Universal Sports to air La Vuelta a España!

More great news from Universal Sports - nine hours of daily coverage of La Vuelta a Espana from August 29 - September 20!

Here's a link to a press release about the four year deal: http://www.cyclingfans.com/node/440

I'm excited to be joining Steve Schlanger once again as we take you through the third and final Grand Tour of the year. From the looks of it, there are going to be some interesting battles and stories - Ivan Basso is targeting the event, after not racing the Tour de France earlier this month. Alexandre Vinokourov - the Kazak rider who was booted from the Tour de France after failing a doping test in 2007 has also announced his intentions to race. Vino held a press conference during the Tour this year and stated that he would be competing in this year's Vuelta after his two year suspension was over. VeloNews quoted him as saying “I have served my suspension and I do not see why I could not return. If Bruyneel does not want me, it will be Bruyneel who is leaving the team."

Johan Bruyneel is the new manager of team Astana, the former manager of the Discovery Channel and U.S. Postal teams of seven-time Tour champ Lance armstrong. He was hired to revamp team Astana following Vino's expulsion from the 2007 Tour de France. And if you look at this year's Tour, things have gone pretty well in the Astana team camp taking 1st, 3rd & 6th in the Geneeral Classification, and also winning the team competition at this year's Tour de France; in addition to that Alberto Contador leads the international rankings and Astana leads the team rankings.

This year, the Vuelta starts in The Netherlands before finishing 23 days and 2,035 miles later in Madrid, Spain.

The Vuelta will air daily on Universal Sports TV and on the internet at universalsports.com

If you are wondering if you can view Universal Sports on your TV, go to this link where you can enter your zip code and cable provider towards the top right of the page, or you can click on your state and look there: http://www.universalsports.tv/Universal_Sports_on_TV.html

Here's the link to the Vuelta's homepage: http://www.lavuelta.com/09/ingles/recorrido/resumen.asp

Viva la Vuelta!

A Rare Double Tactical Mistake By Team Astana

Today's stage of the Tour de France was the day with the single toughest profile of the entire Tour, and since the course was either up or down virtually all day, team Astana knew it would be the toughest day of the entire 21 days of racing to control. Here's the profile:

After an early group was finally allowed to escape on the first climb of the day, things settled down with team Astana riding a controlled pace at the front of the peloton to keep the break in check. By the time everyone had crested the top of the second climb, they had already climbed over 6,000', and they still had three categorized climbs to contend with before the finish.

Here's how the race for the overall looked going into the day:

1	Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana	67:33:15
2	Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana	0:01:37
3	Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream	0:01:46
4	Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana	0:02:17
5	Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank	0:02:26
6	Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas	0:02:51
7	Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux	0:03:09
8	Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank	0:03:25
9	Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo Test Team	0:03:52
10	Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream	0:03:59

All appeared to be going according to plan for the Astana team, as their efforts and the efforts of team Saxo Bank slowly whittled down the main field of the remaining contenders for the overall in this year's race. When the pack arrived on the bottom slopes of the penultimate climb of the day, the Col de Romme, there were only about 30 strongmen left. After a series of attacks which began with last year's Tour de France winner, Carlos Sastre, and ended with Andy Schleck, last year's best young rider, the pecking order had been established - two groups of four were left to settle the score: in the leading group were the brothers Andy and Frank Schleck accompanied by teammates Alberto Contador and Andreas Kloden; the second group contained Lance Armstrong, teammates Brad Wiggins and Christian Vande Velde, along with Vincenzo Nibali. Having eight of the top 10 riders in the overall battle represented in these two groups, it was clear that the race was in full attack mode.

With Armstrong playing the perfect teammate to Contador and Kloden who were up the road, all he needed to do was to follow the wheel of Wiggins. Wiggins is the most dangerous adversary for team Astana in the 25 mile individual time trial tomorrow, and this played perfectly into the hands of Astana by distancing two of their men from Wiggins. With Lance saving energy by following in the draft of the chasing Vande Velde and Wiggins, and Contador and Kloden getting the same free ride up ahead since it was up to the Schleck brothers to drive the pace to gain time on the Wiggins group, Astana were literally sitting pretty as the two groups crested the top of the climb.

