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Long-Distance Riders

I’ve meant to note for the last couple of days that this is the week of the Gold Rush Randonee. My explanation of a randonee usually prompts a reaction combining puzzlement (why would someone do such a thing?) with horror (you mean people really do that without being forced?). Here’s your basic randonee: 750 miles in 90 hours, with a series of checkpoints on the way to make sure you’re moving along smartly and not taking shortcuts.

So far, you’re just quizzical: “Yes? Hmmm. That’s a long way.”

You are correct. In ballpark numbers, 750 miles is a distance akin to San Francisco to Seattle. If you’re very motivated, you can probably do that drive in 13 hours up Interstate 5. On a bike, you want to build up to the adventure. Nice 50-mile increments would be pleasant. Take a couple of weeks to enjoy the scenery. Or maybe you’re a cycling animal and you do a 100 miles per diem, a century a day for eight days.

Here’s where curiosity encounters fear. “Ninety hours? How many days is that?”

Three and three-quarters. So to do your 750 miles in that time means pedaling a cool double-century a day. Yes, people actually do it. I can bear witness. But I won’t detour into some of the odder realities of the randonee–the night-time starts, the all-night rides, the naps in the ditches, the slow descent into an often less than coherent or rational frame of mind.

Still, you can’t help but ask: “How do you sit on a bike seat after all those miles?”

I just wanted to note the Gold Rush riders are out there, toiling from Davis, at the southwestern corner of the Sacramento Valley, across mountains and high desert to Davis Creek, just below the Oregon border on U.S. 395. They left Monday at 6 p.m., and the first rider of the 117 who started will be back in Davis in two hours or so — only 54 or 55 hours on the road. I’d like to know how much that guy slept. I know several folks on the ride, and it’s been fun to follow their progress in the Davis Bike Club’s updates. My friend Bruce, who will turn 63 this August, seems to be several hours ahead of his pace four years ago. Amazing, really.

Anyway, check out the proceedings:

Gold Rush Randonee ride updates

Gold Rush Randonee rider times

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Tour de France: Timing Rules

More on the timing rules:The previous post raised the question of how Armstrong was placed second overall after Cancellara. The answer, suggested by commenter Paul (from the Netherlands) and confirmed on Bicycle.net (here) is that the judges go back to the results of the first individual time trial (Stage 1, which was not a prologue because it was longer than 8 kilometers). As Bicycle.net explains it:

In the event two riders tie for first place in the race for the yellow jersey, their times in the race’s two individual time trials would prove crucial. In such an event the fractions of seconds from the individual time trials – which are usually rounded up to the nearest second – are employed by race officials and added to the riders’ overall time to separate them.

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Team Time Trial: Rules, Please

Watching Stage 4, the team time trial, the Versus coverage focused mostly where it always does: on road mishaps, on any and all drama involving American riders, and on the clock. That’s fine as far as it goes. But the result of the stage–with race leader Fabian Cancellara and Lance Armstrong ending in a dead heat for their total time–begged an explanation of how the heck the officials would break the tie.

There was mention of a “countback,” but no one ever said what that was, who did it, or how it worked. And I have to say, still not having done any homework on it, that I still don’t understand how Cancellara and not Armstrong wound up wearing the yellow jersey after the stage.

I’m no statistician or nothin’, but the gap between Armstrong’s Astana team and Cancellara’s Saxo Bank squad was reported at 40.11seconds. Just to be clear, that means Astana’s team time, the time awarded to Armstrong, was 40.11 seconds faster than Saxo Bank’s. Going into the stage, Cancellara was 40 seconds ahead of Armstrong. Not 40.2 or 40.99–just 40. So if Armstrong was 40.11 seconds faster than Cancellara … isn’t his total time for the race so far .11 seconds better than Cancellara’s.

Well, no, if you believe what you saw during the post-stage podium presentation. No gripe from me–I think Cancellara is swell, and Ben Stiller looked cute playing the role of ugly podium girl (the actual podium girl was a knockout if I may say so). So all I’m asking from the genius broadcasters of the stage is to explain this to your public. That’s all. And if anyone understands the timing issue and how it was resolved, please tell us.

Another matter the Versus boys didn’t get around to explaining on the live broadcast this morning was how riders who get dropped during the team event are timed. Do they get the same time as the rest of the team? That was an especially important issue for Garmin-Slipstream, which had four riders go off the back during the TTT.

