Simplement Fait-Il
Lance wins number seven. This was in the bag since Thursday afternoon, though there was the remote possibility of a crackup on Saturday’s tricky time trial course. Instead, Lance won it and cemented his general classification title.
Today’s big happening was the rooking of American rider Levi Leipheimer by the judges. Leipheimer was in fifth place entering Paris, with 75 hundredths of a second on Kasakh Alexander Vinokourov, who is, for some reason, too cool to wear the same color jersey as his T-Mobile teammates. Because of the rainy conditions, the judges availed themselves of their option to freeze the general classification standings on the entry to the Champs Elysée. (There were eight laps around a 6.5-mile circuit to conclude the race.) They also announced that there would be no bonus points for the sprint stages. As the pavement dried out on the final laps, Vinokourov made a push and won the stage – all very nice; who wouldn’t want to win a Tour stage on the Champs Elysée and etc.
But the judges gave Vinokourov the 20 bonus seconds for the stage win, allowing him to slip past Leipheimer in the final standings, knocking the American from fifth to sixth. Apparently, “We have frozen the General Classification standings” involves one of those tricky French tenses that so bedevil students of the language. Ridiculous.
I confess I developed quite a dislike of Vinokourov, though, over the course of the race. Probably not his fault, but the announcers kept praising his daring and courage, and it seemed to me more that he was prone to initiate a lot of moves he couldn’t follow through. You can’t say a man who won two stages is “all hat, no cattle,” but he’s got too few cows for his actual existing headgear. Um, IMHO.
Anyway, Good for Lance. I expect a comeback Tour in two years – retirement is very 20th Century when it comes to top athletes – but that just means that if he stays retired he’ll be even more amazing. Meanwhile the Ironman circuit is begging for him to return to his first sport.
UPDATE: The judges gave Vino GC seconds, not sprint points, as the first draft of this item claimed. The actual award is even more at odds with a The General Classification is Frozen decision.
Comment by ogged —
July 24, 2005 @ 1:51 pm
Vinokourov was a mystery. Obviously a very powerful rider, he kept making what seemed like impulsive, self-destructive attacks. And the announcers today kept talking about how Lance thought Vinokourov was a serious threat to win the Tour, but I’m quite sure I read that Lance’s team boss said they were never worried about Vinokourov.
Comment by Kit Stolz —
July 24, 2005 @ 3:33 pm
Vinokourov was a loose cannon, a man with little or no interest in his own T-Mobile team, but his reckless and unpredictable attacks did keep this tour from becoming a boring coronation. Seeing T-Mobile chase down Vinokourov was a bizarre but fascinating sight. Wonder if he’ll be able to find a team at all next year…he hardly seems to need one.
Trackback by Mark in Mexico —
July 24, 2005 @ 4:09 pm
Tour de France 2005
Photo of Armstrong with #7.
Comment by DT —
July 24, 2005 @ 6:29 pm
I’ve heard rumors that Vinokourov is one of the leading coandidates to take Lance’s place at the head of the Discovery Channel team. If he could get some of that team’s great discipline, then with their support his obvious talent could land him a place on the podium.
Consider that this year he finished tied for 5th, and that was riding for a team that provided him with relatively little support, throwing their efforts behind perennial bridesmaid Ullrich. He’s clearly a very talented rider, if a bit of a loose cannon. Take away Lance at #1 and give him a team and a coach that could impart some strategy, and he could contend for the yellow.
Given what happened in the Pyrenees, I see no way he’s back with his current squad. He’ll hook onto some squad as a lead rider rather than a supporting guy. There are plenty of teams that don’t have that much going for them that would love to get a rider of his caliber to get their name up near the front, and in the news of some of the stages.
Comment by Andromeda —
July 24, 2005 @ 6:54 pm
Vinokourov is too cool to wear T-Mobile colors because he is the Kazakh national road racing champion. This gives him the right to wear his national jersey during road race stages. (You may have noticed that he did *not* wear that jersey during the time trial; he is not the Kazakh time trialing champion, so he does not have a right to a special jersey during time trials.) Every year there are a few riders who have worn special jerseys for this reason; I believe last year Kloden was in the German champion jersey (white with German flag armbands) and I think Ullrich wore it before that; one of the Scandinavian riders had a big ol’ cross on his chest last year, etc.
.
DT: Vinokourov has expressed a strong desire to be off T-Mobile to lead some other team, perhaps Discovery, but Bruyneel has said he doesn’t think Vino can win the Tour and doesn’t want him. So…”leading candidate”? Not so sure.
Comment by Andromeda —
July 24, 2005 @ 6:57 pm
Oh, and I agree — Leipheimer got totally robbed. I’ll be watching his diary to see if Leipheimer agrees, too. (and it’s the 20 second time bonus, not the 35 sprint points, that mattered — though I imagine McEwen and O’Grady have a thing or two to say about the sprint points.)
Comment by Jim Henley —
July 24, 2005 @ 8:03 pm
Hm, you know, I can’t really call you “Andro” for short. That would make just no sense. Anyway, thanks for the pointer to Leipheimer’s site!
.
Re Vinokourov, my conspiracy theory was that he had been tipped to take over Discovery next year, and that the OLN team, figuring their bread is buttered on the Discovery side of the slice, were talking him up for that reason. But if Bruyneel doesn’t like him, there goes that theory.
.
It’s revanchist of me, but I’d really like Disco to have an American lead. I imagine that Hincapie is too old and too tall, alas. That means luring Leipheimer or Landis or Zabriskie. Of course, first it means caring what I think about it, and this blog is four years worth of proof of the rarity of that phenomenon.
Comment by Grant —
July 25, 2005 @ 1:12 pm
The big news in this year’s tour is that we have two bloggers in the top ten finishers (Ullrich and Leipheimer). Not too many other sports you can say that about.
Trackback by Samizdata.net —
July 26, 2005 @ 3:11 pm
The Texan in the yellow jersey
Yes, yes, I know, his girlfriend is Sheryl Crowe, he is supported by John “doh” Kerry, which may suggest he is in need of ideological help, but can anyone doubt, after winning the Tour de France for 7 times in a row, that Lance Armstrong is one of th…
Comment by colin roald —
July 27, 2005 @ 8:56 am
I like Vino, not that I know anything about the man when he’s not on his bike. Call him a loose cannon if you want, but he makes races interesting. The man deserves some points for recognizing that the sprinter’s teams were too weak to hold the race together, and having the sack to take advantage.
I don’t understand the judge’s decision, but however it worked, you can’t say the man didn’t work for his shot. Vino won two stages; I don’t think I ever saw Leipheimer do anything but follow other people’s wheels.