All looked to be going pretty much according to plan, when on the final climb, suddenly, Contador made the first mistake for the team - he attacked the Schlecks, and in the process dropped his teammate, Kloden. He realized his error, but the damage was done and the brothers Schleck poured on the gas to get rid of the German. Meanwhile, Lance made a smart move by waiting for Vande Velde and Wiggins (the man called Wiggo) to run their gas tanks right up to empty, then he sprang clear toward the top of the climb. With Armstrong closing on Kloden, it was a judgement call to decide if you have Kloden sit up at the top to join forces with Armstrong, or not. Kloden crests the top 1:19 behind the three leaders, and 52 seconds ahead of Armstrong - still a sizable gap so maybe not time to sit up and wait. But, on the descent, Kloden continues to loose time on the leaders, and to Armstrong. Now it's time to wait for Lance, in the hopes that they can do a better job of minimizing their losses together, and further distance themselves from Wiggo who's chasing behind. It does the team no good to have Kloden and Armstrong bombing the descent individually, only to have them come together at the finish! This was where Astana makes their second mistake of the day. Kloden pressed on, alone, and was caught by Armstrong in the final mile - both guys wasting valuable energy and losing valuable time in the process of not being together to share the pacemaking.

It was surprising to see a team of this stature and experience make these mistakes today. What appeared to be the case was that both Contador and Kloden rode selfishly, Contador hoping for a stage win and Kloden wanting to pass Armstrong in the overall battle before tomorrow's critical TT. Armstrong, on the other hand, impressed me with his selfless teamwork by not responding to the move which had two of his team mates in it on the penultimate climb, just as he did yesterday. And that deference is impressive indeed, coming from a man who hasn't entered a Tour de France he hasn't won in his last seven starts.

Here's how the overall battle looks now:

1. Alberto Contador (Astana) at 72:27:09
2. Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) at 02:26
3. Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank) at 03:25
4. Lance Armstrong (Astana) at 03:55
5. Andreas Kloden (Astana) at 04:44
6. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin - Slipstream) at 04:53
7. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) at 05:09
8. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream) at 08:08

Looking to tomorrow's TT, Wiggo gains time on all of the contenders, Lance outperforms everyone except Wiggins, followed by Contador and Kloden. This is my prediction of the GC picture following the stage, barring incident:

1. Alberto Contador

2. Lance Armstrong

3. Bradley Wiggins

4. Andreas Kloden

5. Andy Schleck

The real shame of it is that todays oversight just might have cost Andreas Kloden and team Astana the chance to have all three places on the final podium in Paris - something which hasn't happened for one team since 1914.

The rest of this week is going to be one heck of a battle, but Contador should finish in Paris in yellow, and Lance should also be on the podium.

Boise Twilight Crowd

Just a portion of the crowd hanging out to see the Women's and Men's awards at 10 o'clock that night.

You can see why it's one of the best in the country!

Boise Twilight Criterium + GoGo's Close Shave

After finishing the Universal Sports TV voice-over for Milan-San Remo in Los Angeles, I caught a late night flight on Friday to Boise for the 23rd edition of the Boise Twilight Criterium on Saturday, July 18th. While having a quick breakfast with old friends from Austin (Andrew, Piper and their twin boys), we started talking about short hair. Well, you can see the outcome of that discussion here (this one's for you, Matt Diefenbach):

After the dirty work was finished for the day, it was back to business as usual announcing the races. And let me tell you - it was hot! Temps reached 106 degrees, and we had a full day of racing beginning with several waves of kiddos (some with training wheels!) - all being led out on their race by hometown hero Kristin Armstrong - the Olympic, World, and five-time National champion.