Luckily, the official Tour website has something to say on this:

“… The time recorded for a team will be the time of the fifth rider. For those riders who are left behind during the team time-trial stage, their own time (real time) will be applied and taken into account for the individual general standings. The organisers have decided to go for a relatively short stage (39 km) around Montpellier to limit the consequences of the cancellation of this “comprehensive insurance.”

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Tour de France Stage 3: George Hincapie on Attack

Cavendish won Stage 3 because his team (Columbia-HTC) worked the hardest for it. Interviewed by Robbie Ventura on Versus just after the finish, Columbia’s George Hincapie, in his 14th year in the Tour peloton, had some pointed words for teams that didn’t join in the hunt:

Ventura: Was that the plan of attack? To drop the hammer as soon as the headwinds hit?

Hincapie: Actually, we were expecting to get a little help from the other teams. Nobody wanted to race. You know, it made us a bit angry. We decided if we saw a moment, you know, we were gonna go, no matter what.

RV: Was that more to lessen the odds for Cavendish for his victory or was it more to set G.C. hopes for the likes of your, ah, G.C. men?

GH: It was more just to make the race happen. Nobody wanted to race. As soon as we started pulling, none of the sprinter teams would help us, and uh you know, we kind of found that a bit insulting, so we decided to go.

RV: What team were you most frustrated with? What team do you think had the responsibility today?

GH: There’s no reason to name names, but, you know, the sprinters teams responsibilities are to chase down breakaways and make the race happen. This is the Tour de France. You want excitement. You want to race as hard as possible for every race, so uh I think our team did it today and it was an awesome team effort.

That’s right: It was awesome. Starting 25 kilometers out, Team Columbia started riding its own team time trial; well, almost–it was impressive to see the Astana and Skil-Shimano and Milram riders rotating through the front of the group to help keep it away from the peloton.

I think what Hincapie is showing off a little bit of tactical anger here Sure, all the sprinters’ teams had an interest in chasing down the breakaway. But after watching what Cavendish does, they were all probably thinking the same thing: This race will come down to the last 3 or 4 kilometers. Let Columbia pay the price to pull the escape back and maybe weaken them a little bit so the lead-out for Cavendish isn’t as dominating as it was, say, yesterday. The brilliance and daring of Columbia’s move was to take up the challenge: Gee, if you’re going to make us work hard, we might as well really work and see if we can get a big payoff. A huge, concerted effort from the peloton would have brought them back. Nobody had it in them to try that.

Be interesting to see whether Columbia’s effort costs them in the team trial tomorrow in Stage 4. I’m guessing that they’re fired up and they turn in a top four or five performance.

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Cavendish: On-Bike Fisticuffs

Earlier today, Mark Cavendish twittered this re: the end of yesterday’s stage (he was using Columbia teammate Mark Renshaw’s account):

Yesterday with 3km to go, Piet Rooijakkers (skil shimano) kidney punched me. Is he a:stupid b:crazy c:disrespectful d:all of the above? Cav

OK–what’s all that about? Maybe a little more than Cavendish let on. Here’s what The Guardian says:

Starting in Monaco, the stage was run in heat that touched 40 degrees and raised temperatures in the peloton, too. As the teams started to wind up for a hectic finish, the combustible Cavendish became embroiled with another rider. In his account, given at the post-race press conference, the guilty man was Kenny van Hummel, a Dutch rider with the Skil-Shimano team.

“He took his hands off the bars and hit me,” Cavendish said. “I was pretty annoyed about that. It’s disrespectful.”

According to the Skil-Shimano team the rider was Piet Rooijakkers, another Dutchman who had been barged and could not help touching Cavendish. When Cavendish allegedly reacted by tugging the Skil rider’s shirt, Rooijakkers lashed out.

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Tour de France Riders Who Twitter

A brief list, along with number of followers. Some Tour and cycling notables below the race group. Send me more if you have ’em.

