The Cycliste Moderne, July 6, 2005

Team Time Trial Mayhem

Wednesday’s team time trial lived up to expectations. It was very fast, in fact the fastest team time trial in Tour history. Teams with GC contenders showed up and raced hard. Not one team “mailed it in” this year like last year when FDj.com lost 7:33 to US Postal Service.

Unfortunately, David Zabriskie crashed in the last two kilometers ending his run in yellow. It is clear that had he stayed upright he would have likely remained in yellow. Team CSC had an excellent performance and would have not likely lost by two seconds to Discovery Channel. Discovery rode a perfect team time trial. It did not lose a single rider over the course unlike CSC, T-Mobile and Phonak. Discovery kept its pace under control and appeared to get faster as the race went on.

The big question now is whether Discovery Channel will defend Armstrong’s yellow jersey for the rest of the Tour or if they will let a break go like they have historically done. Due to the long individual time trial and the early team time trial, letting the jersey go to another team will be easy to do. It is unlikely that the sprinters teams will let a break go over the next couple of days. Moreover, letting a break go once the race hits the Vosges (hilly region in northeastern France) could be dangerous as there are not the long mountain top finishes that Armstrong has used to take back time in the past.

Although I had some reservations about the “special rules” for the team time trial implemented last year, I have gotten over them. Poor teamwork should be punished, while strong teams should be rewarded. The current system does both of those things without skewing the race too much.


Simoni Whines Like A Five Year Old Girl

You know by now that I am not a big fan of Gilberto Simoni of Lampre Caffita. He has always talked too much and not proven his abilities when faced with the best in the world. He has had success in the Giro d’Italia but last year was upstaged by his younger teammate Damiano Cuenego. This year Cuenego was supposed to be the team’s leader for the Tour and would ride the Giro in support of Simoni. Cunego had a disasterous Giro and was of little assistance to Simoni. Simoni all but blamed Cunego for his failure to overtake Paolo Savoldelli of Discovery Channel. Simoni announced that he would go to the Tour and support Cunego, much to the surprise of team management.

After the Giro, Cunego was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr Syndrome and was obviously out of the Tour de France. No one heard anything until a week before from Simoni when, he proclaimed for all who were interested that he would not be competing in the Tour this year due to “muscle fatigue” and that he would not be able to help the team due to his “condition.” Do you think that had anything to do with the team’s announcement that it had extended Cunego’s contract for three more years while refusing to offer Simoni a contract for next year?

Gilberto reminds me of the pronouncements by my five-year-old daughter after learning one of her siblings is sick or injured and getting more attention.

Tour Fashion Review #2

There has been some criticism of Discovery Channel’s jerseys this year as looking too much like some of the other teams, namely Quick.Step and AG2R. Supposedly the grey on the Discovery Channel was inspired by shark skin and was intended to play off of Discovery Channel’s annual “Shark Week” block of programming.

Discovery Channel’s team kit is neither the best nor the worst in the peleton. However, I give it only a B- because it is not really that original or distinctive plus it is kind of turquoise. The yellow “livestrong” sleeve band is a nice touch but does not go with the rest of the kit. It is not anything that I would run right out and buy. Plus, last year’s USPostal Service Kit with the dark navy blue and wide red and white stripes is probably the best kit a US team racing in Europe has ever worn. It clearly identified the team as an American team. This year is kind of a let down.