The racing everybody was waiting for started at 7:10 pm, when the Pro/Elite women took to the streets. Armstrong, who had earlier this year announced her intention to retire at the conclusion of the 2009 racing season, was the big attraction - and competing in her last race on U.S. soil before returning to Europe to try to win another Gold Medal at the World Championships in Switzerland this coming September. She was watched like a hawk by the women's field for the entire 60 minute race. Unable to break free of the whittled down field, she had to resort to winning in a sprint finish - something she's not particularly known for. The crowd went wild as she took the sprint ahead of her six remaining challengers.

Then, as the temps were finally below 100 degrees, the Pro/Category 1 men's event got under way. With raucous crowds estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 in downtown Boise, the race was strung-out single file for almost the entire 80 minutes. It was a night full of attacks but none gained any lasting advantage until near the end. Inside the final 10 laps, Peter Latham (Bissell) and Tyler Wren (Colavita Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light) put together what looked like it might have been the winning move. Working flawlessly together, they held the field at bay, but with a handful of laps remaining, Team Type 1 put its entire squad of six riders on the front of the bunch - catching the lead duo with less than 500 meters to go and setting up Ken Hansen to his second sprint win in as many weeks.

The next morning I hopped on a plane at dawn heading back to Montreal, where my wife, Christina, has been doing research for the past couple months. I thought it would be fun not to tell her that I'd shaved my head the day before, but it turned out that was the wrong decision. If you've ever imagined doing this, I can tell you your wife probably won't think it's funny if you show up bald one day without warning. After she almost drove right by me at the airport pickup -- recognizing me only by my shirt, which looked familiar --, she was speechless while we drove home. I thought it was a strong reaction to a simple head shaving, and then the next day (today) she told me that not only did it reminder her of picture of her dad when he was in college, but also of her ex-husband. You can only imagine how well that went over. And, quite frankly, after only two days, the stubble is a nightmare! I've always like the bald look on my friends, but alas, I guess it's not right for me.

Second Mountain Top Finish - Another Day for Alberto Contador

Sunday's stage of the Tour de France is going to be a race for the yellow between two men, and they are on the same team-Astana. Though Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong both want to ride into yellow at the finish on the 1st category Verbier climb, there are still a lot of questions as to how the team strategy is going to play out and if they both go all in for a race to the top, which one of them will have the better legs. The climb is almost nine kilometers long, with an average gradient of 7.1 percent. This is a tougher climb than the only other mountain top finish the Tour has had so far, where Contador attacked late on the final ascent and took just shy of 20 seconds from Lance, moving himself a couple seconds ahead in the overall classification.

One thing's for certain, it's really inconsequential that the Italian Rinaldo Nocentini is leading the race by six seconds over Contador and eight seconds over Armstrong. If there is any battle on the final climb on Sunday, which there very well should be, Nocentini's time in the coveted yellow jersey of the worlds biggest bicycle race will be long gone at the finish.

Today, American George Hincapie had a smart ride, infiltrating the break of no-hopers in the overall battle, and he almost rode himself into the yellow jersey by the finish, coming up a scant five seconds short of dethroning Nocentini. It would have been a coup for the former team mate of Armstrong, who now rides for the incredibly successful Columbia-HTC team based in San Louis Obispo, CA-the same team of the sprinting sensation Mark Cavendish, winner of four stages of this year's Tour already-as well as a slew of other talented riders who all appear to be willing to lie down on the tracks for each other should they feel it would help a team mate to win. But George is a smart professional, with no delusions about his chances on the final climb tomorrow-he's going to loose at least a couple minutes, and he knows it. Still, what a treat it would have been for him, his team and all his legions of fans to see Big George in the yellow jersey for a day.

