The Tour Day 19

Who counted the crowd on the slopes of L’Alpe D’Huez? Did they have somebody standing there with a clicker like when you walk into Costco? 900,000 bodies is a lot of bodies to cram into 15.5 kilometers of roadside. I’m glad I wasn’t there. It was a true schmengefest, as Bob Roll predicted it would be.

My husband and I have been waiting for today’s stage since it was announced last October. I remember sitting on the couch with him, watching teevee when the when the time trial up L’Alpe D’Huez was announced. We looked at one another with amazement. (I may have raised an eyebrow, I can’t remember.)

Now I’ll be the first to admit that watching a time trial does not have the same appeal as a peloton chasing up a mountain, or sprinters racing for the finish line. The appeal in a time trial is how it affects the outcome of the race, and I was, as usual, up at six friggin’ am to watch every minute that was broadcast.

We all know that Lance has been training on that mountain this past spring. One report was that he rode it four times in one day. Who wouldn’t expect him to win? I did, but it didn’t make the outcome any less exciting for me. What I didn’t expect was the magnificent ride of Jan Ullrich. It’s good to see him ride like he did today, and it gives me some hope he might still be able to contend for a podium position. An interesting coincidence, Armstrong beat Ullrich by sixty-one seconds in today’s stage. That is how much he beat Ullrich by in last year’s tour.

I wonder how much psychological damage today’s stage did to Ivan Basso. It’s gotta be rough to have the man who started two minutes behind overtake you, even if it is Lance Armstrong. Basso had a solid ride and finished the stage eighth overall at 2’23”. He retained second place in the GC at 3’48”.

Ullrich finished forty-one seconds ahead of his teammate Kloden, and sits in fourth position in the GC at 7’55”, but only 2’52” behind Kloden. This will give an interesting twist to the podium race, and the tactics of T Mobile. The final days of this year’s tour will be exciting to say the least.

Two riders were dropped today when they failed to finish within the 33% time margin. They were Davide Bramati of Quick Step-Davitmon and Aart Vierhouten of Lotto Domo. US Postal and Rabobank are the two teams left with all riders.

You can check the comments section of yesterday’s post to read what a German cycling fan though of Team CSC’s tactics in yesterday’s race. Nice to have some perspective from another country.

Christian Vande Velde, an American and former teammate of Armstrong, now riding for Liberty Seguros, writes about today’s stage in his online journal.

What can you say about this but awww….how sweet!

Today’s “Meow Corner” entry tells why Armstrong won Stage 16.

Today’s Tune to the Tour contest word is “L’Alpe D’Huez”.

CKS/bl Tridiot Rating used an extremely complex formula and the numbers 900,000, 61, and 4, for an end result of 119.416%