Name (Team) Twitter handle (linked) Followers
Lance Armstrong (Astana) lancearmstrong 1.27 million
Levi Leipheimer (Astana) LeviLeipheimer 45,913
George Hincapie (Columbia-HTC) ghincapie 28,654
David Zabriskie (Garmin) dzabriskie 17,158
Christian Vande Velde (Garmin) ChristianVDV 15,738
Mick Rogers (Astana) mickrogers 12,582
Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) CadelOfficial 8,863
Mark Renshaw (Columbia-HTC) markrenshaw1 4,208
Steven de Jongh (Quickstep) stevendejongh 2,616
Bradley Wiggins (Garmin) bradwiggins 1,627
Brett Lancaster (Cervelo) bdlancaster 1,286

And other notables:

Johan Bruyneel (Astana director) johanbruyneel 26,647
Greg Henderson (Columbia-HTC) Greghenderson1 960
Chris Horner (Astana) hornerakg 12,133
Robbie Ventura (Versus TV commentator) RobbieVentura 1,885
Robbie McEwen (Katusha) mcwewenrobbie 13,616
Jonathan Vaughters (Garmin director) Vaughters 1,684
Phil Liggett (Versus TV) PhilLiggett 9,348
Chris Boardman (retired fast guy) Chris_Boardman 1,341
Floyd Landis (one-time ’06 Tour winner) TheRealFloydL 6,126
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July 5

There was a birthday here today. The first time I spent a birthday with the person in question was 26 years ago. Against all the odds I’ve been invited back again and again.

This morning, we got up at 5:15 after a night trying to calm a fireworks-rattled to get ready for our annual First Sunday of the Tour de France race-watching extravaganza. The first neighbors showed up at 6 or so. Afterward, we pieced together the rest of the day.

We had visitors: One son and his wife drove up from their place in far-away San Jose, and then we went hiking on Ring Mountain in Marin County. Clear day, with views into every distance.

Then we came home and cooked dinner and the other son and his, you know, very good friend, joined us. All six of us had a repast of buffalo stew (there’s a first time for everything) and salad and an excellent cake from the local French-like cake maker.

Then everyone went on their way, and we were left alone with the dog. What a great day, from first sleepy moment to the last, also a little sleepy. We’ll have to try the whole thing again next year.

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The Tour: Stage 2

Three things about the Stage 2 finish in Brignoles:

1. I don’t care how many times I see it. The sight of the peloton gathering itself for the final sprint is exhilarating and terrifying. The speed, the aggressiveness, the agility, the nerve, the impossible collective ability to respond to so much happening so fast. I was positive as the riders funneled down into the final couple thousand meters that there would be a disastrous, spectacular crash. Instead, there was a minor one as a rider or two failed to negotiate a sweeping right-hand turn.

2. Everyone around the race, including all 180 riders, anticipated how the day’s stage would wind up: with Team Columbia-HTC trying to control the front and launch Mark Cavendish. Despite that, no one could stop it from happening. Team Garmin-Slipstream did manage to get their man, Tyler Farrar, into position. Cavendish beat him by three or four bike lengths.

3. Cavendish. Raw power. Absolute certainty that he’s the man. The combination of team and star gives the impression of inevitability in the sprint. Of course, it’s just an impression. No one wins every day. Right?

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Tweeting the Tour

Yes, the Tour de France started today, which is the annual early-July signal to take even more leave of my senses than usual. As the late, mostly unlamented Church Lady said, “Isn’t that special?”

My Tour Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/re_cycling

My cycling blog, which goes sadly neglected most of the time: re: Cycling

Regularly unscheduled programming will continue here at Infospigot, with occasional break-ins with cycling news of cosmic significance.

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The Tour: Stage 1

The official results and standings from the TdF site: Stage 1.

Take-aways on Day 1:

–Fabian Cancellara is, as third-place finisher Bradley Wiggins said, the man.

–Alberto Contador, in second, is also a man. Even a man to be reckoned with, as Liggett/Sherwen would say.

–Astana placed four in the top 10: Contador, Andreas Klöden, Levi Leipheimer, and Lance Armstrong. What does that quartet have in common? They can all climb. If the team stays intact–out of crashes and away from injuries or other mishaps–it’s going to be a gang fight in the mountains.

–Unofficially, Armstrong won the battle today for the first TdF rider to tweet post-race. He was just ahead of Mick Rogers, Leipheimer, Wiggins, and Cadel Evans.

I will depart from tradition and register no complaints with the Versus coverage of the stage. Well, here’s one small thing: It always surprises me on the run-in to the time-trial finishes that the lads can’t give a more precise idea of how far out the riders are. I mean, the course is marked. And they have 180 riders to practice on. Instead, LiggWen get in a lather with their guesstimates of finishing times and you never know exactly whether the guys are 500 meters from the finish or 100.

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