Here's the battle for the overall. Note the very small gaps at the top of the standings:

1. Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r-La Mondiale) in 58:13:52
2. George Hincapie (Columbia-HTC) at 00:05
3. Alberto Contador (Astana) at 00:06
4. Lance Armstrong (Astana) at 00:08
5. Christophe Le Mevel (Francaise Des Jeux) at 00:43
6. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin - Slipstream) at 00:46
7. Andréas Klöden (Astana) at 00:54
8. Tony Martin (Columbia - HTC) at 01:00
9. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin - Slipstream) at 01:24
10. Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) at 01:49

So, what do I expect to happen Sunday? Nocentini loses the jersey to Contador. Hincapie falls out of the top five, and Armstrong loses ground on Contador-why you ask, would the seven time Tour winner lose time to his team mate? He just doesn't have the ability to accelerate with the Spaniard, and the Spaniard is here to win the Tour. Lance would love to win, but he will lose time Sunday, and next Saturday on the dreaded Mont Ventoux. This is a true beast of a climb at 21.6 km in length with an average grade of 7.6 percent. For folks not too familiar with how steep that is, let's just say that it is a very formidable climb, and any mountain top finish sends the fireworks flying so this is going to be a day to remember with one day to go in the Tour de France. This is an historic first for the Tour to have a climb like the Ventoux with only one day of racing to follow into Paris.

When the attacks come on the Verbier, both Lance and Contador will mark them, because neither wants to give time to the other. But when the going gets rough, I simply don't see Armstrong having the suds to follow Contador's hardest accelerations. And, I don't see Contador sitting back and following the wheels of others to the top of the mountain. At some point, after things have been whittled down with the group of contenders, Contador will strike out on his own to gain more time on his rivals (not just Lance), so that he has a greater buffer for the upcoming 40 km individual TT. Even though Lance might out ride Contador in the TT, he probably can't gain enough time to compensate for the final two mountaintop finishes of the race, where he's almost certain to lose time.

Lance's only chance to win the Tour, comes if his team mate Contador cracks tomorrow or next Saturday on the Ventoux, and if Lance puts together a great time trial in Annecy on Thursday. Anything is possible with Contador, he looked to be a shoe-in for the win earlier this year at the Paris-Nice stage race only to succumb to another dreaded part of bike racing-hunger knock. In a day which saw fast and aggressive racing right from the gun, he simply didn't get enough calories and liquids into his system, and he cracked on the final climb. It's an easy mistake to make, especially when the racing is fast, and you're constantly fighting for position and trying to manage everything which is going on in the race. And without proper nutrition, your body simply shuts down. These are the type of mistakes which can cost any rider the victory, no matter how great they are.

To his credit, Lance appears to be headed for his peak form of the year during the final week of the Tour. His coach, Chris Carmichael, says he expects Lance to be on his best form of the year this week. And, one can never discount how dominant Lance was in the Tour before he retired after his 7th win in 2005, but even for Lance the cards are stacked against him. I don't have access to his power-to-weight ratio numbers, which is largely what makes the difference on a finishing climb, but it's hard to imagine that in a head-to-head battle Lance can ride with Contador when the chips are down. It will all be settled in the next eight days and then the world will know just how well Lance has bounced back from retirement.

Next year, all bets are off should Lance again put his full attention on winning the Tour.

Beijing and Milan-San Remo Coming Soon on Universal Sports TV

Just a heads up for those of you longing for more cycling TV coverage in the US.  Universal Sports will soon air footage from the Beijing Olympic Men's Road Race (150 miles) and this year's Milan-San Remo (185 miles). Clearly these are both epic races in amazing locations. Steve Schlanger and I will be calling the races.

The Olympic Men's RR is planned to air on Universal Sports TV starting this Friday, July 17th, although check their TV schedule to confirm.  

Here's the link to their TV schedule (all times Eastern):

http://www.universalsports.com/EPG/tv.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&SPID=13408

To find out if you get a Universal Sports TV channel in your area, consult this link:

http://www.universalsports.tv/Universal_Sports_on_TV.html

If you don't get US TV in your area, please contact your local cable provider to request the station, and also email Universal Sports to let them know, since they want to reach their audience and are working to expand their coverage.

GoGo's Cycling Photo Album, 1975-Present

Just created this cycling photo album, including the likes of Davis Phinney, Michael Aisner, Ron Kiefel, Andy Hampsten, Steve Tilford, etc... as well as my love of all things bike-related.

http://picasaweb.google.com/BiciGoGo/BiciGoGoPhotos#

A permanent link to this slideshow will be in the photos section of the right sidebar of this blog. It automatically updates as I add in more images.  Enjoy!

