I did not see the Tour de France last night for obvious reasons but did see the half hour segment tonight. Whilst the stage was exciting for viewers and those watching on the roadside it certainly was not for the riders.
Hearing Jens Voigt interview he said the stage was ridiculous and I think that coming from one of the most experienced riders in the race, says it all. If Armstrong or one of the top contenders complained you would have a whole host of uninformed people saying 'oh he is just complaining'.
For mine the Tour Directors need their backside kicked for putting the hardest 3 week stage race over a one day classic course. Look, the traditions of the Classics is that they race on these back cobble roads, they are one day events. To see Frank Schleck and others fall on those back roads is very sad and should have been avoided.
From interviews before the stage top riders were not looking forward to that stage and I am amazed these top riders are not consulted when the years race plan was being set up. By all means go outside of France but don't put the riders over a Donkey Track like that when there is three hard weeks to race.
I am not big on militant unionism but people have every right to be represented by a body working in their interests, in my view. The sooner the top cyclists have a common voice on matters concerning their well being the better. Their choice of profession is dangerous by the nature of what they do but unnecessary and foolish danger should not be tolerated and the top riders could have a strong voice in these matters.
As I stated earlier the Classics have cobbles as part of their tradition and are one dayers but it was not fair to the riders to put them over such crappy roads with the high risks of bad injuries.
By all means start outside France but on suitable roads, Holland was fine but hard and some of those fall were rider error not crappy road surfaces. Theré not MTBikers or cyclocross riders and deserve a fair go. Also they are not circus animals.
Looking forward to tonight and bad luck for Frank Schleck.
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( 0 / 0 )It look's like the main focus for the top contenders in the tour is keeping out of trouble. Perhaps the course today was not suitable then these roads are used for plenty of other races. Maybe the riders have to ride according to the conditions at the time.
As Robbie McEwen explained from the previous day, they were each given a little map of the course. If riders go into a hairpin bend at nearly 70 k's per hour then falls must be expected.
Then conditions on wet roads do change a lot. Hopefully no more riders are knocked out like Adam Hansen from avoidable falls.
Safe riding this week and at least Melb is dry.
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( 0 / 0 )Talking to Col Rourke today he was told by David Sturt about the 100 k's Victorian Championship yesterday. David said there were only about 30 riders left at the finish yesterday and one of those riders was Gerard Donnelly. Gerard is now Masters 5 yet to see him race you would still think him a youngster. David Sturt told Colin that he was very impressed with the ride by Gerard.
By the way David is not too bad himself, he is very classy.
Don't know how any other CCCC riders went as I can't really follow the results other than the first three placegetters etc. etc.
Gerard will give a very good account of himself in the Australian Road Titles in September and although there are some gun interstate guys, he will be right in there and a good chance to win.
David 'Steggles' will go okay himself anyway.
safe riding all.
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( 0 / 0 )If as reports suggest Adam Hansen is out of the Tour de France it is very bad luck for him and he will be a loss to HTC-Colombia. Last night I had the TV on in bed but fell asleep in the first 1/2 hour only to wake with 137 k's to go then asleep again until 11 K's from the finish.
That last 10k's was hectic and those crashes were unfortunate. Although Cavendish had bad luck and was out on the hairpin corner it did look like other teams were taking it up to HTC-Colombia. Last year other teams did not appear to have any answer to their lead out train but it might not be so dominant this year, it's early days.
Petacchi jumped and took a couple of lengths out of Mark Renshaw and fully deserved his fine win. He is a very smart sprinter like Robbie McEwen and it was great to see the old timers up in the front line at the finish.
Long way to go yet and tonight will try and stay awake for more of the coverage.
Cheers.
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( 0 / 0 )This afternoon I called into DISC, no not to train. I visited my daughter in Northcote so just called in for a look. Good to see track being used and coach Brad Robins had people doing starts etc and they looked to be moving well. Talked to Paul Parker who runs his strength and conditioning coaching at DISC, Cycle Finesse. Paul showed me his weight room in the back straight which is well set up and utilising otherwise dead space.
As I was leaving Carl Brewer was arriving for late afternoon coaching. It is good to see the track getting good utilisation. Did fill out a survey on track riding, racing and participation last week and hopefully many others will do likewise.
Enjoy your cycling and safe riding.
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