The Cycliste Moderne, July 23, 2006

Tour Recap

The Tour de France has concluded probably the most memorable race since Greg Lemond's 1989 victory over Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds. No team was dominant. No rider looked infallible. It was mano a mano from day one.

To start the Tour with the shadow of Operacion Puerto over the race, you had to wonder how exciting the race would be. The loss of the first five riders from last year due to Armstrong's retirement, the suspension of Basso, Ullrich and Mancebo and the withdrawal of Vinokourov's team cost the race its biggest names. Valverde's crash during the first week robbed the race of another of the emerging talents in the sport. The Tour overcame those difficulties to provide more excitement and entertainment than we have seen in some time.

The American cycling press and mainstream press was too focused, however, on the effect that Armstrong's retirement would have on the sport. The pre Tour hype surrounding Hincapie, Leipheimer and Julich was too much. I unfortunately bought into it to thinking that Hincapie could finish in the top 10 at the Tour. I thought the Leipheimer's win at the Dauphine Libere marked him as a potential podium finisher. I thought Julich would have on last chance to ride for himself with Basso's suspension. In reality, Hincapie has not had enough experience as a GC leader to be a threat, Leipheimer continues to be snakebit and it has been eight years since Julich finished on the podium in a Tour depleted of its top riders due to the Festina scandal.

Clearly, Landis was a threat as he had won three significant stage races already this year by showing the mix of time trialing and climbing that top GC riders needed. Landis was in reality the only American threat for the podium.

Team Phonak was not particularly strong, although it was more focused than it has been in recent years due to the fact that it had a designated leader in Landis. We all have been spoiled by years of the Blue Train dropping Armstrong off about 5km from the summit of the final climb where he then put enough time into his rivals to be able to win convincingly. Most people forget that Armstrong's wins in 1999 and 2000 were with teams that were not as strong, skilled or focused as his teams over the last five wins. Armstrong won his first Tour on the Stage 2 trip over the Passage du Gois when eventual runner up Alex Zulle lost six minutes after getting caught behind the crash that ended the Tour for Armstrong's Postal teammate Jonathan Vaughters. He then reaffirmed his individual strength on the slopes up to Sestriere. He did that without the Blue Train.

Team Phonak was strong enough to get the job done. No additional teammates could have prevented Landis' collapse to La Toussuire. On the ride to Morzine, Landis proved his individual capacity after his team attacked the first climb like Armstrong's Blue Train used to attack the final climb to blow the race apart. Next year, Phonak becomes iShares. It is not clear if Landis will return to iShares or if he will even be able to race once he has his hip replaced. If the team does get him back and if the team does want to win the Tour again, then they absolutely need to invest in some climbing assistance for their leader. I do not see the reformation of the Postal/Discovery Blue Train but as this Tour showed, you need riders who can stay with the team leader. T-Mobile had 3-4 riders who could make it to the final climb as did Rabobank, Caisse d'Epargne and Team CSC. Any team with GC aspirations needs 2-3 climbers and 2-3 strong domestiques who can ride all day keeping their leader out of trouble.

Ekimov Retires

One of the highlights of the Tour's final stage had to be Phonak letting Discovery Channel's Viatscheslav Ekimov ride alone on to the Champs-Elysées the first time the riders rode onto the finishing circuit. Ekimov was one of the most important components of Armstrong's legacy. As younger riders, they had been strong competitors. I remember watching Armstrong and Ekimov battle it out during several editions of the Tour du Pont with Armstrong riding for Motorola and Ekimov riding for Word Perfect and Novell.

Ekimov had retired once before but managed to stay retired for less than six months coming out of retirement to rejoin Postal in time to help Armstrong to victory. Ekimov is retiring this time for good at 40 having come back from a horrific injury last year. He was anOlympicc medalist on the track and the road and is one of the last riders who came up through the old Soviet sports system. He was one of the strongest and most tactically skilled riders in the peleton. People make a lot out of the fact that George Hincapie was on Armstrong's team for all seven victories. Hincapie was a very important part of Armstrong's legacy, however, Ekimov was probably the rider that contributed the most to Armstrong's overall success. Ekimov will serve as a director sportif for Discovery next season. With Bruyneel and Ekimov guiding the team, any failure of the team to win will be due to a lack of skilled riders, not poor tactical guidance from team management.