 | Roman Kreuziger | Liquigas | +32 |
| 8 | Tony Martin | Columbia Highroad | +33 |
| 9 | Vincenzo Nibali | Liquigas | +37 |
| 10 | Lance Armstrong | Astana | +40 |