Armstrong's Second Best Chance for Yellow?

Today's stage number seven of the Tour de France has been heavily scrutinized - and the majority of the flap surrounds whether or not Lance Armstrong will be in the Yellow Jersey at the conclusion of the day - a 139 mile day in the Pyrenees which finishes atop the Arcalis mountain. While I would be thrilled for Lance to win both this stage and the overall Tour, here are the reasons why I don't think it's likely.

Let's roll back the calendar a few days to stage three when Lance was the only general classification contender to infiltrate the split in the cross winds which occurred with just under 20 miles to go while Columbia-HTC drove the peloton. Making that split, and gaining 41 "free" seconds over all the major GC contenders showed that Lance has been paying attention to the sketchy and unpredictable world of the professional peloton-he was caught behind splits during the closing kilometers during some stages in the Giro d'Italia, and though he wasn't racing there as an overall contender, he hasn't forgotten the importance of every detail in being atop the leader board in this incredibly physically and mentally demanding sport.

Unfortunately for Lance, he missed his best chance to slip into yellow during the following day's team time trial, by a scant fraction of a second. His Astana team had an incredible ride to beat Fabian Cancellara's Saxo Bank team by 40 seconds in the short but very technical TTT-which put Lance in a virtual deadlock with stage one winner Cancellara - Cancellara beat Lance in the opening time trial in Monaco by 40 seconds. So, as is always the case in cycling, the tie-breaker then comes down to fractions of a second from that TT, with Cancellara enjoying a razor-thin two-tenths-of-a-second lead. Had Astana gone one second faster in the TTT, Lance would have been in yellow, and would have changed history once again.

Today, Lance has what will most likely be his second best opportunity to take the Yellow Jersey-but it's NOT likely that Cancellara will be his greatest obstacle. Instead, with the final 6.5 miles of the 139 mile race being up to the summit of Arcalis, this will be the first chance for the climbers to show their form. Luckily for Lance, he is immediately trailed in the GC by three of his team mates-here are the top 10 in the overall battle going into today:

• 1. Fabian Cancellara Team Saxo Bank in 19:29:22
• 2. Lance Armstrong Astana in 19:29:22
• 3. Alberto Contador Astana in 19:29:41 at 00:19
• 4. Andréas KlÖden Astana in 19:29:45 at 00:23
• 5. Levi Leipheimer Astana in 19:29:53 at 00:31
• 6. Bradley Wiggins Garmin - Slipstream in 19:30:00 at 00:38
• 7. Tony Martin Team Columbia - Htc in 19:30:14 at 00:52
• 8. Christian Vande Velde Garmin - Slipstream in 19:30:38 at 01:16
• 9. Gustav Larsson Team Saxo Bank in 19:30:44 at 01:22
• 10. Maxime Monfort Team Columbia - Htc in 19:30:51 at 01:29

It is pretty much expected that someone from the Astana camp will be the race leader after the conclusion of today's stage (though Cancellara says he thinks he can defend the jersey today) -the big question is whom? My prediction is that it will go to Contador, and these are just some of the reasons why:

1. Lance hasn't gone to battle on a mountain top finish in the Tour since 2005, and for three of those years he was in retirement. Though he did spend some time "training" during those years, there simply weren't the goals, focus or intensity one has when racing professionally.

2. Lance started training in earnest last fall, when he shocked the world by announcing he was going to come out of retirement. Nobody, and I do mean nobody, has ever come out of three and a half years of retirement and been able to win the Tour de France six months later. The Tour is a three week race, averaging over 100 miles a day, competing against the best riders in the world. Just to be competitive in the race would be unprecedented - to win the overall, a miracle. Winning today wouldn't get him the win when he arrives in Paris, but it's still highly unlikely that he will be in the jersey at the conclusion of today's stage.

3. Lance has never raced two Grand Tours in one season - and this year he already competed in, and placed 12th overall, in the three week long Giro d'Italia in May. Lance did get better as the Italian Grand Tour progressed, which bodes well for him at the Tour de France, but it's still an incredible workload and stress to his body to race, recover from, then ramp up his training again before the Tour, recover and be in winning form physically and mentally to win the Tour. Lance has shown that he is an incredible talent with an iron will to succeed, but after all the human body/mind do eventually reach their limits!

4. Once a person reaches their early 30's there begins a physiological slide. Muscle mass starts to go south, as does one's cardiovascular system - and hence one's ability to process oxygen. This decline can be largely mitigated by heavy and consistent training, but still affects a guy who, by his own admission told me during the Giro d'Italia, "It wasn't far from the truth when I said I spent the last 3 1/2 years drinking beer on the beach." Though this is a bit of an exaggeration, there's a big difference between training full time like all of your competitors and being retired and training to stay fit.

5. Alberto Contador. He has won every Grand Tour he's competed in over the last two years -Tour de France 2007, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana 2008. He is still in the prime of his career, and he will be hungry to win the race which his team was excluded from competing in last year. He is a punchy climber who has shown that he can accelerate repeatedly on climbs which will be to his advantage on summit finishes. Armstrong will have a very difficult time matching accelerations, and will have to "ride within himself" if he has any hope of being with the leaders at the top - he will need to let others beat each other up by attacking, and he'll have to ride steady so as not to blow up.

What I expect today, is that there will be attacks on the final climb - after all, there are only three summit finishes during the entire 21 days of racing and if you want to win the world's biggest bike race you will have to test on each one of them. Lance and Contador will both have to follow the attacks, and if Lance can stay with Contador he certainly will - but Contador should be the better climber today, and he will have to follow the attacks by the other competitors, even if Lance cannot follow. Contador will not help others get away from Lance, he will just follow wheels, and he will go for bonus seconds by out-sprinting them at the finish line, or dropping them late if he sees an opportunity.

Lance's only chance for yellow today will be if his Astana team can control the race well into the final ascent by keeping a stranglehold tempo on the front of the peloton, and if the race isn't aggressive and the attacks come too few and too late to crack him. With the likes of his team mates Leipheimer, Kloden, Popovich and Zubeldia, there is a lot of horsepower which can stifle breakaway attempts - but Armstrong will have to be quite good to be able to be there with them if the attacks come fast and furious from the bottom of the climb. The good thing for Lance is that the climb is relatively short at 6.5 miles (though it does trend uphill for some time to get to the base of the climb), and not as steep as the hardest climbs in the Pyranees. That means it's just a little easier to control, and Astana just might be able to do it!

They're on the road now, so let's see how it plays out. One thing's for sure, all eyes are on the battle for yellow.

Lance Armstrong Exclusive Giro d'Italia Interview for Universal Sports

http://tinyurl.com/nuy9oa

Check out the interview Steve Schlanger and I did with Lance near the end of the Giro for Universal Sports. He talks about his return to racing, his strategy of tweeting to reach the public, and his Tour de France predictions.

Lance Armstrong Makes the Break, Stage 3 Tour de France

The whole Armstrong story has been misinterpreted, in my opinion.  From a tactical sense, it was the perfect move for Lance to be in, because not a single one of the other overall race favorites was in that front group - so he actually gained time on all of the rivals, which in fact, is not only perfect for his team but it is also perfect racing tactics.  All it does is put him in a better position to be a threat, should he actually have the legs when the race reaches the more crucial stages.  

He actually didn't harm Alberto Contador at all, because nobody who is a threat gained time on Alberto except Lance - and that is fine in this situation.  This would have been a completely different story if Sastre, Andy or Frank Schleck, Cadel Evans, or Denis Menchov had been in the split. Then you would have had to say it's a mistake, because Lance doesn't know if he's going to be better than those guys in the long haul. So in essence he would've been contributing to giving time to someone whom you might not be able to beat.  

 

I read some of the articles about this yesterday, and I didn't see a single one which correctly pointed out what a good move this was for Lance and team Astana. It's a real shame, in my opinion, that others have interpreted this as a "rift," but I think there's a certain amount of journalistic sensationalism going on here.